Stats Revamp 1.3 - Ice Feedback!

Discussion in 'Stats Revamp Archive' started by Avair, Feb 10, 2017.

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  1. Avair Administrator

    Power Set Feedback: Ice

    If you haven't, please read this thread about overall survey results.

    In this thread, I will address the top 3 pieces of feedback for Ice. In some cases, I will describe what changes we are making based on your feedback. In other cases, I will describe why we are not (at this time) making changes. Thanks to everyone who gave feedback and remains passionate about the Ice power set. We appreciate it and want to make sure that we can continue working together to make ice amazing.

    The top three pieces of feedback are:
    • Shields: You were concerned that Tank shields are not strong enough and/or want Bitter Winds back as a shield
    • Crowd Control: You were concerned about how overall crowd control issues impact Ice
    • 100% Supercharges: You did not want a 100% supercharge
    Shields

    We considered shields and their strength on multiple fronts. First, there are likely some people who like Bitter Winds and like Ice identifying as a strong shield power set. Second, some people feel that shields are worse on test compared to live. Third, we have to consider if people can or cannot complete content.

    Originally, we removed Bitter Winds as a shield because, while ice is definitely the shield tank and we like that, there are already many other shield options. We wanted to make using individual abilities more powerful and make it so that ice players had more options in their loadout, without needing to stack one mechanic too heavily. Even so, Ice remains a strong and shield-focused tank.

    Second, shields have actually been buffed from live. I wrote about it last week. They are stronger and effectively last longer in most situations, even though their maximum durations have been reduced. On live, shields break in three hits. On test, shields last until their health has been exhausted, and their health is now significant.

    Third, players are able to complete content and in many situations we have been told they can do it too easily with an Ice tank. Granting another shield would make it basically easy mode. We cannot reasonably increase the durability of the ice tank when they are already so effective.

    We feel that these reasons still stand, and because of that we do not plan to make adjustments to shields or Bitter Winds at this time.

    Crowd Control

    This topic is discussed at length in the overall 1.3 thread, and we feel the changes there will significantly and positively impact Ice. We have lowered the cooldowns to 3 seconds on 4 crowd control abilities for Ice: Frost Slam, Resonating Gale, Avalanche, and Impaling Ice.

    100% Supercharges

    Blizzard is currently your only 100% supercharge. This ability is legit and does tons of damage. I recognize that 100% supercharge takes a while to get to, but we are looking to provide options and the payoff is demonstrably there. We will continue to monitor feedback on this topic, but we would like to let this one ride for a little bit and see where we are at after we do a few more updates. Something that would be extremely useful is specific feedback about what could be done to make this ability worth waiting for.
  2. Moja Developer

    Patch Notes:
    • Added knockdown to Bitter Winds and adjusted damage accordingly.
    • Reduced passive defense bonus in Tank role to 80% Defense, down from 85% Defenseto account for the update to the Fortified Blocking tactical mod.
    • Reduced the cooldowns of Avalanche, Frost Slam, Resonating Gale, and Impaling Ice.
    • Reduced Supercharge Generation of Impaling Ice to account for the new cooldown. Impaling Ice should no longer build Supercharge from hitting objects.
    • Fixed an issue that caused Snow Devil not to spawn.
  3. Maxwill Committed Player

    Does Fortified Blocking (5%) stack with the 80% defense bonus in tank role?
    • Like x 1
  4. Maxwill Committed Player


    And you have have thought about how ice tanks will stay alive in instances with adds/bosses that do alot of damage? For example God of Monsters elite : 1st,2nd and 3rd boss... SM rounds 14+ ...Something tells me that 3 shields won't be enough.
  5. Shadowdragon Devoted Player

    Here's my latest feedback for ice:

    The cooldown update makes a big difference. It feels like we're slowly building back to what we have on live. Now if we could have the knockdown effects back and weapon mastery sound...
  6. spack2k Steadfast Player

    Shield Buff Icon does show only for reflection for other 2 shields its missing.


    Current Effects tab still not fixed.
    • Like x 1
  7. spack2k Steadfast Player

    Shatter restraint still at 0 power cost.
  8. Winter Sabel Dedicated Player


    Ice elemental takes too long to transform and the duration of all the supercharges are lacking to say the least.
  9. DCUO Gaming Well-Known Player

    Main Change: The cast time for Frost Blast takes too long and leaves me way too vulnerable to interrupt, decrease the cast time by 1/4 of what it is now and that will be perfect.
    Optional Change: Increase the amount of time Snow Devil stays and fights with the player because it feels like I'm constantly having to pay attention to when he disapears so that I can re-spawn him, thus distracting me from other game/power mechanics and interactions.
    Thanks in advance.:)
    • Like x 2
  10. Winter Sabel Dedicated Player


    DPS Ice Elemental is broken. The damage buffs are not applying to stats.
    Tank Ice Elemental seems to be working fine. The Defense buffs are applying to stats.
  11. Shark Dental Devoted Player

    Frost Blast: As another tester has pointed out, the cast time is painfully slow. I've played fire forever, but the cast time for Frost Blast made even me cringe. And the total damage isn't worth the risk. I'd reduce the channel by about 1/3, especially since the CD is 3 seconds anyway.

    Frost Blast: For some reason, this ability isn't responding to the empowered channeling white hands mod. Other abilities like Avalanche are, so I'm guessing the problem is Frost Blast and not the mod itself.
  12. DCUO Gaming Well-Known Player

    The funny thing is I've been a fire player from the start as well and frost blast seemed good until I had to endure the cast time. Ugh it was horrible.
  13. Mepps Sr. Community Manager

    One new change hit the test server today:

    Ice
    • Reflection - Increased shield cap and reflected damage.
    • Like x 1
  14. DCUO Gaming Well-Known Player

    Frost Blast needs to be adjusted. I would like to use it in my loadout but the cast time isn't worth the damage I get from it. Three things can be done to adjust it: decrease the cast time by 1/4-1/3 of what it is now, increase the damage dealt by increasing how many times the power hits the target (atm it hits the target(s) twice, the first time dealing the major damage and the second time the minor damage, change it so that it hits maybe three or four times on the target(s) and every hit is equal in the amount of damage done)(example: on test right now it hits around 15k-20k (no critical) and the second hit goes for about 2k-5k (no critical), change it so that it hits four times with 7k-10k per hit(no critical), think of it like fireburst in a way), and the last way to make Frost Blast really good (but not too OP), is to keep the cooldown the same but increase the power cost some (not too drastically though), that way the power is balanced out to account for the changes made to it. Please take this into consideration because Frost Blast is a power I would really like to use in my loadout, but not how it is in its current state. I also talked to some people on test about it today and everyone agrees with me on this topic, so making these changes to Frost Blast would be terrific news to those testing out ice right now; I think we as a player-base would like to see this change.
    Thanks in advance guys.:)
  15. Rokyn Dedicated Player


    Feedback

    Tanking with Ice is very rewarding and definitely a similar experience to what is on Live. So that's good. The change to Reflection is a nice welcome, the pull cooldown reduction was terrific, and the changes to Frost Slam are welcomed. Thanks. Frost Slam has now found a spot in my loadout. Besides that I still have a couple minor concerns and possible suggestions.

    1. Hibernation vs Ice Elemental: I feel like Hibernation is the superior tanking supercharge due it's shielding and nice heals. I think you guys should consider making Ice Elemental a 2000 cost supercharge with increased duration but making really strong to make up for it's supercharge cost. Increased defense, health, absorption or maybe even dominance. Make it a form change to where tanks will have to pick one supercharge or the other for different scenarios. At the moment, the buffs and duration are just not enough in my opinion.

    2. Three shields: I don't really consider Shatter (the breakout) as a shield. It's weaker than WW and Reflect. I understand the reasons why though. I feel like Ice could take advantage of an additional shield (whether that's Iconic Hard Light Shield or an updated Bitter Winds). If your two strongest shields break in extremely difficult content, then the only mitigation you have left is increased defense which is comparable to a blocking Atomic tank. That's not good. I understand that you guys see us completing content fine but I'm trying to see ahead in scenarios like Survival Mode or Elite Raids. I don't need to see changes now but I hope the concerns are noted at least.

    3. Multiple adds: I don't know how to fix this issue. I posted a possible suggestion in the Atomic thread. Crowd control and shields seem to make the most difference in terms of current tools. Ice can definitely also suffer from having too many adds but in the case only in where there isn't a shield up, a supercharge ready, or crowd control ready. Reverting immunity to it's original state like it is on Live may resolve this issue (without changing anything else). Giving Ice a proper third shield might also suffice.

    Video feedback





    You can mute the music, I was just playing my background playlist. I don't have to much to say on the videos but that my feedback is demonstrated there.
    • Like x 2
  16. Rokyn Dedicated Player


    Bug report

    Not sure if it's me but Refection seems to breaking early. I didn't notice it last night but this morning I did. Can you guys recheck the numbers on your end, to verify that it's not bugged?
  17. Moja Developer


    Reflection, just like all shields, has a duration (6s) and a number of "hitpoints" based on your Dominance and Restoration. So, it should last 6s or until you take damage equal to the shield's hitpoints, whichever happens first. Are you seeing something different?
  18. Rokyn Dedicated Player

    Based on the cooldown timer (12 secs) it was getting stripped early around the 2pm to 3pm marker. I was fighting a mob of about 4 NPCs of Olympians. It could've been that I reached the cap. It certainly wasn't the duration because it was no where near the 6 o'clock marker.

    I'm not sure if it's replicated in my videos either, I haven't looked at it carefully. Let me see if I find it. My stats are around 12k Dom and 10k resto.
  19. Maxwill Committed Player

    Reflection and Shatter Restraints and Winter Wards absorb damage equal to 112,5% of restoration + 150% of dominance ?
  20. Shark Dental Devoted Player

    Arctic Gust is acting a little weird too. Sometimes it gives 5 ticks of damage and sometimes 6. Is this intended?
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