Guild Wars 2

You have permanent protection and loads of blocks. The healing from Revenants doesn’t seem all that strong currently even when using most of the traits. Guardians on the other hand don’t lose anything while keeping all the blocks and protection.

(Jalis Ironhammer)
The heal felt where it should be because of the added effect of removing conditions, can’t complain. Inspiring Reinforcement fits the stance and felt good to use, but personally I would quite like to see the animation be sped up a little. When you want to travel around and blast the field for swiftness, you currently need to wait a moment for the animation to land and the field to form before you can blast it. That aside the skill does what it’s meant to do although the stability felt a little over the top. I feel for the sake of balance in non-PvE areas this might need to be toned down a tad. Forced Engagement feels good to use as well, but the energy cost felt too high. I understand this is needed for PvP purposes to prevent players locking someone down with a CC that has no cooldown and you can’t cleanse, but for PvE I never had a good reason to use the skill because of it’s high energy cost. I don’t really want to touch on Vengeful Hammers. It’s just perfect, and I sure hope it stays unblockable as well including PvP purposes. Rite of the Great Dwarf seems good in it’s current iteration as well. I wish you could dodge during the cast time but that would probably not be very healthy.

(Mallyx the Unyielding)
This is the stance I used for most of the testing because of the simple reason that it offered more damage and control instead of defense. The heal felt very lacking. It’s in my eyes way too low unless you have a high amount of condition on you, and if you do you’ll melt from those conditions shortly after the heal. I would like to see a small increase to the base heal and the heal per condition on you to be toned down a little. And why is the cast time above 1 second? As for Mallyx in general, getting the required conditions to trigger the bonus effects was very difficult. This may be up to me not being able to play the class correctly yet, but it just wasn’t triggering often enough in scenarios where I wasn’t being attacked by several condition applying mobs. Banish Enchantment is in my eyes fine. The energy cost felt good, the cast time is nice and quick, the damage is an added bonus and it removes boons. Awesome. This seems rather deadly in PvP with it’s current cast time and energy cost however. Only used Pain Absorption when an ally was dying from conditions so I haven’t done much with this. The energy cost felt high but other than that it does what it was meant to do. Unyielding Anguish is my all time favorite skill. Hate the cripple it applies but what it does, how it works and the stunts you can pull off with it is just brilliant. It was difficult to test but to me it seemed like you could stack the fields and make every tick of it remove defiance during the wyvern fight. What I started doing after the first fight was pool my energy and stack 3 fields on top of it when it started to take off. Even when there was barely anyone nearby (let alone using a CC skill) it just knocked the wyvern down instantly. But again, I couldn’t test this properly with all the other people nearby. Embrace the Darkness was the main reason I saw no reason to leave Mallyx’s stance in the beta. 10% stats is the biggest damage bonus I could get from all the utilities so I started pooling energy just for this skill. The cast time on it wasn’t fun to use and much like Searing Fissure it felt too long to trigger.

(traits)
Obviously I didn’t get to test every trait in full detail, but a couple of them stood out. Opportune Extraction and Spontanous Destruction feel too passive. I like good play to be rewarded with better results, but this to me looks too powerful in PvP just because a computer can react faster than a player can. I know the class isn’t finished, but Bolstered Anguish seems out of place in the trait line and I fear this will go the same way as some other traits currently already in the game. Eye for an Eye’s taunt duration looks a bit long on paper especially combined with Improved Aggression. The cooldown on Reflexive Summon seems a bit on the high side as well. Swirling Mists’s orbs were… well, where were they? I didn’t see any of these orbs while trying to trigger them on purpose. Cruel Repercussion’s text is vague. Negated how? Blind? Block? Evaded? I couldn’t figure this out in the short time I played with it.

(general)
All in all I’m still as excited for the Revenant class as I’ve always been. The theme of the class, the way it plays, the resource system and everything is right up my alley. Not going to comment on the damage because the class isn’t finished yet along with having celestial gear, but it worries me currently to say the least. I’m hoping for some non-condition based weapons and a more raw damage stance soon. It probably needs some solid damage multipliers in the traits to keep up with the other classes. Crossing fingers for raw damage swords.

Hello, my name is Bovan. I tend to do PvP as more of a amusing distraction and I have never really had any interest in WvW. While I do value open world stuff and story my main goal in this game has always been dungeons. So everything I’m about to say will be from a dungeon perspective and mostly related to the new class unless specified.

Before I go into any details on mainly the Revenant (the one thing I’m most excited for and interested in) I wanted to give some huge compliments on the performance and latency side of things. I haven’t noticed a single lagspike or FPS drop despite having been online for the entire test. I had huge concerns regarding FPS knowing the zones would be so large, consist of 3 different layers and filled with plants and bouncing mushrooms, but this test took all my worries away.

As for the zone itself everything looked very crisp and clean. I don’t like large open areas personally, but the first story instance where you went down under the rocky floor into a green canopy like area was absolutely amazing.

The events were fun and interesting, but I felt very punished for being down on the lower platform (floor?) killing mobs because every mob I ran towards was either being sniped by someone doing the sniper event, or they died because of some other reason I couldn’t quite determine. Another thing that caused issues for me was at least one of the vines that spit out enemies was on a steep slanted ledge, and I couldn’t hit it from the lower side of that ledge. It made moving out of AoEs more frustrating because I had to stay on this one side to be able to hit it, but I suppose we have a dodge button for this stuff. Might be worth looking into that hitbox though.

The wyvern fight was really cool. It did however felt a bit too easy. I quickly learned you could melee it without any issues whatsoever as long as you stayed behind it. I feel once we get the mastery where it won’t be able to knock you down anymore, this just becomes a loot pinata. The only thing I was unhappy with was how long it took to kill it once it got upscaled by a large amount of people. Granted most people were playing a new class in celestial gear, but the very first fight took so long that I was starting to get bored halfway through. Later on near the end of the test with a small group it was just perfect.

Now onto the thing I took the most time to examine, the Revenant.

(hammer)
The class felt very fluid with mace/axe but rather slow and clunky with a hammer. I’m aware it kind of goes with the weapon’s theme but it didn’t make the hammer gameplay very interesting. Phase Smash is a visually pleasing ability but unfortunately I didn’t find much use for it. The main issue was that it locked you into the animation, made your character model disappear, and mobs were still able to hit you. A small evade frame would do wonders for the skill. Overall the damage from hammer felt really low and kind of passive. I’m aware the class isn’t finished and that we were using celestial gear, but it felt too low to be of use. The dark field from Field of the Mists and 100% projectile finisher from Hammer Bolt are both really neat ideas.

(mace/axe)
The auto-attack chain felt good and my original worry about Manifest Toxin’s chaining being difficult to aim was taken away instantly. Searing Fissure’s cast time is in my opinion way too large. I’ve had moments where I canceled the cast because in my mind it felt it should have went off already. It’s not fun to stand around for over a second waiting for this one attack to go off. Especially if you see another fire field and you quickly want to blast it with Echoing Eruption. Which nicely brings me to Echoing Eruption. This is a fun skill and I could not get enough of it. Usefulness however I’m having some concerns. The blasts aren’t visible enough and I had a hard time figuring out roughly how and where to aim it so I would blast my fire field twice. By the time I got the hang of it I noticed the 2nd blast wouldn’t even be close enough to give me might. If everyone is stacking up in a dungeon I feel I have to walk backwards, wait for the Searing Fissure cast time, move back a little further, cast Echoing Eruption and then walk into melee range again. What this would gain me is 3 might, and 6 might for my allies (I’m convinced you can get 2 might blasts for allies, although I haven’t tested that). It doesn’t feel rewarding for the Revenant himself. More importantly, using it against a wall makes the blasts disappear. I suppose it’s needed for balance purposes and people not getting 3 hits and blasts in on the same target, but this just doesn’t seem all that beneficial for dungeons and close spaces.

Frigid Blitz felt like the smoothest and nicest ability of the lot. Its quick, it can shadowstep you out of danger, and it just felt really fluid to chain in before or after other abilities. I feel the same about Temporal Rift.

(part 2 in next post)

SovietBacon.8421:

So uh, does that mean we are eating Shiro Tagachi’s eggs too?

Nothing’s off the table.

To be honest, I think if you are making a legendary just to show it off you are making one for the wrong reason. I made my legendaries just because I happen to like them. I couldn’t care less if anyone else walks around with the same weapon.

Having extra customization is cool and all but the entire thing you proposed just seems clunky and inconvenient. Why does something like this need to happen? Whats wrong with the current implementation?

The flame Shaman used to be in the Plains of Ashford during the beta. He was in the flame legion caves north of Lake Feritas. However, because of all the upscaling of all the new and excited low level Charr he just ended up one-shotting everyone in sight non-stop.

I quit about 2 days after the game went live so I’m not sure when or why he was moved to Iron Marches but I reckon he was originally meant to be the world boss in the Plains of Ashford.

Aomine.5012:

Unless all ascended can do it, legendary shouldn’t have this feature.
I already pointed out that this will make legendary a 50 in 1 pack weapon, which allow players to have unfair advantage over everyone who don’t have legendary weapons.

People probably will only bring 2~4 same types of weapons due to space issue and inventory organization. Because they usually only have 2~4 same weapons, they’d have to make hard choice of choosing the more universal sigils (force, air, fire, energy, bloodlust, corruption, perception, accuracy, night, cleansing, generosity) If legendary can swap sigils at will, they’d have unfair advantage because they’d always maximize their proformence without sacrificing spaces and messing up their inventory or making hard choice. (I already gave the example of dungeon and fractal, which you can save 20 spaces, yet still achieve the maximum efficiency by choosing 10% night+ 10% monster specific sigil, which outside of that particular dungeon, is kitteneless sigil combination)

People are getting greedier and greedier ever since Anet make “legendary” extra special.
It used to be just cosmetic and that’s all, and then people start asking more and more not because they like the skin, but because they want to be better than everyone else.

I think you don’t realize this is already a thing. It’s quite common for people to carry an extra weapon around along with a stack of monster-specific sigils to just swap them around for those weird dungeons like Caudecus Manor and Honor of the Waves.

In the end the only thing that would truly change is the inventory space. I think if you are willing to farm dungeons and such for so long to make one of these legendary weapons, gaining the potential for a few more inventory slots wouldn’t be such a bad reward.

After reading your posts I can’t really find a good argument against this idea. You just seem bitter about something.

Dasenthal.6520:

What point did you make? That legendaries aren’t the goal in themselves? That people shouldn’t feel good about completing one weapon they need to complete 5 before they get “the real shiny”?

People should make 5 legendaries because they want 5 legendaries (and bragging rights that come with) not because they feel obligated based on an achievement/title.
Giving the value of a title only to people with 5 legendaries or more makes people with one feel like slackers, it basically is a slap in the face that says “congratulations, you did something only 1% of the player base has done, but it’s not worth much unless you do it 4 more times”

Adding a title to a achievement is hardly a ‘’real shiny’’ as you call it.

Why would people feel obligated to go for 5 legendaries or feel bad for only making one and not getting the title and/or achievement? Titles are prestigious things to show you overcame a big feat or challenge or accomplished something not everyone has done. I don’t see why it would be bad to actually give said title to a small percentage of the playerbase.

It’s like the limited glorious PvP armor. Barely anyone has the full set, and you only got 1-2 pieces if you ranked in the top 20 in the ladder reset.

Dasenthal.6520:

Bovan.9481:

While I understand and get that the Twice-Told Legend was a consolation prize, I still don’t see why people with the 5 legendary achievement shouldn’t get at least something to show for it. Well, other than the actual legendaries of course.

Think about that (bolded) for a sec.

Maybe try explaining your point instead. I just made mine, this is where you can make yours.

While I understand that the Twice-Told Legend was a consolation prize, I still don’t see why people with the 5 legendary achievement shouldn’t get at least something to show for it. Well, other than the actual legendaries of course.

Don’t think it’s all that unfair. Granted we’ve only seen a small part of the Revenant’s kit, but so far it doesn’t seem like they really have much in terms of defense. There is a high cost and long casting time armor buff with the tanky legend and a projectile destruction in one of the weapons but they don’t really have anything else.

Hoping for the Balthazar outfit, but that doesn’t seem very likely.

I’m almost expecting Club Shockwave.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Club_Shockwave

I mean, it has a positional requirement which fits the Revenant’s theme in a way and Revenants use both mainhand mace and hammers. I can see it fitting.

chronometria.3708:

The ability to radiate conditions that are on a character is going to make WvW plain nuts when there are revenants on both sides. Basically, every battle is going to see everyone at max conditions all the time.

Just like how Necromancers spam Epidemic, right?

They also didn’t say Revenants will be immune to condition damage for the duration. If the Revenants has max condition on him or her he or she will die quickly, the new resistance boon aside. It probably has a target cap of 5 people as well in I’m assuming melee range.

The sky isn’t falling yet.

Lana Del Rey.1873:

Maybe I’m pessimistic, BUT consider this:
In the base game, all classes have 3 elite skills (+ racial elites) and there is no reason to give more than 3 elites to the Revenant. So as stated in the blogpost, every legend has a unique elite skill, this implies to me -> THERE ARE ONLY 3 LEGENDS.
(The specialization may get others too…)
My logical point of view.

What I think would be more logical is getting 3 different elites with slightly different effects depending on which legend you currently have active. For example, elite A deals 5000 damage if you have Jalis Ironhammer active but it instead applies bleeds equaling 7000 damage over time if you have Mallyx the Unyielding active. It’s still only one elite which does roughly the same thing, it just does it in a different way depending on your legend. It’s also worth noting that in the two action bar examples in the blog post the elite is the only icon that hasn’t changed despite the Revenant using a different legend.

Think of the Elementalist elite which makes you summon an elemental depending on your attunement. You have 4 different elementals which their own unique stats, attacks and effects. Meanwhile it’s just one elite.

Little more on-topic, I will actually be pretty sad if Pyre Fierceshot isn’t mentioned anywhere.

Eternity in Sunrise or Twilight form doesn’t actually look quite the same. There is the gem, the brighter and more visible aura, different footsteps and dual-projectiles from things like Bladetrail or Binding Blade.

Personally I would love it if I could make my Eternity be in Twilight/nighttime form at all times. It’s mainly the aura I want to see. Twilight’s aura is barely visible on a Charr especially in dark armor. Eternity is clearly visible on the other hand.

Guys?
Pyre Fierceshot?
…anyone?

It could be worse…
Not sure how I managed that, but I think it had to do with my Omnomberry Ghost nourishment.