I am not that familiar with EA since the changes last year. Was going to try it out but it fell by the wayside. I have been looking at Ice lately and it seems to be a pretty solid secondary. Icy Bastion can help fix that fire hole and if the fire attack has a S/L portion, your softcap S/L defense will help you dodge it. If that is not enough, there is always Shadow Meld.
Granite Agent and I were tossing Ice builds back and forth awhile back. With the ATO set, it is not difficult to get softcap def in S/L/E/N.
I didn't really find covering EA's NE defense to be that hard.
I didn't find Fire Damage to be that big of a deal for IA on my tanker.
there's pros and cons for EA and IA. Between these two, id let it settle on concept.
BrandX Future Staff Fighter
The BrandX Collection
EA is easier to softcap in general (it has slightly higher base numbers for everything except Energy Drain vs Energy Absorption); Ice has resistance to back up the defense and a -damage aura which will give you more mitigation once both are at the softcap.
Beyond that, go for looks. EA is pretty. >.>
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Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle
it has gone from unconscionable to downright appalling that we have no way of measuring our characters' wetness.
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Brillig
It's hard to beat the entertainment value of Whackjob Wednesdays.
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Ice will consistently have more max HP and Icy Bastion is a more widely usable and less crashy T9 than Overload. You may notice that Fire/Cold Resist Bonuses are very common, especially in the generic Purple Set bonus families, so a Fire or Cold hole is the easiest to patch IMO. Most of my toons end up with higher Fire / Cold Resists from focusing on other things and that being a side effect.
But yeah EA is PRETTY AND STRONG AND STRONG AND PRETTY AND god I hate that EA meme.
"Look, personally I just want a new issue to feature changes that don't cause a mass exodus of players..."
Issue 17: We Didn't Break Anything!
How to suck at CoX
Literally the Best Build Ever: Years in the Making
I have not tried the new /EA 'cause my old Spine/EA hit 50 already and that was it. I didn't find the 2nd version of EA that bad for Stalker so I didn't even bother respecing him to try the third changes.
Having said that, I feel Ice Armor is better. It definitely feels more sturdier and I really enjoy Chilling Embrace. Even if IA has less defensive values, the aoe slow alone makes up for a lot of things because Stalker doesn't have taunt and mobs do run away. The slow just makes it easier to kill them off before they run too far.
I think IA is better. Both have holes in psionic. Icy Bastion is such a great god-mode. It has very high +regen and +recovery. I think many people don't know that Bastion has an amazing 500% +regen which is like a great DoT healing on yourself. It has shorter duration but it has no crash and it activates so fast. IA does lack a true healing power but that's why I save the +HP when my health is low. It heals and gives me extra HP!
IA also gives you amazing resistance to -slow/recharge debuffs. You can run through caltrops all day long.
Here is what I think. Both are very good defensive sets:
Energy Aura - more offensive due to the new +20% recharge
Ice Armor - more defensive due to some +resistance and -damage/slow debuffs
What's left is to normalize all Assassin Strikes and improve Stalker's old sets (Claw, MA and EM)! You don't need to bring back the missing PbAoE attack. You just need to make the existing ones better! For example, make Slice a WIDER and LONGER cone.
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Nonono, the meme is for the whole build. EA is pretty. WM is strong.|
Originally Posted by NecroOmNomNomicon
But yeah EA is PRETTY AND STRONG AND STRONG AND PRETTY AND god I hate that EA meme.
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Stalkers aren't allowed to be strong AND pretty. Just pretty.
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Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle
it has gone from unconscionable to downright appalling that we have no way of measuring our characters' wetness.
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Brillig
It's hard to beat the entertainment value of Whackjob Wednesdays.
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Quote:
FYI: EA has more always on resistance to more types of common damage....|
Originally Posted by Jibikao
I have not tried the new /EA 'cause my old Spine/EA hit 50 already and that was it. I didn't find the 2nd version of EA that bad for Stalker so I didn't even bother respecing him to try the third changes.
Having said that, I feel Ice Armor is better. It definitely feels more sturdier and I really enjoy Chilling Embrace. Even if IA has less defensive values, the aoe slow alone makes up for a lot of things because Stalker doesn't have taunt and mobs do run away. The slow just makes it easier to kill them off before they run too far. I think IA is better. Both have holes in psionic. Icy Bastion is such a great god-mode. It has very high +regen and +recovery. I think many people don't know that Bastion has an amazing 500% +regen which is like a great DoT healing on yourself. It has shorter duration but it has no crash and it activates so fast. IA does lack a true healing power but that's why I save the +HP when my health is low. It heals and gives me extra HP! IA also gives you amazing resistance to -slow/recharge debuffs. You can run through caltrops all day long. Here is what I think. Both are very good defensive sets: Energy Aura - more offensive due to the new +20% recharge Ice Armor - more defensive due to some +resistance and -damage/slow debuffs |
EA Unlostted:
Defense
SL 19.5%
E 22.1
N 15.8
FC 19.5
Energy Drain maxed 3.75%
Resistance
S/L 7.5%
E 11.3%
N 9.4%
T 9.4
EA also gets
Superior Defense numbers (easier capping, more recharge bonuses)
20% Recharge bonus.
Permable 200% regen, 40% cost discount, 50% Heal every
Crash (ignorable with accolades) Godmode.
IA unslotted
Defense
SLEN 15.4%
Energy Absorbtion Maxed 4.5%
Resistance
F 9.4%
Cold 45%
T 15%
+Icy Bastion 37.5 and 400% regen.
IA also gets
Slow immunity
15% melee -damage aura (interrupts crits)
32% melee -recharge
Permable +HP.
No Crash Godmode power
I think its a wash honestly, except that EA doesn't look like crap.
When something good happens to me, I can never enjoy it....
I am always too busy looking for the inevitable punchline...
BEHOLD THE POWER OF CHEESE!
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Originally Posted by ricohdah
I am not that familiar with EA since the changes last year. Was going to try it out but it fell by the wayside. I have been looking at Ice lately and it seems to be a pretty solid secondary. Icy Bastion can help fix that fire hole and if the fire attack has a S/L portion, your softcap S/L defense will help you dodge it. If that is not enough, there is always Shadow Meld.
Granite Agent and I were tossing Ice builds back and forth awhile back. With the ATO set, it is not difficult to get softcap def in S/L/E/N. |
Toss .... The ATO set is 6-slotted into AS.
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FYI I am capping my HP with perma Hoarfrost in i22. With Icy Bastion up a ton, it's huge for survivability. I think i22 helped IA a ton.|
Originally Posted by Test_Rat
I think its a wash honestly, except that EA doesn't look like crap.
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If you make the IA colors purple/purple you *barely* see the big blocky ice stuff.
Quote:
Which purple/purple?
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Originally Posted by Granite Agent
FYI I am capping my HP with perma Hoarfrost in i22. With Icy Bastion up a ton, it's huge for survivability. I think i22 helped IA a ton.
If you make the IA colors purple/purple you *barely* see the big blocky ice stuff. |
Bump and Grind Bane/SoA
Kenja No Ishi Earth/Empathy Controller
Legendary Sannin Ninja/Pain Mastermind
Entoxicated Ninja/PSN Mastermind
Ninja Ryukenden Kat/WP Scrapper
Hellish Thoughts Fire/PSI Dominator
Thank You Devs for Merits!!!!
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The extremely dark ones. Really dark blues work well also, and that's how my Cold Domination characters have their shields slotted.
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Originally Posted by EvilRyu
Which purple/purple?
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle
it has gone from unconscionable to downright appalling that we have no way of measuring our characters' wetness.
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Brillig
It's hard to beat the entertainment value of Whackjob Wednesdays.
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E's a straight up beast on a stalker! Always has been for me...even before the revamp! If you play on Virtue on the Redside you probably seen me around on Streets Avenger (a StJ/EA/Body with uber defense stats!)
I'll post the build later...maybe :P
Virtue: Streets Avenger (Main - Villain) - Lvl 50+3 Street Justice/Energy Aura Stalker (Agility Radial T4/ Degenerative Radial T4) - Fully IO'd
Global: @Black Marabuna
For the longest time I never played any of the typed defense sets aside from WP on stalkers. It was just too hard to soft cap. However on the beta server I was able to play around with IO sets and such. I found that with */Ice I could get really close to the softcap provided that I picked the right sets. The only thing that alarms me is */Ice has this huge hole when it comes to fire damage. Fire damage is pretty common from levels 1-50 and I was wondering should I go with */EA instead and just deal with the NE hole. Overall which set has the easiest time serviving
Bump and Grind Bane/SoA
Kenja No Ishi Earth/Empathy Controller
Legendary Sannin Ninja/Pain Mastermind
Entoxicated Ninja/PSN Mastermind
Ninja Ryukenden Kat/WP Scrapper
Hellish Thoughts Fire/PSI Dominator
Thank You Devs for Merits!!!!