Game Update Notes – December 1, 2015

12/01/15 – December 1 Release Notes
BALANCE, BUG-FIXING, POLISH
World Polish

  • Verdant Brink
    • Fixed a bug that could prevent “Help Faren train to be a swordsmaster” from ending.
  • Auric Basin
    • Fixed a bug in which Sage Volaar’s head would talk over Dawkkurra’s voice in a cinematic.
  • Tangled Depths
    • Fixed a rare bug that would prevent the egg barrel from spawning during “Collect chak eggs so the ogres can research them,” blocking event progress.
    • Reduced the difficulty scaling for “Collect chak eggs so the ogres can research them,” lowering the time it takes to complete with large groups of players.
    • Fixed a bug that would create too many veteran cave spiders during “Escort Nokta into the Great Tree as he looks for potential pets.”
    • Fixed a bug that would cause Nokta the Tracker to exhibit strange movement patterns during “Kill the champion bat so Nokta can return his pets to camp.”
    • Increased the time delay on a chak lurker ambush that would frequently disrupt events just outside of Rata Novus.
    • Fixed a bug that caused the event radius of “Kill nearby mushrooms to provide the Nuhoch’s beetles with food” to be smaller than the area of the event.
  • Dragon’s Stand
    • Fixed a bug in which the northern lane events might continue to cycle even after the Northern Barbed Gate had opened.

General

  • Fixed a bug in the Underground Facility Fractal that could block progression in the fractal when using teleport skills just before reaching the reinforced door.
  • Heavy supply bags now have a chance to drop in WvW maps.
  • Fixed a bug in which players were able to spend items that had been soulbound to another character at vendors.

Items

  • The Gift of Fortune can now be salvaged into its base materials.
  • Superior Rune of Thorns: Updated the text for the effect this rune set applies for when the wearer is struck by a poisoned enemy.
  • Players are more likely to get the invisible mushroom spore for the profession they are playing as.
  • Loot bags received in Magus Falls now indicate if they are affected by magic find.
  • Fighting the chak gerent in Tangled Depths now has a chance to give chak eggs even if the event fails.
  • Night bosses in Verdant Brink have had their rewards updated.
  • Several boss events in Tangled Depths have had their rewards improved, and they now have a chance to give chak eggs.
  • Updated the map completion rewards for Southsun Cove to better reflect the effort required.

Profession Skills
Elementalist

  • Rebound: Fixed a bug that allowed elementalists to revive when Vapor Form ends.
  • Lucid Singularity: Fixed an issue that caused this trait to not reduce crippled and chilled durations by 100%. Fixed a bug that caused this trait to heal in a radius when completing an overload.
  • Speedy Conduit: Fixed an issue that caused this trait to apply 5 seconds of swiftness instead of the intended 8.
  • Overload Fire: Fixed an issue that caused the effects of this ability to scale with the character’s size.
  • Overload Water: Fixed an issue that caused the effects of this ability to scale with the character’s size.
  • “Wash the Pain Away!”: Reduced the visual noise on the effects associated with this skill.
  • “Flash-Freeze!”: Reduced the visual noise on the effects associated with this skill.
  • “Feel the Burn!”: Reduced the visual noise on the effects associated with this skill.
  • The following skills have had their effects replaced with a new version to reduce visual noise: Frost Aura, Magnetic Aura, Shocking Aura, and Fire Shield.
  • Tempest: Updated overload-readied voice-over to not play as frequently when moving in and out of water.

Engineer

  • Detection Pulse: Fixed a bug so that the radius of 600 is correctly displayed.

Guardian

  • Shield of Courage: The text of this ability has been updated to indicate that it blocks all attacks for allies in the area (and the guardian from the front) while leaving the guardian vulnerable from the flanks.

Mesmer

  • Chronomancer—Well of Eternity: Increased the level multiplier for the initial healing on this skill by 25% to match the intended value shown in the skill facts.
  • Illusionary Wave: Fixed a bug that caused the knockback from this skill to occasionally fail when the trait Imagined Burden was equipped.
  • Chaos Armor: The visual effects have been replaced with a new version to reduce visual noise.

Necromancer

  • Reaper—Relentless Pursuit: Fixed a bug that caused the decreased condition reduction to not function correctly while in Reaper’s Shroud.
  • Executioner’s Scythe: Reduced the visual noise on the effects associated with this skill.

Ranger

  • Ancestral Grace: Fixed a bug that caused this skill to place the player in combat upon completion.
  • Invigorating Bond: Fixed a bug with this trait that was preventing some pet F2 skills from displaying the updated skill facts.
  • Wilting Strike: Fixed a bug with this trait that was preventing some pet F2 skills from displaying the updated skill facts.
  • Go for the Eyes: Fixed an issue that allowed this ability to trigger blindness at an incredibly fast rate. This trait now has a 12-second internal cooldown.
  • Grace of the Land: Updated the skill facts from the effect granted by this trait to correctly reflect that each stack grants 3% damage instead of 2%.
  • Electric Wyvern—Lightning Assault: Updated skill facts to reflect the launch being performed.
  • Bristleback: Fixed a bug causing this pet’s effective health to be greater than intended.

Revenant

  • Assassin’s Annihilation: Fixed an issue that prevented this trait from showing up in the combat log.
  • Coalescence of Ruin: Fixed an issue that prevented this ability from dealing damage at the very edge of its range. Updated the effects to portray its combat regions more accurately.

Thief

  • Weakening Strikes: Updated the trait facts to include the damage reduction from weakened enemies (10%).

Structured Player vs. Player

  • Added game history to the PvP panel’s home tab.
  • Added game history to the guild panel’s guild-team tab.
  • Added an admin list to custom-arena customization.
  • Removed rank restriction from Conquest game mode.
  • Added a dismiss button to the match-ready prompt.

Forest of Niflhel

  • Removed the rocks at the top of the columns at the Henge capture point.

PvP League Season Begins!
For info on leagues and the PvP Legendary Journey, visit: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/the-pvp-league-begins-on-december-1/

  • Play in Ranked Arena to compete in the PvP League season.
  • Climb tiers and divisions to prove your worth in the PvP leagues.
  • Upon entering a division, players are rewarded with unique nameplate badges and PvP League tickets.

Guild Challenger League

  • Play in Ranked Arena as a guild team to participate in the Guild Challenger League.
  • Guild Challenger League is based off the ELO rating type.
  • The top 250 teams will receive a trophy based on their placement for their guild hall.
  • The top 1,000 teams receive some materials to help restore their guild arena.

PvP Legendary Journey—The Ascension

  • Participating in Ranked Arena advances the journey for the Ascension.
  • The Ascension is created from:
    • Gift of the Competitor: Obtained by combining the 4 pieces in the Mystic Forge.
      • Each piece is awarded from completing each of the 4 meta-achievements.
    • Gift of Skirmishing: Obtained by combining various items into the Mystic Forge.
      • 250 Shards of Glory
        • Obtained from reward tracks and PvP League.
      • 1 Perfect Mist Core
        • Obtained by combining 4 mist core fragments in the Mystic Forge.
        • 1 – 2 mist core fragments are obtained by finishing the Glorious Reward Track.
      • 5 Certificate[s] of Support
        • Purchased from the League Vendor.
      • 2 Vision Crystals
    • Gift of Fortune: Not yet available at this time.
    • Precursor: Obtained by combining all 4 tiers of Glorious Wings in the Mystic Forge.
      • The 4 tiers of Glorious Wings can be purchased from the League Vendor.

World vs. World

  • Chests of the Mists will no longer be available from bonus rank-up chests, but they can still be obtained from standard rank-up chests.
  • Significantly increased the number of Proofs of Heroics awarded from Chests of the Mists.
  • Slightly increased the number of Memories of Battle awarded from Chests of the Mists.
  • Any new Chests of the Mists dropped are now soulbound on acquire, as well as stackable.
  • Fixed a few ambient creatures to prevent players from rallying off their deaths.
  • The Auto Turret upgrade now correctly activates turrets at Stonemist Castle.
  • Fixed keep and castle walls such that there are no longer a few odd ranged attacks that pass through them.
  • Catapult boulders are now effective against barricades.
  • Fixed experience rewards for repairing metal walls using characters with a level 2 or higher Repair Master ability.
  • Jerrifer and Ogrewatch guards will no longer engage ambient critters in combat.
  • Fixed a bug in which wood, stone, and metal walls would be visible, stacked on top of each other, right after a new build or reset.
  • Fixed a bug that allowed contestable keep waypoints to be available for a few seconds in between repel events.

Guild

  • An NPC has been added to the end of guild rushes that allows guild members, with permission, to end the mission early, and grants them favor before the timer runs out.
  • Fixed a bug on the Quaggan Paddle guild mission. Guilds that did not place the banner to start the race now can receive credit.
  • The guild hall market’s Guild Trader now always sells resonating slivers for 1 commendation each.
  • Crystalline ore has been removed from the cost of basic decorations.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions

  • A new Slayer’s Outfit is available in the Style category of the Gem Store for 700 gems.
  • A new set of Merciless weapon skins is available at Black Lion Weapons Specialists for 1 ticket for a limited time.
  • The new Winter Chimes Dye Kit brings new variety and depth to metallic colors, found in the Special category of the Gem Store.
  • Wintersday finishers have returned to the Upgrades category. Finalize your opponents with a snowman, a stack of gifts, or a random snow globe.
  • Winter’s Bite and Wintersday weapons are available again at Black Lion Weapons Specialists for 2 tickets during the Wintersday season.

Bug Fixes

  • Gifting from the Gem Store now requires a full account without economy restrictions.