Guild Wars 2

Hello , first time writing on the GW 2 forum . Now to stay on topic I played the Revenant class on a friend’s account so i got a little grip how it should be played . I know it is a beta phase and the class will be much more polished later .

The main complaints I’ve heard and read of were the following, which happen to be mine to :

1. weapons created to fit a particular legend was a bad ideea , they should be generally available for a particular role like control , damage, condtions etc.
2. the class does not do enough damage , which I am sure it will be fixed , so not much of an issue for now
3. the way you could customize your build and skills which is kind of lacking and i want to focus more on this idea

So , the legend idea which influences your utilities, healing skill and elite skill is very nice and i stand by it . Also the legends , in my opinion, are well made and I like the interaction with them . But to add more options to your builds each legend could have a set of utility skills to choose from , instead of a preset of 5 already pinned to it . For example , in the dwarf stance you could choose your utilities from a pool of 10-15 skill and those skill could be fitted (or not) in categories like all the other classes have them (shouts, signets etc) or maybe new categories for each legend. Also it would be nice to have at least 1 or 2 new options for the healing and elite skills . The demon stance could go with skills like corruption or wellls like the necro and so on for each legend .

Anyway the main idea is to have a way to customize your class better and not be restricted to using a legend only because it has a skill in its line that you need in a certain situation.

Also the weapon skill should be designed to fit the revenant as an individual’s fighting style and the other half if the skill bar to fit the legend’s fighting style (this is concerning Ventari – staff ).

I haven’t played revenant myself so far, so what I’m saying is all based on what I’ve seen done or heared from others.

To me it feels like we get a lot of fancy things with the Revenant, but so far I can’t see where a lot of it is applicable. Unless future content will be drastically different from what we have now, as an example all that ventari support/utility feels cool, but not really needed. It has been stated over and over by others already, there needs to be proper damage and uniquely useful utility somewhere.

Apart from that, I personally find the class to be lacking in versatility. No weapon swap and no utility skills we can switch in and out… For someone that loves playing engineer, I can see myself getting bored rather quickly when having the same 5 weapon skills permanently and utility skills where I only have such minor choice.

I played Revenant a little myself on this beta as well as the previous betas. But I can see I never went into the depth like you did Bovan

I share the same general impression of the current state of the revenant is more or less angled towards support, conditions, healing and very little towards direct damage. But we can hope the remaining specialization will fill in the damage role. But I also felt that I wasn’t helping the party too much when playing on revenant. At the beginning I thought it was only because I suck at playing Revenant, but after a while I thought there might be more to it. I have a feeling that the current state of Revenant is qute far from final.

Hopefully Anet at least fix the “unlimited” tablets when playing as Ventari. Don’t remember wich skill, but some other players have covered that pretty well on Reddit as far as I remember.

I like the general thought about the revenant, but hope the profession will get some fixes and adjustments before launch of HoT. Hope Anet will read Bovan’s feedback and probably add that into consideration when completing the Revenant.

Since Friday I have been keeping an eye on the forums for everyone’s thoughts on the Revanant. Mostly though we have been talking about our disappoints for what we could try this weekend. After playing this weekend myself in PvP and PvE, here is what i THINK.

At first I found the Rev completely useless. Everything I could do, another classes could do better. This was just sad but after trail and error I found legend and weapon combinations (with the right gear and traits) that was very fun and very effective. For example in the Silver Wastes I was soloing champions or vets with other adds which I am not used too doing. My favorite combination was hammer with Darf and Ventari Legends With invoc, salvation, and retributions trait lines. I enjoyed the Rev and look forward to seeing what more the class can do as addition content is released.

Some minus though, because i feel the class it is not enough.

All thesecomes from how i feel like when someone saw a rev, they knew exactly how to counter it in PVP because there is just not enough variety in the class. I saw countless revs just get stomped on in pvp. Also in PvE, depending on if your fighting undead or mordred for example, it helps to change up the strategies because different environments try to kill you in different ways and the rev right now just does not have that, it doesn’t have enough skills and or weapons to adapt efficiently in comparison to the other classes.

- if the class doesn’t get weapon swap then they need more utlities. I would suggest at least 5 per legend to let players mix and match within each legend or maybe a 2 elite skill for the legends. It was really hard to adjusted to different situation period on top of there simple is not enough variety to encourage to play this class often. (I just feel like the class suffers being able to support enough of different peoples play styles without this)

- I know that they are going to get more weapons (or at least I hope) but they need more weapons to support variety and different play styles.

Finally I think the class is fun but could be more exciting if you could have more control on the weapon skill combinations with more weapons and skills.

I was forced to go Dwarf in Spvp because centaur is useless in SPvP.

i really would like to replace Dwarf skills for SPvP.
the taunt skill is useless in SPvP.

the spinning hammers are useless as well because of the environment destroys them.

the brick road is some what useful but would replace that if i had more skills to pick from.

also the Elite is pretty much useless. Would trade that in a heartbeat.

After more testing; and reading though the forums, I see that a lot of people and me included feel that the weapons are set to specific legends and using them with other legends feels odd.

I am suggesting that when you are channeling different legends they affect your weapons auto attack; and possibly more but that might be too difficult to balance.

take staff for example, with ventair the healing globs could give 1s regen and swift by default, on malyinx could give 1s resistance, jalis 1s retaliation/protection and so on.

this would still keep the weapons nature; staff been a supportive weapon but make it so there functional with each legend too.

I second this feedback, very well written!

I can’t come up with any more suggestions, but as revenant stands now, it’s too weak and slow compared to the other classes. Some of the suggestions above here might do the trick.
I also tried to switch up the build as much as possible, but the only build that seems to work is a condition build. The other classes can use more!

Hi, so after playing a bit with the revenant class over the weekend, here is my feedback and opinions.

Firstly, let me just state that I’m aware that the revenant is still in beta, and not all aspects of it (some if which I’m going to address) is complete yet.

Part 1.

1)
Lets start with weapons.
I love the staff. It’s really fun to wield a weapon generally considered as “magic type” in a mostly physical manner. It might not be the weapon of choice for dungeons, but has some potential in PvP/WvW.
I’d really like to see some more weapon choices for the revenant though. My suggestions are as follows:
a) Greatsword with a combination of ranged and close combat, but without any healing skills.
b) An axe on main hand, close combat only, seeing as the off hand axe is already ranged to get you into the fight quickly.
c) Shield off hand, with protection and/or healing skills.

2)
I really like the idea behind Ventari’s tablet. It’s really useful to be able to move it around, especially in combination with Protective Solace (#7). My only two issues with this is that the passive healing feels a bit lacking (although this might be since I haven’t equipped any healing power stats), and in those “oh-crap-I’m-going-to-die” moments you don’t have a proper healing skill handy. Natural Harmony (#8) does heal a bit, but only in proximity to the tablet. My suggestion would be to have all utility skills (#7-9) heal the player (only) for a bit as well.

3)
DPS. The measurement of how awesome you are… right?
Currently the revenant feels like it’s severely lacking proper damage dealing capability. I had a set of Berserker’s gear equiped, and I just wasn’t really satisfied with my offensive capability. This is partly due to the current weapon sets which isn’t really intended for exclusive damage dealing. Mace + axe wasn’t too bad i guess, but I’m used to a warrior’s greatsword and axes damage output.

4)
The weapon effects are amazing! The satisfaction from Coalescence of Ruin or creating a Temporal Rift almost makes up for hitting like a pillow.

5)
There is a slight text bug in the Legendary Dwarf Stance’s elite skill. The first effect description reads as follows: "Rite of the Great Dwarf (5s): (( 441252 )) "
!http://i.imgur.com/vYcIvQ9.jpg!

6)
In Legendary Centaur Stance, the utility skills are for some reason not considered as “Legendary” in the skill description, as opposed to those of Dwarf and Demon Stance.
!http://i.imgur.com/xGsSwqP.jpg!

7)
I’m looking forward to a wider variety of utility skills.

8)
Most classes have some sort of passive +25% movement speed. The revenant would really benefit from this as well, especially since a revenant is supposed to “channel the power of the Mists”. This could perhaps be introduced as part of the “more utility skills” point above.

9)
As part of the “more weapons” point above, a swiftness weapon skill would also be really handy.

10)
The Venom Enhancement trait in the Corruption line currently makes no sense. It’s effect is to increase the duration of Poison, but non of the weapon or utility skills actually apply any poison (at least, non that I could find).

11)
It doesn’t feels like the revenant quite have a proper condition damage build. While the mace + axe combo do apply conditions, the traits don’t really compliment those skills.

12)
I feel that the Replenishing Despair trait in the Corruption line gives a worthless amount of healing for incoming conditions. I would either increase the healing amount, or swap it with the Rampant Vex minor trait (so that R.D. is the minor trait instead). Another option would be to instead of heath, grant the player resistance for a very short time, and obviously with a cool down – say 1s of resistance every 10s, while you have a condition on you.

13)
I think it would be cool if Legendary Stances each have their own passive effect/stat increase. My suggestions:
a) Legendary Dwarf Stance: + toughness and/or vitality
b) Legendary Demon Stance: + power and/or ferocity
a) Legendary Centaur Stance: + healing power or vitality

14)
Initially I had some difficulty understanding the revenant’s combat and skill usage mechanics. There are no mouse-over tooltips that explain what each bar is for, and the weapon/utility skills only display some icon (which I still don’t know what its supposed to symbolize) between the channel and cool down times.
!http://i.imgur.com/kWuCqkj.jpg!

15)
I assume more will still be added, but currently there is a lack of all the new conditions/boons. I could only find 1 taunt, 2 slows and 1 resistance (from a trait).

Part 2.

16)
I’m not quite sure why there are two healing focused trait lines. Both Salvation and Invocation lines have mainly healing traits. I’m especially puzzled by Invocation, and why it is healing based. Per definition: “An invocation is an appeal to a higher power for help”. Therefore any of the three Legends may be invoked upon, be it for restoration, power or protection. I would suggest a redesign of this line (keep the name), and have it provide a trait selection range which would allow to boost any of the three stances. Some quick thoughts:
a) Keep the first minor and three major traits, these have a good balance between the stances.
b) A few temporary stat boosts which apply to nearby allies as well when certain conditions are met, like when health drops below x% -> party gains regeneration/evasion/or even stealth, when enemy health drops below x% -> party gains fury/might/quickness

17)
Even though I’m sure it’s already in the works, a fifth trait line would be a good idea, preferably one that focus on damage output.

18)
Just an observation, I had a strange bug with Ventari’s tablet while doing Ascalonian Catacombs. I had the tablet summoned, and upon dying the tablet didn’t reset properly. Therefore I was unable to summon a new one, and Ventari’s Will had no effect. I had to switch stances to get it to reset. However, I was unable to replicate this bug again.

19)
I like switching between Legendary Stances, but I really feel that a second weapon set is needed, and justified. I feel it is quite important to always have the option to switch between ranged and close combat abilities, and unlike the elementalist, the revenant is basically stuck with only 5 weapon skills (or at least until you get out of combat). I would prefer to have another weapon set, but alternative weapon skills based on the active Legend (similar to the elementalist) is also acceptable, as long as there is a variation between ranged and close combat.

20)
I was in WvW when I discovered (to my horror) that I don’t have any underwater skills…

21)
This one is unrelated to the revenant itself, but nonetheless I would have liked to have access to the guild panel from my beta character during the weekend

To summarize my overall experience of the revenant; I really enjoyed it. It’s an interesting class, with a lot of potential, and not to mention that awesome-looking armor set. But currently it is still unfinished, needing some polish, revision and addition.

To the developers, thank you very much for the opportunity to beta test the revenant, I had a blast. I hope my input was worthwhile.

Intro
This is my feedback for the Revenant Open Beta this weekend. Just as a frame of reference I didn’t play PvP, WvW, or Stronghold while playing the Revenant. However, I did run dungeons, world bosses, and Vinewrath with the Revenant. With that out of the way, here’s my opinions of the Revenant.

Revenant as a Whole
To start off I am going to say that I enjoy the Revenant for the most part. I think the profession is unique and plays well overall. With what I was able to gather from this weekend I can honestly say I want to play a Revenant. Main it? Probably not. Play it. Definitely!

Weapons
Some will criticize the current weapons because they are closely tied to a legend. I agree with this a for the most part. If I was playing Staff I felt like I needed to go Ventari and HealingPower. It’s a little sad that this is the case, but I think A-Net is trying to make roles like Tank and Healer seem as important as DPS.

On the otherhand I felt like I had some wiggle room with the weapons. I ran Staff with Jalis and it felt really nice to constantly apply vulnerability with my auto attacks. It was like I was supporting my party with small heals, debuffs, and tankiness. I also ran Mace/Axe with Ventari and Jalis. With that build it felt like I combined all three roles into one of my own. I guess what I am trying to say is that while the weapons feel very tied to a legend it isn’t a hard lock. It is possible to do something unique, but it takes some creative thinking (or in my case stubbornness to use M/A without Mallyx).

Legends
There is one thing I think the Revenant’s legends bring to the game that makes me really excited. Truly synergizing skills. Not sure what I mean? Think of it this way. Could the Ventari skills (all of them) really exist on another class? I would say no. Ventari interesting in that you get a lot of cool skills revolving around the tablet and its placement. No other class really has that much control over a pet/object to make this possible. Because of this players are able to create cool combos with a kit that has been carefully designed to allow these cool situations (just like in MOBAs).

Mallyx
I’ll be blunt, I don’t like Mallyx. I thought I would, but I was wrong. In a group he is useless because allies keep removing your conditions. I want those conditions. I need those conditions to pass onto the enemy. On top of that I feel like Mallyx almost requires you to get the Corruption trait that gives you resistance when using a Mallyx skill. Even when I was able to pass conditions it didn’t feel rewarding and that to me is terrible.
Perhaps he is good in PvP

Jalis
Jalis to me feels the closest to other classes 6-0 skills. A lot of his skills are good and they work with eachother, but each skills could be a standalone skill. This makes Jalis the best legend (in my opinion) for players who want to play the Revenant similarly to other professions. I don’t really have much to say about Jalis other than that. He is fun and easy to use.

Ventari
Just like the staff I thought I would hate Ventari. He skills revolving around a tablet seem very micromanage-ey. While this is kinda true I was able to play it without much effort. For the most part I would place my tablet where I wanted. Then I would spam 8 while paying attention to my allies health. It made me feel like a healer, but I was able to do other things than just heal. This makes it a great legend to use in my book, but only if you want to heal.

Final Words
The popular opinion (that I noticed) over the weekend seemed to be that the Revenant seemed lack luster. Personally I think this is bogged down by the fact that we couldn’t really play a damage role yet. Yes we had condition damage, but with Berserker being as popular as it is this wasn’t really good enough. I think that this caused people to lower their opinion of the Revenant before we’ve really seen what it can do (I’m looking at you Glint).

In the end I can say that I enjoyed my time as the Revenant. The weapons were all fun to play with and the legends all felt very focused which creates interesting forms of play. I can’t wait to see which legends they reveal next, how they play, and how they change up the ones we currently have.
Anyway, thank you for reading and I hope my views helped.

PS – Seriously though Staff-4 blast finisher. Make that a thing.

Tritone.1395:

Weapons
Some will criticize the current weapons because they are closely tied to a legend. I agree with this a for the most part. If I was playing Staff I felt like I needed to go Ventari and HealingPower. It’s a little sad that this is the case, but I think A-Net is trying to make roles like Tank and Healer seem as important as DPS.

The Revenant needs its roles as well as all other classes BUT this can not be handled as other classes … Revenant has no Weapon Swap so it is not possible to define its role through its weapon like other classes do. The role has to come through the utilities and nothing but that.

Weapons have to be totally independend from the choosed legend – instead every legend should “buff” the equipped weapon in some kind of way

e.g.
Axe + Mallyx -> chance to apply torment
Axe + Ventari -> Chance to drop healing orb
Axe + Jalis -> chance to apply weakness
Axe+Shiro -> chance to apply vulnerability

staff+ventari – chance to heal
staff+mallyx – chance to rip off boon and apply condition
staff + jalis – chance to gain protection
staff+Shiro – chance to gain quickness

Loex.5104:

Tritone.1395:

Weapons
Some will criticize the current weapons because they are closely tied to a legend. I agree with this a for the most part. If I was playing Staff I felt like I needed to go Ventari and HealingPower. It’s a little sad that this is the case, but I think A-Net is trying to make roles like Tank and Healer seem as important as DPS.

The Revenant needs its roles as well as all other classes BUT this can not be handled as other classes … Revenant has no Weapon Swap so it is not possible to define its role through its weapon like other classes do. The role has to come through the utilities and nothing but that.

Weapons have to be totally independend from the choosed legend – instead every legend should “buff” the equipped weapon in some kind of way

e.g.
Axe + Mallyx -> chance to apply torment
Axe + Ventari -> Chance to drop healing orb
Axe + Jalis -> chance to apply weakness
Axe+Shiro -> chance to apply vulnerability

staff+ventari – chance to heal
staff+mallyx – chance to rip off boon and apply condition
staff + jalis – chance to gain protection
staff+Shiro – chance to gain quickness

This is a great idea!

Feedback on weapons:

Mace/axe
This weaponset has good mobility (a teleport and the abilty to blast lightning fields for swiftness) and can deal attack fro mid-range with skill #2 before closing in, so not so much a problem with being kited, except for opponent running out of our #2 fire field. The energy costs are low meaning you can use utility skills a lot, though you can’t be so active about it since you’ll be using your weapon skills much.
I found myself using #2, #5 and #5 pretty much on recharge, and much less atuoattacking then I’m use to. It gave an aggressive feeling, I like it over something like warrior axe or necro dagger which are autoattack-focused.
The damage is hybrid, meaning you could run either carrion or zerker for damage or celestial for defense. There was like no defense (just a delayed CC), so this weapon set made me die more often than the others in solo PvE.
This was my fav PvP weapon set. In PvE I had the problem of not having a legend that supported condition damage (Mallyx wants conditions from the opponent).

Hammer
The way the skills are set up, it looks like you’re supposed to play a ranged damage dealer similar to power ranger (or greatsword mesmer I gues, though I don’t play mesmer). That style was pretty fun to play, but suffered from a lack of utility skills with range, and a lack of CC to keep enemies from getting close.
I tended to use #2 a lot, and #5 quite a bit to keep enemies away. They were all fun. #4 works against ranged attack, but is hardly fun. Skill #3 is just odd, works by confusing the mobs where you are (the leap speed is too slow), the chill as too short to matter unfortunately.
What worked better was to use it with a backline support build. Here only auto and #2 turn useful though (and situationally #4), making it a bit boring weapon.

Staff
This weapon was great fun in PvE. It’s not that effective att killing thing, since not only is the damage low, but so was mobility so I spent time running betweeen mobs. Staying alive was easier with staff than the other weapons, only problem was over-aggro caused by the bolts from skill #3 (the range on the is too long). This weapon is very auto-atack dependent, with skill #5 used on near-recharge (to gap close, or occasionally for defense), skill #3 quite often and skill #4 had its use now and then. The auto-attack is really well designed. The problems were low damage, low mobility (mostly because it lacks a blast finisher) and too high energy costs (esp #2) considering that you’d pair it with support legends and is supposed to use a lot of energy on utility skills.
First part of skill #2 was the less weak of the two, but more dull and unpredictable (whether it’d chain to the next). The second part was cooler, though weakness I already got from Jalis’ road and the energy cost was huge.

I’m hoping they’ll switch around the order of energy costs per weapon, making staff the lightest on energy, and hammer be ligher than mace. Also hoping for more CC on hammer (not cripple or weakness, but harder ones like chill, stun, knockdown), e.g. lower activation time on #5 or longer chill on #3.