Thoughts on ice armor

Generator · September 17, 2019

5 minutes ago, Hyperstrike said:

Probably a goof on my part. Was tossing it together quickly while @Work

Was 95% sure it was something like that, just making sure. 🙂

Bossk_Hogg · September 17, 2019

On 9/13/2019 at 6:36 PM, Hopeling said:

Eh, this is only slightly true. Typed defenses come in pairs, so there's still only three things to chase: S/L, E/N, and F/C.

Psi is an issue for typed defense sets, as is Toxic (there's not even such thing as toxic defense). But these aren't common enough to be large problems.

I thought most psi attacks were given a position a while back?

I'm working on an ice/ice sentinel out of stubborn refusal to stop, but it really just feels like a worse version of Energy Aura. It doesnt help that S/L defense set bonuses are relatively rare outside of melee attacks.

SmalltalkJava · September 18, 2019

And you don’t come across mobs that use cold damage that often. So you spend a lot of energy fixing the stuff it doesn’t offer. (It seems, but I could be wrong, I haven’t looked at it in a while)

Edited September 18, 2019 by SmalltalkJava

MiniSwede · September 19, 2019

Yeah, playing around in Pines and reading up the powers makes be simply stay away from ice armor. It simply looks too soft to me. Granted, any sentinel will probably play OK if you adapt and play to the strengths, but there are certainly other secondaries which make you appreciably more durable.

Force Redux · September 24, 2019

Someone asked me for a build, so I'm posting my WIP build.

Ice Armor has a nice refreshing absorption shield toggle (Frigid Shield) that helps prevent a lot of damage over time, but it does need slotting to be at its best.

Ice also offers good buffs to overall max health (Hoarfrost, Frost Protection).

It also offers Icy Bastion, one of the best crashless T9s in the game, +40% resist and regen/recovery + mag protection. Use it vs those Psi and Fire mobs. Although I find Psi mobs are more annoying for debuffs than damage. Up for 30 seconds, I have it down to just over 2 min recharge. Not too bad.

Speaking of debuffs, Ice Armor is immune to slows for recharge/speed debuffs.

This build is a WIP, but I've got it to 48% S/L, 55% E/N and 25% Ranged with one target in Moisture Absorption.

This build assumes Alpha Agility.

Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.2
https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Magic Sentinel
Primary Power Set: Ice Blast
Secondary Power Set: Ice Armor
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Ice Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Ice Bolt
Level 1: Prestige Power Dash
Level 2: Swift
------------

(A) Superior Winter's Bite - Accuracy/Damage
(46) Superior Winter's Bite - Damage/RechargeTime
(46) Superior Winter's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
(48) Superior Winter's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
(48) Superior Winter's Bite - Damage/Endurance/Accuracy/RechargeTime
(48) Superior Winter's Bite - Recharge/Chance for -Speed & -Recharge

Level 1: Frozen Armor

(A) Defense Buff IO
(40) Defense Buff IO
(40) Defense Buff IO
(43) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed

Level 2: Frost Breath

(A) Superior Opportunity Strikes - Accuracy/Damage
(37) Superior Opportunity Strikes - Damage/RechargeTime
(39) Superior Opportunity Strikes - Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime
(39) Superior Opportunity Strikes - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
(39) Superior Opportunity Strikes - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime
(40) Superior Opportunity Strikes - RechargeTime/Chance for Opportunity

Level 4: Wet Ice

(A) Endurance Reduction IO

Level 6: Chilling Ray

(A) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage
(7) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance
(7) Thunderstrike - Damage/Recharge
(9) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
(13) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
(37) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge

Level 8: Hover

(A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
(9) Kismet - Accuracy +6%

Level 10: Frigid Shield

(A) Panacea - Heal/Endurance
(11) Panacea - Endurance/Recharge
(11) Panacea - Hea/Recharge
(13) Panacea - Heal/Endurance/Recharge
(37) Panacea - Heal
(50) Panacea - +Hit Points/Endurance

Level 12: Fly

(A) Endurance Reduction IO

Level 14: Ice Storm

(A) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy)
(15) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
(15) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range
(34) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge
(36) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance
(36) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage

Level 16: Moisture Absorption

(A) Defense Buff IO
(17) Defense Buff IO
(17) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All)
(34) Reactive Defenses - Scaling Resist Damage

Level 18: Bitter Ice Blast

(A) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage
(19) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance
(19) Thunderstrike - Damage/Recharge
(25) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
(27) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
(27) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge

Level 20: Glacial Armor

(A) Defense Buff IO
(21) Defense Buff IO
(21) Defense Buff IO
(23) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed

Level 22: Maneuvers

(A) Defense Buff IO
(23) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed

Level 24: Tactics

(A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Endurance
(25) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge/Endurance

Level 26: Aim

(A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up

Level 28: Hoarfrost

(A) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Endurance
(29) Doctored Wounds - Endurance/Recharge
(29) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Recharge
(31) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Endurance/Recharge
(31) Doctored Wounds - Recharge

Level 30: Permafrost

(A) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All)
(31) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%

Level 32: Blizzard

(A) Superior Sentinel's Ward - Accuracy/Damage
(33) Superior Sentinel's Ward - Damage/RechargeTime
(33) Superior Sentinel's Ward - Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime
(33) Superior Sentinel's Ward - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
(34) Superior Sentinel's Ward - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime
(50) Superior Sentinel's Ward - RechargeTime/Chance for +Absorb

Level 35: Frost Protection

(A) Healing IO
(36) Healing IO

Level 38: Icy Bastion

(A) Aegis - Resistance/Recharge

Level 41: Frostbite

(A) Enfeebled Operation - Accuracy/Recharge
(42) Enfeebled Operation - Endurance/Immobilize
(42) Enfeebled Operation - Accuracy/Endurance
(42) Enfeebled Operation - Immobilize/Range
(43) Enfeebled Operation - Accuracy/Immobilize/Recharge
(43) Enfeebled Operation - Accuracy/Immobilize

Level 44: Ice Sword

(A) Kinetic Combat - Accuracy/Damage
(45) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance
(45) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Recharge
(45) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
(46) Impeded Swiftness - Chance of Damage(Smashing)
(50) Mako's Bite - Chance of Damage(Lethal)

Level 47: Snow Storm

(A) Endurance Reduction IO

Level 49: Afterburner

(A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed

Level 1: Brawl

(A) Empty

Level 1: Opportunity

(A) Empty

Level 1: Prestige Power Slide

(A) Empty

Level 1: Prestige Power Quick

(A) Empty

Level 1: Prestige Power Rush

(A) Empty

Level 1: Prestige Power Surge

(A) Empty

Level 1: Sprint

(A) Empty

Level 2: Rest

(A) Empty

Level 4: Ninja Run

(A) Flight Speed IO

Level 2: Health

(A) Miracle - +Recovery
(5) Numina's Convalesence - +Regeneration/+Recovery
(5) Preventive Medicine - Chance for +Absorb

Level 2: Hurdle

(A) Jumping IO

Level 2: Stamina

(A) Endurance Modification IO
(3) Endurance Modification IO
(3) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End

Level 50: Agility Radial Paragon

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Edited September 24, 2019 by Force Redux

Generator · September 24, 2019

Looks nice, thanks for sharing.

The first pick seems to have gotten its name clipped off, is that Ice Bolt or Ice Blast?

Two questions:

1) You took 3 of the 4 ST blasts, do you ever feel "gappy?"

2) Why not Bitter Freeze Ray?

Thanks!

Teirusu · September 25, 2019

8 hours ago, Generator said:

Looks nice, thanks for sharing.

The first pick seems to have gotten its name clipped off, is that Ice Bolt or Ice Blast?

Two questions:

1) You took 3 of the 4 ST blasts, do you ever feel "gappy?"

2) Why not Bitter Freeze Ray?

Thanks!

With enough recharge, 3 ST blasts can work just fine. Usually you'll have other things to sling within the 'gaps' like your AOEs/AIM/what-have-you. Ice Armor can have tons of recharge due to be a Def set. Frost Breath will pretty much fill any 'gap' you have.

Also, Bitter Freeze Ray has the same problem as Focus Power Bolt: DPA, although it's not quite as bad. In nearly the same time you can cast Bitter Freezy Ray, you can use 2 of the ST powers and do more damage, along with still having a hold. Sentinels can also get away without having the extra holds more then a Blaster can, for instance. Even then, I avoided Bitter Freeze Ray on my blaster, although, that's partially because she has Char as a second hold, which is much faster to cast.

Also, my general opinion on Ice Armor (Although, this is just looking at the powers in Mids and no actual experience with the set in-game. Take with a grain of salt) is that it's too back-loaded. It reminds me, somewhat, of /Stone Armor (Which I have played quite a bit). It just seems like too much stuff is put into Icy Bastion and not the rest of the set and it's not a toggle, like Granite is.

The other thing I don't really like is just how +HP boosts that it has. It looks like you can hit the Sentinel HP cap within the set itself! No accolades, no set bonuses needed. (You can make Hoarfrost perma, from the looks of it.) Which you might be wondering how I can consider that 'bad'..? It's not, it's really good actually but, HP buffs like accolades and set bonuses basically become wasted and there's tons of sets that have HP set bonuses in their 2 bonus... So, you're either trying to avoid them, which is hard, or they're just wasted.

So, I feel like some of that built-in HP boost could be exchanged for some other defensive layer.

Force Redux · September 25, 2019

22 hours ago, Generator said:

Looks nice, thanks for sharing.

The first pick seems to have gotten its name clipped off, is that Ice Bolt or Ice Blast?

Two questions:

1) You took 3 of the 4 ST blasts, do you ever feel "gappy?"

2) Why not Bitter Freeze Ray?

Thanks!

Hi Generator. Very welcome.

I believe it's the T2 blast. It's a good enough mostly seamless attack chain for me, as I didn't want or need a fourth attack or Offensive Opportunity.

As Teirusu mentions above, BFR was also unneeded based on recharge.

ninja surprise · December 16, 2019

On 9/17/2019 at 1:03 PM, Vyth said:

As someone who played an ice/ice tanker on live before frozen aura even did pbaoe damage, I feel like Ice has the most holes in it out of any of the other sets. Ice can still work, but it takes extra effort to build around. The set offers nothing against psionics. Barely any cold/fire defense, and the only resistance it really gives is cold (easy to cap, but a rare source of damage), and a little bit of fire and toxic (from the heal). Chilling Embrace will help you with this with it's -DMG component, but the part that hurts is that the range on chilling embrace is like any other tank aura and has a small radius (10) which won't help against most alpha strikes and ranged attacks. This means when any kind of energy/negative/s/l/toxic/psi attack hits you it's going to hurt a lot. Orange inspirations are your friend for harder content. All of your resistances are going to have to come from your build, basically.

The reason I say it has the most holes because aside from the fact that it gives NO help against psionic, most other defense oriented builds do offer some form of small resistance, like True Grit from Shield Defense. SR gives a scaling resist. Heck I think even Ninjitsu offers an all res power. It's not like ice is an unplayable set, but it could really use a rework.

Old thread but I was looking for info on Frigid Shield and wanted to point out a few things:

Sentinel Ice differs greatly from Tanker Ice Armor.

No Chilling Embrace.

No protection against Psionic, but Invulnerability doesn't have any either.

Sentinel Ice Armor gets toxic protection from two powers: Hoarfrost (big heal) and Icy Bastion (fantastic T9)

Frost Protection and Frigid Shield also give +HP and Absorb, and boost Regen.

So a bare-bones enhanced Ice Armor Sentinel with the two +Def uniques in Permafrost would have about 30% Def to S/L/E/N and 50% resistance to Fire and Toxic (while Permafrost and Icy Bastion are active), 325% recovery and 540% regen.

That's not shabby but still tough to get to the defense softcap. I think I'd chase recharge to have Icy Bastion up as often as possible.

drbuzzard · December 17, 2019

Icy bastion has a 5 minute recharge with 30 seconds of uptime. Posting the stats while it is active is (IMO) pretty disingenuous. That's 10% uptime out of the box, and even if you get to perma hasten (which you should of course on a sentinel), it's then on a 81 second recharge, so only up slightly better than 1/3 of the time. Yes, so 1/3 uber, 2/3s suck.

I'm working up a dual pistols/ice armor sentinel now (my self designated goal is something in each set, except perhaps AR and energy blast, because I really dislike those). It's really rather flimsy. I had some hope that the frigid shield absorption would be enough to make the set at least decent like the absorption power in regen does for that set, but the amount is so damned tiny as to be negligible. I do have a build worked up which can softcap s/l/e/ne and resist cap cold. However chasing the other holes (and fire is certainly a hole) is a waste of resources. So you're basically completely open to psi and barely protected at all against fire and toxic. That's a whole lot of holes IMO. I guess I can see why people would laud icy bastion since it's probably something you pop every time it is up just to try and recover from the beating you take when it's not up.

I will drag the build to the finish line eventually, but I'm not terribly enthusiastic. I've often lauded the great jobs the devs of sentinels did on their secondaries, but I admit there's certainly a few duds. Bio is better in other examples vs. sents, and ice is pretty much lousy. I'll get around to dark sooner or later, but it doesn't hold much promise from what time I've spent looking at it.

oldskool · December 18, 2019

On 9/24/2019 at 11:10 AM, Force Redux said:
Someone asked me for a build, so I'm posting my WIP build.

Ice Armor has a nice refreshing absorption shield toggle (Frigid Shield) that helps prevent a lot of damage over time, but it does need slotting to be at its best.

Ice also offers good buffs to overall max health (Hoarfrost, Frost Protection).

It also offers Icy Bastion, one of the best crashless T9s in the game, +40% resist and regen/recovery + mag protection. Use it vs those Psi and Fire mobs. Although I find Psi mobs are more annoying for debuffs than damage. Up for 30 seconds, I have it down to just over 2 min recharge. Not too bad.

Speaking of debuffs, Ice Armor is immune to slows for recharge/speed debuffs.

This build is a WIP, but I've got it to 48% S/L, 55% E/N and 25% Ranged with one target in Moisture Absorption.

This build assumes Alpha Agility.
Reveal hidden contents

Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.2
https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Magic Sentinel
Primary Power Set: Ice Blast
Secondary Power Set: Ice Armor
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Ice Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Ice Bolt
Level 1: Prestige Power Dash
Level 2: Swift
------------

(A) Superior Winter's Bite - Accuracy/Damage

(46) Superior Winter's Bite - Damage/RechargeTime

(46) Superior Winter's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance

(48) Superior Winter's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge

(48) Superior Winter's Bite - Damage/Endurance/Accuracy/RechargeTime

(48) Superior Winter's Bite - Recharge/Chance for -Speed & -Recharge

Level 1: Frozen Armor

(A) Defense Buff IO

(40) Defense Buff IO

(40) Defense Buff IO

(43) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed

Level 2: Frost Breath

(A) Superior Opportunity Strikes - Accuracy/Damage

(37) Superior Opportunity Strikes - Damage/RechargeTime

(39) Superior Opportunity Strikes - Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime

(39) Superior Opportunity Strikes - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance

(39) Superior Opportunity Strikes - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime

(40) Superior Opportunity Strikes - RechargeTime/Chance for Opportunity

Level 4: Wet Ice

(A) Endurance Reduction IO

Level 6: Chilling Ray

(A) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage

(7) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance

(7) Thunderstrike - Damage/Recharge

(9) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge

(13) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance

(37) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge

Level 8: Hover

(A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed

(9) Kismet - Accuracy +6%

Level 10: Frigid Shield

(A) Panacea - Heal/Endurance

(11) Panacea - Endurance/Recharge

(11) Panacea - Hea/Recharge

(13) Panacea - Heal/Endurance/Recharge

(37) Panacea - Heal

(50) Panacea - +Hit Points/Endurance

Level 12: Fly

(A) Endurance Reduction IO

Level 14: Ice Storm

(A) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy)

(15) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance

(15) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range

(34) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge

(36) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance

(36) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage

Level 16: Moisture Absorption

(A) Defense Buff IO

(17) Defense Buff IO

(17) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All)

(34) Reactive Defenses - Scaling Resist Damage

Level 18: Bitter Ice Blast

(A) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage

(19) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance

(19) Thunderstrike - Damage/Recharge

(25) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge

(27) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance

(27) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge

Level 20: Glacial Armor

(A) Defense Buff IO

(21) Defense Buff IO

(21) Defense Buff IO

(23) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed

Level 22: Maneuvers

(A) Defense Buff IO

(23) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed

Level 24: Tactics

(A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Endurance

(25) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge/Endurance

Level 26: Aim

(A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up

Level 28: Hoarfrost

(A) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Endurance

(29) Doctored Wounds - Endurance/Recharge

(29) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Recharge

(31) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Endurance/Recharge

(31) Doctored Wounds - Recharge

Level 30: Permafrost

(A) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All)

(31) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%

Level 32: Blizzard

(A) Superior Sentinel's Ward - Accuracy/Damage

(33) Superior Sentinel's Ward - Damage/RechargeTime

(33) Superior Sentinel's Ward - Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime

(33) Superior Sentinel's Ward - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance

(34) Superior Sentinel's Ward - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime

(50) Superior Sentinel's Ward - RechargeTime/Chance for +Absorb

Level 35: Frost Protection

(A) Healing IO

(36) Healing IO

Level 38: Icy Bastion

(A) Aegis - Resistance/Recharge

Level 41: Frostbite

(A) Enfeebled Operation - Accuracy/Recharge

(42) Enfeebled Operation - Endurance/Immobilize

(42) Enfeebled Operation - Accuracy/Endurance

(42) Enfeebled Operation - Immobilize/Range

(43) Enfeebled Operation - Accuracy/Immobilize/Recharge

(43) Enfeebled Operation - Accuracy/Immobilize

Level 44: Ice Sword

(A) Kinetic Combat - Accuracy/Damage

(45) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance

(45) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Recharge

(45) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance/Recharge

(46) Impeded Swiftness - Chance of Damage(Smashing)

(50) Mako's Bite - Chance of Damage(Lethal)

Level 47: Snow Storm

(A) Endurance Reduction IO

Level 49: Afterburner

(A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed

Level 1: Brawl

(A) Empty

Level 1: Opportunity

(A) Empty

Level 1: Prestige Power Slide

(A) Empty

Level 1: Prestige Power Quick

(A) Empty

Level 1: Prestige Power Rush

(A) Empty

Level 1: Prestige Power Surge

(A) Empty

Level 1: Sprint

(A) Empty

Level 2: Rest

(A) Empty

Level 4: Ninja Run

(A) Flight Speed IO

Level 2: Health

(A) Miracle - +Recovery

(5) Numina's Convalesence - +Regeneration/+Recovery

(5) Preventive Medicine - Chance for +Absorb

Level 2: Hurdle

(A) Jumping IO

Level 2: Stamina

(A) Endurance Modification IO

(3) Endurance Modification IO

(3) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End

Level 50: Agility Radial Paragon
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Been following this thread and it inspired me to revisit my own Ice/Ice build.

So far I can get 41% Smashing/Lethal, 46% Energy/Negative, and 44.8% Fire/Cold with Moisture Absorption active. Without that the categories chance to 36.9%, 41.9%, and 40.5% respectively. Though I see no reason why Moisture Absorption wouldn't be enabled all the time.

Smashing Lethal resistance 36%, Energy/Negative 8%, Fire 53%, and Toxic 22% and Psi 13%. Cold isn't worth discussing. You can fall asleep and cap it. Toxic hits 22% easily since Hoarfrost should be on all the time if you're building recharge.

Rough 1/3rd uptime on Icy Bastion which caps Smashing, Lethal, Fire resistances and greatly improves Energy and Negative for 30 seconds. Toxic also gets bolstered.

Sets that help:

Aegis in Tough, Permafrost, and Icy Bastion. 3 pieces to 5 pieces for the F/C defense
Winter's Bite in a single-target power 5 to 6 pieces for defense
Frozen Blast in an AoE same as above
The unique 3% resistance in one of your many +Def powers
The unique 5% resistance in one of your many +Def powers.
Both 3% defense uniques in one of your resistance powers.

Agility Core Paragon:

45% Smashing/Lethal, 50% Energy/Negative, 46.6% Fire/Cold during Moisture Absorption.

Ice Armor certainly has some challenges, but is soft-capping defense really one?

Edited December 18, 2019 by oldskool

drbuzzard · December 18, 2019

OK, where is the ice/fire defense coming from? The only powers in the set which give fire/cold defense are wet ice and moisture absorption and that's around a whole 6%. You must have a heck of a lot of set bonuses in place to carry it that far.

Caulderone · December 18, 2019

Probably 6 slotting several Winter IO sets and 3 slotting Aegis. Those are the best listed in the Mids set bonus finder.

oldskool · December 18, 2019

27 minutes ago, drbuzzard said:

You must have a heck of a lot of set bonuses in place to carry it that far.

21 minutes ago, Caulderone said:

Probably 6 slotting several Winter IO sets and 3 slotting Aegis. Those are the best listed in the Mids set bonus finder.

I literally list the sets. Using Tough gives you 3 powers that can take Aegis. Superior Winter's Bite and Frozen Blast in just two powers. Both of the 3% defense uniques. Full Gaussian's in Aim. Weave/Maneuvers/Combat Jumping taken.

Ice Armor isn't exactly cheap to soft-cap, but it is possible.

drbuzzard · December 18, 2019

20 minutes ago, oldskool said:

I literally list the sets. Using Tough gives you 3 powers that can take Aegis. Superior Winter's Bite and Frozen Blast in just two powers. Both of the 3% defense uniques. Full Gaussian's in Aim. Weave/Maneuvers/Combat Jumping taken.

Ice Armor isn't exactly cheap to soft-cap, but it is possible.

Fair enough. Though even though I have been stocking up on winter IOs, I won't bother. The build is DP/Ice and to be honest, I don't much care for either side. There are much better secondaries to invest in.

oldskool · December 19, 2019

Yeah, definitely don't invest if you don't like it. Sorry you don't care for Dual Pistols, but it isn't for everyone. 😉

Friend to a friend advice...

If you don't like the direction Ice Armor is going and you see it takes a lot of investment in order to make it serviceable, then know Dark Armor is very similar. I happen to love Dark Armor because it is nostalgic for me (my first 50 was DM/DA Scrapper). I also like some of the mechanics of it. I think I know the set pretty well having played it on everything except for a Brute (2020 project). My Water/Dark gets 30% positional defense and 70% resistances (S/L/Psi). It wasn't cheap. Leveling Dark Armor isn't that awful, in my opinion, but it isn't a cake walk. If you do decide to try it out, then I recommend pairing it with something that also has some mitigation to pad things out in the lower levels. So sets like Dark Blast, Water Blast, or maybe even Psychic Blast. Those 3 are my favorite pairings conceptually.

Edited December 19, 2019 by oldskool

drbuzzard · December 19, 2019

Yeah, I've been dreading doing up dark armor since it looks to be a bit soft on sents. I'm also out of primaries I want to bother with (down to AR and energy). I'd sooner rehash things I've done and try new combos. Thanks for the warning.

carnalchaos · December 28, 2019

I picked for the set hoping to find a gem in the making and to create a sapper toon with electricity and ended up wishing I had gone EA. I really am questioning whether or not the set is working properly. In particularly the absorbance shield which seems like one of the key design features to make it different.

The absorbance shield is tiny I would compare it to the blasters versions in temporal and marital but I am not sure its working. Its definitely slower on recharging between hits. Ran just it and wet ice and when I got hit I got hit for full damage. Maybe I don't fully understand how absorbance is supposed to work but I was lead to believe it would mititgate hits up the level of damage on the shield or block one hit altogether. It was a very impromptu test against a DE in founder falls but when he hit me it was for the same number each time. I was expecting to see a partial damage value or an indication that my absorbance shield blocked the attack. Maybe a successful absorbance shield hit reads as a miss in the combat log? Just no mention of the absorbance value doing anything.

Overall the set works but I cant in good conscience recommend it over EA. The two types of armor overlap in function so much that I would rather have EA's superior quality of life powers even if Icy Bastion is wicked fun.

drbuzzard · December 28, 2019

I think it's just a matter of the absorption being so damned tiny. You probably just don't notice any effect because it's only part of a hit worth of damage. I really don't get the point of it. It's funny because on other sets the absorption is the cornerstone (looking at regen in particular).

Microcosm · December 30, 2019

As someone who has used Ice armor on stalkers a lot (not exactly the same, but close enough), I'd like to just add some commentary in case it can help anyone. Ice armor is both a bit backloaded, as someone mentioned, because of Icy Bastion and really wants large investment for the same reason, but it is perfectly serviceable until that point. Once you get that investment it really takes off because of all the layers of protection it provides. The amount of regen it can provide for it's 30 second window is fantastic. The f/c defense is a bit of a red herring, because the s/l defense takes care of most of those attacks. You have to be facing purely fire-typed damage for that to be a problem. You will face a lot more pure e/n attacks, but you are covered there. In those rare circumstances where fire could be a problem, Icy bastion takes care of it with both res and regen.

Now there is a psi hole, but honestly icy bastion is the panacea. Last week I was trying to get the freedom phalanx accolade on my ice/ice stalker and soloing all those AV missions. I got to the mother mayhem one, where every enemy does all psi damage, and started constantly face planting (was set at +3/x8). I was pretty annoyed; then I realized it had been so long since I actually needed it that I forgot about icy bastion's regen. I started activating it right before each mob and ended up sailing right through the rest of the mission. You will need great recharge to pull that off, but once you have that it's pretty terrific. If you tried to farm pure psi mobs where you have a constant stream of aggro capped enemies, then ya, you're going to die. But I wouldn't expect to do well in that circumstance with anything other than dark or elec, and honestly I have never seen such a scenario.

Now one thing to watch out for on sentinels I imagine is the defense debuff, as the resistance is lower than the stalker version and you also don't have the ability to add extra defense buffer via saturated Energy Absorption. Cimerorans and the like might be more of a pain for sentinal ice armor than for the other versions, as the extra absorb isn't going to help if you do end up in cascading defense. Icy Bastion will cover you some of the time, but it depends on how long it takes you to neutralize the -def mobs.

Someone also mentioned hoarfrost puts you at the hp cap before accolades. That was also the case with stalkers when the set was applied to them back in the day, and it directly resulted in (with gentle pushing from some of us forumites) in an hp cap increase for the AT. I don't see why that couldn't be the case here, as that clearly makes the power unreasonably less valuable.

carnalchaos · December 30, 2019

Deleted Post

Edited December 30, 2019 by carnalchaos

NEW DAWN · March 15, 2020

Sorry for the necromancy, it just shows I do some research to build before enacting on a build. I made Ice/Ice/Ice, worked out any unnecessary +hp sets as you hit cap so easily and concentrated on softcapping S/L, E/N, however I don't have to need a lot of defense anyway as there is always active forms of damage mitigation which is why I like the Ice epic.

I have no idea of what the sentinel is like ingame, I just know it proved problematic to get it to a point buildwise to say, yeah, that is different, that may have a niche and a different playstyle I think I may give it a go, unlike /SR/Nin which was more hello baby.

I might need some update as incase I may of made a huge mistake. Frigid Shield, Moisture Absorption and Icy Bastion are gone, from my concept how missable/needed are these to any of you ingame?

oldskool · March 15, 2020

4 minutes ago, NEW DAWN said:

I might need some update as incase I may of made a huge mistake. Frigid Shield, Moisture Absorption and Icy Bastion are gone, from my concept how missable/needed are these to any of you ingame?

Frigid Shield needs a pass by the team and I wish it worked like the Blaster version.

Moisture Absorption is a small defense booster, but more importantly it adds to your max endurance. Mid's isn't showing the impact to endurance gain per second by using MA and adding 15+ end to yourself. Duration is 100s and base recharge is 60s.

Icy Bastion grants you recovery and regen on top of everything else it does. Doesn't really matter if you're running Ageless with the endurance recovery aspect. Still, it is a crashless T9 which will likely cap a few of your resistances with less downtime than Rune of Protection (an alternative if you want it).

Can you live without those powers? Maybe. Ice Blast can be a little heavy on endurance consumption vs what I am used to playing. I'd take the approach of seeing how the rotation feels and then determine just how valuable things like Moisture Absorption are (from an end management perspective). Icy Bastion is one of things you can layer with Ageless at its peak, but still you could probably get by without it if you really wanted. Barrier is also an option.

I changed my Ice/Ice/Ice baby build. So stop, collaborate and listen. This ice build is back with a brand new invention.

Currently hitting 39% smash/lethal defense, 35% fire/cold, and 44% energy/negative under Moisture Absorption. Psi is low, but thems the breaks. Resistance 29% smash/lethal, 36% fire, 30% toxic, cold capped, and the rest nothing noteworthy. Icy Bastion puts Smash/Lethal at 74%, caps Fire and toxic while putting Energy/Negative to 54%.

I wanted to get as close to 32.5% defense to the major types as possible for use with purple inspires. This let me put some damage procs into Chilling Ray, Bitter Ice Blast, and Bitter Freeze Ray. Those three make up the bulk of the rotation, and under Ageless can be the rotation. Ice Blast used as filler and Ice Bolt taken purely to trigger Offensive Opportunity if practical (Defensive is prioritized for the endurance per hit for 15 seconds).

I only bothered with Frostbite in Ice Mastery to combine with Ice Storm and Blizzard.

NEW DAWN · March 15, 2020

1 hour ago, oldskool said:

I changed my Ice/Ice/Ice baby build. So stop, collaborate and listen. This ice build is back with a brand new invention.

This made me laugh, but some of what you proceeded to say has made me have another rethink, thanks for your help, yep I am gonna have to rethink it.

NEW DAWN · March 15, 2020

Okay, I can use a proc'd snowstorm to herd, then, frostbite, blizzard, icestorm, frostbreath, block of ice any problems then comes frozen aura (proc'd to compete with Blizzard), then ST mobs. All at 45% def. Every 20s approx. and then if I need to kite aerially snowstorm has minus -fly. I also have an attack chain like yours, def is 45% S/L/E/N ----Sounds interesting to me, thanks for your help.

Edited March 15, 2020 by NEW DAWN

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