I'm interested in one too. The character I am RPing right now uses the combo and would love to hear expert's opinion 
A good rule of thumb for any character with Storm Summoning is find out which powers you have that can Stack debuffs. After that, it's Math, IO bonuses, and personal preference.
This is definitely a ranged toon. You've got only one power (Thunder Clap) that forces you to go into melee, and since you can't stack Thunder Clap with an Ice Blast Power, you might as well skip it anyway, since it isn't as good a stun as Flash Fire or Stalagmites.
I would skip Thunder Clap, Frost Breath, and Bitter Freeze Ray. Thunder Clap relies on you being in Melee, has a long animation, long recharge time, and a lower magnitude of Stun compared to other AoE Stuns. Frost Breath does very little damage and has a long activation time, and Bitter Freeze Ray is actually a worse power than Freeze Ray due to its VERY long animation (It's easier to stack holds by just putting plenty of recharge into Freeze Ray).
Going for Leviathan Mastery as an Ice/Storm Corr would work thematically, but Mace offers a defense toggle that would stack with Hurricane's -ToHit debuffs if you aren't the type to try and softcap your ranged defense while having a resistance toggle. Mace also has Web Envelope, an AoE immobilize which keeps enemies from being knocked around. I haven't used Leviathan Mastery, so I don't know if its AoE Immobilize has -Fly Protection. Mu Mastery has Power Sink, which is nice for those who use a lot of endurance, and I personally think that its hold looks cool. Soul Mastery lets you get Power Boost, which will make your debuffs and knockback INSANE for a few attacks.
Travel power-wise, Super Speed and Steamy Mist will stack their stealth, giving you invisibility.
Too many alts to list.
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I don't about Thunderclap, but you made a good point about it being melee. Though, from past threads I read they seem to like to include Frost Breath and skip Frost Bolt (!), for reasons I don't know. Bitter Freezing Ray picked over Freezing Ray was also common, which makes me wonder how they control their mobs early on.|
Originally Posted by Mr_Grumpums
I would skip Thunder Clap, Frost Breath, and Bitter Freeze Ray. Thunder Clap relies on you being in Melee, has a long animation, long recharge time, and a lower magnitude of Stun compared to other AoE Stuns. Frost Breath does very little damage and has a long activation time, and Bitter Freeze Ray is actually a worse power than Freeze Ray due to its VERY long animation (It's easier to stack holds by just putting plenty of recharge into Freeze Ray).
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Another thing I read was that people seem to focus on either area damage or single target damage. Is that really the case?
Final question: Is it a good idea to pick Ice Storm AND Freezing Rain, given their similarity and Freezing Rain seems to do far more than Ice Storm?
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They're completely different powers - Ice Storm is an attack, and a quite good one*, Freezing Rain is a debuff/control, and an amazing one. The two play *very* nicely together - the debuffs and knockdown from Freezing Rain can make Ice Storm really shine.|
Originally Posted by Cyberium_neo
Final question: Is it a good idea to pick Ice Storm AND Freezing Rain, given their similarity and Freezing Rain seems to do far more than Ice Storm?
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* for a Corruptor with strong AoE slow effects in their secondary, since that means you can extract all of its damage potential, rather than having it go to waste when mobs run out of the area of effect. Same principle applies to Rain of Fire.
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I gotcha. So Ice Storm is worth while to slot 3 Enhance Damage into it?|
Originally Posted by Dot_Communist
* for a Corruptor with strong AoE slow effects in their secondary, since that means you can extract all of its damage potential, rather than having it go to waste when mobs run out of the area of effect. Same principle applies to Rain of Fire. |
I should respec and take out Frost Breath?
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Very much so - it's your second-most damaging attack, behind your nuke. For comparison, if you already have Bitter Ice Blast, Ice Storm does about 10% more damage, but to an AoE. If you always stack Ice Storm with Freezing Rain (for the Def debuff) you can skip Acc entirely - Ice Storm has a really high base - and slot 3 Dam/3 Rech.|
Originally Posted by Cyberium_neo
I gotcha. So Ice Storm is worth while to slot 3 Enhance Damage into it?
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| I should respec and take out Frost Breath? |
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The rest of the advice is solid, so I'm not adding anything to the ice/storm build help other than I would actually avoid the AoE immob unless you really like Tornado because while making sure they aren't getting knocked around means that Freezing Rain isn't knocking things on their butt, which is a huge mitagation in storm (think of doms and Ice Slick, freezing rain just also has a huge debuff attached).|
Originally Posted by Mr_Grumpums
Going for Leviathan Mastery as an Ice/Storm Corr would work thematically, but Mace offers a defense toggle that would stack with Hurricane's -ToHit debuffs if you aren't the type to try and softcap your ranged defense while having a resistance toggle. Mace also has Web Envelope, an AoE immobilize which keeps enemies from being knocked around. I haven't used Leviathan Mastery, so I don't know if its AoE Immobilize has -Fly Protection. Mu Mastery has Power Sink, which is nice for those who use a lot of endurance, and I personally think that its hold looks cool. Soul Mastery lets you get Power Boost, which will make your debuffs and knockback INSANE for a few attacks.
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And for Frost Breath vs Ice Storm...I take both, because I love AoE and cones. If I only had to pick one, I'd probably go with Ice Storm. It's a larger AoE and the animation isn't as long (I bunny hop like I'm on some fun substance when playing a stormy most of the time, so rooting really bothers me, but that's a personal playstyle thing). It's also highly useful as a 'oh, crud' power when you're trying to get some breathing room or gently encourage mobs to go one direction or another.
When I was leveling my ice/cold, I took Frost Breath first and put off Ice Storm for a long time...when I did that, I used Frost Breath as a ghetto Shiver (the cone slow from ice control set), rather than as an attack.
And as for the OP's question on how you control mobs low level before you get Freezing Ray? Snowstorm + ice blasts + ice storm/frost breath + eventually freezing rain= very slow mobs. If you know how to use knockback, Gale is actually pretty useful as well, just knock them against walls. Constantly.
Thx for the advices! The main issue I have with Frost Breath is that it requires me to go closer to mobs and the cone is hard to measure. I want to put range, but decided to have 3 damage slot in first. Is it wise to have more 4~6 slots for Frost Breath?
After some testing, Storm + Rain is absolutely devastating, especially together they keep the mobs in the same place for massive Frost Breath also, allow me to fight 6+ enemies at once with tremendous ease.
Not sure if it's worth while to add damage to Frozen Rain but atm the combo is powerful enough to not needing it. I think I will use it for set bonus instead
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Slot Freezing Rain for recharge first, Def debuff second, and a proc or two once you're near the ED cap on those. I'm partial to 5 Undermined Defenses and an Achilles' Heel or Lady Grey proc.
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Originally Posted by Cyberium_neo
Not sure if it's worth while to add damage to Frozen Rain but atm the combo is powerful enough to not needing it.
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Originally Posted by Dot_Communist
Slot Freezing Rain for recharge first, Def debuff second, and a proc or two once you're near the ED cap on those. I'm partial to 5 Undermined Defenses and an Achilles' Heel or Lady Grey proc.
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Hm, I go one further. I slot FR with two 50 Rech IO's, a rech/endurance (Shield Breaker, iirc), and then...
1 Posi proc
1 Lady Grey proc
1 Achilles proc
It's utter devastation.
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Also nice slotting, yeah. Matter of personal taste, really - prioritizing proc damage vs. completely and utterly flooring the Def of anything in the area. I'm fond of the moments when a Paragon Protector pops MoG and nobody notices |
Originally Posted by RadDidIt
Hm, I go one further. I slot FR with two 50 Rech IO's, a rech/endurance (Shield Breaker, iirc), and then...
1 Posi proc 1 Lady Grey proc 1 Achilles proc It's utter devastation. |
Aye, I also noticed that procs become ultra deadly with abilities like Storm and Rain, both tics rapid and on multiple targets.
Edit: Do the damage varies on the proc, depending on the level of the invention? Would level 50 Lady Grey procs more damage than level 25?
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The proc still only has one chance to go off once per target every ten seconds, though.|
Originally Posted by Cyberium_neo
Aye, I also noticed that procs become ultra deadly with abilities like Storm and Rain, both tics rapid and on multiple targets.
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| Edit: Do the damage varies on the proc, depending on the level of the invention? Would level 50 Lady Grey procs more damage than level 25? |
Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.621
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
ColdySpots: Level 48 Natural Corruptor
Primary Power Set: Ice Blast
Secondary Power Set: Storm Summoning
Power Pool: Teleportation
Power Pool: Fitness
Ancillary Pool: Mu Mastery
Villain Profile:
Level 1: Ice Bolt -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Gale -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Ice Blast -- Empty(A)
Level 4: O2 Boost -- Empty(A)
Level 6: Snow Storm -- Empty(A)
Level 8: Freeze Ray -- Empty(A)
Level 10: Recall Friend -- Empty(A)
Level 12: Ice Storm -- Empty(A)
Level 14: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 16: Freezing Rain -- Empty(A)
Level 18: Health -- Empty(A)
Level 20: Stamina -- Empty(A)
Level 22: Hurricane -- Empty(A)
Level 24: Steamy Mist -- Empty(A)
Level 26: Bitter Ice Blast -- Empty(A)
Level 28: Teleport -- Empty(A)
Level 30: Frost Breath -- Empty(A)
Level 32: Blizzard -- Empty(A)
Level 35: Tornado -- Empty(A)
Level 38: Lightning Storm -- Empty(A)
Level 41: Power Sink -- Empty(A)
Level 44: Charged Armor -- Empty(A)
Level 47: Summon Adept -- Empty(A)
Level 49: Conserve Power -- Empty(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Scourge
Level 2: Ninja Run
I threw this together for discussion sakes with personal priorities of blended attacks, must have primaries and secondaries, and there is a real crunch at level 20 to be sure. I have a Storm/Ice defender and a Cold/Ice corruptor both of which seemed to flow smoother.
The main function I am trying for is an AoE machine of DEATH. Freezing rain > Ice Storm > Blizzard/ or Frost Breath with a Power Sink endurance rebuff chaser along with Conserving Power because I KNOW Storm and Ice are both endurance hogs.
I know a lot of folks would choke at where I would take Bitter Ice Blast, but I can't do without Freezing Rain, Stamina, or Hurricane. It's in the Stormy Bible.
edit: I guess you could rely totally on the mayhem temp travel, start fitness earlier, and take recall friend in the 20s to get Bitter Ice Blast in before 20.
Triumphant Defenders Forever
Psylenz FF/Psi, ArticQuark Storm/Rad, Symon BarSisyphus Bots/psn, Max VanSydow Thugs/Dk, Cyclone Symon Bots/stm, Blue Loki Ice/Cd, Widow 46526
HelinCarnate:OMG it is so terrible. I have the option to take 3 more powers but no additional slots. Boo F'ing hoo.
Hey guys, I was just wondering if you could lend a hand in helping me with my Ice/Storm build? I'm having some problems figuring out what, and what not to take.
Any help is appreciated, thanks guys.