Finduilas

Short answer: slotting Acc, End Reduction and Damage in your attacks will all help with the "blue bar blues". In most cases, attacks are by far the biggest user of endurance, so you want to make sure they hit as often as possible and do as much damage as possible for as little cost as possible.

Longer answer: As a general rule, Damage is the attack characteristic that is most desirable to 'max out'. But once ED came along and made it prohibitively expensive to slot Damage past 95% enhancement (3 SOs), people started diversifying their attack slotting. For SOs, I consider standard slotting to be the following: 1 Accuracy, 1 Endurance Reduction, 1 Recharge, and 3 Damage. Of course, some swear by 2 Accuracies, skip the Recharge, or skimp on Damage on their lower-tier attacks, but it's a good template to start with, IMO.

With IOs, you can pack more Acc, Recharge, or End Reduction into your attacks, sometimes with fewer slots, or you can rely on global bonuses to replace slotting individual attacks. (Though I think most still slot *some* of each characteristic.) But in general, besides slotting Damage to the ED cap, I'd try to slot at least one SOs worth (33%) of the other three unless you've got significant global bonuses to replace individual attack slotting.

Hope that helps!

According to my quick calculations, by slotting Invinc with one defbuff rather than three, you are losing 2.2% def to S/L/E/NE/F/C at one foe at 5% at 10 foes. The MB bonuses are 2.5% to S/L and 3.13% to F/C; let's see, F/C damage is very rare, it's a wash for S/L defense, and you actually lose on E/NE def. Doesn't sound like a good bargain to me.

I think you'd be far better off following Call_Me_Awesome's guide and slotting Invinc more conventionally, focusing primarily on S/L and E/NE def, and not worrying so much about F/C.

RF might be worth it if you really needed the 6-slot Ranged defense bonus. However, since it usually only takes 3 or 4 slots to fully enhance a defense power, you'd have to justify the additional slots, too.

Bottom line, unless you really, really need the additional Ranged defense or can't afford LotG, go with LotG.

Yes, it's a matter of taste, and it could also be a matter of cost. While the OP hasn't shied away from expensive choices so far, I think it's fair to warn him that those BotZ -KB recipes alone are currently running 50 million or so.

Personally, I don't think another 10% of fire defense is worth that kind of influence layout, but it's the OPs call.

Much, MUCH better! I think you'll see a big difference with your attacks fully slotted, and soft-capping your E/NE def will be a big help too. (By the way, the actual defense *cap* is over 200%, which is way too high for anybody to reach unless buffed out the wazoo. And since going over the soft-cap of 45% doesn't even get you anything except a cushion against def debuffs, most don't even try.)

A few tweaks:

I would change your Eradication slotting a little, currently it's low on damage and end reduction. Try using these Erad enhancements: Damage, Dam/Rchg, Acc/Dam/Rchg, and Acc/Dam/End/Rchg, with a Dam/End from another set. (A warning, though, the Erad quad is very hard to find and expensive, which is why I usually just go with 3 Erad for the E/NE bonus.)

The fifth slot in your armor toggles with the RF endurance IO is not needed. The only toggle that's really end intensive is Icicles, so if you want to slot extra end red, do it there. (Also there's really no point in using one single-type set IO; it doesn't do anything a common IO wouldn't.) I'd slot a Kismet +Acc in that spot in one of the shield toggles (or CJ) instead.

I don't know if SS at 49 is something you really want or a throwaway; personally, I'd get Build-Up or an epic attack instead.

Combat Jumping and Hibernate are over-slotted; I haven't gotten Hibernate yet on my Icer, but my understanding is that most Ice tanks now leave it single-slotted. Between those slots and the extra end red in your shields, you'll have some slots to play with--you could always try something fun like slotting procs in your attacks.

Lastly, since you've got more than enough S/L and E/NE def, it wouldn't hurt to try for some F/C def to help with fire damage. Consider slotting Aegis in Tough and 5-slotting Taunt with Mocking Beratement for another 6% F/C def. You'll never be able to soft-cap F/C def, but those two changes will get you up to 21% def, which should help a bit.

Good luck!

Whoa, complete overkill on the S/L defense; with EA in your pocket, I think anything above 45 or 50% is just pointless. In addition, using Mocking Beratement--a great choice for Taunt--is IMO a terrible choice for attacks since they won't have sufficient accuracy, endurance reduction or damage. I'd recommend Smashing Haymaker instead, plus a slot from another set for additional damage and accuracy. (That goes for the KC sets, too.) 3 or 4 slots of Eradication is a better choice than your current slotting for FSC and Icicles, since it'll get your E/NE def closer to the cap.

Taking Glacial Armor at 49(!) and single-slotting it is also a bad idea; definitely take it before 30. I'm also not a huge fan of Titanium Coating for resistance powers, it takes too many slots for too little return. Try 4 slots of Reactive Armor instead, and use the extra slots for Glacial Armor and to slot your attacks decently.

Hoarfrost should *not* be slotted for resistance, you want Recharge and Healing instead. Be sure to put a Steadfast +def in Hoarfrost, Tough or Permafrost--though keep in mind that most Ice tanks don't even take PF. I think Hibernate would be a much better choice.

Without re-doing your build I'm not sure how close using Smashing Haymaker and Reactive Armor will put you toward the S/L soft cap; as I mentioned before, if it's much above 45% I'd use sets with other bonuses--regen, damage and recharge are always nice to have.

I assure you that I am thoroughly un-simmered.

I can only tell you from my experience, using Aid Self on ELA, SR, and Invul, that I have found it far from useless, and that it works without interruption much more often than not.

Using it on a pure resistance set like ELA is definitely more challenging than with a defense set, which is why I think it's a good choice for the OP to use with Shields.

That's what the Interrupt Reductions are for; the shorter the interrupt time, the more likely it is to go off in combat.

And that's especially true when used with a defense set like Shields, where the whole point of the set is not to get hit.

The usual SO/common IO slotting is two Interrupt Reduction, plus Heal, Recharge, and possibly End Reduction to individual taste. (Some people like it up more often, and some like less recharge and a bigger heal.)

If you're planning to go with IO sets, keep in mind that there are no sets with Interrupt Reduction, so you should set aside a couple of slots for common Int Red IOs. As for the rest, 2-3 slots of any Heal set will do, so pick one with bonuses you like. Aid Self is auto-hit, so it does not take Accurate Heal sets.

Hope that helps.

Hmm, I'm not a fan of Red Fortune for Ice Armor, (or Invul, for that matter) and there's certainly no reason to spend 5 slots on it. I think 4 slots of GotA or LotG gives better bonuses, and you can find a much better use for that 5th slot.

By themselves, Obliteration and Eradication are not good choices for Icicles since there is so little end reduction in the sets. I recommend 3-slotting Erad for the E/NE defense then adding, say, a Dam/End and Acc/End from another set. Four Kinetic Combat or Smashing Haymaker don't provide enough accuracy and damage for a heavily-used attack, so I always add a slot from another set unless they're slotted in a throwaway attack like Boxing.

_Deth_, if you're going to 5-slot BU with Gaussian's, why not add another slot and get the defense bonus?

And for both of you, slotting a full set of Mako's doesn't make any sense to me, either, since the defense bonus is pretty small considering it requires 6 slots to get it. Smashing Haymaker is MUCH cheaper and only takes 4 slots to get the same bonus!

In general, slotting CJ for defense is of minimal benefit since its base def value is so low. You're better off using those slots for something else.

Drop CoF and pick up Op Gloom ASAP. It provides just as much damage mitigation at a far lower end/slotting cost.

You can get DA's defense totals up fairly high by taking the Fighting Pool and slotting carefully for defense set bonuses.

As for slotting, one place to save is to assume with IO sets you can get away with 5-slotting most attacks. For that reason (among others0, I'd recommend looking for typed def bonuses, since most of them are available with 3-5 slots. Also, 3-slotting CJ only adds an additional 1% or so of defense, so you can get away with a single slot there for the Kismet +Acc.

Mocking Beratement is a good choice, but not for an key attack; it doesn't provide nearly enough end reduction or damage enhancement for an attack. Put the MBs in Taunt and slot Combustion with 3 slots of Eradication plus a couple of other set enhancements that will add end reduction and damage. As a matter of fact, Erad is a good choice for all your PBAoE attacks since it gives over 3% E/NE defense with just three slots. Your ST attacks should be 4-slotted with Smashing Haymaker (or Kinetic Combat if you can find and afford them) with another slot for a Acc/Dam from another set if possible.

I haven't run a test build, but that should get you a decent amount of S/L and E/NE defense without short-slotting too many powers.

EDIT: I noticed you don't say anything about KB protection. You are going to need to either take Acro, or set aside a couple of slots in your res or def powers to slot -KB IOs.

Just out of curiousity, what possible benefit do you get by taking Boxing at 24 and Clobber at 30 when you're not taking Tough and Weave until 35 and 38? If you simply switched those two, you'd get your most damaging power six levels earlier without effecting anything else in your build.

Now mind you, I also think it's a bad idea to delay Shatter and CC for Tough and Weave, since those two attacks provide lots of damage mitigation, but taking Boxing instead of Clobber at 24 is just pointless, IMO.

Sounds like a great change! I'll consider rolling a Electric tank, and my SS/Elec brute might be able to drop the Medicine pool for this power. I wasn't planning to take CP anyway, so no loss there.

As Heraclea says, it would be very easy (and cheap) to slot the Mace attacks for KB. But given how long and hard we fought to get the KB taken OUT of Shatter and CC, it's not something I would ever do.

But if I was to pick an attack to add KB to, it would probably be Shatter. The animation doesn't quite match "swinging for the fences", but it's high probability KD and would be a reasonably good simulation of sending someone flying. You could also do CC, but it's a very wide cone, and personally, it would drive me nuts to KB that many foes. (And has been pointed out, it would be counter-productive since it'll send foes out of your taunt aura.)

Regarding the OP's build I would recommend slotting all attacks with the standard 1xAcc, 1xEndRed, 1xRchg, 3xDam, (or the set IO equivalent) except for Icicles, where the Rchg should be replaced with a second EndRed. Currently, the attack slotting is rather random; some attacks have EndRed but not Rchg, some the reverse. Tough does not need 2xEndRed; replace that with at least one more ResDam. (I always slot it as fully as possible.) If you need to pull slots from somewhere, CJ is a good choice--those two additional slots provide less than 1% additional defense. Hibernate is also overslotted for End Recovery; a couple of those slots can be used elsewhere.

I would also strongly recommend that you take the upper tier attacks ASAP, delaying the Fighting pool if necessary. Clobber in particular provides significant damage mitigation by itself with its guaranteed stun, and Shatter and CC are also worth getting immediately.

I was just looking at this last night, and I was able to come up with a build that soft-caps S/L and E/NE on my Ice/Axe without the Fighting pool, or CJ for that matter.

How easy it is depends somewhat on your secondary; ST attacks are better for S/L defense, and PBAoE attacks will help you get E/NE defense. But I imagine you can soft-cap with most, if not all, tanker secondaries.