January 21 Content Release Notes
LIVING WORLD
The Origins of Madness
For weeks, mysterious probes have been thrumming ominously all across Tyria. Now, the Vigil has ordered a trio of crusaders to investigate three mysterious new probes that have been sighted in Bloodtide Coast. Meanwhile, the Priory in Lornar’s Pass has observed Scarlet Briar’s watchwork minions streaming into their region. What’s the connection between these events, and what exactly is Scarlet up to?
Twisted Marionette Weapon Test
- New world event: Twisted Marionette world boss
- Scarlet is recalling her twisted watchwork troops from all over Tyria to power her aethercannon weapon test. The results could be deadly if Scarlet is allowed to carry out her test.
- Players must unite with fellow adventurers and allies to stop the attack!
Twisted Marionette Rewards
- Completing The Origins of Madness meta-achievement will reward players with a Gift of Sprockets, which will create a new sprocket generator in their home instance.
- Participating in the fight against the Twisted Marionette in Lornar’s Pass and investigating the energy probes throughout Tyria will grant players access to a hitherto secret location—with additional rewards inside.
- Additional exclusive rewards include:
- New power, precision, and healing power stat combinations. Includes both exotic (Zealot’s) and ascended (Keeper’s) items.
- New Mini Twisted Watchwork Moa
Code Fragments
- Gather code fragments from the battle at the Twisted Marionette weapon test.
- After completing the story components of the weapon test and the great jungle wurm investigation, players can discover how to use the code fragments.
Triple Trouble
- There’s a rumble in the jungle, and the Vigil needs help! Assist Crusaders Xutt, Yipp, and Zepp as they investigate three new probes in Bloodtide Coast.
- After forging new allegiances to take down Tequatl the Sunless, it’s now time for players to rally their forces together in an all-new epic encounter!
Triple Trouble Rewards
- Completing the new permanent meta-achievement, Triple Trouble, grants players the title of Great Jungle Wurm Slayer.
- Assisting in the investigation of wurm activity in Bloodtide Coast will give players a chance at new exclusive rewards:
- New wurm-themed ascended armor pieces
- New wurm-themed rifle skins
- New great jungle wurm minis
- New exotic wurm minis
- Additional note: Players can no longer sell sprockets to vendors, but they are still tradable at the trading post.
Achievements
- The Origins of Madness meta-achievement will task players with engaging in the fight against Scarlet’s Twisted Marionette weapon test in Lornar’s Pass.
- Completing The Origins of Madness daily achievements will also contribute to the meta-achievement. These are earned by participating in either the Twisted Marionette weapon test in Lornar’s Pass or the Triple Trouble investigations in Bloodtide Coast.
- The permanent Triple Trouble boss meta-achievement will task players with successfully defeating the great jungle wurms in Bloodtide Coast while also performing various feats to help out in the fight.
BALANCE, BUG-FIXING, POLISH
General
- Fixed a bug that caused cooldowns to be reset while using the jump pads near the Tequatl encounter.
- Fixed a bug that prevented players from receiving credit for completing fractal level 50.
- Fixed a bug that caused the Endless Toy Golem Tonic to produce the wrong item.
- Fixed a potential client crash in the Cliffside fractal.
- Improved some of the creature descriptions.
- User Interface: Various updates have been made to the right-hand side of the HUD to improve its appearance and functionality.
- User Interface: Hints have a new arrow that is more visible and animated.
- To mitigate performance issues, items that summon pets now have a 30-minute cooldown.
Profession Skills
General
- Leave Transform: This skill can no longer be set on auto-attack.
Elementalist
- Arcane Wave: This skill is no longer ground-targeted while underwater and will now activate the area effect on the targeted enemy.
- Earth’s Embrace: Fixed this trait to properly have reduced recharge when traited with Cantrip Mastery.
Engineer
- Rocket Turret—Rocket: This skill is no longer ground-targeted while underwater and will now fire at a targeted enemy.
Mesmer
- Chaos Storm: Fixed a bug that caused this skill to stun enemies whether or not it dazed them when traited with Confounding Suggestions.
Necromancer
- Putrid Mark: This skill will now blast an area only once when the trap executes.
Structured Player vs. Player
- Battle of Khylo: Any destroyed trebuchets, clocktower windows, and clocktower walls will now reappear when the match begins.
- Legacy of the Foefire: Any destroyed gates will now reappear when the match begins.
World vs. World
- The Guard Leech boon has been renamed to Applied Strength.
BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions
- A new 3-pack of masterwork great jungle wurm minis is now available for a limited time in the Minis category of the Gem Store for 300 gems.
- A new Great Jungle Wurm Finisher is now available to surprise enemies from below in PvP and WvW. Available in the Upgrades category for 800 gems.
- Instant Trait Reset will be removed from the store at the end of January 27. It will still have a rare chance to be in Black Lion Chests.
Improvements
- Deposit All Collectibles no longer deposits miniatures. However, they can still be individually deposited by right-clicking on them.
- Double-clicking a Black Lion Chest when players do not have any keys will now open the store and show players the keys.
- The Black Lion Weapons Specialist conversation has been tweaked for clarity.
- The Black Lion Chest rewards have been entirely overhauled, affecting all drop rates. Significant changes are below:
- Tonics are no longer a dedicated slot in the drop. Instead, tonics will now occasionally drop like all other rewards.
- Players will now get two rewards plus a booster from each chest. This means they can potentially get two of anything from a single chest.
- Rare minis are now much rarer from Black Lion Chests.
- New drops of Endless Mystery Tonics can be traded until they are used once.
- The following items have been removed from Black Lion Chests:
- Karma Booster
- Glory Booster
- Heavy Bag of Coins
- Name Change Contract
- Small Guild Discovery
- Medium Guild Discovery
- 1 Copper
- The following items have been added to Black Lion Chests:
- Instant Trait Reset
- Communal Boost Bonfire
- Essence of Luck (50)
- Essence of Luck (100)
- Metabolic Primer
- Scroll of Knowledge
- WXP Booster
- Gathering Booster