Frostweaver

A couple of important tips about The brute for people who have not played in a while:
Fury multiplies the BASE damage. That means with 3 damage so's (about 97%) and full fury (pretty much impossible) you will be doing nearly 400% of your base damage. not the 600% people wish if it worked against the enhanced totals.
Build up also works off the base damage. So full fury+build up + enhanced = about 470% of your base damage.
what this means is that damage enhancements, if you tend to run close to full fury, are worth only about a third of what they would be worth to anyone else that uses the power.
This is true for external buffs such as reds and fulcrum shift also.

Slotting wise, what this means is that you get less use out of damage than anyone else. So your priorities should change.
Depending on your secondary, the FIRST thing you should slot for is accuracy. every attack that misses is considered 100% wasted endurance. Even if you are fighting minions and only miss 25% of the time, that means you are blowing off 25% of your endurance AND mitigation in the form of defeated foes or other secondary attack effects EACH TIME YOU SWING

The second thing you should slot for is likely going to be endurance reduction. EVERY brute has endurance problems, no matter what your set... and that includes /wp and sets with an endo drain.

Thirdly, make each shot COUNT. recharge reduction increases your damage output enormously due to fury gained as well as simply the damage involved. you have a lovely damage per-shot multiplier, so more attacks=more fury and more dead foes. Not to mention, once again, that almost every attack set except fire has a secondary effect that can help you live or fight longer. More attacks = more secondary effects.

Only when you have your wiffs and end under control should you worry about damage, and goe for efficiency instead of sheer numbers. If the first two IO's get you 78% damage and that third IO would only net you 13%, skip it. use the slot to add end reduction or accuracy or even put it on some other power for better mitigation
remember, that 13%, in brute terms, is only about 4% to every other AT... worth it for a set bonus, perhaps, but not worth an entire slot of it's own.

Also remember that endurance reducers should be used first on your smallest powers, the fillers like brawl or boxing. You use these ALL the time, and the big attacks only rarely, so save your endurance in the long run... slot end reducers into your little attacks first! And slot attacks for end reducers BEFORE defenses/toggles or passives, especially the little ones. The life you save could be your own.

also remember that build-up, while nice for accuracy, only adds about 24% to your full fury damage, or 18% if you have slotted for full damage. That makes build-up an easily skipped power on many brute builds, since that's less than a tiny red inspiration, and it doesn't even last as long.

Also remember that, on a brute with full fury, if you can afford the end to turn on your damage shield against more than one opponent, TURN IT ON! fully enhanced and at full fury it's doing about 4 times it's base damage, which means it does almost as much as a tanker's smallest attack EVERY SECOND to everything around you... highly efficient damage, to say the least!

So remember... SMASH happens! the Hulk doesn't need a gun to help him do damage!

Wow, all the information you can get from the website on each powerset, right at your fingertips! (/irony off)

I wish people would actually write their own guides instead of just throwing a bunch of in-game text and stuff other people have written up, making a few mid's builds, and calling it a guide.

where's the upside and downside of each power? where's the reasons for taking/skipping? Where's the personality?
accuracy aside (admittedly the power descriptions are pretty accurate, a lot of good people spent a lot of work making sure they were accurate, although I don't see you crediting anyone else) This is little more than a copy and paste work. NOT a good guide.

You know, I play both a tanker and a defender.
I have situational awareness when I am tanking, but I will freely admit that when I have a huge group of wolves or behemoths beating on me, I am more concerned with the fact that I CANNOT FRIGGIN SEE and my own health bar than I am with the actual fate of my teammates. As a defender I have the luxury of a moment to glances at a teammate's health bar. as a tanker I very seldom do.
that's not to say I am a bad tanker, I mean, I do the best I possibly can and I am usually horribly busy keeping my teammates from faceplanting by being a target, and in fact I have never teamed with a tanker that, in my opinion, can do a better job as a tanker than I can. But the fact remains that defenders are usually (not always) on the outskirts and more able to take a clear view of all factors than other members... their major job is to be situationally aware, while the scrapper is tangling and the blaster is lining up the best aoe and the tanker is under a horde of pounding monsters and the controller is desperately trying to unsummon her idiotic imps before they reach the next spawn.

wanna really drum up interest? make it a statue of positron with his helmet on... people love posi

Controllers are Defenders that are scared of getting debt badges.
That's why controller primaries are mostly blaster secondaries.

with set IO's hasten as a requirement is a thing of the past for mind/psi doms. The way things are shaping up, mass confuse+drain psyche+psychic shockwave=more dead mobs than a fire-kin on acid.

Thinking of updating this for the new defiance?

The damage boost to ranged attacks can make the ranged attacks a lot more attractive than they were previously. the 'semi-fury' makes very very slow opening single-target attacks a good option, and now, the first two blasts and power thrust are useful even when mezzed! That makes power thrust a lot less of a 'you have to take it' and more of a 'kill it the second it gets in melee ranged of my held butt.'

Anyway, since they are clearly moving away from jack's vision of a 'game without tankmages', it makes one wonder if Kheldians may finally be made useful?

I mean 'jack of all trades, master of none' is a great idea, but all that silver bullet kryptonite stuff, while interesting from a story point of view, has always been way, way too much of an achilles heel for the 'epic archetype'. I wish that Kheldians were a reward instead of a punishment.

[ QUOTE ]
i guess its just semantics, but calling them 'free expansions' makes me feel like you think you are talking to idiots who dont realize every single paid mmo has the exact same thing, but they just call them patches.


[/ QUOTE ]

I am not so sure I agree.
let's look at what we get in these 'free expansions'...
New archetypes (classes) (kheldian)
new powersets (archery, sonic, willpower, cut in halfs like mace/axe and katana/bs)
New character graphics
expanded levels with appropriate zones
new zones (hazard zones, ouroboros,RWZ, PVP, croatoa)
new enemy groups and mission types
an entirely new style of playing the game (radio missions)
expanded content for seasoned players and newbies alike
an entirely new system for enhancements (IO)

and what is the ONLY thing that they have ever charged players extra to purchase in addition to the game? CoV... and it's an entirely new game, with different setups, zones, etc.

Let's look at some popular competing games in the past.
Everquest (how many paid expansions finally came out again...?)
ultima online.
DAoC
final fantasy 11
star wars online
Anarchy Online
Every single one of them has charged to bring out content of the type that CoX does all the time.

okay, let's look at the biggest current competitor: WoW
Only one expansion has come out, and it didn't add nearly the flavor that even something like... say... the IO system added to the game. and I clearly remember shelling out an ADDITIONAL 40 bucks to go to the outlands above and beyond the 15 bucks a month subscription fee.

I think that they are perfectly and completely justified in calling these incredible boosts to content 'free expansions'. Compared to the prices competing games charge for this stuff, these really are free... after all, you are going to shell out 15 bucks a month to play the game anyway, all this added content is just a bonus.

I guess I am one of those idiots who thinks every other MMO DOESN'T produce this kind of content regularly, and charges extra for people who want to explore new zones or go past the level 40 cap.

I tend to go heavily into the attacks specifically because I don't like Taunt.
Raging Halitosis does almost exactly the same thing as taunt, except that it can catch up to ten opponents, adds to existing punchvoke mag, and does a nicely hefty amount of damage to boost. Also, it's endurance costs are not so prohibitive it cannot also be used as a single target attack.


However, I do have to definitely point out that team tanking higher than +2's is going to likely be an exercise in frustration unless you have a pocket defender or corrupter. Because of the way ice armor and fire melee work, accuracy and slots are always going to be an issue for you, and you will often want to slot IO set bonuses for accuracy so you can leave them out of your primary powers and save slots.

I realize this is a bit of a necropost, but can you explain the way defense reacts to mez, since many, if not most, mez are also typed as an attack?

I disagree with your opinions on a couple of the powers post defiance changes... and also the following opinions,
primarily from a soloist's point of View:

Flares: This power is ALWAYS up. I recommend slotting a minimum of 1 endreducer, since, in the long run, you will wind up firing the new flares more than virtually any other attack. at level 50, two IO's for damage will virtually max out the damage it does, it's amazingly useful for killing things that hold you (a real weakness with fire, since all it is is damage and more damage... if something holds you you have to kill it QUICK or immobilize it out of range) It would not be at all out of line to 4 slot this ability.

Chillblains: It's amazing utility comes into effect mostly when you are immobilized or trying to stay out of range, as it provides high damage mitigation from the slows and from keeping enemies at range while you are held and immobilized. With 2 recharge reduction IO's at higher levels you can easily control a battle's flow even while held or slept during the time it lasts after your 'shutdown'. It has a several seconds of incredible slowing effects even when you get out of the radius of the enemies, and takes effect quickly.

Because of the way that defiance builds, Chillblains is a very nice opener for it's slow cast speed that will give your next shot a tidy damage bonus.

Fire Blast- This is your bread and butter attack, guaranteed. Trying to get complete IO sets in it, though, at high levels, is likely to be an exercise in frustration. When slotting sets, you might want to consider going with 'partial sets' to get the maximum value of recharge, damage, endurance savings, and range for your buck, while you build up your IO sets. Just remember that even with stamina, you should try to look at end costs second, right after damage, as you will be using this a LOT.

Blazing bolt is another one of those fight-openers. pop aim, shoot off blazing bolt at the boss, step into melee range, pop build up, and cut loose with your inferno. You will be amazed at how HUGE the defiance boost from a 3 second activating power is! and with a blazing bolt, followed by a fire blast and then a blaze, you will be 3 shotting even-con bosses with a buildup.

Aim- Aim does not exactly 'stack' with buildup. You will gain greater efficiency by using the two abilities seperately, as the damage bonus does not stack well... you will do roughly 2/3rds of the damage using them both at the same time as you would gain using them separately.

Chilling embrace- This is one of the two powers that make the ice secondary truly shine. This makes it so that those mobs that DO get close to you are easily outrun, and do a fraction of the damage they would do otherwise. Combined with shiver, ice patch, and epic armors you gain almost scrapper-level mitigation in the form of attack slowing and damage reduction, defense, and straight up damage reduction. (Notice I said scrapper-level mitigation, NOT scrapper-level defenses, important difference.)

I cannot recommend 'defense' over 'resistance' strongly enough to a blaster. Defenses are nearly as strong at damage mitigation as resistance, with the added bonus that they protect against the status effects that resistance armors don't... Most status-effect powers that enemies use are targetted... meaning that if they don't hit you, they don't affect you. in combination with your slows and knockdowns, that means that you have decent protection against even the worst status-wielding enemies.

Frozen Aura- for anyone that doesn't understand this outstandingly useful power, check out the sonic blaster guides for their advice about Siren. This power is not quite as useful, with it's lack of range, but on a corner-pull into an ice patch you can literally sleep an entire group of enemies, and then take your own sweet time setting up the perfect position to launch your nuke without having to worry too much about status effects or incoming damage. also you can debuff enemies (shiver and chilling embrace) WITHOUT breaking the sleep effect.

The biggest problem you are likely to have with an /ice anything, is deciding which, if any, powers you can stand to skip... they are almost all outstandingly useful and it's often painful to decide which to put off till later and which powers to discard altogether. The only ones I have found myself willing to skip are the two melee powers, which, despite their useful secondary effects (the slows and such are already usually capped by other powers) strictly mediocre and require way too much 'close in' time with unheld foes. You won't use it on minions and it's too dangerous to get close enough to use on a boss.

A bit of Necroposting...
How's the new guide coming along?

Okay, I was wrong about teams

anyone...any team leader that has EVER grouped with a stormie before that knows what they are doing JUMPS at the chance to get someone...anyone... that can drop freezing rain on their team.

The other night I was playing with my brothers, and we are strictly a...well... for want of a better word, 'fun before power' group. There are about 12 friends and we all play on tuesday nights, and we have to be on different teams because of how many there are of us, so we randomly choose teams. whatever you want to play is what we go with... and sometimes the teams get a little strange with the power combinations.


Our team: me (fire/storm) a defender (Storm/electricty I think, she is a little... unused to dealing with knockback, but has been improving greatly with experience) a second defender (kinetic/dark) a scrapper (spines/sr) and a second scrapper (BS/Dark I think)

The kinetic was keeping us all sb'ed. Did you know that dark's cone immobilize doesn't prevent knockdown? I found that out the best way so we were able to double-stack freezing rain on every spawn. we (ahem) 'accidentally' hit the missions of the faultline arc on invincible. Very hard missions for a group of level 18-26, half of which are SK'ed. The stormie defender was running hurricane around the outskirts of every group, and we were darking and disorienting every single group... and then the spines would wade in, fire off a single spine burst, and it was time for the broadsword to finish off any bosses.

a non-syncopatic team, unskilled players, No tanker, no alpha-grabber, half the team SK'ed and we were waltzing through spawns like a pair of level 50 fire/kins on steroids.

If you can survive the drag to level 16 (It's not all that hard) fire/stormies can add incredible amounts to a group... you haven't quite matured yet solo, but grouped... whew.

later on, we all got a little bored and played our 50's. what I didn't realize was that we had a fire/kin and a fire/storm on the same team!

the resistance debuffs from storm basically double the damage capping that a kinetic using FS can throw down, the fire imps go unbelievably nuts and seem to have tanker-level defenses. We were playing in Peregrine, doing the 'anti-hero' arc of AV's, and literally we were knocking down av's in timespans that had to be measured in mere seconds. The best I think we did was 18 seconds for the anti-mynx AV.


I was highly, highly impressed.

-qr
The problem I have with numbers is, to quote someone, "Lies, damned lies and statistics"

Statistics NEVER tell the real story. despite how many times you may have watched numb3rs episodes, People honestly do not work that way. The only way to get a real idea of what a powerset can do is to play it yourself, all the way.... and even then, your playstyle is going to be very, very different from someone else adn they may get a million times more effect out of it.

Ice melee is a perfect example.
Numerically, it might seem to underperform other sets.
So let's look at it from a different perspective. In this case, let's look at the numbers for secondary effects instead of the primary numbers that everyone else looks at. the numbers here are 'damage mitigated' instead of 'damage caused'

The problem is that no matter WHAT you are 'statistically analyzing' you are ALWAYS trying to prove something. You discard attributes that don't agree or seem 'relevant' to whatever you are trying to prove, or you might even discard them because the math is too hard or the effective uses require a level of skill that you don't, personally, possess.

That's one of the reasons I tend to argue with angry_Citizen a lot. Because I disagree....not with his math, but with the fact that I don't agree that the things he is calculating are the correct things to be calculating.

Perhaps there are other factors here that people haven't thought about...remember only a very small part of the playerbase actually hangs out on the forums, it is entirely possible that we missed things without understanding what it was we missed or why.

There might, potentially, be scores of players who are getting incredible amounts of mitigation out of frozen aura, using a tactic that none of us has seen used before.

Maybe there's a trick with greater ice sword that turns it into an incredibly destructive 'insta-kill' power, and we haven't seen it.

Maybe there are combinations with other AT's that make /ice tankers incredibly powerful, and we haven't seen it.

The problem is that there IS no fair way to 'run the numbers' to calculate a reasonable figure based on damage, recharge, end use, and mitigation. Mitigation is a hugely slippery concept.

Wanna make a regen happy?
In the Terra Volta reactor: "Guys, we haven't had a spawn for a while and I lost count of the waves... we might have missed a few somewhere. Max_Speed, go clear that Hallway."

The problem with running with less control than you need is the fact that your salvage vault (of all your storage units) WILL NOT WORK with less than optimal control. This makes crafting stuff a real bear.

I have an alternate version that uses Pyre mastery instead....

since my ice tanker is only 46, I hadn't had the opportunity to use ice storm, so I didn't realize the whole scatter effect thing, which is counterproductive.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.21
http://www.honourableunited.org.uk/mhd.php

Frostweaver: Level 50 Science Tanker
Primary Power Set: Ice Armor
Secondary Power Set: Fiery Melee
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Medicine
Ancillary Pool: Pyre Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Hoarfrost <ul type="square">[*] (A) Numina's Convalescence - Heal/Endurance: Level 30[*] (40) Numina's Convalescence - Heal/Endurance/Recharge: Level 30[*] (42) Numina's Convalescence - Heal/Recharge: Level 30[*] (43) Numina's Convalescence - +Regeneration/+Recovery: Level 30[*] (43) Harmonized Healing - Endurance: Level 35[*] (43) Harmonized Healing - Heal/Recharge: Level 35[/list]Level 1: Scorch <ul type="square">[*] (A) Touch of Death - Accuracy/Damage: Level 30[*] (3) Touch of Death - Damage/Recharge: Level 25[*] (3) Touch of Death - Damage/Endurance: Level 35[*] (7) Touch of Death - Damage/Endurance/Recharge: Level 35[*] (11) Pounding Slugfest - Disorient Bonus: Level 15[*] (11) Pounding Slugfest - Accuracy/Damage: Level 25[/list]Level 2: Chilling Embrace <ul type="square">[*] (A) Tempered Readiness - Range/Slow: Level 30[*] (46) Tempered Readiness - Endurance/Recharge/Slow: Level 35[/list]Level 4: Combustion <ul type="square">[*] (A) Cleaving Blow - Accuracy/Damage: Level 35[*] (5) Cleaving Blow - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 50[*] (5) Cleaving Blow - Damage/Endurance: Level 35[*] (7) Cleaving Blow - Damage/Recharge: Level 35[*] (25) Damage Increase IO: Level 35[/list]Level 6: Wet Ice <ul type="square">[*] (A) Endurance Reduction IO: Level 35[/list]Level 8: Frozen Armor <ul type="square">[*] (A) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance: Level 35[*] (9) Red Fortune - Defense/Recharge: Level 35[*] (9) Red Fortune - Endurance/Recharge: Level 35[*] (13) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance/Recharge: Level 25[*] (13) Red Fortune - Defense: Level 25[/list]Level 10: Hurdle <ul type="square">[*] (A) Jumping IO: Level 50[/list]Level 12: Combat Jumping <ul type="square">[*] (A) Kismet - Defense/Endurance: Level 25[*] (21) Kismet - Defense/Endurance/Recharge: Level 25[/list]Level 14: Health <ul type="square">[*] (A) Numina's Convalescence - Heal/Endurance: Level 30[*] (15) Numina's Convalescence - Heal: Level 30[*] (15) Numina's Convalescence - Heal/Recharge: Level 30[/list]Level 16: Breath of Fire <ul type="square">[*] (A) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance: Level 35[*] (17) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance: Level 35[*] (17) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage: Level 40[*] (25) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range: Level 35[*] (34) Range IO: Level 45[*] (40) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge: Level 40[/list]Level 18: Glacial Armor <ul type="square">[*] (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense: Level 40[*] (19) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance: Level 40[*] (19) Luck of the Gambler - Endurance/Recharge: Level 40[*] (36) Kismet - Defense/Endurance: Level 30[*] (37) Kismet - Defense/Endurance/Recharge: Level 30[/list]Level 20: Stamina <ul type="square">[*] (A) Endurance Modification IO: Level 30[*] (21) Endurance Modification IO: Level 30[/list]Level 22: Icicles <ul type="square">[*] (A) Scirocco's Dervish - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 40[*] (23) Scirocco's Dervish - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance: Level 40[*] (23) Cleaving Blow - Accuracy/Damage: Level 50[*] (37) Cleaving Blow - Damage/Endurance: Level 35[*] (37) Cleaving Blow - Damage/Recharge: Level 35[*] (40) Cleaving Blow - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 35[/list]Level 24: Stimulant <ul type="square">[*] (A) Endurance Reduction IO: Level 50[/list]Level 26: Energy Absorption <ul type="square">[*] (A) Red Fortune - Defense: Level 35[*] (27) Red Fortune - Defense/Recharge: Level 35[*] (27) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance/Recharge: Level 45[*] (29) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance: Level 30[*] (29) Red Fortune - Endurance/Recharge: Level 35[*] (36) Endurance Modification IO: Level 10[/list]Level 28: Super Jump <ul type="square">[*] (A) Unbounded Leap - Jumping: Level 50[*] (50) Unbounded Leap - +Stealth: Level 15[/list]Level 30: Fire Sword Circle <ul type="square">[*] (A) Scirocco's Dervish - Accuracy/Damage: Level 50[*] (31) Scirocco's Dervish - Damage/Endurance: Level 50[*] (31) Scirocco's Dervish - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance: Level 50[*] (31) Cleaving Blow - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 50[*] (34) Cleaving Blow - Damage/Endurance: Level 50[*] (34) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50[/list]Level 32: Aid Self <ul type="square">[*] (A) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Endurance: Level 30[*] (33) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Recharge: Level 30[*] (33) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50[*] (33) Doctored Wounds - Endurance/Recharge: Level 50[*] (39) Doctored Wounds - Heal: Level 30[*] (39) Interrupt Reduction IO: Level 50[/list]Level 35: Build Up <ul type="square">[*] (A) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50[*] (36) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50[/list]Level 38: Permafrost <ul type="square">[*] (A) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%: Level 10[*] (39) Steadfast Protection - Knockback Protection: Level 10[/list]Level 41: Char <ul type="square">[*] (A) Paralytic - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 30[*] (42) Paralytic - Accuracy/Hold/Recharge: Level 30[*] (42) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 40[/list]Level 44: Fire Blast <ul type="square">[*] (A) Entropic Chaos - Accuracy/Damage: Level 20[*] (45) Entropic Chaos - Damage/Endurance: Level 20[*] (45) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge: Level 30[*] (45) Devastation - Damage/Recharge: Level 30[*] (46) Volley Fire - Damage/Endurance: Level 30[*] (46) Volley Fire - Damage/Recharge: Level 30[/list]Level 47: Fire Ball <ul type="square">[*] (A) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance: Level 30[*] (48) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range: Level 30[*] (48) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage: Level 30[*] (48) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge: Level 30[*] (50) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance: Level 30[*] (50) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50[/list]Level 49: Hibernate <ul type="square">[*] (A) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50[/list]------------
Level 1: Brawl <ul type="square">[*] (A) Endurance Reduction IO: Level 50[/list]Level 1: Sprint <ul type="square">[*] (A) Empty[/list]Level 2: Rest <ul type="square">[*] (A) Empty[/list]Level 1: Gauntlet
------------
[u]Set Bonus Totals:[u]<ul type="square">[*]+8.5% DamageBuff[*]+3% Defense(Smashing)[*]+3% Defense(Lethal)[*]+3% Defense(Fire)[*]+3% Defense(Cold)[*]+5.5% Defense(Energy)[*]+3% Defense(Negative)[*]+3% Defense(Psionic)[*]+3% Defense(Melee)[*]+3% Defense(Ranged)[*]+3% Defense(AoE)[*]+18% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*]+10% Enhancement(Heal)[*]+27.5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[*]+76.8 (6.38%) HitPoints[*]+4% JumpSpeed[*]+Knockback (Mag -4)[*]+MezResist(Immobilize) (Mag 7.15%)[*]+MezResist(Terrorized) (Mag 2.2%)[*]+16.5% Recovery[*]+88% Regeneration[*]+6.93% Resistance(Fire)[*]+6.93% Resistance(Cold)[*]+3.13% Resistance(Negative)[/list]


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</pre><hr />

The cheapass build for surviving and tanking and taking out herd spawns:

There are a few items in sets, that can be replaced if they are too expensive, but for the most part I have tried to keep magical rares to a minimum and the really 'Godlike' uniques can be specced into easily without crippling your build simply by swapping out one IO and replacing the others with higher-level versions.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.21
http://www.honourableunited.org.uk/mhd.php

Frostweaver: Level 50 Science Tanker
Primary Power Set: Ice Armor
Secondary Power Set: Fiery Melee
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Medicine
Ancillary Pool: Arctic Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Hoarfrost <ul type="square">[*] (A) Numina's Convalescence - Heal/Endurance: Level 30[*] (40) Numina's Convalescence - Heal/Endurance/Recharge: Level 30[*] (42) Numina's Convalescence - Heal/Recharge: Level 30[*] (43) Numina's Convalescence - +Regeneration/+Recovery: Level 30[*] (43) Harmonized Healing - Endurance: Level 35[*] (43) Harmonized Healing - Heal/Recharge: Level 35[/list]Level 1: Scorch <ul type="square">[*] (A) Touch of Death - Accuracy/Damage: Level 30[*] (3) Touch of Death - Damage/Recharge: Level 25[*] (3) Touch of Death - Damage/Endurance: Level 35[*] (7) Touch of Death - Damage/Endurance/Recharge: Level 35[*] (11) Pounding Slugfest - Disorient Bonus: Level 15[*] (11) Pounding Slugfest - Accuracy/Damage: Level 25[/list]Level 2: Chilling Embrace <ul type="square">[*] (A) Tempered Readiness - Range/Slow: Level 30[*] (46) Tempered Readiness - Endurance/Recharge/Slow: Level 35[/list]Level 4: Combustion <ul type="square">[*] (A) Cleaving Blow - Accuracy/Damage: Level 35[*] (5) Cleaving Blow - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 50[*] (5) Cleaving Blow - Damage/Endurance: Level 35[*] (7) Cleaving Blow - Damage/Recharge: Level 35[*] (25) Damage Increase IO: Level 35[/list]Level 6: Wet Ice <ul type="square">[*] (A) Endurance Reduction IO: Level 35[/list]Level 8: Frozen Armor <ul type="square">[*] (A) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance: Level 35[*] (9) Red Fortune - Defense/Recharge: Level 35[*] (9) Red Fortune - Endurance/Recharge: Level 35[*] (13) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance/Recharge: Level 25[*] (13) Red Fortune - Defense: Level 25[/list]Level 10: Hurdle <ul type="square">[*] (A) Jumping IO: Level 50[/list]Level 12: Combat Jumping <ul type="square">[*] (A) Kismet - Defense/Endurance: Level 25[*] (21) Kismet - Defense/Endurance/Recharge: Level 25[/list]Level 14: Health <ul type="square">[*] (A) Numina's Convalescence - Heal/Endurance: Level 30[*] (15) Numina's Convalescence - Heal: Level 30[*] (15) Numina's Convalescence - Heal/Recharge: Level 30[/list]Level 16: Breath of Fire <ul type="square">[*] (A) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance: Level 35[*] (17) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance: Level 35[*] (17) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage: Level 40[*] (25) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range: Level 35[*] (34) Range IO: Level 45[*] (40) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge: Level 40[/list]Level 18: Glacial Armor <ul type="square">[*] (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense: Level 40[*] (19) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance: Level 40[*] (19) Luck of the Gambler - Endurance/Recharge: Level 40[*] (36) Kismet - Defense/Endurance: Level 30[*] (37) Kismet - Defense/Endurance/Recharge: Level 30[/list]Level 20: Stamina <ul type="square">[*] (A) Endurance Modification IO: Level 30[*] (21) Endurance Modification IO: Level 30[/list]Level 22: Icicles <ul type="square">[*] (A) Scirocco's Dervish - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 40[*] (23) Scirocco's Dervish - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance: Level 40[*] (23) Cleaving Blow - Accuracy/Damage: Level 50[*] (37) Cleaving Blow - Damage/Endurance: Level 35[*] (37) Cleaving Blow - Damage/Recharge: Level 35[*] (40) Cleaving Blow - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 35[/list]Level 24: Stimulant <ul type="square">[*] (A) Endurance Reduction IO: Level 50[/list]Level 26: Energy Absorption <ul type="square">[*] (A) Red Fortune - Defense: Level 35[*] (27) Red Fortune - Defense/Recharge: Level 35[*] (27) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance/Recharge: Level 45[*] (29) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance: Level 30[*] (29) Red Fortune - Endurance/Recharge: Level 35[*] (36) Endurance Modification IO: Level 10[/list]Level 28: Super Jump <ul type="square">[*] (A) Unbounded Leap - Jumping: Level 50[*] (50) Unbounded Leap - +Stealth: Level 15[/list]Level 30: Fire Sword Circle <ul type="square">[*] (A) Scirocco's Dervish - Accuracy/Damage: Level 50[*] (31) Scirocco's Dervish - Damage/Endurance: Level 50[*] (31) Scirocco's Dervish - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance: Level 50[*] (31) Cleaving Blow - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 50[*] (34) Cleaving Blow - Damage/Endurance: Level 50[*] (34) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50[/list]Level 32: Aid Self <ul type="square">[*] (A) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Endurance: Level 30[*] (33) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Recharge: Level 30[*] (33) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50[*] (33) Doctored Wounds - Endurance/Recharge: Level 50[*] (39) Doctored Wounds - Heal: Level 30[*] (39) Interrupt Reduction IO: Level 50[/list]Level 35: Build Up <ul type="square">[*] (A) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50[*] (36) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50[/list]Level 38: Permafrost <ul type="square">[*] (A) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%: Level 10[*] (39) Steadfast Protection - Knockback Protection: Level 10[/list]Level 41: Block of Ice <ul type="square">[*] (A) Paralytic - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 30[*] (42) Paralytic - Accuracy/Hold/Recharge: Level 30[*] (42) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 40[/list]Level 44: Ice Blast <ul type="square">[*] (A) Entropic Chaos - Accuracy/Damage: Level 20[*] (45) Entropic Chaos - Damage/Endurance: Level 20[*] (45) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge: Level 30[*] (45) Devastation - Damage/Recharge: Level 30[*] (46) Volley Fire - Damage/Endurance: Level 30[*] (46) Volley Fire - Damage/Recharge: Level 30[/list]Level 47: Ice Storm <ul type="square">[*] (A) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance: Level 30[*] (48) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range: Level 30[*] (48) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage: Level 30[*] (48) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge: Level 30[*] (50) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance: Level 30[*] (50) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50[/list]Level 49: Hibernate <ul type="square">[*] (A) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50[/list]------------
Level 1: Brawl <ul type="square">[*] (A) Endurance Reduction IO: Level 50[/list]Level 1: Sprint <ul type="square">[*] (A) Empty[/list]Level 2: Rest <ul type="square">[*] (A) Empty[/list]Level 1: Gauntlet
------------
[u]Set Bonus Totals:[u]<ul type="square">[*]+8.5% DamageBuff[*]+3% Defense(Smashing)[*]+3% Defense(Lethal)[*]+3% Defense(Fire)[*]+3% Defense(Cold)[*]+5.5% Defense(Energy)[*]+3% Defense(Negative)[*]+3% Defense(Psionic)[*]+3% Defense(Melee)[*]+3% Defense(Ranged)[*]+3% Defense(AoE)[*]+18% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*]+10% Enhancement(Heal)[*]+27.5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[*]+76.8 (6.38%) HitPoints[*]+4% JumpSpeed[*]+Knockback (Mag -4)[*]+MezResist(Immobilize) (Mag 7.15%)[*]+MezResist(Terrorized) (Mag 2.2%)[*]+16.5% Recovery[*]+88% Regeneration[*]+6.93% Resistance(Fire)[*]+6.93% Resistance(Cold)[*]+3.13% Resistance(Negative)[/list]


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</pre><hr />

Now, a few things to remember:

as with all ice/ tankers, you still have a big hole in fire, toxic, and psi. Fire has been butressed quite a bit with almost 33%, and with the boost from EA your natural regeneration should keep it manageable. Psionic damage is problematic, (You cannot solo the clock king AV, sorry, no way to get around it) but with the average number of psi-weilding mobs and their damage in rikti/arachnos/carnie spawns you can generally kill them/keep up with their damage in terms of healing without too many problems. Remember to keep purples handy though when fighting these foes in groups of ten or more.

even when fighting singles you have the tools to pretty much ignore your end bar, and the ones that REALLY screw up your end bar (Mask of Vitiation/Sappers) well.... sappers can be held easy enough and mistresses.... I never HAVE figured out a successful strategy for dealing with them other than blowing off your inspiration tray.

Remember that positioning is everything, and at the speeds your enemies will be reduced to, you have all the time in the world to position yourself perfectly.

This build was ALSO designed to be... well...acceptable, when you exemp down for task forces. It's not the best, by any means, but you should have acceptable tanking performance no matter what badge you are trying to get.

An important thing to note also is that this is kinda designed around making sure you get your jet pack/grav packs at lower levels, that's why it holds off on travel for utility for so long. You would be amazed, however, at how quickly you can travel by bouncing if you need to.

Because that way you can get your crafting badges, and potentially your accolade? And if you play once or twice a week, it's nice to actually be able to play now instead of having to say wait till next week?

Actually I want to see more fire/stormies too

Get people away from the FOTM builds... and besides, 2 firestorms working together completely rawk, they seem to clear spawns just as fast as the current FOTM build. (was playing with 2 firestorms yesterday with my scrapper. Boy did I feel superfluous. if I was lucky I managed to get a single hit on the boss before he went down)

Okay, I am pleased that you went to so much trouble to itemize your opinions on each and every power in the ice/fire sets, but have you...umm...actually PLAYED an Ice/Fire past level 30?

WHY have you setted out so intensively to gain positional defenses that don't stack with our typed defenses? JUST to give a tiny hint of defense against psi/fire attacks?

What's with Hasten? do either of the builds actually NEED hasten to perform? Is it worth ignoring the whole CE/fire breath combination?

With your heavy emphasis on hibernation, how are you planning on tanking for a team, considering how quickly mobs lose all interest in a hibernated ice tanker? If you are strictly solo, why did you have such a low emphasis on damage sets, and how do you plan on taking out bosses, char+fire+scorch?

You might also want to consider changing your slotting for greater slot efficiency... you have a lot of stuff 5-slotted for bonuses that are almost useless. You also don't have Permafrost, who's REAL use is to deal with Tsoo green ink men, about a million and a half earth thorn casters, huge -speed from artemis chucking out dozens of caltrops, etc. I mean, I know that CE slows stuff down, but part of the big advantage is that you move FASTER than your enemy.

And also, the sets you mention are, for the most part, extremely expensive. Most people who can afford sets like those really won't have much need for a guide.

[ QUOTE ]

Ninja didnt have a true ninja sword. The ninjato is fake. A ninja using something that would instantly identify them as a ninja like that is a pretty stupid idea.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sure buddy, whatever you want to say without backing it up.
Hell, ninja themselves were fake. The whole concept comes from a caste of spies in 12th century China, not even Japan, who were trained in the art of looking in peepholes before the idea was taken back to Japan as a legend.

Then again, 'swashbucklers' didn't exist, 'superheroes' aren't real, and magic is purest fiction.

As far as the legends go, There was a caste of Ninjas. and they used a special sword. and they had a kind of powder that made a huge cloud of dust to escape in. As for whether it's 'real' or not, Who gives a damn? It's documented. That's enough for me to maintain my particular ninja fiction.

Ow. Just...Ow.
So, do you have to hibernate every single fight, or just every other fight?

Thank you much, Elandil, I finally got freezing rain, and it's a beaut.

Okay, so let me get this straight.
You are saying that, as a fire/storm, your damage is high enough to strongly favor not usually worrying about containment as much at lower levels except for luts, and instead concentrate on keeping softer controls, such as hot feet, freezing rain, and other bouncy stuff available....

Hehe. You know, I guess I have been stuck in a rut. I keep thinking "How can I kill the most amount of mobs in the least amount of time" and thinking about AOE containment on spawns of 12 at a time.

Can you tell I usually play an ice/fire tanker?

I suppose containment doesn't really help all that much if you are busy counting the number of pebbles pressing into your cheek.

Or did I totally misread this? It looks pretty sound. I am not able to 'powerlevel' myself easily, but at least I can finally succeed at door missions with huntsmen in them.


Important tip about radio missions:
Prior to level 18 or so, try not to accept 'arrest boss x' missions solo that are arachnos, not even on Heroic. Most of the arachnos characters are extraordinarily resistant to holds, slows, and immobilizes, and huntsmen especially seem to be able to burn down a whole tray of inspirations and still beat you to death afterwards. I think they are 'reduced elite bosses' down to lut level because they are incredibly brutal (even a domination-buffed dominator can seldom hold them for more than a few seconds)