rychu097 wrote: Fri Jul 10, 2026 6:50 pm
Please do not lie that regen WE lose anything.
Ofc there is no such big crits like in glass cannon build but witchbrew build was never about it.
You still try to hide fact that in full regen/def build WE can cap strenght to melt ppl with corporeal WB damage and also other dot spells. This spec has also access to HD, spell immune, Vanish and KD.
This spec win vs almost all dps or tanks and even can kill healers.
What is the cost? 1) it takes few seconds more than burst spec. 2) if You dont have enough damage to kill turtle or heal u can go away.
Balanced AF. You can ez check on killboard that this spec is also effective in grp play like scenarios. Check for example Solater.
I can't speak for what other WEs are doing in their defensive specs, but what you've listed is certainly not true for most of the defensive WEs I know.
For starters, if you're going full defensive, you need the left tree to pick up the extra 10% parry. Rest goes in middle tree for witchbrew and heal debuff - because your damage is much lower, you need that magic damage. This means that in defensive spec, you don't have vanish or knockdown. Without the vanish, you also lack your 2nd leap.
As for who defensive WEs lose to?
1) 2h tanks - im talking equal gear/skill ofc, lower ranked 2h tanks are easy prey. But a BiS 2h tank has more health, more armour, more parry, similar regen and their damage aint too far off either. They can parry most of your attacks, mitigate most of those that do get through, and they can hit you hard. When im solo roaming on my 2h BO, witch hunters are my favourite target! Likewise, on my WE, I know some of the good 2h order tanks and I'll avoid them most of the time (unless im bored ofc!!!).
2) SnB tanks - they simply have too much mitigation and regen for you to kill. You might be able to do it if you're willing for fight for ages, but chances are your fight will get interrupted before you can finish it.
Now, this is how its supposed to work in the rock-paper-scissors style of balance: tanks should be able to kill WEs. Now, that said, WEs do have plenty of escape skills to get away from tanks, and 2h tanks often give up utility in order to do damage. Between back-leap, root break, M1 parry and sprint elixir, you can often escape if you want to. But if a tank forces you to run, you've lost
Other classes you can lose to:
3) WHs - I feel def WE is stronger than def WH, but if you are a defensive WE than you're vulnerable to glass-cannon WHs. They can knock you down and remove most of your health before you stand up again. Your high parry and regen isn't enough to overcome that initial deficit.
4) WLs - again, talking purely equal rank/skill, but a good WL will bypass half your parry, all your armour, has better damage than you and great mobility to boot. Obviously, their spec makes a huge difference, same as WE. Some WLs just seem to drop like a sack of ****.
5) Full-spec healers - defensive WE lacks the damage to get through a full healer's healing. Like, not even close. Most of the time, a healer will be able to run away from you. The way to win is through grinding them down - keeping pressure on them whilst draining their AP, if you're lucky they might run out of AP at the wrong time and be vulnerable.
6) DPS RPs - their damage is higher than you, their damage avoids all your mitigation, and their self-healing is better than yours.
Again, all of this is comparison of same rank / same skill level. If the WEs target is lower ranked then ofc their chance of success will be much higher. But thats true of just about every class out there: if you're higher geared and ranked, you'll probably win.
As I’ve said after many discussions with fellow solo players, there’s a recurring pattern: many soloers builds specifically to withstand WEs regardless if the WE builds are glassy or tanky.
