Guild Wars 2

Detailed (Opinionated) Anaylsis of the Revenant Class

Thematically, I’m really enjoying playing the Revenant, and I think it’s neat how it incorporates interesting combo field options, (Lightning, Dark, Fire, Light) new mechanics, (Resistance, Slow, Taunt,) and a wide variety of other Conditions to apply, (Torment, Chill, Weakness, Burning, Blind, Confusion,) with the potential to also copy conditions on the Revenant to enemies.

I’m struggling a little bit get the hang of swapping Legendary Stances, (I imagine this would be easier for folks who have logged a lot of time on an Elementalist or Engineer,) and because of this have found the class to be a little limiting in some ways. The three weapon sets that it has access to, (Hammer, Staff, and Mace/Axe,) all feel pretty specialized, and only having access to one of the sets at a time kind of pigeonholes the player into a specific role. Having the Legendary Stance swap to two of the three options helps provide more versatility, of course, but given that each stance provides a specific set of five (Unchangeable) utility skills, and each weapon only gives five weapon skills, it feels a little like we’re going to see a lot of similar revenants out there.

(Of course, that wouldn’t be too far off from the Metagame we currently have for the other classes anyway)

General Stuff / Bugs:

I find the Energy system a little confusing, and feel that the class would benefit from a more detailed tooltip tutorial description of exactly how it works.
“Core Specialization” icons in Selection Menu to not match Specialization Tree Icons.
“Protective Solace” Skill in Legendary Centaur Stance is missing Light Field Tooltip Fact.
Protective Solace Light Field lingers if Tablet vanishes due to being destroyed by using Energy Expulsion or by changing Legendary Stance.

Breakdown of Weapon Skills:

—-

Hammer – Ranged Direct Damage, Utility / Crowd Control

(1) Hammer Bolt: Slow, Powerful 1,200 Range Piercing Auto Attack that counts as a Physical Projectile Finisher. Effective and reliable. (5 of 5 Stars)

(2) Coalescene of Ruin: Powerful triple-impact 1,200 Range attack that hits hardest at maximum range. Can be a little tricky to get the timing right, and the animation, (while gorgeous,) makes it easy for other players to dodge, which feels appropriate for a slow, powerful hammer attack. (5 of 5 Stars)

(3) Phase Smash: Ranged Chill Radial attack, with a Blast Finisher component. While the pseudo-teleport function of this attack provides a neat animation, it’s a little disconcerting since your character is effectively stationary for the 1.25 second duration of the attack. I’m uncertain as to whether the attack also serves as an evade of any sort while phasing. (3 of 5 Stars)

(4) Field of the Mists: Projectile-Blocking Utility. Functions as promised. Has the added benefit of providing Area Blinds or Leeching attacks as a Dark Field. Useful in the current Ranged Meta. (4 of 5 Stars)

(5) Drop the Hammer: Slow, Powerful AoE Knockdown 1,200 Range Blast Finisher. Dramatic animation makes it extremely telegraphed, which feels appropriate for its function and requires careful timing to be used effectively. (5 of 5 Stars)

Hammer Summary: I feel like the Hammer will likely be the general go-to weapon for many Revenants, since it provides the most versatility (in my opinion) of the three weapon sets. It has great range, two blast finishers, deals solid damage and provides some great defense and crowd control options. It fits the bill for the role that the Hammer typically fills, with the added benefit of being used at Range.

Staff – Melee Direct Damage, Healing and Defensive Conditions, Utility / Crowd Control

(1) Rapid Swipe – Forceful Bash – Rejuvenating Assault Chain: Typical Cleaving Auto Attack Chain with a minor heal component and Whirl Finisher. The Whirl is a nice bonus, but the healing component is sort of underwhelming. The globes aren’t that reliable as a source of healing, and even though you can trait them to grant swiftness and regeneration, their random placement and difficult-to-see size means that they aren’t always going to provide the intended benefit. (2 of 5 Stars)

(2) Debilitating Slam – Punishing Sweep: Moderate Damage cleave attack that can apply Weakness. While I understand why this attack has a condition opponent, (Weakness Spamming can crush an opposing team,) its direct damage feels sort of low. (3 of 5 Stars)

(3) Warding Rift – Projectile Blocking move with an appropriately definitive animation. Blindness application feels sort of unpredictable and damage dealt is negligible. This might work better if it were a Reflect instead of converting attacks into weak little blinding bolts? (3 of 5 Stars)

(4) Renewing Wave – AoE Heal and Condition Clear. Personally, I think the 0.5 Heal Coefficient is too low, even with Salvation Traits. Clearing two Conditions is okay, but three would be even better. Radius of 300 feels too small. I would adjust at least two of the following – Healing Coefficient, Number of Conditions Cleared, Radius, or add Blast Finisher component. (2 of 5 Stars)

(5) Surge of the Mists – Multi-Hit Rush mobile with a Knockback. Damage Coefficient feels low. Knockback component is nice, but not great. Add Leap Finisher, maybe? (2 of 5 Stars)

Staff Summary: I really wanted to like the staff, especially since I felt like the Revenant could be a pretty cool Support class, but it’s overwhelming in so many ways that it’s difficult to justify using it over the hammer. The Blind and Weakness Application are too conditional to be relied upon, the heals don’t heal enough even in full Cleric gear with applicable outgoing healing traits, the damage is low, and it doesn’t provide enough other utility. The best thing about the Staff is that it has cool animations, but that isn’t enough to make it useful.

—-

Mace / Axe – Quick Condition-Applying Melee. Mace deals low-moderate physical damage and applies Torment, Poison and Bleeding. Axe applies Torment, Chill, and provides target-specific Shadow Step and AoE Pull utilities.

(1) Misery Swipe – Anguish Swipe – Manifest Toxin Chain: Typical Cleaving Auto Attack Chain. Applies Torment for first two strikes, then Chaining Poison on the last strike. I feel like this weapon fits its role appropriately, but the damage isn’t overwhelming. (4 of 5 Stars)

(2) Searing Fissure: Pulsing Wide-Line Fire Field. Low Physical Damage, applies Burning periodically. Looks cool, applies multiple stacks of burning, and combines well with Mace (3) for Area Might. Damage feels slightly lackluster. (4 of 5 Stars)

(3) Echoing Eruption: Leaping Attack that creates a line of Blast Finishers. Deals moderate-high physical damage three times. Feels slightly out of place in this weapon set as a Physical Attack on a Condition-based weapon. (4 of 5 Stars)

(4) Frigid Blitz: High Physical Damage Chilling Shadow Step attack that also pierces and deals low damage to enemies between Revenant and Target. Unblockable. Basically functions like a Thief’s Shadow Shot but with an added Chill instead of a Blind. Effective and Reliable. (5 of 5 Stars)

(5) Temporal Rift: Low-Moderate Physical Damage AoE Pull that Applies 3 Stacks of Torment. Functions sort of like a Mesmer’s activated Temporal Curtain / Into the Void. Could maybe benefit from adding a Field effect? (Dark? Light?) (4 of 5 Stars)

Mace Summary: I feel like this is THE damage set for the Revenant. Because of the split damage, it would work well for a Condition based or Hybrid (Sinister, Carrion, Rampager) build.

I’m deeply enjoying the opportunity to try this class out in each of the different game modes. Great work on building this class so far!