Secondary advice for a mainly soloing/duoing Ice/ Tanker

I'm quite keen to try out a Tanker (and I think Ice looks cool) but for various reasons I'm likely to be mainly soloing and duoing. Is there a secondary particularly appropriate for that? I've been eyeing up Super Strength, largely because of Rage, but I'd welcome ideas (and build advice!).

Ice/SS is fantastic! The sets complement each other very well. Ice provides a taunt/slow aura, a self heal/hitpoint boost, defense and almost unlimited endurance while super strength provides the ability to not miss, a significant damage bonus and footstomp.

There's really no downsides to this build and I've taken mine to every end game TF as a lead tank without issue.

It also has great upsides with IOs. It can be made very sturdy with a little investment, extremely tough with a huge investment. Mine is IOed with mostly cheap sets and at the soft cap for everything with one application of energy absorption.

It's a good soloer too though admittedly it won't become really good until you're able to grab rage, KO blow and energy absorption.

Many secondaries will work, partially depends what you're going to duo with, and (taken to extremes) whether you want to play at +1x8 or +4x1.

I like ice/stone, which has excellent ST damage, but not great AoE (and no end bar till you hit 26 and get EA). It holds aggro like glue and has buckets of mitigation.

Ice/fire also works well.

Ice/SS benefits greatly from the bug in rage that allows you to avoid the -20 def crash if you put rage up again. Castle has said several times he's looking at this, so that might be a fly in the ointment.

Thanks for the advice!

I've been trying some builds out in Mids - it looks pretty easy to cap S/L and E/N defence, and Cold resistance gets maxed out without even trying. I can go for a Boxing/Tough/Weave package or Air Sup/Aid Other/Aid Self (or possibly add in Hand Clap and/or Hurl, although I'm not that impressed by those two at the moment).

It looks like I'm going to be fairly weak to Fire, though, which seems intended. Is it worth trying to plug that hole, or am I better off just sucking it up and using Hoarfrost and Aid Self to deal with it?

Wouldn't /dark be a good choice?

Defense debuffs are the bane of Ice/ tankers (and psi damage).

Whoever suggested ice/dark gets a gold star.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadow Ravenwolf My favorite combo is Faceplant/DebtCap with the TeamWipe Ancillary

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari Yeah, I like Blasters too.

I would also suggest Dark as a secondary. The To Hit Debuff that most dark Attacks lay down complements Ice's defenses well. You also get a good damaging self heal with Siphon Life and a Great PbAoE/Build Up with Soul Drain which works nice with icicles. There's also good mitigation with Touch of Fear and extra Endurance rediculousness with Dark Consumption which may actually be overkill depending on the build.

Here is the current build (in progress) that I am aiming for as one example of an Ice/Dark build. This build is expensive and focuses on Soft Capping S/L/E/NE and getting +recharge bonuses along with extra HP and Regen. It actually does not use 2 of Dark's mainstays in that ToF and DC are dropped to make room for hasten and weave. I decided to keep Hibernate though for those tough AV or EB battles where there's no minions to feed to Soul Drain and EA.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.707
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

War Frost Latest: Level 50 Mutation Tanker
Primary Power Set: Ice Armor
Secondary Power Set: Dark Melee
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fighting

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Frozen Armor -- LkGmblr-Def(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(3), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(3), LkGmblr-Def/Rchg(5)
Level 1: Shadow Punch -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(5), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(7), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(7)
Level 2: Hoarfrost -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), Dct'dW-Heal(9), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(9), Dct'dW-Rchg(11), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(11), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(13)
Level 4: Shadow Maul -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(13), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(15), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(15), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(17), Oblit-%Dam(17)
Level 6: Wet Ice -- HO:Enzym(A)
Level 8: Chilling Embrace -- ImpSwft-Dam%(A)
Level 10: Smite -- C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(A), Cloud-%Dam(19), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(19), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(21), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(21), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg(23)
Level 12: Combat Jumping -- S'dpty-Def(A), S'dpty-Def/EndRdx(48)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Jump-I(A)
Level 16: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 18: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Numna-Heal(23), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(25)
Level 20: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(25), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(27), P'Shift-End%(48)
Level 22: Glacial Armor -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(27), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(29), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(29)
Level 24: Siphon Life -- Nictus-Heal/HP/Regen/Rchg(A), Nictus-Acc/Heal(31), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(31), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(31), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(33), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg(33)
Level 26: Energy Absorption -- Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg(A), Efficacy-Acc/Rchg(33), Efficacy-EndMod(34), LkGmblr-Def/Rchg(34), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(34), LkGmblr-Def(36)
Level 28: Soul Drain -- AdjTgt-ToHit(A), AdjTgt-Rchg(36), Erad-Acc/Rchg(36), Erad-Dmg/Rchg(37), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(37), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37)
Level 30: Icicles -- Erad-Dmg(A), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(40), Erad-%Dam(42), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(42), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx(42), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx(43)
Level 32: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(40), RechRdx-I(40)
Level 35: Taunt -- Mocking-Taunt(A), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg(39), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(39), Mocking-Acc/Rchg(39), Mocking-Taunt/Rng(50), Mocking-Rchg(50)
Level 38: Midnight Grasp -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(43), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(43), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(46), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(46), Cloud-%Dam(46)
Level 41: Boxing -- Acc-I(A)
Level 44: Tough -- RctvArm-ResDam(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(45), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(45), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(45)
Level 47: Weave -- GftotA-Def(A), GftotA-Def/EndRdx(48), LkGmblr-Rchg+(50)
Level 49: Hibernate -- Heal-I(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Gauntlet
Level 6: Ninja Run

Whatever secondary you choose though Ice is a good set to play with.

I'd look at one of the more AoE focused secondaries like Fire, Electric, or one of the weapons sets. Your Ice primary and its slows do well keeping the mobs bunched up around you, and for a solo or small team tanker the main concern is with being able to mow down large numbers of mobs. Those will all get the job done.

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