Flux

“

Last Halloween, the Lunatic Court followed through on an ill-conceived plot to free Mad King Thorn from his realm. Seals were broken, bizarre acts were performed, terrible jokes were deciphered, and it seemed at the time that all the fuss had been for nothing.

But since then, instability has begun to seep into the world, gathering in the places where the influence of the Mists is felt most strongly. The instability has resulted in fluctuations – changes that alter the experience of playing in our competitive venues. Fluctuations seem to come and go, bringing new effects with them every month.

The introduction of Flux is a compelling tool to help us keep our competitive formats dynamic, while allowing us to further balance the game. Because slight shifts in the meta are expected from Flux to Flux, it allows us to better target overly problematic builds. If powerful builds can thrive in environments that are not suited to them, we can review the skills to bring them more into line. We want to encourage gameplay where the team that wins does so because they've played more skillfully.

The Flux system is the precursor to several improvements that will be coming in a PvP-specific update. We'll be taking a look at improving some titles, the incentives to play, the rewards for various formats, and more. Look forward to it!

— Developer updates

Flux is an environment effect present in Player versus Player areas that changes on the first of every month (UTC). Flux only affects player characters and does not affect NPCs.

Flux icon

Effects that have been implemented

Flux	Month in effect
Jack of All Trades	2012-8 August 2012
Chain Combo	2012-7 July 2012
Bounty Hunter	2012-6 June 2012
Inverse Ninja Law	2012-5 May 2012
Hive Mind	2012-4 April 2012
Meek Shall Inherit	2012-3 March 2012
Keep Yourself Alive	2012-2 February 2012
Xinrae's Revenge	2012-1 January 2012
Courier's Haste	2011-12 December 2011
Hidden Talent	2011-11 November 2011
Minion Apocalypse	2011-10 October 2011
Massive Damage	2011-09 September 2011
Quickening Terrain	2011-08 August 2011
There Can Be Only One	2011-07 July 2011
Unyielding Spirit	2011-06 June 2011
Lone Wolf	2011-05 May 2011

Icon	Name	Description
	All In	If all the skills on your bar use the same attribute, you gain +3 Health regeneration and +100 maximum Health, and your skills cost 25% less Energy.
	Amateur Hour	Skills from your secondary profession deal 30% more damage to foes with that primary profession.
	Bounty Hunter	If you deliver the killing blow to a player, you gain their accumulated morale, and your Health and Energy are fully restored.
	Chain Combo	Whenever you use a skill with a different attribute than the last skill you used, you gain a 5% stacking damage bonus (maximum 30%). This bonus resets if you use a skill with the same attribute as the last skill you used.
	Courier's Haste	You move 25% faster while carrying a bundle item. While carrying the bundle, hexes and conditions on you expire 33% faster.
	Hidden Talent	You have a +2 bonus to all of the secondary attributes of your secondary profession.
	Hive Mind	For each other party member in the area, your skills recharge 5% faster.
	Inverse Ninja Law	For each allied player in earshot, you deal 5% less damage. For each opposing player in earshot, you deal 5% more.
	Jack of All Trades	If you have 4 attribute lines each with 10 ranks or more, not counting buffs, your skills deal 15% additional damage, activate 25% faster, and cost 20% less energy to activate.
	Keep Yourself Alive	If you heal yourself, you receive 50% more healing. If you heal an ally, they receive 20% less healing.
	Like a Boss	If no one is the boss, killing another player makes you the boss, giving you -20 armor but the following bonuses: +33% attack speed, +33% movement speed, -33% skill activation time, +3 Health regeneration, and +1 Energy regeneration. If you die, you stop being the boss. If another player killed you, they become the boss.
	Lone Wolf	If you are not within Earshot of an ally, you deal 10% additional damage, and take 10% more damage.
	Massive Damage	Your armor is reduced 20, [sic] but your maximum Health is increased by 200. Whenever you are healed, you are healed for 25% more.
	Meek Shall Inherit	If you do not have an elite skill equipped, you have +2 to all attributes, +2 Health regeneration, and +1 Energy regeneration.
	Minion Apocalypse	Any time a player dies, all nearby creatures are struck for 50 damage and a level 20 masterless bone horror is spawned.
	Odran's Razor	"The natural state of a phenomenon is often the most revealing." — Lord Odran (PvP combat is unmodified.)
	Parting Gift	If you die, you drop a bundle on the ground that grants bonuses to whoever picks it up.
	Quickening Terrain	Your base movement speed is increased by 15%. If your speed increases beyond this, then you lose 10 health per second while moving.
	The Boss	You're the boss! You have -20 armor, +33% attack speed, +33% movement speed, -33% skill activation time, +3 Health regeneration, and +1 Energy regeneration. You lose this buff when you die.
	There Can Be Only One	Your attacks deal an additional 30% damage to foes of the same primary profession. Killing a foe of the same primary profession restores all your Health and Energy, and you get a 5% morale boost.
	Unyielding Spirit	For every 2 points of Death Penalty you have, you deal 1% more damage.
	Xinrae's Revenge	Whenever you successfully activate a skill, it is disabled for 3 seconds for all members of your party and the opposing party who are in the area and also have it on their skill bars.

Trivia

• Flux was introduced on the April 28, 2011 update and stopped affecting the Ascalon Academy battles on October 6, 2011.
• There was no Flux in effect for the first two days of January 2012.
• For the first two days of May 2012, the Flux's name and description displayed as "..." and did not "behave as intended". The reversed effects of Inverse Ninja Law was observed beginning on May 1, until the May 3 update introduced Inverse Ninja Law.
• Blood Pact and Minion Explosion are unimplemented Flux effects that can be found in the Gw.dat.

External links

• Evaluation of the impact of Flux on the meta at PvX