Guild Wars 2

I’ve read many posts asking for a Class story and those arguing for one. They all seem to boil down to “Rytlock’s the first Revenant! How do you explain 2 year old content and the Revenant?”

The answers all seem to come down to,“Story line only cares about race.” or “No other class has had a story so STFU!” or other less polite replies.

I don’t care about Rytlock or his role as “First Revenant” as hypothesized on the forums. That said, please consider the following;

1. I have not played Guild Wars 1.
2. I have no clue who these Legends are.
3. I have no idea why the powers of the Legends are associated with them.
4. No other class is based so exclusively upon story.

I’m not saying that Revenant should be removed/excluded from the racial class lines but I would recommend a novel approach to the class; lock traits behind story quests. Rather than paying for them or waiting for some Open World event, force the player to follow a quest chain to learn about the five legends. The more they learn, the more powerful they are.

I am excited about the new class and I find the history Anet has chosen to reveal so far very interesting, but I feel their will always be something missing from the class if only Guild Wars 1 players can truly appreciate how complex Revenants are.

It’s a large misinterpretation by the community to assume that Rytlock becoming ‘the first Revenant’ is going to be at all chronologically solid.

Rytlock will be the first Revenant NPC to appear in game, though assumptions could be that Revenants have existed from the start (at least in personal story), and no current NPC has taken to being that profession as of yet. In the same way that the game acknowledges there are Paragons and Monks still in the world (see Guardian’s lore).

The Havroun’s for example, are Revenants by definition, with their connection to the mists and ability to channel the spirits of the wild. What Rytlock brings is nothing new, just a title, what he teaches however is probably knowledge of what HE found during his time in the mists, not everything there is to know. Possibly about ancient knowledge relating to the story.

At least, that’s my interpretation anyway, people have taken Revenant at face value.

TL;DR – Rytlock is first Reventant NPC, not first ever Revenant. Revenants are assumed to have always existed, Rytlock teaches stuff about story, not “how to be a Revenant: for dummies”

No, screw that. Let’s not delay the expansion for God knows how long for story content that people will play once and dump.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

No, screw that. Let’s not delay the expansion for God knows how long for story content that people will play once and dump.

Nobody said anything about delays. And if there were delays, how much delay do you expect from them going “oh actually no, let’s not have that backstory, let’s tweak it a little” like, what… an hour tops? god forbid

The way I see Revenants is that they are those who have been exposed to the Mists long enough to learn the secrets and memories of heroes of ages past. As Tyrannical pointed out, norn havrouns are an example of those who tap into the Mists and the players (and Rytlock) would probably be the first ones to actually integrate that knowledge for combat purposes.

Putting effort and work hours into content that will benefit all classes seems a way better idea than creating content limited to only one class.

Algreg.3629:

Putting effort and work hours into content that will benefit all classes seems a way better idea than creating content limited to only one class.

This ^.

Revenants are not like WoW’s Death Knights; they are regular people that learned how to harness the power of the mists and the legends of the past. They shouldn’t get special treatment in this particular case. Besides, there are plenty of abilities in other classes and racial skills that draw on lore from the past, but the ability does a thing, so you don’t need to understand the lore to fight; it just makes using the skills more interesting.

I would be fine if they implemented a story for them specifically, but also if they implemented class storylines for the other ones too (maybe two personal storylines? That could be kind of cool). The problem is, this would be a lot of content to add, and their resources are not able to handle this task in time for the expansion.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

No, screw that. Let’s not delay the expansion for God knows how long for story content that people will play once and dump.

Is not all story content basically play once and dump?

Once you replay LS2 for all the acheivements, is anyone still going into Glint’s Lair to replay content for no reward?

I just killed Zhaitan, time to delete this character and re-roll to play it through again.

I am not advocating hours of unique, instanced content that could, as was so politely put, delay the expansion. But the expansion is likely still months away from general release. Small Open World items could be put in places (Libraries, Tombs, Tomes, be creative) where all players can learn about the Legends but the story unlocks things specifically related to Revenant skills. This would be immersive and a welcome change to the dynamic of character levelling.

Malkavian.4516:

The way I see Revenants is that they are those who have been exposed to the Mists long enough to learn the secrets and memories of heroes of ages past. As Tyrannical pointed out, norn havrouns are an example of those who tap into the Mists and the players (and Rytlock) would probably be the first ones to actually integrate that knowledge for combat purposes.

This is my point. My character may have learned these secrets but I don’t know these secrets, therefore I can never truly identify with my character.

All other classes can attribute there abilities to being innate and natural. Though some class related content would be nice; i.e. Necromancers learning a new Ritual, Mesmers a new Mantra, Elementalists attunements, etc. But, each of those examples could still be attributed to the some form of self-discovery.

Revenants are unique in their explanation of where their abilities come from. One cannot just kill some World Boss or save some town from destruction and suddenly know the history and power of a Legend.

maybe they just feel those legends? anyone can learn about legends and history, but they wont be Revenants… the difference will be what you can’t see, obviously not everything can be learned, you need some natural power to be able to do it…

and if you want to know it too, go check the wiki

MaXi.3642:

maybe they just feel those legends? anyone can learn about legends and history, but they wont be Revenants… the difference will be what you can’t see, obviously not everything can be learned, you need some natural power to be able to do it…

and if you want to know it too, go check the wiki

for a silly story i just imagine a revenant has legends ‘possess’ him and wear him like a cheap suit of armor at their whim – often at random.

“And so i told the bartender that he can shove-I HAVE RETURNED! >:O”

Sorry, but the actual argument, and the only one that matters is: The Devs said Revenant wouldn’t have a story because story isn’t associated with class, therefore, no story.

Tyrannical.9348:

Duke Blackrose.4981:

No, screw that. Let’s not delay the expansion for God knows how long for story content that people will play once and dump.

Nobody said anything about delays. And if there were delays, how much delay do you expect from them going “oh actually no, let’s not have that backstory, let’s tweak it a little” like, what… an hour tops? god forbid

Also, you have no concept at all how development works. This right here would take a week, minimum.

Kal Spiro.9745:

Sorry, but the actual argument, and the only one that matters is: The Devs said Revenant wouldn’t have a story because story isn’t associated with class, therefore, no story.

Yup, Anet has said personal story is focused on your race and they want to keep it that way.

This is also the case of where something new to us players does not coincide to what is new in the universe of the game. Revenants have already always existed in the world of Tyria (as an earlier stated example Havrouns are Revenants by just a different name), it just now being accessible to us players.

Imagine it more this way: If necromancers weren’t available to us in the beginning of release of GW2 but they exist within the world already (like Zhaitan is basically a nercomancer dragon) and with some expansion became a playable class.

Cherokeewill.7504:

I’ve read many posts asking for a Class story and those arguing for one. They all seem to boil down to “Rytlock’s the first Revenant! How do you explain 2 year old content and the Revenant?”

The answers all seem to come down to,“Story line only cares about race.” or “No other class has had a story so STFU!” or other less polite replies.

I don’t care about Rytlock or his role as “First Revenant” as hypothesized on the forums. That said, please consider the following;

1. I have not played Guild Wars 1.
2. I have no clue who these Legends are.
3. I have no idea why the powers of the Legends are associated with them.
4. No other class is based so exclusively upon story.

I’m not saying that Revenant should be removed/excluded from the racial class lines but I would recommend a novel approach to the class; lock traits behind story quests. Rather than paying for them or waiting for some Open World event, force the player to follow a quest chain to learn about the five legends. The more they learn, the more powerful they are.

I am excited about the new class and I find the history Anet has chosen to reveal so far very interesting, but I feel their will always be something missing from the class if only Guild Wars 1 players can truly appreciate how complex Revenants are.

ArenaNet is not giving the Revenant their own unique personal story. That said, ArenaNet has expressed a desire to actually show more lore regarding their professions in the game. The revenant may not get their unique story, but all players will likely learn about the origins, powers, etc. of the revenant in the Heart of Thorns story.

In my opinion I think the revenant’s story should start with a tutorial inside of the mists.
you gain the first legend (jalis for example) and continue down the path when you face a big demon like creature (malyxx?) then you awake in the city of race choice

BlakThornArrow.2389:

In my opinion I think the revenant’s story should start with a tutorial inside of the mists.
you gain the first legend (jalis for example) and continue down the path when you face a big demon like creature (malyxx?) then you awake in the city of race choice

Why should they go through all that trouble for simply one class?
In any case your opinion ultimately doesn’t matter because Arenanet certainly do no want to make a limited use content exclusively for a class that after the initial 5 minutes very few would care.

Kal Spiro.9745:

Tyrannical.9348:

Duke Blackrose.4981:

No, screw that. Let’s not delay the expansion for God knows how long for story content that people will play once and dump.

Nobody said anything about delays. And if there were delays, how much delay do you expect from them going “oh actually no, let’s not have that backstory, let’s tweak it a little” like, what… an hour tops? god forbid

Also, you have no concept at all how development works. This right here would take a week, minimum.

to change one statement?

“Rytlock will return and will teach others to be Revenants”

that’s pretty much the only decided upon solid story so far. currently Revenant as a whole is still being developed, so a little tweak to it’s background is hardly gonna be that time consuming when not much about the class so far is set in stone.

Also, I’m quite aware of how development works, so lemme help you down from that high horse. Story is handled by a different department to the rest of the development team, in reality, there’s going to be so many delays with other things like animation, modelling and skill-balancing that the story team will have PLENTY of free time to revise and tweak these things, since writing a story doesn’t throw coding errors or warped textures in your face if you make a mistake.

we’ll just see when its released although I do wonder how they are going to explain it story-wise if even :/

Tyrannical.9348:

Kal Spiro.9745:

Tyrannical.9348:

Duke Blackrose.4981:

No, screw that. Let’s not delay the expansion for God knows how long for story content that people will play once and dump.

Nobody said anything about delays. And if there were delays, how much delay do you expect from them going “oh actually no, let’s not have that backstory, let’s tweak it a little” like, what… an hour tops? god forbid

Also, you have no concept at all how development works. This right here would take a week, minimum.

to change one statement?

“Rytlock will return and will teach others to be Revenants”

that’s pretty much the only decided upon solid story so far. currently Revenant as a whole is still being developed, so a little tweak to it’s background is hardly gonna be that time consuming when not much about the class so far is set in stone.

Also, I’m quite aware of how development works, so lemme help you down from that high horse. Story is handled by a different department to the rest of the development team, in reality, there’s going to be so many delays with other things like animation, modelling and skill-balancing that the story team will have PLENTY of free time to revise and tweak these things, since writing a story doesn’t throw coding errors or warped textures in your face if you make a mistake.

Like I said, no concept, because that’s not how that works. There is already story. It’s already been developed. It’s been decided on, written, checked, approved, recorded, approved again, programmed, implemented. This has already happened at this point. To change one line of dialogue, which this would not entail, would require going through all of that again.

BlakThornArrow.2389:

we’ll just see when its released although I do wonder how they are going to explain it story-wise if even :/

They already said they wont be explaining the how or the why, but you can wait it out.

Kal Spiro.9745:

Tyrannical.9348:

Kal Spiro.9745:

Tyrannical.9348:

Duke Blackrose.4981:

No, screw that. Let’s not delay the expansion for God knows how long for story content that people will play once and dump.

Nobody said anything about delays. And if there were delays, how much delay do you expect from them going “oh actually no, let’s not have that backstory, let’s tweak it a little” like, what… an hour tops? god forbid

Also, you have no concept at all how development works. This right here would take a week, minimum.

to change one statement?

“Rytlock will return and will teach others to be Revenants”

that’s pretty much the only decided upon solid story so far. currently Revenant as a whole is still being developed, so a little tweak to it’s background is hardly gonna be that time consuming when not much about the class so far is set in stone.

Also, I’m quite aware of how development works, so lemme help you down from that high horse. Story is handled by a different department to the rest of the development team, in reality, there’s going to be so many delays with other things like animation, modelling and skill-balancing that the story team will have PLENTY of free time to revise and tweak these things, since writing a story doesn’t throw coding errors or warped textures in your face if you make a mistake.

Like I said, no concept, because that’s not how that works. There is already story. It’s already been developed. It’s been decided on, written, checked, approved, recorded, approved again, programmed, implemented. This has already happened at this point. To change one line of dialogue, which this would not entail, would require going through all of that again.

Really? because last I heard “Professions don’t get any devoted story” according to you, so if all there is to it is this minor little statement from one or two pre-production interviews then all you just said is completely irrelevant BS.

You’re defending a point you yourself have argued against, so there goes your whole argument. Plus, you couldn’t know for sure what the Developers are doing in the background with the story, let’s be honest here, you’re stating opinions as if they were biblical truths…

Until then, I find your lack of sourcing, evidence or even this profound ‘knowledge how the devs work’ completely laughable. you build an argument on facts, and you have none.

So as I was researching and trying to discover what to name my revenant when HoT gets released, I came across some things and sites that likely heavily influenced the world of Tyria. One site in particular Nook of Names, has a plethora of name origin, meanings, and associations. I explored the name Arboreus from that site which led me to Norse mythology.

I followed Arboreus (tree) through wiki Celtic links and some words, phrases, names, and such were within those texts. I found Bifrost, which is a bridge; the Norns; Wild Hunt (lol…. no kidding!); a guardian tree or warden. That brought me to a wiki page and where I found (v?rðr). “warden,” “watcher” or “caretaker”): a warden spirit, believed to follow from birth to death the soul (hugr) of every person. The warden of a dead person could also become a revenant, haunting particular spots or individuals. In this case, the revenant warden was always distinct from more conscious undeads, such as the draugar. WOW!!! The first zombies! But now I was getting somewhere.

With the opportunity for Anet to introduce a new story, a revenant class by definition, will have to die. And whoever is the one to kill them, “… folklore depicts revenants as returning for a specific purpose (e.g., revenge against the deceased’s killer), in most Medieval accounts they return to harass their surviving families and neighbors.” And if you follow the “draugar” line “The Old Norse meaning of the word is a revenant.”

Here’s something else I found that’s interesting. "A draugr’s presence may be shown by a great light that glowed from the mound like foxfire. So, more uses for foxfire maybe? And the revealed mechanic by Anet on April 2nd found here says that, “The Brink’s meta-feature is the increased importance of the day/night cycle; things are tough enough while the sun’s up, but once it sets, the Mordrem redouble their efforts and the landscape becomes even more dangerous.” Also according Norse mythology, “While the draugr certainly preferred to be active during the night, it did not appear to be vulnerable to sunlight like some other revenants.” Hmmm…. interesting!!!!

So with the disclosed attribute of the ranger specialization as a druid, it seems plausible that the revenant’s specialization could be something like the draugr. The draugr are much more powerful according to mythology, with the ability to vanish into smoke, pass through rock, superhuman strength, enter dreams, cause disease, etc.

So there it is! My anticipation rises.

Rainsit Poors.2196:

Great deal of speculation through real-world definitions….
but it was a really interesting read. And you did put a bit of work into it, so kudos.

I’m all for class stories, it would be a wonderful way of expanding the lore and fleshing out the world more. By the same merit, class stories would limit player visibility i.e. if you don’t play said class you don’t experience the story. So it becomes a matter of cost / benefit.
That said I’m fine with Revenants experiencing old story instances. Maybe just because I’m so use to this sort of thing in the MMO genre.

Simple, Rytlock was the first Revenant to walk through the mists and back to Tyria after being chosen. The Revenant opening story will explain all.

Player characters (who choose the Revenant class) are also being chosen for this path.