Guild Wars 3 convinced me with just two words

Published June 9, 2026, 2:00 a.m. EDT

Kyle Gratton is an editor and writer based in Kansas City. He earned a bachelor’s degree with a double major in English and history with a minor in film and media studies, and has been a senior editor and reviewer for Screen Rant’s Gaming section since 2021, with roles in editorial and various freelance projects.

A terminally ill Midwestern native and graduate of the University of Kansas, Kyle also has knowledge and interest in literature, film, film adaptations of literature, and history.

Find Kyle on Bluesky: kwg.bsky.social
and Mailbox: KyleG5

Before entering Guild Wars 3I’m going to be potentially annoying for a minute. It’s probably a sentiment you’ve heard regularly for 14 years: I love the original. Guild Warsbut I couldn’t get in Guild Wars 2. This was painful for me back in 2012, when I had just gotten a new laptop for the express purpose of playing the sequel, after putting thousands of hours into the original. My main disappointments with Guild Wars 2 were the general structure of quests and missions, as well as the game’s new approach to creating builds.

14 years later, I’ve already been convinced to play Guild Wars 3. When it is reveal abandoned trailer has Summer Gaming FestivalI said out loud: “Holy shit, they’re making Guild Wars 3. “It was a bit as if GW2 would last forever. Nearly a decade and a half of support has convinced me that Guild Wars had changed for good. The trailer didn’t immediately dispel my doubts about the direction of the series, but since then I’ve been convinced by just two words: skill collection.

Skill collection is a major pillar of Guild Wars 3

Concept art from Guild Wars 3 showing characters looking out at a fantasy farm, set beneath a huge stone archway covered in vines and other foliage.

As so many trailers do, Guild Wars 3This tells us almost nothing about the game itself. Take a look at Guild Wars 3 websitehowever, and ArenaNet has presented a mission statement of sorts. “Guild Wars 3 is an action-adventure MMORPG” – of course, that makes sense – “a modern evolution of the genre” – we’ve heard this before – “which combines rich action-combat, character building and skill collection“ – ok, I’m in.”Skill collection” is music to my ears.

For the uninitiated, collecting skills to create specialized characters is a major element of the original game. Guild Wars. It’s relatively easy to get your character to the level cap of 20, but to really solidify your role in the party, you need the right combination of eight skills. There are over 1,300 unique skills in Guild Warseach specific to a profession. The crown jewel of any build is an elite skill: only one can be equipped at a time, and each must be earned by tracking down and defeating a certain boss.

Meta builds appeared in predictable ways, and some were so effective that they were in high demand in both PvE and PvP, but there’s a lot of fun to be had in tinkering with skills. Especially when you can change your character’s secondary profession, opening access to another skill group, the combinations and specializations are almost endless. The perspective of Guild Wars 3 having a similar system alone convinced me to check it out.

Guild Wars 3 may combine the best parts of its predecessors

Guild Wars 3 concept art showing various characters in a medieval fantasy marketplace.

I won’t pretend Guild Wars 2 is without merit – it’s just not what I expected from the sequel to the MMO I devoted so much time to. This was, at the time, a crucial modernization from the original. Guild Wars» rather typical framework, and which was much more successful. I hope for a similar jump from Guild Wars 3which it will borrow from the previous two installments to create something new while simultaneously revamping beloved aspects of the series.

It’s a promising sign that a video from ArenaNet developers (above) promises continued support for both. Guild Wars 2 and the remastered version of the original, Guild Wars Reforged. Like other long-running MMOs, Guild Wars has decades of history behind it, and the developers seem eager to not only preserve it, but actively contribute to it. There is still a long way to go before Guild Wars 3 is even going into closed beta next fall, but it’s already got my attention.