Guild Wars 2

Hi fellow Revs,

Recent “balance” patch got me interested in Power Rev with dual sword & hammer (shiro/jalis)…
I took off the ascended armor from my Warrior, which is full Zerker with 3 Zerker and 3 Marauder trinkets. Only my weapons aren’t ascended yet and wanted to start hammering away in open world PVE. So I teleported to Auric Basin to complete Herald spec.
Problem is: insta death… Insta death everywhere… I just could not stay alive… Even the slightest touch knocks your HP down in a flash..
They very few punches I could get in did great damage but I just kept dieing..

Is full Zerker Rev in open world even an option? How do you play Rev? I failed to grasp how to play the class yesterday.
So, any power build advice (not condi!) or how to even play Rev would be very welcome. Is it normal your energy completely drains if you activate just 1 or 2 skills? Insane energy drains doesn’t seem right to me. I would have thought you could at least stay in each Stance for quite a long time..

Use your CC and evasion to your advantage. You have to have a very active playstyle when playing power rev, similar to thief. Try axe instead of sword, it is a fantastic weapon and much more fluid than offhand sword. Also, Glint is probably worth taking over Jalis even if you haven’t completed the entire line. That heal is clutch and in open world it’s such a useful legend.

Zerker gear is fine in open world. I would switch out the swd off-hand to axe. For me, there are 2 ways to play open world, kill things fast or kill things lazy.

To kill things fast, make sure you are traited Devastation, Invocation, Glint(assuming you have Glint unlocked). Open in glint, releasing your Facets. Make sure you have at least 55 energy(which you should), then Precision Strikes into Legend swap. You must have Equilibrium traited and sigil of hydromancy. Let energy build in Shiro, You can even use Enchanting Daggers for extra DPS. When you’re about 70-80 energy, use impossible odds and Precision Strikes until you about/just over 50 energy. Your legend cooldown should be coming up and legend swap. Rinse and repeat.

To kill things lazy, Devastation, Invocation, Retribution. Seriously, all you need to do is activate Vengeful Hammers and cleave everything down. Swap legend when you hit 0 energy. Take Rapid Flow instead of Equilibrium, and take Shrouding Mists if you feel you need more tankiness.

if you are going zerk than you need to play like a thief

you must always have one sustain weapon or you will die fast (staff, sword or shield)

for a zerk build long range hammer/staff
medium range with more cc sword/axe staff
dont use shield in pvp zerk builds pointless

when i say play like a thief i mean you have to go all in, you have to cc them before they cc you and never tank damage, always evade

devastation, invocation, herald, use Assassin’s Annihilation(close/medium range builds) in the devastation trait line, as it heals you and does damage, but you have to fight like a thief in the back and not like a warrior in the front.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/revenant/Hammer-Rev-Crunch-Thieves/first#post6648962 this is a really good vidoe on how to play hammer zerk rev + it has the build too.

As people have stated, you have to play actively with power rev, utilizing the many evades and blocks at your disposal to avoid damage: UA, Glint’s heal, staff 3 and 5.

Devastation, Invocation and Herald are your best spec lines for dps. I personally like offhand sword more than axe or shield, but you can take any of them and be fine depending on what you need, be it the healing from shield, the cc and port from axe, or the block and cc from offhand sword.

Mind your energy and watch what your fighting does. Use s3 defensively when something nasty is coming to avoid the damage, as well as glint’s heal in a bind; it’s a get out of jail card.

Staff offers the best breakbar skill rev has with staff 5, a block and one of our best cleanses, but if you’re running hammer, then use the third skill much as you would on sword to avoid damage. Hammer 4 combined with Impossible Odds while autoattacking with hammer can get you some decent healing as well to top off.

As far as staying in legends, you don’t camp them much as a power rev. You should be constantly swapping between shiro/glint, assuming you’re running them, and utilizing Equilibrium as much as possible. This doesn’t mean you should swap as soon as it comes off cd if you feel you need to be in a certain legend for a bit longer, like if you’re waiting for a strong attack to use Glint’s heal on.

Thanks for your replies and advice guys…
I’ll take note of this and adapt my playstyle and build a bit.. I’m sold on the double sword look (with the fiery dragond swords from GW1 you look so freaking awesome), so going to try and make that work..
Real L2P issue here and I’ll just have to learn to be more Thievy

I use double sword and staff most of the time, being able to rotate mobile blocks is very useful for getting around and ignoring mobs.

The biggest tip is don’t face tank everything… A typical fight should go something like: Unleash Facet of Elements/Facet of Strength, staff 5, sword 2, sword 3 (all from just outside melee range), then after that you can usually swap to Shiro, pop impossible odds and finish off the target. But I mean, if you’re full zerk and it wasn’t a vet or higher, it probably was already dead from your sword 2/3. If you’re taking a lot of damage, Facet of Light can be a complete hp reset as AI Enemies will keep going hamm on you no matter what.

Also, I wouldn’t really bother with Equilibrium for solo play, you’re going to very rarely have >50 energy if you’re playing aggressive and the new Incensed Response builds might ridiculously fast when you start a fight in Glint, which ends up being a lot more dps anyways… Another trait you might want to consider for open world/soloplay is Hardened Persistence—the extra 400 toughness you get to spike while channeling Impossible Odds helps you go toe to toe with mobs while finishing them off.

rev is very much like thief it does not deal well with face tanking damage a lot of it weapons come with eva or def mechs if you rotate them in between dodges your tackiness will skyrocket.

I do just fine with full berserkers running a glint/shiro build. The only times I have issues is with heavy CC or when they get too far scaled up.

Azzara Nectum.1734:

Hi fellow Revs,

Recent “balance” patch got me interested in Power Rev with dual sword & hammer (shiro/jalis)…
I took off the ascended armor from my Warrior, which is full Zerker with 3 Zerker and 3 Marauder trinkets. Only my weapons aren’t ascended yet and wanted to start hammering away in open world PVE. So I teleported to Auric Basin to complete Herald spec.
Problem is: insta death… Insta death everywhere… I just could not stay alive… Even the slightest touch knocks your HP down in a flash..
They very few punches I could get in did great damage but I just kept dieing..

Is full Zerker Rev in open world even an option? How do you play Rev? I failed to grasp how to play the class yesterday.
So, any power build advice (not condi!) or how to even play Rev would be very welcome. Is it normal your energy completely drains if you activate just 1 or 2 skills? Insane energy drains doesn’t seem right to me. I would have thought you could at least stay in each Stance for quite a long time..

I am not sure you play it right. For Warrior, unless you are using the defense line, power Rev is more survivable. It is not “thiefy” in open world PvE. It has strong, easy accessible sustain and several methods to obtain protection. Using sword and staff it has access to many blocks as well.

Abuse your hundred blocks and evades.

Staff 3 and shield 5 blocks (yes I know it locks you down but you still get a block). Staff 5, sword 3 are evades, and Shiro has an evade that gives back half a dodge worth of endurance. But then on top of that, you also have an insanely powerful and fast AA (good for bursting, but not for long term DPS which is a problem) with sword, along with a low CD chilling attack, and then there’s also your double healing skills (yes double healing skills is far more amazing than you think, even if they’re a tad weak at times and have actually counters). Rev is actually a pretty hard profession to play, so don’t fret if you struggle at it. It takes time to learn how to manage energy, but once you do, you can rotate your defences to stop a maddening amount of damage and then just heal through what you do take.

Revs absolutely need to stop thinking that they’re weak. They weren’t even the weakest profession last season because a good one could still wreck anything in their path. Revs are so much like thieves. They think that because their class is difficult, it should be more powerful than everyone else. But then you get a huge imbalance at the top level, which is where balance should be at its best.

Anyway, I’m going on a rant. My advice to you is to learn every possible defence you have and learn how to rotate them according to the professions you are fighting at a given time. It takes time to learn, but learning that skill will benefit you till the profession is finally, at long last, nerfed into the ground. :P