Guild Wars 2

Revenant needs a 2nd Weapon, but not for the reasons you may think or you already see the flaw.

Yes I get that A-Net wants a single weapon class for each armor set, however the mechanic as it is does not work. Before any fight begins you are stuck with either ranged or melee, thus you have no combat options to maneuver in the battlefield.

In comparison to the Engineer or Elementalist consider the following.

Engineer’s have kits, that cover primary combat versatility, and is by default mostly a ranged class with some melee options. When equipped right, this gives multiple ranged options and skills for sustained combat.

An average Engineer has far more skills than you might realize.
Average build for an engineer.
Pistol/Pistol 5 skills Range 900
Med Kit 5 skills plus 1 tool belt.
Flame Thrower 5 skills plus 1 tool belt. Range 600
Elixir Gun 5 skills plus 1 tool belt. Range 1200
Bomb Kit 5 skills plus 1 tool belt. Melee AoE Range 1200 if Grenade kit’s are equipped.
Elite. 1 plus 1 tool belt.

Total skills 31 or less
That’s about 31 skills going into combat with both close and ranged attacks multiple options for sustained healing or group healing.

Elementalist (with a lightning trait-ed glyph and arcane build)
Staff 20 skills Range 1200 to melee
Dagger / Dagger 20 skills Range 600 to melee
Scepter Offhand 20 skills Range 900 to melee
Heal 1 skill
Slot 3 skills
Elite 1 skill
Attunement 4 skills

Total skills 29 to 25 skills going into combat, both ranged and close attack options no matter what weapon set.

Now I included the Attunements as skills since if you trait right, you create 4 powerful instant cast skills granting, swiftness, regeneration, passive AoE regeneration, Fury, Protection, and Might. Thus since activation creates a beneficial effect in combat it must be categorized as a skill with short cool downs. Now admittedly not all Elementalist’s are built in this fashion but it shows the versatility unique to the Elementalist functionality.

Revenant
Weapon 5 skills either ranged or melee
Stances 2 optional non skills usable as stun breakers.
Healing 2 one for each stance
Utility 6 one for each stance
Elite’s 2 one for each stance

Total skills 15 and maybe 17 if the stances had a measurable combat effect.
Also, you are extremely limited in your combat options as either melee or ranged, limiting your combat versatility.

The primary issue, is it’s either RANGED, or it’s MELEE with a lack of versitility. No other class in the game has this drawback unless by intent of the player. I don’t know of anyone who plays in this fashion. Even the average thief or warrior who equips an average of 16 skills, has one optional ranged weapon set option in his build. The Revenant does not have this option and it’s a fatal flaw.

In agree. Made a similar thread, then it got merged into the blob.

Engi has many options to switch in melee-ranged situations, as Elementalist. A staff ele can summon hammer/sword, a dagger ele can summor the ice bow and also get many heavy hitting utility skills.

Ranged revenant is weak in melee situations, and a melee revenant has NO WAY to go ranged in battle.

this is a pretty stupid class design

I disagree on stupid class design, I think if A-net considers the class flaw’s it will make the necessary changes.

At first I was hesitant to agree with this, because I tend to enjoy ele and engi without weapon swapping and I expected more of the same from Rev. HOWEVER due to the fact that I can’t really do much with the utility skills, this is actually kind of necessary.

I prefer running around with Mallyx mace/axe mostly but there’s no way to get out of a bad situation and heal up (especially considering the heal is contingent on conditions). Even switching to ventari is sort of too little too late when you are about to be downed. I would actually PREFER weapon swapping to legend swapping because then you could dodge out of the way and finish the enemy with the hammer (which def. needs a dps buff but that’s beside the point).

One thing that MAYBE would be doable is allow players to lock a weapon/weapon set to a legend. For example, Jalis and hammer, Mallyx and mace/axe. So when you swap legends you actually also swap weapons, giving you a little more versatility and maneuverability. However, some of the weapons need a little tweaking so that different mixes are viable, like hammer Mallyx or mace & axe Ventari. Also Ventari’s tablet should be auto summoned on swap so that it can be more easily used in last ditch efforts to keep yourself alive.

Idris.9351:

One thing that MAYBE would be doable is allow players to lock a weapon/weapon set to a legend.

This I don’t like as it does not fully address the issue. As pointed out above, not only is the Revenant severely reduced in skill options (10 or more skill options) compared to the Elementalist, or Engineer you have no option to select a ranged option if you go melee weapons as a primary attack mode. I don’t believe anyone desires to be stuck with hammer constantly, in order to survive most encounters. Just give the class a 2nd weapon option and supply 2 more legend stances, and it’s on an even footing with other class options for skills and for survivability. People tend to forget even the Necro has 20 skills going into a fight, Rangers have 19 (this includes the 4 from his/her pet) and Mesmers have 19 (4 shatters +1 more with expansion) and will have 20 upon THORN release.