Guild Wars 2

Because they most likely signed something agreeing that they would fully disclose that they had unlimited access to the content.

Disclosure is ALWAYS important. Ask many youtubers. It’s not that DnT beat it first. It’s that they didn’t disclose that they already had access to the content and already tailored builds to it.

@DrEckers I’ll try to Salvage a piece of armor or weapon asap. Just spent all my laurels on amulets so…can’t buy anything new for a few days. (Thankfully I get an end of the month thing soon.)

@Xstein Can’t get them from rings. I got a bit ticked off at that too, but then I read the Ascended Salvage kit…and rings don’t drop Balls of Dark Energy.

And that’s really the point. With Armor and weapons being NEEDED for raids (since I pug everything as I won’t join a raid guild), it’s a huge investment of resources to throw away a weapon or piece of armor and not get anything. If weapons and armor could guarantee a drop, then I’d be more okay with that.

Update: I just salvaged an old scepter I had and got one on my first go. While I still feel the Ascended Necklace is a problem, I’ll update the OP accordingly.

While other people have addressed problems with Fractals (basically that why do them at higher levels…so same old problem), I don’t see any posts addressing this crafting material. (And yes, I searched for one)

As of now, I have spent 3 gold, 60 laurels, and 750 badges of honor to try to get one. And all I got was +1 Agony Infusions and a rare drop for the Ascended Salvaging collection. (Happy for the latter one as I like the idea behind it.)

The problem is how much I have invested into trying to obtain a Ball for my legendary crafting and have nothing to show for it. If this boils down to bad RNG, then…yay…this is the precursor of the backpiece but now account bound only.

I don’t see why this item should both be randomized on drop AND account bound. Having the Fractal Mastery stuff done early, I’ve been able to farm the journal pages everyday so I’m a week away from completing the first journal and I have everything else (or at least I will once I get a Bloomhunger run in) for the first iteration of the backpiece. EXCEPT for the Ball of Dark Energy…and I won’t get another unless I risk an extra item on a character or an Ascended weapon or armor piece.

So, with the journal pages being a time gate for 2~4 weeks, we can get a full month of Laurels adding up to a total of 55 per month, roughly 2 or 3 necklaces depending on how much you do WvW. This can (and will lead to for me) having everything completed but no way to get one item from salvaging.

I suggest either removing the randomness of the item or removing the account bound nature of it. If I spend 20~30 laurels, a bit of gold, and possibly some badges of honor, I would expect to get something out of it if I cannot buy the item. If I can buy it, then it offers a way for the market to dictate its value and allows people another way to spend laurels. Either way, this removes something that can completely block progress made on the Legendary backpiece that is not directly affected by Fractals themselves.

UPDATE: Salvaging an ascended Scepter I had lying around yielded me one ball plus some of the components used to make it. While I still feel my point above is valid (as it actually takes a longer time investment to get necklaces, trinkets, and backpieces than weapons and armor), I would suggest that people try focusing on weapons and armor for salvaging in order to get this material.

My one ring like this used to have MF on it and I got to swap out stats. With the attunement upgrade for rings, it changes the name of the available rings, but not the ones no longer available.

based on my calculations, Runes of Strength give anywhere between 2-5 more might stacks in comparison using only Facet of Strength + Facet of Nature. The difference is how often you can trigger shared empowerment. With Facet of Strength alone, you can only trigger it every 3 seconds, so you get around 11.9 stacks of might. If you can trigger it every second, you get about 18.9 stacks of might. Granted the might stacks do last signficantly longer.

However, a set of runes of rage has 2 major advantages over strength ones. 1) Ferocity over Power. With a crit based build, getting a bit more ferocity might see a slightly larger increase in damage as opposed to power.

2) They are significantly cheaper. Once the dust settles and the meta is finalized, we’ll know which of these two is better. I would say go with Rage at the start as it’s a couple gold to buy a set (or even 2) where as Strength is VERY expensive. If you have to replace Rage runes, okay…run a Fractal or two to make up lost gold. If you have to replace strength runes with rage…yeah…I just can’t in all good consciousness say that’s a good idea when so many other classes can use Strength runes (like Necros, Reapers, Scrappers, and Warriors).

Honestly, in a raiding situation, anything under 5% difference is going to be a rounding error, especially if it’s a playstyle you don’t enjoy. That actually creates a larger gap than people realize. Say if Dagger is 5% better then GS at single target, but a player doesn’t like dagger, then that player will not have an incentive to use Dagger to its fullest potential and will be more likely to mess something up. Thus the gap between the two either becomes small, or GS pulls ahead for that player.

Something else people should consider is the difference between theorycrafting and what’s done in practice. In theory, one thing could be slightly higher in DPS, but in practice the situation may be reverse. Theorycrafting always assumes things from the optimal situation: fury, 25 might, 25 vuln, plenty of conditions, full health, and the Patchwerk style of a boss not moving or turning unless needed to by a tank. In practice, that’s not done as often as one thinks.

But if it’s really a 1% difference, then that’s actually excellent. Dagger gives you more flexibility with an offhand choice, but Greatsword is more coherent and gives you a stronger cleave.

Should say legends of the past.

I mean, Shiro did save the Emperor of Cantha once. Before assassinating him. No clue on Mallyx before he became a demon.

I just presume things are like Fate’s heroic spirits where they can pretty much be any alignment regardless of actual heroism.

398 hero points should buy everything. The core world hero points are just extras. With level 80 and maguuma alone you can buy every spec and traits including elites.

So, yes. you can.

unlock it in WvW then.

Considering that Orr had about 12~13 hero challenges per zone and Maguuma Jungle hero challenges offer 10 points per challenge, this is pretty much in line with having the new areas have about 13~14 challenges per zone.

However, remember that 400 points unlocks EVERYTHING, including armor skins and weapon skins plus ascended versions of them.

We don’t know how much is needed to unlock everything skill and trait-wise. Even then, in PvE we don’t need the last 2 traits and the elite skill. We’ll have to see what can be done.

I’d like to see Bow as a condition weapon focused more on ground targetted AoEs. Sort of like Mortar Kit on Engineers. And pair it with Wells.

That’s pretty much what Revenant lacks in terms of attack types. It’d be best as a second or third generation elite spec as it goes “against” the design of a mobile fighter to a long-range arcane archer.

80 because I want to start getting XP for Central tyria mastery by doing the world exploration and personal story before heading out to Maguuma. (as well as halloween stuff)

I don’t really see a point in doing 1-80 as a Revenant. Without cooldowns or a real complex rotation, the skill in using one (in PvE) is going to be based on the player’s knowledge of the fights more than the player’s knowledge.

The difference between Rapid Lacerations and Ferocious Strikes boils down to whether or not you can stick to your target 100% of the time. In theory, Rapid Lacerations works out to be a slightly larger increase.

However, let’s be practical for a minute and realize that there is no way we can guarantee 100% uptime on 5 stacks. We can theory craft all day long, but that’s the problem with theorycrafting in this game (at least coming from the community), too few people stop to think: Wait, is this ACTUALLY feasible by human beings?

So, in reality, let’s assume on average we keep up 3 stacks. This accounts for losing stacks and having to build them back up. That’s the low end of things as I see it. So, with 3 permanent stacks of Rapid Lacerations, Ferocious Strikes is better. Thus for most players Ferocious Strikes will be the optimal choice in practice even if Rapid Lacerations is the optimal choice in theory.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Fractal Dungeon Leaderboards

Back when we announced all the updates to Fractals for Heart of Thorns – the announce blog also discussed more information coming before HoT about leaderboards for Fractals. Our team of folks working on Fractal dungeons kept iterating on this concept and ultimately we have decided to make it something more involved (re: exciting) than our original plans which will extend our development a bit more. This also means you’ll be able to earn the new fractal backpack precursor, but a few of the components for the new legendary will come with this expanded future fractals feature.

As always, we’ll discuss features once they’re far enough along to share development details on; our Fractal Dungeon team will be back with more updates about this and other plans for Fractal Dungeons in the future: when it’s ready™.

While I’m glad to hear that the Fractal team moved against needing something from a certain rank on the leaderboard for the legendary backpiece, can we get a specific number on how many components are going to be left out of crafting at the start?

The Fractal Backpiece was pretty much my main goal for the start of the expansion. Knowing which components I can work towards and which ones I can’t at the start would be really helpful in trying to divide my time amongst all the content.

Linfang.1087:

Fade.1743:

Also, Sword/Shield isn’t considered dual wielding.

You might not consider it dual wielding but the game does. Ferocious Strikes gives you +150 ferocity with sword/shield.

Has this been tested in-game? Warrior’s dual-wield has never included shield, so I’d presume Revenant shield would function the same way.

If it has, then I stand corrected based on programming.

Ragion.2831:

Fade.1743:

Ragion.2831:

Bam! there you go. Ferocity is at 795 (Assassin’s prescence wasnt calculated but it is supposed to also be applied to you. I used lyssa because i don’t know what the condi stuff will be like otherwise i would use Eagle

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vlAQNAsemn3gWNSuQrJRbo/ksP0gS4I6QJ4EdrkFNFitMnpNtLIANwegJshA-TBCFABrpP4Q1f0VJySKvA4UAEz+DC8EAEUJIA-e

Edit: Changed from Sword sword to sword shield and from sentinel to valk

That’s…probably way too tanky. And runes of lyssa are a waste since this is a direct damage spec. Also, Sword/Shield isn’t considered dual wielding.

Given how mobile revenant is in combat plus all of the boons, I don’t see them being used for tanking. Since they have no ground targetted AoE (at least with a direct damage build), they have very good pressure and can easily keep on the heals of any boss. I would look for other classes with stronger heals (as Revenant healing abilities aren’t strong enough to handle an oh crap moment recovery).

Probably, but you can easily mantain over 10 stacks of might putting you at almost 2500 power. Then there is the near perm 80% crit chance. The high toughness just sort of happened due to the way the stats are combined.

O and lyssa is because i dont know what the new stuff is going to be . It would be quite silly of Anet to design HoT without taking conditions seriously as seriously as it is in PvP. That can be swapped out anyway as long as crit chance stays over 40% base

10 stacks minimum, yes. The thing about toughness AND a shield is that it gives you a ton of aggro. Revenant’s healing sustain isn’t the greatest. Compared to a Reaper or even a base Necromancer, I wouldn’t want to put Rev’s in a tanking position. At least for a consistent tank. In a gauntlet like event (as in not a single boss, but waves of enemies), Revenant probably favors tanking a lot more (though other classes can do this better).

Now, again this is from a PvE point of view. No idea how things pan out in sPvP or WvW and I won’t even pretend that I can theorycraft for them.

Honestly, if you want a tanky setup, that’s your prerogative. Just know that revenant is kinda kitten compared to other classes. Given that, I still wouldn’t recommend Lyssa runes. The Herald Elite is mostly going to be used for a Breakbar while Jalis is going to be more for preventing direct damage. Other classes do condi cleanse better and we have better boon support than using a heal to generate one. (especially since we REALLY need our heals for healing). Given the tanky setup, I’d still recommend Strength or Rage runes.

Based on having a 2.1 time multiplier (15% from minor trait + 50% from Face of Nature + 45% from Strength runes) on might stack duration pushes the amount of might generated to 11.9-18.9 stacks (depending on how often you can trigger Shared Empowerment). Given your tanky nature, you’d more easily stay alive to give allies a lot of might.

Note: I don’t know if boon duration is additive or multiplicative. The above numbers are based on an additive amount.

Ragion.2831:

Bam! there you go. Ferocity is at 795 (Assassin’s prescence wasnt calculated but it is supposed to also be applied to you. I used lyssa because i don’t know what the condi stuff will be like otherwise i would use Eagle

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vlAQNAsemn3gWNSuQrJRbo/ksP0gS4I6QJ4EdrkFNFitMnpNtLIANwegJshA-TBCFABrpP4Q1f0VJySKvA4UAEz+DC8EAEUJIA-e

Edit: Changed from Sword sword to sword shield and from sentinel to valk

That’s…probably way too tanky. And runes of lyssa are a waste since this is a direct damage spec. Also, Sword/Shield isn’t considered dual wielding.

Given how mobile revenant is in combat plus all of the boons, I don’t see them being used for tanking. Since they have no ground targetted AoE (at least with a direct damage build), they have very good pressure and can easily keep on the heals of any boss. I would look for other classes with stronger heals (as Revenant healing abilities aren’t strong enough to handle an oh crap moment recovery).

Rym.1469:

Nephziel.6053:

I’ve got berserker.
Even if its not used in Raids I still have whole core game content and fractals to do.

I’m also sure since the bosses have timer there will be need for higher damage.
Also what I’ve noticed so far. If the timer goes boss will 1-shot you be a berserker of full soldier.

Vale Guardian won’t one-shot you if you have ~2600 armor or higher.

If you hit an enrage timer, you’ve messed up enough on the fight that you better be within the last few percentages or everyone is about to die anyway. One-shot or not a proper enrage timer should kill you faster than you can feasibly stay alive.

caerulean.4837:

Probably a really stupid question, but does the split between central and maguuma masteries mean we won’t be able to glide in central tyria? That’d be amazing but I wasn’t expecting to be able to.

Not at launch. It’d break a lot of the game.

A lot of the roof textures have no collision. Just look at all the stuff WoW had to do recently to bring in flying to the new expansion. It broke the game because they never designed some surfaces to be nothing more than wallpaper.

I wouldn’t expect central Tyria to have gliding enabled for awhile if ever.

gannondorf.7628:

Surely big changes incoming. I hope so. If mallyx and jalis still as they are i’m definitly going to main chrono in HOT. Don’t like the idea of being dependant of one legend (glint) who is clearly overpowered compared to others and only can take glint/shiro and ventari when they are 5 legends available.

I have to disagree that Glint is overpowered. The base legends all fill a niche role while Glint fills a general role. Or at least fills a niche that every role can use. Honestly, I can see future elite specs being like this as well. Say the next one has wells so now we have ground targetted AoE, which revenant lacks outside of a few hammer skills.

Linfang.1087:

Well that is good to know. I have a question though. I assume you are going to insta 80 then start the personal story, but how do you unlock the ability to get the mastery so you can jump into the old content and start earning exp from step one? I assume we are going to have to get a character to do the little story part and enter the Hot map?

There are two types of mastery based on location. When I was in the “Silverwaste” instance, I noticed the Tyrian masteries were available for levelling up. So I presume those are going ot be accessible as soon as you play a level 80 in the base game.

Demented Yak.6105:

I think we’re getting to the point where you don’t really need to be asking about peoples opinions on builds like this. It’s almost exactly the same as the now generic dps build everyone was running on the last bwe. Maybe you’ve only just decided to look in to the revenant so it’s okay that you didn’t know that but there are a lot of builds you can and should read about on these forums before posting one of your own.

Analysis: It’s fine. Force sigils are a bit boring (though effectively fine) and hoelbrak/strength are better than rage runes. Ferocious strikes is better than rapid lacerations but the overall build is fine. It’s all fine.

Have fun.

It’s debatable if Strength/Hoelbrak is better than Rage. More or less, it’ll come down to slight difference in numbers. For launch, I’d say Rage is better. If I’m wrong, you replace Rage runes which are cheaper. If I’m right, then you don’t have to overwrite very expensive runes for cheap ones. Also, Ferocious Strikes only works when dual-wielding and shield is not part of dual-wielding.

@OP Question: Do you plan on swapping legends when needed or constantly? Is this build for just open world tomfoolery or dungeons?

In most PvE situations, Cleansing Channel will be of minimal value. Generally, you want to legend swap with Shiro/Glint when the fight demands it rather than when you need a condi cleanse. Fierce Infusion will most likely be better as it can help you keep up your fury when in Shiro just a bit longer.

For group content, I’d suggest Swift Gale over Hardening Presence. The latter is okay for open world, especially combined with a shield, but I’d say the former is better for groups. Generally when you are stunned in dungeons, you can be in danger of taking extra damage. Getting a quick bit of Superspeed can get you the hell out of there and properly reposition.

Okay so just reading the OP (apologies, but I have an extremely hard time comprehending blocks of texts, I tend to skip sentences or words without realizing it).

So, this is my best answer. While Revenant does lack the customizability of other professions when it comes to utilities, what they make up for is in synergy with the utilities themselves. By coming in sets, each legend offers a specific playstyle given to you by a set of utilities that work together. Take Shiro for instance. You have a shadowstep to get into melee, a heal to both do damage and heal you, and an upkeep skill to just burst someone down. And if you get in trouble, you could do a group stun, and use your stunbreak to evade backwards and get away. Now, you’re not likely to do that above scenario easily but the abilities work together.

It’s hard to see how that’s different until you start playing the engineer. (At least for me.) I tried to play a 1-kit build (grenades) as I despise the meta build. This is where you can see the biggest problem with cross-type utility builds. Gadgets have no synergy between them. Kits are all vastly different. Turrets are…well…bleh, as are Gyros. Elixirs are pretty much the exceptions, but they have their problems. For a general, open world build on my Scrapper during the beta weekend, it was hard to put something together. Healing Turret for obvious value, Nades for moments of needing to back off, Mortar for long range and an extra blast finisher… uh then what? Rocket boots for movement and Elixir B for boons and more stability? It’s just…it feels so awkward.

And that’s what I like with Revenant. If I want to go for a bit of direct/physical burst, I put in Shiro and get a toolset based around it. If I want some boons with a bit of control, I put in Glint and get a toolset based around that. Revenant is no more limited than other professions, but it does have more synergy between the utilities.

Kodiak.3281:

Only part I’m flip-floppin on is Strength Runes vs Rage Runes.

I like Rage Runes. Right setup I’m at 250% crit damage and 2500 power. However on the flipside the Strength Runes passively add 45% Might duration on top of 15% from Herald which means +60% Might duration which is quite a bit where as the Fury duration seems wasted with Perma Fury. That’s on top of the fact that in a Strength setup I’m at 2700 Power and still 238% crit damage.

My opinion: If you’re going to only share 1 set of Ascended gear between a warrior and a revenant, go strength. If you individualize sets per character (and even per build), go rage.

Really the difference in an “optimal” group will be minimal. So I take it from the optimal gold cost (as I am pretty poor and just have 1 set of strength runes). Hence, I’ll probably run rage on my rev until I have a full ascended set. Rage is so dirt cheap.

Perma-fury is easy to maintain even with strength runes. (Tried this in the beta.) With Strength runes, a raid group could put you in your own subgroup (or a smaller subgroup with people who can generate a good amount of might on their own). So, I mean, both are pretty equal and would only be a rounding error off in terms of damage.

For launch, I’d go with Rage and move to strength rather than the other way around, cheaper on your wallet.

FLiP.7680:

Fade.1743:

At most you end up with 104% crit chance with all available buffs. Once you lose spotter or the warrior’s banner, then you’re under 100%.

Is full berserker optimal? Yes and no. No if you can GUARANTEE a ranger AND a warrior in your group at all times. Yes if you can’t.

But you don’t have to aim for 100% in a solo situation, because no other class can have 2760 power AND have 100% crit chance. (unless the warrior uses more signets than usual)

The part you quoted only pertains to group situations. I gave my advice for solo situations below it.

However here’s a more detailed explanation as to why I say Knight armor is better for survivability than Valk. So toughness protects against direct damage while vitality protects against conditions. While Revenants are weak to conditions, most mobs do not apply enough long lasting conditions to make a revenant really sweat. Most mobs (so far) just do a burst of short conditions. A well timed infusion of light will protect against those.

Most of the time, I noticed direct damage was doing more to me than condition (at least in a much broader sense). Increasing the health bar sounds like a good idea, but then your lifesteal heals for less as a percentage. So to be effective with all your benefits, you need to decrease incoming damage without decreasing the value of your heals and lifesteal, thus toughness outshines vitality.

So you might ask why Knight’s instead of Cavaliers. It comes down to critting more often for less or critting less often for more. I prefer the latter as I plan on running a strength rune in my offhand to give myself more might. (At this point I also plan on running rage runes so I don’t need the extra ferocity.)

Again, all of that pertains to the open world. Optimal in that situation is pretty much based around surviving and tagging mobs as opposed to killing them as possible (though this could fold into the first part).

At most you end up with 104% crit chance with all available buffs. Once you lose spotter or the warrior’s banner, then you’re under 100%.

Is full berserker optimal? Yes and no. No if you can GUARANTEE a ranger AND a warrior in your group at all times. Yes if you can’t.

Most likely scenario: full berserker being optimal still. Remember, raids can be split into subgroups, so at times it may be more beneficial to split you away from a ranger and/or a warrior as those two might fulfill a role in a boss fight better than a revenant. As the two bosses we’ve seen so far have had mechanics to split groups.

Now, outside of raiding, yes still a better option. (Maybe not in the new open world areas.) We can’t guarantee a warrior running banners or a ranger running spotter (Yes that happens, and yes I do level 50 fracs almost everyday).

The only time I’d suggest against zerker as a general rule of thumb (not for specific instances like certain boss mechanics needing condtions or tanks) is in the new Maguuma jungle areas. If mobs are going back to BWE2 difficult or above (as we’ve not seen all mobs) it might be more optimal to wear Knight’s armor instead for survivability.

From my engie? Well…umm…my gun and Magitech armor. Not really a fan of grenade spam. Or being slow as hell in the world.

From my ele? Nothing. And not just because I hate Tempest. I don’t like playing mage classes for raids. I’m not good enough for it. Hammer feels as good as fire staff…and swapping to a Sword/Axe combo is great.

It’s less variety and more focus.

I agree that Herald is considered mandatory now as it offers a lot of variety, but that’s because an elite spec has to have synergy with the base specs. Which in turn means that each new Elite Legend has to have Synergy with the base legends. I don’t see a base Revenant being used unless massive changes come (which we might see between now and the next group of Elite specs).

However, I doubt it’ll ever be the case where two base legends would be used together as they each fulfill different roles. Shiro+Devastation+Sword is the direct/physical damage setup. Mallyx+Corruption+Mace is the positional condition damage setup. Ventari+Salvation+Staff is the light control/heavy support role. Jalis+Retribution is the heavy control role. (I don’t put hammer with Jalis as it’s a multi-legend weapon.)

Glint+Herald offers boon support as well as a powerful heal, extra control, a good burst of vuln, and a burst of conditions. All of the other 4 get added extra things by going with Herald.

And it’s clear that Revenant was made with Herald in mind at launch. There are going to be other elite specs and other legends that will be added. That’s why I don’t think Revenant needs a long range condi weapon now. It’d be too strong with Herald. So if they put it with another elite spec, you’d have to choose between long range condi application or Herald. My hope is that the next elite spec is based around Wells or something similar. Revenant doesn’t have many ground-targetted AoEs and each one of the base legends can benefit in some way from those.

Hammer: The auto-attack chain needs to AT LEAST end in an explosion to synergize with the Explosives traitline. There need to be some alternatives to grenade kit in PvE until that datamined change about targetting is implemented. It’s not a problem in dungeons, but once we get to raids…I foresee grenades being weaker in practice until the community has the content on farm. Other than that, numbers tweaking once we get our hands on it. Everything on this weapon is fantastic.

Gyros: I need to experience these for myself. They don’t feel distinct or interesting outside of certain situations. Which is fine, but they just feel like more tools for the Engineer.

Traits: There need to be a few traits changed. The second minor should give out a boon based on the active Gyro on top of its current function. Stabilizing Core should pulse stability when any Gyro is active. And reduce the CD of the stability on evasion for Hammer.

Temihal.8651:

• How can Revenants exists before Rytlock came back?
  Your guess is as good as any, we still don’t have any answer on this.

• How will Revenants unlock Herald?
  As for any other elite spec, we still don’t have any info.

Okay, so these two stuck out for me.

First one, there are two possible explanations, but it’s based around one fact: Rytlock is the first revenant. This leaves us with two possibilities: 1) Revenants in our timeline do not exist before Rytlock returned or 2) they did exist in OUR timeline, but wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey.

1) This technique was done in GW1 where Canthan and Elonian heroes were able to go back to previous campaigns (in the timeline of GW1) and were told that it happened in the past. Basically a way for all players to experience the content even if their characters cannot. In roleplay terms, it’s an out of character explanation…or in simpler terms gameplay mechanics != lore.

2) This is the one I hope is canon. Moreso because it adds some depth and mystery to the Mists. Now then, to put it bluntly, the Mists exists outside the very concept of space-time…and is the bridge between worlds and universes. So, Rytlock can still be the first Revenant in HIS timeline, but in the timeline of Tyria, he doesn’t show up until the attack against Mordremoth fails. And to teach “new” Revenants, well…they have to commune with the mists to get their powers. So, Rytlock could teach them in the past…still making him the first Revenant.

Second one.

Yes, yes we do. The elite specs unlock like the base ones. Through the accumulation of hero points. How many? We don’t know. Current datamining has said we’d need 170 to unlock all the skills and traits (and still have a few cosmetic rewards). I’d hope this isn’t the case because then we’d run into issues in future elite spec additions where you can’t unlock all the traits and skills due to not having enough hero points in the game. (Unless they become drops from things)

Kronos.2560:

Fair enough I guess that makes sense, though it does kind of contradict the whole self sustain we don’t have a trinity mentality.

No, we do have a trinity mechanic. Control, Support, and Damage. Healers typically fall into a reactive version of Support with a minor bit of Control.

Also, Anet has designed the game around not NEEDING a tank role or a healer role in a group (at least in PvE), but not getting rid of it entirely.

Up until now, direct damage has dominated the PvE “meta” as the niche content of speedrunning was pretty much the only challenge, as well as the (also niche content of) high level Fractals as they can one shot most players with mob basic attacks…meaning there’s very little reason not to go pure damage as you’re more likely to succeed.

With the specialization update, conditions on Engies and Rangers shifted into the meta (and even surpassing the zerker builds). Raids will probably benefit from having a dedicated healer as one person will be able to use their abilities to keep the raid alive between mechanics. I doubt it’ll bring healing power gear into the meta, but it could bring new builds.

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

Enrif.7359:

Gaaroth.2567:

Enrif.7359:

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

Bunnytown.7801:

I noticed this as well for the BWE2.

On a somewhat related note. Is it possible to not have our legend auras present when out of combat? The way it is now it seems the auras are always present (Which is why Ventari stood out XD).

Ugh, I’d rather seem them on all the time. Let’s you quickly know ahead of time what Legend the Revy is in if facing him before combat. Also, the Legend is supposed to be manifested with you at all times, not just out of combat. The arm glows sort of shows that. Plus, it’s a really cool effect.

I Voting for not seeing it out of Combat too! Or at all in PvE Content and make the Glow only for WvW/PvP were it matters?

pretty pretty please from an Roleplayer?

I’d never expect this from a roleplayer…only reasonable complaint is about the screenshots since the effect is “in the way”.
No other reasons for me.

Well Roleplayers are annoyed by any unwanted Glow Effects (namly Elementalist Hand Glow, Guardian perma Aegis shield and now the Revenant Hand Glow) and not only for screenshots

I don’t understand why though. Don’t those effects define the class that your roleplaying with? Or, are you roleplaying as something besides what’s in the GW universe class? IE, you’re roleplaying as Wolverine from the Marvel Universe.

Multi-classing is also an option in lore still. I’d have to search for the interview that said it’s still possible to do it. And as someone mentioned, it does clash with motifs. However, unlike Ele and Guard, Revenant happens out of combat. So, knowing what stance someone is in has never been a thing ( points to Ele ).

Something else is that all the selection of glows so far have mostly been a light blue or green color (the exception being Mallyx). It’s really a case of the glows clashing with a character design.

I would like to add that this event should be able to run until HoT (or at least until some sort of headstart version of it).

While there are some tweaks to be made, overall, it’s a great sort of pre-expansion release; however, the limited time window probably skews a lot of views on this.

Champion Of The Mist

My Solo Build

For groups, I’d swap to Assassin’s Presence (if needed) and Swift Termination.

I mostly prefer to play physical/direct damage melee builds with a ranged back-up and excellent melee support. I’m still debating if I want to go with Warrior (or possibly Forge) for raiding, but I get the feeling that I’m going to want the legendary heavy armor over medium (because Magitech is amazing already) and Sword+Axe looks cooler to me than a GS.

If swords played slower, yeah it would be a worthwhile opinion to have that it’s a playstyle change. But 10% attack speed on Sword/X is hardly noticeable. Save for UA, most of the abilities are pretty much instant cast. It also lowers the channel time of the block…so the longest lasting ability isn’t the one you want to shorten the cast time of.

Nothing new, here.

Rerolling to revenant.

You guys do know how assassins work right? I’m not talking about stealthy assassins or ranged ones. I’m talking about ones like SHIRO and more of a medieval battlefield assassin. They run through combat, find their target, and eliminate them.

Sword/Sword is built around this idea. A skilled Revenant with a sword is DESIGNED to be very strong in a 1v1 situation. If you can’t get that you shouldn’t solo roam safely while there are assassins searching for prey, then you deserve to be a bloodstain on the floor.

I only speak from a PvE perspective, but I don’t fully agree.

Currently, PvE is currently judged by the dungeon DPS standard. Once the new Fractals and the raids come out, the speedrunning meta will most likely fall out of favor. As mentioned some of the new Fractal bosses will have different stat allocation and mechanics, so burning a boss through direct and condition damage might not be an effective strategy.

Raiding is almost always an entirely different beast. Even if Zerker and Sinister remain the kings for clearing bosses quickly, they may begin to show their risk. Without stat boosts from traitlines, we might have to add in some Valk, Knight, or even Soldier armor in case there are mechanics where constant raid damage is a thing and having a dedicated healer isn’t always an option.

Now, the strength of the Herald in PvE is based around the ease of access to boon support and the damage buffs given. First of all, the boon support is not unique to Herald. In all honesty, in a group setting, nothing the Herald does is unique. No profession or build on their own could so easily pump out a large amount of boons. However, the key part to that is: “on their own.” When raiding happens, it may come to pass that Herald is just taken for the damage buff. In a smaller dungeon group, Glint is going to be good for most areas, but for a 10 man group if they allow for boons to be shared to 10 people in those environments….she falls by the wayside a bit. That just leaves a damage boost….which can easily be added to any elite spec.

In short, for PvE the Herald and Glint are not as powerful in larger groups. They could be in smaller groups for sure. Overall, I do agree that the Revenant was designed around having Glint from the very start. Honestly, that’s actually a better design than being without it. Anet is trying to make everything as balanced as possible and relies heavily on metrics. It’s easier for them to balance the older professions and the elite specs as there are far less variables to work with. Over time, I would think more power(, utility, and other things) are added to the base legends and specializations, but at the beginning, it’s kinda obvious they weren’t able to nicely cut up everything into 4 equal parts.

Kain Francois.4328:

150 Ferocity IS 10% damage. So it makes Ferocious Strikes kind of useless.

It’s 10% crit damage. This isn’t multiplied by the other damage modifiers. So, it doesn’t work out the same as a pure 10% damage buff.

I believe the closest thing to Shiro’s swords would be a saber. Or Thorin’s sword Orcist:

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20150509115035/lotr/images/b/b6/Orcrist_1.JPG

The ceremonial saber sort of works, but the blade has a curve to it where shiro’s did not (except for the blade side)

ALso, Katana’s are closer to kitten swords (or hand and a half swords). Odachi’s (like Belinda’s Greatsword) are the two-handed versions.

Okay, there are a few things I’d like to point out. Yes, there are viable alternatives to a 3 kit build that relies on no kits (Rifle SD) or just a grenade kit. Is it optimal? No, but 3 kit builds aren’t even optimal in every run.

The problem that people just flippantly glance over is that the 3 kit builds rely on knowing where the boss is and being able to hit the boss with every key ability. With skilled players, they’ll know how to stack, where to stack, and how to keep everyone alive with boons and support. On a more practical and realistic note, this does not happen for all types of content.

While it’s great to be able to run an optimal build, it’s really stupid to suggest to any player to jump into the hardest way to play first. It’s better to start off with an easier build and find your comfort zone rather than start at the highest skill degree and work down.

From a dungeon perspective, there are two builds that I can recommend starting from: a rifle static-discharge build and a grenade kit build. Rifle SD is better for consistently landing hits on a boss. So, if you’re like me and love doing fractals, bosses aren’t always stacked, so you can’t guarantee that grenades will hit…and it’s not always a good tactic to be in melee all the time. Static discharge relies on low CD toolbelt skills to quickly (and more reliably) do burst damage on top of rifle damage (prioritize Blunderbuss and Jump Shot over autoattack, only use 2 and 4 where needed).

Base Rifle PvE build

Rifle SD build

Now, the grenade kit build I’ll link sort of builds off the SD build. Once you get a good feel for how Rifle and Toolbelt skills work, then you can start to work on improving grenades. We may see a reworking of how grenade 1 works into having an option to make it a true autoattack…otherwise, get used to carpel tunnel. (Prioritize shrapnel over grenade barrage over freeze over poison over rifle 3 over rifle 5 over grenade 1) I left the two other utility skills empty for whatever. This build is (IMO) the most practical point to start learning the base engineer’s role in a dungeon. You can bring Elixir U for the projectile counter on toolbelt, or Elixir S for stealth.

Grenade Kit build

As you improve and get more of a feel, you can add in other kits. Mostly, the other kits add one or two extra ability to the rotation. So, that’s the reason I recommend this kind of build to starting engineers rather than the obtuse meta build. Most casual groups and PuGs aren’t that picky (as long as you don’t go into people searching for the meta builds). If you don’t mind taking 5~10 more minutes in a few dungeons, then…yeah…staying with PuGs and using a non-optimal viable build is probably your best option. Many people would probably disagree. But if you’re not having fun, you have no incentives to improve….and it’s a game…having fun is number 1. Also, the highest theoretical DPS…is not always the highest practical DPS.

Ohoni.6057:

It all depends on how you define worst. You can define it two ways: how well it succeeds in bringing something new to the profession or how popular it ends up being. No profession deserves to have the worst.

Well, but somebody will be the worst, that’s just math.

By the first definition, warrior should be considered for getting the worst. The design of the warrior is (and continues to be) based around having a very simple set of skills, utilities, and traits.

And by your first definition, the Berserker would be close to worst, since it’s basically just “A ’zerker Warrior, only more of that stuff.” It’s a very cool class, but doesn’t really bring a lot of new stuff to the equation.

Anyways, of the ones we’ve seen, I do agree that Tempest is likely the worst, and I do hope they make some tweaks to it, both in performance and in visuals, but I think it has promise to perhaps not be the worst without them having to make massive structural changes, and if not, well somebody’s got to be the worst, why not one of the better classes currently in the game? Take one for the team guys.

In terms of PvE (as that’s all I play on my ele), I’ve stated time and time and time again that Elementalist is only good in the current game. Breakbars could end up making Ice Bow much worse to use (which I do hope btw. A nice indirect nerf.) The condition application on Eles is utter crap so the new content in Fractals might be harder if we have more bosses with low vitality and high toughness. (Which Anet did say that mob stats will change)

If bosses start to have smarter tactics or just moving on their own like Lt. Kohler, then everything on a staff is harder to land. D/F doesn’t suffer as much, but it still requires minimal movement from bosses as it lacks any form of gap closer outside of Earth 3. And if more bosses start reflecting projectiles (like Grawl shaman phase 1 and Arch Diviner at higher levels), then staff will have to either start bringing lightning hammer or just rely on Lava Font and Meteor Storm for that duration.

And overloads and tempest ONLY make this problem worse. Yes, the channel will do a good bit of damage, but of the boss moves out of the AoE…you now either have to camp the attunement or not be able to use it for 20 seconds. And that’s only if you successfully channel it. What if you have to dodge? Or get interrupted? There is only risk involved for minimal reward.

I hate how people say “Oh ele is the best and you’ll be fine.” The minute that bosses don’t allow stacking or require conditions…Elementalist stops being as effective. And we should WANT better bosses. We should WANT diversity in our gameplay. Tempest currently (IMO) is being crap because the developers became complacent with the profession. And I really hope this comes back to bite them. Not out of spite but for a wake-up call to the real state of the Elementalist.

Ohoni.6057:

So here’s a question, of the nine classes, which class should have the worst spec? I mean, just logically speaking, one of them has to be the worst, if it’s not the Tempest, which class really deserves to have the worst elite spec in the game?

It all depends on how you define worst. You can define it two ways: how well it succeeds in bringing something new to the profession or how popular it ends up being. No profession deserves to have the worst.

By the first definition, warrior should be considered for getting the worst. The design of the warrior is (and continues to be) based around having a very simple set of skills, utilities, and traits. No if-then kind of things. No real complex rotation. This means that there will always be less to add to the warrior without making it complex. And a complex elite spec for the warrior goes against the design of the warrior. Therefore it’s the worst.

This is the current issue with Tempest. Just because Elementalist is fine right now, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t get something that goes completely against our playstyle. The Daredevil (IMO) is currently the best under this definition. It doesn’t drastically change the thief, but it does add another layer without interfering with the foundation.

The second definition could be ANY of them. It just depends on how things play out. Two years ago, if you tried to bring up fire staff camping as an Ele…well…you were told to get good and play a stronger build. (Not exactly, but not my point). As the game evolved and better tactics for bosses emerged, fire staff became better and better.

I’m not saying Tempest needs to be OP. I’m not saying it should be better than what we have. I’m saying it should be different WITHOUT breaking up the foundation of elementalist. That’s what I’ve seen other elementalists who are very against the Tempest to want as well. Even if I don’t use Tempest in dungeons, I would love to play my ele in a new way. And the more people play it, the more metrics Anet has to improve the elite spec. I’m glad Karl mentioned (in the stream today) that they are working on Tempest first as it shows that at least they do get there is a problem. It might be too late in the development cycle to make the changes needed to properly make an elite spec, but there still might be some good to come out of failing an elite spec. It sucks that the ele is given the first failure, but…it had to happen eventually to some profession at some time.

The game? No not really. I’d stop playing if Challenging Group Content ended up being raids AND that’s all the developers spend most of their PvE resources on.

The profession? At launch of HoT, yes. I’m bored of Staff and the problems that Elementalist has. Everyone says they’re fine…but only in the current meta. If we have bosses that can move (Lt. Kohler) or bosses with higher toughness but lower vit (like mentioned in the new Fractals), then Ele is going to lag behind even if they have the theoretical highest DPS. If we can’t land our Lava Fonts and Fireballs…or even have to rely on conditions for some fights, then the real weaknesses of the profession come out.

As shown from the recent Dragonhunter changes (as in ones that were announced today), I don’t think Karl is bad at his job. Actually worse, I think he’s complacent with elementalists. And there are players that are just as complacent backing those views.

Tempest is not in a good position and as I said way back in June…it’s unfair to warhorn more than anything else. Overloads and shouts suck, but…Warhorn is surprisingly good. It still needs tweaking, but it does have a few niche uses. And this is what I originally thought when I heard about our first elite spec as ele having a warhorn. I never thought warhorn would be bad on its own, but it does have to compete with our second (focus) and third (OH dagger) weapons (in PvE, probably higher value in PvP). We’re good for off-hands and I really hope they give us a good mainhand in the next round of elite specs. While i want sword, I’d settle for Mace, Axe…or even Pistol. (Though, I’d rather get dual wield pistol spellslinger as its own elite spec).

So, I’m debating between Herald, Daredevil, Forge, and Warrior as my main going into HoT.

KreatE.7612:

BWE1 patchnotes-> flat buffs to attunements putting tempest closer to reaching the right risk/reward for overload.

Another patch like that and tempest will op and even the super negative minority that flood these forums will be saying “I knew tempest was the greatest addition from the beginning”.

Let’s just look into the future and agree everyone loves the tempest !

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA….

Okay, no. The problem with buffing it to high heavens is that…ahem

We. Still. Have. The. Same. Problems. As. A. Class. That. We. Do. Now.

Nothing. Changes. And. Tempest. Would. Either. Be. Objectively. Better. Or. Remain. Objectively. Worse.

Bookah, I don’t know how to drill this into your head, but…it doesn’t promote a new playstyle. In PvE, it still suffers from the same problem staff has. Only being weak to interrupts and either locking you into or out of an attunement. And…no one in their right mind would use it with dagger or scepter. And if you do, I question the rightness of your mind.

So, no. I don’t want Tempest to be buffed so it’s a non-choice. I want tempest to be different. To offer me something new on my elementalist. If the reward is more damage for the risk of losing all damage, less damage would be preferable to that risk…

Poliator.7021:

First of all, there will be more BWE to come. I don’t know why are you all complaining about. Did you expect the Devs to fix everything in one go?

Good job guys, that’s how you encourage developers to balance things, telling them they suck.

Except we’ve been talking about these exact problems since Warhorn was datamined. We have good offhand options and adding one more doesn’t help. Hell, the Warhorn is the BEST part of the elite spec right now and they just made it better. Does it surpass our expectations? No, it’s exactly what most of us expected!

The IDEA of overload for current mainhands is AWFUL. None them work by staying in an attunement for longer than a few second, let alone 5 to get to the overload…and then making yourself a GIANT target for interrupt spammers. Now, if we were given a mainhand that made us WANT to stick to an attunement (say very low CD skills) then yeah…overloads could be great. BUT THEY DON"T WORK NOW.

The shouts and traits add NOTHING to the current mix. In fact, you can get better condi cleanses just from water alone. The heal MIGHT be able to be good for group healing, but really…that’s it. The traits have no damage mods…so no reason to bring Tempest as a traitline to PvE. Everything revolves around the group…so being solo gets you no benefit. There’s no reason to play this in PvE when our current setup is better and works for solo and group play.

And none of this addresses the problem of Ele relying on the broken stacking tactic used by groups. If you have bosses that can move on their own (you know…with improved AI), or bosses that can reflect projectiles (grawl shaman), or bosses with higher toughness but low vit (like some of the changes talked about for the new fractal fights), then Ele begins to wane in terms of damage and support. This was an excellent time to bring in a high mobility, low CD weapon that allows us to be in the attunement that fits the fight rather than camping the only good one for damage (Fire staff) or swapping through them rapidly (dagger and scepter). But no, we get this.

Dommmmmmmmmm.6984:

Conner.5803:

Dommmmmmmmmm.6984:

I guess the swiftness is cool for out of combat. But almost every class besides mesmer has better party swiftness. Regen facet is pretty useless, might facet is pretty useless, protection facet is strong, just too bad it’s gonna drain too much energy. Unless pve all of a sudden needs aoe reveal I don’t really see a reason to use Glint unless it’s really niche stuff.

In what way to other classes have “better” swiftness and how is might facet “useless”. I’m not sure if you understand how little upkeep those facets are ,but they are far from useless in fact our swiftness Upkeep is better then other classes you literally toggle it on for -1 upkeep and its always there no other action required. None of our other facets are useless other then maybe the Regen one the might one will really help keep people capped.

It’s not about how easy it is to toggle it on and off, it’s about effectiveness. The range on the facets are only 600. Unless the group is running really close to each other the swiftness is not going to be beneficial on every 3 second tick. Warrior has 1,200 range swiftness, Engi has own perm swiftness, Ele can blast perm swiftness easy, etc. Plus you have to stay with the Glint utility set to maintain the facet. Which means no quickness from Shiro… which means you’re giving up DPS… If you’re solo and need the fury and might then yes stay Glint, but if you’re with a group Glint is pretty worthless. Glint utility needs a huge buff for both pve and pvp imo.

I don’t think a buff is needed at all, especially since we haven’t even played the spec. Revenant is not supposed to be equal to other professions in anything, but it’s supposed to offer a wider variety of things to make up for a lack in a group. There are only a handful of players who run in an optimal meta composition in all things in PvE all the time. For the rest, the meta is a good GUIDELINE, but not a good rule set.

Revenant can keep a permanent uptime on fury for a group, but an Elementalist with the rest of the group using blast finishers (or a D/F ele) can do it better. Revenant with a facet and a trait can keep a very high uptime on a good amount of might. But a Phalanx Strength warrior can do it better. The point is not to be better than what we have, it’s to be comparative while still offering viable alternatives. What if you don’t have a PS warr in the group, oh look…you can have a Herald Revenant fill in. What if you don’t have an Ele in the group? Oh look…Revenant can fill in. It’s about playing what you want and being able to offer unique ways to support the group. Balance should NEVER be about being equal…as that leads to homogenization. It’s about being comparable. Yes, some professions are going to be better at some roles than others. Ideally, if all the professions are OP with one role and UP with another…then you have unique playstyles form and create VARIETY with your professions.

I wouldn’t compare DPS numbers just yet. Remember that sword just got a pass with damage. The 3 skills could end up topping out the auto-attack, especially now that it grants evasion during its duration.

One of my guildies said it is treated as a pet with infinite HP, so you could put it in front of a projectile to absorb the attack.