Greetings, Tyrians!

Today, we invite the community to participate in a beta event where you can try out all nine of the elite specializations coming when Guild Wars 2®: Visions of Eternity™ launches on October 28! Now is the perfect time to log in and have some fun playing with new talents, skills, and builds.

From now until August 27 at 10:00 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7), you can harness the power of mercurial mold with the amalgam or rain arrows down on your enemies with the galeshot! To review the deep-dive blogs we dropped on the nine elite specs, click here, here, and also here!

If you have a Guild Wars 2 account in good standing, you are invited to try out the elite specialization beta—you don’t need to prepurchase Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity to join the fun. But if you are looking to prepurchase, feel free to check out the various editions here.

Every Guild Wars 2 account in good standing, including Play for Free accounts, will automatically get character slots marked “Beta” when the beta event begins. Clicking on one of these slots will allow you to create a character using any of the nine Guild Wars 2 professions.

From there, explore the open world or try a game mode dedicated to group play. You’ll find options to join World vs. World and structured Player vs. Player in the bar located at the top-left corner of your UI. To tackle the Fractals of the Mists instanced group content, visit Fort Marriner in Lion’s Arch and enter the portal.

Important Note: Beta characters will disappear at the end of the event, and any gameplay progress earned while playing on them—including rewards and currency—will not be saved.

After you’ve had a chance to play, we’d like to hear what you think—what you enjoyed, what you think could be improved, and why you liked or disliked certain elite specializations in the beta. Head on over to our forums and leave us some feedback. Thank you in advance for participating in the beta!

If you missed our last round of Twitch drops, we’ve brought them back for the Visions of Eternity beta! From today through August 24 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7), tune in to Guild Wars 2 streams on Twitch with Twitch Drops enabled to earn in-game rewards, including an Inventor’s Sunglasses Skin, the”/Hiss” Emote Tome, and a Ritualist Outfit!

Can you believe it’s been thirteen years since the launch of Guild Wars 2®? Neither can we! Let’s celebrate this achievement together with an anniversary sale on expansions, including Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds™!

From August 19 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) to September 2 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7), you can take advantage of special deals on Guild Wars 2 expansions. Adventure to new areas with your characters and expand your account with new features from our five released expansions. With Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity™ releasing in October, now is the perfect time to grab a friend and catch up on what you’ve missed!

The following discounted items are available now on the official Guild Wars 2 website, with some of the same exciting deals on Steam! For those looking to add the Living World™ series to their collection, you can find them on sale for at least 30% off in the in-game store. The anniversary sale is not currently available on the Epic Games Store.

Head north to the wilderness of Janthir—a dangerous land that was once home to the strange mursaat and their White Mantle sycophants. Befriend the lowland kodan who reside there, and learn the secrets of wielding a spear on every profession. Your journeys will lead you to own your own homestead, engage in a challenging new raid, and forge a bond with a warclaw mount with new abilities!

Both Standard and Deluxe editions of the Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds expansion are now available at a 20% discount.*

In a world finally safe from the Elder Dragons’ corruption, new threats rise to seek power. Embark on an epic journey and uncover the mysteries of the Wizard’s Tower as you defend the skies against incursions from the Mists. Unlock access to weapons that were previously exclusive to elite specializations for each profession and an updated path to unlocking your skyscale mount.

Both Standard and Deluxe editions of the Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure expansion are now available at a 30% discount.*

The future of Cantha is now. The dragon cycle that has sustained and blighted Tyria for ages is collapsing. Mortal hearts and choices will define this moment in history—and echo into the future forever. Unlock new elite specializations, Masteries, and more, including access to fishing and skiffs.

Both Standard and Deluxe editions of the Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons expansion are now available at a 40% discount!*

Experience the entire dragon cycle saga from beginning to end with Guild Wars 2—The Complete Collection. This bundle contains an entire decade’s worth of content! Included Guild Wars 2 Living World® Seasons 2–5 and the first three expansions:

• Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns®
• Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire®
• Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons

You’ll also get two Level-80 Boosts, allowing you to instantly level up two characters and jump straight into our latest content, plus two Shared Inventory Slots to easily share items with every character on your account.

The Complete, Deluxe, and Standard editions of the Elder Dragon Saga Collection are discounted by 50% for the length of the sale. Note: Only the complete collection of the Elder Dragon saga is available through Steam store.

Unlock mounts, gliding, and more with the first two expansions for Guild Wars 2. This package grants you access to a new profession, the revenant, as well as eighteen elite specializations to change the way you play. Experience the joy of movement with the best mounts in MMOs.

This expansion bundle is available now at a 60% discount!

Our expansion sales are also available from the following third-party retailers:

Americas:

• Guild Wars 2 Steam
• Amazon
• Nuuvem
• Hype Games (Brazil)

Europe:

• Guild Wars 2 Steam
• CDgalaxis (Hungary)
• Gameliebe (Germany)
• Gamecardsdirect (EUROPE)
• Gamecardsdirect (France)
• Gamecardsdirect (Netherlands)
• Key4you (Czech)

*Deluxe packages for Guild Wars 2 are not available through the Steam store.

Today, we’re unveiling the final three elite specializations coming to Guild Wars 2®: Visions of Eternity™! If you missed our previous reveals, make sure you check out the elite specs blogs for the mesmer, ranger, and guardian and the thief, necromancer, and warrior!

Before we dive into the details for the revenant, elementalist, and engineer, make sure you tune into our Twitch channel this Friday, August 8, at 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) for a live preview of the three elite specializations we’re talking about today. You’ll also be able to play all of the elite specializations yourself during our beta event from August 20 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) until August 27 at 10:00 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7).

Having toppled the powerful jotun civilization in the previous dragonrise, Jormag was poised to claim the Shiverpeaks and beyond when they awoke once again. However, as the dragon’s influence crept south of the mountainous crown, displacing the various kodan sanctuaries, it collided with the stalwart and courageous resolve of the norn and their ever-watching guides, the Spirits of Wild.

Despite their resistance, Jormag’s campaign left lasting scars on many of the spirits, consuming or corrupting those that held the line. In the years since Jormag’s defeat, the norn have made strides to reconnect and commune with the spirits. Many now turn to old practices that harken to a time when the first pacts that entwined both groups in spiritual harmony were spoken—the centuries-old tradition of the evoker.

Drawing upon the forces of the natural world, these norn elementalists call upon spiritual companions and empower them with elemental energies. At the spirits’ behest, the norn have been encouraged to share this practice beyond their own to help restore and heal Tyria’s nature spirits.

Every evoker starts with a choice: Which element do you want to specialize in? Selecting an elemental skill on the F5 slot will specialize in that element, granting a few bonuses. First, the attunement skill for that element will have a significantly reduced recharge time. In addition, some of the evoker’s traits and utility skills will be affected by your chosen element. And most importantly, a familiar of that element will join you on your adventures.

Fire specialists will be accompanied by the cunning fox, water joined by the mischievous otter, air by the agile hare, while earth gets the stalwart toad. The familiar has two different skills that are available in the F5 slot once they are fully charged: a basic skill and an empowered skill. The basic skill is charged as the evoker uses their own weapon skills, requiring a total of six to fully charge. Weapon skills that match the familiar’s element will count for double, meaning that only three fire attunement skills would be required to fully charge the fox’s skill. The familiar’s empowered skill will unlock after using its basic skill three times, and that’s when the evoker (and their familiar) unleash their full potential.

The evoker is a flexible specialization, capable of filling a number of roles depending on which element you specialize in. Those leaning toward fire may choose to focus on condition damage, as the fox will complement those builds well.

The fox’s basic skill is called Ignite. When activated, the fox will launch a fiery missile at your target, dealing some damage and inflicting burning, and enemies struck by this skill in quick succession will receive additional stacks of burning.

After using Ignite three times, and hopefully inflicting a good chunk of burning, evokers will gain access to the fox’s empowered skill: Conflagration. Using this skill will summon the fox near your target, after which it will perform a leaping strike that inflicts burning and also spreads any burning from that target to nearby enemies (up to a limit—we thought that spreading 1,500 burning stacks might be a bit too powerful).

Tune in to our stream this Friday for a full reveal of the other spirit companions and their abilities!

Asuran scientists have studied, manipulated, transformed, and occasionally displaced oozes at every level of scientific research. Endlessly adaptable, oozes can absorb the properties of substances and living creatures they come into contact with—and a recent breakthrough has allowed them to be used as a powerful tool for both defense and offense.

The mercurial mold is a special species of ooze that can form a symbiotic bond with its owner and interpret their needs in battle. It’s lightweight, responds instantly, requires no special feeding, and—best of all—no fatalities have been reported as a result of the bonding process. Why not give it a try?

Bonded with their mercurial mold, amalgams are engineers with unparalleled adaptive capabilities. By being able to freely customize which morph skills they select, you can arrive to any fight with the right tools to survive and dish out damage. Amalgams can temporarily meld with their slime, resulting in an altered or even mutated form. An amalgam’s experimentation results in a malleable fighter that can always find the edge in combat.

Amalgams replace the engineer’s utility toolbelt abilities with morph abilities. There are several morph skills, and you can select which ones to fight with in the same manner you select your utility skills. The morph skills command the mercurial mold to shapeshift into different forms, such as a shield, defensive spikes, or even a massive sword.

Your elite toolbelt skill is replaced by Evolve. Evolve briefly combines the engineer and mercurial mold into one being, granting a host of benefits. These benefits, however, are unique to each slime. As you select your morph skills, your mercurial mold’s composition is altered to also change what happens when you evolve. These compositional shifts, called strains, can vary from granting superspeed and quickness to stunning nearby enemies when you evolve.

Amalgam’s utility skills are stances. The mercurial mold can assist you to shift your form, making you as dense as steel or as light as a feather. With the skill Liquid State, you can even melt down into a puddle!

Centuries ago, the hero who defeated the fallen god Abaddon met a strange entity imprisoned deep within the Realm of Torment: Razah, a being born of the Mists. Freed by Abaddon’s death to seek their own purpose in life, Razah chose to accompany the hero across Tyria, and their boundless curiosity led them to study and master any number of martial and magical disciplines.

But Razah’s story seemed to have ended with their companion’s; no one has seen or heard from them since. They may have returned to the Mists to wander or fallen to the corruption they once feared. They might have learned to mimic human behavior precisely enough to live a hundred lives in obscurity. Or they could have been watching our world, still learning—and waiting for someone like you.

After the complexity of having two different legends in the form of Saint Victor and Archemorus in Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons®, we wanted to focus on a single legend that offered an equally unique experience. As a denizen born of the Mists, Razah is the first living legend to assist the revenant in their adventures.

With the conduit, we wanted to portray the multifaceted nature of Razah’s unique link to the Mists. Thus, the elite specialization was designed to have a malleability and flexibility that reflects Razah’s ability to transform into any profession. By amplifying the revenant’s connection to the Mists, the conduit can tap into a deeper well of power through the legends they choose to channel, further augmenting their existing strengths.

As the conduit, you gain the ability to use Cosmic Wisdom, allowing you to further channel the powers of your equipped legend, giving rise to different forms. As an example, using Cosmic Wisdom with Legendary Assassin Stance equipped gives access to Form of the Assassin, granting the conduit bonus power and movement speed, as well as inflicting debilitating conditions on foes you strike. Cosmic Wisdom only lasts for a limited amount of time, but it can be extended through the use of affinity.

Affinity is a new resource that represents the strength of your connection to your legend. Affinity can be gained through using any legendary skills that cost energy. Each point of affinity you gain increases the duration of Cosmic Wisdom by a set amount; however, you lose all affinity as you swap legends.

Thanks to the power of Razah, conduits gain access to Legendary Entity Stance, bringing with them various skills that harken back to when they wandered Tyria as a hero. Each skill in Legendary Entity Stance has an effect called Resonance, a bonus effect that comes into play if the corresponding legend is equipped in the other slot. For example, Beguiling Haze normally shadowsteps you to your target while performing a quick attack on them. However, when Legendary Assassin Stance is equipped as your second legend, the skill becomes an area-of-effect targeted skill, allowing conduits to shadowstep even without a target, and strikes all enemies in the vicinity.

We hope you enjoyed our elite specialization previews! Let us know on our socials and forums which one you’re most excited to play in the upcoming beta on August 20.

Tune in to our Twitch channel this Friday, August 8, at 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) for more details on the conduit, evoker, and amalgam!

For more information about Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity, head over to our official site.

The Zephyrites have once again set sail for Tyria’s shores, while Queen Jennah’s Crown Pavilion has opened its gates to visitors from far and wide. That can only mean one thing: the Festival of the Four Winds has returned!

Starting today, adventurers of all levels are welcome in the Labyrinthine Cliffs and Divinity’s Reach for a season of celebration. The festival ends on Tuesday, August 26, at noon Pacific Time (UTC-7), so don’t miss your chance to gather rewards, catch up with the Zephyrites, and make the most of this summer tradition.

This year’s festival comes with a fresh breeze of exciting additions, giving players new reasons to return to the cliffs and the pavilion. By completing this year’s meta-achievement, you’ll unlock the Cloud Cuirass, a striking new chest armor piece designed to reflect the airy elegance of the Zephyrites themselves.

Weapon collectors will find plenty to chase this year. The newly introduced Leviathan Bone weapon set makes its debut, featuring fearsome designs carved from mythical leviathan remains. These weapons are earned through the annual meta-achievement and weekly festival achievements.

For those looking for a more nautical vibe, the Seashell Shield, Seashell Focus, and Seashell Staff bring a touch of oceanic flair to your loadout. These one-off weapon skins can be found at the festival’s dedicated weapons vendor.

If you’re a fan of minis, don’t miss the Mini Garenhoff Coon Cat—a long-haired fluffball that’s ready to follow you across Tyria. This adorable feline is available from the festival vendor.

Deft Lahar returns with an expanded inventory of decoration recipes, including six new homestead recipe books that bring beloved Festival of the Four Winds guild hall decorations into your personal homestead. In addition, five brand-new decorations inspired by the spirit of the festival will also be available to add to your homestead or guild hall. The new additions include the Lightning, Sun, and Wind Aspect Crystals, the Zephyrite Display Stand, and even a Siege Turtle Rental Post!

The Labyrinthine Cliffs can be accessed via Lion’s Arch, and the Crown Pavilion can be accessed in Divinity’s Reach. Check your in-game mail for an Invitation to the Festival of the Four Winds and double-click the item to teleport instantly to your desired location.

When you enter the Labyrinthine Cliffs, you will arrive in a whole new area! This beautiful explorable zone is located on the Tyrian coast. You can navigate this map using the various aspect crystals: wind, sun, and lightning. There are activities all over the map, so keep your eyes peeled!

Experience the thrill of finding treasure with fellow players by participating in the treasure hunt meta-event, or try your hand at one of the races! The Skimmer Slalom and Flying Dolyak adventures will offer you the fun you need in this beachy location. There are also sky crystals all over the map that you can find to complete achievements.

If you decide to head to the Crown Pavilion, you will discover many other activities! Join other players in defeating the greatest enemies of Kryta in the Boss Blitz event. But worry not; these are not real beings. They are merely Queen Jennah’s watchknight soldiers.

Face off against the strongest individuals in Tyria. Talk to one of the fight managers to join the queue, and you will be transported to a one-versus-one arena—the Queen’s Gauntlet! Cheer on your friends or show off your skills to the world.

You can also help the Zephyrites at the Labyrinthine Cliffs seaside by preparing for a treasure hunt! Fill water balloons at the shore and send them up to the upper docks by kite basket.

Grab your friends and unlock rewards together! Remember, you have three weeks to experience it all as the festival ends on August 26! Happy adventuring!

Hello, Tyrians!

Welcome back to another set of elite specialization reveals for Guild Wars 2®: Visions of Eternity™! If you missed last week’s unveiling of the troubadour (mesmer), galeshot (ranger), and luminary (guardian), be sure to check out last week’s blog.

Today, the focus shifts toward the thief, necromancer, and warrior. Fans of the original Guild Wars® may be familiar with two of the elite specializations we’re talking about today, while the third is full of surprises!

Tune in to our Twitch channel this Friday, August 1, at 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) for a live preview of these elite specializations. You’ll also be able to play all of the elite specializations yourself during our beta event from August 20 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) until August 27 at 10:00 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7).

The balance of black-market trade and above-board commerce in Lion’s Arch has tipped toward legitimacy in recent years, and the Captain’s Council has banded together with several smaller factions to claim a place in the Tyrian Alliance. But the discovery of Janthiri artifacts has started a gold rush as explorers hustle to procure rare and valuable items that no living culture can lay claim to.

The somewhat-euphemistically titled antiquaries pride themselves on their scholarly appreciation for the artifacts they acquire. Many even keep a few in their private collections, ready to impress colleagues at the tavern or blindside foes on the battlefield. And whether they’re priory historians or pirates, Lion’s Arch is still their favored nexus for trading and selling their wares and knowledge.

Antiquaries are the pinnacle of accomplished thieves—no longer stealing for material need and purely doing so for the fun of it. With the help of their loyal (but not necessarily reliable) skritt assistants, antiquaries can plunder precious artifacts from their opponents and turn their random spoils into improvised weapons!

Antiquaries can even break the rules of regular combat, allowing them to reverse a dire situation—or, at the very least, take themselves and their opponents out in a blaze of glory. For the thrill-seeking player who delights in rolling the dice and adapting to any situation no matter the outcome, look no further than the antiquary.

Antiquaries acquire new artifacts with the skill Pilfer, which replaces Steal, summoning a skritt assistant from underground to plunder from your target. After a successful Pilfer, instead of stolen skills, antiquaries get the choice of using one of two randomly selected artifacts from across Tyria. These artifacts range from a Kryptis turret that fires automatically at any nearby enemies to a chak organ that produces a shield, protecting you from incoming projectiles. Traits give you finer control over the artifacts you receive, from guaranteeing that you’ll get one offensive and one defensive artifact each time you Pilfer to rerolling your artifacts for new ones at the cost of initiative.

Double Edge, the antiquary’s new skill category, consists of a set of abilities that can be used repeatedly even while on cooldown! The catch? There is a chance for the skill to backfire when used while still cooling down, often with detrimental effects to the user. The chance of the skill backfiring decreases the closer it gets to completing its cooldown, so players who are more risk averse may want to wait a little while before attempting to use a Double Edge skill again.

Ritualism is one of Tyria’s oldest professions. The practice originated in Cantha, where humans discovered that spirits could be summoned from the Mists and bound to a ritualist’s will. In practice, this was traditionally a respectful partnership between ritualists and ancestral spirits—but as the Speakers’ influence spread in recent years, so did their hastily adopted methods of forcibly binding spirits.

Necromancy and ritualism have long been considered separate disciplines, but as open hostility between the Speakers and Jade Brotherhood cools and Cantha becomes one of the Tyrian Alliance’s strongest pillars, ritualists have formed ties with necromantic communities across Central Tyria, Elona, and beyond. Ritualism will gain new practitioners; networks of political support and shared resources will ensure that responsible traditions are favored over cruel shortcuts to power.

As you might expect, the ritualist draws heavy inspiration from its Guild Wars counterpart. We’ll go into more detail during this Friday’s livestream, but our design goal was to capture the key elements of the profession and translate them into Guild Wars 2®. And to achieve that, we started with spirits. Depending on their skill and trait selections, we expect ritualists will be able to specialize into supportive builds or aggressive power-focused builds.

Spirits will be summoned while in ritualist shroud, and the ritualist will also gain access to weapon spells as their utility type. For those who aren’t familiar with weapon spells from Guild Wars, they’re shareable, beneficial effects with similarities to stances and venoms. Some are applied for a specific duration, and others are applied as stacks.

While weapon spells were ally-targeted skills in Guild Wars, in Guild Wars 2 they behave a bit differently. The ritualist will always receive the full effect of the skill, while up to four nearby allies will receive the effect at a reduced amount. For example, one skill may last for five seconds on the ritualist and three seconds on their allies.

The ritualist’s shroud behaves similarly to the necromancer’s: it’s fueled by life force, and damage taken drains the life-force pool. Once life force is fully drained, the player will exit their shroud.

Inside the ritualist shroud, ritualists will have access to three skills that summon spirits: Anguish, Wanderlust, and Preservation. Each of these skills has an initial effect activated by the ritualist, after which the spirit will appear. When a spirit is summoned, it performs a powerful attack before lingering in a more passive state. During that time, the spirit will periodically attack nearby enemies. These attacks can be focused on a specific enemy by targeting that enemy with the shroud’s basic attack; otherwise, the spirits will simply attack an enemy that is in range. Spirits will usually disappear when exiting shroud; however, there is a trait that allows them to stick around longer for a cost.

For example, when activating Anguish, the ritualist performs an initial strike on the target that inflicts cripple and vulnerability and marks that target to take additional damage from your summoned creatures (yes, that includes minions). When Anguish is summoned, it fires a barrage of projectiles at the target that deal additional damage against controlled enemies and for each condition on the enemy.

There’s a lot more to cover about the ritualist shroud, as well as some other trait interactions and the weapon spell utilities, so be sure to tune into the stream on Friday.

Elona, Land of the Golden Sun. A once opulent dynasty and triune of nations scarred by war, pestilence, and the machinations of divines and dragons over the centuries. In times of crisis, the nations of Elona could count on its most steadfast and inspiring of warriors, the paragons, to serve as an unyielding phalanx against their foes without and within.

In the past, these spear- and shield-wielding fighters were a favored specialization among the storied Sunspears. However, the practice faded into obscurity after the second coming of Palawa Joko, who saw the Sunspears summarily crushed and twisted into the Mordant Crescent. The inheritors of the practice eventually reemerged in the years following Joko’s demise.

Today, paragons are still known for conjuring golden ethereal wings and shouting bolstering chants and commands to empower their allies and demoralize their enemies. Hoping to expand this tradition beyond Elona, some Sunspear paragons have begun offering their expertise to those willing to answer the call.

The paragon is a staple pillar of Guild Wars 2 lore, and its elite specialization carries on the traditions of its original iteration. While the spears that were introduced in Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds™ have already brought one of the paragon’s key aspects to warriors, this elite specialization further delves into their role as commanders and defenders of Elona, granting them the ability to bolster and aid allies around them with chants and commands.

Their presence is so powerful they can, in a moment of dire need, command their allies not to die! The “We Will Never Yield!” elite skill prevents the paragon and their allies from falling below zero health for a short time.

Paragons build up motivation, a new resource, whenever they use a burst skill. In addition to level 1 weapon bursts, paragons gain access to chants—special burst skills that are available regardless of the weapon equipped. Chant skills come in two parts; the first part occurs immediately when the skill is used, while the second part, the refrain, is a pulsing beneficial effect.

Refrains drain motivation and deactivate when it is depleted. In addition, the effects of the refrain become stronger depending on the current motivation level; thus, they are at their most effective when the paragon stays on the front lines of battle, channeling adrenaline into bursts and chants to keep motivation high.

Paragons also gain access to commands, which function similarly to shouts, affecting either enemies or allies around them. Furthermore, command skills come with an additional property called an echo. Echo is a secondary effect that triggers a short interval after a command is used, granting additional bonuses. However, echoes can also be triggered early by using a burst skill, allowing skilled paragons to strategically time their echo effects to turn the tide of battle.

Six elite specializations have now been revealed, and we’ll be back next week to discuss the final three! Tune into our Twitch channel this Friday, August 1, at 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) for more details on the ritualist, antiquary, and paragon!

For more information about Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity, head over to our official site.