User:Endrosz/2015 October

Update - October 23, 2015

LIVING WORLD

The worst has happened: Mordremoth brought down the Pact fleet.

Adventures

Adventures are repeatable, single-player challenges with leaderboards. Compete against your friends and guildmates for bragging rights. Check out https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/adventuring-forth/ for more information.

Defiance

The defiance effect has been replaced with the defiance bar. Creatures that previously used the defiance effect will now have the defiance bar. Control-type attacks will now decrease the defiance bar and stun the enemy once the bar is depleted.

Revenant

The revenant is the ninth profession for Guild Wars 2 and is added for all players who own Heart of Thorns™. Revenants are heavily armored masters of the Mists with abilities that allow them to harness and manipulate energy in order to perform immense attacks. They invoke powers from legends of the past to dominate foes and unleash chaos on the field of battle. Revenants utilize a new resource (energy), which is their connection to the currently invoked legend. Energy is used to fuel all of their skills.

Elite Specializations

Elite specializations are a new way to advance your profession if you own Heart of Thorns. They allow you to specialize your profession to gain access to a new weapon, new skills, and new traits that you didn't have before, opening up new playstyles and build options. Each elite specialization also provides a unique profession bonus, such as a new profession mechanic skill, a new way to use your current profession mechanic, and generally new ways to interact with the world.

• Elite specializations can only be slotted into the bottom specialization slot for professions. Only one elite specialization can be selected at a time.
• Elite specializations cost hero points to unlock, similar to other specializations. These hero points are spent in the profession reward tracks to incrementally gain access to the pieces of the elite specialization.
• Fully unlocking an elite specialization costs 400 hero points.
• Hero challenges in the jungle region reward 10 hero points for each challenge instead of 1.
• When selecting an elite specialization, your profession icon will change to represent the choice to other players in the world.
• Heart of Thorns introduces one new elite specialization for every profession.

Mastery System

The Mastery System is now available for all players who own Heart of Thorns and have at least one level 80 character. You can learn more about the Mastery System here: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/reimagining-progression-the-mastery-system/

• The Mastery tab has been added to the Hero panel. The Mastery panel can also be accessed by clicking on the experience bar at the bottom of your screen on a character that is level 80.
• To unlock the Mastery System, complete the first story step of Heart of Thorns, "Torn from the Sky."
• Once the Mastery System is unlocked on your account, any level 80 character can make progress on Masteries by earning experience and Mastery points.
• Two Mastery regions have been added: Central Tyria and Heart of Maguuma. Each region has several Mastery tracks under it that can be trained by earning experience and Mastery points in that region.
  • Central Tyria is made up of Ascalon, Kryta, the Shiverpeak Mountains, Orr, the Maguuma Jungle, the Magumma Wastes, and Southsun Cove.
  • Heart of Maguuma is made up of the new area released with Heart of Thorns, Magus Falls.
• To unlock a Mastery ability, you must first train the Mastery by filling the experience bar. You can then spend Mastery points to unlock the ability for your account.
• Experience earned in a region will be applied to training Masteries from that region. If experience is rewarded through a reward chest, that experience will be applied to the region it was earned in, not the region the chest was opened in.
• Nameplates have been changed to display Mastery rank for characters that are level 80. Mastery rank represents all the Mastery points you have used to unlock Mastery abilities on your account.
• Some old achievements have had Central Tyria Mastery points added to their rewards. For players who've already completed these achievements, the points will be awarded retroactively upon logging in.
• New achievements have been added to existing content in Central Tyria, awarding Mastery points.

Legendary Weapon Crafting

• Precursors for all legendary weapons can now be crafted through a process involving earning Central Tyrian Masteries, completing item collections, and using new crafting recipes. More details about this system can be found here: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/a-legendary-journey/

Ascended Salvaging

• Ball of Dark Energy and Stabilizing Matrices are new materials needed for crafting legendary gear. These materials are obtained by salvaging ascended gear.
• Ascended gear can only be salvaged using an ascended salvage tool. Ascended salvage tools can only be used to salvage ascended gear.
• Ascended salvage tools can be purchased from the Mistlock Observatory for gold and fractal relics or from laurel vendors for gold and laurels.

Map Bonus Rewards

• A new reward system has been added to most maps, which will award various crafting materials as a bonus for playing in that map. These bonuses are given for participating in events and other content such as open-world minidungeons or jumping puzzles.
  • When you earn a map bonus reward, it will be delivered directly to your inventory upon event completion.
  • The map-specific rewards in Dry Top and the Silverwastes that were awarded after completing events have been updated to use the new map bonus reward system. You will no longer receive a reward chest that must be clicked to open for completing events in this map; the rewards will be delivered directly to your inventory upon event completion.
  • The rewards available each week for a map are displayed in the map's tooltip on the world map, and the current bonus items you can receive are displayed on the world map screen along with the map completion.
  • More information about this feature can be found at https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/a-legendary-journey/.

Guild Halls

• The Guild panel has been overhauled.
  • The methods of representing, standing down, creating a guild, and leaving a guild have all been streamlined.
  • Your guild now has a level, displayed in your Guild panel. Guild experience is acquired from purchasing upgrades. As your guild level rises, new upgrades will be available for purchase in your guild hall.
• Guild upgrades* *are now purchased from proprietors—special NPCs in the Guild Initiative Headquarters and in guild halls. Speak with the notary at the Guild Initiative Headquarters to start purchasing new upgrades.
  • Influence has been retired but can still be spent at certain vendors in the Guild Initiative Headquarters and in the guild hall to give a small boost to progress through the new guild system.
• Guild Missions* *are now rerolled weekly and are available from the overhauled Missions tab on your Guild panel.
  • Merits have been retired. The first successful completion of a mission for a given guild each week will reward the guild with favor, a new currency needed to obtain a guild hall and purchase most upgrades therein.
  • The first time you personally complete a given mission succesfully[sic] each week, you'll earn personal rewards.
  • Puzzle and challenge missions are now instanced.
  • Choose to claim one of two guild halls: the Gilded Hollow or the Lost Precipice.

• Restore the buildings in your guild hall to gain access to many new upgrades.
• Players can speak with the master scribe at a guild hall's workshop to train as a scribe, a new crafting discipline.
  • Scribes can craft a small selection of personal boosts and a progression of scribe back items, but primarily scribes craft consumables for their guilds.
  • The assembling process for an item can be completed early by spending resonance, a new resource owned by the guild. Resonance can be obtained by purchasing it from the resonance technician by the assembly device for either gold or Crystalized Resonance—an item that players will occasionally be awarded for completing guild missions.
• Guild halls can be adorned with decorations.
  • Basic decorations can be purchased from the basic-decorations vendor.
  • Special materials found through a range of different elements of gameplay can be used through scribing to transform basic decorations into more varied and lavish decorations.

Guild Teams

Guild teams are a new feature that allows guilds to create teams that can participate in PvP.

Scribe

Guild Halls: From Pen to Production to Placement: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/guild-halls-from-pen-to-production-to-placement/

• The ninth crafting profession is now available, the scribe.
• Scribing goes to level 400.
• Scribe trainers become available in a guild hall.
• Scribes use pigments to make inks for their creations. Pigments can be found on plant-harvesting nodes throughout Tyria and can be salvaged from dyes.
• Scribes primarily craft items for their guild.
  • Guild Consumables: Guild banners, guild siege blueprints, and world event tokens will now be crafted via scribes.
  • WvW Claiming Consumables: Scribes craft the upgrades used to claim and improve WvW objectives.
  • Decorations: Scribes can refine purchased decorations and crea

PvP League System

• Ranked queue is being prepared for the upcoming PvP Leagues season.

New PvP Game Mode: Stronghold

• The new game mode Stronghold is coming to PvP.

PvP Mist Champions

• Mist Champions have been added to the PvP build UI.

WvW Desert Borderlands Map

• The new WvW desert Borderlands map replaces the current alpine Borderlands map.

WvW Guild Objective Claiming Overhaul

• The guild claiming feature was updated to give guilds a more important presence in WvW.
• Upgrade your claimed camps, towers, keeps, and castle with an all-new guild upgrade system.

General

• An option to enable mentoring mode has been added to the party window . This mode is only available for players who have trained Pact Mentor ability from the Pact Commander Mastery track.

Fractals

• General:
  • A fractal run now consists of 1 fractal island instead of 3 islands and a boss island.
  • Fractals will now always be the same island for a given scale. They will no longer be random.
  • Increased the maximum fractal scale from 50 to 100.
  • Rewards for completing fractals have been reworked. A new Fractal Encryption box has been added to each island's reward chest.
  • New mistlock instabilities have been added to the schedule.
  • A new legendary journey has been added to obtain a precursor for the fractal legendary backpack.

Items

• New stat combinations:
  • Six new stat combos are available in Heart of Thorns.
  • All have four stats and have boon duration or condition duration (or both!).
• Elite specialization rewards have been added.
  • This weapon unlocks a collection to build an upgraded, ascended version of that weapon.

World vs. World

• Arrow carts (all types) now require 10 more supply to build and have new, custom line-of-sight calculations.
  • Earn Proofs of Heroics from WvW rank-up chests.
• Sentries will now mark enemy players on the map for 30 seconds.
• Keeps will now mark enemy players within their perimeter for the first 5 minutes after being flipped.
  • Trade in Proofs of Heroics at new Heroics Notaries for Notarized Scrolls of Heroics.
  • Consume Notarized Scrolls of Heroics to automatically complete random hero challenges around the world.
• Reduced Edge of the Mists rewards.