Buran.3796

You're right, the focus of the discussion is not what one plays. But the focus isn't also if people buying gems paids the game for all, but IF opening the gate of an optional monthly fee charge (in form of money x gems) would TEMPT ANet to provide gameplay advantage to those players. And some people are showing concern about that because is exactly what happened in other MMOs. Take in consideration that the initial model of ANet about horizontal progression and cosmetics was partially eroded when they introduced the ascended gear, and recent inclusion of stats combinations which perform better than older ones at raids while they keep nerfing old stuff as runes and skills to make the new gear more impactful in the game keeps pushing in the same direction: this is no longer a pure horizontal game from the perspective of gear grinding.

The gems those first class citizens are buying (and which I bought in the past) aren't paying anything for me, tho. I main a class which uses the same build at PvP/WvW since its release at HoT and those game modes remain largely unchanged since. The number of hours I used to play the game in 2017 just collapsed in 2018 and is going down in 2019. What's in the horizon for GW2?

You mean Jalis, Mallyx, Ventari and Kalla are trash? Yes, they are trash (specailly the latest two), so using them makes no sense. You see Shiro everywere because along with Glint (and to some extent, Jalis) is the only working legend.

So ... the problem here is what? You don't like the idea that Anet would give benefits to people that patronize the game periodically? That doesn't really make any sense ... unless you are simply one of those jealous types. Hé's worried that the change would lead to a game with first class and second class citizens (players) as happens in ESO. I'm more interested in to known what is ANet next step in terms of expansion/specializations, since I don't care about the PvE stuff and PvP/WvW have been neglected for years...

Rev should have the right to use a ranged condition weapon which works in duels/roaming... There's a reason why the main build & loadout didn't change in PvP/ solo WvW in 3.5 years. Condi Rev builds do suck at tanking and at aplying pressure at range, and the short bow fixed nothing.

Because is slow to cast and easy to be interrupted, costs 15 energy units and since the patch in which lost the 10 + 10 stacks of vulnerability on hit seems mostly meaningless, specially against human players. I think that currently I only use it when there's a downed enemy with chances of more targets trying to rezz; otherwise I like more the 15 energy in my pocket, because aside from a bit more damage this skill does absolutely nothing.

This post is so biased and lacking of fundations that crumbles under its own weight: You don't mention all the energy that must be paid on top of the cooldown times in order to use ANY Rev skill outside auto attacks. You need 35 units for a single use of Phase Traversal, and 80 units to keep Impossible Odds for 10 seconds. Glint gives you 5 seconds of superspeed each 45 seconds, which is far from being impressive.You need energy to perform the most basic things, as using the healings or the stunbreaks; if a Rev mindlessly depletes its energy in burst loses all that "amazing" mobility and defenses , doesn't matter if their skills are available or in cooldowns.Power Herald has exactly 0 access to stability, has 0 passive defenses and is utterly mediocre at enduring/cleansing conditions.Power Herald has 2 HALF heals: one is really weak (Enchanted Daggers) and the viability of the other one (Infuse Light) relies entirely in how bad is the enemy player (you will heal a lot only if your enemy insists in bursting you after the unmistakable activation sound).Rev lost most of their vuln proc sources over 2018, to the extent that some of them (as Burst of Strenght) have now barely any use.Your statement about Rev having 4 breakstuns every 10 seconds is utterly false and entirely dishonest. Gaze of Darkness has a 20 seconds cooldown, your theory just jumped out for the window, plus Riposting Shadows has a upfront cost of 30 energy unit; not only Revs can't break stuns 4 times each 10 seconds but is also highly unlikely for a Rev to be able to burst 4 breakstuns in a single 10 seconds frame (and if does is doing no damage, spending all resources avoinding damage, and won't be able to do the same in the next legend swap).

...But that would turn Revs into Mesmers, and I wouldn't be able to endure the nausea.

What do you mean with this? Rev didn't get but crap in 2018; latest patches butchered quickness from Impossible Odds, crushed the might duration, increased the F2 upkeep cost while nerfing the effects, doubled the cast time of sword #4., nerfed swords auto attack damage, and watered down the staff #2 and #3 to make it a PvE weapon... Meanwhile they improved builds, legends and traits which no one uses: Jalis, Ventari, Kalla... such a bunch of no ones in PvP. Rev build (which is a Hrerald build: Rev or Renegade just doesn't exist in PvP) didn't change in 3.5 years (aside from making shield and axe so bad that no longer exist in PvP). The class can't tank, has no viable support build and the condi builds are a joke mix between doing no damage and having no sustain... You have at least two viable builds with every class... except the Revenant.

Nerf OH sword so we get kicked from the meta to make people appreciate how hopeless is this class in PvP outside a couple of predictable burst.

If you're aiming to PvE and you think that the Necro lacks damage you should check the last video of Lord Hizen (3 days ago) in Youtube just soloing almost everything in the game with a Scourge build from that class.

They removed Brutal Momentum from the game because was an unpredictable hard hitting attack. But then why stealth still exists in the game? Before erasing an attack which has a 1.25 second cast (ant not near 1 as the tooltip says) and which is pretty damn telegraphed I would like to see stealth skills nuked from the game. That would be fair. That's my argument.

The main designer of the Revenant at HoT is not longer in ANet and to my knowledge was nor related with the Renegade; the team which crafted the PoF spec bring us two new weapons (short bow and trident) with 0 mobility and 0 defensive skills (every Revenant weapon at HoT except the shield had some kind of displacement or invulnerability frames). Must be noted also that in this last patch the developers entirely dropped the ball about the reason they made the changes: no guideline, no explanations of any kind. The "purity of purpose" with the Rev at the release was making something like a mix between Warrior and Thief, with heavy armor and shadow steps but without stealth. I have no clue about what is the nature of Ventari or Jalis, because other classes do support better than us and Shiro is better to survive than the dwarf. Mallyx is the only other legend which to me fits the class, but sadly has a glass jaw because the condi weapons has no blocks/evades, the defensive weapon (staff) doesn't provide damage (specially condition damage) and condi doesn't lets you to pressure at range, so is easy to kite a condi Rev to death at range. Condi Rev was, actually, very strong at HoT release, but was inmediatelly nuked and never rised again.

Rev can be competitive or not, but the best PvP build never changes. They can't nerf power Rev until leaves the scene (happened before), but you won't see other Rev builds filling any role in PvP. Not bothered with incoming nerfs at all...

Fortunately (fortunately?) some classes never change their viable build. You can back in time to any moment in the last 3.5 years and you will find the same Rev build (power Herald with Shiro/Glint and staff/sword) used in PvP, and essentially the same hammer build for WvW team fights.

Wasn't even using marauder before the patch, the extra hp was almost useless and the increased damage from berserker amulet was nice (Herald isn't a Guardian fooling around with 11k Hp). You say that every noob knows how to counter Infused Lights but seems that most of them can't avoid Elemental Blast and Chaotic Release, whereas keeping yourself away from Vengeful Hammers seems really easy. If Jalis is a thing, why teams are stacking 2 or more power Heralds in the Automated Tournaments?

Too bad Revenant core PvP build just doesn't exist. Just ban this class for this particular tournament to prevent naive new players to believe otherwise.

I can't see how a new spec could change anything. Renegade isn't but a buff in numbers which is mostly played in the same way as the previous condi Revs, and none the last 3 weapons we got (short bow, spear and the off hand sword remake) provides a single defensive or mobility skill. To use the next spect you will need to resign from Herald, which means losing very good cc, AoE cleave, low energy cost for skills with dual use (passive and active). You will also need to renunce either the staff (your only truly defensive weapon) or the swords (your main source of damage). Could the new spec be as mobile and evassive as Power Herald while doing similar burst damage and cc? A Glint/Shiro build plays and moves across the landscape in a way which is very recognizable, different to the static gameplay whe the rest of our builds have. The same happens with most of the specs (except Holosmith and maybe the Daredevil) . Since the largest amount of incoming for ANet comes from PvE, they will focus the nest Rev spec in being good at the neglected raid aspect: poor power build. Which probably will lead to a spec design focused on sustained power damage vs giant piñatas, which is a failed approach when your foes are humans and not A.I. dummies.

Why would you run with such suicidal weapon selection in PvP/WvW roaming? The hammer is designed to hit hard at range, in the context of large groups to maximize both area damage and being supported by your team. While wielded in duels or very small skirmishes, does very litle damage at close range, is really slow and predictable (very vulnerable to interrupts), and paired with the staff ensures that you won't have damage at mele range. That choice essentially means that you won't be able to kill anyone, so no longer matters if you're running a Renegade, a Herald or a core, or if you're using one traitline or another. How much tournaments did won those fancy hammer/staff Revs yo're talking about? Also, how could you "guess that stealth is overrated?" Stealth is amongst the best disengagement tools in the game, the best damage reduction tool in the game (essentially reduces to 0 damage any skill which requires a target or doesn't cleave an area); is the best starting point to land a burst over a unaware foe, and is magnificent to panic aware foes to force the waste and spam of evades and other valuable defensive tools.... Yeah, I guess stealth "is overrated". sure.gif I'm not claiming that Gaze of Darkness is mandatory, but for sure is way more hadful than having the breakstun in Rite of the Great Dwarf ; having good access to stability with Spirit Reinforcement doesn't change that Jalis will move slow and hit like a towell. Also, I wanted to play a slow tank, why not to use a Scourge/Reaper, which at least do big damage, or a Spellbreaker/ Holosmith, which can be as tanky while also moving fast and deliver big dps burst?

I don't. At the begining of this PvP season played condi Renegade for about 40 matches, and "tanky" Glint-Jalis for another 40. Condi Renegade was a glass cannon with no sustain and hateful to play due every time I had to swap to staff my damage fell near to 0; Jalis build is a bad joke due as a "tank" is outclased in sutain by almost every other profession, while barely doing damage and falling away from Firebrand in support. And Jalis having the breakstun in the elite with a 40 energy unit cost and a 1.25 sec cast is just insane. Both trash tier builds, sunk me to silver. Then changed to power Herald with zerker amulet and suddenly stacked streaks of 8 - 12 wins in a row. The nerfs makes sense in the ANet pattern: Power Herald was strong in boon duration -> boon duration is nuked.Power Herald has reliable access to quickness -> quicknes ends mostly removed.Power Herald procced tons of vulnerability, which interacted with a wide array of traits -> vulnerability is removed from most of our sources.Power Herald stacks large amounts of might (to compensate poor base damage) -> might stacking gets nerfed. ...But let me say this: that nerfst won't move me away from Shiro/Glint power Herald, and neither from the same traits they nerfed. Power Herald just WORKS, despite year after year is more dumb to play, more streamlined, stick hitting autoattack, less engaging and fun. Still, light years above core Rev, which lacks any personality, and Renegade, the worst specialization in the game, utterly useless in PvP/WvW. So keep trying ANet, you still have a lot to nerf in Herald before making me to even think about playing other builds seriously! Power Herald forever!

Where's the support/tank weapon Herald provided and no one knowns?

^ With no evades/blocks, no mobility skills and a few ones which portray problems with unleveled terrain and perform particulary bad in the PvP arenas the short bow seems specifically designed to be bad at PvP, and solving its would need such drastic rework that the changes in off hand sword would pale in comparison. But that hypothetical changes probably would mess the condi Renegade performance, in the only dps build which prevents Rev from being banned from raids, so isn't gona happen. Which maybe is good, due changing the short bow won't provide a ranged condition build to neither core Rev or Herald. What this class needs for competitive ranged condi builds is a new core weapon, not linked to specializations. A single main hand pistol would have worked when the off hand sword provided the block (so a gap closer or mobility skill + 2 condi attacks would be enough). But now the sword doesn't block, so you need five skills to make something viable.

Pistols; the class still lacks a ranged condition weapon viable against human players, and this makes condi builds rather weak at competitive game modes. But I'm not sure at all about the chances of a new expansion...

In what game would it be a small add-on? In Diablo III the adition of build templates was done in a very minor patch in 2.5.0. No expansion, new character, new zone content or anything significative was made to that patch. Making the arena map selection smaller (and moving it to a corner, as happens with the display of "map almost empty, please change to other") should cost them almost nothing. Build templates I do understand the complexity due how their network had to manage the placement of the items in the inventory, but as far as the PvP screen is related, this 15 months of nothingness speaks volumes about how much ANet cares for WvW/PvP.

This is now almost 15 months older, with 4 major patches and a whole new chapter of the living season released since, and still we got nothing... Let me summarize: Doing queue from PvP hall is boring and unproductive; most of players do it from PvE/WvW maps while playing content.The "select map" screen is huge and blocks most of your vision near your character; if pops up while you're in combat in WvW chances are you will end killed.Seems a very easy thing to fix. You can even monetize it: I gladly would pay gems to rid off that annoying screen.