Thinking about making a WP/Ice tanker...
WP earns my ire just because of the weak taunt aura, so be warned, you'll have to compensate for that. As far as Ice goes, it's my favorite, and it's too bad on the endurance, and I'm sure you could get away with only QR, but stamina is always a great help regardless, and health only adds more regen to willpowers already great regen numbers.
Ice's tier 9 is fantastic now, right up there with footstomp.
and as for skipping Frost, if you must, go ahead, but it can be such a good power, I swear, my stone/ice loved it, as did my powerful yet shortlived invul/ice.
I may have to role a will/ice because you've intrigued me on this build.
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I was thinking about skipping the frost breath power (forgot name of it) but after reading a few posts/guides people like the power. I never cared for any of the breath cone powers (fire or cold) always seemed to do very little dmg (even on a Blaster).
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It's a good power. Pure cold damage. Nice wide cone. Doesn't actually look like a breath (since it's not, you just raise your hands and the Frost comes out). Does decent damage, since you can leverage more Mobs into the AoE than a Blaster might be able to.
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I know Ice Melee isn't the best in the damage category but is the tier 9 power worth getting now that it has been buffed a bit?
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Yes, wholeheartedly yes. As a bonus, since you'll be WP/, you can actually utilize the sleep on the power.
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Another reason why I was leaning towards Ice Melee was because I figured it wasn't a huge end. hog like Stone Melee is and therefore might be able to skip on the Stamina line and just make QR my "stamina". Would this work or do you think even if I did go with Ice Melee, I'd want Stamina?
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You can probably do without it if you want. Ice Patch can give you some needed time to regain endurance (both in the longer animation and the fact that less people are hitting you), and none of the attacks are that endurance hungry.
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One last question before I go....would Tough/Weave be worth getting? Keep in mind I don't IO up my toons usually (just common IOs)....
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If you team a lot, they can be useful. However, if you get them, you may find that you'll find Stamina to be more and more desired.
Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
"I was just the one with the most unsolicited sombrero." - Traegus
Ice Melee works really well with WP (imo) due to the Ice Patch negating some of a big alpha while levelling up and Ice isn't an endurance hog (as far as I know).
I'm not a big fan of single target holds, nor the sleep mechanic for Tankers but I tend to like to tank big groups of mobs where those mechanics don't work really well (too many AOEs in group play for sleep effects and single target holding a minion or an LT out of a pack of 12 seems a little ... pointless (most times)).
Also Ice's damage isn't bad ... it's horrendously bad.
The only upside over Stone (graphics aside) is Ice gets 2 damaging AOEs (Frost Breath and Frozen Aura) and Stone only has one (Tremor).
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...
I may have to role a will/ice because you've intrigued me on this build.
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Muwhahaha, my work is complete!
Okay I think I will do a WP/Ice tanker then...won't do one for a while though...(all slots on Liberty are taken...going to buy more...maybe.... >_>.
Thanks again for all the input
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Ice Melee's single target damage is pretty abysmal, but the AoE damage between Frost and Frozen Aura is solid. Not Fiery melee good, but well above stone, energy, or dark. The mitigation against anything vulnerable to knockdown is great.
You could go without Stamina, but if you take Tough and Weave you'll probably want it. If you solo you may want stamina, since it takes a heck of a lot of attacks to finish a boss.
The tier 9, frozen aura, is well worth taking now. Same animation and damage as Foot Stomp, smaller radius and a sleep side effect instead of knockdown. Call of the sandman chance for self-heal is fun, useful, and cheap for this power.
Freezing Touch is a must-have power. You can even ignore the fact that it's a hold, it's one of the absolute best damage per activation powers that tanks get in any set.
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Ice Melee's single target damage is pretty abysmal, but the AoE damage between Frost and Frozen Aura is solid. Not Fiery melee good, but well above stone, energy, or dark. The mitigation against anything vulnerable to knockdown is great.
You could go without Stamina, but if you take Tough and Weave you'll probably want it. If you solo you may want stamina, since it takes a heck of a lot of attacks to finish a boss.
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Yeah I think I will go with the Fitness line...forgot that Health would be a nice boost with/for WP.
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The tier 9, frozen aura, is well worth taking now. Same animation and damage as Foot Stomp, smaller radius and a sleep side effect instead of knockdown. Call of the sandman chance for self-heal is fun, useful, and cheap for this power.
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Oh, nice call...have to remember this
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Freezing Touch is a must-have power. You can even ignore the fact that it's a hold, it's one of the absolute best damage per activation powers that tanks get in any set.
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Yeah I was planning on getting FT no matter what....now it seems like I'll be getting all 9 powers from both primary and secondary
3rd and final (hopefully ) edit: Never mind about the hasten question...I forgot about RedTomax's site. And according to his list, the highest recharge power is Build Up at 90s (no surprise there at its time)....so I think I'll have a good attack chain without worrying about hasten...which is good
Leader of The LEGION/Fallen LEGION on the Liberty server!
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Ice melee jsut has really bad single target damage. Horribly bad in fact. Frozen Aura and Frost optimally slotted really helps AoE wise, but you will take a while to defeat a boss solo.
YMMV---IMO
Ice Ember
I'll keep this short and sweet.
Rise to the Challenge combined with Ice Patch is killer!
I feel invincible everytime I use that combo. Just as all the above said, the damage for Ice is lacking. However, the slows keep baddies from escaping your RttC radius and makes keeping your Taunt up a cake walk. The WP/Ice Tank really shines on teams because you don't HAVE to do damage, you just have to tank. And WP/Ice really shines in that catagory.
Cool, thanks for the tips/thoughts
Leader of The LEGION/Fallen LEGION on the Liberty server!
SSBB FC: 2062-8881-3944
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Personally, I do not feel as most other people seem to about Ice Melee. I won't go so far as to say that it does amazing damage, but it is not "horrendous" damage, either. If you look at the numbers, most of Ice Melee's damage lines up with other sets. One exception is Stone Melee - which is much more geared towards single target, also Super Strength if Rage is included. You'll even find that Frozen Aura has the same base statistics that Footstomp does. The reason that it seems to perform poorly (in my eyes, at least) is that it really is pretty insufferable against robots. I hate fighting Malta with my DA/IM tanker because those titans just take forever to kill. One thing that ice does have going for it is that it is one of the least resisted damage types in the game. My suggestion is to try it out for yourself and see if you like it. Don't take anybody's word for it but your own.
50 Tankers: Ice/EM, Stone/WM, Fire/Stone, Dark/Ice, Inv/SS, Inv/Dark, Elec/Elec
50 Brutes: ElecMelee/EA, WM/Elec
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My suggestion is to try it out for yourself and see if you like it. Don't take anybody's word for it but your own.
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YMMV---IMO
Ice Ember
Ice is definitely the lowest damage tanker secondary. On the other hand, if you're worried about your aggro holding ability, it definitely helps.
My only higher level /Ice tanker is Dark/Ice. I have not yet taken the tier 9; a sleep AoE seems almost counterproductive with Dark. That tanker is my purest team tanker, and does not even try to solo; she is essentially a mobile traffic hazard, built for pure control. I may pick up the sleep at some point; she is currently 38.
<《 New Colchis / Guides / Mission Architect 》>
"At what point do we say, 'You're mucking with our myths'?" - Harlan Ellison
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I may pick up the sleep at some point; she is currently 38.
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You do know that it does good damage, too, right? It's not just a sleep power anymore. It's a pretty good AoE power, that will be great if you're teaming a lot.
Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
"I was just the one with the most unsolicited sombrero." - Traegus
As I said; Frozen Aura (that would be the AoE sleep) runs the same numbers - damage, recharge, end cost - as Footstomp. The only thing it lacks is Rage to go with it and the fact that it is cold damage.
Edit: Oh yeah, it's radius is a little smaller as well.
50 Tankers: Ice/EM, Stone/WM, Fire/Stone, Dark/Ice, Inv/SS, Inv/Dark, Elec/Elec
50 Brutes: ElecMelee/EA, WM/Elec
So...once I get enough momentum in my brain to pay for 5 more character slots, I'll be making this WP/Ice tanker...
Just didn't want to pay for char slots....but waiting another year for 1 just won't cut it methinks
Leader of The LEGION/Fallen LEGION on the Liberty server!
SSBB FC: 2062-8881-3944
MKW FC: 4167-4891-5991
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Ice is definitely the lowest damage tanker secondary.
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That's so utterly wrong, I don't even know where to start. Yes I do. Look at Stars' tables for AoE output. Ice is near the top.
If you'd said Ice Melee is the lowest ST damage tanker secondary, I'd wholeheartedly agree with you, but who plays tanks to hit 1 thing at a time?
To the OP (hey other Ion! ), take, slot & love Frost. Seriously, FA is a gimme, but Frost is the other power that makes Ice Melee a great AoE set. Ppl who complain about IM are the ppl who take & slot up Ice Sword & GIS and notice they suck. Also, Frozen Touch is your best ST attack. Just ignore the fact that it holds and slot it like any other damage attack (or use Peroxes for both).
Look me up on SHF (hint as to who to look for above ) and I'll show you how my Stone/Ice does against huge crowds. Just yesterday, I was outdamaging a poorly built (no Frost, no FA) Fire/Ice w/Burn working in an MA farm--I only joined to see if my Stone/Ice could outdamage him, even in Granite. I did.
An Offensive Guide to Ice Melee
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Ice is definitely the lowest damage tanker secondary.
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That's so utterly wrong, I don't even know where to start. Yes I do. Look at Stars' tables for AoE output. Ice is near the top.
If you'd said Ice Melee is the lowest ST damage tanker secondary, I'd wholeheartedly agree with you, but who plays tanks to hit 1 thing at a time?
To the OP (hey other Ion! ), take, slot & love Frost. Seriously, FA is a gimme, but Frost is the other power that makes Ice Melee a great AoE set. Ppl who complain about IM are the ppl who take & slot up Ice Sword & GIS and notice they suck. Also, Frozen Touch is your best ST attack. Just ignore the fact that it holds and slot it like any other damage attack (or use Peroxes for both).
Look me up on SHF (hint as to who to look for above ) and I'll show you how my Stone/Ice does against huge crowds. Just yesterday, I was outdamaging a poorly built (no Frost, no FA) Fire/Ice w/Burn working in an MA farm--I only joined to see if my Stone/Ice could outdamage him, even in Granite. I did.
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hehe okay. So Freezing Touch does more damage than Greater Ice Sword?
Leader of The LEGION/Fallen LEGION on the Liberty server!
SSBB FC: 2062-8881-3944
MKW FC: 4167-4891-5991
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hehe okay. So Freezing Touch does more damage than Greater Ice Sword?
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Outright? No, though it's close. At 50, GIS has 87.2 base damage while FT has 74.76. What's misleading is that comes as a DoT, so it's possible you waste attacks while the DoT is going. Having said that, FT animates in 1 sec so its DPA is very high (62.93 adjusted for Arcanatime) for a tank. That's higher than Incinerate, also a DoT, and GFS and just a bit lower than the new, gimped Energy Transfer. GIS otoh is a rather pitiful (even for a tank) 34.77. Oh, and just as an added bonus, FT holds stuff.
Now, FT is a bit end intensive, which is to say that it has a bit lower DPE than the other ST attacks, but it's not that much lower. It also recharges a bit slow so it won't be up all the time, but neither is KO Blow (also comparable damage, at least w/o Rage).
For full detail of Ice Melee (all base #s at lvl 50):
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
Ice Melee Dam Act Rech End DPE DPA
Frozen Fists 37.37 1.33 3 4.368 8.56 23.59
Ice Sword 58.72 1.33 6 6.864 8.55 37.07
Frost 72.06 2.27 11 11.024 6.54 28.73
Freezing Touch 74.76 1 16 10.192 7.34 62.93
G. Ice Sword 87.2 2.33 10 10.192 8.56 34.77
Frozen Aura 63.2 2.1 20 18.512 3.41 28.16
</pre><hr />
You'll also notice that as long as you're hitting at least 2 mobs, Frost is always better an attack than anything else, excepting FT (need 3 mobs) and FA. If you extend the range of Frost, you can hit a LOT more than 3 mobs very easily.
An Offensive Guide to Ice Melee
I really want to wait for new powersets (primarily for a new primary powerset) but...I don't think it will happen any time soon (unless Demon Summoning or Dual Pistols will be an armor primary ).
So I like 'odd' combinations and always liked the look(s) of Ice Melee and Stone Melee (like both but leaning towards Ice Melee).
As far as Willpower goes, I'd be getting all of the 9 powers (hey I like the self-rez powers...never have to worry about needing an awaken! ). Stone Melee I think I'd be getting all 9, but Ice Melee...I was thinking about skipping the frost breath power (forgot name of it) but after reading a few posts/guides people like the power. I never cared for any of the breath cone powers (fire or cold) always seemed to do very little dmg (even on a Blaster).
I know Ice Melee isn't the best in the damage category but is the tier 9 power worth getting now that it has been buffed a bit?
Another reason why I was leaning towards Ice Melee was because I figured it wasn't a huge end. hog like Stone Melee is and therefore might be able to skip on the Stamina line and just make QR my "stamina". Would this work or do you think even if I did go with Ice Melee, I'd want Stamina?
One last question before I go....would Tough/Weave be worth getting? Keep in mind I don't IO up my toons usually (just common IOs)....
Thanks for the tips in advance
Leader of The LEGION/Fallen LEGION on the Liberty server!
SSBB FC: 2062-8881-3944
MKW FC: 4167-4891-5991