Talk to me about Willpower

[Cix]

I have a Broadsword/Willpower stalker and I'm not feeling like Willpower is offering me anything I can't get from other secondaries.  Even looking at Croax's wonderful secondary comparison, I'm not really seeing Willpower's niche.  What does Willpower do well?  Is there something it does better than any other set, or does it try to be good at a few things?

[Croax]

Thank you for using the comparison. The actual numbers are all inside hide, so the defense numbers should be lower on all sets.

 

Now to your question:

 

Willpower is the best secondary, if you don't want a secondary. It is there, it does its Job and never wants you to click anything (except for the selfheal maybe). you can even go on and just pick the first 7 powers and leave out the selfrez and ultimate, so you can pick more other powers. But i have to admit, willpower shines on brutes, scrappers and sentinels more than it does on stalkers. 

Edit: It also has the best status protection of all sets.

Edited July 26, 2019 by Croax

[Zumberge]

Willpower is basically the lovechild of Regeneration and Invulnerability, just a bunch of regen and recovery and resists and defense layered on top of one another.  It's hard to tell just by looking at it, but all of that adds up to a strong generalist.  It's not a silver bullet against any one damage type, but it's also not painfully weak to anything either, so you can throw e.g a Willpower Tanker at basically anything and he'll be fine.  Barring Reconstruction, like Croax said, it just sits there and does its job quietly.  No shame in that.

 

Granted, both Quick Recovery and Rise to the Challenge are really good powers, but if you're a Stalker and you're being surrounded and attacked by enough enemies to wish you had RttC, what is even going on in that mission?

[BrandX]

It IOs well.  It's pretty sturdy once you get the IO sets going.

[Hopeling]

9 hours ago, Cix said:

Is there something it does better than any other set, or does it try to be good at a few things?

Willpower is firmly a Jack-of-all-trades set. Decent S/L resist, decent defenses, high HP, a heal and some regen, no psi hole, and status protection that includes fear and confuse.

 

It kind of sits between Regen and Invuln, with more than half the strengths of both. Add some defense from IOs or even just buffs/insps and it becomes very durable.

[Cix]

Thanks guys!  I'll have to play around with things a bit more.

[Croax]

8 hours ago, Zumberge said:

 

Granted, both Quick Recovery and Rise to the Challenge are really good powers, but if you're a Stalker and you're being surrounded and attacked by enough enemies to wish you had RttC, what is even going on in that mission?

I was thinking Stalker trade quick recovery for hide and rttc for the clickheal.

Stalkers don't get these 2 powers. That's the big negative point about wp on stalkers.

[Six-Six]

One thing you do have to worry about WP is enemies that can drain your endurance, like Malta Sappers and Vanguard Mages(?). WP is basically toggle and forget. But without those toggles, you'll be in a bit of trouble.

Also, WP's T8, the one with the self res, if you want a free power you can skip that and get the "back to the battle" or "something of light" from P2W vendor, which goes for a small pouch if inf, free if you have the Unbreakable Badge (from dying a number of times). Works almost just as well.

[Vanden]

I'll tell you one thing about WP for Stalkers, it's a crime that they lose QR but keep FH. What does a Stalker want with FH when they have Reconstruction?

[Heraclea]

FH can serve as a mule for the Numina, Miracle, and Panacea uniques, which takes some of the sting out of lacking QR. 

 

I find Willpower somewhat lacking as a tanker set, due to the weaker taunt in its aura.  I understand that tanker Reflexes has the same issue.  For a stalker this isn't a problem.