Vindicator 2.0

[DanielPienaar.8094]

Introduction

This post summarizes some possible changes that can be made to Vindicator to make its playstyle a lot more fluid, and maybe match the DPS output of high-DPS professions, and possibly specialize into a support role that could also match with high-support roles. Throughout this post, I make reference to the skills available. I have added some extra skills, and changed some others, and of course traits. The traits I suggest point to the dodge ability, and the suggested Profession Mechanic Changes. Where I say 'nearby allies', it is also implied that you receive the effects.

Link to the Vindicator skills and traits:

Vindicator - Guild Wars 2 Wiki (GW2W)

 

Profession Mechanic Changes

Firstly, the when in the Legendary Alliance Stance, using the utility skills no longer 'flips' the skill between the two legends Archemorus and Saint Viktor. There are changes surround this discussed in this section, and in the Traits section.

F2: Energy Meld. This is now permanently available to all Legendary Stances, including Legendary Alliance Stance. No cast time, and the energy cost is reduced to 15 from 25. The endurance gain is reduced from 20 to 10.

F3: Alliance Tactics. This is available to all Legendary Stances. This ability summons the spirits of Saint Viktor and Archemorus. After a short delay (say 0.5 seconds), Saint Viktor performs a small heal in the area that he was summoned at (radius similar to the Renegade's spirits) and Archemorus teleports to your target (if you have one) and damages them for a small amount. This teleport would be similar to the Revenant's offhand sword skill 5 ability Deathstrike in its nature. The spirits themselves would look like the one summoned in the Vindicator's elite skill Spear of Archemorus, but Archemorus would now have a sword, and Saint Viktor would be blue. Instant cast, energy cost 15.

F4: Alliance Lock. This ability works similarly to Alliance Tactics, in that it flips your legend in Legendary Alliance Stance, but it is a permanent flip, so you can keep using either Archemorus' or Saint Viktor's skills without going to the other. However, when using this skill, all of your Legendary Alliance Stance utilities incur a 5 second cooldown. This ability itself has no cooldown or energy cost, and is only available in the Legendary Alliance Stance. There is also no energy or endurance gain associated with this - it is purely for control over using Archemorus or Saint Viktor skills.

 

Slot Skills

The only skill I talk about here are the elite skills, none of the other utility skills are spoken about (and so remain unchanged).

Spear of Archemorus: In addition to summoning the spirit of Archemorus to throw his spear at your target, Archemorus also summons 3 additional spirits (say members of his past unit) to continuously attack your target or foes around your target at melee range. This becomes an upkeep skill, at the cost of 6 or 7 energy pips. The longer the 3 additional spirits attack your target, the stronger Archemorus' spear throw becomes. This can be similar to the interaction with the Vindicator's greatsword skill 4 ability Imperial Guard where every successful strike increases the spear throw by a marginal amount. Reactivating the ability, or running out of energy, commences the throwing of the spear. There can be a 40 second cooldown associated with this.

Urn of Saint Viktor: Summon the spirit of Saint Viktor to follow you around (at your pace) and heal nearby allies continuously. Your healing to allies also increases by 10%, and you grant a barrier equal to 10% of the healing done by this skill. Your health is not drained, but you do 50% less damage of all types. This remains an upkeep skill of the same cost, and can be cancelled at any point. No cooldown (or 2 seconds as it is currently).

 

Traits

Here, I think it is a good idea to swap the Major Adept and Major Master skills around, so that the traits associated with energy-gain from the dodge ability are the Adept traits. I speak about them in this manner below. I thought about making the Major Grandmaster Traits the Major Master Traits instead, but that order does not really matter. I did not change the names of any of the traits. I speak on changes the dodge itself (Minor Adept Trait Tenacious Ruin) before the Major Grandmaster Traits, which affect the dodge ability too. I also suggest two different styles of the dodge ability traits.

Minor Traits (Excluding the first: Tenacious Ruin)

1. Master - Balance in Discord: Gain health and boons when swapping legends or by using (the new) Energy Meld (F2).
2. Grandmaster - Empire Divided: No change.

Major Adept Traits (Swapped placement with current Vindicator Master traits. These are the endurance-gain-from-dodge traits.)

1. 1XX - Reaver's Curse: No change.
2. 2XX - Angsiyan's Trust: No change.
3. 3XX - Song of Arboreum: No change.

Major Master Traits (Swapped placement with current Vindicator Adept traits)

1. X1X - Leviathan Strength: Alliance Tactics (F3) deals more damage, applies Torment on hit, and grants Might and Quickness (maybe) to nearby allies.
2. X2X - Amnesty of Shing Jea: Alliance Tactics (F3) heals for more, applies Regeneration and grants a small barrier to nearby allies.
3. X3X - Redemptor's Salvation: You no longer have access to Alliance Lock (F4) in Legendary Alliance Stance, and so your utility skills in this stance now flip. However, their cooldowns are reduced by 20% and energy cost by 10%. Energy Meld (F2) now grants Vigor and 10 endurance to you and nearby allies. For clarity, you will only have access to the F2 and F3 abilities.

 

Minor Adept: Tenacious Ruin. This is the signature dodge ability for the revenant. This dodge now provides immunity to all damage while in the dodge mechanic (but does not remove conditions). The following two styles of Major Grandmaster Traits change the dodge ability quite a bit, in how it works and in some cases, how it looks. You still have only 1 dodge charge.

Major Grandmaster Traits (Style 1)

The dodge, regardless of the choice of trait, has the same animation and endurance cost, the areas affected as stipulated by the original traits also remains unchanged, but you gain Superspeed for the duration of the dodge.

1. XX1 - Forerunner of Death: The duration of the dodge is reduced by 33%. While in the dodge, gain personal Alacrity at an increased effectiveness (say 50%). You gain a 15% damage increase as the dodge ends, and increase the damage of nearby allies by 1%. The dodge deals more damage than the original version of this trait as well. Possibility: activating this dodge while immobilized removes the immobilized condition at the cost of -50% endurance recovery for 3 seconds. 
2. XX2 - Vassals of the Empire: The duration of the dodge is reduced by 33%. No change to boons granted, damage done and conditions given, but you also supply Quickness and Swiftness to nearby allies.
3. XX3 - Saint of zu Heltzer: No change, except that Healing Power is increased instead of outgoing healing. This would then grant more barrier on the proceeding dodges. This will also affect up to 10 allies.

Major Grandmaster Traits (Style 2)

The dodge, regardless of the choice of trait, has the same endurance cost, and the areas affected as stipulated by the original traits also remains unchanged.

1. XX1 - Forerunner of Death: Identical to the trait described in Style 1 (including animation and Superspeed).
2. XX2 - Vassals of the Empire: New animation: You turn into your mist form, leap into the air (not very high, more like how high a warrior leaps with their Stomp ability) and slam the grand, which also opens that 'mist rift' beneath you (this will not lock you in place). The length of this dodge is the same as in Style 1. No change to boons granted, damage done and conditions given, but you also supply Quickness and Swiftness to nearby allies (same damage and boons as Style 1).
3. XX3 - Saint of zu Heltzer: New animation: You turn into your mist form and thrust your weapon up into the sky, which also opens that 'mist rift' beneath you (this will not lock you in place). The length of this dodge is the same as in Style 1. Same effects as in Style 1.

 

Weapon Skills

No changes here. The greatsword skills are fun.

 

Ending

I tried to be as clear as possible. While I enjoyed the Vindicator, it did not feel fluid enough for me, and the dodge felt like it was missing something. While giving the ability of Revenant's to now also be a source of Quickness and Barrier might seem like it could be unfair on other professions, the timeline of Guild Wars 2 is long and I will not be surprised if one day every profession has the ability to do anything in the game, be it support, damage or a mix in any way, shape and form. Allowing more professions to supply some unique benefits doesn't make it unfair on other professions, it rather opens up the playing field for more profession combinations. That way, if we give power to every profession, we don't have to stick to the meta "QFB" or "HScourge", we can instead look for anyone to supply anything, and actually just enjoy the game. 

Also, I read a post somewhere on Reddit where it was suggested that as we get each elite specialization, it should be made possible for those weapons brought with those elite specs to be able to be used by any other spec (elite or core) of that profession. I think that is a great idea, and will not break the game, but enhance it.

Edited September 25, 2021 by DanielPienaar.8094
Formatting

[Kidel.2057]

12 hours ago, DanielPienaar.8094 said:

F2: Energy Meld. This is now permanently available to all Legendary Stances, including Legendary Alliance Stance. No cast time, and the energy cost is reduced to 15 from 25. The endurance gain is reduced from 20 to 10.

F3: Alliance Tactics. This is available to all Legendary Stances. This ability summons the spirits of Saint Viktor and Archemorus. After a short delay (say 0.5 seconds), Saint Viktor performs a small heal in the area that he was summoned at (radius similar to the Renegade's spirits) and Archemorus teleports to your target (if you have one) and damages them for a small amount. This teleport would be similar to the Revenant's offhand sword skill 5 ability Deathstrike in its nature. The spirits themselves would look like the one summoned in the Vindicator's elite skill Spear of Archemorus, but Archemorus would now have a sword, and Saint Viktor would be blue. Instant cast, energy cost 15.

F4: Alliance Lock. This ability works similarly to Alliance Tactics, in that it flips your legend in Legendary Alliance Stance, but it is a permanent flip, so you can keep using either Archemorus' or Saint Viktor's skills without going to the other. However, when using this skill, all of your Legendary Alliance Stance utilities incur a 5 second cooldown. This ability itself has no cooldown or energy cost, and is only available in the Legendary Alliance Stance. There is also no energy or endurance gain associated with this - it is purely for control over using Archemorus or Saint Viktor skills.

Very nice. 

[MatyrGustav.6210]

I like this very much. Great job. 

[DanielPienaar.8094]

Obviously, this is arm-chair optimization and I haven't run any scripts or made any spreadsheets, but it seems to be a more fluid (and fun with the additional spirits) type of build, that could work as support or power DPS.

[ManinErent.8973]

I'm sorry but you create a class that the mechanic is to keep switching skills and leave optional switching skills?  the Revenant already has a support class, it doesn't need another one, what makes me want to play with it now?  if I want a support I get Druid or dragon specialization from that same character who is superior, you create a very fun mechanic to keep flopping skills and take away leaving one of the two totally optional and obsolete, if you were to do that it makes 2 heroes different for the specialization and presto, from a totally innovative and fun class to another generic class with a different dodge

[ManinErent.8973]

19 minutes ago, ManinErent.8973 said:

I'm sorry but you create a class that the mechanic is to keep switching skills and leave optional switching skills?  the Revenant already has a support class, it doesn't need another one, what makes me want to play with it now?  if I want a support I get Druid or dragon specialization from that same character who is superior, you create a very fun mechanic to keep flopping skills and take away leaving one of the two totally optional and obsolete, if you were to do that it makes 2 heroes different for the specialization and presto, from a totally innovative and fun class to another generic class with a different dodge

 

[ManinErent.8973]

you could at least leave the old one as a perk, Holo style that the last 3 perks of it practically change the mechanics of the class, you already have the data so it's easy to do that, but I bought this expansion just because of the Revenant and I am very discouraged after this change