Just recently changed from rage to ice and looking for tips. And I have one question: Do I use another shield over bitter winds or one at a time?
Personally I use one at a time. My loadout is Inescapable Storm, Reflect, Winter Ward, Bitter Winds, Shatter Restraints, Hard Light Shield.
Do you rotate between all of them or keep one or two off cooldown in case knocked down, stunned, etc.? If you dont rotate them all which ones do you primarily use? Thanks.
cold snap is also a good shield or damage reflector I used to use it wen I was tanking but I switched it to bitter winds.. bitter winds is better for tanking cuz it also helps keep agro but use the loadout senseless gave u and ur main shields r shatter restraints and winter ward those r ur best next to reflection thee other two are good but hard light shield is the weakest I believe... also remember wen u use a power either ur health or defense gets doubled I kinda forgot so what u want to do is respect for the opposite of what gets boosted and besides that ur main thing is dom u don't need resto as ice since u cant heal ur self
You can't. For an example, if I casted Reflect and got like 35000 Defense, casting Hard Light Shield won't increase that number, only extend its duration.
Oh okay thanks I just made an ice toon alt. just hit level 30 yesterday soon as I get an armory im gonna start tanking. Reason I ask was i was gonna rotate cold snap clip with bitter winds then cold snap/ reflection and repeat
Almost everything in this post is incorrect. 1. Cold snap is not a shield. 2. Bitter winds does not help with aggro more than any other melee range power 3. Your defense gets increased by 90%, not 100%. 4. Resto boosts shields, so it is actually useful for ice tanks.
ssvillae u cant stack shields they'll just overwrite each other I forgot to mention that and yes its true redman that resto affects the shield but im just saying he wont have to do it..i specd without resto and I always have a shield ready to use even when tanking throne (I only tanked ares tho lol) and metalmario I kno cold snap isn't a shield which is why I said "or damage reflector" which ina sense shields u from damage which is why said it that way and bitter winds does help with agro it gives u 10% control resistance in which any power that says that means it helps with agro and plus any might based attack helps keep agro ina way...and I didn't know how much the boost was for I just know it gets boosted im not sure where u found that information but I know it doesn't say it on my screen and I kno resto is good for shields but trust me ive ice tanked everything without specd to resto its not a necessity thanks for corrections tho
Shields and being knocked down and stunned are two separate issues to worry about. You can only have one active tank shield at a time. If you try to stack them, the last one you cast will just overwrite the one you already had. You can see this in the animation too. Cast Bitter Winds, and you'll see a visual effect around you. Then cast Reflection. The Bitter Winds animation will go away, replaced by the Reflection one. That's one cue that you need to refresh a shield: the animation for it goes away. That means your shield is broken, or its time has run out. There is no sense trying to cast these fast, before they run out, because you'll just waste power with no benefit. There are also two powers that break you out of stuns: Shatter Restraints and Winter Ward. These will also absorb damage like a shield and impact incoming control effects. These are the important ones to keep around for an emergency. That means alternating Bitter Winds and Reflection as your main two shields. I prefer Shatter to Ward in most cases, saving Winter for only when there's no other power available. Too many times I've used Winter Ward only to have enemies wander off afterward. That's two shields and two breakouts for your starting loadout. Add Ice Elemental for when things get real bad. That's it; I don't even need a 6th slot seriously for most content. The extra loadout space I use for specialty jobs, like Mesmerizing Lasso to pull, or Frost Snipe to hold a taunt even against another tank. Some people will also recommend Hard Light Shield, but that doesn't work. It's a controller type shield that does not filter through your defense buff. It will shatter almost instantly in hard content. You have to stick to your tank type shields. There are other types of shields that do stack on top of Ice's with the defense buff, and these are typically labeled Healer type shields. Healers can cast them, the Tactical Mods weapon mod will give you one, and pets including Boos and your sidekcik can give you another shield. These all stack on top of your tank shield.
About shield stacking, a lot of people got it wrong. Bitter Winds stacks with any other shield, but it's the only shield that can stack with another. With any other 2 shields, the when you cast last will overwrite the first.
This is the kind of thing a player-made UI mod could track. Who would like to have a UI indicator pop up when you use a shield as Ice that shows how much it will absorb (as a number, not a bar) and decrements as it is used up? How about a mod that updates your health as Rage or Fire when you use their mechanics, again using numbers instead of a solid bar? What about Earth's absorb? Sigh. If the devs can't devote time to create a new UI, unleash the community and let them create mods for it. The PC crowd would go nuts for that. Back on topic, if you neglect Resto in your SP allocation or mods, you are leaving shield strength on the table. You get more absorption from each Resto mod or Resto innate than you do from Dom mods/innates. So long as you hit the Dom requirement for the content you're running, pouring the rest into Resto actually is better. As far as loadouts go, you need Bitter Winds, Shatter Restraints, Winter Ward and Reflection. For the last two spots, you have some choice. I prefer having a pull and a single target taunt. Sometimes Lasso fills both of those roles so you can use random stuff in the last spot. Just don't use Hibernation.
Right idea--see what happens with the animation--but I got the details wrong on this example. Sorry, late night posting. Bitter Winds gives a wide swirling shield with chunks of ice in it. You can stack that on top of the other shields. Add Reflect to it, which gives a clear bubble around you, and you can see both shields are active. To see a shield being overwritten, use Reflect to get the ice bubble. Now cast Winter Ward. The bubble will go away, replaced by the Winter Ward's rotating cylinders effect. Similarly, use Reflect, then Shatter Restraints. The Reflect shield will pop the minute the new power starts. Shatter Restraints just gives a flashing effect. The sequence I'm using in Throne now is this one: Bitter Winds - Reflect - Shatter Restraints - Winter Ward With Shatter Restraints only being used when a) I see the Reflect bubble pop, or b) I'm hit with a control effect and my breakout trinket isn't available. That will sometimes overwrite the Reflect shield before it's gone, but better that than to be stunned. Same idea on Winter Ward--only use it for breakout emergencies, because you it can overwrite a shield. It's possible to do it this way instead: Reflect - Bitter Winds - Shatter Restraints - Winter Ward That gives lower odds that you'll overwrite an active shield, because you're putting the one that can double up (Bitter Winds) between the ones that can't. The downside is that Bitter Winds gives a nice damage over time that continues holding aggro on everyone around you. Reflect hits everyone once when cast and that's it. Winter Ward and Shatter Restraints don't do damage to maintain aggro at all. You have to keep up aggro too; you can't just optimize for shielding.
In my experience, one at a time is best. For example my load out is Inescapable storm - Bitter winds - Shatter restraints - Reflection - Winter ward -Frost snipe. If I've recently used shatter and cooling down i'd need WW just incase I get stunned again after Shatter has worn of. You need almost constant mitigation in majority of situations unless your tanking a solo boss which is no problem for ice anyway. Another good reason to not use say WW and Shatter at the same time is because of AoE CC's you've gotta be able to get the team immune quickly in those scenarios so damage and heals can remain smooth.
