Confused about total inversion of PvE and PvP effectiveness of Firebrand and Willbender

[alccode.1297]

It just occurred to me today when I switched to Willbender and tried it in PvE. Previously ran Firebrand almost exclusively, basically staying near full health and mowing through all content. But with WB, the first pack of purists in Kaineng downed me, had to run away and switched back to Firebrand, melted them effortlessly.

Yet in PvP (I guess WvW is more what I'm referring to), Willbender is meta, and Firebrand is just trash (in 1v1 specifically)?

Why is this? I mean, you still take damage in both game modes, right, and you have to deal damage, what would be so different across them to totally flip their effectiveness in this way? Or is it mode-specific class tuning?

Edited March 15, 2023 by alccode.1297

[Dr Meta.3158]

Go to the build editor put in your build then switch between pve and wve tabs and look at your skills and traits in between both modes.

[otto.5684]

I am unsure in spvp. FB is pretty bad there. Condi WB is generally as good if not better than condi FB in solo pve. Just ensure you are using all your tools.

Edited March 15, 2023 by otto.5684

[draxynnic.3719]

I generally find that for solo PvE, Willbender does pretty well - but you do need to use its tools to get the most out of it. FB is a bit better for burning down relatively weak mobs (and becomes much better in group content) - but by guardian standards, the FB itself can be a bit brittle, especially after the tome rework. Willbender maintains access to all of its virtues and can self-generate alacrity to make all of its defensive skills come up more often. Trick is not to be afraid to use F2 and F3 liberally - F3 is traditionally an expensive, long recharge skill, but on Willbender it can be down to around 25s before alacrity, which generates a fair uptime of getting an aegis every five hits (which is where you make heavy use of multi-hit skills).