Yasai.3549

It's just Anet's fault entirely for not comprehending the ramifications of nerfing Power coefficients wily nily years ago. Sure, power burst was really toxic and unfun but it's the entire design of such builds and all skills that deal damage in this fashion. By nerfing it, they made the roaming scene introduce Condi meta, and high Condi meta gave birth to sustain meta which is where Cele started being used on everything remotely usable. Revenants in particular were ALWAYS weak to Condi and relied on Power burst builds to quickly take out their target in windows of opportunity because not doing so led them to die to sustained Condition damage. So now Revenants of all classes rely overly on Celestial builds to compete with a majority of other Cele camping builds because all our burst was nerfed (and even overnerfed in some cases like OH Sword). Other classes still have existing cheese Power builds that can 100 > 0 Cele builds because they didn't get hit as hard as Revenant ever was due to their weapon design. Revenant on the other hand got the super short end of the stick due to weapons either being clunky, made clunky or losing all damage outright due to "balance" (Staff 5 for example)

Unfortunate reality of modern WvW post burst damage nerf. Any build that can properly utilize Celestial (eg. good mix of damage types and great boon application on themselves) dominates. Thieves get away with stealing boons, Necros get away with deleting boons along with the enemy's healthbar. Anything else is a zergy or a cheese build. Already covered it in another thread too: Sword/Sword is just TOO WEAK right now. The only way to make it work is to use Devastation + Vindicator Death Drop to cover its gaps in damage/boost its damage. Herald right now only functions as a Boon injector trait/spec for the Revenant but Renegade does that much better and much easier via just critically attacking enemies. Plus Renegade is just better with the Fervor unique buff that cannot be corrupted AND bonuses to SB's bleed application. So yea in general, Herald is food. I personally eat Power Heralds on the regular, and I'm running Core Celestial.

One odd thing you can try if you wish is Mace (Berserker stat). Since the build you will be running uses Devastation 123 anyway to facilitate your burst damage and ignore nonsense like Blind, Immob and Cripple spam via Aggressive Agility, Mace is a semi viable option for a defensive set together with Shield. This works because of few reasons: 1. Herald has massive Might generation, giving your Mace Conditions a little bit of spice, even if you're primarily a Power build 2. Mace 3 has TWO CHARGES in WvW and has better coefficients than Hammer 2. It also hits up to 1200 range, perfect as a defensive swap and a ranged poking tool if going in on an enemy is unsafe. It also inflicts Weakness, making it a decent tool against any power spammers to mitigate their damage. Echoing Eruption - Guild Wars 2 Wiki (GW2W) vs Coalescence of Ruin - Guild Wars 2 Wiki (GW2W) 3. Also very good for taking camps via alot of AoE damage. 4. The two charges for Mace 3 are both considered movement skills for Aggressive Agility, significantly increasing your Resistance application while on the defensive, making sure things like Blind, Immob, Cripple, Chill, Weakness are not hindering you. If you wish to experiment, it's up to you but the option is floating out there if you wanna take a crack at it.

Do not take Scepter. Slow autos, inconsistent 2 and 3. Very weak payoff for landing any skill. Nerfed sustain in Competitive modes. Waste of time and worthless as a defensive set. It's even worse than staff that at least allows you to evade and move with staff 5. If you run Shield, use Sword or don't bother.

Yes. My personal rule is never using it against an enemy who's currently dashing, never use it on steps and never use it without swiftness and without running after your target. There is a windup, so if you "sit still and cast it" it will disjoint if the enemy is far enough. You have to follow them so that when the windup finishes, you are still within distance for the initial jump. Sword/Shield as a defensive set is pretty standard. Energy Cleansing. The only difference this has compared to staff is lack of CC but much more damage potential. GS uses standard power damage staples like Air, Bloodlust or Fire. You can swap Armor for Marauder if you feel it's too paper to full zerk or wanna have much higher crit chance.

>And of course a classic full zerk w/ scholar which I have yet to try. Never run this for roaming. This is the sort of build that gets 1 shot for 15k damage from Spinal Shivers. And what does Herald keep stacking? That's right, boons. You're basically begging for a Necro to delete your health bar with this. Durability is a must for roaming. You only run this if you're DPSing in a zerg, not roaming. Full Zerker with Durability Runes is my call for Herald specifically. You use Roiling Mists to make up for Precision you would have if running Marauder. In exchange you get much more Ferocity and Power, using Durability to prop your health and toughness up a little. Also remember to repair your armor for bonus health and armor and you're set. Relic of Speed is what you want for a majority of builds which makes your Swiftness + Impossible Odds run extremely fast IN COMBAT. If you ever wanna be like speedy gonzales and laugh at people trying to chase you, use this. Relic of Leadership is what you want if you are running into many Condi roaming builds. You need it to fill your Condi cleanse. Weapon options vary: Sword/Sword - Staff is old classic. Very weak these days. Greatsword - Sword/Shield is a SOTO privilege. You take Shield Condi cleansing trait for this instead of Consume trait. Very comfy for roaming and camp taking. Greatsword - Staff is very good for newer players. Also needs SOTO. Greatsword - Hammer This one needs some talking about. It's a great set after Hammer got buffed, and Hammer right now hits like an absolute truck with Impossible Odds. Straight up strongest ranged damage from 1200 range against any other build that isn't Cele. You kite well with this or swap to Hammer against enemies that can be kited, you just put them down with no resistance at all. My new favourite. Hammer will be your defensive set, naturally and you can camp it for long periods of time if the enemy is just too unsafe to go melee into. You can also use it to enrage Willbenders who will burn all their mobility to close the gap, and that's when you beat them up with Greatsword and Glint. People to avoid fighting: Druids. Thieves of any sort but more specifically Daredevils. Mesmers of any sort except Virutuoso. Anyone else is a skill matchup but more even fight for you compared to the ones I've listed.

Been finding success as Celestial Core Rev with Mace/Axe - Hammer if you wanna give it a swing. Hammer would be your defensive set but still packs quite a punch when used together with Impossible Odds after their recent AA buff. Mace is your Might stacking set and your pressure set if you are safe to go melee range, if not you can simply Might Stack with it and nail enemies with Echoing Eruption from 1200 range just fine. You can hit 25 Might comfortably with proper skill rotation, making both your Hammer and Mace actually slap hard. Traits are: Invocation: 1 2 1 Devastation: 1 2 3 Salvation: 3 2 2 Sigils for Mace will be Sigil of Might and Air Sigils for Hammer will be Sigil of Energy and Cleansing Divinity Runes and Antitoxin Relic

They are afraid of giving Mace too much Might stacking capability in PvE because it'll make Scepter look bad. Source I made it up, but everyone knows it's true.

This is because Alliance is the only Legend left that isn't kitten. It's just the sorry state of Revenant right now. Man imagine if next expansion just decouples Espec utilities. Alliance being free to use across all specs would make everyone better because they wouldn't be forced to use Legends that have both their kneecaps popped.

Ah that makes sense. Yea PvP Revenant is a joke. I stopped playing any sort of Revenant in PvP after PT nerf. It's just not worth the effort. Renegade is better on a Cele set because of its innate attributes of having crit chance passive, insane 25 might generation and Fervor's Crit Damage and Condi Damage bonus. It's pretty much propped up by the entire traitline which lets the build run Salvation at all because Renegade traitline hardcarries all your damage.

I'm inclined to disagree. I still roam as Renegade and I win a huge majority of fights against EoD specs. The only thing I ever lose to is still dumb stuff like Druid which has historically bullied Revenants of all sorts. That's why I specifically mentioned careful play. Renegade is very powerful if you play carefully and has the capability to beat out many builds due to its very easy conditions to stack Might and having a rather good weapon when it comes to fighting enemies with directional projectile hate (SB2). If you aren't spamming your skills, Shiro's Energy is more manageable as a Stunbreak due to Contained Temper's small refund knocking the cost of the ability back down to 35 Energy in practice. Combined with Salvation dodges and Dwarf Song swap, Renegades are unnaturally beefy against a majority of builds in the game. The only problem is what I've stated: ability to kite. They survive most encounters by being mobile and then stalling enemy burst then go back to kiting again. Having Cripple on SB2 will help Renegade kite even better and safer.

They do have defensive utility imo, but it's just not so obvious as a built in Evade, Stealth, bonus utility. SB4's Firefield does heavy damage and staggers slow application, it in itself has won me many duels because people got impatient with me and tried fighting me in it. It's such an impactful equalizer on the playing field. A good SB user vs a bad one is very noticeable. No, these are not needed imo. What it needs is SB2 to apply Cripple. Revenant/Renegade is very good at keeping out of hands reach with clever play, but the reason they still get caught up with is unlike other weapons, their effective range isn't actually very good, which makes the lack of additional CC options, both soft and hard, more felt when put in practical play. If SB2 was given a 2s Cripple, it would help the player kite much better or harass much better. No point overloading SB3 and SB4 which are already solid and powerful skills in SB's kit.

Honestly the only clear design win here is the fact that sword 3 requires no targeting or conditions for both halves of its leaps to be functional. That alone is what makes Necro sword good. Everything else, especially the autos, leaves much to be desired. Having majority of your weapon skills including its autos be projectile with travel time is really iffy for a weapon set that has not one but two AYEAYAEYAEAYAEYE gap closers. So I'll disagree slightly here for your being "good inspiration" (Imo best sword in the game is still the Virtuoso's version of MH Sword and Guardian's OH Sword) Revenant swords are fun but their skill fantasy is often curbed by functionality issues. Most people would simply be fine if Sword 3 was changed into Smoke Assault as it's one of the strongest draws of the weapon's flashiness and style, not to mention damage and utility. Offhand suffered too much from repeated nerfs unrelated to the then issues of Sword, those need to be reverted somepart or reworked entirely. Do that and Swords will be at least fine, if not just decent but boring.

Cats hate water

Why are condition players so obsessed with dealing Burst Damage. Just play Power then. If there are ramping issues, maybe the build has problems and needs more base duration from skills and traits. Besides, doesn't Mirage deal mainly in Torment anyway? Why the random Confusion change to "improve" it.

They probably tested it on a Golem and that's about it. No one in the right mind puts so many LoS blocks on a weapon for no reason, especially one that emphasizes on supporting.

If Especs can be seen as "borrowing mechanics from other classes" then Summons are just VERY BAD Phantasms. If they functioned more like actual Phantasms, it would have been still a major upgrade to how they were. Now they're VERY BAD Wells. Big disappointment tbh.

It's still hilarious that the Summons have a small delay on summon before they actually do their "cast animation" and land the attack. Somehow Summons are just Wells that suck even more.

It feels old, clunky and unnatural to the game's natural flow, especially how Fields are plopped onto the floor and many encounters have mobile enemies. Before even discussing things like buffing Combos or adding Combo support, there needs to be a functionality improvement first imo. I still think Fields have a place in the game but I think by adding an additional component like a "Combo follow up" to certain skills would be great for helping players expressing their Combo finishers better without being always shackled to a Field. Example, you cast a skill and instead of it slapping a Combo Field down, you gain a Combo Follow Up status for a few seconds that let you unleash Finishers from your position the moment you hit a skill which has a Finisher component. The major drawback is probably that your Finishers are now casting from a local position which does limit your skill expression a small bit but does allow you to be more mobile in the application. Also the fact that this is a "personal combo state" and not shared with allies.

I chuckle everytime I see a guide that warns the player that using Blinding Powder as part of their rotation potentially ruins the fight for other players because forcing Stealth on them stops all their AA chains.

And whoever suggests Guardian nerfs gets a notice.

This is Low Intensity Quickness, yes. Normally you play Herald by popping the consumes for damage as you continue pulsing boons. Herald is the only unique QuickDPS that can spam out boons. But honestly if you ask me, if you want a real LI DPS build, there's better things to play than Revenant. Like DD for example almost hits 30k on Golems by simply auto attacking with Staff and Dodging. Herald is more useful for its boons.

If you're still very interested, use this build:http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PmwAwyFlxQHMPyh1RNMO6hRSfMCKgp2la7G-DSIYR0xLLAAA-e It's basically a Low Intensity DPS build I would only recommend to players who have severe disability because it's gonna bore you out of your mind if you are capable of pressing more than a few buttons. You turn on Upkeep and keep it on while spamming Sword 2 4 and 5 or GS 5 2 and 3. Once you hit below 10 Energy, you swap. You only use True Nature when exiting Shiro. That's literally it.

You have to realize that the key point of Herald is bringing Quickness and all the other Boon uptime along with it. It's like going into a group and telling them "I want to play Condi DPS Druid" Like sure...? We can probably clear but why...? Gonna just tackle this one directly: Technically, yes if you're only expected to do damage. You'll be some boring Forceful Persistence Upkeep camper but it will be able to do decent enough damage. But you could be playing Power Vindicator and do much more damage.

It's been like this from the start. There are clear favourites when it comes to balancing and it's rather obvious for anyone keeping tabs on the class health and performance in various game modes. There was the infamous Mesmer dominance Era followed by the absolutely ridiculous Firebrand dominance Era. Game's never been "balanced" in the sense where every class is equal but at the same time, it's pointless to try and even get that to happen. At the very least every class can see some form of play in all content which I guess is good enough for Anet. In the past, the class balance was even worse to the point there were only a handful of "viable" builds one can use for hard content.