Willbender - Condi DPS

Part of the current metagame

Our curator decided this build is in the current metagame regardless of rating. The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Focused on: Condition damage

Designed for: Raids and Fractals

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

TBD

This build was last updated on August 10, 2022 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A condition DPS build for Willbender. Willbender is exceptionally bursty for a condition build, and focuses on rapid strikes to build up stacks of Burning. It has easier access to mobility and CC than other guardian specialisations, and while it has powerful personal defensive abilities it can end up trading a significant amount of damage if they are used at the wrong time. Condi Willbender's biggest weakness is that Firebrand exists.

Skill Bar

Scepter/Torch

Sword/Torch

Utility

Weapon Variants

Greatsword can replace the sword set. The two options have practically identical DPS so you can choose based on preference or requirement. Sword offers some group Fury and a teleport, Greatsword offers a leap and pulls.

You could replace the Scepter set with Greatsword if you want both Sword and Greatsword, but it would be a DPS loss.

Skill Variants

• Bring Heaven's Palm if you need CC.

Template Code

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Equipment

Head
Grieving

Shoulders
Grieving

Chest
Grieving

Hands
Grieving

Legs
Grieving

Feet
Grieving

Backpiece
Grieving

Accessory
Viper

Accessory
Viper

Amulet
Viper

Ring
Viper

Ring
Grieving

Scepter
Grieving

Torch
Grieving

Sigil

Sigil

Sword
Grieving

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

• Rune of Superior Rune of the Flame Legion is almost identical damage, and will deal slightly more if you are using Greatsword.
• You could use the same gear as DPS Firebrand for a minor DPS loss, and you will also be able to benefit from ascended food buffs.

Consumables

Food

Utility

Usage

Sword Rotation

Opener

You can precast Flowing Resolve and Crashing Courage to start with stacks of Lethal Tempo, but skip this if you think you will need them for defence. Start on Sword.

1. Rushing Justice
2. Active Zealot's Flame, but don't throw Zealot's Fire yet
3. Purging Flames
4. Symbol of Blades - be careful not to interrupt the cast of Purging Flames!
5. Weapon Swap
6. Whirling Light
7. Symbol of Punishment
8. Zealot's Fire x2
9. Cleansing Flame
10. Orb of Wrath until Rushing Justice is off cooldown
11. Rushing Justice
12. Symbol of Punishment
13. Zealot's Flame → Zealot's Fire
14. Orb of Wrath and Zealot's Flame → Zealot's Fire until Weapon Swap is available
15. Weapon Swap

After this, the rotation is mostly priority based, but there are a few ways to structure each section:

Sword Loop

The basic sword loop opens with:

1. Zealot's Defense
2. Symbol of Blades
3. Follow priority list (below) until Zealot's Defense is available
4. Zealot's Defense
5. Weapon Swap

Alternate Sword Loop

You can instead structure the sword loop as follows:

1. Symbol of Blades
2. Zealot's Defense
3. Follow priority list until Symbol of Blades is available
4. Symbol of Blades
5. Follow priority list until Zealot's Defense is available
6. Zealot's Defense
7. Symbol of Blades
8. Weapon Swap

This loop is slightly lower damage in general, but if used for the first two loops it causes cooldowns to line up slightly better, resulting in slightly higher DPS. Just following the basic sword loop is completely fine though.

Scepter Loop

The scepter loop is very simple:

1. Symbol of Punishment
2. Follow priority list until Weapon Swap is available
3. Weapon Swap

Priority List

1. Rushing Justice
2. Purging Flames
3. Skills specified in weapon loops above
4. Zealot's Fire - Zealot's Flame should be activated as soon as it is available as this starts the cooldown, you then have three seconds to throw Zealot's Fire so it can be delayed but don't miss the window
5. Whirling Light - This is a 4x whirl finisher, so it can be delayed up to ~three seconds if it will guarantee to combo with Purging Flames
6. Symbol of Punishment, Symbol of Blades and Zealot's Defense - when not specified in the weapon loops above, it is important to use these skills but as long as they don't delay your Weapon Swaps it isn't too important when
7. Cleansing Flame - This is higher priority than autoattacks, but as it has a long cast time it is important not to have to delay more important skills too much, and the burning is only applied at the end of the skill

Video example

Greatsword Rotation

Opener

You can precast Flowing Resolve and Crashing Courage to start with stacks of Lethal Tempo, but skip this if you think you will need them for defence. Start on Greatsword.

1. Rushing Justice
2. Purging Flames
3. Symbol of Resolution
4. Whirling Wrath
5. Weapon Swap
6. Zealot's Fire - you need to be fast or you might miss the window to throw this
7. Symbol of Punishment
8. Zealot's Flame → Zealot's Fire
9. Whirling Light
10. Cleansing Flame
11. Rushing Justice
12. Symbol of Punishment
13. Orb of Wrath until Zealot's Flame is available
14. Zealot's Flame, but don't throw Zealot's Fire yet
15. Orb of Wrath until Zealot's Fire gains a second charge
16. Zealot's Fire x2
17. Weapon Swap

After this, the rotation is mostly priority based, but each section follows the same structure:

Greatsword Loop

1. Symbol of Resolution
2. Whirling Wrath
3. Follow priority list until Whirling Wrath is available
4. Whirling Wrath
5. Symbol of Resolution
6. Weapon Swap

Scepter Loop

Provided you are fast enough, Radiant Fire will have triggered towards the end of the Greatsword Loop so Zealot's Fire will be immediately available

1. Zealot's Fire
2. Symbol of Punishment
3. Zealot's Flame → Zealot's Fire
4. Follow priority list until Weapon Swap is available
5. Weapon Swap

Priority List

1. Rushing Justice
2. Purging Flames
3. Skills specified in weapon loops above
4. Zealot's Fire - Zealot's Flame should be activated as soon as it is available as this starts the cooldown, you then have three seconds to throw Zealot's Fire so it can be delayed but don't miss the window
5. Whirling Light - This is a 4x whirl finisher, so it can be delayed up to ~three seconds if it will guarantee to combo with Purging Flames
6. Symbol of Punishment - when not specified in the weapon loop above, it is important to use this skill but as long as it doesn't delay your Weapon Swaps it isn't too important when
7. Cleansing Flame - If Rushing Justice will come off cooldown in the next ~two seconds, then delay this until afterwards
8. Binding Blade

Video example

General Tips

• Flowing Resolve and Crashing Courage offer powerful defensive abilities, but they also overwrite your Rushing Justice buff, so using them is a large damage loss if you are not able to immediately use Rushing Justice again afterwards.
• On Greatsword, both Whirling Wrath and Binding Blade gain extra damage if used inside an enemy's hitbox.

Sword or Greatsword?

Both rotations have very similar benchmarks, so feel free to play whichever you enjoy most. There are a few elements to consider in terms of usability though:

• The greatsword rotation is much more structured, which may make it easier to learn.
• On the other hand, as you are locked out of torch when using Greatsword, it is much easier to miss uses of Zealot's Fire if you are disrupted or slow.
• Both weapons have a mobility skill, but the teleport from Symbol of Blades is more versatile and can be used for a variety of skips in fractals.
• Zealot's Defense offer projectile destruction, but it can be difficult to use it effectively without sacrificing DPS.
• Whirling Wrath greatly rewards standing inside the hitbox, which means Greatsword is less effective on bosses where this is difficult or dangerous.
• Binding Blade and Leap of Faith means that Greatsword has slightly more available CC than Sword.