Guild Wars 2

So i’ve returned to this wonderfull game after a 3+ year break, bought HoT, 4000 gems, bought a new class slot and was totally ready to kick it on my Revenant.

Sadly after playing for about a week and a half i cant help but feel weak and kinda bummed out. There doesnt seem to be much depth to the class at all, even though it has the different stances it feels like the least dynamic class so far.
Now i totally understand why i barely see Revenants anywhere, surely this was different when the expansion first launched but right now you’d be hard pressed to spot one… wich is unheard of for a new class in an MMO like this.

-Auto attacking is dull but way to often is the only option as everything costs energy wich you so desperately need for all the other skills.
-Condition Build seems to be promoted but not very good..?
-Hammer is ranged, Staff is Melee… I’m sure i missed something in the lore but to me this is so absurdly unlogical that i have trouble enjoying playing with either. This class needs a Greatsword, a “normal” Hammer or at least something cool to whack with, staves are brittle fragile canes not made for smashing heads.
-Generally i tend to feel like i’m missing something cool and epic that other classes have.

Dunno, Revenant seems like something i really should enjoy but simply don’t, it’s weird.

I’m considering just playing Guard again but since my new GF already mains guard (along with about half my server) i kinda want to make this work.

Any tips or ideas would be most welcome

Revs was nerfed to oblivion. Also added some bugs after those nerfs that are not being addressed. That and it being a melee effective class makes it a very hard class to master.

“staves are brittle fragile canes not made for smashing heads.” – not the Dominator Staff and Lightward’s Battlestaff. Plus staff 5 used to be good and does multiple whacks if aimed properly but the damage was nerfed to oblivion.

As for tips, hmm… If you put 4 different weapon swap sigils on your weapons and you change legend then swap weapons immediately, ALL 4 sigils procs. So effectively having 4 sigils work every 10 seconds and the same time if traited right removes condi and stunbreaks and copies remaining conditions to enemies.

Mook.7312:

-Hammer is ranged, Staff is Melee… I’m sure i missed something in the lore but to me this is so absurdly unlogical that i have trouble enjoying playing with either. This class needs a Greatsword, a “normal” Hammer or at least something cool to whack with, staves are brittle fragile canes not made for smashing heads.

It might’ve been dropped in the game a bit out of the blue, and it might feel slightly weird in GW2, but this kind of weapon mechanics are familiar for people that have had any experiences with D&D through games like Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights as I have. Magically returning thrown hammers and quarterstaves are quite easy to come by there.

And btw, quarterstaff is a real weapon used in several martial arts, so you thinking it as an illogical melee weapon is a bit illogical. Some people even claim it’s superior to sword as a dueling weapon because of it’s longer reach and how fast it is to use.

MMO lore doesn’t matter here, it doesn’t change the most basic things about reality, such as that getting hit by a 1,5 m pole of wood hurts, and breaks bones.

Rev is my favorite class in the game, thematically speaking, but it has a pretty major conceptual problem that needs to be dealt with. The tldr version is that they have an overly-restricting design, and that too much of their usefulness comes from the elite Glint stance.

Originally, they did not have weapon swap, but this was found to limit them too much as the ability to change utilities in combat didn’t do a great job of replacing the versatility of weapon swap, kits, and attunements, so it was added late in development.

This, however, really only served to further highlight the holes in their design. Not only does each utility set perform a specific function with little synergy between them, but each one of them is also tied only to a single weapon set. This means that both their weapon swapping and utility swapping are much less useful than you would expect them to be, and they end up feeling much more railroaded and less fluid than other professions. Utility swapping becomes somewhat useful only once you unlock the elite Glint stance, which means Revs feel particularly unpolished and incomplete while leveling 1-80.

This issue is 90% of why Revenants feel clunky in play, especially during leveling pre-80. They need 1-2 more base weapon choices to help alleviate this, such as a condi or hybrid ranged weapon and a hybrid melee weapon. OR they need to have weapon swap removed in favor of something more creative to compensate. Lastly, they need at least somewhat better synergy between their different stances – focusing mostly on Jalis since it’s the main pre-Glint support line and it really should be more competitive with the other stances.

Rev is a great support class. We give other people boons while taking the conditions off them, so they can fight better. Our damage is decent, and we can give good chase with Axe offhand and even have a reveal for those pesky thieves. When timed right, Infuse Light can keep you in the fight longer than many classes. But for a 1v1, you’ll have to work much harder than the other heavy armor classes do.

ShadowRain X.8159:

Revs was nerfed to oblivion. Also added some bugs after those nerfs that are not being addressed. That and it being a melee effective class makes it a very hard class to master.

“staves are brittle fragile canes not made for smashing heads.” – not the Dominator Staff and Lightward’s Battlestaff. Plus staff 5 used to be good and does multiple whacks if aimed properly but the damage was nerfed to oblivion.

As for tips, hmm… If you put 4 different weapon swap sigils on your weapons and you change legend then swap weapons immediately, ALL 4 sigils procs. So effectively having 4 sigils work every 10 seconds and the same time if traited right removes condi and stunbreaks and copies remaining conditions to enemies.

So i keep hearing, guess im lucky enough to have started playing Rev after the nerfs i dont know what they used to be like.
I love the melee idea, just not so much that everything costs energy and thus dramatically reducing your effective options.

Good call on the stave skins! Sadly they are either from a high end raid or an RNG kittenstorm wich i rather not dip into

Going to try the swap sigils, hope it’ll be as effective as it sounds cool.

Einlanzer.1627:

Rev is my favorite class in the game, thematically speaking, but it has a pretty major conceptual problem that needs to be dealt with. The tldr version is that they have an overly-restricting design, and that too much of their usefulness comes from the elite Glint stance.

Originally, they did not have weapon swap, but this was found to limit them too much as the ability to change utilities in combat didn’t do a great job of replacing the versatility of weapon swap, kits, and attunements, so it was added late in development.

This, however, really only served to further highlight the holes in their design. Not only does each utility set perform a specific function with little synergy between them, but each one of them is also tied only to a single weapon set. This means that both their weapon swapping and utility swapping are much less useful than you would expect them to be. The latter (only) sees a dramatic improvement in usefulness only upon the attainment of the elite Glint stance, which means Revs feel particularly unpolished and incomplete while leveling 1-80.

This issue is 90% of why Revenants feel clunky in play, especially during leveling pre-80. They need 1-2 more base weapon choices to help alleviate this, such as a condi or hybrid ranged weapon and a hybrid melee weapon. OR they need to have weapon swap removed in favor of something more creative to compensate. Lastly, they need at least somewhat better synergy between their different stances – focusing mostly on Jalis since it’s the main pre-Glint support line and it really should be more competitive with the other stances.

Exactly what i’m expiriencing, yes. Thanks for the brief explaination.

Imo Glint stance should be removed and implemented in a similair fashion as the Guardian Virtues, this would kinda make it lose its uniqueness but at least it’ll be effective.
And since 95% of the players are always running Glint anyway they might aswell make it more Passive to open more options for the other stances.

I would say Greatswords would be a good option for Revenant, it fits the role and would add some more balanced Abilities. Just having a stance and no weapon swap would be great but the stances absolutely need to be better to make up for that..

And yes Jali does seem the least effective so far but still quite good with the stability field and group Ultimate, it just feels like it lacks that extra ability that makes it worth using over other stances.

ethanzephyr.7298:

Rev is a great support class. We give other people boons while taking the conditions off them, so they can fight better. Our damage is decent, and we can give good chase with Axe offhand and even have a reveal for those pesky thieves. When timed right, Infuse Light can keep you in the fight longer than many classes. But for a 1v1, you’ll have to work much harder than the other heavy armor classes do.

You are describing Guardian basically, they can do the same with less effort and more utility..? I mean, yeh.. whats the point of Revenant in this case? :P

Rev is still in pvp or pve but atm he requiers more skill then before) yeah his pwer dmg and facet were nerfed but his still good)

Well i’ve decided to shelf my Revenant, for now at least. I can really enjoy playing the underdog classes but Rev is simply poorly designed.

3 people actually contacted me because of this post to express and explain their problems with the class..

Hopefully ArenaNet comes around with some big changes to the Revenant in due time.

Kinda miffed i spent so much time and gems on him now tho… meh

Mook.7312:

3 people actually contacted me because of this post to express and explain their problems with the class..

People are actually that salty that they actually PMed you to stop playing your Rev?

But to counter your point, the energy system has been there since Beta and the class was abit OP at the start of HoT. Many have mastered the quirks of the class since then and every nerf, they adjusted. For me it is like the combination of old tank thieves and dagger dagger elementalist, both were my mains before. You need to manage both your energy and cd’s.

It just so happened that the recent pvp version of the rev was nerfed so hard and still is weak vs conditions that they are so salty to PM you directly to make you stop playing your rev instead of posting it here in an educated forum.

For them I’ll say, git gud boyz.

Eh no? No one has ever tried to convince me to stop playing Rev at all.. its my own decision after 2 weeks of playing and noticing more and more things i can’t enjoy. The 3 people PMing were not salty what so ever and actually had great discussions with them.

Assumptions

If ppl cant make Rev bloom then its ppls problem not Revs)

Yannir.4132:

And btw, quarterstaff is a real weapon used in several martial arts, so you thinking it as an illogical melee weapon is a bit illogical. Some people even claim it’s superior to sword as a dueling weapon because of it’s longer reach and how fast it is to use.

MMO lore doesn’t matter here, it doesn’t change the most basic things about reality, such as that getting hit by a 1,5 m pole of wood hurts, and breaks bones.

Quarterstaff might be superior to sword as a dueling weapon, but it’s terrible in formation. No army in history has ever used the quarterstaff. A quarterstaff infantry would beat themselves up.

Revenant tries to be everything. The legends try to have various focuses on them like Mallyx = condi, etc.

It’s the toughest class to nail down because rotations involve weapon swaps and utility swaps both.

To whoever said Jalis needs a nerf, please explain Ventari? That stance is so underpowered! The heal skill is nothing but a weak heal that eats up energy really quickly. The heals on the tablet need a major buff.

Jalis’s skills waste too much energy as well. Personally, Rite of the Great Dwarf should proc invulnerability.

Those two – the supports – are very weak. Mallyx is great, Shiro is great, and Glint is great.

You don’t need Glint to survive, but you do need Herald traitline. It’s a must…

I started playing revenant around a few months ago, and never really picked it up until about a week ago after the nerf to staff 5 and sword 2. What got me interested was a power/condi hybrid build that I haven’t seen anybody run before. I also wanted to go hipster with offhand sword (since everyone uses shield) and it feels so much better.

The legend swaps felt so overwhelming to me, and trust me, I really didn’t like the feel of revenant. Once I practiced swapping weapons and legends it felt a lot better. I think you just need better keybinds to enjoy the role to its fullest potential. Try weapon swap on shift.

The main problem with Revenant is that their utility swap feature is fundamentally “broken” because each legend is focused around filling a specific role rather than complementing the other legends. This is kind of how the Ele works, and would probably be okay if not for the below problems:

Of their four core legends, two are blatantly underpowered while the other two are locked in a dichotomy. Of the latter two, Mallyx only has access to one complementary weapon type, which is a huge pain in the neck. Functionally, this leaves you pigeonholed into exactly one fully functional build – Jalis/Shiro with S/S and Hammer. At 80, you replace Jalis with Glint, and it’s only at that point where the Revenant feels reasonably “whole” as a class.

At the end of the day, the class feels like a great concept that was sort of left unfinished. My opinion is that Jalis and Ventari both needs buffs to make them less situational, they need a 5th “core” legend that operates as a good support for any of the others, and they need at least one additional weapon type at baseline, preferably two. Alternatively, they could remove weapon swap per their original plan and replace it with something more creative that works better for the Rev.

bravehoptoad.5246:

Yannir.4132:

And btw, quarterstaff is a real weapon used in several martial arts, so you thinking it as an illogical melee weapon is a bit illogical. Some people even claim it’s superior to sword as a dueling weapon because of it’s longer reach and how fast it is to use.

MMO lore doesn’t matter here, it doesn’t change the most basic things about reality, such as that getting hit by a 1,5 m pole of wood hurts, and breaks bones.

Quarterstaff might be superior to sword as a dueling weapon, but it’s terrible in formation. No army in history has ever used the quarterstaff. A quarterstaff infantry would beat themselves up.

Well no ofc not, but I’ve never seen an infantry formation in an MMO, so that’s kind of irrelevant considering the context. Formations usually preferred other kinds of polearms. Historically the most common option was the spear, although heavily armored infantry formations moved into using halberds in the late medieval period.