Gameplay discussion: Ice variants

Being frozen can really stink and it's why we always needed a healer in the Yeti King boss hunt, to counter all the freezing, we almost always went with 2 healers to be sure.

Ice Pea is a variant I seem to use more than most, but in GW, most Peashooters I see are Toxic Peas, and E-Peas are too common in GW2, so there it that. I find this variant enjoyable and not that bad to fight against.

Yeti Chomper is indeed a nice switch up of the normal Chomper formula, and also swapping his goop to to the chomp cannon makes him quite the unpleasant surprise for the zombies.

Ice Cactus is one I swear I only see as AI or when I play her. Never seemed bad to play or deal with. 

Frozen Citron used to be perhaps the single most annoying character to face before the Citron long range damage nerf. Always fun to face a guy who can hide all but his side mounted weapon behind a rock that can snipe better than a Cactus (beam weapons are great at keeping the weapon on target), and freeze you so fast that you'd get stuck in between cover while advancing on a control point. He's not that bad now, but absolutely needed that nerf.

Frost Rose looks great like all GW2 roses, but not a huge fan of her charging attack, although it can be effective. Another one I don't see all that often.

Arctic Trooper is decent and I've been frozen pretty quickly by them. I play mine reasonably often, but part of that is that he has the Scrumptious hat from the Brothers Gnomus hunt. Not too bad to fight against. 

AC Perry needs a buff for sure. I swear I'm the only person I see in multiplayer matches that uses him at all, and you can see why when you play him. 

Goalie Star has been my favorite All-Star since GW. The fact that his goalie mask has uneven eye holes, to match the zombie's uneven sized eyes, was a great touch. With the overheating upgrades he can fire for a long time before having to stop. One of my favorite variants, period.

I was excited for Iceberg Lettuce (although I wanted Berry Brigade even more), but then we never got her. I still don't enjoy being frozen, but have no idea how BfN would handle it. With only 1 side being able to freeze, or use electricity (as players anyway, no counting pots/bots here), or fire, it feels odd bad to be quite honest; a bit wrong.

Stop right there and freeze! These characters are known as "elemental characters" and they have the ability to slow down and freeze enemies. As a result, you will generally notice that these characters deal less damage compared to their regular counterparts, although the slow down and freezing effects are very useful in many situations. 

If you deal damage to enemies with your attacks, you will reduce the movement speed of the enemy, which you can stack by hitting them multiple times. They will be nearly unable to escape and very easy for you and your allies to hit. If they are hit enough by your attacks, they will be frozen for about 2 seconds, which will make them completely unable to move, attack or use an ability, unless an ability was activated before being frozen, in which it will continue and not be cancelled.

Ice Pea: Dealing damage with your attacks will slow an enemy down making it harder for them to escape or evade attacks, and dealing damage enough times will completely freeze the enemy for about 2 seconds, making them unable to move, attack or activate an ability during this time. Your shots will deal 15-25 damage, depending on distance between you and the enemy, and you can deal 10 splash damage as well. Any direct hit that you successfully land is a critical hit as well. Each time you deal direct or splash damage to an enemy, that enemy will be slowed down further and frozen after landing enough successful hits. You have 12 maximum ammo (compared to the default 10), although you deal significantly less damage compared to regular Peashooter, however the splash damage is exactly the same.

Ice Cactus: Dealing damage with your attacks will slow an enemy down making it harder for them to escape or evade attacks, and dealing damage enough times will completely freeze the enemy for about 2 seconds, making them unable to move, attack or activate an ability during this time. Your shots will deal 15-20 damage or 18-24 critical damage, depending on the distance between you and the enemy. Each time you deal damage to an enemy, that enemy will be slowed down further and frozen after landing enough successful hits. You deal significantly less damage compared to regular Cactus, but being able to slow and freeze enemies are really useful.

Yeti Chomper: Dealing damage with your attacks will slow an enemy down making it harder for them to escape or evade attacks, and dealing damage enough times will completely freeze the enemy for about 2 seconds, making them unable to move, attack or activate an ability during this time. This is the only Chomper variant that has a ranged attack instead of being limited to close range, it lobbs snowballs instead of having a chomp or spray. Your shots will deal 15-35 damage and 10 splash damage, depending on the distance between you and the enemy. Each time you deal direct or splash damage to an enemy, that enemy will be slowed down further and frozen after landing enough successful hits. You do not have any ammo and you do not overheat. Depending on range, you deal between less and more damage compared to regular Chomper.

Frost Rose: Dealing damage with your attacks will slow an enemy down making it harder for them to escape or evade attacks, and dealing damage enough times will completely freeze the enemy for about 2 seconds, making them unable to move, attack or activate an ability during this time. You are a charge up variant as well, and charging your attack further will improve your damage and slow down rate. Your shots will deal 7-50 damage, depending on how charged your attack is. Any direct hit that you successfully land is a critical hit as well. Each time you deal damage to an enemy, that enemy will be slowed down further and frozen after landing enough successful hits. Landing a fully charged shot on an enemy will improve your slowing capabilities, you will almost freeze an enemy if you have not slowed them down yet, or you will freeze them immediately if they have already been slowed down. You have 20 maximum ammo (instead of the default 30) and you deal less damage compared to regular Rose.

Frozen Citron: Dealing damage with your attacks will slow an enemy down making it harder for time to escape or evade attacks, and dealing damage enough times will completely freeze the enemy for about 2 seconds, making them unable to move, attack or activate an ability during this time. Your shots will deal 3-9 damage or 4-11 critical damage, depending on the distance between you and the enemy. Each time you deal damage to an enemy, that enemy will be slowed down further and frozen after landing enough successful hits. Unlike all other Citrons, you do not deal splash damage. You actually deal more damage compared to regular Citron, but no splash damage and you overheat more quickly. 

Arctic Trooper: Dealing damage with your attacks will slow an enemy down making it harder for them to escape or evade attacks, and dealing damage enough times will completely freeze the enemy for about 2 seconds, making them unable to move, attack or activate an ability during this time. Your shots will deal 4-7 damage and 5-8 critical damage, depending on the distance between you and the enemy. Each time you deal damage to an enemy, that enemy will be slowed down further and frozen after landing enough successful hits. You have 35 maximum ammo (instead of the default 30) and you deal significantly less damage compared to regular Foot Soldier.

AC Perry: Dealing damage with your attacks will slow an enemy down making it harder for them to escape or evade attacks, and dealing damage enough times will completely freeze the enemy for about 2 seconds, making them unable to move, attack or activate an ability during this time. Your shots will deal 9-15 damage, depending on the distance between you and the enemy, and you can deal 7 splash damage as well. Any direct hit that you successfully land is a critical hit as well. Each time you deal direct or splash damage to an enemy, that enemy will be slowed down further and frozen after landing enough successful hits. You have 15 maximum ammo (instead of the default 10) and you deal significantly less damage compared to regular Engineer, but your fire rate is decently increased.

Goalie Star: Dealing damage with your attacks will slow an enemy down making it harder for them to escape or evade attacks, and dealing damage enough times will completely freeze the enemy for about 2 seconds, making them unable to move, attack or activate an ability during this time. Your shots will deal 4-5 damage or 5-6 critical damage, depending on the distance between you and the enemy. Each time you deal damage to an enemy, that enemy will be slowed down further and frozen after landing enough successful hits. You deal greatly less damage compared to the regular All Star, however you have an increased fire rate and you can fire for enormous amounts of time before overheating, greatly improving your suppression.

Basic Notes

• The Ice upgrade is exclusive to Ice characters, which reduces the amount of times you need to successfully deal damage before an enemy freezes and it improves the amount of slowing down an enemy receives in each hit. You should absolutely use this upgrade on your characters when you get it as it makes your slowing and freezing effects much more powerful. Frost Rose can instantly freeze an enemy in a single fully charged shot, even if they have not been slowed at all beforehand, if you use this upgrade (confirmation needed).
• The slowing effect that you have inflicted on an enemy will be completely removed after a short while if they are not hit by an icy attack for a while. For this reason, you should focus on freezing a single enemy at a time, or making sure that you shoot the same enemy every so often to retain the slowing effect.
• Once an enemy has been frozen, they will thaw out after about 2 seconds, and they will no longer be affected by the slowing effects. However, you may slow and freeze the enemy again after they thaw out if you want, if they have not been vanquished.
• If you are not particularly interested in freezing specific enemies, you can try to slow down groups of enemies instead by providing constant fire against enemy groups. This will be easier if your Ice character has splash damage. All affected enemies will have a hard time escaping and dodging your team's attacks.
• Even though Ice characters generally deal less damage, you can use your primary attack to support your team. If you freeze an enemy, you and your team will find it much easier to vanquish them. Your abilities can support you as well. For example, freeze your enemy and use a ZPG (if Arctic Trooper).

Additional Note: The Yeti Imp in Battle for Neighborville is an ability for the TV Head. It slows down any enemy it hits, which is temporary but almost negates their movement. However, it is unable to freeze.

Well, I really love the elemental characters and they are great fun to use! Ice is probably my favourite elemental variant!