[SIZE="6"]Frozen Blast![/SIZE]
[SIZE="4"]Because a Chilled Container Isn't Enough for your Drink[/SIZE]
[SIZE="4"]Because a Chilled Container Isn't Enough for your Drink[/SIZE]
After some small tests and many jotted down notes, I'm happy to present to you guys the guide on Frozen Blast! Essentially, in this guide we'll be going in-depth about the skill itself. The first 3 sections will be based on the Introduction, Getting, and Making. Skip to section 4 if you want Statistics. Get buckled down, lets get started. And also, videos will be added soon, don't worry if they aren't up!
[SIZE="4"]What's Frozen Blast?[/SIZE]
Frozen Blast is an Alchemist Skill that freezes enemies in front of you for a brief amount of time with a certain success rate. Any monster frozen by this skill will not be able to do anything and will take more Physical Damage than normal. This is extremely helpful if your playing as Support in a party, as your teammates can quickly take down annoying foes with this skill. This skill is the combination of the elements Wind and Water, and using wind and water based Cylinders will extend the freeze time (It appears Water Cylinders has a better bonus than using a Wind Cylinder). And also remember, this skill has a cooldown time of 15 seconds, regardless of rank. Essentially, freeze enemies, hit them with Physicals, and get profit.
[SIZE="4"]Acquiring the Skill[/SIZE]
This skill isn't hard to get, but it's time consuming. First of all, buy the "About Synthesis and Fragmentation in Alchemy" book from Dorren for 14.4k and learn Fragmentation from it. Afterwards reach current level 30 and talk to Dorren with the Skills Keyword, she will then teach you Synthesis. For one final time, talk to Dorren with Skills Keyword with Rank A Water Cannon and Rank Novice Synthesis and you'll get a quest from Dorren. Then head to Sidhe Sneachta and hit the Snowmen and acquire one Snowball (alternatively, you may hunt them from Snow Spiders in select Theater Missions) and deliver it to Dorren. She'll in return give you Rank Novice Frozen Blast and a Blizzard Crystal, so go try it out now, you deserved it!
[SIZE="4"]Making the Blizzard Crystal[/SIZE]
However, like all Offensive Alchemy Skills, you will require a Blizzard Crystal. Blizzard Crystals are made from combining 3 Water Crystals, 1 Wind Crystal, and a Snowball at a Steam Oven. The rates are pretty low, but most of the time you'll really only 10-30 at a time. It's recommended that you get a Physis Homestead because you can easily build a Snowman (5 Snowballs, 3 Homestead Stones) and farm off Snowballs from it, rather than heading to Sidhe Sneachta every time you need more.
[SIZE="4"]Ranking Frozen Blast[/SIZE]
Frozen Blast tends to chew up a lot of AP, so rank it when you to. But in turn, it's really helpful if you do rank it, as these following things help the successes of Frozen Blast when you rank the skill:
- Charge Time
- Freeze Time
- Width of the "Mist"
- Damage that can be done to a Frozen Enemy
- Crystal Making Success
- Success rate of Freezing
Like most skills, Charge Time decreases at Rank 9, where it decreases from 2.5 seconds to 2 seconds. Freeze Time also extends by average intervals of 2 seconds at ranks F to A, 9 to 6, 5 to 2, and at Rank 1 with a base of 8 seconds and a cap of 15 seconds. The area of monsters that it freezes is also increased by intervals of 4 degrees at the same ranks with a base of 36 degrees to 48 degrees. It also appears that the amount of defense and protection lowered from a frozen monster gets increased per rank. And finally, Crystal Making success rates get increased by average intervals of 1-3% per rank. And also, Stamina used is increased by intervals of 1-3 every level, at a grand total of 30 Stamina to use at Rank 1 and a whopping 4 at Rank F.
The amount of AP needed is the same for all races, at a grand total of 347 AP.
Keep in mind at Novice Rank, Frozen Blast is barely efficient at all, because the frozen monster will probably thaw out by the time the animation is over. Save 4 AP when getting the skill.
The Master Title is the "Frozen Blast Master," which increases Stamina and Will by 20.
[SIZE="4"]Freeze Lengths/Rates[/SIZE]
Since this skill does not do any damage itself, I'll be replacing the Damage Section with Freeze Lengths and Rates. First of all, the skills that extend Freeze Length are Alchemy Mastery, Wind Alchemy, Water Alchemy, and the Cylinder Used (remember, Water Cylinders add better bonuses than Wind Cylinders). Any other ways of extending the Freeze Time are Enchant Scrolls and ranking the skill itself. As for Rates, that's strictly based on the skill rank and enemy CP.
[SIZE="4"]Misc. Points[/SIZE]
- Enemies with a CP of over 10,000 cannot be frozen.
- Most (if not all) Bosses cannot be frozen either.
- It is possible that, Frozen Monsters can still activate their Passive Defenses when frozen.
- Frozen Blast will not bring a player out of the Play Dead status.
- Like Flame Burst, if a monster walks into the Mist after the animation started, the said mob will not be affected.
- All mobs frozen may aggro the "Freezer" all at once after being thawed out.
- If you successfully froze a monster but another monster hits you before the animation is over, the skill will not go into cooldown and the monster will still be frozen.
[SIZE="4"]In Conclusion...[/SIZE]
...Frozen Blast is generally seen as a Support skill for parties that's generally correct. Although used alone is also practical, as it can buy you time to escape a fight if you have enough time to load up the skill. All in all, it's worth to have and learn the skill, even at Rank F it's effectiveness is "Okay".
Next time, we'll learn about... Ranged Attacks, both Elf and Human variations! Also like always, rant or raves are accepted. I'm glad if I helped any of you Alchemists out there, I'm out!
:bye: