Must-have powers: Block of ice, Ice slick, Jack Frost, Freezing Rain, Snow Storm, Hurricane.
You definitely need Stamina too. For PvE you should probably also take Glacier and one of Shiver/Arctic Air (depends on how much you like melee). I also took Steamy Mist which works nicely with Super Speed. My ice/storm is only 31 so I haven't tried Tornado and Lightning Storm, but I'm planning to take them too.
CoX 50s: <ill/rad> <ice/ice> <fire/kin> <grav/sonic> <ice/storm> <earth/kin> <kin/elec> <cold/psy> <thugs/dark> <fire/dark> <dark/elec> <night widow> <EM/ninj> <mind/icy>
you really want tornado for pvp. its kind-of-autohit keeps stalkers from rehiding and reduces defense, plus it can throw away masterminds pets nicely.
for pve its not so useful imho, most of the time it will just bring chaos all over the battlefield, annoying your team mates. usually i use it when the team gets overwhelmed by multiple enemy groups to distract/knockback/keep away some of them.
Ice storm has so many good powers you will be struggling to fit them all in. I have a level 50 Ice Storm and have respecced through various builds. I agree with the must have powers and the fact that you will need stamina. Tornado does work well in PvP and can be fun in PvE if u use AoE holds to lock them down. Always fun to throw one into a room just for the chaos effect! Tankers will not like you for this power generally. Lightning storm has a great show off effect but has been nerfed somewhat and i have dropped it on my most recent build.
You can go for an up close build with arctic air, hurricane and the jumping pool to get acrobatics so you can get in close with reasonable safety, or for a more tactical overview build with slotted hover and lots of storm and AoE holds.
Glacier though useful at times has loooooong recharge and very little hold time and i have not used it since my first respec.
If you post a preferred playstyle I can post a build for you. 
Lol, if I knew that mate...
First toon was an Empath/Energy Defender now at level 50.
I'm currently splitting my time between a kat/sr scrapper (now 38) and a pb (now 22) loving the scrapper, undecided on the pb so far.
Also got a tank upto level 16 and its just getting interesting..
So playstyles all over the place really.
My reasoning behind taking this powerset combination is relatively simplistic: decided i wanted to try a troller, wanted a primary/secondary set that sort of had a common theme and i happened to think the ice sets animations were fantastic..
Merely from reading the descriptions i think im leaning towards:
Primary
Chillblain
Block of Ice
Frostbite
Ice Slick
Glacier
Jack Frost
Secondary
Gale (seems pants but have no choice)
Freezing Rain
Lightening Storm
Undecided on Arctic Air, Snowstorm, Hurricane and steamy mist - any suggestions?
Also is Tornado of any use for av's?
Defiant
Proud Member of the Liberty Legion
Venture - Emp/En Defender
Seph - Kat/SR Scrapper
Blizzard - Ice/Storm Controller
Legionelosis - Rad/Rad Defender
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Undecided on Arctic Air, Snowstorm, Hurricane and steamy mist - any suggestions?
Also is Tornado of any use for av's?
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You need snow storm to keep foes from escaping your freezing rain debuffs. it will probably annoy some people (having high particale count) as they cant see much in the snow storm. must have for pvp though.
hurricane is semi-useful in pve. a lot of people dont know how to use it, and push away enemies from a tank trying to hold aggro or away from scrappers - not good.
it can, however, keep you and squishies around you safe from melee foes, and along with another debuff (e.g. darkest night) debuff acc on AVs pretty well (gotta stand close to the AV though).
personally i use it along with superspeed on outdoor maps, after dropping freezing rain to keep all foes within the rain, and sometimes to help the tank herding/pushing together foes. you can also try to herd foes and push them into cornes and to make use of the acc debuff, so they cant hit you. but imho most of the time you dont have the possibility to get enough foes into cornes, so you probably would only scatter them.
for pvp: MUST_HAVE_, dont even think about not taking it if you want to pvp. 2endredux 3acc debuff
most people consider steamy mist as optional. it provides team stealth (always nice to have, fight 2 groups of enemies standing close together) and good damage resistance vs cold, fire, energy (30%), plus it provides res(confuse).
Cool, thankyou.
Oh and what about o2 boost? i will i get teams complaining if i dont have it?
Defiant
Proud Member of the Liberty Legion
Venture - Emp/En Defender
Seph - Kat/SR Scrapper
Blizzard - Ice/Storm Controller
Legionelosis - Rad/Rad Defender
and arctic air?
Defiant
Proud Member of the Liberty Legion
Venture - Emp/En Defender
Seph - Kat/SR Scrapper
Blizzard - Ice/Storm Controller
Legionelosis - Rad/Rad Defender
I think arctic air is the best power in the set imo, especially paired with frostbite. Just think of it as a pbaoe mass confuse toggle. You just have to have alternatives available for enemies that are immune to confuse, or for those missions where you're SOOOO not going within 10 feet of that mass of purples!
Both sets have really great powers. There are just too many to choose from that are worth taking.
I think as Avalanche said, there are loads of powers and its all about learning what to use in which situations. I'm only up to lvl 27 and have primarily gone for the ice holds and then forzen rain/ice slick to stop/slow others. If you like to solo then steamy mists is excellent for that defence boost and semi-invisibility. Similarly, keep melee specialists away from you with hurricane. But as has been said, teamwise using hurricane/snow storm may not be very popular.
Its just about learning ( and remembering ) which powers to use when, but it is a great fun set to play with.
Just a quick query to tag on here, can O2 boost be used on jack frost ?
this body is merely a shell
you can not touch me
you can not harm me
I am not afraid
@biomass341d
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Just a quick query to tag on here, can O2 boost be used on jack frost ?
[/ QUOTE ]Yes
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You need snow storm to keep foes from escaping your freezing rain debuffs. it will probably annoy some people (having high particale count) as they cant see much in the snow storm. must have for pvp though.
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can i not just use frostbite, glacier or ice slick and get the same effect though?
Defiant
Proud Member of the Liberty Legion
Venture - Emp/En Defender
Seph - Kat/SR Scrapper
Blizzard - Ice/Storm Controller
Legionelosis - Rad/Rad Defender
yep, i hold em with frostbite/glacier and then hit them with freezing rain. When FR runs out, ice slick, all the while repeating my ice holds.Then when ice slick runs out ( if theres any left alive ), FR is up and ready to go again.
another query though, anyone think hasten would help or hinder this sort of nuild ?
this body is merely a shell
you can not touch me
you can not harm me
I am not afraid
@biomass341d
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You need snow storm to keep foes from escaping your freezing rain debuffs. it will probably annoy some people (having high particale count) as they cant see much in the snow storm. must have for pvp though.
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can i not just use frostbite, glacier or ice slick and get the same effect though?
[/ QUOTE ]You can, but snow storm will provide good additional -rech.
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another query though, anyone think hasten would help or hinder this sort of nuild ?
[/ QUOTE ]Hasten helps any build.
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Undecided on Arctic Air, Snowstorm, Hurricane and steamy mist - any suggestions?
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I have a level 35 ice/stom, it took me a few goes to get the build right, but its now pretty good solo or in a team.
The first thing I would recommend trying is to replace snowstorm with shiver, I can't notice any difference in the debuff effect, plus in teams all the melee people can actually see what they are doing (poor design choice on the snow storm effect I feel). I have frequently been on teams who prefer not to have the debuff at all because of the visual effect up close. This also helps with endurance, which I found a problem.
Second thing, which I found made a huge difference, is to swap arctic air for thunder clap. As someone already mentioned, you normally don't want to stand in the middle of a group of higher levels, using an aura as control. Plus thunder clap has a great range and quick recharge for an aoe hard control power. The huge endurance cost of arctic air also caused me problems when solo.
Steamy mist and hurricane are great powers, as mentioned above, and I can't imagine my build without them.
I dropped frostbite as I like to cycle freezing rain/ ice slick and it stops them bouncing, plus with either shiver or snowstorm nothing moves that much anyway.
@Electronuts
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I have a level 35 ice/stom, it took me a few goes to get the build right, but its now pretty good solo or in a team.
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The first thing I would recommend trying is to replace snowstorm with shiver
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Second thing, which I found made a huge difference, is to swap arctic air for thunder clap.
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I dropped frostbite as I like to cycle freezing rain/ ice slick and it stops them bouncing, plus with either shiver or snowstorm nothing moves that much anyway.
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It's interesting to see how different ice/storm builds are quite viable. Mine just hit 36 and went the opposite way:
- I use Snow Storm a lot and have not taken Shiver. I find it works great when put on the right target and since I often team with friends in the 40s, it's a must-have for AVs.
- I'm quite happy with Arctic Air since I tend to be in melee a lot (and run it along with Steamy Mist) and don't plan to take Thunderclap.
- I just got Tornado and am glad I have Frostbite to keep mobs in place. You do have to be careful not to use it on your Ice Slick of course.
It just shows ice/storm an interesting combo to play with quite different tactical options.
CoX 50s: <ill/rad> <ice/ice> <fire/kin> <grav/sonic> <ice/storm> <earth/kin> <kin/elec> <cold/psy> <thugs/dark> <fire/dark> <dark/elec> <night widow> <EM/ninj> <mind/icy>
I've just rolled the above contoller and am curious about the powersets ive chosen. I tried a grav/kin a while back and disliked it. I've recently chosen to roll this controller and was wondering if anyone had any advice on what powers to avoid and how to slot?
My early thinking is to avoid the soft contol powers as much as possible...
Defiant
Proud Member of the Liberty Legion
Venture - Emp/En Defender
Seph - Kat/SR Scrapper
Blizzard - Ice/Storm Controller
Legionelosis - Rad/Rad Defender