Cold Damage: Am I on crazy pills?!?!

Savos_Saren

I was just recently looking at sets that involve Cold damage- and I've noticed one thing in common: Nobody seems to use them. Look at the forums! You've got these neat sets- but they're not very practical.

For instance: Ice Furnace : It's a heavy armor set that gives you spell crit, weapon damage, health, and procs a fire aoe off of a direct ice damage ability attack. WHAT?!?! Why? Hooooow?

-Are there any class abilities that do cold damage? No.

-Can you do direct cold damage with a sword? Yeah... if you have an ice glyph. But if you're tanking- you'll probably have a crushing enchantment.

-Can you do direct cold damage with a staff? Yeah... but you won't get the benefit of the weapon damage bonus to Ice Furnace. (stupid, right?!?!)

-Are there sets that proc ice damage? Hmmmmm... Ice Heart (aoe cold damage) and Winterborn (aoe cold damage). Is this damage considered "direct damage" in order to proc Ice Furnace? I dunno... it's technically aoe damage.

-Surely there's one ability that deals direct cold damage... right? Sure! Ice Comet. An ultimate.

-But wait! There's a new set that does something with cold damage... right? Oh you mean Ysgramor's Birthright??? The set that gives a 400 spell damage bonus to ice damage abilities that you can only do with an Ice Staff (destruction staff)? Why would you use that when the Spider Cultists set gives you 450 spell damage to all destruction staff abilities???

I can't be the only one confused about this, right?

@ZOS_RichLambert I'm looking at you. Any plans for this? It seems like you're introducing some Ice-Oriented content... but nothing seems to synergize. Are we going to see some cold damage class skills anytime soon?

bebynnag

I would love it if they did,

I tell people i have an IceBlade... but in reality its a mNB using a sharpened ice staff LA weaving & occasionally dropping an ice comet

JD2013

Spellcrafting was supposed to have ice spells, I believe.

But I thought this too. There's really no cold magic abilities save for Ice Comet and Ice Staffs. So these sets, whilst fun, don't offer much.

Valykc

@ZOS_RichLambert told me to tell you...

https://media.makeameme.org/created/Brace-yourself-Winter.jpg

Savos_Saren

Valykc wrote: »

@ZOS_RichLambert told me to tell you...

https://media.makeameme.org/created/Brace-yourself-Winter.jpg

Yeah. And @ZOS_GinaBruno told me to tell you:

https://www.google.com/search?q=soon+tm&biw=1600&bih=830&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjordr5i7jQAhUQx2MKHZ_LBpcQsAQIMw

bebynnag

I love that Ysgramor's Jakolar's Staff (precise) drops as a unique item in the *** tomb (that tomb in the rift whos name despite existing in game can not be used on the forum.. you know the one)

Rohamad_Ali

I know a nightblade that uses them exclusively and he is really hard to beat . He opens with a heavy attack and his rotation after is really good . I forgot where his video was though .

runagate

OP, you are totally correct! Why, it's been a whole 24 hours since there's been a thread about this!

What in H - E - double hockey sticks?!

My NB is using Ygramor and Elegant at the moment. It's like a snowball fight except the other kids can't get to you because they're moving so slooooooow.

Prabooo

you forgot to mention Ice Comet

Savos_Saren

Prabooo wrote: »

you forgot to mention Ice Comet

Nope. Look for the unhappy face in my post. It's right next to it.

Sucks, though. The only direct damage attack is an ultimate or a staff. Neither one, of which, benefit from the full bonus of the Ice Furnace set.

Savos_Saren

runagate wrote: »

OP, you are totally correct! Why, it's been a whole 24 hours since there's been a thread about this!

What in H - E - double hockey sticks?!

My NB is using Ygramor and Elegant at the moment. It's like a snowball fight except the other kids can't get to you because they're moving so slooooooow.

Yeah, I guess I've been playing the game and not scouring the forums. Stupid me.

Why are you using Ysgramor instead of Spider Cultist? I guess you can buy Ysgramor instead of farming for Spider Cultist, right?

runagate

jaburns wrote: »

runagate wrote: »

OP, you are totally correct! Why, it's been a whole 24 hours since there's been a thread about this!

What in H - E - double hockey sticks?!

My NB is using Ygramor and Elegant at the moment. It's like a snowball fight except the other kids can't get to you because they're moving so slooooooow.

Yeah, I guess I've been playing the game and not scouring the forums. Stupid me.

Why are you using Ysgramor instead of Spider Cultist? I guess you can buy Ysgramor instead of farming for Spider Cultist, right?

No, because I accidentally ended up with a crapload of Ysgramor doing dailies. Since I have 3 characters of each class I can afford to make some of them use odd stuff for fun.

code65536

To be fair, Ice Furnace has been around for a long time, since the days when Weapon Damage affected staff damage.

A lot of those legacy sets had since been revamped. Elegance's Weapon Damage was changed to Spell Damage. For some reason Ice Furnace was omitted in this overhaul.

SantieClaws

Crazy pills eh?

Do you know where Khajiit she might obtain these at a reasonable price yes? They sound an interesting way to spend an evening and they cannot be any worse than some of the things Khajiit she has heard spoken around Glenumbra today.

Yours with paws
Santie Claws

Savos_Saren

code65536 wrote: »

To be fair, Ice Furnace has been around for a long time, since the days when Weapon Damage affected staff damage.

A lot of those legacy sets had since been revamped. Elegance's Weapon Damage was changed to Spell Damage. For some reason Ice Furnace was omitted in this overhaul.

Yeah. And it's been mentioned before that the weapon damage should be converted to spell damage. That way, at least, if you want to run a heavy armor set with a staff- it would work. But, the logic behind this set is completely flawed.

WHY ZOS?!?!

Saucy_Jack

PS4_ZeColmeia

I use this set in trials. It's great with ice staff. If you don't get how to use it properly, you need just an ounce more of imagination

Savos_Saren

@PS4_ZeColmeia

Have you tested this set with Ice Heart? I know it requires direct cold damage to proc- is Ice Heart considered direct cold damage?

LegacyDM

I've got a masters ice staff sharpened from vdsa and it's really fun. Reduce cost on destructive reach and increased damage, I can tell you playing a frost nb is more about cc then damage. Stack elemental blockade, destructive reach, refreshing paths, sap essence with either grothdarr or skoria and your causing all sorts of damage. With the right group dynamics it messes people up. It is viable and tough to beat but hard to play.

Malmai

Somebody at ZoS is taking ice pills whoa brain freeze

Junipus

jaburns wrote: »

I was just recently looking at sets that involve Cold damage- and I've noticed one thing in common: Nobody seems to use them. Look at the forums! You've got these neat sets- but they're not very practical.

For instance: Ice Furnace : It's a heavy armor set that gives you spell crit, weapon damage, health, and procs a fire aoe off of a direct ice damage ability attack. WHAT?!?! Why? Hooooow?

-Are there any class abilities that do cold damage? No.

-Can you do direct cold damage with a sword? Yeah... if you have an ice glyph. But if you're tanking- you'll probably have a crushing enchantment.

-Can you do direct cold damage with a staff? Yeah... but you won't get the benefit of the weapon damage bonus to Ice Furnace. (stupid, right?!?!)

-Are there sets that proc ice damage? Hmmmmm... Ice Heart (aoe cold damage) and Winterborn (aoe cold damage). Is this damage considered "direct damage" in order to proc Ice Furnace? I dunno... it's technically aoe damage.

-Surely there's one ability that deals direct cold damage... right? Sure! Ice Comet. An ultimate.

-But wait! There's a new set that does something with cold damage... right? Oh you mean Ysgramor's Birthright??? The set that gives a 400 spell damage bonus to ice damage abilities that you can only do with an Ice Staff (destruction staff)? Why would you use that when the Spider Cultists set gives you 450 spell damage to all destruction staff abilities???

I can't be the only one confused about this, right?

@ZOS_RichLambert I'm looking at you. Any plans for this? It seems like you're introducing some Ice-Oriented content... but nothing seems to synergize. Are we going to see some cold damage class skills anytime soon?

Ice Furnace was in game before TU.
Winterborn was in game before OT.
Ice Heart was kinda poorly conceived, but there's no ice-orientated content or builds being slowly introduced. Rather it's their half-assed approach to set items resulting in non-synergising sets.

Vaoh

Great observations! Let me tell you exactly why things are not synergizing well

1) The Warden class is returning!

The "Warden" class was cut from ESO in pre-Alpha, and the Necromancer was basically never developed. Although we believe that the Necromancer had a cold-based skill line, new infornation on the One Tamriel PTS told us some HUGE info.

• The Warden class will arrive sometime in the future. Its skill lines have been datamined - Winter's Embrace, Green Balance, Animal Companions.

Winter's Embrace is (quite obviously) a Cold-based skill line, similar to the Fire-based DK Ardent Flame and Shock-based Sorc Storm Calling.

Having a skill line associated with Frost not only provides MUCH easier access to Cold Damage, but also the ability to run something other than an Ice Destro (even dual wield)

2) Spellcrafting will have multiple Cold-based spells you can craft. Currently known spells listed:

Frostbite
Deals <<1>> to enemies in front of you and snares them <<2>>% for <<3>>. Snare strength weakens over time.
Morphs:

Hypothermia - Ultimate
Deals <<1>> to enemies in front of you and snares them <<2>>% for <<3>>.

Frost Storm - Ritual
Deals <<1>> to enemies near you and snares them <<2>>% for <<3>>. Snare strength weakens over time.

Endless Winter - Enduring
Deals <<1>> to enemies in front of you and snares them <<2>>% for <<3>>. Snare strength weakens over time.

Leaching Crystals - Reduced Cost
Deals <<1>> to enemies in front of you and snares them <<2>>% for <<3>>. Snare strength weakens over time. Restore <<4>>% of spell cost for each enemy hit.

Bitter Cold - AoE
Deals <<1>> to enemies in front of you and snares them <<2>>% for <<3>>. Snare strength weakens over time.

Ice Cloak
Increase armor by <<1>> for <<2>>. During this time nearby enemies are chilled for <<3>>, reducing their movement speed by <<4>>.
Morphs:

Ice Armor - Ultimate
Take <<1>> less damage from cold and physical attacks. Enemies near you are immobilized.

Focused Ice Crystals - Ritual
Increase armor by <<1>> for <<2>>. During this time nearby enemies are chilled for <<3>>, reducing their movement speed by <<4>>.

Permafrost - Enduring
Increase armor by <<1>> for <<2>>. During this time nearby enemies are chilled for <<3>>, reducing their movement speed by <<4>>.

Magicka Floe - Reduced Cost
Increase armor by <<1>> for <<2>>. During this time nearby enemies are chilled for <<3>>, reducing their movement speed by <<4>>. Melee attacks restore <<5>>% of spell cost.

Group Cloak - AoE
Increase armor by <<1>> for <<2>>. During this time nearby allies gain <<3>> armor and nearby enemies are chilled for <<4>>, reducing their movement speed by <<5>>.

3) On that terrible Set design.....

ZOS has never been that intelligent when it came to obvious things in set design. Someone, somewhere, knowingly allowed Viper's Sting to enter PvP. Then Black Rose. Then Tremorscale. Then whatever else ruins PvP.

Ice Furnace being trash, Iceheart sucking, Ysgramor's Birthright being pointless, and Winterborn not having weapons..... that's all in the design

Hope this explained everything! I really want to make a viable Ice build as well. In another year, it may be possible.

kendellking_chaosb14_ESO

runagate wrote: »

OP, you are totally correct! Why, it's been a whole 24 hours since there's been a thread about this!

What in H - E - double hockey sticks?!

My NB is using Ygramor and Elegant at the moment. It's like a snowball fight except the other kids can't get to you because they're moving so slooooooow.

To be fair I have a Frostblade and you can be the perma snare with just class powers with ease.

PS4_ZeColmeia

jaburns wrote: »

@PS4_ZeColmeia

Have you tested this set with Ice Heart? I know it requires direct cold damage to proc- is Ice Heart considered direct cold damage?

I've been using staff so no clue