Willow - Criticism & Rework Suggestions

[mr._.tete]

Willow - The Firestarter

Ahh Willow, the one character no one wants in their server, and undeniably one of the worst characters in Don't Starve Together right now. The worst in my opinion, yes even more so than Wes. Hey! at least Wes starts off with a Walking Cane kind of, and has a purpose of being the 'Challenge Character' for experienced players(Wes is best, more love for Wes).  As for Willow, she's not hard to use, but she's also not easy to use, at least for the experienced players. She is actually quite horrible for the new and inexperienced players.

Before we proceed to the suggestions, let us discuss the current Willow first and give criticisms to her character. This will be a long read so maybe grab a cup of coffee or something.

1. 150 Health 150 Hunger and 120 Sanity.
2. Losses and Gains Sanity 10% Faster
3. Immune to Fire Damage
4. More easily Frozen and needs more insulation to get warm
5. Has a Teddy Bear named Bernie which taunts Nightmare Creatures and other non-boss mobs

Just briefly looking at Willow, she seems like a beginner character, but she's not. She has more downsides than upsides, actually most of her perks are downsides. Let's discuss these points separately.

1. Her Base Stats are very normal. It's not good but ain't bad either
2. Her losing and gaining sanity faster is really really bad. Most inexperienced players are unable to deal with shadow creatures and having the 'perk' of losing sanity 10% faster is nothing but bad. Her gaining sanity 10% faster is also pretty much made useless but her losing it 10% faster as well.
3. Her immunity to fire damage is one without downsides. But that also isn't all that great since the last thing people die to is Fire. Let us also not forget that the one Boss that uses Fire Damage is Dragonfly and no one in their right mind fights an Enraged Dragonfly. Lastly, Willow still takes damage from Overheating which doesn't make sense when she does not take damage from FIRE!
4. Her being more easily frozen and needing more insulation to get warm is actually nice and adds to her character, that is being a pyromaniac. Does not need any change.
5. She has Teddy Bear named Bernie which gives a small amount of insulation when equipped. Bernie will become BERNIE! at 15% Sanity(when insane) and will Taunt shadow creatures helping Willow deal with Shadow Creatures. It seems great just reading that does it? But nope, it's actually not that useful. Let me explain, for the two types of players. The inexperienced and experienced. For the inexperienced, Bernie is useless because these people are hardly ever insane and avoid being insane altogether, they don't do stuff that makes them insane. The one thing that makes these players insane is wetness, but if they're struggling with wetness, freezing will kill them before nightmare creatures do. For the experienced players, Bernie is useful only when farming nightmare creatures for Nightmare Fuel and that is also only occasionally. Experienced players are not insane most of the time and are well capable of handling Nightmare Creatures without the help of Bernie.

Now that we got the Criticism out of the way. Lets move on to the Rework Suggestions:

1. Basic Stats - Hunger Health and Sanity should remain as they are.
2. She will loss sanity 10% faster when she does not have Bernie in her inventory, hand or is not in the near vicinity of Willow and vice versa for gaining sanity 10% faster
3. Her Immunity to Fire Damage should be kept. She should also be completely invulnerable to Overheating Damage

As for Bernie, I want to write my suggestion separately for ease of reading since there are a lot to talk about. So here it is:

1. Bernie should be able transform to BERNIE! at 40% Sanity via player interaction (Right-Click). BERNIE will automatically revert to Bernie at sanity level higher than 40%
2. BERNIE! Health should be reduced from 2000-1000.
3. BERNIE! should be Rideable by Willow via Player Interaction(Right-Click)
4. BERNIE! should still Taunt Nightmare Creatures but only when not being ridden by Willow.
5. BERNIE!'s Attack Speed should be the same as that of the Player when using to attack when riding and his Attack Damage at 50 remaining the same.
6. BERNIE! movement speed should be 125%. Same speed as that of using a Walking Cane when Riding and not.
7. Willow should receive 50% of all damage taken by BERNIE! when riding. Meaning BERNIE! will still receive 100% of damage taken while Willow will also take 50% of that damage. Unlike riding Beefalo, Willow should not receive 100% of damage from Range Attacks.
8. BERNIE! should revert to Bernie when his health is fully depleted and will need a Sewing Kit/Trusty Tape to Fix. Willow will also be able to Heal Bernie using said items. Each use of Sewing Kit/Trusty Tape will recover the Health of Bernie by 200.

For the part of Willow taking some damage received by BERNIE! You might be confused as to why this should be a thing. This is because I picture Willow holding onto BERNIE! at his back. That is Willow putting her hands at the shoulder of BERNIE! Like a Piggyback Ride. Moreover, I believe it adds some kind of NERF to using BERNIE! to fight enemies.

Well there's that. My suggestion for a Willow Rework. Although with the character refreshes coming out, I highly doubt this will see the light of day, but I just thought I'd put this out while its fresh in my mind.

 

[Guille6785]

3 hours ago, mr._.tete said:

Lights a fire at 50% sanity and below

tell me you've never played willow without telling me you've never played willow

[QuartzBeam]

4 hours ago, mr._.tete said:

Lights a fire at 50% sanity and below

[mr._.tete]

12 hours ago, Guille6785 said:

tell me you've never played willow without telling me you've never played willow

Seems I was given wrong information. I'll edit that part out.

11 hours ago, QuartzBeam said:

Ahh yes a mistake on my part. Was given wrong information. Editting the part out

[QuartzBeam]

40 minutes ago, mr._.tete said:

Ahh yes a mistake on my part. Was given wrong information. Editting the part out

That's gotta be the shortest time traveler RP I've ever partaken in. Sad.

[lakhnish]

Ah yes, making Willow the firestarter into Willow the BERNIE master, very thematically appropriate :>