Thought I ought to write this as have been having issues with Hand of Bast teaming with various Forlorn Hope people, to point out the peculiarities of ice tanks in general and mine in particular.
What is an ice tank ?
An ice tank is a defence based tank, so doesn't get hit very often, but takes a lot of damage when they do. Most run a lot of toggles consuming virtually all their endurance recovery, but use energy absorption to refresh what they use attacking.
What powers do they run ? (values as I have them slotted)
Frozen armor - 28% def vs smash/lethal, 30% resist cold, 12.5% resist fire
Glacial armor - 28% def vs energy/neg, 30% resist cold, +per, resist slow
Chilling embrace - PBAoE toggle, foe -rchg, -speed, -dam - this is the constant taunt
Wet ice - mez prot, 1% def all but psi, 30% resist cold
Icicles - PBAoE toggle damage aura - more taunt
Tough - 25% resist smash/lethal
Weave - 7% def all but psi
Note that fire is not mentioned much, it causes me big issues and I have nothing v psionics.
This leaves me with about +36.4% def to most attacks when the fractions are added up.
Then we come to the two clicks:
Hoarfrost - the ice set's dull pain equivalent, self heal and + max hits.
Energy absorption - the set's most important power, and the one that governs playstyle. This power (which recharges much quicker than things like consume) drains end from the bad guys and gives it to me. Doing it on one opponent gives me about what it costs, and it takes about 4-5 bad guys to fill me up. It also gives about 3.2% def all but psi for the first and 0.8% for each subsequent enemy around me up to 10 (not clear actually if the first foe gives both bonuses).
Since to floor accuracy you need 45% defence, ideally I need about 6 things around me as this will more than halve the damage I take (hit 13% of the time vs hit 5% of the time). With the change to the defence calculations, this applies regardless of minion/boss etc and relative mob level although where not an even con minion, both figures will be multiplied by the same adjustment. As I also have end issues, I can only attack properly if I have minions around me to drain.
This means that if you're teaming with me, and I'm tanking an AV/EB/boss, you don't kill the minions with him, you just attack the big guy. Then I can attack too, and drain back the end I need, and I can halve the number of times he hits me. You don't need to worry about minions in melee range, chilling embrace will keep them taunted on me (for AV fights I tend to turn icicles off to avoid killing the minions).
Also in my case being ice/fire, my focus really is in AoE attacks, I have combustion and fire sword circle (melee, all around me) plus fire breath (short range line attack, much shorter than the corruptor version), and will get fireball at 47, so I try to herd stuff into tight groups. This means that AoE KB is bad, and so is attacking too early. As chilling embrace gives the bad guys -speed, you will often see stuff with a sort of blue glow following me slowly. If you see this, don't attack it till it gets where it's going, usually to me somehwere the mob will bunch up. Also I don't have taunt, and if people don't break up herds, I don't need it.
Thanks for listening
Mino AKA Hand of Bast
