as ice/ice with tough/weave...I have to say you must be doing something wrong if you still feel weak...simple SO slotting at 41 had me at 39% defense without having hit EA. Coupled with Ice Patch and freezing touch, I was living an easy life...didn't really like the character though, so I deleted her.
I'd take a look at your build/slotting. Or post it for us to take a look at.
I was also thinking could it be the "Boss" farms? Or farms in general? IDK...
Its obvious that the "elemental" shields are weaker than the "durability" shields. That included Ice uses Energy Absorbtion as the "mitigator", combined with hoarfrost its usually the bread and butter. Its still primarily weak and offers no resistance to smash and or lethal. I never enjoyed the low levels as an Icer but once you get EA it gets easier. You can reduce the cooldown to thirty seconds if it makes it easier.
Also, take hibernate, you last longer when nothing can hit you. It is the perfect "I live" button. You really shouldn't be having that much of a problem even with tough and weave. But I still understand where your coming from. Especially if you ever made an Invul tank, or a Granite. Regardless EA makes up for it, and Hibernate should be taken in any case.
Lastly I don't exactly dislike Ice/Ice, I just like having different offensive powers. My advice, make an Ice/Stone = aka no touchy (Fault+tremor = deathless). Or an Ice Fire = AoE monster.
"If you can make a girl laugh, you can make her do anything"
"You're like Giraffe's, the way you look down on me, with your vegetarian scorn."
Yeah, I found my problem to be in that thematically "fitting" ice/ice made me bored.
But I love Ice Armor.
But, if you are truly looking to survive anything and everything... go stone/ice.
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But, if you are truly looking to survive anything and everything... go stone/ice.
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QFT, pretty much.
"If you can make a girl laugh, you can make her do anything"
"You're like Giraffe's, the way you look down on me, with your vegetarian scorn."
My Ice/Ice (on Virtue) doesn't have Tough or Weave, and does just fine, even on big teams. I don't feel weak at all. AE missions? Thse can get hairy - but they are not the baseline you should judge against.
Post your build, let us see what you are seeing.
My memory's not as sharp as it used to be.
Also, my memory's not as sharp as it used to be.
"The tip of a shoelace is called an aglet, its true purpose is sinister." The Question
Ice/Ice should be in good shape against most things, you're never going to do uber damage as /ice, but you should be fairly survivable against most things.
But, if you're in your 40s on Freedom fighting in a Behemoth farm (fire damage), fighting Carnies (psi damage) or running Tina MacIntyre's missions (Anti-Matter's robots mammoth -def debuffs) you have to play pretty smart and play heavily to your strengths. Corner pull a LOT into chilling embrace and ice patches. You'll die pretty quick just jumping in against guys like these.
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I was also thinking could it be the "Boss" farms? Or farms in general? IDK...
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Bingo. AE missions can be tough on a Tanker. I've tried the boss farms on my L33 Ice/Eng and it just doesn't hold up against packs that size.
LT farms however aren't usually too tough for him. Having said that, try IO slotting to get your Defense (especially Smash/Lethal) close to the soft cap (45%).
You may also find that Hibernate can be a fairly big deal in Icer tanking sometimes (probably my favorite T9 Tanker primary power).
Ice/Ice is great for farming ...icepatch keeps them from hitting you and chilling embrace usually grabs any strays. I have no prob with the 54 bosses due to Icepatch. Once people that dont know much about tanking...actually see you in action they'll want you back. Everyone just has a Granite fetish it seems. (i have a granite also...but still love the ice/ice)
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Also, take hibernate, you last longer when nothing can hit you. It is the perfect "I live" button.
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Will I keep "Aggro" while using Hibernate?
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Also, take hibernate, you last longer when nothing can hit you. It is the perfect "I live" button.
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Will I keep "Aggro" while using Hibernate?
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Depends on how long you stay in Hibernate. But generally, yes.
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
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Also, take hibernate, you last longer when nothing can hit you. It is the perfect "I live" button.
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Will I keep "Aggro" while using Hibernate?
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Depends how long you're in Hibernate, you don't lose aggro immediately. Chilling Embrace has a base 13.5 second taunt, so against even-con stuff that's how long you'll hold aggro. Against +4s, about half that long. If that's not long enough, slot some Taunt into CE or Icicles, or take and use Taunt.
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I was also thinking could it be the "Boss" farms? Or farms in general? IDK...
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I suggest jumping into a few large spawns in rikti warzone around your level to get a better feel of your abilities in normal content. Ice armor is an incredibly fun set, and I've never experienced the feeling that it's lacking compared to any other tanker sets outside of fighting several hard-hitting enemies at once... like several higher level bosses.
While I think ice armor performs quite well in most any group or solo situation, you have mentioned one of the absolute worst situations to judge the performance of ice armor. (Another being an eden trial).
The mission architect is a very interesting and powerful weapon that's been thrown into the hands of children. Someone's going to die.
You said you had tough. Before you buy almost any other special IOs, buy a steadfast prot +3% def and stick it in tough (or permafrost I suppose if you actually took that.)
With that IO and 3-def slotted Frozen Armor, Combat Jumping, Glacial Armor, and Weave, you should be at:
Smashing/Lethal/Energy/Negative 41.8%
Fire/Cold/Psionic/Melee/Ranged/AOE 14.9%
If when you jump into a new spawn you just pop Energy absorption, this should be enough to softcap all of the 41.8% defenses. This is pretty simple and not at all exotic and without lots of bizarre set bonuses, etc.
When you add to the softcapped defenses chilling embrace reducing damage and ice patch at least nullifying a few guys, you shouldn't have trouble unless the all-boss groups are doing fire or psionic damage.
Finally, bosses always get a few lucky hits in every once in a while, so hibernate is worthwhile.
"Hi, my name is Ail. I make people sick."
A partial selection from my 50's on Freedom: Ail = Ice/Traps, Luck = Street Justice/Super Reflexes Stalker, Mist = Bane, Pixy = Trick Arrow/Archery, Pure = Gravity/Energy, Smoke = Fire/Fire Dominator
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I was also thinking could it be the "Boss" farms? Or farms in general? IDK...
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Bingo. AE missions can be tough on a Tanker. I've tried the boss farms on my L33 Ice/Eng and it just doesn't hold up against packs that size.
LT farms however aren't usually too tough for him. Having said that, try IO slotting to get your Defense (especially Smash/Lethal) close to the soft cap (45%).
You may also find that Hibernate can be a fairly big deal in Icer tanking sometimes (probably my favorite T9 Tanker primary power).
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Don't fret, Ice is fine for most situations, but if your goal is to be the lead tank with zero support against 2 mobs of 54 bosses then yeah Stone is your friend.
<QR>
I'm growing a baby ice tank myself these days, so I've found the responses in this thread encouraging. My problem so far (level 21) hasn't been survivability, but trying to figure out what powers in Ice Melee I should or shouldn't take. This is my first Tank after almost four years of playing, so I'm at a bit of a loss.
Anyone have any advice on what powers in that set are skippable? Or what the "must haves" are?
Ice Melee must haves are Ice patch, Freezing touch, Frozen Aura, and Frozen Fists...because you have to.
Greater Ice Sword is good, and so is Frost, so i generally get those as well.
For Ice Primary? Frozen, Wet Ice, Chilling Embrace, Hoarfrost, Glacial, Energy Absorbtion, Hibernate.
Icicles, I love it, but it isn't necessary, and Permafrost is a total dog of a power, unless you're putting the Steadfast +3 in it.
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Ice Melee must haves are Ice patch, Freezing touch, Frozen Aura, and Frozen Fists...because you have to.
Greater Ice Sword is good, and so is Frost, so i generally get those as well.
For Ice Primary? Frozen, Wet Ice, Chilling Embrace, Hoarfrost, Glacial, Energy Absorbtion, Hibernate.
Icicles, I love it, but it isn't necessary, and Permafrost is a total dog of a power, unless you're putting the Steadfast +3 in it.
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So no love for the regular Ice Sword, eh? Visually it's one of my favorite powers, but looking at the numbers in Mids I'm starting to feel like I should have taken Frost instead of it.
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So no love for the regular Ice Sword, eh? Visually it's one of my favorite powers, but looking at the numbers in Mids I'm starting to feel like I should have taken Frost instead of it.
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Yeah, I could never fit in Regular Ice Sword...I mean, it really is a toss up between it and Frost, I usually just pick up Frost for the Cone.
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So no love for the regular Ice Sword, eh? Visually it's one of my favorite powers, but looking at the numbers in Mids I'm starting to feel like I should have taken Frost instead of it.
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Yeah, I could never fit in Regular Ice Sword...I mean, it really is a toss up between it and Frost, I usually just pick up Frost for the Cone.
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I see your point. Looking at my build plan it really does look like I have to choose it or Frost. Ah well, I'll eventually have the Greater Ice Sword anyway. Thanks for the tips, much appreciated.
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So no love for the regular Ice Sword, eh? Visually it's one of my favorite powers, but looking at the numbers in Mids I'm starting to feel like I should have taken Frost instead of it.
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Yeah, I could never fit in Regular Ice Sword...I mean, it really is a toss up between it and Frost, I usually just pick up Frost for the Cone.
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I see your point. Looking at my build plan it really does look like I have to choose it or Frost. Ah well, I'll eventually have the Greater Ice Sword anyway. Thanks for the tips, much appreciated.
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your location makes me chuckle 
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your location makes me chuckle
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Lol, I completely forgot that is what it was set to. That's a holdover from my days playing my Dom, who had stealth. I really should change it I guess. 
I was told in-game to drop tough b/c it was pointless in Ice Armor and just to keep weave! I am trying to fit in Ice Epic's last two powers because of the dud power I have to take to get them! 8(
Also Why In The World Would I Take A Sleep Power (Frozen Aura)? Am I missing something here? 
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Also Why In The World Would I Take A Sleep Power (Frozen Aura)? Am I missing something here?
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Yes, you are 
Frozen Aura now has near if not equal damage to foot stomp! Mass Goodness!
I've had my Ice/Ice tank (- Zero) on Freedom for quite a while & lvl 41 atm. I always enjoy taken him out when I get burned out on CoX! I took all shields (except Hibernate), tough and weave. And I still feel less than a Tank. I feel more like a really weak scrapper. I never see any Ice/Ice Love! Am I beating a dead horse or is there hope for my Ice/Ice tank?