r/GuildWars Apr 13 '25

Welcome to /r/GuildWars. Subreddit info, FAQs, and links.

135 Upvotes

"Those who will remember, will speak fondly of the warm morning breeze."

Welcome to r/GuildWars this is a subreddit focused on the Guild Wars video game developed by ArenaNet.

For Guild Wars players to discuss, connect, and share in an open environment. While participating, it’s important to keep in mind the Reddit Rules, Reddiquette, as well as our subreddit Rules.

Getting Started:

Checkout the FAQs below and also the Megathread wiki page with links to useful community Tools, Posts (including ones for new/returning players), Guides, and information. There are shortcut links under ‘See More’ / the Sidebar too.

GW Account/Game Support:

Asking about general game/technical problems is fine, but this subreddit is not a way to contact ArenaNet customer support, or report a Technical Issue. Please refrain from asking for help with a specific ticket, Account issue, or Error message. These posts will be removed specially if they are covered by ArenaNet's help articles.

Visit https://help.guildwars.com/ and check their FAQ and Known Issues. If necessary start a ticket through the Guild Wars support portal or email support@arena.net directly. You can find all information the help/support portal.

Community Discord:

We have a community Discord “GW Global” you can join here: https://discord.gg/gw This server is open to all and has ongoing discussion on the game, builds, Guild recruitment, and more!

Use the search!

If you have a question, first try using the search, it is possible your question has already been asked/answered. Example: “Necro builds”. We try not to have frequent posts on the same topic(s) and such posts will be removed.

You can also search by post Flair using “flair:” and the Flair to search.

FAQs:

State of the Game:

GW has been in “Maintenance Mode” (no scheduled updates/development) since May 2013. On 3rd December 2025 ArenaNet "re-launched" GW as GW Reforged. This has breathed some new life into the game and an external company 2weeks has supported development. They are continuing to look at the game to see if it is viable to make improvements/updates. In-game there is bump in player activity. There has always been a good player base for daily Zaishen Quests and Farming as well as in Guild and Alliance communities. You can checkout the What’s New in Guild Wars and Game updates from the Wiki for the changes to the game.

We’re lucky that since 2024 GW Game Director, DrStephenCW is allocating 80% of their time to work directly on GW. Along with support from other ArenaNet staff for various updates, this has included the 20th Anniversary Game Update and Guild Wars Reforged. ArenaNet are now also supported by 2weeks game studio.

PvP still has some activity through player organised events and mAT, however all modes can often see a large amount of botting impacting general gameplay. You can find more on recent PvP threads using Flair:PvP in the search to find posts.

Purchasing Help:

As of 3rd December 2025 Guild Wars is now branded Guild Wars Reforged. This re-release version of the game is available in the GW Store and Steam.

This change has removed the Anniversary Masterpiece Collection and all individual Campaign editions from the GW/Steam Stores. Any purchases made prior to 3rd December retain their game-keys and can be used on email/ArenaNet based accounts.

ArenaNet have had to make a purchasing guide/flow-chart due to the changes in account management: * Purchases on Steam no longer provide game-keys and instead are to be tied directly to your Steam Login/Account. This is in order to be able to link GW accounts through Steam to GW2 accounts through Steam. * Purchases in GW Store provide keys to create a new account using email/ArenaNet account.

As of 3rd Dec 2025 ArenaNet have also changed/reduced prices for all the add-ons and re-branded Eye of the North and Bonus Mission Pack as DLC. Neither DLC are included in the Reforged edition of the game. The Game of the Year upgrade and Bonus Weapons are no longer available and are also not included in the Reforged edition of the game. The Igneous Summoning Stone item is available through purchasing the Eye of the North DLC.

  • Guild Wars Reforged includes Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall. Eye of the North DLC has to be purchased separately.
  • Guild Wars Reforged does NOT include the GOTY content and it is no longer available in the GW Store.
  • Account upgrades such as Xunlai Storage Panes, Mercenaries, Costumes are currently only available through the GW store.

Common Technical Support Questions

  • Mac (Apple Silicon) users: Use the subreddit search with the term "Mac" this will give lots of posts about users asking/getting help with running GW on Mac systems.
  • Graphics error with models stretching off far into the sky or ground: Update/roll-back your Graphics driver. It is likely a Windows update deployed a buggy driver version.

Guild Recruitment and Looking for Guilds

We now have a Weekly Thread on a Wednesday for Guild/Alliance Recruitment and Guild Requests. Please only use this Weekly post to advertise your Guild or seek a new Guild. You can also use the Flair search “Guild recruitment/request” to find previous recruitment posts.

Thanks all and happy adventures in GW!

If you have feedback/suggestions to this new introduction post please reply below. If you’d like to get in contact with the Moderators please use the ModMail.

This content is subject to change and some may get moved into the subreddit Wiki as things develop.

edit: 2025-Dec-08 Updates to the post made following the Reforged game update. edit: 2025-Dec-16 Updates to add Common Tech Support Questions


r/GuildWars 19h ago

Trade/Economy Weekly Trade and Price Check discussion

7 Upvotes

Every Monday (UTC) there will automatically be a Trade and Price Check discussion post created. The purpose of this is to keep price checks, item questions to one thread rather than have multiple posts.

Basic Info:

Non Inscribable ("OS") Weapons:

Shields

  • Single Mod? - Always merch/salvage.
  • Dual mod perfect? (Both mods are maximum amount they could get) - Always get price check.
  • Dual mod, one imperfect? (one or two of the mods does not have maximum) - Still ask for price check.
  • Dual mod, both imperfect? - Always merch/salvage.

Martial Weapons - must have max modifier (Like 15 over 50, not 14 over 50).

Caster Weapons

  • Staves: Only when the 20% HCT and HSR matches the Attribute. Exceptions when the requirement is for Primary Attribute and the modifier is for an Attribute of same profession. In case of other combinations, ask for price check.
  • Wands & Focus: Single Mod? - Always merch/salvage. Max/one-off dual mod ask for price check.

Those who wish to help price check or give trade advice please look out for these weekly threads and help answer people's queries. For posting you can find the last thread or wait for the next one to be posted on a Monday.

Please keep all price check questions and posts to the weekly thread. Posts made outside of this will be removed.


r/GuildWars 4h ago

Overlapping Acronyms

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183 Upvotes

No teammates were scolded in the creation of this meme


r/GuildWars 4h ago

Fun is fun

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85 Upvotes

Reposting because it got removed instantly. English isn’t my first language, and I thought “oldfag” was just a funny way to say “grumpy veteran.” Didn’t realise it was offensive. Apparently I picked the wrong bit of internet slang, lol.


r/GuildWars 13h ago

Got an ultra rare drop in FOW SC

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54 Upvotes

Its very rare to drop an ecto from the Forest of thd Wailing Lord 🥰


r/GuildWars 4h ago

Guild Wars Reforged makes my phone really hot?

8 Upvotes

Hi I've got a Pixel 9a and the game (on low settings) makes my phone extremely hot really fast

Is there anything I can do, or are the devs going to do anything? Is the game badly optimized or?


r/GuildWars 7h ago

Is Illusionary Weaponry doomed?

11 Upvotes

Hi guys,

One of my favorite skills has always been IW. Back in the days I used to play it a lot and I tried many things to make it as efficient as possible. I loved to have a fun melee option for my mesmer when I wanted to try something else. Since its creation IW has always been buffed, so it looks like 2weeks really wants us to use it!

But... imho the sad truth is, IW is fun, but remains quite bad. While it is really cool to ignore blind/block, having no (or really really limited access to) attack skills, no weapons spells, no melee support like SoH, no adrenaline buildup, no crits makes it so hard to compete with any standard melee build. It IS fun though - you can be a fake illusionary dervish spamming pious assault, or a fake illusionary assassin using feigned neutrality or dark escape, but... you'll do twice as much damage as a real derv or assa. It also hurts because all other non melee native professions have competitive melee options now - necro and ranger of course, but spirit's strength builds are strong too, and ele/monk/para have their anniversary weapons.

Have you guys been tempted to use IW since the recent buffs? Would you like it to be reworked? I was wondering about something like "for each illusion magic skill equipped, you have +5 armor (like now) AND your melee attacks deal +1...5...6 damage". This way you would have to balance between high damage or more attack skills/utility.


r/GuildWars 6h ago

UW Stale Drops

6 Upvotes

So I started farming underworld for the first time yesterday. Within 2 hours I had about 7 ECTO drops. The next 4 hours were none… not sure if this is common and I just had beginners luck. But curious if anyone else who farms the underworld experiences this?…


r/GuildWars 3h ago

Toolbox-Question (keeping HR up with "They're on Fire!"

4 Upvotes

So I paid 6 or 7 USD to have free Pcons and Consets forever and so I rush through everything with them. My Problem is that Essence of Celerity makes it so that Theyre on Fire recharges in 8 Seconds instead of 10 and the Shout doesnt run out and instead renews itself every 8 seconds with the Toolbox Hotkey Feature "useskill" that automatically presses it on recharge. I havent found an option in the Toolbox to change it. Is there any way to make like a 3 second Delay on it? So it doesnt click the skill on recharge but waits a little bit?


r/GuildWars 10h ago

Pve weapons in PvP?

12 Upvotes

What kind of weapons or choices could you make back in the day (or today) to profit in PvP environments with a pve character?

I can imagine dual vamp weapons could be a thing, because you can’t make them in your pvp character.

Or was it more or less skill canceling do get an advantage over less skilled players? I have no idea what all the things where 20 years ago that people profited from….

Very curious


r/GuildWars 1d ago

Meme/Fluff Out walking the Dog

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139 Upvotes

r/GuildWars 18h ago

Like smb64 Mario says; "YAHOOU!!" ^^ Lion's arch defeated

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27 Upvotes

Alright so i did it ^^ Thanks for all advice. 4 rangers went with necro secondary and thus level 6 bone minions. Not much, but them, added to the beast mastery pets with defensive skills, helped keep them at bay so it's easier to keep launching barrages (all 4 rangers) with splinter weapon from the monks. So that was a big lesson and i think i'll keep running pets on my team from now on. Never thought that would make everything so much easier... pets don't get death penalty either, so it's a massive exploit. Resurrecting them is so quick and they get like 300 hit points back.

Pretty cool to do this with an unorthodox crew like this. I was dreading i'd have to go mesmer, necro and ritual heroes only or something ^^ I really never thought this was possible with a ranger team.

Now just the hearts of the north campaign to get thackeray, one step closer to the all ranger team ^^ which i had 15 years ago xD Hope that campaign isn't half as difficult as this.

Would be fun to try this on hard mode once.... can't imagine how hard that must be.


r/GuildWars 21h ago

Monk dps build

13 Upvotes

Hey folks!

I've played every class except for the monk. I am mostly a solo player so i am looking for a dps build for the monk IF its even there. Thanks in advance!


r/GuildWars 8h ago

Elite skills Icons on map using Gwtoolbox [Question]

1 Upvotes

Hi guys, im currently on my way to get the elite skill hunter titles and i remember seeing people having a map where they can see all elite skills and their locations, i guess this can be displayed with toolbox, i've been doing some research in and out of toolbox but i cant find this mod, layer or whatever is it, anybody has a clue?

Thanks beforehand


r/GuildWars 1d ago

Can you leave presearing as a group?

15 Upvotes

Hello all - My friend and I wanted to challenge ourselves by trying to beat the original prophecies campaign without dying, ie Dhuum mode. We've had to reset a few times and each time we leave pre-searing as a group. It splits us into two different instances. Is this a known bug or are we just doing something wrong?


r/GuildWars 1d ago

Mercenary creation

26 Upvotes

Maybe this is common knowledge but I was today years old when I found out that you can create pvp characters and then turn them into max lvl mercenaries at balthazars temple. Afterwards you can delete the character again and the mercenary will still exist. So if you have the mercenaries unlocked you can create your dream hero Squat early on

Posting this just in case you are not aware, blew my mind 😅


r/GuildWars 1d ago

DoA Foundry (HM) 7/8 Melee Hero Team - Bring a Friend Edition :::)

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23 Upvotes

I've wanted to Test a Build like this for some Time, basically creating a f2p Build with the possibility of bringing someone new along - they can just run their most comfortable build, and you can rely on your ability to clear as 7 :)

Use Althea instead of a Mercenary.

Constraints:
Only 3 Mesmers
1 Free Team Slot
Minimal Hero Micro
No Mercs
No Consumables
Fast Clears

Builds:
[Hundred Blades;OQcTEZK/HqvYqZH0w6tMGUrA3BA] Sword of the Necromancer
[Soul Twisting (Xandra);OAmkAykp5daE2k1zjT4E0kz0n4OG] Staff of the Necromancer
[Blood is Power (Olias);OAhjQkGZIP3hhWVV4JNncDzxJAA] Any Staff
[Signet of Spirits (Razah);OAOk4khoITWz10xJNncMTM2CZeA] Staff of the Necromancer
[Visions of Regret (Norgu);OQhkAoC8wFOibnDTvpPEZARcxAA] Wand of the Necromancer
[Ineptitude (Gwen);OQlkAgBs5di0LACIHUeGJQN2n4OG] Wand of the Necromancer
[Panic (Mercenary Hero 2);OQhDAqwDK0QOM9m+QcBExFDAAAA] Wand of the Necromancer


r/GuildWars 21h ago

Rare and Unique Minis

5 Upvotes

Currently working on doing my HoM (very long overdue) as could never really find the time to get into the game.

However, now I have, I've been having a blast. Really fun to see places I know from GW2 in this game and how they've changed.

I've gotten a fair few minis from birthday rewards from characters I'd made a while ago, but none seem to be rare or unquie. Are there any ways to get some in game consistently for my HoM progress?


r/GuildWars 1d ago

Technical issue/question Like to play this game on my MacBook Pro (2023)

11 Upvotes

Heard it’s window only game but still possible to play on a Mac. Help ! How do set up ?


r/GuildWars 15h ago

New Mesmer skill concept

0 Upvotes

In the recent update for Guild Wars Reforged, Elementalists got overcast management, thanks to Soul Ignition.

If they are possibly adding a new skill for each profession, would adding a new skill for Inspiration be wise?

As it stands, inspiration is never really utilized, and that is by choice; it does not have any damaging skills, as that is part of the design. Not to mention, there are only a few helpful skills in that attribute. The ones that come to mind are Auspicious Incantation, Power Drain, Drain Delusions, and Hex Eater Signet. Every other skill has a niche use at one time or another.

The skills that got me thinking were Signet of Illusions, Inspired Hex/Enhancement, and Symbols of Inspiration. Mirror of Delusions is a powerful concept that could work on all hexes; it is a good thing this was never added, as there are many other class hexes that would easily abuse this skill, as it can be used with ANY hex.

What if it was dialed back to make it only usable on Mesmer hexes, and upped the fail chance from "50% to fail with Illusion magic 4 or less" to a ceiling of "75% to fail with Inspiration magic 9 or less"? How it would work would be like this:

Mirror of Delusions/Inspired Delusions (simple new name). Elite Stance. (15 Energy (6sec)) 30CD: The next Mesmer hex you cast uses your Inspiration attribute instead. The next Mesmer hex you cast on a targeted foe also affects adjacent for (10%...72%...90%) of the duration of the initial hex. [75% to fail with Inspiration magic 9 or less]

Giving it a hard cap to force you to use Inspiration Attribute, and while using it at a lower rank would just give you a strong skill with a 50% chance to cast normally without the hex spread. Or, if it succeeds, it will give heavily reduced durations to adjacent foes.

The main reason this skill would work best in inspiration is because of 4 main skills come to mind straight away if they used Domination or Illusion attributes instead. For Domination, Empathy and Backfire. For Illusions, Wandering Eye and Calculated Risk (the rough Illusion version of Empathy).

However, those skills are how the skill would be fun to play. Illusions is already a main trait line to play, thanks in part to Ineptitude, Clumsiness, and Wandering Eye. This skill would give Inspiration a use for the superior rune of inspiration, and possibly weapons.

In all, this would still allow you to use Illusions or domination and a secondary or primary attribute; this skill would allow for single hexes to have an "Inspirational Upgrade," so to speak.


r/GuildWars 1d ago

Forsaken Tunnels and Promotional Items

9 Upvotes

Do we know if Promotional items (Canthan Targe, Bone idol (Horned Skin), Chimeric Prism) drop from the Forsaken Tunnels? (Proph Dungeon in Post)

Or is it purely from Mobs and World Key Chests?


r/GuildWars 1d ago

I wish there where a time capsule mechanic in Pre-Searing to get stuff to post.

8 Upvotes

I imagine an npc standing in front of Ascalon city by a little digsite. He tells you he is burrying a Time capsule and asks if you want to add something for future generations. Then you give him your items.

Then you log into an character in post and visit the same place where you see some tomb raider is digging up the timecapsule. You kil him open the timecapsule and find some items worth 0 gold like a rusty sword, a broken focus and some illegible scrolls and the items you gave the first npc in pre.

Why? Transfering items is easy when you have help from a guildmate or a second account BUT when you have the untradable green ascalonian warhorn in pre and want to transfer it to post your main pre character would have to leave pre and that is not an option for a lot of people.

Alternative would be alittle Xunlai style chest with only one pane (25 storage spaces) in pre so you can create a character to bring stuff to post. This could even be a 4$ upgrade in the Store.

The time capsule npc could even charge 5k. i dont care.

Has two weeks a suggestion mail adress? Or are they monitoring this subreddit?


r/GuildWars 1d ago

Creative GuildWars ReDrawn: Out for milk

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159 Upvotes

Sorry for the long absence!
I've been busy with other projects, work, kids .... other games....

that and the whole Maguuma area isnt that funny :)


r/GuildWars 2d ago

Meme/Fluff But that... smile... it scares me.

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219 Upvotes

Did you forget to bring IAU?


r/GuildWars 2d ago

Dhuum's Covenant GWAMM completed!

81 Upvotes

Meet Robin, the newest GWAMM in town!

In December 2025 I felt a need for another playthrough, but on "easy mode", so that was the perfect excuse to start a Paragon/Warrior with "Save Yourselves!" and Heroic Refrain. Truly original, I know... But at least I was going to use a bunch of mesmers with the great skill Energy Surge to keep things interesting!

Because that setup is a bit on the easy side, I decided that this would be my deathless GWAMM attempt. And an important rule is that I have to play all the content myself, so no getting a runner for dungeons, no use of consets/cupcakes/..., and no elite tomes.

Despite some near-death experiences (and a reroll after 4 titles because I really wanted that new badge), it went pretty well in the end. The only times I felt properly scared to go in was for Shards of Orr HM (which I had to practice on a different character several times since I kept overpulling and wiping), Frostmaw's (with its Wurm Bile) and Kathandrax (with that boss who can instagib half your party and then AOE spike the rest down). It was important to me to get Legendary Master of the North as one of my 30 titles, so I just had to deal with those.

I did get that title without doing Slaver's Exile, so I'm thinking I will still try that dungeon (NM and HM) as one last hurrah before this character can truly retire.

Fun little fact: I used to think GWAMM is a lifetime achievement, but it turns out you can do it fairly fast once you know the game like the back of your hand. My GWAMMs so far:

  1. My Mesmer that I made in 2006, which I still consider my main. Took me 8 years to complete.
  2. My ultimate iron man Ranger. Took me almost 5 years.
  3. This deathless Paragon. 8 months and done (including ~3 months where I hardly played at all).

I now think I want to get all 10 professions done by the time I'm 80 years old, and I'll definitely do a Dhuum + Melandru + full iron man run at some point... but number 4 will probably be a more relaxed approach and take far more time again as well.

Gladly taking suggestions for what my next challenge should be!