NCSOFT and ArenaNet today announced that the first publicly accessible beta for Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns will launch worldwide as the first official Beta Weekend Event for players who pre-purchased the game on August 7th, and will get a preview on the show floor at Gamescom.
As the press release reads, Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns is the first expansion to Guild Wars 2. Founded on the same gameplay philosophy as the core game, where the journey is the goal, Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns continues ArenaNet’s tradition of defying MMO conventions to fulfill the promise of what online worlds should be.
For the Beta Weekend Event, players around the world who purchase Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns will be able to play all of the content in the beta test using their existing Guild Wars 2 accounts starting at 9:00 p.m. CEST (8:00 p.m. BST) on Friday, August 7th, and running until 9:00 p.m. CEST (8:00 p.m. BST) on Monday, August 10th. ArenaNet announced access to Beta Weekend Events as one of the perks for anyone who pre-purchases Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns.
In this first test, players will have a chance to experience the first story instances in the expansion’s new area, the Heart of Maguuma Jungle, as well as playtest the revenant, an all-new profession with attacks and abilities that draw their powers from legends of Guild Wars lore. They will be among the first to try out the new elite specializations that introduce new weapons and skills for each profession in the game. They also get to test the new masteries system, a new endgame progression system that replaces linear leveling and gives players choices in the new skills, abilities and rewards they pursue.
ArenaNet is enabling players to save their progress during testing and carry it over into future betas for Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, giving them a chance to experience how character progression and earning new abilities works in the expansion.
Moreover, ArenaNET will debut a demo showcasing a portion of the content that’s playable in the beta test on the show floor starting on gamescom’s opening day on Wednesday, August 5, and running until the show ends on Sunday, August 9. ArenaNet is partnered with Twitch at gamescom and will have demo stations open to all attendees at the Twitch booth (Hall 9, Booth A-060).
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
Contact: Email