Game updates:February 2008

February 2008 updates

• Friday 29^th of February (talk)
• Thursday 21^st of February (talk)
• Friday 15^th of February (talk)
• Wednesday 13^th of February (talk)
• Tuesday 12^th of February (talk)
• Friday 8^th of February (talk)
• Wednesday 6^th of February (talk)

Update - Friday, February 29, 2008

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that caused the Ritualist skill Destructive Was Glaive to grant less armor penetration than intended against high-armor targets.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Paragon Leadership attribute to give incorrect Energy when the Eye of the North skill Ursan Roar was used.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Mesmer skill Extend Conditions to not affect Disease.
• Fixed a bug that caused Paragon Heroes to not use the skill Aggressive Refrain when ordered to.
• Fixed a rare bug that could cause a crash when removing a message from the Charr Battle Plan Decoder.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Nightfall quest Madness of Prophecy to not progress for some players.
• Fixed quest text that incorrectly listed the Nightfall NPC Lonai as being located in the Command Post.
• Fixed a bug that could cause the Underworld quest Terrorweb Queen to not complete if the Terrorweb Queen is killed too quickly.
• Fixed a bug that caused clipping issues on some male Nightfall characters when wearing the Warrior Obsidian Helm.
• Fixed a bug with the male Dreadnought Elite Platemail Gauntlets.
• Fixed a bug with the /report function to give an error message when attempting to report a character that is no longer in the district.
• Fixed a bug with the quest To the Rescue that prevented enemies from spawning.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused players to fail in the Fissure of Woe when an unrelated NPC died off screen.
• Fixed a bug in the Gate of Desolation mission that caused the description of Junundu Tunnel (an Aijundu skill) to display that it had a knockdown duration of 0 seconds.
• Fixed a bug that occasionally prevented characters from accessing two Eye of the North quests, Destructions Depths and A Time for Heroes, as well as the Heart of the Shiverpeaks dungeon.

Miscellaneous

• Updated Automated Tournament map rotations.
• Made the following improvements to Fort Aspenwood:
  • The green gate will no longer close behind the juggernaut, trapping him within Gunther’s area.
  • The Luxon siege turtles will no longer target spirits, minions, or pets when choosing enemy targets.
• Updated the Journey to the North buff description to inform players that attributes cannot be modified while under the benefits of the buff.
• In the Gate of Desolation mission, removed a redundant portion of the skill description for Queen Bite (an Aijundu skill), which stated that the skill healed for 0 life.
• Removed health regeneration from Ilsundur, Lord of Fire to be consistent with other dungeon boss encounters and to reduce the difficulty of the encounter.

Guild Wars Wiki notes

• The beginning resurrection shrine for the mission Assault on the Stronghold will now always activate and can no longer be exploited in order to skip the first part of the mission.
• The skill Snaring Web was reworded so that it now correctly states that skills are affected from this skill instead of spells, as previously stated.
• A number of creatures in Eye of the North which previously had Normal Mode level ranges of 20...23 now have level ranges of 20...24, including the following:
  • Gokir Amini, Gokir Cuicani, Gokir Nahualli, Gokir Tlamatini
  • Krait Arcanoss, Krait Hypnoss, Krait Necross
  • Ophil Amini, Ophil Cuicani, Ophil Nahualli, Ophil Tlamatini
  • Cloudtouched Simian, Redhand Simian, Simian Spiritcaller
  • Ash Phantom, Chained Cleric, Crypt Banshee, Crypt Wraith, Shock Phantom, Skeletal Hound
• Krait Neoss have also had their maximum level in Normal Mode increased to 24.
• The level 20 versions of Krait Neoss in normal mode and the level 26 versions in hard mode now use Metamorphosis.
• This update re-introduced a bug with calling certain targets, such as location names behind area boundaries, making them display as "I'm using a(n)."

Update 2 - Thursday February 21

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that caused blank text to appear when skills are called out (control-clicked).
• Closed an exploit that allowed players with a modified client to travel directly to explorable areas.

Update 1 - Thursday February 21

Guild Battles

• Isle of the Dead: repositioned the outer archers.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that caused Wrathful Storm creatures in the Realm of Torment to use incorrect art.
• Fixed a bug that could cause a gap in the female Mesmer's hair upon character creation.
• Fixed a bug with the texture on Cynn's dress.

Guild Wars Wiki notes

• When a skill is called by a player, a blank message comes up in team chat, i.e. "Player name: " instead of "Player name:I'm using <skill>". This was fixed in the subsequent update.

Update - Friday, February 15, 2008

Guild Battles

• "Victory is Ours" decreased damage to 10%.

Skill Updates

Dervish

• Pious Haste decreased duration to 3...10...12 seconds.

Elementalist

• Flame Djinn's Haste decreased movement speed increase to 25%.
• Storm Djinn's Haste decreased movement speed increase to 25%.

Mesmer

• Enchanter's Conundrum increased casting time to 2 seconds.
• Power Leak increased Energy loss to 5...17...20; increased recharge time to 20 seconds.

Ritualist

• Death Pact Signet increased casting time to 3 seconds; increased recharge time to 12 seconds.

Update - Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a rare bug that would crash the game client.

Update - Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Bug Fixes

Victory or Death

• Fixed a bug that caused Victory or Death and Victory is Ours to expire when a player dies.
• Fixed a bug that caused Victory is Ours to not reapply after Victory or Death.
• Fixed a bug that caused Victory or Death to not properly apply damage to some skills.

Guild Wars Wiki notes

• Canthan New Year decorations were removed from towns.
• Reversal of Damage now works differently. When used with skills that deal damage through a secondary entity (such as Retribution), RoD will deal its damage to the maintainer of the effect.

Update - Friday, February 8, 2008

Skill Updates

Elementalist

• Glyph of Energy: reverted the recharge time to 10 seconds.

Bug Fixes

Mesmer

• Power Lock: fixed a bug that caused the spell to perform incorrectly, where it disabled an enemy skill or chant for a time duration while ignoring recharge time.

Miscellaneous

• Fixed a bug that placed the Nomad's Isle Guild Hall merchant in an inconvenient location.

Guild Wars Wiki notes

• Festival NPCs were added for Canthan New Year.
• Ancestors' Rage now displays damage dealt to enemies to the player who used it.
• New PvP-only characters now start in the Great Temple of Balthazar again.

Update - Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Canthan New Year

• Made preparations for the Canthan New Year's Festival, which begins at Noon Pacific (-8 GMT), February 8, 2008, and runs until Noon Pacific, February 11, 2008.

Party Animal Title Track

• Added the Party Animal title track and support for it in the Hall of Monuments. Players can gain points toward the Party Animal title by using various festive items, including Bottle Rockets, Champagne Poppers, Sparklers, Ghost-in-the-Boxes, Squash Serums, Snowman Summoners, Beetle Juice Tonics, Yuletide Tonics, and Transmogrifier Tonics.

Skill Updates

We will evaluate the following changes this week. Additional adjustments may be made during that time.

All

• Decreased the variance in trebuchet impacts in GvG by reducing the target deviation and increasing the area-of-effect.
• Health sacrifice now displays as a skill cost.

Victory or Death

• Victory or Death: increased the damage to 25%.
• NPCs receive an additional 5% damage bonus each minute after Victory or Death.
• Added "Victory is Ours," a new GvG feature that activates at the same time as Victory or Death, giving players on the team with the most NPCs a 15% damage increase.
• Archers now stand farther apart at Victory or Death.
• Trebuchets no longer work after Victory or Death.
• The Bodyguard and Guild Thief now receive a smaller damage bonus than other NPCs at Victory or Death.

Mesmer

• Power Leak: decreased target foe's Energy loss to 1..5.
• Clumsiness: increased casting time to 2 seconds; increased recharge time to 10 seconds; now affects adjacent foes.
• Ether Feast: increased healing to 20..50 Health per Energy lost by target.
• Hex Breaker: changed skill type from stance to skill.
• Ineptitude: decreased duration to 4 seconds.
• Wandering Eye: decreased duration to 4 seconds; increased casting time to 2 seconds, increased recharge time to 10 seconds; increased damage to 10..92.
• Drain Enchantment: decreased Energy cost to 5 Energy; decreased Energy gain to 8..13 Energy.

Necromancer

• Hexer's Vigor: decreased casting time to .25 seconds.
• Chilblains: increased number of enchantments removed to 1..2.
• Plague Touch: increased number of conditions transferred to 1..3.
• Blood is Power: decreased Energy cost to 1.
• Wallow's Bite: decreased Energy cost to 1.
• Touch of Agony: decreased Energy cost to 1.
• Dark Pact: decreased Energy cost to 1.
• Demonic Flesh: decreased Energy cost to 1.
• Blood Renewal: decreased Energy cost to 1.
• Blood Ritual: decreased Energy cost to 5.
• Offering of Blood: decreased Energy cost to 1.

Monk

• Light of Deliverance: decreased casting time to 1 second; increased recharge time to 10 seconds.
• Heal Party: decreased casting time to 1 second; decreased healing to 30..75 Health.
• Divine Healing/Heaven's Delight: decreased Energy cost to 5; decreased casting time to 1 second; decreased recharge to 15 seconds; decreased healing to 15..60 Health.

Elementalist

• Glyph of Restoration: now affects the next two spells.
• Deep Freeze: decreased casting time to 2 seconds.
• Whirlwind/Teinai's Wind: decreased Energy cost to 5.
• Glyph of Energy: decreased recharge to 7 seconds.

Warrior

• Healing Signet: increased Health gain to 62..152.
• Lion's Comfort: increased healing to 40..100 Health; increased Health gain per Tactics rank to 7.

Ranger

• Troll Unguent: increased duration to 13 seconds.

Dervish

• Avatar of Grenth: duration increased to 10..90 seconds; functionality changed to: "For 10..90 seconds, you cannot be blocked by enchanted foes, and your attacks deal cold damage. This skill is disabled for 120 seconds."
• Mystic Regeneration: Health regeneration is now capped at 3 enchantments.
• Pious Assault: increased activation time to .75.

Paragon

• Mending Refrain: decreased Energy cost to 5; decreased Health regeneration to 2..3.
• Song of Restoration: increased healing to 45..90 Health.

Ritualist

• Protective Was Kaolai: decreased recharge to 15 seconds.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug with a pathing issue in The Dragon's Lair outpost.
• Fixed a bug with a pathing issue in the Eastern Frontier.
• Burol Ironfist in Boreal Station will no longer display his Hero tutorial dialogue buttons when he is offering or rewarding his tutorial quest.
• Fixed a bug that caused the skill Meditation of the Reaper to not remove itself properly from Heroes.
• Fixed a bug that caused Devona to spawn in Pockmark Flats after the Replacement Healers quest had been completed.
• Heroes and henchmen will now properly target themselves with the skill Zealous Benediction.
• Heroes and henchmen will now properly target themselves with the skill Dismiss Condition.
• Players will not die because of life loss from a vampiric weapon during the Rollerbeetle Racing festival game.
• Fixed a bug that caused a Hero to cancel and then re-activate a skill if manually ordered to use it.

Miscellaneous

• Corrected the crafting costs on two of the Elite Canthan Masks sold by armorer Koumei on the Divine Path.
• Changed the item boxes in Rollerbeetle Racing to only be collectible once per player.
• Added additional base defenders to the Alliance Battles.
• The Xunlai Tournament House NPC now offers prizes for January and can be found in the Great Temple of Balthazar, Lion's Arch, Kaineng Center, and Kamadan.

Guild Wars Wiki notes

• This update introduced the energy cost of 1. It did not exist beforehand.
• Lunar Fortunes from 2007 were renamed to Lunar Fortune [Year of the Pig] in an earlier update.
• Skills which have a sacrifice cost at cast time no longer state the sacrifice in the skill description but only display it similar to other costs like energy, activation and recharge.
• Shadow Refuge had its duration reduced to 4 seconds and its healing increased to 40...100.
• Some players had to re-accept the EULA after this update.
• PvP characters now start at the Isle of the Nameless instead of the Great Temple of Balthazar, yet the Great Temple of Balthazar does not appear on your map automatically. This means if you ever want to access the Great Temple of Balthazar on that character, you must go through the portal before mapping to any other outpost.