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The Revenant class was added during Guild Wars 2's first expansion: Heart of Thorns. Since then, it's become a fan-favourite among experienced players. It's a complicated class, so only players who are already familiar with the game have been able to take it on. If you're new to this MMORPG, it might be wise to try out another class, first.RELATED: Guild Wars 2: How To Build An Overpowered Elementalist With Max DamageThis build is focused on inflicting DPS through conditions. It's considered one of the best builds in the game right now and is crucial for lots of teams. You'll need some practice to learn it — since the Revenant class has a huge range of abilities — but it'll be invaluable once you've got the hang of it.While it's ideal for...

  • Raids
  • Strikes
  • Fractals
  • Dungeons

... it's easily adapted to be a survivable build in the Open World.

Note: The build detailed in this guide is based on the meta of Guild Wars 2 at the time the guide was written.

Specializations

GW2 - renegade (revenant) official art

This build uses the Renegade specialization, which is a unique set of abilities only available to players who own the Path of Fire expansion.

Choose these specializations:

Specialization

Traits To Use

Alternate Traits

Corruption

  • Acolyte of Torment
  • Pact of Pain
  • Diabolic Inferno
  • Use Permeating Pestilence instead of Diabolic Inferno if you're in the Open World and need a way to clear your conditions

Devastation

  • Unsuspecting Strikes
  • Assassin's Presence
  • Dance of Death
  • If the people around you won't benefit from the Ferocity provided by Assassin's Presence (DPS players), use Thrill of Combat instead (in the Open World or otherwise)
  • Use Battle Scarred instead of Unsuspecting Strikes when playing in the Open World to increase survivability

Renegade

  • Blood Fury
  • Heartpiercer
  • Lasting Legacy
  • Use Righteous Rebel instead of Lasting Legacy if you don't have two Chronomancers in your squad, since it'll provide Alacrity at a slight DPS cost

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Skills

Guild Wars 2 - Revenant wielding a sword and a shield, attacking a golem

Revenants get a different set of skills for each weapon set. Choose the following skills:

Mace/Axe

Shortbow

Healing Slot

Recommended Skill:

  • Breakrazor's Bastion

Recommended Skill:

  • Empowering Misery

Utility Slots

Recommended Skills:

  • Razorclaw's Rage
  • Darkrazor's Daring
  • Icerazor's Ire

Recommended Skills:

  • Pain Absorption
  • Banish Enchantment
  • Call to Anguish

Elite Slot

Recommended Skill:

  • Soulcleave's Summit

Recommended Skill:

  • Embrace the Darkness

Weapons And Armour

Armour

Guild Wars 2 - Charr Revenant in the woods

The ideal equipment for Raids, Fractals, Dungeons, and Strikes is a full set of Viper gear: that means it will focus on +Power and +Condition Damage, while also providing some +Expertise and +Precision. All of your armour pieces and accessories can have Viper stats.

Viper gear will also serve you well in the Open World, but in the Open World you could also use gear with all:

  • Celestial stats (even spread across +Power, +Precision, +Toughness, +Vitality, +Ferocity, +Healing, +Condition Damage, +Concentration, and +Expertise), which will give you a little more defensibility while maintaining high DPS
  • Trailblazer stats (focus on +Toughness and +Condition Damage, with a little boost to +Vitality and +Expertise), which provides much more defence while sacrificing a significant amount of your damage output

You should also equip a full set of Superior Runes of the Nightmare, since they provide an incredible boost to your Condition Damage.

These are a bit hard to come by, though, so in the meantime and for playing in the Open World, you could also consider:

  • Superior Runes of the Elementalist (not quite as good as the Nightmare Runes, but still great DPS)
  • Superior Runes of Durability (more defense if you find you're dying a lot)
  • Superior Runes of the Tempest (these can be used if you've decided to equip Celestial armour)

Weapons

Guild Wars 2 - Revenant wielding an axe and a mace

In your first weapon slots, equip a shortbow. In your second weapon slots, equip a mace in the main hand and an axe in the off-hand. The weapons should have the same stats as whatever armour you're using.

As far as Sigils go, you'll want to use a Sigil of Bursting and a Sigil of Earth on both weapons. This Sigil set works when you're using the Viper gear or the Celestial gear. If you're using the Trailblazer gear, use a Sigil of Malice instead of a Sigil of Earth. You may choose to change out one of the two sigils for a Superior Sigil of Draining because it is so good at interrupting your enemies. However, it's not effective when the enemy has a defiance bar. Or, you could equip the Sigils of Energy or Sigils of Cleansing, which add extra defence.

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Consumables

Guild Wars 2 - In-Game screenshot of the stats of a Plate of Sesame-Crusted Coq Au VIn

The very best consumables for this class build are:

  • Koi Cake
  • Rare Veggie Pizza
  • Red-Lentil Saobosa
  • Plate of Beef Rendang
  • Toxic Focusing Crystal

However, some of these can be tough and/or expensive to acquire. Any Guild Wars 2 player will tell you that some food is better than none, though! Check out this list for cheaper/easier to find alternatives:

  • Tuning Icicle (+Condition Damage)
  • Potent Master Tuning Crystal (+Condition Damage)
  • Bowl of Fly Soup (+Expertise, +Condition Damage)
  • Seared Beef Steak (+Condition Damage)
  • Petri Dish Delight (+Expertise)

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