Game updates/20061220

Update 2 - Wednesday December 20, 2006

 * Fixed a bug that prevented players from winning in some of the Heroes' Ascent battles.
 * Fixed a bug that caused players to be kicked from the "Dwayna vs. Grenth" Snowball Arena if they hadn't yet unlocked boat travel.
 * Added a Wintersday Priest to the outpost for the "Dwayna vs. Grenth" Snowball Arena. This NPC teleports players back to their most recently visited outpost or town.
 * Added a Search button to the Party panel.

Wintersday Festival

 * Wintersday approaches, can you all see the signs?
 * The grentchies and the snowmen will soon all align.
 * For a battle in the end is what we shall face;
 * To determine the wintery fate of the whole human race.


 * Dwayna and Grenth will vie for our favor;
 * Through threats and presents of a wintergreen flavor.
 * In the end one shall win, one shall surely prevail;
 * And the length of the winter is the final detail.


 * So stock up on snowballs and clear all your packs;
 * For gifts of all sorts will rain down on your backs.
 * And if you should see a small urchin or three;
 * Remember the spirit of the season — 'Tis better to give than receive.

The Wintersday Festival has arrived! Kamadan, Lion's Arch, Droknar's Forge, and Ascalon City are decorated for the occasion, and over the coming days, holiday activities will begin as special guests arrive to join the fun. Everything leads up to the big Winterday [sic] celebration on January 1, which will take place every three hours in Lion’s Arch and Kamadan (on the hour in Lion’s Arch and 15 minutes past the hour in Kamadan). Be sure to collect Candy Cane Shards for use in the big celebration!

Party Search
The new Party Search panel allows you to advertise when you’re looking for a group to join, and to search for other players and parties to join you. With the Party Search panel, you can join up with other players even when they are in a different district from you. In any town or outpost, press ‘P’ to bring up the new Party Search panel. If you’re the leader of your party, or if you’re not in a party (all solo players are treated as parties of one), you can use the “Seek Party” checkbox to add your group to the list of available players and parties, and to advertise what you’re looking for. As a party leader, you can select another group and click “Join” to propose merging with that group. After clicking “Join”, you will see a question mark icon next to that group indicating that you are waiting for a response from them, and they will see an icon next to your group indicating that you have invited them. If you receive an invitation from another group, you can select that group and click “Join” to accept the invitation, merging the two groups. If you accept an invitation to join a group which is currently in a different district from you, your group will automatically travel to the other district. If you are alone, you will travel immediately upon clicking “Join”. If you have other people traveling with you, the game will provide a 10-second countdown and give each player the option of canceling.

Reconnect After Disconnect
While playing in a mission, explorable area, or PvP game, if your game client loses its connection to the Guild Wars game servers due to Internet connectivity issues, or if the game client or your computer crashes, you will have the opportunity to reconnect to the game servers and resume exactly where you left off, for a period of ten minutes after the disconnection. During that ten minute period, your character will remain in the world. If your character was performing an action like attacking or spell-casting at the moment of disconnection, your character will complete the action. If your character was in a party, the other members of your party will be notified of the disconnection. You must reconnect from the same computer that you were playing on when the connection was lost.

New Titles

 * The new Commander title track is available to players who compete in Hero Battles. Players receive one point toward the Commander title for each victory.
 * The new Gamer title track is available to players who compete in Snowball Fights and other holiday-themed games. During the Wintersday Festival, players who compete in Snowball Fights receive 10 points for each victory. Other holiday event games will be scored differently.

Other Updates

 * The Guild Wars Official In-Game Store now sells the 2006 edition of Guild Wars (original Prophecies campaign), which has been available at major retailers since its release in early 2006, and is called Game of the Year Edition in America and One Million Edition in Europe. The 2006 edition contains seven bonus items that were not part of the original Guild Wars box. Players who purchased Guild Wars (original Prophecies campaign) through the in-game store since its launch there in July will receive a free upgrade, and other players who own the original Guild Wars can choose to upgrade through the in-game store for a small fee.
 * Demo accounts can no longer trade or drop items, to reduce the use of demo accounts by commercial gold/item farmers.
 * Characters that come to Elona from a foreign land now get Heroes that start at level 15, and can play two new quests, Securing Champion's Dawn and A Land of Heroes.
 * Six additional quests have been added to Istan, and many existing quests have been updated.
 * Additional treasure chests are available throughout the continent of Elona.
 * The PvP Equipment Builder now allows the player to specify the dye color of weapons and off-hand items.
 * The Skill Bar in the Skills and Attributes panel now shows tooltips even if tooltips have been disabled for the primary Skill Bar.
 * The Quest Log panel now allocates more space to the list of quests when the list grows large.
 * Heroes' Ascent now requires parties with a minimum of four human players.

Balance Changes

 * Lowered the attribute requirement on Shiro's Blades and Shiro's Sword from 15 to 13.
 * Lowered the armor on Peppermint and Gingerbread Shields from 10 to 8 to match the highest inherent armor found on random loot.
 * Lowered the armor on Hassin's Shell from 10 to 8, but added a Health bonus of 20.
 * Improved the skill selection of Herta, the Earth Henchman.
 * Reduced the Health of the Anguished Spirits present in the battle against Mallyx the Unyielding.

Bug Fixes

 * Fixed a skill exploit that allowed players to walk through closed gates.
 * Fixed a bug with hunt buffs that prevented them from giving double experience.
 * Fixed a bug that caused some Necromancer minions in Nightfall to behave sluggishly.
 * Fixed a bug that prevented the following bosses from dropping their unique items: Acolyte of Balthazar, Acolyte of Dwayna, Acolyte of Grenth, Acolyte of Lyssa, and Acolyte of Melandru.
 * Fixed the Hero Control panel so that if you disable a skill and then move it to a different position on the skill bar, the Hero will still remember not to use that skill in its new position.