Tuesday 13 November 2007

Pic of the day: The red-haired guy is my Willpower tanker, imaginatively named "Tanker by default". The mostly yellow is Encouragificatress, a kinetic defender (I think her secondary is electric, unless it is dark). And the pink one is "Chill-out in Pink", Ice/Kinetic controller.

CoH: Willpower tanker

"You know you are writing fantasy when your main character spends more time wearing his mail than reading it."

I am indeed writing fantasy, of sorts, but there is no mail involved, one way or another. Then again, my City of Heroes character "Tanker by default" does not wear mail either, just a thick jacket. He is naturally resistant to damage thanks to his willpower. This is one of the two new power sets in the latest issue (free expansion) of the game. The other is dual blades (not duel, but dual as in two blades at the same time). Willpower is the first new primary powerset for tankers since the game was released, so it is well worth trying out.

Willpower is slanted differently than the other tanker primaries. It is strong in psi and status defenses and this starts quite early. Most tankers have little or no psi defense, while they can resist pretty much anything else. Willpower tankers take a bit more damage from non-psi attacks, but become virtually immune to psychic attacks over time.

It is a bit unclear how willpower helps you shrug off axes and bullets, and the developers are clearly unsure as well. Rather than coming up with one good explanation, they have made Willpower a mix of resistance and regeneration, with a couple defenses (avoidance) thrown in. I'd expect more defense actually. I guess in comic books it makes sense to shrug off bullets and axes because you have a "high pain tolerance"... A more natural explanation for resisting psychic attacks would be, in my opinion, that you are a low-level psychic yourself. As such, physical damage should be avoided (telekinetic shield) rather than resisted, while psychic damage should be resisted (psychic battle). The opposite is true. And what fast healing has to do with willpower is anyone's guess. That said, it is a quite good powerset in practice. It doesn't have any glaring weaknesses, but is overall a bit "softer". You can absorb as much damage as an "invulnerable" tanker, but you need some more time to do it, since part of it is healed rather than resisted.

Since my only level 50 is a regenerating scrapper, I am quite used to the slower and more cautious approach. Tankers are generally not, and some may find it embarrassing to not be able to herd large groups of enemies without help.

"You aren't Invulnerable. Bullets don't bounce off of you, and if you are cut, you bleed. You are, however, tough, grizzled and strong willed. It takes more than a little cut to keep you down! Willpower offers a strong balance of healing, damage resistance and defense. While you have no real vulnerabilities, you can't quite deal with 'alpha strikes' as well as some other protective powers."