Guild Wars 2

Revenant Beta Weekend Review

I had an interesting time this past weekend during the Revenant/Stronghold Beta Event.I played on my beta revenant pretty much all weekend. I learned quite a bit about the class by focussing on it. I have a few things to say about my experience.

Community Reaction:

Overall, the Revenant is a wonderful class. I know that many people disagree, I’ve read about it. I actually took the time to play this class for 3 days and at least 8 hours each day. (Weekends are awesome). Many people are confused about this class, which is why they’re not giving it the credit it deserves. And many are misunderstanding what this weekend was about: testing. On the first day, I quickly realized that anyone playing this class was not only going to be focussed in combat for the “easy kill”, they hated it. They talked horribly to the people who chose to play it and did nothing but bash the class in map chat all weekend. That didn’t make for a “fun” experience for a lot of people who wanted to test the class. Thankfully, I have tough skin.

Weapons:

Hammer-
The hammer, in my opinion, needs some work. I know that everything isn’t finished, but as it was, the damage output was sad compared to the attack speed, mobility, and cast time on those skills. Even at 2500 power and 30% crit chance, the damage sort of made me want to cry. I main a guardian and with 2500 power and that crit chance on my hammer I can at least get a 3500 critical hit with “mighty blow”. Also, a guardian’s hammer attack feels slow as it is…. this was slower. The auto-attack timing is fine. And #2 skill is spot on as far as animation (maybe a leap or a slightly faster animation would help with the timing on this). The #3 skill was a bit off. It could have been lag on my part or that the class animations aren’t finished. For some reason, I felt like I was being pulled into the ground when it landed. And on occasion, I got stuck in place for a second after skill animation had completely finished. Skill #4 is interesting. I think it will just take some time on my part to get used to having to position myself for it to work. Skill #5 animation is lovely. But for the amount of time it takes to cast it, you really should be able to get a heavy hitting skill out of it especially since it’s a ground targeted skill…. half of the time the target isn’t even where you land it once it’s finished. So, maybe it’s just best to use it as a blast, but would still like to see some damage come from it if I do manage to land it.

Mace/Axe Combo-
Since each of these are one-handed and we only had these as our one-handed options for this beta event I’ll combine these. I had the same issue with these weapons as far as damage output. It took me quite some time to find the sweetspot, or good mixture of power/prec/condi, for these to work like they felt they should. Even then, I feel that a slightly higher base damage or increase in condition output would help with these. As far as timing, animations, and skill cast…. love it. The combat with these is amazing. Though, I feel that again if skill #3 was a higher damage skill that the cast time on it wouldn’t feel so long. Also, you might actually be able to get at least a second blast out of it by the time it’s finished if that were the case. I got a second one… when I got caught in a wall or on terrain, but never a third. I would however like to see that box around the skill #2 fire field disappear…. and maybe look similar to the elementalist’s fiery greatsword #2 skill…. THAT is pretty.

Staff-
I love you. I love you for even having the idea of bringing in a melee staff weapon to Guild Wars 2. I’ve played other games that have a melee staff weapon… and I love you. However! I think that for the amount of damage that this is meant to put out (which is minimal since it’s a passive weapon) that the range on the auto-attack should be a little more. The orbs that it drops are nice, but something’s off with that. Maybe make the range on the orbs slightly higher, or just simply make the third strike a heal without orbs, or something. I can handle “close combat”. I played a chanter on AION and LOVED the idea of this, but felt slightly disappointed with that auto-attack. Skill #2 needs some work as well. The animation for skill #2 is nice, but for the range of the weapon and the amount of damage that skill #2’s proc does, it needs to either be a higher damage skill when you do proc it and possibly a range increase. Maybe making it a block would be nice, or a cripple…. something… something about it isn’t right. Skill #3…. again… whoever made this, I love you. Skill #4… the cast time on this feels a bit long compared to the output of the heal. Yes, it removes two conditions, but you have to actually manage to cast the skill for that to be useful. And maybe when the class is finished we’ll have better usage of our stability, or aegis, or something, to be able to use that. But right now, it’s very difficult to cast that and benefit from it. Skill #5….. I love you, but considering the amount of damage you don’t have with this weapon… maybe adding something at the end of that would be helpful. Like a small heal, or protection, or aegis? Anyway… staff overall… I love you.

Legends/Utilities:

King Jalis Ironhammer-
This legend’s utilities are lovely. I love that drop a “yellow brick road” of stability for my party and blast it for swiftness. I love that I can taunt people and interrupt them on occasion. I love that swirling hammer- and if you get two going with a proc from the trait…. lols. I do think that the animation on that swirling hammer could use some work though. A larger, more “stoney”, looking hammer would be sweet. And last, but not least…. WHY DID YOU BREAK THE ELITE?! Okay, I’ve calmed a bit… so let’s talk about it. That elite skill used to give invuln didn’t it? I thought it did, but I could be wrong. It would be nice to see that. Considering the elite takes so long to cast, it would be nice to see it do something like “Renewed Focus”. I mean… it’s not like other classes don’t have some sort of utility that makes them invulnerable. So, that would be lovely. If we’re not going to get an invuln out of it… please reduce the cast time on that and actually give us a protection buff with it x.x

Mallyx The Unyielding-
This one… disturbs me. Not only because Mallyx is just… disturbing, but because there’s very little you can do with it. Okay, I could be wrong, and maybe there’s other utility options that we’ll be getting with each legend, which I’ll discuss later. But, the only thing I found nice about this legend was the resistance and displacement. The displacement is REALLY handy when you need to revive an ally. But, if you’re going to have us “embrace” conditions, it would be nice to be able to spit them out a bit more easily or have that resistance be a little stronger. It’s already a little difficult to manage the energy you have and the cost requirements (which I’ll also discuss later). So, making these resistance buffs a bit stronger or last longer would be nice. As far as the idea of the legend and how the skills should work… I like it. I like the idea of embracing or pulling conditions to you and removing them from your allies so you can spit them out on enemies. But, because you are pulling conditions to you… you are more vulnerable, it would be nice to see a bit more survivability out of it considering it is a heavy class.

Centaur Ventari-
Once I got the hang of this legend… I couldn’t go without it. Of course, the overall survivability of the class due to it not being finished added to that, but man is that thing strong! I don’t know which team members made this, but gg. Seriously, gg. However, I do have some suggestions for it. Even with 1300 healing power, that heal is really small for the amount of energy it costs to keep it up. Now, it could just be that the class isn’t finished, so I had to heal more often due to mobility, toughness, etc. Maybe making that regen with the trait a bit stronger would be nice, or adding a second/third boon to that, like protection? That way you can manage your energy a bit better when you do have to use the utility. As far as the overall function of it… I love you. Once you get the hang of guiding that tablet, and knowing when to use certain skills…. it’s amazing. I cannot tell you how many times I was so glad I had it.

Energy:

I like the idea of bringing energy with this class. Especially since this reminds me a lot of a dervish/ritualist and the idea of the class is one that comes back and brings powers of legends we knew from the original game. But, please tell me that you are going to balance the cost of energy somehow? I did swap a LOT in order to maintain it, but that wasn’t enough in many cases. The amount of energy that some of those utilities require doesn’t make it easy to stay alive at all. And of course, I’m not asking for this class to be stronger than any other class. But if you’re going to make us not even be able to use our weapon skills when we’re out of energy along with our utilities, then lowering a cost or adding traits/trait lines that help us manage it would be lovely.

Stunbreaks/Mobility/Stability:

Okay, so of course this is a new class and it takes time to learn how to play a new class, but where are the stunbreaks!? Swapping legends breaks a stun. I found one elite that breaks a stun…. and requires a long cast time to utilize it without feeling like you’ve wasted that horrid benefit you get from it while using up an insane amount of energy. But if it costs that much energy to use it, and you don’t get much of a benefit out of it, and you have a cd on another swap….. auto-attacks are hard to hit… I can’t move about like I can on other classes…..D: dead. So, this is where I wanted to talk about energy management and utility options. Now, I know you that you’re not going to leave us with literally 5 utilities per legend that don’t give you any stunbreak in a single one of them except our one elite from that one legend…. right? Now, I am not a mathematician, but I do know this (see what I did there):

There are very little options for our utilities at this time.
The only stunbreaks we have are a swap and one elite from one legend.
Energy costs are too high to make feel like you can use your utilities “freely”.
The benefits you get from the higher costing utilities are not that grand.

Fix it I don’t know how, but fix that!

Traits/Utilities:

Now, I know that this is a new class. So, we’re not going to have the idea behind it that we’ve “now combined certain traits because we’ve learned to use our “magic” better” idea. But, I’d like to see better synergy with these traits. Many of them feel weak and out of place for what we’re getting. With other classes, you have the option of mixing a few utilities in there that are from different lines… like a shout here, a signet there, and a stance there, etc. Well, with a revenant, you don’t have that. So, it would make more sense to not only add more utilities per legend, but to also make sure that our traits (since we’re a bit stuck) not only reflect the playstyle/utilities that we’re locked into, but add greater benefit than what they do now.

So, that concludes my REALLY long review. I’m sure I missed a few things, but with all the time I spent on the new class this weekend, my brain is a bit fried from lack of sleep. I think that overall you have a great idea here. But it’s not ready. It needs some work for people to really feel like these are a great addition to the great classes you already have. (yes, I’ve played them all and pvp’d/pve’d with each) I hope that your team will truly take in everything everybody has said about this class. I know you can’t make everybody happy and make every single change that has been suggested. But, I don’t want to see it trashed like many have suggested. I want to see this work! I can’t wait to see what you have for the next beta event. And I can’t wait to see how revenant has evolved when I get to play it again.

Very nice job!!!!!

Ellsy.6780:

Traits/Utilities:

Now, I know that this is a new class. So, we’re not going to have the idea behind it that we’ve “now combined certain traits because we’ve learned to use our “magic” better” idea. But, I’d like to see better synergy with these traits. Many of them feel weak and out of place for what we’re getting. With other classes, you have the option of mixing a few utilities in there that are from different lines… like a shout here, a signet there, and a stance there, etc. Well, with a revenant, you don’t have that. So, it would make more sense to not only add more utilities per legend, but to also make sure that our traits (since we’re a bit stuck) not only reflect the playstyle/utilities that we’re locked into, but add greater benefit than what they do now.

Instead of adding new utilities per legend, I had proposed adding a Mistweaving line of general revenant utility skills that are non-legend specific and could be swapped into any given legend utility bar. And these general utilities could be tied into the Invocation line.