Bringing back Duelist’s Preparation on an off-hand for Revenant?

[Shao.7236]

It's been a while since Duelist’s Preparation was removed and I'm having second thoughts since I started to play other builds like Regenade Bow mixed with Mallyx and Shiro/Jalis, while trying to actually make anything viable which is nearly impossible due to the lack of any sustain weapon skill since shield is exclusive to Glint and staff/sword 3 have no conditions going for them, ruining any type of blend with the shortbow.

Rampant Vex is not cutting it to make main hand sword viable and without any skill to mitigate some damage all around, Renegade is forced to eat damage which makes every professions basically superior unless you go S/S Staff with any legends as the current Meta goes.

It only make sense that Duelist’s Preparation should be brought back to add some builds into the mix, I don't see how bad it would be, there's already so little builds that are viable. While it's true that good Heralds can already sustain well (Speaking from my own experience, it still feels REALLY easy to play with that sword 4 and 5 burst.), but not forever. Shackling waves is just cheesy, maybe keep it's damage, slightly nerf it or make a block necessary for it to be used?

Unless I am missing something here? Tried different specializations as well, retribution replacing invocation for the extra tankiness. Still hasn't changed much.

There's potential all around, just sad that none of the weapons that are condition based hold any form of sustain although the off-hand sword would be a pretty neat thing to have, maybe too strong with the current state? How about the Axe Off-hand? Couldn't it work as the Duelist's Preparation instead? Just like how the Ranger GS Block Throw works?

This profession just begs for more options, Herald is fun but it isn't everything. Renegade skills may not be of good use in PvP or at least be very hard to use at the right time, but the F keys, traits and shortbow sure do have their uses that simply don't have the core tools to properly be paired with. S/S Staff gets boring overtime!

[BeLZedaR.4790]

Just make mace 3 an evade, and shortbow 4 act like guard hammer 5. Boom you have defenses.Now just make condi rev do actual dps so people can’t ignore you and you have options.

[Shao.7236]

The DPS isn't THAT bad, considering how easily things can turn around if people aren't careful with the pressure confusion can do after boon ripping while being CC'd.

There's a lot of good ways to make use out of the skills and stack damage, especially if you transfer conditions at the right time after ripping. True Nature changes were really a good thing for Mallyx however it doesn't change the fact that when you choose the weapons that makes sense for a condition build, you get nothing to actually survive any sort if burst per say blocking or evade, forced to use Sword 3 or Staff.

If you pay close attention to the rest of all professions, they all have at least one weapon skill / utility skill they can pair with their condition build to make it viable and survive decently, Revenant has absolutely near to nothing that could be considered useful without complicated uses or specific weapons that aren't useful as condition, playing on full Jalis and Mallyx is doable with the Dome Of The Mist and Forced Engagement, but it's awfully tedious and risky since most rangers for example will melt you by the time you cast anything or you end up wasting a heal skill altogether and health kicking it off, but that still doesn't mean all the possible damage that comes after which you are forced to eat will be gone.

Like Rite Of The Great Dwarf with Soothing Stone then Forced Engagment could be a counter but that's really stretching the "viability" of just having one skill to evade or block just for at least once.

Being already bound to energy, having no weapon skills to mitigate damage right now is the real issue.

One of the Rev bud Boa which I often end up fighting with, he's good btw, inspired me to dive into conditon Rev, suggested that Unyield Anguish could be an evade? But how about having shortbow 5 destroy projectiles or block like the Engineer Photon Wall? I'm totally for having Mace 3 as an evade since the range is crazy and good to pair after a stunbreak, but I wouldn't disagree that we need some sort of blocking like Duelist's Preparation on Sword or preferably Axe since Sword is already strong and in a good place right now.

Right now as it stands and been said, using Regenade Shortbow is just forced to eat damage by this oversight.

[Master Ketsu.4569]

I made a proposal to bringing it back to sword offhand in my renegade suggestions thread. Changed as follows:

-Added duelists preparation back to the start of Sword 4.Base damage of shackling wave reduced by 15%Damage of shackling wave is increased by 10% for each attack blocked by duelists preparation ( maximum 3 stacks )

The re-rework / de-work would make it less effective as an ambush skill and more of a counter attack.

The main issue with Rev offhands is they sort of do the same thing. Both have Mobility+CC+Damage, the only significant difference being Axe is condi and Sword is power - and even then Axe is more of a hybrid. The reason given to make Sword offhand a power copy of Axe was "muh identity crisis". Which the community was quick to point out made very little sense as there are plenty other hybrid defense/offense weapons that exist in the game.

[Shao.7236]

Not a bad idea. Even if the 3 block stacks would be similar to Shield Of Wrath, that'd be good. Although I'd still prefer just having the 2 seconds blocking for the sake of how multi hits are common. Damage increase also sounds good, rather than being forced to have it to reliably use it since both sword skills are stupidly straight forward and easy.

Taking back what I said about the sword condition DPS though, It's worth mentioning although that the Sword while not Condition can still output a fair amount when you trait for chill. That and the passive torment on critical hit if you go for 100% chance actually goes for a bigger DPS output than Mace weak sauce auto paired with the guaranteed torment, making it more viable after all along the sword 3 evade, this is actually sad. Mace damage is so damn low, AOE so easy to avoid, Leap too slow, it takes too long to get the damage started and the lack of power only contributes to make it worst.

Never had took the time to actually look but figures now why I have been struggling so much to make it work, like it's possible to play but picking it over the sword literally is handicapping yourself. It's surprising that it's not even comparable to the warrior sword or remotely close, unless I'm underestimating the torment.

Nice thread though, Renegade is indeed poor due to a lack of any sustain, heck. Both shortbows have an evasive skill that are copy pasted while Revenant gets absolutely nothing to redeem itself, even from the new utilities they gain nothing at all. The only way to make renegade work is abusing traits and Alacrity with Shiro and Jalis, I've seen about 2 Revs do it but that's about as best as playing the regular Herald+Shiro or Shiro+Jalis with Invocation added to, just more tanky.

I've been experimenting a lot lately, but everything always fall short of "I wish I had staff blocks and evade" or "I wish I had S/S for a following Burst" or the best of all "I wish I had an off-hand that I could sustain with other than Herald bound shield."