GW2: End of Dragons - Reviewing Heavy Elite Specs | Willbender, Bladesworn, Vindicator

[@KROOF]

Timestamps: 0:00 - Intro 0:30 - Bladesworn 3:35 - Vindicator 10:15 - Willbender 16:10 - Outro & More

[@Erik1495]

The heal alac willbender is by far the most fun support i played and i sincerely hope they don't change anything about it. Aplying alacrity with every multi hit and being able to heal and apply boons with sword while hitting feels so unique and engaging

[@Sagedurk]

The one change I want for alac willbender in general is to not be reliant on Battle Presence for alac sharing. Just make Phoenix Protocol party-wide by default, or make Battle Presence share Holy Reckoning. I would personally want to see the former, cause you aren't locked into virtues, and as heal alac, you would be able to slot the virtue grandmaster for your F3 and use Crashing Courage as an alternative to SYG. What build do you run for heal alac, and have you been running just heal, or healtank?

[@joshuayoung6672]

I really like vindicator and would love support vindi to get access to quickness or alacrity. Personally, I feel it could be tied to the urn of Saint Victor, like pulsing boons as well as the healing. At the very least, I would love for the urn to give some stability so you can't get stun-locked while using it and unable to turn off the damage over time. I'm excited to try it out with 2 dodges next week.

[@frustratedlemur]

The double dodges are going to be nutty especially with legend switches activating sigils. Gonna be a fun time

[@KROOF]

@@frustratedlemur Oh fullllyy! I am very excited to try the next balance patch.

[@whoareyou56101]

Been deciding on what class and profession to make. Wanted something with a great sword and vindicator was looking like it. But also something with dual blades and will bender caught my eye too.

[@KROOF]

They are both great options

[@bulkathos5207]

Mabye crazy but i think the last 3 traits for vindicator should also change how the alliance stance function for vindi. Like if you choose death drop you would only be able to use Archemorus, but those skills are now slightly changed/empowered. Imperial impact would be the mixed stances, and Saint's shield would be the empowered Saint viktors only.

[@KROOF]

This is verrryyy interesting. I've never thought about this.

[@drios9000]

for vindicator before changing some traits and so on. Let's first add some mechanic that is unique to vindicator alliance stance, something the devs tried to incoöperate but didn't thought of for having an alliance between those 2. When you use alliance and swap from red to blue or blue to red: make the first 2 abbilities pressed add some extra effect according to the previous legend archermorus or saint viktor. For example you are supporting your group and want to switch over to red side for some extra support (bc of these 2 additional effects) you press stun break, and bc the extra effect it also now shares stability and not only selfless. Another example you are doing damage in red stance archemorus and want to switch to blue side and you tree song, now it also additional gives as effect to knockback enemies 240 yards where the spell is placed. Also when you use alliance tactics reset your energy to 40 energy for more fluent playstyle switching both legends to full extend

[@Erik1495]

I can't stress enough how bad the vindicator need new animation skills every single one of them are recycled... It's so sad really

[@Erik1495]

@Sean Soper They actually just updated it

[@Whatalansays]

I want to like Willbender, but I'm not good at the fast passed jumping around game mode. I may be able to try it again in future but at the moment it just makes farming my home instance easier

[@KROOF]

Yee not every spec is going to call to everyone o v o

[@Zemium1994]

throwing infinite spears sound cool

[@kevinluu7024]

Vind should of have a locked stance if u choose that legend. Since the spec lack a drain skill they could of borrow holosmith heat mechanic with energy. Like if used skill at 0-25 energy the base skill 25-50 1 bonus 50+ stronger effect. so example GS 2 bonus 1 could be bigger wave plus fire dmg. bonus 2 could be guardian symbol pulsing aoe.

[@Jmvars]

should have*

[@ggazhou]

i have only one thing to say: make the willbender f1 a blink skill like the main hand sword 2 and the willbender f3! This is the only thing i want for my willbender ☺️

[@ggazhou]

oh and pls, change the alac boon for a quick boon, the willbender alac builds is just too much work for the little alac it can provide 🤷‍♂️

[@KROOF]

@@ggazhou Totally agree with the boon change. I kinda like that the F1 isn't a shadowstep thoughhh. It keeps the F3 feeling unique.

[@TFalconwing]

I really like alac on Willbender as a concept when viewed as "you get to use all of your attacks more often" rather than "your attacks swing faster". This means more mobility because it refreshes all of your cool flashy mobile skills more often, so I think it's still in theme. What I don't like is that if you have nothing to hit you cannot generate alacrity at all. This is terrible for group play outside of WvW and makes it a very niche build that has almost no synergy in a party and inferior to all other alac options. I also disagree with you on your criticism of the burnbender build. A fast paced multi hit burn build that can even use greatsword on a condition build is very novel for guardians and was far more fun to learn than firebrand was. I personally would not want to lose burnbender as a playstyle and would rather see the spec function as a good hybrid option between dragonhunter's power damage and firebrand's condition and heal builds.

[@KROOF]

I too enjoy alacrity, especially the Restorative Virtues trait. Restorative Virtues does that idea very well, and makes sense as it is purely selfish alacrity. But, for the idea of sharing it out to allies, and just having no access to quickness at all, it would speak to me more to have it be quickness. The abilities recover fairly quickly already, so the alacrity doesn't feel all that noticeable. And it isn't as novel as it may first be perceived; most of the guardian burn builds look to maximize the number of hits due to the passive of the F1. That's why scepter is often used (in all burn builds) as it has many packets of damage. The change isn't really a new way of approaching the application of the burning, but that the passive is locked behind the activation of the F skills. So that's why I wasn't super blown away by the spec; now if it was more about that strike damage... I could see that as being a good departure from what I've been playing for 10 years. o7

[@owa1985]

Yeah, Sword 4 doesn't need to slice faster, but can certainly use more spams of it. My problem with Alac WB is that you have to spam the one dash that is so counterproductive in situations where you want to stack with group or stand on specific spots with precision. Why can't they just leave WB F2 to be like Dragonhunter's F2?