This topic is to discuss about ice gauntlet skills and try to improve ice gauntlet’s user experience.
First of all, this is my take about it and I really appreciate if more people contribute putting their vision.
Ice Gauntlet Identity
Ice Gauntlet once had identity as an annoying mage weapon that pin you down, those days were not good to IG’s image, causing the abilities to be nerfed and leaving IG with a different identity than the one it was originally assigned.
Today IG identity:
Support weapon/second weapon, that protects you against enemies (defensive skills) and apply slow, sometimes roots.
Skills
At the beginning of the game, it did a lot of damage, and it was necessary to get out of it quickly, nowadays not so much.
I don’t think it needs a buff, but it definitely doesn’t need a nerf.
I think all players use this skill, and why?
great enabler and the other skills are not that good…
Pseudo-DOT, slow, enabler, good range
a skill with many improvements that does a lot of damage, but it’s sink or swim, sometimes it’s very good and other times it’s very bad. It has caused problems in the community before. I really like the skill but I would prefer that the damage was reduced and the area of effect increased, something similar to the baroness skill, that the effect cone is bigger obviously the damage would have to be much lower.
HIT, low cd, stagger, close range, burst damage
The copy of the flamethrower that was worse than the original, this is how one of my friends call this ability.
I understand that the Devs added grit to the skill’s perk recently but it’s still a very bad skill.
Grit is an effect that most melee-players and some mobs have while attacking or using skills so the push effect is little useful, the damage is low and the channel is long, without the perk anything stops you, the damage is DOT (which will be important for future discussions).
DOT, close range, low damage, push
I suggest a rework, do something like petrifying scream (animation and area of effect), a cone ability that deals X% weapon damage and apply slow, or just push enemies. Or a charge skill that the longer you kept press the button more powerful the effect is upon release, for example:
Wind Chill - Rework
20 mana
15 seconds
- click push enemies and deals 50% damage
- hold 0.5~1 second apply push, slow 20% for up to 2 seconds and deals up to 100% damage
- hold 1~2 seconds apply root 1, slow 20% for up to 3 seconds and deals up to 120% damage
You can move while charging, probably walking speed.
First passive - Refreshing Chill: hit 3 or more enemies reduces cooldown in 15%.
Second passive - Chilling Blast: increases range to 12 meters but reduces width, less likely to hit multiple enemies that are not in line.
Perk: Full charge blow wind chill around you (AoE - full radius), if chilling blast is active shot 4-6 Chilling Blasts around you (can’t hit the same enemy more than once), full charge recover X% mana. 
A very good and simple solution
Straight forward passive, you want damage use it. Can’t complain, good ult-passive.
I think it is well positioned in meta, not an oppressive skill and also not weak, I would prefer that the regeneration from the earring could be kept inside the tomb.
Overall, nothing to complain about it… but pushing enemies falls into the same problem as wind chill, it’s almost not effective.
HIT, low damage, defensive, close range, push, high cd
a good skill, generally used by healers, with many good improvements (except the ult-passive), good damage, good duration. Overall, a very good skill.
HIT, low cd, good duration
QoL
It was a big problem in the game, currently after changes in roll, skill nerf and diminishing returns the skill is being underused, probably due to its low effectiveness. It is more of a defensive skill than an offensive one (but it can be used offensively).
Needs perk to deal damage and is very low damage.
Defensive, low damage - no damage, high cd, slow
I generally don’t like any abilities linked to ult-passives, in my opinion they decrease build variability, and I personally think this ultimate is weak. I would prefer it to be something disconnected from the ice pylon skill and give some effect related to the Builder (skill tree name) theme. For example, every time you play a skill you create an area around you of x meters that slows enemies and applies Quick Frost and Empowered Frost bonuses (lasts y seconds).
Good passive
weak passive, low mana recovery
S-tier passive, make ice gauntlet feels like a mage weapon
A very good passive, maybe S-tier
Does anyone use this? i know devs said something about changing how block will work so take care about this passive.
Does anyone use this? HP threshold should be lower - maybe 80% - or make it a ult-passive. When you got hit you create a frosted area around you, apply x% slow lasts y seconds.
good passive
once was a S-tier passive, today is a a-tier maybe, due nerfs and rolls changes.
good passive
Would be a good passive if only dots crits. just tomb, spikes and pylon benefit from this passive, as I said before, spike is a bit of a hard case and the tomb does little damage. And just spike is in this side of the skill-tree.
very good passive
very good passive
250 Int
Why doesn’t the 250 int milestone doesn’t work with ice DOT skills? is there something about the ice gauntlet that synergizes with this passive?
Animation Improvements
Final Thoughts
The ice gauntlet needs some love on skills and passives. It is currently quite difficult to use it as a primary weapon and I think every weapon in the game should be able to be a primary weapon.
It is also not well defined what its function is, is it a CC weapon, damage weapon, long range, short range?
- So much short-range skills, a lot of CC but also a burst damage skill.
The lack of build variability is also an indication that the weapon is not balanced, why does everyone use Ice Storm?
- Great enabler for other passives (like Heavy Freeze, Critical Frost, Frozen Touch, Refreshing Frost and Ultimate Chill), good AoE. Other skills are bad when compared to ice storm, but I don’t think it’s ice storm’s fault, the other skills that are not so good
I’m not suggesting buffing or nerfing the weapon, I’m suggesting giving some reworks and try to balance the weapon. Maybe add a new freeze mechanic (something like stun that enemies are woken up after taking damage or after taking x damage) instead of rooting or focusing more on the slow - make the weapon seem more focused on something.
Edit: added some suggestions and changed icestorm dot → pseudo-dot (someone in another post said it’s not dot, for now I’ll mark it as pseudo-dot)
TL;DR
Ice gauntlet feels unbalanced - some skills have too much cc and other nothing, short range skills - wind chill rework.
TL;DR
happy to see that some share the love for IG.