Although my ice tanker is only lvl 29 at the moment, I'd say that its on par with my Fire tanker. This is before I work tough and weave into the build or have Hibernate.
Also, I'd say that the secondary will have some effect on the damage taken, espcially with ice patch for example.
In addition, the type of playstyle that you envisage will effect the amount of damage you will be taking; solo build, pvp, pve - are you taking on multiple mobs/herding for a team or solo 'scranking'.
Obviously with a defense based tanker with a run of bad 'luck', things can go pearshaped, although this hasn't happened to me yet.
Ice tankers like any tankers effectiveness imo are what you make them and how you use them.
Experiences as a consequnce may vary. For me though, I haven't had a problem with them.
Well my intial plan is to have fire as my secondary. The tank will be PVE only and I will be more of a scranker than a hearding machine.
Im always a little weary on DEF based sets as you said a run of bad luck and you go down quick. Im pondering at present wether the fighting pool may be the way to go o alternatively the medicine pool.
I have an Ice/Fire without the fighting pool (or even aid self) And I have no problem with him. If I am solo I enjoy herding groups to me then AoEing their...selves 
Great fun!
After a lot of thought, I've decided to go to the fighting pool and hasten rather than the med pool - i think ice/fire will be a great pve tanker.
I wouldn't worry about the bad luck part with the occasional insp , hasten, horfrost together with tough and weave - I don't think you'd have much to worry about
In addition the dmg of fire + EA to keep endurance high will add to the mobs being arrested quicker which means you'll take less damage in the long run.
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Im looking for a challange is ICE as squsihy as I keep hearing or is it all just idle chatter.
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You can create survivability from your secondaries and extra powerpools, also in how you play in a team and how the team plays with you let alone your primaries. Knowledge of how the enemy are buffing themselves or debuffing you is also worth gaining. Learning is part of the challenge. Many people just go "this is ftw" without looking at how the so called gimpier sets could be played and choose the easier sets to get along with. If you find something challenging and like a challenge then aim to rise to it but imo the icetank is no slouch.
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
All in all, Ice Armour is probably the most survivable of the tanker primaries these days. The horrible squishiness of the past is thankfully long gone now.
Of course, every now and then you're going to get 2/3-shotted, but that's simply the risk you take with DEF based sets. For every time it happens, you'll have numerous occasions in which you'll have outsurvived even your wildest expectations, however.
Not to mention, of course, that Chilling Embrace will benefit your whole team as it reduces both damage and attack rate of any affected mobs.
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Gotten my ice/nrg tank to lvl 50, and I enjoyed it all the way. The modified DEF really made tanking a difference, and you can be quite an "ice berg"... tho if yer in bad luck you can get puddled quite hard... Chilling Embrace 3x with slow slotted is really recommended. Hibernate can be the "oh [censored]!" button in PvE or the "haha" button in PvP. Going only PvE, Icicles fully slotted is amazing... was long time my main source of dmg (dmg over time).
Havn't got any experience with Fire secondary but looking at its powers and looks like you'd be pretty darn good holding aggro due to the many AoEs you get. Chilling Embrace, Icicles, Combustion and FSC plus of course taunt
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Im always a little weary on DEF based sets as you said a run of bad luck and you go down quick. Im pondering at present wether the fighting pool may be the way to go o alternatively the medicine pool.
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No powerpools are required for you to have a very survivable build. Strategic timing of the Self Heals and Energy Absorbtion, good use of the terrain and random inspiration drops are more than enough to make you virtually unkillable. There will be occasional moments where a streak of bad luck will kill you in a second(happened to me 3 or 4 times on my way to 50), but no power pools will prevent that from happening.
Also, a bit of knowledge on the mob types will help, as you need to know which mobs have advantages over your defenses(Nemesis with Vengeance, DE with quartzes etc..).
Good luck with IMO the most fun Tanker set in the game.
Ice tanks are definitely not as squishy as they were. Possibly the powerset that has received biggest buffs since the beginning.
Thanks all, An ICE/Fire tank it is.
Will be a while yet till I start her but thanks for all the tips.
They Squishy hype is from the days before scaling defence.
Nowadays they are pretty resiliant - and are the best aggro grabbers in the game with chilling embrace. Once you have CE you cant play any other tank! 
Funilly enough, the "String of bad luck will kill you" argument against defence actually matters the least to tanks - they have such high hit points it has to be a very very long string of bad luck to actually fell you. Im far more worried about defence / string of bad luck on my stalker for instance, where a couple of hard hits will knock them over instantly.
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They Squishy hype is from the days before scaling defence.
Nowadays they are pretty resiliant - and are the best aggro grabbers in the game with chilling embrace. Once you have CE you cant play any other tank!
Funilly enough, the "String of bad luck will kill you" argument against defence actually matters the least to tanks - they have such high hit points it has to be a very very long string of bad luck to actually fell you. Im far more worried about defence / string of bad luck on my stalker for instance, where a couple of hard hits will knock them over instantly.
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It's fairly easy to get 2/3 shotted by say, Freak Tanks or Crey Tanks, if you get a run of bad luck.
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bad luck? have a supply of orange insps then.
Getting 2/3 shotted means you don't have time for Orange Insps - otherwise you'd just hit Hoarfrost.
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Noone'd be that stupid, I'm talkin bout pre emtively
3 shotted at most in my experience. And only with the really big hitters. Mind you, I run with tough on, which takes a little of the sting out of the big big smash/lethal damage. I cant ever recall being 2 shotted short of an AV / GM and even then...
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Noone'd be that stupid, I'm talkin bout pre emtively
[/ QUOTE ]That means you'd need a supply of several hundred orange insps for a long mish...
Not if hf and hibernate were properly recharged. Ive never been so unlucky to be carrying more than a couple oranges tho even in longer mishs.
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Not if hf and hibernate were properly recharged. Ive never been so unlucky to be carrying more than a couple oranges tho even in longer mishs.
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It's rather tricky to user Hibernate pre-emptively.
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use in the yellow/orange range. I doubt theyll hit you with a truck in the meantime, nrg ab should keep them back a mo while you activate it
I agree, my ice/fire at level 30 is not squishy at all, and I don't have fighting or medicine pools. You don't need them unless you really want to max your defence. Personally I preferred getting more things from my secondary.
Anyway, ice tanks are great fun. Definitely recommended!
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They Squishy hype is from the days before scaling defence.
Nowadays they are pretty resiliant - and are the best aggro grabbers in the game with chilling embrace. Once you have CE you cant play any other tank!
Funilly enough, the "String of bad luck will kill you" argument against defence actually matters the least to tanks - they have such high hit points it has to be a very very long string of bad luck to actually fell you. Im far more worried about defence / string of bad luck on my stalker for instance, where a couple of hard hits will knock them over instantly.
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It's fairly easy to get 2/3 shotted by say, Freak Tanks or Crey Tanks, if you get a run of bad luck.
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Or getting hit by every mob around you at the same time, while at the aggro cap. Doesn't matter than if you have 3000+ hitpoints then. Like I said, it doesn't happen very often, but it will happen on occasion.
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use in the yellow/orange range. I doubt theyll hit you with a truck in the meantime, nrg ab should keep them back a mo while you activate it
[/ QUOTE ]The issue aren't the situations where you have time to activate something like that. The issue are the times where you take several big hits in a row and are downed in a second.
It would be doubtful that would happen if you used nrg ab first. max as a question do u have a high lvl ice tank? because if u did u'd know that happens only extreme cases or at least it does for me
So Im considering another go at making a tank and I realy want ICE as the concept.
Im looking for a challange is ICE as squsihy as I keep hearing or is it all just idle chatter.