What's new in Guild Wars?
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For returning players: Welcome back and here's what you need to know
This article provides an overview of noteworthy changes that have been made since 2011, after the War in Kryta and Hearts of the North.
The game has received some notable updates since March 2018. There is little new content since then, but many tweaks and improvements have been made.
Account management[edit]
- The website for account management was changed from the original NCSoft website to https://account.arena.net/, support can now be reached via https://help.guildwars.com/hc/. If the Guild Wars account was linked to a Guild Wars 2 account, the same login details apply to both games.
- In June 2018, two-factor authentication was introduced for accounts that have activated this in Guild Wars 2 (under the name 2-step authentication). You need access to the two-factor authentication method set in Guild Wars 2 in order to log in to Guild Wars. Possible methods are: Email, SMS or authenticator app/device. If there are any problems, read this article, this article in case of error 244, and otherwise contact the Guild Wars 2 support. Due to the more secure log-in system, the game only runs under Windows XP or newer.
- The game client and PDF versions of the manuals and manuscripts are available at https://www.guildwars.com/download.
General[edit]
- Early April 2018
- ArenaNet has noticed that
/reporthas not worked for over ten and a half years and has now fixed the bug. Gold sellers should be reported as spam.
- The ping has improved. Interrupting is now noticeably easier.
- The maximum number of friends and ignored players has been doubled to 100 and 20 respectively.
- Custom chat filters are now possible. To use this feature, you must create a ChatFilter.ini file in the
%USERPROFILE%\My Documents\Guild Warsfolder (save it inUTF-16 LEencoding, as other encodings may crash the GW client). The file layout is as follows:
[ChatFilter] userFilter1 = Censor, Any userFilter2 = Suppress, Any
- Whispers will no longer be lost while loading maps or switching characters.
- The chat log will no longer clear on map change or switching characters.
- Added an option to show timestamps for chat log entries.
- You can now double click a name in the chat window and it will select the player if they are in the same district and in compass range.
- The size of the panes in the vault box has been increased to 25 slots, and 5 additional Xunlai Storage Panes can be purchased from the Guild Wars Online Store.
- The Material Storage capacity for each material can be increased by 250 by purchasing a Xunlai Material Storage Expansion from the store. Up to 9 expansions can be purchased per account.
- Bags and belt pouches capacity can be increased by 5 with a Superior Rune of Holding or a Rune of Belt Holding respectively.
- The inventory window (F9) can now be resized. Additionally, the rarity of inventory items can be highlighted with a corresponding colored frame (for green, gold and purple rarities).
- Added an in-game clock.
- Added a Master Volume slider.
Graphics[edit]
- Added a command line parameter “-lodfull” which forces the game to render using higher resolution models. The low poly representation of the own character with zoomed out camera was thereby fixed. This specific improvement has always been active since May 9, 2018.
- Added a new 8X MSAA anti-aliasing option.
- Added windowed Fullscreen support.
- The “Use best texture filtering” option will now take advantage of 16x Anisotropic filtering.
- A new “Advanced” option checkbox has been added to the Graphics options panel. This will replace the “-lodfull” command line option that was added recently.
- Added an Ultra shadow setting.
- The camera maximum zoom-out distance has been slightly increased.
- Added a new Field of View slider. Field of View now uses a vertical calculation—previously diagonal—which will result in a much better view of the world on widescreen and ultra widescreen monitors.
Game content[edit]
PvE[edit]
General[edit]
- Added the Embark Beach to the Battle Isles.
- Daily Zaishen Vanquish quests have been introduced.
- The survivor title now restarts with every death, instead of being irretrievably lost.
- "The Villainy of Galrath" is now available as a Hard Mode quest.
- The Titan quests are now available as Hard Mode quests. The entire questline must be completed in normal mode before the hard mode versions are available.
- After the War in Kryta, a new questline in Factions, called Winds of Change, starts with the Initiate Zei Ri in Kaineng Center.
- There are two new weapon sets (Purity weapons with repurposed skins and Imperial weapons with new skins) and two new heroes as a reward, the assassin Miku and the ritualist Zei Ri.
- The Wind of Change questline is fully available in Hard Mode.
- A new ramp has been added in the 3rd section of Urgoz's Warren. It's no longer necessary to teleport to reach the gate lever.
- Foes now have more health points in exchange for less armor.
- This update intended to make armor-dependent damage able to compete with armor-ignoring damage.
- All teleportation skills now follow the same restrictions as shadow steps, which, among other things, made the bonus of the Dunes of Despair mission more difficult, as well as making various speed clear tactics in the Domain of Anguish unusable.
- 10 new PvE elite skills have been added, which can be captured from 4 new bosses.
- The bosses however only appear if at least one player in the party brings a Proof of Triumph, which has to be obtained during Anniversary Celebration from the Ancient Anniversary Weaponsmith.
Pre-Searing Ascalon (Prophecies tutorial)[edit]
- Lieutenant Langmar now has a daily quest for characters that are at least level 10. Enemies appear at a higher level and completing the quest rewards 1,000 experience points. As long as the quest is not completed, opponents can be farmed (Vanguard Rescue: Farmer Hamnet is popular for XP farming).
- It is now possible to obtain the survivor title in pre-Searing (and thus 5 maxed titles for Kind of a Big Deal without account titles), which was not possible before due to a lack of obtainable XP and was also mutually excluded with the Defender of Ascalon title, which required death leveling.
- The gate now remains open twice as long as before, allowing The Northlands to be entered alone, thus removing the need for Gate monkeys.
Heroes[edit]
- You can now add up to 7 heroes to your team; all game content can be done with heroes, experience assumed. You still can't exceed the party size limits for 4 and 6 man areas, of course.
- Mercenary Heroes can be purchased in the ingame store. They have the profession, name and look of characters on your account. This allows to play teams consisting of e.g. 8 mesmers if you like, or simply have your favourite, great-looking characters in your team all the time.
- The bug that Razah's primary profession cannot be changed contrary to the manual (which has existed since the Nightfall release in October 2006), has been fixed.
- The AI for Heroes, Henchmen, and monsters has been improved for several skills.
- Hot keys for flagging and commanding Heroes 4 through 7 have been added.
PvP[edit]
- PvP in Guild Wars is now globally affected by Flux, an effect that changes the PvP game slightly every month.
- Imperial faction is now available in Factions PvP formats (Alliance Battles, Fort Aspenwood, Jade Quarry). It can be exchanged 1:1 for Kurzick - or Luxon faction and 3:1 for Balthazar faction.
- A
/ladderEmote based on the guild ladder ranking has been added (alternatively/championor/guild). - Zaishen Strongboxes have been added to Guild versus Guild, Heroes' Ascent, Random Arenas, and Codex Arena. To obtain a strongbox, 3 wins in a row in HA and 5 wins in a row in arenas are required. In GvG, the fight must last between 5 and 27:59 minutes.
- Heroes' Ascent can now be played with 7 henchmen. Heroes are still not allowed.
- The amount of fame in Heroes' Ascent per day was limited to 300 points. The limits are doubled during bonus weeks.
- The amount of PvP title points per day has been limited to 200 gladiator points (only 100 in the first week), 100 codex points and 10 champion points. The limits are doubled during bonus weeks.
- 20 Zaishen keys can be purchased per day and 5 Zaishen Strongboxes per day and type can be obtained.
- 25 Zaishen keys can be purchased per day.
- Six henchmen are now available in the Codex Arena.
Events[edit]
- April 1, 2011 (April Fools' Day 2011)
- From 2011 onwards, a new prank quest, Annihilator, is available every April 1st, from "Lvl 20 Corporal Bane" in Embark Beach.
- April 1, 2012 (April Fools' Day 2012)
- From 2012 onwards, a new second prank quest, Annihilator 2: Searing Day, is available every April 1st, from "W20 Corporal Bane" in Embark Beach.
- August 17, 2012 (Wayfarer's Reverie)
- A new event, the Wayfarer's Reverie, now takes place every year at the end of August. Among other things, a Tormented weapon can be obtained, as well as an everlasting summoning stone, the use of which costs a skill point.
- Weekend events are now weekly bonuses, lasting a full seven days and changing on Mondays.
- April 20, 2015 (10th Anniversary Celebration)
- In PvE, on each anniversary from late April to early May, you can get Proofs of Legend by completing missions
- Show one to Palora to obtain a Xunlai Anniversary Storage Voucher to unlock the anniversary register of the Xunlai chest. If you already have it unlocked, you can receive one free Blessing of War instead.
- In PvP, on each anniversary of the game from late April to early May, you can get Proofs of Steel that can be exchanged for consumable items, Flames of Balthazar or Zaishen Keys.
- 5 Proofs of Legend can be exchanged at the Ancient Anniversary Weaponsmith for a green Decade weapon or a Blessing of War.
- Decade Weapons have either unique skins or effects, such as a double-handed axe that hides the off-hand, a wand with a jade sword skin, or a scythe with a black particle trail, and have an inherent bonus that make them deal more damage in PvE during events.
- Blessings of War can be exchanged at selected collectors for a perfect inscribable golden balthazar weapon. See the Miscellaneous section below for details.
- April 22, 2020 (15th Anniversary Celebration)
- In addition to the Decade weapons, perfect inscribable golden weapons with previously unseen attribute requirements, such as a shield with Fast Casting requirement and a sword with Expertise requirement, are now also available at the Ancient Anniversary Weaponsmith for 5 Proofs of Legend. Proof of Triumph is also available.
- Anniversary weapons have unique, unreplicable attribute requirements that allow them to facilitate unique builds.
- While carrying the Proof of Triumph, 4 new bosses will spawn, which possess unique PvE-only elite skills that can only be captured from them.
Profession overhaul[edit]
Dervish[edit]
- Dervishes were given a new skill type: Flash enchantments; they have neither activation time nor aftercast delay, can be used while attacking and moving (although not while using a skill or knocked down) and thus turned the dervish into a more active profession.
- Many skills now remove dervish enchantments upon use and trigger powerful additional effects when an enchantment has been removed. The enchantments themselves often have little effect.
Elementalist[edit]
- Many elementalist elite skills have been changed.
- There is now a doublecast skill on each attribute that affects the caster and, if desired, an ally.
- Exhaustion now alters the effects of some skills.
- There are now skills that cause only 5 points of exhaustion, not just 10 as before.
- Many elementalist skills have been changed.
- From now on, the exhaustion game mechanic is referred to as overcast.
Miscellaneous[edit]
- Jessie Llam now offers Envoy weapons for 100 golden zaishen coins.
- One Blessing of War can be obtained from the Zaishen Chest every 25 openings
- Collectors for Blessings of War have been added to the Isle of the Nameless and offer inscribable gold rarity perfect Balthazar's weapons in exchange for one Blessing.
Preview[edit]
- More bugfixes
- Sales in the Guild Wars Online Store
