Guild Wars 2

Auto attack is fine as is, I think it is great. That third attack with the rift is really cool.

Precision strike is a bit lackluster at the moment. The chill is just not long enough so either increase the chill to 5 seconds. The range on this strike is nice, but it would be better if it was a full circle whirl that sent blades out in every direction.

Unrelenting Assault. Move along this is my favorite skill in the entire game. very unique, very well executed, and very useful with the evade and the might.

Offhand. This is where most people would say that sword is lackluster, as offhand shield and axe are far superior.

Duelists Preparation. I honestly do not know what to do with this. it is a solid block but it is the skill that comes next that is lackstar. The imobolize is inconsistent. I feel like the block is needed to make the set allow for some defensive play, but I cannot suggest how to fix the channel skill.

Grapsing shadow. I love the idea of this but currently very hard to execute. Would be nice if it was instead a 600 range skill that shadowstepped you to the foe, then stab your foe, shadow step backwards and pull them. This would truely make it a “pick target skill” as you are in and out in a second.

as i saying since the beginning i saw the sword offhand

Sword off hand = Guardian shield before buff. no one takes it because all the other off hand offers more and better stuff.

1 month after Hot release and 95% of the revenant playerbase won’t ever again touch Offhand Sword

It’s funny, when people were discussing the possibility to move during Crystal Hibernation, “everyone” said sword off-hand is the best option. We didn’t get movement on shield #5, but suddenly sword OH is not good enough. What changed?

On a side note, Precision strike is in a great spot, don’t forget that we have Chill as a themed slow (instead of Cripple), but this condition is a lot more stronger because it also affects cooldowns.

tbh sword is in a great spot, now with the change to the auto attack even more.

you can’t compare offhand sword, axe and shield at all because they all fill different roles.

axe is a fast offhand with a teleport, designed for use when you don’t slot shiro.

offhand sword is a defensive dps weapon to pull people out of a crowd, isolate and kill them.

shield is a sustain offhand weapon and offers no damage at all but only support/defense.

Jekkt.6045:

tbh sword is in a great spot, now with the change to the auto attack even more.

you can’t compare offhand sword, axe and shield at all because they all fill different roles.

axe is a fast offhand with a teleport, designed for use when you don’t slot shiro.

offhand sword is a defensive dps weapon to pull people out of a crowd, isolate and kill them.

shield is a sustain offhand weapon and offers no damage at all but only support/defense.

exactly, also talking about mere blocking sword is the best option given duration/CD.
I agree that we should make something about #5: it fails often given the nature of the skill, but the idea of pickin up a target and isolate it is neat.

I prefer sword offhand over shield personally. Mobile block on much lower cd which allows you to block far more damage than you could do with shield+heal.

Howered i agree that sword oh outside of a block is mediocre and need buffs -shock wave and changes – grasp shadow.

Who knows..maybe ill pick a shield in the end too if these issues wont get resolved.

Few changes could improve the usability of this weapon:

- Reduce the cost of Shackling Wave to 5 energy, and allow this skill to be used without a target.
- Increase the attack range of Grasping Shadow to 170.

FLiP.7680:

Few changes could improve the usability of this weapon:

- Reduce the cost of Shackling Wave to 5 energy, and allow this skill to be used without a target.
- Increase the attack range of Grasping Shadow to 170.

I would also like Shackling Wave to have the same range as Precision Strike.

I’ve been trying to make off hand sword work, but I feel like I’m gimping myself.. To use sword offhand is to effectively limit yourself to 4 weapon skills in pvp, since Grasping Shadow is near impossible to pull off consistently, with how mobile everyone is(and I’m sure lag plays a part as well). The damage is nice, but the range needs to be increased.

The offhands for rev are all a tad lackluster. Though this seems a normal trend for offhanded weapons in general.

The main problem i have atm with sword offhand is bugged block. I have animation up, progress bar up thinking i still block but nope. Nadanada. The “pull” is also awful and doesnt really make any sense.

Jekkt.6045:

tbh sword is in a great spot, now with the change to the auto attack even more.

you can’t compare offhand sword, axe and shield at all because they all fill different roles.

axe is a fast offhand with a teleport, designed for use when you don’t slot shiro.

offhand sword is a defensive dps weapon to pull people out of a crowd, isolate and kill them.

shield is a sustain offhand weapon and offers no damage at all but only support/defense.

This.

Not every offhand needs to be high damage numbers. Sword offhand has a place, and it fills this place nicely. The fact that we can x/sword and x/shield for block rotations alone is amazing.

Sword mainhand is borderline broken(aka very good) as far as usefulness goes. Stop trying to make arenanet focus on stuff that is already good. The only thing that can come from this is nerfs.

Cyninja.2954:

Jekkt.6045:

tbh sword is in a great spot, now with the change to the auto attack even more.

you can’t compare offhand sword, axe and shield at all because they all fill different roles.

axe is a fast offhand with a teleport, designed for use when you don’t slot shiro.

offhand sword is a defensive dps weapon to pull people out of a crowd, isolate and kill them.

shield is a sustain offhand weapon and offers no damage at all but only support/defense.

This.

Not every offhand needs to be high damage numbers. Sword offhand has a place, and it fills this place nicely. The fact that we can x/sword and x/shield for block rotations alone is amazing.

Sword mainhand is borderline broken(aka very good) as far as usefulness goes. Stop trying to make arenanet focus on stuff that is already good. The only thing that can come from this is nerfs.

Having a good block and a kinda useless evade pull is borderline broken?

Namica.2951:

Cyninja.2954:

Jekkt.6045:

tbh sword is in a great spot, now with the change to the auto attack even more.

you can’t compare offhand sword, axe and shield at all because they all fill different roles.

axe is a fast offhand with a teleport, designed for use when you don’t slot shiro.

offhand sword is a defensive dps weapon to pull people out of a crowd, isolate and kill them.

shield is a sustain offhand weapon and offers no damage at all but only support/defense.

This.

Not every offhand needs to be high damage numbers. Sword offhand has a place, and it fills this place nicely. The fact that we can x/sword and x/shield for block rotations alone is amazing.

Sword mainhand is borderline broken(aka very good) as far as usefulness goes. Stop trying to make arenanet focus on stuff that is already good. The only thing that can come from this is nerfs.

Having a good block and a kinda useless evade pull is borderline broken?

Yes, it is.

Oh wait, you were just looking at the 2 skills on their own?

My bad, I thought we were considering them in view of the revenant entire class. You know the one with superb survival, excelent movement, lots of utility.

Being able to have 2 offhand skills for block (sword and shield) ON TOP of everything else the revenent has is borderline broken. But sure, keep looking at the skills in their own little universe. Meanwhile, the rest of the disscussion will eal with balance to the class.

Cyninja.2954:

Namica.2951:

Cyninja.2954:

Jekkt.6045:

tbh sword is in a great spot, now with the change to the auto attack even more.

you can’t compare offhand sword, axe and shield at all because they all fill different roles.

axe is a fast offhand with a teleport, designed for use when you don’t slot shiro.

offhand sword is a defensive dps weapon to pull people out of a crowd, isolate and kill them.

shield is a sustain offhand weapon and offers no damage at all but only support/defense.

This.

Not every offhand needs to be high damage numbers. Sword offhand has a place, and it fills this place nicely. The fact that we can x/sword and x/shield for block rotations alone is amazing.

Sword mainhand is borderline broken(aka very good) as far as usefulness goes. Stop trying to make arenanet focus on stuff that is already good. The only thing that can come from this is nerfs.

Having a good block and a kinda useless evade pull is borderline broken?

Yes, it is.

Oh wait, you were just looking at the 2 skills on their own?

My bad, I thought we were considering them in view of the revenant entire class. You know the one with superb survival, excelent movement, lots of utility.

Being able to have 2 offhand skills for block (sword and shield) ON TOP of everything else the revenent has is borderline broken. But sure, keep looking at the skills in their own little universe. Meanwhile, the rest of the disscussion will eal with balance to the class.

Oh..thats why people goes for staff (meta for junkey “top” ppl) or hammer over sword/shield+sword/sword. Got it. Sword offhand is terrible and thats a fact.

FLiP.7680:

Few changes could improve the usability of this weapon:

- Reduce the cost of Shackling Wave to 5 energy, and allow this skill to be used without a target.
- Increase the attack range of Grasping Shadow to 170.

This. The #5 is basically impossible to pull off on a moving target, & difficult to use even on a target that is chilled/crippled, i don’t even bother trying anymore. Not requiring a traget would make the #4 a lot more reliable as well.

Burtnik.5218:

Cyninja.2954:

Namica.2951:

Cyninja.2954:

Jekkt.6045:

tbh sword is in a great spot, now with the change to the auto attack even more.

you can’t compare offhand sword, axe and shield at all because they all fill different roles.

axe is a fast offhand with a teleport, designed for use when you don’t slot shiro.

offhand sword is a defensive dps weapon to pull people out of a crowd, isolate and kill them.

shield is a sustain offhand weapon and offers no damage at all but only support/defense.

This.

Not every offhand needs to be high damage numbers. Sword offhand has a place, and it fills this place nicely. The fact that we can x/sword and x/shield for block rotations alone is amazing.

Sword mainhand is borderline broken(aka very good) as far as usefulness goes. Stop trying to make arenanet focus on stuff that is already good. The only thing that can come from this is nerfs.

Having a good block and a kinda useless evade pull is borderline broken?

Yes, it is.

Oh wait, you were just looking at the 2 skills on their own?

My bad, I thought we were considering them in view of the revenant entire class. You know the one with superb survival, excelent movement, lots of utility.

Being able to have 2 offhand skills for block (sword and shield) ON TOP of everything else the revenent has is borderline broken. But sure, keep looking at the skills in their own little universe. Meanwhile, the rest of the disscussion will eal with balance to the class.

Oh..thats why people goes for staff (meta for junkey “top” ppl) or hammer over sword/shield+sword/sword. Got it. Sword offhand is terrible and thats a fact.

Except that they don’t…

Current pve meta for Revenant is Sword+x/Hammer or Sword+x/Staff. But nice try.

Am I the only one who also finds the “chain animation” for Shackling Wave absolutely hideous? :/ the visuals shouldn’t ofc be that important, but I think the effects on that one are downright ruining the Shiro feeling (major thanks to the dev team for even trying to satisfy so many people though) but I would really like to see a change to this. Skip the chains I say.

Cyninja.2954:

Except that they don’t…

Current pve meta for Revenant is Sword+x/Hammer or Sword+x/Staff. But nice try.

Who dont? You make 0 sense. Pve meta is either axe offhand, shield and that is. As you said yourself current meta is sword/x+hammer or staff. Not sword/sword+sword/shield. Please stop trolling and derailing thread, ty.

I always felt Sword 5 should be a 600 range shadowstep to a enemy, then you shadowstep back and pull the enemy to where you are. It allows one to control where exactly they want their target to be and deal with the issue of range.

Ive prefered offhand axe over sword since the first shiro beta test. Axe does more damage, has a gap closer and an aoe pull with a large range, especially since the cooldown was added to phase traversal, the blocks on sword and shield are nice but i dont find them necessary with how much evasion you can have if you know how to manage energy and endurance and use your sword and hammer 3 more defensively than offensively

Zeroth.7046:

I always felt Sword 5 should be a 600 range shadowstep to a enemy, then you shadowstep back and pull the enemy to where you are. It allows one to control where exactly they want their target to be and deal with the issue of range.

The fun fact is that actually how it worked from datamined stuff. Not just that but for example staff had taunt, cripple and retal on it along with fury on aa as opposed to these useless heal orbs, shield 4 removed condition etc.

http://i.imgur.com/SjX7u2A.png
First version of datamined skills, back when we had dagger offhand (i wish we could get it back) then later on

http://i.imgur.com/wP1UXvH.jpg
“pull 600, range 600” and thats how it should work right now. Melee pull..wtf? whats the point?

Axe is my favorite offhand by far, but it usually makes more sense to use shield on a glassy or defensive build since it becomes a third heal skill. I will say though that reapers that know what theyre doing counter shield 5 quite badly.

SW #2 is good for trigger skill combos.

I use #5 as interrupt and get out of AoE, very strong when it works.

Burtnik.5218:

Cyninja.2954:

Except that they don’t…

Current pve meta for Revenant is Sword+x/Hammer or Sword+x/Staff. But nice try.

Who dont? You make 0 sense. Pve meta is either axe offhand, shield and that is. As you said yourself current meta is sword/x+hammer or staff. Not sword/sword+sword/shield. Please stop trolling and derailing thread, ty.

I was responding to your bs here:

Burtnik.5218:

Oh..thats why people goes for staff (meta for junkey “top” ppl) or hammer over sword/shield+sword/sword. Got it. Sword offhand is terrible and thats a fact.

I’m not the one derailing this thread. You clearly have no clue of revenant. Here read a bit around before answering again: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/revenant/Guide-DPS-Revenant-for-PVE/page/3#post5731122

Sword and shield offhand fill a role. This role is not damage. They fill the role decent enough to not need changing. You can accept that, or keep moaning. I personally really don’t care.

The only thing I am really finding silly about it is how #2 is called Precision strike and looks really imprecise. XD

Cyninja.2954:

Burtnik.5218:

Cyninja.2954:

Except that they don’t…

Current pve meta for Revenant is Sword+x/Hammer or Sword+x/Staff. But nice try.

Who dont? You make 0 sense. Pve meta is either axe offhand, shield and that is. As you said yourself current meta is sword/x+hammer or staff. Not sword/sword+sword/shield. Please stop trolling and derailing thread, ty.

I was responding to your bs here:

Burtnik.5218:

Oh..thats why people goes for staff (meta for junkey “top” ppl) or hammer over sword/shield+sword/sword. Got it. Sword offhand is terrible and thats a fact.

I’m not the one derailing this thread. You clearly have no clue of revenant. Here read a bit around before answering again: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/revenant/Guide-DPS-Revenant-for-PVE/page/3#post5731122

Sword and shield offhand fill a role. This role is not damage. They fill the role decent enough to not need changing. You can accept that, or keep moaning. I personally really don’t care.

And you still make absolutely no sense. Nobody will carry sword offhand in pve for other than aesthetics reasons. Axe does more and has a pull as well (group, not single target pulling you away from the boss), shield provides small group support, block and healing. Sword offhand is dead. Also either way who the f cares about pve here when op talks form pvp perspective? People these days..either way im done with you.

Burtnik.5218:

Cyninja.2954:

Burtnik.5218:

Cyninja.2954:

Except that they don’t…

Current pve meta for Revenant is Sword+x/Hammer or Sword+x/Staff. But nice try.

Who dont? You make 0 sense. Pve meta is either axe offhand, shield and that is. As you said yourself current meta is sword/x+hammer or staff. Not sword/sword+sword/shield. Please stop trolling and derailing thread, ty.

I was responding to your bs here:

Burtnik.5218:

Oh..thats why people goes for staff (meta for junkey “top” ppl) or hammer over sword/shield+sword/sword. Got it. Sword offhand is terrible and thats a fact.

I’m not the one derailing this thread. You clearly have no clue of revenant. Here read a bit around before answering again: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/revenant/Guide-DPS-Revenant-for-PVE/page/3#post5731122

Sword and shield offhand fill a role. This role is not damage. They fill the role decent enough to not need changing. You can accept that, or keep moaning. I personally really don’t care.

And you still make absolutely no sense. Nobody will carry sword offhand in pve for other than aesthetics reasons. Axe does more and has a pull as well (group, not single target pulling you away from the boss), shield provides small group support, block and healing. Sword offhand is dead. Also either way who the f cares about pve here when op talks form pvp perspective? People these days..either way im done with you.

Do you even read what you yourself and others write?

First, please point me to where the OP was talking about pvp.

Second, you yourself were first talking about staff meta, then about pve sword/x meta, then you are saying this is about pvp meta. The thread has and always has been about sword and it’s uses to revenant.

Also, may I point you towards raids and possibilities for uses for block rotations. Just because you were and are unable to forsee uses for skills, does not mean everything needs to be balanced around optiml damage.

The thread I linked, or better yet go to the DnT original thread, clearly shows that each weapon set has its uses. There is no reason to change offhand sword at the current state of the game.

Let’s see what your next spin is.

Well sorry to disappoint some people, even though I wouldn’t mind a little buff to the sword oh, if you think it’s useless/dead well then you are not very smart . At all . As some one who mainly does pve/pvp – I find the sword to be my fav, for reason beyond aesthetics . In both game modes, the block on 4 has saved my life multiple times , whilst allowing me to maintain mobility unlike shield 5, and the sword 5 functions as an interrupt , breakbar breaker , extra dodge and relocation device. That’s brilliant, much better than shield imho. Gives a variety of gameplay options – more than axe( assuming in you in shiro) or shield. Also even though it sure would be nice if you shadow stepped to your target on sword 5 and then kidnapped them, it would make the skill too easy – and you can achieve the same thing already if you use PT and then sword5. The flip skill on sword 4 could be buffed though, feels unimpactful

Precision Strike to 5s Chill? You do know that it has 4s CD, right?

MH Sword is our most used weapon by far and can be included in every build. Doesn’t need anything.

As for OH Sword #5, I wouldn’t mind it being a skillshot or ground targeted ability. Something like:

Grasping Shadow
Blink to chosen location, bounding and dealing damage up to 3 enemies in area. If this skill strikes, shadowstep backwards, pulling them towards you.

Now it’s not only a more reliable CC, but also a movement skill – short range blink – if it hits nobody. So there’s some reason to pick it over Shield.

Precision Strike
Solution: Strike nearby foes with precision, sending out blades which damage and taunt them.

Damage Damage: 367 (1.0)?
Taunt (1s): Involuntarily attack foes.
Number of Targets: 3
Combo Combo Finisher: Whirl
Range: 600

Functionality is same except replaced chill with taunt. Reduced duration from 1.5 to 1. Chill has nothing to do with a sword Rev. Taunt makes more sense. Taunt also synchs with other unused Rev traits like Dismantle Fortifications and Improved Aggression so those can be more viable options.

Duelists Preparation > Shackling Wave
Solution: Slice through the air sending a wave of energy from the mists and pull your foe to you.

Damage: 275 (1.275)?
Combo Finisher: Projectile
Pull: 1200
Range: 1200

The block (Duelists Preparation) is fine but the effect after a block (Shackling Wave) is very lacking. It should be a single target long range pull after blocking, not multi target short range immobilize. That pull should be 1200 to help close a gap with ranged toons that always fight on their terms. It is still dependent on energy and blocking first so bump the damage a tad and add a combo finisher. This change now synchs with Grasping Shadow and Dismantle Fortifications.

Grasping Shadow
Solution: Stab your foe, connecting them to you. Shadowstep backward and pull your foe towards you.

Damage Damage: 468 (1.275)?
Pull: 600
Attack Range: 300
Shadowstep Range: 600

Yup, this skill is virtually impossible to execute because of the silly 130 attack range. Even if the foe is under Chill, they still move out of range, lol. Don’t forget about aftercast and precast which made executing this impossible on a moving target. Easy to execute on an npcs since they aren’t moving. Increase the attack range to 300.

Enhanced Bulwark
Solution: Renamed to Sliver Armor. New functionality: When blocking attacks, siphon life from nearby foes.

Range: 300
Damage Life Siphon Damage: 243 (0.084)?
Healing Life Siphon Healing: 306 (0.1)?

I reworked this to add more survivability to a dual sword Rev but is dependent on blocking and a foe(s) being nearby. Synchs well with Duelist’s Preparation. Obviously it is for any block like aegis which is why I made it for a grandmaster trait and removed the unused bulwark effect. Enchanted Daggers is very conditional (needs to hit, time limit, 30 sec recharge) as opposed to other healing skills that simply heal upon execution with short recharge. This rework is conditional too but helps with the conditional of Enchanted Daggers. Hopefully this can make sword offhand a great option. Just like Sliver Armor in GW1, one on one it is not very efficient but mass foes targeting you can make this trait useful and deadly. Very Shiro-esque. This gives Glint shielders another option too by choosing this over the popular boon/heal/anti spike Soothing Bastion or the widely used damage output Elder’s Force. Who used Enhanced Bulwark? lol

phoenixwil.6071:

Precision Strike
Solution: Strike nearby foes with precision, sending out blades which damage and taunt them.

Damage Damage: 367 (1.0)?
Taunt (1s): Involuntarily attack foes.
Number of Targets: 3
Combo Combo Finisher: Whirl
Range: 600

Functionality is same except replaced chill with taunt. Reduced duration from 1.5 to 1. Chill has nothing to do with a sword Rev. Taunt makes more sense. Taunt also synchs with other unused Rev traits like Dismantle Fortifications and Improved Aggression so those can be more viable options.

I honestly feel that Chill is better for slowing down your target to stay within Sword and its skill’s (relatively small) effective range. Its current implementation (as a ranged, projectile attack) isn’t the best, but the effect isn’t the issue. I’d personally make Taunt more available by reducing Eye for an Eye to 20~25s and leaving the rest to Jalis’ Forced Engagement.

Duelists Preparation > Shackling Wave
Solution: Slice through the air sending a wave of energy from the mists and pull your foe to you.

Damage: 275 (1.275)?
Combo Finisher: Projectile
Pull: 1200
Range: 1200

The block (Duelists Preparation) is fine but the effect after a block (Shackling Wave) is very lacking. It should be a single target long range pull after blocking, not multi target short range immobilize. That pull should be 1200 to help close a gap with ranged toons that always fight on their terms. It is still dependent on energy and blocking first so bump the damage a tad and add a combo finisher. This change now synchs with Grasping Shadow and Dismantle Fortifications.

Again, I dont think the immobilize is a bad idea (instead of chasing down a target, it helps pin them down), but its not really strong enough. OH Axe also has a Shadowstep and “Pull”, so instead of stepping on its toes too much. Sword helping pin a target down seems like a better way to make it a distinct option. Give it three or four pulses of immobilize (1s) once its used instead of its meager single 2s Immob. pulse and it’ll probably do its job better. Not sure how I feel about the combo finisher aspect, but I’d at least increase the range on the immobilize

Grasping Shadow
Solution: Stab your foe, connecting them to you. Shadowstep backward and pull your foe towards you.

Damage Damage: 468 (1.275)?
Pull: 600
Attack Range: 300
Shadowstep Range: 600

Yup, this skill is virtually impossible to execute because of the silly 130 attack range. Even if the foe is under Chill, they still move out of range, lol. Don’t forget about aftercast and precast which made executing this impossible on a moving target. Easy to execute on an npcs since they aren’t moving. Increase the attack range to 300.

This is agreeable. This could also be inverted: Instead of stabbing before shadowstep+pulling, it can be a single target ranged pull that follows up with the attack. Either still helps with singling out key targets, though I feel the latter would help when there’s AoEs walling off your approach

Enhanced Bulwark
Solution: Renamed to Sliver Armor. New functionality: When blocking attacks, siphon life from nearby foes.

Range: 300
Damage Life Siphon Damage: 243 (0.084)?
Healing Life Siphon Healing: 306 (0.1)?

I reworked this to add more survivability to a dual sword Rev but is dependent on blocking and a foe(s) being nearby. Synchs well with Duelist’s Preparation. Obviously it is for any block like aegis which is why I made it for a grandmaster trait and removed the unused bulwark effect. Enchanted Daggers is very conditional (needs to hit, time limit, 30 sec recharge) as opposed to other healing skills that simply heal upon execution with short recharge. This rework is conditional too but helps with the conditional of Enchanted Daggers. Hopefully this can make sword offhand a great option.

We already get two forms of Life Siphon on Assassin’s Annihilation (if taken) and Focused Siphoning (three if you count Enchanted Daggers, which I feel could use a 5 second cooldown reduction considering its stipulations and the ability to be blocked/reflected) It would also add quite a bit of healing to someone who manages to use Crystal Hibernation to block a Melee based burst (on top of its own).
Staff also has a very low CD block to consider as well…

Considering the Boon-heavy nature of Herald, we’d probably end up with something like:
“Grant yourself and nearby allies Protection and Regeneration (8 sec.) when you successfully block an attack” on a 15~20 second ICD if they decided to remove the extra stack of Stability while keeping it as a GM trait.

phoenixwil.6071:

Precision Strike
Solution: Strike nearby foes with precision, sending out blades which damage and taunt them.

Damage Damage: 367 (1.0)?
Taunt (1s): Involuntarily attack foes.
Number of Targets: 3
Combo Combo Finisher: Whirl
Range: 600

Functionality is same except replaced chill with taunt. Reduced duration from 1.5 to 1. Chill has nothing to do with a sword Rev. Taunt makes more sense. Taunt also synchs with other unused Rev traits like Dismantle Fortifications and Improved Aggression so those can be more viable options.

And taunt would stack up to 3s if theres only one foe, right? Seems legit m8