Revenant 12/12 Patch Notes

Here it is

• Energy Drain Skills: All skills that cancel energy-drain skills have been modified to be usable in midair.
• Deathstrike: Energy cost has been reduced from 20 to 10. The cooldown has been reduced from 20 seconds to 15 seconds.
• Impossible Odds: This skill and its associated Relinquish Power skill are now usable in midair.
• Project Tranquility: Fixed a bug that prevented healing from the tablet from being reported in the combat log.
• Scorchrazor: Burning has been adjusted from 2 stacks for 2 seconds to 1 stack for 4 seconds.
• Manifest Toxin: Poison has been adjusted from 2 stacks for 6 seconds to 1 stack for 12 seconds.
• Temporal Rift: Torment has been adjusted from 3 stacks for 8 seconds to 2 stacks for 12 seconds.
• Forceful Displacement: Torment has been adjusted from 4 stacks for 6 seconds to 3 stacks for 8 seconds.
• Venom Enhancement: Poison has been adjusted from 2 stacks for 5 seconds to 1 stack for 10 seconds.
• Abyssal Chill: Torment duration has been adjusted from 2 stacks for 3 seconds to 1 stack for 6 seconds.
• Maniacal Persistence: Torment duration has been adjusted from 4 stacks for 5 seconds to 2 stacks for 10 seconds.
• Mutilate Defenses: This trait has been reworked and renamed Expose Defenses. This trait now causes your first attack when entering combat to inflict 5 stacks of vulnerability for 5 seconds. This skill refreshes whenever you use an elite skill.

Discuss !!

Well that is certainly a nice change to Deathstrike! But it is unfortunate about condi rev, as these changes have reduced the little viability we had in PvP even further. It may be a good change in PvE though. We'll see.

So I still have to wait for any good news.P.S. mes' mantra of resolve now cleanses 13 condis upon successful charging (12 sec cd) - they did it so easily somehow in contrast to rev.. ??

I thought the whole point of this balance patch was to make power builds better compared to condi ones, but this Mutilated Defences nerf does the exact opposite against anything but easily burst down enemies.

On a power build, at best you can proc it every 10 seconds, probably a lot less often because you don't have any elites you want to fire as soon as you switch stance. Plus you need to stay on sword MH if you want to keep up Targeted Destruction (build variety please, anet).

Whereas on a condi build, you can happily pop Kalla and Mallyx elites as soon as you swap, plus your Expertise will make sure the vuln will last much longer than 5s.

Plus they're supposed to make condis do more ramping damage (which is what the old trait already did) and less burst (which is what the new one does). I'm absolutely baffled.

Hurray we can now hit nothing more often with the new deathstrike buff!!!! Hype.

Nothing to deal with condi still.O well could be worse atleast we can now use impossible odds in midair.........

"Mutilate Defenses: This trait has been reworked and renamed Expose Defenses. This trait now causes your first attack when entering combat to inflict 5 stacks of vulnerability for 5 seconds. This skill refreshes whenever you use an elite skill."

Someone add "nerf" with rev and anet icons to this movie plz.

@Napo.1230 said:Hurray we can now hit nothing more often with the new deathstrike buff!!!! Hype.

Nothing to deal with condi still.O well could be worse atleast we can now use impossible odds in midair.........

That is exactly my thoughts regarding deathstrike. I guess better than nothing,

Condi Rev is now alt+ctrl+delete in everything but PvE raids if the boss does not have adds.

I was dreading the condi change for raiding renegades, but this isn't so bad... Our biggest sources of damage (2/3's of the Mace AA chain, Embrace, Searing, Echoing, Razorclaw, Citadel) remain unchanged. :grimace:

They should make the new Expose Defenses Skill refresh on like a channeling skill with a 10 second ICD or on legend swap or something though... Elite skill is really restrictive unless you're playing Mallyx.

Edit: actually, after my first raid today, Expose Defenses + Condi Renegade ends up being one of the main sources of vulnerability for raids now. I mean it sucks for PvP, but at least you can just flash EtD a few times to keep 25 stacks up in raids.

Getting Expose Defenses is worth the trade off of all those condi skills getting gutted. Judges Intervention blink fucking burn guardians got wrecked so bad lol.

Expose Defenses change kills sustained damage on builds that didn’t use Sword MH but I’m ok with it since my current build is unaffected by this change.

@CorliCorso.6254 said:I thought the whole point of this balance patch was to make power builds better compared to condi ones

You would think. Hey at least you actually got a damage buff, even if it was only to one weapon. Ele got both Direct damage nerf (every build!) and condition nerf, though condi nerf isnt that bad because no one would play a condi ele these days anyway, man was hella fun back in the day though. Going around trolling other pure condi builds as a Condi Diamond Skin<3 Those were fun times, easily countered but fun. Shame they nerfed it into the ground because the condi player base HATES having counters.

So... What's the result of this? Power Rev is still garbage tier in pve right? Deathstrike buffs are nice, but it's still a super slow skill. Should have reduced sword 4 cd as well.

Is condi rev dead now too? Is there literally no viable rev build in end game content?

As far as pvp is concerned, we weren't exactly buffed, but it will be interesting to see how these condi changes play out in revs favor.

@narcx.3570 said:Edit: actually, after my first raid today, Expose Defenses + Condi Renegade ends up being one of the main sources of vulnerability for raids now. I mean it sucks for PvP, but at least you can just flash EtD a few times to keep 25 stacks up in raids.

That is 100% not worth doing with the amount of dps you lose. Even with the change to vuln traits there is enough vuln from other spec traits/abilities that the boss stays at 25. This definitely hurts some comps (more specifically spec stacking comps) which honestly needed to be nerfed anyways. So sick of seeing Ele's stacked on stuff like KC even though this doesn't really change that.

I worked my tail off to get the renegade's collection shortbow, but finally gave it to my thief as a deadeye condi-thief is much better in wvw.

Having said that, all this patch did was objectively make rev-shortbow even worse in WvW. I do like the idea, but the execution is off...or at least I'm missing something.

Anyways, I suppose the shortbow stays with my thief for now.

-Jeff

@Vulf.3098 said:

@narcx.3570 said:Edit: actually, after my first raid today, Expose Defenses + Condi Renegade ends up being one of the main sources of vulnerability for raids now. I mean it sucks for PvP, but at least you can just flash EtD a few times to keep 25 stacks up in raids.

As for a DPS loss, you lose like 3 seconds every full rotation for flashing EtD before swapping to Kalla and dropping SC b4 swapping to Mallyx. I guess that adds up, but if your group doesn't have vuln, it doesn't have vuln. :anguished:

@narcx.3570 said:

@Vulf.3098 said:

@narcx.3570 said:Edit: actually, after my first raid today, Expose Defenses + Condi Renegade ends up being one of the main sources of vulnerability for raids now. I mean it sucks for PvP, but at least you can just flash EtD a few times to keep 25 stacks up in raids.

Man, I am beginning to feel the power rev now is going to over take condi rev. Before this patch, my understanding it power rev damage was between 29K-30K with raid realistic buffs. It got a slight buff with deathstrike, and is million times better in applying vulnerability compared to condi rev. Now that much of condi rev damage is being back handed, it may not be worth much anymore.

@narcx.3570 said:Ele groups on KC will probably just need a War keeping it up or something, cuz no more Weakspot. Or if they were cool enough to let a DH come along that would work too.

As for a DPS loss, you lose like 3 seconds every full rotation for flashing EtD before swapping to Kalla and dropping SC b4 swapping to Mallyx. I guess that adds up, but if your group doesn't have vuln, it doesn't have vuln. :anguished:

If your group isn't able to hold 25 stacks on the boss you are mostly likely stacking a specific spec. I don't even run devastation in raid because my static is largely condi builds and we were able to hold 25 stacks just fine.

So I guess if you join a pug group that has vuln issues then you can do this but I feel that would be the least of your issues at that point.

@otto.5684 said:Man, I am beginning to feel the power rev now is going to over take condi rev. Before this patch, my understanding it power rev damage was between 29K-30K with raid realistic buffs. It got a slight buff with deathstrike, and is million times better in applying vulnerability compared to condi rev. Now that much of condi rev damage is being back handed, it may not be worth much anymore.

Not sure where you saw power was doing 30k?

Anyways no condi renegade is still amazing. The biggest hit was to axe 5 and honestly it was barely a nerf. My damage went up compared to yesterday by a tiny margin. The biggest hits in damage was bosses that condi renegade was already questionable on.

@otto.5684 said:

@narcx.3570 said:

@Vulf.3098 said:

@narcx.3570 said:Edit: actually, after my first raid today, Expose Defenses + Condi Renegade ends up being one of the main sources of vulnerability for raids now. I mean it sucks for PvP, but at least you can just flash EtD a few times to keep 25 stacks up in raids.

Not really, power rev dps is around 23-24k realistic which is absolutely awful. Also deathstrike change does next to nothing for dps since the cast time is so long it barely out dps's the auto attack.

I should also add that if vuln becomes an issue, a druid can just take storm spirit for easy 25 stacks. It is nice that druid can stack 25 might on 10 people, perma protection on 10 people, perma fury, perma swiftness, it is literally everything Glint can do only better and additionally has great heals, frost spirit, sun spirit, good cc, etc. etc. etc.

@ArthurDent.9538 said:

@otto.5684 said:

@narcx.3570 said:

@Vulf.3098 said:

@narcx.3570 said:Edit: actually, after my first raid today, Expose Defenses + Condi Renegade ends up being one of the main sources of vulnerability for raids now. I mean it sucks for PvP, but at least you can just flash EtD a few times to keep 25 stacks up in raids.

I think we might also see Bannerslaves take over this role. They have that new trait that applies 5 stacks every time they use a burst skill.

Thank goodness we can use Impossible Odds in midair. Now when a condi mesmer shows up I can do that thing in cartoons where a character starts running in place with the feet in the air, then dashes away instantly.

@Justine.6351 said:Getting Expose Defenses is worth the trade off of all those condi skills getting gutted. Judges Intervention blink kitten burn guardians got wrecked so bad lol.

The problem is that burn Guards are way less popular than condi Mirages, and condi Mirage (which is a true nemesis/hardcounter for Herald) got some nice buffs.

@Clownmug.8357 said:Thank goodness we can use Impossible Odds in midair. Now when a condi mesmer shows up I can do that thing in cartoons where a character starts running in place with the feet in the air, then dashes away instantly.

They should just replace all rev skills with the scooby doo run so we can at least troll hilariously

I haven't really noticed my viper build being reduced in open world pve. my dot damage is alot higher from 5k a tick to 8k tick. mace 2, 3 and mallyx elite hasnt been effected. Not sure if i want to go back to Power Herald build. I don't like the Expose Defenses change as I dont have a toggle on elite in Jalis, Shiro or Glint

I'll admit I'm not of fan of Expose Defenses. While not using sword main-hand I felt like Mutilate Defenses allowed my vulnerability application to be more reliable/constant. I'd definitely vote to have this particular change reverted.

@Orion Templar.4589 said:I'll admit I'm not of fan of Expose Defenses. While not using sword main-hand I felt like Mutilate Defenses allowed my vulnerability application to be more reliable/constant. I'd definitely vote to have this particular change reverted.

The thing is though, where are you missing the vulnerability that you were getting from MD? I think in open world things die so fast that you probably weren't getting more than 5 stacks of vulnerability up anyways. In raids, while it's true that you contribute less to the vuln stack now, the meta will always adjust to make sure that it's covered and the boss has 25, so that' whatever. The only place I could really see this change having a negative impact is in Fractals due to the random comps, but even then... In full viper's with 100% crit rate, MD was probably only keeping up around 8-12 stacks of vulnerability anyways--depending on which part of your rotation you were on--and that was if you were averaging 3 crittable attacks per second.

And the change for PvP is actually noticeable in a good way when it comes to your bursts and +1's. (assuming you're playing power.)