Ice Tanks...tell me more... :)

[Yomo Kimyata]

I'm enjoying this thread, thank you!

 

I don't generally play tanks, but for some reason Ice Armor is one of the only defense-based sets that I enjoy on scrappers.  Now, of course, this is going to play differently on scrappers and tankers, and that's not just because of the incredible power that is Icy Bastion.  I've been working on a base template for what I would want to slot out of Ice Armor, and I'm still working on getting over my bias towards positional defenses rather than typed defenses.

 

For end game builds I will focus on:

Frozen Armor, Glacial Armor, Weave:  attuned Lotg +recharge, 2x lvl 53 cyto.  No set bonuses, but lots more endurance help than I would get otherwise.

Hoarfrost:  5x Panacea 50+5 (all except proc).  

Chilling Embrace:  2x D-Sync Deceleration lvl 53.  I've no objection to putting damage procs in there if you have room, but I usually don't.

Wet Ice:  50+5 Endurance Reduction IO.  

Energy Absorption:  Shield Wall Def, Def/Rech, Def/End/Rech, all at 50+5, 2x lvl 53 D-Synch End Mod/Rech, Energy Manipulator %stun.  This is certainly overtuned.

Permafrost:  Glad Armor proc and Glad Armor Res, Res/End, Res/Rech at 50+5.

Icy Bastion:  Glad Armor Res and Res/Rech 50+5, Panacea Heal and Heal/Rech 50+5, 2x lvl 53 D-sync End Mod/Rech.

 

Also:

Combat Jumping: Lotg Rech, Kismet proc, Shield Wall proc, Reactive Defense proc

Tough:  attuned Steadfast Protection +def, 4x Unbreakable Guard (Res, Res/End, Res/End/Rech, proc).

Health:  Panacea proc

Stamina:  Perf Shifter proc

 

With no other set bonuses, I am working off a base of:

 

With one opponent and Energy Absorption active I get an extra 5.3% defense and more with more opponents, and when Icy Bastion is active resistances are basically maxed for all except psionic (which is admittedly awful at 17.7%).  That's a lot of room to have to play around with set bonuses from my offense!  I'm looking forward to continuing to learn more on how to build for Ice Armor.

 

 

 

[Psyonico]

@Yomo Kimyata you're making me want to roll an /ice scrapper...

 

Now... Which primary?

[Yomo Kimyata]

27 minutes ago, Psyonico said:

@Yomo Kimyata you're making me want to roll an /ice scrapper...

 

Now... Which primary?

 

As of now, I have 50s with Kinetic Melee/, Battle Axe/, Stone Melee/, Spines/, Radiation Melee/, Psionic Melee/, but I recently started an Electric Melee and I'm pretty sure he's gonna be my fave.

[Uncle Shags]

I had a Ice/DM that I enjoyed.  The heal was nice, but felt kind of meh.

 

So I just rerolled a Ice/Ice and he's feeling pretty good.  Lots of slow and -recharge, two really nice aoes (Frost and Frozen Aura), and stacked ice patch x3.  It's been a very smooth leveling ride - super durable the whole way.  One of the reasons I'm excited to keep going on him is that the numbers look really nice.  Not a lot of damage, but super tanky.

 

I was originally planning on Darkest Night for the extra -dmg but I decided I just can't not take Fold Space on a team tank.

 

 

 

 

Tanker (Ice Armor - Ice Melee)3.mxd

[Warshades]

I had a concept build for an ice/ba tank. Never got around to building him, but I tried to prioritize resistance as much as I could to make it tanky. Perhaps it can provide some slotting ideas.

 

It gets 65.7% s/l, 62.4% e/n, and 47.1% psi resist without factoring in SMoT proc(s) or Barrier. With 2 stacks of SMoT and Barrier, that's an additional 18.4% resist which will get you near the cap for the most common damage types and a solid 65.5% for psi.

 

Tanker (Ice Armor - Battle Axe).mbd

[Uncle Shags]

2 hours ago, Warshades said:

62.4% e/n
 

That's really high.  I thought my 40% was good.  I'm going to steal some of your ideas.  It's hard to balance because I'd have to give up some s/l res and -rech.  Interesting...

 

And Impervium Psi resist isn't unique?!  What the?!  That changes everything!

Edited December 9 by Uncle Shags
What the?!

[Warshades]

3 hours ago, Uncle Shags said:

That's really high.  I thought my 40% was good.  I'm going to steal some of your ideas.  It's hard to balance because I'd have to give up some s/l res and -rech.  Interesting...

 

I think I'll take some of your ideas as well. Can replace a 4 set Shield Wall for a 5 set LotG to get more s/l resist and then just do a full 6 set Bombardment to get more recharge and replace the e/n resist lost from Shield Wall.

 

On 12/8/2024 at 3:06 PM, Uncle Shags said:

I was originally planning on Darkest Night for the extra -dmg but I decided I just can't not take Fold Space on a team tank.

 

This is quick rework of the ice/ba into ice/ice. Sacrificed taunt and build up, but you get DN from /soul. Taunt is probably least needed on ice armor anyway with it having some of the best aura taunt with Chilling Embrace and Icicles. There's definitely room for improvement as it was a very quick rework, but gets you to about 71.5% s/l and 59.2% e/n.

Tanker (Ice Armor - Ice Melee).mbd

[Silver Lancer]

Did they nerf Energy Absorption?

Everytime I use it now for my Stone Melee/Ice scrap or SS/Ice Tank, I only see a boost to S/L defense when I activate it in mobs. 

 

 

[Uncle Shags]

 

Looks very interesting.  I started tinkering with it but lost motivation.  Realizing I can add loads of psi resist to invuln with impervium has me chasing that idea.  I'm a fickle man... 

[Psyonico]

2 hours ago, Silver Lancer said:

Did they nerf Energy Absorption?

Everytime I use it now for my Stone Melee/Ice scrap or SS/Ice Tank, I only see a boost to S/L defense when I activate it in mobs. 

 

 

CoD still shows it as +def to all.

[Spaghetti Betty]

I guess I could share my Ice/EM build for anyone that needs extra notes!

 

rocket pop - Tanker (Ice Armor - Energy Melee).mbd

 

This is one of my favorite Tanks! It hits really hard with proc'd ET, and I use RoP and Melee to hit RES breakpoints while in combat, usually sitting just under capped S/L and 80% E/N.

[Heatstroke]

Here is my build as it stands currently on Live. With Hasten Hoarfrost is Perma, so having a massice HP boost and Heal up whenever needed in combination with Hibernate really aids survivability.

 

Ignore where the Travel Powers are placed.. pretty sure I changed that just didnt update the build. 

Hope this helps. 

[Silver Lancer]

On 12/10/2024 at 1:22 PM, Psyonico said:

CoD still shows it as +def to all.

Scrapper with Energy Absorption does not boost +def to all

[Frozen Burn]

I love my Ice/EM tank - he's a beast!  

 

My build....  (made prior to the power tier level changes) ... also no alpha or other incarnate powers included.

 

Frigid-Dare - Tanker (Ice Armor).mbd

 

 

 

Edited December 12 by Frozen Burn

[Warshades]

So I got a bit curious and wanted to see how far I could take resists on an ice armor tank. I wouldn't exactly recommend the build as is, several sacrifices were made chasing resist bonuses, but just wanted to test the limits of resist values. This version is ice/spines/ice and gets 73% s/l resist, 66% e/n, 60% toxic (with Hoarfrost active), 59% psi, and 43.2% fire resist before factoring in 2 SMoT procs and barrier (additional 18.4% across the board).

 

With the SMoT procs and barrier, this would be at 90% s/l/c, 84.4% e/n, 78.4% tox, 77.4% psi, and 61.6% fire resist. Should be really sturdy when also factoring in that this can keep up 68% s/l/e/n def and 45% f/c def with 2 stacks of energy absorption and the perma 5% from barrier.

 

I think that /staff fighting secondary may be able to take this further as one of the effects includes a +res to all, but I have never built a staff fighting char to 50 and not sure how much resistance it would add or if it can be maintained permanently. Still, if someone is willing to make some sacrifices on offense, ice armor can definitely be turned into what looks more like a resist armor set on paper while still maintaining amazing defense. 

Tanker (Ice Armor - Spines).mbd