Revenant - Analysis, Ideas, and Reborn

Revenant has been in a depressing state for longer than I've been playing this game. And with all of the "hype" around his rumoured upcoming rework "revenant reborn" I wanted to examine what is actually wrong with his kit (hint: it's the ultimate), why I am on the fence about Rev Reborn, and how I would approach "fixing" rev.

Analysis

Design and Hitbox:

Revenant is designed, and marketed, like a ninja robot psychotic murderer. And look, voice lines, emotes, and Heirloom support this design well.

His hitbox is one of the biggest without Fortified.

Passive - Stalker:

Revenant has an increased crouch speed and can climb higher.

The Good: Stalker partially offsets Rev's terrible hitbox due too his increased strafe speed while crouched. The increased climb height allows for ambushes and high skilled movement techs (#guapee).

The Bad: Even with the bonus crouch speed Rev still has a  fridge of a hitbox, and you can easily get beamed because of it. A lot of terrain is also unclimbable due to the geometry of the wall. Often this means that the areas where the climb is actually relevant are near buildings with their perfectly flat walls.

Tactical - Silence:

A throwable which disables legend abilities and deals some damage.

The Good: The tactical lingers and obstructs vision, flashbangs and creates visual clutter, deals some damage, and disables enemy abilities while leaving your team alone. Can also be used one handed and thus while shooting and healing.

The Bad: Relatively difficult to hit. My only remark is that Seer also does this (though for a shorter time period) while also revealing their positing, health, canceling healing and revives, and being easier to use.

Ultimate - Death Totem:

A placable that protects users from death, sending them back to the tomem instead of being killed or downed.

The Good: A unique ability which provides safety for a team.

The Bad: It gives away your location, so your targets are alerted and other teams can jump you. It doesn't do anything if you aren't send back. It can lower your chances of winning (due to the previous mentioned points)

Revenant Reborn

The latest leaks (by Thordan Smash) indicate that there is a rework coming for Revenant. His new abilities would be a slingshot to quickly change position (passive), silence (tactical), and Fade's void grenade (ultimate). His entire look would be reworked and rev even gets some new animations.

The Good: The passive would fix the biggest issue with Rev's hitbox by giving him a reposition ability, and the ult is actually good.

The Bad: This rework would mean that his fundamental design and playstyle would fundamentally change. Also if Stalker is lost, then a lot of the high skilled movement unique to Revenant is also lost. His lore, trailers, etc are no longer accurate.

My opinion: If the slingshot is added to the original Stalker passive then this would be an incredible passive. But I wouldn't want to give up the current passive and its potential. The same is true for his ult, the totem is unique while the void grenade is literally taken from an Apex Mobile character. It would make him more playable, but less Revenant.

Buffs and Ideas

So, how would I approach "fixing" Revenant? I would fix the passive climb to be less dependent on geometry, as well as buff the ultimate to provide value in more scenarios. That is, Revenant needs the following buffs (in my opinion):

1. Rev can climb past small overhanging ridges, and up uneven, bumpy walls.
2. Rev's ult provides utility even when you aren't send back.

Ideas:

Passive: Rev can overcome small ridges and bumpy walls. This depends heavily on how the game internally works, but maybe could be done through allowing rev to climb upside down for a short duration (0.5s)

Ult:

1. Drastically lower the visual effect. Increase the auditory effect on the shadows themselves.
   • You can still hear the shadows approaching, so it's easier to defend yourself, but the entire lobby won't jump you
2. Your maximum health as a shadow is temporarily increased to 150HP (effectively gaining a white shield).
   • Makes shadows slightly beefier, so they survive longer.
   • If you aren't send back, the first 50 damage doesn't matter (since you would go back down to 100 HP when the ult ends).
   • The ult always provides some benefit.
3. You regain 20HP on a kill or assist while you are a shadow.
   • This means that using the ult, winning a fight, but not being send back is much less of a feel bad, since it means that you regained some health for free.
4. An (unarmed) speed buff.
   • Ult always provides some benefit.

I would personally combine 1, 2, and 4 (currently my favorite)  OR 1, 3, and 4.

This won't give Rev more mobility (something that Rev Reborn does do), nor make him the best character in the game. But it should remove the massive feel bad when you use his ultimate and it doesn't do anything