Guild Wars 2 Patch Notes

[Tudy]

September 8th, 2012:

Hey everyone,
Please bear with us as we iron out our process for update notes. Here are the notes that we have compiled from the last 3 nights. I will try and post a daily update here as long as we are doing daily builds. As the build cycle begins to slow down a bit we will be able to create and maintain a more consistent form of update notes.
Thanks,
Jon

UPDATE NOTES – 09.08.12

Traits
Engineer
· Updated the Engineer’s Firearms trait – Juggernaut. New text for the trait: You gain 200 Toughness while wielding a Flamethrower. In addition, gain might for 15 seconds every 3 seconds, as long as you remain in this weapon kit
· Fixed a bug with Go For The Eyes. It can now only trigger once every 10 seconds.

Skills
Mesmer
· Fixed a bug with Signet of Illusions. It now give phantasms 50% more health instead of 300% more.

General
· Fixed a bug that should help resolve almost all of the broken skill challenges players have been running into.
· Ranger pet swap recharge is now the same in and out of combat. This closes an exploit with swapping ranger pets to generate very long buffs.
· Ranger pets should now immediately use their F2 skills when told instead of first performing an auto-attack.
· We discovered a bug in Monthly achievements that was causing some players to complete in August while others did not. We ae forcing completion on all players who are currently at 100% to even out this bug for those players who have completed their monthly achievement. In the future, monthly achievements will turn over on the first of the month at midnight UTC. Daily achievements also roll over for all players at midnight UTC.
· Fixed numerous events and event chains that were blocked.
PvP
· Max Glory cap per PvP match is set to 350. You now receive an achievement for reaching this cap in a given match. This closes an exploit that was letting players farm hundreds of glory per match by trading wins.

Story
· Fixed a blocking issue in “Forging the Pact.”

Crafting
· Players can now do the production portion of crafting without having to pull the resources from their bank. Note: Discovery still requires use of the bank. This is something we would like to change but decided that getting part of the way there was better than making players wait for the entire fix.
· Fixed a bug with the recipe for Ginger Pear Tarts that excluded Dough from the recipe.
· Increased the karma costs of all Bulk Cooking Materials.
· Increased the refinement costs of all Wood Planks from 2 logs to 3 logs.
· Yellow Dye recipes now include Onions instead of Celery.
· Adjusted the ingredient costs on Dye recipes.
· The following Cooking Materials are no longer sold for Karma and are now acquired through drops, gathering nodes, or loot bags: Butter, Chocolate, Vanilla, Chili Peppers, Thyme, Black Peppercorns, Cinnamon, Bay Leaves, Walnuts, and Oranges.

[Tudy]

September 9th, 2012:

UPDATE NOTES 09.09.12

Skills & Traits

Mesmer
The Prestige – Fixed a bug so that Burning duration no longer amplifies when additional enemies are present.

Ranger
Beastmastery Trait: Instinctual Bond – Now grants 5 seconds of quickness to the player’s pet and can only occur once every 50 seconds.
Pets can no longer be revived using the “F” prompt. This is because you can either use F4 to swap pets which will bring that pet back alive or you can wait until you are out of combat at which point you pet will revive automatically. We felt it was doing a disservice to Ranger players to incentivize them to spend a long time reviving their pet when it was a very inefficient thing to do and happened after combat anyway. This will also help clear up “F” to interact functionality.

Guardian
Tome of Wrath – Removed Stability, added Retaliation; increased the health of the transform
* Zealot’s Fervor – Players can now move while casting this skill; increased cast time to 2 seconds; reduced maximum targets to 5
* Judgment – Knockdown is now 3 seconds
Tome of Courage – Removed Stability, added Protection
* Heal Area – Base heal increased by 33%
* Pacifism – Reduced maximum targets to 5; increased cast time to 2 seconds; reduced daze duration to 2 seconds
Shield of Absorption. The second half of this skill will now unlock in PvE.

Story
“Bad Blood” – Exiting the conversation will no longer arbitrarily lock the player into a choice
“Mirror, Mirror” – Adjusted difficulty.
“The Hatchery” You can no longer do the final step before doing the intermediate steps.
“Dredging up the Past” – Fixed blocking bug during the first step.

General
Fixes for various blocked events and skill challenges.
PvP games played/won will not increment in activities.
Fixes for various map bugs that allowed players to get out of the map.
Interact “F” should use the following priority:
1) Your current selection
2) Loot
3) Revive/Stomp
4) Anything else
Updated the recipe for Superior Rune of the Ranger to match the rarity of other Superior runes.

[Tudy]

September 14th, 2012:

General
The Mistfire Wolf skill will now properly unlock for existing characters on an account after upgrading to Digital Deluxe.
Fixed blocked events and skill challenges.
Fixed bugs that allowed players to go around map edges.
A number of items created by using Mystic Coins are now correctly set to level 80.

Story
Fixed a blocking bug in story chapter “Brute Force.”
Fixed a blocking bug in story chapter “Research and Destroy.”
Fixed bugs in story chapters “Forging the Pact,” “Battle of Fort Trinity," "The Ghost Rite,” “On Red Alert,” and “Tower Down.”

World-versus-World
Score interval increased from 5 minutes to 15 minutes.
Stonemist Castle points reduced to 35 points from 50.
Bonus thresholds reduced by half to prepare for one-week matches.
Castle lord, bodyguards, and capture point for Stonemist Castle moved to the first floor.
“Harpy Feathers” consumable effect disabled.
Bridges fixed to make passable for NPCs.

Professions

Ranger
More fixes to pet commands and AI.

Elementalist
Signet of Air: No longer has infinite range.
Whirlpool: Now works underwater in PvE.
Glyph of Renewal: Resurrection effects of Earth, Fire, and Water now surround the caster, not the target.

Mesmer
Deception: Movement now allowed after casting underwater.
Spatial Surge: Improved responsiveness.
Mind Stab: Improved responsiveness.

Warrior
Made several more skills usable while moving: Brutal Banner, Compassionate Banner, and Furious Rally.
Rush: Improved the ability to hit fleeing foes.

Guardian
Mighty Blow: Added a slight movement distance.
Bow of Truth: Now usable while moving.
Defender’s Shield and Honorable Shield: Merged together into the same trait.
New trait Glacial Heart: Critical hits with a hammer have a 50% chance to chill your target for 4 seconds. This effect can only occur once every 45 seconds.

Thief
Heartseeker: Reduced damage of the 100%-50% threshold by 20%. Damage thresholds changed. Old: 100%-66%, 66%-33%, 33%-0%. New: 100%-50%, 50%-25%, 25%-0%.

Engineer
Disabled the “stowing” auto-attack to prevent players from getting stuck holding these kits: Bomb Kit, Elixir Gun, Flamethrower, Grenade Kit, Med Kit, and Tool Kit.

[Tze]

September 17th, 2012

General
Asuran players will now aim toward their targets when using a rifle.
Fixed various broken events and skill challenges.
Fixed various locations that allowed players to move outside the map.
Fixed various locations on maps where players could become stuck.
Discovery crafting may now use items directly from a player’s bank.
Fixed bugs in the Exploration achievement so players can now receive 100% map completion.
Added a system to limit the experience and gold that players can receive from speed-farming dungeons.

Story
Fixed bugs in “A Different Dream,” “A Fragile Peace,” “Dredging Up the Past,” "Forging the Pact,” “Pastkeeper,” “Ships of the Line,” “Stealing Secrets,” “The Priory Assailed,” and “The Source of Orr.”
Reduced the overall difficulty in “Dead of Winter.”

World-versus-World
Retaliation: This boon no longer reflects damage received from siege weapons.
The Experimental Rifle is no longer usable in World-versus-World.

Professions

Warrior
Smoldering Arrow: This skill’s casting time has been reduced.

Mesmer
The Prestige: This skill now requires full recharge if it’s interrupted at any time.

Thief
Descent of Shadows: This trait’s effect can now only trigger once every 8 seconds.

Engineer
Rocket Boots: This skill is no longer usable underwater. This is a temporary change until we can figure out why players can launch themselves into the sky using this skill.
Detonate Mine Field: This skill is no longer a blast finisher.

[Asky]

Update - 18 September 2012

Fixed missing female voice over lines that were not playing during some story cinematic sequences.
Fixed an issue where NPCs would stop moving and result in some events from being blocked.
Fixed a Mac client crash and added better crash reporting support.

[Ztepam]

Update notes 1 oct. 2012

General

Fixed bugs for various stuck events and skill challenges.
Fixed bugs for various map areas that allowed players to get outside of the playable space.
Fixed a bug in dungeon speed-clearing code. Players should no longer experience reward reductions without triggering the speed-clearing debuff.
Fixed a bug that was automatically killing players as they entered Sharkmaw Caverns in Lion’s Arch.
Fixed an exploit in renown regions that allowed players to quickly complete them by interacting with objects while their inventory was full.
Fixed a bug that caused charr characters to enter a state where any fall resulted in a long falling yell.
Fixed a bug that caused older characters to have their monthly achievement reset upon completion before the current month ended.
Fixed the conversion on all items that were changed from soulbound to account bound to actually be account bound now.
Fixed a bug that was preventing certain music from playing.
Fixed an issue with the loot table for undead grubs.
Fixed a camera bug which occasionally caused the camera to get too close to the player’s backside.
Updated the Barrel and Green Plant environmental weapons to disappear after lying on the ground for a set time. This will prevent map issues caused by hundreds of these bundles idling on the ground.
Updated Rune of the Adventurer and Sigil of Energy to each grant 25% endurance when activated.
Updated map completion rewards for Plains of Ashford and all World-versus-World maps to match the map level/content.
Added an appropriate error message for players when trying to accept too many guild invites.
Armor that is currently equipped can no longer be transmuted.
Keg Brawl has received some updates:
Lob: This skill is now ground-targeted.
Throw: This skill now has the range of the old Lob but with a casting time.
Master Weaponsmiths now sell their goods for coin instead of karma, as was originally intended.
Miss Mipp at Almuten Mansion now sells Curry Buns instead of directly selling outdated buffs.
Surfacing while downed underwater no longer grants invulnerability. This change was made to stop players from exploiting the surface of the water to maintain permanent invulnerability.
The Trading Post will properly refresh when using item context menus from your inventory.
Transmuted cultural armor now prevents opposing races from equipping it.
Valkyrie armor boxes will now properly contain a coat instead of two helms when crafted.

Story

Fixed bugs in the story step “Ships of the Line.”
Fixed blocking bugs in the following story steps: “Forging the Pact,” “Killing Fields,” “Shell Shock,” “Short Fuse,” “The Battle of Fort Trinity,” “The Machine in Action,” and “Tower Down.”
Updated difficulty of the following story steps: “Killing Fields,” “Lines of Communication,” “Minotaur Rampant,” “Mired Deep,” “Ships of the Line,” “The Battle of Fort Trinity,” “The Greater Good,” and “The Queen’s Justice.”

Events

Fixed a bug that was periodically preventing the Claw of Jormag event from completing.
Added catapults and scaling veterans to the bridge repair event in Kessex Hills.

Dungeons
Crucible of Eternity

Reduced the difficulty of creatures and bosses, particularly health and armor.

Citadel of Flame

Fixed exploits that allowing players to speed clear paths of this dungeon.
Reduced difficulty of the Searing Effigy.

Arah

Fixed map exploit that was allowing players to speed-clear paths of this dungeon.
Fixed a blocking bug in story mode.

Player versus Player

Games will no longer autobalance after one team has reached 80% of the maximum score if the game ends by score.
Games will no longer autobalance when within two minutes of the end of the game if the game ends by time.
Autobalance functionality has been updated to give a new volunteer bonus to any players who volunteer for balancing, as well as giving any players balanced the winner bonus. When volunteers are lacking, random selection will be used. The text for this system has also been updated.

World versus World

Updated the Red Portal Keep in the Eternal Battlegrounds to ensure the “no siege” debuff encompasses the entire start point.
Fixed a bug with Keep Lords in World versus World where they could become immune to damage.

Professions
General

Profession bundle weapons (engineer kits, elementalist conjure skills, warrior banners) can now save their autoattack status.
The following profession skills now hit 3 targets instead of 1:
Elementalist Dagger: Lightning Whip, Lightning Touch
Mesmer Spear: Stab, Jab, Evasive Strike
Ranger Spear: Stab, Jab, Evasive Strike, Dart, Counterstrike
Thief Spear: Stab, Jab, Poison Tip Strike, Nine Tailed Strike
Warrior Spear: Stab, Jab, Impale, Mariner’s Frenzy, Parry

Elementalist

Flame Burst: This skill will no longer fire if the target is behind the player.
Lightning Surge: This skill no longer has infinite range and cannot fire at targets behind the player. It also is properly affected by line of sight and works with the Arcana trait Blasting Staff.

Engineer

Elixir X: This skill now gains a duration increase from both the Inventions trait Elite Supplies and the Alchemy trait Potent Elixirs.
Freeze Grenade: This skill no longer benefits from the Explosives trait Grenadier for 5-second cooldown reduction.
Knee Shot: This Firearms trait now effects all immobilize skills for engineers. The effect can only trigger once every 5 seconds to prevent players from exploiting it to stack massive amounts of cripple.
Mortar: This skill is now properly affected by the Inventions trait Rifled Turret Barrels.
Rifled Barrels: This Firearms trait now works with the Elixir Gun kit when underwater.

Guardian

Bane Signet: This skill’s animation will now work properly when activated by greatsword and hammer users.
Line of Warding: This skill now lasts for 5 seconds instead of 8 seconds.
Merciful Intervention: This skill has been updated to heal when it completes and isn’t aborted.
Renewed Focus: This skill now functions better while underwater (players are able to use abilities sooner) and functions with the Virtues trait Elite Focus. This skill now also properly refreshes Virtue of Courage when it is being affected by traits.
Shield of Absorption: This skill will now appear correctly for all races.
Wrathful Spirit: This Honor trait’s retaliation duration has been decreased from 10 seconds to 3 seconds.

Mesmer

Updated all phantasms and clones available to the mesmer to ensure they activate within their range.
Updated mantras to now function underwater as they do above water. They also no longer go on full recharge when interrupted.
Illusionary Riposte: This skill now functions properly with the Dueling trait Blade Training.
Phantasmal Warden: This skill no longer has a 0-second recharge when affected by traits. It now has approximately a 5-second recharge.

Necromancer

Blood Is Power: This skill now grants 10 stacks of might but does not grant additional life force.
Chill of Death: This Spite trait no longer slows down the player’s autoattack when activated.
Epidemic: This skill no longer has infinite range.
Haunt: This Shadow Fiend skill now triggers instantly.
Last Gasp: This Soul Reaping trait will now apply protection and remove stun as if using Spectral Armor. It also now has the displayed 60-second recharge, and the duration has been reduced to 6 seconds to properly match the skill.
Life Transfer: This skill will now work properly with the Soul Reaping trait Path of Midnight.
Life Siphon: This skill now properly applies damage at its intended range of 600.
Spectral Grasp: This skill now also grants 10% life force when used. It also benefits from the Curses trait Spectral Attunement to properly increase the chill duration to 6 seconds.
Spectral Walk: This skill now stops granting life force when struck if the player activates Death Shroud, Plague, or Lich Form.
Vampiric: This Blood Magic trait’s interaction with the Bloodthirst trait now increases health siphoning appropriately.

Ranger

Entangle: This skill is now properly affected by the Wilderness Survival trait Wilderness Knowledge.
Lick Wounds: This skill now functions only with ranger pets.

Mac Beta Client Update:

Fixed a bug that prevented players from entering the at sign (@) in the launcher’s log-in fields when using French Apple keyboards.
Fixed a bug that prevented gem purchases.

[Asky]

General

Fixed a bug in targeting that was causing left-dragging to deselect/select targets incorrectly.
Fixed a bug in targeting that was allowing users to deselect all targets using the select next target functionality.
Fixed a bug with human female sword and pistol animations.
Fixed a bug that was causing quickness to get stuck on players and enemies indefinitely.
Fixed the Mystic Forge recipe for Melandru’s Gaze that was rewarding the Mystic Staff instead.
Fixed a potential bug with skill challenge conversations not closing for all parties speaking with the NPC.
Fixed a bug in weaponsmith Destroyer recipes being swapped for Valkyrie and Berserker weapons.
Fixed the Mystic Forge recipes for platinum and mithril ingot conversion taking cloth bolts instead of the appropriate ingots. This also fixes the issue with linen and silk bolt conversion recipes sometimes rewarding ingots.
Fixed the Mystic Forge recipe for Immobulus requiring a defunct item. It now requires giant eyes instead.
Fixed a bug with Rune of Divinity that was causing it to do 50% more critical damage than listed.
Removed laughing audio from crafting stations in Divinity’s Reach.
Raised the maximum karma limit.
Superior Rune of the Adventurer is now set to give 50% of endurance on heal.
The character select screen now reflects hidden armor choices.
Updated Rune of Earth and Rune of the Grove to have a 25% chance to grant 4 seconds of protection and 30-second recharge for superior runes, with 45-second recharge for major runes.
We’ve relaxed our anti-exploiting system for loot and events.

Camera

We’ve updated the camera to reduce the amount of camera smoothing currently in the game in order to lower the frequency of related bugs. We’re still looking into other camera issues, but we decided to make this quick change because it greatly improves the gameplay experience.

Events

Fixed a bug that could block “Escort Order of Whispers agents to Jormabakke Stead” in Snowden Drifts from restarting.
Fixed a bug that could cause duplicate versions of Agent Briathell to spawn in Snowden Drifts.
Fixed a bug that could prevent the repair event for “Cascade Bridge” in Lornar’s Pass from triggering.

Caudecus’s Manor

Closed map exploits.
Updated the reward vendor for Caudecus’s Manor to include the missing exotic light helmet.

Citadel of Flame

Closed map exploits.

Twilight Arbor

Upper Spider Path: Increased the attack range of the Nightmare Tree. The area attack and its effect now take place at the same location.
Nightmare Tree Spider Path: The area attack now correctly does damage at the point of the effect.
Forward Upper Husk Path: Added damage to the Nightmare Tree’s immobilize skill. Also added damage to the Nightmare Tree egg launch skill.

Story

Reduced the health of the final boss in “The Source of Orr.”
Forging the Pact: Implemented changes to ensure that the cave section completes reliably.
Pets and Walls Make Stronger Kraals: Fix for possible stall during the taming step.
Battle of Fort Trinity: * You cannot pick up the water orb until you defeat all of the saboteurs.
It’s no longer possible to trap players by closing the fortress doors on them.
Fixed a stall during “Retake the docks” objective.
Fixed a stall if players did not choose a greatest fear earlier in Chapter 7.
Lines of Communication: Batanga will now help you fight the Arcane Eye.
Fixing Blame: Warmaster Gurnn should now kick off his cutscene correctly.
Fixed a rare bug in “Shards of Orr” where Herboza would not become visible.

World versus World

The northernmost keep in all homelands has had its collision adjusted on the inner western gate.
Numerous items have been disabled for use in World versus World to prevent exploits and imbalances. This includes the Experimental Teleportation Gun, ettin gunk, drake eggs, seed turrets, and more.
Fixed WvW Orb of Power duplication on player disconnect.
[edit]Profession

Attributes gained from traits now apply to the downed state.

Elementalist

Glyph of Renewal: This skill will now revive downed allies only, not dead ones.
Signets of Earth, Fire, and Water: These signest have been updated to not fire at targets behind the player.
Signet of Fire: This skill is now able to hit targets at its indicated range.
Signet of Air: This skill now displays a hovering signet effect over the user when activated.
Whirlpool: This skill’s damage has been decreased by 33%.

Engineer

Grenade Kit: Grenade skills now have the same cast time underwater as they do on land.
Explosives Trait Grenadier: This trait now gives a bonus to underwater grenade skills.
Big Ol’ Bomb: This skill has been updated to be a blast finisher.

Guardian

We are moving towards retaliation being more of a counter to taking many hits rather than a general boon to keep up all the time. We also wanted to improve the combo finisher of the guardian, so we reorganized guardian greatsword skills to the following: * Skill 2: Whirling Wrath (10 second recharge)
Skill 3: Leap of Faith (15 second recharge)
Skill 4: Symbol of Wrath (20 second recharge)
Updated Bane Signet and Signet of Wrath so they can’t be fired at targets behind the player.
Updated Signet of Judgment to apply three seconds of retaliation upon activation with or without traits.
Decreased the activation time of Signet of Judgment.

Mesmer

Signet of Domination can no longer be cast on targets behind the mesmer.
Added a much faster breakout for mesmer underwater mantras.
Phantasmal Warlock: Increased recharge to 20 seconds.
Chaos Armor: Decreased recharge to 35 seconds.
Chaos Storm: Increased recharge to 35 seconds.
Phantasmal Duelist: Increased recharge to 20 seconds.
Phantasmal Swordsman: Increased recharge to 18 seconds.

Necromancer

Updated Chillblains to properly function with the Greater Marks trait.
Signet of Spite can now be cast while on the move.

Ranger

Crossfire: Increased casting time by 40 milliseconds. This was done to fix some glitches in the animation that caused problems with this skill.
Removed the broken audio that played with Natural Healing whenever pets were in combat.

Thief

Pistol Whip: Reduced damage by 15%
Basilisk Venom: Increased stun duration to 1.5 seconds. Stun breakers now work on this skill.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

Skill activation time is now shown in tooltips.
Mesmer clones no longer leave floating weapons when they shatter.
Guilds with leader with no access to guild functions have been fixed.