My thoughts on support willbender...

[Luna.6203]

So i tried new chrono and i realized i suffer from same problem that i have with supp willbender. You cant generate alac while not attacking.
I feel like willbender should give quickness not alac. Alac is one of the boon that you want all time even if not attacking.

While quickness can drop. Its fine as long as you can reapply right when attack phase starts again. Or there should be another source for alac like "feel my wrath" is for quickness that doesnt need target.

Looking at what they did to chrono im bit jealous. I wish we could swap to quickness by trait or alac application were improved.
I find out the only way to make my supp willy works is by using celestial gear. Extra concentration gives me lot more uptime for alac than i need and so i can create some kind of buffer for moments when i cant attack. But ofc you can't bring cele to raid or any competitive content. Its just meme build for fun. But it makes me realize that as healer you have a lot of concentration so its never problem to keep alac even as heal chrono. But willbender can't be healer and using concentration is not an option for dps.

Since DH is pure dps, FB is excellent healer, it would make sense if willbender were viable offensive support. It don't have to be best. People would complain if guardian were too good. Just good enough. It's been a while since willbender was introduced to game and i feel like willbender always meant to be adps but never been good enough to achieve that. Considering how anet improves a lot of professions. I think willy support would deserve some love as well.

Or am i wrong ? Do you guys play alac willy successfully ? Feel free to share some tips/build.

[Gaiawolf.8261]

I would be happy if willbenders gave quickness, while firebrands gave alacrity. Quickness works better for willbenders trying to burst Justice, and alacrity works better to incorporate tome skills into character concepts more readily. We would still have to deal with page counts though, and the only steady way to refresh them enough to capture the divine caster concept is to spam the clunky final charges of mantras, and/or sacrifice damage efficiency by taking Loremaster.

It probably won't happen anyway.

[Luna.6203]

1 hour ago, Gaiawolf.8261 said:

I would be happy if willbenders gave quickness, while firebrands gave alacrity.

100% agree.

 

1 hour ago, Gaiawolf.8261 said:

It probably won't happen anyway.

and yeah 😢

[Kuya.6495]

I

10 hours ago, Luna.6203 said:

So i tried new chrono and i realized i suffer from same problem that i have with supp willbender. You cant generate alac while not attacking.
I feel like willbender should give quickness not alac. Alac is one of the boon that you want all time even if not attacking.

While quickness can drop. Its fine as long as you can reapply right when attack phase starts again. Or there should be another source for alac like "feel my wrath" is for quickness that doesnt need target.

Looking at what they did to chrono im bit jealous. I wish we could swap to quickness by trait or alac application were improved.
I find out the only way to make my supp willy works is by using celestial gear. Extra concentration gives me lot more uptime for alac than i need and so i can create some kind of buffer for moments when i cant attack. But ofc you can't bring cele to raid or any competitive content. Its just meme build for fun. But it makes me realize that as healer you have a lot of concentration so its never problem to keep alac even as heal chrono. But willbender can't be healer and using concentration is not an option for dps.

Since DH is pure dps, FB is excellent healer, it would make sense if willbender were viable offensive support. It don't have to be best. People would complain if guardian were too good. Just good enough. It's been a while since willbender was introduced to game and i feel like willbender always meant to be adps but never been good enough to achieve that. Considering how anet improves a lot of professions. I think willy support would deserve some love as well.

Or am i wrong ? Do you guys play alac willy successfully ? Feel free to share some tips/build.

Why would you take cele over diviners if you are a power alac wb? 

I also had issues with alac using the meta alac power dps build in snowcrows (the old build with one diviners leg piece) until i switched all the berserker pieces for diviners and now I don't worry about alac anymore.

[Luna.6203]

7 hours ago, Kuya.6495 said:

Why would you take cele over diviners if you are a power alac wb? 

I told you it's for fun(meme) / build for open world just an example for thought process. it's not raid spec. For example when dragon end meta need alac i'm using it.. extra survivability and heal and boons to allies is worth of bit lower damage and it works well in my opinion. Anyway this video just poped up for me:

willbender is ranked S tier and he is healing.. i had no idea this is thing. But mix diviner with pure power dmg could be better idea.. i have my heal firebrand for raid,fractals and wvw. So no reason to push willy for heal since i have my doubts on that even after what has been shown in video. But i definitely could use offensive alac support in case quick heal is not needed.

[Kuya.6495]

Oh well I just go harriers for dragons end and bring hammer and karakosa. Easy top healing every time. Plus stab spam. Plus cc spam from sanc, heaven's palm and hammer 4.

[Luna.6203]

On positive note. I'm glad that wb virtue effects won't override each other any more, this is huge improvement. Although i have to kind of F2 for no reason and then F1 right afterward. hmm ok... and add f3 anytime for godmode. Also DH is viable dps in raid. This wasn't case for looooong time back when i was playing. I also like firebrand rework even though its technically nerf i makes playing FB less spammy. Ill try figure out something for WB, being able to provide alac is handy and i really want that in my builds. But i would probably have to run with more pieces of diviner than its healthy for my damage, which could be issue..

[zicaB.1794]

I think alac fits realy well with wb design that need uses his virtues frequently, and FB tomes are slow, so quick helps.

Both dps and heal alac WB are fine righ now.

Its true, that a pure dps with no concentratio can't cover fase mechancs, but generaly the alac from the other sub helps cap it and I u can do like ~25k dps (no food).

With ~30% concentration, its relative ez to cap 30 sec alac solo with a litle dps loss (~22k) witch is enough to cover fase mechanics (+ no need weapon swap). 

Heal WB is working as well. Personaly I like hammer axe/shield, this build can cover almost all boons, with tons of cc, etc.

With that said, i agree that WB need some work, like: removing the need for battle presence to share alac or a wb flames rework could be nice, a static mechanic do not fit with a mobile class in my opinion, superspeed would be great for wb as well, instead of remove self heal, phoenix protocol should heal alies insted, etc..

 

[Luna.6203]

@zicaB.1794 I think u are right.. it fits and i like having alac on willy. Full celestial gives you about 42% boon uptime and with that im 100% covered with alac which can go up to 30 sec i think. So with 30% im sure ill be fine as well. Still i would feel much more confortable to have feel my wrath with alac or so.. The question is, what the best way to achive 30%.. signet / rune / x amount of diviner gear, or food ?  what would be the best way with least dps loss ? 🤔

[cat.8975]

Willbender is in a great spot right now. I don't think it needs any of the big changes people are still asking for.

[Kuya.6495]

8 hours ago, cat.8975 said:

Willbender is in a great spot right now. I don't think it needs any of the big changes people are still asking for.

Tbh I KINDA agree. The one quality of life change I want is for f2 to no longer be a movement skill or for it to either be an automatic dash towards your target (so you stay in place if you are in the melee stack, just like f1) or just a stationary evade. Makes giving alac alot less annoying if you don't have to invest time in repositioning when you could be healing/booning/dpsing.

Edited December 22, 2023 by Kuya.6495

[Gaiawolf.8261]

2 hours ago, Kuya.6495 said:

Tbh I KINDA agree. The one quality of life change I want is for f2 to no longer be a movement skill or for it to either be an automatic dash towards your target (so you stay in place if you are in the melee stack, just like f1) or just a stationary evade. Makes giving alac alot less annoying if you don't have to invest time in repositioning when you could be healing/booning/dpsing.

No thank you. F2 is a key escape skill. If it stopped me from moving or rushed me towards my target, then it would only be half as useful as it is now and sometimes very detrimental to getting away. Just move alacrity to one of the underused utility skills to give them some love. 

Edited December 22, 2023 by Gaiawolf.8261

[Kuya.6495]

1 hour ago, Gaiawolf.8261 said:

No thank you. F2 is a key escape skill. If it stopped me from moving or rushed me towards my target, then it would only be half as useful as it is now and sometimes very detrimental to getting away. Just move alacrity to one of the underused utility skills to give them some love. 

Definitely not. 

One of the key appeals of heal willbender is having free choice of utility skills because your alac isn't tied to utility skills. 

I can compromise by suggesting making f2 a port (if you like wb in pvp another port would be great for Vanguard Tactics) or even better: make it so Phoenix Protocol triggers alac on any virtue and not just f2. Would help both alac dps willbender and heal alac wb. (Probably higher dps due to not wasting time on f2 and the healer gets to save f2 for condi cleanses).

Edited December 22, 2023 by Kuya.6495

[Gaiawolf.8261]

1 hour ago, Kuya.6495 said:

Definitely not. 

One of the key appeals of heal willbender is having free choice of utility skills because your alac isn't tied to utility skills. 

I can compromise by suggesting making f2 a port (if you like wb in pvp another port would be great for Vanguard Tactics) or even better: make it so Phoenix Protocol triggers alac on any virtue and not just f2. Would help both alac dps willbender and heal alac wb. (Probably higher dps due to not wasting time on f2 and the healer gets to save f2 for condi cleanses).

I highly doubt they would add another port to the kit. I can get behind expanding the trait to the other virtues, especially if it means we can just blow all our F1-3 CDs instead of needing so many attacks to share respectable alac. The same limitation I hate on mirage. 

[Kuya.6495]

It would also help with alac downtime between phases/mechanics by giving you 4 sources of instant alac (f1, f2x2, f3) instead of two sources with f2 to give alac on activation.