Game updates:October 2007

October 2007 updates

• Friday 26^th of October (talk)
• Thursday 25^th of October (talk)
• Saturday 20^th of October (talk)
• Thursday 18^th of October (talk)
• Tuesday 16^th of October (talk)
• Monday 15^th of October (talk)
• Friday 12^th of October (talk)
• Friday 5^th of October (talk)
• Thursday 4^th of October (talk)

Update 2 - Friday October 26

Guild Wars Bonus Mission Pack Preparations

• Made preparations for the final week of the Guild Wars Bonus Mission Pack Promotion. At approximately 12:01 AM (-7 GMT) on October 27, players will be able to check their Guild Wars account (using the in-game option "Edit Account") to determine whether they have qualified for the Bonus Mission Pack. Eligibility is not updated automatically. Account status will be updated periodically from Monday through Wednesday of next week.

Update - Friday, October 26, 2007

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that caused some Halloween NPCs to appear more than once.
• Fixed a bug that caused deaths in the Costume Brawl to be added to a character's total death count. This fix does not retroactively remove deaths incurred while the bug was in effect.

Update 2 - Thursday, October 25, 2007

• Fixed a bug that allowed the Costume Brawl skills to be used outside of the Costume Brawl.

Update - Thursday, October 25, 2007

When sunlight wanes to shadow

And mists fill nights once clear

'Tis time to think of monarchs

Who visit once a year.

Hail, Thorn, the king demented,

Whose laughter fills the air

Where cunning gifts are given

With wit and deadly flair!

And as the season passes

Remember what you've seen

In Lion's Arch and Kamadan

On this good Halloween.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that caused the hunt rampage to display an incorrect duration in Hard Mode.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the snowmen in the Secret Lair of the Snowmen from using their Hard-Mode exclusive skills.
• Fixed an exploit that allowed players to access Account Storage in areas that have no Xunlai Agents.
• Fixed a bug that occasionally prevented characters from receiving credit for kills in the Fissure of Woe quest "The Hunt".
• Fixed a bug that prevented players from reporting teammates for leeching while in Random Arenas and Alliance Battles.
• Fixed a bug that allowed players to have more siege devourers in their group than intended in some Eye of the North regions.
• Fixed a bug that allowed players to use Lacerate to kill Polymock opponents.
• Fixed a bug that prevented Domain of Anguish bosses from spawning once the quest "Mallyx the Unyielding" had been completed.
• Fixed a bug in the Courtyard map of Heroes’ Ascent that allowed the gate levers to open and close the gates faster than intended.
• Fixed a graphical bug that caused several character models and armor sets to appear as wireframes.

Miscellaneous

• The Xunlai Tournament House NPC has returned to the Great Temple of Balthazar, Lion’s Arch, Kaineng Center, and Kamadan to reward players with Tournament prizes.
• To more clearly distinguish items that are outside of combat range, the names of characters and items more than 1,000 feet away now appear in a dimmer color.

Guild Wars Wiki notes

• Caused duplication of several skills at the Priest of Balthazar [Rewards]:
  • Anthem of Weariness
  • Blessed Light
  • Burning Arrow
  • Complicate
  • Crippling Slash
  • Desecrate Enchantments
  • Enfeeble
  • Enraging Charge
  • Falling Lotus Strike
  • Flame Djinn's Haste
  • Glowing Gaze
  • Insidious Parasite
  • Liquid Flame
  • Natural Stride
  • Pious Fury
  • Reaper's Mark
  • Searing Flames
  • Shield of Absorption
  • Signet of Lost Souls
  • Smite Condition
  • Steam
  • Sun and Moon Slash
  • Tiger Stance
• These duplicates could be equipped to your bar, excepting the elite skills. This was a bug and has been fixed.
• Lion's Arch and Kamadan were redecorated for Halloween.

Update - Saturday, October 20, 2007

Bug fixes

• Fixed an exploit that could be used to crash the game for every player in an instance.

Guild Wars Wiki notes

• This update had a bug which caused many players to be disconnected with "Error 7", and it was quickly followed by a second emergency build to fix the problem.

Update - Thursday, October 18, 2007

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that prevented Lightbringer skills from functioning in the Domain of Anguish.
• Fixed a bug that caused Hero panels to open and close after traveling between maps.

Miscellaneous

• Removed an excessively large spawn of incubus that appeared in Arbor Bay while in Hard Mode.
• The Dwarven Ghost allies revealed by the Light of Deldrimor skill are now more durable in Hard Mode.
• Updated Factions pets so they increase in size when they evolve. This affects both new and existing pets.
• Rewards gained by vanquishing an area are now visible in the player's Chat log.
• Heroes will now only attack if they have weapons equipped

Update - Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Skill Updates

Assassin

• Deadly Paradox: decreased the activation and recharge time of Assassin Skills to 33%.

Monk

• Shield of Regeneration: reverted this Skill to its original behavior.

Mesmer

• Keystone Signet: reverted this Skill to its original behavior.

Guild Wars Wiki notes

• The Miniature Ceratadon became available shortly after this update.

Update - Monday, October 15, 2007

• Fixed a rare crash bug.

Update 3 - Friday, October 12, 2007

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that allowed players to repeat Eye of the North primary quests.

Update 2 - Friday, October 12, 2007

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that prevented some players from accessing Eye of the North Hard Mode.

Update - Friday, October 12, 2007

Eye of the North Hard Mode

Hard Mode has been introduced for Guild Wars: Eye of the North. Players who have completed the expansion can now try playing it again in Hard Mode for an additional challenge.

Accessing Hard Mode in Eye of the North

• To gain access to Hard Mode in Eye of the North, you must first defeat the final primary quest in Normal Mode.
• Once you defeat the Eye of the North quest "A Time for Heroes" with any character on your account, every level 20 character on that same account will have access to Hard Mode in Eye of the North.

Hard Mode Rewards in Eye of the North

• Reputation point bonuses for completing primary quests and dungeons are 50% higher than in Normal Mode.
• Reputation points received from bounties are approximately 50% higher than in Normal Mode.
• Random loot found within final dungeon chests is doubled from what is given in Normal Mode.

Hero's Handbook and Master Dungeon Guide

• Pages acquired for missions completed without a Hero’s Handbook in your inventory can now be added to a Hero’s Handbook. The cost is 100 gold per missing page. Similarly, pages for dungeons completed without a Master Dungeon Guide in your inventory can be added for 100 gold per missing page.
• The following Eye of the North title NPCs can now update books with missing pages:
  • Gedral of Ascalon [sic] [Vanguard Herald] inside the Eye of the North
  • Kodan [Dwarven Recruitment Officer] in Gunnar's Hold
  • Tyr the Skaald [Norn Storyteller] in Gunnar's Hold
  • Lexx [Asuran Talent Scout] in Rata Sum
• These NPCs now give rewards for any Hero’s Handbook or Master Dungeon Guide that has at least half of its pages. The rewards given for turning in one of these books are as follows:

Master Dungeon Guide rewards
Pages	Rep (Normal)	Rep (Hard)	XP (Normal)	XP (Hard)	Gold (Normal)	Gold (Hard)
9	11,000	16,500	22,000	33,000	2,200	3,300
10	12,000	18,000	24,000	36,000	2,400	3,600
11	13,000	19,500	26,000	39,000	2,600	3,900
12	14,000	21,000	28,000	42,000	2,800	4,200
13	16,000	24,000	32,000	48,000	3,200	4,800
14	18,000	27,000	36,000	54,000	3,600	5,400
15	21,000	31,500	42,000	63,000	4,200	6,300
16	25,000	37,500	50,000	75,000	5,000	7,500
17	30,000	45,000	60,000	90,000	6,000	9,000
18	40,000	60,000	80,000	120,000	8,000	12,000

Hero's Handbook rewards
Pages	Rep (Normal)	Rep (Hard)	XP (Normal)	XP (Hard)	Gold (Normal)	Gold (Hard)
8	2,000	3,000	4,000	6,000	400	600
9	3,000	4,500	6,000	9,000	600	900
10	4,000	6,000	8,000	12,000	800	1,200
11	6,000	9,000	12,000	18,000	1,200	1,800
12	8,000	12,000	16,000	24,000	1,600	2,400
13	10,000	15,000	20,000	30,000	2,000	3,000
14	12,000	18,000	24,000	36,000	2,400	3,600
15	15,000	22,500	30,000	45,000	3,000	4,500
16	20,000	30,000	40,000	60,000	4,000	6,000

Hall of Monuments

• Miniatures no longer need to be customized when displayed in a player's Hall of Monuments.
• Miniatures displayed in the Monument to Devotion are now marked as "dedicated" rather than "customized."
• Players can use the Monument to Devotion to switch existing miniatures from being "customized" to being "dedicated."
• Miniatures that have been dedicated in a Hall of Monuments cannot be dedicated again, but they can be used by any character.
• To prevent trade scams, the Trade panel will warn you if someone tries to trade you a miniature that has already been dedicated.

Report Command

After reviewing the usage of the report command during last weekend’s test, we have decided to enable the command officially. The text describing the spamming and verbal abuse report commands have been updated to more clearly explain how they work. Players are never banned merely because of the volume of reports issued against them. Reports alert the GM team to review the actual chat logs of the reported player. The GM team then uses the same disciplinary policies that have always been applied to emailed reports of spamming and verbal abuse.

• To use the report command, type "/report."
• Targeting a player and typing /report or /report followed by a player's name opens a new Report Dialog panel. From this panel, you can report a chosen player for leeching, botting, spamming, using abusive language, or having an inappropriate character name. Reports will then be relayed to and reviewed by the Guild Wars Support team.
• You can report a player for leeching if you are in the same Random Arena, Alliance Battle, or Competitive Mission as that player. If at least half your team reports the same player for leeching, that player will be stripped of XP and faction rewards for the battle. Note that you can only report members of your own party or team for leeching.
• Reports of botting, spamming, abusive language, and inappropriate character names will be relayed to and reviewed by the Guild Wars Support team. Note that reporting a single player multiple times for the same offense will not expedite or influence support team attention.
• A single account cannot use the /report command more than 50 times in a 24-hour period.

We will continue to monitor this feature and make further adjustments as necessary.

Underworld and Fissure of Woe Updates

• When entering into these regions, players will now receive a Mission Objective list in their Quest Log. This list informs players how many quests they must complete to finish the regions for the purposes of full completion and credit for the Hall of Monuments.
• Quests yet to be obtained are marked as "?????" in the Mission Objective list until they are discovered by at least one party member.
• Chests now spawn upon completion of all quests in either of these regions.

Skill Updates

We will be evaluating the following changes over the course of the next week. Additional adjustments may be made during that time period.

All

• Decreased the Health of all Spirits by 50; allowed Burning to affect Spirits.

Assassin

• Death's Charge: increased conditional Health to 65...173...200.
• Golden Fang Strike: fixed a bug that allowed the use of Golden Fang Strike without a lead attack.
• Shadow Refuge: increased duration to 6 seconds.

Dervish

• Wearying Strike: decreased damage to 5...17...20.

Elementalist

• Ash Blast: increased damage to 35...59...65.
• Chilling Winds: increased damage to 25...45...50.
• Conjure Frost, Conjure Flame, and Conjure Lightning: now directly increase the damage you do when you hit with an attack (previously, they dealt damage as a second, additional strike); decreased damage to 5...17...20.
• Ebon Hawk: increased damage to 45...89...100.
• Enervating Charge: increased damage to 25...45...50.
• Glyph of Swiftness: fixed a bug that increased the projectile speed.
• Ice Spikes: decreased recharge time to 10 seconds.
• Searing Flames: increased Burning duration to 1...6...7 seconds.
• Steam: increased conditional damage to 40...88...100; increased damage to 25...61...70.
• Stoning: increased damage to 45...93...105.
• Ward Against Melee: increased Energy cost to 15; decreased duration to 5...17...20 seconds.

Mesmer

• Air of Disenchantment: decreased casting time to .25 seconds.
• Drain Enchantment: decreased Energy cost to 10; decreased Energy returned to 7...13...15; added a heal effect of 40...104...120 when an Enchantment is removed.
• Enchanter's Conundrum: decreased Energy cost to 10; decreased casting time to 1 second; increased damage to 30...102...120; fixed a bug that caused multiple hits of damage when stacked.
• Energy Burn: increased damage multiplier to 12.
• Energy Surge: increased damage multiplier to 12.
• Extend Conditions: decreased recharge time to 5 seconds.
• Hex Eater Vortex: increased recharge time to 12 seconds.
• Illusion of Haste: decreased Energy cost to 5.
• Ineptitude: decreased recharge time to 15 seconds.
• Keystone Signet: decreased recharge time to 10 seconds.
• Mantra of Recovery: decreased recharge reduction to 33%.
• Power Drain: decreased recharge time to 20 seconds.
• Power Leak: decreased recharge time to 12 seconds.
• Power Spike: decreased Energy cost to 5.
• Shrinking Armor: fixed a bug that prevented the Health Bar from turning purple.
• Signet of Illusions: increased the number of Spells affected to 3.
• Signet of Midnight: decreased recharge time to 10 seconds.

Monk

• Reversal of Damage: fixed a bug that caused this Spell to stop all damage instead of the max damage listed.
• Shield of Deflection: increased recharge time to 10 seconds; increased duration to 3...9...10 seconds.
• Shield of Regeneration: increased recharge time to 12 seconds.

Necromancer

• Angorodon's Gaze: decreased Energy returned to 12.
• Chilblains: now works on target foe instead of having a point-blank area of effect; decreased number of Enchantments affected to 1; increased casting time to 2 seconds.
• Gaze of Contempt: decreased recharge time to 15 seconds.
• Putrid Bile: fixed a bug that prevented the Health Bar from turning purple.
• Rend Enchantments: decreased recharge time to 20 seconds.
• Rigor Mortis: decreased recharge time to 20 seconds; decreased casting time to 1 second.
• Rip Enchantment: decreased Health lost to 15...7...5.
• Strip Enchantment: decreased recharge time to 15 seconds.

Ranger

• Nature's Renewal: decreased Spirit levels to 1...8...10.

Paragon

• Aggressive Refrain: now causes Cracked Armor for 20 seconds when applied.
• "Go for the Eyes!": increased recharge time to 4 seconds.

Warrior

• Agonizing Chop: increased activation time to 1 second.
• "Charge!": increased movement speed to 33%.
• Critical Chop: increased activation time to 1 second.
• Disarm: reworded skill description to explain that it is an interrupt.
• "Watch Yourself!": increased recharge time to 4 seconds; increased duration to 10 seconds.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug in the Fissure of Woe quest "The Hunt" that prevented players from completing it in some multiplayer situations.
• Fixed bugs in the Underworld quests "Demon Assassin" and "Terrorweb Queen" that prevented players from completing them in some multiplayer situations.
• Fixed a bug that prevented Ediehl Shockhunter from displaying correctly and having skills.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Kurzick Base Defender in the Alliance Battles map "Ancestral Lands" to have the wrong model.
• Fixed multiple small text bugs in skill descriptions.
• Fixed a line-of-sight exploit in the Heroes' Ascent map "Fetid River".
• Fixed a bug that allowed miniatures to be killed by traps.
• Fixed a bug that caused players to receive Asura reputation points instead of Dwarven reputation points for completing the Heart of the Shiverpeaks dungeon.
• Fixed a bug that prevented resurrection shrines in Oola's Lab from appearing on the Mission Map.
• Fixed graphic artifacts on the loading screen and in the Skill warm-up bar that appeared in interface sizes other than the normal setting.
• Fixed a bug that prevented chat messages containing Party Search keywords from appearing in the "All" or "Trade" channels while in guild halls.
• Fixed the Party Search purpose droplist so that it no longer resets to "Mission" every time the "Seek Party" checkbox is reselected.

Miscellaneous

• Improved rewards from Eye of the North chests revealed by the Light of Deldrimor skill in both Hard and Normal Mode.
• The Master of the North title track now counts toward Favor of the Gods.
• As with explorable areas, parties now automatically fail in dungeons if they reach a party-wide 60% DP while in Hard Mode.
• Players now receive the skill Brawling Combo Punch when entering into Fronis Irontoe's Lair in Hard Mode.
• The guaranteed drop from the final chest in Frostmaw's Burrow [sic] has been changed from a diamond to a lockpick. Lockpicks have a consistent high gold value, while the diamond currently has a low value due, in part, to the ease of acquiring them from this chest.
• Reduced the size of activation on the Resurrection Shrine in the Fortress of Jahai.
• Moved the first Resurrection Shrine in Vulture Drifts to the side of the portal into Dunes of Despair.
• Gold rewards for vanquishing foes in Hard Mode have been increased to five times the number of creatures killed.
• Changed several Eye of the North quests so that upon completion, the Quest Log selects and highlights the related summary quest.

Guild Wars Wiki notes

• Characters can get a missing page filled out once for each dungeon and repeatable primary quest they completed before this update, even if they had the appropriate book when they completed the quest. This has been confirmed to be intentional.
• Some players have reported that the Fissure of Woe quest, "The Hunt", is still not fixed, despite having been mentioned to in this update.
• Light of Deldrimor now ignores armor.
• Rejuvenation now only heals party members below full Health.

Update - Friday, October 05, 2007

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that prevented players from receiving death penalty in the Courtyard map in Heroes' Ascent.

Update - Thursday, October 04, 2007

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug in the Automated Tournament system that prevented the final opponent match percentages from being displayed for Single Elimination rounds.
• Fixed a bug that caused Light of Deldrimor chests to be destroyed by boulders.
• Fixed a bug that caused certain access keys to incorrectly tell users they would receive two character slots.

Miscellaneous

• Updated the Automated Tournament map rotation for the October tournament season.