Well, potentially, Ice/Dark can go without stamina, assuming you can make the trudge up to 26. As far as farming goes, not a lot of AoE in Dark, so you'll be a bit slow, but you should be tough enough for sure, Ice is pretty tough, and stacked with the -tohit in dark, you'll only be better.
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I was thinking of a build for small farm-tanking/soloing/fun. And was wondering about everyones thoughts and advice to Ice/DM?
Yes, I'm fairly new. But I just like the concept of the aura tanking with frosteverywhere, and being able to siphon the life outta my mobs.
[/ QUOTE ]Dear. God. Yes.
In the early game, before you can really get the SO-level protections Ice Armour affords you, dark melee's punches will be adding to your survivability by keeping the heaviest hitters you attack from attacking back meaningfully. By stacking -tohit and +defence, you'll be very tough to kill early on, though you won't have great area effect. Siphon life will help smooth out those periods where Hoarfrost isn't available. It's also great damage.
You might find yourself hurting in the late game when you want to IO out. I say 'hurting' because you might want to get a lot of recharge (to fuel Siphon Life, Soul Drain, and Hoarfrost), or a lot of typed defence (to fuel your armours and get to the soft cap). I haven't found a build that can do both, but I did fiddle with a build that could get about 30% recharge without trying and soft-cap itself to s/l/e/n.
In essence, yes, ice/dm is very good.
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Well, potentially, Ice/Dark can go without stamina, assuming you can make the trudge up to 26. As far as farming goes, not a lot of AoE in Dark, so you'll be a bit slow, but you should be tough enough for sure, Ice is pretty tough, and stacked with the -tohit in dark, you'll only be better.
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This isn't precisely true. Dark Melee has Shadow Maul (cone), Dark Consumtion (moderate area PBAOE) and Drain Soul (large area PBAOE).
While the recharge times on the latter two seem prohibative to farming, with a decent build and IO slotting, they actually become integral to your farming runs. Also most people don't consider Shadow Maul a true AOE because its a narrow cone (think Sands of Mu) but circle strafing / hover strafing can get you up above 10 mobs hit fairly consistantly (note: they are supposedly fixing this in the next issue).
Ice/DM can work very well (*/DM can work very well actually) but if you want a sure Tanker that can farm efficiently you might want to look at SD/DM. AAO and Shield Charge really compliment DM's offensive capabilties, while DM's secondary effects (toHitDebuff) and Siphon Life really compliment Shield Defense's defensive capabilities.
Also I've found SD not as susceptible to random number deaths as Ice can be (positional vs typed defense).
Should work great. Dark Melee, where almost everything has a -to hit debuff in it, pairs well with defense oriented primaries.
DM's chief drawback is the long recharge on its AoE powers (it actually has more AoE by number of powers than some tanker secondaries, like EM or SS. And as Ice, you probably don't need Dark Consumption either.) As Ice, though, you have that covered and don't need AoEs in your secondary to hold aggro at all.
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Wow guys, thx for the great replies. I'll keep looking back here as I level in case of any more great suggestions.
This may or may not help. It's a build to softcap S/L/E/N defense. Your attacks still have great enhancement values, if not always the best. You could even do better on the bonuses, but this was a moderately affordable build.
I have it on my tanker and she's incredibly durable while putting out a fair amount of damage. If you work in more recharge bonuses, then you'll be able to farm at a decent pace with it.
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/
[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]
Ice/DM: Level 50 Mutation Tanker
Primary Power Set: Ice Armor
Secondary Power Set: Dark Melee
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Speed
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Frozen Armor -- EndRdx-I(A), DefBuff-I(3), DefBuff-I(3), DefBuff-I(7)
Level 1: Shadow Punch -- P'ngS'Fest-Acc/Dmg(A), P'ngS'Fest-Dmg/EndRdx(5), P'ngFist-Acc/Dmg(9), P'ngFist-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(15), P'ngS'Fest-Dmg/Rchg(21), P'ngFist-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(36)
Level 2: Smite -- P'ngS'Fest-Acc/Dmg(A), P'ngS'Fest-Dmg/EndRdx(5), P'ngFist-Acc/Dmg(7), P'ngFist-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(9), P'ngS'Fest-Dmg/Rchg(17), P'ngFist-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(40)
Level 4: Chilling Embrace -- CtlSpd-EndRdx/Rchg/Slow(A), CtlSpd-Acc/EndRdx(17), CtlSpd-Acc/Slow(21), CtlSpd-Dmg/Slow(48)
Level 6: Wet Ice -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 8: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 10: Hoarfrost -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(A), RctvArm-EndRdx/Rchg(11), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(11), Mrcl-Heal/Rchg(13), Mrcl-Heal(13), Heal-I(15)
Level 12: Combat Jumping -- DefBuff-I(A)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Jump-I(A)
Level 16: Health -- Heal-I(A), Heal-I(37)
Level 18: Glacial Armor -- EndRdx-I(A), DefBuff-I(19), DefBuff-I(19), DefBuff-I(23)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(37), EndMod-I(39)
Level 22: Siphon Life -- Mako-Dmg/EndRdx(A), Mako-Acc/Dmg(23), Mako-Dmg/Rchg(36), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(43), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43), Mako-Dam%(43)
Level 24: Shadow Maul -- Insult-Taunt(A), Insult-Taunt/Rchg(25), Insult-Dsrnt%(25), Dmg-I(29), Dmg-I(33), Acc-I(37)
Level 26: Energy Absorption -- RedFtn-Def/Rchg(A), S'dpty-Def/Rchg(27), GftotA-Def/Rchg(27), Ksmt-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(31), Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg(31), Efficacy-EndMod/EndRdx(33)
Level 28: Soul Drain -- Mocking-Acc/Rchg(A), Mocking-Rchg(29), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg(40), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(45), Dmg-I(46), Dmg-I(46)
Level 30: Icicles -- Acc-I(A), Erad-Dmg(31), Erad-Dmg/Rchg(34), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(34), EndRdx-I(34), Dmg-I(36)
Level 32: Hibernate -- Heal-I(A), RechRdx-I(33), RechRdx-I(46)
Level 35: Permafrost -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A)
Level 38: Midnight Grasp -- KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(39), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(39), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(40), Dmg-I(50), Acc-I(50)
Level 41: Dark Consumption -- Mocking-Taunt/Rchg(A), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(42), Mocking-Acc/Rchg(42), Mocking-Taunt(42), Acc-I(50)
Level 44: Touch of Fear -- N'mare-Acc/Rchg(A), N'mare-EndRdx/Fear(45), N'mare-Acc/EndRdx(45)
Level 47: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(48), RechRdx-I(48)
Level 49: Taunt -- Taunt-I(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Gauntlet
------------
[u]Set Bonus Totals:[u]<ul type="square">[*]3% DamageBuff(Smashing)[*]3% DamageBuff(Lethal)[*]3% DamageBuff(Fire)[*]3% DamageBuff(Cold)[*]3% DamageBuff(Energy)[*]3% DamageBuff(Negative)[*]3% DamageBuff(Toxic)[*]3% DamageBuff(Psionic)[*]14.9% Defense(Smashing)[*]14.9% Defense(Lethal)[*]3% Defense(Fire)[*]3% Defense(Cold)[*]16.1% Defense(Energy)[*]16.1% Defense(Negative)[*]3% Defense(Psionic)[*]8.94% Defense(Melee)[*]12.4% Defense(Ranged)[*]3% Defense(AoE)[*]5.4% Max End[*]1.65% Enhancement(Terrorized)[*]2% Enhancement(FlySpeed)[*]2% Enhancement(RunSpeed)[*]2% Enhancement(JumpSpeed)[*]2% Enhancement(JumpHeight)[*]77.3 HP (4.13%) HitPoints[*]MezResist(Held) 8.8%[*]MezResist(Immobilize) 8.25%[*]MezResist(Sleep) 4.4%[*]3.5% (0.06 End/sec) Recovery[*]16% (1.25 HP/sec) Regeneration[/list]
@Rylas
Kill 'em all. Let XP sort 'em out.
I was thinking of a build for small farm-tanking/soloing/fun. And was wondering about everyones thoughts and advice to Ice/DM?
Yes, I'm fairly new. But I just like the concept of the aura tanking with frosteverywhere, and being able to siphon the life outta my mobs.