Ice Armor or Stone Armor?

[BuiltDifferent5]

 

Battle of the elementals! Which do you prefer on a Scrapper (and why) : Ice Armor or Stone Armor?

 

Is one more robust than the other? One better for endgame content?

[nihilii]

Stone Armor is plain better.

Mostly the same defense numbers. Better resistances. A "better" +maxHP power, in that it recharges fast enough as a heal. Better +regen. Same damage aura. Better resists (endurance drain resistance is fantastic, whereas Ice's edge in slow resists is chipped away by Winter IOs). An extra damage boost. Much better psi coverage. Geode is a great Can't Touch This button, even if it breaks sometimes.

Ice has a strong T9 for damage spikes and better endurance management. Even that endurance management isn't necessarily a clear win: some builds might prefer the passive +recovery of Stone, which also lets you slot an extra Power Transfer proc in there.

Ice Armor needs help. It's playable (what isn't?), but there's no reason to play it. It's the Willpower of elemental armors.

[ZorkNemesis]

No experience with Stone Armor, but I have an Ice Armor Scrapper that's super fun.  Very well rounded defenses, immune to slows, hardly ever have endurance issues, and decently thematic with Spines by combining Quills with Icicles for dual-needle damage auras (plus stacking extra slows).  Hoarfrost is perma so i'm hard capped on HP at all times.  Defenses are fairly high (minus Fire/Cold) but resistances not so much (besides Cold).  Can be a bit fragile at times, Icy Bastion helps for soaking up alpha strikes and I dipped into Leviathan Mastery for Hibernate as a panic button.

[Zect]

Scrapper ice armor permanently ruined tanker ice armor for me because icy bastion is just that good.

[BuiltDifferent5]

5 hours ago, Zect said:

Scrapper ice armor permanently ruined tanker ice armor for me because icy bastion is just that good.

This was kind of my thought as well. I know it only has about 1/3rd uptime,  but seems pretty sweet. Maybe get something like RoP and alternate them.

That being said, how do you feel the set overall stacks up to Scrapper Stone Armor? Do you prefer one over the other?

[BuiltDifferent5]

6 hours ago, nihilii said:

Stone Armor is plain better.

Mostly the same defense numbers. Better resistances. A "better" +maxHP power, in that it recharges fast enough as a heal. Better +regen. Same damage aura. Better resists (endurance drain resistance is fantastic, whereas Ice's edge in slow resists is chipped away by Winter IOs). An extra damage boost. Much better psi coverage. Geode is a great Can't Touch This button, even if it breaks sometimes.

Ice has a strong T9 for damage spikes and better endurance management. Even that endurance management isn't necessarily a clear win: some builds might prefer the passive +recovery of Stone, which also lets you slot an extra Power Transfer proc in there.

Ice Armor needs help. It's playable (what isn't?), but there's no reason to play it. It's the Willpower of elemental armors.

Thanks for all this info. For stone, are there any primaries you feel go really good with it?

 

Claws/Stone seems cool since, well, you can’t do that combo on a Brute or Tanker 😂 Not sure if that means it’s an actually good combo though. 
 

Katana might pair well. Looking at brimstone procs and the damage aura, seems like it’d bring some decent AOE to Katana.

 

Fiery Melee just seems strong overall as well.

[nihilii]

Claws/Stone sounds pretty cool...

EM is a great fit. /stone has tons of regen and good maxHP so that takes care of ET when ET doesn't crit. Endurance management coupled with light endurance primary makes for an easy time putting it together; opening up Barrier (over Ageless) as Destiny with little DPS sacrifice, and coincidentally Barrier completes the layered mitigation of Stone perfectly. Finally, a damage aura is always helpful to EM.

 

Axe is also good, pulling back things in your aura.

TBH, I praise EM and Axe as synergy for just about any secondary 😅 ... It's hard for powersets to miss the mark when they're high damage and either 1) bursty and endurance light or 2) great convenient AOEs and ranged. Inherently flexible, opens up so many options.

[Sancerre]

On 4/7/2024 at 11:29 AM, BuiltDifferent5 said:

This was kind of my thought as well. I know it only has about 1/3rd uptime,  but seems pretty sweet. Maybe get something like RoP and alternate them.

That being said, how do you feel the set overall stacks up to Scrapper Stone Armor? Do you prefer one over the other?

 

that is the strange part about ice armor _in comparison_ to other 'better' armor sets.  you can find ways to 'fix' ice armor and it is certainly 'playable' but you could also just pick an armor set that works out of the box and doesnt need to be 'fixed'... or just enjoy the theme and supplement your weaknesses through party buffs.

 

On 4/7/2024 at 11:43 AM, BuiltDifferent5 said:

Thanks for all this info. For stone, are there any primaries you feel go really good with it?

 

Claws/Stone seems cool since, well, you can’t do that combo on a Brute or Tanker 😂 Not sure if that means it’s an actually good combo though. 
 

Katana might pair well. Looking at brimstone procs and the damage aura, seems like it’d bring some decent AOE to Katana.

 

Fiery Melee just seems strong overall as well.

 

claws and katana are great powersets fundamentally but are driven down by lethal damage type.  so... great when the critters are not specifically overly resisting lethal damage.  im not personally a fan of claw's follow-up in place of build up though.  fiery melee is extremely strong.

[hakurr]

Battle Axe / Stone that is all you need!!!

 

[JasperStone]

Currently on a Rad/ Ice  and it does just fine 

 

[Anthraxus]

On 4/8/2024 at 8:22 PM, hakurr said:

Battle Axe / Stone that is all you need!!!

 

This has also been my experience, and my Axe/Stone Scrapper is currently the only Scrapper I play.

 

Marry the combo's effectiveness with the ability to recolor powers, and you can have a Stone Armor toon that looks for all intents and purposes like an ice toon.