I will forever be mystified by the fact that that a cloth blindfold is considered heavy armor. Or, y’know, why they’re a thing at all. I guess it’s like the Miraluka in Star Wars; they don’t need to see because they have magical something-or-other-sight-beyond-somesuch powers. It must be a thing, because WoW’s new Demon Hunter class is getting heavy armor blindfolds as well.

Anyways, this post isn’t about how my character would be totally OP at Major League Pin the Tail on the Donkey, it’s about how I’m loving Guild Wars 2’s new Revenant class. From launch day to today the lower level zones are pretty much wall to wall revenants. Normally it bothers me a little to see a lot of people the same class as me, but right now playing a revenant feels like being a part of the expansion launch hype. Like just about everyone else who preordered Heart of Thorns, I first played the revenant in the beta weekends, and honestly, at first glance, I felt like the class was overcomplicated, specifically the legend system. Why not just give me a mana bar instead of this weird thing that goes to 50% when out of combat and then fills while in combat? And it seemed like each legend had exactly one slot skill that was worth using and that was about it. Well, like just about everyone else who preordered Heart of Thorns (déjà vu), come launch day I rolled a Rev and used a level 20 boost on him. Meet Purifier Unit.

If you’re among the 99% of gamers who won’t get the reference, the name is a nod to the underrated (and recently re-released on PSN) Mega Man Legends. I thought it was a fun play on words without being terribly immersion breaking. Anyway, I probably should have expected this, but leveling a revenant more naturally, it works a lot better. I still don’t regularly use more than one slot skill per legend, but I’ve come to realize that that’s because they aren’t really meant to be used the way other classes’ slot skills are. In general, two of the skills are situational, and the third is something you can use to burn energy when you don’t need the situational skills. For instance, on the assassin legend, there’s a backwards roll/stun break and a gap closer. The backwards roll is nice since the 2 skill on my favorite weapon, the hammer (which is a ranged weapon for some reason), does more damage at greater distance, and the gap closer is great for melee weapons. But for times when those skills aren’t useful, revenants have a toggle skill that slowly burns energy to speed up both their movement and cooldown timers, meaning they can use those hard-hitting, long cooldown attacks more often. Same story with the dwarf legend: a skill to taunt (that’s right, taunts in GW2, tanking fans rejoice!), one to give stability, and one that drains energy to make a big AoE DoT appear around the revenant in the form of orbiting hammers.

So now comes the dilemma. I really like playing my revenant, so do I level him normally, or use my forty-some tomes of knowledge (“level in a can” items) that I have in by bank to get him most of the way to 80 right now? Or should I use them on a class I don’t like as much? And is it even worth it to level with tomes, since I’ll have to go back through zones anyways to gather tons of hero points if I want my elite spec?