I've tried both and much preferred Psi to Ice generally for Ice Control on Controllers. However for defense I shoot for Ranged over everything else. This creates some possible issues if enemies get directly on top of you, but Frostbite stops them from running at you. It does mean 12 seconds of them not falling, so you want the defense to anchor you during that time.
If you still have Endurance issues, you can take Destiny Ageless to fix them. This has the side effect of making your mezz protection come back faster. If you don't have Endurance issues, you can take Barrier if you want. Barrier works really well for Ice since it frequently has so many enemies right in its face.
Definitely something I will consider. I usually end up in melee range, so I kind of went with melee and s/l defense.
Though I have to ask how you would go about soft-capping ranged defense without gimping all other powers. If you neglect the hold/immobilize for the ST attacks, then I can only get to the soft cap, which is 32% extra on top of combat jumping / maneuvers / steamy mist/, by using up almost almost all of the extra power slots. With 4 full thunderstrikes, the full ATO set, full trap of the hunter, two full Blood Mandates, Steadfast, and Zephyr, this eats up 42 of the 67 given slots. Slotting out Maneuvers (3), Combat Jumping (1), Steamy Mist (5), and 51 of the given slots are used up before you add things like LotG + Recharge. Dividing the remaining 16 slots into 14 powers is quite difficult, even with a ton of throwaway powers.
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I usually go with Psi over Ice and slot a Force Feedback Chance for +Recharge in Psynado. I haven't checked in a while, but I think it used to give you a chance for the recharge bonus for every mob affected by the 'nado. It was even nicer back in the day when they stacked and didn't have the cool down timer!
Psynado is also another good form of mitigation in melee since it causes knockdown as long as you don't slot additional knockback. In the past I've slotted it with Positron's Blast and the single Force Feedback +recharge proc.
We don' need no stinkin' signatures!
Alright, I am still looking at my troller build, and I have 1 respec left on him. I can't decide whether to go with Ice or Psionic Mastery.
For the build specifics, I have an ice/storm controller that uses Arctic Air and Glacier, so it ends up in melee range a lot. Global recharge is 52% before ageless and hasten. I recently re-did his build because all of his powers drew mad aggro and he didn't have the fortitude to take it. Now, for my final revisions, I am down to two choices that can have a big outcome on the set...
Psionic Mastery provides 43% damage resistance to smashing/lethal, and 31% resistance to psionics. With the set I have 26% defense in Melee and 26.6% defense in smashing and lethal. This set also provides some status protection and an alternating 17.9% to 40.4% defense to psionics. It also provides psychic damage in Mental Blast and Psionic Tornado. Cons are that the waning status protection can leave me vulnerable, and that the set doesn't do anything extraordinary.
Ice Mastery provides 30% more resistance to cold and 10% more resistance to fire. More importantly, Ice Mastery soft-caps s/l defense at 45%, and provides 25% melee defense. Hibernate is great for restoring endurance and as a panic button, and Ice Storm does some pretty wicked damage. Cons are that there is only 17.9% defense against psionics with otherwise no protection, and status effects are more likely to cripple the set.
Both sets can provide what I "need" but in different ways. But before I blow my last respec, I want to know what you guys think. Is the on/off status effect protection and defense/resist against psychics worth losing damage and softcapped smashing and lethal defense? Or vice versa?
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