Blades of Ice

Charge-up skill: consecutive hits add cold damage to finishing moves; can only be used with claw-class weapons; must use a dragon finishing move or normal attack to release charges.

Blades of Ice is the Martial Arts cold charge-up (level 24, requires Claws of Thunder; it unlocks Phoenix Strike). It needs a claw-class weapon (itypea1 "h2h") or bare hands. Each hit that lands stores a charge, up to three, and the next finishing move releases them: cold on the target with one, the same cold in a radius with two, a freeze in a smaller radius with three. The numbers that decide it are the cold damage, 231–259 at level 20, and the cold and freeze length, 4 seconds at level 1 and 0.4 more a level.

The numbers

• Mana is a flat 3 at every level, so it is left out of the table.
• Cold damage (charges one and two) is EMin/EMax with a HitShift of 8, read as written: 15–35 at level 1, then +8 a level on both ends to level 8, +10 to 16, +20/+22 to 22, +30/+32 to 28 and +40/+42 past that (EMinLev1–5 and EMaxLev1–5): 231–259 at level 20, 531–579 at level 30. The Basin's table matches.
• Cold length and freeze length are ELen, 100 frames plus 10 a level (ELevLen1–3): 4 seconds at level 1, 11.6 seconds at level 20, 15.6 at level 30. Param5, the freeze length divisor, is 1, so the freeze of charge three lasts as long as the cold of charges one and two. The Basin gives both as 90 + 10 a level frames, which matches the table from level 1 on.
• Radius is Param1 (6) × 2 ÷ 3 = 4 yards for charge two and Param2 (3) × 2 ÷ 3 = 2 yards for charge three, the same at every level, so they are left out of the table.
• Attack rating on the charge-up swing is ToHit (25%) plus LevToHit (10%) a level, +215% at level 20; the Basin notes the 1.10-era value was 8 + 7 a level. On the finisher each charge adds +50% attack rating (Param4), +150% with three.
• Charge duration is Param3, 375 frames = 15 seconds. The row's calc1 (physical converted to elemental) is 0: nothing is converted.

The damage, length and attack-rating lines read lvl, so +skills count; the synergy reads blvl.

How it works

Blades of Ice is a melee attack at the weapon's full damage (SrcDam 128) that must pass a Chance to Hit roll; the Basin says both claws are used when two are equipped. Each hit that lands adds a charge to the progressive_cold state, to a maximum of three (prgstack 1); further hits reset the 15-second clock. The charges wait for a finisher: a normal melee attack, Dragon Talon, Dragon Claw, Dragon Tail or Dragon Flight, and with Dragon Talon or Dragon Claw only the first hit that lands carries them (Basin).

What is released, by the Basin's page: with one to three charges, the cold damage and cold length on the release target; with two or three, the same cold damage and length on everything in the 4-yard radius; with three, a freeze of the length above on everything in the 2-yard radius. Cold chills (slows) for its length, and a freeze holds the target still, under the rules of Chill and Freeze; the damage is cold under Dealing Elemental Damage and the target's Cold Resist.

The freeze radius is half the chill radius: 2 yards against 4. The Basin's page notes that stopping at two charges can give more damage over time without giving up much safety, since the third charge adds only the small freeze.

Charges from Tiger Strike, Fists of Fire, Cobra Strike, Claws of Thunder and Phoenix Strike held at the same time are all released by the same finisher (Basin).

Synergies and +skills

EDmgSymPerCalc reads the hard points in Phoenix Strike times Param8: +8% cold damage per hard point in [[phoenix-strike]] (the dsc3 line). +% Cold Skill Damage from gear applies only to the first two charges (Basin). In return Blades of Ice's hard points are the cold synergy of Phoenix Strike's third charge. The skill's own lines read lvl, so +skills raise the damage, the lengths and the attack rating; the Basin says +1–3 Blades of Ice can spawn on exceptional and elite claws of item level above 24.

Against players

A player's hit on another player is cut to 17% of its value (difficultylevels.txt PlayerDamagePercentVSPlayer) before anything else, see Player versus Player; the finisher that releases the charges is such a hit. The Basin's page says nothing else specific about players.

Build notes

• Level 20 is 231–259 cold on the target and in 4 yards, with an 11.6-second chill, and an 11.6-second freeze within 2 yards on three charges, for 3 mana a swing and 15 seconds to release.
• The brackets steepen (+8, +10, +20, +30, +40 a level on the minimum), so +skills past 20 are worth more than the early points: level 30 is 531–579.
• Length is 0.4 seconds a level, hard point or +skill alike; the freeze of charge three lasts exactly as long as the chill.
• The synergy is hard points in Phoenix Strike only, +8% each; Cold Skill Damage from gear touches only the first two charges.