Best Pairing for Ice Armor

[WhiskeyDingo]

Hello,

 

I'm back, once again asking the forums to help me create my next alt.  I've never played Ice Armor before, it was on my to do list before live shut down.  My question for all of you much smarter people than myself, is what's the best AT and attack power pairing for it?

[Spaghetti Betty]

Really, anything!

 

It's a bit tough to hit defensive breakpoints on anything that isn't a Tanker, but Ice Armor is good enough on its own that it'll compliment anything you pair it with. Just keep in mind that it can be a little end hungry with all of the toggles running, so if you don't like dealing with that, maybe consider a combo that isn't quite as taxing on that front!

[biostem]

2 hours ago, WhiskeyDingo said:

what's the best AT and attack power pairing for it?

I haven't played this combo since discovering Homecoming for myself, but I had a lot of fun playing an Ice/Stone Tanker back on live - went with a sort of "glacial" theme for the character...

[Psyonico]

I like ice/spines for a tanker. 3 auras (2 of which are damage) and overall good AoE damage with okish ST damage.

[Jacke]

I have a Ice Armor/Dark Melee Tanker.  Been a long time since I played it, but I enjoyed it.

 

 

[SeraphimKensai]

4 hours ago, Psyonico said:

I like ice/spines for a tanker. 3 auras (2 of which are damage) and overall good AoE damage with okish ST damage.

^. This, and having Darkest Night also is very effective as it pairs/synergizes very well with chilling embrace and, your other slows, and your defense padding.

[mistagoat]

I have 3 Ice Armor Scraps and an Ice Armor Tank. The tank leveled up much better/smoother than the scraps but at 50 the scraps can do crazy things and live! The tank is fine at 50 but the Scraps really blossom at 50/higher levels, mostly due to Icy Bastion and Shadow Meld being so awesome!

Battle Axe/Ice is my favorite Ice Armor toon but leveling it was rough with the high end costs of both sets, Claws/Ice was a little smoother to level and Scrapper "Spin" is a dang work of art!

I also made a Broadsword/Ice Scrap that I hated...

Ice/Ice Tank was very survivable but damage out was nothing to write home about.

[Nemu]

Back in my days, when positron was a 9 hour TF with level locked foes, Stone melee was a classic pairing for Ice Armor. It was an optimal pairing for the soft control via fault, the other contender was dark melee for the self heal spam and -to hit. While dark melee has fallen behind post homecoming, stone melee still holds up. Its end woes was already somewhat mitigated by energy absorption back in the days and now even more with IOs and set bonuses and Alpha incarnate. 

[WhiskeyDingo]

I ended up just going Ice/Ice as a Tank.  Follow-up question, what are the skippable powers from Melee and Armor?

[Warshades]

34 minutes ago, WhiskeyDingo said:

Follow-up question, what are the skippable powers from Melee and Armor?

 

You'll want all of the powers from ice armor, the one choice is between 2 mutually exclusive powers in Rime vs Hoarfrost (imo, Hoarfrost will feel more beneficial in the very early levels, but for later levels and an IO'd build, Rime is significantly better). From ice melee, I would say Frost, Freezing Touch, Ice Patch, and Frozen Aura are must haves. The rest depend on preferences and what you want to focus on with your build. I prefer to skip Greater Ice Sword. 

[WhiskeyDingo]

6 minutes ago, Warshades said:

 

You'll want all of the powers from ice armor, the one choice is between 2 mutually exclusive powers in Rime vs Hoarfrost (imo, Hoarfrost will feel more beneficial in the very early levels, but for later levels and an IO'd build, Rime is significantly better). From ice melee, I would say Frost, Freezing Touch, Ice Patch, and Frozen Aura are must haves. The rest depend on preferences and what you want to focus on with your build. I prefer to skip Greater Ice Sword. 

 

This is helpful!  What is your ST chain?

[Warshades]

29 minutes ago, WhiskeyDingo said:

What is your ST chain?

 

I don't run a dedicated ST chain on ice melee for tanks, I'll mix in whatever AoE or cone attacks I have as needed to keep attacking. Normally I just take Ice Sword and Freezing Touch as the ST attacks from ice melee, you can add in and use attacks like Cross Punch, epic ST attacks like Gloom or Dominate, and Frost. I personally don't consider ice melee on tanks to be a high damage set so I don't really focus on damage output or establishing a ST rotation. If I pick ice melee, it's for the utility of the set (primarily from Ice Patch and the hold from FT that can be stacked with an epic hold or something like Aura of Insanity on psi armor).