Game updates/October 2021

October 2021 updates
Tuesday, 26 October 2021 Thursday, 7 October 2021 Wednesday, 6 October 2021 Tuesday, 5 October 2021
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Update 2 - October 26, 2021

Bug Fixes

• Mechanist: Fixed a bug that could cause jade mechs to become stuck in a broken state when downed instead of flying away for repairs.
• Fixed a server crash.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

• Build: 121,244

Late Notes - October 26, 2021

Profession Skills

General

• Multiplicative damage reduction enhancements have been updated to display how much damage was reduced by rather than displaying how much the damage is multiplied by. For example, protection now displays "-33% Damage" instead of "67% damage." This is not a change to functionality; it is only a change to display the bonus in a more intuitively understandable way.
• Positive percentage-based enhancements now display with a "+." For example, swiftness now displays "+33% Movement Speed" instead of "33% Movement Speed."

Update - October 26, 2021

Beta Event 3

We're excited to begin our third End of Dragons™ Elite Specialization Beta Event, running from October 26 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) through October 30 at 10:00 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7). All players will see three new beta character slots appear on the character selection screen that allow them to create and play a fully geared, level-80 beta character of any race for the duration of the weekend. You can use this character in PvE, WvW, and unranked PvP, and any core Tyria or previous expansion map content, including Heart of Thorns™ and Path of Fire™. Maps from the upcoming expansion, End of Dragons, are not available for beta testing. The beta character slots are only accessible during an active beta event and will be deleted between elite specialization beta events. In this beta event, the following three new elite specializations are available for play:

Thief—Specter

"Join me—the darkness is our ally."

• The bloodthirsty Panaku had a change of heart as he defended the emperor of Cantha. After this event, he vowed to do more to save and empower those he deemed important. Knowing only the art of assassination, Panaku melded these skills with his shadow magic to create a twisted monstrosity that stole the essence of his enemies in order to bolster himself and his allies. The specter harnesses the power of shadow magic to debilitate enemies and strengthen allies. Enter Shadow Shroud to link with friends and fuel the destruction of your foes.

Engineer—Mechanist

"All systems go. Mech cleared for launch!"

• The wonders of jade technology permeate daily life in Cantha. Fusing these new schools of thought with the mechanical techniques and knowledge from the rest of Tyria presents a unique opportunity for a widely traveled engineer. Taimi will be jealous. The mechanist is a dynamic innovator, using their mechanical expertise and advanced Canthan technology to battle alongside a jade mech of their own creation. Customize your mech and use it to crush your enemies—together, you're unstoppable.

Ranger—Untamed

"Unleashed, unbound—the rage of Echovald Forest lives in us."

• The traditions and power of the untamed descend from warriors of archaic Echovald. They are one with nature—the pulse of nature beats in their hearts as the relentless rhythm of life and death. The untamed share a primal bond with nature through their pet, juggling control of raw power back and forth to defeat foes—your pet uses debilitating nature-based skills to weaken enemies, then relinquishes that power to you for the final strike.

Beta Character Limitations

• Progress is not carried over from beta characters to live characters.
• Beta characters cannot participate in ranked PvP matches.
• Beta characters do not share normal account-wide inventory with nonbeta characters (e.g., wallet, karma, shared inventory slots, bank access).
• Beta characters cannot access the trading post.
• Beta characters cannot mail gold or items.
• Beta characters have access to a copy of your account's Legendary Armory. Legendary items newly added to your Legendary Armory while a beta event is in progress will not be usable by beta characters during that beta event.

DirectX 11 Beta

• Fixed a client crash.
• Fixed text rendering on some devices.

Raids

The Key of Ahdashim

• Fixed an issue with the Cardinal Sabir encounter.

Profession Skills

Ranger

• Fixed a bug in which swapping between Build Templates that used the same pet in different pet slots would not work as expected.

Soulbeast

• Fixed a bug in which rapidly entering and exiting water while merged would cause unexpected behavior.
• Fixed a bug in which mounting immediately after entering or exiting water would cause the pet to become stowed.

Thief

•  Black Powder: The blinding effect from this skill is now based off of an attack and will no longer directly apply through evading. The field portion of this skill is now unblockable.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

• Build: 121,168

Update - October 7, 2021

Bug Fixes

• Added a chest at the base of the Mad King's Clock Tower that can be opened in exchange for candy corn, allowing steady progression of the Court Duty: Terror of the Tower achievement between attempts at the tower.
• Fixed an issue that caused some items to display incorrect physics.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

• Build: 120,503

Update - October 6, 2021

Bug Fixes

• Removed an unintended vendor marker from Madame Cookie.
• Increased the window of time available to successfully make the final jump of the Mad King's Clock Tower activity.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

• Build: 120,456

Late Notes - October 5, 2021

General

• Fixed a bug in which players who prepurchased End of Dragons™ and did not own any other expansion were able to create revenant characters but were unable to enter the game with them.

DirectX 11 Beta

• Fixed a client crash caused when players viewed some vistas while using certain graphics settings.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the client to freeze.

Update - October 5, 2021

Living World

Halloween

Once again, the gates of the Mad Realm have opened, and Kryta's most infamous monarch, Mad King Thorn, has returned to hold court in Lion's Arch! Loyal vassals of the king are strongly encouraged to enjoy the festivities: meet the denizens of the Mad Realm in events across Kryta, tour the Mad Realm itself in the labyrinth and fearsome clock tower, compete with your fellow mortals in Lunatic Inquisition, Reaper's Rumble, and the Mad King's Raceway, attend to the king's whims in his notorious pastime of Mad King Says, or match wits and blades against royalty in Ascent to Madness.

• Disturbing reports have reached the Durmand Priory regarding changes in the Mad King's Labyrinth. Adventurers are encouraged to meet with Magister Tassi of the Durmand Priory in Lion's Arch to be briefed on a fact-finding expedition.
  • The Lion's Arch Captain's Council wishes to remind its populace that they are not affiliated with the Krytan monarchy and cannot guarantee the safety of any citizens who choose to dabble in dangerous realms, mad or otherwise.
• A new visitor has appeared in the Mad King's Labyrinth, interrupting the Bloody Prince's prolonged rebellion. Several new achievements have been added to guide adventurers in investigating the unvarnished true story behind this latest development in the Mad Realm.
• The annual Halloween Rituals meta-achievement has been updated with a fashionable new reward, the Grasping Gaze Shoulders! Earn this spooky new armor piece by completing a variety of Halloween activities and show your allegiance to the Mad King's court with pride. Last year's meta reward, the Lunatic Court Cape, can now be purchased from Halloween vendors if you missed it.
• Three new weapons are now available as rare drops from Trick-or-Treat Bags. They can also be purchased from Sparking Stone in Lion's Arch.
• New rewards, including a festive new miniature and chef's recipe, have been added to Halloween vendors.
• New Halloween-themed guild decorations have been added.
• Added a new weekly Halloween achievement, Halloween Festivities. Earn progress by participating in a variety of Halloween activities.
• Two new boss encounters have been added in the Mad King's Labyrinth!
• The Grand High Viscount of Candy Corn, Skeletal Lich, and Labyrinthine Horror have been updated with improved skill warnings and rebalanced skills.
• Door icons in the Mad King's Labyrinth are now split based on the enemy type; boss events use a different icon than monster waves.
• Slightly increased the enemy count of veteran haunted-door events in the labyrinth.
• Mad King Thorn has been updated in Ascent to Madness with improved skill warnings and rebalanced skills.
• Adjusted the timing of the Mad King's Clock Tower to reduce tragic miscalculations on the final jump.
• Reduced the delay time before intermediate chests in the Mad King's Clock Tower can be looted for a second time.
• The services of a court tailor can now be commissioned in the Mad King's Labyrinth by adventurers seeking armor repairs.
• Removed Trick-or-Treat Bag rewards from the Lunatic Inquisition Regular repeatable achievement.
• Added a Lunatic Boatmaster to the Eye of the North to allow easy travel to the Mad Realm.
• Many small bugs have been polished to ensure a more fun festival than ever for all visitors to the Mad Realm.

The gates to the Mad Realm will be open for a treat-filled five weeks, from October 5 until November 9. Have a happy Halloween!

Halloween Bonus Bash

As a special kickoff to the festivities, adventurers will enjoy bonus experience, magic find, and reward-track progress across Tyria! In addition, adventurers at or above level 10 who seek out the Mist Stranger in their starting map during the Halloween Bonus Bash event can receive a once-per-account choice of class-appropriate main-hand weapons that scale in power as they gain levels. Whether you're a new player or a veteran, it's a perfect chance to jumpstart an adventuring career!

This bonus will only last for the first week of Halloween, from October 5 until October 12, so be sure to jump in!

General

• Fixed several bugs relating to interactions between the Dye and Wardrobe sections of the Equipment tab in the Hero panel. The character preview now consistently reflects selected dyes and skins, before and after clicking Apply.
• All level-80 equipment granted by the Level-80 Boost is now of the Celestial (all attributes) stat set. This is not retroactive; only Level-80 Boosts used after this update will receive Celestial equipment. Previously, most professions were given Soldiers (power, toughness, vitality) equipment. The intent of this change is to ensure that all characters using a Level-80 Boost are given a serviceable equipment set that will allow players to experiment freely with their skill and trait choices and not result in situations in which their chosen traits and skills are entirely unsupported by their equipment.
• After a visit from a friend, a merchant in Lion's Arch has now had their proper name revealed.
• As of September 21, the effect reset that occurs when players begin a raid or strike removes the same effects as the reset that occurs when players change traits or templates.

DirectX 11 Beta

• Fixed bugs with textures that dynamically change resolution.
• Fixed world rendering issues caused by a problem with a postprocessing effect.
• Fixed an issue that caused some ground-cover props to appear with incorrect colors.
• Fixed an issue that caused the map to look slightly burry.
• Fixed an issue that unchecked the Enable DX11 Rendering (Beta) check box when players used the Autodetect preset.
• Added better support for uncapped frame rates when in fullscreen and windowed fullscreen modes.
• Fixed an issue that prevented the Phoenix Glider from rendering correctly.

Items

• Platter of Delectable Birthday Cakes: The Nourishment effect from this feast now has the correct icon. It can now replace other Nourishment effects, and it can refresh its own duration.
• Fixed a bug in which the Mist Offensive Potion would mistakenly increase the condition damage stat total by a percentage, in addition to the intended increase to outgoing power and condition damage. This bug allowed condition builds to "double dip" on the benefits of this potion.
• Fixed a bug that allowed the benefits of multiple "on weapon swap" sigils that added an effect to your next attack (Sigils of Leeching, Doom, or Vision, for example), to be used simultaneously under certain circumstances.

Profession Skills

General

• All effects that provide a percentage reduction to incoming damage have been standardized to stack multiplicatively.
• Fixed a bug causing duration-stacking boons to be affected by a hidden stack limit of 9, which in some cases could come into effect before stacking to that boon's expected duration cap. This resulted in some boons having a lower total duration than expected. This hidden stack limit has been removed for duration-stacking boons that also have a maximum duration—alacrity, fury, protection, quickness, resistance, resolution, swiftness, and vigor.

Engineer

•  Medic Gyro: Fixed a bug in which the visual indicator for the water field created by this skill when traited with Gyroscopic Acceleration was smaller than expected.

Mesmer

Mirage

•  Chaos Vortex: Fixed a bug in which alacrity was being granted in a circle around the targeted enemy rather than around the casting mesmer.

Ranger

Druid

• We've observed that in strikes and raids, it has become common practice for druids to ask someone in their group to use the /gg command so they can fill their Celestial Energy resource by reviving them before engaging the boss. If you're going to have full Celestial Energy anyway, we see no point in making the group wait for this! Now, when engaging a raid or strike boss, the druid's Celestial Energy resource is automatically set to 100%.

Black Lion Trading Company Gem Store

Black Lion Chest

• The Black Lion Chest has been updated to the Reaper's Vision Chest and can be previewed for a full list of its contents.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

• Build: 120,381