Game Updates and Change Logs

July 9 2013 Content Release Notes

LIVING WORLD
Bazaar of the Four Winds
The Bazaar of the Four Winds is gathering; merchants are converging from all corners of Tyria to sell their wares. It’s not just shady characters and risky trades—the mystical, flying Zephyr Sanctum has landed, bringing passengers and their magical quartz crystals and amazing movement skills to savvy traders and daring adventurers alike! What a joy it will be to experience the thrill of the trade—and the race. Let’s go!
The Labyrinthine Cliffs
• A bazaar has sprung up in the Labyrinthine Cliffs. Merchants have brought bulk orders of cooking ingredients from all over Tyria to the bazaar. The Labyrinthine Cliffs can be reached through the Sanctum Harbor docks in Lion’s Arch. Talk to the Transport Facilitator for passage.
• Zephyr Sanctum, a large-sailed flying ship populated by people called Zephyrites, has landed at the cliffs in order to trade. The Zephyrites have learned to master Wind, Sun, and Lightning skills that can be stored in their magical crystals.
• Wind Aspect crystals have a blue glow and allow players to leap high into the air. Sun crystals glow reddish-orange and grant players a burst of speed that can also get players through waterfalls. Lightning crystals are purple and allow players to launch themselves across wide gaps and leap with precision.
• The Zephyrites are looking to trade various resources (such as ore, wood, candy, and more) for Zephyr Sanctum supply boxes. These supply boxes contain new items, including recipes that use quartz for weapons and armor with a new stat combination.
• Players can participate in the Sanctum Sprint, a competitive race of up to 12 participants, where they’ll need to use Wind, Sun, and Lightning movement skills to complete the course for a reward chest and a rare chance to win one of the three Aspect back-slot items.
• A scavenger hunt in the Labyrinthine Cliffs allows players to use their mastery of Wind, Sun, and Lightning movement skills to activate Sky Crystals.
• Players can participate in Belcher’s Bluff, a new and permanent omnomberry juice drinking activity where players can seek out masters around the world to learn their signature skills. Players can also challenge other players in a PvP version that can be purchased from bartenders around the world.
• A fortune scrap vendor has been added who will trade fortune scraps for unique Zephyrite items. Fortune scraps can be found in kite fortunes, which have a chance to drop from all creatures in the game, or can be purchased in the Gem Store.

Open World
• Zephyrites are launching kite baskets that are landing in multiple explorable areas in Tyria. The kite baskets contain a chance at quartz (a new resource used for crafting), armor and weapon recipes for the new stat combination, and kite fortunes.
• Players can locate a handful of kite baskets at the top of several jumping puzzles throughout Tyria and open them for extra achievement points.
• A new conversation will play when players visit Braham in Cragstead.

Achievements
• New achievements have been added to the Living World, Bazaar of the Four Winds category that involve traveling to Zephyr Sanctum, participating in the Sanctum Sprint race, collecting crystals, locating kites, and watching a quaggan show, among others.
• Completing the Bazaar Ambassador meta-achievement awards the player a permanent quartz crystal resource node for their home instance. Completion of this meta-achievement requires players to complete 16 of the Bazaar of the Four Winds achievements.
• Belcher’s Bluff has been added as a new achievement category in the Activity section.
• A new title, “Omnomnivore,” has been added for players who complete the Belcher’s Bluff meta-achievement.
• Completing the Lessons from the Sky scavenger hunt awards players a miniature model of Zephyr Sanctum, which allows players to view the ship at any time while in a city.

NEW FEATURES AND CONTENT
Account Achievement Rewards
• Added a reward structure to achievement points. As players complete achievements and increase their achievement score, they’ll unlock new, exclusive rewards for their account. The rewards are retroactive for all achievement points earned prior to this update. Backlogged rewards will be given out once per day until the backlog is completed.
• As part of the account achievement reward system, permanent account bonuses have been introduced. This will apply across all characters on the player’s account, including magic find, experience from kills, karma gain, and coins from kills.
• Rewards include gold, gems, karma, laurels, consumables, PvP and WvW rewards, new exclusive armor and weapon skins, and more.

Updated User Interface for the Achievements Panel
• Added a summary page to the achievements panel that gives quick access to unlocked account achievement rewards, upcoming rewards, account bonuses, and recent achievements.
• Achievement categories are now grouped for easier navigation.
• Added details pages for all achievements. The details page holds additional information about an individual achievement, including rewards, requirements, point breakdowns, and suggested locations.
• Added a watch list. The watch list tracks up to 20 specific achievements and displays the top 6 in the user interface.

Structured Player vs. Player
• New PvP Map: Skyhammer!
• This is a 3-capture-point Conquest map, wherein players also compete for control of a devastating floating energy cannon. The map’s setting is a high-tech asura lab spread across a series of tall desert plateaus, featuring jump pads and a multitude of ways to make enemies fall to their deaths!

BALANCE, BUG-FIXING, POLISH
World Polish
• Rata Sum
• The Arcane Council has outlawed swimming in the waters beneath Rata Sum after reports of pollution by non-asuran races. Trespassers will be jailed!
• Wayfarer Foothills
• It’s no longer possible to distract Ulfred by speaking to him repeatedly.

General
• Item icons that appear on the right side of the screen while autoloot is on will be correctly positioned when rapidly acquiring items.

Dungeons
Crucible of Eternity
• In the explorable version, it’s no longer possible to use portals to bypass the turrets defending the advanced golem.

Personal Story
• Enemies in the final story steps in Chapter 3 for norn (Assault the Hill, Silent Warfare, Sever the Head) have all been equalized to level 28.

Items
• Fixed a bug that caused the art on the Beaded Lancea and Beaded Harpoon Shooter to be swapped.

Profession Skills
General:
• Sigil of Paralyzation: This sigil no longer impacts fear duration.

Elementalist:
• Fresh Air: This trait now has its proper 5-second recharge instead of a 3-second recharge.
• Shatterstone: This ability will no longer cancel when autoattack is engaged.
• Rock Solid: This trait now has the appropriate icon.
• Stone Splinter: This trait now correctly adds 10% more damage when within 600 units of the target.
• Geyser: This skill will no longer cancel and go on interrupt recharge when immediately casting another skill.
• Flame Wall: This skill will no longer cancel and go on interrupt recharge when immediately casting another skill.

Engineer:
• Added a damage skill fact to all Detonate Turret skills.
• Elixir C: This utility skill will now correctly remove Torment.

Mesmer:
• Chaos Armor: This skill no longer automatically applies protection when activated. This buff now provides an equal chance to trigger regeneration, swiftness, or protection on hit with a 1-second internal recharge. The random condition applied now has a 1-second internal recharge per target. These changes apply to the Chaos Armor provided through combo finishers as well.

Necromancer:
• Mark of Blood: Updated the skill fact to display the proper regeneration duration.
• Dark Path: This skill will now cause the necromancer to shadowstep the full 1200-unit distance when hitting at max range.

Ranger:
• Pets: Updated the pet-damage skill facts so they better represent the actual damage done.
• Spotter: The buff that this trait applies now displays the correct text and reflects the actual effect of increasing precision by up to 150 points.
• Evasive Purity: This trait will now functions as expected.

Thief:
• Shadow Trap: This skill now has a maximum duration of 120 seconds.

Warrior:
• Berserker Stance: The duration of this skill has been increased from 4 to 8 seconds.

Structured Player vs. Player
• Target Golem—Light: Health increased from 10,000 to 14,000.
• Target Golem—Medium: Health increased from 12,000 to 18,000.
• Target Golem—Heavy: Health increased from 14,000 to 22,000.

World vs. World
• Siege blueprints are no longer account-bound and can now be mailed to other players and traded on the Trading Post. Players who already have any siege blueprints and want the tradable version can either obtain another or use the one they have and then use the “2” skill to pack it up again.
• The Outmanned buff has been renamed to Outnumbered.
• Build Master: Decreases the amount of time it takes to build siege engines. Build Master has been added to the Ranks and Abilities tab.
• Build Master I: Spend 4 supply at a time when building siege engines.
• Build Master II: Spend 6 supply at a time when building siege engines.
• Build Master III: Spend 8 supply at a time when building siege engines.
• Build Master IV: Spend 10 supply at a time when building siege engines.
• Repair Master: Decreases the amount of time it takes to repair walls or gates. Repair Master has been added to the Ranks and Abilities tab.
• Repair Master I: Spend 4 supply at a time when repairing.
• Repair Master II: Spend 6 supply at a time when repairing.
• Repair Master III: Spend 8 supply at a time when repairing.
• Repair Master IV: Spend 10 supply at a time when repairing.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions
• Kite fortunes are now available in the Gem Store in the Consumable category and can be purchased in bundles of 5 for 120 gems, 10 for 200 gems, or 25 for 400 gems. These little boxes contain a fortune, a random boost that lasts 10 minutes, and some fortune scraps. Collect fortune scraps and bring them to the fortune scraps vendor in the bazaar (or the Black Lion Weapon Specialist in Lion’s Arch) to get a unique prize. There is also a chance to get a golden fortune scrap, which can be redeemed immediately for a prize.
• The Bazaar Quaggan Mini Pack is now available in the Gem Store in the Minis category for 500 gems. This pack contains three new quaggan minis: Poowulpi the Persnicketous, Peggellegg the Pirate, and Kookoochoo the Incredulous.
• Bring your fortune scraps and golden fortunes to the fortune scrap vendor in the bazaar (or the Black Lion Weapon Specialist in Lion’s Arch). This vendor has Zephyrite helms of Sun, Lightning, and Wind in all armor classes for 250 fortune scraps or 1 golden fortune scrap, as well as three back-slot items: the Lightning Catcher, Wind Catcher, and Sun Catcher, each for 150 fortune scraps or 1 golden fortune scrap. The vendor also has a Zephyr Sanctum Supply Box for only 10 fortune scraps.
• The Dragon Bash Mini Pack is still available in the Gem Store in the Minis category for 500 gems. This dragon-bashing pack is available until July 14.
• The Chop-It-All Logging Axe is still available in the Gem Store in the Services category for 800 gems. This electrifying logging axe is available until July 29.

Improvements
• The Tome of Knowledge has been added as a rare drop from Black Lion Chests. Using the Tome of Knowledge will grant the character one level and all associated benefits. If a level 80 character uses the tome, they will gain a skill point.

Bug Fixes
• Should players receive an error while purchasing gems, they will now be able to click a link in the error message to go directly to the Customer Support site.

LIVING WORLD
• Fixed a bug in Sanctum Sprint that would occasionally cause players to be teleported underground.
• Rewards in Sanctum Sprint have been updated to give players who complete the race karma and coins.
• Fixed a bug where players could get the “Koocoochoo the Incredulous” achievement without seeing the show.
BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
• Fixed missing Gem Store description for the Bazaar Quaggan Mini Pack.

LIVING WORLD
• Rewards in Sanctum Sprint have been updated to once again give quartz and to reward the winner with extra karma and coins.
• Added the correct minimap to the final Belcher’s Bluff contest against Poyaqui.
• Adnul Irongut has calmed down, no longer insisting on critiquing at every possible moment.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Aspect Master to sometimes send you to PvP.
• Drinking on an empty stomach is the only way to play Belcher’s Bluff. Food buffs are now removed when the match begins.
• Updated the Deliver Supplies event in Labyrinthine Cliffs to be easier to complete.
BUG-FIXING
• Achievements that can no longer be completed will not appear in the nearly completed section of the Achievement Panel.

June 25 Massive Content Release Notes – This is the one that contains trait changes etc.
LIVING WORLD
Sky Pirates of Tyria
Attention: the skies of Tyria have turned treacherous. A new breed of pirates is descending upon Tyria! Lethal and precise, they strike from above like a bolt of lightning. The Lionguard knows little about them, but this violent faction was behind the attack on the Dragon Bash effigy ceremony and is responsible for a growing swath of murders. With help from citizens like you, we thwarted their plot to usurp a seat on the Ship’s Council, but the Lionguard will not rest. Today, all who read this are deputized to join me in discovering the Aetherblades’ secret headquarters and bringing these killers to justice.
—Captain Ellen Kiel of the Ship’s Council
Aetherblade Retreat
• A secret entrance to an Aetherblade hideout has been discovered in Lion’s Arch behind the waterfall by the Diverse Ledges. A Lionguard is stationed outside of the entrance to easily route players to Inspector Kiel, who is gathering a squad to infiltrate the secret Aetherblade lair. This is a challenging story dungeon designed for parties of five that takes the fight to the Aetherblades. Players will encounter swarms of Aetherblade cutthroats, the devious asura engineer Frizz, and ultimately, Captain Mai Trin and her hard-hitting first mate Horrik.
Open World
• Heralds in all the major cities have been notified of the disturbances caused by the Aetherblade pirates.
• Dragon Bash continues. The Lionguard vows to protect the city during the festival, despite the Aetherblade threat. All Dragon Bash activities (except the fireworks show) will remain available until the last day of the festival. This includes, for those who haven’t played it, the single-player living story that starts with the Memorials on the Pyre instance.
• In honor of the release of the new Guild Wars 2 novel, Sea of Sorrows, follow the footsteps of Lion’s Arch’s founder Cobiah Marriner to a dozen locations across the city and Orr; each location contains a plaque detailing its significance to the historical figure. Talk to the NPC by the Cobiah Marriner statue for more information. For additional information, his journey can be followed in the Sea of Sorrows novel.
• There are widespread reports that Aetherblades are tampering with the hologram projectors across Tyria. Approach them with caution.
• Aetherblade pirates have been spotted guarding caches in select mini-dungeons and jumping puzzles across Tyria. Pirates have also been spotted around theObsidian Sanctum jumping puzzle in the Mists.
• The familiar face of Lady Kasmeer Meade can be found in the Grand Piazza enjoying the Dragon Bash festivities.

Achievements
• A new category of Sky Pirate achievements has been added covering the Aetherblade Retreat mini-dungeon and the appearance of the Aetherblade Caches.
• A new meta-achievement, Against the Aetherblades, has been added, which requires players to complete 12 of 20 of the previous achievements.
• The History Buff achievement has been added to the Explorer category for the Sea of Sorrows scavenger hunt.
• The Not So Secret jumping puzzle achievement will become available July 2nd and will be a permanent addition.

NEW FEATURES AND CONTENT
World vs. World
• Mortar Mastery has been added to the Ranks and Abilities tab.
• Increases blast radius on all skills.
• Increases fire field duration.
• Reduces recharge on all mortar skills.
• Increases damage on all mortar skills.
• New Skill: Mortar Barrage
• Launches a barrage of rounds that pushes back foes where they land.

AoE Looting
• Players can now loot all creatures and loot chests dropped by creatures in a small radius with a single interact.
• This feature can be used by either:
• Selecting a new “AoE Loot On Interact” option, which will use the same key binding as the “Interact” key but will only trigger the AoE Loot functionality while none of the forms of the interact dialog are visible.
• Creating a new key binding named “AoE Loot” under the “Miscellaneous” section of the key bindings tab on the options panel.
• Important notes:
• The radius of AoE Looting is equal to that of a skill with a 900-unit range.
• The AoE Looting functionality can only be triggered once per second.
• Once the player’s inventory has filled up or the player becomes encumbered, AoE Looting cannot be triggered again until space has been cleared in the inventory. If the player’s inventory fills up while processing an AoE Loot request, it will finish processing all items so that any stackable items will still be looted.

BALANCE, BUG-FIXING, POLISH
World Polish
• Blazeridge Steppes
• Fuming soldiers around Foewatch will now repeat their lines in a timely manner.
• Bloodtide Coast
• Phill the Fisher has grown tired of being attacked by drakes and is now retired. Other lesser-skilled fishermen have moved in to take his spot.
• Brisban Wildlands
• The UI displayed during the fight between the skritt and the bandits at Plunder Hold has been cleaned up.
• The “Skritt to be revived” counter in the event to help Tromgi’gark and Wenski will now reset properly during repeated runs of the event.
• The Heart of the Terebinth now appears as a visible spirit and is a karma merchant instead of a coin merchant.
• Caledon Forest
• The “under construction” icon from the event where players return escaped experiments to Zaxis has been removed.
• Fields of Ruin
• When attacking Foulbear Kraal, Iron Legion engineers will now defend themselves if an enemy gets too close.
• Watchman Brikken now has a “thank you” conversation when the player’s helped to secure Tyler’s Bivouac.
• Gendarran Fields
• The giant skelk scavenger in the Bloodfields now hates centaurs.
• Harathi Hinterlands
• Ulgoth the Modniir is now more aggressive about attacking ranged enemies.
• Fixed a silver ore node that was failing to spawn.
• Malchor’s Leap
• The black crocus node that was floating above the terrain has been removed.
• The aetheric interrupter at the Cathedral of Zephyrs will no longer be visible before Historian Vermoth builds it.
• Players will no longer get stuck when using the Union Waypoint.
• Mount Maelstrom
• The difficulty level of the event where players defend Quandry Scratch has been reduced when fewer participants are involved.
• Queensdale
• Added some additional staging when Charice and her Seraph guard spawn and prepare the carnival caravan.
• Skelk in the Scaver Plateau are now hostile to Seraph guards in the region.
• Chloe in the Shire of Beetletun carnival will only ask players near her to participate in the Moa or Man? game rather than asking random players on the map.
• Straits of Devastation
• The largos Azzan no longer has “Veteran” displayed in front of his name.
• Risen mines and rotmouths in the Strait of Sacrilege will no longer be visible outside of their associated events.
• Wayfarer Foothills
• Ulfred’s attempt to fool the grawl has been divided into two events: collecting magical ice for him and defending him while he sculpts the ice.

General
• A more appropriate error message now appears when a player attempts to invite another player who is in too many guilds.
• Players who have never obtained a Tome of Influence or Black Lion Chest guild influence item will now properly see the item’s name in the guild history list instead of “ENCRYPTED_STRING”.
• Guild ranks displayed in the promotion context menu are now sorted by rank, rather than order of creation.
• The issue with target selection that occurred when not moving the cursor has been fixed

Dungeons
General
• Zojja now uses similar skills in dungeons that she does in personal story steps.
Ascalonian Catacombs
• The ghost transformation no longer locks out utility and elite skills for some medium armor characters.
Twilight Arbor
• Additional turrets that spawn further out from the Nightmare Tree have been added.
Sorrow’s Embrace
• Improved the teleport effect for Tazza.
The Ruined City of Arah
• Korga the Mighty’s leash range has now been reduced.
• Fixed an exploit where Korga the Mighty could be safely attacked from max range.
Fractals of the Mists
• Cliffside: Cultists will now respawn if the instance is reset by a party wipe.
Personal Story
• General: Fixed an issue that prevented some Risen enemies in the story from using the same animations as their open world counterparts.
• “Forewarned is Forearmed”: Added some safety checks to prevent the story step from stalling.
• “Track the Seraph”: Adjusted levels of Lionguard to make them the same as the open world and reduced the difficulty of the final abomination attack.

Profession Skills
General
• Weakness: Changed from 50% fumble on regular attacks to 50% fumble on all attacks. Now only stacks up to 5 times (still stacks duration).
• Torment: Added a new condition called Torment. This does damage every second (75% of bleeding) and double damage to foes that are moving (150% of bleeding). Stacks intensity.
• Fixed confusion to no longer fire extra times on skills due to hidden script actions.
• Battle Standard, Spirit of Nature, Gathering Plague, Vortex, Morph Tuna, Time Warp, Mass Invisibility, Purifying Blast, Whirlpool, Murky Water, and Undercurrent have had their underwater aftercast reduced by 1.1 seconds.
• All elite player transforms (racial and profession) now have a 1-second cooldown on leaving them. This was done to prevent unintentionally leaving through double-clicking.
• Mistfire Wolf: This elite now has a 150-second recharge (down from 240), and can now be cast while moving. This pet’s health has been increased by 100%.
• White Raven, Rainbow Jellyfish, Black Moa, and Black Widow Spider have had their health updated to match the other pets of their type.
• Blindness: Fixed an issue that caused blind to be removed when an attack was used while not in range of any targets.

Elementalist:
• Arcane Wave: This skill now hits 5 targets instead of 6.
• Signet of Air: This skill is now a stun breaker. Increased the cooldown to 30 seconds.
• Lightning Flash: This skill is no longer a stun breaker. Increased damage by 50%. Reduced the cooldown to 40 seconds.
• Cleansing Fire: This skill is no longer a stun breaker. Decreased the recharge to 40 seconds.
• Glyph of Elemental Power: This skill is now a stun breaker.
• Gust: This skill now passes through enemies, striking multiple foes in a line.
• Windborne Speed: Reduced the aftercast by .2 seconds.
• Chain Lightning: Reduced the aftercast by .1 seconds.
• Static Field: Reduced the aftercast by .3 seconds.
• Eruption: Reduced the cast time from 1.8 seconds to 1.2 seconds.
• Unsteady Ground: Increased the duration from 9 seconds to 10 seconds.
• Shockwave: Reduced the aftercast by .3 seconds.
• Lava Font: Reduced the cast time from .36 seconds to .2 seconds. Reduced the aftercast from .34 seconds to .2 seconds.
• Meteor Shower: Reduced the cast time from 4.2 seconds to 3.8 seconds.
• Water Blast: Reduced the aftercast by .1 seconds. Increased the size of the effect to more accurately show the area healed.
• Geyser: Reduced the cast time from 1.1 seconds to .6 seconds. Reduced the aftercast from .25 seconds to .2 seconds.
• Frozen Ground: Reduced the cast time from .36 seconds to .2 seconds. Reduced the aftercast from .34 seconds to .2 seconds.
• Healing Rain: Reduced the aftercast by .3 seconds.
• Gale: Reduced the aftercast by .4 seconds.
• Flamewall: Reduced the cast time from 1.1 seconds to .6 seconds. Reduced the aftercast from .25 seconds to .2 seconds.
• Freezing Gust: Reduced the aftercast by .35 seconds.
• Shatterstone: Reduced the aftercast by .75 seconds. This skill now shows its cast time and cast bar correctly.
• Tornado: Reduced the cooldown to 150 seconds.
• Phoenix: Doubled the velocity. Added an unblockable skill fact.
• Meteor Shower: Increased the size of the area that each meteor strikes. This ability has been optimized. As a result, no functionality has been changed, but the amount of meteor effects has been reduced. Previously, extra meteor effects that didn’t actually do any damage would play. We now only display the meteors that deal damage on impact.
• Magma Orb: Increased the damage by 33%.
• Ice Wall—Detonate: Increased the chill duration from 2 seconds to 3 seconds.
• Forked Lightning: Increased the damage by 33%.
• Electrocute: Increased the damage by 50%. Increased the recharge from 5 seconds to 12 seconds. This skill now applies 5 stacks of vulnerability for 6 seconds.
• Murky Water: Reduced recharge from 45 seconds to 40 seconds.

Air Magic
• Arcane Lightning: This trait now grants a non-stacking 10% bonus critical damage for 15 seconds after using an arcane utility skill.
• Grounded: This trait has been merged with Tempest Defense.
• Tempest Defense: Reduced the internal cooldown from 90 seconds to 60 seconds. Damage to stunned and knocked down enemies is increased by 20%.
• New Grandmaster trait – Fresh Air: Critical strikes will now recharge Air Attunement. This effect can only occur once every 5 seconds.

Arcane
• Windborne Dagger: Movement speed in combat is increased by 15% for wielding a main-hand dagger, 10% for an off-hand dagger, with 25% total for both.

Earth
• Obsidian Focus: Increased toughness while channeling, from 170 at level 80 to 300 at level 80.
• Salt Stone: This trait has been merged with Stone Splinters.
• Stone Splinters: This trait has been moved to the Adept tier. It now deals 5% bonus damage to bleeding opponents and increases outgoing bleeding duration by 20%.
• Rock Solid: This trait has been moved to the Master tier.
• New Grandmaster trait – Diamond Skin: 10% of total toughness is now converted into condition damage.

Fire
• Lava Tomb: This trait’s internal cooldown has been reduced to 10 seconds. Damage from Lava Font is increased by 33%. Damage dealt while in the downed state is increased by 33%.
• Persisting Flame: Updated this trait to also allow blast finishers to give fury (10 seconds) as well as might.

Water
• Bountiful Power: Damage increase per boon on the elementalist has been reduced from 2% to 1%.

Engineer:
• Jump Shot: Increased the radius of the second attack from 120 units to 240 units.
• Jump Shot: Decreased the aftercast on this skill so that other skills can chain off of it more easily.
• Jump Shot: Cleaned up the movement on this skill so that it will more accurately move to the target location.
• Tool Kit: Smack and Whack now each apply 2 stacks of vulnerability instead of 1 stack.
• Rocket Boots: This trait now shoots the player forward and doesn’t inhibit the player. Reduced the cooldown to 20 seconds. This trait is no longer a stun breaker.
• Rumble: This ability now breaks stuns. Added 1 second of stability.
• Static Shield: The Static Shield buff is now removed if the player cancels this skill. The buff is no longer removed when the player blocks a melee attack. The stun duration has been reduced from 2 seconds to 1 second.
• Throw Shield: Projectiles from this skill no longer passes through walls.
• Blowtorch: Reduced the aftercast from .65 seconds to .4 seconds.
• Fixed an issue that allowed engineers to execute back-to-back heals by using the underwater transition.
• Elixir X: Reduced the cooldown to 105 seconds.
• Elixir U: Reduced the cooldown to 50 seconds.
• Launch Ice Mortar: Reduced the cooldown to 20 seconds.
• Launch Personal Battering Ram: Reduced the recharge to 15 seconds.
• Personal Battering Ram: Reduced the recharge to 25 seconds.
• Analyze: Reduced the recharge to 30 seconds.
• Throw Napalm: Increased the burn duration to 5 seconds.
• Harpoon (Harpoon Turret—Tool Belt): Decreased the cooldown to 10 seconds. Increased the damage by 25%.
• Surprise Shot (Rifle Turret—Tool Belt): Increased the damage by 33%.
• Rocket (Rocket Turret—Tool Belt): Decreased the cooldown to 30 seconds.
• Elixir U: This ability now functions correctly with Potent Elixirs.
• Elixir R: This skill is no longer a stun breaker. Decreased the cooldown to 30 seconds.
• Super Speed: This skill now breaks stuns.
• Slick Shoes: The effect for this skill now actually displays.
• Grenade Kit: This kit no longer destroys itself 6 minutes after being equipped.
• Net Turret: Fixed an issue where spamming Net Turret would allow it to fire the electrified net three times in a row.

Alchemy
• Acidic Coating: This trait now applies blind instead of poison to the target for 3 seconds, on a 10-second recharge.
• Backpack Regenerator: This trait has been reworded so that it doesn’t imply that it adds the regeneration boon. This now scales with healing power from 125 to 192 (1500 healing power).

Explosives
• Acidic Elixirs: This trait now removes a boon when they land, in addition to dealing damage.
• Autodefense Bomb Dispenser: The internal cooldown of this trait has been reduced to 30 seconds.

Firearms
• Knee Shot: This trait has been merged with Sitting Duck.
• Sitting Duck: Inflicting immobilize on an enemy also cripples them for 5 seconds and applies 5 stacks of vulnerability for 8 seconds. This effect can only occur once every 5 seconds.
• Fireforged Trigger: This trait has been moved to the Adept tier.
• Juggernaut: This trait has been moved to the Master tier.
• Coated Bullets: This trait has been moved to the Master tier.
• Napalm Specialist: This trait has been moved to the Grandmaster tier. The duration of burns that the player applies has been increased by 33%.
• New Grandmaster trait—Modified Ammunition: Damage is increased by 2% per condition on the target, when wielding a pistol or rifle.

Inventions
• Stabilized Armor: Reduced the damage by 20% when the player is knocked down or stunned.
• Elite Supplies: This trait now improves mortar range.

Tools
• Always Prepared: This trait now only drops bandages when the engineer is downed (10-second cooldown). Damage while downed is increased by 25%.
• Packaged Stimulants: This trait now improves the effectiveness of the thrown medkit by 25%.
• Scope: Critical chance is increased by 10% when the distance to the target is greater than 600.
• Leg Mods: The duration of crippled, chilled, and immobilized has been reduced by 33%.
• Armor Mods: This trait will now grant aegis for 5 seconds when critically hit. This effect has a 25-second internal cooldown.
• Inertial Converter: This trait now functions with the underwater versions of Toss Elixir B and Toss Elixir H.

Guardian:
• Orb of Wrath: Increased the projectile speed of this skill by 30%.
• Wrathful Strike: Increased the might duration from 3 seconds to 5 seconds.
• Signet of Judgment: This ability now breaks stuns. Increased the cooldown to 30 seconds.
• Shield of the Avenger: Command: This ability now breaks stuns.
• Chains of Light: This ability now deals a small amount of damage.
• Signet of Mercy: Reduced the cooldown to 150 seconds.
• Bane Signet: Reduced the cooldown to 40 seconds.
• Purifying Blast: Fixed the skill fact damage amounts.
• Refraction: Decreased the cast time from 1.3 seconds to .5 seconds.
• Tome of Wrath: Smiter’s Boon: This trait now applies to the caster as well.
• Sanctuary: Fixed an issue where Consecrated Ground was also reducing the cast time of this skill.
• Virtue of Justice: Updated the skill fact to correctly display the actual burning duration when the skill is activated.
• Tome of Courage: Protective Spirit: This trait now applies to the caster as well.
• Tome of Courage: Pacifism: Daze duration has been increased to the 3 seconds listed in the tooltip.

Honor
• Pure of Heart: This trait now heals for its base amount +25% benefit from healing power, up from 10%.

Radiance
• Blind Exposure: Vulnerability caused by this trait has been increased from 5 seconds to 10 seconds.
• Radiant Fire: This trait now grants a 20% bonus to burning duration, in addition to reducing the torch skill recharge by 20%. Fixed the description text to indicate the accurate recharge reduction.

Valor
• Glacial Heart: This trait now applies 5 seconds of chill on a critical hit with a 100% activation rate (up from 4 seconds on a 50% rate). This effect’s recharge has been reduced from 45 seconds to 30 seconds.
• Mace of Justice: This trait now grants up to 250 healing power while wielding a mace.

Virtues
• Shielded Mind: Courage now breaks stun for up to five allies when activated, instead of just the guardian.

Zeal
• Wrathful Spirits: This trait now increases damage dealt by spirits by 50% (up from 10%).
• Scepter Power: This trait has been increased from 5% bonus damage to 10% bonus damage.
• Zealous Blade: This trait has been merged with Greatsword Power and is now labeled as a Tier 2 trait.
• New Tier 3 trait—Kindled Zeal: 10% of the player’s power is now converted into condition damage.

Mesmer:
• Mind Spike: Reduced the base damage by 20%. This skill does an additional 50% damage to targets with no boons.
• Mind Stab: Reduced the aftercast by .4 seconds.
• Illusionary Counter: This skill damage has been reduced to 50% of what it was. It now applies 5 stacks of torment for 8 seconds.
• Magic Bullet: Reduced the aftercast by .2 seconds.
• Into the Void: This skill now has a 1-second recharge before it can be used after placing Temporal Curtain.
• Signet of Illusions: Clones and phantasms will now gain the passive effect of this signet when they are created, rather than a few moments after creation.
• Siren’s Call
• Bleed duration for players: Reduced from 2 seconds to 1 second.
• Bleed duration for clones: Reduced from 2 seconds to 1 second.
• Feigned Surge: Increased the damage by 33%.
• Ineptitude: Fixed an issue that allowed this skill to be cast at infinite range.
• Illusionary Leap: Fixed an exploit that allowed for more clone generation than intended.
• Signet of Midnight: Increased the blind duration to 5 seconds. Decreased the cooldown to 30 seconds.
• Illusion of Life: Fixed an issue so that Far-Reaching Manipulations no longer reduces the cast time of this skill.
• Blurred Frenzy: This is now evasion instead of immunity. This means it will be affected by retaliation. Increased the cooldown to 12 seconds.
• Signet of Illusions: Decreased the bonus hit points to clones and phantasms to 50%.
• Split the hit point values of clones and phantasms by game type:
• Increased the phantasm base hit points by 55% in PvP and WvW.
• Increased the phantasm base hit points by 270% in PvE.
• Decreased the clone base hit points by 25% in PvP and WvW.
• Increased the clone base hit points by 28% in PvE.
• Polymorph Moa:
• Claw: This skill now jumps towards the target as it hits, and the animation was amended.
• Kick: This ability is now a ground-targeted leap skill that damages and cripples enemies for 3 seconds where the player lands. Decreased the recharge to 4 seconds.
• Peck: This ability now moves towards the target between each attack. Increased the damage by 10%. Decreased the recharge to 4 seconds.
• Screech: This ability now damages and weakens foes for 3 seconds in a 300 radius. Lowered the cast time to 1.5 seconds. Decreased the recharge to 4 seconds.
• Flee: Smoothed the animation and reduced the aftercast.
• Polymorph Tuna:
• Chomp: This ability now cripples for 3 seconds.
• Frenzy: Increased the damage by 10%.
• Phantasmal Berserker: Fixed an issue that was causing the damage from this summoned phantasm to not display. Updated the berserker’s attack to make it more reliably hit a static target with all 4 of the attacks.

Chaos
• Prismatic Understanding: This trait now pulses once every second while stealthed.
• Bountiful Interruption: This trait has been moved to the Master tier. In addition to granting a random boon on interrupt, this trait will also grant 5 stacks of might.
• Chaotic Interruption: This trait has been moved to the Grandmaster tier. This ability now immobilizes the player’s target and randomly applies blind, cripple, or chill.

Domination
• Halting Strike: Damage dealt when interrupting enemies has been increased by 500%.

Dueling
• Protected Mantras: This trait now grants up to 400 toughness while channeling (up from 250).
• Furious Interruption: This trait now grants 3 seconds of quickness when interrupting a foe. This effect can only occur once every 15 seconds.
• Vengeful Images: This trait now only applies retaliation for 5 seconds when they are created and does not persist after that.

Illusions
• Imbued Diversion: This trait now allows Diversion to daze 5 targets (up from 3). In addition, the daze radius has been increased to 360 (up from 240).
• Illusionary Retribution: Moved to the Adept Minor trait.
• Shattered Strength: Moved to the Master Minor trait.
• Illusionists Celerity: Moved to the Grandmaster Minor trait.

Inspiration
• Malicious Sorcery: This trait grants up to 200 condition damage while wielding a scepter (based on level), up from 50.
• Compounding Celerity: Movement speed per active illusion has been increased to 10%, allowing for 30% movement speed when three illusions are active.
• Shattered Conditions: This trait now removes one condition from all allies around the mesmer.

Necromancer:
• Putrid Curse: Increased the poison duration from 2 seconds to 4 seconds.
• Necrotic Bite: Increased the life force gain from 4 to 6.
• Corrupt Boon: Reduced the maximum amount of boons converted to 5.
• Spectral Wall: Normalized the amount of protection gained to 5 seconds for allies. Replaced the vulnerability with a 1-second fear when enemies try to cross the wall. Added 4% life force gain on hit. Increased the recharge to 45 seconds. Reduced the base duration to 5 seconds and 7.5 seconds while traited with Spectral Attunement.
• Wail of Doom: Added an unblockable skill fact.
• Well of Power: This ability now breaks stuns. Added 1 second of stability. Reduced the cooldown to 50 seconds.
• Well of Corruption: Reduced the cooldown to 40 seconds.
• Well of Darkness: Reduced the cooldown to 50 seconds.
• Well of Suffering: Reduced the cooldown to 35 seconds.
• Unholy Feast: This ability now removes 1 boon from each target hit.
• Spectral Armor: Reduced the recharge to 60 seconds.
• Signet of Spite: Now applies 2 stacks of bleeding for 10 seconds, blind for 5 seconds, cripple for 10 seconds, poison for 10 seconds, 5 stacks of vulnerability for 10 seconds, and weakness for 10 seconds. Reduced the recharge to 60 seconds.
• Death Shroud: No longer removes the Spectral Armor buff.
• Death Shroud: No longer removes the Spectral Walk buff.
• Signet of Undeath: Increased the cast time to 3 seconds.
• Locust Swarm: Increased the radius to 210. Increased the animation size to better reflect its attack area.
• Grim Specter: This ability can now be cast while moving.
• Rigor Mortis: This ability is now instant.
• Necrotic Grasp: Increased the projectile velocity by 10%.
• Consume Conditions: This skill now consumes torment.
• Chillblains: This ability now has the appropriate cast time when traited with greater marks.
• Putrid Mark: This ability will now transfer blind to enemies it strikes, instead of missing.
• Deathly Swarm: Increased the projectile velocity by 30%.
• Crimson Tide: The bleed duration has been increased from 5 seconds to 6 seconds.
• Deadly Catch: The cripple duration has been increased from 3 seconds to 6 seconds.
• Wicked Spiral: The vulnerability duration has been increased from 6 seconds to 10 seconds per hit.
• Deadly Feast: The duration of feast has been increased from 6 seconds to 8 seconds.
• Death Shroud: Bone Fiend and Shadow Fiend now regenerate outside of combat.
• New ability #5 – Tainted Shackles: This skill tethers all enemies within a 600 range, constantly dealing torment to them over time. At the end of the cast, Dark Binding immobilizes all affected enemies still within the radius.
• Life Blast: This skill now scales based on range instead of amount of life force. At more than 600 units, this skill’s low value has been increased by 43%; at less than 600 units, this skill uses the old high value. Range has been increased to 1200.
• Doom: This skill now scales based on range. If more than 600 units, it will apply 1 second of fear; If less than 600 units, it will apply 1.5 seconds of fear. This ability now lists the damage it deals to enemy targets.
• Life Blast (Underwater): Decreased the cast time and reduced the aftercast.
• Ghastly Claws: Increased the life force gain from 8 to 10.
• Feast of Corruption: Increased the life force gain from 2/condition to 3/condition.
• Necrotic Grasp: Increased the life force gain from 3 to 4.
• Shadow Fiend Haunt: Increased the blind duration to 5 seconds.
• Dark Path: Fixed an issue where the chill duration did not match the tooltip.
• Reaper’s Touch: Fixed an issue so that it now applies the vulnerability before the damage. Updated the tooltip to state the correct amount of vulnerability.
• Grim Specter: This skill is now unblockable.

Blood Magic
• Dagger Mastery: This trait now grants a 20% recharge reduction.
• Vampiric: This trait now scales up 6 additional points with power for its damage and healing for its healing per attack.

Curses
• Withering Precision: This trait now applies 5 seconds of weakness on critical hits. This effect can only occur once every 20 seconds.
• Terror: This trait has been moved to the Master tier.
• Focused Rituals: This trait has been moved to the Adept tier.

Death Magic
• Death Shiver: Vulnerability applied every 3 seconds while in Death Shroud has been increased to 3 stacks for 10 seconds (up from 1 stack).
• Death Nova: Minions now deal damage when Death Nova is triggered.

Soul Reaping
• Speed of Shadows: This trait now increases movement speed by 25% while in Death Shroud.
• Decaying Swarm: This trait has been removed.
• Near to Death: This trait has been moved to the Master tier. This trait now reduces the cooldown by 30% instead of 50%.
• New Grandmaster trait—Deathly Perception: Players have a 50% greater critical chance while in Death Shroud.

Spite
• Signet Power: This trait has been merged with Signet Mastery.
• Signet Mastery: This trait now recharges signets 20% faster and grants 3 stacks of might for 10 seconds on signet use.
• Axe Training: This trait has been moved to the Master tier.
• New Grandmaster trait—Dhuumfire: Players can inflict burning to opponents for 4 seconds on critical hit. This effect can only occur once every 10 seconds.

Ranger:
• “Protect Me”: This ability now breaks stuns.
• Splitblade: Reduced the aftercast from .4 seconds to .2 seconds.
• Pet leash range increased to 2000 units.
• Path of Scars: This skill now pulls enemies on the return flight.
• Long Range Shot: Reduced the aftercast from .5 seconds to .25 seconds. Increased the arrow speed by 15%.
• Rapid Fire: Reduced the initial cast time by .4 seconds. Increased the arrow speed by 15%.
• Point Blank Shot: Increased the arrow speed by 15%.
• Barrage: Increased the cripple duration by 50%.
• Stalker’s Strike: This skill no longer loses evade duration when traited with Off-Hand Training. It now strikes targets more reliably in melee. It now functions with Off-Hand Training in PvE.
• Crippling Talon: This skill now functions with Off-Hand Training in PvE.
• Muddy Terrain: Decreased the duration from 20 seconds to 10 seconds. Increased the cripple duration per pulse from 1 second to 2 seconds. Decreased the cooldown from 30 seconds to 25 seconds.
• Lightning Reflexes: The travel distance for this skill has been halved when underwater.
• Man O’ War: The base recharge has been increased from 18 to 25.
• Counterstrike: The base recharge has been increased from 15 to 20.
• Swirling Strike: Increased damage by 33%.
• Crossfire: Decreased the range to 900.
• Poison Volley: Decreased the range to 900.
• Quick Shot: Decreased the range to 900. Increased the damage by 14%.
• Crippling Shot: Decreased the range to 900. Increased the damage by 14%.
• Concussion Shot: Decreased the range to 900. Increased the damage by 14%. Reduced the aftercast by .25 seconds.
• Spirit-activated skill range increased from 180 to 240 (360 when traited).
• Call Lightning: Increased the damage by 150%.
• Solar Flare: Decreased the cast time from 1.7 seconds to .5 seconds.
• Counterstrike: Fixed an issue with this ability that caused it to go on interrupt recharge when pressed twice rapidly to use Counter Throw.
• Thunderclap (Downed Skill 2): Fixed an issue that caused this ability to have infinite range.
• Winter’s Bite:. Fixed an issue so that it now chills for 3 seconds (as listed in the tooltip) instead of 2 seconds.

Pets
• Armor Fish: Bite: Reduced the damage by 50%.
• Bird: Slash: Increased the damage by 15%.
• Eagle: Lacerating Slash: Reduced the damage by 50%.
• Raven: Blinding Slash: Reduced the damage by 34%.
• Canine: Bite: Reduced the damage by 27%.
• Devourer: Twin Darts: Reduced the damage by 20%.
• Drake: Bite: Reduced the damage by 27%.
• Insect Swarm: This skill can no longer fire behind the drake.
• Drake: Lightning Breath: Reduced the damage by 17%.
• Feline: Maul: Reduced the damage by 50%.
• Jaguar: Stalking: Critical chance increase while in stealth reduced to 25%.
• Jellyfish: Tentacle Slash: Increased the damage by 50%.
• Jellyfish Blue: Chilling Whirl: Decreased the damage by 33%.
• Moa: Peck: Reduced the damage by 7%.
• Pig: Jab: Reduced the damage by 25%.
• Shark: Bite: Increased the damage by 10%.
• Spider: Spit: Increased the damage by 10%.

Beastmastery
• Instinctual Bond: This trait has been swapped with Zephyr’s Speed. Quickness has been increased to 3 seconds.
• Stability Training: This trait now causes the pet to ignore the incoming crowd control skill as well as granting stability. This has a 10-second internal recharge.

Marksmanship
• Keen Edge: This trait now activates when the player strikes a target whose health is below 50%, instead of when the player’s health reaches 75%.
• Beastmaster’s Might: This trait now grants 3 stacks of might for 15 seconds.
• Spotter: This trait has been increased from 70 precision to 150.

Nature Magic
• Vigorous Spirits: This trait has been merged with Spiritual Knowledge.
• Spiritual Knowledge: This trait has been moved to the Adept tier.
• Evasive Purity: This trait has been moved to the Master tier.
• New Grandmaster trait—Nature’s Voice: Shouts apply 10 seconds of regeneration and swiftness to allies in a 360 radius.

Skirmishing
• Companion’s Might: This trait now grants 5 seconds of might to the player’s pet (up from 1 second).

Wilderness Survival
• Peak Strength: Damage bonus when the player’s health is above 90% has been increased from 5% to 10%.
• Healer’s Celerity: This trait now increases revive speed by 10%. Swiftness granted on revival has been increased from 3 seconds to 15 seconds.

Thief:
• Lotus Strike: Increased the poison duration from 2 seconds to 4 seconds.
• Shadow Trap: Increased the recharge to 45 seconds.
• Destroy Shadow Trap: This ability now teleports the thief back to the trap location when it is destroyed. Added range skill facts. This skill now breaks stuns. Using this skill puts Shadow Trap on recharge.
• Shadow Pursuit: This ability now grants fury and 10 stacks of might for 5 seconds along with stealth when used to teleport to the enemy who triggered Shadow Trap. This ability now breaks stuns. Using this skill puts Shadow Trap on recharge.
• Death Blossom: This trait now costs 4 initiative.
• Body Shot: Reduced the aftercast by .4 seconds. Decreased the vulnerability duration to 3 seconds. Increased to 10 stacks for vulnerability.
• Pistol Whip: Decreased the time between the stun and the sword flurry.
• Scorpion Wire: Decreased the aftercast by .2 seconds. Reduced the cooldown to 20 seconds.
• Signet of Malice: Increased the base heal by 33% of the passive ability.
• Steal: Reduced the recharge to 35 seconds.
• Cluster Bomb: Decreased the range set from 1200 to 900.
• Larcenous Strike: Increased the initiative cost to 2.
• Nine Tailed Strike: Increased the initiative cost from 3 to 5.
• Shadow Assault: Increased the initiative cost from 5 to 7.
• The Ripper: Increased the bleed duration from 5 seconds to 7 seconds.
• Deadly Strike:. Increased the damage from 1 to 1.2.
• Skale Venom: Replaced weakness with torment.
• Dancing Dagger: Reduced the initiative cost to 3.
• Shadow Return (Infiltrator Strike Toggle): This skill is no longer a stun breaker.
• Withdraw: The travel distance underwater has been cut in half to match the land distance.

Acrobatics
• Assassin’s Retreat: This trait now grants 10 seconds of swiftness when players kill a foe. This effect has a 5-second internal cooldown.
• Pain Response: Reduced the cooldown from 45 seconds to 30 seconds.
• Hard to Catch: Reduced the cooldown from 60 seconds to 30 seconds.

Critical Strikes
• Furious Retaliation: This trait now grants 10 seconds of fury when striking a target whose health is below 50%. This effect can only occur once every 30 seconds.
• Signets of Power: The 5 stacks of might that this trait grants have been increased to 10 seconds.

Deadly Arts
• Corrosive Traps: This trait now grants 5 stacks of vulnerability for 8 seconds (up from 5 seconds).
• Sundering Strikes: Vulnerability caused by this trait has been increased from 5 seconds to 10 seconds.
• Panic Strike: Reduced the cooldown from 60 seconds to 30 seconds.
• Lotus Poison: Increased the weakness duration to 4 seconds, but it can only apply once every 20 seconds per target.

Shadow Arts
• Last Refuge: Reduced the cooldown of this trait from 90 seconds to 60 seconds.
• Slowed Pulse: The effect of this trait now occurs if the player has 2 or more stacks of bleeding.
• Shadow Protector: This trait has been changed to apply 10 seconds of regeneration when the players stealth them. This effect will not occur if the ally already has regeneration on them.

Trickery
• Merciful Ambush: This trait now grants 2 seconds of stealth to players and their allies when beginning a revive.
• Long Reach: This trait now increases the range of Steal to 1500 (up from 1200).
• Ricochet: The chance to bounce for this trait has been increased from 25% to 50%.
• Sleight of Hand: In addition to dazing the player’s target, this trait now reduces the recharge of Steal by an additional 20%.
• Instinctual Response: This trait now properly blinds enemies struck by the feathers. Increased the radius from 120 to 180.
• Bountiful Theft: This trait will now trigger before Sleight of Hand.

Warrior:
• Tremor: Increased the projectile velocity by 33%.
• Axe Chain: Moved the damage more toward the end of the chain without reducing overall DPS.
• Chop: Reduced the damage by 9%.
• Double Chop: Reduced the damage by 12%.
• Triple Chop: Reduced the damage of the first two hits by 20%. Increased the damage on the final hit by 75%.
• Final Thrust: This skill has been moved to slot #3. Now it does more damage and extra damage versus foes whose health is below 50%.
• Hamstring: This skill has been moved to the end of the skill chain. Reduced the cripple duration to 1 second.
• Savage Leap: This skill now applies 3 seconds of cripple.
• Leg Specialist: This trait now has an internal cooldown of 5 seconds.
• Skull Crack: Increased the stun duration from 1, 1.5, 2 to 1, 2, 3. Increased the damage by 50%.
• Endure Pain: Reduced the recharge from 90 seconds to 60 seconds.
• Stomp: This ability now breaks stuns. Added 1 second of stability. Reduced the cooldown to 45 seconds.
• Dolyak Signet: This is now an instant stun breaker.
• Throw Bolas: Reduced the aftercast by .3 seconds.
• Kick: Doubled the damage.
• Berserker’s Stance: Increased the recharge to 60 seconds. Reduced the duration to 4 seconds. This stance now reduces incoming condition duration by 100%, so only modified conditions can get through.
• Balanced Stance: This now also applies swiftness.
• Dual Strike: Reduced the aftercast from .5 seconds to .25 seconds.
• Whirling Axe: Reduced the aftercast by .2 seconds.
• Rush: Reduced the aftercast by .2 seconds. The transition between the run and swing portion has been smoothed out for hitting moving targets.
• Hammer Shock: Reduced the aftercast by .4 seconds.
• Staggering Blow: Reduced the aftercast by .25 seconds.
• Backbreaker: Reduced the aftercast by .25 seconds.
• Crushing Blow: Reduced the aftercast by .2 seconds.
• Brutal Shot: Reduced the aftercast by .3 seconds.
• Rampage: Reduced the cooldown to 150 seconds.
• Brutal Shot: This skill now adds 5 stacks of vulnerability (up from 1). The duration of vulnerability applied changed from 15 seconds to 5 seconds.
• Knot Shot: Reduced the recharge from 25 seconds to 15 seconds.
• Untraited Longbow: Increased the range from 900 to 1000.
• Riposte: When players block an attack from range, it no longer cancels the blocking.
• Whirling Axe: Increased the damage by 50% in PvP only.
• “Fear Me!”: Reduced the recharge to 60 seconds.

Arms
• Deep Strike: This trait now scales with level rather than granting a flat bonus.
• Furious Speed: Players gain 10 seconds of swiftness on critical hits. This effect can only occur once every 15 seconds.
• Opportunist: This trait grants 10 seconds of fury when players immobilize a target. This effect can only occur once every 10 seconds.
• Furious: This trait has been updated to indicate that triple adrenaline is rewarded on critical attacks.
• Last Chance: Reduced the recharge to 45 seconds (down from 60 seconds).

Defense
• Defy Pain: Reduced the cooldown of this trait from 90 seconds to 60 seconds. This trait will now have a 4-second duration, 5 seconds when traited with Sure-Footed.
• Vigorous Return: This trait now grants an additional 100% endurance when players rally.
• Sundering Mace: Fixed an issue causing this trait to apply weakness on mace critical strikes.
• Embrace the Pain: This trait has been merged with a new Master tier trait, Cleansing Ire.
• Cleansing Ire: New Master tier trait with the following effects: Gain adrenaline when hit. Remove a condition for every bar of adrenaline spent.
• Shield Master: This trait has been moved to the Adept tier.
• Adrenal Health: This trait now scales with healing power:

Discipline
• Burst Recharge: The Discipline trait line no longer improves burst damage. It now decreases burst cooldown by 1% per point in Discipline.
• Warrior’s Sprint: Increased the movement speed from 10% to 25%.
• Sharpened Axes: Reduced the axe skills by 20% in addition to increasing adrenaline with axe critical hits.
• Vigorous Focus: This trait has been moved to the Adept tier.
• Destruction of the Empowered: This trait has been moved to the Master tier.
• Heightened Focus: This trait has been moved to the Grandmaster tier and grants 5%, 10%, and 15% critical chance based on adrenaline level.
• Burst Mastery: This no longer reduces burst cooldown. It now increases burst damage by 10%.

Strength
• Physical Training: This trait has been moved to the Master tier.
• Dual Wielding: This trait has been moved to the Adept tier.
• Berserker’s Power: This trait has been moved to the Grandmaster tier. Damage bonus has been increased to 5%, 10%, and 15% based on adrenaline level.
• Berserker’s Might: This trait now passively builds 2 strikes of adrenaline every 3 seconds, while the players are in combat.
• Distracting Strikes: This trait now applies 4 stacks of confusion for 8 seconds upon interrupting an enemy.

Tactics
• Burning Arrows: Reduced the recharge of longbow abilities by 20% in addition to dealing 10% bonus damage against burning foes.
• Desperate Power: Increased the threshold of this trait, dealing 20% additional damage while the player is below 50% health instead of below 25%.
• Empower Allies: This trait has been increased to 150 points of power.

Structured Player vs. Player
• Fixed an issue where PvP Apprentice and Chainmail items would salvage into PvE materials.
• Added the Rawhide Armor set to the Deer rank chests.
• Updated several spectator camera locations, in various maps.
• Updated kill notifications to show defeats and used brighter team colors.
• Spectators can reliably use the Escape menu now.

World vs. World
• Mesmers can no longer create clones of siege golems.
• The buff Guard Leech, acquired from rank 10 of Guard Killer, now adds 20 power and 20 condition damage per stack.
• Supply caravan ambushes now provide 10 WXP when killed.
• Omega Siege Golems now correctly require 150 supply to be built.
• Cannon skills now show the correct skill facts when upgraded via Cannon Mastery.
• Ballista skills now show the correct skill facts when upgraded via Ballista Mastery.
• The Outmanned buff is now hidden from enemies.
• Superior siege weapons now correctly indicate the damage from their skills in their skill facts.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions
• Aetherblade Armor Skins have been added to the Gem Store in the Style category for 800 gems each. Light, medium, and heavy versions, each with their own unique design, are available. Please remember that each class can only equip one armor weight and to check the character’s armor class before purchasing.
• The new Plush Tybalt Backpack Cover can now be obtained through the Black Lion Chest. This adorable backpack cover is modeled after the character Tybalt and can be applied to any backpack. Players can open Black Lion Chests using the Black Lion Chest Key found in the Gem Store under the Consumable category.
• Now players can start their own custom PvP arena with the Custom Arena Starter Kit available in the Gem Store in the Services category for 1600 gems each. Each Custom Arena Starter Kit contains one arena and 30 days of active time. Anyone can add additional time to the arena with the Custom Arena Time Token, which is also available in the Services category in packages of 5 for 150 gems or 20 for 480 gems.

Improvements
• Most items in the Gem Store are now available to be purchased as a gift. Gifting allows players to purchase an item with gems but have it delivered to one of their friends. Simply select the orange gift box icon next to the price of the gift item and follow the on-screen instructions.
• The drop chances in the Black Lion Chest have been adjusted so there is a greater chance to receive a plush backpack cover item with each key. However, backpack covers are still a rare drop from the Black Lion Chest.

Bug-fixes
• Fixed a bug with Rich Dragon Coffers where recipes were not included in the drop table. There is now a rare chance to receive the Dragon’s Revelry Starcake recipe. Dragon’s Revelry Starcakes give a 30 minute buff to all armor stats, Magic Find, and experience from kills.
• All players that purchased a Rich Dragon Coffer before the fix above was added will receive 1 Dragon’s Revelry Starcake recipe via in game mail as compensation. This compensation is scheduled to be delivered in a few days.


LIVING WORLD
Open World:
• Fixed a bug that prevented the skritt Kasparak, one of the effigy ceremony suspects, from appearing in Gendarran Fields.
Aetherblade Retreat Dungeon:
• Fixed various pathing bugs in both boss fight areas, Kleptotronic Advanced Designs and Rogue’s Landing
• Added an exit to the beginning of the dungeon that leads directly back to Lion’s Arch.
BALANCE, BUG-FIXING, POLISH
General:
• Fire Field Blast Finisher: Fixed an issue that caused this finisher to grant double the might.
• Fixed a bug with the recharge tooltip of profession skills which were being modified by trait lines. Thief Steal (Trickery), Warrior Burst Skills (Discipline), Elemental Attunements (Arcana), Mesmer Shatters (Illusions), Engineer Toolbelt Skills (Tools), and Guardian Virtues (Virtues)
Necromancer:
• Path of Midnight: This trait now properly reduces the recharge of Tainted Shackles.
• Necromancer downed health is now the correct amount in all formats on all characters.
Warrior:
• Triple Chop: This ability now deals the correct damage on the third strike.
• Fixed a bug with the display of the Warrior Discipline trait line tooltip.


LIVING WORLD
Aetherblade Retreat
• Fixed a bug in how Investigator Kiel operates as she ascends the tunnel to Rogue’s Landing which was preventing players to progress to the final boss fight with Mai and Horrik.
• Corrected a safeguard in the final boss fight that erroneously revived players inside Rogue’s Landing instead of at the chosen waypoint.
BUG-FIXING, BALANCE, WORLD POLISH
Engineer:
• Jump Shot: Fixed a bug with the animation when the Rifled Barrel trait is equipped.
• Smoke Screen: Fixed a bug causing an infinite smoke combo field when it does not hit an enemy.

Mesmer:
• Ether Clone: Fixed a bug causing this ability to generate two clones in a WvW or PvP map.

UI:
• Removed erroneous message about removed content that would appear when you level up.
WvW
• WvW traps have been re-enabled.

June 11 2013 Content Release Notes

LIVING WORLD
Dragon Bash
The Ship’s Council of Lion’s Arch is sponsoring Dragon Bash, a celebration of the Tyrian spirit and resolve to defeat the elder dragons. Bash on dragon piñatas in cities and shoot fireworks at the giant holographic Shatterer dragon projected over Lion’s Arch. Revel in activities such as the Dragon Ball Arena and bet on moa racing. Across the countryside, players will discover mini-projectors that will test their mettle versus holographic dragon minions!
The celebration includes two must-see events: The fireworks show during the first weekend repeats every two hours, and attendees who watch the finale will receive a dragon helm. Then the week after, players can enter the effigy ceremony and witness the cultural representatives as they join the Captain’s Council in burning the dragon effigies in the Grand Piazza of Lion’s Arch. It promises to be an exciting time for all.
“Bash the dragon! Smash the dragon! May it never rise up again!”
General
• Dragon Coffers have been added to the list of potential loot drops for all creatures in the world.
Lion’s Arch
• Lion’s Arch has been decorated with Dragon Bash decorations. A projector has been set up, where the Lion’s statue normally resides, to display the holographic Shatterer dragon that will circle the city. Zommoros has dressed up for the occasion, and various kites, posters, torches, and targets have been placed throughout the city. Firework launchers have also been added for players to join in the celebration.
• Players can enter the new Dragon Ball Arena activity, which takes place in the sewer beneath the city, by talking with Finolla in the Mystic Court.
• In Farshore Ward, players can bet on their favorite moa to win in the moa race and win various prizes.
• The Captain’s Council will appear in the Grand Piazza to inform and direct players to all of the Dragon Bash festivities.
Explorable Areas Leading to Lion’s Arch
• The explorable areas leading up to Lion’s Arch (Queensdale, Kessex Hills, Brisbane Wildlands, Caledon Forest, Metrica Province, Plains of Asford, Diessa Plateau, Wayfarer Foothills, Snowden Drifts and Gendarran Fields) has been seeded with mini hologram projectors that will create hologram minions to bash. In addition to normal loot drops, these minions have a greater chance of dropping Dragon Coffers and candy.
• A new rock formation now appears in the Gendarran Fields.
All Major Cities
• Heralds have been updated to announce the arrival of the Dragon Bash festival.
• Dragon piñatas can now be found in all of the major cities for players to bash and collect festival candy.
Fireworks Event
• During the first weekend, between 9am PDT June 14 and 9am PDT June 17th, a grand fireworks show will repeat every two hours. Players who witness the finale will be awarded a container holding three account-bound commemorative dragon helms, one for each armor class in the game.
Achievements
• A new Dragon Bash category has been added for achievements involving the Dragon Bash festivities.
• The Dragon Bash Experience meta-achievement will reward a set of Holographic Shattered Dragon Wings back item skin for players who have completed 10 out of the 14 total Dragon Bash achievements (Case Closed not included).
• Fourteen new Dragon Bash festival achievements have been added. Please note thatThe Big Boom in the Big City, Case Closed, the Ceremony and Acrimony achievement line, and Burn Down The Dragons cannot be completed until additional Dragon Bash content is unlocked at a later time.


BALANCE, BUG-FIXING, POLISH
General
• Added a new combat/movement toggle option: “Right-Click to Attack/Interact”.


World Polish
• Living World
• The chest that spawns after the Crazed Karka Queen is defeated is no longer limited to once a day.
• Bloodtide Coast
• Living Covington Pirates should no longer respawn when the player helps Bill and Hekja fight Risen Pirates.
• Straits of Devastation
• The Champion Ooze in the Zho’qafa event has been demoted to a veteran.

Personal Story
• “Bad Blood”:
• There is now a slight delay between the time the wind starts up and when it knocks the player off the wall. The audio cue has also been cleaned up to make it clearer.
• “They Went Thataway”:
• The Ministry guard now appears at the base of the stairs.

Items
• Globs of Ectoplasm can now be salvaged into Piles of Crystalline Dust. This change should help Globs of Ectoplasm maintain a strong value in the economy and lower the cost of Crystalline Dust.
• Master Tuning Crystals, Master Maintenance Oil, and Superior Sharpening Stone recipes now take more Piles of Crystalline Dust to craft. This change is to help these consumables maintain a high value with the new influx of dust.

Profession Skills
General:
• Fixed a bug that caused sigils to be removed when the player died while transformed.
• Fixed a bug that let teleport skills teleport players through certain walls, most notably the clock tower’s walls in The Battle of Khylo.
• Fixed a bug that made line-of-sight checks frequently succeed when they shouldn’t.
• Fixed a bug where skills that draw allied conditions would instantly cure any condition that was self-inflicted.

Elementalist:
• Signet of Restoration:
• This skill now has its cooldown reduced by the Signet Mastery in PvP.

Necromancer:
• Parasitic Bond:
• The healing from this trait will now display properly in the combat log.
• Reaper’s Might:
• Removed misleading text.
• Reaper’s Touch:
• Fixed a bug with this ability’s damage that caused an inconsistency when not traited with Spiteful Talisman. Damage while un-traited has been increased by 50%.
• Spectral Grasp:
• This ability will now pull the full 1200 range, instead of 900.
• Spiteful Talisman:
• This trait now works with Reaper’s Touch in PvE.

Ranger:
• Coral Shot:
• This ability now lists bleeding dealt at different ranges. Bleeding damage has been increased from a maximum of 2 to a maximum of 4 at a range of 900.
• Signet of the Hunt:
• This ability now displays a skill fact for the damage increase of its active effect.
• Quicksand with Stone Spirit:
• This skill’s facts will now display properly.

Warrior:
• Counterblow:
• This skill now has a range fact.
• Endure Pain:
• Updated the text of this skill and its buff to make it clearer.
• Versatile Rage:
• The effects of this trait will now only trigger once every 5 seconds.

Guardian:
• Strength of the Fallen:
• Fixed a bug with this trait that makes it lose health 33% slower while downed instead of the previous 11%.

Engineer:
• Explosive Powder:
• This trait now functions with detonating turrets.
• Reserve Mines:
• This trait now functions with other traits, such as Shrapnel, Steel Packed Powder, and Forceful Explosives. In addition, fixed a bug that caused the mines to not strip boons correctly. Explosive radius has been increased from 60 to 120.
• Rifled Turret Barrels:
• This trait no longer makes Rocket Turret fire invisible rockets.
• Toss Elixir R:
• All of the effects of this skill are now normalized to the correct radius of 180 units. Previously, some actions were only effective at 120 units.
• Toss Elixir U:
• This profession skill now functions with Acidic Elixir.

Mesmer:
• Blurred Frenzy:
• Updated the duration tooltip to indicate the actual duration of the evasion.

Structured Player vs. Player
• Added a menu for custom arenas to reset to standard or tournament defaults from the configuration UI.
• Added a name and owner search box to the game browser.
• Added a default filter to the game browser to search for recently joined custom arenas.
• Fixed a bug with ratings that caused inaccurate updates when players left before the end of a match.
• Updated the matchmaking algorithm to better match new players.
• Updated the ratings algorithm to reduce volatility.
• Updated the profession icons on the map to use brighter team colors.

World vs. World
• World Ability Points have been refunded to all players who earned them. Changes were made to Arrow Cart Mastery, allowing players to reallocate their points. This is a one-time reset.
• Arrow Cart Mastery skills have had their range reduced to be better in balance with other siege weapons.
• The WvW Ranks and Abilities tab now displays how many bonus rank-up chests a character has remaining.
• Superior Siege and Omega Golem blueprints now have different icons from regular siege blueprints.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions
• The Rich Dragon Coffer is now available in the Consumable category of the Gem Store for 100 gems each, or 5 for 400 gems and 25 for 2,000 gems. This special festival box always contains Dragon Bash candy and also has a chance to contain fireworks, a Mini Holographic Risen Knight, and rarely a Dragon’s Jade Weapon Skin Ticket. Rich Dragon Coffers contain all the same items as the Dragon Coffers* *that drop commonly from Dragon Bash enemies, but have better chances at rare items.
• The Dragon Bash Mini Pack is now available in the Minis category of the Gem Store for 500 gems. The Dragon Bash Mini Pack contains three exclusive holographic minis to commemorate the Dragon Bash festival. If you place all three minis from the Dragon Bash Mini Pack in the Mystic Forge along with the Mini Holographic Risen Knight (which can be obtained from either Rich Dragon Coffers or Dragon Coffers), you will receive a Mini Holographic Colossus.
• Polla, Biviane’s doll, is now available in the Upgrades category of the Gem Store. This special doll commemorating Cobiah’s sister can be equipped in the accessory slot and is available for free to all players.
• Named after Lion’s Arch’s founder, Cobiah Marriner, the Marriner’s Horn is a permanent instrument themed for spreading festive tunes.

Game updates 5-28-2013

LIVING WORLD
Last Stand at Southsun
Help Inspector Kiel track down Canach, the villain behind the increased animal aggression and the focused attacks on Consortium settlements. Canach’s intent is to destroy the settler contracts (and punish Subdirector Blingg for his vendetta against Canach).
Players must work together to protect the settlements and the innocents within from the crazed horde’s sustained assault, ultimately allowing Inspector Kiel to destroy the records and free the settlers from their unfair commitments without harming any of the island’s residents. This sets the stage for the upcoming Dragon Bash festival to happen without settler unrest spoiling the festivities.
Open World
Note: All this open world content takes place on the Southsun Cove map.
Even if you manage to capture Canach, can you also foil his master plan? Defend the new settlers on Southsun Cove from a massive final onslaught of rampaging wildlife or die trying! And beginning June 5, a hulking monstrosity joins the fray—without your help, it will destroy the settlers and everything they’ve built!
• Added new island-wide meta-event where players defend and liberate the new settlements across Southsun Cove. If players hold all four settlements, merchants will become available with unique items, and there is a chance that an Enraged Karka Queen boss will spawn.
• The Enraged Karka Queen boss event rewards large boss chests like other world bosses and gives two guaranteed rare or better items once per day.
• Added four new items as rare rewards to all Southsun Cove content. These items are tradable and soulbound on use.
• Mini Reef Rider: Your very own exotic miniature version of the reef rider. Hurry, because this limited-edition item only drops for the next two weeks!
• Settler’s Keepsake: An exotic accessory with toughness, healing, and condition damage stats.
• Settler’s Amulet: An exotic amulet with toughness, healing, and condition damage stats.
• Settler’s Ring: An exotic ring with toughness, healing, and condition damage stats.

Still Available in Southsun Cove
• Wild animals (karka, reef drakes, wind riders) continue to exhibit more aggressive behavior.
• Visitors trapped by the hostile wildlife need to be escorted to safety.
• The crazed wildlife will attack new and existing settlements on the island; players must fend off the attack and defend the sites.
• More robust resource nodes to harvest, providing passiflora flowers and fruit, karka shells, and other island-specific resources.
• Players can view the interactions between two high-profile tourists on the island: Lord Faren and Lady Kasmeer.
• The “Crab Toss” activity is still available.
Instances
• Added new Canach single-player story boss encounter.
• Added explorable multiplayer variant (unlocked if you defeat Canach).
• Added new single-player instance for the culmination of the story.
Achievements
• New content-based and story-based achievements designed to encourage play on the Southsun Cove map.
Guild Content
• Added a new guild puzzle to Snowden Drifts.

NEW FEATURES AND CONTENT
World vs. World
• Changed World vs. World matchmaking:
• The deviation listed on the leaderboards is used with a new formula to create more varied matchups.
• The matchups are listed on the leaderboards page.
• Commander map pings and strokes are now visible to members of their squad.
• Players now gain World Experience for killing guards, destroying walls, destroying gates, and building mortars, cannons, and burning oil.
• Added a laurel merchant selling Ascended items:
• Ascended rings can be purchased for 25 laurels and 250 badges of honor.
• Ascended amulets can be purchased for 20 laurels and 250 badges of honor.
• Ascended accessories can be purchased for 40 laurels and 50 globs of ectoplasm.
• WvW-specific infusions have been added and can be purchased for 5 laurels and 125 badges of honor.
• Offensive infusions provide players with +1% damage to guards and lords.
• Defensive infusions provide players with -1% damage to guards and lords.
• Added a new reward chest. Every time players gain a WvW Rank, they receive a chest with WvW rewards:
• Coins.
• Badges.
• A chance for:
• Traps.
• Siege blueprints.
• Superior siege blueprints.
• Masterwork armor/weapons.
• Rare armor/weapons.
• Exotic armor/weapons.
• Ascended rings.
• Precursors.
• Players who gained World Rank prior to the chests being added will receive 1 additional chest per rank gained until they have received a number equal to the ranks they had gained previously.
• Added 5 tiers to Defense Against Guards, for a total of 10:
• All Defense Against Guards abilities count towards lords and supervisors.
• 7% reduced damage (total) against guards, lords, and supervisors.
• Gain retaliation when the player negates guard damage.
• 10% reduced damage (total) against guards, lords, and supervisors.
• Gain 1 stack of applied fortitude when killing a guard, lord, or supervisor.
• Applied fortitude: Grants the player 20 vitality (max of 5 stacks; stacks are lost on death).
• Added Oil Mastery to the available ranks and abilities list:
• Increases burning oil radius by 25%.
• Increases burning oil damage by 15%.
• Grants protection to the player and oil cauldron when the player is using the cauldron.
• Burning oil damage removes 1 supply from enemies.
• Skill 3, Burning Shell: Creates a fiery dome that reflects projectiles for 10 seconds.

Structured PvP
• Spectators now see their target’s rank on the HUD.
• Spectators may now select targets while viewing from fixed cameras.
• Spectators may now right-click and double-click players to switch follow targets.
• Spectators now hear local chat around their position.
• Spectators now see health bars with every visible nameplate.
• The Spectator Inspect window saves position.
• Reworked the spectator list to allow context menus.
• Nameplates do not fade on unselected targets during spectating.
• Nameplates have brighter team colors during spectating.
• Nameplates no longer show level 80.
• Added a button on the defeated health bar to show death breakdown.
• Added a victory animation at the end of PvP matches.
• Added /gameend admin command to force-end custom arena matches after they’ve started. This does not award stats, glory, or rank points.
• Fixed a bug where team selection buttons were not disabled when the team was full.
• Fixed a bug where players would occasionally join a team and spawn in the wrong starting area.
• Player and pet map icons are now always layered above capture point map icons.
• Death breakdown no longer shows automatically upon defeat.
• Minimap objective markers are now a fixed size when changing zoom levels.

Game Optimization
• Continued optimizations to the game to improve server performance and work toward eliminating lag during large encounters. We’ll be continuing to improve performance in this area in upcoming releases and provide as optimal an experience as possible with large numbers of players on screen.

BALANCE, BUG-FIXING, POLISH
World Polish
• Caledon Forest: Adjusted camera position during the mossheart transformation.
• Drawing the Juggernaut Hammer no longer causes armor that has glowing areas to become invisible.
• Timberline Falls: Adjusted the UI for the skill challenge to fight Cooroo’s crab.
• Queensdale: Carnie Jeb has been promoted to a veteran to make his fight comparable to other skill challenges.
• Particles now correctly align to the ground on the Undead Coral Creature.
• Effects now appear at the correct size when attached to the Karka Young creature.
• Branded Lesser Air Elemental art now has legs and a tail.
• Encumbered state now automatically resolves with empty inventory slots.
• Full hint completion now awards the hint achievement.
Events
• Global: Minor UI fixes for several events.
• “Defend Lionguard Lindi as she searches for buried treasure”: Fixed an issue blocking event progression.
• Dredgehaunt Cliffs: Dredge tunnels can now be hit reliably with ranged attacks.
• Fields of Ruin: Wasps near Ebonhawke delegation are now the same level as other wildlife in the area.
• Temple of Lyssa: Creatures no longer benefit from multiple scaling buffs at the same time.
• Plains of Ashford: Fixed a bug with the Iron Legion turrets at the Exterminatus HQ.
• Malchor’s Leap: Added a countdown at the end of crystal collection for Technical Agent Frazz.

Dungeons
Sorrow’s Embrace
• Made it easier to select Rasolov when bringing him glowing ore.
The Ruined City of Arah
• Randall Greyston and the Seers path: The Bloodstone Shard is no longer permanently invisible.

Personal Story
• Fixed a bug where some entries in the My Story tab could not be viewed.
• “Assault the hill”: Fixed a rare stall at the end of the story step where clearing the bridge would not complete correctly.

Profession
General
• Sink and Float effects: No longer affect targets above water.

Elementalist
• Ring of Earth skill: No longer destroys unblockable projectiles.
• Lightning Whip skill: Now strikes targets in a similar angle to other melee ranged skills.
• Elemental Surge trait: Now functions correctly with the Arcane Shield skill while the player is attuned to air.
• Conjure skill: Summoned weapons now correctly appear in the player’s hands if certain on-swap sigils are equipped.
• Arcane Energy trait: Now works properly with the Arcane Power, Arcane Shield, and Signet of Restoration skills.
• Rock Anchor skill: No longer able to affect targets at infinite range. Now respects line of sight.
• Air Bubble skill: No longer able to affect targets at infinite range. Now respects line of sight.

Engineer
• Glue Bomb skill: The radius of the effects is now consistent—240 units for all effects when untraited, 360 units for all effects when traited.
• Steel-Packed Powder trait: Now applies when detonating turrets.
• Fixed a bug that prevented certain traits from functioning correctly, including Rifled Turret Barrels, Metal Plating, and Autotool Installation.
• Throw Mine and Mine Field skills: Certain friendly NPCs no longer detonate mines.
• Scatter Mines skill: Recharge is no longer impacted by the Rifled Barrels trait.
• Adrenaline Pump trait: Now works with turrets and racial skills.
• Short Fuse trait: Now works underwater even when the Grenadier trait is equipped.
• Inertial Converter trait: Now works underwater for the Grenade Barrage skill.
• Rocket Kick skill: Now hits targets at maximum range.
• Fire Bomb skill: No longer deletes the bomb if the player jumps at the wrong time.
• Smoke Bomb skill: No longer deletes the bomb if the player jumps at the wrong time.

Guardian
• Zealot’s Defense skill: No longer destroys unblockable projectiles.
• Shield of the Avenger skill: No longer destroys unblockable projectiles.
• Perfect Inscriptions trait: Now functions in PvE.
• Symbol of Judgment skill:
• Now acts as a combo field even if the Writ of Exaltation trait is not equipped.
• No longer heals for less without the Writ of Exaltation trait. It now uses the higher value in all cases, and the healing fact on the tool tip is now always accurate.

Mesmer
• Phantasmal Warlock skill: The damage skill fact now displays accurately.
• Prismatic Understanding trait: Now functions with torch’s The Prestige skill.
• Portal Exeunt skill: Casting during the last second before the portal expires no longer fails to create the entrance.
• Veil skill: The skill fact now indicates the correct stealth duration (2 seconds).
• Illusion of Drowning skill: No longer able to affect targets at infinite range. Now respects line of sight.
• Clones now attack ranger pets even if the ranger is out of range.

Necromancer
• Greater Marks trait:
• Now increases the ground target size of all marks.
• Now increases the size of marks created by the Lich Form skill.
• Death Nova trait: Now functions with Necrotic Traversal.
• Grasping Dead skill: Now lists the correct number of bleed stacks (3) in its tooltip.
• Feast skill: Now lists the correct radius (600) in its tooltip.
• Wicked Spiral skill: Now displays the correct range in the tooltip.
• Dark Armor trait: Now functions with Life Leech, Frozen Abyss, and Wicked Spiral.

Ranger
• Whirling Defense skill:
• Now strikes targets at a similar range to all other melee skills.
• Now increases the reflecting range when the Off-Hand Training trait is equipped.
• Eagle Eye trait: No longer makes the Rapid Fire and Barrage skills uninterruptable by the Long Range Shot skill.
• Splinter Shot skill: Projectile speed is no longer 75% of what it should have been.
• Coral Shot skill: Projectile speed is no longer 75% of what it should have been. The bleeding on this skill now interacts correctly with the Eagle Eye trait, granting an extra stack of bleeding at maximum range. This skill can no longer be shot backward.
• Feeding Frenzy skill: Projectile speed is no longer 75% of what it should have been. This skill can no longer be shot backward.
• Mercy Shot skill: Projectile speed is no longer 75% of what it should have been. This skill can no longer be shot backward.
• Pets now draw aggro from guards in WvW.

Thief
• Black Powder skill: No longer fires its projectile backward while moving. The field can still be generated.
• Shadow Refuge skill: Now lists its duration in the tooltip.
• Shadow Return skill: No longer has infinite range.
• Shadow Shot skill: The second half now hits the target more reliably even if the player happens to jump while the bullet is in the air.

Warrior
• Destruction of the Empowered trait: Might no longer grants double the bonus, and stability grants the correct bonus.
• Restorative Strength trait: Now functions with the sylvari Healing Seed skill and the human Prayer to Dwayna skill.
• Combustive Shot skill: Now displays damage facts appropriately throughout all adrenaline levels.
• Warrior banners now apply their buffs immediately.
• Battle Standard skill: No longer initially applies stability and then transitions over to swiftness. It now applies swiftness with stability coming from the active skill on the banner.
• Building Momentum trait: Now functions with the Flurry skill.

Structured PvP
• PvP Chainmail armor: Added to the loot table for Copper, Silver, and Gold Rabbit Rank Chests.
• PvP Apprentice armor: Added to the loot table for Copper, Silver, and Gold Deer Rank Chests.
• PvP Fused Gauntlets: Removed from the loot table for Match Win Reward Chests.
• Raid on the Capricorn: Capture point events now always display correctly.
• Legacy of the Foefire:
• Added an additional spectator camera location to the graveyard area.
• Adjusted spectator camera location at the waterfall capture point.
• Spirit Watch:
• The orb is no longer prevented from spawning at the start of the match.
• An orb carrier can no longer stand at the edge of a capture point to capture it without scoring the orb.

World vs. World
• Events in WvW now reward twice as much World Experience on completion as in the past.
• It is now easier to receive event credit for killing the castle lord when assaulting Stonemist Castle.
• Players can now exit Obsidian Sanctum using the portals behind their entrance point.
• The underwater gates of the Lowlands Keep in the Eternal Battlegrounds repair when each structural upgrade is completed.
• The southernmost gate of the garrison in each of the Borderlands repairs when each structural upgrade is completed.
• Returned the orichalcum nodes to Obsidian Sanctum.
• New daily WvW achievements have been added to the rotation.
• Increased the number of WvW-specific daily achievements available each day to three.
• Flame Rams now destroy after 15 minutes of not being used. All other placed siege weapons now wait for 1 hour of no use before destroying.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
• German customers now have the option of using ELV to pay for Gems. Simply click the Buy Gems button in the upper-left corner of the Gem Store, select* elektronisches Lastschriftverfahren* as your payment method, and follow the on-screen instructions.
• Custom Arena Time Tokens are now available in the Gem Store in the Services category to add time to your favorite arenas: 5 days for 150 gems or 20 days for 480 gems.
• The Consortium Harvest Sickle is now available in the Gem Store in the Service category for 800 gems each. This sickle has unlimited charges and is available in the Gem Store until June 24.
• The Miniature White Kitten is now available in the Gem Store in the Minis category for 400 gems each. This adorable miniature concludes our spring-babies miniature sale and is available for one week.

Game Updates 5-14-2013

LIVING WORLD
The Secret of Southsun
The refugees from Flame & Frost who were resettled at Southsun Cove are up in arms over the restrictive residency contracts that prevent them from leaving. Tensions are high, and settlers are brawling with Consortium guards. What’s worse, the island’s local wildlife has been agitated and is even more aggressive and territorial than usual.
The Lionguard’s Inspector Kiel has been charged with quelling the violence so it doesn’t interfere with the upcoming Dragon Bash festival in Lion’s Arch. Kiel takes her job seriously, so she’ll need help from players and Researcher Levvi to keep everyone on the island safe from the local wildlife and each other.
Southsun Cove
• The Consortium has created a new exotic resort for those looking to get away for a while. Lord Faren and Lady Kasmeer are currently there on vacation.
• New settlements have been created for refugees coming in from Lion’s Arch.
• Animals on Southsun Cove are becoming increasingly aggressive.
• Settlers and tourists have wandered too far from the camps and need assistance getting back to safety.
• Researcher Levvi is looking for brave adventurers to help survey the island and recover samples to determine the cause of the native creatures’ increased aggression.
• Tensions between settlers and Consortium members have led to confrontation that may require mediation.
• The new Crab Toss activity is now available at Sawtooth Bay in Southsun Cove. Players can win karka shells, passiflora, tonics, and more.
• Southsun Supply Crates will drop rarely from creatures during the Secret of Southsun event. These crates contain Southsun crafting materials and a chance at a wide variety of items, such as shoulder skins, new boosts and convenience items, and a rare chance at new weapon skins and minis. Southsun Supply Crates can also be purchased from the Black Lion Trading Company (see below for more info).
• Blooming Passiflora are now growing on the island.
• The larger veteran and champion karka now have a guaranteed drop chance for karka shells upon defeat.
• All players who enter the island for the duration of the event are scaled up to level 80. This content is available from May 14 to June 4.
Guild Content
• Six Guild Trek locations have been added to Southsun Cove.
Achievements
• Added new living world achievements to Southsun Cove: “Consortium Rewards Club Member,” “Southsun Settler Supporter,” “Southsun Sightseer,” “Southsun Volunteer Fieldwork,” “Southsun VIP Meet and Greet,” and more.
• Added new achievements for Crab Toss activity: “Crab Toss Participant,” “Crab-Carrying Competitor,” “Crabtacular!,” “Crabgrabber,” and “Crab Toss Champion.”
• Players who complete 25 of the Secret of Southsun achievements will earn the “Southsun Stalwart” meta-achievement. This achievement awards players with a Sclerite Karka Shell back item and the title of “Southsun Stalwart.” The Southsun Stalwart meta-achievement covers the entire event’s content, some of which is not accessible until the next release.
• A new title, “Crab Toss Champion,” has been added for players who win a game of Crab Toss.
• A new title, “Crabgrabber,” has been added for players who steal 100 crabs during games of Crab Toss.

NEW FEATURES AND CONTENT
World vs. World
• Obsidian Sanctum, the jumping puzzle in the Eternal Battlegrounds, has been moved to its own WvW map.
• Entering the puzzle will take players out of the Eternal Battlegrounds.
• Leaving will take players back to Lion’s Arch.
• Added a new vendor: “Traps and Tricks Outfitter.”
• Traps have been added as a new purchasable consumable utility item. Two unique variants are available.
• When placed, traps last for one hour.
• Players may only have one of a given trap type deployed at a time.
• Traps will disappear when a player leaves the map.
• Traps are sold by the vendor for 15 badges and 525 karma; they will stack to 250 and are account-bound.
• It takes a 4-second channel to place at feet.
• Placing a trap uses very short-range ground targeting to assist in orientation.
• Placed traps have a 600×90 rectangular trigger area; only enemies can trigger them.
• Once triggered, traps affect up to 20 enemies within a range of 1200.
• Traps cost 10 supply to place.
• Supply Removal Trap
• Removes 5 supply from enemies affected by the trap.
• Stealth Disruptor Trap
• Removes stealth from enemies and reveals them for 30 seconds, preventing stealth.
• Arrow Cart: Arrow cart damage vs. other siege weapons has been reduced to 50% of its current damage.


BALANCE, BUG-FIXING, POLISH
General
• A Commander’s map pings and strokes are now visible to members of their squad.
• Fixed several shadowstep bugs that let players teleport through WvW gates and exploit various dungeons.
• Fixed a bug that caused some items to lose their functionality after a player has gone into a downed state.
Events
• Malchor’s Leap:
• Pact cannons near the Shelter Docks are now fully operational.
• The Inquest Ornithologist has been upgraded to a champion, as befits her Group Event status.
• Metrica Province:
• Minor UI changes were made to the Mark II golem event.
• Mount Maelstrom:
• The Branded ogre in the Infinity Coil complex is now properly imprisoned in his cage.
• Sparkfly Fen:
• Added a skill to the seaweed-mine bundle.
• Timberline Falls:
• Fixed a stalling bug in the event “Protect krewe leader Dobbs as the krewe clears the excavation site.”
• Wayfarer Foothills:
• Dredge soldiers outside Molensk are no longer rooted in place.
Personal Story
• “Down the Hatch”:
• Fixed a rare stalling bug at the end of the story step.
• “The Ghost Rite”:
• Fixed the player’s camera position while transformed.
Structured PvP
• Reverted a change to PvP dailies that increased their difficulty.
• Reworded some custom arena tooltips to be less confusing.

Profession Skills
Warrior
• Leg Specialist:
• This trait will no longer function with the Burning Oil siege weapon in WvW.
• Healing Signet:
• Updated skill facts to show the passive effect and accurately display the healing value for the active effect.

Elementalist
• Dragon’s Claw:
• Fixed an exploit that caused this skill to fire at increased rates.
• Shocking Aura:
• This skill’s icon on the buff bar now displays the same icon as the skill itself.

Engineer
• Kit Refinement:
• The cooldown icon will now display correctly when this trait is used with Flamethrower.
• Fixed a bug which disabled certain traits from functioning correctly. This includes Rifled Turret Barrels, Metal Plating, and Autotool Installation.

Ranger
• Fixed a bug that caused the projectile speed of the following axe skills to be 75% of their intended speed:
• Ricochet
• Splitblade
• Winter’s Bite
• Path of Scars
• Juvenile Rainbow Jellyfish now uses a unique model.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions
• You can now purchase the Southsun Supply Crate in the Consumable category of the Gem Store for 1 for 150 gems or 10 for 1200 gems. These special crates contain Southsun crafting materials and a chance at items such as shoulder skins, new boosts and convenience items, and a rare chance at new weapon skins and minis. The Southsun Supply Crates will only be available until June 10. The Southsun Supply Crates will also be a limited-time rare drop off the creatures on the island during this time.
• The Consortium Swim Speed Boost is now available in the Boost category of the Gem Store for 1 for 50 gems or 5 for 200 gems. This boost will increase your swim speed by 15% for 1 hour. This boost is not useable in PvP.
• To celebrate spring, the Gem Store is making one miniature baby animal available each week for the month of May. This week’s adorable addition is the Mini Moa Chick, which is now available in the Minis category of the Gem Store for 400 gems each.
• How to Dance, Volume 1 is now available in the Services category of the Gem Store for 400 gems. This book can be used to gain access to three different dance moves and a skill that will allow you to invite others to participate in your dance party.


Optimizations
• We’re rolling out our first set of optimizations. This is the first in many steps involved in helping resolve issues with “skill lag.” Some players will experience a slight improvement in skill lag issues with large groups of players, while some players may also experience a slight raise in their FPS.

Balance, bug-fixing and polish:
• Fused weapon tickets are no longer available in Black Lion Chests.
• Citizens! The Shark Boss crier will no longer be a bother. Please excuse his bad behavior.
• Prevented Levvi from getting killed and temporarily blocking the scavenger hunt on Southsun Cove.
• Fixed an issue with crab toss where players would get stuck on a team reserved for those carrying the crab.
• This subsequently fixes an issue where more than one player wins, but the winner does not get a winner’s prize.
• This also fixes an issue with the achievement for winning Crab Toss.
• Closed an exploit that allowed some players to still access the final molten dungeon instance.



• Fixed the Heralds so they will tell the tale of Southsun Cove.
• Fixed a bug causing waypoints on Southsun Shore to remain locked when they shouldn’t be.
• Fixed issues that were potential causes of server latency in Crab Toss.
• Fixed Cragstead and North Nolan Hatchery to appear in their post-Flame and Frost states.
• Flame and Frost’s Victory Bonfires in Lion’s Arch, Hoelbrak & Black Citadel will remain until May 28th. Interacting with them will allow A Rallying Flame to be completed.
• Fixed a bug with Dodge roll where it could get stuck in the queue and unintentionally execute after a stun or immobilize.
• Collision has been updated on the World vs. World Burning Oil Pot. Players will once again be able to burn the enemies at the gate.
• Fixed a bug with the animation with Sclerite Karka Shell.
• Fixed a bug with missing upgrade slots on PvP Sclerite weapons.

Build 4/30/13 April Content Update Release Notes
LIVING STORY
Flame & Frost: Retribution
In secret foundries deep beneath the Shiverpeaks, the Molten Alliance forges deadly new weaponry that combines the fiery power of the Flame Legion with the iron might of the dredge. There, Alliance weaponsmiths test their creations on innocent captives, perfecting their cruel technology until it is ready to unleash on all of Tyria.
In the last chapter of the Flame and Frost series, you’ll strike at the heart of the Molten Alliance with your comrades, Rox the charr and the norn Braham. Take the battle into the enemy’s weapons facilities and defeat a final hybrid menace unlike any Tyria has ever seen!

Molten Weapons Facility
• The Vigil has pinpointed the first of what may be several entrances to the weapons facilities where the Molten Alliance has been creating their fearsome technologies.
• The Molten Weapons Facility is a level-80 single-path dungeon experience where players fight alongside Rox Whetstone and Braham Eirsson.
• All players who enter are scaled up to level 80.
• Entrances to the Molten Weapons Facility change over time as new locations are found.
• Information on the map where the dungeon is located is in the Living World UI on the top right of the screen.
• A wide variety of new and unique rewards are available by defeating the challenging encounters within.
• This content is available from April 30 to May 12.
•
Achievements
• New achievements have been added to the Living Story category: “Rage Against the War Machine,” “Avenger of the Dispossessed,” “A Rallying Flame,” and “Alliance Breaker.”
• Completing the meta-achievement for Flame and Frost, “Alliance Breaker,” awards you a Fused Gauntlet Ticket. Use this item to exchange it for your choice of Fused Gauntlets, a unique exotic item. Completion of this achievement requires all of the other Flame and Frost achievements except “A Rallying Flame.”
• A new title, “Avenger of the Dispossessed,” has been added for players who see Rox and Braham’s stories to completion.
• The final Flame and Frost achievement, “A Rallying Flame,” is not available until the conclusion of the story arc.
•
NEW FEATURES AND CONTENT
Structured Player vs. Player
• Custom arenas!
• Soon, you’ll be able to host private matches, hone your skills, and build your own community in rentable custom PvP arenas!
• Initially, renting a custom arena will be available on an invitation basis, but custom arena play and spectator mode will be available to all PvP players.
• Once this feature leaves beta, the ability to run a custom arena will be available to any player as a gem purchase.

• Spectator mode!
• View any non-tournament match in real time from several fixed camera locations or from the perspective of players in the match.
• Inspect the statistics, equipment, traits, and skills of players you are watching.
• If spectator mode is enabled on an arena, players can select which team they are on when the map begins.
• Map pings and drawing now work for your team instead of only your party.
• Clicking the score UI at the top of the screen opens the scoreboard.
• The PvP browser now provides filtering options and favorites for custom arenas.

World vs. World
• Added the following rare weapon skin sets to the Weapon Master:
• Aureate
• Flame
• Verdant
• Norn
• Added new abilities:
• Arrow Cart Mastery
• Increase range on all arrow-cart skills.
• Increase damage on all arrow-cart skills.
• Increase effectiveness of applied conditions.
• Increase radius on all arrow-cart skills
• New skill (slot 4): Toxic Unveiling Shot. Removes stealth and applies poison to targets.
• Guard Killer
• All Guard Killer bonuses now also apply to enemy lords and supervisors.
• 7% damage to guards, lords, and supervisors.
• Gain endurance after killing guards, lords, and supervisors.
• 10% damage to guards, lords, and supervisors.
• Add 1 stack of Guard Leech on killing a guard, lord, or supervisor.
• Guard Leech: Gain health when attacking guards, lords, or supervisors.
• Added the following guild siege weapons as rewards for completing guild missions:
• Trebuchet
• Ballista
• Arrow cart
• Catapult
• Added WvW Rank progress to the WvW Dashboard UI (see top center of the screen while in WvW).
• Siege weapons provide World XP when destroyed.
• Siege weapons placed by Commander Siegerazer and Commander Siegecrusher now provide XP and World XP when destroyed.
• Players now receive World XP for repairing gates and walls in WvW.
• Players now receive World XP for defending supply dolyaks from ambushes in WvW.

Guild Content
• Moved guild-mission information from Upgrades to its own tab.
• Guild treks now award influence on successful completion:
• Tier 1 awards 400 influence.
• Tier 2 awards 500 influence.
• Tier 3 awards 700 influence.
• Added 30 new guild-trek targets across Tyria.
• Added a new guild rush near Talabaroop Waves in Frostgorge Sound.
• Added new guild banner back-slot items to the guild commendation vendor.
• Half-Baked Komali’s fire shield now applies vulnerability to attackers instead of might and stability to herself.
• Reduced the possible spawning area and count of Sottz the Scallywag’s barrels.
• Sottz the Scallywag no longer despawns too fast after being discovered.
• Sottz the Scallywag’s barrels can no longer be destroyed by players who do not have him targeted by their current mission.
• “Hiding” bounty targets will now appear when a majority of their spawn locations have been searched.
• “Ambushing” bounty targets such as Big Mayana will no longer despawn as fast as standard targets.
• Corrected the Guild Truncheon’s price from 3 gold + 7 commendations to 3 gold + 5 commendations.

BALANCE, BUG-FIXING, POLISH
• World PolishBloodtide Coast:
• Fixed an errant UI marker during the event to destroy Psylithium Generators.
• Living Covington pirates no longer respawn while players are helping Bill and Hekja fight Risen pirates.
• Brisban Wildlands:
• On completion of the skritt/bandit event, the crate vanishes, preventing a bug during repeated runs of the event.
• Caledon Forest:
• The event to slay the Risen drake broodmother is now correctly marked as [Group].
• The great jungle wurm can no longer be killed before its event starts. Increased the scaling cap on the wurm.
• Cursed Shore:
• Reduced density of spawns in the event to collect glands for Merla.
• Diessa Plateau:
• Fixed an event-progression issue with the Cattlepult.
• Dredgehaunt Cliffs:
• Fixed tooltips for the jotun greatsword environment weapon.
• Fields of Ruin:
• Fixed a stall in the “Assist the Foulbear Kraal” event.
• Messenger Laren and her bodyguards now revive each other between fights.
• Speaking to Legionnaire Riptooth now correctly starts the Bloodgorge Watch event.
• Fireheart Rise:
• Made some polish changes to the Vidius Castrum event chain.
• All NPCs in the Battle of Buloh Crossing can now be revived and will revive each other.
• Brakkurn and Jhalles are now marked by Protect NPC markers during their event to repair machinery.
• Haki Wolfwatcher stops announcing that the gates of the Citadel of Flame are open when they are not.
• Increased toughness of Agent Marrick’s pack marmox.
• Players can now use the cannon in the siege of Vidius Castrum without being kicked off.
• The monstrous tar elemental now has standard event UI.
• Frostgorge Sound:
• Icebrood no longer clump up during their attack on the Moshpoipoi if they have no nearby targets.
• Iron Marches:
• Fixed an event-progression issue with Victurus the Shattered.
• Lion’s Arch:
• Map-marker tooltips for asura gates now state their destinations.
• Malchor’s Leap:
• Reduced the creatures in the “Kill the Corrupted High Priestess” event at high scales.
• Adjusted the spawn density and respawn rate in the Bauxite Alchemicals plant.
• Collecting spectral weapons and omnomberries for Byanca now uses standard collection UI.
• NPCs in the Dwayna Temple events can now revive each other.
• Reduced range of the Risen catapult near Doric’s Waypoint so it cannot knock players into Bloodtide Coast.
• Skills for the spectral jammer environmental weapon now display the correct tooltips.
• Metrica Province:
• Collecting eggs for Plink now correctly starts the subsequent event even if the collection is done solo.
• Fixed an event-progression issue with LUM0009 golems.
• Added additional event UI to the Imbued Mark I Golem event.
• Minor UI adjustment for the Luminates Plant event.
• Reduced the contribution required to earn a silver or gold medal in the fire elemental event.
• Researcher Orl is now correctly identified as a karma merchant.
• Mount Maelstrom:
• Added additional UI for the event to prevent the Inquest from contaminating the Whitland Flats.
• Added an overhead marker to the bosses in the Terror 7 event chain.
• Fixed a UI bug in the “Toil for the Coil” meta-event.
• Plains of Ashford:
• Roefire Hauntclase appears as a vendor only when he has something to sell.
• Queensdale:
• Fixed an event-progression issue with Sister Brenda.
• Reviving Moa Trainer Kappa now correctly updates her event UI.
• Sparkfly Fen:
• Adjusted levels of some spawns near Brooloonu Waypoint to better match the area’s level.
• Adjusted the UI for the Swampwatch events.
• Fixed a possible stall in the “Defend Shorewatch from the Risen” event.
• The steward who becomes a (normal) merchant after the Ocean’s Gullet event no longer appears as a karma merchant.
• Straits of Devastation:
• Fixed an event-progression issue with the Pact escort to Temple of Balthazar.
• Reduced the respawn rate of enemies around Agent Raia.
• Replaced a couple of underwater Risen giants with sharks.
• Timberline Falls:
• Dobbs and his krewe now revive each other between fights.
• Fixed a minor display bug in the “Assist Dobbs in the ruins” meta-event.
• Wayfarer Foothills:
• Bolt throwers used by the Sons of Svanir no longer trap players who destroy them if they are standing on the thrower.
• Bear Shaman Marge is now always responsive during her skill challenge.
• Increased max event scale for the Svanir Shaman Chief in the Frozen Maw meta-event.
• It is now possible (but difficult) to catch kegs thrown by Volden.
• The roadblock built by the Sons of Svanir outside Hoelbrak is now attackable from either side.
• Players can no longer get stuck in snow-leopard form after leaving the Snow Leopard Shrine area.

General
• Added increased scaling to several new events.
• Instances now display an exit even if players have completed their personal story.
• Reduced the chatter frequency of player characters.
• Fixed mouse-based target selection while using the “look behind” key.
• An error message now appears for disconnections during character creation.
• Fixed a progress-blocking issue in dungeon-related Explorer achievements.
• Updated the number of tiers on the Centaur Slayer and Zhaitan’s Bane achievements to be consistent with other achievements in the Slayer category.
• Updated Drake Slayer achievement tiers to match other achievements in the Slayer category.
• Players cannot use transformation tonics when already in a transformation, and leaving these transformations has a 3-second cooldown.
• Blowout effect: Renamed to Launch.
• Summoned creatures and pets can no longer draw aggro from enemies that have not already aggroed on their master.
• Adjusted ranger pet AI when fighting enemies in PvE. Melee pets now attempt to move behind enemies as long as they are not actively being targeted by the creature.
• Retaliation now has its own iconic damage floater.
• Hero Panel now displays magic find.

Dungeons
• Ascalonian Catacombs:
• Players can no longer fall through the map when standing above graveling burrows when they appear in the Ascalon Catacombs dungeon.
• The Lovers can now be knocked back consistently.
• Honor of the Waves:
• Andal the Thug’s skill that buffs Oolon and Poroo now matches the visual effects.
• The Ruined City of Arah:
• Warden Illyra now looks correct when she carries a Risen chicken.
Fractals
• Mossman no longer becomes unresponsive in combat.
• Cliffside: Players can no longer exploit the final boss by keeping him stunned in an emote loop.

Personal Story
• “Among the Kodan”: Boosted the power of the Overminer’s Boomstick (but only when used by a player).
• “Armor Guard”: Pact soldiers now revive each other. Tegwen’s behavior is now consistent.
• “Deadly Force”: Fixed a bug when using the Ghostbore cannon.
• “Don’t Leave Your Toys Out”: Adjusted difficulty. The charr now revive each other.
• “On Red Alert”: All of the Priory Novices are now using the correct voices.
• “The Championship Fight”: Players are no longer blocked if they ask Eir to wait a minute before proceeding.
• “The Sad Tale of the Ravenous”: Adjusted story-step difficulty.
• “The Stone Sheath”: Increased size of the escape region so it is not possible to accidentally run past it.
• “Through the Looking Glass”: Adjusted timing of the subtitles to match the spoken VO.
• “Untamed Wilds”: Increased scaling to keep the story step challenging for multiple players.
• “Where Life Goes”: The NPCs in the story step can now revive each other and be revived by players.
• “Ships of the Line”: Goop dropped by the oozes now time out and disappear after 15 seconds, preventing the hold from filling with infinite goop.
• “What the Eye Beholds”: Fixed a possible stall if the player talked to Trahearne during the testing process.
Items
• Corrected Rune and Sigil tooltips to say “chill” instead of “freeze” or “frozen.”
• Sigil of Water: Tooltip now correctly states % Chance on Critical instead of just % Chance.
• Time remaining on buffs now display with increased resolution.
• Bolt, Incinerator, Rodgort, and Frostfang now have a base elemental damage type. Note: This is a visual change only.
• PvP: Weapon-upgrade bonuses no longer disappear when players die while transformed.
• Updated many item icons.

Profession Skills
Elementalist
• Comet skill: Blast finisher now occurs at the comet’s location rather than at the elementalist’s location.
• Conjure Flame Axe skill: Updated the Flame Leap skill fact to display the proper burning duration.
• Rock Blade skill: Projectiles now correctly hit targets up to the intended 1200 range.
• Mist Form skill: Activation now locks heal, utility, and elite skills.
• Ride the Lightning skill:
• Increased recharge increased 20 seconds to 40 seconds.
• Recharge is now halved if the player strikes a foe.
• Reduced the range to 1200 from the previous (hidden) 1550.
• Signet of Earth skill: Passive stat bonus increased by 100%.
• Signet of Fire skill: Passive stat bonus increased by 100%.
• Glyph of Elemental Power skill: Added a skill fact to indicate the percent chance.
• Signet of Restoration skill: Reduced the passive healing by 18% in PvP.
• Cleansing Water trait: Can now trigger only once every 5 seconds (only in PvP).
• Glyph of Storms skill: Increased duration of Lightning Storm by 50%, Ice Storm by 50%, Firestorm by 25%, and Sandstorm by 11%.
• Glyph of Lesser Elementals skill: Increased the health of summoned elementals by 33%.
• Glyph of Elementals skill: Increased the health of the summoned elementals by 33%.
• Conjure Fiery Greatsword skill: The Fiery Rush skill no longer consumes a warrior’s adrenaline pool.
• Swirling Winds skill: No longer destroys unblockable missiles.

Engineer
• Flame Turret skill: Now has the proper recharge when the Deployable Turrets trait is equipped.
• Static Shot skill: Changed the maximum targets skill fact to number of bounces to better indicate its actual effect.
• Elixir U skill: Now always applies quickness correctly.
• Reserve Mines trait: Updated description to be more accurate.
• Elixir S skill: Activation now locks heal, utility, and elite skills.
• Incendiary Powder trait:
• Increased burning duration from 2 seconds to 4 seconds.
• Increased internal cooldown from 3 seconds to 10 seconds.
• Increased activation chance from 33% to 100%.
• Cloaking Device trait: Increased cloaking duration from 2 seconds to 5 seconds. Added internal cooldown of 25 seconds.
• Regenerating Mist skill: Reduced Healing Turret Toolbelt skill recharge from 60 seconds to 25 seconds.
• Healing Turret skill:
• Reduced the deployed heal by 50%.
• Healing range is now 2520-3270.
• No longer applies 2 stacks of regeneration every time the turret fires. Now applies 3 seconds of regeneration every 3 seconds.
• No longer passively creates a water field.
• Normalized the ranges of all aspects to 480 (previously 240, 360, or 480).
• Cleansing Burst skill:
• Reduced Healing Turret overcharge skill recharge from 60 seconds to 15 seconds
• Now heals as much as deploying does.
• Healing range is now 2520-3270.
• Now applies 5 seconds of regeneration.
• Removes 2 conditions when activated.
• Now deploys a 3-second water field.
• Normalized the ranges of all aspects to 480 (previously 240, 360, or 480).
• Glue Shot skill: Added an unblockable skill fact to this skill to represent its actual nature.
• Elixir X skill: No longer fails if the player is in midair when it activates.
• Kit Refinement trait: Now displays on the player’s buff bar when it is out of cooldown.
• Low Health Response System trait: Now has a 10-second recharge.
• Thumper Turret skill: Updated skill facts to reflect cripple while Deployable Turrets is equipped.
• Toss Elixir U skill: No longer destroys unblockable missiles.
• Picking up a turret no longer triggers effects from the Accelerant-Packed Turrets and Shrapnel traits.
• Elixir U skill:
• Increased duration by 1 second.
• When gaining Haste, players now take regenerate endurance at 50% effectiveness (increased from 0%) when under the effects of this skill.
• When gaining Frenzy, players now take 25% more damage (reduced from 50%) when under the effects of this skill.

Guardian
• Perfect Inscriptions trait: Recharges can no longer be refreshed.
• Wrath skill: Updated the damage skill fact to indicate that the damage is done incrementally during the skill’s channel.
• Pure of Voice trait: Now properly converts fear.
• “Hold the Line!” skill: This shout now converts a condition only if the Pure of Voice trait is equipped.
• Bane Signet skill: Increased passive stat bonus by 100%.
• Signet of Mercy skill: Increased passive stat bonus by 100%.
• Signet of Wrath skill: Increased passive stat bonus by 100%.
• Hammer of Wisdom skill: Increased health of this summoned spirit by 25%.
• Shield of the Avenger skill: Increased health of this summoned spirit by 14%.
• Healer’s Retribution trait: Now functions with racial healing skills.
• Sanctuary skill: No longer destroys unblockable missiles.
• Shield of Absorption skill: No longer destroys unblockable missiles.

Mesmer
• Reduced mantra cast times from 3.25 seconds to 2.75 seconds.
• Confounding Suggestions trait: Now functions with the Chaos Storm and Counter Blade skills.
• Clones wielding a spear underwater now execute the full spear combo.
• Mirror Blade skill: Added an unblockable skill fact.
• Into the Void skill: Updated description to be more accurate (“Temporal Curtain”).
• Mind Stab skill (one-handed sword combo): Renamed to Mind Spike.
• Arcane Thievery skill: Now correctly transfers the boons removed from enemies and the conditions removed from the mesmer.
• Moa Morph skill: Can be used while moving.
• Moa transform flee: Reduced run distance and reduced cooldown from 15 seconds to 10 seconds.
• Blinding Befuddlement trait:
• Increased duration of applied confusion from 1 second to 4 seconds.
• Can now trigger only once every 5 seconds on any target that is blinded by the mesmer.
• Signet of Domination skill: Passive power increase now scales from 20-180, up from 10-90.
• Illusion of Life skill: Players can no longer circumvent the vengeance properties. Increased cast time by 0.5 seconds.
• Distortion skill: No longer allows capture of control points in all formats or communing in PvP.

Necromancer
• Well of Corruption skill: Updated damage skill fact to indicate the correct number of attacks.
• Well of Suffering skill:
• Updated damage skill fact to indicate the correct number of attacks.
• Updated the number of attacks to be consistent when affected by Focused Rituals.
• Spinal Shivers skill: Updated damage facts to indicate damage dealt based on boons removed.
• Signet of Spite skill: Updated the skill facts to indicate the passive effect of this skill. Increased the passive power boost by 100%.
• Corrupt Boon skill: No longer causes odd interactions with Aegis. Now unblockable.
• Epidemic skill: Now unblockable.
• Flesh Wurm minion: Increased health by 25%.
• Flesh Golem minion: Increased health by 25% and toughness by 10%.
• Lich Form skill: The Grim Specter skill now strips boons from enemies and conditions from allies when it reaches its target point instead of only when the missile hits a target.

Ranger
• Tail Wind trait: Now has an internal cooldown of 9 seconds.
• Furious Grip trait: Now has an internal cooldown of 9 seconds.
• “Guard” skill: Reduced cooldown from 30 seconds to 15 seconds.
• “Sic ’Em” skill: Reduced cooldown to 40 seconds from 60 seconds.
• Lightning Reflexes skill: Reduced cooldown from 45 seconds to 40 seconds.
• Signet of Stone skill:
• Reduced cooldown from 120 seconds to 80 seconds.
• Increased passive toughness by 100%.
• Now allows capture of control points in all formats and communing in PvP.
• Signet of the Wild skill: Reduced cooldown from 120 seconds to 60 seconds and duration from 12 seconds to 8 seconds.
• Spiritual Knowledge trait: Increased activation chance from 15% to 35%.
• Swoop skill: Corrected the damage indicated in the skill fact.
• Increased health of all non-elite spirits by 60%.
• “Search and Rescue” skill:
• Increased cooldown from 85 seconds to 180 seconds in PvP.
• No longer revives defeated allies.
• Point Blank Shot skill: No longer has an increased cast time when the Eagle Eye trait is equipped.
• Quickening Zephyr skill:
• Increased duration by 1 second.
• Players are now healed at 50% effectiveness (increased from 0%) when under the effects of this skill.

Pet Attributes
• Adjusted health and/or armor of ranger pets:
• Ursine pets: health increased from 26,000 to 29982; armor is now 2061 (up 687). Polar bear’s power now matches that of all other bear pets.
• Dogs: health increased from 13,000 to 14,868; armor is 2061 (no change).
• Cats: health increased from 13,000 to 14,868; armor is 1374 (no change).
• Devourers: health increased from 11,089 to 14868; armor is 2748 (no change).
• Birds: health increased from 11,894 to 14,868; armor is 1374 (no change).
• Drakes: health increased from 11,683 to 22,425; armor is 2061 (no change).
• Spiders: health increased from 18,646 to 22,425; armor is 1374 (no change).
• Pigs: health increased from 20,538 to 22,425; armor is now 2061 (up 687).
• Moas: health increased from 16,781 to 22,425; armor is 1374 (no change).
• Armor Fish: health increased from 16,781 to 22,452; armor is now 2748 (up 343).
• Jellyfish: health increased from 11,089 to 22,425; armor is 1374 (no change).
• Shark: health increased from 13,000 to 22,425; armor is now 2061 (up 687).
Canine Skills
• Intimidating Howl skill: Reduced cast time from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds.
• Regenerate skill: Reduced cast time from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds.
• Howl of the Pack skill: Reduced cast time from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds.
• Chilling Howl skill: Reduced cast time from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds.
• Terrifying Howl skill: Reduced cast time from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds.
Drake Skills
• Lightning Breath skill: Reduced cast time from 2.7 seconds to 1.5 seconds. The lightning from this attack no longer tracks targets.
• Fire Breath skill: Reduced cast time from 2.7 seconds to 1.5 seconds.
• Insect Swarm skill: Reduced cast time from 2.7 seconds to 1.5 seconds.
• Frost Breath skill: Reduced cast time from 2.7 seconds to 1.5 seconds.
Feline Skills
• Icy Pounce skill: Reduced cast time from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds.
• Rending Pounce skill: Reduced cast time from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds.
Jellyfish Skills
• Immobilizing Whirl skill: Now sticks on its target instead of passing through.
• Chilling Whirl skill: Now sticks on its target instead of passing through.
• Poisoning Whirl skill: Now sticks on its target instead of passing through.

Thief
• Skills that must be performed from stealth are now labeled as “Stealth Attack.”
• Vigorous Recovery: Improved accuracy of description.
• Cloak and Dagger skill: Now functions with the Hidden Killer trait.
• Needle Trap skill: Removed the duration skill fact as being misleading.
• Shadow Shot skill: The projectile portion is now unblockable.
• Choking Gas skill: Added an Unblockable skill fact to reflect functionality.
• Flanking Strike skill:
• Now evades and delivers one strike instead of delivering two attacks.
• Removed boon removal.
• Reduced initiative cost from 4 to 3.
• Now toggles for 5 seconds to a second skill, Larcenous Strike, if the attack hits an enemy.
• Improved reliability of flanking strike.
• Larcenous Strike: Deliver a quick strike that steals up to two boons from an enemy. Costs 1 initiative.
• Larcenous Strike, Stab skills: Reduced aftercast by 0.5 seconds.
• Mug trait: Can no longer critically hit. Now heals the thief from a range of 1980 health to 2700 health.
• Leeching Venoms trait: Increased the damage scale from power by 33%. Increased range from 325-400 to 325-425.
• Signet of Agility skill: Increased passive stat bonus by 100%.
• Assassin’s Signet skill: Increased passive stat bonus by 100%.
• Revealed effect: Reverted duration to 3 seconds in PvE.
• Trick Shot skill: First arrow is no longer heat-seeking.
• Smoke Screen skill: No longer destroys unblockable missiles.
• Haste skill:
• Increased duration by 1 second.
• Players now regenerate endurance at 50% effectiveness (increased from 0%) when under the effects of this skill.

Warrior
• Arcing Arrow skill: Added a radius skill fact. Removed the burning skill fact on the traited version because it did not actually burn.
• Fan of Fire skill:
• Updated the cast time and aftercast to match other fan skills.
• Reduced cast time by 0.5 seconds and aftercast by 0.5 seconds.
• Earthshaker skill:
• Fixed the attack radius to correctly match the ground targeted decal radius.
• Added a radius skill fact.
• Fixed the damage displayed in the skill fact at zero adrenaline to be consistent with the skill at all adrenaline levels.
• Throw Boulder skill: Added a knockdown skill fact.
• Call to Arms skill:
• Now a blast finisher.
• Updated the radius skill fact to be consistent with the skill’s effects.
• Removed extraneous 500-millisecond aftercast.
• Added new Adept major trait, Defense (II): Dogged March—Incoming immobilize, chill, and cripple conditions are reduced by 33%. Gain 3 seconds of regeneration when you are crippled, chilled, or immobilized. This effect can trigger only once every 10 seconds. This trait replaces Turtle’s Defense.
• Quick Bursts and Adrenal Reserves traits: Combined into one trait, Burst Mastery (XI).
• Added new Grandmaster major trait, Discipline (XII): Destruction of the Empowered—Damage is increased by 3% per unique boon on the warrior’s target.
• Endure Pain skill: Players can now capture points while under its effects.
• Leg Specialist trait: No longer functions when controlling turrets such as the WvW Arrow Cart.
• Brutal Shot (Rifle) skill: Increased vulnerability duration from 10 seconds to 12 seconds. Increased vulnerability stacks from 5 to 8.
• Signet of Fury skill: Increased passive stat bonus by 100%.
• Signet of Might skill: Increased passive stat bonus by 100%. The new active is the player’s next 3 attacks are unblockable. This effect lasts for 10 seconds.
• Dolyak Signet skill: Increased passive stat bonus by 100%.
• “On My Mark!” skill: Now uses its actual range instead of infinite range. Increased the range of the shout from 900 to 1200.
• Frenzy skill:
• Increased duration by 1 second.
• Players now take 25% more damage (reduced from 50%) when under the effects of this skill.

Structured Player vs. Player
• Minimap icons for team members now show their profession icon instead of a dot.
• Updated requirements for PvP daily achievements.
• Heart of the Mists:
• The PvP locker now has a tab for back-slot items.
• Glory vendors now sell PvP guild banner back-slot items.
• Added new Fused Gauntlets to the Match Win Reward Chest.
• Players can now use transformation tonics here.
• PvP Steady weapons are now Basic rarity and have had their damage increased.
• Spirit Watch:
• Ride the Lightning distance is reduced by 40% while carrying the orb.
• Tornado move speed is now correctly reduced while carrying the orb.
• The orb is dropped if the orb carrier uses an invulnerability skill.
• The orb now spawns 10 seconds after match start instead of immediately.
• Increased altar commune time from 2 seconds to 3 seconds.
• Fixed multiple locations where teleport skills would fail for no visible reason.
• Minimap and Party UI now display all allies on map.
• Kill Spam now displays all kills on map.

World vs. World
• Updated confusion and retaliation effects to do the same damage as they do in sPvP.
• Added a buff to display time remaining before siege weapons are destroyed from inactivity.
• Siege sites are now destroyed 2 minutes after being placed if they receive no supply.
• Increased arrow-cart damage:
• Increased Fire damage by 80%.
• Increased Fire Crippling Arrows damage by 17%.
• Increased Fire Barbed Arrows damage by 60% and increased the Bleed duration to 15^^seconds.
• The “under attack” notice at objectives now displays 30 seconds after it is first attacked. Does not affect waypoint usage.
• Siege weapon blueprints are now account-bound instead of soulbound.
• Killing a supply dolyak now awards 3 points to the team that lands the deathblow.
• Righteous Indignation now ignores damage from all sources.
• Players can now deploy siege sites on enemy walls.
• Siege weapons can no longer be built in no-siege areas.
• Increased radius of cannon basic shot from 240 to 360.
• Lotus Poison (thief minor trait, 15 in Deadly Arts) no longer applies to a trebuchet’s poison shot.
• Frost Spirit (ranger utility skill) no longer applies 10% damage buff to siege weapons.
• Increased boon resistance of siege golems so players can’t apply swiftness to them with increased boon duration.
• Picking up supply while holding more than current capacity (due to a capacity buff going away) no longer reduces the supply down to current capacity.
• WvW dialogue will now reopen to the last-viewed page.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions
• You can now purchase Braham and Rox’s weapon skins in the Gem Store! Braham’s Mace and Shield and Rox’s Short Bow and Quiver are each available in the Style category for 600 gems. Apply each skin to any weapon of the same type to change its appearance. Skins can either be applied to a PvE item or added to your PvP locker for use in the Mists.
• There is now a rare chance to get the Cheetah Charr or Killer Whale Quaggan backpack covers from the Black Lion Chest. Black Lion Chest Keys can be obtained from the Gem Store in the Consumable category for 1 for 125 gems or 5 for 450.
• To celebrate spring, the Gem Store will make available one miniature baby animal each week for the next 5 weeks. The first of these adorable additions is the Mini Hippo Calf, which is now available in the Minis category of the Gem Store for 400 gems each.
• The Sonic Tunneling Tool can now be purchased from the Style category of the Gem Store for 250 gems each. This neat piece of tech lets your character move just under the surface instead of running. Simply equip the item in the toy slot of your town clothes and use the skill to start tunneling. The item does not change obstacles, and entering combat makes you resurface.

Improvements
• A pack of 8000 gems can now be purchased through the Gem Store. Select Get Gems in the upper-left corner of the Gem Store to start the gem-purchase process.
• Dancing Spirit skills now have a 2-second recharge time.
• Increased duration of summoned Merchant Express and Trading Post Express NPCs from 5 minutes to 15 minutes.
• Increased duration of spawned Boxes o’ Fun from 10 minutes to 15 minutes.
• Backpack straps that come with backpack skins no longer require typing the name to delete them.
• Boxes o’ Fun now drop from the Black Lion Chest.
• Reduced the drop rate of Name Change Contracts from the Black Lion Chest to reduce duplication.

Bug Fixes
• All sell listings are now shown for Instant Buy on the Trading Post, instead of only the 20 lowest prices.
• An active customer-support link now appears when attempting to purchase gems fails.
• The Cook’s Boots town clothes items no longer look corrupted when worn by a charr character.
Next
• Re-enabled spectator mode
• Fixed a bug with spectator mode preventing players from joining a team
• Fixed PvP daily achievements not incrementing at the end of matches
Next
• Fixed several crash bugs in custom arenas when spectator mode was enabled
• Spectators will no longer be booted from the game for being idle after attempting to join a team
• Fixed a bug where the launcher would get stuck updating at 99%

Flame & Frost: Molten Weapons Facility
• Fixed an issue where certain parts of the Molten Facility dungeon would not trigger after the dungeon’s instance creator logged out or left the map.
• After an entire party has been defeated, party members should no longer be forced back into the boss arena until entering of their own free will.
• Fixed the transformation sequence visuals for the final bosses of the Molten Facility dungeon.

Structured Player vs. Player
• Fixed crash in custom arenas with spectators enabled.

General
• Wayfarer’s Foothills: Fixed an issue where Cragstead was sometimes revealed for the player before they discovered the area, resulting in an undiscovered point of intrest marker to not appear.

Build 3/26/13 March Content Update Release Notes

LIVING STORY

Flame and Frost: The Razing
A hybrid army erupts through fiery portals in the Shiverpeaks. This “Molten Alliance” between dredge and Flame Legion has created an enemy powerful enough to massacre any who stand in their way. One ranch, one homestead at a time, they’re wiping out all resistance. The razing has begun.

In Flame and Frost: The Razing, the third installment in this four-part series, we meet Braham and Rox, two fervent Tyrians who believe in doing what’s right, even if it means putting themselves in danger. They’re defending the people and places they love, and they’ll need your help.

Open World
• The Molten Alliance has begun spying on the people of Wayfarer Foothills, Diessa Plateau, the Snowden Drifts, the Plains of Ashford, and the Iron Marches. The Vigil have stationed collectors in these areas to reward adventurers who return logs of all data collected by the enemy.
• Rumor has it that an Order of Whispers operative has been openly seeking assistance in the Black Citadel. As always, details are classified until disclosed.
• The Molten Alliance has been arming units with what looks like a fused technology—the molten heat of the Flame Legion combined with the iron-forged brutality of the dredge. Adventurers are advised to stay wary when traversing near the Shiverpeak Mountains.
• Those brave enough to survive against the Molten Alliance have reported seeing charr and dredge utilizing strange and new combinations of technology and magic.
• More refugees located in all known camps have begun opening up about their experiences.
• A Durmand Priory scholar named Aiti and her archival golem LOR-748 have moved into Lion’s Arch at the Durmand Dig Site to answer all queries regarding the Flame Legion and dredge.
• The Consortium has begun construction of their refugee aid project in Southsun Cove.
• The Molten Alliance’s loot tables have been updated to better reflect their shared resources.

• One new area and one new point of interest have been added to Wayfarer Foothills. Another new point of interest has been added to Diessa Plateau. Players who have previously finished map completion and the Shiverpeak Explorer achievement will not need to discover these new locations in order to maintain map completion. Players who have not reached map completion in Wayfarer Foothills or Diessa Plateau, or who have not finished the Shiverpeak Explorer achievement, will need to discover these new locations.

Instances
• Living Story instances telling the stories of both Braham the norn and Rox the charr have been added to the world. In-game mails and achievements have been implemented in order to aid guidance to the relevant locations. These instance locations are marked on the world map with a golden portal marker.
• After completion, Living Story instances can be experienced again by speaking with the Replay NPCs stationed inside each completed instance location. In the case of Rox and Braham’s combat instances, repeatable rewards can be earned once a day per account.

Achievements
• The Secret Contact achievement has been added to the Living Story achievement category.
• The achievements for Braham: Help from the Legions, Braham – Eirsson, Braham – Retake Cragstead, Rox: Critical Mission, Rox – The Hatchery, and Hero’s Aid have been added to the Living Story achievement category in order to track progress in Living Story instances.
• All prior Living Story achievements can still be earned.

NEW FEATURES AND CONTENT
Leaderboards
• We’re pleased to announce that Guild Wars 2 leaderboards begin recording data on March 26th.
• Initially, the leaderboards will feature WvW rankings, PvP player rankings, and total achievement points—something for all player types in GW2.
• As of March 26th, your existing scores will silently be posted to the leaderboards while we watch for the top leaders to stabilize. These scores will take into account some of your past accomplishments/rating.
• Once stable, we will display the leaderboards for players. We currently don’t have an exact date for leaderboard public release.

World vs. World
• We are happy to announce the addition of World Ranks. When you participate in World vs. World events and defeat enemy players, you will earn World Experience (WXP). When you earn enough WXP, you’ll unlock World Ranks. Every World Rank earned will come with a World Ability Point, and some ranks can even give you a new World Title. World Ability points can be spent on unique World vs. World abilities. Click here for more information on World Ranks.
• Server-side culling has been removed from World vs. World. For more on the culling removal, read the blog post here.
• Added client options for various character representations (high-res, low-res, nameplate only).
• Added more armor and weapon options to vendors inside World vs. World.

Guild Content
• A new mission type, Guild Bounty Training, is available in Tier 3 of the Art of War line. Completing guild bounty training earns influence for your guild.
• Three new Guild Bounty targets have been added.
• Added new weapon skins to the Guild Commendation vendor and sorted the vendor’s available items into tabs.
• Guild mission activations, completions, and failures are now logged in the Guild History tab.
• The maximum number of Guild Merits that a single guild can store is 250. This is now displayed alongside the current count.
• Guild creation is now limited to two guilds per week.
• Fixed various small bugs on the existing Guild Bounty targets.

BALANCE, BUG-FIXING, POLISH
World Polish
• Changed the way guaranteed rare drops are delivered for defeating world mega bosses. See the post about this here.
• Blazeridge Steppes: Fixed a stalling bug in the Rupek and Porgar event chain.
• Bloodtide Coast: The Bloody Buccaneer event chain should now restart properly.
• Caledon Forest: Fixed a stalling bug affecting Talaith in the Soundless event chain.
• Cursed Shore: Fixed a bug in the Meddler’s Summit Pact event chain that caused Pilot Ripsky to become unresponsive.
• Cursed Shore: Fixed animation on Captain Rotbeard’s reward chest.
• Cursed Shore: Fixed a bug in the event “Get Warmaster Chan to Shank Anchorage before the troops’ morale breaks.”
• Cursed Shore: Fixed a stalling bug in the event “Escort Tactician Almonia and her force to secure a new camp.”
• Cursed Shore: Helping Tactician Footi set up her cannon will now properly award event participation.
• Cursed Shore: The Champion Risen Gladiator will now appropriately swap his objective back to his health bar when revived.
• Cursed Shore: Risen Rotmouth will no longer be under the ground when rescuing Tactician Megill.
• Fields of Ruin: Fixed a bug that prevented some Separatists from counting for the event “Assist the charr delegation.”
• Fields of Ruin: Fixed an animation bug which caused skills on the Ogre Maul weapons to not animate for characters of some races.
• Gendarran Fields: Fixed a stalling bug in the event “Keep Bamm safe while he gathers components for his engineering.”
• Gendarran Fields: Fixed a stalling bug in the event “Defend the merchant caravan.”
• Gendarran Fields: Fixed a bug that caused centaurs in the Bloodfields to spawn and immediately die.
• Iron Marches: Fixed a bug that prevented displaced spirits from rejoining their bodies.
• Iron Marches: Fixed a stalling bug in the event “Defeat Victurus and his Branded army” that occurred if players tried to pull away the Branded army without killing them.
• Iron Marches: Sentinel Whiptail will now revive the seige devourer in the event “Defend the siege devourer while it assists the troops.”
• Malchor’s Leap: Fixed a blocking bug in the event “Escort Pact troops and equipment to Wren.”
• Malchor’s Leap: Fixed a duplicate tent near the Waste Hollows waypoint.
• Malchor’s Leap: Adjusted creature levels in and under Lyssa’s temple to better match the region’s level.
• Mount Maelstrom: The Infinity Coil Commander should no longer spam his taunt over a large distance.
• Mount Maelstrom: Players will no longer become trapped in Krewe Apprentice Blork’s golem suit.
• Queensdale: Fixed a stalling bug in the event “Protect the brew shipment” that could prevent the Shadow Behemoth events from running.
• Sandycove Beach: Fixed a stalling bug in the event “Escort the iron shipment to Cowlfang’s Star.”
• Snowden Drifts: Ice Raking can no longer die before the Claw tournament.
• Straits of Devastation: Fixed a stalling bug in the Zho’qafa event chain.
• Shelter’s Gate: The chopper should no longer attack players.
• Wayfarer Foothills: Fixed a stalling bug that prevented Rani from building his snowman army at the end of the event.
• Wayfarer Foothills: Reduced the frequency of grawl attacks on Tor’s supply tent in the Frozen Maw event chain.
• Tactician Megill has been moved out of the briar patch.
• Juvenile Pink Moas found in Brisban Wildlands can now be tamed appropriately.
• Fixed a stalling bug that prevented some players from completing the Keg Brawl Kegmaster achievement.
• Cursed Shore: Changed the objective for the giant fight at the beginning of the Promenade assault.
• Angvar’s Trove Waypoint has been added to the Snowden Drifts.
• Iron Marches: Fixed an issue where players would sometimes be unable to plant emblems or evidence in Sonjaw Redclaw’s event chain.
• Risen Putrifiers will no longer immobilize themselves when attempting to snare players with their anchor.
• Champion Risen Drake Broodmothers should now have appropriate stats and nameplate borders.
• Fixed a bug that prevented players from interacting with the pipe organs in Caledon Forest and the Fields of Ruin.
• Quaggans will now breathe at a normal rate, and child quaggans will sound appropriate for their age.
• The volume on the Greatsaw and the Chain Sword weapons has been increased.
• Contested Lyssa statues in Orr will appropriately stun and daze enemies and should no longer apply a nonfunctional “mesmerized” condition.
• Enemies in Garden of Ilya have had their levels adjusted.
• Orichalcum Ore locations in Southsun Cove have been moved to locations reachable by players.
• The Fire Rocket skill on Charrzooka weapons obtained from karma vendors and events has been updated to inflict burning.

General
• The point amounts obtainable from existing repeatable achievements have been capped as follows: Hobby Dungeon Explorer—200 points; Agent of Entropy—250 points. This change was made to support competitive PvE leaderboards and to lay the groundwork for a reward structure for total achievement points that is coming in a future update.
• Fixed a bug where Map Completion tooltips on the world map would sometimes display the wrong map.
• Global: Increased scaling on several events to support up to 50 players.
• Automatic camera rotation while defeated will no longer restart after the camera is moved.
• Lip-flap has been enabled for all voiced lines on Players and NPCs in world.
• The Special Event UI can now be clicked to open up the relevant Achievement Panel.
• Added missing families to the Daily Kill Variety achievement.
• Fixed a bug where a player could be removed from an instance they were exploring without a party.
• Fixed a bug which allowed players to commune with places of power while downed.
• Fixed an issue with water movement sounds playing either too many sounds or none at all at the surface for playable races.
• Players who are alone in an instance will no longer be kicked from it when they are invited to and uninvited from a party.
• Character selection will now show PvE armor, PvP armor, or town clothes as appropriate, depending on what was worn last.
• Fixed a bug where equipment would get destroyed when unequipped while encumbered.

Dungeons
Fractals
• Changed the Imbued Shaman’s Enraged buff icon on the Volcanic Fractal.
• Parties will no longer be killed if they return to the Hub from the Volcanic Fractal.
• Players should no longer be downed if they have a reflecting crystal when the Jade Maw dies.
• Fixed an issue where players could be repeatedly killed if they failed to save the captives during the first part of the grawl boss event.

Personal Story
• “Bad Blood”: Reduced difficulty of spike traps; other minor polish changes made.
• “Containment”: Fixed a stalling bug that occurred if players talked to Sieran immediately after the cinematic.
• “Hazardous Environment”: Fixed a stalling bug that occurred if players rushed ahead of Krasso.
• “Intercepting the Orb”: The head slaver no longer has the ability to summon.
• “Retribution”: Reduced some enemy levels to make them consistent with the story step’s level.
• “Ships of the Line”: Fixed a stalling bug on the event “Regroup with the team and assess the situation.”
• “The Steel Tide”: Improved the tank so it won’t kick players off repeatedly.
• “The Tribune’s Call”: Fixed a possible stall caused by skipping the cinematic.
• “The Battle of Fort Trinity”: Upon completion of this story, players can now use the asura gates in any of the order headquarters.
• “Fixing the Blame”: Players can now speak to Warmaster Gurnn regardless of which events are running.
• “The Battle of Fort Trinity”: Fixed bug that caused some undead at the end to display as nonhostile.
• “Tower Down”: It’s no longer necessary to make sure the pack marmox approaches each tower before Tonn can blow it up.
• “A Grisly Shipment”: Fixed a potential blocking bug that occurred after placing the ghostfire charges.
• “Twilight of the Wolf”: Reduced Ormi’s level to match the story step’s level.

Items
• Added a 20-second recharge to the Stunning Strike skill on the Broken Prison Bar.
• Fixed a bug that caused several pieces of gear to not apply their bonus boon or condition durations.
• Weapons sold by vendors are no longer salvageable.
• Transformation tonics cannot be used when already transformed, and leaving transformations has a 3-second cooldown.
• Removed nonfunctioning sigils from several jewelry and accessory items sold by karma vendors in the Iron Marches.
• Removed the streaks from the stowed state of Mystic Forge weapons, while ensuring the glow and strobe remained. Streaks should only be visible while swinging the weapon.
• Updated icons for the Duelist armor set.
• Updated the miniature siege golems to be account-bound instead of soulbound.
• Updated Mystic Guardian Weapons with a material with a low depth fade and a slight strobe so they remain visible while stowed.
• Reduced the range and damage of the Sentinel Rifle obtained in Blazeridge Steppes.
• Fixed the size and location of the chains of Foefire’s Essence so it is properly hanging from the hilt.
• Rune of Speed: Updated the 6-piece effect to display its actual constant effect: +5% to movement speed.
• The totem offerings that can be purchased at the shrines in Wayfarer Foothills now give the same benefits as other food consumables.
• The “Weapon – Axe” PvP collections tab has been updated to no longer be out of order with the “Cultural Armor – Heavy” PvP collections tab.
• The PvP Commando’s Helm item has been updated to use the correct model.
• The PvP Gargoyle Scythe has been updated to now have staff weapon skills.
• Fixed a bug that prevented players with high amounts of Hall of Monuments points from seeing the PvP Fiery Dragon Sword skin on the Hall of Monuments vendor.
• Etched Wartorches and Orrian Torches no longer use trident icons.
• New ascended rings from the February build now have Mystic Forge infusion recipes available.
• Disabled the use of some consumable items in dungeons.
• Fixed a bug with the one-time purchases on the laurels vendor that prevented some players from being able to buy these items.
• Transmuting a legendary item before equipping it will no longer prevent players from getting the achievement.
• Fixed a bug that caused several Half-Eaten weapons to give an inappropriate amount of bonus attributes for their level.
• Fixed a bug that prevented some weapon sigils from functioning underwater.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the Skale Venom consumable from working with projectile attacks.
• Changed the Commander’s Compendium to not be consumed if used by a character who is already a commander.
• Updated Ash Legion and Order of Whispers spy kits to work while underwater.

Profession Skills
General
• Endurance can no longer be negative.
• Conditions can no longer be transferred to creatures immune to them.
• Stealth: The duration of Revealed has been increased to 4 seconds when coming out of stealth via an attack.
• Added evasion duration skill facts to skills.
• Pets now benefit from their owner’s agony resistance.
• Reduced quickness from 100% attack speed to 50%.
As we push to improve balance in both PvE and PvP, a few mechanics in the game will be receiving updates to promote fun and balanced play. In the past, quickness has granted double the action speed normally available to players. In PvP, this speed gives most players almost no chance to react to incoming abilities and allows for massive spike damage in extremely short periods of time. In PvE, the increased attack speed can trivialize a lot of content that would otherwise provide a good challenge. Therefore, we are reducing the speed that quickness allows by half of its current potential while slightly increasing the duration on player-activated skills.

Elementalist
• Arc Lightning skill: Now strikes enemies that it passes through.
• Conjured weapons:
• Now stop autoattacks and cannot be autocast.
• Now properly appear in the player’s hands upon casting.
• Signet of Air skill: Updated the passive buff’s description to appropriately indicate the movement speed granted.
• Elementalists can no longer use the Mist Form skill to instantly rally if they go down exactly at the end of the Tornado skill.
• Changing attunements no longer causes players to start autoattacking.
• The Sunspot, Electric Discharge, and Earthen Blast traits no longer trigger when changing attunements while out of combat.
• Evasive Arcana trait: Plays an effect if the elementalist dodges while in water attunement.

Engineer
• Packaged Stimulants trait:
• No longer increases the recharge time on the Drop Bandages skill.
• No longer reduces the recharge time on the Drop Stimulant skill.
• No longer applies incorrect fury and swiftness durations to the Drop Stimulant skill.
• No longer prevents acquisition of the Drop Stimulant pick-up while the player is under the effect of swiftness or fury.
• Rifled Barrels trait:
• No longer applies incorrect bleed and weakness durations to the Tranquilizer Dart skill.
• No longer reduces the recharge time on the Elixir F skill.
• Forceful Explosives trait: No longer reduces the radius on bombs dropped by the Evasive Powder Keg trait.
• Fireforged Trigger trait:
• Correctly lowers the recharge on Elixir F and Super Elixir if the Rifled Barrels trait is also equipped.
• Correctly lowers the recharge on Acid Bomb.
• Grenadier trait: No longer removes the recharge when the player stows the Grenade Kit.
• Super Elixir skill: Displays the correct tooltip information when the Rifled Barrels trait is equipped.
• Toss Elixir H skill: Displays the correct boon duration on the tooltip while the player is underwater.
• Throw Mine skill: Correctly turns off the Detonate skill if the mine times out.
• Automated Response trait: Grants immunity to conditions when the inflictor has over 100% duration.
• Elixir U:
• Removed Quickening Zephyr from the base elixir.
• Removed Veil from the toss mechanic.
• Now casts instantly and breaks stuns.
• Stabilized Armor trait: Reduces incoming damage by 5% while endurance is full.
• Super Elixir skill:
• Increased both impact base healing and scaling with healing power by 100%.
• Increased base heal multiplier by 50% and healing power scaling by 100%.
• Tool Kit skill: Increased potency of skills that heal turrets by 100%.
• Acidic Coating trait: Now has its intended 10-second cooldown.
• All utility turrets now detonate after 5 minutes.
• Thumper Turret skill:
• Damage from base attacks increased by 66%.
• Base attacks now cripple for 3 seconds.
• Self-destructs after 5 minutes.
• Shockwave skill:
• Increased damage by 66%.
• Cooldown reduced from 90 seconds to 45 seconds.
• Rifle Turret skill: Increased damage from this turret’s base and overcharged attacks by 50%.
• Surprise Shot skill: Increased damage by 50%.
• Rocket Turret skill: Reduced recharge from 60 seconds to 50 seconds.
• Net Turret skill: Increased turret’s health by 25%.
• Net Attack skill: Reduced cooldown from 60 seconds to 45 seconds.
• Flame Turret skill:
• Reduced recharge from 40 seconds to 25 seconds.
• Increased main attack’s arc from 30 degrees to 60 degrees.
• Throw Napalm skill: Reduced cooldown from 60 seconds to 30 seconds.
• Flame Blast skill:
• No longer double-detonates when the projectile expires naturally.
• Turns off Detonate after the flame blast ball is gone.
• Grenade Kit skill: Grenades no longer require the player to have line of sight of the target area to throw them.
• Kit Refinement trait: Reworked kit skills to balance their effectiveness. All kit skills are now on a static global recharge (20 seconds). The changes are as follows:
• Med Kit: Equipping this kit applies Magnetic Aura.
• Bomb Kit: Equipping this kit creates a Magnetic Bomb that pulls enemies toward the center after a brief delay.
• Elixir Gun: Equipping this kit activates a Glue Trail that follows the player for a short time. Enemies that step in the glue are briefly immobilized.
• Tool Kit: Equipping this kit grants the user Super Speed for a brief duration.
• Flamethrower: Equipping this kit grants the player Flame Aura for a time.
• Grenade Kit: Equipping this kit drops a mine at the player’s location that deals damage and removes a boon.
• Skills that activate this trait can now activate in midair.
• Blowtorch skill: No longer displays “miss” on attacks that connect at medium and far distances.

Guardian
• Wrath skill: Now strikes enemies that it passes through.
• Symbol of Protection skill: Now correctly hits five maximum targets and applies boons to five allies.
• Symbol of Faith skill: Now correctly hits five maximum targets.
• Virtue of Courage skill: Aegis correctly reapplies when stripped.

Mesmer
• Spatial Surge skill: Now strikes up to two enemies that it passes through, in addition to the primary target.
• Confusing Images skill: Now strikes enemies that it passes through.
• Magic Bullet skill:
• The traited version is now a projectile combo finisher to match the base skill’s functionality.
• No longer hits targets beyond maximum range.
• Blade Training trait: Properly reduces the recharge of Illusionary Leap.
• Illusionary Duelist skill: Reduced the range to 900, matching its current listing.
• Arcane Thievery skill: Now has the correct range when the Far-Reaching Manipulations trait is equipped.
• Confounding Suggestions trait: Reduced the frequency of stunning targets when Diversion is used from 100% of the time to 50%.
• Dazzling trait: Now functions with Chaos Storm and Illusionary Riposte’s secondary attack.

Necromancer
• Bone Fiend: This creature now properly fires two projectiles while underwater.
• Dark Path skill: Now unblockable.
• Epidemic skill: Now requires line of sight of the main target to spread conditions to nearby enemies.
• Spiteful Talisman trait: Properly grants bonus damage to Spinal Shivers for each boon removed.
• Staffs now correctly play the visual effects of necromancer staff skills at the tip of the staff rather than at the player’s hands.
• Life Siphon skill: Updated skill facts.
• Death Shroud skill: No longer uses a custom skill bar interface, thereby allowing players using Death Shroud to see buffs, health, and endurance. The screen and sound effects are unchanged.
• Necromancer trait: Now allows life-stealing on walls in World vs. World.

Ranger
• Black Widow Spider pet: Now has the correct amount of vitality.
• White Raven pet: Now has the correct amount of vitality.
• Drake pet Chomp attack: This skill no longer heals enemy targets.
• Maul skill:
• Increased bleeding duration from 4 seconds to 6 seconds.
• Increased base damage by 26%.
• Counterattack skill: Reduced recharge from 20 seconds to 15 seconds.
• Hilt Bash skill: Reduced recharge from 30 seconds to 25 seconds.
• Ranger pet cooldowns are now properly preserved when stabled.
• Feline pets: Maul now applies consistent critical hits.
• Quickening Zephyr skill: Now breaks stun. Increased duration from 4 seconds to 5 seconds.
• Pet-revive skills no longer fail to heal their target.

Thief
• Corrosive Traps trait:
• Applies the correct vulnerability duration with Shadow Trap.
• Now applies vulnerability with Ambush Trap.
• Healing Seed skill:
• Increased radius slightly.
• Now displays the combo field ring.
• Caltrops:
• Reduced duration from 15 seconds to 10 seconds.
• Now indicates its radius.
• Steal skill: No longer initiates autoattacks.
• Uncatchable trait:
• Now displays an active combat area to both allies and enemies.
• Increased effective radius by 50%.
• Basilisk Venom skill: No longer immobilizes targets in addition to stunning them.
• Haste skill: Increased duration from 4 seconds to 5 seconds.

Warrior
• Kick skill: Now lunges toward the target slightly, extending the range.
• Rampage skill:
• The Kick skill now lunges towards the target slightly, extending the range.
• Players can now use the Throw Boulder skill while moving.
• Banner of Defense skill: Increased toughness and vitality granted to allies from 90 at level 80 to 170.
• Banner of Discipline skill: Increased precision granted to allies from 90 at level 80 to 170.
• Banner of Strength skill: Increased power and condition damage granted to allies from 90 at level 80 to 170.
• Banner of Tactics skill: Increased healing granted to allies from 90 at level 80 to 170.
• Bladetrail skill: Can no longer be fired at enemies behind the player.
• Frenzy skill: The duration of quickness and its debuffs are now 5 seconds and 6.25 seconds when the player is affected by the Sure-Footed trait.

Racial Skills
• Charr: The Charrzooka elite skill no longer consumes ammunition when the player uses healing and utility skills.
• Norn: Players in raven form are no longer prevented from using skills after using Wind Blast.

Structured Player vs. Player
• Disconnecting from the game removes you from your roster before a match has started.
• Rosters that lose their submit status opens the roster UI.
• Scoreboard refreshes when players join, leave, or change teams.
• Disconnecting gives kill credit to opponents.
• Daily and monthly laurels can be obtained through either PvP or PvE achievements. You cannot earn additional laurels from doing both, players can simply chose to do one or the other. They will still receive all other normal daily/monthly rewards should they chose to do both PvE and PvP achievements.
• Party members now show on the map while in the Heart of the Mists.
• Spirit Watch:
• Personal points awarded from scoring the orb have been increased from 10 to 15.
• Updated the voiced line that plays whenever the orb resets.
• Commune no longer interrupts itself if you interacted multiple times in a row.
• Temple of the Silent Storm:
• Updated the voiced lines that play whenever a meditation appears.
• Commune no longer interrupts itself if you interacted multiple times in a row.
• Raid on the Capricorn:
• Updated the scoreboard to include a statistic for cannon hits.
• Fixed the cannon to reduce camera issues that could occur while a player is operating it.
• Heart of the Mists: Disabled the Wall of Champions.

World vs. World
• Updated World vs. World UI screen to include a new ranking system and score breakdowns by map.
• Updated Outmanned bonus to increase World XP, receive no armor damage on death, and increase experience.
• Fixed areas where terrain could be exploited to gain access to World vs. World objectives by unintended means.
• Aldon’s Ledge siege upgrade now successfully completes.
• Ballista bonus damage to siege no longer has the chance to apply to players.
• Armor and weapon vendors
• Updated their positions slightly.
• Updated the items and their costs for some merchants.
• Sigil of Leeching no longer affects gates.
• Catapult damage no longer affects rams through gates.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions
• Until April 1, 2013, it is free to transfer to all Medium population worlds! Players are still restricted to one world transfer per week, so choose wisely.
• Added the Name Change Contract to the Gem Store. Each Name Change Contract can change one character’s name once. Place the Name Change Contract in the inventory of the character whose name you want to change and then double-click to activate it. Name Change Contracts are available in the Service category of the Gem Store for 800 gems each.
• Added the Communal Boost Bonfire to the Gem Store. Place the Communal Boost Bonfire in the world and choose a boost to experience, karma, or magic find. Once the fire is fully stoked, anyone can interact with the bonfire to receive the chosen boost. You can increase the speed at which the fire is stoked by throwing more firewood onto it. Firewood spawns automatically when the boost type is selected. The Communal Boost Bonfire is available in the Boost category of the Gem Store for 300 gems each or 5 for 1200 gems.
• Added Fused weapon skins to the Black Lion Chest. Each Black Lion Chest has a rare chance to give a Fused weapon claim ticket. Take this ticket to Evon Gnashblade in Lion’s Arch or to the Vigil Weapons Specialist at the refugee camps in Hoelbrak and the Black Citadel. Trade the ticket for one of 16 new weapon skins inspired by the fiery alliance between the dredge and Flame Legion. All Fused weapon skins are account-bound. You can preview the weapons at the Vigil Weapon Specialists even if you do not have a ticket. Open a Black Lion Chest with a Black Lion Key, available in the Consumable category of the Gem Store for 125 gems each or 5 for 450 gems.
• Fused Axe
• Fused Dagger
• Fused Focus
• Fused Greatsword
• Fused Hammer
• Fused Longbow
• Fused Mace
• Fused Pistol
• Fused Rifle
• Fused Scepter
• Fused Shield
• Fused Short Bow
• Fused Staff
• Fused Sword
• Fused Torch
• Fused Warhorn
Improvements
• Replaced the Hot and Featured item sections on the front page of the Gem Store with a single item carousel that shows all featured items. To scroll the carousel right or left, click the arrows on either side. To select a specific page, click its gray dot at the bottom of the carousel.
• The banner carousel on the front page of the Gem Store now has page indicators at the bottom of the banners. To select a specific banner, click its gray dot at the bottom.
• Selecting an item from the featured item carousel or the banner carousel will take you to that item’s category, automatically scroll down to that item, and highlight it.
• In item preview, a red exclamation point now appears on an item that your character cannot equip.
• Costume Brawl now stays on players up to 5 minutes when they exit a transformation to allow them to switch transformations while brawling.
• Renamed the following items for clarity:
• “Black Lion Key” is now “Black Lion Chest Key”
• “Evon Gnashblade’s Box of Fun” is now “Box of Fun”
• “Black Lion Merchant Express” is now “Merchant Express”
• “Personal Black Lion Merchant Express” is now “Personal Merchant Express”
• “Black Lion Trader Express” is now “Trading Post Express”
• “Personal Black Lion Trader Express” is now “Personal Trader Express”
• “Fine Transmutation Stone” is now “Transmutation Crystal”
• “Basic Transmutation Stone” is now “Transmutation Stone”
• “Permanent Trading Post Pick Up Contract” is now “Permanent Trading Post Express Contract”
• “Plush Charr Backpack Cover” container is now “Plush Charr Backpack Set”
• “Tiger Charr Backpack Cover” container is now “Tiger Charr Backpack Set”
• “Plush Quaggan Backpack Cover” container is now “Plush Quaggan Backpack Set”
• “Pink Quaggan Backpack Cover” container is now “Pink Quaggan Backpack Set”

Bug Fixes
• Fixed some display and clipping issues with shields and back items in item preview.
• Traits are no longer active during Costume Brawl.
• While players are in Costume Brawl, the right-side skills are now replaced by a time-out brawl skill so players can always exit Costume Brawl.
• The autocomplete drop-down no longer gets stuck on the Trading Post search bar.

GUILD WARS 2 USER AGREEMENT
The Guild Wars 2 User Agreement has been updated. As of March 26, 2013, each player is required to accept the amended agreement upon logging in to the game.
The amended content is as follows:
• Changed “NCsoft” to “NCSOFT” throughout.
• Added content to indicate whether the specific agreement applies to an EU or Non-EU player.
• Added link to the second regional User Agreement.
• Added definition of Guild Wars 2 Account Display Names in Section 1c.
• Added references to Guild Wars 2 Account Display Names where relevant.

Items
Ash Legion Spy Kit now has a 60-second cooldown.
Order of Whispers Spy Kit now has a 60-second cooldown.

Profession Skills
Elementalist
Renewing Stamina: This trait now has a 5-second cooldown between activations and has a 100% chance to activate, increased from 33%.
Soothing Disruption: Vigor and regeneration boons granted by activating cantrips have been reduced from 10 seconds to 6 seconds.
Zephyr’s Boon: Fixed a bug that caused Shocking Aura to apply double the boons of other auras.

Engineer
Deployable Turrets: This trait now works for all turret abilities in PvE. Also fixed a bug that caused engineers to have an incorrect tool belt skill when this trait is active.
Speedy Gadgets: This trait now properly affects Throw Mine.
Fast-Acting Elixirs: This trait now properly affects Elixir X’s tooltip.
Reinforced Shield: This trait now properly affects Static Shield during all portions of the skill.
Hair Trigger: Fixed a bug that prevented the engineer Hair Trigger trait from working correctly for some skills.

Necromancer
Well of Corruption: This skill’s icon is now the same whether or not the Focused Rituals trait is equipped.

Warrior
Healing Signet: Reduced low-level healing for this signet without changing healing at higher levels. This signet now heals for 12 points at level 2 instead of 25 and then scales up to heal for 200 points at level 80.

Fixed a crash that can occur when previewing certain items
Fixed an issue with the Guild Mission activation not functioning correctly
Fixed a bug with a Guild Bounty Mission becoming blocked (not many players would have discovered this though, if any, due to the issue above)

Re-added visual effects to weapons made from the Mystic Forge that were recently removed:
Reaver of the Mists
Whisperblade
Illusion
Vision of the Mists
Lyss
Ilya
Spirit Links
Wall of the Mists
Abyssal Scepter
Ignus Fatuus
Mirage
Foefire’s Power
Aether
Azureflame
Eidolon
Foefire’s Essence
Urchin’s Needles

Build 2/26/13 February Content Update Release Notes
LIVING STORY
Flame and Frost: The Gathering Storm
The situation is getting worse for the citizens of Wayfarer Foothills and Diessa Plateau. Volunteers are helping to ease the burden, but more refugees are hobbling down from the Shiverpeaks. The storm there is gaining momentum, but the forces of good are beginning to rally. They’re sending their heroes to defend the land and its inhabitants. Someone must hold back the gathering storm.
In “Flame and Frost: The Gathering Storm,” the second installment in this four-part series, the stakes are raised, and battles rage, in the foothills of the Shiverpeaks.

Achievements
• Two new achievements, The Gathering Storm and Lost and Found, have been added to the Living Story category.

Events
• The refugees’ oppressors are becoming more aggressive and have shown their faces in Wayfarer Foothills and Diessa Plateau. The refugees need qualified adventurers even more!

General
• Camps in Hoelbrak and the Black Citadel have become crowded. As a result, the refugees have begun moving on to Lion’s Arch.
• Refugees arriving in Lion’s Arch have lost on the road precious objects from their homes. The objects will be difficult to find, but the refugees are more likely to tell their stories to the helpful adventurer who recovers their possessions.
• All content from “Flame and Frost: Prelude” continues, and the Refugee Volunteer achievement can still be earned.

NEW FEATURES AND CONTENT
Achievements
• You can now select the five daily achievements from a list that you will complete to receive the daily reward.
• You can now select which achievements are tracked on the right hand side of the screen through the Achievement tab on the Hero panel.
• The amount of experience given for completion of daily and monthly achievements has been increased.
• Added new daily achievement types.
• Added new rewards to the laurels vendors in all major cities.
Ascalonian Catacombs Explorable
• Many of the encounters in the Ascalonian Catacombs Explorable have been revamped, including all three final boss fights.

Event Scaling
• A new test version of our advanced event scaling algorithm has been applied to four high-level, regularly played events to help us monitor the feasibility of this system in the live environment. This new scaling algorithm dynamically increases the difficulty of events by using the current system of increasing the difficulty of existing creatures, while also adding a new system that substitutes creatures of lower difficulty with different creatures as the event scales up. If successful, this system will be slowly extended to other events across the game during 2013.

Item Preview
• Item preview is now available on the Trading Post. Simply right-click the item you want to preview and then select Preview. The preview panel will open, showing your character with the item equipped.
• When previewing weapons, you may now choose to show the weapon stowed, wielded, or by itself. Use the check boxes at the bottom left of the preview panel to change the view.

Guild Content – Read more about Guild Content updates in the recent blog post.
• New guild upgrades are available.
• The guild mission system has been implemented and includes the ability to earn merits.
• Added new Guild Bounty, Guild Trek, Guild Rush, Guild Challenge, and Guild Puzzle mission types.
• Added new personal rewards for participating in guild missions. These rewards can be purchased with commendations.
• Banner art on existing guild upgrades has been updated.
Structured Player vs. Player – Read more about the new Structured PvP map in the recent blog post.
• A new map, Spirit Watch, is available.

Reward Updates
• Credit for killing creatures is now easier to receive in situations when many players are attacking a single target.
• Increased the loot rewards on many world boss chests, including the chests in Orr temples and the dragon chests.
• Fixed a bug on certain world boss chests that was causing them to drop fewer rewards than intended. These chests can now only be looted once per day, to encourage players to fight multiple bosses and spread out across the world.
• Introduced five new stat combos on Ascended Rings and Amulets, which can be found in the usual locations for these items.

BALANCE, BUG-FIXING, POLISH
World Polish
General
• Updated skillsets for several krait and undead creatures to make them more entertaining to fight.
• Daily achievement tracker now preserves expansion state.
• Changed the way monsters react to players using stealth.
• Eased the restrictions on global leash time.
• Fixed a bug that caused loot chests to spawn incorrectly during group play. Loot chests are now created for items of rarity “rare” and above.
• Fixed a bug where equipment would be destroyed when the player unequips it while encumbered.
• Fixed an error in the Mystic Forge recipes for the exotic level 80 Berserker and Rampager heavy armor box crafting recipes.
• Fixed a bug where backpack pieces on players in transformations would render at an incorrect location.
• Fixed most cases of a bug where players would be stuck auto-running when attempting to pick up a bundle.
• Carmel, the karma merchant in Mount Maelstrom, now sells armor of levels appropriate for the region.
• Added recipes to craft armor boxes and satchels for the Apothecary’s and Giver’s armor sets.
• The door blocking access to the cabbage farm in Harathi Hinterlands should no longer block access when opened.
• Fixed a bug that was causing display issues with rotational achievements.
• The achievement tracker now has an updated UI and behaves differently.
• Lesser air elementals now have legs and a tail.
• Added support for positional audio with the Mumble voice-chat application.
Events
• Bloodtide Coast: Healing turrets created by Lionguard Scratchblade now vanish after 60 seconds.
• Diessa Plateau: Added more fixes to the cowapult to keep it from becoming permanently unusable.
• Queensdale: Fixed a bug in the “Shadow Behemoth” meta-event where the portals could become untargetable.
• Malchor’s Leap: Fixed the event “Destroy corrupted eggs and stop the spread of Risen drakes” so that, after the event is successfully completed, the eggs will no longer respawn until the event restarts.
• Harathi Hinterlands: Fixed a bug in the event “Defend the skritt thieves while they steal harpy eggs” so that skritt thieves are now resurrectable, and the event should restart correctly after success or failure.
• Spears wielded by corrupted Sons of Svanir will no longer persist in the world after the Sons die underwater.
• Timberline Falls: Fixed a bug in the “Partake in the moot” region so that passed-out drunks should no longer enter a comatose state where they ignore being splashed by water.
• Wayfarer Foothills: Fixed a blocking bug in “The Frozen Maw” meta-event where Scholar Brogun could die between events.
• Plains of Ashford: Fixed a blocking bug in the “Kill the Separatists before they destroy the Iron Barracuda” event.
• Fixed three blocking issues with the Temple of Balthazar escort event chains in Straits of Devastation.

Dungeons
Ascalonian Catacombs
• Improved the skills on the hidden cave troll boss.
• Additional ghostly allies will now join Kholer during his encounter.
• Removed breeders from the possible graveling burrows spawns during Hodgins’ search for the first scepter.
• Rebalanced the graveling dungeon army to make them more interesting and fun to fight.
• Revamped the Ghost Eater fight to include Detha’s traps.
• Revamped the Colossus Rumblus fight to give him new skills and abilities.
• Revamped the Howling King encounter and made changes to his army.
• Adjusted the health of dungeon creatures and bosses.
• Explorable mode: Fixed a trap in the hallway from the room with the spider queen to the central chamber so that the trap will now turn off properly.

Caudecus’s Manor
• Story: Added a waypoint toward the end of the dungeon.

Citadel of Flame
• Added safety nets to the lava fields around Tribune Burntclaw and around Magmacyte that will teleport players who die from lava exposure to a safe location.

Crucible of Eternity
• Added a safety net for players who die in lava at the boss fight with the Evolved Destroyer so that they will be teleported to a safe location to be resurrected.
• Laser grid will no longer hurt dead players, allowing them to resurrect at the nearby shrine in safety.
• Explorable: Fixed a bug where thieves and mesmers could teleport through closed doors and trigger events prematurely.

The Ruined City of Arah
• Explorable: Reduced the amount of healing Simin does while she is stealthed.
• Fixed a bug with Giganticus Lupicus resetting combat immediately after players stealth.
• Story: Fixed an issue where creatures would not spawn during the fight with Zhaitan.

Twilight Arbor
• Explorable: Added and modified existing waypoints.
• Explorable: Removed a branch that players could stand on to exploit the final boss.

Sorrow’s Embrace
• Story: Players will now teleport to a safe location if they die in lava.

Honor of the Waves
• Explorable: Fixed an issue where Honor’s Claw would repeat himself when speaking of his lost sons. He has since overcome his grief and will carry on to the fight against the minions of Jormag without stuttering.

Personal Story
• “Deeply Tangled Roots”: Fixed a bug where the final scene was not changing based on player choice.
• “Source of Orr”: Fixed a blocking bug if players killed the Eye while it was trying to teleport away.

Items
• Updated the Superior Rune of the Soldier’s sixth bonus to properly remove a condition from allies affected by the shout.
• Updated the Superior Rune of the Rata Sum’s fifth bonus to correctly give 90 precision.
• Updated the Superior Rune of the Pack’s third bonus to correctly give 50 power.
• Added a 40-second recharge to the skill given by the Depleted Power Crystal item sold in Caledon Forest.
• Transmuted items can now be dyed back to their original colors.
• Black Peppercorns no longer drop from Mature Herb and Verdant Herb nodes.
• The Caudecus’s Manor vendor in Lion’s Arch now correctly offers the Major Rune of the Noble.
• The Charged, Hard, Warm, and Cold Potions are no longer Soulbound on acquire.
• Renamed rare armors from Dungeon reward vendors to appropriately reflect their models.
• Increased the drop rate of Passion Flowers from Passiflora Vines.
• Hovering over a currency icon within vendor UI will now identify that currency.
• Fixed a number of Mystic Forge recipes that had a chance of returning nothing. Zommoros apologizes for his thievery.
• The Extended Potion of Ghost Slaying recipe now makes the correct potion.
• Increased the stat bonuses on Ascended all-stat items.
• Updated numerous item icons.
• Increased the drop rate of exotics in the profession gear boxes sold by laurel vendors.
• Ranger gear boxes no longer drop rifles.
• Food items that give special bonuses upon a critical hit now have an internal cooldown before they can produce the special bonus again.

Profession Skills
General
• Using stealth no longer resets NPC aggression tables.
• Reduced the number of maximum of stacks of Retaliation allowed to five (was 25). Duration still stacks.
• Cleaned up hit detection for melee attacks targeting inanimate objects.
• Fixed a bug where players would sometimes become rooted after cancelling meteor shower, healing rain, or similar skills.
• Signets will no longer lose their passive effects when changing slots on the utility bar.
• Frost Aura: Incoming damage is reduced by 10% while under the effects of this aura. Enemies are only able to be chilled by this aura once per second. This affects all frost auras.
• Flame Aura: In addition to the burning condition, this aura now grants 10 seconds of might each time the player is struck. This aura can activate only once per second. This change affects all flame auras.

Elementalist
• Comet: This ability’s strike now occurs faster upon casting.
• Evasive Arcana: The spell cast while in water attunement has been split between PvE and PvP. This spell’s effectiveness with the healing attribute has been reduced by 50% while in PvP.
• Flame Shield: This skill now lasts 5 seconds instead of 3.
• Flame Wall: The combat region for combo interactions has been increased.
• Glyph of Elemental Harmony: This healing skill now grants three stacks of might when used in fire attunement instead of one.
• Ride the Lightning: This ability’s recharge has been increased to 20 seconds.
• Shocking Aura: Updated this ability to indicate its cooldown on stunning enemies.
• Stoning: This ability’s projectile speed has been increased by 22%.
• Static Field: This field will now properly stun enemies that cross it rather than merely dazing them.

Engineer
• Stow Med Kit: Now works in PvE.
• Elixir U: Quickness is now consistent at 5 seconds.
• Acid Bomb: This ability is now a blast finisher at the start of the ability.
• Super Elixir: Now detonates properly underwater.
• Super Elixir: Increased impact base healing as well as scaling with healing power by 100%. Increased base heal multiplier by 50% and healing power scaling by 100%.
• Flame Blast: This ability is now able to be detonated by a secondary ability.
• Flame Blast Detonate: This new ability will detonate the napalm ball that is launched by Flame Blast.
• Air Blast: This ability now extends burning duration of enemies that are already burning by 2 seconds.
• Flame Jet: This ability now deals an extra 10% damage to burning enemies.
• Pry Bar: Increased the number of confusion applications from three to five and increased duration of confusion from 3 to 5 seconds.
• Tool Kit: Abilities that heal turrets have had their potency increased by 100%.
• Kit Refinement: This trait now has an internal cooldown of 10 seconds globally for Flamethrower, Elixir Gun, Grenade Kit, and Tool Kit.

Guardian
• Pure of Voice: This trait has been fixed to always properly convert conditions into boons.
• Smite: Now displays a radius skill fact.
• Empower: This ability now casts faster. Fixed a bug that caused this skill to heal twice.
• Healing Breeze: Angle of this ability has been increased so that allies are easier to hit.
• Hold the Line: This shout’s range has been reduced to 600, making it consistent with other shouts. It now properly affects allies within its full radius.
• Line of Warding: This ability’s animation has changed and can now be cast while on the move.
• Orb of Light: This ability now heals allies it passes through.
• Orb of Light Detonate: Increased this ability’s scaling with healing power by 50% and reduced its level scaling by 20%.
• Shield of Absorption: Added a skill fact to the healing portion of this ability.
• Symbol of Wrath: Increased the size of the combo field on this ability to cover the whole visual area.
• Bow of Truth: The health of this spirit has been increased by 30%.
• Hammer of Wisdom: The health of this spirit has been increased by 33%.
• Sword of Justice: The health of this spirit has been increased by 30%.
• Shield of the Avenger: The health of this spirit has been increased by 30%.

Mesmer
• Illusionary Counter: The range of the reactive part of this ability is now consistent with its indicated range.
• Mesmer Portals can no longer be interacted with when there is an obstruction between them and the player.
• Mind Stab: This skill will now hit up to three targets.
• Illusionary Riposte: The reactionary strike that occurs when this skill blocks an attack now has the correct distance of the ability instead of half the distance. Added a ranged fact to this skill.
• Mirror: This healing skill now applies reflection for 2 seconds instead of 1.
• The Prestige: This ability is no longer channeled and will automatically detonate 3 seconds after the ability is used.

Necromancer
• Bloodthirsty: This trait now functions with the Vampiric Rituals and Vampiric Master traits.
• Flesh of the Master: This trait now properly affects Jagged Horrors.
• Ghastly Claws: Damage from this ability has been increased by ~10%.
• Locust Swarm: The radius of this ability has been increased by ~16% and now has the range of a normal melee ability.
• Mark of Revival: This trait now functions with the Greater Marks trait.
• Minion Master: This trait now affects Mark of Horror from the necromancer’s Lich Form.
• Necromantic Corruption: This trait now functions with Bone Fiend, Shadow Fiend, Flesh Wurm, and Jagged Horror.
• Protection of the Horde: This trait now functions with Jagged Horror minions.
• Rending Claws: Vulnerability application from this ability have been increased from 5 seconds to 7 seconds.
• Spectral Wall: This skill’s combo field will now appear where the wall is instead of on top of the necromancer.
• Spinal Shivers: This ability now deals bonus damage for each boon that it removes. One boon removed deals 50% extra damage, two boons deals 100% extra, and three boons removed will grant an extra 150% damage to the ability.
• Chill of Death: This trait now deals bonus damage for each boon that it removes. One boon removed deals 50% extra damage, two boons deals 100% extra, and three boons removed will grant an extra 150% damage to the ability.
• Spiteful Vigor: This trait now functions with racial abilities Prayer to Dwayna and Healing Seed.
• Summon Blood Fiend: This minion’s healing effect has been increased by ~80%.
• Weakening Shroud: This trait now applies two stacks of bleeding to be consistent with the Enfeebling Blood weapon skill.

Ranger
• Guard: Pets will no longer guard areas that should be inaccessible to them.
• Crippling Talon: Cooldown of this ability has been reduced from 18 seconds to 15 seconds.
• Empathic Bond: Fixed a bug that wouldn’t apply transferred conditions to pets. This trait now transfers three conditions to the ranger’s pet every 10 seconds rather than all of them.
• Hawk and Eagle now have their own unique icons instead of sharing one.
• Path of Scars: This ability’s damage has been normalized between traited and non-traited versions. Damage has been increased by 85% when not traited.
• Icy Screech: The White Moa activated ability now applies 3 seconds of Chill, and the skill fact has been updated appropriately.

Thief
• Basilisk Venom: Enemies affected by this ability will now indicate it in their boons and conditions bar.
• Cloak and Dagger: The player can no longer use this ability stack stealth by attacking WvW walls.
• Shadow Shot: This ability now allows the player to move while executing dagger strike portion of the ability.
• Venomous Aura: Activating a venom skill with this trait equipped will now briefly display an indicator ring around the thief.
• Withdraw: This ability now scales 20% better with healing power. Base healing per level has increased by 10%.
• Ankle Shots: This trait now applies a full 3-second cripple.

Warrior
• Vigorous Shouts: This trait has been fixed to properly affect allies within a range of up to 600.
• Updated shouts to display the out-of-range indicator if your target is out of range.
• Last Stand: Added a cooldown to the trait’s description.
• Impale: This ability’s cooldown has been reduced to 15 seconds.
• Pin Down: This ability now applies bleeding to targets that it hits.
• Players wielding Banner of Defense, Discipline, Strength, and Tactics will now strike up to three targets with their Stab ability.
• Smoldering Arrow: This ability is now a full projectile finisher.
• Burst Skills: Damage tooltips now properly reflect equipped weapon damage.
• Vengeance: Controlling a turret while using this ability will no longer prevent camera reset on death.

Racial Skills
• Sylvari: Seed and Turret abilities can now be used in conjunction with one another.
• Asuran Power Suit: This skill will no longer incorrectly remove other transforms from the player.

Structured Player vs. Player
Structured PvP Tournament Changes
• Two-team quick tournaments no longer cost tickets.
• Tournament tickets are no longer needed and can be exchanged at the ticket merchant in the Heart of the Mists. The ticket merchant is located next to the Tournament Master.
• There is now a “Join Solo” button in the tournament browser that automates a single-player tournament entry.

Other Changes
• Changed the default PvP builds for new characters.
• Changed the PvP daily and monthly achievement rewards to include Arcane Slivers, Crystals, and Orbs instead of Tournament Tickets.
• Changed the PvP locker to also store Valkyrie’s Jewels, the remaining rank finisher consumables, and PvP Hall of Monuments reward items.
• Changed gold tournament chests to include several new PvP weapons.
• Fixed an issue that could cause PvP glory rank vendors to not offer PvP Trident Tokens.
• Fixed an issue that could cause several PvP weapons to display the wrong weapon skin.
• Fixed an issue that could cause projectiles to sometimes bounce off capture points.
• Temple of the Silent Storm: Changed Commune to interrupt on teleport, stealth, or invulnerability.
• Temple of the Silent Storm: Fixed a bug that would prevent damage from interrupting the last few seconds of Meditation on Tranquility.
• Legacy of the Foefire: Changed gates to hide their name plates when they are destroyed.
• Raid on the Capricorn: Fixed a bug that would prevent players from earning Skirmisher points.
• Heart of the Mists: Added a Ticket Merchant for exchanging unused Tournament Tickets.
• Party members on opposite teams will no longer be able to see each other when invisible.

World vs. World
• Fixed safety areas that extended too far, which could result in some players keeping their no siege/determined buff.
• Changed the orange swords combat marker to show only if more than 25 people are in combat in the area.
• Fixed a bug with Durios Gulch that could cause guards to spawn on the wrong team.
• Fixed a bug on all Hills Keeps that could cause guards to spawn on the wrong team.
• Fixed an issue that allowed NPCs with Righteous Indignation to still take condition damage.
• Removed the ability to use many karma related items in WvW.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items
• The Plush Charr Backpack Cover is now available in the Style category of the Gem Store for 300 gems each. This backpack cover can be applied to any PvE backslot item, or it can be converted to a permanent PvP item. This backpack cover also comes with a basic backslot item with no stats that the Plush Charr Backpack Cover can be applied to.
• Added the Pink Quaggan Backpack Cover and the Tiger Charr Backpack Cover to the Black Lion Chest at a rare chance. These rare variations are available only through the Black Lion Chest. Black Lion Keys are needed to open chests and can be acquired from the Gem Store in the Consumable category.
Improvements
• Nine new hair colors and six new eye colors are now available through the Total Makeover Kit and the Self-Style Hair Kits. These new hair and eye colors are winter-themed and are available only through these kits, which can be acquired from the Gem Store in the Services category. The new colors are marked with a star and can be applied to any race’s hair.
• The celebration mode of Evon Gnashblade’s Box o’ Fun now has a chance to give the Dancing Spirit buff. This buff grants the character temporary access to three short dances. These dances will take up the utility slots on the skill bar, and when they are activated, your character will perform some new dance moves. The Dancing Spirit buff lasts 10 minutes, but entering combat removes the buff.
• Spawning Evon Gnashblade’s Box o’ Fun immediately equips you with an adjuster bundle to allow you to pick a mode. If you lose the bundle, interact with your Box o’ Fun twice quickly to return it.
• Listings for new items will now show up in the Promotions tab in the Gem Store and are now marked with a blue exclamation-point icon.
• Listings for limited-time items will now show up in the Promotions tab in the Gem Store and will show how much time is left to purchase them.
• Sale items will now show how much time remains before the sale ends.
Bug Fixes
• Sylvari who use the Total Makeover Kit can now adjust their glow.

BIG Update 1-29-2013

LIVING STORY
Flame and Frost: Prelude
A mystery presents itself in this first entry in a multipart Living Story series. What could be causing such discord in the foothills of the Shiverpeaks? All those poor homesteaders and ranchers displaced with nowhere to go calls into question if the storms could be that bad—or if there’s something more sinister stirring up the flame and frost. The ground is shaking, and the sky is falling in northern Wayfarer Foothills and Diessa Plateau. Norn and charr refugees, crawling from the wreckage of their homes, are fighting their way to shelter in Hoelbrak and the Black Citadel. Many are in shock and wounded; most have only what they can carry on their backs. A call has gone out for volunteers to assist them in their time of need, when the environment itself seems to have become their enemy.

Achievements
A new Living Story achievement category has been added, which will contain a series of achievements specific to the storylines unfolding in Tyria.
The first Living Story achievement, Refugee Volunteer, has been added. Players who complete this achievement by playing the Flame and Frost: Prelude content will be rewarded with the Volunteer title. They will also receive a karma reward via in-game mail.
More achievements will be added as the Living Story continues to unfold.

Events
New Living Story events have been added to Wayfarer Foothills and Diessa Plateau.

Heralds
Starting shortly after the January 28'th update, heralds will begin appearing in cities across Tyria. Their task is to keep adventurers apprised of the events currently underway that are driving the Living Story forward. Be sure to check in with them if you need direction.

Other Content
Persistent world content related to the story of the refugees has been added to Wayfarer Foothills, Diessa Plateau, the Black Citadel, and Hoelbrak. This content will continue to change and evolve as the story unfolds, so be sure to keep checking back.

NEW FEATURES AND CONTENT
Daily/Monthly Achievements
Rewards
A new currency has been added: the laurel. Players earn one laurel for completion of the daily achievement category and ten laurels for completion of the monthly achievement category. This new currency can be spent at laurel vendors in all of the major cities to obtain over 90 items, including:
A new category of infusion, the utility infusion
Ascended amulets
Crafting starter kits
WvW blueprints
Obsidian shards
New boosters, advanced harvesting tools, and crafting trophy bags
A new, unique miniature: Goedulf, the mythical wolf-cub spirit that protects lost norn children
A new, unique miniature: Chauncey von Snuffles III, who placed second in the Divinity’s Reach Fanciest Cat competition

UI
Achievement tracking UI has been added to provide at-a-glance information on daily and monthly achievements as well as quick access to the achievements panel.
Achievements
New daily achievements have been added.
Daily achievements now rotate on a daily basis.
Daily achievements now only have a single tier.
The number of achievement points awarded for daily achievements has been adjusted.

Dungeons
Polished dungeons and removed the ability to use waypoints while any player is in combat.
Dynamic Leveling
Attribute calculations for dynamic level scaling have been rebalanced. In general, this means weaker when adjusted down, stronger when adjusted up. Rewards when adjusted down have been increased to compensate. It is now possible to receive your own level of loot from any level of enemy.

Fractals of the Mists
Players can now reconnect to the Fractals of the Mists if they are disconnected.
Players can now connect to a fractal map even if they are not part of the original group that created the fractal instance.
Players can revive at a checkpoint in fractal maps if the entire party is out of combat.
Players are no longer prevented from entering fractal maps. The difficulty of the fractals is shared, and players will receive rewards based on their “reward level.”
Reward level increases as players complete fractal rounds.
If players have a higher reward level than the current fractal difficulty, they will receive bonus karma at the end of a round. However, item rewards are set to the minimum of the fractal scale and reward level.
Daily Fractals of the Mists bonus chests are awarded after defeating the kraken. The rewards are now based off of the minimum of the player’s reward level or current fractal scale.

Guesting
Players may now log in to a world other than their home world as a guest.
On the character select screen, click the “World Selection” button.
Choose a world you would like to guest on and click the “Guest” button.
Select any of your characters and select “Play” to log in to the world you chose as a guest.
Guesting has some limits and restrictions:
You may only guest on worlds in the same region as your home world. Players on American home worlds cannot guest on European worlds or vice versa.
You may not participate in World vs. World for any guest world. If you choose to enter World vs. World, you will be moved back to your home world. Only changing your home world using a world transfer can change your World vs. World participation.
You are only eligible to guest on 2 different worlds at a time. Each time you guest on a world, that world becomes available to play on for the next 24 hours. After 24 hours, you may choose to guest on a different world. You may log in to any active guesting world as many times as you wish with no restriction.
Guesting on worlds that are full or highly populated increases your risk of being put into an overflow map.
While guesting, all guild influence earned will be applied to your home world, and you will only have access to your home world guild benefits, including the guild vault.

World Transfer Fee
It now costs a gem fee to transfer your home world.
Gem fees for world transfers are based on the population of the world you are transferring to.
Each account is still limited to one transfer every 7 days.
Players still cannot transfer to servers that are “Full.”

Orr
The Risen creatures all across Orr have had their population density adjusted.
Areas, chests, and merchants in Orr now offer better rewards.
See “World Polish – Orr” below for more details.

UI Improvements
Changes have been made to the attributes section of the hero panel to cleanly display more information.
Several PvP dialogs no longer take UI focus away from chat when opening.
Players can once again preview armor and weapons that cannot be equipped by their character.

Structured Player vs. Player
January 28th – February 4th Is Temple of the Silent Storm Week
Instead of 3-round paid tournaments, there will be a 1-round match between 2 teams on the Temple of the Silent Storm map.
The price for entry will be 3 tickets per player.
Rewards for the test will be reduced from the normal paid tournaments.
After the game is finished, both teams will be returned to the lobby, where they can reenter the tournament queue.
To participate, go to the PvP lobby and speak to the Tournament Master.
At the end of this period, the Temple of the Silent Storm map will be added to the tournament rotation.
Skillbars now have team-colored backgrounds in sPvP.

World vs. World
Character load times in WvW have been improved through the use of preloaded placeholder models.

BALANCE, BUG-FIXING, POLISH
Dungeons
General
Fixed a bug where creatures in dungeons were no longer becoming invulnerable to players they couldn’t reach.
Updated the costs of several dungeon reward items to be consistent with their costs in other dungeons. These include leggings, chestpieces, and shoulder armor from Ascalonian Catacombs; tridents and assorted armor pieces from Sorrow’s Embrace; and focuses from Caudecus’s Manor.

Fractals of the Mists
Swampland fractal: The tripwires have been rebuilt to reflect their names. Several have been lifted out of the ground and made more visible.
Fractal Marshes: The traps in the first area now scale with the difficulty scale of the fractal.
Fractals: Added day or night time to specific fractals. Day and night do not cycle.
Underwater Fractal: The Jelly boss will no longer try to devour NPCs like pets and minions before they try to eat players. If no players are around, it will eat NPCs.
Fixed various exploits and minor bugs.

Ascalonian Catacombs
Story—The Lovers: Reduced health for both bosses and damage from Ralena.
Story—Coffin Intro: Additional coffins cannot be interacted with once the boss shows up.
Story—Ranger: Damage has been reduced for the trap skill.
Story: Some enemy group compositions have been altered.
Story—Adelbern: Reduced damage and modified his melee attack.
Explorable—Detha’s Chain: Decreased the recharge time for cannons in the final event and modified their attacks.
Explorable—Detha’s Chain: Adjusted the respawn rate of the groups at the “Defend Detha and her traps” event.

Arah
Story: Reduced most veterans to regular strength during the ship events.
Story: Attacking dragons have reduced damage and no longer knock back on their flyover barrages.
Story: Zhaitan’s acid pools do less damage.
Explorable: Fixed issues that may have prevented events from starting or ending properly across all paths in the dungeon when an NPC was potentially dying, reviving, or being interacted with.
Explorable—Seer Path: In the Dwayna fight, the sparks will now target players primarily, and their attacks have been adjusted in a way that should make them chase the player as initially intended.

Citadel of Flame
Story: The Baelfire fight now has a safety net in case players fall off. If players die in a dangerous area, their body is teleported to a safe location for players to revive.
Story—Forgefire Armory Boss: This boss’s damage has been reduced.
Story—Bolok Barracks Boss: The group composition of the reinforcements summoned by Bolok Barracks boss has been modified.
Explorable—Magg’s Chain: The event to defend Magg while he plants a bomb has been rebuilt.
Explorable—Magg’s Chain: The respawn rate of creatures in the magma field has been adjusted.
Explorable—Rhiannon’s Chain: The torch event at the start has been adjusted to only require 3 torches instead of 5; enemy groups have also been adjusted accordingly.

Sorrow’s Embrace
Explorable—Inquest Path: The infinitely spawning waves have been adjusted to no longer spawn when fighting with the golem miniboss. They will continue once the golem event completes. The group compositions were also adjusted to add more variation.

Crucible of Eternity
Explorable—Evolved Destroyer: This enemy’s health has been reduced. The time window before the shield turns back on has been increased.
Explorable—Subject Alpha (All): The enemy’s health has been reduced.

Twilight Arbor
Explorable: Leurent’s Elite Guard shields have been fixed so they no longer deal damage after they disappear.
Explorable—Leurent Boss Encounter: The group composition has been adjusted.
Explorable—Worm Boss: Spit puddles have reduced damage, but more puddles are created with each attack.

Honor of the Waves
Explorable: Aldus Stormbringer adds are no longer veterans and have adjusted respawn times.
Explorable: Aldus’s invulnerability shield now properly decrements to melee and area attacks.
Updated the effect for the Cone of Cold skill used by Controller Andal to match the area affected by the skill when he turns.

World Polish – Orr
General
Uncontested waypoints have been added to Cursed Shore and Straits of Devastation. Players that have already achieved map completion will retain it without having to discover these new waypoints.
Updates have been made to the small statues to the human gods throughout Orr.
New map icons to indicate the location and status of the statues have been added. Mousing over the icon will display more detailed information.
The visual effect surrounding each of the god statues has been updated to be more noticeable and to more accurately reflect the range of its influence.
Various Risen creatures have had their animations and size updated.
The music that plays during key events that take place at the Orrian temples to the gods and the Gate of Arah has been updated.
The difficulty of events to claim and defend the Orrian temples and the Gates to Arah will now scale to accommodate a larger number of players.
The visual impact of taking control of the Orrian temples has been increased.
Various Risen creatures have had their skills adjusted to use fewer crowd-control skills.
Fixed a bug that prevented the “Arah Waypoint” from updating properly when the gate to Arah was open in Cursed Shore. This also caused the Arah dungeon marker to erroneously display as contested. The gate to Arah should only be closed when the events leading up to it are active.

Events
Grenth Temple Chain
“Use portals to fight shades, slay the Champion Risen Priest of Grenth, and protect Keeper Jonez Deadrun.”
Clarified event text to provide more guidance on event mechanics.
Updated enemy waves that appear when the priest reaches certain life totals.
Added several new abilities to the Champion Risen Priest of Grenth.
Fixed an issue that would cause enemies to stop spawning if waves were killed in the wrong order.
Adjusted enemy wave compositions, start locations, and respawn times.
Adjusted the stacks of corruption that enemy shades apply to players during the fight.
Updated the visual appearance of the portals to Grenth’s domain and the effect applied to players who step in.
Fixed a bug that prevented the Risen Priest of Grenth from attacking properly during the event “Stop the Risen Priest of Grenth from retaking the Cathedral of Silence.”
Fixed a bug that would cause Pact troops to stall at points in the event chain.

Dwayna Temple Chain
Adjusted the difficulty of the events that take place inside of the temple.
Updated the skills for the Risen Priestess of Dwayna.
Updated the skills for the Statue of Dwayna.
Adjusted the terrain within the Cathedral of Zephyrs.
Added a boss camera during the fight with the Statue of Dwayna.
Melandru Temple Chain
Updated the Risen Priest of Melandru’s skill set.
Updated the music that plays during the boss fights.
Adjusted the terrain inside the Cathedral of Verdance to allow for better creature and player movement.
Added more noticeable environmental effects to the temple’s contested and uncontested states.
Updated the participation rewards for the event “Defend the Pact interruptor from Risen attacks” to be more consistent with holdout events at other temples in Orr. Players who participate will earn three times the normal event rewards.

Lyssa Chain
Adjusted the difficulty of the events to take over and defend the Cathedral of Eternal Radiance.
Fixed a bug that prevented the force field surrounding the Risen Priestess of Lyssa from resetting properly.

Balthazar Chain
Adjusted the strength of the Risen Priest of Balthazar’s skills.
Adjusted the number and compositions of enemies that appear during events to take over and defend the Cathedral of Silence.

Promenade Chain
Updated the participation rewards for the event “Ensure that the Pact holds the Gates of Arah” to be consistent with the holdout events at other temples in Orr. Players who participate will earn three times the normal event rewards.
Fixed a bug in the event “Aid the Pact soldiers around the airship wreck” that would cause the event to restart prematurely.
Fixed a bug that could cause the Risen High Wizard to not flee after successfully defending the Pact camp at the Gates of Arah.

The Gladiator Chain
Adjusted the start and restart conditions for the event chain.
Adjusted the difficulty scaling of the events.
Added visual effects to the event area and Risen creatures featured in the event.
Changed the starting condition and location of the event “Kill the Risen broodmother.”

Items & Rewards
A new Orrian Jewelry Box has been added to karma vendors across Orr.
The item “Heavy Moldy Bag” has been updated to drop more frequently.
Various Risen creatures have had their loot tables updated to provide more varied crafting materials.
The karma vendors featured in temple chains offer new exotic wares.

World Polish – Other
General
Fixed the descriptions for some armorsmithing packs that stated an incorrect level for the armor contained within the pack.
Fixed a bug that caused the Mystic Forge to give inappropriate rewards when given level 80 masterwork swords.
Updated the Moa Tonic’s Screech skill description to correctly show only one daze stack.
Bandithaunt Caverns: It’s no longer possible to create an infinite number of bombs in the caves.
Locking your Windows User Account will no longer result in the Guild Wars 2 launcher being invisible.
Trait buffs are no longer reapplied after being resurrected while in a transformation that disables traits.
Renown regions now reward karma upon completion.
The contacts list has been significantly improved to enhance performance in crowded maps and for players with many followers and friends.
Loot interactions now take higher priority than mesmer portals.
Fixed a bug that could cause rectangular skills to fail to hit the correct targets.
Fixed a bug that could cause chain skills to sometimes interrupt dodge rolls.
Fixed a bug that could cause projectiles to sometimes disappear if passing through a field that had expired.
Fixed a bug that allowed skills that steal or remove boons to manipulate effects that they were not intended to be able to affect.
Weapons now continue to grant bonus stats while bundles are equipped.
Bundles from player skills (engineer kits, elementalist conjured weapons, warrior banners) now have base damage that is consistent with the highest rarity weapons available at the level of the player.
WvW & PvE: Our culling system has been updated to use affinity culling, which favors allowing players to see important enemies regardless of the local player population density.
Lionguard Lyns has returned to Lion’s Arch but no longer has Black Lion Keys available. Donations toward the rebuilding of Lion’s Arch will continue to be accepted until late February, at which time Lionguard Lyns must return to her normal Lionguard duties. Liquidate those Captain’s Commendations while you can.
Golem in a Box has been updated to have a 20-second recharge and has been disabled in WvW.

In PvE, if a player is awarded loot by killing a creature and the loot is of uncommon rarity or higher, a chest will appear that contains the loot that would previously have been on the corpse. If the rarity of the loot on the creature is lower than uncommon, the loot will remain on the creature’s corpse

Events
Fixed a bug that could cause events around Eldvin Monastery to not run properly in Queensdale.
Fixed a bug that could prevent the event to fight the Shadow Behemoth from starting in Queensdale.
Frostgorge Sound—“Claw of Jormag” Event: Fixed a case where the ice shield would not appear correctly.
Blazeridge Steppes Event: The ogre beastmaster in Sootpan Kraal now heals a limited amount each fight.
Master Engineer Steelclaw in the Fields of Ruin now uses a consistent gender for her scenes/greets.
Diessa Plateau: Fixed a bug that prevented players from using the cattlepult if a cow wandered too far away, blocking the betting minigame.

Personal Story
Fixed Zojja and other NPCs having invisible headgear in cinematics.
“Armor Guard”: Fixed errant minimap marker.
“A Tangle of Weeds”: Increased the size of the instance so it’s much harder for the lich to fear players out of the map.
“Volcanic Extraction”: NPCs are now more durable.
Norn Chapter 3: Fixed an issue where the wrong cinematic was playing.
“A Sad Duty”: Strengthened the Pact defenders.
“Suspicious Activity”: Fixed a minor cosmetic bug.
“A Grisly Shipment”: Playing the story step with party members no longer prevents progression.
“Source of Orr”: Fixed an issue that could prevent progression after defeating the Eye of Zhaitan.
“Fixing Blame”: Warmaster Gurnn should now start his cinematic correctly.
“On Red Alert”: Fixed an issue that could prevent progress if the player bypassed part of the story step.
“Romke’s Final Voyage”: Fixed an issue that could prevent progress when playing the story step with party members.
“A Sparkling Rescue”: Zojja will now help players in combat.
Skill Challenge
The terror of Ancient Shark Pistrix and his gang of “landsharks” has finally come to an end. Players will now interact with the corpse of Pistrix in his cave in Sparkfly Fen to complete this skill challenge.

Items
Fixed a bug that prevented Endless Halloween Tonics from being listed on the Trading Post.
All Halloween tonics have a two-second cooldown for removal.
Fixed an issue where some rebreather models would cause light armors to display incorrectly.
Transmuting weapons now preserves the higher rarity of the two items.
Sigil of Doom: The number of uses on this skill’s effect will now decrease if an attack lands or if the attack is negated by Blind, Block, Evade, Obstructed, or Invulnerable.
Sigil of Intelligence: The number of uses on this skill’s effect will now decrease if an attack lands or if the attack is negated by Blind, Block, Evade, Obstructed, or Invulnerable.
Sigil of Leeching: The number of uses on this skill’s effect will now decrease if an attack lands or if the attack is negated by Blind, Block, Evade, Obstructed, or Invulnerable.
Life-stealing food buffs based on critical hits no longer affect gadgets.
A Mystic Forge recipe has been added to upgrade the Triforge Amulet to an ascended version with a utility infusion slot.
The Orichalcum vein in Southsun Cove is now a regular vein instead of a rich vein.

Profession Skills
General
Cancelling executing skills that have no recharge via the [Escape] key or stowing weapons will now trigger a 0.5-second cooldown for that skill.
Gadgets placed by players (such as turrets) will now apply boons and conditions based on those players’ stats. Those conditions and boons will not be reduced to level-1 values when the triggering gadget is destroyed

Updated skill facts.
Elementalist
Fixed a bug that caused several spells, including Tornado, Arcane Shield, and most frequently Whirlpool, to sometimes fail to display any graphics.
Arcane Power: The number of uses on this skill’s effect will now decrease if an attack lands or if the attack is negated by Blind, Block, Evade, Obstructed, or Invulnerable.
Arc Lightning: Fixed a bug which would cause this skill’s animation effects to continue playing after the skill ended.
Evasive Arcana: This trait no longer enables players to break knockback effects.
Glyph of Renewal: Increased this skill’s cast time while underwater from 1 second to 3.5 seconds.
Ice Spikes: This skill now appropriately displays area-of-effect rings.
Rock Spray: Skill facts for this skill now display the proper distance and bleed damage.
Vapor Form: This skill will no longer allow players to rally off of kills that grant zero experience. This skill will now also properly restore death state on completion.

Engineer
Removed collision from engineer turrets that were causing player pathing issues.
Elixir X: Fixed a bug where this skill’s tooltip did not reflect the cooldown reduction from Fast-Acting Elixirs.
Hair Trigger: Fixed a bug which prevented this trait from working correctly for some skills.
Healing Turret: Fixed issues with this skill’s description when the Deployable Turrets trait was equipped.
Incendiary Ammo: The number of uses on this skill’s effect will now decrease if an attack lands or if the attack is negated by Blind, Block, Evade, Obstructed, or Invulnerable.Reinforced Shield: Fixed a bug which prevented this trait from reducing Static Shield’s cooldown if the Throw Shield skill was activated.
Reserve Mines: This trait’s area-of-effect rings now display the appropriate area that they can be triggered at.
Speedy Gadgets: Fixed a bug that prevented this trait from reducing the cooldown of Throw Mine.
Toss Elixir S: This skill will no longer remove transforms from players.

Guardian
Absolute Resolution: This trait now functions with Battle Presence.
Battle Presence: This trait no longer misses pulses or spams “immune” text.
Empower: This skill now appropriately applies might for 10 seconds.
Selfless Daring: This trait no longer enables players to break knockback effects.
Shield of the Avenger: Fixed the damage displayed in this skill’s Command variant.
Spirit weapons are now susceptible to attacks.
Sword of Justice: Fixed the damage displayed the descriptions for this skill and its Command variant.
Sword Wave: This skill is now able to strike gadgets that are low to the ground.
Zealot’s Flame: Added burning information to this skill’s description.

Mesmer
Cleansing Conflagration: This trait should now remove a condition at the beginning of The Prestige instead of at the end of the skill.
Duelist’s Discipline: This trait no longer reduces damage dealt by the Illusionary Duelist.
Illusion of Life: This skill should no longer allow players to rally off of creatures that grant no experience.
Portal Exeunt: Updated the skill fact of this skill to reflect the actual duration. Also added a description to the Portal Uses marker.

Necromancer
Fixed a bug that caused some minions to be overly aggressive.
Mark of Evasion: This trait no longer enables players to break knockback effects.
Necrotic Traversal: Fixed a bug which caused this skill’s description to display an incorrect amount of poison damage.
Spinal Shivers: Fixed a bug which caused this skill to enter its full cooldown if used when facing away from the target.

Ranger
Fixed a bug where aquatic ranger pets could sometimes get on land.
Drake Pet: This pet will now activate its Tail Swipe skill on a regular basis, and the casting time of that skill has been reduced by 1.25 seconds.
Entangle: This skill’s bleed effects now properly scale with condition damage and duration.
Sharpening Stone: The number of uses on this skill’s effect will now decrease if an attack lands or if the attack is negated by Blind, Block, Evade, Obstructed, or Invulnerable.
Opening Strikes: The number of uses on this skill’s effect will now decrease if an attack lands or if the attack is negated by Blind, Block, Evade, Obstructed, or Invulnerable.

Thief
Leeching Venoms: This trait no longer affects gadgets.
Shadow Refuge: Added a radius skill fact to this skill’s description.
Smoke Screen: This skill’s blinding pulse no longer follows the thief.
Spider Venom: The number of uses on this skill’s effect will now decrease if an attack lands or if the attack is negated by Blind, Block, Evade, Obstructed, or Invulnerable.
Devourer Venom: The number of uses on this skill’s effect will now decrease if an attack lands or if the attack is negated by Blind, Block, Evade, Obstructed, or Invulnerable.
Ice Drake Venom: The number of uses on this skill’s effect will now decrease if an attack lands or if the attack is negated by Blind, Block, Evade, Obstructed, or Invulnerable.
Skale Venom: The number of uses on this skill’s effect will now decrease if an attack lands or if the attack is negated by Blind, Block, Evade, Obstructed, or Invulnerable.
Basilisk Venom: The number of uses on this skill’s effect will now decrease if an attack lands or if the attack is negated by Blind, Block, Evade, Obstructed, or Invulnerable.
Assassin’s Signet: The number of uses on this skill’s effect will now decrease if an attack lands or if the attack is negated by Blind, Block, Evade, Obstructed, or Invulnerable.

Warrior
Arcing Slice: Updated this skill’s description to correctly state the boon it applies.
Banner of Strength: This skill’s descriptions have been updated.
Banner of Discipline: This skill’s descriptions have been updated.
Banner of Tactics: This skill’s descriptions have been updated.
Empowered: This trait should now appropriately increase damage for the Stability boon.
Reckless Dodge: This trait no longer enables players to break knockback effects.
Vengeance: This skill is no longer able to rally a player off of kills that grant zero experience.

Structured Player vs. Player
Legacy of the Foefire: Fixed a bug that prevented certain melee skills from hitting the front red/blue base gates.
Legacy of the Foefire: Fixed a bug that allowed friendly and enemy projectile skills to penetrate the red/blue base gates.
Legacy of the Foefire: Red/blue keep NPCs have been modified to avoid spawning before the match start countdown begins.
Legacy of the Foefire: Red/blue lords have been modified to remove up to 3 conditions at the beginning of their heal skill.
Legacy of the Foefire: Red/blue guards and casters have been modified to engage enemies when the lord enters combat.
Battle of Kyhlo: Fixed a bug that could cause the repair kit to disappear after switching teams.
Heart of the Mists: Two unused glory vendors have been removed.
Fixed trebuchets not being targetable by ranged attacks after being repaired.

World vs. World
Siege is no longer usable while inside a WvW jumping puzzle.
Multiple areas have had their terrain adjusted to prevent players from bypassing gates and walls to get into objectives.
Superior siege will now be saved properly when maps restart.
In WvW, different types of loot chests will replace the bag drop depending on loot rarity. Players should now see bags for loot that is lower than uncommon rarity and chests for loot that is uncommon rarity or higher.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items
Plush Quaggan Backpack Cover is now available in the Gem Store for 300 gems in the Style category. This adorable skin can be applied to any back-slot item, but it also comes with a basic back-slot item with no stats in case you don’t have one.
The Riding Broom is now available in the Gem Store for 250 gems in the Style category. Simply equip this toy and activate its skill to ride the broom. Riding the broom does not provide a speed bonus.

Improvements
Evon Gnashblade’s Box ‘o Fun has been revamped and is now available in the Consumable category for the new low price of 1 for 80 gems or a bundle of 5 for 320 gems. The revamped design offers more control over what effect the box has on those that interact with it.
All weapon and armor skins now have the option to be converted to PvP skins. When activating a skin you will be given the choice to either apply the skin to a PvE item or convert the skin to a PvP-only item. Either action will consume the skin. This change applies to all unused weapon and armor skins in the game, regardless of when the skin was first released.

World Polish – Other
Items
Visual effects on some legendary weapons have been polished:
Eternity: Fixed a bug that caused the Sunrise effects to play on the Twilight version of the sword.
The Moot: Added visual-effects polish and footfalls.
Kamohoali’i Kotaki: Added visual-effects polish.
Frenzy: Added visual-effects polish.
Kraitkin: Added visual-effects polish.
Quip: Added visual-effects polish and footfalls.
The Predator: Added visual-effects polish and footfalls; updated projectile and hit effects to match the weapon’s look.
Howler: Added visual-effects polish and footfalls.
The Dreamer: Updated the projectile effect.

General
Changed all non-copper karma gathering tools to have a level restriction.

Personal Story
“The Steel Tide”: Reduced the number of giants you need to defeat to progress.

Profession Skills
Elementalist
Magnetic Grasp: This ability now immobilizes the target that it strikes. It is now a large Projectile finisher, and damage is now split between this ability and Magnetic Leap.
New skill – Magnetic Leap (Earth Skill 3): Activate this ability to leap to an enemy that’s been struck by Magnetic Grasp.

Ranger
Spirit health increased by 25%.

Dungeons
General
Fixed a bug where projectiles passed through the ground in several locations
Fractals of the Mists
Fixed a bug that did not remove the Lava condition from players who died in the pools of lava at the final boss in the Volcano Fractal
Fixed a bug where players were stricken with Agony even when they avoided the Ice Elemental’s AoE ice storm
Daily Achievements
Removed the Daily Combo Kill achievement from the daily achievement rotation
Events
Made the following changes to the Champion Risen Priest of Grenth boss:
Increased cooldown on Grenth’s Shadow Pull skill
Changed radius of spells
Modified attacks to do less damage
Modified attack area so as not to overlap on attacks
Modified Velocity of Teleport to allow player to not go into ceiling
Decreased the damage of Grenth’s Shadow Pull skill
Decreased the numbers of spells
UI
Hid blank world-event UI for Temple of the Silent Storm Week
General
Adjusted Orr Undead loot drops

January Updates General Note

All updates not detailed here in the month of January are for bug fixes and to remove festival events/items/npcs etc. No substantive changes have been omitted.

UPDATE NOTES 12.14.12

Some big additions this time!

Wintersday
Seasons are changing, hearths are warming, and spirits are high. Wintersday is almost here! Tyrians are busily preparing for the longest night of the year, and Lion’s Arch wants to celebrate with an event to remember. The Captain’s Council has invited renowned entertainment engineer, Tixx the Toymaker, to bring his unique creations to the citizens of Tyria.

The toymaker will spend a day in each of the five cities, and finish his tour with a two-week stay in Lion’s Arch. The airship events will begin at 10 a.m. PST on December 15th and end January 3^rd^.
• 10 a.m. PST, Saturday, December 15th: Airship lands in The Grove for a 24-hour stay.
• 10 a.m. PST, Sunday, December 16th: Airship lands in Divinity’s Reach for a 24-hour stay.
• 10 a.m. PST, Monday, December 17th: Airship lands in The Black Citadel for a 24-hour stay.
• 10 a.m. PST, Tuesday, December 18th: Airship lands in Hoelbrak for a 24-hour stay.
• 10 a.m. PST, Wednesday, December 19th: Airship lands in Rata Sum for a 24-hour stay.
• 10 a.m. PST, Thursday, December 20th: Airship lands in Lion’s Arch, where it will remain until January 3rd.

But that’s just the beginning of this Wintersday fête. Along with Tixx and his wondrous workshop, there will also be new holiday content:
• Lion’s Arch, the Heart of the Mists, and the Home Map (Central Citadel) in WvW are decorated for the holiday.
• Snowman building locations and present drops are available worldwide.
• New crafting recipes are available.
• PvP finishing moves and WvW siege weapon effects have been added.
• Bell choir and snowball fight activities are available in Lion’s Arch, and can be accessed through an NPC near the snow globe.
• A jumping puzzle is available in Lion’s Arch, and can be accessed through an NPC near the snow globe.
• Events inside Tixx’s airship will reflect the toy released each day.
• All toy events will be repeatable during Tixx’s stay in Lion’s Arch.
• A toy-based activity will be available once Tixx reaches Lion’s Arch.
• Tixx will be giving out a one-time gift while he’s in Lion’s Arch.
The year of the dragon saw the release of Guild Wars 2 and the rise of its diverse and enthusiastic inhabitants. We thank you for your support this year, and we’re excited to continue our adventures with you in 2013 and beyond!
Happy merrymaking!

Dungeons
Fractals
• Cliffside: Fixed a bug that would cause the final boss to spawn too many cultists at higher scales.
• Cliffside: The first wave of cultists will now heal the arm seals if no players are within aggro range.
• Cliffside: Fixed a bug where players could send their pets in to kill the first boss before the event was active.
• Cliffside: Fixed a blocking bug where the cultists would not reset correctly on party wipe at scale 10 or higher in the final boss fight.
• Cliffside: Fixed a bug where the Legendary Archdiviner’s health would not reset properly on party wipe.
• Fixed mob and boss chest loot drops so that they will now scale up appropriately with player scale.
• Added a much wider variety of weapon skins to the general mobs’ loot drop.
• Ascended Rings and Fractal Weapon Skin drop rates now increase appropriately with player scale.
• Non-infused Ascended Rings will no longer drop after scale 24.
• A Pristine Fractal Relic has been added to the daily rewards for scale 10 and higher. 10 Pristine Fractal Relics can be turned in to Golem Merchant BUY-4373 for an Ascended Ring.
• The chest received when Shaman Lornarr Dragonseeker is defeated now contains rare crystal materials instead of dust.
• The chest received when the Raving Asura are defeated now contains rare corrupted materials instead of dust.
• Vials of Condensed Mists Essence no longer drop after scale 10.
• Globs of Coagulated Mists Essence no longer drop after scale 20.

Twilight Arbor
• Fixed a bug that prevented the Unstable Nightmare Husk in Twilight Arbor from returning to its correct state after being morphed by the mesmer Moa Morph skill.

Sorrow’s Embrace
• Fergg’s path: Fixed a bug that caused Fergg to stand around instead of attacking.
The Ascalonian Catacombs
• Fixed a bug that allowed mesmers to steal skills from Kasha using Arcane Thievery.

Citadel of Flame
• Rhiannon’s Chain: Fixed a blocking bug that prevented players from completing the bonus ooze royalty event. A bonus chest was added for successfully completing the event.

Dragon Explore Dungeon
• Jotun Path: Fixed a potential blocking bug where the NPC could die during the stargazer event and prevent chain completion.

Items
• Superior Rune of Lyssa: This item now applies 5 seconds of Protection and Retaliation while on a competitive PvP map. The item’s internal cooldown has been fixed to allow rune effects to occur every 10 seconds.
• Major Sigil of Water: This item now has the correct proc chance.
• Rare crafting materials and holiday materials can now be deposited into the collections tab in the bank.
• Added Mystic Forge recipes to convert ascended rings to their infused versions.
• “Bag of Gold” has been renamed “Bag of Coins” for clarity.
• “Bag of Gems” has been renamed to “Bag of Jewels” for clarity.
• Equipment sorting bags will now properly sort back items and trinkets.
• The Durmand Priory heavy armor set now has proper icons.
• Dessa’s experiment journal now plays an effect on consumption.
• Weapons purchased with karma from vendors in Fireheart Rise, Iron Marches, and Fields of Ruin now have their intended skins instead of tier 3 cultural skins.
• Extended potion recipes can no longer be discovered, and must be unlocked using an item sold by dungeon vendors.
• Extended potions now last for two hours instead of one hour.
• The Mystic Forge recipes for offensive and defensive infusions now take five skill points instead of 50, and omni infusions now take ten skill points instead of 100.
• Increased the drop rate of Passion Flowers from Passion Vines.
• The quantity of vials of Powerful Blood, Vicious Fangs, and Elaborate Totems that drop from loot containers is now 1-2 instead of just 1.
• Several items now have updated icons.
• Rank-based finishing moves now last for 60 minutes per consumable instead of 30 minutes.
• The pirate weapons Trident, Speargun, and Harpoon have been updated to their intended model.
• Black Lion harvesting tools icons have been updated.
• The simple infusion for defensive slots has been removed from the vendors, and the cost of the versatile simple infusion has been lowered to 75 tokens.

Black Lion Chest Overhaul:
• Permanent Bank Access, Permanent Trader Express, and Permanent Merchant Express items now drop twice as often from Black Lion chests. Though still extremely rare, they can now be traded until their first use.
• The Black Lion Chest drop chance for mystery tonics has been reduced from 100% to 25%. Tonics now have the same drop chance as “Heavy Bag of Coins,” “Unidentified Dye,” or one of three new Guild Influence items worth 50, 100, or 300 influence.
• “Heavy Bags of Coins” have been added to Black Lion Chests in the tonic and buff drop sections. Bags hold between 80c and 1g50s.
• “Glory Booster” has been added to the list of possible buff drops.
• Buff drops now occasionally drop the “booster multipack” triple buff.
• Rarity and proportion of all other Black Lion Chest drops have been rebalanced to reduce overabundance of some items.

Structured Player Versus Player
• New UI option available for *Team Colors: *This changes the way team colors are applied to armor. Affects both sPvP and WvW.
• Everyone: Every players’ (enemy, allied, self) armor is dyed with their team color.
• Enemy Only (Default): Enemy players’ armor is dyed with their team color, while allies and player armor uses the player-selected dyes.
• None: All (enemy, allied, self) players’ armor uses their chosen dyes and ignores team colors.
• Emote /rank is usable anywhere outside sPvP matches, activities, and WvW maps.
• Team UI in sPvP matches have team-colored backgrounds.
• Temple of the Silent Storm: Successfully communing with a meditation now awards personal score.
• Temple of the Silent Storm: Fixed a bug where both teams could earn the same meditation buff, by communing at the same time.
• Temple of the Silent Storm: Fixed a bug that allowed communing with a meditation while still under the effect of it.
• Temple of the Silent Storm: Fixed a bug where the meditation on ferocity buff would persist after switching teams.
• Temple of the Silent Storm: Added tooltip text for meditation on stillness score UI icon.
• Battle of Khylo: Red/Blue trebuchets can no longer be used or destroyed prior to match start.
• Heart of the Mists: Stealing from a profession-based sparring NPC now correctly steals a profession-based item.
• Heart of the Mists: Fixed a bug that prevented the practice cannons from being fired once loaded.
• Items: Improved the drop tables for PvP rank chests by removing bags, and added bags as purchasable glory items.
• Items: Fixed a bug that would cause PvP worn scale heavy armor items to sometimes award the wrong tier of tokens when salvaged.
• Items: Fixed a bug that would cause many PvP hammers to sometimes award the wrong tier of tokens when salvaged.
• Items: Fixed a bug that would that would prevent players from ever earning shoulder tokens when salvaging any PvP shoulder armor.
• Items: Fixed a bug that would allow PvP summit sword, staff, and shield weapons to drop from chest tiers prior to rank 50.
• Increased downed health in PvP to 85% of PvE downed health, from 75%.
• Free and Paid tournaments now have a new build-locking feature. When the countdown timer completes, players will no longer be able to change weapons, armor, skills, or traits until the match is over. This will prevent players from abusing build-swapping between fights.

World Versus World
• When a team owns few or no defensive structures for a set period of time, a breakout event will now trigger at the portal.
• Repairable walls and gates have been updated to rebuild at 10% health instead of rebuilding immediately.
• Characters that disconnect during combat grant rewards to their opponent, and suffer penalties as though they have been killed.

General
• The weapons obtained by bandit cutpurses using their “steal” skill should now be consumed when they use the skill the weapon grants.
• Fear is now properly affected by Defiant.
• New rifle icons have been added.
• Updated icons for the conjurer armor set.
• Map names on the world map now display completion status.
• Costume Brawl Champion crown has been adjusted to be more visible on many characters.
• Weapon sigils now continue to function while holding a bundle (such as engineer kits).
• Commendation vendor Lionguard Lyns is restocking her goods and is not accepting commendations at this time. She will begin accepting commendations again soon.

Events
• The story step “destroy the champion Risen lich” in Sparkfly Fen now works correctly.
• Fixed an event timing bug at Lyssa’s Cathedral in Malchor’s Leap.

Personal Story
• The story step, “Through the Looking Glass” has been fixed to allow players who completed the sylvari “mirror” storyline to progress.
• In the story step, “Mightier than the Sword,” Sieran will now assist in the fight against Steag Frostbeard.

Black Lion Trading Company Gem Store
The Black Lion Trading Company is also celebrating the Wintersday season with new deals and special items.
New Wintersday-themed items are available in the style category.
• A festive fur cap is available for 150 gems for a limited time.
• A full winter outfit, including a hat, coat, gloves, boots, leggings, and a snow globe scepter with five winter themed costume skills is now available for 700 gems.
• PvE decorative wood weapon skins for staff, sword, greatsword, dagger, shield, axe, hammer, pistol, longbow and short bow are available in the style category for 500 gems each for a limited time.
• Wintersday earmuffs are available in the style category for 25 gems each.
• A free wizard’s hat is available in the style category for every player to enjoy.
Rare mystery Wintersday boxes will have a chance to drop throughout the world. They will also be available in the consumable category of the Gem Store. They will contain gifts available in-game, plus a random item only available in the store.
Boxes will contain one to five gifts, plus one of the following:
• Common: a Wintersday dye pack, a gingerbread snowball mortar, or one of three unique Wintersday transformation tonics.
• Uncommon: One of three new festive miniatures; a snowman, a festive golem, or the toymaker’s Infinirarium.
• Rare: The festive fur cap, and a claim ticket for your choice of winter wooden weapons.
• Very Rare: Infinite self-style hair kit or unique Wintersday baby quaggan miniature.
The Wintersday baby quaggan miniature can also be crafted in the Mystic Forge by using any combination of miniature snowmen, infinirarium, or festive golems, and 50 enchanted stuffing (available in-game). The “mystery Wintersday box” is available in consumables for 100 gems each, or 10 for 800 gems.
The Black Lion Chest has also been updated. Check the items section of this update for more information. More items and sales will become available over the course of the Wintersday festivities, so be sure to keep an eye on the Gem Store.
~Evon Gnashblade

Profession Skills
Elementalist
• Fixed a bug where elementalists would not be attuned to any element, resulting in an empty skillbar.
• Shocking Aura: This aura is no longer incorrectly considered a boon. The aura will no longer be affected by boon duration, but also cannot be ripped by boon removal skills.
• Tidal Wave: This skill is now a leap finisher.
• Ice Wall—Detonate: This skill is now a blast finisher.
• Magma Orb: Damage is now split equally between the projectile and the explosion, instead of 2/3 explosion and 1/3 projectile. The total damage remains unchanged.
• Boil: This skill is now a fire field.
• Murky Water: This skill is now a smoke field.
• Rock Blade: This skill is now a small projectile finisher. Bleeding duration has been increased from one to three seconds. Aftercast has been increased by 200 milliseconds.
• Signet of Air: Increased the passive movement from 10% to 25%.
• Soothing Wave: This trait has incorporated the benefits of the now-defunct Icy Mist.
• Icy Mist: Replaced with Arcane Abatement. Take 50% less damage from falling. Create a spell when you take falling damage based on your attunement. Fire—Ring of Fire, water—Healing Wave, air—Static Field, and earth—Earthquake.
• Arcane Resurrection: Applies auras for five seconds instead of 10. Now also increases revive speed by 10%.
• Stone Splinters: Increased range from 300 to 600 units.
• Bolt to the Heart: Increased health percent from 25 to 33.
• Pyromancer’s Puissance: Increased might duration to 10 seconds.
• Cantrip Mastery: This skill now works with Mist Form in PvE.
• Trident: Rock Blade: This skill is no longer able to attack targets behind the player.
• Mist Form: This skill now allows players to swap attunements while it is active, allowing glyphs to work in Mist Form.
• Magnetic Grasp: This skill is now working as a leap finisher.
• The Fireball tooltip has been updated to display the correct radius.

Engineer
• Engineer kits now inherit the bonuses from currently equipped weapon sigils.
• “Grenade” skill now does 30% less damage to balance against using sigils.
• Grenade kit damage is now equal in PvP and PvE.
• Flash grenades and poison grenades now do damage when they explode.
• Elixir Gun—Super Elixir: Reverted the pulse healing effect to its previous intended state. Updated skill facts for this skill’s underwater version.
• Timed Charge: This skill no longer does bleeding, but applies a three second burn.
• Retreating Grapple: This skill now causes three stacks of bleed for six seconds.
• Homing Torpedo: This skill is now a small projectile finisher with the rifled barrels trait equipped.
• Grappling Line: This skill is now a small projectile finisher with the rifled barrels trait equipped.
• Timed Charge: This skill is now a small projectile finisher with the rifled barrels trait equipped.
• Net Wall: This skill is now a small projectile finisher with the rifled barrels trait equipped.
• Power Shoes: Increased move speed to 25%.
• Always Prepared: Now also increases downed damage by 25%.
• HGH: Drinking an elixir now grants two stacks of might instead of one.
• Sitting Duck: Instead of 5% damage, now applies five stacks of vulnerability for eight seconds.
• Shrapnel: Increased bleed chance from 6% to 15%.

Guardian
• Refraction: This skill is now a light field.
• Purifying Blast: This skill is now a blast finisher.
• Light of Judgment: Damage increased by 25%.
• Spear Wall: This skill is now a light field.
• Wrathful Grasp: This skill is now a projectile finisher.
• Spear of Light: Velocity has been increased by 50%.
• Empower: Skill fact has been updated to display the proper amount and duration of might.
• Spear of Light: This skill is now a small projectile finisher.
• Brilliance: This skill is now a whirl finisher.
• Purifying Blast: Added a radius skill fact.
• Unscathed Contender: Increased damage from 10% to 20%.
• Resolute Healer: This shield of absorption now causes knockback, but can only trigger once every 60 seconds.
• Vigorous Precision: Increased vigor duration to five seconds. This effect can now only trigger once every five seconds.
• Strength in Numbers: Now activates more quickly when entering combat, and scales from 0-70 defense instead of being capped at 30.
• Blind Exposure: Increased to three stacks of vulnerability.
• Shimmering Defense: Increased burn duration from three seconds to seven seconds.
• Binding Jeopardy: Increased vulnerability from three stacks at five seconds to five stacks at eight seconds.
• Updated Empower’s skill fact to display the proper amount and duration of might.
• Added a radius skill fact to Purifying Blast.

Mesmer
• Phantasmal Mariner: This phantasm now attacks more often, but does damage in line with its attack rate.
• Illusionary Whaler: This phantasm now attacks more often, and now does a reasonable amount of damage.
• Phantasms now initiate combat after .25 seconds instead of one second.
• Feigned Surge: This skill is now a leap finisher.
• Vortex: This skill now does pulsing damage after it is created, and is also an ethereal field.
• Jab: Increased damage by 12.5%.
• Evasive Strike: Increased damage by 25%.
• Spinning Revenge: Recharge reduced from 15 to 12 seconds, and is also a whirl finisher.
• Signet of Inspiration: Increased swiftness duration from five to ten seconds. This passive effect now works outside of combat.
• Deception: Clones that use Winds of Chaos will now fire their projectile in a straight line, just as the mesmer’s Winds of Chaos does.
• Decreased all Mantra cast times by one second.
• Shattered Strength: Increased to three stacks of might and ten second duration.
• Prismatic Understanding: No longer affects the Prestige. Now grants a random defensive boon every three seconds while in stealth. (Protection, Aegis, or Regeneration)
• Critical Infusion: Vigor duration increased to five seconds. This can only trigger once every five seconds.
• Blade Training: This trait is now applied to off-hand sword skills.
• Dazzling: Now inflicts five stacks of vulnerability for eight seconds.
• Phantasmal Warlock: Damage now matches the tooltip.
• Phantasmal Duelist: Damage now matches the tooltip. Increased damage to match the lost damage from a previous bug fix.
• Phantasmal Berserker: Damage now matches the tooltip.
• Phantasmal Mage: Damage now matches the tooltip.
• Temporal Curtain: Increased swiftness duration to 12 seconds.

Necromancer
• Vampiric: This trait no longer triggers when projectiles hit allies.
• Feast: This trait’s recharge has been reduced from 12 seconds to 10. Damage has increased by 15%.
• Frozen Abyss: This skill is now a blast finisher.
• Foul Current: This skill is now a leap finisher, a poison field, and has its recharge reduced from 15 seconds to 12.
• Dark Spear: This skill is now a projectile finisher.
• Deadly Feast: Skill recharge has been decreased from 18 to 15.
• Wicked Spiral: This skill is now a whirl finisher. Recharge has been decreased from ten seconds to eight.
• Signet of the Locust: Passive movement speed has increased from 10% to 25%.
• Quickening Thirst: Movement speed increased from 10%/5% to 15%/10%.
• Reanimator: Decreased the degeneration rate of Jagged Horrors.
• Terror: Damage is increased by 50% if the target has any conditions on them.
• Spiteful Removal: This trait now removes three conditions when an enemy is killed, but can only trigger once every 10 seconds.
• Crimson Tide: This skill is no longer able to fire at enemies behind the player.
• Plague Blast: Updated projectile to fire from a more logical area of the necromancer.
• Gluttony: Life Force gain has been increased from 5% extra to 10% extra.
• Updated Corrosive Poison Cloud’s skill fact to display the proper duration of the applied conditions.

Ranger
• Counterattack Kick: This skill now has the same melee arc as other melee attacks.
• Dart: This skill is now a leap finisher.
• Swirling Strike: This skill is now a whirl finisher.
• Shouts will now apply a buff to the ranger’s pet, to make the skills more visible.
• Sick ’Em: Decreased the duration to 10 seconds. Increased the damage and move speed from 25% to 40%.
• Search & Rescue: Increased the revive rate for this ability.
• Search & Rescue: Increased pet movement speed to 25% while under the effects of this shout.
• Lick Wounds: Revive rate has been increased.
• Signet of the Hunt: Increased the passive movement from 10% to 25%.
• Splinter Shot: This skill is no longer able to fire at enemies behind the player.
• Compassion Training: Increased the heal amount from 300 to now scale as high as 350 at max level.
• Nature’s Protection: Now triggers at 10% damage instead of 20%.
• Expertise Training" Increased the amount of condition damage from 100 to now scale as high as 350 at max level.
• Moment of Clarity: Now also increases daze and stun duration by 50%.
• Beastmaster’s Bond: Now triggers at 50% instead of 25%.
• Increased the velocity of arrows fired from Short Bow and Longbow skills by 30%.
• Icy Screech: The White Moa activated ability now applies three seconds of chill, which the tooltip now correctly reflects.
• Opening Strikes: These now work at any range.
• Updated Sun Spirit’s skill fact to include the burning proc duration.
• Updated Stone Spirit’s skill fact to include the protection proc duration.
• Updated Storm Spirit’s skill fact to include the swiftness proc duration.
• Ranger melee pets now have improved melee attacks so they can hit moving targets more easily.

Thief
• Whirling Axe: This skill can now be cancelled by other skills.
• Fear (Stolen item— Skull): This skill now works like the warrior skill “Fear Me.” It will now actually hit its range, but also have a falloff on fear duration based on distance.
• Ink Shot: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
• Tow Line: This skill is now a projectile finisher.
• Escape (Harpoon Gun): This skill now creates a poison field with art changes to reflect this.
• Ink Shot: Projectile speed for this skill has been increased by 22%
• Instinctual Response: Now triggers at 10% damage instead of 20%.
• Ricochet: Increased bounce chance from 5% to 20%.
• Fleet Shadow: Increased move speed from 33% to 50%.
• Slowed Pulse: This can now trigger every 20 seconds instead of every 30.
• Pistol Mastery: Increased damage from 5% to 10%.
• Improvisation: Now also increased damage with environment weapons by 10%.
• Piercing Shot: This skill is no longer able to fire at enemies behind the player.

Warrior
• Whirling Strike: This skill is now a whirl finisher.
• Tsunami Slash: This skill is now a whirl finisher.
• Harpoon Pull: This skill is now a projectile finisher.
• Fear Me: Updated the tooltip to correctly state the range of the skill.
• Hammer Shock: This skill can now be used while moving.
• Fast Hands: Fixed an issue where the trait did not affect the first weapon swap.
• Desperate Power: Now deals 20% extra damage instead of 10%.
• Last Stand: This now properly breaks stun when it triggers.
• Furious Reaction: Now triggers at 10% damage instead of 20 and also gives 10 seconds of vigor along with the 10 seconds of fury.
• Berserker’s Might: Decreased might stacks required from six to five.
• Increased the velocity of arrows fired from Longbow skills by 30%.
• Triple Chop: Changed the timing so that players can no longer cancel their own skill combo accidentally.
• Healing Surge: Healing surge now heals based on current adrenaline level, and then grants a full bar of adrenaline.

Racial Abilities
Charr
• Updated the Shrapnel Mine skill description to fix an error.

Sylvari
• Take Root: Updated the skill fact to include the duration.
• Seed Turret: Updated the skill fact to include the duration.
• Healing Seed: Updated the skill fact to include the duration.

Here are some additional notes, describing some of the balance changes and why we made these changes in various aspects of the game.
General balance
• Engineer Kit Sigils. The Engineer now benefits from the sigils on their weapons when they swap to a kit. So, this means that you will have the ability to get sigil procs on your Flame Thrower, or Grenade Kit, etc. This means we had to tone down some of the kits accordingly, the biggest of which was the Grenade kit.
• Engineer Grenade Kit Changes. We didn’t want to totally take away the power of this kit, but when it is able to proc sigil abilities, it becomes very strong due to its powerful AOE nature. So we’ve toned down this kit a little due to the sigils now working on engineer kits.
• Mesmer Phantasm changes. We decreased the delay for the initial attacks on Mesmer phantasms. This will make them more responsible when they are first summoned.
• Mesmer Portal. The Mesmer utility skill Portal now has a maximum # of times it can be used before it disappears. This means that 1 Mesmer can no longer send an infinite # of allies through a portal. The current # is 20, which may come down more later. We still want the Mesmers to feel cool for having such a powerful ability, but we also want to put a limit on the # of players a defending team needs to worry about coming out of 1 Mesmer Portal, especially in WvW.
• Underwater fields and interacts. We’ve gone through and improved our underwater combat experience. Many professions had a distinct lack of fields and/or interacts, but now have them so as to improve the player interactions with one-another for underwater combat. Most professions have the same fields as they do above water, but there are some differences as well, such as the Elementalist who now has a smoke field on their Murky Water skill.

PvP specific stuff
• Downed HP. This went from 75% of the old amount up to 85%. This has been something we’ve listened to players about, and many of them felt that the old # was slightly too low. The new # should mean that stomping is still VERY important, but if you need to safely DPS someone from range, that’s an option as well.
• Locking skill bars in free and paid tournaments. This is a change that will prevent people from cheesing the ability to swap skills and weapons in-between fights in a competitive game (either a free tourney or paid tourney game). This will mean that once the game starts (the countdown is done), you will be locked into your weapon sets, utility skills, elite, etc.

Class balance philosophies
We normally try to employ metered and controlled balance changes with each pass, rather than huge reductions or improvements to classes. We want to get all classes on the same playing field, and we want to avoid “whack-a-mole” style balance. HUGH increases and HUGE decreases lead to meta instability, and thusly, we try to make multiple small tweaks rather than putting in massive changes that we have to later correct.
When designing and balancing the classes, we try to make sure that class roles and identities stay intact. So, in doing so, we make sure that there are rules and boundaries outlining the capabilities and weaknesses of each class.

Warrior
• We want the Warrior to be capable of good melee damage in a sturdy body. They can still do some decent damage at range, but they aren’t as good at it as the Ranger (with their pet). They have a hard time taking enemy boons down, and instead, have to just go through them with raw force. They may have a hard time with enemy conditions, and may need to ask for ally help in order to keep themselves free of hampering conditions.

Guardian
• The Guardian is a heavy armor class who relies on boons to make up for their low levels of innate health. They focus on area control and punishing enemies for the position on the battlefield. We want them to feel very powerful when their boons are active, but if those boons are removed, they will start to feel pressure. They can remove conditions more easily than the Warrior, but share the Warrior’s need to be in melee range to dole out maximum damage.

Ranger
• The ranger class combines its own innate abilities with the skills of their pets. We’ve balanced the class around the idea that you always have a pet with you to aid in any fight. The fact that the ranger can have multiple pets allows them to combine their pets in ways that most impact the current fight. We want the Ranger to have some of the evasion enjoyed by the Thief, as well as the mobility other classes employ. The class is able to deal physical or condition damage, and it can do this in melee or at range.

Engineer
• The Engineer is a highly versatile class. While it doesn’t have the long range capabilities of the Ranger, or the melee capabilities of the Warrior or Guardian, they are comfortable at medium ranges in most fights. They have a lot of control, and use their boons to keep themselves (and allies) alive in a fight. They can use different kits based on the situation, but this extreme versatility comes at a cost in damage on their main hand weapons.

Thief
• Thieves are the masters of mobility, stealth and high single target damage. They can be very fragile if you counter their stealth with area of effects or large stacks of conditions, but they trade this fragility in order to have some of the highest burst damage in the game. They are able to help allies through traps, venoms and the mobility to flank most encounters.
• Mesmer
• Mesmers rely on illusions in order to accomplish their goals. They need illusions to accomplish some of their highest damage and control, and without the illusions, they become fairly fragile. They can deal with enemy boons better than most classes, but enemy conditions can often be a problem. They share some of the stealth and mobility that the Thief enjoys, but suffer from a low health pool if you get past all their tricks.

Ele
• We see the elementalist as the king of versatility. The skill ceiling for the Ele is exceptional, as the ability to leverage all four attunements at the right time is crucial for understanding the elemetnalist. The Ele boasts some of the best team support and control abilities in the game, as well as some great area of effect damage.

Necro
• The necro boasts the highest natural health of all the caster classes, and also has death shroud to extend that life total even higher. While they don’t have some of the escape or damage reduction capabilities that other classes boast, they do have a lot of ways to win attrition fights. They have access to poison on multiple weapons, they are able to combine condition damage with raw damage, and they have multiple disables to interrupt enemy skills. Necomancers also have multiple movement disabling abilities, while allows them to chase down enemies who are low on health.
Going forward
• Tank vs spike vs physical DPS vs condie DPS. We want to keep making balance changes that allow all classes to have various builds they can use. We don’t want tanks dominating the game, and we don’t want spike builds dominating. It’s healthy to have multiple types of builds in the meta, so we’ll be improving the balance to facilitate a healthy meta.
• AOE balance. We feel that in PvP some AOE builds are too strong for the opportunity cost, and we’ll be bringing those in line in the next few patches.

UPDATE NOTES 12.3.12

Release Notes:
General
• Fixed a bug that would cause a crash when repairing armor while transformed.
• Area of effect heals and boons now prioritize players over minions and NPCs.
• Guild leaders are able to demote other players of the same rank.
• Weapon skills will now properly display their PvP and PvE split variants in the Weapon Skills tab of the Hero Panel instead of displaying both.

Events
• Fixed a bug that caused NPCs not to resurrect other NPCs in various Orr events.
• Fixed a bug that caused Warmaster Jofast and her caravan to not advance properly through Cursed Shore.
• Fixed a rare bug that could prevent the event “Protect the trained skelk gathering kindling for Raintimber Mill” in Diessa Plateau from progressing.
• Fixed a bug that could potentially prevent progress with the event “Protect Orl’s research krewe” in Metrica Province.
• Fixed a bug that could prevent progress with the event “Stop the Inquest operatives from kidnapping adventurers” in Sparkfly Fen.
• Fixed a bug that could prevent progress with the event “Raid the Separatist camp with the Warhound Village veterans” in Iron Marches.
• Fixed a bug that could prevent displaced spirits from rejoining their bodies in Iron Marches.
• Fixed a bug that could prevent progress with the event “Protect the armory from the Flame Legion” in Plains of Ashford.
• Fixed a bug that would prevent “Ireta the Smasher” from team switching correctly during the event “Prevent the brawl between the three legions.”
• Fixed a bug that prevented Suwash from confronting Captain Jetsam in Lornar’s Pass in the event “Defeat Captain Jetsam.”
• Fixed a bug that preventing events from running properly near Eldvin Monastery in Queensdale.
• Fixed a bug causing skritt thieves to stop stealing harpy eggs in Harathi Hinterlands.
• Fixed a bug that caused Crusader Soma to give up searching for the lost caravan in Timberline Falls.

Dungeon
Crucible of Eternity
• Front door path: Fixed a bug that affected the aggro range of the Destroyer Specimen Boss.
• Submarine path: Fixed a bug with Bjarl’s armor not going off when he charges and hits a tower.

Ascalonian Catacombs
• Detha’s Path: Fixed a problem with Detha’s script where she would sometimes not start the event to fix the cannons.
• Hodgin’s Path: Fixed a problem in Hodgin’s script at the “Collect scepter fragments” event that prevented the event from starting.
• Detha’s path: Fixed a bug that caused the Ghostly Oozes not to use their basic attack properly, and spend a large amount of time loitering around players instead of attacking them.

Sorrow’s Embrace
• Fixed multiple problematic doors that would not open and close when intended.

Twilight Arbor
• Fixed a bug where Morrigu could die after defeating the final boss before the cinematic could start, which would break the dungeon and prevent players from receiving the final reward.

The Ruined City of Arah
• Seer Path: Fixed an exploit where rangers using longbows could trivialize a fight by attacking at max range, and the Melandru boss would not fight back.

Fractals of the Mists
• Cliffside: Fixed an issue where players could damage the final seal with their normal attacks.
• Cliffside: Fixed an issue where players were able to attack and kill the first boss before triggering the cinematic.

Personal Story
• Minor personal story bugs in multiple personal story steps were fixed.
• The story step “Forewarned is Forearmed” has been fixed to avoid an error that prevented completion.
• The story step “Time for a Promotion” has been fixed to avoid a problem that caused it to stall.
• The story step “Silent Warfare” has had the difficulty adjusted.
• The story step “The Artist’s Workshop” has been fixed to allow players to rally when they defeat hypnotized performers.
• Players who completed the sylvari “mirror” storyline are now recognized by the NPCs in the story step “Through the Looking Glass.”

World vs. World
• Invisible & invulnerable players can no longer contest capture points in WvW. WvW capture points now follow the same rules as PvP capture points.
• All players will now correctly receive WvW bonuses. Players who transfer worlds will still be locked out of bonuses for the current and subsequent match.

Structured PvP
• Heart of the Mists: Added light, medium, and heavy PvP Underwater Mask items to the PvP Armorsmith.
• Battle of Kyhlo: The hit box on the trebuchets has been decreased so that they are less vulnerable to certain AoE skills.
• Legacy of the Foefire: The red guild lord and his guards have been repositioned to more closely match the blue side.
• Forest of Niflhel: Fixed incorrect names on the archer NPCs that guard each base.
• Removed slots in the PvP locker for the Rawhide armor pieces, as they are not obtainable as PvP rewards.
• PvP locker now can store consumable finishers up to rank 6, glory boosters, PvP salvage kits, and tournament tickets.
• Updated the NPC names of archers in Forest of Niflhel.

Items
• Updated the names of the level 80 rare armorsmithing boxes to match the names of the items they contain.
• Runes of Balthazar and Orrian now properly apply quickness when the player is struck and below 20% health.
• Updated Knight’s Jewel so that it appropriately grants Power rather than Toughness.
• Updated the ingredients required to craft satchels and boxes of armor to match the ingredients required to craft the individual pieces contained within.

Commerce
• Fixed an issue with the Boxing Glove skills remaining when players swap to armor from town clothes.
• Mini pets are now usable in the Heart of the Mists.
• Fixed Krait Tonic second skill description.
• Fixed missing nightmare medium icons and pants using gloves icons.
• Total Makeover Kit and Self-Style Hair Kit added to the Black Lion Chest as rare rewards.
• Increased chance to get Mini boosters and Dye Pack boosters from the Black Lion Chest.

Profession

Elementalist
• Updated elementalist conjured weapons to appropriately apply attributes to all players that pick them up.
• Dragon’s Tooth: This skill’s blast finisher now triggers at spell location, instead of character’s location.
• Electrocute: This skill now has a maximum range and line of sight requirement.
• Impale: Fixed an exploit with this skill’s interaction with Signet of Restoration.
• Arcane Resurrection: This trait now applies five seconds of aura to allies affected by it.
• Evasive Arcana: This trait now has a blast finisher while attuned to earth.
• Elementalists will no longer get into a state where they aren’t attuned to any element. This commonly results in the player’s skillbar being empty.

Engineer
• Toss Elixir C: This skill’s underwater cooldown is reduced from 60 seconds to 30 seconds to match the land recharge.
• Elixir S: Fixed a bug that would cause this skill to go on normal recharge when Fast-Acting Elixirs is equipped.
• Smoke Bomb: Cleaned up skill facts.

Guardian
• Ring of Warding: This skill will no longer affect non-attackable NPCs.

Mesmer
• Updated the description for Blurred Frenzy to indicate that it gives evasion through “Blur,” instead of “Distortion”.
• Phantasms will now properly have all boons applied to them via player traits.
• Phantasmal Disenchanter can now be cast at the correct distance.

Ranger
• Fixed a bug that allowed a ranger to have two traps of the same type active simultaneously.

Thief
• Using a stolen bundle item should no longer destroy a bundle being wielded in their hands.

Warrior
• Whirling Axe: This skill can now be cancelled by other skills.

Update:
• Fixed a client crash that would occur whilst using the dye panel whilst transformed
• Reverted a change to the jump mechanic that impacted the timing of jumps

Update:
• Cliffside: Fixed an issue where the Cultists would not reset correctly on party wipe at scale 10+ in the final boss fight.
• Changed certain player transformations to not remove Trait related stat boosts when active.
• The weapons obtained by Bandit Cutpurses by their “Steal” skill should now appropriately be used up when they use the skill the weapon grants.

UPDATE NOTES 11.15.12-11.17.12

Release Notes:
The Lost Shores Update
Something is stirring in the Sea of Sorrows. Ship wreckage is washing up on shore, whales are beaching themselves, local quaggans are leaving their undersea homes, and strange new creatures are being spotted along the Tyrian coast.
Head Researcher Levvi has been pleading with Captain Magnus, leader of the Lionguard, to heed her warnings of imminent danger to the city of Lion’s Arch and other coastal settlements. Magnus remains unconvinced, though the disruption of maritime trade has the Ship’s Council concerned.
Something new is coming ashore in Lion’s Arch at 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time on Friday, November 16. This epic event will change that city forever, even as it introduces an entirely new twist on dungeon play. Come to the defense of Lion’s Arch and race to discover the secret behind a mysterious new menace.
At 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time on Saturday, November 17, the second phase of this epic adventure will take players to a place they’ve never been in Tyria, where they’ll meet a new pet creature and discover previously unknown crafting resources that unlock new recipes and a unique way to upgrade gear.
Join us at 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time on Sunday, November 18 for your chance to take part in an unforgettable, once-in-a-lifetime final event!

Dungeons
General
• New dungeon rewards have been added to all dungeons.
• Each dungeon has a new set of unique items with new stat combinations, ranging in rarity from masterwork to exotic. These items have a chance to drop off of certain bosses in the explorable mode of each dungeon.
• Story and explorable bosses and encounters have a chance to drop Bags of Wondrous Goods, which contain coins and karma. Bags of Wondrous Goods obtained in explorable mode also contain dungeon tokens.
• If the owner of a dungeon instance intentionally leaves his party to kick out players and invite new players, it will now also kick that owner out of the dungeon to prevent people from kicking PUG members and inviting guild members for the final boss of a dungeon.

Fractals of the Mists
There are new stories being told in the taverns of Lion’s Arch, usually in hushed tones by broken and bloodied adventurers. They weep into their ales and shake as they speak…not about dragons or the undead, but of something new, a mysterious portal that has emerged in the city, beckoning the bravest to venture through it.
Introducing a dungeon experience like no other—Fractals of the Mists! A series of unique “fractal” minidungeons, increasing in difficulty, offers players unlimited levels of challenge! With great risk comes great rewards, including new weapon sets, a back slot item, new Ascended loot, and much more!
• New level 80 dungeon with dynamic leveling so you can bring your friends!
• Endless and scaling. The deeper you go, the harder it gets!
• The portal to the Fractals of the Mists will activate with the Lost Shores content Friday at 12:30 p.m. Pacific Time. Head west of Fort Marriner to the entrance and try your luck. Perhaps you’ll survive and reap the rewards, or perhaps you’ll be lost forever to the Fractals’ bloody secrets.

Items
There are two new major features added to items in this update. For more detailed information on these features and how they tie into the new Lost Shores content, check out this blog post!
• Added new crafting materials as part of the Lost Shores update.
• Crafted Halloween potions are no longer account bound.
• The mighty Zommoros has slightly increased the drop rate on Legendary precursor weapons from the Mystic Forge from both Rares and Exotics.
• The drop rarity of Rare and Exotic weapons from certain places in the world (champions, veterans, and players in WvW) has been increased. Rares and Exotics should be much more likely to drop and every champion should be guaranteed to drop loot. This was to ensure that world loot drops were not a significantly worse way of acquiring rare and exotic items than crafting and running dungeons.
• The amount of loot that drops for downscaled players has been increased. You should now be able to receive level-equivalent loot until you are fighting at a downscaled level that is less than 2/3 of your actual level. You should also receive loot a greater percentage of the time as well as receiving a greater percentage of experience, gold, and karma. For level 80 characters, this means level 55+ areas will be able to drop level 80 gear and give about 75% or so of the other rewards. Previously, these areas would give level 77 gear at best and closer to 60% or so of your rewards.

New Rarity Type: Ascended
• Ascended rarity falls between Exotics and Legendaries on the rarity spectrum.
• Ascended items have higher stats than Exotics and come with slots for the new upgrade type, Infusions.
• Ascended rings and back slot items have been added to the game.

New Upgrade Type: Infusion
• Infusions are a new type of upgrade component that can only be slotted into a matching Infusion slot.
• Added 12 new Infusions of the offensive, defensive, and omni types to the game.
• Create Infusions through the Mystic Forge using new crafting materials.

PvP
• Paid tournament rewards have been improved. We’ve spread out the rewards for paid tournaments, so that more finishing positions receive rewards. We’ve also made it so that qualifying points are rewarded to the following finishing positions:
• 1st place—Tourney Chests, 500 glory, 500 rank points, 120 gems, 5 qualifying points
• 2nd place—Tourney Chests, 400 glory, 400 rank points, 80 gems, 3 qualifying points
• 3rd place—Tourney Chests, 300 glory, 300 rank points, 20 gems, 1 qualifying point
• 4th place—Tourney Chests, 300 glory, 300 rank points, 20 gems, 1 qualifying point
• 5th place—Tourney Chests
• 6th place—Tourney Chests
• 7th place—Tourney Chests
• 8th place—Tourney Chests
• Paid tournaments also provide each finishing place a small chance to win gems in the following amounts. The chance of winning one of these is approximately 1 in 4. No player can win twice.
• 10 gems
• 35 gems
• 80 gems
• 120 gems
• 1000 gems
• Free and paid tournaments will now use individual respawn timers. Public games played via the PvP Browser will still use time-based wave spawning.
• A new map set in a kodan dojo is available. “Temple of the Silent Storm” is a beta version of the map, but we’re letting players play it now to give us feedback.
• We will also be putting up some PvP Browser hot-join maps so that some are 5-on-5 and some are the current 8-on-8.
• The map rotation for PvP Browser hot-join maps will be:
• Temple of the Silent Storm
• Forest of Niflhel
• Legacy of the Foefire
• Battle of Kyhlo
• Raid on the Capricorn
• Daily and monthly achievement rewards are now available in PvP.
• Daily rewards: 1 tournament ticket and 1 glory boost
• Monthly achievement rewards: 10 tournament tickets, 5 glory boosts, and 5 salvage kits
• The /rank command will now show your PvP ranking. This only works in the PvP lobby and cannot be used inside an active PvP game.
• Added tracking for Qualifying Point Leaderboards. The current leaderboards are being shown here: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
• PvP Mystic Forge: You can now convert PvP Mystic Forge components into other components. This requires purchasing an Arcane Converter from any glory vendor. The conversion recipes are as follows:
• 25 Arcane Orbs + 1 Arcane Converter + 1 Arcane Crystal + 25 Arcane Powder = 11 Arcane Crystals
• 25 Arcane Crystals + 1 Arcane Converter + 1 Arcane Sliver + 25 Arcane Powder = 11 Arcane Slivers
• 25 Arcane Slivers + 1 Arcane Converter + 1 Arcane Orb + 25 Arcane Powder = 11 Arcane Orbs
• Raid on the Capricorn: Reduced the number of sharks from 10 to 6. They should no longer cover the Ruins capture point.
• PvP downed health is now 75% of what it was. This change was made so that in fights where players are slightly outnumbered, they can win those fights by killing off downed enemies through damage rather than needing to use a finishing move. This should not have too much impact on 1v1 fights or big team fights, but it should help players win 1v2 and 2v3 fights if they gain the initial advantage.
• The hit area for the trebuchet in the Battle of Kyhlo has been updated to prevent players from dropping massive AoE attacks (e.g. Meteor Shower) and having every single attack hit the trebuchet, destroying it without any counter. All normal attacks should still work against it.

General
• The Fire Elemental encounter in Metrica Province has received a balance pass.
• The Shatterer encounter in Blazeridge Steppes has been updated.
• A UI confirmation window will now pop up on large vendor purchases.
• Players will now be warned if they do not have enough inventory space to acquire an elemental fragment during the Dierdre’s Steps jumping puzzle.
• Harvesting tools are now account bound.
• Updated Rune of Water to provide 10% boon duration instead of 15% in PvP.
• Updated Rune of the Monk to provide 10% boon duration instead of 15% in PvP.
• Updated Rune of Earth to provide 15% protection duration instead of 20%, and 3 seconds of protection instead of 4 seconds in PvP.
• Updated Rune of the Citadel to properly grant power instead of healing.
• Rune of Svanir’s block of ice effect will no longer allow players to capture points while they’re invulnerable. Removing the stun from this effect will remove the invulnerability as well.
• Rune of Air’s lightningdamage has been reduced by 25%.
• “Unblockable” skill facts have now been added to various skills.
• Rune of the Pack’s on-hit effect now works properly.
• Many skills, items, and traits were applying healing to an infinite amount of targets and have now been limited to 5 targets.
• You can no longer view opponents’ account names through reporting in WvW.
• Fixed a bug that caused many piercing, boomerang, and bouncing projectiles (those that hit more than 1 target) to continually increase in damage the more targets they hit.
• Fixed a bug preventing melee attacks from hitting static objects in the world if the character was not moving. As an example, this should help players using melee in Ascalonian Catacombs to hit graveling burrows, amongst other offending objects.

Commerce
• The Consortium Chest has been added to the gem store in the Consumable category for 250 gems each or 10 for 1800 gems. No key is required to open these chests; simply double-click them in your inventory.
• When you open the Consortium Chest, you will receive some number of crafting materials and one random item.
• Some items in the chest include: shoulder skins, breathing masks, weapon skins, hats, and minis.
• All items in the chest are new and have never been available before.
• Weapon skins are rare, and the minis are very rare.
• All items can be sold on the Trading Post.
• The Consortium Chest will only be available for a limited time.
• All the items found in the Consortium Chest can also be obtained as rare drops from any creature from the new Lost Shores event.
• The Consortium Dye Kit has been added to the gem store in the Consumable category for 125 gems each or 5 for 500 gems.
• The Consortium Dye Kit gives one random blue dye and one random yellow dye.
• The Consortium Dye Kit will only be available for a limited time.
• Dye Packs now come in bundles of 5 for 800 gems.

Events
• Fixed a bug preventing Captain Penzan from retrieving his treasure in Bloodtide Coast.
• Fixed a potential blocking bug for the event “Protect Orl’s research krewe” in Metrica Province.
• Fixed an exploit with the “Assist the skritt with their fortifications” renown region in Mount Maelstrom.
• Fixed a bug that would cause Fleshgrazer to turn permanently invulnerable.
• Fixed a blocking bug that could occur during “Escort Brugh to Morgan’s Spiral” in Caledon Forest.
• Fixed a blocking bug in the event “Help the Priory return the energy core to the Henge of Denravi” in Brisban Wildlands.
• The Priory Explorer Plinx event chain in Cursed Shore will now occur less frequently.
• The event “Defend Rimtooth, the pack marmox, from dredge” in Diessa Plateau has been updated to avoid situations that could block progress.
• Fixed a bug that would occasionally prevent the event “Return the stolen cattle to Stonefall Estate” in Diessa Plateau from starting.
• Updated the “Royal Forum Waypoint” in the Straits of Devastation so players will no longer get stuck in nearby props.
• Fixed two bugs that could prevent progress with the event “Cull the undead horde gathering outside of First Haven” in Gendarran Fields.
• Fixed a bug that could prevent progress with the event “Protect krewe leader Dobbs as the krewe clears the excavation site” in Timberline Falls.
• Fixed a bug that would allow the player to remain transformed after the event “Disguise yourself and gather special roots for Drysdan’s medicine” in Mount Maelstrom.
• Fixed potential blocking bugs with the event “Help the Soundless villager return home” in Caledon Forest.
• Fixed an issue that prevented the spectral weapons from respawning in the Malchor’s Leap event “Defeat spectral weapons and bring them to Byanca.”
• Fixed an issue that caused Ghostnight to become stuck on his path in the Diessa Plateau event “Defend Faint Ghostnight as he searches for a new devourer egg.”
• Fixed an issue that was preventing Nia from continuing on her path in the Fields of Ruin event “Help Nia rescue Cymbel’s hounds.”
• Fixed an issue that caused NPCs to become stuck while reviving allies in the Straits of Devastation event “Escort the northern invasion Pact squad to the Pact rally point at Triumph Plaza.”
• Fixed an issue that could prevent the Straits of Devastation event “Help the Pact reach the Altar of Betrayal before their morale is depleted” from starting.

Story
• The story step “The Hatchery” has been fixed to allow players to progress.
• The story step “Source of Orr” has been fixed to prevent a possible blocking issue.
• The story step “Estate of Decay” has been fixed to avoid a problem where allowing Hekja to die resulted in preventing progress.
• The story step “Conscript the Dead Ships” fixed a possible blocking issue if you used movement skills to board the ships or talked to Jeyne while she was building the gangplanks.
• The story step “The Stone Sheath” has been fixed for engineers that were previously unable to complete the quest.
• The story step “Dredge Assault” now progresses correctly when destroying either door into the dredge cave.
• The story step “Critical Blowback” has been fixed to avoid a problem that could prevent progress.
• The story step “The Ghost Rite” has been fixed to avoid a problem where players were able to defeat the final boss too early.
• The story step “A Light in the Darkness” has been fixed to avoid a problem that could prevent progress, and the difficulty has been reduced.
• The story step “Ships of the Line” has been fixed to avoid a problem that could prevent progress.
• The story step “Trading Trickery” has been fixed to avoid a problem that could prevent progress.

Profession Skills
Elementalist
• Ride the Lightning: This skill should now track moving enemies more reliably.
• Magnetic Grasp: This skill should now track moving enemies more reliably and end correctly when you reach your target.
• Evasive Arcana: This trait no longer creates unintended blast finishers.
• Ether Renewal: This skill’s cast time has been reduced from 4.75 to 3.5 seconds. There is no change to the total amount of healing.
• Healing Rain: This skill’s tooltip now states the correct duration of 6 seconds.
• Armor of Earth: This skill’s tooltip now states the correct duration of 6 seconds.
• Churning Earth: This skill’s description no longer references “hold and release.”
• Signets of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water: These skills should now have a cast animation while wielding a Fiery Greatsword.
• Ring of Fire: This skill on Conjure Flame now lists itself as a Fire combo field.
• Dragon’s Tooth: The blast finisher for this skill now triggers at the spell location rather than the character’s location.
• Magnetic Wave: This skill’s missile-reflect portion now has an accompanying icon.
• Phoenix: This skill’s tooltip now states the correct duration of 5 seconds of vigor that this skill applies.
• Blasting Staff and Geomancer’s Alacrity: These traits now work together for the Eruption skill.
• Mist Form: This skill now works with the Water Magic trait Cantrip Mastery.
• Soothing Wave: This skill now properly applies regeneration to the elementalist when using Conjure Frost rather than only when the bow is picked up.
• Healing Ripple: This skill’s scaling with healing power has been reduced by 50% in PvP only, as it had scaling that’s normally reserved for main healing skills. The maximum number of targets has also been reduced from infinite to 5.
• Obsidian Focus: This Earth Magic trait now grants toughness when channeling the Stone Shards skill.
• Ice Spike: This skill’s tooltip now states the correct amount of vulnerability when traited.
• Conjure Frost Bow’s Deep Freeze: This skill now applies 1 second of chill per pulse, preventing extreme stacking of chill on a target.
• Conjure Frost Bow’s Ice Storm: This skill now applies 5 seconds of bleeding per hit instead of confusion.
• Tidal Wave: This skill’s responsiveness has been improved.
• Tornado: Leaving this elite skill now removes the stability it grants in order to make it consistent with other elite transformation abilities.
• Vapor Form: Fixed a bug that allowed this skill to contest a capture point.
• Flame Axe: This weapon now grants the wielder power and condition damage.
• Frost Bow: This weapon now grants the wielder increased condition duration and increased healing power.
• Fiery Greatsword: This weapon now grants the wielder power and condition damage.
• Magnetic Shield: This weapon now grants the wielder vitality and toughness.
• Lightning Hammer: This weapon now grants the wielder increased precision and critical damage.

Engineer
• Elixir
• Elixir X: This skill now only requires one cast to transform the user.
• Toss Elixir R: This skill’s recharge is increased from 85 seconds to 120 seconds.
• Elixir S: This skill is now improved by the Alchemy trait Fast-Acting Elixirs.
• Tool Kit
• Box of Nails: This skill now shows its proper area of effect.
• Gear Shield: This skill now blocks for an extra second.
• Magnet: This skill’s range has been doubled.
• Grenades
• The projectile speed of all grenades has been increased by 10-15%.
• Grenade: This skill’s damage has been decreased by 10% in PvP only.
• Shrapnel Grenade: This skill’s damage has been decreased by 15% in PvP only.
• Freeze Grenade: This skill’s damage has been decreased by 10% in PvP only.
• Grenade Barrage: This skill’s damage has been decreased by 10% in PvP only. It also now works correctly with the Explosives trait Grenadier while underwater.
• Turrets
• Smoke Screen: This skill’s graphic has been updated to show the area of the screen. It now pulses every 2 seconds for 6 seconds instead of every second for 5 seconds. This makes it more effective against enemies using attacks at normal speeds but prevents it from being abused to shut down quick-attacking enemies completely.
• Automatic Fire: Increased the duration of this skill’s Overcharge by 100% on Harpoon Turret and 25% on Rifle Turret.
• Electrified Net: Increased the velocity of the Electrified Net by 100%.
• Thump: Increased the damage of the Overcharged attack by 25%.
• Bomb Kit, Med Kit, Tool Kit, and Elixir Gun: These skills can now be equipped in the air.
• All kits can be stowed in the air now.
• Toss Elixir C: This skill’s cooldown will be set from 60 seconds to 30 seconds when underwater.
• Elixir Gun’s Fumigate: This skill will now be cancelled when using other skills on the weapon to improve responsiveness.
• Rocket Turret: This turret can now be detonated underwater.
• Power Wrench: This trait now applies to Gear Shield and Magnet.
• Incendiary Powder: This trait now states that it can only trigger once every 3 seconds.
• Elixir U and Elixir C: These skills have had outdated skill facts removed.
• Potent Elixirs: This skill no longer grants improper boon durations.
• Elixir B: This skill grants fury, retaliation, and swiftness for 10 seconds base, with might being applied for 30 seconds base.
• Smoke Bomb: This skill’s radius has been reduced to 180 from 240 when traited. Smoke Bomb is now active for 4 seconds, pulsing every 2. This change also affects the Autodefense Bomb Dispenser trait.
• Homing Torpedo: This skill is now a small projectile combo finisher.
• Retreating Grapple: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
• Timed Charge: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
• Net Wall: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
• Harpoon Turret: This turret will now spawn at the engineer when the Deployable Turrets trait is equipped.

Guardian
• Protector’s Strike: Fixed a bug that allowed this skill to be cancelled and retain the blocking benefits.
• Shield of Judgment: This skill’s protection duration has been set to 3 seconds from 5 seconds in PvP only.
• Courageous Return: This trait now uses the correct icon.
• Power of the Virtuous: This trait now uses the correct icon.
• Orb of Light: This skill’s velocity has been increased by 50%.
• Empower: This skill’s might duration increased from 8 seconds to 10 seconds.
• Selfless Daring: This trait had an efficiency with healing power that was reserved for healing skills only and has now been reduced to its intended level. Heal scaling has been reduced by 50% in PvP only.
• Merciful Intervention: This skill has been updated to be instant when traited and will now always be based around the guardian.

Mesmer
• Moa Morph: Targets transformed by this skill have 5 new and less-frustrating skills, and this skill can also be used underwater to turn enemies into tuna. This skill now removes Death Shroud from the target instead of the necromancer being stuck in Death Shroud.
• Portal: This skill’s recharge has been increased to 90 seconds.
• Illusionary Duelist, Phantasmal Swordsman, Phantasmal Mage, Phantasmal Defender, Phantasmal Disenchanter, Phantasmal Rogue, Phantasmal Warlock, Illusionary Mariner, Illusionary Whaler, Phantasmal Berserker, and Phantasmal Warden: These skills must now be cast in line-of-sight of the target. These skills now behave as normal attacks that the mesmer must connect in order to summon the phantasm, and they will fail if the mesmer is blind or the ability is cast on an invulnerable target.
• Phantasmal Mage: This skill’s confusion has been increased to 3 stacks for 3 seconds from 1 stack for 9 seconds. The recharge on Phantasmal Mage’s skill has been increased to 6 seconds from 5 seconds.
• The Prestige: This skill’s damage has been increased by 100%.
• Phantasmal Haste: This trait now works.

Necromancer
• The Soul Reaping trait line now properly increases maximum Life Force.
• Ghastly Claws: This skill’s damage has been increased by 10% and updated to indicate the correct life force gained.
• Reaper’s Touch: This skill applies 4 stacks of vulnerability per hit instead of 3.
• Mark of Blood: This skill now uses the standard staff scythe cast effects.
• Spectral Wall: This skill now applies its recharge at the correct time instead of both during and after casting.
• Dark Path: This skill now applies it recharge at the correct time instead of both during and after casting.
• Spinal Shivers: This skill’s casting effects and audio are now consistent with or without the Spiteful Talisman trait.
• Soul Marks and Mark of Revival: These traits now work together to grant 3% life force to players when triggered.
• Death Nova: This skill now properly activates when using Taste of Death and Putrid Explosion. The internal cooldown has been removed. This skill’s field duration is now 4 seconds, and the rate it pulses has been increased to every 2 seconds. Its poison duration is 5 seconds per pulse.
• Weakening Shroud: This trait now functions underwater.
• Mark of Evasion: This trait is no longer a blast finisher when the mark is created.
• Plague Blast: This skill’s casting time has been reduced.
• Death Shroud: Moa Morph now removes Death Shroud from the target instead of the necromancer being stuck in Death Shroud and using their entire bar while in the transform.
• Deadly Catch: This skill now pulls enemies to the necromancer in a reliable fashion.
• Summon Blood Fiend: The Blood Fiend’s survivability has been increased, and its attack now heals the necromancer for 200% of its previous heal.
• Spectral Walk: This skill now sets its underwater slot appropriately on recharge.
• Corrosive Poison Cloud: This skill’s duration tooltip has been corrected.
• Frozen Abyss: This skill now lists the vulnerability it applies.
• Spectral Grasp: This skill’s projectile velocity has been increased by 33%.
• Lich Form: Leaving this skill now removes stability from the player to make the removal consistent with all other transform elites.
• Feast: This skill no longer causes damage to the necromancer.
• Sinking Tomb: This skill now has a correct range of 1200, cannot hit targets above the water, and has to hit the target to cause the sink effect.
• Vampiric Precision, Vampiric Rituals, and Vampiric: These traits have been updated so that they don’t heal enemies when in lower-level areas.
• Signet of Spite: This skill’s description now indicates all conditions applied.

Ranger
• Improved the effect chance on ranger spirits to 35% base and 50% when traited.
• Beastmastery minor traits now use the correct icon.
• Splinter Shot: This skill’s damage is increased by 150%, and its bleeding duration is increased from 3 seconds to 4 seconds.
• Counterattack: The blocking portion of this skill can now be used while moving. Ranged attacks will not trigger the second half of the skill.
• Protecting Screech: This skill now states the correct duration of 4 seconds.
• Call of the Wild: The Wilderness Survival trait Off-Hand Training now applies to this skill.
• Throw Torch: The speed of the projectile has been increased.
• Maul: This skill’s damage has been increased by 40%.
• Sun Spirit: The tooltip for this skill now displays the proper burning time of 3 seconds.
• Whirling Defense: This skill was updated so that it interacts better with combo fields.
• Splinter Shot: This skill is now a small projectile combo finisher.
• Coral Shot: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
• Feeding Frenzy: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
• Mercy Shot: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.

Thief
• Piercing Shot: Fixed an error in this skill’s damage tooltip.
• Dancing Dagger: This skill’s damage has been reduced by 50%.
• Blinding Powder: This skill’s recharge has been reduced from 60 seconds to 40 seconds.
• Smoke Screen: This skill’s height has been increased to help it absorb projectiles.
• Shadowstep: This skill is temporarily disabled underwater to keep players from circumventing walls when using it.
• Tactical Strike: This skill’s damage has been increased by 10% in all formats. This skill’s daze duration has been reduced from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds in PvP.
• Leeching Venoms: This trait now scales based on the thief’s power.
• Cluster Shot: This skill’s damage is reduced by 15% in PvP.
• Cloak and Dagger: This skill’s damage has been reduced by 33% in PvP only.
• Body Shot: This skill now allows players to activate other skills sooner after the ability ends.
• Sneak Attack: This skill will now only apply the Revealed buff on the first attack that hits an opponent.
• Stab: Damage for this skill has been normalized so that it doesn’t deal less damage from behind the target.
• Bountiful Theft: This trait no longer applies aegis at odd times.
• Scorpion Wire: This skill’s range has been increased to 1200.
• Shadow Trap: This skill no longer shadowsteps the thief when the trap is triggered. This skill now has two additional abilities: The first ability becomes available when Shadow Trap is cast and will destroy the current trap. The second ability, Shadow Pursuit, becomes available when an enemy triggers the trap. The thief may choose to activate this ability and shadowstep to the enemy that triggered the trap. If this ability is not activated after 10 seconds, the ability will fade and Shadow Trap will be available.
• Piercing Shot: This skill is now a small projectile combo finisher.
• Ink Shot: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.

Warrior
• Dual Shot: This skill’s damage has been increased by 10%.
• Bull’s Charge: This skill’s range fact now properly reflects the actual range of the skill.
• Reviver’s Might: This trait now uses the correct icon.
• Stick and Move: This trait now uses the correct icon.
• Forceful Shot: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
• Brutal Shot: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
• Split Shot: This skill is now a small projectile combo finisher.
• Knot Shot: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
• Repeating Shot: This skill is now a small projectile combo finisher.
• Triple Chop: This skill’s responsiveness has been improved.

Racial Abilities
Human
• Avatar of Melandru: This skill now properly removes stability when players leave the transformation.
Sylvari
• Grasping Vines: This skill now immobilizes enemies when the vines connect with the enemy.

Additional Build Notes:
General
• Stats of legendary weapons have been returned to normal.
• Total achievement points display bug has been fixed.
• Ranger traps have been reset to their expected cooldowns.
• We have officially moved over to the new wide-screen FOV (Field of View). If you would prefer to return to the old FOV, please place the following command in your target for the game .exe: -useOldFov

Update (11/17/12, 1AM PT):
• Fixed a bug with trait and item cooldowns. They will now carry over properly after players are defeated and revived.
• Fixed issues with the Lost Shores event content.

Update (11/17/12, 3:19 PM PST)
• Fixed issues with some event NPCs, including Canach and his door guard as well as Noll and his bodyguards.
• Noll and Canach’s dynamic events will remain active throughout the weekend to avoid blocking players from completing the phase.
• Exotic items from chests in the Fractals of the Mists will become soulbound after equipping them to a character.
• The Ice Mine skill on the Ice Elemental NPC in the Fractals of the Mists can no longer be reflected.

UPDATE NOTES 11.5.12

* Corrected drop rate for Unidentified Dye.
On November 1, we introduced a change that unintentionally increased the drop rate of Unidentified Dye. Today’s game update corrects the drop rate for Unidentified Dye.


UPDATE NOTES 11.1.12

Holiday
Halloween has come and gone. You put Mad King Thorn back in his place with as much skill and enthusiasm as we’d hoped. We on the Halloween Team would like to thank you for participating with such gusto. It did our hearts good to know so many of you were enjoying the pumpkins of our labors (so to speak). Thank you!
Unfortunately, Hurricane Sandy has made these past few days very hard for some of our players on the east coast of the United States. We would like to extend our condolences to all those affected by the storm. We recognize that because of power failures and the general situation, many players have been unable to meet Mad King Thorn in Lion’s Arch. One of the fake Mad King Thorn actors has decided to stick around until 11/15 to ensure that those who couldn’t play due to the storms still receive the “Attend the Party” achievement. If you missed the final event, you will be able to speak to him at the Grand Piazza in Lion’s Arch and receive both your achievement and a Halloween hat.
•The Mad King is gone, and he has taken his chest with him. The Mad King Chest can no longer be created.

Paid SPvP Tournaments
In addition to free sPvP tournaments, you can now play in paid sPvP tournaments! You can join them by going to the Heart of the Mists (using the crossed-swords icon in your quick-launch icons) and speak to the Tournament Master. You will need Tournament Tickets to play, which you can get through reward chests or the Gem Store! To see more info on the rewards for paid tournaments, look here.

WvW
•Closed a number of exploits that inappropriately allowed access to keeps.
•Orbs of power have been removed from WvW to address hacking and balance issues. They tended to strengthen teams already in the lead and were irresistible targets for hackers and cheaters, both of which could have an unfortunately large impact on any given WvW game. Orbs or some similar mechanic may return in the future, but only if we’re confident that they won’t create similar issues.

Personal Story
“The Battle of Fort Trinity”—Fixed a bug that could prevent progress on the “Defend the gate” objective.

Dungeons
Sorrow’s Embrace
•Fergg’s Chain: The Grenadiers found a way back into the ranks. We have now adjusted their numbers to match. Waves have been adjusted to have a more reasonable spawn time.

Caudecus’s Manor
•Story Chain: Fixed an issue that could prevent Separatist guards from spawning properly.
Reminder

On October 22nd, we added new minidungeons, jumping puzzles, and events to several areas.
•Mount Maelstrom—A jumping puzzle has been added.
•Fireheart Rise—A minidungeon has been added.
•Dredgehaunt Cliffs—A minidungeon has been added.
•Various Maps—Modus Sceleris events now appear in several maps.
•There is a skritt burglar on the loose in Tyria! Adventurers that encounter this thieving rodent are encouraged to confiscate whatever loot they can shake out of her.

UPDATE NOTES 10.24.12 to 10.30.12

All updates pertain to Halloween 2012 updates and fixes

UPDATE NOTES 10.22.12

HOLIDAY - notes regarding halloween omitted

ACHIEVEMENTS
In response to several letters from the Tyrian Explorers Society, we have made the following changes to recognized achievements:
•Added karma rewards to daily and monthly achievements.
•Added 19 new exploration achievements to the “Explorer” achievement list, including “Dive Master,” which tracks unique diving goggle uses.
•Added a new “Jumping Puzzles” achievement category.
•Moved all existing jumping puzzle achievements from the “Explorer” category to the “Jumping Puzzles” category.
•Added 4 additional jumping puzzle achievements.
•Added a new “Bosses” achievement category.
•The “Crash Landing” achievement has been moved from the “Explorer” category to the “Bosses” category.
•Added 7 new boss achievements.

MYSTIC FORGE
“The Mighty Zommoros has been caught failing to notice the generosity of those who grant him gifts. The Mighty Zommoros will now appropriately reward baubles to those who bring him offerings.”—The Mighty Zommoros
•The Mystic Forge ingot-conversion recipes for bronze, copper, gold, and darksteel have been fixed to reward correct materials.
•The Mystic Forge recipe for the Abyssal Scepter has been fixed to correctly award the Abyssal Scepter.
•The Mystic Forge recipe for the Lidless Eye now requires 10 giant eyes.
•The Mystic Forge recipe for Titans’ Vengance has been fixed to correctly award Titans’ Vengance.
•The Mystic Forge recipe for the Wall of the Mists now requires 250 orichalcum shield bosses instead of powerful blood and 30 giant eyes instead of 1.
•Zommoros has been reminded to give out baubles for less desirable (low-level) rare weapons.
•Fixed a bug in the Mystic Forge conversion recipies for rare Glacial Ingredients that cause them to reward Charged Ingredients instead.

EVENTS
•There is a skritt burglar on the loose in Tyria! Adventurers that encounter this thieving rodent are encouraged to confiscate whatever loot they can shake out of her.
•Added over 30 events across the game.
•Fixed a stuck event chain in Straits of Devastation.
•Fixed a blocking bug in the event “Defend the Leaders of Caer Evermore from the Risen” in Timberline Falls.
•Fixed a potential blocking bug caused by the event “Destroy the Risen broodmother to free Rakkan” in Cursed Shore.
•Fixed a potential blocking bug in the event “Rescue Scholar Alil Rodez” in Lornar’s Pass.
•Fixed a bug preventing Siege Master Marith from collecting catapult parts in Kessex hills.
•Fixed a bug preventing Tactician Footi from setting up her cannon in Cursed Shore.
•Fixed a bug preventing skritt from being driven out of Nentor’s Mine in Lornar’s Pass.
•Lengthened the time between events when attempting to hold Arah and made repeated attempts at holding Arah more difficult.
•Lengthened the time between events when attempting to hold the Temple of Grenth.
•Lengthened the time between events when attempting to hold the Temple of Melandru and made repeated attempts at holding the Temple of Melandru more difficult.

WvW
•Fixed an exploit that allowed players to occasionally teleport through walls.
•Reduced the range at which players could interact with completed arrow carts.
•The blue team’s start point on the green Borderlands has been changed to no longer remove allies from the area.
•The Charr Land Mine is no longer usable in WvW areas.

PvP
•Fixed bugs that allowed teleporting before a match starts.
•Fixed bugs for getting into team bases in Legacy of the Foefire and Battle of Kyhlo.
•Svanir has been updated to have slightly more health in Forest of Niflhel.
•Paid tournaments will be available soon. To ensure the best experience possible, free tournaments will be used to make sure everything is working smoothly before bringing paid tournaments online. Thank you all for your patience.

GENERAL UPDATES
•The Durmand Priory is currently investigating an ancient dwarven door recently unearthed in Dredgehaunt Cliffs. Meanwhile, strange reports of a caravan of shark tanks crossing the fields of Fireheart Rise are presumed to be a hoax.
•Jumping puzzles and open-world minidungeons have updated reward tables.
•Added 3 new jumping puzzles.
•Added more diving goggles throughout Tyria.
•Citadel of Flame medium armor coats now include the warning text “This coat hides shoulder armor.”
•Butter and chocolate no longer drop from loot bags of level 50 and above.
•Butter and chocolate no longer drop from Supply Bags dropped by centaurs, Stolen Supplies dropped by ettins, Ritual Bags dropped by Flame Legion, or Materials Bags dropped by Inquest.
•Increased the chance to get vanilla beans from herb nodes in the Tarnished Coast and Steamspur Mountains.
•Increased the respawn timers for omnomberries, black crocus, ghost pepper, lotus, and Orrian truffles to 5 hours.
•Reduced amount of cinnamon dropped from nodes from 3,5 to 1,2. Cinnamon now only comes from green wood nodes.
•Reduced amount of walnuts dropped from nodes from 3,5 to 1,2. Walnuts now only come from soft wood nodes.
•Removed parsley and thyme from herb nodes in the Tarnished Coast and Steamspur Mountains.
•Rune of the Noble (Superior): Updated drakehounds summoned by these runes to die after 60 seconds.
•Rune of the Pack (Major and Superior): This upgrade’s on-hit effect now works properly.

STORY
•The story step “Estate of Decay” has been updated to make door interaction more consistent.
•The story step “Mightier than the Sword” has been fixed so that using the mesmer elite skill Moa Morph on Steag will not prevent progress.
•The story step “The Battle of Fort Trinity” has been fixed to avoid a problem that could prevent progress in co-op mode. A problem that could prevent progress while defending the gate has been also been fixed.
•The story step “The Blossom of Youth” has been fixed to avoid a problem where bypassing a section could prevent progress.
•The story step “Trading Trickery” has been fixed to avoid a problem that could prevent progress.

DUNGEONS
•Dungeons now award karma on completion. The first-time karma reward for completing the story of a dungeon is larger than subsequent story runs. The first time per day a player completes an explorable path for a dungeon, the karma reward equals (Player Level) * 23.5. For the rest of the day, subsequent runs of the same path will reward karma equal to (Player Level) * 9.5.

Ascalonian Catacombs
•Fixed an area where players could get outside the map in the Flooded Temple.

Caudecus’s Manor
•Gunpowder Morgan’s maximum range and damage have been updated.

Sorrow’s Embrace
•Inquest Grenadiers have been reassigned to a new task; some new enemies await on the long road.
•Kreutzerova will no longer prioritize a player at the dungeon entrance when first encountered.
•Nokk’s Gravity Distortion now properly displays the time you are distorted.
•Shukov’s golems now properly display during his event.
•Shukov’s mark II golem has had its electric field updated to be a bit more dangerous now.
•The lava in some areas is now behaving as lava should.

Twilight Arbor
•The maximum range of Nightmare Vines has been increased.

PROFESSION
•Reduced fear’s maximum stacks to 5 to prevent excessively long periods of time where players don’t have control of their character.
•Updated the stability boon to stack duration up to 3 times.

Elementalist
•Air Pocket: This skill no longer allows players to shadowstep out of water.
•Cone of Cold: The healing gained from the this skill’s heal attribute has been increased from 480 to 780 at max level.
•Earthquake: The responsiveness of skills used after this skill has been improved.
•Fire Grab: This skill has had its attack angle increased.
•Glyph of Renewal: This skill no longer resurrects dead allies; it only revives downed ones.
•Lightning Touch: This skill has had its attack angle increased.
•Magnetic Grasp: The responsiveness of skills used after this skill has been improved.
•Ring of Earth: This skill now applies cripple.
•Signets: All signets have been updated to function properly with the Earth Magic traits Written in Stone and Signet Mastery.
•Downed State Updates
•Discharge Lightning: This skill can now stack vulnerability up to 2 times.
•Grasping Earth: This skill has been moved to skill 3 and given a 10 second recharge. Damage has been increased by 50%, and it bleeds enemies on every pulse. This skill can now be interrupted by other skills.
•Vapor Form: This skill has been moved to skill 2, is instantly available upon being downed, and has a 20-second recharge.

Guardian
•Leap of Faith: This skill’s functionality has been improved to make it more reliable.
•Line of Warding: This skill is no longer able to move friendly NPCs around.
•Protector’s Strike: This skill has had an exploit removed that caused it to block longer than intended.
•Renewed Focus: This skill may now be used on the move.
•“Save Yourselves!”: This skill has now been split between PvP and PvE. In PvE, players will notice no difference. In PvP, this skill’s boon duration has been changed to 5 seconds.
•Shield of Absorption: This skill no longer blocks some friendly NPC missiles.
•Symbol of Wrath: This skill’s attack has been improved by 10%.
•Virtue of Courage: This skill has been updated to not apply aegis each time the user bobs in and out of water.

Thief
•Assassin’s Signet: This skill has been updated to grant 15% damage for 5 attacks rather than 50% damage for one attack.
•Basilisk Venom: This skill’s buff now applies for the appropriate duration of 30 seconds.
•Disabling Shot: This skill can now be fired continuously at targets behind the player without the ability jumping them back toward the target. This skill now also has a cost when firing at targets behind the player.
•Flanking Strike: This skill’s first attack is now unblockable.
•Ink Shot: This skill no longer allows players to shadowstep out of water.
•Nine-Tailed Strike: This skill has been fixed to properly provide the intended amount of initiative.
•Shadow Refuge: This skill’s stealth removal tripwire has been updated to properly match the skill’s effects.
•Whirling Axe: This skill has had evasion removed from the ability and has a missile-reflection effect applied to the whirl effect.

Mesmer
•Arcane Thievery: This skill now appropriately removes the aegis boon rather than being blocked by it.
•Confusing Images: This skill has been updated to fire at its correct distance.
•Cry of Frustration: This skill’s tooltip now accurately shows that confusion it applies lasts for 3 seconds.
•Mirror of Anguish: This trait no longer functions on necromancers when they have Reaper’s Protection active.
•Phantasmal Warlock: This illusion’s recharge between attacks is now slightly longer.
•Phase Retreat: This skill should no longer teleport players into geometry or other places they shouldn’t be getting into.
•Scepter Skills: Projectile skills for the scepter have had their velocity increased by 33%.

Engineer
•Elixir B: This skill’s toolbelt skill now accurately reflects only one boon being applied to allied targets.
•Mine Field: This skill’s recharge has been reduced to 20 seconds.
•Throw Mine: This skill is now unblockable when it detonates.

Warrior
•Battle Standard: This skill no longer goes on full recharge if it’s interrupted while being activated.
•Brutal Shot: This skill can now stack vulnerability up to 2 times.
•Forceful Shot: This skill’s damage has been increased by about 70%, and its activation time has been increased.
•Stomp: The responsiveness of skills used after this skill has been improved.
•Tremor: This skill can now be activated while moving.

Necromancer
•Corrupt Boon: This skill now properly removes aegis rather than being blocked by it.
•Fetid Ground: This downed skill now has a Dark combo field. Its visual effects have been updated to show its actual radius.
•Life Leech: This downed skill’s damage has been increased by 25%.
•Spectral Walk: Removing this skill from a skill slot while it’s active will now remove all benefits gained from activating the ability.
•Spinal Shivers: This skill now properly removes aegis rather than being blocked by it.

MAC BETA CLIENT
•Fixed a bug that prevented players using Apple keyboard varieties other than US English from binding the key to the left of the “1” key in the Control Options panel.

UPDATED GENERAL
•Devil Horns can no longer be put into the Mystic Forge and are now available again for free via the Gem Store (these will be available in a few hours, 10am PDT)
•Fixed a crash when resurrecting a Mesmer clone created with the Deception skill
•Fixed an issue when Halloween creatures could infinitely spawn from Haunted Doors
•Fixed an issue when the ghost wasn’t visible during the first stage of Scavenger Hunt in Lion’s Arch
•Fixed a WvW crash

UPDATED GENERAL
•Fixed a bug that caused frequent PvP crashes. This was the final known bug preventing the activation of paid tournaments. (We will again take a night to make sure these are stable to ensure that the player experience when spending gems on tournaments is as good as it can be. Barring unforeseen issues, we will enable paid tournaments tomorrow morning when we are in the office to support their launch.)
•Fixed various crashes
•Fixed counts for Halloween achievements
•Added an instance entry that will let all players who reach Fort Trinity to go into Trahearne’s office
•Several parts of the scavenger hunt will no longer break if too many players are interacting with them
•Fixed an issue causing players with linked mobile authenticators to be regularly disconnected from the game
•Fixed an issue in two of the Arah chains where a door would remain closed

UPDATE NOTES 10.16.12

Mac Beta Client
•Fixed a bug that prevented copy and paste functions from working in the launcher’s text fields.
•Fixed a bug that made some colored text in the Trading Post appear fragmented and difficult to read.


UPDATE NOTES 10.11.12

General
•Fixed a recently introduced issue that could cause some players to getting stuck in loading screens primarily during PVP matches
•Fixed a recently introduced issue that could cause some players to not see other characters models
•Restored Asuran head sizes to the size selected during character creation
•Fixed a bug with the Asuran character creation head size slider


UPDATE NOTES 10.7.12

General
•Fixed a bug in targeting that was causing left-dragging to deselect/select targets incorrectly.
•Fixed a bug in targeting that was allowing users to deselect all targets using the select next target functionality.
•Fixed a bug with human female sword and pistol animations.
•Fixed a bug that was causing quickness to get stuck on players and enemies indefinitely.
•Fixed the Mystic Forge recipe for Melandru’s Gaze that was rewarding the Mystic Staff instead.
•Fixed a potential bug with skill challenge conversations not closing for all parties speaking with the NPC.
•Fixed a bug in weaponsmith Destroyer recipes being swapped for Valkyrie and Berserker weapons.
•Fixed the Mystic Forge recipes for platinum and mithril ingot conversion taking cloth bolts instead of the appropriate ingots. This also fixes the issue with linen and silk bolt conversion recipes sometimes rewarding ingots.
•Fixed the Mystic Forge recipe for Immobulus requiring a defunct item. It now requires giant eyes instead.
•Fixed a bug with Rune of Divinity that was causing it to do 50% more critical damage than listed.
•Removed laughing audio from crafting stations in Divinity’s Reach.
•Raised the maximum karma limit.
•Superior Rune of the Adventurer is now set to give 50% of endurance on heal.
•The character select screen now reflects hidden armor choices.
•Updated Rune of Earth and Rune of the Grove to have a 25% chance to grant 4 seconds of protection and 30-second recharge for superior runes, with 45-second recharge for major runes.
•We’ve relaxed our anti-exploiting system for loot and events.

Camera
•We’ve updated the camera to reduce the amount of camera smoothing currently in the game in order to lower the frequency of related bugs. We’re still looking into other camera issues, but we decided to make this quick change because it greatly improves the gameplay experience.
Events
•Fixed a bug that could block “Escort Order of Whispers agents to Jormabakke Stead” in Snowden Drifts from restarting.
•Fixed a bug that could cause duplicate versions of Agent Briathell to spawn in Snowden Drifts.
•Fixed a bug that could prevent the repair event for “Cascade Bridge” in Lornar’s Pass from triggering.

Dungeons

Caudecus’s Manor
•Closed map exploits.
•Updated the reward vendor for Caudecus’s Manor to include the missing exotic light helmet.

Citadel of Flame
•Closed map exploits.

Twilight Arbor
•Upper Spider Path: Increased the attack range of the Nightmare Tree. The area attack and its effect now take place at the same location.
•Nightmare Tree Spider Path: The area attack now correctly does damage at the point of the effect.
•Forward Upper Husk Path: Added damage to the Nightmare Tree’s immobilize skill. Also added damage to the Nightmare Tree egg launch skill.

Story
•Reduced the health of the final boss in “The Source of Orr.”
•Forging the Pact: Implemented changes to ensure that the cave section completes reliably.
•Pets and Walls Make Stronger Kraals: Fix for possible stall during the taming step.

Battle of Fort Trinity:
•You cannot pick up the water orb until you defeat all of the saboteurs.
•It’s no longer possible to trap players by closing the fortress doors on them.
•Fixed a stall during “Retake the docks” objective.
•Fixed a stall if players did not choose a greatest fear earlier in Chapter 7.
•Lines of Communication: Batanga will now help you fight the Arcane Eye.
•Fixing Blame: Warmaster Gurnn should now kick off his cutscene correctly.
•Fixed a rare bug in “Shards of Orr” where Herboza would not become visible.

World versus World
•The northernmost keep in all homelands has had its collision adjusted on the inner western gate.
•Numerous items have been disabled for use in World versus World to prevent exploits and imbalances. This includes the Experimental Teleportation Gun, ettin gunk, drake eggs, seed turrets, and more.
•Fixed WvW Orb of Power duplication on player disconnect.

Profession
Attributes gained from traits now apply to the downed state.

Elementalist
•Glyph of Renewal: This skill will now revive downed allies only, not dead ones.
•Signets of Earth, Fire, and Water: These signest have been updated to not fire at targets behind the player.
•Signet of Fire: This skill is now able to hit targets at its indicated range.
•Signet of Air: This skill now displays a hovering signet effect over the user when activated.
•Whirlpool: This skill’s damage has been decreased by 33%.

Engineer
•Grenade Kit: Grenade skills now have the same cast time underwater as they do on land.
•Explosives Trait Grenadier: This trait now gives a bonus to underwater grenade skills.
•Big Ol’ Bomb: This skill has been updated to be a blast finisher.

Guardian
•We are moving towards retaliation being more of a counter to taking many hits rather than a general boon to keep up all the time. We also wanted to improve the combo finisher of the guardian, so we reorganized guardian greatsword skills to the following:
•Skill 2: Whirling Wrath (10 second recharge)
•Skill 3: Leap of Faith (15 second recharge)
•Skill 4: Symbol of Wrath (20 second recharge)
•Updated Bane Signet and Signet of Wrath so they can’t be fired at targets behind the player.
•Updated Signet of Judgment to apply three seconds of retaliation upon activation with or without traits.
•Decreased the activation time of Signet of Judgment.

Mesmer
•Signet of Domination can no longer be cast on targets behind the mesmer.
•Added a much faster breakout for mesmer underwater mantras.
•Phantasmal Warlock: Increased recharge to 20 seconds.
•Chaos Armor: Decreased recharge to 35 seconds.
•Chaos Storm: Increased recharge to 35 seconds.
•Phantasmal Duelist: Increased recharge to 20 seconds.
•Phantasmal Swordsman: Increased recharge to 18 seconds.

Necromancer
•Updated Chillblains to properly function with the Greater Marks trait.
•Signet of Spite can now be cast while on the move.

Ranger
•Crossfire: Increased casting time by 40 milliseconds. This was done to fix some glitches in the animation that caused problems with this skill.
•Removed the broken audio that played with Natural Healing whenever pets were in combat.

Thief
•Pistol Whip: Reduced damage by 15%.
•Basilisk Venom: Increased stun duration to 1.5 seconds. Stun breakers now work on this skill.

UPDATE NOTES 10.1.12

General

•Fixed bugs for various stuck events and skill challenges.
•Fixed bugs for various map areas that allowed players to get outside of the playable space.
•Fixed a bug in dungeon speed-clearing code. Players should no longer experience reward reductions without triggering the speed-clearing debuff.
•Fixed a bug that was automatically killing players as they entered Sharkmaw Caverns in Lion’s Arch.
•Fixed an exploit in renown regions that allowed players to quickly complete them by interacting with objects while their inventory was full.
•Fixed a bug that caused charr characters to enter a state where any fall resulted in a long falling yell.
•Fixed a bug that caused older characters to have their monthly achievement reset upon completion before the current month ended.
•Fixed the conversion on all items that were changed from soulbound to account bound to actually be account bound now.
•Fixed a bug that was preventing certain music from playing.
•Fixed an issue with the loot table for undead grubs.
•Fixed a camera bug which occasionally caused the camera to get too close to the player’s backside.
•Updated the Barrel and Green Plant environmental weapons to disappear after lying on the ground for a set time. This will prevent map issues caused by hundreds of these bundles idling on the ground.
•Updated Rune of the Adventurer and Sigil of Energy to each grant 25% endurance when activated.
•Updated map completion rewards for Plains of Ashford and all World-versus-World maps to match the map level/content.
•Added an appropriate error message for players when trying to accept too many guild invites.
•Armor that is currently equipped can no longer be transmuted.
•Keg Brawl has received some updates:
•Lob: This skill is now ground-targeted.
•Throw: This skill now has the range of the old Lob but with a casting time.
•Master Weaponsmiths now sell their goods for coin instead of karma, as was originally intended.
•Miss Mipp at Almuten Mansion now sells Curry Buns instead of directly selling outdated buffs.
•Surfacing while downed underwater no longer grants invulnerability. This change was made to stop players from exploiting the surface of the water to maintain permanent invulnerability.
•The Trading Post will properly refresh when using item context menus from your inventory.
•Transmuted cultural armor now prevents opposing races from equipping it.
•Valkyrie armor boxes will now properly contain a coat instead of two helms when crafted.

Story
•Fixed bugs in the story step “Ships of the Line.”
•Fixed blocking bugs in the following story steps: “Forging the Pact,” “Killing Fields,” “Shell Shock,” “Short Fuse,” “The Battle of Fort Trinity,” “The Machine in Action,” and “Tower Down.”
•Updated difficulty of the following story steps: “Killing Fields,” “Lines of Communication,” “Minotaur Rampant,” “Mired Deep,” “Ships of the Line,” “The Battle of Fort Trinity,” “The Greater Good,” and “The Queen’s Justice.”

Events
•Fixed a bug that was periodically preventing the Claw of Jormag event from completing.
•Added catapults and scaling veterans to the bridge repair event in Kessex Hills.

Dungeons
Crucible of Eternity
•Reduced the difficulty of creatures and bosses, particularly health and armor.

Citadel of Flame
•Fixed exploits that allowing players to speed clear paths of this dungeon.
•Reduced difficulty of the Searing Effigy.

Arah
•Fixed map exploit that was allowing players to speed-clear paths of this dungeon.
•Fixed a blocking bug in story mode.

Player versus Player
•Games will no longer autobalance after one team has reached 80% of the maximum score if the game ends by score.
•Games will no longer autobalance when within two minutes of the end of the game if the game ends by time.
•Autobalance functionality has been updated to give a new volunteer bonus to any players who volunteer for balancing, as well as giving any players balanced the winner bonus. When volunteers are lacking, random selection will be used. The text for this system has also been updated.

World versus World
•Updated the Red Portal Keep in the Eternal Battlegrounds to ensure the “no siege” debuff encompasses the entire start point.
•Fixed a bug with Keep Lords in World versus World where they could become immune to damage.

Professions
General
•Profession bundle weapons (engineer kits, elementalist conjure skills, warrior banners) can now save their autoattack status.
•The following profession skills now hit 3 targets instead of 1:
•Elementalist Dagger: Lightning Whip, Lightning Touch
•Mesmer Spear: Stab, Jab, Evasive Strike
•Ranger Spear: Stab, Jab, Evasive Strike, Dart, Counterstrike
•Thief Spear: Stab, Jab, Poison Tip Strike, Nine Tailed Strike
•Warrior Spear: Stab, Jab, Impale, Mariner’s Frenzy, Parry

Elementalist
•Flame Burst: This skill will no longer fire if the target is behind the player.
•Lightning Surge: This skill no longer has infinite range and cannot fire at targets behind the player. It also is properly affected by line of sight and works with the Arcana trait Blasting Staff.

Engineer
•Elixir X: This skill now gains a duration increase from both the Inventions trait Elite Supplies and the Alchemy trait Potent Elixirs.
•Freeze Grenade: This skill no longer benefits from the Explosives trait Grenadier for 5-second cooldown reduction.
•Knee Shot: This Firearms trait now effects all immobilize skills for engineers. The effect can only trigger once every 5 seconds to prevent players from exploiting it to stack massive amounts of cripple.
•Mortar: This skill is now properly affected by the Inventions trait Rifled Turret Barrels.
•Rifled Barrels: This Firearms trait now works with the Elixir Gun kit when underwater.

Guardian
•Bane Signet: This skill’s animation will now work properly when activated by greatsword and hammer users.
•Line of Warding: This skill now lasts for 5 seconds instead of 8 seconds.
•Merciful Intervention: This skill has been updated to heal when it completes and isn’t aborted.
•Renewed Focus: This skill now functions better while underwater (players are able to use abilities sooner) and functions with the Virtues trait Elite Focus. This skill now also properly refreshes Virtue of Courage when it is being affected by traits.
•Shield of Absorption: This skill will now appear correctly for all races.
•Wrathful Spirit: This Honor trait’s retaliation duration has been decreased from 10 seconds to 3 seconds.

Mesmer
•Updated all phantasms and clones available to the mesmer to ensure they activate within their range.
•Updated mantras to now function underwater as they do above water. They also no longer go on full recharge when interrupted.
•Illusionary Riposte: This skill now functions properly with the Dueling trait Blade Training.
•Phantasmal Warden: This skill no longer has a 0-second recharge when affected by traits. It now has approximately a 5-second recharge.

Necromancer
•Blood Is Power: This skill now grants 10 stacks of might but does not grant additional life force.
•Chill of Death: This Spite trait no longer slows down the player’s autoattack when activated.
•Epidemic: This skill no longer has infinite range.
•Haunt: This Shadow Fiend skill now triggers instantly.
•Last Gasp: This Soul Reaping trait will now apply protection and remove stun as if using Spectral Armor. It also now has the displayed 60-second recharge, and the duration has been reduced to 6 seconds to properly match the skill.
•Life Transfer: This skill will now work properly with the Soul Reaping trait Path of Midnight.
•Life Siphon: This skill now properly applies damage at its intended range of 600.
•Spectral Grasp: This skill now also grants 10% life force when used. It also benefits from the Curses trait Spectral Attunement to properly increase the chill duration to 6 seconds.
•Spectral Walk: This skill now stops granting life force when struck if the player activates Death Shroud, Plague, or Lich Form.
•Vampiric: This Blood Magic trait’s interaction with the Bloodthirst trait now increases health siphoning appropriately.

Ranger
•Entangle: This skill is now properly affected by the Wilderness Survival trait Wilderness Knowledge.
•Lick Wounds: This skill now functions only with ranger pets.

Mac Beta Client Update:
•Fixed a bug that prevented players from entering the at sign (@) in the launcher’s log-in fields when using French Apple keyboards.
•Fixed a bug that prevented gem purchases.

UPDATE NOTES 09.25.12
General
• Fixes to LOD on numerous objects in the world.
• Fixes to maps to prevent players from moving outside of the playable area.
• Fixed a bug that made pet footsteps excessively loud, especially in water.
• Fixed a bug with assists not working in keg brawl.
• Fixed numerous blocked events.
• Updated text and functionality when purchasing bank slots.
• Fixed loud sounds on portals to the Underworld in Godslost Swamp.
• Fixed several bugs that were preventing some skill challenges from resetting properly.
• All recipe items are now account bound. Many were previously soulbound.
• Updated Superior Rune of the Ogre Rock Dog so that it doesn’t summon when the player is underwater.
• Updated Sigil of Demon Summoning so that it doesn’t summon when the player is underwater.
• Summoned rock dogs and fleshreavers die when they enter water.
• Removed the lone 1 copper from city map completion rewards.
• Removed Mystic Forge recipes that were being used to reduce surplus supplies.
• Enemies in tutorial areas will no long drop loot. Instead, an award of 72 copper has been added to the rewards for completing the tutorial. This is to dissuade players from lingering in tutorial instances to farm the creatures in them.
• Obsidian Shards are now account bound.
• Box of Berserker’s Draconian Armor and Box of Rampager’s Draconian Armor now reward the proper items.
• Fixed various crash bugs.
• Added the rank 30-39 wolf finishing move.
• Fixed recipes for the Mystic Artifact, Mystic Barricade, and Mystic Trident.
• Fixed visible map completion percentage errors and the achievement not completing.
• Applied 10-second cooldown to Bowl of Saffron-scented Poultry Soup buff. This was done to keep elementalists from spamming condition removal with Signet of Restoration.

Black Lion Trading Company
• Added functionality and improvements to the Black Lion Chests, including a chance to receive new items like a permanent version of the Black Lion Trader Express.
• Black Lion Salvage Kits now properly display the correct percentages for rare materials.

Story
• Adjusted difficulty for the following story steps: “A Fragile Peace,” “Breaking the Bone Ship,” “Killing Fields,” “Political Homicide,” “Sabotage,” “Set to Blow,” “Stand By Your Krewe,” “The Ringmaster,” “The Stone Sheath,” “Track the Seraph,” “Unscheduled Delay,” “Unwelcome Visitors,” and “Welcome Home.”
• Fixed bugs in the following story steps: “A Fragile Peace,” “Against the Corruption,” “Bad Blood,” “Forging the Pact,” “Stand By Your Krewe,” and “Tower Down.”
• Fixed exploits in “The Sound of Psi-Lance.”
• End of Story Loot Bags:
o These have been improved to only give green or better gear of level 78 or higher.
o The number of bags received has been reduced from 5 to 3.
o More improvements will be made in coming weeks. Players who complete the story before the final update will be equally compensated once the new rewards are in.

Dungeons
General
• Updated vendors in the Ascalonian Catacombs and Caudecus’s Manor to sell level 80 versions of their unique skins rather than level 60 and 70. Players who purchased the level 60 and 70 versions will soon be given the opportunity to upgrade those to level 80 without having to use transmutation stones.

Citadel of Flame
• Fixed an exploit in Magg’s chain that was allowing players to skip the entire dungeon and still be rewarded.
• In Magg’s chain, if Magg happens to die in the lava field, he’ll teleport himself to the start of the area just outside it.
• In Magg’s chain, Magg must be much closer to things to draw their initial aggro. This only affects the escort to the magmacyte rock.

Caudecus’s Manor
• Fixed an exploit that was allowing players to skip content.

Honor of the Waves
• Fixed a bug in the Butcher’s chain that prevented a boss from spawning.

Arah
• Fixed a blocking issue.

Ascalonian Catacombs
• Fixed blocking bugs in Detha’s chain.

Dungeon Rewards
We’ve made some significant updates to dungeon rewards. I wanted to try and clarify them here. All of these changes have been the result of an original exploit which was letting players receive upwards of 20 levels by completing a single dungeon run. We initially closed this exploit, which caused some new problems. The result is this new system which should increase dungeon rewards for players who play though them normally but help curb inflation of rewards for those who are using exploitative methods to farm them.
1) Dungeon tokens are now rewarded at the end of an explorable chain. This was done to stop players from repeatedly entering a chain and farming the first boss that dropped tokens rather than playing the entire chain. At some point in the near future, we will make up for this by making dungeon tokens a rare drop so that even players who are not completing a chain can make partial progress toward the rewards.
2) Dungeons reward 20 tokens for completion and now reward an additional 40 tokens for the first time they are completed each day. This means that if players can complete all 3 chains of a dungeon in a day, they’ll receive a total of 180 tokens, which is enough to purchase some of the smaller rewards.
3) Dungeon tokens should be account bound. This will allow players to have a single character farm tokens for their other characters.
4) Last week, to limit the most extreme cases of dungeon speed-clearing, we introduced a system to limit rewards for rapidly repeating dungeon clears. However, a bug in that system caused it to impact more players than intended. This week, we’re updating the system to not impact clearing different chains of the same dungeon. We’ll continue to evaluate this system in coming weeks.
Professions
General
• Implemented a fix to make Heartseeker, Lightning Leap, Flame Leap, and Monarch’s Leap hit more reliably.

Elementalist
• Fixed bugs with Flamestrike and Ice Shards so they can’t be fired behind the player.
• Quick Glyphs: This Air Magic trait has been updated to apply 20% recharge reduction to the elite skill Glyph of Elementals.

Engineer
• Grenade Barrage: This Grenade Kit skill should now be usable underwater.
• Short Fuse: This trait is no longer overwritten by the Grenadier trait. Also, this trait now works with underwater grenades.
• Speedy Kits: Added a 5-second recharge to the trigger for this trait. This was to prevent players from exploiting it to gain vigor buffs of extreme duration.
• Invigorating Speed: Added a 5-second recharge to the trigger for this trait. This was to prevent players from exploiting it to gain vigor buffs of extreme duration.

Guardian
• Merciful Intervention: This skill has been updated to work with the Meditation Mastery trait. The tooltip for this skill has also been updated to display the healing amount when affected by traits.
• Elusive Power: This trait has been updated to not grant might when aegis was blocked.

Mesmer
• Fixed text on “readied” mantra buffs.
• Veil: This glamour skill has been updated to show the appropriate active duration when not affected by traits.

Necromancer
• Taste of Death: This skill’s healing fact has been updated.
• Spectral Wall: This skill has been updated to apply the correct amount of vulnerability (10).
• Vampiric: Fixed a bug with this trait so that it now functions with projectiles.
• Close to Death: This trait has been updated to provide its listed 20% boost instead of the previous (unlisted) 10% boost.
• Banshee’s Wail: This Curses trait has been updated to apply extra swiftness.
• Spectral Walk: This skill has been updated to be more active and to work properly with its recharge trait. Also, Sever Spectral Bond has been changed to Spectral Recall.
• Minion Master: This Death Magic trait has been updated to properly affect the elite skill Summon Flesh Golem.
• Putrid Mark: This skill has been fixed to make it properly unblockable with the Greater Marks trait.
• Mark of Evasion: This trait can now trigger the Soul Marks trait.
• Reaper’s Protection: This trait has been updated to properly work with a variety of crowd-control effects.

Thief
• Bountiful Theft: This strait has been fixed so that it doesn’t apply 15 seconds of vigor twice.

Races
Norn
• Call Wurm: Autocasting has been removed from this skill to prevent an exploit. Additionally, the skill may now be cast on the move.


Player versus Player
• Legacy of the Foefire: Fixed an exploit that was allowing players to teleport past one of the gates.

World versus World
• Experimental Rifle: This item is no longer usable in World versus World.

UPDATE NOTES 09.18.12

General
Fixed missing female voice over lines that were not playing during some story cinematic sequences
Fixed an issue where NPCs would stop moving and result in some events from being blocked
Fixed a Mac client crash and added better crash reporting support

UPDATE NOTES 09.17.12

General

Asuran players will now aim toward their targets when using a rifle.
Fixed various broken events and skill challenges.
Fixed various locations that allowed players to move outside the map.
Fixed various locations on maps where players could become stuck.
Discovery crafting may now use items directly from a player’s bank.
Fixed bugs in the Exploration achievement so players can now receive 100% map completion.
Added a system to limit the experience and gold that players can receive from speed-farming dungeons.

Story

Fixed bugs in “A Different Dream,” “A Fragile Peace,” “Dredging Up the Past,” "Forging the Pact,” “Pastkeeper,” “Ships of the Line,” “Stealing Secrets,” “The Priory Assailed,” and “The Source of Orr.”
Reduced the overall difficulty in “Dead of Winter.”

World-versus-World

Retaliation: This boon no longer reflects damage received from siege weapons.
The Experimental Rifle is no longer usable in World-versus-World.

Professions

Warrior

Smoldering Arrow: This skill’s casting time has been reduced.

Mesmer

The Prestige: This skill now requires full recharge if it’s interrupted at any time.

Thief

Descent of Shadows: This trait’s effect can now only trigger once every 8 seconds.

Engineer

Rocket Boots: This skill is no longer usable underwater. This is a temporary change until we can figure out why players can launch themselves into the sky using this skill.
Detonate Mine Field: This skill is no longer a blast finisher.


UPDATE NOTES 09.14.12
General
The Mistfire Wolf skill will now properly unlock for existing characters on an account after upgrading to Digital Deluxe.
Fixed blocked events and skill challenges.
Fixed bugs that allowed players to go around map edges.
A number of items created by using Mystic Coins are now correctly set to level 80.

Story
Fixed a blocking bug in story chapter “Brute Force.”
Fixed a blocking bug in story chapter “Research and Destroy.”
Fixed bugs in story chapters “Forging the Pact,” “Battle of Fort Trinity," "The Ghost Rite,” “On Red Alert,” and “Tower Down.”
World-versus-World
Score interval increased from 5 minutes to 15 minutes.
Stonemist Castle points reduced to 35 points from 50.
Bonus thresholds reduced by half to prepare for one-week matches.
Castle lord, bodyguards, and capture point for Stonemist Castle moved to the first floor.
“Harpy Feathers” consumable effect disabled.
Bridges fixed to make passable for NPCs.

Professions
Ranger
More fixes to pet commands and AI.

Elementalist
Signet of Air: No longer has infinite range.
Whirlpool: Now works underwater in PvE.
Glyph of Renewal: Resurrection effects of Earth, Fire, and Water now surround the caster, not the target.

Mesmer
Deception: Movement now allowed after casting underwater.
Spatial Surge: Improved responsiveness.
Mind Stab: Improved responsiveness.

Warrior
Made several more skills usable while moving: Brutal Banner, Compassionate Banner, and Furious Rally.
Rush: Improved the ability to hit fleeing foes.

Guardian
Mighty Blow: Added a slight movement distance.
Bow of Truth: Now usable while moving.
Defender’s Shield and Honorable Shield: Merged together into the same trait.
New trait Glacial Heart: Critical hits with a hammer have a 50% chance to chill your target for 4 seconds. This effect can only occur once every 45 seconds.

Thief
Heartseeker: Reduced damage of the 100%-50% threshold by 20%. Damage thresholds changed. Old: 100%-66%, 66%-33%, 33%-0%. New: 100%-50%, 50%-25%, 25%-0%.

Engineer
Disabled the “stowing” auto-attack to prevent players from getting stuck holding these kits: Bomb Kit, Elixir Gun, Flamethrower, Grenade Kit, Med Kit, and Tool Kit.


UPDATE NOTES 09.09.12
Skills & Traits

Mesmer
The Prestige – Fixed a bug so that Burning duration no longer amplifies when additional enemies are present.

Ranger
Beastmastery Trait: Instinctual Bond – Now grants 5 seconds of quickness to the player’s pet and can only occur once every 50 seconds.
Pets can no longer be revived using the “F” prompt. This is because you can either use F4 to swap pets which will bring that pet back alive or you can wait until you are out of combat at which point you pet will revive automatically. We felt it was doing a disservice to Ranger players to incentivize them to spend a long time reviving their pet when it was a very inefficient thing to do and happened after combat anyway. This will also help clear up “F” to interact functionality.

Guardian
Tome of Wrath – Removed Stability, added Retaliation; increased the health of the transform
* Zealot’s Fervor – Players can now move while casting this skill; increased cast time to 2 seconds; reduced maximum targets to 5
* Judgment – Knockdown is now 3 seconds
Tome of Courage – Removed Stability, added Protection
* Heal Area – Base heal increased by 33%
* Pacifism – Reduced maximum targets to 5; increased cast time to 2 seconds; reduced daze duration to 2 seconds
Shield of Absorption. The second half of this skill will now unlock in PvE.

Story
“Bad Blood” – Exiting the conversation will no longer arbitrarily lock the player into a choice
“Mirror, Mirror” – Adjusted difficulty.
“The Hatchery” You can no longer do the final step before doing the intermediate steps.
“Dredging up the Past” – Fixed blocking bug during the first step.

General
Fixes for various blocked events and skill challenges.
PvP games played/won will not increment in activities.
Fixes for various map bugs that allowed players to get out of the map.
Interact “F” should use the following priority:
1) Your current selection
2) Loot
3) Revive/Stomp
4) Anything else
Updated the recipe for Superior Rune of the Ranger to match the rarity of other Superior runes.

UPDATE NOTES – 09.08.12
Traits
Engineer
· Updated the Engineer’s Firearms trait – Juggernaut. New text for the trait: You gain 200 Toughness while wielding a Flamethrower. In addition, gain might for 15 seconds every 3 seconds, as long as you remain in this weapon kit
· Fixed a bug with Go For The Eyes. It can now only trigger once every 10 seconds.

Skills
Mesmer
· Fixed a bug with Signet of Illusions. It now give phantasms 50% more health instead of 300% more.

General
· Fixed a bug that should help resolve almost all of the broken skill challenges players have been running into.
· Ranger pet swap recharge is now the same in and out of combat. This closes an exploit with swapping ranger pets to generate very long buffs.
· Ranger pets should now immediately use their F2 skills when told instead of first performing an auto-attack.
· We discovered a bug in Monthly achievements that was causing some players to complete in August while others did not. We ae forcing completion on all players who are currently at 100% to even out this bug for those players who have completed their monthly achievement. In the future, monthly achievements will turn over on the first of the month at midnight UTC. Daily achievements also roll over for all players at midnight UTC.
· Fixed numerous events and event chains that were blocked.

PvP
· Max Glory cap per PvP match is set to 350. You now receive an achievement for reaching this cap in a given match. This closes an exploit that was letting players farm hundreds of glory per match by trading wins.

Story
· Fixed a blocking issue in “Forging the Pact.”

Crafting
· Players can now do the production portion of crafting without having to pull the resources from their bank. Note: Discovery still requires use of the bank. This is something we would like to change but decided that getting part of the way there was better than making players wait for the entire fix.
· Fixed a bug with the recipe for Ginger Pear Tarts that excluded Dough from the recipe.
· Increased the karma costs of all Bulk Cooking Materials.
· Increased the refinement costs of all Wood Planks from 2 logs to 3 logs.
· Yellow Dye recipes now include Onions instead of Celery.
· Adjusted the ingredient costs on Dye recipes.
· The following Cooking Materials are no longer sold for Karma and are now acquired through drops, gathering nodes, or loot bags: Butter, Chocolate, Vanilla, Chili Peppers, Thyme, Black Peppercorns, Cinnamon, Bay Leaves, Walnuts, and Oranges.