And consoder then the sheer amount of hp and stun that impact does. Read it before you answer again and then tell me again that cold is not a massive downgrade.
Yes, I am looking it, and know them well. Sometimes impact does more HPs, but other times cold does more, but this really goes to cold side when we see bleeding, we can put some examples, but I see generally cold better, some ones:
C(81-85):
- cold: stun(6), bleed(5), penalty(-40)
- impact: 15HP, stun(1), penalty(-25).
We see that in 3 rounds bleeding compensate the HP difference, and now the foe continues loosing HPs.
C(86-90):
- cold: stun(9), bleed(6), penalty(-80).
- impact: 20HP, stun_no_parry(2), penalty(-60).
D(76-80):
- cold: 15HP, stun_no_parry(3), penalty(-25), destroy liquid equipment.
- impact: 10HP, stun(1), break arm.
E(61-65):
- cold: 13HP, stun(3), penalty(-30), freeze(destroy) belt equipment.
- impact: 20HP, stun_no_parry(3), fall down(in description).
I evaded cases like "if wears...if not then..." because are not good for compare.
I see generally cold better, impact does some more HPs and some more stun, but the bleeding, greater penalties and posibility to destroy equipment are better (bleeding is much better than direct HPs).
IMO, in some cases is better impact, but in more cases is better cold, some more HPs is nothing compared with bleeding. Precisely for that is so good heat criticals, and fire attacks does not need any other secondary critical (see that ice bolt uses secondary critical), heat does bleeding since A critical, cold does bleeding since B critical, but penalties are usually greater for cold.
It would be good if you put some example why you think impact is better, I really think that elemental criticals are better than others (and impact is not elemental).
Note: I usually use
fire bolts because when you do enough bleeding you can go for the next target.