what/cold?

Thinking about making anothe controller, and I'm thinking I'll probably go with /cold, but I can't decide on what to do for a primary. I already have fire/ and ill/, so those are probably out, but I'm really open to anything else. Plant, maybe?

Or I could just re-roll my ill/; /storm isn't doing as much for me as I thought it would, at least through level 28.

Anything works. I avoid Gravity on principal but any primary benefits from endless endurance, strong boss debuffs, and ( with super speed ) invisibilty.

The popular ones that I've seen seem to be Earth/, Ice/, and maybe Mind/. They all seem to work pretty well with it.

I found /Cold to be a bit of a dud. I've played it on one controller to level 50, and on another to level 37. I found that I was able to enjoy it most when I paired it with a primary I really loved. Since Earth Control was my favorite, I found I like my Earth/Cold (37) pretty well. Whereas my level 50 Fire/Cold I just did not particularly enjoy. I only played him to 50 because I was stubborn. And Fire is my second or third favorite primary. But it wasn't enough.

But of course, you may love it. Plenty of people do. I would just play either a primary you already know you enjoy, or play a primary that is new to you, whichever inspires your curiosity the most.

I bet Plant/Cold would be decent, if only because you get Seeds of Confusion early, and that's always fun.

Lewis

I have been thinking about re-rolling my ill/ff as ill/cold lately. I don't have much experience with trollers, but I know it would be a good thematic match in the very least. Can anyone think of any synergy between the two?

I like /cold on trollers quite a bit.

The powers that generally get more attention are the debuffs--especially sleet, which is an AOE debuff and an "every-spawn" kind of power. Heat loss, benumb, and infrigidate (sometimes snowstorm) also get quite a bit of attention when cold domination is discussed. For a defender and corruptor, these are highly visible contributions when on teams, and indispensable when soloing.

I happen to particularly like the quieter powers on a /cold troller. The AOE stealth and resistance to -recharge from arctic air are very handy, and quite team friendly. Also, the shields, arctic air, and frostworks make a troller's pet(s) far more effective, especially when soloing. You can stroll or run up to mobs with arctic air on and your pet(s) heavily buffed, while in stealth mode, have your pet(s) take aggro on mobs, and then involve your troller. Its a relaxing way to solo, and very handy when fighting DE, malta, carnies, and other mez-heavy mobs.

Cold domination is also one of the most team-friendly secondaries because it is a nicely balanced set; it speeds up battles with tough single mobs with strong debuffs, helps in taking down crowds more quickly, and boosts team defenses in ways that makes progress more reliable and team wipes more unlikely.

To answer magikwand's question about illusion, specific synergies with illusion include the following:

1. the heavy amount of -resistance and -def that it can bring about, as those substantially increase the effectiveness of phantom army
2. the boosts you can bring about for your phantasm through shielding and frostwork
3. the previously mentioned ability to have your phantasm open battle after battle when soloing (even when phantom army is down), by using stealth from arctic air to let your phantasm get close to mobs
4. The -to hit in spectral terror is -15%, up to about 23-24% when well enhanced. This stacks very nicely with the +defense buffs in the shields and in arctic air; after defense totals have been enhanced in the shields and after spectral terror has been enhanced for -to hit, your pet and teammates will be functionally quite close the softcap limit on defenses. Almost any more boosts provided by teammates--or by running maneuvers on your troller, if you'd like to do that--will have mobs routinely whiffing.

I generally avoid /cold on a controller, if for mainly because sleet doesn't come until 35 and that's just way too late for me, plus the cold shields are weaker on a controller.

If you're dead set on it on a controller though, most will work with it, since you're avoiding fire and illusion:

I personally am not a fan of it on an ice, unless for theme, or earth (though the shields and frostwork are nice on both pets).

The buffs and debuffs are good for gravity, even though I avoid it right now still. Plant works well with it for several reasons. Gotta jet though at work and need to get off the net!

I like my Ill/Cold. I made it as a counter to my Ill/Thermal. The slows and sleet make up for the control holes in Illusion.

It also according to Tomax has more debuff in the terrify power it casts as well as its pbaoe cloak aura:

http://coh.redtomax.com/data/powers/...id=Pets_Terror

Hey, I just like the combo, I'm not responsible for where the powers fall.

FW is a really good buff at all levels of the game. Don't believe everything Turboski says in regard to it. Perma dull pain, fully accoladed, or otherwise hp capped toons are not common at all.

And even pretending everyone did have perma dullpain, they can then use it as a heal, which /cold otherwise lacks.

cold is a mix of buff/debuff moreso than any other set.
It goes:
debuff, buff, debuff, buff, buff, buff, debuff, debuff, debuff.
infrig, iceshield, snow, glacial, fw, arc fog, benumb, sleet, HL

Unfortunately it sort of puts you in a position where you are a bit of a buff bot for much of the game.

I say change it to:
debuff, buff, debuff, buff, debuff, buff, debuff, buff, debuff.
infrig, iceshield, snow, glacial, sleet, arc fog, benumb, FW, HL

That way cold is truly a hybrid buff debuff and you can pick whichever course attracts you more. If FW is as bad as people say then it may as well come later in the build when you aren't as power hungry. IMO though, FW is needed more in the 30's due to enemies becoming significantly stronger and more frequently doing mixed damage that you may not have ideal res/def too, so placing it there just makes sense for whatever camp you reside in. It's a good buff early in the game too, but not as good as sleet would be for team/personal performance.

FW is about as important to cold as Clarity is to sonic, which also happens to be a T8. Sonic of course being the other pure buff/debuff hybrid with 5 debuffs and 4 buffs like cold.

Frostwork confuses me. I'm terrible at math but basically it looks like at level 50 it would put most characters at their HP caps. If you put the power on another Controller, she'd go from around 1017 HP to around 1606 HP, which is a change of 589 HP. That's basically the same as providing around +35% Resistance, if the character heals that damage. Or so. My math skills are total fail. If i'm right it's better than a Thermal or Sonic shield. But only on a few party members at a time and you have to buff-bot it every 2 minutes. IMO still totally skippable unless you mostly work on small teams. Though I guess you could use it on a pet.

What do you think is skippable in /cold?

Even with ill/, which can get away with skipping a bunch of things in the primary, I find myself wanting to take everything in the secondary.

I hear ya, there are a lot of good powers in /Cold.

Personally, I took 7 of the /Cold powers, skipping only Frostworks and Snow Storm. I don't team up much with my Plant/Cold and between Seeds, Sleet, Creepers and my Fly Trap, mobs don't last long enough to cast Snow Storm.