Willbender - Radiant Swordbender Roamer

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

Focused on: Direct damage and Mobility

Designed for: WvW Roaming

Difficulty:

TBD

This build was last updated on December 10, 2022 and is up to date for the March 19, 2024 patch.

Overview

A Power Willbender build for WvW Roaming with excellent burst damage. Radiance Willbenders use their damage to overwhelm targets before their CDs run out and their lack of sustain becomes a problem. They also heavily rely on their top tier mobility to get out of fights and reset if they're starting to lose, much like a Thief.

Skill Bar

Greatsword

Sword/Sword

Utility

Template Code

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Specializations

Variants

• Resolute Subconscious can be considered if you're having trouble utilizing Unscathed Contender and want to squeeze out a bit more sustain or Resolution from the build.

Equipment

Head
Dragon

Shoulders
Dragon

Chest
Dragon

Hands
Dragon

Legs
Dragon

Feet
Dragon

Backpiece
Marauder

Accessory
Marauder

Accessory
Marauder

Amulet
Marauder

Ring
Marauder

Ring
Marauder

Greatsword
Marauder

Sigil

Sigil

Sword
Marauder

Sword
Marauder

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Equipment Variants

Runes

• Rune of Superior Rune of Durability - more tanky option.

• Rune of Superior Rune of Strength - good offensive stats, passive damage bonus and better Might stacking.

• Rune of Superior Rune of the Eagle - higher precision lets you run more Dragon pieces over Marauder for higher burst potential, and the rune itself offers plenty of extra damage already.

Stats

• A full set of Marauder gear would also work in case you already have a set like that, but it's less optimal. While you'll have ~90% crit chance with Resolution and ~100% if you have this boon and the target has Burning, your maximum burst potential is going to be lower due to the lower Ferocity. A rune with extra damage but no Precision stat is highly recommended if you go for this.

Consumables

Food

• - strong mix of sustain and damage.

• - cheaper defensive option.

• - active damage mitigation via more access to dodging.
  • is a cheaper version of Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew and sufficient enough in most cases.

• - non-ascended offensive option.

Utility

• or

Usage

General

• Resolution increases your critical strike chance by 25% via Righteous Instincts.
  • 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. Using it also applies AoE Blind which can be useful 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.
  • Both weapon sets have either teleports or leaps. Most of the teleports require a target, but you can get creative with that by doing things like selecting a far away enemy target and spamming teleports to get across the map faster, or selecting objects such as a Trebuchet on Battle of Kyhlo to leave enemies behind.
  • Advancing Strike is a good mobility skill even without a target as it makes you dash forward.

• Blinds are important even when bursting targets as Blind spam prevents them from counterpressuring you. Symbol of Blades, Leap of Faith and Rushing Justice all apply this condition on top of doing great damage.

Sword/Sword

• The main source of burst damage here comes from the the offhand skills:
  • Advancing Strike deals good damage and sets up your next attack perfectly with Immobilize and Resolution (it's a shadowstep).
  • Executioner's Calling is the hardest hitting skill on this set and combos well with Advancing Strike.

• Zealot's Defense is both defensive and offensive, deals solid damage while destroying enemy projectiles. Note that the damage of this skill can be very unreliable in anything but melee range.

• Symbol of Blades has many uses: vertical mobility via teleportation, symbol for cleaving, Blind to make an important skill miss, or a combo field which can be used for AoE cleansing by executing a blast finisher in it.

Greatsword

• Whirling Wrath is the main burst skill in the build, make sure it lands - do an unexpected ranged burst with Judge's Intervention, or use it after pulling targets in with Binding Blade.

• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Hydromancy and Sigil of Superior Sigil of Rage are there to help you secure Whirling Wrath by snaring enemies and speeding up the skill. Whirling Light is a great followup with Quickness too.

• When in combat, always try to combo Leap of Faith in a Light field such as Symbol of Wrath for Light Aura. Few things to note when using this for mobility:
  • If you're OOC (out of combat), swap weapons just before the leap finishes in order to cancel the final part of the skill which would otherwise bring you to a halt.
  • In combat this can be used for jumping away from the fight to avoid damage. To do that simply just detarget (click anywhere on your screen that's not an enemy player) before using the skill, and make sure that auto-targetting is disabled.

• Binding Blade is useful even when the target has Stability and thus cannot be pulled. The damage over time part of this skill is decent, and you could time it in a way that the target's stability runs out before Binding Blade does, allowing you to pull them in later. Note: the skill itself can be dodged, but once the blades are attached, you can pull targets out of any kind of evade frame! Last but not least, the blades seek out enemies even if they are Stealthed.

Ranged burst combo example

1. If possible, have an active Aegis to gain the damage bonus fromUnscathed Contender.
2. Weapon Swap to GS if you're not already on it (in combat this also procs your sigils).
3. Whirling Wrath - start casting it from range.
4. Judge's Intervention to teleport to the target right before WW starts doing damage.

Sustain

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

• 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, breaks stuns, 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

• Guardian - Radiant GS Roamer - core version.

• Willbender - Radiant Swordbender - sPvP version of the build.