Game Update Notes: June 25, 2024

[Rubi Bayer.8493]

06/25/2024—June 25 Release Notes

Note to users of third-party programs: The game may not launch or work properly after we release a new build if you use a third-party program, due to possible incompatibilities. ArenaNet cannot offer support if a third-party modification breaks, interferes with, or prevents you from playing Guild Wars or Guild Wars 2. Our policy regarding third-party programs can be found here.

Land Spear Beta Event

The land spear beta event begins this Thursday! The event runs from June 27 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) until June 30 at 10:00 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7). Every Guild Wars 2 account in good standing, including Play-for-Free accounts, will automatically get character slots marked "Beta" when the beta event begins. Clicking on one of these slots will allow you to create a character using any of the nine Guild Wars 2 professions.

General

• Added an option to hide or unhide aquabreathers in the equipment panel.
  • When the aquabreather is hidden and the player's equipped head armor is not hidden, the head armor will be shown when underwater.
  • The aquabreather's attributes will still be used when underwater.
• Fixed an issue that caused some vendors' interfaces to scroll down when purchasing items from them.
• Updated the Sunken Treasure Hunter content in anticipation of an upcoming weekly event:
  • Sunken chests have been added to the end of the Aquatic Ruins fractal and Siren's Reef fractal.
    • Deadly piranhas will now subside after the Siren's Reef boss encounter is completed.
  • In addition to resetting when the Master Diver achievement is completed, sunken chests will now also reset upon logging in or your first time entering a map after the weekly reset.
  • The locations of some sunken chests have been adjusted within the map they are located in, primarily where they overlapped with quaggan villages.
    • Hint cinematics for the chests have been updated.
  • Ornate rusted keys can now be double-clicked to show a hint cinematic for the next available sunken chest in the Master Diver achievement.
  • Dive Master Astora's merchant inventory has been updated.
    • Swim-speed infusion upgrades have been condensed to encourage upgrading in increments of 5; single-point upgrades are still available.
    • An account-based swim-speed infusion is now available. This infusion begins at +15 increased swimming speed and can be permanently improved for all characters on your account by purchasing upgrade items from Dive Master Astora.
    • Infusable, exotic-quality aquabreathers are now available so that players can enjoy their swim-speed infusions before they have earned an ascended aquabreather.
    • A limited number of extra ornate rusted keys can be purchased for karma each week, and excess keys can be exchanged for karma.
    • Some of the new items will be available as prizes in an upcoming weekly event.
  • Made various functionality improvements to opening and resetting sunken chests.
• Lowered the difficulty of the "Help Lucretia get back to Garenhoff" event to make it easier for one player to complete.
• Fixed an issue that caused players to become trapped in the catapults near Garrison Waypoint.
• Fixed an issue that could prevent the rockslides encountered in the Missing Brood collection from being in the proper animation state.

Fractals

Lonely Tower Fractal

• Reduced the boon corruption Eparch causes with Envy Empowerment.
• Eparch's Consume skill will only absorb emotion globules that are 5 or more seconds old.
• Reduced Eparch's health.
• Fixed an issue that prevented Wave of Envy from hitting enemies if they were standing too close to Eparch.
• Reduced the boon corruption dealt by Wave of Envy. The skill no longer corrupts boons on players who evade the attack.
• Reduced the health of the rift guardian champions summoned during the encounter in challenge mode.

Strike Missions

• Some balance adjustments have been made to the Temple of Febe challenge mode encounter to make it more accessible. These changes do not apply to the legendary version of the encounter.
  • Reduced the duration of the Insatiable effect applied by Empowered Insatiable Hunger to 3 minutes.
  • Reduced the number of stacks of Empowered that Cerus gains from Empowered Smash to 2.
  • Reduced the health and toughness of Malicious Shadows.
  • Reduced the penalty for failure during Empowered Crushing Regret. Failure to have enough people to absorb an attack will cause players to be downed instead of defeated, as will being hit by two of the attacks. Multiple failures or being hit by the skill more than two times will still cause players to be defeated.

Player vs. Player

• The number of ascended shards of glory required to purchase ascended gear from PvP vendors has been decreased.
  • The cost for a set of ascended armor has been lowered from 1,200 ascended shards of glory to 800 ascended shards of glory.
  • The cost for a two-handed ascended weapon has been lowered from 400 ascended shards of glory to 200 ascended shards of glory.
  • The cost for a one-handed ascended weapon has been lowered from 400 ascended shards of glory to 100 ascended shards of glory.
• The following changes will apply to ranked reward tracks starting with the next PvP league season, Season 42, which begins on July 2.
  • The total number of boxes of grandmaster marks obtainable from the reward track has been increased from 3 to 9. The repeatable byzantium chest also contains a box of grandmaster marks.
  • Instant reward track potions have been added to each tier at a rate of 3 potions per 10 pips.
  • Vials of karma have been added to each tier at a rate of 3 vials per 10 pips.

Personal Story

Secrets of the Obscure

• Additional messaging has been added to chapter 18, The Eleventh Hour, to recommend completion of the Into the Spider's Lair meta-event in Inner Nayos before proceeding into the story instance.
• A new achievement, True Ending: The Eleventh Hour, has been added to "The Midnight King" story achievements. Successfully completing the Into the Spider's Lair meta-event with The Eleventh Hour as your active story step before entering the instance will award the achievement.
  • This achievement has been added to the list of achievements that award progress toward completing the Secrets of the Obscure: The Midnight King Mastery meta-achievement.

Items

• Players who misplaced their Saga's End Draconic Core or would like extras can now purchase additional copies from Sarettokk in Lion's Arch after completing all requirements to earn the item.
• Suffused Obsidian armor skin consumables' rarity has been updated from legendary to exotic to prevent the deletion confirmation from requiring players to type out the name.
• Fixed an issue that prevented Eparch's Empowered Greatsword and Eparch's Empowered Sword skins from being unlocked in the wardrobe.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Saryx Backpiece, the Midnight King Backpiece, and the infused versions of both to grant exotic attribute values instead of ascended attribute values.

Profession Skills

Below are changes to the balance preview notes we previously shared. You can see the original balance preview notes here.

Elementalist

Catalyst

• Elemental Celerity: Fixed an issue that caused this skill to fail when the user was holding a conjured weapon in WvW and PvP.

Guardian

• Leap of Faith: Increased the radius from 180 to 240.

Firebrand

• Mantras now automatically charge in combat in PvE only.
• Mantra of Solace: Increased the arc angle from 60 degrees to 160 degrees.
• Mantra of Lore: Increased the arc angle from 60 degrees to 160 degrees.
• Mantra of Potence: Increased the arc angle from 60 degrees to 160 degrees.
• Mantra of Liberation: Increased the arc angle from 60 degrees to 160 degrees.

Willbender

• Rushing Justice: Increased the Justice effect duration from 6 seconds to 8 seconds in PvE only.

Necromancer

Reaper

• Blighter's Boon: Increased the base healing from 85 to 101.

Ranger

• Stalk (Juvenile Jaguar): This skill now applies stealth to the ranger in addition to the pet. Increased the cooldown from 20 seconds to 35 seconds in WvW and PvP.

Revenant

Herald

• Facet of Darkness: Reduced the cooldown from 25 seconds to 20 seconds in PvP only.
• True Nature (Legendary Dragon): This skill now cleanses 3 conditions from nearby allies when used.

[Rubi Bayer.8493]

06/25/2024—Late Notes

General

• The daily achievement Blood in the Water has been moved to the Sunken Treasure Hunter category. When completed, the reward key is now sent directly to the inventory rather than using a reward chest.

World vs. World

• Fixed an issue that caused some WvW teams in Europe to experience map queue issues.

[Spectral Spiral.6109]

Bug Fix:

• Fixed an issue that prevented players from previewing the contents of the Tropical Beach Pack and Breezy Swim Pack in the Gem Store.
   

[Rubi Bayer.8493]

Bug Fix:

• Fixed an issue that prevented Symbol of Luminance from working as intended.