I gotta agree with OP. Vindicator is a terrible design.
It has no cohesion, it has no flow. It is just a bunch of ideas strapped together, and they don't work.
If you see the other legends and weapons from the Revenant, everything else has a flow: Shiro has a skill to go in, a second one to hit harder, and the last one to get out. It makes sense with the theme, and it feels good to play. Mace and axe, both weapons have combos within themselves (Mace 2 into 3, Axe 5 into 4) and also combos with the two weapons together (Axe 5, Mace 2, Mace 3). The weaponset feels good to play, it makes sense as design. It clicks. There are more examples, but those two are enough for my point.
Now, look at greatsword. It was no flow at all, it is just a bunch of obligatory checks:
- It is supposed to be a cleaving weapon, so we gotta add a cleave. GS 2, check.
- It is a melee weapon, so a gap closer is nice. GS 3, check.
- I guess we could use a block, as we gonna use our evades offensively? GS 4, check.
- Uuuh, dunno, let's get a bigger AoE. GS 5, check.
But those skills don't flow well together. There's no combo. Sure, gap closer into cleave into a big skill, the most basic thing ever. And it still feels bad because every single skill have terrible animations and effects, a bad hit detection that makes using them very frustrating and they all feel very unimpactful. The leap from Guardian's GS feels leagues better than Vindicator's GS, for example. And it has a much better combo flow, with going in, pulling foes to you and then using a symbol at your feet and spinning.
And the little flow that the spec was supposed to have (switching from Archimorus to Saint Victor and vice-versa) got destroyed in the beta. Don't get me wrong: it was a good change. But for example, with the automatic stance changes, we had a gap closer followed by a gap creator + evade, something that Vindicator needs. Now, we need extra steps to get it which makes playing the spec super clunky.
And again, the skills themselves aren't good too. They don't flow well together.
For example: Nomad's Advance is a gap closer, puts you in front of your foe. But then you have Scavenger's Burst which is an AoE at your cursor. You need to gap close and then use this skill in your feet so you can get your buff and also hit the foe. It feels terrible having to spam a circle at your feet with your mouse.
It feels good to use an AoE circle far away from you as a buff or as a damage skill (like plenty in the game) and it feels good to have a circle to drop automatically at your feet (like symbols). But it doesn't feel good to have to drop a circle at your feet with your cursor. It gets tiresome really fast. And let's not talk about the elites.
But we also need to talk about the dodge.
Mirage uses its dodges offensively, but it doesn't take away the control from the player while dodging, so it feels good. Daredevil also uses its dodges offensively, but it has more dodges, not less, so it is okay.
Vindicator uses its dodges offensively, but it has fewer dodges and it takes away the control from the player for longer. So it feels really, really bad to use. Even more, when dodging ASAP and on cooldown is the best way to deal damage (with the bonus from Leviathan's Strenght and Forerunner of Death). You may wanna hold your dodge to actually evade a mechanic, but if you do it, you're doing less 25% damage, which is immense.
What about Energy Meld with Vindicator? It is just...there. One button that doesn't feels good, is far from being practical for evading purposes (if something comes in the way I first need to activate it and then dodge) and for damaging purposes, just adds a extra step to it for no good reason. What is the design behind it?
Vindicator was rushed (as most of EoD, actually) and it really shows. There's no easy fix, as one easy fix (the skills no longer changing to their counterpart after using them) brought different problems. It needs a Scrapper-level rework. I just hope it doesn't take years to get it.
Honestly, to begin with, a good thing would be to remove Energy Meld and swap it for a skill that is the new dodge mechanic itself, so Vindicators could still have a regular dodge (just one is fine). And also make this new F1 dodge much faster, with less i-frames, to make it more snappy and rewards those with good timings. With the jump-dodge being on F1 and Vindicator still having one regular dodge, no one would miss the stamina buff from Energy Meld.
