Buran.3796

Is definitely a learning process, but over time becomes more intuitive when to save energy for breakstuns and when to spent it on burst or disengaging tools. Also, having energy sigils in each weapon is mandatory, and at least one of cleansing is very important. Maybe evades no longer ignore root and our vigor was removed (to prevent boon sharing which with the new patch will no longer exist, despite we won't see that vigor come back) but with cleansing in weapon and legend swap there's 3 condis removed (4 if runing anti toxin relic, albeit I prefer Durability). Won't be the same as a breakstun but still much better than the now useless Aggressive Agility (one of the few reasons Devastation had in the past any sense).

Are we really arguing in 2024 about Infuse Light duration? As I said I couldn't care less about the future of Herald; at the end Anet nerfed that heal (as you wanted) and many more things snd I stopped playing it entirely (even at PvE were at which supposedly is king). I didn't say that you moaned about DH, I said that your attitude of constantly demanding nerfs for Rev specs while praising core remembers me the ones which wanted stealth trap DH out of the game: ANet paid attention, deleted the stealth, yet they keep moaning the same. Also I don't agree about me refusing to put effort: I oftenly play condition Firebrand which is totally garbage and usually doesn't work but In enjoy that playstile. And I only play 3 classes in PvP (Rev, Guardian and Warrior) outside 38 matches as Necro in a total of 9823. If I wanted to play something easy I would play DH, and guess what: I have 0 DH matches in the 51 I've currently played in the 40th Season...

To be honest, I'm too busy at the moment with Tekken 8 and Last Epoch to even care about the kitten content they should have released with the SotO expansion 8 months ago. The main feature of SoTo is weapon mastery; they struggle to even provide a new armor* x profession. I guess the main feature for the 5th expansion would be utility skills/legends freely available to every spec. And anything beyond that in Spring 2025... (*) I meant weapon.

I don't entirely understand what you mean. For OW events with people Vindi players usually run a power build with Forerunner since Vindi's main role is pure dps, not support. For solo play I think that mostly sucks (very few specs outside Bladesworn or Reaper are decent for solo as power). The changes doesn't affect condi/celestial builds since those aren't played with others and the nerfs in the trait only affects the sharing of boons with others.

Herald was fine (meta) pre-EoD nerfs yet you were constantly ranting about it made core Rev redundant (despite core Guard have proved that a core spec can remain relevant as long as your profession has at least 3 decent core traitlines. In that period Renegade was also already dead due over nerfs. So you got what you asked for (Herald becoming unappealing and unable to compete) and now you want the same with Vindi despite objetively is not that brilliant compared to other specs from other professions, and despite core Rev will never be as Guardian, Necro or even Warrior since no one ever designed the class to be functional as core outside Herald. This attitude remembers me the ones which moaned about stealth trapper DH until they got what they wanted (stealth being literaly removed) just to fall in a meta with DH winning the MAT and a having to deal with 2-4 DH x match at ranked. The thing is, as I said for ages: after the pre-EoD nerfs I see no reason to even play Herald again, and with Renegade being mostly a PvE designed spec (and is not like is doing much currently at PvE, to be honest) which only appeal was having the bow, Vindi is now the only thing that lasts. I don't want to known anything about single evade Vindi unless the damage comes back, and we both knmown that A) single evades won't come to the game again, and B) one shoot jumps in PvP won't return either.

Well, is godtier at solo PvE, meta (Herald) in instanced content, very strong at roaming and now (with the suggested changes) viable (but not top choice) in zergs. The only weak part is PvP . But is true that has less viable iterations, less choices, less variaty and a much more homogenized/lacking in playstile. ANet is moving professions to a point in which most play exactly the same and the main difference is the colour of the skills...

I've seen Zeus playing power Herald at ranked with good results, despite of course A) He will never play anything but his main Ele in a MAT and B) I didn't saw evidence of that being a better choice than Vindi, which is a point. The thing is (He was running swords + staff) that Herald has better cc access and a bit more tanky in terms of passive defenses, but in reality doesn't matter since the best way to remain alive in the current meta is mobility/disengagement and and Vindi along some other EoD specs is better at that than the previous specs. In fact, since the damage in berseker amulet is garbage due low synergies and low might stacks, the only way to play it and get something decent is just hit and run, spending most of the time as +1 roamer and using 2 evades, 1 block, 3 breakstuns and 4 mobility skills to retreat as soon as danger is coming. This is also a self-inflicted wound since was ANet the one which chose to remove most ofRev's defense from conditions from Mallyx/Corruption traitline instantly turning Vindi in the only spec with decent balance in that regard, and was also ANet the one which decided to remove vigor from Vindi (except from that subpar thaitline called Retribution no +1 power Vindi would run ever). And as Sereath remarks, Vindi is not even popular at PvP: not in the MATs, not in ranked. So: Rev is currently a crippled class in PvP (which anyway is a dead game mode; based on the amount of silvers and high plats put together in the same matches at ranked I doubt the peak pupulation in EU reaches 400 concurrent players if all, probably half of that in NA). And is harder to play than core/Renegade/Herald (just performs better), so I don't support the idea of further nerfs. I don't think ANet plans to remove evades after restoring the second one in Mirage and Vindi, just get used to that. Adding vigor won't help a single evade Vindi since currently the only way to get it from traits is in an unused traitline, anyway, so If they would keep removing defensive tools from Vindi I would just stop playing it in PvP; I won't move back to Renegade or Herald, EVER.

I don't understand the change in Vassals. That trait was abandoned at PvP since was gutted to nothing and will remain that way. You explain wery well why no one would use it at PvP/PvE. But I do known why the nerf in WvW. In high level megazerg fights and even high level scrims of 15 v 15 the current meta is having 3.5 to 4 support professions x squad, and in the current meta the strongest choices are (in no particular order) Druid, Chrono, Firebrand, Scourge and Vidicator, with Holo or Berserker as main damage dealers. In this meta, Vindi with Alliance + Ventari is very strong (yesterday was just seeing Azurs using Vindi in a scrim). With the nerfs to Vassals and Ventari the spec loses dominance so opens the door to other professions. So is all attempts to balance WvW zerg Vindicator which is causing damage to the PvE build (no effect in PvP since nothing matters outside Forerunner of Death). Seems also hypocrite to try to add might generation in a support trait after removing fury and might access from ofensive traits in previous patches. The roaming build is not vaffected since the trait still works in ourselves and even the boons got buffed, but that trait is useless for the power build and the celestial/condi variants doesn't need might anyway.

Changes in Vindi & Ventari should nuke Vindi out of the zerg WvW meta, but good luck trying to put Renegade in that role since there's stronger support options.

Well, we could have a problem here. "Strong" and "great visuals" can be subjective but mobility is hard to argue about. Ranger and Warrior have good mobility, Guardian mobility outside Willbender sucks and Necromancer is oks (better in Harbinger). I think that in visuals both Guardian (WB) and Necro (Reaper) really shine, tho. In general, any profession ot named Thief is useful at open world and group content (Firebrand has tools for everything, Druid is and excellent support, Warrior... uhmm... errr...).

Sure Rev's hammer and staff could get some nerfs. Also: Renegade.

Ok, so there is a couple of fights I have yesterday afternoon while roaming at WvW; one is a skirmish against a gold legend after chasing a diamond one near the colliseum and the other a series of duels against a diamond raider. I'm myself gold assaulter at the moment so oine of them have ~1k levels and the other ~x4 levels above me (doesn't mean much since xp can be farmed at zergs and doesn't denoite skill, but still experience is a grade, anyway). The first one, against the gold legend Harbinger since in my experience a good Harb or Reaper in cele stats (which is what I assume He's riding) usually can beat my cele Vindicator, so I had low expectations of being able to endure a fight as a pure power (marauder + dragon and two assassin earings) Vindicator, yet what arise was a 4'40" fight which I was able to endure despite being aware soon enough that I just lacked the means to deliver significant damage to the Harbinger build. It starts with the Harb in all the boons so Elixir of Ambition can safely be assumed; I evade his first burst and interrupt him so at the recover lost the 25 might stacks and I evade a second burst so when the hits start to land in me their impact was limited. I think is not running Curses since I don't see bleeds proccing on crits and that's fantastic since Path of Corruption + Shourd #2 is lethal. I got cced and delivers a burst but seems that his only ofensive conditions are torment and vulnerability; a quick look at the boons clearly showcases that I'm in disadvantage since I'm only proccing regen, protection after heals, some fury and swiftness and rarely might, whereas He has also quickness and the boons last longer. Now, I've already swap to greatsword and my full Eternity Requiem while in fury didn't even reach 3k (in part due Him having protection). I got cced like forever and got 16 torment stacks but I remove them easily evading (seems that his overall damage is low anyway, which hints to celestial or maybe even a support build?). I've already spent over a minute fighting and my best was denting Him to 71% HP and what I'm getting is tons of yellow numbers from barrier and my spear barely reaching 2k on hit. Now the Harb has Ambition again and fortunately He does nothing before the 25 might stacks expire; my Nomad's Advance hits for pity 2040 on His barrier (despite my fury) and we start to dance around while barely denting our foe... Got ceed, breakstun, land my 3k Requiem, His HP goes to 76% but recovers almost instantly with more barriuer on top... And this is the problem with power builds overall at the moment in WvW (except maybe WB): I'm running a build with 2621 base power, cap crit chance under fury and 200% crit damage yet my hits barely do damage. Revenant was balanced to fight in 25 might stacks but the nerfs to de base damage of the skills, the removal of the might and fury procs in some traits means that I barely get any might stack in WvW. You could argue that I'm not running the traitline/traits to get those stacks but my answer would be: even running those I would not make decent damage since the duration is heavily reduced at WvW and with those trait choices I would be dead due lack of sustain anyway. The reality is: celestial actually does more damage than power because the conditions work much better and the extra armor, heal power and boon duration keeps you in the fight. Around 3'30" I go full mele, hit with everything, got nothing in return but condi vomit, swap to blue and at that moment I'm already well aware that I can't win so I'm already planing a disengage and after toying a bit more I finally chose to leave. I don't blame celestail nor barrier but the evidence that power builds are neutered in damage at WvW. I think that my cele build would have forced a tie/favourable outcome and a condi build with Mallyx would have clear chances due the ability to disable boons. The fights against the diamond raider Soulbeast were duels which happened spontaneously after a chasing. They are more interesting since since there we aren't meat balls and both have choices of going down since the higher damage. Another point is while the Harb fight remained the same, there the Ranger playing is chosing to change builds and weapons after each round, so is trying to actively adapt to what is facing. My spear hits for near 3k with no fury (got over 4k in some of the fights) and He starts with short bow & hammer? I'm not familiar with Ranger's hammer. We traded some cc, bith ahve access to fury, swiftness, regeneration... I see some protection and stability also. My first Requiem lands for ~3.6k, and Mist Unleashed ~2.6k. His HP falls to 1/3 and the match gets interrupted so we re-started. He roots me for near 4 seconds and I block and doesn't get much; I asume that is a condi build focused in dealing cc and condi bombs so I keep present that roots will unable my evades but I have 3 cleanses in the bow swap and more in blue. Try to avoid His fields and catch him in mines. Not sure about his stats, but I assume viper since when I hit his HP goes down fast. Got 4.5k with my Sevenshot, 3.2k Requiem. Get caught with roots and 6 condis but swap to bow and root gets removed. He's now at 50% HP, I have 6 stacks of burns but my legend swap removes them and I land a new Sevenshot, I fail Spiritcrush but Nomad's Advance accidentally blast it and I got fire aura, land Scavenger Burst, swap to greatsword, change with Phantom's Onslaught, He wisely evades that and my jump, I got crippled. I'm at 55% HP, He's at 28%; He retreats and I chase with Phase Traversa, I evadi His bow bot got rooted again, land a 4.4k Requiem, swap to bow to wide oout the root and condis and land a 1.8k Forerunner of Death in His head. End of round one. Second round; the spear crits for 4.5k and I got rooted and crippled while we exchange ranged hits buth both endure well. Then got crippled and rooted again but my Requiem crifs for 5.7k and the spear for 5k; again the bow swap frees me and I retreat and we both traded ranged burst. We are now ~60% HP both but boons favours the Soulbeast. I use Nomad to enlarge the gap and heal then I release the spear again while chasing expecting to catth the ranger between my elite and my volleys which happens. He's now 40% but commands his pet to do Unrelenting Assault to me then shifts to the pet place to take me by side, but I land Scorchrazor + Phase Traversal + Bloodbane Path and while He ries to retreat I land Sevenshoot and a 2.6k Phantom. He reaches 6% but my rush ends here since I got knocked down and bursted with weapon swap in 6s cooldown. He helas but gets a 4.5k Requiem again and a jump, so calls the dollyak stance and tries to profit on my chill + crippled with bust: both now smell the blood and full balls to the wall. I cast spear and use Reaver's and Scavenger so fast that get cancelled but at the end seems that the spear hits and downs Him while I'm using the heal. This ends the second round, a close one. The Soulbeast takes a while to start the third round so I asume it made some adjustments. He's now running a more aggressive build and isntantly jumps to mele and cc me but in those exchanges He gets the worse part despite having boon adavantage. I got 11 stacks of venom and vuln in two burst but I heal and cast spear and land two good attacks with the bow and the Soulbeast is now below 25% so I Phase Traversal to get fury + quickness + unblockables and my Sevenshot partially lands. He roots me and condi bombs me and I go down to 10k HP but loses so much HP in that exchange that is forced to retreat and then my second Phase Traversal + Sevenshoot lands and is over. A fourth round after more changes; I start landing ranged arrows and the spear and use my evades very soon since He's clearly aiming to mele and end the thing fast; I retreat and got rooted again but something is off in his build since when I fight condi trapper Druids their condi bombs are way stronger. Anyway, I put space, land 7s & Spiritcrush, got rooted again but cast spear + Reaver's + Scavenger on my place and a 3.4k spear ends the fight. The SB wasn't patient here and paid it dying fast while I kept my HP almost untouched. Fifth round after more changes (now He's using dagger & torch ´short bow?); I smell more agressivity so play retreating. He goes 70% HP but roots me and condi bombs: I cast spear and heal then swap to blue but fell to 9k, I heal & evade and Mist Unleash for 4.5k + aa finish. The fight was fast but the fundamentals of what happened was this: if you condi burst, unless your condi is burns or perplexity, you need patience and play safe since you won't burst with condis faster than a power build burst with power. In the 6th I'm not sure if the SB ended the changes since took it a while to start (amybe did use the same); this started in big disadvantage for Him since my ranged attacks landed and soon He was at 50% and forced to attack; He rooted me, put pressure with condis, heal and this time I fell bellow 7k and under a second burst went to 5k, but then I retreated, evaded, His third attempt to burst, cced him, landed my bow burst and finished Him with a jump while was trying to mele me again. This was close to what rounds 4 and 5 should have been played given the build the SB wielded. The 7th and final round I think was played the best: only ~150 seconds of fight but more experimented. We start moving a lot, I land a 4.4k spear, use my dodges and block, got dazed by horn before the Requiem, breakstun, evade with Shiro... That first 30 seconds were better played by both than the 6th rounds before and still our HP is almost intact. I got rooted but the condis were weak; He now tries to keep distance, eats 3.6k from Requiem, evades my jumps and a charge, I swap to gs, got knockdown, both are now at 65%. I miss the target and wrongly tag a creep in the river while the SB cast axes on me, but gets interrupted by Scorchrazor. Still He interrupts me in my Heal so is now at full heal while I'm at 12k; I use the Urn, got knocked. SB is now the best at which was in the figth but I now go to pressure Him: another Scorchrazor + 7S; I heal and block but got interrupted. He's now at 70% but I'm at 11k and filled with condis. I swap to blue, breakstun, use Battle Dance to evade, Urn... My heals is partially canceled and I'm now filled with more condis from the axe spam. I go 7.8k HP and cast Requiem defensively and forces him (which goes to 64%) to use a heal. I swap to bow, knock him down and gain some time but keep attacking. I phase Traversal to him but He learned and this time interrupts me and puts another condi burst... I fall to 7k, go blue, Dance, heal and use bow: I'm at 35% He's at 60%. Soulbeast now pressures at mele but I defend right swapping to gs, blocking and releasing a 4.1k Requiem. He's now at 37% while I'm at 55%. He tries mele burst again and re-heals, I do the same with heal from blue to orange to spear, evade removing cripple and slam Him with a 2.8k Nomad's Advance; I got crippled again and He evades my Mist Unleashed but gets hit by a 3k spear casted before and now a 2k Forerunner of Death... I'm now at 14700 HP with 7 stacks of poison and SB is at 45% HP with 5 stacks of vulnerability and torment. Gets interrupted, recovers, evades, eats 7S, Bloodbane. I got hit by the pet, I'm at 10k but instead of healing I swap to Shiro, Phase Traversal, jump 7S again (He partially evades) but is over. He falls while I reach 3.2k HP. That was ny far not only the closest match but the one in which I was in trouble for most of the time. He didn't went back after. So, Impressions: I think that power Vindi (the same as Herald, to less extent) is viable at WvW roaming but not in a striong place. It has way better tools to deal with condi damage (the original weakness of the class), but the nerfs to might and fury put it in a weak place in a game mode which is dominated by celestial builds and condi bunkers. I've seen a power Herald way about my league killing other players then being unable to deal with my cele Vindi U(a brusier match it would have lose the same as my power Vindi vs the Harbinger from the first video) so He chose to go away. So, unless ANet restores the damage values of the power builds in WvW they would remain as viable but subpar, except for Willbender and some annoying Deadeye builds.

Retribution was the classic choice for short bow & staff Renegade roamers and PvP enjoyers for a while... 1,2,2 when Dome of the Mist used to provide 6 seconds of projectile block at WvW after casting a heal. plus some resolution on evasion and vigor on succesful dodges plus some damage mitigation. Then these effects were nerfed and Forced Engagement was remade going from one target at 1200 to five targets at 600 and finally was reverted to a single target but only 900 range... I'll be clear here: I have a main Rev with 8 build slots, another Rev with 4 and another one with 3; 7 of them are WvW/PvP builds, only one of those plantiffs uses the Retribution traitline and is not in the most succesful or favored build of my taste. Some builds are power, some are condi/hybrid, and some are tanky; even in that last case, I prefer Invocation + Salvation over any combo with Retribution. And I'm not the only one: Spudzie, Pseudo, Esufer, Kickazz... I don't remember seen recent videos of Revs running that traitline. By the way, had some WvW roaming and dueling this afternoon running a pure power Vindicator build; taped some of them, I'll upload a couple of them in the next hours...

Ignis, Diwaana: Ignis: 8'17" Diwaana: 9'01" Quite happy with Ignis; this is the bounty I've tried to solo most times in the past (near a dozen) and I was able to crush it to 5%-2% but always failed by a bit. Ignis has very high amounts of HP and oftenly delivers pressure in terms of damage and cc. I didn't have luck with the place (far away and surrounded by wurms throwing rocks) but the unstable amgic abilities were good: Polluter and Exploiter, which means remain at mele range as much as you can to unlock Exploiter asap and be cautious with the poisonous wells. Nothing obnoxious like Phase-Shifted or Signaler. My HP remained maxed or very close to it ~85% of the time, but there were 3-4 times in which fell bellow 14k and around 2'30" I drop to 1511; that was because I was saving evades for the cc and ended eating 6 stacks of bursty burns. But overall was easy, not fast but easy. I had to do Diwaana twice because the first time a couple of players joined and the poor thing melt in 5 minutes. The next attempt was alone and fortunately very close to a waypoint since this fight was even longer (much more cc than Ignis and the movement + the phases in which goes underground makes the fight to last). Diwaana had Survivor and Ley-Energy Buildup; the blocks doesn't matter too much against a condi build which passively pulses condis and the damage from this bounty is really low (I remained with the HP maxed out and barrier on top most of the time). I wonder if Crackofdawn still thinks that Vindicator feels way worse than core... Edit: done.

Is all about the synergies. When I play celestial Vindicator at WvW my election is Vassals of the Empire because with full celestial gear + runes of Surging the boon duration is 59.6%, so boons last a lot (even with the WvW nerfs) and the mid trait procs boons, plus with cele gear most of my damage doesn't come from physical damage so Forerunner of Death doesn't benefit me that much. Is also important to note that cele Vindicator is a bruiser, not a glass canon: with it I don't kill in burst (unless the foe defenses or skill is horrid) but after attrition fights. When I play power Vindicator at WvW my only extra boon duration comes from the runes (if all), so the mid trait impact is reduced; what I want instead id to maximize my burst, since the plan is to either surprise the foe with a huge burst or poke a little and make him waste defenses until I release that burst, and then if I have no success the best path is to use mobility to retreat or disengage since I don't plan to tank in a dog fight vs a bruiser or another tanky spec. That's why with power I run Forerunner of Death (which by the way uses exactly the same trait choices as in PvP). So, albeit sharing legends and weapons, (and most of traits) the gameplay from power and celestial iterations have very distinctive gameplays: power means hit & run; celestial allows to stay in fights for longer, since armor is bigger, helaing power much stronger and boons also last for longer.

Similar build but with a bit more less armor, a bit more health and 25% increase pace, 200% cd 100% cc under fury: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PmgAEVlZSMsTqjhScsUyjpSksSign1UeMC-DWZYbBhJGVcDzBReIZKF6VEUhCQkXCSgA7h7HSC4BA-w I'm very sceptic about full mele at WvW with Vindicator, so I'll always chose to pair greatsword with short bow, no matter if is a hybrid or power build: WvW is full of specs which can poke at range while moving and Vindi has very little cc; you will be poked and if you spent your energy chasing a target the times you reach it you will have less to unleash attacks or to save for emergencies (breakstuns). Not to mention also that some specs as Necros will entirely disrupt your mele gameplay just placing unblockable wells at teir feets or casting fear with warhorn and corrupt/burst you in your flee... Having a short bow allows to put pressure at range and the weapon brings also cc and two AoE skills which can't be reflected. Now, my experience with WvW power rev (Vindi) last year (playing full mele with three swords) was decent vs mele power builds but lacking against ranged ones and being deleted by good power Revs (which means that my finesse at playing it was larghely deficient). Condi foes kicked my kitten. I've not player power ranged Vindi since I found that cele Vindicator seems stronger (similar dps albeit more spaced in time and less bursty) due better armor, better boon duration and better healings. Still have my troubles vs Harbingers and some Mesmers, but I find out that I'm able to survive and and tie or even defeat players more skilled than myself and finding out I was able to make celestial Druids to flee and to take camps defended by a full support Scourge (He wasn't able to kill me, I couldn't kill him but crushed all the enemy NPJs while fighting Him, which was forced then to retreat). I'm also a non-believer in Devastation traitline, specially at WvW: Battle Scars barely do anything and Brutality works better in a burst but mostly if you have a cc to frame that burst (and Vindi is lacking at that). I would say that works better with Herald since you have Elemental Blat/Chaoutic release at 0 energy cost and you can surprise a ceed foe with a rush of fast attacks, but with Vindi your ccs are the extremely expensive and easy to see Jade Winds or Reaver's Rage, and I'm not sure if I want to burn a breakstun into dazing someone for a second and half, unless that's all the time I need to zero that foe... I promise I will test this a bit more in the weekend...

Oh I agree with you, in terms of balance there's no doubt that the changes weren't tested enough. But that's not my point. My point is that Anet needed weapon mastery not due balance but simply due SotO lacked content enough. The expansion has 5-6 hours campaign with 20 hours worth of ginding to unlock all the masteries. Has no new mounts, no new specs, no new skills, no homing, no new PvP nor WvW maps nor content, and to date not even the new weapons or the promised "legendary armors for peasants". So what SotO had to offer at the release? Aside from making the skyscale more affordable for plebs, the only really valuable addition was unchaining the weapons locked in specs. And yes, that was terribly unbalanced due A) not all professions benefit from it the same and B) minmaxing made some things stronger and the rest way worse. But guess what? Most of the weapons in the game were already close to useless (as most of the traits). And is not just the weapons: SotO made 95 of the 99 runes irrelevant, which means that proportionally PvP has more variety in terms of "viable choices". The thing is that ANet spent half of the time (until PoF) trying to expand the game with more things and since then has been mostly a race to try to content the power creep (impossible since is what sells) and normalizing classes to the point that most of choices are irrelevant. You have like 30 stat combinations yet only 3-6 have any real use. And is also important to say that THE PLAYER IS NOT TO BE BLAMED FOR HAMMER BEING A CRAPY WEAPON; short bow didn't made obsolete hammer because now is available for any Rev spec; hammer became obsolete by himself (ANet did this to themselves).

Originally farming in Bloodstone Fen was fast but ANet nerfed it; you still can progress well doing some farming there but for that specific map I just chose to purchase the home node (50 gold coins) to get a bit every day. There's other maps much faster to farm, I would say Bitterfrost Frontier > Dragonfall/Bjora Marches > Sanswept Isles > everything else. This is an example of a fast farm from a couple of characters in Bitterfrost Frontier (as was explained, this map allows to farm x 24h x character, and you can consume the winterberries to gain magic):

Core Rev never existed since was released with the HoT expansion and Herald and the spec was essentially a improved version of, and even with the F2 improvements core never was at the same level. Power Herald dominated at PvP for like 6-7 years, but is not like the profession had a ton of variety in terms of builds at this game mode. Renegade was released as a pure PvE spec with minions which died instantly in WvW, the breakstun of the legend placed in the heal to both your survability and a non-functional weapon. AoEs from the short bow and invocations from Kalla also refused to be placed of most of the surfaces in the PvP maps. So Renegade remained useless in PvP unitil they reworked the heal, Sevenshot and debugged the skills on the floor of the maps. Then Renegade with either power with Shiro & Jalis or condis with Mallyx & Kalla became dreadful and had a reign of terror around 6 months in which unkillable condi bunker Renegade was king. They overnerfed it and both variants fell in disgrace. Vindi cas released with too much damage and when was nerfed people discovered that the self sustain was too high; the class was in arollercoaster for a year in which went from god to garbage and came back serveral times. The thing is that the alliance has the best defense vs condis in a Rev build (a classic weakness of the class) and the greatsword along Archy largely improves the mobility from Herald. So Herald had more cc and better tankyness in some ways but thanks to mobility self sustain from Vindi was similar and the AoE damage stronger. The Weapon Mastery was a must since SotO has no new specs nor utility skills and the new weapons weren't even ready for trhe release, so getting access to every spec weapon was the only reason for much of use to even bother purchasing (and I bought the expansion 3 weeks after the release, instead of in advance as before: I didn't bite the bait until I was sure it would provide me advantage). Being said that, Weapon Mastery was a really incosistent feature: for some professions with low number of core weapons (as Engineer or Rev) or glaring weakness (lack of viable ranged weapons as Rev) WM is fantastic. For other professions with tons of weapons and mediocre ones from specs it was meh (ex.: Warrior). Now the thing is: how WM did affect Revenent? The shield is mostly a mediocre addition since a) is too miche, b) outside of Herald which buffs it is not very useful) and c) doesn't shine in competitive game modes. So Herald doesn't get debilitated by sharing the shield; Renegade and Vindi don't gain much... The short bow is fantastic since the damage from hammer was crap and in hybrid/condi builds the short bow is really powerful. SAnd unlike the shield, it doesn't require the Renegade traits to work (even less after the piercing change. It serves ANY spec and makes also leveling a core Rev much stronger (no more staff to pair with mace & axe!). Condi Herald gains a tool to put pressure at range and increases the alreday high amount of available cc. For Vindi it means that you can copycat the Renegade playstile, but you have better cleanses, more mobility... you will only miss F skills, and not that much. The greatsword enabled better AoE poser damage and flexibility giving mobility and blocks. That is great for core Rev and Herald, but is a power weapon. Power weapon don't benefit that much to Renegade, since pRenegade usually ran swords, and does nothing for condi Renegade. Now, you can argue that in PvP Renegade usually runs power, so you can replace the staff with the gs. But that doesn't deliver a pRenegade with AoEs like a Vindicator: it delivers a Vindicator wich lacks the Alliance. So: both Herald and Vindicator gained more with the short bow than Renegade with the shield and greatsword. I think that the way to boost Renegade would be enhance the condition damage delivered from the traits, since I can't see how a power Renegade would compete against Vindi in power builds nor against Herald in support (quickness) builds. Alacrity alone is not enough. Unless they buff condi Renegade or revert some Herald nerfs I don't think it will be mucch room for classic power Herald or bunker condi Renegade at PvP. The scepter will probably deliver either a useless support Herald or a outrageous one with will be nuked later and banned and exiled. Even with PvE buffs is hard to see a Renegade having alarger place at PvP, since they don't want a condi bunker meta comming back, and making a power Renegade competitive with Vindicator will be very hard since both have tha same core legends to chose, and then is... Alliance vs Kalla. Kalla is not designed for PvP/WvW, and even if ANet nerfs Alliance to the ground Vindi could still run Shiro & Jallis and call it a day. So yeah, Renegade needs buffs, at every game mode. It was my saving boat from pre-EoD Herald nerfs to half year later post SotO Vindicator final form. Vidi is not at the top of the food chain but I'm fairly happy on how responds in most of situations. Is kept at bay due Devastation is a garbage traitline for damage/sustain and the defenses from evades + Salvation are a bit weak after the nerfs, but I think Vindi is one mistake from the developers away to crush skulls again.

You can if one of them has more infusion slots than the other.

In order of easyness: Condi hambow warrior: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PKgAINlJwSYKMLWJOKP/LfA-DSIUbU9XKtUAJEBRGCZmAO8CAAA-e Stun, burn, stun, burn. Once at 80 unlock Berserker and use the celestial variant. Condi gs staff Mirage (works well with other weapons as long as you keep the staff): http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PigAEZlJwuYWsE2IO6L6neA-DSIUbUxDAA-e You lay AoEs at range and let your clones do most of the tanking; move to celestial Mirage when you recah 80. Condi Necro (staff axe & warhorn, but scepter is also great): http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PSwEY6MssCGG7j5xOxSZ6bpD-DSIYrS9wfKRqAyUI0pIoEJgCfBEgw51ciPNAA-e You use huge amounts of cc and conditions to tear foes apart before they can ever toucjh you. Unlock Reaper to either run celestial or power stast once you reach 80. Condi Revenant with mace, axe & staff, Mallyx & Jalis: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PmwAkeZlhQHMJqhFROMI6hBSfMBKgDgzaqC-DSIYrS3wXKJUAVmAZGC9GBOcJIAhzr5EfaAA-e Is slower at moving than the others but very tanky and once you reach 80 and unloc celestial Vindicator you can be essentially immortal and solo everything in PvE.

The Wizzard Vault rewards have two categories: things that can be claimed with no limit and thaings that can only be claimed a finite number of times x season (each season lasts 3 moths). Aside from one precursor of legendary weapon + some extras which can only be claimed once x season, for a starter player some of the most valuable items would be the scended armor pieces (you can claim up to 3 x season) and weapons (1 x season). That meand that just doing your dailies and weeklys you can obtain 4 ascended weapons and 2 full sets of ascended armors in a year, essentially for free. Ascended trinkets can be obtained at almost no cost with the tokens from maps from season 3, 4 and Icebrood Saga. The best maps for getting those are Bitterfrost Frontier (ring, earing, back piece, respirator), Bjora Marches (amulet and earing, requires the completion of 2 quest to geat access to the vendors), Dragonfall (amulet, ring, earing) & Sandswept Isles (ring, earing), along with Bloodstone Fen (amulet, ring and back piece; the farimng was nerfed here but the ascended trinkets from this map can be reset in stats at very lo cost). Another source from asfeceded gear is PvP and WvW, in which you earn tokens which can be traded for any weapon/armor piece/trinket, but I highly recommend to SAVE those tokens to craft the legendary armors from those game modes. Would it worth it? Well, ascended gear can deliver ~12%+ damage than exotics, and can equip infusions, which are crucial in fractals and relevant in PvE/WvW. My advice would be craft your first ascended set for your main goal (with the stats you want to instanced content, as example) and at most a secon one (my advice would be celestial), and then STOP crafting ascended gear and focus on crafting the legendary armors, then trinkets and finally weapons. DO NOT swap the stats from any ascended armor piece obtained from WvW or PvP tokens, since those armors are precursors to the legendary ones, and using the mystic forge to re-arrange stats would turn them into regular PVE ascended armor pieces.

Don't give up! Your condi build was quite strong (by the way you were right and some condi Rev gave me problems lately) and you play well. I don't enjoy Ventari and I don't think support Rev is anywere close in PvP to where is at WvW, but you should play what you enjoy and if you're finding success with it and want to share that joy with others you should not regret about. Justine and Shao enjoy blasting the very niche hammer no matter the circumstances (well, mostly). Keep fighting!

I've stick to power Vindi. In the last 3v3 season tried sometimes condi builds and a bunker one with Alliance + Jalis gs & staff, but most of the time I run this one more oriented to mobility and burst: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PmgAUFlZSMsTqjhScsUyjpSksSign1UesD-DaILjMTherARPBAAA This is from a match this afternoon:

1) GS/Staff Herald is a power build, condi Mechanist is better for OW, of course. You would need either condi Herald or condi Vindi to rival/beat condi Mechanist at OW. 2) The Story mode is quite easy and can be done with any spec; power builds are usually faster at cleaving weak mobs, whereas condi builds are slower but tankier. 3) Renegade. 4) I think that Rev at the moment has a stronger impact in every game mode (outside PvP), a bit like Guardian in the past. But patches change balance, so you should chose based in what you like to play, not just in performance (gameplay can also be ruined by patches): 5) Condi Mech is easier to play than power Herald. X ) I main Rev so my opinion is biased. Both professions have relatively low amount of weapons so making the legendaries takes less time than, lets say, for a Warrior. I do prefer Rev but my current inner ranking would be Vindi > Herald > Renegade. I play cele Vindi in PvE/WvW and power Vindi in PvP. I don't do instanced PvE content, tho.