Game updates:April 2012

April 2012 updates

• Tuesday 24^th of April (talk)
• Thursday 5^th of April (talk)
• Sunday 1^st of April (talk)

Update #2 - Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Anniversary Updates

• Updated text related to the Hound of Balthazar Ranger pet.
• Enabled Dragon Arena.

Update - Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Anniversary Updates

• Made preparations for the Guild Wars 7th anniversary celebration.
• Elite Xunlai Bakery Agents, flush with pride after their careful placement of sprinkles, have assumed control of Birthday Cupcake distribution and are en route to their party destinations.
• Ceira, Sworn to Fire, has returned from another expedition bearing gifts from the gods: Hounds of Balthazar Ranger pets for all who visit her in Embark Beach during the celebration.

Update - Thursday, April 5, 2012

Automated Tournaments

• Updated the 2012 Automated Tournament Series Trophy in the Great Temple of Balthazar.
• Updated the Automated Tournament map rotation.

Update - Sunday, April 1, 2012

Note: This update was never implemented. It is a fake update in the spirit of April Fools' Day. However, what is mentioned in the Guild Wars Wiki notes did occur.

Profession Updates

Assassin

• Daggers are now ranged weapons.
• Shadow Step skills can now be used only when standing in a shaded area.
• Shadow Form: added the following functionality: "Deletes all characters on your account when Shadow Form ends."
• New skill: One Last Breath: "When striking a foe with arms wide open, this skill knocks target foe back by six feet."

Dervish

• Onslaught: decreased attack and movement speed bonuses to 10%.
• Onslaught (PvP): increased attack and movement speed bonuses to 33%.

Elementalist

• Elementalists have been renamed to "Sorcerers."
• Removed the Fire Magic attribute.
• All magic damage is now based on rank in the Friendship attribute.

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• Magnetic Aura: How does it work?
• Thunderclap: changed skill type to shout. Renamed to "Thunder, Thunder, Thunderclap! HOOOOOOOO!"

Mesmer

• Male Canthan Mesmers have 20 additional attribute points.
• Mesmer skills now scale with the flamboyance of your armor.

Monk

• Monks can now wear heavy armor.
• New skill: Salma's Hospitality: "Any doors or gates barring the enemy from reaching you are opened."

Necromancer

• Minions have formed a union; you now pay 1 gold per second per animated minion.
• Life Siphon: removed Health degeneration and regeneration; now affects your and target foe's maximum Health.

Paragon

• No changes.

Ranger

• Added the secondary attribute "Bee Mastery;" Rangers may only use this attribute in pre-Searing.
• Activated traps now cause the player character to shout, "You've activated my trap!"
• Due to regional laws regarding the treatment of endangered species, panda pets are now invincible.
• Charm Animal: added the functionality to charm other players' minipets.

Ritualist

• Dragon Empire Rage is now available to players who purchased the Bonus Mission Pack.
• Spirits are now mobile.
• New skill: Bald was Togo: "While you hold Togo's ashes, foes striking you are blinded, but your voice sounds funny."

Summoner

• New profession: Summoner; only seven players at a time are able to play as Summoners.

Warrior

• Warriors can now equip spears as an off-hand weapon.
• Added new shouts: "Objection!" "Take that!" and "Hold it!"
• Healing Signet: now only recharges if you get a morale boost.
• "None Shall Pass!": added the following functionality: "You and target enemy fall...through fire and water."
• "Watch Yourself!": renamed to "Check Yourself!"; added the following functionality: "All allies lose the Wrecked condition."

General

• In preparation for the launch of Guild Wars 2, all professions have been given access to the Healing Prayers attribute.

Quest Changes

• Added a Hard Mode version of "Forming a Party" in Shing Jea Monastery.
• Decreased difficulty of "Rally the Recruits (Tutorial)" in Island of Shehkah.
• New quest: "Annihilator 2: Searing Day" in Embark Beach.
• New quest: "Defending the Ascalon Settlement...Again" in Ascalon Settlement.
• All quests now contain Afflicted spawns.

Miscellaneous

• Fissure of Woe, the Underworld, and Chahbek Village are now PvP zones.
• Changed the name of White Crabs in the Tarnished Coast and the Depths of Tyria to "Some Kind of Cave Demon."
• Henchmen Kihm, Lina, and Mhenlo now use Smiting Monk skills.
• Hero Keiran Thackeray's profession has been changed to Ritualist.
• The intermediate cinematic for "Ice Caves of Sorrow" has been altered so that Saidra now strikes the Mursaat first. (This was always our true vision for the scene, and can now be realized with current technology.)
• All loading screens have been replaced with Mhenloading screens.

Bug Fixes

• Kurzick Duelists now properly send defeated foes to the Shadow Realm.
• To prevent "red resign," Luxons can no longer use the /resign command.
• Decreased the effects of the Lucky Aura during the Xun Rao encounter.

Guild Wars Wiki notes

• This update fixed a cosmetic bug with the April 2012 Flux that prevented its name (Hive Mind) and descriptions from displaying.
• After the update, players were able to begin the new April Fool's quests, originally released with the March 29, 2012 update:
  • Two Corporal Banes and the KT29-Moahawk were added to Embark Beach.
  • Annihilator 2: Searing Day was was offered by the W20 Bane.
  • Annihilator, the 2011 April Fool's Day quest, was again available, offered by the Lvl 20 Bane