Before I begin, please note that I’m not making this comparison to see ‘which is better’. I’m making it because I think comparing specializations and traits of both classes could not only help us understand each class better, but also for what it means for a class to be healthy or unhealthy in GW2 when it comes to traits / specializations.
To begin, let’s look at the Revenant.
The traits for the Revenant are about perfect for GW2 – they’re useful without being necessary. Stability on dodge and Rite of the Great Dwarf also reducing condition damage are both great, but the Revenant can work without them. Devastation is great for increasing your damage, but there’s not anything in the specialization that’s a ‘must-have’ for Revenants. Condition removal on roll in Salvation is great, but you can also find 10-second condition removal in Invocation as well. You’ve got many options and you aren’t forced to take any of them (aside from Herald if you want to use Shield/Legendary Dragon Stance, but a similar restriction is there for all elite specializations).
The traits for the Warrior are flawed – they’re incredibly powerful on a class overly reliant on them. You need to use your weapons in tandem, so you need Discipline; you need offense, so you take Strength; you need sustain, so you take Defense; you need group support, you take Tactics. What you want out of your Warrior determines what Specializations you’re forced to take. Trying to avoid this often leads to significant sacrifices.
When you start comparing the two, you start to see why they’re so different. A Revenant is improved by their traits; a Warrior is made or broken by theirs.
With a Revenant, every line is unnecessary but useful, so choosing specializations/traits becomes a matter if ‘what bonuses can I get? What do I want to improve or specialize in?’ In other words, Specializations are exactly that – ways to specialize your Revenant.
With a Warrior, you have too many seemingly necessary traits, so choosing specializations/traits becomes a matter of ‘what am I willing to go without? What can I afford to lose?’ In other words, Specializations are necessary tools – ways to determine the limit of what your Warrior can do.
This difference, I think, is a key difference between a healthy and unhealthy class in GW2. A class that cannot stand on its own uses traits to carry it; a class that can uses traits to improve it.
In my eyes, this means that the Revenant is healthy – it can stand on its own and can take traits to improve itself further in certain aspects. It is by no means perfect, and some some builds are certainly better than others. However, there are no ‘necessary’ traits – there is no one trait (or multiple traits) that the Revenant is forced to take.
Conversely, this also means that the Warrior is unhealthy – it cannot stand on its own, so it is forced into taking certain, powerful specializations/traits to make up for its shortcomings.
Ironically, both healthy and unhealthy classes lead to build variety. The devil is in the details though – one of these reasons is acceptable, whereas the other is not.
For the Revenant, build variety is possible because they have freedom – they aren’t tied down to a particular specialization or forced to take a particular trait. This kind of build variety is good.
For the Warrior, build variety is possible because people simply give up – if they are forced to take too many specializations and traits, builds become impossible or unfun, which can lead to simply throwing up one’s hands and hoping the build you like is bearable. This kind of build variety is bad.
Conclusion / Summary / tl;dr
Healthy classes in GW2 are those who are effective from the start and can specialize through Specializations. Unhealthy classes in GW2 are those who are less effective from the start and try to shore up their shortcomings through Specializations. While both lead to build variety, only the kind brought about by healthy classes should be deemed acceptable.
It is my hope that Anet makes an effort to improve the health of its classes. I do not think a wealth of traits and specializations can truly make up for an impoverished class.