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Aurelia – Frostbite

Table of Contents

Whoops this article is unedited – give us some time to clean it up!

Foreword
Aurelia gets lots of cryo damage boosts from COMs and skills, but will that be enough to overcome the innate -60% damage penalty for cryo on shields, and how does it hold up against the bonuses from element matching?

I’m going to crunch some numbers, assuming avalanche and frostbite are fully specced. For simplicity’s sake, I’ll only take on normal hits while ignoring splash damage and crits.

best output is at 100 stacks of avalanche.
avg. output is at 40 stacks of avalanche.
worst output is at 0 stacks of avalanche
multiplier with frostbite active (multiplier without frostbite active)

Shock on shield multiplier is 2.75
Explosive on shield multiplier is 0.8, which is tripled to 2.4 on frozen targets.
Non elemental on flesh and shield multiplier is 1, on armor, it’s 0.8
Explosive on flesh and armor multiplier is 1, which is tripled to 3 on frozen targets.
Incendiary on flesh multiplier is 2
Corrosive on armor multiplier is 2

Straight cryo damage bonus from the COM and the cryo damage from avalanche stacks will be added as in

(1 + COM cryo dmg% + avalanche stack cryo dmg%)
##2. Class mod comparison

##Chronicler of Elpis
48% cryo damage, 9/5 frostbite and 5/5 avalanche

###vs shields
You need at least 86 stacks of Avalanche to get the cryo multiplier higher than 2.75
and at least 50 stacks to surpass the multiplier of 2.4.

best output = dmg * .4 * (1 .63 * 1.99) * 2.23 ≈ dmg * 2.89 ***(0.89)***
avg. output = dmg * .4 * (1 .63 * 1.99) * 1.78 ≈ dmg * 2.31 (0.71)
worst output = dmg * .4 * (1 .63 * 1.99) * 1.48 ≈ dmg * 1.92 (0.59)
###vs flesh and armor
You need at least 49 stacks to surpass the multiplier of 3.
Simply having frostbite active causes your cryo damage multiplier to be higher than 2 / 2.

best output = dmg * 1 .63 * 2.23 ≈ dmg * 3.63 (2.23)
avg. output = dmg * 1 .63 * 1.78 ≈ dmg * 2.90 (1.78)
worst output = dmg * 1 .63 * 1.48 ≈ dmg * 2.41 (1.48)

##Elite Creme de la Creme / Indifferent Gentry
11/5 Frostbite and 5/5 avalanche
###vs shields
You need at least 72 stacks to surpass the multiplier of 2.4.

best output = dmg * .4 * (1.77 * 2.21) * 1.75 ≈ dmg * 2.74 (0.70)
avg. output = dmg * .4 * (1.77 * 2.21) * 1.3 ≈ dmg * 2.03 (0.52)
worst output = dmg * .4 * (1.77 * 2.21) * 1.0 ≈ dmg * 1.56 (0.40)

###vs flesh and armor
You need at least 93 stacks to surpass the multiplier of 3
and at least 17 stacks for the cryo multiplier to be higher than 2 / 2.
best output = dmg * 1.77 * 1.75 ≈ dmg * 3.10 (1.75)
avg. output = dmg * 1.77 * 1.3 ≈ dmg * 2.30 (1.30)
worst output = dmg * 1.77 * 1.0 ≈ dmg * 1.77(1.00)

##Ice Queen
49% cryo damage, 5/5 frostbite and 11/5 avalanche
###vs shields
You need at least 84 stacks to surpass the multiplier of 2.4.

best output = dmg * .4 * (1.35 * 1.55) * 3.14 ≈ dmg * 2.63 (1.26)
avg. output = dmg * .4 * (1.35 * 1.55) * 2.15 ≈ dmg * 1.80 (0.86)
worst output = dmg * .4 * (1.35 * 1.55) * 1.49 ≈ dmg * 1.24 (0.60)
###vs flesh and armor
You need at least 45 stacks to surpass the multiplier of 3.
Simply having frostbite active causes your cryo damage multiplier to be higher than 2 / 2.

best output = dmg * 1.35 * 3.14 ≈ dmg * 4.24 ***(3.14)***
avg. output = dmg * 1.35 * 2.15 ≈ dmg * 2.90 ***(2.15)***
worst output = dmg * 1.35 * 1.49 ≈ dmg * 2.00 ***(1.49)***

##Celestial Baroness
5/5 frostbite and 10/5 avalanche
###vs shields
You need at least 15 stacks to surpass the multiplier of 1.

best output = dmg * .4 * (1.35 * 1.55) * 2.5 ≈ dmg * 2.09 (1.00)
avg. output = dmg * .4 * (1.35 * 1.55) * 1.6 ≈ dmg * 1.34 (0.64)
worst output = dmg * .4 * (1.35 * 1.55) * 1 ≈ dmg * 0.84 (0.40)
###vs flesh and armor
You need at least 82 stacks to surpass the multiplier of 3.
and at least 32 stacks to surpass the multiplier of 2 / 2.

best output = dmg * 1.35 * 2.5 ≈ dmg * 3.38 (2.50)
avg. output = dmg * 1.35 * 1.6 ≈ dmg * 2.16 (1.60)
worst output = dmg * 1.35 * 1 ≈ dmg * 1.35 (1.00)

##Eridian vanquisher
5/5 frostbite and 9/5 avalanche
###vs shields
You need at least 17 stacks to surpass the multiplier of 1.

best output = dmg * .4 * (1.35 * 1.55) * 2.35 ≈ dmg * 1.97 (0.94)
avg. output = dmg * .4 * (1.35 * 1.55) * 1.54 ≈ dmg * 1.29 (0.62)
worst output = dmg * .4 * (1.35 * 1.55) * 1.0 ≈ dmg * 0.84 (0.40)
###vs flesh and armor
You need at least 91 stacks to surpass the multiplier of 3.
and at least 36 stacks to surpass the multiplier of 2 / 2.

best output = dmg * 1.35 * 2.35 ≈ dmg * 3.17 (2.35)
avg. output = dmg * 1.35 * 1.54 ≈ dmg * 2.08 (1.54)
worst output = dmg * 1.35 * 1.0 ≈ dmg * 1.35 (1.00)

###Summary

vs shields
The highest cryo damage multiplier you can get against shields comes with the Chronicler of Elpis, which can even surpass the shock damage multiplier! The Elite Creme de la Creme and Indifferent Gentry come close to the shock multiplier but until you’ve built up enough Avalanche stacks, a shock sidearm is recommended.
With the Ice Queen, Celestial Baroness and Eridian vanquisher, it would make sense to carry a shock and/or explosive side arm for taking on larger shielded enemies.
With any of those COMs, your cryo weapons should do just fine against regular mobs, frostbite will mainly make a difference against badasses and bosses with huge shields.

vs flesh and armor
In this category, the highest damage comes from the Ice Queen, followed by the Chronicler of Elpis.
Interestingly, with high enough stacks, any of these COMs can outperform element matching and even the cryo-explosive multiplier :open_mouth:

##3. Conclusion:
Once you’ve build up enough avalanche stacks, the numbers on frostbite look really good. But I’d still debate its overall usefulness in not exclusively cryo focused builds, and here’s why:

Only helps during action skill
It always requires the action skill to trigger. Cooldown phase = no frostbite ⇒ back to a multiplier around 0.4 to 0.58 without stacks, and 0.7 to 1.24 with full stacks, at which point element maching will be much more ammo efficient.
The need to spec auxiliary skills
You’ll have to put points into Short Summer and Cold Advance besides Frostbite and Avalanche to be able to maximize the use of the action skill. That’s up to 20 skill points spent in order to consistently take advantage of frostbite and come close to the shock multiplier, which is very restricting if you plan on having more than one capstone in your build.
Avalanche Stacks
You absoluelty need the avalanche stacks to get a competitive damage multiplier.
Building avalanche stacks alone takes quite long, about 30 mins to get close to 100 stacks. Furthermore, it’s not always easy to hold on to those stacks – longer distances without enemies, going into ffyl, falling into pits, accidentally dealing fire damage (even through barrels!), and you can start farming again.
In Coop it’s even worse, with team mates killing mobs too fast and thereby denying you the gain of avalanche stacks, hanging out chatting, scrounging around for loot, grinding stuff in Concordia…
Necessity to frostbite
There’s rarely the need to frostbite enemies in order to get through their shield. In most cases, it’s far less complicated and takes only ever so slightly longer to do simple element matching.
Even the toughest Ultimate Badass Mugger goes down within seconds when you do the cryo-splosions, same with Guardian Gargaunts and Radiant Ophas. Most shielded bosses (Bosun, Deadlift, Zarpedon) lose their shield pretty fast with just a good shock weapon and some shock grenades, and as for the Sentinel/Raidboss, it’s not very practicable to go farm 60+ avalanche stacks before going to face him.

###My personal verdict:
For a strongly cryo based build, it’s very good. For other builds (sniping, coop) there’s better skills to spec. The Chronicler of Elpis helps most with cryo damage against shields, while the Ice Queen gives the highest cryo damage boost vs all other targets. The Celestial Baroness is a good middle ground for hybrid builds, while the Eridian vanquisher, Elite Creme de la Creme and Indifferent Gentry are better fit for defensive and crowd control purposes.

##4. Gameplay Videos
I went ahead and farmed 100 stacks and tried it against some bosses. It works nicely vs the bosun and pretty okay vs felicity, but it’s still not enough to take on the raid boss. Back to shambooming it is. Don’t mind the FFYLs, I just like facerolling things with glass cannons.

The reason why I’m not putting these vids into my UVHM Aurelia vs Bosses video thread is, that here you need to farm Avalanche beforehand, which is not the most user friendly thing to do, and certainly not very realistic in coop either.
###Bosun
Aurelia vs Bosun 100 Stacks of Avalanche

###Felicity
Aurelia vs Felicity 100 Stacks of Avalanche

###RK5
It takes a while to get rk5 frostbitten, thus it takes longer than element matching with custom loads. Also I forgot to equip the Ice Queen com for even more damage on RK5. Should probably retake it, and try to find a way to get that first soldier on the ledge left to the elevator out of the way fast, so my frost shard can directly go onto rk5
Aurelia 100 stacks vs RK5

###Raid Boss
Normal guns still don’t quite cut it during the first stage, despite the 2.84 multiplier I get.
Aurelia vs Raid Boss 100 Stacks of Avalanche

So it’s back to the ugly work around. Ideally, I should be using the cryo launcher only when the boss is frostbitten, and else switch to the shock badaboom, as well as stick to shock during his cryo resistant phase.
During the big form, the 3.57 multiplier on unshielded targets really shows, and frostbite really helps during the shock resistant phase here.

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