Talk me into rolling an Ice Tank

[Owenknowone]

Why would I roll and Ice tank and is it worthwhile or can I get it maxed out to be awesome?

[Xandyr]

Ice is the undisputed king of being an aggro magnet. Nobody will steal your aggro. Noone. Period. Chilling Embrace (which pulses twice as much  as any other damage aura) and Icicles make SURE you get,and keep, all the aggro.

  Ice is defense.  Depending on your secondary,  you *might* be able to squeeze enough Winter Sets to cap your Fire defenses.

  The resists are so so.  But you usually won't get hit. And when you do, you have a nice heal. Energy absorption adds defense and end, so endurance shouldn't be a problem. 

  I say go for it. I enjoyed my Ice tank.

Edited January 2, 2022 by Xandyr
Mispell

[Brawlin]

7 hours ago, Xandyr said:

Ice is the undisputed king of being sn sggto magnet. Nobody will steal your aggro. Noone. Period. Chilling Embrace (which pulses twice as much  as any other damage aura) and Icicles make SURE you get,and keep, all the aggro.

  Ice is defense.  Depending on your secondary,  you *might* be able to squeeze enough Winter Sets to cap your Fire defenses.

  The resists are so so.  But you usually won't get hit. And when you do, you have a nice heal. Energy absorption adds defense and end, so endurance shouldn't be a problem. 

  I say go for it. I enjoyed my Ice tank.

Holding agro off of other tanks is the selling point of ice? That's not useful at all.

Any tank can hold agro and do its job.

[Bill Z Bubba]

5 minutes ago, Brawlin said:

Holding agro off of other tanks is the selling point of ice? That's not useful at all.

Any tank can hold agro and do its job.

 

No, the selling point is just how well it holds aggro.

 

To the OP, be sure you go ageless radial for more DDR. Ice armor's low DDR is the primary reason I won't touch it. Or you can lean on hibernate.

[Obsinious]

Why would you roll an ice tank?  Because the theme interests you, that's it.

 

Is it worthwhile?  It is if you think you'll enjoy it.

 

If you're asking if it's a strong armor, then no it isn't.  Tank scaling and IO mean any armor can be reasonably strong, but an ice armor is undoubtedly the least impressive.

 

Now Ice melee is a different story, ice patch is great and the set has pretty good damage.  If you have an ice theme that you want to play you might consider just running ice melee with one of the less visually intrusive good armors.

Edited January 1, 2022 by Obsinious

[Brawlin]

1 minute ago, Obsinious said:

Why would you roll an ice tank?  Because the theme interests you, that's it.

 

Is it worthwhile?  It is if you think you'll enjoy it.

 

If you're asking if it's a strong armor, then no it isn't.  Tank scaling and IO mean any armor can be reasonably strong, but an ice armor is undoubtedly the least impressive.

 

Now Ice melee is a different story, ice patch is great and the set has pretty good damage.  If you have an ice theme that you want to play you might consider just running ice melee with one of the less intrusive good armors.

That bit about ice melee is true af. Check out the DPA of frost before enhancements. Its insane

[PLVRIZR]

12 minutes ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

 

No, the selling point is just how well it holds aggro.

 

To the OP, be sure you go ageless radial for more DDR. Ice armor's low DDR is the primary reason I won't touch it. Or you can lean on hibernate.

 

^--this

 

When I rolled my Ice/Axe tank on Live it was before the IO (and long before the Incarnate system), and he was frustrating as hell, being used to maining a Stone tank.  With no DDR, even low level CoT were a problem.  I made it to 50 (because I'm a stubborn fool who tries to never give up), but then shelved him and never played him, again.

 

I'm intrigued with ice melee, however, and may just roll a WP/Ice or Inv/Ice, instead.

[Obsinious]

1 hour ago, PLVRIZR said:

I'm intrigued with ice melee, however, and may just roll a WP/Ice or Inv/Ice, instead.

WP/Ice sounds fun.  I wonder how well Ice Patch can fill in during those times that Will's DDR fail it.

[Owenknowone]

Thank you for the responses.  Back in the day I had two ice tankers and as much as I love the concept and powers, it is weak sauce compared to the other sets.  Yes its great on grabbing and holding agro.  Then again it is really great at grabbing and holding agro from others and becomes the center of attention then ugh.  I think I will slowly level mine up and hope one day god willing this game continues to thrive, Ice gets a makeover.  Again thanks all for chiming in!

[kelika2]

ice/radi

fight with yourself for hours on a Nuclear Winter knockoff name

stack those auras

recolor /radi frostylike

and get bored around level 10-15 and reroll

now im not saying im putting the idea of a thug/thermal in your head just so you can have a forged arsonist/enforcers but it is what it might be

[Haijinx]

Ice needs buffed in order to compare to other Tanker Primary Sets  

 

That said, it has a lot of tools you can use.

 

You can make /Regen good, so obviously you can make ICE/ good. 

[Warboss]

As others have said, Ice Armor can be very annoying. Sure you "don't get hit" (actually... you do, a lot. Especially while leveling), and when you do it hurts. Iirc, the Heal is fairly slow to recharge, so Hibernate is your friend until you can get IOs in place and arguably Incarnate Powers. That said, it can be a viable Tank, but it is probably the longest to mature and get dialed in. On large teams this likely won't be and issue, but as the team size shrinks, so do available buffs.

 

Chilling Embrace is an amazing aggro grabber. It's worth rolling/playing at least one Ice Tank, just for that. Secondaries I've enjoyed on the set are Dark Melee, Fiery Melee (yeah, I know...), Radiation Melee and Spines (this one is really fun). The reworked/current version of Ice Melee would be a great pairing as well. Frost FTW!!

 

Increased DDR would make the set more fun to play, or maybe even some increased/additional resists,  but I don't think that's doing to happen.

 

[Warboss]

2 hours ago, PLVRIZR said:

I'm intrigued with ice melee, however, and may just roll a WP/Ice or Inv/Ice, instead.

 

Do it. Although I think you should really try DA/IM... Because everyone needs an End challenge (actually DA/StoneMelee is the "better" one for that challenge, but still...).

[Onlyasandwich]

I was skeptical about ice/ before leveling mine, but it does feel like more than the sum of its rather uninspiring parts.

 

I do think it could use a little love perhaps, but it does have strengths:

1. Aggro as mentioned already. Certainly any tanker can do this, but it's effortless and super reliable on ice.
2. Bottomless endurance. Energy absorption is one of the few end buff powers that I like to spam on cooldown regardless of my blue bar. The def buff is solid, animation is fast, and it grabs additional aggro as well. Always up when you need it - no need to hold back. This makes it easier to run end hungry secondaries or even keep pigs like focused accuracy on all the time.
3. Hibernate is actually pretty neat! This is by no means a game changer, but allows you to push your limits without fear.
4. Running FA and not worrying much about end support frees up some slotting for more procs or shoring up resists. 
5. Chilling embrace is more than just an aggro grabber - it is a potent autohit debuff. -dam and -recharge layer very well with your high defense, and provide greater overall protection than you might think.

 

Edited January 1, 2022 by Onlyasandwich

[Without_Pause]

3 hours ago, Obsinious said:

WP/Ice sounds fun.  I wonder how well Ice Patch can fill in during those times that Will's DDR fail it.

You want it used so the DDR doesn't fail in the first place. It is more useful solo since you don't have support to back you up, but it completely creates fights in your favor.

[Cancrusher]

Ice armor is a great set.  Just make sure you pick the minimal effects option, otherwise you end up with goofiness like this:  

[Xandyr]

If "theme" is important, and you don't necessarily want Ice Armor, you could roll Shield and take the ice elemental shield. That's what I did...Shield/Ice Melee. 

[Blastit]

16 hours ago, Cancrusher said:

Ice armor is a great set.  Just make sure you pick the minimal effects option, otherwise you end up with goofiness like this:  

On the other hand, you get to be Captain Cube.

[Haijinx]

7 hours ago, Blastit said:

On the other hand, you get to be Captain Cube.

 

Also very popular at parties where they forgot to buy Ice.

[wjrasmussen]

On 12/31/2021 at 10:00 PM, Owenknowone said:

Why would I roll and Ice tank and is it worthwhile or can I get it maxed out to be awesome?

Don't do it.  It is too difficult to do.  You won't enjoy the challenge.

[Bill Z Bubba]

37 minutes ago, wjrasmussen said:

Don't do it.  It is too difficult to do.  You won't enjoy the challenge.

 

And only you can decided where challenge crosses over into masochism.

[wjrasmussen]

8 minutes ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

 

And only you can decided where challenge crosses over into masochism.

I was trying to talk him into it.

[ninja surprise]

Ice is a piece of cake to soft-cap while leveling.

Do Ice/Stone Melee and you get so much knockdown and stuns that enemies don't get to attack back very much.

[Realmoe]

Ice/fire..... after you get SO's your defenses are near max so on average a 5% chance to hit you. You get ice slick which is awesome fun but you get the added benefit of BURN!!!!!

Run in, slow everything, they stick to you like glue and then you ice slick them, drop a burn and they cant run....

 

I have 3 main tanks, one is Ice/Ice, one is fire/fire, and the third is Ice/fire.  I have also leveled and maxed dark/dark for fun. Each has its merits but by far I love the ice tank for shear sturdiness.

[Socks10]

I don't have a lot of experience with different tanking sets, but I do have so, so many alts....and the most fun I've had in this game is with an Ice/Ice Tanker. The only other Tanker I've leveled past level 20 is a 46 Fire/Claws. I'm sure this is the same with other Tankers, but I just love being able to hold aggro and let my team just fire away. I just used my Ice/Ice Tanker tonight with friends for the first time in a while and we just rolled through missions. I was able to go into rooms just packed with bad guys and bring them out to my Blaster and Sentinel friends. I could hold all the aggro and just let them blast away. I was a ton of fun. 

 

I promise, I am trying to give other Tankers a fair shake. I just made a Shield/War Mace earlier today. But I really can't see any AT being as fun as my Ice/Ice.