Za Shaloc.3908

I have played Virtuoso in WvW quite a bit but did not touch the others so can only comment on Virt. IMO the biggest potential I see is the synergy with Shattered Concentration providing really strong boonrip, combined with high concentrated spike damage. F1 and F2 both remove 1 boon per blade, and even the F4 removes per pulse (albeit PBAoE). However, that simply can't happen at the moment due to almost the entire e-spec being subjected to projectiles.

Honestly I really dislike these ideas, and I spend more time roaming than anything else. There is no need to attempt to artificially separate roamers from the rest of the game mode. Roaming is such a loose and grey-area term anyway. I agree with what a lot of what @subversiontwo.7501 said and think that roaming is suffering moreso because of the bigger picture and grand scheme of issues that affect WvW. That, combined with a lack of initiative from "roamers" to actually make content happen. You can't expect much content when you run the SWC-SC-SEC racetrack over and over again without providing reason for the enemy to come. I think it's definitely a complicated issue, but I don't think your ideas would provide any benefit to the health of the roaming playstyle.

IMO Charged Mists/Song of the Mists are both too strong to be minors and are absolutely GM-worthy. Charged Mists feels build-defining, as a GM should. Spirit Boon makes sense as a minor and wouldn't be something I'm opposed to; I would really love to be able to take both Spirit Boon and Rapid Flow. I like the choice involved in the adept traitline; having to decide between Cleansing Channel and Glaring Resolve is quite competitive depending on your build. If we had to move a minor trait I'd for sure vote Contained Temper. The trait feels a bit excessive on top of all the other fury gen in the class.

Stocked blades: Blades themselves are very pretty, but they have too much bloom on them. Would like for it to get reduced. They look quite cool with my Vision though. F1: Pretty nice. Not too many feelings on it. Sometimes the animation seems to get culled and I can't really notice it. The symbol in front of the player is really beautiful. F2: Absolutely gorgeous. My favorite animation of the e-spec. 10/10. F3: Fine. F4: I like the prism but dislike the blades. Part of my dislike is within the design itself; the e-spec's biggest defensive cooldown should not proc any reveal. Dagger AA: I really dislike it. IMO it's got too much bloom, but my biggest problem with it is the casting animation. It is a recycled dagger AA animation for melee attacks and doesn't at all evoke the feeling of a Virtuoso. Wish it was something more elegant. Dagger 2: Fine. Dagger 3: My least favorite of all the skills. From my perspective, Virtuoso is a very refined and controlled approach to Mesmer. This skill really feels chaotic (it has the name "storm" in the name, so makes sense). While a theme inherent to Mesmer, it just doesn't really fit for me. Likely just personal taste. Would prefer for the F4 animation to get toned down a bit and moved to this skill. Twin Blade Restoration: not much to say about it. It's a heal skill, didn't really expect much. Rain of Swords: Pretty, if a bit excessive. I do like it a lot. Sword of Decimation: Too similar to Rain of Swords. IMO this skill design itself is also too similar to RoS Psychic Force: Pretty cool. Thousand Cuts: Really pretty but quite small tbh. Wish it were a little more noticeable. I should also note that the sound effects of all the skills are really lovely. They really add to the experience.

The Harbinger is not designed around WvW zergplay, nor should it be. To do so would just be to distort its role and purpose so dramatically to the point where it would no longer be the same e-spec. And even then, it would never be enough to compete with support FB and Scrapper. Necro already has incredible presence in largescale WvW, let Harbinger occupy a different role. I agree that the support lineup needs to be diversified for the gamemode, but Harbinger is *not* the one for that. In regards to the OP's post, I am also in the camp of wanting them to negatively affect enemies. Would prefer for the self boons and a negative affect on allies to be baseline, and for the elixir trait be unified and simply be boon share and CD reduction.

Cant tell you how many times I double pressed it because of lag last night.

Played the spec for prob about 4 hours today. Played as zerk/scholar with a few mara pieces. Ended up happiest with Dueling/Illusions GS Sw/P or F. The damage felt quite bad. The power coefficients seem way undertuned. Getting Trueshotted for over half my hp while I am tickling the enemy with a 5-blade F1. Regardless, I had a blast and will be playing a lot more Mesmer now. Dagger design is odd. It is a 1200 range weapon but it doesn't feel like it. Why does skill 2 fan out so quickly? Why is skill 3 so slow-moving? I quickly trashed the dagger after learning of sword 3 leap and it felt much better. The mobility from that skill is a godsend, and being able to port back mid-cast is a really nice perk. Utility skills seem pretty bad. The elite skill is the biggest disappointment IMO. Found the most usefulness out of the immob one in larger fights since it has such a long range. Crit a downed enemy for just 3.6k and decided it wasn't really worth it anymore if that's the bonus damage I could get. Some quick suggestions before I go to bed: -Increase the damage on F1. Reduce the cast time to 0.5s. The way the damage is channeled made it feel a bit clunky and umm...slow? Felt hard to set up damage without pistol 5 stun. -Change F2 to inflict an enemy targeted 240-radius AoE damage skill that inflicts confusion. Increase its strike damage. Maybe could have the 0.75s cast time instead considering it would no longer function as a projectile. -F3 should be unblockable at the very least. Feels very weak. -Remove the damage portion of the F4. Instead have it clear 1 condi per blade shattered. Virt has no condi cleanse within the traitline. The damage is not only insignificant, but also has a horrible anti-synergy with stealth. Being revealed when using your defensive skill doesn't feel good. -Give the elite skill the 100% increased damage against downed players. Make it a non-projectile and maybe increase its radius? Feels really clunky to use. Skill went on full CD multiple times when trying to use it, and I would also get the cast cancelled on numerous occasions.

Revenant is a truly wonderful class with a ton of versatility. I've been hooked on the class for about 5 years now. While I have my complaints, I would 100% recommend it to anyone interested in giving it a try. Plenty of builds you can try and there's always something to press. Hard for me to play anything else now.

Yes please. I am telling myself they are placeholders, I just hope it's true. Pretty sure the pistol sound effects were the exact Engi pistol sounds too, so my guess is that there is still some stuff that is a work in progress.

Not a Necro main but I would still like to give my thoughts. In general, the spec looks really fun and I appreciate that ANet is being more bold with how Harbinger is to be played. I'm not going to comment much on the overall balance of the spec, but on its overall vision. It seems like the spec is trying to be too many things at once: power, condi, and boon support. This makes the traitline very bland and unvaried. It just doesn't seem like there will be very many interesting ways to build within the spec. Additionally, two traits are occupied by elixirs which is a totally optional skill type to take. Part of the enjoyment I have in making builds is having competitive choices for traits that have similar or neighboring roles/purposes, but this doesn't really have that. You have your power line, your boon line, and your condi line. The blight mechanic feels unfinished. I really like the idea of it, but IMO they need to build on the mechanic and have the spec interact with it more, rather than have it just there as a debuff that you have to sit and take. The grandmaster line would be the perfect candidate for this as the traits there are all very uninspired. Personally I think it would be cool to give each trait a "when you reach 25 stacks, Harbinger Shroud skill X will be enhanced. Using this enhanced skill will cause blight to decay rapidly over time." Elixirs are the most boring version of elixirs they could do. I thought that by giving Necro elixirs, they would go really left-field with them, but nah. It's literally almost completely just boons, boons, and more boons. Aside from the elite, none of them seem worth taking unless maybe you are going for a quickness build. What could they change? Well I would like for them to all have an offensive/negative effect on nearby enemies too, to give them more appeal and make them feel more Necro-y. I would also like them to then condense the elixir traits to one that simply reduces recharge by 20% and gives the boon sharing effect (300-360 radius) since the negative effects on enemies would be baseline (and all unique, unlike the trait). Also god I hope the icons are all placeholders. Probably the worst skill icons I have seen in all of GW2. Despite the cirtiques I have, the spec seems extremely fun to play and I can't wait to try it out.

Yeah it gives me hope too. As a Rev main I'm pretty hyped for it because mace will become such a more reliable might generating weapon in PvE now. Also for anyone interested, I believe this showcases the new light field ring as well as the finisher skill icons being lit up while within a field. Video should be timestamped, if not, check 1:14:48ish.

Extremely boring and I wouldn't even call this a balance patch, but the combo field change is pretty hype tbh. Really looking forward to it.

Considering it already has 2 especs that perform extremely well in large scale WvW, I would say it is very welcome for Necro to have something different. It is more likely to be a better roamer which I am sure a bunch of Necros would be thrilled about. But yes, time will tell I suppose.

I am in the process of crafting my 4th legendary sigil. Just made the other 3 within the past week. Loving them so far. My logic is this: - I already have legendary light/medium/heavy armor so swapping out normal runes is no issue. - I have multiples of a lot of rune sets because I have a ton of alts, which means for a lot of the more used ones (like Monk), I can just keep them in my inventory for each character. - I only have a handful of legendary weapons. For all my other ascended ones, the legendary sigils are a godsend because I don't have to worry about using an extractor or deleting them. It is more realistic for me to invest in a set of 4 leggy sigils than it is to invest in a bunch of leggy weapons. - Ascended trinkets are IMO the worst value considering how easy the ascended versions are to get via LW/IBS/WvW/etc. I feel like I made the right choice. Pre-armory I thought they were ridiculously overpriced, but now I think they are definitely worth the investment. Really eager to get my 4th.

Looks fun as hell. Can't wait to try it next week.

Ancient Echo has been a really awesome implementation for Rev--one that I really love and one that greatly benefits the core class. Personally, I am happy with the energy aspect of it and its overall performance, as 25e on demand every 20s is sufficient as is. But the secondary effect? It ranges from great to meh. Jalis probably has the best effect, Shiro's can be really clutch, Ventari's is...pretty nice, and Mallyx's is now rather lackluster. Personally, I would like for AE to really enhance the essence and primary role of the legend. Some ideas? Well in my ideal world each legend would grant both an effect and a boon. Quick thoughts: Jalis: Effect is great as is. Boon could be stab, prot, or resolution. Shiro: Effect is fine as is, though with all the multihits Rev has, I would like for the number of charges to be increased to 3. I would also like for the effect to stack with Phase Traversal unblockable buff. Boon could be quickness. Ventari: Alacrity works just fine for the legend and is quite beneficial for fluidity of tablet movement. Would absolutely love for the effect to have Ventari skills also trigger PBAoE around the player for 3-5s. Mallyx: Resistance is fine as is. Would be cool to have an effect for ~3-4s to give total condition damage immunity (damage immunity only) to give a bit of its old identity back. I think with those changes, it would make the choice between F-skills more competitive. There can't really be any trait interactions implemented because those would inherently benefit e-spec F2's as well. Your idea of having it trigger weapon-swap, while interesting, gives me the impression of further shoving Invocation down our throats.

That is true, and tbh not a perspective I had considered before. While I disagree with ANet's recent obsession of increasing energy costs for skills, I think it's a bit complicated with Riposting Shadows, and it's the only one I mostly agree with. With their patch trying to increase cooldowns on stunbreak skills, it made sense for them to approach RS in the way they did. I would rather have the increased energy cost (it is worthy of 40e IMO) than for them to tack on a CD to it (though at the same time they could have also decreased its effectiveness instead). You do still have the options of running Charged Mists and/or running core for Ancient Echo so you can regain more energy if you are in such a situation. Glint Heralds are definitely the ones that suffer the most from the change. Idk though, I still think removing energy costs from weapon skills would dumb down the class and make it less complex. I personally find it interesting and engaging to have to manage resources between both legend and weapon skills.

Glad to hear it is working out for you in PvE too! I take it into open world PvE on occasion and it works nicely despite having a bit of a longer time to kill. In groups I will change out all the Salvation traits to the healing modifiers and the Rene GM to Righteous Rebel, so at the very least the group support becomes significantly better. Still better options out there, but for being an off-meta build it still offers pretty good support with okay enough dps. Haven't tried swapping staff out for anything in PvE, but I would guess mace/axe would probably provide the most value? Good luck if you bring it out to WvW! I have been seeing a lot more of the build since Vallun released his vid on his own variant of it.

Like a 3 or 4, but if the other especs turn out to be interesting it will probably jump up to an 8. The features they have announced just don't really interest me, but it doesn't bother me too much as especs have been the only major selling point for both HoT and PoF for me too. If they are good then I will be happy.

As someone who never played Factions, I don't have any particular attachment to the Ritualist. At the end of the day I just want an e-spec, weapon, legend that are fun to play and with good visuals. I will continue to hold onto the dream that we'll get legend weaving as our e-spec mechanic.

And if they removed energy costs on weapon skills, energy costs on legend skills would go up. Not that hard of a concept to understand.

Yup Jalis works really nicely for teamfights but it is a pretty noticable drop in DPS/kill potential. I also find it a lot more boring. Haha I love fighting Kalla Renes on the build exactly because of the knockbacks from Ventari elite. So funny to see them get bounced around.

Hey, thanks so much for pointing this out! I have encountered Vallun quite a few times out in the wild while using this so perhaps it inspired him. I have been meaning to make a gameplay video since posting this thread, but I am too lazy when it comes to recording, so it's cool to see such a similar build showcased in a video. I can understand all of his rune/sigil choices. Honestly the thing with this build is that so much can work with it, as long as you fit cleansing/energy into it in some way. Since making this post I have been running with Doom more often, but I am still really a fan of purity on shortbow because I feel much less inclined to swap off of it in order to proc cleansing, which only really feels necessary when I get burst condi'd. Haven't thought of Antitoxin but I've never felt it to be necessary, though maybe it's because I use purity sigil. In regards to the rest of your post: I agree with a lot of what you say. I would say that is rather common in a lot of traitlines across all classes though. That is the risk of trying to fit too many different roles within one traitline--it makes the choices rather obvious when you are after a particular thing, making it not really feel like much of a choice at all. I tend to think Devastation is one of the better-designed ones in this regard, despite there being clear meta picks in endgame PvE (which there always will be). I do wish in Salvation that there were more/better traits within the line to diversify the ways that Rev can support. While the self-sustain ones are very nice to have, it limits one's options if building for a proper support build, and then you just have the healing orb traits making a mockery of the top line.

People have often expressed a desire to have a tether feature for the tablet. If they were to introduce such a thing, a stunbreak on Purifying Essence (while tethered) would make sense because they could put proper cast times on the other skills to introduce a more traditional counterplay. For now though, I would rather see them work on polishing up the other aspects of the legend (just a few small things is all it needs) to see how it functions at that point. I would not complain about getting a stunbreak, but the issues Ventari (and naturally support Rev as a whole) suffers from are more complicated than a simple matter of giving it a stunbreak. A stunbreak felt waaay more necessary before the big Feb 2020 balance patch, but now I don't feel so much anymore. I don't really think that the legend would see much more play than it does now if it got a stunbreak.

Have you noticed any improvement since the legendary armory? I use the tab above the weapon swap icon now and have only had a skill swap issue happen once, which is notably better than it was using the actual template window.