Aett_Thorn

Yes, you need to hit to have Gauntlet work. If the attack doesn't land, neither does the AoE portion of the attack. It just won't fire off.

This is why Tanker attacks need Accuracy, to not only make sure that the attack hits, but that Gauntlet will fire off. Once the attack hits, the gauntlet effect is auto-hit, though.

Okay, from your list, I have some changes.

First off, you should be taking the following powers:

Phalanx Fighting. It's a straight 5% Def Buff, even if you have no friends in range.

Frozen Touch. This is a great attack, and comes with a free hold attached to it. Take this power!

Taunt is okay to skip, but should probably be in a final build, since you'll likely want it for at least AVs and such. I also tend to use it a lot more for the -range than then actual taunt.

Use it if you want. Don't if you don't. I've never had anyone ask me to get the buff, but have been thanked by people that I've used it on.

Since it's a random buff, you can't predict which buff you'll get, so most people don't ask for it.

It's a nice little bonus, but you don't need to use it.

How would you balance this to prevent Tank-mages?

Yes, heaven forbid people try to help you.


I know that some people find it annoying, but I'd say that my experiences in-game show that many more people actually like getting drive-by buffs.

The reason that we won't get any good Resistance set bonuses now is because of how well they'd stack with Defense set bonuses, which are out there in spades. And to fix that, they'd need to lower the Defense set bonuses, which they're very unlikely to do, because of how much influence and time people have put into getting the set bonuses as they are now.

Defense vs Resistance is easy to figure out. Against roughly even enemies, without any buffs on them, 1% Def = 2% Resistance.

However, Defense + Resistance is much greater than either one alone, and while it's not quite an exponential gain, adding slight amounts of resistance to a Defense soft-capped build can create some staggering amounts of survivability (this is one of the reasons that both Granite Armor and Invuln are great...they layer Resistance and Defense).


I think that if the Devs did it over again, they probably wouldn't have put so many Defense bonuses into the IO sets. But, because they have, we're unlikely to see a change in it.

As for the OPs idea: it's okay, but I don't see it likely that it will happen. THere are just too many complications in it, and it adds one more layer of balance that needs to be looked at when it comes to IOs.

You can probably find a way to Print Screen them. But I don't know of any truly in-game way to do it.

Also, please don't assume that everyone knows what you're talking about when you say they should "do it like Champions." Explain how Champions does it, so that way people know what you're talking about.

Of course, this is ignoring the fact that this game is both great and addicting, and the OP will likely stay for three months straight anyways!

Well, for a more detailed response, I'd love to see your actual build. Downloading Mid's Hero Builder would help us out a lot.

However, without that, I'll try my hand at this:

1) Take Tough. It'll help you out a lot.

2) Make sure that you put 3 RecRed, and 3 Heals in Energize. This will keep you up most of the time.

3) The 4th DamRes enhancement in your toggles isn't doing all that much, thanks to ED. If you have 4 slots in each of your armor toggles, they should be 3 DamRes, 1 EndRed.

4) Ice Melee has always been a low-damage secondary. It was mainly created to be the control secondary, and it does that pretty well. Frozen Touch and Ice Patch are good helps, and Ice Patch should mean that you're taking less damage. When you get to level 38, and get Frozen Aura, your PBAoE damage will go up tremendously. It's a great power now.

5) For the Endurance, I'd really need to see a build. Yes, you can suck down endurance, but Power Sink should get you that back, and more. Make sure that each attack has at least one EndRed in it, and Power Sink is slotted for about 90%+ Recharge, and you should be fine on End.

6) You didn't make a mistake, but you may have really over-hyped this particular combo.

Okay, many suggestions here:

1) Slot your attacks as attacks, not as slows. The Slow portion of them is very minor, and just because your attack set is your secondary is no reason to ignore damage all together.

2) Slot your attacks with IOs that match your goal. If you want more Defense, go with that. If you want more Recharge, find ways to do that. I suggest trying to get to the soft cap, but with Ice Armor, that's actually pretty easy once you get Energy Absorption (EA) and go at a decent pace, so you might find something else to be a bit better.

3) Icicles can wait until after Stamina. You've got Chilling Embrace (CE) at low levels to gather aggro for you. Icicles is an endurance hog at low levels. I'd hold off on that until after level 20.

4) Powers to move up a lot - Wet Ice (Take much, much earlier. It is your status protection, and you will need it much before level 18), Glacial Armor (Take around level 18 or so...it's your main Defense to Energy/Negative Energy damage), and Hoarfrost (Take this at either level 1 or 2. I would not put it off any past that).

5) Ice Patch, unless you really want multiple patches out, only needs one RecRed in it. It's perma at that point.

6) Frozen Armor and Glacial Armor are a bit over slotted. Unless you really want those set bonuses, they only need 4 slots or so, maybe 5 if you stick some LotG +Rec globals in them.

7) For the love of Carp, do not slot Frozen Aura for Sleep. You will barely notice the sleep as it is, and we fought for three years to get that power to do damage. Use it as an attack, as it is now a great PBAoE damage power. The Sleep effect will only affect minions, will be broken by any AoE (including icicles), or any knockback/down effect (including Ice Patch). Slotting for Sleep is useless.

8) Energy Absorption is a great place to Frankenslot. Use various IOs to get to the ED soft-cap for EndMod, Recharge, and Defense. Don't worry much about set bonuses here, as getting those three things to 95% or so is better.

9) I have found Doctored Wounds to be a better set in Hoarfrost than Miracle. But it depends on the set bonuses that you want.

10) Swap Greater Ice Sword for Freezing Touch. It's a better attack all around, and includes a good hold component to it.

Start with those, and I can help review a second build if you want.

It happens on occasion. Send an e-mail to support, or continue through the petition that you sent, and customer service should be able to clear it up for you.