Ice Blast

Creates a magical sphere of ice that damages and freezes your enemy.

Ice Blast is a Sorceress Cold skill (level 6, requires Ice Bolt) and the prerequisite of Shiver Armor and Glacial Spike. It is a single bolt that hits one target, damages it and freezes it, holding it in place rather than slowing it. Two numbers decide it: the damage, 253–266 at level 20 before synergies, and the freeze, 6.8 seconds at level 20 in Normal.

The numbers

The damage comes from EMin 16 and EMax 24 with HitShift 7, which halves them: 8–12 at level 1. The minimum then grows +7 a level to level 8, +14 to 16, +21 to 22, +28 to 28 and +35 a level past that; the maximum grows +7.5, +14.5, +21.5, +28.5 and +35.5 over the same brackets. That is 85–93 at level 10, 253–266 at level 20 and 533–551 at level 30. The line reads lvl, so +skills count, and the brackets steepen all the way out.

The freeze length is ELen 75 frames plus 5 a level (ELevLen1–3 are all 5), at 25 frames a second: 3 seconds at level 1 and 0.2 more a level, 4.8 at level 10, 6.8 at level 20, 8.8 at level 30; Param1 75 and Param2 5 are the same baseline and step. The row's ELenSymPerCalc adds Param7 10% for each hard point in Glacial Spike; the table above shows the length with none. Both lines read lvl.

Mana is 6 at level 1 and 0.5 more a level (mana 12, lvlmana 1, manashift 7): 10.5 at level 10, 15.5 at level 20, 20.5 at level 30.

How it works

Ice Blast fires one "iceblast" missile; the Basin's page classes it as a medium-range single-target missile with the same velocity and range as Ice Bolt and the same size as Ice Bolt and Glacial Spike, almost long range but unable to reach the top corners of the screen. It hits the first target in its path and stops. It is cold damage, reduced by the target's cold resistance, see Dealing Elemental Damage and Resistances and Immunities; as a spell it needs no attack rating, and it is cast at casting speed.

The hit freezes: the target is held for the freeze length above, divided by the difficulty's freeze divisor in Nightmare and Hell, see Chill and Freeze. The Basin's page says Ice Blast applies much more damage to a single target than Ice Bolt or Glacial Spike, which are the same size; Glacial Spike's spike is about a third faster and hits an area, Ice Blast hits one thing harder.

The freeze is divided by the difficulty's freeze divisor, so a 6.8-second freeze in Normal is much shorter in Hell, see Chill and Freeze.

Synergies and +skills

• Ice Bolt: +8% cold damage per level, Blizzard: +8% cold damage per level and Frozen Orb: +8% cold damage per level (skills.txt Param8 = 8; the calc reads each skill's blvl, hard points only).
• Glacial Spike: +10% freeze length per level (Param7 = 10, blvl).
• Ice Blast in turn feeds Ice Bolt (+15% a hard point), Glacial Spike (+5%) and Blizzard (+5%).
• +skills raise the damage and the base freeze (lvl); the percentages do not move with +skills.
• Cold Mastery lowers the target's cold resistance and so raises what lands.

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 Basin's page gives no other rule for Ice Blast against players.

Build notes

• The damage brackets grow to +35 a level past 28, so +skills gear is worth more here than on a flat-bracket skill: level 30 is 533–551, more than twice level 20.
• Every hard point is +15% to Ice Bolt and +5% to Glacial Spike and Blizzard; on a Blizzard build the points here are bought for that, and the 15.5-mana freeze comes free.
• The freeze is the skill's second number: 6.8 seconds at level 20 is more than Glacial Spike's 4.28, on one target instead of an area.