Santa_Laws

I checked out your build side by side with mine. While most of the stats are comparable, there are some major differences -

First - You did softcap yours, but you alsoovercapped meaning that the amout you went over is useless for everything except incarnate trials.

Second - Your weakest DEF damge types are Fire/Cold def. Same with mine, but I am a good 8% higher than you. The trade off is you also have less resistance to fire my 13%.

Third - Your Max HP is higher than mine at 170.7% vs 155%, but that is the trade off for DEF and RES.

Fourth - MY Regen and Recovery is higher than your despite the difference in the way Hoarfrost is slotted.

Fifth - I run faster, Jump faster, jump higher, and I fly.

Sixth - I have PVE and PVP stealth whereas you do not.

Seventh - Haste. Because you have Hasten you are faster at recharging. Yours is +152.5% where mine is +40%. I will let you know that I do make up difference if I slot my incarnate power to help though I do not know by how much.

Eigth - Damage. You sit at +5% where I sit at +176.5%. Huge difference.

Ninth - To Hit buff. You +6% vs me with +68.3%

Tenth - The Status protections and resistances. I have better Hold/Stun/Sleep Protection, KB Protection and Stun Res., Sleep Res, Confuse Res, and Fear Res. Additionally, I have Hold protection whereas you do not. On the other hand, your Immob Res is higher.

So in all, where your build is cheaper and more conducive to most peoples needs, mine is designed from the ground up for me. My build is not for the causal player nor should most experienced players attempt it. My build is expensive, it requires a learning curve, and it requires an open mind.

I also am constantly looking to how I can make it better. I am taking several suggestions to heart and plan on making a couple of changes.

No disrespect, but I disagree that your build "outclasses" mine.

P.S. - Check your build. Some of your set bonuses are not applying because you have hit the limit. Mine has no such problems.

You are correct, on so many different levels. My attack chain is perfectly balanced for my recovery.

BTW, at 3279.5 HP How am I lacking on HP? Recharging is built into my Sets and Set Bonuese so that I get the full DEF bonus for the baddies around me before the previous ones expire.

I agree that Hasten is a nice power, but keep this in mind.

While hasten is good for recharge, it recharges all your powers (except incarnate). Perma Hoarfrost? Yes, if you are waiting for Hoar to be available so that you can click it ASA it is up. Same with all other clicky powers. That is why I forego Hasten in lieu of EA for my Autofire. Perma +DEF and END recovery.

Hasten is good, but not good enough for me. Believe it or not, most comments from people that see me run goes to the effect of "MY GOD! You use a lot of END! How do you not run out?"

My secret is Autofire EA.

Yeah, I have. I spent 19.5 billion completing it. Plus I run one single build and I included a lot of PVP IOs in order to participate. I don't expect to win in PVP, but I expect to be a challenge to them.

Afte some of these suggestions, I am going to revisit some of my choices in my build.

Might want to check and see if it is a upgrade issue with Mids. I have the latest version and it does open for me.

There is the data chunk. Aett, I understand most everything you stated above. True, some of the slotting could be moved around. Also, ther are some things, I will not budge on like Fly. I'd rather drop the entire Leaping Pool.

There are a lot of things that you guys cannot see with my build because you simply have to experience how well, it works.

Also, the OP was soliciting advice on Ice Tanks and more specifically, her build. I posted mine as an example of one way to build. This build has evolved since 2004 and so has my playstyle. I know what works for me and I have a build that works with it. Occasionally, I make a change if I am not happy with the way it works. One example is Ice Storm.. I hate that even fully slotted and with Call to Justice and Build Up, I can only get ticks of damage worth 2 points. Unslotted and without Call to Justice and Build Up I can get 1 point per tick.

After your last post, I do think I will look into shifting the IO Set from Chilblain to Block of Ice.

Awesome info for the new tank. Much to our shagrin, a lot of people do hold the Taunt is not needed because they rely solely on punchvoke and gauntlet. A tank worth their salt would never consider dropping taunt.

I could drop Acrobatics, Super Jump and Taunt and pick up Boxing, Tough and Weave - but why? I don't see the need to add even more Defense (which is still way over the softcap and nearing the hardcap) and just adding Tough for the smashing/lethal resistance in a minimal form? At the same time, I lose my Taunt? Wha?

I wish you guys would admit that since IOs came into the game, and again after Fitness became inherent, that thers is more than one way to build an Ice Tank.

I greatly appreciate your service all these years to the Ice Tanks, Aett Thorn, you have done a lot to make us what we are today. I just thought you were more open minded about the possibilities of how to build an ice tank and variances in playstyle.

Have you open up mids with my build to check it out? That might answer a few questions right there.

As far as some of the questions you raise, I'll address them here:

1) Recall Friend - Assemble The Team replaces this need.
2) Assault - I do not have to take this power because I use Set Bonuses. Plus the END cost was higher than I wanted for a single slot.
3) Hasten - This power is a double edged sword because yes, it does allow your powers to come up quicker, but you also use the END much more quickly.
4) Grant Invisibility (heck, it would be better than acro) - With so many buffers out there, why would I want to grant Invis to the teammates when my efforts are better supported in controlling agro and taking on the mobs.

We are talking about taking 3 powers (one of which would not be used - boxing) in order to improve defense? I use two slots on Manuevers. This is because it is all I need with this build. I already can hit 200% DEF by myself with no buffs from other people so Boxing/Tough/Weave is usless on my build. I might get half the defense for Manuvers compared with Weave, but I also save 2 slots that I can fill with other more important (to my build) powers.

My build is for AoE damage, Agro control and survivability. There are very few baddies I cannot handle. Lord Recluse and Hamidon are two of them. As far as Chilblain, it goes like this. My previous build included Soul Mastery and I used Gloom and Dar Obliteration. When I was respecing, I wanted to use the same IO Sets and wanted to go more Ice thematic so I chose Chilblain and slotted it as I did with Gloom... for the Set Bonuses.

Hoarfrost is slotted for Toxic Resistance because with my resistances and defenses, heal is not needed as much - plus I wanted the set bonuses.

I do not use Frozen Fists except on rare occasion. Even then, I don't miss them except in a very rare case, so an ACC IO (while not slotted) doesn't really give me more of a chance.

As far as EA, how much more Defense can you get than 11% additional to 6 different damage types? Plus, my set bonues make up for more than that. And since EA is set to autofire, It goes off religiously and my DEF is always maxed and EA is successful at draining most every baddie (with exception of AV and even then sometimes) of END and as long as the number of baddies I have around me, END usage is not a problem.

With all due respect, you did not come up with a viable alternative. You just stated what I already had said in a previous post - I did state that I didn't really need it, I took it because there was not another power I cared to take.

And what am I missing in my build that I could substitute for Acrobatics?

EDIT: See, I took acro because I needed to take something. It increases my KB protection from mag 14 to mag 23. It also increases my hold protection to 14.98 and my hold resistance to 106.5%... And that is without my Accolades and Incarnate powers added in.

Truth is, my build is overkill. But with good reason.

I respect your opinions on this. Sometimes, it is hard to play one way and even consider a different method. I'll tell you that I do not understand why people will spend power slots to get a power they do not need and do not use.

EDIT: BTW, It does matter where you put the Steadfast Psi Res/+Def. In order for it to be alsways on, you need it in a power that is always on. Hoarfrost is clicky, Tough is a toggle, but permafrost is Always on.

Ice tanking is not about damage. It is damage mitigation. You get in the fight, you last and last and last until the damage you do finally takes them down. Granted, I had to rely on lots of pets when I soloed Imperious.

I never said it wasn't an extreme build, I think it speaks for itself. As far as Miracle: +rec in hibernate, look at the set bonuses in health first. It is slotted in hibernate for a bonus in hibernating. I hibernate when I am low on baddies in melee range AND low endurance. It is very situational.

If you ever get to team with me, you will see that my technique is different, and my build works great. There are a lot of people that really read up on my build after seeing me run. But hey - to each his own.

Also, there are a lot of changes that can be made to make use of lower cost enhancements.

Because I had to take something. Acrobatics just means that I will never be knocked back... not that I was ever.