Snorii

I use hibernate for the same reason. It makes a great /afk power.

I'd still rather have it moved down a level and give us something we can use against AV's etc that allows us to be mobile. I am happy to hear the activation time will be reduced.

Heh, thanks for the info.

Why gender specific costume pieces?

This is just starting to feel like the "Why Change Energy Absorption" thread to me.

Please give me water. *cough*
Here, have a stapler.

I am extremely happy to see the ice armor set looked at, but I don't see any logic to some of the changes. Yes, I am happy that various toggles aren't going to be dropped in hibernation. I don't want to be negative about good changes. I'm very happy about not getting one-shotted from AVs (if it ever makes it to the test server) I would like some information though and explain why we underperform our primary role as tanks.

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Decided to give Permafrost a protection against Slow instead of Toxic...

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I find it strange that we have toxic resistance in Hoarfrost, a very slow recharging power that is usually slotted for heal and recharge. (I'm not even positive you can slot resistance in Hoarfrost. I've just never tried.) It seems a lot more logical to me to put toxic resistance in permafrost where you will slot for resistance. I would definitely prefer it that way unless toxic defense finally made it into the game.

Has Wet Ice's slow resist ever been fixed at the higher levels?

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And we've tweaked Hibernate so that your toggles won't drop anymore!

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Nice. I've never thought Hibernate was good in groups, but this is great for solo play.

Has AV damage been reduced yet? I'll be sure to test it tonight, if no one else has.

Thanks Circeus. All very good points that I'd love to hear answers to. (Not to mention all the other questions that have been asked in this thread.) Heck, I know I would post answers to those just to get two cases of free beer even if it isn't what you want to hear.

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Of course, since my ice tanker's defense has been lowered to the point of true mediocrity thanks to this issue, there's no WAY I'm getting into the arena. Ever. Not unless they ALSO nerf every single hero's accuracy, not to mention every single +acc power like targeting drone, or focused accuracy. And accuracy SOs. Better nerf those too.

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I have the same outlook on the arena.

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There are lot of villians mentioned in passing, like Grendel, Tub-Ci, Odysseus, Baron Zoria, and others who never appear in CoH. Will these villians eventually fit into the story of CoH or are they just background characters?

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Sebastian Frost, Duray are a couple more that I can think of.

(I did read something about Sebastian that Xanatos posted on ogaming.com, but I can't tell if it is part of the official backstory or role-play story. )

I keep imagining that Tub Ci is a very atheletic fat villain. For some reason I keep thinking that he looks like Bam Bam Bigelow. Yeah, I know I'm the only one.

First of all, working my way through story-lines is my favorite part of the game. I think you and everyone else involved have done an outstanding job with this aspect.

Cantatus asked:
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Why does Countess Crey use psionic attacks? No where in the story arc (or really, anywhere else) is it mentioned that she has these powers. Is it a hidden secret of hers? Was it just added so she'd be a tough AV? (If that's the case, I'd suggest giving her some Crey technology to use instead.)

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I have the same question myself. It just seems such a surprise working against the Crey and finally meeting the Countess to have her use Psychic attacks on you. It just seems like it would be a lot more appropriate for her to use Crey Tech against you when you fight. This leads into another question of mine.

Are there going to be any plans to balance attack types for villain groups in the game?

I play an ice tank as my main and obviously, I would love to see more cold-using villains in the game. (Feel free to add lots more ) There are the Crey which use cold attacks and some Outcasts... and I'm drawing a blank right now to anybody else. We did have the Winter Event, but that was just temporary. The thing is that it felt really good to have an enemy group that I really excelled against (winter lord). I would love to see more cold using villains and also other attack types that are rare.

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Weave doesn't stack with any Ice Tanker +DEF abilities. It would only protect vs. Toxic and Psionic damage.

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Weave provides some form of defense (including psychic) so it will stack. As far as I know, there is no toxic defense in the game so it wouldn't help with that.

EDIT: I forgot about AOE.

Me:
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What of Toxic Damage Resistance on a slow charging click power that is usually slotted heavily for healing and recharge? (Any word on the mythic toxic defense?)

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Sorry, I completely missed the announcement of adding toxic resistance to permafrost.

Statesman:
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We're also adding resistance to Toxic in Permafrost to bring it into line with Invulnerability's Resist Elements.

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__________________________________________________

Helms:
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I can post another video for laughs....

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I hope the devs go test ice armor in pvp. It is painful to watch that video you posted. (thanks for showing us by the way)

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I want to make sure that you guys know that Ice-based powers work on the fires as well. That is why you are able to target the fires with any power.

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Does Chilling Embrace count? Icicles? (yeah, I know they won't) If so, it is my Ice/Ice/Ice Tank's time to finally shine.

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Oh - one other change coming soon to the Training Room...

This was an idea taken right from this forum. Since Ice Armor has no Resistance, it's a zero sum sort of power set. In other words, you're hit or your not. Well, someone (I've forgotten who) suggested adding a Damage Debuff to one of the powers - and we did! Chilling Embrace gains the ability to debuff mob damage (though it's Recharge debuff is slightly slower now).

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Definitely not my idea, but I felt like sharing what I suggested earlier in this thread.

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Another great idea that people have mentioned is the idea of a damage debuff aura. Basically, the idea is to make an aura around the ice tank (which benefits the team as well) that will lower damage from enemies. The cold air will slow their attacks thus lowering the damage from them. (Don't think attack rate, but rather slowing their kinetic motion when they do attack.) This would finally give us a place on teams as well. Anyone can match or exceed our defense by using purple inspirations. We need something else to make us useful to a team.

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These announcements have me worried though. I feel like this is the "deep breath before the plunge". Frankly, I can't make hide nor hair of this number crunching, but I will stand firm behind whatever Circeus tells me. (Sorry devs, but I trust his number crunching more even if numbers are withheld from him.)

I still think we need some answers on a lot of questions. I feel like this is our only chance here to get things changed.

What of PvP? Are we going to remain crippled in I5 with our lack of defense?

Was the Slow Resistance fixed on Wet Ice?

What of Toxic Damage Resistance on a slow charging click power that is usually slotted heavily for healing and recharge? (Any word on the mythic toxic defense?)

I realize that one-shotting will be removed, but what of auto-hit auras? Will the new chilling embrace be enough to protect us from them? (Just go stand next to the Envoy of Shadows to see what I mean)

What are your ideas for Permafrost? I'd love to hear them.

Will the damage debuff in Chilling Embrace scale the same as the slow effect? The slow aspect really falls off quickly against higher level foes and is pretty much non-existant against things like AVs.

Must we have the Psi crutch weakness as well as Fire?

Any word on changes to Hibernate?

High cost of icicles reduced? (1.5 EPS)

... the questions continue.

Good grief Pilcrow, can your avatar get any better? Wait, I have an idea....

<------

Oh and um.... mission customization, that's whatever you are talking about for you.

I guess I should put a serious part in here somewhere since this is an official thread and all. I've only seen the new NPC hero/helper AI once in the tutorial. The AI certainly seemed adequate enough to have her follow me and shoot other villains that I faced. (It certainly did better than my Wumpus World hero that constantly fell in pits and was killed over and over by the wumpus monster.)

I really enjoyed to see this aspect come alive for NPC's and would love to see more of it. (cops in the street, etc) I certainly hope this is the case for the heroes that we rescue in the Eden Trial, although I'm certain it will be.

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The worse thing about those numbers, is that the margin in both comparisons is now much wider than it was for I4.

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The crazy part is that they are supposedly working toward balancing defense and resistance.

Unreal. Even cold, that is baffling.

(Thanks again for your work Circeus. I wish they would hire you.)

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Hmmm... who is Capt. Mako?

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Captain Mako aka Shane Hensley is lead writer for CoV (Interview with him at Xequted)

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One shotting by AV's. In a word, you are ALL correct. It's not a good thing for an Ice Tanker to be leveled by a single blow. So we're going back and changing the damage done by AV's so that it's no longer possible for a Tanker to be one shotted.

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Thank You! My biggest concern was answered.

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So both Invulns beat Ice Tanker DEF for both melee (by a lot) and range.

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We need an answer on this one.

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What does an Ice Tank use as an attack? After 6 slotting all armor, we are left with maybe 3 attacks... LOL... and one is icicles.

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I just wanted to add that this is a very accurate statement for my ice tank. I had three attacks (including icicles) for a long time until I finally picked up freezing touch. Granted, I did pick up ice patch as well which most other offensive sets would more than likely pick up another offensive power at that point. I re-spec'ed out of ice sword (my second offensive power) later so I could pick up tough because all my primary defensive powers with all those enhancements wasn't doing enough to protect me.

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Ice Tanks will be rare in Issue 5. This will cause us to be novelties that are there to show off... "Hey [insert Ice Tank name here]! Show me your Ice Sword!" and 'Oooo! I've never seen one of those before!" Hey! I already hear that!

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I get that as well. I've been asked a few times what various ice powers look like. It is always fun to show off powers though.

I thought I would try to be objective on the test server and see if by chance something positive was going to happen with regards to one-shotting.

I have shadowhunter available (first praetorian arc) for my level 42 ice tank on the test server. This is the only AV available for my copied character. I have EA four slotted for defense, frozen armor six slotted, wet ice six slotted. I went ahead and turned on glacial armor too and it is four slotted I believe. I also turned on tough which is five slotted with damage resistance, one slot for endurance drain. (I would six slot for resistance, but that character doesn't have enough influence to get the other enhancement)

I used SuperJump to hop over all the omega wolves and settle on a rock near shadowhunter. I don't expect to solo AVs, but I wanted to see what happens on test if I run up to one as a tank. I decided to not use other wolves and just use the two omega wolves near SH for energy absorption. I hopped down and turned on Combat Jumping and Chilling Embrace (both only have one enhancement, defense and slow respectively).

I hopped over to Shadowhunter and fired off EA with three people in range. Before it even activated, I was dead. This really didn't surprise me though, but it happened. I was hit for 1906.64 damage when I only have 1759 health. One-shot and I was done. I didn't dodge an attack. I should have hit hoarfrost before I jumped in, but I didn't. I was going to buy that last damage resistance enhancement from ghost falcon, but I didn't finish his mission on this copied character. I will likely copy another version of my ice tank over to test. I imagine I will see the same result. I will try again later.

Minotaur mentioned having EA buff 10% for the first mob and then a smaller rate for each additional mob. I like that idea a lot.

Thanks for starting this thread for ice tanks States. Also, a big thank you to Circeus for his tireless efforts for all of my cold brethren. That being said, I still don't get it. This all works fine for anything lower than a Monster or Arch-Villain. Naturally, I don't want to be hit every time from an AV, but more than anything I don't want to be killed in one-shot. I have been one-shotted several times now and I don't think it is fun. I'm a tank and I feel like I should attempt to join in when fighting AVs and Monsters. Most of them seem to have ridiculous amounts of damage associated with their attacks. This obviously seems to be the case to overcome very high damage resistance. What it doesn't account for is the one-shotting. Sure, we have hibernate, but how is that fun? We can sit in our protective little igloo and watch the battle just like we can sit back and watch. I want to be involved in these epic fights because after all, aren't AVs and Monsters the big bad guys that we are here to stop?

Basically, this all comes down to what is fun. Frankly, I don't find jumping into a battle and taking a dirt nap in one hit very fun at all. I did send you a PM quite a while back, States to lower AV damage and then make a percentage of their attack unresistable. I'm not sure that is the way to go anymore with all of the I5 changes.

One-shotting remains my biggest concern with Ice Tanks. I love playing them except when I have to face AVs and Monsters (which is a lot in the 40+ game.)

On a side note, many have been suggesting lately to drop permafrost from the powerset and move hibernate down a spot. Then give us something for our level 32 power that will allow us to take part in AV battles. Hibernate takes us out of the battle completely. Is there something that you can substitute in for us to help solve this issue?

If not, why do you feel one-shotting is good for the game? I could understand taking on much higher level AVs and they dispatch of us very easily. The problem is that these are AVs that spawn on our missions and they are on par with our level.

I can start naming AVs/Monsters that have one-shotted me if you want.

Another great idea that people have mentioned is the idea of a damage debuff aura. Basically, the idea is to make an aura around the ice tank (which benefits the team as well) that will lower damage from enemies. The cold air will slow their attacks thus lowering the damage from them. (Don't think attack rate, but rather slowing their kinetic motion when they do attack.) This would finally give us a place on teams as well. Anyone can match or exceed our defense by using purple inspirations. We need something else to make us useful to a team.

I feel like we already had enough weaknesses (psi, fire, toxic (toxic resistance is on a slow recharging heal power?), defense debuffs on us, accuracy buffs on enemies, auto hits, alpha strikes) before I5.

I don't mind a challenge, but I would like to participate.

Thanks,
Snorii

PS If anyone cares to read it, I think there is a ton of good information in the locked Why Change Energy Absorption thread about ice tankers and our issues.

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More details on *how* I refuse to surrender will be found in The Web of Arachnos.

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lol

Lycanthropy?

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