[3.20] Ice Dancing Queen - Icestorm/Cyclone/CI - Viable For Everything

My experience with this league after 3 days is kinda splitted:

Managed to get to level 86 and Tier 7 maps up to now, got 1 exalt drop in day 2 from some of the first Legion monoliths that i encountered and i was able to buy an Astramentis for 50 chaos, now the price is doubled lol. Also got 6 sockets in my staff in under 150 jewelers orb which is kinda lucky, hell even found a Tier 3 Synthesis map from Zana where i managed to kill the boss quite easy deathless due to constant moving and sustained damage.

Cyclone and IceStorm is way faster than Winter Orb + IceStorm when it comes to map clearing no doubt about it.

Regarding the league mechanics my feelings are not that great at the moment. In some 5+ lanes encounters from maps that were cross placed i failed to defend the pump due not moving very fast between lanes and probably due to lack of AOE damage and also bad tower management (clicking fast on those towers while moving seems not to be one of my strong ability:). I am thinking of socketing again Spell Cascade but with constant moving with Cyclone and casting IceStorms with Spell Cascade the FPS drop is really high to the point the game is not enjoyable anymore.

i watched today ZiggyD video guide about towers mechanics which i recommend to anyone and found that i didn't follow the best strategy of towers activation positioning and upgrading.

Other than this the league is nice, i hope i wont fail in end game Blight maps (didn't find one yet) that seem to be very difficult to complete if your strategy is not good and reactions are not fast.

"I know it rocks the endgame bosses, but how does it go early on?"
"What about clear speed?"
"Can it do Uber Lab early?"
"Is it good against the Blight thing?"

New video: Early league gameplay

Recorded on day 3 of the Blight league. I'm up to tier 5 maps, casual style. Still using the cheap uniques from leveling, just replaced Icetomb with a 1c regalia and bought the belt and jewels. Total spending so far: 9c and about 15 alc. Gotta love non-meta item prices!

Just dropped a Goldwyrm, that quickly sold and spent a little bit of chaos on gear.

I really love the Cyclone version, feels so smooth to play and everything just die so fast. Going to be fun with better gear, proper setups and higher gem levels. Having such a blast :)

too slowly kills all....I don't know.

Got my ES up to almost 4700...feeling much tankier. Replaced all the unique gear except the boots which are great for the movement speed. Astramentis just keeps going up in price...might have to settle for a talisman at this rate.

Trying out the Skitterbots...lots of fun!

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SnowBerry1984 wrote:

too slowly kills all....I don't know.

It kills as fast as it moves. If you want to kill trash faster (i.e. move faster) then try a clear speed build. This is an endgame boss killer build.

Lv 71: Int 1469, ES 5400. I am loving Cyclone...used to hate it but it is perfect for this build. The gameplay is so relaxing I think I could drink a beer while I'm spinning and killing everything. :D

Merc lab was a joke, finally got to act 10 and ready to start mapping.

Still can't afford an astramentis, so I am making do with the poor man's version that I bought for 15 chaos:

It will do for now.

I found a blighted map! Watched ZiggyD's video before trying it. Well... it was completely not like in his video. I was totally not prepared for what actually was going on. Holy shit!

I guess his strat with zombies works better for the build he's playing (Icicle miner with huge AoE). Or it just doesn't always work. Upon re-watching that video I noticed that it's edited in such a way that a scene is cut just before he failed. Mmmmmkay...

Anyway, I think the main point is that you need to work fast, spend resources quickly, and use at least 3-4 different tower types (i.e. don't stick with just 1-2 types) because there will always be some enemies that counter each type.

Perhaps SC is not the best way for Blight. Well placed towers can kill off most of the trash. It's the bosses that you need to worry about.

One map is not enough in any case. Need more practice.

I've noticed for Whispering Ice and Blight, the issue is always that there tend to be more problems than you can easily deal with. WI can absolutely lock down a nigh infinite number of portals... provided they aren't more than a screen away. For that I've found amazing success with using Empowering towers along with Flame/Shock/Stun towers. Flame Towers with a level 3 Empower will absolutely mulch waves, even with only a single upgrade put into them. Use minion blockers to taste and they can end up handling large swathes of area provided the enemy aren't coming from fire portals. Shock Towers work great in tandem, but they cost drastically more since Shock shines when upgraded to Arc.

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Sandevasfootball wrote:

I've noticed for Whispering Ice and Blight, the issue is always that there tend to be more problems than you can easily deal with. WI can absolutely lock down a nigh infinite number of portals... provided they aren't more than a screen away. For that I've found amazing success with using Empowering towers along with Flame/Shock/Stun towers. Flame Towers with a level 3 Empower will absolutely mulch waves, even with only a single upgrade put into them. Use minion blockers to taste and they can end up handling large swathes of area provided the enemy aren't coming from fire portals. Shock Towers work great in tandem, but they cost drastically more since Shock shines when upgraded to Arc.

Interesting! No cold towers? I guess there are many possible strats.

I kinda forgot that I was still using the leveling gear and a 5S staff, low tier maps are too easy, and I didn't expect Blighted low tier to be so much harder. Too optimistic! Time to upgrade finally.