The Glacier: Snowstorm or Frost Breath

[PoochieHellhound]

Yeah, in the late 20's-early 30's the levelling is kinda slow. It'll speed up once you get to Lemuria, though, so just hang on

EDIT: Also, don't forget that Shatter is faster to execute AND an AoE, so it might be faster at killing several enemies than Ice Blast is.

[tribeca]

Feb 10, 2011 5:05:21 GMT -5 PoochieHellhound said:

Granted, I don't PvP, but I can imagine a combo of Snow Storm and Avalanche with a few Ice Blasts thrown in for Crippling Challenge to be viable in PvP.

And the damage for Shatter isn't really that good unless you crit with it. If you get some structures with Frost Breath and shatter them it would do some respectable damage, but otherwise the overall damage of Glacier is good, but not spectacular.
It is a tank, after all.

Ice Blast is overall more useful in the lower levels, but once you get Ice Barrier at 32 I can assure you that Shatter will become much more useful to you. The combo of Ice Sheath->Ice Barrier->Shatter is just monstrous. More on this is in my guide, link above.

Ok I have been reading alot of your post about ice and have taken them with a grain of salt. I have a Barrier lev 40 ice and have to just tell you this. To say a power with a 1min 30sec cool down combined with a power like Ice Sheath on a long cool down as well is more dmg then Snow Storm and Ice Blast tap spam is a joke.

The cool downs on these two powers are two long to even think about them being a part of any type of dmg rotation.

In fact from levels 11-39 the only powers in my dmg rotation have been Snowstorm and Ice Blast pretty much all you will ever need for your glacier till you get avalanche.

The shatter thing for ice is from what ice really is well was and that was a high crit dps build. For some reason in f2p they made ice a tank via the protector roll and giving us Invul rather then an energy form.

In the high Dex (as a super stat) dps ice builds shatter was an amazing thing that could destroy mobs. Now with ice as a tank we are put into a low dmg Snowstorm Ice Blast spamming role.

To say Glacier is anything more or to over think the class is odd.

[PoochieHellhound]

I don't need to use the 1-2-3 combo in a rotation. When I use it, I can kill mobs of 10-15 henchmen and almost kill Villains. Then one can use Snow Storm and Ice Blast to clean up the rest.
If you see a mob and go "Those are many, might be hard to kill them with just Snow Storm/Frost Breath", then you can go with the 1-2-3 combo and watch them drop.
The combo isn't reliable damage, but it is insane damage. And it's spike damage.

[stuffinator]

I usually kill henchman with one frost breath even on very hard.

[beldin]

Feb 1, 2011 8:33:18 GMT -5 KenpoJuJitsu3 said:

2) Snow Storm + EoTS is big damage and it lingers even if you don't fully maintain it.

So you think EoTS will be better damage than Snow Storm Rank 3 ?

The description of EoTS sadly gives no clue about the damage

[eighto]

i know that this is an old thread, but as long as it is listed in the "All-In-One Silver Guides Thread" people reading that must consider this question still open. and aslo my issue is not addressed in the glacier guide by PoochieHellhound.

ok here is the deal breaker for me.

Frost breath can have the advantage Challenging Strikes

Challenging Strikes (CS) is an AOE Threat Generating ability that can be put on most AOEs. The run-down and Game Mechanics of Challenging Strikes are as follows: •Causes the power to Generate 200 Threat per tick of the attack, and then give +200 threat every second for 10 seconds, regardless of whether the power you put it on has a recharge timer or not. Use of Powers with Challenging Strikes refreshes this timer.

Snowstorm grenerates no extra threat.

also CS stacks with the Crippling Challenge (CC) advantage on Ice Blast.

•The Myth: "The Threat from CC and CS do not stack"
•The Truth: They actually do stack with eachother. Also, CS from Multiple power sources will stack with eachother. So it's actually adventageous to take multiple powers with CS. Also, CC powers are exclusive in activiation, so there is no way to stack it from multiple Power Sources, however, tick by tick, 400 Threat per tick does add up.

so that is all i require to make my choice. to me, with tanking in mind, this seems like such an easy question that i MUST be wrong

quotes are from RynoHound's "Guide to Threat Management and Aggro Control" forums.champions-online.com/showthread.php?t=123942

if this thread is to old and gets locked please copy my "question" to the much more general glacier guide so that myself and others can understand why this seems to be completely unaddressed. that thread is at champions-online.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=gameguides&action=display&thread=73

thank you

[PoochieHellhound]

Jul 9, 2011 2:59:20 GMT -5 eighto said:

if this thread is to old and gets locked please copy my "question" to the much more general glacier guide so that myself and others can understand why this seems to be completely unaddressed. that thread is at champions-online.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=gameguides&action=display&thread=73

thank you

It was definitely a mistake that it was not addressed. When I made that guide, I made it with a Level 40 Glacier in mind. But, Frost Breath with Challenging Strikes will be plenty useful when tanking at level 1-39.

I'm adding this to the guide now.

[Stately Buff-Cookie]

As a glacier, I found snowstorm was pretty effective for the glacier's style of combat. You place snowstorm. Then block. Snowstorm kills everything even while you block. Oh look you now have end which to kill things even more, and they were still dieing even while you were blocking! You can take your sweet time.

It let me do some fairly impressive things

[underwerekng]

i have a lvl 30 Glacier and i have been pondering this question myself.

His main role being tanking Frost Breath + CS looks good 1-39, and as it can be tapped to 100% Chill everything all the better.
One strategy i have used is to block with ice shield + Frigid Air advantage till many if not all of the mobs are Chilled, then spam Shatter till they are gone. Works well with Snow Storm as the lingering effect continues during the Shatter spam. A Frost Breath tap reduces the time spent blocking to about 2 seconds, changing it's purpose from Chill application to energy builder.
Frost Breath w/ Frostbite and CS tap-> Shatter w/ Crushed Ice spam(and/or Avalanche at 40) looks like the best tanking tactic against big groups imo. You get overlapping CS for big threat and decent AoE dmg to boot.

The main issue here is tanking w/out the CS on Avalanche. The Glacier gets no AoE threat builders other than Frost Breath and Avalanche, so if your not lvl 40 you have a hard time keeping agro without Frost Breath, but solo play Snow Storm does more reliable dmg.

PVP: Snow Storm's lingering effect can kill a teleport spammer mid teleport, but the Heavy CD Spike dmg from Frost Breath 1-2-3 rotation can kill them before they get a chance to run. So its a toss up imo.

[quettzlcoatl]

Great guide:D this is a big decider in which path to go down for a glacier: tank or solo

For me, snowstorm is best for soloing: it almost acts like a pet, continuing to do damage even after you've stopped casting. But if you're going for the tank role, then frost breath is really gonna help you out, what with frostbite and shatter combos

Hope that's a teeny bit helpful, and ty for posting this guide:D