Author: BigChill
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Willpower and Dual Blades: an early review Part #2
Not much progress, focused too much on getting Big Chill to 50. Damn glad I did. With it having been only 6 hours a week till I got DSL, I’m expecting this perspective to change drastically, and a few reasons for it.
Will of the Beast and Espadoble hit 12, and I made an Ice/Dual Blades tank Iced Blades. Not that bad, but not great, well, except for Iced, damn that guy works well. The level was reached with enough time to try a few changes to Rise to the Challenge with different IO sets. Previously, I only had basic training, but adding some IOs to it drastically changed its effect, and made me realize its effectiveness. The combination of skills Willpower is set with complement each other to an impressive degree. Average is not looking all that bad anymore.
First key test: Frostfire. Yep, the two of us walked over the guy at lvl 9. Literally. Then did it again at 12 with Espadoble and Iced Blades. With a healthy dose of inspirations for the both of us, he didn’t stand a chance. With Permafrost on Iced, it was a joke not even mentioning. Sure, usually the elements cause a significant problem for Willpower and Regeneration, but with inspirations backing us up, it was an incredible breeze. Damn, I really take them for granted with Big Chill. He doesn’t even bother to keep them longer than when they come in, and I never even use them if I do have them. I even sometimes let them pile up till I just dump them in my SG storage. Its an interesting insight, the effectiveness of any character can be drastically enhanced with the proper stacking of inspirations, but Willpower seems to scream ‘use it damnit’ when it comes to tough situations. The lack of any click heal power really drives home the need for those tic tacks.
It all changed drastically when I grabbed Maneuvers. Sure, I’m a tank, sure it’s a pathetically low value, but you’d be surprised how much it helps. It averages on helping to avoid 1/50 to 1/25 hits by itself, and that enables the willpower set a healthy buffer for its healing ability to cover it. Add the Rise to the Challenge’s incredible IO-slotted healing bonus in a large mob, and there is very little to worry about. I can’t wait till I add the rest of the Willpower set and Weave on top of that. That whole combination is going to be deadly, sure I have a lack of attacks, but I’ll be doing one hell of a tanking job.
The last power to mention so far is Quick Recovery, Willpower’s copy of Regeneration’s endurance recovery power. It is an incredible skill, and once I get it 3-slotted with IOs, I expect it to cover my endurance costs for quite a while. This is mostly because of my Willpower/Super Strength combination is focusing on defense to the point that I am already running 5 toggles. I’m expecting to run 8 total when this is all set. Oh, Quick Recovery and Stamina are going to be godsends for this guy.
My buddy, Espadoble grabbed a few attacks and got 2 combos, Weaken and Empower. He grabbed the power for the Empower combo as we called it a night, so we haven’t seen much of what it is capable of. With Iced he tended to not use it that frequent, the slower rate Tanks pick up attacks are preventing me from truly appreciating those combos. However that Weaken does wonders combined with RttC or CE. Wish we waited to get that before we faced Frostfire, we didn’t need it, but it can do wonders. We ran radio safeguard missions most of the time, and damn, we made them look easy. Sure, because its only the two of us the difficulty of those missions were considerably lower, but for some reason it still auto adjusts over half the map to be a full level above me. That is starting to get to me, why the heck didn’t it do that for Big Chill? Well, I solved that question when I fussed with the difficulty settings, well, 3+ up on me is still a joke with that guy. That’s the guy that should be running into Elite Bosses around every corner and an Arch Villain to complete the mish (yes, it’s a slight exaggeration, but sometimes…).
As for that combination, no wonder Willpower/Dual Blades combos are great mid to late levels. RttC reducing the foe’s accuracy, and the combo Weaken compounding that really turns the tide of the battle in a drastic way. I only wish he’d land it more frequently. Oh, we hit 12, we’ll be running lvl 15 IOs the next time we catch up on this, and that is bound to drastically change the effects of what is happening.
When I spent the time getting Iced upped, he didn’t do much with Espadoble, so we’re both 12. Gotta spend some more time on them, but Big Chill’s IO set list is rather demanding. Damn, wish there was a casino or some other form of gambling that I could do for easy cash, running up a 500+ mil inf cost for the total list is rather staggering…
Anyway, the combination of Iced + Espadoble is insane. Gonna miss duoing with Will of the Beast, but that guy should be teaming with Holtrinic. Oh, that will be fun, Will/DB + Katana/Regen duo, that really sounds painful. Back on the ice and blades though, with this winter event, it’s a real joke. Why did I wait till 49 to grab Permafrost with Big? That skill is so underrated, it should be a must-have. Incredible cold res, noticeable fire res and slows are never even noticed. Iced and Big can both stand up to the Winter Lord and have nothing to fear. Missions are another story. With these combos, end is still a serious issue, electric anything is on the top of their list to get down. But still, add them up and it does wonders. I can’t wait till Iced gets combos to pile up with Espadoble, but that wont happen till 22 or later, gotta grab stamina and a travel first.
In conclusion, we’re loving them. They are doing wonders compared to other sets we’ve done, and looks like they will only continue to do so. It has improved drastically with the addition of combos and the effectiveness of IOs. That happens to be a major problem sometimes. The combos rely on every attack hitting, sure, it doesn’t need to be the same opponent, but one miss will screw up the advantage. It’s not as bad as it sounds, but I don’t see it being as awesome as some say, or what I’ve seen. It may be impressive, but Ice can still aggro more, Stone can still laugh at everything, and Fire’s bound to cause far more damage. But that’s not going to kill the fact that these are pretty damn impressive nonetheless. Can’t wait to see what they do later on :)
Dive in, have fun, and think about it later.
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