ArenaNet has announced that the first public beta will kick off on Friday, August 7th beginning at 12:00 pm Pacific / 3:00 pm Eastern and will run through 12:00 pm Pacific / 3:00 pm Eastern on Monday, August 10th. Players who have preordered the Heart of Thorns expansion will be eligible for the event and will have access to all forthcoming beta weekends until HoT launches.
All progress will be saved during the first test and will carried into future beta events to give players an idea of how character progression and new abilities work in the expansion.
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.
In addition, attendees at next week's Gamescom will be able to try out a demo of a portion of the beta client beginning on Wednesday, August 5th and continuing throughout the convention's end on August 9th.
You can find out more about this exciting news on the Guild Wars 2 site (If the link is not yet live, keep trying! It will be!).
