Willow

Class: Controller

Rarity: Mythic

Trio: Swamp of Love with Angelo and Alli

Best skin: Demon Willow

Mastery title: "Is in your head!"

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Willow is one of the only throwers that can actually do well aggressive options with her super, gadget and poisoning main attack. However, against more ranged options or other throwers, her shots are easy to dodge and can't use her other abilities very well.​

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Health: 3100 to 6200

Movement speed: Normal​​​​​​

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Main Attack: Lantern's Curse

"Willow lobs her lantern, dealing damage over time to enemies hit."

Damage: 3 x 400 to 800

Range: Long

Reload Speed: Slow

Willow's main attack is a lobbing attack that poisons enemies in its area of effect. It deals a solid amount of damage over time, and also hits faster the closer it is aimed to Willow. However, this means it travels very slow when aiming far away from Willow, making it hard to hit enemies at a distance. It also reloads quite slowly, not making her the greatest thrower for area control.​

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Super: Hex

"Willow fires a single tadpole towards an enemy Brawler, fully healing them and taking control over their mind if it hits. Willow can use the basic attack of the enemy Brawler and move them as she pleases. Mind control breaks after 4 seconds or when the Brawler reaches 30% HP."

Damage reduction: 50%

Duration: 4 seconds

Range: Long

Willow's super allows her to take control of any brawler she hits, healing them to full health and letting her move and use their main attack for a short period of time while Willow herself gains a 50% damage reduction shield. It is best used to defend herself against aggressive brawlers, as she can use their engage against them. Common tactics are wasting their ammo, killing their teammates, or putting them in a position for your teammates to kill them once the mind control wears off. However, the super doesn't pass through walls, making it hard for Willow to use it aggressively as a thrower.​​

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Gadget 1: Spellbound

"Willow's next Lantern's Curse deals 600 more damage and applies the entire damage instantly rather than over time."

Cooldown: 13 seconds

This gadget allows Willow's next attack to have a considerable amount of burst damage, but takes away its damage over time. It is a solid finisher if you can land it, and has a short cooldown as well. However, it doesn't charge up her super or hypercharge at all, making it much worse than it seems.

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Gadget 2: Dive

"Willow dives for 2 seconds, becoming untargetable but unable to take any action for the duration."

Cooldown: 16 seconds

This gadget is amazing for keeping Willow alive if she jumped by an aggressive brawler, making her unable to take any damage. She can't move or attack while diving, however it is still incredibly useful since her attacks deal damage over time, often allowing her to kill enemies while being untargetable. She also still reloads her ammo while diving, allowing her to pop up and fire out a few shots to deal a lot of damage over time to nearby enemies. It is also great for dodging high damage abilities such as a Mandy or Nani super, however don't use it in the open as most players can pre-fire their shots when she pops back up.

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Star Power 1: Love Is Blind

"Lantern's Curse also reduces reload speed of affected Brawlers by 30% for 3 seconds."

This star power is overall underwhelming, only slightly decreasing reload speed for poisoned brawlers. This can make a decent impact throughout the game, however it still isn't the most useful.

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Star Power 2: Obsession

"Hexed enemies gain 33% movement speed while mind controlled."

This star power allows Willow's mind control to put much more pressure on enemies, chasing them down much more effectively. This is especially good since she will mainly be controlling high damage short range brawlers, allowing her to get mind control kills more effectively. It also makes goal scoring with a mind controlled brawler in Brawl Ball much easier, as they can run the ball into the goal much faster.

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Hypercharge: Psychic Safety

"Willow gains an invulnerability shield on landing her Hex. She remains shielded until Hex is broken."

Charge rate: 2 and 1/2 supers

This hypercharge essentially turns Willow's 50% damage reduction shield while mind controlling to a 100% damage reduction shield, making it impossible to kill her while she is mind controlling another brawler. The effect is overall decent, however it won't lead to more kills, since it just increases her survivability when supering. It charges relatively fast, allowing you to potentially get multiple in a game.​​​​​​​

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Gear selection:

Damage and Shield are Willow's best gears overall, giving her solid stat boosts that make her more effective against aggressive brawlers. She can take and deal more damage with these gear options, making her more threatening on the map.

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Best build: 

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Other good abilities to buy:

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Best Matchups:

As a thrower, Willow does best into brawlers that can't attack her behind walls, allowing her to easily hit enemies back. She is also best against high damage brawlers since she can use their damage as her own with her mind control. Brawlers such as Rico, Surge, and Amber are effective brawlers to mind control, can't really attack Willow from behind a wall, and her Dive gadget allows her to dodge their burst damage.

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Best Counters:

Unlike most artillery brawlers, Willow struggles against other throwers rather than aggressive brawlers, as she can easily mind control aggressive option with her super and dodge their attacks with Dive. However, most throwers can pretty easily outrange, outdamage, or zone better than Willow, resulting in her losing most thrower matchups. Throwers such as Barley, Larry & Lawrie, and Juju can easily dodge Willow's attacks and force her back with their control abilities or spawns, making it much harder for Willow to have an impact on the game.

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Best Game Modes: 

Willow is one of the best throwers for Brawl Ball due to the abundance of aggressive brawlers that are played, and her super allows for easy goals if she picks up the ball with a mind controlled enemy. She can also be good on some Bounty/Wipeout maps as a thrower against aggressive brawler, which can be good if you want to take position behind walls but are scared of aggressive options.​

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Tips and Tricks:

• Try to always mind control the brawler with the highest damage on the enemy team, as it will more likely result in you getting kills with them.

• If there are no nearby enemies after you mind control a brawler, try to get them near your teammates and have them waste their ammo, letting them easily get the kill.

• Willow's super heals an enemy back to full health, so try not to use it on an enemy that is on low health, as they will likely be saved by your super.

• Willow's super makes it incredibly easy to score in Brawl Ball. Just pass the ball to an enemy then immediately super them. The movement speed boost from Obsession also helps walk the ball in even easier.

• There are several bugs with Willow's super, which can make some interactions very strange. Since there are so many abilities, they can have weird combinations with Willow's mind control.

• Willow's main attack can unload itself relatively fast, making her a solid thrower against enemies that try to push up, as her poison damage will stack up very quickly if they get hit by all her shots.​

• Try not to use Willow's normal super in the open, as even with a 50% damage reduction, it is possible for enemies to kill her, and she still charges their super. This is irrelevant for her hypercharged super.

Overall ranking: A