Guild Wars 2

Prefectus.7408:

At the moment the biggest issue with UA is that when stacking or against any kind of wall it fails 90% of the time for me.

Yeap.

Want to hard counter a Revenant? Stand next to a wall. Boom. Countered.

I also like it untargeted.

Jalis is 100% situational at this time.

Inspiring Reinforcements only is effective if you need to avoid CC and stay in a specific area. That’s it. Any other scenario where mobility is required it’s garbage.

Forced Engagement is useless outside of PvE taunting. The slow does nothing to a target that’s basically a zombie attacking at you not using abilities.

Vengeful Hammers only work in the open field. Any kind of physical object around and it cancels. This sucks because there’s numerous world design where this simply cancels out right. Not sure why it’s designed this way except maybe to curb exploit hitting through walls or something. Regardless it makes it’s use literally hit or miss depending on location.

Rite of the Great Dwarf pretty much has to be used only during light CC as even the 1s cast time has potential for you to be interrupted during it. I can’t possibly describe how throw-your-keyboard-against-the-wall rage inducing it is to get interrupted while casting a defensive skill let alone one with such a heft cost in the first place.

Heal is alright, that’s about it. Most cases it’s flip Jalis, Rite, Heal, and wait till your other legend is back up.

The other issue that I’m seeing a lot of is that there’s a lot of new front line with all the new specializations. Scrapper. Reaper. Herald/Revenant. Tempest. Druid Glyphs close range. But where’s the stability? The only class that continues to be able to bring group stability is Guardian. Front line groups in WvW continue to be 100% bottlenecked by Guardians.

Meanwhile the amount of AOE CC just keeps escalating. Druid dazes. Scrapper dazes. Reaper Ice Freezes. Earlier today I got Engineer Pulled, Scrapper Dazed (switched Jalis), Ele stunned with Static so I start using Rite of Great Dwarf and get Druid Dazed to interrupt Rite of Great Dwarf cast.

Stun breaks are NOT effective against the kind of multiple sources of CC we see today in competitive action. The suggestions here are not broken or OP. They fulfill the same role in a weaker and/or less exploitable state but are more effective across multiple game modes. Really would love to hear the Dev’s thoughts on class balance when it comes to Stability and how they expect us to compete in an environment flooded with control mechanics while they refuse to give us means to deal with them.

To clarify as well Superspeed is the same speed as Swiftness out of combat even when in combat. This means out of combat you’ll move as fast as people with Swiftness and in combat you’ll easily overtake or escape from people in combat. This isn’t really maintainable and usually you’ll get 10 seconds of Super Speed in most cases (20 at max energy).

Herald has most consistent speed with Facet of Elements of course with permanent Swiftness at only -1 energy cost.

There is always Traveler Runes as well which Revenant takes much advantage of as we have reasonable sources of boons as well as conditions if it really becomes that big of a hassle for you.

Continue to be super frustrating throughout BWE3 with the many layered design of the zone available in PvE.

Roaming I imagine would be Malyx Glint or Malyx Shiro with Mace/Axe and Mace/Shield as Corruption/Retri/Herald. Not sure on stat combination yet, still mulling it over and kinda hoping that with HOT there’ll be a mace skin I want.

Malyx pre-nerfs. Glint now.

If they fix the numerous bugs with Hammer it’ll be my favorite weapon in the game.

katniss.6735:

Dragonhunter has a dragon icon. Tempest should have a trashcan icon.

I think I found a more appropriate icon for the Tempest.

“Wash the Pain Away…”

I mean…I liked it also for clearing things through walls…but I don’t think anything was ever intended to clear things through walls.

Xernth.8561:

The combination of the two Master Retribution traits into Eye for an Eye seemed like it was intended to be a buff, but now it has a 45 second ICD? Didn’t that used to be a 10 or 15 second ICD on the Protection when it was standalone?

A 45 second ICD is terrible, please give us back the Protection without the Taunt on the shorter cooldown.

I wanted to test it further to check, but yes the 5% protection is on the same kitten ICD instead of the old skill’s ICD.

What about the new Organ melody that plays when you have facets active?

I thought I was going insane for like hours this morning before I figured out what it was.

Only way to turn it off is to turn off Effects Volume.

As I said in my other thread there are numerous hammer bugs.

1. CORuin still doesn’t match up with it’s graphic. The last bit of the graphic animation doesn’t actually hit the target.

2. CORuin still cancels on hills/ramps going up/down if the game doesn’t see you on them. This has become very apparent in Heart of Thorns area in the jungle

3. Phase Smash still won’t hit the ground below your Z axis even if it’s only 300-400 away.

I’m okay with the visual.

I dislike the audio now however when you trigger Facets. Took me forever to figure out what the hell that organ like midi file was going on in the background.

You should say what is you want to do so we can give proper advice

Mostly rocked around in PvE HOT to try out some builds.

Dodging – Like the Dodge effect. It’s pretty cool, good job.

Underwater – Still missing Underwater on a lot of Rev stances. No underwater Glint? Shiro?

Sword – Still rockin.

Staff – I can’t express how much I enjoy the changes on staff. They are A+ work. Renewing Wave is very useful now cause it can be done while moving. This creates a more defensive mobile weapon all around which works as well as provides support on the go. Debilitating Slam so far has worked pretty good and I notice I get the #2 a lot more often.

Shield – Reverse my stance on Crystal Hibernation needing to be mobile as the staff fills the more mobile defensive role very well now. I like the fact that I can cancel out of it now and press forward to move. I did notice however that sometimes it doesn’t properly block all attacks. For example I had a Frogman in Jungle launch me out of it. Soothing Bastion also at one point blocked nothing when it proc’d.

All around worked very well. I don’t regret a thing investing heavily into my Revenant. Looking forward to a more extensive test tomorrow morning with Herald Front line in WvW.

This is always the problem in a resource limited system. When I gotta choose what to do with X amount of energy I have to consider what each skill does and which one will yield better results for that energy.

ETD needs another effect to really make it worth it’s cost.

This continue to not be addressed.

Roy can you comment if you’re taking a look at these or not?

It’s becoming a serious issue especially with the uneven terrains in the Maguuma Jungle.

The biggest culprit is that it adds nothing to the class.

It’s essentially an Elementalist specialization for the Elementalist.

They’d need to completely overhaul it at this point to a different purpose, but it’s too late in the game for that. HOT is 3 weeks away. Devs are each managing multiple classes. Just not going to happen.

There’s a few routes forward they could change to make things viable. Unfortunately feedback has been ignored at the universal dislike of the Tempest. It sucks, but just looking like we’re going to have to take this as the dud of the expansion.

At least it gives us something to respond with when someone goes, “Ele is God Tier #1 Dev favored class!” and we can just quietly say, “But…Tempest.”

You need defense skills to survive. The “ideal” is to give something to replace the need for the old thing. There’s lots of other utilities that we have but they don’t get used because we always have to go back to Cantrips to live.

Welcome to the numerous problems plaguing the Tempest spec.

Tempest gains zero innate survivability so it’s still 100% reliant on Water to take care of Conditions, Arcane for survivability boons and Cantrips Utilities to stay alive.

Kidel.2057:

Funny how most of the switching players come from professions who got crappy elite specs.

What’s really funny is when you start looking at which developer is responsible for each class.

Kelthien.8593:

Much like the elementalist, I really like the versatility of the Revenant. It has some ranged power builds with Hammer, some melee front-line options, some boon support and healing support. It seems like a great profession for folks who value versatility.

This is pretty much sums up my feelings on the Revenant. Having a Medium Health and Heavy Armor just makes gearing for front line 1000% easier without having to give everything else up to do it. All this culminates in a versatile character at home on the front line or the back line.

Xyonon.3987:

How could you not already have used signet of fire … sigh … The old meta was frost bow, signet of fire and glyph of storms.

I always took that last slot as a variable slot per encounter. For example Mist Form in Dredge is nice at parts with the panels for example. Once you reach a certain level of Crit the effectiveness of adding more Crit just goes way down so I never took it as an “automatic given.”

The problem continues to be, and we’ll see this again with BWE3 since it did not change, that the ability is situationally useful. It’s great when you situationally need to sit in an area and soak up CC (such as a boss doing chain knockdowns/stuns) but useless the rest of the time simply because we need to remain mobile to survive.

This really is the main issue with Jalis in general, it’s all too situationally useful:

Inspiring Reinforcements? Only good if you’re stationary.
Forced Engagement? Only good if you’re in PvE and the Slow is useless if they’re taunted and can’t use abilities.
Vengeful Hammers? lololol walls, hope you’re in an open field!
Rite of the Great Dwarf? 50 Energy makes any skill pretty situational.

Yeap. I spent about 100g the other night, was able to do 4 swaps with that amount on 4 different weapons so now I have the blue/white/yellow/red versions of those 4 ascended weapons. Blue seems one of the harder ones cause you can only buy the inscriptions (Sentinel or Shaman). White I was able to do Cleric (Totems) and Yellow I was able to do Rampager (Venom Sacks).

Hardest one I imagine for most people would be Wupwup’s signature pink/purple as each one you do is Celestial Inscription which is 5 charged quartz (time gated).

Most people I’ve seen have been replacing Ice Bow with Signet of Fire.

I would, but that’s me. It’ll be useful now, and post “addon” you can switch it if neccessary.

Defensive Jewelry are: Soldiers, Valkyrie, Cavalier, Knights as the common ones.

Sweetdeal.3905:

Yeah, I think for gear maybe wait for the Weekend when Raid is Live on Beta.

So what basically I read in your Note is:

Get for example:

Berserker Set

And use Jewelry to determine what I am, Glass Cannon with Power Jewelry or HP Jewelry for more defense? But stay on Berserker Set?

Right! The main reason for that is that Ascended gear was, previously, very expensive to replace or switch. Meanwhile Necklace (Laurels), Rings (Fractals), Earrings (Guild Missions), and Back (Fractals) are all relatively easy to get to swap in/out as desired. Generally speaking as players improve their personal skills they tend to be able to gear more offensively and so swapping in more offensive gear from defensive gear becomes common.

One of the recent changes was instead of having to spend couple hundred gold on making a whole new Ascended armor set, you can now use the swap recipe to change the stats on the Ascended armor. However, it wipes the upgrades it’s still preferable to start with offensive armor, then swap the jewelry as desired.

Misguided.5139:

Congrats! I’ve had bad luck with timing on guild fractal runs lately, so haven’t had a chance to do that many.

Do you recall where you saw the info about the new system? I hadn’t seen many details like how advancement was going to work and how AR would be changing, if at all.

I just PUG them. It’s really not bad at all.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/the-brand-new-fractals-of-the-mists-legendary-backpacks-ascended-salvaging-and-more/

For players who’ve been hunting for fractal weapon skins, we’re making a couple a changes. The first is that there will be a collection for obtaining them all, including a new reward for its completion. The second change will help address the frustration of trying to find that one particularly elusive skin you really want that won’t drop no matter how many fractal runs you attempt. Once you’ve completed fractal scale 50, the golem BUY-2046 in the Mistlock Observatory will sell you a fractal weapon crate for pristine fractal relics, which will grant you a fractal weapon skin of your choice.

Additionally, a new version of the fractal weapon skins is being created but will only be obtainable at the new, higher fractal scales. Instead of a fractal weapon crate for these weapon skins, we’re creating a new recipe in the Mystic Forge that will allow you to take any one instance of the new skin and convert it to a new weapon skin of your choice. This will help maintain the prestige of the new weapon skins but still allow you to wear them on the weapon of your choice.

Misguided.5139:

Heh, I haven’t been that fortunate yet in fractals. My reward level is around 20 and I’ve had a couple of rings drop, but not the boxes.

I’ve been using my guardian in fractals, but think Revenant is going to be dynamite there.

I really want the Fractal Skins for my Revenant because they’re so Mists looking. In the new system if you’re 51+ you can buy them for Pristine Fractal Relics. So for the last month basically I’ve been chain running Fractals non-stop and I just hit 50 yesterday. In that time I’ve gotten around 5 Ascended Chests to make a suit of gear with and just used the stat swap forge recipe to change it. On top of that I’ve gotten more rings than I could count (have a mule full of them), more than enough fractal relics for full Agony resistance and then some, and two ascended back pieces. Been amazing for prepping up for HOT.

This is pretty much my all around build.

WvW and Raiding will be different. Key is having other options to swap into. For example I have a full set of Berserker Jewelry as well as other defensive options for more HP when needed. Armor is a bit high, but I find it’s good amount to survive pick in WvW and with Guard Stacks reaches up over 17k HP. If pick is really strong I swap to Soothing Disruption. Just the same as I have options I can swap it around. Basically the same setup for PvE as can swap to Arcane Blast/Persisting Flames and other staples as the encounter requires.

Hard to really say what will be needed for raids yet. There’s no way to know what we’re going to be facing off the bat or what will be needed to overcome it. Conditions? What about unclearable conditions like the Karka Hatchlings? Unavoidable AOE damage? Lots of micro management where each person has to survive? Will toughness be really high and Conditions favored over Direct damage? No one can say and it’s just one of those things we’re going to have to wait and see how it shapes up.

Appleheart.7891:

I do always prefer to skew the crit chance/crit dmg ratios towards the crit chance, as I prefer the damage to be a bit more dependable, but swapping Captains for Cavaliers otherwise is an easy re-balance.

On Revenant Crit Chance is largely viewed as a lesser needed stat due to high up time of Fury as well as potentially improved Fury as well as Maniacal Persistence even in a Condi build.

Misguided.5139:

I’ve said this before, but trinkets are pretty easy to get, so I suggest starting with those, then deciding if you really need/want to change the armor.

Hardest part now is getting the ascended item. The recipe to swap is pretty reasonable when you get down to it. I spent 100g last night and swapped 4 weapons to 4 different colors to unlock the different skins and back for example. My entire second set is pretty much made up of Ascended box drops from Fractals.

I was thinking something along the lines of this for my PvE setup

Lots of offense, enough defense. Could replace Runes of Rage with Runes of Strength, would trade about 10% crit damage for around 100-150 more power at around 58x the cost. Also for you, specifically, it only involves switching 2 pieces of Ascended armor.

I’m going to put it to the test on Friday or so see how it lasts in the HOT PvE content for a bit.

The first thing I usually do is look at animations. Animation wise Norn/Sylvari/Human are basically all the same. The main difference is height as well as running animations. You going to spend a lot of time running around so if you really hate the Norn running animation you gonna either have to get used to it or remove this as a choice. I suggest running around for a while on a each race and get a feel for it.

On that note here’s all the Revenant attack/skill animations on each race.

Now from there you going to have to decide on an armor set. I have a neat way of doing this actually. First thing you do is you get a full throw-away set. Usually this requires level 11-13 to get the shoulder piece (buy it off AH) and helmet (alternatively you can choose Guardian, roll with level 1 shoulders and just skip helmet). Then you want to find skins that offer at least 3 color channels (you can preview the change, then preview the dye channels). Heritage Armor works great for this if you got access to it and it’s free transmutes.

Once you have your full set of triple dye channels setup color them different colors. I usually do a red, blue, yellow. Once this setup, go to a bank and open up the Wardrobe tab. From here you can start mixing and matching gear. Once you find a piece you like, such as a chest, go ahead and open up your Dye page and dye the colors you want on the chest you have previewed replacing the RBY with the color you want. Then click on the preview of the item again, and the dye colors update in the preview window based on what you currently have dyed. Repeat until you have a full suit.

Bran.7425:

Kind of par for the course for ranger, imagine if the other profession were ‘balanced’ in a similar fashion/rate.

You mean like all the other times when things were legitimately broken and they either disabled them or fixed them in short order?

There it is.

We Heal As One: Tuned the copied boons to use flat duration values per boon and apply boons to the ranger pet before copying boons back to the player. This skill will now only grant three stacks of might if that boon is copied.

Unholy Pillager.3791:

Ranger isn’t my main (although it was in GW1). I’m getting kittened off because ArenaNet has a breathtaking set of double standards here. Elementalists are allowed to stack might, protection, and fury on top of insane sustain and condition removal, and this is allowed to continue unchecked for months. They put new rules into place for tournaments because people were stacking four elementalists on a five person team and winning.

I don’t even want to bother explaining it because people aren’t interested in listening.

All I’m gonna say is you’re never going to justify keeping a clearly broken ability by pointing at another class and claiming it’s okay for them to get it we should get it too. If that’s the kind of game play you want, you know how to roll the character up.

Levetty.1279:

I think he’s talking about the length of time. We are still waiting for D/D ele to br brought down to balanced levels after it existing for a year (the June patch actually buffed it). The weaker boon stacking Ranger build is being nerfed after a day.

Speaking of Elementalists you really don’t see an uproar over the Burning Nerfs on the Elementalists do you? Know why? Because everyone knew it was a bit crazy and people been talking a long time about Burning and how Burning is going to get nerfed at some point after the stacking changes.

Why you people are surprised that your crazy permanent swiftness, protection, fury, quickness, etc is getting nerfed is beyond me. Did anyone really think it’s normal? Did you really think going, “Ooo Ooo The Elementalist is OP! Really! Elementalist!!!11” was going to work as some convincing argument?

There are 9 classes in this game (or will be soon). If anyone is really all that miserable with a class the only thing stopping you from playing a class you think you will enjoy is yourself. Take a break and go play an Elementalist until HOT releases. See if you feel the same about how OP they are afterwords.

All how you build how big of a change this makes.

I don’t even really bother with Cleansing Fire unless a server/group is running Rat Wells and I need a small boost to survivability. With gear setup, casual might stacks from Pyromancers, Bloodlust stacks, and Guard stacks I’m well over 3k power and I very rarely (maybe once every few hours where we last stand an objective and there’s no way out) die.

That said it was 100% based around PvP. I really miss GW1 where skills were treated differently per game mode instead of this nonsense where their incompetence in balancing PvP dramatically affects PvE/WvW.

Well Rite is the main reason we pair up Jalis with Glint. When we first switch out of Glint into Dwarf stance we have 50 Energy and at at minimum +3 energy/second but should be at +5/second because if you used Facet of Nature properly you’ll blow One with Nature right after first Stability is used. This is pretty much enough Energy regen to use all the actually useful abilities in Dwarf within seconds of switching to Dwarf which removes the situational nature due to the cost.

The main reason for this is because the rest of the Jalis abilities largely aren’t worth casting at this time. The taunt…it’s just bad. It’s clearly a PvE skill and has no use in PvP/WvW. Inspiring Reinforcements on the other hand has some merit, but at 30 energy with such a pathetic effect post nerf that really only benefits if you stay in it (pretty much impractical for WvW) it’s just not there. If they change it so the Stability is an instant AOE effect then you’re into decision territory because do you want the stack of stability with an attack or do you want a stun break with -50% damage reduction for 5 seconds…? That’s a hard choice, but one we currently don’t have to make. Hammers are a good choice but very situational with the way they turn off soon as you hit a wall and fighting/pulling people to walls/chokes is a very common strategy in WvW.

So really the Jalis design makes using Rite a very easy decision and at that point it just comes down to timing (IE: When to use it).

Where?

Oh Found it:

https://twitter.com/RoyCronacher/status/648944313032835072

Bunnytown.7801:

If you aren’t opposed to some grinding, you will be fortunate that the Halloween event and expansion are coming at the same time. You can take your new revenant down to the mad king’s labyrinth (assuming it makes a return) and follow the event train. Last year I was able to reach lvl 80 really fast on a new mesmer, and make lots of gold doing so.

Or Masteries…:)

I would have thought the shield. Boot Daredevil. Dragonhunter the dead looking Dragon head.

Well no class in the game brings Boon Duration for their party so it’s impossible for other classes to bring that other than Herald with Facet of Nature. Boon duration makes Stability, Empower, and damage boosts just last that much longer which is pretty great. In addition to Herald, no other class brings straight up -50% damage taken (Rite of the Great Dwarf) for their party either. Permanent Fury frees up Warriors from using “FGJ” and creates huge up time for longer duration fights. Their weapon sets gives them a great tool set for front line as well coming with a block, an evade/charge, and a heal/condi remove/blast finisher but also the hammer serves as a wonderful ranged tool with a shot gun style blast that can hit up to 15 targets (3 blasts x5 targets), ability to free clear marks, and projectile absorb with 50% up time.

Part of any class is mastering it and learning when to do things. Knowing when to drop Facet of Nature and blowing One with Nature to properly maintain energy regen is key. Too early and you miss +50% duration Stability on engage. Too slow and you can run out of Energy mid fight cause you’re still at 0 energy gain. I’m still new at this and for me it’s really a learning experience coming from an Elementalist which basically has total battlefield mobility.

That said there will always be “haters” on classes in any game mode and WvW is no exception. I’m sure there will be people as well who see Revenant as something new and immediately start saying it won’t fit, doesn’t work or otherwise. After nearly 20 years of MMO gaming I can tell you now that generally speaking these people aren’t worth your time. I find it funny because often times these people are the same people who complain when they face them. It always makes me laugh when I hear a Commander go on about how useless Engineers are and then in the same night whine loudly about Magnet pull from Engineers or have zero appreciation for an Engineer clearing siege that no other class could using Mortar.

After 3 years you learn something the Developers think or are excited about doesn’t necessarily mean something that we the Players think are exciting.

Always wait to see the details. Basically just a Scepter nerf for WvW with Dragon’s Tooth.

Everything they’ve indicated pretty much shows that Revenants will be absolutely no different than any other class/story/experience in the game. You’ll still have to do 1-80. You’ll still start in your racial starting instance. You’ll still do everything as normal. For level specifically, Roy mentioned he had a scroll/tomes ready so that pretty much confirms 1-80 leveling.

Your two choices are do what most of us plan to do, just not think about it, or if you’re some kinda roleplayer then think of some kinda reason or something.

Jekkt pretty much nailed it. Just too clunky to really be effective.

Karl McLain.5604:

It’s totally feasible to have an aura trait, as they’re fairly generic and supported throughout multiple lines (you have at least one application with every weapon set). Being that auras are fairly bountiful for the Tempest, it would likely be more beneficial to have something without an ICD (or really low) so that you’re not running into a wall by just using the tools you’ve got. Stability’s already an option in the master line, so we probably wouldn’t want to have two of the same applications in the same slot.
I’ve got to run for now, but wanted to stop by and talk traits.

-Karl

If it has a really low ICD then the trait has no bite to it and honestly taking Stability on Overload is almost a mandatory trait as is. The lazy solution there is to throw some Boons on Auras depending on Aura that we don’t normally have access to like Resistance, Retaliation, Quickness, Aegis, etc.

Stability on Auras opens up a whole new field to Tempest that pretty much was reserved for Guardian front line support up until now with “Stand your Ground” which is why 2 Guardians are mandatory in front line groups in content like WvW.

If I were King for a Day I’d:

1. Move Earthen Proxy to Hardy Conduit.
2. New Master Trait called “Soothing Auras” and move the healing component off of Element Bastion to this new Trait.
3. Add 2 stacks of Stability on auras with a 4s duration to Element Bastion.

This creates Boon/Condi support (Aria), Conduit/Damage boost (Harmonius), and Healing Aura support (Soothing) in Master.

Karl McLain.5604:

With that being said, what sort of support/boon trait would you like to see it replaced with? Keeping in mind the roles of Tempestuous Aria (Shout ally DPS-add/Enemy weakness trait) and Harmonious Conduit (DPS/anti-control trait), is there something that you’d imagine would fit AoE support in a generic way.
H.C. was intended to be a generic anti-dps option (with ties to the spec’s stengths), so keeping it in that vein would be something we’d want to shoot for.

Cheers,
-Karl

Stability on Aura Application. 2 stacks. 4s duration. 20s ICD.

Then you have 3 Aura/Support traits.

I remember back when any kind of offensive stats was viewed as wrong then taking a break and coming back to find out that mostly offensive wasn’t offensive enough. Now finally after all this time there’s talk about balanced stats having a place in the game.

What a rollercoaster.