Game updates/2018-02-06

February 6, 2018

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Update 2 - February 6, 2018

Bug Fix

• Fixed a server crash.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

• Build: 86,233

Update - February 6, 2018

Lunar New Year

Another new year dawns on Tyria—join the festivities in Divinity's Reach! The Year of the Dog 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 Lucky Dog Lantern and Lucky Great Dog Lantern backpacks.

• Lunar New Year achievements have been split into three categories: New Year's Customs, for repeatable achievements and annual achievements that can be completed once a year; Lunar New Year, for one-time festival achievements; and Dragon Ball, for achievements specific to the Dragon Ball arena.
• A new seasonal adventure has been added to Divinity's Reach for the festival! Show your speed and talent by lighting off firecrackers that are spread across the city.
• A new seasonal race event has been unveiled in Divinity's Reach! Ring in the new year on your favorite mount—or get a head start on your exercise goals on foot—to earn new annual and daily achievements. Festivalgoers who haven't earned an official mount license can speak with a race coordinator to temporarily rent a mount for a small fee.
• The Dragon Ball arena has been updated with rebalanced skills and shorter match times.
• Lunar New Year festivities will be available until 10 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-8) on February 22 (1 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-8) on February 24 in China).

World Polish

• Strength Boosters, Armor Boosters, Rejuvenation Boosters, and Speed Boosters no longer work in WvW.
• Celebration Boosters and Birthday Boosters now grant a 10% bonus to WvW reward-track progress.
• Changed the Superior Rune of Snowfall and Major Rune of Snowfall so that they no longer give a 25% damage decrease for falling. Instead, they now grant superspeed when taking falling damage.
• Fixed a bug in which player turrets or traps would attempt to hit gadgets that cannot be targeted.
• The achievement groups within the Historical category have been organized.
• Fixed an issue in Tangled Depths in which earth elemental hands could not be attacked by certain projectile skills.

Raids

General

• New stolen skills for thieves have been added to all encounters. Refer to the Thief section for more information.
• Fixed a bug in which players occasionally clipped through walls when hit by Death Mark in the Dhuum encounter.

Special Forces Training Area

• New Thief Steal bundle options have been added to the Golem Recombobulator options menu. Only thieves will see these options.

Personal Story

• Fixed a bug in which players could be launched into outer space when gliding into an updraft in the "Hearts and Minds" chapter of Heart of Thorns.

Items

• Piece of Common Unidentified Gear: This now has a new icon to differentiate it from Pieces of Rare Unidentified Gear.
• Watchwork Portal Device: This device will now perform a range check before allowing exit portals to be created in order to prevent the creation of unusable portals.
• White Mantle Portal Device: This device will now perform a range check before allowing exit portals to be created in order to prevent the creation of unusable portals.
• Sigil of Frenzy: This no longer gives alacrity. Instead, it recharges all currently active skills by 2 seconds after defeating a foe.
• Superior Rune of Leadership: Reduced the crystalline-ore cost of this rune from 100 to 50 at the vendor in Dragon's Stand, and reduced the cost at the Heroics Notary vendor from 2 gold to 1 gold.
• Piles of Silky Sand now have a Consume All option.

Profession Skills

General

• Sink/Float: The speed at which sink and float move vertically has been reduced by 50%.
• Evasion: The tooltip has received a new icon.
•   Hounds of Balthazar: Updated the voice-over lines.
• Fixed a rare bug in which weapon swapping could cancel skill cooldowns upon breaking stuns.
• Fixed a bug in which sink effects would permanently lock players in place when players were downed underwater.
•   Consume Plasma: This bundle now grants alacrity for 3 seconds in addition to its previous boons.

Kill credit and loot for support-oriented players has been low, and we want to reward players for assisting their allies, so the shared credit contributions are going up by a solid amount. You still need to tag an enemy for the bonus support credit to come into play; standing around passively granting boons is not gameplay that ought to be rewarded, but this will offer a larger opportunity to weave support-oriented skills into group combat situations and get rewarded for it.

• Increased the support credit given to players by 50% for granting boons, cleansing conditions, healing, and reviving.

Boons and Conditions

In this update, we are converting the alacrity enhancement into a boon. For more information, see our official forum post from last week called "Alacrity: Time for a Change."[sic]

• Alacrity: Alacrity is now a boon. The recharge-speed bonus has been reduced from 33% to 25%.
• Regeneration: Regeneration now uses the greatest healing regeneration to immediately heal you rather than going by each regeneration stack's duration or order of application.
• Confusion: Heavily reweighted damage from this condition's base damage-over-time component to the damage-on-skill-use component. The condition-damage contribution has been removed from the damage-over-time component and redistributed into the damage-on-skill-use component. This condition remains split between PvE and PvP/WvW.

Boon and Condition Conversion: With the addition of alacrity to the boon system, the tables have also been updated for skills and traits that convert conditions to boons, and vice versa. The conditions inflicted when a boon is converted have been reduced in several cases where they were found to be too strong.

• Alacrity now converts to 3 seconds of chill.
• Resistance now converts to 2 seconds of immobilize.
• Chill now converts to 3 seconds of alacrity.
• Immobilize now converts to 2 seconds of resistance.
• Protection: Reduced the vulnerability inflicted from 3 stacks for 10 seconds to 3 stacks for 8 seconds when this boon is converted into a condition.
• Regeneration: Reduced the poison inflicted from 1 stack for 10 seconds to 1 stack for 6 seconds when this boon is converted into a condition.
• Might: Reduced the weakness inflicted from 10 seconds to 5 seconds when this boon is converted into a condition.
• Vigor: Reduced the bleeding inflicted from 3 stacks for 10 seconds to 2 stacks for 8 seconds when this boon is converted into a condition.

Elementalist

In this update, we looked to improve the weaver's sword damage and move its high healing aspects further into the water attunement. In this vein, we reduced Riptide's healing and increased Aqua Siphon's base- and healing-power contributions. Additionally, we wanted to improve less-used skills in signets and improve the Glyph of Storms so that some storms have better situational use via differentiated recharges.

•   Gale Strike: Damage per strike has been increased by 25%.
•   Twin Strike: The damage of this attack has been changed. The initial strike now deals 33% less damage, and the second strike now deals 100% more damage. The overall damage of this skill has been increased by 33%.
•   Shearing Edge: The damage of this skill has been increased by 50%.
•   Natural Frenzy: The damage of this skill has been increased by 50%.
•   Riptide: The healing-per-level aspect of this skill has been reduced by about 60%. Healing-power contribution has been reduced by 45%.
•   Aqua Siphon: The healing-per-level aspect of this skill has been increased by about 60%. Healing-power contribution has been increased by 50%. The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 18 seconds to 15 seconds.
•   Signet of Water: The active form of this signet now heals allies and chills enemies in its area of effect. The passive form of this signet now reduces incoming condition duration by 20% instead of removing conditions. Reduced the chill duration from 4 seconds to 3 seconds. Reduced the recharge from 25 seconds to 20 seconds. This is now a ground-target skill.
•   Signet of Fire: Reduced the recharge from 20 seconds to 15 seconds. This skill now strikes up to 4 additional enemies around the target. This skill now performs a range check when cast.
•   Glyph of Storms: Reduced the recharge of Firestorm from 60 seconds to 25 seconds. Reduced the recharge of Ice Storm from 60 seconds to 30 seconds. Reduced the recharge of Sandstorm from 60 seconds to 40 seconds. All storm glyph variants go on cooldown whenever one glyph is cast.
•   Glyph of Elemental Power: In addition to its previous effects, this glyph now also increases outgoing damage by 25% for each strike. Fixed an issue that prevented this glyph from losing stacks when enhanced attacks were blocked, blinded, or evaded.
•  Superior Elements: Fixed a bug in which multiple weavers could override each other's cooldowns.

Engineer

The Alchemy and Inventions specializations have been cleaned up and had a few complete trait replacements to allow for greater synergy within their lines. The scrapper elite specialization also received changes to streamline and define it as a tank specialization by adding barrier and by better linking its minor traits to the new major options.

•   Net Shot: This skill now inflicts damage in addition to immobilization.
•   Sun Ripper: Increased damage by 5%.
•   Refraction Cutter Blade: Increased bleeding duration from 3 seconds to 4 seconds. Increased damage by 10%. Fixed a tooltip error that reflected the projectile damage incorrectly.
•   Bomb: Reduced damage by 4%.
•   Concussion Bomb: This skill has been split between game modes, inflicting 6 stacks for 3 seconds in PvP and WvW, and 5 stacks for 8 seconds in PvE.
•   Pry Bar: This skill has been split between game modes, inflicting 6 stacks for 3 seconds in PvP and WvW, and 5 stacks for 5 seconds in PvE.
•   Bypass Coating: Reduced the casting time of this skill from 0.5 seconds to instantaneous.
•   Electro-whirl: Increased the number of targets struck by this skill from 3 to 5.
•   Shock Shield: This skill now grants some barrier with each foe struck, in addition to its previous effects.
•  Skilled Marksman: This trait has been replaced with  Thermal Vision, which grants expertise to the engineer and increased damage to bleeding foes.
•  Minesweeper: Mines created by this trait now have a 1-second arming time before enemies can detonate them. Previously existing mines will no longer detonate when initiating a new dodge.
•  Hidden Flask: Reduced the recharge on Lesser Elixir B from 40 seconds to 30 seconds. Reduced the duration of boons granted by Lesser Elixir B from 10 seconds to 8 seconds. Fixed a bug in which Lesser Elixir B could grant 1 stack of might instead of 5.
•  Transmute: This trait has been reworked. It now triggers Lesser Elixir C when you have 3 conditions. Lesser Elixir C has a 60-second cooldown and converts 3 conditions into boons in PvE, and 2 conditions into boons in PvP and WvW.
•  Inversion Enzyme: This trait has been replaced with  Comeback Cure, which grants regeneration to an ally whenever you cleanse a condition from them.
•  Alchemical Tinctures: This trait has been replaced with  Compounding Chemicals, which grants up to 240 concentration at level 80 and heals the engineer when they grant themselves a boon.
•  Iron Blooded: This trait now reduces incoming damage from conditions as well as physical damage.
•  Stimulant Supplier: This trait has been replaced with  Purity of Purpose, which causes the engineer to convert a condition into a boon whenever they remove a condition.
•  Cleansing Synergy: This trait now removes a condition of any type rather than only removing damaging conditions. Reduced radius from 300 to 240.
•  Heal Resonator: This trait has been replaced with  Reconstruction Enclosure, which grants protection to nearby allies when you use a heal skill.
•  Experimental Turrets: This trait now creates a reflective barrier around newly built turrets in addition to its previous effects.
•  Advanced Turrets: This trait has been replaced with  Anticorrosion Plating, which cleanses a condition from an ally when you grant them protection.
•  Recovery Matrix: This trait now grants a barrier instead of protection when using a heal skill.
•  Decisive Renown: In addition to its previous effect of granting superspeed, this trait now grants a barrier instead of might to nearby allies when you revive an ally or finish an enemy.
•  Shocking Speed: Increased the duration of superspeed granted by this trait from 3 seconds to 5 seconds.
•  Impact Savant: This trait has been reworked to increase the effectiveness of barriers you receive by 15%.
•  Adaptive Armor: This trait has been reworked; upon being struck, it now grants barrier with a 3-second cooldown, and it reduces condition damage by 20% while you have barrier.

Guardian

Spirit weapons have not felt solid due to having a few too many restrictions on their use, so the time between uses was reduced for all spirit weapons except the crowd-controlling hammer. Several firebrand skills were too powerful, which became very clear in PvP and WvW games, so defensive tomes received tweaks in those modes.

• Spirit Weapons: Fixed a bug that prevented players from animating properly when using these skills while equipped with a two-handed weapon.
•   Sword of Justice: This skill now summons the Sword of Justice at your target's location rather than beside you. Reduced the recharge time between casts from 8 seconds to 1 second.
•   Shield of the Avenger: Reduced the recharge time between casts from 8 seconds to 1 second.
•   Bow of Truth: Reduced the recharge time between casts from 8 seconds to 1 second.
• Mantras: Fixed a bug in which recharges could get desynchronized between their active skill and their final skill.
•   Mantra of Truth: Fixed a bug that could cause this skill to regain charges slower than its listed 12 seconds.
•   Mantra of Solace: Reduced healing by 10% in PvP and WvW.
•   Mantra of Liberation: Increased the cast recharge from 15 seconds to 25 seconds.
•   Light's Judgment: Reinstated the top-down beam effect on enemies struck by this skill.
•   Tome of Resolve: Reduced the base healing of all healing skills by 15% in PvP and WvW.
•   Tome of Courage—Chapter 1: Unflinching Charge: Removed the aegis granted by this skill.
•   Tome of Courage—Chapter 2: Daring Challenge: Now grants you aegis for 3 seconds in addition to its previous effects.
•   Tome of Courage—Chapter 4: Stalwart Stand: Reduced pulses from 4 to 3 in PvP and WvW.
•   Tome of Courage—Epilogue: Unbroken Lines: Reduced toughness by 33% in PvP and WvW.
•   Tome of Justice—Epilogue: Ashes of the Just: Fixed a bug that could inflict burning on allies in rare circumstances.
•  Retributive Armor: This trait has been reworked and is now called  Tenacious Defense, which reduces the remaining recharge on   Virtue of Courage each time the aegis you've granted blocks an attack.
•  Imbued Haste: Reduced the attribute gain in PvP and WvW from 250 to 150.
•  Indomitable Courage: Fixed a bug that could prevent Tome of Courage from gaining stun break while in WvW or PvP.
•  Justice is Blind: Fixed a bug that prevented this trait's blinding attack from working with Tome of Justice.
•  Legendary Lore: Reduced the protection granted by this trait from 4 seconds to 3 seconds in PvP and WvW.

Mesmer

Mesmer phantasms were heavily reworked in this update. For more information on our goals and reasons for these changes, please see our post on the official forums called "Shattering the Status Quo."In addition to the phantasm changes, there were also changes to confusion duration and stack counts, which are part of a larger effort to cut down on confusion uptime in competitive modes. Finally, as part of our update to alacrity as a boon (also covered in its own forum post called "Alacrity: Time for a Change"), we reworked some underperforming chronomancer traits.

General

• Shatter Skills: These skills now only shatter clones. Descriptions have been updated to reflect their new functionality.
• Phantasms: Phantasms can no longer be shattered and no longer count toward your maximum illusion count. Phantasms are destroyed and then replaced by clones after completing their unique attack or if their attack is interrupted.
• Downed Clones: Fixed a bug in which downed clones could persist after a rally. Fixed a bug in which downed clones could exceed the illusion limit.

Traits

Illusions

•  Persistence of Memory: Boons are now transferred when phantasms become clones.
•  Phantasmal Haste: This trait and now causes summoned phantasms to spawn with 3 seconds of quickness. The mesmer also gains 1.5 seconds of quickness whenever a phantasm is summoned.
•  Phantasmal Force: This trait now grants phantasms 1% increased damage for each stack of might you have when they are first summoned. Phantasms that become clones grant 3 stacks of might for 10 seconds to the mesmer.
•  Master of Misdirection: This trait no longer increases confusion duration.
•  Illusionist's Celerity: This trait has been replaced with  Compounding Power.
•  Shattered Strength: This trait has been replaced with  Escape Artist, which causes you to create a clone when you enter stealth.
•  Compounding Power: This trait has moved to the minor trait slot of the master tier, and it now grants a stacking 3% flat-damage boost and 30 condition damage (with a maximum of 5 stacks) for 8 seconds whenever an illusion is created.
•  Shatter Storm: This trait takes the place of Compounding Power in the major adept tier and causes   Mind Wrack to become a skill with 2 ammo.
•  Illusionary Retribution: This trait has been reworked and renamed  Cry of Pain. It causes   Cry of Frustration to inflict 2 additional stacks of confusion per illusion shattered, and it extends the duration of confusion applied by Cry of Frustration by 33%.

Dueling

•  Ineptitude: This trait has been split, and now confusion has been reduced from 5 seconds to 3 seconds in PvP and WvW only.

Domination

•  Imagined Burden: This trait no longer grants might. It now causes the Phantasmal Berserker skill to spawn an extra berserker phantasm, but it reduces berserker phantasm damage by 25%.

Chaos

•  Illusionary Defense: This trait now grants a stacking 5% damage-reduction enhancement (maximum of 5 stacks) for 5 seconds whenever you summon an illusion.

Inspiration

•  Restorative Illusions: Updated the description to specify that it counts clones rather than all illusion types.
•  Illusionary Inspiration: This trait no longer causes phantasms to grant regeneration. Instead, summoning a phantasm grants 2 stacks of might for 10 seconds to the caster and four nearby allies. This effect occurs after the activation of Lesser Signet of Inspiration.
•  Protected Phantasms: This trait now causes summoned phantasms to spawn with 5 seconds of aegis.
•  Persisting Images: This trait has been renamed  Sympathetic Visage and causes newly summoned phantasms to draw 1 condition from the caster to themselves.
•  Healing Prism: This trait no longer grants healing power for each illusion you control. Instead, it converts 13% of your power into healing power.

Chronomancer

•  All's Well That Ends Well: This trait no longer causes wells to grant alacrity when they end. Instead, it causes wells to heal allies within the well's radius on the last pulse.
•  Improved Alacrity: This trait now causes alacrity applied to you to improve skill-recharge speed by 50%, but it reduces the duration of incoming alacrity from all sources by 33%. Alacrity applied to others is unaffected.
•  Illusionary Reversion: Updated the description to specify that it counts clones rather than all illusion types.
•  Delayed Reactions: This trait now also gives you alacrity for 2 seconds when you interrupt a foe. Fixed a bug that prevented this trait from working on enemies with defiance bars.
•  Time Catches Up: Increased shatter damage against movement-impaired foes by 10% in PvE, and by 5% in PvP and WvW.
•  Danger Time: This trait now also increases critical-hit damage by 10% against slowed foes.
•  Stretched Time: This trait now deals a second strike of bonus damage when slow is applied. Increased slow's duration from 2 seconds to 3 seconds.
•  Seize the Moment: Increased the duration of quickness per each summoned illusion from 1 second to 1.5 seconds. Updated the description to specify that it counts clones rather than all illusion types.
•  Chronophantasma: This trait now causes phantasms to resummon themselves after the first time they would normally be replaced with a clone. A phantasm that resummons itself will not create a clone.

Mirage

•  Riddle of Sand: This trait has been split, and now confusion duration has been reduced from 4 seconds to 2 seconds in PvP and WvW only.

Weapon Skills

•   Mind Slash,   Mind Gash,   Mind Spike: When using weapon skill 1 with a sword, increased the damage of the mesmer's first two attacks by 7%. Increased the damage of the final sword attack by 11% against foes with boons and by 51% against foes with no boons.
•   Illusionary Leap: Reduced the aftercast by 0.15 seconds.
•   Spatial Surge: Increased damage at each range threshold, starting from the closest, by 28%, 18%, 11%, and 6%.
•   Mirror Blade: Increased damage by 43% in PvE only.
•   Ether Barrage: Torment and confusion durations have been reduced from 4 seconds to 2 seconds in PvP and WvW only.
•   Confusing Images: Confusion duration has been reduced from 7 seconds to 4 seconds in WvW and PvP only.
•   Magic Bullet: This skill now inflicts confusion on each impact. Confusion has been increased from 1 stack to 3 stacks with a duration of 5 seconds in PvE and 3 seconds in PvP and WvW.
•   Axes of Symmetry: The confusion aspect of this skill has been split. Confusion stacks have been reduced in WvW and PvP from 5 to 3, and their duration has been reduced from 4 seconds to 3 seconds. Clone-inflicted confusion duration has been reduced from 4 seconds to 3 seconds.
•   Imaginary Axes: The confusion aspect of this skill has been split, and the confusion duration has been reduced from 5 seconds to 3 seconds in PvP and WvW only.
•   Mind Blast: The confusion aspect of this skill has been split, and confusion has been reduced from 1 stack for 5 seconds to 2 stacks for 3 seconds in PvP and WvW only.
•   Winds of Chaos: Instead of inflicting vulnerability, this attack now has a chance to inflict 1 stack of torment for 5 seconds.
•   Tides of Time: This skill no longer applies quickness. Instead, it applies 2 seconds of alacrity to allies when the skill's wave animation passes through them. This skill now uses ground targeting.

Utility Skills

•   Ether Feast: This skill now only grants bonus healing for clones.
•   Signet of the Ether: The passive effect no longer heals on interval or scales with the number of illusions. Instead, it now heals for a flat amount whenever an illusion is summoned.
•   Signet of Illusions: The passive effect has been changed; it now causes a clone to be automatically summoned every 10 seconds while you are in combat.
•   Signet of Inspiration: This skill's active effect will now share 2 seconds of alacrity if the caster has alacrity in addition to its previous effects. The passive effect has been updated to randomly apply 2 seconds of alacrity in addition to its previous boons.
•   Jaunt: Condition duration from this skill has been split. In PvE, the confusion duration has been increased from 4 seconds to 6 seconds. In PvP and WvW, the confusion duration has been reduced from 4 seconds to 2 seconds.

Phantasm Skills

•   Phantasmal Berserker: Increased the damage of the thrown greatsword by 100%. Reduced the recharge from 20 seconds to 15 seconds in PvE.
•   Phantasmal Rogue: Reduced the recharge from 20 seconds to 8 seconds. If the rogue hits with an attack, the recharge of this skill is reduced by 25%. This skill no longer has an attack separate from the phantasm summon. Significantly reduced the skill's aftercast. Updated the underwater casting time to better match the casting time on land. Fixed a bug that prevented this skill from dealing its bonus damage. Bonus damage has been reduced to 50% in PvE and 25% in PvP and WvW.
•   Phantasmal Duelist: The attack from the mesmer now fires three bullets that quickly travel to the target after a short delay. Each bullet deals 230% more damage than the previous version of this attack.
•   Phantasmal Swordsman: This phantasm now performs a flurry of attacks after the leap attack. The damage of the leap attack has been decreased by 30%, but the overall damage has increased. The initial attack from this skill no longer grants might to phantasms.
•   Phantasmal Mage: The mage summoned by this skill now creates a cone-shaped wave of fire that interrupts foes and applies burning and confusion. The mage now spawns near your target instead of near you.
•   Phantasmal Disenchanter: The phantasm summoned by this skill now fires a bouncing projectile that only bounces to enemies. This attack is unblockable and removes 5 boons from the targets it strikes. The base attack damage has been increased by 300%. This attack deals 250% more damage against foes without boons. The initial boon removal from the mesmer has been eliminated.
•   Phantasmal Warlock: This skill now summons two warlocks that channel a beam on your target, inflicting 2 stacks of vulnerability for 5 seconds. Each beam hits 3 times.
•   Phantasmal Defender: This skill taunts your target and all nearby foes for 3 seconds in PvE and for 1 second in PvP and WvW, then blocks attacks. After it has finished blocking, it explodes, dealing damage based on how many attacks it blocked. The phantasm now spawns closer to the caster's location. It no longer grants protection. The recharge has been increased to 40 seconds in PvE and 50 seconds in PvP and WvW.
•  Mental Defense—  Lesser Phantasmal Defender: The recharge of this skill has changed to the same values as Phantasmal Defender.
•   Echo of Memory: The phantasm summoned by this skill no longer applies alacrity when it attacks. Its attack damage has been increased by 160%.
•   Phantasmal Warden: This phantasm now initially spawns near the caster. Significantly increased the phantasm's movement speed. Removed the initial axe throw from the mesmer. This phantasm now throws axes at random targets within a range of 600 of itself, but it no longer damages nearby targets. Damage per hit has been increased by 22%. Reduced the recharge from 25 seconds to 20 seconds. Lowered the casting time from 1 second to 0.5 seconds.
•   Illusionary Whaler: This skill has been renamed to Phantasmal Whaler for consistency with other phantasm skills. Confusion duration has been increased from 3 seconds to 6 seconds. Increased the confusion stacks per hit from 1 to 2. Reduced the recharge from 20 seconds to 5 seconds. This skill now uses the ammunition system and has 2 casts with a 15-second recharge between casts. Damage has been increased by 30%.
•   Illusionary Mariner: This skill has been renamed to Phantasmal Mariner for consistency with other phantasm skills. Lowered the recharge from 20 seconds to 10 seconds. Increased the strike damage by 8%, and increased the final strike damage by 74%.

Necromancer

Scourge shades have long been a pain point in PvP and WvW with their rapid corruption and few tells for players to spot. In this update, we're introducing better tells for shade actions, reducing the more oppressive condition applications, and easing up on the punishing boon corruptions. On the other side of things, we improved the effects of Vampiric Presence to make it competitive with the auras of other professions.

• Scourge: Added a 0.5-second warning to enemy players on each shade and on the player when activating a shade skill.
•  Feed from Corruption: This trait now grants 3 seconds of alacrity when corrupting alacrity from a foe.
•  Abrasive Grit: Fixed a bug that prevented this trait from granting might and cleansing a condition on allies who already have barrier.
•  Vampiric Presence: The power contribution from the necromancer to the damage portion of this trait has been increased by about 1,200%. The healing-power contribution from the necromancer has been increased by about 560%. The functionality of this trait has been modified and currently increases its effectiveness by 100% when in shroud. This effect now has a 0.5-second cooldown.
•   Sand Swell: Increased the speed of the portal's formation once the skill has been cast, and altered the effect so it doesn't get culled when in high-density situations.
•   Nefarious Favor: Reduced the number of conditions converted to boons from 2 to 1 in all game modes. Increased the cooldown of this skill from 8 seconds to 10 seconds in WvW and PvP.
•   Sand Cascade: Increased the cooldown of this skill from 8 seconds to 10 seconds. Increased the barrier granted by this skill by 15%.
• Punishment Skills: The torment durations of this skill category have been reduced from 10 seconds to 8 seconds. The cripple duration has been reduced from 3 seconds to 2 seconds.
•  Herald of Sorrow: Fixed a bug in which   Manifest Sand Shade was not updated to reflect the boon conversion from this trait.
•  Path of Corruption: Reduced the number of boons converted to conditions from 2 to 1 when coupled with the scourge specialization.

Ranger

For rangers, this update focused on bug fixes and improvements to soulbeast skills. We've allowed stances shared with Leader of the Pack to stack in duration, and we have updated several of the merged-pet attack skills. We hope that these changes will give soulbeast players a wider variety of pets to play with in various areas of the game.

• Stances now stack their individual durations in the case of rangers using the  Leader of the Pack trait.
•  Twice as Vicious: Fixed a bug in which this trait triggered when dismounting.
•   "We Heal As One!": This skill will now copy alacrity in addition to its previous boons.
•   Entangle: Fixed a bug in which this skill could tick 4 times instead of 5.
•  Rugged Growth: Fixed a bug in which this trait used the healing power of the character that applied the boon rather than that of the ranger.
•  Fortifying Bond: This trait now shares alacrity with your pet in addition to its previous boons.
•  Fresh Reinforcement: This trait now transfers alacrity in addition to its previous boons.
•   Reef Drake—Sonic Shriek: The confusion duration has been reduced from 5 seconds to 3 seconds in PvP and WvW only.
•   Fanged Iboga—Crippling Anguish: The confusion duration in PvE has been adjusted from 3 stacks for 10 seconds to 4 stacks for 8 seconds. The confusion duration in PvP has been adjusted from 3 stacks for 10 seconds to 6 stacks for 2 seconds.
•   Fanged Iboga—Narcotic Spores: The confusion duration has been reduced from 8 seconds to 4 seconds per pulse in PvP and WvW only.
• Changes have been made to beastmode traits as listed below:
  • Devourer: Fixed a bug that prevented beastmode rangers from gaining an F2 skill while underwater.
  •   Spider—Poison Gas: Fixed a bug in which this skill could strike at its maximum range rather than its targeted range, and fixed another bug that prevented the radius of effect from displaying.
  •   Bird—Swoop: Increased the damage this skill inflicts by 187%. Fixed a bug that prevented this skill from traveling its full distance.
  •   Bird—Quickening Screech: Fixed a display bug that showed the affected area as a radius of 240 rather than a radius of 480.
  •   Moa—Frenzied Attack: Increased the damage this skill inflicts by 100%.
  •   Bear—Bite: Increased the damage this skill inflicts by 40%. This skill now grants health upon successful strikes rather than regeneration.
  •   Feline—Bite: Increased the damage this skill inflicts by 40%.
  •   Wyvern—Tail Lash: Increased the damage this skill inflicts by 66%.
  •   Smokescale—Takedown: Increased the damage this skill inflicts by 40%.
  •   Fanged Iboga—Narcotic Spores: The confusion duration has been reduced from 5 seconds to 3 seconds per pulse in WvW and PvP. The confusion duration has been increased to 8 seconds in PvE.

Revenant

Power-build revenants have been languishing behind their condition-build counterparts. Impossible Odds, Phase Traversal, and the Focused Siphoning trait were changed to give the Shiro Tagachi invocation and the Devastation specialization more burst potential. While targeting particular changes, the renegade elite specialization received several short-bow damage increases and legend energy-cost improvements in PvP and WvW to smooth their gameplay in a competitive arena.

• Herald: Facets that were active when mounting will now reactivate when you dismount.
• Fixed a bug that prevented revenants from gaining energy while mounted if they were below 50% energy.
•   Temporal Rift: The condition-damage application from this skill has been split between game modes. This skill will apply 4 stacks of confusion for 8 seconds in PvE, and 6 stacks of confusion for 3 seconds in PvP and WvW.
•   Phase Traversal: This skill is now unblockable and grants 3 seconds of quickness in addition to its previous effects. Fixed a bug in which this skill could be used on targets outside of its range.
•   Impossible Odds: Reduced the energy drain from 10 to 8 per second. Gaining quickness has been replaced with inflicting a secondary strike when hitting a foe.
•   Banish Enchantment: This skill has been split between game modes. Confusion remains at 3 stacks for 6 seconds in PvE, but this skill will now inflict 5 stacks for 2 seconds in PvP and WvW.
•  Spontaneous Destruction: This skill has been split between game modes. Confusion remains at 3 stacks for 6 seconds in PvE, while it will now inflict 5 stacks for 2 seconds in PvP and WvW.
•   Shattershot: Increased damage by 30% in PvP and WvW.
•   Spiritcrush: Increased damage by 25% in PvP and WvW.
•   Scorchrazor: Increased damage by 333% in PvP and WvW.
•   Heroic Command: Reduced the energy cost from 15 to 10 in PvP and WvW.
•   Orders from Above: Reduced the energy cost from 25 to 20 in PvP and WvW.
•   Breakrazor's Bastion: Reduced the energy cost from 10 to 5 in PvP and WvW.
•   Razorclaw's Rage: Reduced the energy cost from 25 to 15 in PvP and WvW.
•   Icerazor's Ire: Reduced the energy cost from 25 to 20 in PvP and WvW.
•   Soulcleave's Summit: Fixed a bug that prevented the fire-field tooltip from displaying. Reduced the upkeep energy cost from 9 to 8 in PvP and WvW.
•  Dismantle Fortifications: This trait has been replaced with  Brutality, which grants quickness when you swap weapons and causes your strikes to remove stability while you have quickness.
• Changes have been made to  Song of the Mists skills as listed below:
  •   Call of the Assassin: Increased the damage inflicted by this skill by 86% in PvE.
  •   Call of the Demon: This skill now inflicts 2 stacks of torment for 6 seconds in addition to its previous effects in PvE. It inflicts 1 stack of torment for 6 seconds in PvP and WvW.
  •   Call of the Dragon: Increased the damage inflicted by this skill by 75% in PvE.
  •   Call of the Renegade: Increased the bleeding inflicted by this skill from 1 to 2 stacks, and increased the duration from 5 seconds to 8 seconds in PvE.
•  Focused Siphoning: Increased the damage inflicted by this trait by 33% in PvE.
•  Serene Rejuvenation: Reduced the alacrity duration from 3 seconds to 2 seconds.

Thief

We felt that the current offering of stolen items wasn't scaling well enough with the difficulty of raid bosses, so we added a selection of new stolen items that have effects tailored to the needs of a raid party. The deadeye's malice generation, while appropriate for normal enemies, ended up scaling poorly against larger bosses with lots of health. Losing malice because of a mark time-out in a long fight felt disappointing, so we updated Deadeye's Mark to preserve malice stacks when marking the same target again. We also increased the power of several rifle skills to account for the higher health of PvE enemies.

•   Consume Plasma: This skill now grants alacrity for 3 seconds in addition to its previous boons.
•   Deadeye's Mark: This skill no longer drains malice when marking the same target again. Reduced the recharge from 30 seconds to 25 seconds. Increased the mark duration from 25 seconds to 30 seconds.
•   Deadly Aim: Increased damage in PvE by 25%.
•   Spotter's Shot: Increased damage in PvE by 21%.
•   Three Round Burst: Increased damage in PvE by 15%.
•   Death's Judgment: Scaling per malice increased from 15% to 20% in PvE.
•  Bountiful Theft: This trait will now grant alacrity to nearby allies for 3 seconds if it removes alacrity from enemies.
•  Fire for Effect: Reduced internal cooldown on this trait from 1 second to 0.5 seconds to better sync with stolen-skill recharge.
• The steal table has been updated with raid-specific skills in raid areas of the game. These skills are as follows and have been placed on certain creatures and bosses throughout each section:
  •   Unstable Artifact: Shadowstep to an area and deliver a large immobilizing strike. If a downed ally is in your targeted area, you will instead shadowstep that ally to your location and partially revive them.
  •   Detonate Plasma: Activate this skill to apply many boons to nearby allies.
  •   Soul Stone Venom: Use a corrupted soul stone to immediately remove all conditions from nearby allies, converting each unique condition removed into an instance of Soul Stone Venom on that ally. When attacking while this venom is active, an additional strike that's sourced from the applying thief will be applied to all of your successful hits.
  •   Magnetic Bomb: Throw a magnetic bomb that continuously damages and pulls enemies to a point.

Warrior

Our main focus for the warrior was to improve power damage and group utility in PvE. We approached this by adding multipliers to various trait sections and improving some base weapon damage with the intent of giving the warrior a more viable core power build. Berserker maintains condition effectiveness, and spellbreaker continues with its disruptive behavior. We also toned down some spellbreaker effectiveness in PvP and WvW so that there is more time to react and counter their powerful skills.

•   Greatsword Slice: The damage of this skill has been increased by 35%.
•   Hundred Blades: The damage of this skill has been increased by 10% for all strikes in PvE only.
•   Whirling Axe: The damage of this skill has been increased by 20% in PvE only.
•   Brutal Strike: The damage of this skill has been increased by 38%.
•   Stomp: Fixed a bug in which the initial stability applied for a shorter duration than the intended full duration. Fixed the tooltip to indicate the actual 6-second stability duration that is applied when hitting an opponent.
•   Banner of Tactics: Instead of applying a 10% longer boon duration, this banner now applies 170 concentration at level 80.
•   Skull Grinder: The previous PvP split of this skill has been extended to WvW, with confusion now added to the list of split conditions. Confusion application has been modified from 4 stacks for 4 seconds to 5 stacks for 3 seconds.
•   Winds of Disenchantment: The boon-removal pulse has been increased from 0.5 seconds to 1 second.
•  Warrior's Sprint: This trait now grants a 7% damage increase while you have swiftness in addition to its previous effects in PvE. This trait now grants a 3% damage increase while you have swiftness, in addition to its previous effects in PvP and WvW.
•  Burst Mastery: This trait now grants 3 seconds of swiftness when you use a burst skill, in addition to its previous effects.
•  Last Stand: Unified the skill to match up with the trait description; they now both refer to Last Stand as Lesser Balanced Stance.
•  Loss Aversion: The damage from activations of this trait has been reduced by 33% in PvP and WvW only.
•  Enchantment Collapse: Added a recharge indicator to this trait to correctly reflect its 1-second cooldown.
•  Merciless Hammer: Confusion inflicted by this trait has been split and will now apply 6 stacks for 4 seconds in PvP and WvW only.
•  Magebane Tether: Tethered targets take 10% bonus strike damage from the spellbreaker in PvE only.
•  Doubled Standards: This trait now causes unique banner effects to be 50% stronger on the warrior in addition to its previous effects.

Structured Player vs. Player

• Testimonies of Heroics have been added to regional and Living World reward tracks.
• A vendor who will purchase various scrolls of heroics has been added to the PvP lobby.
• We've changed the monthly automated tournament gizmo reward to the Champion's Dragon.
• Legacy of the Foefire: Slightly increased the difficulty of the lord encounters.

World vs. World

• Testimonies of Heroics have been added to regional and Living World reward tracks.
• Removed the no-gliding zone near Pangloss Rise.
• Endless Awakened Archer Tonics now work in WvW.

Black Lion Trading Company Gem Store

New Items and Promotions

• For a limited time, the new set of Alchemist weapon skins is available from Black Lion Weapons Specialists for one Black Lion Claim Ticket.
• For a limited time, the Zodiac weapon skins return to Black Lion Weapons Specialists for five Black Lion Claim Tickets, and the Devoted weapon skins return at a reduced cost of two Black Lion Claim Tickets.
  • Black Lion Chest Keys are available in the Utility category of the Gem Store for 125 gems each.
• The new Lucky Dog Harvesting Tool is available in the Upgrades category of the Gem Store for 1,000 gems.

Improvements

• The Black Lion Chest has been updated to the Year of the Dog Chest and can be previewed for a full list of its contents.
  • The Evon Gnashblade Lucky Envelope has been added as the new guaranteed item.
  • The Fire-Breathing Longbow and Fire-Breathing Quiver are in a new package that's available as an uncommon drop for the duration of the Year of the Dog Chest.
  • The Griffon Hatchling Package remains available as an uncommon drop for the duration of the Year of the Dog Chest.
  • The Crimson Lion Weapon Collection and Lovestruck Weapon Collection are available as uncommon and rare drops respectively for the duration of the Year of the Dog Chest.
• The items available for Black Lion Statuettes have been updated with a new set of special items. Black Lion Statuettes are redeemable by using the statuette itself, or by redeeming it at any of the Black Lion Chest Merchants located in every major city.
  • An entirely new series of mount miniatures is available, which includes the Mini Resplendent Avialan Raptor, Mini Reforged Warhound Jackal, Mini Umbral Demon Skimmer, Mini Summit Wildhorn Springer, and Mini Grand Lion Griffon.
  • Exclusive items like the Feathers of the Zephyr Package and the Mini Celestial Rooster are available.
  • Additional items include the Wedding Attire Outfit, Pink Quaggan Backpack, and other available selections.
• For a limited time, the Miniature categories for the Lunar New Year, Maguuma Jungle, Kryta, Shiverpeaks, and Ascalon are available when using Black Lion Miniature Claim Tickets dropped from the Black Lion Chest. Keys can be found in the Utility category of the Gem Store for 125 gems each.
• The Guaranteed Wardrobe Unlock, Guaranteed Weapon Unlock, and Guaranteed Armor Unlock have been updated with Black Lion style items.
• Growing crops that are planted in Black Lion garden plots can no longer be removed unless the player has a seed pouch equipped in order to prevent players from accidentally uprooting crops while gathering

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

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