Guild Wars 2 Game Release Notes

Game Update Notes: December 11, 2018

12/11/2018—December 11 Release Notes

Wintersday

Come join us in celebrating Wintersday! Toymaker Tixx has made his annual visit to Divinity’s Reach to spread seasonal cheer and festivity through a variety of activities. Complete daily achievements to earn fanciful holiday weapons, give the orphans of Divinity’s Reach wrapped gifts, test your snow-throwing skills in Snowball Mayhem, experience the joy of jumping in Winter Wonderland, defend against waves of toys in Toypocalypse, and help keep Tixx’s airship, the Infinirarium, in order! Wintersday gifts will also be appearing all around Tyria during the festivities.

Meanwhile, beneath the snowy hills of the distant north, an icy-hearted tyrant stirs as the weather chills…

  • A new holiday mission has been revealed: The Secret Lair of the Snowmen! Gather a squad of allies and meet snowman Cob in Divinity’s Reach to journey into the north. Discover the truth behind the snowmen’s long absence, and bring the spirit of Wintersday back to its oldest defenders!
  • A meta-achievement has been added for the annual Wintersday achievements. Complete a set of achievements to earn a frosty new mini!
  • To prevent players from loading into instances that no longer have playable songs, the Free Play section has been removed from Bell Choir.
  • Festive portals and gift-bearing trees have been added to each capitol city to increase access to the Infinirarium in Divinity’s Reach.
  • Fixed a bug in which some players only had access to their normal skills for a short time in Winter Wonderland.
  • Updated some repeatable achievements to now reward tradeable Wintersday Gifts instead of account-bound gifts.
  • New items have been added to Wintersday Gifts.

General

  • A Festivals category has been added under the Looking for Group tab of the Contacts and LFG panel to help players find groups for seasonal content.
  • Fourteen new guild emblems that were created by ArenaNet’s creative partners have been added to the Emblem Design section of the Emblemer panel.
  • Fixed a bug in which the roller beetle’s boost effects would incorrectly flicker off.
  • Brisban Wildlands: Adjusted the draw distance of a set of bushes to help players avoid them during roller beetle races.
  • Brisban Wildlands: Moved a logging node to prevent players from hitting it during roller beetle races.

Items

  • Superior Rune of the Zephyrite: Fixed the description of this rune to display its element type.
  • Superior Rune of the Ice: Fixed a bug that caused the 6-piece bonus from this set to use a longer cooldown than the intended 10-second cooldown.
  • Superior Rune of Tormenting: Fixed a bug that caused the 4-piece bonus from this set to grant a 15% increased torment duration instead of the intended 20% increase.
  • Superior Rune of Evasion: This rune now has a 1-second cooldown between swiftness applications.
  • The following items can now be stacked:
    • Bag of Obsidian
    • Medium Bag of Obsidian
    • Large Bag of Obsidian
    • Rune Bag
    • Sigil Bag
    • Trophy Bag
    • Bag of Dragonite Ore

Profession Skills

Following up on the previous balance release, we’re continuing to update weapon traits to offer more meaningful options when players are not using the related weapons while also enhancing those weapons’ playstyles if the player is using them. In particular, we updated a fair amount of warrior weapon traits and a few remaining traits in other professions.

This update reworks all traits that react automatically to incoming control effects by applying control effects on the attacker. Traits that immediately punish players for successfully landing their skills, particularly when they are not very visible, teach the wrong things. The reworked traits are intended to encourage more active play and to provide new opportunities for the defender without outright punishing the attacker.

In addition to crowd-control trait reworks, this update also addresses traits that deal instant damage and how they affect the game. The large majority of these traits have had their base damage increased while removing their ability to critically hit in order to improve pacing and reduce time-to-kill in competitive game modes. Certain traits that serve as the main source of a build’s damage in both PvE and competitive modes have been modified so that they require critical hits in order to deal maximum damage, giving conditions like weakness more value.

Finally, we’re making changes to encourage more variety in boon-based support builds. To start, we are opening up select skills for different professions that will allow them to share boons directly with up to ten allies. In addition, we’ll be reducing which boons mesmers and their specializations can apply since chronomancer is currently stifling other options due to its ability to easily apply all boons with Signet of Inspiration. Our goal here is to give value to different professions and specializations by making them all adept at applying specific boons to their allies so that multiple professions are needed in order to cover all boons.

General

  • Consume Plasma: This skill has been split between PvP and other game modes, reducing protection from 10 seconds to 4 seconds, and stability from 5 seconds to 2 seconds.

Elementalist

In this update, there have been some modifications to tempest overloads to allow for 10-target applications of select boons. We’ve also made some quality-of-life changes for the scepter weapon. Most of the instant-damage traits have been standardized so that they do not critically hit, but Electric Discharge will retain its full damage capability when it critically hits a foe.

  • Dragon’s Tooth: The casting time of this skill has been reduced from 1.25 seconds to a little over 0.75 seconds.
  • Phoenix: This skill now applies 1 stack of burning for 6 seconds to enemies struck by its area attack.
  • Ice Spike: This skill now strikes first before applying vulnerability.
  • Riptide: Fixed a bug that allowed this skill to go on full cooldown when interrupted before any benefit was gained.
  • Overload Water: This skill now applies vigor for 5 seconds upon completion. The number of targets this skill affects has been increased from 5 to 10.
  • Overload Earth: The number of targets this skill affects has been increased from 5 to 10.
  • Overload Fire: Fixed a bug in which this skill hit fewer times than intended when the elementalist was affected by quickness.
  • Arcane Precision: The burning duration of this skill has been increased from 1 second to 1.5 seconds.
  • Ether Renewal: This skill now removes conditions before each healing pulse.
  • Earthen Blast: The damage of this trait has been increased by 20%. It no longer critically hits foes.
  • Electric Discharge: The critical damage of this trait has been increased by 100%. Its base damage has been reduced by 50%.
  • Sunspot: The damage of this trait has been increased by 20%. It no longer critically hits foes.
  • Tempest Defense: This trait has been replaced by Stormsoul, and its functionality has changed. It now grants 10% increased damage against foes affected by control effects and increases the duration of outgoing stuns by 33%.

Engineer

Scrapper has received a few updates with this release, with the goal of dealing a bit more damage in the thick of battle. Final Salvo, the gyro-centric Grandmaster trait, has been merged with the Master tier trait Expert Examination. Kinetic Stabilizers, a new and more opportunistic damage trait, takes its Grandmaster spot. Elixir U’s tool-belt skill was providing too much quickness, so it’s been replaced with group superspeed. We also removed the autocasting Elixir S from Emergency Elixir and replaced it with Elixir E, since we felt that the instant, full invulnerability granted by that trait was too powerful when compared to similar traits. The new Elixir E still grants strong defense in the form of barrier on a lower cooldown, but it gives aggressors more options for counterplay.

  • Toss Elixir U: This skill no longer gives quickness to allies and instead gives them superspeed for 3 seconds.
  • Cleansing Burst: This skill’s description has been updated to clarify that it removes conditions before it heals.
  • Expert Examination: The vulnerability and weakness this trait applies upon disabling an enemy will now also occur when gyros are detonated.
  • Impact Savant: This trait now grants 5% bonus damage when the engineer is under the effects of barrier, in addition to strengthening barrier.
  • Final Salvo: This trait has been renamed Kinetic Stabilizers.
  • Kinetic Stabilizers: This trait grants 5 seconds of stability (3 seconds in PvP) and 3 seconds of superspeed upon disabling an enemy or activating Function Gyro. It also deals 10% bonus damage when the engineer has stability.
  • Static Discharge: The critical damage of this trait has been increased by 100%. Its base damage has been reduced by 50%.
  • Thermal Release Valve: The burning this skill applies in PvE has been increased from 1 stack for 6 seconds to 2 stacks for 6 seconds. Its damage no longer critically hits foes in all game modes.
  • Self-Regulating Defenses: This trait has been renamed Emergency Elixir. Rather than using Elixir S, it now uses a new skill called Elixir E that grants barrier (3,000 at level 80) and protection for 3 seconds. The threshold that triggers this trait is now 33% health instead of 25% health. Elixir E’s cooldown is 40 seconds.

Guardian

A major goal for guardian in this update was to give it a more solid flow of firebrand combat in raid scenarios. This involved reducing some cooldowns, giving more access to group quickness and fury, and allowing stability to affect a full ten allies. Next, access to tomes has been too high and allowed for little to no counterplay. To remedy this, we adjusted cooldowns in the game modes we deemed problematic and tweaked some traits that automatically refresh defensive virtues. Glacial Heart has had a larger rework based on adjustments made to both weapon and instant-damage traits and will now directly affect the hammer weapon itself.

  • Searing Slash: The burning duration of this skill has been increased from 1 second to 2 seconds per hit.
  • Symbol of Vengeance: This symbol now applies fury for 1.5 seconds on each pulse in addition to its other effects. The number of targets (both enemies and allies) this skill can affect has been increased from 3 to 5.
  • Mantra of Potence—Potent Haste: The quickness duration of this skill has been increased from 2 seconds to 2.5 seconds.
  • Mantra of Potence—Overwhelming Celerity: The quickness duration of this skill has been increased from 4 seconds to 5 seconds.
  • “Stand Your Ground!”: The number of targets this skill affects has been increased from 5 to 10.
  • Tome of Justice: The base cooldown of this skill has been increased from 30 seconds to 40 seconds in PvP and WvW only.
  • Tome of Resolve: The base cooldown of this skill has been increased from 40 seconds to 50 seconds.
  • Tome of Courage: The base cooldown of this skill has been increased from 50 seconds to 75 seconds.
  • Courageous Return: This trait no longer fully refreshes the cooldown of Virtue of Courage and instead reduces the cooldown of Virtue of Courage by 10 seconds for each ally who is successfully revived. The internal cooldown for Courageous Return has been removed.
  • Glacial Heart: This trait no longer inflicts area damage upon critically hitting a foe. Instead, it now inflicts a single strike that chills enemies for 2 seconds if they have been disabled by the guardian, regardless of which weapon is equipped. The base damage of this trait has been reduced by 50%, and it can no longer critically hit. Equipping this trait now modifies Mighty Blow into Glacial Blow, increasing damage by 17% while chilling enemies it hits for 2.5 seconds at the cost of an increased recharge time that is now 6 seconds instead of 4 seconds. The baseline hammer skills have a reduced recharge time because this trait no longer reduces cooldowns.
    • Mighty Blow: The cooldown of this skill has been reduced from 5 seconds to 4 seconds.
    • Zealot’s Embrace: The cooldown of this skill has been reduced from 15 seconds to 12 seconds.
    • Banish: The cooldown of this skill has been reduced from 18 seconds to 15 seconds.
    • Ring of Warding: The cooldown of this skill has been reduced from 40 seconds to 30 seconds.
  • Liberator’s Vow: Reduced the internal cooldown of this trait from 8 seconds to 7 seconds.
  • Loremaster: The recharge reduction of this trait has been split between game modes and will now use a 20% cooldown reduction in PvP while keeping a 33% cooldown reduction in PvE and WvW.
  • Quickfire: The internal cooldown of this trait has been reduced from 8 seconds to 7 seconds.
  • Shattered Aegis: The damage of this trait has been increased by 20% in PvE only. This trait can no longer critically hit.
  • Stalwart Speed: The internal cooldown of this trait has been reduced from 8 seconds to 7 seconds.
  • Unbroken Lines: The cooldown of this skill has been increased from 12 seconds to 15 seconds in PvP only.
  • Chapter 1: Unflinching Charge: The duration of stability that this skill grants is now 4 seconds in PvE and WvW. Its duration in PvP has been reduced from 3 seconds to 2 seconds.

Mesmer

In this update, we’ve made changes to Signet of Inspiration and Mimic—two core skills in the current skill rotation for chronomancers in raids. These are fairly significant changes with slightly different purposes, although both have been made to address the issue of stacking power multipliers.

The change to Mimic prevents it from being reset by the chronomancer’s Continuum Split skill. This is intended to prevent multiplicative power in the mesmer’s kit. We want Mimic to be a skill that allows for unique flexibility in mesmer builds, but its double-casting function created multiplicative power when combined with Continuum Split. This change also gave us the opportunity to give Mimic a scaling recharge time in order make it more versatile for general play.

Instead of the mesmer sharing its own active boons with allies, we’ve changed Signet of Inspiration to extend the duration of boons that are already on allies. This is intended to put more emphasis on the signet as a skill that augments other support skills rather than one that other support skills feed into.

Neither of these changes are intended to alter the chronomancer’s identity as a build focused around quickness and alacrity. However, the power these two skills allowed chronomancers made them a one-stop shop for every boon in the game, which was crowding out other potential roles in raid compositions. In order to reinforce this direction, we’ve also added quickness and alacrity enhancements to wells.

On a separate note, we’ve also reduced the power of mirages in PvP in order to lower their burst damage. We want mirages to excel in longer combat engagements, but their burst damage was just too high.

  • Axes of Symmetry: The physical damage of this skill has been split between game modes and reduced by about 30% in PvP only.
  • Lingering Thoughts: The ammunition-recharge time of this skill has been split between game modes and has been increased from 8 seconds to 10 seconds in PvP only.
  • Tides of Time: Fixed a bug in which this skill could strike foes multiple times per wave.
  • Chaos Vortex: The might granted by this skill has been changed from 3 stacks for 8 seconds to 2 stacks for 15 seconds.
  • Jaunt: The number of charges this skill can hold has been split between game modes and reduced from 3 charges to 2 charges in PvP and WvW.
  • Signet of Humility: The defiance-bar damage performed by this skill has been reduced from 10 seconds to 6 seconds to match the duration of the skill’s transformation.
  • Signet of Inspiration: The active effect of this signet no longer shares the mesmer’s boons with allies. Instead, it now extends the duration of all allies’ current boons by 5 seconds.
  • Signet of Midnight: This signet’s passive effect now grants 180 expertise at level 80 instead of a flat condition duration in order to be consistent with other signet effects.
  • Mimic: This skill’s recharge time has been reduced from 75 seconds to 40 seconds and is now increased by the recharge time of the utility skill that it affects. The recharge time of this skill cannot be reset by other mesmer skills.
  • Portal Entre: The duration of time the mesmer has to place Portal Exeunt has been split between games modes. The duration has been reduced from 60 seconds to 30 seconds in PvP and WvW, but remains unchanged in PvE.
  • Well of Action: The duration of quickness that the final pulse of this skill applies has been increased from 4 seconds to 5 seconds.
  • Well of Recall: The duration of alacrity that the final pulse of this skill applies has been increased from 4 seconds to 5 seconds. Its casting time has been reduced from 1 second to 0.75 seconds.
  • Continuum Split: Fixed a bug in which the rift object that is created by this skill could fail to be destroyed when the the “resign” command (/resign, /gg, /surrender, /forfeit/, /qq, /ff) was used.
  • Bountiful Disillusionment: This trait now only applies boons to the mesmer.
  • Danger Time: This trait’s effect now applies to illusions.
  • Lost Time: This trait now delivers its slowing strike when the mesmer disables their target instead of after the mesmer has built charges. Its base strike damage has been reduced by 50%, but its critical-hit damage has been increased by 100%.
  • Mirror of Anguish: This trait has been renamed Auspicious Anguish. It now causes the skill Distortion to instantly recharge when the mesmer is affected by a control effect. It also causes the distortion effect to grant a random boon when it ends. The cooldown of this trait is 50 seconds.
  • Power Block: The damage of this skill has been increased by 20% so that it now matches its tooltip. This trait can no longer critically hit foes.

Necromancer

In addition to updating several necromancer traits that deal instant damage, we’ve also done a pass on the Soul Reaping specialization line. The Master tier traits were especially uneven with most of the power concentrated in Vital Persistence. Spectral Mastery was removed due to how its functionality overlapped with what spectral skills already did, and spectral skills themselves have received several enhancements to make them better as stand-alone utilities.

Another important change was an update to Death Nova to give it additional minion-summoning support. While we still need the 30-second timer to prevent large minion armies, we felt that the current trait could be doing more to give necromancers the feeling of being a minion master.

Last but not least, we’ve changed Abrasive Grit in order to address its interaction with the Rune of Sanctuary in a way that doesn’t involve an internal cooldown.

  • Spectral Wall: This skill has been renamed Spectral Ring. It now creates a circular ring instead of a line. Its duration has been split between games modes, lasting 8 seconds in PvE and 5 seconds in PvP and WvW. This skill cannot apply fear to the same foe more than once every 1.5 seconds.
  • Spectral Walk: The recharge time of this skill has been reduced from 50 seconds to 40 seconds. It now consumes 1 condition every 2 seconds it’s active (up to 6 conditions at its full duration), converting each condition into 4% life force. It no longer grants life force when the necromancer takes damage.
  • Lich Form: The recharge time of this skill has been reduced from 180 seconds to 150 seconds.
  • Reaper’s Protection: This trait has been renamed Dark Defiance. It now causes necromancers to gain protection for 3 seconds when affected by control effects and causes protection that is applied to the necromancer to reduce their incoming condition damage by 20%. This trait has a cooldown of 20 seconds.
  • Abrasive Grit: The internal cooldown of this trait has been removed. This trait now only activates from necromancer skills and traits that apply barrier. It now grants 2 stacks of might for 6 seconds.
  • Chill of Death: The damage of this trait has been increased by 20% in PvE, and it will no longer be able to critically hit foes. The damage displayed in its tooltip has been fixed in PvP and WvW.
  • Chilling Nova: The damage of this trait has been increased by 25% in PvE, and it will no longer be able to critically hit foes in all game modes.
  • Death Nova: The time between jagged horror summons has been reduced from 15 seconds to 3 seconds for this trait. A maximum of 5 jagged horrors can be summoned at a time. Summoning a new jagged horror after reaching this maximum will kill the oldest jagged horror.
  • Fear of Death: The fear-duration bonus of this trait has been increased to 100%. It no longer causes fear when the necromancer is in a downed state. Instead, it now grants 15% life force upon inflicting a foe with fear. This effect has a 5-second internal cooldown.
  • Gluttony: The might that this trait grants has been removed. It now increases the amount of life force gained from all sources instead of just from skills.
  • Necromantic Corruption: Fixed a bug in which minions took conditions from allies other than the necromancer. Added a visual effect when this trait activates to indicate which minion is taking the necromancer’s condition.
  • Last Gasp: This trait has been replaced with Sinister Shroud.
  • Sinister Shroud: This trait has replaced Last Gasp. It reduces the recharge time of shroud skills by 15%.
  • Soul Barbs: This trait has replaced Spectral Mastery in the Master tier. It grants a 10% damage increase to all attacks for 10 seconds whenever necromancers enter or exit a shroud.
  • Spectral Mastery: This trait has been replaced with Soul Barbs. Spectral Wall, Spectral Walk, and Lich Form have been updated as a result.
  • Spiteful Spirit: The damage of this trait has been increased by 25% in PvE, and it will no longer be able to critically hit foes in all game modes.
  • Strength of Undeath: This trait has been renamed Soul Battery. Its bonus damage has been removed while the necromancer is above the life-force threshold. The maximum life force has been increased from 15% to 20%.
  • Terror: Fixed a bug in which the damage that is listed for this trait did not reflect its actual damage.
  • Vital Persistence: This trait no longer reduces the recharge time of shroud skills. Instead, it increases all incoming healing by 20% in PvE and by 10% in PvP and WvW. Its vitality bonus is unchanged.
  • Weakening Shroud: The damage of this trait has been increased by 20% in PvE, and it will no longer be able to critically hit foes in all game modes.

Ranger

Right now, spirits are playing an important role in our difficult end-game content by providing unique enhancements. When a trait is equipped with Nature’s Vengeance, spirits also serve as low-cost boon generators. In this update, we made select changes to Nature’s Vengeance to reduce the boon output and to clean up the trait. Depending on how these changes work out, we may further adjust spirits in the future.

Additionally, soulbeasts are currently overperforming in competitive game modes, so we’re lowering the power of some of the skills used in their builds. We also took this opportunity to enhance a few of their weaker stances.

  • Call of the Wild: This skill’s fury duration has been split between game modes and will now use a 6-second duration in PvP while keeping its 10-second duration in other game modes.
  • Bear Stance: This skill will now attempt to consume a condition before it heals.
  • Moa Stance: The cooldown of this skill has been increased from 25 seconds to 40 seconds in PvP only.
  • Dolyak Stance: This skill no longer applies retaliation. Instead, it now reduces incoming condition damage and physical damage by 33% for the duration of the stance in addition to its other effects.
  • Griffon Stance: This skill is no longer instant and now evades for 1 second in addition to its current effects.
  • Spirit Skills: Fixed a bug in which nature spirits could continue to apply effects to allies after they were defeated. The base health of spirits has been increased by 25%.
  • Frost Spirit: The name of the spirit that is summoned by this skill has been changed from Spirit of Frost to Frost Spirit to be consistent with other ranger spirit names.
  • Ambidexterity: Fixed a bug in which the bonus stats that this trait granted could be incorrectly applied.
  • Nature’s Vengeance: This trait no longer increases spirit health. Individual spirit bonuses have been updated as follows:
    • Storm Spirit: This spirit now grants fury for 1 second instead of swiftness for 3 seconds on each pulse while this trait is equipped.
    • Frost Spirit: This spirit now grants might for 5 seconds for 1 stack instead of 3 seconds for 3 stacks while this trait is equipped.
    • Spirit of Nature Renewal: Fixed a bug in which the stability granted by the spirit of nature hit fewer targets than intended.
    • Water Spirit: The regeneration duration that this spirit grants has been reduced from 3 seconds to 2 seconds while this trait is equipped.
  • Soften the Fall: Fixed a bug in which the muddy terrain that this trait creates could last much longer than the intended 10-second duration.
  • Wilderness Knowledge: The duration of fury that this trait grants has been split between game modes. It now grants 4 seconds of fury in PvP and WvW while keeping a 6-second duration in PvE.
  • Winter’s Bite: The duration of weakness that this skill grants has been split between game modes. It now inflicts 4 seconds of weakness in PvP and WvW while keeping a 10-second duration in PvE.

Revenant

Since we removed the counter-taunt from Eye for an Eye, we felt it was a good time to adjust some of the more passive traits in the Retribution line, like Steadfast Rejuvenation and Dwarven Battle Training. We also noticed that heralds have been underperforming in some game modes since their rework, so we’ve bumped up the numbers on their F2 skills, and we’ve reduced the recharge time for a few of the consume skills in PvE.

  • Shackling Wave: The casting animation of this skill has been increased from just over 0.5 seconds to a little under 1 second to allow for better counterplay. Added a visual indicator to the skill’s warm-up animation.
  • Forced Engagement: This skill’s taunt and slow durations have been increased from 2 seconds to 4 seconds in PvE only. It now causes the revenant to take 20% less damage from their taunted foes.
  • Soothing Stone: This skill now removes conditions before it heals.
  • Burst of Strength: The cooldown of this skill has been reduced from 15 seconds to 12 seconds in PvE only.
  • Elemental Blast: The cooldown of this skill has been reduced from 15 seconds to 12 seconds in PvE only.
  • Facet of Nature—Assassin: The power multiplier for this skill has been increased by 100%, and its base multiplier has been increased by 35%.
  • Facet of Nature—Centaur: This skill’s base healing per pulse has been increased from 272 to 471 at level 80, and its healing-power contribution has been increased by 363%.
  • True Nature: The following changes have been made to this skill:
    • Legendary Assassin Stance: When removing boons, True Nature now delivers an attack that cannot be blocked, rather than an attack that is completely unavoidable.
    • Legendary Centaur Stance: True Nature now heals for each condition that is removed, up to a maximum of 970 health per condition at level 80.
    • Legendary Demon Stance: True Nature now transfers conditions to enemies and grants 5 stacks of might for 10 seconds for each condition that is transferred.
  • Draconic Echo: Fixed a bug in which this trait could fail to activate under certain circumstances.
  • Dwarven Battle Training: This trait now increases the revenant’s damage to weakened foes by 10% and applies weakness for 5 seconds when the revenant disables a foe.
  • Eye for an Eye: This trait now grants protection for 5 seconds when the revenant is affected by a control effect, and it grants 5 stacks of might for 10 seconds when they break a stun. The protection aspect of this trait has a cooldown of 35 seconds. The might aspect has no cooldown.
  • Improved Aggression: This trait has been renamed Spiritual Reckoning. It now applies 3 seconds of retaliation when revenants use their elite skill and has a 10-second internal cooldown.
  • Spontaneous Destruction: The damage of this trait has been increased by about 33%. It is no longer able to critically hit enemies.
  • Steadfast Rejuvenation: This trait now regenerates health every second for each point of upkeep the revenant is maintaining.

Thief

When we changed malice to no longer generate over time in an earlier update, we also carried over the portion of Death’s Judgment that could not be blocked. However, now that it takes a shorter time to build malice, we no longer feel like this benefit is necessary. Additionally, we’ve toned down the initial burst of damage that the thief can apply by removing the ability to stack Lead Attacks when outside of combat. We’ve also had the opportunity to update thief weapon traits to the new standard of having a baseline value in addition to the benefits while wielding that weapon.

  • Consume Plasma: This skill has been split between game modes, reducing the protection it grants from 10 seconds to 4 seconds the stability it grants from 5 seconds to 2 seconds in PvP only.
  • Cluster Bomb: The projectile speed of this skill has been increased by 50%.
  • Death’s Judgment: This skill can now be blocked.
  • Lotus Strike: The number of poison stacks this skill grants has been increased from 1 to 2, and its duration has been reduced from 6 seconds to 5 seconds.
  • Vault: The damage of this attack will no longer occur if the thief shadowsteps after the skill has begun.
  • Hide in Shadows: This skill’s description has been updated to clarify that it removes conditions before it heals.
  • Withdraw: This skill’s description has been updated to clarify that it removes conditions before it performs its other functions.
  • Ankle Shots: This trait now grants a baseline 5% damage to crippled enemies and an additional 5% damage if the thief is wielding a pistol. The chance to cripple a foe upon landing a critical hit with a pistol is now 100%, and the tooltip regarding this trait’s chance to critically hit has been removed.
  • Dagger Training: This trait no longer grants an additional 5% damage when wielding a dagger. Instead, it now grants a baseline power of 80 with an additional 80 granted if the thief is wielding a dagger.
  • Lead Attacks: The duration of this trait’s Lead Attacks stacking effect has been reduced from 15 seconds to 10 seconds. It now requires the player to be in combat in order to generate the stacking damage effect. Initiative skills that cause the player to enter combat will generate stacks of this trait.
  • Malicious Restoration: This skill now transfers conditions before it heals.
  • Silent Scope: This trait no longer grants an additional 20% chance to critically hit with kneeling rifle skills and Death’s Judgment. It now grants up to 120 precision regardless of the weapon the thief wields, and an additional 120 precision while wielding a rifle.
  • Staff Master: This trait now grants 5% damage when endurance is not full, which increases to 10% when wielding a staff.
  • Swindler’s Equilibrium: The cooldown of this trait has been reduced from 20 seconds (30 seconds in competitive game modes) to 10 seconds in all game modes. It now reduces the cooldown of Steal by 50% (25% in competitive game modes) instead of 100%. This trait no longer increases damage by a percentage and instead grants 120 power with an additional 120 power granted if the thief is also wielding a sword.

Warrior

Full Counter has functionally different uses in competitive game modes when compared to PvE, so we’ve further split this skill between game modes in order to emphasize this difference. We also cleaned up several weapon traits that were not included in the last update. Lastly, many warrior weapon traits now offer enhancements regardless of weapon while still providing additional bonuses when using specific weapons.

  • Full Counter: The damage applied by this skill in competitive modes has been reduced from 75% of PvE to 25% of PvE. Its daze duration in competitive game modes has been increased to 1.5 seconds.
  • Mending: This skill’s description has been updated to clarify that it removes conditions before it heals.
  • Scorched Earth: The burning duration of this skill has been reduced from 5 seconds to 4 seconds.
  • Axe Mastery: The amount of ferocity that increases while wielding an axe has been reduced from a maximum of 300 to a maximum of 120, and warriors can now gain up to 120 ferocity for each axe they are wielding. Warriors now gain up to 120 ferocity regardless of what weapon they are wielding.
  • Blademaster: The condition-duration increase this trait grants for sword skills has been replaced with an increase of up to 120 condition damage while wielding a sword. It now grants up to 120 expertise regardless of the weapon the warrior is wielding.
  • Forceful Greatsword: This trait no longer increases greatsword and spear damage by 10%. It now grants 120 power at level 80 and an additional 120 power if the warrior is wielding a greatsword or spear.
  • Heat the Soul: The amount of condition damage that increases while wielding a torch has been reduced from a maximum of 150 to a maximum of 120. Warriors now gain up to 120 condition damage regardless of the weapon they are wielding.
  • Magebane Tether: The duration of might that this trait grants has been split between game modes and will now apply 2 stacks for 6 seconds in PvP while keeping its current 8 stacks for 3 seconds in PvE and WvW.
  • Merciless Hammer: The part of this trait that inflicts confusion has been removed. Hammer skills now inflict increased damage on any disabled target, not just those who are dazed, knocked down, launched, or stunned. This trait now grants adrenaline when the warrior disables a foe, regardless of the weapon the warrior wields.
  • Bloodlust: The base bleeding duration has been reduced from 5 seconds to 3 seconds.

Structured Player vs. Player

  • Legacy of the Foefire: Made slight adjustments to the Waterfall capture-point area to address an issue in which players could contest the point but were unable to be hit by melee attacks.
  • A version of the Mistforged Glorious Hero’s chest armor without animated visual effects in combat has been added. Going forward, both skins will be unlocked when players buy the chest armor. If a player has already purchased the chest armor, they will be able to collect the skin from the vendor for free.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE

New Items and Promotions

  • The new Sun Temple Gecko Springer Skin is available in the Style category of the Gem Store for 2,000 gems.
  • For a limited time, the new set of Orchestral weapon skins is available from Black Lion Weapons Specialists for 1 Black Lion Claim Ticket. Tickets can be found in Black Lion Chests.
  • For a limited time, the Frostforged Weapon Collection and the Winter’s Weapon Collection return to Black Lion Weapons Specialists for a reduced amount of Black Lion Claim Tickets.
    • Black Lion Claim Tickets are dropped from Black Lion Chests. Keys for these chests are available in the Utility category of the Gem Store for 125 gems each.
  • For a limited time, the Festive Hat returns to the Style category of the Gem Store for 150 gems.
  • For a limited time, the Royal Terrace Pass returns to the Utility category of the Gem Store for 650 gems—a discount of 35%.
  • As part of the roller beetle racing event, and for a limited time, the new Mini Trailblazer Roller Beetle is available for free in the Style category of the Gem Store. The matching Trailblazer roller beetle skin is available in the Desert Racer Mount Adoption License and the Desert Racer Mount Select License via the Style category of the Gem Store.

Black Lion Updates

  • The Black Lion Chest has been updated to the Winter Wonders Chest and can be previewed for a full list of its contents.
    • The Evon Gnashblade Wintersday Gift returns as the guaranteed item in the Winter Wonders Chest.
    • The new Iron Beast Greatsword is available as an uncommon drop for the duration of the Winter Wonders Chest.
    • The new Sun Temple Gecko Springer Skin is available as an uncommon drop for the duration of the Winter Wonders Chest.
    • The Desert King Throne remains available as an uncommon drop for the duration of the Winter Wonders Chest.
    • The Glacial Weapon Collection and the Wintersday Weapon Collection are now available as uncommon and rare drops respectively for the duration of the Winter Wonders Chest.
    • Unused versions of the Glyph of Volatility and Glyph of the Scavenger are available as rare drops for the duration of the Winter Wonders Chest.
  • The items available in exchange for Black Lion Statuettes have been updated. Black Lion Statuettes are redeemable by using the statuette itself or by redeeming one at any of the Black Lion Chest Merchants located in every major city.
    • A new selection of baby minis has been added.
    • The exclusive Springer Kit Backpack skin, Mini Cozy Wintersday Mounts Pack, and Infinirarium Glider have been added.
    • Additional items including Braham’s Heavy Armor Skin, Magitech Medium Armor Skin, Phoenix Light Armor Skin, Crystalline Dragon Wings Backpack Glider Combo, Mini Angry Wintersday Gift, Festive Hat, and Gather-r-Tron tools have been added.
  • For a limited time, the following categories of minis are available when using Black Lion Miniature Claim Tickets: Many Merry Minis, Elementals, Krytan Humans, Norn, and Shiverpeaks. Black Lion Miniature Claim Tickets are dropped from Black Lion Chests. Keys for these chests can be found in the Utility category of the Gem Store for 125 gems each.