To be honest, either will be good mitigation... but I'd say that Aid Self would definately win over just Tough.
If you were taking Tough AND Weave (to get you close to the 45% defence "cap") then you'd have a contest.
I think Weave + Tough could be better than Aid Self, when combined with Hoarfrost/Hibernate. The reasoning being that whilst Aid Self is a very good mitigation power for defensive toons, Ice Armor has no shortage of HP replenishment (Hoarfrost returns a huge amount and Hibernate is essentially a full heal).
A normal Ice Armor build can hit around 31-35% defence to Smashing/Lethal/Energy/Negative Energy. Weave's 8% defence would stack with this, roughly meaning they'd get hit half as much by those types of attacks. Assuming the Ice Tanker regularly uses Energy Absorbtion in the middle of herded mobs, this could easily close the gap to the 45% defence soft "cap".
With Ice patch keeping mobs knockbacked it would enable you to use aid self very freely but as said previously either would be good and because of energy absorbtion end wouldnt be a factor.
thePhilosopher Martial Arts/Regen/Fire Scrapper
theRegulator Empathy/Energy/Soul Defender
Total Inertia Ice Blast/Kinetics/Psy Corruptor
Total Inferno Ice Blast/Thermal/Leviathan Corruptor
Thanks for the comeback. Tbh, I wasn't looking forward to the gadgetty look of Aid Self. Didn't feel right with my concept. I'm still open to discussion from others.
I do have an extra power choice between Hibernate and Greater Ice Sword, so I _could_ fit Weave in.
Assuming I took Tough and Weave, what is the optimal slotting on each? They both seem to burn more endurance than my ice armours.
Two Endreds, plus 3 Resist/Defbuff would be optimal.
I'd slot Weave as a priority, since you'll get more use out of stacked Defence and Tough's base resists are pretty good. I can't see you having many endurance problems once you get Energy Absorbtion though! 
They're both 0.32 Endurance per second rather than your armors' 0.26 Endurance per second.
Cool, sounding great. Another 10 or so lvls to go then.
Can't wait, dam mit... must ... play.... must... lvl..... must be .... invincible!
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Cool, sounding great. Another 10 or so lvls to go then.
Can't wait, dam mit... must ... play.... must... lvl..... must be .... invincible!
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Oh you will be invincible - until your luck runs out. The other night I was tanking a large room of Purple Rikti and managed to survive an otherwise complete team wipe and keep going long enough solo for everyone to get back from hospital. I then ran into the next mob and was essentially one-shotted by the alpha strike.
It's not quite as "bad" as it was Pre-I5, but it is still very much survival by a roll of the dice 
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ah just wait till the joyous day when you've been happily beating up bad guys, charge into some nemesis and some fool snipes one of the lieutenants you'd been saving till the end.
all of a sudden vengeance kicks in on the whole mob, and you may as well just turn off your shields and lie down. 
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ah just wait till the joyous day when you've been happily beating up bad guys, charge into some nemesis and some fool snipes one of the lieutenants you'd been saving till the end.
all of a sudden vengeance kicks in on the whole mob, and you may as well just turn off your shields and lie down.
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No, what's fun is when some fool kills multiple lieutenants in and around the same mob. I think 5 stacked Vengeances is my record.
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On my ice/ice it'll have to be aid self without question, if i had an ice/fire i could go for tough and weave and the fact that i wouldn't need too many fire melee attacks anyway. Things differ with me depending on what secondary i'd have. Id get haste as when luck isn't on your side the hit points maybe.
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.
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all of a sudden vengeance kicks in on the whole mob, and you may as well just turn off your shields and lie down.
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I can see why they call you MrMotivator 
Hello tankers
)
I've got a lvl20 Ice/Ice tanker that I am *really* loving. Just doing a little forward planning and have reached a point where power pools should come into play. To give you some context:
He is a PvE team-play tanker. I'm leaning towards defense/mitigation rather than going for attack powers (ok ok, I know attack IS mitigation, but let's not get into that
I'm running Frozen Armour, Wet Ice, Icicles and Chilling Embrace. I've taken Stamina, with 3-slotted Health, and I have a 6-slotted Hoarfrost. I have no endurance problems at the moment. My next 3 power choices will be Ice Patch, Glacial Armour and Energy Absorption. I plan to take Hibernate when I can, slotted for recharge and health.
The dilemma I face at the moment is choices at 28 and 30. I'm leaning towards Aid Self (excellent in defense-based set such as Ice/ but will I really need it with Hoarfrost and Hibernate with 3 recharge each?) or Tough (15% base resistance to s/l seems a nice way to deal with those streaks of bad luck). Both powers aim to increase survivability and both require a preceeding choice in the respective pool.
Another alternative is Hasten, to boost recharge on my existing self-heals.
I will most likely try both cases when I get to that point and decide, but I enjoy playing with my builder and planning ahead.
So, in your experience fellow Icers, which would you say will yield better survivability overall and why?
Thanks in advance.