Guild Wars 2

All these new skills feel like they are a mishmash mess from all other classes, yet in a weaken form that seem to just be thrown together with little thought or effort. No real identity for the Revenant.

I too mirror the comments of others saying that the Revenant was a great class, but its has been just a constant depressing nerf since launch. I think we where all looking forward to this new build being fun and on par with other classes.

It just feel that the Revenant class has being neglected and forced to be behind even further.

I’m actually quite enjoying renegade, though the utilities feel more gear towards a melee weapon not a SB, I think with some balance (lower energy costs) and a few tweaks/bug fixes it’s gonna be good.

Rev has had a lot of nerfs, as has every class in the game, but it’s still perfect viable in all game modes, it doesn’t help that most of the updates ignored clearly broken or unfinished aspects of rev while including nerfs. Anet should, in general, adopt a take something away give something new approach to balance. Even minor buffs along with a nerf are better for moral than just nerfs alone.

I wouldn’t say nothing works well. The summons will be pretty good for PvE content such as Fractals and Raids I reckon. The bleed on attacks that other players apply to targets seems to take your condition damage and duration into consideration, as it is you who gets to see the stacks tick for damage, so people can do what they do, while you get even more stacks of bleeding out of them attacking. The new Elite is also quite good for bursts.

I do wish the bleed summon would actually apply that effect to the other summons that attacks though. That’d make for some interesting synergy between the two that attacks and the bleed applying one. (They do apply it as long as the Renegade is standing in Razorclaw’s area of effect.)

I also find some of the bow skills to be interesting, and there’s definitely synergy to be had there. Our F4 additionally applies Alacrity on demand so that we can repeat a few higher damage skills more frequently, which can also be helpful with Mace/Axe as well as other skills. I’m excited to try this out in PvE.

Note that there is synergy between the cripple summon and the fact that the bow is a ranged weapon as well. You can kite easier thanks to that and that is definitely helpful for Seven Shot (even if that skill is very bugged and several shots just disappear even on flat surfaces). Oh, and it’s very nice that you can use several bow skills while not even facing the target, since they are shot through portals that appear at your target. Love that.

Actually, the bleed summon does apply bleeding buff to both Icerazor and the dazer. you have to stand in the buff but yeah I have stacked a little over 15000 damage ticks with all three up.

But I do believe your character has to be standing in the bleed buff for all of them to get the buff.

2 years of nerfs + the worst elite spec (Renegade) even including HoT.

Artim.5139:

Actually, the bleed summon does apply bleeding buff to both Icerazor and the dazer. you have to stand in the buff but yeah I have stacked a little over 15000 damage ticks with all three up.

But I do believe your character has to be standing in the bleed buff for all of them to get the buff.

Ah, so I weren’t crazy. I thought my summons did apply the Bleed, but then I were using the bow and it weren’t doing it. I didn’t think about it being me standing in the area of effect from Razorclaw previously. So yeah, that is a big boon to them I guess. Definitely helps when swapping from Mallyx to Kalla. That’s potentially the go-to for the duration of being stuck in Kalla’s stance before swapping back to Mallyx again; Razorclaw, Icerazor, continue the rotation, swap to Mallyx, EtD, rotation, swap, rinse repeat.

Edit; Ok, so with a bit more testing I realize that you can summon Razorclaw at your own feet at range, and then Icerazor/Darkrazor by an enemy, and they will apply the Bleed stacks together with yourself at range although they are not within Razorclaw’s area of effect. The summons are basically extensions of you. This makes them far more interesting to me, as this opens up for a bit of play in both ranged and melee range. It’s also worth noting that for Seven Shot, every arrow hit applies the Bleed effect, so that’s 7 stacks right away when paired with Razorclaw.

I also found out that the more people that grab the buff benefit from your condition damage and expertise stats. So, the more people you have gaining the buff the more stacks you get. The bleeding stacks scale off your stats. Its like your attacking through other people.

The more I play with the Renegade, the more fluid it’s becoming. I’m actually having a better time in pvp with a power build. The shortbow has some clunky elements (#3 silly mechanics, #4 too short duration fire field.) And the energy cost of the summons is way too high. There are some amazing combos you can do with the spirits, but requires too much building energy to pull off. I think a reduction of 5-10 energy each (10 for the direct damage one)

But in pvp it’s worth trying a menders renegade.

I’m not a big fan of the Legend itself (the utilities, I don’t mind the lore discussion about Bow vs. GS on Kalla too much) but the F-skills and traits are just awesome and very versatile.

My favourite parts about the spec:

• Synergy between Brutal Momentum, Endless Emnity and Roiling Mists. Works well for both condition and power builds.
• F3 with or without Ventari for Alacrity support.

I’m trying really hard to make this work but the “smoothest” feel I’ve been able to get is just basically the typical Condition Revenant we’re used to except without Jalis Hammers when I swap… I’m not sure that’s what they had in mind. :P

Utilities cost way too much energy to have any real fun with in my opinion and the conditions on shortbow are too weak because they are difficult to sustain at any reasonable level due to high energy costs.

Artim.5139:

Actually, the bleed summon does apply bleeding buff to both Icerazor and the dazer. you have to stand in the buff but yeah I have stacked a little over 15000 damage ticks with all three up.

But I do believe your character has to be standing in the bleed buff for all of them to get the buff.

On a boss fight, this would be a good thing!

Artim.5139:

I also found out that the more people that grab the buff benefit from your condition damage and expertise stats. So, the more people you have gaining the buff the more stacks you get. The bleeding stacks scale off your stats. Its like your attacking through other people.

again, raid scenario?

finkle.9513:

All these new skills feel like they are a mishmash mess from all other classes, yet in a weaken form that seem to just be thrown together with little thought or effort. No real identity for the Revenant.

IMO the biggest problem in this respect are the F skills.

There’s an attack, with a cooldown. So it’s just like an extra weapon ability.

There’s an alacrity buff and a might buff. With cooldowns. Just because people like alacrity and might in group content. And they’re very oddly named. Orders from above? Kalla led the rebellion. She was inspirational so why don’t her buffs reflect that?

Nothing about these enhance the base profession – which eschews cooldowns – and they definitely seem lazy and random.

The other problem is Kalla’s Fervor. That’s a transparent boost over the base profession. Even if you don’t want to use the shortbow or any of the Renegade abilities, having the extra ferocity and condition damage is an obvious benefit. So obvious it looks like a desperate design decision.

IMO the renegade F skills a) shouldn’t have cooldowns and b) should be unique, team oriented buffs. Like Kalla’s current elite. Turn that and Razorclaw into F skills, and make another which is defensively oriented. Each would be too costly to maintain constantly even in group content so revenants would need to use them strategically. And also manage their energy use with other abilities.

Then make all the utilities more solo-oriented. Personally I’d stick with spirit summons but get rid of cooldowns and balance accordingly.