Guild Wars 2

Stuck here too!

Obal, I know condition is bad compared to pure DPS, but can you elaborate on its viability for high scale fractals? I read a comment from Nike saying that at high scale fractals all pure DPS builds plummet in terms of damage, so I’m curious as to how condi rev holds up in that sense.

I always felt Sword 5 should be a 600 range shadowstep to a enemy, then you shadowstep back and pull the enemy to where you are. It allows one to control where exactly they want their target to be and deal with the issue of range.

Azure.8670:

Daniel Handler.4816:

Mesmer here.

Guardians were taken for reflect and because they out dps mesmers. However with alacrity our community hypothesized the new meta would be 2 ele, 1 chronomancer, 1 warrior, 1 revenant.

The uptime on quickness and alacrity makes for a group that out dps the current meta.

Revenant becomes a half warrior, half guard. Taken for niche stat increases.

The mesmer would be half guard, half thief.

theres no reason to take Rev over Guard for fractals/dungeons. Raids, maybe because its unknown territory, but as if now, Guardian is still a boss hog due to reflects

Projectile control is why guardians are needed, along the the utilities in terms of boons and etc. Revenant is capable of covering that role thanks to having a reliable shield of the avenger that can be up for a long time, which complements whenever mesmer lacks projectile reflection uptime.

Both are fine for fractals, doing different things, but they are also capable of controlling enemy projectiles with great efficiency.

Daniel Handler.4816:

2 eles don’t bring just icebow. They bring fireball +lava font. The nerf hurt thieves more than eles. They won’t be taken anymore because their stealth can be given by a mesmer or an engie.

They don’t bring solely that, but the ability to stack that much damage thanks to Ice Bow was very important in the composition. The second staff ele brings nothing but DPS at this point, and in that sense there are other classes which can fill its niche giving more utility to the team.

Bovan.9481:

Warscythes.9307:

Revs right now are one of the top dps/support/tanky class in the entire game

No, definitely not.
Big Revenant supporter here and I will be maining the class as well, but we have to stay realistic here. DPS is high but still below Elementalists. We have a strong projectile destruction, but unfortunately that is sub-par compared to reflects. We don’t buff as much might as a Phalanx Warrior. We don’t provide stealth, and little weakness and blinds. Even vulnerability which is one of the Revenant’s strongest points isn’t actually worth taking a Revenant over something else.

For fractals and dungeons I don’t see Revenants taking a core slot. Raids are a different story, but we only know 1 boss so far so I don’t know how much point there is discussing that. Then again, we don’t know how the level 51+ fractals will look either.

Revenant is a very strong and versatile class however. But we don’t really bring anything unique other classes can’t bring on top of even more stuff.

Boon duration is quite a lot. Boon on demand is also very interesting. And no, Revenant has the highest DPS in the game versus single targets, but the more support the rev gives, the less is the DPS.

Besides, there is much more than DPS to a meta composition, which is why after the ice bow nerf 2 eles is not going to be meta anymore for old content.

Excellent list, thank you for making it. Just two bugs that I noticed, from my post on the bugs thread:

Ventari Legend: Changing legends while the missile destroying bubble is up will make the tablet and the bubble go away, but the effect will still be up invisibly (for how long I’m not sure, maybe 20 seconds), thus destroying projectiles.
Legend swapping: Normally swapping legends out of combat results in a 10s cooldown. This can be avoided by cliking on the legend selection arrow above your current legend, and picking your secondary legend. This method will allow you to switch between legends while OOC with no CD.

Roy talked about maybe adding a trait to buff Torment stationary damage. It was well received and would really help Condi Rev, so I wonder how that is going

That too. You could put a Superior Sigil of Strength on your weapon and enjoy its benefits even without Glint.

Tablet has the lowest activation time possible on heal/movement, which is needed because making it instant could make healing fairly trivial. I would probably change how its movement works and make it instantaneous to make it more interesting. Also, make it spawn at the Revenant right when you change legends, because I think the cost to summon it every time you change legends is too prohibitive to make Ventari truly shine.

There would probably be implications to the skill’s effects were you able to proc it effortlessly, I believe that’s what Roy is saying.

There’s a certain degree of awareness in knowing when to swap legends, when your heals are up, manipulating stuff like energy sigil procs without changing weapons, and other shenanigans. Revenant is not easy per see, but it’s not harder than elementalist or engineer. I do have to admit that playing ele for a fair bit made the switch to revenant much easier.

Adding to this, two other bugs I noticed:

Ventari Legend: Changing legends while the missile destroying bubble is up will make the tablet and the bubble go away, but the effect will still be up invisibly (for how long I’m not sure, maybe 20 seconds), thus destroying projectiles.

Legend swapping: Normally swapping legends out of combat results in a 10s cooldown. This can be avoided by cliking on the legend selection arrow above your current legend, and picking your secondary legend. This method will allow you to switch between legends while OOC with no CD.

Honestly, the one weapon type where Rev loses in terms of CD is also the one where there are many versatile skills. Staff has access to some extremely important stuff (Blast Finisher, Block, Condi Cleanse, CC) and it’s natural it has more CDs than usual to compensate.

That said, I enjoy the fact we have lower CDs thanks to energy. This is particularly noticeable in some skills shared across classes (blocking with Sword OH) where Rev has a baseline 12s CD, while Mesmer and Warrior have to trait for such CD. I know a lot of people are annoyed by it, but one important factor to take in consideration is that this also balances upkeep skills. While using upkeep skills, you have to be careful about what skills you use, which help both balance the upkeeps and the skills themselves. For this reason, I don’t see energy cost ever going away from weapons.

Both are useful. That said, Hammer has a more prominent role compared to staff (staff is a melee when many rev weapons are melee already, while hammer is the only ranged option).

Guys, c’mon. The reason Zealot/Nomad/Sinister aren’t there is because these stats were added to the game after launch of ascended sets. The current list uses all stats available when ascended was released, and it’s safe to assume these stats weren’t compiled in a list later on. It has nothing to do with ArenaNet removing them or not supporting them.

For the record, Revenant’s Sword AA 2 still goes through the AA sequence even if it’s reflected. There are two hits in the attack: First one ensures a hit because it’s a direct hit with the blade, second one is the projectile coming back. I tested it with a friend of mine in PvP and even inside a WoR, your enemy won’t make you reset the AA chain with reflects, like it happens with Guardian Sword AA 3. That said, I do agree that the first hit, by being a thrust, has less cleave potential so I would like to see it changed too.

draxynnic.3719:

To be honest, one thing that does concern me about the proposed torment change is that the behaviour of conditions should be easily recognisable. In PvP you rarely want to stand still – however, if you have Torment on, it may at times be a viable tactic to do so briefly in order to reduce the damage you take from Torment. Without some indication of which Torment stacks come from a revenant and thus don’t have their damage reduced by as much, however, it makes it that much harder to make an informed decision on how to respond to a situation.

There’s no difference in how you approach torment in this case, the only difference being that Revenant’s will have a bigger damage when you are standing still, but it will still be weaker than if you were moving.

Lauriewonnacott.9841:

It’s only going to be sustained healing if you camp the legend though. I don’t think it’d be very enjoyable to camp centaur stance using Facet of Nature every now and then. Druid can heal it’s allies even when it’s not in the celestial form, but Rev needs to be in centaur stance to provide more healing than just regen.

Baseline ranger has little ways to heal people too. Staff is the best non-celestial skillset they have for support, and a druid camping staff will deal minimal damage and low heals. It goes both ways, really, but with the key difference that celestial form has a time limit, whereas Ventari has not (thus Roy’s comment).

To be honest, people need to consider that Druid is an elite spec, so in a sense it’s natural it gives more than a baseline trait line could offer to Revenant. That said, Revenant (and Guardian) have access to different sorts of “Healing”, if that makes any sense.

For example, Revenant and Guardian have boon support on top of healing support, with Rev in particular being able to put up stuff like perma regen and protection (with Bolster Fortifications which has no ICD so it synergizes with Ventari’s healing), and access to condi cleanses on the fly. I know a lot of people are bringing “But energy!” complains, but I really can’t foresee a scenario where you will be slamming your face in the keyboard every second in the raid to the point you run out of energy so often. Now, if only Roy listened to my idea and gave the Ventari Elite a Water Field and made Shield 4 a blast finisher…

Druid probably will be the best healing spec in terms of sheer healing, but Guardian and Revenant offer support in ways Druid cannot, and I’m confident the three classes specced for healing will be fine in any raid thanks to fulfilling their roles in different degrees and efficiencies.

Cecilia.5179:

I have all of my tomes ready, but I still need to get a set of gear that works well. I wonder how many investments will be ruined if/when berserker falls from favor.

Even in a scenario where Nomad gear becomes “meta” for HoT content, Berserker gear will still be perfectly valid for current game content, so it’s hardly something that can be ruined.

I would like to see a Revenant headstart for those who pre-purchase, if only because this allows one to work toward having enough Hero Points for Herald on release. Ultimately, if I were to guess, it depends on Roy thinking if the base class is “complete” in time for it. A 3 day headstart by itself would be awesome.

For now I have full Berserker and Sinister sets (Berserker has an exo helm but I have a Raider Helm chest somewhere in my bank, just too lazy to get it in case I decide to use it for something else). Runes I’m currently holding are Aristocracy on Sinister set and I’m deciding between Strength or Scholar for the zerker (probably Strength due to the synergy with Glint/Sword 3).

Sigils are Malice+Bursting on Sinister Maxe+Axe and Force on zerker sword, with energy on sword OH and Axe will probably be Strength (for Share Empowerment synergy), along with Force+Strength on Hammer and Staff.

Right now I’m just trying to get an ascended Spear so I can get full ascended everything, but Fractals haven’t been too nice :P

Oh, not pictured: My insta-lv80 stuff

Sword OH is pretty good on solos, kinda like Warrior OH sword. The shield is nice but the lack of mobility can be a problem in certain scenarios (stuff like Energy Fields on Mai, or running from a fight). Both weapons have their uses, in this sense.

That said, I have to admit it would be nice to make Grasping Shadow unblockable. As it is the skill has a very small range, so it would be a nice buff.

I think it’s worth pointing out that at one point Roy called the changes to Mallyx “Necessary to the health of the game in the future” or something along these lines, on twitter I think. Although the issue he raised up to justify the changes is valid (it was hard to keep up Mallyx’s bonuses when condi cleanses are so prominent in coordinated play), I’m inclined to believe a strong reason to do this is that not only there was this problematic nature of the clash between Mallyx’s playstyle and group cleanses, but also because Embrace the Darkness hardcountered all condi builds in the game, and has no counter outside of… not applying conditions to the Revenant, like BlackDevil pointed out. When you consider that conditions are supposed to be Revenant’s weakness (although I’m hopeful we’ll see more changes in the future to help Revenant not be like Warrior was at launch), it’s easy to see why the old Embrace the Darkness had to be changed, specially in the PvP scene.

Roy Cronacher.1576:

Hey all,

The Reflexive Hammers trait in retribution is going to be changed after BWE3, before launch. Right now since it uses projectiles that hover around you, they currently don’t work underwater and I think it no longer really fits the line as that is more about damage, plus it muddies the FXs around the character when the actual hammers are around you.

Soooooo…. I wanted to throw out an idea I had about a new GM trait for retribution to place it and see what you all think. The trait would be more dwarf stance focused since we don’t have a dwarf stance specific trait.

• It would give you some way to proc Rite of the Great Dwarf like at some percent health trigger or something and then make Rite of the Great Dwarf (both proc and the skill) have reduced condition damage taken as well while allies have the buff.

Let me know what you think.

The condi buff is an interesting concept, but I want to point out one thing Roy: All traits tied to legend skill use in the Revenant trait lines are associated with using ANY legend skill, not only the elite and so on. Furthermore, they are Master tier traits, compared to this one which is a grandmaster.

If I may be so bold, I would reduce the condition resistance bonus to 2.5s (half of the duration of the Rite of the Great Dwarf) but apply it to any Dwarf Legend skill you use. That said, I would probably add 5s IC to avoid spamming it with the Vengenceful Hammers (by turning em on and off all the time).

First of all, thank you for posting these changes Roy, they cleatly show you’ve been taking our feedback!

Roy Cronacher.1576:

Downed
Unfortunately, the displace mechanic was interacting poorly in the game as a whole. It was causing undesired behavior with NPCs and pathing, its strength varied by game mode, it was very disorienting to the receiving foe and other issues as well. We made the decision to remove displace and change the skills which had it on them. In this case we changed it to a knockback because it was similar functionality.

• Forceful Displacement: This skill no longer displaces foes, instead it will now knockback the foe 600 distance.

Regarding this, the downed skill is now a big too similar to the guardian downed skill 2, except it just hits a single target. I understand the logic in changing it from what it was, but why not add a different effect? For example, revenants are heavily tied to the mists, so why not make it so the skill is tied to teleporting/moving around? The other downed skill deals damage based on your target’s positioning, so it could be an interesting combo if you could cast that then teleport somewhere else to deal more damage or something.

Sword
For sword, there were some minor tweaks. Precision Strike was made a whirl finisher because it made sense as your character is spinning around, plus the skill needed a bit of help. Unrelenting Assault was a bit strong after the last set of changes so I slightly increased the recharge to have a lower window between evade times.

• Precision Strike: This skill is now a whirl finisher.

What about increasing its range too? As it is, the 450 range makes the projectiles miss a bit too much :/

Shield
We were trying out defiance bars on player skills in a few places, but it didn’t really work out. Defiance bar is balanced around being on creatures which left some pieces of it feeling awkward for players. It also had essentially a duplicate functionality to stability. In the end we felt like it didn’t play well on player skills so we removed all player defiance bars.

• Envoy of Exuberance: Decreased the energy cost from 15 to 10. Fixed a bug so that this skill will properly heal at the target location instead of around you.
• Crystal Hibernation: Removed the defiance bar. This skill will now block attacks for the duration while regenerating health. Lowered recharge from 30 seconds to 20 seconds.

I appreciate the new changes, that said, I would like to make a few suggestions to this: Since revenant doesn’t have access to an off-hand finisher, what about adding a Blast Finisher to Envoy of Exuberance? That would enhance Revenant’s support with the shield since blast finishers provide support, be in the form of more might, or healing.

I also understand the logic behind Crystal Hibernation’s changes. You lowered the cooldown (which is awesome) and allowed it to block all the way through, but it can only do this stuff (in comparison to, say, warrior shield 5, which people will compare it to) because it keeps you at the same place for its duration. I understand this is part of the design, but I would consider making it so it gives capture point contribution in PvP since it makes you a sitting duck.

Legendary Centaur Stance
Here I made some changes to the cast time. Now all utility skills are instant, only the heal and the elite have a cast time. The elite has also been lowered in cast time as well as decreased energy cost.

• Naturalistic Harmony. Decreased the energy cost from 25 to 20.
• Purifying Essence: This skill is now instant cast. Decreased the energy cost from 35 to 30 and added a 5 second recharge.
• Energy Expulsion: This skill is now a blast finisher and reduced the cast time from 2 seconds to 1 second. Decreased the energy cost from 50 to 35.

I appreciate these changes, the Centaur stance will be far more mobile now I also like that you added a blast finisher to Energy Repulsion since that’s something I wanted to see, but I would like to add a suggestion to this:

As it is, Water Fields are very lacking in classes all around. They are mostly centered on Elementalist, so it would be nice to see Revenant having access to at least one for further support. What I originally thought was, since Water Fields seem a bt off to the Centaur theme (and have a risk of being abused in a Revenant thanks to most skills not having cooldowns), I thought of a way to make Water Fields accessible yet require skillful use to be fully utilized.

The idea is to add a Water Field to Energy Repulsion, but making it so it lasts only 1 second and right before it explodes so the Energy Repulsion’s Blast Finisher can combo on itself. The cool thing is that a Revenant could, say, blast it with Mace 3 or (if you change it ) Shield 4 to add more healing, or coodinate with their allies so they blast it in this tiny window too. The skill CD’s would be balanced around the fact the Field lasts 1 second, and requires one to destroy the Tablet, summon it again and then have the energy to cast Energy Repulsion again. Could be a neat idea

Legendary Dwarf Stance
A lot of you thought Forced Engagement was too high of a cost for a single target control skill, and I agree! But, I can’t allow you to use it back to back or else it creates bad chain controlling situations so there is an added recharge as well.

• Forced Engagement: Increased the recharge from 3 seconds to 5 seconds and lowered the energy cost from 50 to 35.

I appreciate this change! It’s what the skill needed, I feel. That said, what about adding it as a Stun Breaker too? I know the elite is a stun breaker already, but it would be neat to add two stun breakers to this tanky legend, plus the fact you taunt an enemy balanced the fact it is somewhat accessible.

Herald
In herald overall I think it played out fairly well, but there was a few small tweaks I wanted to make. Shared Empowerment was slightly under-tuned compared to other similar traits. Gaze of Darkness bypassed defenses like dodging which wasn’t intended.

• Shared Empowerment: Increased the might duration from 5 seconds to 8 seconds.
• Facet of Nature: This is now useable underwater.
• Gaze of Darkness: Fixed a bug so that this can be properly avoiding using things such as your dodge.

I appreciate the change to Share Empowerment! That said, I would consider making it give two stacks of might to offset the fact the facets give boons at the same time (during the beta, I was hoping to be able to maximize the might output by making the facets pulse at different times, but they do boon sharing together ) and allow it to stack more naturally.

Corruption
In the corruption specialization, there were a few traits which needed some tweaks in power to be competitive options. As an example revenant did not have many options to apply poison, but had the trait Venom Enhancement which increased poison duration so I thought it made sense to also apply poison itself.

• Pulsating Pestilence: Increased the trigger chance from 15% to 25%.
• Replenishing Despair: Increased the base heal by 300% and added a 1 second internal cool-down.
• Venom Enhancement: This trait will now apply poison for 5 seconds with a 20 second recharge when you apply torment as well as increasing poison duration.

Great changes! I have to mention though, what about making Pulsating Pestilence work on a more accurate trigger, like weapon swapping? That gives the revenant more control over it.

Devastation
In this specialization, I addressed an issue a lot of you brought up in feedback which I thought made a lot of sense. Basically you all said the profession stat buffs like empower are generally in master tier and ferocious strikes was just a weaker trait. So I went ahead and switched the position of both of these traits.

• Assassin’s Presence: This trait has been moved to master tier replacing the place of Ferocious Strikes.
• Ferocious Strikes: This trait has been moved to adept tier replacing the place of Assassin’s Presence.

Love ya!

Loving these changes, I hope they are not the last ones! (and sorry for the wall of text :P )

Kidel.2057:

Rygg.6237:

Then that confirms that Shields will never see use on Revenant if the skill stays as is, and also that break bar on players needs a ton of rework.

It’s still better then any offhand in pve. Both OH sword and axe would lower MH sword dps, just wasting energy, and both have far inferior defense/support capabilities.
Shield is not perfect but it’s still out best OH, and gives 65 armor for free. Also #4 is pretty decent and #5 gives som heal at least.

Still I believe #5 was supposed to be a “panic button”, but it’s not. The root and the very short breakbar force you to think very carefully about when to use that skill.

Sword offhand is fine thanks to the block. Axe is the DPS and Condi off-hand to use, I’m not sure what you are talking about (specially because axe 4 is a DPS increase and not a loss).

That said, the shield 5 should get its defiance bar checked for soft-CC (I noticed soloing lupi today that the defiance bar goes down but isn’t broken y his CCs, which tells me blinds/chills breaking it instantly is a bug). Furthermore, the ability to move would be greatly appreciated, or at least some sort of buff to its current state.

Juicymarmalade.3187:

Pazu.8320:

http://dulfy.net/gw2traits#build=AgYFXAbkA5Q~

sword/axe. It’s pretty solid damage and offensive group support with Glint.

Thanks, that will tell me what traits to assign. But what skill combos and utilities do I use and when do I use them? It also doesn’t say what legends to use either or what my other weapon set should be. Sorry for being so clueless, I just don’t know how to play this class because it’s so different from anything else I’ve played in mmos. I’m not even sure what role rev plays in groups or even solo play.

I think you are a bit lost. Sincerely, you should use this beta test to find out a build that suits your needs. The build linked works fine in the following way:

Primary weapon is Sword/Axe.

Rotation focus on Axe 4 as opener and damage bump, Auto-attack chain provides most of the DPS while Unrelenting Assault can be used to single-target burst or 2s of evade. Axe 5 is used to remove defiance/interrupt enemies and line them up, while sword 2 can be used from time to time for the small AoE damage it has.

Secondary weapon depends on your needs: I use Hammer for ranged fights and when I need space, but Staff is a fine weapon too if you are going full melee.

Now, how you play your utilities/legends is up to you. Facet of Nature is a great asset to your Glint boons and party boons, but you should focus more on how each utility plays out for you. Maybe during a fight you want the Fury+Might boost, maybe you want to cast Infuse Light to take a lot of damage with no risk. The usage of utilities will depend on your needs, and as you play revenant you’ll understad em as they pop up. I particuarly roll with Glint/Shiro, but you could run something like Glint/Jallis for extra tankiness, or Glint/Ventari for projectile defense and support. Up to you!

Adamantium.3682:

Has anyone reported this as a bug, or could explain to me that it isn’t a bug:

One With Nature (the active of Facet of Nature) does not seem to get the benefit of the Facet of Nature +50% boon duration. All the boons when applied are the same length as the tooltip says they will be, but they should be 50% longer. The buff should not be reflected in the tooltip, but it should be reflected on application and for me it is not.

It is working as intended. If you check your Facets whenever you have Facet of Nature On/Off, you’ll see the boon duration displayed is updated to your current one. As such, Facet of Nature will always give the boon durations listed on it.

I suppose it is bugged: Even a blind attack from a Dust Mite (which is a single blind that deals no damage outside of applying blind) breaks the defiance bar, while it works fine on mobs. It may be a case of the player bar being bugged, because otherwise this ability is absolutely horrible.

I touched on this on a suggestion post for the Corruption trait line, but I feel the issue is not that Demoniac Defiance should be baseline, but that it makes all other Adept traits useless since you are always going to pick it. I would much prefer to turn it into a Corruption minor so we could have more freedom in the Corruption trait line, but I feel Roy may not like that idea since all traits on trait lines that boost a legend are optional, and not minors/obligatory.

Necrotize.2974:

Specifically dungeons is what I’m getting at. Revenant looks like a very cool class to me and I hope to play it, but when I pick a class, I like to use it across all gamemodes. So what will Rev’s role in dungeons be? Do you think they have the potential to be “meta tier” for dungeons, or at the very least offer something useful and unique to the party?

Herald is pretty good to any party due to Facet of Nature. It enhances the might from PS warrior and fury uptime from Elementalists. Assassin’s Presence is also roughly a 5% boost to party DPS assuming full offensive gear IIRC, so that’s also pretty good. In some senses I could see comparisons with Ranger (Frost Spirit/Facet of Nature and Assassin’s Presence/Spotter), but I think Revenant will be able to give further support in the form of boons on demand, which is always a neat thing to have. The DPS not being crappy is also a good thing. I heard that Revenant being meta as in a world speedrun class is not going to happen due to the sheer synergy that two eles/warrior/thief/mesmer bring in terms of complementing each other, but it is certainly not going to be a necromancer, if that is your fear. It will probably be a solid addition to any party.

savacli.8172:

Would you still be taking Shiro in a group setting though? Enchanted Daggers is great for the extra DPS, but I don’t see a lot of mileage from the other skills.

Riposting Shadows is a stun-break evasion, Phase Transversal is a gap closer, Impossible odds may get overshadowed by other Quickness sources, and Jade Winds….well, it’s a CC.

At the same time though I can’t really see any other Legend that would effectively take the place of Shiro if Damage is the goal. Glint, maybe, for the boon distribution and niche active effects?

I’m not sure why you are implying CC is bad, specially Jade Winds which can freeze mobs normally immune to ice bow. In coordinated groups, having access to powerful CCs without crippling your DPS build is a good thing. Riposting Shadows is great, not only because it is an evade and breaks stun, but also because it gives back endurance for further dodges. Similarly, if you think Impossible Odds is bad because there are other sources of quickness, it’s important to point out it’s quickness on demand and easily accessible, and in no party setup (outside of some niche ones with 2-3 guardians and mesmers) you will be able to keep Quickness long enough to make IO trivial.

So, no, I would say Shiro is great for PvE.

Knox.8962:

Your max DPS setup is going to be Shiro/Mallyx with Devastation/Herald/Invocation.

I don’t see what you would be giving up to get this? You will add some group might and churn out really high damage.

From a damage standpoint, Rev will out damage a thief by 30% and a PS warrior by about 60%.

Shiro/Glint is the combo for dungeon content, I feel. It doesn’t matter if its elite gives a DPS boost, because Mallyx is pretty much useless in most dungeons/fractals because conditions are not an issue and thus Mallyx’s utilities suffer from that. Glint offers far more group support in the form of boon on demand (protection and fury come to mind, as do might from the trait line), because although PvE meta parties have a good supply of might/fury/etc, Glint offers both skills and passives that can enhance any party when they are needed, compared to Mallyx which is a very selfish legend in this context. Although it’s entirely possible for Rev to run Shiro/Mallyx if they are going for full DPS, it’s not exactly a team oriented build, and in some game contents that is problematic. I have a hard time seeing the max DPS build being the meta for dungeon content, at least for these reasons.

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

Gaaroth nailed. I believe you’re misunderstanding what the skill is supposed to do, which is not be a gap closer but a preventer. You see the target start backing away, hit Sword2.

Nah, I understood that idea, which I even mentioned in my post:

and although I understand the idea of using it to prevent someone from escaping, like mentioned above,

I still believe the range is too short to enable that efficiently, however. I don’t see an issue in increasing its range to 600, giving it will make landing such skill in these cases easier and allow more room to even open a fight with.

Demented Yak.6105:

Offhand axe.

/15 chars

Demented Yak.6105:

skowcia.8257:

There are many situations where i am nearly next to someone running away from me on guard and i has nothing to catch them.

Hello?!

Phase Traversal (20 energy + 1200 range!!!!!!!!!!) – shadowstep
Forced Engagement (1200 range) – taunt
Axe 4 (900 range) – chill + shadowstep
Sword 5 (600 range) – pull + shadowstep
Jade Winds (600 range) – stun
Unyielding Anguish (600 range) – leap

Am I or the others crazy?

I think you are misunderstanding my post. I’m not saying there are no gap closers, I am saying that Sword 2 was designed as one yet its current range fails to give it such effect. It doesn’t matter that Axe 4 is a gap closer, or that Shiro has access to one, I’m talking specifically about this sword skill which was designed as one.

As it is, I don’t think the skill offers enough damage to be worth cancelling your auto-attack rotation, and the chill effect, although nice, doesn’t seem to synergize well with the other tools a Sword Revenant has. Earlier datamines suggested this skill would inflict burn, but I believe Roy changed it to Chill in order to give this gap closer feel. Sadly, its range feels a bit lackluster, and although I understand the idea of using it to prevent someone from escaping, like mentioned above, the range itself leaves little room to cast it as the enemy runs.

Hello all,

I noticed we gave a lot of feedback on Sword auto-attack chain and on Unrelenting Assault, but I think it’s important to discuss about another sword skill: Precision Strike.

Back when it was first revealed, Precision Strike was called a “catch up” attack by Roy, because the freeze would allow the revenant to catch up to their slowed enemies. However, this skill faces a big problem, which is exactly its range. As it is, it has a 450 range, just like Brutal Blade (attack 2 of the auto-attack chain) and Unrelenting Assault, which means it can’t truly be used to catch up given its range is as limited as the other sword skills.

I noticed Roy made changes to it by making the Chill last longer and the attack deal more damage, but I feel the range issue is still at play here preventing this skill from truly feeling “there”. Maybe we could discuss increasing its range to something like 600 or even 900?

Dommmmmmmmmm.6984:

Why would you need Glint when the Ele’s will just blast fury and might anyway? Take the Glint tree for the increased boon duration and GM % modifier. That’s it really… if you need more condi cleanse or more whatever then just take what you need otherwise stay Shiro. The only real reason I can see why anybody would use Glint is for the protection, defiant strip, and opening with the dragon slash facet thing for vuln. If you really need fury then go ele.

Glint’s is actually pretty useful in PvE due to boon on demand, not necessarily just Fury. I think it’s more of a case where Glint’s skills offer more to your party than Jalis/Mallyx do when you are not using Shiro for DPS, so it gives more room to support your team.

Adamantium.3682:

I don’t think it’s more powerful than Renewed Focus, here’s why.

1) Renewed Focus resets cooldowns on good abilities that can be condi clears and stun breaks.
2) Renewed Focus gives invulnerability.
3) You are not rooted when casting Renewed Focus.

CH is still very good don’t get me wrong.

1) About 2/3 of a heal skill worth of healing.
2) Much less cooldown than RF.

To me that looks favorable to RF and I don’t think CH would be overpowered if you could move while casting.

Ah, I did not mean that it was more powerful or weaker than Renewed Focus, just comparable.

Overall the issue is that Crystal Hibernation is negatively affected by the Defiance Bar:

• Defiance Bar requires you to still give hits to your enemy (they will still deal 0 damage) because making you Invulnerable would prevent CCs from working in the first place. This allows builds that capitalize on Critical Hits to still be effective and build buffs when attacking the revenant.

• To allow counter-play, you are rooted in your location, which in turn affects your ability to bunker a point in PvP or survive a focus fire in WvW.

These two issues make me feel it would be better if Crystal Hibernation sacrificed some aspect (like the impressive healing) in order to enable one to move while casting it.

Both Mallyx and Shiro have cons and pros in terms of being used for DPS builds in PvE. Mallyx’s condi manipulation is not useful in most dungeons where condi cleanse is already present, and boon stripping is useless on most bosses since they are reapplied by different sources almost instantly (like the Golem on CoE or the boss of HotW), and on trash mobs they already go down fast anyway, and Shiro’s quickness, although powerful, is pretty limiting in terms of energy use.

Embrace the Darkness is a powerful tool due to the stat boost, but it takes time to build up and I feel the utilities in Shiro (an extra dodge which also gives endurance combined with a quickness on demand skill) are more valuable in terms of DPS output and survival for most quick encounters and certain bosses. Furthermore, Jade Winds is actually a powerful CC tool since it works on enemies that are immune to Ice Bow freeze and is an AoE effect which helps in situations where you are pulling multiple dangerous mobs, so it’s natural Shiro is still considered important for a PvE Rev.

It will probably be a case by case basis for your legend usage, but it’s safe to say Herald will be essential to all current PvE Revs due to the boon duration increase on F2 synergizing so well with meta builds like Phalanx Warrior and Persisting Flames Elementalist, and even smaller, important buffs like Guardian’s Feel my Wrath, and also having a very important DPS trait in its GM. Now, if you are going to pick Glint or not is hard to say. I’m inclined to say Glint brings enough cool tools to be used as a secondary legend (it’s certainly the first legend that makes me reconsider just sitting on Shiro for open world PvE content), but the main DPS legend will depend on the encounters themselves, even if Shiro has an edge over Mallyx for short fights.

Your first example is a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. You are not pointing out a failure in the skill, but a failure in the player revenant to not consider that the mesmer would shatter the clones for dazes.

I think the skill is close to what Renewed Focus is to a Guardian, but it is on a much shorter CD (30s). The mobility is an issue when you take in consideration there’s a trait that triggers this skill at 25% health, but at the same time the heal is strong so that other players are pressured to break the defiance bar on you. Adding mobility would probably come at a cost of a much smaller heal since it offers a bigger chance to avoid being CC’d and thus less counter-play.

The thing about sword AA on ranger is that you are still attacking the same target and you have control over who you are attacking. UA has no control over who you are attacking so there was little to do on how you were taking damage, which I believe was Roy’s point when making that comment.

Rygg.6237:

The meta for pugs will more than likely be S/S+Staff, Ventari/Glint with Devastation, Invocation and Herald, you have condi cleanse on Ventari. If you need range you’ll just have to switch staff for Hammer, that change to rapid lacerations just made S/S AA camping even more mandatory for DPS than it already was.

Unless the “Challenging Group Content” Goes Wildstar 40 man raid level Shield and more defensive/tanky setups won’t be used, and the active combat still has a lot of room to grow in the defensive department while keeping power and critical chance/damage still being the supreme stat combo for PvE, condition management isn’t that much of a problem now that you can choose what fractal you’ll run, as you can just run overkill heals with ventari and top support with glind, sacrifice personal DPS and switch Invocation for Salvation and get more heals and condi cleanse.

I assume you are taking Ventari for Condi cleanses and projectile control. That’s fine, but I believe Shiro will probably be preferred given that condi cleanse and projectile control are already part of most meta compositions. The healing itself is not too meaningful because most groups have some sort of self-sustain.

Don’t get me wrong, Ventari is excellent for certain encounters (Lupicus, certain fractals like Volcano and Asura where projectiles are a considerable threat), but I don’t think it will be the preferred meta build due to Shiro’s easy access to quickness being far superior to most encounters thanks to them being so short.

But yes, overall Staff will be picked over Hammer for PvE dungeons and fractals due to the melee nature of most fights. Staff 4 being a blast finisher now gives it extra synergy with classes and allows a Sword/X Power Revenant to keep blast finishers on weapon swap at melee range (without going to condi mace).

I like shield well enough and it probably fills the role of Ventari better in terms of cost/benefit. 5 is extremely situational in PvE but thanks to the little CCs in PvE encounters (in base GW2) it could be used for stuff like protecting a downed ally. Axe is the better power off-hand but Shield is fine for the support is offers with 4.

Changes to the Master Trait Line:

• Bolstered Anguis (Increased damage for every condition currently on you; +3% per condition) is fine where it is, because it provides a +% Damage boost for DPS Revenants and Condi Revenant alike, and the % is big enough to take in consideration that Conditions wear off more quickly than boons (when compared to traits that offer +X% Damage boosts with X Boons).

• Frigid Precision (Chance to chill your foe when you land a critical hit ; 50% chance; 10 ICD, 2½s chill duration) is the more problematic trait, because although it offers a condition that Mallyx by itself can’t give (Chill, which is more active in Sword main-hand), the duration is far too small to offer significant condition pressure. A change which I feel comfortable in doing is reducing the ICD to 5 seconds, but also reducing the Chill duration to 11?4s. This change may sound weird because on the long term, it doesn’t make any difference, but it’s important because it gives Chill a more active role in Revenant condition rotation and offers more Condition pressure, which seems fitting for the trait line.

• Spontaneous Destruction (Use Banish Enchantment when striking a foe that has boons equal to or greater than the threshold ; 25 ICD) seems ok as it is. I can’t really comment on it without seeing it being used more, but I think that given Banish Enchantment in this case also provides bonuses from stuff like Demoniac Defiance, I would say it’s in a good place.

Changes to the Grandmaster Trait Line:

• Diabolic Inferno (Burn nearby foes when using an elite skill ; 10 ICD ; 2 stacks of burn with 4s of duration) was recently buffed so I can’t offer any feedback on it without playing Revenant again.

• Maniac Persistence (Increase your critical-hit chance every few seconds. This bonus is reset when you land a critically hit ; 2% CC increase with a 1s interval) is pretty much ignored by all because it represents a minimal DPS increase to Condi/Prec builds and the builds with no Prec (Dire and Carrion) tend to not depend on on critical hit effects anyway. This is the only trait where I suggest a full rework to make it more interesting, even though I find the concept pretty unique. So, why not make it offer something all Condition Revenants could use? What if it worked this way: For every 1s interval, if you have a condition, you get 1 stack of Maniac Persistence (+1% Condition Damage boost, 10s duration, stacks up to 10 times, 1 second interval). This is a unique buff because there are no traits at all that offer a flat % increase to condi damage, and this incentives the Mallyx play of putting conditions on you while rewarding you for doing so. It also enables you to not worry about losing conditions (like some people fear about how condi clearing is predominant in organized play and your teammates affect your DPS) because the effect is applied whenever you have a condi, be it 1 condi or 5 condis, every 1 second. A revenant that was cleansed will not immediately lose DPS due to losing their condis (thanks to the 10 second duration on each stack) and can get it back thanks to the Mallyx playstyle of self-imposed conditions, rewarding strategic play. It’s also worth pointing out this trait greatly benefits all Mallyx builds but does not become a must pick for any other build (like, say, a DPS Shiro that picks Mallyx for condi management and ends up being extra buffed), so although the trait is powerful it rewards playing into condition damage, instead of merely damage.

• Pulsating Pestilence (Chance when struck to copy all conditions currently on you to nearby foes for a few seconds ; 15% trigger chance ; 3s duration ; 15s ICD) is basically the Mallyx Elite, Embrace the Darkness, on a 15s cooldown and a 15% trigger change upon being hit and that can happen while out of the Legendary Demon Stance. I can’t really comment on its concept, but I think it would be better to rework this trait so that it won’t resemble the elite skill so much (and on such a low chance to happen in most cases, 15% when hit on a really long ICD). An interesting idea is making this work on a 10s ICD, and happen any time you swap Legends/Weapons. This gives a greater degree of control over this trait and enable strategic play, by punishing a condi bomb when your opponent believes they are safe from it due to you not being in the Legendary Demon Stance.

So, what do you all think?

Hey all,

Given the Revenant is in a constant flux of changes and balances, I thought it would be a good opportunity to deal with some aspects related to the Corruption trait line. I noticed that there are some problems on the traits right now that prevent a Mallyx Revenant from branching into different forms of damage and utilization of their traits, given right now there is a very clear, optimal “route” for a Mallyx trait build. Rather than nerf trait lines, I thought about making changes on how the lines are organized and balanced to offer more options to condition-based revenants without making it overly powerful. Basically, make you be able to pick different builds for different focuses within the Condition Revenant theme.

First off, let’s open with the biggest problem with Mallyx: Demoniac Defiance is too important. By important, I mean that there is a no-brainer in the Adept trait line because it is crucial to a Mallyx-focused Revenant by allowing them more breathing room and rewarding playing efficiently with their utilities. So, rather than make it become a Grandmaster or what else, I suggest turning Demoniac Defiance the Minor Grandmaster trait, and add the bonus to Torment duration from Yearning Empowerment (the current Grandmaster minor) to Rampant Vex, the Adept minor. This will allow all Mallyx-focused Revenants to benefit out of it and give more room for Adept traits to show up.

Changes to the Adept Trait line:

Replenishing Despair (Incoming conditions heal you for a small amount, no ICD) is fine, it’s a much weaker and opposite version of a Guardian GM, Altruistic Healing, which is natural given this is an Adept trait. Some builds like Ventari/Mallyx which have sources of healing can use this healing on top of the active ones to offer additional support.

Venom Enhancement (Poison lasts longer; 50% increase to Poison duration) is what should be looked at. The problem with Venom Enhancement is that although it greatly boosts Poison duration (a 50% increase, bigger than a Thief’s 33% increase from a GM trait, although said GM also increases poison damage by 10%), the only source of poison in a Revenant skill set comes from the final hit of the auto-attack chain of Mace, Manifest Toxin (a 3 second poison). So, a Revenant that does not gear up for Poison (quite natural, given the only source in Revenant skills is from the final hit of the AA chain and you are better off investing in stuff like Burn or Torment, far more prevalent) is hindered by this particular Adept trait, and a Poison Revenant, although greatly boosted by its effect, is incapable of making use of this trait without crippling themselves to specialize on Poison sources. So, a positive change to enable all Revenants to make use of this Adept line is making Venom Enhancement give a lower increase to Poison Duration but also give another source, critical hits. This in particular combos well with Manifest Toxin because if the hits connect to enemies and they critically hit, the enemies will receive both the Manifest Toxin poison AND the Venom Enhancement bonus poison plus their duration. This allows Poison to play a much more active role in a Revenant rotation and reward building around it without affecting other possible sources like sigils. Now, I am no mathematician so I will not attempt to come up with numbers to change this, nor will I suggest a trait to replace Demoniac Defiance because I think Roy and his team can come up with far better stuff

Continuing in the next post

I’m having the same issue, and it started right after the patch of yesterday. I’m inclined to believe it’s a patch problem, not something with our GPUs or their drives.

I had this earlier today. Repairing the client with the -repair thing mentioned here fixed it though:

https://help.guildwars2.com/entries/28148006-Repairing-the-Game-Client