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Author: BigChill
1943 Views
4 Comments
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Willpower and Dual Blades: an early review Part #1
Well this certainly is an early review; I only played for 6 hours straight. However I think I got enough to give everyone my opinions on these power-sets for the early levels, and some insight to their possible later bloom. I made a Willpower/Super Strength Tank, and a friend of mine made a Dual Blades/Regeneration Scrapper, we’ve managed to get them to levels 9&8. Interesting potential builds and possibilities for these sets, especially later on.
First off is Willpower. I noticed that it certainly is a middle-of-the-pack set, that doesn’t excel at much, and the placement of the powers makes it definitely fits that role. Its starts off with decent regeneration and resistances, and a surprising auto max hit points power. It however doesn’t have any great levels for its powers, its average settings makes it almost required to take them all to be usable. The fact that it is a hybrid regeneration, defense and resistance set means that it can’t excel at everything. This leaves obvious holes, it resistance isn’t as high as others, its defense is somewhat lacking, and it seriously lacks any effective self heal click. A Willpower/Dual Blades Tank we teamed with didn’t fare nearly as well as me with only the first 2 primary powers compared to my 4. It played way too much like a scrapper than an actual tank. A huge saving grace for it is its early auto power that increases its max health, probably the core power that will save this power-set more than anything else.
The possibilities for this set seem promising later on. Because it carries the inherit regeneration and recovery, it may be possible to skip the Fitness Pool Power-set. This isn’t exactly a good thing; its regeneration doesn’t match with a ‘true’ Regeneration Power-set because it lacks obvious related powers. I think it may be necessary to take the Fighting Pool Power-set to compensate for the average resistances and defenses the set offers to make it effective. This is both a bad and good thing. The endurance drain from 2 more toggles will probably mean Stamina would be wanted on top of its own Quick Recovery to support its attacks, however the rough numbers suggest that this would make it a truly dangerous tank if Maneuvers were tossed in. It could arguable be better than an Ice Armor Tank at aggro holding. The PBAoE Rise to the Challenge has no accuracy check with accuracy debuff and regen bonus power, arguable better than Chilling Embrace. CE has no acc check with slow, both have taunt and seem to update equally as fast. The regen can help more when getting hit, and the debuff makes that less frequent, while CE can only slow its opponents. Despite regen being a benefit to Willpower, Ice Armor seems to still hold the upper hand with its Energy Absorption Power being able to drain end from foes. This plays with nearly every other armor making it so they are each better at its respective field. Willpower is definitely looking like and average-middle-of-the-pack set, but it holds the potential to be a truly dangerous power-set if it is backed up well.
The combination of Willpower, Fitness, Fighting and Leadership leads to the possibility of Willpower excelling better at tanking than most other sets, potentially rivaling even Stone. I say this because the complete list will extremely buff resistance and defense against the most common attacks like smash/lethal. Melee will be a poor place to get stuck with it being somewhat average, but the PBAoE acc debuff leads to the possibility of it being able to be relatively safe. Add Concealment with Fighting and Leadership and this is set is definitely in its own class, something like a super-tank. Its drawback will obviously be elements, however this is only relative because they are on the low end of resistance and defense. That and even though they are only ‘average’ resistance and defense, the combination of that and regeneration gives this a very powerful potential tanking ability. The massive downside of this combination is that it takes up a lot of powers. The Secondary Power-set will have only a few viable options if there is any desire to get Epic Powers. And even then, I am only taking about 4 or 5 actual damage attacks. The only way to make it viable is to wait till the later and stronger powers are available, but that makes this set extremely dependent on the team to do the majority of the attacking, especially early on.
One thing I gotta say though, is it does have a self rez that comes earlier than any other power-set. This gives is a decent offset for its middle ground it’s stuck in. Not great by any stretch, but its placement seems to fit well.
All this does not mean that it will be immediately better than other tanks, quite the opposite. This requires far too many investments for this to be a truly viable alternative. It fills a middle ground of a regeneration/resistance/defense set that will average out and rely on the Secondary or Pool Power-sets to compensate drastically for its shortcomings. It does not excel at regeneration, defense or resistance; that alone makes this fall short compared to other options. It is in fact rather comparable to Fire Armor, in the retrospect that it fits someplace in the middle, but can excel if it is supported properly. I say middle mostly because even though it does not excel, the compounded advantages of enhanced healing, resistance and defense against everything, especially psionics, will average out kinda like 33% def, 33% res leaving 33% to be healed, and the occasional psi to be laughed at, overall not a bad mix, not great either.
Dual Blades is a bit different, well more like an exact opposite. It definitely excels at damage, but at a price. Its two hits at once double the damage and nearly double the cost. Aside from noting that combos are harder to place and late coming, it is a serious endurance hog. My friend never ran a toggle, and was constantly running out of end nearly every fight. Add the fact that the combos are mismatched among the power list and some come relatively late; it is a comparative set that can be extremely beneficial, if extremely late coming.
I can see this as a soon-to-be wanted help for most anyone, but its limitations and cost may make ‘expert’ fighters tough-to-find. Its damage seems to compare like a Katana, but more because its two hits for one power. It defiantly looks like a great set, and relatively balanced along with Willpower. The other major downside is that 2 of the combos are AoE effects, and there are 3 relative cone/AoE damage attacks. This will mean that DBs will be attracting far more agro than most any other set. Potentially a good thing for a tank, but its asking for trouble with a scrapper.
One downside, it has no relative given boost to damage like other mele sets. Its only major bonus to damage is dependent on its attack hitting. It also gets a boost with an Empower combo, but all the attacks must hit for it to work. Good counter for its already impressive damage output, making a comparable requirement for the benefit. Overall, its pretty impressive, end hogging but impressive nonetheless. This plays with all its combo attacks, leading to suggest that the Leadership Tactics would be a desired additive to max out accuracy to ensure those hits. With that and its cost, Stamina is also looking like a must have for it to continue its all-out attacking style.
Overall it is a dangerous power-set. It is capable of excelling more than any other melee damage set, especially if the combos are added in. This comes at a high cost in both power selection requirements and endurance drain. This set makes Stamina an absolute must, even if there is already a recovery power like those in Regeneration, Willpower and other sets. For a tank, this could be a crippling set, or a downright godsend for any well-built team. I can see calls out for a Weaken combo from a blaster before they go Nova.
Add the combination of Willpower and Dual Blades together, and it is a sore sight. You cannot build a good defensive set, and excel at attacking at the same time. It leaves the player Scranking to the N-th degree, a definite negative. Scrapper-wise it is probably a better mix, but DB, and any other attack-heavy or end costly power-set is a poor mix with Willpower for a tank. Willpower needs too many powers for it to be truly effective, thus leaving little room, and leaving it far too late. This also plays with the problem with Dual Blades, it costs far more than anything else I’ve seen, and in order for it to work effectively I think it needs too many powers. Take too few defensive powers, and the tank’s too weak, take too many and scrappers cannot deal too much damage. My only saving grace for taking mostly defensive powers as a tank is that I’m teaming with a scrapper that is focusing on offense. I’m sure a balance could be worked out, but with what I’ve seen, I doubt that a decent set can be seen until much later.
Overall though, I’m impressed. These powers seem to fit quite nicely in the niches they belong in. Good potential, like any other set, to excel at their respective advantages, but not without an appropriate cost. The only thing I can fear now, is the devs thinking they gotta nerf something to fix a perceived problem. I think it is a good overall job, abliet on the tough-to-get side, but overall good power-sets. Not too great, not too poor, just right.
Well, that’s my first part here. I plan on updating this as we progress with these sets to give others our general input and impressions on them. But for now, it’s a good mix, and great potential. My tank is looking like he’ll be able to tank almost anything, especially later on with a Willpower-Super Strength-Fighting-Fitness-Leadership combination. My friend’s scrapper will probably be the biggest mele powerhouse we’ve ever seen with his possible Dual Blades-Regeneration-Fitness-Leadership combo.
If you’re interested in teaming with us to see this work in progress, look for Will of the Beast and Espadoble on Protector, usually weekend afternoons EST.
Jump in, have fun, think about it later.
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