Willbender Feedback Thread

[TinkTinkPOOF.9201]

My feedback to anet on Willbender in WvW/PvP as a Guard/DH main:

 

I made one, played it for a hour or so, and then made a Harbinger...That's it. Thats the whole story.

[Neva Eilhart.5347]

7 minutes ago, TinkTinkPOOF.9201 said:

My feedback to anet on Willbender in WvW/PvP as a Guard/DH main:

 

I made one, played it for a hour or so, and then made a Harbinger...That's it. Thats the whole story.

 

Lol, I just saw a Harbringer chaining 2 Veteran Hydra kills near Amnoon in a matter of 10 seconds each or something. Meanwhile, my own Hydra on WB was at about 60%HP.

If only she would stay in my flames as these golems from the preview stream did...

[crazyhusky.2985]

The thing is I've always felt like Main Hand sword is an awkward weapon to use and I know Arena net want you to use Dual swords with WB. however I think they need to tweak main hand sword too to make it flow better.

 

WB is nothing but movement skills and attacks with few cc. Movement is nice but thats it.
No boons or support options for yourself or party, it goes out of its way to make sure that you don't do any passive support with it. You don't even justice passive, so no passive healing or aegis which the thing that helps and makes a guardian, a guardian. You have to choose between giving up something and more stats, there isn't an option  to say no, i don't want to give up anything. The traits are bad.

 

It feels like a completely different class not an addition to guardian, nothing feels like it fits with WB.
i give Firebrand a hard time for feeling like an over an top Guardian, Guardian turned up to extreme like 225%, but WB just the reverse and doesn't feel like guardian nor does it feel good at all... this is not a guardian spec.

 

Give it to thief and start over with Willbender.

Edited August 18, 2021 by crazyhusky.2985
fixing typos.

[Yashizuko.9165]

22 hours ago, Fire Attunement.9835 said:

Let us know what you think about the willbender! What do you really like? What needs to be improved or adjusted?

 

Found a bug? Let us know in the bug thread. 

Willbender looks really nice on paper, with the mobility assassins vibe, but as i played it i feel there is something wrong with the clunkyness of the class:

 

Virtues: Virtues feels OK, but the F1 has that annoying lock with no target acquired,  F2 would be nice to have like warrior's "bull charge" style, not aimed on feets, F3 is good, but the range is ridiculous, its just a small blink, as stated below, the trait "restorative virtues" feels like should be baseline, lets remember that Greatsword 3 has more range than the virtues... if you want to give willbender mobility and less damage with being able to burst only in certain situations is ok, but needs more mobility tbh, OR just reintroduce the vanilla beta 1H sword #2 where you could also target it on ground / teleport with no target , that would help indirectly the willbender, but maybe giving too much power to other specializations.

 

Animations: Animations ( not weapon animations ) are really boring / not guardian themed i guess? (black flames /circles) , ( take a look at the virtuoso animations, the quality there it's night and day compared to willbender), Staff #2 has more "BANG" than the willbender elite skill in my opinion, reversal of fortune is funny when you lose your weapons to get cover lol

 

Traits: I feel like the traits are a mixed bags on the topic on "how do i want to play this class" the first column from left is ok, fits the "what i sacrifice to do more" mentality, Restorative virtues feels like should be baseline for the "flow" of the virtues gameplay and the lethal tempo usage in fights , Phoenix protocol is nice but most of the time you are using F2 virtue to run away or heal, not useful in pvp, maybe more pve oriented, but still,  would be nice to have that on F1 maybe, tyrant momentum feels like its just a baseline damage increase, is it really worthy for a grandmaster trait? expected something more special like: Deathless courage, THAT'S a good grandmaster trait style, something that if i choose to invest in this specific thing i can really feel it.

 

Sword offhand and utility skills: Sword is pretty solid, looks good the #5 is really fun, considering is a movement skill too, but would love to get a little bit more range, absolutelly love "flash combo" ( despite animations as mentioned above), is so fun when you chain all the TP guardian has, rolling light could be faster in rolling, no comment on the heal havent used it much, and the elite... oh boy the elite is so boring to use and hard to connect, the animation is underwelming

 

Elite skill: I feel i have to get a section for the elite skill too, I was hoping to get a "dragon maw" kind of elite, doesnt feel like an elite when i have it every 20-40 seconds ( that includes the firebrand too in my opinion, but firebrand works in his specific way so its ok), what i am seeing in the future is to use Renewed focus as the elite for willbender 90% of the time for the reason i state above where the "Restorative virtues" trait feels like should be baseline, i hope we can have a nice elite instead of this, something makes you feel powerful, not just "another glorified utility skill" 

[yik.4015]

Willbender feels weak and a lot of the traits that involves activating or proc-ing virtues do not seem to work well with the new virtues. It lacks sustain so all it does now is run to a fight and die. It is fine in PvE but I think it is weaker compared to FB.

 

The new virtues are weak. For example, Rushing Justice procs burning every 5 hits like the core passive virtue, but you gave up the passive effects from resolve and courage. Furthermore, the new virtues only last for 6s compared to the perpetual passive effects of the core virtues until they are activated. The only thing I gained is the mobility but even that is not so good as it locks me in animation at the end of the skill. The movement from virtues also seem too short. A possible rework is to virtue a 2-part skill similar to what @Sutepun.9450 suggested: The 1st part activates the pulsing passive and the 2nd activates the movement skill but only a maximum of 1 passive can be active at any time.

 

The physical utility do not seem impactful. Some of them lock me in animation and the Flash Combo is too hard to land. Rolling Light is a 300 range roll-back but Quick Retribution is a 300 range leap which makes it hard to land. It should lunge further than the backward roll.

 

The elite Heaven's Palm has a good name and good animation. But compared to the other physical elites (Rampage and Impact Strike) it seems weak. Impact Strike can stomp downed animies and Rampage gives you a bunch of CC and stability. It is also weak compared to the other Guardian elites like Renewed Focus.

 

I think WB is fun to play and the aesthetics look good but it seems undertuned. However I think it is well designed as there are real trade-offs between choices and this is healthy for the game in the long term. Numbers are easy to tune but it is hard to change fundamental design.

Edited August 18, 2021 by yik.4015

[Ezrael.6859]

Had a better idea to address Virtues and Willbender Flames.

 

Edited August 21, 2021 by Ezrael.6859
Better idea

[Kuya.6495]

So I wanted to make a more organized feedback post than my first one after playing even more with the spec, mostly in pvp.

 

The virtues:

 

1a.  Problem:  F1 when used without a target stops suddenly at the end, hindering movement. Additionally when used on a target the delay before the attack is actually used is so long, most people just walk out of the way, not to mention people rarely stand in the willbender flames it leaves behind anyway. 

 

1b. Solution: Consider perhaps speeding up the part of f1 that actually damages opponents. It doesn't seem like the damage it does it really worth such long wind up. Also is it possible to remove the wind up when no target is selected so as not to hinder mobility?  Another thing about the f1, which i think is the worst one, can we consider adding an immobilize on it? It is way too easy to avoid the flames from this attack and adding a cc might make it synergize better with the rest of the kit and the traits (lethal tempo and holy reckoning).

 

2a. Problem: The other virtues are mostly fine. My only issue is range. It feels like you decided to really limit the range because you felt guardian has fundamentally more survivability than thief, but the ability of thief to disengage with stealth is really important and with willbender you don't have access to this plus you have no passives. I found myself frequently getting chased down and killed by necros, eles and rangers and I kept asking myself how is this a mobility spec if I keep getting caught up to by other classes that aren't even revs or thiefs?  Part of the problem is that the virtues just have too little range. And also when you use the virtues offensively, you might catch up to a target but your ability to lock them down so they can't get away from your dps or flames is severely limited. They just keep running and you are just left spamming all your dashes just to keep up.

 

2b. Solution: please increase the range on the virtues so it's actually viable to escape when chased. I think 600 on f1 and 900 on f2 and f3 is fair. I already suggested immobilize on f1 (maybe if you touch its flames rather than on the uppercut) so you can actually follow up after chasing down a target but I think cripple on the flames from f2 would also help make flames more punishing if you cross them (because right now nobody stands in them and nobody really cares about touching them. Right now they just look pretty) and helps the spec actually follow through on a chase. 

 

The sword:

 

1a. Problem: with sword 4, when I actually combine JI and heaven's palm (I love this combo btw) I usually follow up with sword 4. The target loses a nice chunk, about 25% of its hp. When a thief does this however, they usually take down up to 50% of a target's health and then they disengage in stealth and do it all over again. 

 

1b. Solution: consider raising the the damage on the second hit of sword 4. For all the wind up, the damage is very underwhelming and since damage seems to be the point of sword off hand, it makes it a very poor choice in pvp. It does way less damage than true shot for example. 

 

2a. Problem: sword 5 is good for mobility when no target is selected. When used for actually engaging an enemy, it almost always misses. The enemy gets away from you when they see the rush and consequently are out of range from the shadowstep. 

 

2b. Solution: make sword 5 on willbender like rev sword 5 (deathstrike). As in, instead of a rush then a shadowstep, just make it a shadowstep. 

 

The traits:

 

1a. Problem: people don't even want to use the adept traits because they take too much and give too little. Although I like the concept of plus/minus on traits for balance I think they could use some additional benefits. 

 

1b: solution:

 

I: Boon pact: I don't have much experience using this one. Doesn't seem like a pvp trait. Looks like it synergizes with Phoenix Protocol. Given that this is a selfish spec, why not give it quickness on virtues activation? It might also help buff the damage on this spec for pve which apparently isn't very good.

 

II: Power for Power: i use this one right now. Pretty straight forward. If you feel iffy about putting immobilize on f1 active or flames, why not put it here as an modification? As in you take Power for Power and f1 now immobilize when an enemy touches the flames on the ground. Another option is to stick a damage bonus for sword here or cooldown reduction for physical skills here.

 

III:  Conceited Curate: I tried to make a bruiser build with this but the sustain just wasn't there. Maybe raise the healing power on this. Also, can we put some up front healing on f2 here? Maybe similar to meditation healing? 2k? If you have to choose between raising healing power or giving a 2k heal to f2, i would honestly prefer the latter. 

 

2a. Problem: Restorative Virtues is the one I use right now in pvp and it's fine. I hear Holy Reckoning  is good in pve and wvw with lots of enemies but in pvp particularly if you're running a bruiser build it doesn't work. Especially because getting people to stand in the willbender flames is incredibly difficult. I have no opinion on Vanguard Tactics since I haven't used it. 

 

2b. Solution: there's lots of things you could do with Holy Reckoning if you want to make a bruiser build viable. You could make it so your flames pulse protection on you when you stand in them. Or you could make it so your flames and activating your virtues heal you. Another interesting mechanic might to make it so you heal when you dash or shadowstep.  Or even better, do all 3! Have healing on flames, virtues and dashes and shadowsteps. That way you still get consistent sustain and healing but are further rewarded for keeping your enemies in your flames.  This might also replace the lost passive healing from f2. 

 

3a. Problem: i have no opinion on Tyrants Momentum and Phoenix Protocol (although they both seem like dps traits and are both in direct competition with eachother) since they seem more like PVE traits. As for Deathless Courage, it has a lot of potential to really reward kills in pvp. Only situation i found with this trait is that the buff lasts 4 seconds and the time it takes to stomp is 3.5 seconds. You literally have to port with f3 and you have less than a second to start the stomp before you lose the buff and you go down. 

 

3b: solution: I think I'm going to have the courage to suggest that increasing the buff to 5 seconds from 4 would not be game breaking and it would accommodate rewarding good play. There is counterplay to this trait since your stability can be corrupted or stripped. Also if Tyrant's momentum is meant to be the dps trait and Phoenix Protocol is meant to be the "mobility" trait cause it lets you use your mobility skills more often, then it might be a good idea to stick something that puts further emphasis that this is a mobility trait, such as superspeed on virtues use or something. 

Edited August 20, 2021 by Kuya.6495

[elders.7293]

Only played in PvP so will only give my opinion of Willbender in PvP as of right now.

 

Let's start with some of the positives. The mobility is great and what all the Virtues and Utilities (except 1) do are pretty good. Oh, and the heal is seriously good, please do not nerf this, for the love of all Guardians do not nerf this.

 

Okay now the positives are out of the way let's get on to the negatives.

First, the sword off-hand is garbage, "5" offers some mobility but you gain so much from the Spec anyways it's not needed and "4" just does not have enough damage and the fact it's a 2-hit combo with the 2nd hit taking so long to come out after the first it often just misses. So in my opinion "4" needs more damage and for it to just be the second half of the combo and "5" just needs changing, if you do want to keep it as a dash, maybe make it so landing the dash unlocks a 2nd form which shadowsteps to the first target hit by the dash again and does multiple hits, maybe also applying a condition like Vulnerability.

 

Second, the Virtues are extremely clunky. "F1" is honestly the worst offender here, upon activation you do a short dash then stop for half a second before performing an upper cut which has a stupidly slow wind-up time then back to a slight after cast animation. The actual ability looks cool but the pay-off for using it is just not good, mediocre damage and animation time the span of a full length Marvel film. "F2" is just wierd and I don't feel like it fits and I can see this skill being pretty bad in PvE especially for strikes and raids but I personally do not know. If I was going to change this I would honestly remove the dash and just give Willbender's superspeed  for 2 seconds and evade for 1 second upon activation, everything else is fine here.  Finally "F3", honestly, what this does is great but like "F1" it's slow. The wind-up takes too long and then the plunge from the shadowstep takes too long PLUS it is interruptable. So 1 of 2 things needs to change, either make "F3" uninterruptable so that it will always land since baseline it has a 50 second CD or increase the animation time  by either removing the stupid wind-up or speeding the entire process up.

 

Third, I like what the utilities do I will say that, but I do not like the damage they do so honestly just buff damage and itll be fine. However, the Elite sucks and does not feel like an Elite, it's so slow you can go make a cup of tea come back and still have enough time to read one of the Lord of the Rings books and the damage it does is so bad for the amount of time you spend casting it you might as well have just auto-attacked. I don't think this Elite will even benefit from an animation speed increase it's that bad in comparison to the other superior Elites so honestly, this needs to be delete and built from scratch.

 

Almost done now, lastly the spec tree. The Adept tree is mostly okay, "Boon Pact" is good, "Conceited Curate" is probably the best option but "Power for Power" is pretty bad, losing so much toughness on an already squishy class is just not worth it, maybe if it also gave a reduction to Physical skill CD it would be more worth it but as it is I would never take this in PvP.

The Master tree is good too, I do think "Holy Reckoning" could proc more often and "Vanguard Tartics" is pretty darn nice but "Restorative Virtues" is bugged and does not work with "F3" so in it's current state is unusable. Finally the Grandmaster tree, all of them are pretty bad for PvP, losing the instant heal for some minor regen on "F2" with "Pheonix Protocol" feels bad, reducing the duration on "Lethal Tempo" with "Tyrant's Momentum" makes "Lethal Tempo" impossible to stack in PvP and fianlly losing the ability to grant yourself Aegis on "F3" for a short duration immortallity window with "Deathless Courage" basically removes any reason to use the "F3" to begin with as you no longer gain any benefit from being in the Courage stance. These for PvP at least need reworked as taking any of them hurts more than not selecting one.

 

Despite all of the things I dislike with this spec, I have found some success with it running it with mediations as a Zeal and Valor combo or as a self-buffing Honor and Zeal combo in both cases using "Mystic Rebuke" on Zeal BUT I do not use the off-hand sword in either set up because it's that bad and I only use the new heal skill as it's that good.

 

In conclusion,  most of Willbender needs a rework.

[subversiontwo.7501]

I'm sorry if this comes off overly negative but hear me out here: I would go back to the drawing table on this spec. It doesn't feel like enough thought has gone into it. It has a solid root in filling a gap in the class by providing mobility and the general active/mobility idea around the F-skills is good. However, past that not enough time has been spent thinking about how it is to fit in to the context of that play style and design of it seems more driven by theme than by gameplay.

 

It is not a question of balance. I get that they pre-nerfed it heavily for the first beta here since people were already beginning to meme that it was stronger than Virtuouso (which feels polished) and Harbinger. Dropping it low allows people to focus on testing the builds rather than marinating in their ire about fairness or balance.

 

What:

 

It is more so the issue of theme vs. gameplay. I've used the Deadeye as an example to describe similar problems in the past. It is based around theme but not gameplay or gameplay context and as a result it has been a balance nightmare. It is very much all or nothing and the Willbender seems to have the same issues. It is one thing that it has an inferior burst in a beta. However, the future for it seems to be that it either has enough burst- and setup to be somewhat oppressive there or it has a balance of burst but does nothing else. It lacks a deeper or broader thought in terms of setup, synergies and how/what to use it (for). It's a faster Guard, yes. In a context of eg., Rev, Ranger and Thief on similar builds. Where does it fit in?

 

Right now it doesn't. All those other specs/classes have more holistic approaches to whatever specific gameplay is assumed, broader application outside of those specifics and more synergies within their class. They are designed with more parameters to balance. The Willbender seems hyperfocused on a speedy gameplay (thematically) but does it worse and with less attention to that gameplay's context. A bit abstract, but hopefully people see what I am getting at. It may have post-release issues you can't solve with just balance, so if you ever want to address them you need to go back to design, or it will just be left unadressed or swing between an oppressive relevance and irrelevance. That is poor design.

 

Deeper in:

 

Like others have pointed out, that disconnect may sit in the fluidity of the mechanics. It may sit in the F-skills triggering- or scaling mechanics. It also sits in the relationship between F-skills, weapon skills and utility skills. The utility skills design itself many times repeats it too with a huge gap between A or B whether the skill applies 100% or not. All of it is hyperfocused on doing one thing in a very isolated situation. It is not considering variables that exist in its contexts.

 

I'm not even talking about broad gameplay in multiple game modes here. Even within a singular context, like WvW roaming or sPvP rotation play (assuming that is something it was designed for more than let's say PvE raiding), it has these issues. For example, some friends hopped onto a custom arena to test against each other and I watched it get staff-kited by a Necro. That is an isolated example, sure, but also a flipsided extreme and hardly befitting a spec built specifically to be agile: It couldn't close sufficiently - on a relatively slow class - as it had to use all cd's to overcome the debuffs and crush the distance. It made it feel designed around isolated situations of opponents standing still, same as the F-skill triggering.

 

I have a feeling that is what makes it look potentially very fast and powerful against target golems. Things like many short movement skills looks poweful there but in practise it is using multiple buttons to overcome one other. In more of typical gameplay situations, of movement and splashes of control or damage, it is another story and tweaking numbers or cd's risk overperformance in ideal situations and hard to get right in typical situations. Those are design-, not balance issues.

 

Another pretty telling example:

On S/P Thief, your most basic setup may be something like Sword 2 into Sword 3. Attempting something similar on the Bender may be Sword 2 into Sword 5, a Sword 5 secondary auto trigger and then Utility 3 to setup Sword 4. Then half your bar is blanked out on cd's. That's a concern to begin with but if you then look at the remaining buttons many of them are then designed to continue from there with multi-hit combos with caveats into another combo and so forth. It is cool beat 'em up design in theme but not in practical gameplay. They're not choices. Replacing some buttons with other buttons on the class lack synergy so they do not provide that choice either. You could thow in a 1200-port but what choices from there? You have no simple "this is how it plays" like the basic setup, execute, reset or double up approach on the Sword Thief. Those are strong buttons, sure, but it is also a more thought-through design with proper context reads and choices.

 

Or maybe I am wrong:

 

Perhaps it is a raid-DPS leaning spec that can only be seen to dabble in other things? Maybe the mobility is on-off boss mobility? Well, then it still poor because that kind of rotational gameplay is not even seen as fun by everyone in that very small context. Boss rotations do not fit into the overarching design principles of this game or combat system, of where they are taking this game (from the HoT fad of throwing the entire game away for raid balance) to re-establish old corner stones and make instanced PvE more accessible, or just not befitting an MMO with its multitudes of modes overall. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that all these new specs have to be excellent in all modes. I'm not that guy. I'm just saying that it doesn't even fit into the future "raiding" of this game, if I read its priorities 180 wrong.

 

Edited August 18, 2021 by subversiontwo.7501

[Ezrael.6859]

Heaven's Palm - Too slow and always gets interrupted in WvW / PvP - obvious animation (but looks great).

It should float 5 enemies within 240 range for 1s then slam them down for a 2s knockdown.

 

After all, Vital Draw on Harbinger (Shroud 5) is this on a 17s cooldown.

Damage (4x): 424 (1.6)

Float: 3 seconds

Number of Targets: 5

Radius: 240

1s cast time...

[GoingMenthol.7281]

1 hour ago, Yashizuko.9165 said:

reversal of fortune is funny when you lose your weapons to get cover lol

 

Dropping your mace and shield so you can defend yourself looks weird. If anything it should look like I'm taunting someone to hit me since their hit will heal me instead of hurt

[Brokensunday.4098]

This spec is a downgrade on core guard on every level, mobility gets thrown away by animations, damage is bad, you lose pasives for actives that need a buff,

 this is how you could improve  this spec f3 should be a channel block after teleport as this skill should be a disengage or rush into a team fight/mob zerg,, f2 should be a lesser litany of wrath f1 is good. remove locking animations so the spec feels fluid. healing skill should heal even if you get hit by a cc and now most of the times it bugs out. Spec need a trait for its utilities and finally a little damage buff.

[Zeph.5927]

16 hours ago, Klypto.1703 said:

Mostly its F1 to me should have a bit more range but otherwise that is the only problem with this spec.

Did you try it on anything other than a standard, stationary PvE mob?!?

[Arcaedus.7290]

9 minutes ago, Brokensunday.4098 said:

healing skill should heal even if you get hit by a cc and now most of the times it bugs out.

I think this is a bug, but hard agree. I think the heal skill was supposed to function like full counter, meaning no matter what you get hit with - the attack is absorbed, and you suffer none of its effects. That means no conditions applied, no damage taken, no CC inflicted.

 

Right now the heal is bugged on several levels. It doesn't synergize with certain on-heal traits, there are several attacks that can hit you during the heal channel and NOT proc the 4.2k heal, and then the issue with the CC thing like you said.

[Zeph.5927]

3 hours ago, frareanselm.1925 said:

I played Willbender in PvP and it is totally overpowered. In PvP interrupts, knockbacks or stuns are key, and this spec is full of them, this advantage added with the high burst is just crazy.

So in other words, you just went up against really bad players who stood still and let you wail on them? Okay, good to know that you are still clueless on the matter then! Lol.

[Wielder Of Magic.3950]

Introduction

I hereby present my feedback on the Willbender elite spec for the Guardian class. I will divide my feedback into several sections (because I have a lot to say, but hopefully less than I had with Harbinger lol), and will try to look at things from both a PvE and PvP perspective. Before the beta started I thought that out of the three BETA specs Willbender easily was in the best place. After playing it and trying out a few things, I feel like the spec has a lot more issues than I thought it would have. It’s absolutely salvageable, but Anet does need to get to work in my opinion.

 

The PvE DPS numbers:

The power damage in PvE seems fine, I believe current benchmarks are sitting around 37k. This makes it stronger than DH, but not as broken as the benchmarks for Harbinger and Virtuoso. So from that perspective, it seems Willbender is sort of balanced. Like with all the specs, the numbers are not the problem (at least not in PvE). Condi Willbender does not seem like a thing, but with minor adjustments it could become one for the people that want it (and without stretching the spec identity thin).

 

Possible issue with the theme:

Virtue focused, high mobility martial arts assassin guardian?  That is a lot to take in. But that is not necessarily bad. I’m cool with the idea,but the actual gameplay could use some tweaking.

Possible issue with the Mechanic:
Zippity-zap virtues with effects and fields?  I can see the potential, no issue with this. I do think that the animations and activation times could use some tweaking. Right now they are a bit clunky and don’t flow well into other actions, on top of being able to see them coming from a mile away, meaning you will never catch someone in PvP with it ( in fact, you will just get punished while being locked in the virtue animations, or any Willbender animation for that matter).

 

Some Proposals:
 
1. Perhaps virtue casting can be close to instant like Thief Steal or Guardian’s own Judge Intervention?

 

2. Clean up the animations so you are not locked into them. Especially Justice has this issue.

 

3. Willbender has plenty of engagement through virtues, but almost no disengagement. Perhaps a flip-over skill while the virtue is active, allowing you to shadowstep back to your starting point, but at the cost of a higher cooldown?

Possible issue with the off-hand sword skills:
I feel like this could use a few tweaks on sword 4, the pay-off does not feel strong enough currently to warrant using it, it’s an inferior revenant sword 4 and in PvE focus still seems to be stronger. A spec not using its own weapontype in PvE seems like a failure in my eyes ( don’t hate on me DH players).

 

Proposal:

Buff it's numbers, cooldown and/or speed to make it less clunky and in PvE damagewise at least equal to focus.

 

Possible issue with artwork of utility skills and traits:  
I find the artwork for utility skills, traits and the off-hand sword skills to be...oversimplified. They don’t fit in with the style that other guardian skills have, they miss that little bit extra.

 

Proposal:
Give the artwork some more quality and detail before launch.

 

Possible issues with Utility skills and some problematic PvP thoughts:
I understand the martial arts vibe,  but underwhelming effects and long animation locks are holding this part of the spec back in my opinion, on top of it needing some additional ‘oomph’.

To me the spec feels like its PvP component isn’t fleshed out yet, with clunky locked animations, nothing to keep your target from running away, and a lot of ‘step in’ and almost no ‘step out’, while also missing the damage to burst something down as a ‘+1 role’. Even with Power for Power it feels like it’s not enough (probably because it’s hard to keep Lethal Tempo up in PvP), while still making you extremely squishy. You are not a glass cannon like a thief. You are just glass.

 

A few possible Proposals/ideas:

1. Start with cleaning up the animations.

 

2. Perhaps some of the skills could lose the shadowstep (we have enough engage options) and get something else instead, like a combo field, projectile block/endurance/you name it, just to give Willbender some staying power (you are already losing toughness and passive aegis) that it really needs in PvP.

 

3. Maybe give Willbender something to prevent your target from running away (and give up some of its leaps/shadowstepping in exchange)like a lesser Hammer 5 upon virtue use, and also something to disengage. Thief works because it can not just step in, it can also step out.

 Willbender can almost solely step in from my experience. Perhaps Virtues can get a flip-over when used that return you to your previous location at the cost of a longer cooldown (possibly with a trait if baseline makes this broken)? That way you can at least have some form of escape from bad engagements.

 

4. I also feel like Heaven’s Palm could use an activation time reduction. With almost 2 seconds cast time that skill is never going to land. Either that or buff it with some side effects.

 

5. Whirling Light should not forcefully move us forward, please allow us to simply move wherever we want while channeling. The forced movement leads to potentially very bad positioning without being able to control it.

 

6. Reversal of Fortune is a heal skill that you can actually get cc’ed out of. I am not sure if that is a bug or by design (the skill talks about negating, not blocking), but that feels counter-intuitive to what the skill tries to do. Either make it so you don’t get cc’d out of it, or give it some stacks of stability for the duration its active maybe?

 

Overall the physical skills could do with some buffing I feel. Less animation locks, lower cooldowns, better damage, and some unique effects (AoE reveal maybe?)

Possible issues with core Traits:
I think Willbender has quite a few trait issues as it stands. More so than the other specs, Willbender interacts poorly with a lot of core traits (thanks to Ezrael.6859 for this extensive list):

Fiery Wrath
Foes are almost never burning now that Justice behaves differently.  

Zealous Scepter
Only when Justice active procs,so far that makes it worse when compared to Core / DH / FB.

Justice is Blind
 No light aura.
Inner Fire
Foes are almost never burning now that Justice behaves differently.
Radiant Power
Foes are almost never burning now that Justice behaves differently.
Purity of Body
There's no passive Resolve now, so how is this supposed to work?
Unscathed Contender
 No passive Aegis anymore , making this even less realistic to keep up than it already was.
Absolute Resolve
No passive increase (might increase the active heal, but even that would be a bit underwhelming) if you choose it, it totally replaces the tooltip mention of movement inhibiting condition removal, meaning you either lose this effect or the tooltip is bugged.
Permeating Wrath
Only does AoE burns for 6-8s while Justice is active. It's awful compared to Core / DH / FB passive, you simply lose way too much burning uptime to make this even worth considering.
Battle Presence
 Now shares a none existent passive, and does not redeem itself by sharing alacrity from Phoenix Protocol either.
Indomitable Courage
 Breaks Stun but doesn't apply the Stability until you complete the shadowstep, so you can be CC'd and fail the cast, it needs to instantly apply Stability.

Proposals:
Find a way to make these traits function when using the Willbender spec,perhaps by giving them a different trigger than passive virtues or automatically triggering an effect after X amount of actions. With Willbender losing passive virtue effects it cannot be that it also loses so many functioning traits from its core kit.

Possible issues with Willbender Traits:

 

The Adept traits: Boon Pact, Power for Power and Conceited Curate:

All three adept traits are essentially  “Gain + X in stat Y, but lose some of stat Z”. That is pretty boring and uninspired, can we get some traits that rewards us for actively doing something?

 

Proposals: 

Perhaps something that boosts some of our core mechanics? Perhaps Willbender flames can affect symbols and wards? Or give the virtues mobile combofields?  Or give additional effects if you land a virtue on someone using a skill/doing XYZ?  Or give it access to some dazes or boon rips, taking on less of a thief and more of a spellbreaker role? Or a trait that improves off-hand sword skills? Just spouting random thoughts, anything but boring + X stat traits please!

 

Righteous Sprint:

Adept that gives movement speed and swiftness when using a virtue... With the virtue zappity zap mobility this sounds like complete overkill, not to mention it feels like a more OP version of Dragonhunter’s Soaring Devastation.

 

Proposals

You can already shadowstep/chase across the entire continent (just not back), this is overdoing it. The idea is probably to help chase down your targets, but why not give Willbender something to trap them inside your virtue field? Like a small version of Guardian Hammer 5 with an internal cooldown (not for the entire virtue duration, but perhaps for the first 2-3 seconds or so)? You still get the effect of sitting on top of your target, but also get rewarded for active play if you catch someone, since you need to time it correctly for the ‘trapping ring’.

My reasoning here being you have plenty of ways to get to your target, but nothing to keep them from running away once you get there.

 Or perhaps make us of my earlier idea where your F skills get a flip-over that return you to your starting point at the cost of a higher CD (so you can at least reposition if your engage falls flat, this spec could really use some reliable disengagement skills)?

Restorative Virtues:

Sounds overly complicated and the best way to get value out of it seems to spam your virtues on top of each other. Blindly needing to spam stuff is never a good thing.

 

Proposal:
I would propose to change this to ‘attacks inside of a virtue’s effect/while a virtue is active (so you aren't screwed when something leaves the effect) reduce the recharge of the active virtue by X amount’. Honestly, considering the focus this spec has on virtues you could make an argument for this trait to become baseline.

 

Holy Reckoning:
 
Interesting trait, mostly fine by me, just some minor suggestions.

 

Proposal: 

Perhaps it could actually make the Willbender Flames inflict burning as well? Burn the heretics vibes? Or make the Flames increase in range for every succesful hit up to a maximum radius ( for raiders: let it behave like a miniature Deimos black)? Or when a virtue effect ends make Willbender Flames follow the Willbender for a short duration?

 

Vanguard Tactics:
This seems to serve as just an excuse to dump resistance and resolution on guardian, the profession with a massive amount of condition cleansing as it is. I feel like this could be changed into something a bit more interesting.

 

Some Proposals:

 

1. Perhaps a trait that enhances physical skills?  The Willbender currently has zero traits associated with its utility skill type. Perhaps this could give back a shadow step to one (provided you take some mobility away that it has now, I think 7 shadowsteps/lunges in the Willbender skillset is overdoing it)?

 

2. Or Perhaps  add a reflect or a combo field to some of them, something to make the physicals a bit more interesting and unique from each other (split it so some physicals enhance dps, and other help the Willbender survive, considering if you take Power for Power you are squishier than paper).

Possibly this is way too much of a PvE perspective (I see how this would prevent jumping in and instantly getting chilled/crippled/blinded, but I am not sure if this trait is the best and most engaging/elegant solution).

 

Lethal Tempo:
Requires active play to both gain and keep the bonus, zero complaints, just a suggestion:

 

Proposal: 

 Only suggestions I would have is to make it boost condition damage as well. That way a condi or grieving Willbender could become a viable off-meta build. Perhaps also change the functionality/requirement between PvE and PvP, because in PvP you are rarely going to get these stacks up to a meaningful level.

 

Phoenix Protocol:

The alacrity can NOT be shared through something like Battle Presence. If it could this would potentially be an extremely interesting trait. But now I think it will be borderline useless and should be replaced with something else.

 

Some Proposals: 

1. I like the grandmasters focusing on virtues, Perhaps make Resolve an ammo skill, and/or make it increase its radius for every time it hits something. Essentially taking away from mobility from the physical skills, and give some of it back to the F2 through this trait. Make virtues the primary mobility option, supported by sword (which needs animation clean up and could use some additional damage), but not virtues AND sword AND physicals. That’s just clutter in my opinion.

 

2. Or maybe this trait can give back virtue passives ( or passives with reduced efficiency/longer intervals), because right now the trade-off between active virtues and losing virtue passives often isnt worth it.

 

Tyrant's Momentum: 
Lethal tempo going from a 3%/6s/15% damage boost total to a 5%/4s/25% boost.  
It will do the job for PvE, but in PvP it’s extremely hard to keep the stacks going (once again, because you have nothing to trap people inside the virtue effects). I would have preferred for this to be a unique effect that is not tied to Lethal Tempo however. But at least it promotes active play.

 

Proposal/Suggestion: 

I feel like this could have been a way to perhaps specialise into Willbender flames even more, or allow whirl combo finishers to increase Willbender flames damage and radius up to a certain threshold, or allow Willbender Flames to spawn and/or follow the Willbender for a duration. If you combine this with my earlier idea of perhaps allowing Willbender flames to interact with symbols/wards you can probably keep the damage bonus this trait tries to bring ( +10%), but bring it with more active skill usage. Just an idea, not saying it is the best.

Deathless Courage:
No big complaints, rewards active play, changes our gameplay, and is potentially very powerful. More like this please!

 

Proposal: 

I like it, but perhaps tweak the activation time/animation, even with instant stunbreak from virtues traited it appears to have an activation time, making it feel very unwieldly to use.  Keep a close eye on how this behaves in PvP and WvW in case this becomes infinitely chainable.

 

Closing statement

I think Willbender is very close to greatness, but in its current state isnt ready for release. It has some problems with its Virtues and traits that really need to be adressed, sword off-hand needs buffing, animation and animation-locking needs a clean up, physical skills need some changing, and the PvP aspect overall needs some serious looking at.

The core idea for Willbender is extremely solid, and I can see a very interesting spec below all of its issues. But there is a lot to be done. A lot.

Just like with Harbinger, I am not saying my ideas are the best solutions or even good solutions. But I do hope they bring some of Willbender’s issues into the spotlight, so Anet can think of ways to fix them.

Thank you for reading (and hopefully a Virtuoso feedback thread from me tomorrow, need some additional testing still)!

 

 

[Faridah.8431]

I think most everyone else detailed out my thoughts on the e-spec in much more detail and eloquence then I could, but I largely agree. Hard pressed to see a reason to play this spec over my DH for offense, heck, I might even add core Guardian to that. As it stands now, Willbender feels extremely underwhelming, underpowered, with a lot of mechanics that just don't make sense, or don't synergize with the other core trait lines.

[Darknicrofia.2604]

The day 1 experience was so bad that it just killed any motivation I have at all to play it on day 2, much less throughout the entire weekend.

[Ashamir.9574]

Played in PvE

 

I had fun with this for a few hours yesterday. Lots of fun, actually. It doesn't play like a guardian, which is on one side weird and on the other good, because specializations are supposed to something that's different core mechanic of a class. It's got the movement of a thief, hopping from one mob to the next is funny, but... gw2 in general doesn't reward movement. It's nice for a bit of mindless PvE, but then it's not like general PvE can't be done with any spec. For WvW? Single target damage and movement is useless in a zerg fight. You might be able to roam with the class, not sure how it will actually hold up in any kind of PvP setting, tho. For end content, fractals, raids... not don't know if there's a place for it at all. The mechanics are clunky if you actually have rely on them. Fighting without targetting is somewhere between annoying and hopeless. The elite is. underwhelming.

 

This ultimately is a "Have fun with for a bit, then put it in a box and never look at it again because other classes do it better" spec, which is sad.

[wolfyrik.2017]

3 hours ago, Tolsis.3518 said:

Willbender is a bad name. Such a bad name.

 

Alternatives might be: Dimacheron/Dimachero/Dimacheris (variation of Dimachaerus a dual-wielding Roman gladiator class), or - well pretty much anything other than 'willbender'.

 

To whomever phoned that one in, and to whichever bright spark green-lit it, I say 'Bad Job, Chump.'

Pretty much this. Whose will is being bent in what way? Did I miss something?!

As far as I can see it has nothing to do with the spec in any way shape or form. With a name like this I'd expect some sort of control of combat. CC skills, taunts. Something! The elite skill is nonsense anyway, it has no synergy with the WB playstyle or abilities at all. If anything it works counter to the class' needs. The whole spec begs for enemies to be grouped up, not pushed away. I'd replace it with a large AOE taunt so that at least someone's will is being bent.

 

What has willbending got to do with this spec?

What have monks got to do with assasination?

What have barely damaging flames got to do with monks or assasination?!?!

[PookieDaWombat.6209]

Apologies if someone else mentioned this elsewhere in the 6 pages but some things i noticed today:

 

Flash Combo/Repose:  When using repose you get rooted for about a second.  For a skill meant to pull you from harms way, leaving you stuck for a follow up attack seems counter productive.

 

The big elite CC apparently didn't do any damage to the break bar of a champion giant in Orr.  I can understand it not knocking them prone, but it should still do break bar damage, and substantial dmg at that.

[GoingMenthol.7281]

Having virtues trigger on every 5th hit makes slow hitting weapons like hammer much less viable with Willbender

 

Spoiler

I'm sure many don't care about hammer but still

 

[Jack Angelfoot.2697]

The design concept and animations, are beautiful.  I was very, very excited to get a mobile version of Guardian! 

 

I also noted that it did not perform as I had hoped. 

1. Note:  I tried to use as many Willbender skills as I figured could be reasonable in my builds, because I wanted to test the class as a whole.  I also always had the sword offhand as one weapon swap, so that I could test it too.  I have not tested Willbender as a set of traits only, kitted out with an otherwise-vanilla build.  Nor am I planning to do that. 
2. PVE
   1. The Willbender does almost no damage.  I tested various builds in PvP, PvE open world, and against the Raid Testing Golem.  I average about 10k against a stationary target (yes, I was using the base Maurader's gear at the time, but I can get 15-18k easy on most classes in exotic Maurader's gear). 
   2. One way I test builds is to try to solo the Forged Foothold area North of Destiny's Gorge in the Crystal Oasis.  When I ran Willbender there, I found I could close on enemies quickly, but if I agroed more than one or two at a time, I was dead.  Since this area is designed to test a build's capacity at killing lots of tough, mobile enemies in groups, it was undoable.  I died before I could even clear the base area every time. 
   3. One thing that I noted is that for an interrupt/cc class, I never get to land my skills, I am the one always interrupted.  It did not matter what I tried to do (damage, CC, escape, heal) it was always too slow.  (This carried on into PvP.)
   4. After not being able to do basic expansion content, I concluded that the Willbender must not be a PvE spec. 
3. PVP
   1. I went to PvP and played some rounds with a few build variations.  I knew the damage was low, so I tried to put together a highly mobile stunlock build, figuring I could play it almost like a thief.  Unfortunately, Willbender's CC is still too slow and clunky for PvP. 
   2. I could not 1v1 anyone, it did not matter about the CC, I did not have enough damage to finish anyone.  Bizarrely, it felt like my damage increased while downed. 
   3. Sword off-hand basically does not deal damage.  Sword main hand does not do enough to compensate.  No other main-hand weapon deals more damage than sword or goes well with the offhand sword.  Also, since greatsword is already mobile, Willbender adds very little to using greatsword.  Instead, using Willbender with greatsword seems to reduce its potential damage.  Using Willbender with hammer makes it more mobile, but that still does not make up for the long wind-ups for all the hammer skills.  Thus, I cannot think of any weapon sets that are truly useful with Willbender.  Sword/Sword deals no damage.  Greatsword deals significantly less damage than with Firebrand, Dragonhunter, or Vanilla.  Hammer is not fixed by the spec.  Scepter and Mace do not gain anything from the mobility. 
   4. I also found that, for whatever reason, my odds of landing my CCs was very low.  The radius on my elite (Heaven's Palm) seemed minuscule and the wind up time made it so that in all my times using it I think I only caught a single enemy once.  The other CCs seemed to rarely land.  When they did, I would feel accomplished for a minute, but--given that I could not do any damage even with a full-on attack--I would only be able to celebrate for a second before they recovered and killed me. 
   5. I got interrupted while trying to heal numerous times, which always ended with my death.  This heal is broken.  You need to be attack for it to work, but if interrupted by that attack, you loose it.  Basically, the heal is not usable in PvP.  Also note, the heal is not useful in PvE.  There are better and faster heals and the attacks are not coming in as fast.  So the heal skill really has no niche.  Don't use in PvP or PvE. 
   6. I tried helping the group at the middle, intending to stun lock enemies to give my team the advantage.  But all my stuns were either easily avoided or too short to matter.  Plus, since I was kitted out for max damage (which was still low), I had little sustain.  So I would die almost instantly leaving my group at -1. 
   7. Changing tactics, I tried to cap open points, much the same way a thief would.  Why not use the mobility to my advantage, eh?  Regrettably, although Willbender can do this better than a classic Guard, I was no match for the speed of thieves or mesmers on the other team doing the same.  And, when a thief or mesmer caught me, I was dead.  If I ran into a bunker guard, I was dead.  So that did not work either. 
   8. Ultimately, I was a liability on every team I joined.  I could not come up with a play style as a Willbender that would contribute to my team.  My CC was too limited to be relevant.  My damage was nonexistent.  My mobility was good, but less than the other teams' thieves or mesmers. 
4. Conclusion
   1. I believe this class specialization design has some good potential.  I am still excited to try the final product.  But it needs a niche.  It needs an area where it can shine.  Jump in and do heavy damage then jump out?  Sounds great.  Jump in and stun lock an enemy well enough that mediocre damage can burn them down?  That would work, too.  Jump in and stun or condi spike an area and get out before they can all react?  That would work as well.  But jumping in to do nothing but die gets old.  Especially when I cannot figure out how to do more than that in PvE or PvP.  The Willbender needs to be able to do something and do it well.  Right now it can swiftly get to a fight, but cannot contribute at all once it is there.  I have seen reviews indicate that this spec shines with clumps of low-health stationary enemies.  But those are only found in core Tyria.  I sincerely doubt that is going to be the design plan for Cantha.  Until it is rebalanced, it does not appear that Willbender is viable in any game mode. 
   2. Random observations:
      1. Best Willbender CC:  Shield 5.  I know that sounds weird, but that was the only CC that I would consistently land in PvP.  A close second is the Roiling Light/Quick Retribution, a stunbreak that, when used, swaps to a CC attack.  I landed that a few times. 
      2. Best main hand:  Sword
      3. Best off hand:  Probably shield.  Sword off hand does not bring anything to the table right now.
      4. The heal skill is broken.  It is a long cast that requires you to be attacked to do a full heal.  But it has no interrupt protection or evade.  Thus, if you are interrupted by that attack, it does not heal you.  In PvP, using it is a dead sentence.  You will be interrupted and die as you stand around trying to get attacked while healing.  In PvE you are not attacked enough to make it useful. 
      5. Willbender has no traits or synergy to make a good conditions build.  (There will be no "Willburner.")  Thus, the Rushing Justice virtue and the Whirling Light skill are not very useful for damage.   I did use Whirling Light in PvE, but it was completely underwhelming. 
      6. Willbender Flames appears to have little value in PvP or PvE. 
   3. With all my substantial criticism, I still think that Willbender is an excellent design concept for a specialization class.  When it is properly tuned, I expect it will be a fun and exciting specialization to play!

 

[Brian.5324]

Willbender

Bear in mind the following is for PvP/WvW settings - I don’t PvE so I can’t really comment there.

 

I was very excited when they first revealed that Guardian would finally get a proper offhand weapon, and the virtues animations look great, but when I saw the traits on the livestream, I slowly became disappointed. Unfortunately, that disappointment has only grown with Willbender’s beta release.

 

As alluded to, the adept major traits are simply terrible. They have the distinction of being both boring AND bad. I don’t mean to be harsh, but literally all three of these should be scrapped entirely and made into traits that actually affect your gameplay.

 

The master major traits are definitely the most interesting of the bunch. Pending numbers tuning, these seem mostly fine conceptually.

 

Similarly to the adept major traits, though, I found the grandmaster major traits underwhelming. Most traits across professions, especially GMs, add unique and interesting effects to increase a build’s position on the power curve; Willbender’s GMs all feel like adjacent side-grades rather than upgrades. The only interesting trait design-wise is Deathless Courage, and I don’t foresee that having actual serious, practical use besides as a gimmick for video compilations. Again, these GMs need heavy work.

 

As others have mentioned, there’s also not a lot of synergy in the WB kit, especially with core traitlines. Since WB’s virtues have no passive effect, it feels like a good portion of core Guardian traits are simply turned off or made severely less useful, especially Virtues. This feels incredibly bad, and also isn’t great conceptually. I understand the desire to add a whole new flavor to Guardian, but that shouldn’t come at the price of breaking its literal profession mechanic across several traitlines. I think WB virtues should retain normal (or reduced) passive effects and simply have their active ‘stance’ version be stronger. As it stands currently, it feels like current WB virtues act as a button I have to click simply to get a passive effect that other Guardian specs get for free. I understand they now offer mobility, but, currently, they sort of just feel like they gatekeep passive effects behind their CDs. The mobility is indeed super satisfying, but the rest of the virtue’s effects are underwhelming and forgettable, plus hard to track in regards to their remaining duration. I do like Lethal Tempo, however, to add an additional offensive component to each Virtue.

 

Also, on the note of virtues, the “proc per X hits” is fundamentally unbalanceable, as we’ve seen with Permeating Wrath, and cuts against the small-scale/solo roaming playstyle advertised for WB. Virtue actives should simply proc on EVERY hit, with an ICD, so the overall DPS/healing/boon generation of activating one is more consistent and tunable across all combat encounter sizes. You’d still be rewarded for sticking to your target to maximize the ICD duration, but there’s a much more streamlined floor and ceiling this way.

 

As others have mentioned, the OH sword is underwhelming. Focus is far more valuable as an offensive OH IMO, as it still provides damage while also offering block, a bit of ranged damage, and potentially protection through its Valor trait. Executioner’s Calling (sword skill 4) doesn’t hit hard enough - true to its name, maybe add an additional damage boost to foes under 50% health, a la warrior sword and axe 3? Sword could become more useful with damage tuning, skill 4 landing reliability, and animation/precast speed adjustments if its intention is to be pure DPS.

 

Lastly, I also found the utilities a little underwhelming. For UTILITY slots, the Physical skills simply... don’t have a lot of utility. Part of this is fundamental design, as they are rather linear in their effects and pretty counter-playable (no human is ever getting hit by Heaven’s Palm). Part of this is a lack of trait support as well. I don’t know why Anet is so inconsistent about which utility types get traits to boost them - literally every type should have a trait IMO, especially for especs. It creates an interesting dynamic where some utility skills are worth slotting on their own and simply get better, and some utility skills are okay but become worth slotting more because they activate a good trait (Warrior shouts are a great example of this - Shake It Off is always good and enjoys a trait boost, whereas For Great Justice and On My Mark go from underwhelming to good in certain circumstances when traited). WB Physicals could be a LOT more interesting with a trait to help make them better, especially since the adept trait slots are begging for something interesting to be added to them anyways. If physicals are intended to be offensively oriented, a trait offering 20% CDR coupled with added cripple and maybe weakness or burning on hit could make WB Physicals much better. A trait to have them remove conditions on the Guardian or remove boons from enemies on hit could also be good and make them MUCH more useful and interesting as well.

 

Overall, WB is very cool thematically, and the virtue mobility is fun in a vacuum, but the entire kit has a lot of work to be done before it’s a complete, playable, and interesting spec. It feels like a huge step down from DH and FB in regards to flexibility and viability. I know it’s early, but I certainly hope big changes are made; otherwise, I think WB won’t see a lot of success. I really enjoy DPS Guardian, and, if WB is done right, I could see myself switching from DH to WB as my go-to spec. As it stands, WB is currently too clunky and un-integrated to be a viable, fun spec. It’s mobility and nothing else - no utility, unimpressive damage, uninteresting build options, and little survivability.

Edited August 18, 2021 by Brian.5324
Added more detail

[Nelict.7589]

Hello!

 

1.Things I liked:

Having a reason to use F1 – F3 skills. Felt rewarding and very natural.

 

2.Things I disliked:

 

> Virtues

 

- F1 – After the rush the Character makes a stop to hit with an uppercut, but it feels very clunky and disjointed. It would be far better and more fun if you can remove the casting time of the punch.

 

- Inconsistency: F1 and F2 have 450 range while F3 has 600.

- F skills do very low damage. Other than dashes/leaps and the Lethal Tempo buff uptime are lackluster.

 

> Traits

 

- All T1 traits aka “Boon Pact”, “Power for Power” and “Conceited Curate” feel very bad. The tradeoffs are way off imho. I ended up using none of them. I just left them blank.

 

- T2 Minor Trait “Righteous Sprint” is quite dull.

 

- T3 Minor Trait “Lethal tempo” is very clever trait but the timer is low as it is. Pairing it with T3 GM Trait “Tyrant’s Momentum” makes it more than difficult to sustain the buff.

 

> Weapon Skills:

 

- Sword #4 “Executioner’s Calling” feels clunky and it takes so much time to complete! Also the damage is very low.
 

- Sword #5 “Advancing Strike” is a Dash and a Shadowstep. It isn’t clear how much is the range of this skill. Also the damage is very low

 

> Utility Skills

 

- All of them feel flavorless and quite boring ( I am sorry 😔 )  except “Whirling Light” (!!!!) that has a very cool animation and a good damage coefficient! It’s the one utility I never removed from the skill bar!

 

- Heal skill “Reversal of Fortune” is a very interesting skill but it has a very small window (only 1sec) to be useful.

 

 

 

As a general note:

 

- The spec feels very underwhelming and…clunky (You must have heared this word too many times for this profession). Too many leaps, rushes, dashes that in the end do not provide anything meaningful. Very very low damage output (maybe the spec is missing dmg modifiers).

 

- Overall at the current state of the spec we got to play, I cannot see myself playing WillBender over DH (for power) and FB (for condi dmg, quickness bot, healing and general open world activities).

- I would like to see the damage go up, a rework of the T1 traits and remove the many casting times so the spec feels more smooth to play.

 

- I miss traits that change weapon skills like "Glacial Heart" and meaningfull GM traits like "Fresh Air" that interestingly change the playstyle by a lot.

 

PS: The new skill icons are completely off. Through the 2 specializations the weapon and utility skills feels to blend PERFECTLY with the basic icon aesthetics of the Guardian. These new icons feel disjointed and weird. I don’t know if it the color or the general drawing of them

PS2: If you decide to keep the T1 Traits please change “Power for Power” tooltip to first show “+250 power" and then "-250 toughness” in order to be in line with the other traits (sorry OCD kicked in).

Edited August 18, 2021 by Nelict.7589