Guild Wars 2

I thought I would place my thoughts in this thread, but please feel free to post here, so we can have 1 organized feedback thread.

Note that all of my suggestions deal with the class’s viability in PvP, not PvE or WvW.

Glint skills

Facets of Chaos: The upkeep cost is too high. I agree that it’s a powerful boon, but it costs so much to stack it when you consider that it only pulses every 3 seconds. I don’t believe that applying protection AoE for that duration when in boosted by f2 is a fair cost. 15 energy for 3 seconds of protection is too little. If you want to keep the pulsing intervals the same, I’d suggest lowering the cost to 3 energy as well.

The active chaotic release would also feel better if its cool down were lower, say 40 or 35 seconds.

Facet of Light: Regeneration as a boon is just weak, even with tons of healing power its outdone by the ele/warrior heal signets. In a build with 0 healing power, the upkeep skill is completely worthless. Either make it so the regeneration of this facet scales much higher with healing power, or let it apply its own non-boon buff that heals more than regeneration, perhaps 350 per second scaling to be bit higher with healing power. Raise upkeep cost to -2 to be a better cost for the extra healing over time.

The active skill infuse the light is fine as is, but since it doesn’t involve the use of healing power, it makes healing power arguably less useful for a herald, so that healing power usage needs to be made more meaningful elsewhere.

Elemental Blast: Change the skill so that the pulses happen in half a second instead of 1 second. Hoping that someone stands in the beautifully animated telegraphed AoE for 3 full seconds to get the full effect (especially for condition based heralds) is a bit too difficult in smaller fights.

Shield Skills:

Envoy of Exuberance: This skill is okay but feels a bit inconsequential. The protection and heal are nice, but it doesn’t really feel like I did anything meaningful with it as a defensive skill. If it applies aegis briefly as well, I think it would feel a lot better.

Crystalline Hibernation: as often said, needs to be reworked because the breakbar mechanic is too easy to break and abuse. Even if I go off point and LoS to try and use it for the heal, if anyone with any form CC, soft or otherwise follows me, they will break it almost instantly. Shield 5 is a good opportunity for a skill that could give you active defenses, but when it roots you and is easy to break, it ends up being a hindrance. For starters, let people move while using it so you can disengage with it or soak up damage, and change the break bar mechanic to make it feel fair to use against people that are focus firing you. This skill NEEDS to be our way of dealing with focus fire, otherwise, there is no reason to ever take shield over axe. For example, make it function like the Tempest’s earth overload in the last beta (not the current one), and let you use it as a disengage tool or a way to block coordinate bursts/focus fire. You can even raise its cooldown to compensate since this skill should function like a more techincal version of renewed focus or distortion.

Herald traits:
The stunbreak traits aren’t very good, they feel pretty meaningless considering how breaking stun as a revenant is clunky and requires other traits in other lines to be useful at all. Breaking stun for allies, as shown by the tempest generally isn’t as useful as it seems because it requires far too much coordination and communication in a split second to be effective, which is just unfriendly to use by anyone.

Radiant Revival: Lower the cooldown to 30 seconds (same as facet active) and give it +10% revival speed, since in its current form, Herald is a relatively bad at reviving people in pvp even with this trait, as it does nothing to stop stomps, only cleaving.

Hardening Persistence: This trait should be made to be more comparable to the necromancer’s corrupter’s fervor. Make it grant a -2% condition duration or condition damage per stack, and let the stacks have a duration so that they can persist a bit when you’re not using as many upkeep costs (for example have it so the stack will persist for 10 seconds after the upkeep skill that created it ends, yes the coding for this will be more complex, but the trait will be more meaningful to use). If you do take this suggestion, consider swapping it with bolster fortifications.

Shared Empowerment: Consider raising the base might duration from 5 seconds to 7 seconds, even with the facet of nature up, it feels a bit too weak.

Soothing Bastian: This trait is merely weak because the shield skill is weak, once again please let people move, and please rebalance the defiance bar to not be overly punishing to use.

Envoy of Sustenance: I would add -10% condition duration of conditions applied to you to this trait, just because herald is so incredibly weak to conditions on its own, that you’re forced to combo it with mallyx to survive. And while I’m personally okay with that, I think the playing field needs to be leveled so people can use both shiro and glint in a power build and not be punished completely by conditions (my hardening persistance suggestion deals with this as well).

Other than that Roy, I LOVE the Herald, and I think its what the revenant needed all along to tie everything together. All of the traits and skills I didn’t mention are fine as is, and I love the synergies the traits have with mallyx/corruption and retribution traits and shiro skills!

For base revenant in general, I merely feel that mace’s autoattack chain needs to be faster and hit with harder power damage, the mallyx utilities a bit too much energy (change pain absorption and unyielding anguish to 30 instead of 35), and that revenant needs another ranged option down the line, such as scepter perhaps. This is mainly because condition builds get 0 usage out of hammer, so its best to just use mace/axe/shield because no other mainhand weapon will do anything positive for you.

I can’t compent on Jalis or Ventari or the salvation traitline, since they aren’t really my playstyle and I’ve found other legends and traitlines to be more useful for me.

I also feel that chaotic release should really give the herald super speed as well. Herald is still very poor a disengaging and reliable super speed would help a lot without making it overpowered.

If Roy was to reduce the CD, I actually feel that Chaotic Release should go to 30 seconds.

The problem is without herald revenant feels clunky, less tanky. It’s totally different, it’s really worst. I don’t really like this must have feeling elite specs have, really annoying for making builds. And, in contrary to put diversity and builds over and give them more possibilites they throw them to the ground with a talent line took by elite spec. The class don’t have more possibility it’s just become the elite spec. Mesmer haven’t more possibility without chronomancer, they became chronomancer, revenant haven’t more possibility they became herald. Pretty annoying thing. Finally dragonhunter and tempest are the top elites specs when we think about, they offer more possibility without a must have line.

nearlight.3064:

Shared Empowerment: Consider raising the base might duration from 5 seconds to 7 seconds, even with the facet of nature up, it feels a bit too weak.

Increasing the duration wouldn’t be enough. The trait just doesn’t synergize well with facets. They pulse every 3 seconds on a shared timer for all facets resulting in 2-3 might stacks with 65% boon duration. Even worse with impossible odds. It pulses every second but the internal cooldown is 1 second too so only every second pulse triggers the trait resulting in 2 mightstacks.

Trait needs to be reworked to work with facets. Was able to stack 10 might for the group with camping Glint with facet of nature and facet of strength which just isn’t enough to replace an ele or ps warr as a might stacker.