Fire vs. Ice in PvP

[Energizeric]

I'm trying to decide which is better for PvP.

I have always used Fire as my lead attack skill, but this season I have noticed that the stun does not work nearly as often as it used to. I suspect that is because warriors are using a stun immunity skill and rogues have much higher dodge than they used to. Other than the stun, the only other advantage of Fire is the debuff to reduce their hit chance by 25%, and honestly I do not know if it even works in PvP as I don't notice myself dodging many hits.

On the other hand, Ice has a shorter cool down (3 seconds vs. 4 seconds) and Ice causes about 200 more damage per hit. While it does not have the same AoE as Fire, it does have some AoE which I think is enough for fighting small groups in PvP.

Any thoughts?

[Alhuntrazeck]

I like ice if there's another fire mage running with me because of stun immunity. Only thing you'll have to watch out for, though, is curse...ice's DoT can really get you into trouble.

[falmear]

The Drgimmy curse build is ice,light,curse,shield.

http://www.spacetimestudios.com/showthread.php?120299-Confessions-of-a-former-stun-lock-mage!

Ice is higher damage, longer range, shorter cool down and slow down effect which can't be dodged. So against rogues ice is very good because it can keep them away from packs. Also I don't believe there is any immunity on the slow down. Problem is ice isn't a good AOE skill. So fireball is a better crowd control skill because in a 5v5 clash, fireball will be better. In TDM, I think you can use ice over fireball, because stuff tends to be more spread out. So when you clash its more 1v1. I also go after rogues or mages first and completely ignore warriors most of the time until all mage/rogues are dead. In CTF its similar but because everything is so tight, I feel you need more crowd control. Despite the complaining of other classes, the problem is fireball crowd control is weak. The stun immunity, stuns can be dodged, make fireball very weak for crowd control. The benefit of fireball in combination with curse is that you can stun with fireball, move safely in and drop curse. You can do the same with 2 secs of shield invulnerability, but you leave yourself open to being stunned and wasting your 2 seconds.

So it comes down to playing style, what other skills you are thinking about using and TDM vs CTF. Also if you want to still have a skill with stun you can use lightning's stun upgrade. While its not 100%, still gives you a chance to stun.

[Energizeric]

All good points to consider. I guess I want some sort of all purpose build, where I can do both CTF & TDM, and also occasionally run elites. I want to be able to accomplish this with 5 skills, and 2 of them would be heal and shield. So then we have 3 other offensive skills. I think because I have the kershal, it is a waste to use curse and instead I'm better off with 3 offensive skills. Lightning is a definite as I have a very high crit build. So then which 2 others? Fire & Ice? Fire & Wind? Ice & Wind?

As for Wind, I know very few players use it except for flagging, but I've considered using Wind primarily for its armor boost. If you avoid adding the dash/speed upgrade, and you just add the armor upgrade and the 2 sec knockdown upgrade, you have a skill that has a 5.5 sec cooldown that gives a 4 second 50% armor boost. So basically for about 70% of the time you have 1500 armor instead of 1000.

So a PvP build with Shield, Ice, lightning, Wind would be pretty damaging and also very good defensively. Or perhaps against warriors switch in Wind for Ice, and then you have a very durable build where possibly you can outlast the warrior. Add Ribbit as your pet, and you can get some nice crit lightning attacks to go along with that.

I'm trying to come up with some new strategies here, because my old Fire, Lightning, Shield, Heal build that I dominated with in season 4 is no longer working at all, and my hands are too slow to switch skills during battle. So I must find another way.

Also, if I can manage to get an arcane ring soon, then armor boosts up to around 1200, and is 1800 with the armor boost from Gale Force. So then it becomes even more powerful.

Way back in season 2 before they buffed Arcane Shield, the trick to being successful as a sorcerer in PvP was a survivability build with high health and armor. Later in season 4 when they buffed Arcane Shield and everyone was using the same mythic helm and armor, everyone went with a more offensive oriented build. I'm just wondering if now is the time to go back the other way and become more health and armor oriented. My damage is always going to be pretty good with the kershal. So perhaps a build with 5k health and nice armor boost, but only 500 damage would be better than a build with 3900 health, 1000 armor, and 600 damage.

[Cero]

Fireball>ice for pvp.
Unfortunately, the effectivrness of Frost was reduced to such length that isnt worth having as a main attack/CC skill. Fireball has better effectiveness in pvp than frost. The stun crowd control and the brief knockdown from Fireball is better than Slow and short CD than FROST. If im not mistaken, both frost and fire has the same range which is 14m. Although the dmg given by frost is much higher than fireball, it gives less CC which makes the huge difference.

[Bangbam]

In my opinion id use ice. Fireball a good skill no doubt but id go with more damage plus it slows down as said from previous people.
I have a better chance killing warriors with ice then fireball but in clashes fireball better
Ice-> 1v1
Fireball-> clashes

[falmear]

In my opinion the only viable builds are:

1) Light, fire,ice,heal,shield
2) Light, fire, curse, heal, shield
3) Light, ice, curse,heal,shield

Using wind's armor boost means you have to charge it every single time, wind has no DOT damage, has to be used in a very close range and longer cool down.

[Kreasadriii]

In my opinion the only viable builds are:

1) Light, fire,ice,heal,shield
2) Light, fire, curse, heal, shield
3) Light, ice, curse,heal,shield

Using wind's armor boost means you have to charge it every single time, wind has no DOT damage, has to be used in a very close range and longer cool down.

If we prefer use the number 1 of your build, is that the build that takes so much mana but impact so much damage?

[falmear]

If we prefer use the number 1 of your build, is that the build that takes so much mana but impact so much damage?

It takes more mana because the skills have the fastest cool down, do the most damage and have the farthest range. Curse can do more damage but only when your opponent(s) use DOT damage.

[Kreasadriii]

It takes more mana because the skills have the fastest cool down, do the most damage and have the farthest range. Curse can do more damage but only when your opponent(s) use DOT damage.

Oh X_X
When I use my clock to a mage, then he curse me, and my twinks really hurt, I was killed by my own clock, right?

[falmear]

Oh X_X
When I use my clock to a mage, then he curse me, and my twinks really hurt, I was killed by my own clock, right?

Yes.

[Linkincena]

Use Fire n Ice together. .
Best for taking down warriors and rogues. .

[Madnex]

Sacrificing some passives (mainly DEX and damage) and running seven active skills has worked fairly well for me on both PvP and elites. The build you're looking for is fire, light, heal, shield, time shift and curse or frost bolt (or both). I've tried gale force loads of times and I always end up respecializing out of it. It doesn't justify spending skill points on it IMO.

PvE:


Elites: fire, frost bolt, time shift, shield. Swap time shift for lighting on bosses.
Normal: fire, frost bolt, light, time shift.


PvP:


Vs Rogue: shield, fire, light, frost bolt/time shift/curse.
Vs Warrior: shield, heal, light, fire/curse/frost bolt.
Vs Sorcerer: shield, fire, light, heal/curse.
Clashes: shield, fire, curse, heal.

[Anyona]

Sacrificing some passives (mainly DEX and damage) and running seven active skills has worked fairly well for me on both PvP and elites. The build you're looking for is fire, light, heal, shield, time shift and curse or frost bolt (or both). I've tried gale force loads of times and I always end up respecializing out of it. It doesn't justify spending skill points on it IMO.

PvE:


Elites: fire, frost bolt, time shift, shield. Swap time shift for lighting on bosses.
Normal: fire, frost bolt, light, time shift.


PvP:


Vs Rogue: shield, fire, light, frost bolt/time shift/curse.
Vs Warrior: shield, heal, light, fire/curse/frost bolt.
Vs Sorcerer: shield, fire, light, heal/curse.
Clashes: shield, fire, curse, heal.


The most effective pve elite build is running fire, ice, time and lightning. 3.4k+ hp is a must for this type of build though.

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