The leverage of offense and defense applies to most classes. Look at how squishy necro is.
I think Rend will work similar to how EQ currently works. Earthquakes pop up even when you don’t have the EQ ability on your bar, but it doesn’t do the same damage. Like all of the modifiers aren’t in affect. I do think we will need rend on our bar and I’m betting the dev’s intended for it to be that way.
I think Lamentation will be mandatory. We’ll keep using the bul kathos blades and cube ambo’s. Mantle will still be used as it’s a strong item.
I’m not sure what the best setup will be for high end GR’s, but I think Lamentation and Ambo’s will become a staple, especially if the damage modifier on Lamentation is multiplicative.