for ice shard build…
why go for greater ice shards ( while you have a barrier active casts of ice shsrfs treat enimers as if they were frozen)
over
destructive ice shards (makes enimes volnurable)
almost all the ice shard builds use greater ice shards passive? and insight on why frozen is better then vulnerable?
There are 2 things you need to know. First is Frigid Breeze, which is the main mana engine for the build only works against vuln targets and there isn’t a very consistent way of having 100% uptime on vuln, than Destructive Ice Shard. Avalanche also benefits from 100% uptime on vuln which is both damage increase (although sorc does 0 damage, so take that with a pinch of salt) and a secondary mana engine.
2nd and more important is that Blizzard like word salads. Treating enemies as “frozen” doesn’t apply the hidden frozen damage on the target and only works for the 100% ricochet, which is hilariously stupid. It gives you hope that you could have decent damage outside of Frost Nova and it instantly stomps it into the ground 
.
Wait really? Then great ice shards is completely worthless compared to destructive… I figured that was the whole point was to give you access to Damage modifiers while barrier is up as well.
because when you treat them as frozen it deals more dmg - read ice shard skill again - 25% more dmg if they are frozen
Yes, but you don’t get the full frozen damage from other multipliers. It only treats as frozen from the perspective of the skills bonuses, only that 25% dmg and 100% ricochet. Which is why you do significantly more damage to actual frozen targets.
Destructive is the way to go
I prefer to do more dmg so I just go with greater shards and use frost nova for vulnerability
This is how I feel about it too. I want to be at a power level where I’m one-shotting trash, which that gives a much better shot at (otherwise you HAVE to cast twice on the same mob, to apply the vuln the first time) - and bigger packs / elites will be vuln because of frost nova.
if everything isnt dead after your frost nova, you have another one. and if everything isnt dead after that then youre too weak anyways
I always run Destructive Ice Shards (vulnerability) because I hate being 100% reliant on frost nova to kill things and there is no other reliable way to make a target vulnerable, which is a 3x damage increase with my current stats.
I prefer vulnerable all the time over 25% more Ice Shards dmg for 6 seconds every 20 seconds.
Vulnerable is much better tbh if you have a reliable way to freeze. Ice bolt enchant with aspect of shared misery means you are guaranteed freeze everything you come into contact with.