Last month was the Mad King Halloween event, and it was moderately fun (I'll admit, not as much fun as the past... they need to add some new activities to it). I have a larger update incoming, with more screenies and stuff from October till now, but in the mean time, let's talk about my Revenant...

My Revenant, Dont Hurtem Hammer has been a sorely neglected character. I made her when HoT came out (along with most of my phase 2 characters- heh, MCU reference), but I never really liked her. Rather, I never really liked the Revenant job or found a build for it I like. Base Revenant felt unfinished. Herald was cool when I had it in parties with me, but I didn't like it myself. And Renegade felt disappointing...

Then, one day, I discovered the Bootts' Bad Builds episode The Mad Renegade and it intrigued me. Here was a unique and original Renegade build that used the weapons I most wanted to use with Rev, and seemed pretty fun and versatile to boot. Sure, it probably was useless in WvW, raids, and anywhere except PvE, but I already have so many characters for those modes that I wasn't sure I minded.

So I tried it. I liked it a great deal. It was fun, and, since I needed more map completion items for my next legendaries, I decided to roll out my newly upgraded Rev to get map completion.

Then Halloween hit.

During Halloween, one event is the Mad Kings Labyrinth, which I've mentioned before, and I don't think I need to repeat what it is anymore. But one key to the Labyrinth is that you need a class/weapon combo that can tag a lot of enemies. This is because there's a bazillion of them and there's doors that spawn even more, and tagging the enemies is the way to get the best loot. In the distant past, Guardian's staff "lootstick" was the way to go. But that's been nerfed several times, and completely revamped summer 2018 (RIP lootstick). Thus, I had been using Thief's Short Bow in the Labyrinth due to its ability to bounce shots between enemies. Thief's Short Bow became the new lootstick, and people were using it in Lab.

Well, this year, I started with Thief again, as usual. But quickly I started hitting diminishing returns on both of my Thieves (I have two) and needed another character to swap in. Since my Rev was right there in Lions Arch, I decided to try her..... and boy, did I stumble onto a Labyrinth winner.

Rev's short-bow has a similar bounce to Thief's, but it hits fewer targets. At the same time, however, it fires faster. Meaning you more than make up for the fewer bounces. Meanwhile, between their mace and vengeful hammers, they are an absolute god on mob doors. Easily the best tagger in the game when the enemies are clustered.

Additionally, the Mad Renegade build from Bootts' Bad Builds makes my Rev supremely survivable. During the difficult boss fights in lab, where most people die, I'm alive and thriving thanks to all of Renegades personal and group heals. In hairy fights like Lich or Vic, I'd argue that a Mad Renegade or two is an absolute must thanks to all the survivability and support they bring in addition to their excellent damage potential.

Long story short, Rev is now my go-to class for Mad Kings Lab (and, really, anything where I need to tag a lot). I'll be keeping this build for future lab runs, and my rev will very likely be one of my go-to characters for tricky or risky PvE content.

I forget whether I mentioned this or not (and I'm too lazy to look back last month and see) but there's a whole new Shatterer in the new LS4 map, Jahai Bluffs. This Shatterer has absorbed magic from Mordremoth, making for a pretty impressive green and purple spectacle.

The new Shat is pretty friggin' awesome, and, as far as I can recall, the first proper world-boss (that wasn't tied to a large meta-event or a bounty) we've had added to the game since before HoT (so, what, 3+ years now?) Pretty awesome stuff.

One other interesting thing I failed to mention before is that the new map actually introduces things that re very close to the old Notorious Monsters in FFXI. These are mobs that have placeholders and strange spawn criteria, and are tied to various collections in the zone. Camping them reminded me greatly of the old FFXI NM hunting days.

Here's Seven By Seven camping, and fighting, Rilohn Broodmother:

Additionally, the zone has a lot of lore and references to events of PoF, including this shrine to one of the characters that died during PoF/LS4:

My Soulbeast, Seven By Seven, has a pretty cool look where I lean into the concept of consuming your pet and adorn her with skins, pelts, bones, and things harvested from animals. Well, I recently added a greatsword skin to her that compliments this look.

The skin is part of the Beastslayer collection, and it gels nicely with the look I've been going for.

Last month, our illustrious and genitalia grabbing President, sent a mass text to everyone in the US....

Well, really, they tested the emergency broadcast system. But, since so many people didn't know what was going on, it was a bit weird.

Anyway, I was playing WvW when that happened, and there was some pretty hilarious map chat as a result:

Like I said, last month was Halloween (obviously), which included Mad King event in the game. This year, they rolled out a bunch of new acheeves that I desperately tried to get (since I'm at a point in the game where cheeve points are getting pretty hard to get). Unfortunately, I didn't get too far. The big thing preventing me was the damned Mad King's jumping puzzle. I.... Can't.... Friggin'.... Do.... It....

Here's Diddle trying, desperately, to do it. My logic was Asura would make it easier... maybe it did... maybe it didn't. Point is, after trying for a week or so I fucking got burned out and couldn't finish it.... Argh...

I also mentioned that my Rev was pretty amazing in Mad King's lab. Here's a screenie of her fighting the Lich. It's moderately epic.

And here's some bizarre team chat (also fighting Lich... could even be same group as above..)

Here's a pic of us fighting Larry:

Yeah... I really have a problem with making characters in this game :-)

So far, I have every class represented at least once. Most, I have represented at least twice (my Guardian and my Revenant have been the holdouts here because I didn't have builds I liked for them... until now).

A few I have represented at least three times. I have four (!!!!) Thieves, three Elementalists, three Warriors... and now three Necros!

My newest Necro is called "Samba Tranquille" (after the song by Thievery Corporation) and she was made to use the unkillable necro build.

Here she is doing DS meta (since I needed the ores for my newest legendary):

Samba will likely become one of my new PvE-onry characters (joining Mucha, Genova, and Hammer), but her focus will be more on survivability and solo-ability. Already I've solo'd several dungeons and fractals with her. Plus I can solo nearly any mob in the game (solo'd the Patriarch Wyvern in VB with her). And when I duo with another unkillable necro, we seem to be able to do just about anything. It's insane.

Anyway, I recently wrapped up crafting The Binding of Ipos, the newest focus legendary ("new" being relative, as they added it over a year ago, I think). I made it for Samba and Nobody Speak primarily. Here's Nobody Speak with it equipped:

And here's Samba wielding it and solo'ing one of the CM dungeon paths: