Game Update Notes: February 27, 2024

[Rubi Bayer.8493]

Release Notes:

The Realm of Dreams

Heitor's barrier has finally fallen, and Peitha's army prepares to march further into the heart of Nayos. But what dangers await beyond the veil, and how much attrition can her forces survive? Peitha and the wayfinder will need new allies to bolster their ranks if they hope to bring the war to Eparch's gates. But who will they be able to convince to step out from the shadow of the Midnight King?

Release Highlights

• New story chapters that take players deeper into the mysterious Inner Nayos have been added.
• A new region of the Inner Nayos explorable zone, Nyedra Surrounds, is now accessible.
• The Wizard's Vault has been updated with a new rotation of exciting rewards, including three new armor pieces. The Wizard's Vault has also received a number of quality-of-life improvements to address player feedback.
• A new weapon proficiency has been added for each profession.
  • Elementalist: Pistol (main hand)
  • Mesmer: Rifle
  • Necromancer: Sword (main and off hand)
  • Engineer: Short Bow
  • Ranger: Mace (main and off hand)
  • Thief: Axe (main hand)
  • Guardian: Pistol (main and off hand)
  • Warrior: Staff
  • Revenant: Scepter (main hand)
• The first tiers of the legendary Obsidian armor sets are available to craft for all armor weight classes. A second tier will be added as an optional upgrade in the next major update to Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure.
• The legendary relic is now available to craft. More information about the legendary relic can be found here.
• Two new final bosses, the Dreadwing and the Hell Sister, have been added to Convergences. These two will cycle on a weekly cadence with Sorrow and the Demon Knight as the possible final encounters of a Convergence.
• A challenge mode option has been added to the Temple of Febe Strike Mission.
• The sky-chak striker has been added as a ranger pet.

World Polish

General

• Added new achievements for binding legendary runes and legendary sigils to the player's Legendary Armory.
  • Players with existing legendary runes and sigils can visit Lion's Arch or the Wizard's Tower to update their progress.
• Reduced the rank of training golems in the Special Forces Training Area from legendary to elite. Their attributes and performance are unchanged.
• Reduced the rank of the conjured weapons during the Conjured Amalgamate encounter from champion to elite. Their attributes and performance are unchanged.
• Reduced the rank of the Target Golem - Heavy training NPCs in the Heart of the Mists from champion to elite. Their attributes and performance are unchanged.
• A sky-chak infestation has been reported in Skywatch Archipelago.
  • A new ranger pet, the sky-chak striker, can be tamed after discovering its location.
• Meta-achievements now display progress bars in the list of sub-achievements to better track completion goals.
• Adjusted the Oneiros-Spun armor shader to optimize performance.
• Removed non-essential character equipment panel notifications, such as prompts to apply upgrades to empty slots, for characters below level 80.

Amnytas

• Reduced the number of silver map meta-event progress chests awarded during the Defense of Amnytas meta-event and adjusted rewards to compensate.

Inner Nayos: Heitor's Territory

• Added ley-looms and an updraft generator to Heitor's Territory in Inner Nayos.
• Inner Nayos faction provisioners now provide five provisioner tokens in exchange for Consecrated Saryx weapons instead of for Stormforged weapons.

Wizard's Vault

The Wizard's Vault's inventory has been updated for the new season! Last season's unique rewards are now available in the Legacy Rewards shop.

New special objectives for the season have been added, and more will appear over the course of the season, including special objectives associated with bonus events and festivals.

Additionally, a number of daily and weekly objectives have been updated. New options have been added to some objectives so they can be completed in multiple ways. Some objectives have been shelved for the time being. The intent of these changes is to improve the overall feel of the objective selection, reduce friction with required times for global-timer events, and reduce the number of expansion-only objectives that caused players to have different weekly objective lists.

Daily Objectives

• Retired activity participation from the daily objective rotation.
• Retired minidungeon completion from the daily objective rotation.
• Updated the ordering of some daily objectives to increase day-to-day selection variety.

Weekly Objectives

• Objectives to defeat 100 of a specific enemy type have had an additional enemy type added.
• Objectives to defeat a specific world boss now additionally award partial progress when events that occur in the same map that the world boss appears in are completed.
• Objectives to complete a specific meta-event now additionally award partial progress for any event in the same map, as well as partial progress from events in one alternate region in core Tyria.
• The Complete 7 Rift Hunts objective now additionally awards progress for any group event, with extra progress for group event rift hunts.
• Objectives to complete 3 bounty missions in a specific map now additionally award progress from any group event, with extra progress from group event bounties. The event requirements for these objectives have been raised from 3 to 5.
• Retired the Complete 3 Group Events, Complete the Highest Gear Jumping Puzzle, and Complete the Wind through the Walls Jumping Puzzle objectives from the weekly objective rotation.
• The Complete Meta Event: The Jade Crisis objective has been updated to require Gyala Delve's final meta-event, "Destroy the ravenous wanderer," as its main objective.
• Updated the ordering of some weekly objectives to increase week-to-week selection variety.

Shop Inventory Updates

• The legendary starter kit has been updated to Set 3, with two new kits and two returning kits available.
• Raised the astral acclaim cost of bags of coins (unlimited purchase) from 30 to 35.
• Lowered the astral acclaim cost of Build Template Expansions from 425 to 350.
• Added Black Lion Salvage Kits to the shop at a cost of 50 astral acclaim, limited to 3 purchases per season.
• Reduced the vendor sale value of Black Lion Mastery Coffers available from the Wizard's Vault from 1 gold to 10 silver.

Wizard's Vault API

• Endpoints have been added to the Public API for the Wizard's Vault:
  • Astral Rewards
    • /v2/wizardsvault/listings
  • Objectives in the Wizard's Vault
    • /v2/wizardsvault/objectives
  • Account's Daily Objectives (requires API key)
    • /v2/account/wizardsvault/daily
  • Account's Astral Rewards (requires API key)
    • /v2/account/wizardsvault/listings
  • Account's Wizard's Vault Special Objectives (requires API key)
    • /v2/account/wizardsvault/special
  • Account's Wizard's Vault Weekly Objectives (requires API key)
    • /v2/account/wizardsvault/weekly

Dungeons

• Lowered the respawn rate of the lava elementals in Twilight Arbor's explorable Aetherblade path.

Strikes

• Post-victory achievements will now be rewarded much faster in Icebrood Saga Strike Missions to prevent the achievements from being missed if a player left the map too quickly after receiving their first rewards.

Items

• The Recharging Teleport to Friend's cooldown timer has been reduced from 1 hour to 10 minutes.

Profession Skills

General

• Relic of Karakosa: Fixed an issue that caused this relic to heal less than intended in WvW.

Elementalist

• Mount skills that occupy profession skill slots (such as the ley-line riding toggle) will no longer start with a 10-second cooldown when used by elementalists.
• Active elemental bullets now display a corresponding effect on the player's effect bar.
• Active elemental bullets will now be restored after mounting and dismounting.
• Scorching Shot: Reduced the burning duration from 3 seconds to 1.5 seconds in PvE only. Reduced the power coefficient from 0.6 to 0.3 in PvE only.
• Raging Ricochet: Reduced the burning from 2 stacks for 7 seconds to 1 stack for 8 seconds in PvE only.
• Searing Salvo: Reduced the initial burning from 2 stacks for 8 seconds to 1 stack for 7 seconds in PvE only. Reduced the secondary burning from 3 seconds to 2 seconds in PvE only. Increased the missile velocity.
• Glacial Shot: This skill has been renamed to Frozen Fusillade. The explosion from this skill can no longer strike more than 5 targets.
• Dazing Discharge: Reduced the casting time from 0.4 seconds to 0.267 seconds.
• Piercing Pebble: This skill now pierces.
• Purblinding Plasma: This skill is now a projectile finisher.
• Enervating Earth: This skill is now a projectile finisher.
• Flowing Finesse: This skill now also grants stability.
• Elemental Unload: This skill has been renamed to Elemental Explosion.
• Fiery Frost: Fixed an issue that could cause this skill to fail in melee range.

Engineer

• Engineer's short-bow mechanics have been reworked. Arrows now explode on impact automatically, have a larger area of effect, and leave a chain-reaction field for a short duration. The next arrow that explodes in the chain-reaction field will consume the field, augmenting the arrow with a bonus effect.
• Essence of Animated Sand: This skill has been reworked. Fire an arrow equipped with a payload that explodes with enchanted sand on impact, granting barrier and might to allies. Chain Reaction: The next short-bow skill in the radius will grant additional might to allies.
• Essence of Living Shadow: This skill has been reworked. Fire an arrow equipped with a device that spreads shadow magic across the ground on impact, healing and removing conditions from allies with the initial detonation and healing allies with each pulse afterward. Chain Reaction: The next short-bow skill in the radius will remove additional conditions from allies.
• Essence of Liquid Wrath: This skill has been reworked. Fire a volley of arrows equipped with a payload that spreads magical flames across the ground on impact, granting protection and aegis to allies on the initial detonation and leaving a fire field. Chain Reaction: The next short-bow skill in the radius will grant additional protection to allies.
• Essence of Borrowed Time: Fire a row of arrows equipped with a device that envelops an area with chronal magic on impact, stunning enemies and applying superspeed to allies. Chain Reaction: The next short-bow skill in the radius will daze enemies hit.

Guardian

• Symbol of Ignition: This symbol now grants might every pulse.
• Hail of Justice: Increased the bleeding duration from 6 seconds to 8 seconds in PvE only.
• Jurisdiction: Adjusted the timing for charge level 2 from 1 second to 0.9 seconds. Adjusted the timing for charge level 3 from 1.6 seconds to 1.4 seconds. Adjusted the timing at which the skill automatically fires from 2 seconds to 1.6 seconds. Reduced the reactivation delay after casting charge level 3 from 0.25 seconds to 0.1 seconds.
• Fixed an issue that could cause new instances of a trap to refresh old instances' durations.
• Spear of Justice: Fixed an issue that caused this skill's reactivation window to sometimes be longer than intended.
• Renewed Focus: This skill now properly recharges all virtues underwater.

Mesmer

• Journey: Reduced the casting time from 0.9 seconds to 0.5 seconds. Reduced the time from cast to impact from 0.5 seconds to 0.2 seconds. This skill can now be re-aimed during the cast. Increased the cooldown from 8 seconds to 10 seconds in WvW only. Reduced the base heal from 1,800 to 1,295 in PvE only and reduced the healing power coefficient from 0.9 to 0.67 in PvE only.
• Inspiring Images: Increased the cooldown from 15 seconds to 20 seconds in WvW only.
• Abstraction: Removed the delay before the explosion. Reduced the conditions cleansed from 2 to 1 in WvW only. Reduced the base heal from 3,210 to 1,930 in PvE only and the healing power coefficient from 2 to 1.5 in PvE only.
• Phantasmal Sharpshooter: Reduced the phantasm's casting time from 1.2 seconds to 0.8 seconds. The phantasm's attack now strikes targets in a radius of 240 around the impact. This skill now has 2 charges in PvE only.
• Singularity Shot: Reduced the resistance duration from 3 seconds to 2 seconds in WvW only. Increased the cooldown from 20 seconds to 30 seconds in WvW only and reduced the cooldown increase from 100% to 33% in WvW only.
• Dimensional Aperture: Added a visual effect when the portal is opened.
• Effervescence: Increased the total base heal from 916 to 1,300 in PvE only. Increased the healing power coefficient from 0.2 to 0.3 in PvE and from 0.125 to 0.25 in WvW and PvP. Increased the power coefficient from 0.5 to 0.625 in PvE and from 0.25 to 0.3 in WvW and PvP.

Necromancer

• Enervation Blade: Reduced the aftercast of this skill and improved the projectile tracking. Increased the power coefficient from 0.9 to 1.1 in PvE only. 
• Enervation Echo: Reduced the aftercast of this skill and improved the projectile tracking. Increased the power coefficient from 0.9 to 1.1 in PvE only.
• Deathly Enervation: Sped up the casting time by 15% and improved the projectile tracking. Increased the power coefficient from 1.3 to 1.4 in PvE only.
• Ravenous Wave: Reduced the aftercast of this skill and increased the speed of the wave. Increased the life-force gain from 10% to 12%. Reduced the power coefficient from 1.4 to 1.2 in PvP only.
• Satiate: Increased the power coefficient from 1.0 to 2.0 in PvE and from 0.8 to 1.2 in PvP. Lowered the low-health damage modifier from 100% to 50% in PvE and from 50% to 20% in PvP and WvW. Reduced the health cost from 15% to 8% in PvE.
• Path of Gluttony: This skill now begins movement immediately. Increased the power coefficient from 1.75 to 2.0 in PvE and from 1.0 to 1.25 in PvP. Increased the first-hit healing from 1,610 to 2,410. This skill is now a leap finisher.
• Gorge: This skill now begins movement immediately. Increased the power coefficient from 1.75 to 2.0 in PvE and from 1.0 to 1.25 in PvP. Increased the first-hit healing from 1,610 to 2,410. This skill is now a leap finisher. Reduced the health cost from 20% to 12% in PvE.
• Hungering Maelstrom: Sped up the casting time by 15% and reduced the aftercast of this skill. Reduced the time from casting to damage by 0.25 seconds. Increased the power coefficient from 1.5 to 2.75 in PvE only.
• Gormandize: Increased the power coefficient from 2.0 to 2.5 in PvE and from 1.0 to 1.33 in PvP. Reduced the heal cost from 20% to 12% in PvE only.
• Devouring Visage: This skill has been reworked. It now throws a projectile at your target that explodes on impact, inflicting fear on enemies hit.
• Consume: This skill has been reworked. It now siphons strength from targets hit by Devouring Visage, damaging them and inflicting weakness. Gain might for each target affected.

Ranger

• Oaken Cudgel: Increased the protection application radius from 240 to 360. This skill now applies a heal-over-time effect to your pet when used. This effect is reduced when merged as a soulbeast.
• Thistleguard: Reduced the casting time from 0.5 seconds to 0.34 seconds.
• Wild Strikes: Reduced the total power coefficient from 3.0 to 2.4 and reduced the dazed duration from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds in WvW and PvP. Fixed an issue that prevented this skill from working with the Quick Draw trait.
• Rampant Growth: This skill now heals nearby allies when cast. Fixed an issue that prevented this skill from interacting with the Let Loose trait.
• Nature's Strength: Increased the duration from 15 seconds to 25 seconds. Reduced the number of stacks needed to trigger Force of Nature from 6 to 5.
• Force of Nature: Reduced the damage bonus from 25% to 15% in WvW and PvP.
• Tapped Out: Reduced the duration from 15 seconds to 10 seconds.
• Blood Moon: Fixed an issue that could cause this trait to affect the player when being dismounted.
• Fixed an issue that caused some spirits to have higher cooldowns than intended underwater in PvE.

Revenant

• Serene Slash: Reduced the power coefficient from 0.533 to 0.475 in WvW and PvP.
• Acerbic Cut: Reduced the power coefficient from 0.533 to 0.475 in WvW and PvP.
• Motivating Whirl: Reduced the base barrier from 476 to 251. Reduced the healing power coefficient from 0.6 to 0.3 in PvE and from 0.6 to 0.15 in WvW and PvP. Reduced the power coefficient from 1.0 to 0.667 in WvW and PvP.
• Blossoming Aura: This skill can now target allies. The amount of bonus barrier and damage granted by this skill are no longer tied to scepter auto-attacks; instead, barrier and damage increase the longer the aura is placed on the target. The aura can be detonated early with the new follow-up skill, Detonate Blossoming Aura. Increased the cooldown from 5 seconds to 8 seconds in PvE and from 7 seconds to 8 seconds in WvW and PvP. Reduced the healing power coefficient from 1.0 to 0.3 in PvE and WvW and from 1.0 to 0.4 in PvP. Increased the barrier per pulse from 20% to 33% in PvP only.
• Detonate Blossoming Aura: Allows the revenant to detonate Blossoming Aura manually.
• Otherworldly Bond: This skill no longer requires an upkeep cost. Bonus effects granted by this skill are no longer tied to scepter auto-attacks; instead, their effects strengthen the longer the target remains tethered. Interval ticks of boons and conditions decreased from 3 seconds to 1 second. Decreased the maximum tether duration from 100 seconds to 7 seconds. Increased the cooldown from 6 seconds to 8 seconds in PvE only; the cooldown will only begin once the tether is broken. Increased the vulnerability duration from 5 seconds to 8 seconds in WvW and PvP. Reduced the might duration from 9 seconds to 4 seconds in WvW and PvP. Reduced the fury duration from 3 seconds to 2 seconds in WvW and PvP.
• Otherworldly Attraction: Both the ally and enemy versions now cost energy to activate. Reduced the base barrier from 3,840 to 1,615. Increased the healing power coefficient from 0.5 to 1.0.

Thief

• Axe skills that cost initiative will now correctly trigger Lead Attacks and Assassin's Reward.
• Deadly Ambition: This trait will now function as expected with axe dual-wield skills. 
• Cunning Salvo and Malicious Cunning Salvo: Axes created by this skill will now properly gain bonuses when being recalled by dual-wield skills. Axes created by this skill will no longer always inflict revealed when being recalled by dual-wield skills. This skill is now a blast finisher. Reduced the bleeding stacks from 3 to 2 in PvE only.
• Malicious Cunning Salvo: Reduced the poison stacks from 3 to 1 in PvE only.
• Harrowing Storm: This skill will now recall axes to the targeted enemy instead of to the user. Reduced the inflicted torment from 2 stacks for 6 seconds to 1 stack for 4 seconds in PvE only.
• Venomous Volley: Reduced the poison duration from 6 seconds to 3 seconds in PvE only.
• Spinning Axe: Reduced the bleeding duration from 6 seconds to 3 seconds in PvE only.
• Improved missile-targeting behavior for all axe skills.
• Increased missile velocity for all axe skills.
• Fixed an issue that could prevent preparation skills from cleaning up properly at the start of a PvP match.

Warrior

• Valiant Leap: This skill is now a leap finisher and grants 5 adrenaline when it affects another ally.
• Line Breaker: Fixed an issue that caused this skill to be affected by quickness. This skill is now ground targeted. When arriving at the ground-target location, the user will weaken enemies and heal nearby allies while granting them stacks of protection, aegis, and unblockable.
• Snap Pull: This skill now displays a warning effect to enemies during the casting time.
• Bullet Catcher: Fixed an issue that caused this skill to be immediately interrupted when auto-attack was enabled. This skill no longer grants boon duration to the user while channeling.
• Defiant Roar: This skill now grants 5 adrenaline, plus an additional 2 adrenaline per attack blocked by Bullet Catcher (up to 6 bonus adrenaline).
• Rampart Splitter: Reduced the power coefficient from 1.25 to 0.5 in PvP and WvW.

[Rubi Bayer.8493]

2024-02-27 - Late Notes

Strikes

• New challenge-mode achievements have been added for both Cosmic Observatory and Temple of Febe, including new titles to obtain.

Personal Story

Items

• Updated the icon for Gift of Persistence.

Profession Skills

Engineer

• Mechanized Deployment: Fixed an issue that prevented the cooldown reduction from applying to mechanist skills in PvP and WvW. 

Revenant

• Updated revenant streak audio with a new set of sounds. 
• Blossoming Aura: Added a 0.25-second cooldown to Detonate Blossoming Aura when Blossoming Aura is used. 
• Otherworldly Bond: Added a 1-second cooldown to Deactivate Otherworldly Bond when Otherworldly Bond is used.  

[Rubi Bayer.8493]

Bug Fix:

• Fixed an issue that could prevent progress during Chapter 16 of the Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure story if the player did not fully unlock the skyscale mount.

[Rubi Bayer.8493]

Bug Fixes:

• Path to Victory: Fixed an issue that prevented the spellbreaker version of this skill from unlocking properly.
• Malicious Cunning Salvo: Fixed an issue that prevented this skill from unlocking properly.
• Fixed an issue that caused cabbages to spawn when throwing Chemical Engineer Strumm's caustic grenades during his event chain in Inner Nayos.
• Fixed an issue that prevented Frode from progressing during the "Fight your way through the loyalists and reach Nyedra" event.
• Fixed an issue that caused Cerus to gain extra health after completing the 80% split phase in the Temple of Febe Strike Mission's challenge mode. To preserve encounter balance, Cerus's total health has been adjusted.
• Fixed an issue that prevented players from being killed when taking damage from more than one Empowered Crushing Regret attack in the Temple of Febe Strike Mission's challenge mode.
• Fixed an issue that caused audio and dialogue alerts for the Road to Heitor events in Heitor's Territory to be delivered to players in Nyedra Surrounds.
• Fixed an issue that prevented the objectives of the "Defeat Knaebelag the Terror" event in Inner Nayos from being displayed properly during subsequent attempts if the event failed previously.
• Fixed an issue that prevented nests from being damaged during the "Destroy hazardous nests to reduce air toxicity in the area" event in Inner Nayos.

[Rubi Bayer.8493]

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a server crash.
• Fixed an issue that prevented creatures from spawning during the "Defeat Knaebelag the Terror" event.
• Fixed an issue that prevented players from continuing the Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure story if they purchased the artifacts required for the Astral Ward Arsenal achievement in World vs. World before completing Chapter 14: The War Council.
• Fixed an issue that caused an unintentional change to sylvari faces when equipping Obsidian heavy armor.
• Fixed an issue that prevented the eligibility effect for the Danced with the Stars achievement in the Cosmic Observatory Strike Mission from being reapplied on subsequent challenge mode attempts.
• Fixed an issue that could prevent Insatiable Hunger projectiles from being visually displayed in the Temple of Febe Strike Mission's challenge mode when Cerus and the Embodiment of Gluttony used the skill simultaneously.

[Rubi Bayer.8493]

Bug Fixes:

• Cyclone Trigger: Fixed an issue that caused this skill's projectiles to display unintended visual effects.
• Cunning Salvo and Malicious Cunning Salvo: Fixed an issue that caused axes created by this skill to inflict revealed when recalled.
• Detonate Jurisdiction: Fixed an issue that prevented this skill from unlocking properly.
• Fixed an issue that prevented thief's axe skills from generating shadow force.
• Orchestrated Assault: Fixed an issue that prevented this skill from requiring the user to be in range of the target or to have the target in their line of sight.
• Fixed an issue that prevented warriors from receiving credit for the Artisan of Arms Wizard's Vault objective after killing 100 enemies with a staff.
• Fixed an issue that prevented the achievement Follow the Magic from properly tracking progress.

[Rubi Bayer.8493]

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a material issue that affected the light and medium Obsidian armor pieces when paired with other specific armor pieces.
• Fixed an issue that prevented the "Defeat Knaebelag the Terror" event from failing if the capture point objective fell to the enemy.
• Fixed an issue that prevented an objective in the "Defeat Knaebelag the Terror" event from being completed. 

[Rubi Bayer.8493]

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a server crash.
• Fixed an issue that caused the "Defeat Knaebelag the Terror" event to stall during subsequent runs if it failed due to losing control of a capture point.
• Fixed various collision issues in Inner Nayos.