Guild Wars 2

Hey,

a few words before I get started on the main topic. As soon as we got to know about revenant, I got really excited, the whole idea of the class sounded totally awesome and I decided instantly to make it my new main. I was so hyped, that I finally took a look at GW1 as I wanted to learn about that whole lore stuff with the legends and because I wanted the title ‘Legend Of The Mists’ for my rev (and even got that stuff done )
I also immediately prepared full ascended equipment and collected a lot of heavy armor skins and weapon skins of weapon types the Revenant can use that I was missing.

As we got to know more and more about Revenant, I started to get worried. No weapon swap? Fixed utility spells? Now that we actually got to play it, I´m certain: the Revenant has no customizability at all and is incredible boring because of that at the moment. Despite loving the whole theme of the class, I won´t ever play it when it comes out if they don´t fix that issue, which will probably be really difficult. As it is now, it just isn’t fun.

Now I´ld like to discuss with you how the issue could be fixed.
A few things that I think could improve the situation somewhat, but not totally fix it:

- Legend swap needs to be instant:
Revenant has no weapon swap because in theory he has access to a fair amount of skills he needs to keep track of. However, because the long (awesome) weapon swap animation, he actually does not have proper access to his second skill skill bar when he needs it.

- Make weapons multi purpose:
I mean, just why? You decide to not give a class access to weapon swap, as he already has access to a second utility skill bar, each with a completely different role to fulfill. But then these weapons only support one particular play style each?!

- Give each legend a few additional skills to choose from:
If we get completely locked out of utility skill choices, nobody will enjoy playing the class over a long period of time. Also, not every skill makes sense with both melee and ranged weapons (example: jalis´ chain skill)

- A LOT of trait synergy and meaningful choices:
If we have a really limited legend skill pool, we still need some meaningful choices that have the potential to change up our play style. Sounds obvious, but is probably really hard to do.

- Resource management needs to be both difficult and rewarding
As it is now, energy just feels… clunky I think. Not totally sure how this could be done, maybe a bigger energy pool? However, making it feel less clunky should be doable. However, energy management needs to be more: we can´t swap weapons? Then we need something else to keep us busy and make the gameplay fun, meaningful resource management would be key here I think.

These were the ones I was able to come up with on the spot. What do you think could be done? Really want this class to become as awesome as I think it deserves to be

Well, this is one post I don’t need to make. Completely agree on all points.

I agree with you, changing stances should be no slower than changing elementalist atunements and each Legend should have at least a 4th utility skill to have some flexibility.

I also think the weapons are a big problem since the class seem to want to promote changing stances but, weapons seem designed each for a specific Legend. If I use staff, it seems good with Ventari but when I switch to an offensive Lengend the DPS of that weapon is too low.

I’m really unsure how that part should be fixed. Different weapons skills for different stances, like Ele atunements? Not sure I would like a copy like that. Skills that change your attacks like Kits or Transforms? Feels like a bandage solution.

Maybe have each stance change your stats? Ventari could increase your healing power while reducing your power and precision. To give players more control, the reduction could be a percentage of the base stats and the increase would be equal to how much you lost in the other 2 stats? Or a similar mechanic.

What do you guys think?

This topic (and possible solutions) are being heavily discussed in other threads. I admit to laziness in not rehashing it all here. Apologies.

bearshaman.3421:

This topic (and possible solutions) are being heavily discussed in other threads. I admit to laziness in not rehashing it all here. Apologies.

I know, but it´s all over the place at the moment, didn´t see one thread that focuses only on that build diversity problem

Super random two minute idea here… Give each legend a single kit skill in addition to what it currently has (probably as a second elite or something), functioning like an engineer kits ie. basically bundles.

Now for the reflection, ie. the important part of this post:

Unfortunately, this wouldn’t work at all for Ventari… while I like that this legends mechanic is very unique I think it is basically restricting Ventari to forevermore be those 5 skills nothing more nothing less.

Sadly this makes me think they are not even considering additional skill choice for legends at all which is a real bummer.

In closing, I am with OP on pretty much all of the points he made.

Crise.9401:

Super random two minute idea here… Give each legend a single kit skill in addition to what it currently has (probably as a second elite or something), functioning like an engineer kits ie. basically bundles..

If we do that, might as well just add weapon swap.

Unless they are going to start letting us switch to more than two stances at a time, I am having difficulty seeing how a rev weaponweapons swap is unbalanced when we have elementalists with 4 weapon sets plus utilities(which can be more), and engineer with up to 6 weapon sets and toolbelt

Jermoe Morrow.9501:

If we do that, might as well just add weapon swap.

I would honestly be more worried about the lack of skills in general. I mean looking at Ventari in particular that legend is not ever going to get another skill most likely (definitely no choices for 6 or 0 as they are integral to the whole gimmick of that legend).

So far if the trend keeps up we’ve got two legends to go, unless they do something pretty off the wall crazy Revenant will remain a tech demo profession in my eyes. I said this elsewhere but right now Revenant consists of these crafted bundles of weapons skills and specializations that all can be neatly grouped. It is literally a bag of themed showcases of new tech.

He has many neat tricks but has yet to show mastery of any of them.

Nitross.6987:

I agree with you, changing stances should be no slower than changing elementalist atunements and each Legend should have at least a 4th utility skill to have some flexibility.

I also think the weapons are a big problem since the class seem to want to promote changing stances but, weapons seem designed each for a specific Legend. If I use staff, it seems good with Ventari but when I switch to an offensive Lengend the DPS of that weapon is too low.

I’m really unsure how that part should be fixed. Different weapons skills for different stances, like Ele atunements? Not sure I would like a copy like that. Skills that change your attacks like Kits or Transforms? Feels like a bandage solution.

Maybe have each stance change your stats? Ventari could increase your healing power while reducing your power and precision. To give players more control, the reduction could be a percentage of the base stats and the increase would be equal to how much you lost in the other 2 stats? Or a similar mechanic.

What do you guys think?

I very much share your concern about the ‘Heavy Elementalist’ feel that the revenant would get if it were to have different weapon skills for each legend. I posted this around the forums, and on Acaro’s reddit post as well, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to have it here as well;

This has probably been said many times, but the Revenant needs a new set of weapon effects. I think for every Legend while the weapons should have the same base damage and animation, but the additional effects (healing/condi/boons) should be different for each legend.

For example, when you use Mallyx, the weapons do condition damage, whilst when you use Ventari, the conditions in the attack change to healing/protection.

The same for traits, for example if a trait gives +10 Power when playing as Mallyx/Shiro, it should give +10 healing power when playing Ventari, or +10 toughness when playing Jallis. I wouldn’t do this for all traits, but have the selectable (square) traits each have a per-legend bonus. The balance wouldn’t be that simple I know, but it would make the legends way more useful in the game.

This may be a big ask, I don’t know, my programming knowledge is limited, but I think this would really make the revenant something special and interesting to play, rather than just being able to faceroll like you can with a few professions, especially in PvE.

I would hope that if they do implement something like this they’re careful not to make it just a heavy armour elementalist. The key difference between the two at the moment is that the Ele changes their 1-5 (weapon) skills when they change attunement, whereas the Revenant changes their 6-10 (slot) skills when they change legend.

I’ve seen a lot of people say that the revenant should change their 1-5 skills entirely as well when they change legend. The reason I’ve gone with something more like my idea, where it’s just some parts of the weapon skills that change, will mean that the revenant is still unique to play and not just the ‘heavy-armour-elementalist’ which I think a lot of people seem to be describing when they propose having the 1-5 slot change entirely as well.