(Please skip to ******** if you dont care about prologue, the meat is at the bottom)
As ive said many times, it took me a long time to ride the Rev hype train. Ive drank the juice, gulped the gravy and ive got the drum sticks in both hands. The two major reasons I cut off all my exes and went to team Rev for good is two sides of the same coin.
One, I really liked how different each weapon felt after playing HoT. I liked how the energy system, weapon swap and legend swap all interacted. It felt like a Thief meets Ele and that… blew my mind. Loved the final result.
The other reason is watching the feedback thread, and the overall forum. Having a Dev actually read AND acknowledge what the fans say is.. a bit unheard of. To have the Dev speak back to you and actually consider, and deliver on suggestions is mind boggling. I want a Roy plushie.
In all seriousness, ive dedicated more time to the Rev than I should admit. I was starting a new job on the 23rd and I pushed my start back date to Nov 2nd so I could focus on all things Rev. Yes, its that serious. After trying over 12 different set ups of condi, power and hybrid, different trait set ups, about 95 transmutation stones, I have come to conclusions that cannot be ignored. I am sorry for this very long winded rant, but I have been playing GW2 for 31 hours straight and logged off to type this.
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Revenant suffers from Swords Disease. This is a VERY rare disease that is shared by my former main, Mesmer. Swords Disease, though it may not show outwardly, can destroy all versatility and interest. Mesmer has one MH power wep and its forced in every single power build. Luckily, Mesmer mh condi wep is ranged, and does enough damage to be used in hybrid and EVEN some power builds, though they arent as possible, they are viable in certain games modes and situations. However, sadly, Mesmer is terribly attached to its ONE melee power weapon and it truly dulls a lot about the classes ability to change things up.
I am terribly afraid of the Rev going in this same direction, but it already is and I dont want to see it get any worse. Due to mesmer having shatters and phantasms and such, there are things to get your mind of Swords Disease, but the Rev does not have this. We are one week in and we have all accepted that we are going to use s/x hammer for most likely everything.
What we need is a fix to Mace, Staff, and Mallyx*******
Starting with Mace, the condi is actually not bad at all, it fits and can work. The bigger problem is the power. The power needs to be increased by 40-60% minimum.
-Mace 2 needs to pulse for more damage, not by a lot, but more, and for slightly more burning.
-Mace 3 should also apply confusion and needs a slight power buff.
Staff is in a somewhat strange spot. Its a utility weapon that gives little utility. However, I think this is ok. I think how the Staff is right now, it should/can be buffed, but if it isnt, so be it, because theres a better solution for not touching it baseline.
Staff and Mace both require better traits. Sword gets Rapid Lacerations, Mace gets Torment applies poison, which actually isnt even a mace trait it just happens to work with it.
Rapid Lacerations is mandatory, and its unbelievably good.
Why do Mace and Staff have an equivalent? If we run a Power Rev, which we are forced too, we have ONE melee option. Staff should have a trait to make it more power oriented, so for example, reducing its cooldowns and instead of dropping little pebbles of healing, drop little pebbles of exploding aoe damage. Now, they dont have to hit ridiculously hard, but an aoe explosion with a tiny radius after every auto attack chain would hugely add to its dps, and the cooldown would help with its (utility?). Also staff 3 should be able to cause stun if you hit 3 again, causing a second strike that stuns. Similar to staff 2, except on command and less dps. This would make the weapon have more of a chain feel, more physical, and more useful. As of now we are an auto attack sword bot and cant do anything else for damage.
“Ok Azure, so what about Mace? Even if you fix Mace, you have ONE condi weapon and condi wont be viable still, nice try”.
We can fix this as well. While a staff trait (which even if my idea is laughed off into the wind, thats fine, but it really does need a good one that does something) for power would fall into shiros lap, or invocation (where it does belong), a condi staff trait would fall into Mallyx. Mallyx simply has so many worthless traits right now that havent been reworked from beta, we have room to plug and play.
A Condi staff trait would do the opposite. Instead of physical damage, it would cause aoe condi, perhaps 2 stacks of burning, a burst of poison, more torment… not sure, I did a lot of math, but the numbers vary too much for me to bother with that right now. So now staff is our MIDDLE GROUND weapon that can fit in TWO SEPERATE COMPLETELY STYLES OF PLAY instead of being “our utility weapon with no utility”.
-Moving onto Mallyx, lets let go of a few things. If you want resistance, thats fine. Our heal skill is good, no complaints there.
-Seeing we are going the resistance route, Pain Absorption is fine. It should give 2 seconds of resistance per condi, but it is what it is.
-Banish Enchantment is absolutely underrated and is beautiful. I kind of think confusion doesnt fit here, at all, but if mace had confusion it would be magic.
-Unyielding anguish is garbage. It should be more focused on chill, since its a leap and its for keeping pressing, rather than torment. Also its damage is pitiful and Mallyx himself would cry if he saw it.
-Embrace the Darkness is great! The only change is truly needs is for condi. Increasing attributes is cute and you can a buff when using it, but besides for pulsing torment , it should have a mandatory 33% condition duration increase.
The Traits are even worse. Not only do half of them do close to nothing, barely any of them do anything for a condi build.
-Replenishing Despair is ok, but it could go. No one would take this if they had a choice between this and russian roulette. Sadly, besides for maybe mesmer, every profession has an option they are forced to take they truly dont want.
-Demonic Defiance is really cool in theory, but its hot garbage. 2 seconds of Resistance for activating my elite is like getting a handshake from an invisible man.
-Venom Enchantment is great, we need this, and more like this.
-Opportune Extraction is great, we need this, and more like this.
-Bolstered Anguish is the Mila Kunis of traits. It looks GREAT! Until you realize its all looks and isnt very good at its job. Seriously, more damage for more condis on me? If we stacked resistance and pulled condis this would be a murder scene. We cant stack condis and we get close to none. Remember that invisible handshake?
-Frigid Precision is what happens when devs arent allowed to do what they want. I know, and you know, this trait could lead to awesomeness, but it doesnt. This trait should be more similar to Necro traits, when chill DOES damage, or you do MORE DAMAGE to chilled foes, or you apply BURNING or STACKS of torment whenever you chill. This could make for some VERY interesting builds, and make MH mace compete with sword, but, no… every 10 seconds theres a chance I might chill you for 2 seconds. k.
-Spontaneous Destruction is cool. In Conjunction with Opportune Extraction its very awesome. Its more of a pvp trait, but even in pvp im not sure its really as noticed as youd like it to be. I would probably make this trait and frigid precision one trait together. Considering a mandatory trait is better than a major, it makes sense.
NOW it gets good!
-Yearning Empowerment is the stuff Roys dreams are made of. If channeled his inner colin and gave a sly grin and this bad boy got processed. I def want to see more of this.. and its mandatory? sign me up!
-Diabolic Inferno sucks. It SUCKS. Congrats, I burn you when I use my elite, which is ridiculous. You cant use, or wont use, your elite often enough for this to ever be useful. AND ITS A GRANDMASTER TRAIT! This should be BASELINE for Mallyx. If anything, it should be one trait with Demonic Defiance, and nowhere near Grandmaster.
-Maniacal Persistence is one of the worst traits to ever curse a trait line in the history of games that have trait lines. It does not belong on any line except the unemployment line. Perhaps the delete line. This trait is so bad, and so pointless, that if you trait this its possible you may kick yourself out of a fractal. Not only is it pointless, its ridiculously unbelievably silly. This is only helpful (no its not) for a P U R E condi build with no precision…. WE HAVE NO PURE CONDI WEAPON…. WE ACCIDENTALLY GET PRECISION….. THIS TRAIT IS SO BAD
-Pulsating Pestilence is a good trait in a bad place. It is a king in a land with no castle. If Mallyx actually pulled and abused condis and had plenty of resistance, this would be mandatory, but as of now its in the hot garbage section.
Traiting a grandmaster trait in Mallyx can actually make you worse.
TLDR
We need an alternate playstyle. We need condi, or hybrid to be viable. We need staff to become more viable for more pvp and pve, regardless of how it steps on thieves toes, because its a waste of great animations right now.
Please help cure Swords Disease
P.S. I did not proof read any of this and I fell asleep for anywhere between 30 seconds and 30 min while typing. See you guys in tangled depths