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So I've been playing a lot of Renegade lately in PvE and WvW.
It's so... great.
When PoF came out, I was heavily disappointed with how the Renegade's short bow felt. It was clunky, slow (especially for a short bow!), many of the abilities felt impossible to use properly, and the damage was underwhelming.
Fast forward about a year into PoF's life cycle, and now the short bow feels fantastic. On top of the plethora of damage buffs it received, its skills finally feel quick and sharp like a short bow should be. Renegade's short bow went from my least favorite elite specialization weapon to my favorite. I LOVE just running around in the open world and burst comboing mobs. I stand the perfect distance from the mob to hit every arrow of Sevenshot. I use the skill 4, followed immediately by the skill 3 so the projectiles burn when fired through the fire field from skill 4, then I knock down the mob with the skill 5 which forces it to take more burns from the skill 4, then I shoot the skill 2 on them while they're knocked down to guarantee the shots hit. During this combo, I'm pretty much guaranteed to have 5 stacks of Kalla's Ferver, which allows me to give myself an instant 15 might and watch as my conditions I've applied just BLOW THEM UP.
I also love the support capabilities of the Renegade. Alacrity™ has always been a very very strong effect and having it be exclusive to the Chronomancer brings a lot of balance issues. The fact that they gave Renegade the ability to effortlessly give 5 targets permanent Alacrity™ brings a lot of opportunity to the table when it comes to theory crafting team compositions in PvE. The meta is still driven by unique profession buffs such as Banners and Spirits, but if Anet ever decides to rework and/or nerf those, Renegade will likely stand strong as a support option, alongside Firebrand.
I also want to mention that the dialogue associated with Kalla specifically is f*cking fantastic. The Charr as a race are so badass and interesting. There's so much lore associated with the Charr that I didn't even know existed before now. There are many famous figures and heroes in Charr lore, and of course, Kalla is one of them. You can read all about her here, but I wanted to show appreciation to Anet for the voiced dialogue that they gave Kalla. Of course, the voice acting is excellent, I wouldn't expect anything less from Guild Wars 2, but I'm so damn satisfied with the extra effort, details, and easter eggs that the devs put into this. If you walk up to the Statue of Kalla Scorchrazor in the Black Citadel as a Renegade, Kalla herself will acknowledge and appreciate the statue. I think I nerdgasmed when that happened to me. There's a mace called "Scorchrazor's Fist" that apparently she has a chance to comment on if you have it in your inventory. Needless to say, I bought it and I hold onto it forever in my inventory waiting for this to happen. Just like the other Revenent legends, Kalla will speak you while you are idle for a period of time. The thing that puts her slightly above the others for me, is how she will address each race differently depending on your character. As you can imagine, she treats Charr with the utmost respect and even has specific lines depending on whether you are a female or male Charr. Tragically, my Revenant is a Human, so she just calls him and mouse and sh*t talks him occasionally, but it nonetheless amuses me quite a bit when it happens.
So yes, I love this elite specialization. I love specifically love the Berserker from Heart of Thorns, and I specifically love the Renegade from Path of Fire.
I'm sure it's not necessarily because they are both bow-wielding heavy armor condition damage classes. They both just so happen to be.
I'm sure we all have our favorite elite specializations from each expansion, and that is a fantastic thing. It's elite specializations like these that keep me forever hyped for what Anet has in store for us in expansion 3. If any ArenaNet dev has actually taken the time to read all of this, I really want you guys to know how much I and the rest of this community appreciate the work you put into this game.
Thanks so much for everything you do, you guys all rock <3
Edit: typos
Edit2: more typos
Edit3: even more typos
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