The first open beta weekend for GW2 Heart of Thorns expansion is here, and I have 4 open beta character slots.  Here’s my video. Time to test out a Revenant profession, which is a heavy-armor wearing character which can channel any of 4 Legends:

• Dwarven hammer-wielding strength dps plus protection
• Shiro assassin dual-blade wielding high dps in plate
• Demon which inflicts condition damage
• Ventari / centaur which heals allies

Don’t play demons / warlocks and don’t play in groups usually so will stick to testing Dwarf and Shiro. The concept of a plate-wearing assassin / thief / rogue type is intriguing.

Changing Legend changes all spells, both 5 left and 5 right, and there are a full profession worth of choices for each Legend plus specializations and learned skill point / traits.  More to test than a weekend allows but good to get a flavor.

I liked the Dwarven skills, they had ok dps, could be better, but the protection felt ok.  I spent less time yet with Shiro Legend and I think if I had spent time tuning the gear and weapon stats / runes / sigils of which they gave us several complete sets in inventory, and spent more time trying all the right-side spell choices, maybe I would have been happier.  Like all assassin / thief / rogue types, you need to move and bandage / eat and stack survivability stats to get enough protection.  For now I was happiest switching to Shiro when I was well ahead on health to get a burst of dps, as the Dwarf does tend to pound away a bit.

The Verdant Brink Heart of Thorns area of the beta was gorgeous and very vertical.  The Gliding Mastery skills are essential to any effective exploration and of course lots of areas were blocked don’t-enter-or-we-kick-you.  Gorgeous and multi-leveled, looks great, plays great once you have a couple of gliding levels. Looking forward to the real thing live!