Should Offhand Sword Changes Be Reverted

What do you think about the skill off hand changes? If there is another option I missed let us know.

It doesn’t matter because ANET will continue to make rev worse every patch. Don’t bother posting polls because devs do not read or care.

Revert Skill 4 and Keep Skill 5 but Lower Energy and CD back to 15 and 15 or lower

Current off hand sword has no function.

Is laughlable that the most the time runs, the less traits, runes and weapons seems viable for the class. Every new patch seems conceived to strip either functional stuff or things that, albeit not used at the moment, had chances to be valuable in the future.

The staff probably will be the next: every Rev uses it. Does crapy damage and #2 lacks any function, but is still capable to block things and break defiance bars. Beyond all bearing: must be nerfed asap.

I suspect Anets balance team doesn't really understand that the point of revenant in PvP is to have lots of available options with lower CDs than other classes at the expense of not being able to mindlessly 12345 their skills. Removing block from sword 4 is a gigantic nerf that makes the changes a net loss.

Renegade is just pitifully even more useless now than it was before because Renegade doesn't have access to shield.

Anet needs to hire somebody that actually plays this class to their balance. It's clear they currently do not have anyone.

I am very mad at the block removal. What the fuck?! You should remove warrior sword offhand block too, in this case. The block was extremely useful to me and truly felt like a duelist skill. It also allowed to challenge myself on "harder bosses" and chain evades/blocks. Please bring block back. I don't care, you can keep it as chain skill with the new skill, just let me block things.

Man, all I read prior to this patch was how bad offhand sword was and how power rev DpS was terrible and "I'll never get a spot in a raid..EVER!!!" We get two skills on offhand that are pure murder....they hit like a wrecking ball, and it's nothing but whining in the forums. What really sucks is because of this, the devs can't take anything in the forums seriously because every time they try to make a change for the betterment of the class people come out screaming like the sky is falling. And if you're one of these guys that are about to say "ANET HATES REVENANT!!" Just save it man...it's exhausting.

@Nivik.2961 said:Man, all I read prior to this patch was how bad offhand sword was and how power rev DpS was terrible and "I'll never get a spot in a raid..EVER!!!" We get two skills on offhand that are pure murder....they hit like a wrecking ball, and it's nothing but whining in the forums. What really sucks is because of this, the devs can't take anything in the forums seriously because every time they try to make a change for the betterment of the class people come out screaming like the sky is falling. And if you're one of these guys that are about to say "ANET HATES REVENANT!!" Just save it man...it's exhausting.

And yet somehow it became worse.. it is still not PvE viable while being PvP impossible. OH sword was mediocre, but now is unusable.

@Nivik.2961 said:Man, all I read prior to this patch was how bad offhand sword was and how power rev DpS was terrible and "I'll never get a spot in a raid..EVER!!!" We get two skills on offhand that are pure murder....they hit like a wrecking ball, and it's nothing but whining in the forums. What really sucks is because of this, the devs can't take anything in the forums seriously because every time they try to make a change for the betterment of the class people come out screaming like the sky is falling. And if you're one of these guys that are about to say "ANET HATES REVENANT!!" Just save it man...it's exhausting.

You are thinking only in terms of group PvE.

In terms of PvP and solo challenges, the loss of block is an absolutely insane nerf.

@Nivik.2961 said:Man, all I read prior to this patch was how bad offhand sword was and how power rev DpS was terrible and "I'll never get a spot in a raid..EVER!!!" We get two skills on offhand that are pure murder....they hit like a wrecking ball, and it's nothing but whining in the forums. What really sucks is because of this, the devs can't take anything in the forums seriously because every time they try to make a change for the betterment of the class people come out screaming like the sky is falling. And if you're one of these guys that are about to say "ANET HATES REVENANT!!" Just save it man...it's exhausting.

The skills do hardly anything to increase dps. I am fairly certain skill 5 is a dps loss, and the 4 skill is only a tiny dps increase. We gave up a nice defensive skill and a hard cc for such a small amount of extra damage that there is still almost no chance that qT will even bother publishing a new benchmark for power rev (they haven't for past year or so because the dps is too low to be worth considering using).

Love the changes, finally a proper power offhand weapon. If you want defence, use shield. That's what it is there for.

Idk why there's so many choices in this poll that are basically the same thing, but sword 4 needs its block back. Completley revert it, or just make it a chain again, who cares, just give it the damn block back. Sword 5 just needs a cd reduction, or revert it, doesn't even matter, but losing the block kills the sword for pvp. Now you can take shield and plant yourself like a fking tree and wait for someone to stab you in the face with an unblockable, or you can take offhand sword and use sword 5 so you can jump into the fray and die faster than ever! Yay

I will concede that in a pvp scenario, survivability is almost always more important than raw damage. And I understand that feeling like a big loss. from what I was seeing as far as a concensus in the community, was that offhand sword was in this purgatory of not being sure what it wanted to be. Offensive, defensive or utility.and the truth is it wasn't very good at any of them. At this point you have a pure murder weapon offhand if you want power damage. For survivability you take the shield. That's just my opinion

Where did all of these offhand sword revs come from LOL, and where were you when everyone was trashing it as unusable....

Sword had a niche of being the only offhand weapon with both a block and a hard cc, axe was better better if you didn't need the block since sword 5 is annoying with its displacement but otherwise they were mostly interchangeable. It was also the only core off-hand with a block, and the only revenant block that didn't root you in place or put you in combat because staff 3 fires off a bunch of projectiles. Now it has neither of those niches with its only redemption being that it brings power rev dps from garbage tier to a slightly higher tier of garbage. I have tested it in the special forces training arena, with realistic buffs you are still looking at sub 25k dps which is not close to competitive, and I could always get pretty close to the qT benchmarks.

I just unninstalled the game and the nerf to revenant was honestly one of the two main reasons. Or rather, how it's a reflection of the total bullshit we have to deal with.

Happy Gaming everyone.

@Nivik.2961 said:Man, all I read prior to this patch was how bad offhand sword was and how power rev DpS was terrible and "I'll never get a spot in a raid..EVER!!!" We get two skills on offhand that are pure murder....they hit like a wrecking ball, and it's nothing but whining in the forums.

Except the changes actually make OH Sword worse for raiding than it already was. Neither of them hit hard enough to justify spending the energy on them (especially with the new Cruel Repercussion trait) instead of just auto attacking, ps'ing, and channeling. At least the block could be arguably useful in certain situations and grasping shadows had hard-cc.

The only real use new sword would have in a raid would be using Deathstrike on your way back to a boss from doing mechanics (since you'll have built up enough extra energy running away to drop poison, cleanse in a well, rez somebody, etc... to justify its use).

I think OH sword had a nice niche in the dueling and wvw roaming scenes, but now it has no identity.

Offhand Sword is so fun and great right now, don't touch it!

The off-hand sword needs to be polished after the new changes, not reverted. I agree that the removal of the block and the addition of the shadowstep made it too similar to Axe.

@Lahmia.2193 said:Love the changes, finally a proper power offhand weapon. If you want defence, use shield. That's what it is there for.

As I said this change kills any niche spot the core Rev has in roaming/pvp, because the shield is an elite exclusive and only Herald has access to.

Nivik is essentially wrong: first, power Rev isn't going anywere close to condi Renegade in terms of dps soon (mostly because PvE raids is the only thing that prevents Renegade from lay utterly unused; Herald is better at anything outside hitting bullet-sponge bosses); second because the main source of power Rev dps is swod's auto attack, so buffing the damage of a 20 seconds cd skill means nothing and the last but not the least because despite both shield and axe were more popular as off hand weapons the sword was itself in a good spot (not as strong at cc and damage as axe, not as strong as support and sustain as the shield but with good cost, cd and cast times that allowed to block without rooting us in a place.

So:"The off-hand sword weapon for the revenant had a bit of an identity crisis. While the main-hand sword is primarily an offensive weapon, the off-hand feels like it’s trying to be both a defensive and utility weapon at the same time. We’re reworking both skills on this weapon to be more accurately positioned as an offensive power option for the off-hand slot. "

Off hand sword hadn't any "identity crisis", was a middle ground between a purely ofensive weapon (axe) and a purely defensive weapon (shield, again: exclusive of Herald). Now off hand sword id deleted from existence because as offensive weapon is garbage near to the axe, while lacking any defensive capability.

I will put another example: if instead or the trashy shot bow the Renegade weapon would have been a main hand pistol with the three first skills from the shortbow MAYBE at this time the Renegade would have been viable at PvP. Why? Because off hand sword could have give some room for defense to a ranged weapon which lacks any brock, evade or mobility skill. But now the block is gone, so not only doesn't works for core Rev but also probably prevents any other main hand weapon from future specs to be able to be used at PvP/roaming/duels, because ANet usually doesn't put that kind of skills in main hand weapons and therefore REV HAS NO BLOCKS (staff can block but doesn't provide damage and shield is HERALD weapon, not a Revenant one).

Again, I wasn't using off hand sword (and for sure I won't use it now), but is sad to see options, alternatives, severed for NOTHING. The new off hand sword provides NOTHING to the class. Just erases a minor build which has a decent niche. Wasn't overpowered, wasn't hurting anything or anyone, no one ever moaned about off hand block since the nerf from 10 to 12 secs cd, and they just butchered the whole thing.

After much testing I decided the changes are fine just cast and energy/CD need reductions

@BlaqueFyre.5678 said:After much testing I decided the changes are fine just cast and energy/CD need reduction

sword 4 cd reduced to 10 sec, sword 5 energy cost reduced to 15 and cd to 15 sec. Or give it back block. Idk why they took an already bad weapon and just like, shuffled its strength around when it needed a straight up buff.

I play the game for fun and these changes make OH sword more fun (for me, as a power player). Love the changes.

I boosted a rev and the default had 2 swords and the OH sword felt so lame. Now it is dynamic and hits hard. Switching between dual swords and hammer is a blast, ghosting all over the dang place.

11.7.17 never forget. RIP S/S+Staff 5>2>5

Seriously though, shield off hand and staff are the only sources of block for revenant now. I like new x/S 4 but kinda feel it's going to be vexing in long terms. And that 5's 600 range shadow step is sooooo laughable for 5th skill.

I actually really, really like the changes to Sword 5, and the new burst damage potential of Sword 4 is pretty incredible against 1-2 targets, however I do have some complaints:

-Sword 4 losing the block is a big knock on OH sword, however with how devastating these two skills can now be offensively (and with the fact that sword OH is now modeled fully as an offensive weapon), I don't think this absolutely needs to be changed (shield and staff exist, and Rev has access to a lot of iframes outside of block), albeit it would be great if it was. Losing the burst damage would suck though.

-Sword 5 feels clunky. I love the new mechanics; shadowstepping to the target feels way better to me than shadowstepping away, and it reduces the chance of failure due to hitting a surprise stability stack or something. However it feels like the second hit takes way too long to come out and it's almost useless against anyone or anything with a pulse since the 130 range is only a step or two away from your character. Either the second hit needs to be faster, or the range needs to be greater. I don't have any major complaints about the 600 range shadowstep since the attack could potentially hit quite hard, but if it's going to remain in its current state, could you perhaps consider raising the range to 900?

Like I said I love the new theme and feel of the sword offhand, but it is far from perfect and could use adjustments here and there. Thanks.