Willbender - Radiant Swordbender

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.

Greatsword

• is the main burst skill on this set, make sure that it lands - do an unexpected ranged burst with , or use it after pulling targets in with .

• When in combat, always try to combo in a Light field such as for . 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.

• is useful even when the target has 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: while the initial projectile itself can be dodged, once the blades are attached you can pull targets out of any kind of evade frame! The blades also seek out enemies even if they are ed.

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

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.

Defensive burst combo 2

1. for the teleport while immediately applying , also creating a combo field.
2. to root the target.
3. while they can't dodge, this should also them.
4. Optional - if you can fit it in, but if you're slow then the combo field from step 1 could run out before you'd get to step 5. You could also skip it if you fear interruption and want to keep the blind spam going.
5. after weapon swap in order to combo with Symbol of Blades and to apply yet another Blind.
7. Note: swapping steps 1 and 3 would yield more damage, as the F1 gives you an extra damage modifier via trait synergy. Doing so however would leave you a bit more exposed at the start of the combo, as Rushing Justice has a much longer cast time before applying Blind. It's more risky, but sometimes worth it. Careful with though, against enemies with this boon you'll be vulnerable as they can ignore your conditions.

Ranged AoE combo

1. Pre-cast from a distance.
2. to teleport to the target right before WW starts doing damage (WW has a cast bar, jump in as the bar's about to fill up).

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).

• If taken (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.

• 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.

• 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 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 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.