the way they described beta accounts, the account is an entirely separate account which you access as soon as you use a beta character. To me that sounds like your names are actually reserved, just not by your original account but rather your beta account, which you can't access right now, so technically the names are reserved by an inaccessible account and get released 24 hours after they
Most if not all games eventually limit choices down to a few that players have to commit, GW2 fails at it on 2 levels, you can swap professions and see what other people take, practically having nothing for players to surprise with and you can play rock paper scissors.
I think it's a permanent change, it just happened to launch with the beta. I like it. For now it means I can see all my characters on screen at once, but that may not last long because I think the betas have given me ideas for permanent versions of 2 temporary characters, so I'll be going up to 13 permanent and I'll still want at least 2 spare slots for temporary characters.
There's quite a few steps with fractal capacitor. You appear to still need to make the prototype ascended. THEN you can make it into beta. U need vial and 40 crystals for Beta Prototype. No need for ecto and globs till next phase. Prototype Fractal Capacitor (Exotic) =|= Prototype Fractal Capacitor (Ascended) If you’re new to Guild Wars 2, sign up for a free account here! To join the fun, log in and create a beta event character by clicking one of the empty character slots marked “Beta” on your character select screen. You’ll be able to choose any of the nine Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons elite specializations as the character’s profession