Zoreye

Arquenya, on 20 December 2012 - 11:33 AM, said:

Can't salvage for ectos, but you can sell them on the TP. I used mine to get the staff which I immediately sold for an easy 2g.

So...no one knows anything about this?

We I get some time I'll try to do some rough tests to see if I can parse out exactly what chill is doing. Here's hoping it's more than a slightly more powerful cripple.

I've been loving the Ice Bow too. Ice Storm is fantastic, but it actually provides a solid amount of utility outside that. In combination with Frozen Ground, it allows you to stack ridiculous amounts of chill. Throw down a Frozen Ground, summon Ice Bow and immediately use 2 which fires a volley of 5 arrows that cause vulnerability - in addition to all being projectile finishers that stack chill from the ice combo field. Finish with a Frost Fan for even more chill stacking. This is helped even more by the recent patch granting Frost Bow +20% condition duration.

I find the Ice Bow really useful in a number of situations. Not something that you should keep up or main, but just something to summon and quickly unload all the goodies and drop it, picking up the other one in ~30 seconds or so for another batch (or when your useful attunements are on cooldown).

FrancisCrawford, on 18 November 2012 - 06:41 PM, said:

I've been working off the assumption that is did, but I haven't actually done any testing. I really don't have that much experience at dungeon running (like I said, still not even fully geared), just trying to theory-promote things. If it doesn't...then yeah, focusing on chill probably isn't the best.

justf0rnow, on 18 November 2012 - 08:16 PM, said:

Again, not fully geared so I can't speak for sure. But Runes of Lyssa + Mad King = 20% Condition. Food is another 40% condition duration. Add another 2 runes for chill duration specifically (20%) and we're at +80% chill duration. From here, the original build has 20 fire which is another 20, the Ice Bow also gives 20 (only the conjured one though, not the one you pick up), you could give another 10% from sigil, or put some in water to reduce Frozen Ground cooldown.

Overall, let's assume +80% chill duration, though 100% (+100% is the cap) is reasonable to hit. That gives Frozen Ground a 3.5 second chill on each pulse for 5 seconds with a 32/40 second cooldown. This greatly benefited if your team can apply some projectile finishers to increase chill - I often also drop it then switch to earth to fire a few AAs for some more chill or use 2 for some Frost Armor (goes off just in time). And Ice Bow 3 will produce 6 second chills (x7) on a 15 second cooldown with another one spawning (you can either have someone else use it, or drop your bow immediately and pick it up after 15 seconds for another burst of chill).

And then you can go for Glyph of Elemental Power if you're really dedicated to stacking chill. You could perhaps even main the Frost Bow, sit in water for the Power chills, and use 3 on cooldown, and throw Frozen Ground when you swap for your other Bow (run out of charges). Probably gimping yourself pretty hard in other areas...but at least you can chill. This does assume the chill reduces Boss/normal mobs attack times.

Also looking back, 100% chill uptime might be pretty difficult...but this is by far the most chill any class can produce to my knowledge. Also OP mentions keeping perma-chill, so maybe it is possible. Like I said, this is mostly theory, I'm not someone with 100s of hours of dungeon experience.

Falcon07, on 19 November 2012 - 12:05 AM, said:

I usually just summon them, drop the good spells - Bow 3, 4, 5 if no defiant stacks - then drop them and return to the rest. This can also be done while waiting on cooldowns for skills or attunements. Oh, you're locked out of everything useful? Summon an Ice Bow for a few seconds then drop it when things are back up. Then pick the other one up when you need it again. Ice Bow's not something that's probably good to use for extended periods of time (leave that to hammer and FGS), but it still has its uses as a utility imo.

This is a solid build that I think could use a bit more attention right now with everyone scrambling for a new build since the EA nerf. I've been using this for a while, and it's working out pretty well. I'm not yet fully geared (exotic armor, exotic staff, but only masterwork accessorys, 2 runes of Lyssa and minor sigil in Staff) and keep forgetting to buy the food though. Still, I can keep up a heft stack of AoE bleeds and a ton of chill, cripple and weakness.

Personally, I think chill is the most powerful condition, and being able to keep it up 100% against single targets (and near 100% still on multitargets) is pretty fantastic. On top of chill, you can stack weakness reducing damage even further, all while keeping up a steady stream of bleeds on multiple targets. Also of note is the Ice Bow now grants +20% Condition Duration for even more chill stacking goodness.

The EA nerf hurts, but I think builds like this are still very viable and assets to a group.