what to pair with Ice Armor?

I currently have Ice Melee but I'm underwhelmed so far, partly 'cause of the animations switching between frozen fists, shooting ice out of his fingertips and ice swords... what else is a good matchup for IA? Im thinking Battle Axe, but Im open to others

The only tanker I've ever gotten to 50 (also, the only one I've gotten past 20) is Ice/Axe. This was long before proliferation so the thinking was "I've played basically every scrapper, now how about the scrappiest tanker currently available?" It was pretty successful at that but I still found the damage frustratingly low and shelved it. Very sturdy though, and good aoe. Today, war mace is unquestionably superior to axe in every way apart, perhaps, from your concept. The new sets are better than either of them, though. Titan weapons and kinetic melee would go especially well with ice armor, but martial arts would be no slouch either. With titan weapons, you can even have an axe if you want to!

War mace is pretty good from what I've seen, but never tried it myself. Titan Weapon is good on tanks with elec, but I don't know about ice. But if you're thinking of doing axe, consider TW or War mace first like the post above mentioned.

Super Strength is pretty great with anything.

I went /TW and am having a blast with it. Not even in SOs yet (just hit 22 and didn't have time to purchase them) I've only had a few issues with END but I'm also running tough/weave a lot earlier than most players I see. TW has the best, imo, T1 attack out of the melee sets on tankers so that's a good reason to take it

Ice Melee blooms a bit late. Once you get Freezing Touch and Frozen Aura and more complete slotting it becomes pretty good. You do have to get an epic pool blast in order to complete a decent ST attack chain (GIS sucks, skip it).

Other sets that work well with IA/:

Dark Melee (the best for defense sets, IMO, but lacks a lot of AoE while IA/ likes to be surrounded)

Kinetic Melee (stacking -dmg with CE and eventually Darkest Night from Soul Mastery and possibly Incarnate powers will make you more survivable)

Martial Arts (lacks AoE but the +def from Storm Kick helps you softcap early on)

Titan Weapons (I'm having a blast with this set paired with Energy Aura, so I assume it will be equally as awesome with IA/ due to all of the quick AoEs)

These are my top picks (not in any order). Truth is that Ice Armor is ridiculously easy to softcap. Once you've hit 50 and at least softcap it, it doesn't matter what secondary you pair with it. DM's heal in Siphon Life and KM's -dmg are really the only things that will continue to benefit you on a complete build.

The benefits your secondary bring to the table really make a difference on your journey to 50, though. I use an Ice/Ice/Soul. Leveling is a pain until you get FA but it pays off in the end.

Titan Weapons!

Damage! Awesome Taunt! AOE! ST!

What more can you ask for?!

C'mon no one said Stone Melee?

1) Tons of mitigation including a mag 4 hold, my frail SM/Elec Broot before the ELA changes (Energize etc) could tank at 22 because of Fault.

2) End hog set that is awesome with an armor that has a +end power.

3) Weakish AoE but you can get Fireball or whatever and Tremor is good mitigation with footstomp's radius and KD.

I'll put in a vote for IA/FM, great combo and a fun ride to 50!

I went with Battle Axe.

My Ice/Super Strength is brilliant.

Ice Armor/Kinetic Melee/Soul Mastery for damage debuff goodness.

I played Ice/Stone to the 40s, until the nerf to Energy Absorption hit...in issue 4. I liked the sheer amount of mitigation in Stone Melee, with the knockdowns, the stuns, etc.

How is ice these days?

(BrandX, I know you posted that a couple months ago, but one of my TW characters is an ElA/TW tanker - I need to level her up like at all, as I've been focusing on other characters, but I do look forward to playing her)

If I were going to make a new ice armor character it would be a stalker. In fact, I am going to make a new ice armor character and it is going to be a stalker, just waiting on I22. The reasoning is thus: tanker ice armor is easy to softcap. In fact, it is too easy to softcap. You hit the softcap with preliminary slotting and you're left chasing... recharge? EA is practically perma out of the box, hoarfrost is easy to perma, and hibernate is a waste of space. That last point is the real key because stalkers don't get hibernate in ice armor as they have it in some epic pool. Its replacement, icy bastion, is an amazing power. It's in the vein of moment of glory except I would call it superior to moment of glory due to its doubled duration and the fact that none of its buffs are overkill. Now if tankers got that that would be one thing, but as it stands today if you want the optimal ice armor experience it's hard not to give stalkers a look.

fire for the snowmen farms.

ice/stone for mitigation and ice/fire for damage. I have one and my wife the other. We dont play either of them now though.

Ice Ember