Anonynja.3172

Agreed. Vindicator only supports ONE build, power DPS, and you don't even need to bring Vindicator's legend for it to work. Jalis is usually superior because it offers damage sustain & personal damage reduction with the hammers, decent CC with the chain, and stability for your subgroup. Saint Viktor is a dead stance that's currently only viable as a condi cleansing, stun-breaking healer in WvW blobs. Even then, plenty alternatives can do the same while providing more boons. Energy Meld is useless. The whole spec feels half-designed. I want to see synergy between the Alliance stances. Make damage buffs from healing, healing buffs from dealing damage. Right now you can't even play a viable heal/power DPS hybrid... on a class seemingly centered around healing and power DPS! It's so disheartening. We have a fun power DPS option, but it's outclassed by mechanist, virtuoso, bladesworn, and arguably even herald. Anet really needs to figure out what Vindicator is supposed to be. Energy Meld idea: Give a massive buff to damage while in Saint Viktor stance. Give a massive buff to healing while in Archemorous stance. Dodges extend the buff. You can keep Saint Viktor's Urn on while in Archemorous to pump out heals while dealing damage, then drop it, use the Spear (changed to an upkeep skill) and switch to Saint Viktor to pump out damage while healing. This hybrid power/healing playstyle could offer a viable niche for us. I've tried making hybrid builds with this class, and your damage plummets the moment you try to offer any team support. Energy Meld and the middle traits are currently useless and need to be repurposed to give the class internal synergy.

We like the feedback-driven changes, thank you. Vindicator still feels half-designed. It simultaneously risks being overpowered in PvP/WvW and irrelevant in PvE. I hope its identity can be honed into a cohesive class design. As said above, Energy Meld and the middle traits are unnecessary and can be reworked into something more class-defining. Where's the synergy between Saint Viktor and Archemorous? If I play power DPS, I completely ignore Saint Viktor. And I never have a reason to play pure healing in PvE. The Oct 4 dodge spam created some possibilities around boon extension with Vassals of the Empire, but that was accidental, not a design choice. I just want Saint Viktor to synergize better with Archemorous.

I have tested Zealot stats and your DPS tanks so badly it's not at all worth taking. The spec is half-designed. I have no idea what they want to accomplish with Vindicator, but right now Saint Viktor is mostly dead weight. You can get solid selfish DPS with the Archemorous or pure healing with Saint Viktor. No viable hybrid play. I am hoping we eventually get a viable power DPS healer with Vindicator. Revenant already has quickness and alacrity, so I hope they find another niche for Vindicator to fill.

Revenant PvE main chiming in. Vindicator is a half-designed spec sitting on a lot of potential. It needs a lot more work than number-tweaking. They had a cool idea for this Alliance duo but haven't figured out how to implement it. In the first beta, our Alliance utility skills swapped individually. They got rid of card-flipping based on feedback. Now they're rolling back the single dodge mechanic based on feedback. I agree with these changes because the card-flipping and single dodge were bad. However, we are left with an espec that has no real identity. Just this yet-to-be-fleshed-out Alliance idea. I *love* revenant. Its lore, its aesthetic, its versatility. So dope. We have a strong core profession. We have an *incredible* Renegade espec. Renegade is so versatile. You bring utility and support even when playing pure DPS. Every single one of our Charr spirit AoEs and Orders from Above offers value no matter the role you're filling. And after seven years struggling since HoT launched, Herald feels pretty solid now. The Facet boon pulse mechanic is good design. It has a unique identity that synergizes with the rest of the class. Consume-spamming directly contradicts that good design, so we are all hoping they change how Herald generates quickness. Vindicator doesn't have a strong basis yet. We can play a selfish pure DPS with barely any utility, or a masochistic pure healer with barely any utility. The Urn is a terrible elite not worth touching. The Spear is blandly implemented, just damage to spam on recharge. The delayed strike offers some strategy for spiking in PvP modes but is irrelevant in PvE. We don't even have any upkeep skills... on the profession with energy management as its unique thing! Suggestions: The Urn and Spear elites should be upkeep skills that build power as they charge With our single dodge being reverted, we need a different set of middle traits. Currently all three just give endurance in different ways. Waste of a slot. F2 Energy Meld is a wasted skill slot, doubly so with the dodge revert. F3 Alliance Tactics to switch within Alliance is awkward. As others have suggested, let us switch between our three legends with F1-3. It shouldn't take two steps to get from Shiro through Archemorous to Saint Viktor's heals, for example. Just let us pick Saint Viktor or Archemorous directly. Add an F4 skill and use traits to increase the synergy between Saint Viktor and Archemorous and incentivize legend swapping. Balance in Discord doesn't quite get us there, especially in PvE. We have to figure out if Vindicator is going to be a hybrid spec (it's not right now) or if each Alliance Stance can contribute to a pure DPS or pure support role (they don't right now). I think ANet can replace the middle traits to make this happen. Give Saint Viktor a unique strength. It doesn't have to be quickness or alacrity. Heal Scourge offers both high barrier and unparalleled revives through Transfusion. Find a unique mechanic that vibes with Saint Viktor. It doesn't have to dominate. Niche is okay. TL;DR I believe ANet can make Vindicator shine by 1) making the Alliance elites upkeep skills to bring Vindicator in line with Revenant's core energy mechanic, 2) letting us swap to Alliance legends directly, and 3) adding an F4 skill and reworking the newly-obsolete endurance traits to increase synergy between Saint Viktor and Archemorous.

Vindicator offers revenant players a competent power DPS option for instanced content. I use it fairly regularly. The Aug 23rd power damage buffs we just got are noticeable. Playing relaxed on a boss where melee makes sense, I hit 25-32k sustained DPS in raids with 40k+ burst. Overall, it's a decent option. But some bosses are much harder to stay on - Matthias, Largos Twins, etc - and their movement or movement required by mechanics will tank your DPS. If I hop on my Virtuoso, those problems disappear. So there are superior alternatives. Right now, power mechanist offers higher damage and way more CC. Other power builds can match or beat the damage while hitting from range or bringing some more utility. Vindicator deserves more utility or more damage to make up for being stuck in melee range and forced to dodge off cooldown for your rotation.

Yes! The shortbow and Orders from Above animations make the Renegade feel right. Its utility skills summing stationary spirits carry design threads from Guild Wars 1's Ritualist. There's nothing wrong with the concept behind the Vindicator. The dual legend alliance is a great tie-in with Cantha and adds playstyle options for Revenants. I'm also a designer doing human-centered design. My bias as a player is that I only play PvE. I recognize the Vindicator's chase ability in competitive play from GS 3, Nomad's Advance, and dodge as well as the Spear's long range. And as we've said, it's not underpowered at all in PvE. The numbers aren't the problem. My hope is that Anet will work on the thematic consistency and internal synergy of the Vindicator. It's not in a bad place but deserves more attention. As a community we have identified low hanging fruit ripe for change: 1) Energy Meld is the biggest offender right now. All it does is negate some of the endurance loss from choosing Vindicator in the first place. Make it interact with the rest of the spec. It could instacast while dodging, or incentivize pre-casting before dodge or alliance abilities, or have unique effects based on your legend attunement. This one skill is an easy place for Anet to create internal synergy without doing much work. 2) All three master traits currently just give endurance in different ways with no real trade-off. Trade-offs make choices interesting. Super simple change: Just change the benefits of Reaver's Curse and Angsiyan's Trust. I recommend a damage effect for Reaver's Curse and a CC effect for Angsiyan's Trust. Leave Song of Arboreum untouched, because area Vigor is a unique support option and thematically appropriate. Leave the conditions for the other two the same - "for each target affected by dodge", which encourages an aggressive playstyle, and "when switching legends or activating Alliance Tactics", which encourages hybrid play. These traits are so close to being great. 3) The minor trait, Balance in Discord, could have a more meaningful effect upon switching legends than simply healing. The heal is non-trivial, but it's also flat/non-interactive, rewarding reactive rather than proactive play. Empire Divided on the other hand is nicely designed to complement how you're playing. If you're playing DPS, Empire Divided helps you heal out of trouble, and if you're playing support, it synergizes with the health sacrifice from Urn of Saint Viktor. 4) Greatsword 2 uses the same animation as its auto-attack. That not only looks bad but means auto-attack can bait dodges in PvP. We've seen plenty of players beg for new animations. At the very least recycle a different animation for one of these. 5) Some people like the Final Fantasy dragoon reference with the new dodge's high jump, but it doesn't fit the Revenant. A simple fix without changing 3D animation or disappointing dragoon-lovers could be: Have the Vindicator vanish into the Mists at the start of the animation and while the player aims its ground reticle, reappearing as it smashes down. Add the existing Mists particle effect from the core Revenant dodge.

I agree. Get around to the massive backlog. EoD is a nice QoL expac and surely some things were rushed, like designing the e-specs. I'd be so happy to see old bugs fixed, e-specs given the attention they deserve, nice QoL features added like titles getting their own Hero tab, LFG panel redone, fishing getting its own UI to store bait/lures, etc.

Thought this would be another rant post, but your comments are all spot on. Quality criticism. Vindicator is "good enough" and even satisfying to play because it can hit the numbers. I can do DPS benchmarks, heal benchmarks. So it technically performs well. But that says nothing about the rushed design and feel of the class, or the lack of internal synergy. This seems to be true across the board for EoD e-specs. They hit the benchmarks, but the designs feel off in many cases. Catalyst and Untamed are great examples - you can do awesome DPS with them! And they open the potential for complex play. Yet they feel rushed, not fully thought through. Numbers can just be tweaked up and down - that's a small part of the design work. At the end of the day, Anet needs to design good UX (user experience) for the specs. Why would I switch between Saint Viktor and Archemorous? They have zero synergy with each other. I am either rolling DPS or healing. Neither the skills nor the trait line reward switching between these legends. What is the thematic concept behind the dodge? Visually, why am I leaping into the air? Aren't I a mists warrior? Why am I suddenly a high jumper instead of doing the thing that makes my class unique, moving in and out of the mists? How does my new dodge synergize with the rest of my kit? Why can't I cast any skills while I'm dodging, or precast to combo with my dodge? Why am I encouraged to simply dodge on cooldown? What is the purpose of Energy Meld? Just look at Herald's Facet of Nature and Renegade's Orders from Above. Matter of fact, hop on core revenant and look at Ancient Echo. Now look back at Energy Meld. Tell me that wasn't slapped on last minute. My hunch is that Anet sacrificed time revising e-specs after the last beta to polish other critical features of End of Dragons. I sincerely hope they go back and commit time to making significant changes to the e-specs when the dust settles from launching the expac.

Tossing my name on the pile. Got stuck twice and once the game straight up crashed. This mission is buggy af. Been a good experience so far, shame it's tainted by a broken mission.

I think that energy upkeep would be a bit passive compared to the active play you get with the current skill's on-demand use. Timing it is at least a little interesting. That said, Energy Meld is a frustratingly boring F utility, especially when compared to Facet of Nature and the Renegade orders. It only gives endurance, and you only need it because of the hit you take to endurance by choosing Vindicator in the first place. I welcome a rework. Energy upkeep would be really great to see on Spear of Archemorus. That would make it mirror Urn of Saint Viktor better. Right now the Spear is very boring mechanically, with only a little strategy-play around the timing of your spikes with it.

Give Titles its own tab in the Hero panel so we can track our titles like in Guild Wars 1. Make titles searchable rather than having to know the name of the achievement that gave a title.

Hopefully unique animations do get made before EoD launch. The revenant has such a cool visual theme with the Mists. It's totally reasonable not to have all that done during betas - testing gameplay fundamentals was a good priority, and we saw major improvements between beta rounds.

I like the idea of F3 giving us a legend-specific skill. I've suggested making it generate a combo field based on the legend you're attuned to, similar to Herald's Facet of Nature adding boons based on your legend. Then make the new dodge a blast finisher and we're having lots of fun 😄

Herald is a good spec that deserves a buff to damage. Condi builds work so well with revenant, but I switch for dragonhunter for power damage. Herald's DPS gap is just too big. Increasing might generation is one route that wouldn't directly increase DPS but make it a little more stable boon support option. I'd prefer direct damage increase to sword/staff or via Herald's traitline - no need to buff DPS on heal heralds, but it should be more viable to play pure DPS with it. Personally I'd also like a little QoL tuning with Ventari as well - maybe wider radius or reduced cast/aftercast on Ventari 6 to make tracking the tablet over allies smoother.

Dope, those look great. Yeah my examples were just examples to get the idea across!

Fair points on the smoke field, though as someone who never touches PvP I would really love more access to stealth in PvE - I was really just trying to avoid generating the all same fields as Catalyst's Jade Sphere. Lightning field -> swiftness would also fit Shiro well.

This is my favorite Vindicator suggestion so far. Yes, please! Revenant has incredible style, and channeling the Mists is such a cool class motif. Let us really feel like revenants when we dodge as Vindicator. Now that you've said it I can't unsee it. The dodge doesn't have to be a jump, we can just crackle into and out of the Mists. Line it up with other shadowstepping revenant skills like hammer 3 and sword 3. I hope they find a way to incorporate the trademark revenant style.

Make Energy Meld generate combo fields based on the legend you're channeling. Make the new dodge a blast finisher. Example: Saint Viktor: water field -> area heal Archemorus: ice field -> area frost aura (chills enemies that hit you) Centaur: light field -> area condi cleanse Demon: ethereal field -> area chaos aura (random boons on you, random condi on enemies) Dwarf: fire field -> area might Assassin: smoke field -> area stealth This tweak could add some support functionality and synergize with Catalyst, maybe inspire some new team comps. Right now if you gear the Vindicator for support, it is mostly pure healing, with lackluster boons and offensive buffs for your team compared to other specs. Bonus tweaks: Make Urn of Saint Viktor summon Saint Viktor to give area barrier when dropped. Make Spear of Archemorus cost -5 energy upkeep like the Urn. Charge the Spear with strikes on enemies to buff its damage and shrink its impact radius. Releasing the Spear summons Archemorus to hurl it at your target. Make greatsword 3 a leap finisher. Make greatsword 5 give Chilled or Daze. Give new greatsword animations. Consolidate the major master (tier 2) traits so only one of them deals with endurance, giving area Vigor on dodge. The other two can buff healing or damage for you and your allies.

They really should have different icons. I've mixed these up before - not during a craft, like you, but certainly while managing inventory. And it was confusing when I was first learning how to craft legendaries. They have complicated recipes with unfamiliar names, and it took months before I realized Gifts of Battle and Gifts of Craftsmanship were different things because their icons show up in similar use cases.

Edited 12/6 after more time with the spec. I really appreciate the changes made so far. Thank you for being so responsive to the community and running great betas. Being able to control which set of utilities we use with F3 is very helpful. Two major points of feedback: 1) The new dodge mechanic takes more than it gives. Every single tier 2 and 3 major trait revolves around dodge, and the mechanic replacing dodge is not strong enough to compensate for losing evade. The ground targeting pauses your DPS and doesn't burst very hard. In DPS builds this takes me out of the fight too long and deprives me of an evade too often. It feels a bit better in support builds. Mirage and Daredevil have strong mechanics built around modified dodges, though, so I see the potential. Energy Meld and tier 2 major traits serve no purpose except cancelling out some of the dodge loss from picking Vindicator in the first place. We essentially lose a trait tier and get nothing like Facets of Nature or Citadel Orders when we take this spec. I'd suggest revising the tier 2 major traits and either A) making the new dodge mechanic worth losing dodge or B) making the new dodge mechanic an F utility skill. That could look like: A) Make the new dodge a blast finisher (synergize nicely with Catalyst's Jade Sphere) and make Energy Meld generate a combo field based on the legend you're invoking OR B) Replace Energy Meld with the new dodge mechanic, giving it an energy cost and recharge according to your tier 3 major trait Keep the tier 3 major traits as is. They're fun and offer distinct playstyles. Thank you for making their ground impacts visually distinct! 2) Urn of Saint Viktor doesn't sufficiently reward its high-risk mechanic in DPS gear, and it rewards holding rather than dropping in support gear. Dropping the Urn is underwhelming in every situation. This skill is such a creative throwback to the "X was Y" item spells Ritualists used in GW1, which makes me happy as someone who's played since 2007. But the skill is outshined by other classes' abilities to provide Barrier or pump out boons in addition to simply healing. In a DPS build and in solo PvE, I found little use for the Urn. You can't double tap it if your health gets low, so it's not an emergency button. Holding it serves little purpose. In a hybrid build, the Urn might work for a DPS tank in raids. You can hold the Urn for damage reduction while another squadmate heals. Most of the real danger in raids comes from instadeath mechanics rather than raw damage, though. In a support build with Minstrel's gear, the Urn pumped out respectable healing for allies and could be held as long as I had energy. I enjoyed seeing the green numbers around me during big boss fights 🙂 Dodges felt more useful as a healer. Dropping the Urn offered little benefit. I would only drop the Urn to get my energy back up and swap legends. In the end, though, I'd rather take another healer that brings more boons, CC, and/or offensive buffs to the fight. The Canthan lore throwback is so exciting. Why not lean further into the Urn's GW1 roots? The original Urn of Saint Viktor gave massive damage absorption for your squad as a reward for risking death. Let's see that in GW2: "When you drop the urn, Saint Viktor will shield everyone in the area," absorbing more damage the lower your health is. Which brings us to... 3) Spear of Archemorus is a cool concept that feels undertuned and again misses the opportunity to be consistent with Guild Wars lore. Please make it work similar to Guild Wars 1 and more parallel with Urn of Saint Viktor. Add a charge and release mechanic for the Spear of Archemorus. Drop the Spear at a cost of 5 energy upkeep, charge it with [nearby deaths, # hits, dmg taken, heal output, etc.], and release for a damage spike. The GW1 damage coefficient was huge. Split it for PvP so you can make it really spike in PvE. If you want it to be parallel with Forerunner of Death, have it start with a large impact radius that shrinks as its damage is charged. 4) Other feedback -Greatsword feels really good, similar to Reaper's greatsword. Great sound design. I wish skill 3 were a Leap finisher, though, and it needs to provide some CC. Reused animations are disappointing. -I love Selfish Spirit. It's the most fun heal skill in the game. Please don't change a thing. Thank you for running these betas and taking our feedback! ❤️

One underappreciated benefit of the siege turtle is being able to tank your way through enemy mobs without getting dismounted. In areas where you are frequently dismounted, like by Awakened in the Desolation, your siege turtle is a slow-but-steady option. This is great for solo and duo open world PvE players. I will definitely be having fun riding around with my partner :) I really like the design - it feels unique and occupies a niche like every other mount. Personally, I use all of the mounts depending on the context, with each keybound to a number of my number pad so I don't have to click to re-select. Siege turtle is a great #8 slot. I can't wait to see creative skins for the siege turtle! Elephant (could evoke the oliphaunts from Lord of the Rings), synergetics, bristleback... Awesome possibilities.

Same boat as ya'll. Event won't trigger, so I can't complete the Colossus collection.