User:Anonynja/Vindicator Rework

“

"Once, we fought each other... Now we unite against a common enemy."

Channel the Luxon and Kurzick heroes Archemorus and Saint Viktor to assault your enemies and protect your allies. Instead of dodging, you leap high into the air, crashing down to devastate your foes.

— In-game description

File:Anonynja/Vindicator Rework.png

What is this: A loving Vindicator rework

Why did I make this: Vindicator lacks internal synergy. Tenacious Ruin and Alliance stance compete for space and don't interact as well as they could with core traitlines and legends.

Users complain on both ends. In PvE, Vindicator is viewed as a selfish DPS class with little utility for its squad. In PvP/WvW, other classes complain that Vindicator can do too many things too well with low effort or gear/stat investment. Since the first two betas, major reworks have been demanded by the community, but the only major change has been giving Vindicator a second dodge on October 4th, 2022 (and adding some counterplay with immobilization). The second dodge immediately created problems with dodge spamming, so endurance sources were swatted down hard. Most patches to the spec have only tweaked numbers, rather than addressing core underlying issues.

Having three utility bars creates balance issues. Like elementalist, Vindicator can be simultaneously under- and over-powered. In your opponents' eyes, you have too many options at once. To you, accessing these options when you need them can be frustrating. In PvE instanced content, you often ignore Saint Viktor to focus on damage. Healing has no role in instanced squad compositions because it doesn't provide quickness or alacrity, and it doesn't fill another niche like Scourge's revive ability. In PvP and WvW, Vindicator can dish out high damage while bringing a whole extra defensive utility bar and even taking the Salvation traitline. ANet has expressed desire to push Vindicators to take offensive traitlines and stats for offensive builds. This rework accomplishes the desired trade-offs and focus while expanding the depth and diversity of Vindicator builds.

Profession mechanic

#	Skill				Description
F1	Legendary Alliance Stance				Invoke the power of the legendary champions Archemorus and Saint Viktor.
F2	Energy Meld	½	10	30	Gain endurance based on the number of upkeep points in use.
F3	Alliance Tactics		-2		Your dodges gain an additional effect based on your invoked legend.
Legend specific mechanic
F3	Alliance Tactics—Assassin	¼		20	Your dodges steal life from affected enemies.
F3	Alliance Tactics—Centaur	¼		20	Your dodges provide alacrity (PvE) / protection (PvP/WvW) to affected allies.
F3	Alliance Tactics—Demon	¼		20	Your dodges extend conditions on affected enemies by 1s (PvE) / 0.5s (PvP/WvW).
F3	Alliance Tactics—Dwarf	¼		20	Your dodges provide resolution to affected allies.
F3	Alliance Tactics—Alliance	¼		20	Your dodges provide might to affected allies.

Slot skills

Healing

Skill				Description
Urn of Saint Viktor		-4		Heal nearby allies for [small burst] and bear the Urn of Saint Viktor, pulsing area barrier. Charge the Urn by healing.
Drop Urn of Saint Viktor	1		10	Slam your Urn into the ground, granting barrier and boons to nearby allies based on healing done.

Utility

Skill				Description
Nomad's Advance	¾	15	3	Lunge forward, damaging foes and gaining might for each target struck. Becomes Battle Dance.
Battle Dance	¼	15		Evade backward, granting resistance and regeneration to allies.
Tree Song	½	30	3	Root nearby enemies in place, cleansing conditions on nearby allies for each target hit.
Awakening		30	3	Break stun on nearby allies and grant protection. Gain stability for each ally affected.

Elite

Skill				Description
Spear of Archemorus		-4		Taunt nearby enemies once and bear the Spear of Archemorus. Charge the Spear by dealing damage.
Drop Spear of Archemorus	1		12	Plunge the Spear into the ground, dealing damage and inflicting Torment on nearby enemies based on damage dealt.

List of vindicator traits

Tier	Trait		Description
Minor Proficiency	Greatsword Proficiency		You can wield greatswords.
Minor Adept	Tenacious Ruin		Instead of dodging, deliver a powerful blow from above, striking foes when you hit the ground.
Major Adept	Leviathan Strength		Deal increased damage while your endurance is not full.
Major Adept	Amnesty of Shing Jea		Activating Energy Meld or Alliance Tactics grants might and regeneration in an area around you.
Major Adept	Redemptor's Sermon	30	When struck while below the health threshold, heal allies in the area and cleanse their conditions.
Minor Master	Balance in Discord		Gain health and boons when swapping legends.
Major Master	Reaver's Curse		Gain 120 power. This bonus is doubled when above 50% health.
Major Master	Angsiyan's Trust		Grant vigor to yourself and nearby allies when swapping legends.
Major Master	Song of Arboreum		Gain 120 healing. This bonus is doubled when below 50% health.
Minor Grandmaster	Empire Divided		Grant endurance in an area when swapping legends or activating Alliance Tactics. Reduced effect on other vindicator specializations.
Major Grandmaster	Forerunner of Death		Dodging now deals more damage but affects a smaller area. Outgoing strike damage is increased for a period of time upon impact.
Major Grandmaster	Vassals of the Empire		Dodging now grants boons to allies and inflicts chill on struck foes when landing. Extend boon duration for allies upon landing.
Major Grandmaster	Saint of zu Heltzer		The affected area of your dodge is increased. You now heal allies in an area when you land instead of dealing damage. Outgoing healing is increased for a period of time upon landing.

Skill details

• The radius on Alliance Tactics is inherited from your dodge.
• With Alliance Tactics—Centaur, you must invest heavily into boon duration for 100% alacrity uptime if not taking Vassals of the Empire for boon extension. Target is ~85% BD required without Vassals trait, ~50% BD with.
• Healing done while bearing the Urn builds stacks of Saint Viktor's Grace with a buffbar icon and pleasant audiovisual cues from the Urn. Barrier burst is given as a percentage of allies' max health rather than a flat value. It scales from a minimum of 5% to a maximum of 25% health. This percentage scaling prevents over-rewarding low health classes like Guardian and under-rewarding high health classes like Necromancer.
  • 1 stack: Regeneration
  • 2 stacks: Protection, Regeneration
  • 3 stacks: Protection, Regeneration, Resistance
  • 4 stacks: Protection, Regeneration, Resistance, and area 1s Knockdown
• Spear damage & torment scales with damage output on a similar curve as Bladesworn's Dragon Slash—Reach, the weakest of the three Dragon Slashes. The goal is that a satisfying burst can be achieved without a large impact on average DPS, due to the upkeep cost and cast time. The Spear gives an audiovisual cue when fully charged, helping the player know when to drop it and telegraphing for foes in PvP.
• Urn of Saint Viktor and Spear of Archemorus persist if they are being upkept when invoking a new legend. Hence, either of them can be combined with Impossible Odds, Vengeful Hammers, or Protective Solace.
• Ventari's tablet will spawn where you are when you switch stances. If you're still bearing the Urn, you cannot move the tablet until you drop the Urn. You can benefit from the urn and tablet at the same time by investing both positioning and energy.

Example Builds

• Power DPS (PvE)
  • Ideally should see max DPS benchmark and burst increase slightly due to complexity of Spear upkeep without much affect on average in-game DPS. You now have a taunt and an immobilize to contribute more CC. Niche combos are created, too, like helping guardians keep up resolution for their DPS output.
• Condition DPS (PvE)
  • Should enable a viable condition build, not to compete with the best condi DPS options but to give the option when you're facing a condi fight.
• Heal Alacrity (PvE)
  • Finally secure a spot in instanced team comps with alacrity uptime! Alacrity was removed from core Revenant when we got quickness herald, which was the right thing to do. Ranger is the core alacrity option and warrior is the core quickness option for F2P players. But vindicator has not had a viable support build since, and that should change. It's a shame for a spec with such amazing healing output to gather dust.
• Retaliation Duelist (PvP/WvW)
  • Retaliation traitline synergizes with resolution on dodge when upkeeping Alliance Tactics in Jalis, enabling a tanky bruiser playstyle.
• Salvation Duelist (PvP/WvW)
  • Continue benefitting from Salvation's healing and condition removal on dodge, without keeping quite so much damage potential.
• Devastation DPS (PvP/WvW)
  • Lean into damage with a glass cannon role without so much innate healing.
• Corruption Teamfighter (PvP/WvW)
  • Abyssal Chill trait and Mallyx see improved synergy with a mix of sustain and condition damage to +1 your allies
• Ventari Support (PvP/WvW)
  • Powerful healing with protection, stunbreak, and condition cleanse, but less spammable and with lower damage.

Alternatives

• The numbers and details are not as important as the core premise. Ex. Alliance Stance's bonuses could be tweaked as needed, or instead of upkeep it could buff dodges with a duration effect or consumable stacks. Those details should be decided through testing and feedback. The core premises of this rework are to consolidate Vindicator to one utility bar, create charge & burst cycles for the Urn and Spear, and create synergy with core traits and legends by adding interaction with the dodge.
• Alternative 1: Three legend slots, no weapon swap. Your three chosen legends can be invoked directly on separate cooldowns with F1, F2, and F3. Like an inversed elementalist!
  • Energy Meld is deleted and Alliance Tactics moves to F4. You can have all kinds of fun with the updated Urn & Spear upkeeps and Alliance Tactics dodge effects.
• Alternative 2: One utility bar, and the Alliance utilities become sequence skills. Choose their order out of combat. Either Urn replaces heal slot, or Urn and Spear both become profession skills alongside Alliance Tactics and Energy Meld is reworked and moved to the elite slot.

Final Thoughts

I set out to increase tradeoffs and internal synergy while preserving as much of ANet's work as possible. As such, this rework is of a similar scope as past balance patches for Revenant, such as Herald's Facet of Nature change in 2018 and its recent Quickness addition in 2022. The goal is to increase the spec's depth, reduce the toolkit you get without investment, improve the 'flow' or gameplay, and enable interesting synergies with core traitlines without losing what makes Vindicator great. You may notice I didn't touch greatsword. I believe most complaints about greatsword are about animation and telegraphing issues rather than balance.

Wherever possible, I tried to anticipate possible combinations with the rest of Revenant's kit. The new effects on dodge while using the new Alliance Tactics upkeep skill will create all kinds of opportunities. You can have fun exploring combinations with core traitlines and legends - each one gets unique flavor. The energy upkeep cost keeps your power budget stable.

The result should be a versatile melee-focused spec that can focus on many possible roles with meaningful tradeoffs. Maximum DPS will be reached with pure power damage focus. Pure healers can now provide Alacrity in PvE only, securing a spot in instanced pve comps. Condition builds can deal moderate damage while manipulating boons and conditions. Open world, wvw, and duelist players in PvP will find plenty of space to adjust between damage, personal sustain, and support.

The class should feel fun and accessible, while energy and endurance management give it a high skill ceiling. You can provide big barrier/boon bursts and damage bursts, but these are telegraphed and require careful planning.

Weaknesses are important to balance and class identity; they create counterplay and focus.