It used to be a staple in every Ice tank's loadout. Who doesn't want to run around with an icy tornado of joy swirling around them? It was the coolest shield. Now if we want a 4th shield... we have to use hardlight shield? Really? The power that is basically IS a shield has to borrow a shield from the iconic tree? Beyond silly. There's probably like 3 melee precision Ice dps' on the server and I bet they aren't even sure Bitter Winds is worth a slot right now. Give me my favorite power back.
Somewhere around 2016, and I believe it was part of the stats revamp. I had taken a six month break, and I came back and thought it still was a shield until a member of my league at the time informed me of the bad news. I too wish it still was a shield.
Even if bitter winds was changed back ice tanks would still use HLS. That’s because HLS is a strong shield. When a tank grabs a shield to put in there loadout they go for the strongest shields available. If you use 4 shields than you grab the 4 strongest shields. If you use 5 shields than you grab the 5 strongest shields. The only time you don’t do this is if you are a cosplayer toon. In that case you grab the ones that fit your theme most. Let’s assume bitter winds is brought back and made to have a shield strength similar to shatter restraint and you wanted to use 3 shields. You’d want winter wards ands HLS since these are the 2 strongest shields available to ice. The 3rd would be reflect since it would be stronger than both shatter and bitter winds. Let’s say you wanted a 4th. Than you’d use shatter over bitter since shatter can break you out and gets reduced cooldown if you do end up getting hit. Let’s say bitter winds was made to be as strong as winter wards and you needed 3. You would still get winter wards, bitter winds, and HLS. That’s because HLS would still be stronger than reflect. If you needed 4 than you would grab reflect. So shatter would still be left out. The only way an ice tank wouldn’t use HLS is if they made every single shield it has access to stronger than HLS and that would make ice tanking broken. The other option would be that HLS would be nerfed and that doesn’t make sense either. Other powers would take a hit just because I’ve tanks want to cosplay. I’m ok with bitter winds being changed back to a shield. But it would change players using HLS. At least not the serious tanks.
Good points all around, but it just makes even less sense that they took the shield away from it with all that in mind. It's like "Hey! I got an idea! Let's take Ice's 5th best shield option and make it useless! Brilliant! Bravo!". It should probably be the strongest shield because of its weaknesses. Like you said... it doesn't break you out of control effects and tied for weakest with shatter. It also puts you into combat immediately upon use and prevents mobility. AND it can't be used while you're being controlled either. You get 10% control resistance though. That's cute. It has all the flaws a shield could have and it would still be tied for last place in damage absorption if it WASN'T nerfed. Make it the best shield! Or an epic supercharge shield.
To be honest, Bitter winds is the least of the many issues regarding Ice. I mean, sure, they should return the shield to winter ward. I was even surprised that they removed it. But that's one of quite a few problems with ice, and it's one of the least too. I've been ice tanking since the good ol ps3 days, and I must say that I've really hasn't aged well. Its mechanics are mediocre compared to the new tank powers. It's honestly not as engaging or captivating as the new powers at all, straight up... Out of all the powers you can use in the game, Ice is hands down, the most uninteresting, the most outdated, and the most neglected power in the game. The power needs a complete overhaul to get it at least close to being as viable as Atomic, or rage. And I'm not gonna even talk about it's DPS side... Not even worth mentioning imo...
If you can’t find a functioning dps loadout with ice than that’s on you. Ice and all powers are pretty well balanced right now. Yes it’s not a top tier power like gadgets but it can keep up with the majority of the powers. This is something people here do. They can’t make a power work themselves so they blame the power and claim it’s weak or blame every other power and say they are broken. And it’s tanking side is also strong. Just because you find it uninteresting doesn’t mean that someone else doesn’t like it. No overhaul is needed at all. Instead of asking for a rework maybe try asking around for help with loadouts or how to use it in general.
Ah, yeah, the classic "you shouldn't want that, want this instead" Ice is fine the way it is and is a great tank. It may need a couple of tweaks on dps side, which is more of a bugfixing, but no complete overhaul, imho. Btw, Winter Ward is still a shield, and is the strongest shield Ice has, actually. Although they switched Winter Ward's and Reflection's animations during Stats Revamp, both are still must-have for an ice tank.
Coming from experience with ice tanking I find it very enjoyable. Having the counter and block break opponents im tanking always keeps me engaged and never bored. Sure, Ice tanking is not the most enjoyable tanking for some people, but others do enjoy it. Also to the whole ice dps thing. I don't know where it started that ice can't dps, you must not have found a build that can do it. Nothing about ice needs a change. No overhaul needed to change an already viable tank power. the power has got me through many elite alerts and raids with no issue.
Ice brings a couple interesting things to the table for precision. Most powers have to fill their loadouts with iconics. Ice has frost snipe and snow devil. It's might side is no slouch either in the right hands. I think we can all agree that bitter winds is pretty useless for everything though.
Not really. Bitter Winds has a side effect of knocking adds down and applying some damage, which I believe would make it a weaker shield as part of trade-off rule. Winter Ward doesn't have any secondary effects, that's why it's the strongest one. All it does is shielding you. Reflection, well, reflects some damage. Shatter Restraints breaks you out of control effects. I'd say it could be on the same shield strength level as Reflection, or in between Reflection and Shatter Restraints.
A knock up (while neat) doesn't compare to the practicality of being able to use your shield no matter what, break you out of control effects or maintain mobility upon usage. Frost slam is an instant cast that could be spammed if knock ups were held in any regard but very few Ice tanks even bother with it. Not to mention that they have resonating gale to control them anyway.
Yes same here. It's the main reason why I use ice. I never said that I didn't like it. I've been playing as ice since the Battle for Earth DLC came out. So I can say that I know ice very well, and it honestly hasn't aged that well. I certainly make it work, but all the other tank powers are a bit more effective in tanking. The best tank players who want to do their job the best will use a power that is the most effective at its job. And 9/10, they don't pick ice. At least from what I've seen. And yes, the countering part is really the only enjoyable part about ice for me. But it's just my humble opinion based on my years of experience with ice. I still think it can use a overhaul to it's mechanics to make it more dynamic tho.. But back to Bitter Winds. Although it would be nice to have them return it to it's former state, I honestly dont think it would be that viable. I mean, it was just about as strong as shatter restraints, and that's the weakest shield ice has. And at least shatter restraints does breakout and control immunity, bitter winds didn't really have that ability. If they brought it back to shield, I honestly don't know who would use it. I don't think I won't, as I already use enough shields in my loadout
The issue with this suggestion is that you want ice tanking to be made more dynamic so you can enjoy it more. Why make something that’s working just fine more complex for no reason? And as for it not being as good as other tanks.. ice is the single strongest tanks for single target fights. Why do you think ice tanks were everywhere during survival mode. Yes when adds pile up ice needs to get creative to mitigate some damage being caused. But that’s the point. Every tank has its strengths and weaknesses. Fire has the weakest damage mitigation but has a lot of self sustain Ice has the best ST fight mechanic but multi target fights it can struggle Earth brick has a constant damage transfer mechanic but brick is vulnerable to splash damage and environmental damage Earth stone skin has lower mitigation but can be interrupted while combining making stone skin drop Rage has the strongest damage mitigation… for 8 seconds and then has the lowest mitigation for 4 seconds Atomic is a Jack of all traits tank with mitigation, self healing, high defense. But if aura drops they are in trouble Every tank power has its strengths and weaknesses. That’s part of tanking. Tanking is the most unique role in the game with no 2 powers sharing mechanics.
XD yeah I heard alot about ice in survival mode. I was away from the game at that time unfortunately. Thx for the feedback on my opinion, and the information given.
