Legendary Togo and Xun Rao's Greatsword

[GrayHawk.7560]

7 hours ago, Dadnir.5038 said:

 

GW2 Revenant is basically a Ritualist that specialized himself in using urns. It's the point of the whole legend swaping thing. Dropping urns's effect can be replaced by core's ancient echo. It can also be seen as changed from "dropping the urn" to "taking the urn" with the various trait effects that happen on invoking a legend. Weapon skills cover some of the most famous ritualists spells with their own twists.

 

Herald cover weaponspells (be it facet of nature, true nature or glint's facets, they are "weaponspells" in gw2 style, the same way that gw curses and enchantment are mostly covered by gw2 boons and conditions).

 

Renegade cover a few things as well, spirits amongst others (Kallah offering both offensive and supportive "spirits". F2/F3/F4 are bonafid spells with ritualist's taste since I don't see any other profession opening a portal throught the mist of time to bombard an area for example).

 

I, honestly, wouldn't be against something similar to his F4 skill because it continue to feed into the ritualist with the unique revenant's twist (only similar because both disenchantment and recuperation already exist in game, even displacement look awfully like fanstasmal defender). However, the whole Togo/Xun Rao thing is too incoherent. It's either one or the other but not both and togo generally isn't associated to GS even in his youth.

 

Revenant is more similar to Dervish mechanically than ritualist.  Dervishes used to channel avatars of human Gods and were a bruiser spec.  Outside of Kala, core Rev has very little in common with Ritualists other than the blindfold and the concept if the mists which they interact with completely differently.

 

Herald's mechanic is also more akin to Dervishes enchantments.

[Klowdy.3126]

On 8/22/2021 at 6:34 AM, Parthenos Polias.5683 said:

Excuse me sir, but if you've actually read my post, how many skills from the skill bar summon spirit ?
Answer is : Zero, none of them.

Actually, only F2 ; F3 and F4 summon spirits. And that's far better than the Renegade, cause you can use every legend you want, you still get access to spirits.

Moreover, the concept is based on the kind of ritualist Togo was.
And we know what kind he was, cause we could play Togo in GW1.

So guest what ? Togo skill bar only used two skills that summon spirit, only two.

That's why we may stop calling Renegade a ritualist spe, just because it does summoning.
Ranger does summoning, we do not call that being a ritualist.
Engineer does summoning (turrets), we do not call that being a ritualist.

Ritualist is a caster profession. Explain me how Renegade is a caster ? Using a bow and having no spell.
Ritualists channel energy to enhance themself or strike enemy. How many energy spell Renegade has ? None.

Another point,  Ritualists' spirits have long range, Renegade spirits use a 360 radius, almost like a dagger Ele, same radius as some ward. Basically they are destructible aoe with a max 10 s duration and funny animation.
How can you compare Renegade's spirits and Ritualists' one ?

Some people just can't see how things would be different, because they can only see what's the same. We had LB rangers dropping traps, then we got DH, which plays quite a bit differently. If we stopped putting in elite specs because they were similar to other specs, we would just stop getting new specs. Obviously things are going to seem similar when we're using the same schools (i.e. traps, mantras, physical, etc).

 

I keep hearing rev doesn't need minions because of the Kala. Just because the well looks like a ghost doesn't make less of a well, but worse. Disagree with minions all you want, but don't point at stationary, temporary summons, and say that's a minion/pet. 

[Klowdy.3126]

On 8/22/2021 at 6:34 AM, Parthenos Polias.5683 said:

Excuse me sir, but if you've actually read my post, how many skills from the skill bar summon spirit ?
Answer is : Zero, none of them.

Actually, only F2 ; F3 and F4 summon spirits. And that's far better than the Renegade, cause you can use every legend you want, you still get access to spirits.

Moreover, the concept is based on the kind of ritualist Togo was.
And we know what kind he was, cause we could play Togo in GW1.

So guest what ? Togo skill bar only used two skills that summon spirit, only two.

That's why we may stop calling Renegade a ritualist spe, just because it does summoning.
Ranger does summoning, we do not call that being a ritualist.
Engineer does summoning (turrets), we do not call that being a ritualist.

Ritualist is a caster profession. Explain me how Renegade is a caster ? Using a bow and having no spell.
Ritualists channel energy to enhance themself or strike enemy. How many energy spell Renegade has ? None.

Another point,  Ritualists' spirits have long range, Renegade spirits use a 360 radius, almost like a dagger Ele, same radius as some ward. Basically they are destructible aoe with a max 10 s duration and funny animation.
How can you compare Renegade's spirits and Ritualists' one ?

Some people just can't see how things would be different, because they can only see what's the same. We had LB rangers dropping traps, then we got DH, which plays quite a bit differently. If we stopped putting in elite specs because they were similar to other specs, we would just stop getting new specs. Obviously things are going to seem similar when we're using the same schools (i.e. traps, mantras, physical, etc).

 

I keep hearing rev doesn't need minions because of the Kala. Just because the well looks like a ghost doesn't make less of a well, but worse. Disagree with minions all you want, but don't point at stationary, temporary summons, and say that's a minion/pet. 

[Chaos.7614]

33 minutes ago, Klowdy.3126 said:

Some people just can't see how things would be different, because they can only see what's the same. We had LB rangers dropping traps, then we got DH, which plays quite a bit differently. If we stopped putting in elite specs because they were similar to other specs, we would just stop getting new specs. Obviously things are going to seem similar when we're using the same schools (i.e. traps, mantras, physical, etc).

 

I keep hearing rev doesn't need minions because of the Kala. Just because the well looks like a ghost doesn't make less of a well, but worse. Disagree with minions all you want, but don't point at stationary, temporary summons, and say that's a minion/pet. 

There's a difference between having similar specs from other classes and having similar specs from the same class. I don't think you understand that the majority of rev mains, regardless of game mode, don't want another AI spec since we literally just got one in renegade. I'm not even defending renegade - I think it's mechanically awful and uninspiring and that a mobile minion spec would've been better, but I don't want to waste an elite spec and another couple years waiting for something more engaging. If you want to play minions, you already have options and renegade is far too similar to waste another spec on gs with minions for flavor. Hell, if anet wanted to copy-paste some physical daredevil skills and throw some rev+Cantha flavor on it with good base damage and ratios, I wouldn't even be mad.

[Dadnir.5038]

On 8/27/2021 at 5:49 PM, GrayHawk.7560 said:

Revenant is more similar to Dervish mechanically than ritualist.  Dervishes used to channel avatars of human Gods and were a bruiser spec.  Outside of Kala, core Rev has very little in common with Ritualists other than the blindfold and the concept if the mists which they interact with completely differently.

 

Herald's mechanic is also more akin to Dervishes enchantments.

 

Dervich was less about "channeling avatar of human gods" than using temporary personnal enchantment. There were 5 avatars and they were far from being the core of the profession. You could say that outside herald (which is to altruist to really fit the dervich, anyway) revenant is even farther from the dervich than it is from the ritualist.

 

Saying that revenant is similar to the dervich is like saying that it's similar to the monk. It would even be closer to the monk due to it's generally altruistic nature than to the devich which was pretty much selfish with the majority of it's enchantment.

[genjonah.1253]

Really? In all honesty I thought Herald was the MOST like Dervish, not just in terms of lore so much as effective play style. Specifically when Derv was reworked to be that you drained your own enchantments to power up attacks, I saw parallels to that and busting the facets every few seconds for boosted attacks (not just for you but specced for the party potentially)

 

that’s just me, though. as much as it was touted by some as the lore successor of a Ritualist, I feel Revenant is the Dervish, through and through (not counting Renegade, which obviously draws from the Rit spirit spamming idea)

[draxynnic.3719]

8 hours ago, Dadnir.5038 said:

 

Dervich was less about "channeling avatar of human gods" than using temporary personnal enchantment. There were 5 avatars and they were far from being the core of the profession. You could say that outside herald (which is to altruist to really fit the dervich, anyway) revenant is even farther from the dervich than it is from the ritualist.

 

Saying that revenant is similar to the dervich is like saying that it's similar to the monk. It would even be closer to the monk due to it's generally altruistic nature than to the devich which was pretty much selfish with the majority of it's enchantment.

Avatars might have only been a subset, but they were a particularly build-defining subset. Possibly more importantly, though, even without avatars, a lot of dervish skills, including some of the alternative elite skills, were clearly themed towards specific gods.

 

Saying that the dervish was 'selfish' is also missing a lot of what could be done with dervish. A dervish absolutely could be set up as a party support build, particularly in terms of supporting whole-party healing.

 

Plenty of other features are dervish-like. Dervish focused a lot on close range area effects - in core rev, we see this with Jade Wind, Mallyx avatar mode, the Mallyx leap, Jalis hammers, the road, and mace skills. Dervish had a lot of 'gain health while you deal damage' type effects - core rev has lifestealing on Devastation (recently reworked but there was always some there), Enchanted Daggers, hammers, you could even say the reviled orb pickups count.

 

Genjonah has already pointed out the similarity of facets to the dervish 'consume enchantments for powerful effects' mechanic.

 

What, apart from a connection with the Mists, does rev have in common with rit? Even if hammer was functional, rev would still be the profession most oriented towards melee in the game. Three out of four core legends are oriented towards melee, and if you're running Ventari, you probably still want to be in melee so you can support with staff. Now, while melee ritualist was certainly possible, it was pretty niche. You could argue that the tablet is a bit like a spirit that you can move around, and of course there's renegade, but that's it.

 

Before HoT was announced, people were asking for a 'spirit warrior' type profession that played similar to dervish but which was religion-neutral because it channeled spirits instead of gods. This idea grew from the recognition that dervish was the playstyle that was missing, while ritualist fluff was mostly unused. This, in a nutshell, is pretty much exactly what revenant is.

[Nin.9853]

On 8/19/2021 at 5:16 AM, Parthenos Polias.5683 said:

Legendary Togo and Xun Rao's Greatsword
 

The purpose of this topic is to consider the possibility of a legend based on Togo with a new mechanism centered on Binding rituals which are skills that summon a spirit from The Underworld.

 

Legendary Togo

 

First, considering that Master Togo is already playable in the Bonus Mission Pack of Guild Wars 1 and considering that we reuse the skills of Togo as Legend, here is what the legend of Togo should look like.

 

7 skills come from the playable Togo of Guild Wars 1 and 4 are rituals bindings of Guild Wars 1.
 

(damages are basic rules of 3 from standard Guild Wars 1 health to Guild Wars 2)

 

F2 Slot

Destruction - 10 Energy ¾ Activation time 20 Recharge time

Create a Spirit that dies after 10 seconds. When this Spirit dies, all foes in the area take 696 damage for each second the Spirit was alive (maximum 4976 damage).

 

F3 Slot

Call to the Spirit Realm - 3 Activation time 25 Energy 30 Recharge time

Create three Spirits. These Spirits deal 832 damage with attacks.

These Spirits die after 60 seconds.

 

F4 Slot (Summon an spirit based on the secondary legendary stances equipped)

 

With Legendary Demon

Disenchantment - ¾ Activation time 25 Energy 45 Rechage time

Create a spirit. This spirit deals 460 damage and anyone struck by its attack loses one boon.

This spirit dies after 30 seconds.

 

With Legendary Dwarf

Displacement - ¾ Activation time 15 Energy 45 Recharge time

Create a spirit. All allies within its range are enchanted with Aegis and Protection

Every time an attack is blocked in this way, this spirit takes 60 damage.

This spirit dies after 30 seconds.

 

With Legendary Assassin

Vampirism - ¾ Activation time 10 Energy 45 Recharge time

Create a spirit. Attacks by this spirit steal up to 290 Health, and you are healed for 580 Health.

This spirit dies after 30 seconds.

 

With Legendary Centaur

Recuperation - ¾ Activation time 25 Energy 45 Recharge time

Create a spirit. Allies within its range gain Regeneration. The spirit targets allies and heals them.
This spirit dies after 30 seconds.

 

Healing Slot

Mend Body and Soul - ¾ Activation time 10 Energy 10 Recharge time

Heals for 6000. Removes one condition for each spirit within earshot.

 

Utility Slots

Spirit Burn - 1 Activation time 5 Energy 6 Recharge time

Target foe is struck for 1565 lightning damage.

If any spirits are within earshot, Spirit Burn causes Burning for 3 seconds.

 

Essence Strike - 1 Activation time 5 Energy 8 Recharge time

Target foe is struck for 1900 lightning damage.

If any spirits are within earshot, you gain 8 Energy.

 

Dragon Empire Rage - 1 Activation time 15 Energy 30 Recharge Upkeep cost -6

Unleash the rage of the Dragon Empire bloodline, dealing 581 damage to all nearby enemies every second.

You gain 5815 barrier.

 

Elite Spell

Offering of Spirit - ¼ Activation time 5 Energy 15 Recharge time

Gain 17 Energy.

Activating this skill costs additional 17% of the base Health

If any spirits are within radius, you do not sacrifice Health.

 

 

Xun Rao's Greatsword

 

Who is Xun Rao ?

 

Xun Rao is an Ecclesiate of the Ministry of Purity from Guild Wars 1 Winds of change, a chapter of Guild Wars Beyond.

 

Xun Rao has never been seen in Game but got a concept art, a miniature, a long narrative on the official page and several weapons using his name.

 

https://www.guildwars.com/windsofchange/#character1

 

In a offical Rap Battle written by Arena Net, Xun Rao is considered "the biggest threat to Cantha".

 

Why Xun Rao's Greatsword ?

 

As you can see in the concept art, Xun Rao used a nice 2-hand katana, so this could be a greatsword in Guild Wars 2.

But, and this a huge "but", the ingame Xun Rao's katana named "Xun Rao's Justice" is actually a wand, a ranged weapon, despite its Katana skin.
 

https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Xun_Rao%27s_Justice

So perhaps Revenant could get a Greatsword, but a long range greatsword, as the mesmer.

 

Thus, based on this assumption, this is a hypotetic list for Greatswrod skills, based on weapon spells, an unique mechanism from Guild Wars 1 Ritualist.

 

 

Greatsword skills

 

1- Ghostly Weapon ½ Activation time

405 Unblockable cannot be blocked

 

2- Splinter Weapon 1 Activation time 5 Energy 5 Recharge time

Attack deals 832 damage to up to 4 adjacent foes

 

3- Sundering Weapon 1 Activation time 5 Energy 10 Recharge time

Attack deals 1440. Next 3 attacks apply vulnerability and grant Fury.
 

4- Weapon of Aggression - ¼ Activation time 10 Energy 12 Recharge time

Attack deals 558. Grants Quickness.

 

5- Dulled Weapon - 1 Activation time 15 Energy 20 Recharge time

Attack deals 183. Inflict weakness and blind foes in the target area

TL:DR.

OP. Is driving in the right direction. Renegade is NOT the Ritualist reborn. A revised Guild Wars 2 Rit could bring more to the Revenant and the game as a whole than moist people seem to realize and Revenant might be the best platform for it.

OP’s vision for a true revival of the Ritualist in Guild Wars 2 is truly excellent.
 

The anti-Rit community can dismiss the subject claiming Kalla is the revised ritualist and carry on with their frustration over the continued pro-ritualist sentiment but they fail to see one fundamental truth, despite any parallels they draw between Kalla and the Ritualist of Gw1(based largely on the flimsy platform of “Kalla has ‘spirits’. Sprits=Ritualist”) the Pro-Ritualist push continues.
Is this because the Pro-Rit community is never going to be satisfied?

 

No. 

Its because Kalla and Renegade as a whole falls woefully short of embracing the most dynamic and beloved aspects of Gw1 Ritualist gameplay.

 

True, Spirit Spamming was what many, many, Ritualists of the day were known for, it was a simple, user-friendly, utterly broken play style for many years and many casual ritualists never moved beyond this to explore the deeper elements of the Ritualist (and that’s ok. Gimmick builds that define the meta game continue to be widely used to this day for a reason, they work).

However, Ritualist mains and build rafters alike know how much more the Ritualist had to offer and how much it can bring to Guild Wars 2.

—Destruction(F2) could flip over to a skill that destroys the spirit on command, much like detonating an engineer turret Or blowing up a bone minion. Add an adept trait to also make this manual detonation summon the spirit to your location BEFORE destroying it to better compliment melee play styles

 

OP’s idea for shifting the Spirit summoned with F4 based on Active Legend is truly inspired and akin to carefully selecting only the spirits that best complimented your gw1 Ritualist build and the role it was designed for. As each legend leans into a specific role the available spirit  summon SHOULD compliment that role. We saw this same principle with the changes to Facet of Nature’s Upkeep skill on Herald. 
 

As for the utility skills, the heal is simple, effective, and fits within the theme of the legend. par for the course with Revenant

—Spirit burn could add additional burning or even more conditions based on the number of spirits in range of the caster with a minor trait to change this to ‘within X range of target for’ to allow for a drastic change in how the skill is best used. 

—Essence Strike is another stroke of genius as Energy management tools are always in high demand for Rev and this could easily

make Togo(rit) stance feel more fluid and lend itself to both a rapid ‘caster’ play style with ranged GS or Hammer as well as a more aggressive melee spec with any existing one handed combo. Adding a stun break conditional on a spirit being in range also gives this ability more tactical flair and counterplay

— Rage of the Dragon Empire. Love the premise,  perhaps tweak the damage/barrier application based on whether a spirit is nearby or not, pushing the core mechanic of keeping spirit(s) in close proximity. A ‘Soothing’ GM trait could replace the damage with pulsing protection and share the barrier/boons to allies, Perhaps changing the utility name to something like ‘Wisdom of the Dragon Empire’ for those who opt into support roles.

 

The Elite. Again, I love the built in energy management, this simple skill leaves room for more augmentation via traits as well, Perhaps a GM trait to apply self-alacrity as well as restoring energy for more rapid casting/attacking on shorter CDs appealing to more Selfish builds ranged and melee alike. The cost being a greater sacrifice of 20-25% max hp if no spirit is in range. Again offering more counterplay. 
 

where spirits are concerned, treating them like most summoned allies (they take reduced splash damage when not directly targeted) could  create a more pronounced form of counterplay that focuses on targeting a Ritualists Spirits to weaken the Ritualist overall, in contrast to the current state of the game  where summoned Allies of other professions/specs are often ignored by enemies, NPC and player alike.

 

As for Greatsword, Rev already has devastating Melee options for both power and condi,, what more can you really ask for from a melee GS? More PBAoE? It can be easily built in to the profession skills and utilities as seen above, 

Another ranged weapon simply

makes more sense, to compliment a long-ranged Caster playstyle, which is completely optional and can be further reinforced with the proper traits as well. Hammer is a good ranges weapon, no argument but GS could make an excellent alternative or compliment to it by providing a wider array of both single target and targeted AoE abilities.
With this in mind, and to preserve OP’s Weapon spell theme;

Skill #1 should be a chain attack

>1a) Brutal Weapon- 900 range. Strike target.  apply vulnerability 1x(3s) if a spirit is in range.

>1b) Sundering Weapon- 1200 range.  Strike target and apply Vulnerability 2x(3s). This attack pierces and strikes up to 5 foes if a spirit is in range.

>1c) Splinter Weapon- 900 range.  Strike target and up to 4 nearby foes (300 radius). Applies Torment 1x(4s) and Vulnerability 3x(3s) if a spirit is in range.
#2 Spirit Rift- 1200 range. 8 energy. 5s Cd Open a rift at target location, after a delay(1.5s) foes in the area are struck for heavy damage. Applies torment and Vulnerability 5x(5s) on strike if a spirit is in range

#3 Spirit Boon Strike- 900 range 10 energy. 8s cd. Strike your target dealing moderate damage. If this attack hits nearby spirits are healed for 25% and gain Protection and Resolution(3s). If a spirit is healed in this way, this skill is disabled for an additional 4s

#4 Two phase skill.

>4a)Binding Chains- 900 range. 15 energy. 15s cd. Hurl chains at up to 3 foes in front on you dealing moderate damage. struck foes suffer pulsing torment and cripple for the duration(6s).ends on target if that target exceeds range threshold(1200) Up to 5 foes if a spirit is in range.

>4b) Earthbind- 1200 range.  5 energy. 15s cd.

foes under the effect of Binding Chains are immobilized(2s) applies 5x vulnerability(5s). Foes are instead knocked down(1s) and suffer 10x vulnerability(5s) if a spirit is in range.

#5a) Shelter- 20 energy. 18s Cd. Surround yourself in a protective field blocking incoming attacks(2s). If an attack is blocked gain access to Vengeful Weapon for 5 seconds)

>5b) Vengeful Weapon. 300 radius. 5 energy. 0s cd. Lash out at up to 5 nearby foes dealing moderate damage removing 1 boon and applying Daze(1.5s) Torment 2x(6s) and Vulnerability 5x(10s). Radius increased to 450 and remove 2 boons from each struck foe of a spirit is nearby.(skill becomes unavailable after use until Shelter is used to block an attack again.

 

In this way, much of the “Caster” weight of the Ritualist is Shifted to the Weapon, making it a powerful Ranged Threat but keeping the legend and its multi-faceted utility intact regardless of weapon/range preference. 

A Major trait would add a small splash healing component to OTHER allies when striking a target with a GS skill. Proper scaling from Healing Power would allow GS to become a powerful healing tool for your allies, especially those engaged in the middle of the Fray. 
 

The rest of the traits would serve to greater define the Ritualist’s ability to function as either ranged or Melee dps,(with provisions for condi or power respective to the traits or support as an counterpart to Ventari with a stronger Ranged Healer feel than Staff Ventari currently offers. The supportive traits could even come with a reduction to toughness to bring it more in line with a light armor healer

 

EDIT: to anyone wondering about the inconsistencies in range for the GS, the fundamental idea is to be able to place your spirits with what I imagine to be a ‘nearby’ radius of 600(for both the purposes of AoE effects and counting as ‘in range of a spirit’ and a projectile range of 1200 to be placed at a slight distance behind the Ritualist/away from the action before/during an engagement and the 900 range GS auto-attack would place you firmly between your spirits and your foe when wielding GS, allowing you to maximize the effect of both your GS and utility skills while not creating too large of a gap when swapping to hammer or your melee set of choice.

Edited August 31, 2021 by Nin.9853
Why not add more to read, right?:P

[draxynnic.3719]

3 hours ago, Nin.9853 said:

Is this because the Pro-Rit community is never going to be satisfied?

 

No. 

Its because Kalla and Renegade as a whole falls woefully short of embracing the most dynamic and beloved aspects of Gw1 Ritualist gameplay.

 

True, Spirit Spamming was what many, many, Ritualists of the day were known for, it was a simple, user-friendly, utterly broken play style for many years and many casual ritualists never moved beyond this to explore the deeper elements of the Ritualist (and that’s ok. Gimmick builds that define the meta game continue to be widely used to this day for a reason, they work).

However, Ritualist mains and build rafters alike know how much more the Ritualist had to offer and how much it can bring to Guild Wars 2.

 

Because sure, one more legend themed around a ritualist build is certainly going to satisfy everyone in the pro-turn-revenant-into-ritualist crowd rather than, say, encouraging people to demand yet another ritualist-themed elite specialisation to cover whatever their favourite build happened to be.

 

The wide variety of builds that ritualist had to offer is the problem.  It was probably the most versatile profession (without using a secondary profession) in GW1. You're never going to get revenant to satisfy the whole ritualist community when you're essentially doing it one build at a time, and that's without even considering the facts that the closest analogue to ritualist playstyle-wise is already engineer turrets (which have been nerfed into the abyss with no sign that they'll ever be made viable again) and to a lesser extent other engineer features that could be viewed as descendants of ritualist features into GW2 mechanics (kits = urns. Thrown elixirs have a party buffing effect that can be compared to spirit weapons. Heal support engineer is finally something that can actually work in some environments). Or that any revenant-themed elite specialisation is probably still going to be spending a good fraction of its time running a melee-oriented legend unless it's a support build that uses Ventari.

 

It just doesn't fit well on revenant where every legend is almost a self-contained build in itself and where the profession mechanic is swapping between two such builds. We could go through half a dozen ritualist themed elite specs and still not cover the full range of ritualist playstyles, while hobbling revenant from reaching its own potential due to chaining it to ritualist.

 

Want ritualist, and engineer isn't good enough for you? Find one of the other professions that already has ritualist-like themes and features (I recommend necromancer) and make an elite specialisation that brings in as many of the remaining ritualist elements as possible. Then, players can choose for themselves how to set up builds using that combination. That's still not enough? Pick another profession that already has ritualist-like themes, and do it again. You could have a necromancer elite specialisation that replicates Rt/N and N/Rt-style builds, a ranger ritualist that uses spirit weapons as venom-like effects (hello Splinter Weapon), and guardian ritualist to represent melee ritualists. Just don't keep slapping it on one profession. If they're in different elite specialisations, you're not going to be able to use them in the same build anyway, so short of ArenaNet surprising us with a tenth profession, it's all going to be parcelled out into separate packages anyway. 

 

Let revenant have its own identity. Because nothing's going to really feel like a ritualist when you're switching back to Shiro, Jalis, or Mallyx every 10-30 seconds. And if your proposed elite specialisation is going to remove legend swapping altogether, then... why have it on revenant at all when there are 8 other professions that aren't designed around legend swapping to begin with?

[Nin.9853]

1 hour ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

 

Let revenant have its own identity. Because nothing's going to really feel like a ritualist when you're switching back to Shiro, Jalis, or Mallyx every 10-30 seconds. And if your proposed elite specialisation is going to remove legend swapping altogether, then... why have it on revenant at all when there are 8 other professions that aren't designed around legend swapping to begin with?

Your point is to let the revenant have its own identity… their core design of swapping legends/roles on the fly makes them a walking Identity Crisis.. the vision for a Guild Wars 2 Ritualist outlined by OP and expanded upon by myself is just one more identity. And far from the same niche that Renegade seeks to fill. 
 

1 hour ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

to cover whatever their favourite build happened to be.

My revised format for Ritualist Traits/utilities offers much more than my favorite build. It lends itself well to almost any play style, even expanding on some that are currently lackluster or just clunky to play like heal/support Rev by incorporating the supportive GS trait and GM ‘Soothing’ trait to modify Utility #3 into a much more supportive ability..

 

1 hour ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

Because nothing's going to really feel like a ritualist when you're switching back to Shiro, Jalis, or Mallyx every 10-30 seconds.

Ritualist, much like Revenant thrives because of its versatility. The Ritualist spec as a whole with Traits, GS, profession Skills, and Togo Legend utilities will definitely have its own feel, that of an energy abundant, mid-long range support or  nuker depending on various chosen traits. However, each component on its own also serves to compliment other play styles just as we’ve seen each herald and renegade do already. The various combinations of Revenant components, their distinct legends, variety of weapons, and wide array of specialized traits are the stuff of buildcraft dreams despite utilities being locked in for each legend. There is no weapon or legend on core Rev that doesn’t stand to benefit from one or more of the elements of the proposed Ritualist., by that same token, each core legend stands to further enhance the various elements this New Ritualist would include.

[draxynnic.3719]

52 minutes ago, Nin.9853 said:

Your point is to let the revenant have its own identity… their core design of swapping legends/roles on the fly makes them a walking Identity Crisis.. the vision for a Guild Wars 2 Ritualist outlined by OP and expanded upon by myself is just one more identity. And far from the same niche that Renegade seeks to fill. 

Naturally, the person who's trying to co-opt the revenant identity in order to paste a ritualist build over it is going to claim revenant doesn't have one. 🙄

 

Revenant's core identity is, essentially, drawing on echoes of power that would normally be greater than mortals. A member of a normal profession would not simply be able to call upon the power of a dragon, a demon, the collective dwarf consciousness, or anything like that. Revenant is an opportunity to have a taste of something that would normally be beyond the reach of a playable character in Tyria - albeit, naturally, toned down to something that's actually balanced to play. There's almost an unlimited scope in what it could have, drawing from any legendary entity or event that can be imagined... except that, because of how core is set up, it's pretty much always likely to want to go into melee unless it's a support build or the player is happy to just go Shiro and Impossible Odds. It's a soldier profession, and as such, it's supposed to wade into melee.

 

It's already had a spirit spammer elite specialisation. That the precise mechanics of that aren't Ritualist-enough for you doesn't change that - revenant wasn't supposed to be a ritualist replacement to begin with. There's the potential for revenant to have such a wide range of possible playstyles across its legends, and you want a second bite at something that's already been done because the first bite wasn't close enough for you. Those of us who actually like revenant, rather than just looking at it through the lens of wanting ritualist back, should be catered to. There's the opportunity for ArenaNet to come up with something much more exciting than "here's a clone of a GW1 profession that didn't make it into GW2 intact, which will never be more than a shadow of the breadth of the original profession".

 

52 minutes ago, Nin.9853 said:

My revised format for Ritualist Traits/utilities offers much more than my favorite build. It lends itself well to almost any play style, even expanding on some that are currently lackluster or just clunky to play like heal/support Rev by incorporating the supportive GS trait and GM ‘Soothing’ trait to modify Utility #3 into a much more supportive ability..

Please. It's five utility skills, plus three profession mechanic skills, and a weapon. You can fiddle around with traits (including finding synergies with core traits), but it's basically one build: spirits supported by Channeling. Meanwhile, the only viable way I can see to make sa support build out of this is ignoring the attached legend altogether and running Ventari/Jalis.

 

Know what putting such an elite on any other profession allows? It allows actually choosing which of the new skills you're going to use rather than having a fixed set spoonfed to you. It allows mixing with the core utility skills of the profession to offer a range of options and allow you to adapt to different challenges that you might face. That sounds to me like it'd be a lot more like the original ritualist than "here's five utility skills that come as a package, five weapon skills that also come as a package, and some profession mechanic skills that of course you have because it's the elite specialisation's replacement for Ancient Echo".

52 minutes ago, Nin.9853 said:

 

Ritualist, much like Revenant thrives because of its versatility. The Ritualist spec as a whole with Traits, GS, profession Skills, and Togo Legend utilities will definitely have its own feel, that of an energy abundant, mid-long range support or  nuker depending on various chosen traits. However, each component on its own also serves to compliment other play styles just as we’ve seen each herald and renegade do already. The various combinations of Revenant components, their distinct legends, variety of weapons, and wide array of specialized traits are the stuff of buildcraft dreams despite utilities being locked in for each legend. There is no weapon or legend on core Rev that doesn’t stand to benefit from one or more of the elements of the proposed Ritualist., by that same token, each core legend stands to further enhance the various elements this New Ritualist would include.

Ritualist and revenant have very different forms of versatility. Ritualist had customisability - you could come up with a wide range of builds using the wide range of options that was available to you and come up with your own playstyle. Revenant, on the other hand, offers a set of varied playstyles as complete packages, while allowing (demanding, even, for optimal energy usage) the player to swap between two such playstyles. You have a lot of skills and therefore a large metaphorical toolkit, but customisability is low.

We've already got what is essentially a spirit legend. You're basically just asking to take another shot at that. Except that where renegade has spirits on the legend and more dynamic skills on the function bar, you want to switch that around so that the elite specialisation is always a spirit spammer regardless of what legends you have.

 

I don't see this as adding versatility to the profession. It's taking a second swing at something that's already there. I'd rather see what new thing ArenaNet can dream up over seeing Spirit Wrangler Specialisation 2.0: Spectral Bugaloo.

 

Going through Tyria's history and finding inspiration for something that's never been playable before? That interests me. Recreating SoS Channeling Ritualist? That can go on one of the professions that has already absorbed some elements of ritualist and which can freely choose their bar. I can think of ways that ritualist can be combined with other professions that would be much more interesting and truer to the GW1 ritualist than anything ritualist-related you could add to revenant.

[Parthenos Polias.5683]

3 hours ago, Nin.9853 said:

Your point is to let the revenant have its own identity… their core design of swapping legends/roles on the fly makes them a walking Identity Crisis.. the vision for a Guild Wars 2 Ritualist outlined by OP and expanded upon by myself is just one more identity. And far from the same niche that Renegade seeks to fill. 
 

....

There is no weapon or legend on core Rev that doesn’t stand to benefit from one or more of the elements of the proposed Ritualist., by that same token, each core legend stands to further enhance the various elements this New Ritualist would include.

Thank you for reading the whole OP and enhancing it.
Thank you for getting the rapid caster Identity.
Thank you  for understanding what a Ritualist was, what Togo was and everything the Renegade isn't.

 

1 hour ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

🙄Naturally, the person who's trying to co-opt the revenant identity in order to paste a ritualist build over it is going to claim revenant doesn't have one.

Clamming nonsense because you hate ritualist and as you said revenant "already had a spirit spammer elite specialisation" doesn't make a constructive reply.
Claiming again and again revenant already have a ritualist build, base on spirit spamming just prove you don't know what a ritualist is. Just prove you haven't read the OP (which is not oriented spirit spamming but casting). Just prove you haven't understood that Kalla's warband are just wells designed with a spirit look, mechanically speaking.

[Brunnsteinangel.2568]

2 hours ago, Parthenos Polias.5683 said:

Clamming nonsense because you hate ritualist and as you said revenant "already had a spirit spammer elite specialisation" doesn't make a constructive reply.
Claiming again and again revenant already have a ritualist build, base on spirit spamming just prove you don't know what a ritualist is. Just prove you haven't read the OP (which is not oriented spirit spamming but casting). Just prove you haven't understood that Kalla's warband are just wells designed with a spirit look, mechanically speaking.

 

If you want to play ritualist, play GW1.

IF you want a similar playstyle, go and play engeneer.
Heck, the new elite spec of the engeneer might very well be a "modern ritualist", using golems instead of ghosts.

 

But why do you need to add such a boring thing onto the rev?
The Revenant can offer such awesome paylstyles that _are not possible_ with anythign else, simply due to its legend system.
Why limit it to some nostalgia trip that will not be enough?

 

Please, just answer me this one question:
What can the revent offer for ritualist-style gameplay, that another class can not do better?

Or is it that you just want your spooky ghosts?

 

[draxynnic.3719]

3 hours ago, Parthenos Polias.5683 said:

Thank you for reading the whole OP and enhancing it.
Thank you for getting the rapid caster Identity.
Thank you  for understanding what a Ritualist was, what Togo was and everything the Renegade isn't.

 

Clamming nonsense because you hate ritualist and as you said revenant "already had a spirit spammer elite specialisation" doesn't make a constructive reply.
Claiming again and again revenant already have a ritualist build, base on spirit spamming just prove you don't know what a ritualist is. Just prove you haven't read the OP (which is not oriented spirit spamming but casting). Just prove you haven't understood that Kalla's warband are just wells designed with a spirit look, mechanically speaking.

I don't hate ritualist. Had a lot of fun with it back in the day. But I don't think it's in revenant's interest, or the interest of people who like revenant for its own sake, to keep chasing ritualist over and over again. 

 

Kalla is, fundamentally, a balanced mix of spirit summons. Healing spirit, a couple of spirits that buff allies, a spirit that attacks and disrupts enemies in an area, and a spirit that unleashes attacks on a single target within range. It's a broad cross-section of what spirits achieved. Most of the differences come about due to the GW2 balance environment and due to how revenant was designed. The balance team has, apparently, decided that long-lived stationary minions that are actually good is not something that can be balanced, as evidenced by the state of turrets since 2014 or so. Furthermore, the design of revenant, intended to remain in any given legend only in short bursts, means that any summon associated with it also needs to be short-lived. As a result, instead of spirits that have a sustained effect over an extended period of time, they have a powerful effect over a short time. Having a smaller area of effect allows for counterplay by getting out of the area of effect.

 

It's about as close as I can realistically see revenant getting to ritualist with rev's 'switch between two playstyle themes' design, when the other legends on offer are three that are mostly melee-oriented, and one which offers ranged support from a tablet but still really wants to be in close because the only support-oriented weapon is melee ranged.

 

You claim I haven't read your proposal. I have, and I think my judgement is correct. You've just flipped the spirits into being the function key skills rather than the legend skills. And that's the real meat of your proposal. Your weapon skills are a fairly straightforward set of attack skills (and I don't think unblockable on an autoattack is going to fly). Your healing skill is basically Soothing Stone with a conditional on the cleanse. Your Dragon Empire Rage is basically hammers with barrier instead of damage reduction and healing. Your other legend skills, apart from looking like they were copied directly out of the GW1 wiki apart from scaling up the damage, are just a mix of single target attacks and energy management - and unlike GW1 where a few points of energy are significant, given how quickly the revenant gains and loses energy, I'm not sure that eight energy here and seventeen energy there is something that's really likely to make much difference. Offering of Spirit is a net 12 energy. It takes, what, about two seconds for a revenant to recover that if not upkeeping something? If you spam Essence Strike and Offering of Spirit on recharge and don't spend any other energy I guess you could upkeep Dragon Empire Rage up indefinitely? Hardly seems all that different to 'damage all nearby enemies' upkeep skills that already exist. 

 

If you really wanted a 'spellcasting focus', I'm pretty sure you'd have a spellcasting weapon rather than a melee weapon, and you'd come up with more engaging spells in the utility slots. It's pretty clear to me that spirits are the core of the proposal. There's nothing groundbreaking there otherwise. In fact, if this was to be introduced as proposed, I'm not sure that people would even use the proposed Togo legend, unless the elite specialisation forces them to. You'd be better off...hrrrmn, everything else is power, so probably bouncing between Shiro and Jalis just like the shortbow PvP renegade build does. If you really wanted to double down on upkeep skills that damage the surrounding area, I guess you could go Jalis/Togo or go with a hybrid build and go Mallyx/Togo, but that's not exactly bringing something new (heck, if you use a mix of power and condi like Viper's, Sinister, Grieving or Celestial, Mallyx/Jalis is already a thing with more interesting alternatives to the upkeep skills).

 

I'd love to see a better interpretation of ritualist into GW2. This isn't it. And I don't think anything based on the revenant chassis can be it. Necromancer could do it, I think. Ranger, possibly replacing the pet with some sort of spirit guide. Guardian, possibly summoning spirits of their three virtues. But not revenant.

 

While if you actually want a spellcasting focus, there are also better options. Lord Odran is a blank slate (and a bigger deal than Togo). Zinn could potentially generate a range of effects such as area protection (would need to be distinct from Ventari's bubble), bombarding an area with explosive golems, imprisoning enemies in energy fields, terraforming-themed skills, and heck, maybe even a turret or two based on the Rata Novus defenses. And that's just off the top of my head.

 

Either way, I don't think this proposal is happening. Putting everything else aside, the serrated-edge greatsword and spiked armour of the silhouette really doesn't scream Togo to me. But continued demands for ritualist-themed revenant elite specialisations are something I can only see holding revenant back while never really appeasing ritualist fans, because ritualist is just far too broad a proffession to compress into five utility skills, up to five weapon skills, and up to four profession mechanic skills (GW2 uses F5 sparingly but it does get used). To have any chance, it needs to be added to a profession that already has some ritualist-like aspects - or, better yet, several such professions to cater for a wider range of possible playstyles and themes, including those that used the secondary profession mechanic.

[Buran.3796]

  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). 

[RabbitUp.8294]

9 hours ago, Nin.9853 said:

Your point is to let the revenant have its own identity… their core design of swapping legends/roles on the fly makes them a walking Identity Crisis.. the vision for a Guild Wars 2 Ritualist outlined by OP and expanded upon by myself is just one more identity. And far from the same niche that Renegade seeks to fill. 

And yet that new identity always end up being ritualist. I have yet to see "here's how a monk/mesmer/whatever legend would work".

 

The identity of revenant is channeling powerhouses of Tyria's past, wielding power that players were not supposed to have. An assassin or thief would never expect to be able to control the Jade Winds, but as a revenant you are allowed to. Yet, instead of looking at these great figures, we have posts like "Togo, a standard ritualist with no special skills of his own, is a great legend to channel, for no reason other than the fact that he is a ritualist, and I want to play a ritualist". 

 

No, I want to have the power of the mursaat, control the Foefire, channel the dead gods or the elder dragons. When you have access to that kind of power, why would you want to limit the class to random nobodies like Togo, or Talon, or some random character whose greatest accomplishment is appearing in the first game?

[draxynnic.3719]

31 minutes ago, RabbitUp.8294 said:

control the Foefire

Ironically, this would probably still have at least something in common with ritualist, since I can't really see controlling the Foefire being done without at least one "invoke ghosts" skill in there. Would probably still be more legendary than just copying over a common channeling build, however.

[RabbitUp.8294]

4 minutes ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

Ironically, this would probably still have at least something in common with ritualist, since I can't really see controlling the Foefire being done without at least one "invoke ghosts" skill in there. Would probably still be more legendary than just copying over a common channeling build, however.

Not necessarily. 

 

Foefire made everyone it killed into a ghost, but instead of having rev summon those existing ghosts, it could have us "create" them instead. So for example, your teammates that are about to die or are downed, are revived by the foefire with a skill like Rebound or Illusion of Life. Maybe even use the new fancy negative max hp to represent the foefire corruption.

[draxynnic.3719]

5 minutes ago, RabbitUp.8294 said:

Not necessarily. 

 

Foefire made everyone it killed into a ghost, but instead of having rev summon those existing ghosts, it could have us "create" them instead. So for example, your teammates that are about to die or are downed, are revived by the foefire with a skill like Rebound or Illusion of Life. Maybe even use the new fancy negative max hp to represent the foefire corruption.

Perhaps, but that seems like it'd be overly focused on competitive modes or for keeping less skilled players alive in PvE, without offering a lot when, say, playing solo. Those sorts of skills work well on other professions because you can swap it out individually in circumstances where it wouldn't be relevant.

 

I could see a skill that temporarily turns your allies into ghosts or something, but it'd be hard to make distinct from the Rite of the Great Dwarf. Simplest approach would probably be to make something similar to Rise! or Summon Madness in just summoning a bunch of relatively short-lived minions in one go, or having the ghosts behave like phantasms in that they make one attack and then disappear. Wouldn't want to have more than one such skill, though, or it could end up feeling like a 'make revenant into necromancer/mesmer' legend. Could see it being an elite that damages all enemies within an area, but instead of killing them and turning them into a ghost, it's taking just a little bit of their soul and turning it into a short-lived ghost.

[RabbitUp.8294]

9 hours ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

Perhaps, but that seems like it'd be overly focused on competitive modes or for keeping less skilled players alive in PvE, without offering a lot when, say, playing solo. Those sorts of skills work well on other professions because you can swap it out individually in circumstances where it wouldn't be relevant.

 

I could see a skill that temporarily turns your allies into ghosts or something, but it'd be hard to make distinct from the Rite of the Great Dwarf. Simplest approach would probably be to make something similar to Rise! or Summon Madness in just summoning a bunch of relatively short-lived minions in one go, or having the ghosts behave like phantasms in that they make one attack and then disappear. Wouldn't want to have more than one such skill, though, or it could end up feeling like a 'make revenant into necromancer/mesmer' legend. Could see it being an elite that damages all enemies within an area, but instead of killing them and turning them into a ghost, it's taking just a little bit of their soul and turning it into a short-lived ghost.

They could also just use ghosts for the aesthetic alone, i.e. a damage skill whose visuals are some ghosts rushing forward (think Hecarim R from LoL if you are familiar with that), instead of proper A.I summons.

[GrayHawk.7560]

I'm definitely not one to be calling for Ritualist but if we do have anything related I don't think it will be Togo, there's more chance of it being Razah, Razah would also be very interesting thematically but I have no idea how they would incorporate his shape shifting shtick into the utilities.

 

Could be pretty cool though.

 

As a slight hint for why this may be possible, look at the Lore entry for Exordium....

"Explorers venture into the Mists, and sometimes the Mists venture back. Though far less sentient than the Mist-being Razah, Exordium takes some joy in adapting to its wielder's needs and expectations."

 

Also I'm now daunted by the fact that I may need to actually craft the kitten thing since it's thematically perfect for a Revenant.  

 

Maybe our GS gets the trident treatment after all?

Edited September 1, 2021 by GrayHawk.7560
Spelling and putting in the lore entry

[genjonah.1253]

I’ve been saying Razah or Zei Ri should be over Togo since the beginning. Also, I know it would be awkward to have another Dwarf, but Duncan the Black was a ridiculously powerful Ritualist. Togo was a good guy, but I don’t think he would be worthy of ‘legendary channeling’

 

all this being said, I still don’t expect it to go the route of Ritualist at all, as much as I would have liked it

[draxynnic.3719]

Given that legends tend to be made from characters who are out of the picture one way or another, I'd be surprised to see Razah as a legend. He hasn't really achieved anything that we know of apart from being the sidekick of the GW1 PC, so if he does get used as more than a namedrop, I'd prefer to see him as an actual character rather than be told he did something impressive offscreen that made him a legend.

 

Given his transformative nature, though, could be interesting if it turns out he was the one who first developed revenant techniques, and told Glint about them at some point so she could teach Rytlock in turn. 

[Parthenos Polias.5683]

 

On 9/1/2021 at 12:03 AM, Brunnsteinangel.2568 said:

But why do you need to add such a boring thing onto the rev?

The Revenant can offer such awesome paylstyles that _are not possible_ with anythign else, simply due to its legend system.
Why limit it to some nostalgia trip that will not be enough?

 

Please, just answer me this one question:
What can the revent offer for ritualist-style gameplay, that another class can not do better?

"Boring" is your point of view.
Imho, Ritualist in the OP way isn't boring.
Ritualist play style with must synergy with the spirits to be effective is'nt boring and is awesome.

About "nostalgia", i think nostalgia is a huge part of Revenant's identity.
Shiro, Jalis, Mallix are nostalgic sweets.

"What can the revent offer for ritualist-style gameplay, that another class can not do better?"
In two words : Energy Management.

Energy Management has always be a huge part of Ritualist.
And as you can see the OP, the caster/Togo way of the Ritualist has energy management mechanisms.
So, this is the only GW2 profession which can handle that.

On the lore side, Ritualist are described in Manuscript as : "They hood their eyes to better commune with spirits that grant great power and protection to Ritualists and their comrades."
If you don't see why Revenant is so close from than description, I can't help you.

 

 

On 9/1/2021 at 1:35 AM, draxynnic.3719 said:

I don't hate ritualist. Had a lot of fun with it back in the day. But I don't think it's in revenant's interest, or the interest of people who like revenant for its own sake, to keep chasing ritualist over and over again.
(...)

You claim I haven't read your proposal. I have, and I think my judgement is correct.

And this reply is way more explicit than the previous ones and your "already had a spirit spammer elite specialisation". Thank you for that.

I also appreciate than you react about the OP skills rather than to the ritualist side.

 

On 9/1/2021 at 1:35 AM, draxynnic.3719 said:

Your healing skill is basically Soothing Stone with a conditional on the cleanse.
(...) Hardly seems all that different to 'damage all nearby enemies' upkeep skills that already exist.

 

As i see your "basically" and "hardly seems all that different" just give more credits to the OP.
One of the purpose of the OP was to show how a Togo specialisation fits with actual GW2 gameplay, and won't be a fantasy thing totally broken, OP, unrealistic.

It's realistic because you can compare it to the actual skills from GW2.
I do agree than some skills need to be more balanced and some numerics to be raised or lowered.

 

On 9/1/2021 at 1:35 AM, draxynnic.3719 said:

If you really wanted a 'spellcasting focus', I'm pretty sure you'd have a spellcasting weapon rather than a melee weapon, and you'd come up with more engaging spells in the utility slots.

 

Revenant got a long range hammer and an melee range staff.
So can we really talk about "a spellcasting weapon" when the Revenant is concerned ?

 

 

On 9/1/2021 at 1:35 AM, draxynnic.3719 said:

To have any chance, it needs to be added to a profession that already has some ritualist-like aspects

So your whole point about : Kalla is a "ritualist-like aspect" is giving more credits to the Revenant being the profession to implemant a channeling spe.
Just using your own analyse.

 

 

On 9/1/2021 at 2:17 AM, Buran.3796 said:

 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.

First, some description from Revenant's skills.

Slam the ground with your hammer, creating a cascading eruption of energy.
Create a field from the Mists that blocks incoming projectiles in front of you.
 Summon a massive hammer from the Mists to strike the ground.
Create a rift from the Mists that blocks incoming attacks. When the rift closes it blinds foes in front of you.
Release a burst of Mists energy that heals and removes conditions from allies.

Strike all nearby foes, then release a burst of mist energy that deals a second strike.

Slice through the air, sending a wave of energy from the Mists toward your foe and dealing rapid strikes.

Smash your mace into the ground, causing flames to erupt from the Mists.

Throw a mist spear toward your foe, inflicting increasing durations of torment the closer the foe is to you.
Launch a sphere outward from the Mists.

Unleash the Mists toward your enemies, changing effects based on your current legend.
Open the Mists around you to fire multiple projectiles at your enemy, with a chance to inflict conditions based on your current legend.

Release a blast of Mists energy that heals allies and knocks enemies back, infusing your foes with dangerous power.

Release the Mists from your aura with a chance to inflict conditions based on your current legend.
Throw energy at your target, slowing them.
 Pull energy towards you from the Mists, damaging nearby foes.

Is it enough to prove how Revenants and Ritualists are bound through the way they use Mists and Energy ?
So the called "mostly brutal physical attacks" look more "spell like" ones, isn't it ?

And, by the way, the Revenant is "equipped with the otherworldly powers of the Mists" (official site) and for the Ritualist, "The energy they channel drives Ritualist skills which wreak havoc on an enemy's health" (official manuscript).
Is it enough similarities for you ? Are the Ritualist enough brutal and powerfull for you ?

Second, the "heavy armor class" already got a healing spe. So, he can get a casting spe.
About your "semi-naked spellcaster"...
What do you think about the semi-naked centaur ?

Third, Mesmer is all about trickery.
Clone trickery, Phantasm trickery, Time trickery, Mirage trickery.
Ritualist is nothing about trickery.

 

20 hours ago, genjonah.1253 said:

 Togo was a good guy, but I don’t think he would be worthy of ‘legendary channeling’

 

He was more than "a good guy".
He was "key to several Canthan military victories"
He was "a Ritualist of uncanny ability"

He did unite Kurzick and Luxon

"The Tengu saw the valor in Togo's heart."

"And while not all of them listened to his council..."

"Enough trusted Master Togo to be their champion."

"To end the war between man and Tengu.

He was "one of the most respected figures in Canthan society"
His spirit was ensconced at Tahnnakai Temple and named "Defender of Cantha".

He was from Dragon Empire bloodine ; reason why he was the only one who could unleash "the Dargon Empire Rage"

That's why a Revenant native from Cantha would like to channel such a important "good guy".

[ScottBroChill.3254]

^^^ This person gets it