Game updates/July 2018

July 2018 updates
Monday, 30 July 2018 Thursday, 26 July 2018 Wednesday, 25 July 2018 Tuesday, 24 July 2018 Wednesday, 11 July 2018 Tuesday, 10 July 2018
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Update - July 30, 2018

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that refreshed the skill cooldowns of players who were removed from a Queen's Gauntlet arena when they were not the current contender.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

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Update - July 26, 2018

Bug Fixes

• Living World Season 4—Long Live the Lich: Fixed an issue in which the entrance for the "Forearmed Is Forewarned" instance was no longer accessible.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

• Build: 91,047

Update - July 25, 2018

Bug Fixes

• Superior Rune of the Zephyrite: Fixed a bug that could prevent the 6-piece bonus from working properly.
• Implemented a solution for players who should’ve received the Masters of Ceremony achievement, which can be attained by logging in and traveling to Labyrinthine Cliffs.
• Fixed a bug that could allow players to enter an empty Queen's Gauntlet arena, stalling the event.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the Festive Confetti Infusion from displaying correctly in the preview window of the Gnashblade Zephyrite Supply Box.

Profession Skills

Elementalist

•  Cleansing Wave: Fixed a bug that prevented this skill from functioning.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

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Update 2 - July 24, 2018

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that prevented the Zephyrites' Sky Crystals from displaying correctly.
• Fixed an issue that prevented players from seeing Kookoochoo's fliers.
• Fixed a bug that could prevent players from receiving time-trial race achievements in Labyrinthine Cliffs.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

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Late Notes - July 24, 2018

General

• Players are again able to purchase the Scavenger's Mining Pick, Scavenger's Logging Axe, and Scavenger's Harvesting Sickle from all gathering merchants.

Profession Skills

Elementalist

•  Glyph of Storms: Fixed a bug that limited the maximum damage to 120% rather than 130%.
•  Invoke Lightning: Fixed a tooltip error that incorrectly displayed the number of impacts as 18 rather than 20. Fixed a bug that caused this skill to deal approximately 17% less damage than intended.

Update - July 24, 2018

Festival of the Four Winds

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

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

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

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

We look forward to seeing you at the festival!

— Captain Ellen Kiel

• The Zephyrite bazaar has returned to the Labyrinthine Cliffs! Visitors can try their hand at many new festival activities, including new adventures, races, and scavenger hunts:
  • Show your skill with Zephyrite crystals in the new and improved Flying Dolyak race!
  • Enjoy the sights of the sea in the bay-spanning Skimmer Slalom race!
  • Team up with your friends to plunder lost treasure in the treasure hunt meta-event!
  • Scramble to set a high score in the crystal collection adventure!
  • Demonstrate your aviation ability in two new griffon adventures!
  • Compete to take the lead in the Sanctum Sprint activity!
  • Challenge the competition with unique Zephyrite skills in the returning Aspect Arena!
  • Leap across the Labyrinthine Cliffs to recover Zephyrite crystals and discover the fate of the bazaar's fallen star, Kookoochoo the Incredulous!
  • Trade materials with the Zephyrites for a new Zephyrite Supply Box containing a wide variety of possible items, including exceptionally rare skins and equipment from distant lands.
• For combat-inclined festivalgoers, the Crown Pavilion has reopened in Divinity's Reach. Challenge re-creations of humanity's greatest foes, legendary champions, and notorious figures!
  • The renowned Boss Blitz returns! Organize your companions to challenge six legendary foes—they'll gain strength as other bosses fall, so plan your battle carefully!
  • A fearsome enemy has replaced the ogre combatants: the White Mantle cult now patrols one of the pavilion sections. Confront lifelike re-creations of Kryta's enemy in the name of the crown!
  • Adventurers yearning to show their skill at a solo challenge rejoice, as the Queen's Gauntlet reopens at last! Test your mettle against powerful opponents, with retuned adversaries returning and a new set of special encounters to further hone your skill.
  • Between blitzes, blow off some steam in the most hazardous festival race yet—Pavilion Pursuit!
• Zephyrite kite basket supplies have been scattered across Tyria. Open them to claim prizes from the Zephyrite stockpiles.
• Complete daily festival achievements to earn the Four Winds Zephyr daily achievement, contributing to the Four Winds Gale achievement, which rewards your choice of new weapons based on Zephyrite crafts!
• Earn Festival Tokens and Favors of the Festival throughout the festival events to trade for exciting prizes, including new Zephyrite backpacks, the illustrious Sovereign weapon set, and items based on the latest wonder of the Crown Pavilion, the Watchknight Mk II.
• Numerous bugs and glitches have been fixed to ensure a safer and more pleasant festival for all participants.
• The Festival of the Four Winds will be available for three weeks, from July 24 until August 14. Enjoy the festivities!

Living World

• The "Help your allies secure key positions in the Awakened Inquest facility" event has had a few Kournan Chests added as completion rewards.
• Kournan Chests now include a guaranteed Inscribed Shard as a drop.

General

• Added new animations to transition characters from standing to sitting in chairs.
• Added an error message explaining that transformed players may not use chairs.
• Equipped weapons will now be hidden while players are sitting in chairs.
• Fixed a bug that would sometimes prevent the "Kill the alpha beetle" event in the Far Silverwastes from starting.
• Fixed an issue involving shadow flickering on GeForce GTX 10 Series graphics cards.
• Fixed an issue in which glider skins failed to fade out correctly when opening and closing the Hero panel.

Items

• Favors of the Pavilion and Favors of the Bazaar are now account bound. Existing favors have become weathered favors and can still be traded. Double-click a weathered favor to convert it to an account-bound favor.
• Some items from other holidays, such as Halloween items, have been retired from Festival of the Four Winds vendors. They will remain available from their respective holiday vendors.
• Updated a number of kite items to display correctly if players ride mounts while using kites.
• Backpieces will now be hidden when using Bench of the Final Judge.
• The armorsmith rating required to craft the recipes for Harrier's Warbeast Greaves, Marshal's Spearmarshal's Greaves, and Harrier's Bounty Hunter's Greaves has been reduced to 400.
• Fixed a bug with the cast volume of the legendary warhorn Verdarach.
• Zommoros is now pleased to offer playable musical instrument versions of the legendary weapons Verdarach and the Minstrel! Those who have already crafted the weapon component of these legendary instruments can obtain a replacement instrument from Sarettokk in the Undermarket in Lion's Arch.

Mounts

General

• Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented players from changing utility skills after dismounting.

Roller Beetle

• Roll Out can now be used to break marked blockades and volatile crystals once players learn the Barrier Smash Mastery.
• The Barrier Smash Mastery will now recover endurance when the roller beetle collides with walls at high speed, in addition to its previous functionality.
• Drifting will now recover endurance.
• The beetle's endurance will now slowly decay after players dismount, rather than being immediately set to zero.
• Acceleration from the idle position has been increased.
• Deceleration when holding backward at high speed has been increased.
• Minimum uphill speed has been slightly increased.
• Fixed a client crash.

Profession Skills

Elementalist

•  Meteor Shower: Fixed a bug that caused this skill to have a much higher initial impact than intended.

Engineer

•  Toss Elixir U: Fixed a bug that prevented this skill from being updated to break stuns and grant quickness.

Guardian

•  Shield of the Avenger: Fixed a bug that allowed this skill to block unblockable projectiles.

Thief

•  Double Strike: Reduced the damage dealt by this skill by 19% in PvE only.
•  Wild Strike: Reduced the damage dealt by this skill by 18% in PvE only.
•  Shadow Flare: Fixed a bug that allowed a thief to have more than one flare out at a time.

Structured Player vs. Player

• Players are now defeated instantly if they get into the enemy team's base in all conquest maps.
• Adjusted the number of Tournament Vouchers given for first place through fourth place finishes in the monthly automated tournament.
• Adjusted prices on the Tournament Vendor.

World vs. World

General

• Edge of the Mists: A new arena area has been added. The area can be accessed from the starting points.
• Players can no longer be hit more than once every 0.5 seconds by arrow cart attacks.
• Arrow cart damage against siege equipment has been reduced by 50%.
• The number of targets that can be hit by one arrow cart attack has been reduced from 50 to 25.
• Shield generators can no longer put domes on other shield generators.
• Shield generator domes no longer destroy unblockable projectiles.
• Burning Oil Mastery III now also reduces condition damage and makes the user immune to control effects. Damage reduction for both direct damage and conditions has been increased from 33% to 66%.
• Gravel Shot now shoots projectiles in a fan shape.
• Updated ballistae to make them more reliable.
• Slowed the velocity of Greater Reinforced Shot to give it an arc to make it easier to hit stationary targets (siege equipment).

Black Lion Trading Company Gem Store

New Items and Promotions

• A new Zephyrite Aspect Helm Pack with three different Aspect eye helm skins is available in the Style category of the Gem Store for 500 gems.
• For a limited time, the Branded Wing Backpack and Glider Combo returns to the Style category of the Gem Store for 700 gems.
• For a limited time, the Lightning Kite, Sun Kite, and Wind Kite are available at 50% off and can be found in the Toys category of the Gem Store.
• For a limited time, the Phoenix Weapon Collection has returned to the Black Lion Weapons Specialist at a discount, costing 3 Black Lion Claim Tickets, which can be found in Black Lion Chests. Black Lion Chest Keys are available in the Utility category of the Gem Store for 125 gems each.

Improvements

• Six new, exclusive hair colors and six new, exclusive hair-accessory dyes are available in Total Makeover Kits and Self-Style Hair Kits, found in the Utility category of the Gem Store.
• The Black Lion Chest has been updated to the Festival of Four Winds Chest and can be previewed for a full list of its contents.
  • The Gnashblade Zephyrite Supply Box has been added as the new guaranteed item.
  • The new Storm Dagger skin is available as an uncommon drop for the duration of the Festival of Four Winds Chest.
  • The Jeweled Scarab Package and the Mini Awakened Mounts Pack remain available as uncommon drops for the duration of the Festival of Four Winds Chest.
  • The Cavalier Weapon Collection and Fused Weapon Collection are available as uncommon and rare drops respectively for the duration of the Festival of Four Winds Chest.
  • Unused versions of the Glyph of Flight and the Glyph of Industry are available as rare drops for the duration of the Festival of Four Winds Chest.
• The items available in exchange for Black Lion Statuettes have been updated. Black Lion Statuettes are redeemable by using the statuette itself or by redeeming one at any of the Black Lion Chest Merchants located in every major city.
  • A new selection of hats is now available.
  • The exclusive Candelabra Staff and Mini Branded Mounts Pack are now available.
  • The Fused Molten Logging Axe, Fused Molten Sickle, and Molten Alliance Mining Pick, as well as all four Zephyrite Color Swatches, are now available.
• The Black Lion Miniature Claim Ticket Vendor panel has been updated to include miniatures in the Avian, Outlaws, the Pact, Scarlet's Forces, and Living World Season 1 categories. Black Lion Miniature Claim Tickets are available from Black Lion Chests.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

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• The Superior Rune of Divinity's 6th ability now also grants +10% maximum health.

Update - July 11, 2018

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue in the Xera encounter that could result in the wrong players being teleported to the islands.
• Fixed a bug in which shadowstep pathfinding could sometimes incorrectly fail.
• Guardian:
  •  Ray of Judgment: Fixed a bug that could cancel this skill when other skills were queued up while the players were under the effect of quickness.
• Necromancer:
  • Flesh Golem: Fixed a bug that prevented this minion from being resummoned when players dismounted into water.
  • Minions: Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented minions from being resummoned.
  •  Dhuumfire: The scourge's internal cooldown for this skill has been reduced from 3 seconds to 1 second in PvE only.
• Ranger:
  •  Flame Trap: Fixed a bug that could cause this trap to hit more times than intended.
• Thief:
  •  Shadow Flare: Fixed a bug that allowed this skill to be used more than intended when traited with Improvisation.
• Warrior:
  •  Flurry: Fixed a bug that prevented this skill from receiving the correct bleeding duration adjustment from 2 seconds to 4 seconds. Fixed a bug that prevented the adrenaline level 2, adrenaline level 3, and spellbreaker's versions of this skill from having the appropriate damage increase listed in a previous update.
  •  Final Thrust: Fixed a bug that prevented this skill from receiving the duration increase when traited with Blademaster.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

• Build: 90,556

Late Notes - July 10, 2018

Living World

• Fixed a bug that prevented the Domain of Kourna Portal Scroll from being inserted into the Season 4 Portal Tome.
• Fixed an issue in the "Forearmed Is Forewarned" instance in which destroying siege engines before the objective was visible would not give credit toward completion of the "Blow up siege engines" event.
• Fixed an issue in the "Forearmed Is Forewarned" instance in which a floating vine-wall segment was sometimes visible to players.

Fractals

Deepstone

• Fixed a bug in which the Deepstone fractal showed up too frequently in the Daily Fractal and Daily Recommended Fractal achievement rotations.
• Fixed a bug in which players continuously floated after falling off the boss's platform.
• Foes in the maze no longer drop loot.

Shattered Observatory

• Fixed a bug that allowed players to travel outside the intended play space.

Raids

Stronghold of the Faithful

• Fixed a bug in the Xera encounter in which players were teleported to an island that did not exist.

Items

• Added Plaguedoctor's stats to the attribute combinations available on the on legendary backpack items and the Aurora legendary accessory.

Profession Skills

Elementalist

•  Elemental Attunement: Fixed a bug in which the regeneration boon was applied to allies when an elementalist attuned to water for a second time.
•  Glyph of Storms: Fixed a bug in which this skill used an interrupt recharge instead of a full recharge.

Thief

•  Payback: Fixed a bug that prevented this trait from reducing the recharge time of Basilisk Venom.

Structured Player vs. Player

• The Sigil of Fallibility has been removed from the PvP Build panel.
• PvP Lobby: A new tournament vendor has been added. This vendor collects a new currency that players can earn by placing from 1st through 4th place in monthly automated tournaments.

World vs. World

Desert Borderlands

• Fixed an issue in which players could bypass the gates in Osprey's Palace.

Update - July 10, 2018

General

• Invulnerability effects will now stop conditions from applying damage.
• Subtitles shown during cinematics now scale according to DPI when the DPI Scaling option is selected in the Graphics Options tab.
• Fixed a bug in which the game appeared as though it went back to the desktop for a few seconds during map loading.

Fractals

Chaos Isles

• Fixed a bug that caused the first checkpoint to activate before being reached.

Deepstone

• Fixed a bug that prevented Fractal Gods and Goddesses from receiving additional Fractal Encryptions upon completion.
• Fixed a bug that could cause players to become stuck in the door to the Deepstone Sentinel's room.
• Fixed a bug that prevented jumping players from being caught by the teleport pads in the elevator section.
• Fixed a bug that was improperly awarding the Boots on the Ground achievement.
• Fixed a bug that could cause the elevator to become unresponsive after the party was defeated.

Twilight Oasis

• Fixed a bug that allowed tornadoes to use Toxic Trail.

Raids

Stronghold of the Faithful

• Fixed a cosmetic issue in the Keep Construct encounter in which some statue projections would appear before the statue broke. They will now properly unlurk as the statue breaks.
• Fixed an issue in the Keep Construct encounter in which statue projections would sometimes appear after the encounter completed.

Profession Skills

General

• Fixed a bug that prevented some traits from automatically breaking stuns.
• The weapon proficiency icons for the herald, tempest, dragonhunter, reaper, and druid profession specializations have been updated.
• Rune of the Adventurer: This rune has been split between game modes and will now grant 25 endurance in PvP while maintaining 50 endurance in other game modes.

Elementalist

The change to Meteor Shower in the previous update, which limited the maximum damage on a single target, is being extended to other similar skills in this update. This change is aimed at normalizing the damage that elementalists do between small and large targets with these types of skills. In general, elementalists will see increased damage up front with less damage over a longer period. In addition to these changes, we've also increased some of the damage of the weaver's sword skill, which we felt wasn't doing enough for the close-range risk that it carried.

•  Signet of Water: Fixed the passive description when traited with Written in Stone.
•  Lightning Cage: Fixed a bug that caused enemies to become dazed instead of stunned when entering Lightning Cage.
•  Signet of Fire: Fixed a bug that allowed this skill to ignore line of sight.
•  Lava Font: This skill is no longer split between game modes and will now use the lower recharge time of 6 seconds in all game modes. The damage of this skill has been reduced by 40%.
•  Meteor Shower: Fixed a bug that caused the minimum damage of this skill to be higher than intended. The expected minimum damage has been increased from 10% to 20%.
•  Flame Burst: This skill will now be placed on an interrupt cooldown if elementalists attempt to cast it on an enemy behind them.
•  Conjure Frost Bow—  Ice Storm: This skill has been renamed Frost Storm. It no longer has an internal cooldown between hits, and instead it inflicts reduced damage on each subsequent hit. Initial strike damage has been increased by 60% and will reduce by 10% per impact to a minimum of 20%. These numbers will now be used in all game modes. Bleeding duration has been reduced from 5 seconds to 3 seconds per impact.
•  Conjure Lightning Hammer—  Lightning Storm (Lightning Hammer skill): This skill has been renamed Invoke Lightning. Initial damage has been increased by 60% and will now inflict reduced damage on each subsequent hit by 10%, to a minimum of 30%.
•  Glyph of Storms— Ice Storm: The initial damage of this skill has been increased by 60% and will now inflict reduced damage on each subsequent hit by 10%, to a minimum of 40%.
•  Glyph of Storms— Lightning Storm: The initial damage of this skill has been increased by 65% and will now inflict reduced damage on each subsequent hit by 5%, to a minimum of 30%.
•  Polaric Leap: Increased the duration of superspeed gained from 2 seconds to 3 seconds.
•  Quantum Strike: Increased lightning bolt damage by 20%. Recharge time has been reduced from 18 seconds to 16 seconds.
•  Fire Grab: The aftercast of this skill has been reduced by approximately 0.5 seconds.
•  Cauterizing Strike: The aftercast of this skill has been reduced by 0.25 seconds. Base damage has been increased by 17%, with damage to burning enemies being improved by the same amount.
•  Pyro Vortex: Increased the number of pulses from 6 to 8.
•  Shearing Edge: This skill will no longer fire at targets behind the elementalist.
•  Natural Frenzy: Damage has been increased by 33%. This skill will no longer fire at targets behind the elementalist.
•  Elements of Rage: This trait now converts 13% of the elementalist's vitality into ferocity instead of converting 14% of the elementalist's power into ferocity.
•  Written in Stone: Fixed a bug that caused this trait to apply enhancements for the water and fire signet beyond the cooldown of the signet skills, resulting in a doubled enhancement.
•  Persisting Flames: The lava font cast by this trait has been renamed Lesser Lava Font.

Engineer

Core engineer gameplay has had a complex condition-damage rotation for a long time, which paid off with solid damage output. That has fallen off in part due to condition damage tweaks over time and other condition builds eclipsing it by nature of their simplicity. We're adding damage to some core skills, which we hope will entice engineers to take another look at them. Alongside those changes, Thermal Vision, which was the dominant damage option in its tier, has been reworked to offer a better variety of options. Finally, a few elixirs have been updated to remove their random boon, instead granting reduced amounts of all potential boons so that they're more reliable and can be used more intelligently.

•  Bandage Blast: Fixed a bug that displayed a much higher healing value than intended when this trait was equipped with Health Insurance. Fixed an issue that allowed bandages to be blocked by enemies.
•  Overcharged Shot: The description and tooltip text of this skill has been updated for greater clarity.
•  Poison Grenade: Increased the stacks of poison inflicted by each grenade from 1 stack to 3 stacks.
•  Poison Dart Volley: Increased the duration of poison inflicted by each shot from 5 seconds to 6 seconds.
•  Elixir H: This skill now grants protection for 2 seconds as well as regeneration and swiftness for 4 seconds instead of randomly granting one of them for a higher duration.
•  Elixir U: This skill now grants quickness, vigor, and 2 stacks of stability for 6 seconds instead of quickness and either might or fury. This skill will still break stuns.
•  Toss Elixir U: This skill now breaks stuns on and grants quickness to allies in the affected area.
•  Napalm: Reduced the duration of this skill from 10 seconds to 8 seconds. Increased the duration of burning inflicted by each pulse of this skill from 2.5 seconds to 3 seconds. Reduced the cooldown from 30 seconds to 25 seconds.
•  Concussion Bomb: Increased the stacks of confusion inflicted by this skill from 5 stacks to 6 stacks in PvE. Increased the stacks of confusion inflicted by this skill from 6 stacks to 7 stacks in other game modes. Increased the cooldown of this skill from 18 seconds to 20 seconds.
•  Detection Pulse: Reduced the casting time of this skill by 0.25 seconds, and the aftercast has been reduced by approximately 0.3 seconds.
•  Thermal Vision: This trait has been reworked and now grants up to 150 expertise at level 80. Inflicting burning increases the engineer's condition damage by 10% for 4 seconds.
•  Reactive Lenses: Clarified the description of this trait to specify that it triggers the Lesser Utility Goggles trait skill as opposed to the Utility Goggles utility skill.
•  Excessive Energy: Fixed a bug that could cause the bonus damage from this trait to be applied to characters other than the engineer.

Guardian

The firebrand's healing capabilities made them a bit too strong in competitive game modes, so we've dialed them back a bit in those areas of the game.

•  Searing Slash: Altered the animation of this skill to reduce the popping effect.
•  Symbol of Faith: Altered the animation of this skill to reduce the popping effect.
•  Ray of Judgment: This skill has been reworked and now targets a single foe, inflicting repeated damage to them over time if they are struck by the initial attack.
•  Shield of Wrath: Reduced the cooldown of this skill from 36 seconds to 35 seconds.
•  Chapter 1: Desert Bloom: Reduced the base healing and healing multiplier of this skill by 9% in PvP and WvW.
•  Chapter 4: Shining River: Reduced the base healing of this skill by 11% in PvP and WvW.
•  Chapter 1: Unflinching Charge: Reduced the stability granted by this skill from 4 seconds to 3 seconds in PvP and WvW.
•  Signet of Resolve: Reduced the cooldown of this skill in PvE from 35 seconds to 30 seconds to match PvP and WvW.
•  Mantra of Solace: Reduced the duration of aegis granted by this skill from 3 seconds to 2 seconds.
•  Liberator's Vow: Increased the radius affected by this trait from 240 to 360.
•  Legendary Lore: Reduced the regeneration granted by this trait from 6 seconds to 3 seconds in PvP and WvW. Reduced the protection granted by this trait from 3 seconds to 2 seconds in PvP and WvW.

Mesmer

Mesmers have been doing a little too well in recent updates, with increased damage across the board due to the confusion changes, as well as unparalleled support from boon share on top of multiple evasion windows. While we think these are good thematic roles for mesmers to have, their overall effectiveness is too high, so we are taking steps to rein in some of that extra power.

•  Blurred Frenzy: The animation time of this skill has been reduced from approximately 1.75 seconds to 1 second while retaining all previous attacks. Damage of this skill has been reduced by 17% in PvP and WvW, with PvE being reduced by 36%. The baseline recharge time has been reduced from 12 seconds to 10 seconds.
•  The Prestige: Burning duration has been modified from 3 stacks for 3 seconds to 1 stack for 9 seconds.
•  Phantasmal Mage: The burning duration of the initial attack has been modified from 2 stacks for 3 seconds to 1 stack for 6 seconds. The attack's burning has been modified from 3 stacks for 3 seconds to 1 stack for 9 seconds.
•  Maim the Disillusioned: Torment duration has been split between game modes and will now deliver 4 seconds of torment in PvP and WvW while continuing to deal 6 seconds of torment in PvE.
•  Imaginary Axes: Inflicted torment duration has been reduced from 5 seconds to 4 seconds.
•  Axes of Symmetry: Inflicted confusion duration has been reduced from 8 seconds to 6 seconds in PvE.
•  Jaunt: The ammunition recharge time of this skill has now been split and will use a 30-second cooldown in PvP and WvW while maintaining a 20-second cooldown in PvE.
•  Signet of Inspiration: Reduced the duration of aegis shared by this skill from 10 seconds to 2 seconds.
•  Illusionary Inspiration: Reduced the duration of aegis shared by this trait from 10 seconds to 2 seconds.
•  Inspiring Distortion: Reduced the duration of aegis shared by this trait from 5 seconds to 2 seconds.
•  Nomad's Endurance: Fixed a bug that could cause the bonus condition damage from this trait to be applied to characters other than the mesmer.
•  Chaotic Persistence: The boon and condition duration bonus has been decreased from 3% to 2% per boon on the mesmer.

Necromancer

We're making a major change to Epidemic in this update to curb the ability of multiple necromancers to chain conditions indefinitely. While the point of the skill is to spread conditions, we didn't feel that one skill should have so much multiplicative power. Following up on the underwater balance release, we've updated some skills to enable their use underwater, and we've taught the flesh golem (flesh shark?) how to swim.

•  Life Siphon: Reduced the casting time from 3 seconds to 1.75 seconds. This skill will now cancel if the necromancer faces away from their target.
•  Life Slash: The damage of this skill has been increased by 35% in PvE only.
•  Soul Spiral: The damage of this skill has been increased by 50% in PvE only.
•  Death Spiral: This skill now deals increased damage to targets above 50% health, with the increase being 50% in PvE and 10% in PvP and WvW.
• Shade Skills: Fixed a bug that prevented these skills from working if the player became airborne just after using them.
• Well Skills: These skills now use a different cast animation when underwater.
•  Putrid Curse: This skill no longer corrupts a boon into a condition.
•  Feast of Corruption: This skill no longer automatically inflicts torment. It now corrupts boons before gaining life force and inflicting torment based upon the number of conditions on the necromancer's target. The number of boons corrupted is 2 in PvP and 3 in PvE and WvW.
•  Sand Flare: This skill can now be used underwater.
•  Summon Flesh Golem: This skill can now be used underwater.
•  Spectral Walk: The effect icon for this skill has been changed to match up with the skill icon.
•  Spectral Recall: Added a 0.5-second cooldown before this skill can be used after using Spectral Walk.
•  Epidemic: Increased the travel speed of epidemic projectiles by 33%. This skill now reduces the duration of conditions it copies by 50%.
•  Corrupt Boon: This skill now has two charges with a 0.5-second cooldown between uses. Each charge takes 18 seconds to recover.
•  Desert Shroud: The effects for this skill have been changed to better differentiate it from other scourge profession skills.
•  Siphoned Power: Increased the might granted by this trait from 2 stacks to 3 stacks.
•  Dhuumfire: This trait now has a cooldown when used in conjunction with the scourge specialization. This cooldown is set at 5 seconds in PvP and WvW and 3 seconds in PvE.
•  Blood as Sand: This trait has been split and has had its damage reduction reduced from 5% per shade to 3% per shade in PvP and WvW.
•  Herald of Sorrow: Fixed a bug that prevented this trait from corrupting a boon on downed enemies.

Ranger

Soulbeasts were not performing quite where we wanted them to be, so we're eliminating the difference between bonuses granted to ranger pets and rangers on a few traits in the Beastmastery line. A few ranger pets were continuing to overperform, so those have had their power knocked down. Lastly, after some significant revisiting, a few additional skills have also been added to underwater play.

•  Poison Volley: Reduced the baseline duration of the poison inflicted by this skill from 5 seconds to 4 seconds and from 7 seconds to 6 seconds when behind or flanking the enemy.
•  Worldly Impact: Improved the casting time of this skill from 1 second to 0.75 seconds and slightly reduced its aftercast.
•  "Guard!": This skill can now be used underwater. Fixed a bug that caused the voice over for this skill to trigger less frequently than that of the ranger's other shout skills.
•  Spike Trap: This skill can now be used underwater. The underwater version now stuns enemies instead of launching them.
•  Flame Trap: This skill can now be used underwater.
•  Frost Trap: This skill can now be used underwater.
•  Farsighted: This trait now affects all ranger weapon skills instead of only weapon skills that fire projectiles.
•  Pack Alpha: This trait now grants the full 150 attribute increase to each primary attribute, up from 80, to a merged soulbeast at level 80.
•  Pet's Prowess: This trait now grants the full 300 ferocity increase and 30% movement speed increase, up from 150 and 25% respectively, to a merged soulbeast at level 80.
• Iboga— Consuming Bite: Reduced the base damage of this skill by 33%. Reduced the damage per condition by 40%.
• Smokescale— Bite: The damage of this skill has been reduced by 30%.
• Smokescale— Smoke Assault: The damage of this skill has been reduced by 20%.

Revenant

Our changes to the revenant are focused on giving them more flexibility by reducing some of the upkeep costs of their legends' passive skills. This will allow revenants to run those skills for longer while still having energy to spend on other skills. We've also made some adjustments to improve the viability of a revenant power build in PvE.

• Herald: Fixed a bug that could reset the Legendary Dragon Stance effect when players were channeling Glint at the start of a PvP match.
•  Igniting Brand: Fixed a bug that caused this skill's damage to ignore range and line-of-sight limits.
•  Unrelenting Assault: The damage of this skill has been increased by 25% in PvE only.
•  Deathstrike: The animation of this skill has been changed, removing approximately 0.5 seconds from its aftercast.
•  Envoy of Exuberance: Reduced the energy cost of this skill from 10 to 8.
•  Banish Enchantment: Increased the range of this skill from 600 to 900. Fixed a bug in which this skill was applying the incorrect amount of confusion in PvE.
•  Embrace the Darkness: Reduced the energy upkeep of this skill from 7 to 6 energy per second. Reduced the casting time of this skill by approximately 0.25 seconds.
•  Protective Solace: This skill now has an initial energy cost of 5. Reduced the energy upkeep of this skill from 8 to 6 energy per second.
•  Facet of Chaos: Reduced the energy upkeep of this skill from 5 to 4 energy per second.
•  Impossible Odds: Reduced the energy cost of this skill from 10 to 5. Reduced the energy upkeep of this skill in PvE from 8 to 6 energy per second. Fixed a bug that caused the superspeed effect to intermittently deactivate while this skill was active.
•  Focused Siphoning: Increased the base damage inflicted by this trait by 9% in PvE.
•  Bolster Fortifications: This trait now increases the revenant's outgoing damage by 5% while they have protection, in addition to its previous effects.
•  Roiling Mists: Fixed a bug that caused this trait to grant boons when players swapped legends.

Thief

In this balance update, we're doing some follow-up adjustments to the deadeye. These changes are aimed at addressing a few trouble spots. The first change is the addition of stealth to the F2 skill in order to make it easier to build around stealth attacks to spend malice. The second is a tuning pass on the rifle to smooth out the transition between standing and kneeling. Finally, we've adjusted a few skills and traits that ended up feeling weaker than intended when we changed the way malice scaled.

•  Weakening Whirl: The damage of this skill has been increased by 20% in PvE only.
•  Backstab: The aftercast of this skill has been reduced by a little less than 0.5 seconds.
•  Infiltrator's Strike: Immobilization duration has been split between game modes and will now use a lower 1-second duration in PvP and WvW while using 2 seconds in PvE.
•  Swindler's Equilibrium: This trait has been split between game modes. The recharge time reduced in PvP and WvW is now 50%, while PvE remains at 100%.
•  Unload: Initiative cost and initiative gain have been split between game modes. The PvP and WvW versions will now cost 6 initiative and refund 1 initiative if all attacks hit. The PvE version will continue to use the previous 5-initiative cost and 2-initiative refund.
•  Exposed Weakness: The damage this trait causes has been changed from 10% damage if the target has a condition to 2% damage per unique condition on a target.
•  Dagger Training: In addition to causing dagger attacks to poison enemies, this trait now grants 5% bonus damage to dagger attacks.
•  Potent Poison: This trait has been split and will now grant 20% bonus to poison duration and damage in both PvP and WvW, with PvE remaining at 33%.
•  Uncatchable: Previously, caltrops dropped by this trait inflicted cripple for 5 seconds on targets not currently crippled, and inflicted 1 second of crippled on targets already crippled. Now this trait will always apply 1 second of cripple on each pulse. Removed the first pulse when activated. Bleeding duration has been increased from 4 seconds to 5 seconds in PvE, with PvP and WvW being reduced from 4 seconds to 3 seconds.
•  Deadly Ambush: The confusion applied in PvP and WvW has been reduced from 6 stacks for 4 seconds to 6 stacks for 3 seconds.
•  Lotus Training: The PvP and WvW version of the effects for this trait have been modified, with bleeding duration being reduced from 5 seconds to 4 seconds.
• Deadeye—Stolen Skills: These skills now grant stealth for 3 seconds when used with 5 or more malice. Added a 0.25-second casting time to these skills. Increased damage by 100%.
• Rifle: Fixed a bug that could cause some rifle skills to generate more malice than intended.
•  Death's Judgment: Increased the damage bonus per malice from 20% to 25% in PvE only.
•  Sniper's Cover: The aftercast of this skill has been slightly reduced.
•  Kneel: The transition to the kneeling state now happens immediately on activation to allow for smoother skill queuing. The aftercast has been slightly reduced.
•  Free Action: This skill will now interrupt the thief's current skill instead of queuing behind it. This is intended to allow for more responsive access to mobility when using other skills.
•  Sneak Attack: Increased the damage per bullet by 20%. This change extends to the deadeye variant  Malicious Sneak Attack.
•  Tactical Strike: This attack now applies 10 stacks of vulnerability for 5 seconds on hit. This change extends to the deadeye variant  Malicious Tactical Strike.
•  Hide in Shadows: Fixed a bug that caused this skill to heal for slightly less than the listed value.
•  Shadow Gust: This skill now cancels the thief's autoattack when activated.
•  Blinding Powder: Updated the tooltip of this skill to better clarify its area of effect. This skill now has a 0.25-second casting time but is now also a stun breaker.
•  Mercy: This skill now grants 3 initiative in addition to initiative per malice regardless of malice level. Reduced the initiative gain per malice consumed to 1. This skill no longer cancels the thief's current mark when activated.
•  Malicious Restoration: Increased base healing of this skill by 100%. Increased healing per level by 57%. Reduced recharge time from 30 seconds to 25 seconds.
•  Binding Shadow: This skill now requires a line of sight to the player's target to activate. Note that the attack portion of this skill does not require line of sight to hit as long as the activation has already occurred.
•  Malicious Intent: Removed bonus malice on heal skill use. Added bonus malice gain when hitting the mark with a stealth attack.
•  Silent Scope: Fixed a bug that prevented the 20% critical hit bonus from applying to Death's Judgment while standing. Removed the internal cooldown from this trait.
•  Payback: Increased the skill recharge effect from 10% to 20% in PvE and WvW, and increased the skill recharge effect to 33% in PvP.

Warrior

In this iteration, we focused on the warrior's ability to provide support for large groups of allies. We are making some improvements to areas of the Tactics line as well as warhorn and shouts, and we're also improving some of the weapons that are used in supportive builds.

•  Backbreaker: The knockdown time of this skill has been increased from 2 seconds to 3 seconds.
•  Savage Leap: Damage of this skill has been increased by 66%.
•  Sever Artery: Bleeding duration of this skill has been reduced from 8 seconds to 6 seconds.
•  Gash: Bleeding duration of this skill has been reduced from 8 seconds to 6 seconds.
•  Hamstring: Bleeding duration of this skill has been reduced from 8 seconds to 6 seconds.
•  Final Thrust: In addition to its previous effects, this skill now inflicts 6 stacks of bleeding for 8 seconds if it hits a foe when their health is below 50%.
•  Flurry: The bleeding duration of this skill has been increased from 2 seconds to 4 seconds.
•  Charge: This skill now removes torment and burning from allies in addition to its other effects.
•  Call of Valor: This skill no longer applies weakness. Instead, it now removes weakness, vulnerability, poison, confusion, and slow from nearby allies in addition to applying vigor.
•  Quick Breathing: This trait no longer removes conditions from nearby allies. Instead, it increases the number of targets affected by warhorn skills from 5 to 10. Additionally, it will now grant one strike of adrenaline to the warrior for each ally affected.
•  Defiant Stance: The baseline duration of this stance has been increased from 3 seconds to 4 seconds.
•  "On My Mark!": The cooldown of this skill has been synchronized between game modes and will now use the lower 25-second ammunition recharge time in all game modes. Reveal duration has been increased from 4 seconds to 6 seconds.
•  "Fear Me!": This skill now applies 6 seconds of weakness to enemies in addition to its previous effects.
•  "For Great Justice!": This skill now uses ammunition, with 5 seconds between activations and a 25-second ammunition recharge time.
•  "Shake It Off!": This skill now uses ammunition, with 5 seconds between activations and a 25-second ammunition recharge time. This skill has been split between game modes and will now use a 50-second cooldown in PvP and WvW while cleansing 6 conditions.
•  Scorched Earth: Increased the travel speed of the projectile fired by this skill by 200%.
•  Peak Performance: Increased the duration of the damage-increase effect from 5 seconds to 6 seconds. Reduced the damage increase from 33% to 20% in PvE only.
•  Attacker's Insight: The benefits of this trait have been reduced by 25%.

Structured Player vs. Player

• The time displayed on the Compete button has been updated to show the final time when players can queue up for their matches to count for season play. Rewards will be distributed after a grace period to allow matches to finish and the leaderboard to settle.

Mac Client

• Subtitles shown during cinematics now scale appropriately when the window is resized.

Black Lion Trading Company Gem Store

New Items and Promotions

• A new Tremor Armadillo roller beetle skin is available in the Style category of the Gem Store for 2,000 gems.
• For a limited time, the Raven's Spirit Glider and the Winged Headpiece return to the Style category of the Gem Store.
• For a limited time, the Zhaitan Dye Kit, Blue Shift Dye Kit, and Crimson Lion Dye Kit return to the Upgrades category of the Gem Store and are on sale for 93 gems each. More dye kits will return to the Gem Store on sale throughout this week.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

• Build: 90,455
• Xera encounter was reenabled.
•  Peak Performance: The damage bonus in WvW was reduced to 10% to match PvP balancing.
• Kournan Supply Cache in the Home instance now gives 3 Inscribed Shards.