Mercenary Ice Shards
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I've been playing around with cold mercenary. Very enjoyable thus far. However, when it comes to the ice shards skill gem it's... awkward. I mean this in the sense that to achieve damage comparable to other cold skill gems, you need to set the shards, let them grow, and run around, which on many tile sets doesn't work very well, especially with the number of monsters, so you ultimately have very underwhelming damage. On top of this because of the nature of the skill, even when set up properly it only ends up damaging 1 or 2 monsters at a time.
Right now this skill just doesn't seem to be set up for primary damage skill or even as a secondary support skill, when you compare to the rest of the cold skill gems. If I had to make any suggestions I would say set it up for a small explosion at the end of the growth duration and remove the step on "mine" mechanic. The necessity of kiting mobs and set up vs payoff just doesn't feel like it's up to par with everything else available to cold merc. Last bumped on Dec 22, 2024, 2:27:28 PM
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I too, am in love with a frost merc.
A single skill will never be good on its own. It's all about interactions. For Glacial Bolt, it's the ice crystal and frozen enemy explosions that do the majority of damage, not the projectile itself. My setup is Glacial Bolt + Glaciation + Cold Infusion + Frost Nexus. Plus, a lot of investment on the tree into freeze buildup. Once the walls of ice are up, most of the pack is frozen or blocked. Detonate with Frag Rounds + Pin + Leverage + Fork. A couple frag shots shatter entire screen. Pin makes sure anyone not frozen stays in place and Fork allows it to reach and shatter mobs in the back. Frost Nexus means more chilling ground is produced, explosions are cold damage, freezing more stuff. A very comfortable playstyle with insane CC. Very little kiting, unless some mobs leak through the walls of the ice. Scales with weapon's damage so, at least for me, there's lots of place for improvement. But it's not very good for bossing, because it takes too long to build up to a freeze. For bosses I use High Velocity Rounds (aka Railgun) with Gas Grenade + Corrosion + Comorbidity for armour stripping. |
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" You are completely correct but may be misunderstanding which skill I'm referring to. What you mentioned and is pretty much what I also use because these skill interactions are powerful. This is pretty much I'm referring to in post the skill gem Ice Shards doesn't synergize well and is not worth using when compared to combo above. The Ice Shards gem makes small ice mines (that cannot be detonated) and has a 1 second grow time for max damage + needs to be stepped on with very small AOE. I'll admit I have not messed around with said ability TOO much, but as a concept felt very awkward when compared to Glacier/ Frag |
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