Guild Wars 2

I am a Revenant main since HoT, and I’ve previously put forth a few ideas for revisions to improve the quality of life, versatility, and effectiveness of the Revenant.
Weapons revision – https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/revenant/Two-auto-attacks-on-all-our-weapons/first#post6301317
Utility skills revision – https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/revenant/More-utilities-per-legend-suggestions/first#post6325936
Now I am listing a proposal for traits revision. Trait revision is necessary because:

1) Many of Revenant’s existing traits are weak, unimpactful, or have anti-synergy with other traits or skills. Synergy between traits and skills / other traits is also arguably weaker than in other professions.

2) Many Revenant specializations are so focused that they are only useful within a single, narrow build or role. This means, for example, that Salvation is useless outside of healing role, or Corruption is useless outside of a condition damage role. This trait revision will broaden the versatility of each specialization to align with the HoT specialization rework, in which each trait line provided three specific roles or themes.

This trait revision is not intended to balance weapon or utility skills or address bugs in any areas other than in traits. This revision is meant to promote greater build versatility and meaningful trait choice. I will list my proposed major and minor traits as well as the three general themes that I propose for each specialization.

Devastation

Devastation is already a decent specialization in my opinion, and only needs a few tweaks. Primarily, I am removing a few redundant traits and increasing synergy with other specializations. Devastation will now focus on three primary areas, (1) direct damage, (2) dueling, and (3) crowd control

Minor Traits – unchanged
Major Adept
(1) Ferocious Strikes- changed to “Gain ferocity based on your power (7%)”. This trait previously competed with Vicious Lacerations for the same effect (increase direct damage). Vicious Lacerations was removed and Ferocious Strikes modified to be more universally applicable.
(2) Nefarious Momentum – moved to Adept; added ability “Increases movement speed by 25% while in Shiro stance”. A movement speed buff is a much-needed quality of life boost for Revenants and this gives them one more opportunity outside of Glint.
(3) Dismantle Fortifications – moved to Adept. I like this trait, but it is fairly weak and should not be a GM.
Major Master
(1) Assassin’s Presence – unchanged
(2) Malicious Reprisal – moved to Master. Changed to “After activating Impossible Odds, your next two attacks are unblockable (15 second icd).” Revised this trait to be more predictable (and useful against aegis).
(3) Jade Echo – icd reduced to 60 seconds. Removed downed damage boost and added a function: “You gain a Jade Shard when you strike a disabled foe (taunt, stun, daze, knockdown, fear) (10 seconds icd)”. The Jade Shard is similar to one gained from Shiro’s healing skill. Traits that only affect the downstate are generally very underwhelming and unpopular, so I added a function here that would apply outside of the downed state.
Major Grandmaster
(1) Swift Termination – unchanged
(2) Assassin’s Annihilation – unchanged
(3) (New) Rend Defenses – when you remove a stack of stability or aegis from a foe, you inflict vulnerability (5 stacks, 5 seconds) and gain might (3 stacks, 5 seconds). I like Dismantle Fortifications, but it is generally not popular. However, this new GM trait would proc twice when removing two stability stacks with Dismantle Fortifications, increasing its value. This trait also synergizes with boon removal in Mallyx / Corruption, and extra CC on elite swap from my new Retribution elite (Vanguard) and Salvation elite (Momentary Pacification).

Retribution

Retribution had some very weak traits as well as an almost universal focus on self sustain, which limited its applicability to different builds. There were also a few traits that focused on specific effects (taunt, retaliation) that the Revenant had poor access to. I am increasing synergy between different specializations and focusing on: (1) damage reduction, (2) taunt / soft CC control, and (3) bruiser (sustained damage)

Minor Traits – unchanged
Major Adept
(1) Steadfast Rejuvenation – moved to Adept.
(2) Improved Aggression – When you taunt a foe, you also apply weakness (4 seconds). Taunt has an increased duration when applied to nonplayer characters. This was modified slightly so that it would be more useful in WvW / PvP where the decreased damage for 2 seconds against a slowed, auto-attacking foe might not be too worthwhile.
(3) Retaliatory evasion – moved to Adept.
Major Master
(1) Planar Protection – Moved to Master. Added effect of Close Quarters. Fall damage traits are generally underwhelming and should be combined with other effects to be worthwhile.
(2) Dwarven Battle Training – When you swap legends in combat, your next attack applies weakness (4s). When you strike a foe that has weakness, you lose one condition (10s icd). The self anti-weakness feature was cool but really niche, so I removed it. I wanted to focus here on improving weakness output by the Revenant, since Rev has a lot of weakness application.
(3) Eye for an Eye – removed taunt effect, added 4 second retaliation on incoming CC. Reduced protection to 4 seconds. Reduced icd to 30 seconds. The taunt was removed because passively applied CCs are not cool. Also, I focus on taunt and other CC in trait line #2.
Major Grandmaster
(1) Versed in Stone (unchanged)
(2) (New) Vanguard – When you use an elite skill, gain protection (3 seconds) and taunt nearby foes (1.5 seconds, icd = 10 seconds). Radius = 240. I know that Momentary Pacification was changed from a daze on elite use to a delayed immobilize due to the redundancy of the daze with CC on some elites (Shiro’s, Glint’s). I am adding a CC to the elites again here because it does still help remove stability stacks, and it will also proc other useful things here (e.g. weakness and condition removal if Dwarven Battle Training and Improved Aggression are taken).
(3) (New) Empowering Vengeance – Gain retaliation while under the effect of Vengeful Hammers (duration 1.5 seconds, application rate 3 seconds). Gain might when struck while under the effect of retaliation ( (8 seconds, 1 second icd).

Salvation

Salvation was a very narrow-focused specialization that was almost useless outside of Ventari healing builds. I wanted to greatly increase the versatility of the specialization and my proposed change would allow Salvation to function to (1) improve outgoing heals, (2) improve utility / sustain, and (3) disabling opponents.

(New adept) – Increases the healing of Regeneration that you apply by 20%
(New major) – Hardened Foundation – increased conversion rate to 10%
Serene Rejuvenation – unchanged
Major Adept
(1) Nourishing Roots – unchanged
(2) (New) – When you block an attack, you apply regeneration to nearby allies (3 sec, 10 sec icd, radius 240).
(3) Blinding Truths – unchanged
Major Master
(1) (New) – Increased outgoing healing to allies that have regeneration (20%).
(2) Eluding Nullification – now removes 2 conditions
(3) Tranquil Bendiction – healing orbs from staff now only grant regen, not swiftness. Renewing Wave now also knocks back opponents (radius 300, distance 300)
Major Grandmaster
(1) Selfless Amplification – unchanged
(2) Natural Abundance – unchanged
(3) Momentary Pacification – When you interrupt a foe, you also apply blind (5 seconds, no icd). When you invoke a legend, daze nearby foes (radius 240, daze duration 1/2 second).

Corruption

Corruption has a few weak traits (e.g. Frigid Precision) and some traits that don’t fit well with the generally functionality of the specialization (e.g. Maniacal Persistence). Corruption and Mallyx have both been fairly gutted since HoT betas in which there was a greater focus on boon and condition manipulation. I wanted to bring some of this unique flavor back to corruption and improve weak traits. I focus on (1) benefiting from conditions on self, (2) condition damage, (3) boon removal and soft CC conditions.

Minor Traits
Rampant Vex – unchanged
Opportune Extraction – replaced with (New) – Increases critical hit chance against tormented foes (10%).
Yearning Empowerment – unchanged
Major Adept
(1) (New) – Increases your crit chance for every unique condition on you (2%)
(2) Venom Enhancement – Reduced icd to 10 seconds.
(3) (New) – Deal extra damage and condition damage to chilled foes (5%). Chill you apply lasts longer (33%)
Major Master
(1) Demonic Defiance – moved to Master. Effect unchanged.
(2) (New) – Increase torment damage to unmoving foes by 50%.This will buff torment against stationary foes to do 75% of the damage it does against moving foes. This is generally intended for PvE.
(3) Frigid Precision. Added feature "When you apply chill you also apply weakness (2s) no icd. This trait synergizes with Retribution traits to remove conditions (Dwarven battle training).
Major Grandmaster
(1) Pulsating Pestilence – ‘Embrace the Darkness’ will also pulse poison (1 sec) and cripple (1 sec) to nearby opponents for each unique condition on you.
(2) Diabolic Inferno – unchanged
(3) Malevolent Extraction (New) – When you strike a foe above the boon threshold, you cast Banish Enchantment on them (15s icd). Banish Enchantment removes one extra boon.

Invocation

Invocation is a strong specialization right now, but it suffers from a confused identity and a few weak traits. It has a few traits which focus on energy management and legend swapping, but these traits are relatively few and simple. I focus Invocation more on managing legends and energy here. Specifically, it provides (1) fury, (2) effects for spending energy or achieving low or high energy, (3) effects for swapping legends

Minor Traits
Invoker’s Rage – unchanged
Ferocious Aggression – now increases damage and condition damage (5%)
Empty Vessel – unchanged
Major Adept
(1) Fierce Infusion – unchanged
(2) Invigorating Flow – moved to Adept. Changed to ’Gain regeneration (3 seconds) when you use a skill that costs more than 15 energy (5 seconds icd).
(3) Cleansing Channel – unchanged
Major Master
(1) Incensed Response – unchanged
(2) (New) – Shrouding Mists – Moved to Master and revised – When your energy drops below 15, you gain protection (3s) and vigor (5s) (20 seconds icd). Combat only.
(3) Equilibrium – increased base healing and heal scaling by 50%
Major Grandmaster
(1) Roiling Mists – unchanged
(2) (New) – Overpowering Energy – When your energy goes above 70, you gain might (5 stacks, 8 seconds), and your next attack inflicts vulnerability (5 stacks, 8 seconds) and weakness (4 seconds) (15 seconds icd). This trait is up for debate. I want it to be triggered deliberately (e.g. by pooling energy for 4 seconds after legend swapping) and be fairly powerful when it does. However, the energy threshold can be adjusted. For example, with a lower energy threshold it could trigger more often, in which case I would argue it should have weaker effects when it does trigger. The combination of Shrouding Mists and Overpowering Energy will reward Revenants who deliberately manage energy to proc these defensive and offensive effects.
(3) (New) – When you invoke a legend, you give nearby allies regeneration (3 seconds), and outgoing healing is increased for a short time (25%, 10 seconds).

Herald

Herald is in a pretty good spot right now. I have only made a few changed. I focus on (1) support and defensive boons, (2) aggressive boons, (3) ‘dragon’ effects

Minor Traits – unchanged
Major Adept
(1) Hardening Persistence – unchanged
(2) Harmonize Continuity – moved to Adept
(3) Radiant Revival – unchanged
Major Master
(1) Bolster Fortifications – unchanged
(2) Shared Empowerment – unchanged
(3) Swift Gale – Gain superspeed (3 sec) and stability (1 stack, 3 sec) when you successfully break a stun. Swift Gale was not a very popular trait, and Enhanced Bulwark was only useful in a handful of builds due to low stability access on Revenant. Adding stability to Swift Gale increases synergy here.
Major Grandmaster
(1) Soothing Bastion – no longer auto-triggers at low health. You gain protection (1 seconds) and stability (1 stack, 1 second) each pulse while you channel Crystal Hibernation. Since Crystal Hibernation doesn’t break stuns, it won’t trigger at low health while you are stunned, making it unreliable. It also immobilizes you and can’t be canceled, so you are very vulnerable to unblockable attacks while channeling. To address these problems, I just removed the auto-proc at low health and made the block skill better.
(2) Elder’s Force – unchanged
(3) Enhanced Bulwark – unchanged