Whirlwind - anyone impressed?

[Cold_Stele]

I dropped the THF feats on my Kensai and Barb because now I Cleave/Great Cleave/Momentum Swing/Lay Waste continuously.

On my Kensai I put in Whirlwind instead. So far, not impressed.

Am I right in saying that the lengthy double swing animation actually only procs damage once? I also seem to get a small cooldown I can't attack in after the WW animation finishes.

Anyone actually using this and enjoying it or is it time to buy a Lesser Heart?

[shadereaper33]

personally, I like it on my kensai, though I do agree that the gap, for lack of a better word, after using it is a bit annoying. But, the fact that it is a +4[w] attack that hits an AoE is pretty nice, and fits well into my rotation at the moment, but that may change as I get further into legendary dreadnaught.

[hit_fido]

The double spin with only one set of attacks is what I see too. As well as the lengthy pause at the end. The latter is sure unnecessary, a bug I hope. It's been commented on before: https://forums-old.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=384257

Whirlwind caps a series of required feats; so for five feats total along with a minimum 13 INT and 13 DEX, you gain: 7% dodge, +2 MDB, no attack penalty when moving, a +10% ac/-5 to hit stance, and the whirlwind attack itself. Not to mention using it to it's fullest requires you to position in harms way in the midst of as many mobs as you can. The no movement to hit penalty and CE stance would be of questionable value; the dodge may not even be fully usable by heavy or medium armor wearers. I saw this as a way Turbine could give a more expensive but valuable dps tool to characters that want some defensive focus and were willing to pay feats for it but it is not nearly there yet.

Whirlwind can be fun but either it really needs to be more valuable than it is to justify the requirements and the higher risk play that's necessary for it to actually matter - and/or the requirements along the way need revised and improved. Just for whirlwind itself, remove the pause at the end and maybe leave the double spin but give two sets of attacks for it.

The most practical use has been a way to drop groups of bats in much shorter time than usual for a melee. That said, it comes no where close to the damage/range of caster AOE. I don't see that it has any value at all against a single target so if you're only worried about "boss fights"...