Willpower efficiency

Hello, and thanks for any advice in advance. I have been playing a few years, mostly brutes. Kinda stopped playing, but keep the subscription up because I love the character design software. I recently designed a Tank based on a new character I have for an over the table top game. Based on the other game Willpower/Super Strength Tank was the way to go.

What is the most efficient way to enhance Willpower Tanks to maximize their general effectiveness. I know of course that defense is wonderful, and more regeneration, is, well, more regeneration. But as far as squeezing the most out of the build, what is the most logical direction?

I can strip a couple characters who are very very well equipped for this experiment. so money is seriously not an object.

and GO...

Defense is far and away the best thing to build for. After that you want +Max HP. The last thing you should be building for as a Willpower Tanker is more regen.

When RttC gives you hundreds of regen percentage, a 10% bonus here and there won't make a drop in the bucket. Getting more max HP enhances the power of ALL of your regen. Defense, though, is the best because you begin to layer mitigation at that point. Fewer things hit you, so the regen becomes multiplied.

Another important aspect for a WP tanker to focus on is a way to hold large groups of aggro. WP has the weakest of the taunt auras, so you must learn to make maximum use out of gauntlet and taunt. I suggest picking up an Ancillary pool that will give you more AoE damage, since SS will only have footstomp. It may be a difficult leveling process, but after level 38 you'll probably do fine.

thanks Dechs. You always have great advice as I remember and this sounds spot on logical. I will start my shopping lists.

I appreciate the compliment. I'm not an expert, but I do what I can around here.

Don't just listen to me, though, you can see for yourself. Just drum up a few builds and import the mitigation numbers into my Survivability Analysis (link in sig).

Also, if I may add, Tough is a good choice to take. Willpower always had the Endurance to take it, and the extra S/L Res is always useful. Even if you only slot in one or two End Reds it'll still be useful.

Note that I've got a WP/DM toon, fairly IO'd up. So with that in mind...

1. The wedding ring from the Strygia Isle story arc (which grants...40% resistances to everything, I think) is a fantastic supplement to the build. So much so, that, if used sparingly, can replace the Tier 9 as an "oh, crap!" button.

2. As is implied, the self-rez (Resugance) and the tier-9 (Strength of Will) are the two most skippable parts of the build, unless you need them for concept purposes. They're OK to have if for some reason a Sapper gets through all your layers, but other than that they're meh.

2. Yes, Tough and Weave are very nice to have, and go extremely well with the build.

3. As stated before: typed +def is probably the way to go, as opposed to positional; it stacks well with the powers in the set. I used Kinetic Combats (4-slotted for the S/L defense), and then a triple (Acc/Damage/Endurance, I think) from Touch of Death to shore up the limitations of that set. This will work fine for a levling or first-run at a softcapped IO build. Once I slotted a Gladiator's Proc, that freed up other slots, so that I could put a 6th slot in all of my ST attacks, which I then filled with procs. Currently I'm running something like 50% S/L - I'm saving up to put purples in some of my attacks.

4. I used Maneuvers and Tactics (Gaussian) to get those last few typed defensive points. You're a WP tanker - you've got the endurance to run it. But also, I tend to team a lot, so it helps there as well.

When you speak of "maximizing WP's general effectiveness" and "squeezing the most out of the build," what are you looking for, specifically?

I'm thinking that you are probably looking to go down one of these paths:

-maximizing your tankiness, min/max style for the defense softcap, or;

-balancing taking damage with damage output, sort of a scranker who can survive almost everything.

Anyways, just curious, and also don't forget to work on your accolades (Freedom Phalanx, Portal Jockey, Task Force Commander (total +20% HP) and Atlas Medallion (total +10% max END)). The max HP is HUGE, and the max END is really, really handy with the Rage crash, Hasten crash if you take it, and RttC crash if you take it. When two, or even all three crash at once, its nice to have that 10 extra END to stop all your toggles from dropping. It can be a major PITA without them when you go deep into fights and have those END drops, or go against Carnies/Sappers and then have a Rage/Hasten/RttC crash.

I'm on the fence with RttC. If you build more for balance, its still pretty handy as you level through your late 30's and early 40's, especially if you build for maximum tankiness, and once you hit 50, its a pretty nice top layer of icing to have on your cake. Once you build up your Defenses, its not something you'll probably use a lot anyways, but I like to have it for stuff like +4 missions, STF, and such. Don't always use it, usually glad I have it when I need it.

A few things I would like to add about WP

1) As Dechs said, RttC has quite a weak taunt aura, so its always wise to slot it with 1 or 2 taunt IOs if you are going to spend most of the time teaming

2) If built right, WP can be softcapped to all typed defences without seriously gimping other areas.

3) Even though WP can generate a heap of recovery, it doesn't have any recovery defence/resistance. This is just something to be aware of when fighting large quantites of Carnies and Malta (its good to have your targetting macro mapped for sappers and dark ring mistresses)

Your slotting of RttC will determine your "Tankishness" in your build. 1 slot devoted to Taunt won't "do" anything meaningful to how well the aura holds aggro ... you need 2 slots of Taunt.

The reason for this is that Rise to the Challenge has a 1 second Activation and a 1.25 second Taunt duration. Note that unlike other Tanker Taunt Auras, RttC does *not* have the limitation on its Taunt effect of "Does not stack from same caster" ... meaning it is possible (and desirable!) to increase the base duration of the Taunt from 1.25 seconds to over 2 seconds. At over 2 seconds duration, the Taunt Aura is "permanently" double stacked ... giving you a Mag 3+3 (ie. enough to retain the attention of Bosses!) Taunt Aura at all times.

The minimum Taunt enhancement required to get to 2 seconds duration from 1.25 can be easily calculated:

(1.25 * (T/100 + 1)) / 100 = 2

Solve for T and the answer is +60% Taunt Duration.
So the minimum effective amount of +Taunt Duration needed (after ED!) is +60% ... and more is "better" in this case (until reaching the ED cap). Since enhancements offering +60% Taunt do not exist in the game, this means a minimum investment of 2 slots spent on Taunt Duration in order to get over the +60% Taunt Duration threshold. This can be done with either two Taunt SOs (fairly easily) or two Taunt common IOs (also very easy) ... but it can't be done with just one.

Fortunately, spending two Taunt enhancements on RttC leaves four slots left over for other enhancements ... such as a 4-slot Numina's Convalescence, which has the following (somewhat) useful set bonuses for a Willpower Tanker:

Two enhancements improves your Regeneration by 12%.
Three enhancements increases maximum Health by 1.88%.
Four enhancements improves the Healing of all your powers by 6%.

It's the end. But the moment has been prepared for ...

Here is a link to the current build for my WP/Mace. Perhaps it can give you some ideas.

I went for defense and HPs. I agree that 2 slots for Taunt in RttC is very good and I had that on my tanker forever. My build currently only has the one slot because the Nerve Alpha will give me the extra taunt enhancing I desire (plus the plethora of AoE attacks I have are nice too).

To my mind that stacking of taunt aids threat. A couple of secs outside of the aura and mobs still easily forget.

Thank You! Redlynne and Sarrate both, for this discussion of Taunt in RttC. You strongly clarified my thinking on what to do with my Willpower Tankers.


Be Well!
Fireheart

I find that a WP tank is still able to tank very well, but critters are more likely to go play with your friends. If you don't enhance your taunt abilities you should spam taunt. A lot.

or slot in a Nerve Partial Radial / Nerve Radial Paragon Alpha

Interesting discussion on taunt, thank you. I play this guy as a tanker, and I spam taunt. Even when running as the secondary tank i use taunt as my primary focus, and damage dealing secondary. Shaping the combat for a blaster or other AoE player is much better than trying to beat everything to death myself.

as stated above, i am building for tankiness primarily. So I will be trying for Typed defenses. I have never done this before. Again, money is not a problem. I have yet to start really looking at the sets. i've been around long enough to know the Kinectic Combats are almost synonymous with def cap. Should i be looking at PvP sets or anywhere else to min/max the defense capping?

I recently took a WP/SS tank from 1-50 on the double XP weekend and ran him through nearly every TF that extended weekend. Great learning experience.

I poured a good chunk into his build, but I'm now as satisfied with his build as I am with my Inv/SS. He has insane HPs and Regen (with the Alpha slot, he's 3,200+ HPs and 112 HPs/sec), has s/c defenses and built his Taunt to ensure teammates remain upright.

I hope to get on Virtue tonight to be the Hami taunter, if I can beat Arky to the punch. He is tricksy, though.