Super excited when I crafted Twilight then uh, a little birdy told me rev was getting GS. Peak hype achieved.
That said, cruel reality has struck. Lets get into it.
Legendary Alliance Stance: Dual Legends sounds much more exciting on paper than in practice, but this can easily be fixed with tuning/changes. The cooldowns on utility flips are infuriating and serve no purpose the energy system shouldn't already solve.
Profession Mechanic: Underwhelming, compared to other elite specs. I was really hoping there was a similar signature skill like Citadel Bombardment where you would summon both legends to deliver an attack on an enemy, just like they did our boy Shiro back in the day, but sadly, no.
The F2 Energy->Endurance on non Alliance legends is just flat out boring. This skill screams bandaid fix for an introduced problem.
Greatsword: Obviously under tuned. Zero CC on it. Same for the Legend skills for that matter. Something throws up a blue bar or they're about to deliver an attack you want to CC? Pray to the six you didn't just swap into GS+Alliance.
On top of that, It's slow, does pitiful damage, animations I hope aren't final and begs to be used for aoe but has nothing to support it. Perhaps a small pull on GS3 (or a dodge) to help group things up for the followup aoe on every other skill you have?
- GS2 does have some weirdness with the direction of the aoe when moving. Seems to actually do the effect partway through the animation. Could be ping related idk, it's not like I can just turn off my 'straya handicap to test thoroughly.
- GS3 is well documented to not cover the range listed. Also has some weirdness with elevation and missing the final hit.
- GS4 is clunky to use and downright impossible with ping.
- GS5 is interesting, if hard to actually see it going off and where.
Utility:
As said, the cooldowns imposed on flips is clunky and ruins any sort of flow going on with the spec.
- Nomad's Advance- The lunge is great if a little redundant because of GS3 and its short CD. Flipping over to Battle Dance we have a skill that does what it says on the tin. Neat.
- Scavenger Burst- Quickness on this I love to see. Was really hoping Vindicator would have a support build with quickness/boonshare or healing but alas there's just not enough here. Flipping over to Treesong we have probably the only skill I think is above average in the entire kit.
- Reaver's Rage- Stunbreak with aoe attack and stab and fury and oh what’s this it’s an aoe stunbreak? Yes, dear gods all of my yes. Flip over to Awakening which stunbreaks and 4secs of prot. Yawn.
Elite:
Oh boy. As basically every single person has figured out by now- Urn is terrible.
Spear is not far behind it to be honest.
Traits:
I feel this is where the class falls apart the most.
- Two of the adept traits do nothing outside of Alliance stance. Red flag right here. In fact, if you run Leviathan’s Strength without Alliance slotted, you increase the cooldown on F2 for no benefit whatsoever. Big Oof, as the kids say.
- All the master traits focus on mitigating the issue of only having a single dodge. Song of Arboreum is so clearly the default here and should honestly be one of the minors (with tuning).
- Forerunner of Death is just awful. Everyone hates it for numerous reasons and they're all correct. I'd love to see the dmg buff from this given the Kalla’s Fervor treatment and the dodge becomes a selfish dps burst+boon but I don't think it'll happen. A man can dream though. (side note- burning your only dodge to upkeep a dmg buff and being left open to the multitudes of aoe enemies poops out in this game is just gross)
- Vassals of the Empire is interesting and there's a neat build where you can keep up a whole host of boons on yourself. I don't feel as though this offers enough to warrant a GM trait all by itself. You could bake this in with Saint of zu Heltzer and do a quick tuning pass and I would not fault you for it.
- Saint of zu Heltzer is fun and gets my support healer build senses all tingling. It is a little silly constantly hopping up and down all over the place.
Overall, I'm very uninspired with the elite spec, which is a real shame. It needs more oomph. Less fighting the systems introduced and more utilising them in an engaging, fun way. The dodge isn't as bad as I had thought but needs less pressure on traits & a sigil to carry it.
There is some serious potential for some very interesting, effective & fun builds. I think this beta you've gone a bit too light handed with things and need to put more focus on the spec's identity and place in the game. The most fun/effectiveness I've managed to have with the spec is by ignoring Alliance stance and just going Shiro/Jalis. It slaps.
All that said, I can't wait to see what comes next with the Vindicator.
