Willbender - Radiant Burnbender

The community gave this build a rating, making it second-tier: Good

Focused on: Hybrid damage and Mobility

Designed for: PvP Conquest

Difficulty:

Easy

This build was last updated on January 18, 2025 and is up to date for the March 11, 2025 patch.

Overview

A hybrid Willbender build for PvP, augmenting its strike damage with rapid Burning stacking that becomes more effective with a higher number of targets.

Skill Bar

Scepter/Torch

Sword/Sword

Utility

Skill Variants

Weapons

• Greatsword over Scepter/Torch is also a viable option, offering better burst damage and AoE cleave.

Heal

• Reversal of Fortune
  - worse cleansing and overall a less popular option, but could work better under pressure due to the lower cast time (assuming it blocks an attack).

Template Code

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Equipment

Scepter

Torch

Sigil

Sigil

Sword

Sword

Sigil

Sigil

Rune

Amulet

Relic

Relic

• Relic of the Defender
  - extra sustain.

Equipment Variants

Sigils

• Sigil of Cleansing
  - better defense against conditions, but you'll have to give up either endurance regen or damage for it.

• Sigil of Exposure
  and
  Sigil of Doom
  - these add cover conditions to the build to make the Burning a bit harder to cleanse. Could be used together for maximum effectiveness.

Rune

• Rune of the Eagle
  over
  Rune of Balthazar
  - more focus on Power-based burst damage.

Usage

General

• What sets Willbender apart from other burn Guardian specs is how they apply Burning. Unlike other builds where you're holding on to the F1 for passive condition stacking, here you're encouraged to use
  Rushing Justice
  on CD because the passive only works for an 8 second period after using the active of the F1.

• Resolution increases your critical strike chance by 40% via
  Righteous Instincts
  while
  Inner Fire
  passively provides a high uptime of Fury for another 20%.
  • Every Virtue and shadowstep (teleport) grants Resolution from the traits
    Vanguard Tactics
    and
    Virtue of Resolution
    . Most of the time these skills are part of your burst combos so you don't have to worry too much about maintaining this boon.

• Every Virtue skill is a mobility skill on Willbender. Besides their base functionality they are great for sticking to targets or escaping damage.

• Rushing Justice
  is refreshed after each kill so make sure you always have it on cooldown right before a kill (this is very useful when soloing camps). Using it also applies AoE Blind which is great for stomping or making high priority skills miss. It's also one of the hardest hitting skills in the build.

• Try to burn through all of your virtues before resorting to
  Renewed Focus
  . RF is a great skill to use if you're being focues by the enemy team and you don't have any CDs left. Just keep in mind that this skill makes you lose capture point contribution for its duration.

• Whirling Light
  is as much of a defensive skill as it is offensive, offering AoE Weakness application on top of great damage.

• One of Willbender's greatest strengths is its mobility:
  • Every virtue skill is a mobility skill.
  • Most of the teleports require a target, but you can get creative with that by doing things like selecting a far away enemy target (even a random NPC) and spamming teleports to get away from an enemy chasing you.
  • Advancing Strike
    is a good mobility skill even without a target as it makes you dash forward.

Damage

• Use
  Rushing Justice
  on CD. While the skill itself hits rather hard, the main purpose of this is the 8s burst window that follows, a window where every 3rd attack inflicts Burning on your foe.

• Try to get as many hits in during this time frame as possible using Symbols or skills that strike multiple times such as
  Whirling Light
  or
  Zealot's Defense
  .

• Zealot's Flame
  is a great source of passive AoE burning - it's instant and doesn't interfere with your combos. While active you'll have access to its chain skill
  Zealot's Fire
  which lets you throw a ball of fire at your target for burst damage.
  • Chains of Light
    can help with landing the projectile against ranged targets thanks to the Immobilize.

• Advancing Strike
  deals good damage and sets up your next attack perfectly with Immobilize and Resolution (it's a shadowstep).

• Executioner's Calling
  combos well with Advancing Strike as it benefits from the setup of the Immob.

• Scepter acts as your best source of ranged damage in the build, but that's not saying much. The projectiles are rather unreliable at a distance so most of the time this is more of a midrange/melee weapon. Even skill #2
  Symbol of Punishment
  is best used in melee as that way you're getting buffed while the enemy's taking damage.

Sustain

• Flowing Resolve
  is an excellent reactive skill with multiple charges which cleanses several conditions and even has an evade frame in case you need to dodge something but don't have the endurance.

• Signet of Resolve
  is worth holding onto for its passive in order to get free condition cleansing, but don't hesitate to use it on low health (and even its active can cleanse conditions).

• If taken
  Reversal of Fortune
  (your healing skill) is best used when an attack is already coming your way or you're absolutely certain that you're going to be hit in order to get maximum healing (and block value) out of it. If you're not being focused but want to heal consider moving briefly into an enemy AoE skill.

• Contemplation of Purity
  is a purely defensive stun break and your best answer against an overwhelming amount of conditions. Usually a last resort for when you're heavily pressured and other options don't cut it anymore.

• Crashing Courage
  is an excellent and versatile defensive skill. Short CD, grants boons, it's also a ground targeted ranged teleport which adds a lot of vertical mobility to the build. Leaving attackers behind while teleporting to the highground can save your life. As with most Willbender skills, it's not purely defensive - the AoE it leaves behind upon landing is a good source of cleave damage too, so you could sacrifice this skill to chase or pressure targets if you're fine with giving up a defensive CD.

• Judge's Intervention
  is also a stun break but most of the time it'll be used to execute burst combos from range. Worth holding onto for defensive purposes when every other stun break is on CD though.

• As long as you have
  Renewed Focus
  you're somewhat safe. It's an incredibly powerful defensive skill which grants you immunity to incoming damage and CC (other than fall damage) when under heavy pressure, and refreshes all of your Virtues which could either help you stay alive longer or run away.

Related Builds

• Willbender - Radiant Celestial Roamer - WvW version of the build.