Game updates:May 2008

May 2008 updates

• Thursday 29^th of May (talk)
• Friday 23^rd of May (talk)
• Thursday 22^nd of May (talk)
• Tuesday 13^th of May (talk)
• Thursday 8^th of May (talk)
• Tuesday 6^th of May (talk)
• Thursday 1^st of May (talk)

Update #2 - Thursday, May 29, 2008

Bug Fixes

• Fixed the alignment of the "Test My Computer" option on the login screen.

Update - Thursday, May 29, 2008

Support Features

Added the "Test My Computer" option to the login screen. Clicking this link launches a diagnostic test that measures:

• Adapter settings
• Network connections
• External address
• Server connectivity
• Network paths
• DirectX diagnostics

When the test is complete, click "View Results" to open a text file with a list of the testing results. These results are useful to diagnose connection and playability problems, and will lead to faster resolution of open support tickets. This file is saved to your root Guild Wars directory, which is by default located in C:\Program Files\Guild Wars on Windows XP, and C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\Guild Wars on Windows Vista.

Added a hotkey combination to address a video problem where the screen resolution would sometimes get stuck in a higher mode than the computer could render. Holding down CTRL-ALT-SHIFT while launching Guild Wars will now reset the resolution to 800x600.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that caused some disguise tonics to interact improperly with Junundu form in Guild Wars: Nightfall.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Ranger skill Distracting Shot to not receive a damage increase from some Preparations.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Paragon skill Cruel Spear to inflict Deep Wound even if it was blocked.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Paragon skill "Brace Yourself!" to not affect self-knockdowns, such as Grapple.
• Fixed a bug that caused skill templates that included PvP skills to become blank when the template name was changed.

Miscellaneous

• Scrolls of Hero's Insight received from the Imperial Quartermaster in Kaineng Center will now appropriately stack with the same scrolls bought from scroll traders.
• Spafrod Iceblood in Sacnoth Valley now correctly drops his own green item instead of Lord Glacius' Staff.
• Sol Pyrrhus in Stingray Strand can now craft armor rating 51 Monk Pants.
• Updated the sale value of Tempered Glass Vials to match their crafting cost of 20 gold.
• Clay Bricks have been removed from all material crafter inventories.

Update - Friday, May 23, 2008

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug with several Mesmer skills failing to interact with PvP versions of other skills.
• Fixed a bug that caused PvP skills to display incorrectly when sending skill templates to chat.

Update - Thursday, May 22, 2008

Restoration of Skill Effectiveness in PvE

With this update we introduce a new system to split certain skills into separate PvE and PvP versions. With this system we can update skills for one game type without affecting the other.

Skills that differ in PvP will have (PvP) listed at the end of their names when viewed in PvP outposts and matches. These skills will automatically be adjusted within PvP outposts and matches. Players can equip their skills as normal, and the game will use the PvP version where appropriate. For more information, see the Developer Update.

In this update, we are restoring a number of skills so that they work similar to how they used to before various PvP-related game balances. Each of the following skill restored in this way now also has a PvP version:

Assassin

• Shadow Form: increased duration to 5..30 seconds.

Elementalist

• Ether Renewal: increased duration to 5..20 seconds; increased Energy gain to 1..4.

Mesmer

• Energy Drain: decreased recharge to 20 seconds.
• Energy Tap: decreased recharge to 20 seconds; decreased casting time to 2 seconds.

Monk

• Light of Deliverance: decreased recharge to 6 seconds.

Necromancer

• Discord: decreased casting time to 1 second.

Paragon

• "Incoming!": increased duration to 1..5 seconds.
• Defensive Anthem: decreased activation time to 1 second.

Ranger

• Penetrating Attack: increased damage to 5..25.
• Sundering Attack: increased damage to 5..25.

Ritualist

• Ritual Lord: increased Spirit recharge reduction to 15..75%.

Warrior

• "Watch Yourself!": increased number of attacks before "Watch Yourself!" ends to 10.

Restoration of April Balance Changes (PvP)

We are also reintroducing the PvP balance changes that we tested from April 17 – May 1, along with a few other tweaks to skills. These balance changes will apply only to PvP.

Assassin

• Assassin's Remedy (PvP): increased Energy cost to 10.
• Shadow Form (PvP): decreased duration to 5..15 seconds.

Dervish

• Eremite's Attack (PvP): increased activation time to 1 second.
• Mystic Sweep (PvP): increased activation time to 1 second.

Elementalist

• Blinding Surge (PvP): decreased recharge to 3 seconds; decreased Blind duration to 1..5 seconds.
• Lightning Orb (PvP): this skill no longer causes Cracked Armor.
• Ward Against Melee (PvP): decreased duration to 1..18 seconds.

Monk

• Aegis (PvP): increased Energy cost to 15.

Necromancer

• Enfeeble (PvP): increased recharge to 10 seconds.

Paragon

• "Never Surrender!" (PvP): decreased duration to 10 seconds.
• Ballad of Restoration (PvP): increased recharge time to 30 seconds.
• Harrier's Toss (PvP): increased activation time to 1 second.
• Song of Restoration (PvP): increased recharge time to 30 seconds.

Ritualist

• Ancestors' Rage (PvP): increased casting time to 1 second.
• Death Pact Signet (PvP): increased casting time to 4 seconds.
• Flesh of My Flesh (PvP): increased recharge to 10 seconds.
• Splinter Weapon (PvP): increased recharge to 8 seconds.

Restoration of April Balance Changes (PvE and PvP)

These skills were part of the the April Balance change and needed to be restored for PvP balance but didn't warrant splitting the skills into separate PvE and PvP versions. Some are skill improvements we wanted to apply to both PvE and PvP; others are power reductions we felt would have minimal impact on PvE balance. The one exception is Steelfang Slash, which was not a part of the April Balance update. It was added to this list to deal with particular multi-weapon skill combinations that allowed a player to repeatedly chain knockdowns on an opponent.

Elementalist

• Glyph of Concentration: decreased number of spells that cannot be interrupted to 1.
• Shockwave: increased casting time to 1 second.

Mesmer

• Chaos Storm: decreased Energy cost to 5.
• Energy Burn: increased Energy lost to 1..10; decreased damage done per Energy to 9.
• Energy Surge: increased Energy lost to 1..10; decreased damage done per Energy to 9.
• Fevered Dreams: decreased recharge to 8.
• Fragility: decreased Energy cost to 5.
• Hex Breaker: this skill now counts as a Stance.

Warrior

• Disarm: decreased skill disable time to 0..3 seconds; increased recharge to 20 seconds.
• Steelfang Slash: increased recharge to 1 second.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug in Alliance Battles that awarded points to the opposing team when members died from Health sacrifice or vampiric weapons before the match started.
• Fixed a bug that prevented Hero Assassins from using dagger skills for a brief time following a dual attack.
• Fixed a bug that incorrectly triggered a full inventory warning for some players when purchasing Zaishen Keys from Tolkano.
• Heroes will now use the Necromancer skill Blood is Power more often.
• Fixed a bug that allowed some players to exceed party size limits with Heroes.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Necromancer skill Grenth’s Balance to occasionally deal an incorrect amount of damage/healing.
• Fixed a bug that caused certain henchmen in the Central Transfer Chamber to not show up sometimes.
• Fixed text bugs affecting one quest, one NPC, and the Zaishen Title Track.
• Fixed minor clipping issues occurring on Ranger masks when they’re worn by some Factions or Nightfall characters.

Miscellaneous

• A Ranger's fur-lined mask can now be crafted by armorer Seifred in Droknar's Forge, or purchased using Tournament Reward Points from Tolkano in the Great Temple of Balthazar.

Guild Wars Wiki Notes

• This update introduced a bug where if you ping a bar that has any PvP skills on it and send to chat, it won't recognize it as a pinged bar.

Update - Tuesday, May 13, 2008

• Fixed an exploit.

Update #2 - Thursday, May 8, 2008

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a crash bug.

Miscellaneous

• Corrected an issue with the Guild Wars updater. When you restart Guild Wars, the gray splash screen may appear an extra time. This is normal and will not recur after the update is applied.

Update #1 - Thursday, May 8, 2008

Updated Zaishen Rewards

• Added the new Zaishen title track, which can be displayed in the Hall of Monuments. Each rank in the Zaishen title track unlocks a new emote. To display the emote, enter /Zaishen or /Zrank once rank 1 or higher has been unlocked on the account.
• Added new monthly tonics to the Zaishen Chest. These new tonics will alternate each month.

For more information on the additions to the Zaishen rewards, please visit:

http://www.guildwars.com/competitive/tournament2008/zaishenrewards/

Automated Tournaments

• Updated Automated Tournament map rotations.
• Increased the number of tournament reward points awarded for Monthly Automated Tournaments to 4,500 for GvG, and 1,500 for 1v1.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that caused an infrequent crash when a Signet of Capture was used.
• Fixed a bug that caused Heroes to not use spells on allies under the effects of Spell Breaker, Shadow Form, and Obsidian Flesh.
• Fixed a bug that caused Assassin Heroes to occasionally attempt to use dagger skills when they did not yet meet the combo requirements.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the Refined Jelly art to appear as white and become unstackable with other items of the same name.

Miscellaneous

• The Xunlai Tournament House NPC now offers prizes for the April tournament and can be found in the Great Temple of Balthazar, Lion's Arch, Kaineng Center, and Kamadan.
• Improved Hero AI for using the Necromancer skill Feast for the Dead.
• Improved Hero AI for using the Necromancer skill Taste of Death.
• Improved Hero AI for using the Monk skill Dwayna's Sorrow.
• Updated buff effects from Ritualist spirits to show the time remaining on the buff.
• Altered the text color for the Everlasting Tonics to green to better distinguish them from other drops found in the Zaishen Chest.
• Altered the icon colors for Beetle Juice Tonic, Transmogrifier Tonic, and Yuletide Tonic to prepare for new tonics to be added in the next year.

Guild Wars Wiki notes

• The Xunlai Tournament House NPC now tells you how many reward points you have won.

Update - Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Bug Fixes

• Closed an exploit that allowed some players to exceed allowed party size limits.

Update - Thursday, May 1, 2008

Guild vs. Guild

The Guild Battle rules which were altered in a previous update will remain in place including:

• Number of archers on Burning and Druid's Isle.
• NPC positioning on Warrior's Isle.
• Wards will continue to not protect Guild Battle NPCs.
• Certain Ritualist skills will continue to not affect or protect Guild Battle NPCs.

Skill Updates

Reverted temporary tournament changes to skills:

Assassin

• Assassin's Remedy: reverted Energy cost back to 5.

Mesmer

• Chaos Storm: reverted Energy cost back to 15.
• Energy Burn: reverted Energy drained to 3...7...8; reverted damage per Energy to 12.
• Energy Surge: reverted Energy drained to 3...7...8; reverted damage per Energy to 12.
• Fevered Dreams: reverted recharge back to 10 seconds.
• Fragility: reverted Energy cost back to 10.
• Hex Breaker: reverted skill type back to skill.

Elementalist

• Blinding Surge: reverted recharge back to 4 seconds; reverted Blindness duration back to 3...7...8 seconds.
• Glyph of Concentration: reverted number of spells affected back to 2.
• Lightning Orb: reverted skill back to applying Cracked Armor.
• Shockwave: reverted casting time back to .75 seconds.
• Ward Against Melee: reverted duration back to 5...17...20 seconds

Monk

• Aegis: reverted Energy cost back to 10.

Warrior

• Disarm: reverted time that attack skills are disabled back to 0...4...5 seconds; reverted recharge back to 12.

Ritualist

• Ancestors' Rage: reverted casting time back to .25 seconds.
• Death Pact Signet: reverted activation time back to 3 seconds.
• Flesh of My Flesh: reverted recharge back to 0 seconds.
• Splinter Weapon: reverted recharge back to 5 seconds.

Dervish

• Eremite's Attack: reverted activation time back to ¾ seconds.
• Mystic Sweep: reverted activation time back to ¾ seconds.

Paragon

• Ballad of Restoration: reverted recharge back to 20 seconds.
• Harrier's Toss: reverted activation time back to .5 seconds.
• Song of Restoration: reverted recharge back to 20 seconds.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that caused interrupted attack skills to occasionally deal damage.
• Fixed a bug with skills that convert damage from one type to another, such as Stone Striker and Greater Conflagration. The converted damage was working incorrectly with armor bonuses and penalties.
• Fixed a bug that allowed characters to occasionally Shadow Step while carrying a flag.

Miscellaneous

Created wiki pages for Asian language players to report localization bugs:

• Japanese: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/User:Jason_Yu/Japanese_Localization_Bugs
• Korean: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/User:Jason_Yu/Korean_Localization_Bugs
• Traditional Chinese: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/User:Jason_Yu/Traditional_Chinese_Localization_Bugs

The wiki pages for the European localization bug reports are now hosted by the European community team:

• French: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/User:Julien_Crevits/French_Localization_Bugs
• German: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/User:Martin_Kerstein/German_Localization_Bugs
• Italian: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/User:Martin_Kerstein/Italian_Localization_Bugs
• Spanish: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/User:Peter_Verhelst/Spanish_Localization_Bugs