Has anyone used water crystals in combo with perlite to root cuttings?                 

I have. It wasn't very successful. I thought it would be good due to a long term water adsorption rather than absorption. Most cuttings dessicated because the moisture wasn't truly available. If I used more water, the cuttings would rot from the other components becoming saturated. I even adjusted the ratios of the components thinking this would do the trick. Trying to find that happy medium was just impossible for me. I have gone back to the other methods with much better results. Let me know if you try it and are successful with it.

Well, I guessed that you didn't mean ice (aka water crystals), so I looked it up.  What a strangely named product.

Seems like it wouldn't work well (my guess would be that bigbadbill's experience is indicative of what anyone should expect trying that).

Mike 

Thank you both. I will skip that option and work on following the beaten path.