ArenaNet are getting ready to test the Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns expansion with the announcement of the first beta weekend.
The beta will get underway on Friday 7 August at 12:00 p.m. PDT (8PM GMT) ending on Monday 10 August. Players who have purchased the expansion will be able to try out all the new content once it goes live.
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.
The good news for players is that any progress made will carry over to the next testing period
ArenaNet will also be at Gamescom next week and will be showing off a demo starting Wednesday 5th August which will include some of the content that will feature in the beta test.
A new blog post about this test has now been posted on the Guild Wars 2 site.
