Collaborative list of v1.10 Ladder "keepers"

[Crystalion]

Unless they "fixed" Iceblink, don't hold your breath.  Go over to the Basin, track down the CubeMod and make sure your effort will pay off.  Otherwise, you should notice the total absence of Iceblink in any guide since before LOD appeared, and think about WHY no one mentions it.

Good advice in general (check out things, not necessarily with cubemod, before investing time/effort).

As a theoretician, I have to say I find the preponderence of guides to be rather narrow in focus. But your specific point is well taken: freezes target +1 (ala Iceblink) was heavily nerfed. Utterly hopeless for solo xp gain via ranged freezing.

But it is all determined by the numbers and the desired purpose (for wanting to freeze)...

Iceblink is still quite "effective" when slumming. If one is slumming enormously you can even have fun with it (note I don't claim you'll increase your effectiveness, though you might) with ranged attacks. Potentially one could even use weenie damage attacks while slumming to grant a rushee a forest of frozen targets (barehanded Iceblink WW barb image comes hilariously to mind). Naturally there are far better ways to accomplish much the same thing.

An Axe of Fechmar, OTOH, is a wonderful "keeper" drop, because, at +3, you can reliably freeze melee xp level appropriate stuff. This means that a kick assassin can make very good use of one. The +3 is really not enough of a bonus to make Blades of Fury work (xp level appropo) however.

But it is definitely all numbers. I had some (testing, not real) success lately with Iceblink for a range 3 WW barb with 2 frame ITD hits. Basically the concept was to provide safety (i.e. the freeze doesn't have to last long at all) as you're WWing through. If the monsters were much higher level than my test barb, then the Iceblink doesn't cut it (because too little freezing is triggered, not because the duration is short). XP level appropriate monsters, however, were indeed prevented from touching me. So the low AC on Iceblink wasn't relevant, except when (un-taunted) ranged attackers were dinking me (ouch).

I've started playing Ladder, and my first unique drop (for my WoF assassin) was a Deathspade Axe. I was excited, because it has Hit Blinds Target. Alas I then noticed it was ethereal (and thus doomed to break if I melee with it to blind things). Before I threw it away, however, I realized that, for clvl req (9), it has really high damage. I then proceeded to use it with Blade Sentry with great success (and have used it just a little with Blade Fury--I'm a WoF 'sin, so as good as BF is, my use of it is situational, i.e. when WoF has problems).

I bring this up because 1h ethereal weapons are potential "keepers" for v1.10 Assassins, but most people would scowl and let them rot on the ground (Blade Fury and Blade Sentry use % weapon damage without using up the weapon's durability--2h weapons suffer an additional halving penalty for this damage and prevent you from using a shield).

edit: Gillias over on the Basin wrote:

For what it's worth : frozen Beetles do not emit lightning until they die.

which seems like a nice situational plus for melee freezers, even if the duration is piddly.