Condi Willbender in PvE...

[KeoLegend.5132]

So i've been Testing Condi Willbender PvE With Vipers/Sinister ,Radiance/Virtues/Willbender and i have to say that im very satisfied with the class. Not only the damage is similar to a Condi Firebrand but the class is much more mobile and fun to play compared to FB (i just hate how boring and stationary FB is + the FB theme).

I wonder if anybody else is happy with the class or if am i being too passionate about it without logical thinking. Also feel free to share builds and thoughts, specially on rotations cuz i tend to mess up after 3 or 4 F1s because the cooldowns doesn't match the Sword/Torch skills, nor the Whirling Light so idk if i should wait to use F1 or just F1 right away and do some Sword autos

[MichalAniol.5807]

Would you share your build? I have Viper gear from condi FB and I'm not sure about mine.

[Gwaihir.1745]

I play WvW but I could seem condi willbender being more viable in pve because you can stay in virtue 2 flames for alacrity to reset f1 at will, not so much in wvw combat if you go to f2 your opponent stops taking damage and gains the upper hand.

 

I think core guard with bursting sigil can still do most everything a wb in pve would be able to though, you might try running core with sword and JI for mobility, lots of fun.

[quaniesan.8497]

Condi guard, regardless of spec, would do very well in pve.  Even core guard with one blank trait line.  So I'm not surprised that you find condi WB being decent at killing things.

Nothing beats burn core guard in high sustain burn over time. He does very consistent insane ticks of burning.  WB does better in burst burn and count on that window of 6 second to bust out all the condi triggers, but then it tappers off until the next uptime. It's still weaker than core, but very reasonable in pve still, while having higher mobility. But in pve, unless you do raid or something, mobility isnt exactly a high priority, whereas dps is always more desirable in all pve contents. In the end, core comes out on top imo as far as efficiency. If jumping around makes it more exciting, i don't blame you for picking WB for this job.

 

Edited March 4, 2022 by quaniesan.8497

[Eliam.3716]

15 hours ago, KeoLegend.5132 said:

So i've been Testing Condi Willbender PvE With Vipers/Sinister ,Radiance/Virtues/Willbender and i have to say that im very satisfied with the class. Not only the damage is similar to a Condi Firebrand but the class is much more mobile and fun to play compared to FB (i just hate how boring and stationary FB is + the FB theme).

I wonder if anybody else is happy with the class or if am i being too passionate about it without logical thinking. Also feel free to share builds and thoughts, specially on rotations cuz i tend to mess up after 3 or 4 F1s because the cooldowns doesn't match the Sword/Torch skills, nor the Whirling Light so idk if i should wait to use F1 or just F1 right away and do some Sword autos

 

Mind sharing your build please?

[Saiyan.1704]

Firebrand used to be awesome when the spec was released but Anet gutted the Tombs entry/exit, along with overall quickness making it a bit more clunky to play... Fb used to be so much fun with its higher skillcap playstyle compared to Core guardian. It's unfortunate that FB got nerfed so darn badly.

[KeoLegend.5132]

7 hours ago, Eliam.3716 said:

 

Mind sharing your build please?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PWDBw+t/jVYdsKsotuipA-zRZYLRP8F0rZ4gKk4igATgOKAHmlHNrA-e

I use it to solo OW too so thats why im using Sigil of Strenght and Willbender 1-2-2 instead of 1-1-2

[Makion.3457]

Im using full viper with Crusader gear and runes of the firebrand, works fine but I had to use meditations for extra heal because the class F2 and F3 are trash with no cleansing whatsoever.

[InsaneQR.7412]

So you play a Firebender huh?

[Kuya.6495]

I have also found condi willbender fun to play in pve. Especially open world. Sustain is good thanks to how the virtues work when you're cleaving multiple targets, and the purging flames+whirling light combo is also very smooth and satisfying. I dps tested the build and the damage is on par (possibly better?) With condi firebrand. 

 

My only problem with the spec right now is that alacrity willbender is frustrating to play and I haven't figured out how to do good dps and maintain alacrity for a group. Condi willbender doesn't seem good with alacrity share since you give up permeating wrath for battle presence and if you use f1 it overrides f2 alacrity. So I am trying it with diviners and using similar rotations as dh but I'm having a hard time regardless with uptime and dps.

 

In pvp, well I haven't tried going to pvp since last beta. But from what I've heard willbender is still bad in pvp.

Edited March 4, 2022 by Kuya.6495

[KeoLegend.5132]

19 hours ago, Saiyan.1704 said:

Firebrand used to be awesome when the spec was released but Anet gutted the Tombs entry/exit, along with overall quickness making it a bit more clunky to play... Fb used to be so much fun with its higher skillcap playstyle compared to Core guardian. It's unfortunate that FB got nerfed so darn badly.

i tried Core Burn vs Condi Willbender.

In a Solo Scenário (against golem without any party buffs) Condi Willbender won by a second.

In a scenario when i can get perma alac Condi Willbender gets way better time because F1 is always up

 

The difference in OW is veery small if any, but still it feels way more mobile and fast.

BTW in my testings Condi FB parsed the worse out of those 3

[KeoLegend.5132]

10 hours ago, Kuya.6495 said:

I have also found condi willbender fun to play in pve. Especially open world. Sustain is good thanks to how the virtues work when you're cleaving multiple targets, and the purging flames+whirling light combo is also very smooth and satisfying. I dps tested the build and the damage is on par (possibly better?) With condi firebrand. 

 

My only problem with the spec right now is that alacrity willbender is frustrating to play and I haven't figured out how to do good dps and maintain alacrity for a group. Condi willbender doesn't seem good with alacrity share since you give up permeating wrath for battle presence and if you use f1 it overrides f2 alacrity. So I am trying it with diviners and using similar rotations as dh but I'm having a hard time regardless with uptime and dps.

 

In pvp, well I haven't tried going to pvp since last beta. But from what I've heard willbender is still bad in pvp.

imo it just doesn't worth running alac sup on Willbender because of Alacrigade. It can Alac and deal good DPS with a single button, while Willbender would have too sacrifice too much to keep an abysmal alac. I think the added alac is just a bonus, not a mechanic to help the party at all.

Im having a lot of wins with CondiBender on PvP, but again, maybe im noob, because i also get nice results with Core Burn Guard, losing only to smart? players that knows how to cleanse well

[Only Even.6193]

Guys, I don't know if it's bugged, but Permeating Wrath and Amplified Wrath doesn't work with Willbender.

I do far more dps and above all, Cleave, with core guard than with Willbender.

These 2 Traits are just wasted since they seems to do nothing toward your F1.

As a burn guard all that matter is to proc permeating wrath as much as possible (every 3 hits for the area burning, and every 1,5 hits on symbol).

[KeoLegend.5132]

38 minutes ago, Only Even.6193 said:

Guys, I don't know if it's bugged, but Permeating Wrath and Amplified Wrath doesn't work with Willbender.

I do far more dps and above all, Cleave, with core guard than with Willbender.

These 2 Traits are just wasted since they seems to do nothing toward your F1.

As a burn guard all that matter is to proc permeating wrath as much as possible (every 3 hits for the area burning, and every 1,5 hits on symbol).

You are bugged then. Both helps F1. I now Burn every 3 attacks instead of every 5 attacks with F1.

Just be sure that you understand how Willbender Virtues works: They doesn'y have passives, only actives. So you activate it and for a few seconds the "passive" starts proccing until it goes on cooldown

[Only Even.6193]

49 minutes ago, KeoLegend.5132 said:

You are bugged then. Both helps F1. I now Burn every 3 attacks instead of every 5 attacks with F1.

Just be sure that you understand how Willbender Virtues works: They doesn'y have passives, only actives. So you activate it and for a few seconds the "passive" starts proccing until it goes on cooldown

 

Thank you.

I always played burn guard so my fingers tend to avoid the F1 button, still seems funky to me to hide a passive behind a skill usage, but I will adapt for sure, looks like we have 8 seconds of active passive if traited, with refresh on kill so It's all good.

Thanks for the info.

[KeoLegend.5132]

15 minutes ago, Only Even.6193 said:

 

Thank you.

I always played burn guard so my fingers tend to avoid the F1 button, still seems funky to me to hide a passive behind a skill usage, but I will adapt for sure, looks like we have 8 seconds of active passive if traited, with refresh on kill so It's all good.

Thanks for the info.

i feel you haha. Its funny because im the same. NEVER PRESS F1!!!! and now, DON'T LET F1 STAY UNPRESSED!

 

Poor Brain. But i gotta say, using F1, F2 and F3 on Willbender feels and flows better to me imo. Makes the rotation more fun and engaging

[Only Even.6193]

3 hours ago, KeoLegend.5132 said:

i feel you haha. Its funny because im the same. NEVER PRESS F1!!!! and now, DON'T LET F1 STAY UNPRESSED!

 

Poor Brain. But i gotta say, using F1, F2 and F3 on Willbender feels and flows better to me imo. Makes the rotation more fun and engaging

 

Yep, with Willbender I feel like a ninja dashing and bouncing laying fire areas everywhere (okay except when I forget to target a "certain" Boss and dash out of the platform hoping nobody saw me).

Too bad the Jade Tech Hat (available on TP) is only for Medium Specs..

[Sena.2761]

Hey, I've been doing Condibender for my T4s and general PVE and I find the spec to be pretty awesome.

The damage and burst you have is just a direct upgrade from cFB in exchange for losing the mob controlling aspects of Tome1 #3 and Axe #3. I was a little worried about how the damage goes down against bosses who move out of F1 flames but it's not as bad as I thought.

 

Obviously, cFB still boasts superior defensive utilities and teamplay stuff with team-stunbreaks and reflects/stability and whatnot, but I find Condi Willbender more than holds its own as a better damage classs with crazy burst.

 

I go for a careful mix of Vipers/Sinister myself since you cap out on Fire Duration pretty easily with Balth Runes and Condibender doesn't do a secondary condition like cFB does with bleeding, so Expertise is a dead stat at a certain point.

 

Small thing, but Condibender has a lot of built in natural condi cleanse since you can trait your F2 to cleanse 3 Condis per use with Absolute Resolve. You lose 10% Strike Damage, but I find it to be mostly irrelevant given how something like 80% or more of my damage is burning.

Edited March 5, 2022 by Sena.2761

[KeoLegend.5132]

2 minutes ago, Sena.2761 said:

Hey, I've been doing Condibender for my T4s and general PVE and I find the spec to be pretty awesome.

The damage and burst you have is just a direct upgrade from cFB in exchange for losing the mob controlling aspects of Tome1 #3 and Axe #3. I was a little worried about how the damage goes down against bosses who move out of F1 flames but it's not as bad as I thought.

 

Obviously, cFB still boasts superior defensive utilities and teamplay stuff with team-stunbreaks and reflects/stability and whatnot, but I find Condi Willbender more than holds its own as a better damage classs with crazy burst.

 

I go for a careful mix of Vipers/Sinister myself since you cap out on Fire Duration pretty easily with Balth Runes and Condibender doesn't do a secondary condition like cFB does with bleeding, so Expertise is a dead stat at a certain point.

just as i did! Im having awesome results. Parsing TOP#3 DPS on every strike and 1 or closely 2 on T4s

[Sena.2761]

1 minute ago, KeoLegend.5132 said:

just as i did! Im having awesome results. Parsing TOP#3 DPS on every strike and 1 or closely 2 on T4s

I do my T4s with my wife and the only time I haven't gotten top dps was against a Nightmare where the Pukes prevented me from getting into melee. She normally plays Harbringer/Scourge and man has the damage gap between us gotten wide.

 

I use a Greatsword for my secondary swap over Scepter since I really like GS5 for helping ball up adds and the GS2 gives you a second whirl finisher for burning bolts. Sometimes I chain that with Purging Flames and the Tatsu for back to back whirl finishers and oh man the burst you get from that is so nuts. I feel like a Power class sometimes with how hard that spikes your damage.

[KeoLegend.5132]

1 minute ago, Sena.2761 said:

I do my T4s with my wife and the only time I haven't gotten top dps was against a Nightmare where the Pukes prevented me from getting into melee. She normally plays Harbringer/Scourge and man has the damage gap between us gotten wide.

 

I use a Greatsword for my secondary swap over Scepter since I really like GS5 for helping ball up adds and the GS2 gives you a second whirl finisher for burning bolts. Sometimes I chain that with Purging Flames and the Tatsu for back to back whirl finishers and oh man the burst you get from that is so nuts. I feel like a Power class sometimes with how hard that spikes your damage.

honestly i only use scepter if i need to range something. I tried GS and liked it too. Im just too newb to theorycraft about it. Even with it being all power, the multiple hits on GS2 and GS4 makes a lot of procs of F1. 

Maybe Viper isn't even the best gear, we still don't know. But it looks very promissing because its like the only Condi Class that can burst almost as quick as a power DPS one. Im happy with it

[rhaize.8762]

35 minutes ago, KeoLegend.5132 said:

honestly i only use scepter if i need to range something. I tried GS and liked it too. Im just too newb to theorycraft about it. Even with it being all power, the multiple hits on GS2 and GS4 makes a lot of procs of F1. 

Maybe Viper isn't even the best gear, we still don't know. But it looks very promissing because its like the only Condi Class that can burst almost as quick as a power DPS one. Im happy with it

Out of interest are you able to share your build? I’ve just come back from core GW2 and a smattering of HoT and PoF. Used to simply playing with GS power DH, but no idea what weapon set suits WB best. I LOVE gs, my understanding is that WB is primarily s/x primary?

[Kuya.6495]

I personally prefer sword/torch and scepter since regardless of whether you are on sword or scepter you always have torch on to use when it procs torch 4. Also torch 5 is also multi hit which is good for wb.

[draxynnic.3719]

7 hours ago, rhaize.8762 said:

Out of interest are you able to share your build? I’ve just come back from core GW2 and a smattering of HoT and PoF. Used to simply playing with GS power DH, but no idea what weapon set suits WB best. I LOVE gs, my understanding is that WB is primarily s/x primary?

Depends on what build you're running. Vanguard Tactics works best with a sword because the symbol is also a shadowstep, and if you want to use a sword offhand, sword mainhand synergises best with Willbender because it's melee (you wouldn't use sword offhand with scepter) and dishes out a large number of strikes for triggering virtue procs. Greatsword will work, though, since that gives you Whirling Wrath and the symbol.

[Carnifex.3275]

I'm still not sure if it's a more fun class or not but when it comes to DPS i tested it out and seems like Condi Willbender outdps Condi FB. And has a much more fool-proof and simple rotation. The only downside that i can see so far is that you dont have Tomes and sustain. You're basically losing tons of stability/dome/condi cleanse from F2 F3 tomes and FBs elite stunbreak/stability skill. Since Mantra of Solace was nerfed i had to rely alot on Elite stun break mantra, it was really good. You really lack some kind of stun break/stab on WB. Other than that.. if you're just focusing on DPS it's actually better than FB and has alot more mobility. Of course if you don't mind sacrificing your DPS you can always pick 1 stun break on WB. Well i guess healing is also different. Mantra of solace was nice cuz you could keep your rotation going and use mantra instantly. On WB you lose that, you either pick the new heal with a block animation (which is a dps loss) or i guess the best choice would be Litany of Wrath as it's almost instant. But that's considering raids/fractals. For open world i guess u can pick any heal you prefer and pick up stun breaks too. 
Basically it's alot squishier class with barely any benefit to your teammates (tomes/stunbreak) that manages to outdps cFB. And it doesn't outdps it by alot (maybe 3-4k tops) and it depends on the situation/encounter too. It would be really hard to say which one is better.

But that's comparing DPS. When it comes to overall versatility of the class FB is far far more superior (it can heal, it can provide quickness, it has insane damage). It can do almost anything. If things start to go south even cFB can help alot not only HFB.

Edited March 6, 2022 by Dave.6819