While Hyrule Warriors is no stranger to ranged characters, with Linkle wielding dual crossbows and just about every character in the roster having some kind of ranged attack in their arsenal, none of them come even close to the insanity of Revali's range. Revali might have a small pool of melee attacks to pull from, but there are very few reasons why you would choose to use them over his bow attacks.
Bow in hand and a chip on his shoulder the size of Ganon's ego, Revali is easily one of the most powerful characters in Age of Calamity in large part due to his range, but also due to his unique ability to fly over the heads of most enemies that not only put him out of reach of all but the tallest foes, but also gives him the best means to attack hordes of enemies.
Playstyle
Revali is all about sitting back and firing as many arrows as possible into the faces of Bokoblins and Lizalfos while combining these basic attacks with combos to create decent area of effect damage. Not only is Revali able to attack from significantly further away than any other character, with the sole exception of Teba who also shares his range, but he is also surprisingly agile while in the air and is capable of some seriously cheesy combos if you practice enough with him.
Strong Attack
Of all of Revali's strengths, his standard strong attack isn't one of them. While his sprinting attack does have the advantage of essentially attacking while not slowing down in the same vein as Daruk's, it doesn't do enough to warrant using on anything other than Red Bokoblins once you are a significantly higher level than they are. If Revali is in the air, this attack has a much longer wind-up and execution but also does more damage while keeping him out of harm's way, though this attack increase isn't enough to warrant using it often.
Special Attack
Revali's special attack is a little strange and takes some getting used to if you want to actually hit your target, but it is otherwise a great attack. When executed, Revali will swoop down while shooting a volley of arrows ahead of his position, before flying up into the air and shooting a bomb arrow at the ground where he was when he first started the attack.
This means that, even though he has some forward momentum while performing his special attack, he doesn't actually move when executing it and you have to be right on top of larger enemies if you want to hit them with full force. Thankfully, this can be circumvented by simply flying and positioning yourself above their heads, but it can still take some practice to get the positioning down.
Basic Combo String
While on the ground, Revali's basic attack string is very short and doesn't do a whole lot, though it does have the advantage of being much more focused on single targets than his air combos. In the air, Revali easily has the longest range of any character and has a very wide attack range, as his arrows fly out in a wedge ahead of him. Although the attack string isn't particularly interesting, as it is just Revali firing arrows over and over again, it is one of his best combos and great for quickly clearing strongholds or dealing damage to mini-bosses like Hinoxes or Taluses.
Strong Attack Combos
Like the basic combos, on the ground, Revali's strong attack combos don't do a lot to enemies and are only really useful if you want a little extra movement control while attacking, though his first grounded combo deals decent AOE damage, though the area is small in comparison to other combos. Revali's aerial attacks, on the other hand, have a much larger area of effect and most strong attack combos easily take up half of a stronghold's interior, making them great for clearing them quickly. However, several of these combos will also ground Revali once executed, such as his second combo, so care should be taken if you play to stay in the air while using strong combos.
Weak Point Drainer
Unfortunately for Revali, while many of his attacks do serious damage to weak point gauges, none of them really stand out as being better than any other. The aerial strong attack does decent damage but is pretty slow and the weak point tends to disappear before much damage has been done. A standard combo string, both on the ground and in the air, does decent weak point damage but it only best used when right up close to the enemy, which doesn't suit Revali's playstyle. The best way to drain weak points using Revali is to combine any combo with the Stasis Rune to give yourself more time, or simply switch to a different character.
Sheikah Rune
Surprisingly, all of Revali's Runes abilities are good both when prompted and in general combat, something that very few other characters can boast. In particular, Magnesis actually deals decent damage and creates a small AOE attack, not unlike his first grounded combo. Cryonis summons ice in a particularly wide area, ensuring that Revali is both gated off from enemies as well as ensuring he catches charging enemies when prompted.
While his Bombs and Stasis are both about as good as other characters, Revali can dodge out of Stasis to ensure he doesn't set it off too soon which makes his one of the better Stasis Runes. However, the timing for this dodge can be easy to miss, as he enters the animation for his Stasis break almost immediately after activating it.
Defending
Revali isn't a tank by any means and his best means of evading damage is to stay in the air away from the reach of Bokoblins and Moblins. While most enemies have some sort of projectile attack that can knock him out of the air, his aerial dodge is sufficient enough to evade attacks while keeping him in the air at the same time, though consecutive dodging can result in grounding him by accident. While grounded, Revali is still agile enough to dodge most incoming attacks and his character model isn't so large to obscure the view of incoming attacks.
Weapon Modifiers
As Revali's best work is done in the air, the best modifiers for his bows are the Midair Attack Damage, which boosts his standard combo damage while he is in the air, and Attack Range, while allows him to attack from even further away than he already can. Damage to Midair Enemies is also somewhat useful, as several of Revali's combos can throw enemies into the air, but this is only really useful when fighting silver Bokoblins who won't die in one hit.
Unique Action
Revali's unique action is fairly simple, as it will either launch him into the air if he is grounded or he will land if he is in the air. After taking the post-game upgrade, Revali's Gale will also damage any enemies he passes over while in the air, which, while not dealing a huge amount of damage, is a good way of dealing with Red Bokoblins or other weak enemies if you need to revisit older missions for materials or missed Koroks.