Game updates/March 2022

From Guild Wars 2 Wiki
Jump to navigationJump to search
March 2022 updates
← Prev • Next →

Update - March 31, 2022[edit]

Bug Fixes:[edit]

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes[edit]

  • Build: 127,440

Update - March 30, 2022[edit]

Bug Fixes:[edit]

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes[edit]

  • Build: 127,380

Late Notes - March 29, 2022[edit]

General[edit]

  • End of Dragons event rewards have been improved.
  • Improved timing and flow for the bite attack sequence for the final boss in the Battle for the Jade Sea meta-event, which will allow for slightly more uptime on attacking the boss.
  • Fixed a bug in which the plants and special action skill in the "Help Sang-Cheol tend the garden" event in Seitung Harbor would function incorrectly and remain after the event finished.
  • Fixed a bug in which Toxicologist Yon would sometimes get stuck in an emote loop, preventing her event chain from working properly in Seitung Province.
  • Fixed a bug in which the map and NPC markers were sometimes not showing up at the right times for the A Guardian Once More collection achievement.
  • Fixed a bug in which the spirit tethers were not attaching to the right areas within the "Defeat Tae-Yung, and stop him from harming the spirits"[sic] event in Seitung Province.
  • Fixed a bug in which Lieutenant Francis used the wrong character model in Seitung Province.
  • End of Dragons food consumables are now classified as Meals within the crafting menu.
  • Fixed an issue that could prevent the Set Hook skill from appearing when fishing if there was an obstacle between the player and their casting target.
  • Fixed the fire eel's hint description in the Ring of Fire Fisher collection to indicate that it can now be caught at any time of day.
  • Fixed an issue in which the fishing alert reminder to set your hook was showing up on the compass map for other players.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause the Fishing Party Catches effect counter to disappear after 99 stacks.
  • Increased the drop rate of fish from the Saltwater Fisher collection when fishing from nodes.

Items[edit]

Update - March 29, 2022[edit]

Super Adventure Festival[edit]

Moto's world-renowned Super Adventure Box returns again when the Super Adventure Festival kicks off on March 29! Explore two worlds of excitement, peril, and educational entertainment to earn holographic weapons and a variety of loot. Travelers can visit the Adventure Box in Rata Sum—temporary portals have been placed in each major city to facilitate easy travel to the scenic hub of asuran culture!

  • Festivities begin on March 29 and continue until April 19 at noon Pacific Time (UTC-7).
  • Complete the festival's meta-achievement, (Annual) Super Adventure Box Nostalgia, to earn the new Reality Rig Mk1 chest armor! Last year's reward, the Mini Super Ooze, is now available from the Super Adventure Box Traders.
  • Once you have your Mk1 in hand, talk to the Super Adventure Box Traders to upgrade it with Bauble Bubbles into the Reality Rig Mk2 and Reality Rig Mk3.
  • A new holographic Hardlight weapon set is now available! You'll receive your choice of a weapon by progressing the Super Adventure Box Nostalgia meta-achievement, and you have a rare chance of finding additional tradeable weapons in Super Loot Bags, available from a new daily achievement.
  • A new partial weapon series, the Retro-Forged weapons, has been crafted by a visitor to Rata Sum. You can purchase these weapons directly from a festival vendor or find them as rare drops in Super Loot Bags.
  • A new daily achievement, Extracurricular Adventures, has been added. This achievement can be completed by beating levels in the Box or defeating champions anywhere in Tyria. The achievement rewards Super Loot Bags containing helpful items for your adventures in and out of the Box.
  • The rotation of daily achievements for Super Adventure Box has been reorganized to increase the variety of achievements appearing in different combinations.
  • New Super Adventure Box-themed guild decorations have been added! Give your hall a sky-high treatment with new cloud platforms.
  • Crimson Assassin Tokens can now be traded for Bauble Bubbles.
  • Super Adventure Box has been updated to no longer remove food, utility, and other positive effects on entry. The remaining time on these effects will be suspended for the duration of your Super Adventure and resume when you return to Tyria.
  • Super Adventure Box vendors will now leave Rata Sum when the Box closes—they will be available year-round in the skritt cave in Lion's Arch.
  • Updated the properties of moving objects, such as rapids logs, to reduce rapids-related catastrophes.
  • A number of Super Adventure-related bugs have been fixed to ensure a safe education for all heroes.

World Polish[edit]

General[edit]

Exposed[edit]

The Exposed effect is applied when a creature's defiance bar is broken and causes the creature to take additional power and condition damage for a short duration. Previously, there was no consistent duration for Exposed. We are standardizing its applied duration to 10 seconds, which is longer than the previous durations. With increased duration, we are also adjusting the effect to compensate. Previously, Exposed caused the target to take 30% increased damage from strikes and 100% from conditions. This short window of Exposed overrewarded certain builds with high burst capability in content such as fractals. Moving forward, Exposed causes 10% increased damage from strikes and 20% from conditions over its longer duration of 10 seconds. This allows more time to take advantage of this window of opportunity while more consistently rewarding a variety of builds. We will be keeping a very close eye on the effects of this change. This change does not affect the Exposed effect on Soo-Won in the final encounter of the Dragon's End map meta-event.

Bug Fixes[edit]

Fractals[edit]

Raids[edit]

  • The catalyst's jade sphere energy is now set to maximum when engaging a raid or strike boss.

Personal Story[edit]

  • Updated the interior of the apartment complex in Brume Alley in New Kaineng City to prevent it from automatically kicking players out in the chapter "The Future in Jade" in End of Dragons.
  • Added an optional quest marker for Joon's office inside Yong Reactor to increase visibility on the location in the chapter "Deepest Secrets" in End of Dragons.
  • Fixed an issue in which players would get automatically dismounted when trying to mount if they were wielding Sohothin in the chapter "Beast of War" in Path of Fire.

Items[edit]

  • The elite specialization collection item earned from completing the End of Dragons story can now be earned from completing the Dragon's End meta-event or purchased from vendors in Dragon's End if you have finished the story with another character. The text will be adjusted to reflect this change in a separate update.
  • Recipes for lower-level potions of slaying have been adjusted. Weak recipes produce 1 potion, minor recipes produce 2, powerful recipes still produce 10, and all other recipes produce 3.
  • Fixed a bug with jade bot scavenger protocols. Scavenger protocols will no longer work when killing players.
  • Testimonies of Jade Heroics may be exchanged for Testimonies of Desert Heroics at heroics notaries.

Profession Skills[edit]

Elementalist[edit]

Catalyst[edit]

In our previous update, we addressed the fact that the catalyst's pure DPS builds were simultaneously providing 100% quickness uptime for a party while doing among the highest damage output of any specialization in the game. As other boon support builds that provide excellent uptime on critical boons (such as quickness or alacrity) have less damage output than builds focused purely on damage, the catalyst was at risk of supplanting all other quickness providers in group content.

We addressed this by making trait and damage output changes quickly to prevent it from distorting the cooperative play meta-game. However, it left the catalyst's damage builds not meeting our goals for the profession; it's difficult to play well and is only dealing competitive damage on large targets or targets where you can stand inside their hitbox. That's not great! We want every profession and specialization to feel awesome, regardless of the size of your enemy.

We've prepared a list of changes to specific skills and effects to help reach these goals for PvE play. None of the following changes apply to PvP or WvW.

Key Issues[edit]
Issue 1

Hammer 3's orbiting elemental missiles each give a beneficial passive effect while active, but the skill usage pattern required to upkeep each one is very unforgiving. To address this, the duration of the elemental missiles and their effects in PvE are being increased from 5 seconds to 15 seconds. As before, activating a new one refreshes the timer on all of them. It's not only going to be easier to keep them up all of the time—we're also significantly increasing the passive benefits for having each active so that keeping them all up is a rewarding goal!

Rocky Loop and Icy Coil now reduce incoming damage by three times more than they did previously (from 5% up to 15%), while Crescent Wind now gives an increased critical hit chance (formerly 7%, now 10%), and Flame Wheel now increases all of the damage you do (formerly by 5%, now 10%).

Issue 2

Too much of the catalyst's damage is reliant on hitting as often as possible with Hammer 3's orbiting elemental missiles. This can make it hard to play consistently against small targets or in situations where you can't walk inside of your target's hitbox. To address this, the damage from Hammer 3's missiles is being dramatically reduced so that the catalyst is not reliant on keeping them inside an enemy's hitbox for effective play. Instead, we've packed all of that removed damage and a lot more into the other things that you're doing while they're up.

The hammer is a weighty weapon, and it should feel like it when you're crushing your enemies. All of your Hammer 1 and Hammer 2 skills will now deal more damage per hit. Grand Finale deals a lot more damage per missile now, too, so once you have all your missiles from Hammer 3 out, you're ready to launch an attack worthy of that preparation!

Issue 3

The Shattering Ice utility skill is a powerful source of damage, but fully taking advantage of it requires that you hit a target every 0.25 seconds—otherwise you miss out on damage you could have gotten from this skill. To address this, we're increasing the interval on this effect from 0.25 seconds to 1 second, with significantly increased damage. This makes it easier to reliably get the full damage possible out of this utility skill.

Catalyst PvE Updates[edit]
Hammer
  • Singeing Strike.png Singeing Strike: Damage coefficient increased from 0.67 to 0.9 in PvE only.
  • Surging Flames.png Surging Flames: Damage coefficient increased from 1.5 to 1.8 in PvE only.
  • Stream Strike.png Stream Strike: Damage coefficient increased from 0.7 to 0.8 in PvE only.
  • Water Rush.png Water Rush: Damage coefficient increased from 0.9 to 1.1 in PvE only.
  • Chilling Crack.png Chilling Crack: Damage coefficient increased from 1.2 to 1.4 in PvE only.
  • Rain of Blows.png Rain of Blows: Damage coefficient per strike increased from 0.42 to 0.45 (4 strikes).
  • Wind Slam.png Wind Slam: Damage coefficient increased from 0.72 to 0.9 in PvE only.
  • Hurricane of Pain.png Hurricane of Pain: Damage coefficient per strike increased from 0.513 to 0.6 (9 strikes).
  • Stonestrike.png Stonestrike: Damage coefficient increased from 0.93 to 1.1 in PvE only.
  • Whirling Stones.png Whirling Stones: Damage coefficient per strike increased from 0.51 to 0.65 (5 strikes).
  • Flame Wheel.png Flame Wheel, Icy Coil.png Icy Coil, Crescent Wind.png Crescent Wind, Rocky Loop.png Rocky Loop: Damage coefficient reduced from 0.1 to 0.001 in PvE only.
  • Rocky Loop.png Rocky Loop: Duration increased from 5 seconds to 15 seconds in PvE only. Damage reduction while active increased from 5% to 15% in PvE only.
  • Crescent Wind.png Crescent Wind: Duration increased from 5 seconds to 15 seconds in PvE only. Critical Chance bonus while active increased from 7% to 10% in PvE only.
  • Icy Coil.png Icy Coil: Duration increased from 5 seconds to 15 seconds in PvE only. Condition damage reduction while active increased from 5% to 15% in PvE only.
  • Flame Wheel.png Flame Wheel: Duration increased from 5 seconds to 15 seconds in PvE only. Damage and condition damage bonus while active increased from 5% to 10%.
  • Grand Finale.png Grand Finale: Damage coefficient per missile increased from 0.7 to 1.0 in PvE only.
Utilities
  • Shattering Ice.png Shattering Ice: Damage coefficient per strike increased from 0.1 to 0.6 in PvE only. Chill duration increased from 0.5 seconds to 1 second in PvE only. Interval between strikes on the same target increased from 0.25 seconds to 1 second in PvE only.
Traits
  • Empowered Empowerment.png Empowered Empowerment: PvP split removed; effectiveness increase in PvE changed from 50% back to 100%, matching PvP and WvW.

Guardian[edit]

Willbender[edit]
  • Searing Pact.png Searing Pact: Fixed a bug that caused this trait to reduce the duration of boons applied to allies by 50%.

Ranger[edit]

Revenant[edit]

Thief[edit]

  • Siphon.png Siphon: Fixed a bug that caused the incorrect cooldown to occur when targeting a fully defeated ally.
  • Thieves Guild.png Thieves Guild: This skill will now summon a specter if the player has that elite specialization equipped.

Warrior[edit]

  • Blooming Fire.png Blooming Fire: Ammo recharge has been reduced from 25 seconds to 10 seconds in PvE.
  • Artillery Slash.png Artillery Slash: Ammo recharge has been reduced from 35 seconds to 15 seconds in PvE.
  • Cyclone Trigger.png Cyclone Trigger: Ammo recharge has been reduced from 40 seconds to 20 seconds in PvE.
  • Break Step.png Break Step: Ammo recharge has been reduced from 40 seconds to 20 seconds in PvE.

Competitive Balance[edit]

Warrior[edit]

Winds of Disenchanment has been a force in WvW since it was first introduced. We've gone through various iterations since then, trying to find the right balance point with full boon denial, but it has continued to be a problematic effect. We've decided to finally split it to be a percentage of incoming boon duration rather than a full denial. This is a major change to the skill's effectiveness, and we'll be keeping a close eye on its impact to see if any additional changes are needed to either Winds of Disenchantment or the spellbreaker as a whole.

With the big nerf to Winds of Disenchantment, we also wanted to include some effects to support the spellbreaker build. Vigorous Shouts and Call of Valor are also being enhanced in PvP as we look to make support warrior more competitive with guardian and tempest support builds. Hammer also gets a slight tune-up, with increases to some of its damage and reductions to its crowd control cooldowns.

  • Vigorous Shouts.png Vigorous Shouts: Increased heal attribute scaling from 0.5 to 0.75 in PvP only. Increased heal attribute scaling from 1.0 to 1.2 in WvW only.
  • Call of Valor.png Call of Valor: Increased barrier attribute scaling from 0.82 to 1.2 in PvP only. Increased barrier attribute scaling from 1.0 to 1.2 in WvW only. Increased the number of conditions removed from 2 to 3 in PvP and WvW.
  • Fierce Blow.png Fierce Blow: Increased power coefficient against noncontrolled targets from 0.77 to 1.0 in PvP and WvW.
  • Hammer Shock.png Hammer Shock: Increased power coefficient from 0.7 to 1.13 in PvP and WvW.
  • Staggering Blow.png Staggering Blow: Reduced cooldown from 18 seconds to 15 seconds in PvP and WvW.
  • Backbreaker.png Backbreaker: Reduced cooldown from 25 seconds to 20 seconds in PvP and WvW.

Finally, we have a slight adjustment to Unyielding Dragon in PvP. The primary effects of this trait are already incredibly powerful, and the significant amount of might has pushed it a bit over the top.

  • Unyielding Dragon.png Unyielding Dragon: Reduced the number of might stacks granted when converting flow into charges from 2 to 1 in PvP only.

Engineer[edit]

Scrapper is one of the premier support builds in WvW, and it's one that's potent at too many things. Scrapper brings strong healing and condition cleanse in addition to granting powerful effects like superspeed and quickness and generating boons with Purity of Purpose, among other things. We see healing and cleanse as the main pieces of scrapper's support identity, and while it will still grant superspeed and quickness (and other boons), we see its current output of these effects as too high. We do want scrapper to be a capable healer, but it's currently a bit stronger than we'd like so we're bringing down the healing of Medical Dispersion Field.

Mechanist has continued to overperform in PvP even after the nerfs it received in the last update, and we're making additional adjustments to the mech's stat inheritance.

  • Mechanist.png Mechanist: Reduced jade mech stat inheritance by 20% for all stats in PvP only.

Guardian[edit]

Firebrand is another support build that's good at a few too many things. The main aspect that we want to bring down is its ability to heal allies, and for this update we've targeted its passive healing capability via Battle Presence. This will reduce the firebrand's overall healing output while still leaving Tome of Resolve as a higher-impact healing option.

  • Battle Presence.png Battle Presence: The following changes affect the firebrand elite specialization only.
    • Reduced pulse base heal from 84 to 42 in WvW only.
    • Reduced pulse heal attribute scaling from 0.06 to 0.03 in WvW only.

In this update, we're shaving down the damage output from both power guardian and revenant in WvW. Staff damage is something that we've brought down previously, but it's still higher than we'd like to see on a weapon primarily designed for support builds.

  • Test of Faith.png Test of Faith: Reduced passthrough strike power coefficient from 2.52 to 2.22 in WvW only.
  • Procession of Blades.png Procession of Blades: Increased cooldown from 20 seconds to 25 seconds in WvW only.
  • Holy Strike.png Holy Strike: Reduced power coefficient from 0.91 to 0.73 in WvW only.
  • Symbol of Swiftness.png Symbol of Swiftness: Reduced power coefficient from 0.3 to 0.25 in WvW only.

Righteous Instincts has been a key piece of power guardian builds for as long as it's been in the game. Core power guardian currently sees average success in lower ranked play, but it hasn't been a major player in higher ranks or serious tournament games for quite a while. While we were looking at updates for willbender, we floated the idea of enhancing Righteous Instincts and saw it as an interesting option. This is another change that we'll be keeping a very close eye on to measure the impact and see if it's something that we need to reevaluate.

While the Righteous Instincts effect is potentially a big one for willbender, we felt that there were a few other pieces that were worth adjusting. A longer immobilization on Advancing Strike gives willbender slightly more potential to set up its own damage, and lower virtue cooldowns solidify the specialization as a high-mobility roamer.

  • Advancing Strike.png Advancing Strike: Increased immobile duration from 1 second to 2 seconds in PvP and WvW.
  • Lethal Tempo.png Lethal Tempo: Increased damage bonus per stack from 2% to 3% in PvP and WvW.
  • Flowing Resolve.png Flowing Resolve: Reduced ammo recharge from 30 seconds to 20 seconds in PvP and WvW. Increased initial base heal from 783 to 1,331 in PvP and WvW.
  • Crashing Courage.png Crashing Courage: Reduced cooldown from 50 seconds to 30 seconds in PvP and WvW.
  • Roiling Light.png Roiling Light: Reduced cooldown from 30 seconds to 25 seconds in PvP and WvW.
  • Heaven's Palm.png Heaven's Palm: Reduced cooldown from 25 seconds to 20 seconds in PvP and WvW.
  • Mighty Blow.png Mighty Blow: Reduced cooldown from 8 seconds to 6 seconds in PvP and WvW.
  • Zealot's Embrace.png Zealot's Embrace: Increased power coefficient from 0.8 to 1.2 in PvP and WvW.
  • Ring of Warding.png Ring of Warding: Reduced cooldown from 30 seconds to 25 seconds in PvP and WvW.

Revenant[edit]

Inspiring Reinforcement is one of the main outliers in revenant damage in WvW due to multiple attack regions allowing it to hit a large number of targets. We're looking into normalizing some of the target cap behavior for Inspiring Reinforcement and other similar skills, but for now we've just brought down the damage a bit more.

Elementalist[edit]

Catalyst is another one of the End of Dragons elite specs that has struggled to find its footing in competitive modes. Hammer's circling projectiles were difficult to chain together in more realistic combat situations, and even when able to do so, the bonuses lacked impact. Increasing the durations should give more flexibility to maintain the projectiles, which now also grant more rewarding bonuses. We've also enhanced a few other hammer skills, giving more damage potential to fire attunement and a bit more defense to earth. In addition to the hammer adjustments, we've strengthened a few of the key skills and traits as a broader power-up to the specialization as a whole.

  • Flame Wheel.png Flame Wheel: Increased projectile duration from 5 seconds to 8 seconds in PvP and WvW. Increased damage bonus from 5% to 10%.
  • Icy Coil.png Icy Coil: Increased projectile duration from 5 seconds to 8 seconds in PvP and WvW. Increased condition damage reduction from 5% to 10% in PvP and WvW.
  • Crescent Wind.png Crescent Wind: Increased projectile duration from 5 seconds to 8 seconds in PvP and WvW. Increased critical chance bonus from 7% to 12% in PvP and WvW.
  • Rocky Loop.png Rocky Loop: Increased projectile duration from 5 seconds to 8 seconds in PvP and WvW. Increased damage reduction from 5% to 10% in PvP and WvW.
  • Immutable Stone.png Immutable Stone: Increased base barrier from 1,460 to 2,919 in PvP and WvW.
  • Ground Pound.png Ground Pound: Reduced cooldown from 30 seconds to 25 seconds in PvP and WvW.
  • Surging Flames.png Surging Flames: Increased power coefficient from 1.13 to 1.36 in PvP and WvW.
  • Triple Sear.png Triple Sear: Reduced cooldown from 20 seconds to 15 seconds in PvP and WvW.
  • Molten End.png Molten End: Reduced cooldown from 25 seconds to 20 seconds in PvP and WvW.
  • Soothing Water.png Soothing Water: Increased pulse healing from 1,340 to 1,541 in PvP and WvW.
  • Invigorating Air.png Invigorating Air: Reduced cooldown from 30 seconds to 25 seconds in PvP and WvW.
  • Fortified Earth.png Fortified Earth: Reduced cooldown from 30 seconds to 25 seconds in PvP and WvW.
  • Elemental Celerity.png Elemental Celerity: Reduced cooldown from 90 seconds to 60 seconds in PvP and WvW.
  • Deploy Jade Sphere: Reduced cooldown from 15 seconds to 10 seconds in PvP and WvW.
  • Energized Elements.png Energized Elements: Increased energy gain from 2 to 3 in PvP and WvW.
  • Transmute Fire.png Transmute Fire, Transmute Frost.png Transmute Frost, Transmute Lightning.png Transmute Lightning, Transmute Earth.png Transmute Earth: Reduced cooldown from 10 seconds to 3 seconds in PvP and WvW.

Focus has long been the preferred off-hand weapon of the elementalist as dagger has generally failed to keep up with the power level of the game over the years. In this update, we've tuned up a lot of the dagger skills with the goal of making it a more viable option.

  • Ring of Fire.png Ring of Fire: Increased power coefficient from 0.6 to 1.2 in PvP and WvW.
  • Fire Grab.png Fire Grab: Reduced cooldown from 25 seconds to 20 seconds in PvP and WvW.
  • Frost Aura.png Frost Aura: Reduced cooldown from 30 seconds to 25 seconds in PvP and WvW.
  • Transmute Frost.png Transmute Frost: Increased base heal from 480 to 1,078 in PvP and WvW. Increased heal attribute scaling from 0.5 to 0.8 in PvP and WvW.
  • Cleansing Wave.png Cleansing Wave: Increased base heal from 1,302 to 1,822 in PvP and WvW. Increased heal attribute scaling from 0.6 to 1.0 in PvP and WvW. Increased conditions removed from 2 to 3 in PvP and WvW.
  • Earthquake.png Earthquake: Reduced cooldown from 30 seconds to 25 seconds in PvP and WvW.
  • Ride the Lightning.png Ride the Lightning: Reduced cooldown from 30 seconds to 25 seconds in PvP and WvW.
  • Updraft.png Updraft: Reduced cooldown from 40 seconds to 30 seconds in PvP and WvW.

Mesmer[edit]

Virtuoso's dagger only brings damage to the table, but the numbers weren't very threatening, and they're getting increases across the board. Rounding out the virtuoso changes for this update is a set of cooldown reductions on some of its key defensive skills.

  • Flying Cutter.png Flying Cutter: Increased power coefficient from 0.285 to 0.35 in PvP and WvW.
  • Bladecall.png Bladecall: Increased power coefficient from 0.4 to 0.5 in PvP and WvW.
  • Unstable Bladestorm.png Unstable Bladestorm: Increased large projectile power coefficient from 1.25 to 1.5. Increased small projectile power coefficient from 0.33 to 0.43 in PvP and WvW.
  • Bladesong Dissonance.png Bladesong Dissonance: Reduced cooldown from 30 seconds to 20 seconds in PvP and WvW.
  • Bladeturn Requiem.png Bladeturn Requiem: Reduced cooldown from 30 seconds to 20 seconds in PvP and WvW.
  • Blade Renewal.png Blade Renewal: Reduced cooldown from 60 seconds to 40 seconds in PvP and WvW.
  • Psychic Force.png Psychic Force: Reduced cooldown from 40 seconds to 30 seconds in PvP and WvW.
  • Twin Blade Restoration.png Twin Blade Restoration: Reduced cooldown from 30 seconds to 25 seconds in PvP and WvW. Increased the number of conditions removed from 1 to 2 in PvP and WvW.

Greatsword is another weapon that we took a look at as we were reviewing possible enhancements for virtuoso, and we saw this as a good chance to bring up some of its damage potential.

  • Mirror Blade.png Mirror Blade: Increased power coefficient from 0.6 to 0.75 in PvP and WvW.
  • Mind Stab.png Mind Stab: Increased power coefficient from 0.7 to 1.0 in PvP and WvW.
  • Phantasmal Berserker.png Phantasmal Berserker: Reduced cooldown from 20 seconds to 15 seconds in PvP and WvW.

Last up for mesmer, we have a big cooldown reduction to Signet of Humility. This is another change we'll be keeping a close eye on to see if the cooldown is a bit too low or if the effect duration needs to be adjusted, but we do want to see players getting transformed into moas on a more regular basis.

Necromancer[edit]

The following three skills were all dealing a bit too much damage when triggering their blight threshold bonuses, and for this update we decided to keep the big blight payoff and reduce the base damage to bring these skills more in line.

  • Elixir of Ambition.png Elixir of Ambition: Reduced power coefficient from 1.5 to 0.9 in PvP and WvW.
  • Devouring Cut.png Devouring Cut: Reduced power coefficient from 1.0 to 0.85 in PvP and WvW.
  • Voracious Arc.png Voracious Arc: Reduced power coefficient from 1.4 to 1.0 in PvP and WvW.

And of course it wouldn't quite feel like a balance update without enhancements to the necromancer's axe. Axe is a place to give harbinger back some of the damage it lost while also giving a slight bump to reaper, which has fallen off a bit following the changes from the End of Dragons launch update.

  • Ghastly Claws.png Ghastly Claws: Reduced cooldown from 10 seconds to 8 seconds in PvP and WvW.
  • Unholy Feast.png Unholy Feast: Increased power coefficient from 1.0 to 1.3 in PvP and WvW.

Black Lion Trading Company Gem Store[edit]

Bug Fixes[edit]

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes[edit]

Late Notes - March 17, 2022[edit]

Bug Fix:[edit]

  • Fixed a bug that was not always allowing players to reach the maximum of 30 total Build Storage Spaces.

Update - March 17, 2022[edit]

Bug Fixes:[edit]

  • Updated the defiance bar mechanic of the final encounter in the Battle for the Jade Sea meta-event to be more consistent and not reliant on chance. This change should ensure more opportunities for players to engage with the defiance bar mechanic and allow for additional damage phases.
  • Reduced the amount of control effects needed to break the defiance bar of whirlpools in the final boss encounter of the "Battle for the Jade Sea" meta-event.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause the Igne Mossheart event chain to stall.
  • All light refuges while fighting Igne Mossheart will now correctly protect players.
  • Fixed an issue with the Cleansing Resonance skill in Seitung Province that could sometimes cause server crashes.
  • Fixed a server crash.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause Verasha's scouting party to get left behind in the Igne Mossheart event chain.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause the "Defeat the corrupted moa before it escapes" event chain in Echovald Wilds to stall.
  • Fixed a crash that could occur when reviving repair crew members during the "Protect the repair crew" events in New Kaineng City.
  • Fixed a rare crash in the Seitung Province meta-event.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes[edit]

  • Build: 126,713

Update 2 - March 16, 2022[edit]

Bug Fixes[edit]

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes[edit]

  • Build: 126,666

Update - March 16, 2022[edit]

Bug Fixes[edit]

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes[edit]

  • Build: 126,603

Late Notes - March 15, 2022[edit]

World Polish[edit]

General[edit]

Raids[edit]

Spirit Vale[edit]

Profession Skills[edit]

Elementalist[edit]

Catalyst has landed strong in group content and currently has damage-dealing potential that is higher than intended when compared against other professions. We've realized that we made a mistake with the specific durations of quickness in the catalyst's kit, as our other professions require a damage tradeoff in trait selection to bring a strong boon support role while the catalyst currently does not, leading to the catalyst dealing about a third more damage than other quickness support options. With this patch, we're tuning the catalyst to parity with other professions in damage and setting up Sphere Specialist as a strong trait choice to enable boon support builds in PvE.

Catalyst[edit]

Engineer[edit]

Inventions[edit]

In this patch, we're increasing the effect radius of Reconstruction Enclosure and Soothing Detonation so that they synergize better in healing and support builds with other existing Inventions and Alchemy traits which have a radius of 360.

Mechanist[edit]

We've found that the mechanist's Energizing Slam is locking players in its animation slightly longer than it needs to, and as a result it's a little clunky to use and not as impactful as it should be compared to the mace's autoattack chain. This update slightly speeds up Energizing Slam's animation, removes the fraction of a second after impact in which players can't move or begin another skill, and makes some other slight fixes and adjustments to the mace to synergize better with condition and support builds. While the Inventions and mace changes make it easier to keep up some support effects on a moving group in combat, we're slightly reducing the power of the support F3 skill, Barrier Burst, to match the strength of other mechanist barrier pulses, as well as removing the vigor boon from it, as the mechanist already has strong access to vigor via the mace and specific core engineer traits which we do not wish to invalidate, such as Experimental Turrets.

  • Mace Strike.png Mace Strike: Fixed a bug that caused this skill to not apply its confusion condition.
  • Mace Strike.png Mace Strike, Mace Smash (mechanist).png Mace Smash, Mace Blast.png Mace Blast: Duration of applied confusion stacks increased from 4 seconds to 5 seconds in PvE only.
  • Energizing Slam.png Energizing Slam: Total casting time reduced from 0.94 seconds to 0.75 seconds. Boon application radius increased from 240 to 360. Damage coefficient increased from 1.8 to 1.85 in PvE only.
  • Recall Mech.png Recall Mech: Fixed a bug in which manual activation of Recall Mech could be interrupted if the mech's defiance bar was depleted.
  • Crash Down.png Crash Down: The mech's landing animation has been updated.
  • Crisis Zone.png Crisis Zone: Fixed a bug that caused the ring indicating the area in which this skill grants boons to appear around a targeted enemy instead of around your mech. This bug was visual only; the boons were granted in the correct location and radius.
  • Barrier Burst.png Barrier Burst: Removed the vigor boon. Reduced barrier per pulse to match other mechanist barrier pulses.

On the competitive side, the mechanist is one of two elite specializations getting adjusted in this update. We're already planning some additional competitive balance changes for the next regular live update, but both the mechanist and the vindicator stood out as the main outliers in early post-EoD data, and we wanted to get in a few adjustments at the first opportunity. The jade mech's defiance bar is something that we were initially concerned about in competitive modes, and we've been keeping an eye on it during beta events and now through release. We've confirmed that defiance bars are not a mechanic that we want to have on profession abilities in competitive environments, so we've disabled the defiance bar in both PvP and WvW. In PvP, we've also adjusted the toughness and vitality inheritance of the jade mech to make it a bit easier to bring down. The tankiness of the mech is something that we will continue to watch and will continue to tune as needed.

  • The jade mech no longer has a defiance bar in PvP and WvW.
  • Mech Fighter.png Mech Fighter: Reduced toughness and vitality inheritance from 100% to 70% in PvP only.
  • Shift Signet.png Shift Signet: Increased cooldown from 40 seconds to 50 seconds in PvP only.

Guardian[edit]

Willbender[edit]
  • Searing Pact.png Searing Pact: Fixed a bug that caused the burning this trait added to strikes from Willbender Flames to use the PvP/WvW duration of 2 seconds in all game modes instead of the intended 1-second duration in PvE that is on the trait tooltip.
  • Willbender Flames: Now has a skill fact to show burning inflicted per strike if you have Searing Pact.
  • Phoenix Protocol.png Phoenix Protocol: Increased alacrity duration from 1 second to 1.5 seconds in PvE.

Mesmer[edit]

Virtuoso[edit]

Virtuoso's condition damage options are intended to be a high-sustain build for general play. However, we'd still like to bring it a little bit closer to the power builds in damage, so this patch increases the bleeding duration from both the Jagged Mind trait and the F2 Bladesong.

  • Jagged Mind.png Jagged Mind: Bleed duration in PvE increased from 3 seconds to 5 seconds.
  • Bladesong Sorrow.png Bladesong Sorrow: Bleed duration per hit increased from 3 seconds to 5 seconds.

Ranger[edit]

Untamed[edit]

Untamed is getting a large damage and defense improvement in PvE with an adjustment to the third minor trait, Vow of the Untamed, and we're also correcting Restorative Strikes to be in line with other healing based on damage-dealt traits in other professions.

  • Fixed a bug that caused the third minor trait Vow of the Untamed.png Vow of the Untamed to apply even if you have not trained it yet.
  • Vow of the Untamed.png Vow of the Untamed: Damage bonus percentage increased from 15% to 25% in PvE only. Damage reduction percentage increased from 10% to 25% in PvE only.
  • Restorative Strikes.png Restorative Strikes: Percentage of damage dealt converted to healing reduced from 10% to 5% in PvE only.
  • Ferocious Symbiosis.png Ferocious Symbiosis: Fixed a bug in which this trait would stop applying effect stacks to the player's pet in some cases.
  • Unleashed Pet Skills: Fixed a bug in which activating these skills would trigger confusion damage on the player.

Revenant[edit]

Vindicator[edit]
  • Forerunner of Death.png Forerunner of Death: Fixed an issue in which the warning effect could be shown to allies.
  • Vassals of the Empire.png Vassals of the Empire: Fixed an issue in which the warning effect could be shown to allies instead of the intended blue circle.
  • Saint of zu Heltzer.png Saint of zu Heltzer: Fixed an issue in which the warning effect could be shown to allies instead of the intended blue circle. Removed the white indicator circle for enemies.

Vindicator is the other elite specialization that we wanted to address in competitive modes before the next update. Eternity's Requiem was significantly out of line with other high-damaging abilities, and we've accelerated the damage falloff on consecutive hits against the same target. This will allow the skill to still maintain its wider AoE pressure while ensuring that it isn't too punishing in smaller scale engagements where all of the guaranteed hits land under the same target. Saint's Shield is another element of the vindicator that has been overperforming, particularly on the aggressive damage-oriented builds. We've brought down the base values and increased the healing contribution for both the healing and barrier component, primarily targeting the potency of this dodge when not invested into any healing power.

  • Eternity's Requiem.png Eternity's Requiem: This skill will no longer create guaranteed impact areas underneath enemies who are in stealth. Reduced the damage falloff per additional hit from 10% to 40% in PvP and WvW. Reduced the minimum power coefficient from 0.3 to 0.1 in PvP and WvW. With these adjustments, the total power coefficient when being struck 5 times has been reduced from 3.6 to 1.82.
  • Saint of zu Heltzer.png Saint's Shield: Reduced base healing and barrier from 3,099 to 1,738 in PvP and WvW. Increased healing and barrier attribute scaling from 0.5 to 1.0 in PvP and WvW.
  • Forerunner of Death.png Death Drop: Reduced power coefficient from 2.67 to 2.22 in WvW only.

Thief[edit]

Specter[edit]

Similar to the catalyst, the specter has been dealing a little more damage than other professions' DPS builds. However, the scepter autoattack chain is underperforming and awkward to use due to a long pause after the final hit. We're buffing the scepter's autoattack chain with a total of 2 more seconds of torment for completing the entire chain, reweighting the torment durations so that the third attack is the most powerful, and cutting out a 0.3-second pause after the final hit that delayed restarting the autoattack chain. These scepter polish changes should make the specialization more fun to play in general while we're also making the necessary damage reductions elsewhere with the traits Larcenous Torment and Strength of Shadows.

  • Shadow Bolt.png Shadow Bolt: Torment duration reduced from 4 seconds to 3 seconds in PvE only.
  • Triple Bolt.png Triple Bolt: Torment duration increased from 4 seconds to 5 seconds in PvE only. Removed a 0.3-second pause after the final bolt that prevented players from immediately restarting the scepter autoattack chain.
  • Larcenous Torment.png Larcenous Torment: Fixed a bug in which this trait was giving 1% shadow force when you apply torment rather than the intended 0.5% specified in the trait description.
  • Larcenous Torment.png Larcenous Torment: Torment damage increase reduced from 20% to 10%.
  • Consume Shadows.png Consume Shadows: Fixed a bug that caused this effect to heal downed allies.
  • Strength of Shadows.png Strength of Shadows: The duration increase to torment instances applied by Rot Wallow Venom has been reduced from 2 seconds to 1 second.

Warrior[edit]

Warhorn Skills[edit]
  • Charge (warrior skill).png Charge: Number of targets decreased from 10 to 5 in PvE, matching the current target count in PvP/WvW.
  • Call of Valor.png Call of Valor: Number of targets decreased from 10 to 5 in PvE, matching the current target count in PvP/WvW.
Bladesworn[edit]
  • Unsheathe Gunsaber.png Unsheathe Gunsaber: Fixed an issue in which characters below level 80 were unable to equip the gunsaber in PvP.

Bug Fixes[edit]

  • Fixed an issue in which charr female characters would roll their eyes into their head while fishing.
  • Fixed an issue in which the skiff skill Depth Charges would not appear in maps outside of Cantha.

Update - March 15, 2022[edit]

World Polish[edit]

General[edit]

  • Looking for Group: Added mouseover tooltip text to End of Dragons entries.
  • Cleaned up fishing and jade bot item opacities so they no longer look improperly grayed out when unselected.
  • Added better tooltips to the map region navigation buttons.
  • Fixed a bug that could cause jade bot modules to sometimes show an incorrect state in the Hero panel.
  • Added a skill to the siege turtle mount that will open the passenger slot to players that aren't in a party or squad with the pilot.
  • Increased the Memories of Aurene reward for the Battle of the Jade Sea[sic] meta-event.
  • Slightly increased the Memories of Aurene reward in the Dragonstorm and the Battle of Dragonfall meta-events.
  • Added a small Memories of Aurene reward for replaying certain episodes from Living World Seasons 3 and 4 in which Aurene had some degree of involvement.
  • Added a small Memories of Aurene reward for replaying the chapter "To Kill a God" in Path of Fire.

Personal Story[edit]

Profession Skills[edit]

Engineer[edit]

  • Fixed a bug in which the mechanist's mech could get stuck repeating an animation after using a skill.
  • Fixed a bug in which the mechanist's mech would not animate for a few moments after being unstowed.
  • Fixed a bug in which the mechanist's mech would sometimes appear that it was taking enormous amounts of damage to its defiance bar.

Guardian[edit]

Willbender[edit]

Ranger[edit]

  • Jade Cannon (turtle).png Jade Cannon (Siege Turtle): Fixed a tooltip issue with the soulbeast variant of this ability that labeled this attack as a blast finisher.

Revenant[edit]

Vindicator[edit]

Thief[edit]

Specter[edit]
  • Triple Threat.png Triple Threat: Fixed a bug that caused this skill to grant might to the user when targeting an ally.

Black Lion Trading Company Gem Store[edit]

  • Check out www.guildwars2.com every week for the most up-to-date information on Black Lion Trading Company Gem Store releases.

Improvements and Updates[edit]

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes[edit]

Update 2 - March 08, 2022[edit]

Bug Fixes:[edit]

  • Fixed a server crash related to the remote-controlled jade bots.
  • Fixed an issue in which the final fight timer for the Aetherblade Assault meta-event did not properly synchronize with the event, causing random failures in the encounter.
  • Fixed a server crash related to Jade Bot Recycler modules.
  • Fixed a server crash.
  • Fixed a map collision issue in Arborstone.
  • Fixed a bug in which the final boss of the Battle for the Jade Sea meta-event was performing its bite attack more often than intended, including potentially chaining multiple bite sequences in a row.
  • Fixed a rare issue in the final encounter of the Battle of the Jade Sea meta-event.
  • Fixed an occasional map crash caused by the "Protect the repair crew" escort events in New Kaineng City.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes[edit]

  • Build: 126,221

Update - March 08, 2022[edit]

Bug Fix:[edit]

  • Removed the End of Dragons Expedition Contract from the Gem Store to avoid confusion. It will return after the End of Dragons Launch Supply Drop Requisition is no longer available.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes[edit]

  • Build: no build update

Update 2 - March 04, 2022[edit]

Bug Fixes:[edit]

  • Applesauce[sic] no longer yields research notes.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause players to skip the "green circles" phase of the final boss of the Dragon's End meta-event. The overall fail timer for this mechanic has been reduced from 120 seconds to 75 seconds. The duration of the outgoing damage effect for successfully performing the mechanic has increased to 120 seconds.
  • Fixed an issue in which players could break the sequence and potentially stall the chapter "Weight of the World" by accessing the second floor early.
  • Implemented a repair condition for story progress on the chapter "To Catch a Spider" if players read the mail from the Kestrel spies in locations outside of the Echovald Wilds. Players in this state should now be able to return to the Echovald Wilds to continue their story.
  • Fixed a server crash related to Jade Bot Recycler modules.
  • Fixed a server crash.
  • Fixed an issue that prevented the Seitung Province prefinale meta-event timer from properly resetting.
  • Fixed a bug that caused a crash with item links in chat while flying a jade bot as a drone.
  • Fixed a server crash related to Jade Bot Recycler modules.
  • Fixed numerous bugs in which skill-use dialogue for new specializations could interrupt story dialogue.
  • Fixed numerous bugs in which skill-use dialogue for new specializations was not respecting the Disable Player Chatter setting.
  • Significantly increased the duration of the Exposed effect applied when breaking the defiance of the final boss of the Battle for the Jade Sea meta-event, as well as the 5 minibosses present during the encounter.
  • Fixed a bug that caused a crash when previewing inventory items while flying the jade bot as a drone.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes[edit]

Update - March 04, 2022[edit]

Bug Fixes:[edit]

  • Fixed an issue that prevented the "Defend the Monastery" event chain from restarting if the Aetherblade Champion appeared as a specific enemy type.
  • Fixed an issue in which default skyscales could sometimes not be mounted.
  • Fixed an issue that was awarding kill experience against Void creatures in the chapter "The Only One."
  • Fixed an issue that was awarding kill experience against Void creatures in the chapter "Weight of the World."
  • Made further adjustments to the "Hero Challenge: Defeat the Kirin" event's behavior so the kirin consistently appears as hostile.
  • Fixed a server crash.
  • Fixed an issue in which being downed during the phase transition of the Kaineng Overlook Strike Mission could result in players becoming stuck on the wrong platform.
  • Fixed an issue in which loading into the chapter "Weight of the World" at the second checkpoint could automatically progress the player to the third checkpoint.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes[edit]

  • Build: 125,988

Update 3 - March 03, 2022[edit]

Bug Fixes:[edit]

  • Fixed a bug in which the Harbinger Shroud skill Devouring Cut could hit a target multiple times in certain circumstances.
  • Fixed an issue that allowed players to use jade bot personal waypoints while transformed during a specific phase of the Battle for the Jade Sea meta-event's final boss.
  • Fixed a bug with the mechanist elite specialization that prevented the mech's stow/deploy skill from working correctly.
  • Fixed a server crash.
  • Fixed an issue in which the final boss of the Battle for the Jade Sea meta-event could become stalled when pushed to a health threshold at specific points in the encounter. The boss will now transition through phases more responsively.
  • Fixed an issue in which the cannons in the Seitung Province meta-event could enter an invisible and invulnerable state on replay.
  • Fixed an issue in which the ritualist boss in Seitung Province would sometimes appear outside of the event area.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes[edit]

  • Build: 125,971

Update 2 - March 03, 2022[edit]

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes[edit]

  • In the initial update there was an error resulting in an empty build. This update brings the previously mentioned changes.[1][2]
  • Build: 125,937

Update - March 03, 2022[edit]

Bug Fixes:[edit]

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes[edit]

  • Build: 125,929

Update 2 - March 02, 2022[edit]

Bug Fixes:[edit]

  • Fixed an issue that occurred when players who were not instance owners used the Teleport to Party Leader skill in "The Weight of the World" chapter, which could cause them to teleport to unintended locations.
  • Fixed a rare issue in which players who had already purchased a skiff could be directed to purchase a skiff in "The Scenic Route" chapter. Players stuck in this state should see it fixed when reentering Seitung Province.
  • Fixed an issue in which using a skill immediately after fishing could prevent players from getting the fish bundle in the "Outreach" chapter.
  • Fixed a client crash.
  • Fixed an issue in which players with certain ground-targeting settings could reach the Aetherblade flagship in the "Old Friends" chapter.
  • Fixed a bug preventing the Purist Recruiter Hero Point from being accessed under the correct story conditions if the hero point was completed earlier.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes[edit]

  • Build: 125,899

Update - March 02, 2022[edit]

Bug Fixes:[edit]

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes[edit]

  • Build: 125,858

Update - March 01, 2022[edit]

Bug Fixes:[edit]

  • Fixed an issue that allowed an important NPC to die and stall the boss encounter in the "Can't Trust a Pirate" chapter.
  • Fixed a bug preventing the mechanist's mech from properly scaling attributes in maps under level 80.
  • Two attacks that were intended to be unblockable in the Aetherblade Hideout Strike Mission are now actually unblockable.
  • Fixed an issue that could block players from falling into the central chamber in the Wildfire story mission in "Champions—Chapter 3: Balance" of The Icebrood Saga.
  • Fixed a server crash.
  • Fixed a problem causing consumables to yield additional research notes from the Research Kit.
  • Hydrocatalytic Reagent is no longer incorrectly marked as sellable to vendors.
  • Fixed an issue that prevented the "Defend the Monastery" event from starting if the Aetherblade cannons were destroyed before the event began.
  • Fixed an issue with the jade bot console found in the Jade Brotherhood Headquarters in Echovald Wilds while working on the "Infiltrate and sabotage operations in the Jade Brotherhood headquarters" renown heart for Kestrel Michiko Longfeather.
  • Fixed an issue that prevented the Ultimate Dragon Champion achievement from updating progress when the correct enemy was defeated.
  • Adjusted positioning of certain checkpoints for a treasure chest activity in New Kaineng City.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented the Fueled by Elder Dragons achievement from awarding progress when throwing a bundle item at the corresponding object.
  • Fixed an issue in the "Empty" chapter in which being defeated during the first phase of the boss fight could trap players in a teleport loop.
  • In the Seitung Province meta-event, Renyak's summoned gyros now have the proper amount of health.
  • Fixed an issue that caused incorrect progress to be awarded when players interacted with certain treasure chest activities.
  • Repositioned several jade lanterns in Dragon's End to be more accessible.
  • Fixed an issue that allowed players to enter the Jade Brotherhood Headquarters renown heart in Echovald Wilds without a disguise.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented some mount skins from correctly displaying visual effects.
  • Fixed an issue in "The Scenic Route" chapter in which some open-world triggers would not progress a key objective.
  • Moved a treasure chest activity to a location where the treasure chest will properly appear in Dragon's End.
  • Fixed an issue that prevented players from locating materials required for the Mori Village renown heart.
  • Fixed an occlusion bug in Echovald Wilds.
  • Fixed an issue with the Shing Jea Dragon Boat Skiff Skin that caused players to stand on top of their seats rather than in front of their seats after anchoring.
  • Fixed an issue that caused the Harvest Temple Strike Mission to stall.
  • Fixed an issue in the "Weight of the World" chapter that prevented certain shields from completely negating damage.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes[edit]

  • Build: 125,833
Retrieved from "https://wiki.guildwars2.com/index.php?title=Game_updates/March_2022&oldid=2398840"