Willbender Feedback Thread

[Khaldris.9026]

The Virtue grandmaster traits feel really bad to use with Willbender.

• Permeating Wrath only interacts with the passive of Justice (which Willbender does not have).
• Indomitable Courage loses out on the entire second half of its stat block.
• Battle Presence is the only trait that has an explicit callout for Willbender. While the healing is nice, it's not exactly what I'm looking for in a damage build (either power or condi).

Coming back in with a later edit - are the grandmaster traits here supposed to be affecting the buffs that Willbender Virtue skills give? It's not communicated very clearly if that's the case.

Also why is Glacial Heart still a thing?

Edited March 2, 2022 by Khaldris.9026

[cat.8975]

15 hours ago, Khaldris.9026 said:

are the grandmaster traits here supposed to be affecting the buffs that Willbender Virtue skills give?

Yes. For the purpose of traits, the active buff effects after casting a Virtue is considered the passive effect. The only one of those traits that doesn't 100% work w/ this logic is Indomitable Courage's bit about how "its passive effect gains a shorter interval."

[mrauls.6519]

I like willbender! It's very fun. A non WB related issue: Scepter needs to be improved. It's the only ranged DPS option... AA sucks. It needs to track

[Balsa.3951]

Not a cool class but since I doubt much will change now.

Please please change that weird move of F1 where u charge bounce back and than hit or whatever it looks weird and feels weird to look at.

Also F2 make it a blink to enemy I dont want charge away from a fight each time i use F2

 

Also that WB elite it should be a finisher for downed in PVP as well not push ppl away but pull them together. Why would I want not have all my targets stack together? 

Edited March 2, 2022 by Balsa.3951

[Kuya.6495]

I agree on making f2 a blink or something.  As it works right now it's so painful trying to use it to maintain alacrity for your group that it makes me hate playing alacrity willbender. 

[ZICA.7341]

.

Edited March 3, 2022 by ZICA.7341
spoiler

[ZICA.7341]

Spoiler

After playing the last chapter of the EOD story mode, when we received Aurene's powers, we get a crazy dodge mechanic

. What if willbenders dodge was reeworked to something similar, using the F2 animation? The F2 virtue could be reworked as a ground target teleport so will be more ez to play alac willbender.

[KeoLegend.5132]

On 3/1/2022 at 8:25 PM, Khaldris.9026 said:

The Virtue grandmaster traits feel really bad to use with Willbender.

• Permeating Wrath only interacts with the passive of Justice (which Willbender does not have).
• Indomitable Courage loses out on the entire second half of its stat block.
• Battle Presence is the only trait that has an explicit callout for Willbender. While the healing is nice, it's not exactly what I'm looking for in a damage build (either power or condi).

Coming back in with a later edit - are the grandmaster traits here supposed to be affecting the buffs that Willbender Virtue skills give? It's not communicated very clearly if that's the case.

Also why is Glacial Heart still a thing?

WRONG WRONG WRONG.

 

Permeating Wrath interacts with F1 ACTIVE. Now you only need 3 hits instead of 5 to proc burning.

Indomitable Courage The active effect of Virtue skill 3 breaks stun and grants stability to nearby allies. Its passive effect gains a shorter interval. It didn't lose anything

Battle Presence is the only trait that is meh

 

I know its a bit complicated because the texts are not clear. But i tested those traits and they all work. Just think that F1, F2 and F3 only works when you activate it, then the traits starts to make sense

[KeoLegend.5132]

16 hours ago, Balsa.3951 said:

Not a cool class but since I doubt much will change now.

Please please change that weird move of F1 where u charge bounce back and than hit or whatever it looks weird and feels weird to look at.

Also F2 make it a blink to enemy I dont want charge away from a fight each time i use F2

 

Also that WB elite it should be a finisher for downed in PVP as well not push ppl away but pull them together. Why would I want not have all my targets stack together? 

No, dont change F2. F2 is my escape tool. I need the Evade frames and being able to use it withought having a target.

Why would i use WB Elite over Renewed Focus in PvP? If i want to finish a downed i just burn the area or GS2

[Rewan.8490]

Hi there,

i enjoyed Willbender a lot when i played through EOD with it. I used pack runes with a dragons/valkyrie/zerker gear mix Sw/Sw/GS, with reso giving me a lot of my crit chance with the 25% cc trait, which made the spec quite durable for the dps it can dish out. I played mostly firebrand for a long time and its like fresh air with all the dashes and mobility. I particularly liked the F1 to swoop from enemy to enemy with renewed justice. I'm looking forward to using it in raids, the benchmark for condi WB looks promising. I think it will be great to have DH be the bursty Power DPS spec, WB be the high DPS condi spec and have Firebrand be lower DPS but bring its trademark utility, to have varied build options for guardian. Didn't test the alac capabilities yet, so no opinion on that.

Cheers!

[Sena.2761]

Probably minor but could the burn duration on Whirling Light be bumped up by like 20% or so and maybe add a blind? The purpose is I'd like to justify "nerfing" the skill to a 20s CD so it's CD matches that of a traited Purging Flames for the synergy.

 

As is, it's fine but it would just feel nicer if I didn't have to mentally decide if its worth it to mash it asap vs waiting for Purging Flames for the Burning Bolts.

[Perihen the Thawk.9527]

Feedback from a casual open-world player:

 

I find that survivability is actually really great with the new virtues and the insane mobility. I can stay in fights with large numbers if mobs basically indefinitely without even healing once I hit the shadowstep tempo.

 

Problem is that I'm only in those fights for so long because it takes soooo long to kill anything. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong, but mobs are respawning before I've finished the group.

 

Feels good to play, survivability through mobility is great, flow feels very *fun* to play, but I feel like I'm hitting mobs with a wet noodle, which is very disappointing given the theme of the class.

[Chico.3829]

Wow Willbender take so many points to unlock. XD I will worry about a set once I get it all done. 

Edited March 8, 2022 by Chico.3829

[Zhob.9027]

Hello,

After a few hours experimenting with this spec, here's my feedback from a WvW perspective (Pug zergs, roaming, guild raid - power build) :

 

Willbender Flames : When they hit, they simply don't do enough and barely help for Lethal Tempo as they're too easily dodgable. To fix this, the flames could be wider and have a soft CC like cripple and/or vulnerability.

 

Virtues

• Rushing Justice : Like everyone seems to agree, the aftercast is too long, often locking you in places you don't want to be in. I think it should either be sped up or maybe stowable. Damage wise, it feels really good and should remain so. Even though it sometimes misses when your target is moving towards you, this virtue is mostly fine.
• Flowing resolve : While the evade is useful, this virtue just doesn't feel good. Like some suggested, it could either be a targeted blink or even better : a targeted leap (like Daredevil's staff 5 but with a smaller AoE) with impact damage and/or healing. WB lacks combo finishers so it could either be a leap or blast (personal preference for the latter).
• Crashing Courage : The first part of the animation is a bit too long to my liking but it otherwise seems like in a good spot.

 

Traits

• Minor traits are fine and make sense. However, I think we need some kind visual cues to know how our Lethal Tempo is doing. Looking at buff bar constantly to check the stack is really impractical. Maybe we could have some kind of blue (obviously) visual on our health ? Another option would be to increase the size of the effect on our character's fists depending on our Lethal Tempo stack (at 5 stacks, the effect would for instance cover the whole arm).
• Adept traits are honestly too lazy. While flat stats are ok and , buffing WB flames is pointless since they barely do anything in the first place. Adept traits would imo be a good place to improve Physical Skills in some way (1. Short daze whenever physical skills hit (?)  - 2. Quickness whenever physical skills hit with a 1sc iCD - 3. Cleanse 1 condition whenever your physical skills hit)
• Master traits are build defining, impactful and that's what we want.
• Grandmaster traits :
  • Pheonix Protocol : I haven't tested this trait so I won't comment on it.
  • Tyrant's Momentum : I like it. While it sometimes is tough to maintain (a better visual would surely help with that), I think it's well balanced works well with the spec.
  • Deathless Courage : I don't even know if it's useful in PvE or Open World but it's surely pointless in a PvP environment. I don't have any idea now but I think this trait should be scrapped completely.

 

Heal and utilities

I've barely used any because they're just not good enough to trade core skills for them. Heel Crack is however pretty decent for roaming.

 

Offhand sword

I probably haven't tested both enough. They surely need some getting used to but I think they are in a decent spot.

EDIT : WB is the kind of spec I've always wanted in this game, please make it even better !

Edited March 7, 2022 by Zhob.9027

[Mirotvorac.9640]

Willbender in PVP don't have demage, only improved mobility.

[Desh.7028]

Willbender is literally base guard with additional gap closes.

 

The gap between power and condition DPS is 10% while the playstyle is exactly the same.

[aelska.4609]

1 hour ago, Desh.7028 said:

Willbender is literally base guard with additional gap closes.

 

The gap between power and condition DPS is 10% while the playstyle is exactly the same.

 

... and one fewer traitline with cast time on virtues.

[Gwaihir.1745]

6 hours ago, aelska.4609 said:

 

... and one fewer traitline with cast time on virtues.

 

The trait for f1 gives 3s of fury which begins after the hit takes places. And the aftercast is so long on f1 that you may as well not get fury from it, its nearly expired by the time its done and it doesnt benefit the hit from f1. And no willbenders are running concentration.

[The Boz.2038]

I am utterly disgusted by the firebender's ability to absolutely wreck stuff with dozens of stacks of burning.

[HotDelirium.7984]

The Heaven's Palm from Lost Ark (reference it) is visually more appealing  and fluid than Willbender's Iteration. Its a very awkward looking skill right now.

I do hope you expand on balancing the traits involving the passive version of virtues since they impact Willbender negatively currently.

The physical skills appear to use symbols and even apply symbols to the ground yet there is no effect nor synergy with the symbol traits. I think it would be pretty cool, for balance, if while playing as willbender ( to go along with the selfish theme) the damaging symbols they cast are "placed" on an enemy like a DOT and the beneficial ones are placed on ourselves for positive effects.

[HotDelirium.7984]

On 3/7/2022 at 2:38 AM, Zhob.9027 said:

Hello,

After a few hours experimenting with this spec, here's my feedback from a WvW perspective (Pug zergs, roaming, guild raid - power build) :

 

Willbender Flames : When they hit, they simply don't do enough and barely help for Lethal Tempo as they're too easily dodgable. To fix this, the flames could be wider and have a soft CC like cripple and/or vulnerability.

 

Virtues

• Rushing Justice : Like everyone seems to agree, the aftercast is too long, often locking you in places you don't want to be in. I think it should either be sped up or maybe stowable. Damage wise, it feels really good and should remain so. Even though it sometimes misses when your target is moving towards you, this virtue is mostly fine.
• Flowing resolve : While the evade is useful, this virtue just doesn't feel good. Like some suggested, it could either be a targeted blink or even better : a targeted leap (like Daredevil's staff 5 but with a smaller AoE) with impact damage and/or healing. WB lacks combo finishers so it could either be a leap or blast (personal preference for the latter).
• Crashing Courage : The first part of the animation is a bit too long to my liking but it otherwise seems like in a good spot.

 

Traits

• Minor traits are fine and make sense. However, I think we need some kind visual cues to know how our Lethal Tempo is doing. Looking at buff bar constantly to check the stack is really impractical. Maybe we could have some kind of blue (obviously) visual on our health ? Another option would be to increase the size of the effect on our character's fists depending on our Lethal Tempo stack (at 5 stacks, the effect would for instance cover the whole arm).
• Adept traits are honestly too lazy. While flat stats are ok and , buffing WB flames is pointless since they barely do anything in the first place. Adept traits would imo be a good place to improve Physical Skills in some way (1. Short daze whenever physical skills hit (?)  - 2. Quickness whenever physical skills hit with a 1sc iCD - 3. Cleanse 1 condition whenever your physical skills hit)
• Master traits are build defining, impactful and that's what we want.
• Grandmaster traits :
  • Pheonix Protocol : I haven't tested this trait so I won't comment on it.
  • Tyrant's Momentum : I like it. While it sometimes is tough to maintain (a better visual would surely help with that), I think it's well balanced works well with the spec.
  • Deathless Courage : I don't even know if it's useful in PvE or Open World but it's surely pointless in a PvP environment. I don't have any idea now but I think this trait should be scrapped completely.

 

Heal and utilities

I've barely used any because they're just not good enough to trade core skills for them. Heel Crack is however pretty decent for roaming.

 

Offhand sword

I probably haven't tested both enough. They surely need some getting used to but I think they are in a decent spot.

EDIT : WB is the kind of spec I've always wanted in this game, please make it even better !

I'm really over the Naruto run in many of the animations lol

Deathless courage is almost near useless since we rarely kill anything within 4 seconds and continuously every 4 seconds. I've never done that unless its a small group of squishy mobs but then what's the point since we won't be getting killed by them anyways. Maybe a massive damage reduction but only for 4 seconds?

[mrauls.6519]

Crashing Courage needs to be instant

[Ezrael.6859]

Willbender's Physical skills - heal, utilities and elite are all worse than the Warrior & Thief versions.

[Brokensunday.4098]

14 hours ago, mes.4607 said:

Crashing Courage needs to be instant

Make that 900 range also is too shor for escape and mobility

[Brokensunday.4098]

1 hour ago, Ezrael.6859 said:

Willbender's Physical skills - heal, utilities and elite are all worse than the Warrior & Thief versions.

The heal is actually good once you get use to it