User:Endrosz/2015 June

Update - June 23, 2015

Living World

The activity in Lion's Arch is kicking up a storm of dust and excitement. Finally, the big construction pieces have been dropped in and the residents have returned in force. The buzz of commerce has returned, both fair and illicit. Take this moment to explore the city in all its glory and marvel at its rebirth.

Items

• Added a Mystic Forge recipe to change the stats on ascended weapons and armor. The recipe is as follows:

The Build Tab

Upon logging in, you will see that the Skills and Traits section of your Hero panel is now gone. We've replaced this with an entirely new Build tab that allows you to view all of your skills and traits in one convenient location. To access the Build tab, open your Hero panel and select the second tab from the top of the far left. Additionally, inside the Build tab there are three larger slots with filled-in or grayed-out backgrounds—these are your specialization slots.

Specializations

Instead of investing trait points across varying trait lines, you now select up to three different specializations depending on your level. Each specialization offers a variety of traits for you to choose from that give you passive abilities that enhance the way you play. By default, you're given access to a base set of specializations known as core specializations, which you equip by clicking on the left-hand arrow of a specialization slot. Specialization slots unlock at levels 21, 45, and 71. We've taken into account the skills and traits that you had currently selected on your character and made an effort to unlock and equip a build similar to what you had been running prior to this release.

Specializations and trait choices are game mode specific. You may select different specialization lines and associated traits in PvE, WvW, and PvP.

The Training Tab

Excluding racial skills, all nonweapon skills (heal, utility, and elite) that appear on the right half of your skill bar—as well as your traits—are now locked inside the new Training tab. To unlock these skills and traits, open up your Hero panel, go to the Training tab, then select a track under Core Skills or Core Specializations. In order to train, you will need to spend hero points (previously skill points) in a selected track. Hero points are earned by leveling up or by completing hero challenges (previously skill challenges) throughout the world. The Training tab is locked until your character reaches level 11. In order to make this change, Antitoxin Spray has been removed from the game.

Hero points and Spirit Shards

Hero points and spirit shards represent an updated version of the previous skill point system. Hero points are used to unlock traits and skills. Spirit shards are used to purchase vendor items and used with the Mystic Forge. When you log in for the first time, you'll notice that your character has a quantity of Hero points converted from the previous system. Your character's Hero points are visible in the Training tab of the Hero panel. You'll also notice that your character has a number of spirit shards converted from the previous system. Your spirit shards are visible in your character's wallet. The Wallet button is located in the bottom-left corner of your Inventory panel.

Moving forward, you may earn Hero points by leveling up and completing hero challenges (previously skill challenges). You'll be able to earn spirit shards through daily achievements, champion loot bags, PvP reward tracks, birthday gifts, and, once you hit level 80, from tomes of knowledge and regular drops from creatures.

Attribute Point Changes

• Attribute points on equipment have been increased by approximately 30%.
• Base attributes at level 80 now scale to 1000 instead of 926.

Condition Updates

Damaging conditions were all reworked to better ensure damage is properly delivered in large-scale combat. All damaging conditions have been changed to intensity-stacking, and the maximum number of stacks for each damaging condition has been raised to a much larger number that should never be hit under normal circumstances.

• All damage conditions will now stack up to 1500 times.

• Vulnerability:
  • This condition was changed so that it not only increases direct damage, it also increases condition damage. Each stack will increase direct damage by 1% and condition damage by 1%.
• Slow:
  • This new condition is now present on some profession abilities and slows the activation of skills by 50% while active.

Boon Updates

• Quickness: This effect is now a boon.
• Resistance: This new boon is now present on some profession abilities and causes all conditions currently on your character to be ineffective for its duration.
• Vigor: The endurance regeneration rate of this effect has been decreased from 100% to 50%.

Wallet Updates

• The wallet has moved from the Hero panel to the inventory.
• Clicking the wallet button in the lower-left of the inventory will toggle wallet mode on and off.
• A drop-down at the top of the wallet allows for category filtering to make it easier to find and display specific currencies.
• In Inventory mode, gold is always displayed in the lower-right with a second, map-appropriate currency. For example, in the Silverwastes, bandit crests are displayed next to gold.
• The currencies have been added to the wallet. The conversion of the following items to currencies is automatic, but it will require logging in with each character who is carrying the following items in their inventories:
  • Geodes
  • Bandit Crests
  • Pristine Fractal Relics
  • WvW Tournament Claim Tickets
  • Spirit Shards (Formerly Skill Points)

Elementalist

Skills

• Reduced base attunement recharge from 13 seconds to 10 seconds.

Engineer

Skills

• All skills in the grenade kit have had their range updated from 1200 to 900.
• All grenade skills now throw 3 grenades by default.

• Mortar has been converted into a kit and now has the following skills:

Necromancer

General

• Traits that previously referred to Death Shroud now refer to the more ubiquitous Shroud.
• Traits that previously referred to specific skills available while in Death Shroud now refer to specific skills as Shroud Skill 1, Shroud Skill 4, etc.

Ranger

General

• All ranger pets now gain an additional 150 power, vitality, toughness, and precision at level 80.
• Ranger Longbow skill range is now 1500.

Update - June 9, 2015

New Features and Content

Streaming Client

• Streaming Client will allow players to play the game faster by reducing the up-front download size when first downloading the game or when a patch is released.
• The Streaming Client functionality is no longer in beta testing.
• The Streaming Client feature is always on and no longer requires use of the -StreamingClient flag.