Game Update Notes: May 25, 2021

[Fire Attunement.9835]

05/25/2021—May 25 Release Notes

Living World

Return to the Living World Story

A special series of events focusing on previous Living World story chapters is beginning this week, with the spotlight on the first two episodes of Season 2, "Gates of Maguuma" and "Entanglement"! Check them out to earn special bonus rewards for playing those episodes' stories and maps through new achievements. Completing multiple sets of event achievements across the Living World story will progress the Seasons of the Dragons meta-achievement, with some legendary rewards available! Next week we'll move on to Episodes 3 and 4 of Season 2.

• Taimi and Gorrik are setting up a lab in the Eye of the North. If you've completed Episode 5 of The Icebrood Saga, check in with them for the latest information.
• For the duration of each episode's special event, that episode will be free to purchase in the Gem Store and an instant unlock will be directly mailed to you.
• The meta-achievement Seasons of the Dragons has been added to the Current Events achievement category.
• If you miss a week or need to wait to experience the story, don't worry—the achievements are permanent. Look for achievements from previous weeks in the Side Stories category in the Achievements tab in your Hero panel.

See you in Dry Top!

General

• Achievements related to the portal invasions in Central Tyria have been moved from the Current Events category to their own new category, Portal Panic.
• The Survey on Subjects of Importance 2 achievement has been moved from the Current Events category to the Roller Beetle Racing category.

·         Updated map completion rewards for all expansion maps to be consistent with current design standards. Map completion in all level-80 zones now requires the character to be level 80 to earn maximum-level rewards.

• Fixed an issue that allowed the Destroyer of the Crystal Fields to be stunned when entering the battlefield, causing it to stall before fighting back.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the final battle of the Fireheart Rise Dragon Response Mission to stall if Braham's health bar was depleted during certain sections of the fight.

Raids

• Bastion of the Penitent: Fixed a bug in which Samarog would inconsistently pull spears across the room throughout the fight.
• Mythwright Gambit: Fixed a bug in which certain mechanics would fail to initiate in phases 3 and 4 of the Twin Largos encounter.

Profession Skills

General

In this update, we're performing some follow-up tuning to several professions in order to address balance concerns we've seen from the previous update. This is an ongoing process; we're eagerly watching as the community theorycrafts new builds and tries them in content, and we're gathering data on play rates of various elite specializations and builds within those specializations as they're played in different content types. We'll continue making future adjustments as necessary to ensure that every profession is represented with viable builds for each game mode.

Engineer

We've loved seeing the scrapper quickness builds that the community has put together so far. In this follow-up tuning update, we're increasing the base quickness applied by Kinetic Accelerators so that aspiring quick scrappers will have more flexibility in their choice of utility skills.

Scrapper

• Kinetic Accelerators: Increased duration of applied quickness from 2 seconds to 2.5 seconds in all game modes.

Guardian

We're watching how the recent changes to guardian traits have impacted play, and we're pleased with how the recent tuning to the firebrand's burst damage has worked out. To help ease the lost burst potential, we're adding a (very minor) amount of additional condition damage into Power of the Virtuous.

Virtues

• Power of the Virtuous: This trait now increases condition damage by 13% of your vitality in all game modes, up from 10%.

Mesmer

We're excited by how enthusiastic everyone is for the staff-wielding mirage. With the recent improvements to Chaos traits, the torment condition's performance in PvE, and the changes to the staff skills themselves, staff is currently overperforming as a boon support weapon. We'd like to keep axe-and-torch as the DPS build, and ease the performance of the mirage's staff down into a competitive support build, which means lowering its overall damage output (and confusion uptime).

Mantras

• Mantra of Recovery: This skill will once again properly activate the trait Mender's Purity, and it will now activate Mender's Purity when used in midair.
• Mantra of Concentration: This skill will now properly break stuns when activated.

Staff

• Winds of Chaos: When cast by a clone, the durations of applied torment and confusion have been reduced from 5 seconds to 2 seconds in all game modes.

Mirage

• Chaos Vortex: Reduced alacrity applied to nearby allies from 3 seconds to 2.5 seconds in PvE only.

Necromancer

Scourge

• Demonic Lore: Reduced torment damage bonus from 33% to 25% in PvE only.

Ranger

The reduction in the previous update to soulbeasts' damage via "Sic Em!" cut their overall damage output below the level we'd like to see from a competitive power DPS specialization. To that end, we're giving soulbeasts back a significant DPS effect in PvE content by increasing the power of the Furious Strength trait.

Soulbeast

• Furious Strength: Increased bonus strike damage from 10% to 15% in PvE only.

Revenant

Revenants have access to more damage reduction from traits than other professions, and combinations of these can be especially potent. We're making some adjustments here to bring the revenant more in line with our general trait design for damage reduction and combat sustainability. With the recent addition of the Resolution boon, Righteous Rebel also has allowed revenants to stack an extremely high resistance to condition damage. Given that revenants have strong access to the Resolution boon, we have also reevaluated the high degree of condition damage resistance provided by Righteous Rebel.

A slight reduction to damage from the Devastation specialization is also being made to help preserve competitiveness and the diversity of options between Devastation and Invocation.

Corruption

• Demonic Resistance: Reduced strike damage taken from 33% to 20% in PvE only.

Devastation

• Battle Scars: Base healing reduced by one third in PvE only.
• Unsuspecting Strikes: Reduced bonus strike damage from 25% to 20% in PvE only.

Retribution

• Determined Resolution: Reduced strike damage taken from 15% to 10% in all game modes.

Renegade

• Soulcleave's Summit: Increased healing by 50% in all game modes.
• Righteous Rebel: Reduced incoming condition damage reduction per stack of Kalla's Fervor from 7% to 4% in all game modes.

Thief

Deadeye's performance is especially strong in PvE as a condition-damage role. At the moment, specific pistol skills are overperforming due to recent improvements to condition damage in thief traits. We're excited to see deadeye get more play, and we'll make tuning adjustments as necessary in future updates to ensure that both it and daredevil have strong damage builds available with a variety of weapons.

Pistol

• Shadow Strike: Reduced applied torment from 4 stacks to 2 stacks in PvE only. This now matches the number of stacks currently in PvP and WvW.
• Repeater: Increased initiative cost from 2 to 3. Reduced duration of applied bleeding from 4 seconds to 3 seconds in PvE only.
• Sneak Attack: Reduced applied bleeding duration from 6 seconds to 5 seconds in PvE only. This now matches the duration in PvP and WvW.

Deadeye

• Malicious Sneak Attack: Reduced applied bleeding duration from 6 seconds to 5 seconds in PvE only.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE

New Items and Promotions

• Living World Season 2 Episodes 1 and 2 are FREE for a limited time as part of the Return to the Living World Story event.
• The new Mossback Skimmer Skin is available in the Style category of the Gem Store for 1,600 gems.
• For a limited time, the Floral Glider, Vine-Touched Destroyer Glider Combo, and Tanglewood Backpack and Glider Combo are available on sale in the Style category of the Gem Store for 300, 525, and 525 gems respectively, a savings of 25%.

Black Lion Chest

• The Black Lion Chest has been updated to the Starborn Chest and can be previewed for a full list of its contents.
  • The Battle-Hardened Kit returns as the guaranteed item for the duration of the Starborn Chest.
  • The new Starborn Cape and Mossback Skimmer Skin are available as uncommon drops for the duration of this chest.
  • The Seraph Wings Backpack and Glider Combo returns as an uncommon drop for the duration of this chest.
  • The Defiant Glass and Zodiac weapon collections are available for the duration of this chest.
  • Unused versions of the Glyph of Flight and Glyph of Industry 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 redeeming one at any of the Black Lion Chest Merchants located in every major city.
  • The exclusive Tempest Gaze Helm Skin, Fire-Breathing Package, Dragon Fireworks Package, Kasmeer's Regalia Cape, and Starborn Outfit are currently available.
  • The two bonus collections have been updated to a selection of back-item skins and weapon skins.

[Fire Attunement.9835]

Bug Fix:

• Fixed an issue that caused the mesmer’s Signet of the Ether to behave incorrectly.

[Fire Attunement.9835]

05/11/2021—Late Notes

World vs. World

Edge of the Mists

• Manual team selection has been added to the Mists Arena. Players can choose between two different combat teams, a spectator team, or a flying spectator transform by interacting with flags on the edge of the arena. Only the players on the combat teams are able to enter the arena.
• Upon entering the Mists Arena, players will be automatically placed on the spectator team.
• Leaving the Mists Arena will revert players back to their original WvW team.

[Fire Attunement.9835]

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed an issue in which combat teams in the Mists Arena were not using standard character models.
• Fixed an issue in which combat teams in the Mists Arena were not allied with themselves.