Oh nvm... I was assuming you were saying it was only most viable with Glacius.

Btw, Hail Driver ftw.

Actually, Freeze is the most dangerous status in Lockdown. Strikers rely on speed to counter their low health. Rob them of speed, and they are easy kills. People don't use Shiver because Skolver armor is so popular. However, pull out a Shiver against a team of Vogs or Half-breeds, and you can completely wreck them.

* Freeze does damage only at defrost, while shock and fire deals continual damage.
* Freeze is annoying for parties carrying an Electron Vortex, as the later is unable to break the ice.
* Freeze is a joke at Lockdown compared to a Strong Shock, any hit will break the enemy's ice, while Shock keeps them locked and interrupting their attacks. This is also true at PvE, or why people takes Voltedge/storm driver/VT for FSC instead of freeze status weapons.

Shock > Freeze.

Freeze is a ridiculously powerful status if your party primarily consists of Gunslingers carrying Autogun line weapons; namely Blitz Needle. They have crazy single target dps if their enemies aren't able to move around, and gunners in general are not affected by freeze removing the knockback from incapacitated targets. You're also less likely to trap gunners when using it since they tend to attack from just outside the immediate 'front line'. I also don't feel the need to explain why it obviously works wonders against Vanaduke if your party are equipped with Blitz Needles.

Freeze is an absolutely terrible status if your party primarily consists of swordsmen equipped with weapons that rely on their knockback. Swordsmen often rely on their knockback and shield bumping to keep mobs from hitting them while maintaining a constant dps on their enemy, and the vast majority of good swordsmen will tell you that spamming charge attacks constantly is not a very effective tactic and one of the big reasons the benefits of freeze are less prominent for a swordsman than they are for a gunner. You can easily trap a swordsman amidst a field of frozen enemies (Less likely if you're not using Shivermist, but still) and get them killed because they can neither knock enemies away from them, or reliably shield if they're using more offensively oriented shields (Which most good swordsman will).

Freeze is generally a pointless status if your party primarily consists of bombers, since being able to stack multiple damaging status effects in conjunction with vortex and large aoe dps bombs renders just about all the benefits of freeze obsolete. That being said it doesn't really negatively impact bombers either, outside of making enemy movement unpredictable if AoA/VV kiting.

For all of the above reasons, if your party consists of a mixture of different players utilizing all sorts of different gear, the vast majority of the time freeze is generally a non-beneficial status. It causes more harm than it does good, and especially for bombers there are much better alternatives such as vortex, or any of the other status bombs besides Stagger Storm. Bear in mind however that this does not mean that all freeze-inducing weapons are bad. The vast majority of them have such a limited aoe that they're unlikely to actually cause a noticeable impact on your team. In many situations the only weapon most of this will apply to is Shivermist, with weapons such as a Glacius or Hail Driver you can easily avoid utilizing them in situations in which it will disrupt your team, and instead use them when you're alone or dealing with stragglers or whatever.

Ironically, if it wasnt for skolvers, LD would be more annoying. It's either guardian/polaris rush or be stuck forever by a single shiverer.

What about a vortex+freeze combo, so you could gather a bunch of monsters then hold them in place so the final explosion doesn't scatter them? I don't know how well this would work, sort of a hypothesis.

Freeze is better for lockdown. Everybody bring freeze. Shock does nothing, don't bring Shock.

...Please?

(This has been a Mad Bomber's desperate attempt to avoid being Shocked.)

@Juances: Bombastic Recon laughs at your puny Shivermist.

Hail Driver: The one I prefer of the two. For PVE soloing it is wonderful. In a party it melds well into almost any party setup unless it involves shock or fire status. The trick is to aim at mobs that swordsmen with knockback swords are not targeting, so you won't freeze their mobs. You'll be protecting their back and dealing damage at the same time. With the charge, it's almost a guaranteed freeze on at least one mob. Once that mob is frozen, you can turn your attention to the unfrozen ones. If you take too long to kill the unfrozen ones the ice will thaw and deal damage.

For Lockdown, it is potentially devastating. If it wasn't for Skolver and the fact that your teammates are constantly attacking and may hit your frozen target (with a silversix no less) it would be better. There tends to be too much action to properly utilize the freeze, making it not the best choice for Lockdown.

Storm Driver: Similar to hail driver, except it deals shock (duh). Can deal damage to many mobs if they are crowded together and briefly stop them from doing anything. Easier to use of the two and will do well in solo or in a party. The only downside is that the crowd control is not as strong, the freeze will save you in some situations where the shock will not.

For Lockdown, it is immensely more useful than hail driver, since almost no one stats for shock resist. Not to mention one shock from storm driver can mean death. You can sneak a shot on an unsuspecting swordsman targeting a teammate and turn the tides of a fight. A running striker can be stopped in their tracks with a shock. Recon's shield will break if they take a zap while invisible. It will lower a guardian's shield. It is the bane of bombers everywhere (Sorry Doctorspacebar XD). To top it off, it will not hinder your teammates. Shock is the clear winner for Lockdown.

My two cents on these.

TL;DR - Freeze is harder to use, but super effective when used right. Shock is easier to use and is clearly better for Lockdown.

That's what I meant about "potentially devastating". XD

It often times does not happen that way unfortunately (or fortunately) due to reasons stated before. If the ice didn't break so easily I'd be using Hail Driver in Lockdown instead of Storm Driver.