It’s almost time and the announcement of the new expansion for Guild Wars 2 is due. It is supposed to be better in every way than its predecessor, explains the Game Director in a post.
What do we know about the next expansion? The new expansion for Guild Wars 2 will be officially announced on July 15, 2025. The expansion is set to be released in October 2025. This is a shift from the previous August rhythm to give the team more development time and ensure quality.
There will also be new elite specializations for each class. However, these will not bring new weapons, but will focus on unique new class mechanics. Among them, there could be a specialization for the Mesmer that has been long desired, as teased in a post on x.com: the Bard.
Additionally, the endgame content (raids, strike missions, fractals) will be revised to make entry easier and improve rewards.
The new expansion is supposed to be heavily based on community feedback, which is why time has been taken to reflect on the learnings since the release of the last expansion Janthir Wilds. What is set to change has been shared by Game Director Josh Davis in a post via guildwars2.com.
“Build smarter, not larger” as the new design philosophy
What is set to change with the new expansion? The Janthir Wilds expansion brought many new contents such as the Land Spear, a new raid, and the housing feature “Home Instances”. However, the main feedback from the community was that the three quarterly story updates post-release were too short and felt meager without new maps.
As a direct response to the criticism, the structure for the next expansion will be adjusted to make the updates more significant:
- The first quarterly update after the release will not contain a new story or map. Instead, it will focus on the revision of core systems and long-standing features.
- The two subsequent updates will be significantly more extensive. They will provide larger maps and longer, better-developed story chapters than the updates from Janthir Wilds.
The developers therefore want to focus less on constantly adding new systems in the future. Instead, the focus will be on improving, modernizing, and optimizing existing features.
This should reduce the complexity of the game and make it more accessible for new and returning players. For example, endgame content such as raids and strike missions should be consolidated into a consistent structure.
They want to focus on, as they put it, “building smarter and not larger” and prioritize improving existing structures before adding new ones. Nevertheless, both the maps of the new expansion should be larger and more extensive, and the story should be more exciting and better told.
There will still be new content. What that will be is expected to be announced on July 15.
Guild Wars 2 is one of the highest-rated MMORPGs and continues to receive new content after almost 13 years, delighting its community with an engaging story. What other MMORPGs will be among the best in 2025? You can read about it here: The 10 MMORPGs on Steam with the best ratings in July 2025
