This article is about beta tests run by ArenaNet pre-release. For the Asura Personal Story quest, see Beta Test.

Guild Wars 2 entered the beta testing stage in December 2011. There were several types of beta events:

Closed beta (CB) — These are invitation-only tests; discussion of their content is protected by non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).

Beta weekend events (BWE) — All players that pre-purchased Guild Wars 2 may participate. Players may share media and impressions from these events.

Stress tests — These are not true events, but are really just short testing sessions usually lasting a few hours to test the performance of game servers. NDAs are selectively applied to this type of beta event.

Open beta (OB) — These are completely open tests where every player of Guild Wars 2 in good standing may participate, even those who have not pre-purchased the associated expansion or are on a free-to-play account. Also classified by ArenaNet as 'Preview Weekend Experience'.

Path of Fire [ edit ]

BWE1 — August 11, 2017 [ edit ]

Access to the second Guild Wars 2 expansion, Path of Fire is open to all players in good standing on the weekend of August 11-13, 2017 with the first open-world map (Crystal Oasis) and the new Mount system being shown off to all players.

BWE2 — August 18, 2017 [ edit ]

Access to the new Elite specializations included with Path of Fire will be granted to all players in good standing on demo characters in both PvP and WvW game modes on the weekend of August 18-20, 2017.

Heart of Thorns [ edit ]

Closed beta tests [ edit ]

CBT1 — March 24, 2015 [ edit ]

Access to the first Heart of Thorns closed beta was granted to a selected few pulled from the pool of existing players and additional users who were signed up for the newsletter.[1]

This beta allowed players to explore limited areas in Verdant Brink in Heart of Maguuma as well as play a demo of the first story instance. The revenant was a playable-profession.

CBT2 — May 26, 2015 [ edit ]

Guaranteed access to this closed beta was granted to players who received a Portal to the Heart of Maguuma between April 28 and May 10, 2015 and some players who signed up for the newsletter also received access.

This beta was similar to the previous version, with additional areas and activities of Verdant Brink unlocked. The Mastery interface was redesigned and the story instance was extended.

Events for the structured PvP game mode feature the Battle of Champion's Dusk.

Events for the World versus World Desert Borderlands are limited to invited players only.

Beta weekend events [ edit ]

Accounts that have pre-purchased Heart of Thorns gain access to each Beta weekend event.

BWE1 — August 7-10, 2015 [ edit ]

The first public Beta Weekend Event was from August 7 at 19:00 to August 10 at 19:00

BWE2 — September 4-6, 2015 [ edit ]

The second public Beta Weekend Event was from September 4 at 19:00 to September 6 at 6:59

Beta characters (4 slots) were available to accounts that have prepurchased and can play in every game mode, gaining access to: Each previous elite specializations — including Herald, Berserker, and Daredevil Revenant profession Around 25% of the western Verdant Brink jungle-floor biome New map bonus reward system All races available during character creation

Stronghold was active for all players

BWE3 — October 2-4, 2015 [ edit ]

The third public Beta Weekend Event was from October 2 at 19:00 to October 4 at 6:59

Beta characters (4 slots) were available to accounts that have prepurchased and could play in every game mode, gaining access to: All elite specializations — including Scrapper and Druid Revenant profession Around 25% of the western Verdant Brink jungle-floor biome (same map as BWE2) New map bonus reward system All races available during character creation Access to part of the Spirit Vale raid, limited to the Vale Guardian

Stronghold was active for all players

Updated commander and squad functions

Other pre-release events [ edit ]

Revenant Test Weekend (July 10-13, 2015) — players who pre-purchased the game gain access to the revenant profession and are able to play in all game modes

Closed beta tests [ edit ]

CBT1 — December 16, 2011 [ edit ]

ArenaNet announced on the 14th of December, 2011, that closed beta testing would start on that Friday, the 16th. Aside from the date, nothing else was known about this first closed beta event. [2]

CBT2 — February 17–19, 2012 [ edit ]

The test in February was the first widely-publicized closed beta; various members of the media were invited to take part.[3] While the non-disclosure agreement surrounding was not lifted[4], select members of the press were allowed to talk about their experiences with the beta starting on Monday, February 20. The following is a partial list of their reports:

Closed beta registration [ edit ]

On the 22nd of February, ArenaNet offered players the opportunity to register to participate in future beta events; they received over 1 million applications in a little over 48 hours.[5] Registration has since closed; invitees to future closed beta tests will be chosen from the original pool.

CBT3 — March 23—25, 2012 [ edit ]

The third closed beta event included selected members of the press and a large number of players selected from the registration pool above. Testing followed a similar pattern to the second. Although invited players were covered by the NDA, individual publications were cleared to release relevant media beginning on March 26.

This event concluded with an Inquest Invasion of Divinity's Reach.

Beta weekend events [ edit ]

For access to the client or for troubleshooting common issues with installing or running the client, refer to Getting Started.

Beta weekend events ran between noon Pacific time on the designated Friday and ended at 11:59 p.m. Pacific on the following Sunday. Participation in all public beta events was guaranteed to those who pre-purchased Guild Wars 2.[6] Additionally, ArenaNet selectively invited additional players who registered for beta testing for one or more such beta events. The beta testing registration was announced on February 22, 2012 and was opened for 48 hours.[7]

Beta weekend events were not restricted by non-disclosure agreements; players are free to share their experiences.

BWE1 — April 27–29, 2012 [ edit ]

The first Beta Weekend Event began on Friday, April 27, at noon PDT (UTC-7) (start time for other timezones) and ended on Sunday, April 29, at 11:59 p.m. PDT (UTC-7) (end time for other timezones).

Special codes were handed out to visitors of PAX East 2012. These were handed out on cards that contained three codes saying "One for you, and two for your buddies." These codes allowed access into the first Beta Weekend Event only.

See also:

BWE2 — June 8-10, 2012 [ edit ]

The second Beta Weekend Event began on Friday, June 8, at noon PDT (UTC-7) (start time for other timezones) and ended on Sunday, June 10, at 11:59 p.m. PDT (UTC-7) (end time for other timezones). Shortly before the event, ArenaNet published a list of known issues.

Notable features & changes [ edit ]

The Beta Weekend finale took place on June 10, 11:20pm PST, where the branded minions of Kralkatorrik invaded the Plains of Ashford during the simultaneous events Repel the invading dragon forces and Destroy and corrupt everything in your master's image. If a player was killed by one of the branded, they would turn into one themselves. Subsequently, characters would receive a set of five skills to use and had their affinity changed to hostile, allowing them to attack unaffected characters.

BWE3 — July 20-22, 2012 [ edit ]

ArenaNet announced[11] on June 28, 2012 that the third and final Beta Weekend Event would take place from Friday, July 20 at noon PDT (UTC-7) (start time for other timezones) and end on Sunday, July 22, at 11:59 p.m. PDT (UTC-7) (end time for other timezones).

Notable features & changes [ edit ]

See also

Stress tests [ edit ]

Stress tests were minor beta tests that ran for a limited time (less than 24 hours). They focused on collecting data about server performance and testing improvements to the game's infrastructure. Public stress tests were open to all players who have pre-purchased a copy of Guild Wars 2.

An invitation-only, closed stress test took place on 13th of April, 2012. [12]

The first public stress test was on 14th of May, 2012, from 11 AM - 6 PM PDT (-7 GMT). [13]

The second stress test was on 27th of June, 2012, originally scheduled from 10 AM - 2 PM PDT (-7 GMT) [14] but extended to 10 AM - 3 PM PDT (-7 GMT). [15]

but extended to 10 AM - 3 PM PDT (-7 GMT). The third stress test was on August 2nd, 2012, from 12 PM - 4 PM PDT. [16]

The fourth stress test was on August 9th, 2012, from 12 PM - 4 PM PDT. [17]

The fifth stress test was on August 10th, 2012, from 4 PM - 8 PM PDT. [18]

The sixth stress test was held on August 12th, 2012, from 11 AM - 12 PM PDT. [19]

The seventh stress test was held on August 15th, 2012, from 12 PM - 4 PM PDT. [20]

The eighth stress test was held on August 21st, 2012, from 12 PM - 4 PM PDT, but was extended to 6 PM PDT. [21]

The ninth stress test was held on August 22, 2012, from 9:10 PM PDT - 10:10 PM PDT. [22]

The tenth stress test was held on August 23, 2012, from 1:20 PM PDT - 2:20 PM PDT. [23]

Notes [ edit ]

Documentation efforts (based on the BWEs) are ongoing and can be found here.

ArenaNet sometimes refer to their non-closed beta events as public beta events, indicating that it is open to the general public who pre-purchased the game.

See also [ edit ]

The official FAQ.

Demo