Guides/Starting out
Revenant: the one class you cannot roll for free
Legends from the Mists instead of a free choice of skills, energy instead of recharges, and fixed sets built around two buttons. What upkeep means and why the revenant is the strangest class in the game.
On this page
The revenant wears heavy armour and runs on a mechanic that resembles nothing else in the game. Start with the hard limit: you cannot create one on a free account. It needs an expansion, either Heart of Thorns, Path of Fire or End of Dragons (what each contains).
Legends instead of choosing skills
Every other class lets you assemble a bar from dozens of skills. The revenant does not.
You pick two legends, figures drawn from the Mists. Each supplies a fixed set of skills that you cannot alter. One legend is active at a time, and you swap between them in combat.
So instead of “five slots, choose freely” you get “two sets, choose which”.
That is a restriction, plainly. In exchange you always know what is on your bar, and building a character costs no hour of reading.
Energy and upkeep
The class resource is energy. It regenerates on its own and refills when you swap legends.
The detail that matters: every legend has at least one upkeep skill, one that drains energy continuously while it is on. You switch it on and hold it for as long as you need the effect.
Playing a revenant therefore means watching two things at once: how much energy you have, and what is leaking out of it right now.
The core legends
Legendary Assassin (Shiro Tagachi) gives speed and damage. Legendary Centaur (Ventari) gives healing and support. Legendary Demon (Mallyx) works with conditions, yours and the enemy’s. Legendary Dwarf (Jalis Ironhammer) gives defence and survival.
The classic newcomer pairing is Shiro with Jalis: attack, and when things get warm switch to defence and refill your energy on the way.
What it does not have
The revenant has no racial skills and no access to the common skills available to everyone else. Your choice of race changes nothing about it (about races).
Weapons
Main-hand: mace, scepter, sword. Off-hand: axe, shield, sword. Two-handed: greatsword, hammer, short bow, spear, staff.
The elite specialisations
Herald (Heart of Thorns) adds the legend of Glint and support through facets that hand out boons. The easiest entry and still one of the most useful in groups.
Renegade (Path of Fire) adds Kalla Scorchrazor and summoned warband members that attack and empower.
Vindicator (End of Dragons) adds the Alliance legend, two figures at once, and rewrites your dodge into a single large leap instead of two short ones.
Conduit (Visions of Eternity) adds Razah and deeper work with your second legend through Cosmic Wisdom.
Advice for a newcomer
The revenant makes a good second class. It needs an expansion, and it drops you straight into constraints that only make sense once you have seen how free the other classes are.
If you already own an expansion, take Herald with the Shiro and Glint pairing.
The comparison against the other eight sits in the overview.