So far I’ve been playing around with the Revenant, and I have to say—overall I’m not impressed…. yet! I think this is a class with a ton of potential, but I have a few suggestions to make. I invite others to comment on these (politely) whether you agree or disagree, as well as make suggestions of their own.
1. Increase base damage slightly (at the very least for the staff).
-Running a full zerker build, I found myself satisfied with the damage I was dealing with the hammer auto-attack, but not mace or staff. Beyond auto-attacks, even “Drop the Hammer”, the Rev’s current highest single-damage skill, seemed to be lackluster. Now, I realize that staff is hardly supposed to be a main-damage weapon, but I feel it totally lacks stopping power. With a ridiculously minuscule range, base damage should be increased—the healing orbs you get from the 3rd swing don’t make up for having to be that toe-to-toe, which brings me to point 2:
2. Increase staff auto-attack range.
-Self-explanatory; see above. There is no reason a two-handed pole/staff weapon should have the same range as a dagger. It doesn’t have to be greatsword range here, but it greatly limits play/mobility as it is. I also realize that having such a short range helps with the orb drops, so you can strafe and pick them up, but if the orbs were to spawn between you and the enemy mob the effect would be more or less the same.
3. Give more player choice, be it with weapons or utilities.
-This is the involved one. I feel that the Revenant so far is kind of being pigeon-holed into pre-made, already-meta builds. (If you want a long-winded explanation of this, click the spoiler thing. If you agree as it is, feel free to skip it.)
With other classes, you’re allowed to pick and choose what you’d like to make a build that fits your playstyle. I played an off-tank ranger that used signets and had a focus on dodging to draw aggro and stay alive from the front lines. I used a greatsword, but a ranger of another mindset could have used sword and dagger to equal effect. However, the revenant seems to be far more straightforward:
i. pick your legend
ii. pick the weapons that complement your legend
iii. pick the traits that complement your legend.
In the article announcing the Ventari legend, it was explicitly stated that the staff weapon is meant to go with said legend. And if you want to be using the Ventari legend to its fullest, not only are you going to for-sure spec into the Salvation line, you’re likely going to use the traits that mention the tablet.
There are still some options here, but I don’t feel like I can just pick up the class and play what I want like I could with my ranger, warrior, or even guardian for that matter. Rather than choose my personal spec (tank, off-tank, DPS, healer) and set up my own skills for it, I’ve been handed legends instead.
Now, most classes get two weapons to switch between, giving them 10 fixed attack skills. They also have 5 utilities skills, of which they can choose, mix and match to fit their style.
Sorry for the long rant. My solution is this:
Increase skill variation and choice. What would be amazingly interesting to see (although nearly impossible) would be making weapon skills interchangeable. That way, as Revenants have two legends to switch between, giving them 10 fixed utility skills, they could have 5 weapon skills, of which they could choose, mix and match to fit their style.
I doubt that will ever happen. So another proposed solution is this: add additional utility skills to each legend, so we’re not all forced to have the same 10 skills if we run the same weapon/legend combination—which is GOING to happen, given how the weapons were made to fit the legends.
I’m very much looking forward to the upcoming legends and weapons being released, but if the actual mechanics of the Revenant don’t change, it’ll likely just be more of the same. (Read: sword/dagger meta for Shiro legend, etc.)
Again, sorry for the long post. These are my only concerns with the class so far! What do you guys think? Any other suggestions?
(edited by Syreas.8403)