Willow's Path - underestimated or trash?

IndorilArwynLlethran

This set looks cool:
(2 items) Adds 129 Magicka Recovery
(3 items) Adds 129 Stamina Recovery
(4 items) Adds 129 Health Recovery
(5 items) Increases your Health, Stamina and Magicka Recovery by 15%.

In PVP recovery is an important thing, all three attributes recovery should be priceless, but i've never seen this set in "recommended" in any lists or game-ready builds. So, what do you think, people just forgot about it or it's not worth our attention pvp-wise?

IZZEFlameLash

It is probably bugged or looks more promising than it really is.

If they did not fix the bug where it does not affect drink buffs, it will still be a trash.

kaithuzar

Other (explain)

So I've used it before & it's still ok now but let me explain.

Originally when imperial city was on PTS it was AMAZING, I had like 4K mag regen at all times THEN they broke the set when IC was released.
They broke it by not allowing the 15% to take recovery from drinks into account (regarding their math formula).

They fixed it however they re-worked the formula & had previously nerfed things a bit aka removing reduced cost from cp tree & slightly nerfing recovery in general.

For this set to be good you basically have to stack all regen sources ie.. 15% of 2.5k regen is much more than 15% of 1.5k
So the more you stack the better but if you have almost no other sources of regen then the small amount that 15% does get you is worth maybe 1 recovery glyph, if that.

IndorilArwynLlethran

kaithuzar wrote: »

So I've used it before & it's still ok now but let me explain.

Originally when imperial city was on PTS it was AMAZING, I had like 4K mag regen at all times THEN they broke the set when IC was released.
They broke it by not allowing the 15% to take recovery from drinks into account (regarding their math formula).

They fixed it however they re-worked the formula & had previously nerfed things a bit aka removing reduced cost from cp tree & slightly nerfing recovery in general.

For this set to be good you basically have to stack all regen sources ie.. 15% of 2.5k regen is much more than 15% of 1.5k
So the more you stack the better but if you have almost no other sources of regen then the small amount that 15% does get you is worth maybe 1 recovery glyph, if that.

So, for example, if i have: Altmer racial passives, 5 Amberplazm, two glyphs with magicka regen, Atronach mundus and Witchmother brew/Clockwork citrus; Willow's will work good enough?

Trashs1

I tried it, it's trash.

Its grapp i dod the maths. Noone needs that much regen and therefore on a mage toon amberplasm is superrior.

On a stamtoon bone pirate or shackle is a way better..

Derra

I tried it, it's trash.

You just have to do do a little math to prove it´s suboptimal. Might change with the ability to wear two crafted sets.

glavius

I tried it, it's trash.

It's not that good compared to amberplasm/bone pirate. The health regen is mostly wasted. And the 5 piece requires very high base regens to be any good.

Koensol

I tried it, it's trash.

I tried to theorycraft a heavy armor build with this set, but you soon realize it badly lacks stats to be considered a viable choice.

Maulkin

It's one of the best levelling sets, along with Mechanical Acuity, as the 5p bonus scales because it's a % instead of flat value. As you pick better jewelry with better regen bonuses etc you can still keep wearing this set. However for end game content it's meh.

Health regen is a bit wasted. Especially since they changed Defiles to affect health regen. you can get more health regen from gold food. Stam Builds generally prefer Bone Pirate, Mag builds prefer Amber Plasm and Shacklebraker is more versatile than Willow's Path.

I can't think of any changes that would make it a good set but not make it too similar to Shackle, tbh.

IZZESparkling wrote: »

If they did not fix the bug where it does not affect drink buffs, it will still be a trash.

They fixed that about this time last year. Tested it myself round October. It's fixed.

Asardes

I'm using it, it's cool!

I'm using it, yet not in PvP, and the build I'm using it is rather niche, but still effective. Namely it's a PvE Magicka Sorcerer tank build using 5 Amber Plasm 5 Willow's Path 2 Ice Heart. Willow's Path amps both the stamina and magicka recovery given by Amber Plasm, and together with Sorcerer and High Elf passives, as well as Support:Magicka Aid allows me to stack 2.4K magicka and 1.4K stamina recovery with maximum health and magicka food. But in PvP, when you need to stack in a single stat & recovery in that stat to be effective, I would pick something else: Bone Pirate or Eternal Hunt for stamina, Amber Plasm or Lich for magicka.

kylewwefan

I tried it, it's trash.

You may also want to try oblivion foe crafted set for regen. It is also trash. Shacklebreaker would be better by far. I’m not really a big fan of shacklebreaker either though.

Aedaryl

I tried it, it's trash.

I tried it on magsorc and magblade :

There is 2 problem for using willow's path.

The first is you need a non crafted damage set to pair with the full sustain willow's give => Even with Necro, the stats aren't good enough.

The second is that willow's path is great on non main ressource regen (1.2k+), but it's trash on your main ressource => If I run willow's on a sorc with necro, I have 2.8k mag regen with 3 recovery glyph, and 2k regen with 3 spell damage glyph, it's too much sustain and no damager OR it's acceptable damage but no sustain.

raasdal

I tried it, it's trash.

As others have pointed out. Doing the math will quickly show you, that other sets would be better.

Example would be a common Stam Build;

2000 Stam Rec
800 Magicka Rec
500 Health Rec.

Or thereabouts. 15% on each, will give you;

300 Stam
120 Mag
75 Health

And those numbers are too high, since they are already containing similar buffs, which do not stack multiplicatively.

The problem is, that when it comes to Magicka and Stamina regen, you have a Threshold you want to achieve, and no more than that. Everything above your threshold is a "negative" since your will be oversustaining, which means you are loosing out on damage.

Willows Path CAN be very strong, if your main goal is to stack as much as possible of at least one resource regen. An example could be a Health Regen tank. Such a build would benefit hugely from Willows, since we would assume that we would actively invest in Health Regen on Jewelry and other Set items.

Percentage based increases to your Regens generally seem to only become "viable" in comparison with adding raw stats, when said resource regen is about 2000.

Leandor

A @Soulac 's path post!

A minute of commemorations.

Joy_Division

This set was good before IC when our stats were low and the only alternative decent set out there was Martial's.

Maulkin

Leandor wrote: »

A @Soulac 's path post!

A minute of commemorations.

Don't summon ghosts please. He's in WoW atm telling us yesterday how he loves PvE'ing there.

Yiko

Like others have said, Willow's generally loses out to power-creeped sets, especially considering Defile now reduces health recovery. That said, Willow's still has great value when paired with Troll King and gold food, though you may be oversustaining magicka in some cases on stam builds.

Minno

They need to add crit and max stats to make this competitive. Otherwise it's low tier leveling.

You'll get more benefit running kags light armor than running willows anything.

Xvorg

I tried it, it's trash.

On a stam toon, Marksman has better stats and buffs your bow dmg too. Air 3 pieces gets quite close to 5 pieces Willows (+250 stam recovery)

On a magicka toon, alteration master is far superior, while Transmutation also includes defense. Not to mention Lich and Warlock... even Wyrd tree is better

Maulkin

You know what the sad thing about willow is? Back in the day it would have been a great set if it was working.

Back then you didn’t have drinks giving a mixture of both max stats and regen like Dubious or Witchmother. You had either tri-stat food or tri-stat regen drink. And this set worked well with try regen drinks.

Back then there were no Amberplasm, Shackle, Bone Pirate etc. The sustain sets of the time were Warlock, Arch-Mage, Magnus Gift and Seducer. And this set was the best set for regen on paper. But sadly it never got to be worn because it was bugged for 2 years. And by the time the fixed it all these new sets added to the game had made it obsolete.

Arobain

I'm using it, it's cool!

for hybrid builds, great, if not, not so much

fred4

They've adjusted how this set works several times. I second the use with Troll King in PvP. You don't have to be a health regen tank, per se, to reap a benefit, and the argument that health regen can be defiled doesn't really carry any weight. Healing is healing. It has to come from somewhere and can be defiled regardless where it comes from. If it comes from Troll King, then the set may be useful, but it has competition from other sets, such as Orgnum's Scales.

kaithuzar

Other (explain)

Take a lesson from me, I did so well in IC PTS with this set so I golded it out in heavy on live and have basically never had the opportunity to use it because they've made it perform so much less than it was.