Unthing

I would get Hibernate at level 32. It a great power and is more needed than Stimulant at that level. I would also max out EA earlier.

Since I5 hit and Instant Healing was no longer a toggle, I've always thought of regens as squishy so I relate. They are squishy in a if I make a mistake you can't kill me way. They are far more forgiving than a real squishy though.

That's why Unthing is a scraster.

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Taunt's vastly useful from 10-22, despite what many people claim about tanks being too squishy before SO's - at that point in the game, you're still a hell of a lot tougher than most others, you just need to be very selective about using it. Taking taunt early is a proving ground, but worth its weight in gold when it comes to learning the trade early.

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I agree entirely. Note that a /SS tank needs taunt more than a /Fire tank too.

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For what it's worth, I wouldn't consider tanking without Resist Physical Damage - Taking it with the build you have will half incoming s/l damage when Unstoppable is down.

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I know it halves your S/L but once you have Tough and Weave you are hovering in the 78% S/L resist and around 23% defence. So you are only taking about 12% of damage from S/L damage anyway. With that much defence/resistance the only S/L opponents that are any danger are the giant monsters in PI and the Hive. With defender buffs/debuffs you are safe against them too. I never had any problems with the hard hitting S/L AVs.
Golden Golem had capped S/L resists in I4. However in I5 I didn't slot RPD, so had about 85 and in I6/I7 I had about 78%.

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Hand Clap at 49 is a bit odd, at that point your days are about over, and you won't be too worried about the damage mit. it offers if you've spent 49 levels without it.

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Yes, the 49 power is a throwaway one. To some extent so is the 47 one. Try and get your build complete by level 41.

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If you drop epic pool (you've enough damage output and a decent enough attack chain without it) you could comfortably fit Aid Self and RPD.

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But only in the forties when you are almost done.

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Whatever you decide to do, don't drop fighting pool. Weave is so incredibly valuable, a fact which is denied by its seemingly small amount of def. And you can't hit s/l cap without Tough!

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Ignoring hitting the cap, [Boxing,] Weave and Tough give better survivability than REl, REn and RPD. Weave is the one that makes the most difference here. RPD IMO is optional.

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Have you used Hibernate?

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Well my first toon was an ice/ice tank back in i3. Honest to the truth I deleted it in i5 (if you were playing your tank by then, you'll understand why). I'm building an ice/nrg tank now tho he's lv34 so.. yes, i have used hibernate for a while, and if you are not alone, all i have found is that if foes are attacked, even if it's the very next second after starting to hibernate, they will ignore you and turn towards the attacker

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It definitely isn't instantanous with Icicles + Chilling Embrace, a decent amount of punchvoke and regular taunts, you have a reasonable few seconds before your team starts getting hit, enough that you can be way past half hitpoints if your were low.

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Remember the OP is ice/ice, so rage is not a matter to discuss. Of course that on an ice/ss tactics would be different, but losing gauntlet and taunt aura on tank, you would only have taunt left (that if you have taken it previously), which would decrease your tanking effectivity IMHO.

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Have you used Hibernate? The aggro dropoff of an actively taunting and gauntletting Ice tank ( with both Auras ) is pretty long. Generally I find it is about 10 seconds before you lose aggro and have to come out of it, that's with 1 taunt enhancement on taunt and CE. During that time they are attacking you and so wasting time and energy on you. If it wasn't for Chilling Embrace working it would be the ideal tanking power.

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Aid self replenishes your health and EA your endurance, so hibernate would only be needed as a panic button.

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From what I've heard Aid Self is expensive in end, EA doesn't work in all circumstances. EA makes endurance managable, however it doesn't solve all endurance problems.

Hibernate is a panic button that can be hit every minute. However it is an awesome panic button and shouldn't be dismissed. I got it at 35 because the guides I read didn't rate it. I wish I had got it at 32. IMO it is better than Unstoppable for tanking.

I found Hibernate made the difference between fighting 8 man team +2s and +4s.

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Besides remember Super Speed has only lost its +def bonus in pvp, it's still pretty handy for pve since your tank is based upon defense

[/ QUOTE ] I think you mean stealth not def. Superspeed was never +def in Europe.

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you should use it more its a great power, just because you go into hibernate it doesnt deactivate any taunts, just the aura is no longer being applied. Its got perfect synergy for SS as when rage crashes and the -def is applied you just hibernate and come out fighting.

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Rage and Hibernate are a truly great combo.

As far as the original poster is concerned, Aid Self is probably better or the same as Tough and Weave but it is less powers. Ice tankers are the only tanker to gain little real benefit from Tough.

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By slotting Hibernate with 3 recharges and having hasten running, you don't really need a self heal (I'm assuming you use Hoarfrost to increase your HP instead of self healing). Plus, you seem to have enough experience to stay alive for 20seconds while Hibernate is recharging.

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He's lvl 28 and hasn't got Hibernate

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What a gimped build! At level 28 not having the level 32 power... Respec NOW!

IIRC Siphon Speed is about a 0.25 recharge buff ( it may be 0.2 for controllers ). Speed Boost is 0.5, Hasten is 0.7.

-Jump and -fly are mez type effects, unlike say -recharge which is debuff. As such they are binary on/off effects. It's almost as thought they were added as an afterthought.

Kinetics can be a real pain to play. On the other hand it can be very rewarding.

Firstly you have one of the strongest but least flexible AoE heals. Trying to target it to a specific person is hard and requires luck. This means you are not a healer. Don't try to be one. I tend to just use it as a blanket heal around the tank or if I am injured. If you want to save a specific teammate you are probably better off using your primary.

Speed Boost is a pain to keep on everyone. As a defender I only rarely use it in combat and have a macro set up that says something like "Gather for Speed Boosting please wait" so I can get the team to stand still when I want to rebuff them. People do this for empaths with their Recovery Aura and Rads with Accelerate Metabolism so they will probably do it for you. If they aren't in range during that period, don't speed boost them. As a controller you should pay less attention to the speed boosts than I do. If they refuse to wait, don't boost them. If they complain tell them that if they want speed boost they have to let you give it to them.

Whilst in combat I spam Siphon Power, Siphon Speed, Transference, Fulcrum Shift, Short Circuit, Lightning Bolt and Tesla Cage. The kinetics stuff rules most of my combat attack chain. I suspect as a controller you have some better powers to spam than me. Kinetics is your secondary, don't let it rule your life.

I think Stone is worse than SS at level 30. SS get it's big attack at level 20, Stone gets it at level 38.

Also for PvE SS is very good as Rage makes damage auras pretty effective.

I think 4 empaths is about right. As Empath says, 1 empath is probably enough for just Hami. The problems is that the Hami tank will get aggro from multiple Mitos during the clearing phase, for me it was something like for 75% of the clearing phase. Once the holding phase starts you could probably cut down to 2.

Why the controller?

Focussed Accuracy needs 3 end reductions it is about 1 end per second or more. If you are slotting ACC in your attacks putting to hit buffs in it is a luxury rather than an essential for PvE.

On my Spines/Regen I found that in the early levels ( 1-20 ) stamina really wasn't missed. I think I got it at level 24 when I was levelling up, just in time for IH which at the time was a very expensive toggle. I believe claws is cheaper than spines.

Regen is light on endurance ( only have integration toggle wise ) and QR is better than stamina so in theory you shouldn't need it. I certainly wouldn't worry about getting the fitness pool in the 12-20 level range.

However if you intend to get Focussed Accuracy ( which I'm not sure you really need given Follow Up in claws has a to hit buff ) then you need to have stamina 3 slotted before you hit the 40s. Focussed Accuracy allowed me to increase the recharge on my attacks which was essential, claws has a much tighter attack chain so you may not need this.

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Not a waste in FA, I've noticed a significant difference from the extra 3 slots I've got in it at the moment.

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About 0.85% defnce per extra slot I think. As you are so close to 45% defence it may make a significant difference.

What the plan for Whirlwind? Fun? If you use it in any practical situation you will be out of endurance in no time. I tried it with my regen scrapper, Whirlwind + Stamina + QR and I still ran out of endurance unless I was against only one opponent.

This build seems to get a bit strange in the later levels.

For instance,
Why Challenge before Provoke?
Why isn't Provoke 6 slotted?
Why aren't any slots put on Challenge?
Why isn't Hibernate 6 slotted if you are going defensive?
Why so many slow's in CE, I'd go for Taunts if I had no attacks.

I would suggest 2 ACCs and 3 taunts and perhaps an end red in the Presence pool taunts because in order to challenge your very defensive build you will probably need to be fighting +4-5s*. The taunt duration against +4-5s is small so you will have to spam them.

*this is based on my Ice/SS being fine in teams against +2-3s with no defender support and I don't have the Fighting or Medicine pools.

My level 40 defender has the following powers.

From Kin the powers I have are:-

Tranfusion ( 6 slotted and spammed , 1xACC,3x Heal,2x RCG )
Siphon Power ( 4 slotted and spammed )
Siphon Speed ( ditto )
Speed Boost ( people love this, I find it annoying to give out though, 1 slot of end mod )
Increase Density ( 1x Resist slot, I got this because I would like it on me )
Transference ( 6 slot, 1xACC, 3 recharge, 2x end mod IIRC )
Fulcrum Shift ( spammed 1xACC, 3xRCG IIRC )

Inertial Reduction is a decent travel power, but I decided not to get it as I'm not too fond of jumping.

From Elec I have
Charged Bolts ( 4 slotted IIRC )
Lightning Bolt ( 4 slotted IIRC , spammed )
Short Circuit ( 6 slotted , spammed )
Tesla Cage ( 6 slotted , spammed )
Thunderous Blast ( 6 slotted )
I would like to have Ball Lightning too, but I didn't want to sacrifice any of the other powers, Lightning bolt is too useful ).
I tried Zapp and wasn't impressed, the damage was good but the animation was too long in an already busy toon.
Voltaic Sentinel sounded like a really good idea, summon a pet so you don't have to blast. However the damage is pretty poor and I just end up forgetting about it.

Pool Pools
Hover ( 3 slotted for speed )
Hasten ( 3x RCG )
Super Speed ( 1xSPD )
Maneuvers ( 1xENDred, I normally don't have this on, I figured it was more useful than assault because I can get people to the damage cap anyway ).
Tactics ( 1xENDred, 3x ToHitBuff )
Swift
Health
Stamina ( 3 Slotted )

I decided to go for Super Speed as my travel power, even though I had the choice between IR, Fly and SS.
I have had every travel power at some point with this toon. This is my favourite version of the build, which I respecced into in the late 30s.

I did survive without stamina for most of my builds. However I prefer having it, for AVs and dangerous AoE enemies it means I play it safer and stay out of melee. I really missed the sleep resistance of Health too.

The problem is when faced with AVs or tough bosses, there you spend 90% of the fight with no minions to drain.

And I would've gotten away with it if it weren’t for you meddling kids....

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However I find its not the healing at all thats makes the difference, its the end drain properties of my secondary and transference that prevent the mobs from hitting ppl at all.
Add to that speed boost, siphon power and the soon (hopefully) to be attained FS, and you get a toon that almost doesnt need the heal except for himself as he spends all his time in melee range.

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The role of my kin is about keeping the team going at full speed, plenty of damage buffs, speed boosts, lots of endurance and extra accuracy ( from Tactics ). I don't consider him to be a healer and as you say my heal is often for my benefit or to be used as a debuff. When I play my Kinetic defender I don't pay take as much responsibility for the other members of the team's safety as I do if I'm playing a tank or my Dark Defender. The drain in Short Circuit is good, but is a massive aggro generator when you don't have a tank stood next to you.

I currently slot my attacks 1xACC,2xDAM,2xEND,1xRCG. But then I'm Ice/SS with perma rage so the 3rd DAM only adds about 10% extra damage rather than 16%. It may be worth slotting EA for end mod in order to slot the attacks for 3 damage, 1 end and 1 recharge.

Yes the real world is such a grind. It takes about a month to get any kind of reward and that is pretty much the same as last month. It needs new content.

My problem with Stalkers ( I played to 28 ) was that I found that I peaked early and after that gained few tricks.

Basicially Assassin's Strike is 6 slotted well before 22. Which means that at level 22-25 the primary power of the stalker is maxed out with SOs. However after that the enemies continue to get harder whilst your alpha strike doesn't increase in damage. Yes you have other attacks but they are seriously lacking in power.

I respeced Stamina back into my Kin Defender. I didn't like being at the mercy of transference for my endurance. However it is feasible to live without it.

I would get health rather than hurdle. The sleep resistance in Health is really useful and as a Kin you need an enemy to self heal so it reduces downtime too. Also you have Inertial Reduction and Hover for proper vertical movement.

Energy Absorption buffs do stack, otherwise I'd slot End mod instead of some of the recharge.

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Remember that you don't need to pair dark miasma with dark blast.

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But Dark blast does add to your surviability because of the -acc on the blasts ( especially the AOEs ).



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I just find that tar patch slotted 3 recharge 3 slow, plus fearsome stare keeps the mobs where you want them and dark miasma is SOOOOOO easy to herd with. There is at least a 2-3 second delay on darkest night from the power activating and the effect taking place/mobs becoming aware. You can herd around corners onto a tar patch very easily and then slap them with a stare when they are bunched up.

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If you have Dark blast, the slows are unnecessary.

As for herding. Try Shadowfall, dodge down a corridor full of enmeies, set up darkest night on someone at the end and run back to the beginning. You get a huge pile of enemies and they generally don't hit you until you get round the corner. Tar Patch the corner, open up with a fearsome stare and then start blasting, priceless!

That's what I do.

The other possibility is to put end mods in there somewhere to get more endurance back when you aren't surrounded. It is about 15 base endurance per enemy I think.