Hero A Day - Arctic Crush

So I started off COH with a fascination for Blasters and I do still enjoy them, but lately I've had a thing for Tankers. With the right power choices they are very strong in solo play and they are always welcome on a team too so there is a lot of utility in playing a tank. Certain types of tank have been my major interest, namely Fire Aura tanks, but to start off the Hero-A-Day concept I thought I would go with my latest creation. I give you...

Arctic Crush

I wanted to try an Ice Tank and I liked the Stone Melee powerset already so I decided to pair them up and go with the concept of a mountain climber who fell into a crevasse and emerged much later as something new - the classic "accident" hero or "Altered Human" origin from the old MSH RPG.

Arctic Crush is an Ice Armor primary, giving him good defense at the expense of resistance (kind of like Super Reflexes for Scrappers). I have not played an Ice Armor character before so this is my first experience with it and so far it is fine at the low levels. The defenses are good and the taunt aura seems to work very well. Mez protection is a toggle power (my preference) and is available below level 10 so you do have options on when to take it.

He is a Stone Melee secondary giving him very strong (and very endurance-heavy) melee attacks. Stone is unusual in that the first 3 powers are all single-target attacks so that a tank who goes for offense can have a very strong 3-power single-target attack chain at level 6! Normally I try to work in more defense early in a tank's career but it's too good to resist and makes solo leveling quite a bit easier.as there's no waiting around for something to recharge. Issue 18 added bruising to the first attack in all tanker secondaries which reduces a target's defense, so a chain of Stone Fist -> Stone Mallet -> Heavy Mallet with an occasional use of brawl or a vet reward attack means he can throw attacks almost continuously. With the addition of inherent Stamina in issue 19 he also has the endurance to keep doing this for a while, though he will eventually run low without an occasional pause for breath.

For his travel power I took Super jump - I didn't see him as a flyer, a teleporter, or a super-speedster so concept-wise jump made the most sense. Mechancially SJ is a good choice for tankers anyway, especially with a defense based set as Combat Jumping adds to an already strong defense at low levels.

For the look I wanted an over all bluish icy/stony look and had a "glacier" concept to begin with.  I started with the basic Stone costume that I have used for multiple characters - usually tanks - with a light grey to blue blend. I toyed with the idea of going to the Huge body type but didn't want to look that hulking. I tried the Armored look for chest and legs but it was too fat looking and certain costume choices are unavailable with that format, so I stuck with "Tight".I wanted him to have some gear on like an explorer or mountain climber so  I gave him the Stealth harness for chest detail and added a complimentary belt.   I knew he would have the ice armor up much of the time so I didn't want to go overkill on the auras but I did give him the Omega Aura on his hands during combat in a light blue-white color so it hopefully looks like frost evaporating off of his arms as he makes his attacks. I like it so far and I may go back and put it on his whole body. To complete the look I went back and put Resistance Goggles on his face.

For power customization I started with the stone melee powers as I wanted them to look more like Ice than stone. Choosing the "Crystal" look I went for a light blue shade with some lighter blue highlights until I was happy with the look, then I set the colors to "all powers", ensuring that his ice armor has the same shading as his fists and mallets.

I am very happy with the character right now and expect that he will get a lot of play during the winter event this year. he is on Justice server so if you see him give me a shout-out.