Guild Wars 2 Game Release Notes

Game Update Notes: May 28, 2019

05/28/2019—May 28 Release Notes

Living World

New Legendary Trinket: Vision

Heroes of Tyria, relive your journey in guiding Aurene to fulfill her destiny, and witness the past through a new lens in order to craft the legendary trinket Vision. To begin your journey toward enlightenment, purchase a Trance Stone from any Volatile Magic vendor in any Season 4 map. Note: Parts of this collection require acquisition and mastery of the skyscale mount, as well as access to each individual Living World Season 4 episode.

Bug Fixes

  • The following bugs have been fixed in the Descent story instance of War Eternal:
    • Fixed an issue in which “Discovered” repeatedly appeared on screen.
    • Fixed an issue in which the Facet of Root and Madness was erroneously immune to condition damage.

World Polish

  • For consistency with their Heart of Thorns™ counterparts, the Chest of the Bazaar Raider and Chest of the Forged Hunter have been renamed Domain of Vabbi: Hero’s Choice Chest and The Desolation: Hero’s Choice Chest respectively.
  • Hero’s Choice chests have been added as rewards for defeating the doppelganger in The Path to Ascension meta-event in Elon Riverlands and the Choya Pinata event in the Casino Blitz meta-event in Crystal Oasis.
  • Path of Fire™ Hero’s Choice chests are now guaranteed to give three Pieces of Rare Unidentified Gear. An offering of one Amalgamated Gemstone replaces the choice that was previously a Piece of Rare Unidentified Gear. These chests will be obtainable once per account per day.
  • All Path of Fire meta-events now begin at consistent times.
    • The Casino Blitz start time is unchanged (00:05 UTC and every two hours after that).
    • The Search for Buried Treasure start time is unchanged (1:00 UTC and every two hours after that).
    • The Path to Ascension now starts at 01:30 UTC and every two hours after that.
    • Maws of Torment now starts at 01:00 UTC and every two hours after that.
    • Junundu Rising now starts at 00:30 UTC and every hour after that.
    • Serpents’ Ire now starts at 00:30 UTC and every two hours after that.
    • Forged with Fire now starts at 00:00 UTC and every hour after that.
  • Doubled the drop rate of Elegy Mosaics from bounties and Path of Fire meta-events.
  • Removed the daily purchase limit from Funerary Incense purchased with Elegy Mosaics.
  • Added a new purchase option for Funerary Incense on the Primeval Steward vendor. The cost is 100 Desert Trade Contracts, 1 Amalgamated Gemstone, 1 Obsidian Shard, and 1 Glob of Ectoplasm.
  • Adjusted the prices of trinkets on the Primeval Steward vendor.
  • Reduced the purchase cost of Spirit of the Raptor, Spirit of the Springer, Spirit of the Skimmer, and Spirit of the Jackal by 25%.
  • Tinari’s Music Box, Khadiri’s Music Box, Hafez’s Music Box, Ghiwane’s Music Box, and Nightingale’s Music Box will now drop in a tradable container.
  • Increased the drop rate of music boxes from all sources, including from their respective map meta-events.
  • Significantly increased the drop rate of Warbeast armor recipes from Path of Fire meta-event chests.

Domain of Vabbi

  • Increased rewards for all events in the Serpents’ Ire meta-event in the Domain of Vabbi.
  • Reduced the base amount of control effects required to break the defiance bars of Branded Forgotten zealots in the Serpents’ Ire meta-event by 33%.
  • Reduced defiance-bar scaling of Branded Forgotten zealots by 50%.
  • Increased the cooldown before the defiance bars of Branded Forgotten zealots are active again from 10 seconds to 30 seconds.
  • Champion loot rewards in the “Defeat the Branded Forgotten zealots before the Branded crystal detonates” event have been moved from the creatures themselves to the event rewards to ensure all participating players receive loot for all five champions.
  • Ysshi Hessani’s base health has been reduced by approximately 15%.
  • Pek Rakt Grag’s base health has been reduced by approximately 10%.
  • Increased rewards in the chest dropped by the Legendary Forged Hounds.
  • Significantly increased the drop rate of the Mini Air Djinn, Mini Fire Djinn, Mini Water Djinn, and Mini Earth Djinn from the “Defeat the grand elder djinn” event in the Domain of Vabbi.

Elon Riverlands

  • Increased rewards for group events in The Path to Ascension meta-event in Elon Riverlands.
  • The chest awarded for defeating Josso Essher can now be looted once per character per day instead of once per account per day.
  • Significantly increased the drop rate of the Mini Mordant Crescent from the Legendary Zehlon Ossa bounty.

The Desolation

  • The Desolation: Hero’s Choice Chest is now also available from the Awakened Chest and Forged Chest awarded at the completion of the Junundu Rising meta-event.
  • Significantly increased the drop rate of the Mini Junundu Wurm from the final events of the Junundu Rising meta-event.
  • Significantly increased the drop rate of the Mini Awakened Abomination from the Legendary Awakened Hoarder bounty.

Desert Highlands

  • While the Search for Buried Treasure meta-event is active, Treasure Hunting Kits will attempt to reveal treasure that is not extremely far away when possible. This may result in a short delay before the special action skill becomes active.
  • After players open buried treasure while the Search for Buried Treasure meta-event is active, their special action skill will automatically refresh if they have additional Treasure Hunting Kits in their inventory.
  • Improved the visibility of Scan indicators when buried treasure is below the player’s current position.
  • Improved the drop rate of Harrier’s and Marshal’s recipes from Superior Buried Treasure.
  • Added a rare chance to obtain Mini Air Djinn, Mini Fire Djinn, Mini Water Djinn, and Mini Earth Djinn from Superior Buried Treasure.
  • Fixed a bug in which the Search for Buried Treasure meta-event text erroneously referred to Explorer Notes instead of Treasure Hunting Kits.

Crystal Oasis

  • Added Elegy Mosaics as a reward for defeating the choya pinata.

Dragonfall

  • Replaced drops of Branded Strongboxes with Branded Geodermites.
  • Fixed an issue in which escort events could stall out at bridges depending on their build state.
  • Fixed an issue with the Dragonsblood Spear’s special action skill remaining after completion of the meta-event.

Frostgorge Sound

  • The Claw of Jormag will now encase players in ice on defeat if they are working on the Skyscale of Ice achievement.

Items

The majority of attribute-selectable equipment in the game has been updated to include all stats available to your account based on the expansions you own. Legendary equipment has all stats available regardless of expansion ownership. Exceptions include but are not limited to:

  • Crafted backpacks
  • Specialization armor and weapon rewards
  • Attribute combinations related to raids and fractals (Assaulter’s, Defender’s, Healer’s, and Malicious)

The stat selections available from Assaulter’s, Defender’s, Healer’s, and Malicious attribute-selectable gear have been adjusted. The goal of this change is to make it more obvious which stats will be available for each prefix family. Stats available on gear with the Assaulter’s prefix will now either have power or ferocity as a primary stat (although no stat combination with ferocity as the primary attribute currently exists), or have two secondary stats that support a power DPS playstyle. Defender’s gear stat selection likewise will have either toughness or vitality as a primary stat, or both as secondary stats. Healer’s gear will contain a stat choice with either healing power or concentration as a primary stat, or both as secondary stats. Malicious gear will have the requirement of condition damage or expertise as a main stat, or both as secondary stats. Celestial gear has been added to the Assaulter’s stat selection, so it is available on all four prefixes. This results in the following changes:

  • Assaulter’s:
    • Removed Bringer’s
    • Removed Seraph
    • Added Celestial
    • Added Cavalier’s
    • Added Harrier’s
    • Added Knight’s
    • Added Sinister
    • Added Viper’s
    • Added Wanderer’s
  • Defender’s:
    • Added Crusader
    • Added Dire
    • Added Plaguedoctor’s
    • Added Soldier’s
  • Healer’s:
    • Removed Crusader
    • Removed Nomad’s
    • Removed Shaman’s
    • Removed Zealot’s
  • Malicious:
    • Removed Marshal’s
    • Removed Settler’s
  • Raider’s chests, which are uncommon rewards from Fractals of the Mists daily achievements, have been renamed Assaulter’s Chests of [Armor Type] for consistency across game modes.
  • The Assaulter’s, Defender’s, Healer’s, and Malicious chests of ascended armor available as uncommon rewards from Fractals of the Mists daily achievements now contain a choice of heavy, medium, and light stat-selectable armor that uses the same stat selector as raid rewards with the same prefix. This change is retroactive and will affect any existing boxes currently in player inventories.
  • Chests containing ascended equipment (Healer’s Chest of Coats, for example) are now stackable.
  • Ascended accessories from the Spirit Vale, Salvation Pass, and Stronghold of the Faithful raid wings will now include the appropriate Assaulter’s, Defender’s, Healer’s, or Malicious prefixes in their item names to make it more readily apparent what stats are available on them.
  • A new item, the Ectoplasmic Stone, is available for purchase from Miyani in Lion’s Arch. This item functions like the Mystic Forge Stone and gives a chance to receive new rewards from the Mystic Forge.
  • Desert Crafting Material Coffers will now offer Flax Fibers and Pitchers of Desert-Spiced Coffee at the top of their choice list, rather than the bottom.
  • Treasure Hunting Kits may now be used while in combat.
  • A “researcher” has begun investigations into new Mystic Forge secrets.

Profession Skills

General

  • Avatar of Melandru:
    • Binding Roots: Fixed a bug that prevented this skill from inflicting bleeding. Clarified the tooltip to list duration rather than pulses. This skill has been updated so that instead of inflicting 8 seconds of bleeding and 3 seconds of immobilize once, it will now inflict 4 seconds of bleeding and 1.5 seconds of immobilize four times.

Ranger

Rangers’ shouts have always been significantly different from what standard shouts are, as they’ve largely been focused on interplay with your pet rather than bolstering your allies. As such, ranger shout skills have been reclassified as command skills rather than shout skills. They’re keeping their voice callouts and all their pre-existing functionality, but they won’t be affected by the Rune of the Trooper or Rune of the Reaper.

  • Resounding Timbre: This trait now affects command skills rather than shout skills.
  • Entangle: Fixed a bug that caused this skill to inflict vulnerability and display a lower immobilization than intended. Entangle will correctly display its 2 seconds per pulse immobilization duration, and it will no longer inflict vulnerability.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE

New Items and Promotions

  • The new Skyscale Chair is available in the Toys category of the Gem Store for 600 gems.
  • Contract the Black Lion explorers to bring back items from Season 4 maps with the new Season 4 Expedition Contract, available in the Upgrades category of the Gem Store for 1,000 gems.
  • For a limited time, the Season 3 Expedition Contract and the Black Lion Hunters Contract return in the Upgrades category of the Gem Store.
  • The Zodiac 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.

Improvements and Updates

  • The Black Lion Expedition Board system has been improved.
    • Home instances upgraded with two or more Black Lion Expedition Boards will now receive a Black Lion Requisition Post instead, allowing players to manage all of their gathering teams from a single location.
    • Black Lion Expedition Board teams will now combine the resources they mail to players into a single delivery.
  • Mistborn Keys have been added as a new option from the Black Lion Lockbreaker Kit.

Bug Fixes

  • Added reminder text to the mount skins available from the Warclaw Frontline Mount Pack while locked in the mount wardrobe.
  • Fixed an issue with the Alloyed Irontail springer skin that caused an undyeable streak to appear when using the charged jump.
  • Guaranteed Wardrobe Unlock: The Stellar weapon set has been removed.

Late Notes: May 28, 2019

05/28/2019—Late Notes

Living World

New Legendary Trinket: Vision

**Appended Note: ** The Memory Fragment cinematic within Jahai Bluffs may cause seizures for those who are photosensitive.

Bug Fixes

  • War Eternal—Descent: Fixed an issue in which Aurene would fail to appear at the start of the instance for some players.
  • War Eternal—Descent: Fixed an issue in which some visual settings could create strobe-like effects during the final encounter, which could negatively affect photosensitive players.

World Polish

Dragonfall

  • Chopper events have been appropriately flagged as group events.
  • When players exit conversations with vendors, the achievement panel will now open to show progress.
  • The requirement of a daily reset between skyscale collections has been replaced with a 2-hour wait.
  • The skyscale hatchling may now be fed four times per day instead of three.

General

  • Hoelbrak: Updated the collision on several of the halls to prevent players from falling through surfaces when exploring with mounts.

Items

  • Spearmarshal’s Plea can no longer teleport characters below level 80 to the Griffon Sanctuary or Sun’s Refuge.