How exactly does Slow work?

I'm not really convinced Frost Bolts - or Slow in general - actually works properly, since unlike other games (Dungeon Warfare's Frost/Slime traps, Orcs Must Die's Tar Traps, etc etc etc) I'll pile up Frost Bolts or Frost Towers or whatever and watch as most if not all of the enemies happily march right through all of it and still moving just as fast as the enemies that freshly spawned on the other side of the map.

I do see some slow down every now and then, but the vast majority just seem to be unaffected and the ones that do get slowed down aren't slowed by much. I understand Ballistae are single-target and Frost Bolts only slows by a small amount yes, but when seven or more Frost Towers are targeting the same lane and the horde just blazes through it as quickly as enemies in undefended lanes? I don't understand Frost Towers then, if they're seemingly not doing what they say they should be doing. 50% slow surely should be slowing things right?

HomeRnDrby1 replied to How exactly does Slow work? February 6, 2022 @ 11:59:15 am PST
HomeRnDrby1 replied to How exactly does Slow work? February 6, 2022 @ 11:59:15 am PST

Yes, 50% does in fact slow targets by 50%. However, some towers that slow aren't as what they seem.

Ballista with Frost Bolts does what it does on the tin, slows by a percentage; especially effective in clusters.

Frost towers are quite different. They do not slow directly in an area - instead they create particles that do the slowing. When an enemy hits one of these particles, then they get slowed. It is a good thing to notice that the more area a frost tower covers, it's RoF increases to keep it's coverage equal; this also applies to encampment towers and their landmine placement.

KellyR replied to How exactly does Slow work? February 6, 2022 @ 1:00:18 pm PST
KellyR replied to How exactly does Slow work? February 6, 2022 @ 1:00:18 pm PST

Frost Keeps work best in groups. If you build a cluster of 4 or more, it causes so many snowflakes that little or nothing makes it past without getting hit.

Sylxeria replied to How exactly does Slow work? February 6, 2022 @ 5:51:49 pm PST
Sylxeria replied to How exactly does Slow work? February 6, 2022 @ 5:51:49 pm PST

Originally posted by HomeRnDrby1:
Yes, 50% does in fact slow targets by 50%. However, some towers that slow aren't as what they seem.

Ballista with Frost Bolts does what it does on the tin, slows by a percentage; especially effective in clusters.

Frost towers are quite different. They do not slow directly in an area - instead they create particles that do the slowing. When an enemy hits one of these particles, then they get slowed. It is a good thing to notice that the more area a frost tower covers, it's RoF increases to keep it's coverage equal; this also applies to encampment towers and their landmine placement.

I have seven 'keeps in the center part of my map, most of them overlapping. I'm not noticing anything slowing down, I guess then the Frost Keep isn't good for large groups of enemies since the particles can't hit them all?

KellyR replied to How exactly does Slow work? February 6, 2022 @ 10:35:49 pm PST
KellyR replied to How exactly does Slow work? February 6, 2022 @ 10:35:49 pm PST

Originally posted by Sylxeria:
Originally posted by HomeRnDrby1:
Yes, 50% does in fact slow targets by 50%. However, some towers that slow aren't as what they seem.

Ballista with Frost Bolts does what it does on the tin, slows by a percentage; especially effective in clusters.

Frost towers are quite different. They do not slow directly in an area - instead they create particles that do the slowing. When an enemy hits one of these particles, then they get slowed. It is a good thing to notice that the more area a frost tower covers, it's RoF increases to keep it's coverage equal; this also applies to encampment towers and their landmine placement.

I have seven 'keeps in the center part of my map, most of them overlapping. I'm not noticing anything slowing down, I guess then the Frost Keep isn't good for large groups of enemies since the particles can't hit them all?
They can, but you need more than just "overlapping". When I said above that you want a cluster, I mean you build 4 or more literally right next to each other so they're all covering mostly the same tiles of path.

If you zoom in on this, you'll get an example of what I mean:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2744366164

I've got 5 frost keeps on the main defense point hill, with another 4 on the ridges surrounding it. That'll slow hordes easily.

Sylxeria replied to How exactly does Slow work? February 6, 2022 @ 10:52:10 pm PST
Sylxeria replied to How exactly does Slow work? February 6, 2022 @ 10:52:10 pm PST

Originally posted by KellyR:
Originally posted by Sylxeria:

I have seven 'keeps in the center part of my map, most of them overlapping. I'm not noticing anything slowing down, I guess then the Frost Keep isn't good for large groups of enemies since the particles can't hit them all?
They can, but you need more than just "overlapping". When I said above that you want a cluster, I mean you build 4 or more literally right next to each other so they're all covering mostly the same tiles of path.

If you zoom in on this, you'll get an example of what I mean:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2744366164

I've got 5 frost keeps on the main defense point hill, with another 4 on the ridges surrounding it. That'll slow hordes easily.

Alright, so more than just two side by side then, and definitely more than just spread out like I would in other games. Makes a bit more sense now, I was just doing it completely wrong. Thanks!

KellyR replied to How exactly does Slow work? February 7, 2022 @ 1:39:01 am PST
KellyR replied to How exactly does Slow work? February 7, 2022 @ 1:39:01 am PST

Originally posted by Sylxeria:
Originally posted by KellyR:
They can, but you need more than just "overlapping". When I said above that you want a cluster, I mean you build 4 or more literally right next to each other so they're all covering mostly the same tiles of path.

If you zoom in on this, you'll get an example of what I mean:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2744366164

I've got 5 frost keeps on the main defense point hill, with another 4 on the ridges surrounding it. That'll slow hordes easily.

Alright, so more than just two side by side then, and definitely more than just spread out like I would in other games. Makes a bit more sense now, I was just doing it completely wrong. Thanks!
No worries! They're useful even alone, but they definitely work best in clusters like that around important choke points.