At Gamescom, ArenaNet announced first beta weekend for Heart of Thorns.

ArenaNet is going to be at Gamescom next week for the Guild Wars 2 World Tournament Series which will face the top four teams against each other for the first time on a stage in Europe. Those attending Gamecom next week will get an early preview of the first official Beta Weekend Event (BWE) which ArenaNet is today announcing for players that have pre-purchased Heart of Thorns. Players won't have to wait long as the first BWE will launch next weekend starting on Friday, August 7th at Noon Pacific and lasting to the following Monday, August 10th at Noon Pacific.

In a blog post, Colin Johanson says that this will be a real beta test where player feedback matters. Feedback on what exactly? Not everything as Colin says that the beta weekends will never be all-encompassing. "We want to keep a strong sense of discovery and not spoil huge parts of the story ahead of time," he said confirming that the first story chapters and parts of the first map will be the extent of what players see in terms of the stories and maps in the BWEs.

For those that have pre-purchased the expansion, you will be able to create a fully geared, level 80 beta character of any race. In addition to being able to play the entirety of the core Revenant including all five trait lines and four core legends including Shiro, for the first time ever players will be able to play the already revealed elite specializations with the Chronomancer, Dragonhunter, Reaper and Tempest.

While players will only get to see about 25% of Verdant Brink—which is mostly the same content that those invited to the previous closed beta saw—players will also be able to take the Revenant and Elite Specializations back out into the core areas of the game. In addition to this, beta characters will also have access to the new Map Bonus reward system. Players will also see that the Adventures in the jungle now feature fully functional leaderboards and rewards.

If that wasn't enough, ArenaNet will also be turning on Stronghold PvP for the duration of the weekend including the Mist Champion selection system with all three champions available to those who have pre-purchased the expansion.

Plus, all progress made on beta characters will be saved so that players can pick up where they left off for the second BWE.

If all of this wasn't exciting enough, ArenaNet also teased that players should make sure to tune into the WTS Championship event as they will be announcing the details of one of the Heart of Thorns features during the course of the livestream. You can catch the Championship event on the official Guild Wars 2 Twitch channel at 1 AM Pacific on Saturday, August 8th.

Matt Adams aka the Mattsta

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