Game updates:2005

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Update - Friday December 23, 2005[edit]

Update - Thursday December 22, 2005[edit]

Improvements to Observer Mode[edit]

  • You can now click on a player's name in the heads-up display to center the camera on that player.
  • The Map window now automatically repositions and centers itself on the selected character if that character moves outside of the visible area.
  • The list of observable games has better map thumbnails and sorts games by start time.

Update - Wednesday December 21, 2005[edit]

Season's Greetings[edit]

(Please sing along to the tune of The Twelve Days of Christmas.)

On the twelfth moon of Wintersday ArenaNet gave to me...
Blessings from Dwayna
Festive decorations
One mighty snowman
Weapons made of candy
Gifts that might kill you
Snow-covered henchmen
New winter monsters
Some really long quests
Lots of drinking Dwarves
Gingerbread shields
Curses from Grenth
And a new way to watch PvP!

That's right, Observer Mode!

Now you can watch as top-ranked guilds battle it out in the Tombs and in rated guild matches. The upcoming Guild Wars Regional Playoffs and World Championship will also be available for viewing as they happen. The details are as follows:

  • Whenever a top 100 ranked guild plays in the Tombs or in a rated guild challenge, the game is automatically available for everyone to see. Other "special event" games will also be available for viewing.
  • Everything that observers see is delayed 15 minutes from the original game, to prevent cheating. Games become available for observation approximately 15 minutes after they start, and remain available until approximately 15 minutes after they finish.
  • While you are watching a game, you can chat with your fellow observers. There is no limit to the number of people who can simultaneously observe a game, but for purposes of chatting, observers are randomly assigned into groups of about 100 people.
  • In Observer Mode, the Map Area window displays the positions of all characters on the map. You can click on any character to jump there. Alternately, you can use Auto Camera mode to let the game pick the most interesting targets for you.
  • A new heads-up display automatically shows you the Health of teams that you are currently watching. If you prefer to use the Party window to view party status details and to select players to watch, you can easily switch the Party window back and forth between teams, or you may choose to view multiple Party windows and watch different teams in each window.

Update - Tuesday December 20, 2005[edit]

  • Fixed a battle axe that was incorrectly allowing two axe grips to be attached.
  • Fixed Incendiary Bonds so that it deals the correct amount of damage as shown in the skill description. Previously the amount of damage shown in the skill description updated according to the player's attribute level, but the actual damage dealt did not.

Update - Thursday December 15, 2005[edit]

  • Added new artwork for the Necromancer's ascended Tormentor's Armor.
  • Improved automatic Guild Matchmaking to better match guilds with those of nearby rating levels.
  • Fixed sacrifice skills so that a player who sacrifices all of his remaining Health will die. Previously a bug allowed the player to stay alive if he had positive Health regeneration when he sacrificed all of his remaining Health.
  • Fixed Whirling Defense so that it deals the correct amount of damage as shown in the skill description. Previously the amount of damage shown in the skill description updated according to the player's attribute level, but the actual damage dealt did not.
  • Fixed Spiteful Spirit so that it correctly triggers on any skill use, as specified in the skill description. Previously it was failing to trigger on Stances, Shouts, and other instant-cast skills.
  • Fixed Scourge Sacrifice so that it affects the target foe and his adjacent foes, as specified in the skill description. Previously it was incorrectly affecting foes adjacent to the caster.
  • Fixed the text displayed when you hold down the Ctrl key to announce the use of Cyclone Axe or Crude Swing.
  • Added a new player status choice in the Friends window, "Do Not Disturb," which blocks all incoming whispers.
  • Added mouse wheel zooming to the Map Overlay screen.
  • Added the ability to review the previous game's PvP Score Chart while in an outpost.
  • Improved the Chat window so that it remembers its previous state when switching maps.
  • Fixed the Skill Monitor's mouse tooltips so that they don't disappear while the skill is executing.
  • Improved the Skill Bar so that it displays warnings of skills that are not compatible with your currently equipped weapon.
  • Added an error message that is displayed when an attack skill is used on an invalid target.
  • Changed the Customize Control dialog so that it ignores problematic keys such as Scroll Lock.
  • Improved the organization of the Start Menu.
  • Relocated the Customize Layout function to the Options window (F11).
  • Added support for players with non-Korean accounts typing Hangul in the International Districts.
  • Updated translations.

Update - Thursday December 01, 2005[edit]

  • Fixed display of Japanese and Traditional Chinese announcements on the login screen.



Update - Tuesday November 22, 2005[edit]

  • Added support for the upcoming Japanese Closed Beta Test.

Update - Thursday November 17, 2005[edit]

  • Added new Rank 12 Fame emote.
  • Increased the range of the Claim Resource skill, which is used by the Ghostly Hero as well as Mages and Priests.
  • Fixed an exploit with the Ghostly Hero that allowed players to lead him off the altar.
  • Fixed an exploit with Quick Shot that allowed players to re-use the skill more rapidly than should be possible.
  • Fixed the lava bridge in The Crag arena so that both teams can start at the same time.
  • Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented Henchmen from following the player party at the start of a PvP game.

Update - Friday November 11, 2005[edit]

  • Improved and corrected problems with Monster and Henchmen AI.
  • Fixed Dark Bond so that it no longer diverts damage to dead minions.
  • Fixed a bug that could return players to the login screen when they attempted to create a new character.
  • Changed the portal from the Tombs of the Primeval Kings so that it no longer divides parties.

Update - Thursday November 10, 2005[edit]

  • Improved the character name and guild name entry dialogs.
  • Improved AI so that henchmen and monsters can now detect and flee from area-effect damage spells.
  • Improved AI so that monsters will eventually stop chasing fleeing players.
  • Slightly reduced the power of the Doppelganger creature.
  • Fixed a bug which could cause certain animated ground cover to not be animated.
  • Fixed a bug which could cause two copies of Gwen to appear in pre-searing Ascalon.
  • Fixed a bug with certain enemies not attacking players in the Gates of Kryta mission.
  • Fixed an exploit which could allow players to create PvP characters with invalid armor. Thanks to Derek Ravenclaw for reporting this.

Update - Monday November 7, 2005[edit]

  • Fixed a bug that was preventing some players in PC Cafes from playing Guild Wars.

Update - Friday November 4, 2005[edit]

As the Mad King's laughter fades
And calm settles over Lion's Arch
While peace comes to Droknar's Forge
And the Primeval Kings return to slumber
We bid farewell to Halloween
Until the coming year.

Update - Wednesday November 2, 2005[edit]

  • Fixed a server crash bug.



Update - Thursday October 27, 2005[edit]

When the moon rises high over Lion's Arch
And the wind moans through the most hollow of eves
Shutter your homes this holiday
Steer clear of the shadows
For on this night, they say,
A long-addled spirit returns from the grave
Pumpkin upon his head,
A wicked deed within his heart
A pint of witch's brew for all those who misbehave
Heed these words, all ye who dare enter here:
Bind your souls to the mortal realm
For the regent of madness draws near

Additional Changes[edit]

Update - Thursday October 20, 2005[edit]

  • Added information to skill tip windows, including Energy, casting time, recharge time, upkeep cost, and Adrenaline.
  • Added support for the European Special Edition of Guild Wars.
  • Removed color from the names of unlocked items in the Priest of Balthazar interface.
  • Improved the skill inventory so that it remembers the previously selected skill and sorting method.
  • Improved random arena map selection so that the same map is almost never played twice in a row.
  • Fixed a bug that allowed players to trade an item with a quantity of zero.
  • Fixed a bug that was causing Tiger's Fury to disable pet attack skills.
  • Fixed a bug that was causing more than one action to occur when pressing a single key.
  • Fixed a bug that was causing the gold amount to appear in red when selling items to a trader.
  • Fixed a bug that was causing some newly created PvP characters to appear without items.
  • Fixed a bug that was causing some players to lose items when taking them from the Unclaimed Items window.
  • Fixed a bug that was causing some players to lose their Menu button.
  • Fixed a bug that was preventing skill use when the skill bar is hidden by the Customize Interface window.



Update - Friday September 30, 2005[edit]

Update - Thursday September 29, 2005[edit]

Balance Changes[edit]

  • Capped attack speed adjustments at 133% of normal attack speed, down from 150% previously.
  • Changed Enchantments so that if you cast an Enchantment with an upkeep cost and you already have -10 Energy regeneration, you will now lose the last maintained Enchantment you cast.

Mesmer[edit]

  • Epidemic Epidemic: decreased casting time to .25 seconds.
  • Guilt Guilt: decreased Energy cost to 5.
  • Hex Breaker Hex Breaker: increased recharge time to 15 seconds.
  • Soothing Images Soothing Images: increased Energy cost to 15.
  • Energy Drain Energy Drain: Skill reworked. New description: “Target foe loses 4..10 Energy. You then gain 2 Energy for each point of Energy target foe lost.” Also increased recharge to 30 seconds.
  • Energy Tap Energy Tap: Skill reworked. New description: “Target foe loses 4..7 Energy. You then gain 2 Energy for each point of Energy target foe lost.” Also increased recharge to 30 seconds.
  • Diversion Diversion: increased casting time to 3; Increased recharge to 10 seconds.
  • Ether Feast Ether Feast: decreased Energy stolen to 3, increased Health gained per Energy stolen to 17..47
  • Signet of Weariness Signet of Weariness: increased casting time to 2.
  • Fragility Fragility: decreased Energy cost to 10; decreased recharge to 5; decreased damage to 5..20.
  • Mantra of Persistence Mantra of Persistence: decreased duration to 30 seconds. Decreased recharge to 15 seconds.

Necromancer[edit]

Elementalist[edit]

Monk[edit]

Warrior[edit]

Ranger[edit]

Changes to Ladders and Matchmaking[edit]

  • Removed option for rated challenges with selected (named) opponent.
  • Removed the boost that previously caused guild ratings to rise and fall more quickly during the first 30 rated games played.
  • Updated guild matchmaking so that the system attempts to match guilds that are close in rankings for a longer period of time before falling back to matching two guilds farther apart in ranking.

Skill Monitor Improvements[edit]

  • The skill monitor now displays skill warm-up using a progress bar.
  • The skill monitor can now display two skills being cast simultaneously, such as a Stance or Shout plus a normal skill.
  • The skill monitor now uses animations to indicate when a skill completes successfully or is interrupted during casting.
  • When you select a new character, you now immediately see which skill that character is currently casting.
  • You can now control+click on the skill monitor to announce the skill being cast to your team.

Display Improvements[edit]

  • When you cast a Hex or Enchantment that stays on a character and deals damage or performs healing, you can now see floating numbers showing the result of that damage or healing.
  • When your pet damages another character, you can now see floating numbers showing that damage.
  • When you cast a spell that boosts or drains the Energy of another character, you can now see floating numbers showing the Energy change.
  • The "Drop Item" button and the skill warm-up progress bar are now customizable UI elements.
  • The regional groups in the Quest Log will now remember their open/closed state between viewings of the Quest Log.
  • The "(Completed)" tag in the Quest Log now displays correctly when viewed in French, Italian, German, and Spanish.

Miscellaneous[edit]

  • You can now remove your pet's name by typing "/petname" and not providing a name.
  • Shift now disables click-to-walk, making it easier to select targets without accidentally running.
  • Clicking on the ground while auto-running now works properly.
  • Removed old-style chests from Riverside Province and Gates of Kryta.
  • Healer henchmen now prioritize healing party allies whose death would result in mission failure.
  • Fixed a problem with the "Wrenches in the Gears" quest in Sorrow's Furnace where the Spirit Keepers could be killed prior to the player arriving.
  • Fixed problems with the "Wisdom of the Druids" and "Trouble in the Woods" quests.
  • Fixed pathing problems in Grenth's Footprint, D'Alessio Arena, and the Warrior's Isle guild hall.
  • Fixed display glitch in Score window that appeared when first opening the window.
  • Fixed orphaned scrollbar buttons that would appear on the login screen while changing languages.
  • Updated skill descriptions to more accurately describe their effects.
  • Expanded in-game music.
  • Fixed miscellaneous rare crash bugs.

Update - Friday September 23, 2005[edit]

  • Fixed problem with access control for beta test languages.

Update - Thursday September 22, 2005[edit]

  • Fixed problems with random positioning of locked chests.
  • Improved distribution of rare items in locked chests so that most players will get more rare items.

Update - Tuesday September 20, 2005[edit]

Today we added preliminary support for new languages that will soon be offered globally to Guild Wars players. The addition of these new languages foretells the opening of Guild Wars in additional regions of the world. We are excited about the opportunity to offer Guild Wars to players from new areas, and we look forward to welcoming those players into the game. The expansion of Guild Wars into these new regions will further demonstrate the global nature of the game, and will add even greater significance to the Guild Wars World Championship, details of which will be provided in the future.

In the short term, the additional languages are in limited testing, and they will not be available for selection by players. Eventually, these languages will be offered as a choice to all players via the language selection interface option.

Update - Friday September 16, 2005[edit]

  • Fixed monster item drops so that in the future Uncommon (purple) and Rare (gold) items will always have at least one bonus attribute.
  • Fixed bugs in the following quests: "Defend Denravi," "Last Day Dawns," and "Defend North Kryta Province."
  • Fixed a bug introduced in the Sorrow's Furnace Update that was causing unequal loot distribution among party members.
  • Fixed a bug that was placing some players in incorrect districts.
  • Fixed several rare crash bugs.

Update - Friday September 9, 2005[edit]

Update - Wednesday September 7, 2005[edit]

Sorrow's Furnace[edit]

  • Sorrow's Furnace consists of two new, large and challenging explorable regions located deep in the Shiverpeak Mountains between Spearhead Peak and Snake Dance. These areas contain the following:
    • Seventeen new quests, most of them fully repeatable and offering high XP rewards.
    • Four new cinematics.
    • A variety of new monsters, including new Stone Summit Dwarves that are the strongest in the Shiverpeak Mountains, and entirely new types of creatures that are being introduced to the game for the first time.
    • Boss monsters named after the contest winning entries.
  • Boss monsters in the new Sorrow's Furnace regions drop newly-introduced green "unique" weapons that are named after the boss.

Titan Quests[edit]

  • The Titan Quests are a series of five new veteran-level quests, starting in Droknar's Forge and spanning the continent, that continue the storyline for those who have already vanquished the foes of Hell's Precipice. These quests feature some of the most challenging and rewarding content in the game, with ten new types of monsters, including several never-before-seen creature types.

Chests and Loot[edit]

  • The landscape of Tyria is now dotted with new, randomly positioned locked chests, which are guaranteed to contain uncommon or better items. These chests largely replace the old system of unlocked chests with predictable positions and common loot.
  • Whenever your party finds a new, locked chest, multiple party members can each use their own keys to unlock the chest and get their own loot.
  • Monsters randomly drop chest keys, and you can also buy chest keys from Merchants.
  • Added Superior Salvage Kits and Superior Identification Kits, which are the same as Expert Salvage Kits and Identification Kits except with 100 charges instead of 25.
  • Improved the quality of most Crafter and Collector Weapons.
  • Increased the drop rate of uncommon and rare items on large maps.
  • Increased the drop rate of all insight scrolls.
  • Added three new insight scrolls: Adventurer's Insight, Hunter's Insight, and Rampager's Insight. These scrolls provide a level of accelerated XP gain for the entire party but are much more common and less expensive than the existing rare insight scrolls.
  • Collectors in Perdition Rock and Sorrow's Furnace now give XP enhancing scrolls in return for collectable monster drops. Conversely, there are no longer crafters for these scrolls.
  • Various low-level quests now give additional gold as a reward for completion.

Skill Acquisition[edit]

  • The maximum amount of XP required to gain additional skill points beyond level 20 has been lowered from 20,000 to 15,000. This change retroactively benefits existing characters.
  • The gold cost of learning new skills now follows a price curve similar to armor, rising in cost more quickly than before but capping out at 1 platinum piece after learning 20 skills.
  • Skill trainers in towns now offer a wider selection of skills, and there is a newly introduced skill trainer in Ember Light Camp who sells every non-elite skill in the game.

Faction Gain[edit]

  • The accelerated Faction rewards that were temporarily available during the PvP Extreme Weekend have now become a permanent part of the game.
  • The Priests of Balthazar are now located in PvP map outposts instead of towns, so you don't need to have or use a high-level role-playing character to spend your faction points.

Attribute Points[edit]

  • The concept of Attribute Refund Points has been removed from the game. You can now refund and reassign your attribute points as much as you like, whenever you are in a town or outpost.

Guilds and Guild Combat[edit]

  • For 100 gold you can now invite someone to be a guest of your guild. As a guest, he can enter your Guild Hall any number of times over the next 8 hours, join your team and participate with you in Guild Combat. If he has been a member of his own guild for long enough to receive full Faction for guild battles, then he will also receive full Faction for playing with you as a guest of your guild. (However, to engage in Guild Combat, at least half the members of your team must be members of your guild.)
  • Inviting a new member into your guild now costs 100 gold.
  • The opposing guild’s rating and rank are now displayed when you receive a challenge and at the beginning of Guild combat.
  • Balance changes to Guild combat maps make the Guild Lord less susceptible to ganking:
    • Newly introduced banner messages warn you if your base is breached or if your Guild Lord is attacked.
    • The NPC Arcanists have been replaced with Bodyguards who not only cast spells on the enemy team but also heal your Guild Lord. They also now appear in your list of Party Allies.
    • The NPC Archers now use Pin Down on the invading enemy team.
    • New NPC Archers have been added to the Druid's, Nomad's, and Frozen Isle guild halls.
    • The Guild Lord himself, and various defending NPCs, are sturdier than they were before.
  • The "Victory or Death!" cry now comes at 30 minutes instead of 45 minutes.
  • In Guild Combat, your guild cape is now colored red or blue to indicate your team color.

Other PvP Changes[edit]

  • Arenas can now match teams with opponents from around the world.
  • Prebuilt PvP characters now include Resurrection Signet.
  • Default PvP character weapon choices are now more appropriate.
  • Pets now stay closer to their owners.
  • Players no longer receive XP or Faction from the deaths of enemies that their party did not kill.

Skill Changes[edit]

  • Updated various skill descriptions to more accurately describe the skill effects.
  • Fixed Fevered Dreams so that it doesn't spread conditions to allies.
  • Fixed "I Will Avenge You!" so that it doesn't count dead spirits.
  • Fixed Physical Resistance so that it no longer lowers your elemental armor by more than it should.
  • Fixed Revive Animal so that the health of the newly revived animal depends on the attribute level of the caster.
  • Fixed Symbiotic Bond so that it correctly redirects half of the damage from the pet to the master, and changed it from a stance to a shout.
  • Fixed Well of the Profane so that targets in the area of effect cannot be the target of new enchantments, rather than not being able to cast new enchantments.
  • Fixed Divine Boon, Guilt, Mark of Subversion, Peace and Harmony, Shame, and Zealot's Fire so that when they say "when casting a skill/spell that targets an ally/enemy," they only trigger on targeted skills or spells, not on untargeted ones.
  • Fixed the Resurrection Orb so that it doesn’t resurrect dead spirits.

Monster Balance Changes[edit]

User Interface[edit]

  • The Quest Log now groups quests by importance and region.
  • The green Quest Arrows now guide you towards the next step of the quest even if it is more than one map away.
  • Traders now display a "last paid" price on the sell tab.
  • Item upgrades on Priests of Balthazar are now color-coded to show the enhancement level.
  • The Priests of Balthazar now display information about previously unlocked items.
  • The names of Major Runes now appear purple (uncommon), and those of Superior Runes are now displayed in gold (rare).
  • Faction bonuses for Flawless Victories and Winning Streaks are now displayed with different text in your chat window.
  • The Skill List now sorts skills by attribute in its default setting.
  • The trade window more clearly distinguishes between platinum and gold offered, and displays a warning if the other player offers customized items.
  • A button on the Guild tab provides easy travel to your Guild Hall.
  • After leveling up, a new on-screen button provides a visual reminder to spend your new attribute points.
  • Added new tooltips to many user interface elements.
  • Updated European and Korean translations.

Bug Fixes[edit]

Update Forecast - Friday September 2, 2005[edit]

As you have noted in recent weeks, the Guild Wars economy has become much more stable. With the release of the Sorrow's Furnace Update on September 7, we will be making a number of important economic and balance changes. Many things will become significantly easier to acquire, including skill points and skills. But the gold cost of learning a skill from a trainer will be somewhat more expensive for most players.

Due to this change, we would like to suggest that players who have unspent Skill Points may wish to invest them prior to the update on September 7th. You are not required to do so, and skills will of course still be available to you after the update is live, but you will find the costs will be higher at that time. We will post full update notes for next Wednesday's changes when we present the Sorrow's Furnace Update.



Update - Tuesday, August 30, 2005[edit]

  • Fixed rare server crash bug.

Update - Thursday, August 25, 2005[edit]

Elementalist[edit]

  • Meteor Meteor: Lowered Energy cost to 5
  • Fireball Fireball: Lowered Energy cost to 10 and recharge time to 7 seconds
  • Chain Lightning Chain Lightning: Increased cast time to 3 seconds; decreased damage to 10..85; changed recharge to 10 seconds; lowered maximum distance between targets
  • Glyph of Sacrifice Glyph of Sacrifice: Reduced recharge penalty on next spell to 90 seconds
  • Mark of Rodgort Mark of Rodgort: Reduced cast time to 1 second; increased duration of burning effect to 1..4 seconds

Mesmer[edit]

Monk[edit]

Necromancer[edit]

Ranger[edit]

  • Pets: Increased pets' run speed by 20%; increased pets' armor to 80 at level 20
  • Crippling Shot Crippling Shot: Decreased recharge time to 1 second; decreased duration of Cripple to 8 seconds
  • Distracting Shot Distracting Shot: Decreased attack time from .75 to .5 seconds
  • Punishing Shot Punishing Shot: Decreased attack time from .75 to .5 seconds; increased recharge time to 8 seconds
  • Concussion Shot Concussion Shot: Decreased attack time from .75 to .5 seconds
  • Nature's Renewal Nature's Renewal: Modified to no longer remove all Hexes and Enchantments when cast; now doubles the Energy degeneration for maintained Enchantments
  • Fertile Season Fertile Season: Reduced duration to 15..45 seconds
  • Quickening Zephyr Quickening Zephyr: Increased Energy cost to 25; reduced duration to 15..45 seconds
  • All Spirits: The effects of Spirits no longer work on other Spirits (example: Fertile Season no longer adds Health and armor to other Spirits); also, when a Spirit is cast, it kills all other allied Spirits of the same type within its range

Warrior[edit]

All Skills[edit]

  • Skills with a recharge time can no longer be reduced to 0 (example: if a spell has 1 second recharge time and you have both Quickening Zephyr and Serpent's Quickness active, the length of the recharge time will not drop below 1 second)

Note: All skill ranges are for Attribute Level 0 through 15. For example, "Fertile Season: reduced duration to 15..45 seconds" would indicate that with 0 Attribute points, the duration would be 15 seconds, and with 15 Attribute points, the duration would be 45 seconds.

Other Changes[edit]

  • Improved Guild-versus-Guild matchmaking so that high-rated guilds are matched more quickly.
  • Fixed spawns near closed doors in Underworld.
  • Added two Resurrection Shrines in The Crag and improved respawning location so that the party respawns together at the nearest friendly shrine.
  • Decreased match duration for The Crag to three minutes.
  • Killing a pet in PvP no longer rewards Faction.

PvP Extreme Weekend Changes[edit]

The following faction rewards will be in effect during the Guild Wars PvP Extreme Weekend from 12:01 AM PDT on August 26th until 11:59 PM PDT on August 28th.

Arenas[edit]

  • Unique Kill: 20 in Team/Competition, 10 in Shiverpeaks, 5 in Ascalon
  • Victory: 25 in Team/Competition, 10 in Shiverpeaks, 5 in Ascalon
  • Bonus for Five Consecutive Victories: 25 in Team/Competition, 10 in Shiverpeaks, 5 in Ascalon
  • Bonus for Flawless Victory: 25 in Team/Competition, 10 in Shiverpeaks, 5 in Ascalon

Tournament[edit]

  • Unique Kill: 20
  • Victory: 100 in early missions, 200 in later missions, 400 in Hall of Heroes
  • Bonus for Flawless Victory: 100 (same across all missions)

Guild Battles[edit]

  • Unique Kill: 20
  • Victory: 500 - 2000 depending on your guild rating (500 at rating 1000, 2000 at rating 1600)
  • Bonus for Flawless Victory: 100 - 400 depending on your guild rating (100 at rating 1000, 400 at rating 1600)

Update: Monday, August 15, 2005[edit]

  • Fixed rare crash bug with German text at the largest UI size.

Update - Thursday, August 11, 2005[edit]

  • Improved traders so that they maintain more stable prices and closer spreads between buy and sell prices.
  • Improved traders so that traders from all regions (America, Europe, and Korea) now buy and sell from the same stock and charge the same prices.

Update - Wednesday, August 10, 2005[edit]

  • Fixed a bug that was making some desert teleporters unresponsive.
  • Corrected flaw in Price of Failure skill that was causing missile attacks to miss their targets more than 25% of the time.
  • Corrected Hundred Blades skill to deal damage accurately; previously it was dealing only 75% of its intended damage.
  • Corrected Mind Freeze skill so that damage is dealt regardless of whether the caster's energy is lower than the target's energy.
  • Corrected flaw in Mist Form skill that was preventing it from reducing damage from elemental damage attacks.
  • Corrected "The Price of Steel" quest so that so that White Mantle always drop Ruined Armor for players on the quest.
  • Fixed a bug that was preventing the skill-swap dialog from disappearing after talking to Captain Greywind.
  • Fixed several rare client and server crash bugs.

Update - Friday, August 5, 2005[edit]

  • Fixed infrequent server crash issues.
  • Fixed whisper and Friend's List problems that were occurring immediately following new builds.

State of the Game - Thursday, August 4, 2005[edit]

Because it has been a few weeks since we've posted a major update, we wanted to let everyone know what's in the works. Typically, a few weeks is a short amount of time in the development cycle of a game, but we know there are many people who play Guild Wars with such dedication and intensity that a few weeks without an update seems more like an eternity. Here's what's on the way...

Ascended Content[edit]

As I mentioned in my last open letter, one of our top priorities has been adding content for ascended roleplaying characters. It's on the way. We are now entering a testing and polish phase on Sorrow's Furnace and other new ascended content. The additions will include new quests, new monsters, new items and new accelerated sources of XP and rare items.

Character Advancement[edit]

We have been making significant strides in gathering and tracking data about botters. Our belief is that the better we are at combating bots, the more we are able to protect the economy for everyone. As we succeed, you can expect significant changes to the availability of high-quality loot for normal players.
At the same time, we have been able to gather and analyze a lot of data about how quickly players gain new skills and items through both PvP and PvE. This has allowed us to better gauge what improvements we can and should make. In coming updates, you should expect a significant increase in the rate of item unlocking and skill acquisition through both PvE and PvP. In other words, you will be able to get Faction, XP and rare items more quickly.

PvP Playbalance[edit]

Given the sophisticated nature of team builds and counters in Guild Wars, we expect to see trends in PvP, as one innovative build changes the landscape, encouraging the use of a counter, which in turn encourages the use of a counter. We have tried to balance Guild Wars to allow for this metagame without allowing the loss of balanced builds and diverse strategies. Since release, we've seen a number of trends come and go, including Warrior Monks, Healing Clusters, Lightning Spike, Enchantment Webs and Spirit Spam. Much, but not all, of the ebb and flow has been in keeping with our goals. Nevertheless, we know that improvements can always be made to playbalance, and we are watching to make sure that no one Flavor of the Month build comes to be too dominant or encourages play in ways that are not fun.
With this in mind, we have been testing a variety of playbalance adjustments internally for some weeks now. We will let players know in advance when playbalance changes are coming so that private tournaments are not disrupted too abruptly. We are also planning to announce our own schedule of ladder seasons and official tournaments. We will try, when possible, to implement most playbalance changes immediately at the start of a new ladder season. You can expect to see another announcement regarding playbalance changes in the near future.
We are also looking into improvements to individual PvP maps, GvG matchmaking for high-rated teams, and ways to ease the burden of needing exactly 8 players to GvG.

Observer Mode[edit]

We are looking forward to unveiling Observer Mode a short while after the changes we mentioned above. Through Observer Mode, players will be able to watch (with a time delay) any battles involving their own guild and any important battles going on in the Guild Wars world, such as rated battles involving high ranking guilds, battles near the Hall of Heroes, and the later stages of seasonal tournaments. We believe Observer Mode, along with far more detailed statistics for each battle, will enable a greater number of players to enjoy Guild Wars at higher level of play. And that means more fun for everyone.
James Phinney

Update - Wednesday, August 3, 2005[edit]

  • Fixed several infrequent server crash bugs.
  • Fixed a bug that was causing characters to stop displaying spell-casting animations if a skill was used twice in rapid succession.
  • Amended display functions so that when unsupported video hardware is detected, the Guild Wars window properly unminimizes if the user chooses to play anyway.



Update - Friday, July 22, 2005[edit]

Update - Wednesday, July 13, 2005[edit]

Interface changes:[edit]

  • Added new trader interface.
  • Expanded friends list so that you can have up to 50 on your friends list and up to 10 on your ignore list.
  • Expanded maximum permitted length of guild announcement to 255 characters.
  • Improved vendor windows so they remember their last size and position.
  • Improved vendor windows so they show equipped items with a special symbol.
  • Improved information displayed in "/age" command.
  • Corrected the skill monitor and selection bar so that when they are inactive they no longer interfere with mouse interaction.
  • Corrected quest markers on the compass so they update properly after completing a quest.
  • Added tags to highlight fellow guild members in outposts.
  • Improved several error and warning messages, especially related to guild battle formation.
  • Updated icon for Flurry skill.
  • Fixed minor update bugs in party formation window.

Miscellaneous:[edit]

  • Updated Korean and European translations.
  • Fixed miscellaneous rare crash bugs.



Update - Thursday, June 30, 2005[edit]

Update - Wednesday, June 29, 2005[edit]

New Guild Wars PvP Reward System:[edit]

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[edit]

  • 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[edit]

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

Weapon Upgrade Unlocking[edit]

  • 1000 (Minimum Power)
  • 1000 (Maximum Power)

Skill Unlocking[edit]

  • 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:[edit]

  • 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:[edit]

Update - Monday, June 27, 2005[edit]

Update - Friday, June 17, 2005[edit]

Update - Thursday, June 16, 2005[edit]

  • Fixed crash bug related to language toggle key.
  • Fixed missing characters in large Korean font.
  • Fixed price of Dwarven Ale.
  • Fixed price of Small Girl's Cape.

Update - Wednesday, June 15, 2005[edit]

This week we made the first of several steps towards improving the process of gaining skills and skill points after ascension. In coming weeks, we will continue on this path, and will work to address the difficulty of unlocking items and runes for use in PvP.

  • Changed the XP requirements per skill point for advanced characters. Previously, the required XP kept increasing with each successive skill point, making it very difficult to continue earning skill points after taking on a new secondary profession. Now, the required XP caps out at 20,000 per skill point.
  • Doubled the XP gained from killing boss monsters.
  • Introduced rare scrolls which, when used, grant the entire party double or triple XP for a limited duration. We also added traders for these new scrolls.
  • Changed the XP reward for ascension. Previously, when a character ascended, he was automatically advanced to level 20, regardless of his current level. This meant that characters who had already advanced to level 20 prior to ascension received no reward for ascending. Now, ascension gives a fixed reward of 50,000 XP.
  • Updated secondary profession quests so that when a player accepts a new secondary profession, he now gets the starter skills for that profession.
  • Improved expert salvage kits so that they always successfully salvage a rune from monster-dropped armor that contains a rune. There is still a chance of destroying a rune when using a salvage kit to try to retrieve it from your own armor.
  • Added confirmation prompt when dragging an item to the ground during a trading session or just after a trading session, to prevent scammers from closing the trading window in the middle of a trade to try to trick their trading partners into dropping an item.
  • New quests: "The Ascalon Settlement" in North Kryta Province; "The Price of Steel" in Silverwood; and "The False Gods" in Temple of the Ages.
  • Added unique artwork for the ascended version of the Monk's Saintly Armor.
  • Updated the descriptions for skills Fertile Season, Balthazar's Spirit, Chimera of Intensity, Irresistible Blow, Mind Freeze, Ice Spikes, Deep Freeze, and Glyph of Energy to more accurately match the actual skill effect.
  • Updated mission victory conditions in Thunderhead Keep and Iron Mines of Moladune, and monster spawns in The Dragon's Lair and Ice Caves of Sorrow, to allow players to capture skills from boss monsters before completing the mission.
  • Updated monster and loot spawns in Sage Lands, Watchtower Coast, Frozen Forest, The Scar, Vulture Drifts, Snake Dance, and Ettin's Back, and for quests Iron Horse War Machine, The Monk's Path, and Seeking the Seer.
  • Fixed issues with last week's update that could cause loot drops to completely stop for some players after repeated map entries, and substantially improved the loot system so that only the most extreme forms of farming will cause monsters to start to run low on loot.
  • Updated boss monster spawns in various explorable areas to fix issues with boss monster distribution and balance.
  • Made numerous changes to the "Undead Horde" quest to add more to the storyline and environment of the quest.
  • Changed the "Behind Enemy Lines" quest so that Aidan uses the correct model and players have a little more time to follow him.
  • Increased the gold reward for completing the secondary mission in Divinity Coast.
  • Increased the energy increment on some Druid Leggings, so that all Druid Leggings now provide 2 additional energy.
  • Updated henchmen in Marhan's Grotto to use infused armor.
  • Updated positions and paths for NPCs in various towns and outposts to prevent NPCs from getting stuck.
  • Updated the Hall of Heroes so that the defender's Ghostly Hero starts on the altar.
  • Fixed the Sacred Temples tournament map so that it is no longer possible to pass a relic through the gate.
  • Fixed elemental damage in the Domain of Elements in the Dragon's Lair so that it does not damage monsters.
  • Fixed Forgotten Cursebearer and Forgotten Necromancer bosses so that they use their skills properly.
  • Fixed problem with quest "The Ambassador's Quandary."
  • Fixed Oink in "Gates of Kryta" so that he recognizes his owner even if another player has already completed the quest.
  • Made text fixes for quests "Tower of Courage," "The Elementalist's Path," and "Unsettling Rumors."
  • Fixed the damage ranges on Raven Staves and Ghostly Staves.
  • Rebalanced Blessed Griffons and Phantoms to better reflect their level.
  • Renamed the version of Defender's Scalp Design which provides a bonus to Smiting to Zealot's Scalp Design.
  • Renamed Mirror Self to Doppelganger.
  • Fixed teleporter effects in the Crystal Desert explorable areas.
  • Fixed various animation and scripting issues in cinematics.
  • Fixed environmental effects in The Crag.
  • Fixed teleporter in Vulture Drifts.
  • Fixed icon for Dwarven Ale so that it no longer appears as "under construction."
  • Fixed various icon issues in vendor windows so that icons do not appear as "under construction."
  • Fixed a bug that sometimes caused Error #95 to be displayed when trying to arrange a guild battle.
  • Fixed a trade bug which prevented trade between two players when both tried to initiate trade at the same time.
  • Added a cursor for item identification.
  • Updated the layout of the login screen.
  • Enabled clicking names in whisper text.
  • Updated European and Korean translations.
  • Fixed miscellaneous rare crash bugs.

Update - Wednesday, June 8, 2005[edit]

This week, as part of our in continuing promise to keep Guild Wars free of hacks, cheats, and other exploits, we closed the accounts of more than 100 users of bots. With today's update we are taking further steps to address the bot problem. New changes will improve our ability to identify and ban users of bots, rebalance mission areas that were highly exploited by bots, and reduce the overall effectiveness of bots, exploits, and other highly repetitive forms of gold and item farming. We are taking these steps to improve the game for all players, so that people using bots to farm gold cannot generate a huge influx of new gold into the economy, which increases prices for everyone and encourages other players to engage in repetitive farming just to keep up.

We know that some players currently engage in repetitive farming activities for the primary purpose of unlocking skills and items for PvP. Rather than preserving the effectiveness of farming for this purpose, it is our intention to address the larger issue of the need for farming by assessing how players acquire and unlock items, runes, and skills, and then by taking steps to ensure that players can acquire and unlock these things through normal gameplay. We believe that the most effective way to play the game should also be the most fun way to play the game. You can expect to see the first meaningful changes towards this goal next week.

This week's other improvements:

Update - Wednesday, June 1, 2005[edit]

  • Added language-specific districts to European servers. There are now different districts for each supported language: English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Players are placed by default into the district that matches their current language preference, but can still travel freely to any available district or to the International District.
  • Added requirement for a guild officer to be present to initiate or accept a guild battle. This can help guilds protect their rating by removing the potential for malicious or careless actions on the part of a guild member.
  • Added more boss-monster locations to high-level maps to make it easier for players to acquire elite skills.
  • Assured that the skills Battle Rage, Crippling Shot, Defy Pain, Punishing Shot, and Warrior's Endurance are now used more frequently by the boss monsters that carry the skills, to make them easier to capture.
  • Added new art for unidentified salvaged runes so that the profession and rune quality are displayed. Identifying the rune is still required to learn the rune's attribute and to unlock the rune. This change only impacts newly salvaged runes.
  • Assured that all uncommon and rare armor drops have an unlockable ability.
  • Assured that rare armor drops will always have either a major or superior rune, not a minor rune.
  • Assured that NPC traders, whose price fluctuates according to market demand, will always pay at least the vendor value for an item.
  • Assured that Celestial Sigils now have an inherent value of 1 platinum piece, which allows them to be sold at vendors.
  • Assured that armor provided by collectors can now be salvaged.
  • Added a new "/rank" emote for players who are rank 9 or higher.
  • Improved Henchmen in missions beyond Iron Mines of Moladune. They now have three pieces of armor infused instead of one.
  • Improved or clarified secondary missions in D'Alessio Seaboard, Divinity Coast, Augury Rock, Thirsty River, Ice Caves of Sorrow, Thunderhead Keep, Ring of Fire, Abaddon's Mouth, Hell's Precipice.
  • Increased the gold reward in Divinity Coast that is given for protecting the Chosen.
  • Improved the ambient ongoing fight in the D'Alessio Seaboard outpost.
  • Doubled the duration of the buff that Vizier Khilbron gives to players in certain missions, from 30 seconds to 1 minute.
  • Updated monster and loot balance in Perdition Rock, Vulture Drifts, Prophet's Path, the southern Shiverpeak region, and Hell's Precipice.
  • Made improvements to various mission start locations, NPC locations, gates, levers, and bridges.
  • Made improvements to various map click points and thumbnails.
  • Fixed issues with quests "Defend the Temple of War," "Hungry Devourer," "Supplies for the Duke," "Army Life," "Duke Ambush," and "To Kryta".
  • Fixed the glow color of several boss monsters in Crystal Desert and Perdition Rock to match their skills.
  • Improved AL on Elementalist Leggings crafted in Quarrel Falls from 30 to 39.
  • Renamed "Raw Cloth" to "Cloth."
  • Renamed "Enchanted Lodestones" found in post-searing Ascalon to "Scorched Lodestones."
  • Removed the ability to dye certain non-equippable items such as crafting materials.
  • Fixed skill Winter so that all elemental damage is converted to cold.
  • Fixed skill Feral Lunge duration of bleeding effect.
  • Fixed skill Spiteful Spirit so that it deals damage when the target uses a skill.
  • Fixed skill Fevered Dreams so that it does not affect non-foe targets in response to unsourced condition effects.
  • Fixed skill Essence Bond to eliminate the rare incorrect triggering on physical damage.
  • Fixed skill Life Bond so that it always deals the correct damage type.
  • Fixed skill descriptions for Healing Signet, Balthazar's Spirit, Putrid Explosion, Defensive Stance, Symbol of Wrath, and Desperation Blow, so that the descriptions more accurately match the actual effect of the skill.
  • Updated Alt keydown functionality to additionally display henchman names in town.
  • Added overhead chat bubbles for team chat (except in competitive missions, where there are no chat bubbles).
  • Updated auto-run functionality so that players will auto-run when clicking an NPC in the world but not when clicking an NPC in the party allies window.
  • Updated European and Korean translations.
  • Updated Korean character naming rules.
  • Updated art for Geomancer's armor. This is the first of several updates over the coming weeks that will provide unique art for each ascended armor set, such as Enchanter's, Tormentor's, Necrotic, Aeromancer's, Saintly, Gladiator's, and Druid's armor sets.
  • Changed the "Delete Character" dialog to allow the deletion of old characters whose names do not conform to current naming rules. A previous bug prevented the deletion of characters whose names were created under old naming rules and no longer conformed to current naming rules.
  • Fixed a bug preventing alternate characters from logging on when one character on the account was blocked.
  • Fixed Lightning Drakes' air magic ability.
  • Fixed miscellaneous rare crash bugs.



Update - Wednesday, May 25, 2005[edit]

Update - Friday, May 13, 2005[edit]

  • Changed art on Celestial Sigils to distinguish them from runes. Celestial Sigils will now look like this in your inventory:
Celestial Sigil.png
  • Made minor balance changes to some desert areas and Iron Mines of Moladune.
  • Fixed miscellaneous rare crash bugs.

Update - Wednesday, May 11, 2005[edit]

  • Major changes to PvP Arenas! Previously, each Arena had a separate outpost. When you joined an Arena, you continued playing on that map repeatedly until you lost. Now, the various high-level Arena maps all share a common outpost. When you enter the high-level Arena, you'll play on many different maps with many different victory conditions, and you'll need to master all the maps to keep on winning.
  • After each consecutive PvP victory, the game now displays the number of consecutive wins.
  • A new screen at the end of PvP character creation allows you to choose the starting location of your PvP character.
  • We retired the old "Dazed," "Shock Sniper," "Divine Healer," and "Trapper" PvP-only character templates, and rotated in some new templates, including three new templates created by guilds that won our April ladder contest. Additionally, we tweaked the skills of many other PvP character templates. These changes only affect the creation of new characters; existing characters created with an old template may continue to use that old template.
  • You can now store gold in your account storage vault! The vault can store up to 1000 platinum pieces, and individual characters can now hold a maximum of 100 platinum pieces.
  • PvP-only characters can now access the account storage vault for free.
  • Entering The Underworld now costs 1 platinum piece, the same as entering The Fissure of Woe. Rewards in both maps have been significantly improved.
  • New quests! In Post-Searing Ascalon: "The Weaver of Nebo" and "Iron Horse War Machine." In "The Fissure of Woe: Tower of Courage," "The Wailing Lord", "A Gift of Griffons", "Army of Darkness", "The Eternal Forgemaster", "Defend the Temple of War", and "Restore the Temple of War".
  • Primary quests in Pre-Searing Ascalon now chain together, making it more straightforward for new players to complete Pre-Searing Ascalon and gain entrance to the Academy.
  • Increased drop rates for Uncommon and Rare items in Explorable Areas.
  • Implemented various minor fixes and clarifications to existing quests.
  • Implemented various tweaks to monster difficulty and loot balance.
  • Added new boss monster encounters in the Ring of Fire area.
  • Added new bonuses on certain collector and quest items.
  • Instituted skill changes: "Watch Yourself!" correctly affects characters who were already affected by another instance of the skill. Firestorm now continues to cast even if the target enemy dies during spellcasting. We'll revise other area-effect spells to work this way in future updates.
  • The party window and account storage windows now correctly remember their position and size.
  • There are many new hints displayed in Pre-Searing Ascalon, and a new option to disable the display of hints.
  • When you gain a level, a button now appears prompting you to spend your newly acquired attribute points.
  • Quest destination points now appear on both the Map Area and Map Travel windows.
  • Most NPC text is now logged to the chat window, as well as being displayed in game.
  • Implemented various minor fixes to UI.
  • Fixed crafters recognizing high-level crafting items.
  • Fixed problems which caused excessive scarcity of Fur Squares, Linen, and Silk.
  • Implemented fixes for incorrect behavior when a player or party disconnects before the beginning of a competitive game.
  • Implemented fixes for miscellaneous rare crash bugs.
  • Added the ability to change postal mailing address on account.
  • Improved hardware compatibility.

Update - Tuesday, May 3, 2005[edit]

Update - Monday, May 2, 2005[edit]

  • Increased value of Celestial Sigil on traders
  • Restored footprints and display of path taken on map
  • Saved chat filter preferences
  • Updated Korean translation
  • Added missing resurrect point to Sage Lands
  • Corrected miscellaneous text and NPC names
  • Corrected names and armor values for Druid armor in Ventari's Refuge
  • Updated monster difficulty in Augury Rock, Sage Lands
  • Fixed animation problem for final gate in Dragon's Lair
  • Fixed bear hunters' reward from Regent Valley
  • Fixed bug that returned players to pre-searing Ascalon if they logged out immediately after the searing
  • Fixed district menu periodically displaying the wrong district number
  • Fixed misleading signpost in Lion's Arch
  • Fixed splinter mines in Elona's Reach; they now only damage NPCs when players drop them
  • Fixed miscellaneous rare crash bugs
  • Improved hardware compatibility

Update - Sunday, May 1, 2005[edit]

  • Added request for email confirmation during account creation
  • Added new "/preorder" command to restore preorder items
  • Incorporated quest improvements to "Althea's Ashes" and "Regent Valley Defense"
  • Updated European and Korean translations
  • Fixed "cancel" button when setting up guild matches
  • Fixed camera periodically refusing to enter first-person mode
  • Fixed henchmen periodically refusing to follow the party after resurrecting
  • Fixed statue activation when a world gains Favor of the Gods
  • Fixed Signet of Capture unlocking skills
  • Added fixes for lag
  • Added fixes for miscellaneous rare crash bugs
  • Improved hardware compatibility
Note: To work around a problem in this update, we temporarily removed footprints and the red dots displaying the path taken in the Map Area window. This functionality was restored in the May 2 update.
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