Game Update Notes - August 8, 2017

[Mark Katzbach.9084]

08/08/2017 - August 8th Release Notes

=====================================

 

#### World Polish

 

#### General

 

- Current Events achievements from Living World Season 3 have been grouped

into new categories under the Side Stories achievement group.

 

- All Season 3 Current Events achievements have been unhidden, with the

exception of those that cannot be progressed without specific Living Story

chapters or expansions.

 

- Meta-achievements have been added for two of the new Side Stories

categories, including an achievement for beginning each new meta's story.

 

- A Central Tyria Mastery Point has been added to the existing rewards for the

Transfer Chaser meta-achievement.

 

- With her journey concluded for now, Seis Burntheart has returned to her

original location in Frostgorge Sound, where she will direct adventurers

hoping to follow in her footsteps.

 

- Event scaling on the Ley-Energy Coalescence events has been rebalanced.

 

- The Bloodstone-Crazed Arctodus, Bloodstone-Crazed Devourer, and

Bloodstone-Crazed Moa have gained additional Power.

 

- Anomaly fragment enemies during the Ley-Line Anomaly events are now easier

to stun when Counter Magic is used against them.

 

- Bandit leaders across Kryta have found their health further reduced as their

supply lines remain in disarray.

 

- Responding to local demand for pet-care supplies, a new vendor has set up

shop in Rata Sum to provide shoppers with fun and safe toys to entertain

their cats. Further responding to local demand to "get these infuriating

felines out of my lab," harmless and scientific equipment for shooing cats

away is also provided.

 

- Text has been standardized on food and utility tooltips.

 

- Added two new options to the Sound Options panel that will allow you to

determine how items with unique sound effects play back on your game client.

The four options are listed below and can be independently specified for

both your items and other players' items:

 

- All: All unique item sound effects will play back without restrictions

(as they have traditionally).

 

- Limited: Unique item sounds will have a chance to play but will usually

fall back to default sound effects.

 

- Mute Projectiles Only: Unique item sounds originating from projectile

attacks (such as Quip and the Dreamer) will be muted, and all others

will play normally.

 

- Off: Unique item sound effects will be completely disabled, and default

sound effects will play in their place.

 

- Fixed some issues in which only the left modifier keys (Shift, Alt, Control,

etc.) were considered for various UI interactions.

 

#### Fractals

 

###### *Shattered Observatory*

 

- Fixed a bug in which green circles would not display properly for the final

boss.

 

- Fixed the attack timing for the final boss's Solar Blast.

 

- Aegis will no longer block the first beam attack in the final boss fight.

 

- Fixed a bug that could cause the platforms to sometimes not disappear in the

final boss fight.

 

- Solar Blooms have had their aggro range increased so that they will always

follow their target.

 

- Solar Blooms will now bounce off the edges of the final boss platform

instead of getting stuck.

 

- Solar Blooms' attack telegraph time has been increased by 0.25 seconds.

 

- For lower tiers, various mechanics for the final boss have had their damage

toned down so that the difficulty curve is more similar to other bosses.

 

- The Skorvald and Viirastra bosses now provide a daily reward chest.

 

- Increased the size of the hit box of the final boss.

 

###### *General:*

 

- Fixed a bug in which players might create a new fractal instance instead of

joining their existing party when using the Lion's Arch or Mistlock

Sanctuary fractal portals.

 

- Fixed a bug in which celestial infusion effects displayed the wrong color on

charr.

 

#### Items

 

- Giver's weapons now provide Expertise instead of Condition Duration.

 

- Giver's armor now provides Concentration instead of Boon Duration.

 

- Doubloons now provide Concentration instead of Boon Duration.

 

- Snowflake upgrades now provide Concentration instead of Boon Duration.

 

- Food consumables that provided Boon Duration or Condition Duration now

provide Concentration or Expertise instead.

 

- Food consumables that provided stat conversion have had that bonus replaced

with a flat amount of stats:

 

- Foods that converted Toughness into Vitality now grant level-appropriate

amounts of Vitality.

 

- Foods that converted Toughness and Vitality into Healing Power now grant

level-appropriate amounts of Healing Power (primary) and Toughness

(secondary).

 

- Bowl of Chocolate Tapioca Pudding now grants +100 Toughness instead of

converting Healing Power into Toughness.

 

- Bowl of Passion Fruit Tapioca Pudding now grants +100 Power instead of

converting Healing Power into Power.

 

- Bowl of Prickly Pear Tapioca Pudding now grants +100 Condition Damage

instead of converting Healing Power into Condition Damage.

 

- Utility consumables have been overhauled and now all provide stat

conversion. More details can be found on the forums: https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/Upcoming-Stat-Changes-in-the-Q3-Balance-Update/6667249

 

- Sharpening Stones all provide at least one bonus to Power.

 

- Maintenance Oils now provide bonuses to Concentration or Healing.

 

- Tuning Crystals all provide at least one bonus to Condition Damage.

 

- Furious, Toxic, Bountiful, and Magnanimous utility consumable recipes have

had their ingredients adjusted to reduce their crafting costs.

 

- When ascended materials are ingredients, Sharpening Stones will now

always require Dragonite Ore, Maintenance Oils will require Bloodstone

Dust, and Focusing Crystals will require Empyreal Fragments.

 

- Runes of Balthazar: Fixed a bug that would not allow this rune's sixth piece

to fire while underwater or in air.

 

 

 

#### Profession Skills

 

With *Path of Fire*™ on the horizon, we'll soon be adding nine new elite

specializations with nine new trait lines to the game. Along with these new

additions, we are also taking some time to do a pass on the older trait lines in

order to update them for the current state of the game. There has been a general

pass on wording for traits to better clarify what they do, as well as several

functionality changes across all core profession traits and some *Heart of

Thorns*™ elite specialization traits. These changes are aimed at improving the

synergy of these old traits with the lines they live in as well as across other

lines.

 

###### *General:*

 

- Ammunition System: The ammunition (ammo) system has been added to the game.

Several skills across multiple professions now use ammo for their skills.

Ammo skills have a stock (count) of uses that can regenerate over time. Each

ammo skill has a short recharge between uses that varies per skill. New

skill facts for ammo count and Count Recharge have been added. Count

Recharge and recharge between uses are affected by recharge-reduction skills

and traits.

 

- Light Aura: This skill no longer applies a single stack of vulnerability to

someone striking you. It now reduces incoming Condition Damage by 10% in

addition to granting retaliation when struck.

 

- Area Weakness: Fixed a bug in which executing a blast finisher in a poison

combo field would sometimes mistakenly apply 3 seconds of weakness instead

of the intended 5 seconds.

 

- A new icon for the Explosion skill fact has been added.

 

- A new icon for the Pierces skill fact has been added.

 

- Key words relating to profession mechanics and skill types have been

standardized and highlighted across all professions.

 

- Charrzooka: This skill is now equipped for a 15-second duration instead of

expiring after using a set number of attacks.

 

- Become the Raven:

 

- Swoop: The distance this skill travels is no longer affected by

movement-speed modifiers.

 

- Become the Wolf:

 

- Leap: The distance this skill travels is no longer affected by

movement-speed modifiers.

 

- Become the Snow Leopard:

 

- Pounce: The distance this skill travels is no longer affected by

movement-speed modifiers.

 

###### *Elementalist*

 

In this balance update, the elementalist is seeing some cleanup of a few

elemental minions and a change in the way their Conjure utility skills behave.

We've reworked different aspects of these weapons and removed the prohibitive

charge system with the intention of promoting holding on to the weapons and

using all of their skills. Several traits have seen augmentations, with Arcane

Resurrection now allowing Geyser (in all of its formats) to revive downed allies

instead of applying a flat revive percentage. And finally, we're looking to

normalize damage for the elementalist so that it is not effectively the

best-in-slot for damage, support, and survivability in all scenarios. To this

end, we are modifying the functionality for a few skills that unintentionally

overperform against large hit-box targets, in addition to a select few damage

reductions.

 

Profession:

 

- Overload Fire: The physical damage has been reduced by 10% in PvE only.

 

- Overload Air: The total number of attacks has been reduced from 17 to 14.

 

Weapon Skills:

 

- Lightning Surge: The cast time has been reduced by 0.4 seconds.

 

- Geyser: This skill has been unsplit from PvP and will now use the

higher-value Healing Power multiplier in all game modes. Base healing value

has been reduced by 33%. Number of pulses has been increased from 3 to 5.

 

- Phoenix: Fixed a bug that allowed this skill to hit more frequently than

intended.

 

- Wildfire: This skill can now only damage an enemy once per second. Burning

duration has been increased from 2 seconds to 2.5 seconds.

 

- Burning Speed: This skill can now only damage an enemy once per

second. Fire-wall damage has been increased by 100%, and burning duration

has been increased from 1.5 seconds to 2 seconds per tick.

 

- Burning Retreat: This skill can now only damage an enemy once per

second. Damage has been increased by 100%, and burning duration has been

increased from 1 second to 2 seconds per tick.

 

- Flamewall: The damage of this skill has been increased by 100%.

 

Utility Skills:

 

- Greater Air Elemental:

 

- Shocking Bolt: Recharge has been reduced from 15 seconds to 10 seconds.

 

- Air Elemental:

 

- Lightning Strikes: This skill now fires projectiles directly at the

target rather than in an area around the target.

 

- Water Elemental:

 

- Frozen Ground: The cast time has been reduced by 1 second. Chill

duration has been increased from 1 second to 2 seconds.

 

- Crashing Waves: The cast time of the initial portion of this skill has

been reduced by 1.6 seconds. The number of targets knocked back has been

increased from 1 to 3. The healing attribute multiplier has been

increased by 300%.

 

- Fire Elemental:

 

- Flame Barrage: Burning duration has been increased from 1 second to 3

seconds per missile hit. Recharge has been reduced from 15 seconds to 10

seconds.

 

- Arcane Blast: This skill now uses the ammo system. Ammo count has been set

to 3, with a 20-second count recharge. There is a 1-second recharge between

each use.

 

- Arcane Wave: This skill now uses the ammo system. Ammo count has been set to

2, with a 30-second count recharge. There is a 2-second recharge between

each use.

 

- Conjure Weapons: Conjured weapons no longer expire after a set number of

skill activations but instead last for a flat duration of 30 seconds.

 

- Conjure Lightning Hammer:

 

- Lightning Leap: This skill now grants 3 seconds of quickness if it hits.

The cooldown of this skill has been increased from 6 seconds to 8

seconds.

 

- Wind Blast: This skill now grants 3 seconds of superspeed if it hits.

 

- Lightning Storm: This skill has been partially reworked. Lightning bolts

will occur over a longer duration, with 50% of the bolts guaranteed to

attack a target within the radius. The final attack delivered by the

storm guarantees attacks on up to five targets. The number of attacks

has been increased from 10 to 12.

 

- Conjure Frost Bow:

 

- Water Arrow: This skill now grants a stacking enhancement to the user

when striking a target. This enhancement increases outgoing healing by

10% per stack and stacks up to two times. In addition, stacks of Water

Arrow modify other Conjure Frost Bow skills in different ways. Base

healing has been increased by 10%. The aftercast has been slightly

reduced.

 

- Frost Volley: This skill now gains 10% bonus damage per stack of Water

Arrow. Cast time has been reduced by approximately 0.5 seconds. The

recharge has been increased from 4 seconds to 6 seconds.

 

- Frost Fan: This skill now fires one additional projectile per stack of

Water Arrow.

 

- Ice Storm: This skill now fires one additional attack per stack of Water

Arrow.

 

- Deep Freeze: This skill now freezes for 0.5 additional seconds per stack

of Water Arrow.

 

- Conjure Flame Axe: This conjure weapon now enhances the autoattack by

unlocking Double Lava Axe when any other skill on the conjure weapon is

used.

 

- Double Lava Axe: Throw two lava axes in quick succession.

 

- Burning Retreat: This skill can now only damage an enemy once per

second. The damage of this skill has been increased by 100%. Burning

duration has been increased from 1 second to 2 seconds. Fixed a bug that

caused this skill to not apply burning in some situations.

 

- Conjure Fiery Greatsword: Wielding this weapon while in combat will now

create Fiery Eruptions on random enemies within a range of 600 every 3

seconds.

 

- Fiery Rush: This skill is now able to hit an enemy only once per second.

The damage of the wall portion has been increased by 100%.

 

- "Feel the Burn!": Fixed a bug that caused this skill to hit more than 5

targets.

 

Traits:

 

- Powerful Aura: Fixed a bug that prevented this trait from correctly sharing

light aura.

 

- Arcane Resurrection: This trait no longer grants an increased revive rate

but instead changes the functionality of the Geyser skill, causing it to

revive allies in its radius by 7% per tick in addition to healing. This

trait now casts Geyser on the elementalist when they begin reviving an ally.

 

- Elemental Enchantment: This trait no longer grants boon duration; it now

grants up to 180 Concentration at level 80.

 

- Conjurer: This trait no longer increases charge count for conjured weapons

but instead reduces the recharge for conjured weapon skills that the

elementalist uses. Fire-aura functionality remains the same.

 

- Arcane Abatement: In addition to its previous effects, this trait now heals

you a small amount whenever you swap attunements.

 

- Imbued Melodies: This trait no longer grants boon duration; it now grants

Concentration.

 

- Harmonious Conduit: Bonus damage enhancement duration has been reduced from

5 seconds to 4 seconds.

 

- One with Fire: Elementalist skills that grant fire aura have been updated to

indicate the correct duration when this trait is equipped.

 

###### *Engineer*

 

In this update, we're making major changes to the Explosives and Tools trait

lines as well as some changes to the Gadget skill type. Explosions traits have

been reorganized and reworked to better support a larger variety of builds.

While we expect any build that takes the Explosives line to have at least some

explosive skills, the line was disproportionately weighted to favor bombs and

grenades to the exclusion of other Power-damage options. We want this line to

have a few viable options for builds that don't go all-in on these kits while

still having an explosive theme where appropriate. The traits Siege Rounds,

Thermobaric Detonation, and Explosive Powder have been removed, and the Shaped

Charge trait has been moved to the Grandmaster minor slot due to its passive

functionality. Several new traits have been added to replace the lost traits,

and some adjustments have been made to enhancement skills that suffered a loss

of effectiveness due to the removal of these traits. The Tools line was

suffering from poor options at its Grandmaster tier, so we've reworked Kinetic

Battery and Gadgeteer to smooth out their gameplay patterns.

 

Utility Skills:

 

- Weapon Kits and Device Kits are now referred to as Engineering Kits to

reflect that their classifications are functionally the same.

 

- Removed the delay on gyro skills before they can be detonated.

 

- Turret Detonate Skills: Fixed a bug that caused these skills to count as

toolbelt skills for the purposes of traits.

 

- Toss Elixir X (Underwater): Fixed incorrect duration skill facts when this

skill is traited with HGH.

 

- Personal Battering Ram: This skill now uses the ammo system. Ammo count has

been set to 2, with a 25-second count recharge. There is a 5-second recharge

between each use.

 

- Rocket Boots: This skill now uses the ammo system. Ammo count has been set

to 2, with a 20-second count recharge. There is a 2-second recharge between

each use.

 

- A.E.D.: This skill now removes confusion in addition to its previous

removals.

 

- Throw Mine: Added a missing skill fact for the number of boons removed.

 

- Mortar Kit: Fixed a bug that caused the effects for these skills to play

incorrectly on WvW walls and doors.

 

- Poison Gas Shell: Increased poison duration from 2.5 seconds to 3

seconds. Increased field duration from 4 seconds to 5 seconds.

 

- Endothermic Shell: Increased field duration from 4 seconds to 5 seconds.

 

- Flash Shell: Increased field duration from 4 seconds to 5 seconds.

 

- Elixir Shell: Increased field duration from 4 seconds to 5 seconds.

 

Traits:

 

- Explosive Descent: This trait has been removed and its functionality merged

with Grenadier. It has been replaced with Blasting Zone. Fixed an incorrect

number of grenades in the skill fact.

 

- Grenadier: This trait now reduces falling damage by 50% and causes you to

drop grenades when taking falling damage, in addition to its previous

functionality.

 

- Blasting Zone: This trait replaces Explosive Descent, grants +120 Power at

level 80, and causes your blast finishers to grant 1 stack of might for 20

seconds.

 

- Alchemical Tinctures: This trait no longer grants boon duration; it now

grants up to 240 Concentration at level 80.

 

- Explosive Powder: This trait has been removed from the game. It has been

replaced by Shaped Charge. Some explosion skills have had their damage

increased to compensate.

 

- Throw Mine: Increased damage by 20%.

 

- Booby Trap: Increased damage by 10%.

 

- Rocket Turret Overcharge: Increased damage by 10%.

 

- Shrapnel Grenade: Increased damage by 14%.

 

- Big Ol' Bomb: Increased damage by 10%.

 

- Fire Bomb: Increased damage by 14%.

 

- Grenade Barrage: Increased damage by 20%.

 

- Bunker Down: Increased damage by 10%.

 

- Shaped Charge: This trait has been moved to the Grandmaster minor slot. It

has been replaced with Big Boomer.

 

- Evasive Powder Keg: Removed internal cooldown.

 

- Big Boomer: This trait replaces the slot left open by Shaped Charge. It

converts 5% of Power to Vitality and 5% of Power to Ferocity.

 

- Thermobaric Detonation: This trait has been removed. It has been replaced

with Minesweeper.

 

- Minesweeper: This trait upgrades Evasive Powder Keg to drop a series of

mines along the dodge path instead of a single bomb.

 

- Siege Rounds: This trait has been removed. It has been replaced with Orbital

Command. The duration of fields created by Mortar Kit skills has been

increased to compensate.

 

- Orbital Command: This trait invokes an orbital strike when striking a foe

below 50% health and has a 15-second recharge.

 

- Reactive Lenses: This now uses the traited version of Utility Goggles when

Gadgeteer is equipped.

 

- Lock On: Added functionality. This trait will now also analyze foes that you

disable. Disable analyze and stealth analyze are two separate skills with

individual recharges.

 

- Excessive Energy: This trait now grants its bonus damage when you are not at

full endurance.

 

- Kinetic Battery: This trait has been reworked. It now generates kinetic

charges whenever a toolbelt skill is used. At 5 charges, gain quickness and

superspeed for 5 seconds. Charges can only be generated while in combat but

do not expire until 5 stacks is reached or the trait is unequipped.

 

- Gadgeteer: This trait has been reworked. It no longer requires static

charges and always enhances your gadgets as long as it is equipped. Gadget

recharge bonus has been reduced to 20%. Fixed a bug that prevented enhanced

skills from displaying their bonuses properly in the trait preview. Specific

gadget enhancements have been adjusted as follows:

 

- A.E.D.: When fatal damage is prevented, this skill now grants shocking

aura in addition to its previous effects.

 

- Throw Mine: Increased radius has been removed. This now causes you to

drop a second mine at your location when cast.

 

- Utility Goggles: Increased might gain from 3 stacks to 5 stacks.

 

- Slick Shoes: This skill now inflicts cripple when it knocks down

foes, in addition to its previous effects.

 

- Rocket Boots: This skill now grants superspeed after landing, in

addition to its previous effects.

 

- Personal Battering Ram: This skill is now considered an explosion and

inflicts burning, in addition to its previous effects.

 

- Pinpoint Distribution: Fixed an incorrect skill fact that listed this trait

as providing Precision instead of Condition Damage.

 

###### *Guardian*

 

The addition of the ammo system also allows us to rework some old skill types.

In this case, something we've long wanted to do—Spirit Weapons. These skills now

immediately summon a weapon that performs a single, powerful skill and then

vanishes. We also revisited some of the older skills and traits that have gone

largely untouched in recent years to update them on the back end and smooth out

some of their functionality. One example of this is Zealot's Flame, which felt

somewhat random in its burn application, so we've smoothed out the burning

around you to pulse every second. In this update, we've also seized the

opportunity to review a couple of trait lines, adjusting and reworking the Zeal

and Radiance specializations.

 

Weapon Skills:

 

- Zealot's Flame: Reduced burning duration from 6 seconds to 3 seconds. Rather

than burning once every 3 seconds after the initial cast, it now burns every

second as long as the enhancement persists. Fixed a bug that could prevent

the application of burning to nearby enemies after the initial cast.

 

- Faithful Strike: The Healing Power contribution for this skill has been

unsplit from PvP and will use the 100% increase in all game types.

 

- Zealot's Defense: Fixed a bug that caused this skill to continue blocking

even if the skill was canceled.

 

- Wave of Wrath: Reduced the range from 600 to 300. Increased the attack angle

from 90 degrees to 110 degrees to better line up with its effect.

 

- Orb of Light: Reduced the extended recharge time of this skill when

detonating the orb of light from 400% to 300%. Detonating the orb of light

now grants light aura to allies, in addition to its previous effects. This

skill has been unsplit from PvP and will use the 20% higher heal scaling in

all game types.

 

- Empower: This skill now grants healing per pulse in addition to might. It

will now heal for 17% of the previous healing value for 3 ticks and then 50%

at the skill's end.

 

- Line of Warding: This skill has been unsplit from PvP and how has a

30-second recharge in all game modes.

 

Utility Skills:

 

- Spirit Weapons: Spirit weapons have been reworked. They now use the ammo

system.

 

- Hammer of Wisdom: This now has an ammo count of 2, and using the skill

orders the hammer to knock down your foe. Count recharge is 30 seconds.

 

- Bow of Truth: This now has an ammo count of 2, and using the skill

barrages an area with healing arrows. Count recharge is 30 seconds.

 

- Shield of the Avenger: This now has an ammo count of 3, and using the

skill creates a protective dome and flings projectiles at nearby

enemies. Count recharge is 25 seconds.

 

- Sword of Justice: This now has an ammo count of 3, and using the skill

targets an area for the sword to repeatedly attack. Count recharge is 25

seconds.

 

- Bane Signet: Fixed a bug with this skill when attempting to use it on a

target behind you.

 

- Hold the Line!: This skill has been unsplit from PvP and will use the

increased 6-second duration in all game types.

 

- Fragments of Faith: The detonation effect of this trap is no longer

unblockable.

 

Traits:

 

- Justice Is Blind: This trait now grants you light aura when you activate

Virtue of Justice, in addition to its previous effects.

 

- Radiant Fire: Fixed a bug with this trait in which it would fail to apply

burning to nearby enemies when triggered.

 

- Retribution: This trait now grants Ferocity while you have retaliation, in

addition to its previous effect.

 

- Zealous Scepter: This trait now also grants 1 stack of might for 10 seconds

if you are using a nonscepter weapon when it triggers.

 

- Expeditious Spirits: This trait has been reworked and renamed Eternal

Armory. Eternal Armory increases the maximum ammo count of Spirit Weapon

skills while reducing their recharge and causes strikes from Spirit Weapons

to inflict burning.

 

- Symbolic Avenger: This trait now converts 13% of your Toughness into Power,

in addition to its previous effect.

 

- Radiant Retaliation: This trait has been reworked and renamed

Righteous Instincts. Righteous Instincts increases your chance to critically

strike and grants 1 stack of might for 6 seconds every second while you have

retaliation.

 

- Symbolic Exposure: Increased the stacks of vulnerability inflicted by this

trait from 1 stack to 3 stacks and the vulnerability duration from 3 seconds

to 5 seconds.

 

- Invigorated Bulwark: This trait has been reworked. It now grants increased

outgoing healing percentage when you block and no longer requires you to

wield a mace. This trait also reduces the recharge of mace skills and

increases the duration of boons granted by mace skills.

 

- Perfect Inscriptions: This no longer grants light aura but instead shares

the passive effects of the activated signets with your allies.

 

- Honorable Staff: This trait now grants up to 200 Concentration at level 80,

regardless of weapon wielded. Removed increased boon duration while wielding

a staff.

 

- Protector's Impact: This trait now casts Lesser Symbol of Protection when

you use your healing skill in addition to when you take falling damage, and

it has a recharge of 20 seconds. Fixed a bug that caused the falling damage

reduction to not function while Lesser Symbol of Protection was recharging.

 

- Healer's Retribution: Fixed a bug that was preventing this trait from

granting retaliation when using Purification.

 

###### *Mesmer*

 

In addition to being integrated into the new ammo system, mesmer mantras are

seeing a comprehensive overhaul. When we took a look at the traits available to

mantras, we found that harmonious mantras and restorative mantras had

conflicting purposes. Restorative mantras are most effective when you are

restocking your mantra charges, but harmonious mantras made it harder to do

this. With new mantras in the upcoming firebrand specialization, we wanted to

make sure that mesmer mantras had gameplay that was unique to them. Our decision

was to focus mesmer mantras on combat casting, which meant removing harmonious

mantras and adding additional bonuses to mesmer mantras when they are fully

restocked. The removal of harmonious mantras also allowed us to make the active

effects stronger since we no longer had to worry about the balance skewing that

adding a third cast would create. Removing harmonious mantras also gave us space

to build a new Dueling Grandmaster trait that favors Precision builds.

 

Profession:

 

- Cry of Frustration: Fixed the vigor skill fact that appears when Bountiful

Disillusionment is present so that the correct 8-second vigor duration is

indicated.

 

- Illusionary Warlock: Fixed a bug that caused this phantasm's attack to not

increase in damage against foes with certain conditions.

 

- Illusionary Berserker: The attack from this phantasm now has a consistent

move distance and is unaffected by enhancements that change movement speed.

 

- Continuum Split: Fixed a bug that could cause this skill to go on a

longer-than-expected recharge when traited with Master of Misdirection.

 

Weapon Skills:

 

- Phantasmal Berserker: Fixed a bug that caused this skill to not display

legendary-weapon projectile effects.

 

- Spatial Surge: Slightly increased its beam width.

 

- Blurred Frenzy: This skill now goes on full cooldown if it is canceled.

 

- The Prestige: This skill now removes 1 condition when activated.

 

Utility Skills:

 

- Signet of the Ether: Increased the healing rate to once per second instead

of once per 3 seconds. The healing per pulse has been reduced to preserve

approximate healing per second.

 

- Mantras: Mantra skills will no longer display their number of charges in the

enhancement bar and will instead use the ammo system. Reduced cast time by

0.5 seconds. Mantras no longer grant bonus Toughness while channeling. Ammo

count has been set to 2. Recharges between casts have not changed.

 

- Mantra of Recovery: When fully charged, this skill now heals for a small

amount.

 

- Power Return: Count recharge has been set to 20 seconds. Lowered base

healing by approximately 33%. Heal amount is increased while below 50%

health.

 

- Mantra of Concentration: Reduced recharge to 15 seconds. Count recharge

has been set to 30 seconds. When fully charged, grants a stack of

stability and aegis for 5 seconds.

 

- Power Break: Removed unnecessary range skill fact. Cleaned up ambiguous

language about stun breaks.

 

- Mantra of Distraction: When fully charged, this skill reduces the

recharge of Diversion by 15 seconds.

 

- Power Lock: Count recharge has been set to 24 seconds. Updated skill

description to reflect that this skill hits multiple targets.

 

- Mantra of Pain: When fully charged, gain 8 stacks of might for 5

seconds.

 

- Power Spike: Count recharge has been set to 10 seconds. Inflicts 5

stacks of vulnerability for 8 seconds on foes not using skills. Updated

the skill description to reflect that this skill his multiple targets.

 

- Mantra of Resolve: Reduced recharge to 12 seconds. When fully charged,

gain resistance for 2 seconds.

 

- Power Cleanse: Count recharge has been set to 24 seconds. Increased the

number of conditions removed from 2 to 3. Added an effect to indicate

skill area.

 

- Arcane Thievery: This skill has been unsplit and now has a 25-second

recharge in all game modes.

 

- Signet of Midnight: The signet's active effect now grants stealth for 2

seconds but no longer applies vulnerability or cripple. The recharge has

been increased from 25 seconds to 30 seconds.

 

Traits:

 

- Harmonious Mantras: This trait has been removed from the game.

 

- Superiority Complex: This trait replaces Harmonious Mantras and increases

critical-hit damage by 15%. This bonus is further increased to 25% against

foes below 50% health or foes who become disabled by stun, daze, taunt,

fear, knockdown, etc.

 

- Mistrust: This trait has been removed from the game.

 

- Ineptitude: This trait has been moved to the Grandmaster trait line in

Dueling, to the slot previously taken by Mistrust, and its effects have

changed. This trait now causes interrupts to inflict blind for 5 seconds,

and applies blind to inflict 2 stacks of confusion for 5 seconds.

 

- Phantasmal Force: This trait replaces the slot left open by Ineptitude and

has the following effect: Phantasms gain a 1% damage boost whenever might is

applied to them, and a 4% damage boost whenever they attack (maximum bonus

25%). This bonus damage lasts until the phantasm is destroyed.

 

- Restorative Mantras: Fixed a bug that caused this trait to show incorrect

values based on the player's Healing-Power multiplier. Lowered base

multiplier by 37%. Increased Healing-Power multiplier by 25%.

 

- Persistence of Memory: This trait has been reworked. It now causes shattered

phantasms to transfer their boons to the mesmer.

 

- The Pledge: This trait now grants a flat 20% recharge reduction but no

longer causes torch skills to remove conditions. Instead, it causes torch

skills to apply an additional stack of burning. (Does not affect phantasm

attacks.)

 

- Mender's Purity: This trait now casts Lesser Power Cleanse, which removes 1

condition from you and nearby allies. Fixed a bug that could cause this

trait to put Mantra of Resolve on recharge. This trait now shows an effect

to indicate its radius.

 

- Chaotic Dampening: This trait now grants a flat 20% recharge reduction to

staff and trident skills instead of scaling the recharge reduction with

Chaos Armor. Fixed a bug that caused this trait to grant an unlisted 50

Toughness while wielding a staff or trident.

 

- Descent into Madness: The skill fired by this trait has been renamed to

Lesser Chaos Storm. This trait now casts Lesser Chaos Storm when you use

your healing skill in addition to when you take falling damage.

 

###### *Necromancer*

 

One of the biggest changes for necromancers in this patch is the change to the

Vital Persistence trait. Previously, this trait reduced the rate at which life

force decayed while in shroud and was too powerful compared to the other two

traits in the same tier. We've changed the functionality of this trait in order

to provide a different option that is easier to track and is more competitive

with other traits in the same tier. The Lich Form elite skill has also received

a significant update and had most of its functionality overhauled to better

position it as a power-based option that can complement Plaguelands. One other

major change was to the Signets of Suffering trait in the Spite line, which

previously was competing with Spiteful Spirit as a boon-corruption option. We've

reworked this trait to more directly benefit signet skills and increase the

boon-corruption power of Spiteful Spirit a bit for players who want that

functionality.

 

Profession:

 

- Infusing Terror: Updated the description of this skill to clarify the

damage-reduction component.

 

Weapon Skills:

 

- Life Siphon: This skill has been unsplit from PvP and now uses the higher

healing value in all game modes. Fixed a bug that caused this skill to go on

higher (normal) recharge when interrupted while Quickening Thirst is

equipped.

 

- Dark Pact: This skill has been unsplit from PvP and now uses the higher

damage value in all game modes.

 

Utility Skills:

 

- Spectral Walk: Removed one of the unique enhancements from visibility

because it had no function. Increased duration from 8 seconds to 10 seconds.

 

- Spectral Armor: Increased duration from 6 seconds to 8 seconds.

 

- Spectral Wall: Increased duration from 5 seconds to 6 seconds.

 

- Spectral Grasp: This skill now fires at the necromancer's original target

and up to 4 other enemies within a 1,200 range. Increased the recharge from

20 seconds to 50 seconds. This skill has been unsplit from PvP and now

functions the same in all game modes.

 

- Lich Form: This skill has had a functionality rework for many of its skills.

Its active duration has been increased from 15 seconds to 20 seconds.

 

- Marked for Death: This skill has been renamed to Lich's Gaze. The

functionality of this skill has been reworked and will now fire a bolt

of dark energy at a random, nearby enemy that cripples for 2 seconds and

applies vulnerability for 10 seconds. This skill uses the new ammo

system, with an ammo count of 5 and a count recharge of 1.5 seconds.

There is a 0.1-second recharge between each use.

 

- Chilling Wind: This skill has been renamed to Ripple of Horror. The lich

will now fire a wave of terrible power that fears enemies struck by it

for 2 seconds. Grants access to March of Undeath while the wave is

active.

 

- March of Undeath: Shadowstep to your Ripple of Horror, destroying

it.

 

- Mark of Horror: This skill has been renamed to Summon Madness. This

skill no longer requires a ground target. Upon casting, minions will

spawn every second for the next 8 seconds. Minions spawned have been

changed from Jagged Horrors to a new Unstable Horror. Unstable Horrors

have a low health pool and will explode after 6 seconds if they are not

killed, dealing damage in a 180 radius around them.

 

- Grim Specter: This skill has been reworked to no longer clear conditions

from allies or boons from enemies. This skill now tethers up to 5 nearby

enemies, drawing Vitality to the lich. The lich gains up to 30 Vitality

per stack for 20 seconds, life-stealing each pulse. Enemy players struck

by this skill have their Vitality reduced by an equivalent amount for

the same duration.

 

- Shadow Fiend: Increased damage of basic attack by 50%. Increased damage of

Haunt skill by 33%, and fixed an incorrect skill description. Haunt now

applies chilled for 3 seconds and weakness for 5 seconds, in addition to

blind.

 

- Plague Signet: Updated skill facts to clarify that this skill's passive

effect transfers 1 condition every 3 seconds from allies to yourself.

 

- Signet of Spite: When activated, this skill now inflicts 2 stacks of torment

for 6 seconds, in addition to its previous active effects.

 

Traits:

 

- Soul Eater: This trait has had its functionality changed. It now reduces the

recharge of greatsword skills by 20%. Additionally, it grants healing and

life force every second while in combat and wielding a greatsword

 

- Spectral Mastery: Duration increase has been reduced from 50% to 20%.

 

- Spiteful Spirit: Fixed a bug that caused this trait to be nonfunctional

while underwater. Fixed a bug that prevented this trait from granting

retaliation. Fixed a bug that caused this trait to fail to display the

number of boons converted. Increased the number of boons converted from 1 to

2.

 

- Chill of Death: The skill fired by this trait has been renamed to Lesser

Spinal Shivers.

 

- Terrifying Descent: This trait now also inflicts 1 stack of torment for 3

seconds on foes you fear, in addition to its previous functionality. The

skill activated when taking falling damage has been named Lesser Terrify.

 

- Spiteful Renewal: This trait now triggers when you use a healing skill

instead of when striking a low-health foe.

 

- Signets of Suffering: This trait has been reworked to have the following

functionality: Signets have a 20% reduced recharge and their passive

abilities are improved. Signet passive effects are preserved while in a

shroud.

 

- Signet of Vampirism: Healing when struck has been increased by

approximately 50%.

 

- Plague Signet: The number of conditions drawn per interval has been

increased from 1 to 2.

 

- Signet of Spite: Increased Power to 270 at level 80.

 

- Signet of the Locust: Grants an additional 180 Healing Power at level

80.

 

- Signet of Undeath: Life-force gain per interval has been increased from

2% to 3%.

 

- Ritual of Life: This trait no longer improves revive speed. The skill cast

by this trait has been renamed Lesser Well of Blood. This trait now causes

Well of Blood and Lesser Well of Blood to revive allies by 7% each pulse.

 

- Life from Death: Increased the revive amount to 10%. Increased healing by

25%.

 

- Vampiric Rituals: This skill has been unsplit from PvP and now provides 5

seconds of protection in all game modes. Increased life-stealing values by

approximately 100%.

 

- Speed of Shadows: This trait has been reworked, now grants 10 seconds of

swiftness, and removes all movement-impairing conditions when you enter a

shroud.

 

- Vital Persistence: This trait no longer slows shroud decay but instead

grants bonus Vitality and reduces the recharge of shroud skills by 20%.

 

###### *Ranger*

 

With this release, we've aimed to update numerous traits for readability and

synergy within each line. Included in these changes are some quality-of-life

updates, such as syncing pet-swap trait cooldowns with the cooldown pet swap, as

well as major revisions to some traits like Most Dangerous Game and Empathic

Bond. While revisiting traits, we also reviewed the ranger's signets with an eye

on encouraging player choice of whether to activate the signet or retain the

passive benefits by ensuring the actives are not merely a temporarily better

version of the passive.

 

Profession:

 

- Celestial Avatar: Fixed a bug that was causing druids in Celestial Avatar

form to lose access to their energy and transformation if they were frozen

by Ice Storm (in Bitterfrost Frontier).

 

- Drake: Fixed a bug causing the Tail Swipe skill to display a smaller radius

than the actual skill; it now correctly displays the larger radius of 280.

 

Weapon Skills:

 

- Maul: Fixed a bug in which the damage was being incorrectly updated when

traited with Two-Handed Training.

 

- Swoop: Changed the range skill fact from 1,100 to 1,000 to better reflect

the actual range of this skill (no functionality change).

 

- Hilt Bash: Fixed a bug that was occasionally causing this skill to miss at

near maximum range or strike a target behind you.

 

- Winter's Bite: Unsplit this skill from PvP. The higher 150% damage will now

be used in all game types.

 

- Ancestral Grace: This skill now grants your pet protection for 3 seconds.

Fixed a bug in which the player's backpack would still be shown while

moving.

 

Utility Skills:

 

- Signet of Renewal: Reduced the recharge of this skill from 60 seconds to 50

seconds. The old passive effect of removing a single condition every 10

seconds has been replaced with Signet of the Wild's, in which you and your

pet recover health constantly. The active effect now grants resistance to

your pet for 2 seconds when they take conditions from nearby allies to

themselves.

 

- Signet of Stone: Added additional tooltip information to indicate how much

Toughness is gained from the passive of this skill.

 

- Signet of the Hunt: Increased the recharge of this skill from 30 seconds to

40 seconds. The old active effect of increasing the damage of your and your

pet's next strike has been replaced with making your and your pet's attacks

unblockable for 6 seconds.

 

- Signet of the Wild: Reduced the recharge of this skill from 60 seconds to 40

seconds. The cast time of this skill has been reduced by 0.25 seconds. The

old passive of recovering health constantly has been moved to Signet of

Renewal and replaced with improved Ferocity for you and your pet. The old

active of gaining stability and increased damage has been replaced and now

immobilizes nearby foes for several seconds.

 

- Strength of the Pack: Removed a tooltip that was no longer relevant.

 

- Glyphs: Fixed a bug in which being transformed while in the Celestial Avatar

state would leave your glyphs in that mode.

 

- Muddy Terrain: This skill now inflicts slow for 1 second every pulse, in

addition to cripple. This change also applies to the version of the skill

fired by the trait Soften the Fall.

 

Traits:

 

- Opening Strike: This trait now grants Opening Strike to both you and your

pet, rather than to just you.

 

- Enlargement: This trait has been replaced with Stoneform. Stoneform casts

Lesser Signet of Stone when your health drops below the 50% health

threshold, granting you temporary immunity to damage from attacks.

 

- Predator's Instinct: This trait has been replaced with Hunter's

Gaze. Hunter's Gaze grants you varying amounts of might when striking a foe

based on their health percentage.

 

- Clarion Bond: This trait now casts Lesser Call of the Wild when you swap

pets. Lesser Call of the Wild has a shorter cooldown and grants shorter

duration enhancements than Call of the Wild.

 

- Alpha Training: This trait has been replaced with Alpha Focus. Alpha Focus

causes your opening strike to inflict cripple for 2 seconds.

 

- Brutish Seals: This trait has been reworked. It no longer grants

might. Brutish Seals now grants 6 seconds of fury to allies around you when

using a signet and reduces the recharge of your signets.

 

- Most Dangerous Game: This trait has been replaced by Vicious Quarry. Vicious

Quarry causes fury on you, granting increased Ferocity, as well as an

additional critical-strike chance, and grants 4 seconds of fury when you are

struck while below 75% health.

 

- Natural Vigor: The endurance recovery granted by this trait has been

increased from 20% to 25%.

 

- Expertise Training: This trait has been renamed and reworked to Taste for

Danger. It now grants increased Vitality and converts 7% of Vitality into

Expertise for both you and your pet.

 

- Bark Skin: This trait has been replaced with Rugged Growth. Rugged Growth

heals you or your pet while they have protection.

 

- Empathic Bond: This trait has been reworked and now splits the duration of

conditions applied to you between you and your pet.

 

- Rejuvenation: The internal cooldown of this trait has been reduced from 18

seconds to 10 seconds.

 

- Instinctive Reaction: This trait no longer grants Power based on your

Healing Power. You and your pet now convert 7% of your Power into Healing

Power.

 

- Vigorous Training: This trait has been renamed Spirited Arrival. Grant vigor

and fury to nearby allies for 8 seconds when you swap pets.

 

- Lingering Magic: This trait no longer grants boon duration. It now grants up

to 240 Concentration at level 80 to both you and your pet.

 

- Go for the Eyes: Removed increased pet Toughness.

 

- Zephyr's Speed: This trait now casts Lesser Quickening Zephyr when you swap

pets. Lesser Quickening Zephyr is not a stun break, has a shorter cooldown,

and grants shorter duration enhancements than Quickening Zephyr.

 

- Companion's Might: This trait has been replaced with Potent Ally. Potent

Ally grants 1 stack of might for 6 seconds to you or your pet when the other

one critically strikes a foe.

 

- Natural Healing: Removed the pet Healing-Power increase. Increased the pulse

interval from 1 second to 3 seconds. Increased the healing amount to retain

overall healing per second.

 

- Soften the Fall: This trait now casts Lesser Muddy Terrain when you use your

healing skill, in addition to when you take falling damage.

 

- Lead the Wind: Fixed a bug that prevented this trait from updating longbow

skills with the Pierces skill fact.

 

###### *Revenant*

 

Inspiring Reinforcement felt lacking in its stability generation because you

still had to wait for the skill to complete before gaining stability. We've

changed it to immediately grant stability to the caster so you have the

opportunity to prevent crowd control before it lands. The Retribution trait

line's identity was centered around Sustain and was somewhat lacking in synergy;

a couple trait reworks here are intended to create some interplay with

retaliation and stability. The Devastation line and the Legendary Assassin

stance have been about Power damage and seizing initiative, and we've pushed a

few modifications here to help Power builds and offer revenants more control on

when their traits come into play.

 

Weapon Skills:

 

- Hammer Bolt: Fixed a bug that allowed this skill to hit foes beyond its

maximum range.

 

- Echoing Eruption: This skill now leaps to a target, if there is one.

Increased the leap distance traveled by 25%. Fixed a bug causing this skill

to display the incorrect range.

 

- Shackling Wave: Increased damage by 66%. This attack now inflicts 8 stacks

of vulnerability for 5 seconds. The range has been increased from 300 to

450.

 

- Grasping Shadow: Increased damage by 25%. The fury duration has been

increased from 6 seconds to 8 seconds.

 

Utility Skills:

 

- Protective Solace: Fixed a bug with this skill's tooltip displaying the

incorrect radius.

 

- Inspiring Reinforcement: This skill has been unsplit from PvP, reducing the

energy cost of this skill from 35 to 30 in all game types.

 

- Vengeful Hammers: Added a third hammer and reduced damage by 33% to preserve

approximate damage per second. Changed the base function of this skill so

you can no longer lose projectiles as a result of passing too close to

uneven terrain. This skill has been unsplit from PvP, using the increased

healing values in all game types.

 

- Energy Expulsion: Increased the duration of fragments created by this skill

from 5 seconds to 10 seconds.

 

- Enchanted Daggers: Increased damage by 20%.

 

- Riposting Shadows: This skill now grants 6 seconds of fury when activated.

 

- Impossible Odds: This skill now grants 10% increased damage for its duration

in addition to its existing effects.

 

- Jade Winds: This skill now inflicts 6 stacks of vulnerability for 6 seconds

on each foe struck, in addition to its existing effects.

 

- Soothing Stone: This skill now grants 5 seconds of retaliation when used,

rather than scaling retaliation based on the number of conditions removed.

 

Traits:

 

- Abyssal Chill: Fixed a bug that affected how this trait displays its torment

skill fact.

 

- Nefarious Momentum: Increased the might granted when using an

assassin-stance skill from 2 to 3 stacks. This trait now grants 2 stacks of

might for 10 seconds when using a nonassassin stance skill.

 

- Mutilate Defenses: This trait now has a chance to inflict vulnerability when

you critically strike rather than on any strike. The chance to inflict

vulnerability has been increased from 25% to 33%, and the duration of

vulnerability has been increased from 4 seconds to 6 seconds.

 

- Empowering Vengeance: This trait has been reworked and renamed Vicious

Reprisal. Vicious Reprisal increases the duration of retaliation applied to

you by 50% and causes your attacks to do 10% increased damage, granting 1

stack of might for 8 seconds as long as you have retaliation.

 

- Improved Aggression: This trait has been split and now increases taunt

duration by 100% in PvE and 25% in WvW and PvP. It now also grants 2 seconds

of retaliation when taunting a foe.

 

- Versed in Stone: This trait now also converts 13% of your Toughness into

Power.

 

- Determined Resolution: This trait has been reworked and now reduces the

damage you take while you have stability by 15%, and increases the duration

of stability you apply by 33%.

 

- Hardened Foundation: This trait has been reworked and now grants up to 120

Toughness, converting 7% of your Toughness into Healing Power.

 

- Natural Abundance: Increased the duration of fragments from this trait from

5 seconds to 10 seconds.

 

- Hardening Persistence: Fixed an issue in PvP where this trait was not

granting the proper amount of Toughness when using Facet of Light.

 

- Planar Protection: This trait now casts Dome of the Mists when you use your

healing skill in addition to when you take falling damage. Increased Dome of

the Mists's recharge from 5 seconds to 20 seconds.

 

- Envoy of Sustenance: This trait no longer grants boon duration. It now

grants up to 240 Concentration at level 80.

 

- Venom Enhancement: Increased the poison application of this trait from 1

stack to 2 stacks.

 

- Focused Siphoning: Increased damage dealt by 20%.

 

- Malicious Reprisal: This trait now triggers when you block an attack as well

as when your attacks are blocked. The unblockable attacks from this trait

now deal 25% increased damage. This trait has swapped positions with Jade

Echo and moved to the Master tier. Reduced recharge from 30 seconds to 20

seconds.

 

- Assassin's Annihilation: Increased damage dealt by 20%.

 

- Enduring Recovery: This trait no longer grants a chance to recover endurance

every 10 seconds when struck. Instead, it now grants a constant 25%

increased endurance recovery, as long as the trait is equipped.

 

- Jade Echo: This trait has swapped positions with Malicious Reprisal and

moved to the Adept tier. Renamed the skill fired by this trait to Lesser

Jade Winds.

 

- Assassin's Presence: Increased the Ferocity bonus granted by this trait to

225 at level 80.

 

- Dwarven Battle Training: The chance to apply weakness has been increased to

100%.

 

- Dismantle Fortifications: This trait now grants 5 stacks of might for 5

seconds when you attempt to disable a foe with stability, in addition to its

previous effects.

 

- Steadfast Rejuvenation: Increased the chance for healing to occur to 100%.

Increased healing by 25%.

 

###### *Thief*

 

The Daredevil specialization has largely taken over the Power-based gameplay

that used to be the domain of the sword, so we are giving sword (and

sword-related traits) an enhancement in order to ensure it has some unique

utility to offer. Tricks and signets are also receiving several changes to help

them compete with the very powerful utility skills offered by deceptions and

physicals. Finally, we are also reassessing some traits that we felt were either

lacking in power or not offering enough diversity in choice.

 

Profession:

 

- Stolen Skills:

 

- Skull Fear: Added a missing unblockable skill fact.

 

- Consume Plasma: Increased the duration of stability granted by this

skill from 3 seconds to 5 seconds. This skill now also grants quickness

for 2.5 seconds.

 

- Throw Gunk: This skill is now targeted instead of ground targeted when

used underwater. Updated the skill facts to show the correct number of

hits.

 

Weapon Skills:

 

- Infiltrator's Strike: This skill now grants 3 seconds of swiftness when

cast, in addition to its previous effects.

 

- Infiltrator's Return: Lowered the aftercast by 0.2 seconds.

 

- Larcenous Strike: This skill now deals 20% bonus damage to boonless foes.

This damage is calculated after the boon strip takes place.

 

- Flanking Strike (Sword Attack): This attack is now unblockable.

 

- Flanking Strike (Spear Attack): This skill has been renamed to Flanking

Dive, to eliminate confusion with similarly named skills and traits.

 

- Tactical Strike: This skill has been unsplit and now dazes for 2 seconds in

all game modes when attacking from behind. Increased the damage by 33%.

 

- Dancing Dagger: Now applies 1 stack of torment for 6 seconds, in addition to

its previous effects.

 

- Pistol Whip: Increased the stun duration to 0.75 seconds. Added an

additional warning effect to Warmup. Reduced the number of flurry hits from

8 to 4, to match the animation. Flurry damage has been increased by 100% to

compensate.

 

Utility Skills:

 

- Distracting Daggers: This skill now uses the ammo system. Ammo count has

been set to 3 with a count recharge of 20 seconds. There is a 1-second

recharge between uses.

 

- Haste: Lowered the recharge from 50 seconds to 30 seconds. Now grants

swiftness for 6 seconds, in addition to its previous effects.

 

- Roll for Initiative: Lowered the recharge from 60 seconds to 35 seconds.

 

- Signet of Shadows: The active effect now applies weakness and 10 stacks of

vulnerability for 5 seconds, in addition to blind. This skill now requires a

target before it will activate. This skill will no longer activate and do

nothing if it is cast on a target out of range.

 

- Thieves Guild: The thieves summoned by this skill will now use chatter lines

that match their race. Increased the number of thieves summoned to 3.

 

- Ambush: The thieves summoned by this skill will now use chatter lines that

match their race.

 

- Dagger Storm: Reduced the duration from 8 seconds to 4 seconds, but doubled

the number of daggers thrown. Now gives 1 stack of stability for 6 seconds

on activation instead of pulsing stacks. This skill now increases movement

speed by 100% while activated. Changed the system that limited hits on the

same target to be more consistent for multiple thieves using the skill at

the same time.

 

- Assassin's Signet: The active skill of this signet now triples the Power

bonus of the passive for 5 seconds. Reduced the recharge from 40 seconds to

30 seconds.

 

- Hide in Shadows: Fixed a bug in which this skill was not receiving increased

stealth duration from Meld with Shadows.

 

Traits:

 

- Improvisation: Updated the text description to refer to Stolen Skills

instead of Stolen Items. The skill-recharge portion of this trait now has a

20-second internal cooldown.

 

- Hidden Killer: This trait now grants a lingering 100% critical-hit chance

enhancement for 2 seconds when you are revealed from stealth in addition to

its previous functionality.

 

- Flanking Strikes (Trait): This trait has been renamed to Burst of Agility to

eliminate confusion with the similarly named attack skills. The version of

haste activated by this trait has been renamed to Lesser Haste. Lesser Haste

now grants swiftness for 6 seconds in addition to its previous effects.

 

- Pain Response: This trait now removes confusion in addition to its other

effects.

 

- Swindler's Equilibrium: Increased bonus damage to 10%. Increased internal

cooldown from 1 second to 20 seconds. This trait now fully recharges steal

when the conditions are met instead of recharging it by 1 second.

 

- Side Strikes: This trait has been removed, and its effects have been

combined with Flawless Strikes. It has been replaced with Assassin's Fury.

 

- Assassin's Fury: This trait grants 3 stacks of might for 8 seconds whenever

you gain fury and has a 2-second internal cooldown.

 

- Flawless Strikes: This trait has been renamed to Twin Fangs and now causes

attacks from behind or beside to have 7% bonus critical-hit chance in

addition to its previous functionality.

 

- Signets of Power: This trait no longer grants might when a signet is cast.

Instead, it causes all signets to have a second passive effect. The

additional passive varies per signet.

 

- Signet of Malice: Heal on kill.

 

- Assassin's Signet: Gain 2 stacks of might for 5 seconds on kill.

 

- Infiltrator's Signet: Regain 1 initiative on kill.

 

- Signet of Agility: Regain 10 endurance on kill.

 

- Signet of Shadows: Gain 2 seconds stealth on kill (no effect if already

stealthed).

 

- Cloaked in Shadow: The falling damage component of this trait has been moved

to Last Refuge. This trait now makes you immune to critical hits while in

stealth in addition to blinding nearby foes when you stealth. The blind

applied by this trait can now be blocked or evaded.

 

- Last Refuge: The blinding powder cast by this skill has been renamed to

Lesser Blinding Powder. This trait now also causes you to cast Lesser

Blinding Powder when you take fall damage and reduces falling damage in

addition to its previous functionality. Fixed a bug that caused Lesser

Blinding Powder to be considered a trick instead of a deception.

 

- Endless Stamina: This trait now grants a +240 Concentration at level 80 in

addition to its previous effects.

 

- Don't Stop: This trait has been reworked and now causes incoming

movement-impairing conditions have 80% reduced duration while you have

swiftness. Additionally, when you gain swiftness it removes one

movement-impairing condition.

 

###### *Warrior*

 

In addition to moving some utility skills to the new ammo system, we're also

taking a look at the Strength and Arms trait lines. These lines have several

adjustments aimed at making each choice more meaningful and less conflicting

with other choices in the same tier while also focusing the purpose of each

trait line into areas that make the most sense. One important trait that changed

in this process was Berserker's Power, which is an important trait for warriors

who rely on Power damage. This trait previously granted a damage bonus based on

the tier of adrenaline you were at when you used a burst skill. We've updated

this trait to better scale with the amount of adrenaline you use so that

warriors can feel good about using lower-level bursts consecutively rather than

always waiting for the level 3.

 

Profession:

 

- Primal Burst: These skills now count as level-1 bursts for the purposes of

traits that scale on adrenaline level.

 

Weapon Skills:

 

- Throw Axe: This skill now uses the ammo system. Ammo count has been set to 2

with a 10-second count recharge. There is a 1-second recharge between uses.

 

- Combustive Shot: Fixed a bug that caused the projectile created by this

skill to be destroyed without creating the damaging area when fired at enemy

gates in WvW.

 

- Scorched Earth: Fixed a bug that caused this skill to fail to hit some gates

in WvW.

 

- Flaming Flurry: Increased projectile speed by 66%.

 

- Aimed Shot: This skill has been unsplit from PvP and now uses the higher

damage values and vulnerability stack amounts in all game modes.

 

- Flames of War: This skill has been unsplit from PvP and now uses the higher

burn duration and burning stack values in all game modes.

 

- Blaze Breaker: This skill has been unsplit from PvP and now uses the higher

condition durations in all game modes.

 

Utility Skills:

 

- "On My Mark!": This skill now uses the ammo system. Ammo count has been set

to 2 with a 30-second count recharge. There is a 5-second recharge between

uses.

 

- Kick: This skill now uses the ammo system. Ammo count has been set to 3 with

a 30-second count recharge. There is a 3-second recharge between uses.

 

- Throw Bolas: This skill now uses the ammo system. Ammo count has been set to

2 with a 25-second count recharge. There is a 1-second recharge between

uses.

 

- Bull's Charge: This skill now evades for the duration of the charge.

Increased damage by 267%. This skill now goes on full recharge if

 

[Mark Katzbach.9084]

**Bug Fix:**

 

* Fixed a server crash.

[Mark Katzbach.9084]

**Bug Fix:**

 

* Fixed server and client crashes.

[Mark Katzbach.9084]

**Bug Fixes:**

 

* Fixed a server crash.

* Fixed an issue that caused the redirector in Hoelbrak’s Great Lodge to send players to Hero’s Canton in the Black Citadel instead of Knut Whitebear’s Loft.

 

Ranger

* Instinctive Reaction: Fixed a bug in which the player’s pet gained slightly less healing power than expected.

* Taste for Danger: Fixed a bug in which the player’s pet gained slightly less expertise than expected.

Elementalist

* Wildfire: Fixed a bug that caused this skill to inflict lower duration burning than expected.

Thief

* Swindler’s Equilibrium: Fixed a bug that could cause this trait to go on cooldown even if it did not recharge Steal.

[Mark Katzbach.9084]

**Bug Fixes:**

 

* Fixed a client crash occurring in the Bitter Harvest story instance.

* Removed Path of Fire drops from non-Path of Fire content.

* Adjusted Ogre Watch territory.

* Fixed a bug in which anomaly fragments could be absorbed by the Legendary Anomaly at long range if they were stunned immediately after spawning.

* Performed server maintenance. (PvP Demo)

 

Guardian

* Sword of Justice: Fixed a bug that could cause this skill to strike fewer times than expected if the guardian was attacking at the same time.

* Hammer of Wisdom: Fixed a bug that prevented Hammer of Wisdom damage from scaling with the guardian’s attributes.

* Shield of the Avenger: Fixed a bug that prevented Shield of the Avenger damage from scaling with the guardian’s attributes.

 

Ranger

* Pets: Fixed a bug that caused a delay in readiness upon pet swap or world entry.

* Entangle: Fixed a bug that listed damage from this skill as Jacaranda’s Embrace.

* Ancient Seeds: Fixed a bug that listed damage from this trait as Jacaranda’s Embrace.

[Mark Katzbach.9084]

**Bug Fixes:**

 

* Enabled access to Captain Ellen Kiel’s office so players can complete tasks required by the Dreamer and Quip legendary collections.

* Fixed a bug that prevented Sword of Justice damage from scaling with the guardian’s attributes.

* Fixed a client crash.

 

Guardian

* Signets: Fixed a bug in which Perfect Inscriptions allowed the stacking of multiple passive effects.

* Sword of Justice: Increased the base damage of this skill by 80%.

[Mark Katzbach.9084]

**Bug Fix:**

 

* Fixed a server crash.

[Mark Katzbach.9084]

**Bug Fixes:**

 

Necromancer

* Scourge: Fixed a permissions bug preventing necromancers from accessing their scourge profession abilities underwater.

 

Ranger

* Leader of the Pack: Fixed a bug with this trait’s interaction when using the skill One Wolf Pack.

[Mark Katzbach.9084]

**Bug Fixes:**

 

* Fixed a server crash.

[Mark Katzbach.9084]

**Bug Fixes:**

 

* Fixed a bug in Siren’s Landing in which foes in the “Kill the undead that have escaped into the camp” event would become friendly at 0 health.

* Fixed a bug in Siren’s Landing in which the lava would occasionally continue to apply burning to players after they left it.

* Fixed a server crash.

 

Black Lion Trading Company

Improvements:

* Improved tooltips on some items from the Living World Season 1 Memory Boxes.

[Mark Katzbach.9084]

**Bug Fixes:**

 

* 64-bit Mac client: Fixed missing or disappearing environment models in the personal-story instanced version of the Cathedral of Hidden Depths.

* Fixed a client crash.

[Mark Katzbach.9084]

**Bug Fixes:**

 

* Fixed an issue with certain spider spawns in Lake Doric.

[Mark Katzbach.9084]

**Bug Fix:**

 

* Updated to prepare for the August 31 Path of Fire stress test.

[Mark Katzbach.9084]

**Bug Fix:**

 

* Updated to prepare for the September 7 Path of Fire stress test.

[Gaile Gray.6029]

**Game Update September 13, 2017:**

 

* Performed maintenance build in preparation for the launch of Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire.