End of Dragons introduced new Elite specializations to Guild Wars 2, giving each of the 9 playable professions a total of three to choose from. Elite specializations not only give each profession a new core mechanic and trait tree, but also a new weapon proficiency and skills, allowing even more versatility and customization in builds.
The Willbender is the new Elite specialization for the Guardian in the new Guild Wars 2 expansion. With the ability to wield offhand swords, the Willbender is a highly-mobile take on the Warrior profession, transforming the Guardian’s Virtues into techniques to zip around the battlefield and create Willbender Flames to burn enemies in their wake. While other Guardian builds may prioritize survivability and support, the Willbender shines as a damage dealer, incinerating their foes with Burning stacks and a relentless assault.
Best Specialization Builds for the Willbender
For most Guardians, the Justice, Resolve, and Courage virtues–the unique profession ability of the Guardian–are passives that periodically buff them and their allies, but can be activated to produce a powerful effect, similar to Signets. The Willbender changes the passive abilities of the Virtues into active mobility skills which produce a persistent damaging effect called Willbender Flames.
Rushing Justice, Flowing Resolve, and Crashing Courage create Willbender Flames while granting the effects of their respective Virtues for a short time. These abilities enable the Willbender to dash, evade, and shadowstep across the battlefield, allowing them to engage and disengage all while incinerating any foes caught in their flames. As a Willbender can only place one Willbender Flame at a time, they should try not to overwrite the effects of a previous Virtue unless absolutely necessary.
The Willbender minor traits give them increased movement speed, even more so when activating a Virtue. It also gets Lethal Tempo–a stacking damage buff that refreshes as long as a Virtue is used or triggered by making 5 attacks within the duration. This incentivizes the End of Dragons take on the Guardian to cycle through Virtues and attacks to keep up their Lethal Tempo while stacking as much Burning on foes as possible.
For major traits, Searing Pact increases condition damage and causes Willbender Flames to inflict Burning. Restorative Virtues gives cooldown reduction for Willbenders who play aggressively, and Tyrant’s Momentum increases damage bonus of Lethal Tempo while reducing its duration to four seconds, granting more damage at the cost of a shorter Virtue grace period.
The Radiance specialization complements the Willbender’s kit well. The minor traits add defensive benefits to Rushing Justice and refresh its cooldown on kills, while also increasing critical chance against Burning foes while granting Ferocity. The Inner Fire major trait grants Fury when striking a foe with three stacks of Burning, while the Radiant Fire trait increases Burning duration, decreases torch skill recharge times, and activates the Zealot’s Flame torch skill on critical hits to heavily burn nearby foes. Lastly, Amplified Wrath causes Burning effects to deal more damage, and the Burning from the Justice Virtue lasts longer.
Zeal is another solid pick for Willbender specializations. Its minor traits grant defensive boons, increased damage to targets with Vulnerability, and the application of Vulnerability to targets hit with Symbol Weapon Skills. For major traits, Fiery Wrath increases damage to Burning foes, while Kindled Zeal converts 10% of the Willbender’s Power into Condition Damage. Eternal Armory vastly improves Spirit Weapon skills with additional casts, cooldown reduction, and the ability to inflict burning on their first hits.
Best Equipment and Stats for the Willbender
For weapons, the main-hand sword is a natural fit for the Willbender, with its rapid attacks and high mobility. However, rather than pairing it with the offhand sword–the Willbender-specific Guardian weapon option available in End of Dragons–using a torch provides access to more Burning Weapon Skills at the cost of mobility. Access to the hard-casted Zealot’s Flame ability in conjunction with the Radiant Fire’s proc means nearby foes will take massive Burning damage almost half of the time.
For the Willbender’s secondary weapon set, the mace provides some interesting damage and healing abilities to use in more dangerous situations, especially when paired with the mobility and damage skills of an offhand sword. However, with the cooldown reduction from Restorative Virtues, weapon swapping is not as imperative as on other builds.
With a focus on high damage and mobility, this Willbender build prioritizes Power and Condition Damage with a healthy amount of Precision, Ferocity, and Expertise. When buying gear at level 80, Viper weapons are perfect, giving just enough Expertise to bring Burning close to the condition duration cap. For armor and accessories, players should equip Grieving gear instead, which has Ferocity instead of Expertise, exchanging excess condition duration for additional damage on critical hits.
For weapon Sigils, the Superior Sigil of Smoldering is a must-have on both weapon sets, as it increases Burning duration by 20%. For main weapons, the Superior Sigil of Bursting adds a flat 5% bonus to Condition Damage, and for the offhand weapon, the stacking Superior Sigil of Corruption allows stacking Condition Damage on kills, which carry over to the primary weapon set.
The Superior Rune of Balthazar is a solid pick for the Willbender’s armor Rune set, as it grants a large amount of Condition Damage and adds a whopping 50% Burning duration. This brings the duration of the Burning condition within inches of the 100% bonus duration cap. These Runes also provide a small increase to the Willbender's health, which can help them survive a little longer without backup from a supporting or protector ally.
Best Skills for the Willbender
Choosing Skills that complement the conflagrations of the Willbender is important in this high-damage build. Litany of Wrath is the best Healing Skill for the Willbender, as it allows a third of their damage to be converted to healing–including that from Willbender Flames and Burning conditions.
Utility Skill selection is straightforward too. Purging Flames not only creates a ring of fire to spread multiple Burning stacks, but cures conditions on allies within, synergizing well with the area control of Willbender Flames. Both Sword of Justice and Hammer of Wisdom receive charges from the Eternal Armory trait, making them auto-picks for this fiery build.
For Elite Skills, there are a few different options that work well with this build. For human Willbenders, the Hounds of Balthazar skill summons two fiery hounds that inflict Burning on foes for 30 seconds. For non-humans, the Mistfire Wolf skill, available to those who purchase the Collector’s Edition of Guild Wars 2, summons a single wolf on a shorter cooldown, which also applies Burning on its attacks.
These skills can provide powerful allies to draw attention from foes while dealing high Condition Damage, though they may prove less effective in some GW2 Strikes Missions, Raids, or PVP. For this content, or for those who can’t access these skills, the Renewed Focus skill is a great replacement, as it makes the Willbender invincible for 3 seconds and recharges all of their Virtues, providing aid in maintaining Lethal Tempo.
The Willbender is an atypical Guardian specialization allowing them to fill a role often taken by the Thief or Ranger professions. Though the End of Dragons version may be lacking in the survivability and support options of other Guardians, the Willbender makes up for this with unrelenting incineration and mobility, leaving nothing but ash in their wake.
Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons is available now on PC.