One of the many includes of the Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns demo we were able to experience during our recent studio visit is the upcoming Revenant profession. From what we’ve seen so far, the revenant offers some fairly unique combat, while still retaining plenty of familiar gameplay for those of you who have some experience playing some of the more melee-focused professions. In many ways, the revenant seems to hit a sweet spot between a warrior and guardian, with some hints of other current professions thrown in for flavor.

For those of you interested in some of the particulars currently accessible for the revenant, I’ve put together a short video that highlights some of the character creation options, a full pass on current skills, and finally an overview of the 3 trait lines available in the demo.

First, a few quick notes on what is in the demo for the revenant currently. As this is the same demo build being showcased this month at PAX East 2015, you can consider the following a primer on what to expect.

  • For now, you can only select to play as a human. This will obviously change in the full release, but I felt it’s worth mentioning here.
  • You start out wielding the two-handed Hammer which is primarily used as a ranged weapon.
  • In your inventory you also have access to a Mace (main hand) and Axe (off-hand). This weapon set is mostly used in melee range, and offers some substantial damage output.
  • There are three trait lines unlocked in the demo (all traits shown in the video below):
    • Corruption (precision, condition damage)
    • Retribution (toughness, healing)
    • Invocation (ferocity)
  • Unlike other professions, your utility skills are determined by which legendary spirit you currently have active.
    • These switch dynamically as you hit the F1 key to switch between spirits.
    • Also note that this replaces weapon swapping for the revenant, so you’ll want to consider your weapon choices carefully before engaging in combat.
  • The revenant makes heavy use of the recently announced status effects.
    • It was a bit difficult to get a proper feel for how these will factor into sPvP play as the other professions did not have access to these new status effects, making the revenant feel a bit OP in certain situations.
  • While other professions fall into very specific roles or combat styles based on your choice of weapons, attributes, and traits, the revenant feels a bit more adaptable to different combat situations right out of the box.
  • A final note on gear, the demo characters are equipped with Celestial gear across the board. This may be a factor in the “utilitarian” vibe described above. Chances are, the revenant will take on much more specific combat functionality once you begin to specialize in trait lines, runes, and sigils.

The following video provides a quick overview of things like currently available skills, traits, and attributes based on the demo gear. Note that when you get to the Skills panel, you’re seeing two sets of skills for the same slots side-by-side. For example, in the healing slot you’ll see two skills available. The left (blue-themed) skill is the active dwarf-themed version, while the right (red and black) skill is the active demon-themed option. As noted above, these switch dynamically when you hit the F1 key.

Revenant Hands-On Impressions

In many ways, the revenant takes a lot of the things I don’t necessarily enjoy about the warrior and guardian professions, tosses them in a cosmic blender, and improves upon them. A basic example of this would be how both the warrior and guardian excel in melee combat, but their ranged weapon sets are comparatively lackluster or perhaps a bit too situational. In contrast, the revenant is kind of a badass with the ranged Hammer skills, but was a bit squishier in melee with the mace / axe set equipped.

Keep in mind that we’re only seeing a small slice of the revenant in the current demo. There are still more trait lines, weapon sets, and legendary sprits that are not yet playable, and each might radically alter the base perception of the revenant’s overall capabilities and how it factors into things like organized team play in sPvP.

Throughout my demo time, I spent a roughly equal amount of time playing as a revenant, or against them in the 10 Stronghold matches I was able to play. In sPvP, I primarily defaulted to playing the necromancer which I’ll expand upon in a full preview of the new game mode.

One of the notable things worth mentioning here in the meantime is that you should expect to dodge a lot versus a hammer-wielding revenant. Many of the weapon and utility skills cause some form of area damage, and these aren’t the kind of area skills you can safely shrug off like some of the necro’s comparatively weaker Marks.

Taunt is also a real bitch if you have no way to counter it. You can almost think of it as the anti-fear, in that it causes you to run directly towards, rather than away from characters. The duration also seemed substantially longer than fear. While I’m personally not a fan of taunt, I can also see exactly how useful it will be in certain aspects of gameplay, especially the new Stronghold sPvP mode.

Stronghold features a lot of channeled environmental interactions, so preventing channeling can help shut down the enemy team, albeit temporarily. Likewise, the Guild Lord will hit a Downed state prior to being outright defeated. Taunting enemy players off the Guild Lord long enough to revive him could potentially help turn the tide on what might have otherwise been a defeat.

Final Notes

I’ll be spending some more time playing the revenant during PAX East. If there are any specifics you’d like to know more about, be sure to drop a note in the comments here and I’ll be sure to answer what I'm able, or grab what info I can during any demo time I’m able to snag. I'll also be publishing a series of interviews from our studio visit that touch on the revenant in broader terms as well as its expected impact on sPvP in the future. 

So be on the lookout for more Heart of Thorns preview coverage from our recent studio visit throughout the week, and in the meantime be sure to drop any questions you have on the revenant in the comments below!


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Guild Wars 2 Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

About The Author

Reuben "Sardu" Waters has been writing professionally about the MMOG industry for eight years, and is the current Editor-in-Chief and Director of Development for Ten Ton Hammer.

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