Water Shields guide to shield/ice Tank

Welcome sugahs to my very first and hopefully not last guide. I'm Muse and i'll be your tour guide on this lovely trip into a not so ventured path.
This guide is not meant to for me to tell you the most powerful build, or the best secondary for a shield tank, but rather my experience with this lovely combo how/why I have fallen in love with this build. It has helped me transition into the wonderful world of tanks. (long sentence)

Ground rules-

1st-I am horrid at spelling and almost all forms of grammar. please excuse my dear aunt sally

2nd-I will tell you what path I've taken with this toon, but don't take my actions as "the true path"

3rd- I usually play defenders and tend to play on the more passive side. I wanted to have a toon that wouldn't die in three hits and so looked into different tanks. My first choice for secondary (that sounds weird) was /ice because I love passiveness abilities and ice is full of wonderful effects on your enemies.

4th- I'm not a big fan of numbers and important details, but if need be, just look up the numbers whenever you start to make your toon. all the details will be there neatly categorized for you to decide.

What is a shield defense/ice tank?

Shield/ice is wonderful combo. very sly in nature. The play style is going to consist of the normal run in arrgo and lay the smack down. as a tank your main concern is holding arrgo and doing your best to make sure you other team mates don’t get hurt. my typical lead in with my tank is running in, taunting the baddies and laying down an ice patch. Throw my holds (Ice mastery is needed for two holds) onto the boss and keep taunting and spamming my cone and pbaoes. Now again this play style is meant for fun, as all play styles should be, not for being the best. shields defenses and general abilities couple well with any secondary. Shield is also really adept at taking on any kind of enemy and not really having a general weakness. Queen of all trades. I choose ice because of the effects.ice is known for having a little less damage, but trade off for more effects, I think you'll agree, over time, when you get your abilities, they'll definitely help with arrgo control. The main point of this set is to avoid damage as much as possible. Just because you can take this hits, doesn’t mean you have to.
between the slows of recharge and speed, the knockdown, the holds and even the sleep, you are armed with an arsenal of abilities that couple well with you're other abilities.


Shield abilities and all of the goodness



Deflection-avail lvl 1(toggle) this is +defense to melee(15%) as well as + resisitance(15%) to lethal and smashing.

This is a must to a combo of abilites you need to have running at all time. otherwise you aren’t gonna last to long. Make sure and slot this for defense and resistnace if you'd like. dont recharge for speed. if it drops, it'll be up in no time...but it should never drop. (more on that later)


Battle Agility avail lvl1-(toggle) your second toggle which gives +defense to ranged/aoe(15%)as well as + defense debuffs.(17.3%)


Same as deflection, but you really want to slot up that defense. no resistance to bump up.

Both of these powers will be constantly running all the time, so make friends with them and remember they are what make your play style unique. If you'd like to slot for endurance it would be a bad idea since they will always be on.

*Message* (don’t be a mence in south central while drinking your juice in the hood joke )This type of tanker, like most, doest have defenses to psychic abilities, BUT it's defense to abilities arent based on the normal scales like most tanks like smashing,lethal, etc etc. the +defense to ranged/aoe helps with just that. ranged and aoe attacks. it doesn’t discriminate against type...just the way that it approaches you. ( which we should all make sure and learn a lesson from :P)



True Grit avail lvl 2-(auto) Resistance! Oh thank god. we're not totally lacking
+ resisitance to fire, cold, energy,negative,toxic (15%)as well as a boost to your max hp (10%)

A must have for this set, because lets face it honey, no matter how much we avoid getting hit, whenever you're running into a mob of 50, you aint gonna get out untouched. being strictly defensive isn't what this playstlye about, so make sure and take this power because everyone could use a wee bit more of resistance in something right?

*Message* this power in an auto run so dont worry about toggling it, or having to deal with endurance.



Active defense avail lvl 6-(toggle)resistance to disorient, hold, sleep, fear, confuse, repel, knockback, defense debuff

Your typical mez protection. A must for any tank. A special thing about this power is the defense debuff protection. This is vital for you considering you're all about not getting hit. If your defense gets lowered down then all you really have to rely on is your resistances. Since that's not your strongest suite it's good to have this resistance to defense debuff. ( a couple of other powers in the shield primary help add to your defense debuff resistance and is actually a well known strength of this power set, so don’t fret to much)

*Message* pressing control and clicking active defense activates it immediately as it comes up. This is a wonderful thing to make note of because mez protection is very important. if you get mezzed, your toggles lost some effect and even worse you cant act and you need to protect your friends so slot probably for recharge.


Against all odds avail lvl 8- (toggle)you get + damage(10% for first and 5.5% for others ( max of 10 enemies)) while -the damages of your foes(-7%) as well as a taunt aura.

Now this is the first power that I wouldn't say is a necessity to this. Now after saying that, I took this power and never looked back. Being a tank you'll constantly be surrounded by baddies...or at least you should be. you should be up in there face and beating it into the ground. Though damage is no the first concern for tankers as a general rule, (you got a lot of other things to worry about first) we all can't deny that beating those stupid jack wads who keep hitting you doesn’t feel good. You can have ten guys around you that you can effect and be effected by. This comes in handy with all your aoe abilities and just general control of the situation.


Phalanx Fighting avail lvl 12-(auto) special defense + melee, ranges, aoe

This power gives you a base of unenhancable 5%. Please be aware of this. 5% is great when leveling up through the grind. You also get 3% per teammate that is close enough to you. (8 feet, but only with a max of 3 teammate effect you) so if you have some scrappers on your team they'll help you get better defense. This power is also not necessary in terms of hard core powers needed, but if you team a bit, you'll get more out of this power.

*message* it is an auto power that gives you an extra base defense of 5%. Just remember those facts as well as not having to worry about endurance.

Slot for defense if you'd like, but remember if wont raise the 5%, just the 3%

Grant cover avail lvl 18- +TEAM (not you) defense to all BUT psionic (11.25%-within 15 feet) as well as +TEAM (not you again) resistance to defense debuffs and recharge debuffs

1st.This power never once effects you. Ever. don’t kid yourself. make sure you know this.
2nd. This leads to this power not being taken, but on one of my build for my character Water shield, I have a team build. I again, as stated earlier, play as a defender. Having powers that don’t effect me is usually part of my job description. On my team build this comes in handy especially once you state that you have this power. Scrappers will go from close acquaintances to snuggle buddies who want to have sleep over’s and make smores. Doing this can also up your own defenses if you took Phalanx fighting. IT's truly a win win situation, but only good for teaming...but if multiple shields used this power together...

slot for defense if you'd like , but definitely not necessary

Shield charge avail lvl 26-(teleport ability) high smashing damage, taunt and knockback

Thank the heavens! shield charge will be your best friend in this lovely trip as a tank once you get it. You'll want to use this ability every moment it's available. you click the power, position the teleport and then lets the fun come

*message* If you've chosen to get against all odds, it would be best to lead into the group with another ability to give time for the game to acknowledge that you are surrounded by a horde, then target the middle of the group and do the attack. you'll typically get anywhere from 45%-65% of extra damage depending on the group of baddies. Remember that anything that gives you extra damage is always good Totally recommend taking this...but it's not a must, but you're crazy if you don’t.

Slot for damage and recharge and accuracy


One with the shield avail lvl 32- +resistance (30% s/l 15% to all other but psi)as well as + disorient,sleep,hold,immobilize,knockback and + all damage BUT Psi, + recovery (30%)and + max HP(20%)

This is supposed to used as a "oh crap" power, but because it doesn’t completely drain you of your endurance, it could be used at every point it's up. Many people who believe they are to bas good for powers that have so much to offer will not take this, but I say it's a great power to take in case situations get hairy. IF you have a mob of fifty and you get an ambush and they all have -def capabilities, this would be a good time to use this power. Task forces and even keyes would see this ability used. Again this power will not drain you of all endurance when it's done, or have any nasty effects on you at all other than the endurance. Great to have if you don’t have the money just yet to slot out your toon to your liking , but still want to make sure you're really good even when the the situation has become all but better hits the fan. (please excuse my dear aunt sally...again)

slot for resistance and recharge...could also slot for hp

Freeze sucka!

Ice powers are usually my favorites I love any type of water powers *wink wink devs*
Ice is very handy because of it's many effects and this is still the case even for tanker melee.

These wonderful abilites are slightly lowered in power, but are given a tremendous gain in control. I wont suggest any powers except for a couple, bu tit's your toon so you make it how you'd like.Lets look over the cool powers shall we?


Frozen fist avail lvl 1-(melee)minor damage (cold/smashing) foe -recharge-speed

You have to take this. I'm sorry...but it's good as a fill in power between all the others.



Ice sword avail lvl 2- (melee) moderate damage (cold/lethal) foe -recharge-speed

pretty cool looking. Get it if you like it. some people dont take it because of story concept...but whatev


Frost avail lvl 4- (cone) moderate DoT (cold) foe -recharge-speed
(10' range 90 degree arc)
Pretty good cone and I'd say take it, if not for the fact then to hit multiple targets. once you find its general reaching radius, it's easier to use. I really would sugges not skipping it just for the fact that it hits multiple units and does pretty good damage on them.DoT is still damage.



Taunt avil lvl 10- (ranged) target area of effect for + taunt

I think it's always a need to have taunt as a tank. Helps to pull off baddies off your teamates if nothing else. I definatley say to take this power...but it's your choice if you think you have enough taunting in your build.



Build up avail lvl 16-(self) +accuracy +damage

Also not manditory, but if you're gonna play the set and say it's not enough damage for you then I would suggest taking this power and slotting it for recharge. IT's handy for soloing or taking care of a boss that is posing problems.


Ice patch avail lvl 20-(location/player based Area of effect) foe +knockdown

This is your bread and butter sugah. slot for recharge and love it like your baby. It only effects 5 people at a time for knockdown purposes, BUT it's fast pulsing so while another gets up, it knocks down another five. Very handy for your survival and arrgo control. By far a must for the /ice secondary. your arrgo will help keep everyone in the 10' radius.
Slot for only one rechagre to reach perma.



Freezing touch avail lvl 28-(melee) high dot(cold) foe +hold

This power is another staple of the /ice power. You can slot in anyways you'd like. People usually forget that it is high damage adn i'm pretty sure it is the strongest attack you have in the /ice.( based on speed,dot, yada yada) You can also slot it to increase the hold which could come in handy for those pesky foes that arent effected by your ice patch...but typically those foes require two holds. ( very possible if you get ice epic) Over all a great power and versitile as well. Who could ask for anything more?



Greater Ice sword avail lvl 35-(melee) high (cold/lethal), foe
-recharge -speed

Again same as ice sword. Your choice depending on your build. Attacks are good, but you have to chose which ones you want.



Frozen Aura avail lvl 38-(PBAoE) moderate (cold) foe sleep

Good to have for the extra aoe, but on teams, the sleep abilites are useless for teams, but handy for solo. Aoe damage is always a plus, espcially for teams. I'd get try to fit it in where you can because Aoe is always welcomed.

Power pools

Fighting- Usually a great idea for any tank. more defense and resisitance is always a great thing. Would totally recommend it.

Concealment- not really that great for a tank...but you could always get grant invisility to help control the arrgo your team may face.

Flight-a good choice for ya...but i'm almost positive frozen aura wont get set off unless you're on the ground...but dosent matter if you dont choose that power. Shield Charge does work in the air though

Leadership- buffs are always handy and since tanks tend to outlive everyone (usually) you could even go as far as getting vengence. That's a lot of slots and will seriously mess with your endurance running all of these...you could always pick and chose one or none...all depends on your build.

Medicine-I would seriously recommend taking this. I know how silly this seems, but really, we cant deny the fact that things get past our defenses. Taking aid self and using it shouldn't be a problem if you slot it some because of all of your abilities. Ice patched, held baddies that are knocked down and slowed shouldn't stop you when you have high defenses. I strongly recommend this. Even if you wanted to go as far to take the rez... How awesome would you be? a rezzing tank? wierd and awesome

Presence- great for those of us who want to make sure no one is getting hit but us. Very good for of soft control.

Speed- hasten always rocks and ss isnt bad either. does well with popping up in the middle of groups.I could even go as far and say whirlwind...nah...i wont go tht far :P

Teleportation- I chose this for theme purposes, but over all is the fastest traveling power and looks cool. recall friend is always loved as well.




good combo tactics (some epic talk here)

Ice patch + anything = awesome

after gathering your foes or while about to jump in make sure you have against all odds (if you took it) and do freezing touch. make sure against all odds is on. click build up and then do shield charge and then frozen aura. ice patch and then taunt. (or taunt then ice patch)

* make sure against all odds have enough time to understand that you are surrounded to get the extra daamge boost.*

Depending on your epic (mine was ice)

you can also (if you chose ice for your epic) do ice storm to help keep arrgo and do DoT on whatever might be left.

(if you choose ice epic) you can combine both holds (freezing touch and then epic) on one boss, or two others. i tend to use this on foes that are attacking my teammates.*remember freezing touch is melee*

(if you chose earth mastery) you can combine the sleep in salt crystals and frozen aura. Do frozen aura first though for max sleepage.

(If you choose fire epic) combine fire ball to your aoe to make a deadly tank. * make sure and use melt armor on the boss. Melt armor can be your lead in more before shield charge and other aoes.

(if you chose energy) you can combine energy torrent with ice patch to increase maximum knockdown



Well that's it for my little guide. This was a little more work than I expected, but it was fun. I thought it hilarious this was the first thought that popped in my head in what to do with this random slot of time I had today. I hope this guide helps you get a little clearer idea of this set...this guide could loosley related to other defense sets like possibly the ice/ set of tanks and also possibly as a /ice secondary idea. It was my first tank and a great transition for defender/troller primaries and a fun different kind of beat for tanks.If i get more free time like this again I will update the post with more information, but this is all the time I have for today. I hope you all enjoyed this as much as I did. Happy tankin y'all.