Please consider automatic deactivation of Facet of Nature upon legend swap

As the title states, this is a request for the Systems team to consider changing Facet of Nature (F2 upkeep) to automatically deactivate upon swapping legends.

Why? Why wasn't it an issue prior to the Herald rework?

Each legend's FoN (and consequently, True Nature) has a very unique purpose and role. They are all used for different reasons. The Revenant's design encourages a constant swapping of legends in order to capitalize from its energy system; generally speaking, the more frequently you swap legends, the higher potential for energy you have. Legends are specifically designed to have different applications and roles as well, and changing from one to the next will shift one's playstyle anywhere from slightly to dramatically. The newly reworked Facet of Nature (and True Nature) reflects this. This skill was specifically updated to match its appropriate legend in both theme and application, so it is clear that they all serve very different purposes.

However interesting and well-intentioned of a change this was, having the facet continue to remain active upon swapping legends leads to awkward gameplay. The only way to deactivate the legend is to either hit 0 energy or to trigger True Nature, which effectively places Facet of Nature/True Nature on cooldown. This was not an issue in the past with our old Facet of Nature because the role/purpose of the skill did not change; it remained the same regardless of the currently active legend. So generally speaking, when you wanted the boon duration, you would keep the facet up for as long as necessary unless you wanted to (a.) save the energy or (b.) gain/grant the boons. As I understand/assume, facets are designed to be a commitment; once you activate the facet you must make a choice to continue to reap its passive benefits at the cost of energy or to gain the increased energy regeneration and the active effects at the cost of the lost passive benefits. This is a fair and healthy design philosophy and one I agree with, but only if the effects of the facets and consume effects remain the same, regardless of legend. Otherwise, it is an issue. Why? I will provide a relatively dramatic example to illustrate why. While dramatic, it is also an incredibly realistic scenario that could easily happen and enough of a reason to implement a change.

I am playing a Shiro/Mallyx power Herald in a WvW squad of 10 and we are facing an enemy squad. I have Facet of Nature - Assassin active so my teammates can benefit from the lifesteal. Suddenly, we get hit by a condi bomb--all sorts of conditions get applied to the party. I am only hit by a few of them and am able to sustain myself without any immediate cleansing. However, my energy has gone low. I decide to swap legends to Mallyx but do not activate True Nature - Assassin because I am not close enough to any enemies to rip any boons, so it remains active. Suddenly, I have 10 different conditions on me because of Facet of Nature - Demon. I am now in danger, especially because I transferred immobilization and am separated further from my squad. What are my choices if I want to stay alive?

1. Activate True Nature. This will immediately cleanse 2-3 conditions from myself, but I am in still in trouble because that doesn't take away everything. Furthermore, I have Draconic Echo traited, so my FoN continues to remain active for 6 seconds (or 2 pulses of FoN-Demon, meaning 20 potential conditions). Really, this screws me over more than anything. Even if I don't have DE traited, this still isn't a good solution because I am being punished for not wanting to waste my True Nature - Assassin, forcing my F2 on cooldown.
2. Use Pain Absorption. This can provide a temporary solution to the problem, but at a 30 energy (and 1/2 second cast time) cost. You are also drawing conditions to yourself from nearby allies with this skill, so if you get stripped of resistance, you will have more conditions on you than you did previously. Because of an automatically-changing effect, you are immediately being punished with 30 energy on top of the -2 upkeep from Facet of Nature.

There are other alternative choices you can make, but I'd argue that these are the two primary ones. Yes, you can use staff 4 to cleanse 2 conditions (and continue to absorb more while the facet remains active). Yes, you can wait it out and hope that an ally saves you or that you survive. No, it is not necessarily a death sentence. However, it easily has the potential to be. As I said in a previous post:A skill that changes in functionality should not remain active when that functionality changes.What if I don't need the stab? What if the enemy has no boons to rip? What if I am too far away to cleanse my allies of conditions? What if I want an increased boon duration but have no purpose for reduced damage? With the way it is currently implemented, I have no choice but to either commit to a vastly different application for the skill (at the cost of energy) or to sacrifice the passive and use True Nature because my energy needs to be used or saved for other things. Or I can drop to 0 energy, which itself isn't even reliable: I have had multiple situations where I have used Energy Expulsion specifically to drop FoN's effect (goodbye all remaining energy), but it still remains active.

What are the benefits to have it remain active upon swapping legends?

From what I understand, part of the reason it was implemented this way is for flavor and maaaaybe even perceived convenience. This is a quote directly from the Herald Rework announcement on the GW2 website: "Should you decide to invoke a different legend while the Facet of Nature is active, the boost you grant to your allies will change with you, allowing you to adjust on the fly."I will be straightforward with this: there are almost no benefits to its current implementation unless you are lazy or have lag and you simultaneously want the effects of the other legend's FoN. Why? Facet activation is instant. So if you wanted to get the effects of FoN from your freshly swapped legend, the only thing you have to do is press an additional button. I suppose you may be missing out on a fraction of a second of time on FoN-X (or more if your fingers are slower), but personally I don't find this to be a compelling enough reason. If facets are meant to be a commitment, swapping legends is already enough of a commitment (committing oneself to a different set of utility skills) to justify instant deactivation of Facet of Nature.

These are all my personal feelings on this, but I do believe that I have a strong argument. I do also believe that we would hear more fuss about this if the Facet of Nature effects were stronger. However, as they are still currently closer to the side of lackluster, Facet of Nature will oftentimes only ever be activated for an immediate use of True Nature. Facet of Nature should be encouraged to use, but it has a high potential to be discouraged to use with its current implementation.

If you disagree, I would love to hear why. As always, there is of course the possibility that I am overlooking something. Hopefully this post makes sense.

Yeah new Facet of Nature is weird. I want a rework of the rework ?

Or just, make the cast time instant. The impact is very marginal...

@Artorias.8271 said:Or just, make the cast time instant. The impact is very marginal...

The facet is already instant and True Nature doesn't really need to be. If TN was instant that wouldn't do anything to solve the issue that I presented.

My personal opinion, i'd love if Facet of nature gave swiftness so i could access it with other base legends and have Facet of Elements provide (high cost) pulsing resistance)Would solve a lot of problems i have with Glint.

I'm new to revenant, became my main in less than a day, played it for 260 hours in 17 days :p I support this suggestion.

@Fade.5904 said:My personal opinion, i'd love if Facet of nature gave swiftness so i could access it with other base legends and have Facet of Elements provide (high cost) pulsing resistance)Would solve a lot of problems i have with Glint.

I think resistance is strictly Mallyx's territory, so I don't think they'd ever implement that. What are you other problems with Glint?

@Lestat.7056 said:I'm new to revenant, became my main in less than a day, played it for 260 hours in 17 days :p I support this suggestion.

Glad you do! Sounds like you are enjoying the class :). Definitely a unique one.

Oh yeah, i would even dont mind if it had a minor CD to it

I’m against this. I like the new facet and don’t want to have to activate it every time I change legends.

@Ayrilana.1396 said:I’m against this. I like the new facet and don’t want to have to activate it every time I change legends.

Fair enough. My argument is that this is not a compelling enough reason because not only is the facet instant to activate, effectively providing minimal benefit, but also that its current implementation is clunky, has a negative impact on gameplay, and discourages smart use of both the facet and the consume.

@"Pterikdactyl.7630" said:

@Ayrilana.1396 said:I’m against this. I like the new facet and don’t want to have to activate it every time I change legends.

Yeah, I mean there's literally no downside to making people have to reactive it, it's literally one insta-cast button press (assuming they don't make it go on auto-forced-deactivation-cooldown when you swap.)

Also, I feel like there's VERY few situations where somebody is going to want to have Facet of Nature passively up in both stances tho anyways.... Maybe if they're playing healer and swapping between Ventari and like Jalis instead of Glint? I dunno, rare situations tho. Cuz basically anytime you're going into Glint, you probably don't want FoN on, and anytime yer in Shiro (in PvP), you're going to be using the active. And the last thing you'd want is going into Mallyx and condi bombing yourself when you're not intentionally wanting to.

Plus even if you like want to use the passive in both stances, the only way to turn it off would be to let yourself run out of energy or use the active and put it on cooldown, which are both horrible options from a control and energy management standpoint.

@narcx.3570 said:

@"Pterikdactyl.7630" said:

@Ayrilana.1396 said:I’m against this. I like the new facet and don’t want to have to activate it every time I change legends.

Yes, I agree completely. You said it more succinctly than I did.