Game updates/20050629

New Guild Wars PvP Reward System:
This week we're implementing a new reward system for Player vs. Player (PvP) combat. When playing in cooperative missions and in explorable areas, you will continue to earn normal experience. But when fighting in Arenas, Tournament, and Guild Battles, you will gain faction with Balthazar, the god of war, instead. Faction is shared by all characters on your account and is awarded for kills and for winning battles. Faction can be redeemed to unlock runes, weapon upgrades, and skills, which then become accessible by any new PvP Only Characters for your account.

The rate at which you gain faction will vary depending on your success and the type of PvP. The high-level arenas provide faction faster than the low level arenas. The Tournament provides faction faster than the Arenas. Because Guild Battles require the greatest amount of organization, they provide the greatest rewards. Faction rewards for guild battle victories increase with higher guild rating. Nevertheless, for all types of PvP, even if you are not victorious, you will gain faction for every enemy your team kills. (Please note: To prevent organized faction-farming, only automatic-match, rated guild battles provide faction. Also, characters who have been in a guild for less than two weeks do not gain full faction for a victory.)

Faction Rewards

 * Unique Kill: 1 in low level arenas, 2 in all other PvP types
 * Repeat Kill: 0
 * Arena Victory:' 6 in Team/Competition Arenas, 2 in Shiverpeak Arena, 1 in Ascalon Arena
 * Tournament Victory: 20 for the first, 40 for all subsequent
 * Guild Victory: 200 to 500, depending on your guild rating

To redeem faction, take a roleplaying character to a Priest of Balthazar. There are Priests, each with a different list of skills to unlock, in Ascalon City, Yak's Bend, Lion's Arch, the Henge of Denravi, Amnoon Oasis, and Droknar's Forge.

Rune Unlocking

 * 1000 (Minor)
 * 1500 (Major)
 * 2000 (Superior)

Weapon Upgrade Unlocking

 * 1000 (Minimum Power)
 * 1000 (Maximum Power)

Skill Unlocking

 * 1000 (Basic skills)
 * 3000 (Elite skills)

Runes must be unlocked in order, from minor to major to superior. For weapon upgrades with variable statistics, you must unlock one lower power upgrade before unlocking the maximum power upgrade. For example, the +1 Vampiric Sword Hilt must be unlocked before you can choose a +3 Vampiric Sword Hilt as a reward. Thus, runes and weapon upgrades unlocked through cooperative play will allow you to purchase more powerful items sooner.

Other PvP changes:

 * In PvP matches, each player in the party now shares Faction Point rewards for each kill, regardless of whether the player was alive or involved in the combat.
 * The minimum party size for the Tournament has been increased from 5 to 8.
 * The survival mission that introduces the Tournament has been significantly revamped. It now consists of a single battle against the "Unworthy Dead." The more quickly your team destroys the enemy, the earlier it can advance to the next levels of the tournament. Your team's initial morale boost is determined by how quickly you defeat the enemy. There is no Faction Point reward in this mission.
 * If a randomly-formed party playing in the Competitive Arenas manages to win 10 times in a row, it will start being matched against players from the Team Arenas.

Other changes this week:

 * Added new quests "Caravan In Trouble" in Eastern Frontier, "Family Reunion" in Sardelac Sanitarium, "Khobay The Betrayer" and "Slaves of Menzies" in Fissure of Woe.
 * Added new scroll "Slayer's Insight," which gives 250% XP from combat. This effect ends if your party fails to kill a boss monster within 5 minutes.
 * Improved the user interface for collectors. Collectors now accurately and completely describe items that can be obtained from them.
 * Added a way for multiple players to more easily synchronize their emote animations. By following your emote command with a space and an asterisk, you indicate your emote should begin on the next 10 second pulse. For example, typing “/dance *” causes your character to wait until the next 10 second pulse to begin dancing. If several players do this before the next pulse, they will all begin dancing simultaneously.
 * Added new artwork for the Elementalist's ascended Aeromancer Armor, the Necromancer's ascended Necrotic Armor, and the Mesmer's ascended Enchanter Armor.
 * Added new artwork for Onyx, Obsidian, Parchment, Vellum, Vials of Ink, Spiritwood Planks, Spiderwebs, Half-Eaten Masses, and Mursaat Tokens.
 * Added a Guide NPC to safely lead new characters through The Breach into Piken Square.
 * Fixed Necrotic Traversal and Consume Corpse so that they are able to consume player corpses correctly in PvP.
 * Removed experience for killing animated minions.
 * Improved pets so that they have the equivalent of armor infusions.
 * Improved desert teleporters so that they now teleport nearby henchmen when a player teleports, and so that henchmen will not set off teleporters on their own.
 * Updated attribute quest "Forgotten Wisdom." It is now given as a quest after you complete "Forgotten One."
 * If a GM flags your character name as a violation of the Rules of Conduct, you will now be given the option of renaming that character.
 * Added an error message when two parties from the same guild attempt to issue a challenge simultaneously.
 * Fixed minor issues with the following quests: "Althea's Ashes," "Ascalon Settlement," "Caravan Trouble," "A Cure for Ralena," "The Last Hog," Fissure of Woe quests, "A Gift for Althea," "Defend the Crafter," "Final Blow," "Shiverpeak Stragglers," "Oswalt's Epitaph," "Hungry Devourer," "Price of Steel," "The Warrior's Path," and "Wisdom of the Druids."
 * Fixed a blocked teleporter in Prophet's Path.
 * Fixed the appearance of the PvP character creation doll so that it does not appear to hold both a two-handed weapon and a shield at the same time.
 * Fixed the appearance of the NPC Alari Doubleblade.
 * Updated the placement of items in: Salt Flats, Talus Chute, Silverwood, Witman's Folly, Perdition Rock, Reed Bog and Thirsty River.
 * Updated several vague or confusing skill descriptions.
 * Updated European and Korean translations.
 * Fixed miscellaneous rare crash bugs.