Level 20 Ice Build - Where to from here?

[Archived Post]

Post-patch, I'm not sure what to do from this point with my ice build.

Here she is currently:

Build by championBuilder 0.2.4 (http://champions.zarzu.ch)

Download this Build here. (http://champions.zarzu.ch/download.php?download=4131g50400504206041205zz0060 411050350504215zzzz5zzzz5zzzz5zzzz5zzzz5zzzz5zzzz5 zzzz5zzzz75y10c5y2025y20f5y20p5y20k5zzzz5zzzz25y00 15y0079Bluebird)

Bluebird: Level 40 Champion

Superstats:
Level 5: Super Dexterity
Level 13: Super Endurance

Powers:
Level 1: Ice Shards
Level 1: Ice Blast
Level 5: Wall Of Ice -- Rank 2
Level 5: Flight
Level 8: Shatter -- Rank 2
Level 11: Personal Force Field
Level 14: Ice Burst
Level 17:
Level 20:
Level 23:
Level 26:
Level 29:
Level 32:
Level 35:
Level 35:
Level 38:

Talents:
Level 1: Absolute Zero
Level 6: Enduring
Level 9: Acrobat
Level 12: Boundless Reserves
Level 15: Accurate
Level 18:
Level 21:

At the moment, I have yet to pick 2 powers and 1 talent. I also have 4 upgrade points.

I'm very, very squishy (as you can probably tell). But PFF seems a dead-end at the moment.

My tentative plan was to take Frost Breath with the frost bite advantage, field surge (ick, since PFF doesn't work), and frozen footsteps for Wall of Ice.

The talent is going to be the +8 dexterity talent.

Thoughts? Is there another way to go to boost my defense? Is frost breath worth it?

[Archived Post]

frost breath sucks, it does less damage than snowstorm but costs more energy

the absolute best ice spell you can get atm is wall of ice with frozen footsteps. it kills henchmen in 1 hit, and master villains in 4-5 hits - take a look at my vid to see Frozen Footsteps in action, im sure it will convince you to get it ASAP :P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T1Rjha_c4Y

snowstorm is good too, esspecially if you combine it with frozen footsteps - very heavy damage

if you want more defense, then get Force Shield with the force sheath advantage. it makes it so that after you stop blocking, the 'block' effect continues on you for about 5 seconds. plus it gives you extra energy when you block, which is good too.

you should replace PFF with Ice Form too. it gives a good boost of damage (+40% more damage i believe).

gl :D

[Archived Post]

I naively thought that frost breath sucked for leveling as well and didn't pick it up until 38 as i wanted it for the 100% Chill in my final PvP build. Now that i have it i really wish i had picked it up sooner. Without it you tend to rely on wall of ice/frozen footsteps far too much and it has a 15 second cooldown which can lead to a bit of downtime in your leveling. Most of the mobs that you kill are henchman and it usually involves hopping from group to group to get whatever your quest needs doing, before i picked up frosst breah and got the chill advantage on it i had to either put up with that few second gap or just jump in the mob and use ice blast which usually resulted in firing off frozen footsteps anyway as it's cool down would be up in the middle of it. With frost breath i just need to tap it twice to get the mobs chilled and caged then hit shatter once and they're dead. Thats on level 41 mobs with me at 40, lower mobs will die just as quick.

In PvP i've found myself having a ball with it also. Unless they're smart enough to focus me i've spent most of today keeping the whole of the opposing side slowed to a halt and whenever the get grouped together i tap it again to cage them all and shatter which usually ends up with a couple of them dead for little effort. It must be annoying as hell to be on the other side of it.

Think twice about Force shield + Force Sheath, its just been nerfed on the test server so you might want to check out if it's still worth it. I rely on it a lot so unless its not too bad of a nerf or TK shield is a suitable replacement then my playstyle is going to have to change drastically as i'm an ice form user with only that and clickable heal type skills for defense.

Ice form is currently at 45% extra damage for me, but remember thats 45% of base not overall. For me with my stats having ice form on adds about 20% extra in visible numbers.

[Archived Post]

I can't believe they are still doing nerfs on the test servers.

So that's two completely contradictory pieces of advice on frost breath. :)

Most people, I think, like it and snowstorm has only a minority in favor of it.

I'm wary of taking frozen footsteps and then suddenly the damage or the effect being taken away, but I guess that's a must take at this point.

I need to come up with some way to defend myself. A tweaked PFF/field surge combo would fix my concept and playstyle best, but I'm not sure PFF is going to be usable in the near-term.

[Archived Post]

You could always use the force end builder with the shield advantage. Whislt it won't be all of the time it does proc quite often. It's not like you need the ice one to be adding chill anyway when you have 100% on frost breath. I kinda wish i'd went that route with my end builder.

[Archived Post]

Another voice in favor of Frost Breath here. Definitely with the 100% chill advantage. 3 ticks of Frost Breath freezes ppl just like Wall of Ice, only it has no cooldown and you don't have to wait for the wall to chase them down. And they're chilled too (which makes Shatter do even more damage). If you get that, I would also recommend Hard Frost advantage for Ice Blast, as rapid-firing taps of Ice Blast with that can do good damage for very little energy cost.

[Archived Post]

As i am making an ice champ what good super power are good? i would think end for power help please I want to have a nice ice champ :)
was wondering also when should i take frost breath and ice form?
thanks all

[Archived Post]

Cond/End is the preferred Ice superstat set right now.

I took Dex/End, but I have no reason for that other that HP weren't at such a premium during headstart.

On the frost breath v. snowstorm issue, people in the PH were all very emphatic in favor of snowstorm.

I'm totally confused by which to take.

[Archived Post]

Ok just figuring this out so far..
I took
ice shards
ice blast
Wall of ice with frozen footsteps
now should i take shatter. ice form or ice burst
or does it really matter this early in lvls???
when should i take ice form if not at lvl 8??

[Archived Post]

I would take ice form then shatter. Ice form for the extra damage, chill and cages then shatter for the synergy with ice wall. After that you might want to look at picking up a couple of survival tools such as resurgance and a block seeign as you'll be running into a couple of harder quests in MC.

[Archived Post]

thanks :) i will try it out

[Archived Post]

This is my favorite character and I haven't played her in days because of this Frost Breath v. Snowstorm decision.

I feel pitiful, but I feel like my character is on the edge of being unplayable as it is because of her squishiness and can't afford a bad choice.

I'm almost ready to just level up to 23 without making another decision and having 3 power choices and then taking them both, while saving a power for a possible defensive power.

[Archived Post]

Iwas feeling quite squishy myself, but then I took Force Shield and immediately got the Force Sheath advantage. It helps a lot, and it helps recover energy as well. This is on an electric/ice build.

[Archived Post]

Iwas feeling quite squishy myself, but then I took Force Shield and immediately got the Force Sheath advantage. It helps a lot, and it helps recover energy as well. This is on an electric/ice build.

My understanding is that force shield and force sheath are both being changed on the Test Server patch notes.

[Archived Post]

I picked up ice form instead of PPF, but thats because I wanted more damage over all. You kinda need it because Ice just isnt high damage. I would suggest vapor form for sort of an "OH SHI-" button but its cooldown is wicked long for any real pvp use. But I will be picking it up just so I can avoid death in pve.

Maybe if they made it unusable right after or right before teleport, they could shorten the cooldown....

[Archived Post]

I just tried out Frost breath and it's pretty underwhelming at level 17.

I went back and retconed it out and will probably pick up Snowstorm.