Guild Wars 2 Game Release Notes

Game Update Notes – May 17, 2016

05/17/16 – May 17 Release Notes
BALANCE, BUG-FIXING, POLISH
World Polish

  • Cursed Shore
    • Adjusted the collision detection on Risen Andarzbad. He will now be easier to select.
  • Adventure leaderboards will now show millisecond precision on player entries.
  • Queensdale
    • The “Escort Moa Trainer Kappa and her pygmy moas to Beetletun” event now broadcasts its activity from farther away in the map.

General

  • The 64-bit client is no longer in beta. The 32-bit client will now automatically switch to the 64-bit client if the conditions appear favorable.
  • The Hero’s Choice Chests in Heart of Thorns maps have returned. They can now only be earned once per day, but previously earned additional copies will stack.
  • The drop rates for Ley Line Sparks, Piles of Auric Dust, and Bottles of Airship Oil from some chests have been adjusted to be more equal between maps.
  • Lost Arms and Recovered chests earned from events in Heart of Thorns maps now drop loot specific to your character’s level when it is below level 80.
  • Players no longer require the Auric Backplate, awarded from completing the Auric Weapons collection, before collecting many items in the Luminate’s Backpack collection.
  • Reports of banditry have increased in Kryta.

Legendary Journey

  • The tiger cubs in the Chuka and Champawat IV: A Nontraditional Family collection can no longer be taken outside of the tiger den unless players have the correct collection progress for this journey. Players may still temporarily place tiger cubs on their back while within their friends’ tiger dens. If a player already has a tiger cub on their back but doesn’t have the correct progress, the tiger cub will go back to the den.
  • The Soul Battery Fragment in the HOPE IV: The Catalyst collection can now be double-clicked after collecting Risen High Wizard Soul Energy, Risen King Soul Energy, Risen Knight Soul Energy, and Karas the Undying’s Soul Energy to charge the fragment and obtain the Energized Soul Battery Fragment.

Guilds

  • Fixed a bug in which guild siege equipment sometimes wouldn’t enter the assembly queue.
  • Fixed a bug that caused incomplete guild missions to appear complete when launched.
  • Fixed a crash that could happen when players purchased the Dragon Banner upgrade from the War Room.
  • The discount prices for basic decorations sold by Guild Hall Decorations Merchants 1, 2, and 3 will now be observed by master scribe Cullen. If Douglas Bird is selling a basic decoration for 24 silver, Cullen will match his price.
  • A “Clear Decorations” button has been added to the Arena category within the storage tab of the guild panel for guild members with the rank permission “Remove All Decorations.” Guild members with this permission will now be able to remove all arena obstacles when they click this button.

Profession Skills
General:
Elementalist

  • Normalized the Conjurer trait’s aura duration by decreasing it from 5 seconds to 4 seconds.
  • “Feel the Burn!”: The cooldown of this skill has been increased from 20 seconds to 25 seconds.
  • “Flash-Freeze!”: The cooldown of this skill has been increased from 25 seconds to 30 seconds.

Guardian

  • Spear of Justice: This skill no longer hides the off-hand weapon when cast.

Mesmer

  • Echo of Memory: The recharge of this skill will now begin when Time Echo’s effect ends.
  • Persistence of Memory: The cooldown reduction of this trait has been reduced from 2 seconds to 1 second.
  • Mental Defense: The recharge of this trait has been increased from 25 seconds to 30 seconds.
  • Well of Calamity, Well of Action, Well of Recall, and Well of Precognition: The visual effects of these skills have been restored to their original state for the player. The previous effects are now used as the lower level-of-detail versions.

Ranger

  • Seed of Life: The number of conditions removed by this skill has been decreased from 2 to 1.
  • Lunar Impact: The cooldown of this skill has been increased from 5 seconds to 7 seconds. Daze duration has been reduced from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds.
  • Ancient Seeds: Fixed a bug that allowed multiple triggers of this trait on a single target.
  • Juvenile Smokescale—Bite: The damage of this skill has been reduced by 15%.
  • Juvenile Smokescale—Takedown: Fixed a bug that prevented this skill from being blocked.
  • Juvenile Bristleback—Spike Barrage: Fixed a bug that caused this skill to fire more projectiles than intended and reduced the overall projectiles to 10. Fixed a bug that caused 33% of the projectiles to deal 33% less damage than intended. Increased all projectile damage by 10%. Missiles are now fired directly at the target instead of at slight angles in the target’s direction. The missile launch point has been normalized, fixing a bug that caused some projectiles to fail if the creature was on an incline.

Revenant

  • Precision Strike: This skill no longer targets enemies using stealth effects.
  • Phase Traversal: The cost of this skill has been increased from 20 to 35.

Structured Player vs. Player
League Placement Divisions
We’ve added an automatic division-placement system to PvP Leagues for Season 3. A player’s starting division for each new season will be determined by their performance from the previous season. This will help players face more equally skilled opponents from the very start of the season. It also allows them to reach their intended division quicker so that they can spend more time improving their skills in more even matches for a longer portion of the season.
Division placement for Season 3 will occur as follows:

  • Legendary and Diamond Division players will start the new season in Sapphire.
  • Ruby and Sapphire Division players will start the new season in Emerald.
  • Emerald and Amber Division players will start the new season in Amber.
  • Players must have played at least one match during the previous season to qualify for automatic division placement in the new season.
  • Rewards from skipped divisions will be awarded after players play one match in the new season.

League Matchmaking
Season 2 matchmaking was changed from Season 1 Ranked and Unranked matchmaking to help ensure league positions correlated more with skill instead of simply being based on the hours played. These changes saw a multitude of improvements for Season 2, but unfortunately they also spread out win rates further than we would have liked, as matches became a bit too uneven. We’ve created a new matchmaker for Season 3 that will strike a balance between the two previous seasons, accomplishing the same goals of accuracy from Season 2 but doing so with the evenness of matches that players experienced in Season 1.
Spectator

  • Health bars, player outlines, target selection arrows, and ground indicators now match team colors.
  • Neutral NPCs now all use yellow indicators.

Build Panel

  • Removed the Mercenary’s Amulet.
  • The Viper’s Amulet is now free to all players. Anyone who previously purchased the Viper’s Amulet will receive a refund for their purchase.

General

  • Improved the secondary mechanic messaging for Forest of Niflhel, Temple of the Silent Storm, and Spirit Watch maps by adding new event timers to the UI.
  • Added basic season statistics to the Leagues tab of the PvP panel.
  • Added tooltips to the Division panel to show individual tier rewards.
  • Since the teleport was removed, the task bar will now flash and horn audio will play when the game is preparing so players are reminded of the match starting.
  • Fixed an issue that allowed necromancers to acquire weapon skills while holding the Spirit Orb in Conquest mode in Spirit Watch.

World vs. World
General

  • Collapsed guild camp upgrades into a single tier.
    • Tier II tactivators have been removed.
    • Assault Roller, Packed Dolyaks, and Speedy Dolyaks are now tier I camp upgrades.
    • Centaur Banner, Dragon Banner, Turtle Banner, and Iron Guards are no longer camp upgrades.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented the Heart of Maguuma reward track from unlocking after completing the Tangled Depths reward track.

Alpine Borderlands

  • Fixed a bug that prevented the orange crossed-swords marker from displaying to indicate locations of heavy player combat.
  • Capturing ruins now properly counts toward the Daily Master of Monuments achievement.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented the Heroics Notary vendor from spawning in citadels on the Alpine borderlands map.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions

  • A new set of Cavalier weapon skins is available from the Black Lion Weapons Specialist for 1 Black Lion Claim Ticket, for a limited time. Unlocking any Cavalier weapon skin in your wardrobe will automatically unlock another version that displays your active guild’s emblem.
  • Six new, exclusive hair colors have been added to Total Makeover Kits and Self-Style Hair Kits, which are available in the Services category of the Gem Store.

Improvements

  • The Black Lion Trading Company has hired an aesthetician who allows players to preview new hairstyles, faces, and other appearance details without needing to own a Total Makeover Kit. In order to confirm any changes, players must have a Total Makeover Kit in their inventory. Aesthetician Kristina can be found in the front room of the Black Lion Vaults in Lion’s Arch.

Bug Fixes

  • The Cook’s Outfit has returned to the Gem Store, found in the Style category for 700 gems.