Game updates/November 2013

November 2013 updates
Wednesday, 27 November 2013 Tuesday, 26 November 2013 Wednesday, 13 November 2013 Tuesday, 12 November 2013 Friday, 1 November 2013
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Update 2 - November 27, 2013

Additional Patch Notes

• Added inventory option that renders borders about items color coded to the item's rarity
• Added notifications when luck and magic find level increase

Update - November 27, 2013

Bug-Fixing

• Fixed a bug that would prevent Tower of Nightmares daily achievements from correctly awarding progress.
• Fixed a bug that would prevent the Fractal daily achievement from correctly awarding progress.
• The cannon barrage phases of the Captain Mai Trin boss fractal will only trigger once per health threshold.
• Added a waypoint to the Thaumanova Reactor story dungeon.
• Fixed an issue where the Archdiviner would sometimes not wake up from his stun phase.
• The radiation room in the Thaumanova Reactor fractal will no longer deal damage to defeated players.
• Players can no longer become stuck after jumping off the airship during the Captain Mai Trin boss fractal.
• Fixed a crash that would sometimes occur at fractal level 34.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

• Build: 26,908

Update 2 - November 26, 2013

Bug-Fixing

• Fixed an issue where players could not be resurrected after a party wipe in the Thaumanova Reactor story fractal.
• Fixed a bug that could prevent the Fractal Transit Query from appearing after completing the Molten Weapons Testing fractal.
• Preexisting Fractal weapons can be used again.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

• Build: 26,821

Update - November 26, 2013

Living World

Fractured!

Five New Fractals

• Three standard fractals:
  • Thaumanova Reactor: Embark on a brand-new historical adventure, and travel to the ill-fated power facility moments before it explodes. As the fractal scale increases, more potential outcomes will unlock.
  • Molten Weapons Testing: Accompany Braham and Rox through this epic retelling of the Molten Facility dungeon.
  • Aetherblade Retreat: Join Ellen Kiel as she fights off Aetherblade pirates in a fragment of the Aetherblade Retreat dungeon.
• Two boss-tier fractals:
  • Molten Retribution: Battle the legendary bosses from the Molten Facility dungeon in this boss-tier fractal.
  • Sky Pirates: Relive the challenge of Captain Mai Trin and First Mate Horrik.

Story

• As promised during her campaign run for the Captain's Council seat, Ellen Kiel has begun her investigation of the Thaumanova Reactor disaster in the Mistlock Observatory.
• Players can complete the special story-mode version of this fractal when they enter the Fractals of the Mists for the first time during this release.

Mistlock Instabilities

• Tampering with the Mistlock Observatory to target specific moments in time has destabilized the Mistlock process. Consequently, unique Mistlock Instabilities will begin occurring on fractal level 31.
• Mistlock Instabilities are special modifiers that have various effects on players and their party's journey through the fractals. These can be anything from simple conditions to insidious extra creature attacks.

Improvements to Agony Resistance/Infused Gear

• All infused ascended equipment now has a special infusion slot for Agony Resistance infusions.
• Agony Resistance infusions can be found in fractal reward chests.
• All existing, infused ascended equipment has a +5 Agony Resistance infusion in the Agony Resistance slot by default, in place of the natural +5 Agony Resistance.
  • Agony Resistance infusions provide +1 or more Agony Resistance.
  • Artificers can combine two identical Agony Resistance infusions with a Thermocatalytic Reagent to create a single, more powerful Agony Resistance infusion.
• Newly created or dropped infused ascended equipment will have empty Agony Resistance slots.

General Fractal Improvements

• Fractal selection is now based on the number of fractals the party has completed on the current run. Longer, more difficult fractals are less likely to be selected as the first fractal of the level.
• Every fractal level now ends with a boss-tier fractal. The Solid Ocean, Molten Retribution, and Sky Pirates fractals are all in this category.
• Unshakable creatures will no longer receive more than 5 stacks of the defiance boon in the fractals.
• The difficulty scaling for fractals has been adjusted. Enemy health, damage, and count now scale more gradually.
• Agony damage has also been reduced at several levels.
• Fractal level 50 is now possible, even with excessive agony damage. However, the fractals are temporarily capped at level 50. Additional levels will become available in the future.
• Fractal progress is now account-wide.
• Numerous bug fixes and balance changes have been made to previously available fractals.

Fractal Leaderboards

• With this release, players will be able to track their progress on a new leaderboard that displays their fractal rank.
• In the case of a tie, the first player to achieve that rank will be listed higher.
• The leaderboard will be posted on GuildWars2.com once they have been populated with enough data.

Rewards

• Daily coin rewards for fractal completion are now more consistent with other dungeons. There are now separate daily rewards per every ten levels of the fractals (1 – 10, 11 – 20, and so on).
• The Fractal weapons have been converted to weapon skins.
• Recipes for a new rune and a new sigil will now drop exclusively in the fractals:
  • Superior Rune of Resistance grants bonus toughness, a reduction in condition duration, and aegis upon using a signet.
  • Superior Sigil of Momentum grants a stacking toughness bonus on kills.
• Completing the Fractured! meta-achievement awards the player a bag of ascended crafting materials.

Achievements

• Completing a fractal will fulfill a daily achievement each day of the Fractured! release.
• Each unique fractal completed during the Fractured! release will fulfill a corresponding Living World achievement.
• The Fractured! meta-achievement requires players to complete a combination of 11 daily fractals and/or unique fractal achievements.

Exotic Drop

• The Endless Fractal Tonic is an endless transformation tonic that allows players to temporarily appear to be various creatures from the Fractals of the Mists dungeons. The tonic is more likely to drop at higher fractal levels.

The Nightmares Within

Rewards

• The Tri-key Chest has been updated to include more loot bags, more Dragonite Ore, and a chance at Scrolls of Knowledge and Tomes of Knowledge.
• The Toxic Hybrid will now drop a piece of the Tricolor Key every time he is defeated.
• Sergeant Walters, located in the base of the Tower of Nightmares, will now accept players' Pristine Toxic Spore Samples for the Toxic Spore Sampler achievement. She will accept extra Pristine Toxic Spore Samples as trade for various new crafting recipes, Tricolor Key pieces, and the Antitoxin Spray healing skill.

New Features and content

World vs. World

• A new area has been added to the Obsidian Sanctum jumping puzzle!
  • The Borderlands Bloodlust effect has been disabled in Obsidian Sanctum.
  • Players can now enter Obsidian Sanctum directly from the drop-down menu of the WvW panel.

Items

• Additional recipes for ascended back-item pieces have been added to the Mystic Forge for players who don't play the fractals.
  • All of the ascended back-item pieces that required 1 Vial of Condensed Mists Essence can now be forged with Bloodstone Dust instead.
  • A total of eight recipes have been added.

Balance, bug-fixing, polish

General

• Sylvari cultural armor updates—light tier 1 (female only), light tier 3, medium tier 2, and medium tier 3: textures, specularity, and dye channels have been predominantly restored to the state before the last update, while balancing them to work with the glow material.
  • For the medium tier 2 leggings, the dye-to-skin area was largely combined to a supporting channel to give full texture and glow-color control. The armor-glow shader has been tweaked to allow full saturation range of the glow color, as will be dictated by the saturation of the texture. This shader affects all plantlike sylvari armors that have glow: sylvari cultural, Nightmare Court, and sylvari town clothes.

Items

• Gathering tools can no longer be unequipped while gathering.

Profession Skills

Elementalist

•   Fire Shield: The aura of this skill now applies to 5 targets when traited with Powerful Aura, up from 4.
•   Shocking Aura: The aura of this skill now applies to 5 targets when traited with Powerful Aura, down from 6.
•  Zephyr's Speed: This trait now always grants movement speed while attuned to air and also functions with Lingering Elements.
•  Stone Flesh: This trait now always grants toughness while attuned to earth and also functions with Lingering Elements.
•   Signet of Air: The tooltip now displays the proper movement-speed increase of the boon when this skill has been activated while traited with Written in Stone.
•   Stop, Drop, and Roll: This trait will now only go on cooldown when burning or chilled is removed.
•  Soothing Mist: Updated the skill fact to indicate the correct rate at which Soothing Mist is applied.
•  Healing Ripple: This trait now indicates the correct healing amount when in a PvP map.
•   Ether Renewal: Adjusted the skill fact to better describe the functionality of this skill.

Engineer

• Tool Kit
  •   Throw Wrench: Removed the healing functionality from this skill. It now applies 2 stacks of vulnerability each time it hits an enemy.
  •   Smack: Added a turret-healing fact.
  •   Whack: Added a turret-healing fact.
  •   Thwack: Added a turret-healing fact.
•  Power Wrench: Updated the description and skill fact to indicate the actual functionality of this skill.
•   Poison Grenade: These grenades now display a red ring for enemies and a combo ring for allies.
•   Grenade Barrage: This skill now launches 7 grenades when traited with Grenadier, instead of having a 50% chance to launch 6 or 8 grenades. These grenades now display a red ring for enemies and a white ring for allies.
•  Autotool Installation: Updated the trait fact to indicate the correct amount of health restored to turrets.
•  Automated Medical Response: This trait now recharges Antitoxin Spray, the human racial skill Prayer to Dwayna, and the sylvari racial skill Healing Seed.
•  Rifled Turret Barrels: The range bonus has been increased to 50%. Several turret abilities have been modified to reflect this change.
•   Rifle Turret: The range has been increased from 1400 to 1500 when traited with Rifled Turret Barrels.
  •   Automatic Fire: This skill is now affected by Rifled Turret Barrels.
•   Harpoon Turret: The range has been increased from 1400 to 1500 when traited with Rifled Turret Barrels.
  •   Automatic Fire: This skill is now affected by Rifled Turret Barrels.
•   Flame Turret: The base range has been increased from 450 to 500. The range has been increased from 600 to 750 when traited with Rifled Turret Barrels.
  •   Smoke Screen: This skill now functions with Rifled Turret Barrels, increasing its radius from 240 to 360.
•   Net Turret—Electrified Net: This skill now functions with Rifled Turret Barrels, launching at foes up to a 900 range (previously 600) when traited.
•   Rocket Turret: The base range has been lowered from 1200 to 1000. The range when traited with Rifled Turret Barrels remains at 1500.
  •   Explosive Rockets: This skill now functions with Rifled Turret Barrels, increasing its range from 1000 to 1500.
•   Thumper Turret—Thump: This skill now functions with Rifled Turret Barrels, increasing its radius from 240 to 360.

Guardian

•   Symbol of Protection: This symbol now has the appropriate duration increase when traited with Writ of Persistence.
•   Purging Flames: Updated the skill fact to show the correct condition duration reduction (33%).
•   "Stand Your Ground!": Added a skill fact for number of targets.
•  Binding Jeopardy: Facts from this trait will now show up on skills that immobilize.
•   Ring of Warding: Added a skill fact for the light field generated by this skill.

Mesmer

•   Phantasmal Warden: This phantasm will now properly try to enter the attack range of its target before using its skill.
•  Imbued Diversion: Added a radius trait fact.
•  Empowered Illusions: This trait now indicates a damage increase for phantasms.
•   Phantasmal Duelist: This skill no longer indicates a loss of damage when traited with Empowered Illusions.
•   Vortex: Updated the range indicator to use the proper range. Added a radius skill fact. Added a skill fact for initial pull radius.

Necromancer

•   Putrid Mark: Changed the description to match the actual functionality of this skill.
• Marks: Fixed an issue that caused staff marks to go on full cooldown when aborted/interrupted.
•   Shadow Fiend—Haunt: Updated the blind skill fact to display the proper duration.

Ranger

•   Kick: Adjusted the range fact on this skill to match the proper attack range.
•   Frost Spirit: Decreased the hit-point value of the underwater version of this spirit to be consistent with the land version. Summoning the spirit will now put its activated skill on a 1-second cooldown; this will fix an issue that caused the skill to begin recharging without firing when activated immediately.
•   Stone Spirit: Decreased the hit-point value of the underwater version of this spirit to be consistent with the land version. Summoning the spirit will now put its activated skill on a 1-second cooldown; this will fix an issue that caused the skill to begin recharging without firing when activated immediately.
•   Storm Spirit: Decreased the hit-point value of the underwater version of this spirit to be consistent with the land version. Summoning the spirit will now put its activated skill on a 1-second cooldown; this will fix an issue that caused the skill to begin recharging without firing when activated immediately.
•   Sun Spirit: Decreased the hit-point value of the underwater version of this spirit to be consistent with the land version. Summoning the spirit will now put its activated skill on a 1-second cooldown; this will fix an issue that caused the skill to begin recharging without firing when activated immediately.
•   Spirit of Nature: Added radius and time-interval skill facts. Decreased the hit-point value of the underwater version of this spirit to be consistent with the land version. Summoning the spirit will now put its activated skill on a 1-second cooldown; this will fix an issue that caused the skill to begin recharging without firing when activated immediately.
•   Signet of the Wild: Rangers will now be able to interact with objects when they use the active portion of the signet and have Signet of the Beastmaster traited.
•   Mercy Shot: Fixed an issue with the trait fact that caused multiple damage facts of the same type to appear.
•  Eagle Eye: This trait now indicates the damage increase in its facts.
•  Sharpened Edges: Fixed a bug that caused this trait to display an incorrect chance on critical hit.
•  Intimidation Training: Updated this trait to display on the activated abilities for the Jungle Spider and Black Widow pets.
•  Hide in Plain Sight: Added a camouflage trait fact.

Thief

•   Basilisk Venom: This stun will now apply after a strike, instead of on a strike, to prevent crowd-control attacks (like Headshot) from overriding the stun.
•   Cluster Bomb: The bleeding skill fact now displays the proper bleed stack and duration. Added a radius skill fact.
•   Fire Cluster Bomb[sic]: Added skill facts to describe the functionality of this skill.
•   Smoke Bomb: Removed the old shadowstep fact.
•  Fleet of Foot: The conditions will now be removed at the beginning of the dodge roll instead of at the end. This trait will now only go on cooldown when crippled or weakness is removed.
•  Potent Poison: Updated the thief skills that caused poison to reflect the extended duration that this trait applies.

Warrior

•   "Fear Me!": Replaced the range fact with a radius fact.
•   "For Great Justice!": Replaced the range fact with a radius fact.
•   "Shake It Off!": Replaced the range fact with a radius fact. Added a skill fact for removed conditions.
•   "On My Mark!": This skill will now properly use a 1200 range.
•  Vigorous Focus: Fixed a bug that was granting 8 seconds of vigor on stance use instead of the intended 6 seconds. Skills affected: Balanced Stance, Endure Pain, and Berserker's Stance.
•  Fast Hands: This trait will no longer trigger a 5-second recharge when swapping to or from bundles.
•   Earthshaker: Fixed a bug where this skill would occasionally fail to consume adrenaline.

World vs. World

• Borderlands Bloodlust no longer applies to NPCs.
• Town clothes and toys have been disabled in WvW.
• Fixed a bug preventing some players from unlocking the WvW Dawn of the Season achievement.

Structured Player vs. Player

• The ratings for matchmaking and leaderboard standings in PvP have been reset.

Black Lion Trading Company Gem Store

New Items and Promotions

• Flamekissed light-armor skins, Flamewalker medium-armor skins, and Flamewrath heavy-armor skins are now available in the Style category of the Gem Store. These fiery armor skins can be purchased for 800 gems each.
• WXP Boosters continue to be 10% off until the end of WvW season 1. WXP Boosters can be purchased from the Gem Store in the Boosts category for 135 gems each or 495 gems for a pack of 5.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

• Added "Show/Hide Rarity" option to the Inventory window, which shows a border around the item based upon its rarity.
• Essence of Luck now plays a tone and displays a numerical amount (eg: 100 Luck) over your character when consumed.
• When your account Magic Find goes up a percent, a notification appears over your minimap saying, "+#% Magic Find".
• Karma gain in the item UI now displays "<x> Karma " instead of "<x> ".
• The 6/6 bonus on Runes of Perplexity now have a 8 second cooldown.
• Build: 26,780

Update 2 - November 13, 2013

Bug-fixing

• Fixed a bug that caused some players to receive an error 19 when joining an instance map or dungeon

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

• Build: 26,150

Update - November 13, 2013

Bug-fixing and Balance

Living World

• Fixed a bug that could prevent the Champion Spider Queen from eating players and cause players to be stuck inside the cocoon longer than intended.
• Fixed a skill-animation bug with the Toxic Hybrid.
• The Mini Toxic Hybrid is no longer account bound.
• Removed Halloween content from the open world.

Structured Player vs. Player

• Updated the Skyhammer map by reducing the number of breakable panels and adding guardrails in various locations in order to put an emphasis on positioning and skillful play.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

• Build: 26,130

Update 2 - November 12, 2013

Bug-Fixing

• Fixed several client crashes, including one that prevented some players from entering the game.
• Fixed a roster crash in sPvP.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

• Build: 26,077

Update - November 12, 2013

Living World

The Nightmares Within

The way is open. The bravest are entering the Tower of Nightmares and confronting scores of powerful enemies. Toxins in the air make the going rough, and players won't know whether they're encountering a hallucination or a living foe. No antitoxin can protect them from their inner demons, but someone has to bring this tower down before Kessex Hills is lost to the nightmare.

Story

• Thanks to the heroes of Tyria, Marjory Delaqua's research has yielded a viable antitoxin that has allowed teams from the Seraph, the Durmand Priory, the Vigil, and the Order of Whispers to infiltrate the Tower of Nightmares in Kessex Hills.
• Air purifiers have been placed at key locations to counteract the toxic clouds around the base of the tower, allowing access to the interior. To destroy the heart of the nightmarish structure, brave squads have attempted to carry newly designed antitoxin injectors to the top of the tower, but they haven't been heard from since. It's now up to the heroes of Tyria to defeat the Toxic Alliance and destroy their tower.
• Players will receive in-game mail from Lady Kasmeer Meade informing them that the Tower of Nightmares is now open. Use the Show Me functionality in the mail to find the location of the Tower of Nightmares.
• Once inside the Tower of Nightmares, players will need to make their way up the tower, scaling three floors of horrifying dangers to reach the heart of the tower—a massive, noxious bloom pulsing with malevolent power. At the apex of the tower, players can enter the chamber protecting the tower's heart and begin a story instance that can be completed solo or with a group of up to five players.
  • Upon defeating the challenges of the story instance, players can finish what the scouting team could not: inject Marjory's antitoxin directly into the heart of the tower!
  • The story instance also has a repeatable mode so players can confront the challenges as many times as they like for additional rewards and accolades. Upon each completion, players will be able to inject another dose of antitoxin, weakening the tower that much more.

The Tower of Nightmares

• The interior of the Tower of Nightmares has been revealed, and it is as deadly as its name suggests. The Tower of Nightmares is an open-world map designed to challenge even the hardiest of groups. Fighting side by side, players will need to rely on each other to survive.
• Players will participate in a number of new open-world events throughout the structure and encounter the deadly hallucinations and lethal champions of the Toxic Alliance.
• Within the Tower of Nightmares, a mysterious chest was found at the top of the tower. The chest's lock is an intricate mechanism that seems to require a three-pronged key. The pieces of the key for this Tri-key Chest can be found on creatures within the Tower of Nightmares, or they can be acquired through trade with Marjory's Helper Dee back at the Thunder Ridge Camp in Kessex Hills. Players will also receive one complete set of keys in the initial mail from Kasmeer. Combine the keys to create a Tricolor Key.
• The Tower of Nightmares content will be available until the tower's heart is destroyed. Watch the progress as more antitoxin is injected!

Nightmare Chambers

• Throughout the Tower of Nightmares, players will find smaller blossoms that resemble the tower's heart. Within these chambers, players will experience their deepest fears and encounter twisted visions of their past.
• The Nightmare Chamber instances are designed for either solo or group play and are comprised of a number of random elements. Each time a player enters a chamber, there is a chance to see something, or someone, different. But is any of it real?

Open World

• The Toxic Alliance isn't giving up on its plans for domination simply because their tower has been breached. Toxic Offshoots and Toxic Alliance events will continue to run throughout this release, giving players a chance to finish many of the achievements they may have missed in the last release.
• The Antitoxin Injected indicator is a representation of the amount of antitoxin that has been pumped into the heart of the tower by the heroes of Tyria and will update periodically.

Rewards

• Finishing the meta-achievement for The Nightmares Within rewards players with a Gas Mask Skin. This headgear skin has three dye channels and can be applied to head armor of any weight class. It's just the thing for infiltrating a hostile and toxic environment like the Tower of Nightmares.
• Players will be awarded with a Mini Toxic Nimross miniature for completing the Tower Hybrid Master achievement.
  • Tricolor Keys can be used to open the Tri-key Chest at the top of the third level of the Tower of Nightmares. Besides its guaranteed rewards, there's a chance for players to receive unique items:
  • Air-Filtration Device Skin—a headgear skin for all weight classes
  • Toxic Spore Skin back-slot item
  • New, exclusive miniature

Achievements

• The Nightmares Within meta-achievement will task players with combating their way through the interior of the Tower of Nightmares, conquering their fears in the Nightmare Chamber instances, defeating the Toxic Hybrid, and injecting antitoxin into the heart of the tower.
  • Completing special Nightmares Within daily achievements during this release will contribute to the meta-achievement. These are earned by participating in specific Nightmares Within content each day.

New features and content

Structured Player vs. Player

• Added a new Custom Arena option: Force Respawn. When enabled, players will automatically respawn at the end of their respawn timers, and defeated players will no longer be resurrectable.
• Solo Arena players will now be shuffled before joining a match to promote a more even and challenging game.
• The compass and map will now display enemy markers for enemies who are in combat and within line of sight of one of your teammates.
• Trick-or-Treat Bags have been reverted back to reward chests, and candy corn has been removed from Solo Arena and Team Arena. Until December 10, PvP will offer double reward chests for Solo Arena and Team Arena wins.

Balance, bug-fixing, polish

General

• Introduced further server-side optimizations, with significant improvements during heavy combat scenarios.

Structured Player vs. Player

• Fixed the Solo Arena UI to always have a Leave button instead of a Disband button.
• The PvP panel now remembers the last opened tab.
• The trebuchet in Battle of Kyhlo no longer awards personal scores for hitting minions.
• The PvP medal on the Character Select screen now directly represents the player's rank.
• The Custom Arena configuration UI now disables the Play button when it's expired.

Black Lion Trading Company Gem Store

New Items and Promotions

• All permanent gathering tools will now be account bound rather than soulbound. For one week, account-bound versions of the Jack-in-the-Box Scythe and Bone Pick gathering tools will be available in the Services category of the Gem Store for 1000 gems each.
  • Previously purchased permanent gathering tools can be upgraded to account-bound versions by unequipping them and bringing them to a Black Lion Weapons Specialist.
• Marjory's Axe, Marjory's Dagger, and Kasmeer's Staff are now available as skins in the Style category of the Gem Store for 600 gems each.
• A pair of spirit wings rises from the player's defeated foe. The new Permanent Sanctified Finisher is available in the Upgrades category of the Gem Store for 600 gems.

Improvements

• PvP Locker slots have been added for the Toxic hand and shoulder armors received from the Toxic Gloves Skin and the Toxic Mantle Skin, both available in the Style category of the Gem Store.
• Soulbound permanent gathering tools can be exchanged at a Black Lion Weapons Specialist for account-bound versions. Players must unequip the tool before exchanging it.
• All future permanent gathering tools from the Gem Store will be account bound and will cost slightly more than the soulbound versions.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

• Build: 26,047

Update 2 - November 4, 2013

This note was inadvertently left out of the original notes

• Adjusted coin and bloodstone dust drop chances in champion bags.

Update - November 1, 2013

Bugfixes

• Fixed a bug that prevented some mouse-button key-bindings that use modifier keys from working properly.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Nightmare Within UI to appear when players were in the Mad King's Labyrinth.
• Kessex Hills: Fixed a bug that prevented the difficulty of the Champion Toxic Hypnoss from scaling properly when fighting large groups of players.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

• Build: 25,625