Until I realized that there was an incarnate power that grants DDR, I would have said hell no to ice armor on anything but a tank. But then, my testing ground for melee is soloing x8 ITFs.
Once I added in that DDR, Ice and Shield both became more of a "yea, ok, I'll try it" thing. Without it? Fogetaboutit. Ice without DDR is a constant "I must hide in hibernate or die" business.