Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns continues the storyline that has the game world of Tyria facing off against the Elder Dragon Mordremoth. As the storyline unfolded through the game’s Living World updates, players had speculated about one possible casualty in the war with Mordremoth. In one cliffhanger, Tyria’s iconic hero Rytlock disappeared into a mysterious void as he chased the weapon to end the curse of the Foefire and drive the ghosts of Ascalon away for good.

In Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, Rytlock not only makes a triumphant return from the mysterious Mists, he comes back with an all-new set of abilities. His return sets the stage for one of the expansion’s most exciting additions, the introduction of an all-new profession called the Revenant that channels powers from some of the Guild Wars universe’s most legendary heroes.

In addition to these features, ArenaNet showcased every key new feature the expansion brings to the core game, covering additions to both PvE and competitive PvP and World vs. World modes.  The trailer showcases each feature set, and set the stage for an ongoing series of updates now through launch that would delve much deeper into what each will bring to the expansion.

Ventari is a new legend for the revenant profession debuting in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, which introduces a supportive playstyle that pushes the boundaries of healing abilities and introduces skills based around Ventari’s tablet.

You might associate staves in Guild Wars 2 with a caster standing at range, performing powerful spells. With the revenant, we’d like to change that up, just as we turned the hammer into a ranged weapon for the profession. I mentioned in the previous blog that the hammer wouldn’t be the only weapon used in a new way, and the revenant will be the first profession to use the staff as a melee weapon in Guild Wars 2.

This weapon imbues your attacks with the power of the Mists, using a mix of martial and magical styles to support your allies. It’s very much about damage prevention rather than directly offensive attacks, to fit the legend’s theme. Let’s take a look at two of the skills you’ll have access to.

Rejuvenating Assault

“Cleave foes around you with your staff, creating healing orbs for you and your allies.”

• This skill is the third part of the autoattack chain. When you strike foes with this skill, shards of energy will fly off onto the ground around the target. You or your allies can walk over these for a small amount of healing. This encourages strafing around your target to pick up the orbs as you attack, and it creates more interaction between you and your allies. We wanted to promote healing through offense rather than as a passive effect.

Surge of the Mists

“Charge forward, knocking back enemies that cross your path.”

• When you use this skill, you’ll charge forward with your staff, repeatedly knocking back foes along your path and either thrusting them out of the way or pushing them along with you. This control skill is a Ventari-approved way to separate enemies from your injured allies.

I Can Outrun a Centaur!

Well… Okay, maybe not. They are pretty fast. Ventari has interesting lore ties that made him a strong candidate for a revenant legend, and since he was known as a peace-loving character, we figured he would be a great basis for the revenant’s healing skill set.

Most healing in Guild Wars 2 takes the form of pulsing spells, the combo system, or area-of-effect heals, but we wanted to push healing a bit more than what you’ve previously seen by creating a legend focused almost entirely on support. However, we needed an interesting way for healing abilities to interact and create a more active playstyle, and that led to the creation of Ventari’s Tablet.

Ventari’s Tablet is at the core of every skill for the Ventari legend. All of the skills either do something around the tablet or modify it, so positioning of the tablet is the key to being effective. This requires the revenant to command the tablet, and to communicate and interact with allies so that they can receive the tablet’s benefits.

So, how does it work? When you first invoke Legendary Centaur Stance, you’ll have only one available skill. This skill will summon the tablet to appear next to your character. After you bring the tablet into the world, your skill bar will fill with the five legend-based skills, all of which manipulate the tablet.

There are two ways to dismiss the tablet when moving around between fights. Using your elite skill, Energy Expulsion, will overload the tablet with energy and cause it to disappear. The tablet will also automatically be dismissed if you move a certain distance from it. In both cases, your skill bar will flip back over to the previous state, and you’ll need to summon the tablet again to use the other skills.

Here are the skills you’ll be able to use after summoning Ventari’s tablet:

Ventari’s Will

“Will the tablet toward the target location. As the tablet moves, it will heal allies it passes through.”

• This is a core skill of the legend since the other skills are based around commanding the tablet to do something. Because the tablet heals allies it passes through, the revenant will need to strategically coordinate with other players to get the most out of each movement.

Protective Solace

“Summon a protective barrier around the tablet that destroys enemy projectiles.”

• This skill creates a barrier of natural energy around the tablet. While this barrier is active, it will destroy all projectiles that come into contact with it. This is the upkeep skill for the legend, so you can toggle it on or off at the cost of rapidly depleting your energy bar. The tablet can be moved while the barrier is active.

Energy Expulsion

“Force energy to erupt from the tablet, knocking back foes and leaving behind energy fragments that heal allies.”

• This is the elite skill, which I briefly touched on before. It will send a surge of energy through the tablet, dismissing it. Foes will be knocked back by the energy forced through the tablet, so you can use it at opportune times to interrupt key skills or even knock enemies away from a downed ally. Energy fragments are left around the area as well, and allies will be able to walk over these fragments to receive healing, similar to the staff skill Rejuvenating Assault.