[Vid] GW2 WvW End of Dragons: Willbender, Harbringer, and Virtuoso Breakdowns

[RisenHowl.2419]

 

[subversiontwo.7501]

Do you think the F3/synergies on the Bender will stay? It feels highly unintended. I hope they don't gut Shattered Aegis further just to keep that trick for the Bender. The trait still has some other application today, plus I don't think the forums could handle the avalanche of posts from Caysadia if they did something sloppy like putting an icd on the rebuke 😉.

Edited August 29, 2021 by subversiontwo.7501

[God.2708]

1 hour ago, subversiontwo.7501 said:

Do you think the F3/synergies on the Bender will stay? It feels highly unintended. I hope they don't gut Shattered Aegis further just to keep that trick for the Bender. The trait still has some other application today, plus I don't think the forums could handle the avalanche of posts from Caysadia if they did something sloppy like putting an icd on the rebuke 😉.

I would hope they'd keep it but simply make the boon proc on a 6 hit cycle so it doesn't auto loop itself. (Or make it so shattered aegis hits don't count towards the hit count, but that sounds more difficult to implement). That also puts a check on Tenacious Defense, which, even if SA gets nerfed, could still see some wild interactions with courage leaps every 6s if the blocks get rolling from other AoEs.

Even unintended it seems slightly to strong at best. The damage is just enough to make them compete with their DH brethren. Though it definitely gives clouds a new toy to kamikaze with.

[RisenHowl.2419]

12 hours ago, subversiontwo.7501 said:

Do you think the F3/synergies on the Bender will stay? It feels highly unintended. I hope they don't gut Shattered Aegis further just to keep that trick for the Bender. The trait still has some other application today, plus I don't think the forums could handle the avalanche of posts from Caysadia if they did something sloppy like putting an icd on the rebuke 😉.

I think/hope they'll put a 0.5 second icd on f3 and reduce its cooldown to 40s. That opens up some build options without killing the interaction completely. If they leave it as is they're just asking for players to crash the server in big fights with 10+ willbenders zerg diving at a time

 

10 hours ago, God.2708 said:

I would hope they'd keep it but simply make the boon proc on a 6 hit cycle so it doesn't auto loop itself. (Or make it so shattered aegis hits don't count towards the hit count, but that sounds more difficult to implement). That also puts a check on Tenacious Defense, which, even if SA gets nerfed, could still see some wild interactions with courage leaps every 6s if the blocks get rolling from other AoEs.

Even unintended it seems slightly to strong at best. The damage is just enough to make them compete with their DH brethren. Though it definitely gives clouds a new toy to kamikaze with.

 

6 hit cycle would work as well, though that harms willbender in every other game mode unnecessarily. The only reason it's strong in wvw is because there's so many targets, same issue as all the current f1 virtue options with permeating wrath

 

If they drop the cd to 40s and implement a 0.5s icd:

you can potentially get 12 procs of tenacious defense per activation (-12s)

another 5 each from mace 3, shield 4, and each charge of advance (-20s)

 

giving you an 8s cd on crashing courage, less with frenzy sigils/alacrity/communal defense. Overall that's a fairly balanced way to go about it, since it allows for a rotation of skill use and a window to use those skills effectively. Realistically a well played willbender could probably use f3 every 12-15s on average if traited with zeal/valor/wb

 

Against full squads/map queues it's very easy to pull off, people were pulling 50k+ spikes when they only had a few days to work with it. I'd imagine if they left it as is and gave us a chance to optimize the damage output we'd see 70k spikes as the norm with a meta shift to more clouding/pirate shipping as guilds will want to avoid giving enemy willbenders an opportunity to solo dive

[Caysadia.7405]

On 8/28/2021 at 8:36 PM, subversiontwo.7501 said:

Do you think the F3/synergies on the Bender will stay? It feels highly unintended. I hope they don't gut Shattered Aegis further just to keep that trick for the Bender. The trait still has some other application today, plus I don't think the forums could handle the avalanche of posts from Caysadia if they did something sloppy like putting an icd on the rebuke 😉.

I will kitten fury

[Junkpile.7439]

They should remove that stupid heal and and some more interesting heal. 

[LetoII.3782]

I dunno, I'm pretty happy with the reactive heal

[RisenHowl.2419]

10 hours ago, LetoII.3782 said:

I dunno, I'm pretty happy with the reactive heal

Really? It doesn't bug out on you at all?

[LetoII.3782]

3 hours ago, RisenHowl.2419 said:

Really? It doesn't bug out on you at all?

That's what betas are for \o/

The concept is solid

[RisenHowl.2419]

11 hours ago, LetoII.3782 said:

That's what betas are for \o/

The concept is solid

It could use a 1s invuln window rather than negating a single attack. The only place it's worthwhile is in 1v1s, and even there if it's a multi-hit attack or a couple pulsing aoes the heal does nothing for you. It'll negate a 300 damage tick from a pet attack or a symbol, heal you for 4k, then you eat the 8k bomb.

 

The payoff for using the skill well only makes it 'okay' in comparison to your other healing skills even in ideal scenarios where you have someone repeatedly attacking you. When you're kiting around los to heal for instance you're only ever getting 2k health back