I feel the same about EA now. We went from "I'm constantly out of end!!!!!" to " I have perma RA". Just keep casting EA with minions around you and you'll never run out. Not to mention the resistance to slow it gives now, beautiful. Combined with WI, we are now impervious to every status effect in the game. I believe this to be a very good trade off to whatever else we did loose. As for wet ice. I did my respec yesterday and only have one slot in now (the one it came with, and its an endurance reducer). And I also took out all thye other end reducers too. And you should see him now. He works better than before I5!!!! Still cant really tank AVs tho 
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I feel the same about EA now. We went from "I'm constantly out of end!!!!!" to " I have perma RA". Just keep casting EA with minions around you and you'll never run out. Not to mention the resistance to slow it gives now, beautiful.
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EA always gave Slow RES. Permafrost was given new Slow RES.
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Combined with WI, we are now impervious to every status effect in the game.
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Sadly, Fear still hits us. But gladly, that's not something you really see much.
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I believe this to be a very good trade off to whatever else we did loose.
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Our DEF? I dunno, it still seems unbalanced. If the Devs wanted to make us more damage based, they would have brought down the I4 Endurance costs to assist in that. It seems like all we have now, with our armors, is an old fashioned Weave. Waiting until 26, before we can start dishing anything out.
It is good to see some Ice Tanks are surviving I5 though. Kinda holding back myself, until they do something to replace it's lost DEF.
Good luck in your tanking. If it ever comes up, I'd like to know how Ice runs with a Sonic Bubbler behind it.
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Our DEF? I dunno, it still seems unbalanced. If the Devs wanted to make us more damage based, they would have brought down the I4 Endurance costs to assist in that. It seems like all we have now, with our armors, is an old fashioned Weave. Waiting until 26, before we can start dishing anything out.
It is good to see some Ice Tanks are surviving I5 though. Kinda holding back myself, until they do something to replace it's lost DEF.
Good luck in your tanking. If it ever comes up, I'd like to know how Ice runs with a Sonic Bubbler behind it.
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After playing a ton of my ice tank in I5, I have more feelings to share:
1 - I am _very_ strong vs even-leveled foes with a modest number of +1 foes. I switched from 5DEF to 6DEF in my armors, and I keep them fully green as much as possible. Yellow defense enhancements are death.
2 - My Ice tank could, by himself, protect the shrine in the new Croatoa Fir Bolg mission. If you've tried it, you know the one I mean. My aura and Icicles grabbed all the aggro nicely, and I was able to finish them off quickly enough. These were mostly +2 minions with fire attacks - it got hairy a few times, but I did it with constant inspiration use.
3 - As I start to go up to +1 enemies with some +2s, I drop in effectiveness significantly. I would say that I am clearly weaker than an Inv or Fire tank in this range, but not so much so that I am a detriment to the team. This range will be much more possible for me once I get Hibernate.
4 - The endurance regen from EA is _amazing_ - I'm filling my bar about every 20 seconds. I drain endurance pretty quickly with my axe attacks, but I think I could run my primaryies without and endurance reducers now if it would help.
5 - I cannot fight red minions in any significant numbers (like, more than 3) without serious danger.
6 - Just 1 defender or controller, of any type, makes +2 and +3 mobs quite doable. But they must actively support me, which sometimes they forget to do. I've become accustomed to Defenders acting 50% blater and 50% defender. Now I really look for defenders who defend more actively. Empaths are great if they have regen aura and Fortitude - useless if they do not. Dark, Rad, Storm, Kin, FF, and Sonic (sk'd up a 21) all push me easily into the "awesome" range again.
--Mr. Strange
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The test I did last night seems to show that icicle's damage speed hasn't changed. Also, at level 32 in bricks jumping into the middle of 10-12 council, I believe I was hit once or twice before they all fell (Ice/Axe). Health bar barely moved. Still, the dumbest think in the world is hitting EA to get full defense with my end bar still at max. What a stupid waste of power.
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Pretty much -- too bad I never got to try EA in Issue 4.
The only side benefit I've managed to wrangle out of EA when my end bar is full is that, since I'm an AoE attack Ice/Fire tank, I run Icicles and jump into the spawn, then Build Up, Combustion, and finish with EA (because it cycles in 30 seconds for me).
EA contributes enough damage under Build Up for me to almost take down the whole white spawn with that one attack cycle.
I'm still playing my tank on live, and things are still going smoothly. I'll try to crank things up a bit tonight, and see how far I can push my Ice Tank before he folds.
What I'm really finding, and will probably make a seperate post about in the Ice Tank forums, is that my playstyle is somewhat different now. And actually, I'm much more effective as an active damage dealer. I've not changed my powers or slotting at all - just my actions in-game. EA is mostly the culprit. I'm quite liking it.
--Mr. Strange