Initial Willbender feedback

[quaniesan.8497]

oh boy, where do I start.  Despite all the "OMG  Willbender is so OP, WT eff"  from troll posts by players of other classes,  I find the specialization very ...underwhelming.  

 

1)  The skills for the most part feel like focusing on setting up the stage but lack the firepower to finish up the dishes.  It was fun to troll the target with all the mobility but that's all it does.  You need teammate around .  Greatsword is almost a mandatory swap thus reducing build diversity.  This point I agree with alot of people who also raised this issue on youtube class feedback/reviews.  

2) People tend to forget willbender does not go into battle with Aegis on. That Aegis is very important as it absorb the first nuke/pressure.  So the class is even more squishy than you might think.

3)  It is fun to see all the ticks against grouped up  environmental mobs.  but against half-decent players in pvp, the willbender is VERY lacking. You cannot procs your effect if your enemy keeps moving  . Chaining your 8 chase skills can only land so much and lack skills that keep them there in the area.  

4) Sword 4:     Basically a suicide button. Clunky, slow, took 2 second to complete the chain. During that time you are vulnerable to nuke or cc for very little reward. 

    Sword 5: immo is too short. Slow  attack. Little damage. 

5) easily to overshoot yourself off cliff on maps with platforms.  So high mobility is not necessarily always a great thing.

6) Sword 3 makes the build less fluid.  Please make it so we can move while firing those things.

7) Heal skill: underwhelming.   Requires alot of attention for just one block and one heal when Glint heal is much more impressive .   I feel like you should get half a second worth of block or something. I cannot justify this over Shelter.  *** bug:  does not block /heal properly when trying to block a downskilll.

 

So my overall feel , with guardian as my main from day 1:    very fun in open world.  Fun to troll player. But the class seriously lack the firepower to finish up the job.   Not that great in group fight.  Dueling 1 v 1: will struggle against  bunkered tanks, high sustain classes.  I would choose being a DH over this.  No salt here, just saying  I felt quite underwhelmed for the specialization. 

 

Edited August 19, 2021 by quaniesan.8497

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

I haven't played much of them, but I've fought a lot of these guys in WvW.  Best thing I can say is that they're easy prey for any well-built melee class  They don't have the damage or durability to... well... survive against any solid onslaught.  They also don't have the damage to take anything down.

 

I think the funniest part was when I was taking the northern camp at enemy BL.  There was a Willbender who kept trying to 2v1 me, and it didn't work... twice in a row.  Of course, he ran back a third time before the camp was taken.  After all, it's hard to take that camp with a steady stream of people coming after you.  That time, I didn't even draw my weapon.  I just awkwardly stood in front of him, while he sheepishly backed up while being afraid to attack me.  The dude was smart enough to know he wouldn't win, but he didn't know what else to do.  We started playing a weird game of tag around the edge of the territory while he hoped somebody else would come and kill me.  Eventually I took the camp and he backed into the home gate.

 

To be honest, seems like all 3 of the specializations are bad in WvW.  I know Celestial Weaver is strong right now, but I've still lost some 1v1s against most professions.  These new specializations, as it stands now, simply don't cut it. 

[quaniesan.8497]

3 hours ago, Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

  Best thing I can say is that they're easy prey for any well-built melee class

I agree.  My DH picked these guys out with ease.  My own willbender has a hard time fighting in both zerg fight and small skirmish.  It feels very clunky, i had to do GS and sword/shield instead to be of some use (at which point, why not playing core guard/FB/DH instead). Granted we still learning the class, but it's just ...off.    The trait line is all over the places, each doing their own things, lacking synergy.  It is the result of Anet trying to blend various unrelated themes (monk + ninja style + warrior + magic) together and thus nothing is synergistic with anything.   Not to be harsh, but IMO willbender needs entire rework, from scratch.     This thing looks like my college essay the night before deadline ^^.  It's fun to dance around with all the mobility but i don't see how WB could go further than that.  Without any further changes, I find it hard to use WB over DH or FB in most content types.

Edited August 18, 2021 by quaniesan.8497

[Zeph.5927]

The elite spec is terrible in almost all regards. I won’t be playing it once EOD releases. I’ll unlock it just to have it but will continue playing DH like I’ve been doing since HoT launched. What a sad time to be a guardian…..

[cat.8975]

13 minutes ago, Zeph.5927 said:

What a sad time to be a guardian…..

There are so many viable and good guardian builds at the moment, and WB will add even more. There's never been a better time to play this class lol

[Zeph.5927]

5 minutes ago, cat.8975 said:

There are so many viable and good guardian builds at the moment, and WB will add even more. There's never been a better time to play this class lol

Did I say anything about Guardian not being a good class? My comment was in reference to how the new elite spec seems to be straight up bad/broken. Which means we will most likely be stuck playing the exact same builds we have already been playing for the past four years. Nothing new or exciting for us to do…

 

And you’re kidding yourself if you think WB will “add even more” to our toolkit. The whole espec trait line doesn’t synergize well with the core trait lines. It actively contradicts or straight up doesn’t work with a lot of other traits. The only thing that WB will currently “add to” is to give people a spec to mess around with in open world PvE and that’s about it. It’s terrible in almost every other regard.

Edited August 18, 2021 by Zeph.5927

[cat.8975]

It's not bad for instanced PvE, and with a handful of tweaks, it could be very good. Some of the utils, the f2, and the numbers on the traits need looking at, but I don't think it's far off from being a great spec.

[Dahkeus.8243]

I only tried a bit so far, but my impressions are similar.  It feels like you have a lot of skills with dashes that still don’t do mobility as well as something like a thief shortbow 5 or rev shiro port.

 

They mostly all run forward, which doesn’t handle z-axis mobility well and the attacks with them are generally slow compared to the instant hit of things like sword 2 or JI, which feel like better mobility than any of the virtues.

 

Finding good damage is also hard for something that sacrifices so much defense compared to something like DH.

 

The heal seems like it would be a lot better if it was instant or short cast with a buff that negated the next damage instead of a channeled block that really interferes with the flow of combat.

Edited August 18, 2021 by Dahkeus.8243

[quaniesan.8497]

2 hours ago, Dahkeus.8243 said:

Finding good damage is also hard for something that sacrifices so much defense compared to something like DH.

 

The heal seems like it would be a lot better if it was instant or short cast with a buff that negated the next damage instead of a channeled block that really interferes with the flow of combat.

Couldn't say it better myself. 👌

The heal asks us to sitting duck for 1 second to wait for the reward. This might be ok for 1v1, but 1v2 or group fight in general, you are dealing with multiple damage packages at once.  You negated one, but a second damage package likely to negate the heal you just receive.   Glint's heal did not require the Revenant to do anything during the duration of effect,  and for 3 second he's practically unkillable.  

WB's Sword 3, 4 and the heal each one ruin the flow of combat in their own way.

 

My recommendation is:

sword 3:  unroot the player.

sword 4:  Make it just one attack.

Heal  :   Make it stance-like thing  instead.  The WB would still be able to attack and stuff during the duration.  Remember:  Shelter will always be the comparison .

Edited August 18, 2021 by quaniesan.8497

[Faridah.8431]

I am really not feeling the Willbender. Maybe just needs some refinement to feel less clunky, but there are also some mechanics I just straight up don't like. 

 

Off-hand sword skills seemed pointless. Most of the time I ended up swapping to GS and using that since some of the abilities need multiple hits. Otherwise some of the virtues seem very dependent on mobs/people just standing around in order to get the full use. And I am not crazy about the Reversal of Fortune heal. I think I still would prefer Shelter if a block is needed, or my PvE go-to - Litany of Wrath, which combined with my GS or Blade Trap, etc. works fantastically if timed well. I found the elite to be bad/pointless. Some of the physicals were interesting, but ultimately did not find them overly compelling as damage skills.

 

Honestly don't see why I'd take this spec over DH right now. I felt very slow to kill when faced with one or a few enemies, larger groups felt a bit better, but worse than my DH.

Edited August 18, 2021 by Faridah.8431

[Dahkeus.8243]

Yea, if the spec is supposed to be an offensive one that can stay on top of your opponent, your heal shouldn't have you sitting like a duck when you get there waiting for your heal to trigger.

 

After trying Willbender, I was actually kinda happy because I was hoping I wouldn't like it better than my rev.  Shiro Herald still feels like what this elite spec is trying to be, but doesn't yet match up to. 

 

Facet of light still outshines RoF and fits the role better because you can use it as you play aggressively instead of forcing you to go defensive when using it.  To that extent, it almost feels like Litany of Wrath fits better design for what the build needs, even though that skill has plenty of problems itself.

[Dristig.9678]

I don't get it either. Melee DH is a direct swap that's better than any Willbender spec I can figure out.

[Brokensunday.4098]

Low survival low damage clunky skills that rounds the spec at the moment

[Darknicrofia.2604]

3 hours ago, Dristig.9678 said:

I don't get it either. Melee DH is a direct swap that's better than any Willbender spec I can figure out.

Core Guardian feels like the elite spec upgrade to Willbender.

[quaniesan.8497]

10 hours ago, Darknicrofia.2604 said:

Core Guardian feels like the elite spec upgrade to Willbender.

 

Sad. But true