Guild Wars 2

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a bug in which accounts without Heart of Thorns™ were unable to access the daily Super Adventure Box achievements.
• Fixed a bug that caused the “Find and slay the treasure mushroom!” event to fail, even when in combat with players.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a bug that prevented the challenge mote in Hearts and Minds from working correctly.
• Corrected a few minor text issues.

03/28/2017 – March 28th Release Notes
Super Adventure Festival Begins March 30

• Moto’s famous Super Adventure Box opens again with the Super Adventure Festival!
  • Play World 1 and World 2 on Normal, Infantile, or Tribulation Modes.
  • Earn holographic weapon skins from the new Crimson Assassin set by completing festival daily achievements.
  • Seek out hidden furniture shops and collect Fancy Furniture Coins to purchase new decorations for your guild.
• Festivities will begin on March 30 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC -7) and are scheduled to end April 20 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC -7).

Live Test Event: Basket Brawl

• Basket Brawl is returning to Lion’s Arch for a limited engagement to test new Activity features.
• Matches ending will no longer trigger a map load and will reset the current map.
• Work has been done to show preference for parties and guilds when finding a match.
• The ball carrier now has overhead and map markers.

General

• Updated the rapid water in Super Adventure Box World 2 to smoothly push the player downstream rather than repeatedly knocking them around.
• Updated the dart traps in Super Adventure Box World 2 to deal damage and knock back players rather than instantly killing them.
  • Dart traps in Tribulation Mode still deal fatal damage.
  • Some dart traps have been disabled in all difficulty modes.
• The Havoc’s Heir has been retrofitted with new Silent Steam technology, allowing Captain’s Airship Pass holders to visit in peace and quiet.

Fractals
Mistlock Instability Fixes

• Fixed an issue in which the Jade Maw Tentacles would sometimes not despawn for the Mist Convergence instability.
• Last Laugh will no longer knock back pets and will apply reduced damage to them.

Progress Bug Fixes

• Solid Ocean Fractal: Fixed issues in which progress was sometimes blocked.
• Volcanic Fractal: Fixed an issue that could cause a stall if players succeeded at the first event too quickly.

Miscellaneous Fixes

• Breaking an Assault Knight during its Explosive Impact skill will no longer fail to stun it in Nightmare challenge mode.
• Breaking Captain Ashym in the Urban Battleground Fractal will now cancel his Meteor Shower ability.
• Certain missiles, such as the guardian’s Deflecting Shot, will no longer fall through the floor on the final Thaumanova platforms.
• The exit button may now be used before completing the event at the second console in the Thaumanova repulsor lab.
• The cultists in the Cliffside Fractal will now emote at the closest player instead of the same player every time.
• Added a Volcanic checkpoint and slightly moved an existing one.

Miscellaneous Quality-of-Life Improvements

• Four Ascended Salvage Kits (5) can now be combined in the Mystic Forge for an Ascended Salvage Kit (20).
• Moved the third Chaos Mistlock Singularity to a more convenient location.
• Cliffside Fractal: Chains will no longer transform players and kill their minions.
• Uncategorized Fractal: Falling on the final jumping puzzle will now teleport you to the end as long as one player has reached the end.

Raids
Salvation Pass

• Fixed an issue in which bloodstone shards were consumed by invulnerable targets standing in Matthias’s hit box.

Hearts and Minds

• “Extreme Mode” has been renamed “Challenge Mode” for consistency with fractal and raid content.
• Removed the sylvari-player intro scene of the Mordremoth encounter on challenge mode.
• Moved the checkpoint locations on all platforms as far to the edge as possible to prevent the exit-instance dialogue from interfering with combat.
• Replaced all instances of an iconless invulnerability enhancement with Determined, in order to improve messaging.
• Added an adrenal mushroom to each penalty box.
• Channeling Reality Rifts will no longer cancel on damage taken.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug in which the NPCs in the initial tunnel did not consistently follow the instance owner.
• Fixed a bug in which Trahearne always had a “Greet” interact prompt.
• Fixed a bug in the Blighted Eir encounter that prevented her from becoming stunned if she was using an ability when she was defeated.
• Fixed a bug in which no icon appeared for the Exposed condition caused by breaking Blighted Eir, Blighted Garm, or Mordremoth.
• Fixed a bug in which Blighted Canach did not gain the Exposed condition when breaking his defiance bar.
• Fixed a bug in which the Exposed condition did not increase condition damage taken.
• Fixed a bug in which Mordremoth might not use skills.
• Fixed a bug in which the updrafts on the Mordremoth encounter would not consistently launch players into the air.
• Fixed a bug that allowed players in groups to restart the Mordremoth encounter with the enhancements they gained on previous attempts.
• Fixed a bug in which allied NPCs would not engage Mordremoth before directly taking an attack from him.
• Fixed several bugs that caused Reality Rifts to fail at converting Blighted Mordremoth minions.
• Fixed a bug that caused the third Blighted Mordremoth minion to become friendly if spawned right before the “Take to the skies” phase.
• Fixed a bug that caused the final Reality Rift to close without breaking Mordremoth, stalling the encounter.
• Fixed several bugs that caused encounters to enter broken states due to condition damage.
• Fixed several bugs in challenge mode that caused bosses to target player pets and minions with abilities.
• Fixed a bug in challenge mode that caused defiance bars to scale in addition to having base values designed for five players.

Encounter Balance

• Reduced Blighted Eir’s health by 25% on challenge mode.
• Reduced the amount of crowd-control effects required to break Blighted Garm’s defiance bar on challenge mode.
• Player pets and minions will no longer take damage from the persistent effects of Charged Shot or Endless Barrage in the Blighted Eir encounter.
• Player pets and minions will no longer take damage from Draining Bramble or the ring attacks in the Blighted Pale Tree encounter.
• Players picking up Canach’s shield will now gain access to his reflect bubble skill rather than the manually timed reflect ability that was previously on the bundle.
• Blighted Canach’s standard grenades will no longer apply extra bleeding stacks if multiple grenades hit the same player.
• Blighted Canach’s melee combo will now only knock back on challenge mode.
• Removed Mordremoth’s permanent immunity to applications of life stealing, chill, and cripple.
• Mordremoth will now gain Determined when he summons a Blighted minion until they are defeated.
• Blighted minions will now remove their unique enhancements from themselves and Mordremoth when they become vulnerable to Reality Rifts.
• Increased the cooldown on Mordremoth’s Ley Fire ranged attack from 2 seconds to 4 seconds.
• Standing in the ally shield during the “Take to the skies” phase will now make players invulnerable on normal mode. On challenge mode, the shield will provide no safety. Standing in the shield will remove qualification for Flights of Fancy as the achievement text indicates on normal mode only, as it provides no benefit on challenge mode.
• Mordremoth now takes massively reduced damage during the “Take to the skies” phase.
• Mordremoth’s Ley Storm ability will no longer deal damage to player pets and minions.
• Added a locked defiance bar to Blighted minions on challenge mode, making them immune to crowd-control effects.

Items
Weaponsmiths and artificers can now craft:

• Cured Thick Leather Squares
• Spools of Thick Elonian Cord
• Thin Leather Sections
• Cured Coarse Leather Squares
• Cured Rugged Leather Squares

Tailors and leatherworkers can now craft:

• Lumps of Mithrillium
• Iron Ingots
• Steel Ingots
• Darksteel Ingots
• Mithril Ingots

Profession Skills
Engineer

• Glass Cannon: Fixed a skill-fact bug that used base character health instead of the engineer’s maximum health.

Thief

• Traps: All traps created by the thief will have a 1-second arm time before the trap can affect enemies.
  • Needle Trap: This skill now delivers a strike.
  • Tripwire: This skill now delivers a strike.

Structured Player vs. Player
Matchmaking

• Matchmaking now expands profession count scoring penalties over time instead of being a fixed amount.
• The number of desired professions per team before penalties are applied begins at 1 and will rise to 2 after two minutes.
• Matches can now be restricted to never allow more than the desired number of professions, but this feature is subject to change as we review matchmaking quality.

Battle of Kyhlo

• The Clock Tower has received some art updates.
  World vs. World
  General
• Players who do not own Heart of Thorns™ may now buy Notarized Scrolls of Heroics.
• Studded, Marauder, and Scale armor have been added to the Legacy Armor Reward Track for PvP and WvW.

Desert

• Jump pads inside the Earth/North Keep will now function even if you own no shrines.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions

• The new Spring Promenade Outfit is available in the Style category of the Gem Store for 700 gems.
• For a limited time, a new set of Beastslayer weapon skins is available from Black Lion Weapons Specialists for 1 Black Lion Claim Ticket. Black Lion Chest Keys are available in the Special category of the Gem Store for 125 gems each.
• This is the last week of March Madness sales with a new one-day sale each day! The Bank Tab Expansion is available today in the Upgrades category of the Gem Store for 480 gems—a savings of 20%.

Updates

• The Black Lion Chest has been updated to the Spring Synergy Chest and can be previewed for a full list of its contents.
  • The Dab of Destabilized Ectoplasm has been added as the new guaranteed seasonal item.
  • The Elemental Sword is available as an uncommon drop for the duration of this seasonal change.
• Tarrktun has heard of the Black Lion Trading Company’s promotion and dispatched another apprentice to Lion’s Arch for more globby shinies.

Bug Fixes

• Added subtle wing-flap audio to the Raven’s Spirit Glider.

Bug Fix:

• Fixed a bug that caused a crash when attempting to deploy siege disabler after deleting the item from inventory.

03/07/2017 – Late Note

Necromancer
Epidemic—WvW Only: This ability no longer has an effect on structures or targets with resistance. Updated the description to indicate this WvW-only functionality.

03/07/2017 – March 7th Release Notes
BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions

• The new Raven’s Spirit Glider is available in the Style category of the Gem Store for 500 gems.
• The Storm Bow is available for a limited time in the Style category of the Gem Store for 600 gems.
• The Harbinger of Mordremoth Outfit is available for a limited time in the Style category of the Gem Store for 700 gems.
• The Mini Chieftain Utahein and Mini Svanir container is available for a limited time in the Toys category of the Gem Store for 700 gems.
• March Madness sales continue with a new one-day sale each day! The Verdant Executor Outfit is available today in the Style category of the Gem Store for 560 gems—a savings of 20%.

Bug Fixes

• An issue in which a small number of hairstyles displayed incorrect accessory colors in the Total Makeover Kit preview window has been fixed.

Bug Fix:

• Fixed a bug in which the Looking for Group tool would not display all postings.

Bug Fixes:

• Continuum Split: Fixed a bug that caused Continuum Rift to not be properly destroyed when using Continuum Shift.
• Revenant:
  • Project Tranquility: Fixed a bug that would allow multiple tablets to be created at the same time.
• Fixed a bug that could allow players to unlock two Caladbolg skins at once during the final step of the journey.
• The names of the recipes for Grandmaster Huntsman’s Marks and Grandmaster Leatherworker’s Marks have been fixed.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a server crash.
• PvP League Vendor prices have been fixed.
• Guardian:
  • Virtue of Courage: Updated this ability to use the appropriate 45-second cooldown in PvP.
• Thief:
  • Vault: Reduced the minimum height that the character achieves when vaulting down terrain, which should reduce the occurrence of midair impacts. Removed this ability’s interaction with quickness.
• Elementalist:
  • Meteor Shower: Updated the internal cooldown to compensate for quickness. The cooldown for non-player targets will now apply for 0.33 seconds if the player is affected by quickness.
• Fixed an issue that could cause allied AoE effects to appear as enemy AoE effects in WvW and PvP.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed an issue that prevented Mist Band rings from being attuned using the Mystic Forge.
• Fixed an issue that prevented parties from joining rated PvP arenas.
• Fixed a client crash.
• Fixed a server crash.

02/22/2017 – Late Notes
General

• Access to Albert the Butler’s stash in Lake Doric will no longer be revoked when players replay the Head of the Snake storyline.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Mystic Forge recipe for stat-swapping Ascended Medium Boots to the Seraph prefix to instead return Laranthir’s Striders.
• Decorations sold by Albert the Butler in Lake Doric now must be taken to the guild decoration trader in a guild hall to obtain the decoration for that guild.
• Added a merchant to the Lakeside Bazaar.
• Fixed a bug in which all the Seraph Morale effect text would disappear.
• Updated the model for jade fragment nodes in the home instance.

Raids
General

• Added confirmation windows to the Exchanges tab on all raid vendors.
• Fixed a bug that prevented magnetite shards from being awarded when salvaging some infused and attuned raid reward rings.

Stronghold of the Faithful

• Players can now safely enter the Keep Construct’s room before it will engage players in combat.
• The doors to the Keep Construct room will now shut when the event begins instead of on a delay.

Bastion of the Penitent

• Fixed a bug that allowed Samarog to cast Inevitable Betrayal on too many targets at once.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes allowed players to be resurrectable during the Cairn the Indomitable encounter.
• Fixed an issue that allowed players to remain alive outside of encounters.
• Updated the icon of the portable magnetite shard vendor.
• Fixed an issue that was killing players a second time if they revived at the checkpoint quickly in the Shackled Prisoner encounter.
• To address community concerns over issues with the Challenge Motes, a new title is available for recompleting all the Challenge Motes.

Professions
General

• Added a delay between failed uses of ranged-attack skills on targets behind the player when holding down the attack key.

Mesmer:

• Continuum Split: This ability will now have the correct cooldown when expiring naturally.

Please ask your questions to the skills team in this thread: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Official-Skill-Balance-Thread-22-February-Update/

02/22/2017 – February 22nd Release Notes
Profession Skills
General:
A note on target-cap increases: In this balance update, we’re increasing the target cap for a select number of skills and traits. When doing this, we must consider a variety of aspects, from game health to server performance. These changes are intended for the specific purpose of improving large-group compositions and to improve their general support capability. We’ll continue to monitor these changes as time goes on and will make changes as necessary. However, we will not be looking to increase our five-target-maximum standard for player skills and will seldom (if ever) increase existing skill/trait caps.
For the first time in a very long time, we’re changing what a specific combo finisher does. In the past, we made side steps from retaliation to a light aura that gives retaliation. In this update, we’ll be changing the blast finisher for light fields to directly remove conditions from nearby allies. The team will be analyzing the effects of this in each game type and will be following up with it if necessary.

• Rune of Lyssa: This rune will no longer trigger when the player has no conditions on them. This item will now use the standard “condition to boon” conversion table.
• Rune of the Krait: Fixed a bug in which the sixth effect of this rune would not properly apply torment to targets.
• Light Field: Blasting a light field will now cleanse a condition from allies in a radius of 360. This previously granted retaliation.
• Confusion: Fixed a bug in which the player could take a massive amount of damage if holding a ranged autoattack down while their target is behind them.

Elementalist
In this update, we’ve reduced quite a few recharges for many weapon and utility skills that felt too high in light of previous reductions to cooldown traits. With that said, we’re also looking to reduce the elementalist’s damage in high-level content, as this profession’s damage and utility mix currently crowds out other potential high-damage dealers.

• Arc Lightning: This skill has been unsplit from PvP and will now deal the higher damage values (25%) in all areas of the game.
• Ride the Lightning: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 40 seconds to 30 seconds.
• Frost Aura: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 40 seconds to 30 seconds.
• Cleansing Wave: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 40 seconds to 30 seconds. The number of conditions cleansed has been increased from 1 to 2.
• Earthquake: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 40 seconds to 30 seconds. Fixed a bug that caused the blast finisher to occur around the elementalist’s selected target rather than around their current position.
• Frozen Ground: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 40 seconds to 30 seconds.
• Healing Rain: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 45 seconds to 40 seconds.
• Static Field: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 40 seconds to 30 seconds in PvP only.
• Meteor Shower: This skill now has a 0.5-second cooldown when hitting nonplayer targets.
• Armor of Earth: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 75 seconds to 50 seconds.
• Mist Form: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 75 seconds to 60 seconds.
• Ether Renewal: The healing of this skill has been increased by 6% per pulse.
• Arcane Brilliance: The radius of this skill has been increased from 240 to 360.
• Overload Air: The damage of this skill has been reduced by 7% in PvE only.
• Glyph of Elemental Harmony: This skill has been unsplit from PvP, and the cooldown of this skill has been reduced from 25 seconds to 20 seconds game-wide.
• Arcane Shield: This skill has been unsplit from PvP and will now use the lower recharge (40 seconds) in all areas of the game.

Engineer
The goal for engineers in this update is to improve trait synergy, weapon usefulness, and kit purity of purpose. Both power and condition builds will be affected in this round of changes, with a focus on PvE group viability. Notable to this, the trait Pinpoint Distribution now grants a unique condition-damage bonus to allies around the engineer. The Flamethrower utility kit is now focused on burning and keeping that condition on your enemies.

• Blunderbuss: This skill has been unsplit from PvP and will now deal the higher (10%) damage values in all areas of the game. Increased bleeding stacks from 1 – 4 to 2 – 5, based on range. Increased bleeding duration from 4 seconds to 5 seconds.
• Fragmentation Shot: Bleeding duration has been increased from 3 seconds to 4 seconds.
• Blowtorch: The number of burning applications that this skill applies has been increased from 1/2/3 to 2/3/4.
• Elixir U: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 45 seconds to 40 seconds.
• Toss Elixir U: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 50 seconds to 40 seconds.
• Super Elixir: Fixed a bug where this skill would display the wrong healing values underwater.
• Shredder Gyro Self-Destruct: Increased damage to match other gyros.
• Shredder Gyro: Increased damage by roughly 50%.
• Glue Bomb: Immobilize duration of this skill has been increased from 1 second to 2 seconds.
• Big Ol’ Bomb: This skill is now affected by Short Fuse. The visual size of this bomb has been increased by 33%.
• Short Fuse: Updated the Fuse Time to correctly display the fuse time reduction of 0.5 seconds. This trait now affects Big Ol’ Bomb.
• Glass Cannon: The threshold for damage increase has been reduced from 90% to 75%.
• Shaped Charge: The damage of this skill has been increased from 7% to 10%.
• Static Discharge: The damage dealt by this trait has been increased by 20%.
• Shrapnel: The chance for this trait to activate has been increased from 15% to 33%. Reduced cripple duration from 2 seconds to 1 second. Reduced bleed duration from 12 seconds to 6 seconds. Fixed issues with this trait that caused it to activate at lower-than-expected rates for some skills. Updated the description to specify that this trait only activates on hit.
• Explosion: Skills that count as explosions for the traits Steel-Packed Powder, Explosive Powder, and Shrapnel are now marked with a skill fact. Scrapper gyro detonations are now considered explosions. Skills that do not hit the enemy, such as Smoke Bomb and Magnetic Bomb, are no longer considered explosions for combat clarity reasons.
• Pinpoint Distribution: This trait no longer grants condition damage based on precision. This trait will now instead grant up to 150 condition damage to nearby allies.
• Flame Jet: The duration of burning inflicted on the final hit of this skill has been increased from 2 seconds to 4 seconds.
• Flame Blast: Reduced the base damage of this skill by 66%. This skill now inflicts burning for 3 seconds.
• Detonate Flame Blast: Reduced the base damage of this skill by 57%. This skill now inflicts 2 stacks of burning for 3 seconds.

Guardian
Improvements to underused base skills have been the general focus for the guardian in this patch, but we are also giving the dragonhunter specialization a little bit more counterplay in PvP scenarios. We’ve unsplit a few of the changes introduced this winter, taking either the more powerful option or compensating to a more powerful level than is available in most game modes.

• Virtue of Resolve: This skill has been unsplit from PvP and will now use a 30-second cooldown.
• Virtue of Courage: This skill has been unsplit from PvP and will now use a 45-second baseline cooldown_._
• Signet of Courage: This skill has been unsplit from PvP and will now use a 120-second cooldown.
• Spear of Justice: The casting time of this skill has been increased from 0.25 seconds to slightly under 0.75 seconds.
• Deflecting Shot: The missile hitbox has been improved.
• Whirling Wrath: Reduced recharge from 10 seconds to 8 seconds. Increased damage by 20%. Projectile damage is now listed separately from melee damage.
• Leap of Faith: Reduced recharge from 15 seconds to 12 seconds.
• Symbol of Wrath: Increased damage by 22%.
• Binding Blade: Reduced recharge from 30 seconds to 25 seconds.
• Purification: The trap heal on this skill has been reduced by approximately 16% in PvP only.
• Litany of Wrath: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 30 seconds to 25 seconds.
• “Receive the Light!”: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 40 seconds to 30 seconds.
• “Feel My Wrath!”: The quickness duration granted by this skill has been increased from 5 seconds to 8 seconds in PvP only.

Mesmer
The mesmer is receiving a few different additions and reworks. Time Warp is one of the select skills and traits in this update, which is being changed to affect ten targets. Also in this update, we are implementing initial attacks on several phantasm skills, allowing the mesmer to deliver a primary attack in addition to the summon in order to provide a bit more constant pressure on your targets.

• Arcane Thievery: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 35 seconds to 25 seconds in PvP only.
• Null Field: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 32 seconds to 25 seconds.
• Feedback: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 32 seconds to 25 seconds in PvP only.
• Signet of Midnight: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 30 seconds to 25 seconds.
• Phantasmal Defender: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 25 seconds to 20 seconds.
• Time Warp: The interval of quickness and slow that this skill applies has been increased from every 1 second to every 2 seconds. Quickness and slow duration have been increased from 1 second to 2 seconds. This skill now affects up to ten targets. This skill will now apply slow through an unblockable attack rather than directly applying through all defense.
• Portal Exeunt: This skill now has a 1-second recharge after Portal Entre is used.
• Well of Action: Increased the quickness duration from 3 seconds to 4 seconds.
• Chaos Armor: Reduced recharge to 30 seconds. This skill now applies a random condition (confusion, cripple, or weakness) to nearby foes when activated.
• Illusionary Counter: This skill now evades attacks during the counterattack animation.
• Illusionary Riposte: This skill now evades attacks during the counterattack animation.
• Phantasmal Duelist: In addition to its previous effect, this skill now fires a slow-moving homing bullet that cripples its target if it hits.
• Phantasmal Mage: In addition to its previous effect, this skill now burns nearby foes when activated.
• Phantasmal Warlock: In addition to its previous effect, this skill now also fires Winds of Chaos projectiles at up to 3 unique targets within a radius of 600 of the caster.
• Wells: Fixed a bug that caused wells to display their effects incorrectly while under the effects of quickness or slow.
• Gravity Well: Fixed a bug that caused this well to be destroyed prematurely when used with Continuum Shift.

Necromancer
One of the major goals for the necromancer during this update has been to improve the reaper’s greatsword weapon in all game modes, without blowing its power out in the ones where it was already good. In addition, we’ve also been looking to improve a few baseline utility abilities.

• Gravedigger: The aftercast of this skill has been reduced by 0.2 seconds.
• Death Spiral: The damage of this skill has been increased by 20%.
• Nightfall: This skill now converts boons into conditions from enemies it hits.
• Well of Darkness: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 45 seconds to 35 seconds.
• Spectral Wall: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 45 seconds to 40 seconds.
• Spectral Grasp: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 25 seconds to 20 seconds in PvP only.
• Grasping Darkness: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 30 seconds to 25 seconds. Increased damage by 30%.
• Well of Blood: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 35 seconds to 30 seconds.
• Ritual of Life: The well created by this trait has been renamed to the Lesser Well of Blood and will continue to use a 35-second recharge.
• Deathly Chill: Increased bleed stacks to 3 for 5 seconds in PvE only.
• Reaper’s Onslaught: Now grants up to 225 bonus ferocity while in a shroud, based on effective level.
• Life Rend: Increased damage by 17%.
• Life Slash: Increased damage by 17%.
• Life Reap: Increased damage by 12.5%. Increased life-force gain from 1.5% to 2%.
• Death’s Charge: Increased damage by 30%.
• Chilling Scythe: Increased life-force gain from 3% to 5%.
• Wells: Fixed a bug that caused wells to display their effects incorrectly while under the effects of quickness or slow.

Ranger
The ranger will see a variety of changes during this update. Of particular note, we are reducing Grace of the Land’s damage bonus and reworking it so that it’s compatible with all Celestial Avatar abilities and affects ten allies around the druid. We hope this improves the value of a single druid in large-group scenarios. Many pet attacks have had usability and movement enhancements in an effort to improve general damage against moving targets. The greatsword has had a couple of improvements for better damage and pet synergy. Finally, a few underused (and even some meta) utility skills have undergone general quality-of-life improvements.

• Maul: This skill now grants an Attack of Opportunity to the ranger’s pet, causing its next attack to deal 50% more damage.
• Hilt Bash: This skill should now land more consistently when used at max range. This skill no longer grants a damage bonus to pets, but it will now refresh the greatsword’s Maul skill when striking an enemy.
• Throw Torch: The physical damage of this skill has been increased by 33%.
• Sharpening Stone: The number of stacks that this skill applies has been increased from 6 to 10.
• Muddy Terrain: Immobilize duration applied by this skill has been increased from 2 seconds to 3 seconds.
• Soften the Fall: Immobilize duration applied by this trait has been increased from 2 seconds to 3 seconds.
• Lightning Reflexes: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 40 seconds to 30 seconds in PvP only.
• Spike Trap: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 45 seconds to 30 seconds in PvP only.
• Signet of the Wild: Fixed a bug that caused the ranger to be unblockable.
• Sharpened Edges: The chance to bleed a target on critical hit has been reduced from 66% to 33%.
• Grace of the Land: Damage per stack of this trait has been reduced from 3 to 2. The number of targets affected by this trait has been increased from 5 to 10.
• Natural Convergence: This skill will now provide Grace of the Land on every pulse when that trait is equipped.
• Avian Pets: Updated on-land nonbasic attacks so that they more consistently hit enemies and can be executed from farther distances.
• Canine Pets: Updated on-land basic attacks to more reliably hit enemies, with their executable attack range being increased from 130 to 240.
  • Crippling Leap: Increased the attack range of this skill from 130 to 180. Also increased the reliability of this skill by increasing the movement speed and duration. This skill will now be affected by quickness.
  • Brutal Charge: Reduced the warmup casting time by 0.5 seconds. This skill will now be affected by quickness.
• Smokescale: Updated on-land basic attacks to move slightly toward the target when executing attacks on land. Increased the range at which the creature will attack from 130 to 200.
  • Takedown: Updated this attack to have a slight movement toward the target. Reduced aftercast by 0.25 seconds. Increased the range at which the creature will attack from 130 to 240.
• Wyvern Pets: Updated on-land basic attacks to move farther toward the target on each swing. Greatly increased the attack speed of this skill from 3.3 seconds to 2.2 seconds. Increased the range at which the creature will attack from 130 to 200.
  • Tail Lash: Updated this attack to move farther toward the target when executing. Reduced the attack of this skill from 3.6 seconds to 1.2 seconds. Increased the range at which the creature will attack from 130 to 200.
  • Wing Buffet: Reduced the initial casting time of this skill by 0.5 seconds. Increased the attack radius from 240 to 360.
• Drake Pets: Updated on-land basic attacks to move farther toward the target when executing on land.
  • Chomp: Updated this attack to move farther toward the target when executing on land.
  • Tail Swipe: Increased the radius of this attack from 225 to 280. Greatly increased the attack speed of this skill.
• Feline Pets: Updated on-land basic attacks to move farther toward the target when executing on land.
  • Bite: Updated this attack to move farther toward the target on land and have a faster recovery once the skill has been executed.
  • Maul: Updated this attack to move farther toward the target on land and have a faster recovery once the skill has been executed.
• Moa Pets: Updated on-land basic attacks to move farther toward the target when executing on land.
• Pig Pets: Updated on-land basic attacks to move farther toward the target when executing on land. Increased the attack range from 130 to 200.
  • Maul: Updated this attack to move toward the target when used on land. Reduced the start-up and aftercast by around 0.5 seconds each.
  • Brutal Charge: Reduced the start-up of this skill by 0.5 seconds. Reduced the aftercast by 0.5 seconds.
• Bear (Ursine) Pets: Updated on-land basic attacks to move farther toward the target when executing on land.

Revenant
In addition to bug fixes and quality-of-life changes, we’ve been looking to improve the support role for the revenant. Alacrity will now be available through the Salvation specialization line, allowing Ventari’s Tablet to project it at a constant rate. We’re excited to see it in play!

• Searing Fissure: This skill will now more reliably hit enemies on slopes.
• Temporal Rift: This skill will now more reliably hit enemies on slopes.
• Legendary Centaur Stance: Project Tranquility will now instantly activate when invoking this legend. The cost of this skill has been removed.
• Serene Rejuvenation: In addition to its current bonus, this trait will now cause Natural Harmony to apply alacrity to allies for 3 seconds.
• Natural Harmony: The base healing of this skill per level has been reduced by 30%. The healing contribution of this skill has been increased by 180%.
• Forced Engagement: The cost of this skill has been reduced from 35 energy to 25 energy. The recharge for this skill has been increased from 5 seconds to 10 seconds.
• Rite of the Great Dwarf: The cost of this skill has been reduced from 50 energy to 40 energy in PvP only.
• Vengeful Hammers: Increased the base damage of this skill by 100%.
• Ventari’s Will: The cost of this skill has been reduced from 10 energy to 5 energy.
• Purifying Essence: The cost of this skill has been reduced from 30 energy to 25 energy.
• Unyielding Anguish: Increased the base damage of this skill by 20%. The duration of torment inflicted by this skill has been increased from 5 seconds to 6 seconds.
• Burst of Strength: Increased the base damage of this skill by 25% in non-PvP only.

Thief
Quality-of-life improvements and PvP health have been our focus for the thief, mainly for daredevil. As such, we’ll be looking to reduce endurance from a few different areas to target survivability through evasion but also compensate for it a bit with extra utility and condition removals.

• Infiltrator’s Strike: This skill has been unsplit from PvP and will now use a 900 maximum range. Immobilize duration has been increased from 1 second to 1.5 seconds game-wide.
• Vault: The code functionality of this skill has been updated. The user will now more accurately travel to the targeted destination when under high-latency situations, in most scenarios. This skill is now affected by quickness. This skill now requires a line of sight to the target point in order to cast.
• Bound: This trait will no longer trigger the damage and bonus portion if the dodge is canceled or interrupted.
• Signet of Agility: The endurance gain from this skill has been reduced from 100 to 50 in PvP only.
• Signet of Agility: Condition cleansing has been increased from 1 to 3 in all game modes.
• Channeled Vigor: The endurance gain from this skill has been reduced from 25 to 20 per pulse in PvP only.
• Hard to Catch: The internal cooldown on this trait has been increased from 30 seconds to 45 seconds in PvP only.
• Upper Hand: The internal cooldown on this trait has been increased from 2 seconds to 3 seconds in PvP only.
• Body Shot: The duration of immobilize inflicted by this skill has been increased from 1 second to 1.5 seconds in PvP only.
• Cloak and Dagger: The vulnerability inflicted by this skill has been increased from 3 stacks to 5 stacks.
• Assassin’s Signet: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 45 seconds to 40 seconds.
• Needle Trap: The poison inflicted by this skill has been increased from 1 stack to 3 stacks.
• Caltrops: The duration of bleeding inflicted by this skill has been increased from 3 seconds to 5 seconds.
• Tripwire: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 30 seconds to 25 seconds.

Warrior
Warrior’s banners are the final recipient for our target-increase update, with the unique enhancements from each banner increasing to ten. After that, we’ve mostly focused on improving weapon and utility effectiveness, with some significant increases to underutilized areas.

• Deep Strike: This trait has been altered and will now grant condition damage to the warrior whenever they have fury. Condition-damage gain has been increased from 150 to 180.
• Eviscerate: Lowered the aftercast by 0.25 seconds.
• Hamstring: This attack now applies 1 stack of bleeding for 8 seconds in addition to its previous effects.
• Fierce Blow: The base damage dealt by this skill has been increased by 28%.
• Hammer Shock: The base damage dealt by this skill has been increased by 25%.
• Combustive Shot: This skill now has a radius of 360 at all adrenaline levels.
• Rupturing Smash: Increased damage by 50%.
• Counterblow: This skill now applies 10 stacks of vulnerability for 8 seconds in addition to its previous effects in all game types. Lowered the damage of this skill by 12.5% in PvP only.
• “To the Limit!”: The endurance gained by this skill has been increased from 25 to 50.
• “Shake It Off!”: The number of conditions removed by this skill has been increased from 1 to 2.
• “For Great Justice!”: The might granted by this skill has been increased from 3 stacks to 6 stacks.
• Mending: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 20 seconds to 15 seconds in PvP only.
• Blood Reckoning: The amount healed by this skill has been increased from 10% to 20%.
• Vigorous Shouts: The effect of healing power on this trait has been increased by 20%.
• Banner of Defense: Increased the number of enhancement targets from 5 to 10.
• Banner of Discipline: Increased the number of enhancement targets from 5 to 10.
• Banner of Strength: Increased the number of enhancement targets from 5 to 10.
• Banner of Tactics: Increased the number of enhancement targets from 5 to 10.
• Earthshaker: Fixed a bug that caused this skill to hit 10 targets at level 1 adrenaline.
• Blaze Breaker: This skill will now attempt to face your target before firing instead of failing. If you cannot face your target, it will instead fire in your current facing direction.
• Whirling Axe: Fixed a bug that prevented this skill from being canceled when transitioning to gliding.
• Adrenal Health: The amount healed by this trait has been reduced by 10% in PvP only.

Structured Player vs. Player

• Birthday Boosters and Celebration Boosters can now be used in PvP maps.
• Wintersday Black Lion Chests can now be opened in PvP maps.
• Dabs, Globs, and Clumps of Destabilized Ectoplasm can now be used in the PvP lobby.
• The Bag of Spirit Shards given with the second birthday gift is now usable in PvP maps.
• Disconnecting from a PvP match will now add additional respawn time calculated from maximum possible downed bleed duration for a maximum of 30 seconds. Reconnecting to a PvP match with a respawn time will result in death.
• Mastery: Commander swiftness is now enabled in the PvP lobby.

Leagues:

• Losing a Ranked season match with a score greater than or equal to 80% of the winning team’s score will award a Near Victory bonus, worth 2 league reward pips.
• Added rating delta to game history for league matches.
• Ardent Glorious armor can now be used in the Mystic Forge.
• Ascended PvP trinkets now have proper icons.
• Ascended PvP rings can now be attuned.
• The Mini Emperor Llama is now available from the League Vendor.
• Significantly reduced the number of Transmutation Charges obtained through league chests.
• Reduced the number of unidentified dyes obtained through league chests.
• Reduced the number of Ascended Shards of Glory obtained through league chests, but added Ascended Shards of Glory to the repeatable Byzantium reward chest.
• Ascended PvP armor and weapons now require special currency that you craft along with Ascended Shards of Glory and gold.
  • The recipes are available from the ascended vendors for league tickets.
  • These recipes require fewer materials than normal ascended crafting, so they are a small discount from just crafting the armor and weapons outright.
• Ardent Glorious armor skins are now available from the ascended PvP vendors.

World vs. World
General

• Being killed while outnumbered no longer grants any war score to the enemy team.
• All siege devices and traps have been changed to gizmos that are consumed once they are placed.
  • This change was made to help solve bugs in which siege devices and traps weren’t being granted back properly when they weren’t placed.
• Siege bundles now stay in your hands until players drop, cancel, or run out of siege.
• Changed the Potion of Ascalonian Mages to work similarly to combat tonics. The transformation now allows for all player skills to be used. The transformation is removed after 30 minutes. Clicking the potion again will remove the transformation.

Alpine Borderlands

• Garrison’s back gate that enters the lord’s room now has secured, reinforced, and fortified states like all other gates.

Desert Borderlands

• Removed the floating gargoyle at the Shrine of Fire.

Fractals

• The commands /resign, /qq, /gg, etc., may now be used in fractals.
• Ascended fractal armor and weapons now require special currency that you craft, along with Fractal Research Pages, Fractal Relics, and gold.
  • These recipes are available from BLING-9009.
  • These recipes require fewer materials than normal ascended crafting, so they are a small discount from just crafting the armor and weapons outright.
• Unwanted Integrated Fractal Matrices can now be converted to Fractal Encryption Keys at a rate of 10 keys per matrix at BLING-9009.
• Fixed a bug in the event UI that would cause two health bars to appear for the Thaumanova Anomaly.

Living World

• Players will now be able to enter Noran’s Safe Room with an oiled key.

General

• Fixed an issue where many mesmer clone-creating skills did not create clones for players using the Endless Miniature Tonic and Infinite Watchknight Tonic.
• Pact soldiers returning from the campaign in the Maguuma Jungle have created a monument at the entrance of the Grove.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions

• A new Bloodstone Ascender is available in the Toys category of the Gem Store for 250 gems.
• A new Shattered Bloodstone Glider is available in the Upgrades category of the Gem Store for 400 gems.
• The Emissary’s Staff has returned for a limited time in the Style category of the Gem Store for 600 gems.
• Taimi’s Dye Kit has returned for a limited time, found in the Special category of the Gem Store for 125 gems.

Improvement

• Six new and exclusive eye colors have been added to Total Makeover Kits, which are available in the Services category of the Gem Store.

Bug Fixes

• Scribe has been added to the Crafting Discipline filter on the trading post.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed an issue causing accessory dyes to appear unintentionally dark on certain charr-exclusive hairstyles.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the boss fixate to break if a fixated player enters the downed state in the Underground Facility fractal.
• Fixed an issue in which the checkpoint for the Mursaat Overseer would not update for players entering Bastion of the Penitent after the barricade event was complete.
• Fixed a rare bug that would prevent Caudecus from transitioning properly after the first phase of the fight.
• Fixed issue with the Honorary Crew Member achievement that requires players to complete both the White Mantle and skritt versions of the SS Pinkeens event. Players now only need to complete one version of the event to obtain the achievement.
• Fixed an issue that would prevent Glenna from spawning if players entered Bastion of the Penitent after Samarog had been defeated.
• Renamed the Execute the Executioner achievement to Perfect Execution. This achievement now requires players to complete either the “Defeat the White Mantle and save the villager from burning event” or the “Escort the quaggan refugees to their destinations” event in order to obtain it.
• Fixed an issue that caused quaggan refugees to not scale properly.
• Made the overzealous villagers around Lakeside Bazaar clean up correctly.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Bolt Vol. 3 collection items to be unobtainable in Thaumanova.
• Fixed an issue with challenge motes in Stronghold of the Faithful and Bastion of the Penitent.
• Fixed an issue that allowed players to reach unintended locations during the Cairn the Indomitable encounter.
• Added a limit to the number of Jade Fragments that can be mined each day.
• Fixed an issue that prevented the Moonlighting achievement from being correctly awarded in Lake Doric.

Due to an potential exploit related to Mursaat Overseer and Samarog challenge mote conversations, we have temporarily disabled these conversations. Players may continue to enjoy the raid, but will not be able to activate these challenge motes until we have addressed the issue. Thanks for your understanding

Bug Fixes:

• Corrected the icons used for the White Mantle Battle Mage and Lady Valette Wi miniatures.
• To appropriately match its appearance, the ascended backpack sold by Quartermaster Hitchens has been renamed “White Mantle Scroll.”
• Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause the “Escort the Seraph reinforcements…” events to stall.
• Overzealous villagers will now respawn properly in Lakeside Bazaar.
• Fixed an issue in which players could become stuck if they’d disconnected during certain Lake Doric story steps.
• Battle of Kyhlo: Fixed a bug that prevented players from shadowstepping to the ledge on the red side of the Clock Tower.
• Necromancers playing through “A Meeting of Ministers” will no longer become stuck after showing Queen Jennah the evidence.
• Players can now properly switch between the water buckets and the rations bundles in Doric’s Landing.
• Stronghold of the Faithful: Fixed an issue in which the Keep Construct’s red/white missiles would sometimes aim incorrectly.
• Salvation Pass: Fixed an issue in which players were killed outside the Matthias Gabrel event area before they could properly enter the room.
• Spirit Vale: Fixed an issue that caused Gorseval to aggro players while they were gliding toward his platform.
• Removed a conversation on an NPC near the Temple of the Six.
• Increased the length of time that the Counter Magic skill is available prior to Caudecus using his “Make way for the Confessor!” skill.
• Reduced the frequency of knockdown on Caudecus’s Throw Unstable Bloodstone Fragment skill.
• Removed immobilize from Caudecus’s Body Shot attack and increased its vulnerability duration.
• Decreased the recharge on Caudecus’s Body Shot attack from 10 seconds to 5 seconds.
• In the final fight, the jade bow has been replaced with Carnival Sharpshooter.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a client crash.
• Fixed a server crash.
• Fixed a bug that allowed Guldhem to take damage from life stealing and conditions.

02/08/2017 – Late Notes
BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions

• The Necrotic Glider has arrived and is located in the Upgrades category of the Gem Store for 500 gems.
  Improvements
• Revive Orbs will now pop up a confirmation window on use.
• The random wardrobe unlock item will now unlock Rampart, Incarnate, and Strider’s armor as intended.
• Fixed clipping issue with light Envoy boots.

World vs World

• Team chat now displays which map you are on as long as channel tags are enabled.

Bug Fixes:

• Seraph Morale now gives the boons listed in the description when entering and exiting combat, along with a 1% kill experience increase per tier.
• Fixed an issue that prevented the Shackled Prisoner’s Unnatural Signet from granting a damage boost.
• Revealed will now be applied to all players when the Shackled Prisoner event begins.
• Fixed a bug that could cause the final instance to stall in the first patrol room.
• Activating “Ride the Ley Line” inside a ley line will now cause damage rather than instantly killing players in both Lake Doric and Bloodstone Fen. The “Don’t Cross the Streams” Bloodstone Fen achievement is awarded for taking damage this way, rather than for dying.
• Fixed an issue that would cause the Shackled Prisoner event to fail unexpectedly in the final phase.

02/08/2017 – February 8th Release Notes
LIVING WORLD
The Head of the Snake
Caudecus Beetlestone’s depraved White Mantle faction continues its efforts to bring Kryta to heel. Her Royal Majesty, Queen Jennah of Kryta, requests your presence in Divinity’s Reach—help her root out corruption in the Ministry before crisis strikes.

Lunar New Year
The celebration has ended in Divinity’s Reach, but we wish you good luck and fortune all year!
New Legendary Rifle: The HMS Divinity
A new legendary weapon is now available. Speak to Grandmaster Craftsman Hobbs in Lion’s Arch to learn how to craft the new rifle precursor Man o’ War and forge the new legendary rifle, the HMS Divinity.
World Polish

• Players can no longer open more Great Exalted Chests and Grand Exalted Chests by changing map instances after completing the meta-event in Auric Basin.
• Several items involved in the legendary precursor collections can now only be crafted once per account. If these items are misplaced, replacements can be purchased from Grandmaster Craftsman Hobbs in Lion’s Arch.
• Fixed an issue that incorrectly caused several supply carts in Gendarran Fields to appear lootable when destroyed.

Bloodstone Fen

• Updrafts have been added to the Cavern of Unseen Lights to aid in Bloodstone Crystal Node gathering.
• Decreased the rate at which jade constructs drain bloodstone stalagmites, effectively increasing the duration of the associated events.
• Reduced intersections between ley lines and unbound magic nodes or magical storms.

Thaumanova Rework
The Thaumanova fractal was lacking in many areas, so it has undergone a significant rework. Changes aim to reduce frustration; improve theming, messaging, and story presentation; and generally make the fractal feel more epic and believable. At tier 4, the duration of the fractal should be a bit shorter, and the overall difficulty should be slightly lower while still being challenging.

General

• The audio of the fractal has received numerous improvements.
• Server performance has been slightly optimized.
• Players will now have to complete all four colliders, regardless of scale.
• Fixed a bug that could cause the checkpoint to be reset at the beginning.
• Fixed numerous minor bugs.

Main Hall
The Inquest are fighting for survival against endless hordes.

• Replaced all existing spawns with new ones and added many more.
• Removed all existing portals and replaced them with new ones that spawn via scripted events rather than player proximity.
• Portals no longer pull in players.
• The “Clear out the skritt defending the central control panel” event has been replaced by a new event.
• New dialogue scenes have been added.
• New AI has been added to the Inquest to help them fight more intelligently.
• Jump pads have been added to allow rapid transit between the center ring and the outer rooms.
• The liquid in the lower area no longer applies burning.
• Moved a Mistlock Singularity from the dormitory to a convenient location.

Subject 6 Lab
The Subject 6 encounter retains the same core mechanics, but failing to kill a couple of blue oozes is no longer essentially a reset. Additional scaling has also been added.

• Improved the intro scene.
• Reworked the Subject 6 Clinging Acid attack to be a bouncing AoE.
• Blue ooze will now heal the boss for 6% instead of 25%.
• Blue-ooze health has been reduced by 33%.
• Markers have been added to all oozes to make them more visible.
• Oozes will now instantly heal the boss when they get close, instead of pausing.
• Stronger gold oozes now spawn at 75%, 50%, and 25% at tiers 3 and 4.
• All oozes now die when the boss is defeated.

Dormitory

• Aatxe have been replaced by more interesting enemies.
• Some dialogue has changed.
• Various small bugs have been fixed.
• Added an objective timer.
• Increased the amount of time players have to save Chibb.

Repulsor Lab
The repulsor lab was particularly frustrating for new groups, as it lacked any clear direction and was incredibly punishing. It is now a stealth-based encounter, and the mechanics are clear.

• Reworked repulsor turret projectiles.
  • Reduced the hit box and switched to an effect to match the size.
  • Replaced blowout with a 0.5-second stun.
  • Switched to scaling, health-percentage-based damage.
  • Projectiles will now only hit players.
• Reworked patrol golems.
  • Fixed numerous pathing issues.
  • Switched the aggro mechanic over to a small visibility circle indicated by an effect. Golems will fixate for 15 seconds on any player who enters.
  • Golems have been upgraded to champion rank.
  • Golems will walk at tiers 1 and 2.
  • Golems now die when the event succeeds.
  • Deleted the stationary golem at the first console.
• Improved consoles and barriers.
  • Consoles may no longer be interacted with through walls.
  • Consoles are now numbered on the minimap.
  • Shields are now disabled at the end of the event.
• Safety Shield now has a longer cooldown but cannot overheat.
• Safety Shield’s Repulsor Bolt skill is now instant, and it will instantly break a golem’s defiance bar.
• Safety Shields now no longer use the staff idle animation.
• Getting downed in the repulsor lab will teleport you to the safety-shield room.
• Succeeding at the event will cleanse immobilize on everyone in the room.
• Consoles can no longer be interacted with after the event succeeds.

Cooling Chamber
The cooling chamber was a bit too easy to solo, and it had little emphasis on the cooling rods. Now it is more rewarding of teamwork, while one may still solo it on some professions.

• Cooling rods now have a Heat Shield skill that will block heat damage in a radius.
• Heat damage in the room has increased.
• Cooling rods further reduce heat damage in the room when placed in the Cooling Rod Receptacle. They also create a permanent shield at the receptacle.
• Switched to scaling, health-percentage-based damage.
• A golem will retrieve any cooling rods dropped in the room.
• Cooling Rod Receptacles have gained a map marker.
• A moving flame wall that can be dodged has been added to the room.

Thaumanova Anomaly
The Anomaly boss has numerous attacks that have either no tell or are very difficult to see and react to in the effect soup. The fight can take longer than it should due to high boss health and the fact that players constantly have to spread out. The fight has been reworked to be more interesting and fair. It is challenging but not overly difficult.

• Fixed an issue that allowed the Anomaly to be res rushed.
• The Anomaly’s health has been slightly reduced*.*
• The Anomaly has gained a strong defiance bar that can be broken for a long-duration stun.
• Players now have a special action shield, the Hex Shield, which can protect a platform from disappearing for 3 seconds on a 32-second cooldown. It stacks duration if multiple players use it on the same platform.
• The Anomaly’s base projectile attack, Binding Bolt, has been replaced by a projectile fan attack that is easier to see and react to. Projectile hit boxes have been improved.
• The Anomaly’s hit box has been increased, and it has been centered better.
• The Anomaly’s shield knockback has been greatly reduced.
• At higher tiers, the platform will permanently shrink at health percentages.
• The Anomaly will no longer reflect projectiles.
• Star Smash has had its effect improved.
• Flux Bomb has been renamed to Flux Pulse. Its radius has been reduced from 500 to 300. The Telegraph effect has been added. Damage has been slightly increased.
• Cosmic Instability no longer targets pets and minions, and it will now deal heavy damage to allied players standing within 120 units.
• Players will no longer sometimes fall all the way to the bottom floor instead of being teleported back up.
• The platforms will no longer be targetable by certain player skills.

Aetherblade

• Reworked rotating energy wall traps before the cannon room.
  • Now applies scaling damage based on health percentages instead of standard attacks.
  • Added internal-damage cooldown of 1 second.
  • Fixed a combat-log text issue.
  • Can no longer hurt pets and minions.
  • Applies Electric Shield to the golems for 1 second instead of 3 seconds.
• Reduced the applied agony duration for final energy walls from 6 seconds to 3 seconds.
• Increased the internal cooldown of energy wall damage and agony application from 1 second to 1.5 seconds.
• Golem might stacks can now be corrupted and stripped.
• Knockback is now applied at the correct time when Frizz is defeated.

Chaos Isles

• The Brazen Gladiator no longer clears all conditions when gaining Protective Shielding. Instead, Protective Shielding also behaves like resistance.

Molten Furnace

• Molten protectors can now be inflicted with fear and taunted while not shielded.
• Fixed a bug in which a party wipe before the final event could teleport you to the final chamber and stall the instance.

Nightmare

• Fixed an issue in which Ensolyss could use Rampage before his final phase on challenge mode.
• The crush attack Ensolyss uses when he spawns is now unblockable, making Another Goo Puddle easier for guardians to obtain.
• Fixed an issue in which Ensolyss’s defiance bar could be broken right before casting Nightmare Devastation, causing him to cast it when Arkk’s shield is gone.
• Ensolyss’s attacks will no longer knock back or pull pets and minions.
• Fixed an issue in which Siax’s Toxic Blast attack would show the first AoE telegraph for too long.
• Fixed a bug in which the 30-Second Seizure achievement could be completed in longer than 30 seconds.

Snowblind

• Moved the first Mistlock Singularity to a more convenient location.
• The ice elemental boss will now reset if there are no living players nearby.
• Reduced the chill duration for orbiting projectiles from 5 seconds to 3 seconds.
• Improved the spawning animation for the ice elemental and made it visible from farther away.

Swampland

• Fixed an issue in which being downed while holding a wisp during the final Bloomhunger phase would not allow the wisp to respawn.

Uncategorized

• Added a checkpoint at the end of the final jumping puzzle.
• Fixed a bug in which the battery meters would not properly reset after a party wipe.

Underground Facility

• The Rampaging Ice Elemental will now only target players with Ice Spike.
• Fixed a bug that could cause boss fixate to become permanently broken.

Volcanic

• The first cutscene can now be skipped.

Mist Potions

• Single-use mist potions have had their prices rebalanced by reducing relic cost and increasing gold cost.
• Duration has increased from 30 minutes to 1 hour.
• Single-use mist potions can now be refreshed.
• Text has been added indicating that unwanted potions can be turned in to Dessa’s Alchemist in exchange for fractal relics.

Daily Recommended Fractal Rewards

• The Fractal Initiate’s Research Chest has had its resonating slivers replaced by a Large Mist Defensive Potion.
• The Fractal Adept’s Research Chest has had its resonating slivers replaced by a Large Mist Mobility Potion.
• The Fractal Expert’s Research Chest has had its resonating slivers replaced by a Large Mist Offensive Potion.

Daily Achievement Rotation

• The Fractal Daily achievements have been switched from a 14-day rotation to a 15-day rotation so that the same dailies do not occur every two weeks.

Ascended Trinket Salvage

• Ascended trinkets will now yield Stabilizing Matrices instead of +1 infusions when salvaged.

Nightmare Rewards

• The Watchknight Tonic has been added to the Nightmare Rewards tab on BLING-9009 for a discount. It has been improved to function like the Kodan Tonic.
• The Antitoxin Injector Skin, Mini Toxic Nimross, and Mini Watchknight have been added to the Nightmare Rewards tab on BLING-9009 for a discount.
• Pristine Toxic Spore Samples are now awarded for completing the Nightmare Fractal Challenge Mode with a rare chance for a jackpot.

Instability Balance Changes
Toxic Trails

• Added low-duration poison to toxic trails. Poison will make damage from toxic trails more visible while slightly increasing the pressure from them.

Social Awkwardness

• Reduced the damage region radius from 60 to 44 to better match the effect.
• Reduced the applied agony duration of Social Awkwardness from 3 seconds to 2 seconds.
• Instead of damaging your allies, you will damage yourself for a maximum of three hits per second if you are standing near three or more allies.
  • This will allow healers to stack up for heals without killing themselves, and it will punish a player for attacking near allies rather than punishing their allies.

Afflicted

• Reduced the number of confusion stacks applied from 5 to 2.

Last Laugh

• Increased the time before the attack hits from 1 second to 1.75 seconds.

Flux Bomb

• Flux Bomb will not apply damage or conditions to the targeted player on the first tick.
• Flux Bomb will not target the same player within 30 seconds.

Miscellaneous

• Fixed a bug in which Fractal Avengers would not properly despawn.

Raids
Bastion of the Penitent
The bloodstone explosion unearthed a portal to a place where few have been and none have escaped. Deconstruct the mysteries and learn the true story of one of history’s most misunderstood figures. Assemble your squad and begin your journey at ground zero or at the Lion’s Arch Aerodrome.
Thanks!
Some members of the following guilds had access to the raid at some stage in development. We’d like to thank them for their time and feedback.

• [Att] Attuned
• [LNR] Latte Night Raiding

General

• Glenna will now exchange magnetite shards for miniatures from any raid wing. This is now located in a new Exchanges tab on her vendor window.
• Skill-fact tooltips have been enabled for all boss skills in Bastion of the Penitent.

Lion’s Arch Aerodrome
New vendor tabs have been added to the Basic Magnetite Exchange Operative in the Aerodrome.

• Exchanges: Miniatures and special items can be exchanged here for magnetite shards.
• Merchant: Sells basic goods (salvage, etc.).

Spirit Vale
Sabetha
The Sapper Bomb skill now ignores snap-to-target settings.
Stronghold of the Faithful
White Mantle portal devices can now be exchanged for magnetite shards at a rate of 250 shards per device. This exchange can be completed by speaking with Glenna or the Basic Magnetite Exchange Operative in the Aerodrome.
General

• Fixed an issue that would sometimes prevent a player from being revived during encounters in Stronghold of the Faithful.

Xera
The Intervention skill now ignores snap-to-target settings.
Items
The legendary precursors Friendship and Endeavor have had their recipes updated to use the new Visionary Inscription. The recipe for the Visionary Inscription can be unlocked by using Recipe: Legendary Inscription, available from Grandmaster Craftsman Hobbs, free of charge.
Profession Skills
General:

• Racial abilities: The following racial abilities will no longer allow eternal pets when used with Rebound: D-Series Golem (asura racial elite), 7-Series Golem (asura racial elite), Charr Warband (charr racial elite), Snow Wurm (norn racial utility skill), Summon Druid Spirit (sylvari racial elite).

Structured Player vs. Player
General

• Players who reconnect to a match and achieve victory will no longer receive a desertion game result.
• Fixed a bug that caused the minimap on Revenge of the Capricorn to have no fixed position and zoom level.
• Matches where a player fails to accept will rebalance teams after finding a substitute.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Noblesse Oblige mastery to affect PvP and WvW.
• Fixed inconsistent naming convention for the Diviner Amulet and the Seeker Amulet.
• Fix a bug where new accounts had both Conquest and Stronghold game-mode preferences checked instead of the All preference.

Battle of Kyhlo

• The Clock Tower has had its roof removed to improve visibility and camera behavior.
• The side-entrance jump puzzles to the Clock Tower have been normalized on each side and made much easier.
• Buildings and boxes are no longer destroyable by players. A few structures will now be automatically destroyed as the match progresses.
• The spawn locations of siege repair have been moved closer to the trebuchets.
• An additional exit from each side’s bases have been added to reduce the possibility of spawn camping.

Revenge of the Capricorn

• The locations of the archway and bell capture points have been moved to reduce run times and slightly condense the map.

Leagues

• League rating deviation will not increase over time. This prevents players who take breaks from having ratings that are too volatile when they return.
• Lowered the default/starting rating deviation. League placement matches will result in less volatile ratings.
• There is now a minimum game requirement for the league leaderboard that is separate from placement games. This minimum threshold increases over the duration of the season.

PvP Map Achievements
Meta-achievements have* *been added to all Ranked and Unranked PvP maps. Completion of the meta-achievement will award players gold and a title.
Generic Achievements:

• Wins
• Kills

Conquest Achievements:

• Kills while defending
• Capture-point neutralization

Stronghold Achievements:

• Summoning door breakers or archers
• Killing door breakers or archers
• Champion summons

Each map features one unique achievement themed around the secondary mechanic.
Capricorn achievements have returned, and the time gate for the Coliseum achievements has been removed.
World vs. World
General

• On Friday’s reset (February 10), skirmish points will change to 5 for first place, 4 for second place, and 3 for third place.
• WvW portals have been changed so that they now require an interact. This is to fix the bug in which players were sometimes teleported to different maps when using a waypoint.
• The Plush Griffon Tonic has been reenabled in WvW.
• The Reindeer Tonic has been reenabled in WvW, but the third skill has been removed and replaced with the fourth skill.
• The Potion of Ascalonian Mages now functions like a transformation and not like an enhancement. It has been reenabled in WvW.
• The Permanent Portable Provisioner can now be used while moving.
• The Noblesse Oblige mastery has been disabled in competitive game modes.
• The Gift From Scarlet has been disabled in WvW.

Desert Borderlands

• Shrine bonuses have been rearranged and changed in the Desert borderlands. The last shrine bonus for each shrine is now a themed jump pad that will allow players to travel from one shrine to the next. These jump pads will make it easier for players to traverse the area.
  • Shrine of Earth:
    • Activates lodestones that grant protection and stability to allies. This is used to cripple enemies.
    • A sandstorm that reveals all enemies.
    • Asura launch pads that launch players to all the shrines and inside the keep itself.
  • Shrine of Fire:
    • Inferno Hound
      • Increased the movement speed of the hound.
      • Added swiftness to skill 3.
    • The Flame’s Embrace effect allows players to walk on lava. It functions the same as it used to but is now the second bonus instead of the third.
    • Fire tornadoes that launch players to all of the shrines.
  • Shrine of Air:
    • Air jump pads that allow players to jump to high ledges at various places in the keep. No changes were made to this bonus.
    • The Windfall effect allows players to not take fall damage while near the keep. This functions the same as it used to but is now the second bonus instead of the third.
    • Eagle clouds that transform players into eagles so they can glide to each shrine.
• Desert borderlands now has ruins that work the same as they do on the Alpine maps and grant bloodlust.
• The center of the map has been changed so that it is easier to traverse.
• Removed rock walls inside the north/earth keep.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the incorrect team to earn the Windfall effect for a few seconds.

General

• Many items crafted as part of the legendary journey can only be crafted once per account. Misplaced items can be reobtained from Grandmaster Craftsman Hobbs if they are required for other parts of the collection.
• The Antitoxin Injector Skin has been added to the laurel vendor.
• Encoded Orders can no longer be used in fractals or dungeons.
• The Permanent Portable Provisioner, Tarrktun Personal Delivery Portal, Black Lion Miniature Claim Ticket, Fractal Reliquary, Ley-Energy Matter Converter, Black Lion Claim Ticket, and Golden Fortune Scrap can now be used while moving.
• All tonics can no longer be consumed while in combat. You will still remain transformed if you consume a tonic before entering combat. This change was made so players can no longer transform to trigger weapon-swap effects while in combat.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions

• For a limited time, a new set of Devoted weapon skins is available from Black Lion Weapons Specialists for 1 Black Lion Claim Ticket. Black Lion Chest Keys are available in the Special category of the Gem Store for 125 gems each.
• The White Mantle Appearance Pack has returned for a limited time and is located in the Style category of the Gem Store for 2,000 gems. This pack contains 1 White Mantle Outfit, 1 White Mantle Glider, 1 Immortal Weapon Choice, 1 Total Makeover Kit, and 5 Black Lion Chest Keys.
• The Shining Blade Backpack Glider Combo has returned for a limited time and is located in the Style category of the Gem Store for 700 gems.
• The Mask of the Queen and the Mask of the Jubilee have returned for a limited time and are located in the Style category of the Gem Store for 400 gems each.
• The Ringmaster’s Hat has returned for a limited time and is located in the Style category of the Gem Store for 200 gems.
• The Mini Bloodstone Rock has returned and is located in the Toys category of the Gem Store for 350 gems.

Improvements

• Twelve exclusive hair colors can now be used to dye hair accessories using Total Makeover Kits and/or Self-Style Hair Kits, found in the Services category of the Gem Store.
• For a limited time, avian miniatures are available for 1–3 Black Lion Miniature Claim Tickets and are available from the Black Lion Claim Ticket vendor.
  • Avian miniatures include the Mini White Moa, Mini Pink Moa, Mini Green Moa, Mini Yellow Moa, Mini Blue Moa, Mini Moa Chick, Mini Vulture Raptor, Miniature Raven, Miniature Snow Owl, Miniature Hawk, and Mini Chickenado.
• The Black Lion Chest has been updated to the Lake Doric Chest and can be previewed for a full list of its contents.
  • Two Heavy Crafting Bags have been added as the new guaranteed seasonal item.
  • Only for the duration of this seasonal chest, the Noran’s Safe Room Pass is available as an uncommon drop.

Bug Fix:

• Reenabled content in Ember Bay that is related to Rurik’s Engagement Ring.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a bug that caused Stronghold matches to persist after a lord died.
• Sylvari Elite—Summon Sylvan Hound: Fixed a bug that caused these creatures to persist when used in conjunction with Rebound.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed an issue that could cause rotated effects to display improperly in the Nightmare Fractal.
• Fixed a client crash.

01/17/2017 – Late Notes
General

• Commander-icon sorting has been adjusted so that it may appear ahead of everything besides combat events. This will help improve the visibility of commander icons.

World vs. World

• The shared-participation slot in WvW has been updated to function across maps.

Bug Fix:

• Fixed a bug in which title text for the Lunar New Year firework effect would not display properly.
  PvP
• Removed achievement points associated with end-of-season placement on the leaderboard.

01/17/2017 – January 17th Release Notes
Lunar New Year

• Come celebrate the year of the rooster in Divinity’s Reach!
  • Lunar New Year festivities have returned with the strong and trustworthy rooster.
  • Collect and open lucky envelopes to earn essences of luck, delicious foods, fireworks, valuable items, and a chance to find the new Lucky Great Rooster Lantern backpacks.
  • Speak to Phaedra in the Crown Pavilion to purchase very valuable Divine Lucky Envelopes.
  • Trade extra essences of luck to Fion in your guild hall to purchase Red Lantern decorations.
    • Red Lanterns can be used by scribes to craft one additional festive decoration.
• Bash and kick your way to victory in the Dragon Ball arena!
  • Speak to Finolla in the Crown Pavilion to enter the arena and prove your mettle.
  • Win rounds to earn Tokens of the Dragon Ball Champion, which can be used to purchase extra Divine Lucky Envelopes.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions

• A new Celestial Rooster Harvesting Tool is available in the Upgrades category of the Gem Store for 1,000 gems.
• A new Solar and Lunar Dye Kit containing six exclusive colors is now available in the Special category of the Gem Store for 125 gems.
• For a limited time, the Imperial Outfit is 20% off, found in the Style category of the Gem Store.
• The Red Envelope Mail Carrier is 20% off in the Upgrades category of the Gem Store for one week.

Improvements

• For a limited time, the Miniature Ram, Mini Tiger, Mini Puppy, Mini Golden Pig, and Mini Red Panda are available for 1 Black Lion Miniature Claim Ticket each from the Black Lion Miniature Claim Ticket vendor.
• Many Merry Minis is no longer available at the Black Lion Miniature Claim Ticket vendor.
• The Black Lion Chest has been updated to the Lunar New Year Chest and can be previewed for a full list of its contents.
  • The Divine Lucky Envelope has been added as the new guaranteed seasonal item.
  • Only for the duration of this seasonal chest, the Mini Celestial Rooster is available as an uncommon drop.

Bug Fix:

• • Nightmare Fractal: Fixed a bug that could cause the Harbinger of Woe to spawn a loot chest when challenge mode is started.

01/10/2017 – January 10th Release Notes
Wintersday
The festivities have ended. Join us again next year!
BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions

• Three additional shared inventory slots may now be purchased from the Upgrades category of the Gem Store for 700 gems each, or purchase all three for 1,890 gems. Each account can purchase up to 16 shared inventory slots at this time. This limit is not affected by the shared inventory slot provided with the Level-80 Boost.
• The Bank Job Package containing 5 Black Lion Chest Keys, a Total Makeover Kit, a transmutation charge, a Bank Tab Expansion, and a Revive Orb is available for a limited time in the Services category of the Gem Store for 1,200 gems. Limit one per account.
• The Arctic Explorer Outfit is available in the Style category of the Gem Store for 700 gems.
• The Black Lion Chest “Delete” confirmation has been removed.

Due to the high rate of moderator attention that this topic has required due to rude, off-topic and/or derailing posts, this thread is being closed.

Bug Fixes:

• Corrected the inventory for the Bloodstone Black Lion Weapons Specialist.
• Fixed an issue in which the Ardent Glorious armor did not have infusion slots.
• Guardian—Virtue of Justice: Fixed a bug that caused Permeating Wrath to use 2-second burning in PvP instead of the intended 4 seconds.

Bug Fix:

• Fixed an issue in which the Ardent Glorious armor would sometimes not appear.

Late Notes:

• Added validation for chapters 7 and 8 of the personal story. Characters who had quests erroneously marked as complete will receive in-game mail from Scholar Aiti and be able to continue their personal story.

12/13/2016 – December 13 Release Notes
Wintersday 2016
Come join us in celebrating Wintersday! Complete daily achievements to earn fanciful new holiday weapons; save Wintersday by giving wrapped gifts to the orphans spread around Divinity’s Reach; test your skills against other players in Snowball Mayhem; experience the joy of jumping in Winter Wonderland; defend against waves of toys in Toypocalypse; or help keep Tixx’s airship, the Infinirarium, in order! You will also see Wintersday events appearing all around Tyria.

• The Wintersday meta-achievement is earned by completing daily Wintersday achievements and can be repeated to collect more gifts.
• Achievements for the Winter’s Presence collection have returned with saved progress from Wintersday 2015.
• Parts of Divinity’s Reach and the Heart of the Mists have been decorated.
• Earn personalized Wintersday gifts by completing achievements, or buy them from the guild trader.
• Tradeable Wintersday gifts now have a chance to drop all over Tyria.

World Polish

• Fixed a bug that caused Wintersday ornaments to continue dropping from some chests after players had already completed the “For the Children!” achievement.
• Fixed a bug that could cause present boxes in the Winter Wonderland activity to prematurely explode.
• Fixed a bug that could cause snowflake platforms to not melt in Winter Wonderland.
• Fixed a bug that could cause players to keep their normal skill bar during Winter Wonderland.
• Fixed a bug that allowed guardians to benefit from Virtue of Courage’s aegis boon during Winter Wonderland.
• Fixed a bug that could cause players to be unable to start playing a part in the Wintersday Bell Choir if a player leaves the activity while playing that part.
• Fixed a bug that caused some skritt to not progress the “Wintersday Skritt Hit” achievement when pestered with snowballs.
• Increased the amount that players are healed by when standing near the central pillar in Toypocalypse.

Living World
Bug Fixes

• The Endless Kodan Tonic now has a 5-second cooldown and cannot be used while in combat.
• Winterberry home instance nodes now use the winterberry map icon.
• Winterberries now have a Consume All option.
• Reduced the unbound magic acquired from gathering and consuming winterberries.
• Mesmer clone-creating skills now create clones while under the effect of Endless Kodan Tonics.
• Continued attacks by the Shining Blade and their allies have lowered the health of some bandit bosses on bandit supply lines in Kryta.
• Players who have completed the Living World Episode 3 storyline may now skip directly to the boss at the end of the Frozen Out instance by interacting with the Brazier of Heroic Deeds, which is located near the beginning of the instance.
• Fixed a bug that prevented players who are working on Eureka or Shooshadoo from unlocking the Legendary Inscription recipe. This recipe has also been added to Hobbs’s inventory for those who missed it.

Items

• Fixed issues causing clipping on the sylvari female Scallywag armor set.

Fractals
Nightmare

• Added a checkpoint after the maze section.
• Fixed an issue that allowed res rushing for Siax and Ensolyss.
• Fixed an issue that allowed the first boss to be skipped.
• Fixed an issue that allowed the maze capture points to be captured from below.
• Fixed an issue in which Ensolyss could have his defiance bar active at the final 15% phase.

Swampland

• Fixed a bug in which the oakhearts would not get the exposed effect when broken.
• Dropping a wisp in Bloomhunger’s final 25% phase no longer resets all wisps.
• Arrow markers have been added to the minimap during the final 25% phase.

Underground Facility

• The turrets in the bomb path of the Underground Facility Fractal now function properly.
• Bomb and gun paths will now be randomly chosen, regardless of scale.

Agony

• Fixed a bug in which agony healing reduction would compound with multiple stacks.

Fractal Avengers

• Fractal avengers will no longer be able to stomp the wrong player.
• Fractal avengers will be destroyed instantly when interrupted or after stomping a player.
• Fractal avengers will not attempt to stomp again if they are interrupted too early.

Miscellaneous

• The Ascended Salvage Tool (1) now has a 100% chance to return upgrades.
• Mistlock singularities will now apply the agony to attribute conversions when autoconsuming infinite mist potions.
• Mistlock singularities will now apply the mist-potion effects for the correct duration on autoconsume.

Profession Skills
General:

• Added a new amulet to the PvP build panel.
  • Deadshot Amulet: 1050 Precision, 1050 Condition Damage, 560 Vitality, 560 Expertise.
• Added a new rune to the PvP build panel.
  • Rune of the Lynx: 175 power, +100 Condition Damage, +25% Movement Speed.

Elementalist

• Arc Lightning: The damage of this ability has been increased by 25% in PvP only.
• Arcane Shield: The cooldown of this ability has been reduced from 60 seconds to 40 seconds in PvP only.
• Final Shielding: The cooldown of this trait has been reduced from 75 seconds to 60 seconds. The health threshold for activating Arcane Shield has been increased from 25% to 50%.
• Glyph of Elemental Harmony: The cooldown of this ability has been reduced from 25 seconds to 20 seconds in PvP only.

Engineer

• Blunderbuss: The damage of this ability has been increased by 10% at all range thresholds in PvP only.
• Jump Shot: The damage of the initial jump has been reduced by 56%. The damage of the landing has been increased by 28%.

Guardian

• Piercing Light: This trait no longer causes traps to daze enemies and will instead inflict slow on enemies for 1.5 seconds on the initial trigger of a trap.
• Virtue of Justice: Increased the burning duration of the passive effect from 2 seconds to 4 seconds in PvP only. Increased the active effect’s amount of burning from 1 stack to 3 stacks in PvP only.
• Virtue of Resolve: The cooldown of this ability has been reduced from 45 seconds to 30 seconds in PvP only. The healing contribution of this ability has been increased by 87% in PvP only.
• Virtue of Courage: The cooldown of this ability has been reduced from 60 seconds to 40 seconds in PvP only.
• Shield of Courage: Fixed a bug that allowed this ability to grant benefits without going on recharge.
• Detonate Orb of Light: The healing contribution of this ability has been increased by 67%.
• Line of Warding: The cooldown of this ability has been reduced from 40 seconds to 30 seconds in PvP only.
• Signet of Courage: The cooldown of this ability has been reduced from 180 seconds to 120 seconds in PvP only.

Mesmer

• Echo of Memory: The cooldown of this ability has been increased from 30 seconds to 35 seconds in PvP only.
• Restorative Illusions: The healing contribution of this trait has been increased by 285% in PvP only. The base healing modifiers for this trait have been adjusted as follows:
  • 0 illusions shattered: Base healing modifier reduced by 62% in PvP only.
  • 1 illusion shattered: Base healing modifier reduced by 50% in PvP only.
  • 2 illusions shattered: Base healing modifier reduced by 42% in PvP only.
  • 3 illusions shattered: Base healing modifier reduced by 36% in PvP only.

Revenant

• Surge of the Mists: The damage of this ability has been reduced by 50% in PvP only.
• Precision Strike: The damage of this ability has been reduced by 33% in PvP only.
• Warding Rift: The cooldown of this ability has been increased from 12 seconds to 15 seconds in PvP only.
• Debilitating Slam: The cost of this ability has been reduced from 15 energy to 10 energy.
• Pain Absorption: This ability now breaks stun.

Thief

• Infiltrator’s Strike: The range of this ability has been increased from 600 to 900 in PvP only. Immobilize duration has been increased from 1 second to 1.5 seconds in PvP only.
• Shadow Strike: The amount of torment applied by this ability has been increased from 2 stacks to 4 stacks in PvP only.

Structured Player vs. Player
PvP Leagues Rework

• Leagues have been reworked in order to facilitate better matchmaking, to give a more accurate indication of an individual’s skill level, and to be more rewarding.
• PvP Season 5 begins today, December 13, 2016.
• The Greater Call of the Mists bonus will be enabled in PvP until December 20.
• For more information on the PvP leagues rework, please read our recent announcement. {{+https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/upcoming-changes-for-pvp-league-season-5/+}}

Better Matches

• Matchmaking will no longer factor in pips when creating matches and will instead focus more heavily on your matchmaking rating. This will increase the pool of eligible players that you can play against, thereby improving match quality and reducing queue times.
• Solo/Duo Queue: Due to the results of a recent community poll, rosters in Season 5 are now limited to a maximum size of 2 in Ranked Arena.

Measuring Skill

• Skill rating is a new visible value that represents a player’s skill level for a ranked season. Pips will no longer factor into skill rating or prestige.
• Skill rating determines which division a player belongs to. Each division has 3 tiers within it.
  • Legendary: 1950+ skill rating.
  • Platinum: 1650 – 1949 skill rating.
  • Gold: 1350 – 1649 skill rating.
  • Silver: 1050 – 1349 skill rating.
  • Bronze: 0 – 1049 skill rating.
• Nameplate badges reflect the current skill-rating division.
  • A new option is available that disables nameplate badges from being displayed to others.
• Skill rating will be soft reset at the beginning of each PvP season.
• At the beginning of each season, 10 placement matches are required to earn a skill rating and division placement.
• Skill rating has no limits on backward progress.
• Inactive players will experience skill-rating decay, impacting the division they’re placed in. Decay can be worked off by playing ranked games.
  • Period of inactivity allowed before decay begins: 3 days.
  • Skill rating reduction per day: 100.
  • Maximum skill-rating reduction: 700 (after 7 days).
  • Decay removed per game played: 100.
• At the end of each season, the top 250 players with the best skill ratings in each region will be awarded titles based on their placement. Earning a higher rank title will award all of the lower titles. These titles will persist season to season.
  • Rank 1: God of PvP.
  • Rank 2: Legendary Demigod.
  • Rank 3: Immortal Legend.
  • Rank 4 – 10: Unyielding Legend.
  • Rank 11 – 25: Relentless Legend.
  • Rank 26 – 100: Ruthless Legend.
  • Rank 101 – 250: Merciless Legend.

Rewards

• League pips will now be used exclusively as a mechanism for earning rewards. You will earn varying amounts of reward pips for wins and losses.
• Every reward tier has been renamed, recolored, and rebalanced.
  • Higher tiers now provide better rewards, such as increased amounts of liquid gold.
  • Tier sizes are now 20 – 30 pips. Later tiers are bigger.
  • There is no backward progress for reward pips.
• Winning a match awards 10 pips.
• Losing a match awards 3 pips.
• Achieving a top stat (see “Personal Score & Top Stats” below) awards 1 additional pip.
• Games played with a Platinum skill rating award 2 additional pips.
• Games played with a Legendary skill rating award 4 additional pips.
• Tier completion now awards Shards of Glory, Unidentified Dyes, PvP League Tickets, Transmutation Charges, gold, and a new currency called Ascended Shards of Glory.
• A new Ascended League Vendor has been added. This vendor has ascended armor, weapons, and trinkets available for purchase using Shards of Glory and Ascended Shards of Glory.
  • The Ardent Glorious ascended armor set, a variation of the Glorious Hero’s armor set, is now available.
• A Mini Black Llama can be purchased from the existing League Vendor using league tickets.
• A Shards of Glory Converter can be purchased from the existing League Vendor. The converter will exchange Shards of Glory for a Timeless Bag of Items.
  • The contents of the bag are similar to the bags received from items such as Princess, Mawdrey II, and the Star of Gratitude.
• Item: Tribal Leggings now have the proper icon.

Personal Score & Top Stats
Personal score has been removed from structured PvP games, and stats have been condensed into a more meaningful Top Stat system:

• At the end of a game, players who perform well in a particular area will be given the corresponding icon beside their name on the scoreboard, which is visible to all players in that match.
  • Damage: Total outgoing damage to alive enemy players.
  • Healing: Total healing given to yourself and allied players.
  • Kills: Number of player kills and kill assists.
  • Revives: Number of allied player revives.
  • Deaths: Number of deaths. (A top stat is not awarded for deaths.)
  • Defense (Conquest): Number of ticks spent in combat near a friendly captured point.
  • Offense (Conquest): Number of ticks spent capturing or being in combat near enemy and neutral capture points.
  • Defense (Stronghold): Total number of mercenaries killed and trebuchets repaired.
  • Offense (Stronghold): Total number of defenders killed and supply spent.

Overtime
Overtime has been added to Conquest. When both teams have the same score at the time limit or when both teams reach 500 points simultaneously, the game will enter overtime. Overtime ends when one team’s score becomes higher than the other’s, or after 5 minutes have elapsed. In the case of a time-out, the winning team is chosen randomly.

Infinite PvP Rank Progression

• PvP Ranks are no longer capped at 80. This number will now increment on both the in-game HUD as well as the character-select screen.
• Players will be retroactively awarded rank-ups for every time they’ve repeated rank 80.

Maps

• Battle for Champion’s Dusk has been removed from Ranked Arena. Queue preferences will now only affect Unranked Arena.
• Skyhammer
  • This map has been added to Ranked Arena.

Mist Champion Skins

• Mist Champion skins can now be purchased from the League Vendor for Shards of Glory.

Guild Teams

• Guild teams no longer show a ranked rating as they cannot queue for season games in Ranked Arena.
• The guild team leaderboard and banners have been removed from the PvP lobby.
• Guild missions can still be completed in Unranked Arena.

World vs. World
General

• On Friday’s reset (12/16), skirmish points will change:
  • 1st place will be awarded 2 points.
  • 2nd and 3rd place will be awarded 1 point.
  • This is a change that we and the players wanted to try. If we aren’t happy with the results, we can change the skirmish score values again.
• War score floaters have been added.
  • When war score is earned via various activities, floaters will now appear above various things to display the amount of points earned for all teams.
    • When an objective is captured/ticks, the war score will appear above the lord.
    • When a player is killed, the war score will appear above the player.
    • When a sentry is captured/ticks, the war score will appear above the capture point.
    • When a shrine is captured, the war score will appear above the shrine.
    • When a dolyak is killed or makes it to an objective, the war score will appear above the dolyak.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions

• The Festive Hat has returned and can be found in the Style category of the Gem Store for 150 gems.
• The Wintersday Wreath Backpack has returned and can be found in the Style category of the Gem Store for 500 gems.
• The Winter Solstice Appearance Pack, containing the Winter Solstice Outfit, a Miniature Snow Flurry Dragon, an Immortal weapon skin, a Total Makeover Kit, and a pack of 5 Glint’s Winter Dye Kits, is available again in the Style category of the Gem Store for 2,000 gems.

Improvements

• The Black Lion Chest has been updated to the Wintersday Black Lion Chest and can be previewed for a full list of its contents.
  • The Large Personalized Wintersday Gift has been added as the new guaranteed seasonal item.
  • The Infinirarium Glider is available as an uncommon drop for the duration of this seasonal chest.
  • The Candelabra Staff is available as an uncommon drop for the duration of this seasonal chest.
• For a limited time, a new set of Frostforged weapon skins is available from Black Lion Weapons Specialists for 1 Black Lion Claim Ticket. Keys are available in the Special category of the Gem Store for 125 gems each.
• Many Merry Minis has been added to the Black Lion Miniature Claim Ticket vendor.
• You no longer need to type an item’s full name on time-expired items when destroying them.
  • Using Gem Store “Time Expired” items will open the Gem Store if that item is available.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a bug that prevented players from purchasing grawl firestones when replaying the quest.
• Fixed a bug that prevented frostbitten suet from dropping when replaying the quest.
• Fixed a bug that allowed players to purchase multiple grawl firestones from the task region vendor.
• Fixed a bug that allowed players to purchase more than three eggshells from the task region vendor.
• Fixed a bug that allowed players to be trapped behind closing gates after looting reward chests.

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.

11/21/2016 – November 21 Release Notes
Living World
Taimi made a major breakthrough in Rata Novus when she discovered that magic can be broken into spectrums, which led her to speculate that the remaining dragons are absorbing each other’s power. She sent the commander to the Fire Islands to collect a recent destroyer sample in hopes of testing her theory. The expedition was a success, but the group was compelled to leave when a vision from Glint’s egg called them back to Tarir…just in time to see Aurene hatch! The celebration was short-lived, however. A mursaat named Lazarus crashed the party, claiming his rebirth had changed him and that he now wanted to side with the new guild and stand against the dragons. The commander declined the alliance, but Marjory was intrigued and left with Lazarus. Now, with Jormag also on the rise, the commander has to brave the bitter cold to see how the new theory of magic absorption affects the merciless ice dragon. Bundle up!
New Legendary Shield: Shooshadoo
A new legendary weapon is now available. Speak to Grandmaster Craftsman Hobbs in Lion’s Arch to learn how to craft the new shield precursor Friendship, and forge the new legendary shield Shooshadoo.
Fractals
New Fractal—Nightmare

• A new fractal is accessible through the Mistlock Observatory. You may now delve into the Nightmare.
• A new Nightmare fractal achievement category has been added under the Fractals of the Mists achievement panel.
• New rewards are available from BLING-9009 in the Mistlock Observatory.
• Enterprising adventurers have attracted the attention of the Harbinger.

Aquatic Ruins

• Instead of depending on scale, the path will be random with an equal chance for the dolphin or dark path*.*

Molten Furnace

• The fire tornadoes in the boss chamber have had their hit boxes improved. It is now easier to dodge them.

Uncategorized

• The pulsing-orb lightning attacks on the stairs before Old Tom have been reworked.
  • Hit boxes have been reduced.
  • Damage is now a flat -80% of your total health.
  • Damage is not applied to pets.
  • Players who are downed and teleport will now instantly revive.

Underground Facility

• The dredge in the Underground Facility have opened their eyes and can now be blinded.

Mai Trin

• The Champion Inquest Technician has had its health reduced by 60%.

Swampland

• The objective timer for the final 25% will now show at all fractal scale tiers, not just the master tier.

Volcanic

• Lava no longer deals damage to dead players.

Achievements

• A new daily recommended achievement for tier-3 fractals has been added. Completing this achievement awards a Fractal Expert’s Research Chest.
  • Fractal Expert’s Research Chest: contains a Pristine Fractal Relic, 2 +1 Agony Infusions, 2 Resonating Slivers, 3 Fractal Encryptions, and a Fractal Research Page.
• Daily fractal achievements have been moved to live under the Daily achievements category.

Mistlock Singularities

• Mistlock Singularities now repair all equipped gear when used.
• Mistlock Singularities now apply Infinite Fractal Potion effects, provided the player has an Infinite Fractal Potion in their inventory.

Mistlock Instabilities

• No Pain, No Gain now applies fury instead of stability.
  • We noticed that the random application of stability in defiance break bars felt like an uncounterable punishment against certain attacks. The removal of stability in favor of fury should retain the threat of the boon’s application without feeling unfair.
• Social Awkwardness now applies a flat 70% multiplicative incoming healing reduction regardless of stack count, and it now outputs damage to the combat log.

Miscellaneous Changes

• Added an Infinite Mist Omnipotion that can be created by combining Infinite Mist Offensive, Defensive, and Mobility Potions in the Mystic Forge with Gifts of Ascension.
• Fixed an issue where the Mistlock Observatory jumping puzzle awarded participation for the wrong jumping puzzle.
• Added a Potion Refunds tab to Dessa’s Alchemist that allows you to gain a fraction of the value in Fractal Relics in exchange for unwanted potions.
• Removed the ascended aquabreather recipes from Cracked Fractal Encryption. The recipes can be purchased from BUY-4373.
• Player skills will now reset their cooldowns when a party wipes inside the Fractals of the Mists.
• The Mai Trin timed mote for the Ad Infinitum legendary backpack has been moved to scale 98.
• The fractal scale selection UI will now disable action camera while it’s open.

World vs. World
General

• There is now an option under Competitive to turn on WvW simple nameplates.
  • WvW simple nameplates turn enemies’ or all players’ nameplates into circles to help reduce nameplate clutter.
• Upgraded objectives now reward more war score per tick and when captured.
• Points per Tick/Capture:

• Sentries and shrines now grant 2 war score on capture.
• The chests at the end of reward tracks now stack.
• Plush Griffon Tonics have been disabled in WvW.
• Fixed a bug in which auto turrets and supply depots sometimes took damage.
• Fixed a bug in which the wrong skill effects for enemies were playing for mortar Fire Incendiary Shells.
• Fixed a bug in which Presence of the Keep wasn’t applying correctly.
• Fixed a bug in which players could sometimes earn 40 supply from Presence of the Keep.

General

• Fixed a bug that prevented glider deployment animations from playing in some situations.
• Repeatable hearts are now properly tracked by map complete.
• Players will now drop bundles they’re holding if they disconnect from the game.

Items

• The legendary shield Flameseeker Prophecies has received an updated projectile effect.

Guilds

• A guild commendation vendor has been added to all guild halls.

Structured Player vs. Player

• The chests at the end of reward tracks now stack.

World Polish

• Creatures in Bloodstone Fen will no longer be able to throw rocks at flying players 6,000 units away. Their range has been reduced to 2,000 units.
• A Petrified Wood home instance node is now available for purchase in Ember Bay.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions

• A new Crystalline Dragon Wings Backpack Glider Combo is available in the Style category of the Gem Store for 700 gems.
• The following items are 20% off for one week only: the Aviator Quaggan Mail Carrier in the Upgrades category; the Warrior Quaggan Backpack Set, Plush Quaggan Backpack, Fuzzy Quaggan Hat, and the Fuzzy Quaggan Hat with Bow in the Style category; and the Bazaar Quaggan Mini Pack in the Toys category of the Gem Store.
• The Toxic Dye Kit has returned for a limited time in the Special category of the Gem Store for 125 gems.
• The Toxic Gloves and Toxic Mantle skins have returned for a limited time in the Style category of the Gem Store for 400 gems each.

Improvements

• The Black Lion Chest has been updated and can be previewed for a full list of its contents.
• Frozen Exotic Weapon Fragments have been added as the new guaranteed seasonal item.
• The Braham’s Wolfblood Outfit is available as an uncommon drop for the duration of this seasonal change.
• The Bitterfrost Vantage Point item has been added as an uncommon drop for the duration of this seasonal change.

Bug Fixes

• Guaranteed Wardrobe Unlock will no longer grant the following unlocks.
  • Mini Queen Jennah: Obtained from character’s first birthday chests.
  • Mini Clockheart: Obtained from the Twilight Arbor achievement only.
  • Exalted armor pieces: A crafted armor above the rare limit.
  • Shadow Assassin Short Bow: No longer counted separately from the Merciless Short Bow.

Bug Fix:

• Brisban Wildlands: Fixed a bug that prevented players from participating in the Seanan’s Bandits renown region.

11/08/2016 – November 08 Release Notes
Living World
Halloween: Shadow of the Mad King
The festivities have ended. Join us again next year!
World vs. World
Beta

• Deployable cannons are no longer in beta.
• Beta cannon blueprints are now junk items that can be sold at vendors.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions

• The new Plush Aurene Backpack Cover and Backpack Straps are available in the Style category of the Gem Store for 400 gems.
• A new Doomsday Preparation Pack containing a Shadow Dye Kit, a Flame Dye Kit, a Raiment of the Lich outfit, a Watchwork Mining Pick, and a shared inventory slot is now available in the Style category of the Gem Store for 2,250 gems. This item is limited to one per account, and the price will dynamically adjust due to purchase limits on available shared inventory slots.

Improvements

• Past Halloween miniatures are no longer available at the Black Lion Miniature Claim Ticket vendor.
• Six new exclusive hair colors have been added and are available in Total Makeover Kits and Self-Style Hair Kits, found in the Services category of the Gem Store.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug with the ground textures in the norn starting instance “The Great Hunt.”

Bug Fix:

• Fixed a server crash.

11/01/2016 – November 01 Release Notes
Container Preview Added
Many boxes, chests, and reward containers throughout the game have received preview functionality. By right-clicking in your inventory and selecting Preview, you will be able to browse the full list of possible container contents. Additional container previews will be added over time.
BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions

• A new Vibrant Dye Kit containing six exclusive colors is now available in the Special category of the Gem Store for 125 gems.
• A new Customer Appreciation Package containing one Black Lion Chest Key and one Black Lion Chest is available at no cost for one week only. Limit one per account. Only available to Core or Heart of Thorns™ accounts.
• For one week, the Mini Angry Chest is 20% off in the Toys category of the Gem Store.

Improvements
The Black Lion Chest has been updated, and its contents will continue to rotate more often with the in-game seasons. A preview of the current loot table is available in-game.

• Booster drops have been removed.
• Every chest contains a guaranteed seasonal item that will change regularly.
• Every chest contains a convenience item.
• Every chest contains an item that will progress your account in some way.
• There is now a consistent chance at a fourth drop that is uncommon or rare.
• A random wardrobe unlock item has been added to the chest. This will unlock a weapon, armor piece, backpack, outfit, dye, glider, miniature, or finisher at random, guaranteed to be something you do not yet have. This does not include rewards exotic or better but does include all Black Lion – style items prior to September.
• Only for the duration of Halloween, the Grasping Phantom Glider is available as an uncommon drop in the Black Lion Chest.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug in which asura would not receive control skills for the Magic Carpet and Hovering Mad Mirror travel toys.

Bug Fix:

• Fixed a bug with the Ghostly Outfit in which crashes could occur.

Bug Fix:

• Fixed a bug in which players did not receive the intended first-time and daily rewards upon completing the Mad King’s Clock Tower.

Bug Fixes:

• Elementalist
  • Glyph of Elemental Power: Fixed a bug that allowed striking a downed enemy to activate this ability’s effect with no internal cooldown. Reduced the weakness applied from 6 seconds to 3 seconds.
• Cannon projectiles no longer pass through walls and gates.
• Deployable Cannons now take condition damage.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a bug in which the decay timers on the deployable cannon were not applying.
• Fixed a bug that caused Mini Charles the Hellfire Skeleton and Mini Thailog the Gargoyle to account-bind on acquire. This will not affect previously obtained items.
• Skills and Balance:
  • Crossfire: Fixed a bug that caused this ability to give the lower bleeding value regardless of positioning.
  • Glyph of Elemental Power: Fixed a bug that caused this ability’s effect to have an unintentional reduced cooldown.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a bug involving the reward tables for Personalized Trick-or-Treat Bags.
• Fixed a client crash.

0/18/2016 – October 18 Release Notes
Release Notes:
Living World
Halloween: Shadow of the Mad King
Come one, come all! Join us for this year’s Halloween! Play Mad King Says with old Mad King Thorn himself, jump to the top of Mad King’s Clock Tower, battle in the labyrinth, or fight Mad King Thorn in his realm. You will also see doors appearing and Trick-or-Treat Bags dropping all around Tyria.

• Parts of Lion’s Arch and the Heart of the Mists have been decorated.
• Trick-or-Treat Bags have been updated with new weapons, miniatures, and more!
• Trick-or-Treat Bags now have a chance to drop all over Tyria.
• Candy Corn vendors in Lion’s Arch have been updated with new items.
• Complete daily and permanent Halloween achievements!

Ember Bay

• Veteran Jade Armor and Jade Bow defiance bars no longer scale.
• Fixed an issue in which the Veteran Jade Armor and Jade Bow defiance bars immediately refilled when broken too quickly.
• Fixed an issue in which some Ether Towers weren’t properly awarding task participation when destroyed.
• Fixed an issue in which Ether Towers were difficult to hit with projectile attacks from certain angles.
• Fixed an issue in which Jade Constructs would not scale properly during the Caliph’s Steps events.
• Fixed an issue in which the Sloth Queen was not gaining her Hunger Crazed damage-reduction effect while chasing Tasty Slublings.
• Fixed an issue in which the destroyers in the Burning Grotto would sometimes become invulnerable.

World Polish
General

• Fixed a bug that could prevent progress in the Verdant Brink event “Extricate stranded nobles from vine chambers, and escort them to safety” when Minister Merula is defeated before reaching the rendezvous point.

Fractals
Thaumanova:

• Boss platforms have been changed to a more visible model.

Raids
Stronghold of the Faithful

• Keep Construct
  • Fixed an issue in which any players downed before transitioning the Keep Construct via the defiance bar would not be able to assist with destroying Xera’s phantasms.
• Xera
  • Bloodstones will no longer allow downed players to rally.

Items

• Many karma consumable items now have a Consume All option.
• Skritt Worker Contracts now have a 10-second cooldown between uses.

Profession Skills
General:

• Sigil of Demon Slaying: Fixed a bug that caused this sigil to indicate elementals in some instances.
• Superior Sigil of Draining: Fixed a bug that prevented the life-stealing effect from displaying in the combat log.
• Superior Rune of Altruism: Fury is now properly applied when the sixth effect of the rune is used with Bandage Self.
• Superior Rune of the Krait: Fixed a bug that prevented the sixth effect of this rune from working properly with certain elite skills.
• Superior Rune of Surging: Fixed a bug that prevented the sixth effect of this rune from working properly with certain elite skills.
• Superior Rune of the Sunless: Fixed a bug that prevented the sixth effect of this rune from working properly with certain elite skills.
• Seaweed Salad: An unintentional 10 condition-damage bonus has been removed.
• Caladbolg: Extraneous skill facts on Caladbolg tool tips have been removed.
• Combo and enemy rings: Fixed a bug that caused these to occasionally be culled.
• Boons: The duration-based boons Protection, Quickness, Regeneration, Resistance, Retaliation, and Vigor will now only stack up to 5 times instead of 9.

General—PvP Only:

• Downed state: Players will no longer become invulnerable when downed in PvP.

Elementalist
In this iteration, we’re looking at some specific improvements to dagger weapon types in addition to general utility and miscellaneous updates. Abilities with very long cast times have been reduced to no longer provide extended interruption openings.

• Impale: The aftercast of this ability has been reduced by 0.13 seconds. The damage of this ability has been increased by 20%, and the duration of bleeding has been increased from 8 seconds to 10 seconds.
• Burning Speed: The recharge time of this ability has been reduced from 15 seconds to 12 seconds.
• Earthquake: The recharge time of this ability has been reduced from 45 seconds to 40 seconds.
• Drake’s Breath: The damage of this ability has been increased by 40%.
• Cone of Cold: The damage of this ability has been increased by 20%. Its base healing has been increased by 10%. Fixed a skill-fact bug that displayed this ability’s healing contribution lower than its actual levels.
• Ice Spike: The casting time for this ability has been reduced from 1 second to 0.75 seconds. Aftercast of this ability has been reduced by 0.5 seconds.
• Healing Rain: The casting time of this ability has been reduced by 0.3 seconds.
• Lightning Surge: The damage of this ability has been increased by 10%.
• Glyph of Elemental Power: The trigger chance of this ability has been increased from 25% to 100%. Weakness duration has been reduced from 6 seconds to 3 seconds. Internal cooldown can now be shared between elementalists. This ability will no longer apply conditions to nonenemies.
• Signet of Fire: The burning duration of this ability has been readjusted from 2 stacks for 10 seconds to 4 stacks for 6 seconds.
• Signet of Air: This ability now inflicts 8 stacks of vulnerability for 5 seconds in addition to applying blind in a radius of 240 around the target.
• Ether Renewal: The casting time of this ability has been reduced from 3.5 seconds to 2.75 seconds.
• Harmonious Conduit: Updated the tool tips for overload skills to display stability granted when an attunement is overloaded while this trait is equipped.
• Elemental Surge: Immobilize duration has been increased from 1 second to 2 seconds.
• Ice Bow: Ice Storm damage has been doubled in PvP only.

Engineer
We’ve been looking to improve the engineer and to support the areas it’s been lacking in so that the profession can perform more effectively in a DPS role. In order to improve purity of purpose, we have removed the daze functionality from the Gyro utility type for scrapper.

• Static Shield: The recharge time of this ability has been reduced from 40 seconds to 30 seconds. Block duration has been increased from 1.5 seconds to 2 seconds.
• Flamethrower—Air Blast: The description has been updated to better specify the ability’s function. The burning stacks it applies have been increased from 1 to 2.
• Fire Bomb: The physical damage of this ability has been increased by 10% per tick.
• Concussion Bomb: Confusion duration has been increased from 5 seconds to 8 seconds. The physical damage of this ability has been increased by 20%.
• Big Ol’ Bomb: The knockdown duration of this ability has been increased from 2 seconds to 3 seconds.
• Mechanized Deployment: Fixed a bug that prevented the tool belt recharge-rate attribute from updating properly on the Hero panel.
• Poison Dart Volley: The projectiles fired by this skill will now land more consistently.
• Rocket Boots: The initial damage of this ability has been increased by 25%.
• Utility Goggles: The recharge time of this ability has been reduced from 40 seconds to 30 seconds.
• Glue Trail: Fixed a bug that caused this skill to affect certain friendly NPCs.
• Gear Shield: The block duration of this ability has been reduced from 3 seconds to 2 seconds.
• Gyro utility skills: Gyros will no longer daze anything in the area they affect when they die.
• Gadgeteer: Fixed a bug in which the overcharged versions of gadget skills did not have their recharge time reduced by this trait.
• Incendiary Powder: Fixed a bug that caused this trait to display longer than the attainable burning duration on skills.

Guardian
The guardian is faring well in multiple game types with a few exceptions. In the next balance patch, we’ll be normalizing some of the dragonhunter specialization’s defensive capabilities while increasing some effects for baseline guardian abilities.

• Shield of Courage: The baseline duration of the blocking effect has been reduced from 5 seconds to 4 seconds.
• Zealot’s Embrace: Projectile speed has been increased by 100%.
• Cleansing Flame: The casting time of this ability has been reduced from 4.25 seconds to 3.25 seconds.
• Merciful Intervention: The recharge time of this ability has been reduced from 50 seconds to 40 seconds. Base healing power has been increased by 20%. Healing-power contribution has been increased by 83%.
• Signet of Wrath: The recharge time of this ability has been reduced from 30 seconds to 25 seconds. This change also modifies Wrath of Justice in the Radiance specialization.
• Symbol of Punishment: Skill facts have been updated to display the light combo’s field effect.
• Signet of Courage: The casting time of this ability has been reduced from 4.25 seconds to 3.25 seconds.
• Purification: The cast time of this ability has been increased from 0.5 seconds to 0.75 seconds. The initial heal’s base healing value has been reduced from 80 to 40, with level scaling also reduced by 6%. The initial heal has had its healing-power contribution increased by about 33%.
• Piercing Light: Daze duration from this trait has been reduced from 0.5 seconds to 0.25 seconds.
• Hunter’s Determination: The ability triggered by this trait has been split from the utility skill and renamed Shards of Faith. The cooldown of this trait has been increased from 45 seconds to 60 seconds. The number of fragments dropped has been decreased from 5 to 3.
• Hunter’s Verdict: This ability can now be used underwater.

Mesmer
In this update, mesmers will see a reduction in readily available boon output through Signet of Inspiration. While we feel the reduction of boon uptime is necessary, we also want to help mesmer DPS builds remain sustainable. We have implemented several changes to help it maintain its effectiveness.

• Mind Slash: The damage of this ability has been increased by 6% in all game types.
• Mind Gash: The damage of this ability has been increased by 6% in all game types.
• Blurred Frenzy: The damage of this ability has been increased by 100% in PvE areas only.
• Phantasmal Disenchanter: The casting time of this ability has been reduced from 1.5 seconds to 1 second.
• Phantasmal Defender: The casting time of this ability has been reduced from 1.5 seconds to 1 second.
• Mirror: Base healing power per level has been increased by 10%. Healing-power contribution has been increased by 33%.
• Mimic: The recharge time of this ability has been reduced from 90 seconds to 75 seconds.
• Signet of Inspiration: Added stability, quickness, and resistance to the signet’s passive skill. The active skill of this ability has been reworked and will now apply one of each of your boons to nearby allies for the same duration the passive skill applies them.
• Signet of Humility: The signet’s casting effect will now occur at the beginning of the ability. This ability can no longer target enemies behind the mesmer who casts it.
• Well of Calamity: Fixed a bug that allowed this ability to apply conditions through all forms of defense.
• Illusionary Avenger: Fixed a bug that allowed this illusion to activate Fencer’s Finesse.
• Spatial Surge: The aftercast has been reduced by 0.3 seconds.

Necromancer
We feel that necromancers have been faring quite well gamewide, providing play and counterplay in many spots over the last few months. In addition to a couple of minor bug fixes, we wanted to improve the viability of necromancer power builds, which have been somewhat lacking in presence.

• Rending Claws: The damage of this ability has been increased by 15%.
• Ghastly Claws: The damage of this ability has been increased by 13%.
• Unholy Feast: The number of boons converted to conditions has been increased from 1 to 2.
• Fading Twilight: The aftercast of this ability has been reduced by 0.11 seconds.
• Chilling Scythe: The aftercast of this ability has been reduced by 0.06 seconds.
• Death Spiral: The damage of this ability has been increased by 66%.
• Blood Is Power: The recharge time of this ability has been reduced from 30 seconds to 20 seconds in PvP only.
• Signet of Vampirism: When the Signets of Suffering trait is equipped, this skill will no longer corrupt boons on players who evade it.
• Lich Form—Jagged Horrors: These minions will no longer lose health over time and will instead die 30 seconds after they’re summoned.

Ranger
After a period of observation, the balance team will be changing the druid specialization’s nature somewhat. In this iteration, we’ll now be making healing types more healing-power based. We’ve reduced base values of many healing abilities while substantially increasing the overall healing-power contribution. This patch will also upgrade the ranger’s short-bow weapon—a change we’ve been looking forward to doing for a long time.

• “We Heal As One!”: The recharge time of this ability has been increased from 20 seconds to 25 seconds in PvP only.
• Lunar Impact: This ability’s tool tip has been updated to display its blast finisher effect.
• “Search and Rescue!”: Fixed a bug that prevented the ability’s voiceover from playing.
• “Strength of the Pack!”: The recharge time of this ability has been increased from 60 seconds to 75 seconds. The voiceover will now play when the ability completes instead of midcast.
• Maul: The recharge time of this ability has been reduced from 6 seconds to 4 seconds. Damage has been increased by about 10%.
• Sun Spirit: Fixed a bug that caused rangers to lose access to their Solar Flare skill in certain situations.
• Quick Shot: Rangers will now gain swiftness regardless of whether they’ve hit their target. The recharge time of this skill has been reduced to 8 seconds.
• Crippling Shot: In addition to its existing functionality, this skill will now immobilize your foe for 1.5 seconds if you are behind them.
• Crossfire: This ability will now bleed foes for 1.5 seconds when they’re struck from the front.
• Poison Volley: This skill’s cooldown has been reduced to 8 seconds. Its poison effect will last 2 seconds longer when this skill is applied from behind your target.
• Call of the Wild: This ability now also causes a ranger’s pet to become unblockable for the next 4 seconds.
• Hunter’s Call: This skill’s cooldown has been reduced to 20 seconds.
• Ancestral Grace: The recharge time of this ability has been increased from 15 seconds to 18 seconds. Its base healing power per level has been reduced by 10%.
• Vine Surge: The velocity of the vines has been increased by 50%.
• Celestial Avatar: The recharge time of this ability has been increased from 10 seconds to 15 seconds in PvP and WvW.
• Cosmic Ray: The base healing power for this ability has been reduced by 50%. Healing-power contribution has been increased by 52%.
• Seed of Life: The base healing power for this ability has been reduced by 20%. Healing-power contribution has been increased by 33%.
• Lunar Impact: The base healing power for this ability has been reduced by 34%. Healing-power contribution has been increased by 63%.
• Rejuvenating Tides: The base healing power for this ability has been reduced by 20%. Healing-power contribution has been increased by 43%.
• Lick Wounds: Fixed a bug that caused your pet to briefly blink away from you if it was attacking an enemy before you activated this skill.

Revenant
One of the bigger changes for revenants in this update will be the reduced boon duration for the herald specialization’s Naturalistic Resonance effect. We’re adjusting a few different boon durations as a result of this and will continue to monitor the effects as time progresses.

• Enchanted Daggers: Attacks that are blocked or evaded will now remove stacks of Enchanted Daggers.
• Unrelenting Assault: Fixed a bug that prevented the ability user from being stunned when initiating an attack against foes with Shocking Aura.
• Inspiring Reinforcement: Stability duration has been increased from 1 second to 1.5 seconds per pulse. The resource cost has been increased from 30 to 35.
• Dwarven Battle Training: Fixed a bug that caused weakness to have increased effectiveness instead of reduced effectiveness. Revenant skills that inflict weakness will no longer display a revised condition tool tip.
• Facet of Light: Regeneration duration has been increased from 3 seconds to 4 seconds. Upkeep cost has been increased from 1 to 2 in PvP only.
• Naturalistic Resonance: Boon-duration increase has been reduced from 50% to 33%.
• Versed in Stone: The recharge time of this trait has been increased from 45 seconds to 60 seconds in WvW and PvP.
• Unwavering Avoidance: This trait now triggers when an attack is successfully evaded instead of during dodge rolls. The recharge time has been increased from 5 seconds to 8 seconds. Stability duration has been increased from 2.5 seconds to 3 seconds.

Thief
Changes for the thief profession are not overly extensive, but they are direct. The team is still observing the changes from previous balance updates, and we’re looking to fine-tune the profession so that it maintains a unique role in the game without breaking its core philosophies.

• Potent Poison: Fixed a bug that prevented the condition’s duration increase from displaying in the Attributes section.
• Pulmonary Impact: Fixed a bug that prevented this skill from doing damage while a thief was in the air.
• Bound: The damage of this ability can now be triggered in midair or underwater.
• Vital Shot: Increased damage by 15%.
• Dancing Dagger: Increased damage by 20%.
• Skelk Venom: The recharge time of this ability has been reduced from 40 seconds to 30 seconds. Its duration has been reduced from 30 seconds to 24 seconds.
• Skale Venom: The recharge time of this ability has been reduced from 40 seconds to 30 seconds. Its duration has been reduced from 30 seconds to 24 seconds.
• Spider Venom: The recharge time of this ability has been reduced from 40 seconds to 30 seconds. Its duration has been reduced from 30 seconds to 24 seconds.
• Ice Drake Venom: The recharge time of this ability has been reduced from 40 seconds to 36 seconds. Its duration has been reduced from 30 seconds to 24 seconds.

Warrior
Warrior continues to hold its place among each game type, so the team isn’t looking to make massive adjustments at this time. For this update, we have a few quality-of-life adjustments and bug fixes, as well as a few functionality changes to skills like Whirling Axe and Rupturing Smash, which will help them achieve their purpose.

• Shield Bash: Fixed a bug that prevented the immobile condition from being removed when the Warrior’s Sprint trait is equipped.
• King of Fires: Fixed a bug that prevented this trait’s detonation from functioning with Head Butt.
• Berserker Stance: Fixed a bug that caused this stance to apply for less than the full 125% value when the Last Stand trait is equipped.
• Dual Strike: Increased damage by 34%.
• Whirling Axe: While channeling this skill, you move 50% faster.
• Bull’s Charge: Reduced the recharge time to 30 seconds.
• Signet of Fury: Reduced the recharge time to 20 seconds.
• “On My Mark!”: This skill now applies revealed for 4 seconds in addition to vulnerability.
• Signet of Stamina: Reduced the recharge time to 40 seconds.
• Wild Blow: Reduced the recharge time to 20 seconds.
• Flaming Flurry: Reduced the projectile variance by 10 degrees.
• Rupturing Smash: This attack now strikes as a single hit within an arc rather than a cascading damage attack. The effect for this skill has been sped up to better match its new functionality. The radius has been increased to 360. The ground decal size has been increased to match the new radius. The daze duration has been increased to 1 second.

Structured Player vs. Player

• A Halloween reward track has been added to the PvP reward tracks.
• The PvP lobby has been decorated for Halloween.
  • The Guild Challenger League Leaderboard and Guild Challenger flags have been temporarily disabled during the holiday.

World vs. World
Beta
Deployable cannons are now in beta! Purchase cannon blueprints from either the siege master or the permanent portable provisioner to test them out.
Deployable cannons have less health and deal less damage than their static counterparts but can be placed anywhere that other deployable siege weapons can.
We will be looking for feedback about deployable cannons on our forums and will be holding a follow-up poll to determine if they should become a permanent feature in the game.
General

• A Halloween reward track has been added to WvW reward tracks.
• New Mystic Forge recipes have been added to create 10 or 25 superior siege pieces at a time.
  • The Siege Master’s Guide is now worth 10 Spirit Shards.
  • Created two new guides:
    • Siege Novice’s Guide—worth 1 Spirit Shard
    • Siege Grandmaster’s Guide—worth 25 Spirit Shards
  • 10 Superior Siege Recipe:
    • 20 Siege Blueprints
    • 50 Elder Wood Logs
    • 50 Mithril Ore
    • Siege Master’s Guide
  • 25 Superior Siege Recipe:
    • 50 Siege Blueprints
    • 125 Elder Wood Logs
    • 125 Mithril Ore
    • Siege Grandmaster’s Guide
  • 10 Omega Golem Recipe:
    • 50 Alpha Siege Golem Blueprints
    • 100 Elder Wood Logs
    • 100 Mithril Ore
    • 3 Siege Master’s Guides
  • 25 Omega Golem Recipe
    • 125 Alpha Siege Golem Blueprints
    • 250 Elder Wood Logs
    • 250 Mithril Ore
    • 3 Siege Grandmaster’s Guides
• The southeast desert dolyak path has been fixed so that it no longer goes through lava.
• Fixed a bug in which Legendary Defenders were no longer attacking enemy players.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions

• Six new, exclusive eye colors have been added to the Total Makeover Kit, which is available in the Services category of the Gem Store for 350 gems.
• For a limited time, a new set of Gargoyle weapon skins is available from Black Lion Weapons Specialists for 1 Black Lion Claim Ticket. Keys are available in the Special category of the Gem Store for 125 gems each.
• The Candy Corn Gobbler Pack is available for a limited time in the Toys category of the Gem Store for 300 gems. Each pack comes with a Candy Corn Gobbler and 15 pieces of Candy Corn.
• The Black Wings Glider Combo is available for a limited time in the Style category of the Gem Store for 700 gems.
• The Mad King’s Outfit is available for a limited time in the Style category of the Gem Store for 700 gems.
• The Mad King Dye Kit is available for a limited time in the Special category of the Gem Store for 125 gems.
• The Ghoul Backpack and Mini Set is available for a limited time in the Style category of the Gem Store for 600 gems.
• For a limited time, past Halloween miniatures are available when using Black Lion Miniature Claim Tickets.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed an issue with the Daily Heart of Maguuma Forager achievement so that you can once again progress this achievement when it is part of the daily rotation.

Bug Fixes:

• Reenabled Skritt Worker Contracts.
• Fixed an erroneous message that occurred while gliding that claimed miniatures were being hidden due to server population.
• Fixed a server crash.

10/04/2016 – October 04 Release Notes
Living World

• The story step “Ascend the fortress and activate the machine” has been fixed to avoid players hearing each other’s personal story dialogue.
• The story step “Return to Grumby” has been fixed to remove a benign condition that was placed on players.
• The story step “Return to Grumby” has been fixed to remove an issue that caused some players under the effect of Mursaat Armor to have a red name over their head.
• The story step “Complete the combat simulation” has been fixed to avoid a damage range that did not accurately reflect the fire pool size.
• The story step “Take the portal to activate the machine” has been fixed so that the mesmer portal does not disappear while the step is active.
• The story step “Start the simulation” has been fixed to add collision to the Simulation Start console.

World Polish

• Auric Basin: Fixed an issue in which updrafts did not work as intended in Southwatch Creep.

General

• Something unusual is happening at Gillscale Pond.

World vs. World
General

• Team chat now works across maps in WvW.
  • Team chat works across maps for Eternal Battlegrounds and Borderlands.
    • It does not work for Edge of the Mists.
• Some NPCs were moved away from tactivators so they aren’t so close together.
• The Endless Mushroom Tonic has been disabled from working in WvW.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions

• The new Spectral Glider is available in the Upgrades category of the Gem Store for 500 gems.
• A new Taimi’s Outfit is available in the Style category of the Gem Store for 700 gems.
• Taimi’s Dye Kit has returned for a limited time, located in the Special category of the Gem Store for 125 gems.
• The Witch’s Outfit has returned for a limited time, located in the Style category of the Gem Store for 700 gems.
• The Phantom’s Hood has returned for a limited time with a 20% discount, located in the Style category of the Gem Store for 160 gems.
• The Riding Broom toy is available in the Toys category of the Gem Store, with a 30% discount, for 175 gems.

Bug Fixes

• The autosummoning of miniatures no longer toggles off when a player is gliding while miniatures are being culled by the game server.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed an issue in which Story Journal achievement completion needed all achievements to complete. Lowered the amount required from 26 to 23.
• Corrected the price of the discounted Carnival Greatsword to match the other two-handed weapons.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Sentient Aberration to share a daily limit with the Sentient Anomaly.
• The LFG entry for Bloodstone Fen has been updated to show the correct graphic.
• Fixed a server crash.

Mursaat Token Bug Fix and Localized Text

We have released a hotfix for the following bug:

• Mursaat Tokens that were previously blocked, have been moved to accessible locations.

While we have corrected this bug, there is currently an issue with our pipeline that prevented localized text (German, French, Spanish) from being included in this bug fix.

We chose to release the bug fix to the functionality of Mursaat Tokens as soon as we could, rather than delay it.

The team is currently working on the issues with the localized text and this will be corrected as soon as possible.

Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed an issue in which the Open World category in the LFG tool did not include Ember Bay.
• Fixed a bug in which carnival weapons could not be purchased from the vendor.
• The Mercenary Amulet has been removed from the PvP Build panel.
• Mursaat Tokens that were previously blocked have been moved to accessible locations.
• World-map art around Ember Bay has been adjusted to fit the island.
• Adjusted the position of the Barrier Spires point of interest in order to clarify that ascending the spires is not necessary in order to obtain it.
• Adjusted the position of a chest in the Chalice of Tears jumping puzzle so that it is no longer half buried in the terrain.
• Fixed an issue that was blocking the Coliseum Prestige effect from being applied. Players are now granted access to the special action skill upon gaining 7 stacks of Coliseum Prestige.
• Renown-heart icons now better reflect progress toward completing them.
• Fixed a bug in which some players could not obtain the Promontory Waypoint in Ember Bay upon disconnection when loading the map.
• Fixed a server crash relating to the Mistlock Observatory golems.
• Ember Bay: Fixed an issue in which, after completing the Fractured Caldera task region, some players would not receive proper credit for completing the Skritt Anchorage task region.
• Bag of Fractal Relics: Fixed a bug that prevented this item from stacking in the inventory. This item now has consume-all functionality.
• Added name-delete confirmation to Infinite Mist potions and removed the ability to sell them to a vendor.
• Fractals: Fixed a bug in which scale 93 was awarding improper daily achievement credit.
• Tiers of Karmic Retribution can now only be purchased one at a time.
• Fixed a bug in which new players could not get matched in Unranked or Ranked arena.
• Fixed a bug in which PvP maps and Activities always had a capacity of 10 players.
• Fixed a bug in which adjacent skritt stashes would consume multiple contracts while only spawning one skritt. There are no longer adjacent skritt stashes.
• Fixed a crash that occurred when opening the scoreboard in PvP.
• Fixed an issue that would cause an FPS drop when rotating the camera after checking the Enable Camera Teleportation box in the Options panel.