THE BEST GLACEON BUILD GUIDE - POKEMON UNITE

dumb ice cat!

About Snow Cloak:
Keep good track of when your passive is up, which is indicated by a snowy aura around you. Getting hit by anything that has any sort of slow or CC while this Snow Cloak is up will make you invincible, invisible, and not CC’d temporarily. Try your best to hold onto it as as much as you can, as it can often give divers a bothersome extra step to actually being able to get you.

• When jungling with this character, be sure to clear your Xatu after 9:45. You’ll most likely have an extra bit of catchup EXP that lets you get level 4 immediately after clearing the first buff. This opens up the possibility of doing a very early level 4 gank to punish aggressive enemy laners. Even if you don’t opt to do that, you’ll still clear your jungle significantly faster since you’ll have your 4 spike for one extra jungle farm.
• In that vein of a faster jungle clear, there’s a mechanic in this game that prevents people from getting leveling up passively if they are to evolve on the next level. Most jungle characters evolve at 5 so they have to actually clear a farm to get there. However, Glaceon is special in that it has a level 4 evolution and as a result, can skip a Baltoy entirely with no extra conditions and still passively level up to 5 very soon after arriving to gank. Especially helpful with Icy Wind’s slow first clear.

MOVESET 1: Spearceon – Icicle Spear + Ice Shard
Items: Slick Spoon, Wise Glasses, Choice Specs
– Slick Spoon and Wise Glasses turn out to be great damage items overall for Glaceon due to its spammy nature and potentially very high total ratio on Icicle Spear.
– Choice Specs is another solid special attacker item for giving you that extra bit of burst damage when you cast Icicle Spear. Energy Amp however is also a plenty viable alternative for spamming ult more and getting potentially massive value out of an Amp boosted spear, although this is easier said then done.
Battle Item: Eject Button
– Bread and butter item for most squishy attackers and Glaceon is no different. The instant reposition is great for quickly escaping danger or even making surprise gapcloses to cast spear.
Emblems: 6 Green 6 White – Flat Sp.Atk Focus
– Because of the way Icicle Spear’s cooldowns tend to flow, Glaceon gets very little mileage from running CDR. Because of that, you may as well invest in more damage and bulk.

Specialized moveset towards high rip damage that excels are shredding down tanks, especially once you get Icicle Spear level 10 with Spears+ doing %max hp damage. This also makes her an great objective ripping pick once it gets this power spike, melting even Rayquaza down so quickly that the enemies will regret blinking.

Ice Shard has now been buffed to give more atkspeed baseline, meaning Glace can now generate the maximum 8 icicles right from level 6, *WITHOUT* the help of any atkspeed items. This frees up a whole item slot for her now. The jury is still out on what exactly is the best option for that slot, but something between Choice/Amp/Stacking Specs will do the job for you.

ALL of Glaceon’s autos, not just her boosteds, scale on Sp. Atk. On top of that, the vast majority of her dmg output is during her Spear windows, which cannot crit. Ice Shard auto crits are pretty juicy though.

Basically, you’re holding out for level 6. Contrary to the other Eeveelutions, Glace level 4 spike is…not stellar. Without the help of Shard it takes 25 years to generate enough icicles to make Spear do any sort of damage, and it’s very easy to see coming. During this pre level 6 phase, don’t be afraid to settle for firing 2-6 icicle casts if you just need really quick damage immediately.

Once you get lvl 6 though, your gameflow turns into pressing Ice Shard to do a few mega autos that give 2 icicles each (you should get 8 easily now), and immediately unleash within a matter of 2 seconds. Spear usage also lowers the CD of Shard, so you then just keep chaining them together indefinitely if you can get a good backline position going. However, keep in mind that Spear’s cast range can be a little low for an Attacker and that can be enough for players to get caught out and punished if they’re not careful. Because of that potential factor of not always being able to get off a safe Spear cast after your Ice Shards, try to make sure you cast Ice Shard at a time where you know you can get a safe Spear cast very soon after to keep your cooldowns and icicle lifetimes nicely lined up.

It is very important to keep in mind that once you lock Spear onto its target and Glaceon’s machine gun starts firing, it has INFINITE range and you can move freely while they are firing. This means that you can take advantage of this to put yourself back into a safe position and freely try to sidestep any danger while still getting off all your damage.

You can sometimes use this to counterplay the fact that Spear can be bodyblocked by your target’s teammates by adjusting your positioning while launching Spear to adjust the angle of the stream of Icicles so you can hit different things or make it harder to bodyblock. Remember that they also still have a bit of splash damage as well. Oftentimes people who are too tightly grouped up will just end up making everyone take the spear damage instead of just one or two guys.

Glacial Stage with Icicle Spear
Glaceon’s Unite move has mediocre up front burst damage, but especially if you slotted Energy Amp it is still a very low cooldown Unite that you can sometimes just throw out for a bit of extra damage. Icicle Spear users have to be a little more mindful about how exactly they position their Glacial Stage though, as standing in this move’s lingering area will generate more Icicles for Glaceon. This means that if you cast Icicle Spear while standing in this, you can go from a normal 8 icicle cast to a max of 12 icicles in one cast or just be able to get off a big Spear cast even if you’re low on icicles to start with.

You also run a lot faster while on your Glacial Stage and enemies in it are slowed, which can be handy for making sure people don’t get away or for juking people out if you opt to use this move for your own buffs.

When you’re ripping an objective and purely maximizing rip speed is your priority, be sure to throw in this Unite move to get some bigger Spears. During more contested situations though, it may be worth looking into saving the Unite move to have on hand (albeit not remarkable) burst damage option to give you an objective secure option that this moveset otherwise lacks.

MOVESET 2: Windceon – Icy Wind + Freeze Dry
Items: Slick Spoon, Shell Bell, Energy Amp
– Slick Spoon is an all around great and consistent damage item for Icy Wind Glaceon that further increases its already surprisingly great burst damage into tanks.
– Shell Bell + Energy Amp’s double CDR combo is required for reliable Icy Wind refreshes. Amp is also generally good value for Glaceon’s fast ult and increasing its overall output.
– Choice Specs used to be the old standard before Spoon because of the Choice Specs proc using the post Freeze Dry buff special attack stat that lends itself to some really juicy procs, but this item loses almost all value if you’re not hitting literally every Freeze Dry and also makes you much weaker when you don’t have Freeze Dry buff up.
Battle Item: Eject Button
– Bread and butter item for most squishy attackers and Glaceon is no different. The instant reposition is great for quickly escaping danger and making surprise gap closes.
Emblems: 7 Black 6 Green
– 7 Black adds a bit of CDR that makes Icy Wind refreshes theoretically possible before level 11, makes it more generous overall, and lets you use your moves more often.

Focus on staying in the backline and kiting around while poking people down with massive Freeze Dry into Icy Wind burst combos. The Icy Wind auto attack also gets massively increased range compared to a normal auto attack which lets you be able to play from quite a long range. Take advantage of this to stay safe.

When possible, ALWAYS use Freeze Dry first when possible before using an icy wind enhanced auto because it gives Glaceon steroids (increased sp atk) for 3 seconds. This means that you want to be able to keep your cooldowns reasonably synced up so you can get the most of your moves, as Icy Wind’s damage without Freeze Dry can sometimes leave something to be desired. If you’re really good at managing your CDs, you can even try stacking Freeze Dry’s buff with Energy Amp’s buff for an absolutely nuclear Icy Wind.

Now that blue buff has been nerfed to 10%, the windows of upkeep infinite 8 icicles is MUCH slimmer, and takes extreme planning and timing to not drop them off. The faceroll gameplay is not quite possible as we knew it, and the ampbell is borderline mandatory now (particularly in tournament mode where emblems are not enabled) to give some breathing room in the rotation. While it can take a bit of practice to get the refresh timing down in the heat of the moment, you can also just.. mash the Icy Wind button and it’ll do.

You need about 24% CDR total to be able to refresh Icy Wind without having to hit anything, so while it’s theoretically possible to get infinite refreshes at level 5 with blue buff, Amp, Bell, and 7 Black, in practicality it’s very unreliable until level 11’s innate CDR boost because of ping. If you’re playing in tourney mode where there aren’t any emblems, infinite refreshes before level 11 are basically off the table anyway. No matter what, you’re going to need blue buff.

Icy wind keeps your icicle stash after use, so it’s IMPORTANT to keep your icicle bar up so that you can keep reusing your max icicles as long as possible. As long as you keep the bar up, you keep your 8 icicles up indefinitely even without the assistance of blue buff. Blue buff only needed if you are not able to constantly hit things with your moves.

Things that RESET your icicle bar:
– using Icy Wind dash
– using Icy Wind auto
– using a boosted auto
– landing Freeze Dry

If you do end up finding yourself in a situation where you’re not able to refresh Icy Wind, you’re still able to be functional if you play your cards right. Doing the Icy Wind dash on the initial cast with zero icicles on hand gives you two icicles on sight. Freeze Dry gives 2 icicles per target hit by it and Freeze Dry+ gives 3 icicles per target. This means that doing Icy Wind dash into hitting Freeze Dry can give you minimum 4-5 icicles immediately. It’s still good to have a serviceable Icy Wind to hold you out until you get the rest of your icicles. If you hit multiple targets with Freeze Dry on grouped up enemies or on something like the birds/bees, then that’s basically all your icicles back in one go.
DOUBLE ICY WIND
Near the end of your enhanced auto duration, you can throw your icicles and immediately use icy wind again in rapid succession because of how the cooldown of Icy Wind begins the moment you prime the Icy Wind auto. this requires you to wait and be patient but makes you absolutely stab the target to death and has a lot of burst in a short amount of time.
Glacial Stage with Icy Wind
While this Unite move definitely doesn’t offer as much synergy for Icy Wind as it does Icicle Spear in terms of the icicle generation mechanic, there’s still a surprising amount you can do with it because of how this moveset basically requires Energy Amp.

With Energy Amp’s 4 second damage boost upon Uniting, the normally underwhelming burst damage is bumped up to a more satisfactory level for getting a chunk of damage on grouped up opponents or getting that extra bit of damage to close a kill between Icy Wind cooldowns. Since this damage boost also applies to whatever moves come after the Unite in that 4 second window, you can also get some really big Icy Winds right after uniting if you have your cooldowns managed well. You can even try to fit in a Freeze Dry for even more burst damage and Sp. Atk for massive Icy Winds.

This move also just has a low cooldown so if you’re running Amp, so can kinda just throw out without huge consequence. You can also use it as a way to build up icicles again in a pinch if you missed a reset or don’t have blue buff, but it’s not particularly fast at this if it’s not supplemented by a Freeze Dry.

Favourable Matchup:

These are Pokémon that our team has determined GLACEON is strong against. GLACEON will generally be able to shut down these opponents playstyle's or have the advantage in a one on one fight.

Unfavourable Matchup:

These are Pokémon that our team has determined GLACEON is weak against. These Pokémon will have the upper hand in a fight or be able to exploit GLACEON's weaknesses.