Fire/Ice mage build

[Zov]

Hi everyone,

We were talking in-game about builds, and one high level player said he ran an fire/ice mage build and said he could solo really well.

As a new player, I know this build will be expensive. I just got my stall, and I am doing surveying / stomach farming, to fund the reagents for the spells for my fire mage to level 50 first. I then plan to take ice mage as my secondary skill and level it up.

I'd just like to know, what kind of skills would you be using in this kind of build to solo, so I know I'm playing it correctly?

Someone wrote in chat yesterday saying that they used fire wall, but other people were against using this spell, and that got me thinking -- which spells are worth using and which aren't? Wouldn't it be nice, if someone playing this build could give some pointers.

Also, is it difficult to get into textile creation / tailoring? I need a really high level of gardening first right? It would be nice to make my own gear, but I was looking at the gear on market place, and it seems ice/fire mage is a popular build people are playing.

Again, thanks everyone who is responding to me on these forums. It really helps me navigate this game.

[Mbaums]

Everything really lives or dies by the mods. There are 2 ways people do ice/fire. One is going with a lot of AoEs with fire magic. The other uses ice spear, and the mez to refresh it. The mod "Calefaction causes target to take +45% damage from Cold for 12 seconds" really pushes the build into the 'obliterate everything' category once you get a full rotation of everything off. You also are going to want to use as many potions to up cold damage as possible. If you prep with + base damage, calligraphy,the cold potion from fae realm, and the coldrend potions-- ice magic really hits like a truck. But thats a lot of work!

You are on the right track with earning money. I think the combo is a bit pricey for a first build. Tailoring is fairly hard to level up because it just takes SO much cotton. You can actually do well just selling cotton because of this very reason.

I find it fun to figure out which build works and suites you best. I guess the question I should ask is //which// content do you want to solo well? There are a few ways to do fire+shield if you go down that route. Three ones are speed/travel setup, lotta damage shield setup, and Fire does damage, shield restores my power setup. I would say plan in http://www.gorgonexplorer.com/, and try different things. Most of the times my plan for a build falls apart after I play it because I don't like the skills I need to use.

[Zov]

Hi MBaurns,

I find it fun to figure out which build works and suites you best.

I am still working away at leveling different skillsets to see what I like.

I guess the question I should ask is //which// content do you want to solo well?

I guess I am thinking the higher level dungeons, but then again, I am not sure. It is a good question. I tried the Animal Dungeon today, on my 50/45 druid/animal handler, and I got destroyed. I am not really sure what the end-game looks like anyway.

There are a few ways to do fire+shield if you go down that route. Three ones are speed/travel setup, lotta damage shield setup, and Fire does damage, shield restores my power setup. I would say plan in http://www.gorgonexplorer.com/, and try different things. Most of the times my plan for a build falls apart after I play it because I don't like the skills I need to use.

Thanks for the link. I'll check out the different builds.

[Ranperre]

Calefaction, ice lightning, flesh to fuel, super fireball, ice spear, freeze solid, ice spear. Open with fire breath into tundra spikes if you wish.

I'd like to caution you from trying this first thing out. It takes a lot of mods to be good, and all it's wonderful for atm is world boss epeen measurement. Foremost, that calefaction debuff mod (+cold damage) scales, so it doesn't become super good until 60-70. Don't bother with the aoe build. It forces you to mod ice nova... Which is just a horrible skill. Fire bc is still better for aoe because of skin, even after the root nerf.

[Zov]

Hey everyone,

I got my ice/fire mage to 50/50, but have yet to scrape together the resources to level my ice magic spells to 50 yet. So, I am working on that, over the next few days.

I compiled together a list of spells for both ice and fire, and I was wondering what people are running and what's their rotation? There are some great spells in both skills, and it's hard to pick 6 out of all of them each. Mostly, I want to run kur tower at the moment where there are groups of melees with casters sometimes. I'd also like to know what mods people are running with, and what I should be looking out for? In particular, there is an ice skill with electricity damage and a fire skill with crushing damage, so those may be useful, depending on the kind of mobs you are going for.

One mod I am particular fond of is the firebreath AoE mod, because it does a lot of damage to melees that come at you when you pull a couple and makes short work of them.

I am thinking I only need one "basic refresh attack" from both skills, and I'll probably run with Fireball, because it has a greater range than the frost skill's basic attack Chill. I also like Fire Breath with the AoE mod. Flesh to Fuel is an extra bar feature, so that still leaves 4 left in Fire to choose from. For single target -- Calefaction, someone mention is good, because it debuffs the target for fire based spells. Scintillating Flame and Super Fireball are good single target fire spells. Molten Veins is also good if you are being attacked by melees. On the Ice magic side, we have 6 to go for. Ice Spear and Ice Lightning someone mentioned are good, but don't I have enough single target spells already in the fire tree???? Ice Armor is good if you are being attacked by melees. Freeze Solid is good to pull with if there is a group and want to disable one. Tundra Spikes is good to lock down the melees and get out of range. Ice Nova maybe with a heal mod?

It's really, really difficult to decide what to go for. If we wanted to run an AoE build, we could use Tundra Spikes, Blizzard, Ice Nova, Fire Breath with AoE Mod, Defensive Burst, Ring of Fire, Defensive Chill.

The beauty of the Ice/Fire build is thereby illustrated. Perhaps, a bit of single target, and a bit of AoE would go nicely. I mean Fire Breath with AoE mod with something like Defensive Burst, would probably destroy the melees attacking you pretty quickly.

The thing about Kur Tower is, there is always a group of melees with a caster on the edge, that you can't AoE. Running Freeze Solid on the caster, before the melees reach you then AoEing them, then single targetting the caster down once finished, is probably the proper technique.

You can run a lot of different configurations depending on the mobs and what suits really.... I think the optimal path to success, is protection and single-target against casters, while destroying multiple melee mobs with powerful AoE abilities. Once, you get the proper configuration of what you like to run, then you can probably focus on which mods to collect from different pieces.

Ice/Fire mage is definitetly an interesting combination of skills.



Ice Spear: High range attack spell, great damage.
Ice Armor: Encase yourself in an orb of ultra-fine ice, granding immuntity to anything except fire.
Ice Lightning: Electricity damage, must-have to fight ice resistant mobs.
Tundra Spikes: Mid-range AoE that locks mobs in place so you can get out of melee range and attack with ranged spells. Can be modded with stun.
Blizzard: High-range AoE, slows enemies while you retreat. Can be modded to reduce rage.
Frostbite: Randomized stun. Can be modded for more enemy debuffs like raising max rage or chance to miss.
Freeze Solid: Mesmerize an enemy when you are overwhelmed, but watch out when using AoEs or it will break.
Ice Nova: Short-range AoE, can be modded to heal.
Cold Protection: Sidebar self-only buff to protect from ice damage and reduce heat loss in cold areas.
Cold Sphere: Sentient microclimate of low temperature which attacks foes.
Croygenic Freeze: Entomb yourself in ice and go into brief hibernation
Chill: (Basic Attack) Lower and enemy's body temperature, causing mild trauma

Boiling/Molten Veins: Enemies that deal melee damage are burned.
Super Warmth/Fireball: Throw a very potent fireball
Calefaction: Project a super-hot pulse that raises a target's core temperature, making them more prone to ocmbustion
Chill/Frostball: Throw an essentially-harmless ball of cold
Defensive Burst/Ring of Fire: Blast all nearby enemies with a quick wave of fire
Defensive Chill: Blast all nearby enemies with a quick wae of cold.
Heat/Fire Breath: Spit flame at a nearby foe
Cold Protection: Boost your defenses against cold
Flesh to Fuel: Incinerate yourself with special flames that recharge your power
Room-Temperature Ball: Throw an essentially-harmless sphere of temperatuer matter (Crushing)
Wall of Fire: Create a dangerous wall of fire at your feet
Scitillating Frost: Throw a ball of cold. It travels father than a normal frostball and deals extra damage to vulnerable targets
Scitillating Flame: Throw a scintillating energy ball does additional damage to vulnerable targets
Warmth/Fireball: (Basic Attack) Throw a vaguely painful ball of warmth

[Glythe]

Ice Spear and Ice Lightning someone mentioned are good, but don't I have enough single target spells already in the fire tree???? Ice Armor is good if you are being attacked by melees. Freeze Solid is good to pull with if there is a group and want to disable one. Tundra Spikes is good to lock down the melees and get out of range. Ice Nova maybe with a heal mod?

It's really, really difficult to decide what to go for. If we wanted to run an AoE build, we could use Tundra Spikes, Blizzard, Ice Nova, Fire Breath with AoE Mod, Defensive Burst, Ring of Fire, Defensive Chill.

The beauty of the Ice/Fire build is thereby illustrated. Perhaps, a bit of single target, and a bit of AoE would go nicely.

There is nothing wrong with going for half aoe and half single target spells. What you must do is put mods on your gear that make the powers work. You will notice many of the mods are linked. For ice you can buff ice spear and lightning together and it can be somewhat wasteful to not use both. Likewise you can go for the mod twice that gives you a % chance to add damage on a single target. Blizzard and Tundra Spikes are linked but Nova is linked with shardburst (so I would never use either). You take mods at the expense of not taking others so you do not have room to waste for the most part. That being said I made an Ice build that only needs 2 powers on the feet and chest (which will make nimble rolling easier to handle).

There are some skills that nobody ends up using because they are really bad. There are other skills nobody uses because in order to take the mod for that skill you end up losing mods elsewhere; this is a big problem for example in that fire requires super fireball and fire breath to be fully modded to not make your damage terrible.

I made a gear set with fire that has Scintillating Flame - a power almost nobody uses. You can mod it to do good damage at almost no cost so you have something besides a basic attack when your power reserve is empty and not coming back anytime soon. This was more of an issue however before we had the armor refresh set bonuses.

One of the biggest problems I have encountered with trying to make a Fire set is the sheer number of available mods.