Guild Wars 2

Given the desert setting and the prominence of Azura in this season’s story, I would bet on Snaff. This would also round out Revenant legend themes to include something mechanical.

Maybe gun(s) or shotgun or sceptre as a ranged weapon. Summonable golems which cost energy to keep active. So you might pop them all for a quick blitz or just keep one or two out for a longer duration.

saloja.7920:

I already have a different race warrior, so the choice falls between Guardian and Revenant. Rev. however seems to be the underdog of the two, with people calling the gameplay “clunky” and the profession itself “unfinished”.

If this helps, I mostly play pve, but I dabble in pvp.

Is this true?

It’s true. Clunky and unfinished are apt descriptions of the Revenant. That said, they are playable.

Clunky….

ANet made a bizarre decision to half- kitten their energy mechanic in that weapon abilities use both energy and cooldowns. The Glint legend is also crammed full of CDs. So a profession which theoretically could have appealed to players who don’t like the CD driven nature of combat for most of the other professions – all except thief – instead appeals to very few.

People tend to prefer either the predictable 1112123 of CD driven combat. Or they prefer the freedom and flexibility of no CDs and energy. As they are, Revenants split the difference and neither crowd loves the abomination of a result.

Unfinished….

Underwater combat is probably the main impetus for the unfinished label. Only two legends are usable and I think many people reasonably expected more would come, but they never did.

And the rest would come the clunkiness – because there’s a solid foundation for a very decent profession but it needs work. Whether it’s ever done is anyone’s guess though.

Fashion Mage.3712:

I’d love it if that concept got brought back in an elite spec or something.

Yeah that’s a possibility. Potentially a lot of work though since they’d need to rebalance all existing guardian weapon and / or utilities to work off energy.

I’d love it. But then I’d never play any other guardian elite spec.

Fashion Mage.3712:

I think the biggest problem with healer guardians in general is that they don’t have a weapon properly dedicated to healing.

Mace. Especially with shield.

I know a lot of people poop all over regeneration but symbol of faith’s regen is 5 stacks. Geared for healing that can be 1300+ health per second.

And protector’s strike is the ultimate in preventative health.

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

I partially disagree with this. I can agree because you do need to swap sometimes just for the energy need on weapons, but most of the time I only swap legends because I want to or need the other legend’s utilities. I think that was the intention. I sort of meld of the two needs/wants.

Most of GW2’s content is easy enough that with decent gear, you could auto-attack your way through it. That’s why I didn’t say revs need to swap for energy.

But clearly it has been designed to encourage it – 50 free energy every 10 seconds if you swap. Revenant ability energy costs will have been balanced accordingly. And we get this sort of thing:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/revenant/Please-explain-energy-AND-cooldowns-on-skills/first#post6362486

Amiron.1067:

And this is how you know you’re seeing a bad revenant. If there is a revenant just sitting there auto-attacking (i.e. not switching legends and using utilities), then they’re just doing it wrong. You should never be waiting for your energy to come back as a revenant; instead, simply switch legends when you run out of energy to attack.

There’s an expectation amongst many players that if you don’t play to this maximum energy regen design then you’re not doing your best. They might even be right.

cgMatt.5162:

I feel like Tempest is counter-intuitive to how Ele felt before the specialization. Swapping attunements and maintaining a loose rotational order to respond to new situations is the most fun, imo.

Opposite on both counts.

Hate the constantly switching attunements style of play and Tempest is probably my favourite of the elite specs.

It was an interesting design choice though. I’ve never had the impression that players like you are a tiny minority so an elite spec which kicks that style of play in the nads has always puzzled me.

Elementalist’s big failing has always been conjured weapons. They look amazing. They’re fun to use. Until they run out of charges. At that point you either need to run back (ugh) and pick up the spare (assuming no-one else did) or switch to another conjured weapon, which might not suit your needs and or wants at that time.

Either change their baseline functioning or give us a trait to get rid of charges.

eg. Bound Conjurations – Conjured weapons no longer have charges and don’t expire unless dropped. Cooldowns increased to 10 minutes.

This would allow elementalists (and other players) to use them persistently but the increased cooldown would balance the removal of charges and discourage players from dropping their conjured weapons willy nilly and expecting the ele to resummon.

Originally it was guardians who had the cooldown free, energy driven design which was given to thieves. I’d have loved that. Not likely to get it now though.

If I could ask for one thing there might be a snowflake’s chance in hell of actually getting, it would be a change to spirit weapons. They’re very cool looking but it gets tedious resummoning them constantly so I rarely use them when I do play my guardian which is very rarely lately. And having to cycle between sword and hammer isn’t ideal, especially with hammer’s knockback. Knockback is sometimes great but more often annoying.

So give us the inherent or traited ability to perma summon spirit weapons. Or even just perma summon one spirit weapon in the elite slot.

1) Make all legends available underwater

This wouldn’t be hard. At worst if there are some abilities which are problematic, disable those abilities underwater but not the whole legend.

eg. Ventari could work just by making the tablet stick to you and everything becomes pbaoe.

2) Remove all cooldowns

If certain abilities being spammed would be problematic from a balance perspective, either increase the base energy cost or implement soft CDs instead, i.e. if you use the ability again within x seconds the energy cost is doubled.

To fix Glint, I’d change Facet of Nature. Make it a toggle. If it’s off then your legend abilities are the active ones, eg. Gaze of Darkness and Elemental Blast and those would cost energy but have no cooldowns. If the toggle is on then your legend abilities are the buffs, eg. Facet of Darkness and Facet of Elements.

3) Change legend swapping and energy

Get rid of or allow us to change (eg. via traits) the energy system with legend swapping. I want to change legends because that makes sense to, not because there’s 50 free energy if I do.

Boost energy regen and have energy level stay the same on swapping legends. And of course, remove the legend swap cooldown.

4) Remove weapon swap cooldowns for all classes

Engineers can effectively swap weapons at will courtesy of kits. It doesn’t break the class or make them godly. But it’s one less cooldown to keep track of and means you’re not arbitrarily stuck with the weapon you swap to for 8-10 seconds.

Those changes would make GW2 so much more attractive to me because I loathe cooldown driven combat. Presently revenant isn’t much different from most other classes in this respect. And I’m not a fan of thief thematically or for it being lackluster in the support department.

Muy.3170:

Revenant needs more than 50% of it’s maximum for the other legends.

Personally what I’d like is no free 50 energy on legend swap, but slightly more energy regen and to keep existing energy level on legend swap. This could be achieved via a trait so players could have the existing scheme instead if they prefer.

Revenant is supposed to be another non-cooldown driven class (except for all the cooldowns on weapons, legend abilities and especially glint). The appeal of those is having control of your own character.

The existing scheme encourages swapping legends not because you want to or it makes sense to, but for the free energy. Facepalm….

Kevin.5980:

I think instead of removing energy cost, they should increase energy cost and remove cd completely…

Definitely.

This one change would transform the class into what was originally promised – another thief style (i.e. energy cost but no cooldowns) class.

IMO they could do away with CDs entirely.

If there are certain weapon or legend abilities which they feel are too powerful and shouldn’t be spammed, put a soft CD on them. If players use them again within x seconds, double the energy cost.

They’re powerful enough IMO, but borked in two respects.

1) Cooldowns. They shouldn’t be there. The big appeal – supposedly – of this new class was providing another non-cooldown driven one, like thief. But giving players a choice other than thief if they prefer that style.

But there’s cooldowns on weapon skills and in the elite spec. So when you’re actually playing a rev, unless you’re ignoring weapon skills entirely, they feel exactly like all the other cooldown classes.

2) Underwater is a joke. Only 2 out of 5 specs available.

Ventari should be do-able with two adjustments. Disable being able to shift the tablet. Have the tablet stick to you instead.

Glint shouldn’t require adjustment. Or maybe minor ones like a boiling water animation instead of fire.

Jalis only has one problematic ability, inspiring reinforcement. Even if they can’t think of an alternative, just disable that one ability rather than the whole legend underwater.

Yeah I have one piece stuck on the wrong character. Pretty sure it’s a mistake. All other similar rewards are account bound on acquire, soul bound on equip.

For some reason the new Revenant Mistward armour which you get by completing its collection is souldbound on acquire instead of account bound on acquire and soulbound on equip, like everything else.

Annoying if you happen to complete a piece while not on the character you want wearing it. Worse still if it gets stuck on a character who can’t wear it at all.

Artanis.4963:

While having replacement items available is a good stop-gap, I would have expected recipes to be unavailable to learn by characters that didn’t meet the requirements for them. For example, my Elementalist doesn’t have 450 weaponsmithing, and should not have been able to use [Recipe: Lye].

There’s a flip side to that. You can end up with bags stuffed full of recipes you hold onto until you do manage to level your crafting high enough to learn them. That can be really annoying. I prefer it as it is.

Though I have accidentally learned a few (thankfully cheap) recipes on the wrong characters. Possibly it should be an optional setting.

It’s been fixed. That was quick.

Plus I complained about being short-changed 1 hero point and got back over 100 with the elite spec cost reductions. Good day!

I just took a character I made a few days into into his home to get the hero point from the krait obelisk shard. He had 0 unspent hero points at the time and still had 0 after, i.e. it did not award a point.

I know it has in the past for my other characters and according to the wiki still does.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Hero_point

There was no error message, like the one you get if you’re not level 10. He’s 80.

I definitely had not already gotten it. I saw the home instance POI – which you have to pass to reach the shard in the Sylvari house – award pop up on my way to the pool.

So I took another relatively new character into his home. He had 36 points before and still does, i.e. also did not receive a point. That was his first time in the home – I only got the waypoint outside just now walking him to it. He hasn’t been to one in another city either. He hasn’t been outside of Rata Sum and Metrica.

The only difference between these and my other characters is these are both newly created and both revenants.

I submitted a GM ticket and they told me to bugrep it. But bugreps don’t get responses so and might not be tracked….. so now I have to manually record all my hero point ins and outs until it’s fixed. Tedious

VergilDeZaniah.3295:

Did you get a newsletter lately? Because I never received any confirmation with my game address yet I received the newsletter, so I assume I’m registered.

I don’t get newsletters and didn’t receive an email confirmation for the HoT signup. Not any of the three times I’ve tried it.

Even if it is the same mailing list as the newsletter, the smart thing to do – since people would obviously expect a confirmation – is to trigger a confirmation email regardless of whether they’re already on the mailing list or not. Not a difficult thing to program.

So I’m pretty sure something is broken.

Danikat.8537:

I think it’s more likely they’re not having an NDA so they don’t have to enforce an NDA.

It’s pretty meaningless unless someone at Anet can commit to searching for leaks, tracking down the person responsible and taking action against them (which could range from identifying and banning their account to actual legal action). That’s a lot of time and effort.

It’s not always a matter of having to search. Watermark the graphics in some way – perhaps not so obvious to a casual observer. That’s how a lot of leakers have been (effortlessly) caught in the past.

Brother Grimm.5176:

Those sites are the reason no NDA will be in place. Intelligent devs know they can’t stop leaks so why make them matter…..

Definitely.

No matter how careful they try to be with NDA’s, there’s an inherent significant financial incentive to leak and publish those leaks – because that is effectively exclusive game content which the mainstream gaming media can’t touch.

The only way to deny them the unfair advantage is to do most of the serious testing internally and forego NDA’s with the broader beta pool. I think it’s a smart move and expect other developers to follow their example.

Brother Grimm.5176:

If this argument is about Dungeon runs, isn’t there a forum for that topic?

I have yet to see anyone in other areas of the game being chastised for not being “zerker meta” so this does appear to be a Dungeon run issue or am I mistaken?

Quite mistaken.

Isn’t it funny how I mentioned not one, but three types of content – open world PvE, dungeons and new HoT content, and you narrowed in one just that one.

Anyhow – as we’re all perfectly aware, because of GW2’s condition stacking rules multiple people running condition builds fighting the same mob can quickly run into problems in terms of optimising damage output.

So the zerker issue most definitely is not restricted to dungeons. It applies equally to players running around together in open world PvE and even moreso in zergs.

Before anyone tries to argue it doesn’t matter if you do less damage in a zerg, I’ll point out that we’re perfectly aware that it does. Which is why people join teams in zergs. Forget about event completion. Doing enough damage to mobs to trigger loot is a major concern. Especially if you consider eg. the price of silk at the moment.

Zerk is the clear best option for just about all PvE content. That’s a fact. Anyone trying to argue otherwise is being disingenuous.

Rehero.7821:

How is diversity in any shape or form worse than everyone just running berserker’s because it happens to be the most efficient in pve? The suggestions I made don’t force anything simply incentivize it.

Diversity might be the key to pleasing if not everyone then at least as many as possible.

Zerker will probably always be most efficient in open world pve against trash mobs – due to their general weakness. When you can melt a mob in seconds with direct damage, no other build is really worth considering.

And if existing dungeon content is left as it is, then despite all the specious claims to the contrary in this thread, zerker will remain the most efficient for them as well.

But ANet could introduce harder content in HoT which makes non-DPS builds / roles more valuable. That content would allow players to take on different roles and the zerk crowd could continue to zerk with it. Pure direct damage would still have a place. They’d just either need to team with others who prefer or are willing to take on the other roles.

Zenith.7301:

And they will never attack at the same speed players do because mobs in things like fractals autoattack for as much as 4k+ a hit.

You think they can’t change that?

DarthMcCoy.8657:

…I am seriously hopping that the tomes of knowledge will be disabled from being used by the Revenant class.

Never.

I have a bundle of these and the smaller .05 ones and the scrolls that insta you to level 20, but I won’t be using them for my revenant. I’ve not really enjoyed levelling other profs to 80 cos I’m not a fan of cooldown driven combat. So I’m looking to being able to do it with a prof whose combat style is much more to my tastes. I’ll take a few weeks at least.

But I don’t care at all if others rush theirs to 80. Won’t affect me in the slightest.

All ‘end-game’ progression is account based anyway so most players with a stock of those tomes will already have ascended armour and weapons for their revenant. So they’re ahead on that front already.

Using tomes will just let them fast forward the levelling process – something they may have done many times before and see absolutely no fun in doing again. There’s nothing to be gained from making those players suffer through it again.

Zenith.7301:

1300 healing over 10 seconds is pretty meaningless in a game where PvE mob autoattacks hit between 4-8k and bosses can hit for up to 12-13k.

For starters, you’ve changed topics here. My post was in response to someone specifically talking about how poorly regeneration scaled with healing. Which isn’t true. So let’s get that out of the way.

Second, as I’ve already pointed out, regeneration comes in different intensities. I said I thought the level 1 intensity regen was a bit weak. We agree on that. But when it’s at level 5 or 6 the healing is quite substantial even with 0 points in the healing stat.

i.e. you cannot say regeneration sucks across the board.

rotten.9753:

It costs 50 energy and lasts 3 seconds. Good luck maintaining it.

Why would it need to be maintained?

The purpose of a taunt, as I said, is to draw attacks away from another player. Since in GW2 players can move, dodge, evade etc. spamming a taunt would be pointless. A “tank” would only need to taunt if an ally was being beaten bloody, eg. cc’ed and unable to defend themselves.

But in those circumstances they could save them, tank-style, with a taunt. That’s not the trinity as you see it in many other MMOs but it does finally introduce the potential for roles. One player in a team with all +toughness and +vitality gear could actually play a vital role – i.e. contribute just as much to the team’s success and speed as someone geared for DPS.

This was always a huge turn off for me for engineers. In fact I abandoned my Sylvari engineer for an Asura just because the kit backpacks are much smaller on them relative to their body size, so less offensive.

The commonly cited – “but we must know what kit you have equipped in pvp” argument is obviously nonsense. Otherwise EVERY weapon in the game should force a kit to spawn on a player’s back so people can tell what you’re wielding from behind. And Asura should be banned from PvP cos they’re smaller and their backpacks are harder to see.

Would definitely be nice to see this eventually fixed with HoT.

Is there any benefit to having 100% map completion other than the rewards you say people wouldn’t get with this?

I don’t see any value in legendaries so have never bothered to get this one.

Tron.3471:

Why wouldn’t Rytlock not teach noobs how to be revenants? What’s the lore explaining that?

Are you seriously asking that question? Or are you just trolling?

No. I don’t receive GW2 newsletters, signed up for the HoT one and have received no email confirmation. I’ve tried doing it a few times and nothing.

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

If we have to use all of our skill bar that means we have to wait in between mobs for cooldowns.

You know I was inclined to disagree with you until I hit this. I think you might be right.

As an on and off player, I was actually quite encouraged when I went into one of the new zones and found much tougher mobs. Events would fail if I tried to solo them. I couldn’t easily solo every mob there. It was refreshing.

But GW2’s current combat design for most professions is just to more-or-less hit everything as it comes off cooldown, maybe keeping a few up your sleeve for emergencies. Abilities with cds longer than a single fight takes fall into that category for me. With these changes…

Since I intend to play revenant and forget every other profession exists the moment HoT launches this won’t actually be a problem for me. But I’ll feel sorry for other profs if the OP’s fears are made real.

Tron.3471:

Caeledh.5437:

Obviously we know that’s not how it works (for all sorts of reasons) but maybe I can understand the OP’s thinking.

Why would the revenant be a postgraduate one?

See where I say it’s obviously not how it works, for all sorts of reasons?

All I was saying was their idea / suggestion wasn’t completely irrational. Within the context of GW2’s story and lore it could make perfect sense for Rytlock not to teach gormless noobs how to be revenants.

tekfan.3179:

Sigh…I don’t think I got much hope regarding that.

Their beta FAQ specifically mentions stress tests. I live in a country which usually gets ignored for betas but even I got into a couple of GW2’s stress test beta weekends. So don’t give up hope

maddoctor.2738:

And Zerkers are not optimal nor are they successful without a lot of support so I don’t understand where that comment is coming from, I thought anyone who read the rest of thread (and the other similar ones) already understood that.

Are you employed by ArenaNet?

Rebound.3409:

How would Rytlock being the first revenant mean everyone coming after him is 80?

Obviously we know that’s not how it works (for all sorts of reasons) but maybe I can understand the OP’s thinking.

Rytlock was something else – a very experienced something else – before becoming a revenant. It’s possible he would only seek out other very experienced people (i.e. level 80 in some other profession) to teach.

So sticking with your educational analogy, like other professions being undergraduate degrees and revenant a postgraduate one.

Garambola.2461:

So happy it did not require 18 years of age. My daughter turns 17 this year.

Probably thanks to the lack of NDA. Contracts with minors are trickier.

I bet all those beta leak sites are peeved though…

tigirius.9014:

So when you say that players can max their DPS and they can play the way they want to you’re not being honest about the situation in PVE in PVP that might be true but it’s certainly not true in PVE.

Yes, there’s a truly amazing amount of blatant dishonesty in this thread. Claims which don’t just beggar belief, but strip it naked and beat it bloody.

It’s curious…

tigirius.9014:

So really there is only 1 role right now which is Zerker DPS and that’s the end of it. Just because people choose to use the broken models does in no way mean that it’s balanced or diverse in PVE.

Absolutely.

Invictus.1503:

When asked in another forum what race your Revenant will be, a dev said his choice was Sylvari because the glow is great on Revenant. Additionally, in a POI we saw Pop the Sylvari Revenant.

In the end, since Revenant is only in HoT this all but confirms they remain to be a playable race you can create at the launch of HoT.

Can’t fault that logic!

Not that I expected them to be made unplayable, but I think puts that particular theory / concern to rest.

Yes I meant here in the forums. Real shame there isn’t one.

Tron.3471:

Revenant is a profession not a race. Your comparison to SWTOR is invalid.

Don’t be silly.

CureForLiving.5360:

yeah the moment you activate a ground target ability you basically get a giant red or green indication of where your mouse is.

Question – did you test that before posting? I did before my earlier post to be certain. And again just now.

You’re wrong. I usually take my elementalist to zergs with a staff, attuned to fire. So I’ve got 2 ground targeted aoes, one on kitten cooldown. Yet I have the cursor problem. Why?

You do NOT get a giant red or green indication of where your mouse is. You DO get a giant green or red circle ON THE GROUND, assuming you can see it. That’s an assumption which more often than not fails in zergs. Players and / or mobs can completely obscure the circle.

Don’t believe me? Just log in a character with a ground targeted ability and activate it anywhere with players and / or mobs. The circle appears behind / under character models.

Linken.6345:

A commando with hammer wouldent that be a combat engineer?

The only problem with “combat engineer” is it suggests that current engineers aren’t “combat” ones. Like they’re knitting engineers or somesuch.

Deewee.4580:

Why is GW2 one of the most popular games (surpassing WoW is some areas) of 2015?

No subscription fee. Cash shop isn’t diabolical.

Deewee.4580:

And WHY the hell do I find the game so boring now?!

Personal taste.

It’s not the most interesting game to me either. The end-game grind for ascended gear is just a chore I’m gritting my teeth and getting through at the moment. Though many other games have it worse.

For me I know why I don’t currently love it. Cooldown driven combat isn’t fun to me and obviously that’s what most of the profs are. Revenant is going change that for me, which is why I’m back playing after a long absence.

Elothar.4382:

…but outfits have the advantage of not requiring a transmute charge.

This.

There’s only one outfit I really like – the arcane one – but all of my characters use it to look at least semi-decent on their way to level 80. There’s no way I’d waste transmute charges on pre-80 gear. Prior to this outfit change I just let most of my characters look like hobos. That’s not only less satisfying for me but also makes the game look a little bad.

Knighthonor.4061:

Could Legends be tiered like Utilities are?

That would make sense and going by comments in these forums would be the clear favourite way to do it. I’m sure that has nothing to do with the fact we all have hundreds of skill point scrolls piled up in our banks….

Fashion Mage.3712:

No elementalist healing ability releases a single light wave outwards. Their abilities create multiple light waves inwards while they have a channeling animation, but it doesn’t look like what was shown in the video.

I have to admit I can’t see this animation you’re talking about. But arcane brilliance is an elementalist healing ability which releases a single light wave outwards.

Zaklex.6308:

I’ve never experience this problem you speak of, but them maybe it’s because I’m watching my ground targeting itself and not looking for the mouse pointer.

Oh you poor thing. You’ve clearly never experienced a GW2 zerg where, if you can see the ground at all, you’re obviously in the wrong place.

Would they be tiered at all? We’re talking about utilities, right?

Since the present set up is each legend has fixed utilities there’d be no reason for them be tiered like other professions. If you have to unlock abilities individually then it would probably just be from left to right.

LilMissBossy.1467:

It says to do 3 daily things but those are for level 18 and levels 22, so how can a new account do them to get the rewards? Is this right or a bug? Or are they not meant for new people.

They made this change after I had several 80s so I never considered the impact on new players.

My guess is it’s deliberate. Like how sometimes 2 of the 4 PvE ones involve fractals. It’s a way to push people into content they otherwise wouldn’t do.

Personally I just blow them off on those days.

I’ve only killed him twice and didn’t get loot either time.

Lazaar.9123:

http://youtu.be/xUjrrc5aj2k?t=30m11s
Here they state that it is not like taunt from other MMOs.

They may use those exact words but it’s not accurate or they wouldn’t call it a taunt.

I think what’s accurate to say is that it is not exactly the same as taunts from other MMOs. But it has the same basic function – to draw attacks away from other players onto yourself.

This is one the key tools of a tank.

Ergo it’s introduction into GW2 is a clear step back from their no-trinity stance.

Lazaar.9123:

Also, all CCs do to bosses will be reducing the break bar, and then the boss goes into a state where it is completely immune to CCs while something specific happens.

There’s a lot more to the game than bosses.

Chrispy.5641:

Its getting a little worrying that there hasn’t been any new information of the specializations since the reveal. It worries me that either specializations aren’t as awesome as the Revenant and Anet is purposely holding back information based on that fact, or Anet isn’t actually as far along as they originally claimed.

Based on what little they have said I wouldn’t expect specialisations to be as good as a whole new profession, which is what revenants are. Possibly new or tweaked profession mechanics, some new utilities and traits and a new weapon. That’s all.

The lack of info isn’t cause for concern IMO. They revealed the original classes over an 18 month period. They want to have something new to reveal at regular intervals from the moment they announce the expansion up until it’s release. So even if every spec is actually completely finished right now, they’re probably going to dribble out new info about them in a slow and steady stream.

The game’s PvE content is sufficiently easy that even with the worst possible combination of equipment and traits you can still easily solo your way to 80.

Crafting is worth doing at some point but you’ll get loot and the game rewards you at certain levels with gear. I have most of my crafts maxed but often don’t bother crafting equipment for new alts I level.

A good place generally for game info is the wiki.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Main_Page

Including detailed info on the warrior.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Warrior