Arctic Armour

Ok got my hands on it and realised the duration on the skill refers to the ice trail and not the skill itself. This is a direct buff to my character... wow. Add more mana draining buffs!

Sounds like it was made to synergize tactically with in incinerate.
With EB this could be fun

Only negative about this skill is the higher dex requirement over int. I would suggest switching this to more int vs dex as the high mana consumption would be more fitting for builds with more int and gives more room beyond EB (diversity).

So.... another edit I went from quite positive to very negative:

Also not too happy about the mana degen not being a "cost" or reservation type. Togther with high dexterity this limits this skill mostly towards EB build with dex (evasion + es). Seems rather silly to me to limit it in so many ways was kind of looking forward to it.

Required:

High mana regen
High dexterity
No Blood magic (keynode type that removes mana).

Seems nice for CI and evasion + es (EB) builds. Very limited for hybrid builds based on armor + es >:(, seems very shortsighted! Evasion scales way better than the low armor from hybrid... it is called Arctic Armor not: "Arctic Support for Evasion and CI only..." nice dex req to get it to a high lvl!!!

If you build around reduced costs for skill nodes you don't get access to this skill either, again very limited design.

Grrr >:(

This skill doesn't work with many support gems (just 1 so far that I have seen mentioned).

Next week instead of a new skill they will add 3 new support gems.

Got my fingers crossed.

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Mark_GGG wrote:

Arctic Armour has no mana cost (or more correctly, 0 mana reservation - it's a mana reservation skill that's turned on and off like tempest shield or auras). While it's up, you have degen on your mana - this is not a mana cost. It stops working when you have no mana.

Blood Magic support works with the skill (you reserve 0 life instead of 0 mana), but blood magic only affects costs/reservations, it does not, and never has, affected regen or degen on either resource. The Blood Magic keystone removes your mana, and thus since you never have any, you can't have the skill going - exactly like Righteous fire (which turns of at 1 life) adn CI (only ever 1 life). This is intentional.

Worthless.

The only character I play is a Shadow DW Claw.

Did some testing and here is my feedback.

Overall for my character it is not something I will use much, but there are a couple situations where I could see myself benefiting from it and I plan to keep it with me.

To answer a previous question raised - it does not cost extra mana or leave a trail during a flicker strike teleport, but if you use flicker on a mob outside of range it will cost extra mana and leave a trail as you move to within range before the teleport.

- At the time you get the gem it is entirely effective; my toon is kinda twinked out with some gear - for a fresh toon who didn't have great gear I think this gem would seem quite powerful.

- I tested it a bit from level 11 (when I got it) to level 17 leveling the gem up to level 3 in the process and it remained noticeably effective.

For my own needs I would give this skill a C+ or B-, but looking at the big picture of the game as a whole I give it an A.

The Good:
It is very good at mitigating damage from lots of small mobs like the monkeys in Act II.
If it turns out you can't tank them then when you run away it leaves a trail of ice slowing your pursuers.
The ice is constant around you when you stand still so all the enemies in melee range get slowed 30% which further helps mitigate damage.
High move speed helps because it means more distance of ice trail per unit of time and thus per unit of mana. This makes good synergy with Whirling Blades as a getaway since it moves you so fast you get a good length of ice for relatively low mana cost. So if you get in over your head and can't just stand and tank then you WB away, toggle off the armour and run - I didn't run into any desync but I would hope that the trail of ice slowing your pursuers would alleviate the impact of a rubberband.

The Bad:
Mana cost is very high, but it is a DEX/INT skill so that is not unexpected. Still I think it should be made INT/DEX and the stat requirements adjusted to reflect that it is more for an INT based character than a DEX based one.

The Ugly:
The fact that it is best used by toggling it on/off together with the fact that it shuts itself off when you are out of mana means that you really have to pay close attention or you will end up with it off when you want it on or on when you want it off.

"

MajorThor wrote:

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Mark_GGG wrote:

Arctic Armour has no mana cost (or more correctly, 0 mana reservation - it's a mana reservation skill that's turned on and off like tempest shield or auras). While it's up, you have degen on your mana - this is not a mana cost. It stops working when you have no mana.

Blood Magic support works with the skill (you reserve 0 life instead of 0 mana), but blood magic only affects costs/reservations, it does not, and never has, affected regen or degen on either resource. The Blood Magic keystone removes your mana, and thus since you never have any, you can't have the skill going - exactly like Righteous fire (which turns of at 1 life) adn CI (only ever 1 life). This is intentional.

Worthless.

Only to you, fool.

Posting 'on the run' so not really had time to read through all the thread.


I did throw on AA and go stand in a group of zombies in mud flats normal, and the ground ice had 0 effect on them. No chill visible at all and no damage to them. Gem description maybe needs to clarify that the ground ice does not do actual damage and add a % chance to chill number somewhere. While the gem says 'cold,spell,duration. I can find no support gems tht work with it aside from a duration gem. No visible change in any numbers etc.

I think its mainly a panic button for certain situtions rather than a permenent buff. Multiproj maps full of snakes comes to mind. While the fire part of the armour won't affect it, the Damage reduction on all those little darts will make a huge difference in trying to clear area's.

Others come to mind. Tentacles, archers in fells mainly that like to sneak up behind you when you busy murdering zombies. Archers on ledge runs low lvl during leveling. Vaal constructs, while this is choas damage its also projectile and AA could be a good tool to throw on to run into a room full of them to clear.


I think if it was usable with Blood magic also it would make it insanly over powered due to the huge regen with life on hit etc.


Primarily intended as a short term armour buff for clearing out projectile mob packs I would think.

Some more feedback:

The skill seems nice and strong, but hits a ceiling being useful quite fast with crazy costs at high lvl.

Still think dex <-> int should be swapped around more focus on int. I find it weird this is tailored to dex (evasion) since it is an armor skill (working like armor).

Determination, molten shell all str based. I can understand giving dex/ es some "armor" or damage reduction skill, but what does this imply? Does this imply that these type of builds benefit from damage reduction. If so is than that not a flaw within the mechanics of these systems?

Will we see a similar skill called: "Rain dance" or "Storm dodge" where you get a dodge chance for a similar mana consumption and less chance to get a status ailment?

It seems this skill compensates certain choices you make within the game (CI and evasion) and that feels awkward, in this regard the hefty mana cost is absolutely justified and lowering would be a crime. That does make it a niche skill and I guess I have to see this one more as a righteous fire type of defensive skill. One not easily accessed and quite limited. Sustainable by casters helping them out with projectiles.

I would have loved if the ground ice did a hit when mobs enter it. This allows for some fun like flee, knock back and life on hit. Getting back life when you have to run or seeing the mobs run into 1 direction while you move into another, or they are knocked to the edge and have to get back in. With only one hit trigger being a mob entering (1 hit) this wouldn't seem overpowered at all either and would open up some use for the gem at lower levels too.