Guildwars Current News - RSS News Feed

• Updated the Zaishen Chest drops to replace the Automatonic with a new tonic for the month of July. More information on Zaishen Rewards can be found here.

• Updated Automated Tournament map rotations.

Assassin

• Aura of Displacement: now has a .75 aftercast.
• Dark Prison: now has a .75 aftercast.
• Death's Charge: now has a .75 aftercast.
• Shadow Prison: now has a .75 aftercast.
• Shadow Walk: now disables your attack skills for 1 second.

Dervish

• Signet of Mystic Speed: increased recharge to 20 seconds.

Mesmer

• Mantra of Inscriptions: now affects only those signets that you successfully activate. Interrupted and disabled signets no longer benefit from this skill.

Dervish

• Chilling Victory: this skill is now in the Wind Prayers attribute line.

Monk

• Signet of Judgment: decreased damage to 5..50; decreased range to half.

Necromancer

• Enfeebling Blood: increased health sacrifice to 17%; decreased duration to 1..16.

Miscellaneous

• Chant and shout effects are no longer applied to allied Guild Battle NPCs.

• Fixed a bug with the Ranger skill Conflagration that made it not affect the ranged attacks of monsters.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused Mhenlo to display the same dialogue option twice in the Consulate Docks outpost.
• Fixed a bug in the Factions quest "Night Raiders" that could prevent players from completing it.
• Fixed a graphical bug that occurred when Gwen was equipped with the Deldrimor Armor in a PvP arena.
• Fixed a graphical bug on the Elementalist's Elite Flameforged armor that showed the wrong texture on the character's neck.
• Fixed a bug with the monster skill Twisting Jaws that allowed monsters to instantly cast it.

• The Xunlai Tournament House NPC now offers prizes for the June tournament and can be found in the Great Temple of Balthazar, Lion's Arch, Kaineng Center, and Kamadan.

• Fixed a crash that occurred when a player manually ordered Heroes to use certain skills.

• Decorated Shing Jea Monastery and Kaineng Center in preparation for the Dragon Festival.
• Beginning at Noon Pacific (-7 GMT) on Thursday, July 3, 2008, the Shing Jea Boardwalk, Dragon Arena, and Rollerbeetle Racing will be opened for the duration of the weekend.
• Captain Rujiyo will be gathering adventurers in Shing Jea Monastery for special festival missions at various times throughout the day on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
• For the final events on Sunday July 6, Emperor Kisu will visit Shing Jea Monastery every two hours, with the first event starting at 2:00 AM Pacific (-7 GMT) and the last event starting at 11:59 PM Pacific (-7 GMT).
• Imperial Supply Master Kagno will appear in Shing Jea Monastery as the event comes to a close at 11:59 AM Pacific (-7 GMT) on Monday, July 7. He will remain there for one week to exchange 250 Victory Tokens for the new mask in case anyone misses the exchange with Emperor Kisu.
• For the full mission and event schedule, please see the Dragon Festival 2008 event page.

Assassin

• Shadow Form: the caster of this skill now does 50% less damage while it is active.

Underworld

• Added Hex Breaker to the Mindblade Specters in the Underworld.
• Several Banished Dream Riders in the Chaos Plains region of the Underworld have been replaced with Cursed Dream Riders.
• When Cursed Dream Riders are killed, they cause Mindflay Specters to spawn. Mindflay Specters have Signet of Disenchantment instead of Hex Breaker.

• Fixed a bug that caused the Elementalist skill Steam to deal fire damage instead of cold damage for its conditional damage.
• Fixed a bug that caused Sunspear Rebirth Signet to aggro mobs near the target.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Ranger skill Conflagration to affect spears.

• Added dialogue to the Xunai Tournament Agent to remind players to register their account.
• Changed Guardsman Zingpah's dialogue in Kaineng Center to reduce confusion.
• Improved Hero AI to use skills such as Conjure Flame and Ebon Dust Aura based on their weapon's current damage type when effects changing the damage (such as Winter or Staggering Force) are active.
• Improved Hero AI for the Assassin skill Shattering Assault. Heroes will now use this skill if the target is not enchanted.
• Improved Hero response to a player manually ordering them to use a skill. Heroes should now respond faster to orders.
• Improved Hero AI for the Dervish skill Pious Assault. Heroes will now use this skill even if they are not enchanted.
• Improved Hero AI for the Assassin skill Disrupting Dagger. Heroes will now use this skill to interrupt spellcasting enemies rather than use it frequently against non-casting targets.
• Improved Hero AI for the Dervish skill Conviction. Heroes will now use this skill even if they are not enchanted.

In this update, we are again changing a few key skills for PvP only or for PvE only. However, most of the skill balances are the same for both the PvP and PvE aspects of the game.

Most of these changes improve upon existing skills. A few are power reductions that are not expected to be detrimental to PvE play. Three skills (Soul Bind, Rust, and Lightning Touch) are having their core function changed to make them more useful outside of niche circumstances. The following skills will change in both PvE and PvP:

Elementalist

• Rust: increased Energy cost to 10; decreased casting time to 1 second; functionality changed to: "Deals 10..70 cold damage. For 5..20 seconds, target foe and all adjacent foes take twice as long to activate signets."
• Lightning Touch: functionality changed to: "Target touched foe and all adjacent foes are struck for 10..60 lightning damage. Foes suffering from a Water Magic hex are Blinded for 3..8 seconds. This skill has 25% armor penetration."
• Arc Lightning: increased conditional damage to 15..75.

Mesmer

• Drain Enchantment: increased Energy gained to 8..17.
• Drain Delusions: increased multiplier for Energy gained to 4; increased recharge to 12 seconds.
• Wastrel's Worry: increased damage to 20..100.

Monk

• Strength of Honor: increased recharge to 15 seconds.
• Holy Wrath: increased recharge to 10 seconds.
• Aura of Stability: decreased duration to 3..8 seconds.
• Balthazar's Pendulum: decreased duration to 5..10 seconds.

Necromancer

• Fetid Ground: decreased Energy cost to 5.
• Suffering: increased Health degeneration to -1..3.
• Vile Miasma: increased Health degeneration to -1..5.
• Soul Bind: decreased casting time to 1 second; functionality changed to: "For 30 seconds, every time target foe is healed, the healer takes 20..80 damage. This hex ends if target is suffering from a Smiting Prayers hex."

Paragon

• "Can't Touch This!": decreased Energy cost to 5.
• Barbed Spear: increased Bleeding duration to 5..20 seconds.

Ranger

• Antidote Signet: functionality changed to: "Cleanse yourself of Poison, Disease, Blindness, and one additional condition."
• Barbed Arrows: increased duration to 24 seconds; removed easily interruptible; you now have -40 armor while activating this skill.

Warrior

• Bull's Charge: increased movement speed to +33%.
• "Charge!": increased duration to 5..13 seconds.
• Symbolic Strike: increased conditional damage to 12.

The improvements here are appropriate for PvE but would not benefit PvP play balance. The following skills will change in PvE:

Dervish

• Mystic Regeneration: decreased recharge to 5 seconds; increased the maximum number of enchantments counted to 8.

Mesmer

• Energy Drain: increased multiplier for Energy gained to 3.

The significant power reductions here are important to address current PvP play balance but are not necessary for PvE. The following skills will change in PvP:

Mesmer

• Mantra of Inscriptions: decreased the recharge of signets to 5..35% faster.

Ritualist

• Ancestors' Rage: increased duration to 2 seconds; decreased damage to 5..50; functionality changed to: "For 2 seconds all foes adjacent to target ally are struck for 5..50 lightning damage each second."
• Splinter Weapon: decreased damage to 5..30.

Warrior

• "For Great Justice!": functionality changed to: "For 20 seconds, when you hit with an attack, you gain 1 additional strike of adrenaline."

• Rift Wardens in the Underworld now only teleport the player speaking to them if the Underworld Chest has appeared.
• Fixed a missing player name in Norgu's dialog in the Throne of Secrets.
• Fixed a bug that caused Heroes and henchmen to occasionally respond improperly to placed flags when fighting enemy Spirits.
• Fixed a bug that caused some catapults to hit the area around themselves with their attack.
• Fixed a bug that caused Siege Devourers in Assault the Shaman to occasionally not hit enemy Charr they were targeting.

• Updated the Zaishen Chest drops to replace the Phantasmal Tonic with a new tonic for the month of June. More information on Zaishen Rewards can be found here.

• Updated Automated Tournament map rotations.

• Fixed a bug with the Monk skill Divine Intervention. Sometimes the skill would not prevent lethal damage.
• Fixed a bug that caused some Dart Traps in Eye of the North to shoot through obstacles.
• Fixed a text bug where the player's name did not display in a Luxon Priest's dialog.

• Updated Iceblood's Warstaff to list the casting time reductions as two separate abilities rather than one combined ability.

• Fixed the alignment of the "Test My Computer" option on the login screen.

• Adapter settings
• Network connections
• External address
• Server connectivity
• Network paths
• DirectX diagnostics

• Fixed a bug that caused some disguise tonics to interact improperly with Junundu form in Guild Wars: Nightfall.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Ranger skill Distracting Shot to not receive a damage increase from some Preparations.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Paragon skill Cruel Spear to inflict Deep Wound even if it was blocked.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Paragon skill "Brace Yourself!" to not affect self-knockdowns, such as Grapple.
• Fixed a bug that caused skill templates that included PvP skills to become blank when the template name was changed.

• Scrolls of Hero's Insight received from the Imperial Quartermaster in Kaineng Center will now appropriately stack with the same scrolls bought from scroll traders.
• Spafrod Iceblood in Sacnoth Valley now correctly drops his own green item instead of Lord Glacius' Staff.
• Sol Pyrrhus in Stingray Strand can now craft armor rating 51 Monk Pants.
• Updated the sale value of Tempered Glass Vials to match their crafting cost of 20 gold.
• Clay Bricks have been removed from all material crafter inventories.

• Fixed a bug with several Mesmer skills failing to interact with PvP versions of other skills.
• Fixed a bug that caused PvP skills to display incorrectly when sending skill templates to chat.