A Chilly Guide to Everything Ice

Thanks for the feedback. I was reading that activating multiple shields cancels out the previous shield. How long does each shield last. I was thinking reflect when the bubble disappears then it is done, the same with winter ward. I was thinking bitter winds last through the cool down cycle but I keep getting killed when bitter winds is still up. Does it end before the cool down cycle ends?

I actually don't have a specific number on how long your shield will last being it that their damage prevention is tied in with your toons dominance plus resto, and that can differ for any tank. A good rule of thumb is to watch the damage numbers flying off of you, the moment they go from grey (preventing dmg) to red (taking damage) the shielding effect is over. Then just pop another shield if and as needed. Remember to put fortified blocking in your neck socket. Use block effectively (to counter and gain immunity) but don't turtle tank, as an ice user you can pop a shield equivalent to blocking and keep attacking (trying to counter).No use in popping a shield and still keep blocking, unless you at 10% life and or healer went down (I like to save the use of my supply drop in case troll or healer go down, it gives me some breathing room till the group can rez em again). As a side note but just as important, reflect is your strongest shield but..... if you need to rez someone, or hit some kind of a trigger or lever without getting interrunpted, shatter restraints works best for this. Also rememeber that a lunge can be clipped, just in case you want to counter someone ranging you but dont want to lose position or end up right next to them due to lunge. once target is locked, range them, and immediately pop a power to stay in the same area, you should see the enemy hitting they floor from afar (countered effectively) and you just gained another immunity. happy tanking!

Know your powers, lead your group, use combat mechanics, rez someone only if possible with shield available, if you cant, do your best to pull enemies away so others can, keep enemies on you and their backs towards your group, learn the scripted combat patterns of your enemies, stay alive actively and effieciently. Chronometric Emitter (crafted consumable) is another great tool to add to your arsenal. -JadeLunara USPC

ok wonderful world of dc i have a question and its for the earth tank. i have been messing with my build a little bit but im still unsure of how i should build it. anyone with ideas or what they use it would really be helpful. thank you funsize lol

Here's a link to everything Earth: https://forums.daybreakgames.com/dcuo/index.php?threads/a-guide-to-everything-earth.207137/

I've been watching a few videos on YouTube and I've noticed that many people recommend placing points into critical healing chance/magnitude. Does anyone know why? As ice tanks do not heal themselves I don't see the benefit.

Maybe for the regenerative shielding mod that activates with reflect but that seems like a small benefit to me for the amount of sp invested. Someone more experienced could probably shed better light on this

So I tried Ice Elemental for the first time today. It looked pretty cool but it was total weak sauce. It could be a combat rating thing, cuz as soon as I switched I totally melted, no pun intended lol. Has anyone else noticed this? Also, AM doesn't work after the switch either. I don't really have a whole lot of practical uses for the elemental but it would be nice if it worked properly.

yo, whats the standard rotation right now for DPS? How does the AM work? every time i do a Solo i run out of Power fast
from what i understand you have to set up 4 chill effects with Reflect, CS, IB and set up WT then spam AG but by the time i do all that im out of power. i also heard you need ice armor but that it doesnt work with Max Damage mod is that true? is there a way to know when you have 4 chill effects or when they wear off, from what i understand they wear off because my dmg goes from the thousands to the hundreds after a couple minutes.

Cold Snap activates the power regen and it also stacks chill effects to help get you to 4.

Ice Armor is not needed to activate the AM. It requires 5 chill effects and the AM only needs 4. Ice Armor loacks in your damage modifier to 50% while it is active, but the max damage mod makes all your damage modifiers 60%. So, there is no reason not to use the max damage mod over Ice Armor.

Reflect is not necessary. It doesn't trigger the power regen and Cold Snap and Ice Bash will get you to 4 chill effects just as fast as if you had Reflect. It is an option if you want something to help with personal survivability, but it shouldn't be a part of your regular rotation.

Note that there are two ways to activate the AM, having 4 chill effects is one, but hitting an enemy in an Icy Field also triggers it. Am Icy Field is formed when certain powers hit Frostbitten enemies. Arctic Gust and Avalanche happen to be two of those powers. So, if you hit a Frostbitten enemy with Arctic Gust or Avalanche the first tick of damage will not trigger the AM' boosted damage, but it will cause the Icy Field to form. The second and subsequent ticks of damage will then trigger the boosted damage now that they are hitting an enemy in an Icy Field. Wintry Tempest is a good way of Applying Frostbitten, it triggers the power regen, it is a DoT on it's own, and it's cooldown matches Cold Snap's and Ice Bach's for easy clipping.

There's no real way for knowing if you have 4 chill effects. You have to just keep track of whether you have used Cold Snap and Ice Bash twice recently.

Also, power regen scales with the size of your power pool, so investing your skill points and mods to get a bit more power can help to a slight extent.

ahh okay thanks, yeah i cant believe i missed that in CS's description i read them like 10 times trying to figure out what i was doing wrong, i thought power back kicked in when you had 4 chill effects, now i can play my main again lol

SO, elemental SC.... glitch/exploit/intended needs to be fixed?

Man, after nearly 3 years gone, good to see Ice is still reliable as ever, ha ha

Having returned- at least lurking for the most part right now- I see that Ice has received a boost... I was never a fan of Ice before, but what I've seen on YouTube makes me want to give it a try. I've tried to make sense of the most recent comments, but everything seems to blur together, PvP, PvE, Tank, DPS... I'm just looking for a solid PvE DPS loadout and rotation for AM.

I see most people running with solely with AM instead of WM... and particular weapon more useful with Ice than others? Also, is Ice still full Might modded?

Thanks for the help.

Full Might. Your weapon is just a stat stick as you won't be using it except for maybe a ranged tap between gusts.

Rotation: Wintry Tempest c/ Cold Snap c/ Ice Bash - Arctic Gust x4 - repeat. Substitute Avalanche for Gust if you need to keep your distance. The final spot is usually Robot Sidekick but I've seen others use Blizzard. You could also put Reflection in there for faster Chill Effects or to help with pick-ups.

That's the basic rotation and there is very little room for variance. I had more fun when WM was strong but the AM does put out really good damage.

Is there a reason you use Wintry Tempest to start the rotation instead of the power return of Cold Snap, or is it for the damage modifier? If that is the case, wouldn't using Max Damage mod negate having to use Wintry Tempest first?

Clipping. That's why.

Ah... our good friend clipping. But what other Ice power, as the rotation only included four. WT /c CS /c IB -> WG x4. I've seen videos of people also using Bitter Winds, would this fit somewhere in that rotation or was the suggestion to put both WG and Avalanche on the loadout to use situationally?

Preference really. In normal raid situations, I go WT->CS->IB -> Snow Devil -> Gust x 4, then WT ->CS -> IB -> Gust x4 until Devil is off cooldown. The 6th is usually either reflect or Elemental. (using either depending on the content).

Stuff where I know range is a necessity, I have an armory that has Tempest/Snap/Bash/Avalanche/Gust/Reflect

So I created a new Ice character today just to get a feel for the power before switching my main, so far it's been a blast (no pun intended), but I'm wondering how long the power return lasts after using Cold Snap?