Guild Wars 2

Am I the only one who finds this mechanic boring, simplistic, uninspired, and somewhat pointless?

• Every skill costs energy, except auto attack.
• Energy can only be passively generated over time in combat.
• You can get a boost up to 50% when you swap legends IF you swap while below 50%.
• No traits or skills give energy, only take.

Where does this leave the class? Essentially the best rotation is:

• Enter combat and wait for 100%
• Pop upkeep skills that drop energy over time
• Pop major skills that cost energy and give the most damage/benefit
• At 0% swap legends. You gain back to 50%.
• Wait for 100%.
• Rinse/repeat.

Maybe I’m just doing it wrong… so please correct me… But I don’t see the point of energy. It’s effectively the same as initiative. You can only activate skills as long as you have the energy, and then you have to wait. It’s even worse than initiative as there’s nothing to boost it. At least initiative has traits, signets, tricks, etc to give you more.

So why not just remove energy all together and have them use initiative, or standard cooldowns? Even upkeep skills might as well have a base duration. They can last a max of 14 seconds if you only auto attack.

Honestly to me this system seems boring and requires little or no actual thought or skillful play. Not even remotely close to mechanics like Chronomancer’s Temporal Shift. Why aren’t there any Rev skills or traits that allow you to gain energy by playing better? Energy on block? On interrupt? On revive? On striking 5 enemies? On successfully avoiding damage?

What’s even more sad is that everyone cried and complained and begged for weapon swap and “we the people will have triumph”. Well now that there’s more weapon complexity, there’s even less room for energy complexity. It would be even harder now to balance a smart energy system when weapon swapping has added significant strength to the class (in another boring way).

From the stream I could tell thet energy cost got removed or lowered a lot on weaponskills. That would pretty much solve half of your concerns.
When the guy used skill #9 and his energy was over, there was no symbol on weaponskill, meaning those were still usable.
This makes sense with the newly added weaponswapo (that would require too much energy)

For the rest I’m still waiting Roy’s post.

Kidel.2057:

From the stream I could tell thet energy cost got removed or lowered a lot on weaponskills. That would pretty much solve half of your concerns.

For the rest I’m still waiting Roy’s post.

Lower cost isn’t a solution. It’s still nothing but a passive resource that you can’t influence in a skillful way. Maybe I should have waited for Roy’s post, but I didn’t see anything in the live stream that remotely indicated a smarter energy system. If they were going to make such a big change to the mechanic, they surely would have mentioned it on-air.

It’s probably no cost. Energy reached 0 and I’m sure there was no symbol, not even for an instant.

I can be wrong. Hope not.

Kidel.2057:

It’s probably no cost. Energy reached 0 and I’m sure there was no symbol, not even for an instant.

I can be wrong. Hope not.

Even if they removed energy cost from weapons, that wouldn’t be a solution, only a basic buff. I’m talking about making Rev gameplay more intelligent and skill-based. As long as the energy system remains a purely passive system, it will never require high skill. It’s practically like warrior adrenalin… You just wait for it to build up and then spam it down.

It’s in beta. Yes, I agree that it’s annoying how passive it is, but the revenant we played last week was the same one shown in PAX south. Between internal testing and one beta weekend, that is a LIFETIME ago in software development terms.

If interesting energy options aren’t added, I’d say wait until we play again to make a judgment. How things work theoretically rarely if ever work in an in-game setting where we don’t have a static environment. Then once we arm ourselves with experience, give feedback as to why we need more active ways to gain energy.

Your post is actually rather contradictory. It’s one thing if you don’t like the concept, but don’t pretend it’s something it isn’t…

Am I the only one who finds this mechanic boring, simplistic, uninspired, and somewhat pointless?
Where does this leave the class? Essentially the best rotation is:
•Enter combat and wait for 100%
•Pop upkeep skills that drop energy over time
•Pop major skills that cost energy and give the most damage/benefit
•At 0% swap legends. You gain back to 50%.
•Wait for 100%.
•Rinse/repeat.

And, despite the fact that almost every other class (aside from Thieves) rely solely on mere ability CDs ticking down, you view this as “boring, simplistic, and uninspired”?

This mechanic is all about balance. Sure, you could wait until 100%, but you’re actually hurting your potential if you do. You never want to hit 100% because that means you would be losing opportunity to gain energy. You also want to switch legends right as you hit 0% so you gain the most energy per switch. The skill relies in optimizing your energy usage, skill CDs, making sure you don’t burn all your energy and are stuck with nothing, and knowing when to switch legends.

This is arguably one of the most unique mechanics in the game.

Only one thing to tell you Xenon: wait for the next beta to complain. No way you can get accurate POV on energy without experiencing it live
People complained about it with the beta that occured before but the main problem relied on low damage output. With higher damage now allowed maybe energy won’t be a problem after all

MiniEquine.6014:

You never want to hit 100% because that means you would be losing opportunity to gain energy.

There IS no opportunity to gain more energy. You pop your skills the instant you hit 100%, and you swap legends the instant you hit 0%. You can’t accidentally “waste” energy over 100% because there’s nothing to push you past it. You simply wait for it, and then push buttons. That’s the whole point of my post.

flog.3485:

Only one thing to tell you Xenon: wait for the next beta to complain. No way you can get accurate POV on energy without experiencing it live
People complained about it with the beta that occured before but the main problem relied on low damage output. With higher damage now allowed maybe energy won’t be a problem after all

This isn’t about whether the Revenant can deal enough damage, cast enough skills, or any of that. This is about how energy works. Of course if you stack damage numbers, energy “won’t be a problem” because everything will be dead. That’s not my concern at all. My concern is with how passive energy is. You just wait for it to build up, and then mash buttons. There’s no nuance to it.

I get that everyone thinks we should just wait and see because its in beta. You are missing the point of beta. I’m here giving my feedback on concerns AFTER having participated in a beta. We already got to try the energy mechanic, and since there is no announced change coming to the system as of writing this, I feel compelled to voice my concern now, not later.