Ice/cold corr PvP/PvE hybrid

right, so I'm toying around with a build for my corrupter, lvl 8 atm trying to fit in all the powers I want. My plan is to mainly PvE with this char (hence i took the ice armors) yet want to do some casual PvPing as well (hence the 2 acc in each attack). However seein I ran out of slots way sooner than I anticipated and dunno how the higher lvl /cold powers are (for some reason i only found /rad, /dark and /therm at higher lvls) I wanted to see what you guys think.. so without further todo, heres my current planned corrupter build:

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Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder
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Name: Out Cold
Level: 41
Archetype: Corruptor
Primary: Ice Blast
Secondary: Cold Domination
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01) --> Ice Bolt==> Acc(1)Dmg(3)Acc(11)
01) --> Infrigidate==> Acc(1)Acc(5)DefDeBuf(5)DefDeBuf(7)Rechg(17)
02) --> Ice Blast==> Acc(2)Dmg(3)Acc(11)Dmg(40)
04) --> Ice Shield==> DefBuf(4)EndRdx(7)DefBuf(17)
06) --> Snow Storm==> Slow(6)EndRdx(9)
08) --> Freeze Ray==> Acc(8)Hold(9)Acc(13)Hold(13)
10) --> Swift==> Run(10)
12) --> Hover==> Fly(12)
14) --> Fly==> Fly(14)Fly(15)EndRdx(15)
16) --> Health==> Heal(16)
18) --> Bitter Ice Blast==> Acc(18)Acc(19)Dmg(19)Dmg(34)Dmg(37)
20) --> Stamina==> EndMod(20)EndMod(21)EndMod(21)
22) --> Frostwork==> Rechg(22)Rechg(23)Heal(23)Heal(37)
24) --> Glacial Shield==> DefBuf(24)DefBuf(25)EndRdx(25)
26) --> Bitter Freeze Ray==> Acc(26)Acc(27)Hold(27)Hold(31)
28) --> Benumb==> Acc(28)Acc(29)Rechg(29)Rechg(31)Rechg(31)
30) --> Arctic Fog==> DmgRes(30)
32) --> Blizzard==> Acc(32)Dmg(33)Dmg(33)Dmg(33)Rechg(34)Rechg(34)
35) --> Sleet==> DefDeBuf(35)DefDeBuf(36)DefDeBuf(36)Rechg(36)Rechg(37)
38) --> Heat Loss==> EndMod(38)EndMod(39)EndMod(39)Rechg(39)Rechg(40)Rechg(40)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> Empty(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Empty(1)
01) --> Scourge==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Empty(2)
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Mainly my questions are:
- did I lose the right powers (aim, frost breath, ice storm) for stamina?
- in the attacks, should I try some slows as well for pvp? and is the little dmg slotting in my first 2 blasts enough?
- how are the high lvl /cold powers? are they really as great as they sound?

o yeah, I come from a line of support chars, so my main function will be support rather than damage (though damage of course IS a good way of support as well )

any feedback would be appreciated

Hiya,

nice to see another one planning an Ice/Cold. I currently have a lvl40 Ice/Cold myself.

Ice and cold fit really well together. There's one problem with the combination though.
Cold has so many good powers and almost all of them need a decent amount of slots, so
like you already found out you run out of slots really fast.

Here are some of my personal opinions:

*) Ice Bolt, Ice Blast, Bitter Ice Blast: slot 2 Acc, 3 Dmg, 1 EndRdx (or Recharge)

Ice has very powerful and fast activating attacks, best defense is a dead mob.
I wouldn't skip on Dmg. If you plan on tagging a mob with Infrigidate first you can
probably take out an acc because of the very good def debuff although 1 acc is probably
too little for PvP uses. I suggest End Redux because of the huge amount of end Ice/Cold
uses. I have Hasten as well so that doesn't help either. The only time you won't be hurting
for end is when you have have Heat Loss up.

*) Freeze Ray: 2 Acc, 2 Hold, 2 Recharge

It's one of the best powers in the set, make good use of it.

*) Ice Shield: 3 DefBuf

It doesn't need any End Redux.

*) Glacial Shield: skip it

Actually I'd take it if I could but the other powers are so much better that Glacial
Shield is the first to go.

*) Frostwork: slot 1 Heal

Personally I'd slot this with 1 Heal and leave it at that until you hit 40+. It's a great power
and would love to put more slots in it but you're gonna be hurting for slots enough for now. I've
never had problems with it with only 1 slot. Might be different when PvP'ing in a team though.

*) Bitter Freeze Ray: skip it

Some ppl love this power, for some it's annoying. I belong to the last group. It's not a bad power
but very situational. What makes it suck is the very long activation time. It's good as an opener
combined with Freeze Ray on a boss but that's about it. As an Ice/Cold you can slow/cripple bosses
so much that you can usually stack Freeze Ray without problems.

*) Benumb: slot 2 Acc, 3 Rechg for PvP uses, 2 Acc for PvE

I'd love to slot up Benumb with the extra 3 recharges myself but to me it just isn't worth it right now.
I'll slot it after 40. This is an amazing power for PvP but I only use it for Heroes/Av's and some very
tough bosses in PvE.

*) Arctic fog: slot 2 End Rdx, 3 DmgRes

You'll want it up all the time. The resistance and stealth components are very good. I use super speed
myself for travel and ss + arctic fog = invisible in PvE.

*) Ice Storm: 3 Dmg, 3 Recharge

Ice Storm, what can I say. Take it, slot it, love it. DON'T skip it unless you only PvP! It does even more
dmg than Bitter Ice Blast and combined with Sleet, Heat Loss and Blizzard later on it's nuts. Normally I'd
advise to put at least 1 Acc in Ice Storm but I already have Def Debuff in Sleet and in I7 Aim is going to
help a lot.

*) Sleet: 3 Recharge, 2 DefDebuff, 1 Slow or a combination of those. See what you like best.

Sleet, now that's the power you're going to be waiting for as an Ice/Cold. Once you get it nothing will be
the same. Combine sleet with Ice Storm and Blizzard (and later Heat Loss) and it's nasty, VERY nasty!
I recommend slotting the same amount of recharges as in Ice Storm since they have the same base time and you
always want to cast them both. You're going to love the resistance debuff of sleet.

*) Heat Loss: 3 Recharge, 3 EndMod

Well, what can I say other than that this power rocks! The base timer on it is nuts though. Same as Blizzard.
But when it's running you'll be in heaven. Hit 3-4 mobs with it and it's virtually impossible to get your end
bar to drop for 90 seconds I believe. And combine it with Sleet and the mobs will have about 60% res debuff on
them. Makes them drop like flies. Your teammates are going to love it too.


I'd pick Aim and Ice Storm instead of BFR and Glacial Shield. Aim is really going to help Ice/Cold in I7 since
it will affect Sleet, Ice Storm and Blizzard which means you'll deal quite a bit more damage.

I know you said you're mainly like the support role but Ice/Cold at high level is capable of an amazing amount
of damage. I can cast Sleet + Ice Storm every mob. Sleet means 30% -res, some -def, slow and mobs falling on their
face. Throw in snowstorm as well and they won't be moving much at all. You'll actually need more support yourself
than others do since you'll draw a huge amount of agro. But hey......it's a load of fun!


Hope this helps you a bit. Just fiddle with the build and have fun. It's a great combo to play. If you're on
Defiant give Heatloss a yell. I'll show you how my build works.


Good luck!


Addiction

Alas I'm on union, though when I7 hits I prolly am makin a thugs MM on defiant cause I ran out of slots on union a long long while ago .

However thanks alot for the advise! will certainly take some of it in consideration. I know bout the aggromagnet I'll become from having experience playing earth/storm, and if sleet is anything like freezing rain... WOOHOO!

Ice storm, well, from what I've seen it always barely damages but that may be a misconception then.

Ice armor, reason I put endmod on it is cause I also have experience with bubbling, and I noticed that if I had to bubble a whole team without endmods I'd be down to little end after the bubbling.

Arctic fog, reason I only put the base dmg res in is, well, I ran outta slots . Seeing it only is 15% base res (iirc) I didnt think it would be worth alot fully slotting. I also got only 1 dmgres on steamy mist on my earth/storm troller so thats where i got the idea from.

Bitter freeze ray, well must admit I never seen it in action but I know opinions are divided. Reason I took it nonetheless was PvP basically. As an opener and followed with normal freezeray it should overcome squishy mez-resist (acro). But I dunno how freezeray recharge is with recharge redux + hasten, so thats basically one of the reasons why I posted my build here as well . Might consider losing that one then.

Glacial shield, well another experience from other chars (ice tank and bubbler). Energy/neg energy defense, especially in I7 with the defbuffs would be nice to have for my teammates I reckoned.

Anyway, thanks alot for the info, will surely take it into consideration and make a mk II build soon

Stage,

As I mentioned last night, I would also suggest a few changes based on my experience with ice blasting (no idea about /cold, but have just rolled an ice/cold for fun to try it out )

Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder - (http://sherksilver.coldfront.net/index.php)
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Name:
Level: 50
Archetype: Corruptor
Primary: Ice Blast
Secondary: Cold Domination
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01) --> Ice Blast==> Acc(1) Dmg(3) Dmg(3) Dmg(5) Acc(13)
01) --> Infrigidate==> Acc(1)
02) --> Frost Breath==> Dmg(2) Dmg(5) Dmg(7) EndRdx(46)
04) --> Snow Storm==> EndRdx(4) EndRdx(7) Slow(15) Slow(46)
06) --> Swift==> Run(6)
08) --> Freeze Ray==> Acc(8) Acc(9) Hold(9) Hold(11) Rechg(11) Rechg(13)
10) --> Hover==> Fly(10)
12) --> Hurdle==> Jump(12)
14) --> Fly==> Fly(14) Fly(15)
16) --> Ice Storm==> Slow(16) Slow(17) Rechg(17) Dmg(34) Dmg(43) Dmg(46)
18) --> Bitter Ice Blast==> Acc(18) Dmg(19) Dmg(19) Dmg(21) Acc(40) Rechg(43)
20) --> Stamina==> EndMod(20) EndMod(21) EndMod(45)
22) --> Arctic Fog==> EndRdx(22) DmgRes(23) DmgRes(23) EndRdx(31) DmgRes(37)
24) --> Ice Shield==> DmgRes(24) DmgRes(25) DmgRes(25)
26) --> Frostwork==> Rechg(26) Heal(27) Heal(27)
28) --> Benumb==> Acc(28) Acc(29) Rechg(29)
30) --> Aim==> Rechg(30) Rechg(31) Rechg(31)
32) --> Blizzard==> Dmg(32) Dmg(33) Dmg(33) Slow(33) Slow(34) Slow(34)
35) --> Sleet==> DefDeBuf(35) DefDeBuf(36) Slow(36) Rechg(36) Rechg(37) Rechg(37)
38) --> Heat Loss==> Rechg(38) Rechg(39) Rechg(39) EndMod(39) EndMod(40) EndMod(40)
41) --> School of Sharks==> Acc(41) Acc(42) Dmg(42) Dmg(42) Dmg(43)
44) --> Shark Skin==> DmgRes(44) DmgRes(45) DmgRes(45)
47) --> Summon Coralax==> Acc(47) Acc(48) Dmg(48) Dmg(48) Dmg(50)
49) --> Hasten==> Rechg(49) Rechg(50) Rechg(50)

I would like to squeeze Ice Bolt in there, but not sure what I'd drop tbh (maybe Frost Breath?). I agree with Addiction about Bitter Freeze Ray. Limited use in PvE imho, and really not much at all in PvP (almost 4 secs animation time!). Concerning Ice Storm, I had this slotted with slows and not dmg, but things might be different on corruptors, dunno really. If it doesn't work well with dmg, I might move some of these slots elsewhere (range in Frost Breath for a nice cone attack, extra slot in Infrigidate?). I had also dropped Blizz after ED on my blaster, but with I7 I might respec back in (you do need Ice Storm to make it work properly, and with the /cold powers, it should rock again!). Hope some of this helps and enjoy!

cool, i'll make mk II today..

btw okt, lil tip, dont slot ice shield with dmg res, it only offers res to cold/fire dmg (15%), while it gives defense to smash/lethal (16.8%)..

[ QUOTE ]
cool, i'll make mk II today..

btw okt, lil tip, dont slot ice shield with dmg res, it only offers res to cold/fire dmg (15%), while it gives defense to smash/lethal (16.8%)..

[/ QUOTE ]

Duh.. you're right of course! Silly icons look the same

Some people think Ice Storm doesn't do that much damage. Higher up it does 144 ticks of damage, which is an awful lot considering the fact that you get the 30% res debuff from sleet as well later on and as /cold you have no problem keeping mobs in the rain. It does need Acc to be good though normally. I didn't put any acc in it myself considering sleet has a def debuff component and when I7 hits aim will help as well.

Have fun!

Addiction

As commented here a few times, Bitter Freeze Ray sucks. It is a very good hold but the animation on it is ridiculous.

Bitter Ice Blast is a great power and will be your 'meat and veg' attack. Go for 3 dmg, 2 acc, 1 end reduction on that, Ice Blast and Ice Bolt and rely on these as your three main attack powers. You can't get a chain with these which is a bit of a drawback but those three along with freeze ray are going to be as close to a chain as you can get. I'd slot freeze ray with 2 accuracy and 3 holds. You could add an end reduction or a rechrge reduction if you want but chances are the slot can be spent elsewhere. These 4 are going to be what help you put away debuffed enemies in PvP and must be 5/6 slotted.

On the shield front, only take one of them. Downside is that I can't remember which one it is but seems like there have been comments so far on what one so guessing that's the one.

On the arctic fog front, I'd only slot it with end reducers. teh defence buff on it is not great and slots are better off elsewhere.

I see you've not put any slow's in and that is a good thing, apart from the one in snow storm. Drop it and put another end reducer in, it makes little difference to the slow on it and is a wasted slot. The set stacks well enough that they simply aren't necessary.

Frostwork, I'd take later in the build TBH. It's not essential and for PvP purposes, there are better powers you can put in before 30 to make you useful in Sirens.

Build Up is also a must IMO as it makes a huge difference when active and I've 3 slotted with recharge reduction.

Infrigidate is the one power you have that will annoy everyone, especially regens. I've gone for 5 slots on mine with 2 acc and 3 recharge.

My lvl 35 ice/ice is a pure PvP build so I will say that arctic fog and blizzard are the two powers you could drop for a PvP build, Bitter Freeze Ray should definitely go in the bin though.

For more of a PvP view on Ice/Ice, take a look HERE

When it comes to PvP, I'd dread relying on fly as my travel power with Exofrost and some people said swift/hurdle/SJ/SS was mobility overkill. Having played him up to 200 rep now mainly in Sirens, I can safely say they are not overkill and have been responsible for keeping me alive more than enything else.

Regen scrappers in partitcular will hate you as you drop snow storm on them and spam infrigidate, benumb and basically bring all their HP clickies to a grinding halt while dancing out of range of their melee attacks and chipping in with damage during the breaks.

On a PvE side, Ice doesn't have the mob clearance of other Corruptor sets but when coming up against bosses and AV's you will pwn.

I went pretty much with Arch's build in the end, just with some very minor alterations. end is a little bit of a problem but I'm hoping to sort that out over the last 5 levels with some extra slots.

for the record, I love bitter freeze ray and I use it a lot, even during combat when other powers are recharging.

it does pretty good damage for a hold too.

[ QUOTE ]
for the record, I love bitter freeze ray and I use it a lot, even during combat when other powers are recharging.

it does pretty good damage for a hold too.

[/ QUOTE ]

And just looks so damn cool....the main reason i took it, yes i'm vain

I think its the same animation as thunderous blast from the electricity blaster powerset