Guild Wars 2

LIVING WORLD
Magister Ela Makkay of the Durmand Priory has been busy chronicling Scarlet’s War (known outside of Tyria as Living World Season 1). She’d like to share her research with you when you’re ready. Simply activate “Season 1 History Lesson,” located under Scarlet’s War in your Story Journal, to learn more. (Note: You must use a level 80 character to access this recap.)
NEW FEATURES AND CONTENT

• We’ve added new graphics options for players with higher-end machines.
  • Tune the look of your scene with ambient occlusion or light adaptation.
  • Choose between two extra antialiasing options: SMAA Low and SMAA High.

BALANCE, BUG-FIXING, POLISH
World Polish

• Lion’s Arch
  • Added a dungeon vendor marker.
  • Added repair-station markers.
  • Fixed the marker for Fractals of the Mists.

General

• Changed the color of squad chat to blue-green to make it more distinct from GM whisper.
• Fixed an issue in which equipping the Monk’s Outfit caused characters’ legs to disappear.
• Fixed a bug in which achievement points and titles for Hall of Monuments were incorrectly given to some players. The points and titles have been removed. Any achievement chests that were received as a result of this bug were kept intact but will not be given out a second time.
• Fixed a bug in which a cryptobotanist gave too many bandit crests in exchange for a Mordrem heart.

Personal Story

• Fixed a bug in the Story Journal that activated the most recently unlocked Living World episode upon Personal Story completion. The system will now check for the next available episode in release order. If that episode is already unlocked but not completed, it will be activated. If it is not unlocked, the user must manually select the desired Living World episode.
• The Living World Season 1 recap video has English voice-over only. VO and subtitles for additional supported languages will be implemented in a future release.

Items

• Sigil of Doom: Updated this sigil to apply poison for 4, 6, and 8 seconds, based on the item tier.

Profession Skills
Elementalist

• Ferocious Winds: Fixed an issue that caused this trait to contribute toughness to ferocity instead of precision as intended.
• Fresh Air: The internal cooldown for this trait has been correctly removed.

Engineer

• Hip Shot: Increased the range to 1200.
• Net Shot: Increased the range to 1200.
• Blunderbuss: Increased the range to 700.
• Overcharged Shot: Increased the range to 600.
• Jump Shot: Increased the range to 800.
• Over Shield: Fixed a bug that prevented this trait from properly reducing the recharge of the Static Shield skill.
• Mortar Kit—Flash Shell: Fixed an issue that caused this skill to pulse every 2 seconds instead of every second.
• Bomb Kit—Smoke Bomb: Fixed an issue that caused this skill to detonate at the player location rather than the bomb location.

Guardian

• Sword of Justice: Removed the unnecessary skill fact when Expeditious Spirit is equipped.
• Invigorated Bulwark: Fixed an issue that caused this ability to apply for 8 seconds instead of the full 10 seconds.
• Wrath of Justice: This skill no longer incorrectly sets Signet of Wrath on cooldown.
• Judge’s Intervention: Fixed a bug that caused this skill’s recharge to be reduced by Smiter’s Boon.
• Justice is Blind: This trait no longer penetrates through defenses such as block and evasion.

Mesmer

• Mender’s Purity: Fixed a bug that prevented this trait from working with the last charge of Mantra of Recovery.
• Imagined Burden: This trait now grants might only while you are in combat.
• Malicious Sorcery: Fixed a bug that prevented this trait from properly applying its increased attack-speed effect.
• Blinding Dissipation: This trait no longer penetrates through defenses such as block and evasion.
• Confounding Suggestions: Fixed a bug that caused this trait to function improperly with some runes and sigils.
• Ineptitude: This trait no longer penetrates through defenses such as block and evasion.
• Mirror Blade: Reduced number of bounces from 4 to 3.
• Mantras: Fixed a bug that caused mantras to begin recharging as soon as the preparation skill was complete instead of when the last charge was expended.
• Mantra of Distraction: Reduced this skill’s recharge from 30 seconds to 20 seconds.
• Harmonious Mantras: Reduced the damage bonus per stack of this trait from 4% to 3%.

Necromancer

• Signet of Vampirism: Fixed a bug that caused this skill to heal for more than its listed value.
• Chilling Darkness: This trait now activates on all targets that are blinded by a single area-of-effect blinding strike before it goes on cooldown.
• Spinal Shivers: Removed an incorrect unblockable skill fact from this skill. While this skill does remove aegis before striking, it is not unblockable.
• Unholy Martyr: Reduced life-force generation from 10% to 7% when transferring a condition.
• Corruptions: Self-applied, nondamaging conditions from these skills no longer have their durations increased by condition duration stats.

Ranger

• Pets: Increased the power, precision, toughness, and vitality of pets by up to 150 at level 80.
• Crippling Talon: Increased the range to 1200.
• Throw Torch: Increased the range to 1200.
• Bonfire: Increased the radius to 240.
• Hunter’s Call: Increased the range to 1200.
• Call of the Wild: Increased the radius to 750.
• Whirling Defense: Increased the reflection radius to 150.
• Path of Scars: Increased the base range to 1200.
• Nature’s Vengeance: Fixed an issue that caused spirit effects to list a 70% chance on hit when using this trait.
• Light on Your Feet: Fixed an issue in which this trait granted 3 seconds of the effect instead of 4 seconds.
• “We Heal as One!”: Fixed an issue that prevented this skill from displaying the bonuses from the Resounding Timbre trait (the bonuses were still being properly applied).
• “Strength of the Pack!”: Fixed an issue that prevented this skill from displaying the bonuses from the Resounding Timbre trait (the bonuses were still being properly applied).
• Natural Healing: Fixed an issue that prevented this trait from affecting pets as frequently as it should have.
• Go for the Eyes: Fixed an issue that prevented this trait from activating while in a downed state.
• Wilting Strike: Fixed an issue that prevented this trait from activating while in a downed state.
• Beastly Warden: Fixed an issue that prevented this trait from activating while in a downed state.

Thief

• Unrelenting Strikes: Fixed an issue that prevented this trait from functioning correctly with missile attacks.
• Deadly Trapper: Increased the duration of might granted from this trait from 8 seconds to 10 seconds. Vulnerability now correctly applies for 10 seconds.
• Ambush: This trap now correctly applies might to the thief when triggered while Deadly Trapper is equipped.
• Shadow Trap—Shadow Pursuit: Fixed an issue that prevented this ability from recognizing the Deadly Trapper trait when applying might.
• No Quarter: This trait now applies ferocity bonuses to all instances of fury applied to the thief instead of all instances of fury that the thief applies (which included ferocity applied to allies).
• Feline Grace: Increased the duration of vigor from 2 seconds to 4 seconds.

Warrior

• Blademaster: Fixed a bug that prevented this trait from reducing the recharge of Riposte.
• Signet of Might: Added a description for the unblockable effect caused by this skill.
• Berserker’s Power: Fixed a bug that prevented this trait from functioning when used with the longbow burst skill Combustive Shot.
• Rampage: Lowered the duration from 20 seconds to 15 seconds. Increased the recharge from 150 seconds to 180 seconds.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions
Dreamthistle weapons have returned to Black Lion Weapons Specialists for three Black Lion Claim Tickets per skin. Black Lion Claim Tickets and Black Lion Claim Ticket Scraps can be found in Black Lion Chests.

A number of players who participated in our recent Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns closed beta stress test will notice when they next log in to the game that they have received in-game mails with items from the Guild Wars 2 “Heroic Edition.” This is due to the fact that the edition of the game (also known as the SKU) originally purchased by these players was discontinued. When we removed beta access from these accounts, rather than reinstate a SKU we no longer offer, the most viable option was to upgrade their game SKU to a “Heroic Edition.”

To these players, thanks again for participating in our closed beta test, and enjoy your “Heroic Edition” items.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed multiple bugs that caused several events in the Iron Marches to stall.
• Fixed an occasional client crash.
• Fixed a bug that could cause the game client to crash upon opening the guild panel.
• NPCs should no longer appear as representing a guild.
• Fixed a server crash.

Bug fixes

• Rocket Turret: This turret is no longer created with its overcharged shot as the default attack when traited with Rifled Turret Barrels and Deployable Turrets.
• Fixed a bug that caused Mesmer clones to receive rune bonuses from their master.
• Power Block: Fixed an issue that caused this trait to set skills with zero recharge on 10 second recharge; namely auto-attacks from creatures and players, as well as thief initiative abilities. This trait will no longer trigger through stun immunity effects such as Stability and Defiance.
• Fixed an issue where the Legendary Drake’s fire attack in Angvar’s Trove did not function properly.

Megaservers

• Added a chat option – enabled by default – that shows only the messages coming from players sharing your client’s text language.
  • This option is only applied in to the /map and /say channels, as well as the /team channel in the Edge of the Mists. Other channels are not affected.
  • Messages from players in your friend list are never hidden.
  • Messages from players from the same World as yours are never hidden.
  • Messages from players currently in your party are never hidden.
  • Messages from players representing the same guild as you do are never hidden.
  • Reminder: if you encounter players using abusive or rude language in chat, please report them by right-clicking their name in the chat window and selecting ‘Report.’
  • Blocking a player still functions the same way.

Ha, I took the same screenshot with my character as well.

Hi everyone,

During the last few weeks, there have been a lot of discussions about YouTube and the hot topic lately has been policies about posting to YouTube video content that contains videogame assets. This situation is continuing to develop and we’ll be monitoring YouTube changes, but we’d like to provide some clarification on the matter of our policies.

To use assets (e.g., screenshots, footage) from our games, any content creator needs to comply with the Guild Wars 2 Terms of Use that are detailed here: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/legal/guild-wars-2-content-terms-of-use/. These rules are pretty explicit and haven’t changed since we put them together. They define what content ArenaNet considers out of line. Content creators are not permitted to use our assets to create a commercial product and use of our assets for non-commercial purposes is permitted. Monetizing a fan-created Guild Wars 2 video on YouTube via its partner program is generally not against these Content Terms of Use, just as serving advertising (Google Ads, for instance) on a fansite is not against the Content Terms of Use.

We actually support people sharing their experiences with our game, such as Let’s Play, guides, reviews, or other types of fan videos on YouTube. We generally do not take any action against YouTube videos using our game assets. We will investigate what’s happening with the PlayNC claims. You can contact us at community@arena.net if you have further questions. We’re also going to start reviewing our policies to make sure they’re clear on where we stand regarding content creation. Keep in mind that this will take quite some time since it involves legal reviews.

Thanks a lot for supporting the Guild Wars 2 community by creating awesome content to show your experiences with the game!

Hey, everyone. We’ve been reading all your feedback about the Flamekissed Armor Skin that was released into the Gem Store yesterday.

Although the Flamekissed Armor uses the same mesh as the Tier 3 Human Cultural Armor, it was not our intention to create an armor skin that so closely matched the existing Tier 3 Human Cultural armor set. The intention was to use the mesh as a basis for creating an armor set that stands apart and is distinct in appearance. However, after reading your feedback, we agree that the Flamekissed armor is not visually distinct enough from Human Cultural Tier 3 armor.

We will do a few things to address this issue.

• We will temporarily remove Flamekissed Armor Skin from the Gem Store.
• Players who have purchased Flamekissed Armor Skin will keep the skin.
• We will make new art for the Flamekissed Armor Skin that achieves our goal of making a visually distinct and attractive armor set and does not closely resemble the Human Tier 3 Cultural armor.
• Once this new artwork is completed, we will then update the Flamekissed Armor Skin so that all existing sets that players have purchased get the new art. We will also offer the Flamekissed Armor Skin for sale again at that time.
• When we update the Flamekissed Armor Skins with the new artwork, any player that has already purchased the set and who does not like the new, updated look, can get a full refund by contacting Customer Support.

Note that there is no ETA on when this change will happen. We need to work with the Character Art Team to determine when we can have a new armor skin ready, and this could take some time.

Thank you everyone for providing your feedback. We appreciate that you took the time to let us know how you feel about the new armor set.

As Devon mentioned, it won’t be released until it’s ready—and this includes information about it. Features are prone to change during development and that means that time estimates may change during the course of creating, iterating, and testing on that feature. If a time estimate were to be given now, it’s likely it would change—which would disappoint some and prompt others to accuse us of of “lying” or “broken promises.” We know some people are looking forward to this feature and learning more, and you’ll know more about it when we have that info to share.

Hi, everyone. Just wanted to pass on some comments from Angel herself:

Angel McCoy, Narrative Designer

Hi, everybody!
I thought I’d drop in under a flag of sincerity and respond to some of the comments I’m seeing here. You all are so passionate about both Guild Wars and GW2 lore: it does my heart good. Thanks for being so completely awesome and for putting so much of yourselves into your discussions of the lore.

To better frame my comments and because many of you aren’t familiar with me: I’ve been working on GW2 for 5 years and 9 months. Prior to my employment, I was a GW player for several years. I did some freelance at that time for ArenaNet to help write a GW atlas that never actually got published, but it meant that I spent a lot of time learning the world. My point is that I love Tyria every bit as much as you do, and I’ve dedicated almost as much time as many of you have to it.

I completely understand the outrage some of you feel, thinking that I’ve retconned things in a vacuum. I’d like to give you some peace of mind. Prior to my sending it off, the interview you read received a thumbs up from Bobby Stein, Ree Soesbee, Jeff Grubb, and Scott McGough. I do not work in a bubble, and if I’m releasing that much lore, then I’m going to do my best to ensure I’m getting it right. And it definitely feels like I’m sticking my neck out in the effort. No pressure. Hehe.

When you are working in a world that is as huge as Tyria and that has had as many lore creators as Tyria has, it can be difficult to make all the pieces fit perfectly together. And yet, we do the best we can.

————-

So, let me explain where some of these lore decisions came from. They and many others are based on the following needs:

1. The fact that GW2 takes place 250 years in the future after GW.

2. The added complications that come with GW2 being non-human-centric. We’re no longer telling a human story, but a multiracial story, and that means only one of five races have the “gods” as part of their world construct. The lore needs to not only make sense for all races, but actually be relevant to them.

3. We want to evolve the lore, not rewrite it, but not just recycle what was already there either. We want to reveal new layers in the onion and expose secrets that even GW players didn’t know.

————-

When you think of the history of Tyria from a non-human standpoint or, broader still, from a pan-racial standpoint, you begin to realize that not everything the people of Tyria believed 250 years ago is actually the whole truth. Just like I was taught in grade school (not quite 250 years ago—hehe) that Christopher Columbus discovered America and Thanksgiving was all about the Pilgrims having turkey dinner with the Native Americans. Just like that, the people of Tyria may have had only a partial or biased view of historic events. Some Tyrian historians might have gotten it wrong. Others might have recorded things in a manner that suited their agenda. Thus, when you quote a scholar from that era, it’s not unlike quoting pre-Socratic scholars in the real world who believed the Earth was flat. At some point, a Durmand Priory scholar or an asuran researcher questioned whether these historians were right or not. Sometimes they were; sometimes they weren’t. Sometimes, they only knew part of the story. We want to give you more of the story.

There is a stream of truth that runs through all previous GW lore, and that stream is what we hope to tap. We are not going to throw away huge bundles of GW lore. Events happened. What you may find evolving, however, are the explanations for why and what exactly did happen. We will NOT handle the lore with cavalier carelessness, I promise you. On the contrary, we spend a great deal of time studying old lore so we can base our expanded lore on it.

Now, let me give you a few confirmations on some of the things you’ve been saying:

> The Seers created the first Bloodstone to set some magic aside during the last rise of the Elder Dragons. They didn’t want to see it all consumed.

> Magic existed long before the first Bloodstone. It has always been a force in the Eternal Alchemy. It was not created by the humans’ gods, no matter what priest or priestess preaches thakittenwas. How you choose to roleplay your character’s beliefs is entirely up to you.

> Humans (including Canthan humans) were brought to Tyria (from…no spoilers!). They are not native to Tyria and did not come with much magic of their own. From a human perspective and oral tradition (that can get warped over time), they say the gods were giving them magic, but the reality was that the dragons had gone back to sleep, and the gods felt it was safe to begin returning magic stored in the Bloodstone to Tyria. The gods (not only Abaddon) “unsealed” the Bloodstone and magic flowed back into the world. Humans and other sentient races of the time began using it.

> Over the course of hundreds of years, wars broke out. King Doric begged the gods to slow the flow of magic back into Tyria and the gods granted his wish by shattering the Bloodstone into pieces and limiting their use. Abaddon was annoyed by this.

For many of us players, it’s only been a couple years since Abaddon’s tantrum, but for Tyrians, it’s been much longer. The gods have been gone. Generations have lived and died. The world’s understanding and control of magic has grown and improved. The understanding of the cosmos (the Eternal Alchemy) has improved. And yet, there’s still so much the people of Tyria don’t know.

250 years ago in our real world, it was 1763. It would be another 12 years before the American Revolution even started. Compare the scientific/medical knowledge and industrial level of the time with how it is today, and you’ll see just how much progress can be made in 250 years. Of course, Tyria hasn’t advanced as quickly as we have. They don’t have cars or Internet or Post-It™ notes. But, their cultures have evolved. They have a greater understanding of how the world works. And, they have better means of communication and travel across long distances. Thus, we can now write more intricate and bigger stories for them.

I wish I could answer each of your questions and concerns, but the reality is that I need to work on the next GW2 Living World release. We’re cruising at 200mph on these releases (to quote Stephen Clarke-Willson). I hope this explanation of our lore philosophy and where our thinking is will help you when you go back and review the pieces of your discussion. Thank you again for your passion! Know that we do pay attention, even if we can’t always take the time to respond to forum discussions like this.

I know that what happens in the Mystic Forge is all mysterious and such, but this is not where babies come from. :-P

Everyone can now see where they rank relative to other players. Login to the leaderboards web site and you will see your percentile ranking as the top line of the leaderboard!

https://leaderboards.guildwars2.com/en/

• Fixed a bug which prevented players from queuing for WvW.
• Fixed a bug with dye improperly displaying on the Order of Whispers medium armor.
• We’ve limited rares in mega boss chests to require the player be level 40+ to receive them. This is to keep acquiring rares consistent throughout the game; this will also help close up an exploit with newly created characters. This was accidently left out of the original update notes.

Glad to see that some of our forum community members are planning on going. It’s only a few more days away!

People in this thread seemed to be taking the terminology used in the game way too literally, so I talked to our lore masters, and here is what they had to say:

ArenaNet Lore Team

Sylvari don’t breed like humans do, so they can’t inbreed like humans do. When they call the Pale Tree “Mother” it’s more like Mother Earth—we are all “children” of this godlike concept, but calling them such does not make us all related by blood.

“Incest” is a very mammalian taboo and one that doesn’t apply to sylvari. Because sylvari don’t reproduce in the same hierarchical manner as mammals, they don’t have to worry about reducing a gene pool to dangerous levels. They don’t have brothers or sisters like humans do, nor do they have true parents. They are brothers and sisters in the same way we are all brothers and sisters within the human race, whether of the same parents or not. The Pale Tree calls the sylvari her “children” because they are born through her, but you can’t compare humans with sylvari in that way and extrapolate that all sylvari are siblings.

So there you go.

Hello, I’m here to crush your dreams.

There will be no mounts coming with the Flame and Frost story arc.

Also, to address further speculation we’ve seen about the concept art for Flame and Frost (and what it may portend): there will be no Cantha and no dragons coming with the Flame and Frost story arc, either.

Thank you.

The large number of suggestions in different sub-forums is impacting discussion in those different sub-forums. As such, we’ve decided to open up the Suggestions sub-forum.

Please note that you should not expect a personalized, individual response to your suggestions, due to the massive volume of posts that the Suggestions sub-forum will generate.

Please also note that the Suggestions sub-forum will not be open permanently. This is a temporary solution until we roll out a better, more organized way to provide suggestions to the development team than using the forums.

Thank you for your understanding.