Game updates:March 2006

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Update - Wednesday March 29, 2006[edit]

Attention fellow citizens of Tyria,

You have no doubt gazed with sorrow upon the scores of refugees displaced by the terrible conflict raging in the southern lands of Cantha. Were it not for the noble efforts of hired heroes, these poor souls would be spending another cold night in filthy gutters.

Mukesh the Merciless and his vile undead horde have been purged from the grounds of Nebo Terrace. The Kurzick homeless are pitching camp there as I speak. Likewise, the ettin thugs led by the notorious—and odiferous—Smuush Fatfist have been quashed, making possible the Luxon settlement being built in North Kryta Province.

By order of the White Mantle, I declare both Nebo Terrace and North Kryta Province fit for habitation and trade.

-Lionguard Neiro

Update - Thursday March 23, 2006[edit]

Please join us for the three day Guild Wars Factions Preview Event, starting this Friday, March 24 at 8:01 AM GMT.

Overview[edit]

  • Two factions, the Luxons and Kurzicks, are engaged in a desperate struggle for control of the continent of Cantha. During this event weekend, players can create roleplaying characters in Cantha, join one of the two sides, and engage in battle for control of territory.
  • We are not yet allowing existing roleplaying characters from Tyria to travel across the ocean to Cantha, but during the preview event, new Factions Campign roleplaying characters created on the continent of Cantha will start at level 20, with high level armor and a wide variety of skills. (These preview characters are temporary, cannot travel off the continent of Cantha, and will be reset prior to the release of Guild Wars Factions.)
  • After creating a new Factions Campaign character, talk to Senji to choose your secondary profession, then talk to Master Togo who will guide you to the side of your choice.
  • A variety of quests and missions will allow you to gain faction with the Luxons or the Kurzicks. These include Competitive Missions, which allow two random teams of eight to square off in a strategic battle.
  • After gaining faction with the Luxons or Kurzicks, you can spend it for your own personal gain, or transfer it to your alliance to help your alliance gain standing with the Luxons or Kurzicks.
  • You can also participate in Alliance Battles to help the Luxons or Kurzicks gain territory. As a nation gains territory, it rewards those alliances that have the highest standing with that nation by granting them control of territory.

Faction Points[edit]

  • Each individual player earns Luxon or Kurzick faction by completing quests and participating in Competitive Missions and Alliance Battles.
  • The Luxons and the Kurzicks hate one another. If you have more of one faction than another, many NPCs of the opposing side will not speak to you.
  • You can talk to Faction Reward NPC, located in the Kurzick or Luxon capital, to spend faction for your own benefit. For this weekend, the only thing you can get is Amber or Jadeite, used to craft special armor sets.

Alliance Standing[edit]

  • An alliance is a collection of guilds, led by the guild leader that created the alliance. Each guild that isn't in a larger alliance is considered an alliance of one. (During this Factions Preview Event, forming alliances is not supported, so each guild is its own alliance.)
  • Form a guild (which is also an alliance) by talking to the Guild Registrar in the Marketplace. As always, forming a guild takes 100 gold, and players can be invited for 100 gold.
  • The alliance leader may talk to a Kurzick or Luxon Ambassador, located in the Kurzick or Luxon capital, to choose a side for his or her alliance. Doing so costs 500 gold.
  • Once an alliance has chosen a side, alliance members may talk to the Kurzick Scribe in House zu Heltzer (for Kurzick alliances) or Luxon Scribe in Cavalon (for Luxon alliances) to spend the appropriate faction to raise the standing of their Alliance. This is the only way for an alliance to gain standing and have an opportunity to be granted control of a territory.

Territory Control[edit]

  • The on-going war between the Luxons and the Kurzicks is most directly manifested in the form of Alliance Battles, which support 12 players (3 parties of 4 players each) per side.
  • To join an Alliance Battle simply talk to the Kurzick Kommandant in House zu Heltzer or the Luxon Navigator in Cavalon.
  • Every three hours, the nation that has won more Alliance Battles moves the battle lines and takes territory away from the opposing nation.
  • There are several potential Alliance Battle maps. Map layouts vary, but all the maps have the same goal: be the first side to reach 500 points. Points are gained by controlling strategic locations on the map and by killing enemies. Only one map is active at a time, depending on where the current battle lines are located. As the battle shifts deeper into Luxon or Kurzick territory, the Alliance Battles are biased to favor the losing side.
  • Control of territories is granted to the alliances with the highest standing. The best territories -- the ones closest to the capital city -- go to those with the very highest standing.
  • The resurrection shrine closest to a controlled outpost is guarded by Kurzick or Luxon NPCs matching the side that controls the outpost. Players not aligned to that side may not use the resurrection shrine unless they kill or bribe the guards.

Other Changes[edit]

  • Guild Wars Factions uses DirectX 9 if available for video rendering. Guild Wars will still continue to run on systems that have only DirectX 8 installed, but the new Factions content will look much better if DirectX 9 is available.
  • The PvP Character Creation interface now allows players to select the homeland of newly created characters. Canthan characters, which have a different visual appearance than existing Tyrian characters, are available to players who have access to Guild Wars Factions content.
  • The Hero Panel now displays faction earned with Luxons and Kurzicks for Factions Campaign roleplaying characters.
  • The Map Area window now displays the current state of key controllable resource points on certain competitive maps.
  • The skill casting interface has been improved so that attempting to cast a skill while running does not cause the skill to fail.
  • There is now a sigil trader in the International District of Heroes' Ascent.

Bug Fixes[edit]

  • Fixed the functionality of the Ritualist preorder staff Spiritbinder. Previously this staff was not giving the +10 energy bonus specified in its description. If you have preordered Guild Wars Factions and have an old nonfunctioning Spiritbinder staff, you can destroy it and then type "/preorder" to get a new one.
  • Fixed the Guild Lord and Ghostly Hero AI so that these characters no longer run away from where they should be standing. The Guild Lord and Ghostly Hero also now carry axes instead of swords, to justify their use of the skill Cyclone Axe.
  • Fixed the AI for the boss monster Maxine Coldstone so that she no longer unequips her bow while fighting at melee range.
  • Fixed a bug that was causing some parties to appear larger than they really were in outposts.

Update - Tuesday March 14, 2006[edit]

  • Fixed a bug that caused some users to experience sound dropouts.
  • Fixed a number of audio glitches and performance problems in the Fire Island Chain.
  • Fixed an issue that caused DirectSong to stop playing music after the first song.

Update 2 - Monday March 13, 2006[edit]

A note to players:

As you may be aware, we experienced some technical issues that resulted in the need to conduct an approximately one-hour roll-back of Guild Wars on Monday, March 13th. What prompted our decision to do the roll-back was the fact that the game economy was at risk, because during a brief window of opportunity, a huge number of items had been purchased for ridiculously low prices. This infusion of items into the economy would have devalued all the items in the game, and would have crippled the game economy.

We have an absolute commitment to take whatever means are necessary to protect the game economy, and by extension, to protect the items that you possess on your account. We apologize for any inconvenience that the roll-back may have caused.

We will continue to investigate the situation to assure that a repeat of today’s incident does not take place.

Thank you for your understanding, The Guild Wars Team

Update - Monday March 13, 2006[edit]

  • Corrected error in Heroes' Ascent map that prevented teams from progressing beyond the first level.

Update - Saturday March 11, 2006[edit]

  • We are continuing to prepare the game servers for the March 24 Factions Preview Event. To pre-stream all the latest Factions content to your hard drive in preparation for the event, you can simply leave your Guild Wars client running and sitting at the login screen.

Update - Friday March 10, 2006[edit]

Update - Thursday, March 9 2006[edit]

General:[edit]

  • This week we are pre-streaming a lot of new Canthan maps and artwork to clients in preparation for the March 24 Factions Preview Event. As always, you can download new data in the background by just leaving your Guild Wars client running and sitting at the login screen.

Arena Combat Updates:[edit]

  • When players enter the Random Arenas through an International District, they will now be placed on teams consisting of other players who entered through an International District. Previously, players were always placed on teams with other players from their own territory.
  • Teams in both Random and Team Arenas can now be matched against opponents from anywhere in the world.

Guild Combat Updates:[edit]

  • Guild Lords will now walk instead of run out of the base at "Victory or Death!" to give their teams a better chance to keep up with them.
  • Updated NPCs in the Isle of the Dead guild hall map so that they will now patrol the low ground near the flag at "Victory or Death."

Skill Training Updates:[edit]

Skill Updates:[edit]

Item Updates:[edit]

Map and Quest Updates:[edit]

AI Updates:[edit]

  • Fixed a bug that caused Henchmen and pets to be left behind or to run back to their original locations after cinematics.
  • Updated AI so that creatures and Henchmen no longer try to heal or enchant Spirits.

Audio Updates:[edit]

  • Improved the performance of the game's audio engine.
  • Added a new slider to the Game Options panel to adjust sound playback quality.
  • Added support for DirectX 3D sound (DS3D) hardware acceleration.

User Interface Updates:[edit]

  • Added a "Sort by Campaign" option to all skill lists.
  • Added the ability to access the options panel (F11) or to logout (F12) from pre-game screens such as character selection and creation.
  • Added the ability to customize the position of the mission goals pop-up window using the Customize Layout interface.
  • Updated the Guild Roster page to display the guild's home territory.
  • Fixed party size numbers shown over the heads of party leaders so that the count includes Henchmen.
  • Fixed a bug that caused the district selection control to lock up when a player canceled party travel, or when a non-leader chose not to leave his party after acknowledging that he did wish to leave the current district.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented detached start menu items from being correctly hidden during cinematics.
  • Fixed the display of skills that are unavailable due to being in a campaign that the player doesn't own. Previously, if such a skill was an adrenaline skill, the skill's adrenaline charge state would override the unavailable state.

Update - Friday March 3, 2006[edit]

Fixed the following newly introduced bugs:

  • The skill Bull's Charge was knocking down moving foes when used with any type of weapon, not only with melee weapons.
  • The skill Fevered Dreams was incorrectly spreading Conditions to allies of both the caster and target, rather than just enemies of the caster as specified in the skill description.
  • The skill Warrior's Endurance did not correctly match its description in the update notes.
  • Monsters were not responding to damage taken from the skill Balthazar's Aura.
  • Certain elite skills, such as Peace and Harmony and Blood is Power, could not be captured using a Signet of Capture.
  • Kepkhet Marrowfeast was neglecting to guard her nest.
  • The Party Window was periodically failing to display certain team allies such as Bodyguards.
  • The Skill Monitor was not correctly displaying skill interruption.

Update - Thursday March 2, 2006[edit]

General Updates[edit]

  • Updated Adrenaline behavior so that death removes all Adrenaline.
  • Updated Exhaustion behavior so that if you cast an Exhaustion spell while your maximum energy is below 10, your maximum energy can be reduced to below zero.
  • Fixed a bug that allowed attack speeds to stack past 33%.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented attack debuffs from reducing a target more than 33% (maximum is 50%).
  • Fixed a bug that kept speed boosts from having an effect on you if you had a debuff slowing you by 50%.
  • You are no longer considered "attacking," "using a skill," or "casting a spell" while you are running to get in range of a target.
  • Fixed a bug that caused attack skills with non-weapon attributes to calculate damage and critical hit chance incorrectly.
  • Clarified various skill descriptions.

Equipment Updates[edit]

  • Added two +30 Health, Received Damage -5 (Chance: 20%) shields to the PvP character creation screen; updated monster drops to make the Received Damage -5 (Chance: 20%) drop possible.
  • Shields on the PvP character creation screen with the "while Hexed" bonus now have +60 Health and -3 damage reduction.
  • Reduced the Lieutenant's Helm Hex duration bonus to 20%, and added it to the PvP character creation screen.
  • Increased the Monk’s PvP Ascetic Leg Design to +2 Energy to match the armor bought off of vendors.
  • Increased the PvP hammer with additional damage while hexed to 20%.

Mesmer[edit]

Necromancer[edit]

  • Offering of Blood Offering of Blood: increased sacrifice to 20%.
  • Unholy Feast Unholy Feast: reduced number of targets affected to 1..4; increased damage to 10..65; reduced recharge to 20 seconds.
  • Enfeebling Blood Enfeebling Blood: reduced recharge to 5 seconds; reduced sacrifice to 10%.
  • Chilblains Chilblains: Poison now only lasts 10 seconds.
  • Deathly Chill Deathly Chill: increased unconditional damage to 5..50; decreased conditional damage to 5..35.
  • Shadow of Fear Shadow of Fear: reduced recharge time to 5 seconds.
  • Plague Sending Plague Sending: reduced cast time to 1 second; increased recharge time to 5 seconds; fixed a bug that caused this skill to transfer default durations instead of remaining duration.
  • Blood Renewal Blood Renewal: fixed a bug that allowed the heal to heal twice when stacked.
  • Insidious Parasite Insidious Parasite: fixed a bug that prevented the numbers from displaying.
  • Mark of Subversion Mark of Subversion and Soul Leech Soul Leech: changed their damage from normal to life stealing to match their skill descriptions.
  • Order of the Vampire Order of the Vampire: no longer triggers if you have other Necromancer Enchantments on you.

Elementalist[edit]

Monk[edit]

Warrior[edit]

  • Eviscerate Eviscerate: increased adrenaline cost to 8 swings.
  • "I Will Avenge You!" "I Will Avenge You!": reduced attack speed to 25%; fixed a bug that caused this skill to trigger off of dead ally minions.
  • Thrill of Victory Thrill of Victory: decreased recharge time to 8 seconds.
  • Bull's Strike Bull's Strike: now triggers on moving instead of fleeing.
  • Defensive Stance Defensive Stance: increased duration to 5..20 seconds.
  • Crude Swing Crude Swing: increased damage to 1..20.
  • Shield Bash Shield Bash: Skill reworked. "The next attack skill against you is blocked. If the attack was a melee attack skill, that skill is disabled for an additional 15 seconds, and the attacker is knocked down."
  • "Shields Up!" "Shields Up!": now blocks 50% of the time.
  • Defy Pain Defy Pain: decreased adrenaline cost to 6 swings.
  • Protector's Strike Protector's Strike: reduced swing time to .5 seconds; increased recharge time to 3 seconds.
  • Griffon's Sweep Griffon's Sweep: increased damage to 5..20.
  • Deflect Arrows Deflect Arrows: now ends only when you successfully hit with an attack.
  • Warrior's Endurance Warrior's Endurance: increased duration to 10..23 seconds.
  • Dwarven Battle Stance Dwarven Battle Stance: now also increases attack speed by 10%.
  • Disciplined Stance Disciplined Stance: reduced recharge time to 45 seconds.
  • Wary Stance Wary Stance: reduced recharge time to 45 seconds.
  • Riposte Riposte: increased damage to 20..80.
  • Deadly Riposte Deadly Riposte: increased damage to 15..75.
  • Shield Stance Shield Stance: decreased recharge time to 45 seconds.
  • Flurry Flurry: fixed a bug that reduced your damage more than 25%.
  • Thrill of Victory Thrill of Victory: fixed a bug that caused you to gain a little bit of Health when you hit with the attack.
  • Gash Gash: fixed a bug that caused this skill to deal its damage twice; increased damage to 5..20.
  • Bull's Charge Bull's Charge: now triggers on moving foes instead of fleeing foes.

Ranger[edit]

Guild Battle Updates[edit]

  • Added silver and gold trims for the guild capes of tournament season winners and runners-up.
  • Improved the paths that guild NPCs take when running out of their guild hall during Victory or Death.

Map and Quest Updates[edit]

User Interface Updates[edit]

  • Expanded availability of Japanese language support to include non-Japanese accounts.
  • Fixed a target calling bug that prevented secondary called targets from being promoted to the primary called target when the previous primary called target expired.
  • Fixed several bugs that caused the incorrect display of Energy.
  • Changed the color of GM chat text from green to purple.