Super Speed Whirlwind Power
By
AnElfCalledMack,
Posted on: 2011-02-22 17:41 in Archetypes and Powers General Discussion
Useless. Yup.
It's always been useful for changing costumes 
That's about its only use though.
Completely and Utterly useless. As useless as the Triumphant Insult Disorient proc that is programmed to not proc. AND even if it did, its a mag 1 stun, so it would only stun a Rikti Monkey.
Your character does not have capped defense. Depending on your AT the cap is between 175% - 225%. Your defense is not teal in the combat window, it can go higher. STOP SAYING IT IS CAPPED! The correct term is Soft Cap.
I enjoy playing in Mids. I specialize in Melee Characters, other AT's usually bore me.
It sorta helps with crowd control in low lvls 1-20. However, it becomes useless later on since toons get their AOE powers and killing a bunched up mob is easier than running after them when whirlwind spreads them out.
Useless on melees, pretty useful on squishies with little in the way of self-defenses, especially when solo. Once you get its 0.48/s Endurance cost down a bit, that is (two SO-level EndRedux should be enough).
I know it saved my L26 Archery/Energy Blaster's hiney in the first mission I used it in when I tried out Super Speed on him for a while. (In Coolings' arc in Talos; after talking to the guy in jail, a fair number of Family spawn in the confines of the police station - with a number of spawns very close together in the main area. Whirlwind kept most of the Minions off my butt while I got rid of the Boss and a few LTs)
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How nice, then, that the power only becomes available at level 20, when its already marginal use is rapidly degrading.|
Originally Posted by crayhal
It sorta helps with crowd control in low lvls 1-20. However, it becomes useless later on since toons get their AOE powers and killing a bunched up mob is easier than running after them when whirlwind spreads them out.
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To the OP: It's silly. In fact, it's one of the few truly stupid powers available. Most of its competition are, in fact, repel/KB toggles like Whirlwind - Repel (both for Kineticists and EnA Stalkers) stands out, but at least you can take it at level 4.
You can attack with Repel running, you can't attack with Whirlwind running.
There's a big performance gap between whirlwind and repel.
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I just tested this on my stone tank. Activated Granite and Whirlwind (it's not useless -- it's quite effective at making a granite tank look unbelievably silly) and spent some time farming the wall in Cimerora. It does very unpleasant things to your endurance bar, but you can attack just fine with it running.
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Originally Posted by warden_de_dios
You can attack with Repel running, you can't attack with Whirlwind running.
There's a big performance gap between whirlwind and repel. |
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I have it on my MA/SR Scrapper for concept. Don't use it much, but I can think of reasons, particularly if my defenses are rapidly failing.|
Originally Posted by warden_de_dios
You can attack with Repel running, you can't attack with Whirlwind running.
There's a big performance gap between whirlwind and repel. |
Regardless, you can attack perfectly fine while running Whirlwind.
We often sit and think of you,
We often speak your name;
There is nothing left to answer,
But your photo in the frame.
-Anon.
I just put Whirlwind on my second build and could attack with it.
It's way better then I thought it was, still not as good as repel.
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My point is that Repel is nearly useless (it can be an okay panic button, but it's not much beyond that), and Whirlwind is substantially worse - higher endurance cost, much later availability, silly-looking animation.|
Originally Posted by warden_de_dios
I just put Whirlwind on my second build and could attack with it.
It's way better then I thought it was, still not as good as repel. |
Unless, of course, you're after the silly-looking animation, which does make the power stand out from the competition - even Typhoon's Edge or Thunder Strike and friends. The Horse Stance Assassin's Strikes come close, but Whirlwind sets a new bar for looking ridiculous.
Years ago I had it on my regen scrapper. I used to juggle mobs with it and hit them as they came down. Was a neat trick, but not overly useful.
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That's because it's a pool power. Only in very few cases are pool powers better than their equivalents in the primary/secondary/epic sets.
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Originally Posted by warden_de_dios
I just put Whirlwind on my second build and could attack with it.
It's way better then I thought it was, still not as good as repel. |
It's fun on my Bots/FF mastermind because mastermind pets don't care about small things like having to target. It also keeps the aggro on me (where I can spread it out among my pets) instead of my fairly squishy pets, and having all the little things wasting their time flying through the air and wasting their time running back to me lets me concentrate on the big targets.
I don't run it in teams due to the annoyance factor - except as a bug-out button. In the specific case of someone drawing too much aggro (one or two groups too many), where it's not just big hitters but also dozens of lieutenants and minions swarming my team, I can pop Whirlwind and suddenly half the damage sources are flying through the air. It makes me a mini-controller-cuisinart of doom.
Proud member of the Steel 70! | Global @Radmofet ; usually on Pinnacle, sometimes on Virtue.
It's fun on those high bridges on the ITF. Raining men indeed.
Stay Gold, Paragon. Stay Gold.
Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.
So basically, it's a fun-to-use conceptual niche power, that is mechanically useless.
I've seen it used only a couple times throughout my 7 year stay here, and only once was it used to any good effect. Unfortunately, that time it was on a scrapper, and the scrapper had all of one attack. So....on the plus side he kept the aggro off the team. On the minus side....he didn't really attack at all. 
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kinda sounds like he was running the fabled "man-build"...i.e. not taking any of his primary attacks and supplementing with pool (hah...almost typed poop...which would have been fairly appropriate in this case) powers.
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Originally Posted by Stone Daemon
So basically, it's a fun-to-use conceptual niche power, that is mechanically useless.
I've seen it used only a couple times throughout my 7 year stay here, and only once was it used to any good effect. Unfortunately, that time it was on a scrapper, and the scrapper had all of one attack. So....on the plus side he kept the aggro off the team. On the minus side....he didn't really attack at all. |
RaikenX is currently seeking new quotes to add to his signature.
Someone say something funny.
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Originally Posted by Smiling_Joe
::looks at RaikenX's signature::
Something funny. |
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Used to have it on my regen scrapper too - one of the few powersets that could cope with the endurance cost, and worked rather well in making mobs attack less often allowing regen to do its thing. It used to be knock-up rather than knock-back as well, making it relatively team-friendly, particularly as I could quite effectively tank with it.|
Originally Posted by SinisterDirge
Years ago I had it on my regen scrapper. I used to juggle mobs with it and hit them as they came down. Was a neat trick, but not overly useful.
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I think there was some issue with it causing your powers to no longer root you, making it quite popular among certain circles. I think it was changed to knock-back when the rooting thing was fixed, making a rarely used power rather more rarely used.
@Hakeswell
Union Ilservian, Evinlea
Defiant Expeditor, Hakeswell
Arc: 70119 Hellion Initiation
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The end cost is so ridiculously high it's not worth a pick. If memory serves, it costs X end per target hit, so when you use it in a big crowd... you know when you WANT to use it... you bleed out blue so fast it's not even funny.
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Originally Posted by Vanyr77
Is the Whirlwind power actually a useful power or just one of those useless but fun powers?
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Please buff Ice Control.
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This. Way back, the power cause Knock-Up not Knock Back AND it prevented you from being rooted by powers. Move and Snipe at the same time, wickedly cool. Almost every PVP build had it. When they changed or corrected the rooting aspect and the knock up to knock back, no one used it anymore.|
Originally Posted by Expeditor
I think there was some issue with it causing your powers to no longer root you, making it quite popular among certain circles. I think it was changed to knock-back when the rooting thing was fixed, making a rarely used power rather more rarely used.
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There are many powers in COH which need a revisit. Some of them were never useful. Some were but then were nerfed out of usefulness.
Sir Zane (Lvl 50, Inv/SS/Nrg Tank);Atomic Jake (Lvl 50, Kin/Rad/Elec Defender)
Nikolai (Lvl 50, DM/EA/GW Brute);Raging Stallion (Lvl 50 MA/SR/Weap Scrapper)
Archmage Tristam (Lvl 50 Ill/Son/Psi Controller)
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For most, yes.|
Originally Posted by Vanyr77
Is the Whirlwind power actually a useful power or just one of those useless but fun powers?
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It is an endurance hog.
The trick is to turn it on and off quickly.
It's great for drawing agro and slowing down the enemy momentarily if the team is getting beat down. It can easily stop a team wipe by throwing th enemy around giving the team time to recover.
It's like using one of the Tornado powers, but you are incontrol of it and can shut it off when you need to.
It is a power that takes constraint.
Some players hate any power that has knockback in it.
I love knockback, but I control myself aka use my knockback in a way that it isn't detrimental to a teams strengths.
Any power can be useful, if you know how and when to use it.
The repulsion powers are the same way.
You don't want to knock enemies away from a melee character that isn't flexible eough to track them down if you knock them back or to lure them to a place where you can use your knockback powers effectively for the benefit of the team. But if the melee characters aren't capable of defending the squishes, then they have a right to defend themselves by whatever matter they need to - and, in most cases, this means keeping them out of melee range. Knockback is really good for that - in fact, you can knock the enemy back to that Melee character that refuses to be flexible and must stand in one place in order to feel that they are playing correctly.
With great powers comes great responsibility. Use your powers-wisely.
A team is strongest when all the players can use all their powers to augment each others powers.
It's a hard concept for some, but it's a force multiplier.
It has one use. If anything gets stuck in a wall, whirlwind gets it out instantaneously.
Goodbye. Not to the game, but the players. Goodbye. Everyone, remember to have fun. That's all I can say.
Hey, it was marginally useful when it negated rooting.
Branching Paragon Police Department Epic Archetype, please!
I've found it handy a few times. Most impressively, I've used it to keep dangerous bosses on the ground where they can't hurt anything. I like it most on Defenders. Knockback usually sucks, but sometimes it's better than doing one quarter of normal damage against a highly resistant opponent.
Things I hate: Anime. PvP. Lying MMO Developers. Outleveling content. Manga. ED. Comic Store Employees. Anime.
Is the Whirlwind power actually a useful power or just one of those useless but fun powers?