Willbender - Radiant Spearbender

• Twitch: Naru

• Twitch: Josh

• Twitch: Saelos

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

Equipment Variants

Relics

• 争斗者古物 - less bursty than Stormsinger, but could work better if you get to spend more time in melee.

Skill Variants

Utility

• 裁决纹章 over 纯净沉思 - makes your cleansing worse but gives you a more frequently available stunbreak that also mitigates direct damage both on its active and passive effect. Great option against predominantly Power-based comps. Consider picking up 纯粹决心 on Virtues to retain some of the cleansing though.

• 闪现连击 over 旋风之光 - sacrifices AoE damage for better mobility and some extra healing/cleansing while skill retaining much of the single target pressure.

Elite

• "怒气冲天！" - this is seen as less competitive and thus much less popular, but the 急速 could help you deliver burst damage while also buffing your team. 阴鬼古物 is often used with this elite for even stronger bursts.

Variants

• Take 纯粹决心 if you're struggling against conditions or just want more sustain in general. It's an equally viable option, but lowers your damage a bit.

General

• 决心 increases your critical strike chance by 40% via 正义本能, pushing it near the crit cap while you have this boon. Always try to maintain Resolution or at least apply it before bursts.

  • Every Virtue and shadowstep (teleport) grants 决心 from the traits 先锋战术 and 决心美德. 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.

• 急速正义 is refreshed after each kill so make sure you always have it on cooldown right before a kill. Using it also applies AoE 目盲 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 专注复苏. RF is a great skill to use if you're being focused 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.

• One of Willbender's greatest strengths is its mobility:

  • Every virtue skill is a mobility skill.
  • Both weapon sets have some sort of movement abilities. 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.
  • 突进猛击 is a good mobility skill even without a target as it makes you dash forward.

• 目盲s are important even when bursting targets as Blind spam prevents them from counterpressuring you. 利刃符印 and 急速正义 all apply this condition on top of doing great damage. 旋风之光 could fill a similar role as the 虚弱 is great for mitigating incoming damage while also pressuring opponents.

• 英勇冲撞 grants you 稳固 and 抗性 (among other things) which allow you to ignore CC and debilitating conditions like 虚弱 while bursting targets. Being a shadowstep (teleport) skill it could also reposition you right on top of your target so that you may follow up with immediately for burst damage.

Sword/Sword

• The main source of burst damage here comes from the the offhand skills:

  • deals good damage and sets up your next attack perfectly with and (it's a shadowstep).
  • is the hardest hitting skill on this set and combos well with Advancing Strike.

• 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. is a good setup for this too.

• has many uses: vertical mobility via teleportation, symbol for cleaving, to make an important skill miss, or a combo field which can be used to combo with a leap finisher.

Spear

• Spear has its own unique mechanic called illumination. Using any of skills 2-5 and fulfilling the right conditions gives you the Illuminated buff, which increases the effectiveness of your next skill.

• Starting off with is recommended, because it ensures that the rest of your combo is illuminated.

• and go well together, you should aim to line up the 2nd strike of GD with the pass-through damage of HR.

• is the main burst skill here, a powerful AoE with heavy damage that can also heal and cleanse allies in range. Make sure that this skill is always illuminated.

Burst combo examples

Willbender isn't a very complicated spec and you don't have to work hard to do a lot of damage. This section is only meant to give you a few ideas for sequencing, especially when it comes to doing damage with minimal risk.

Defensive burst combo

1. for defensive boons including and which should ensure that you get to do the rest of the chain uninterrupted.
2. to root the target into the flames left behind by Crashing Courage and the upcoming step.
3. for damage and .
4. to enemies and do AoE damage.
5. You can continue adding skills that blind enemies from here. This chain does a lot of damage while making it hard for enemies to counterpressure you.

Spear Combo

You basically just go through your skills from right to left, 5 to 2.

1. Optional if you're outside melee range.
2. for CC and to illuminate the rest of the combo. You don't have to stay inside the symbol!
3. Optional - . Note: consider skipping this when prioritizing single-target damage. ST has a long cast time, you might be better off focusing on the other 2 steps while the CC lasts. ST is best used against multiple targets who are spread, or if you're not in melee range.
4. , the goal here is to hit the target with the second strike at the same time Helio Rush connects.
5. through the target.

Sustain

• The build is rather squishy, Willbender relies heavily on its mobility to avoid damage, jumping in and out of fights to deliver burst damage while keeping melee contact to a minimum.

• 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.

• 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).

• is a purely defensive stunbreak 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.

• 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.

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

• As long as you have 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.