Game updates/December 2019

December 2019 updates
Thursday, 19 December 2019 Tuesday, 17 December 2019 Thursday, 5 December 2019 Tuesday, 3 December 2019
← Prev • Next →

Update - December 19, 2019

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue in which warrior banners could last longer than intended.
• Fixed a client crash.
• Increased the maximum duration of the Wintersday Boost granted by the Snowflake Gobbler from two hours to one day. Prevented the Snowflake Gobbler from purchasing additional Snowflake Gobbler's Blessings if the purchase would extend the Wintersday Boost beyond its maximum duration.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

• Build: 101,113

Late Notes - December 17, 2019

Living World

• Bjora Marches: Raven Sanctum: Fixed an issue where the Light that guides the way through the darkness failed to reach the Trial of Wisdom as intended.
• Bjora Marches: Raven Sanctum: Fixed an issue that allowed interaction with a light totem through one of the bookcases in the Trial of Wisdom area.
• Bjora Marches: Light Puzzles: Adjusted the reset time on light sources and movable mirrors, and corrected the placement of a the debris pile in the Mountains.

Black Lion Trading Company Gem Store

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that was causing some consumable items to be ungiftable when they should not be. Most consumable items should be giftable again (including Transmutation Charges, Heroic Boosters, Waypoint Unlocks, and others).

Update - December 17, 2019

Wintersday

Come join us in celebrating Wintersday—Toymaker Tixx has made his annual visit to Divinity's Reach to spread seasonal cheer and festivity! Bring the cheer of Wintersday to the distant north in the Secret Lair of the Snowmen, complete daily achievements to earn fanciful holiday weapons, save Wintersday for the orphans around Divinity's Reach by giving them wrapped gifts, and test your snow-throwing skills against other players in Snowball Mayhem. You can also experience the joy of jumping in Winter Wonderland, defend against waves of toys in Toypocalypse, and help keep Tixx's airship, the Infinirarium, in order! Keep an eye out for Wintersday Gifts appearing all around Tyria, too.

• The Wintersday annual meta-achievement Wintersday Traditions has been updated with a new armor reward, the Festive Sweater! Enjoy the cold season in comfort and style. Last year's meta-achievement reward, the Mini Freezie's Heart, can now be purchased from festival rewards vendors.
• The Secret Lair of the Snowmen has been updated as a Strike Mission, allowing heroes to choose between entering as a team or matching with like-minded festivalgoers.
• A new holiday weapon set is now available as a rare prize from Wintersday Gifts—the Rimed Verdant weapons are a seasonal take on sylvari weaponry. A one-time guaranteed choice of weapon is also available for festivalgoers who open enough gifts.
• Two new miniatures, the Mini Magical Reindeer and Mini Mystical Snowflake, have been added to the Wintersday rewards vendor. These miniatures are also available as rare drops from the Secret Lair of the Snowmen and very rarely appear in Wintersday Gifts.
• The Wintersday mount race in Divinity's Reach has been updated with new checkpoint visuals and its own Adventure. Get a head start on burning off holiday calories!
• New daily bonus reward achievements have been added to provide a way to track how many daily karma bonuses each activity has remaining.
• A new weekly vendor has arrived in Divinity's Reach for the festival, trading limited supplies of rare goods for Snow Diamonds.
• Wintersday Gift rewards from many daily achievements and activities have been increased, including rewards from Toypocalypse, Bell Choir, Secret Lair of the Snowmen, Snowball Mayhem, and Winter Wonderland's easy route.
• Wintersday Gift rewards from the Winter Wonderland jumping puzzle's hardest route have been decreased from 15 to 12 per completion.
• Wintersday Gift rewards from the Infinirarium and Secret Lair of the Snowmen are no longer reduced after the first completion per day.
• The Infinirarium's daily achievement, Saving Wintersday, can now also be completed by triumphing in the Secret Lair of the Snowmen.
• A new festival invitation, Invitation to Wintersday, will be included in the festival announcement mail for easy travel directly to the Wintersday celebrations. If you misplace your invitation, it can be reacquired from Sarettokk in Lion's Arch.
• New candy-cane themed guild decorations have been added.
• The Divinity's Reach festival planning committee has enlisted the aid of additional Charity Corps Seraphs to divide festival reward distribution for ease of use.
• The Rime-Rimmed Mariner's Rebreather breathing apparatus now has its own item skin and can be unlocked in the Wardrobe. If you have an existing rebreather and the skin was not unlocked immediately, you can unlock the skin by equipping it or by trading the rebreather for a new version at the Wintersday rewards vendor.
• A number of festival-related bugs have been fixed to ensure a happy holiday for all heroes.

Wintersday will be active until January 7 at noon Pacific Time (UTC-8). See you in Divinity's Reach!

Living World

• Bjora Marches—Raven Sanctum: Fixed an issue that caused Oppressive Darkness to stick on players after they used a waypoint to leave the area.

Items

• Legendary Runes: Fixed a bug that could prevent nonlegendary runes of the same type from counting toward multipiece bonuses.

Profession Skills

Engineer

•  Reactive Lenses: Fixed a bug in which this trait used the old version of Utility Goggles. It now reflects the newly updated behavior, granting resistance and clearing blindness.
•  Gadgeteer: Fixed a bug in which this trait used the old version of Utility Goggles. It now reflects the updated behavior, granting resistance and clearing blindness. When Gadgeteer is traited, the skill will also grant protection.

Revenant

•  Protective Solace: Added enemy variant effects for the bubble created by this skill in competitive modes.

Bug Fixes

• Players are no longer unable to use weapon skills 4 and 5 after switching to an Equipment Template in which the active weapon set is empty and the other weapon set has a two-handed weapon.

Black Lion Trading Company Gem Store

New Items and Promotions

• The new Snowflake Gobbler is now available in the Utility category of the Gem Store for 400 gems.
• The new Winter Monarch Cape skin is now available in the Style category of the Gem Store for 500 gems.
• For a limited time, the Festive Hat is returning to the Gem Store for 150 gems.
• For a limited time, the Stag Helm is returning to the Gem Store for 500 gems.
• For a limited time, the Wintersday Appearance Package is returning to the Gem Store for 1,700 gems—a savings of 15%.
• For a limited time, the Winter Monarch Outfit is returning to the Gem Store for 560 gems—a savings of 20%.
• For a limited time, the Glacial Glider is returning to the Gem Store for 400 gems—a savings of 20%.

Black Lion Chest

• The Black Lion Chest has been updated to the Winter Skies Chest and can be previewed for a full list of its contents.
  • The Evon Gnashblade Wintersday Gift has been added as the guaranteed item for the duration of this chest.
  • The new Starlight Wings Backpack and Glider Combo is available as an uncommon drop for the duration of this chest.
  • The Celestial Axe and Elemental Sword return as uncommon drops for the duration of this chest.
  • The Frostforged and Glacial weapon sets are available as uncommon and rare drops respectively for the duration of this chest.
  • Unused versions of the Glyph of Volatility and Glyph of the Crucible are available as rare drops for the duration of this chest.
• The items available in exchange for Black Lion Statuettes have been updated. Black Lion Statuettes are redeemable by using the statuettes themselves or by redeeming them at any of the Black Lion Chest Merchants located in every major city.
  • The exclusive Starborn Outfit, Mini Cozy Wintersday Mounts Pack, Infinirarium Glider, and Candelabra Staff are currently available.
  • The bonus collection has been updated to a selection of Wintersday-themed weapon skins.

Improvements and Updates

• For a limited time, miniatures from the Many Merry Minis category are available with the Black Lion Miniature Claim Ticket.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

• Guild Enhancements are no longer limited to 24h, but are now permanent.
• Build: 101,060

Update 2 - December 05, 2019

Bug Fixes

• Engineer— Utility Goggles: Fixed a bug that changed the tool belt for this skill to its previous version when traited with Gadgeteer.
• Fixed an issue with the Sweet Campfire Treat that prevented players from moving or deleting the item from their inventory.
• Fixed a client crash.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

• Build: 100,845

Update - December 05, 2019

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed an issue in which players received essence chest rewards even if they failed the strike missions in the "Whisper in the Dark" episode.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Emblazoned Cape to incorrectly appear locked in the Gem Store for players without the Heart of Thorns expansion.
• Fixed an issue that caused cape skins to animate oddly on female sylvari characters.
• Fixed an issue that caused some odd cape collision on charr characters due to bone scaling.
• Fixed an issue that caused the completion of Light Puzzle achievements to reset daily.
• Fixed a bug that caused players to be kicked out of the Boneskinner Strike Mission at the beginning of the fight.
• Fixed an issue that prevented the Black Lion Season 4 Expedition Board from appearing correctly in players' home instances under certain conditions.
• Fixed an issue with notifications on the Black Lion Trading Company icon in the menu bar that caused errors for Play for Free players.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Endless Choya Dance Tonic to be hidden in the Novelties section of the Equipment tab.
• Adjusted the stats and damage of the boneskinner in the Boneskinner Strike Mission to closer match its intended difficulty. Changed how damage is inflicted on the boneskinner's Tormenting Aura mechanic to preserve the integrity of the intended fight mechanics.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

• Build: 100,812

Late Notes - December 03, 2019

Black Lion Trading Company Gem Store

Improvements

• Additional notifications have been added for the Black Lion Trading Company icon.

Update - December 03, 2019

Quality of Life

• Wardrobe: New checkboxes have been added to each weapon, giving players the option to hide their weapon when it is stowed.
• Ascended feasts have been added to Guild Storage in the Consumables tab. Guilds that have unlocked the tavern may speak to the tavern proprietor to deposit their crafted food for the guild's use.
• Some Looking for Group categories have been reorganized for better readability.
• Leveling up and items that grant levels and experience now display a less noisy visual effect to other players.
• Build and Equipment Templates last used in PvE, WvW, and PvP will now be remembered, and they will be automatically activated when returning to that game mode.
• Changing Equipment Templates will now equip the correct weapons rather than cause players to swap to their second weapon set.
• The revenant's inactive legend utility skills will now be remembered when players transition between terrestrial and aquatic skills.
• When revenants copy build links, they will now correctly include the inactive legend utility skills.
• PvP weapon sigils, amulets, and runes have been integrated into Equipment Templates, allowing players to customize their PvP equipment while outside of PvP game modes.
  • A button has been added to the Equipment section of the Hero panel that allows players to toggle between viewing standard equipment and PvP equipment.
    • Note: Because equipped weapons are shared between all game modes, they are displayed in both views.
  • PvP equipment can also be quickly accessed by clicking the existing PvP Build button while in the PvP lobby or by using the PvP Build keybind.
• Mist Champions have been integrated into the PvP panel and now have a much larger character preview.
• Because all functionality has been moved to other menus, the old PvP Build/Equipment panel has been retired.
• Dynamic HUD has been added to the game!
  • Dynamic HUD gives players the ability to show or hide parts of the UI while in or out of combat. The UI can also be set to always be hidden.
  • A new section within the General Options tab of the Options panel has been added to control Dynamic HUD. Components of the UI have been grouped into related sections.
  • Several presets are available for players to choose from, or players can individually control the behavior of each section.

General

• Capes have been added to the game as a new type of back item skin. The first cape, the Basic Guild Cape, is available from Guild Commendation Traders.

Living World

Bjora Marches

• Storms of Winter: Increased the maximum scaling of the "Defeat the icebrood construct before it reaches Havroun Weibe" and "Defend Raven shrines to keep energy flowing to Havroun Weibe" events. This is represented in game by increased health when there are high player counts. When player counts are lower, health will not be impacted.
• The Wind and Nothing More: Fixed an issue in the "Help Braham search the Sons of Svanir barracks" event in which a line of dialog wasn't correctly labeled in the chat log as coming from "Unknown."
• The Southeast Barracks Camp and Northwest Barracks Camp have been updated as follows:
  • The bonfires inside these two camps will now help against the blizzard.
  • Animations on weapon racks and cook's supplies now appear as intended when being attacked.
  • The drop rate of Sons of Svanir Battle Plans has been increased.
  • Fixed an issue in which friendly NPCs could cause the Enraged Cook to appear.
• The bonfires inside the Northeast Prisoner Camp and the "Search Svanir camps for survivors" event will now help against the blizzard.

Items

•  Feisty Feline Tonic: Reduced the maximum height of Lunge.
•  Superior Rune of the Revenant: Fixed a bug in which the sixth bonus would not grant concentration or expertise.
• Fixed an issue in which miniatures from the Icebrood Saga were not being sorted in the correct order in the Miniatures section of the Equipment tab.

Profession Skills

With a larger competitive-focused update on the horizon, this update is on the smaller side but still contains several notable systemic changes. Falling damage traits are being removed in order to free up design space and reduce the complexity of adept-tier traits. Revival traits are also seeing the removal of the 10% revival speed passive effect that we've been slowly phasing out over the last several updates. In exchange, skills that directly revive allies are seeing enhancements. Besides these changes, we are also making some small touch-ups to various skills and traits related to previous updates that we felt didn't quite hit everything. We have also had the opportunity to add a couple quality-of-life updates to better improve the readability of player attributes affected by traits, and we're now granting elementalists and engineers the ability to swap weapons while out of combat. Lastly, the format for some types of value updates is changing—instead of listing the percentage difference, we'll be telling you what the coefficients before and after a change will be. We hope this will helps improve readability significantly.

General

• Griffonrook Run: While holding the bomb, falling damage is now reduced by 50%.
• Traits that affect attributes now display icons that represent said attributes instead of a generic up arrow.
• Hero Panel: Fixed a bug that prevented attribute adjustments from displaying while a player was transformed.

Elementalist

In previous updates, several traits that had global cooldowns were changed to having cooldowns per target. Blinding Ashes wasn't included in those updates, but we felt it could use the small bonus to usability.

• Starting at level 10, elementalists can now swap weapons while out of combat, gaining an additional pair of weapon slots on their Hero panel.
•  Arcane Abatement: Fall damage functionality has been removed from this trait. This trait has been renamed Arcane Restoration.
•  Glyph of Renewal: Reduced recharge to 90 seconds in all game modes. Lowered casting time from 3.25 seconds to 2 seconds.
•  Arcane Resurrection: This trait no longer increases revival speed. Auras granted by this trait are now granted only to the elementalist, and they're now granted at the start of a revival attempt rather than at the end. This effect has a 20-second cooldown.
•  Blinding Ashes: The cooldown on this trait is now determined on a per-target basis.

Engineer

We read your feedback on Detection Pulse feeling odd as the Purge Gyro's toolbelt skill and your desire to see Chemical Field returned. While we agree with the sentiment overall that there is more gameplay and interesting options with Chemical Field, there is also important counterplay present with Detection Pulse. As we can't place Purge Gyro's Detection Pulse back on the elite toolbelt slot, we're instead replacing Utility Goggles' lackluster toolbelt skill, Analyze, with Detection Pulse. Utility Goggles is also getting a small but significant change from granting fury to instead granting some brief resistance.

• Starting at level 10, engineers can now swap weapons while out of combat, gaining an additional pair of weapon slots on their Hero panel.
•  Grenadier: Fall damage reduction has been removed from this trait. This trait now also casts Lesser Grenade Barrage on your location when using a healing skill.
•  Positive Strike: The power coefficient of this skill has been reduced from 0.88 to 0.7.
•  Negative Bash: The power coefficient of this skill has been increased from 0.88 to 1.
•  Equalizing Blow: The power coefficient of this skill has been increased from 1.2 to 1.4.
•  Function Gyro: Fixed a bug that could cause the gyro to be destroyed with control effects while stability was active.
•  Purge Gyro: This skill's toolbelt skill has been changed from Detection Pulse to Chemical Field.
•  Utility Goggles: This skill no longer grants fury or provides immunity to blindness. It now grants resistance and removes blindness when used. This skill's toolbelt skill has been changed from Analyze to Detection Pulse.
•  Toss Elixir R: This skill no longer removes 1 condition when thrown. Projectile speed has been increased by 25%. The projectile thrown by this skill is now unblockable. Fixed an issue in which the land and water versions of this skill moved at different speeds.
•  Toss Elixir U: Fixed a bug that could cause this skill to put friendly targets in combat.

Guardian

Guardian is unique among the professions in how many revival traits it has. With this rework, we are updating Courageous Return into a new, more general trait that benefits the guardian in situations when reviving allies is not possible. Additionally, we're changing the healing power bonus on Signet of Mercy to a concentration bonus as we feel it's generally a more useful stat for the profession given the amount of boons it outputs even when the guardian is not acting as a healer.

•  Protector's Strike: This skill now fully charges the flames of justice upon the successful block of an attack for the guardian or their allies. The radius of effect of both blocking and striking enemies has been increased from 180 to 240.
•  Protector's Impact: Fall damage functionality has been removed from this trait. This trait has been renamed Protector's Restoration.
•  Signet of Mercy: Reduced recharge to 90 seconds in all game modes. Changed the passive effect from granting 180 healing power (216 when traited) to granting 120 concentration (150 when traited).
•  Protective Reviver: This trait no longer increases revival speed and no longer grants boons on a successful revival. Fixed the skill fact to show the correct 3-second duration. Fixed a bug that prevented the recharge of Lesser Shield of Absorption from being affected by Stalwart Defender. Lesser Shield of Absorption now heals nearby allies when it ends. Upon detonation, this trait also now causes all versions of Shield of Absorption to revive allies by 15% in PvE and 3% in competitive modes.
•  Courageous Return: This trait has been reworked and renamed Steadfast Courage. It now grants the guardian protection for 3 seconds in PvE and 1 second in PvP and WvW whenever aegis on the guardian is removed due to blocking an attack.

Mesmer

While we think the new version of Chaotic Interruption is pretty powerful, it doesn't really feel like it's working if you aren't looking at your skill bar. We're adding some additional effects to give players a better sense of when it activates.

•  Descent into Madness: Fall damage functionality has been removed from this trait. This trait has been renamed Method of Madness.
•  Medic's Feedback: This trait no longer increases revival speed. It now causes Feedback to revive allies inside the dome by 5% per second.
•  Feedback: Fixed an issue that prevented this skill's visual effects from lining up with its physical effects.
•  Chaotic Interruption: Added additional visual effects to this trait to show when it activates.

Necromancer

In addition to the updates to the revival skill Signet of Undeath and the falling damage trait Terrifying Descent, we are also revisiting a few issues from previous updates. Unholy Sanctuary is getting an update to help it better compete with the other updates to the Death Magic line, and Manifest Sand Shade is having its recharge reduced in PvE to make it easier to reposition shades.

•  Terrifying Descent: This trait has been reworked. It has been renamed Insidious Disruption. It now causes control effects to inflict torment on foes.
•  Signet of Undeath: Reduced recharge to 75 seconds in all game modes. Reduced casting time from 3 seconds to 1.5 seconds. Reduced the number of allies revived from 3 to 1. Added an additional health cost of 50% of base health to this skill. Increased the passive life force gain by 100%.
•  Sand Swell: Once activated, this skill can no longer be canceled by movement.
•  Plaguelands: Reduced recharge from 120 seconds to 90 seconds in PvE only.
•  Unholy Sanctuary: This trait now heals a percentage of your maximum health each second while in shroud. This value is 2% in PvE and 1% in competitive modes.
•  Manifest Sand Shade: This skill no longer inflicts cripple in all game modes. Reduced ammunition recharge for the untraited version of this skill from 15 seconds to 8 seconds in PvE only.

Ranger

We're reducing the recharge on Allies' Aid in PvE only since we feel it is sufficiently powerful in competitive modes already.

•  Soften the Fall: Fall damage functionality has been removed from this trait. This trait has been renamed Child of Earth.
•  Allies' Aid: This trait no longer increases revival speed. This trait's cooldown has been reduced from 85 seconds to 60 seconds in PvE only. Fixed a bug that caused the version of "Search and Rescue!" associated with this trait to be considered a shout skill instead of a command.
•  Crippling Talon: Fixed a visual bug.

Revenant

We're bumping up the range on some of Ventari's Legendary Centaur Stance skills in this update to make it a little easier to affect your allies with them.

•  Coalescence of Ruin: Fixed a bug that allowed this skill to hit foes that were out of the line of sight.
•  Ventari's Will: Increased the radius of this skill from 180 to 240.
•  Protective Solace: Increased the radius of this skill from 180 to 240.
•  Planar Protection: Fall damage functionality has been removed from this trait.

Thief

We released a hotfix for Deadly Ambition for PvP in November, but in this update we're addressing the issue with a more comprehensive and functional change to refocus the trait on control over its usage rather than being a very passive damage increase.

•  Uncatchable: Fall damage functionality has been removed from this trait.
•  Deadly Ambition: This trait now applies 1 stack of poison for 3 seconds when striking with a dual-wield attack. This effect has no cooldown but can only occur once per dual-wield attack use. This trait is no longer split between game modes.

Warrior

Along with the removal of falling damage effects and readjustment of Peak Performance, we are also removing a requirement from Sundering Mace that we felt was superfluous.

•  Peak Performance: Fall damage functionality has been removed from this trait. This trait now grants a baseline of 5% bonus damage in PvE and 3% bonus damage in competitive modes. The additional damage output gained from using physical skills has been reduced from 20% to 15% in PvE and 10% to 7% in competitive modes.
•  Sundering Mace: This trait no longer requires the target to be vulnerable in order to activate the control duration bonus.

PvP Changes

General

•  Sigil of Agility: Reduced quickness duration from 2 seconds to 1 second in PvP only.

Engineer

•  Elixir U: Reduced stability duration from 6 seconds to 1 second in PvP only.
•  Kinetic Battery: Reduced quickness duration from 5 seconds to 3 seconds in PvP only.
•  Photon Wall: Increased cooldown from 35 seconds to 45 seconds in PvP only.
•  Heat Therapy: Reduced base healing per stack by 25% from 65 to 49 in PvP only.

Thief

•  Spider Venom: Reduced poison duration from 6 seconds to 3 seconds in PvP only.
•  Serpent's Touch: Reduced poison stacks from 2 to 1 in PvP only.
•  Quick Pockets: Reduced initiative gained on weapon swap from 3 to 2 in PvP only.
•  Staff Master: Reduced endurance gain per initiative spent from 2 to 1 in PvP only.
•  Debilitating Arc: Reduced initiative cost from 6 to 5 in PvP only.

Mesmer

•  Illusionary Counter: Reduced the number of clones created from 2 to 1 in PvP only
•  Phantasmal Warlock: Reduced the number of warlocks summoned from 2 to 1 in PvP only. Increased the vulnerability applied per hit from 2 stacks to 4 stacks in PvP only.
•  Chaos Vortex: Reduced bleed duration from 8 seconds to 4 seconds in PvP only. Reduced burn duration from 2 seconds to 1 second in PvP only. Reduced torment duration from 8 seconds to 4 seconds in PvP only.
•  Chaotic Potency: Fixed a bug that prevented this trait from reducing the recharge of Lesser Chaos Storm.

Warrior

•  Warrior's Cunning: Reduced damage bonus against targets above 90% health from 25% to 7% in PvP only. Reduced damage bonus against targets with barrier from 50% to 10% in PvP only.
•  Rampage: Some Rampage skills have been adjusted as follows:
  •  Kick: Power coefficient has been reduced from 1.2 to 0.01 in PvP only.
  •  Throw Boulder: Power coefficient has been reduced from 2.0 to 0.01 in PvP only.
  •  Seismic Leap: Power coefficient has been reduced from 1.6 to 0.01 in PvP only.

WvW Changes

Necromancer

•  Sand Savant: This trait no longer increases the target cap of shade skills in WvW only.
•  Devouring Darkness (from Lingering Curse): Reduced the number of boons corrupted from 2 to 1 in WvW only.

Structured Player vs. Player

• Updated the background for the Icebrood Saga Reward Track.

World vs. World

• Updated the background for the Icebrood Saga Reward Track.

Black Lion Trading Company Gem Store

New Items and Promotions

• The new Emblazoned Cape is now available in the Style category of the Gem Store for 500 gems.
• The new Dreamwalker Dagger is now available in the Style category of the Gem Store for 600 gems.
• For a limited time, the Infinite Volatile Magic Gathering Tools are available in the Utility category of the Gem Store for 2,700 gems.
• For a limited time, the Mount Adoption License returns to the Gem Store at a discounted price of 320 gems—a savings of 20%.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

• Build: 100,690
• The enemies which spawn during the event "Stop the book-burning raid on the Astralarium library" have had their health greatly reduced.
• Attribute adjusting skill properties have new icons.