Willpower Claws Tanker, am I on a fools task?

[liammcder]

I love my claws regen scrapper and thought it might be fun to see what a tanker would play like.  I welcome any thoughts on the combination.  Thank you.

[50caltech]

so far there is no regen on tanks, but willpower might be as close to it as you might get...., but if you used fire or rad  electric etc...for more area damages?...

[Psyonico]

Willpower is an underrated set.  I personally love it, though it does have some painful holes (looking at you, lack of -end/-recovery protection)

 

That being said, willpower and Regen will play a little differently.  Regen is a reactive set, relying on its clicks, whereas Willpower's only click is its T9 (and, I guess, the rez). 

 

I personally build willpower to have soft capped S/L/E/N/F/C defense with high or capped S/L resist as well.

[Story Archer]

One of Willpower's greatest 'strengths' is the relatively smooth leveling process and it's ease of play compared to some other sets. It's what I'd recommend to a starting Tanker for sure and it's a solid set all throughout the lifetime of the build. It offers the most layered protection and gives you the greatest chance to benefit from any buffs an ally might grant. The lack of -End, -Rec and -Def are its biggest weaknesses and you don't generally even feel the effects of that until you get into late-game content.

 

I've run a Will/DM, a Will/SS and a Will/Katana and enjoyed them all.

[Without_Pause]

Claws damage can be resisted to the point of feeling like you are watching grass grow and that can even be the case with a higher melee damage AT, so I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for solo play as a Tanker. Honestly, I like it on a Scrapper with ATOs and Alpha factored in for solo. I haven't done WP on a Tanker, but I did it on a Brute(Claws/wp no less), and it is very much if something can't kill you within 'x' seconds, then you aren't dying. The one issue I have with WP is that debuffs can wreck it. Still, I love Claws and enjoyed my ride to 50 with my Brute. 

[Snarky]

i loved my SS/Will Brutes on live.  even levelling them with nearly all SOs just felt great.  I ran one at 50 for quite a while, nearly a year i think.  Willpower is exactly as described.  Rare in this game.  You will have a harder time taking certain shots, but if it doesnt kill you then you are fine a few seconds later.  

 

After reading the comments claw damage i might encourage you to re roll as a Brute.  No one will expect you to Tank and you can pull some crazy stuff Scrappers only dream of.  

[ZemX]

On 12/6/2023 at 8:34 PM, Snarky said:

No one will expect you to Tank

 

Eh.. won't they? If there's no Tanker on the team, don't they turn to the next beefiest and expect them to dive into the pile first?   And it's not like you weren't gonna do that anyway Tanker or no Tanker.

[Snarky]

7 hours ago, ZemX said:

 

Eh.. won't they? If there's no Tanker on the team, don't they turn to the next beefiest and expect them to dive into the pile first?   And it's not like you weren't gonna do that anyway Tanker or no Tanker.

Yeah. They will.  And you will have a ball.  But if you taco because they over cranking it you can say….hey WP Brute ymmv

[Doomguide2005]

On 12/10/2023 at 8:20 AM, ZemX said:

 

Eh.. won't they? If there's no Tanker on the team, don't they turn to the next beefiest and expect them to dive into the pile first?   And it's not like you weren't gonna do that anyway Tanker or no Tanker.

I think whether they expect it depends as much on the player as whatever ATs are involved.  I wouldn't pretend to "tank" in terms of aggro control but I've got Empaths and other support who will happily take the alpha.   More of a player play style and attitude than the AT involved.

[killigraphy]

The same rules apply when its your scrapper secondary, you're gonna need 200mil+ to make it a dodge king. And sure aid self and inspirations will always be nice, those early levels will be hell. I've made one endgame Will and SR.....when you have the money, its all gravy, those IO's change and save lives. However if you're fresh, you will learn to bathe in pain.