Update-Notes

Game Update Notes: July 16, 2024
July 15, 2024 at 04:01 pm

07/16/2024—July 16 Release Notes

Note to users of third-party programs: The game may not launch or work properly after we release a new build if you use a third-party program, due to possible incompatibilities. ArenaNet cannot offer support if a third-party modification breaks, interferes with, or prevents you from playing Guild Wars or Guild Wars 2. Our policy regarding third-party programs can be found here.

General

Updated the behavior of the away-from-keyboard timer that returns players to the character-select screen after extended periods of inactivity. In open-world maps, the time remaining before a player who has not manually moved their character or performed any skill inputs is returned to character select is now reduced to 5 minutes if the player enters combat.
Removed rocks that were blocking access to mursaat tokens 19 and 31 in Ember Bay.

Items

Fixed an issue that prevented some legendary armor pieces from becoming invisible under the effect of thief stealth skills like Shadow Refuge.
Updated the Communal Boost Bonfire with the following changes:
- The spawn radius of the wood has been reduced.
- Players can now place the Communal Boost Bonfire, select its boost, and interact with it, even if they are already under the effect of one of its boosts.
- A Locked Bonfire status will now apply to Communal Boost Bonfires for the first two minutes after they are placed, and only the owner will be able to select a boost during that period. When it expires, it will be replaced by a Public Bonfire status, and any player can select a boost if one has not already been selected.
- Players can now interact with a Communal Boost Bonfire multiple times to refresh the boost, up to a maximum of 60 minutes. The boost will not be refreshed if the maximum time limit has already been reached.

Structured Player vs. Player

Automated Tournament Updates

The frequency of daily automated tournaments has been reduced from 8 to 4 per day.
- All EU server tournaments will occur during their standard prime-time player activity period.
- On North American servers, 3 tournaments will occur during NA's standard prime-time player activity period. One tournament is timed to occur during Oceanic (OCX) prime time.
A new weekly automated tournament has been added. This tournament happens every Sunday at the following regional times:
- EU: 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7)
- NA: 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7)
A new monthly variety automated tournament will happen every second Saturday of each month at noon Pacific Time (UTC-7).
- This tournament will alternate between 2v2 and 3v3 modes.
Tournament of Legends will occur every 6 months on the third Saturday of each month at noon Pacific Time (UTC-7).

Structured PvP Titles

The "Champion Brawler" title awarded for winning 10,000 rated arena games is now colored pink.
Added a new colored tournament title, "Champion of Champions," for consistent high placement in the Kormir's Clash monthly automated tournament. Players accrue points by placing in the top 4 teams. First place awards 30 points, second place awards 15 points, and third and fourth place both award 10 points. The title is earned upon reaching 120 points.

Djinn's Dominion Objective Update

The lamp map objective has received several updates:
- The objective now requires channeling, rather than being awarded by standing within a capture circle boundary.
- The special action skill is no longer granted to the entire team. Only the player who channeled the lamp will gain access to it.
- Leaving the lamp arena now causes subsequent uses to apply Weakened Soul for longer durations. The maximum penalty lasts for 30 seconds, refreshing when you enter or exit the lamp.
Special action skills have been updated:
- Giant Meteor is no longer ground targeted, and it is now unblockable and requires a targeted enemy. The meteor will be attached to the target upon casting.
- Disenchantment Field has been replaced by Waters of Life, a ground-targeted area of effect that revives allies and finishes downed enemies within its radius.
- Waxing Doom has been replaced by Starfall, which damages and launches enemies in a radius around the player. Using Starfall on an enemy capture point will instantly neutralize it.
Fixed an issue that prevented jumping players from being counted as present in the Market (middle) capture circle.

World vs. World

General

This update focuses on changing some aspects of WvW scoring, as well as some siege updates and various WvW quality-of-life improvements.

These next few changes are part of an effort to make scoring feel healthier and to make fighting for structures feel more valuable. We will monitor the impacts of these changes and adjust as needed to maintain healthy scoring as play patterns evolve.

The victory point values from skirmishes will now be weighted based on player activity during the skirmish.
The war score awarded for capturing objectives has been increased and will additionally increase based on the objective's tier when it is captured.
The war score awarded for defeating an enemy player in WvW is increasing from 2 to 3.

These changes are focused on making gameplay in and around sieging structures feel healthier, paying particular attention to the tools defenders have available. We continue to strive to make both attacking and defending feel good for players.

Objective-contesting conditions are changing. Objectives will now become contested if the lord is put into combat or if a gate or wall is damaged below 98% health.
The Emergency Waypoint tactic now spawns 3 waypoints in various locations near the lord's room in Stonemist Castle and keeps.
Alacrity can no longer be applied to players using siege equipment and will be removed from players when activating siege equipment.
Boons other than swiftness can no longer be applied to siege golems.
Flame ram health has been lowered by 50%. Iron Hide will be applied to flame rams when they are operated.
Guild siege golem supply cost has increased from 50 to 75.
Arrow cart supply cost has been reduced from 40 to 25.
Superior arrow cart supply cost has been reduced from 50 to 35.
Trebuchet supply cost has been reduced from 100 to 50.
Superior trebuchet supply cost has been reduced from 120 to 60.

Rewards

Added a new Corrupted Hero weapon set to WvW.
- Exotic versions of the weapons have been added to the Mist-Hardened Lockbox.
- Ascended versions of the weapons can be acquired from a new Mystic Forge recipe utilizing rare Hero weapons, which are acquired from the Hero Weapon Reward Track.
Added varietal seeds to herb synthesizers.

Game Update Notes: June 25, 2024
June 24, 2024 at 09:54 pm

06/25/2024—June 25 Release Notes

Land Spear Beta Event

The land spear beta event begins this Thursday! The event runs from June 27 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) until June 30 at 10:00 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7). Every Guild Wars 2 account in good standing, including Play-for-Free accounts, will automatically get character slots marked "Beta" when the beta event begins. Clicking on one of these slots will allow you to create a character using any of the nine Guild Wars 2 professions.

General

Added an option to hide or unhide aquabreathers in the equipment panel.
- When the aquabreather is hidden and the player's equipped head armor is not hidden, the head armor will be shown when underwater.
- The aquabreather's attributes will still be used when underwater.
Fixed an issue that caused some vendors' interfaces to scroll down when purchasing items from them.
Updated the Sunken Treasure Hunter content in anticipation of an upcoming weekly event:
- Sunken chests have been added to the end of the Aquatic Ruins fractal and Siren's Reef fractal.
  - Deadly piranhas will now subside after the Siren's Reef boss encounter is completed.
- In addition to resetting when the Master Diver achievement is completed, sunken chests will now also reset upon logging in or your first time entering a map after the weekly reset.
- The locations of some sunken chests have been adjusted within the map they are located in, primarily where they overlapped with quaggan villages.
  - Hint cinematics for the chests have been updated.
- Ornate rusted keys can now be double-clicked to show a hint cinematic for the next available sunken chest in the Master Diver achievement.
- Dive Master Astora's merchant inventory has been updated.
  - Swim-speed infusion upgrades have been condensed to encourage upgrading in increments of 5; single-point upgrades are still available.
  - An account-based swim-speed infusion is now available. This infusion begins at +15 increased swimming speed and can be permanently improved for all characters on your account by purchasing upgrade items from Dive Master Astora.
  - Infusable, exotic-quality aquabreathers are now available so that players can enjoy their swim-speed infusions before they have earned an ascended aquabreather.
  - A limited number of extra ornate rusted keys can be purchased for karma each week, and excess keys can be exchanged for karma.
  - Some of the new items will be available as prizes in an upcoming weekly event.
- Made various functionality improvements to opening and resetting sunken chests.
Lowered the difficulty of the "Help Lucretia get back to Garenhoff" event to make it easier for one player to complete.
Fixed an issue that caused players to become trapped in the catapults near Garrison Waypoint.
Fixed an issue that could prevent the rockslides encountered in the Missing Brood collection from being in the proper animation state.

Fractals

Lonely Tower Fractal

Reduced the boon corruption Eparch causes with Envy Empowerment.
Eparch's Consume skill will only absorb emotion globules that are 5 or more seconds old.
Reduced Eparch's health.
Fixed an issue that prevented Wave of Envy from hitting enemies if they were standing too close to Eparch.
Reduced the boon corruption dealt by Wave of Envy. The skill no longer corrupts boons on players who evade the attack.
Reduced the health of the rift guardian champions summoned during the encounter in challenge mode.

Strike Missions

Some balance adjustments have been made to the Temple of Febe challenge mode encounter to make it more accessible. These changes do not apply to the legendary version of the encounter.
- Reduced the duration of the Insatiable effect applied by Empowered Insatiable Hunger to 3 minutes.
- Reduced the number of stacks of Empowered that Cerus gains from Empowered Smash to 2.
- Reduced the health and toughness of Malicious Shadows.
- Reduced the penalty for failure during Empowered Crushing Regret. Failure to have enough people to absorb an attack will cause players to be downed instead of defeated, as will being hit by two of the attacks. Multiple failures or being hit by the skill more than two times will still cause players to be defeated.

Player vs. Player

The number of ascended shards of glory required to purchase ascended gear from PvP vendors has been decreased.
- The cost for a set of ascended armor has been lowered from 1,200 ascended shards of glory to 800 ascended shards of glory.
- The cost for a two-handed ascended weapon has been lowered from 400 ascended shards of glory to 200 ascended shards of glory.
- The cost for a one-handed ascended weapon has been lowered from 400 ascended shards of glory to 100 ascended shards of glory.
The following changes will apply to ranked reward tracks starting with the next PvP league season, Season 42, which begins on July 2.
- The total number of boxes of grandmaster marks obtainable from the reward track has been increased from 3 to 9. The repeatable byzantium chest also contains a box of grandmaster marks.
- Instant reward track potions have been added to each tier at a rate of 3 potions per 10 pips.
- Vials of karma have been added to each tier at a rate of 3 vials per 10 pips.

Personal Story

Secrets of the Obscure

Additional messaging has been added to chapter 18, The Eleventh Hour, to recommend completion of the Into the Spider's Lair meta-event in Inner Nayos before proceeding into the story instance.
A new achievement, True Ending: The Eleventh Hour, has been added to "The Midnight King" story achievements. Successfully completing the Into the Spider's Lair meta-event with The Eleventh Hour as your active story step before entering the instance will award the achievement.
- This achievement has been added to the list of achievements that award progress toward completing the Secrets of the Obscure: The Midnight King Mastery meta-achievement.

Items

Players who misplaced their Saga's End Draconic Core or would like extras can now purchase additional copies from Sarettokk in Lion's Arch after completing all requirements to earn the item.
Suffused Obsidian armor skin consumables' rarity has been updated from legendary to exotic to prevent the deletion confirmation from requiring players to type out the name.
Fixed an issue that prevented Eparch's Empowered Greatsword and Eparch's Empowered Sword skins from being unlocked in the wardrobe.
Fixed an issue that caused the Saryx Backpiece, the Midnight King Backpiece, and the infused versions of both to grant exotic attribute values instead of ascended attribute values.

Profession Skills

Below are changes to the balance preview notes we previously shared. You can see the original balance preview notes here.

Elementalist

Catalyst

Elemental Celerity: Fixed an issue that caused this skill to fail when the user was holding a conjured weapon in WvW and PvP.

Guardian

Leap of Faith: Increased the radius from 180 to 240.

Firebrand

Mantras now automatically charge in combat in PvE only.
Mantra of Solace: Increased the arc angle from 60 degrees to 160 degrees.
Mantra of Lore: Increased the arc angle from 60 degrees to 160 degrees.
Mantra of Potence: Increased the arc angle from 60 degrees to 160 degrees.
Mantra of Liberation: Increased the arc angle from 60 degrees to 160 degrees.

Willbender

Rushing Justice: Increased the Justice effect duration from 6 seconds to 8 seconds in PvE only.

Necromancer

Reaper

Blighter's Boon: Increased the base healing from 85 to 101.

Ranger

Stalk (Juvenile Jaguar): This skill now applies stealth to the ranger in addition to the pet. Increased the cooldown from 20 seconds to 35 seconds in WvW and PvP.

Revenant

Herald

Facet of Darkness: Reduced the cooldown from 25 seconds to 20 seconds in PvP only.
True Nature (Legendary Dragon): This skill now cleanses 3 conditions from nearby allies when used.

Game Update Notes: June 4, 2024
June 03, 2024 at 06:13 pm

06/04/2024—June 4 Release Notes

Prepurchase Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds

Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds arrives on August 20! Preorder the Standard, Deluxe, or Ultimate Edition of Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds before release to unlock the Whispering Serpents Pauldrons Skin, a Serpent's Wrath weapon skin, and a new title, "Homesteader." You can learn more about our latest expansion here.

Dragon Bash Festival

It's time for Dragon Bash! It wouldn't be a proper celebration without your attendance. Join me in Hoelbrak for another moot for the ages! There will be tests of strength, racing, food, song, and—most importantly—ale.

I'll see you there. Unless, of course, you don't enjoy fun.

—Knut Whitebear

Join the celebration in Hoelbrak! Celebrate Tyria's resistance against the Elder Dragons while engaging in a variety of festive games, including:
- Dragon Arena: Show off your dragon-fighting prowess against lifelike holograms in the Dragon Arena, or challenge a more difficult gauntlet in Dragon Arena Survival.
- Hologram Stampede: The fighting continues in the Hologram Stampede, a map-wide scramble to clear the Hoelbrak countryside of deadly enemies.
- Piñata Bashing: Master the tradition of destroying dragon piñatas in the Piñata Bashing adventure.
- Dragon Bash Rally: Speed around Hoelbrak in the Dragon Bash Rally mounted race.
- Moa Race: Tigg's famous racing moas return in a moa race event. Put your zhaitaffy on the line and cheer on the winner!
The festival meta-achievement, Annual Dragon Bash Feats, has been updated with a new reward, the Holographic Dragon Cuisses. Last year's reward, the Holographic Dragon Plate chest armor, can now be purchased from the Dragon Bash Merchant [Prizes].
A new Sacred Crystal weapon set crafted by the Crystal Bloom is now available! You'll receive your choice of a weapon by progressing the Dragon Bash Feats meta-achievement, and you can acquire additional weapons from the Dragon Bash Festivities weekly achievement. Last year's weapon set, the Dragonrender weapons, are now available from the Dragon Bash Weekly Trader.
Three new Bonfire weapons are now available as a rare drop from Dragon Coffers. They can also be purchased from Sparking Stone [Weapons], a Dragon Bash vendor in Hoelbrak.
A new mini, the Mini Mystical Blue Orb, has been added to the Dragon Bash rewards vendor.
New guild decorations have been added:
- Wrought Iron Dragon Statue
- Wrought Iron Dragon Body
- Wrought Iron Dragon Tail
- Skyscale Rental Post
The Dragon Arena has been updated with a sixth round and new champion to face, the holographic saltspray dragon!
Dragon Arena Survival has been changed to Dragon Arena (Private), with a selectable difficulty modifier rather than needing to play through each difficulty in order.
The (Annual) Going the Distance achievement now awards extra credit for finishing the full race event, reducing the number of race laps needed to complete it.
Braham and Myrun are now updated with new conversations in the festival for players who have completed the Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons story.
Tidied up small issues to ensure a friendly atmosphere for festivalgoers.
The party rages for three weeks, from June 4 until June 25 at noon Pacific Time (UTC-7). Get bashing!

General

The Master of Masteries: Secrets of the Obscure achievement now properly updates progress when players log in.
The Tier 2 Legendary Armor: Suffused Obsidian achievement has been updated to count completion of the Road to Heitor and the Fangs That Gnash event chains.
Fixed an issue that caused the Tier 2 Legendary Armor: Suffused Obsidian achievement tracking effect to incorrectly display the number of world bosses defeated.
Fixed an issue that prevented the "Defeat the enraged grawl rampaging through Martyr's Woods" event in Plains of Ashford from restarting.
Fixed an issue that prevented the event UI from displaying the boss's name in the "Defeat the Risen and free Agent Raia from her broken battlesuit" event in Straits of Devastation.
Fixed an issue that prevented the map from properly revealing in the Temple of Febe Strike Mission.
One-Handed Skyscale Weapon Box: Fixed an issue that caused the Skyscale Shield skin to continue to appear as an option after the player had already unlocked the skin.
What Was Before Achievement: Fixed an issue that caused players who hadn't started the achievement's collection to see visual effects relating to it. Fixed an issue that prevented players from receiving the special action skill needed to locate relics if they were defeated while the collection was active.

Amnytas

Fixed issues in the "Help Lyhr bring order to the debate hall" and "Engage the avatars and free the Bastion of Balance" events.
Fixed an issue that caused two ley lines in the Amnytas Supply Run adventure to ignore the "Disable Ley-line Riding" effect.
Fixed an issue that caused players to get stuck between two intersecting ley lines.

Inner Nayos

A new achievement, Inner Nayos Explorer, has been added. Completion of this achievement will progress the Skyfarer achievement.
Adjusted the balance of the "Defend the turrets from being destroyed" event.
The Fangs That Gnash: Added a voice-over callout when the colosseum begins to fall under enemy control.
Fixed an issue that prevented the Malignant Fog effect from being properly applied after revival if a player was still inside of Eparch's barrier.
Updated the processing of voice-over dialogue at the end of the Into the Spider's Lair meta-event.
Fixed an issue in the "Disrupt Apprentice Scyllan's ritual" event that caused the Temple of Charybda roof to prevent players from accessing top floor via the stairs.
Fixed an issue that caused players to be suddenly teleported when navigating outside the Lost Altar.

Skywatch Archipelago

Fixed an issue in which Ward Technician Ranald's voice over did not have proper processing during the "Burn grubs and insects with your skyscale" event.

Echovald Wilds

Fixed an issue with the Forever Tree event chain.
Adjusted the Temple of the Dredge event and the Igne Mossheart event chains to not depend on each other for restarting in order to allow easier access to the Temple of the Dredge mastery point.

Fractals

The Lonely Tower: Added an in-world chest for completing the Cerus and Deimos encounter on both normal and challenge modes.
The Lonely Tower: Essence orbs spawned during the final encounter will now display their names when moused over and will no longer be targeted by player skills as if they were hostile.

Personal Story

Added limited skyscale access in chapter 19 of Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure for players who don't have skyscales unlocked.

Items

Guild weaponsmiths and guild armorers now sell Guild Kites. Guilds need to have Guild Armorer 1 or 2 or Guild Weaponsmith 1 or 2 to access this exchange.
Fixed an issue in which the legendary relic was not using the legendary relic icon when selecting relics from Secrets of the Obscure Set 3.

World vs. World

The World Restructuring beta will be activated as the full-time World vs. World team creation system beginning with WvW Resets in each region on Friday, June 14. Be sure to choose your guild before 11:45 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) on Thursday, June 13 to be sorted into your desired team. You can do this by using the "Set as WvW Guild" option in the Guild Panel.

Game Update Notes: May 21, 2024
May 20, 2024 at 05:05 pm

05/21/2024—May 21 Release Notes

Release Highlights

The final major release of Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure is here, bringing the commander deeper into the world of Nayos, to the Citadel of Zakiros, where the indomitable Midnight King himself resides.
The Wizard's Vault has been updated with new rewards and objectives.
A new fractal dungeon has been added: the Lonely Tower.
A challenge mode difficulty tier for Convergences has been added, as well as a new Convergences boss.
A new Mastery tier, the Wayfinder Mastery, has been added to the Astral Ward Mastery track.
New events and adventures have been added to Inner Nayos and Amnytas.
A sixth guild slot has been unlocked for all accounts.
Six new relics have been added.
The second tier of the legendary Obsidian armor set has been added.
Quality-of life updates have been made, including custom reticles for the action camera.
A new ranger pet, the juvenile spinegazer, is now available.
Updates have been made to World vs. World.

The Midnight King

After Peitha's failed gamble at the coliseum, turmoil grips Inner Nayos. Eparch hunkers in the spires of Zakiros, amassing unfathomable power. Isgarren has yet to commit the full might of the Astral Ward, but the time for Peitha's forces to strike runs short. Shoulder to shoulder with an unlikely alliance of soldiers, wizards, and demons, the wayfinder spearheads a desperate attempt to overthrow the Midnight King and take the throne of the Realm of Dreams.

Wizard's Vault

The Wizard's Vault's inventory has been updated for the new season! Last season's unique rewards are now available in the Legacy shop.
New Special Objectives for the season have been added, and more will appear over the course of the season, including Special Objectives associated with Bonus Events and Festivals.

Shop Inventory Updates

The Legendary Weapon Starter Kit has been updated to set 4, with two new kits and two returning kits available.

Fractals

The Lonely Tower

Immediately following the foundation of the Astral Ward, Eparch finally returned to Tyria to strike back against Isgarren's "betrayal"—this time with a full entourage. Help Isgarren, Mabon, and Dagda navigate the crumbling halls of the Wizard's Tower and push the Kryptis back to where they came from.

In order to make room for the new fractal, the fractals found on the following levels have been adjusted: 21, 25, 43, 50, 66, 75, 93, 96, 97, 98, 99, and 100.

General

A new ranger pet, the juvenile spinegazer, is available to tame inside of Inner Nayos.
Squad messages under a certain length can now be viewed on the minimap by hovering over a commander tag icon.
The maximum number of guild membership slots has been increased from 5 to 6 for all players.
Reduced the number of correct channels required to open both lesser and greater arcane chests.
Fixed an issue that prevented charge time from being properly reduced if a player with both Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire and Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure skyscale Masteries unlocked held the key to charge the Wall Spring ability before clinging to a wall.
Kryptis rifts will now attract more enemies than before, and when enemies are defeated, reinforcements will arrive sooner. This change applies to all Kryptis rifts except those found in Inner Nayos.
Fixed an issue that caused the list of active rifts accessed by using Scan for Rift to display Mount Maelstrom's map when viewing rift activity in Seitung Province and Seitung Province's map when viewing rift activity in Mount Maelstrom.
Fixed an issue that prevented certain tier 2 Kryptis rift events from scaling properly.
The bird whistle required to complete the Skyscale Toys collection is now available for purchase from Ohtrogg, Bird Whisperer, who is in Grostogg's Kraal near Ebbing Heart Run in Iron Marches.
The Rising Spirits Mastery now activates upon entering most ley lines outside the Horn of Maguuma region.
All lounge passes available for purchase from the Black Lion Trading Company now provide an option to teleport to the Wizard's Tower. To see this option, players must first unlock access to the Wizard's Tower by completing the sixth Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure story chapter, Tower of Secrets.
Fixed an issue that could cause progress toward completing the Defeat the Fire Elemental World Boss or Complete Events in Metrica Province objective in the Wizard's Vault to be awarded when events in Iron Marches were completed.
Chapters 4 and 8 of the Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure story will now properly award credit toward completing rift events in the following maps: Desert Highlands, Bloodstone Fen, Jahai Bluffs, Straits of Devastation, Auric Basin, Fireheart Rise, Dry Top, Amnytas, Inner Nayos, Frostgorge Sound, Cursed Shore, Bitterfrost Frontier, Iron Marches, Ember Bay, Crystal Oasis, Southsun Cove, Verdant Brink, Seitung Province, and New Kaineng City.
Fixed an issue that prevented multiple updrafts in Skywatch Archipelago, Amnytas, and Inner Nayos from properly recognizing Mastery progression.
Fixed an issue that prevented the Qinkaishi Falls point of interest icon on the Echovald Wilds map from flashing when a player who had not discovered it moved their mouse over it.
Unified the icon colors used in the Skyscale Target Practice adventures.
Jade tech offensive and defensive protocols' effect cooldowns have been reverted to 30 seconds, down from 90 seconds. Note that the issue that allowed these effects to trigger more frequently than every 30 seconds remains fixed. This is in line with the original intent of these effects—to provide a temporary boost of power at the start of combat—and prevents the unintended behavior of using them to permanently maintain boons.
Sons of Svanir in Bjora Marches will now count toward the Sons of Svanir's Bane achievement and the Defeat 100 Void Enemies or Sons of Svanir objective in the Wizard's Vault.
Sons of Svanir enemies in the Dragonstorm event will now count as Sons of Svanir instead of icebrood for achievement progress.
Fixed an issue that prevented the Lady Shamshir bounty event in Domain of Istan from restarting properly.
Fixed an issue that prevented Ballistician Dexa from moving, halting progress in the "Collect scrap metal to help Ballistician Dexa build her siege weapon" event in Cursed Shore.
Fixed an issue that caused an enemy in the "Clear Broken Spit of the Risen sea creatures replicating themselves" event in Straits of Devastation to be inaccessible, preventing event completion.
Fixed an issue that could cause Captain Fa to become stuck during the Battle for the Jade Sea meta-event, halting event progress.
Ramses and Arina will now display markers to indicate that optional conversation dialogue is available during chapter 11 of the Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure story, Duress.
In chapters 11, 12, and 13 of the Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure story, party members will now be able to see conversations when the instance owner initiates them.
A new achievement for collecting minis from Secrets of the Obscure has been added. Entering the Wizard's Tower or Lion's Arch will retroactively update progress.

Action Camera Reticle Settings

The ability to customize the shape and color of action camera targeting reticles has been added. This feature can be found in the General Options tab of the Options panel, below Cursor Contrast settings. This setting applies to all action camera uses, including aiming the skyscale's Fireball skill.

Skywatch Archipelago

Lowered the difficulty of the "Protect the injured Rift Hunters" event to make it easier to complete with one player.

Amnytas

Additional events and adventures that can be completed solo have been added to Amnytas.
Decreased the number of ritual moves needed to complete the "Mimic Dagda's ritual moves to lend power to the summoning" objective during the "Defeat Nourys, the Eyes of the Abyss" stage of the Defense of Amnytas meta-event.
The starlight lantern previously located in Cellar of Arcana in Amnytas has been moved outside, west of the point of interest, to make it available even when players cannot access the cellar.
The Great Debate Hall's point of interest radius has been adjusted, and it can now be unlocked by standing near the main gate while it is closed.
Fixed an issue that caused Forro's dialogue to play from their character model instead of the player's communication device during the "Help Forro purge corruption from the animals and return them home" event in Amnytas.
Fixed an issue that caused the creatures in the "Help Forro purge corruption from the animals and return them home" event in Amnytas to display odd pathing behavior when moving into their kennels.

Inner Nayos

The Road to Heitor and the Fangs that Gnash event chains have been rebalanced to allow shorter overall run times with the introduction of the Into the Spider's Lair meta-event.
Inner Nayos map completion rewards have been updated to standard map completion rewards. The Gift of Inner Nayos is not included in this reward.
- The number of starlight lanterns that must be lit to complete the Illuminating Inner Nayos achievement is unchanged and will persist regardless of map completion progress.
The Inner Nayos explorable zone's first waypoint will now be unlocked upon entering the map for the first time if a player has access to Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure and has completed chapter 11 or has started chapter 14 or chapter 17 of the story on any character.
Added a fishing supplies vendor to the Astral Ward camp.
New fishing holes will appear in bodies of water around Nyedra Surrounds and the Citadel of Zakiros following successful completion of the Into the Spider's Lair meta-event.
Added a cooldown to the hint that appears when running out of loose vegetation during the "Use your skyscale to pick food and deliver it to the starving Kryptis" event.
Fixed an issue that caused loose vegetation to remain visible after completing the "Use your skyscale to pick food and deliver it to the starving Kryptis" event.
Reduced the cooldown of the Throw Food special action skill from 5 seconds to 3 seconds in the "Use your skyscale to pick food and deliver it to the starving Kryptis" event.
Fixed an issue that prevented Frode and Emund's dialogue from playing properly over the player's communication device during the Fangs That Gnash event chain.
During the "Defeat the Champion Avatar of Envy" event, encounters with Nereidum, Chosen of Charybda or Vespera, Scribe of Charybda will now alternate instead of the chance to encounter them being randomly determined.
Reduced the frequency of dialogue lines heard while destroying Kryptis turrets in the "Use your skyscale to intercept magic around the extractor" event.
Fixed an issue that caused some moving Kryptis turrets to have higher health compared to other turrets in the "Use your skyscale to intercept magic around the extractor" event.

The Wizard's Tower

A laurel vendor, guild bank, and Black Lion Chest merchant have been added northeast of the Empyrean Plaza point of interest.
Jade tech offensive and defensive protocols, a charging station, and a jade bot workbench have been added west of the Empyrean Plaza point of interest.

Items

Stealth now correctly affects players wearing Perfected Envoy armor.
The World Boss Portal Device available from the Black Lion Trading Company now includes notifications and teleporting options for Convergences. To access this option, players must first unlock the Wizard's Tower by completing chapter 6 of the Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure story.
Purchasing the Saryx Backpiece or Possession Infusion from Nikki the Lost in the Wizard's Tower now correctly requires completion of the Legendary Temple of Febe achievement.
Drakkar's Hoard containers are now stackable.
Fractal Weapon Crate containers are now stackable.
The recipe components for the following enhancement stations have been updated:
- Sharpening Stone Station
- Tuning Crystal Station
- Maintenance Oil Station
Fixed an issue that prevented players from teleporting back to their previous map from the Noble's Folly lounge.

World vs. World

Attack and defend events will now display the health bars of tower, keep, and castle lords.
Siege disruptors are now unblockable.
The Chilling Fog tactic has been renamed Healing Mist. This tactic will now deploy a healing mist throughout objectives that pulses healing to allied forces inside the objective for the duration.
The amount of supply provided by the Supply Drop tactic has increased from 100 to 200.
Keeps' base supply amount has increased from 400 to 450. Their supply increase at tier 3 has increased from 200 to 250.
The capture boundaries for Stonemist Castle and the northern camp in Alpine Borderlands have been slightly increased.
A new one-time purchase container has been added to Legendary Commander War Razor's Titles tab. This container will allow all players to select a title representing the current WvW world names in preparation for their retirement with World Restructuring.
Added the Next Team Creation Lockout timer to the Guild Panel UI. Once the countdown timer is complete, players will be unable to change their WvW guild membership until the next WvW reset for their region.

Profession Skills

Engineer

Holosmith: Fixed an issue that caused some players to use the engineer version of certain sword weapon skills instead of the holosmith version, even when the holosmith elite specialization was equipped.
Surprise Shot: Increased the cooldown from 8 seconds to 12 seconds in PvP only.
Particle Accelerator: Increased the cooldown from 10 seconds to 15 seconds in PvP only.
Aim-Assisted Rocket: Fixed an issue that caused this trait to begin its internal cooldown when a missile struck an ally.
Flashbang: Reduced the dazed duration from 1 second to 0.5 seconds in PvP only.
Lock On: Reduced the revealed duration when striking a stealthed target from 6 seconds to 2 seconds in PvP only. Reduced the revealed duration when disabling a target from 6 seconds to 4 seconds in PvP only.

Mesmer

Mantra of Recovery: Increased the cooldown from 15 seconds to 24 seconds in PvP only.
Time Warp: This skill no longer inflicts chilled.
Effervescence: Fixed an issue that caused this skill to be easily cancelled early.

Ranger

Force of Nature: Reduced the damage bonus from 15% to 10% in PvP and WvW. Reduced the stability stacks from 5 to 1 in PvP only. Reduced the mace-skill recharge reduction from 100% to 20% in PvP only.
Rampant Growth: Reduced the damage coefficient from 1.0 to 0.91 in PvP only.
Heavy Shot (Juvenile Siege Turtle): Reduced the damage coefficient from 1.0 to 0.5 in PvP and WvW.

Revenant

Coalescence of Ruin: Reduced the damage coefficient from 1.75 to 1.45 in PvP only. Increased the height of the damage hit box.
Field of the Mists: Reduced the damage coefficient from 1.35 to 1.1 in PvP and WvW.
Urn of Saint Viktor: Reduced the strike damage reduction and the condition damage reduction from 50% to 33% in PvP only. Increased the cooldown from 2 seconds to 10 seconds in PvP only.

Thief

Venomous Volley: Reduced the poison duration from 3 seconds to 2 seconds in PvE only.
Harrowing Storm: Reduced the torment duration from 4 seconds to 2 seconds in PvE only.
Cunning Salvo: Fixed an issue that caused this skill to restore profession-mechanic resources when reflected by a non-thief player.
Malicious Cunning Salvo: Reduced the bleeding stacks from 2 to 1 in PvE only.

Game Update Notes: April 16, 2024
April 12, 2024 at 07:44 pm

Game Update Notes: April 16, 2024

04/16/2024—April 16 Release Notes

Note to users of third-party programs: Due to possible incompatibilities, the game may not launch or work properly after we release a new build if you use a third-party program. ArenaNet cannot offer support if a third-party modification breaks, interferes with, or prevents you from playing Guild Wars or Guild Wars 2. Our policy regarding third-party programs can be found here.

Super Adventure Festival

Moto's world-renowned Super Adventure Box returns again! Explore two worlds (and one test zone) of excitement, peril, and educational entertainment to earn holographic weapons and a variety of loot. Travelers can visit the Super Adventure Box in Rata Sum—temporary portals have been placed in each major city to facilitate easy travel to the scenic hub of asuran culture!

Complete the festival's meta-achievement, (Annual) Super Adventure Box Nostalgia, to earn the new Powered Shoulders armor! Last year's reward, the Powered Gloves, are now available from the Super Adventure Box traders.
The new Golem Buster weapon set is now available! You'll receive your choice of a weapon by progressing the Super Adventure Box Nostalgia meta-achievement, and you can earn additional choices through weekly festival achievements.
New weapons have been added to the Retro-Forged set! You can purchase these weapons directly from a festival vendor or find them as rare drops in Super Loot Bags.
The (Annual) Super Adventure Box Nostalgia meta-achievement has been updated with additional goals, including the box's prototype level, the World 3 Test Zone!
The weekly Super Adventure Festival achievements have been combined into a single achievement, (Weekly) Super Replay.
New updates have been added to the Test Zone:
- Shops!
- Blue oozes!
- Secret caves!
- A coin-collecting adventure!
- And new achievements to go along with them. Delve into the caves of the Test Zone, aid the miner choya, and gain never-before-seen tools for your super adventure!
The Mega Bomb has been updated to use ammunition charges rather than consuming baubles on use.
New Super Adventure Box-themed guild decorations have been added! Turn your hall into the cavernous level of your dreams.
- Super Grand Gate
- Super Owl Statue
- Super Red Crystal
- Jackal Rental Post
Special objectives are available in the Wizard's Vault to earn extra astral acclaim as you enjoy the festival.
A number of super adventure-related bugs have been fixed to ensure a safe education for all heroes.
Festivities begin on April 16 and continue until May 7 at noon Pacific Time (UTC-7).

Cosmetic Inspection

The new cosmetic inspection feature has been added. You can use it to view a targeted player's equipped outfit, armor skins, weapon skins, and dyes.
- You can bring up the inspection option by right-clicking on a player's portrait or by typing "/inspect" with a player targeted. If no player is targeted, you'll see your own character's information.
- Weapon information is hidden in competitive maps.
Many skins will now include information about the primary source for obtaining them when viewed in the Wardrobe or Inspect panels.
- Due to the number of weapon and armor skins in the vast world of Tyria, the source descriptions are a work in progress that will be completed over time.

World Polish

Jade Tech Offensive Protocol and Jade Tech Defensive Protocol have received the following updates:
- Increased the duration of jade tech offensive and defensive overcharge effects per activation from 15 minutes to 45 minutes.
- Increased the maximum stack duration for jade tech offensive and defensive overcharge effects from 2.25 hours to 3 hours.
- Removed the time-out period for applying additional jade tech offensive and defensive overcharge effects and shortened the duration of interactions.
- Increased the internal cooldown for jade tech offensive and defensive overcharge application when entering combat from 30 seconds to 90 seconds.
Fixed an issue that caused the Defeat the Claw of Jormag World Boss or Complete Events in Frostgorge Sound weekly objective in the Wizard's Vault to only progress by one point when the Claw of Jormag itself was defeated, rather than instantly completing.
Fixed a client crash in Convergences.

Items

Hero's choice chests will now appear in a clickable pop-up UI chest instead of being manually obtained from a chest object in the world.

World vs. World

The following changes are part of an ongoing effort to make fighting for—and in—objectives feel better for attacking groups, as the defenders' advantage inside their own structures was previously too strong. While we don't want to swing that advantage completely in favor of attacking groups, we also want to encourage player interaction so that large portions of attacks against structures don't feel like a slog with little payoff. We feel that these changes will help to incentivize more player vs. player interactions while still allowing for defensive tactical gameplay. We will continue to monitor how these changes affect sieges and structure attacks.

Across all objective tiers, walls and gates will now be rebuilt when 50% of their health has been restored.
Several objectives' capture boundaries have been resized in all four maps:
- Resource camp capture boundaries are now the same size in all four maps, with two outliers: Rogue's Quarry (the green world's northern camp in Eternal Battlegrounds) and Hamm's Lab (the northern camp in Desert Borderlands) remain unchanged. Generally, this is a reduction in capture boundary size for Alpine Borderlands and Eternal Battlegrounds camps and an increase for Desert Borderlands camps.
- Capture boundaries in O'del Academy, Crankshaft Depot, and Parched Outpost (northwest, southwest, and southeast Desert Borderlands towers) have been reduced.
- Stonemist Castle's capture boundary has been reduced and centered.
- Capture boundaries for Green World Keep, Red World Keep, and Blue World Keep in Eternal Battlegrounds have all been reduced.
- Capture boundaries for garrisons in Alpine Borderlands have been reduced and centered.
- Capture boundaries for Dreadfall Bay and Ascension Bay in Alpine Borderlands have been reduced and now match those of Shadaran Hills and Askalion Hills.
- Synthesizer and tactivator locations have been moved in most camps to ensure that they are still inside the capture boundaries.
Presence of the Keep and Guild Objective Aura bonus effects now provide +25 power, precision, toughness, and vitality instead of +100.
The Empower healing skill that was added to keep lords in Alpine Borderlands and Eternal Battlegrounds will now grant stability to allies it affects.
Siege golems no longer cause capture objectives to be contested in WvW.
Flame rams' Iron Will skill now shares a cooldown between players.
The Siege Disabled effect marker has been removed from siege weapons affected by siege disruptors.

The next few changes continue from a recent update that added new bag options with grandmaster mark shards included in the price. Our goal for this, and for updates from last year, is to give WvW players more options for spending their WvW currencies and improve quality of life for currency exchange in WvW. We felt that a surplus of memories of battle, specifically, brought the price down too far and that there were not enough opportunities to spend them. We will continue keeping an eye on this vendor and other new purchase options to determine whether we need to make further updates.

Proofs of heroics and testimonies of desert heroics can now be traded to heroics notaries in exchange for testimonies of jade heroics. All items offered by heroics notaries have been updated to require testimonies of jade heroics.
Memories of battle are no longer available for purchase from Dugan, and some of the merchant's purchasing options have been updated.
An option to exchange boxes of grandmaster marks for grandmaster mark shards has been added to the skirmish supervisor.

Profession Skills

Engineer

Gleam Saber: Fixed an issue that caused this skill to reduce the recharge time of Radiant Arc by 3 seconds when the holosmith elite specialization was not equipped.
Photonic Blasting Module: Reduced the damage coefficient from 3.5 to 2.5 in WvW only.
Prime Light Beam: Fixed an issue that caused this skill to strike 10 targets instead of the intended 5.
Essence of Animated Sand: Reduced the barrier healing power coefficient from 1.0 to 0.5 in WvW only. Reduced the initial might from 5 stacks to 2 stacks in WvW and PvP.
Essence of Living Shadows: Reduced the initial conditions cleansed from 2 to 1 in WvW only.
Essence of Liquid Wrath: Fixed an issue that caused the tooltip to display longer durations than intended in WvW only.
Bulwark Gyro: Increased the cooldown from 20 seconds to 30 seconds in WvW only. Reduced the base initial barrier from 1,620 to 1,140 and the base pulsing barrier from 810 to 560 in WvW only. Reduced the initial barrier healing power coefficient from 0.8 to 0.5 and the pulse barrier healing power coefficient from 0.4 to 0.25 in WvW only.

Guardian

Symbol of Protection: Reduced the symbol damage coefficient from 0.4 to 0.25 in WvW only.

Mesmer

Fixed an issue that prevented the shimmering visual effect from appearing on the skill bar for characters using the mirage elite specialization.
Chaotic Transference: This trait no longer shares chaos aura with nearby allies. It now grants regeneration to nearby allies when you apply chaos aura to yourself.
Mender's Purity: Lesser Power Cleanse no longer triggers Restorative Mantras.
Journey: Reduced the base healing from 911 to 719 and reduced the healing power coefficient from 0.67 to 0.4 in PvP only.
Abstraction: Reduced the base healing from 1,930 to 1,610 and reduced the healing power coefficient from 1.0 to 0.8 in PvP only.

Ranger

Live Vicariously: This trait is no longer activated by pulsing healing effects, such as regeneration.
Flourish: Reduced the base healing from 970 to 509 in PvE only. Reduced the healing power coefficient from 0.4 to 0.25 and reduced the regeneration duration from 4 seconds to 3 seconds in PvP only.
Invigorating Bond: Reduced the base healing from 1,020 to 820. Reduced the healing power coefficient from 1.0 to 0.5 and reduced the protection duration from 4 seconds to 3 seconds in PvP only.

Revenant

True Nature: Fixed an issue that could cause this skill to be accidentally cast immediately after activating Facet of Nature.

Warrior

Path to Victory: Reduced the damage coefficient from 1.25 to 0.91 in PvP only. Reduced the base healing from 975/1,950/2,925 to 559/1,742/2,925 based on adrenaline level in PvP only. Increased the healing power coefficient from 1.0/1.25/1.5 to 1.33/1.67/2.0 in PvP only.
Line Breaker: Reduced the base healing from 2,203 to 1,320 and increased the healing power coefficient from 1.25 to 1.75 in PvP only.
Snap Pull: Increased the casting time by 0.15 seconds.
Bullet Catcher: Increased the cooldown from 25 seconds to 30 seconds in PvP only.
Scorched Earth: Reduced the number of targets from 5 to 3 in WvW only.

Game Update Notes: March 19, 2024
March 18, 2024 at 04:49 pm

03/19/2024—March 19 Release Notes

General

Added new custom postprocessing options to the Graphics Options menu. This allows new, finer control over what postprocessing effects are active.
Optimized loading times between starting the game and getting to the character selection screen. Load times are improved by approximately 3 seconds, depending on your hardware configuration.
Updated 11 item converters to use the vendor interface, allowing these to draw directly from players' banks in addition to their inventories:
- Candy Corn Gobbler
- Herta
- Mawdrey II
- Princess
- Star of Gratitude
- Sentient Aberration
- Sentient Anomaly
- Sentient Oddity
- Shards of Glory Converter
- Memory Gobbler
- Spearmarshal's Plea
Fixed an issue that could cause fashion prompts during the April Fools' fashion shows in Lion's Arch to end if the show went for long enough.
Prospective contestants will now be moved to the audience area between fashion shows.
Cheering skills in fashion shows now grant the contestant on stage an escalating amount of approval from the judges based on the skill used.
The Noblesse Oblige Mastery, which increases revive speed and removes downed penalties on a successful revive, will no longer remove downed penalties in Strike Mission and raid challenge mode encounters. This will help maintain the intended difficulty level of these encounters by reinstating some penalties for ignoring encounter mechanics.

Amnytas

Moved the Starlight Lantern from inside the Great Debate Hall to outside the Great Debate Hall.
Removed the experience and karma consumables from the silver map meta-event progress chests awarded during the Defense of Amnytas meta-event. The rewards have been adjusted to compensate for this change.

Inner Nayos

Moved a Greater Arcane Chest in Nyedra, Dreamer's Sanctum, to a location where players would not get stuck.
Fixed an issue that could occasionally cause hylek to join the Kryptis.

Strike Missions

Temple of Febe Challenge Mode

We reduced the overall enemy health of the Temple of Febe Challenge Mode to make the fight accessible to more players. We will be monitoring the Strike Mission to ensure that this brings it to the desired level of challenge, and we are ready to make more changes if it still remains more difficult than intended. To give players the ability to experience and try to defeat the fight in its original form, we have added an option to the challenge mote to activate a legendary challenge. Players who had defeated Cerus before this change, or players who defeat him with the legendary challenge mode active, will earn a new Legendary Conqueror of Cerus title to demonstrate this feat.

Changed the empowered Envious Gaze skill to not steal quickness and alacrity.
Fixed an issue that could cause projectiles to be obstructed when attacking an embodiment in the split phase if that embodiment was active during the phase transition.
Fixed an issue in which selecting an option from the challenge mote did not reset the encounter if the event was already in progress.

Cosmic Observatory Challenge Mode

Fixed an issue that could cause the Precision Anxiety achievement to be rewarded even if the entire party did not meet the requirements.

Structured Player vs. Player

A new achievement category, Profession Achievements, has been added to the PvP section of the Achievements panel.
New tiers of champion Profession Achievements have been added to the Profession Achievements category in the PvP section, each with a new title. Players can progress these achievements with their current PvP ranked wins by traveling to the Heart of the Mists.
A new achievement named True Dragon has been added. Players who are PvP Rank 469 or higher will complete this achievement upon entering the Heart of the Mists.

World vs. World

Nine new tiers of the Realm Avenger achievement have been added to the WvW section of the Achievements panel. Each tier comes with a new variant of the Ultimate Dominator title that reflects the number of players that you've defeated (e.g., Ultimate Dominator II). Players can progress these new achievements with their current kill counts by traveling to Eternal Battlegrounds, Alpine Borderlands, or Desert Borderlands maps.
The Siege Disabler trick has been updated and renamed to Siege Disruptor. Siege Disruptors will now reduce outgoing siege damage by 66%, and they will cause affected siege devices to take 66% increased damaged for the duration. Golems will still have their skills disabled for the duration.
We're modernizing the loadouts of keep lords with the addition of a new healing skill that aids objective defenders in combat, giving the lord a more active role in battle. Keep lords in Alpine Borderlands and Eternal Battlegrounds will now have a channeled healing skill at 75% and 25% health thresholds. Their defiance bars will only be available at these health thresholds and can be broken in order to prevent the skill from being fully channeled. We will be closely monitoring player feedback to determine if the skill should be introduced to castle and tower lords as well.
New 24, 28, and 32 slot bags can be purchased from outfitters in WvW. These bags have also been added to the Ascended League Vendors in PvP.

Items

Removed the April Fools' event requirement from the Chatoyant Elixir.
Fixed an issue that caused the Expedition Cape to not have an upgrade slot.
The items needed to progress the Astral Ward Arsenal achievement sold by the Heroics Notary vendor no longer require the player to type out the name of the items to safely discard them.

Profession Skills

General

New Changes

Relic of Fireworks: Fixed an issue that could cause some projectile skills to not trigger this relic.
Relic of Ice: This relic can now only strike the intended missile targets. Reduced the power coefficient from 1.0 to 0.5 in WvW only.

Elementalist

This release includes some updates to arcane skills. Arcane Blast and Arcane Wave have a bit too much overlap with each other, and we wanted to give Arcane Wave a more unique identity by adding a movement component. We've also reworked and renamed the Elemental Surge trait, giving it some more powerful bonuses to individual skills instead of all of them inflicting bonus conditions.

New Changes

Pistol: Fixed an issue that caused skills to not properly use legendary weapon effects. Elemental bullets are no longer lost when using a conjured weapon or while gliding.