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City of Heroes => Builds => Defender => Topic started by: brothermutant on September 09, 2015, 03:09:38 PM

Title: Which is "better", Dark/Ice or Time/Ice for soloing/damage/survival?
Post by: brothermutant on September 09, 2015, 03:09:38 PM
I used to rock the Dark/Ice. Tar Patch and all those storms/blizzards just melted baddies, plus it felt more "controllery" than a defender/blaster. But I never tried the Time/Ice thing. It really had a lot to offer and was wondering what you all thought.
Title: Re: Which is "better", Dark/Ice or Time/Ice for soloing/damage/survival?
Post by: Ankhammon on September 09, 2015, 05:13:45 PM
It's an interesting question. Both offer a lot of options.

I had a Time/Ice that was an absolute blast. It felt like a tank (but better damage) and could pretty easily take out huge spawns (particularly if you took Dark epic). Survivability was through the roof and you could actually set yourself up to draw agro very well with a pseudo taunt by using Deflated Ego or Dark Watcher's Dispair procs (or both).

Dark/Ice can be as survivable but takes a bit more setup and some extra IO investment. On the other hand the payoff can be higher as you can double stack lots of your de-buffs.

For my money, Time/Ice would be my choice. You get to play super aggressive and don't have to take time to set up your toggles or wait for fluffy to engage (yes, there are ways around this, but not everyone knows those tactics.

Time/Ice is high on my list of chars to recreate if/when the game comes back.
Title: Re: Which is "better", Dark/Ice or Time/Ice for soloing/damage/survival?
Post by: blacksly on September 10, 2015, 02:39:11 AM
Dark/Ice is stronger statistically. You get huge -Damage debuffs on top of the -ToHit, and better controls.

However, in actual gameplay, Dark/Ice is vulnerable to spread-out spawns, to spawns that are hard to keep in place, and to adds. Time/Ice is less vulnerable since in general the mobs will come to you and thus get debuffed, and their positioning doesn't matter with the greater +Defense.

So, basically, Dark/Ice has more upside but is more vulnerable to spikes of vulnerability, while Time/Ice is a bit weaker at the top end but has less to worry about with regards to mob placement.

Dark is a lot stronger against AVs, if you care to solo those. Otherwise, Time is probably stronger... because a well-built character doesn't generally have worries when the fight is going as planned... it when chaos happens that trouble may occur. And Time's defensive abilities are less vulnerable to chaos.