Arena

An arena is a PvP location outside the Heroes' Ascent tournament or Guild matches.

For a list of all Arenas, see Category:Arenas.

Low Level Arenas
There are two low level arenas, namely Ascalon Arena and Shiverpeak Arena. There is a maximum level on these of 10 and 15 respectively. This is so that lower level players can have PvP battles without having their level as such a disadvantage. These two arenas are not located with the rest of the arenas on Battle Isles, but are instead located on the Tyria map, and are only available to owners of Guild Wars: Prophecies.

When a PvE character first enters Post-Searing, they immediately have access to Ascalon Arena (provided, of course, that they have not reached above level 10 in Pre-Searing). In order to access Shiverpeak Arena, players must reach Yak's Bend, a location near to the start of the Shiverpeaks. A PvP character cannot access the low level arenas.

High Level Arenas
All high level arenas are located on the Battle Isles continent. These arenas are not accessed directly, but instead one must go via an arena "hub". There are two such hubs, Random Arenas and Team Arenas; the difference being that Team Arenas permits players to form their own teams, while Random Arenas forces players into random teams. Team Arenas must be unlocked by winning 5 consecutive matches in the Random Arenas.

The high level arenas are accessible once a PvE character reaches Lion's Arch. A PvP character automatically has access to the high level arenas.

While Heroes' Ascent is marked on the map as an arena, it is normally not considered by players as one.

History
This section refers to previous versions of Guild Wars.

The low level arenas have always been the same. As for the high level arenas:

First of all, when Guild Wars was launched, there were four high level arenas:


 * Competition Arenas at Lion's Arch - random teams, random map (chosen from D'Alessio Arena, Fort Koga, Amnoon Arena and The Crag)
 * Fort Koga at Henge of Denravi - random teams, single map
 * Amnoon Arena at The Amnoon Oasis - random teams, single map
 * Deldrimor Arena at Droknar's Forge - chosen teams, single map
 * The Crag at Ember Light Camp - chosen teams, single map

In the May 11th 2005 update, Deldrimor Arena was renamed to Team Arenas. This was a chosen teams, random map arena. The Crag and Fort Koga were removed, because they were accessible from Team Arenas which you would have had to reach before Henge of Denravi/Ember Light Camp. At this point, PvP characters had a choice of spawning in Competition Arenas or Team Arenas, or the tournament which was then known as Tomb of the Primeval Kings.

Finally, the January 19th 2006 update moved all high level PvP combat to Battle Isles, accessible from Lion's Arch, and so Amnoon Arena could be removed. New PvP characters spawn in Isle of the Nameless, a new explorable area which allows access, via certain quests and paths, to Random Arenas (the new name for Competition Arenas) and Team Arenas.