Frost Blast. A long build up. But is it worth the wait? It can crit nicely on AOE and to a lesser degree on single target (although I wouldn't personally use it on ST). But that time charging up you can get interrupted, and you aren't really doing damage through your rotation through that charge up. Is there any way in the future the wait for the Frost Blast can be reduced while retaining the damage it does currently? It wouldn't make Ice Might 'overpowered' but it would help in making it more viable more often. Thoughts?
It's a channel 400 power cost ability. It would be the meta of normal powersets if it had it's cooldown reduced. And if it gets a cooldown reduction you know the fire toon players would ask for the same thing.
I don't necessarily mean the cool down, just the time between when you activate the ability and the ability hitting the target/s. And yes it should also be looked into for Fire Might to help with Fire's AOE DPS side.
I’m all for it. For fire and ice. If it were classified as a channel, then I’d say leave it but since it’s already so susceptible to interrupt, give it a little love. I use it solely as an approach power on groups of adds. Nice to have a one shot for dailies.
No. Using that type of power is useless in this game right now. With all the excessive cc, pushbacks, transformations, cutscenes, all that crap, it is utterly pointless to use those powers. As of now, trying to use Biggun sc is a waste of time, why, rte3 alert, I go to use it and bam -> transformed, bam I’m pushed 10ft to the left, bam that lasso just perma stunned me, and best of yet my sc is now at 0 cause it takes the sc at the front end rather than the back end. I don’t use it anyway. Pop wintry tempest and spam arctic gust. Ta da…ice dpsing.
I feel like you missed the conversation or didn't read/understand/misinterpreted. I desire that Frost Blast has a shorter wait between activating the ability, and the ability hitting the target/s - while retaining any damage it does currently on live. Which would make it more viable in some of the situations you outlined. And yes the same could/should happen for Fire as well. Biggun is a different situation because it is a SC. P.S. You are better off running Heat Vision - Glacier Flash (Finisher) - Avalanche for Ice DPSing.
Either that or protect it with empowered channeling mod. Maybe something else. Frost Blast could use a bit of love.
I would agree if I didn’t personally know a fire main that switched to ice and had every raid group we went into wondering just how he was able to smoke the leaderboard. The damage is there with ice. The biggest issue with powers like Ice and Fire is the massive skill gap between the users. It’s all about positioning and using their mobility to your advantage. To the OPs point, FB does take a ridiculous amount of time to get off but if it gets off it provides an exponential amount of damage especially if it crits. I’m not sure if Empowered Channeling is a definite fix for the issue but I can’t imagine it being completely ineffective.
I find that this attack is much more easily interrupted with ice, unlike fire which launches it much more quietly...
Had another thought about it last night while doing my dailies. My aoe/ dailies loadout is super generator (doesn’t split) the no cool down ice spike attack, avalanche, and frost blast. I start frost blast on my way up to a set of adds. Usually kills all of them but if it doesn’t, hit the super generator or avalanche. The generator not splitting is awesome. So what if the only change frost blast got was no splitting? Makes it more worth the wait/ still upsetting to get interrupted but stays as is for the most part. Also, frost giant and frost blast is still a great time. I’m still using blizzard so I can EoG spam but been trying a few things with the transformation since the updates to iconics.
Ice Might is currently one of the most underrated might powers in the game, and this is becoming increasingly common knowledge. Something that would make Ice Might much more viable regards Frost Blast. It has the potential to do decent damage by itself, the main issue is the wait for it to impact the targets after activating it, and *if* it crits. If it doesn't crit it is a major damage loss as you can't do much else in the meantime. Splitting is a tricky one, it may make Ice Might AOE a little too strong if FB doesn't split damage - but then again this is if it crits.
I’m just thinking of other possibilities for it. One of any of the proposed changes would be great imo. Ice is a great powerset that can’t really decide what it wants to be. Mid range/ melee/ max range are all decent. It’s AoE can be decent. It’s st can be decent. It doesn’t really excel at any but it’s really good at any. Frost blast getting any change can make it great at AoE at least. Been trying to find more testing build time on this toon. I’m thinking blizzard for AoE build and transformation for st. Having frost blast in the AoE loadout is great for approach and maybe having it in transformed mode only would be good for st. It’s just awful when you’re winding up then turn back to normal. So heart breaking lol.
Or......... If you have heal in group spamming EOG use both IE and then Blizzard while in IE form The more you are in IE as Ice Might the better. Worth also considering Scrap of the Soul Cloak for more IE moments. Thats why I say reduce the 'winding up' time. A lot can happen in that time, adds die, form change back, mechanics to avoid/block.
Yeah, my ice guy runs tetra/ scrap/ EoG. Eventually tetra will get scrapped for quislet but only once it’s 200.
Correct me if I’m wrong but Frost Blast doesn’t split and it’s incredibly strong when you use it in Ice Elemental Form.
It is still a long wait and you aren't doing damage in that wait between activating the ability and the impact on the target/s. A lot can also go wrong.
That’s just how the powerset works. Some have aoe, others are more single target, others have combos. Celestial hits hard but it loses out on damage if the enemies are jumping from place to place like Reverse Flash. Just gotta know when to use it and how effective you can be at it.
I think you're looking for the term "cast time." I always thought Fire Burst had a lesser cast time compared to Frost Blast. I run both my fire DPS and ice DPS pretty much the same - Absorb Heat, Flame Cascade, Fire Burst. For Ice - Avalanche, Arctic Gust, Frost Blast. Of course, Avalanche has CC where as Absorb Heat does not. Flame Cascade can go a longer distance where as Arctic Gust cannot. I believe they balanced fire and ice in that way so the two powers didn't feel exactly the same.
Frost Blast definitely splits damage. Ice's Supercharge builder doesn't split, but it's mid-range. Everything is incredibly strong in Ice Elemental Form-- it's a 60% damage buff. Currently it's a risk/reward thing. The animation is longer than Fireburst (I haven't timed how much longer), the damage is ~35% higher though, and its full range. If the animation got shortened to be the same as Fireburst, the damage would have to drop 45%ish, which would be unlikely to make everyone happy. Shortening the cool down by .5-1 second might be ok, but it would make load-outs awkward. 3 seconds is common for a reason. Just buffing its damage 5% or so wouldn't break the game, but I'm not sure Ice DPS would notice a dramatic impact. Taking away the risk completely via empowered channeling probably would break things, especially as there's now a few different ways to get that effect. I wouldn't mind seeing all mobile channels made a little more mobile. Moving in super-slow motion mostly defeats the purpose with the way current content works. In the meanwhile, just use Avalanche for AOE.
