Revenant Thoughts and Suggestions

Revenant Thoughts and Suggestions

in Revenant

Posted by: MercenaryNote.8506

MercenaryNote.8506

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)

Revenant Thoughts and Suggestions

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Posted by: MercenaryNote.8506

MercenaryNote.8506

So what’s bad?
Hammer: feels extremely slow, unreliable and clunky.

The second skill does a lot of damage but it’s graphics DO NOT match up with it’s range. Casting this thing at max range has left most of my targets able to flee with low health even though the earth had cracked beneath them, not to mention that if they’re above or below you, you will never hit you. This has already been address by most people but I’d like to make a point that its graphics should either match the actual range(A nerf), or the actual range should match the graphics( Intended Range)

The third skill has the exact same problem when hitting targets that are in range. Though the green targeting is obviously over the target, it would either hit or miss. No, this isn’t related to the “Oh, they’re not on the same Z-Axis as you” issue. This is more of the target being on a flat plane, and I’d either hit them or miss them, it’s random and frustrating, I only ever use this skill to momentarily dodge some melee attacks or brief AoE’s and give myself time to think.

The fourth skill is kind of weird with how it orientates to your character. I usually like to strafe but this ends up moving the shield to the sides of my character and exposing myself.

The fifth skill is really unreliable unless you’re using Impossible Odds. I find it unfair that a warrior could get the same disable with less of a tell on it while the Revenant needs to wait 1 3/4 to get this move off. Sure it has more range, and might hit a blob in WvW, but other than that, the skill never hits. I think the cast time needs to be reduced or the knockdown be buffed because right now, this skill is pretty useless.

Staff: is overall great and my favourite weapon to use as a second set, but

The second skill still doesn’t feel like it’s worth using, if you can manage to hit it, its sequence skill doesn’t feel very worth using as it doesn’t do much damage and its weakness up-time is negligible. I think the weakness duration should be increased to 5 seconds.

The fourth skill is nice, but its rooting has led me to accidentally cancelling it and getting killed by condi’s or a little damage tick. I suggest using the warrior banner swiftness animation when it’s casted while moving or reduce its cast time significantly as this skill is cancelled on accident way more than it being casted on purpose.

Ventari:I decided to use this bad-boy in WvW and dungeons. I really love the legend’s concept as I always go for supporty roles in games, but I gotta say that ventari let me down in terms of numbers.

The heal skill is you first summoning the tablet, which is fine, but its sequence of moving the tablet feels clunky, as the 2 second cool down made me feel restricted in its use, especially in WvW when your teamates are constantly moving about. Tune it down to 1 second and it should feel better.


Natural Harmony is pretty lame, It doesn’t heal for much (Staff ele does it better) and there’s that delay it has after you cast it. The healing just needs a little bigger buff and it should be more in-line with support.

(edited by MercenaryNote.8506)

Revenant Thoughts and Suggestions

in Revenant

Posted by: MercenaryNote.8506

MercenaryNote.8506

So what can be improved?

Energy: Though most of the skills energy costs are fair, there’s still not enough energy to go around. Many people suggest to remove energy cost from weapon skills, but I do not agree with that as it’s what keeps the weapon cooldowns low and keeps the revenant unique. They have also suggested that legend swapping give us an instant 100% energy, but they forget about the threshold traits. Personally find with the 100% energy switch if they rework the threshold traits. I find it interesting how the dev’s wanted energy to have a “Push and pull” mechanic, but so far all it is right now is pushing (Or pulling depending on how you look at it).

As for suggestions, we can either:
A) As suggested before, let auto-attacks generate energy. This would reward the Revenant for engaging on their targets and let upkeep skills last longer. The tradeoff being that if you’re only auto-attacking for the longer upkeep duration, you’re not really doing anything else.

B) Have energy regenerate in the background, so if you’re channeling Jalis and have Shiro not swapped in yet, there will be a black bar indicating where Shiro’s energy is, and it’ll turn grey when it exceeds Jalis’s current energy so it’s clearly indicating how much each have (See attachment below for visuals)

C) Lower energy costs across the board.

Personally, I feel like the former 2 are the best.

Condition Cleansing: boy, this is one most people have complained about. So far our only real condition cleanse is staff 4, Jalis’s heal skill and Ventari’s tablet. I’d say Mallyx is condition cleanse too, even though he isn’t technically cleansing them.

Most people have suggested that having impossible odds clear conditions like how it worked in first game but they have no idea how broken that is. Instead, let Shiro’s heal cleanse them every time it procs, I feel this would be a better solution as you don’t have on-demand cleanses but you also do have a cleanse at your disposal.

Attachments:

(edited by MercenaryNote.8506)

Revenant Thoughts and Suggestions

in Revenant

Posted by: MercenaryNote.8506

MercenaryNote.8506

Other suggestions:

I feel like some weapon skills should have upkeep. here’s my ideas.

Axe 5 could pulse as long as you keep it active, maybe it very powerful CC at the cost of 10 pips.
Sword 4 could keep blocking until you activate it’s sequence skill/use another skill. 10 pips
Hammer 4 would keep its shield up,
Staff 3 would keep blocking and blinding OR Staff 4 could keep cleansing and healing until interrupted or cancelled. The latter should solve condi issues people have. 10 pips

Another idea would be that Staff 3 and hammer 4 would give you energy every time you block or destroy a projectile respectively.


Another suggestion would be adding 2 more themed skills to each legend, but you’ve already heard this.

(edited by MercenaryNote.8506)

Revenant Thoughts and Suggestions

in Revenant

Posted by: MercenaryNote.8506

MercenaryNote.8506

Conclusion:

The revenant is pretty solid right now. Just needs a couple bug fixes and number tweaks and I can see me playing it for the rest of my life.

What do you guys think?