Guild Wars 2

Master Tier

Endless Enmity: The trait isn’t that bad. It is ironic that it works more to reinforce fury rather than give fury, but it has synergy with other specializations and it works well.

Sudden Reversal: Interesting. I would love to have the specs on the skill it uses, (range, duration, damage), but as a concept this is actually good. In PVP and WvW, this skill is going to use a stun right when you need it most, as an enemy comes charging in for the kill. In PVE it is worthless, though.

Heartpiercer: The damage buff to bleeds is alright, aside form the fact that core rev doesn’t use bleed. Shortbow piercing is basically coated bullets from Engineers again, and it suffers from the same issues: Doesn’t work half the time, more fun than useful. Overall, this trait will be taken in PVE because there is no better option, regardless of the fact that melee condi won’t use it.

All for one: At least your summons will do something before they’re feared and killed. Ironically, in nearly every practical application in PVP and WvW, this trait is going to have more of an impact than the actual summons will. That said, it is mostly useless for PVE, since it will proc once and then fade away. A few specs of protection aren’t too much of an impact though, so it is like most of the traits on this class just lightly nudge you toward victory instead of making a meaningful push. After all, a trait attached to sub-par skills is itself sub-par.

Grandmaster Tier

Brutal Momentum: … This can’t be real. A trait that is actually good? Yes! A good trait! Giving nearly permanent vigor is always useful, in every game mode. The crit chance bonus is currently buffed, but yet again it is useful in every game mode. Too bad the same can’t be said for the other Grandmasters.

Vindication: At least there are some traits that are good for running solo. Ironic that it is nearly useless in teams. I don’t know what the cooldown on gaining Kalla’s Fervor, though, so this trait either gives you a lot of might or basically none at all. The Citadel Bombardment is just a fancy way of saying that it has a situational 50% damage buff, but Citadel Bombardment is high cost and unreliable, so the trait itself is the same.

Lasting Legacy: The default PVE winner of the grandmaster tier, because Kalla’s Fervor is the main reason you’d bother taking this specialization in the first place. More on that later, but increasing the maximum number of stacks is meaningful and universal.

Righteous Rebel: This is the default PVP winner of the grandmaster tier. Having a blanket condition reduction is like having permanent protection, and the rev already has terrible condition management. Even with this trait, Orders from Above is still bad, since now all it does is shave 1.98 seconds off of cooldowns. 50% more of nothing is still nothing. Though the usefulness of this trait is called into question, since a condi rev in PVP has near limitless access to Resistance, which is far better than pseudo-protection.

Overall, the traits are uninspired. Several are generic buffs that don’t mesh with the rest of the class. Several are the most minimal increases in the chance for success. Several try to be unique but fail at doing so. There is two good, and these traits are the only draws to play this specialization. No, really. Everything else isn’t good enough to warrant notice. The utilities aren’t good, the f skills aren’t good, the weapon isn’t good.

Lasting Legacy is good because Kalla’s Fervor is good. With 10 stacks the Renegade gets 20% extra condition damage and 20% extra critical damage. These numbers are significant enough to warrant notice for condition builds. Condition builds never had a second line to run with, so they will go with Corruption, Devastation, Renegade in PVE as a default. And this is the only place where Renegade will see play.

In WvW, the inconsistent utilities, lackluster weapon, generally invisible traits, and the fact that condi specs have near permanent resistance means that there is no draw to use this class, even on condi specs. The same goes for PVP. The low maintenance, reliable buffs that Herald puts out is too good, as is Facet of Light. For Power Builds, AKA the builds that need the most buffs, Elder’s Focus is a better trait to do damage than Kalla’s Fervor. The only draw is the extra vigor, but Herald already has increased endurance generation.

There you have it. The Renegade attempts to be a rebel against good design. The utilities gather a load of weaknesses for the sake of being unique, and have no proper place in the vast majority of the game. The weapon is lackluster and might as well not exist. The traits are bad, with the exception of two, maybe three. The function skills cost too much and have too little an impact. The class is thematically designed for ambushes and mass expenditure, but the nature of energy management just makes the Renegade helpless prey while attempting to do this.

In PVE, the Renegade mildly buffs condition builds. Condition builds already did competitive damage, though, so they didn’t really need a buff. Power builds, the part of the Revenant which needed the most buffs, get nothing. In PVP, you’re better off sticking with the Herald.

SECTION 3: THE SHORTBOW!!!

This is where my analysis is the weakest, because without a golem to test things on, the overall effectiveness of the shortbow is unknown. While I like that condi builds are getting a more reliable ranged option, the Shortbow is… meh.

Shattershot: This skill seems alright. It is reminiscent of Fragmentation Shot from the engineers pistol, in the sense that Shattershot seems weaker in every way for some reason, but again, without a golem I can’t truly test what these skills do.

Bloodbane Path: This skill is all fluff and no substance. The odd angles means it gets blocked or dodged randomly. Thankfully the low cooldown means you’ll be spamming this a lot.

Sevenshot: Last I tested this skill, it didn’t work with the piercing trait. That aside, the skill is horribly impractical, because it demands that you use it at a price location at a precise range to hit precisely one target. The reverse shotgun is a terrible idea on a class that lacks the movement and rooting abilities to use it well. The thing about buffs and shields and wells is that they all want players to gather together. This skill wants you to separate yourself from the group, denying yourself of all the boons they normally provide.

Spiritcrush: Finally, a skill that simply works. I’d have to see how it works, because the wiki can be ambiguous at times, but otherwise this seems to be the only skill that is actually good.

Scorchrazor: It is a massive knockdown, but the animation time makes me think that it won’t have much tactical use.

Overall, the shortbow seems underpowered, in the sense that it exists and “does stuff”, but without a clear theme or synergy it is little more than trivia. Skills 2 and 3 are just convoluted ways of doing damage that have steep opportunity costs for low payoff. The rev really needs defensive skills on the shortbow, because as it stands now if Scorchrazor gets interrupted or blocked, a shortbow rev is a helpless punching bag.

SECTION 4: THE TRAITS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, you’d think that the traits in the specialization might compensate for the bad utilities, bad function skills, and bad weapon. But they don’t.

Adept Tier

Ambush Commander: Basically the class mechanic. But, I’m going to use this opportunity to rant about yet another contradiction in the Renegades design. It is obvious from the energy costs and the lore that this isn’t supposed to be a class of direct confrontation. It is supposed to be a class that builds up its energy for a massive assault of skills. There are two problems with this design. First, the Renegade has absolutely no tools to do this. No disengage, no stealth, no invulnerability, no long range skills, no chasing skills, poor control. It is an ambush class with no ambush. Second, Kalla’s Fervor requires you to build it up in a fight, which you won’t do while saving energy for a burst of skills. It is like the concept, traits, utilities, and weapon were all designed by different people with no collaboration on what the Renegade is supposed to do.

However I digress. I will now continue to rant about the sub-par traits.

Ashen Demeanor: The thing with vulnerability is that it is only useful if you can either throw out a lot at once, or if you can sustain a healthy amount. Otherwise, short stints of vulnerability accomplishes very little. The Renegade does not have the control skills to make this work. The random spats of cripple and vulnerability are inferior to any kind of consistent source. Kalla’s Fervor is incredibly easy to gain, so the additional stacks from inconsistent traits are meaningless.

Blood Fury: Simple and effective. However, there is one really big problem with this trait. All bleed traits have poor synergy with core rev because the core Revenant does not inflict bleeds! The meta weapon build in PVE is still going to be Mace + Axe/Sword, and that setup inflicts poison, torment, and burn. The only way you’ll be inflicting bleeds is through geomancy sigils, and through Razorclaw. Now, in PVP and WvW this will be more useful because the shortbow may see the light of day. But, with the shortbow being a sub-par weapon, a trait that improves a sub-par weapon is by extension sub-par.

Wrought-Iron Will: This trait is an interesting one. The biggest problem with this trait is the range. 240 is really short, so nobody but your waifu and hordes of zerglings are going to get the benefits. But, retaliation on dodge is useful for a few extra damage ticks. This trait isn’t particularly stellar, though, and in PVE it is all but worthless.

SECTION 2: THE UTILITIES!!!

While I discuss these utilities, keep in mind that they can be disabled by enemy attacks, as well as killed by enemy attacks. In medium and large scale WvW engagements, these utilities are all useless. I have yet to test them out in fractals and raids, but the large amount of ambient damage can also render these skills useless.

Breakrazor’s Bastion: PoF is introducing new mechanics in the game to work as ablative defenses. Whereas before we were filled with condi cleanses and invulnerabilities, we are getting barrier and partial condi reduction. There is wisdom to things like Barrier, since it acts as a medium between being wholly invulnerable and utterly helpless. However, the introduction of these mechanics faces a large obstacle to their use: They are vastly inferior to the cleanses and invulnerabilities that already existed.

Case in point, Breakrazor is not a “good” skill for being balanced against condi damage, in light of the fact that other heal skills simply obliterate condi damage. A 3.1k heal that slowly becomes a 5.8k heal if you loiter in place for 10 seconds continues the trend of sub-par healing skills on the Rev. Having a stun break be attached to the heal skill is interesting, and it comes with advantages and disadvantages. However, having a ground targeted heal skill that can be controlled and killed is not a good thing, in basically any regard. The unique buff the skill gives is interesting, but inferior to generic cleanses. Everything with Breakrazor can go wrong, and there is no grand reward for things going right.

Razorclaw’s Rage: This skill may be useful. I’d have to compare it to others first on the golem. In PVP the skill is useless, and in WvW it has questionable use, but in PVE where you can more reliably get 5 people attacking once per second, it is actually good. Animation and skill flavor aside, Razorclaw basically inflicts 162.5 base bleed ticks. This pushes it into “good” territory, but against harder bosses I am afraid that the massive amount of AoEs in fractals and raids will render this skill moot. Unlike the class mechanics, this skill is actually worth using for its recharge and energy cost. One last problem is that this skill does not scale against multiple enemies. It inflicts a maximum of 162.5 base bleeds no matter what, so this damage can be spread out among multiple targets.

Darkrazor’s Daring: This is the only skill where being killable can be forgiven. It will be alright for breaking some bars, but many breakbars are up for less than 6 seconds. In PVP this skill can make for good area control, but it is a shame that Revs don’t have many interrupt traits. The steep energy cost means that it’ll be difficult to use, though.

Icerazor’s Ire: I will echo the common sentiment that this skill should cause chill, not cripple. Otherwise, this skill has limited use. It very slowly does average damage, sustaining 20 vulnerability and 3 seconds of cripple for its duration. For a condi build it definitely isn’t worth its cost. Again, this skill does not scale with multiple targets, so while against a single opponent the damage is meaningful, against multiple enemies it is a minor nuisance.

Soulcleave’s Summit: This is the only skill that has an upkeep, so technically this skill is an odd transformation. The leeching and healing seem alright at first, but once you realize that you can only leech life once per second, you learn that this skill is basically a well that pulses for 748 damage for every player near you, coming to 3.7k dps. In a group this is stronger than things like Vengeful Hammers and Impossible odds, but solo it isn’t. But nonetheless, if you’re in a group, Soulcleave’s Summit is probably the only skill you’re going to use. Ironically the healing it outputs is pretty good.

Overall, the renegades abilities nicely demonstrate the contradictory nature of the Renegade:

1. The do not support allies. They are carried by allies. You need to be in a group to work.
2. They do not scale against multiple enemies. They inflict static damage, whether it be against one enemy or multiple. They are bad against groups.
3. The skills are all elaborate wells, so they require players to remain still inside of them to get their effect. They also require enemies to stay still inside of them.

From a PVP and WvW standpoint, there is no appropriate place to use these. If you’re by yourself and fighting a group, you’re dead. If you’re in a group fighting a single player, you can contribute meaningfully to fighting an enemy that is terribly outmatched and will lose anyway. If you’re in a group fighting a group, you’ll make minimal contributions because your skills don’t scale well against multiple enemies. If you’re against a zerg, your utilities won’t live long enough to matter. If you’re in a zerg, your teammates won’t stand still long enough to get the buffs, so the utilities are useless. Conclusion: There is no place to use these skills in PVP and WvW. They simply don’t work.

The only place you’ll get the full effect of these utilities is in PVE, in a group, fighting against a single immobile enemy. Thankfully that happens often. But, this also leaves the Renegade in a strange quandary, because their playstyle is going to be boxed into one of two tactics: Soucleave until legend swap, or Razor Claw until weapon swap. A condi build will blow all of its energy by the time legends end up off of cooldown if you use Soul Cleave, so you’ll end up flailing auto attacks. But, the high cost of the utilities means that, after you use Razor Claw, you don’t really have the energy to do much else. The utilities just don’t mesh well.

Dear Arena Net,

We need to talk. Many of us in the necromancer community have been fans of your game and in love with your necromancer profession since Guild Wars Prophecies. We’ve played through those Weird days with infinite minions and server crashes, the enchantments that didn’t synergies with monk skills, or their own skills, getting nerfed because of Mesmers and Rangers abusing our skills all the way to Guild Wars 2 where we had to deal with constant pathing bugs on our minions, no defenses for a long time, being a ping pong ball, suffering through being Kicked from groups simply because we were playing a necromancer. We’ve Dealt with all of that.

We had hoped we’d have more and open communication between us and you and that you’d take the time to view our concerns and take them into account while going in and testing them yourself. Not just your personal builds, but the community builds and seeing how they work, why they work and what we have to say about them. I have a hard time believing that you do all that. I suspect that you do part of it, but not all. The decisions you make are, unusual to say the least and lack perspective on the class as it stands today and foresight for the future.

We have been trying to tell you what we are looking for in the profession for years. And you seem to be the slowest to act on it and very often hear part of it while missing the reason as to why we are saying it. Vital Persistence is just the latest Example with a Long history of necromancer examples. Lets go through a list of a few note worthy examples and see your solution and show you what was the point you missed.

Vital Persistence:

• What you Did: Looking at this trait it was clear that it was by far the most powerful master trait in soul reaping. So it made sense to weaken it to bring it down to the power of the other traits.
• What you Missed: Back when the Specializations were being introduced a good chunk of the necromancer community was telling you that the reduced degeneration from the old trait and the new was Vital to the survival to the necromancer. At this time you were making a tone of things baseline and the Community has harped on this point since you implemented the trait. We told you it needed to be baseline. And when you nerfed it was met with a huge community backlash. Why? Because you acted on half the information, but failed to pay attention to what the community was actually saying about it. Now, looking at the traits Vital Persistence is still the best possible trait in the master tier…

Signet of Suffering:

• What you did: The community has been pretty Vocal about the issues with Signets having no synergy with shroud. So it makes sense to make it so it can function while the player is in shroud.
• What you missed: The Community has been screaming about this for years because of how Shroud has built in anti synergy with anything the necromancer is trying to do. We’ve been telling you that Utility skills just need to be active in shroud, no traits. This has been a another short sighted change on your part with little understanding of what the problem was. We need this sort of thing to be base line, not to have to take a trait so that it functions on the same level as other professions.

Foot in the Grave

• What you did: After the change to Stability being a stacking boon you missed that of all the traits Food in the grave was completely forgot about, and it seemed to be the absolute only ability to be forgotten about so you made a quick fix to make it a stunbreak while entering shroud. Which turned out to be a good Decision.
• What you missed: This was just yet another accumulation of a major issue that the necromancer suffered and its tale is extremely Similar to Vital persistence with a band aid solution that fixes that particular issue but missed the reason it was a problem in the first place. The Necromancer community was Miffed about not having access to Stability in the first place and having to take a Sub par Grandmaster to not suffer being a Ping Pong ball the entire time. This change was good but it didn’t recognize the overlying problem that the community was crying out about.

So, as you’ve probably noticed ANet, a very big part of the community is unhappy about some of the changes introduced by the feature pack, including:

• New leveling system
• Personal story rework
• Re-introducing bugs
• Camera auto-adjusting and moving on its own will
• Gone minis
• Non-sense nerf on particular skills
• Breaking auto-login
• Stealth changes to HotW story mode, CoE story mode, Arah Path 2, toggling the paths to be impossible to complete
• Stealth changes to Twilight Arbor Up where the Nightmare Tree doesn’t do AoE spike attack and the number of Nightmare turrets is significantly reduced
• Stealth changes to Fractals

As well as not addressing problems that have been around:

• No rework on the terrible traits system
• Bugs that have been reported repeatedly and are yet not fixed

And if I have to be honest about the feature pack, I have to admit that I’m absolutely loving the fact that you merged guild instances that were spread out, but apart from that, the whole feature pack seems more like “Lets get stuff out while throwing dust in their eyes by changing the UI”

As a QA team leader in an IT company and a passionate PvE player of GW2, I have one very simple question to ask: What does your QA/Testing team consist of? There’s no way, a person could miss the newly introduced Arah pt2 bug. The only logical explanation to me would be that either your team performed very simple unit testing and passed on the regression testing as a whole or that they’re the worst PvE players I’ve seen if they can’t do the skip to Belka (Solution: Give them guardians running in full nomad and 4 hours so they can kill all the mobs to Belka if you have to!).

Please, ANet, realize that many of the changes are unwanted and unnecessary. I love this game so much that I used to spend 10+ hours per day on it but now I just feel disappointed and discouraged to play it any longer. Please, listen to your player base.

Regards,
Winter