Water Blast/Cold Domination Compendium

Introduction
This guide is written with the intention of providing enough information to those new to the game, the AT, or the specific sets of Water Blast and Cold Domination, to successfully play this set combo. As such this guide goes into more depth than just “I like power X, 5 Stars!” I am making no assumption on the skill level or experience of those reading this guide and this guide is primarily directed towards those players that are not veterans. I love this set combo and it is now my favorite ranged/debuff set combo, it is this affection that has inspired me to take the time to write this guide. To the best of my knowledge all the information in this guide is accurate, the data taken from City of Data, Mids, and the in-game combat attributes.


TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. Overview of the Water Blast/Cold Domination Corruptor
General Discussion
Inevitable Comparisons between Blasters, Corruptors, and Defenders
Throughout the Levels
Tips
Some Caps and Facts to Keep in Mind
2. Behind the Scenes: The Math Behind It All
The Net To-Hit Formula
Defense: Soft caps, Vectored and Typed
Rules to Remember: The Flat 5%, Streak Breakers, Cascading Defense Failure
3. Water Blast
Intro and Tide
Powers with Data and Commentary
Tidal Chains
4. Cold Domination
Intro and Debuff Chart
Powers with Data and Commentary
Debuff Chains
5. Power Pools: Season to Taste
Travel Pools
Pool Powers
Ancillary Pools: Epic and Patron
6. Incarnate
General
Alpha through Hybrid
7. Building a Better Toon
General Discussion
Build Strategies
Power and Slot Efficiency
8. Build

1. Overview of the Water Blast/ Cold Domination Corruptor.
This power combo is a debuffing/aoe tsunami that will blow through entire spawns with ease. While the single target damage chain is descent it is the Area of Effect department that we will really shine in. The set also offers some descent group buffs and some self protection, solos very well end game and is an excellent team toon.
Pros/Cons of Water Blast: Water Blast is a fairly balanced set, split evenly between AoE and single target, though most of the best attacks are AoE, which is nice when facing groups but not as efficient when facing single targets. The knock up and downs of Water Blast really helps in the survival department (this does turn into knockback if your significantly higher level than your foes, like a 50+3 fighting L 50s) as does the heal over time of dehydrate. Water Blast attacks cause minor speed and defense debuffs and inflicts mixed damage types; cold, smashing, and fire. Also features a new mechanic, using stacks of tide generated by attacking to fuel enhanced attacks. This is not a button mashing set; to reach the full potential of this attack set you must become proficient in juggling tidal stacks.
Pros/Cons of Cold Domination: Cold Domination is a debuff/buff set; with brutal AoE debuff capabilities coupled with crushing single target debuffs. While we can debuff a variety of stats it is our ability to floor the defense and resists of enemies that is our bread-and-butter. As an added bonus we can also buff our group’s defense vs. vector and typed damage. Cold Domination is a late blooming set, the best debuffs are the last powers in the set, making the mid levels somewhat frustrating to wade through. Long recharge times on certain key powers also puts a damper on things and only one buff helps us directly.
Role: Widening The Margins of Success: Debuffs rule, damage is King, and buffs are a nice addition. That, in a nutshell, is our role. We can make otherwise difficult fights easy. We add to the defense of our team, lower the defense and resists of our foes and provide a good level of damage. Pre buff, debuff, then damage. This is one of the reasons why I really enjoy cold, the shields last 4 minutes so I can just pre buff my team then concentrate on destroying the mobs.
Inevitable comparison with defenders and blasters: We are NOT gimped blasters with debuffs and buffs and we are NOT weak defenders with better damage. Can we do as much as damage as a blaster? In theory yes, in general practice, no. Conditionally, blaster primaries are, out of the box, more damaging than corruptor primaries by about 25 % Furthermore blasters (depending on secondary) will have access to build up allowing for better front loaded spikes, while we need to dip into the epic pools for one of the two damage boosting powers, either power build up (less damage than build up and much longer recharge) or soul drain (which ranges in effectiveness from almost worthless to moderately useful). We do have scourge which can pump up our damage output but scourge is really only noticeable on tough opponents, such as AVs and Heroes ( in other words scourge wastes a lot of over damage on almost dead minions)so it doesn’t quite make up for lack of a less damaging primary and no build up. However, we do have access to sleet and Heat Loss to debuff resistance by 30% each. We also share the same damage cap of 500% with blasters. So assuming no outside buffs the blaster will do more, if we are hitting the damage cap ceiling we will pull ahead just from scourge( the -30% from sleet and Heat Loss will actually allow us to do more damage than the cap would otherwise allow ( though on a team the blaster would also benefit from debuffs) An incarnate corruptor that takes musculature or intuition as an alpha, takes either soul drain or power build up with assault hybrid can match a non incarnate blaster for damage ( exceeding it in certain circumstances, sleet and scourge). On certain team set ups corruptors are very valuable, an extreme example of this being the Really Hard Way Badge on Magi trial. With enough kins to hit the damage cap the corruptors scourge ability really shines.
Can we buff/debuff as well as a defender? No. A corrupter’s buff set is their secondary and cannot match the higher values from the defenders primary… in most situations. Which brings us to the value of +special to a corruptor ( power build up, power boost and clarion radial all grant +special) for our debuffs, which does allow us to hit the maximum amount of defense debuff allowed, as well as greatly enhancing every other kind of debuff except –resist. Sadly, ice and glacial shield are enhanceable for resist which means that our shields are not buffed by + special like an FF bubble is. I would gladly give up the ability to mule the +def globals for a greatly enhanced shield. More on +special later.
If you still can’t decide if corruptor or defender is right for you consider what kind of play your going to be doing? Solo? Small pugs? Trials? That may well be a deciding factor, following is a my brief opinion on which AT may suite you.
Solo: Defenders and corrupters will, overall, level at about the same pace, defenders higher debuffs with vigilances damage bonus and corruptors with higher damage and scourge, solo it doesn’t matter much which you play. Early levels are easy, the mid levels slightly easier for defenders ( earlier access to sleet) while corruptors will pull slightly ahead at higher levels.
Small teams: 2-4 people, in this range I would give the edge to the corruptor, sure defenders can still buff/debuff better but they lose the damage bonus of vigilance. Cors better damage makes smaller teams more effective while still providing descent buffs/debuffs.
Mid size to Full Teams: This is where defenders can really shine, 5-8 players range, their higher buffs and debuffs come into play. As more players and varied Ats join the team the importance of a single defender’s damage diminishes (not to say they become useless by any means). Corruptors trade off of higher damage and scourge also means less and the cor is best served by finishing off the weaker enemies so your allies can concentrate on the foes that are still dangerous. Depending on the makeup of the team a corruptor at mid levels may feel somewhat over shadowed if teamed with defenders and blasters.
Leagues and Itrials: When you start joining trial leagues, with 16-24 people you have to get used to one simple thing. No one character regardless of AT and set matters. Defenders buff better? Great, No one cares. There are so many other buffs from defenders, corruptors, controllers and masterminds, stacked leadership, hybrid support, barriers and clarions that at any moment everyone is at or so close to their caps that the potency of a single toons buffs don’t matter. Defenders’ better debuffs ? No one will notice (unless you’re in some crappy PUG trial that’s completely unbalanced and your trial leader is semi-retarded and decides to go with it anyways, in which case the strength of your buffs/debuffs still doesn’t matter cause you are doomed.) Corruptors scourge ? Nice on hard targets but…guess what? There is so much damage being thrown around that it just doesn’t matter. You could go LD and the league would still get along just fine without you.
Which is actually nice; at this level play what you want, it’s enough that you have buffs, debuffs, and damage and use them. That x does a better than y ceases to make a difference. (Again, horribly unbalanced pugs being an exception, I am fortunate to have a large pool of players (@60) with the majority of them being 5-8 year veterans. On any given night we can field a league, with maybe just a few pick ups to pad the league.) What does matter is the player. Want to be good on a trial league? It is actually pretty easy; all you need to do is READ CHAT and FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS. That’s it. More trials are lost from players simply not reading than any other factor. Read chat, follow your trial leaders instructions and you’ll be golden.
Oddly enough itrials and solo is the same in that it is ok to be a little selfish when it comes to your build. Yes, still take the shields but don’t feel the need to max the slots on them to eke out a few more percentile points of defense. But what you will need to do is be able to operate alone within the league without face planting it every 5 minutes. I mean everyone dies occasionally, that’s ok, but excessive death wears thin. There are certain times and trials that will require you to take care of yourself. Leagues are more selfish than teams, no one is going to babysit or TP you around just cause you can’t manage to get from one building to another in a TPN without dying. Build some descent defense so that you aren’t completely screwed if you’re separated from the league; make sure you have enough stealth to get around in a lambda. But mostly play what you want, only the most micro managed leagues have preferences and you are unlikely to find one like that on a random pick up league.
OPINION PIECE: Why I play only Corruptors: Because we blow every other ranged class out of the water. No, really. I focus on end game content, and spend the majority of time either on Tfs and Trials or solo. I see no point in playing a blaster (though they are being looked at...again at the time of this writing) why would I choose slightly more damage over someone who can still provide excellent scourging ranged damage and can debuff, buff, heal ? And while I wouldn’t discount the value of a defender I hate the loss of vigilance’s damage bonus and with heat loss the end reduction is meaningless. Cold to cold dom if you build it right the only thing a defender is going to do better is buff. I’ll take better damage and scourge over better shields. On some debuffs, namely –resists, the defender and corruptor’s are the same and with power build up and radial clarion sleet can hit for a whopping -101% defense. Once you can meet the debuff cap primary over secondary sets ceases to mean much.
General Advice throughout the level range: The first 20 levels concentrate on damage; grab every attack you can, the two shields but slot in favor of attacks. Damage at this level range is both are primary source of defense (dead foes can’t hurt you) and our primary contribution to teams. Keep your team buffed with shields and start attacking and don’t stop until everything that moves is dead. While you have access to two decent debuffs at this range, it’s all you have and they don’t quite make you into a debuffing machine. Don’t skip the shields, part of our focus is defense, giving it to our allies and taking it from our enemies, even the small bonus we provide will reap dividends( if you’re really considering dropping the shields, delete and roll a /storm). In this range you can also pick up one or two other powers, perhaps a travel power or leadership or haste.
21-31 is the hardest stretch, you’ll pick up a few more attacks and will continue to slot them up and while our offense will still be good we have the same buffs and debuffs that we had from 1 to 20. The foes start getting tougher and we don’t get a third debuff until 28, close to the end of the stretch. Benumb is awesome but is only single target and has a long recharge. Start to slot up your debuffs and shields, invest a couple slots into health and stamina and get your slots to the point where they are looking well rounded because in the next ten levels you will be investing (slot-wise)heavily in just a few powers.
32-40. At 32 we get geyser, one heck of an aoe which will help us out a good deal, both in the offensive and defensive way. At 33 and 34 use your slots wisely because your two best debuffs are coming up at level 35 and 38 and you won’t have any spare slots until you hit the next range. Sleet changes the game for you, is one of our most effective debuffs, is an aoe, and the recharge is low enough where, at a minimum, you should be able to have it up for every fight. The combination of defense shredding and lowering your opponent’s damage resistance will give you a considerable boost to your damage capabilities. Spawns will fall faster and easier and your solo speed will jump up and you’ll finally be able to feel like a debuffer when in groups. With sleet we also gain the ability to “juggle “a spawn to an extent. Sleet can cause knockdown, which combined with water burst and geyser, two aoes that do kd/u, can keep foes on their backsides for a considerable time. Heat loss furthers your ability to lower –resists and adds excellent endurance management.
41-50 The final stretch, in this range you will finish slotting up your important powers and will pick up a few from your epic or patron pool if desired (You can actually start choosing at L35 but if you pass up sleet and heat loss for a pool power something is wrong). 47 is one of my grail levels, the level I can slot sets. Personally I could care less if I lose bonuses when being ex’d down, I‘ve done the game before with just SOs. So I always slot the highest possible level in enhancements (with the exception of procs and unique enhancements where the opposite is true.)
TIPS: Spend time when leveling by working on the four accolades that grant +Hit points and endurance, this is the largest source of extra hp and end. Blue side (Atlas Medallion, Task Force Commander, Freedom Phalanx Reserve, and Portal Jockey) Red side (Born in Battle, High Pain Threshold, Marshal, and Invader). If you need to check the requirements for them I would suggest visiting Badge-Hunter.com to check them out. May also want to download the vidiot map pack overlay while you are there, it gives the loc of every history plaque and explore badge as well as TF contacts, mob locations, and the monster spawns.
E-mail yourself some tier 3 or super inspirations, a few break frees and some awakens, maybe a couple others. We only have one possible source for a self-rez, and that’s soul transfer the 2nd tier choice in the darkness mastery epic pool. Always have a couple of break frees, if you need them and don’t have one you will regret it.
Start to scale your mission setting difficulty up as you level, start with enabling solo boss spawns and increase the number and level slowly as you go. Not only will you get more xp/influence and drops than normal but more importantly practice in handling larger and tougher spawns. If you have never played a particular set before avoid excessive power leveling. My comfortable solo setting is +1 x6, anything lower is boring and anything higher can be more work than is worth it (number of bosses).
Caps and Facts: Some numbers to keep in mind:
Damage Cap: 500%. We have the same damage cap as blasters, stalkers, and scrappers. Note that base damage is 100% not 0%, so 400% is our max increase. Powers that debuff resistance can cause damage above and beyond the cap as can scourge.
Resistance Cap: 75%
Hit points: Base: 1070 (at L50) Max Hp: 1606 (at L50)
Maximum Defense: 175% ( soft cap = 45 and 60 in incarnate trials)
Maximum Recharge Rate: +400%
Agro Cap: 17. One player can attract the “attention” of up to 17 enemies.
Debuff Maximums: defense (-100%), speed (-90%), recharge (-75%)

2. Behind the Scenes: The Math Behind It All
The Net To-hit Formula:
Accuracy (acc+acc buff -acc debuff*) x To Hit (To hit buff - to hit debuff) - Defense ( Defense buff - Defense debuff)
* No current sources of accuracy debuff or buff exists, included only for the sake of completeness.
As our primary role impacts the third part of the equation it doesn't hurt to understand the math behind to hits rolls.
Defense soft cap: the maximum allowed amount of defense that is used in the net to-hit formula, which in most cases is 45% (60% in itrials). There is a maximum hard cap for defense, which I have heard as anywhere between 200- 300 %, with massive stacked defenses I have never seen anything higher than 175% in the in-game combat attributes window so that's the figure I am using. You can possess a value higher than the soft cap which can be nice because of the subtractive mechanic of defense debuffs.
Defense comes in two categories: Vectored defense (commonly referred to as positional defense) which is Melee, Ranged and Area of Effect and Typed Defense which is Smashing/Lethal, Energy, Negative Energy, Fire, Cold, Psi, and Toxic. Every attack can be defended by at least two (and sometimes three) of the above factors and the game will use the highest applicable bonus. Example: Hydro Blast is a ranged attack that causes cold and smashing damage so defending against that attack will check ranged, cold, and smashing defense. If you had a 30% defense to ranged and a 20% defense to cold and a 15% defense to smashing/Lethal you will be defending using ranged defense ( the highest defense that applies, 30% in this case). In addition, there is one source of untyped damage and that’s Hamidon and his blooming mitochondria.
There are three other factors that can come into play with the Net to-hit formula and these three rules apply to both players and non players.
The flat 5%: Simply put no matter how high (or low) your defense or to-hit is there is always a 5% chance to hit or miss.
Streak Breakers: This mechanic tracks the number of consecutive misses and as the number of misses grows there is an increasingly higher chance of earning a streak breaker (number of misses exceeds a threshold, the number of which I do not recall) - which means the game is basically taking pity on the poor soul and allowing them to hit. This can lead to spikes of damage on high defense characters in protracted fights with large spawns and can be a contributing factor on the third rule.
Cascading Defense Failure: not so much a rule as an unfortunate event, CDF happens when facing enemies that debuff defense and any toon that depends on defense for survival is vulnerable to it( though Super reflexes and to a lesser extent Ice has a good deal of defense debuff resistance). Especially common fighting enemies that cause lethal damage that cause -def. You can start out a fight just fine but you get hit by one or two debuffing attacks that lowers your defense resulting in even more hits which causes even more stacking -def which in turns causes more hits, and suddenly your health is dropping and your popping greens and purples to just survive. That's cascading defense failure in action.

3. WATER BLAST: This ranged set features an internal mechanic, tidal force. Tidal force is a power build up mechanic not a combination mechanic. It offers an even mix of single target and Area of Effect and has descent mitigation in the form of knock up/down and stuns and the attacks debuff speed and defense. The key to success with this set is to understand tidal chains, to achieve optimal performance simply button mashing attacks is not the way to go. Water blast attacks come in three flavors; either grants a stack of tide with no extra benefits, consumes all tidal stacks and has a scalable effect or is variable.
+tidal force; The following attacks grant one stack of tidal forces( each stack lasts 15 seconds, max of 3 stacks) and gains no extra benefit from having stacks of tidal forces.
Aqua Bolt, Hydro blast, Whirlpool, and Steam Spray: four attacks to build tidal force, 2 single target and 2 AoE.
Variable: Water Jet and Dehydrate are variable attacks. If you have 2 or less stacks of tidal forces the attack operates as normal and grants one stack of tidal force. If you have three stacks when the attack is used the attack consumes all tidal force and has an enhanced effect. Water Jet casts faster and instantly recharges and dehydrate has it’s healing over time increased by 50%.
Scalable attacks that consume all tidal forces when used, Water Burst and Geyser, you don’t need three stacks of tidal force to cast but it has a greater effect.
Water Burst:
0 tide= normal damage 33% kd
1 tide=+5% damage, 45% kd
2 tide= +12% damage, 70% kd
3 tide= +25% damage, 100% kd

Geyser:
0 tide: normal damage, 0% stun
1 tide= +5% damage, 33% stun
2 tide= + 12% damage, 60% stun
3 tide= + 25% damage, 100% stun

TIDAL CHART:
+ tidal force +/- tidal force -tidal force
Aqua Bolt Water Jet Water burst
Hydro Blast Dehydrate Geyser
Whirlpool
Steam Spray
Tidal Forces

Aqua Bolt: Light damage (cold/smashing) –def, grants +1 to tidal power.
Damage 70 Cast: 1 s Recharge: 3 s Endurance cost: 4.37 Single target, 80’ range ACCx1
This is the fast casting, fast recharging attack option available at Level 1, and it does feature the fastest cast and recharge of the whole set. It doesn’t do a lot of damage but the beauty of this power is its ability to gain the attacker tidal power. At first glance it may seem like it would be the one attack to skip if needed but its 1 second cast time is very helpful in gaining that one tide you will need to pull off some tasty combos. On a respec you may opt out of it but leveling up it’s invaluable

Hydro Blast: High damage (cold/smashing) –Speed, % chance to cause knockdown, grants +1 to tidal power.
Damage: 123 Cast: 1.67s Recharge: 7s Endurance cost: 7.7 Single target, 80’ range ACCx1
The single target workhorse of the set has a good balance of damage, cast time, and recharge. This will be your main source of single target damage throughout your characters lifespan. You have to take either this or Aqua bolt, I would suggest both as the next couple of attacks feature long recharges.

Water burst: Moderate damage (cold/smashing) –def,-speed, scaling chance to cause knockdown, consumes all tidal power.
Damage: 75 Cast: 1.73s RCH: 16s END: 15.18 Targeted AoE, 80’ range, 15’ radius centered on target, 16 targets max ACCx1
This is an excellent and fun power to use and will be an important part of your early attack chains and later will provide an important piece for juggling your opponents. This power does not require you to have tidal force, does not grant any tidal force, and consumes all tide stacks the user currently has. For each stack of tidal force the user consumes the attack grants bonus damage and a scaling chance to KD your targets, 100% chance to KD at 3 tidal stacks.
A fast casting AoE with KD ? Heck ya. This is one of the better powers in the set and there are quite a few. It is effective and fun to use. Later you can juggle groups of foes with this, sleet, and geyser.

Whirlpool: high DOT (cold) foe- Speed- def, grants +1 tidal force
Damage: 180 Cast: 2.03 RCH: 1m END: 15.6 ACCx2 Radius 25’
This is our location targeted AoE, our version of a “rain” power though it works slightly different. It is more like a tar patch that causes damage rather than a true rain, though like a rain whirlpool will check for scourge at each tick. It slows your foes keeping your targets in the AoE longer and has a descent minus defense of 10%. Get this one asap but you can probably hold off on slotting it up until later.

Tidal Forces: +42.50% acc, + 21.25% damage .Grants caster 3 stacks of tidal forces*
Cast: 1.17s RCH: 1m30s END: 5.2 Duration: 10s
Our self buff, adds a good amount of acc and damage and grants 3 stacks of tidal forces. This is nice for either starting a fight with a power that benefits from full tidal forces (water burst or geyser) or to spike a boss (water jet+ water jet). The usefulness of this power for us is the tidal power, some combos later on you will want tide NOW, and this is your go-to power for that. * NOTE: While the power description states it adds 3 stacks of tide you have to pay attention to its odd working. If you have 0 tides it adds 3, if you have 1 stack it adds 2, if you have 2 stacks it adds 1, if you have 3 stacks it adds 0. This is important because it does not grant you three stacks of tide that overwrite previous stacks. So if you are in combat and have 2 stacks of tide and want to use, say a maxed out Geyser, hit tidal force and then your first stack of tide times out, you will not have the 3 tide you need to max it out. This can make timing geyser and water burst something of an exercise in luck in extended battles

Dehydrate: Moderate damage (cold/smash) with a minor dot component (cold) foe-SPD,-def. Grants +1 tidal force.
Damage: 144 Cast: 1.87s RCH: 8s END: 8.53 Single target, 80’ range ACCx1
You’re third single target attack, this attack deals more damage than Hydro blast with a recharge and end cost that is in the same ballpark. This does offer one additional benefit, it grants you a small heal over time (5 ticks) This is NOT a heal, it simply does not grant enough health fast enough to count as one, however it is very nice to keep your health topped off and as part of your chain can over the course of a protracted fight, mission or TF provide a substantial amount of hp, boosting your odds of survival. If you use it when you have 3 stacks of tide the heal is boosted by 50%. EXAMPLE: AT level 50 the way I have it slotted it heals for 50 HP per tick (250 hp) or 75hp per tick (375 hp) with 3 stacks of tide. With a fresh boost it can heal 67 hp per tick (335 hp) to 101 hp per tick (505 hp) if at max tide. With a 150% recharge I can alternate Hydro blast and Dehydrate in a continuous chain that can provide almost nonstop heal over time, very nice in a protracted elite boss/ AV fight.

Water jet: High damage (cold/smash) foe – speed
Damage: 173 Cast: 1.43s RCH: 10s End: 10.19 Single target, 80’ range ACCx1 +/- tidal force(see below)
The last single target attack, this is your hardest hitting single target attack and is unique among the set mechanics. Water jet does not require tidal force to use; you may use it with 0, 1, 2, or 3 stacks of tidal force. If used at 0-2 stacks of tide the power functions at its base level and grants +1 tidal force. If used at 3 stacks of tide you get “enhanced water jet” which casts faster than normal AND recharges instantly and consumes all tidal force. So you can spike a foe by rapid casting this twice in a row (or use it once against two different foes). This enhanced water jet may only be used once every 15 seconds; a small tide buster symbol is displayed in your buff window to help you keep track.

Steam Spray: High damage (fire) + minor dot (fire) foe-def, grants +1 tidal force
Damage: 161 Cast: 2.53s RCH: 16s END: 16.85, AoE cone 40’, 50 degree arc, 10 targets max ACC 1.20x
This is our cone attack; it has a nice wide arc which makes fitting in the maximum number of targets easier, especially at close range. Unlike the previous attacks this cone deals fire damage. While not a game changer the ability to cause multiple damage types can be nice. This cone is one of my favorite attacks, it grants tide, it has a good range for a cone and hits hard. Optimally used after a sleet +geyser chain to finish off Lts. and minions or right after a sleet + whirlpool and even hits hard enough to be used on single targets.

Geyser: High Damage (fire) +high dot (fire) –SPD
Damage: 290 Cast: 2.93 RCH: 3m 25s END: 20.80 ACC 1.40x targeted AoE, 80’ range, 25’ radius 16 targets max
Consumes all tidal force, causes knock up and a scaling chance to disorient (100% at 3 stacks of tide) and does bonus damage for each stack of tide, both the initial damage and the dot portion are boosted. This is it, our tier 9 nuke and like most of the recent sets this is a crash less nuke. Your penultimate opener geyser is sick when used with tidal force + power build and right after sleet and/or Heat loss. Excellent damage that knocks up and stuns (mag 3) up to 16 targets, what’s not to love.

The damage values above are just for comparison sake and are figured using a value of 99.08% (three level 50 IOs) rounded up.

Water blast requires more forethought as you need to be conscious of tidal force to get the most out of certain powers. While no power requires tidal force, three of them do have added benefits to full tidal force.
Stinging a tidal chain is actually fairly easy with practice; just keep the following in mind:
DO NOT use water burst or geyser in the middle of a chain if you are building tide to use a different amped up attack. Regardless of how many stacks you have these two attacks use all stacks.

You can use dehydrate and water jet as a standard attack that will build tide just don’t accidently hit the wrong one at the wrong tikme, at 3 tide they both consume all tide. If your button mashing and queuing an attack you can inadvertently consume all your tidal force.

To keep “juggling” a spawn do not cast all your attacks that casue kb/kd back to back, interspace other attacks between them. Like Sleet+ geyser+ steam spray+ water burst.

Some of my favorite and commonly used chains are :

SURF'S UP :Geyser+whirlpool+steam spray+water burst
SINGLE TARGET LOOP: Hydro blast+Dehydrate+ Hydro blast+ enhanced water jet/water jet+hydro blast+ filler attack(steam spray or whirlpool)+ Dehydrate ( with 3 tides) + water jet and so on ( Av's).

When your moving fast Geyser will be up for every other spawn, juggle it and either water burst or whirlpool and steam spray to open with. ( Alternately use Judgement)
Whirlpool requires a bit more consideration as you have to decide on whether you want to A) Use if first to maximize its full damage potential or B) reserve it for the middle of combat to maximize its scourging goodness.

The hardest part is organizing your hot key bar for ease of use. I use my attacks on bottom bar #1,
1) Hydro Blast 2) Steam Spray ( most commonly used single and AoE attack that always builds tide) followed by 3) Dehydrate 4) Water Jet (variable tide powers) 5) Water Burst 6) Geyser ( the two powers that consume all tide and has an enhanced effect) 7) Whirlpool ( situational power, always builds tide but has a long enough recharge where it is out of my normal combat chain, and I normally click it with my mouse vs using the number keys) and 8) Judgement

4. Cold Domination, the icy half of our character

Debuff Chart: Primary role is debuff, a role at which we excel at; - defense,-speed,-recharge,-damage,-resist,-endurance,-regeneration,-special.
- Defense: Infrigidate (single), sleet (AoE)
-Speed: infigidate (single), snow storm (AoE), sleet (AoE), and heat loss (AoE)
-Recharge: Infigidate (single), snow storm (AoE), sleet (AoE)
-Damage: Infigidate (single, fire only), benumb (single)
-Damage Resistance: Sleet (AoE), heat loss (AoE)
-Endurance: benumb (single), heat loss (AoE)
-Regeneration,-special: benumb
Secondary minor sources:
-Defense: aqua bolt, water burst, dehydrate, steam spray
-Speed: hydro blast, water burst, whirlpool, dehydrate, water jet, geyser

Infrigidate: Foe –SPD, Rch, def, damage (fire only)
Single target, 80 ‘range End cost: 10.4 RCH: 15 Duration: 20 Cast: 1s
Defense: -25% dam buff:-30%
This is our main single target debuff, its 15 second recharge isn’t hard to lower to the point where you can infrigidate multiple targets in a single encounter. Bosses, Lts and/or any dangerous melee fighter are favorite targets. The – def makes it much easier to hit so leading with this at low levels is a good idea. This is your auto level 1 choice and better hope you like it, this and snow storm are our only debuffs until you hit Level 28.

Ice shield: + defense (melee, smash/lethal) +resist (fire/cold)
End: 7.8 Rch: 2s Range 80’ radius 30’ cast: 1.17s Duration: 240 s Defense: +11.25% Resist: 9.38%
The first of our shields, both of which form the core of our buff set. Don’t be a tool, get both shields, it’s a 4 minute def buff and now that it targets your whole group it’s incredibly easy to keep everyone shielded. Even the smaller returns corruptors can make a big difference on how much, as a group, damage is taken. As an added bonus it’s also an easy way to slot a LoTG 7.5%. I like getting this at 10, adding 1 more slot at 11 and using it to mule steadfast:kb and steadfast +def. You can hold off a bit on getting it until you have your basic attack chain covered but I recommend (even on a respec build) to get it and glacial at or before level 20. So when you x down for tfs you can buff your team.

Snow Storm: Foe -spd, - rch –Fly
End cost: .52/s Cast: 2.03 rch:10s range 80’ radius 25’
This is one of the skippable powers, at least on a respec build , I used until it I had both sleet and heat loss, it’s an AoE debuff that cuts your opponents spd and recharge by 50 %. And yes that’s pretty awesome. Drop this on a group of foes and all you have to do is survive that initial volley. Bad guys only get a handful of attacks and once they have used them they have to..wait..and wait..and wait for the recharge. After they pop off their range attacked foes that are default will spend most of their time trying to close the distance. Too bad for them they are moving in slow motion. If you have an extra slot to spare drop a minus rch proc in it. Also if you want to keep the majority of a spawn under the snow storm influence do not drop the toggle on the same guy you tagged with infrigidate, the two slows combined means he can barely move and the other will eventually outpace him and leave the radius of the storm. This debuff does have a drawback and that is its fairly hefty cost of a half an endurance per second. Keeping this running while attacking full tilt will drain your bar fast. Another tip is to keep track of your toggle, sometimes they like to run and an active snowstorm can agro enemies further away if it hits them. Early levels while your solo or in small teams it nice to have but later on it has two other drawbacks. One, in a fast moving team it's a pain, your anchor or even the entire spawn will die before it has time to make a difference. Two, the snow storm can cause foes to run (to try and beak the toggle) and this can make some fights for more annoying than its recharge debuff is worth. Was one storm defender on a TPN onetime that insisted on dropping a snow storm on maelstrom, chasing him around and still trying to break the LOS on marked for death was not fun. I used this while leveling up but upon my Level 47 respec ditched it, haven't missed it once.

Glacial Shield: + defense (ranged, AoE, energy, negative energy) + resist (cold)
Other than the defenses it buffs this is identical to Ice shield. And yes I also recommend you get this one.

Frostwork: +HP, + resist (toxic)
Single Target, 80’ range, End cost: 14.5 RCH: 60 Duration: 120s Cast: 1.17s
+15% toxic resist (unenhanceable) +44% hp
Skip it. What? You need more? Frostwork is the little engine who thought he could but in the end really couldn’t kind of power. It is too little for too much endurance on a recharge that’s too long. If this would buff the whole team it would be a different story. Maybe. Early on its semi useful if you have, say, a brute or scrapper tanking but end game another power selection will likely give you more mileage. Endgame the amount of hp needed to cap is small enough where this power will make little difference.

Arctic Fog: Team: stealth, + def (global), + resist (fire, cold, energy, slow) Toggle: PBAOE
End Cost: .52s Radius: 40’ Cast: 1.87s Base Defense: 3.75% Base Resist (fire, cold, energy) 15% Base Resist (slow) 60%
This is an all around excellent power, its only drawback being the .5 end a second endurance cost. Enhance to lower it and never turn it off. As the only buff that benefits you it’s an important part of your protection. Combined with super speed and/or a +stealth enhancement gives you enough stealth to run through missions. I put a +celerity stealth into sprint and use super speed, I can stand right in the middle of a spawn with all three running( yea, 2 would be enough to stealth a mission but didn’t pick up SS until L49, the celerity is for when I am ex’d down) The descent slow resist is also a nice bonus.

Benumb: Foe- damage, - endurance, -regeneration, - special
End cost: 13 Recharge: 120s Duration: 30s cast: 2.07s range 70’ single target
Benumb is a brutal single target debuff that will ruin the day of anyone you cast this on. It sucks up some endurance and their regeneration takes a hit, but the best part is lowering their damage by 50%, and to add insult to injury a minus special. Think anti-power boost. All in one sexy little package that screams “Give me to an AV!” Sadly, benumb is so awesome that the devs gave this a 2 minute timer. Even with some good recharge benumb just won’t be available as often as you want it. Save this for particularly dangerous foes and make sure you use sleet and/or infigidate before casting this. A missed benumb is a very sad thing. In pvp players really like this one, make sure to give them one as often as possible-like Christmas cheer.

Sleet: Location AoE minor dot (cold) foe- speed, -recharge,-defense,-resist (all), knockdown
End cost: 18 Recharge: 60s Range: 60’ Radius 25’ (10 target max) Cast: 2.03 Duration: 30s
Sleet is your workhorse debuff, it does everything you could want and more. With good recharge you can have this up for every fight. The debuff portion of sleet…isn’t quite working as intended and no one really knows why. The debuff portion of sleet seems to only last 15 seconds if the foe is still inside the AoE when the ice patch visual melts. Whether this is the way it is supposed or not I have no idea. Tons of threads get into this; I would suggest seeking them out and reading the more in-depth analysis of it there. Regardless of bugs or not, sleet is one evil debuffing machine. I lead with sleet in practically every fight, reducing the defense and resists of up to 10 foes at once makes all the powers you throw at them after sleet that much more effective. The minus spd ,rch and knockdown is just icing on the cake. You must get this power and I recommend 6 slotting it ASAP.
I do not recommend slotting it for damage though, the minimal dot doesn’t enhance to a value to make it worthwhile, use scourge tactics and a proc to add damage. Once all rains were bugged and would check for procs every tick of damage making all rains a proc vehicle that would shred foes. This has been fixed and now rains only check for proc once per foe like other AoEs. Still, one or two procs, like Achilles heel chance for –resist and Lady Grays’ negative energy can be a descent investment. I just wouldn’t go overboard and slot too many procs. A power boosted sleet will floor a spawns defense. Base defense debuff:-30%, frankenslotted with debuff/recharges and a couple procs I increased the debuff to -45.53. With Intuition alpha, power boost and clarion epiphany I can amp it up to -101 % turning everything in its radius into the proverbial broadside of a barn that takes 30% more damage from all attacks. Nasty stuff.

Heat Loss: AoE debuff/buff 10 targets max for-end,-speed, -resist (all), team plus endurance plus recovery
Endurance Cost: 15.6 Recharge: 360s Cast: 2.17s Duration: 90s Range: 70’ Radius: 15’ - 30% resist
Ahh, Heat Loss. A dual purpose power it provides another nasty –resist debuff which will stack with sleet, lowers speed and is an excellent endurance drain (with just 74% end mod it almost completely drains an endurance bar) refills your endurance bar and places a endurance recovery buff on you.
The big question isn’t how Heat loss will be used, stacked with sleet or staggered, but where you will be when you cast it. Works like so: When you cast this on an enemy, that enemy and every enemy around it (in its 15’ radius, max targets 10) will be drained of endurance and have the debuff applied. Every team mate that is near the targeted enemy will receive a buff stack for each enemy that is drained; additionally you (regardless of range or proximity) will receive a single buff icon as will any team mate that is close to you. You can either stand back and buff ranged attacker slightly and your melee attacker significantly or you can cuddle up to grant yourself the maximum amount of buffage (10 stacks). With the same 74% enhancement each buff stack grants 3.5 endurance per second, even one buff icon is an excellent endurance recovery buff. A full stack will provide virtually unlimited endurance to the tune of 35 endurance per second.

While all the powers are useful there are certain combos that will prove highly useful to you, greatly increasing your efficiency, damage and survivability. On the debuff side it’s fairly simple:
Sleet. Always lead with sleet, it will make every target easier to hit and make them take more damage. It will slow them a little (and we want the group to stay together) and reduce their recharge while possibly knocking down them down.
Sleet + heat loss= a nasty one- two punch that severely debuffs a spawn while providing endurance management. This is the preferred combo but heat loss doesn’t recharge as fast as sleet so sometimes you will have to just rely on sleet alone.
After sleet or sleet + heat loss you have to make a decision. You can either A) continue debuffing with snow storm for AoE and infigidate and/or benumb for single or B) start attacking using the 15 second debuff window on sleet to maximize damage. Then debuff single targets after your AoE chain is done.

5. Power Pools: Season to Taste

I am not going to go through every pool, I will instead focus on those that I feel have something significant to add to the average build/player.

Travel Powers: Some players feel that Travel powers are obsolete and there is some truth to this. Outside of the fun factor getting around is so much easier than it was years ago, easy to the point that you can get around quite nicely without one. With Ninja and beast run, the transforming travel powers (coyote, panther), rocket board, jet packs for sale in Grandville and Firebase Zulu (and as a recipe) not to mention that the ferry, tram and helicopters are linked on top of SG teleporting ,Ouro portals, Tunnel Portals, and Mission Tps traveling across multiple zones has never been easier.
There are, however, tactical reasons to pick one up. Super speed is great for navigating open maps and for stealth stacking (SS+ Arctic fog). Flight is very handy in some situations and Hover is good for Ghetto Kb protection and some +def, Recall friend could be a good investment as it is easy to make a cold cor into a stealthy character. Beyond those, unless your aiming to get the last power in the pool there isn't much to recommend the rest. Of the first pick non travel powers two are good choices; Combat Jumping with its incredibly cheap end cost, decent defense and that you slot a LoTG 7.5 % in it, and Haste, which can benefit virtually any character.
As for the last power picks only Burnout( amusing but honestly not that great for us) or Afterburner (if you went the flight route) are worth the cost in powers.

Some power pools are worth more to us than others:

Leadership: This pool is one of my favorites and now that Fitness is inherent I can usually fit in one or two of them. The bonuses are on the small side but they buff your entire freaking team..and they stack ! And every little bit counts.
Maneuvers: Throw a LoTG 7.5 in it and the end/def from the same set and call it done. 3.5% of global defense to your team, add that to your shields and anyone in your arctic fog and you adding a modest amount of defense.
Assault: We get 15% from it. Not to shabby, extra damage is extra damage. The taunt and placate resist has some utility to it.
Tactics: My personal favorite. Remember the Net To-hit formula? Notice how the base accuracy was multiplied by the to hit? That's a good thing and it works for your whole team. I hate fear and confuse and this shortens the duration of those. The plus perception is handy in some situations also. I like to slot a Gaussian chance for build up in this and never turn it off. The build up effect has no animation so every once in awhile I do 68% more damage for an attack or two.
Vengeance: Awesome power but one I have never personally had much luck using. I'm either out of range, they get rezzed first or no one dies. To situational for my tastes but a decent investment for those that like it.

Fighting: Making yourself semi-squishy is a good idea, Tough by itself doesn't add a ton of resistance but even a little against the most common damage type can be helpful and you can use it to gain set bonuses or to mule the 3% global defense unique enhancements.
Weave: Is the power I normally take this pool for, the base defense for weave is the highest of any power available to us and is easy to enhance for a cool plus 6% to defense.

Concealment: Don't like phase shift, stealth and invis do not stack with arctic fog and we don't have trouble slotting x5 Lotgs 7.5% and I'm too selfish on my builds to waste a power on grant.

Medicine: One of the reasons I like cold is that I don't have to run around and heal people, Clarion trumps stimulant and we have dehydrate for some healy goodness. Maybe useful but not one I would recommend.

Presence: Haven't touched it since they made Taunt AoE probably never will.

Ancillary Pools: There are eight epic/patron pools to choose from, each offering five skills to help you round out your character. Of particular interest is the availability of a shield. A couple of pools offer a single target hold, which can be of some use (mainly hami and lady grey) and mako offers an AoE immobilization. Most of the utility skills offered tend to be endurance management which isn’t a great choice as we have Heat Loss. Thematic consideration aside there are a handful of powers that that are more effective than others.

Power Mastery:
Power build up: We do not have access to a build up normally and the boost on tidal force is on the weak side. PBU gives a 68% damage boost and as a bonus gives +special, used prior to attacking and/or debuffing PBU will enhance the effectiveness of your powers. Downside is the long recharge, getting the recharge down around the 90 second mark is a good idea. It will also boost your defense from certain powers for its duration, this isn't something you count on but as you are most likely using this just before attacking a defense boost isn't a bad thing. Consider it a bonus.

Soul Mastery:
Power Boost: Another source of plus special but has no to hit or damage boost. The duration is slightly longer and the recharge is half that of Power Build Up. + Special is a good investment as it helps enhance our secondary to a point that can match a primary set. This is a second tier option and you will have to pick another power to get, either Dark Embrace (a decent shield) or Soul drain. Soul Drain isn't as effective as the melee version, offering only a 6.8% damage increase per foe(max 7) on a four minute timer that requires you to be in PBAoE range.

Dark Mastery:
Soul Transfer: The only self rez offered.

Mace Mastery: The redraw is a pain but mace does offer a good selection of powers. An AoE immobilization (a source of -fly) and a single target hold. Scorpion shield is the only shield offered to Corruptors that adds defense- a nice 12.5%, the potential downside being that the defense is typed. Focused Accuracy is an expensive toggle but offers +per and to hit and most importantly resist to to hit debuffs.

6. Incarnates
The incarnate system is City of end game content, it provides a plethora of benefits and powers and extends the lifetime of a character. This last point can be nice as it gives the level 50 player something to work for besides badges. The incarnate salvage and building can be a pain, especially if your new at it. Following is a few tips to help ease the pain.

Before worrying about making everything Tier 4 get your level shifts. No other factor will make itrials easier than this. There are three level shifts available from three different powers all offered at the third tier, Alpha, Lore, Destiny. Open up the slots and build to tier 3 ASAP. Then worry about making tier 4s and filing Interface, Judgment and Hybrid.

Maximize your salvage gain, every completed trial gives a reward table with the option of a random salvage. In addition every badge you earn gives a random common or uncommon salvage so even if you are not a badge hunter they are worth doing. TPN and UG both offer bonus threads. Once per trial per day you are rewarded with an empyrean merit, so doing a variety of trials can be beneficial. Don't waste your E-Merits! You can convert them to rare and very rare components (among a variety of things) which may be of great use if your unlucky with the random rewards.Talk to Taskmaster Gabriel and do the Da arcs, the first completion for each arc you get the choice of a random incarnate salvage (though like trials all four tables have a chance the rare and very rare rewards are even more rare) except max's arc(gives no reward) and the Dream Doctor( gives 2, 1 for each part). When all the arcs are done talk to Gabe and get your 2 E-merits. You can repeat the whole Da arc once per week for more merits. After the initial run the arcs can be flash backed from ouro and once per 20 hours you can recieve the incarnate salvage reward. I do one per day in a quick run for a random roll, with Heather's arc done when the others are complete(very easy to zoom, around 20 minutes for the whole arc).Doing these and itrials will eventually get you the salvage you need.

ALPHA : What is the alpha slot ? Think of this (your first incarnate ability) as a giant global enhancement that enhances every power that it could enhance. Example: If your alpha increases accuracy every single power that you have that can take an accuracy enhancement will be boosted. If a given power cannot slot an enhancement then it will not be boosted by an alpha. Higher tiers give larger bonuses and more of the bonus will ignore the ceiling of ED.
What is the best alpha for a water/cold cor? Well, none of the alphas are bad per se but you can go one of two routes, either play to your strengths or shore up a weakness. Think about you want more of; we have heat loss and it is up enough to provide us with endurance management, we debuff defense so accuracy isn’t a huge concern, so that really leaves four things that we may want to enhance: Defense debuffs, damage, defense buffs, and recharge. A good alpha is one that boosts what you want/need the most and provides the largest variety of buffs that you want. Try to shoot for at least two things you want boosted, if it only enhances one thing make sure you really want it. Two alpha’s do a lot for us and a few more are an ok choice depending on build.
Intuition Radial Paragon: Increases Hold duration, damage, defense debuffs and slow movement by +33%, To hit debuffs and range by 20%. 2/3 of the bonus ignores ED, applies a level shift. There are 4 things this alpha will boost for us, of most importance is the boost to defense debuffs and damage. But we also have quite a few –SPD powers so it’s not a bad bonus and range can be nice, especially since we didn’t slot much of it. Look at what this will do for you: Increase damage for 9 of our powers (the 8 attacks from water blast plus sleet), Increase the defense debuffs of Infrigidate and Sleet. Increase the slow of Infrigidate, Snow Storm, Sleet, and Heat Loss. Increase range of our powers from primary/secondary (Only Tidal Forces and Arctic Fog do not benefit from this.). That is a lot of mileage from just one alpha and the range and slow is likely to give you the full bonus on each power as they are usually not slotted heavily for it.
Musculature Core Paragon: +45% damage, +33% to Immobilization and Defense Debuffs.2/3 of the bonus ignore ED. Applies level shift. This bad boy enhances both our primary and secondary function- defense debuffs and damage. Nice, it’s hard to go wrong with that. Not taking into account whether or not you took an immob or a hold from epic pool the only benefit of musculature over Intuition is the damage bonus.
The two alphas above are what I would recommend but your build may have other considerations. Such as:
I want to increase my recharge. Ok, two alphas increase recharge- Spiritual Core gives the largest bonus at 45% but the stun and heal provides little benefit to us. The radial version decreases the recharge to 33% but will also affect slow and to hit buffs. Agility core gives end mod 45%, recharge 33%, and defense buffs 20% which isn’t a bad bargain. The end mod will affect stamina and heat loss and virtually every power will benefit from recharge. The defense bonus (the evils of schedule b) gives small returns; your shields will see around a 3% increase and other powers around 1% or less. If you take agility do it for the recharge and end mod and count the def bonus as extra flavor. If you take this alpha solely for the defense increase you will be disappointed. The radial side drops the end mod bonus to 33% but adds in movement speed bonus of 33%.
Because of our defense debuffs and heat loss cardiac, nerve and vigor do not give us a large return on our investment and resilient hardly any benefit at all.

JUDGMENT: Everyone loves judgment, it’s a big nuke that provides excellent damage and comes in a variety of flavors:
Cold: a long range cone (think super frost breath)
Fire: a targeted AoE (super fireball)
Energy: chain ranged AoE
Negative energy: pbaoe (super blacks tar)
Vorpal: Smash/lethal: a self targeted cone (hits everything in front of you regardless of target you have selected)
The core side provides % chance to cause extra damage; the radial side provides a form of control (stun, hold, etc). Really, there is no way to go wrong with a judgment choice, they are all descent. If you can’t decide go with Ion, it is easy to use. I went with cold for thematic reasons.

INTERFACE: a passive power that adds a chance to proc various debuffs and minor damage dots with most damaging attacks. Interfaces are a small but nice bonus, a single type of interface may stack up to 4 times on any given foe. Pick one that sounds interesting to you, a few which synergize well with us, are:
For pure debuff Gravitic( -recharge rate,- secondary effects,- recovery debuff ) and Paralytic ( defense debuff, damage debuff) are nice pairings. But maybe you want to pick up a little extra damage as well (and who doesn’t), thankfully they added more dot/debuff powers so reactive isn’t as prevalent as it once was. Remember a given interface can only stack 4 times, so if you have 15 players with reactive a lot of those are going to be wasted. The dot/debuff powers are:
Reactive, the golden oldie, minor fire dot and – damage resistance
Degenerative: - max hp, minor toxic dot
Preemptive: end drain and minor recovery debuff, minor energy dot
Spectral: chance to immobilize and minor negative energy dot
Cognitive: confuse proc, minor psi dot

The core and radial sides have the same effect; they just swap the percentage chance around.
Don’t beat yourself up over which interface to get, get one that sounds good to you and you will be fine. I picked up cognitive first for soloing, psi damage is nice and every once in awhile I get some confused foes.

LORE: your own pets! What’s not to like. This slot will give you your second level shift once you get a tier 3 made, and is the most important part of this power. Really. Yes, the pets are nice and fun! But it isn’t which pets you have that makes it important but rather if you have the level shift that goes with it. They have added a huge roster to this incarnate ability, like 16 of them. I will not go into detail on the individual ones, there are far too many and this guide is long enough, hit the internet and do some research. Pick one that you think is cool or matches your theme. Lore pets are not part of your build, the recharge is far too long for that, they are an extra power you have that you can pull out for some extra damage and to have fun with, choosing x over y isn’t going to make or break you. Personally, I picked up Polar Lights, it kind of matches my theme, they are refreshingly unobtrusive (I’m looking at you, Raleruu) do some nice aoe damage. The core side does increased damage and the radial side offers an invulnerable pet that offers some sort of support ability.

DESTINY: The second best incarnate power, just after alpha, and like alpha will net you another level shift. This is the hardest one to decide on and the one I would recommend building multiple powers for, so you can pick and choose depending on what situation, and what’s needed by your league. The following is entirely my opinion; take with a grain of salt.

CLARION: We made it 50 levels and a whole bunch of trials without any real mez protection; about time to change that don’t you think. Clarion for us is king. Beautiful, beautiful mez protection, Get it! Pet it! But which flavor to get: Core vs Radial.
Core provides longer protection 120 seconds vs. Radials 90. They both provide the same level of protection but core will provide slightly better protection for slightly longer as the buffs diminish. Then why even consider radial? Well, radial provides a little thing called special boost. Did you take power boost or power build up? Like it? Radial provides you and your entire freaking league the benefits of boost. If you didn’t take either boost powers here is your chance to be able to boost your secondary effects, if you did you can stagger the two or even stack it. Yes, stacked boost! Want to floor a spawn with a maxed out sleet. Then get radial. With the plus range from this and intuition radial I can out range every mob in the game which can be an advantage.
On leagues the two most popular destiny abilities are Barrier core and Clarion core so why not choose Radial? Well, the answer, of course, is solo and small team play. You decide, in the end both clarions are awesome, pick the one you like: Core (120 seconds of protection) or Radial ( 90 seconds, plus range and special) but get one of them, you will never regret it.

BARRIER: add defense and resists to your league, barrier is a great power but to many barriers is wasted. As long as you have a barrier in effect you’re good. I find barrier most useful on small teams or when teamed with friends that are side kicked with you on L50 missions.

AGELESS: Offers endurance and recharge. The core side also offers recovery buff and the radial side debuff resistance. When clarion and barrier have been stacked enough ageless is a nice choice. Also may consider this if your starved for recharge (as in you didn't take an alpha with recharge and you can't afford a lot of + global recharge).

REBIRTH: Rebirth offers a large league wide heal and another buff depending on which side, core offers + HP and Radial +regeneration. I find radial more effective. Like Ageless Rebirth is a great destiny when the clarions and barriers are covered, especially good on DD and MoM Trials, where the mass heal and regen can be a huge boon. (Most other trials allow clumping, so the normal heals are generally enough).

INCANDESCENCE: an interesting destiny, this one offers a league wide teleport and healing received along with for kb and stun. Seen this used to great effect on Hami Raids. Not a good choice for a first destiny it does offer certain tactical advantages to have when you can afford to build other destiny. Note: If you do not know when/why to use this destiny don't.

HYBRID: Of the four Hybrid powers only two of them offer any real benefit to us, Assault and Support. A hybrid power is a toggle that last two minutes and has a two minute recharge. Hybrid offers two abilities, the active toggle itself and a passive ability that is always on as long as the hybrid itself is slotted.
Assault is a great way to boost raw damage. The passive boost adds +10% to damage (at tier 4). At tier 4 this damage boost comes in two flavors; core gives a 65% chance to add a stacking buff, up to 5 stacks can be active at a time and each stack grants a +15% boost to damage(for a potential 75% increase in damage, 85% including the passive boost), this is a significant amount of damage. The radial side offers a high damage energy damage proc that will proc of most damaging powers.
I've tried both and did not like the radial as much; I got more out of the raw percentage boost. However, if you are bumping against the damage cap ceiling radial would be the way to go, the proc damage isn't figured into the cap damage (on my kin I took radial for example).

Support is much like a giant leadership buff that provides league wide buff: 1x accuracy, +8% to damage, defense, and +special (at tier 4). The + special isn't as broad as most and only boosts the control type status effects (Fear, stun, hold etc.) Core has a 40' range and offers a doubled bonus to pets and the radial has an extended range of 80'. Hybrid support can be stacked up to 5 times. Like any kind of stacking buff as soon as the maximum has been reached any other is rather wasted. Of the boosts the defense is perhaps the most useful and it would be +def that would make me get support.

7. Building a Better Toon

Here is the section that will bring the most opinions, ask 20 players to give you a build and you’ll get 20 different builds, each swearing their build is the best and pointing out its pros and cons and defending their choices. Thing is this; they could ALL be good builds. There are countless ways to build a given AT and its powersets, it is one of the more interesting aspects of the Invention system. The benchmark of success is if the build does what you want. If it doesn’t, or if you question the build, or if it fails

Great info. I would like to see if reformatted so it is less of a text wall, but that doesn't take away from the great info provided. (Maybe put in some breaks and spacing. Even some colors/bolding/italics/underlines/resizing to break it down some.

I have a wb/cold myself and I love the combo. This was my first venture into water blast and my first ride to 50 with cold domination. I am glad to see I am not the only one who skipped Snow Storm after respeccing at 50.

I did take and keep frostwork- and I am finally seeing why people think this is skippable. It is. I don't see much bang for my buck here for most situations/ATs. Great advice overall and I pretty much agree with mostly everything you said.

One small nitpick- you said that arctic fog is the only buff that benefits you. It's not...

EDIT: Thank you for lifting the fog on heat loss. I thought I understood how this power worked best, but I really don't. I didn't realize it is as good as it really is. I was unclear on it not being ST and that everyone would receive some sort of buff regardless of proximity. Wow!

Awesome write up!

I've been postponing leveling mines for awhile now. The last Cold I played was over 3 years ago and I only got him to 15 maybe so i wasn't sure exactly how I wanted to slot him. You gave me some good ideas!

This was the build I was going to work with:

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.958
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Whiskey: Level 50 Magic Corruptor
Primary Power Set: Water Blast
Secondary Power Set: Cold Domination
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leaping
Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Aqua Bolt -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(3), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(5), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(5), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(7)
Level 1: Infrigidate -- LdyGrey-%Dam(A), ImpSwft-Dam%(46), ShldBrk-%Dam(50)
Level 2: Hydro Blast -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(7), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(9), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(9), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(11), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(11)
Level 4: Ice Shield -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(17)
Level 6: Whirlpool -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(13), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(13), Posi-Dmg/Rng(15), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(15)
Level 8: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(17)
Level 10: Tidal Forces -- Rec'dRet-Pcptn(A), Rec'dRet-ToHit/Rchg(40)
Level 12: Glacial Shield -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(19)
Level 14: Dehydrate -- Entrpc-Acc/Dmg(A), Entrpc-Dmg/EndRdx(43), Entrpc-Dmg/Rchg(45), Entrpc-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(45), Entrpc-Heal%(45)
Level 16: Snow Storm -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 18: Water Burst -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(19), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(21), Posi-Dmg/Rng(21), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(23)
Level 20: Arctic Fog -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(34), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(37), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(37), RedFtn-Def(39), RedFtn-EndRdx(40)
Level 22: Water Jet -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(23), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(25), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(25), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(27), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(27)
Level 24: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 26: Steam Spray -- SMotCorruptor-Acc/Dmg(A), SMotCorruptor-Dmg/Rchg(29), SMotCorruptor-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(29), SMotCorruptor-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(31), SMotCorruptor-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(31), SMotCorruptor-Rchg/Dmg%(46)
Level 28: Benumb -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(34)
Level 30: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(31)
Level 32: Geyser -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(33), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(33), Posi-Dmg/Rng(33), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(34)
Level 35: Sleet -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(36), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(36), Posi-Dmg/Rng(36), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(37), Achilles-ResDeb%(40)
Level 38: Heat Loss -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(39), RechRdx-I(39)
Level 41: Scorpion Shield -- RedFtn-Def(A), RedFtn-EndRdx(42), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(42), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(42), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(43), LkGmblr-Rchg+(43)
Level 44: Tough -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), GA-3defTpProc(46)
Level 47: Weave -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(48), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(48), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(48), RedFtn-Def(50), RedFtn-EndRdx(50)
Level 49: Super Speed -- Clrty-Stlth(A)
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Scourge
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Combo Level 1
Level 1: Combo Level 2
Level 1: Combo Level 3
------------
------------
Set Bonus Totals:

• 10% DamageBuff(Smashing)
• 10% DamageBuff(Lethal)
• 10% DamageBuff(Fire)
• 10% DamageBuff(Cold)
• 10% DamageBuff(Energy)
• 10% DamageBuff(Negative)
• 10% DamageBuff(Toxic)
• 10% DamageBuff(Psionic)
• 7.88% Defense(Smashing)
• 7.88% Defense(Lethal)
• 6% Defense(Fire)
• 6% Defense(Cold)
• 22.25% Defense(Energy)
• 22.25% Defense(Negative)
• 6% Defense(Psionic)
• 6.94% Defense(Melee)
• 27.25% Defense(Ranged)
• 6% Defense(AoE)
• 2.25% Max End
• 57% Enhancement(Accuracy)
• 10% Enhancement(Range)
• 86.25% Enhancement(RechargeTime)
• 12% SpeedFlying
• 32.13 HP (3%) HitPoints
• 12% JumpHeight
• 12% SpeedJumping
• MezResist(Confused) 2.75%
• MezResist(Immobilized) 6.6%
• 20% PerceptionRadius
• 16% (0.27 End/sec) Recovery
• 40% (1.79 HP/sec) Regeneration
• 10.08% Resistance(Fire)
• 10.08% Resistance(Cold)
• 12% SpeedRunning

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|-------------------------------------------------------------------|

Thank you for the amazing guide. I just started playing CoH after a year, and water/cold seemed like a great idea. This guide is more than I could have asked for.

This should really go in the guides section.