A Chilly Guide to Everything Ice

A Complete Guide to Ice by Radium, Icy Metal, and Talbs.

It's always been my belief that Ice is one of the best powers out currently. Everything about us works well when you know what to do and I hope this guide will spread that knowledge to all the up-comers and even veterans who have given up on Ice in one way or another.

This guide has been written out by 3 experienced USPS3 Ice players who's combined knowledge will be shared here for all to see. This isn't to say that everything in here is final and true. So any questions, comments, screw-ups, and criticizems should be shared throughout the thread so we can all be better players.
Before we get into everything though, here's a list of terms and abbreviations you might find throughout the guide.


Aggro = Enemy aggression, attention and attack efforts are focused on specific targets.
AoE = Area of Effect, an attack or action that has an effect in the general area you cast in.
CC = Crowd control, any form of stun, status effect, or attack that hinders movement/actions.
Crits = Critical, can refer to Critical stats to spec into, or Critical hits from an attack.
Def = Defense, a main stat for Ice Tanking regarding damage mitigation.
Dom = Dominence, a main stat for Ice Tanking regarding shields.
DoT = Damage over time, ticks of damage over time through the use of a power.
Might = The stat primarily used for Power damage.
Mobs = General low-level enemies.
PI/'s = Power Interactions, used for additional damage or CC effects.
Prec = Precision, the stat used for Weapon damage.
Pull = A move used to pull adds in your direction.


Table of Contents
Click a link below to bring you directly to the main topic.

1. Powers
2. Power Interactions
3. PvP and Ice
4. Basic Tanking Duties
5. Ice Form: Uselessness abound or misunderstood shiny man?
6. Ice by the numbers.
7. Community Load-Outs and Strategy
8. Ways of the Tankage
9. A Chip off the O'l Ice Block - Stats and Builds

1. Powers

Storms

Specializing in this tree grants the player +5% Critical Attack Damage and 35 Health.

Tier 1

Inescapable Storm : Engulf your target and nearby enemies with a concentrated storm, damaging them and dragging them towards you.
Power Interactions : Inflicts Frostbite to make enemies vulnerable to freezing effects.
Damage Role : Increases all damage by 35% until the hit counter resets

Tier 2

Glacier Flash : Fires a beam of intense cold at your enemy, causing damage.
Power Interactions : Enemies with Frostbite may be rooted in place and form an icy field damaging nearby enemies.
Damage Role : Increases all damage by 35% until the hit counter resets

Arctic Gust : Blast your enemies with a sustained cone of frigid air, causing damage.
Power Interactions : Enemies with Frostbite may be rooted in place and form an icy field damaging nearby enemies.
Damage Role : Increases all damage by 35% until the hit counter resets

Freeze Wave : Blasts out enemies with freezing air, damaginging and knocking them down..
Power Interactions : Enemies with Frostbite may be rooted in place and form an icy field damaging nearby enemies.
Damage Role : Increases all damage by 35% until the hit counter resets

Tier 3

Bitter Winds : Creates a whirling aura of wind and ice, scouring nearby enemies and protecting yourself from damage for a short time.
Shield Damage Prevention = 100% Dominance + 100% Restoration
Power Interaction : Frostbitten enemies are vulnerable to freezing effects
Tank Role : +10% Control Resistance
Damage Role : Increases all damage by 40% until the hit counter resets

Blizzard : Conjure a wide-spread, icy storm that stuns and encases enemies while inflicting extreme damage.
50% Supercharge Cost

Deep Freeze : Encases your enemy in a block of ice, dealing damage over time.
Power Interactions : Crushes enemies, making them vulnerable to crushing effects.
25% Supercharge Cost

Tier 4

Avalanche : Unleash a barrage of ice and snow upon your enemies, causing damage.
Power Interactions : Enemies with Frostbite may be rooted in place and form an icy field damaging nearby enemies.
Damage Role : Increases all damage by 45% until the hit counter resets

Shatter Restraints : Use the unstoppable power of ice to gain resistance against control effects, and to prevent incoming damage for a short time.
Usable While Controlled
Power Interactions : Enemies with Frostbite may be rooted in place and form an icy field damaging nearby enemies.
Shield Damage Prevention = 100% Dominance + 100% Restoration
Tank Role : Provides immunity to up to eight teammates. Applies 3 seconds of Breakout and prevents Controller debuffs for 3 seconds.
Damage Role : Increases all damage by 45% until the hit counter resets

Tier 5

Resonating Gale : Send a chilling gale at your enemies, damaging them and knocking them down.
Power Interactions : Enemies with Frostbite may be rooted in place and form an icy field damaging nearby enemies.
Enemies Encased by Ice, Nature, Mental, Light, Earth or Gadgets take heavy damage.
Damage Role : Increases all damage by 50% until the hit counter resets

Wintry Tempest : Freeze the area near your target. The icy crystals damage your target and nearby enemies. Also summon a fierce, localized storm to damage and knock down enemies near you.
Power Interactions : Inflicts Frostbite to make enemies vulnerable to freezing effects.
Damage Role : Increases all damage by 50% until the hit counter resets

Snow Devil : Summons a chaotic, melee-resistant snow devil to assault enemies and toss them into the air.
Power Interactions : Inflicts Frostbite to make enemies vulnerable to freezing effects.
Damage Role : Increases all damage by 50% until the hit counter resets

Cryogenics

This tree holds the advantage of having Ices hardest hitting moves (aka Boss Killers). Examples include Impaling Ice, Frost Blast, and Freeze Ray.

Specializing in this tree grants the player a +1% Critical Attack Chance and +35 Health.

Tier 1
Cold Snap : Rapidly cool your body temperature, damaging nearby enemies. While active, some incoming damage will be directed back at your attackers.
Power Interactions : Grants Chill Effect; gaining five consecutive Chill Effects activates Ice Armor
Damage Role : Increases all damage by 35% until the hit counter resets
Tank Role : +10% Control Resistance

Tier 2
Snow Ball : Heave a sizable ice chunk at enemies, damaging and knocking them down.
Power Interactions : Rooted enemies take double damage; after three or more Chill Effects the snowball will explode and damage all enemies in the area.
Damage Role : Increases all damage by 35% until the hit counter resets

Frost Snipe : Pierces enemies with a sharp blast of freezing energy, causing damage.
Power Interactions : While imbued with Chill Effects targeted enemies take more damage and may become rooted, while rooted enemies may be encased.
Damage Role : Increases all damage by 35% until the hit counter resets

Tier 3

Ice Bash : Infuse your weapon with the power of ice, increasing the damage of your weapon attacks, critical strike chance, and critical strike damage.
Power Interactions : Grants Chill Effect; Gaining five consecutive Chill Effects activates Ice Armor.
Damage Role : Increases all damage by 40% until the hit counter resets

Hibernation : Encase yourself in a protective mound of ice that quickly heals you while knocking down enemies and protecting yourself from damage.
Usable While Controlled
35% Supercharge Cost

Freeze Ray : Cast an absolute-zero beam at your enemy, causing extreme damage and encasing it in a block of ice.
35% Supercharge Cost

Tier 4

Frost Blast : Blast your enemies with a torrent of jagged ice shards, stunning, damaging, and knocking them down.
Power Interactions : Rooted, Burning, Frostbitten, and Electrified enemies take additional damage.
Damage Role : Increases all damage by 60% until the hit counter resets

Reflection : Surround yourself with the essence of ice, causing damage to nearby enemies. Some damage from the next three attacks will be directed back at your attacker.
Usable While Controlled
Power Interactions : Grants Chill Effect; gaining five consecutive Chill Effects activates Ice Armor; while imbuded with Chill Effects enemies that hit you may become rooted, while rooted enemies may be encased.
Additional Damage Prevention; Shield Damage Prevention for Tank = 10,000 + 100% Dominance; Shield Damage Prevention for DPS = 100% Dominance + 100% Restoration
Damage Role : Increases all damage by 45% until the hit counter resets

Ice Boulder : Grants Ice Boulder and Ice Boulder Strike to create a huge ice chunk to throw or plummet down and damage enemies.
Power Interactions : While imbued with Chill Effects enemies take more dmage and may become rooted, while rooted enemies may be encased.
Damage Role : Increases all damage by 45% until the hit counter resets

Tier 5

Impaling Ice : Impale your enemies with a vicous shard of ice, heavily damaging and knocking them down. Enemies at 35% health or below will take double damage.
Damage Role : Increases all damage by 50% until the hit counter resets

Ice Elemental : Tronsform into the embodiment of Ice, greatly enhancing role-specific stats. Ice Elemental form provides new weapons combos, and renders you immune to most control effects.
Usable While Controlled
50% Supercharge Cost

Winter Ward : Surround yourself in a shield of ice, freeing yourself from control effects. For a short time, you are protected from damage, and some damage is directed back at your attacker.
Usable While Controlled
Shield Damage Prevention = 100% Dominance + 100% Restoration
Tank Role : Provides immunity to control effects and removes control debuffs to you and up to eight teammates and damages attacking enemies.
Damage Role : Increases all damage by 50% until the hit counter resets

2. Ice Power Interactions
*Updated for Post-Update 23 Changes


Ice has 3 main power interactions right now and what each does varies very differently. Each PI we have works the same in both roles, the only difference being what they are used for. Also, each PI works excellently with both roles so you never have to worry about it being a waste.

For DPS, all PI's will cause additional damage to enemies, and for Tanks, all PI's can be used to help mitigate damage or help controlling adds.

Chill Effects

This PI comes from the Cryogenics powers tree.

Essentially, stacking Chill Effects can make powers stronger, grant powers different abilities in addition to damage, and most importantly stacking Chill Effects will grant Ice Armor after 5 Chills have been stacked.

Ice armor as a DPS will lock you into a 60 sec 50% Damage Modifier and will increase the Critical Damage Chance on Ice Bash to 7% instead of 5%.

The abilities that grant Chill Effects are:

• Cold Snap
• Ice Bash
• Reflection.

As you can see, it is very easy for Ice DPS to stack Chill Effects as it is a good chance one of these powers will be in your load out.

The abilities that have increased damage or compliment another PI are:

• Snow Ball
• Frost Snipe

Snow Ball has the interaction of exploding when having 3 or more chill effects on you and the target is rooted, giving yourself a nice AoE hit that creates a lot of damage for adds in the area.

Frost Snipe gets a damage increase when under chill effects. In addition, it has the ability to Root targets that have not been hit already, if the target has already been rooted then the enemy will become encased within a block of ice. While this might not seem like much, using a move in the Storms Tree, Resonating Gale, the target will explode in a flurry of ice shards causing high damage and multiple ticks to the enemy that would otherwise not be seen when using this move.

Frostbite

This is the main PI utilized in the Storms tree.

When inflicting Frostbite, enemies will be slowed down using any one of the 4 abilities that causes this effect. This can primarily be used as a CC effect for Tanks, making large groups of adds much easier to kite around.
While being Frostbitten, the enemies also have additional PI's that come with that as having an enemy in this effect can cause them to be susceptible to Icy Field which will also be discussed below. Frostbite is generally used as a set-up for other PI's except in the case of Frost Blast which deals additional damage to Frostbitten enemies.

Frostbite is a little more complicated to use as it is generally not understood that it is not like Ice's counterpart in Fire, namely Burning. Burning for Fire sets up a constant DoT to be removed for additional damage while Frostbite is just used for causing additional damage or setting up another PI to cause additional damage.

The moves used for this are:

• Inescapable Storm
• Bitter Winds
• Wintry Tempest
• Snow Devil.

Inflicting Frostbite will become natural for almost all Ice DPS as Wintery Tempest is one of the best moves available to us and is recommended for any Ice player to use.

Remember, unless you plan on using Ice Field, Frostbite is useless for causing additional damage if you do not have Frost Blast in your load-out.

Rooted/Icy Field

This PI will give targets additional damage in the form of a small AoE around the intended target. Only one Icy Field can be up at a time and it is sporadic on who it will go to when using a move to inflict it that's an AoE.

The PI starts by taking a Frostbitten enemy and hitting him with a power that inflicts the field. This will cause him to be rooted and brings out the Icy Field around him. If any other enemies are in this field they will also be damaged. Concurrently, if the target leaves the field the damage will stop.

To set the field around a target, Frostbite must first be placed on it. Then, you must use any of the powers that causes it which are:

• Arctic Gust*
• Avalanche
• Glacier Flash*
• Shatter Restraints
• Freeze Wave
• Resonating Gale.

*Note: These 2 powers will only apply the Ice Field on the last hit of the power. Jump canceling these powers will NOT apply the Icy Field any quicker.

Only one power does regular additional damage to Rooted enemies and that is Snowball. To use this PI correctly you must stack 3 chill effects then root the enemies to the ground. Doing this causes great explosion damage to your target and surrounding adds.

Encasement

Since Game Update 23, the encasement portion of this PI has been confirmed to be only doable by Tanks or a DPS that meets the required Dominance for the target to encase. Dominance must be very high in higher tier instances and is impossible to achieve as a DPS.

However, the PI reacts the same for a DPS when destroying the encasement. If a power-set with the ability to encase does so, you can still take advantage for extra damage.

Only Resonating Gale is able to do this and will hit for 3x ticks of damage instead of only once. It will do this for each target that is encased.

Power-sets that can encase besides Ice Tanks are: Gadget, Mental, Nature, Earth, Hard Light.

3. PvP and Ice

Tank PvP

Tank vs Troll:
When fighting a Troll you are awarded with special bonuses, you recieve a 55% Confidence boost that gives you a 135% damage boost (Our base damage is reduced by 20% regardless when we enter the Tank role).

For a PvP Ice Tank, your job in the RPS aspect is to remove the Power over Time from a Controller and to cleanse your group of debuffs.

Any power that causes initial Might based damage will strip a Controller of PoT. This will not make him immune to casting it again though. A good idea is to wait a few seconds(but no more than 5) after he initially casts hes PoT again and then strip it. The controller will get an initial tick regardless, but by waiting a few seconds to strip it again it gives you a chance to build up power. A Tank will never win against the Troll in a power contest if he spams the debuff every time he sees that PoT is up.


Tank vs Healer:
A Healer is the Paper to our Rock. When going up against one, they have many advantages to use against you.

Healers are made to destroy Tanks in a battle. They have the ability to debuff us of our 90% Toughness buff, the ability to strip away our shields, and they receive a 60% Confidence boost to their damage. This means that with the reduction they already receive to the damage they have for being in the Healer role, Healers have a 135% boost to their base damage stats, Might and Precision.

While being debuffed by a Healer, this is where your cleanse powers and breakout trinket will come in handy. It will give you a short immunity from being debuffed again, giving you time to get any Health you have lost back.

If being in a 1v1 fight it becomes easy to be overwhelmed against this. The higher team matches are much easier to get away from them though.

Tank Tips: It is also a good idea to have a pull move handy at times as well. This prevents people from running away, or "Kiting"(A maneuver used by players to get away from being focus fired, or near death) and keeps them closer to the battle.

Ice has a single target AOE pull move with Inescapable Storm. It inflicts Frostbite on the player but this will not work 100% of the time. A good alternative is to use Mesmerizing Lasso in the Iconics Tree. It will ground players until they receive a cleanse, or use a PVP breakout trinket.

The group cleanses are for yourself and 3 other teammates, Winter Ward and Shatter Restraints are the only 2 powers that will do this while both acting as a Shield and breakout move for yourself. Cleanses will take away any debuffs that people incur, and make them immune to them for a short time.

When in a group, it's a good idea for your team to communicate with you when they need a cleanse. What you especially need to worry about though is your Healers. Healers receive 2 different debuffs that seriously hinder them from Healing and staying alive.
If you choose to run with both of these then try not to use them back to back. Give one of them time to cooldown so you aren't left waiting longer than you need to for it to be usable again.

DPS PvP

As Ice players, we have a slight disadvantage in PvP as we have lots of powers that have cast-times and long animations to completely pull off.
To compensate for this, it is best to use quick hitting powers that have no cast times and short animations.
This makes your damage instantaneous instead of waiting on a move to cast (Frost Blast) or waiting on an animation to finish so you can attack again (Glacier Flash, Arctic Gust). All of these types of powers are also interupptable which causes a waste of power to yourself. When PvPing you can expect to be constantly interrupted, the amount of times you would have the opportunity to get these moves off are not worth wasting the slot in your load-out.



Tunso wrote:

Just so that everyone is absolutely and abundantly clear, Animation Canceling or "clipping" is intended. You shouldn't feel bad for doing it and it is not cheating.

Weapon Clipping

The bread and butter of any DPS is knowing how to properly clip your powers. Clipping is essentially animation canceling of moves in order to have the effect persist with them. The great thing about Ice DPS is that our moves seem almost tailor suited for clipping, second to only Light DPS and being on par with Gadgets, with very little moves having long cast times or long animations. Moves can be clipped with powers, jump canceling, block canceling, and in some cases, other powers.


Here is a quick guide to the basics of clipping and how it works.
Clipping 101

Now each weapon will clip differently so it is up to each individual user to find out which combos he is going to use. Just always remember to try and keep the last hit in your combo the one that you clip. This is usually the hardest hitting move of the combo and can have you starting your next combo while the hit is still taking effect on the target.

I use the staff for DPSing so here is an example of a clip rotation I use.

I always hit a power first to start my damage modifier. Start the Roundhouse combo (5xTap Square), directly after the last Tap I instantly cast Bitter Winds. Then I move on to the Downward Smash combo (2xTap Square, 3xHold Square), on the last hold I hit Winter Ward. Repeat the last combo again and use Wintery Tempest on the last hit instead and then immediately use Reflection to cancel the animation and deal damage to any enemies that attack me. Now what I would do is use the Focused Spin attack which can be clipped by holding Block when the cast bar is a little over halfway for full damage effect.

That rotation uses 3 different types of clips. A Power clip, and Support Power clip, and a Block Clip.

Again, you need to play with your powers and weapons to decide what is right for you. If you play a ranged weapon style then some powers would be better left off your load-out like Bitter Winds and Winter Ward as using them will give no real damage if adds are not close to you.

Power Clipping

For certain powers, it's possible to clip the animations of them by using another power. The powers that clip the attack powers are generally meant to be support powers but this is not always the case.

For example, I can cast Wintery Tempest and upon casting that I cancel the animation with Reflection which will also deal damage. When you do this it's more favorable to do it with long animation moves like Tempest or Resonating Gale.

It is NOT good to use this with a cast time move like FrostBlast before the cast has completed. Doing so will completely stop the cast timer and you will receive no damage for it.

3 powers will clip your long animation moves. Ice Bash, Shatter Restraints and Reflection.

4. Basic Tanking Duties


1. Aggro
2. Staying Alive and Support Teammates
3. Grouping Enemies
4. Controlling Enemies
5. Managing Your Power Pool
6. Additional DPS

1. Aggro
Since our gear, powers, and attributes help us stay alive longer by mitigating damage, our main job is to ensure that enemies are attacking us and not our teammates. Obtaining and maintaining aggro is the primary way to do this.
As an Ice Tank, anytime you cast a power you create a "taunt" that gains aggro from enemies it has landed on/damaged. According to Update 5's release notes, this means "Taunt effects on Tank role powers should now consistently use a 15m radius either around your target or yourself depending on the activated power…What this means is:

• If you directly cast a power at a targeted enemy, the taunt will land on that enemy and any others within a 15m radius around your target.

• If you cast a power without a target or one that is casted around your character, any enemies within a 15m radius will be taunted.

Aggro will be uninterruptable for 12 seconds, with it being refreshable at around 8 seconds (depending on the enemy). However, certain bosses have moves/powers that randomly attack other players and there is nothing you can do about it. When one of these moves is going to be performed or in animation, DO NOT waste your power trying to “re-gain” aggro. The Boss will typically come back to you once these random attacks are completed. If the Boss starts “normal” attacking other players then use a quick power on the Boss to regain aggro.
Note: Because you ideally have the attention of adds/bosses around you, do not try to resurrect another player unless you are absolutely the last resort in getting that person up. Instead, you'll want to take the aggro party away from any downed player so that others can resurrect (and heal) him without dropping themselves - you're the babysitter! If you must try resurrecting or you are the Off-Tank (a secondary tank for managing mobs in boss fights/raids), try to drop aggro off to the other tank, make your way to the downed player and cast Reflect to not be interrupted before reviving.

2. Staying Alive and Supporting Teammates
Once you have aggro, it’s equally important to stay alive to maintain it and support teammates by keeping them off their backs. Ice Tanks rely on their defense to help reduce damage taken while teammates rely on you to liberate them from controlled effects caused by enemies. To stay alive and keep your teammates upright you will want to do any, or all, of the following after obtaining aggro:

• Ensure your defense buff is up (a must for aggro and buff)- As Ice Tanks, we receive a 90% increase in our base defense for 10 seconds anytime we use a power (movement powers included). You can see if this buff is active by looking at your stats in the menu immediately after casting a power or by looking for a green shield icon under your character's name while playing, which is the quickest way to tell if your defense boost is up.

• Block- Blocking is any Tank’s best friend. You receive an additional 5,000 defense increase when blocking (holding R1) an attack. If too many mobs are attacking you and your health is going down at an alarming rate the best thing to do is to block.

• Dodging/Evading- Along with blocking, dodging (R1 + any direction) is important at key points in the game. For tanks, you don't want to be sitting in a Boss's DoT (e.g. Vice's/Atrocitus's Red Vomit/Sunstone Dominator’s Squat Attack), both your health and healer will not be happy. The same goes for charge moves that are telegraphed (by the attack icon above an enemy's head). Maintaining aggro while being aware of when you move away from enemies is a great way to stay alive.

• Increase Defense/Protection More- Some powers will not only allow you increase your defense, but can protect you from receiving damage for a short time (Reflect, Winter Ward, Shatter Restraints, and Bitter Winds) from attacks.

• Provide Controlled Effect Immunity to Teammates (a must for CC immunity and damage prevention)- all enemies have some form of controlled effect that will affect teammates (i.e. Stun, Knockdown/back/up, encase, root, ground, etc.). It is important for you, the Tank, to use at minimum 1 CC immunity power (Winter Ward, Shattered Restraints) as these powers will help teammates remain upright to continue to do their job uninhibited, which in turn supports you, for a smoother experience. During Boss fights, these powers become even more valuable as nearly every Boss has a mass AoE controlled effect power that can affect the entire raid group, including you.

• Heal- Both Hibernate (35% SC) and Ice Elemental (100% SC) provide some healing over time. Since update 6, the healing now scales with your Dominance combined with Restoration, which in theory makes these moves seem more appealing, but they are still not situationally effective for Tanking. Soders are still the best available resource for healing.

Note towards damage prevention:

• Since Update 23, Winter Ward, and Shatter Restraints provide a damage prevention effect that scales with 100% of your Dominance score combined with 100% of your Restoration score.
• Reflection provides a base 10,000 damage prevention effect combined with 100% of your Dominance.
• Bitter Winds scales with 100% of your Dominance and 13.5% of your Restoration.
• Ice Elemental scales with 100% of your Dominance score and 100% of your Restoration Score.
• Armor Penetration was introduced in Game Update 6, which means more Defense is needed to compensate for the different levels of base defense being ignored: Tier 2 Raids ignore 12% of Defense, Tier 3 Raids (FoS) and up ignore 25% of Defense.

3. Grouping Enemies
To ensure all enemies in the area are being tanked, your Controller and DPS can CC/DPS in an un-scattered AoE fashion, and your group is not being attacked and is focused on one point- you'll want to organize adds and/or a boss in a specific place (as long as the damage you're taking is manageable). This can be done by:

• Pulling enemies to you with an attack (Inescapable Storm, Mesmerizing Lasso, Low Pressure, Tornado Pull)

• Casting powers that have AoE attacks and cause aggro in your general radius/area (Bitter Winds, Wintry Tempest, Cold Snap, Freeze Wave, Resonating Gale)

Cornering/Kiting - There will be times when simply grouping enemies on you won't be enough. It’s often ideal to move or start this group near a wall or corner to help trap adds. You can move or “kite” adds/bosses to areas once you have aggro. To do this, first grab aggro on the said adds/boss, and slowly move/roll yourself to where you want to go, remembering to maintain aggro with a cast every 8-10 seconds. If adds become scattered during the move, rope them in with Inescapable Storm.

Volume Management - There are also times where you do not want to aggro an entire room (i.e., FoS 2 beginning). For those times, be mindful of where you are jumping into. Picking off the first 2-4 adds (using Ice Bash, Inescapable Storm, Mesmerizing Lasso, or Low Pressure) in rooms with many enemies is better than jumping into the entire pack or center of the room.
Note: Along the same lines, Look at the area radar often - if there are any red dots that aren't accounted for (especially near your group members' dots), make sure they're not being tanked for a valid reason (near dead, its a generator, wimpy mob, stupid Rambo DPS/troller/healer)
Note: When grouping adds and attaining aggro, be on the look out for fixed location powers/effects (such as Circle of Protection, Wintry Tempest, Inferno, broken Health/DMG barrells etc.) that your party may have already placed somewhere. You'll want to tank (pull or kite) the adds to and in those areas for optimal damage (both from DOT and Power interactions DPS might be setting themselves up for) and healing. DPS
and Healers will love you for this. Keep em grouped in there and in cases where no fixed powers are cast yet - call out that it’s safe to cast them once you have things grouped for extra cookies and milk from your party mates.

Note: For extra cookies, you can help set up DPS power interactions (mostly frostbitten-based ones) by casting Wintry Tempest yourself (assuming your power is sufficient enough and all adds are grouped). It'll help DPSers that use Frost Blast, Mass Detonation, etc. to cause extra damage to frostbitten, burning, electrified etc. mobs.

4. Controlling Enemies
Controlling enemies is also part of a Tank’s job, not just for Controllers, because enemies under an effect you caused cannot attack you or your teammates. There are several ways to control enemies to prevent them from damaging you, your teammates, or interfering with objectives:

• Knock down/up/back- the best way to gain time, breathing room, and/or a respite from damage to pull more adds or get party members out of trouble (stuns, damage, etc.). Good powers for doing these effects on multiple mobs are Bitter Winds, Freeze Wave, and Wintry Tempest (both of which will AoE pop enemies up into the air before knocking them down). Whirlwind Attack (from Flight Tree) can also do this to an already grouped set of mobs. Weapons also have knock-ups that do the same on a more individual basis- (check out your weapon’s moves description in your weapon tree for words like "knock up" or "launches").

• Stunning - This mostly happens with weapon combos check out your weapon’s moves description in your weapon tree for words like "stun" or "block breaker". Keep in mind most mobs have a temporary immunity to any weapon attack stun used more than twice in a small window of time.

• Rooting & Encasements - specific to Ice Tanks, enemies can become rooted and/or encased in ice. For each enemy to be encased, it’s a three step status effect process: frostbitten and/or chill effects > rooted > encased. Since Update 5, it’s generally easier to move through this process. Certain powers (Inescapable Storm, Wintry Tempest, Snow Devil) will inflict frostbite on adds (though Bosses are typically immune) and (Cold Snap, Ice Bash, Reflection) will inflict chill effects, once frostbitten or chill effects are active, other powers (Bitter Winds, Freeze Wave, Glacier Flash, Ice Boulder, Snow Ball, Frost Snipe) when casted will cause mobs to be rooted and then encased with another cast of the same power or one of the others named.

Note: The Rooting/Encasement process is not guaranteed and can use a lot of power, but when used with a healthy power supply, controller applying cryo-attacks (that help root/encase frostbitten adds, another Ice Tank/DPS) in large adds can be effective. If you do find yourself with encasements, grab them and smash others with the ice block for serious damage (Super Strength for more damage) or shatter them with Resonating Gale (considered more of a DPS power).

5. Managing your Power Pool
Good tanks can handle all of the responsibilities above while managing their own power- meaning they have enough power to continue to maintain aggro and mitigate damage. In raid groups, you can depend more on the power buff from Controllers, but should still also be building combos when you can in between triggering powers to help with power regen for yourself (trying to hit either the blue or orange colored combo counts for higher amounts of your own power restoration). The less stress you put on the controller the easier it is for them to ensure the healer (most importantly) have enough juice to heal and DPS have enough juice to damage respectively. As an Ice Tank you can help out by making the most of your powers and:

• Pulling enemies cheaply with Inescapable Storm to gain aggro

• Cast Ice Bash and attack with an AOE weapon attack

• Jumping into a group of enemies and cast Cold Snap, Bitter Winds, or Reflect

• Building chill effects (side affect of Cold Snap, Reflect, Winter Ward, Ice Bash) until 5 are obtained for ice armor, which takes the normal 90% def buff we get with power usage and extends it to 60 seconds (not recommended, but it is an option, see Icy Metal’s opinion)

• After initial aggro, cast a power every 8-10 seconds to keep the Defense boost (10 second duration) up while still maintaining aggro (12 second duration)

• Taking advantage of your Weapon Mastery Combo window. Timing your Power with the weapon mastery crit window will reduce the power cost of the power you use.

Note: It is very bad form for you as a tank to spam your powers to the point of draining your entire bar. Controllers will hate you because they need to resupply you even though you only need 1-2 powers every 8-12 seconds, Healers will hate you because you'll have little power left to protect them and even yourself, DPS will hate you because they think you're trying to compete with them rather then doing your job.

6. Additional DPS
In Tank stance, you do not get the damage buffs from your powers and your damage is reduced by 20%, so you should not expect to be at the top of the damage scorecard at the end of an instance. This, however, doesn't mean that you shouldn't be attacking enemies while taking care of the rest of your duties. Even in tank stance, you can make a contribution to taking down large enemies or mobs, just be mindful of your power consumption when doing so. Relying on weapon combos as primary means of damage is a good bet, Power Interactions (smashing encasements) and DoT Powers (Downdraft, Wintry Tempest, Bitter Winds) are your other best friends, but make sure you have enough power to hold aggro/stay alive (without taxing the troller/party members) before using a power solely for DPS purposes.

5. Ice Form: Uselessness abound or misunderstood shiny man?

Let me start off by saying this is an opinion piece, all numbers are true but anything after that is only based on what I experience using this power.
Ice Form is the biggest topic of debate for everybody who plays it so I decided to give it a section on its own.

Opinions from Radium
I love Ice Armor.

The way Ice Armor acted before made it act not as beneficial as a DPS. It locked a low Damage Modifier on you while giving you Critical Attack buffs.

While the Crit buffs are nice, it essentially means that your Damage from all attacks are potentially being reduced by 20%(60% is the highest Damage Mod available). Couple this with the transformation lag in the game made the power useless.

Since Update 23 worked on Ice though this power has changed.

Now Ice Armor will give you a 50% buff for its duration with no Crit buffs. The upside this time is that you CAN get a better buff from higher modifier powers or from the Enduring Damage Tactical Mod.

*Note: If you take advantage of the Enduring Damage Tactical Mod, you don't need to worry as much with Ice Armor as you will have a near constant 60% buff up.

Opinions from Icy Metal
Ice Armor for a Tank, IMHO, is rather redundant and not worth activating.

Ice Armor gets activated for a total 60 seconds with the 90% Defense boost...sounds great right, but hold on...during Ice Armor, powers are still needed to maintain aggro.

Aggro gets an uninterrupted 12 seconds with it being refreshable at around 8 seconds, therefore, during the 60 seconds of Ice Armor 5-7 powers (60÷8 and 60÷12), or possibly more, that are going to be used which gives the Defense...that is 5-7 Defense boosts that have gone to waste because of Ice Armor.

6. Ice by the numbers
All full scale damages are based on having 1969 Might with no damage modifier. No critical hits are counted. This is to give an idea of how damage will be done at higher levels.
Full Scale damage is noted as FS while base damage is noted as BS
Storms

1. Inescapable Storm

Initial Tick:

FS 167-226 damage

BS 20-27 damage

Power Cost: 200
Notes:
- Splits damage after 2 targets.
- Hits/Pulls a maximum of 4 targets.

2. Glacier Flash

Post-Cast Ticks:

FS 6x 100-108 damage

BS 6x 12-13 damage

Power Cost: 200
Notes:
- Hits a single enemy a total of 6 times.
- Can be Jump canceled with no damage registering after the cancel.
- Activates Icy Field on last hit.

3. Arctic Gust

Post Cast Ticks:

FS 6x 58-75 damage

BS 6x 7-9 damage

Power Cost: 265
Notes:
- Splits after 2 targets.
- Hits a maximum of 8 targets.
- Can be jump canceled with no damage registering after the cancel.
- Activates Icy Field on last hit.

4. Freeze Wave

Initial Tick:

FS 175-226 damage

BS 21-27 damage

Power Cost: 240
Notes:
- Hits a maximum of 4 targets.
- Splits damage after 2 targets.

5. Bitter Winds

Initial Tick:

FS 83-129 damage

BS 10-16 damage

Post-Cast Ticks:

FS 11x 25-41 damage

BS 11x 3-5 damage

Power Cost: 300
Notes:
- One initial hit followed by 1 ticks of smaller damage.
- Splits damage after 2 targets.
- No Limit on Targets* (Have to check this further).
- Shield lasts for 6 seconds.

6. Avalanche

Initial Tick:

FS 25-58 damage

BS 3-6 damage

Post-Cast Ticks:

FS 5x 36-85 damage

BS 5x 5-11 damage

Power Cost: 275
Notes:
- Ice ball has aoe damage that splits after it hits more than 2 targets.
- Activates Icy Field on the second hit.
- Can be jump cancelled at any time but the hits will stop.
- The first hit uses the previous powers modifier while the remaining 5 hits use Avalanches own modifier.

7. Shatter Restraints

Post-Cast Ticks:

FS 4x 16-25 damage

BS 4x 2-3 damage

Power Cost: 300
Notes:
- Has an initial knockback mechanic when cast within range of an enemy.
- No initial tick with this knockback.
- Damage is based on when the enemy hits you.
- Shield lasts for 6 seconds.
- Can be used as a power clip.

8. Resonating Gale

Initial Tick:

FS 167-226 damage

BS 20-27 damage

Power Cost: 350
Notes:
- Has a wide aoe channel range.
- Does not split damage on enemies.

9. Wintery Tempest

Initial Tick:

FS 167-209 damage

BS 20-25 damage

Post-Cast Ticks:

FS 11x 33-83 damage

BS 11x 4-10 damage

Residual Ticks:

FS 5x 8-16 damage

BS 5x 1-2 damage

Power Cost: 450
Notes:
- Splits damage after 2 targets.
- Applies frostbite to those in the aoe.
- Is unique in that it has 3 phases of the power.
- The Initial Tick; this tick comes from a range around yourself but the Tempest field can still be casted at range.
- The Post-Cast Tick; these tick are persistent within the field itself.
- The Residual Ticks; these ticks are from when an enemy leaves the aoe or the aoe runs out.

Cryogenics

11. Cold Snap

Initial Tick:

FS 108-134 damage

BS 13-16 damage

Post-Cast ticks:

FS 1-8 ticks x 41 damage

BS 1-8 ticks x 5 damage

Power Cost: 200
Notes:
- One initial tick followed by 1-8 ticks of damage (only hits one enemy at a time).
- Initial hit splits after 2 targets.

12. Snow Ball

Initial Tick:

FS 167-209 damage

BS 20-25 damage

Power Cost: 200
Notes:
- Can be jump or block canceled with no difference in speed.

13. Frost Snipe

Initial Tick:

BS 23-26 damage

Power Cost 200

14. Ice Bash

Post-Cast Ticks:

FS 1-4 ticks of 150-175 damage

BS 1-4 ticks of 18-21 damage

Power Cost: 270
Notes:
- Uses the modifier from the previously casted power.
- Damages targets during the powers cooldown by using weapon attacks.
- Can be used as a power clip.

15. Frost Blast

Post-Cast Ticks:

FS 4x ticks of 134-159 damage

BS 4x ticks of 16-21 damage

Power Cost: 415
Notes:
- Splits damage after 2
- Can be block/jump/lunge canceled, but damage will not register

16. Reflection

Initial Tick:

FS 117-134 damage

BS 14-16 damage

Post-Cast Ticks:

FS 1-3 ticks of 83-100 damage

BS 10-12 damage

Power Cost: 300
Notes:
- Shield will last 6 seconds.
- Initial hit will not split damage.
- Post-Cast damage is applied when the target hits you.
- Can be used as a power clip.

17a. Ice Boulder

Initial Tick: FS 167-209 damage
Power Cost: 300
Notes:
- Splits after one target.
- Doesn't split from objects.
- 100% Weaponization doesn't change its damage.

17b. Ice Boulder Strike

Initial Tick: FS 728-739 damage
Power Cost: 300
Notes:
- Very small area of effect to hit multiple targets
- No Splitting damage
- Damage Modifiers won't work with it
- 100% Weaponization doesn't change its damage

18. Impaling Ice

Initial Tick:

FS 83-117 damage

BS 10-15 damage

Post-Cast Tick:

FS 293-368 damage

BS 35-45 damage

Power Cost: 420
Notes:
- Gains a 10% Critical Ability Attack Chance that is only usable by the second tick.
- Can be cancelled after the first hit by a lunge, block or jump cancel. Will not register the second tick after certain cancels.

19. Winter Ward

Post-Cast Ticks:

FS 1-2 ticks of 184-217 damage

BS 1-2 ticks of 22-26 damage

Power Cost: 345
Notes:
- Shield will last 6 seconds.
- Uses the modifier from the previous casted power.
- Post-Cast damage is applied when the target hits you.

Supercharges

A. Blizzard

Initial Tick: FS 771-863 damage
Post-Cast Tick: FS 8 ticks for 117-125 damage
Power Cost: 50% SC bar
Notes:
- Will encase your target to set him up for the encasement breaker power interaction.
- Requires more testing for the initial tick and damage splitting.

B. Deep Freeze

Post-Cast Tick: FS 8 ticks of 33-75 damage
Power Cost: 25% SC bar
Notes:
- Will encase your target to set him up for the encasement breaker power interaction.

D. Freeze Ray

Post-Cast Tick: FS 17 ticks for 67-92 damage
Power Cost: 35% SC bar
Notes:
- Will encase your target to set him up for the encasement breaker power interaction.

Power Interactions and Extra Damage

Frost Blast w/ Frostbite

Post-Cast Tick: FS 4 ticks of 251-284 damage
Notes:
- Works like non-PI Frost Blast

18. Impaling Ice <35%

Initial Tick:

FS 246-335 damage

BS 35-44 damage

Post-Cast Tick:

FS 769-976 damage

BS 77-100 damage

Power Cost: 420
Notes:
- Works like reg Impaling Ice

Icy Field

Post-Cast Tick: FS 5 ticks of 16-33 damage
Notes:
- Splits damage after 2 enemies.
- Uses the modifier from the previously casted power, not the one used to activate it.

Ice Boulder Strike w/ Chill Effects

Initial Tick: FS 276-326 damage
Notes:
- Works like non-PI Ice Boulder Strike
- Requires 2 Chill Effects to activate extra damage.

Frost Snipe w/ Chill Effects

Initial Tick: BS 34-39 damage
Notes:
- Works like non-PI Frost Snipe
- Requires 2 Chill Effects to activate extra damage.

7. Community Load-Outs and Strategy

Radium's Melee DPS PvE Load-out

This is a load-out based around a balanced Mod set: 6x Precision/Might (2 in rings, 4 in Red slots), 2x Resto/Might (in Yellow slots), 2x Dom/Precision (in Blue slots).

Load-Out: Reflection, Ice Bash, Bitter Winds, Wintery Tempest, Impaling Ice, Frost Snipe

Rotation: As this is a Melee load-out, I start by walking up to the mob after hitting my FoS Trinket and BW clipped with Ice Bash, depending on the add or adds I'll use the Staffs Tx3 Hx2 combo (Multi Target) or the 5xH combo (Single). Clip the last hit of the combo with Wintery Tempest while clipping Tempest with Reflection. Start into another combo and use Impaling Ice. Impaling Ice is then jump canceled about a second after casting and use Frost Snipe. Continue this until cooldowns are gone.

If this is too power hungry for a group, skip the Impaling/Jump cancel part and just use Frost Snipe. Save the Impaling for <35%.

This load-out tries to keep the DoTs going while still inflicting burst damage on adds or bosses.

Radium's WM DPS PvE Load-out

Load-Out: Wintery Tempest, Ice Bash, Frost Snipe, Resonating Gale, Robot Sidekick, Reflection

Weapon: Can vary, I'm currently using HBs into Bow for Range and 1-H into DW for Melee

Rotation: Robot Sidekick before the fight starts. Start with Wintery Tempest into Ice Bash into Reflection, WM Combo into either Frost Snipe for a single target or Resonating Gale for a multi target. Continue to use Ice Bash to clip Tempest as they share the same cooldown, Reflection can be use to clip either Frost Snipe or Res Gale when it reaches its cooldown.

Radium's Range DPS PvE Load-out

I use HB's for this. I still maintain a balanced Mod set-up but going Might favorable is good as well.

Load-Out: Ice Bash, Frost Snipe, Wintery Tempest, Frost Blast, Impaling Ice, Power of Choice.

Rotation: I use the 2x Hold combo extensively for this.

Starting off with Frost Snipe clipped with a Trinket or consumable to start with a damage modifier and buff > 2xHold >WT clipped with Ice Bash > Frost Blast > 2xHold > Impaling Ice Jump Canceled into Frost Snipe > 2xHold > Impaling Ice Jump Canceled into Frost Snipe > 2xHold > WT clipped with Ice Bash....

I keep the last power open at the moment in order to keep the load-out more single target or AOE centric. What I'll use is either Resonating Gale when AOE damage is more favorable, or Freeze Ray if its more single target.

If you don't have the Enduring Damage Tactical Mod, it would be beneficial to use Reflection in your load-out instead to get to Ice Armor quicker.

Assorted Tank Builds

The Standard Tanker
· Inescapable Storm- a great way to quickly pull adds toward you or a grab a Boss’/additional adds’ attention
· Reflect- for oh **** moments and/or for telegraphed big boss attacks; grants chill effect
· Bitter Winds- an AoE aggro grabber that provides damage prevention
· Freeze Wave- a rooting power for enemies that are frostbitten; cause knock up/back
· Shatter Restraints-provides you and 3 group members CC immunity and extra damage prevention
· Winter Ward- provides you and 3 group members CC immunity, extra damage prevention, and reflects some damage back at attackers

Angry Tank
· Inescapable Storm- a great way to quickly pull adds toward you or a grab a Boss’/additional adds’ attention
· Reflect- for oh **** moments and/or for telegraphed big boss attacks; grants chill effect
· Bitter Winds- an AoE aggro grabber that provides damage prevention
· Wintry Tempest – an AoE DoT power that causes Frostbite and can slow enemy movement
· Freeze Wave- a rooting power for enemies that are frostbitten; cause knock up/back
· Shatter Restraints-provides you and 3 group members CC immunity and extra damage prevention

The Ice Cube Maker

· Inescapable Storm- a great way to quickly pull adds toward you or a grab a Boss’/additional adds’ attention
· Reflect- for oh **** moments and/or for telegraphed big boss attacks; grants chill effect
· Bitter Winds- an AoE aggro grabber that provides damage prevention
· Wintry Tempest – an AoE DoT power that causes Frostbite and can slow enemy movement
· Freeze Wave- a rooting power for enemies that are frostbitten; cause knock up/back
· Resonating Gale –AoE cone-ish power that hits everything in front of you and can cause knockdown; Encased enemies take more damage

The Bulldozer
· Inescapable Storm- a great way to quickly pull adds toward you or a grab a Boss’/additional adds’ attention
· Reflect- for oh **** moments and/or for telegraphed big boss attacks; grants chill effect
· Bitter Winds- an AoE aggro grabber that provides damage prevention
· Winter Ward- provides you and 3 group members CC immunity, extra damage prevention, and reflects some damage back at attackers
· Freeze Wave- a rooting power for enemies that are frostbitten; cause knock up/back
· Ice Elemental- 50% SC that grants 3x the amount of base Health and Defense/Toughness with a Heal over Time effect.

Video Builds

Gerbals Nexus Build

Dianna WD Tank Build with examples

8. Ways of the Tankage

Bosses

With bosses, my job is to maintain aggro 100% of the time, I generally lunge much the same as with adds (with Bitter Winds or Freeze Wave), then begin my long combos in order to build up my own power regeneration. If a massive attack is telegraphed (red skull), I cast Reflect. I will also try to pull any additional adds into the boss with Inescapable Storm.
Note: For telegraphed attacks that are AOE, if you see someone not blocking when they should (FOS2 Prime Assassin)are busy or resurrecting another person up - it's useful to cast Reflect/Winter Ward/Shatter Restraints and get between the bosses line of sight and them as you may take the damage planned for them in some cases.

Other Tidbits

• Watch out for and keep yourself and mobs where healers place circles of protection as well as DPS place AoE attacks (Meteor, Circles, Inferno, Wintry Tempest, Electrocute, Debris Field)

• It’s probably not a good idea to try to resurrect someone as a tank since you'll have aggro on you at most times. If you must and it’s dire, as an Ice Tank you can pop Reflect and try to revive (before getting hit more than x3).

• When positioning, try to keep enemies at a small distance, and facing away from the rest of your group- I aim to be at least a lunge distance away from the controller and healer

• If there are other party members who are meleeing (DPS, HL Controllers), it’s more important to maintain aggro, but also to position adds/bosses so that they (and more importantly their attacks are facing away from any of the melee players, who are ideally smart about what they're doing) aka "flipping". For AoE attacks, call them out if you see them telegraphed/know the pattern, as you can't protect melee folks from those.

A.D.D Bosses

There are plenty of bosses (and a few adds) that have A.D.D. (Aggro Deficiency Disorder) at some point or another when your group is fighting them. What this means for tanks is that it is extra difficult to maintain the boss' aggro/focus on you. Most of these Bosses can be solved by taunting after 4-6 seconds of your first taunt (which nabbed aggro) try to build quick combos with weapons in between, but don't let those get in the way of refreshing aggro.

Non-Aggro O'Clock

Similar to the above, there are adds/bosses where aggro cannot be held at all (often called an aggro dump). As a tank, your job is to maintain aggro until that point, warn the rest of the party when it is lost, and regain it as quickly as possible.

• Batcave: Brainiac Sub Construct - Avatar of Tech (2nd form): When the scorpion charges, he often selects a target other than the tank - be ready and call it out. Regain aggro as soon as possible with Inescapable Storm or a lunge + power right after. Kite him back to the middle of the room or the nearest wall to give your party room to spread out.

• Batcave: Inner Sanctum Raid - ARC: Just before the ARC absorbs a mob's power, he is invulnerable to taunts while in his shield (until he selects a power to absorb). The best way to handle this is to renew aggro just before this happens (~ every time his health drops another 20%) to help your chances of him running after you once the shield is up.

• Oan Sciencecells: Vice: Once Vice has a telegraph icon above him, he will charge in a specific direction. This cannot be stopped (and even with Reflect, you will be knocked down/stunned). Your best bet is to call it out so everyone can dodge the attack and then lunge + power to regain aggro as soon as he's stopped moving forward.

• Kahndaq - Black Adam (with Doctor Fate and Zatanna)

In short when you're in any of these cases, 1) use your powers to nab aggro in smaller time intervals (around 4 seconds instead of 8, 2) call out if aggro/focus is lost, 3) regain it as quickly as possible with cheap power taunts (Inescapable Storm/AOE Aggro Powers), if it helps in cases, call out to the party not to cast anything right away so you can more easily taunt with a power, but do this quickly.
There are other things you can to do help at points where aggro is lost and you see other's being attacked:

• Cast Shatter Restraints or Winter Ward (this will break 4 people of any stuns but also buff their defense slightly)

• Jump into the attack line/line of sight - so you take (or reflect) the damage rather than your party member

Range Tanking

There are going to be times where you'll want to stay away from a boss due to the amount of damage they can cause to even tanks. In this case, kiting can be a valuable technique to do so, you'll first need aggro with a taunt (if you're keeping your range, Inescapable Storm or Ice Bash + weapon attacks are your best bet). Once aggro is nabbed, you're going to want to keep your distance while moving around - essentially having the boss chase you instead of the rest of the party.
You'll want to have a plan a few seconds in advance of where you're taking the boss and avoid bringing it towards your party members (remember the point is to still protect them while protecting yourself). You'll want to renew focus with a taunt a bit quicker than usual (to ensure you don't lose aggro from a distance). Here are some situations where kiting can be effective:

• Kahndaq - Black Adam (with Giganta Powers): Keep your distance, but he can be taunted in this stance

• Batcave: Inner Sanctum Raid - Zeta Drone: You'll need to move him north or south depending on where the repair bots appear

• Batcave: Brainiac Sub Construct - Brainiac: If possible, you'll want his focus but from a distance. Advise your party to move to 1/2 of the room while you move to the other and continue to try to taunt him

• Watchtower Containment Hard Alert - Eradicator: If you're going for the no mobs destroyed feat - you'll need to kite his mobs every time they drop away from your party

Note: It’s important to let the party know if you plan on kiting so DPS and Healers don't waste their time/power throwing down circles/fixed-location casts.

Choose your Weapon Wisely

• Making sure you know your weapon's combos that build up power the quickest (getting to those blue and orange combo counter levels)

• Having/using a lunge attack to close the distance between you and the next target(s) to aggro

• Using attacks/combos that knock-back or stun mobs

• Knowing what attacks will help you stationary tank (focusing the fight in one place) vs. kiting (keeping attention from afar for safety/placement) - for the sake of your health and folks trying to work around you (healing/damage circles, CC)

Note: With the new mechanics introduced, using a ranged weapon for a Tank may not be beneficial as enemies can now lunge, interrupt, block break, and block. This is not to say it cannot be done with a ranged weapon, but it would be more useful to use a melee weapon while tanking.
Some weapons, such as Fight for the Light DLC weapons as well as Central City weapons have added power affinities (additional benefits that randomly proc when performing power/weapon attacks in combat) for you and your party. If you have the chance to use one of these weapons and it’s comparable to a weapon without a power affinity, I'd highly recommend it. As a Tank, the affinities are currently:

• GL DLC Tank Power Affinity: Small chance to absorb damage to yourself when used against enemies

• Flash DLC Sparc Weapon Tank Power Affinity: Small chance to absorb damage to yourself and 3 allies in Tank Role equipped with SPARC weapons when used against enemies; Allies not in Tank Role will be de-taunted

Note: The Flash DLC Sparc Tank Weapons only absorb damage for other Tanks in your party and yourself, not all members. It’s said/speculated that the damage absorption is equivalent to that of the Iconic Hard Light Shield and mitigates up to a specific cap.

9. A Chip of the Ol' Ice Block - Stats and Builds

DPS related stats

Precision

Precision is the stat that contributes to weapon damage. This means that all your white number attacks (weapon combos) are affected by this.

• 10 Precision = 1 DPS (Damage per Second)

Might

Might is the stat contributing to power damage.Any power you have that requires power and uses yellow numbers is affected by this.
Might scales at a rate of 1% towards your base damage per 4 Might.

Critical Attack Chance & Critical Attack Damage

Critical Attack Chance is the stat used for determining if a damaging power will have a critical hit.
It should be noted that while someone could have a 25% Crit Attack Chance, this does not mean you are guaranteed to hit a critical attack once every 4 hits. Each hit you make with a weapon or power is a random chance with the odds being more in your favor the more points you have in this stat.

Critical Attack Damage is the stat used for determining how strong the critical hit will be. A critical hit has a base of how much it crits for. The more you put into this stat, the higher the base becomes, making your critical hits much stronger.
Note: These stats are only obtainable through Skill Points, Power Points, and a limited way through modding your gear. This makes these stats priority #1 when speccing your weapon trees.


Tank related stats


Dominance

Dominance has nothing to do with aggro, but everything to do with Shields and CCing. As tanks, being CC'ed means potentially losing aggro on enemies - so avoiding it or breaking out quickly is uber important. Suggested dominance levels to ensure you can CC are:

• T1 HMA Raids: 300
• T2 HMA Alerts: 325
• T2 Raids: 350
• T3 Raids: 400
• T4 Raids and Ops: 550
• T5 Ops: 800
• T5 Raids: 850
• T6 Alerts: 1500

Since Update 23, your dominance also contributes to some of your damage mitigating and healing abilities as an Ice Tank. Bitter Winds, Winter Ward and Shatter Restraints prevent additional damage equal to 100% of your Restoration score combined with 100% of your Dominance. So if your dominance in Tank Stance is 500 and your Restoration is 200 (purely made up value), it gives you 700 damage mitigated (absorbed for you).

Note: Your dominance doubles in tank stance.

Restoration

Since Game Update 23/24, all Shields that Tanks and DPS use will now utilize 100% of Restoration. This means that for every point you put into Restoration, it will make your shields that much stronger. For Skill Points, the difference is minimal between which you choose first, but if you duel-spec DPS and Tank Role then Restoration is the better stat to spec into as it will never lose its value.


Defense

Defense as mentioned above is your bread and butter as an Ice Tank. All of our gear has steady increases in it as you progress from no gear to T1 -> T2 -> T3. Defense helps reduce the amount of damage you take. To calculate how much damage your defense is currently mitigating, use this formula from http://dcuo.mmorpg-life.com/601/gui...s-descriptions/:
At level 30: Your Defense/71 = % of Damage Mitigated/Reduced
Example: My current defense (without a buff from a power cast) is 3180 = 44.78% of Damage isn't taken
Example: My current defense (with a buff from a power cast) is 6000 = 84.5% of Damage isn't taken
Currently, as of Update 6, there is no defense cap that Ice Tanks will hit - so the more defense the better. This is especially true with Armor Penetration being a factor in Raids (and probably increasing in future/harder instances), as you'll need to compensate for the percentage of lost defense in the instance you're running no matter your base defense. To reiterate, the armor penetration stats (or how much base defense mobs will ignore) per raids is below:

• Tier 2 Raids ignore 12% Base Defense - BC 1,2,3 and Khan
• Tier 2 Raids ignore 25% Base Defense - FOS 1,2, and 3
• Tier 4 and T5 Raids are unknown as of this time.

Note: You'll want to watch out for any gear that drastically adds to or subtracts from your current defense and nab/run away from it respectively.

Health

Health is regarded as a stat that is useful to everybody, regardless of role, much like Power is. For a Tank and a DPS, Health just means you have more survivability with mobs and bosses.

Spec'ing for a Tank

When using your skill points and wanting to dedicate completely to your tank duties, it helps to do the following:
1. Equip tank gear (hint: look for the "role: tank" text in its description)

2. Make sure you're in tank stance

3. Open up any of the main combos of you main weapon- This includes any melee combos, knock backs/ups, and at least one good range attack for times when you want to kite/tank from afar.

4. Movement mode superspeeds- Super Sonic, Rocket Glide, Speed Force

5. Dominance Innates- Brawling, Dual Wield, Hand Blast, and Staff. The Iconic power Intimidating Gaze (+25 Dominance) is a good power to spec into for more dominance. Since Update 6, grabbing more Dominance helps with more Damage Mitigation.

6. Restoration Innates- Dual Pistols, Dual Wield, Martial Arts, and Shield. Since Update 23, Resto works equally with your Dominance for Damage Mitigation.

7. Health Innates- Brawling, Hand Blast, One-Handed, Rifle, Shield, and Two-Handed. The Iconic power Powerful Resistance (+100 Health) is also a good power to spec into for more Health.

8. Defense Innates- Bow, Dual Wield, Dual Pistols, Staff, and Martial Arts. The Iconic Power Nanoweave Armor (+50 Defense) is a good power to spec into for more defense.

9. Invest in the escape power restores in your movement modes (necessary for PVP stuns, and helpful for tank as we get CC'ed a lot > need to break out > need power to grab aggro even in worst case scenarios of not having Controllers) - *you can skip this if you're super new and have very little skill points*

Modding


Consider modding like a boost. You can strictly mod yourself based on your role, which you will gain more benefit from, or you can mod yourself to improve a lesser stat. Research what benefit the particular mod will give you though before doing it, A DPS modding into Vit will gain very little from it, but modding into Power can be a good benefit.

DPS

List of Mods available for a DPS, color coded to show the socket affinity color it corresponds to (2 colors means it can be placed in either color socket):

• Might and Precision
• Precision
• Might
• Might and Power
• Might and Health
• Precision and Power
• Precision and Health
• Dominance and Precision
• Dominance and Might
• Restoration and Precision
• Restoration and Might

Modding for a DPS should always be done around your play style. Power heavy DPS should mod themselves around being might based, clip heavy play-styles could go for a balance of Might/Precision or Precision.

For your Blue or Yellow sockets, don't mod Dominance or Restoration if you have no shields in your load-out, go with Health and Power instead.

Tank

List of Mods available for a Tank, color coded to show the socket affinity color it corresponds to (2 colors means it can be placed in either color socket):

• Dominance
• Health
• Dominance and Health
• Dominance and Power
• Dominance and Precision
• Dominance and Might
• Health and Power
• Precision and Health
• Might and Health
• Restoration
• Restoration and Health
• Restoration and Precision
• Restoration and Might

Bittre winds gives frostbite, try it. Ice is all i have played for a year ans a half now. Evn though it is not listed under the power definition, it gives it, i encase with it all the time..

You right, it does. Need to update a lot of stuff here actually. But first things first is getting the formatting right. Guide looks a little "meh" on here.

Nah looks great, after update guess you will have to do some tweaking though.

So after all the feedback they have received, Ice got a really nice improvement based on it. Changes on PC Test today include:

·Ice

oNew Power Interaction Damage over Time Field

§This will no longer stack with itself and will no longer stop itself from doing all damage when trying to be reapplied. This affects Glacial Flash, Arctic Gust, Freeze Wave, Avalanche, Shatter Restraints, and Resonating Gale. Increased the damage.

oArctic Gust:

§The visual effects for Arctic Gust will now play correctly while in Ice Elemental form.

oFrostblast:

§Now does more damage to Rooted, Burning, Frostbitten, and Electrified enemies.

oHibernation:

§The visual effects will now show properly on use.

oIce Armor:

§Players now have 50% DPS bonus the entire time you are in Ice Armor instead of 40%.

§Players are now properly buffed with Defense, Toughness, and Control Resistance while in Tank Role. These buffs cannot be overwritten for the first 48 seconds by other Tank powers. If you cast a power to get the buffs during the last 12 seconds it will be refreshed and stay on you when Ice Armor falls off.

§Players no longer have to cast Ice Bash, Cold Snap, or Reflection a sixth time to get the buffs. You get them at the same time the Ice Armor is applied.

§Using a power that gives a 60% DPS buff (Frostblast) will give you the extra 10% while in Ice Armor and will work with Enduring Damage Tactical Mod until Ice Armor falls off.

§Players no longer have a constant 5% Crit Chance and 5% Crit Damage buff while in Ice Armor.

oIce Bash:

§ Gives a 10% Crit Damage and 5% Crit Chance. In Ice Armor it gives 7% Crit Chance instead of 5%.

§This is now flagged as beneficial.

oImpaling Ice:

§Gives 50% Damage bonus instead of 60% since it no longer has the 3 second cast time

oReflection:

§Damage Absorption now scales to 100% of Dominance + 10000 instead of just a flat 10000 while in Tank role.

§Damage Absorption now scales to 100% of Dominance (same) + 100% of Restoration (was 50%) while in DPS role.

oResonating Gale:

§Added a new Power Interaction DoT field

oShatter Restraints:

§Damage Absorption now scales to 100% of Dominance (same) + 100% of Restoration. This matches the Gadgets and Mental changes.

oWinter Ward:

§Damage Absorption now scales to 100% of Dominance (same) + 100% of Restoration . This matches the Gadgets and Mental changes.

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LOTS of stuff people have been asking for in this one.

Still a few things that should be changed with other powers IMO, but a great way to end off the week.

wow it seems to me ice just got sexy

Sup Flynn. Also, while the tanks and the Cryogenics tree got a buff, the Ice Fields no longer stack with each other, not even Shatter Restraints to Freeze Wave for example.

does it seem like ice will be a viable ranged dps power or is it still gonna be best as a melee..

I figured stacking would go, along with Impaling getting dropped.

Still, what they've changed makes the trade off worth it I think. I look at the new PI as a little bonus instead of something to be relied on. Being able to be worked into a rotation if wanted but not needed for sustaining great DPS.

Variety!

Can't tell ya, nothings going to top melee in damage, but we just got 2 great range changes that help. Never say never.

Btw, testing Frost Blast's new damage now. Would be interesting to see numbers.

EDIT: Interacted Frost Blast (and presumably Fireburst) in the test server now deals four ticks of 30-34 damage per tick, for a total of 120-136 damage. In layman's terms, think 4 Gauss Grenades. This is also more damaging than Telekinetic Bolt. Previously, it did four ticks of 24-29 damage for a total of 96-116 damage.