A few questions about Cryotech Alchemer:
1. Do I really need to upgrade to Hail Driver if all I care about is the freeze status? Does Hail have better chance/duration of freeze?
2. My Alch has ASI low. I don't want to waste a lot of time or energy trying for CTR. Is the charge attack really that important in LD?
3. Does Glacius freeze Skolvers better than Hail Driver? Or does the requirement of charge and the short range cripple it?
1. Yes, but this is for use against single lockdown targets. Richochets aren't a priority, and I don't want to pay a lot.
2. It's NICE, but is it CRITICAL?
3. I've heard that EVEN WITH MAX FREEZE RESIST, skolvers can still be frozen by hail driver.
1. Those ricochets can really trip an opponent up. You will have more of an advantage with them, especially if there are walls around.
2. Only if you like to snipe and/or flood rooms with ricochets. The difference in charge time is pretty substantial, so having a good amount of CTR pretty much means the difference between being able to and not being able to use charge attacks whatsoever.
3. Well... It does work with Polaris. I suppose it's possible for Polaris' moderate status to be weaker than Alchemer's moderate status. I made some discoveries that hint to there being more than just three strengths of status infliction rate and strength. Much more.
@Baltibi
Definitely upgrade the gun. You will have faster bullets, more damage, more ricochets, and be better in 1v1 situations. The only downside is that other people will waste your freezes, so fighting in groups basically means you have a reduced damage nova driver.
Also, it is impossible to be immune to any status, according to a past lockdown thread. Though I don't think you'll have to worry about any skolver being immune to freeze, since I don't know what idiot would walk around with skolver set with freeze max on both pieces, unless they are farming ice queen.
Upgrade. Ambush with charges. Laugh. Repeat!
To answer your 3rd point
As a striker/recon: Max + High (5* + 4*) resistance is immunity to weak status/mist bombs. Max + max + low(?)/med = immunity to MODERATE status ie. Polaris/storm driver shock, magma fire, hail driver freeze. I have tested it before. It works. I'm not sure if it's possible or how much is required for immunity to strong status ie. brandish charges.
As a guardian, you get a med resist to everything so a max + low (5* + 2*) is immunity to mist, high + max is immunity to moderate...
@Voza I'll be that idiot running around in a freeze high skolver set.
Well my main point about the ASI vs CTR argument was that will that asi low help me at all, because I don't feel like taking a month for a CTR uv.
Also nobody really answered my 1st question (in the original post) adequately, that being does the FREEZE itself change any from upgrading?
And while I'm at it, new question, is there any way to GUARANTEE freeze on ANY opponent? By "guarantee" I mean "No matter what the gear nobody is completely immune to my freeze" NOT "it freezes every single time I hit anyone"
The only weapon I know with Strong Freeze is Glacius, and no amount of UVs will affect that.
To answer the point: a low UV is mostly worthless and hardly impacts gameplay. If you are using it as a sidearm, go for asi because you can shoot and switch faster. If you are using it on its own without other alchemers, charge time is nice with shadowsun for sniping etc but again low UVs are relatively cheap and rarely make an impact.
No. Freeze is moderate from all star levels, and does not change. Alchemer bullets do get faster as you progress though, so the upgrade will still be worth it if not for the damage.
As long as you have moderate or weak strength status someone out there will find a way to be immune to it. There is no way to guarantee a chance.
On affliction CHANCE: Even brandish charges DON'T have 100% status infliction, it just has a very high chance compared to other things. Charges theoretically have a higher status infliction chance, though. Supposedly. Whether it remains true or not would require hard numbers from the devs.
Triglav has strong freeze as well, but that's probably not your point.
Just to re-answer your OP
1. No. Unless you use the charge much a cryo driver is enough because that's when its bullets have the most speed and ricochets. Hail gives it a better charge.
2. Again, low UVs are mostly worthless. The charge is not crucial if you are using it as a sidearm, but it is a nice way to ambush players and freeze them. But the natural charge time medium at level 10 should be enough for that purpose; only get charge time if you know you'll use it a lot.
3. Depending on what, Glacius's strong freeze definitely lasts longer if I'm not wrong, but the % CHANCE of inflicting varies from weapon to weapon and mechanic to mechanic. A driver's chance is supposedly the same as a brandish's, but while the brandish explosions have some 98% chance, a driver can inflict status in about 1 in every 3 or so shots. Random guesses based on personal experience, I have no official hard numbers.
Regarding status immunity: I don't think anyone is hardcore enough to run a full freeze max + max UV skolver set etc to test against strong status chance. I know that max max low/med is enough for immunity to moderate, and a minimum of high + max is needed for immunity to weak (mist). Again, guardians get a med status resist (not sure about defense?) so you can minus a medium from the requirements as a guard... Off topic.
Triglav actually has moderate freeze. The tooltip is lying to you.
So does Plague do strong poison or moderate, since Blight needle does the latter?
I should guess from Sudaruska's tooltip completely not showing the Stun chance at all... but then... Haze bombs...
The alchemer status tooltip is only for charged attack, not regular shots.
I'm not able to inflict any status using Zapper, Frost gun or super stun gun regular shots in LD. Btw, just out of curiosity, why you use crytotech instead of these to try on if you only care about status?
I don't have enough evidence but i believe the status infliction chance is dependable on the weapons star rating with 5 star having the highest chance of inflicting status.
Also resist not only lower status damage but also lower status infliction chance. My advice is don't bother freezing skolver with hail driver. The chance is too low (though will happen every now and then) and so is too unreliable, at least for me.
Well, so is brandish's tooltip, but I'm sure FoV at least has some decent fire setting chance on normal slashes. Dread Venom Striker too, has a slight chance on both slash(es) and charge (slashes). Then what about things like Callahan?
Regarding those 1* items, I agree that I have not seen any status from non-charges.
Yeah, but don't use the tooltips as proof that there is no change to status between the different stars of the weapon.
I'm not able to inflict any status using Zapper, Frost gun or super stun gun regular shots in LD.
Lucky Frost Gun freezes have saved my ass in T1 a few times, and I recall being on the recieving end of Zapper shocks, although it's been too long to give a definite answer. Can't say for Super Stun Gun, because the only person I remember using one was Vagueabond.
My advice is don't bother freezing skolver with hail driver. The chance is too low (though will happen every now and then) and so is too unreliable, at least for me.
I feel like I freeze Skolvers reliably enough with my Hail Driver to keep using it as my preferred sidearm.
Ah nice. I go and retry the guns again in advance training hall. Did a small experiment. Shoot 30 times with those guns. Shoot another 30times if still no see status inflicted. Note: Not an accurate indication of the infliction chance.
Status inflicted
Frost gun 4/30
Stun gun 3/30
Super stun gun 0/60
Zapper 0/60
cryotech 5/30
So yeah, Orbwanter is right. Frost gun can freeze at least T1 monster. It is my bad luck to bring super stun gun and zapper to T3 LD and conclude all 1 star guns can't inflict status with regular shots. My bad.
Batabii, bring frost gun to LD and remember to post here how you fare after that. I want to know.
Hope someone test them further in guild training hall or something. I'm out.
I'm completely unable to join T1 lockdown, so that's a no go.
Anyway my entire purpose of this topic is that freeze is one of the most lethal status effects in LD, and I want to show the skolver-clones what for, and from what I had heard, the only way to freeze a skolver was with hail driver. So over the weeks I would craft cryotech alchemers for UVs. This is the first UV I got that WASN'T a damage bonus, so I was hoping it would be good enough that I don't need to craft 50 more of them.
So in summary, what's the BEST way to freeze a skolver, and should I even bother with cryo driver just for lockdown?
Who said T1 lockdown. Bring the frost gun to T3 LD if you don't want to make 5 star hail driver. 3 faster bullets instead of 2 slower ones.
^Lol, who is larry...
@Oqwa I believe the idiot reference was to the potential derp herping around with freeze MAX on both pieces. Freze high puts you under the category of "I-hate-freeze-THIS-much-and-I-love-babies"
Yes I am dumb, f off. To business.
@Balabai
Serious ADD manzzz...people were recommending you take a frost gun into T3 LD for various reasons:
-You stated you only cared about the status, so this would work better because it has faster bullets and inflicts the status about the same amount of times.
-more bukkets
-faster
-weaker, but you did not care about the damage particularly
And to answer the question of a guaranteed freeze:
The ONLY way to guarantee a status is by having a non-immune person walk through the status bomb. As long as a weapon has a chance less that 1 and is only a 1 time attack (FoV, Brandiahes, blah blah), it will never he guara teed. Your best bet ia a charge strike.
^Lol, who is balabai...
or oqwa
If you're not even going to attempt spelling our names right, I'm not reading your posts.
@Bambii
Voza, even with his terrible grammar ,was right. You clearly stated that you wanted Status
Cryo is good for freezing skolvers. But, I recommend getting it to 5*
Ctr uv for the gun is the best you can get, since the gun itself is more of a charge abuser than the other alchemy lines.
Getting asi low won't help you at all, sorry. Any low uv item is not worth crafting up.
Good answer. In that case, I'll just sell mine and try again. Maybe. I'm kind of sick of having to auction a dozen weak uv-less cryotechs.
1. Yes. Alchemers gain more bullets that travel faster as you upgrade it for each step.
2. CTR is nice. Put on a mask of Seerus and play as Recon, you'll be golden.
3. Glacius has a stronger freeze, but both should give you time to charge up an attack and unleash it on them regardless. Keep in mind that if said Skolver has a medium freeze UV or something equivalent, he will be completely immune to the Alchemer.