Guild Wars 2

10/23/2015 – October 23rd Release Notes
LIVING WORLD
The worst has happened: Mordremoth brought down the Pact fleet. Despite high hopes, the assault on the Elder Dragon was a categorical failure. Pact soldiers—the dead, the injured, and the lost—scattered as they fell screaming from the sky. Although they’re trying to reform groups and assist one another, it’s a greater challenge than any they’ve ever faced. During the day, they scramble to establish a foothold both on the jungle floor and in the canopy; at night, they struggle just to survive against attacks by hostile hylek, aggressive beasts, unpredictable sylvari, and the burgeoning Mordrem Guard. Resident allies are few and far between. The jungle has never been a more dangerous place. On top of this, there’s still the mystery surrounding the dragon egg, a beacon of hope for you and your allies, stolen from you by one of your own, the sylvari Caithe. What is her plan? Has she lost her way? And how will you ever secure the egg amid all this calamity in the heart of Mordremoth’s domain?
Halloween: Shadow of the Mad King
Come join us in celebrating Halloween—you can play Mad King Says with old Mad King Thorn, jump to the top of the Mad King’s Clock Tower, battle in the labyrinth, or fight Mad King Thorn himself. You will also see doors appearing and trick-or-treat bags dropping all around Tyria.

• Parts of Lion’s Arch and the Heart of Mists have been decorated.
• Trick-or-Treat Bags now have a chance to drop all over Tyria.
• The Trick-or-Treat Bag tables have been updated.
• Maize Balm now only affects 1 target instead of 3.
• Maize Balm now only has 1 charge rather than 3.
• The Candy Corn vendors found in Lion’s Arch have been updated with new items.
• There is a new Shadow of the Mad King meta-event, and there are new daily achievements.

NEW FEATURES AND CONTENT
Adventures
Adventures are repeatable, single-player challenges with leaderboards. Compete against your friends and guildmates for bragging rights. Check out https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/adventuring-forth/ for more information.
Defiance
The defiance effect has been replaced with the defiance bar. Creatures that previously used the defiance effect will now have the defiance bar. Control-type attacks will now decrease the defiance bar and stun the enemy once the bar is depleted.
Revenant
The revenant is the ninth profession for Guild Wars 2 and is added for all players who own Heart of Thorns™. Revenants are heavily armored masters of the Mists with abilities that allow them to harness and manipulate energy in order to perform immense attacks. They invoke powers from legends of the past to dominate foes and unleash chaos on the field of battle. Revenants utilize a new resource (energy), which is their connection to the currently invoked legend. Energy is used to fuel all of their skills.
Skills
Legendary Assassin Stance Skills:

• Enchanted Daggers: Summon enchanted daggers that will attack as you attack, siphoning life from targets hit.
• Riposting Shadows: Evade back quickly through the Mists, removing debilitating conditions.
• Phase Traversal: Step through the Mists to your target. Your next few attacks can’t be blocked.
• Impossible Odds: Empower yourself with Shiro’s speed and quickness to quickly take out enemies.
  • Relinquish Power: End the Impossible Odds skill.
• Jade Winds: Call upon the Jade Wind to turn nearby enemies into jade, stunning them for a short duration.

Legendary Demon Stance Skills:

• Empowering Misery: Heal yourself. Heal more for each condition currently applied to you.
• Pain Absorption: Grant resistance to yourself and nearby allies. Absorb conditions from those allies, gaining additional resistance per condition.
• Banish Enchantment: Deal damage, apply confusion, and remove boons from your foe.
• Unyielding Anguish: Leap toward the targeted area, creating a demonic field that torments and chills foes.
• Embrace the Darkness: Summon the power of the legendary demon to transform into a powerful avatar. Increase all attributes, and pulse torment to nearby foes.
  • Resist the Darkness: End Embrace the Darkness early.

Legendary Dwarf Stance Skills:

• Soothing Stone: Heal yourself and remove conditions. Gain retaliation for each condition removed.
• Inspiring Reinforcement: Create a stone road that damages and weakens foes as it’s created. Once it’s created, it will pulse, granting stability to allies.
• Forced Engagement: Launch a chain at your target. When the chain connects with a foe, it slows and taunts them.
• Vengeful Hammers: Invoke hammers to circle around you, damaging foes.
  • Release Hammers: Release the hammers to end Vengeful Hammers.
• Rite of the Great Dwarf: Channel the power of the Rite of the Great Dwarf to turn yourself and nearby allies to stone to reduce incoming damage.

Legendary Centaur Stance Skills:

• Project Tranquility: Project Ventari’s tablet into the world. The tablet will heal allies near it every few seconds. The tablet will disappear if you move outside the tether distance.
  • Ventari’s Will: Will the tablet toward the target location. As the tablet moves, it will heal allies it passes through.
• Protective Solace: Summon a protective barrier around the tablet that destroys enemy projectiles.
  • Diminish Solace: Collapse the protective barrier that formed around the tablet.
• Natural Harmony: Collect energy, pulling it into the tablet to build up its power. After a short delay, the energy will be released, healing nearby allies.
• Purifying Essence: Remove conditions from allies near the tablet, and heal them for a small amount per condition removed.
• Energy Expulsion: Force energy to erupt from the tablet, knocking back nearby foes and leaving behind energy fragments that heal allies.

Sword (Main-Hand) Skills:

• Preparation Thrust: Stab your foe with your sword, inflicting vulnerability.
  • Brutal Blade: Slice Foes, damaging them and inflicting vulnerability.
  • Rift Slash: Slash foes, creating a rift on them that explodes for additional damage after a short delay.
• Precision Strike: Strike nearby foes with precision, sending out blades that damage and chill them.
• Unrelenting Assault: Shadowstep and unleash fierce attacks on nearby foes. Gain might each time you damage a foe.

Sword (Off-Hand) Skills:

• Duelist’s Preparation: Assume a defensive stance, blocking incoming attacks.
  • Shackling Wave: Slice through the air, sending a wave of energy from the Mists toward your foe.
• Grasping Shadow: Stab your foe, connecting them to you. Shadowstep backward and pull them toward you.

Mace (Main-Hand) Skills:

• Misery Swipe: Swing your mace at your foe.
  • Anguish Swipe: Sweep your mace back for a second blow.
  • Manifest Toxin: Deliver a crushing blow that sends toxic energy chaining to enemies behind each target.
• Searing Fissure: Smash your mace into the ground, causing flames to erupt from the Mists.
• Echoing Eruption: Leap at your foe and deliver a massive attack that cascades outward. Each attack area is a blast finisher.

Axe (Off-Hand) Skills:

• Frigid Blitz: Hurl your axe at your target, damaging and chilling the foes the axe passes through. When the axe reaches your target, shadowstep to it and deliver a large blow.
• Temporal Rift: Slice into the Mists, creating an unstable rift. After a short duration, this rift will collapse in on itself, pulling in enemies.

Hammer Skills:

• Hammer Bolt: Hurl your weapon at enemies, striking foes in its path.
• Coalescence of Ruin: Slam the ground with your hammer, creating a cascading eruption of energy.
• Phase Smash: Leap through the Mists to the target area. When you land, damage and chill foes in an area, and then teleport back to your previous location.
• Field of the Mists: Create a field from the Mists that blocks incoming projectiles in front of you.
• Drop the Hammer: Summon a massive hammer from the Mists to strike the ground.

Staff Skills:

• Rapid Swipe: Swipe your staff at your foe.
  • Forceful Bash: Bash your foe with your staff.
  • Rejuvenating Assault: Cleave foes around you with your staff, creating healing orbs for you and your allies.
• Punishing Sweep: Sweep your staff at your foe. Gain access to Debilitating Slam if your foe is using a skill when struck.
  • Debilitating Slam: Imbue your staff with mist energy and slam it down, damaging and dazing nearby foes.
• Warding Rift: Create a rift from the Mists, warding you from attack. While the rift is open, projectiles will hit nearby foes, blinding them.
• Renewing Wave: Send out a wave of mist energy that heals and removes conditions from allies.
• Surge of the Mists: Charge forward, knocking back enemies that cross your path.

Harpoon Skills:

• Spear of Anguish: Throw a mist spear toward your foe. Inflict increasing durations of torment the farther away your foe is from you.
• Rapid Assault: Rapidly strike foes in front of you, inflicting vulnerability.
• Venomous Sphere: Launch a sphere outward from the Mists. The sphere will attack nearby foes as it travels, poisoning them.
  • Frigid Discharge: Detonate the sphere to cause it to explode, damaging and chilling foes.
• Igniting Brand: Throw your spear at your foe. Upon impact, damage your foe and connect to them through the Mists. While the connection is active, it will apply burning.
  • Devour Brand: Step through the Mists toward the branded foe, dealing damage in an area to nearby foes.
• Rift Containment: Create two rifts, one above and one below your target. After a short delay, these rifts will create a barrier from the Mists, preventing foes from crossing.

Specializations
Devastation
Minor:

• Mutilate Defenses: Striking a foe gives you a chance to apply vulnerability.
• Targeted Destruction: Deal increased damage to targets with vulnerability.
• Focused Siphoning: When you strike foes that have vulnerability, siphon life from them.

Adept Tier:

• Ferocious Strikes: Gain increased ferocity while dual-wielding weapons.
• Vicious Lacerations: When you attack while wielding a sword, gain a stack of vicious laceration. This can be stacked up to five times.
• Malicious Reprisal: When one of your attacks is blocked, your next attacks will be unblockable.

Master Tier:

• Jade Echo: Use Jade Winds when you are downed. Deal increased damage while downed.
  • Jade Winds: Call upon the Jade Wind to turn nearby enemies into jade, stunning them for a short duration.
• Nefarious Momentum: Gain might when using assassin stance skills.
• Assassin’s Presence: Increase the ferocity of nearby allies.

Grandmaster Tier:

• Swift Termination: Increased damage to targets below the health threshold.
• Dismantle Fortifications: Skills that disable foes (stun, daze, knockback, pull, knockdown, sink, float, fear, launch, or taunt) remove an additional stack of stability.
• Assassin’s Annihilation: Siphon life from foes when hitting a foe from behind or the side.

Corruption
Minor:

• Rampant Vex: Critical hits have a chance to cause torment.
• Opportune Extraction: Striking a foe gives you a chance to remove a boon from that foe.
• Yearning Empowerment: Torment lasts longer.

Adept Tier:

• Replenishing Despair: Incoming conditions provide you a small amount of healing.
• Demonic Defiance: Using a Legendary Demon Stance skill grants resistance for a short duration.
• Venom Enhancement: When you apply torment, also apply poison. Poison lasts longer.

Master Tier:

• Bolstered Anguish: Increased damage for every condition currently on you.
• Frigid Precision: Chance to chill your foe when you land a critical hit.
• Spontaneous Destruction: Use Banish Enchantment when striking a foe that has boons equal to or greater than the threshold.
  • Banish Enchantment: Deal damage, apply confusion, and remove boons from your foe.

Grandmaster Tier:

• Diabolic Inferno: Burn nearby foes when using an elite skill.
• Maniacal Persistence: Increase your critical-hit chance every few seconds. This bonus is reset when you land a critical hit.
• Pulsating Pestilence: Chance when struck to copy all conditions currently on you to nearby foes for a few seconds.

Retribution
Minor:

• Enduring Recovery: Chance when struck to gain endurance.
• Unwavering Avoidance: Gain stability after you dodge.
• Determined Resolution: Take reduced damage below the health threshold.

Adept Tier:

• Planar Protection: Create a field of the Mists when you take damage from falling. Take less damage from falling.
  • Dome of the Mists: Create an area that blocks projectiles and weakens foes.
• Close Quarters: Foes that strike you from farther away than the range threshold deal less damage.
• Improved Aggression: Taunted foes deal less damage to you. Taunt has an increased duration when applied to nonplayer characters.

Master Tier:

• Eye for an Eye: When disabled by a foe with stun, daze, knockback, pull, knockdown, taunt, float, fear, launch, or sink, taunt that foe for a short duration and gain protection.
• Retaliatory Evasion: Gain retaliation after you dodge.
• Dwarven Battle Training: Chance on hit to apply weakness to your foe. Incoming weakness applied to you has decreased effectiveness.

Grandmaster Tier:

• Empowering Vengeance: Gain might when struck while under the effects of retaliation.
• Versed in Stone: Chance when struck to use Rite of the Great Dwarf. Rite of the Great Dwarf also reduces incoming condition damage.
  • Rite of the Great Dwarf: Channel the power of the Rite of the Great Dwarf to turn yourself and nearby allies to stone to reduce incoming damage.
• Steadfast Rejuvenation: Chance when struck to heal yourself.

Salvation
Minor:

• Disarming Riposte: Striking a foe while they are using a skill blinds them.
• Hardened Foundation: Gain toughness based on a percentage of your healing power.
• Serene Rejuvenation: Increase healing to allies.

Adept Tier:

• Nourishing Roots: Grant regeneration to allies near Ventari’s tablet.
• Blinding Truths: Blind nearby foes when you use a healing skill.
• Tranquil Balance: While above the health threshold, healing to allies is increased.

Master Tier:

• Tranquil Benediction: The healing orbs that you create while wielding a staff will now grant swiftness and regeneration when picked up by allies.
• Eluding Nullification: Dodge rolling removes a condition from nearby allies.
• Invoking Harmony: Healing done to allies is increased for a short duration after invoking a legend.

Grandmaster Tier:

• Selfless Amplification: Increase outgoing healing, based on a percentage of healing power.
• Natural Abundance: Create energy fragments around Ventari’s tablet when using a Legendary Centaur Stance skill.
• Momentary Pacification: Daze nearby foes when using an elite skill.

Invocation
Minor:

• Invoker’s Rage: Gain fury when you invoke a legend.
• Ferocious Aggression: Deal increased damage to targets while you have fury.
• Empty Vessel: Invoking a legend will now break stuns.

Adept Tier:

• Cruel Repercussion: When one of your attacks is negated, your next attack will deal bonus damage.
• Cleansing Channel: Invoking a legend removes a condition.
• Fierce Infusion: Using a healing skill grants you fury.

Master Tier:

• Equilibrium: Invoking a legend triggers a burst from the Mists that heals allies if your energy is below the threshold or damages foes if your energy is above the threshold.
• Invigorating Flow: Heal yourself when you use a skill that has an energy cost.
• Incensed Response: Gain fury when you break out of a stun.

Grandmaster Tier:

• Roiling Mists: Critical-hit chance has increased effectiveness when you are under the effect of fury.
• Charged Mists: Gain might when you use a skill that drops your energy below the threshold.
• Shrouding Mists: While your energy is above the threshold, your outgoing healing is increased. While your energy is below the threshold, incoming damage to you is reduced.

Elite Specializations
Elite specializations are a new way to advance your profession if you own Heart of Thorns. They allow you to specialize your profession to gain access to a new weapon, new skills, and new traits that you didn’t have before, opening up new playstyles and build options. Each elite specialization also provides a unique profession bonus, such as a new profession mechanic skill, a new way to use your current profession mechanic, and generally new ways to interact with the world.

• Elite specializations can only be slotted into the bottom specialization slot for professions. Only one elite specialization can be selected at a time.
• Elite specializations cost hero points to unlock, similar to other specializations. These hero points are spent in the profession reward tracks to incrementally gain access to the pieces of the elite specialization.
• Fully unlocking an elite specialization costs 400 hero points.
• Hero challenges in the jungle region reward 10 hero points for each challenge instead of 1.
• When selecting an elite specialization, your profession icon will change to represent the choice to other players in the world.
• Heart of Thorns introduces one new elite specialization for every profession.

Berserker
With Heart of Thorns, warriors can now become berserkers capable of channeling their adrenaline to enter a berserk mode. While enraged, they gain access to new primal burst skills, replacing standard burst skills with new enhanced abilities. Further complementing the berserker’s new mode are rage skills, which offer new ways to gain adrenaline, ensuring that flying into a frenzy is never far away.
Torch (Off-Hand) Skills:

• Blaze Breaker: Smash your torch into the ground, creating a deadly shock wave that conditions foes.
• Flames of War: Cleanse conditions and become a mobile fire field that burns nearby foes. When the field expires, it explodes, damaging foes and burning them again.

Rage Skills:

• Blood Reckoning: Heal yourself and gain increased critical-hit chance. Critical hits heal for a percent of their damage and grant bonus adrenaline.
• Wild Blow: Lash out with a critical attack that launches your target. Your target flies backward with such force that they knock back other foes in the way. Gain bonus adrenaline if this move hits.
• Shattering Blow: Summon a rock in front of you, and then shatter it to gain adrenaline and send rock fragments at all foes in front of you, inflicting bleeding. The shock wave produced by this attack reflects projectiles.
• Sundering Leap: Leap to a location and gain adrenaline. When you land, deal damage and inflict conditions on all foes in the area.
• Outrage: Break out of stun and gain adrenaline for each foe near you.
• Head Butt: Stun your target. Stun yourself. Gain adrenaline if you hit.

Primal Burst Skills:

• Decapitate (Axe): Leap at your foe with a powerful attack. Foes behind your target also take damage.
• Arc Divider (Greatsword): Deliver a circular attack to foes around you, creating a violent shock wave that damages foes. Deal more damage to foes with low health.
• Rupturing Smash (Hammer): Jump to the targeted location and slam your hammer down, creating a deadly chain of earthen shock waves that immobilize foes.
• Burning Shackles (Harpoon Gun): Fire a fast, forceful shot that immobilizes and burns foes.
• Scorched Earth (Longbow): Fire a burning shot into the ground that creates a trail of flaming destruction.
• Skull Grinder (Mace): Unleash a powerful skull strike that dazes your target and inflicts multiple conditions.
• Gun Flame (Rifle): Fire a fast, flaming shot that explodes on the first foe it hits, interrupting foes in the area.
• Wild Whirl (Spear): Strike all foes around you, burning and pulling them in.
• Flaming Flurry (Sword): Lash out with a flurry of strikes that destroys projectiles and shoots fireballs at foes in front of you.

Berserker Traits:
Minor:

• Primal Rage: Gain access to berserk mode and primal bursts.
• Always Angry: Your first strike when entering combat generates extra adrenaline. Always Angry refreshes whenever berserk mode ends.
• Fatal Frenzy: Gain boons when activating berserk mode.

Adept Tier:

• Smash Brawler: Reduces recharge on primal burst skills and berserk mode.
• Last Blaze: When you use a rage skill, set nearby foes on fire.
• Savage Instinct: Activating berserk mode breaks stuns and removes conditions.

Master Tier:

• Blood Reaction: A percentage of precision is given as a bonus to ferocity. This bonus is doubled in berserk mode.
• Heat the Soul: Reduces recharge on torch skills. Gain condition damage while wielding a torch.
• Dead or Alive: Taking fatal damage while in berserk mode ends berserk but heals you.

Grandmaster Tier:

• Bloody Roar: Taunt and bleed enemies when you activate berserk mode. Gain fury for each foe you taunt.
• King of Fires: Increases the duration of burning you apply. Critical hits against burning foes spread burning to nearby foes.
• Eternal Champion: Gain stability while in berserk mode. Gain stability when you break out of stun.

Chronomancer
Those who choose the path of the chronomancer gain new abilities that allow them to rend both space and time. Being able to use both a shield and new wells, their skill set focuses on past versus future and fast versus slow as key themes. Chronomancers also gain access to Continuum Split/Shift, as well as the new alacrity effect that speeds up skill recharges rather than slowing them down.
Shield (Off-Hand) Skills:

• Echo of Memory: Block incoming attacks for a short duration. If this skill fully channels, summon a phantasm that slows enemies and grants alacrity to allies. If an attack is blocked, Deja Vu is usable for a short time.
  • Deja Vu: Block incoming attacks for a short duration. If the skill fully channels, summon a phantasm that slows enemies and grants alacrity to allies.
• Tides of Time: Launch a wave of temporal energy that damages, stops enemies it passes through, and applies effects to allies. The wave then returns to you. Touching the returning wave reduces the recharge of this skill.

Well Skills:

• Well of Eternity: Create a well that rewinds time, removing conditions from allies. When it expires, the well heals all allies in the area.
• Well of Precognition: Creates a well that gives allies the ability to see the future and evade all incoming attacks. When the well ends, allies within the well regain endurance.
• Well of Calamity: Create a well that rends time, damaging, weakening, and crippling foes in the area. When the final pulse of Well of Calamity triggers, it deals massive damage to foes in the area.
• Well of Recall: Creates a well that steals memories from foes, damaging and chilling them. When it expires, it restores memories to allies, speeding their skill recharge.
• Well of Action: Create a well of delayed time, damaging and slowing foes. When the well expires, time snaps back, granting quickness to allies.
• Gravity Well: Create a powerful well that warps space in an area, knocking down, floating, and pulling foes caught in its event horizon. When it expires, foes still inside the well take heavy damage.

Continuum Split/Shift:

• Continuum Split: Destroy all illusions and create a rift in the space-time continuum. When it expires, you will revert back to this point with your previous health, endurance, and skill recharges. Duration increases per illusion shattered.
• Continuum Shift: Revert back to the previous timeline. Your health, endurance, and cooldowns are reverted to their previous states. You are transported back prematurely if the rift is destroyed.

Chronomancer Traits:
Minor:

• Time Splitter: Gain access to Continuum Split/Shift, which allows you to revert to an earlier point in time.
• Flow of Time: Gain alacrity for each illusion you shatter.
• Time Marches On: Move 25% faster. The duration of incoming movement-impairing conditions is reduced by 25%.

Adept Tier:

• Delayed Reactions: Interrupting a foe slows them.
• Time Catches Up: Activating a shatter gives your illusions superspeed.
• All’s Well That Ends Well: Wells grant alacrity to allies when they end.

Master Tier:

• Danger Time: Gain additional critical-hit chance against slowed enemies.
• Illusionary Reversion: Shattering at least two illusions generates a clone.
• Improved Alacrity: Alacrity applied to you lasts longer.

Grandmaster Tier:

• Lost Time: Gain a charge each time you score a critical hit. After enough charges, your next hit will slow your target.
• Seize the Moment: Gain quickness for each illusion you shatter.
• Chronophantasma: Your phantasms are resummoned after the first time they are shattered.

Daredevil
Training in the path of the daredevil does not come easily, but those who dare are rewarded with the reserves that will help them endure as they enter the jungle. Specializing as a daredevil will allow you to wield a staff as a melee weapon and utilize hand-to-hand combat styles with the physical skill category. Additionally, you’ll gain access to a third endurance bar and be able to greatly modify the effects of your dodge ability.
Staff Skills:

• Hook Strike (Stealth Attack): Attack your foes with stealth, knocking enemies down.
• Staff Strike: Strike your enemies with your staff.
• Staff Bash: Swing your staff a second time, striking multiple enemies.
• Punishing Strikes: Whirl your staff around, striking nearby enemies and reflecting missiles.
• Weakening Charge: Deliver multiple strikes, weakening foes.
• Debilitating Arc: Strike enemies in front of you and roll backward, breaking immobilizing effects.
• Dust Strike: Sweep the ground, blinding enemies in front of you.
• Vault: Leap toward your destination, damaging foes upon impact.

Physical Skills:

• Channeled Vigor: Channel your energy to gain endurance and health per pulse. Heal for more if your endurance is full.
• Fist Flurry: Strike your enemy multiple times. If all attacks hit, gain access to Palm Strike.
  • Palm Strike: Strike your foe once to deal massive damage and stun them, marking your target with a Pulmonary Impact.
• Bandit’s Defense: Briefly block incoming attacks. If you block an attack in melee range, retaliate and knock enemies down.
• Impairing Daggers: Fling multiple daggers at a single enemy, inflicting conditions.
• Distracting Daggers: Equip daggers that can be thrown to interrupt enemies and increase the cooldown of abilities interrupted.
  • Distracting Dagger (Throw): Fire a dazing dagger at your enemy. If this ability interrupts a skill, that skill’s recharge is increased.
• Impact Strike (Combo): Strike your enemy and stun them.
  • Uppercut: Deal a heavy blow with your fist, sending enemies flying.
  • Finishing Blow: Deal a downward strike on your foe. Downed enemies struck with this ability are finished.

Dodge Skills:

• Impaling Lotus: Evade attacks and hurl damaging daggers, dealing multiple conditions to enemies.
• Dash: Remove conditions and gain swiftness, and then rush forward and evade attacks.
• Bound: Leap into an area, and deliver a massive blow to enemies.

Daredevil Traits:
Minor:

• Physical Supremacy: Gain access to the physical skill category. Your maximum endurance threshold is increased.
• Driven Fortitude: Gain health when you successfully evade an attack.
• Endurance Thief: Gain endurance when you successfully steal from an enemy.

Adept Tier:

• Havoc Mastery: Deal increased damage to enemies within the range threshold.
• Weakening Strikes: Inflict weakness on enemies you critically hit.
• Brawler’s Tenacity: Gain endurance when you first activate a physical skill. Physical skills have reduced cooldown.

Master Tier:

• Staff Master: While wielding a staff, gain endurance for each initiative point spent. Deal bonus damage when your endurance is not full while wielding a staff.
• Escapist’s Absolution: Remove a condition whenever you evade an attack.
• Impacting Disruption: Enemies that you interrupt suffer a Pulmonary Impact.

Grandmaster Tier:

• Lotus Training: Your dodge ability now uses Impaling Lotus, firing daggers at nearby enemies. Gain increased condition damage for a period of time after dodging.
  • Impaling Lotus: Evade attacks and hurl damaging daggers, dealing multiple conditions to enemies.
• Unhindered Combatant: Your dodge ability is replaced by a long-range dash that removes inhibiting conditions and grants swiftness when you dodge. Damage against you is reduced for a time after you dodge.
  • Dash: Remove conditions and gain swiftness, and then rush forward and evade attacks.
• Bounding Dodger: Your dodge ability is replaced by Bound, dealing damage to the area after you evade. Physical damage is increased for a period of time after you dodge.
  • Bound: Leap into an area, and deliver a massive blow to enemies.

Dragonhunter
As dragons continue stirring in the land of Tyria, guardians have been honing their light into a physical nature sharp and deadly enough to pierce scales. The dragonhunter specialization will look to viciously purge the lands of dragons and their ilk, with longbow and traps now at hand. As their prowess with light has increased, they are able to physically manifest their virtues into the world.
Longbow Skills:

• Puncture Shot: Fire an arrow that can bounce to enemies behind your target. If an arrow hits a second target, all enemies struck are crippled.
• True Shot: Charge up energy, creating a powerful attack that pierces through enemies.
• Deflecting Shot: Fire a missile that blinds enemies and destroys projectiles. Destroying a projectile increases damage dealt.
• Symbol of Energy: Symbol. Fire a slow, arcing arrow that explodes on impact to burn targets and sear a symbol of energy into the ground.
• Hunter’s Ward: Form your arrows into a barrier, and deal damage at the location.

Trap Skills:

• Purification: Heal yourself and imbue your light into a trap. Enemies that trigger this trap are damaged and blinded as the light returns to you for a second heal.
• Test of Faith: Lay a trap that creates a ring of weapons that punishes enemies that attempt to cross their threshold.
• Fragments of Faith: Lay a trap that deals damage and unleashes multiple fragments into the area when triggered. Each fragment grants aegis to allies who do not already have aegis.
• Procession of Blades: Set a trap that whirls around and damages enemies when activated.
• Light’s Judgment: Lay down a trap that creates an area of pure light that reveals enemies and pierces their armor.
• Dragon’s Maw: Lay a trap that pulls enemies and creates a barrier that holds them in.

Virtue Skills:

• Spear of Justice:
  • Passive: Burn foes every few attacks.
  • Active: Hurl a spear of light that passes through foes. Enemies struck become tethered and receive burning periodically.
• Hunter’s Verdict: Pull all enemies tethered by the Spear of Justice to you, breaking the link. This ability’s recharge is separate from that of Spear of Justice.
• Wings of Resolve:
  • Passive: Regenerates health.
  • Active: Leap to a target area, healing allies in the area.
• Shield of Courage:
  • Passive: Grants aegis periodically.
  • Active: Create a shield in front of you that blocks projectiles for you and your allies. Grant aegis to nearby allies.

Dragonhunter Traits:
Minor:

• Virtuous Action: The guardian’s resolve has further increased, allowing virtues to be manifested as physical aspects.
• Defender’s Dogma: Blocking an attack causes justice to reach its maximum charge.
• Pure of Sight: Deal bonus damage to enemies beyond the range threshold.

Adept Tier:

• Piercing Light: Traps daze enemies when activating and have reduced recharge times.
• Dulled Senses: Enemies you knock back are crippled. Enemies you cripple are also inflicted with vulnerability.
• Soaring Devastation: Wings of Resolve delivers an attack upon landing.

Master Tier:

• Hunter’s Determination: Gain aegis and drop a Fragments of Faith trap at your location when you are inflicted with stun, daze, knockback, pull, knockdown, taunt, float, fear, launch, or sink.
• Zealot’s Aggression: Deal extra damage to crippled enemies. Justice’s passive effect cripples enemies.
• Bulwark: Shield of Courage is larger and lasts longer.

Grandmaster Tier:

• Hunter’s Fortification: Remove conditions when blocking attacks. Receive less damage when you have no conditions on you.
• Heavy Light: Longbow arrows knock back when enemies are within the range threshold. Gain stability when you knock an enemy back.
• Big Game Hunter: Striking an enemy tethered by your Spear of Justice causes vulnerability and increases damage dealt.

Druid
Rangers entering the ancient Maguuma Jungle may attune to the long-dormant forces of Tyria to become druids capable of channeling the might of the heavens, mending allies and daunting enemies. By gaining access to the staff weapon and glyphs, these masters of support bolster their allies with mystical insight into the natural world. Their new profession mechanic allows them to accumulate astral force to become a celestial avatar, a paragon of reactive recovery and strong sustainability in a dangerous world.
Staff Skills:

• Solar Beam: Fire a concentrated beam of light, damaging the targeted foe and healing allies inside of the beam.
• Astral Wisp: Send a wisp to attach to your foe. While attached, it will circle the foe, healing allies it passes through.
• Ancestral Grace: Become a wisp of natural energy, traversing to the target location. When you reach the target, heal nearby allies.
• Vine Surge: Send forth vines that immobilize enemies and cleanse conditions from allies.
• Sublime Conversion: Summon an energy barrier that causes enemy projectiles to heal upon impact.

Glyph Skills:

• Glyph of Rejuvenation: Heal yourself and nearby allies.
• Glyph of Alignment: Damage and impair foes, or heal and remove conditions from allies.
• Glyph of Equality: Daze foes or break stun for allies.
• Glyph of Empowerment: Empower the outgoing damage or healing of your allies.
• Glyph of the Tides: Draw your enemies in or knock them away.
• Glyph of Unity: Use nature energy to connect to foes or allies.

Celestial Avatar Skills:

• Cosmic Ray: Call down energy onto the targeted area to heal allies.
• Seed of Life: Summon a seed that heals and cleanses nearby allies of conditions when it blossoms.
• Lunar Impact: Call down a massive lunar beam to heal allies and daze foes.
• Rejuvenating Tides: Gather tidal force to rapidly heal nearby allies.
• Natural Convergence: Channel your celestial powers, pulsing cripple and slow. Once the channel ends, any foes still within its radius will be trapped by a black hole, immobilizing them.

Druid Traits:
Minor:

• Celestial Being: Gain access to glyphs. You can become a celestial avatar once you gain enough astral force. Generate astral force by healing allies and damaging foes.
• Live Vicariously: When you heal an ally, you are also healed.
• Natural Mender: Increase outgoing healing whenever you heal another ally.

Adept Tier:

• Druidic Clarity: Becoming a celestial avatar removes conditions from you.
• Cultivated Synergy: Using a heal skill heals allies around you and your pet.
• Primal Echoes: Reduces recharge of staff skills. Daze nearby foes when you swap to staff.

Master Tier:

• Celestial Shadow: Grant superspeed and stealth to nearby allies when leaving celestial avatar form.
• Verdant Etching: Reduces recharge of glyphs. Activating a glyph skill plants a seed.
• Natural Stride: Reduces duration of movement-impairing conditions. Your movement speed is increased as long as you have none of these conditions.

Grandmaster Tier:

• Grace of the Land: Allies you heal with celestial avatar abilities gain increased damage.
• Lingering Light: Healing an ally causes their next attack to heal them and blind their target.
• Ancient Seeds: Striking a stunned, dazed, knocked down, or launched foe summons roots to entangle them.

Herald
The herald brings access to the legendary dragon Glint into the revenant profession. Equipping the herald elite specialization will allow the revenant to equip the shield weapon and Legendary Dragon Stance skills. Legendary Dragon Stance skills utilize the energy upkeep mechanic for revenant, such that all of them have an upkeep part of the skill that provides benefits to allies in an area. All Legendary Dragon Stance skills also have an active part that utilizes facets of the dragon to perform devastating attacks.

Shield (Off-Hand) Skills:

• Envoy of Exuberance: Send the energy of Glint toward the target area, granting protection to allies before releasing a burst of energy that heals allies and granting protection again when it returns to you.
• Crystal Hibernation: Channel a shield from the Mists to protect you, blocking attacks and regenerating health.

Legendary Dragon Stance Skills:

• Facet of Light: Place the facet of light on yourself to grant nearby allies regeneration every few seconds.
  • Infuse Light: Consume Facet of Light to heal yourself and invert all incoming strikes into healing for a short duration.
• Facet of Darkness: Place the facet of darkness on yourself to grant nearby allies fury every few seconds.
  • Gaze of Darkness: Consume Facet of Darkness to reveal the area around you, pulling foes out of stealth and blinding them.
• Facet of Elements: Place the facet of elements on yourself to grant nearby allies swiftness every few seconds.
  • Elemental Blast: Consume Facet of Elementals to cover the target area in magical dragon breath.
• Facet of Strength: Place the facet of strength on yourself to grant nearby allies might every few seconds.
  • Burst of Strength: Consume Facet of Strength, damaging nearby foes and causing vulnerability. Facet of strength will be disabled while this skill is recharging.
• Facet of Chaos: Place the facet of chaos on yourself to grant nearby allies protection every few seconds.
  • Chaotic Release: Consume Facet of Chaos, releasing chaotic winds damaging and knocking back foes while granting superspeed to allies. Facet of Chaos will be disabled while this skill is recharging.

Facet of Nature:

• Facet of Nature: Place the facet of nature on yourself to grant nearby allies naturalistic resonance every few seconds to increase outgoing boon duration.
  • One with Nature: Consume Facet of Nature to unify with the other facets, gaining the boons they apply. Facet of Nature will be disabled while this skill is recharging.

Herald Traits:
Minor:

• Crystal Harbinger: You can now use Legendary Dragon Stance skills and gain access to Facet of Nature.
• Vigorous Persistence: Gain increased endurance regeneration while you have an active upkeep skill.
• Envoy of Sustenance: Increased boon duration.

Adept Tier:

• Swift Gale: Gain superspeed when you successfully break a stun.
• Radiant Revival: Place infused light on an ally while you revive them.
• Hardening Persistence: Gain toughness for each point of upkeep you are currently using.

Master Tier:

• Bolster Fortifications: Grant protection to nearby allies when using a healing skill.
• Shared Empowerment: When you apply a boon to an ally, also apply might to nearby allies.
• Harmonize Continuity: When you successfully stun break, you also stun break nearby allies.

Grandmaster Tier:

• Elder’s Force: Increased damage per boon on you.
  • Soothing Bastion: Activate Crystal Hibernation when struck while below the health threshold. Using a shield skill increases boon duration.
• Crystal Hibernation: Channel a shield from the Mists to protect you, blocking attacks and regenerating health.
• Enhanced Bulwark: When stability is applied to you, gain an extra stack.

Reaper
An inexorable force on the battlefield, the reaper empowers itself enough to wield a cleaving greatsword to harvest its foes. Slow and hard-hitting, these deadly combatants call out the impending doom of their enemies with piercing shouts. Upon accumulating sufficient life force, they can enter the reaper’s shroud, a deadly form that grants them a dark scythe of malevolent energy and the abilities to match it. Capable of heavily afflicting their victims with chill and other conditions, the reaper wades into melee receiving and dealing blows knowing nothing can save its foes!
Greatsword Skills:

• Dusk Strike: Cleave foes in front of you.
  • Fading Twilight: Cleave foes in front of you again.
  • Chilling Scythe: Strike foes, and chill them.
• Gravedigger: Perform a huge swing that deals heavy damage. Recharges faster if it hits a downed or low-health foe.
• Death Spiral: Conjure a drill of dark energy on your blade, and rend the armor of foes in front of you.
• Nightfall: Call down a growing column of shadows that damages and conditions foes with every pulse.
• Grasping Darkness: Conjure claws of darkness from the shadows to attack foes, applying a condition to them and pulling them to you. Gain life force for each struck foe.

Shout Skills:

• “Your Soul Is Mine!”: Heal yourself, gain life force, and strike foes around you, absorbing additional life force from each foe struck.
• “You Are All Weaklings!”: Damage foes around you, and gain boons. Inflict conditions on struck foes, and gain boons per foe struck.
• “Suffer!”: Damage foes around you, and chill them. Transfer conditions to each foe you strike.
• “Nothing Can Save You!”: Damage foes around you, converting their boons into vulnerability. Your attacks become unblockable for a short time. The duration increases based on the number of foes struck.
• “Rise!”: Damage foes around you. Summon a shambling horror plus additional horrors near each enemy struck. Shambling horrors absorb damage for their master as long as they are attacking, but they lose health over time.
• “Chilled to the Bone!”: Freeze all enemies around you, inflicting conditions on them. Gain boons for each foe you freeze.

Reaper Shroud:

• Life Rend: Cleave foes in front of you. This skill inherits traits from life blast.
  • Life Slash: Cleave foes in front of you again. This skill inherits traits from life blast.
  • Life Reap: Cleave foes around you, gaining life force for each foe struck. This skill inherits traits from life blast.
• Death’s Charge: Slide forward, destroying projectiles in your path. Blind foes at your destination. This skill inherits traits from dark path.
• Infusing Terror: Shroud yourself with dark armor that grants stability every second. You may shatter this armor to inflict fear on foes around you.
• Soul Spiral: Spin and damage nearby foes, applying a condition each strike. This skill inherits traits from life transfer.
• Executioner’s Scythe: Deliver a powerful overhand strike to stun a single target. Deals more damage the lower health the target is. Leaves behind a field of ice.

Reaper Traits:
Minor:

• Shroud Knight: Death shroud is replaced with reaper’s shroud, which has more melee-oriented skills.
• Shivers of Dread: Whenever you inflict fear, you also chill.
• Cold Shoulder: Chill lasts longer, and chilled foes deal less damage to you.

Adept Tier:

• Augury of Death: Reduces recharge of shouts. Your shouts siphon health and gain additional recharge reduction for each foe they hit.
• Chilling Nova: Critical hits against chilled foes cause an explosion that chills adjacent foes.
• Relentless Pursuit: Reduces duration of movement-impairing conditions. Additional reduction while in reaper’s shroud.

Master Tier:

• Soul Eater: Reduces recharge on greatsword skills. Gravedigger steals health if it hits.
• Chilling Victory: Striking a chilled foe grants might and life force. Single attacks can activate this trait more than once before recharging.
• Decimate Defenses: Striking a foe with vulnerability increases your critical-hit chance.

Grandmaster Tier:

• Blighter’s Boon: Gain life force when you gain a boon. If you are in reaper’s shroud, gain health instead.
• Deathly Chill: Chill deals damage, with additional damage to foes below the health threshold.
• Reaper’s Onslaught: Attack faster while in reaper’s shroud. Killing a foe while in shroud reduces recharge of all shroud skills.

Scrapper
With Mordremoth’s awakening, engineers that discover the wreckage of the Pact fleet can choose to learn the ways of the resourceful scrappers. These masters of improvisation gain access to the mighty hammer while crafting utilitarian gyros to accomplish all manner of arduous tasks. A pinnacle of their craft is the function gyro, capable of restoring health to waning allies and dealing the coup de grâce to lingering foes. They bring a bruising style of lockdown and negation melee to the engineer.
Hammer Skills:

• Positive Strike: Smack your hammer into your foe while empowering yourself.
  • Negative Bash: Slam your hammer into your foe to leave them vulnerable.
  • Equalizing Blow: Bring down your hammer on your foe.
• Electro-whirl: Spin around, reflecting missiles and hitting enemies.
• Rocket Charge: Dash forward with a rocket-charged hammer to damage enemies.
• Shock Shield: Magnetize your hammer, blocking attacks while striking foes in front of you.
• Thunderclap: Ionize an area, bringing down the power of lightning to stun foes and damage them over its duration.

Gyro Skills:

• Medic Gyro: Deploy a medic gyro to heal nearby allies.
• Bulwark Gyro: Deploy a bulwark gyro to apply Watchful Eye to nearby allies.
• Purge Gyro: Deploy a purge gyro to remove conditions from you and your nearby allies.
• Shredder Gyro: Deploy a shredder gyro to whirl at a target location, striking foes and using combo fields.
• Blast Gyro Tag: Hurl a tracking dart for your blast gyro to seek out and detonate at.
• Sneak Gyro: Deploy a sneak gyro to provide stealth to nearby allies.

Function Gyro:

• Capable of finishing foes and reviving allies for you, this handy little invention allows the scrapper to fully engage its enemies.

Scrapper Traits:
Minor:

• Function Gyro: You gain access to the function gyro, which can finish a foe or revive an ally for you at range.
• Decisive Renown: When you successfully revive an ally or finish an enemy, you grant boons to nearby allies.
• Impact Savant: The duration of your outgoing stuns is increased, and the duration of stuns applied to you is decreased.

Adept Tier:

• Shocking Speed: Using a leap finisher or blast finisher in a lightning field applies superspeed around you.
• Stabilization Core: When a function gyro is activated, you and the function gyro gain stability.
• Recovery Matrix: Using your heal skill temporarily reduces damage you receive.

Master Tier:

• Rapid Regeneration: Rapidly regenerate health while affected by swiftness or superspeed.
• Expert Examination: Stunning or dazing a foe applies vulnerability and weakness to them.
• Mass Momentum: Gain power based on your toughness. Gain might while you have stability.

Grandmaster Tier:

• Adaptive Armor: Gain stacking toughness when struck. Reduce incoming condition damage.
• Final Salvo: Gyros grant superspeed and create a lightning field when destroyed.
• Perfectly Weighted: Hammer skills deal increased damage. Evading an attack grants stability.

Tempest
Wielding an off-hand warhorn and utilizing shouts, tempests blast out elemental power to support allies at close range and deal constant damage to enemies. Tempests will be able to overload their attunements at the penalty of recharge in order to deliver high-pressure sustained damage, control, and healing to nearby areas.
Warhorn (Off-Hand) Skills:
Fire:

• Heat Sync: Give stacks of might to yourself, then spread boons you have to allies.
• Wildfire: Release a fiery torrent that burns enemies that stand in its field.

Water:

• Tidal Surge: Send out a tidal wave that regenerates and heals allies, then knocking enemies back.
• Water Globe: Blast out a watery orb that heals allies as it travels.

Air:

• Cyclone: Blast out a cyclone that pulls enemies toward its location and grants swiftness to allies it affects.
• Lightning Orb: Launch an orb of lightning that fires projectiles at nearby foes.

Earth:

• Sand Squall: Apply protection to you and your allies, and then increase the duration of all boons currently existing on you and your allies. Gain magnetic aura.
• Dust Storm: Summon a dust storm that inflicts bleeding and blindness.

Shout Skills:

• “Wash the Pain Away!”: Mists billow out of the player, healing allies that are in range.
• “Feel the Burn!”: Heat waves blast out from the player, causing damage and granting fire aura to allies.
• “Flash-Freeze!”: Unleash a torrent of ice on enemy locations, chilling those who cannot escape. Grant frost aura to allies in range.
• “Eye of the Storm!”: Imbue your voice with the element of air, massively increasing speed and breaking stun for nearby allies.
• “Aftershock!”: Call upon the earth to cripple and immobilize foes in the area around you. Allies in the initial blast gain a magnetic aura.
• “Rebound!”: Shout and infuse your allies with arcane energy. Allies who would take lethal damage while this is active ignore the deathblow and are healed instead. If the effect expires naturally, grant an aura based on your current attunement.

Overload Skills:

• Overload Fire: Unleash all flames you’ve accumulated, searing enemies and strengthening allies. Finishing the cast leaves a tornado behind. Using this skill causes the attunement to have a longer recharge.
• Overload Water: Create a surge of accumulated water magic, healing and cleansing allies. When the cast ends, heal the area and apply regeneration. Using this skill causes the attunement to have a longer recharge.
• Overload Air: Use your air magic to summon a nimbus that repeatedly strikes nearby enemies. When this ability is complete, imbue your allies with electricity and create a lingering static region that strikes enemies at the same interval. Using this skill causes the attunement to have a longer recharge.
• Overload Earth: Ride your stored earth magic around, granting protection to other allies you move over and crippling enemies, and then deliver a final immobilizing blast of power to the area, leaving behind a dust cyclone that delivers the same effects as the overload. Using this skill causes the attunement to have a longer recharge.

Tempest Traits:
Minor:

• Singularity: Attain elemental singularity by remaining in an attunement for a period of time. Upon attaining singularity, you may overload the attunement to your vicinity.
• Speedy Conduit: Gain swiftness when overloading an attunement.
• Hardy Conduit: Gain protection while overloading an attunement.

Adept Tier:

• Gale Song: Trigger “Eye of the Storm!” when a foe attempts to control you by stun, daze, knockback, pull, knockdown, sink, float, fear, taunt, or launch.
• Latent Stamina: Apply vigor in a radius when attuning to water. Granting vigor to allies also restores a portion of endurance.
• Unstable Conduit: Overloading an attunement grants an aura based on the element you’re attuned to when the ability is completed.

Master Tier:

• Tempestuous Aria: Allies affected by your shouts gain might. Enemies are affected by weakness.
• Invigorating Torrents: Auras you apply also grant regeneration and vigor.
• Harmonious Conduit: Gain stability when beginning an overload. Upon successfully completing an overload, gain increased damage for a period of time.

Grandmaster Tier:

• Imbued Melodies: While wielding a warhorn, your boon duration is increased. Use Sand Squall when struck while below the health threshold.
• Lucid Singularity: Remove and gain massive resistance to movement-impeding conditions while overloading your attunements.
• Elemental Bastion: Auras you apply will heal allies. Apply a frost aura to yourself and nearby allies when struck while below the health threshold.

New Hero Challenges in Magus Falls

• Forty new hero challenges have been added as part of Heart of Thorns.
• Each challenge rewards 10 hero points but is also much more difficult than Central Tyrian challenges.
• The 15 new event-based hero challenges will also provide a daily reward for replaying them.
• Additionally, all event-based hero challenges can be retriggered, even if they have already been completed.

Mastery System
The Mastery System is now available for all players who own Heart of Thorns and have at least one level 80 character. You can learn more about the Mastery System here: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/reimagining-progression-the-mastery-system/

• The Mastery tab has been added to the Hero panel. The Mastery panel can also be accessed by clicking on the experience bar at the bottom of your screen on a character that is level 80.
• To unlock the Mastery System, complete the first story step of Heart of Thorns, “Torn from the Sky.”
• Once the Mastery System is unlocked on your account, any level 80 character can make progress on Masteries by earning experience and Mastery points.
• Two Mastery regions have been added: Central Tyria and Heart of Maguuma. Each region has several Mastery tracks under it that can be trained by earning experience and Mastery points in that region.
  • Central Tyria is made up of Ascalon, Kryta, the Shiverpeak Mountains, Orr, the Maguuma Jungle, the Magumma Wastes, and Southsun Cove.
  • Heart of Maguuma is made up of the new area released with Heart of Thorns, Magus Falls.
• To unlock a Mastery ability, you must first train the Mastery by filling the experience bar. You can then spend Mastery points to unlock the ability for your account.
• Experience earned in a region will be applied to training Masteries from that region. If experience is rewarded through a reward chest, that experience will be applied to the region it was earned in, not the region the chest was opened in.
• Nameplates have been changed to display Mastery rank for characters that are level 80. Mastery rank represents all the Mastery points you have used to unlock Mastery abilities on your account.
• Some old achievements have had Central Tyria Mastery points added to their rewards. For players who’ve already completed these achievements, the points will be awarded retroactively upon logging in.
• New achievements have been added to existing content in Central Tyria, awarding Mastery points.

Legendary Weapon Crafting

• Precursors for all legendary weapons can now be crafted through a process involving earning Central Tyrian Masteries, completing item collections, and using new crafting recipes. More details about this system can be found here: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/a-legendary-journey/
  • There are now three unique skins associated with each precursor weapon. These skins are unlocked at each precursor step of the legendary crafting journey.
  • All existing precursor weapons have had their skins updated to be the one awarded for the final precursor tier created through legendary crafting. Players that already have a precursor weapon skin unlocked will now have all three tiers of that precursor’s skins unlocked in their wardrobe.
  • Precursor weapons that were released with the launch of Guild Wars 2 in 2012 can still be obtained through random loot drops, the Mystic Forge, or by purchasing them from other players on the trading post. Acquiring a precursor weapon in any of these ways will unlock all three tiers of that precursor’s skins in your wardrobe.

Ascended Salvaging

• Dark Energy and Stabilizing Matrices are new materials needed for crafting legendary gear. These materials are obtained by salvaging ascended gear.
• Ascended gear can only be salvaged using an ascended salvage tool. Ascended salvage tools can only be used to salvage ascended gear.
• Ascended salvage tools can be purchased from the Mistlock Observatory for gold and fractal relics or from laurel vendors for gold and laurels.

Map Bonus Rewards

• A new reward system has been added to most maps, which will award various crafting materials as a bonus for playing in that map. These bonuses are given for participating in events and other content such as open-world minidungeons or jumping puzzles.
  • When you earn a map bonus reward, it will be delivered directly to your inventory upon event completion.
  • The map-specific rewards in Dry Top and the Silverwastes that were awarded after completing events have been updated to use the new map bonus reward system. You will no longer receive a reward chest that must be clicked to open for completing events in this map; the rewards will be delivered directly to your inventory upon event completion.
  • The rewards available each week for a map are displayed in the map’s tooltip on the world map, and the current bonus items you can receive are displayed on the world map screen along with the map completion.
  • More information about this feature can be found at https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/a-legendary-journey/.

Guild Halls

• The Guild panel has been overhauled.
  • The methods of representing, standing down, creating a guild, and leaving a guild have all been streamlined.
  • Editing your guild emblem can now be accomplished by clicking your emblem in the main Guild panel.
  • Your guild now has a level, displayed in your Guild panel. Guild experience is acquired from purchasing upgrades. As your guild level rises, new upgrades will be available for purchase in your guild hall.
  • Reference the guild guide to learn about how the entire guild system has evolved and how you can move toward obtaining or building your guild hall at the current moment.
• The Guild Initiative Headquarters in Lion’s Arch is now open to guilds.
  • Have a ranking member of your guild with the Purchase Upgrades permission speak to the guild registrar to unlock your grandfathered upgrades in the new progression. You’ll also be rewarded with one or more guild hall decorations to commemorate your mastery of the old guild system.
• Guild upgrades* *are now purchased from proprietors—special NPCs in the Guild Initiative Headquarters and in guild halls. Speak with the notary at the Guild Initiative Headquarters to start purchasing new upgrades.
  • Influence has been retired but can still be spent at certain vendors in the Guild Initiative Headquarters and in the guild hall to give a small boost to progress through the new guild system.
• Guild Missions* *are now rerolled weekly and are available from the overhauled Missions tab on your Guild panel.
  • Merits have been retired. The first successful completion of a mission for a given guild each week will reward the guild with favor, a new currency needed to obtain a guild hall and purchase most upgrades therein.
  • The first time you personally complete a given mission succesfully each week, you’ll earn personal rewards.
  • Puzzle and challenge missions are now instanced.
  • New Player vs. Player and WvW missions have been added.
• Obtaining a guild hall requires your guild to complete a guild expedition.
  • Speak to the explorers in the Guild Initiative Headquarters to fund an expedition to your chosen guild hall.
  • Find your way to the hall in the jungle.
  • Fight off the Mordrem infesting the area to claim your guild hall.
  • Choose to claim one of two guild halls: the Gilded Hollow or the Lost Precipice.
• Restore the buildings in your guild hall to gain access to many new upgrades.
  • The tavern offers upgrades relating to socialization and boons.
  • The mine* *allows your guild to generate aetherium, a new currency you will need for most of the available upgrades.
  • The workshop unlocks the new scribing crafting discipline, allowing you to craft consumables for your guild.
  • The market houses upgrades that unlock a number of new guild-exclusive merchants, including the basic guild-decorations merchant.
  • The war room contains upgrades that unlock and populate the new World vs. World guild claiming system.
  • The arena, when fully restored, serves as a combat sandbox for your guild.
• Players can speak with the master scribe at a guild hall’s workshop to train as a scribe, a new crafting discipline.
  • Scribes can craft a small selection of personal boosts and a progression of scribe back items, but primarily scribes craft consumables for their guilds.
  • Recipes for guild consumables must first be unlocked through purchase of the appropriate upgrade from the various proprietors in the guild hall. Once the recipe for a consumable’s schematic is unlocked, scribes can use scribing stations in the guild hall to craft those schematics. Crafted schematics do not go into the scribe’s inventory like normal crafted items; they are directly deposited to the guild’s aetheric assembly device for assembling into actual guild items.
  • Players with the proper permission can manage the guild’s assembly queues from the assembly device, also located in the workshop. Each schematic takes a set amount of time to be fully assembled for use by the guild. There are separate queues for PvE and WvW consumables.
  • When the assembling process for a consumable is complete, it can be accessed from the appropriate category on the Storage tab of the Guild panel. PvE consumables include items familiar to existing players, such as banners and banquets. WvW consumables include new improvements and tactics for use in WvW (see “WvW Guild Objective Claiming Overhaul” below for more information). Finally, decorations and arena obstacles are for use in decorating the guild hall and the arena.
  • The assembling process for an item can be completed early by spending resonance, a new resource owned by the guild. Resonance can be obtained by purchasing it from the resonance technician by the assembly device for either gold or Crystalized Resonance—an item that players will occasionally be awarded for completing guild missions.
• Guild halls can be adorned with decorations.
  • Basic decorations can be purchased from the basic-decorations vendor.
  • Special materials found through a range of different elements of gameplay can be used through scribing to transform basic decorations into more varied and lavish decorations.
  • Owners of the Ultimate or Deluxe editions of Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns may redeem their Mordremoth’s Bane Guild Decoration token at the guild decoration trader in a guild hall. Note that doing so will donate the chosen decoration to that guild, so consider your choice before making it.
• Further information on the guild hall system and its attendant changes are available from the following articles:
  • Guild hall system overview: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/welcome-to-guild-halls/
  • Guild expeditions:
    https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/guild-halls-taken-from-the-enemy/
  • Changes to guild system currencies: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/rethinking-guilds/
  • Guild mission changes:
    https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/guild-mission-changes-and-improvements/
  • New guild progression:
    https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/building-your-guild-hall/
  • Scribing and decorations:
    https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/guild-halls-from-pen-to-production-to-placement/

Guild Teams
Guild teams are a new feature that allows guilds to create teams that can participate in PvP.

• Guild team functionality is located in a new tab on the Guild panel called the Teams tab.
• Teams have unique names within the guild.
• Up to 5 guild members can be added to a team by someone with the Team Administrator permission or by a team captain.
• There can only be one team captain.
• Teams have their own set of PvP statistics and matchmaking rating.
• Parties with at least 3 people from the same guild team will be prompted when joining Unranked or Ranked Arena as to whether they’d like to represent that team.
• More information is available here: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/introducing-pvp-guild-teams/

Scribe
Guild Halls: From Pen to Production to Placement: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/guild-halls-from-pen-to-production-to-placement/

• The ninth crafting profession is now available, the scribe.
• Scribing goes to level 400.
• Scribe trainers become available in a guild hall.
• Scribes use pigments to make inks for their creations. Pigments can be found on plant-harvesting nodes throughout Tyria and can be salvaged from dyes.
• Scribes primarily craft items for their guild.
  • Guild Consumables: Guild banners, guild siege blueprints, and world event tokens will now be crafted via scribes.
  • WvW Claiming Consumables: Scribes craft the upgrades used to claim and improve WvW objectives.
  • Decorations: Scribes can refine purchased decorations and create a few from scratch.
• Scribes can also craft items that anyone will find useful.
  • Consumables: Scribes can craft and sell scrolls that give several new utility effects.
  • Stations: Feeling generous? There are placeable utility stations so each of the new consumables can be shared with a group.
  • Sigils: Scribes can craft three new and exclusive sigil sets.
• Finally, scribes can do some crafting just for themselves.
  • Refinement: Scribes can refine all raw materials.
  • Backpacks: Scribes can craft for themselves an exclusive set of 6 new backpack skins.

PvP League System

• Ranked queue is being prepared for the upcoming PvP Leagues season.
• See Introducing PvP Leagues for more information: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/introducing-pvp-leagues/

New PvP Game Mode: Stronghold

• The new game mode Stronghold is coming to PvP.
• The first map being introduced for the new game mode is Battle of Champion’s Dusk.
• Access to the new game mode DOES NOT require access to Heart of Thorns expansion content.
• For more information, see Stronghold: Battle of Champion’s Dusk: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/stronghold-the-battle-of-champions-dusk/

PvP Mist Champions

• Mist Champions have been added to the PvP build UI.
• Mist Champions can be summoned in the new game mode, Stronghold.
• Mist Champions are unlocked by completing Mist Champion reward tracks.
• All players have Turai Ossa as a default Mist Champion.
• Grymm can be unlocked by everyone.
• Nika requires Heart of Thorns to unlock.
• Future Mist Champions will require Heart of Thorns to unlock.
• For more information, see Meet the Mist Champions: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/meet-the-mist-champions/

PvP Expansion Reward Tracks

• The final reward on a jungle rank reward track is a new jungle-themed rank finisher for that rank.
  • The final reward on the final rank reward track is the Mordrem Dragon Finisher, which is an entirely new finisher made for Heart of Thorns.
  • Jungle rank reward tracks require access to Heart of Thorns expansion content.
• Completing Mist Champion reward tracks will unlock the associated Mist Champion.
  • Bonus Mist Champion mini reward tracks are unlocked after completing the corresponding Mist Champion reward track.
• PvP jungle map reward tracks will be for those who own Heart of Thorns.
  • Players will need to complete the one-time Verdant Brink Reward Track to unlock the one-time Auric Basin Reward Track.
  • Players will then need to complete the one-time Auric Basin Reward Track to unlock the one-time Tangled Depths Reward Track.
  • Once players complete the one-time Tangled Depths Reward Track, the repeatable Magus Falls Reward Track will become available.
  • Each track yields the corresponding jungle map’s currency as well as some new armor and weapons skins.
• For more information, see PvP Reward Tracks: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/pvp-reward-tracks/

WvW Desert Borderlands Map

• The new WvW desert Borderlands map replaces the current alpine Borderlands map.
• Access to the new Borderlands DOES NOT require access to Heart of Thorns expansion content.
• For more information, see Essential Elements of the New Borderlands: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/essential-elements-of-the-new-borderlands/

WvW Guild Objective Claiming Overhaul

• The guild claiming feature was updated to give guilds a more important presence in WvW.
• Upgrade your claimed camps, towers, keeps, and castle with an all-new guild upgrade system.
• For more information, see Guild Objective Claiming in World vs. World: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/guild-objective-claiming-in-world-vs-world/
• For even more information, see World vs. World Guild Objective Claiming Deep Dive: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/world-versus-world-guild-objective-claiming-deep-dive/

WvW Objective Upgrading Overhaul

• WvW objectives now upgrade automatically over time.
• The new WvW objective UI can be accessed by clicking on any WvW objective map marker or by speaking to an objective quartermaster.
• Read more details at Upgrading World vs. World Upgrades: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/upgrading-world-vs-world-upgrades/

WvW Siege Weapon: Shield Generator

• The shield generator is intended to fulfill a support and control role.
• Use of shield generators requires access to Heart of Thorns expansion content.

WvW Ability Line: Shield Generator Mastery

• Upgrade your shield generator with additional bonuses, like the ability to negate arrow-cart damage!
• This ability line requires access to Heart of Thorns expansion content.

BALANCE, BUG-FIXING, POLISH
Profession Skills
General:

• Movement skills such as the warrior’s Savage Leap will no longer be affected by animation speed changes from quickness or slow.
• Player-owned minions will now take 95% reduced damage and condition duration from nonplayer attacks that do not specifically target them. When the attack specifically targets the minion, then it will deal full damage and condition duration.
• Updated all profession impact and instant effects to play at a faster speed to reduce the time that they linger in order to help minimize their visual-effects noise.

Elementalist

• Glyph of Storms—Ice Storm: Fixed a bug that caused all impacts to fall within a smaller than intended radius when casting this skill.
• Glyph of Storms—Lightning Storm: Fixed a bug that caused all impacts to fall within a smaller than intended radius when casting this skill.
• Persisting Flames: Updated the description of this trait to indicate that it affects weapon-skill abilities only. No functionality has changed.
• Burning Fire: Fixed an issue that prevented this trait from removing the whole stack of conditions. Fixed a bug that prevented this trait’s cooldown from being reduced with Soothing Disruption.

Engineer

• Bandage Self: Fixed a bug in which this ability was not being affected by the trait Mechanized Deployment.
• Bomb Kit: Fixed an effect issue so that placed bombs are now slightly offset in order to better match their animations.
• Cleansing Burst: Fixed a bug that was preventing Automated Medical Response from affecting this ability.
• Reactive Lenses: Fixed a bug that was preventing this trait from working on knockdowns and knockbacks.
• Shaped Charge: Increased damage dealt to targets afflicted by vulnerability from 5% to 7%.
• Super Elixir: This ability is now affected by Alchemical Tinctures.

Guardian

• Smite: Fixed a bug that caused all impacts to fall within a smaller than intended radius when casting this skill.

Mesmer

• Temporal Curtain: Increased the height of the spell by 22% to better interact with the Warden’s Feedback trait.
• Into the Void: Fixed a bug with this skill so that it will properly pull up to 600 range and properly pull to the wall location instead of sometimes past it.
• Signet of the Ether: Fixed a bug that could cause this signet to heal dead players.
• Fencer’s Finesse: Fixed a typo in the description text.
• Blinding Tide: Fixed a bug in which an incorrect number of targets displayed in the skill fact.
• Phantasms: Fixed a bug in which incorrect damage values displayed in the skill facts.
• Illusionary Whaler: Increased the damage of this phantasm by 53% to put it in line with other phantasms.
• Mantras: Fixed a bug that prevented the toughness granted by channeling a mantra from scaling properly with your effective level.
• Swap: Removed undocumented stun-break effect from this skill to match its intended functionality.

Necromancer

• Corrosive Poison Cloud: Fixed an issue that allowed this ability to block unblockable attacks.
• Corrupter’s Fervor: Fixed a bug that prevented this trait from functioning while downed. The toughness granted by this effect now scales with your effective level.
• Spiteful Spirit: Reduced the recharge on this trait to match the recharge reduction on Unholy Feast.
• Death Shroud: Shroud now counts as a weapon swap for the purposes of sigil upgrades that activate when swapping weapons.
• Well of Corruption: Added a missing skill fact for life-force gain per hit.
• Wells: Fixed an issue that prevented necromancer wells from appearing with the ground-targeting icon when they were brought up in the utility selection window.
• Rending Curse / Putrid Curse: Updated these skills with new icons.

Ranger

• Spirit of Nature: The healing from this minion now scales with 15% of its master’s healing power. The radius of effect increased from 240 to 1000 in order to match the radius of other spirit skills. Decreased the base heal value by about 35%.
• “Sic ‘Em”: The effect from this ability is no longer removed when you give your pet another command.
• Juvenile Brown Bear: This pet will now use its F2 skill, Shake It Off, without closing on enemies first.
• Juvenile Murellow: Increased this pet’s F2 skill, Poison Cloud, to apply 4 seconds of poison instead of 2 seconds. Increased this pet’s underwater F2 skill, Poison Maul, to apply 12 seconds of poison instead of 6 seconds.
• Instinctive Reaction: Removed a duplicate skill fact from this trait’s description.
• Lead the Wind: Fixed a bug so that this trait no longer has its piercing information displayed on short-bow skills.
• Hilt Bash: Fixed a bug that prevented this ability from striking a foe near the maximum range.
• “We heal as one!”: Updated this skill to include a hard limit to its stacking boon copy. Its boon copy is no longer stack limited.
• New juvenile pets can be found by owners of Heart of Thorns in the jungle region.
  • Bristleback: Native to the jungle of Maguuma, this prickly fellow is covered in daggerlike spines. Bristlebacks frequently sharpen their spines by shifting them together like whetstones before firing them at predators.
  • Electric Wyvern: Crackling with lightning, this young wyvern is bold and aggressive, often launching headfirst to bowl past its enemies.
  • Fire Wyvern: Searing eyes sparkle to convey the danger this wyvern represents, whether on land or in the air.
  • Smokescale: Shifting smoke veils this stealthy and deadly creature, granting it its name.
  • Tiger: The regal tiger is secure in its supremacy of the jungle, yet ever ready to unleash its fury upon any who would challenge it.

Thief

• Death Blossom: Extended evasion by 200 miliseconds toward the beginning of the ability.
• Vital Shot: Fixed a bug that caused this ability to gain increased attack range when traited with Ankle Shots.
• Shadow Shot: Fixed a bug that caused this ability to gain increased attack range when traited with Ankle Shots.
• Flanking Strikes: This trait is no longer doubly reduced by Trickster.

World Polish

• Lion’s Arch:
  • Evon Gnashblade has commissioned new jump pads in Lion’s Arch to make the travel time between the bank/Mystic Forge and the trading post shorter.
• Mount Maelstrom:
  • Due to the weight of players, boxes surrounding the Golem Mark II have collapsed. Workers have carted their remnants away.

General

• An option to enable mentoring mode has been added to the party window . This mode is only available for players who have trained Pact Mentor ability from the Pact Commander Mastery track.
• New NPCs have been added to some maps, selling new and old recipes for karma. These NPCs are only accessible to players who have trained the Supply Line Network ability from the Pact Commander Mastery track.
• New vendors and NPCs have been added to the Mistlock Observatory, accessible to players with various abilities from the Fractal Attunement Mastery track.
• New Mystic Forge recipes have been added.
• The autoloot toggle in the General Options tab in the Options panel has been renamed and had its text clarified.
• A new loot option to disable the area-loot functionality of the Advanced Logistics ability from the Pact Commander Mastery track has been added to the General Options tab.
• The chat channel Game Messages has been divided into categories to allow showing only certain messages. The new category Contacts has been turned on by default.
• World-completion UI will now only show on the world map when the player is in a map that contributes toward world completion.
• Action Camera mode, which turns mouse look on and uses crosshair-based targeting, has been added as an option. Use the new Toggle Action Camera keybind under the Camera category to activate it.
• A new ground-targeting option, Snap Ground Target to Current Target, has been added under the Combat/Movement category. This will place the ground target marker at your current target’s position.
• A new targeting option, Allow Skill Retargeting, has been added under the Combat/Movement category. This will allow skills to be retargeted while they are executing.
• Event participation can now time out due to inactivity. If you stop completing objectives in an event, you will eventually receive a message that you are no longer participating in that event, and you will not receive rewards when the event completes. If you begin participating again before the event ends, you will regain your previous participation level immediately.
• An entire stack of luck can now be consumed buy right-clicking the stack and selecting Consume All.
• Laurel vendors’ Experience Boost and Item Boost durations have been reduced from 60 minutes to 30 minutes per laurel.

Dungeons

• Dungeon rewards have been rebalanced to more accurately reflect the time needed to complete them. Experience and gold awarded for completing a dungeon have been reduced.

Fractals

• General:
  • A fractal run now consists of 1 fractal island instead of 3 islands and a boss island.
  • Fractals will now always be the same island for a given scale. They will no longer be random.
  • Increased the maximum fractal scale from 50 to 100.
  • Rewards for completing fractals have been reworked. A new Fractal Encryption box has been added to each island’s reward chest.
  • New mistlock instabilities have been added to the schedule.
  • A new legendary journey has been added to obtain a precursor for the fractal legendary backpack.
  • Scaling and agony formulas have been updated.
  • Fractal achievements have been moved to a new category in the Achievements tab.
  • New fractal achievements have been added.
  • New daily achievements have been added to the Fractal category for completing different difficulty tiers of fractal runs as well as a daily recommended fractal.
  • Fixed a bug that caused some chests to show “Unknown” as their name.
  • Added a new effect on some bosses as they cast skills that inflict the agony condition.
  • Added a new effect when a player is struck by or suffering from the agony condition.
  • Fractals with randomly split routes are now consistent based on the current fractal scale.
  • Added an NPC to the Mistlock Observatory who will teach players about the agony condition once they begin encountering it.
• Aetherblade:
  • Fixed some issues with Kiel’s behavior during this fractal.
  • Reduced the number of veteran enemies during some events.
• Captain Mai Trin Boss:
  • Fixed some bugs that allowed players to rejoin the fight against Mai Trin after logging out.
  • Fixed a bug that would allow Kiel to resurrect downed players outside of Mai Trin’s room.
• Thaumanova Reactor:
  • Turrets in the test lab now disable when that collider is turned off.
  • The cooling rod in the test lab has been moved to a more visible location.
  • Shields now despawn if removed from the test lab.
• Snowblind:
  • The Son of Svanir Shaman’s ice storm attack will now end sooner if he is slain during its casting.
  • The Ice Elemental boss encounter will now reset if the party is defeated by it.
• Uncategorized:
  • Fixed bugs that prevented Old Tom from properly resetting after a party is defeated by it.
  • Removed a cinematic that played after the Raving Asura was defeated.
• Solid Ocean:
  • Added an initial agony condition pulse when the Jade Maw encounter begins.
  • Jade Maw is now immune to life steal.
• Molten Furnace:
  • Added a tooltip to steam vents suggesting that players can block them.
  • Increased the delay between falling rocks during the tunnel drill event.
• Aquatic Ruins:
  • Reduced the hit points of the Jellyfish Beast.
• Swampland:
  • The time limit to collect wisps has been updated based on the fractal scale.
  • Walls that rise to block players from returning the wisps now rise when the event begins rather than rising as players approach.
  • The Mossman can no longer be kited into the water.
• Cliffside:
  • Increased the distance at which the hammer can be charged by the death of cultists.
  • Added a displaced researcher who can aid players who have lost or misplaced their hammer.
  • Increased respawn times on cultists during some events.
  • The Archdiviner has remodeled a portion of his room to prevent players from hiding from him on top of a rock.
• Urban Battleground:
  • Removed respawning behavior from some enemies.
  • Fixed a bug that caused enemy siege equipment throughout the fractal to show an “Obstructed” warning on any ranged attack.
  • Updated the icon on one of Captain Ashym’s effects.
• Underground Facility:
  • Victims of the Superheated skill now take increased damage from conditions in addition to increased damage from normal attacks.

Personal Story
Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a display bug with the Story Journal that was dropping completed story steps from view.

Items

• Players may now start a scavenger hunt in the Auric Basin that leads to a new item that consumes Bloodstone Dust.
• To sync armor crafting with weapon crafting, and to help maintain the value of leather, masterwork, rare, and exotic inscriptions will now be crafted with patches made from leather and cloth.
  • To account for the added leather cost, the amount of cloth required to make an insignia is reduced.
• New trophies and rare trophies are being added to the game.
  • Trophies: Added fossils and thorns.
  • Rare Trophies: Added evergreen and Mordrem, all tiers, slivers through lodestones.
• Marauder and Crusader stats can now be crafted for use in PvE and WvW. The insignia recipes can be purchased from armor crafting trainers (armorsmith, tailor, and leatherworker) and are created with thorns and fossils.
• New materials available:
  • Flax: Flax harvesting nodes are found throughout Magus Falls and give flax seeds, flax fibers, and flax blossoms.
    • Flax seeds can be processed into linseed oil, which is used in scribe crafting and for making oiled weapon and armor components.
    • Flax fibers are used in scribe crafting.
    • Flax blossoms are used in jeweling.
  • Jungle Plants: Jungle plant harvesting nodes found throughout Magus Falls yield cassava roots, allspice berries, and Maguuma lily blossoms.
    • Cassava root can be processed into cassava flour and can be used along with allspice berries for new cooking recipes.
    • Maguuma lily blossoms are used in jeweling.
  • Mussels: Mussels are found in the water in Magus Falls and yield mussel meat, mother of pearl, and freshwater pearls.
    • Mussel meat is used in new food recipes.
    • Mother of pearl is used in crafting decorations.
    • Freshwater pearls are used in jeweling.
  • New Jewels: There are a number of additional new jewels added to existing harvesting locations, including:
    • Burl.
    • Moonstone.
    • Agate.
    • Ebony.
• New stat combinations:
  • Six new stat combos are available in Heart of Thorns.
  • All have four stats and have boon duration or condition duration (or both!).
  • All are obtained from playing in the various Magus Falls maps.
  • The new recipes use oiled weapon components to craft.
• Oiled weapon and armor components crafting recipes have been added.
  • To protect against the harsh jungle environment, new stat combos require an oil treatment.
  • All exotic components now have an oiled version that requires linseed oil to craft.
    • Example: Combine an oiled orichalcum sword blade, oiled orichalcum sword hilt, and trailblazer’s inscription to create a trailblazer’s sword.
• New currencies have been added to the wallet. There are 3 new currencies, one for each of the maps in Magus Falls. They can be used to purchase new rewards in each of these maps:
  • Verdant Brink: Airship Parts
  • Auric Basin: Lumps of Aurillium
  • Tangled Depths: Ley-Line Crystals
• Added the new scribe crafting profession.
• New world boss chest art has been added. Tequatl and the Triple Trouble world boss chests have new updated art. These new chests can be obtained as trophies for decorating guild halls.
• Two new armor sets are available. They come in all three weight classes.
  • Bladed armor can be acquired by playing in Verdant Brink.
  • Leystone armor can be acquired by playing in Dragon’s Stand.
• A new crafted weapon set, the Auric set, has been added.
  • Recipes to craft this set are purchased for aurillium.
  • Tradable ingredients to craft these weapons can be earned by playing in Auric Basin.
• A new dropped weapon set, Reclaimed, has been added.
  • There is a chance to loot a Reclaimed weapon from any defeated enemy in Magus Falls.
• Two new purchasable weapon sets, Chak and Plated, have been added.
  • Chak weapons can be purchased for ley-line crystals in Tangled Depths.
  • Plated weapons can be purchased for jungle map currencies and reclaimed metal plates in Dragon’s Stand.
    • Reclaimed plates have a chance to be salvaged out of reclaimed weapons.
• The Machined weapon set has been added.
  • Once a Plated weapon skin is obtained, it unlocks a collection to upgrade into the upgraded Machined version of that weapon.
• Elite specialization rewards have been added.
  • Spending the first points in an elite specialization rewards a new, unique weapon usable by that specialization.
  • This weapon unlocks a collection to build an upgraded, ascended version of that weapon.
  • Completing a heroic specialization grants a new, unique piece of armor and unlocks the ability to craft a new rune set for the specialization.
• Revenant rewards have been added.
  • Completing a base specialization on a revenant unlocks a collection to craft one of the pieces of Mistward armor.
  • Collecting the full Mistward armor set grants the title Mistwarden.
• Map completion rewards have been added to Dry Top, the Silverwastes, and Southsun Cove.
• Some minor tweaks have been made to salvage tables to normalize output across all levels, and a small reduction has been made on tier 5 metal, leather, and wood, as well as a reduction on tier 6 leather and cloth.
• Refining thick leather now results in 4 thick leather sections instead of 3.
• Refining hardened leather now results in 3 hardened leather sections instead of 2.
• Food effects that affected condition damage have had their effects reduced.
• Food effects that granted life stealing on critical hits have had their internal cooldowns updated from 1 second to 2 seconds.
• The Jar of Harpy Pheromones can now be used in fractals and dungeons.
• Significantly reduced the amount of damage done by the Throw Jar skill provided by the Jar of Harpy Pheromones.

World vs. World

• WvW ability lines have been rebalanced.
  • For more information, see Upgrading World vs. World Upgrades: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/upgrading-world-vs-world-upgrades/
  • All characters have had all spent WvW ability points refunded.
    • The number of available points is account based (equal to your WvW rank), but each character can spend them differently.
• Most WvW lifetime achievements have been updated to have lower requirements or new titles.
• Arrow carts (all types) now require 10 more supply to build and have new, custom line-of-sight calculations.
• Normalized the cost of guild siege weapon supply. These now have the stats of a superior siege weapon but the supply cost of a standard siege weapon.
• Players can no longer rally off of basic creatures in WvW—only veteran rank or higher.
• Objective bosses now have health scaling based on the number of allied and enemy players in the area.
• Many WvW items can now be salvaged.
  • Exotic gear purchased from vendors in WvW that cost both Badges of Honor and gold can now be salvaged for some Badges of Honor and the upgrades that were added to that piece of gear.
  • Equipment purchased with Tournament Tickets yields standard exotic salvage materials.
• Supply depots are now marked on the map.
• Sentries will now mark enemy players on the map for 30 seconds.
• Keeps will now mark enemy players within their perimeter for the first 5 minutes after being flipped.
• Added a new way to obtain hero points from playing WvW!
  • Earn Proofs of Heroics from WvW rank-up chests.
  • Trade in Proofs of Heroics at new Heroics Notaries for Notarized Scrolls of Heroics.
  • Consume Notarized Scrolls of Heroics to automatically complete random hero challenges around the world.
• Reduced Edge of the Mists rewards.
  • Reduced event karma, gold, experience, and world experience by 25%.
  • The number of Badges of Honor awarded for capturing an objective has been reduced to be consistent with other WvW maps.
  • The chests that spawned on objective capture containing badges and ascended materials have been removed.
    • The Badges of Honor and ascended materials are now dropped by the objective’s boss instead.
• Fixed a bug that allowed waypoints to be available for a few seconds between repel events.
• Fixed an exploit that allowed siege golems to wield bundle items.
• Placing siege equipment now shows a preview in-world where it will go and allows rotating the direction in which the siege will be deployed.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions

• The Crystal Arbiter Appearance Pack contains an exclusive new outfit and matching glider, as well as your first chance to get an Immortal weapon skin. You’ll also get 5 Flame Dye Kits and a Total Makeover Kit to look your absolute best with special hairstyles and colors. The total package is available in the Style category of the Gem Store for 2000 gems.
• The Bat Wings Glider Combo is now available in the Style category of the Gem Store. Unlock a giant set of bat wings for your backpack and a matching Bat Wings Glider for 700 gems total.
• A new set of Improvised weapon skins is available from the Black Lion Weapons Specialist for 1 Black Lion Claim Ticket.
• A new Character Jump Start super-value package is available for one week, containing everything you need to equip a single character for extended play, including four bag slots, a Copper-Fed Salvage-o-Matic, harvesting, logging, and mining R-tron tools, transmutation charges, and experience scrolls. Buy it for one character or split the goods across your account—it’s over 40% savings either way.

Improvements

• Black Feather Wings Backpack and White Feather Wings Backpack owners can receive a free matching glider by equipping the backpack and talking to any map scout in Verdant Brink.
• Black Lion Chests have been updated. Keys are available in the Special category of the Gem Store for 125 gems.
  • The drop rate of finisher unlocks has been made more rare.
  • Mist Champion skin unlocks have been added to the uncommon and rare drops.

Bug Fixes

• Old characters that had dyed town clothes equipped prior to the wardrobe system will now be able to properly preview dyes in the wardrobe.
• Fixed an issue that was preventing VO from sometimes playing during cinematics.
• Restored over 50 VO files that had issues during processing.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a server crash.
• Fixed a client crash.
• Fixed an issue that prevented Revenants from accessing their inactive legend slot in PvP.
• Fixed an issue with Chronomancer and Reaper in which players could access utility skills before unlocking them.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a server crash.
• Fixed a client crash.
• Removed Mordrem Menders from Destroy Crawler event and replaced them with Mordrem Vile Thrashers. Menders were healing the prop boss and making the event difficult to complete.
• Fixed a broken jumping mushroom in the Westwatch Patch area.
• Auric Basin: Added Nuhoch Wallows directional markers which point to their destination.
• Added directional arrows to the Nuhoch Wallows to make navigating them easier.
• Fixed an issue with Silver and Gold One-Time Adventure Rewards not granting experience.
• Fixed an issue that prevented P4F players from exiting the mad king labyrinth.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a client crash in Guild Halls
• Fixed an issue causing Priory Rations to be unobtainable from the Priory Weaponsmith and Armorsmith
• Fixed a bug in the amount of leyline crystals given at certain thresholds of event coordinator rewards in Tangled Depths
• Fixed an issue that would cause some scribing recipes to appear craftable before the guild has unlocked them
• Corrected Bat Wing Glider Combo price to 700 gems in the patch notes.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a bug causing Shards of Glory and Memories of Battles to be Account Bound on Acquire.
• Fixed a bug with the Halloween achievement “A Royal Tradition” not being awarded to event participants.
• Fixed an issue where players were losing storyline UI if they crashed or were logged out during the first chapter Prologue: Rally to Magma.
• Fixed a bug that prevented Adept and Master Elite Specialization achievements from completing in the Heart of the Mists. For characters who had their elite spec achievements broken, a “Specialization Achievement Repair” NPC has been added to the heart of the mists you can speak to who will repair the achievement.
• Fixed an issue in Auric Basin where using a waypoint out of the Southwatch Jumping Puzzle Trial by Fire challenge area would not remove transform.
• Removed errant guild vendors from the VIP airship.
• Ensured the passage to Dragon’s Stand will re-open on consecutive Chak Gerent successes.
• Fixed an issue with the guild hall basic decorations vendor and fixed an issue with the scribe trainer.
• Fixed a bug that could cause players to miss out on event coordinator rewards at very specific participation percentages.
• Superior Rune of Durability: Updated the text to reflect the functionality of granting 1 second of resistance.
• Renamed the new minor, major, and superior Sigils of Speed, crafted by scribes, to Sigils of Agility.
• Fixed a crash.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a client crash.
• Dragonhunter: Fixed an issue that caused less travel distance when traited with Absolute Resolution. Updated skill facts to display the correct healing values.
• Auric Basin: Fixed a bug that would cause Sage Manssir to stall while being escorted, blocking an event.
• Auric Basin: Fixed a bug that prevented the Destroy the Blighted Sapling Feeder events from running correctly.
• Tangled Depths: Fixed a bug that made Tenoch and Xochitl walk away from players who were trying to buy items from them.
• Fixed issues in the Kill Cotoni and Huetzi event in which the bosses would continue to be invulnerable for a few seconds after returning from healing or would return to heal themselves too quickly.
• Superior Sigil of Absorption: Updated the text to reflect the correct functionality of stealing one boon when interrupting an enemy.
• The Master Scribe’s icon now correctly appears on the map in guild halls.
• Fixed a bug wherein certain adventures were rewarding too much event meta participation.
• Fixed a bug that allowed Fractal Encryption Keys to be sold to a vendor.
• Priory, Whispers, and Vigil equipment guides now look like books.
• Revenant’s Shoulderplate: This item has been renamed to Herald’s Shoulderplate.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the reward chest in the adventure Bugs in the Branches: Bronze from giving Airship Parts.
• Fixed a bug in which Mad King Thorn was invisible for the beginning portion of the Your Mad King Says… event.
• Engineer—Orbital Strike: Reduced the FX visual noise.
• Fixed a bug that caused the fractals achievement “Headhunter” to be completed before intended.
• Overload Air: Reduced the FX visual noise.
• Guardian—Hunter’s Ward: Sped up and reduced the size of the impact FX.
• Fixed a crash that occurred when guild hall maps changed size.

Bug Fixes:

• Updated the name of the Nuhoch Mastery vendor at the entrance to Tangled Depths.
• Fixed a bug that caused Nuhoch Mastery vendors to sell obsidian shards for airship parts instead of ley-line crystals.
• Fixed a bug wherein Adventure UI would sometimes fail to clean up on the map.
• Fixed a bug in which the number of bosses required to beat the guild hall expedition was not accurate.
• Fixed a bug causing some crafting materials to drop more frequently than intended.
• Elementalist—Heat Sync: Fixed the casting effects to properly appear horizontally. Wildfire: Fixed the casting effects to properly appear horizontally.
• Warrior—Combustive Shot: Fixed a bug that caused this skill to have a smaller radius than intended.
• Revenant—Cruel Repercussion: Fixed an issue in which the correct trait name would not display properly.
• Fixed a bug that caused certain map reward coordinator chests to have no rewards at specific participation thresholds.
• Fixed a bug that could cause the Orge Camp event chain in the Tangled Depths to stop progressing.
• Fixed a bug in which chak bracers and chak sappers were not fully immune to conditions as is intended.
• Auric Basin: Fixed a bug in Westwatch Patch in which Dawkkurra would get stuck on an event and stall.
• Engineer—Recovery Matrix: Fixed a bug causing this trait to trigger on use of Overcharge. It now triggers just on the placement of Healing Turret.
• Engineer—Toss Elixir B: This skill has been fixed to properly grant 3 stacks of stability to allies within the area of effect.
• Fixed a bug causing smokescale pets in Teku Nuhoch to not spawn appropriately.
• Ranger—Smokescale: Smoke Assault: This skill has switched places with Smoke Cloud so that it will now be the F2 skill for this pet. Fixed an issue in which this skill dealt higher than intended damage; it has been reduced by 50%.
• Superior Sigil of Speed: Fixed the text to match the functionality of only granting 1 second of quickness.
• Superior Sigil of Absorption: Updated the text to reflect the correct functionality of stealing 1 boon when interrupting an enemy.

Bug Fixes:

• Elementalist—Cleansing Water: This trait now functions appropriately with Invigorating Torrents.
• Guardian—Dragonhunter: Fixed a bug that caused Shield of Courage to be unaffected by Courageous Return.
• Stronghold: Fixed a bug in which PvP Win guild missions would not count as a win if the lord was killed.
• Auric Basin: Fixed an issue that prevented the Escorting Scholar Keenwit event from starting.
• Fixed a bug that caused Fractal Research Pages to be soulbound instead of account bound.
• Itzel Poison Lore is no longer a Mastery requirement for story.
• Fixed a client crash.

Bug Fixes:

General

• Fixed a server crash.
• Fixed client crash.
• Fixed a bug that caused the guild trader to not properly track purchase limits across multiple tiers.

Verdant Brink

• Fixed an issue in which the Save Sylvari event in the Pact Encampment would not progress, preventing the event from properly restarting on subsequent day cycles.
• Fixed an issue in which sylvari NPCs incorrectly excused during the Pact Encampment loyalties event could sometimes become hostile and unkillable, stalling subsequent events.

Auric Basin

• Fixed a situation in the Skritt Rescue event that prevented Overseer Greal from spawning.
• Fixed a bug in which players who disconnected from the Southwatch challenge were not removed from the event area.
• Requirements to unlock the final room beneath Tarir have been changed and will unlock when the Battle in Tarir has succeeded.
• Fixed a bug in which the Save the Pact NPC event chain stalled.
• Fixed a bug in which the griffon in Griffonfall would become stuck as unattackable.
• Fixed an issue preventing the Enchanted Armor transform from being removed when moved away from Battle in Tarir.
• Fixed an issue in which Pact survivors would fail to respawn in “Rescue the Pact survivors trapped in debris.”
• Fix an issue in which Adanich would fail to power Southwatch in "Clear Mordrem near Exalted mirrors while Adanich powers-up Southwatch.”

Heart of Thorns Story

• Fixed an issue in which the Sign Cutting quest would not properly bypass the Mastery requirement for certain players. Additionally, fixed an issue with Rox’s markings not properly completing the quest step on interaction.

Guardian

• Test of Faith: Receiving damage while crossing the threshold of this trap now has a 0.75 second internal cooldown.
• Hunter’s Determination: Fixed an issue that caused this trait to apply aegis without respecting its cooldown.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a server crash.

Bug Fixes:

General

• Fixed server crashes.
• Fixed client crashes.
• Fixed a crash in guild mission instances.
• Changed the total cost to fully unlock elite specializations from 400 to 250. For players who have parts of the track trained, hero points will be refunded for the difference between the old cost and the new.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the client to appear frozen for extended periods of time when attempting to play a cutscene without having fully patched the game.
• Fixed a bug in which some attuned ascended rings from the Mystic Forge were misnamed.

Verdant Brink

• Fixed an issue in which the water dolyak in the cannon event at the Pact Encampment could sometimes enter a state where he could not be interacted with, stalling the event.
• Fixed an issue in which Scout Acan would not acknowledge some players who successfully glided by him.
• Changed bosses in the Nightthistle hero challenge in Verdant Brink to no longer be random.
• The Coztic Itzel hero point challenge has moved to the location of the former Mordrem Flamerider hero challenge.
• Turned the Mordrem Flamerider hero challenge into a commune point and moved it to the old location of the Coztic Itzel hero challenge.
• Updated the hero challenge near Itzel Village in Verdant Brink so that earning it is more clearly understood.

Auric Basin

• Fixed a bug that would give players achievement credit for Vinetooth even if Vinetooth was not defeated.
• Updated the Toxic Bacon hero challenge in Auric Basin so that earning it is more clearly understood.
• Fixed an issue preventing the chak lobber brood from spawning.
• Players wielding Enchanted Armors who are inside the Skritt Challenge area when the auction closes will no longer lose their transform.
• Fixed the Exalted at Westwatch and Southwatch who arrive at the beginning of Trial by Fire to play their scene and stand station at the challenges.

Tangled Depths

• Removed experience from mushrooms in the “Collect spore samples and turn them in to Kott’s Assistant” event to prevent experience farming.

Heart of Thorns Story

• Fixed a bug in which the Veteran Chak Blitzer in “Chapter 13: Buried Insight” was dying prematurely and not triggering a story cutscene.

Guild Halls

• Fixed an issue that prevented Aetherium Boosts purchased from the influence trader from applying their full effect.
• Removed the Badge of Tribute cost requirement from War Room Restoration 1.

Adventures

• Fixed a bug wherein The Ley-Line Run had mismatching time thresholds between Daily and All Time.
• Bugs in the Branches, Flying Circus, Shooting Gallery, and Beetle Feast adventures are now available more frequently.
• Increased the threshold for gold, silver, and bronze in the Sanctum Scramble Adventure.

Ranger

• Pack Alpha: Fixed a bug in which this trait was not applying its recharge reduction to some of the new pet skills on the Bristleback, Smokescale, Fire Wyvern, and Electric Wyvern.
• Druid—Terminate Celestial Avatar: Updated description text on this skill.
• Druid—Astral force no longer degenerates out of combat.

Necromancer

• Reaper—Blighter’s Boon: This trait now only procs for boons you apply to yourself. Increased healing level multiplier by 25%, increased healing attribute multiplier by 330%.

Mesmer

• Chronomancer—Gravity Well: Reduced damage of final strike by 20%.

Revenant

• Infuse Light: Reduced the duration from 4 seconds to 3 seconds.
• Phase Traversal: Added a 5-second recharge.
• Crystal Hibernation: Increased the recharge from 20 seconds to 25 seconds.
• Soothing Bastion: Increased the recharge from 20 seconds to 25 seconds.
• Surge of the Mists: Reduced the damage by 15%.

Guardian

• Dragonhunter—Procession of Blades: Increased the cooldown of this ability from 20 to 25 seconds.
• Dragonhunter—Test of Faith: Reduced the duration of this trap from 9 seconds — the tooltip incorrectly indicated 8 — to 6.
• Dragonhunter—Dragon’s Maw: Increased the cooldown of this ability from 60 to 75 seconds.

Thief

• Deadly Arts: Improvisation: Fixed an issue that prevented this trait from recharging physical skills when stealing from an enemy.

Bug Fix:

• Fixed a server crash in Heart Of The Mists

Bug Fixes:

General:

• Fixed server crashes.
• Fixed client crashes.
• Runes of the Trapper: The stealth and superspeed effects of this rune have been reduced from 3 seconds to 2 seconds.
• Added the following items to material storage: Piece of Mother of Pearl, Flax Fiber, Agate Orb, Stabilizing Matrix, Ball of Dark Energy, Cube of Stabilized Dark Energy, Auric Sliver, Auric Ingot, Resonating Sliver, Resonating Fragment, Resonating Core, Resonating Lodestone, and Pouches of Brown, Orange, White, Yellow, Green, Black, Red, Purple, and Blue Pigment.

Adventures:

• Fixed a bug that locked the Ley-Line Run adventure on map start.
• Fixed a bug in which players were occasionally unable to post to leaderboards in some race adventures.

Auric Basin:

• Enabled the skritt Auction Assistant’s conversation that instructs players how to bid.
• Fixed a bug in which Dawkkurra would stall on the “Help Dawkkurra with her feast” event.

Tangled Depths:

• Fixed a bug that caused Lore Seeker Zolin to die and despawn, blocking her events.

Dragon’s Stand:

• Fixed a rare bug that caused the event to kill the boss of Dragon’s Stand to stall when it reached 0% health.

Guild Halls:

• Updated guild missions to roll over at the correct time of 12:30 a.m. on Mondays.
• Fixed a bug that caused problems when interacting with guild hall dialogs in the Mac client.
• Fixed an issue with waypoints in scaled-up guild hall maps.
• Fixed a bug that caused the path to the upper plaza in the Lost Precipice to open every time a guild built an upgrade. The path will now correctly appear only when a guild purchases the Further Exploration upgrade.
• Fixed a bug with rank points in PvP rank missions.

Heart of Thorns Story:

• Changed the location and range required for the Nuhoch warbler to signal the Nuhoch scouts during the In Their Footsteps story mission to be more generous and intuitive.
• Fixed an issue in which completing the story step Forging the Pact was incorrectly assigning players Shell Shock. Completing Forging the Pact will now assign the next quest correctly.
• Hearts and Minds: Added additional fail-safes to ensure the return of the platform upon restarting the encounter.
• Hearts and Minds: Falling deaths now teleport players to the arena in a downed state rather than instantly killing them, allowing for a greater chance of recovery.
• Hearts and Minds: Prevented bosses from unfairly retaining their invulnerability after players die during certain phases.
• Hearts and Minds: Prevented the Hearts and Minds boss from unfairly retaining its later-phase skills if players retry after dying.
• Hearts and Minds: Removed the functionality from ley-line updrafts that caused them to act like jump mushrooms. Players can now interact with the updraft to be launched into the air if the updraft fails to launch them.
• Hearts and Minds: All players are now removed from the “penalty box” upon defeating a boss.
• Hearts and Minds: Adjusted the functionality for the final attack of the Blighted Pale Tree.

Elementalist:

• Tempest—Heat Sync: Fixed an issue that prevented this ability from sharing its boons properly.

Engineer:

• Scrapper—Bypass Coating: Updated this skill so that the recharge now takes place upon breaking stun.

Ranger:

• Cultivated Synergy: Fixed a bug in which this trait displayed a radius of 240 instead of the actual radius of 300 that was being affected.

• Druid—Solar Beam: Fixed a bug that caused this skill to heal allies beyond its intended range.

Thief:

• Daredevil: Fixed an issue that prevented the thief’s dodge animations from playing correctly when transitioning into maps and other areas.

Bug Fixes:

General

• Fixed a client crash.
• Superior Rune of the Dragonhunter: Fixed an issue so that this will work properly with Trapper’s Respite.
• Runes of Svanir: The sixth bonus from this rune set now applies 5 seconds of Frost Aura when struck while below 20% health, rather than ice blocking the player.
• Fixed a bug in which the Fractal Vendor sold some items for the wrong price.
• Fixed a bug that caused Itzel Vendors to sell a single obsidian shard for the cost of five.
• Invisible Stompers, Invisible Slippers, and Invisible Boots now have the correct icon.
• Auric Basin: Implemented additional checks to ensure the Escorting Scholar Keenwit event starts.

PvP

• Several PvP build components have been removed in order to promote healthy gameplay:
  • Removed Minstrel Amulet. Anyone who has purchased this amulet will be refunded their gold.
  • Removed Rune of the Ogre.
  • Removed Rune of the Lich.
  • Removed Rune of the Pirate.

Elementalist

• Flame Burst: Fixed an issue so that this skill will no longer interrupt your target when used while facing away from them.
• Elemental Bastion: This trait can now activate when struck by missiles.
• Tempest—Powerful Auras: Fixed an issue that allowed this trait to double-apply boons associated with auras.

Engineer

• Adaptive Armor: Reduced the toughness gained per stack of Adaptive Armor from 100 to 60.
• Human Growth Hormone: Reduced the duration of might granted from this trait from 20 seconds to 15 seconds.

Guardian

• Dragonhunter—Dragon’s Maw: Fixed a bug that caused this trap to last for 60 seconds instead of the full 5 minutes.
• Dragonhunter—Purification: Fixed a bug that caused this trap to last for 60 seconds instead of the full 5 minutes.

Mesmer

• Chronomancer—Tides of Time: Fixed a bug that caused the effects from this skill to fail to appear under certain graphical settings.

Ranger

• Druid—Lingering Light: Increased the internal cooldown on this trait from 3 seconds to 12 seconds and reduced boon duration to 3 seconds.

Revenant

• Legendary Dragon Stance: Fixed a bug so that active facets, besides Facet of Nature, will now immediately be removed when the player invokes another legend.
• Hardening Persistence: Fixed a bug so that the toughness stacks granted by Embrace the Darkness will be properly removed when invoking another legend.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a server crash.