Willbender Feedback Thread

[Astro Bear.6305]

Please make "Heaven's Palm" a stomp like impact strike. Remove the CC and slightly up the damage. As of now no one is taking this over Renewed Focus in competitive. This way you would have to decide sustain vs quick hit and run kills. 

 

I just think it being a finisher that works similar to impact strike letting it 100% kill low HP enemies just fits thematically. 

 

pls aneto pls give. 

 

(Also this would maybe give the PvE players more damage in their rotation??? Good times?????) 

Edited August 18, 2021 by Astro Bear.6305

[Bvallin.4931]

https://i.imgur.com/eDx21dh.png This should not be the ideal build, don't make me nerf myself in my traits. The GMs in this line at least have an interesting design to the nerf so I'll give them that but those adepts are trash. You shouldn't take anything other than power for power. You want to support? Don't take the outgoing healing nerf (For 240 healing power???)  or the allied boon nerf. You want to tank with your dodges and blocks? Don't take ANY adept trait. The biggest shame is that this class is legitimately fun to play but those traits are awful.

[Tasker.1973]

I'm a Dragonhunter fan and I've only tested Willbender open world using GS and Sw/sw.

 

I find it frustrating how many different ranges there are on mobility. I end up relying more on the old Sword 2 and GS 3 for the 600 range.

For all the extra mobility and micro movements you do incidentally make, the payoff isn't that great. The damage of sword 4 is lackluster. Sword 2 already teleports itself and Sword 3 is already a 600 projectile. I think I'd keep using focus to better compliment both melee and range.

 

Virtues felt underwhelming when fighting small number of mobs. I also feel the animation locks are jarring and undermine the mobility and fluidity.

 

Despite my complaints, I really do want to like Willbender. I just don't think it's there yet.

Edited August 18, 2021 by Tasker.1973

[bwzsclem.3786]

Vanguard tactics does nothing, looks like it's referencing just plain 'courage' instead of the 'Crashing Courage' virtue.

 

Which is silly because being a willbender means you no longer have the original courage virtue.

 

Also, Restorative Virtues doesn't work on F3.

 

Comeon guys, I know this is beta but seriously?

[CJH.2879]

My two cents...

 

I tried this class out with high hopes &... quite honestly, it does okay, but... I feel that some serious tweaking is needed here. Probably my biggest complaint is the stability of the class, meaning you can slot into the trait lines the stability for f3 ability, which lasts a very short time & then... it's gone & your knocked on your butt repeatedly (even with aegis on, enemies can fire right through it... for example ice wurms in frostgorge sound, I mean... what's the point? Sure you can use other utilies to gain stability, but... they are clunky to cast & you have to be standing inside of them, not to mention the long recharges!).

 

I was kind of surprised... shocked even that your not able to really dodge anything with the new utilities... at all! (Unless you perfectly time shadowstep! Good luck with that though!) I was originally thinking that flame spinning in mid air would give you a couple secs or so of dodge while you casted it/closed in, but nope! Down I went! The other F1 & F2 abilities I honestly didn't care for much either, to me it was very flashly running around with no real use vs smaller mobs, or single targets, (Plus also very clunky to cast, especially vs single targets!). The conditional build isn't much better either given the lack of fire or any other conditions that you can inflict, plus they don't last long enough to make it really worthwhile.

 

As it stands... I'm sorry to say this but, I feel that the Willbender needs some serious tweaking, but that is of course what these beta tests are all about. Plus, admittedly I found it difficult to find any trait lines that meshed well with this new elite specialization. Personally I still feel the Firebrand is wayyy better! (In addition to it's axe attack skills!) My advice is to make the Willbender far easier to maneuver >> on the F1 & F2 abilities << otherwise it's just going to keep missing with such a small fire field! Or better yet, throw in a circular one! Overall, I was disappointed with this one, I wanted to love it, I did... but so far it's not anywhere near done in my opinion! Plus the DPS... well it felt kind of underwhelming, even with full berserker gear on.

 

I hope you take this as constructive criticism, because... it's just my personal opinion! (I'm trying to help). But from what I've read, I'm not the only one who feels this build needs a serious overhaul! Fingers crossed it's gets better on the next beta 😃 

[Tatwi.3562]

Feedback on PvE combat from an average casual open worlder.

 

Normally I main Sword/Torch burn Guardian (for at least 5 years). My setup:

1. Exotic armor (chest is ascended) with Balthazar runes.
2. Ascended sword/torch, corruption/smoldering
3. Marauder ascended rings/amulet.
4. Carrion ascended back/trinket, other trinket is exotic.
5. Signet of Resolve, Purging Flames, Bane Signet, Signet of Wrath, Feel My Wrath.
6. Radiance mid/mid/up, Zeal mid/down/down, Virtues mid/mid/up.
7. I switch out to exotic mace/shield with vitality/healing/condition, if I need to recover while my heal is on cooldown.

I tested the default Willbender build in the Caledon Forest DRM compared to my normal Guardian. Here is my take away:

1. My normal Guardian kills things WAY faster! No contest, whole groups die faster no matter how far apart they are.
2. My normal Guardian died twice. I died 6 or 7 times on Willbender, despite having more NPC help.
3. The boss took less than half the time to kill on my normal Guardian.
4. Honestly, only having the standard Sword 2 for mobility didn't feel any slower when fighting the groups of mobs before the boss.  Even though I killed things faster on my normal Guardian, there was only one instance where I was like, "OK sword 2, any time now!" on the mobility front.
5. Willbender's heal is practically useless against that boss, because there are so many little bits of damage going on that it never really seemed to heal much of anything at all. Signet of Resolve with Virtue of Resolve were so much more effective.
6. Break bar! I forgot about that. The Willbender's skills kinda stunk at that, even worse than my normally stinky setup. Granted I don't know all of its skills like the back of my hand, but mashing all those buttons sure didn't do much to take down the boss's break bar.

 

Bottom line: Willbreaker seems like a PvP spec, because it seems worse at both single and multi target damage than my existing Guardian build and Willbreaker's huge amount of mobility wasn't a benefit in the PvE content (but I imagine it would be in PvP). Personally, I'm fine with that, because I like what I already have.

 

Again, I am sucky old man who mashes buttons casually. This has been my feedback. Hope it's helpful.

Edited August 18, 2021 by Tatwi.3562

[Stalkingwolf.6035]

59 minutes ago, bwzsclem.3786 said:

Comeon guys, I know this is beta but seriously?

Exactly its beta. this should be for number adjusting. Alpha is for trying concept.

imo its not only bad damage and beeing very squishy. You can fix that with number adjusting. WB feels clumsy. Everything ends in a lock animation like F2 from DH. i always hated it that i can not roll directly after F2 and now WB has it an almost every skill.

and then the class feels underwhelming, plane and very boring to look at.

 

and please remove the auto movment. i can place my character myself and dont need the game to move me into some oneshot AoE attack.

[TheBlader.3946]

I really want to like willbender for guardian and I play guardian almost exclusively, but jesus kitten willbender is a trashy elite spec.  I hate the mix of assassin and monk theme.  Like just pick one thing and stick with it.  Most of the new physical skills are done with fists like a monk, but uses an offhand for a blade wtf.   I would of liked to see focus used as a main hand for this since most of the new skills are done with fists, but I guess that would be to much work for changes..  Also the traits for willbender are very underwhelming and useless like most stated.  I hope they make changes to this elite spec cause I ain't using it on release date.

[mondmadlin.5120]

I found that the animation are great, but the sound design was rather lacking in comparison, the sounds are relatively flat and not unique at all imo, I would hope for something with a bit more WHOMP,  from the sword hits, to the flames when you shoot across the ground, heaven's palm even, all don't have that sound impact to them that I like so much.

[cat.8975]

Heaven's Palm needs a massive damage increase for PvE (it's going to do no damage in PvP/WvW anyway). Increase the coefficient from 1.0 to like... 4.0 and add some burning (3 stacks of 5s base? idk). Make the elite feel like an elite, not just a worse version of bane signet.

It'd be nice if Lethal Tempo's damage bonus applied to conditions, as it'd open up the opportunity for a condi wb build to exist in PvE. The playerbase usually loves the idea of "hybrid" builds that utilize the grieving stat set, and guardian players have been asking for years about the viability of flame legion runes. If this trait worked on condis, it'd likely "bench" in the 37-38k dps range, and would be perfectly acceptable once you consider just how much glassier it is relative to Dragonhunter and Firebrand builds.

You're giving up 240 toughness, 10% max hp (balth runes to flame legion), tomes, aegis mantra, etc. to play a damage spec that is actively punished for using its f2 and f3 virtues. I'd say the 15/25% applying to condis would be more than fair at that point.

[Der Eiserne Ele.5967]

11 hours ago, Der Eiserne Ele.5967 said:

Bitte Arenanet, sagt mir das die Spezialisierung vom Wächter ein Scherz ist. Ein Wächter soll doch eher der Fels in der Brandung sein und kein Fäuste schwingender Ninja. Gibt die Spezialisierung dem Dieb und denkt euch bitte etwas neues aus! Ich werde definitiv mit meinem Char diese Spezialisierung nicht nutzen, kitten ja nicht mal die Schwerter zu sehen sind. Bitte überdenk das nochmal, ich bin gespannt was die anderen Spieler dazu sagen werden.

 

 

Ich hätte mir eher eine komplett neue Mechanik gewünscht, wie zum Beispiel die Fähigkeiten vom Ritualisten aus Guild Wars 1. So etwas ähnliches gibt es in Guild wars 2 nicht. Aber Arenanet gibt uns immer nur Skins, die nichts bringen. Ich finde es gibt schon so viele Klassen in Guild Wars 2, die im Nahkampf mit ähnlichen Fertigkeiten agieren. Es ist halt immer wieder das gleiche und wenn man schon die Chance hat und mit der dritten Erweiterung nach Factions kommt, dann hätte man auch die Alten Klassen aufgreifen könnnen. Wenn man dann schon dem Wächter nur eine Nebenhand Waffe gibt, dann passt doch zu dem rumgehopse eher ein Dolch, der hätte dann zumindest eine Verbindung zum Assassinen aus dem ersten Teil.

[Mimterest.4639]

I find the new active virtues very bad to play with, especially against one or two enemies. They last such a short time, and a lot of traits that enhance virtues on the core guardian just don't work at all which I feel is unacceptable. The whole set of traits for Willbender seems random and punishing, almost slapped together. It tells a lot when a lot of people just don't pick an adept or grandmaster trait.. On top of that, a lot of the traits don't feel like they enhance a core part of the Willbender, instead something hyper specific. There are no (good) traits to just simply enhance a virtue or all virtues. There aren't major traits to significantly enhance mobility or survivability other than Holy Reckoning. Holy Reckoning is good! Where are the traits to enhance physical skills? what about offhand sword? Even the old sword trait got changed to "mainhand sword" so literally the only thing we can basically enhance for the Willbender through traits are the new virtues, which are not fun to play with and don't play nice with the rest of the guardian traitlines.

Why is the spec basically exclusively power and crowd control? Why are there no traits or skills that cause burning or at least somehow improve condition damage builds?

A lot of other people have already provided a lot more feedback on how to improve Willbender's functionality a lot better than anything I would've written, a lot of which I agree with. One thing that bothers me personally that I haven't seen a lot of people mention is the aesthetics! I know that by theme they're physical skills, but almost every single guardian skill short of shouts and maybe signets has more interesting graphics than almost everything Willbender has. Even the elite skill looks lackluster, Willbender is clunky and looks boring when you play it. Needs more blue light, flames, something.

Also, I might be in the minority here for caring about this, but this is the second elite specialization that's basically unuseable underwater. Please make some more underwater skills 😞

Willbender has a lot of potential but it doesn't feel like an elite specialization, or even a proper specialization. It needs something more, both aesthetically and functionally.

[Dragon Dude.7832]

Willbender is very lacking, the playstyle is fun but it's trait and abilities are super basic, without not much to go around. Their mobility makes up for a lot of their sustain they're missing but even then it's not enough to make up for the fact that their damage is only moderately good.

 

I'd suggestion a revision on their whole trait lines, traits such as Restorative Virtues are great, but Boon Pact and Conceited Curate are absolutely useless. From what I recall, this spec is to be more Damage & Mobility focused rather than support, it's not much of a support spec if you ask me. Honestly, I see it going towards a more Zerg future with Alacrity and Quickness. 

 

Abilities such as Flash Combo and Executioner's Calling are too bland and basic. I like Flash Combo, it's fun to use, but doesn't deal much damage especially for the CD given.  

 

I actually wrote down a slightly more detail suggestive review here if you'd like to read it, if not, I'll try to TLDR it here. Improve

 

First off, let's start by fixing Executioner's Calling, there isn't much burst to Willbender or burst finishers which is a huge disadvantage, especially compared to most other specs. 

 

Increase the Cooldown to 30 seconds, but in exchange it's base damage is increased, and a burst finisher is added, meaning under a certain health threshold, in this case 40%, the damage is at least doubled. This would allow Willbenders to take their opponents down before they can heal back up.

 

The problem is, getting them down is still a problem since you've gotta go through 90% of your skills before even dropping an opponent, even a un-tanky one down to at least 60% health. This is why we're gonna go through everything, and before we fully move on, I'd like to point out making another power-condi hybrid is gonna annoy everyone, so don't bother with Condition on this spec, it doesn't even use condition, most skills are pure physical.

 

Without Further ado.

 

• Flash Combo
•  
• Flash Combo has a high CD of 25s, due to the fact that it has a very high range shadowstep, yet it's ability itself doesn't deal too much damage. I suggest two alternatives.

1. Increase the base damage by a great margin
2. Replace one of the crap traits, such as Conceited Curative, with a trait that revokes the Shadowstep and allows for a huge increase in damage for Flash Combo. This not only changes things up a bit, but allows people who'd want to sacrifice a bit of mobility for a ton more damage. Which may be more suited

Whirling Light

 

Whirling Light has a burning condition, it is the only ability aside from the three virtues that cause any sort of flames, it is useless because there is not much condition in the spec. My suggestion is to remove this and buff the damage of Whirling Light. 

 

Reversal of Fortune

 

Reversal Of Fortune is terrible, there are a ton better heals than this, I'd rather use Shelter or Signet of Resolve. It should either be buffed, or remade.

 

Next up, I have a few trait modifications, that I've already come up with, and for the fact that the devs would probably still try to make this a power-condi hybrid, I've actually had a decent idea or two onto fix this.

 

Trait Idea 1 Symbolic Refreshment: Symbols from any weapons now grant 0.3 seconds of Alacrity and Quickness, which continues to refresh as long as allies and the user stays within the circle. 

Trait Idea 2 Burning Vengeance: Main Hand and Off-Hand sword skills now apply stack of burning to your target, and your expertise is increased based on a percentage of ferocity. 

Trait Idea 3 Holy Reckoning Revision: All Physical Utility Slot abilities apply stacks of burning and/or vulnerability to your target based on what each skill does, as a bonus your condition damage is increased based on a percentage of power. 

Trait Idea 4 Combo Breaker: Revokes the Shadowstep in your Flash Combo for a huge increase of damage and modifies the cooldown from 25s to 15s. 

Trait Idea 5 Quick Killer: All Physical Abilities now grant 0.5 of Alacrity or Quickness depending on the ability. I.E Flash Combo, Whirling Light and Heel Kick would grant Quickness, and Reversal of Fortune, Rolling Light, and Heaven's Palm grant Alacrity. 

 

Idea 2 & 3 would be on the same trait line, that way they couldn't combine and become too overpowered. 

Similarly, 5 & 1 would also be on the same trait line, thus keeping everything going from being too overpowered.

Tyrant's Momentum

1. This trait line is great, but the duration is far too short for it to be of any value, the duration needs to be buffed so that we can actually have a chance of being able to keep up with it to make any use out of it

Executioner's Calling

1. I'm repeating myself thought I'd make it cleaner here, before I was explaining why, now I'm showing what needs to be done. 
2. Side Note: Most of the time this attack doesn't even land and when it does, it barely does any damage.

Cooldown moved from 12s to 30s

Overall Damage Increased. Base Damage: 142 (If I'm correct), now increased to 180. | Secondary Attacks: 568 x2 now increased to 721 x2. This is an near even 27% increase, this will be a good buff to help out. This however is the damage above 40% health

 

Below 40% Health Threshold: First Hit: 294 | Secondary Attacks: 1175 x2. This is a 107% damage increase, and seeing as Willbender has no bursts, this ability would be perfect for it. 

 

I hope I didn't go overboard or looked too eager, this is my feedback for the class, and I really think it needs a rework. It has potential, it's a lot of fun, but it having support traits is absolute nonsensical, from what I've seen if it were done right, it's more of a class that quickly takes down its foes to get to its end goal, and to kill them before it dies. 

 

[nativity.3057]

A lot of "it could be better with just a tweak" with the current willbender beta test. But also a bit of "please change this before release" moments as well. 

 

Mainly played in WvW, so pvp focused.

GS & Sw/Sw for maximum mobility in WvW makes Willbender one of the fastest class. Even thieves on mounts get caught. 

The class definitely leans more towards power damage than condi damage, but hybrid can work. 

 

Willbender traitline allows us to spec into different types of monk flavors (the class gives that monk vibe). Options to go full glass or drain tank in the first row of major traits, but what's likely to be used the most is the concentration one. The other options are specific and niche. 

2nd row of traits is the most problematic, because they're all pretty underwhelming. First one to optimize you have to spam virtues. Second one boosts Willbender Flames, which is a topic of its own. Third one is best for PvP focused games.

 

The alacrity grandmaster feels out of place; what role would Willbender fill that requires Alacrity, that won't be covered by another class? 

Tyrant's momentum is the best DPS option, and likely the most commonly used. 

Deathless Courage is a trait that looks good, if your game mode is killing open world mobs. It looks like a good trait for WvW zerging, but the time to kill is too long for Deathless Courage to work. 

 

 

Off-hand sword is nice, especially sword 5. Animation is crisp, movement is fluid, and the distance is far. 

Sword 4 is a slow skill, the tool tip is deceptive because the 2nd hit isn't instant. What that means is that when you chain Sword 5 into Sword 4, the 1.5s immob on Sword 5 is barely enough to get the full chain of Sword 4 without quickness.

Damage on Sword 4 is split, and is underwhelming in PvP/WvW. Should pump those numbers up and it's a great weapon.

 

 

My favorite virtue by far is the Resolve dash. It's instant, fast, and long, similar to Sword 5. Also gives a mini Litany of Wrath effect. 

The Courage virtue could use a fix in lowering the cast time. 3/4 seconds feels clunky when compared to F1 and F2. 

 

 

Willbender Flame is a questionable choice of a profession mechanic. And in its current beta iteration, there's not a lot of good things that can be said. Right now, it feels like a mechanic added because Anet didn't want the virtues to be passive oriented, where the damage comes after a single click. But it doesn't mesh well with what Willbender wants to do. It's forcing a mobile class to play around a single AoE (claw/line/circle) that barely ticks damage.   

 

Edit: Forgot about utilities. Which pretty much says it all. They're forgettable. 

Edited August 18, 2021 by nativity.3057

[posthumecaver.6473]

13 hours ago, Aeolus.3615 said:

Dont use the offhand sword, play with sword/mace focus or shield and hammer

Hammer FEELLS good with WB, resolved the clunkiness 😐

 

Offhand felt terrible, think wil be a discarded weapon by players like soulbeast dagger... makes the class a bit clunky with it,  offhand sword needs to be offhand defense and counter atack imo, classes already have decent mobility W/O it, and we can also use meditation wich for me was mandatory for condi cleanse and minor heals.

 

EDIT: loved the hammer KB target and persue target to a KD to another KB 😄

Mainly this, sword/sword is not working (ok you chase your enemy), but sword 3 lock you in one place and you can do anything other then auto-attacking with sword/sword. And they have to make a trait on willbender that you symbol are following your movement, otherwise you are super mobile but one of your main mechanics are still static (how can I get symbols stacking damage buff, if the enemy and I move all the time).....

 

And while other one handed main weaponset of guardian does not fit the off-hand sword, mace/sword (tanky weapon sword, what????) or scepter/sword (ranged weapon/sword what???), axe sword would be nice but....

Edited August 18, 2021 by posthumecaver.6473

[Axl.8924]

3 hours ago, artrayus.8312 said:

My 2 cents. For what it's worth. I posted this elsewhere not realizing there was a designated feedback post. 

 

Willbender

This one had me the most excited initially after watching the promo. I've played a lot of guardian both FB and DH. I made this one first and just as excited as I was to try was equally met with disappointment. The talents feel punishing due to the disadvantages they tied in to try to offset the advantages. It almost feels like a choice between a lesser disadvantage rather than an exciting bonus or advantage. The damage left something to be desired as well. I was overall very disappointed and if this isn't reworked or buffed I will likely never bother playing this when it goes live. This is very sad because I greatly enjoy playing guardian was looking for a fun new twist for the profession. 

Virtuoso 

If I'm not on my guardian I'm probably on my mesmer. Again, I was excited when I saw the promotion. I think this is probably tuned right where it needs to be but it felt squishy to me. I'm curious what other beta testers think? The damage feels great so I honestly think this specialization probably needs very little work before going live. I think it's still slightly confusing how the talents play into the daggers. Do talents that buff clone damage now buff dagger damage? So all the clone damage is loaded into a mechanic gated burst? It's interesting and I suppose balanced at face value, but I'm also curious to see how this plays in pvp. Overall, I like the concept as long as you can still get use out of phantasm and clone talents. I would like to see something that helps soloing after losing clones which are such a critical and foundational mechanic for mesmer solo play. 

Harbringer

I honestly play necro the least out of all professions so I tried this one simply out of curiosity. I have greatly enjoyed condi specs in the past and I have to say I was thrilled when I started playing with this. I enjoyed the concept of the utility skills, but they almost seem a little boring to be honest. However, the damage and survivability is incredible and the gameplay feels fantastic with nothing more than basic carrion armor/stats. I wouldn't be surprised if this is nerfed before it goes live. As it stands, I might be playing more necro!

 

 

I honestly don-t know how you got willbender to work maybe i-m absolutely terrible but when i had mindbender spec as pvp,. it was impossible to win. Not sure exactly what the spec is aiming for. Il try playing more to see if i can figure it out.

[The Brainman.6217]

Out of the three presented elite specs, this is the only one I did not like. It seems very weird to me that guardian gets a high mobility assassin spec, which is the opposite of what guardians thematically do. I also find it potentially toxic to the game to have high mobility on a class with great support/boon access as well as good dmg and duelling abilities. In the end, this might lead to a situation that numbers need to be undertuned in order to stop this spec from stomping everyone, which would make it either useless or overpowered...

 

Apart from this general design remark, I can support the observations that aftercasts feel long and the off-hand sword is very clunky. The traits and new virtues have quite some synergies though and enable permanent resolution upkeep, which you can lever for 25% crit chance, might and bonus damage.

 

In PvP, I was running: Radiance 3-3-3, Virtues 2-2-3, Willbender 1-1-1

The uptime of your virtues is really high, giving you a lot of mobility. Alacrity helps with that. Sword/Focus + GS

[Kryhakk.8529]

People say that Willbender is just a PvP spec, I hope it's not just a pvp spec tbh... DH feels lacking in Raids, cFB is alright, but can't keep up with other dps specs like Daredevil, cRen and others... so please... make this a good pDPS class for Raids too... do what you want with it in PvP (so far it only seems good at chasing people, nothing else), but please make it viable in Raids.
I tried it out yesterday in wing 4 and it felt good, but the dps is definitely there with DH, which is no improvement to be fair.

[phreeak.1023]

No hate but please put the WB files into the trash bin, clear it and start over again. 

 

Its not good in anything. People already mentioned all his flaws multiple times. If there are no major improvements to the elite, it won't be played in any game mode because why, when DH and FB are just miles ahead. 

 

 

Edit

Instead of OH sword main hand focus and a more brawler like elite (elite focus skin would be a big heavy armor glove) 

 

(not so serious here) 

 

Skill 1 would be an auto attack chain, where he smash the enemy with both Hands. Left, right, left, right on a 240 range and 5 enemie aoe (animation a bit like the new shroud 1 skill on Nekros who goes super sayajin with it xD) 

 

Skill 2 a 600-900 range jump hulk smash to the ground aoe ish damage with a knockdown. 

 

Skill 3 stun break / stomp skill that heals a bit and interrupts enemies. 

 

 

Edited August 18, 2021 by phreeak.1023

[Lord Trejgon.2809]

5 hours ago, Ezrael.6859 said:

Permeating Wrath - The increased proc frequency for Justice passive is wasted.

Just bumping in here to say this if one of first things I have tested and it is not wasted - it adjuste the proc rate of justice "stance" you get after executing F1 (meaning that you will proc the stance every 3 hits instead of 5)

[Sloth.8729]

2 of the new willbender skills essentially being just "swipe your target" feels really boring and not fun to play. Overall it has a very bland kit.... would expect more engaging & fun skills/utility slots from an elite spec

Edited August 18, 2021 by Sloth.8729

[cat.8975]

It'd be nice if Whirling Light gave superspeed and maybe allowed free movement, rather than going in a straight line/sticking to your current target. It feels pretty unwieldy to use in PvE at the moment, and I imagine it being even worse in PvP scenarios.

The animation also seems to interrupt 2-3 times during the cast (with and without quickness), so it doesn't *feel* as smooth as it could. This doesn't really effect the viability of it, but it could certainly feel better.

[Caid.4932]

So i found some traits that work well together and thought it was worth sharing.

Permeating Wrath reduces the number of hits to proc justice from 5 to 3 (dont know if aoe burn works, it really should).

Tyrants Momentum increases the duration of justice to 8 seconds.

With the virtue cooldown reductions justice has a cd of 10.5 seconds.

So basically it makes it pretty easy to maintain tyrants momentum and burn stacks on enemies which helps with damage traits in radiance.  Virtues also gives pretty good resolution uptime, which again helps with damage traits in radiance and with resistance on vanguard tactics makes conditions somewhat manageable even without a dedicated condition cleanse utility.

It feels somewhat usable.

[Bambu.4270]

First impressions of the Willbender were excitement and flashy new skills with nice animations. However, in even basic PvE content, it is quite hard to get anything killed even if you are fully berserker geared. There are some extra mobility and shadowsteps to targets but it doesn't help when they just walk away slowly and you end up failing your own skills completely, leaving you standing there with skills on cooldown.

 

Virtues

Overall, I really do not like the current version of "activate a virtue and then hit 5 times" to gain something out of it. Especially in 1v1 combat this isn't rewarding enough because you can't hit so many times in limited time.

• Rushing Justice - Rushing to the target is nice but then there's this way too long animation to actually make the strike. If it fails, you end up with no Willbender flames.
• Flowing Resolve - Willbender flames placement seems a bit off for me. If you are reaching your target, the flames are behind you hitting nobody. If you are already at your target, you go through the target and there is no easy way to make the U-turn back to this target. This virtue isn't either made for running away since you need to hit targets to gain the health effect. In the end, I do not want to activate this virtue at all.
• Crashing Courage - AoE targeting on this skill makes it perfect and amazing to use. Perhaps making Justice and Resolve virtues similar with AoE circle targeting with shadowstep would make them better?

 

Off-hand Sword

Generally I would buff up the damage output on both skills, they feel weak compared to other weapon skills.

• Skill 4 - On functional level, this skill seems fine. At the moment, it just doesn't do great damage.
• Skill 5 - This is a good skill to reach your target but the 1s immobilize, at least for me, doesn't work enough. I would add either more immobilize duration or chill or cripple to this skill.

 

Utilities

• Heal - This healing skill is underperforming a lot. In PvE setting, most of the time it even fails to block anything because enemies have such long attack pauses. This forces you to go in enemy AoEs in hopes of healing but then you just end up getting hit more than once and the healing is wasted.
• Flash Combo - This feels nice to use but the damage is lackluster.
• Whirling Light - This one I like the most. I think it's the best skill Willbender has. It also has nice animation. The damage is a bit low though.
• Roiling Light - This works quite well except the return skill Quick Retribution doesn't have enough range to go back to the target. There are several cases where you get knockbacked or feared. Jumping even further away and then pressing the skill to return just leaves you hanging. I would increase the range in the return skill.
• Heel Crack - I didn't play with this at all, so I can't really say much about it. I guess it's a nice CC skill.
• Elite - Seems okayish but I would improve it by giving it AoE targeting with shadowstep so it's similar to Warrior's Stomp skill.

 

Traits

• Minor ones seems okay.
• I don't like any of the traits that reduce your stats. They aren't rewarding enough for the loss of stats.
• The Good traits are all in the middle column (Restorative virtues, Holy Reckoning, Vanguard Tactics) and Tyrant's Momentum. 
• Phoenix Protocol - This first looked amazing but in reality it is quite weak. Perhaps it is because how it behaves with Virtue 2's hit 5 times to activate? Maybe the base alacrity needs longer duration. It is not shared with other players which leaves me ponder, why would I pick this option?
• Deathless Courage - Seems interesting but I can't think of a situation where you kill enemies constantly in such short time to keep it up.

 

Extra edit:

Can't use any utilities in underwater!

Edited August 18, 2021 by Bambu.4270
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[cat.8975]

If the alacrity from Phoenix Protocol can't be shared, I don't see that trait being taken in any gamemode. Nerfing your f2 to get some alacrity in wvw/pvp seems like a bad move, and nothing is going to trump the damage increase of Tyrant's Momentum in PvE.