Guild Wars 2

Revenant – review and notes.

Hello everyone, well yesterday I spent my 4 hours of play, testing the revenant and I will share with the community my findings, thoughts, problems and suggestions I found out my way.

Introduction

Okay the revenant a heavily armored unit multipurpose unit, totally dependent on the stance setup the player might want to use as the game goes on this however will limited the actions the revenant can realize due to the short cool down on skills but requiring stance energy to realize, having a selected weapon inventory, the revenant has a different and unique combat approach.

The hammer is its long range weapon, with selected actions the player can actually do.
Hammer bolt, is an attack that technically pierces enemies and objects till it reaches its target.

Coalescence of ruin is a long range attack that deals more the damage when the enemy is in the end of the wave, the description says:

“slam the ground with your hammer, creating a cascading eruption of energy
First Impact 246
Second impact 369
Final impact 492
Number of Impacts: 3
Number of Targets: 5
Range 1,200”

This was the first error I found when I was playing with the revenant, at start I thought “so the attack scales three times on 5 enemies” but when I started in combat I found that it actually deals less damage when the enemy is close to you, in that matter I would say it need a better explanation, taking as a example the longbow skill number 1 of the ranger that explains perfectly how much damage it will do at certain distance, which it seems this hammer skill do the same.

Phase smash allows the revenant to leap in to a target area (ground target) then you will deal damage and add 2 seconds of chills on 5 enemies, then teleport back to the starting area of the leap, this skill also has an a camera effect, whenever you are looking and cast it, the camera will slowly move around the starting area facing directly to the targeted area. This somehow could have a problem between some players, the screen movement is awesome the first time you use it, but once you use it a lot, it would become boring for some people, so it could be considered a change on this to an instant camera change.

Field of the mists creates a mist wall that will prevent any projectile to reach the revenant, blocking its way to hit it, this has a combo field dark, but if you use phase smash or drop the hammer which both have combo finisher blast on it nothing would happen, I don’t know if this is the way it is intended or a bug, worth check it. This skill also will follow you wherever are you looking, or if you leap, it will also follow you, even using phase smash will extend the field of mist providing a good defense on wvw zerg fight.

Drop the hammer is the last skill, also ground targeting, it will summon a big hammer to knock down for 2 seconds up to 5 enemies after channeling, and this is not a leaping skill thought.

Conclusion, the hammer is an awesome long range “potency” based weapon for the revenant, the only drawback is the slow feeling the weapon has compared to the other weapons, this lead me to use number 1 skill and sometimes number 2 skills on dungeons if I wanted to re energize myself real quick using one single stance.

The second 2 handed weapon the revenant has at his disposal is the staff, a fast melee combat “potency – healing power” based weapon, this weapon works perfectly for stacking combat groups, since it will deal damage as it heals the allies at the same time.
Rapid swipe and forceful bash auto attacks are just that, attacks, but rejuvenating assault skill attacks the enemy and heals you and your allies at the same time.

Punishing sweep, is just a punch if not used correctly, the best use is for “interrupt” a foe that is attacking, when u use the skill at that time, another skill, debilitating slam, will be used damaging and weakening the target, so in other words, miss use it and you will land 1 hit, use it properly and you will land 2 hits and weaken the target.

Warding rift skill is medium distance attacks that shoot projectiles on nearby foes, and also blocking the enemy attacks while the rift is open.

Renewing wave skill will heal and remove conditions on you and your allies.

Surge of the mist, is a charge attack that knocks back all the enemies that cross your path.

Conclusion, the staff helps a lot on pve content that needs stacking because the low range of its healing powers.

The mace is a main hand “condition damage” based weapon, the condition aligned to it is torment, but also can inflict burning.

Misery swipe and anguish swipe auto attacks deals one stack of torment, while manifest toxin, and add poison to the target.

Searing fissure creates a wide line in front of you burning the enemies that are inside of it.

Echoing eruption is a leaping skill that will release a shockwave when you land dealing damage to the enemies.

The axe is the off hand “condition damage” based weapon, also inflicting torment and chilling enemies.

Frigid blitz is a shadow step skill, if other enemy that isn’t the target is hit it will be chilled, once it reaches its target you will shadow step to it.

Temporal rift is a skill that will open a line in front of you and stack torment; once the rift closes it will pull enemies.

Conclusion, this set up is a good condition based attacks, forcing the enemies to move and receive more damage from torment.

So far these weapons are a good example of the gameplay of the revenant, though it lacks a lot on a good weapon inventory, in my opinion, since the revenant oriented weapons have a different type of use compared to the other classes, it would be surprising that focus and torch where main hand weapons only, scepter be off hand only, and add sword and short bow to the inventory, the main reason I suggest short bow should be on the weapon inventory is because warrior has long bow, and guardian specialization will have another long bow, so instead of giving all the 3 heavily armored units longbows, revenant could get a short bow that has less distance than the others, but deal stun and blind.

The profession mechanic

Revenant has the particularity of acquire skills that belonged to past legendary heroes across the lore, on this matter, you can choose two of the three available heroes, thought the descriptions need to be more precise and less lazy, last moment typed.
The current legend stances and skills we have are.

Legendary Dwarf stance – this stance increases energy faster by receiving damage, and increases slowly by attacking.

“Invoke the power of the legendary dwarf king Jalis Ironhammer”

Soothing Stone is a healing skill that removed 3 conditions, depending on how many conditions it removed, you will gain stacks of retaliation.

Forced engagement slow and taunt the enemy, I have to note that taunt and slow, do not activate defiant, and so far the seering effigy it is the only one that is immune to it.

notes on taunt: it seems that some bosses auto attack are ranged like perfected destroyer on coe p3, and others do not have an auto attack like destructor of worlds in SE p3, also as the description suggest “involuntarily attack foes” it seems that the affected boss will basic attack the source only if it’s in range, if it’s not and has an auto attack it will attack the nearest, if doesn’t have an auto attack it will just stare at the caster.

Vengeful hammers are a skill that summons two hammers and once they attack they will disappear, like the spirit weapons of the guardian.

Inspiring reinforcement is a skill that creates a road that will give stability each pulse to allies and enemies in the zone will be weakened.

Rite of the great dwarf is a skill that allows you to resist a certain amount of damage for five seconds and also affects your allies within range. Pretty much in handy for bosses that aoe, instead using taunt, use this one.

Conclusion, as far I reach this stance is entirely defensive, looking for group survival and taunting more than dealing damage, it should be added in the description.

“Invoke the power of the legendary dwarf king Jalis Ironhammer, defensive oriented stance”

Also, why not a slight stat boost between stances, in this case increase tough???
Legendary Demon stance – this stance increases energy by dealing damage, receiving seems to lower it.

“Invoke the power of the legendary demon Mallyx The Unyielding”

Empowering misery is a healing skill with a healing bonus for each active condition you are suffering.

Banish enchantment is a boon removal skill it actually turns boons into confusion, the more the enemy has, more stacks will come up.

Unyielding anguish is a leaping skill and once landed it applies torment on the surrounding enemies, if you have a lot of conditions you will add more torment to them.

Pain absorption is a skill which blinds the caster and pulls the conditions from your allies to you but also, gives resistance to conditions to you and your allies, the more conditions you draw, more resistance you will get.

Emprace the darkness is a transform skill, allowing you to copy and transfer the conditions you have on your surrounding enemies. It gives one stack of torment once when you activate it.

Conclusion, this stance is a condition damage focus stance; it should be noted into the description, it should add condition damage when activated.

Legendary Centaur Stance

“Invoke the power of the legendary centaur ventari”

I did not used this stance a lot, because it’s a healing based stance, and I personally suck at healing lol, but in short, all the skills are healing related, as prior, it should be noted on the description that is a healing related stance and it should add healing power.

Specialization system

Well the traits contained on it are quite well aligned to the legendary hero it represents increasing its abilities and adding interesting features.
Corruption is the legendary demon trait; it focuses on increase torment duration and damage based on conditions.

Retribution is the legendary dwarf trait, it focuses on endure damage and improve taunt condition.

Salvation is the legendary centaur trait, focused on improve the party healing and removing conditions.

Invocation is the neutral trait, focused on the use of the energy use, increasing a wide stats when is low or high.

Note: charged mist seems to work only on utility skills, should be added on the description.