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Game Update Notes: February 25, 2020
02/25/2020—February 25 Release Notes
General
Players can revert recent changes made to their build with the click of a button!
- The button can be found in the upper-right corner of the Build tab in the Hero panel. The button will be enabled when players begin making changes to a Build Template.
- Clicking the revert button will undo all the changes made while the window was open.
A new category of achievements has been added for players taking their first steps in the world of Tyria.
- These achievements are aimed at helping new adventurers discover events and activities they might find interesting.
- The achievements and associated rewards are also available to veteran adventurers. So, if you're a mentor and players are asking for help in starting zones, lend a hand!
Introduced new art and functionality to make it easier to distinguish between downed and defeated characters.
- There will now be a visual difference when players interact with a downed or defeated character to revive them.
- The floating icons and map markers displayed for downed and defeated characters have been updated for visual clarity.
All gathering tools will now collect one additional resource per interaction when gathering from rich resource nodes or after triggering an extra gathering-strike bonus from a consumable booster.
Items
- Fixed a bug that prevented Spirit Strings from dropping when all the listed requirements were met and the Keep Construct was defeated.
Structured Player vs. Player
- The Call of the Mists effect will be active from February 25 to March 3.
- PvP seasonal achievements have been added under the Competitive section of the Achievements tab in the Hero panel. Earn achievement points and other rewards for competing in ranked play during PvP seasons.
- Mini seasons of varying game modes will now run between regular PvP Conquest seasons. The first mini season will run for one month and use the 2v2 Team Deathmatch mode.
- The Warlord's armor set has been added. Warlord's Armor Boxes can be obtained from the PvP league reward track.
World vs. World
General
Eternal Battlegrounds
- Wall positions have been adjusted on the north side of Stonemist Castle and the south side of Overlook Keep.
- Walls have been adjusted at Mendon's Gap:
- The west side destroyable wall is no longer destroyable.
- A new destroyable wall has been placed on the east side.
BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions
- The new War-Torn Marauder Warclaw Skin is now available in the Style category of the Gem Store for 2,000 gems.
- For a limited time, the Armistice Bastion Pass returns to the Utility category of the Gem Store at a discounted price of 800 gems—a savings of 20%.
- For a limited time, the Kasmeer's Staff Skin returns to the Style category of the Gem Store at a discounted price of 450 gems—a savings of 25%.
- For a limited time, the Kasmeer's Regal Outfit is offered at a discount of 25% off in the Style category of the Gem Store for 525 gems.
Black Lion Chest
The Black Lion Chest has been updated to the War-Torn Chest and can be previewed for a full list of its contents.
- The Battle-Hardened Kit has been added as the guaranteed item for the duration of the War-Torn Chest.
- The new War-Torn Marauder Warclaw Skin is available as an uncommon drop for the duration of this chest.
- The new Kasmeer's Regalia Cape Skin is available as an uncommon drop for the duration of this chest.
- The Whale Spirit Glider returns as an uncommon drop for the duration of this chest.
- The Cavalier and Dreamthistle weapon sets are available as uncommon and rare drops respectively for the duration of this chest.
- Unused versions of the Glyph of the Leatherworker and Glyph of the Tailor are available as rare drops for the duration of this chest.
The items available in exchange for Black Lion Statuettes have been updated. Black Lion Statuettes are redeemable by using the statuette itself or by exchanging them at any of the Black Lion Chest Merchants located in every major city.
- A new selection of full armor set skins has been added, including Zodiac, Phalanx, Viper's, Krytan, Profane, Primeval, Flamekissed, Flamewalker, and more.
- The exclusive Searing Chain Gloves, Desert King Throne, Wild Magic Backpack Glider Combo, and Storm Dagger Skin are currently available.
- The bonus collection has been updated to a selection of back item skins and gathering tools including the Mist Herald Back Item Skin Set, Black Wings Glider Combo, Fused Molten Logging Axe, and more.
Improvements and Updates
- For a limited time, the Dragon Minions, Elementals, Outlaws, Scarlet's Forces, and Shiverpeaks miniatures have been added to the Black Lion Miniature Claim Ticket Vendor. Black Lion Miniature Claim Tickets are dropped from Black Lion Chests.
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Comments
Profession Skills
Global Changes
In this update, we're making several large systemic changes to various game mechanics that primarily affect PvP and WvW players. However, because it's important that the functionality of skills between modes stays the same, we have brought over some of these changes to PvE as well. Where possible, we've split what we can to limit the impact, and in other cases we have even tuned up the numbers in PvE modes to compensate.
The first thing that you'll see is a general increase in the casting time of control skills across the board.
The second major area that we are changing is the access to stability and stun breaks. Stability from traits has been reduced, but skills that grant stability have had their recharges reduced. Similarly, traits that automatically react to stuns have been largely removed, and stun-break skills have been enhanced. The general idea here is that we want stun breaks and stability to be a more deliberate action on the part of the player and not something that just happens automatically from a trait.
We are also making a small change to the unblockable effects that unifies them as a single effect. Previously all unblockables were unique effects that had inconsistent behaviors. Some would last for a set number of hits while others had duration. There were also some that increased outgoing damage and some that did not. We've unified unblockable into a single effect and refined its functionality to be a single strike effect similar to aegis or blinded but with the ability to have multiple stacks.
General
Elementalist
Summoned elementals offer a unique gameplay option for elementalists who want to fight alongside an ally, but their short duration means that they only get brief windows of use. We have increased their summon duration to give them more presence, but we don't want to make them last indefinitely like necromancer minions—we feel part of the identity of glyphs is being able to switch attunements to have different summons available. Additionally, we felt that the lesser elemental summoning glyph didn't feel distinct enough from the elite glyph since the elite elementals had the same skills as the lesser elementals. To better distinguish the two glyphs, the command skill for lesser elementals has been removed in exchange for allowing multiple lesser elementals to be summoned at once.
Summoned Elementals: Increased elemental summon time from 60 seconds to 120 seconds. Added indicator effects on the elementalist's active effects monitor to show the remaining time for each elemental.
Stone Flesh: This trait no longer grants up to 150 toughness and instead grants 7% damage reduction while attuned to Earth.
Engineer
The Explosives specialization is seeing some major changes in this update. We're removing several traits that had lackluster or difficult-to-apply effects, such as Minesweeper, Orbital Command, and Blasting Zone, and reorganizing functionality from others like Short Fuse and Big Boomer to be more unified. The Evasive Powder Keg trait has been removed and replaced with Explosive Entrance, which similarly adds damage after a dodge roll but does so in a more controlled and modifiable way. The penalty added for the holosmith's overheating mechanic in a previous update is also being adjusted to play better with the Photonic Blasting Module trait as we felt it was too punishing for a trait that encouraged overheating. Finally, we're updating grenade skills for better clarity in competitive modes, where it can be hard to tell the difference between the different grenades due to the identical casting animations.
Short Fuse: This trait has been removed, and its cooldown reduction had been added to the following skills.
Explosives: This trait line has been reworked. The new traits are as follows:
Minor:
Adept:
Master:
Grandmaster:
Guardian
Dragonhunters are solid damage dealers, but there were a couple spots that needed some tuning. Deflecting Shot in particular had a very short casting time and a control effect when traited with Heavy Light. We've rolled the control effect into the skill itself and increased its casting time to ensure that it feels reasonable. Several traits have also been improved to make them useful in more situations, such as Dulled Senses affecting all control effects instead of just knock back, and Wrathful Spirit granting fury in addition to retaliation. A couple of particularly unused traits in the core Virtues specialization have been retired and replaced with fresh options.
Mesmer
In this update, we're making some changes to the greatsword and to the Domination trait line in order to provide a more reliable baseline ranged damage build for mesmers. We're removing the Confounding Suggestions trait, which has been problematic to balance in the past due to its power level, and we're adding in a new trait, Vicious Expression, which plays better with the Domination line's boon removal. Finally, we're changing the mirage's Elusive Mind trait to no longer break stuns as we feel that the necessity of including exhaustion as a balancing factor has made it too binary as a choice.
Necromancer
Necromancer has always been designed to be a resilient profession that was light on stability. Since this update specifically is removing some stability from the necromancer's traits, we made sure to adjust the profession's stun break skills appropriately in response. Additionally, we've fixed a few issues with minion responsiveness and enhanced a few of the weaker minion command skills.
Minions: Necromancer minions will now display an effect when commanded, indicating they will be using a special skill.
Doom: This skill now has a casting time and inflicts fear on your foe at 0.64 seconds. The fear duration has been increased from 1 second at a distance (1.5 seconds at close proximity) to 2 seconds on successful hit regardless of distance.
Ranger
Soulbeasts, long standing without a tradeoff, are now receiving theirs—they lose combat access to a second pet and must choose carefully which pet they're going to be bonded with in battle. We're also enhancing several core ranger traits and some select weapon skills that we felt were on the weak side.
Revenant
Revenants are seeing a large number of changes in this update. In addition to reworks of both the Devastation and Corruption trait lines, we have also revisited several of their skills. Precision Strike has been reworked as an actual melee attack as we felt it didn't make sense for it to be a projectile skill. However, we have kept its emphasis on single-target damage if revenants can isolate foes. Confusion has been removed from various revenant skills as they didn't really have any meaningful ways to take advantage of it. Instead, we've replaced it with torment, which can be used in a more cohesive character build.
Changes to the Devastation trait line are aimed at two major areas. The first is addressing niche-use traits such as Malicious Reprisal and Jade Echo. These traits are being removed and replaced with new traits that have broader uses. The second issue is the opposite: some traits are so general that they are too similar in functionality. Ferocious Strikes and Vicious Lacerations both add damage in ways such that there is no real choice between them. The siphoning traits are a part of this change, and we're unifying the siphoning effect into a single effect for the combat log and making it a bigger part of the overall line. The new siphon effect, named after Shiro's iconic Battle Scars skill, is a stacking effect that is expended when attacking. It's more restricted in its applications, but it's stronger than previous siphoning traits.
Similar to the Devastation rework, we are also recentering the Corruption trait line around a new mechanic. Invoke Torment occurs when switching legends, and it inflicts nearby foes with torment. This skill can be upgraded with Grandmaster traits based on your preferred playstyle. The boon-removal traits have also been removed as we felt that they had trigger conditions that offered little gameplay. In exchange, we've added a few new powerful traits with drawbacks as we feel this is in line with the spirit of Mallyx and skills like Pain Absorption.
Thief
The thief's pistol has been updated to better smooth its gameplay. Ankle Shots, the associated pistol and harpoon gun trait, has been replaced with a new trait called Deadly Aim. Deadly Aim causes attacks from those weapons to pierce, allowing for strategic movement and positioning relative to your foes.
Additionally, we did a pass on all thief bundles and found several that were using some pretty old numbers. We've done a tuning pass on these to make sure they feel impactful enough in PvE for both power builds and condition builds.
Warrior
Warrior's rifle has been somewhat lackluster in its gameplay feel, so we're updating it to create some rotations by giving its slot 2 through slot 4 skills ammunition, shorter cooldowns between uses, and slightly longer cooldowns to recover shots. Additionally, successfully using Rifle Butt will allow for rapid recovery of the ammunition for the other skills. The warrior's hammer has a pretty good gameplay cadence, so we're pushing a bit further on what it does well—hurting controlled enemies. Its iconic second skill, Fierce Blow, now does significantly greater damage to disabled foes, and Backbreaker will automatically recharge Fierce Blow for immediate use when warriors successfully knock down an enemy.
Competitive Splits
All splits are for both PvP and WvW (and not PvE) unless noted otherwise.
General
Build Items
Runes
Some PvP runes have been adjusted.
For example, these were the pervious stats for Rune of the Afflicted (PvP):
(1) +25 Condition Damage
(2) +10% Poison Duration
(3) +50 Condition Damage
(4) +20% Bleeding Duration
(5) +100 Condition Damage
(6) +10% Condition Duration; create a death nova at a foe's location upon their defeat
These are the new stats for Rune of the Afflicted (PvP):
(1) +25 Condition Damage
(2) +4% Poison Duration
(3) +50 Condition Damage
(4) +6% Bleeding Duration
(5) +100 Condition Damage
(6) +5% Condition Duration; create a death nova at a foe's location upon their defeat
This change affects the following runes:
Elementalist
Profession Mechanics
Overload
Weapons
Staff
Fire
Water
Air
Earth
Scepter
Fire
Water
Air
Earth
Dagger
Fire
Water
Air
Earth
Focus
Earth
Warhorn
Fire
Water
Air
Earth
Sword
Fire
Water
Air
Changes to the autoattack chain are as follows:
Quantum Strike: Reduced initial strike damage from 0.5 to 0.1. Reduced lightning strike damage per hit from 0.425 to 0.25. Reduced vulnerability duration from 8 seconds to 6 seconds. Increased cooldown from 16 seconds to 18 seconds.
Earth
Dual Skills (Weaver)
Staff
Dagger
Sword
Heal
Utility
Elite
Tornado: Reduced power coefficient of the base launch attack from 1.1 to 0.01. Reduced cooldown from 90 seconds to 60 seconds.
Whirlpool: Reduced power coefficient from 2.2 to 0.01.
Traits
Fire Magic
Water Magic
Air Magic
Earth Magic
Arcane
Tempest
Weaver
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Engineer
Profession Mechanics
Photon Forge
Weapons
Rifle
Pistol
Hammer
Changes to the autoattack chain are as follows:
Electro-whirl: Reduced power coefficient per strike from 1.2 to 0.68. Increased cooldown from 6 seconds to 8 seconds.
Sword
Heal
Utility
Elite
Traits
Firearms
Inventions
Alchemy
Tools
Scrapper
Holosmith
Guardian
Profession Mechanics
Tome of Justice
Tome of Resolve
Tome of Courage
Weapons
Greatsword
Hammer
Staff
Mace
Scepter
Sword
Focus
Shield
Torch
Longbow
Axe
Heal
Utility
Mantra of Flame sequence skills received the following changes:
Mantra of Truth sequence skills received the following changes:
Mantra of Potence sequence skills received the following changes:
Elite
Traits
Zeal
Radiance
Valor
Honor
Virtues
Dragonhunter
Firebrand
Mesmer
Profession Mechanics
Shatters
Chronomancer Shatters
Weapons
Greatsword
Staff
Scepter
Sword
The autoattack chain has been adjusted as follows:
Blurred Frenzy: Reduced power coefficient per strike from 0.2564 to 0.128.
Sword (Off-Hand)
Focus
Pistol
Torch
Shield
Axe
Heal
Utility
Elite
Traits
Domination
Dueling
Chaos
Inspiration
Illusions
Chronomancer
Mirage
Necromancer
Profession Mechanics
Death Shroud
Reaper Shroud
Shade Skills
Weapons
Staff
Axe
Scepter
Dagger (Main-Hand)
Dagger (Off-Hand)
Focus
Greatsword
Torch
Heal
Utility
Elite
Traits
Spite
Chill of Death: Reduced power coefficients as follows:
Dread: Reduced bonus damage from 33% to 15%.
Curses
Death Magic
Blood Magic
Soul Reaping
Reaper
Scourge
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Ranger
Profession Mechanics
Celestial Avatar
Soulbeast Merge Skills
Beast Skills
Pet Skills
Porcine Family
Canine Family
Wolf
Devourer
Iboga
Bristleback
Rock Gazelle
Smokescale
Wyvern Family
Lightning Wyvern
Weapons
Greatsword
Longbow
Short Bow
Sword
Axe (Main-Hand)
Axe (Off-Hand)
Dagger (Off-Hand)
Warhorn
Staff
Dagger (Main-Hand)
Heal
Glyph of Rejuvenation has been updated with the following changes:
Bear Stance: Increased cooldown from 25 seconds to 30 seconds.
Utility
Elite
Traits
Marksmanship
Skirmishing
Wilderness Survival
Nature Magic
Beastmastery
Druid
Soulbeast
Revenant
Profession Mechanics
Facet of Nature has been updated with the following changes:
Heroic Command: Reduced might duration from 8 seconds to 6 seconds.
Weapons
Hammer
Staff
Sword
The autoattack chain has been adjusted as follows:
Unrelenting Assault: Reduced power coefficient per strike from 0.57 to 0.38. Reduced might duration per strike from 5 seconds to 3 seconds. Increased cooldown from 12 seconds to 15 seconds.
Mace
The autoattack chain has been adjusted as follows:
Searing Fissure: Adjusted initial burning from 3 stacks for 3 seconds to 1 stack for 10 seconds. Increased additional burning duration from 1 second to 4 seconds.
Sword (Off-Hand)
Axe (Off-Hand)
Shield
Short Bow
Legend Skills
Legendary Assassin Stance (Shiro Tagachi)
Legendary Dwarf Stance (Jalis Ironhammer)
Legendary Centaur Stance (Ventari)
Legendary Dragon Stance (Glint)
Legendary Renegade Stance (Kalla Scorchrazor)
Traits
Retribution
Salvation
Invocation
Herald
Renegade
Thief
Weapons
Short Bow
Sword
Dagger (Main-Hand)
Pistol (Main-Hand)
Dagger (Off-Hand)
Staff
Rifle
Heal
Utility
Elite
Traits
Deadly Arts
Critical Strikes
Shadow Arts
Acrobatics
Trickery
Daredevil
Deadeye
Warrior
Profession Mechanics
Primal Burst
Spellbreaker Burst
Weapons
Greatsword
Hammer
Longbow
Rifle
Axe (Main-Hand)
The autoattack chain skills have been adjusted as follows:
Cyclone Axe: Reduced power coefficient per strike from 0.88 to 0.66. Reduced fury duration per hit from 2 seconds to 1 seconds. Adjusted vulnerability per hit from 3 stacks for 8 seconds to 1 stack for 6 seconds. Increased cooldown from 6 seconds to 8 seconds.
Sword (Main-Hand)
Mace (Main-Hand)
Axe (Off-Hand)
Mace (Off-Hand)
Shield
Warhorn
Dagger (Main-Hand)
Dagger (Off-Hand)
Heal
Utility
Elite
Rampage: Some Rampage skills have been adjusted as follows:
Head Butt: Reduced power coefficient from 3.0 to 0.01. Reduced cooldown from 25 seconds to 18 seconds.
Traits
Strength
Arms
Defense
Tactics
Discipline
Berserker
Spellbreaker
ArenaNet Communications Team
Late Notes: February 25, 2020
02/25/2020—Late Notes
General
Items
Profession Skills
Elementalist
Engineer
Guardian
Necromancer
ArenaNet Communications Team
Bug Fixes:
Mesmer:
Guardian:
Warrior:
Fixed a bug that prevented PvP seasonal achievements from progressing.
ArenaNet Communications Team
Bug Fixes:
ArenaNet Communications Team
Bug Fixes:
Guardian:
Necromancer:
Revenant:
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