
- Getting started: Difficult
- Advanced techniques: Intermediate
- Health points: Means
- Armor: Heavy
Revenants are only available to players who have purchased at least one GW2 extension. Halfway between the shaman, the mystic warrior and the fallen paladin, the revenant is an atypical class in the MMORPG universe. Revenants channel the energy and spirits of beings belonging to the past, whether they were heroes or threats to Tyria. By channeling these legendary characters, revenants get new powers associated with these legends.
The channelling faculties of revenants translate into 2 distinct class mechanics: Firstly revenants have an energy/mana bar. Skills drain this resource. On the other hand, revenants can channel two legends and pass from one to the other in combat. The activated legend determines the utility skills as well as the healing and elite skills available. Changing the legend resets the energy bar to 50%.
+ Many tools at your disposal at the same time: With its two channeled legends, the revenant has a wide range of specialized assets during a fight. Apart from a fight, it is easy to change its pair of channeled legend which allows the revenant to adopt a specific role quite quickly. A good revenant knows how to use all the skills of his legends.
+ Autonomous with its advantages: The revenant has a good ability to confer offensive and defensive advantages. Unlike the guardian, the revenant does not have the same ease to share these advantages with the allies.
+ Dynamic fighting style: Energy of a revenant is a factor that limits the use of his skills. However, the revenant's skills are very quickly recharged. A player who intelligently manages his energy can access a very fluid and responsive playing style. Unlike the warrior who relies on his natural resistance and the guardian who bases his defense on a judicious use of blocking skills, the revenant ensures his survival by means of attacks avoiding skills.
± Changing traditions: Forget what you know about heroic fantasy, the revenant does nothing like the others. The mace is a weapon oriented alteration, the hammer is a weapon at a distance and the stick is used body to body to heal its allies. The skills associated with channeled legends have unusual but striking functions.
- Inflexible: Revenants have a limited selection of weapons available and each legend comes with its specific skills. It is difficult to precisely adjust a build for a specific encounter as other classes do. In PvP, revenants are very predictable because of this. An ill-equipped revenant is very vulnerable to alterations.
- Complicated management: Because of its inflexible nature and its energy system, a revenant must manage in real time the charging times of his legends, his skills, his energy level as well as his energy consumption. Making a mistake in managing your resources (like changing the legend at the wrong time) means leaving the door open for enemies to exploit a weakness. The revenant is an aggressive class with intermediate resistance but does not forgive mistakes.
Ethos: As a soldier in heavy armor, the game plan of the revenants is close to warriors' and guardians'. You will need to get closer to your targets and quickly inflict severe damage and then start over. But you have neither the control potential of the former nor the defense capabilities of the latter. On the other hand you have tools to give you powerful offensive advantages and ways to disrupt the enemy game.
Frequently asked questions:
I want to play short-range/long-range, which class to choose?
In most MMOs, you have the possibility to choose between a "remote" class and a "melee" class (ex: WoW hunter vs warrior). Lucky shot with Guild Wars 2, you don’t have to make that choice. Each class has access to medium or long range and close-combat weapons, and you will have to move from one to the other as the combat progresses. Each class of course has a "preference" for short or long range combat. Close-combat warriors are expected to be seen with the thieves while elementalists and rangers can afford to stay further away.
But in the end, whatever the class, you will inflict maximum damage in close-combat. No exceptions. Guild Wars 2 PvE favours grouping of players and close-combat for technical reasons that will not be discussed here.
I want player with complex/easy classes, what do I choose?
Use "Advanced techniques" and "Getting started" to make your choice. The engineer is by far the most complex class to master. He is followed by the elementalist and the mesmer. These three classes have very different game styles but all require practice to be mastered. Be careful, a complex class will never be significantly more powerful than a single class.
I want to support my teammates, which class is best suited?
No matter how you play, the guardian is a class with a natural affinity for support. Supporting a group with a guardian requires a lot of anticipation: you must anticipate enemy attacks to be able to counter them. Offensive support is more limited.
Revenants have a very strong support aspect but you needs to adapt its build especially for that. Revenants support through raw healings or distribution of defensive and offensive benefits.
Elementalists and engineers have many support tools but must sacrifice a lot of offensive potential to claim to be able to support their group.
Note also that warriors possess impressive offensive support capabilities. However this is a "passive" support that will not really appeal to a "priest" player of World of Warcraft.
I want a class with mana management, are there any?
Yes! The revenant has a class mechanics called energy. It is a classic mana system from the MMO industry. You also have the thief who has a resource called initiative that feeds his weapon skills. The initiative is a resource quite close to mana: the total reserve is weak but it regenerates quickly.
I want a class that will allow me to atomize my enemies, which is it?
Simple and difficult question: the answer changes all the time depending on the balancing, the game mode (PvE, PvP and WvW) as well as the people you play with (small group vs large group, optimized group vs Pick-up group). Here are some tips to help you make your choice:
- Elementalists can create builds to assassinate players (PvP/WvW). In PvE they are the ultimate nukers (very intense damage on a precise position). However, in non-optimized groups and outside of instances, the elementalist is not fundamentally more powerful than other classes.
- The warriors also have a strong dps in solo PvE and also have builds to assassinate enemy players in PvP and WvW. However all these builds require to have a close-combat target. Warrior damage is moderate in groups but remains an indispensable component of any optimized group.
- Thieves are the ultimate assassins, capable of inflicting enormous damage on a target in a very short time. They are also able to inflict sustained damage over time to a single target with an adapted build. However, in major clashes, thieves struggle to shine.
Which class will make me feel invincible?
- Warriors are the class that has the most life points and the strongest armor of the game as described above. With the right skills, a warrior is hard to kill.
- The necromancers wear light armor but have a class mechanics (shroud of death) which is oriented towards resistance. Even with the most fragile armor, necromancers can afford to suffer damage and fight in large groups in WvW.
- If you feel like a support talent, and you play well, guardians make very good tanks despite their very limited life reserve. Unlike warriors who just take the shots and regenerate their health, guardians must stop the shots before they are hit. This requires a good amount of anticipation.
Who’s got pets??
Best class with pets is the ranger. Rangers can use two combat pets in turns and change them freely out of combat. There are a wide variety of animals that can be used as companions for a ranger. Using your pets dynamically and intelligently is an important part of a ranger’s gameplay.
If the ranger does not suit your needs, you can opt for a necromancer and his undead servants. However, undead servants are undesirable in instantiated content. Finally, elementalists can invoke temporary pets called elementals to help them fight.
Which class allows me to play a stealth character?
- The thief is the king of stealth. A big part of the gameplay of a thief consists in disappearing to reposition itself advantageously (knife in the back!)
- Mesmers have less stealth potential for themselves but can conceal huge groups of players quickly for short periods.
- Engineers have, to a lesser extent, stealth.
Source: SnickyMcNibits, HamartiaV
Translation and adaptation: Reegar Else
Images: GW2 wiki
Correction: Shun
Translation: Juke