There seems to be a lot of great feedback for the Revenant already, and I sincerely hope Roy will be able to read all or most of it. Regardless, I’m gonna throw in my 50 cents as well.
I only play sPvP these days and maining Thief and Mesmer, I was excited to try out the new Revenant with Shiro. First of all, I had a blast playing it, it was really fun and that should be most important in the end. I spent most of the beta weekend playing Shiro/Jalis with Marauder and only realized towards the end, that Shiro/Mallyx is a better setup.
Energy Management
We all know that some energy costs need toning down, so that Energy as a class mechanic/resource enables the Revenant (like Thief with Initiative) and not hinders it.
A small change that could go a long way for PvP is to let the Revenant retain his current energy when going out of combat. I often built up a lot of energy during a fight, then continued to the next one, just to have my energy drop from 90 back to 50, cause I went out of combat a second before I engaged the next fight. I think you should keep any resource that you’ve built up, just like a Necro doesn’t lose any Death Shroud when he goes ooc.
Shiro
Enchanted Daggers People have been saying that it is too week due to the low initial heal, but I found it to be very strong. A healing ability with this dmg potential needs to have some kind of downside. Making it apply instantly might be an idea.
Riposting Shadows Great skill, feels good the way it is.
Phase Traversal Also great, however I think it is supposed to ignore line of sight, and I had multiple occasions, where I got stuck in terrain, despite me being in range. On a single occasion, I used it on an Engineer just as he started his Gear Shield, and I didn’t get a single hit through.
Impossible Odds Mainly used for mobility, decapping points. This makes up for the lack of swiftness. Good skill all around. It’s great to use together with Hammer, especially to make sure that #5 hits.
Jade Winds Can be easily dodged, but is a very strong ability. Best to cancel the first one to bait their dodge. Should probably be reworded to “…stunning them for a freaking long duration”
Jalis
Soothing Stone Seems alright, could be changed to fit better with the Jalis/Tank theme.
Inspiring Reinforcement Great ability, great for safe stomping/rezzing. Getting stability instantly when casting it would be nice.
Forced Engagement I rarely used the ability, due to the high energy cost, only sometimes to stop someone from rezzing/stomping.
Vengeful Hammers This needs an overhaul for sure, I didn’t use this once in PvP.
Rite of the Great Dwarf Cast time needs to be shorter, but this won my team quite a few fights.
I didn’t play Mallyx a whole lot, but all abilities seem good and useful to me. The necros never knew what was happening.
Hammer
One of my favorite weapon set out of all professions. You need great positioning to make use of it, but hitting people hard with #5 + #2 and basic attacks with Unstoppable Odds feels oddly satisfying. #3 feels a bit awkward, the animation needs to be quicker. I think #4 should be instant cast or at least have a 0,5 second cast time.
Overall Impression
I did surprisingly well in Unranked, and I know that just starting to play it, there’s still a lot you can improve on. On the other hand side, I also did so well, because noone knew what I was capable of. Once people get used to dodging Hammer 5 / Axe 5 or when they know what Mallyx Elite does, it will get more difficult for sure. All in all, I think Revenant is stronger in sPvP than most people make him out to be, but he still needs a lot of improvements to be on par with the other 8 professions.
All the Best to everyone who actually managed to read all of this,
Demmiremmi, Revenant Fan-Boy