Game updates:September 2005

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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.

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