Guild Wars 2

Each class can choose weapon + other set on swap (except Ele one_weapon_set x 20 skills, and Engi+kits), then can choose heal/utility/elite one by one, from big pool. This allows players to tailor their character to their need/style/etc. Some times it is only needed to change one skill (ex. take projectiles protection utility), to fit situation in game.
In other words it is kinda Lego Technic complexity, adjustment and diversity.

Now, when we look at Revenant, we can choose only one weapon set and two predefined set of skills for “right side of bar”. You can’t suit your character other than very general blocks, that are trying to put you in predefined role, cutting away heavily from others (ex ventari – no dps, no cc).
Ex. if you want to have protection from projectiles, you need to sacrifice your dps a lot, by either taking hammer, or sacrificing your whole right side of bar just for one skill your need. In both cases you need to change whole block on skills, and it seems, that there is none advantage for doing so right now (in skills power (raw number or effect)/ cooldowns/ class mechanic/ etc).
In other words, in comparison to rest classes, it is like going from Lego Technics to Lego Duplo, which doesn’t seem to be the best decision.

No weapon swap, no pools of skills to choose from in each legend is IMHO not good way. Many ppl supposed that it will be either “weapon swap + set block of skills” or “no weapon swap + pool of skills per legend to choose from” to customize right side of bar.

My only problem with the rev so far is it’s apparent strong synergy between legendary and weapon. Which makes only being able to have 1 weapon a bit meh. I would definitely love to have staff as a secondary weapon with ventari just in case the group needs some more healing, but now it’s less reactive since I need to decide ahead of time.

I’m also starting to get some doubts on Revenant.
First off, it seems to be built on the same kind of mindset as elite specs (as in assuming the char will already be lvl 80). I’m really concerned about how it will progress in levels.
The VERY limited skill pools (i mean each legend should have more than 5 skills, as to allow a bit more fine tuning), no racial skills and the heavy link between weapon and legends seems really kitten ing.
Specially the later. I mean you want to use Mace/axe, then you’re bound to Malix and a Condi build. If you add another Legend, you won’t be able to pull much out of it, since i doubt they’ll make 2 legends with condi damage, or 2 with high dps, etc. (We do already have 2 supporty legends).
Also, unlike Ranger who can go melee with kits, or Ele which can summon weapons to complement whatever range he’s using on his weapon, i don’t see much of that going on in legends.
I know its a long way till release, but it seems like they’re building the Revenant too much like they’re building Elite specs, and focusing too heavily on each role, allowing very little in the matter of build flexibility.

The revenant NEEDS weapon swapping.

The engineer doesn’t have it because it can use kits.
The elementalist doesn’t have it because it has access to 20 weapon skills.

The revenant will have 5 weapon skills and access to 10 utilities. Yay. The class will be insanely easy to kite if they’re not using anything that isn’t a hammer as it stands from what we’ve seen at the moment.

In comparison, the other classes have 10 weapon skills and 5 utilities, so yes, this does seem balanced from a numbers point of view, 15 abilities across the board, but those classes can slot in a RANGED weapon as well as a melee weapon.
In SPvP classes with 2 weapon slots will always slot at least 1 ranged weapon. The revenant isn’t able to do this, so they’re going to stick out like a sore thumb, they also have next to no gap closers because that’s behind the ‘design philosophy’ for the class, so they can be kited insanely easily, this could be seen as the classes weakness, but there’s no fun in your weakness resulting in you not being able to get a hold of your target at all.

If you’re running a revenant, I imagine if you come across a ranger using a longbow, you may as well just lean over and plant a target on your kitten if you’re not using a hammer.

Not even going to get started on how the Utilities are bound to Legends as well, meaning there’s going to be next to no customization past choosing a legend & weapon combination.

I disagree with weapon swap. 1 weapon with lower cd’s is better. Talking about lack of mobility inst wise either as they have yet to reveal Shiro. Mallyx mobility inst that bad btw. It will be a shot in the feet if they dont have access to +25% movement speed in power line. As for weapons, theres no need to slot Mallyx for mace/axe. All you miss off are offensive condi utilities.

The olny thing i agree with is a pool of skills to choose from. Some are too situation. Having olny 1 stunbreak across 5 legends is a joke as well < they better have this mighty defiance bar at this point.

Actually the easiest way too see for solutions is to look at other classes. In this case I would take a look at the necromancer and more specifically death shroud. Death shroud is the same for every necromancer yet they each can make their death shroud worthwhile. How? Traits. The traits gave powerfull effect on ( or parts of) death shroud too accomodate the style they want.

The problem is that death shroud skills are the same for every necromancer unlike legends, but lucky we have a class that faced the same problem elementalist. Elementalist has different attunements each with their own style and certain traits catered certain attunements but some traits had to span over multiple attunements so they the trait a different effect depending on the atunement the elementalist was in.

So how to combine theses two? I suggest traits that enhance one skill on each legend differently but with a a similar theme. Some examples:
Altruistic field: fields heals allies:
-unyealding anguish: allies heal X hp for each condition on you.
-inspiring reinforcement: allies heal X hp for each hit they take.
-project tranquility: allies heal X hp depending on distance from the tablet.

shared stance: Upkeep skill applies boon to allies
-Embrace the darkness: resistance
-Vengefull hammer: protection
-protective solace: regeneration
-…

This way the revenant can customize his legends to suit his needs while maintaing the indivduality from legends.

I do at least think Rev’s need to have signets that they can swap in and out in legends. Doesn’t seem to be any reason for them not to, and it would add in some flexibility if anyone just hates or find a utility skill useless. There’s really no reason for them to be a signetless class.

skowcia.8257:

I disagree with weapon swap. 1 weapon with lower cd’s is better. Talking about lack of mobility inst wise either as they have yet to reveal Shiro. Mallyx mobility inst that bad btw. It will be a shot in the feet if they dont have access to +25% movement speed in power line. As for weapons, theres no need to slot Mallyx for mace/axe. All you miss off are offensive condi utilities.

The olny thing i agree with is a pool of skills to choose from. Some are too situation. Having olny 1 stunbreak across 5 legends is a joke as well < they better have this mighty defiance bar at this point.

I’m really enjoying the Rev so far too… it sacrifices an abundance of skills for rapid-activation skills. I’d much rather have 15 well designed, low/no cooldown skills with an energy constraint than 20 “ok designed” skills with a cooldown constraint.

I wonder if i can call my revenant something with “Duplo” without being forced to name change due to copyright issues.

I hope they address this problem.

I hope people realize we knew ALL OF THIS months ago. Where was the panic back then? There is no “problem” to address — its a fundamental part of the design. And if you hadn’t noticed, EVERYTHING about the traits revamp is about limiting options. Specifically limiting options to a pool small enough the players might finally stop completely destroying the Developer’s expectations for profession performance with builds they didn’t predict.

Nike.2631:

I hope people realize we knew ALL OF THIS months ago. Where was the panic back then? There is no “problem” to address — its a fundamental part of the design. And if you hadn’t noticed, EVERYTHING about the traits revamp is about limiting options. Specifically limiting options to a pool small enough the players might finally stop completely destroying the Developer’s expectations for profession performance with builds they didn’t predict.

the “panic” was there already as they revealed the rev´s mechanic and the second they said the skills most likely gonna be locked on the twitch stream´s chatroom and about 10 mins later on the forums…just sayin

I feel like on every legend there will be at least one wasted slot in solo play. I dont mind support abilities when i play in a group, but some abilities are completely useless in solo settings/pointless to equip as our build wont have any synergy with them. These issues would be solved by adding more utility skills.