Ice Armor Ranking!

[heywoods1230]

For those who haven't seen yet we got a treasure trove of fun data today about all the AT's and combos. One set I have always loved thematically, and was very excited when homecoming launched was some changes to the set for Sentinels. 

 

 

Can't say I was surprised that Ice Armor was the least seen defensive set at 50 especially when compared to the top 3 and Ice Armor being near the bottom with every AT it is available to, but I do still feel like it would go a long way if this bug with Frigid Shield was addressed making ice armor more attractive to Sentinels.

 

 

[oldskool]

While interesting, this list is largely useless for gauging any level of effectiveness.  Bio Armor and Rad are both shiney and new so having high levels of player engagement isn't a big surprise. 

Regeneration's popularity is no surprise at all.  It was widely popular, and may still be, within the PvP community.  Bio Armor also has a strong following in PvP, for Sentinels at least. 

Ice Armor has visuals that don't really mesh well with a lot of concepts and that was a trend even in past.  Hell, Ice Blast on Sentinels isn't that popular.  The two most popular pairings of that primary are Ice/Regen and Ice/Bio both of which can have a PvP focus.  Ice/Ice is #26.  Ice Armor doesn't show up again until slot #58 with a Water Blast pairing.  It doesn't show up again after that until the 100's.  I wouldn't be shocked at all if a majority of the player base didn't even know how Sentinel Ice Armor works.  If the set doesn't look appealing visually, then no one is going to really dive into it.  It doesn't help one bit that no one is singing any praise of the set so the FOTM re-rollers give no F's about it.  Not saying anyone should be singing praise for the set, Ice Armor is a pain in the ass, but since no one really talks about it there is no generated interest.  No generated community interest + poor visuals (even the minimal effects versions are off putting to some concepts) = low player engagement. 

 

Spot 26 and 58 show a thematic pairing.  Spot #1 for play at 50 is Fire Blast/Fiery Aura followed by Electric/Electric, Radiation/Radiation, Energy/Energy, Water/Bio.  That's the top 5.  Fire Blast/Rad is also thematic but effective.  That's #6 and I'd suspect that's in large part due to the Pylon thread plus Youtube.  After that there is another series of thematic pairings. 

Invulnerability is in a bottom 3 of sets played at 50.  That's BAFFLING to me.  Super Reflexes being below Fiery Aura is also kinda laughable.  Willpower being where it is also isn't a huge surprise, but it also screams to me that people gravitate towards what they are familiar with.  Willpower, in my experience, isn't more effective than either Sentinel Invul or SR.  Hell, my SR builds can achieve endurance management on par with Willpower due to Enduring while often pushing more challenging content on top of it.  All this list shows is that there is actually very little exploration in the Sentinel AT beyond an obvious thematic pairing or just trying out new powers for the sake of it.  That seems consistent with a general consensus of the community at large that the Sentinel isn't that serious of an AT to play in the first place. 
 

Pointing out Ice Armor's bug is great, and I'd love it to get reviewed.  However, I really doubt that's a reason why it is hardly played.  People probably see it in the listing of powers and think "nah, that's not my character".

 

Edit:

So why do I think Ice is a pain? - Well, for the leveling experience it can be a little awkward against fire.  Against Smash/Lethal or Energy its really not much of an issue.  Frigid Shield isn't great.  Looking longer term, there are 2 power that grant you maximum health.  The double dip on max health would be more appreciated if the HP cap was higher or if most Sentinel builds really worried a lot about melee in the first place.  Its real easy to cap HP with Ice Armor (which isn't a bad thing), but I'm not sold on how it got there from a design perspective.  Having the same T9 as Stalkers is something that I find welcome. 

Players can soft-cap the typed defenses with Ice Armor.  Just because you can though doesn't necessarily mean you should.  In an ideal world with a better Frigid Shield, Ice Armor is a mixed mitigation set like Energy Aura.  It's not quite there, in my opinion, but it isn't as terrible as it sounds... once you IO the hell out of it.  There are numerous places to slot Aegis to raise that Fire/Cold defense gap.  My own Ice/Ice/Ice currently shoots for 32% to everything.  That was the original build plan.  By pure accident it gets 35% to Fire/Cold and far more to S/L/E/N.  I'm OK with that.  Hoarfrost as a heal plus maxed out HP by looking at my keyboard funny is fine for handling Psi damage.  Icy Bastion has a number of nice perks going for it, but I wish I could have it more often.  Since Ice Armor can be built to be pretty functional, once you IO it, I found a lot of opportunity to put procs in the 3 main attacks I use. 

So the set works but it could use some refinements.  Perhaps even a pass for those just trying to level with it since being a decent set at 50 with IOs isn't really a wonderful place to be.

Edited March 3, 2020 by oldskool

[drbuzzard]

In my view ice armor had 2 large flaws. 

A) An absorb shield that was basically worthless. After trying regen, which really is based on how good the absorb shield is, I figured ice might we similar since the rest of the set looked pretty lackluster. However the numbers on the shield are so low as to make it worthless. At best you'd take it for a place to put a healing proc. It's simply not worth slotting up. 

 

B) The endurance recovery tool in the set (which all sentinels have in some form or another) is also relied on to supply a significant chunk of your defense. Thus you can use it (and slot it) for one goal or another, but will be challenged for it to be good at both. Also those two things are conflicting goals, since you want defense to start, but endurance recovery later in a fight. Now I know this is a common attribute of ice armor, but at least in every other version of the set the energy absorption power over saturates your defense, so it's not so important to slot for it. Here it's a single target (and you actually have to pick a target unlike in dark armor where it's a PBAE with good range so it can just be clicked in any proximity to enemies). 

[heywoods1230]

Still no changes, huh?

[oldskool]

37 minutes ago, heywoods1230 said:

Still no changes, huh?

The Sentinel hasn't had a review pass, yet.  

 

Edited January 17, 2021 by oldskool

[Sattymike]

Thanks for details around this - I just started an ice / ice sentinel a few days ago.   I found with minimal effects and a color change, the armor set looks pretty good and was a theme choice overall.  I’ll probably drop the absorb shield from my build based on what I’m hearing.  I’ll play it out and see how the Endo recovery works.  Interested to get the experience of leveling it up.