Posted 27 May 2015 - 10:11 AM
So I really like what I saw of the new map. There's a lot of interesting and organic verticality, and the areas sort of loop around and intertwine with each other. (One downside: I am going to be hopelessly lost at first.) I also like the way the dry, rocky environment of the Silverwastes gives way to the more nature-y Maguuma jungle, along with the ruins. The wreckage of the Pact fleet is fantastically atmospheric, especially at night. There's a palpable sense of unease, even horror, of something having gone terribly wrong, and the battered survivors are desperately trying to get themselves back into some semblance of an organized fighting force.
[Edit: Now with 100% more rambling!]
As for the revenant...my feelings are mixed. Overall, I definitely like it, but I also can't help feeling that's it's missing something. The hammer has respectable range and AOE, but its damage output was lousy at best. (I couldn't kill anything solo if there were menders around.) To be fair, we were stuck with full celestial crap that only gave us an anemic 1300 power, so I'm guessing things would be significantly improved if running zerker or soldier. The mace/axe combo was much better, partially because it deals condi damage (torment and poison, IIRC), and because it has both a fire field and a blast finisher on short CDs, not to mention an interrupt that casts much faster than the hammer's. (The revenant is going to be stupidly good at letting groups stack might and swiftness. Guard staff 3 and ele static fields are going to be passe.)
My biggest gripe with the class is the legends. Thematically, the legend utils are cool, but in terms of actual usage, they felt limited and lackluster. The dwarf's AOE stability util could potentially be very strong, especially since the cast time and CD are so short, but the long animation before the stability activates is awkward. It's not a reactive skill that you can pop in response to an incoming threat. You have to predict where the CC is coming several seconds ahead, cast the field, and then pray that the mob doesn't change direction and/or reach you before the field finishes. I guess it would be fine in stationary boss fights like Teq where the big knockbacks are highly telegraphed and predictable, but going by how things went in the beta, it's near-useless while fighting on the move. I don't think anyone even bothered with the taunt/chain util. It didn't seem to do much at all. The Hammer-Copter™ util is admittedly fun, if one-dimensional. It does decent straight-up AOE damage, though it burns through your energy if you let it run for a bit.
The demon utils...I'm honestly not sure what they do. It seemed like there were a lot of specific circumstances/conditions that determined their behavior (if target has more than X conditions, util does Y; if fewer, then Z), and keeping track of that sort of stuff strikes me as more tedious than tactical. The one util is a teleport that actually displaces enemies in the target area, which is interesting. Could be useful for revives or stomps.
Also, the energy bar. The more I think about it, the less sense it makes. It seemed to basically fill itself so long as I wasn't using Hammer-Copter, which means I generally didn't need to keep an eye on it, manage it, or otherwise make any sort of tactical decision about using it. The thief's initiative bar is out-of-place in GW2's CD-based skill scheme as it is, but the rev's energy bar seems even worse. I'd rather just have CDs on the utils, especially since energy doesn't seem to make much practical difference. Eles and engies have CDs on their attunement/kit skills, so just do the same for the rev.
All that being said, beta is beta. Everything is subject to change, and we've only seen three weapons, two legends, and three trait lines, so I'm reserving judgement until we know more.
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