My my opinion on what I saw and experienced in BWE2 (first time posting so any other players feel free to criticize things i’m not accounting for/and delivery of information)
Herald
Pro’s – observations of synergy with rest of gw2
Herald is a great addition to the Revenant class. It really feels like something about the class changed in a good way. By using Glint it allows you to make your other specs really shine and give usability to pretty much any weapon set. For example, I was attempting a condi tank with my Revenant using mace/axe and sword/shield. I was using Dire or Rabid stats, I can’t remember. However the fact that I had no power and could still crit with Facet of Darkness AND stack 20 vulnerability instantly made Glint give my build some sweet flexibility without sacrificing anything. I thought it was super cool to be able to have amazing boon output as well as conditions at the same time. The support possibilities for Herald with or without Jalis/Ventari are many.
Herald is great, because IMO elites should be about giving the class something it can’t do, and Glint without a doubt at the very least makes the class feel so different. Without Glint I feel the revenant is a very cool class that has the ability to almost swap build in combat. Going from pure condi to pure dps say with mallyx mace/axe to sword sword shiro, very cool idea say for fighting husks to just fightings small squishy opponents. I LOVE how energy is insta refilled to 50% it REALLYYYY makes it feel like hey, I am starting over, and I am NOW a tank. and ready to pop whatever skills you swapped the legend for. Cool part that herald gives to the Rev is that it allows the rev to either capitalize farther into their spec, allows usability of pretty much any weapon set with some sort of synergy. Ex: I was attempting a condi tank idea with my rev. used mace axe and sword shield. I was running dire or rabids i forget BUT I have no power. like none. I was using sword for the invuln while channeling skill 3. BUT if I popped one of glints facets, I get 20 stacks of vuln on the foe while I am blinking about. That is a 20% damage buff! and if I use the facet that causes perma fury boon now I’m criticing adding an additional %150 damage to my hits. ACTUALLY allowing to get some damage from the skill, that’s main purpose originally is defense despite being full condi.
It is cool gameplay to see Glint allow this sort of weird synergy with almost anything. It is jack of all trades, done very very well.
Something I love about Glint’s feel
Heal skill is fantastic and truly gives the rev a distinct tank feel when swapping to glint in battle. I ran into enemy AoE’s so many times to almost full burst my health up. This was especially helpful due to the amount of self harm I cast on myself while channeling Malyx. It is a fun and cool mechanic to feel rewarded for being aware during the fight. I run a tank ele build that surprise focuses on the signet of restoration, so all I do is use my dps rotation on attunements until i go hmmm my health is low SPAM ALL SKILLS ok health is good now back to dps…BUT I am not always reallyy looking at combat sometimes and doing the fearful HUD gameplay where I click buttons to make one bar go down and another go up lol. Glints heal IMO can be very rewarding when actually being very visually engaged in fights both in PvE and PvP. Infact sometimes I would let those baby wyverns start there crazy fire AoE just so i could pop my heal and essentially utilize their own damage for my gain. What a cool mechanic!
Not so great stuff
Shield skill #4 – PROTECTION IS NOT LONG ENOUGH on skill 4. It is gone before I even get hit. Quick devils advocate to myself “Oh hey roman just use the f2 facet for extra boon duration, if you have the shield you obviously have access to it.” BUT why can’t one of my skills just be usable on its own? Healing could use a small increase, but otherwise currently is useful for helping keep an ally up longer for a couple of seconds or to put myself in a more comfortable pool of current health without over healing with a true heal skill.
Con’s – solutions
Shield skill # 5 -I know this is a common complaint but it is not as good as some core classes invuln skills. In fact the heal for a guardian is almost as long as the herald skill 5 AND heals WHILE being mobile. at the very least, don’t make the herald immobile. you just feel like a sitting duck. OR give health pulses while channeling skill 5, incentive to not end the channel early after blocking that heavy attack AND even more incentive for opponents to really want to break bar you.
Elite Skill Glint – Protection boon on the facet is useless. There I said it, I mean okay the idea of the perma boon is great fantastic, good support. But FIVE energy degen?! My god, that means IF I am also using weapon skills I get maybe 4-6 of them b4 im out of energy. AND if I want to use any other facet I am looking at some seriously quick energy depletion. So either move this boon to say the facet that grants might or I guess maybe remove energy costs on weapons while running this facet? I mean it is just ridiculous to do anything with this facet that’s not going to neuter so much of the revenant’s other gameplay.
AND speaking of the might facet, anyone else think this is a littttle broken? So I ran(with aid of my gf) 2 rev’s with f2 facet and might facet active. Periodically might stacking(mace skill 2/axe skill 3) and we could easily keep ourselves at perma 25 might. WHAT the most ridiculous part is that I STILL had energy regen. So even with my periodic might stacking I was averaging around %48 energy OOC. Woah that is strong! The worstttt part in my opinion is that BESIDES the fact that I guess I have to run herald, I have 0 sacrifices to my build. I still was fully traited for what I consider to be a condi tank. So I could still continue my role as intended AND give out 25might? Crazy lol(However being my own devil advocate once again – ele can burst 25 might, while this method takes time to ramp up, maybe it IS balanced in the fact that it removes the revenant access to their 2nd legend, due to the loss of facet upkeep if legend is swapped and CD experienced to swap back into the legend??) But i don’t know I feel like THIS should cause the rev to have 0 regen. Really make the revenant manage those energy skills in consequence of perma 25 might. Which is why I would really like to see the might boon swapped onto the elite facet. And allow the protection boon some more gameplay.
Overall review
GREAT elite, it has serious synergy with all types of play styles. personally experimented with condi/tank build using mallyx and herald. I believe I was running full Dire stats, and can say it was a freakin blast running around both the new map, PvP and some dungeon runs as this build. I think this class is sooooo close to perfect. Just think it needs a few small tunes here and there. At least from what I got to play with.
Thanks for letting us be apart of the feedback process and look forward to the changes you make!
*also love to hear player feedback on how wrong you think I am!