Game updates:January 2010

January 2010 updates

• Friday 29^th of January (talk)
• Thursday 28^th of January (talk)
• Monday 18^th of January (talk)
• Thursday 7^th of January (talk)
• Friday 1^st of January (talk)

Update - Friday, January 29, 2010

Bug Fixes

• Solved global warming issues, and recovered Wintersday decorations from the Grentches.

Update #2 - Thursday, January 28, 2010

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that prevented access to Guild Wars.

Update - Thursday, January 28, 2010

Guild Battles

Eased the restrictions for participating in Guild Battles:

• Ladder Play
  • Requires 2 guild members.
  • A guild member must be the party leader, and at least one guild officer must be in the party.
  • Henchmen are restricted to a maximum of 4.
• Daily Automated Tournaments
  • Requires 2 guild members who have been in your guild for at least 7 days.
  • A guild member must be the party leader, and at least one guild officer must be in the party.
  • Henchmen are restricted to a maximum of 4.
  • All party members must be registered with Tolkano.
• Monthly Automated Tournaments
  • Requires 4 guild members who have been in your guild for at least 7 days.
  • All players in the party must be members of your guild, and at least one guild officer must be in the party.
  • Henchmen are restricted to a maximum of 2.
  • All party members must be registered with Tolkano.
• Miscellaneous
  • Removed Balthazar faction penalty for new guild members.
  • Improved error messaging to reflect changes to GvG restrictions.

Codex Arena

For more information on these changes, please see the Developer Updates page.

• General Changes
  • Codex rotation has been reduced to 6 hours.
  • In the Skill Panel (K), a new sorting option allows players to toggle between viewing all available Codex skills and only skills available to their profession.
  • Priests in Codex Arena no longer have Heal Area and have had their health increased to 800.
• Codex Balance Changes
  • Assassins, Dervish, Warriors and Paragons will receive 17 normal skills and 3 elites.
  • Elementalists, Necromancers and Mesmers will receive 20 normal skills and 5 elites.
  • Monks and Ritualists will receive 16 normal skills and 4 elites.
  • Rangers will receive 19 normal skills and 4 elites.
• Skill Selection Changes
  • Protector's Defense has been added to the list of restricted Codex skills.
  • Assassin skills are guaranteed to include one randomly selected lead attack and one randomly selected off-hand attack. Neither will be elite, and the off-hand attack will require a lead attack.
  • Ritualist skills are guaranteed to include one randomly selected, non-elite binding ritual.
  • Necromancer skills are guaranteed to include one randomly selected, non-elite minion-summoning skill.

Skill Balance

For more information on these changes, please see the Developer Updates page.

PvE and PvP Changes

Dervish

• Ebon Dust Aura: functionality changed to: "For 5...29...35 seconds, if you are wielding an earth weapon, your melee attack Skills also cause Blindness for 4...9...10 seconds."

Elementalist

• Mirror of Ice: increased casting time to 2 seconds; increased Energy cost to 15.
• Ride the Lightning: added standard teleport aftercast.
• Winter's Embrace: increased Energy cost to 10; increased recharge to 15 seconds.

Mesmer

• Illusion of Pain: increased casting time to 2 seconds; decreased duration to 8 seconds; decreased recharge to 5 seconds; decreased healing to 36...103...120.

Monk

• Life Sheath: functionality changed to: "Elite Enchantment Spell. Remove 0...2...2 conditions from target ally. For 8 seconds, the next time target ally would take damage or life steal, that ally gains that amount of Health instead (maximum 20...84...100)."
• Reversal of Fortune: functionality changed to: "Enchantment Spell. For 8 seconds, the next time target ally would take damage or life steal, that ally gains that amount of Health instead, maximum 15...67...80."
• Shielding Hands: functionality changed to: "Enchantment Spell. For 8 seconds, damage and life steal received by target ally is reduced by 3...15...18. When Shielding Hands ends, that ally is healed for 5...41...50 Health."

Necromancer

• Cultist's Fervor: decreased Energy gain [sic] to 1...5...6; increased recharge to 25 seconds; changed duration to "5 seconds plus 3 seconds for every rank of Soul Reaping."
• Lifebane Strike: increased recharge to 15 seconds.
• Shadow Strike: increased recharge to 15 seconds.
• Vampiric Swarm: functionality changed to: "Spell. Steal up to 15...51...60 Health from target foe and up to two other foes in the area."

Paragon

• Soldier's Fury: added the following functionality: "Whenever a shout or chant ends on you, you suffer from Cracked Armor (10 seconds)."

Ranger

• Crippling Shot: added the following functionality: "This arrow moves twice as fast as normal."
• Hunter's Shot: decreased activation time to 1 second and added aftercast.
• Marauder's Shot: increased disable time to 10 seconds.
• Melandru's Shot: added aftercast.
• Needling Shot: reduced activation time to 3/4 second; added the following functionality: "Your other attack skills are disabled for 2 seconds."
• Quick Shot: added aftercast.
• Power Shot: removed activation time, now uses normal bow attack speed; reduced recharge to 3 seconds; functionality changed to "Power Shot deals 25...45...50 damage if it hits."
• Precision Shot: added aftercast; reduced bonus damage to 3...9...10.

Ritualist

• Union: functionality changed to: "Binding Ritual. Create a level 1...10...12 Spirit. Whenever a non-spirit ally in its range takes damage or life steal, it is reduced by 15 and the spirit takes 15 damage. This spirit dies after 30...54...60 seconds."
• Vengeful Weapon: functionality changed to: "Weapon Spell. For 8 seconds, the next time target ally takes damage or life steal from a foe, that ally steals up to 15...51...60 Health from that foe."
• Weapon of Remedy: functionality changed to: "Elite Weapon Spell. For 8 seconds, the next time target ally takes damage or life steal from a foe, that ally steals up to 15...63...75 Health from that foe and loses 1 Condition."

PvE Only Changes

Ranger

• Penetrating Attack: reduced activation time to 3/4 second.
• Sundering Attack: reduced activation time to 3/4 second.

PvP Only Changes

Paragon

• "Stand Your Ground!" (PvP): functionality changed to: "Shout. For 5...17...20 seconds, all party members within earshot receive +24 armor when not moving. Ends on a party member if that party member attacks."
• Anthem of Envy (PvP): added a recharge of 6 seconds; reduced damage bonus to 10...18...20.
• Mending Refrain (PvP): changed functionality to: "Echo. For 15 seconds, you have +2...3...3 Health regeneration. This Echo is reapplied every time a Chant or Shout ends on you."

Ranger

• Glass Arrows (PvP): decreased damage bonus to 5...12.
• Keen Arrow (PvP): increased recharge to 12 seconds; increased conditional damage bonus to 5...25...30; decreased unconditional damage bonus to 1...5.
• Lightning Reflexes (PvP): increased recharge to 45 seconds.
• Penetrating Attack (PvP): added aftercast.
• Sloth Hunter's Shot (PvP): increased recharge to 15 seconds; decreased conditional damage bonus to 5...13...15; decreased unconditional damage bonus to 5...17...20.
• Sundering Attack (PvP): added aftercast.

Ritualist

• Recuperation (PvP): functionality changed to: "Binding Ritual. Create a level 1...8...10 Spirit. Non-spirit allies within its range under 75% maximum health gain 1...3...3 Health regeneration. This spirit dies after 15...39...45 seconds."

Wintersday

• Preparations have been made for the brief return of Wintersday.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a text bug in Tennaros' French dialog.
• Fixed a bug that prevented reconnection with some answers to the Security Question.

Miscellaneous

• Changed description on Vampiric weapon modifiers to refer to effect as "Life Draining."

Guild Wars Wiki notes

• The "bug that prevented reconnection" was related to the game handing you the character whose name you entered to log in. The character it hands to you when you log in has been reverted to its original functionality.
• The name of the skill "I Am The Strongest!" was changed to "I Am the Strongest!".
• The speech bubble of the skill "By Ural's Hammer!" was changed to "By Ural's hammer!".
• This update also introduced bugs causing Precision Shot to remove stances on hit and Quick Shot to disable your other attack skills for 2 seconds. These bugs were fixed in the February 1, 2010 update.

Update #2 - Monday, January 18, 2010

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a crash bug related to the pet panel.

Update - Monday, January 18, 2010

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that caused Battle Priest Calibos in Zos Shivros Channel to path incorrectly.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Doppelganger to use Vampirism.
• Fixed a bug that prevented costumes from being hidden in some PvP outposts.
• Fixed a bug that prevented costumes from displaying on the inventory panel in some PvP outposts.
• Fixed a bug that prevented heroes from receiving experience from Zaishen Challenge Quests.
• Fixed the in-game link to manage NCsoft master accounts.
• Fixed a bug that prevented in-game password reset requests for @plaync accounts.

Miscellaneous

• Clarified the password-reset confirmation message.

Guild Wars Wiki notes

• Opening the pet control panel caused the game to crash. This was fixed in update #2.

Update - Thursday, January 7, 2010

Automated Tournaments

• Updated Automated Tournament map rotation.
• Changed Automated Tournament schedules to better correspond with regional peak times.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that caused Grenth's Visage to disappear when dyed.
• Fixed a bug that caused Grenth's Visage to disappear when Grenth's Regalia was dyed.

Guild Wars Wiki notes

• The automated loading of a graphics.dll in the Guild Wars folder has been disabled; however, it is still possible to inject the dll manually.

Update - Friday, January 1, 2010

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that prevented some players from receiving festival hats.

Guild Wars Wiki notes

• Some players were receiving error code 050 when entering American or International districts of Kamadan or Eye of the North.