Willbender Feedback Thread

[aelska.4609]

PvP perspective, my feedback:

 

Willbender mobility just helps to get killed faster.
Stop wasting time on this elite if you lack game designers that understand guards. Release EoD without it and give slight buffs to the least used core skills.

 

[Poledra Val.1490]

These are my initial impressions of Willbender after playing it for a couple of days or so from a PvP perspective.

Overall the spec is slightly better then the first beta iteration but overall im still dissapointed.

By far in a way the biggest problem Willbender has in PvP is sustain, its simply a headless chicken dashing around and if you are focused by even a remotely decent class/spec its over. Again the Willbender Virtues do not seem to synergize with "core" Guardian traits, they are almost non existent at this point bar one or two traits.

The main Willbender heal "reversal of fortune" seems to be failing me a great deal (with its full heal when hit) and is utterly underwheling it seems to be like a very cheap version of Revenants Infused Light healing skill which is infinitely superior in every way. Sometimes the heal does not even go off; example I was fighting a mechanist and its golem was hitting me the heal did not trigger and if you are CC'd the heal again never triggers when it should be. I would rather you change it to be a straight out heal, remove the charges and up the heal capacity with maybe the addition of removing 2-3 conditions at the same time.

Willbender Flames, this is not a good mechanic imo in PvP when everyone moves consistently. If the developers really want this mehcanic to work then you need to remove the flames from the ground and apply them on the body of the Guardian itself which would be far better imo and increases chase/pressure potential.

However if you guys insist on putting them on the ground you have to make them far larger width wise and last a tad longer. Currently they are literally little thin lines that most of the time dont even hit the target so its practically an irrelevant mechanic in its current iteration and has almost no impact in any scenario in PvP.

Heavens Palm elite, i really have very little to say about this other then the fact that i have not changed my mind on it since the first beta, its useless in PvP and there is no scenario in any way shape or form that it will be picked over Renewed Focus in any game mode in my opinion. Again i suggest redesigning this elite completely to something usefull, Guardian is begging for another new elite to be used rather then Renewed Focus.

Willbenders virtues....

F1 Rushing Justice is bugged it only hits 1 target and its suppose to hit 5, in addition the actual hit itself seems to be delayed slightly. When you use it there is almost a quarter of a second rooting to do the "animation" of a hit, this needs to be instant.

F2 Flowing Resolve the dash needs to be increased to 550-600 with the addition of making it quicker and despite the fact it has two charges it does not make it any better, please insert a heal when we use this virtue and obviously i have already discussed how i find Willbender Flame lines utterly underwhelming and almost useless in pvp.

F3 Crashing Courage seems to work fine and out of the three virtues that has shown improvement since the last beta, i would like to see some sort of block or barrier added to it when used to give Willbender some edge of sustain. In addition increasing its range to 800-900 range might be something to consider.

Willbender Utilities...

With the exception of Whirling Light which is fine, the rest of the utlities are literally there to make up the numbers there is no reason at all to pick them they are utterly innefectual and irrelevant in every sense. Again these need to be re-thought to something usefull, maybe an opportunity here to redesign them to something that will help with Willbenders sustain.

The traits i will discuss at a later time once i have played around with it a bit more.

 

Edited December 3, 2021 by Poledra Val.1490

[The Food One.6285]

I think Whirling Light should probably have some extra utility to make it actually valuable. Either add reflects, or daze, or self-stab. It's just too short and too easy to interrupt which feels quite unrewarding to use.

[Bear on the job.6273]

The change to Shattered Aegis when Willbender is equipped is a bit overbearing imo. I understand the interaction with Crashing Courage needs to be limited, but applying a 1 sec ICD for the whole build seems a bit much.

Is there any way to limit it so Shattered Aegis only has the ICD when Crashing Courage is active? I see a lot of potential for other Willbender support builds using Shattered Aegis (not DPS focused), but they are severely hampered by this ICD when Crashing Courage is not active. 

The other alternative (which has been suggested elsewhere) is to change the boons provided by Crashing Courage, so it applies something like Protection when it triggers instead of Aegis. That removes the need for a clunky work-around with the Shattered Aegis ICD and doesn't limit other Willbender builds.

Edited December 2, 2021 by Bear on the job.6273

[Falseprophet.1502]

I don't know if this has been stated yet but patch notes state "Crashing Courage: This ability now delivers a five-target area attack on impact, in addition to setting the Willbender Flames."

 

This isn't occurring for me at all

[Rimour.9260]

Willbender | Weapon: Sword(off hand)  | Skills: Physical | Playstyle: Melee DPS

As a Guardian main, I enjoyed the Willbender during its first beta....now I love it. This Elite specialization is a must have for those who want a more DPS focus Guardian. Since the profession already has a lot of survivability with blocking and healing, the Willbender adds movement and daze as new ways to survive combat. 

The build I used was full marauders gear with Sword + sword / hammer. The reason for the Hammer was for crowd control on boss fights. The Physical skills from Willbender come with a few daze abilities which made it possible to solo CC certain boss break bars. As long as you keep moving this Elite specialization becomes really powerful.

Overall: 5 / 5

[Unicorn Luna.5204]

I would be keen to hear from devs about their design ideas as it would help with giving feedback. For instance WB it appears willbender flames doing damage is incidental as the main goal is to aid in virtue triggers. Which does beg the question of the Power to Power trait being, well, why bother raising the willbender flame damage? 33% of nothing is, let me do the math here, nothing into nothing, carry the nothing. Points for reference. In this example it would certainly help with anyone feeling frustrated as to why willbender flames does little damage - we only have theories to go with.

Edited December 2, 2021 by Nayaru.4716

[Excell.1042]

Make F2 heal and a longer distance dash,

Remove all skills that lock you in place for willbender only

If all of that is too much:

 

Give us quickness

Give us superspead and a heal on F2

 

[Wielder Of Magic.3950]

Willbender feedback round 2

 

Power DPS nerf was way overdone and should be reverted at least partially. 
Power Willbender essentially felt like it got nuked from orbit, losing what came down to roughly 24% worth of nerfs.
This wasn't needed. Willbender feels like a spec versatile enough to be able to support a myriad of builds: some form of support, condi, power, or even a hybrid with (dare I say it) Grieving gear. But it does not support power anymore due to the loss of 120 power from the adept trait and the damage loss from nerfed Lethal Tempo + Tyrants Momentum. Please reconsider.

 

Changes for condi DPS were great. 

I like the buffs that condi Willbender got, I think these changes are looking strong.

Off-hand sword changes are not enough to compete with focus in PvE, it needs more, and if possible it would be great if the 1h sword trait could be updated to also give something to offhand sword.
Personally I love it when a spec plays differently than what I have been doing on other specs in the past, this includes playing with the new spec weapon. But as a PvE player, I want DPS. Offhand sword still seems like it is not capable of outdoing Focus. So please make the damage it does at least equal to what focus does.

Adept trait reworks are great and a big improvement. 
I honestly think that these look a whole lot better now.

Lethal Tempo nerf wasn’t needed at all
If anything it needed a buff. Roll Lethal Tempo and Tyrant’s Momentum into a single trait and use the open Grandmaster slot for a buff for Virtue of Justice (that way each virtue has its own grandmaster doing cool stuff, no just +2s Justice duration doesnt count, look how the other 2 virtues got cool and unique stuff in addition to duration buffs).  You already had trouble keeping this buff up in realistic scenarios anyway and the DPS wasnt broken.

Vanguard Tactics change was very bad for PvP, it needs the resistance back the way it was. 

Restorative virtues change is interesting. 

Phoenix Protocol change is massive, but also departs from the selfish design Willbender had.
If you want alacrity Willbender to somehow happen make sure it is maintainable with enough boon duration. The second charge to resolve I am not sure if it should be baseline. Perhaps keep the old version ( 1 charge longer distance) untraited, and make this trait give it a 2^nd charge with lower distance. 

Burning for willbender flames should help with the interaction with core burn traits. 

Utility skills still need something extra. 
They still feel halfbaked, bugged ( the heal can still be interrupted/stopped) or not useable (the problem with the elite was not that it wasn't a shadowstep, but that with such a long activation time you are never gonna land it).

Still no way to keep enemies in your effects (ring of warding effect of sorts?).
A Mobile spec still bound to fields for its damage. Need ways to keep people in them or make fields and symbols mobile/follow the Willbender.

Could use access to superspeed.
Want me to chase people? Give me better stuff than swiftness.

Reversal of fortune still bugged.
Easy to get ccéd out off, dead skill imho in its current state.

Needs sustain alternatives in PvP.

This could be done through the utility skills if anything, but maybe also through traits. No sustain = dead blue class. Thus you will still see the same old Meditations + Shelter going around.

Still needs some more in PvE to make it feel less like a core guardian plus that still uses greatsword+sword/X + sword of justice.
Make offhand sword and utilities better, define the new F skills and Willbender flames more, if possible let it interact/change core guardian stuff more, like symbols or something.

[Parktou.4263]

This spec could benefit from an armor set that gives +power, +precision, +healing power, and +concentration imho.

              

[Kyniel.4706]

I've had a change of heart - some more playing around with the build and I'm totally in love with willbender. I'm sure there are some improvements that could be made, but I am having an absolute blast. 

In general, OH sword could be more exciting (getting 4 to hit fully is pretty rare) and some traits could use a bit of a tweak (flames damage buff is too low) but other than that, it's a lot of fun!

I would personally hope that the limitation on Mystic Rebuke could be loosened up a little (1/2 or 1/4s perhaps?) because it feels a little too punishing imho - Mystic Rebuke is a very cool trait and I always think it's a shame when hugely flavourful traits are nerfed where incredibly boring ones are left intact (so bored of Symbolic Power)

Edited December 4, 2021 by Kyniel.4706

[Balsa.3951]

Total trash and no fun to play. Nothing feels right, all the kicks and swings are just there.

No functionality which other skill can do better, and they don't even look  good.

Please scrap Willbender and restart something new.

 

Also, which part of the class deserves the name willbender? There is nothing what give me the feeling I'm a Willbender.

Sparring partner or Kung fu simulation minigamer is more fitting.

[ZICA.7341]

Too much useless low-range dashes that has zero effectiveness. No sustain. Zero synergy with core traits. With all respect but this elite is a completely joke.

[leonidash.9416]

Currently the specialization does not allow for synchronicity with other guardian traits that work with passive skills removing the players ability to access a large amount of previously available builds .A big problem is that the new guardian will also have to deal with a low health pool without much sustain since they no longer have passive healing which stops them from being impactful in group fights.offhand sword 4 skill and whirling light is really underwhelming in terms of damage making the skill feel weak.

 

An easy fix would be to reintroduce the guardians passive skills. This will probably bring back build diversity and sustain making the specialization way more interesting as an option. 

 

A great fix to whirling light would be to add daze or cripple to the skill on hit which makes it differentiate with the guardian whirling wrath on gs as well as bring some utility to the skill.

[Arctarius.2649]

Hello, 

    I just wanted to give my feedback and state my concerns with the Willbender as of this beta, as well as give some of my own feedback on changes I would like to see. I will be referring allot throughout this post to the fact that I want to see a replacement of Willbender flames with a multi strike mechanic that is delivered through power damage. This being said, tweaking power coefficients to be on par with, or higher than the current condi variation would be ideal with this classes playstyle. 

 

Traits:

   I want to start with the traits because I feel that the class is being jerked into the wrong direction. The Trait "Searing Pact" takes away from everything the Willbender was initially designed to do. Instead of slapping a condi variation onto the class, why not double down on the multi strike aspect of the class to really make the power side of it shine? Lethal tempo is a really cool idea, But I personally feel after playtesting that depending on flames on the ground for this mechanic is strangely out of place. My suggestion for a change would be to remove the condi trainline and replace it with a trait that adds a multi strike upon hitting enemies with physical skills or virtues. This could function something like pulmonary impact after hits, but instead of exploding later, t would flash 3 small (low dmg) pockets of damage that trigger immediately after hitting an enemy. Not only does this fit the martial arts theme better, but it allows Willbender to be played as it was meant to be played rather than being shoehorned into some weird condi variant just because damage was higher. 

 

Virtues:

 

Justice:  This skill feels much better this time around opposed to the last beta, and I think it is moving in the right direction. Although pointing to my trait suggestion, rather than leaving a cone of flame, why not have 3 small, cone shockwaves reverberate out from the impact causing 3 pockets of damage. This way we remove the condi application on the ground while doubling down on multi hit in a physical manner for lethal tempo. 

 

Resolve: These two dashes/ 1/4 evade frame is a good change, although I would like to see a smoother animation in the final version. It feels awkward and wonky at the moment and even a bit too slow. On the same note regarding the ground flame, maybe this could trigger the triple strike trait i suggested when passing through a foe.

 

Courage: This skill is still fine as it is, But as mentioned before, replace the ring of fire with 3 small shockwaves that quickly resonate out from the point of impact that deliver the multi striking for lethal tempo. 

 

Sword skills:

 

Executioners Calling: This skill still feels off to me, I think that adding an effect to increase the size and effect of the slash to make it look and feel meatier may help it to feel more impactful and like its going to land. Maybe even rework the animation a bit so that the first slash deals 2 nicer looking, separate strikes and the second still does the cross slash but deals 3 pockets of damage instead of 4. 

Advancing Strike: I am actually happy with this skill, it looks and feels pretty smooth and feels effective. 

 

Physical Skills: 

 

After the changes, I like the physical skills but feel Flash Combo and Heavens Palm need changes. 

 

Flash combo: I like the idea of this skill, but landing 5 punches is usually too many to actually get the second trigger to teleport. I suggest changing it to 3 strikes instead of 5 so that it is more realistically going to land all hits. I would really like to see this skill get an animation overhaul too, like an elbow into a sweeping low kick into a spinning hook kick. you know...kung fu. not just some wild copy paste punches from daredevil. 

 

Heavens Palm: I think this skill is pretty good now overall, I just think adding three small shockwaves out from the point of impact that deal low dmg (similar to my suggestion for the courage virtue) would be a welcome addition to compliment my trait idea as well as adding more non fire based multi strike for the profession. 

 

In Conclusion:

 

 As an avid Wudang Gongfu practitioner myself, I have been waiting a long, long time for a monk like class to come to this game and I really want to love it.. But it does not feel quite there yet from an animation, and overall feel Standpoint. I have been playing this game since launch so just know that all my criticisms are all out of love for the game. I just really want my absolute favorite theme to get the implementation it deserves. leaving trails of gasoline ignited flame is not what I think of when I think of martial arts. I want to see the flashy combos I learned in my training. I want my god slaying hero in the game to be capable of cooler physical attacks than I am in RL ya know? but yeah that's my hot takes. Let me know what you all think! 

 

Thanks for reading! 

Edited December 3, 2021 by Arctarius.2649

[Aspen Tie.5084]

Absolutely horrendous and beyond frustrating in PvP.  less than 12k hp with zerk runes and no sustain.  The added mobility ends up getting wasted trying to escape battle rather than stick on a target.  The spec seems like it was thrown together last minute and is borderline comical.

 

Can't think of one aspect of the spec that is actually fun in PvP.   

[Poledra Val.1490]

After reading through the latest comments a lot of people have basically echoed my thoughts about the current traits on WIllbender.

Here is the bottom line with this Spec from a PvP aspect.....

The more you play PvP with Willbender the more you naturally adjust your build to sustain itself with meditations then it starts to turn into basically Core Guardian....so you then ask yourself why bother playing Willbender when i can just play Core Guard and have better all round synergy with all things related to it...traits/skills etc

In every scenario Willbender is in a very poor spot.

The class still needs heavy adjustments which I mentioned in my last post to make it relevant in post EOD release.

I hope Anet takes what we have been saying on board because its clear the class is bordering on not being used when there are far superior specs and professions in the game currently by a big margin.

Edited December 3, 2021 by Poledra Val.1490

[Exile.8160]

2 hours ago, Poledra Val.1490 said:

I hope Anet takes what we have been saying on board because its clear the class is bordering on not being used when there are far superior specs and professions in the game currently by a big margin.

Hard to say if they will work on it the amount it requieres. WB  was on the first beta and got less attention than the ele and ranger one.

 

As a pvper and guard main im not buying this expantion until I see that they actually work on the willbender and we get something for pvp in it.

Edited December 3, 2021 by Exile.8160

[ConstantlyBrooding.2901]

Cool in theory, a letdown in execution so far.

 

I've got to join the general concensus that while it sounds fun on paper, Willbender needs massive rework before it's remotely ready for launch (and possibly playtesters that actually "main" guardian).

 

The chief problems with Willbender in its current state:

- The offhand sword feels almost completely pointless and is only worthwhile or fun with cool double-sword attacks on all the weapon skills. I expected a fighting experience akin to Ahsoka Tano or another two-blade fighter of fiction; instead our guards awkwardly slash about with 3/5 perfectly standard moves. and seemingly forget they are holding a pair of swords. The only two weapon skills to actually dual wield the swords are 4 and 5, and rather than a satisfying, complex multihit attack, both are extremely janky and require range so point-blank as to be practically touching foes; i.e., useless against any bunker build in PvP/WvW; and outright suicide against Scourge and Elementalist player's massive AoE. And despite the 4 key skill stating in the tooltip that it does 4x hits, it's bugged and strikes exactly twice. 

 

Why give players a weapon proficiency if we can't do anything awesome with it? The same way that Dragonhunter's longbow proficiency feels almost insulting when literally everyone has faster firing, faster weapon skill cooldown, and faster moving arrows, to the point only True Shot is particularly helpful; it seems pointless to give us a second sword if we don't actually get any cool dual attacks. This is doubly dissapointing in light of the fact Spellbreakers and Soulbeasts did get dual attacks in Path of Fire, and for whatever reason Firebrand didn't  get to use double-axes.

 

Symbol of Blades is still great for shadowsteppping to a foe to chase them in a fight, and Zealot's Defense has its use; but both of those single-hand sword skills, alongside the auto-attack combo, need to be changed into a truly gnarly dual-wielding equivalent. Why not a teleport that slams both blades into the ground to form the damaging symbol on the Symbol-of-Blades-equivalent skill? Why not alter the stationary forward projectile destruction of Zealot's defense into a sword-twirling steerable state, a la Dagger Storm and Whirling Axe? That would be fun, and we'd actually be using both equipped swords. It's zero fun to watch the right hand of our characters flail about as our left hand does nothing.

 

- The red trails on skills and the searingly saturated yellow to indicate Lethal Tempo are an eye strain, not to mention potentially dangerous to photosensitive players; and they have got to be changed to something non-contrasting like teal or light blue. This is basic color theory. Blue is and has been the core color of guard skills, with indigo, blue-white, and cyan as the analagous, similar colors that don't horribly clash with it.

 

Red, yellow, and blue are the primary colors in color theory, and as equal primaries the visual centers of brain have trouble not getting overwhelmed when registering two, or all three. Red next to yellow intensifies both. Blue next to red intensifies both. Blue next to yellow intensifies both. Combine red and yellow on already bright blue skills? You're asking for a migraine at best.

 

The particle/light effects in of themselves aren't bad, but they can't stay red and yellow. Make them a light turquoise if you want them to look "distinct" as elite specialization VFX; that would at least fit the Jade theme of a huge chunk of Cantha and not melt my retinas.

 

- Physical skills are interesting on paper and fun visually, but need massive tweaking to not just be Daredevil revisited (and as useless as most of Daredevil Thieves stomping my face in with their core-profession utility skills find their own Physical skills). Guardians' whole thing in terms of condition damage is that we can really only inflict Vulnerability and Burning; and I would expect martial-arts moves that at least weaponized those conditions, that had any degree of suvivability.

 

Not only does our punch flurry reuse the Daredevil animation barring the added particles, it functionally works no differently than Daredevil's Fist Flurry other than having a shadowstep to actually close the gap. Why not FURIOUS FIRES? It would be delightful to inflict a Burning-applying and physically damaging barrage of blows on someone like a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure character. Heel Crack ought to actually crack open our foes and apply Vulnerability alongside knocking them prone. And more than anything, as a rework even Daredevil itself arguably needs if you want the Thief players to even use that elite spec's skills, Physical skills that are melee-only should all involve a shadowstep or leap toward a foe, though for obvious balance reasons only one should break stun. 

 

Almost every other profession can maintain a constant upkeep of Swiftness or Superspeed, or simply teleport out of the range of even Dragonhunter arrows and Spear of Justice. If we're to actually WIN any fights, let alone be able to keep up in PvP, we need to be able to chase people down with our Physical skills and ensure that a martial arts throwdown even actually occurs to start with.

 

As a final note, the heal on the healing Physical skill is pathetically small and does not make the ability to ignore a lethal blow worth it. What's the point if a Deadeye can just Three-round Burst us out of the ability to ignore that lethal damage, then immediately kills us anyway with their next barrage of shots? Have you forgotten about Be Quick or Be Killed and how deadly that trait makes them?

 

- Righteous Sprint and its inherent movement bonus, even with Swiftness granted on virtue use, isn't enough to keep up with the glut of self-launches, knockbacks, teleports, and self-buffing with Superspeed/Quickness virtually every other profession is capable of using for a quick getaway. (Engineers can use four of these at once if they have a rifle.) 

 

We don't have a "swift advantage" in combat, now we just have a slight chance of actually chasing someone down on sub-equal footing; whereas core, Firebrand, and Dragonhunter Guardian has no chance in hell. If the idea is to make us actually feel faster and more relentless, than the movement speed bonus should be higher than a meager 33% like we already had from Swiftness, especially since it isn't even clear from the tooltip if the effects of Swiftness and the trait stack.

 

At the very least, we ought to gain Superspeed on a player kill, or even more bare minimum, we should simply have an inherent reduction to all movement-impairing effects, just as Relentless Pursuit, Don't Stop, and similar traits for other professions work. Players are pragmatic and I know from experience people will spam Cripple, Chill, and Immobilize on anyone already lagging behind trying to chase them. I don't blame them, it's the strategic thing to do. It's not going to feel very "fast" if the auto-caltrops on a Trickery-traits Thief dodge leave me limping along at snail pace behind them. 

 

- Willbender Flames should inflict Burning, period. They are literally Flames. There's no point to letting us leave a trail/ring/spray of them with our modified virtues if we have to slot a trait to even have those flames light people on fire. This is beyond asinine, and a flat-out boring in light of how awesome the fire traps of Harrower Veltan and 

Spoiler

Almorra during her last stand versus Ryland Steelcatcher

 

were. Flame should Burn, and a grand total of two seconds of fire left behind is dumb. The fact using another virtue destroys the prior Willbender Flames effect, instead of stacking them to let us create the same arena of searing pain that both those NPC Willbenders did, is an even bigger disappointment. We've been shut down and melted in six seconds time and time again by other player's enormous AoE fields, it's time to let Guardian players have some payback that isn't as janky and low-radius as spirit weapons with Eternal Armory trait slotted. 

 

- As stated by everyone else, there's pretty much next to no synergy with core Guardian traits, let alone with the traits in the same elite specialization. The linked effects we do have are minuscule, and reliant on constantly facerolling over our keys. The bonuses we get are tiny, the reduced duration of Lethal Tempo on the only trait that makes it stronger feels absolutely awful, and there's nothing particularly cool that doesn't come with a massive drawback on the Grandmaster traits. 

 

- The modified virtues should still have a passive effect. I don't know why they ever didn't in the first place, even Firebrands' Tomes still give them a bonus unless on cooldown from using the active effect. The only "crashing" in Crashing Courage right now is the crashing and burning we do in any attempted fights. When the designated Paladin class has a third elite specialization fundamentally crippled compared to something else both its core self and the other elite specializations for the same profession can do, it's bad gameplay design.

Edited December 3, 2021 by ConstantlyBrooding.2901

[DobyCool.3701]

Willbender feedback Beta 2:

 

First thing first, Please Anet, when you are trying to make players test out your stuff, give them the right gear they need  Just separate the legendary Armory with the main account, and get each character a full set of legendary amor, weapons (2X if needed), accessories, and runes and sigils. Make it easier for us to test out builds and traits. Why is it so hard to do?

 

Willbender still didn't feel right for me. I want to discuss a few conflicts in its design, correct me if I am wrong.

 

Alac bender:

I tried it with a full berserker set and just a 10% boon duration from sigil, it doesn't work, and will need more concentration.  If use Diviner, it can easily do full alac (I only test on myself since I have no friends, so don't know if this is 5 men or 10 men)  however, it lost too much dps when using Diviner, and compare to Ren, Ren can do huge CC, bouble, stab and protection, what can Willbender bring to the table? Well, its utility skills are very good, we have “Stand your ground”, “Hold the Line!”, to stab, and protection, “Wafll of Reflection” for reflect, and 3 Physic skill for cc.  However, the thing is the weapon skills bring nothing, everything is in utility, which you can only choose cc or boon, and the reflect is not as good as Ren bubble. I don't know how to test the cc dmg, can someone test it and see if it can do as much as Ren.

 

Second alac build that I can think of will be full Cele gear condi alac, as it will be easily keep up the full alac, and should do a decent condi dmg (I said “should” because I can’t do benchmark because I am too bad)  One thing to notice is that condi comes from F1 and alac comes from F2, one will need to play it well to get the most out of it on cool down. 

 

Condi bender:

As I mentioned above, I am bad at doing benchmarks, so I didn’t test the dmg at all, I heard from others saying that condi are quite good.  However, the main concern I have is that guardians just don’t have a condi main hand as the axe is only for FB. 

 

Heal bender:

This is only because there is a trait that increases its healing power, however, I don’t think it works that well because Willbender can’t bring much other than healing. Its alac trait will disable the healing from F2.  and it can’t do much as support compared to F2, F3 on FB.

 

Power bender:

The power bender had some serious problems in its design other than just low in number.  Its skill is designed to be like a go in and get out type of thing, but its core dmg buff requires you to stack and keep hitting enemies to refresh.  Yes you can stack it by just using all of your F skills, and then hit 1 time, but then remember F skills are most of your dashes. With the design of Willbender skill, I think it will need a very high burst dmg to do what he means to do.

Off hand sword, everyone knows the problem, no need to mentioned much

 

Elite skill: 

long casting time CC with a long cool down, not sure how much cc dmg can it deal in PVE, but still feels trash as an Elite. 

 

Mobilities:

Swiftness doesn’t feel enough, maybe superspeed?

Dashes: F1(800) + F2(450x2) + F3(600) + GS3(600) + Sword5(500) we get 3600 in total.I didn’t include the skills that need a target. And after you cast the whole chain, your F1 is like 2-3 second away from cool down. So if you are running away, this is how long you can go. Which should be quite good if you can cast them fast enough.

 

Mechanist: Rocket Boots(900x2) + Shift Signet(1200) = 3000

 

Although many mini dashes do look cool and work well, they are just a little bit too slow due to the start and finish animation.  However, under the right hand, it will still feel terrifying. I think the true power of those dashes will only shine when willbender actually does a good burst dmg. 

 

Suggestions:

Those are just some ideas that I would like to see on Willbender:

 

First, make it 2 power style: first one is just like currently where you stack the lethal tempo, and do continuous dmg, second style is where you select a trait that will give you a huge stack of lethal tempo(maybe like 10 or 20) when your F1 hits a target, it will last for like 5-10s and then it will be in cool down, and you can dash out to wait for next commit. This style is more like an assassin.   In PVE, it is clear that the first one is for longer fights and the second one is for short fights, the number should be balanced to a point that you think how long should the fight be for 2 styles to do the same amount of dmg.

Or a second idea is that after using F1, it will get 2 new 4 5 skills for sword, which do more burst, and after use F2, it will get 2 other skills and F3 as well, but this sounds like FB.

 

Now for condi, maybe when choosing the condi trait, it can apply burning on every weapon skill to overcome the fact that guardian has no condi main hand weapon?

 

For alac: I think with willbender’s skill design, we should get a full dps set and just alac traits, to cover above 50% for 10 ppl.  Choosing the alac trait is already a dps lost, so it should be quite even. Or maybe a full alac power build, that can do something special.

 

I know that Willbender is advertised as selfish at the beginning, but as you see it won’t work and you have deleted all 3 selfish traits already. I think if you truly wanna be selfish, then you need to do something big that anybody else cannot do, but I am not sure how you can reach that with the boon system that GW2 has.

Edited December 3, 2021 by DobyCool.3701

[Arctarius.2649]

10 hours ago, Aspen Tie.5084 said:

Absolutely horrendous and beyond frustrating in PvP.  less than 12k hp with zerk runes and no sustain.  The added mobility ends up getting wasted trying to escape battle rather than stick on a target.  The spec seems like it was thrown together last minute and is borderline comical.

 

Can't think of one aspect of the spec that is actually fun in PvP.   

I really would like to see them review this class before it comes out. I still think it should have ran with double foci and just went all in on the monk theme with fist weapon fighting. instead it feels half baked juggling multiple ideas and failing to land all of them. 

[Arctarius.2649]

I know the Willbender is underperforming heavily, but it goes deeper for me. I could not put my finger on what feels off with this class.. But its definitely because it is clearly themed after eastern warrior monks, yet the class literally doesn't use a single move that looks eastern martial art / kung fu inspired. Hell the trait line picture for the willbender first trait is the kungfu salute, yet it looks like they fight like an average thug. Could we at least see a single animation that looks east martial arts inspired? like flash combo? Make it a series of kung fu jabs and kicks rather than flapping arms wildly like a street thug. I just don't feel the immersion with this one, I dont feel like im paying a martial artist, but rather a guy holding swords and throwing fists like its his first time. As a kungfu practitioner myself, I am super disappointed by the lack of thought and inspiration that went into the skill animations for this class...

[Exile.8160]

58 minutes ago, Arctarius.2649 said:

Could we at least see a single animation that looks east martial arts inspired? like flash combo?

Prob not, most of the animation ive seen from a lot of these new specs are copy paste from another class or skill. Even the Mech from the engi is a re-skin golem with some similar animations.

So I dont think this far into the beta they will make new animation.

Its a good way to skip cost/time for the EoD but there has to be a limit.

Edited December 3, 2021 by Exile.8160

[Arctarius.2649]

37 minutes ago, Exile.8160 said:

Prob not, most of the animation ive seen from a lot of these new specs are copy paste from another class or skill. Even the Mech from the engi is a re-skin golem with some similar animations.

So I dont think this far into the beta they will make new animation.

Its a good way to skip cost/time for the EoD but there has to be a limit.

I understand they cant rework every single animation, and reusing animations can work for somthing like a robot.. but you cannot take something as packed full of culture and style as kung fu/ far east martial arts and simply turn it into a basic guy punching stuff.. This is the first game I have ever seen take the monk archetype and miss the target completely. I never expected this level of half-assery from Anet. I used to respect them for their attention to detail and superior polishing. Its is just very disappointing to say the least. 

Oh and in regard to the time it takes to change it, I still have hope because I remember daredevil being in a similar position with ugly animations and by launch they changed all the dodges and the staff auto animation. Please Anet.. change the willbender animations. 

Edited December 3, 2021 by Arctarius.2649

[jaif.3518]

23 pages in I doubt this will be read. 🙂

 

The elite has too long of a cast time, need to shorten it so this fine skill gets used.

 

I tried a celestial burn guard (zeal/rad/will) with sw/t + sc/f .  Not sure if this is optimal, but I found combos like rushing justice + whirling light, followed by sword 2 & torch 5, really got a lot of burn going on some people.  The scepter/focus gave me some poke, and flowing resolve is not that bad for getting away, though it really should be 600 (stop being cheap! 450? jeez. <g>)

The stun break is pretty neat too.  I took the heal out, slapped in the meditation condi-cleanse cause you always can use that. 🙂

Wish I was a better roamer so I could really put it to the test, but it's fun zipping around for a change rather than being so obscenely careful about positioning.