12 utility skills?

12 utility skills?

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Posted by: Wandelaar.3746

Wandelaar.3746

I know it might not be the best idea to start this topic in all the hype that’s going on, but i’ll try to start it nevertheless.
As all of us know, every class up until now has gotten 20 utility skills (24 if you count the elite specialisation), but here I am, looking at revenant utility skills, and i’m only seeing 12 (16 if you count the elite specialisation). Now, I know revenant utilities are something special, but still. 12 feels like a bit too few.
So, I was wondering, has there been any confirmation yet telling us whether or not these 12 skills are all the utilities revenant is gonna get access too, or whether some general skills or legend tied skills could still be coming before launch.

How are you guys feeling about 12 utilities, and do you think any more might be coming before heart of thorns? I personally would love to see them add one skill to each legend to add that little bit of customizability to the class. A set of four general skills you could take in any legend would be great too, similar to the arcane utilities elementalist has.
Opinions? Discuss!

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Posted by: Rygg.6237

Rygg.6237

Revenant might be close to meta viability, it’s yet to be seen, and that alone comes from Herald traits, what bothers me it that the top DPS comes from running Malyx/Shiro and camping their upkeeps+facet of nature while using weaponskill rotations. The only problems I have with utility options is:

1) Limited access to condition removal: you have a minor trait (cleansing channel) that removes a condition on weaponswap, a trait that gives resistance if you run malyx (demonic defiance), Soothing Stone on Jalis and Purifying Essence on Ventari, and Elluding Nullification on Salvation. From those Jalis was recently nerfed and the only 2 skills worth using are the healing skill and elite skill although I think it could be used if paired with Glint+Herald in WvW, Ventari has more than enough heals but you sacrifice a ton of DPS if you run it, and it’s not that useful on PvP unless you’re running Cleric gear which will make you hit like a wet undersized noodle. Might sort of end up being useful with Celestial Gear. DPS or roaming specs will have to either sacrifice DPS for condition cleanse or control, as you can have access to decent ammounts of resistance with facet of nature and Malyx, someone said in another trait that Glint’s heal maybe could trigger the effect of the heal from condition damage ticks, that would be a nice addition.

2) Energy cost vs. value of effect is pretty low in almost everything outside of Glint, specially upkeeps: We have no access to projectile deflection, if Ventari had it hands down it would be 100% a better option than what Protective Solace can achieve, Impossible Odds is decent, but it could do more, yeah sure the energy cost was reduced, but I’d rather have it stay is it was and add something like remove a condition on critical hits as you could keep it up for a maximum of 3-4 seconds if you wanted to keep energy to not be one shoted in PvP, Vengeful Hammers was turned into something sort of nice but that isn’t really needed if you have condition management elsewhere that can do better damage as you can already switch to PVT for added survival, the nicest upkeep skill is Malyx and that’s because of the added+15% to base stats.

And that’s about it, the cost and effect of skills is the main problem I see at the moment, as there are a lot of options you can fix if having trouble with something, they could just add better options to the profession for condition cleanse, and reflects too, but people would complain of it being too OP, heck they complained about quickness on impossible odds without doing the math of how cost effective the skill actually was, it’s just some added DPS if you manage to have decent uptime and the target is below 50% because of the Swift Termination trait.

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Posted by: Arkantos.7460

Arkantos.7460

Rev has 2times more utility then other classes- yes- use it wisely ^^

Good Thiefs are average,
Skilled Thiefs are dangerous

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Posted by: Wandelaar.3746

Wandelaar.3746

You may have acces to twice as much utilities to use at once, but you’ve got no customisation whatsoever, that’s what i’m talking about. And the pool of utility skills is only 12 skills compared to the 20 skills other classes can look at.
I’m not talking about skills being meta, or skills being weak, i’m just talking about the sheer amount of skills. Both your weapons skills and your utility skills are set in stone, every Shiro revenant with Swords will have the exact same skills in every scenario, doesn’t this feel weird?
I’m taking other utilities based on the situation whatever class I play depending on what is needed, revenant can only their 4 (5) legends here in terms of utilities.

(edited by Wandelaar.3746)

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Posted by: Adamantium.3682

Adamantium.3682

The easiest example is Shiro in dungeons. 2/3 utilities are useless. No other Profession is locked into useless utility skills ever because they can change them.

The problem is that no 3 skills can ever be useful across all game modes so you will inevitably end up with situations like this where some of our skill bar is useless. The worst part is there is nothing we can do about it.

[TNO] Gizmo Gigawatt (Engineer)
Jade Quarry

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Posted by: sebradle.7034

sebradle.7034

You get major advantages for the skills being packaged though. Twice the number of utilities available. Not cool down based. Most of the utilities are stronger then equivalent utilities from other professions. It isn’t like it is difficult to switch out legends in dungeon either. The only one that would take time is glint.

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Posted by: Adamantium.3682

Adamantium.3682

You get major advantages for the skills being packaged though. Twice the number of utilities available. Not cool down based. Most of the utilities are stronger then equivalent utilities from other professions. It isn’t like it is difficult to switch out legends in dungeon either. The only one that would take time is glint.

Okay let’s not get carried away here…

Twice the number of skills, but many could be useless depending on your situation. Shiro in dungeons only has 1 usefull skill.

They may not be cooldown based but they certainly are limited by energy so effectively they have shared cooldowns.

Stronger than equivalent? I would like to see some basis for that statement, to me they all feel like pretty standard utilities. Some good, some bad, nothing overpowered.

[TNO] Gizmo Gigawatt (Engineer)
Jade Quarry

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Posted by: sebradle.7034

sebradle.7034

You get major advantages for the skills being packaged though. Twice the number of utilities available. Not cool down based. Most of the utilities are stronger then equivalent utilities from other professions. It isn’t like it is difficult to switch out legends in dungeon either. The only one that would take time is glint.

Okay let’s not get carried away here…

Twice the number of skills, but many could be useless depending on your situation. Shiro in dungeons only has 1 usefull skill.

They may not be cooldown based but they certainly are limited by energy so effectively they have shared cooldowns.

Stronger than equivalent? I would like to see some basis for that statement, to me they all feel like pretty standard utilities. Some good, some bad, nothing overpowered.

Many of the utilities I bring on any profession are useless depending on situations I’m in or I won’t blow them even if they could be useful because of long cooldowns.

They share cool downs but you still have the utility of being able to chain a single utility with itself please state that instead of refuting the point. It is like thieves if you effective manage you resource the utility/weapon skill is always there when you need it.

Just a feel there is no basis for it. The feel that they are stronger mostly comes from the fact that you can chain them I think. But you are right each single utility in a vacuum is probably not stronger then a comparative utility.

Also everyone here is clamoring for variety but sorry I don’t even see it in most other professions. How often does shadow refuge leave a thieves bar. How often does well of suffering leave a necros. etc.

EDIT: From my point of view the best argument for more utilities would be that yes when you play Revenant you do feel like there is a major lack of customization. So when you set up a build the only thing that makes it feel like your own is the trait line. But even then for most profession that feeling of customization is false because nearly everyone just runs meta builds anyway.

(edited by sebradle.7034)

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Posted by: Snafoo.2869

Snafoo.2869

Rev has 2times more utility then other classes- yes- use it wisely ^^

Engineer says hello.
I can’t help but think this every time people say this, and they say it a lot.

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Posted by: sebradle.7034

sebradle.7034

Rev has 2times more utility then other classes- yes- use it wisely ^^

Engineer says hello.
I can’t help but think this every time people say this, and they say it a lot.

You found one exception does that refute his point for the other 7 professions.

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Posted by: Wandelaar.3746

Wandelaar.3746

You get major advantages for the skills being packaged though. Twice the number of utilities available. Not cool down based. Most of the utilities are stronger then equivalent utilities from other professions. It isn’t like it is difficult to switch out legends in dungeon either. The only one that would take time is glint.

Okay let’s not get carried away here…

Twice the number of skills, but many could be useless depending on your situation. Shiro in dungeons only has 1 usefull skill.

They may not be cooldown based but they certainly are limited by energy so effectively they have shared cooldowns.

Stronger than equivalent? I would like to see some basis for that statement, to me they all feel like pretty standard utilities. Some good, some bad, nothing overpowered.

Many of the utilities I bring on any profession are useless depending on situations I’m in or I won’t blow them even if they could be useful because of long cooldowns.

They share cool downs but you still have the utility of being able to chain a single utility with itself please state that instead of refuting the point. It is like thieves if you effective manage you resource the utility/weapon skill is always there when you need it.

Just a feel there is no basis for it. The feel that they are stronger mostly comes from the fact that you can chain them I think. But you are right each single utility in a vacuum is probably not stronger then a comparative utility.

Also everyone here is clamoring for variety but sorry I don’t even see it in most other professions. How often does shadow refuge leave a thieves bar. How often does well of suffering leave a necros. etc.

About these two examples you mention, shadow refuge leaves the bar quite often, especially when you want to solo dungeons and/or are just doing pve and are going for the most DPS possible. There are almost no utility skills you will always take on other professions, you change them around more than you realise. Secondly, let’s say well of suffering was stuck on your utility skill bar, wouldn’t that remove a big part of the incentive to play different builds, like condition builds for PvP or WvW. There really are not that many skills that are both in your condition AND power builds, or even your celestial build or whatever build you want to run, the fact that you cannot customize them in the slightest on revenant.

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Posted by: skowcia.8257

skowcia.8257

While i wish to see more utility skills i have to agree that its is no different than any other class here. You dont see medi guard running something else than medi, you dont see bunker guard running something else than shout.. You can swap some..so what? You wont do that cus many utility skills in game sux, they are mostly for sustain aka stunbreaks, condi cleanse, invuls. In case of revenant you have access to cc, damage, selfbuff, group support and sustain, gap closing (warrior would kill for that as now they are forced to run gs). We have much larger choice than ther classes + basically no cd. All utility skills in game are situation cause thats how this game is designed.

And as it was said Shiro is more a pvp legend than pve, like 5x signet builds are more a open pve thing

obey me

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Posted by: sebradle.7034

sebradle.7034

You get major advantages for the skills being packaged though. Twice the number of utilities available. Not cool down based. Most of the utilities are stronger then equivalent utilities from other professions. It isn’t like it is difficult to switch out legends in dungeon either. The only one that would take time is glint.

Okay let’s not get carried away here…

Twice the number of skills, but many could be useless depending on your situation. Shiro in dungeons only has 1 usefull skill.

They may not be cooldown based but they certainly are limited by energy so effectively they have shared cooldowns.

Stronger than equivalent? I would like to see some basis for that statement, to me they all feel like pretty standard utilities. Some good, some bad, nothing overpowered.

Many of the utilities I bring on any profession are useless depending on situations I’m in or I won’t blow them even if they could be useful because of long cooldowns.

They share cool downs but you still have the utility of being able to chain a single utility with itself please state that instead of refuting the point. It is like thieves if you effective manage you resource the utility/weapon skill is always there when you need it.

Just a feel there is no basis for it. The feel that they are stronger mostly comes from the fact that you can chain them I think. But you are right each single utility in a vacuum is probably not stronger then a comparative utility.

Also everyone here is clamoring for variety but sorry I don’t even see it in most other professions. How often does shadow refuge leave a thieves bar. How often does well of suffering leave a necros. etc.

About these two examples you mention, shadow refuge leaves the bar quite often, especially when you want to solo dungeons and/or are just doing pve and are going for the most DPS possible. There are almost no utility skills you will always take on other professions, you change them around more than you realise. Secondly, let’s say well of suffering was stuck on your utility skill bar, wouldn’t that remove a big part of the incentive to play different builds, like condition builds for PvP or WvW. There really are not that many skills that are both in your condition AND power builds, or even your celestial build or whatever build you want to run, the fact that you cannot customize them in the slightest on revenant.

Totally agree with you that yes customization on revenant looks really lacking. I mean there is only 5 choose 2 = 10 combination of utility bars. But I don’t think that lack of customization is that detrimental to the game play of the revenant. Again there is advantages to the system they gave us. But there is definitely a huge hit to customization.

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Posted by: Wandelaar.3746

Wandelaar.3746

I just noticed there is another tread about almost the exact same subject that is also being talked about at the moment, looks like he beat me to it.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/revenant/Skill-pools-for-revenant/first#post5386092

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Posted by: Kicker.8203

Kicker.8203

There are lots of threads about this issue but my opinion is they should at least add 1 more utility to each hero if not 2. If they add 1 good one it would be good for release

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Posted by: Wandelaar.3746

Wandelaar.3746

There are lots of threads about this issue but my opinion is they should at least add 1 more utility to each hero if not 2. If they add 1 good one it would be good for release

That’s what I was thinking too, but I’ve run into a slight issue.
It seems unlikely they were planning to add skills to the legends, as indicated by the Glint reveal. They had 6 facets to choose from, and because they were only planning on making 5 skills, they decided to use the 6th facet to make a unique profession mechanic. This would make it really tricky for them to add another Glint skill, as they’re out of facets now.

This isn’t this big of a deal, but it might make it really hard to design a new skill for Glint.

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Posted by: Griffith.7238

Griffith.7238

You get major advantages for the skills being packaged though. Twice the number of utilities available. Not cool down based. Most of the utilities are stronger then equivalent utilities from other professions. It isn’t like it is difficult to switch out legends in dungeon either. The only one that would take time is glint.

Okay let’s not get carried away here…

Twice the number of skills, but many could be useless depending on your situation. Shiro in dungeons only has 1 usefull skill.

They may not be cooldown based but they certainly are limited by energy so effectively they have shared cooldowns.

Stronger than equivalent? I would like to see some basis for that statement, to me they all feel like pretty standard utilities. Some good, some bad, nothing overpowered.

This is why most professions get a 5 sec quickness buff with a 90+ sec cd and we get one that can be used multiple times over 90 sec for as long as we have the energy for it.

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Posted by: NeroBoron.7285

NeroBoron.7285

There are lots of threads about this issue but my opinion is they should at least add 1 more utility to each hero if not 2. If they add 1 good one it would be good for release

That’s what I was thinking too, but I’ve run into a slight issue.
It seems unlikely they were planning to add skills to the legends, as indicated by the Glint reveal. They had 6 facets to choose from, and because they were only planning on making 5 skills, they decided to use the 6th facet to make a unique profession mechanic. This would make it really tricky for them to add another Glint skill, as they’re out of facets now.

This isn’t this big of a deal, but it might make it really hard to design a new skill for Glint.

It is still beta they could just make this proffesion mechanic a glint stance skill lol

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Posted by: Griffith.7238

Griffith.7238

There are lots of threads about this issue but my opinion is they should at least add 1 more utility to each hero if not 2. If they add 1 good one it would be good for release

That’s what I was thinking too, but I’ve run into a slight issue.
It seems unlikely they were planning to add skills to the legends, as indicated by the Glint reveal. They had 6 facets to choose from, and because they were only planning on making 5 skills, they decided to use the 6th facet to make a unique profession mechanic. This would make it really tricky for them to add another Glint skill, as they’re out of facets now.

This isn’t this big of a deal, but it might make it really hard to design a new skill for Glint.

It is still beta they could just make this proffesion mechanic a glint stance skill lol

And that would instantly make Glint a lot less powerful. Take away a 25 sec cd that applies 5 boons and force me to choose between it and one of the other 3 Utilities. No thanks.

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Posted by: NeroBoron.7285

NeroBoron.7285

Yeah sure that skill s nice and I would pick bit with glint stance. But there would be another elite spec mechanic who knows what they bring and u would prefer it over the perma swiftness facet in fight so you just cab swap them in and out
Anyway these are just some ideas in our minds ;P

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Posted by: Snafoo.2869

Snafoo.2869

Rev has 2times more utility then other classes- yes- use it wisely ^^

Engineer says hello.
I can’t help but think this every time people say this, and they say it a lot.

You found one exception does that refute his point for the other 7 professions.

It refutes this idea some people seem to have it’s somehow ok to give Revenant sub-par utilities because they get more.
Engineer had a lot of crappy toolbelt skills at start as well; did toss elixir B not deserve stability because it’s ‘extra’, did the toolbelt for slick shoes not need the stunbreak because the engineer already has 9 other utilities? No.

It proves that a profession can have ‘extra’ utilities as a core mechanic and also have choice without being overpowered.

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Posted by: Griffith.7238

Griffith.7238

Gonna leave this here just for good measure

Yes some people do play differently then most are you saying that’s not possible on the Rev? In fact not only do I believe that there are many options for customization within a single type of build for the Rev ,but I would say they have more options then any other class in the game.

Lets break it down.

Weapons:
Pretty much every class is restricted between weapons depending on the type of build they want to go (Power, condi, support, etc.) this is no different for the Rev. We only get 1 condi weapon ,but we get Staff, Hammer, Sword/Sword, and Sword/Axe for Power. Right there that’s 6 possible weapon combinations for the Power based Rev’s (without overlapping weapons more if you overlap)(we def need more condi variety ,but we have more then enough for power based).

Utilities:
So this where everyone else seems to think the Rev lacks in variety and customization. This could not be further from the truth. Lets look at the current classes. With the majority of the current classes they have a limited pool of useful utilities to work with. A lot of these utilities get thrown out right off the bat due to being practically useless ex. Guard Spirit Weapons, Thief Venoms, Thief Tricks, etc.. Now let’s say for instance we have two D/P Thief’s these Thief’s could not share a single utility meaning they both have all 3 utilities different from one another. You say that’s customization and in a degree it is however with those 3 different utilities they will still play like a D/P Thief meaning they are going to play generally the same way. Now lets look at Rev. The Rev has 4 Legends that can benefit a Power based build Glint/Jalis/Mallyx/Shiro. That is a total of 6 combinations all of which play not slightly ,but completely different from one another. Even if you only differ in one Legend from another player that is 1 Heal, 3 Utilities, and 1 Elite difference which is more unique then any other class can be with the same type of build and that’s not even touching on the people that use 2 different Legends such as one guy using Glint/Shiro the other using Jalis/Mallyx.

Conclusion
So there it is 6 different Weapon combinations and 6 different Legend combinations for just Power based builds. How can anyone ANYONE say that Rev does not have any room for individuality.

The fact of the matter is that yes the Legends are tailored for specific things ,but we don’t have to choose only 1.

Shiro/Glint: Mobility, Damage, Support
Mallyx/Glint: Condi Control/ Damage/ Support
Shiro/Mallyx: Mobility, Damage, Condi Control
Jalis/Shiro: Tank/Support/Mobility/Damage
Jalis/Mallyx: Tank/Support/Condi Control/Damage
Jalis/Glint: Tank/Support/Damage

Do you see where this is going? They all achieve similar things in completely different ways. I could use every single one of those with a Power based damage build. Sure some will definitely be better then others ,but will most be viable… yes. Half the people don’t care about viability in which case they will all be 100% viable. Look how much customization that is before you even consider the 6 weapon combinations.

PS. You really could throw Ventari in there as well ,but I’m not too happy with the state of that Legend at the moment and trying to do damage while moving that tablet around seems like a real chore so I left it out. Oh and I left out Shield kitten .

(edited by Griffith.7238)

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Posted by: Hammerguard.9834

Hammerguard.9834

… I still want tengu.

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Posted by: Hammerguard.9834

Hammerguard.9834

Griffith, your desperation to dispute this suggestion is disturbing. There is literally not a single valid argument you can make. Adding more utilities for each legend is in every single possible way, a good thing for the class.

… I still want tengu.

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Posted by: Griffith.7238

Griffith.7238

Griffith, your desperation to dispute this suggestion is disturbing. There is literally not a single valid argument you can make. Adding more utilities for each legend is in every single possible way, a good thing for the class.

Look just above your post I literally just shattered the logic of everyone for it. “There’s no build variety with the Rev” bull kitten. Secondly, I never said I was against it just that it wasn’t necessary and it isn’t. Doesn’t matter anyway they won’t add anymore at least not til post HoT Launch. They will continue to work on the functionality of their current utilities for the time being. They spent years working on the other classes they are months away from HoT launch. They are not going to add new utilities in the hopes that by some divine miracle they can balance them in a few months. They still have to balance the current kit and convert things to work underwater you think they are gonna add more skills … nope.

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Posted by: Wandelaar.3746

Wandelaar.3746

Griffith, your desperation to dispute this suggestion is disturbing. There is literally not a single valid argument you can make. Adding more utilities for each legend is in every single possible way, a good thing for the class.

^ This

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Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

The easiest example is Shiro in dungeons. 2/3 utilities are useless. No other Profession is locked into useless utility skills ever because they can change them.

Ah, but how much of the elementalist’s weapon skills end up being chaff because out of 20 skills, some of those are not going to be useful for what you’re planning to do? How many skills from weapons in general, including engineer kits, are often not used because they were part of a package of skills that are useful? We see a lot of this, and part of the balancing of having more skills tends to be that more of them are likely to be less useful because you had less customisation.

I’ll admit that I’ve observed myself that the revenant is lacking in customisation options, but on the other hand, as a poster above observed, most builds tend to be defined by the general theme, and the substitution of a couple of skills in that theme doesn’t actually make them that different. Revenant loses customisation, but to a certain extent the legends feel almost like seperate sub-professions: if two revenants have no legends in common, they’re probably more different from one another than two members of any other profession, particularly if we’re limited to builds that are seen as viable.

Regarding Shiro in particular: One is a retreat skill that breaks stun and mobility-impairing conditions. One is a charge that lets you make a couple of unblockable attacks. Both of these seem like they’d have potential in high-end PvE. Possibly not dungeon speedrun stacking tactics, but new content is probably going to have something to limit that… and even if you are doing dungeon speedrun stacking, not using those skills just means more energy for Impossible Odds or Jade Winds.

I’m also inclined to think that focusing on just the 7-9 skills is missing part of the picture. Traditionally, elite skills have tended to be something that you might think to pull out at a decisive moment, but generally a shorter-recharge fourth utility skill would often be more useful than picking one of the 3 elites currently available to the core professions, which is often a matter of choosing the least bad. Recent changes have moved towards adjusting this, but the general principle remains the same. The revenant, on the other hand, has, with the exception of Ventari, seemed to have gone back to the GW1 concept of elite skills: they behave pretty much just like utility skills, albeit generally the most powerful on the bar. Ventari’s may be a bit on the lacklustre side, but Glint, Shiro, Jalis and Mallyx all have elites that are likely to be as much a part of your playstyle as anything else on your bar, as opposed to many of the elites of other professions that have such long recharges that they need to be saved for extreme circumstances, and then half the time they’d do more harm than good if you used them anyway.

So, from another perspective, it could be said that the revenant has 16 utility skills, is able to equip eight at once, and isn’t saddled with a so-called ‘elite’ slot.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.

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Posted by: Adamantium.3682

Adamantium.3682

The easiest example is Shiro in dungeons. 2/3 utilities are useless. No other Profession is locked into useless utility skills ever because they can change them.

Ah, but how much of the elementalist’s weapon skills end up being chaff because out of 20 skills, some of those are not going to be useful for what you’re planning to do? How many skills from weapons in general, including engineer kits, are often not used because they were part of a package of skills that are useful?

What do weapon skills have to do with anything? We’re talking about customizing utilities. No profession can choose to replace certain weapon skills so that’s a moot point. Every (other) profession can choose to replace certain utilities.

[TNO] Gizmo Gigawatt (Engineer)
Jade Quarry

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Posted by: Snafoo.2869

Snafoo.2869

Look just above your post I literally just shattered the logic of everyone for it. “There’s no build variety with the Rev” bull kitten. Secondly, I never said I was against it just that it wasn’t necessary and it isn’t. Doesn’t matter anyway they won’t add anymore at least not til post HoT Launch. They will continue to work on the functionality of their current utilities for the time being. They spent years working on the other classes they are months away from HoT launch. They are not going to add new utilities in the hopes that by some divine miracle they can balance them in a few months. They still have to balance the current kit and convert things to work underwater you think they are gonna add more skills … nope.

“shattered” may be a bit of a stretch when your main comparison for utilities was just ‘D/P thief can’t viably use a bunch of the utilities for the class’.
Despite that I don’t even agree with your premise (which is only true in the strictest interpretation of any meta), even if there were so few viable utilities for most classes, people were able to choose those utilities and make balanced, well rounded builds getting the most out of their class after months or even years of experimentation.

You’re basically saying all that in game work people did with picking and testing very specific utility combinations will now be done almost completely by the devs for the revenant.
Devs which do great work on overall balance imo, but they’re not flawless and they don’t need this extra micro-management balancing act this one class forces them to do.

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Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

What do weapon skills have to do with anything? We’re talking about customizing utilities. No profession can choose to replace certain weapon skills so that’s a moot point. Every (other) profession can choose to replace certain utilities.

The relevance is twofold:

First, weapon skills are a precedent for the concept of choosing skills as a package. We haven’t had a precedent for that with utility skills, obviously, but similar observations apply when considering weapon skills as with revenant legends: the packages are balanced as a package, and this often means that you get some skills that you’re not going to make much use of in exchange for the skills that you will be using. People have been asking for the option to substitute weapon skills since the weapon skill mechanic was announced, and it’s a similar principle – if ArenaNet made them individually substitutable they would have to be balanced individually rather than a package, and that’s more difficult. As a package, a really good skill can be balanced by being coupled with a mediocre skill, with the two combined averaging out to roughly the same as two average skills. Arguably, in fact, with the exception of the thief, a ‘dead’ weapon skill is more of a handicap on other professions than an unused skill on a revenant’s bar – a revenant can always choose to spend the energy somewhere else instead, while a cooldown-limited skill that you don’t use is simply a wasted resource.

Second, as we don’t have a precedent for choosing utility skills as a package, the elementalist is the poster child for trading customisability for more skills. Other professions choose their weapon skills in packages of two, three, or five, giving them the opportunity to keep the number of ‘dead’ skills to a level that is acceptable for the skills they do want. Elementalists, on the other hand, choose their skills in packages of eight, twelve, or twenty, and generally they end up with a larger proportion of weapon skills that just aren’t suited for what they’re planning to do, to the point where sometimes even entire attunement sets can end up being ‘dead’ skills. A good elementalist player would, of course, familiarise themselves with those skills so they can spot those situations where they could be a lifesaver, but that doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t like to swap them out if they could. The revenant legends follow a similar principle – you have more skills at your disposal, but you have less choice about which individual ones you have meaning that you’ll often be left with a few that are a bit less generally applicable and that you rarely have reason to use. As noted above, though, the energy limitation makes this less of a waste than for professions which are only limited by cooldown: for most professions you get nothing back from choosing not to use a particular skill because it’s not suitable for the circumstance, while for the revenant, a skill you don’t use means you have that much more energy for the skills you do use.

If you can trade out legend skills freely, than that would require the skills to be balanced on an individual basis, which means we could see the good skills seriously nerfed as they’re no longer balanced by the more situational skills. I think ArenaNet is also going for each legend having its own feel, including opponents knowing what to expect (something that should be taken into account with PvP balance) and and the ability to swap out skills could weaken that, even if you’re still limited to skills from a particular stance.

To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.