Guild Wars 2

Greetings and Salutations Fellow Mistwalkers and Devs!

What follows are my personal experiences and opinions of the Revenant, including Skills, Energy, Traits, and other things from the last Beta Weekend Event 3. There will be some facts, but a lot of personal opinion. Please keep that in mind. I am in no way saying that these changes have to happen or it will be the end of the world; these are just what I would like to see.

A few Fun Facts about me:

I hate PvP.
I hate WvW.
Most of my balancing suggestions will most likely be fanboy-gasming.
I have two cats.
I did try the raid and got to the second stage of the Vale Guardian in a 9-man pug.
I like custard over ice cream.
I have been playing GW2 for three years with all that time spent on a single Guardian.
I have only one level 80 toon.
Some, all, or none of the above is relevant to the following feedback.

Revenant: Taste, Texture and Smell

The Quick and Dirty version of my Experience in BWE3

I like the Revenant. No big surprise there, hence the massive feedback post. I feel that the Revenant is in a good place at the moment: it has Solid Damage, Solid Defense, and a Little Condi weakness just to make life interesting.

On the upside, you can set up for a whole host of situations and the profession responds well to High and Low Skill Players. On the downside, you can also get caught with your pants down and not have the tools to handle what is happening.

It is one of the better built classes by far, but we have to keep in mind that it is riding on the back of three years of testing from the other professions. As a soon-to-be Revenant Main-Liner, I would like to take a moment to salute the community and devs for the last three years of sticking with this game.

Revenant: A Taste of Something New

The Biggest Thing Going for the Revenant

If there is one thing that makes the Revenant more amazing than anything else it is the simple fact that is it new.

“New” is not a label a lot of things have in GW2, and simply being new makes the Revenant a huge deal. Still, when you look around the current MMO market, you do not see a lot of classes or mechanics comparable to the Revenant’s toolkit, which make this profession fresh even for an old foggy like me.

You can already see the effect that this “new” profession is having: everything from rage posts, praise post, videos, and hot debates. While it might not be the main point of HoT for the dev team, it certainly became the central point for the community.

I feel like a lot of the rage and rant posts come from not knowing enough about the profession. As a great man once wrote: “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown” – HP Lovecraft.

Revenant: The Feel of Misty Cotton

My Opinion About the “Feel” of the Profession

I have to tell you all, I was pretty kitten scared for this class when it was first unveiled. No weapon swap, strict trait lines, Legends and weapons made this class almost feel impossible to handle or even cope with in the frantic world of GW2’s Combat Model.

Luckily, we were assigned a great dev team, led by Roy Cronacher, and they have been busting their metaphorical balls trying to get the HoT’s Golden Child whipped into shape so that even Rytlock could be proud to call himself a Revenant.

Massive sweeping feedback changes have come over our new favorite profession, and I have to say, it is looking pretty kitten awesome. To everyone busting out long work weeks, my hat is off to you.

Also, we in the community would love it if this feedback cycle kept going strong into and past the Launch of HoT. Being able to talk to the Devs, converse with them, and hear what they have to say helps us understand what we are looking at and give us the mental tools we need to be better equipped to handle the changes.

Revenant around the Water Cooler

Community Response to the Revenant

Looking around on the forums, fewer topics are as hot as the Revenant. Threads about its playstyle, to skill vs. skill comparison, to troll and rage posts from PvP’ers ensures the Revenant will be carving out a solid part of the population. If there is one thing that will be talked about everywhere when it comes to HoT, you can bet the Revenant will sneak its way in.

Energy and You: What you can do to lessen your Mist-Footprint

Energy Profession Mechanic

Energy is a hot topic in some circles. Some people hate it, others love it, some think it doesn’t matter and others make it their life’s mission to glorify it. Personally, I like energy. It is an old mechanic, but it does keep the class from being a Warrior or Guardian rip-off.

There is a raging debate over what “Energy Management” should mean. For some, it means you get three skills and then have to swap recharge. For others, it’s twenty-three skills. Where is the balance point? I honestly do not know.

Mechanics like this have been a part of games for a long time and have caused massive problems for developers (Warcraft Warrior-Rage anyone?). It was a ballsy decision to go with, and I hope they find a great balancing point for Effect/Energy.

My take on energy is that we should baseline at 100, not 50. Everyone else starts combat with all their CDs up and ready to go, and why shouldn’t we? In response to this change, invoking a new legend should add 50 energy from wherever we are at, not set energy to 50.

How would this effect Revenant gameplay? Well, for starters, it would give Thieves and Mesmers a reason to reconsider resetting the fight, a tactic that as of right now, is completely in their favor and has almost no counter play against.

Admittedly, this is some of the ‘gasming I mentioned earlier, but it would be fun to see! I do know however, this would require a massive energy system overhaul which most likely will not happen this close to launch. If it did though, this would also make some of the higher energy cost/upkeep skills not hurt so much in their use during battle.

Legend Swapping and You: Carry your friends into battle!

Legend Swapping Profession Mechanic

We currently have two amazing professions that flip the Weapon Skill Bar like mad if played well and those two professions have a high payout for high skilled players. The Revenant takes this and twists it by entering new territory: flipping the Utility Skill Bar.

This flipping effect, while not new to veteran players of GW2, has not been applied in this type of situation before. Coming from a Guardian, I have got to tell you, it is a hell of a head trip. I was first put off by this, like many, because the lack of selectable utilities really worried me, and still does in some small part.

However it makes moving forward with the profession a unique challenge and it also, in time, will give us some of the best utility skills out there.

Instead of worrying about a bunch of skills no one hardly uses (Hollow Ground/Tomes <Insert your chosen profession’s least used utilities here>), we can focus our feedback on a very narrow set of skills, meaning that our skills will become refined faster than similar utilities from other professions.

Weapon Overview

Arena Net has this bad habit of taking traditional fantasy tropes and turning them upside down on their head. The Revenant’s Weapons are no different.

While some sit farther away from the tropes then others, it is clear that the Revenant’s Weapons are some of the most unique around, again, thanks in part to how new they are.

Disclaimer: I am morally opposed to the words Buff, Nerf, and Over-Powered. While there is some amazing strength in the Revenant’s weapons, I do not feel that they are any more or less insane then other weapons currently in the game.

Sword Main/Off-hand Weapon Skills

Holy. Crap. On. Crackers. I love me some sword-swinging action.

Roy and the team have heard our concerns and have gone ahead and altered Brutal Blade from being a Projectile to a standard attack with added Vulnerability. Feedback in action. Thank you guys!

This news leaves me and a few other Revenant Fans with another issue, the animations on the auto attack look clunky. If we band together, and politely ask, over and over again on the forums, we may be able to get the animation set changed to something a little less “Failing Wildly”.

The second attack, Precision Blade is working and is a great way to chill a bunch of foes and for those of you with Binding Blade experience, a great way to burst something or someone into the next respawn timer.

Unrelenting Assault. Here are two words that are about to get a whole LOT of feedback, rage, whining, crying and other standard forum attention. On the one hand, People claim it doesn’t have enough counter play… on the other hand, there are a bunch of skills and combos that have no counter play, and here is a small list:

• Death Shroud Auto Toggle
• Elementalist burst combos
• Thief burst combos
• Stealth
• Million Knockdowns Warrior Hammer/Mace/Shield combos
• Mesmer just about anything.

Wait… Are you, dear reader, sitting there going “Bullkitten! All that crap is avoidable in one way or another!”?

I hope the answer is yes, because it’s bullkitten. All these are avoidable and counter-able, including Unrelenting Assault.

But they weren’t at first. It’s because public knowledge hadn’t had enough time to actively learn about these mechanics and figure out how to handle them. Given enough time, people will learn how to counter it and it will suddenly stop being a problem.

If you have a problem with UA, give it time, or better yet, play a Revenant and you will see what I’m talking about.

I will admit I did not use the Off-Hand Sword skills at all during the last beta. Then again, I didn’t PvP either.

Hammer Weapon Skills

It’s Big. It’s Heavy. It has earth-shattering power and no, it’s not what’s rocking in my pants.

Revenant Hammer is another weird twist of fantasy conventions that Anet is known for doing. They made it a Ranged, Slow (for Gw2) weapon that has a terrifying wallop to it.

My biggest complaints about this weapon relates to Coalescence of Ruin and Phase Smash.

First off Coalescence of Ruin.

I love Coalescence of Ruin visually, its effect and everything else about it. However, as mentioned in most likely hundreds of posts, Coalescence of Ruin is having some problems following orders and likes to shoot off in random directions across terrain that is uneven.

I’m not a programmer, but I’m willing to bet this has something to do with the attack being like Guardian’s Torch: Zealot’s Fire. It follows the ground the best it can, but it’s using pathing mechanics that we all know get uppity some times.

Next, Phase Smash.

It’s a Leap with an extra-dimensional twist. It’s supposed to evade, but on several cases, I found that I could be effected by ground effects half-way though the leap. I don’t know if that’s a bug, but it seems like it to me. Also, this skill tends to handle elevation poorly, (as most skills do in GW2).

The next two things are cosmetic in origin. Let’s start with Hammer Bolt.

I get that we are supposed to be throwing a hammer-shaped bolt of mist energy, but come on… it doesn’t even look like the hammer I’m using! I propose a change to the “bolt”.

Make the bolt look like the one from Brutal Blade previously, connected with a bit of red energy to another one. This way, we are tossing Red Bolos everywhere, or you could just code it to use the hammer we are wielding, novel idea that one. I think I heard thieves asking for this a lot too when it comes to their dagger tossing.

The second visual is… you guessed it, Drop The Hammer. Again, use the hammer we are wielding or turn it into a mist-projectile that hovers in the air for a bit and slams into the ground.

While these are not major gameplay affecting issues, in a game that is more about collecting weapon and armor skins, visuals are important.

Overall, I really enjoyed the hammer, its range and strength. It felt like it was in a good place and I look forward to seeing it reach us in launch.

Staff Weapon Skills

In claiming the Staff as a Melee Weapon, the Revenant gets another first in GW2. While originally paired with Ventari, the Staff has truly become a weapon in its own right.

Bringing a wealth of utilities, there are few situations in which the Staff can’t find a home. Aside from a complete lack of great Melee Staff skins, I can see the staff finding a comfortable place in my kitten nal.

My one complaint revolves around Staff 2, Punishing Sweep and its bigger brother, Debilitating Slam.

While I’m all for combo skills, triggering this one is a bit of a pain in PvE (I can’t imagine this is a problem in PvP though). Whether or not this is intentional and I just need to L2P, I’d like it if we could drop the whole “Hit a target mid-skill” component and just raise the energy cost slightly (very slightly) while leaving it as a combo attack.

Mace Weapon Skills

A favorite from my Guardian days, the Mace has ever been my trusted companion, through Shadow Behemoth, to Teq, down Orr and up the Fractal ladder.

The Revenant’s Mace is looking get a piece of that action.

As a Condition-Focused Weapon, I can’t tell you how glorious this thing is. It’s got burning, Torment, and tons of more Torment. With a fast auto attack, Fire Field, and the biggest Blast Finisher in the game, the Mace also spews Might and Healing everywhere there are Fields to be found.

While I find the Fire Field and Poison a little out of place, given the renewed focus (Lol Guardian Pun!) on Torment and Chill for Mallyx, I find that both of these server a bigger role in our tool kit and have come to love them.

Axe Weapon Skills

Next up is the Mace’s BFF, the Offhand Axe. Long range gap closer, Chill, and a torment-inducing Stability check, the Ax leads the pack in useful off-hands.

Combining utility with punishing conditions easily jumps the Axe to a “Go-to” position in many kitten nals. While my own play style is more defensively minded, The Axe found many uses in my time in the Beta.

Shield Off-hand Weapon Skills

Our first Elite Spec comes with this beautiful piece of art. Modeled after the power and motherly love of Glint, The Prophet of the Flame-seekers, her powers seek to heal, protect and ensure the success of the Heroes of Tyria.

Glint’s Shield Bash releases a healing burst of protection, and Glint’s Block creates a bastion of rest to ensure the Revenant is ready to take on the perils of the world at large.

I don’t really have anything to say about the shield one way or the other, I feel like it’s in a great spot and matches other Shields in power, uses, and theme. For me, it’s a well-designed weapon!

Utility Skills

First, let me say this. It’d be really nice if the Wiki was updated with the current iteration of the skill. However, using the magic of the internet I was able to find three sources just to make sure the info I was using was accurate.

Mallyx Utility Skills

• Heal is good

• Banish Enchantment is good

• I’d like Pain Absorption to go up to 2 Condi per cast, or have the cost come down by 5.

• Unyielding Anguish is good. Now before those of you listening start throwing things at me spiritually, hear me out. I do not feel like the only flavor Mallyx had was Resist Building and Condi Bombing.

Yes, I agreed the loss of Displacement really hurt us overall, but it was causing massive issues. What we got was something that increased our damage, and gave us another snare as well, and if you’re not running Shiro, and some builds won’t, this snare is a god send. It is also a Dark Field, a rare gem.

• Embracing the Darkness is…. Alright. I’d like to see the Torment go up to 3 stacks, or the Stat boost go up to 15% Aside from that, I think it’s actually a pretty kitten awesome skill, both in concept and execution.

Shiro Utility Skills

• Heal is good, Love the extra damage, my biggest concern is how useless the projectiles are at range due to a lack of speed.

• Phase Traversal is great! Please, Leave it be! I’m begging here. PLEASE! There are plenty of other shadowsteps in the game, please let us keep something that makes us stand out!

• Riposting Shadows is great!

• Impossible Odds… mmm… I don’t like it. Don’t get me wrong, Super Speed and Quickness are awesome, and that’s not my problem with the skill… my problem is with the 10 Energy Cost on top of the -10 Pips.

I get that Quickness is a big deal, but the Guardian has group wide Quickness on a 45 Sec Cooldown… I really think we can lessen the upkeep to -8. Please at least consider it Devs!

Jalis Utility Skills

• The heal, should just remove all Condis… or it can remove all damaging condition and increase the heal per an amount per removed condi (Mind you this is while keeping the current healing on the skill.)

• Forced Engagement… Ugh… this skill needs a life vest and bad. On the one hand, it’s one of the few on-demand Taunts in the game, on the other, it’s effect is almost dismissible if not outright ignorable in most cases.

This skill even has an entire trait dedicated to it and even then, it still barely registers with NPCs. The real problem is its PvP balancing is interfering with the PvE Balancing in my opinion. With the now 5 second CD, I think we can go ahead and drop the energy cost to 20 and increase the Taunt effect to 4 seconds.

• Inspiring Reinforcements like most of the things related to Jalis, needs some work. First, the range could use a bump to 900, followed by a faster “build time” and double duration on those Stability ticks.

• Vengeful Hammers is the only thing in Jalis I have no qualms with, Thumbs up and hammers out!

• Rite of the Great Dwarf is a reactionary skill that require precognition to work properly, and trust me, if I could see the future, I would be the ruler of this world, all video games would be perfectly balanced and I would have achieved world peace, perfected the space program and be living on a personal space palace while writing the greatest book of all time.

So now that we all know that precognition doesn’t work, can we place bring this cast time down to .75 sec? Along with that energy to 35? and increase the Rite’s DR to 6 secs? I’m just trying to help with at least one of my goals in this life…

Ventari Utility Skills

Ok, Roy, fellow devs team members, community members… we need to have a talk… this is an intervention.

We need to talk about Ventari… we know he has some spunk, some mechanics never before seen in Gw2 … but… He just isn’t helping.

His Tablet is clunky, it requires too much attention to properly manage in our typically chaotic combat… I know he is a supporter, but… Even the Guardian, Tempest, and Druid are looking at us and going… “WTF Mate?”

Something needs to change, and if you need more proof, here is some. As of this writing… going to Youtube and looking for Ventari Revenant anything just results in videos about the horse himself or of the live stream showcasing his release. There are no videos showing off his Legend, or usefulness in run and this has to change because… kitten it, I actually like his skills, just not his mechanics.

I don’t know if you guys got the idea for the Tablet from Orianna in League of Legends or not, but I think going and reviewing her mechanics could really help in working on building Ventari back up.

First, her “tablet” is with her on spawn, this would mean when you invoke Ventari, the Tablet would auto summon next to you and follow you like a non-combat pet.

Ventari’s Will would “detach” the tablet from the Revenant and will play like it does now until the revenant either “picks up” the tablet or passes it’s tether range.

Next, the idea of the tether is not going away, just being modified if you out range it, it snaps back to you a moment later.

Other than those two alterations, the tablet and its’ skills functions the same except for the Elite.

• Project Tranquility/Ventari’s Will – the first part of the skill needs to happen automatically and just be a normal part of invoking this legend. As for the Will, it needs to move a bit faster, energy cost needs to come down to 5 but that’s all I got.

• Natural Harmony needs its delay removed, if you spend the energy, the effect should happen instantly. Other than that, It’s a solid heal and a welcomed tool in this kit.
  Purifying Essence is a nice, well-built skill. I think the energy cost is fine and fills a much needed hole, support condi-clearing.

• Protective Solace is without a doubt the one reason I even gave Ventari a shot in the last BWE and I can say I was not disappointed. The only thing that bothers me was the 5 sec CD, I’d like to see this reduced to 1 if possible. The energy cost, while high, is worth the effect.

• Energy Expulsion is going to need a change if the tablet becomes auto-summoned. My suggestion would be this:

You use the rest of your energy to channel Ventari’s conviction, calming the battle field for a time.

Consumes all Energy, 1sec CD

Heals for 1k + 150/10 Energy consumed, 240 Range

Knockback 50/10 Energy consumed, 240 Range

Makes a fragment of every 10 energy consumed.

Blast Finisher

I know I came off kind of hard about the Tablet, but it really needs a quality of life pass before this legend will see the inside of a competitive PVP match and something that currently requires this much attention to manage is not going to be useful in PvE.

I would really like to see all parts of the Revenant feel as amazing as Shiro and Glint, and for me, Ventari is really crippled.

Glint Utility Skills

The Mother of all the Upkeepz. I think Glint is in a good spot. Boons, Upkeep cost, effects… it all feels like it’s in a good place. The only thing I have a problem with is the Facet of Chaos being -5. I’d really like to see it brought down to -4, but other than that, I got nothing to add here.

Trait Overview

Now we come to the passive aspect of the Revenant, the mojo in his head, and the grind in her gears. While I am happy overall with our traits, two lines need a lot of work in my opinion.

Corruption Traits

Minors
The Corruption Minors not only work well together but also offer the Rev some backdoor play in the form of a boon-stripping passive. The best part is, it works well with itself and other trait lines without the need for Mallyx to be around.

Adept Traits

• Demonic Defiance – I feel this trait is in a solid place right now, the only thing I would change is to make it so every Legend skill grants Resistance. That could also be me hoping for crazy Resist stacking.

• Replenishing Despair – I love the idea of this skill, however, I think the ICD needs to be removed for this to really be considered to take over Demonic Defiance. The heal is good, but that ICD just causes problems with its scalability and cripples it compared to Resistance.

• Venom Enhancement – An interesting choice to say the least, and clearly the most offensive one of the bunch.

While I get that it’s supposed to help out with Poison, with the lack of consistent Poison anywhere else (expect mace) in the profession, makes this trait hard to sign on for. I would like to see this changed to make one additional stack of Torment instead, along with longer lasting Condition applications. Also, I feel ICD is a bit much for something as brittle as a single stack of anything really.

Master Traits

• Bolstered Anguish – 3% damage for every Condi on you. Not bad! This skill, just like Demonic Defiance buffs Mallyx without hurting or hindering the other Legend Choices. This gets my stamp of approval!

• Frigid Precision – A 2 second Chill on Crit with a 10sec ICD… This trait is rubbish. It’s a carbon copy of Glacial Heart from Guardian without the damage or AoE. Now if the Chill was 5 secs, that’s a different story, or if the ICD was 5 seconds.

• Spontaneous Destruction – I. Love. This. Trait. The ICD is a little high for my taste, but this trait is great!

Grand Master Traits

• Diabolic Inferno – Again, I know there is fire and poison on the Mace, but this Trait just feels lack luster and oddly out of place. With both the Trigger on Elite, a 10s ICD, and 4 sec of burn, this trait could use an overhaul to something more… Embrace the Darkness related.

• Maniacal Persistence – This is a Theroycrafters wet dream trait… and while I consider myself a theroycrafter, I’d only claim I’m an Adept in the whole shebang. So I’m not even going to try to get into the nasty math for this skill.

I’ll leave that to other frantic Forum Goers.

• Pulsing Pestilence – This Trait is going to get a lot of flak. The Condi-Bombing people on the forums cry about when talking about Mallyx is still around, but this is the baby version of the Old-Embrace the Darkness effect. I personally find some use in this skill without running Mallyx, but Mallyx sure does make this Trait a lot better. Maybe some happy middle ground can be reached?

Devastation Traits

Minors

Another great set of traits that work well with or without Shiro hanging on your shoulders. It also gives the Rev some much need sustainably during a fight!

Adept Traits

• Malicious Reprisal – This Trait offers some interesting counter play towards blocking, but falls short in the overall scheme of things as its two brothers are fair more powerful.

Both the effect and the ICD really cripple this skill badly. For this to really shine, the “Unblockable” attacks should be stored up for 20 seconds until needed, not just the next two attacks, but the next two blocked attacks.

• Ferocious Strikes – This former Master Trait has found a nice home in the Adept line. Depending on your build and gear, this trait can be a contender for your builds.

• Vicious Strikes – Saluting back to their master, this trait improves a Revenant’s skill with a Sword. With either a main or off hand equip, you increase the damage you deal. This works well for both Power Builds or Condi Builds. It’s hard to want to pass up on this amazing trait.

Master Traits

• Assassin’s Presence – This Former Adept Trait has found it’s calling as here. Not only are you making your crits hit harder, but you’re also making your allies’ crit harder. Who says Assassins work alone?

• Jade Echo – This Trait is more for the lore-junkies and Gw1 crowd. When downed, you stun foes around you in fashion of the trailer from guild wars 1.

While this is an interesting skill to say the least, the 90 second ICD and bonus down’d damage, along with the loss of Displacement from the downed state makes this Trait feel weaker than it looks.

• Nefarious Momentum – Love Shiro’s skills? You’ll find a reason to love them more now with added Might with each use! Great for Might-stacking fans! Still… I expected some kind of movement speed related thing here for some reason…

Grand Master Traits

• Assassin’s Annihilation – Do you like to kill your targets? How about Life Drain? Do you giggle with evil glee at the unsuspecting rear of your enemy? Seated with a reasonable ICD, this trait life steals from targets when you strike them from any angle other than the “Face”. What’s not to love?

• Dismantle Fortifications – Here comes that “New” smell again! This trait will find a very solid use in PvP, WvW and even the jungle due to Break Bar mechanics. Solid Trait is Solid!

• Swift Termination – Yea, No kidding. While traits like this are pretty old school, is a crowd favorite and it finds a very welcomed home here in the Grand Master Line.

Retribution Traits

Minors

Some pretty standard stuff in here, some VERY uncontroversial stuff and some stuff no one ever talks about. For a quick rundown, we got Endurance Gain on being Hit, Stability on Dodge, and 10%DR below 75% health.

I’d like to take a moment to talk about the first Minor, Enduring Recovery. This Trait states that you get 25 Endurance (Half of one dodge) when struck on a 10 ICD. I’d like to compare this to the most common Endurance modifier, Vigor.

Endurance regens at a rate of 5/sec and Vigor grants 50% bouns to that regen, for a total of 7.5/sec

One Dodge requires 50 Endurance (for those of you that don’t know!).
Have you done the math in your head yet? This means that every 10 seconds, you the full effect of 5 seconds of Vigor without any of that annoying Boon-related nonsense.

This Trait, get my seal of “Sneakiness kitten boon in the game”. Seriously, Freaking awesome!

Adept Traits

• Close Quarters – “If you’re not close enough for me to wallop, you best stop doing all that damage.” – Every Dwarf Ever. I’d personally love to see this increased to 15 or even 20%, but that might be asking for too much… still, I can dream.

• Improved Aggression – Ok, this is where I start getting wordy. Yes I realized this post as of right now 3374 words long. We have one Taunt Effect. This Trait was built around ONE SKILL on Jalis, One skill which already needs a good overhaul. The part that bothers me the most is the “On NPC” part of this skill.

It bothers me because of the conflicting messages we are getting from the Dev team. On the one hand, Forever and a day ago, we were told there were different versions of PvE skills and Pvp/Wvw counterparts but the last 6 months has seen many of those skill collapse into each other (Guardian Save your Self and Shield 4 for example).

So which is it… are we keeping skills separate or not? And if not, then why isn’t taunt just less effective across the board and why cripple this one poor Trait and this one poor skill which are already crippled to hell and back?

• Planer Protection – Holy Crapping Hand Baskets. You fall, you take like six fall damage, and you get a projectile eating bubble for 5 seconds, on a 5 second ICD. This is possibly the hardest trait type to work into game play, but by god, if you can manage it, holy hell.

Master Traits

• Dwarven Battle Training – On hit, apply Weakness, Weakness applied to you last only half as long. Whoa… Nasty Trait. Granted it’s only 4 seconds of weakness on a 10sec ICD, but that’s 40% up time… which is way higher then most traits like this. Kick kitten .

• Eye of an Eye – Make a world full of blind men. Wait… what? It’s a Trait? Balls.
  Alright… well… I think the mechanics of this trait are actually pretty awesome… expect for that MASSIVE 45 ICD… Really, chop that down to 20 or even 25 and we are talking good sailing.

• Retaliatory Evasion – I feel like this trait is missing something… something that could really be awesome.

Here is a suggestion, Projectile reflection while dodging and just to be clear, WHILE. DODGEING. Not evading, not blocking, Dodging and the mechanics involved with dodging IE: Endurance usage.

Grand Master Traits

• Empowering Vengeance – Can I stop here and just say, I love all the names of in this trait line?

Having been a Shelter Guardian in Pvp (and Yes, I still hate pvp!) I can tell you that having a trait like this on a 1 ICD actually really hurts this Trait, more so when there is only one sources of Retaliation on the Revenant, and that’s the Jalis Heal (and the dodge Trait above).

This leaves this Trait not only heavily tied to Jalis but tied to a master trait. I think this trait need something more, or give more Might stacks per ICD (like 3 for 10secs).

• Steadfast Rejuvenation – When hit once every 4 seconds, get healed for less than 500. Meh. I know it all adds up over time, but this trait is weak to both Burst and Condi Damage making it almost useless really. Something needs to happen here… Protection? Bigger heal? Lower ICD? Any or all of the above?

• Reflexive Summoning – With as tanky as Jails is, I find it odd that the most used Grand Master is the DPS option. This might be saying something about the other two grandmasters.

With a 30 second ICD, you’re most likely expecting me to vote for bringing it down, but no. I think this is actually in a good spot, and here’s way. The Reflexive Hammer is a monster. Unblockable, Weakness-inducing monster with a 33% uptime. Brutal.

Salvation Traits

Minors

20s ICD on the first minor is kind of brutal, but what can you expect for a trait line drawn from a Centaur? The other two minors, Work well together and push for Healing Power mojo in your dojo.

Adept Traits

• Blinding Truth – The most important feature about Blinding Truth, is the complete lack of a ICD and the realization that Revenant are sucking down healing skills like a Cactus sucks up water in Silverwaste. This could possibly be one of the strongest Lite CC Traits in the game given the Revenant’s utility nature.

• Nourishing Roots – The Trait most people will no doubt take is this one. I however, feel like this Trait should be baseline in the tablet, more so if you’re going to charge us 10 energy and a CD to pull it out upon invoking this leafy kitten.

• Tranquil Balance – I feel the healing modifier on this should effect the Revenant as well. One must stay alive if one is to help one’s allies.

Master Traits

• Eluding Nullification – This is a great trait, but I have to request at least one of two things. Either the Condi’s removed increases, say around 3, or the ICD be removed.

Even assuming the best possible situation I can think of, a Revenant can only get 3 dodges chained together. I know this skill works on allies as well, which is why I’m not make any insane demands… I think.

• Invoking Harmony – For 10 seconds, you get 20% healing after Invoking. While this sounds great, a solid 3 seconds of that is going to be lost in simply swapping to Ventari, getting the Tablet out, and getting a skill off from the tablet.

Maybe make it increase healing power by 10%, and 15% in Centaur Stance? Other suggestions for this would be increase Healing effectiveness by 10% while In Ventari, or a reduction to Tablet-related Energy cost for 12 secs.

• Tranquil Benediction – I love this trait, the only thing I would suggest is adding an “Orbs last 100% longer.”

Grand Master Traits

• Momentary Pacification – Daze foes on Elite use. I have a hard time with this Trait. While I love that its current form allows for cross-Legend use, I find myself struggling with another possible version of this Trait.

Daze Enemy Targets hit by Ventari’s Will (The actual heal skill from the stance.) Slot it on a 5sec ICD and now you got something you really have to watch out for!

• Natural Abundance – Wonderful skill, and that healing on there is great! I’d like to see it make at least 3 fragments, or possibly make a fragment for every 10 energy used while the tablet is out.

• Selfless Amplification – Healing Power = % Benediction… Alright, I can see how this is helpful, the amount of Healing to % may need to go up or down, but this is a solid trait.

Invocation Traits

Minors

Invoking causes Fury, Fury give more Ooph… and a stun breaks?
C-C-C-Combo Breaker!

But seriously, while it does follow suit with the first two, having another Stun Breaker, and one that is this easily accessible is nice.

Adept Traits

• Cleansing Channel – a nice trait, one of the few cross legend Condi defense we have… but I have to ask, how much would it really be asking to have this remove 2?

• Cruel Repercussion – Another ICD that I’m actually completely ok with, along with the above suggestion to Malicious Reprisal could make this an amazing skill for target cracking.

• Fierce Infusion – Ok, On heal grant Fury… nice cross legend trait, works into the base gameplay of the Rev… only one major problem, the 20 ICD. There is no reason this can’t be 10 secs with 4 secs of fury, or better yet, 15 ICD with 7 sec Fury! (Disclaimer: I pulled the numbers from thin air)

Master Traits

• Equilibrium – Ok, now this skill is interesting, not only because of how it works, but it let’s use know you can base effects off our energy thresholds.
  For the skill in question, I have a minor suggestion.

Keep the base values you have but increase the healing and damage for every 5 energy we gain/lose going back to 50 by a set amount. Just think about it… could be awesome, and would give this trait a chance against its fellows.

• Incensed Response – Invoking is a big deal around this trait line eh? This is a brutal trait for PvP and I see it getting a lot of love. 15 sec of Fury on Invoking while stunned… gah…

• Invigoration Flow – Use Energy, Receive heal once every 5 seconds. Would it be possible to get the heal bumped up to around 500? Or with a Healing power coefficient? Hopeful Thinking? Maybe?

Grand Master Traits

• Charged Mist – Talk about Energy Management brutality. If played right, you could get 25 stacks of might off this trait alone… I doubt we will see this trait come into its own for a while till the community at large learns to micro-manage the energy gauge that much. But it will happen.

• Shrouding Mist – For those Jalis and Ventari fans, this trait bring a bit more ooph to those to play styles and offers all invokers another trait line that helps benefit them. I would suggest making the Healing portion apply to the Revenant as well and bring it down to 15%. It’s a self-defense trait yea?

• Rolling Mist – Wow. I can see this trait getting whammed soon after launch. If it does manage to make it that far. That said… I want to be extra clear in what I am about to say: This Trait is the ONLY REASON I USE THIS TRAIT LINE. Personally.

However this trait works so amazingly well with the other traits in this legend that it is just an amazing capstone to the Fury whole line.

Herald Traits

Minors

Starring the second trait line that has no ICD, this line already has a +1 in my book. I’d like to point out some interesting numbers that are cleverly hidden in the Minors.

Vigorous Persistence, which grants 25% Endurance Regen only amounts to 1.25 Endurance per sec.

For this master trait to build to the point where you get another dodge, you have to have been sub-100 endurance for 40 seconds. I think this trait could use a pick me up, or something else (say, passive movement speed increase?).

Lastly, Envoy of Sustenance only grants 15% boon duration for a Grandmaster Trait. A basic 10 sec might is now 11.5, lesser duration boons barely even feel this and it feels kind of underwhelming, more so when you realize we have to get a ton of Hero Points invested here to even unlock this. Maybe a bump to 20%? Or an increase in energy regeneration?

Adept Traits

• Hardening Persistence – kitten jokes aside… This trait is walking a nasty wire. Increase it too much, and high upkeep become a walking wall, too little, and it begins to falter when compared to other Toughness granting traits which are typically 150 for just walking around.

Right now, you need to have an upkeep of 4 just to match the typical toughness trait. This leaves you with +1 energy per sec. I suggest raising the Toughness to 50 and see what happens with the community’s use of it. If it does look like it’s too much, then taper it back to 45 and if it’s still too much, back to 40.

• Radiant Revival – Needs to apply to the Revenant as well, gives it a little (big) reward for taking the risk. Or increase Rez speed, or grant Light Auras, or something. Something about this need to help the player for the risk. And we all know how risky Rez’ing in WvW and PvP is. Also… 45 ICD… really? Come on! 30 tops!

• Swift Gale – The only problem I have with this Trait is the lack of duration on the Super Speed. 5 secs! Come on! You know Stun Breaks are hard enough to come by (50 energy for one of the three!) I don’t think it’s asking too much!

Master Traits

• Bolster Fortifications – Love it, Like it… but … come on… 2 secs?! Come on! You’re killing me jeebus! Make it 5 and we will talk!

• Harmonize Continuity – a very interesting trait… and god help the poor kittens fighting against the guy that manages to work out with his team on how to use this.

Outside of some Pvp and maybe even Raid content, most people carry their own stun breakers and use them reflexively. I don’t see this getting a lot of love or use going forward. I have no suggestions here other then something new? Guess we will see!

• Shared Empowerment – As a Guardian, I run Empowering Might, and I have to say I was really happy when I saw this Trait. It’s my go to for the Master’s line.

Grand Master Traits

• Elder’s Focus – I’d like to argue to get this increased to 3 or 5%, but if I stop living in a vacuum, I can see how this trait can offer a lot of power in a group setting. Also, this is my Go-to here.

• Enhanced Bulwark – First, we get Dismantle Fortification, and now this! Claiming another first in Gw2, we now generate an extra Stability once per second. While this is great if we are getting Stab from outside sources, our only two sources come from Jalis and Retaliation-dodging Trait. Still I didn’t play with this, it could have a really great effect in game, but on paper, it’s kind of meh. I’ll have to defer to other Testers for feedback on this one.

• Soothing Bastion – I don’t know if all the itty bitty durations on boon across the whole profession were on purpose, or if they were made in response to this Trait, but I stand by my feedback and requested increases of boon durations.

For this trait… I checked 4 different sources, and finally, I found where the ICD is. It’s the same as the skill and I can’t fault that. The only thing I worry about is when you got Condi’s on you, and you’re already in Crystal Hibernation, what happens? Do you get more CH or does it cut off one Block for the Traited one?

That’s about it, I got nothing else!

If you managed to read though all this, Thank you for reading all my opinions and suggestions.

I am looking forward to playing Heart of Thorns and seeing how the Revenant will change the landscape of Guild Wars 2.

7590 words… about a week and a half and 2 hours of formatting…

My brain is melted. And we still have 9 days before we can play the Revenant again!

Holy ******…. O.o

You werent kidding with that title.

The dedication is impressive.

Good job dude! A really nice sarcastic post, i love it!

out of 5 people here 4 did not read :P

Your comments about Ventari and the tablet are spot on. I am waiting with baited breath for the BWE3 revenant feedback and pray that he gets some love, otherwise I’m gonna have to resign myself to dragonhunter

That’s quite…massive.

This was a good read. An honest review, packed with many irony (Holy crap on crackers….cracked me up xD ), was a pleasure to read as a whole.
I also basically agree on everything.

Kudos!

Thank everyone! And thanks to those that read though it.

I get wordy sometimes. XD

Also, bumping so this stays on the first page, because I can’t just let this go that easily!

Bump for Love!
Bump for Life!
Bump for Roy Feedback!
Bump for Fun!

Well worth the reading. Some solid feedback.

I disagree with most of your feedback on ventari it’s mostly l2p. Also you shouldn’t disregard SPvP balance when requesting changes like the one to IO since It’s SPvP that need the strictest balance.

solid post, I haven’t been able to read all of it so I’ve been picking and choosing areas to comment on.
I agree with the usability of Coalescence of Ruin (which is arguable the best skill on hammer atm).
I also agree with you comments about Jalis, it’s just in PvE I don’t see a use atm for this legend. Once we experience content that actually makes us tank damage then I’ll consider it’s validity.

Responded for Profession Passion!

Varezenem.2813:

I disagree with most of your feedback on ventari it’s mostly l2p. Also you shouldn’t disregard SPvP balance when requesting changes like the one to IO since It’s SPvP that need the strictest balance.

Hey there!

I really tried to not disregard any play mode in my wish list, and I apologize if that is how I came off. sPvP shouldn’t be the only concern in balancing nor the biggest, all game-modes should have equal consideration as should any newly added game-modes. Keep in mind with the introduction of raids, there will be yet another game-mode that requires just as, if not more balancing requirements then sPvP.

Yes, I dislike Pvp and Pvp-related game play, but I don’t think I disregard it. I do understand there are a lot of players that not only enjoy PvP, but actively fight for better balancing in their game-mode of choice, your post being a case like this.

The biggest problem I have with your post is how you made your point. It was akin to sitting on a street corner yelling: “HEY! YOUR WRONG, JUST THOUGHT YOU SHOULD KNOW!” This is not how we reach a better conclusions, better balancing, or a better community.

So I invite you to expand on your feedback, please enlighten me and others here! I’d like to know how you feel the tablet works well and why it shouldn’t change. If it is a L2P situation, then teach us. Video examples would be amazing!

Also, if you could elaborate on how a change from -10 to -8 degen drastically alters Impossible Odds in a sPvP, I would be willing to hear you out. Yes, it does give it longer up time, and that’s was why I made the suggestion.

I enjoyed your enthusiasm, great write up and dedication to see it done right. Let’s hope someone who has some power around there is paying attention