Jan 9th, 2017 Patch Summary: Updated Black Lion Chest Lootboxes with new stuff and Joko’s undead in Core Tyria
The Holidays are over and ArenaNet has returned to work meaning: The first patch of the year just dropped. What has it brought us? Here’s the summary.
Joko’s Undead are attacking travelers in Core Tyria.
Black Lion Chests have been updated. Highlights include:
Mini Yellow Jackal Pup has been added as the new guaranteed item.
The new Griffon Hatchling Package with a Griffon Hatchling Backpack and Griffon Hatchling Glider is available as an uncommon drop.
Black Lion Satuette, a form of buy rewards program currency, have been added to each chest and can be used to buy many items formally in the chest themselves.
One Free Black Lion Key this week only.
The “Twilight Oasis“ and “Nightmare” Fractles have been tuned to decrease their difficulty slightly.
In PvP maps. Team health bars are now visible. Can be toggled.
Jan 30, 2018 - Blame it on the mounts. That was the word from Guild Wars 2 Programmer Benjamin Arnold yesterday when he posted to the official forums.
“We have discovered the (hopefully the only) root cause of this bug,” Arnold wrote, “in which mounting up will cause you do be improperly synced until you swap maps, hence why this isn't seen in WvW or PvP. We are working on a fix now.”
Tests run by Guild Wars 2 Players, like the one below. show how much avatars can become de-syned in a short amount of time.The author has personally witnessed variations of up to 60 ingame feet (20 meters) between another player through they were and the position the server had placed them at.
“After you download the patch let us know of any other desync-like issues you may be having,” Arnoldf this doesn't completely solve it, it should at least be WORLDS better. It was just horribly broken before.”
Fixed a bug in which announcements displayed incorrectly at the end of mount races.
General
Changed the Desert Crafting Material Coffer in the PvP and WvW reward tracks to give players a choice of recipes.
Fractals
Captain Mai Trin Boss
Fixed a bug that prevented the fractal from completing when Captain Mai Trin was rapidly brought to zero health as she was unlurking.
Added new unlurk locations when Mai Trin returns to the arena.
General
Allied-player health bars are now always visible in fractals.
Raids
Hall of Chains
Removed the collision detection on some of the trees.
Players who enter the Hall of Chains raid will perish if any of the statue events are active.
The default dyes for Dhuum's armor skins have been updated.
When Dhuum reaches 10% health, Arcing Affliction is now removed from players and will not be cast again.
The Arcing Affliction special action skill can now be used while players are in midair.
Dhuum's enhancements are now removed when he reaches 10% health.
Fixed a bug in which Soul Shackle persisted when one of its two targets was defeated.
Fixed a bug in which players were vulnerable to damage from Cull and Dhuum's Messenger when returning from Dhuum's Harvest.
Ender's Echo now has an area-of-effect ground indicator to show the range at which he will capture players.
Fixed a bug in which Ender's Echo could temporarily lose his defiance bar.
Stronghold of the Faithful
Added descriptions to a few of Keep Construct's attacks.
Structured Player vs. Player
Made minor adjustments to the Skyhammer map.
Jump pads now work like jump mushrooms; players must jump on the pads to be launched.
Jump pads now have individual cooldowns; players must wait 5 seconds before using the same pad again.
The area around the Skyhammer control point has been increased. Players are also no longer able to fall off of it.
World vs. World
Emergency Waypoint now lasts for 40 seconds.
BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions
The new Jackal Rune Gauntlets and Jackal Rune Greaves are available in the Style category of the Gem Store for 500 gems each.
A new Zhaitan Dye Kit containing six exclusive colors is now available in the Special category of the Gem Store for 125 gems.
For seven days, the Home Portal Stone is on sale for 40% off in the Utility category of the Gem Store for 540 gems.
The Black Lion Hunters Contract returns for a limited time in the Upgrades category of the Gem Store for 1,200 gems.
For a limited time, Phoenix weapon skins have returned to Black Lion Weapons Specialists for five Black Lion Claim Tickets. Black Lion Chest Keys are available in the Special category of the Gem Store for 125 gems each.
Bug Fixes
Fixed an issue causing engineer turrets to attack the Fractals of the Mists portal in Mistlock Sanctuary.
Fixed an issue with purchase limitations on the Black Lion Instant Level 80 Ticket. It can now be purchased by players with either the Heart of Thorns™ or Path of Fire™ expansions.
Fixed an issue that prevented players from opening Angry Chests in some situations.
The Black Lion Stables have changed the name of the Summit Chevon Springer Skin to reflect the proper name of the breed. It will now appear in their records (and yours) as the Summit Wildhorn Springer Skin.
MAC CLIENT
Bug Fixes
Fixed a bug that sometimes caused cinematics to render incorrectly depending on the Shaders quality setting.
Fixed a bug to optimize the rendering of certain materials.
July 25th, 2017 Release Notes for Living World Season Finale - “One Path Ends”
The Paragon Broadcasting Readable Edition
ParagonBroadcasting.com note: It took a bit longer then hoped to get our Blog’s readable version of the “One Path End” ready for press. The text is the same as that published by ArenaNet but some items have been marked in bold or place in italics to draw the reader to their importance:
ALSO, as requested by our readers, the notes now feature a jump cut!
Balthazar has disappeared again, and it’s top priority to find him—especially if what he’s planning could bring disaster to Tyria. And if one thing’s for sure, it’s that he’s gearing up for something big. He’s already managed to collect magical power from a bloodstone, and now he’s set his sights on an Elder Dragon. With Taimi’s device broken, you’re on your own—for now.
New Legendary Sword
A new legendary weapon is now available. Speak to Grandmaster Craftsman Hobbs in Lion’s Arch to learn how to craft the new sword precursor, Save the Queen, and forge the new legendary sword.
New Legendary Hammer
A new legendary weapon is now available. Speak to Grandmaster Craftsman Hobbs in Lion’s Arch to learn how to craft the new hammer precursor, Might of Arah, and forge the new legendary hammer.
World Polish
General
Players can now turn in midair while jumping.
The event “Kill the Risen before they reactivate the Statue of Lyssa” now rewards players with the same chest as the event “Kill the Corrupted High Priestess.”
The skeleton and his treasure hoard have been located and returned to their ship in the Gilded Hollow.
Blazeridge Steppes
Fixed an issue in which the Shatterer event failed to start when both prerequisite events were completed.
Prerequisite events for the Shatterer will now automatically fail if they are not completed within the time limit to lure out the Shatterer.
Fractals
New Fractal: Shattered Observatory
A new fractal is accessible through the Mistlock Observatory.
Added a new Shattered Observatory fractal achievement category under Fractals of the Mists on the Achievements tab of the Hero panel.
New rewards are available from BLING-9009 in the Mistlock Observatory.
The continued perseverance of adventurers has again caught the eye of the Harbinger.
Molten Furnace
Fixed a bug in which wiping during the final fight with the Weapons Test Engineer could cause the instance to stall on retry.
Molten Boss
Falling from the platform during the battle against the Molten Berserker and Molten Firestorm will now result in death.
Nightmare
Fixed a bug in which completing the fractal would not award some daily achievement progress.
The Nightmare fractal is now accessible at scales 24, 49, 74, and 99, replacing the fractals previously at those scales.
Mistlock Instabilities
Adrenaline Rush now permanently enrages enemies and applies a 150% damage increase instead of a 200% damage increase.
Miscellaneous
The glider animation for Ad Infinitum has been updated to be more suitable for a legendary glider.
Fixed a bug in which Fractal Avengers were prevented from finishing players.
Mist-potion boon icons are now invisible outside of fractal maps.
Reduced the gold cost of medium and heavy ascended chest pieces by 1 gold to match the WvW ascended armor cost.
Raids
Added a new achievement for acquiring legendary armor pieces.
Bastion of the Penitent
Fixed a bug in which safe zones in the Cairn the Indomitable encounter became out of sync with certain attacks.
Adjusted the initial impact arc of Orbital Sweep during the Cairn the Indomitable encounter.
Fixed a bug in which players took multiple instances of damage from Cairn the Indomitable’s Energy Surge attack.
Fixed a bug in which Rigom behaved erratically when stunned and brought to 0 health at nearly the same time.
Fixed a bug in which Samarog abandoned the fight when pushed past certain health thresholds too quickly.
Personal Story
Items
Exotic backpacks acquired from the Druid Stone collections in the “Flashpoint” release now have an upgrade slot.
Fixed a bug in which killing the Eye of Zhaitan in the Promenade of the Gods in Cursed Shore would not progress the Flameseeker Prophecies III collection.
The Jade Maw Lens is now required to test items at the Metal Forest for the Bifrost III collection.
Players who have deleted the Humming Krait Crystal without crafting the Krait Focusing Crystal for the Kraitkin III collection can now purchase a replacement from Grandmaster Craftsman Hobbs.
Players who have misplaced components for the Incinerator III collection can now purchase replacements from Grandmaster Craftsman Hobbs.
Fixed various legendary journey text bugs.
Two sets of Heirloom Seed Pouches have been renamed to avoid champion loot bag confusion.
Fixed a bug in which certain weapons prevented progression of the Twice-Told Legend achievement.
The Charged Quartz Orichalcum Amulet now has a chance to drop from grand exalted chests in Auric Basin.
The following jewels can be converted into infusions in the Mystic Forge:
Preserved Queen Bee
Chak Egg Sac
Poly-luminescent Undulating Refractor: Black, Green, Orange, and Teal
Vial of Liquid Aurillium
The following legendary weapons now have custom projectile effects:
The Juggernaut
The Moot
Bolt
Meteorlogicus
Charged Thorns are now classified as Rare.
Elonian Wine is now classified as Exotic.
Mystic Forge Stones are now classified as Rare.
Fractal Research Pages are now classified as Rare.
Mystic Runestones are now classified as Legendary.
Bricks of Clay are now classified as Uncommon.
Bank
The Material Storage tab has been updated and now allows many additional items to be deposited.
Two new Material Storage collections have been added:
Cooking Ingredients
Scribing Materials.
The Common, Fine, and Rare Materials collections have been renamed to Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced, respectively.
Structured Player vs. Player
PvP Lobby
Cautrell the Traitor has returned from his exile and is back to vending in the new lobby.
World vs. World
General
Made the following adjustments to participation grace times:
Defending caravans has been changed from 2 minutes to 5 minutes.
Hitting a player/objective with a siege weapon has been changed from 1 minute to 2 minutes.
Capturing a shrine has been changed from 2 minutes to 5 minutes.
BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions
For a limited time, a new set of Abaddon weapon skins are available from Black Lion Weapons Specialists for 2 Black Lion Claim Tickets. Keys can be found in the Special category of the Gem Store for 125 gems each.
The Shield of the Goddess has returned for a limited time and can be found in the Style category of the Gem Store for 600 gems.
Introducing the Mistlock Sanctuary—the most elaborate Black Lion lounge to date. In addition to a full suite of general services and amenities, the Sanctuary also contains everything a fractal explorer could need. For easy access, pick up the lifetime pass in the Utility category of the Gem Store for 1,000 gems, or check out some of the Mistlock Sanctuary’s unique features with a two-week pass for 150 gems.
Improvements
The Black Lion Chest has been updated to the Return to Orr Chest and can be previewed for a full list of its contents.
The Black Lion Material Bag has been added as the new guaranteed item. It contains a collection of high-quality crafting materials, special Living World Season 3 materials, and a few surprises.
The Unidentified Dye and Tome of Knowledge have been removed, and the Mystic Forge Stone and the new Black Lion Booster have been added as common drops.
The Communal Boost Bonfire has been added as an uncommon drop.
The new Mini Dwayna’s Messenger is available as an uncommon drop for the duration of the Return to Orr Chest.
The new Feathers of the Zephyr Package with the Golden Zephyr Backpiece and Feathers of the Zephyr Glider is available as an uncommon drop for the duration of the Return to Orr Chest.
The new Advanced Leather Rack and Advanced Cloth Rack are available as rare drops.
The Daydreamer’s Weapon Collection is now available as a rare drop for the duration of the Return to Orr Chest.
The Dwayna’s Weapon Collection is now available as a super rare drop for the duration of the Return to Orr Chest.
Mac Client
Fixed an issue in which the command-key symbol was not shown in some contexts.
Enabled use of the minimize button in windowed mode.
ParagonBroadcasting Editor’s note: We apologize for these notes being a tarty but the news computer lost of it’s monitors and we had to fetch a new one. Also, we combined late notes of second patch of the day into the first patches notes.
Living World
Moved the Koda’s Blessing achievement from the A Crack in the Ice achievement category into the Rare Collections category.
Fixed a bug that caused the bonus from Superior Sigils of Bounty to be removed when weapon swapping.
Resurrecting at a checkpoint after the end of the final cinematic in the “Heart of the Volcano” instance will no longer revive players in midair.
Reenabled problematic fertile soils.
Fixed a server crash related to the Wayfarer’s Henge collection.
General
Newly created accounts must wait 72 hours before gems-to-gold transactions can be completed on the currency exchange.
Raids
Refined Envoy armor crafting recipes are now account bound.
Acquiring a piece of Refined Envoy armor now unlocks the skin for the corresponding Experimental Envoy armor piece.
Legendary armor pieces are no longer salvageable.
Items
Added several cooking recipes to the rotation of the Pact Supply Network.
Legendary Armor
Medium and light armor now has fully covered asura toes, in and out of combat.
Fixed an issue with chest-piece sizing on asura and sylvari females.
Fixed an issue that allowed legendary armor to be salvageable.
Fixed an issue with light female armor for humans and sylvari in which portions of the back of the chest piece would clip.
Fixed an issue that caused the tip of the light-armor skirt to clip with the ground.
Fixed a clipping issue with medium armor and charr tails.
Fixed an issue in which players who unlocked a different class of armor for Refined Envoy than they did for Experimental would not receive the associated Experimental skins.
Fixed an issue with the Bobblehead Tonic and Bobblehead Laboratory when legendary armor is equipped.
Fixed an issue in which precursor recipes that became available after the first legendary armor set was obtained would not be account bound.
Reduced the distance between the left shoulder piece and the player model on medium armor.
Fixed an issue in which darker dyes would appear washed out and harder to see on legendary heavy armor.
Fixed recipe text on the pop-ups for Gift of Dedication, Gift of Prowess, and Gift of Prosperity.
Fixed an issue in which having multiple chronomancers generating clones simultaneously in an instance would cause a drop in performance.
Fixed an issue in which the effect from the legendary hammer Juggernaut was not properly applied to legendary armor.
Profession Skills
In this update, you’ll see some changes aimed at normalizing how certain types of skills work. Skills that tether players together now apply Revealed to provide a stronger window of opportunity to players who can successfully land them. Skills and traits that previously granted pulsing stability now grant a block of stability up front in order better allow for counterplay through boon removal. Finally, we are increasing the casting time of many skills that apply effects like daze or stun in order to give the player on the receiving end of these skills time to react and defend.
General:
Consumables
The line of foods that provided bonus damage while moving has been dominating consumable use for all power-based builds. In addition to being significantly more powerful than other foods designed to boost power damage, the “wiggle” strategy to maintain uptime on its effect has a negative impact on the health of the game (and its players). For these reasons, food that increases outgoing damage while moving has had its efficacy reduced by 50%. This affects the following items and their respective feasts:
Bowl of Seaweed Salad (10% -> 5%)
Bowl of Winterberry Seaweed Salad (10% -> 5%)
Swiftly Scrambled Eggs (10% -> 5%)
Bowl of Asparagus and Sage Salad (8% -> 4%)
Can of Asparagus and Sage Salad (8% -> 4%)
Experimental Remnant (8% -> 4%)
Cabbage and Chickpea Salad (6% -> 3%)
Bowl of Coleslaw (4% -> 2%)
General Continued:
Frost Gun: The bundle item obtained from Researcher Bamm in Gendarren Fields has had its skills reworked.
Seed Turret: Reduced duration of bleeding to 3 seconds.
Take Root: Reduced duration of bleeding to 3 seconds.
Elementalist
In this iteration, there have been a couple of reworks for less-used utility skills and a couple of general quality-of-life changes. In PvP, we’ll be looking to slow down the elementalist’s defensive capability so that it has a few more openings for opponents to pressure them.
Obsidian Flesh: The duration of this ability has been reduced from 4 seconds to 3 seconds in PvP only.
“Wash the Pain Away!”: The cooldown of this ability has been increased from 20 seconds to 25 seconds in PvP only.
Rebound: The base healing of this ability has been increased by 33%.
Gale Song: The cooldown of this trait has been increased from 40 seconds to 60 seconds in PvP only.
Elemental Shielding: The duration of protection this trait applies has been reduced from 3 seconds to 2 seconds in PvP only.
Glyph of Elemental Power: Reduced recharge to 25 seconds. Now gives 5 charges instead of using a 5-second cooldown interval. Decreased duration to 25 seconds. Reduced burning duration to 1 stack for 3 seconds. Changed crippled condition to 1 stack of bleeding for 6 seconds. Changed weakness condition to 4 stacks of vulnerability for 5 seconds.
Arcane Power: The effects of this skill now apply to up to 4 other nearby allies within a range of 240. In addition to its previous effects, each stack of this effect now gives 75 ferocity at level 80.
Drake’s Breath: Increased burn duration to 4 seconds and increased damage by 14% in PvE only.
One with Fire: Now applies 1 stack of might for all other auras besides Flame Aura.
Engineer
Most of the time, engineers were taking turret skills and never deploying the turret because the Tool Belt skill was too important to be overridden by the detonate turret skill. In this update we are moving the detonate skill to be the flip-over for the turret itself so that the Tool Belt skill is always available even if you deploy the turret. Because many of the overcharge skills weren’t very tactical and much easier to just press on cooldown, we’ve changed these skills to automatically activate the moment the turret is placed instead. Since this means a turret can only be overcharged once per deployment, we’ve reduced the recharge of a few turrets to compensate.
Bunker Down: The cooldown of this trait has been increased from 2 seconds to 3 seconds in PvP only.
Protection Injection: The cooldown of this trait has been increased from 5 seconds to 10 seconds.
Med Pack Drop: This skill will now remove all (14) conditions for up to 5 allies upon impact.
Bulwark Gyro: The cooldown of this skill has been increased from 20 seconds to 25 seconds in PvP only.
Purge Gyro: The cooldown of this skill has been increased from 20 seconds to 25 seconds in PvP only.
Turrets: Turrets no longer need to be overcharged. Summoning a turret will automatically overcharge it once.
Detonate Turret: This skill has been moved off of the Tool Belt skill. It is now the flip skill for the associated turret.
Thumper Turret: Reduced recharge to 40 seconds. Overcharge attack now launches foes straight up instead of out of the turret’s attack range.
Healing Turret: Fixed a bug that caused this turret to show a water combo field when none was present.
Flame Turret: Reduced recharge to 20 seconds.
Rocket Turret: Reduced recharge to 40 seconds.
Detection Pulse (Scrapper): Fixed a bug that caused the effect from this skill to incorrectly reflect its radius.
Guardian
Quite a few signets have languished for the Guardian for some time, so we took this opportunity to give them a bit more oomph and rework some of their actives.
True Shot: The recharge of this skill has been increased from 4 seconds to 6 seconds in PvP and WvW.
Wings of Resolve: Base healing of this skill has been reduced by 24% in PvP only.
Smite Condition: Damage when the guardian is affected by conditions has been reduced by 21% in PvP only.
Test of Faith: Damage of this skill has been reduced by 10% in PvP only.
Shield of Courage: Decreased active duration of this skill from 4 seconds to 3 seconds. The cooldown has been decreased from 75 seconds to 60 seconds.
Hunter’s Determination: The cooldown of this trait has been increased from 60 seconds to 75 seconds in PvP only.
Spear of Justice: This skill now applies 6 seconds of Revealed on the initial impact.
“Save Yourselves!”: This skill now grants 1.5 seconds of resistance, in addition to the other boons applied.
Renewed Focus: The cooldown of this skill has been increased from 90 seconds to 105 seconds in PvP only.
Signet of Mercy: Reduced the casting time of this skill from 3 seconds to 2 seconds.
Wall of Reflection: Reduced the cooldown of this skill from 40 seconds to 30 seconds.
Hallowed Ground: Reduced the cooldown of this skill from 60 seconds to 45 seconds. Reduced the pulse amount from 10 to 8, and replaced the boon-duration increase component with retaliation.
Signet of Courage: Reduced the cooldown of this skill from 120 seconds to 90 seconds. Reduced the casting time of this ability from 3.25 seconds to 2.5 seconds.
Signet of Judgment: Passive now also reduces condition damage by 10%. Reduced radius from 600 to 300. Active no longer inflicts weakness and instead applies 2 stacks of burning for 3 seconds.
Mesmer
In this update, we’re rolling out new attacks for more phantasm skills and looking at enhancements to power-based shatter builds, which have fallen out of favor recently.
Tides of Time: The casting time of this skill has been increased from 0.5 seconds to 0.75 seconds.
Well of Precognition: The casting time of this skill has been reduced from 0.75 seconds to 0.5 seconds.
Continuum Split: The cooldown of this skill has been increased from 90 seconds to 105 seconds in PvP only.
Phantasmal Berserker: This skill now fires a boomerang projectile that inflicts 3 stacks of vulnerability for 3 seconds in addition to summoning a phantasm.
Phantasmal Swordsman: This skill now performs a sword strike in front of the player when summoning the phantasm. If the sword strike hits you and all Swordsmen currently summoned, gain 8 might for 10 seconds.
Phantasmal Warden: This skill now throws an illusionary axe at the target, which immobilizes for 2 seconds in addition to summoning a phantasm.
Phantasmal Rogue: This skill now performs an attack that applies 1 stack of confusion and 5 stacks of vulnerability for 5 seconds in addition to summoning a phantasm.
Illusionary Whaler: This skill now fires Siren’s Call projectiles at 3 nearby foes in addition to summoning a phantasm.
Illusionary Mariner: This skill now performs an Evasive Strike in addition to summoning a phantasm.
Mind Wrack: Increased damage of 2 illusion shatter by 3% per strike. Increased damage of 3 illusion shatter by 4% per strike.
Cry of Frustration: Increased damage by 15%.
Mental Anguish: Increased bonus damage to 25% base (50% vs. Inactive) in PvE only.
Master of Fragmentation: Critical-hit chance bonus for Mind Wrack raised to 25%.
Illusionary Reversion: Increased required illusions shattered to 3.
Bountiful Disillusionment: Increased might stacks to 5. Increased vigor duration to 8. Increased fury duration to 10.
Necromancer
Our biggest focus in this iteration for necromancers was that of Epidemic, in that its impact is too instant in most PvP scenarios, as well as its heavy toll on our servers. Secondarily, we’ve long felt that the Plague elite was lackluster and was in need of a rework. In addition to a variety of weapon-based quality-of-life changes, we’re excited to see how the skill changes fare over time.
Plague Sending: The cooldown of this trait has been increased from 30 seconds to 40 seconds in PvP only.
Chilling Nova: The damage of this trait has been reduced by 33% in PvP only.
“Rise!”: The cooldown of this skill has been increased from 40 seconds to 60 seconds in PvP only.
Tainted Shackles: This skill will now apply 5 seconds of Revealed to enemies the first time it successfully hits.
Infusing Terror (Reaper Shroud): This skill no longer pulses stability but instead grants 3 stacks for 6 seconds upon activating it. The active form of this skill now reduces incoming physical and condition damage by 20% for its duration.
Chilling Victory: The cooldown of this trait has been increased from 1 second to 2 seconds in PvP only.
Plague (Elite): This skill has been reworked and has been renamed to Plaguelands.
Plaguelands: This skill creates a 240-radius corrupted area at the necromancer’s initial location for 10 seconds. After 1 second, it pulses damage and conditions in that area for 9 seconds. Each pulse applies a new condition, and each pulse applies all conditions from every pulse before it. Conditions applied (in order) are: bleeding, poison, torment, vulnerability, cripple, weakness, blind, chill, and burning. Recharge is set to 120 seconds.
Epidemic: This ability now fires slow-arcing projectiles from its initial target to up to 5 targets in range. Foes hit by the projectiles gain all conditions from the original Epidemic target. Projectile strikes are unblockable but cannot critically hit. Increased radius to 900.
Rending Claws: Applies twice as much vulnerability while your target is below 50% health.
Ghastly Claws: This skill now deals 1% more damage per stack of vulnerability on the target.
Unholy Feast: This skill no longer applies retaliation. It now invokes a secondary AoE strike against foes below 25% health. Fixed skill-fact bugs that showed range instead of radius and did not display the correct number of boons converted.
Spiteful Spirit: Updated this trait to clarify that it is no longer casting Unholy Feast.
Life Siphon: Gains 20% increased healing if cast while you are bleeding. Deals 20% more damage to bleeding foes.
Dark Pact: Increased damage by 20%. Now inflicts 2 stacks of bleeding on you for 10 seconds.
Ranger
Condition rangers have been pretty potent largely on the strength of torch skills and Quick Draw. We’d like to preserve the tactical play of Quick Draw, so we’re nicking bits of burn duration from torch skills at this time. While we’re at it, we’ve taken the opportunity to revisit a few older weapon traits for short bow, axe, and sword to grant them a bit more synergy with the core weapon skill function.
Lunar Impact: The amount this skill scales with healing power has been reduced by 20% in PvP only.
“We Heal as One!”: Shared regeneration duration has been reduced from 5 seconds to 3 seconds in PvP only.
Resounding Timbre: Regeneration duration of this trait has been reduced from 10 seconds to 4 seconds in PvP only.
Ancient Seeds: The cooldown of this trait has been increased from 10 seconds to 20 seconds in PvP only.
“Strength of the Pack!”: This skill has been reworked and no longer pulses boons on the ranger. When cast, this skill will now apply 10 stacks of stability for 8 seconds, along with 12 seconds of fury and 12 seconds of swiftness.
Smoke Assault: The damage of this skill has been reduced by 15%.
Bonfire: The duration of burning applied by this skill has been reduced from 3 seconds to 2.5 seconds.
Throw Torch: The duration of burning applied by this skill has been reduced from 6 seconds to 5 seconds.
Evasive Purity: This trait now removes one damaging condition and one non-damaging condition.
Honed Axes: This trait now grants a ferocity bonus whether axe is in the main hand or the off hand.
Light on Your Feet: This trait now enhances flanking/behind aspects for short bow skills.
Crippling Shot: This trait now immobilizes if you are beside your target, in addition to when you are behind your target.
Poison Volley: This trait now has increased effect if you are beside your target, in addition to when you are behind your target.
Refined Toxins: Reduced the effective cooldown from 10 seconds to 5 seconds. Reduced the required health threshold from 90% to 75%.
Strider’s Defense: This trait no longer has a chance to destroy projectiles on melee attack. It has gained new functionality: when you evade an attack, gain quickness for 3 seconds.
Troll Unguent: Reduced total duration of this effect from 10 seconds to 8 seconds. Increased healing per second by 25%. Reduced casting time from 1 second to 0.75 seconds.
Revenant
Some of the core trait lines of revenant have been lacking in either synergy or uniqueness. In particular, the Mallyx legend and the associated corruption trait line aren’t up to snuff. Further exacerbating this, there’s a lack of synergy from other trait lines. As a result, we’ve reworked and tuned up some of the traits in the invocation and corruption lines to offer more to condition-centric revenants. Additionally, we’ve selected a few places to make small effects on condition-applying skills. Lastly, we’re also reworking the Ventari Tablet’s energy expulsion to give it a stronger place in large group support.
Misery Swipe: Torment duration has been increased from 4 seconds to 5 seconds.
Anguish Swipe: Torment duration has been increased from 4 seconds to 5 seconds.
Manifest Toxin: The number of poison stacks applied has been increased from 1 to 2.
Echoing Eruption: This skill is no longer able to multistrike targets. Torment duration has been increased from 6 seconds to 10 seconds. Torment stacks applied have been increased from 3 to 5. This skill will no longer automatically track the revenant’s target and will instead fire the skill forward.
Frigid Blitz: This skill now applies the slow condition for 2 seconds in addition to its other effects. The cooldown of this skill has been reduced from 12 seconds to 10 seconds.
Temporal Rift: In addition to its current effects, this skill now applies 3 stacks of confusion for 8 seconds to enemies that are currently using a skill when struck by it.
Energy Expulsion: Reduced cost to 10 energy. This skill now consumes all remaining energy when cast and removes a condition from up to 5 nearby allies for every 10 energy consumed (including the casting cost).
Ferocious Aggression: This trait now additionally increases condition damage inflicted while under the effects of fury.
Incensed Response: This trait now grants might when you gain fury.
Fierce Infusion: Reduced the effective cooldown from 20 seconds to 10 seconds, and reduced the duration of fury granted from 8 seconds to 5 seconds.
Invigorating Flow: Renamed to Rapid Flow. Now grants swiftness in addition to healing when using an energy skill.
Venom Enhancement: Reduced the effective cooldown from 20 seconds to 10 seconds.
Opportune Extraction: This trait now steals a boon once every 10 seconds per target when you apply torment to a target with at least 4 stacks of torment.
Yearning Empowerment: Reduced duration increase from 33% to 20%. Torment damage is now increased by 20%.
Frigid Precision: This trait has been replaced by Abyssal Chill. Abyssal Chill causes you to inflict torment when you chill a foe.
Maniacal Persistence: This trait no longer increases your critical-hit chance. It now lashes out torment at nearby enemies when you gain resistance.
Diabolic Inferno: Reduced the effective cooldown on this trait from 10 seconds to 8 seconds.
Unyielding Anguish: Removed one of the two strikes on initial casting.
Thief
The Daredevil staff functions as a fairly strong AoE weapon, but core thief lacks good ways to deal with large groups, so in this update we’re tuning up the short bow to be a stronger ranged AoE weapon. Additionally, we’re making a small change to Unload to make it more effective as a damage tool when you can ensure that your target will stand still. Finally, we’re also looking at updates to the Deadly Arts line that emphasize poison use to help establish more defined ways to play based on the traits that you select.
Pulmonary Impact: The damage of this effect has been reduced by 15% in PvP only.
Channeled Vigor: Endurance per tick has been reduced from 20 to 15 in PvP only.
Endurance Thief: Endurance gained has been reduced from 50 to 25 in PvP only.
Palm Strike: This skill now applies two instances of Pulmonary Impact on a successful hit.
Vault: The initiative of this skill has been increased from 5 to 6 in PvP only.
Bound (PvP Only): The damage of this ability has been reduced by 24% in PvP only.
Body Shot: This skill has been unsplit and now applies immobilize for 1.5 seconds in all game modes.
Unload: This skill now refunds 2 initiative if all attacks hit.
Trick Shot: Increased number of bounces to 3. Now deals 25% increased damage to poisoned foes.
Detonate Cluster: Increased number of bombs to 4.
Choking Gas: Increased damage by 200%. This skill now briefly dazes foes with 5 or more stacks of poison every pulse. The same foe cannot be dazed more than once every second.
Potent Poison: In addition to its previous effect, this trait now increases the number of stacks of poison applied by other Deadly Arts traits.
Panic Strike: In addition to its previous effect, this trait now causes you to apply 1 stack of poison for 4 seconds to foes that you immobilize.
Panic Strike: Immobilize duration has been reduced from 2.5 seconds to 1.5 seconds in PvP only.
Trapper’s Respite: Fixed a bug that caused this skill to display an incorrect poison duration.
Warrior
For the warrior in this update, we’re looking to tone down some overperforming elements and tune up some underperforming ones. Berserker skills such as Arc Divider and Headbutt were providing too much power for their casting time, while Smash Brawler was just providing too much power overall. In terms of effects, we’re looking at tuning up axe skills and their synergy with other weapons. The Axe Mastery trait has been changed to be friendlier to builds that don’t use axes in both hands, and several axe skills have been tuned up to provide more consistent damage during combat.
Shield Bash: The initial casting time of this skill has been increased, moving the skill from 0.5 seconds to 0.75 seconds total.
Arc Divider: The casting time of this skill has been increased by 0.25 seconds.
Skull Grinder: The damage of this skill has been reduced by 33%. Bleeding has been reduced from 4 stacks for 8 seconds to 3 stacks for 6 seconds. The blast finisher on this skill has been removed. All changes apply to PvP only.
Headbutt: The casting time of this skill has been increased from 0.5 seconds to 0.75 seconds. Distance traveled has been increased from 300 to 400.
Healing Signet: The passive healing from this skill has been reduced by 10% in PvP only.
Endure Pain: In PvP only, the cooldown of this skill has been decreased from 60 seconds to 30 seconds, and the active up-time has been decreased from 4 seconds to 2 seconds.
Defy Pain: Active up-time has been decreased from 4 seconds to 2 seconds in PvP only.
Bloody Roar: Taunt duration has been reduced from 1.5 seconds to 0.5 seconds in PvP only.
Smash Brawler: The cooldown reduction received from this trait has been reduced from 33% to 20%.
Eternal Champion: This trait no longer grants pulsing stability but instead applies 3 stacks for 8 seconds when activating Berserk.
Powerful Synergy: This trait has been updated to double the effects of all combo finishers.
Reckless Dodge: Added missing skill fact for unblockable. Increased damage by 20%.
Axe Mastery: Now gives 300 bonus ferocity as long as you have at least one axe equipped.
Eviscerate: Now grants 5 stacks of might for 5 seconds if it hits.
Decapitate: Now grants 5 stacks of might for 5 seconds if it hits.
Double Chop: Increased damage per strike by 7%.
Triple Chop: Increased damage per strike by 7%.
Cyclone Axe: Now grants 2 seconds of fury per hit in addition to its previous effects. Increased vulnerability applied per hit from 2 to 3 stacks. Updated skill fact to show vulnerability applied per hit rather than total vulnerability for both hits.
Throw Axe: Increased damage by 27%.
Dual Strike: No longer gives fury. Now gives quickness for 1.5 seconds per strike that hits.
Structured Player vs. Player
We have revised the sigils available in PvP. Players who had a sigil that is no longer available will have their money refunded.
On Hit
Sigil of Fallibility: Inflict vulnerability for 10 seconds. (Cooldown: 2 seconds.)
Sigil of Purging: Remove a condition. (Cooldown: 10 seconds.)
Sigil of Revocation: Remove a boon. (Cooldown: 10 seconds.)
Sigil of Courage: Gain might for 10 seconds. (Cooldown: 2 seconds.)
On Swap
Sigil of Agility: Gain 5 seconds of swiftness and 2 seconds of quickness when you swap to this weapon while in combat. (Cooldown: 18 seconds.)
Sigil of Battle: Gain 4 stacks of might for 5 seconds when you swap to this weapon while in combat. (Cooldown: 9 seconds.)
Sigil of Doom: Your next attack after you swap to this weapon while in combat inflicts poison for 5 seconds. (Cooldown: 9 seconds.)
Sigil of Energy: Gain 25% of your endurance when you swap to this weapon while in combat. (Cooldown: 9 seconds.)
Sigil of Exposure: Your next attack after you swap to this weapon while in combat inflicts 5 stacks of vulnerability for 5 seconds. (Cooldown: 9 seconds.)
Sigil of Stagnation: Cripple nearby foes when swapping to this weapon while in combat for 3 seconds in a 240 radius. (Cooldown: 9 seconds.)
Sigil of Intelligence: Your next three attacks after swapping to this weapon while in combat have a 100% critical chance. (Cooldown: 9 seconds.)
Sigil of Escape: Remove movement-impairing effects from yourself when swapping to this weapon while in combat. (Cooldown: 18 seconds.)
Sigil of Annulment: Your next attack after swapping to this weapon while in combat removes 2 boons from your target. (Cooldown: 18 seconds.)
Sigil of Cleansing: Remove 1 condition when you swap to this weapon while in combat. (Cooldown: 9 seconds.)
On Interrupt
Sigil of Ruthlessness: Gain 5 might for 3 seconds when interrupting a foe. (Cooldown: 3 seconds.)
Sigil of Absorption: Steal a boon when interrupting a foe. (Cooldown: 3 seconds.)
Passive
Sigil of Compounding: Deal 1% extra damage per condition on your foe.
Sigil of Exploitation: Deal 5% extra damage to targets below 50% health.
Sigil of Opportunity: Deal 5% extra damage to movement-impaired foes.
Sigil of Enhancement: Deal 0.5% extra damage per boon on your yourself.
Sigil of Separation: Deal 5% extra damage to targets more than 500 distance away.
Sigil of Savagery: +30% stun duration. Deal 3% more damage versus disabled foes.
Sigil of Agony: Increased inflicted bleeding duration 25%.
Sigil of Smoldering: Increased inflicted burning duration 25%.
Sigil of Venom: Increased inflicted poison duration 25%.
Sigil of Confusion: Increased inflicted confusion duration 25%.
Sigil of Misery: Increased inflicted torment duration 25%.
PvP default builds have been adjusted in consideration of the sigil rework.
World vs. World
General
Tactivators and supply depots should now be easier to interact with.
Updated the laurel vendor in WvW to include the amulets, trinkets, and rings it was missing.
BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions
A new Mercenary Backpack is available in the Style category of the Gem Store for 400 gems.
For a limited time, a new set of Keepsake weapon skins is available from Black Lion Weapons Specialists for 1 Black Lion Claim Ticket. Black Lion Chest Keys are available in the Special category of the Gem Store for 125 gems each.
The Balthazar’s Regalia Outfit is on sale with a 30% discount for a limited time at 490 gems, found in the Style category of the Gem Store.
This is the last week to purchase the Swarm Logging Flute, the Butterfly Harvesting Flute, and the Firefly Mining Flute.
Over the weekend, some of the glider skins and backpack glider combos will be removed from the Gem Store. Get them before they go away!
Improvements
The Black Lion Chest has been updated to the Sworn of Balthazar Chest and can be previewed for a full list of its contents.
The Zaishen War Paint Kit has been added as the new guaranteed seasonal item. It contains some unidentified dyes, a booster, and a Fire Orchid.
The Sworn Zaishen Helm is available as an uncommon drop for the duration of this seasonal change.
The Hounds of Balthazar Mail Carrier is available as an uncommon drop for the duration of this seasonal change.
Bug Fixes
Audio has been added to the Red Envelope Mail Carrier.
Fixed an issue with single-use Captain’s Airship Passes that caused certain friendly characters in Gendarran Fields to turn hostile..
Fixed an issue in which off-hand weapons would appear incorrectly when previewing armor with the Wielded box checked.
Today’s patch is nothing. It’s just a “Maintenance Build” Yep, defiantly nothing to here. Pay no attention to the Asura behind the curtain.
Oh, Reddit user piffleberry suggested that ArenaNet might have used the build as a way to handle a server restart but ParagonBroadcasting cannot confirm that at present.
Sources:
GW2 Forums: Maintenance Build - May 10, 2017
Reddit / Guild Wars 2: Maintenance build only just jnow - not an actual patch
Moto’s famous Super Adventure Box opens again with the Super Adventure Festival!
Festivities will begin on March 30 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC -7) and are scheduled to end April 19 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC -7).
Play World 1 and World 2 on Normal, Infantile, or Tribulation Modes.
Earn holographic weapon skins from the new Crimson Assassin set by completing festival daily achievements.
Seek out hidden furniture shops and collect Fancy Furniture Coins to purchase new decorations for your guild.
Live Test Event: Basket Brawl
Basket Brawl is returning to Lion’s Arch for a limited engagement to test new Activity features.
Matches ending will no longer trigger a map load and will reset the current map.
Work has been done to show preference for parties and guilds when finding a match.
The ball carrier now has overhead and map markers.
General
Dart traps in Tribulation Mode still deal fatal damage.
Some dart traps have been disabled in all difficulty modes.
Fractals
Mistlock Instability Fixes
Fixed an issue in which the Jade Maw Tentacles would sometimes not despawn for the Mist Convergence instability.
Last Laugh will no longer knock back pets and will apply reduced damage to them.
Progress Bug Fixes
Solid Ocean Fractal: Fixed issues in which progress was sometimes blocked.
Volcanic Fractal: Fixed an issue that could cause a stall if players succeeded at the first event too quickly.
Miscellaneous Fixes
Breaking an Assault Knight during its Explosive Impact skill will no longer fail to stun it in Nightmare challenge mode.
Breaking Captain Ashym in the Urban Battleground Fractal will now cancel his Meteor Shower ability.
Certain missiles, such as the guardian’s Deflecting Shot, will no longer fall through the floor on the final Thaumanova platforms.
The exit button may now be used before completing the event at the second console in the Thaumanova repulsor lab.
The cultists in the Cliffside Fractal will now emote at the closest player instead of the same player every time.
Added a Volcanic checkpoint and slightly moved an existing one.
Miscellaneous Quality-of-Life Improvements
Four Ascended Salvage Kits (5) can now be combined in the Mystic Forge for an Ascended Salvage Kit (20).
Moved the third Chaos Mistlock Singularity to a more convenient location.
Cliffside Fractal: Chains will no longer transform players and kill their minions.
Uncategorized Fractal: Falling on the final jumping puzzle will now teleport you to the end as long as one player has reached the end.
Raids
Salvation Pass
Fixed an issue in which bloodstone shards were consumed by invulnerable targets standing in Matthias’s hit box.
Hearts and Minds
“Extreme Mode” has been renamed “Challenge Mode” for consistency with fractal and raid content.
Removed the sylvari-player intro scene of the Mordremoth encounter on challenge mode.
Moved the checkpoint locations on all platforms as far to the edge as possible to prevent the exit-instance dialogue from interfering with combat.
Replaced all instances of an iconless invulnerability enhancement with Determined, in order to improve messaging.
Added an adrenal mushroom to each penalty box.
Channeling Reality Rifts will no longer cancel on damage taken.
Bug Fixes
Fixed a bug in which the NPCs in the initial tunnel did not consistently follow the instance owner.
Fixed a bug in which Trahearne always had a “Greet” interact prompt.
Fixed a bug in the Blighted Eir encounter that prevented her from becoming stunned if she was using an ability when she was defeated.
Fixed a bug in which no icon appeared for the Exposed condition caused by breaking Blighted Eir, Blighted Garm, or Mordremoth.
Fixed a bug in which Blighted Canach did not gain the Exposed condition when breaking his defiance bar.
Fixed a bug in which the Exposed condition did not increase condition damage taken.
Fixed a bug in which Mordremoth might not use skills.
Fixed a bug in which the updrafts on the Mordremoth encounter would not consistently launch players into the air.
Fixed a bug that allowed players in groups to restart the Mordremoth encounter with the enhancements they gained on previous attempts.
Fixed a bug in which allied NPCs would not engage Mordremoth before directly taking an attack from him.
Fixed several bugs that caused Reality Rifts to fail at converting Blighted Mordremoth minions.
Fixed a bug that caused the third Blighted Mordremoth minion to become friendly if spawned right before the “Take to the skies” phase.
Fixed a bug that caused the final Reality Rift to close without breaking Mordremoth, stalling the encounter.
Fixed several bugs that caused encounters to enter broken states due to condition damage.
Fixed several bugs in challenge mode that caused bosses to target player pets and minions with abilities.
Fixed a bug in challenge mode that caused defiance bars to scale in addition to having base values designed for five players.
Encounter Balance
Reduced Blighted Eir’s health by 25% on challenge mode.
Reduced the amount of crowd-control effects required to break Blighted Garm’s defiance bar on challenge mode.
Player pets and minions will no longer take damage from the persistent effects of Charged Shot or Endless Barrage in the Blighted Eir encounter.
Player pets and minions will no longer take damage from Draining Bramble or the ring attacks in the Blighted Pale Tree encounter.
Players picking up Canach’s shield will now gain access to his reflect bubble skill rather than the manually timed reflect ability that was previously on the bundle.
Blighted Canach’s standard grenades will no longer apply extra bleeding stacks if multiple grenades hit the same player.
Blighted Canach’s melee combo will now only knock back on challenge mode.
Removed Mordremoth’s permanent immunity to applications of life stealing, chill, and cripple.
Mordremoth will now gain Determined when he summons a Blighted minion until they are defeated.
Blighted minions will now remove their unique enhancements from themselves and Mordremoth when they become vulnerable to Reality Rifts.
Increased the cooldown on Mordremoth’s Ley Fire ranged attack from 2 seconds to 4 seconds.
Standing in the ally shield during the “Take to the skies” phase will now make players invulnerable on normal mode. On challenge mode, the shield will provide no safety. Standing in the shield will remove qualification for Flights of Fancy as the achievement text indicates on normal mode only, as it provides no benefit on challenge mode.
Mordremoth now takes massively reduced damage during the “Take to the skies” phase.
Mordremoth’s Ley Storm ability will no longer deal damage to player pets and minions.
Added a locked defiance bar to Blighted minions on challenge mode, making them immune to crowd-control effects.
Items
Weaponsmiths and artificers can now craft:
Cured Thick Leather Squares
Spools of Thick Elonian Cord
Thin Leather Sections
Cured Coarse Leather Squares
Cured Rugged Leather Squares
Tailors and leatherworkers can now craft:
Lumps of Mithrillium
Iron Ingots
Steel Ingots
Darksteel Ingots
Mithril Ingots
Profession Skills
Engineer
Glass Cannon: Fixed a skill-fact bug that used base character health instead of the engineer’s maximum health.
Thief
Traps: All traps created by the thief will have a 1-second arm time before the trap can affect enemies.
Needle Trap: This skill now delivers a strike.
Tripwire: This skill now delivers a strike.
Structured Player vs. Player
Matchmaking
Matchmaking now expands profession count scoring penalties over time instead of being a fixed amount.
The number of desired professions per team before penalties are applied begins at 1 and will rise to 2 after two minutes.
Matches can now be restricted to never allow more than the desired number of professions, but this feature is subject to change as we review matchmaking quality.
Battle of Kyhlo
The Clock Tower has received some art updates.
World vs. World
General
Players who do not own Heart of Thorns™ may now buy Notarized Scrolls of Heroics.
Studded, Marauder, and Scale armor have been added to the Legacy Armor Reward Track for PvP and WvW.
Desert
Jump pads inside the Earth/North Keep will now function even if you own no shrines.
BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions
The new Spring Promenade Outfit is available in the Style category of the Gem Store for 700 gems.
For a limited time, a new set of Beastslayer weapon skins is available from Black Lion Weapons Specialists for 1 Black Lion Claim Ticket. Black Lion Chest Keys are available in the Special category of the Gem Store for 125 gems each.
This is the last week of March Madness sales with a new one-day sale each day! The Bank Tab Expansion is available today in the Upgrades category of the Gem Store for 480 gems—a savings of 20%.
Updates
The Black Lion Chest has been updated to the Spring Synergy Chest and can be previewed for a full list of its contents.
Tarrktun has heard of the Black Lion Trading Company’s promotion and dispatched another apprentice to Lion’s Arch for more globby shinies.
The Dab of Destabilized Ectoplasm has been added as the new guaranteed seasonal item.
The Elemental Sword is available as an uncommon drop for the duration of this seasonal change.
Bug Fixes
Added subtle wing-flap audio to the Raven’s Spirit Glider.
The festivities have ended. Join us again next year!
BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions
Three additional shared inventory slots may now be purchased from the Upgrades category of the Gem Store for 700 gems each, or purchase all three for 1,890 gems. Each account can purchase up to 16 shared inventory slots at this time. This limit is not affected by the shared inventory slot provided with the Level-80 Boost.
The Bank Job Package containing 5 Black Lion Chest Keys, a Total Makeover Kit, a transmutation charge, a Bank Tab Expansion, and a Revive Orb is available for a limited time in the Services category of the Gem Store for 1,200 gems. Limit one per account.
The Arctic Explorer Outfit is available in the Style category of the Gem Store for 700 gems.
The Black Lion Chest “Delete” confirmation has been removed.
