[Play now] ArenaNet, publisher and developer of the award-winning Guild Wars franchise, today launched Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns. The highly anticipated expansion to Guild Wars 2 is now live and available at digitally worldwide. Three months ago, ArenaNet announced that the core Guild Wars 2 game is available to play for free, a move that has significantly grown the game’s player community.
Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns now extends the core experience as a paid expansion with new content and features, including a new system called Masteries that redefines endgame character progression. The expansion introduces Guild Halls where guilds and groups of players can claim and customise a piece of the game world, preparing for the first-ever Raids coming shortly after launch.
As with the original Guild Wars 2, which delivered more than 40 major free updates, players who purchase Heart of Thorns will have access to future releases coming to the expansion for free. Heart of Thorns continues the Guild Wars 2 journey for players in their Personal Story saga, where armies led by players go deep into the heart of the Maguuma jungle to take on a sinister elder dragon.
Heart of Thorns also brings new game modes, features and game play improvements. There is an all-new profession called the revenant along with elite specialisations that add new weapons and skills to every existing profession. There is a brand new competitive content with the new PvP mode called Stronghold and the massive new Desert Borderlands map for the epic Worlds vs World mode.
For endgame content, Masteries introduce new ways to pursue character progression. Raids and new Fractal dungeons deliver extremely challenging group content. There are also new ways to earn Legendary rewards. For competitive players, there are in-game systems and leaderboards such as PvP Leagues and Guild Challenger Leagues that pave the way for players to compete at an elite level.
