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.

Revenant Legend Shiro Tagachi channels legends from Guild Wars lore, affording player characters new abilities and weapons taken from Tyrian history. Long-time Guild Wars fans will recognize Shiro Tagachi from Guild Wars: Factions.

Shiro gives the revenant more mobility with assassin-like abilities that deal physical damage.  One such skill is Rift Slash, which allows players to slash foes with dual swords creating an unstable rift, damaging enemies nearby. Precision Strike is another skill that arms players with blades that they can quickly throw out to both damage and chill enemies.

We’ve been discussing this legend and weapon set since we first mentioned the revenant profession and how it called upon legends of the past. Currently we offer a defensive set, a condition set, and a support set as legend options. Now, I think there might be one missing. Oh, right, a physical-damage-focused legend! How about a dark and sinister one? Let’s add lots of slashing and mobility into the mix. Let’s also make sure it’s a name worth remembering. I’m happy to announce the infamous assassin Shiro Tagachi as the next revenant legend!

Since you never see Shiro without his iconic blades, we just couldn’t leave them out. Revenants will gain access to dual-wielded swords to match the Shiro playstyle and complete the full image.

Slashing Destruction

Slashing, Mist-manipulating attacks, and pure destruction are what the sword set is all about. We wanted to use rapid, flashy attacks to fit the assassin theme of Shiro Tagachi as a legend.

Rift Slash
“Slash foes, creating a rift on them that explodes for additional damage after a short delay.”

• The Rift Slash attack will slash at foes in front of your character. Any foe that is struck will have an unstable mist rift sliced into them. After a short delay, this rift will explode, damaging nearby foes. This skill is the third part of the autoattack chain and works great in large groups of foes.

Precision Strike
“Strike nearby foes with precision, sending out blades that damage and chill them.”

• Quick attacks are a theme you’ll see throughout this weapon set. This skill will throw blades at nearby enemies, damaging and chilling them. It’s a great way to stay on your target, help catch targets, or just cause some extra damage.

Unrelenting Assault
“Unleash a fierce attack on nearby foes, shadowstepping to foes in the vicinity and delivering strikes. Gain might each time you strike a foe.”

• Do you remember the skill in the Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns announcement trailer, where Rytlock Brimstone blinks around through the Mists, slashing at nearby enemies? This is that skill. Your character will unleash a rapid succession of attacks while blinking through the Mists to each foe. It can be used for mobility, damage, or just pure awesomeness.

A Memorable Assassin

Shiro Tagachi is definitely an iconic character in Guild Wars® lore. As with our other legend choices, we wanted to offer a good variety of very notable characters and creatures. For the physical-damage legend, we wanted someone who would make sense for high mobility and have a darker theme. Shiro was the obvious choice. If you enjoy damage, quick attacks, and mobility, I have a feeling Shiro will be a good fit for you.

Enchanted Daggers
“Enchanted daggers will strike your target as you attack, siphoning life from the damaged foe.”

• We wanted the heal skill for this stance to have an offensive feeling to it to match the aggressive nature of the playstyle. You’ll summon jade daggers that float above your character. Once they’re summoned, they’ll attack any enemy you strike, siphoning life from that foe.

Phase Traversal
“Step through the Mists to your target, and make your next few attacks unblockable.”

• As one of the revenant’s core themes is using the Mists, we figured we should incorporate it into one of the mobility skills that you will gain access to with this stance. Traveling through the Mists sounds cool, right? Your character will step through the Mists from their current location to their foe. They will also gain stacks of an unblockable effect, allowing you to combo into your other skills to bypass heavy defenses.

Jade Winds
“Call upon the Jade Wind to turn nearby enemies into jade, stunning them for a short duration.”

• In the Factions® campaign for the original Guild Wars, Shiro released the Jade Wind. This skill is something like that. OK, maybe on a smaller scale—affecting that big of an area might be a bit too strong. You’ll build up power until you release Jade Wind, turning nearby foes to jade for a short duration. We even have a trait that triggers this skill when the player is downed so you can release the Jade Wind when defeated, just like Shiro did.

Revenant Recap

Now that we’ve talked about dual swords and the last legend, we have a complete set of core weapons and legends for the revenant profession. Let’s take a second to recap:

Core Weapons

• Mace (Main-Hand)
• Axe (Off-Hand)
• Sword (Main-Hand)
• Sword (Off-Hand)
• Hammer
• Staff

Core Legends

• Jalis Ironhammer
• Mallyx the Unyielding
• Ventari
• Shiro Tagachi

There is one last piece of the puzzle for the revenant in the expansion—the elite specialization for the revenant hasn’t been announced yet, but that will have to wait a bit longer. Make sure to keep an eye out for it in a future blog post, along with the other elite specializations that we still have left to announce.

Anyone who has pre-purchased the Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns expansion will be able to try out the full core revenant experience in our upcoming beta weekend events. I’ll definitely be online playing one, and I hope to see you all trying out the revenant as well. I’ll be patiently awaiting your thoughts and feedback.

See you all on the battlefield!