Game updates/August 2022

August 2022 updates
Monday, 29 August 2022 Thursday, 25 August 2022 Tuesday, 23 August 2022 Thursday, 4 August 2022 Wednesday, 3 August 2022 Tuesday, 2 August 2022
← Prev • Next →

Update - August 29, 2022

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed an issue that caused the Character Adventure Guide achievement "Kill Risen Veterans" to gain progress for every character on an account instead of separately for each character. The achievement will be reset for players who have already completed it.
• Fixed an issue that caused players to be dismounted when attempting to dive during Sibaha's Advanced Skimmer Course adventure.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

• Build: 133,592

Update - August 25, 2022

Bug Fixes:

• Updated the Glowing Purple Mask's tooltip description.
•  Jump Shot: Fixed an issue that caused this skill to allow jumps to be significantly higher than intended.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

• Build: 133,501

Update - August 23, 2022

Guild Wars 2 10th Anniversary

Ten years ago, the launch of Guild Wars 2 opened a new window into the world of Tyria. Three expansions, five seasons of Living World releases, and countless updates later, we're still inspired by the dedication of the game's fans.

To commemorate this anniversary for new and veteran players alike, we've added a series of new achievements taking you across the game to earn Proofs of Legend, which you can trade for the new Decade's armor set. If you're busy this week, no need to worry—these achievements and the armor set will be available permanently. Characters who are turning ten themselves will also be receiving an extra Proof of Legend to kickstart their collection. If you have extras, you can trade them for some treats to share with your friends.

It's an honor to share this world with you. Thanks for playing, and here's to many more years of adventuring in Tyria!

• The Guild Wars 2 10th Anniversary event starts now, giving a 30% bonus to karma gain, magic find, and PvP/WvW reward track progress for a week.
• A permanent new achievement category, Decade of the Dragons, has been added in the Side Stories category. Complete various achievements taking you across the regions of Guild Wars 2, its expansions, and Living World to earn Proofs of Legend. Completing a set of 10 and 20 achievements will also reward you with your choice of a weapon from the new Dragon Decade set and the new Decade's War cape skin. The cape skin will also unlock an alternate version with your guild emblem when you acquire it!
• Proofs of Legend will also be delivered to any characters as they turn 10 years old or older, along with the other prizes in their birthday gift.
• Trade your Proofs of Legend to an ancient armorsmith in capital cities to unlock the new Decade's armor set. Once the full set is unlocked, you can trade your extra Proofs of Legend for consumable items.

World Polish

• Fixed an issue that prevented the Shadow Behemoth's claws from triggering trap skills while lowered to the ground during the meta-event in Queensdale.
• Fixed an issue with the Shadow Behemoth's animation when transitioning between skills during the meta-event in Queensdale.
• Fixed an issue that caused the fire elemental's defense to be lower than intended.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Great Jungle Wurm to quickly kill pets during the meta-event in Caledon Forest.

General

• The Character Adventure Guide has been added to the game. The Character Adventure Guide is a set of new goals for level 1–79 characters that are designed to guide a player's journey while leveling up in Guild Wars 2. These goals are listed on the right side of the UI along with your other objectives, and completing them will grant substantial experience rewards to leveling characters! Level 80 characters can complete tasks but will receive significantly reduced experience rewards.
• The achievements for the Character Adventure Guide are character specific, not account based.
• These achievements do not award any achievement points.
• All experience gains for characters under level 80 have been slightly increased.
• The existing Tutorial achievement category has been deprecated and moved to the Historical category for anyone who has already completed them.
• Fixed a bug that caused the following achievements to be unobtainable by players who only have access to Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons
  • Legendary Weapon Collections
  • End of Dragons Elite Specialization Weapon Collections
  • Core Mastery Insights
• Fixed a bug that caused the Special Forces Training Area to be inaccessible to players who only have access to Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons.

Fractals

Shattered Observatory

• Fixed an issue that could cause the GL-XC S7L enemy to stall and block fractal progression.

Profession Skills

General

Core Weapon Tuning

In this update, we focused on improving the number of viable core weapon choices across many professions in PvE. This included increasing base damage on many ranged weapon autoattacks to a higher baseline damage per second. These changes should help reduce the performance gap between players using suboptimal and optimal weapons.

Guild Wars 2 is designed to encourage social gameplay–you should be stronger playing together than alone. With that in mind, we took another look at how boons are given out. Several weapon skills have been updated to grant might to nearby allies as well as the user in PvE, further contributing to boon availability in group events.

Damage Build Improvements

Our player community develops builds that are considered the gold standard for effective play, so we review them regularly. We made changes to some elite specialization weapons and traits to make various builds more competitive. Our goal is for every profession to have viable power- and condition-based damage builds.

• Power Tempest
• Condition Tempest
• Power Weaver
• Power Scrapper
• Power Holosmith
• Power Dragonhunter
• Power Reaper
• Power Herald
• Power Vindicator
• Power Daredevil
• Power Deadeye
• Power Berserker
• Condition Berserker
• Power Spellbreaker

Improving Support Diversity

Firebrand and healing Mechanist are currently dominating group compositions. In this update, we're improving support-role diversity by adding stability and aegis to Tempest's shouts and giving Druids increased access to those boons as well.

We're also making targeted reductions to stability and might uptime on Firebrand and Mechanist builds to make room for other professions. Firebrand's high on-demand stability from Mantra of Liberation is too essential in Fractals of the Mists and other group content, while Mechanist's barrier and might upkeep are cementing it as a build that pairs together too well with a Quickbrand to meet a group's support needs.

In the immediate future, we want to make sure more builds can be used successfully. In future updates, we'll expand this further by shoring up more support and healing build options.

Elementalist

We've firmed up the role of Fire Attunement skills in condition builds and improved Air Attunement skills' direct strike damage. Tempest's Transcendent Tempest trait has more than doubled in power to set it apart as the keystone choice for damage builds.

Staff

Fire

•  Fireball: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.0 to 1.4. Now also inflicts 1 stack of burning with a 1-second duration.
•  Lava Font: (PvE only) Now inflicts 1 stack of burning with a 1-second duration on each strike.
•  Flame Burst: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.01[sic] to 1.0. Burning stacks applied increased from 2 to 3.

Air

•  Chain Lightning: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.66 to 0.8.
•  Lightning Surge: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.44 to 1.8.

Earth

•  Stoning: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.5 to 1.2.
•  Shock Wave: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.5 to 2.5.

Scepter

Fire

•  Phoenix: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 20 seconds to 10 seconds. Burning stack count increased from 1 to 2.

Water

•  Water Trident: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 20 seconds to 10 seconds.

Earth

•  Rock Barrier: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 15 seconds to 8 seconds.

Dagger (Main Hand)

Water

•  Vapor Blade: (All game modes) The aftercast animation duration before another skill can be used has been decreased by 0.5 seconds.

Air

•  Convergence: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.5 to 1.8.
•  Shocking Aura: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 25 seconds to 10 seconds. Duration increased from 4 seconds to 10 seconds.
•  Transmute Lightning: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1 to 1.5.

Earth

•  Ring of Earth: (PvE only) Final impact damage multiplier increased from 1.2 to 1.5.
•  Earthen Rush: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 18 seconds to 12 seconds. Damage multiplier increased from 1 to 1.8.

Dagger (Off Hand)

Fire

•  Fire Grab: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 25 seconds to 20 seconds, matching PvP and WvW.

Water

•  Frost Aura: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 30 seconds to 10 seconds. Duration increased from 4 seconds to 10 seconds.
•  Cleansing Wave: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 30 seconds to 20 seconds.

Air

•  Ride the Lightning: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 30 seconds to 20 seconds.
•  Updraft: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 40 seconds to 20 seconds.

Earth

•  Earthquake: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 30 seconds to 16 seconds. Damage multiplier increased from 1 to 3.
•  Churning Earth: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 30 seconds to 20 seconds.

Trident

Fire

•  Magma Orb: Now also applies 1 second of burning on explosion.
•  Boil: Now also applies 1 second of burning on hit.
•  Steam: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 15 seconds to 10 seconds.
•  Lava Chains: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 20 seconds to 16 seconds.

Water

•  Ice Globe: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 10 seconds to 8 seconds.
•  Ice Wall: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 15 seconds to 12 seconds.

Air

•  Electrocute: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.2 to 2.4.
•  Air Bubble: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 25 seconds to 20 seconds.

Earth

•  Rock Anchor: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 30 seconds to 20 seconds.
•  Murky Water: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 30 seconds to 25 seconds.

Weaver

Sword

Fire

•  Fire Strike: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.66 to 0.8.
•  Fire Swipe: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.77 to 0.9.
•  Searing Slash: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.25 to 1.6.

Water

•  Seiche: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.33 to 0.5.
•  Clapotis: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.45 to 0.6.
•  Breaking Wave: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.66 to 1.0.

Air

•  Charged Strike: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.77 to 0.8.
•  Polaric Slash: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.88 to 0.9.
•  Call Lightning: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.0 to 1.2.

Earth

•  Crystal Slash: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.66 to 0.8.
•  Crystalline Strike: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.66 to 0.9.
•  Crystalline Sunder: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.0 to 1.4.
•  Earthen Vortex: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.25 to 1.8.

Tempest

Traits

•  Transcendent Tempest: (PvE only) Damage modifier increased from +7% to all damage dealt to +15% to all damage dealt.

Shouts

•  "Feel the Burn!": (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.0 to 2.5. Might stacks applied increased from 3 to 5.
•  "Eye of the Storm!": (PvE only) Cooldown reduced from 40 seconds to 30 seconds. Now also applies 1 stack of stability to allies for 5 seconds.
•  "Aftershock!": (PvE only) Cooldown reduced from 35 seconds to 30 seconds. Now also applies aegis to allies for 5 seconds.

Engineer

The previous update's Mechanist-only damage reduction to Aim-Assisted Rocket left us with room to add damage to the core trait Big Boomer, bringing up the damage output of Holosmiths and Scrappers. That's not enough to close the gap on its own, so we're also making specialization-specific damage increases to Scrapper and Holosmith on sword, hammer, and Blast Gyro–which, in addition to more damage, will now stun enemies rather than knocking them away.

We're reducing the output of dominant Mechanist healing builds to give other support options more breathing room. We're also slightly reducing the output of condition damage builds with reductions to the Mech Command skills Rolling Smash and Discharge Array.

Harpoon Gun

•  Homing Torpedo: Animation time reduced from 1.5 seconds to 1 second. Damage multiplier increased from 0.84 to 1.0. Applies 1 second of burning. This is now an explosion.
•  Scatter Mines: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 10 seconds to 6 seconds.
•  Timed Charge: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.75 to 3.5.
•  Net Wall: (PvE only) Immobilize duration increased from 3 seconds to 6 seconds.

Utility Skills

•  Throw Mine: (All game modes) The animation aftercast before another skill may be used has been reduced by 0.5 seconds. The mine will now detonate immediately if there is an enemy target in proximity when the mine lands. Now causes knockdown instead of knockback, with a duration of 2 seconds in PvE and 1 second in PvP and WvW. (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 2 to 3. Boons removed from targets increased from 1 to 3.

Med Kit

•  Med Blaster: (PvE only) Healing power multiplier reduced from 0.2 to 0.1, matching PvP and WvW.

Elixir Gun

•  Super Elixir: (PvE only) Duration reduced from 10 seconds to 5 seconds.

Explosives

•  Big Boomer: (PvE only) Damage increase changed from 10% to 15%.

Sword

•  Refraction Cutter: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1 to 1.4.
•  Radiant Arc: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.5 to 1.8.

Photon Forge

•  Corona Burst: (PvE only) Might stacks per pulse reduced from 2 to 1, but they are now applied to up to 5 nearby allied targets.

Scrapper

Hammer

•  Electro-whirl: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 2.4 to 3.
•  Rocket Charge: The aftercast animation duration before another skill can be used has been decreased by 0.35 seconds. Damage multiplier increased from 3.3 to 3.6 in PvE only.

Gyros

•  Blast Gyro: (PvE only) Now stuns enemies for 3 seconds instead of knocking them back. Damage multiplier increased from 2.65 to 3.5.

Mechanist

Mech Commands

•  Rolling Smash: (PvE only) Bleeding stacks applied reduced from 8 to 4.
•  Discharge Array: (PvE only) Confusion duration per hit reduced from 5 seconds to 3 seconds.
•  Crisis Zone: (PvE only) Stability duration reduced from 15 seconds to 6 seconds.
•  Barrier Burst: (PvE only) Base barrier value per pulse reduced from 434 to 260. Might stacks per pulse reduced from 3 to 2.

Mace

•  Mace Blast: (PvE only) Base barrier value reduced from 434 to 260.

Signets

•  Barrier Signet: (PvE only) Base barrier value per pulse reduced from 434 to 260.

Traits

•  Barrier Engine (Passive): (PvE only) Base barrier value reduced from 434 to 260.

Guardian

Multiple stored uses of on-demand stun break and stability have made Firebrand mandatory in Fractals, Strike Missions, raids, and even WvW. In this update in PvE only - see Guild Wars 2 Wiki notes, Firebrand's Mantra of Liberation is reduced from 3 to 2 ammunition, with an increased cooldown. Together with an added source of stability for both Tempest and Druid, this will provide better parity across different professions' support builds in PvE. Firebrand's multiple sources will be countered by higher recharge.

The greatsword damage increases benefit Dragonhunter builds, and hammer improvements will help close the gap between it and other damaging weapons while living up to that weighty feel a hammer should have.

Greatsword

•  Strike: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.8 to 0.9.
•  Vengeful Strike: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.8 to 1.0.
•  Wrathful Strike: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.2 to 1.4. Might is now applied to up to 5 allies in a 360 radius.
•  Leap of Faith: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 12 seconds to 10 seconds, and damage multiplier increased from 1.25 to 2. Healing per foe hit increased from 235 to 1,053 in PvE, matching PvP and WvW.
•  Binding Blade: (PvE only) Damage multiplier on initial hit increased from 1.0 to 1.5.

Hammer

•  Symbol of Protection: The aftercast animation duration before another skill can be used has been decreased by 0.65 seconds.
•  Mighty Blow: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 2.1 to 2.4.
•  Glacial Blow: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 6 seconds to 4 seconds. Damage multiplier increased from 2.4 to 2.5.
•  Zealot's Embrace: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.8 to 1.5.
•  Banish: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1 to 3.

Staff

•  Bolt of Wrath: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.55 to 0.65.
•  Searing Light: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.65 to 0.75.
•  Seeking Judgement: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.75 to 0.9.
•  Holy Strike: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.25 to 1.8.
•  Empower: (PvE only) Might stacks per pulse reduced from 4 to 3. Might duration reduced from 12 seconds to 10 seconds.

Firebrand

•  Mantra of Liberation (PvE only): Ammunition reduced from 3 to 2. Recharge increased from 25 seconds to 30 seconds.

Dragonhunter

Longbow

•  Puncture Shot: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.85 to 1.0.

Mesmer

In the August 2 update, we reviewed and updated the greatsword and sword core weapons. In this update we're increasing Chronomancer's alacrity duration from Stretched Time and increasing the damage of Tides of Time, the fifth shield skill. This will give a slight bump to boon-focused Chronomancer builds.

Staff

•  Phantasmal Warlock: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 18 seconds to 15 seconds.
•  Chaos Armor: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 25 seconds to 20 seconds.

Utility Skills

•  Blink: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 30 seconds to 20 seconds.

Chronomancer

•  Stretched Time: Alacrity on well cast increased from 4 seconds to 5 seconds.
•  Tides of Time: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.3 to 1.5.

Necromancer

Necromancer changes are focused on improving damage and skill-recharge timers for several weapons and abilities.

Staff

•  Necrotic Grasp: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.666 to 1.
•  Mark of Blood: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.33 to 1.5.
•  Chillblains: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 16 seconds to 12 seconds. Damage multiplier increased from 0.55 to 1.8.
•  Putrid Mark: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 20 seconds to 15 seconds.
•  Reaper's Mark: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 32 seconds to 18 seconds. Damage multiplier increased from 0.275 to 3.

Dagger (Main Hand)

•  Life Siphon: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 10 seconds to 8 seconds.
•  Dark Pact: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 15 seconds to 12 seconds. Damage multiplier increased from 1.2 to 2.4. Immobilize duration increased from 3 seconds to 6 seconds.

Dagger (Off Hand)

•  Deathly Swarm: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 18 seconds to 16 seconds. Damage multiplier increased from 0.6 to 1.2.
•  Enfeebling Blood: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 25 seconds to 20 seconds. Damage multiplier increased from 0.5 to 1.5.

Focus

•  Soul Grasp: (PvE only) Ammunition recharge reduced from 15 seconds to 12 seconds. Ammunition count increased from 2 to 3.
•  Spinal Shivers: (PvE only) Recharge reduced from 20 seconds to 16 seconds. Damage multiplier on targets with no boons increased from 0.75 to 2, one boon from 1.125 to 2.375, two boons from 1.875 to 2.75, and three boons from 2.625 to 3.125. Fixed an issue that caused incorrect damage to be displayed in the tooltip of this skill.

Reaper

Greatsword

•  Fading Twilight: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.3 to 1.4.
•  Chilling Scythe: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.7 to 1.8.
•  Death Spiral: (PvE only) Damage multiplier per hit increased from 0.425 to 0.5.

Reaper Shroud

•  Life Rend: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.875 to 0.9.

Shouts

•  "You Are All Weaklings!": (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.7 to 2.5.
•  "Nothing Can Save You!": (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.7 to 2.
•  "Suffer!": (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.7 to 1.5.

Ranger

Feline pets' autoattacks aren't affected by quickness, a long-standing issue that makes them subpar in group play. Meanwhile, the iboga is the most powerful pet in any PvE boss encounter because its base attack damage scales with number of conditions on the target. A release note from 2018 indicated that this was fixed, but the change didn't make it to the live game.

A recent fix to the calculated critical-hit-chance values in the pet stats UI caused pet critical-hit chances to appear to drop by 17.8%. This was a display issue only, and the text now reflects the real value.

We're using this as an opportunity to improve pet balance in PvE overall by delivering that long-delayed reduction to iboga damage while bringing all Ranger pets' performance up by giving them a flat 17.8% critical-hit chance across the board.

Ranger pets and spirits will now also have a locked defiance bar in PvE, making them immune to crowd-control effects. This quality-of-life improvement will ensure that their skills are available for use when needed and that pets will perform more consistently in all PvE content.

All Ranger Pets

• (PvE only) All ranger pets' chance to critically hit has been increased by 17.8%.
• (PvE only) All ranger pets are now immune to crowd control when on a PvE map.

Feline Pet Family

•  Slash (Autoattack): Now affected by quickness.

White Tiger

• Fixed a bug that caused a delay before this pet could act when summoned.
•  Guardian's Roar: (All game modes) Casting time reduced from 1 second to 0.4 seconds in all game modes. (PvE only) Cooldown reduced from 30 seconds to 25 seconds.

Other Pets

Wallow

• Fixed a bug that caused a delay before this pet could act after being summoned.

Phoenix

• Fixed a bug that caused a delay before this pet could act after being summoned.

Siege Turtle

• Fixed a bug that caused a delay before this pet could act after being summoned.

Iboga

•  Consuming Bite (Autoattack): Reduced the base damage of this skill by 33%. Reduced the damage per condition by 40%.

Spirits

• (PvE only) All ranger spirits are now immune to crowd control on a PvE map.

Druid

•  Solar Beam: This skill can now target allies.
•  Glyph of Equality: Range increased from 300 to 360 in all game modes. Now applies 5 seconds of stability to allies in PvE only.

Revenant

For core revenant, we're improving hammer as a ranged damage option. All revenant specializations will receive damage increases from Invocation trait updates.

Hammer

•  Hammer Bolt: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.95 to 1.1.
•  Phase Smash: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.75 to 2.
•  Drop the Hammer: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.5 to 2.3.

Invocation

•  Rising Tide: (PvE only) Damage increase changed from 7% to 10%.
•  Ferocious Aggression: (PvE only) Damage increase changed from 7% to 10%.

Herald

•  Reinforced Potency: (PvE only) Bonus damage per boon increased from 1% to 1.5%.

Vindicator

Greatsword

•  Mist Swing: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.9 to 1.0.
•  Mist Slash: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.0 to 1.1.
•  Arcing Mists: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.25 to 1.3.
•  Mist Unleashed: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.9 to 2.0.
•  Phantom's Onslaught: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.5 to 1.6.
•  True Strike: (PvE only) Base damage multiplier increased from 1.0 to 1.5. Damage multiplier added per blocked attack increased from 0.4 to 0.5.

Thief

In group content, venoms can account for as much as 25% of a thief condition damage build's total damage. Their solo damage is lacking in comparison. We're shifting some of that damage from venoms to direct attacks with increased condition duration on Death Blossom, Specter's scepter, and Shadow Shroud autoattacks, as well as a 50% increase to the condition damage attribute granted by the trait Deadly Ambition. The net effect of this change is to increase condition damage dealt in solo and open-world play.

Deadeye and Daredevil both get power damage increases as well, giving those builds stronger top-end damage potential.

Dagger (Main Hand)

•  Backstab: (PvE only) Front damage multiplier increased from 1.2 to 1.5. Back damage multiplier increased from 2.4 to 3.
•  Malicious Backstab: (PvE only) Front damage multiplier increased from 1.2 to 1.5. Back damage multiplier increased from 2.4 to 3.
•  Death Blossom: (PvE only) Bleed duration increased from 10 seconds to 15 seconds.

Dagger (Off Hand)

•  Dancing Dagger: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.6 to 0.9.

Pistol (Off Hand)

•  Head Shot: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.25 to 1.

Sword

•  Slice: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.8 to 0.85.
•  Slash: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.8 to 0.85.
•  Crippling Strike: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.3 to 1.4.
•  Infiltrator's Strike: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.75 to 1.8.

Venoms

•  Skale Venom: (PvE only) Torment duration decreased from 5 seconds to 3 seconds.
•  Spider Venom: (PvE only) Poison duration decreased from 4 seconds to 3 seconds.

Deadly Arts

•  Deadly Ambition: (PvE only) Condition damage attribute bonus increased from 120 to 180.

Specter

•  Shadow Bolt: (PvE only) Torment duration increased from 3 seconds to 4 seconds.
•  Haunt Shot: (PvE only) Torment duration increased from 5 seconds to 6 seconds.

Traits

•  Traversing Dusk: Alacrity radius on well cast and healing radius on shadowstep increased from 240 to 360.

Deadeye

•  Premeditation: (PvE only) Bonus damage per boon increased from 1% to 1.5%.
•  Iron Sight: (PvE only) Bonus damage dealt to and damage reduction taken from your marked target increased from 10% to 15%.

Daredevil

Staff

•  Staff Strike: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.66 to 0.75.
•  Staff Bash: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.66 to 0.80.
•  Punishing Strikes: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.672 to 1.8.
•  Hook Strike (Stealth Attack): (PvE only) Knockdown duration increased from 2 seconds to 4 seconds.

Traits

•  Weakening Strikes: (PvE only) Damage dealt to weakened foes increased from 7% to 10%.
•  Bounding Dodger: (PvE only) Damage bonus increased from 10% to 15% in PvE, matching PvP and WvW.

Warrior

Warrior's longbow updates will make Arcing Arrow relevant in PvE and turn Smoldering Arrow into a useful defiance-bar breaker. We've also increased damage for several core weapons, elite specialization weapons, and traits.

Greatsword

•  Greatsword Swing: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.7 to 0.8.
•  Greatsword Slice: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.95 to 1.05.
•  Brutal Strike: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.25 to 1.5.
•  Arcing Slice: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.32 to 2. Damage multiplier against foes under 50% health increased from 1.98 to 3.
•  Bladetrail: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.75 to 1.5.
•  Rush: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.7 to 2.5.

Sword (Main Hand)

•  Sever Artery: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.6 to 0.8.
•  Gash: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.6 to 0.8.
•  Hamstring: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1 to 1.2.
•  Savage Leap: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.66 to 2.

Sword (Off Hand)

•  Impale: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.5 to 1.5.
•  Rip: (PvE only) Might is now applied to up to 5 allied targets in range of 360.

Longbow

•  Dual Shot: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.44 to 0.525.
•  Arcing Arrow: (All game modes) The aftercast animation duration before another skill can be used has been reduced by 0.5 seconds. (PvE only) Increased ammunition count to 2. Now applies 5 seconds of burning on hit.
•  Smoldering Arrow: (PvE only) Now applies 1 second of dazed on hit.

Rifle

•  Fierce Shot: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.605 to 1. Might is now applied to up to 5 allied targets within a range of 360.
•  Explosive Shell: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.25 to 1.5.

Hammer

•  Earthshaker: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1 to 2.
•  Hammer Shock: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1 to 1.8.

Arms

•  Furious: (PvE only) Condition damage per stack increased from 10 to 15.

Berserker

•  Shattering Blow: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1 to 1.5.
•  Sundering Leap: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.5 to 3.

Traits

•  Bloody Roar: (PvE only) Damage bonus increased from 20% to 25%.

Spellbreaker

Dagger (Main Hand)

•  Breaching Strike: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.5 to 2.5.
•  Precise Cut: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.55 to 0.6.
•  Focused Slash: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.55 to 0.65.
•  Keen Strike: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 0.85 to 1.05. Might is now applied to up to 5 allied targets within a range of 360.
•  Aura Slicer: (PvE only) Damage multiplier increased from 1.2 to 1.8.

Dagger (Off Hand)

•  Bladestorm: (PvE only) Damage multiplier per hit increased from 0.35 to 0.5.

Traits

•  Pure Strike: (PvE only) Damage bonus increased from 7%/14% to 7.5%/15%.
•  Magebane Tether: (PvE only) Damage bonus to tethered target increased from 10% to 15%. Might stacks per second reduced from 3 to 1, but they are now applied to up to 5 allied targets within a range of 360.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki notes

• Build: 133,322
• In the preview notes, there was originally an update listed for the Dragonhunter's skill True Shot that would have allowed players to move while channeling the skill (at 50% reduced movement speed), but this was subsequently removed due to balance concerns in PvP and WvW.
• Following player feedback to the preview notes, the following adjustments were made:
  • Firebrand changes in WvW to the elite mantra Mantra of Liberation - this change was still applied to PvE only.
  • Mirage changes to Lingering Thoughts (axe skill 2), Imaginary Axes (axe ambush), and Chaos Vortex (staff ambush).
• Fixed Venoms and Ashes of the Just not applying conditions to gadget enemies (such as Strike Mission: Harvest Temple boss, Tequatl, …).
• The following further adjustments were made but were not included within the preview:
  • Druid changes to Solar Beam (staff auto attack).
  • Deadeye changes to Malicious Backstab (dagger stealth attack).
• Bag of Crafting Materials is now an additional choice for Anniversary Weapon Pack and Delectable Birthday Dyes.
• The Black Lion Chest has been updated to the Firestarter Chest.
• The contents of Black Lion Statuettes have been updated.
• The contents of Black Lion Exclusives Chest have been updated.
• Fixed a bug where Defeat the icebrood construct before it reaches Havroun Weibe would end prematurely.
• Blocked players no longer show their location or achievement points.

Update - August 4, 2022

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a server crash.
• Fixed a client crash.
• Fixed an issue that prevented bladesworn warriors from using gunsabers in the Queen’s Gauntlet arena.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

• Build: 132,525

Update - August 3, 2022

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed two server crashes.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

• Build: ?

Late Notes - August 2, 2022

Living World

• Living World Season 2 achievements will no longer require story replay for completion.

General

• Players who are blocked will now be unable to add the player who blocked them as a friend.

Update - August 2, 2022

Festival of the Four Winds

On behalf of Queen Jennah of Kryta and the Captain's Council of Lion's Arch, you are cordially invited to participate in the return of the Festival of the Four Winds!

High atop the Labyrinthine Cliffs, our Zephyrite friends have been working in tandem with Lion's Arch to host an incredible variety of fun vendors and events to entertain visitors from all across Tyria. This celebration of unity and peace between our cultures is more important than ever before, and we hope that you will join us in the festivities.

In this spirit of cooperation, Queen Jennah has personally overseen the reopening of the Crown Pavilion, featuring a variety of challenges for Tyria's finest to test their mettle!

Transportation to the festivities couldn't be easier! Special hot air balloons are now stationed in each nation's capital city. Visitors can also sail directly from the ship from Lion's Arch.

We look forward to seeing you at the festival!

— Captain Ellen Kiel

• The Zephyrite bazaar has returned to the Labyrinthine Cliffs! Visitors to the Labyrinthine Cliffs can try their hand at many festival activities, including adventures, races, and scavenger hunts:
  • Show your skill with the Zephyrite crystals in the Flying Dolyak race!
  • Enjoy the sights of the sea in the bay-spanning Skimmer Slalom race!
  • Team up with your friends to plunder lost treasure in the Treasure Hunt meta-event!
  • Scramble to set a high score in the Crystal Collection adventure!
  • Demonstrate your aviation ability in two Labyrinthine Cliffs Griffon Master adventures!
  • Compete to take the lead in the Sanctum Sprint activity!
  • Challenge the competition with unique Zephyrite skills in the returning Aspect Arena!
  • Leap across the Labyrinthine Cliffs to recover Zephyrite crystals and discover the fate of the Bazaar's fallen star, Kookoochoo the Incredulous!
  • Trade materials with the Zephyrites for a new Zephyrite Supply Box containing a wide variety of possible items, including exceptionally rare skins and equipment from distant lands.
• For combat-inclined festivalgoers, the Crown Pavilion has reopened in Divinity's Reach. Challenge recreations of humanity's greatest foes, legendary champions, and notorious figures!
  • The renowned Boss Blitz returns! Organize your companions to challenge 6 legendary foes—they'll gain strength as other bosses fall, so plan your battle carefully!
  • Adventurers yearning to show their skill in a solo challenge, rejoice! The Queen's Gauntlet has reopened!
  • Between blitzes, blow off some steam in the most hazardous festival race since Halloween: the infamous Pavilion Pursuit!
• New updates and prizes this year include:
  • Complete the annual Four Winds Customs meta-achievement to earn the Zephyrite Shawl, a new shoulder armor piece crafted in the Zephyrite tradition.
    • Last year's meta-achievement reward, the Zephyrite Traveling Boots, can now be purchased from the festival reward vendors.
  • A new Watchwork weapon set is now available! Complete the annual Four Winds Customs meta-achievement to receive your choice of a weapon. You can rarely find additional tradeable weapons in Four Winds Prize Bags, which are available from a new daily achievement.
  • A new skiff-themed race has been added to Labyrinthine Cliffs. Gather a crew and compete to be the fastest boat on the seas!
    • A skiff rental is available for players who have not unlocked their own skiff through the End of Dragons storyline.
  • Fishing nodes and a fishing tournament event have been added to Labyrinthine Cliffs. The unique Labyrinthine Cliffs waters stand at the intersection of numerous ecologies, and fish normally found in distant seas can be caught!
    • Fishing must be unlocked through the End of Dragons storyline.
  • The event rotation in Labyrinthine Cliffs has been updated to accommodate the skiff race and fishing tournament.
  • A new weekly achievement has been added. Complete activities across the festival to earn extra rewards each week!
  • Contents of the Zephyrite Supply Boxes have been updated, including four new weapons crafted by a traveling weaponsmith.
  • Two new minis have been added to the festival reward vendors in Labyrinthine Cliffs and Crown Pavilion.
  • Added new guild decorations inspired by Zephyrite architecture.
  • Updated the festival mount and skiff races to use a shared reward box for their adventure prizes.
  • Various bugs and glitches have been fixed to ensure a safer and more pleasant festival for all participants.
• Complete festival daily achievements to earn the Four Winds Zephyr daily achievement. This contributes to the Four Winds Gale achievement, which rewards your choice of weapons based on Zephyrite crafts!
• Earn Festival Tokens and Favors of the Festival by completing festival events and trade them for exciting prizes, including Zephyrite backpacks, the illustrious Sovereign weapon set, and items based on the latest wonder of the Crown Pavilion: the Watchknight Mk II.
• Zephyrite Kite Baskets have been scattered across Tyria. Open them to claim prizes from the Zephyrite stockpiles.
• The Festival of the Four Winds will be available for three weeks, from August 2 until August 23. Enjoy the festivities!

General

• The Kralkatorrik legendary variant skin collection is now available. Speak with Leivas after unlocking an Aurene-based legendary weapon to begin this collection!
• To prevent stalling issues during the Ogre Wars meta-event, certain critical friendly NPCs have been updated to be unwilling to die.
• Updated the models for the three Great Jungle Wurm bosses found in the Triple Trouble meta-event chain in Bloodtide Coast.

Graphics

• Made some minor performance improvements in the renderer.
• Improved performance when transitioning from underwater.
• Improved the visuals on some level-of-detail transitions.
• Fixed an issue that occasionally prevented water reflections from updating.
• Fixed an issue that caused some lights to flicker.
• Replaced "Enable DX11 Renderer" with "Enable DX9 Renderer (Deprecated)" in the Options menu. The new setting will appear disabled for players who have already enabled DX11, but their settings have not been changed and they are still using DX11.

New Player Experience Improvements

We've been experimenting with some changes to the new player experience. You might have heard whispers of new players leveling more quickly than their friends or gaining access to the raptor mount early in their Tyrian adventuring career. After evaluating the effectiveness of these changes by digging through mountains of data, we're excited to make these first experiments permanent additions to the game.

• Road test the raptor!
  • Accounts with an expansion unlocked will be granted permanent access to the basic raptor mount after they reach level 10 on a single character. Players who have reached level 80 and own the Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire expansion can unlock this mount's Masteries.
  • Characters on Play for Free accounts will get a 10-hour trial of the raptor mount when they reach level 10.
  • For characters that are already over level 10 and missed the initial unlock checkpoint, we will attempt to grant the unlock every 10 levels. This is true for both Play for Free and expansion accounts. We are working on additional methods to offer this unlock to players not caught by this fallback solution.
• Updated default selections in the Options menu for new accounts.
  • General Options:
    • AoE Loot on Interact: On
    • Autoloot: Autopickup: On
    • Show All Enemy Names: On
    • Show All Usable Object Names: On
    • Show Skill Recharge: On
    • Show Target Health Percent: On
    • Disable Player Camera Shake: On
    • Right-Click to Attack/Interact: Off
    • Melee Attack Assist: Off
    • Lock Ground Target at Maximum Skill Range: On
  • Graphics Options (skipped if Autodetect would choose lower values):
    • Reflections: Terrain & Sky
    • Character Model Limit: Medium
  • Control Options:
    • Strafe Left: A
    • Strafe Right: D
    • Turn Left: Q
    • Turn Right: E
    • Special Action: N
    • Information Dialog: - (dash)

Fractals

• Fixed an issue that prevented players from interacting with Mistlock Singularities after a party wipe.

Profession Skills

General

Pet Skill Autoattack

• A pet skill set to autoattack will be used automatically when the pet is in combat, within appropriate range of a target (when applicable), and if the skill is off cooldown. The untamed elite specialization's Unleash Pet F1, F2, and F3 skills may not be set to autoattack; this function only applies to the pet's natural skills.
• Any ranger or mechanist pet profession skill may be set to autoattack.
  • For rangers, druids, and soulbeasts without Unleash Pet active, these skills are bound to the F2 key by default.
  • For untamed and mechanists, these skills are bound to the F1, F2, and F3 keys by default.
• Untamed and mechanist elite specializations may set one, two, or all three to autoattack simultaneously.
  • This is done by holding the Control key and clicking on the skill with your Mouse 2 button, in the same way that player skills are set to autoattack. A reminder of this functionality is at the very bottom of any applicable skill tooltip.

Engineer

As we mentioned in a previous blog, the interaction between Aim Assisted Rocket[sic] and the mechanist's jade mech is adding too much passive power to the pet and doubling the power of this trait. In this update, we're reducing the damage this trait adds to mechanist builds by giving the mech a longer internal cooldown between the rockets it can fire. We're also removing the minimum range mechanic; we found that it created some unenjoyable play by giving players an incentive to move away from their allies, and it's hard to judge the correct distance from the target. It also led to some strange edge cases where melee attacks (or Bomb Kit!) hitting at maximum range could trigger rockets. We're cleaning up these issues by making them only activate on hits from missile weapons.

Explosives

•  Aim Assisted Rocket: This trait no longer has a minimum range. Instead, it only activates on hits from missile weapons. The mechanist's mech pet now triggers this trait at half the previous rate, with an internal cooldown of 6 seconds.

When we introduced Rifle Burst to replace the old Hip Shot, there was an animation timing issue causing each shot to lack recoil. It didn't look good! This was corrected in a hotfix, but that timing fix was made too hastily and accidentally increased the total casting time of this skill from 1 second—which it was balanced for—to 1.2 seconds. This accidental nerf made it even weaker than Grenade Kit's first skill! We've taken another pass at it and have gotten it back to the intended 1-second total casting time. This restores the intended balance of this skill to about 10% lower sustained damage per second than Bomb Kit's first skill. In PvP and WvW, a 1-second casting time makes it equal in DPS to the old Hip Shot.

Rifle

•  Rifle Burst: Adjusted total animation duration down to 1 second from approximately 1.2 seconds.
•  Jump Shot: Fixed a bug that caused Jump Shot to sometimes deal less damage than expected.

Mesmer

Similar to recent tuning of ranger weapons, the following are small changes focused on improving the damage capability of chronomancer builds. Improvements to greatsword and sword, as well as a significant damage increase added to the chronomancer's Improved Alacrity trait, will increase the performance of both damage-dealing and boon support chronomancer builds.

•  Spatial Surge: In PvE only, increased minimum damage multiplier from 0.69 to 0.8. Increased maximum damage multiplier from 1.005 to 1.1.
•  Mind Stab: In PvE only, increased damage multiplier from 1.0 to 1.8.
•  Phantasmal Berserker: In PvE only, increased damage multiplier of initial strike from 0.4 to 1.2.
•  Mind Slash: In PvE only, increased damage multiplier from 0.75 to 0.8.
•  Mind Gash: In PvE only, increased damage multiplier from 0.75 to 0.8.

Chronomancer

•  Improved Alacrity: In addition to its previous effects, this trait now also increases your critical strike damage by 10% when you have alacrity. This is a multiplier to total damage dealt, not additive with critical strike damage from ferocity.

Virtuoso

• Fixed a bug that caused phantasms created by a virtuoso to have 5% less critical-hit chance than expected.

Ranger

• Spirits: Fixed a bug that caused spirit boons to be granted in a circle around the ranger instead of the spirit.

Warrior

Banners

We badly missed the mark with banner changes in the June update. We've gone back to the drawing board to be bolder with changes, add more powerful utility, and make banners easier to use. Each banner will now provide its most powerful boons immediately on use and have a much shorter base cooldown of 30 seconds.

To address situations where it felt like warriors needed to constantly adjust the positions of their banners, pulsing boons are now granted in an increased duration per pulse over a shorter amount of time. It will no longer be necessary to stand around the banner for its full duration to upkeep banner boons; duration will stack up more quickly. The reduced cooldowns allow warriors to frequently use their powerful boons on placement. The radius and duration of banner boons have been reduced to better reflect this more focused role. The previous ability for banners to grant quickness to allies has been moved to the Doubled Standards trait.

General Banner Skill Changes

• Recharge reduced from 60 seconds to 30 seconds (except Battle Standard).
• Animation changed; casting time reduced by 0.2 seconds (except Battle Standard).
• Light combo field radius reduced from 600 to 360. Combo field duration reduced to from 5 seconds to 3 seconds.
• Pulsing boon radius reduced to 360.
• Once placed, banners last for 15 seconds and can no longer be picked up.
• Banners no longer grant quickness on placement by default (except for Banner of Tactics in PvE only).
•  Doubled Standards: This trait now grants quickness on banner placement, in addition to its other effects. Its description has been changed to clarify that boon duration increase only applies to the pulsing boons and not any other boons granted on the initial banner placement.

All banner skills (except for Battle Standard) have been reworked. They now grant different boons when placed, depending on the banner.

•  Banner of Defense: Grants barrier and aegis to allies.
•  Banner of Tactics: Applies stability and superspeed (and quickness in PvE only) to allies.
•  Banner of Discipline: Damages and applies bleeding and crippled. This skill no longer creates a light combo field but acts as a blast finisher instead.
•  Banner of Strength: Damages and dazes enemies. This skill no longer creates a light combo field but acts as a blast finisher instead.
•  Battle Standard: Damage multiplier has been increased from 1.5 to 4.0 in PvE only. This skill no longer creates a light combo field but acts as a blast finisher instead.

Pulsing boons have changed to the following:

•  Banner of Defense: Regen (4 seconds)
•  Banner of Tactics: Resistance (2 seconds)
•  Banner of Discipline: Fury (4 seconds)
•  Banner of Strength: Might (10 seconds, two stacks)
•  Battle Standard: Fury (6 seconds), swiftness (12 seconds), and might (12 seconds, two stacks)

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

• Build: 132,359
• Consuming Flame and Icy Screech now have range skill facts.
• The descriptions for Generous Abundance and Zephyr's Speed have been updated to match their current functionality.
• The Black Lion Chest has been updated to the Jade Tech Ascension Chest.
• The contents of Black Lion Statuettes have been updated.
• The Reinforce Armor overhead icon has been changed.
• The Sous Chef summoned by Frying Pan no longer attacks foes.