Need Help Understanding How Best to Slot Willpower

I'm looking for help in figuring out how to slot my Axe/WP Brute.
He's only 23 at the moment so this will be a work in progress.
Hassle is I'm a bit at sea as to what I should be aiming for in my IO slotting.
What I'm really looking for is a good build, but more importantly the theory behind it. What makes it a good build, what were the driving reasons for slotting the way you did.
What made you choose a particular set or combination of sets, what were you building towards.
I doubt I will have the coin to duplicate some of the builds that I have seen, so given the understanding of what they were trying to achieve and how they set about doing it, I should hopefully be able to come up with alternatives that work with my budget.
I'm not thinking about RWZ challenges or AV hunting at the moment, just an all around solid build that lets my character wade though the games content surrounded by a sea of enemies and come out winning if played right (most of the time).

I have a 50 Willpower/War Mace but the same IOs are going to be what you want for a Brute.

Key bonuses:

+hit points (takes longer for you to die, improves your regen)
+defence (especially smashing/lethal, although all are great)

Others that are nice:

+recharge (faster attacks = better active mitigation and damage)

Some of the sets to look out for are Luck of the Gambler which has a few nice bonuses, Numinas which has lots of +hit points, and Kinetic Combat which covers a few bases too. For your AOE, 3 slotting Eradication gives a significant amount of energy defence which goes nice with Heightened Senses from willpower. For armour I'd look at either Aegis (3 slots gives a lot of fire defence) or 4 slotting Reactive Armour (for a good mix of all defences).

I'm sure someone will post a whole build for you.

Smashing and lethal defense is typically what I aim for, followed by plus regen. Several of those bonuses are tired to plus hitpoints. I look at the powers I want and what sets are available to them.

Building for S/L defence using kinetic combats, obliterations and reactive armors will keep you in the fight. Add in Tough/Weave and you will find your WP brute is quite the tough customer! Adding +HP and/or+regen is another option but I guarantee you will find that you live longer aiming for as much S/L defence as you can get.

Ah, I see, I see. Thank you for clearing that up.

By the way, if you're patient then slotting has become much cheaper than ever.


You can use alignment merits to buy recipes on any character and mail the recipes to yourself on your other character.

You can buy salvage the same way, albeit random rolls instead of specific pieces.

AE tickets work great for getting rare salvage as well.



I actually plan on using alignment merits for specific recipes and the, somewhat older, reward merits, that aren't easy enough to get enough to be a good exchange for recipes, for salvage.

That will likely get me slotted out well enough.

Don't underestimate the value of +regen, especially on /WP where it is
very easy to get.

I'd still build for +HP, Res/Def first, but personally (on /WP) I'd look at regen
at that point before focusing too much on recharge...

Unless you're trying for ultra performance (AV's, Pylons etc.) decent
recharge is pretty easy with Hasten, some Global Recharge (in sets)
and a LotG or two.

A distinct limiter to Axe DPS is it's reliance on Build Up (a 10 sec power),
unlike Rage (which only has a 10 sec downtime).


As always though, opinions and mileage vary - build what is fun for you.


Regards,
4

the nice thing about the plus regen bonuses is that they are usually an early bonus, so if you don't have a lot of slots you can maximize what you do have.

My first IO's WP I built for hit points, and I've since found that slotting for other things still nets you nice bonus regen. LotG, Devisation, Numina, Perfect Zinger, all include Regen in them. Considering accolades and high pain tolerance plus sets I'll have over 1000 extra hit points without trying, at that poitn it's bring on the regen and let's see if you can kill me while i stand here and heal.

My main focus is defense, but there is a reason that the Regenerative Tissue unique is expensive.

Differing methods is one aspect of CoH that I truly enjoy, finding a path that works, just not what might be expected.

The difference is that Regenerative Tissue's unique is a 20% bonus for one slot; you can stuff it in Health without sacrificing the ability to slot Numina's and Miracle. When you're talking about a multi-slot bonus you're sacrificing something to get that regen, whether it's a set bonus - Mocking Beratement's full 6 is worth it - or something else.