Thorn Assault/?

hello everyone. i want to play a dom that emphasizes on the thron assault aspect of the build, with a pretty passive control set. Im thinking either elec or ice(toggles for survival) or maybe mind(just incase i feel like pvping).

elec seems like the best. opinions?

Both sets can toggle up their aura, lay down a patch (Static Field or Ice Slick) and go to town. Elec likes to use its AoE immob for more sapping and keeping things in the patch, while Ice doesn't use the AoE immob because it conflicts with the knockdown from Ice Slick. Both can take their AoE Hold as a Panic Button.

Ice has Shiver and Flash Freeze as its more oddball powers, neither of which is terribly impressive. Elec, on the other hand, has Jolting Chains and Synaptic Overload, both of which are fun to use and improve your AoE control potential.

I expect Elec will give you more fun and better performance overall, unless you're planning to skip tons of control powers for power pools instead, in which case I'd call them about equal. Of course, if you're really only using the aura and the patch on a regular basis and not the rest of your primary, I'd question your playstyle a bit - a little extra control can translate into HUGE survivability gains.

The toxic DoT from /Thorns might not work well with Static Field from Elec/. You might want to go with the classic; Plant/Thorns. Just toss out Seeds of Confusion and wade in spamming Thorn attacks.

The DoT in thorns plays nice with Elec...Unless you use thorntrops a lot...if you do then elec is not a good choice.

Earth is nice and passive but the -def won't synergize due to overkill of it.

Elec is a bit busy and the DoTs won't play especially nicely with Static Field.

I've tried Ice/Thorns and I love the concept but Ice is probably the weakest Domi set now. It's main issues are a lack of a reliable AOE opener and how annoying Ice can be on teams where there's a lot of AOE Immobs flying around and countering Ice Patch. Also Ice gains little from Domination which is kinda annoying.

Earth would probably be my #1 choice, followed by Dark (because Dark has a wide area cone Fear and AOE Immob and the PBAOE Stun).

I've just picked up my Ice/Thorn dom and started playing again (only level 24). The routine is fairly simple and easy to get the hang of. Sleep/slow rech/ice patch/jump in with cone/pbaoe for protection/kill em off. This works pretty well for mitigation/control/killing and is a lot of fun.
This should only get better when I get Thorntrops working for me. The theory is mag 53 fearing along with confuses and uber slows (hit's slow cap regularly) and kdowns create a very slow moving crowd of bad guys that you have lots of aoe potential.
I don't use the immob powers as they do mess with ice slick and sleeps.

The biggest issue with Ice/, IMO, is the end usage. Once you can deal with that, you will have a lot of fun. Just remember to be in close range most of the time for your pbaoe control.

There are a few reasons I like Ice matched with thorns. Number one is the way it looks when you match the color of your crystal spines to the ice powers. You sprout ice shards instead of spines.

Possibly the best PBAoE toggle available. It does draw some agro if you like to wade into melee without a good tank but offers quite a lot of defense through mitigation as well as slowing your target so they can't run away. If you're making full use of the AoE potential you get with thorns, you're going to be drawing that agro anyway.

With an Ice/Thorns, you should never get hit with a melee attack. Between thorntrops, arctic air, ice slick and glacier as a panic button, melee attackers will have the deck entirely stacked against them. Even if they do get a swing in, they have to deal with 50% -rech while doing it. This allows you to focus fully on ranged defense, leaving you open to pump your damage up as high as it can go. Best of all, all those controls are either toggles or make good lead ins for attacks. Shiver will add more -rech but can be skipped, as can flash freeze. I like to keep flash freeze because sleep powers make great set mules for some very cheap purples and it comes in handy when a second spawn is too close and needs to be delayed for a bit. Frostbite is skipped every time because with all the slows you really don't need to immobilize at all and it will get you killed 90% of the times you actually use it.

Earth is good for stacking -def with the effect from your thorns but honestly, how much of that do you need?

Ah, ok so most of you are doing it for thematic reasons and because you want to. I understand that. Arctic Air is AMAZING and when you throw in purples and other procs it's godly but the rest of Ice Control has major issues. I think the only good things about Ice Control is Ice Slick, Arctic Air and now Jack even though he use to be horrid.

Also I would imagine Ragnarok:Chance for Knockdown in Thorntrops would work very well with Ice Slick. Thorntrops is so fun with procs. I think Ice isn't Safe enough for me but I do have an Ice/Psi Dom that I made during the Fire/Psi Dom Boom just to tick farmers off.

I picked Earth due to all the proc potential of earthquake and Volcanic Gasses which ends up dealing some serious hurt with some tasty procs in it. Stalagmites is also very awesome and Poo Man is very tough.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snowzone I chose Ice/Thorns for several reasons: 1) The name - Icicruel. Thorns are coloured like icicles. 2) Ice Control doesn't need many powers whilst Thorns is pretty heavy. 3) I really like Arctic Air + Melee synergy. 4) I wanted to. He's only level 16 so far but I'm enjoying it. Then again, I enjoy less optimal combinations.

I go for weird/less optimal Dom combos as well but I am kinda mad at Ice Control it's needs some loving...I always felt that Gravity and Ice control and sometimes mind is in serious need of some revamping.

I think once they finally fix Ice Control an Ice/Thorn will be a top Dom combo contender like Plant/Fire or Elec/Earth.

ANYWAY thanks for clearing that up because it was bugging me for a few months lol. Sorry for taking over the thread!

One other thing that I think adds in Ice/ favor is that it's a more mobile set. AA is a toggle and Shiver is on a short recharge cycle. The reality of most sets, and Earth/ is included, is that even with all the great things they do they spend most of their time waiting for something to recharge. An Earther/ might alternate between stalagmites and Earthquake, but the Icie/ gets both AA and Shiver each fight.
There are some decent reasons to play an Ice/ Dom, but it won't be anyone's FotM.