Guild Wars 2

Hey all,

Given the Revenant is in a constant flux of changes and balances, I thought it would be a good opportunity to deal with some aspects related to the Corruption trait line. I noticed that there are some problems on the traits right now that prevent a Mallyx Revenant from branching into different forms of damage and utilization of their traits, given right now there is a very clear, optimal “route” for a Mallyx trait build. Rather than nerf trait lines, I thought about making changes on how the lines are organized and balanced to offer more options to condition-based revenants without making it overly powerful. Basically, make you be able to pick different builds for different focuses within the Condition Revenant theme.

First off, let’s open with the biggest problem with Mallyx: Demoniac Defiance is too important. By important, I mean that there is a no-brainer in the Adept trait line because it is crucial to a Mallyx-focused Revenant by allowing them more breathing room and rewarding playing efficiently with their utilities. So, rather than make it become a Grandmaster or what else, I suggest turning Demoniac Defiance the Minor Grandmaster trait, and add the bonus to Torment duration from Yearning Empowerment (the current Grandmaster minor) to Rampant Vex, the Adept minor. This will allow all Mallyx-focused Revenants to benefit out of it and give more room for Adept traits to show up.

Changes to the Adept Trait line:

Replenishing Despair (Incoming conditions heal you for a small amount, no ICD) is fine, it’s a much weaker and opposite version of a Guardian GM, Altruistic Healing, which is natural given this is an Adept trait. Some builds like Ventari/Mallyx which have sources of healing can use this healing on top of the active ones to offer additional support.

Venom Enhancement (Poison lasts longer; 50% increase to Poison duration) is what should be looked at. The problem with Venom Enhancement is that although it greatly boosts Poison duration (a 50% increase, bigger than a Thief’s 33% increase from a GM trait, although said GM also increases poison damage by 10%), the only source of poison in a Revenant skill set comes from the final hit of the auto-attack chain of Mace, Manifest Toxin (a 3 second poison). So, a Revenant that does not gear up for Poison (quite natural, given the only source in Revenant skills is from the final hit of the AA chain and you are better off investing in stuff like Burn or Torment, far more prevalent) is hindered by this particular Adept trait, and a Poison Revenant, although greatly boosted by its effect, is incapable of making use of this trait without crippling themselves to specialize on Poison sources. So, a positive change to enable all Revenants to make use of this Adept line is making Venom Enhancement give a lower increase to Poison Duration but also give another source, critical hits. This in particular combos well with Manifest Toxin because if the hits connect to enemies and they critically hit, the enemies will receive both the Manifest Toxin poison AND the Venom Enhancement bonus poison plus their duration. This allows Poison to play a much more active role in a Revenant rotation and reward building around it without affecting other possible sources like sigils. Now, I am no mathematician so I will not attempt to come up with numbers to change this, nor will I suggest a trait to replace Demoniac Defiance because I think Roy and his team can come up with far better stuff

Continuing in the next post

Changes to the Master Trait Line:

• Bolstered Anguis (Increased damage for every condition currently on you; +3% per condition) is fine where it is, because it provides a +% Damage boost for DPS Revenants and Condi Revenant alike, and the % is big enough to take in consideration that Conditions wear off more quickly than boons (when compared to traits that offer +X% Damage boosts with X Boons).

• Frigid Precision (Chance to chill your foe when you land a critical hit ; 50% chance; 10 ICD, 2½s chill duration) is the more problematic trait, because although it offers a condition that Mallyx by itself can’t give (Chill, which is more active in Sword main-hand), the duration is far too small to offer significant condition pressure. A change which I feel comfortable in doing is reducing the ICD to 5 seconds, but also reducing the Chill duration to 11?4s. This change may sound weird because on the long term, it doesn’t make any difference, but it’s important because it gives Chill a more active role in Revenant condition rotation and offers more Condition pressure, which seems fitting for the trait line.

• Spontaneous Destruction (Use Banish Enchantment when striking a foe that has boons equal to or greater than the threshold ; 25 ICD) seems ok as it is. I can’t really comment on it without seeing it being used more, but I think that given Banish Enchantment in this case also provides bonuses from stuff like Demoniac Defiance, I would say it’s in a good place.

Changes to the Grandmaster Trait Line:

• Diabolic Inferno (Burn nearby foes when using an elite skill ; 10 ICD ; 2 stacks of burn with 4s of duration) was recently buffed so I can’t offer any feedback on it without playing Revenant again.

• Maniac Persistence (Increase your critical-hit chance every few seconds. This bonus is reset when you land a critically hit ; 2% CC increase with a 1s interval) is pretty much ignored by all because it represents a minimal DPS increase to Condi/Prec builds and the builds with no Prec (Dire and Carrion) tend to not depend on on critical hit effects anyway. This is the only trait where I suggest a full rework to make it more interesting, even though I find the concept pretty unique. So, why not make it offer something all Condition Revenants could use? What if it worked this way: For every 1s interval, if you have a condition, you get 1 stack of Maniac Persistence (+1% Condition Damage boost, 10s duration, stacks up to 10 times, 1 second interval). This is a unique buff because there are no traits at all that offer a flat % increase to condi damage, and this incentives the Mallyx play of putting conditions on you while rewarding you for doing so. It also enables you to not worry about losing conditions (like some people fear about how condi clearing is predominant in organized play and your teammates affect your DPS) because the effect is applied whenever you have a condi, be it 1 condi or 5 condis, every 1 second. A revenant that was cleansed will not immediately lose DPS due to losing their condis (thanks to the 10 second duration on each stack) and can get it back thanks to the Mallyx playstyle of self-imposed conditions, rewarding strategic play. It’s also worth pointing out this trait greatly benefits all Mallyx builds but does not become a must pick for any other build (like, say, a DPS Shiro that picks Mallyx for condi management and ends up being extra buffed), so although the trait is powerful it rewards playing into condition damage, instead of merely damage.

• Pulsating Pestilence (Chance when struck to copy all conditions currently on you to nearby foes for a few seconds ; 15% trigger chance ; 3s duration ; 15s ICD) is basically the Mallyx Elite, Embrace the Darkness, on a 15s cooldown and a 15% trigger change upon being hit and that can happen while out of the Legendary Demon Stance. I can’t really comment on its concept, but I think it would be better to rework this trait so that it won’t resemble the elite skill so much (and on such a low chance to happen in most cases, 15% when hit on a really long ICD). An interesting idea is making this work on a 10s ICD, and happen any time you swap Legends/Weapons. This gives a greater degree of control over this trait and enable strategic play, by punishing a condi bomb when your opponent believes they are safe from it due to you not being in the Legendary Demon Stance.

So, what do you all think?