CE will not be especially useful in this case, mostly because of the very small radius. AA causes avoid behavior, so most foes will be trying to (very slowly) flee the area - so they won't be right next to you where CE can hit them. Also, CE's effects aren't spectacularly useful in this case - it's just a bit more movement and recharge slow, and if they're inside the range of AA, they're already slowed to smithereens.
I wouldn't take CE. If you want another AoE slow effect, take shiver instead - the area on that power is *huge*, and as a click, it doesn't depend on where you're standing afterward. You can also use it to slow groups even if it's a group you don't want to melee, to slow the rest of a spread out spawn, or even to slow down pursuit if you have to flee.
@MuonNeutrino
Student, Gamer, Altaholic, and future Astronomer.
This is what it means to be a tank!
What Muon said.
Thanks!
@Roderick
If you're feeling frisky, keep in mind that Glacier has a larger radius than Ice Slick, so you can lure people into melee range before incapacitating them.
I'm personally skipping Arctic Air due to the scatter effect, but I intend to take Chilling Embrace. I'm also having second thoughts about Frostbite, but that's just me. I'll go muse in the corner.
The scatter effect on Arctic Air isn't terribly noticeable in terms of scatter because of the extreme movement slow. What is noticeable is the mobs preferring to run very slowly away instead of shooting you.
Since we've got some general discussion on ice/ice here, I'll leave my thoughts on the combo, in addition to the 'CE or not' comment above.
One thing that becomes apparent is that ice/ice has gobs of soft control, but less hard control than other sets. Here is where the synergy with the secondary comes in, because with power boost, a decently slotted glacier becomes a very credible 'everybody stop NOW' button - giving a very welcome option for a backup *hard* control. Despite the AoE holds' typical 'meh'-ness and ice's every-spawn control not being affected by power boost, I would not skip either power. I just love jumping into the middle of whatever giant ambush has hit the team, hitting dom, PB, and glacier, and freezing them into next week.
Ice also has some weaknesses in alpha control. Opening with ice slick will allow some of the mobs to shoot at you, and flash freeze's sleep is delayed by a quarter second due to the trivial tick of damage, also allowing a partial alpha in most cases. For this reason, I don't bother taking flash freeze, since it doesn't work well for alphas and its panic button role is better fulfilled by glacier. The best way I've found to open is to summon ice slick from behind an obstacle, but sometimes there isn't one in range of the enemy spawn. In that case, I usually hit one of the enemies with an ice bolt or hold while in mid air jumping behind a corner, and pull the spawn onto the ice slick. It could also be worth slotting a range or two into ice slick, for this reason.
I don't personally consider frostbite worth taking. You have no AoE stun to worry about preventing wander from, no need to set containment as a controller would, and no actual control options that mesh well with the power. It costs way too much to use as an AoE, and it doesn't offer any useful control by itself, unless you count 'annoying the mobs into shooting your face off and ignoring the rest of the team' as 'control'.
On the other hand, I did take chilblain. I didn't slot it very heavily, but about the only time plain old immobilize is a useful effect is against PToD EBs that you want to keep out of melee while the triangles are up. For that purpose, I considered it worth picking up the ST immob, since I had the spare slot and it works so much better than the AoE one. One acc is all you need at a bare minimum, I put 2 more slots into it with a mix of acc and dam so that the animation time isn't *totally* wasted in terms of damage.
On the age-old question of 'AA or shiver', I fall firmly into the 'both' category. Really, they don't fulfill the same purpose. AA is passive mitigation against mobs currently in or near melee range, while shiver is ranged, clicky mitigation against mobs who may not be anywhere close to melee range. Maybe a controller might not want both since they get more mitigation in their secondary, but on a dom, I like having both - especially since it's not like shiver needs *that* much slotting, a bit of acc and rech is all really.
With the patron pool, I would definitely pick whatever power allows you to regain end, as the end use on this combo really is kinda annoying. I went with leviathan for the best thematic fit, and made sure to take hibernate. Mu has power sink and soul has dark consumption (which is nowhere near as good, but whatever). Mace is the only one without, and also given how clunky the redraw is, I wouldn't bother with that pool - although personal force field is tempting. I think the best is actually probably mu, because power surge could help with another potential problem - staying alive against PToD EBs. It might not be able to do the job completely by itself, but combined with charged armor and a few insps, it would probably be much easier than for a dom without (also, though I wouldn't use him because I think the mu are fugly, the pet is supposedly pretty good).
I mostly frankenslotted, concentrating on getting a good amount of endredux and recharge into my attacks for not very much slots or cash - while AA is a big drainer, the real killers are attacks.
@MuonNeutrino
Student, Gamer, Altaholic, and future Astronomer.
This is what it means to be a tank!
I've got an Ice/Ice that I'm planning on playing in melee range almost exclusively. I've got Arctic Air already, and am getting close to Chilling Embrace. AA is pretty expensive to run, but I find that it's worth it. Adding CE is going to be a bit rough on my endurance though, so I was wondering: Is stacking the two worth it, or will CE's addition be negligible?
@Roderick