Alright, we've had nearly an entire year of expansion here to make a concrete judgment. The latest spear idea has brought a lot of starkness into contrast here, and honestly just disappoints me since rev and vindicator specifically is the spec I love to play.
Despite clear outcries and valid points being made, ANet has shown an unwillingness to listen to feedback from the revenant player base over their "vision" of what they have in mind. Their current criteria appears to make as minimal changes with the least effort, to the class effects anyways, as possible and continue on a train of thought thinking that players are happy with it as is going forward. Nothing exemplifies this more than Vindicator and the ham fisted bludgeoning the spec, and revenants as a whole, have been taking since SotO was announced. And honestly, the dismissive "we are happy with how it turned out" shows clear disrespect for the player base.
There are very few who will say the revenant scepter is good. The reality is it's a pitiful support weapon, very unintuitive, and its design is a complete anathema to how they want us to use it, never mind the insult of "beeg laz0r" weapon that looks so childish it's an embarrassment to use it outside of a funny haha moment. Its mechanics do not jive well with the shield, its intended partner per ANet's own ideals, and instead puts a lot of busy work to maximize its potential as a support weapon versus most other support based weapons (not including poor thieves and their scepter but at least it's useful for DPS).
Herald was mechanically changed to fit the "vision" and despite them trying to make that square peg go through the round hole, have decided that herald should not be viable support unless you are constantly burning energy and stance swapping. Due to this philosophy, despite being very well balanced for support DPS, it is actually pretty rough on heal supports, especially when healing requires timing for things that thanks to the energy requirements inherent in revenant design means you are more likely to be out of stance when you need it the most. Never mind some of our best support tools being tied to different weapons instead of inherent (aka aegis and cleansing).
Renegade has been stuck with a change that basically took what little heal support power they even had and chucked it out the window. Mechanically, Kalla has barely anything to offer heal support now, and orders from above for alacrity requires taking concentration to make it viable for the spec as an alac DPS due to no buffed concentration support like herald gets in this. The changes make it clear that Kalla is meant more for pure DPS these days but because of this unwillingness to change things, it's left with a button that they tend to balance the entire thing around and is actually superfluous to renegade as a whole.
Then there is vindicator... oh boy it feels like ANet wanted to take a sledge hammer to this spec with how often they kept hammering home design changes that made no sense. Nerfing greatsword because herald DPS started matching other A/QDPS, then tried to claim a compensation in the spec line. Then removing support abilities that actually gave vindicators some purpose, reducing damage output, and many other factors. It all reeks of ANet being upset we are not playing their way instead of the way that has been established for several years and the direction players had been expecting and hoping the game would go.
So what would I change? Well anyone who has read my posts know where this is going. And I am sure some will be upset with these suggestions but at this point if we are going to follow ANet's "vision" which is two support specs and one heavy DPS spec, then I think this change is basically going to be needed going forward.
First and foremost, change Renegade to be the heavy DPS spec of revenants. It's already pretty much our best DPS spec now these days so might as well lean into that. Take alacrity off Orders from Above and move it over to Vindicator, changing what it does if not outright removing this power completely. More on how I see that working in a bit. Kalla should have three clear specs that devote towards power, condition and self defensive. As an army, that is how I see it working out for renegade.
Vindicator potential changes I would go with are (suggestions are offering multiple angles and areas and aren't all meant to be taken as everything or nothing);
- Increase the number of stacks of Might that Amnesty of Shing Jeagrants.
- Change Song of Arboreum to now include that Energy Meld now also grants Alacrity. In addition have it grant Might and Fury to allies in an area when using Selfless Spirit (as a possibility).
- Imperial Impact I would remove the protection and have it increase condition damage inflicted giving the spec a condition damage component boost it lacks.
- Saint's Shield I would slightly reduce the radius to 260, let it grant might and fury, and give it the added component of granting additional concentration based on a percentage of power, much like Herald Elevated Compassion. Finally add in a component that when using Urn of St. Viktor when you use Selfless Spirit you pull downstate allies within 240 radius to you and attempt to revive them from downstate. Alternatively it could be when you smash the Urn or Saint Viktor, all downstate allies are brought to the vindicator. This effect should have a cooldown on it to prevent abuse of course.
- Battle Dance should cleanse up to 2conditions in addition to what it has.
- Tree Song should grant protection in addition to the regeneration and healing it provides.
- Awakening's stability needs to have its duration increased as well as offering at least 3 stacks and have it affect allies.
- Urn of Saint Viktor needs to grant super speed and the self damage component should not be triggering combat so the speed component doesn't get nullified. The threshold of perks should also not be so high as it isn't a viable asset to use in most cases. The urn also prevents the revenant from healing themselves so the perks should not be so minimal as they currently are presented as well.
There are of course other ways to handle this, one such as removing the alliance stance dance and like the mechanist making your choices in your spec tree decide which portion of the alliance you take. There is a lot that can be done here, such as even offering the players to choose which of the two alliance abilities to have active on their bar, but Vindicator should not be going to waste as it has been. It has been offering the most potential for a support spec for revenants that aligns with other support specs but it is not being capitalized on and it really needs to be.
Edited by Ravenwulfe.5360
