Guild Wars 2 Game Release Notes

Game Update Notes: January 22, 2019

01/22/2019—January 22 Release Notes

Living World

Lunar New Year

Another year dawns on Tyria—join the festivities in Divinity’s Reach! The Year of the Boar is upon us, and the Lunar New Year festival returns with new rewards and activities. Collect and open lucky envelopes to earn essences of luck, delicious foods, fireworks, valuable items, and a chance to find the new boar lantern back items!

  • A second course has been added for the Firecracker Lighting adventure. Players can now test their navigation skills across the grand edifices of Divinity’s Reach!
  • Friendly celestial dragons have appeared in the various capital cities to whisk adventurers to the festival in Divinity’s Reach.
  • Lucky envelope rewards have been updated with new items for the Year of the Boar, and the rarity of exclusive Lunar New Year foods has been decreased.
  • The New Year’s Benevolence achievement has been updated to allow contributions of any Lunar New Year food. Items can now be given to a quintet of celestial pigs that are hungry for different festival treats.
  • Players’ maximum hit points and skill damage have been increased in the Dragon Ball arena to reduce the effects of food items on the battle.
  • The Dragon Ball skill Ice Blast has had its cooldown reduced from 10 seconds to 3 seconds.
  • The Dragon Ball skill Dragon Kick has had its collision area increased to make it easier to land hits.
  • Upon renting a mount through the Festival Mount Rental vendor, players are now given a temporary horn bundle to allow them to quickly resummon their mount if they are dismounted.
  • Out-of-season festival reward vendors have been moved to share a location in Hooligan’s Route in Lion’s Arch.
  • The Watchknight Statue previously available from the Sovereign Weapon Vendor is now available from the karma merchant in Crown Pavilion.

All or Nothing

  • Removed an effect that Bivor Darkheart’s Branded tornadoes applied to players in the “Defend the Zephyrites from the Branded” event.
  • Amira’s name is now correctly displayed as “Amira” instead of “Jaynes” in “The Crystal Dragon” story instance.
  • Fixed an issue in which some creatures and objects appeared on top of each other.
  • Replaced Flame Legion characters with Ash Legion characters in the barracks in Thunderhead Peaks.
  • All players now receive credit for destroying Branded crystals in the “Take back the Deldrimor Ruins” event in Thunderhead Peaks.

General

  • Time-based adventures will now display the player’s final time on the leaderboard and in the chat log.
  • Profession descriptions have been updated to provide more in-depth explanations of each profession when players create characters, including keywords that describe each profession’s gameplay role and play style.

Raids

  • Better audio cues have been added to Nikare’s Aquatic Detainment skill. An alert chime will play for the targeted player, and a charge-up sound will play for all players within the trap’s area of effect.

Items

  • Dragon’s Revelry Starcake: Fixed a bug that caused this food to increase attributes by 40 points instead of the intended 45 points.

Profession Skills

General

  • Alacrity: Fixed a bug that removed this boon from players in a downed state.

Engineer

  • Toss Elixir U: Fixed a bug that caused a Smoke Screen tooltip to appear when Toss Elixir U was linked in chat.

Guardian

  • Ray of Judgment: Fixed a bug that caused this skill to strike an extra time. Fixed a bug that could cause this skill to fail after the first hit if the caster was interrupted.
  • Symbol of Vengeance: Fixed a bug that applied fury around the firebrand instead of at the symbol’s location.

Mesmer

  • Chaos Storm: Fixed a bug that prevented this skill from applying boons and conditions to players in a downed state.

Ranger

  • Winter’s Bite: The weakness effect applied to the pet’s next attack will now be removed if an attack fails to hit.
  • Crippling Shot: The pet’s next three attacks will now only apply bleeding for each successful strike.

Thief

  • Swindler’s Equilibrium: Fixed a bug that caused this trait to set its steal recharge time to a specified value instead of reducing it by that amount. Fixed a bug that caused this trait to have a longer internal cooldown than the listed value.
  • Dagger Training: Fixed a bug that caused this trait to retain its old 5% damage modifier.

Warrior

  • Forceful Greatsword: Fixed a bug in which the previous version of this trait was still working in the background. Removed an unused skill fact. Fixed an issue that could cause the stats granted by this trait to update incorrectly.

Structured Player vs. Player

  • Djinn’s Dominion: Players affected by Corrupted Essence can no longer contest capture points. Additionally, there is now a 3-second cooldown for using the portal to the Lamp.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE

New Items and Promotions

  • The new Staff of Fortune Skin is available in the Style category of the Gem Store for 600 gems.
  • For a limited time, the Zodiac Weapon Collection returns to Black Lion Weapons Specialists for a reduced cost of 3 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 Blue Shift Dye Kit, Frost Dye Kit, and Taimi’s Dye Kit return to the Upgrades category of the Gem Store for 125 gems each. More dye kits will return to the Gem Store for purchase throughout this week.
  • The Aetherblade light, medium, and heavy armor skins return to the Style category of the Gem Store as part of the seasonal inventory swap, which will continue throughout this week.
  • For a limited time, the following categories of miniatures are available when using Black Lion Miniature Claim Tickets: Lunar New Year, Asura, Dragon Minions, Living World Season 2, and Maguuma Series 1.
    • 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.

Black Lion Chest

  • The Black Lion Chest has been updated to the Fortune’s Favor Chest and can be previewed for a full list of its contents.
    • The Evon Gnashblade Lucky Envelope returns as the guaranteed item in the Fortune’s Favor Chest.
    • The new Exalted Shoulders Skin and the returning Roaring Dragon Glider are available as uncommon drops for the duration of the Fortune’s Favor Chest.
    • The Crimson Lion Weapon Collection and the Dragon’s Jade Weapon Collection are now available as uncommon and rare drops respectively for the duration of the Fortune’s Favor Chest.
    • Unused versions of the Glyph of the Tailor and Glyph of the Leatherworker are available as rare drops for the duration of the Fortune’s Favor 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 back-item skins has been added.
    • The exclusive Exalted Gloves, Fire-Breathing Package, and Mini Celestial Rooster have been added.
    • Additional items including a different selection of quaggan backpack sets and the Molten gathering tools have been added.

Bug Fixes

  • The tooltips for the skills on the Fancy Winter Crystal Scepter and the Frying Pan costume brawl toys have been updated to reflect their actual functionality.
  • Novelties: Unequipping a costume brawl toy will now properly remove the player from the costume brawl activity at the same time.
  • The audio and effects of the Riding Broom toy will now end properly upon switching novelties.

Late Notes: January 22, 2019

01/22/2019—Late Notes

Living World

  • Fixed an issue with the “Chasing Tales: Asaliea the Channeler” achievement in Thunderhead Peaks in which the third deed, “Chasing Tales: Torrent of Magic,” wasn’t giving the correct reward.
  • Fixed an issue that could prevent the chests for the “Defeat the Wrathbringer” and “Defeat Sulypix before it drains your reclaimed oil” events from being available after the daily reset.
  • Increased the rewards in the boss chests of the “Defeat the Wrathbringer” and “Defeat Sulypix before it drains your reclaimed oil” events.
  • Changed reward chests for the “Defeat the Wrathbringer” and “Defeat Sulypix before it drains your reclaimed oil” events to be awarded once per character per day instead of once per account per day.
  • Moved the Light of Deldrimor Plate halves out of the boss chests and into event bonus chests, which are available once per account per day.
  • Fixed a bug in which the graveling in the dwarven catacombs would only award one plate at a time.
  • Changed Pepperseed’s indicator to be visible on the map, and doubled the broadcast radius for the “Escort Pepperseed back to the Zephyrite Docks” event in Thunderhead Peaks.
  • Increased the broadcast radius of events in Thunderhead Peaks to improve visibility of events on the map.
  • Fixed a bug in Thunderhead Peaks in which Sayida’s conversation regarding the supply lines happened at the wrong time. The conversation now happens when players complete the renown heart for the area.
  • Players now have more time to resupply Sunflower after the second ambush in the “Help Pepperseed deliver Zephyrite supplies to the Forge” event.
  • Players can now resupply Sunflower during and after the third ambush in the “Help Pepperseed deliver Zephyrite supplies to the Forge” event, but not after the event completes.
  • Sandswept Isles: Fixed an issue that could cause beetles in the ranch events to stay hidden, stalling the events.

World Polish

  • Frostgorge Sound: The end of Magellan’s Memento is once again guarded by a giant blue ooze (with a chest!).
  • Straits of Devastation: Fixed a rare stall in the hero challenge event near the Cathedral of Glorious Victory.
  • Tangled Depths: Fixed a bug that could cause Agent Zildi to become unresponsive and refuse to speak to players.
  • Logging out or changing maps while using a pipe organ will no longer leave the pipe organ permanently in use.

Bug Fixes:

  • Fixed a bug in which player and creature models would permanently become invisible.
  • Fixed an issue in which some containers in Thunderhead Keep could award Difluorite Crystals.
  • Fixed a bug with the portraits for the Festive, Glowing and Fortunate mini lanterns.
  • Fixed a bug in which Heroic Dragonsblood weapons did not have infusion slots.
  • Updated the attribute selection for Envoy armor pieces to include Plaguedoctor’s and Diviner’s attributes.

Additional Late Note:

  • Domain of Istan: Chest contents have been improved for Palawadan and the Mordant Crescent Great Hall. Players are limited to 30 chests in Palawadan and 12 chests in the Mordant Crescent Great Hall per day per account.

Bug Fixes:

  • Fixed a client crash.
  • Fixed a bug in which player and creature models would permanently become invisible.
  • Increased the radii of the charging crystals in the “Repel invading Branded, and kill them near the charging crystals to fill the resonance crystal” event. Creatures killed outside of the charging crystals’ radii will no longer drop loot, and Branded creatures will cease dropping loot after a certain number of kills.
  • Fixed an issue that prevented Janet Fawn—the Diviner’s insignia recipe vendor and weaponsmith—from appearing in the Deldrimor Ruins area of Thunderhead Peaks.

Bug Fix:

  • Players who completed the Chasing Tales: Torrent of Magic achievement but did not receive progress toward the Chasing Tales: Asaliea the Channeler collection achievement can now purchase the Chasing Tales: Torrent of Magic item from Forge Master Hilina at no cost to repair their progress.