Buran.3796

I'm not sure. This afternoon did a bit of roaming in the Alpine Borderlands with this build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PmgAIZlxQHsOqhxROMP6hRSfMCKgl+U26H-zRIYRU9XKNWAZGC1mA9GBeNLC/aB-e ...Lost to a Necro amongst the trees of Orchard Overlook, won against a Thief near the Temple of the Lost Prayers (which I did chase from Craver's Ascent), lost after a long fight near Greenlake against a Renebow + a Weaver, won against a Soulbeast + Mirage in Stargrove (the Soulbeast was a Mithril Legend, albeit ranks in WvW =/= quality as a roamer), had some larger n vs n skirmishes in which performed well, avoided some zergs but was stomped by others... I would say that works fine but I'm unsure about the sigils and some Devastation and Invocation trait choices. Seems to preform great vs other bow lovers and ranged fighters (Renebows, all kind of Rangers, DH trappers, Mirages... ) but as I said still feels unpolished and I didn't have time enough vs pure mele builds to have a whole picture. But this is despite how overwhelming were the damage and mechanics nerfs to the hammer, so feels amazing to able to counter some meta builds with an entire outsider.

Hi, lately I've been using four different Revenant builds (which I like and enjoy) in PvP, and three of them seems to have a good transfer when used at OW PvE and WvW roaming, but I would want advice about how to polish and refine the 4th for roaming and small scale skirmishes in WvW. That one moves around the concept of using the hammer. I will put a bit of context: * The main build I use at PvP/WvW roaming is the classical power Herald, with dual swords + staff and Glint + Shiro, usually running a cautious Dev 333, In 111, Herald 322 (a more agressive 123, 121, 212 is used sometimes). I think that this is still the strongest 1 v 1 build a Rev can use, but you have no ranged pressure, is a bit slower taking camps and every time you face 1 v n (specially if at least one of the foes is ranged) the chances of surviving are low. Otherwise, phenomenal mobility and damage burst. *Another solid one is the condi Herald, with Glint + Mallyx, mace and axe (sword & shield oftenly in the swap) with Corr 113, Ret 112 and Herald 131. This works better in 1 v n when the space is constrained or small groups merge (so does fairly well in PvP 2 v2 and 3 v 3) and is carried in small WvW skirmishes by the tormenting runes absent in PvP. It melts camps and mele skirmishes but mobility is an issue, specially in 1 v 1 against any build which can disengage and reset a figh (which are common in WvW roaming). *The third one (and lately my most played) is the short bow Renegade, with Jalist & Shiro, sb + staff and Ret 133, Inv 121 and Ren 122. In PvP I play it with demolisher amulet, whereas in PvE I can go either power (commander + zerk) or more oftenly full viper changing to Corr 131, Dev 333 and Ren 222. For WvW I usually mix trailblazer + viper but maintaining the PvP traits of the power builds. It has high mobility/evasion with plenty of cc, melts camps and guards in a blink and puts tons of ranged pressure in any WvW encounter. Lately I've found myself using it more than power Herald in WvW due how well goes in n vs n and small fights pushing damage and cc while keeping the ability to disengage. Jalis is also amazing for team support in those fights, way above Herald in that regard. *The fourth one started with a PvP build to tank in the middle node: Glint + Jalis with hammer and sword + shield, Ret 133, Inv 111, Herald 232, demolisher stats which moved to commander + zerk in WvW. This has strong sustain and plenty of cleanses, with very strong defense against ranged attacks, but you lack disengage capabilities and the damage is fairly weak (your really feel it taking camps). The thing is after seeing some vids from Shao in PvP (with hammer + staff, zerk stats and core Rev with Shiro & Jalis) I was wondering if there's a chance of getting from hammer Rev in WvW similar performance as currently the Renegade gives: a very mobile build that can put hard pressure at range, endure close range fights for a while and disengage or gain time with mobility if needed. The main obstacle I find is the way in which the current hammer works: the short bow attacks are easier to land and specced to condi they keep dealing damage after you hit, whereas the hammer needs to land most of the attacks to sustain the same damage. And talking about damage is the handicap of the stats: with condi half of the gear can be trailbalzer for extra tankiness, whereas with power hammers seems that at roaming everything below full zerk diminishes the cances of winning a fight. So: do you think that is possible? Can a hammer build be built to have similar success to the Shiro Renebow in WvW? Should a core Rev with the F2 unblockables in Shiro and Devastation replacing Herald help in the transition? Should I run Brutality to maximice the chances of landing the hammer slower attacks, or maximizing crit chances and damage instead? Is a lost cause in the current hammer state?

Both Guardian and Ele provide very good supporting builds, so they can sinergy a lot teaming to maintain alive your team mates or making good tanks, albeit the best support class at the moment is maybe Necro. If you want to make a more bursty duo Thief with hisbroad access to stealth and stuns/dazes would complement well a glass cannon Guardian.

Cheap choice based on burns: dire stats with Balthazar or Traveler runes. If you play WvW or PvP the rewards can provide the Warlord's Armor Box, which cointains pieces with fully selectable stats (the Glorius Armor track in PvP provides the same kind of versatility). For a Firebrand I would use either celestial or grieving (or a mix of both) stats. For amulets, rings, accesories, back pack and submarine respirator use Bitterfrost Frontier and Bjora Marches to obtain ascended gear at almost no cost (Bjora requieres some personal history quest before the vendors become unlocked). Just those two maps would provide 100% of your non weapon, non armor gear in very little time.

We already had atribute points attached to traitlines in the past, way before the traitline system was revamped, and was a worse system which lacked the versatility of the current one. Also there's nothing confusing about the current system in place: you want physical damage (strike)? You use berserker gear. You want condition damage? Either viper or grieving. You can afford be sub-max dps and want extra things? Then trailblazer or diviner (or minstrel if you want full support). And once you get full legendary gear the doubts or problems selecting stats are gone forever...

Everything is possible due the changes in the damage and the short bow skills made Renegade strong enough to be meta in PvP for a few months (still strong) and already one of the best WvW builds, despite the spec was utterly garbage at release for both PvP and WvW. So the same can happen to the WB. But at current beta state some of the mobility skills have very short range, their skills have pauses which make them hard to hit and for a "assassin type" class it performs way worse vs single targets than against large crowds (and in both cases has problems surviving). Current core Rev with Shiro Jaris is stronger at anything player vs player related.

Some are logic to guess, as Norn Rangers or Asuran or Charr Engineers. But sometimes is jus the other way: magical based classes doesn't fit well in the Charr files because (outside Flame Legion) spellcasters and magic overal is poorly embraced by the Charr. In the same way, Norn are highly individualist, so Guardians doesn't fit well (with DH being maybe the exception). But yes, I think that some races fit better some roles than others, and the same happens with the specializations. As an example: Holsomith fits remarkably bad in the Norn or Silvari cultures, which are more linked to nature than to technological prowress...

I think is the other way. ANet neglected to support the game mode (4 patches a year, broken builds and exploits which last for seasons, runes and sigils deleted entirely instead of trying to balance them, no new game modes, barely any new map, no large tournaments, no much gold or skins or other rewards to earn, no 1 vs 1, no guild vs guild or attempts to bring back the GW1 PvP... ) so people became increasingly frustrated with a game mode which they like f¡but felt abandoned. So they become more and more rude and unhappy, with a donward spiral feeded by a non reactive ANet. The matchmaking also works worse with less population, and lets be clear here: in a lot of matches in three minutes you will have a good guess about the ability from your partners to read the map, and a lot of the population has literaly 0 clue about what they should do (not about how to play their characters or which builds would perform better, but what to do with their roles and where to go in the map. If I end with 17+ kills and my team still lost by 200+ points it means that they weren't aware of how the map works or what should be done or not. So I understant the people which choses a fast defeat instead of a lasting agony with partners which they don't want to play with.

1) Seems like you're comparing a mist elementalist vs a mist conjurer/summoner, and they sound very different in how they interact with the mist, the same as an Elementalist and a Necromancer use the magic in totally different ways. 2) RPGs are full of plate armor dudes with healing abilities, as clerics, paladins and -surprise- guardians. Summoners in heavy armor are way more scarce in the RPG lore. 3) I think nothing about Ventari because I don't use it and I don't feel obliged to pretend that He exists. The mechanics of that legend are arguably bad and cluncky, and doesn't even have basic things like a stunbreak. My goal in the game is to have fun, not frustration, so I ignore Ventari. And seems that this viewpoint is shared by a majority of Revenant players which don't associate this class with the bringer of letucces. 4) Fine point, so give the Ritualist spect to another spellcasting class which could appreciate their Wraithmancer abilities. As a main Rev which doesn't like/use neither Ventari or Kalla I don't have any appeal for having a third legend invoking minions.

The Herald power mainstream build (with swords, staff and Shiro + Glint) is lacking in condition cleanses which is a fair trade off for having high mobility, powerful burst and high sustain in even fights. The other weakness is the lack of stability which is compensated by very good breakstuns, and as Shao says you can enhance your cleanses with sigils and runes. Another way to deal with the problem is going Glint + Jalis and using hammer + staff or hammer + sword & shield in this configuration (this is a build that I run oftenly at Conquest in PvP -with Demolisher amulet- and sometimes while roaming: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PmwAIx7lpQHsLqhhROML6hJSfsCKgl+UVzF-z1YYhoevDV4ESXh0YBkZI0bG41A-w Each 25 seconds I have 2 cleanses in the shield, 2 cleanses in the weapon swap, 2 cleanses in the legend swap and 5 cleanses in the Jalis heal, which amounts for 11. The build has tons of damage mitigation, broad access to stability and between planar protection and Field of the Mist the uptime of anti-projectile blocks is insane. Absolutely lacks the mobility of sword & sword Shiro + Glint, but between the access to chilled (sword #2, hammer #3, Elemental Blast), Forced Engadgement and Chaotic Release there's plenty of cc to slow down or kite enemies, and can tank for a looong while. Is not the best duel or solo roaming build but be fairly good in 1 vs 1 and scales like a beast in small skirmishes, because can hit like a truck at range with good AoE pressure in mele and shares a ton of benefits: damage mitigation, access to stability, etc. Another good alternative is running condi Renegade (full viper, trailblazer or a mix, Nightmare or Torment runes) with short bow + staff, Shiro and Jalis; Retribution 1,3,3 Devastation 3,3,3 and Renegade 2,2,2. Doesn't has as many cleanses or damage mitigation but has a lot more mobility and can deal with burst of conditions while dealing itself a crazy amount of condition pressure (is also one of the fastest solo roamer builds you can make). Positioning is the key of how safely can be played, and if your foe/s lack projectile hate it can melt targets in seconds. I had fun with both builds in WvW and PvP fighting heavy condition damage dealers as Necros, Mesmers, Thieves and lately even trap Rangers with short bow. Mele power Glint + Shiro can work vs heavy condi builds, but can't kit at range and foes with broad access to fear or a lot of mobility can be extremely dangerous.

What's the correlation between the Revenant, a heavy armor class with medium health pool which uses mostly brutal physical attacks with his weapons (instead of more "spell like" ones), and which had a Charr Warrior as the first of its kind, and a Ritualist, a semi-naked spellcaster which summon spirits to fight indirectly? Imo they would fit better as a Mesmer spec. I wouldn't like to see the new Legend skills to be filled again with summons, not only due the poor A.I. mechanics linked to minions in the game, but also because ANet truly struggles to balance minions in the game, so they fluctuate in waves from being overpowered to entirely useless, and sometimes the buffs and nerfs in PvE do translate to PvP/WvW and viceversa for no reason. Think about turrets, spiritual weapons, necro minions.... See how spiritual weapons from Guardians went from OP at the release of the game to entirely unused for 5+ years, then buffed in PvE to the point that Sword of Justice became trendy in PvP to the point that the moanings made ANet to nuke them again (so you have 4 skills deleted from any use in a game mode). This also translates to current Kalla (I never use this legend in PvP and when I run Renegade I chose Shiro + Jalis, which seems to be the dominant choice). Minions are very hard to balance, specially after the introduction of poorly implemented concepts from other games, as the barriers.... I think that "spell caster" doesn't fit Rev in my mind but also mechanically the developers showcased problems dealing with that design even with classes specifically conceived to command pets (Ranger, Necro).

I understand the criticism to Mallyx's cost since the utilities do almost no damage (albeit Pain Absortion's 5 sec resolution and Call to Anguish's cc are strong in PvP/WvW), but Jalis and Shiro utilities are awesome in every game mode. Mallyx's utilities are more oriented towards competitive game modes. Even if they reduce Mallyx's #7, #8, #9 cost to 5 units you still won't use them too much in PvE due they don't do the damage. And speaking of damage, every Fractal boss and bouty have been soloed with condi Herald and condi Renegade, so is not like the class needs a buff due "is almost unplayable in PvE".

Contrary to the extended belief, I don't think that using a booster is a bad idea: I think that for the first run of a character in the game leveling it just playing is fun and provides feedback about the general tools of the class, but I did it with my first characters (Warrior, Guardian, Ranger,. Thief... ) and I can assure you that I learned almost nothing about builds or how to efficiently play those characters in the leveling. Is the experimentation with fully leveled characters, the traits and skills, the gameplay in WvW, PvP or demanding PvE scenarios which provides the most valuable lessons, not doing jumping puzzles in open world or beating creeps in public events. Now on the topic: 1) Revenant enters in the game with a 50 energy units cap which is temporaly raised to 100 when you're in combat. 2) You regenerate 5 energy units x second until you reach your cap. Swapping legends RESETS your energy bar to 50 (so you can lose energy if you have more than 50 units stacked) and swapping at the rigth time is important. 3) The exception to rule 2 is Invocation's trait "Charged Mist" which resets your energy to 75 if your current level is at 10 or less. This trait is important with some builds that don't use Glint as a legend, but much less effective with Glint variants. 4) Weapon skills (outside #1), heals, utilities and elite skills cost energy (and oftenly have cooldowns). The exception is Glint, which skills works a bit like Guardian's signets (they have a passive effect which has a upkeep energy cost and an active effect much more stronger but with shorter duration and which has no energy cost). 5) When you spent energy (in the form of fixed cost or upkeeps) you should ALWAYS AVOID TO BE FULLY DEPLETED TO 0. Being depleted to 1 is fine, because if you stop spending energy you gain inmediatly 5 energy points x second. But when the Rev reaches 0 energy enters in a cooldown of ~4 seconds untill you start to regen energy at 5 units x second again. THE EXCEPTION to this rule is legend swapping, so if you are going to swap legend and therefore reset your energy is good to fully exhaust yourself before the change. Legends have a huge impact in how you play and maneage your energy with the Revenant. Glint builds usually are less energy sensitive since the active effect of Glint's skills have no energy cost. Builds than doesn't run Glint but have Charge of the Mist usually abuse high upkeeps (Shiro's Impossible Odds, Jalis Vengeful Hammers, Mallyx's Embrace the Darkness, Kalla's Soulcleave's Summit... ) to deplete the energy bar below 10 just before a legend swap. In PvE, despite the high energy cost of a lot of skills is easy to stack 40+ torment and/or bleed stacks, so the damage is plentyfull with condition builds. At the moment the power builds do less damage and have worse cleave and AoE damage, which make them weaker in PvE, but doesn't damage their sustain, specailly when you combine Jalis, Retribution 1,3,3 and Devastation 3,3,3. In PvP/WvW the lower dps of power builds is irrelevant, since most of the time you aren't trying to maximize damege per second but put pressure on targets while saving some cards for survability if the things go wrong. So: condi damage from both mele and ranged Rev specs in PvE is really strong despite the energy management; power is less effective due the lack of good AoE cleave damage, but still decent at single targets. Energy works very well in PvP/WvW because you don't need to maximize damage, but to keep yourself alive while waiting chances for either a burst or a sustained stream of damage.

Condition Herald can be almost unkillable in PvE while having good AoE damage output: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PmxAke7lhQKsIyiJRXMICjBSiMBqgj+SdrD-zRJYkRLfZ0RBESK49BJI6tsonG-e Condition Renegade is not as tanky but does way more damage and its heal burst can provide similar recovery. DPS variants will oftenly run Condition 1,3,1 Devastation 3,3,3 and Renegade 2,2,2 whereas tankier variants do use Retribution and sometimes Invocation. Renegade has the advantage of providing lots of ranged damage if is needed. You can go extra tankier with power Herald and Glint + Jalis, Devastation 3,3,3 Retribution 1,1,3 and Glint 1,3,2 or 2,3,2 but that route is much slower killing things and albeit you will endure solo bounties without dying you won't be able to kill them in the time cap in most of cases. Another extremely durable tanky builds are burn variants from Ele, but fire resistant foes can be annoying to del with them. The AoE damage is amazing, tho.

My guess: the flame thing represents an Elementalist (I though about an arrow before the leak), the oni mask a Thief (I guessed a Warrior before, but the twin wielding swords being a Guardian and not a Thief throw that out for the window), and the Revenant eye surrounded by edgy things no clue about what could be at all 🙂 ...

Looks like a one handed Symbol of Resolution animation. Intrigued by all that blue: Jalis and Glint already use tones of blue. Guardians will sue us if we get a third legend with azure shades...

My fault. I wasn't thinking about support healer Rev. Yeah, He's rigth on that.

Damage from underwater Rev is insane levels of broken, one of the few classes able to put in WvW a bunker druid in downed state in that environment and kill them no mater if their pet tries to rez them. Also, Planar Protection makes you invulnerable to most of underwater ranged attacks for at least 40% of the time. The only way you can struggle at PvE with underwater Rev is running those absurd minmaxed dps builds designed to get high numbers against piñata golems on ground. Clearly the class has the tools to endure fights underwater, just don't use a cockie cutter build...

I think that is unlikely, but I want to ask: I see the connection between WB and Cantha, since they are a kind of bodyguards/assault trrops from the emperor, but what are the connections of Harbinger and Virtuoso with Cantha?

Rev pre release was heavily critized due the intention from ANet to bring it to the game with no weapon swap and two swappable legends with predefined skills (no chance to select and ditch based on personal preferences). The final version of the Revenant arrived to the game with weapon swap and buffed stat numbers to balance the lack of polish and the weakness of the core Revenent (since was delivered to being played as the Herald specialization from the begining). Also, Revenant was initially designed to work through the management of energy, with very few cooldowns. But happens that the Herald worked exactly on the oposite way with passive effects with maitenance cost but strong active effects with no energy cost. Current Rev is more convoluted due almost every skill has now both high energy cost + bloated cooldowns, so most of the damage comes from auto attacks.

Pretends to be a +1 build, but I main power Herald and power Renegade in PvP and doesn't perform even remotely close to those. My Herald has similar mobility with more damage, more cc and much higher sustain (despite lacking condition cleanses). My Renegade has worse mobility but much more damage, AoE pressure and sustain, and deals very well with both physical and condition sustain. The problem with WB is that is supposed to trade sustain and/or support in exchange of mobility, but the mobility is weak due a lot of the new gap closers have either small reach than older ones (Judge's Intervention, sword #2, greatsword #3, Wings of Resolve) or clunky pauses wich make them mechanically inferior. So you end having a Guardian which isn't faster than DH, has way lower damage imput and less sustain than core Guardian or DH, and has less support than Firebrand. If you want to tank/support you will chose a core Guardian or FB instead; if you want to burst people you will run a burn core Guardian or DH instead, and if you want to +1 the Thief, the Revenant, the Ranger or the Mesmer are better choices. Even worse: the Harbringer is better +1 than the WB, since has better mobility aand can deal tons of damage from ranged distance. I must add also that I'm not mad about how currently the WB performs; is a beta and there's time to polish the things. I'm just saying that clearly underperforms, not only versus the Harbinger and the Virtuoso but also compared to previous specs and even the core profession, and this includes PvE. Is fun to play tho (even dying easily).

Stealth is a very versatile tool and probably the strongest defensive skill in the game: once in stealth any skill which needs a target becomes useless and a lot of builds which lack large AoE attacks have to rely on auto attacks to pressure those in stealth (which is a joke). Combine that with high mobility and the chance to burst or cc from stealth and no wonder is amongst the most hated mechanic in the game. Being said that: WB is weaker than core Guardian or DH (but better than FB in PvP and more fun in PvE). It has to either improve in stats or (better choice) ditch some absurd delays which most of its skills carry around. At the current state if I have to run a WB it would be almost full meditations with a single physical skill, and probably wouldn't touch a virtue outside of F1, and never would use the off hand sword in its current state. The spec looks like a "wannabe" BDO's striker lacking the mobility, AoE pressure and damage.

So they plan to reduce WB evades to 1?

Ok, did use it a bit in PvE, WvW and PvP (unranked), some fast impressions: *Sword #4 is bad, sword #5 is ok; overall I ended using focus > shield > torch instead of the second sword. Nothing new, anyway: at the Renegade release I entirely ditched the short bow for year and half, and to me it only become appealing after the Sevenshots change. *Healing: a worse version of Rev's infuse light. Litany, Purification or Shelter are better, albeit I would put the new healing about the current FB mantra. *Utilities: my favourite is the chain of roundhouse kicks (whirlwing light?); the others doesn't enough damage or tools to replace existent choices. *Elite:: cool animation, bad execution, mediocre performance. *Traits: as has been said, it doesn't seem to sinergy with a lot of core traitlines. Some look promising, but only if the basic damage numbers are rised. *Virtues: honestly dissapointing. I would use the F1, but I think that are worse than the ones from DH and FB, and even core guard. So, I ended using a sword/focus & greatsword build with Radiance, Valor and 4 meditations; seems promising in PvE and is fun to play but you need celestial stats to make it work, and performs worse in dps than DH or FB but is new and is fun to play. In WvW feels frail. In PvP the absence of celestial pushes to use marauder, but a marauder WB doesn't feel as solid as a marauder DH or a core Guardian. Yes, can get some kills, but is worse at that task than a Thief, Rev or Ranger and despite the mobility choices (most of them discarded due low performance) the sustain and ability to retreat from danger seems worse than with DH and core. Numbers aside, one of the main problems is that a lot of the skills have not only telling cast times but weird pauses before hitting (as happens with Rev's staff #5 after the nerfs). IMO they tried to make something closer to BDO's Striker class, but with a lot less skills available and less fluidity to chain attacks and combos. The F3 remembers me the Falling Sword attack from the Crusader in DIII, but as happens in that game the performance of the skill doesn't match the "coolnes" of the visual showcase.

Yeah, if you're on holydays or jobless and you can stay in WvW 5-6 hours a day I'm sure is viable (not very efficient in terms of earning gold, but neat to get the juicy legendary armor). But if you have a 8 hours/day job, and you can only spent at most a couple of hours a day, and maybe an arfernoon or two the weekends, you won't get those diamond chest. The outnumbered tip is legit, tho.