Starter/overview rev guide request

[rhaize.8762]

Hey all,

 

I've recently returned to GW2 after being on and off and this time round i want to stick to it a little longer with hopefully no distractions (life has a way though i'm sure).

 

I started with a DH guard and have kept that one character since pre-HoT however i wanted to try something different and the rev draw me in from a lore, aesthetic and to a degree, the combat style. I did some due dilligence before committing through googling, searching here and of course the fountain of truth (reddit) on complexity and how it serves in OW, as well as trying it out myself on the 80 boost phase in silverwastes. All was good, i enjoyed it, i liked the sw/sw combat style and pushed the button.

 

Now i've unlocked renegade and started going down that route, i'm struggling in 80 content in HoT/PoF to get 'the most' out of the class and realised it is actually more complex than i originally thought.  Normally i'm ok with complex classes in MMO's but i'm struggling to get to grips with this one and all the guides i can find, metabattle/SC builds, youtube videos etc keep showing dummy runs with huge numbers, dropping skills all over the place, talking about how the uptime of alacrity etc are 100% and the sustain is unbelievable (The amount of times i read that rev is unkillable in OW is bonkers) yet i can't for the life of me figure out the actual mechanics of how this works,

 

I've read the skill descriptions which are...loose at best and i'm looking for a little guidance or some pointers on how to actually play rev effectively and explains the reason why certain skills are used in a certain order or which ones compliment others to achieve said "amazing capability" of the rev.

 

At the moment i'm going down the power rene route, but i'm open to any builds etc really - ideally i'd like a generic overview so i can just play it how i want to play it rather than copy/paste build templates and hope they work!

 

Am i asking for too much or have i just missed a key guide somewhere? 

 

Thanks!

Edited October 22, 2021 by rhaize.8762
Change to wording

[Catchyfx.5768]

SC build is for instanced endgame content, where you wanna minmax 10man group.

 

In openworld it is different, renegade right now is very strong. Find on youtube Lord Hizen, he is making OW super builds. I think it is condi renegade using mallyx and kalla

Corruption,devastation,renegade.

Maximizing condi, utilizing lifesteal from devastation.

 

In OW you have to sometimes change legends if you need stability for example, because you cannot change only one skill.

 

Otherwise, this build is fire and ez to pull off. Maybe it will be costly. I will try to find it.

[LucianTheAngelic.7054]

The biggest and most versatile form of sustain on revenant currently is from the Devastation traitline grandmaster trait Dance of Death.  Every time you inflict vulnerability on a foe you get a stack of "Battle Scars" which allows you to, on subsequent attacks, steal life.  This synergizes extremely well if you can inflict high amounts of vulnerability and also hit frequently.  Currently, sword auto attacks inflict vulnerability and Shackling Wave (sword 4) inflicts a nice 10 stacks of vuln (so gives you 10 stacks of battle scars).  More importantly the legend ability Icerazor in Kalla inflicts a MASSIVE 40 stacks of vuln over the course of its 6 second effect time. Combined with AoEs and multi-hits (like Darkrazor's Daring, 5 targets, 6 pulses) you can quickly build and spend battle scar stacks which allows you to resustain quickly even when your regular heals are off CD. 

The benefit of this trait and its synergy with Icerazor + multi-hit skills is that it's equally applicable on both condi and power builds (power has more vuln application, but tends to "spend" battle scars slower, while condi has more AoE and can spend the scars faster, but generates it slower naturally outside of icerazor), so you can get a lot of benefit out of it from whichever form of Renegade build you want to play.  This also applies to all builds regardless of stats, so you can use it on a glass cannon berserker/viper build or on something tankier like celestial/trailblazer, etc. so if you want/need to build tankier for whatever reason you absolutely can (and celestial Renegade is still extremely strong as a condi build). 

So if you're having trouble, make you're taking Dance of Death in Devastation and then learn the Icerazor -> AoE multi hit combos (easy ones are Icerazor + Darkrazor on a group, or Icerazor + Sevenshot if running shortbow).  Proper kiting is essential too...you can facetank a lot with the lifesteal, but not all situations will let you do that. 

There's a lot more to sustain for rev than just this, but hopefully this can get you started and pointed in the right direction since it's by far the most impactful part of Rev's sustain game at the moment. 

[Buran.3796]

9 hours ago, rhaize.8762 said:

Now i've unlocked renegade and started going down that route, i'm struggling in 80 content in HoT/PoF to get 'the most' out of the class and realised it is actually more complex than i originally thought.  

 

I've read the skill descriptions which are...loose at best and i'm looking for a little guidance or some pointers on how to actually play rev effectively and explains the reason why certain skills are used in a certain order or which ones compliment others to achieve said "amazing capability" of the rev.

 

 

   Mechanically, the two main features of the Revenant are the use of energy as and extra "currency" you must spent to execute a lot (most) of the skills and the simultaneous use two of legends which gives you diferent sets of predefined skills but prevents the use of racial skills or a direct customization of our skills (as other classes do).

  The main mechanics of energy are easy: off combat you have 50 units, and when you are in combat you gain 5 units x seconds and the max energy cap is raised to 100. Your RESET your energy to 50 units every time you swap your legend (exception: Invocation's trait "Charged Mist" resets your energy to 75/75/60 in PvE/WvW/PvP when the swap is dome with yoir energy at 10 or below).  Most of the skills have both a energy cost and a recovery time (cooldowns); but others have instead a upkeep cost while they activate an active effect. Herald's skills work a bit as signets, since you have passive effects if you pay the upkeeps but also a more powerful but brief effect with no cost which you can activate at the enpense of putting them on cooldown. Try also to avoid falling below 1 energy at all cost since when 0 is reached you don't regenerate energy in the next ~4 seconds.

 

   Since you're talking about PvE and OW specifically I'll keep the things simple. You can run Revenant using either power (strike) oriented builds or condition centered ones. In PvE as a rule condition based ones are stronger due they have better AoE damage, only need two main stats (condition damage and condition duration) opposed strike (power, crit chance, crit damage) so you have free stats to asign to extra power (viper and grieving stats) or go extra tanky (dire or trailblazer).  Condi also has better ranged tools compared to power damage in PvE (comparing hammer to short bow, albeit that one requires to run a Renegade). But that doesn't mean that power Revenant's can't do PvE: just is slower killing things, specially crowds. In WvW/PvP power builds can be stronger.

 

   Traitlines and legends are usually focused in some specific task: Devastation in dealing more physical damage and siphoning life (but can also benefit condition builds); Corruption in enhancing our condition damage; Retribution gives us more tankiness and defensive tools; Salvation enhances our healing and support abilities. Finally, Invocation is a traitline centered in enhancing each legend and the legend swap mechanic, so oftenly is used by a lot of builds no matter their nature (not mandatory, tho).

   Legends have their "personality", also: Shiro provides mobility, evasion and physical damage; Jalis tankiness and survability; Mallyx condition damage, resistance/resolution and boon stripping; Ventari healing and support. Herald shares and enhances a lot of boons and Renegade provides group alacrity and enhances team damage. ALL the traitlines and legends have plenty of cc and team support in different ways (Revenants are team frindly, really).

    Revenant has currently a good place in the WvW and PvP metas  with some very viable builds, and has a solid place in instanced PvE content (mostly Renegade variants) but in solo PvE is arguably -at the moment- the strongest class in the game, thanx mostly to the condi Renegade and the condi Herald builds (as was said, you will find  exceptionally well explained and showcased examples of both in the Lord Hizen channel in Youtube).

    BUT mind that those builds require quite expensive gear for a newcomer (tormenting runes or nightmare ones) and good knownledge of the champions/bounties mechanics and a fine use of the Revenant to have success.

   I recently rised my third Rev across HoT/PoF using two core builds (one based in physical damage and other in conditions) just with core legends and traits without problems (can provide those if you want) but as I said knownledge about enemy mechanics and practice with Rev's weapons and legends is more inportant that just showcasing a build. Both use Invocation and Retribution, changing Devastation and Corruption based on the desired source of damage.

   Being said that: once you unlock the specs, you'll be in a stronger place, specially the Renegade. Core is very capable (and condi Core will work better in HoT due a lot of the enemies there have high armor values, which are ignored by conditions but mitigate a lot of our power damage. Condi Renegade is the ultimate PvE bulldozer, tho: you'll curbstomp most of crowds at range before they can even touch you, and bosses are just matter of  focusing  in avoiding the dangerous attacks and spam condi burst while recovering life.

 

 

[rhaize.8762]

Thanks for this everyone! This is an incredibly helpful set of information!

 

I've changed over to condi renegade again and spent more time re-reading the comments above and figuring out which skills trigger which boons and the effects and it's helped greatly!

 

I tend to start off combat by dropping icerazer and darkrazer then swapping to mallyx and going through 1-4 mace/axe skills and banish enchantment if i need. Am i missing much in a basic rotation right now? I tend to drop bombardment from rene when i remember or need. I barely use heroic command or orders from above - i don't fully understand their purpose other than adding boons (i get that alacrity is THE boon to want but i can't seem to keep it up and i don't feel like smashing it every time it's off CD.

[Catchyfx.5768]

F2 and F4 commands are good if you are in group of ppl. For yourself you can use F3 if you have lot energy or you wanna burst something( good condi and power dmg). They are good if you have xy energy left and wanna drain them before legend swap.

 

Shortbow is great too. 5->4->3 is strong too. For opening.

 

Just fight fight and fight and you will get the flow. You will find yourself a style how to do things.

[idolin.2831]

23 hours ago, rhaize.8762 said:

I tend to start off combat by dropping icerazer and darkrazer then swapping to mallyx and going through 1-4 mace/axe skills and banish enchantment if i need. Am i missing much in a basic rotation right now? I tend to drop bombardment from rene when i remember or need. I barely use heroic command or orders from above - i don't fully understand their purpose other than adding boons (i get that alacrity is THE boon to want but i can't seem to keep it up and i don't feel like smashing it every time it's off CD.

 

That sounds like a good start. I also start off fights with Icerazor, Darkrazor if the target(s) has a breakbar or can be cc'd, or Razorclaw's Rage otherwise, and swap to Mallyx. Once you're in Mallyx, turn on the Elite skill to pulse Torment and use weapon skills - for mace/axe it'll be 1, 2, 3 and 5 (all gives good damage and condis, while 4 is only good imo if you need a teleport), and for shortbow all the skills are good for condi Renegade.

 

As for the F2-F4 skills:

• F2 (Heroic Command) refreshes the duration of Kalla's Fervor - 2% (3% if traited) damage per stack, max 5 stacks, and gives you mights per Kalla's Fervor stack. I try to use it off cooldown to give me 15 stacks of might.
• F3 (Bombardment) is probably only good on very large targets, and on power builds, so I don't use it while I'm on condi.
• F4 (Orders from Above) is expensive, I only really use it when I have excess energy in Kalla. I try to use it when I'm in a group event and there are other people that can benefit from it. I hardly use it when I'm by myself.