The following will be a few easy to implement suggestions to bring Power Herald, & more specifically Glint, up to par with other low end DPS specs (around 30k-31k on small hitbox), but first I'd like to answer why 30-31k? The answer to that question is that I believe that ALL elite specializations should have a 30k+ DPS spec bare minimum and/or be a SIGNIFICANT support specialization (i.e. Druid). At the moment, Herald has neither of those. From a revenant's perspective it's really sad to see that Chronomancer, the best support specialization in the game, period, has a powerful DPS spec alongside its fantastic support spec. Additionally it also has an alternative DPS spec in Mirage for anyone who doesn't like Chrono. That's HUGE variety and this is the same sort of variety that should, more or less be given to all other existing classes. The easiest way to do this is to have a baseline DPS threshold that each elite specialization should meet. This gives people more options and revenant is in need of more viable options, specifically for Herald.

But why give Herald 30k?! I thought it was supposed to be a defensive support spec?" Regardless of what it's been claimed to be I think it's important to look at what it actually is: a boon centric power class that is not good at DPSing and is not great at supporting. In fact its cousin Renegade, an "offensive support spec" is BETTER at meaningful support, healing, and DPS than Glint or Herald, so this "defensive support spec" classification is NOT a viable reason for making an entire elite specialization pretty much useless in organized PvE. Additionally, taking a look at Glint herself, you see a mix of passive support utilities which provide both offensive and defensive boons (which are still underwhelming when compared to almost any other support class, so again, not a reason to give Herald poor dps) mixed with several offensive active abilities. This to me is not a "defensive support." Glint is also lower dps than Jalis, the "Tank" spec which to me is just completely unacceptable considering his utilities are even less offensive based than Glint's. Even from a lore standpoint it makes zero sense as Glint is clearly more powerful than Jalis in GW1, yet in game she doesn't outdps him at all as can be seen in the following table:

Legends DPS contribution to power herald (using realistic buffs, swapping legends, and only using autoattack + listed skill):Autoattack: 19kShiro w/ Impossible Odds = 4.5k increase (23.5k)Jalis w/ Vengeful Hammers = 2.5k increase (21.5k)Glint w/ Facet of Elements & no passive facets on = 500dps increase (19.5k)Glint w/ Facet of Elements & 4 passive facets on = 1.2k increase (20.2k)Glint w/ only Burst of Strength + autos = .3k loss (18.7k)

Easy fixes to make Glint & Power Herald DPS acceptable (30k) PVE ONLY changes

1. Elder's Force

• Increased % damage increase from 2% per boon to 3% per boon
• Reasoning: The boon centric elite specialization should be rewarded for having boons on it. The lack of other damage modifiers in the Herald specialization means adding a flat damage increase here makes the most sense as a damage modifier on a different Herald trait could lead to pvp/wvw issues. Additionally, this would only effect the Herald elite specialization and therefore a "proper" revenant power dps spec (which would likely be stronger anyway) won't be impacted by a buff here.

2. Forceful Persistence

• Increase Herald Upkeep Skill % damage increase from 2% to 5% per upkeep
• Reasoning: Facets are the core mechanic of Glint and Herald yet they don't bring any support to a raid or fractal group that isn't more easily and better supplied by most of the other classes. They also don't bring any significant extra damage for the revenant making them mostly useless in group pve. Glint should be compensated in pve with extra personal damage for having her facets active and supporting her allies. This change would also largely only effect Glint and help her catch up to Jalis.

3. Burst of Strength

• Increase Burst of Strength damage by 75%+
• Reasoning: Currently Burst of Strength is worse than just autoattacking in group pve. The skill SHOULD be powerful and Glint SHOULD be rewarded for activating her facets, but currently that isn't the case in high end pve. Burst of Strength needs a large damage increase to make it a worthwhile addition to the rotation and to help Glint be as strong or stronger than Jalis. Greater than 75% could be needed.

4. Elemental Blast

• Increase Elemental Blast damage by 50%
• Reasoning: While Elemental Blast currently is a dps increase over just autoattacking it still isn't much of one and needs a large damage increase.

Both Burst of Strength and Elemental Blast need Shackling Wave/Deathstrike level numbers to make Glint competitive with Jalis. If these two skills are not given massive PvE damage adjustments Glint will always be worse than the Tank Legend.

It should be noted that solo Herald can only do around 10-11k dps power damage, regardless of legend combination, so all of the above changes wouldn't make it overpowered in solo play, especially when condi renegade can easily outpace it with 15k+ dps.

TL, DR Herald hasn't been viable or even acceptable for over 1 & 1/2 years in group play. All elite specializations should have bare minimum usefulness as "low dps" characters around 30k or have great support specs (i.e. druid) in an effort to allow for greater class diversity. Power Herald makes sense thematically and Glint should be usable in it's own elite specialization for dps over "the tank" Jalis. Lastly Here are 4 easy number tweaks to put Power Herald near the bottom of Snowcrows DPS pile and make Glint and her facets actually usable in group play.

Revenants needs a significant overhaul, now having two dud elite specs.

Cool suggestions.

1. Rev damage is pathetically low in all game modes. For some reason when this class does comparable damage to other specs it’s deemed OP.

Even in PVP rev has the lowest damage by far, on top of having the most exploitable weaknesses, along with the hardest to use resource system.

Either sword needs to see some/all/all and more damage returned as well as functionality of skills or the other power weapons that have been nerfed purely because of community complaints, rather than truly being good, need to be buffed

2. I never understood how the community got the idea that Herald was a support spec. Is it because you guys camp the facets in PVE?

That only works because you can ignore most of the games mechanics in PVE due to how easy it is. I hate to think this was part of the reason why an underperforming spec was nerfed to nothing.

I think it was the pvp crowd whining over our AA, as well hammer 2. Both have had so many nerfs. I blame anet for not skillsplitting them.

maybe rev will be next one on rework list... maybe

@LucianDK.8615 said:Revenants needs a significant overhaul, now having two dud elite specs.

@Arkantos.7460 said:maybe rev will be next one on rework list... maybe

Revenant doesn’t need an overhaul or a huge rework; it needs buffs in specific areas in specific game modes. Herald is good in WvW and could easily be good in pvp if things like power creeped Mesmer we’re toned down or if it’s given a few extra adjustments to better deal with certain situations. Renegade is actually great in pve and is only a dud in pvp, so obviously it needs work there.

The reason for this post is to make easy fixes to make Power Herald with Glint acceptable in PvE that wouldn’t make huge changes to Revenant gameplay. A full rework of revenant could easily result in the class as a whole becoming worse. Think a deadeye type outcome; complete gutting of its elite spec weapon and adding largely clunky/uninteresting gameplay mechanics in an attempt to “fix” other clunky mechanics. Revenant isn’t Mesmer where making phantasms separate, more powerful, and encouraging shattering was a direct damage boost to the class in all game modes. Additionally, even if it gets reworked, Power Revenant/Herald still suffers from low damage weapon and utility skills and a lack of powerful enough modifiers (hence the elders force buff suggestion) in its traits. Even if it had more energy to spend Power Herald wouldn’t have anything to spend it on and its dps would barely increase.

@"JayAction.9056" said:

1. Rev damage is pathetically low in all game modes.

That is quite odd for the "all game modes" Because i see Heralds and base Revs pretty much everywhere in WvW from Zergs, to Groups, to roaming. I have seen them in all of these today alone. Granted, No Renegades. Everyone knows that spec was DoA and needs HEAVY fixes and changes. The same isnt the case for the other 2 specs. They can hit like an absolute truck!

@"JayAction.9056" said:Cool suggestions.

1. Rev damage is pathetically low in all game modes. For some reason when this class does comparable damage to other specs it’s deemed OP.

That's odd. It seems to be doing pretty reasonable damage in PvE as well.

@Knox.8962 said:

@"JayAction.9056" said:Cool suggestions.

1. Rev damage is pathetically low in all game modes. For some reason when this class does comparable damage to other specs it’s deemed OP.

Renegade is fine (but generally not meta anymore) in pve, however Herald and power rev in general has pitiful numbers, hence the reason for the post.

@ArmageddonAsh.6430 said:

@"JayAction.9056" said:

1. Rev damage is pathetically low in all game modes.

99% of WvW revs are playing garbage specs, with low damage.

@"JayAction.9056" said:99% of WvW revs are playing garbage specs, with low damage.

You got any proof of this "99%"? No? Didn't think so. Now you could say in YOUR opinion that 99% of them are running garbage specs dont try and make it out to be fact. It's not.

@LucianTheAngelic.7054 said:

@Knox.8962 said:

@"JayAction.9056" said:Cool suggestions.

1. Rev damage is pathetically low in all game modes. For some reason when this class does comparable damage to other specs it’s deemed OP.

It's funny because nobody actually knows the real DPS of a power renegade build due to the fact that ArcDPS completely ignores the damage contribution of Soulcleave... Like, it doesn't even show increased numbers for other people in your sub that are under its effect. The siphon damage just blows its mind.

I actually wouldn't be surprised if it was close to 30k, but like, nobody's going to take a chance on an obviously meme player, especially if yer pugging.

@LucianDK.8615 said:I think it was the pvp crowd whining over our AA, as well hammer 2. Both have had so many nerfs. I blame anet for not skill splitting them.

Actually it was the WvW crowd complaining about the interactions of The old passive F2 boon duration with Mesmer's Signet of Inspiration that led to both being nerfed, but the end result was that Herald went from being raid meta (simply for the boon duration) to being trash tier, since the changes now required a mirror chrono comp.

This is the problem with just nerfing stuff with WvW or PvP in mind, without balancing those nerfs with improvements in other fronts. The same thing happened to scourge. It was a meh class in PvE, but dominated PvP, so they nerfed the PvE part so it's barely usable now, and failed to address the PvP issues which are purely mechanical.Basically, and I've been saying this for a long time now. The balance team is the weakest link in GW2.They work slowly (3 months for the patches we have is just laughable), although they seem to be trying to increase the pace, it's till too slow, should be at the very minimum a monthly thing, ideally bi-weekly.And they work badly. They constantly fail to address the real issues with the classes, show incredible tone-deafness and lack of game-knowledge, and foresight of their change's impacts.What's worse they also fail to properly communicate their intentions, so its harder to understand the reasoning behind changes, and give proper feedback.Seriously, If they did half the work of communicating their patches that the OP did with his post, we'd be having a much better game experience.

I love these suggestions, thanks for posting! REALLY hoping we can get some changes to make the experience of playing power herald feel better

Just like OP said

Revenant only needs numerical tweaks , for instance more damage while using Glint so it could at least get 29k on golem.
Just buff every power weapon in PvE, like staff please to encourage weapon swapping. Again like OP said, buff damage modifiers like Forceful Persistence and Elder's Force. Buff all the active skills of Glint's Facets: Burst of Strength and Elemental Blast.

Asking for a complete rework is ridiculous.

Revenant main here that still roams in WvW and does PvE raids with it. Not as easy but not impossible either. Really infuriating and depressing how people want Rev to be brought down to the same level of simplicity of other classes by asking dumb things like removing energy costs from weapons.

Again to make it clear:Yes to buffsNo to reworks

Mechanically and conceptually the class is amazing.

Edit

Another easy fix

Just revert all the nerfs made to the class before they started splitting skills. Use the wiki and check the old skill versions there... Revert them for the sake of PvE at least.Could help the class in PvP too. Like reverting the nerfs that made shield terrible, still waiting for our mobile shield 5 version since the heal is pretty mediocre now.
The nerf that made Enchanted Daggers go to the waste if they get blocked, evaded, etc. The totally uncalled change of making Facet of Light have a higher cost (From -1 to -2)

Sword Auto-Attack nerfs.

No one ever uses the passive of Facet of Nature, +33% boon duration isn't worth it.

The current damage of Surge of the Mists (staff 5) in WvW is good, not too low like the garbage it is in SPvP and not too high like it was before (it got nerfed twice by -15% before this current WvW & PvE version, the SPvP version has a unique additional nerf of -50% on top of that)Precision Strike has an additional damage nerf for sPvP only as well.

Other good utility Rev used to have was stealth tracking with skills like Unrelenting Assault (Sword 3) and also Sword 2 IIRC, removed while other classes are still able to do that like Ranger with Rapidfire.

@ReaverKane.7598 said:

@LucianDK.8615 said:I think it was the pvp crowd whining over our AA, as well hammer 2. Both have had so many nerfs. I blame anet for not skill splitting them.

Completely agree on every point you said.

Everything went downhill after Grouch departed pretty much, he was an amazing asset of the balance team, and a great guy, I really miss him. :'(

I know I already posted in this thread, but I’m just so behind this idea. Power herald is unbelievable in its playstyle. Please look at these suggested changes and make it happen ANET. And for anyone reading this that loves power herald, throw a plus one in the thread so that they can see the popularity of these ideas throughout the community

I'd like to add one thing, a rework of the weapons themselves could also do wonders for Revenant.I know trident turned out a bit weak, but the mechanic of adapting the weapon skills to the Legend equipped is something i've pushed for since Revenant came out.The way it was designed each weapon/weapon combo is simply designed to fit a specific legend, and Herald, for example has no main-hand weapon designed for it, which i think it's also part of why it's not great.Reworking weapons to have different base damage (probably lower for some), and changing those plus effects for each of the legends would definitely allow for better builds.So, for example, swords would do less base damage by themselves, and with Malix they'd keep that lower base, but get bleed/vuln application. With Ventari, would keep the base stats, but grant heal/regen with hits, or apply other effects, even interact with the tablet. Like if you strike a foe with Hammer 5, the tablet would move to that location, healing allies on the way and applying vulnerability to foes.Etc, etc.

@ReaverKane.7598 said:I'd like to add one thing, a rework of the weapons themselves could also do wonders for Revenant.I know trident turned out a bit weak, but the mechanic of adapting the weapon skills to the Legend equipped is something i've pushed for since Revenant came out.The way it was designed each weapon/weapon combo is simply designed to fit a specific legend, and Herald, for example has no main-hand weapon designed for it, which i think it's also part of why it's not great.Reworking weapons to have different base damage (probably lower for some), and changing those plus effects for each of the legends would definitely allow for better builds.So, for example, swords would do less base damage by themselves, and with Malix they'd keep that lower base, but get bleed/vuln application. With Ventari, would keep the base stats, but grant heal/regen with hits, or apply other effects, even interact with the tablet. Like if you strike a foe with Hammer 5, the tablet would move to that location, healing allies on the way and applying vulnerability to foes.Etc, etc.

Very true, forgot about the new trident. That could really work with all weapons.

@narcx.3570 said:

@LucianTheAngelic.7054 said:

@Knox.8962 said:

@"JayAction.9056" said:Cool suggestions.

1. Rev damage is pathetically low in all game modes. For some reason when this class does comparable damage to other specs it’s deemed OP.

It's ~600dps additional per player according to math done by ariel from SC I believe. That Saud majestic noodle did a power jalis/ shiro build that clocked at 30.5k but i think its outdated

I personally don’t base a class’ viability on the elitist mindset that only meta builds and meta team comps matter.

Rev is plenty capable of doing all areas of PvE. This is more along the lines of making rev more comparable to existing meta builds of other classes rather than making it viable.

@ReaverKane.7598 said:

@LucianDK.8615 said:I think it was the pvp crowd whining over our AA, as well hammer 2. Both have had so many nerfs. I blame anet for not skill splitting them.

Actually... that 721 comp (1 chrono 1 rev 1 druid 1 warrior 6 dps) comp was before ppl. understood how powerful alacrity was. 1 chrono couldn't do 100%alacrity uptime on 10 ppl.

The boon rev was doomed to fall out of meta from the start once ppl realized about alacrity, especially since it was a buff at the time and not a boon as it is now.

@Ertrak.9506 said:

@narcx.3570 said:

@LucianTheAngelic.7054 said:

@Knox.8962 said:

@"JayAction.9056" said:Cool suggestions.

1. Rev damage is pathetically low in all game modes. For some reason when this class does comparable damage to other specs it’s deemed OP.

it was with unrealistic buffs that they reached 30k. Basically they use every boon to boost elder's force. Realistic buffs with herald cap around 28k (and I don't even think that is accurate tbh) and that is with perfect gameplay. In realistic situations it falls much lower.

@Solori.6025 said:

@Ertrak.9506 said:

@narcx.3570 said:

@LucianTheAngelic.7054 said:

@Knox.8962 said:

@"JayAction.9056" said:Cool suggestions.

1. Rev damage is pathetically low in all game modes. For some reason when this class does comparable damage to other specs it’s deemed OP.

31k i was wrong and its not herald. Its renagade with realistic buffs.

Edit i realize now this is kind of irrelevent as its renegade and not herald..but idk. Take it as an info dump i guess.

@Ertrak.9506 said:

@Solori.6025 said:

@Ertrak.9506 said:

@narcx.3570 said:

@LucianTheAngelic.7054 said:

@Knox.8962 said:

@"JayAction.9056" said:Cool suggestions.

1. Rev damage is pathetically low in all game modes. For some reason when this class does comparable damage to other specs it’s deemed OP.

That's not even counting Soulcleave and Assassin's Presence's group damage either... Not too bad.