Guild Wars 2

You could ask the same: Why has thief shadow refuge – a non elite skill and the mesmer needs an elite slot for shorter stealth (Mass Invisibility without PU)? It’s called balance: thief is master of stealth and has better access than others.

So same with Shiro stance and thief basilisk venom.

Kidel.2057:

CttB gives:

• stun (33% less but still decent)
• stability (1-5 stacks)
• 8s of chill
  * might on attack
  * life force on attack
  * chill explosion and spread on critical
  * damage over time
  * 10% less damage from chilled enemies
• if you miss you lose nothing except a cooldown, if JW misses you lose 50 energy
• Reaper has so much chill and cc that it would be harder to avoid it, even if it has more cd. JW is more risky
• If you don’t like JW you can equip Lich or another Elite. Revenant can’t change it.
• It’s a shout, so 1 condi removed with the rune if you want.

• 0 resistance lost, you can use any skill not on cd.

JW has 30% longer stun duration and 50% less cast time, but way less side effects and a 100% bigger telegraph that can be spotted from the moon.

Not saying it’s worse, but not even better.

Might on attack? No. Chill on attack? Yes but they already masively nerfed chill last patch. Life force on attack? No, thats a trait. I could just aswell say JW gives vuln or ferocity or any other effect you get via traits. Chill explosion? Trait, again. 10% less damage : Trait. AGAIN. Damage over time. AGAIN A TRAIT. Some of those are even kittening exclusive!

To sum it up : Stability, Chill, a little damage, 2 s stun. With 120 second CD and 2 second casttime. Thats what it gives, get the hell out of there calculating trait-benefits as baseline while ignoring Revenants traits and whether or not those traits you calculated are actually good or usable at the same time. Sheesh.

Vs : almost the same damage, 1 second casttime, 3 second stun, costs 50 energy (meaning if you do not cast anything else you can AE stun for 6 seconds ). 0 CD because energy. I wish Necro started with 50% LF and used it as a ressource and have utilities on 0 second CD for it.

You are still ignoring the biggest issues:
50 energy cost, and JW is on Revenant.
Revenant and Reaper are completely different classes. Read the post above yours.
Is like complaining that Mesmers need an Elite to gain AOE stealth, while Thiefs can do it with an utility.

Reaper can do some crazy combos. Ws to grasp target, shout to remove boons (stability), chill to prevent them from running, fear to block their dodge/skills.
Nothing like that on Revenant, since you can’t customize anything.

Also Revenant is so weak atm that even if JW is strong it would only make it an average class.
Reaper is good as it is.

Kidel.2057:

You are still ignoring the biggest issues:
50 energy cost, and JW is on Revenant.
Revenant and Reaper are completely different classes. Read the post above yours.
Is like complaining that Mesmers need an Elite to gain AOE stealth, while Thiefs can do it with an utility.

Reaper can do some crazy combos. Ws to grasp target, shout to remove boons (stability), chill to prevent them from running, fear to block their dodge/skills.
Nothing like that on Revenant, since you can’t customize anything.

Also Revenant is so weak atm that even if JW is strong it would only make it an average class.
Reaper is good as it is.

Revenant can as well. Sword/Axe 5 to grasp targets (but other skills have short enough cast times to use that as a setup), Banish Enchantment to remove boons (same number as NCSY), Chill to prevent them from running (yeah, Revenants actually have decent Chill access) or simply keeping up with their mobility skills, hard CC on every weapon set to keep them from using skills.

Literally everything you mentioned as a Reaper advantage, the Revenant has as well. Hell, Sword (or Mace)/Axe Shiro/Mallyx can pull it all off and still has a weapon slot to spare (probably staff for cleansing). Jade Wind will not be difficult at all to set up. Yes, you will have to plan things out a little more, but that is the nature of the Revenant and resource management as a whole. People who played GW1 will adapt quickly.

And no, Revenant was weak on its first test weekend. Since then, it has seen a lot of changes and also got its DPS weapon, legend, and traitline. You can’t say it’s weak until we get a chance to play with those.