Earthgrab vs. Freezing Ice Guard

[warlord1427]

I am in the process of farming runes for my dragontouch armor.

I am looking at the descriptions of the guard runes on wiki and noticed an interesting difference between earthgrab and freezing ice.

The earthgrab procs 5%. The freezing ice guard procs 10%. Both guards have a 35 DC and allow for autostun.

Is there any reason I would want to grab earthgrab over freezing ice?

Thanks

[k1ngp1n]

Is there any reason I would want to grab earthgrab over freezing ice?

Not particularly. Earthgrab can be easily gotten via single shard item (I tend to also toss +45 hp on it). As Freezing Ice is a double shard, it makes it very attractive to have Ice on the DT and earthgrab on an item.

[hcarr]

I believe one is a fort save (freezing) and one is a reflex save (earthgrab). the majority of mobs we fight and would hit you in melee have a much better fort save vs reflex. I think that is why most lean towards earthgrab when asking about guard items when I made my greensteel hp item.

[Crazyfruit]

I am looking at the descriptions of the guard runes on wiki and noticed an interesting difference between earthgrab and freezing ice.

The earthgrab procs 5%. The freezing ice guard procs 10%. Both guards have a 35 DC and allow for autostun.

Is there any reason I would want to grab earthgrab over freezing ice?

Wikis are pages anyone can edit. Don't automatically trust the information from one unless it's backed by links to people testing stuff/etc.

IIRC both were 5%ish pre-save, but I do not remember the test links. Having had them both, I can say that Earthgrab lands on monsters more often during high level play... but it also goes away really fast. Freezing Ice lands less often (monsters saving) but it lasts around twice as long. It also looks way cooler.

/groan, but seriously, it does.

Dragontouch Crafting is a lot more fun if you don't plan for specific runes. Try whichever one you find first, play with it for awhile, and then switch it if you don't like it.

If you plan on getting hit a lot & are a high critical character... both! Earthgrab is much cheaper on a greensteel accessory, as k1ngp1n already mentioned.

I believe one is a fort save (freezing) and one is a reflex save (earthgrab)

Yup yup.

[Bracosius]

I don't really have anything of value to add because it has already been said, but I will pretend like I do in order to up my post count...

It is nice to have both, go with the Ice Guard on the DT armor since making Earthgrab on GS item is single shard as opposed to the dual shard it would take for Ice Guard.

[TheDearLeader]

Not particularly. Earthgrab can be easily gotten via single shard item (I tend to also toss +45 hp on it). As Freezing Ice is a double shard, it makes it very attractive to have Ice on the DT and earthgrab on an item.

I don't really have anything of value to add because it has already been said, but I will pretend like I do in order to up my post count...

It is nice to have both, go with the Ice Guard on the DT armor since making Earthgrab on GS item is single shard as opposed to the dual shard it would take for Ice Guard.

Totally agreed.

It seems like the Freezing Ice Rune drops fairly often (some testing has shown that some runes may drop more than others, and on different difficulty settings). That, and everyone needs more HP. So, DT's with Freezing Ice + a Triple Earth HP Item? = Awesome!

Of course, both of these depend on the kind of caster you are. I know some casters that (almost) never get hit, because of slow, deliberate careful playstyles that many lesser casters fail to emulate properly.

But, if you're the kind that hops into battle with 400+ HP and hope to survive merely on you out-dodging them, having some "stay-put" guards is nice.

[voodoogroves]

I think the dealio is that Earthgrab is Reflex and Freezing Ice is Fort save ... and Fort tends to be higher on the things hitting you while lower on those zapping you with spells and ****. It's why we finger-of-death the casters, their Fort is lower ... but they aren't hitting you with a stick like the big ogre dude is (who rocks a good Fort save).

Not sure the wiki shows what the save is against, but I believe this is what I was told when I asked the question myself.