Guild Wars 2

I know these skills are not final, so these are changes that I currently think need to be changed.
currently, most of the revenants condition damage comes from torment. this is all well and good, the problem comes in when people start spec’ing for +torment duration.
runes of tormenting +the +30% torment duration trait give +75% torment duration together, and that’s before some +20% torment duration sigil (doesn’t currently exist, but they have one for every other condition, so that will probably change soon.)
I have no issues with this high amount of +torment duration, except when it comes to the maces 3rd auto attack applying poison, this is a condition weapon, not everyone will bring power. this means that the first 2 mace auto attacks will do about the same, if not more damage than the 3rd auto attack hit in the chain. the 3rd auto attack is meant to deal significantly more damage than the 2 hits before, it just doesn’t feel right for the 3rd hit to feel so weak (may even be optimal to cancel a cast to avoid the 3rd hit for max condition damage)

for power builds, the sword/sword combo is supposed to be the damage set (or so they claim.) yet all the builds I find on the forums (or can think up myself) say to bring an offhand axe (which is supposed to be a condition weapon) in a power build for max damage. also, sword skill 4 looks way too similar to shield skill 5. if I bring an offhand sword, I want to deal as much damage as I can, if I wanted to avoid damage I would of brought a shield, these 2 offhand weapons sound like they fill the same roll.

I didn’t test these changes in the last beta weekend (as that was back when I still had hopes and dreams for the tempest) so I would like to hear from people if these concerns are valid.

I’m not very experience in the Revenant, but Poison is pretty good for minimizing the opponent’s healing. It shouldn’t be a waste to apply that. Seems to be in short supply without a Doom sigil for the Revenant too.

Off-hand Sword is meant to allow some defense while also allowing a very unique Pull. This can be useful for picking off a specific person from a group. Very useful actually. The block is nothing like Shield 5, so I don’t know what you mean.
Sword 4, much like Ranger GS 4, allows for some quick Blocks against counter-pressure, but also allows you to Immobilize a target to continue the onslaught. Shield 5 is far more defensive in that it prevents movement and heals, but doesn’t have any real follow-up. If anything Shield 5 is a bit weak, but I wouldn’t say they fulfill the same role.
Off-hand Sword is far better than Shield if you want to pick people off, while Shield is better for some group support.

The Off-hand Axe is actually a Shadowstep that puts you directly in the danger, so it’s better for maintaining/starting Pressure rather than picking someone off.

Sword 4 is to help maintain pressure and keep your squishy kitten alive. I will never -ever- be dissatisfied with a block on an offhand weapon. That said, mace is more offensive than offhand sword, which is more of a utility weapon. I don’t think this is a failing at all. It’s quirky, but that’s hardly a bad thing. You can pull some silly shenanigans with offhand sword.

Mace and Axe both do hilarious amounts of direct damage, even as condition weapons. Sword/Axe is not a bad setup for direct damage, even if it’s attacks apply conditions. Thinking of it as only a condition damage weapon is limiting yourself.

I think you’re overthinking things.