My Feedback/Review on Revenant (BW1)

My Feedback/Review on Revenant (BW1)

in Revenant

Posted by: Kidel.2057

Kidel.2057

Here is my personal Revenant feedback after the last beta weekend.

First of all, thank you for your work on this class. The general feeling is that it feels much better then before. This thread is meant as constructive criticism.
Every class has issues, so I’m not going to address small things like 12k dps of the Revenant vs 17k dps of the Elementalist. That’s small balancing that will be figured out eventually.

The purpose of this thread is to address some serious issues about Revenant mechanics and lacks.
However, again, this is intended as constructive criticism. The dev team is doing a great job listening to the feedbacks, and I hope they keep doing it.

  • Overall
    As I said, the general feeling of the class has improved. Shiro added some nice and cool tricks, and sword is by far the best weapon out there, but the other weapons are still good after the buff, with hammer being the ranged one, staff being the tanky/support one and mace providing fire field and blast (it wouldn’t hurt making it a mid-range weapon however, just for some more variety).
    Some of the new traits are really good and impactful, but only on damage.
    Revenant still has no tanking legend basically (how is Jalis supposed to be tanky? I don’t really know), and Mallyx and Ventari are a mess.
    tl;dr: Revenant needs more survivability for PvE and WvW (impossible to go frontline atm).
    Also energy seems too low on Revenant, many skills should have a reduced cost, as I said. On Shiro all the starting energy is gone with just the healing and 3 weaponskills. It’s a waste since the legend has such great mobility skills, but many times it’s just better to avoid using them have Impossible Odds and Jade Winds ready. And that’s true even if we just auto-attack.

I’ll get into detail for each legend/issue.

  • Legendary Assassin Stance
    This is great. Only problem is the heal, that is simply too slow. I get it should be used offensively, but 1500 base heal with 1s cooldown between siphoning hits is not really helpful (most of the times some stacks even go wasted). I’m currently using it mainly for Fury trait, resorting on Jalis for real heal. If 1s icd has to stay, then please make it 2500 base heal with less heal on hits.
  • Legendary Demon Stance
    Some serious issues here. Most important: conditions from opponents destroy us. We get no resistance or cleanse from multiple stacks, so we are forced to equip Jalis that has the only fast cleanse of the class.
    It was impossible to deal with conditions absorbed from NPCs or big groups, I had like 4 hours of cripple from surrounding allies and 2s of resistance from it. This legend doesn’t seem designed for pve, or it’s designed to go along with Jalis. It may be intended, so no big deal.
    Intensity stacking conditions are also a mess. You get no benefits from extra stacks on you, since you only copy 1 stack and the 3% boost from trait lines applies only to different conditions.
    Possible solution: set a limit to the conditions transferred from allies, so that if you already have that condi, you don’t get another stack (or you can make extra stacks useful, even duration stacking).
    Cleansing Channel is 1 condition every 10 seconds, and forces to give up to Fierce Infusion, that is amazing with Shiro’s healing skill, and gives Fury, that is needed to trigger a 7% damage bonus. Fierce Infusion is the only reliable source of Fury.
    Mallyx should be able to manage condition without forcing to give up a lot of damage for an insgnificant boost.
    Same for the trait line. 3% damage for each condition means that if we get 10 stacks of burning we still get only 3% damage boost and only 1 stack of burning transferred.
  • Legendary Dwarf Stance
    50 energy on Forced Engagement makes no sense, as well kitten on Rite of the Great Dwarf, and Vengeful Hammers should help to tank (a defensive boon on activation maybe?) and should not explode on walls or hills.
    Rite of the Great Dwarf could benefit from a cast time reduction and/or a longer duration.
    At the moment I’m only using it as emergency stunbreak, then i cancel the skill because it’s too long, and then I’m forced to legendswap because it took too much energy. I won’t mind an effect reduction in exchange for less cast time and maybe less energy consumed.
    Vengeful Hammers is a little bit misplaced on Dwarf as it is now. It’s only a damaging melee upkeep. It needs some defensive boon, like Protection or Aegis (only on activation or every x seconds, otherwise it can become OP). So that hammers are really protecting, not just “scaring”.

end of part 1

(edited by Kidel.2057)

My Feedback/Review on Revenant (BW1)

in Revenant

Posted by: Kidel.2057

Kidel.2057

part 2

  • Hammer
    Overall the damage increase made this weapon viable. It’s very fun. However #2 and #3 have a lot of bugs, and #3 really needs an invulnerability frame or an increased speed.
  • Sword
    My favourite weapon for Revenant. Pretty good in any combination with many builds.
    However #2 (I know it has been addressed) is kinda useless, and all the skills do less damage then AA and consume a lot of energy. Overall energy seems too low on Revenant, many skills should have a reduced cost, as I said, not only legend skills, but also weaponskills.
    Being able to use Duelist’s Preparation while moving is great.
    Also #3 needs invulnerability frame or some way to cancel. If used on VB monster sometimes it’s just death you can’t avoid. The fact that it’s bugged close to walls is a lifesaver.
    EDIT: second attack in the autoattack chain has issues on moving targets.
  • Mace
    As mentioned above, this weapon could benefit a lot from 600 range on AA. Just for some variety, since we already have 2 more (already great) melee weapons.

Ratings

  • PvE: 7/10
    Shiro is strong and fun to play, only his healing skill should be buffed (total heal is good, but icd has no purpose when the skill already has a cd AND an energy cost).
    The other legends atm are just a support for the main one, and I think this needs to be addressed, expecially with Jalis being mandatory in basically every build.
    Weaponswap helps a lot, being S/S+Staff for extra utility or S/S+Hammer for range swap.
  • WvW: 6-/10
    Ventari seems a decent ranged support, but nothing great. Shiro is not really viable in melee range because of low survivability, so his main use is with Hammer, that is not terrible, but not even good. Mallyx+Jalis is probably the best WvW combination so far, but I’ve already addressed the problems of those 2 legends.
    Revenant seems a good ranged support class in WvW. Nice damage and support.
    More survivability to go frontline won’t hurt, expecially with Verdant Brink existing in PvE.
  • PvP: 7-/10
    Weaponswap has been a game changer here, as well as Shiro. Still not sure about Mallyx. I’m not a great pvp lover, just rank 36, pretty sure you’ll get better feedback from others on this.
  • Fun: 10/10
    Can’t lie here. Revenant is fun to play and to watch.

Can’t wait to see a dev post with future changes.

(edited by Kidel.2057)

My Feedback/Review on Revenant (BW1)

in Revenant

Posted by: SimenAaserud.3598

SimenAaserud.3598

Great thread! But I disagree on mace. AA is very strong(torment), and should not have more range. I love how aggressive the play style is when its so close. (Maybe just me) As you say, revenant needs a damage buff, and more survivability.

My Feedback/Review on Revenant (BW1)

in Revenant

Posted by: Kidel.2057

Kidel.2057

Mace is indeed good, never said it’s not. Mid-range would just add weapon variety since we already have 3 melee. I’m nitpicking here.

Glad you like the other suggestions.