As you all know from watching DCUOCrisiscore video Fire had a major overhaul (mainly visually), but Devs failed to deliver the same efforts to Ice. With the DC community feedback being overly disappointed. The Devs have tried their hand at remedying the situation. Some changes that had taken place: 1. Hibernation shows up (for me at least now lol ) 2. Ice form 3. Ice Elemental I would like to say that I figured a video on this topic would kinda be redundant thus I made a Picture filled post on my blog. If your interested to know more about these changes CLICK HERE Sneak peek
I tried my hand at ice a couple of days ago (main, not test) and felt that the ice armor transformation was pretty lame cosmetically and I couldn't understand how it was affecting my character. It was also quite frustrating to try to control it, especially during instances and boss battles. Seems like my character had no real control over his 'temperature' or chill level and that kind of ruined the game mechanic for me. I stopped the character at a fairly low level out of boredom. I think the ice armor would make a lot more sense if it was something like a charge like the earth powers and that it would put a power drain tic on the character as he strove to maintain his low temperature state and it would persist until the character either ran out of power or was hard stunned. Might also be cool if there was a small chance for a 100% absorption of an incoming standard attack (non power, non charge) as a chunk of ice oblated. FWIW, I quite like the idea of the ice form 2.0 appearance, I think it makes far more sense than a complete transformation into an ice golem of some sort. A bit of rime or hoar frost on the outside might look good too.
Queenofwar and I spent quite some time on the test server today, checking out what Mr. Liberty had responded to on the old forums: It would seem as though the Devs have taken the DCUO Universe's concerns to heart with regards to GU23. Whether or not they will delay Ice and work on it some more is unknown; what we do know however, is that these small changes prove that they are working to make the game enjoyable to the players once again. Honestly, I had hoped to see more, but I kept in mind that Larry did quote above saying "A handful of VFX changes." He went on further to say that he would draft a letter next week. Patience is a virtue people, so let's see what happens. I'm going to list a couple of notable changes with what I saw today concerning Ice's Dps ability. The Good: I acknowledge that the Dps capability of Ice has GREATLY improved compared to its CURRENT state. People will argue and debate this but keep in mind that I'm not talking burst damage like we see with top clip-able powersets. I'm comparing Ice to itself as a Dps from now to what it will be in GU23. Ice Bash (Currently) 40% damage bonus to self for 5 seconds (or until hit counter resets). Ice Bash (Test Server 15FEB13) 40% damage bonus to self for 5 seconds (or until hit counter resets). 10% critical weapon attack damage to self for 12 seconds. 10% critical ability attack damage to self for 12 seconds. 5% critical weapon attack chance to self for 12 seconds. Ice Armor: Dps Role (Currently) - Note: used Ice Bash as the 5th chill effect to transform. 40% damage bonus to self for 60 seconds. 5% critical weapon attack damage to self for 60 seconds. Ice Armor: Dps Role (Test Server 15FEB13) - Note: used Ice Bash as the 5th chill effect to transform. 50% damage bonus to self for 60 seconds. 10% critical weapon attack damage to self for 12 seconds. 10% critical ability attack damage to self for 12 seconds. 7% critical weapon attack chance to self for 12 seconds. Note: Ice Bash seems to clip better. These changes may not seem like much to some of the hardcore Dps out there, but it is a step up from the way Ice currently is. Let's hope that they keep up the momentum with the changes to Ice. They have a long way to go with Ice as a whole, improvements still need to be made towards burst damage for Ice, as well as a balancing with tanking. With T5 raids around the corner, Ice tanks will be waltzing into raids with a whopping 45% of their armor being ignored. I'm no stranger to rounding up when it enhances my point, so Ice tanks will be waltzing into raids with 50% of their armor being ignored; hopefully something is done concerning the defense cap and overall tanking ability of Ice with the new content. As you've seen in the OP, they have taken some initiative with Ice Form graphically looking different based on your current role. I know I know, this isn't game breaking and technically not what we asked for, but any positive changes towards Ice, I welcome with open arms. Respectfully, Davon
It's a start. But its nowhere near complete; maybe 25 percent if anything. Defence cap for tanking has not been addressed at all. At least half visual effects still need total overall to seem on par with what fire got. I'm expecting that the producers letter next week announcing the delay so that they can give it's revamp the time it deserves to shine.
Absolutely, there are still several things that need to be done, especially if T5 mobs will be hitting harder than the Ace Chemical and Stryker's mobs currently are. I didn't notice any major tweaks as far as tanking goes, not even in the tool tips. Hopefully next week they shed some light for us because I'd like to know what happened to the new mechanism Ice was suppose to get for GU23; seems to have been swept under the rug. Respectfully, Davon
Ice armor 2.0 looks the best IMO. It seems like there's a lot of talk about the tanking mechanics, where's the dps love. Ice's shields are awesome but let's be real, it's only dps power that are truly on par are Ice bash/frost snipe/snowball/meteor. Always referring to PVP.
Definitely a work in progress alright! Slowly but surely they are making the improvements necessary for ice players to enjoy and anticipate the upcoming update. Hopefully they keep it rolling BTW guys don't forget to post suggestion on what Davon or I should refer to you guys as on future videos. I hate saying " hey guys " or "hey gamers" sounds so generic. Thus Looking for suggestion as to what title we should use for you awesome people. Template: " Hey _______________"
