Ice/Rad and Elec/Rad controller stuff

Why is it I see so few Ice/Rad threads? I had to search a lot to find very few recent threads on it.

I am thinking of pulling out my Ice/Rad controller that I built way back in '05. He's stuck at level 32 I think. On a server that isn't that busy (I'm thinking of moving him to freedom with the rest of my toons).

What I'm wondering is if it is possible to make a great team ice/rad without button mashing/ toggle craziness?

Most builds I have seen are full of toggles, debuffing. I'm not sure I want to be a huge debuffer.

elec/rad.... is it similar? I ask people who play elec/* controllers..... in the 40's and they seem to really... dislike it.

My Ice/Rad is one of my most powerful team controllers...... but the thing that makes it powerful is the very things that you dislike.

There are lots of toggles, the first 6ish seconds of every battle are applying debuffs.

The damage is tremendously anemic. Jump kick does more damage faster than any of your other powers including Jack Frost. Definately not a soloist but there are only a few team oriented controllers out there that could be called "more powerful" in terms of control.

ack... ok I guess I'm stuck.

I like...controlling best. Debuffing... just not my schtick.

I guess I might not know enough about the other sets. Maybe controlling is not schtick? But I love the holding part of it... rendering a large mob helpless is fun.

I have an Ice/Rad who I played to 50. Anemic damage is a pretty good description of the path to 50. As I was leveling him up, I actually had to resort to doing sewer teams as a level 30-something a few times just because soloing was so slow. The pet does good damage but is very fragile, and Ice Control combines high endurance cost with slow-ish kill speed, causing endurance costs to snowball (heh).

Ice/Rad (and Ice Control as a whole) has a strange power arc. It is incredibly powerful from about level 10 to 25. But as enemies with mezzes show up with greater and greater frequency as you level up, it becomes increasingly more difficult to use Arctic Air. The worst is the hellish stretch from 30-41, where you have to watch other Controllers rule the battlefield while you're just hoping nothing has a mezz and/or no teammate will use cages. If you take Indomitable Will at 41 (pretty much a required power unless you are Force Field or Sonic Res) life gets better. How much better depends on how close to perma you can make the power.

All of this said, recent changes to the game have fixed some longstanding issues for Ice Control. Central to these are inherent Stamina and the additional of Cardiac incarnate slots. This allows you to slot more optimally and to take a few extra attack/armor powers.

Now that he's 50, IOed, and Cardiac'ed, my Ice/Rad is pretty much my favorite character. In fact, the character is practically a Tank. I am the first one in to every battle. And I am currently soloing the Maria arc at +0x8. I did die recently to a pack of level 51 Carnies--I'm still not exactly sure how they got me--but essentially I can charge in against anything and expect to survive. I've tried Malta, Arachnos, Rikti, Circle of Thorns, the various Praetorian groups, Council (lol), and others. I have died a few times, but mainly from things like last night, where I grabbed a glowie next to some Mother Mayhem chics with Indom Will down and they promptly mezzed me to death. None of it is exactly easy, but it is thrilling. And my teammates refer to me sometimes as "the controller tank" which I think is funny, because its how I play: run slightly ahead of them, getting everything flopping and debuffed, so they can charge in after me and blow them away.

Anyway, I have traditionally been a bit skeptical of Ice Control as a late game build. Not so much anymore. It's not for everyone, but I have a lot of fun with it.

One specific tip I will give you on soloing Ice/Rad that took a while for me to figure out: once you get your AoE attack, whenever possible, try to fight with Arctic Air up and nothing else. I use Frostbite to keep enemies out of melee range from me, and then hit them with my AoE. The confusion from AA mixed with no additional mezzes will make them knock the crackerjacks out of each other. Works best after you get the Contagious Confusion proc. But to do this you have to get to a point where you can survive being in melee like that. I did it by building for capped Ranged defense.

Here are a few screenshots of recent action:


Lady Gray Task Force. I've run it now about 5 times with this character. Rikti simply cannot touch me. Probably one of the easiest groups for this character to handle. (The hardest tend to be Nemesis because of their confusion protection.)




Seeing if I could survive an AE "ambush farm." (I did, but could only kill with bosses turned off). This one was advertised as "fire damage only" which I actually have no resistance against. On the earliest attempts, I was using Choking Cloud and occasionally Glacier. It was through expermintation I discovered I could survive with just AA, and do a lot more damage due to confused guys hitting each other.




Another ambush farm. I was trying to see how many enemies can be engaged at a time given Ice's general disregard for target caps. Answer is probably around 20-30. Moving around a little to change which 16 enemies get prioritized by AA (it appears to select them from the center) seems to slightly increase the confusion numbers.



Versus Archanos. This group surprised me when I came up the stairs. If I remember right, when I first hit Glacier, I was falling slightly off the ledge and it didn't activate. Had to swallow a bunch of inspirations to survive, but in the end, they went down.




Mothership Raid.




BattleMaiden's minions. So, so, so easy.