Guild Wars 2

For the most part, the changes this patch make sense., but giving revenants alacrity was one of the most confusing decisions I’ve ever seen. I was expecting something like maybe a dps or condi buff, shoot even a buff to support I thought about, but alacrity? The unique feature of chronomancer?

Because that’s what revenant mains said, “Yeah this class kinda sucks right now, but you know what it needs? TIME TRAVEL.”

Yeah, it seems very awkward and made no sense to me, but I figured maybe it was just cause I don’t play Revenant.

Nobody asked for it from rev community. Literally nobody. This purple junk doesnt even fit with general Ventari theme. Blame devs, not revs. We had mane thousands of suggestion and for whatever reason they decided to give alacrity to revs.. <wutface>

The reason why they did this was because they wanted to make ventari rev more valuable to a team, while not making it actually stronger on its own. They fear turning ventari into an immortal sustain bunker due to the legend doing almost nothing except for healing. This is why so many of the salvation traits are purely altruistic in that they increase healing to allies but not to the rev it self. Alacrity fits this theme as rev is heavily restricted by energy rather than cooldowns, so it doesn’t make the rev stronger, just perhaps a bit better for the team as a whole. Still probably won’t be viable though.

I actually like this change because, yes, i use Ventari.
The alacrity isn’t much at first glance but it does add up and i feel that tiny bit more useful aside granting heal, condi-counter and my projectile counter.

In general i still would have liked a bigger patch with a few reworks to inter-legendary traits so that we have a few more synergies along the line but this is a nice addition at least.

Probably because of pve…

No i am sure its because of pve….

I suspect that the primary motive was to increase rev presence in raids and to reduce that of Mesmer.

There has been an ongoing trend in the game to reduce the effectiveness of special gameplay… basically the trend has been to buff face-to-face melee and to encourage “group content.”

In simpler to terms, to remove anything that is not sword swinging.

Ithilwen.1529:

The alacrity change more-or-less invalidated the Chronomancer “specialization.” I fully expect that engineers will be throwing portals in the near future.

I suspect that the primary motive was to increase rev presence in raids and to reduce that of Mesmer.

There has been an ongoing trend in the game to reduce the effectiveness of special gameplay… basically the trend has been to buff face-to-face melee and to encourage “group content.”

In simpler to terms, to remove anything that is not sword swinging.

Muchacho.2390:

Probably because of pve…

No i am sure its because of pve….

And yet, it will likely not be meta in pve while ppl allready claiming it to be future meta in wvw and some saying it’s really strong in bunker/support in pvp so it could become minstrel druid 2.0.

3s of 33% faster recharge rate (effectively just 1s faster) on a 20 energy skill and an underwhelming traitline…

I’m pretty sure it’ll remain underuse :/

NICENIKESHOE.7128:

3s of 33% faster recharge rate (effectively just 1s faster) on a 20 energy skill and an underwhelming traitline…

I’m pretty sure it’ll remain underuse :/

Lol they couldn’t have made it baseline to the skill or something.

“Nope you still have to shoot yourself in the foot by taking Salvation, delete your rev, kitten yourself” – Anet

Revenants, why alacrity?

Because Thieves will get Clone as bunshin skill.

and you can pee on mesmers

It is easily one of the best support tools one can ask for.

This was done for PvE raids. Right now, alacrity is highly prized in a group and only chronomancer brings it. The thinking is that if other builds can bring the buff, it creates more variety. But if you put it on a crap set of abilities, it won’t make it playable.

Only Chronomancer was ever supposed to bring it. That ‘was’ the whole defining characteristic of the Chronomancer.

ANET casually took the central theme of an entire specialization and handed it to another class like candy. The explanation? “The game evolves.”

This is an example of a lack of consistency I’ve seen often. Chronomancer is no longer a specialization.

One poster compared this to the fact that many classes now have stealth. Thief did not have a ‘Ninja’ specialization or some such that was sold on the ability to provide stealth.

BeepBoopBop.5403:

NICENIKESHOE.7128:

3s of 33% faster recharge rate (effectively just 1s faster) on a 20 energy skill and an underwhelming traitline…

I’m pretty sure it’ll remain underuse :/

Lol they couldn’t have made it baseline to the skill or something.

“Nope you still have to shoot yourself in the foot by taking Salvation, delete your rev, kitten yourself” – Anet

It makes sense that they would have to trait for more support to bring Alacrity though. Hell even chronomancers have to “trait” to get alacrity outside of WoR (granted though it is a minor trait, so its a given).

And its not supposed to be 100% uptime on alacrity, just to give Rev even more party support through salvation, to make Ventari a better option if you want to support

Justifications aside. they took a specialization and distributed it. Now I might have been able to live with a chronomancer legend. Lady Althea might have been a good choice.

When the next expac rolls around, why should I buy the “exclusive” new stuff when I know it won’t be exclusive?

On top of that: The reason given for nerfing Mesmer alacrity in raids was that it was too strong. Yet, now ANET gives alacrity to a completely different class ( a free specialization.) Alacrity is increased even though it was nerfed for being too strong. That calls into question the reasoning for nerfing Mesmer in the first place.

Now you aren’t making any sense. Alacrity wasn’t buffed in this patch. You still can’t get more than 100% uptime on alacrity. So its not like giving it to Revs undid the nerf it received

OK Alacrity wasn’t “buffed” but it was made more available and for longer. I misspoke.

@Ithliwen
You’re misusing the term specialisation in context with the game, making it sound like alacrity is the only thing the spec has. There are clear reasons why it was granted to 1 other class. Something not being unique to a specialisation does not stop the specialisation from being unique. It isnt as you the ‘the’ defining characteristic of the spec.

Rev is not a “free specialisation” you still need hot to actually make a Rev. Its it a core spec of Rev , yes, but Rev itself is not free.

I don’t agree that the reasons are clear, effective or thematically appropriate.

More important to me is that ANET expressly made Alacrity unique to Chronomancer. Indeed.. alacrity is time manipulation, chronomancy.

That was ignored. It calls into question any future copy with respect to Mesmer.

Here is the copy from Robert Gee, the bold text is mine.

“Think Fast

Specializing in chronomancy grants mesmers access, through traits and skills, to a new effect called alacrity. Alacrity functions as the inverse of chill by speeding up skill recharges rather than slowing them down. Chronomancy is the only specialization allowed access to this powerful effect, and chronomancers can share alacrity with allies in limited situations, making them an incredibly powerful ally to have in any party."

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/meet-the-chronomancer-mesmers-elite-specialization/

That is no longer true. FULL STOP

I agree with Ithilwen on this one, alacrity should of remained specific to the chromancer. It doesn’t even fit thematically with the Ventari legend. It just feels like a lazy attempt to give Revenants a more wanted spot in raids.

Sigmoid.7082:

@Ithliwen
You’re misusing the term specialisation in context with the game, making it sound like alacrity is the only thing the spec has. There are clear reasons why it was granted to 1 other class. Something not being unique to a specialisation does not stop the specialisation from being unique. It isnt as you the ‘the’ defining characteristic of the spec.

Rev is not a “free specialisation” you still need hot to actually make a Rev. Its it a core spec of Rev , yes, but Rev itself is not free.

So…what make a chronomancer so special now?……… pure and simple: Nothing

Just imagine they would give an other class that already exist “not a new one” 3 Dodge system. What would make the Dare Devil so special? or give Ventari celestial avatar?

Alacrity was not simple buff, it was a class system, now turned into a cheap buff.

I mean: Did they expect people to be happy with it? Seriously?