ArenaNet Confirms Sylvari And Asura Playable In Guild Wars 2 BWE

Written by: Scott Hawkes (@jarimor) | July 9, 2012 9:16 am

ArenaNet Confirms Sylvari And Asura Playable In Guild Wars 2 BWE

54 Comments

Our tin-foil hats are tarnished.

We’d speculated on GuildCast that murmurings from ArenaNet indicated that we might not get our hands on either the Asura, the Sylvari or even both before Guild Wars 2‘s full launch.

Well I’ll blush happily in being wrong because the pre-purchase BWE3, which takes place July 20-22, will finally give players the chance to go golemance gaga — or cabbage crazy, depending on your preference.

Newly initiated to Tyria? Here’s some brief pointers on what makes the newly available races so anticipated:

Asura

The diminutive race from Rata Sum are known for their melding of magic and technology.

Proud of their genius, the starting area should be something to behold, full of floating cubic structures.

Practitioners of the Eternal Alchemy, the Asura pride themselves on their intellectual inventiveness, with such arts as golemancy prevalent in the creating of magically controlled golems — perhaps including some fun and games of the Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robot variety.

Rata Sum should be a quirky, fun experience, very different from the home areas available in previous beta weekends.

Sylvari

The Sylvari are fascinating for a variety of reasons. Firstly, all sylvari are not birthed, in fact they awaken as fully formed beings from a giant organic lifeform known as the Pale Tree. All knowledge of the world before the awakening occurs in the Dream of Dreams, a linked consciousness which gives a very distinct, atypical view of the world in comparison to the rest of the already diverse races of Tyria.

Some may mistake a sylvari as being Guild Wars 2‘s straightforward translation of an elf, and the early iterations of their design didn’t help that misunderstanding — something thankfully changed to accentuate their vegetation and distinctiveness. In fact whereas elves are timeless, immortal beings in most MMOs, the Sylvari are only 25 years old, giving them fresh, almost alien eyes to Tyria and a perspective that is obviously idiosyncratic — any conversations with sylvari NPCs around the main cities give a nice flavor of that.

Both races promise an interesting story and considering how marvelous the starting cities have been for the other races, we should be in for a treat with The Grove and Rata Sum.

Plus, I like the idea of sylvari guardians…

Are you eager to get your hands on the Sylvari and Asura?

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http://twitter.com/willypallen William Allen

I <3 you ArenaNet
http://www.facebook.com/michael.lauria.35 Michael Lauria

I was thinking maybe an Asura Guardian and maybe later a Sylvari Engineer! I’m very excited for the chance to see these races before launch. Maybe this will mean these areas wont be insanely packed at launch as well.
http://twitter.com/Mantose Leo P

cant wait. Glad they will be availible before launch.
7BitBrian

I was pretty sure they’d be in this beta, just made sense to me. Glad I guessed right. Cannot wait to try out both of them.
QSatu

Asura will be cool as thieves with their animations imo =]
http://www.facebook.com/imansfield1 Ian Mansfield

so if the two races arent the big suprise for launch what is o.o they said they where saving something big
- Old Ben
  
  All the areas above level 35? All the dungeons besides Ascalon Catacombs? The rest of the sPvP battlegrounds? The flying mounts? Oops, I said too much…
- http://profile.yahoo.com/ITHF7XKYGVXFAPCDMDJTKHLBBU Lian Wan
  
  They wouldn’t be much of a surprise since many people already know about them. Guild airships as replacments for guild halls?
http://www.facebook.com/TechCamacho David Camacho

I was thinking Asura Guardian too.
Kicknpups

I told myself I won’t touch either one before launch do to wanting to save some surprises but something tells me Ill give in like a fat kid to cake!
Volkon

Going to have to go with Sylvari this BWE and save the Asura for launch. After all, you should always have your veggies before dessert.
Camzillasmom

I will conciously not play at the last BWE. I’ll save it for release. Then it’ll be an Asura Elementalist.

It sounds like Scott is going to play the guardian with all races anyways. Haha
http://twitter.com/wut_iz !wut_iz

I’ll play a Sylvari, but one of the more aggressive jobs, either warrior or a necromancer I think… Also either a spring looking warrior or a fall looking necromancer~
ThnagglePuth

I think I’ll go through the creation, but not play my Sylvari Necromancer. However, looking around in both areas should be interesting and enlightening.
Vrall

I will play a sylvari-guardian. Already invented a whole backgroundstory and motivation for travelling the world. He’s a stalwart defender of the tablet and tries to stop the Nightmare Court. (<-rper)
- Old Ben
  
  The tablet is just an oversized smartphone, get over it!
  - http://profile.yahoo.com/ITHF7XKYGVXFAPCDMDJTKHLBBU Lian Wan
    
    Hmm that has me thinking. What if it turns out that the Sylvari are an Asuran experiment? The tablet is a device that allows them to retain some control. The thing about Ventari and that other guy is just a cover story. The Pale Tree … well if you have seen the first Matrix movie just imagine how the humans were stored.
    - Old Ben
      
      > The tablet is a device that allows them to retain some control.
      
      By forcing everyone to buy everything through the Asura App Store, and keeping 20% of the profits, even though they had no development expenses?
      
      Nah, I know the “Asura” are Hindu demons, but not even they would come up with such an evil plan.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Thomas-Kozma-Jr/100000683276285 Thomas Kozma Jr.

I was fine with Arenanet holding these back but glad to see they’ll get tested, I might dabble in the ASura this BWE simply to find the npc a certain red haired web personality voices lol but i’m not going to go past maybe character creation on the Sylvari til launch,that way something can be a totally new experience at that point, see you all in Tyria!
http://twitter.com/jouzua Jonatan

what I don’t understand when they say they are entirely new and not done before, afaik the Sylvari been done before, under the name Sylvan in DAoC
http://camelotherald.wikia.com/wiki/Sylvan

Still love them, and there is a big chance they will be the race choice of my picking.
- http://profile.yahoo.com/YSVAPKVBUPTX6YS3W2DLPOBNN4 AlokP
  
  Sylvan is much older than that. I was playing a text based MMO in the mid 90s called Gemstone and they had sylvans, who were actually a sub-race of elves (in the game they’re called Sylvankind). Gemstone, in turn, took it from Tolkein’s Silvan elves, and before that C.S. Lewis used the word silvan to refer to wood sprites.
EndrzGame

I’m very eager to get my hands on the Sylvari/Asura but I don’t believe I’ll be rolling one of them for the final BWE. I’ll go check out their capital cities on my main human ranger that I’ve been playing. I’m gonna save actually creating them till release. Since there are five character slots to start with I plan on rolling one of each race. I’ve got 3 of the 5 professions I’m gonna start out with,(Human Ranger, Norn Warrior, Charr Gaurdian), so this final BWE will help me determine the last 2 professions I’ll be using to fill my slots. Gonna try out the Necromancer, Elementalist and Engineer.
I’m really glad that ANet is bringing these last two races into the Beta cycle. But for my own personal preference I’ll be waiting so I have something of a surprise when the game goes live.
XMP_Data_Guru

Asura is what I have been waiting for. Love to play different races in games. DAOC my main in midgard was a Troll thane loved him. Main in Hib was a Firblog Warden. Of course me and the misses had a pair of Lurikee rangers and Kobold shadowblades.

I tend to move away from the human or human like ( love norn history since is so close to Nordic but they are just large humans).

Need to look at the sylvari and see how much I like them. But I will have to have 1 alt one because they are soooo different from every other tree hugging race made in mmo’s(every game has a elf lol).

Just makes me want to get to launch thou. Love the beta weekends but I am at the point I am ready for my permanent server of Sarrows Furnace (DAOC server) to get started.

First game in a loooooong time to get me this excited. Not since DAOC (pre toa blaaaah) have I wanted to play a game and enjoy all of its wonder.
http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr

Hmmm, Sylvari Engineer or Slyvari Neromancer for the final BWE. A self-aware plant summoning undead minions has its appeal.
- http://twitter.com/H3L1ON Samir
  
  i wouldent go with engineer, since fire and wood dont work so wel… :p
  - http://twitter.com/cyanpill cyanpill
    
    Fire and fur don’t work so well, yet Charr are all about engineering
- Old Ben
  
  Sylvari ranger, of course. Only race that can feel 100% safe with a carnivorous pet.
falknerblitz

Looks like Gary called it.
- Old Ben
  
  Pretty much everybody “called it” three months ago.
  
  The only real question was if they were only going to have them for one BWE or two.
RolyVento

Woot! Can;t wait!!!
Sklys

Glad to see both races before launch. Should be fun
Colonel17

figures, on the weekend of my family reunion. guess i wont be seeing the asura or sylvari until launch anyways
Old Ben

While it’s totally understandable that some people might not want to “spoil” their post-launch experience, it’s important to note that this isn’t simply a game demo. These are beta tests. Their main purpose is to find bugs and balance issues and help the developers polish the game before launch.

So, if you’re in the beta, it’s kind of your “responsibility” to play the new races or, at least, test their starting areas and cities with one of your other characters. And remember to (try to) reproduce any bugs that you find and submit them using the in-game bug report form.
- Spammerbam
  
  Right on.
  
  “it’s important to note that this isn’t simply a game demo”
  —- Haha, looks like both you and I know who did just that.
  The one-and-only resident troll of ours.
- dawolv
  
  Also imagine they would’ve kept them secret?
  These starting areas would’ve exploded on launch day…
  They made a good call, after all, it needs to be testet!
  
  I for one gonna roll a little guy (if I can get any time in at all) because I want to have the Sylvari starter Area as a little treat for 2 weeks post launch
  - Old Ben
    
    > Also imagine they would’ve kept them secret?
    
    Despite some people suggesting that, I always had some trouble imagining it, because it was basically equivalent to imagining that every coder and tester working at Arena Net had serious suicidal tendencies.
    
    I think it’s risky enough that they’re only doing one BWE with those areas available, and I suspect the launch date was picked due to some external factor.
Mystique60

I want to be an asura guardian sooooo bad but I am saving it for release. might check out sylvari but not sure. I am just thinking those 2 starting zones are gonna be very crowded and laggy. Glad they having them in this beta tho. maybe won’t be so bad at release then. Well I can hope anyway
- http://profile.yahoo.com/ITHF7XKYGVXFAPCDMDJTKHLBBU Lian Wan
  
  In theory it should not be anymore laggy than how the human starter had been. If an instance is getting too crowded the server should be putting people into overflows.
http://twitter.com/dryiggles Jeremiah Yip

I speculated they would do this awhile back and am excited to see they are going to have them this upcoming BWE. I cannot wait to try Asura and Sylvari.

Will most likely just character create my Asura for launch and just play Sylvari to reduce spoiling it for myself. I do feel like I should test the Asura area, but I would expect there will be a lot of people testing the Asura zones that I will be okay in not doing them.

I know they haven’t said anything about it, but I do hope they do a character wipe to do another test on their servers with the pack full of players trying out the Asura/Sylvari starting races.
http://profile.yahoo.com/YSVAPKVBUPTX6YS3W2DLPOBNN4 AlokP

Any word if they’re wiping our previous BWE characters? I’m definitely playing Asura during the weekend because my main’ll be sylvari and I want to save that for launch. But I’d like to take my Norn guardian through some of the higher level areas (if any) included attached to the Asura zones.
http://www.facebook.com/amy.dooley.50 Amy Dooley

First thing I’m doing next BWE is getting my hands on those sylvari <3
- Old Ben
  
  Feel like a salad, huh?
http://www.kaiketsu.enjin.com/ Corey “Crimzen”

I wonder how long it will take before we see an all Sylvari guild named “The Cabbage patch kids.”…Over under guesses? lol
- Jay
  
  Lol nice… I’m making a Sylvari Thief day one, so hopefully I can join :3
  - Old Ben
    
    > a Sylvari Thief
    
    Ah, a true creeper vine.
    - Jay
      
      Lol why’d you change it from just “creeper”, that would’ve been more accurate. ;P
      - Old Ben
        
        Because I remembered a guy I know talking about a “creeper” the other day, and it turned out he was talking about some species of bird.
      - Jay
        
        They used to call me Jay-bird when I was younger… Coincidence? I think not.
- dawolv
  
  Try getting in as early to create “The Tree Hugger”
  I won’t be able, I’m on vacation starting the 24th -.-
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003347431503 Fjorever Ulone

Do you think they’ll mention this again in guildcast?
http://www.facebook.com/rasmus.nielsen.75491 Rasmus Nielsen

As an aside, the Wilden of 4th Edition D&D are almost exactly the same as the Sylvari, Plant people isn’t a new idea, plant people from a tree isn’t a new idea, and mergh to how they talk about things like that as if they’ve come up with something new.

That said, I like the Sylvari and look forward to making my little Little green Thief and my even smaller Lilo And Stich-like Mesmer
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=506728308 Julian F’n Mugnieco
  
  the wilden were manifestations of a respresentation of an ‘aspect’ in nature. they weren’t explicitly born of of tree, or specific point of nature. they were fey’s that more or less embodied the spirit of the natural world with an appearance that reflected their aspect of that spirit.
  
  but +1 cuz the sylvari still look really cool, and Anet was technically right, strictly speaking that a playing plant race didn’t exist in the MMO world prior to GW2
http://www.facebook.com/sakura.huen Sakura Huen

I’m going sylvari guardian for sure. Guardian rocks and sylvari are awesome
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1260066056 Steven Diaz

I don’t usually play any race outside of human or elf, but I loooved Vekk so much and the rest of his compatriots that I NEEEEEED to play an Asura. Never thought I’d be so excited to play any race.

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