Infridgidate...

...is it worth taking?

With ACC taken care of plus Tactics, the -Defense doesn't seem to helpful, however it does allow for slotting a -Resist Proc.

The -Fire Damage is situational (though likely great in PvP).

And other powers in the set stacks ont he -Recharge.

Is there something I'm over looking?

The main thing I can see is that agaisnt an AV it will basically double the amount of -recharge you can apply from 12% to 25% which increases his recharge tmes from 114% of base to 134%.

I dunno, I've come across the same feel of dilemma.

All I typically find it as is just a proc thing and that's about it. Well that and a set mule.

*shrugs*

It's a solid power, but one that I've always found I use less and less as I progress in levels.

I actually don't use it as much as I'd like in the low levels too because it costs a pretty sizable chunk of endurance.

Many single target debuffs introduced after PvP unfortunately are fairly broken in PvE. In PvE, debuffs take a performance hit against higher level targets, and against resistant enemies such as AVs and GMs, but make up for it by being stackable or autohit. In PvP as originally implemented, there was no such performance hit, since targets are largely the same level and non-resistant, therefore stackable or autohit debuffs were something the devs seemed to be suddenly wary of.

That said, Infrigidate, like Sonic Siphon, is close to a functional PvE power; all that's missing is either stackability or autohit. If you don't mind missing both stackability and autohit on a debuff, and all the little annoyances that come with that (granting the target 1-2 debuff-free seconds when you reapply, and the paradox of needing a to-hit roll on a massive -defense debuff), then there's no other reason I can think of to skip it.

Even without stackability and autohit, I find Aim + Infrigidate a wonderful way of saying ****YOU to MoG'ing Paragon Protectors if Sleet's debuffs glitched and disappeared. That's my own little twisted pleasure, though. You may find you derive a different one. Or you may find that an occasional twisted pleasure isn't worth spending a power choice on a less-than-functional power. It's up to you.

I say hello to PP's with benumb and then let them MOG just so I can point and laugh at them.

Infrigidate not stacking might be a pvp thing, or it might be because it would be incredibly overpowered. It's not that challenging to stack infrig 4 times (if it could). That is more -rech than Heat Loss and would hit the -dam cap against fire with 3 applications.

I mostly use it for smacking high-defense enemies and -ToHit debuffers (Spectral Daemon Lords, I'm looking at you) to make them that much easier to hit, as well as smacking bosses that are outside of my Sleet/Snow Storm to keep them slowed down. There are cases where I don't get much out of it, like steamrolling teams... but debuffs have always been kinda at a loss there. I wouldn't call it vital, but it can be nice to have.

Maybe, but there is a whole class of enemies that overwhelming with single target control is generally pretty hard to accomplish. But stacking infrig in addition to the other cold powers would pretty easily put them near the -rech cap.

There are also whole classes of enemies that are 100% immune to slows, but vulnerable to ST mez as normal. Ancestor Spirits, Warwolves, etc. And whole classes of enemies that use toggles, where ST mez is a huge help, slows not so much. Vahz Murk Eidolons, Tsoo Sorcerers, etc. Ends up kind of a wash. Controllers won't be pointing at Defenders and saying we took er jobs anytime soon.

But now that you mention it, stacking would help against those few enemies that resist slows (i.e. not immune, resistance <100%). Not that anyone needs another reason to bring a cold defender to an AV fight, but being able to debuff a +3 AV's recharge speed by -34% with 3x Infrigidate stacking would be a bit nicer than Infrigidate's current value against deep purples (i.e. nada, zip, bupkis).

The main effect of adding stackability would still be to remove the nonsensical second or two of full movement and recharge speed when you recast Infrig from range (common in a low damage team, soloing, etc.). In practice, I find this second or two lets a target cover a good deal of distance, and several of the target's powers "snap" back to recharged state in that time.

And Castle could always leave it unstackable (or require to-hit check) in PvP, or lower the strength against PvP targets, if he thinks making it a proper stackable (or autohit) PvE debuff is going to make PvP unfun.

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Edit: Several debuffs in other defender primaries are also annoyingly both unstackable and to-hit required. I'm not looking to promote Cold over any other set; what I'm arguing for Infrigidate applies to Acid Arrow, Sonic Siphon, etc. too.

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Re-edit re Ryu: The Benumb trick Frosticus mentioned blows my Infrigidate trick away. Try that instead.

One thing I would love to see for this set as well as thermals (do defenders even get thermals yet?) is for the single target debuffs to either be auto-hit in pve and/or recharge alot faster. Outside of an av battle I just dont see much of the use. Its like they intentionally made those 2 powers weaker just because of pvp. Now that there can be different pvp values than pve why not change it? Originally I had played up a cold defender but looking at how much recharge in a build I would have to slot for with IOs this just wasnt worth the inf to do. If the powers had like a 10 second recharge or something this would be totally different.

Why are we having a discussion on whether or not Infrigidate should be taken? It is obviously the BEST power in Cold Domination, aside from Ice Shield, Snow Storm, Glacial Shield, Frostwork, Arctic Fog, Benumb, Sleet and Heat Loss.

In PvP, whenever I get Infrigidate on someone, I would just simply walk away afterward, knowing that they would eventually go suicide in a mob just because they know they've lost the fight.