Buran.3796

Yeah, people sucked now when it were tournaments with 400K $ on the line; now that pros are playing for pennies they are way better. s/

Aegis works well in PvE and in PvP/WvW had it synergies nerfed enough to not be that great (a build devoted to improve Aegis is not as good in trems of sustain as other focused in healing using symbols or just ccing the foes, and anyway if you use traits and skills to improve your Aegis and spam them you will lose so much damage that will become useless in roaming and small fights. Also, for groups in WvW team stability and cleansing is more important that randomly block an attack (which is oftenly wasted blocking an auto attack instead of a big burst).

^ Thanx for the input. The complete builds are linked in the description, but for the power Herald the traits selected were Devastation 333, Invocation 111 and Herald 322 (I also tried Devastation 331 but eneded ditching Brutality due has no effect in the defiant bar so came back to Dance of Death for sustain). I didn't use Impossible Odds too much due with that build is crucial to save energy to break the defiant bar: Winds of Jade removes ~50% of the defiant bar and Chaotic Release another ~40% and sadly Chilling Isolation, Shackling Wave and Gaze of Darkness doesn't affect the defiant bar of this monster (using axe's Temporal Rift damages the blue bar, but that choice is inferior to off hand sword for a power build in most of roaming situations). So there''s a 10% defiant bar which is very hard to remove without swaping to the staff (Surge of the Mist removes the full bar disabling the foe). Disabling the Bristleback is crucial to solve the puzzle of beating it as fast as possible with a power build due the channel attack last so long and the damage is so big against a ~2500 armored character that a single channel would kill us (conversely a single 3 seconds Infuse Ligth tanking that attack will refill entirely our HP). So when the channeled attack starts (which last 7 seconds) we need to either inmediatly remove the defiance bar (which isn't inmediatly possible in tne recovery phase when the BB starts to attack again after being disabled) or use as many evades, blocks or Infuse Ligth cast as are available to survive. Of course the channel can be avoided using an obstacle (as a palm tree) to prevent the damage, but that takes more time and defeats the point of trying to beat the foe ASAP. And yes, the nature of the high armor value from the Bristleback goes against power builds, but that proves another point: the power Herald full berserker build stays at 2446 total armor value (and 19689 HP), whereas the trailblazer + viper condition Renegade has 2647 armor (almost 18k HP) and the celestial hybrid damage Herald stays at 2974 armor (almost 27k HP), so the other builds benefit for having better armor while also deal much more damage (which reduces the number of times they must remove the defiant bar or tank the channeled attack). The monster itself doesn't matter (has no WvW value, drops no significative loot, takes time to beat...) but proves how against a difficult foe with lots of HP and good armor (as facind multiple foes in a small n vs n skirmish) the Revenant power builds pale in damage and sustain compared againts the condition builds available inside the same class.

The Alliance has been improved (a lot, giving the chance of staying all the time in Archy or Kurzik) but doesn't matter to me because is still weaker than core legends so for me has no use and I don't think that will change: has been 4 years since PoF and 6 since HoT and I still don't use Ventari or Kalla, so I'm pretty confident the Alliance is not a reason for me to play the Vindicator. On the other hand, the evade proved to work better than I guessed, and I liked it, so there was a window for potential, even if the damage from the gs was subpar. Now, the changes nerf the evade mechanics to the point of being worse than in the Mirage, so the tradeoff is now clear: we give two dodges and in exchange we get a a new legend I have no use for (but which fortunately can ditch as with Kalla) and a new weapon which does no damage. So why I would use the Vidicator? Working in reverse order: in exchange for not running a Vindicator we earn a double evade, better sustain and much higher dps builds based on conditions. So: improvements in the legend qol and features but nerfs in the main mechanic which makes the spec less usable and appealing to use. I'll buy my gems with gold this Black Friday because this is heading towards 2-3 years keeping Herald and Renegade without touching the Vindicator, and that makes me feel bad about money whichj already spent in the expansion...

Rotations do exist to maximize dps builds. I'm afraid that power Revs have been "baned" from instanced PvE content long time ago, since condi Renegade does way more damage, and power Reengade is demanded due provides alacrity to the group, not because is good at doing damage. But I would like to see any power Revenent build doing more significative damage to that creep. I'm sure my technique leaves to be desired...

How is power Herald big burst when took me 2,9 times less time to kill the same single target with a hybrid celestial Herald, and 4 times less time to do the same with a condi Renegade? That maybe was the case before the large nerf damage circa 2019's Feb balance patch but not now. Is not only that the damage overall was cut across all weapons, but also that we lost lots of vulnerability procs and might stat generation. I mean: I'm full zerk there and my Unrelenting Assault is critting ~2700 at most. I'll for sure will try again with Vindi next week, but don't expect it to be much better (and doesn't change that power core/Herald/Renegade damage is really poor).

This is exclusively related to WvW/PvP. Power Revenant also is in need of more damage in PvE but that never will compete vs condis, so I won’t waste time arguing about that. Now about power (strike damage based) builds in competitive game modes: I don’t use a lot of classes (mostly heavy classes, and a bit of Necro, Ranger or Thief sometimes) but I swap builds a lot: power and condi core Rev, Herald and Renegade, power DH, celestial Firebrand, support core Guardian, power Spellbreaker, hybrid Berseker… Oftenly I chose one build and play it for a week or two in both roaming and/or PvP, and usually test how good are at dealing damage (aside from human encounters) tracking how fast in seconds they dispatch a WvW guard, a veteran hwarg or a camp, or which builds do the task spending the least amount of skills, so in case of a clash against roamers you have less tools on cooldown. Sometimes I use a giant from the Elonian Riverlands to check the damage of those builds since they have a lot of HP and interrupts so the differences in damage and resources spent over time are more evident there. Is not a surprise that power Revenant (mostly Herald but also core and Renegade) does well agains single targets you can burst fast, the difference blasting a WvW guard or a veteran hwarg using your classic power Herald, a celestial Herald and a condition Renegade is minimal to small, but when you meed to clean a camp becomes more evident: with power weapons and skills you’re splitting most of your damage and the elements of sustain (blocks, evades, movement skills and even cc) oftenly interrupts your damage, whereas condi builds AoE everytning to death and they can sustain while the condis ticks and reaply in burst. Then this week I was busy testing against this chud: Veteran Bristleback from the Desert Borderlands. Of couse is based on the creature from the HoT expansion, from maps as Auric Basin or Ember Bay, infamous about the amount of armor it has and the 7 seconds channeled ranged attack which auto tracks and and will be cast each 10 seconds is the defiant bar isn’t erased. Once is depleted, that chonky beast will remain unactive for 5-6 seconds but then will repeat the channel (at least one full time between the bar is reset and can be nocked out again). And yes, acts as a regular veteran BB, but the stats aren’t the same: larger damage (~600 x hit with no crit vs ~2500 armor), better armor and way, WAY more HP than a PvE one. His defiant bar is also immune to chill, blind and the brutality trait (hits under quickness that should remove stability make no dent on him -this should be solved in PvE, by the way- ). So I tried to tackle him with a regular, full berserker, power Herald build which I use to roam and PvP. He broke me to pieces. Once, and another and another.Took me like 6 attempts to kill that monster, and the first two times I got it took me ~1’48” and I killed him from downed state. Finally I defeated him in 1’36” while standing. I’m sure is possible to do faster and better with a power build better played and made ad hoc to face its mechanics, but that probably would work worse for roaming PvP and is not the point. The point is: power Herald, 1’36” to kill a WvW veteran Brsitleback (and ~25% of success 😞 ). Then I swaped to my full celestail celestial Herald roaming build. Fisrt attempt: beast killed in 33”, effortless. Then I swaped to my condition Renegade roaming build (trailblazer + viper). Fisrt attempt, beast killed in 26”; second in 25”, third in 24”. I’m sure that better players can do it even better, and of course those builds benefits from the change to torment which now is almost like burning vs static foes (a handicap for the Bristleback which won’t work the same vs functional players). But the point is the same: there’s a massive difference in damage from condition and or hybrid builds in the Renegade class compared to the power builds available, and that gap not existss vs multiple foes but also in single target stages, and encompasses from PvE to WvW and PvP. So Anet, please buff power Rev, preferably in a way that doesn’t break the Vindicator as op -since I’ll prefer to avoit it, anyway-. By the way, how much time takes you to nuke the BB?

From the start the Renegade was absolutely atrocious for PvP, with no blocks, evades or mobility in weapon, skills that didn't work on slanted terrain, low damage, stunable minions as skills and the breakstun in the healing skill. But after 2.5 years and several changes became playable in both PvP and WvW and albeit power Herald is still better for duels and high ranked PvP Renegade is now capable in PvP and arguably the best roaming build if you take small n vs n skirmishis and the pace at which soloes upgraded camps and kills fortress bosses. Why Vindicator should remain useless in the three game dapartments for 3+ years? Greatsword doesn't bring anything in terms of sustain that outpace swords or staff: they have i-frames, a block, mobility and better tracking features, so don't try to excuse the rise in the cost of the dodge in "oh but you have a block in the greatsword". Also your guess that Vindicator won't work in PvP was too early: with heals , regen and barrier from the spec and things as stability and damage mitigation provided by Jalis it COULD have work as a bruiser and mid node team fighter. Of course with a "normal" 50 endurance evade, with a 100 will be a sitting duck waiting to be nuked...

Stealth in general is a bad design, but since they won't remove it from the game I can't see the reason to ditch the runes.

The only decent legend skills were the stunbreaks and the Nomad's Advance/Battle dance. The heals (as with the Renegade) are terrible, having a 1.5 second cast time and having a base healing ~700, which is like not having heals (actually Jalis hammers + steadfast rejuvenation TRIPLES the healing x second of those two heals combined). The elites are even worse: a team heal which kills youself and a ranged single target burst with a 12 s cooldown which makes less damage than greatsword #2 does every 7 seconds (in AoE). It should be a cc, like a AoE pull or knockback, as any other legend for Revenant has a cc. Finally: you can't take the "Shiro has an evade, Battle Dance is another" as an exchange for having a single dodge with a 100 endurance unit cost. First of all, evades have a different mechanic and cost which is common to every class aside their defensive tools in weapons, skills, traits and special mechanics., whereas Ripoting Shadows (40 energy units) and battle dance (15 energy units) have a cost which share with another skills they are competing with. Using Daredevil's evades DOESN'T consume initiative, why have we to chose between preventing enemy damage and using our other skills? There are builds in the game (Rangers specially) focused on rooting/dazing/chain stunning players to kill them, which works wonders in temfigths: that's why having a single evade which takes 100 endurance units to rebuild makes the Vindicator a crippled class for competitive gameplay. If they persist in having a single dodge so expensive then give us a 1200 unit mobility ranged evade so I can jump away from the source of damage, instead of a "evading attack" which hits for 1/4 of the damage of what a Deadeye strikes with a 1500 ranged attack. It' won't make the Vindicator usable, but at least they could say that the made something different.

Good. Was usable and not straight garbage at PvP/WvW as Renegade at the release. The new legend provided nothing interesting and the greatsword felt slow and weak, so at least the dodge was interesting and useful, instead of a "dead on arrival" as the Willbender. Now we not only lost the second stack of the dodge, but the cost of the endurance is doubled. And the traits which gives us vigor procs... After dodging, which now happens 1/2 of the time. Plus weakness wreacks vigor. Where's our Blurred Inscriptions to get i-frames to compensate the lack of evades? Why the greatsword has neither evades nor cc nor condition damage sources to allow alternative builds? I called awful the Vindicator on paper, but in the beta, after ditching the useless legend and taking advantage of the viable choices, changed my mind: albeit lacked deepth in buildcrafting, at least has potential as a bruiser. Now is nothing. The changes are nasty. The ones related to the Alliance and their mechanics are wellcomed, but Vindicator won't be used at PvE, and at competitive gameplay is a sitting duck.

What they MEAN when they say "removing the added endurance cost" is that in their minds the second trait was the "middle ground" with 100 endurance cost, as Tenacious Ruin especifies, whereas the first trait has a 150 endurance cost and the third trait a 50 endurance cost (the same it cost to ALL classes and builds in the game, including both the 1 dodge Mirage and the 3 dodge Daredevil. So now they "NORMALIZED" the endurance cost across all the traits to 100, which is X2 THE COST for any other class or build in the game, on top on NOT HAVING CHANCE TO STACK MORE THAN ONE DODGE as the Mirage. So they removed NOTHING, they just incresed the cost of the only evading trait which worked (the third) from 50 to 100. I don't care about Nomad's Advance because A) the Alliance is too weak to be used in WvW/PvP and B) that skill provides mobility, not i-frames, and for the evasion inbeeded in his twin skill Battle Dance you need to flip the skill or the whole legend and pay extra energy which is inconvenient, anyway. And please don't let me start to talk about how I feel about having to waste a utility skill as an evasion when there's plenty of weapons (Warrior's greatsword, Ranger's and Thieve's short bow... ) with integrated i-frames. Meanwhile we got three new weapons in a row (trident, short bow, greatsword) without a single i-frame (and no, the greatsword block doesn't count as anyone dealing vs unblockable attacks fighting other classes could attest. If Vindicator wreaks and sinks in PvP/WvW (which is the route which is heading now after the changes) just won't be used nowhere. That's because the Vindicator is mainly built towards physical (strike) damage, which is arguably weaker in PvE than condition damage and gives no valuable boons over other classes which already have both more physical damage and better boons or support. And finally: I think you don't grasp the scope of the effect of having a single evade with double cost of endurance in WvW/PvP: yes, you can have Song of Arboreum to get vigor afterd dodging and mix it with Retribution's Enduring recovering to increase the vigor effect from 50% to 75%, but since you ONLY HAVE ONE DODGE and COSTS 100 ENDURANCE not 50 the number of times you proc vigor will be halved (and probably energy sigils would become mandatory in PvP/WvW the same as Traveler/Fireworks runes have been a must forever for Guardians due their pity mobiliy; but that is assuming that Vindicatort would have a place in those game modes, which I don't think that will happen). Again: this is not the same as when ANet nerfed Mirage in PvP/WvW erasing one of their dodges (which entirely removed the class from the meta), because at least their cost remained at 50 and they had chances to craft either power or condition damage builds and lately the players have been using Blurring Inscriptions like crazy to compensate with 1 second i-frames from signets their lack of evades; the Vindicator has no prospects of being able to create condition based builds, as only has freeze as soft cc and the torment and burning sources are a joke, and defensively the new 100 endurance cost x non stackable dodge makes us crap. Even worse, think how badly the weakness condition COUNTERS all the vigor traits, sigils and theorycrafting efforts and how abundant and easy to spam is weakness across the classes (Rev has already weakness in staff #2, mace #3, Inspiring Reinforcement, Elemental Blast, all trident skills).

Good luck in WvW/PvP with the single dodge of the Mirage but with x2 the cost of endurance (and nothing in exchange).

That's terrible news for PvP/WvW. Regular cost of evade in all classes is 50, and the third trait for evasion (Saint of zu Heltzer) was the only one which respected that cost. That's the reason why worked well despite we weren't unable to stack two dodges in a row. Now we will have a non-stackable single dodge as the Mirage, BUT OURS COST 100 UNITS. Since neither Forerunner of Death nor Vasssals of the Empire do significative damage (in fact both are a net loss of damage compared to auto attack) and they will get mild buffs in damage at PvE (66% and 25% respectively) but nerfs in PvP/WvW (-11%) where arleady did nothing I don't see how the spec could get any use on that game modes: you dodge cost x2 of any other class, you can't stack two dodges, you get no compensation for that loss, The Alliance remains useless for competitive game modes, no news about fixeing greatsword #3 range being 1/3 of the described. Congrats: we had a potential bruiser, now we have nothing. Edit: link to the notes: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Upcoming_changes_and_features/End_of_Dragons_Elite_Specialization_Updates

First of all: the way you deal with conditions as Revenant is using Jalis, Retribution and a staff with cleansing and enegy sigils. That alone would be able to clean ~11 conditions every 25 seconds; if you need more cleansing is because eating the condi burst and then the problem will persist until you learn to avoid them no matter the class or build. Being said that: my fav roaming build with Rev is full zerker power Herald, which is well known for his weakness to condis and lack of cleanses; this evening I fought a signet Mirage roamer (him probably running celestial stats) and after ~two and half minutes fight I won, so is possible to do well in 1 vs 1 even with that limitations (1 vs n is obvisuly utterly uneven vs condition builds, but being given the same skill no class can 1 vs 2 in this game, anyway). Second: what you want is a bruiser, a build which can deliver decent damage while enduring/mitigating/recovering from most of the damage suffered. In my opinion the three best options at the moment in WvW for that role are: 1) Necros (core, Reaper or Scourge), heavily based on fear and/or chill to highly disrupt the gameplay of enemy players. They have high natural HP + shroud bar, and access to unblockable pulsating sources of fear and other nasty conditions. The main con is their mobility. 2) Celestial Weaver: they can tune their protection uptime so long while and regenerating that sometimes are almos unkillable, no matter the class. They have also a plenty of cc to land their burst. Requires piano play and mentat IQ to deal with all the keystrokes and calculations, but once you master it can roast anyone. Burn based, by the way (in both WvW and PvE). Cons: celestial stas not available in PvP. 3) Hybrid Soulbeast: either two bows, shortbow + gs, the classic lb + gs or a mix between shortbow and mele condi weapons; trapper runes. You have mobility and stealth access with either strong physical nukes or even stronger condition burst, and Dolyak stance is awesome in every game mode. Cons: not as powerfull in terms of AoE damage as the previous choices.

To be honest the PoF specs were not using recycled animations in 80% of their new weapon skills as happens now, and the mechanics of the PoF specs were really new and felt powerfull. Being said that, not everything was shiny in PoF: Firebrand, Spellbreaker, Scourge, Holosmith.... felt amazing and were op, whereas Renegade was released with a weapon with bad skills which didn't work in uneven terrain and with the breakstun in the heal skill of Kalla, rendering the spec unusable in PvP/roaming. The Vindicator as a legend as useless as Kalla but we have learned to play Renegade with combinations of Shiro, Jalis and Mallyx and the greatsword works better than the short bow at its release, so it's not terrible, but not great. And since my other main outside Rev is Guard I cant but laugh at the Willbender...

If a spec provides a weapon or a set of skills which are counterproductive for the goal I have but the traitline still offers value for that goal I'll take what works or provides fun or quality of life to me and ditch what imo doesn't work. As simple as that.

Bastion also lets you to return.

My preference list: 1) New character slots. Not only brings news ways to play (if you want) and convenience at swapping builds of the same class but also even if used just as mules they are the best inventory slots x gems item in the game. 2) Shared inventory slots. You don't need to have all of them, but at least you'll get huge quality of life improvements from the first 6+ slots. That will grant you full access to share between your toons to one infinite gathering tool of each kind, a permanent pass and a couple of quality of life items or teleports based on your own preferences. 3) The permanent Mystlock Sanctuary pass or the permanent Bastion of the Penitent pass. I personally prefer the Bastion since allows you to try and test PvE/WvW stats and duel against other players, but players focused in fractals will find the Sanctuary more useful. Having any of them in a shared invetory slot is a gamechanger. 4) Infinite gathering tools (at least one of each kind); some players focuse on value so they chose volatile magic ones, I like more the fastest ones so I use the ones with fastest animations or with diligent or reaper gliphs, since the value of volatile rewards could be affected by the EoD maps in the future (rich players have different tools for each specific sutuation). And that's all. I don't use salvage-o-matic items since the game provides me with salvaging items enough (I craft stacks of 250, almost the only useful item I need the mystic stones for), and direct access as to World Bosses or the Mystic Forge have limited utility and not as usefull as the previous items.

The thing is that I use some of them as mules, or they stay in a fixed place doing daily mining or gathering or just to swap builds in PvP/WvW. And since now most of my gear is legendary and I regret some of the race/gender/class combos I did, and there's no rewards for legacy characters once 8th anniversary is left, rerolling seems very tempting...

I currently have 13 characters, most of them from the first two years of the release of GW2, and getting the extra celebratory dyes from my alts were rewarding moments. This taste turned sour after the ninth year: a single no repeteable dye, plus some garbage as usual. Now, the chant used to be "don't reroll characters, the yearly rewards are valuable", and I agree that if you have a character with full leveled crafting skills, or you already paid gems for extra inventory or template slots, deleting it is a mistake. But, if you have characters with no extra expenses in crafting or gems, and you're a bit annoyed since you make the mistake of making a lot of characters from the same race (so now 1/3 of them share the same voice, so they lack "uniqueness"), isn't to reroll those characters an excellent choice? Brings the joy of replaying again old content with the specs released over time, having a more varied array of voices making points about the story, your skills, the landscapes... What do you think?

I don't do chests so usually I don't use teleport services from other players, but when I needed the aetherblade one for the Astralaria achievement I tiped 25 gold coin (and was worth of it!). On regular basis I tip 1 gold coin when I hear a well played melody from a random player in the cities.

I would say none. Glint and Herald as legend and trait line are obviously linked by lore: you won't be able to take Glint without the Herald traitline. Then, Corruption is linked to Mallyx, and Devastation to Shiro, both in lore and design. The same hapens with Salvation and Ventari. That leaves Invocation free.... Which is a "jack for all trades" which is common to a lot of builds since reinforces the legend swap mechanics and not a particular one in terms of lore. But at least doesn't conflicts with Glint. Most of people chose a damage source (strike, condition, or an hybrid) and a game mode (PvE variants, WvW roaming, small groups, zergs, PvP Conquest and duos/trios) and set the trait lines based on the goals and roles to perform at a given content. I would say that is easier for some classes as the Guardian: if you're a Firebrand Zeal and Radiance feels more "natural" for the spec, whereas Honor and Virtues seems more linked to a core Guardian.

Mist Unleashed is pretty much Ranger's greatsword "Maul": same animation and similar AoE, same amount of vulnerability stacks fior the same lapse and the same 0.75 seconds cast time. If all, with the same gear the damage is slighly larger in the Vindicator skill, albeit that doesn't count the damage over time that the 6 seconds (instead of 7) and the pet ads over the Vindicator. Whirlwind Wrath and 100 Blades do more damage, but over several impacts (and 100 Blades roots you); Mesmer's greatsword has lower damage coeficients (which makes sense because isn't a mele weapon) and Reaper's Gravedigger and Death Spiral have larger damage but with larger cooldowns (8 and 10 s) and larger cast times (1.25 and 1 s). I don't think the numbers are that off: Vindicator's AA chain does less damage than Reapers (both apply chill in the third strike, but we also apply vulnerability), but our chain has a 0.5, 0,5 and 0.5 s cast time while Reaper's is 0.75, 0.75 and 1 s. So we attack at the speed of Warrior's greatsword but instead of doubling the vulnerability we mix vuln + chill, which is a stronger mix up. Guardian has the same cast times but only offers a pity stack of might with the third strike (albeit the F1 proc each 5 or 3 hits is strong). Overall, is Vindicator's greatsword damage a problem? I don't known: Guardian's strongest dps builds are hybrid ones based on burn damage, and don't use the greatsword at all. Warrior dps builds do use greastword, but the largest burst isn't 100 Blades but axe #5. As I said, I don't think that the Vindicator has a chance to surpass Rev's condition builds (Renegade and Herald), so if condi Renegade is A tier and power Herald is C tier having a power Vindicator in B tier won't change party instanced content at all. What I would like instead of a buff in greatsword numbers would be replacing Eternity's Requiem with a hard cc like a short knockback or pull. Something like Call to Anguish. A hybrid design of the damage of the gs would also help (as with the trident and the short bow) but I guess that fall apart when ditched the potential use of Balthazar (a telekinetic wielded mele range sword with a bit of burns would have worked wonders), but sadly is so late for that...

A quick guide and gameplay from two very good players using condi Herald variants: The one from MoM is more recient and based on celestial stats instead of trailblazer. Fastest open world killing build for Revenant is condition Renegade but uses the short bow a lot so I won't list here (Hizen, Paper Roll, Nike! and other have videos about in Youtube).