How good is WP?

Looking to create a tank, and I've never used WP before. Just wondering how good it is as a whole. I'd like to be a team useful tank that can soak up damage and hold aggro. WP seems to fill this bill, but I'm open to other suggestions as well.

Well, it'll soak up damage really well. As for aggro, that's what taunt/gauntlet is for.

To get it's aura to hold aggro well, rttc will need 2 taunts slotted in it so it lasts long enough to reapply before it wears off. Adding in taunt and target swapping/aoe is still needed though to keep aggro on you.

Willpower is primarily a regeneration-based mitigation set, but it provides all three forms (defense, resistance, regeneration) of passive mitigation. It is supposed to be one of the easier sets to level. With a good IO set build, you will feel well-protected in all but the most challenging situations. Some AVs and some situations may cause enough damage to get through your mitigation and kill you. Lord Recluse, enraged praetorian Bobcat, and situations with heavy defense and regen debuffs are the ones I can think of that can cause you to struggle to survive. In most other situations, it should be as capable of a tank as other power sets. The lack of capped resistance to the most common damage types and heavy reliance on regeneration are the primary weaknesses of the set, but don't let that stop you from making one as I'm sure many people can tell you how much fun they are.

Although I haven't made a Willpower tank myself yet, observing many of them in action, looking closely at the powerset numbers, playing Willpower Scrappers, and reading many, many forum threads has led me to the conclusion that it's a solid Tanker set. Conventional wisdom places it among the hardiest of Tanker sets -- Stone/Granite first, then Invulnerability, then Willpower just a tiny shade under Invulnerability, then the rest (although I've read a lot of recent arguments that Elec should be rated tougher than I have considered it in the past). And considering that any Tanker can be successful in most circumstances, and Willpower is one of the tougher, Willpower should survive almost any tanking. Holding aggro will require more consideration than it does for other powersets, but it can be done.

I started a Will/SS tanker about a month ago. i 50'd him in less than a week, and have been running him on endless TF ever since. All just using regular I/Os. Put one taunt in rise to the challenge, otherwise season to taste. its a solid set. He did have problems tanking Lord Recluse, and the AVs in the STF without lots insp/help.

Just slotted in a really expensive build, def cap for all but Psi. WOW. Tanked Recluse, all AVs, its weird it is so easy. Still have a prob with snakes in Apex, need to pop an orange for those things.

So yes, if you like a no button mashing primary, then this is your set. enjoy.

I originallly said regular I/Os, i meant SOs. Thats right, 3 weeks tanking endless 50 TF, using an SO build. And he did fine.

My first 50 Tank was SS/WP and I loved it. I haven't IO's him out yet and he's still a solid contender against everything but multiple purple bosses and the -Regen AVs.

And you'll never want for End which for me was a huge plus.

WP is funny, because it's actually pretty squishy without io's in comparison to other tankers with a clean (read empty) slotting.

But with a propper IO stratagy, you'll softcap all your def (except psy, not sure how to get that softcapped as well), and boost your regen into the stratosphere. Then it's just a basic god mode. I won't start an argument over what tanker type is the toughest. I have a lvl.50 stone, and a lvl.50 wp. I also have a lvl.50 invun brute. They're all insanely tough.

If i had to rank them on pure toughness it would probably be stone or wp then invun slightly under them... Stone requires less effort to turn into god, but it has all those pesky self debuffs. WP requires a lot more effort to turn into god... but once you're there you'll probably out survive most situations that will take down a stone tank.

Eh. Speaking theoretically (as I don't have a high-level WP Tanker) it looks like the truth is in the middle -- WP should indeed be vulnerable to huge spikes of elemental (heck, even s/l) damage, against which regen is uncertain protection; whether that can properly be termed "quite vulnerable" is open to debate.

I agree that in bleeding-edge cases, Invuln should stand some alphas WP won't; I also tend to agree with the view that those are extreme edge cases and WP is very tough indeed.

I also think WP isn't as tough as Invuln even after IO's, though it is close. The superior resists, defense, and DDR are better than the regen in my book. However, WP gets Quick Recovery, which IMO makes the set better than Invuln offensively.

How good is WP? My SS/WP Brute was my first level 50, even when my I2 historical Inv/Axe tank collected dust at level 47, because that tank couldn't stand against Carnies/Malta (pre-the-possibility-of-IOs). The neverending supply of End for my SS/WP and lack of holes definitely sold me on that combo.

Reasons I can recommend WP to new Melee toon players:
1. End doesn't run out.
2. Toggle and forget set allows the player to focus on his/her attacks.
3. No "oops, we're gimping you against these mobs" holes.

The only downsides to this set in comparison to others (as previously stated) are:
1. A little less ability to take an extreme Alpha in a few edge cases. Not a big deal.
2. A little less ability to hold aggro. Easily taken care of - can't ever be "the best" at this, but can get to "standard" Tanker aggro-holding levels.

For a new Melee toon player, I do recommend taking an attack set that allows some crowd mitigation, like SS or SM (even Elec with Thunder Strike), over something that doesn't, like Fire or Dark. The KD/Stun time allows more regen time.

The only reason I haven't made a few WP/ tanks is that I like trying different sets, and I've already found success with my SS/WP Brute.

While Inv/ can be tough as nails, it's a set that's left a bad taste in my mouth because of its Psi/End holes. I could only recommend that set with a list of cautions you'd need to cover and plan to spend plenty of inf for.

That did get by the filters, didn't it?

ok ok tankers settle down, they are both good sets. But I guess the reason for the debate is simply that, they are both heavy weights.

One thing i'll say though, end drain, Im not sure but for some reason I have a lot more problems with this on wp than I do Invuln. Remember invuln does have end drain resist, and its toggles use far less endurance than Wp