Invulnerability vs. Willpower

[Apparition]

What are the pros and cons of tanking on Invulnerability vs. Willpower?

[Bastille Boy]

My main is an Invulnerability tanker. I also have a level 50 Willpower tanker, which I built for damage rather than durability.

 

Both sets are good sets. Both sets have a "layered" approach, rather than going all in on either defense or resistance. Neither set has a damage aura, so neither is the best choice if high DPS is a priority. (It's not the priority for most tankers.)

 

The big weakness of Invulnerability is the "psi hole." It's possible to plug that "psi hole" with a carefully designed IO build. My Invulnerability tanker is nearly unkillable.

 

The big weakness of Willpower is defense debuffs. There is a big difference between Willpower's 20% defense debuff resistance and Invulnerability's 50% defense debuff resistance. When fighting a big group of enemies with defense debuffs (e.g. the PPD), my Willpower tanker can face a "cascading defense failure" that makes him faceplant quite suddenly. Defense debuffs can be a problem for my Invulnerability tanker, too, but the cascade doesn't happen as quickly, so I have time to react (e.g. by eating a purple inspiration).

 

From a roleplaying / biography writing perspective, Willpower is one of few tanker primaries that lends itself to a natural origin story.

[CursedSorcerer]

  On 10/22/2020 at 2:51 AM, Bastille Boy said:

From a roleplaying / biography writing perspective, Willpower is one of few tanker primaries that lends itself to a natural origin story.

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Absolutely, when I was building my now-main Broad Sword Scrapper, I had a debate between picking Willpower or Shield Defense as my secondary. In the end, I was convinced that Willpower would make for a better build.

[Bill Z Bubba]

  On 10/22/2020 at 2:51 AM, Bastille Boy said:

The big weakness of Willpower is defense debuffs. There is a big difference between Willpower's 20% defense debuff resistance and Invulnerability's 50% defense debuff resistance. When fighting a big group of enemies with defense debuffs (e.g. the PPD), my Willpower tanker can face a "cascading defense failure" that makes him faceplant quite suddenly. Defense debuffs can be a problem for my Invulnerability tanker, too, but the cascade doesn't happen as quickly, so I have time to react (e.g. by eating a purple inspiration).

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While it won't do squat for the first fifty levels, you can shore up your DDR with Ageless Radial. Sure would be nice if there were DDR set IO buffs out there.

[Gobbledigook]

  On 10/22/2020 at 6:46 AM, Bill Z Bubba said:

While it won't do squat for the first fifty levels, you can shore up your DDR with Ageless Radial. Sure would be nice if there were DDR set IO buffs out there.

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A 20% DDR unique IO would be nice. 

[Hyperstrike]

Basically, WP will generally have a better balance of Resists (maxed S/L and the rest in the high 50's and low 60's.)  But it'll generally max Defense out at lower levels than Invuln can achieve.  Just not enough to make a difference in most content.

It makes up for it with better Endurance management and Regen.

[Call Me Awesome]

  On 10/22/2020 at 9:42 AM, Hyperstrike said:

Basically, WP will generally have a better balance of Resists (maxed S/L and the rest in the high 50's and low 60's.)  But it'll generally max Defense out at lower levels than Invuln can achieve.  Just not enough to make a difference in most content.

It makes up for it with better Endurance management and Regen.

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I've been away from the game for awhile, did WP's lousy taunt aura ever get fixed?  That was why I never played one back then, it didn't have the aggro tools to tank as effectively as any other set.

[Apparition]

  On 10/22/2020 at 6:18 PM, Call Me Awesome said:

I've been away from the game for awhile, did WP's lousy taunt aura ever get fixed?  That was why I never played one back then, it didn't have the aggro tools to tank as effectively as any other set.

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Yes.  All taunt auras were standardized in Page 4.

[Call Me Awesome]

  On 10/22/2020 at 6:24 PM, Apparition said:

 

Yes.  All taunt auras were standardized in Page 4.

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Good news, it needed that.  Apart from that the set has always been solid.

[Vanden]

  On 10/22/2020 at 9:42 AM, Hyperstrike said:

Basically, WP will generally have a better balance of Resists (maxed S/L and the rest in the high 50's and low 60's.)

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What? WP only gets gets tiny resists to F/C/E/Ne/T outside of its T9, and even when the t9 is up it only matches what Invul gets all the time. The only resist it outdoes Invul at is Psi.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Vanden

[Hyperstrike]

  On 10/22/2020 at 10:20 PM, Vanden said:

What? WP only gets gets tiny resists to F/C/E/Ne/T outside of its T9, and even when the t9 is up it only matches what Invul gets all the time. The only resist it outdoes Invul at is Psi.

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I didn't say "better resists".

I said a better balance.

Also there's the fact that, in a nearly identical build including Tough, most of the build's Resist is coming from Auto powers, not toggles.

So yeah, it trades a little.

[Vanden]

  On 10/23/2020 at 1:51 AM, Hyperstrike said:

I didn't say "better resists".

I said a better balance.

Also there's the fact that, in a nearly identical build including Tough, most of the build's Resist is coming from Auto powers, not toggles.

So yeah, it trades a little.

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Where is the "high 50's and low 60's" for non-S/L resists coming from when WP's only sources of non S/L/Psi resists are 7.5% resistance from High Pain Tolerance and 12.5% resistance from Strength of Will?

 

I assume you're including IOs, but then WP's barely putting in any of the work.