Reconsider the no Hib/Phase for Ice Tankers

I have seen our beloved tier 9 power be given out like cheap candy to most other ATs in the game. Seeing /regen scrappers with hibernate... I mean, how much more unkillable can you get? Now stalkers have Ice armor with an even better set of options, they get a neat Tier 9 power and Hibernate from Patron pool.

I think the Developers should reconsider granting Ice/ tankers an exception to the no Hibernate timer. I would ask the Developers to let Ice/ tankers hit hibernate as soon as they can recharge it, the way it was before.

I would also ask that Ice armor tanks not be allowed to use the exploit of phase+hibernate. So grant the Ice armor tanks a "no phase timer" but please remove the "no hibernate" condition on them.

This is OUR tier 9 power, and, as such, it should be entitled to some sort of exception from others who just have it available from a pool.

Please give us the Ice armor we had before, with Hibernate free of such restriction that everyone else has on it.

The other option, which I think is still far better than the current state, is to put Hibernate on a 45 seconds hard recharge and make it unaffected from recharge enhancements and such. But that is not what we had. I really would just like the Devs to give us our own Tier 9 the way we had it. Again, keep the "no phase" condition on us, but keep Hibernate unaffected by such condition for us Ice tankers.

I am really glad you support this. I don't think it's been discussed on the forums yet. I would like to hear from more and learn what they think of this.

I'm still angry that PvP resulted in Hibernate being turned into a Time-Limited power in the first place (don't say it wasn't, there was no reason for Phase powers to be on a timer as far as PvE content was concerned and the changes just happened to coincide with PvP going live) so I'd be all for anything that allows us to use Hibernate more frequently if we choose to.

I don't see how Hibernate's been given out like Cheap Candy. As far as i know the only way a Scrapper can get Hibernate is from the Patron Pool.

That aside I have nothing against making Tanker Hibernate distinctive from Stalker/Scrapper Hibernate.

DMystic, I guess I should have explained it better or in another way. It has been proliferated or been given out to almost all ATs.

Corrs, controllers, dominators, scrappers, stalkers and others... have hibernate available to them.

Making it distinctive is another way to characterize the approach to this issue. I concur.

Didn't realize the squishies got it.

I feel for you though, my main AT is Stalkers, whose big gimmick is Hide, which everyone else can do just as well and in some cases even better.

Not sure which would be stronger though, the 45 second timer or the flat recharge one.

Hibernate has a base 4 min recharge right? If so then I'd say go with the 45 second timer. If it's less than that the flat recharge.

Also look at electric armor tier 9, blasters, and masterminds can also almost get the same power. Electric armor has the EMP pulse attached to it though.

I do think that any power in a primary or secondary powerset that is available in a pool power should have something to make it stronger or offset it from the pool version. This would include hibernation and any revive that's lacking (Regen)

It was a PvP change. :/

However, for Tankers it's on a 120 second Recharge, and with 1 lvl 50 SO, it recharges in 90 seconds.

For everyone else it's 4 minutes.

My suggestion would be to allow Ice Armor users with Hibernate to use it every 30-45 seconds.

I support removing the phase timer from Ice Armor Tankers, and removing phases from PvP entirely.

WARNING: I bold names.

I think it would be too OP to have lower no phase period in PvP.

Can't say I need a lower no phase period in PvE because I literally don't.

Icicles was put there to help Icetankers before defense scaleability, not removed after defense scaleability but a no phase period was put in. I am going on memory as I don't keep notes at all but all appears fine to me.

Ice is more or less about right as is.

I always thought that Guild Wars did the PvE/PvP balancing right. After enough PvE players complained of skill changes based upon PvP considerations, the devs changed the system to allow skills to have PvP stats separate from their PvE stats. If you decided to go to PvP, then the PvP stats would govern. If PvE, then PvE stats. That way, they could balance skills independently, retaining the same skill, but tailoring its effectiveness based upon PvP or PvE. In the OP's case, the devs could have just implemented the phase period for Hibernate when used in PvP zones while leaving Hibernate alone without the phase period when used in PvE zones. Wish CoH would have implemented something like that. It would have allowed the devs to nerf/buff powersets for being over/under-powered in PvP without touching their functionality in PvE.

Yeah, it'd be nice if Hibernate for Tankers was exempted from the NoPhase thingy. (Or just give my Tanker the option to take Icy Bastion instead.)

I totally agree with this. I have an ice tanker, that I have not played in ages, with NO hiber. Pretty much cause I regard it as a useless power for a tank..who is designed to hold aggro.

But I don't want to get into an argument about the power itself.

My tank also didnt have hiber because on the utterly stupid no hiber timer. No other set has a tier 9 that gets penalised in pve, because of something to do with pvp. I freely admit, I hated fighting ice tanks in pvp, and having them hiber..but at least it was worth taking.

The way that the devs just handed out the power in the epics/patron pools is so lazy and pathetic. Every AT but brutes, heats and veats (I think?) gets it..a tier 9 in a PRIMARY set. I haven't tried the new stalker tier 9..but it sounds almost EXACTLY like the thing that was missing from my ice tanker.

Cue convo between an excited just lvl 50 ice tank, and a newish player, aka, noob.

Tank: Man..this set is SO cool! Get it..cool?!
Noob: Yeah..it looks great! I mean..well, can you turn the ice down? That costume you spent 5 hours on..I can't see it at all!
Tank: I..cant. But oh well..I dont play for costumes! It is all about my powers!
Noob: Right! Only 5 hours wasted..tell me about this set!
Tank: Well..I get..Ice armour..and Glacial armour!
Noob: Suuuper cool! Aren't those the same powers that that cold fender/corr/troller over there has??
Tank: Um...yeah..I guess. BUT mine are higher values! And I get chilling embrace!
Noob: Sounds fun..blasters and doms get that too right?
Tank: Well..mine is better isnt it! I can take the aggro! I also get this sharp looking damage aura!
Noob: Yeah! Nice! But..Now I cant see you at all..I am sure it totally does great damage though..lethal, not even cold?
Tank: Ok..Hoarfrost then! Super cool heal and + hp!
Noob: That blasters, MM's and doms get? That sounds pretty rare! Well..rarer than your armours..
Tank: Energy absorption then! I LOVE it!
Noob: Ooo pretty..didn't EA just get that? You know..what was seen as the worst Defensive set in the game? Just saying..
Tank: Oh come on..my tier 9 is the best! I mean..I cant even DIE!! How good is that?!
Noob: Woah, that is nice, unkillable. But, you know those other guys on our team?
Tank: Yeah..?
Noob: They ALL just died, cause the mob forgot about you.
Tank: Oh darn! *drops hiber and spams taunt*
Noob: I can totally see how being unkillable helps though. Like when you are soloing single baddies. Tanks are REAL good at that right?
Tank: Umm..yeah...
Noob: And I just noticed..every AT but brutes, heats and veats gets hiber too? Just with a longer rech..which doesnt matter with the timer..but I can really see how it is a great power!
Tank: Mmm I have ALWAYS wanted to try Invul....!

Ok, I exaggerate a bit, and ice is hardly the only set to share powers and pools with others, but you get the idea. Especially about hiber!!

Oh I agree Spad. Im not trying to say Ice is the only set that does it, and nor do I expect no duplicate powers. But it is still sad

I have always believed that NoPhase as a whole needs to go, but the PvE implications of NoPhase on the Ice Armor set is my biggest area of frustration.

I brought this up on the forums way back when it was first introduced. It was a fruitless endeavor as most of the rest of the posters didn't agree. I'm glad to see that it's being received differently.

I have also brought this up with Castle in the past. Now that he has departed it might be easier to change, since he was happy with the way NoPhase affected Ice Armor.


If I didn't make it abundantly clear.../signed! NoPhase needs to take a hike.

What I am agreeing with is the removal of NoPhase. The reason you cannot set its recharge to 45 seconds and be done is that you can cancel Hibernation before the 30 seconds are up and you will still run into NoPhase. My particular hatred of this is because I used to use Hibernation for a 'block' type affect against big hits (iTrial attacks, Marauder's Nova Fist, Nightstar's Nova, etc.) for a few seconds then drop back out to the fight. Only being able to do that every 90 {or was it 70? It has been a while since I checked} seconds bites.

P.S. Back in 2009 they said they were aware that Jump Pack getting phased out with NoPhase was a bug. If they didn't fix this (it's PvP, why give the effort?) then there may be a chance. If they couldn't (more complicated then we realize), then your idea may not work. This is based off the fact that the Jump Pack still gets grayed out with NoPhase.

As a lover of my Ice tank, I fully support the removal of NoPhase. Brilliant idea.

The only problem is they didn't revert some of the changes made to PvE powers due to PvP concerns when they did that. I wish they would.