I've got a tradiational Ice build (DEX & END SS) using Shatter and ice objects that just hit 35th. Currently I'm using x4 out of tier powers. (IDF, Invulnerability, Empathic Healing, & EM w/ advantage) My problem is trying to decide if I want to switch out Invulnerability for Vaporous Form, which would allow me to take Energy Storm as my T4 power.

How well does Energy Storm fit with a dedicated Shatter build? I can see that ES only has a 30 sec recast timer, which does interest me. From the Wiki, I can see that it would consume my Chill debuffs for a large burst of damage. However taking ES would also compell me to make it R3. (My Shatter is already at R3 as well.) Is a R3 Energy Storm worth it for a dedicated Shatter character? I'd love to hear from some players who've tried it out.

IDF is Force, so it's compatible with Energy Form.

Vapor Form is not a slotted passive. If you want to switch Invulnerability you have to go Ice form. Which is not bad, just a diffrent playstyle from the more tanky Invul. :)

In my tests for my elec toon Energy Storm wasn't worth it, might be diffrent for Ice or for pure concept reasons.

Energy Storm is not worth the setup time required. Ice is already high on setup time, too, and unless you absorb clinging flames or negative ions it's a simple single target attack that does PARTICLE DAMAGE (wtf?) so it doesn't get buffed by Ice Form, at all.

I tested it during my exploration of an Ice/Fire/Electric build and could get some nice numbers out of it, but I was absorbing 3 different type effects to get that and it just wasn't worth the setup time.

Energy Storm does not absorb the Chill applied by the Arctic Beast, but does count it for the bonus damage. FYI, if you use Energy Storm on a chilled enemy, the attack portion will have +20% Crit Chance and +50% Crit Severity, IIRC.

The damage boost portion for the rest of your powers is actually pretty nice, and with the low cooldown, you can basically spend 1/3 of the time with the bonus. (The boost lasts 15 seconds, again IIRC.)

That's a good point Todd.

I think too much was crammed into Energy Storm. If it was just a short duration self buff it could potentially be worth it. But it requires a lot of micromanagement that doesn't really gel with the rest of the projector sets, which primarily melt everything in 2 seconds, leaving no reason to use Energy Storm except against a boss, maybe.

After trying in one more time, I've decided Energy Storm is freaking awesome. Many thanks to oddTodd.

Once infused on a chilled target, the power tip indicated +20% Crit Chance and +60% Crit Severity. I went the Chill route, with frequent Ionic Reverb. I can crit with it for over 10k, and with reverb it can arc for similar damage on a nearby target.

Once you have it infused, you have 15s to fire the attack - a 100' range, 1s tap. During that time your other attacks are buffed by the infuse. The 10% damage bonus is a real 10%, not +.10.