However, quite unexpectedly, I received an invitation 2 days ago to the closed beta of the Guild Wars 2 Addons Heart of Thorns. The two-hour test started at 8:30 PM. What I experienced and why the Revenant is such a cool class, you can read in this travel report.
Only 2 hours
Tuesday, 8:30 PM: Some Mein-MMO authors usually just get up at this time and complain about current RPG annoyances. I, however, quickly changed my evening plans, as the invitation to Heart of Thorns came quite suddenly.
Client set up, logged in on time, and created a beta character – a Revenant of course. Every closed beta should be this easy. But it had to be quick, as you only had 2 hours to test.
The Revenant: The Blind Fighter
After my Revenant was created in 30 seconds without much love, it began. A handful of identical-looking guys suddenly surrounded me – everyone was playing the new class, logically. So off to the first event in the Maguuma Jungle, as you started directly at level 80.
In combat, I suddenly realized that I didn’t know what the new class could do. As an experienced MMO player with years of combat experience, no problem: randomly pressing some buttons and the first monster goes down. Facerolling at its best.
Once you play the battle mage a bit, it’s actually quite fun. You switch merrily between demon and dwarf form, depending on what the team needs: damage or support. The graphical representation of the effects also stands out from other classes. Red and gray are the spells in demon form, and bluish in dwarf form.
First Part of the Story and Meta Event
After an introduction event, I was solo on my way again. The first part of the story was waiting for me, which I don’t want to reveal too much about here. Just this: fire and plants do not mix.
After the story, the meta event continued, which was depicted as a day-night cycle. I had the choice between two big events and mistakenly chose the one that nobody else chose. For that, I learned that a misstep means immediate death in the new area, as it goes deep down… very deep.
Quickly switched to the other side of the map and completed another event with 20-30 other players. Not with machetes, but with explosives, and it went from point to point through the jungle – to a large temple, where our team had to capture multiple points. Along the way, we encountered – oh, what a surprise! – gigantic thorn plants that shot green goo at the players. Innovative? Meh.
So… will it be good?
The temple event was unfortunately also my last one that evening. Conclusion? The Maguuma Jungle looks really good. The areas I saw were not vast, but only equipped with narrow paths. You can like that or not. However, without a doubt, a highlight of Heart of Thorns will be the new class – the Revenant. Of course, purely subjective and drunk with euphoria, the blind battle mage brought me a lot of fun and will probably be leveled to 80 immediately after release.
Despite the short time, I had a lot of fun during the closed beta and it motivates me to check out the ArenaNet game more often again. Did you also get to test the beta? How did you like it?
