I really want to like Revenant, but it seems like Arenanet doesn’t understand the appeal of their own class. This lack of awareness shines through in the design of utilities for the 2 elite specializations and this has only become apparent now that we have 2 elite specializations to contrast.
Revenant is unique in that it’s skill use is limited by a resource, similar to a thief’s initiative. What makes energy different from initiative is that it’s used on utilities as well as weapon skills. Core Revenant utilities have non-existent or extremely short CDs to reflect this energy cost, allowing for a certain amount of combat flexibility in addition to having 2 sets of utilities to use at once. While a thief can only use roll for initiative once, a skill similar to riposting shadows, a revenant can use theirs twice in a row, maybe even 3 times if they have the energy to do it.
Another example of this is Guardian’s Judges Intervention vs Phase Traversal. Revenants can make more choices with their utilities in combat because of this, and this tends to make up for their lack of flexible utility bars (in addition to having 2). This is compelling and unique, and I’d argue key to the identity of Revenant as a profession.
Then we arrive at the elite specializations, Glint and Kalla.
Glint did not bother me in this regard, because it brought something unique in relation to the Revenant: Upkeeps as a limiting factor and the low cost of casting turn over skills. The fact that facets were limited by CDs was fine because it was a unique aspect of the elite specialization as a whole; not to mention the actives for each of the facets behaved and functioned differently, similar to how other legend utility sets all had very different behaviors.
But then we enter Kalla, and a disappointing trend begins to reveal itself. All of Kalla’s skills are of the same type of functionality, even more so than facets: They are AI centered wells. What’s worse is that they all have lengthy CDs compared to other Revenant utility sets (with the except of Soulcleave’s Summit). Even the f-skills have long CDs.
Part of what made Glint acceptable with it’s CDs was the fact that using their actives was essentially free and cost the Revenant next to no energy. CDs were needed to balance that type of utility skill. However, Kalla’s skills are expensive in addition to their long CDs, and this is where the flavor of Revenant and energy is lost. There are less meaningful choices to make in combat as a result of this; energy doesn’t dictate how frequently you can use any one skill as much as it did with other legends, it’s CD does.
Another design aspect of Kalla that I believe loses sight of what Revenant was meant to be is the flavor of the utilities themselves. We’re not channeling Kalla Scorchrazor when we flip to her utilities; we’re channeling her warband and instead we are always channeling Kalla, no matter what legend we’re using. The f-skills for Renegade would be more fit to be the utilities for the legend, staying true to the flavor of channeling 1 legend and giving the utility skills the variety they need because our utility bars are static.
The fantasy of the Renegade would be much stronger if the warband summon abilities were the f-skills instead and the current f-skills were the utilities for Legendary Renegade; perhaps not in their current form. Channeling Kalla should be channeling Kalla.
Returning to Glint for a moment, Herald’s f-skill(s) should have had a broader, more general flavor in relation to who glint was rather than a skill the Glint legend would have. Something to do with foresight, seeing the future.
TL;DR I feel like the direction of Revenant Elite specializations has become misguided. Kalla isn’t designed in a way that bolsters the Revenant fantasy or flavor in a sufficient way and skills aren’t designed intelligently around energy, instead opting to balance around CDs effectively abandoning part of what makes Revenant novel in the first place.