Guild Wars 2

Info from previous test, which should still apply:

• The test will likely run about two hours
• Your feedback would be welcome in this thread
• If you run into a bug, use /bug and fill out a report
• Demo characters will be wiped in preparation for launch
• Please play with your existing demo character. (This is updated at the devs’ request, as we do not need you to create a new demo character unless you do not have one present on your account.)

UPDATE: Elite specializations will be unchanged from the previous stress test or from the Elite Specializations Preview Weekend. Changes are being made, as stated last week, but they will not be included in the stress test.

Thanks again!

UPDATE: The Stress Test will take place at 10:00 AM Pacific Time on Thursday, September 7th. We believe this will allow more of our European players to join us and will allow everyone to participate in the test and then watch our Guild Chat livestream, if they so desire. See you then!

We will be conducting a brief stress test for Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire on Thursday, September 7th, beginning at 10:00 AM Pacific Time (17:00 GMT). Anyone with a Guild Wars 2 account is welcome to participate. To join the stress test, please log in to your Guild Wars 2 game account, create a new “Demo” character on the character selection screen, and head into the Crystal Oasis. Play as you normally would play, but because this is a stress test, be prepared for possible in-game performance issues as the testing takes place.

Thanks for your help!

Codes.6870:

Will we ever get to see Koss again?

He’s one of my favorite heroes in GW1 Nightfall and I am hoping there’s something epic in stored for him in this upcoming expansion.

I know 250 years have already passed, but anything is possible right?

Anything is possible. :-)

Greetings Tyrians!

With the next release we will be making some changes to ascended vending in PvP and Fractals. Over the past year we introduced ways to obtain ascended gear via participation in either game mode thus allowing players to acquire gear by playing the game mode they chose. We implemented these vendors in a way that made sense for their perspective player base at the time. With the next release we are making two significant changes to these vendors to create one system that functions the same regardless of game mode.

First, each game mode will still use a specific currency unique to that mode as part of the price but the rest of the costs associated with purchasing the gear will be the same across the game modes. Having a unified system for acquiring ascended gear via vendors will give us more flexibility for adjustments, if they are needed, and it will give us the flexibility to potentially introduce this system in other game modes where appropriate.

Second, purchasing the ascended gear will now rely much more on player crafting. The cost for a piece of gear will now include a crafted token which shows a player’s mastery of the appropriate crafting discipline, the game mode specific currency, and raw gold. Ascended crafting is vital to sustaining a healthy economy and it is important that we keep that in place even when a player acquires ascended items via a vendor. For PvP, this will add a considerable cost to the acquisition of ascended gear. Please note that you will be able to buy gear with current prices until the update is live.

Ascended vending is not intended to be the optimal path for acquiring ascended gear, but rather a way for players to acquire the gear through time spent playing their preferred game mode. And while ascended vending now requires max level crafting, players that obtain ascended gear via vending will see a moderate discount in cost over traditional crafting.

We discovered an issue on the Lake Doric map and rolled out a correction this evening. We wanted to let you know that players who achieved 100% map completion in Lake Doric prior to this evening’s hotfix will need to redo the New Loamhurst and Doric’s Landing hearts in that region in order to re-acquire map complete. You can do that any time after the next global reset, which takes place daily at 4:00 PM Pacific time. Please note that redoing the two hearts will not give you a second map completion reward, but it will fill in the map and indicate your accomplishment.

Update 2/28/2017: A few days ago, we became aware that Play for Free accounts were inadvertently being given access to a Level 80 boost and a shared inventory slot, content normally reserved for players who purchase Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns. We temporarily disabled these features in order to work on resolving the issue. Now that we’ve ascertained that the features are functioning as they should, we are re-enabled the Level 80 boost and the shared inventory slot for players who purchase Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns. The Play For Free accounts that were given the untended features will be allowed to retain them. We appreciate your patience as we addressed the situation, and extend our thanks to those who reported it.

In the next release, we are going to be raising the prices of the Forgeman Mantle, Forgeman Raiment, and Forgeman Leggings so that they are consistent with the remainder of the dungeon armor prices.

We’ve identified an exploit with the Super Adventure Box o’ Fun that allowed players to obtain an immunity to all negative effects and conditions. Some players were abusing the exploit to gain an unfair advantage over others. Due to the impact of this issue, we have decided to temporarily disable the ability for players to summon a Super Adventure Box o’ Fun and have actioned the players who abused this exploit. We will re-enable the item as soon as the exploit has been resolved.

Bug Fixes:

• Reduced defiance-bar scaling on destroyer wyverns in Draconis Mons.
• Fixed an issue in Draconis Mons in which players could not interact with a firestone shard at Ancient Hollow.
• Fixed an issue with the power of updrafts in the Taimi’s Pet Project instance.
• Fixed an issue in which some player-specific visual effects were visible to all players.
• Fixed an issue in which vault doors being held open could prevent players from advancing vault quest steps.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed an issue with Oakheart’s Essence effects on the hand.
• Fixed an issue in which scanning one of the boss corpses could sometimes block Taimi from delivering further instructions.
• The Heart of the Volcano instance will no longer stall in the sequence following the boss fight if a warrior uses Vengeance to rally.
• The errant remnant of Taimi’s machine at the end of the Heart of the Volcano instance has been cleaned up.
• Fixed a bug in which some video cards had a display issue with lights.

05/02/2017 – Late Notes

• Fixed a bug that caused the “Clear out the remaining White Mantle forces around Noran’s Homestead” event in Lake Doric to occasionally stall.
• Fixed a pathing issue with Glenna in Stronghold of the Faithful.

05/02/2017 – May 2nd Release Notes
Living World – Flashpoint
The White Mantle launched a surprise attack on Divinity’s Reach. Betrayed from within and assaulted from without, the city fought a battle on two fronts. Queen Jennah rose to the occasion, revealing just how powerful a mesmer she is, and with a monumental effort on the part of the humans and their allies, the city broke the siege.
Caudecus Beetlestone, once the legate minister, was commanding the White Mantle forces, bringing his plot to take the Krytan throne to its conclusion. He’d been working on it for decades, but his plan was foiled. Loyalists and allies of the queen found him in his mansion. Before he could be taken into custody, however, the snake murdered his own daughter, Demmi, an honorable agent of the Order of Whispers—and a friend to many.
Caudecus’s subsequent death was an unsatisfactory revenge for her loss. With their leader dead, the White Mantle forces fell into chaos, and the Seraph and Shining Blade picked off the stragglers with ease. In the wake of the battle, the Divinity’s Reach prison bulged with inmates. A search of Caudecus’s manor revealed one of Lazarus’s aspects—the objects into which he safeguarded portions of his soul.
This discovery brought Lazarus’s true identity into question. Who is Lazarus? Marjory continues to shadow him, but does she know what she’s getting herself into? That question will have to wait, because Taimi is on the verge of completing her antidragon device. The Elder Dragons grow stronger every day, and thus Tyria becomes ever more chaotic and dangerous. Taimi’s device could be the answer that saves the world.
New Legendary Torch: Flames of War
A new legendary weapon is now available. Speak with Grandmaster Craftsman Hobbs in Lion’s Arch to learn how to craft the new torch precursor, Liturgy, and forge the new legendary torch, Flames of War.
Raids

• Legendary armor is now available in the game. Complete the final step in the collection to receive the Refined Envoy set. Combine that armor with the recipe components in the Mystic Forge to produce the most sought-after armor in the Guild Wars® world.
• Rune Swapping: A key functional attraction of legendary armor is the ability to swap the stats of the item on the fly. Since runes and infusions are as impactful a choice as the stats on the armor, we have altered the behavior of these items to allow players to swap runes and infusions from legendary armor at will. Ascended armor will not be affected by this change.

Items

• Blood Rubies, Jade Shards, Petrified Wood, and Winterberries have been added to material storage.

Structured Player vs. Player

• Added the Draconis Mons Reward Track.

World vs. World
General

• Added the Draconis Mons Reward Track.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions

• The new Kasmeer’s Regal Outfit is available in the Style category of the Gem Store for 700 gems.
• The new Vine-Touched Destroyer Glider Combo is available in the Style category of the Gem Store for 700 gems.
• Kasmeer’s Staff has returned for a limited time, found in the Style category of the Gem Store for 600 gems.
• The Metallurgic Dye Kit has returned for a limited time, found in the Special category of the Gem Store for 125 gems.
• The Cosmic Harvesting Tool, Cosmic Mining Tool, and the Cosmic Logging Tool have all returned and are available in the Upgrades category of the Gem Store for 1,000 gems each.

We have disabled content involving Rurik’s Engagement Ring until an exploit related to that item has been addressed.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a server crash.
• Removed loot from the Ancient Jotun to prevent an exploit.
• The Mushroom Fertilizer bundle item will expire after one minute to avoid spam.
• Achievements can now be gained by all players in Episode 3 instances.
• Achievements in Episode 3 instances now have helpful tracking effects.

Bug Fix:

• Fixed a server crash.

11/21/16 – Late Notes
General

• Fixed a bug that could cause the Svanir Disguise to occasionally end prematurely.
• Fixed a minor art bug on the world map.

Structured Player vs. Player
Bug Fix

• Skyhammer: The platforms around points A and C have been adjusted to resolve camera issues.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions

• Braham’s Wolfblood Outfit is now available in the Style category for 700 gems.

Hello,

We received a couple of tickets from Guild Wars 2 account holders asking about a survey e-mail they received. It’s great that they checked with us, and we admire their attention to security!

Yes, ArenaNet is conducting a survey this week. We’ve partnered with C+R Research, and they are e-mailing the survey on our behalf to a modest number of players. Because the number if small, the chances are that you will not receive the e-mail with the survey. However, we wanted to post about it in case you did or do receive such a mail, so you would know it’s a legitimate process.

One note: As always, we recommend (and in fact the e-mail suggests) that you copy and paste a URL into your browser, rather than clicking an embedded link in an e-mail. Sometimes fraudulent people and organizations display a “link” but in fact what you see is not where you go. By copying and pasting, you know exactly where you are heading on the ’Net.

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.