Game updates/September 2012

September 2012 updates
Tuesday, 25 September 2012 Tuesday, 18 September 2012 Monday, 17 September 2012 Friday, 14 September 2012 Sunday, 9 September 2012 Saturday, 8 September 2012
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Update - 25 September 2012

General

• Fixes to LOD on numerous objects in the world.
• Fixes to maps to prevent players from moving outside of the playable area.
• Fixed a bug that made pet footsteps excessively loud, especially in water.
• Fixed a bug with assists not working in keg brawl.
• Fixed numerous blocked events.
• Updated text and functionality when purchasing bank slots.
• Fixed loud sounds on portals to the Underworld in Godslost Swamp.
• Fixed several bugs that were preventing some skill challenges from resetting properly.
• All recipe items are now account bound. Many were previously soulbound.
• Updated Superior Rune of the Ogre Rock Dog so that it doesn't summon when the player is underwater.
• Updated Sigil of Demon Summoning so that it doesn't summon when the player is underwater.
• Summoned rock dogs and fleshreavers die when they enter water.
• Removed the lone 1 copper from city map completion rewards.
• Removed Mystic Forge recipes that were being used to reduce surplus supplies.
• Enemies in tutorial areas will no long[sic] drop loot. Instead, an award of 72 copper has been added to the rewards for completing the tutorial. This is to dissuade players from lingering in tutorial instances to farm the creatures in them.
• Obsidian Shards are now account bound.
• Box of Berserker's Draconian Armor and Box of Rampager's Draconian Armor now reward the proper items.
• Fixed various crash bugs.
• Added the rank 30-39 wolf finishing move.
• Fixed recipes for the Mystic Artifact, Mystic Barricade, and Mystic Trident.
• Fixed visible map completion percentage errors and the achievement not completing.
• Applied 10-second cooldown to Bowl of Saffron-scented Poultry Soup buff. This was done to keep elementalists from spamming condition removal with Signet of Restoration.

Black Lion Trading Company

• Added functionality and improvements to the Black Lion Chests, including a chance to receive new items like a permanent version of the Black Lion Trader Express.
• Black Lion Salvage Kits now properly display the correct percentages for rare materials.

Story

• Adjusted difficulty for the following story steps: "A Fragile Peace," "Breaking the Bone Ship," "Killing Fields," "Political Homicide," "Sabotage," "Set to Blow," "Stand By Your Krewe," "The Ringmaster," "The Stone Sheath," "Track the Seraph," "Unscheduled Delay," "Unwelcome Visitors," and "Welcome Home."
• Fixed bugs in the following story steps: "A Fragile Peace," "Against the Corruption," "Bad Blood," "Forging the Pact," "Stand By Your Krewe," and "Tower Down."
• Fixed exploits in "The Sound of Psi-Lance."
• End of Story Loot Bags:
  • These have been improved to only give green or better gear of level 78 or higher.
  • The number of bags received has been reduced from 5 to 3.
  • More improvements will be made in coming weeks. Players who complete the story before the final update will be equally compensated once the new rewards are in.

Dungeons

General

• Updated vendors in the Ascalonian Catacombs and Caudecus's Manor to sell level 80 versions of their unique skins rather than level 60 and 70. Players who purchased the level 60 and 70 versions will soon be given the opportunity to upgrade those to level 80 without having to use transmutation stones.

Citadel of Flame

• Fixed an exploit in Magg's chain that was allowing players to skip the entire dungeon and still be rewarded.
• In Magg's chain, if Magg happens to die in the lava field, he'll teleport himself to the start of the area just outside it.
• In Magg's chain, Magg must be much closer to things to draw their initial aggro. This only affects the escort to the magmacyte rock.

Caudecus's Manor

• Fixed an exploit that was allowing players to skip content.

Honor of the Waves

• Fixed a bug in the Butcher's chain that prevented a boss from spawning.

Arah

• Fixed a blocking issue.

Ascalonian Catacombs

• Fixed blocking bugs in Detha's chain.

Dungeon Rewards

We've made some significant updates to dungeon rewards. I wanted to try and clarify them here. All of these changes have been the result of an original exploit which was letting players receive upwards of 20 levels by completing a single dungeon run. We initially closed this exploit, which caused some new problems. The result is this new system which should increase dungeon rewards for players who play though them normally but help curb inflation of rewards for those who are using exploitative methods to farm them.

1. Dungeon tokens are now rewarded at the end of an explorable chain. This was done to stop players from repeatedly entering a chain and farming the first boss that dropped tokens rather than playing the entire chain. At some point in the near future, we will make up for this by making dungeon tokens a rare drop so that even players who are not completing a chain can make partial progress toward the rewards.
2. Dungeons reward 20 tokens for completion and now reward an additional 40 tokens for the first time they are completed each day. This means that if players can complete all 3 chains of a dungeon in a day, they'll receive a total of 180 tokens, which is enough to purchase some of the smaller rewards.
3. Dungeon tokens should be account bound. This will allow players to have a single character farm tokens for their other characters.

Professions

General

• Implemented a fix to make  Heartseeker,  Lightning Leap,  Flame Leap, and  Monarch's Leap hit more reliably.

Elementalist

• Fixed bugs with  Flamestrike and  Ice Shards so they can't be fired behind the player.
•  Quick Glyphs: This Air Magic trait has been updated to apply 20% recharge reduction to the elite skill Glyph of Elementals.

Engineer

•  Grenade Barrage: This Grenade Kit skill should now be usable underwater.
•  Short Fuse: This trait is no longer overwritten by the Grenadier trait. Also, this trait now works with underwater grenades.
•  Speedy Kits: Added a 5-second recharge to the trigger for this trait. This was to prevent players from exploiting it to gain vigor buffs of extreme duration.
•  Invigorating Speed: Added a 5-second recharge to the trigger for this trait. This was to prevent players from exploiting it to gain vigor buffs of extreme duration.

Guardian

•  Merciful Intervention: This skill has been updated to work with the Meditation Mastery trait. The tooltip for this skill has also been updated to display the healing amount when affected by traits.
•  Elusive Power: This trait has been updated to not grant might when aegis was blocked.

Mesmer

• Fixed text on "readied" mantra buffs.
•  Veil: This glamour skill has been updated to show the appropriate active duration when not affected by traits.

Necromancer

•  Taste of Death: This skill's healing fact has been updated.
•  Spectral Ring: This skill has been updated to apply the correct amount of vulnerability (10).
•  Vampiric: Fixed a bug with this trait so that it now functions with projectiles.
•  Close to Death: This trait has been updated to provide its listed 20% boost instead of the previous (unlisted) 10% boost.
•  Banshee's Wail: This Curses trait has been updated to apply extra swiftness.
•  Spectral Walk: This skill has been updated to be more active and to work properly with its recharge trait. Also, Sever Spectral Bond has been changed to Spectral Recall.
•  Minion Master: This Death Magic trait has been updated to properly affect the elite skill Summon Flesh Golem.
•  Putrid Mark: This skill has been fixed to make it properly unblockable with the Greater Marks trait.
•  Mark of Evasion: This trait can now trigger the Soul Marks trait.
•  Dark Defiance: This trait has been updated to properly work with a variety of crowd-control effects.

Thief

•  Bountiful Theft: This strait[sic] has been fixed so that it doesn't apply 15 seconds of vigor twice.

Races

Norn

•  Call Wurm: Autocasting has been removed from this skill to prevent an exploit. Additionally, the skill may now be cast on the move.

Player versus Player

• Legacy of the Foefire: Fixed an exploit that was allowing players to teleport past one of the gates.

World versus World

• Experimental Rifle: This item is no longer usable in World versus World.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki notes

• An additional report reason was added: "Selling Gold".
• Many players have reported receiving an incorrect amount of dungeon tokens from completing explorable mode dungeons after this patch.
• Drops from Risen Grub were disabled, leaving the message "That content has been temporarily disabled. Please try again later."

Update - September 18, 2012

General

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

Guild Wars 2 Wiki notes

• Either this update or the previous one relocated Wynn into the nearby bank building.

Update - September 17, 2012

General

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

Story

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

World-versus-World

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

Professions

Warrior

•  Smoldering Arrow: This skill's casting time has been reduced.

Mesmer

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

Thief

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

Engineer

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

Guild Wars 2 Wiki notes

• Citadel of Flame: bomb plant time increased
• Players report that bugs with Forging the Pact and various skill points have not been fixed per the update notes.
•  Short Fuse is now correctly applied to the grenade kit.

Update - September 14, 2012

General

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

Story

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

World-versus-World

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

Professions

Ranger

• More fixes to pet commands and AI.

Elementalist

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

Mesmer

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

Warrior

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

Guardian

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

Thief

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

Engineer

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

Update - September 9, 2012

Skills & Traits

Mesmer

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

Ranger

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

Guardian

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

Story

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

General

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

Update - September 8, 2012

Traits

Engineer

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

Skills

Mesmer

• Fixed a bug with   Signet of Illusions. It now gives phantasms 50% more health instead of 300% more.

General

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

PvP

• Max Glory cap per PvP match is set to 350. You now receive an achievement for reaching this cap in a given match. This closes an exploit that was letting players farm hundreds of glory per match by trading wins.

Story

• Fixed a blocking issue in "Forging the Pact."

Crafting

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

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

• While not listed, Eggs in Bulk were removed as well.