Guild Wars 2

Utilities

Going to go through these faster.

Breakrazor (Heal)- Garbage. Low healing that requires you to stand in a smallish aoe for a whopping 10 seconds. For some reason the stunbreak is on this skill as well, meaning if you cancel the heal it goes on full cd. For some reason Anet thinks Rev should have a glaring condi weakness while other classes have none, so instead of something useful like condi cleanse or resistance this skill gets -33% condi damage while standing in the small aoe.

Razorclaw- is obsolete as long as the elite exists. Both increase damage dealt each hit by party members, except the elite doesn’t have an ICD and is much, much stronger than Razorclaw. Plus the 25 energy cost is garbage for the damage gained even with perfect application.

Icerazor- literally has Ice in his name, shoots blue, icy looking projectiles and yet he deals vuln and cripple and not chill. What is this garbage Anet. The one time that Theme > Functionality would actually work in Rev’s favor you decide to screw theme and give us the two weakest conditions in the game. If this dealt chill it would actually have synergy with the Mallyx line.
The only positive is that it (when not bugged) stacks with Soucleave and can deal decent damage to one target if they stand still for over 6 seconds and you have 100 energy to start with. Which is never.

Darkrazor- One of the top 3 skills of this spec. Constant aoe daze works well in spvp. High energy cost means you should always use this over Icerazor and Razorclaw. Pray it doesn’t get cc’d.

Soulcleave- Could be strong. Promotes the same garbage gameplay in pve that Rev has had for forever. Toggle + auto attack until stance switch. Useless in pug spvp.

Utility Summary

Boring and bad. Darkrazor >> Icerazor. Soulcleave >> Razorclaw. Terrible heal. Promotes bad gameplay. CC’able and killable ai spirits. High energy costs.
No defense, no mobility, no condi cleanse. Unusable in spvp outside of Darkrazor and praying no one sees you. Unusable in WvW because of cc’able and killable spirits.

F Skills

F1- aoe might. Boring and not needed. How is this different from Herald?

F2- Flashy and nice visuals. Can’t reliably hit even stationary targets. Low damage unless you stack burning %, and even then it’s still low unless they purposefully move around inside the aoe and get hit multiple times.
Someone thought a 40 energy cost skill that deals less damage than a Mallyx UA (which also chills) was a good enough idea to put into the game. Holosmith gets kittenning unibeam while Rev spend 40 energy to deal less damage than one soulbeast maul, or one deadeye kneel4 from 1500 range.

F3 more alacrity. No one wants this. Alacrity is useless on rev when Anet has pigeonholed rev into autoattacking. Not to mention it’s only useful when traited and costs 30 energy with a small aoe. It’s a pve skill that’s useless for pve because it’s not worth spending energy on anything else but Soulcleave.

Traits

I’m tired, and not as worried about traits since Anet has an easier time changing traits than skills it seems. Someone else can go into more depth on traits if they want

For a condi spec, Kalla has little synergy with Mallyx outside of Fervor and SB3 torment. Which is sad.
Kalla has TWO traits that increase bleed duration, but only two SB skills that inflict bleed (one being the auto attack) and Razorclaw is pointless when Soulcleave exists.
Revenant has more burn skills than bleed, yet has two bleed traits. Fix this.

Grandmaster’s are boring and passive. F2 is already unreliable and terrible for the energy cost. Increased maximum Fervor stacks? Complete passive gameplay. More Alacrity and reduced condition damage? Alacrity is pointless on Rev as explained earlier and somehow Anet thinks reduced condi damage is a replacement for condi cleanse.

Why give Kalla high prot uptime with All for One when that’s literally what the Herald elite is for?

Conclusion

Please don’t let Revenant rot in the same problems that it has had for years, Anet. Some people still care about the class. I’ve read plenty of feedback from other players saying similar things. There’s no possible way Anet can’t see just how subpar Renegade is, how stifling the Revenant energy mechanic and “condi weakness” have become, and how bugged-filled this class is, right?

I apologize if this turned into a wall of text. I just hope Anet will take into account at least a little bit of the feedback.

Renegade Skills Review

Shortbow #1- The autoattack is decent. Similar damage to Ranger SB without the flanking req and also aoe. I don’t understand why Renegade’s auto has a cast time, but other than that I have no complaints. It’s a typical auto.

Shortbow #2- It’s a boring, stronger auto attack that also has the unique feature of being able to be dodged by having your opponent move in a straight line. I’ve had NPC’s completely dodge it just by walking towards me (or literally any direction). Another case of Theme > Functionality, which a lot of this weapon suffers from. Some players have been having problems with this skill being bugged/not firing.

Shortbow #3- The Dev’s said they didn’t want to make another shotgun skill so they made something else that’s completely worse for some reason. In order to get the most out of this skill, you first have to get all 7 arrows to fire. Then you have to get all 7 arrows to hit your target at a very specific range without anything else being in the way after both a cast time and travel time. If you get all 7 arrows to hit, you’re rewarded with mediocre damage that isn’t boosted by any Kalla traits (besides Fervor which obviously applies to all condis/crts).
Plenty of others have pointed out how bugged this skill is. Unless you have perfectly flat ground with no other characters in the way you will never fire all 7 arrows. Not to mention that I’ve had all 7 arrows fire at a stationary target and the target still isn’t hit with all 7 despite being at the end point of the skill.
Like SB2, the only way you will consistently hit with most of the attack is if your opponent is standing still for 2 seconds. Except this time they have to be at a perfect 900 range away. And even after hitting with the skill you’ll realize it wasn’t actually worth the energy, and you could have hit your cc’d opponent with an actually useful skill.

Perfect example of Theme > Functionality.

Shortbow #4- Not amazing, but not a terrible buggy mess like SB3. Burning is cool but isn’t boosted by any Rev traits. Castable while moving helps. I don’t understand the weird cast time/delay, but it’s still usable. Like the skills before, it is best used on a cc’d opponent. BUG- doesn’t track targets/fire behind you even when standing still (all hammer skills do. No reason for shortbow skills not to.)

Shortbow #5- Even though this skill is buggy and deals pathetic damage, I like it just because it helps support the rest of the shortbow skills. 2, 3, and 4 all need a target to be still in order to actually hit, and this skill is what let’s you do so. 2 sec KD on a 10 second cooldown. That’s where the positives end though.

-High cost (20 energy, higher than Hammer #5)
-Cast time and travel time are awkward
-Doesn’t actually reach 900 range
-Doesn’t track targets behind you while standing still.

Shortbow Overall- The visuals are nice, and it’s nice having a 900 range condi weapon, but other than that it’s completely underwhelming and unusable outside of PVE where it’s outclassed by any other rev weapon anyway.

As stated in the TLDR, it’s a 900 range weapon with no defense, no mobility, and no burst. Skills 2, 3, and 4 all require your opponent to stand still/be cc’d in order to deal it’s maximum mediocre damage. If you use SB 5 to set up for your other skills, you literally have no tools to keep someone off you outside of utilities, and the 20 energy cost means you won’t be able to pressure someone well even with the KD.

No burst, awkward cast times/skill delay, and no target following on 4 and 5 mean anyone in melee range will delete you unless you have Shiro and spend 60 energy to Riposte away and dodge.

The pseudo aoe is also a huge disappointment and frustrates me. At first glance the shortbow seems like an aoe-dps weapon. It’s really not.

SB2 isn’t aoe unless you take the pierce trait and the enemies are literally stacked on eachother.

SB3 is the same as SB2. Requires pierce and all enemies stacked at a perfect 900 range. Torment isn’t boosted by Kalla traits meaning Mallyx is necessary to actually dps with this.

SB 4 and SB 5 are decent. However, 5 has horrid power scaling, and both use burning which again isn’t boosted by any rev traits outside Fervor.

So for aoe dps you’re stuck with auto-ing and SB4.

I almost never post on the forums, but really hope Anet sees how much fixing Renegade needs.

TL:DR

Unusable for Pvp.
No block, no evade, no stab, no mobility, no condi cleanse/resistance on an entire trait-line, legendary stance, and weapon set with low/inconsistent damage, no burst, and low range. Oh, and the stunbreak is on the heal.

Unusable for WvW.
Utilities can be cc’d, have low health, and are immobile. Sb is worse than hammer in every way. Taking Kalla over any other stance means losing resistance (Mallyx), evades/mobility (Shiro), projectile hate/condi cleanse (Ventari), or condi cleanse/group stab and defense (Jalis)

Possibly usuable in PVE:
Once the renegade elite stops bugging out and actually applies to every hit made it might be a big enough dps increase to let rev get raid slots. However, this would still reinforce the same garbage rev gameplay that’s plagued it for the past 2 years- Turn on X elite/skill, then sit and autoattack until you can switch stances and do it again.

End TL:DR

Summary

Renegade is a showcase of all the problems that Revenant has faced over the past 2 years, and at best it reinforces the garbage Rev gameplay that Revenant has been stuck with as well.

Plenty of people have pointed out the sad state of core Rev, and Renegade is no different. Bugged skills, non-existent condi cleanse, very low access to swiftness, and high energy costs that make too many skills rarely used since they compete with other better skills for a small energy pool. Once upon a time Rev skills were actually strong to make up for having both an energy cost and cooldown. Not anymore. Power Rev is a shell of what it was before, particularly in pvp, and remains so even while the other new elite specs get buffed damage to above what the old rev could do (I’m looking at you, Holosmith).

Rev’s gameplay, particularly in PVE, also remains in it’s boring state. High energy costs means swapping legendary stances off CD to actually remain relevant in a fight. Kalla pve will be the exact same as Mallyx and Jalis- Use your elite/hammers and then auto-attack until you can switch stances and do it again.

By trying to make Rev unique with the energy system they ended up making it have the most boring/limiting gameplay I’ve ever seen.

There have been plenty of suggestions by people more qualified than myself to fix this, but by looking at Renegade it seems that Anet is sticking with their failed vision of Rev. Theme > Functionality/Mechanics/QoL

Every class lacks a ton of things until level 80/elite spec. I highly recommend getting to 80/elite spec and then making a judgement on it.

What Palador said is correct.

If your focus is heavily on PvP and winning, then buying HoT is basically mandatory. All Elite specs are much more viable than the normal core classes. In my experience, buying HoT was the best decision I made for PvP.

Like Palador said though, for PvE and WvW you might as well try and hit 80 first and then decide if you want to buy it.

Then something is obviously not balanced. I was hyped for this pvp season, but when every team contains 2-3 reapers that chain chill and shred anyone that gets close to a point, then it becomes frustrating.

I’m not even sure what to do now. Winning in melee range is impossible because of constant chill (Warriors in melee range aren’t scary at all compared to reapers). Condi builds get transferred. Can’t stop them from stomping because of constant stability.

I’ve been running power LB-ranger and just praying they don’t have a scrapper or thief to reflect or insta-burst me down.

What do, pvp forum?

Yes-but it’s called Daredevil now.

Ithilwen.1529:

HoT Elite Specs: After the initial buying pulse, the elite specs were nerfed so hard that in some cases the core classes are actually better. I can’t speak to the thinking or what happened at ANET.

However, this has the appearance of a deception. I and many others bought HoT for the elites. How can this not create bad feeling?

And this is where you discredited yourself entirely.

Alekt.5803:

Most Elite specs and Heart of Thorns content are not balanced either.

Fixed that for you.

Look at and play the core classes, then look at and play the elite specs.

There’s a reason the elite specs have been dominating and overshadowing the core classes, and it shows in every level of play.

HoT Powercreep exists.

Holy dang. They gave off-hand range/radius increase back to axe and dagger. Happy tears.

Agree with OP.

But the items should only be buyable once you have 1 of each profession max level and completed the personal story once for each race.