BEFORE YOU READ: These are my personal thoughts on the profession and as such, would suggest things that I would like to see in the profession, if you don’t like it, then be constructive about it.
I tried the Revenant this weekend like most of us and I have some feedback on what’s good, what’s bad and what can be improved. I’m talking from a PvE and PvP perspective and going to go a little into WvW, though I wasn’t there for much of the beta due to Issues with my PC.
So what’s good?
Swords: they were pretty nice, though I didn’t use the off-hand sword often as the damage and pull on the axe was much more valuable.
The auto-attack was nice, people complained about its animations but I think it was pretty solid. The first attack in the chain is just a basic stab, nothing too special. The second attack is much more valuable than people give it credit for as the projectile has no limit on the amount of targets it can hit, meaning that you may find the autochain more valuable in fights with more than 3 people. I’m sure this isn’t intended, but it should be kept in. The final skill’s explosion is an PBAoE on the target with a 3 target cap from what I observed, meaning you can hit potentially 9 extra targets in the area. I also like how the entire chain is setup so that your next chain feels like you’re double-striking, like in gw1.
Overall, the auto-attack chain is great and I wouldn’t change anything on it.
The second skill was nice for catching up to opponents, though I feel that either the damage scaling should be increased OR the chill duration be a bit longer (maybe 1 1/2 long?).
The third skill, the staple for the sword and one of the reasons why people like it, was a little underwhelming, I must admit. At first I thought it was alright that the skill had no evade frames, but after using it I found that I often got myself killed with the impending AoE that was about to be dropped on me. The damage could use a little buff (5% maybe) but overall is alright since you can setup some nice burst using Enchanted Daggers and Vengeful Hammers. I found this combo to be pretty deadly using a crusader amulet and basically killed every mob I came across with berserker armor. I request that this skill would not go off if the target is not in range, or that using it would automatically hit the nearest target
The fourth skill was just a basic block, it’s bugged since it doesn’t block all hits but this has already been addressed. It’s nice and on a short cooldown. It’s sequence is an immobilize, not much too it but helps set up for your burst.
The fifth skill is pretty unreliable, but this is only because of the nature of how players move about. It kind of feels bad when you waste 15 energy to get nothing out of it. Maybe increase the range on it?
Shiro:Like most people, I absolutely loved this legend, as it fixed some of the issues the profession had last beta.
The heal is a really nice skill, it gives some initial HP and rewards you for hitting your opponent, you practically use it as soon as you hit ~90% hp to heal back up. though I feel like the ICD isn’t needed as it removes some potential burst and healing. I found it to be the reason why I go down in a fight most of the time because I missed out on some potential health. If there must be a ICD, reduce it to 1/2, 3/4 may be in line of what the designers want however.
Phase Traversal is a nice on-demand gap closer and basically counters those pesky warriors and guardians who think they can hide behind a shield (or a focus). I found the range indication unreliable because whenever I was at about max range, I would never teleport to the target. It would only teleport me when I was sitting at around 900 units away.
Riposting Shadow is a great evade, stunbreak, debilitating condition cleanser and endurance generator. The cost is a bit big, but it’s understandable as this skill does so much at the press of a button, I often used it multiple times as a disengage move (Evade>Evade>RS>Evade>RS>Evade>Swap to proc energy sigils>Evade). I wouldn’t change much on this scale, maybe reduce it to a 30 energy cost but not needed.
Impossible Odds: I often found this skill great for executing opponents, but using it any time before is a death sentence as it drains your energy which is absolutely fine with me, this skill shouldn’t be used all willy-nilly, it should be when needed. Though I did find my self using it out of combat for the super speed, which usually ended up killing me as I had no energy for RS when I got ganked ahah.
Jade Wind is one of the skills I rarely found myself using. Not that it’s bad or anything, but it has a huge tell that basically screams “DODGE NOW” as it should. Instead of using the skill, I used it to bait out dodges and then setup a burst. A+ skill, though it may be nerfed to use energy on cast now that I’ve revealed this.
(edited by MercenaryNote.8506)