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    Power Willbender
    November 2023

    PvP
    Damage

    PvP Amulet & Rune

    PvP amulet
    PvP rune icon
    Rune of the Warrior
    Relic icon
    Relic of the Brawler

    Weapons & Sigils

    Greatsword icon Sigil of Exploitation icon Sigil of Battle icon
    GreatswordSigil of Exploitation Sigil of Battle
    Sword icon Sigil of Energy icon
    SwordSigil of Energy
    Sword icon Sigil of Cleansing icon
    SwordSigil of Cleansing

    Utility Skills

    copied

    Rotation

    Single-Target Opener

    1. Advancing Strike
    2. (Judge's Intervention while dashing withAdvancing Strike)
    3. Rushing Justice
    4. Whirling Light

    Area Damage Burst

    1. Crashing Courage
    2. Symbol of Resolution (make sure to cancel the aftercast)
    3. Whirling Wrath
    4. Whirling Light
    5. Rushing Justice

    Power Willbender is a roamer that excels at skirmishing, outnumbering, sticking to and bursting targets given its high mobility and damage and has excellent tools to stay alive.

    Introduction

    Our main role is to generate as many kills as possible in teamfights and outnumbers.
    With willbender our virtues are now all movement skills, making us very mobile.
    Use your virtues procs and high damage to run down enemies that cannot afford to trade blows with you.

    Quick Tips

    Damage

    Willbender heavily relies on modifiers to reach its full damage potential. The important sources of damage amplification are Resolution (activating Retribution and Righteous Instincts and Relic of the Brawler), Aegis (activating Unscathed Contender), and Lethal Tempo, which is applied when activating a virtue or triggering the passive effect of a previously activated Virtue (Rushing Justice, Flowing Resolve, Crashing Courage).

    To maintain these modifiers, there are a couple of aspects to keep in mind:

    1. Use your teleportation skills as often as possible to set up damage, since they constantly reapply Resolution through Vanguard Tactics.
    2. Use your Virtues (Rushing Justice, Flowing Resolve, Crashing Courage) liberally. They not only provide additional Resolution through Virtue of Resolution, but also prevent your empowered Lethal Tempo stacks from running out. While the Willbender Flames left behind after the use of every Virtue already help with activating the lingering effects, it’s perfectly reasonable to Flowing Resolve between bursts to maintain Lethal Tempo stacks.

    Greatsword is a burst heavy weapon with great AoE pressure.

    • Symbol of Resolution is your weakest skill but it’s great for cleaving, make sure to cancel its after-cast by moving or casting another skill.
    • Whirling Wrath is a very high burst skill. Ideally use it on disabled targets that will be forced to tank the entire thing. Casting it inside the hitbox of an enemy will be extra deadly because of the projectiles it fires.
    • Try to land Binding Blade early, as it does decent power damage over time, and allows you to Pull enemies that are blocking or evading, interrupting their defensive as long as they don’t have Stability.
    • Use Leap of Faith to catch up to an enemy getting away. Hits quite hard and applies Blinded and heals you.
    • Strike‘s 3rd attack actually hits quite hard. If you can, finish the auto chain.

    Swords have good catchup and single target damage.

    Apart from maintaining Lethal Tempo, Crashing Courage is a great gap closer and source of Aegis and Stability, allowing you to run down enemies that can’t defend themselves from your high damage output.

    Rushing Justice also is a great gap closer and deals high damage. Beware of the animation locking.

    Whirling Light compliments both weapon sets. It’s just a great area damage skill that is hard to avoid and should be used as often as possible.

    Refer to the rotation segment for some burst ideas.

    Mobility

    Willbender has excellent mobility, one of the highest in the game. The only minor drawback being most skills requiring a target. As for mobility that can be used with or without a target, Leap of Faith, Crashing Courage, Advancing Strike, and Rushing Justice are your best options – although Advancing Strike will not teleport you after the dash if you have no target or the target is too far away and Rushing Justice requires you to cancel its aftercast in order to fully utilize it for mobility.

    Symbol of Blades is excellent for vertical mobility on maps like Khylo, since it has a decently short CD and will teleport you in your target’s direction, even if the target itself is out of range.

    The main takeaways to mastering Willbender’s mobility are:

    1. Make sure you’re ‘detargeting’ before using skills like Leap of Faith. If you have a target when they are activated, you will move in the direction of your target instead of the direction of your character. To detarget, just left click somewhere that isn’t an enemy player. If that doesn’t work, make sure you have “Autotargetting” ticked off under your combat settings.
    2. Like a Revenant, Willbender has much better mobility if your team calls targets. Use your ‘take target’ keybind to get into and out of fights much faster with Symbol of Blades and Judge's Intervention.
    3. Rushing Justice is also a good mobility tool, but it requires some extra steps to get the full advantage from it. Rushing Justice has an ‘aftercast’, meaning you’re locked into place in an extra animation after you’ve finished moving forward. To get around this, simply Weapon Swap after you’ve moved forward to skip the extra animation.

    Sustain and Healing

    Willbender has access to decent healing and self-sustain on its own – although Willbender’s Virtues variant is best paired with a Support Build in teamfights to not run out of resustain too fast. Reversal of Fortune provides significant healing on a short cooldown, but only if you take damage in the time window. Thanks to Virtue of Resolution, Vanguard Tactics , and Symbol of Resolution , Willbender has almost permanent Resolution uptime which provides 33% condition damage reduction. Crashing Courage is an important repositioning tool that also grants Stability to allies thanks to Indomitable Courage.

    Try to time Reversal of Fortune so that it negates a significant damaging ability such as Dragon Trigger or Maul to get the most value.

    Willbender has decent condition cleanse from the combination of Absolute Resolve and Flowing Resolve. Flowing Resolve removes up to three conditions on each activation from you and your allies – as well as all movement-impairing conditions from yourself; it can be used either to cleanse yourself or your teammates. Your most powerful cleanse comes from Contemplation of Purity. Contemplation of Purity is not only a stunbreak, but also converts all conditions on you into boons. This can be very powerful if you’re getting locked down by classes like Necromancer, Mesmer, or Ranger.

    While pressuring the opponent, the lingering effects of Flowing Resolve and Crashing Courage can greatly reduce the pressure taken through resustaining with Flowing Resolve or defensive boons from Crashing Courage. Especially when cleaving downed enemies, it’s a great idea to dash over (Flowing Resolve) or teleport onto (Crashing Courage) them to not only deal additional damage with your Willbender Flames, but also to stay healthy.

    Lastly, make sure to take advantage of Flowing Resolve and Crashing Courage before you use Renewed Focus. The invulnerability and reset on Flowing Resolve is one of your best disengage tools, allowing Willbender to extend into the enemy more than most other roamers can as long as it has its Renewed Focus ready to fully restock its defensive CDs and get out safely afterward.

    Alternatives

    Signet of Resolve is viable into condition heavy games but is significantly worse into power matchups.

    Rune of Vampirism is viable for more damage.

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