I heard this was nerfed bad way back in one of the patches, I've never used ice before but am just trying an ice character now, and the wall of ice really doesn't seem to do much. Does it ever, you know, deal damage, or anything?

wall of ice paired with shatter is pretty awesome. i specced into wall of ice and got the thingy that trails the wall behind you instead of in front of you and i generally will run up to a group, pop wall of ice and run a circle around them caging the whole group then shatter = things dead. also does a decent amount of dmg on its own.

If you have nothing targeted, and rely just upon the auto target (I have my controls set to only target stuff if I hit tab), the wall of ice will stay still and hit anything near it repeatedly. It has some weird behavior depending on what's targeted, and what the distance is. Sometimes when I target a foe, it will go back and forth, hitting multiple times, and other times it just hits once. If you target a friendly, it will go to the friendly, and hit anything near them, and it does something similar if you target yourself.

Before it got nerfed it would cage anything it touched including objects creating a ice cage per target, it also with the frozen foot advantage kept creating the wall without having to move creating a constant ice wall and dot on a target you stood near.

Now it still puts targets in a ice cage though not as reliably as before from my use of it. But it still does some dot damage. Main use of this ability is to create ice structures in a area for shatter to explode, or to be used as a rooting power. This is more a control power and a indirect setup of damage power not a main source.

It also acts a little wierd sometimes in going back and forth through targets as if it can't run into them, also sometimes goes right past targets without touching them and creating the cage effect and not longer effects objects like it use to. The plus though is the power does track to target without the frozen foot advantage and has a 100ft range and ice cages what it touches. It has it's uses but don't depend on this as a damage source as that is not it's top function.

The "odd behavior" where it seems to move back and forth on its own is the fact that ice wall has a chance to proc frozen footsteps on its own.

If you use ice wall and you think frozen footsteps procs try moving left or right and you'll notice the wall will move the direction you did. I tested this out a lot in the powerhouse on dummies when I first noticed the effect.

Wall of Ice is alright and I still use it, though I never used Footsteps.

The AoE root is good on its own: allow you to escape, keep them bunched together for Snow Storm, etc.

It also often stops them for attacking for a few seconds as they try to unroot themselves and sometimes mobs will spend their time trying to free their allies.

It allows you to shatter without relying on Frozen Breath, though they aren't chilled very often.

Is it UBER? No.

But it's still a decent low-level power.

Been using this as a group root on Rudolph. Does ok, but I haven't picked up shatter (and now must examine my test spec again)

On test, it does a good job of keeping everyone in place for a AoE, and by the time they're free, swooping in for a PBAoE with KB to clear the area a bit and pick off a few stragglers has done wonders.

Then again, Rudolph is a Celestial/Ice Hybrid on test.

I can't find ANYTHING discussing what magnitude of root the Ice Cages have on the targets. I'm mid-game and using it on Gadroon... they're holding in the root for about 1.5 seconds, and then running right out of it and into my face.

Does anyone know the point of ranks? Is Ice Cage stronger? Does it build resistance over time?

Frustrating.

Seems to vary to me. I suspect some MOBs are able to use abilities that help them break roots. I'm also noticing (on both Rudolph's Wall and Phobiac's Grasping Shadows) the level difference directly impacts CC length - much harder targets have much shorter root times, but once you're their level, the root seems to work better.