Ice/Ice/Cold...is it worth it to soft cap ranged defence?
By
BlissfulChaos,
Posted on: 2011-01-11 10:01 in Blasters
Soft capping for range defense is excellent, I have it on my archery/energy and soon will have it on my fire/energy and ice/ice blaster. I had my ice/ice blaster soft capped to s/l defense and I wasn't very happy with it. I was getting blown away by Carnies and other non-gun/sword wielding enemies.
Virtue: @Santorican
Dark/Shield Build Thread
Can you post your S/L build, or your ranged def build, if you've made one? I'm trying to see if there is a better way I can get the ranged cap with other power choices. 
I just realized we need a Baby Mastery epic pool.
De minimis non curat Lex Luthor.
Well I have saved Baby New Year a lot of times...
I'll have to post it up when I get home but if you search i have an ice/ice thread floating around here that has my current s/l defense build.
Virtue: @Santorican
Dark/Shield Build Thread
I'm currently working on soft capping my Ice/Energy/Ice build for ranged defense. Working on it as in...
Looking at sets to see the cost.
I like the idea, in theory.
Thank God for that third build.
i like ranged defense on blasters(be they blaster or blapper) b/c of the fact ranged defense doubles as mez protection since the vast majority of mez powers are range
@Injenius~Virtue
Stonefather - 50 Stone/WP/Soul brute
Sable Affliction - Earth/Dark/Fire Dom
Wild Cipher - Beast/Time MM
Currently I've got an ice/ice/force blaster that does pretty good. But he still keeps getting stunned, and relies a fair amount on inspirations to survive. He is a blast(!!!) to play for me anyways, but sometimes frustrating too. It's very seat of your pants playing for me, which is fine, but I'm kind of looking for some reliability from him. He usually runs around dropping ice patches, ice storm, holding enemies with the ice attacks, just blasting enemies in general. But he does seem to die a lot. Part of it is recklessness on my part for sure. I get a big thrill of running into a big mob and dropping ice patch, build up, ice storm, etc and surviving.
It's the times I don't that got me to thinking about changing his build. lol
He's got a fair amount of AoE currently with his ice patch, ice storm, blizzard of course, repulsion bomb etc. I got to playing around with mid's, and came up with a ranged soft cap build. I usually don't play this style(hover blaster) but if I don't get hit much, I won't have to worry too much about being stunned etc.
The only thing I don't like is that, I dunno...it seems I give up a lot for the survivability increase, and the power choices to fit in the sets left a lot of stuff out. Ya, I keep all my single target attacks, and have them slotted with decent damage sets etc, but I lose a lot of recharge from my current build, give up a lot of my aoe's, and then I lose a lot of powers from my secondary. Also, my EPP's are basically underslotted(imo), and even Blizzard is only slotted with 2 recharge IOs. lol.
Anyone got any insight on playing this type of blaster? Or even any suggestions on how I could get the ranged soft cap in a better way? I'm posting the build.
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.91
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Icy Soft: Level 50 Magic Blaster
Primary Power Set: Ice Blast
Secondary Power Set: Ice Manipulation
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Teleportation
Ancillary Pool: Cold Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Ice Blast
- (A) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage
- (3) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance
- (3) Thunderstrike - Damage/Recharge
- (5) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (5) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
- (7) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
Level 1: Chilblain- (A) Trap of the Hunter - Accuracy/Recharge
- (7) Trap of the Hunter - Endurance/Immobilize
- (9) Trap of the Hunter - Immobilize/Accuracy
- (9) Trap of the Hunter - Accuracy/Endurance
- (11) Trap of the Hunter - Chance of Damage(Lethal)
- (11) Trap of the Hunter - Accuracy/Immobilize/Recharge
Level 2: Frost Breath- (A) Pacing of the Turtle - Accuracy/Slow
- (13) Pacing of the Turtle - Damage/Slow
- (13) Pacing of the Turtle - Accuracy/Endurance
- (15) Pacing of the Turtle - Range/Slow
- (15) Pacing of the Turtle - Chance of -Recharge
- (17) Pacing of the Turtle - Endurance/Recharge/Slow
Level 4: Ice Bolt- (A) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
- (17) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
- (19) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (19) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage
- (21) Thunderstrike - Damage/Recharge
- (21) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance
Level 6: Hasten- (A) Recharge Reduction IO
- (23) Recharge Reduction IO
- (23) Recharge Reduction IO
Level 8: Aim- (A) Recharge Reduction IO
Level 10: Hover- (A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range
- (25) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range/Endurance
- (25) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
Level 12: Ice Storm- (A) Pacing of the Turtle - Accuracy/Slow
- (27) Pacing of the Turtle - Damage/Slow
- (27) Pacing of the Turtle - Accuracy/Endurance
- (29) Pacing of the Turtle - Range/Slow
- (29) Pacing of the Turtle - Chance of -Recharge
- (50) Pacing of the Turtle - Endurance/Recharge/Slow
Level 14: Kick- (A) Accuracy IO
Level 16: Build Up- (A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff
- (31) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge
- (31) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge/Endurance
- (31) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Recharge/Endurance
- (33) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up
- (33) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Endurance
Level 18: Bitter Ice Blast- (A) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
- (33) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
- (34) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage
- (34) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance
- (34) Thunderstrike - Damage/Recharge
- (36) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
Level 20: Tough- (A) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%
Level 22: Weave- (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
- (36) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
- (36) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance
Level 24: Fly- (A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Knockback Reduction (4 points)
- (37) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range/Endurance
Level 26: Bitter Freeze Ray- (A) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage
- (37) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance
- (39) Thunderstrike - Damage/Recharge
- (39) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
- (39) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (40) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
Level 28: Recall Friend- (A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range
- (40) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range/Endurance
Level 30: Teleport Foe- (A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range
- (37) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range/Endurance
Level 32: Blizzard- (A) Recharge Reduction IO
- (40) Recharge Reduction IO
Level 35: Team Teleport- (A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range/Endurance
- (43) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range
Level 38: Freeze Ray- (A) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
- (42) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage
- (42) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance
- (42) Thunderstrike - Damage/Recharge
- (43) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (43) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
Level 41: Snow Storm- (A) Pacing of the Turtle - Chance of -Recharge
- (45) Pacing of the Turtle - Accuracy/Slow
- (45) Pacing of the Turtle - Damage/Slow
- (45) Pacing of the Turtle - Accuracy/Endurance
- (46) Pacing of the Turtle - Endurance/Recharge/Slow
- (46) Pacing of the Turtle - Range/Slow
Level 44: Frozen Armor- (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
Level 47: Hibernate- (A) Recharge Reduction IO
- (50) Recharge Reduction IO
- (50) Recharge Reduction IO
Level 49: Hoarfrost- (A) Recharge Reduction IO
------------Level 1: Brawl
- (A) Empty
Level 1: Sprint- (A) Empty
Level 2: Rest- (A) Empty
Level 1: DefianceLevel 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift
- (A) Empty
Level 2: Hurdle- (A) Empty
Level 2: Health- (A) Healing IO
- (48) Healing IO
- (48) Miracle - +Recovery
Level 2: Stamina