Guild Wars 2

PvP:
We have a huge problem in pvp right now, which is viability in mid to low tiers of play, and while we are OK in high-tiers of pvp it requires significantly more effort, knowledge and skill to be a good member on the team compared to many other meta classes. As a reminder if you didn’t read the intro, I’m not the best player but this is from gathering info from streams, pro / high level players, and comparing statistics with other professions performance. So what have I found myself from experience and interviews with some high-end players?
Survability – Revs defence in spvp has always been poor, with heals being weak or exploitable (avoid attacking a rev during glint heal, for example). We have terrible “oh crap” talent and skills, like shield 5 which roots you and can be countered by unblockable attacks among other problems, and soothing bastion grandmaster trait that is the worst “second life” talent for the same problems unlike other professions’ (warriors defy pain, engineers shrink talent and elixir, rangers signet of stone and talent that procs it, elementalist can move during blocking etc etc). The worst thing about our survability though, is CONDI REMOVAL. we are forced into Mallyx or retribution to have borderline acceptable ways of dealing with condi, but that doesn’t work if we are trying to do damage which we lack (read problems of damage in sections below) as we need to remove a high damage trait line like invocation and devastation for retribution or glint/shiro for mallyx. Less of a problem with condo builds as we can run mallyx with corruption + retribution, but condi rev is terrible atm.
Damage – Used to be good, but from the last couple patches especially the most recent they have become mediocre in damage. This means nothing makes up for the lack of defensive capability anymore, as their offence is below average. Sword 2 requires positioning and skill to hit hard in the past now it hits like a wet noodle regardless, being passable damage if you hit all projectiles again which only top tier players can consistently do. Sword 3 is terrible damage against multiple players, requiring a 1v1 scenario or used situationaly as an evade (that displaces you, again a situation high level players can more easily take care of with e.g. Shirt evade). So right now for low level play you only auto attack – otherwise there’s a high chance you are gimping your damage.

Gathered Opinions of a Solution to SPvP: We need to make changes to the revs contribution to a pvp team without requiring so much skill and experience, to help low tier-mid tier play or people will keep getting punished for having a revenant on the team. This does not mean we need to be easily OP, just more effectiveness without needing so much experience and effort, but still requiring top play to reach the ceiling, right now there is only a ceiling that makes you somewhat good if you reach it, while everything under is below average. We can improve baseline survivability to help with this, and/or up the damage on weapons and offhand slots that currently only provide utility. With survivability improved you can see top players using more glass builds without shield taking advantage of the new offhand prowess, while lower tiers resort to the shield but have better defence and offence than the they do currently. Finally, improve CONDI REMOVAL FOR REVENANT CORE, through adding some condi removal in utilities/wep skills or adding more in talents. The whole condi weakness thing is also huge downer for new to mid tier revs – nobody likes to be whittled down with no option other than significantly nerfing your own damage to spec into things to be able to deal with

Conclusion:
Like most pieces of text, it’s even more boring if I bring in numbers and graphs but honestly I probably would have if this topic creator allowed drawing and graphs. Point is I’ve tried to include as much as I can on the findings of the issues and explain them in a way that does not include an overflow of numbers. Feel free to discuss these things with me in-game if that is your passion too. I hope some of you put forth your thoughts in improving the rev and bringing it in line with many of the other great professions.

TL DR: Lack of viability in best build for the highest tier pve content and spvp atm, lack of viable alternatives and weapons to support different builds that may help this situation, lack of approachability for newer and mid tier players in SPvP because of high skill cap in an unentertaining way (underwhelming against condi as an inexperienced player, low survability, low damage aside from autoattacks from sword unless other skills are positioned and used at the right time).

Intro:
I’m not the best Revenant player out there, but with a year of experience and with my day job and passion being number+statistics related, I have gathered and compared so many factors of the revenant that has resulted in shocking results. It was already obvious with complaints, but the numbers as well as interviews (more like stalker questions lol) from me to high level rev players revealed just how bad things really are.
After the most recent balance patch most of us have realized that the viability of Revenant in multiple modes of play has plummeted – it doesn’t have even close to a spot on Raid groups in guilds or PUGs, it’s very mediocre in PvP to which I get called to swap class often during my matches, and it has the less variety in terms of “viable” builds that are borderline playable.

TL DR: Lack of viability in best build for the highest tier pve content and spvp atm, lack of viable alternatives and weapons to support different builds that may help this situation, lack of approachability for newer and mid tier players in SPvP because of high skill cap in an unentertaining way (underwhelming against condi as an inexperienced player, low survability, low damage aside from autoattacks from sword unless other skills are positioned and used at the right time).

PvE and Lack of Variety:
The lack of playable variety of builds wasn’t so painstakingly obvious in the past, except now when the “best” build for pve or structured pvp is now average or below average, when we look to other options to try find a stronger set up it becomes extremely obvious how little we have.
The dps of the condi build is so far behind its a joke (you can test at the raid training area) and non of the trees synergize well with Corruption line to allow you to “focus” on a condi build completely. You selection corruption and the other 2 trees are just utility or very little boosts to damage in a non-condi fashion (boosting your crit chance, flat dmg, speedier revival speed etc).
The dps of standard power-based build like mentioned above is average right now, despite being the best option we got. Because of this fact, that our “best” build is behind in SPvP and PvE high content like raids, we have tried to find something better this patch. This has made it blatantly obvious that we have VERY FEW OPTIONS when trying to make a power build, we have to spec into Devastation, and we have to spec into Invocation, and we have to spec into Herald. In each of the trees, the dps talents are either set in stone for the tier or don’t matter much like first tier of invocation. On top of that, we are pigeonholed into Glint as a legend, and as for the second legend Shiro if we don’t have a chronomancer on the party for quickness, otherwise Jalis is used for the sole utility skill of vengeful hammers as the only option for a dps increase. Even worse, we are forced into using sword, and all offhand options don’t add any dps, only utility.
Our utility alone used to bring us a spot in raid groups, but losing the increase in buff duration from 50% to 33% with resonance from Facet of Nature really hurt us bad, along with the raid needing two Mesmers to keep up quickness and alacrity and our utility becoming worse all that’s left is our average damage.

Solution: We have the least variety in combinations utility skills already, needing us to use the same 3 per legend, so we need more excuse to match different legends for raids and high dps play. Or better viability on a tank or support role so we have the possibility of another choice. Buffing underused utility skills will help, as well as upping the damage of offhands so they are MORE THAN JUST SIMPLE UTILITY. We have few enough weapons as it is! The most common complaint I’ve heard when asking people who gave up or are giving up on the rev is lack of options and weapons – this really needs to be changed. The core mechanic of the class with legends already forces us into certain “sets” of utility skills depending on our need (Shiro dmg, Mallyx condi, etc) we don’t need weapons and talents to also be so straightforward and limiting. Which more options and damage choices across the board, more combinations will be found that can result in more variety and love for the class as well as viability in raids. We can bring some nice utility with Glint already, so perhaps higher damage to bring us in line to that of thief (second behind ele) might allow groups to bring us as opposed to thief if they need more consistent boon help. Some issues are in regards with how fixed the meta is with certain professions locked into spots on raids, but that is not the reason why revenant is mediocre in pve right now.

Yeah I feel like being completely trolled lol.. First he makes us think he was gonna die for real with an illness or suicide then reignite our hope the channels back and videos are coming but nothing!

I mean I really appreciate your builds and help and I don’t want to rush you making new content but if you’re really back why can’t you give us access to your old content or something :/

I’m still unsure as to the entire burst set up, I have an idea but it would be nice if you told us the exact combinations of skills to burst with. Atm I do Hilt bash → Pet swap → Maul → Wep Swap → No. 2 on bow.

trianglecubed.3750:

No, seriously.

Can we get a guardian tank build that’s actually like a tank, you know, lots of damage and hard to kill, instead of like an APC, no damage, hard to kill, and support for the squishies?

I keep seeing all these “Guardian Tank/healer” posts all over the place, but I don’t wanna play an APC, I wanna play a darn tank.

Any ideas on builds that would actually let me be a tanky tank? Damage, survivability, armor, all in one convenient package?

I get what you’re trying to say by “tank”.. but traditionally in MMOs or games in general the tanks don’t do that much dmg… they are supposed to take a lot of punishment, support skills either included or not included. And guardians can take a lot of punishment like you mentioned.

If you want something that does a LOT of damage AND can tank a lot of damage, that is not a “tank” character, thats pretty much a jack of all trades, the closest would be a warrior who can do decent dmg and still take punishment. That being said the ones that are really topping the charts in terms of damage are elementalist and thieves so to make a tank that does a lot of damage is nigh on impossible. If you were to do as much damage as a thief / elementalist right now, but also take a lot more punishment than they do (along with all the support that guardian naturally has through virtues) what are they gonna provide that’s different?

And since the vids aren’t up and despite doing well, I really want to know the exact burst set up and combo options, can anyone explain this?

Nila.7813:

Since today is my last day alive, I wanted to make sure everyone knows I’ll be disappearing from Guild Wars 2. Just wanted to share some last stuff that may be interesting to someone:
Skirmishing and Quickdraw sux – Double Marskman proc rapidfire hits more than 2 skirmishing rapidfires
Vampirism rune is the only choice – everything else gimps the build
You can do well versus any class offpoint giving the decap but not the full cap, try to evade and los until you can burst with petswap. You can stow third autoattack of Greatsword 3 times for 3 evade frames(this is key to holding 1v1s and then counterpressuring)
You won’t win with any 1v1 w a warrior as long as he has mace – too much reflect. Just disengage from him. If you’re holding a node and one is approaching you its better to knock,stealth and disengage. You can fight them in crossroads but getting 2nd endure with maceblock reflect is a waste of time essentialy.
Abusing terrain is the biggest thing with this build. When no one can port to you you can win trashton of matchups.
Staff is a viable choice for temple since you can get to the highround on middle and easily throw free damage on the enemy, in soloQ its worth taking staff just for temple to snowball the first fight since it basically ends 80% of games.
You should be calling targets for you team right about youre ready for burst. Necro is not a great target since you need to range them with your limited condi clear and when you want to burst you finish off in melee. Eles make better targets.
On legacy watch the node and poke from the side, get on the siderock to avoid ports when someone seem to switch to you.
When you get jumped on by a thief, clear the blind and use protect me then land your cc. If you can land protect me he will for sure disengage. YOu can also clear the blind and counterattack tho its a bit more tricky.
Your +1s are as effective as top classes as long as you land your cc initially.
2v2s are mostly good if your partner can set up cc for you, avoid warriors.
Signet of the wild is trash if the enemy has a thief/rev since protect me wins you these matchups.
Lightning reflex is trash if the enemy doesnt have anyone you need to range (mes,nec,dps ele)
Tiger and Smoke are the best pets because they proc the marksmanship traits easily and get the most burst out of it. Other pets are a waste of time.
Wilderness Survival can make your matchup vs engi winnable if you manage to poison their heal/venting mist constantly.
You always need to stay out of range and try to abuse terrain before looking for burst opportunities.
The sustained damage is crap, although you make million dmg per game but its just constantly spamming LB1 rly, try to setup burst with your team or follow up their cc. If you duoQ, duoQ with someone that can 1v1 and when they force a major cd +1 for an easy kill. After playing this build for a month you should have the timings right.
Dont complain about hiltbash. Hilt bash is very easy to land, quickness from petswap is how you use it.
Healing from avatar is trash, if you ahve people on yourself just use it for stelath and use your slotted heal.
When youre really forced to watch the node and enemy doesnt have condi, spike trap does surprisingly well for setting up your burst. Its also unpredictable.
Landing stealth is key to surviving, learn to about face LB3 for instant stealths that dont disrupt your movement.
And idk what else to write, i coulda made tons of videos to show kitten up but it’s too late now
i guess cya xd

Dude are you ok? I’m really worried about you… why you gotta put it in such a terrible way man, just say you’re quitting the game man cuz you got no time or something.. please say something if you’re fine.

Anyways, loving this build, wondering why you’re videos are all gone though anyone still have access to his videos?

Ok thank you for the answers. What about pve though, high fractals and raids, is it even possible to join raids ever?

When I said “I found myself wanting to go back and play my guardian a lot” I meant revenant :P

I joined the revenant boat late, as I stopped playing just before the release of the expansion until about 3 weeks ago. Since then I’ve been playing a lot, and I play a lot of mid-high fractals and some pvp. I used to be pretty high up in pvp but I’ve found based on what I’ve read that revs have been nerfed to oblivion, and this is true in pve as well. But I also realised when I tried to go back to my original most played classes (warr and guard) I just found myself wanting to play my guardian a lot as I just have some natural attachment to how the prof was designed and enjoy it above every other prof I’ve tried.

So are they really that bad? Will I never be able to do well in raids or ever wanted? And in pvp is it really bottom tier?

I’m hoping I can get some experienced rev players or players that really understand the meta in pve and pvp to answer, and whether it really is worth it to destroy how much I like the prof because it’s just not worth the effort. If it just takes a lot of effort and skill I could work towards it but if that’s not even possible.

thank you guys for the replies

On patch day when does the patch usually come live?? Many games I play it usually comes early morning or even at 12am as soon as the day comes, but now its nearing noon and still no sign of the patch…

bump hows Gandara or Far Shiver Peaks in terms of activity in WvW?

so every world below the rank of 4-5th like gandara has low numbers aside from peak time!? How can a realm be 4th out of 27 realms and have low numbers aside from peak time its hard to believe xD

Yeah based on my research just now Gandara seems pretty active, do they only do only Small Scale though? If thats so how are they 4th on the leaderboards, they can’t be avoiding every single zerg battle.

Hows the activity in Desolation there? Guilds and many action to see? I think desolation sounds good as I think seafarer’s rest is a little “overpowered” world for me they seem to win too much.

I don’t mind slightly lower tiers as long as they see a lot of action and guilds participating etc, so if you guys know any of those please tell me

Hows the activity in Desolation there? Guilds and many action to see? I think desolation sounds good as I think seafarer’s rest is a little “overpowered” world for me they seem to win too much.

I don’t mind slightly lower tiers as long as they see a lot of action and guilds participating etc, so if you guys know any of those please tell me

Does T1 mean that they do well AND they many active players and guilds? Because I’m not sure how it works.

Also I don’t mind slightly lower tiers, as long as they are active and have regular battles and guilds participating often. So if you seen many activity on your world all the time tell me the name!

Could anyone pls tell me good destination realms for more active WvW (EU side) that has regular competition with the worlds its against, does fairly well (doesn’t have to always win), and has many active guilds doing WvW?

Also tell me the best and strongest worlds as well and I’ll just choose one of the realms you guys tell me to transfer to cause I love WvW but upon returning my realm is empty…

Could anyone pls tell me good destination realms for more active WvW (EU side) that has regular competition with the worlds its against, does fairly well (doesn’t have to always win), and has many active guilds doing WvW?

Also tell me the best and strongest worlds as well and I’ll just choose one of the realms you guys tell me to transfer to cause I love WvW but upon returning my realm is empty…

Thank you man

Thank you guys! The reason why I didn’t want to go through every single armor and browse until I found it is exactly the reason why I was amazed by the armor in the video and wanted to know what set it is – I like surprises and this is the first time I’m playing through the game.

I wanted to just see the armor sets as they come instead of seeing every single one as I find GW2’s “questing” much more fun than other MMOs so during my first level through to 80 im treating it more of an immersive experience with loads of stuff to discover.

Anyone know what armor set this developer is wearing in this video?

Link to Youtube Vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64Mwats025Q

Its a great video from the devs about WvW as well so check it out even if you don’t think you know that armor.

Anyone know what armor set this developer is wearing in this video?

Link to Youtube Vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64Mwats025Q

Its a great video from the devs about WvW as well so check it out even if you don’t think you know that armor.

Hmm so it’s not clear cut when you get a kill:S it seems confusing

Hey guys, I’m new here so please forgive my noobishness xD

I was wondering when is it considered you get a kill in a conquest map (structured pvp), is it when you’re the one that puts the flag in someone to “finish them” or is it when you actually get the final hit to get them into the state where you can “finish them”.

If it’s the latter does it mean that if you get the final hit and they get into the “downed state” but then get back up and you put them into the downed state AGAIN, you get 2 kills to your score?

Usually in mmos you just kill someone boom he’s dead, +1 to your kill count. It works differently in gw2 so I was wondering, would appreciate it if anyone could answer my question and resolve my curiosity. Thanks in advance!