Expose Defenses is terrible, and the worst PvP class became even worse 12/12

Hey, I really hope one of y'all reads this. Irenio, Karl, Ben, someone. Hear me out here, balance team. I don't want to sound accusatory, but wow am I frustrated and I really don't understand this game design.

For some reason, this patch resulted in another nerf to Power Revenant, already the worst class/build in PvP. Karl said it himself, your balance team uses Metabattle to judge game balance, so why do you refuse to notice that not only is the only rev build that was viable in high tier PvP not in the meta build section anymore, but now it is the lowest rated out of even the "great" tier builds, signifying that even secondary builds for many other classes far outperform Revenant in any capacity. I'd like to point out to you that the worst user-given average grade for any other "great" tier build is 93, and Power Shiro Revenant has an 86 and has still been dropping. I've played 25 games this season. Mid to high tier platinum. You know how many revenants I've seen in all 50 teams combined? ZERO. The class's pick rate is ZERO.

Your change to Mutilate Defenses now only gives 5 vulnerability ON ENTERING COMBAT, making us unable to maintain even a single stack of vulnerability unless we use Burst of Strength, or spam sword autoattacks. While in Staff, we don't have any ability to get vulnerability on the enemy. Same thing with Hammer. This means that Focused Siphoning and Targeted Destruction have a lot less impact on duels/small-scale fights. Now you've got lousy uptime on your Devastation passives, lowering already middling sustain and damage in PvP. What is the point of having every minor trait in Devastation involve vulnerability on the enemy if we can't keep it up without spamming 1 or using extremely risky elite skills?

So since you previewed this trait last week, I knew it would be a net nerf to our build, but I thought there might be some saving grace in that "Expose Defenses" refreshes when you use an elite skill so I planned to use Facet of Chaos passive to do this and set up a Surge of the Mists, Precision Strike, or some other skill that I could benefit from Focused Siphoning and Targeted Destruction. HOWEVER, this trait was then revealed to be even more of a joke: You have to use Chaotic Release, the chain skill, to get a refresh. So for this build, you have to either use Chaotic Release or Jade Winds to get a measly 5 stacks. This trait used to not look like much, but it kept up our damage modifiers and siphoning for sustain.

The other "upon entering combat" trait, Brave Stride is a garbage trait that only bad warriors take. Expose Defenses is a worse trait that all Power Revenants are now forced to take, and it replaces Mutilate Defenses, a trait that maybe wouldn't come up in your mind if you wanted to list the most important Revenant traits, but

5 stacks of vulnerability upon entering combat ain't gonna cut it guys. It doesn't "offer more distinct opportunities or create synergy with other traits" as Irenio said in his post. Another quote from his post: "These changes will offer chances to spike up vulnerability when it is ebbing or encourage new build styles." No, they don't. This is a garbage change for the least used class in PvP.

But you decided to give Condi Mirage a direct buff. I'm afraid that no matter how much internal testing you do, you are losing touch with your playerbase, and the newest class you created is becoming more and more unusable every patch.

Cross-posted from feedback topic.

But bro.

You can activate upkeeps while jumping now.

Idk about you all but I'm about ready to jump ship. I love rev but clearly anet does not, we should all go make mirages or something so we can actually look forward to "balance" patches and let rev rest in peace.

@"Flauvious.6195" said:But bro.

You can activate upkeeps while jumping now.

Idk about you all but I'm about ready to jump ship. I love rev but clearly anet does not, we should all go make mirages or something so we can actually look forward to "balance" patches and let rev rest in peace.

I'm pretty close myself too.

This class is no where near the best power damage dealer anymore but it still has all the weaknesses that came from having that title. It really is getting to the point that it doesn't make sense to even play rev anymore.

+1 Anet has been repeatedly told since the patch preview post that it was a bad change.

Interesting fact.Best tank in raids - mesmer, best dps - mesmer, the most annoying shit to deal with in both spvp and wvw - mesmer.

Can anyone get a rope please?

The trait change isnt really appealing to me either,most of all just because of the elite component. I rather would see a dmg field that applies vuln everytime you have an upkeep active and pulses a high dmg pulse with 5 vuln when terminating a herold upkeep.Boom nice vuln application and PbAoE dmg increase.

Sry wrong topic

Last expac warrior was in the state rev is now, funny thing is though they recieved constant buffs to both berserker and core whereas rev and renegade still havent been touched.... makes you wonder if Anet just wants rev mains to switch classes so they can delete Rev for good.

This new trait is utter garbage, the whole proc on elite literally gives ZERO vuln uptime, and it just makes revs sustained even more garbage tier. If this trait is kept it should at least proc on legend swap, then it'd be even a little bit decent. Because at this rate if you keep nerfing it, may as well delete the class itself since it will be rendered even more useless than it already is. 150% effort for 2% reward is not how a class should work. Especially in this meta where Mirage is still top tier gameplay because it hasn't gotten nerfed a single bit. Good job. Get your stuff together Anet. Thanks.

Moreover, what is revenant used for? It used to be good for the buffs it gave to your team, and the good mobility/damage it has. But every other meta class does it better or counters it. Scourge corrupts it, engi does more damage, more survivability and easier CC to land. With the abundance of condi clear every class has, 5 stacks of vuln when starting combat is worthless. This class in general is worthless, revenant used to have a chance to beat condi mesmers if played well, or be a threat, but right now against mirage you are NOTHING, it is impossible to win against a decent one. Against holosmith, you have to play it perfectly to even stand a chance and you can't do shit in teamfights because the boons you provide will be corrupted or stripped, and scourge with one wink will kill you. It should be illegal at this point to play revenant.

Honestly at this point there’s nothing left to say but just take an actual hard look at the class for once before you guys go around "balancing" things