User:Fyren/updates/2006

Update - Thursday December 21, 2006

• Removed the purpose column from the Party Search panel and added collapsible purpose groups instead.
• Added a new “Guild” purpose to Party Search.
• Added an option to filter out other language districts from the Party Search panel. This feature is available only in Europe.
• Re-enabled control-clicking on the skill bar in outposts. This feature was inadvertently disabled in a previous build.
• Fixed a bug that caused Guild information and unlocked Hero skills to disappear when reconnecting after a disconnect.

GuildWiki notes

• Candy Cane Shards now drop in explorable areas.
• You can no longer get above 5 points (By points, it means the numbers displayed at the top of the screen, relative to the amount of presents handed to grenth or dwayna. Not amounts awarded per victory towards the gamer title track) in the Snowball Fights.
• Wintersday collectors and quest NPCs have been added to Lion's Arch, Ascalon City, Droknar's Forge and Kamadan.
• The Party Search panel shows the number of parties being formed in every language district, regardless of whether the language filter is activated or not.
• Blindness has been renamed to Blind and given a more detailed description.
• Overseer Sadi-Belai, Overseer Suli and Overseer Vanakh in the Kodonur Crossroads mission have been renamed to Taskmaster Sadi-Belai, Taskmaster Suli and Taskmaster Vanahk in this update or an earlier update.
• Bahltek was added in this update or an earlier update.
• In this update or an earlier update, the style of boss auras was changed.

Update 2 - Wednesday December 20, 2006

• Fixed a bug that prevented players from winning in some of the Heroes' Ascent battles.
• Fixed a bug that caused players to be kicked from the "Dwayna vs. Grenth" Snowball Arena if they hadn't yet unlocked boat travel.
• Added a Wintersday Priest to the outpost for the "Dwayna vs. Grenth" Snowball Arena. This NPC teleports players back to their most recently visited outpost or town.
• Added a Search button to the Party panel.

GuildWiki notes

• You no longer get Spiked Eggnog when you lose a match in Snowball Fight

Update - Wednesday December 20, 2006

Wintersday Festival

Wintersday approaches, can you all see the signs?

The grentchies and the snowmen will soon all align.

For a battle in the end is what we shall face;

To determine the wintery fate of the whole human race.

Dwayna and Grenth will vie for our favor;

Through threats and presents of a wintergreen flavor.

In the end one shall win, one shall surely prevail;

And the length of the winter is the final detail.

So stock up on snowballs and clear all your packs;

For gifts of all sorts will rain down on your backs.

And if you should see a small urchin or three;

Remember the spirit of the season — 'Tis better to give than receive.

The Wintersday Festival has arrived! Kamadan, Lion's Arch, Droknar's Forge, and Ascalon City are decorated for the occasion, and over the coming days, holiday activities will begin as special guests arrive to join the fun. Everything leads up to the big Winterday celebration on January 1, which will take place every three hours in Lion’s Arch and Kamadan (on the hour in Lion’s Arch and 15 minutes past the hour in Kamadan). Be sure to collect Candy Cane Shards for use in the big celebration!

Party Search

The new Party Search panel allows you to advertise when you’re looking for a group to join, and to search for other players and parties to join you. With the Party Search panel, you can join up with other players even when they are in a different district from you. In any town or outpost, press ‘P’ to bring up the new Party Search panel. If you’re the leader of your party, or if you’re not in a party (all solo players are treated as parties of one), you can use the “Seek Party” checkbox to add your group to the list of available players and parties, and to advertise what you’re looking for. As a party leader, you can select another group and click “Join” to propose merging with that group. After clicking “Join”, you will see a question mark icon next to that group indicating that you are waiting for a response from them, and they will see an icon next to your group indicating that you have invited them. If you receive an invitation from another group, you can select that group and click “Join” to accept the invitation, merging the two groups. If you accept an invitation to join a group which is currently in a different district from you, your group will automatically travel to the other district. If you are alone, you will travel immediately upon clicking “Join”. If you have other people traveling with you, the game will provide a 10-second countdown and give each player the option of canceling.

Reconnect After Disconnect

While playing in a mission, explorable area, or PvP game, if your game client loses its connection to the Guild Wars game servers due to Internet connectivity issues, or if the game client or your computer crashes, you will have the opportunity to reconnect to the game servers and resume exactly where you left off, for a period of ten minutes after the disconnection. During that ten minute period, your character will remain in the world. If your character was performing an action like attacking or spell-casting at the moment of disconnection, your character will complete the action. If your character was in a party, the other members of your party will be notified of the disconnection. You must reconnect from the same computer that you were playing on when the connection was lost.

New Titles

• The new Commander title track is available to players who compete in Hero Battles. Players receive one point toward the Commander title for each victory.
• The new Gamer title track is available to players who compete in Snowball Fights and other holiday-themed games. During the Wintersday Festival, players who compete in Snowball Fights receive 10 points for each victory. Other holiday event games will be scored differently.

Other Updates

• The Guild Wars Official In-Game Store now sells the 2006 edition of Guild Wars (original Prophecies campaign), which has been available at major retailers since its release in early 2006, and is called Game of the Year Edition in America and One Million Edition in Europe. The 2006 edition contains seven bonus items that were not part of the original Guild Wars box. Players who purchased Guild Wars (original Prophecies campaign) through the in-game store since its launch there in July will receive a free upgrade, and other players who own the original Guild Wars can choose to upgrade through the in-game store for a small fee.
• Demo accounts can no longer trade or drop items, to reduce the use of demo accounts by commercial gold/item farmers.
• Characters that come to Elona from a foreign land now get Heroes that start at level 15, and can play two new quests, Securing Champion's Dawn and A Land of Heroes.
• Six additional quests have been added to Istan, and many existing quests have been updated.
• Additional treasure chests are available throughout the continent of Elona.
• The PvP Equipment Builder now allows the player to specify the dye color of weapons and off-hand items.
• The Skill Bar in the Skills and Attributes panel now shows tooltips even if tooltips have been disabled for the primary Skill Bar.
• The Quest Log panel now allocates more space to the list of quests when the list grows large.
• Heroes’ Ascent now requires parties with a minimum of four human players.

Balance Changes

• Lowered the attribute requirement on Shiro's Blades and Shiro's Sword from 15 to 13.
• Lowered the armor on Peppermint and Gingerbread Shields from 10 to 8 to match the highest inherent armor found on random loot.
• Lowered the armor on Hassin's Shell from 10 to 8, but added a Health bonus of 20.
• Improved the skill selection of Herta, the Earth Henchman.
• Reduced the Health of the Anguished Spirits present in the battle against Mallyx the Unyielding.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a skill exploit that allowed players to walk through closed gates.
• Fixed a bug with hunt buffs that prevented them from giving double experience.
• Fixed a bug that caused some Necromancer minions in Nightfall to behave sluggishly.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the following bosses from dropping their unique items: Acolyte of Balthazar, Acolyte of Dwayna, Acolyte of Grenth, Acolyte of Lyssa, and Acolyte of Melandru.
• Fixed the Hero Control panel so that if you disable a skill and then move it to a different position on the skill bar, the Hero will still remember not to use that skill in its new position.

GuildWiki notes

• After reconnect Roster and Alliance Tabs show nothing.
• There is a new Festival hat maker, to whom you can show all of your hats. After showing him a hat with any of your characters, he will be able to make one for each of your characters for the small price of 10g.
• For a short time all guild hall NPCs disappeared.
• A new icon in the lower right of the screen has been added. When the mouse hovers over the icon, the icon gives FPS, Ping, and Server IP information.
• The art for the collapse button in the Observer, Friend, Quest, and Guild menus has changed from an arrow to a +/- sign. In addition, the size of the font in the Quest Log that lists the quests has been reduced allowing more to be viewed at a time.
• Loading screens have an IP in the upper left corner that shows you to what server you are being connected. This is to help Support resolve player issues.
• The drop box for choosing your region upon login has been removed.
• The Load from Skill Template window now shows templates matching the player's/hero's primary profession at the top of the list.
• Heroes' Ascent altar matches were bugged. Enemy teams had to be defeated before time expired to win altar matches. This was fixed in the succeeding update.
• The Quest Arrow on the minimap is now larger and pulsates.
• The status bar as well as tag for many NPCs now include their professions. i.e., W20 Ghostly Hero, R20 Pet-Petname.
• If you purchase the Prophecies upgrade pack, you can get the bonus items by typing /bonus.
• Buried Treasure, Treasure Chests and "Do Not Touch" are the Treasures mentioned above in the update notes.
• Jerneh Nightbringer no longer spawns in Marga Coast. This has been confirmed by Gaile to have been done on purpose.
• Heroes now inform the player that they are not wielding a weapon outside outposts if they're unequipped.
• Destructive was Glaive no longer can be cast on allies.
• Activating the skill Rampage as One no longer causes the player to stop running.
• Characters in the selection screen now follow your settings for displaying headgear in outposts.

Update - Friday December 15, 2006

• Fixed a bug that caused some monsters to remain permanently aggressive toward their targets.

GuildWiki notes

• Lion's Arch briefly had the looks of The Amnoon Oasis, and several of the NPCs became unreachable. This "bug" also opened up new area for the Explorer Title (approximately 0.2% explored), but was fixed in another update shortly after.
• XP can no longer be earned in guild scrimmage matches.
• Wintersday 2005 item Candy Cane is now known as Peppermint Candy Cane. Yet you can still acquire the Candy Cane item from presents.

Update - Wednesday December 13, 2006

• Fixed bugs and made improvements to the Domain of Anguish mission.
• Fixed bugs and made improvements to the Mallyx the Unyielding quest.
• Reduced the number of gems needed to purchase the Armbrace of Truth from 25 of each type to 15 of each type.
• Increased the quantity of some of the rewards produced by opening a Coffer of Whispers.
• Increased the chance of finding gemstones in the Domain of Anguish.
• Added slash commands for emotes in the following languages: French, Italian, German, Spanish, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), and Polish.
• Updated the font used to display the Polish language.
• Improved Polish translations.

GuildWiki notes

• Added Whispers Informants to the Domain of Anguish, making it possible to gain Lightbringer title points there.
• The drop rate of gemstones has been doubled, according to Gaile Gray: Double the rate of drops of gemstones throughout all four regions of the Domain of Anguish. This is beyond the upcoming special weekend drop rate increase. The rate of gemstone drop will double on a permanent basis.
• The translated slash commands can be found in the update description on the official websites in the respective language, for example: German, French, ...

Update - Friday December 8, 2006

• Added support for the Polish language.
• Made it easier to capture the following elite skills: Toxic Chill and Blinding Surge.
• Fixed bugs and made improvements to the following quests: Scholarly Affairs, Ghosts in the Graveyard, Student Sousuke, Money on the Side, and Loyal 'til the End.

GuildWiki notes

• The Domain of Anguish quests Finding a Purpose and Mallyx the Unyielding are now labeled as "Difficulty: Master.". This change only affects the english language setting.
• The Cairn of Stones and Mehkun were added to Crystal Overlook.
• The bosses Eshekibeh Longneck and Moteh Thundershooter now spawn without having to complete any quests.
• European players need to accept the User Agreement yet again.
• Polish version is currently unplayable, due to many errors (eg. no AL in armor description; unclear item description).
• The behavior of Cyclone Axe was fixed to match other targeted Attack skills. Now using it on a target that is out of range will cause the user to move that target and then execute the skill. Previously, the skill would refuse to execute and refuse to pull the user into range.
• Versions of Wroth's Holy Rod dropped after this update have "Energy +5 (while enchanted)" and "Halves skill recharge of Smiting Prayers spells (Chance: 20%)" instead of "Halves casting time of Protection Prayers spells (Chance: 20%)" and "Halves skill recharge of Smiting Prayers spells (Chance: 20%)". Versions of Wroth's Holy Rod dropped before this update have not been changed.

Update - Tuesday December 5, 2006

• Fixed a bug that affected the appearance of the Necromancer Sunspear armor.
• Fixed a bug with the skill "Brace Yourself!" It now ends once it has prevented a knockdown.
• Fixed a bug that made it appear that some characters were throwing their spears backwards.
• Fixed a bug that prevented Heroes from being affected by environmental effects in the Realm of Torment.
• Changed the name of Stygian Keys to Demonic Keys.
• Fixed bugs and made improvements to the following quests: A Show of Force, Troubled Lands, Horde of Darkness, The Last Patrol, Feeding Frenzy, Interception and Capturing the Orrian Tomes.
• Improved the description of the monster skill "Enraged" so that it more accurately reflects the skill's behavior.

GuildWiki notes

• The entry in the drop box for choosing your region upon login screen was changed from "Default" to "Global".
• In the German translation the Stygian Keys were not translated and are still called Stygian Keys.
• All superior runes now have a minimum purchase price of 200 gold.
• Depravity was changed so that it only affects the hexed foe and one nearby foe.

Update 2 - Friday December 1, 2006

• Reduced the Priest of Balthazar's price for unlocking the hero Razah to 6000 faction points.

Update - Friday December 1, 2006

Hail, Almighty Heroes!

Your efforts on behalf of Elona and the living world have been praised in song and legend, and you have earned high praise amongst even the True Gods themselves. However, let it be known that your task is not yet complete. The evil you fought still infuses the Realm of Torment with its malignant magic.

Those who followed the Dark God thrive in hidden places where the light of truth does not shine. Chief among these followers is Mallyx the Unyielding, a great and terrible Margonite leader who tamed hordes of demons in his dark lord's service. Mallyx has now fallen back to his Ebony Citadel within the Domain of Anguish, where he plots to usurp the powers of the gods and sit upon his dark master's throne.

Mallyx has rallied the last remnants of the Margonite army along with their greatest surviving leaders. In addition, vast hordes of demons, titans, and other vile creatures have all flocked to his unholy banner. Only the bravest of heroes may halt Mallyx's rebellion. If you are worthy, then scour the Domain of Anguish and cast down this would-be usurper.

Meet me at the Gates of Anguish and I shall tell you more of what lies ahead, and show you how the last shreds of the Dark God's power may yet be crushed.

High Priest Zhellix of the Forgotten

GuildWiki notes

• The Seer of Truth will now appear in the Chantry of Secrets regardless of which region has Favor.
• When players enter the Gate of Anguish explorable area, the area name will not display.

Update - Thursday November 30

• Made preparations for the Domain of Anguish event.
• Added 2 new quests in Istan and 6 new quests in the Realm of Torment.
• Modified monster |behavior so that they now prefer targets within their guard ranges.
• Fixed several reported bugs with follower NPCs in order to improve their combat performance.
• Removed the "kiting" behavior of henchmen in the first round of basic training in order to give new players an easier introduction to PvP.

Skill Updates:

• Aria of Zeal: Increased casting time to 2 seconds.
• Cyclone Axe: Modified so that it now requires an enemy target.
• Energizing Finale: Increased the Energy cost to 10 and reduced the amount of energy gained per shout or chant to 1.
• "Incoming!": Increased Energy cost to 10 and decreased duration to 1..5 seconds.
• Jagged Bones: Modified so that it may now be used on allied minions.
• Restful Breeze: Modified so that its behavior more accurately matches its description.
• "Stand Your Ground!": Increased energy cost to 10.
• "Watch Yourself!": Changed armor gain to 5..25, based on the Tactics attribute.

GuildWiki notes

• The new quests are:
  • Istan:
    • Sunspear Great Hall:
      • Rising Suns, Re-enlist Rojis
  • Realm of Torment (1 missing):
    • Gate of Torment:
      • The Missing Patrol, The Oddbodies, Good Demon Hunting
    • Gate of Fear / Gate of Pain: (Forgotten Keeper gives the quests in either outpost)
      • Into the Fire, The Last Patrol

• Razah is now available for unlocking at the Priests of Balthazar, for 50,000 faction. (According to Gaile Gray, Razah's cost will be reduced to around 6,000 faction in an update on December 1st.)
• The Miniature Varesh is now bigger and wields a scythe.
• The Xunlai Tournament Agents are now walking around Kamadan, Lion's Arch and Kaineng Center telling world about the Winterfest 2006 Tournament.
• When an NPC has a quest reward to offer, or is part of a quest and you need to talk to them to move on, they now display a downward-pointing green arrow instead of the green exclamation point.
• Torment creatures created by Call to the Torment no longer award Lightbringer points. It is also suspected that this is the update which prevented resurrected monsters from counting multiple times for bounties.
• Freezing Gust now correctly causes damage instead of the slow effect when the target is affected by any Water Magic hex. Previously, some hexes, such as Shard Storm and Shatterstone were not recognized and caused the slow effect instead.
• Archivist Zisthus and Commander Thurnis in the Gate of Torment now have dialogue, and Churrazek has been re-added there.
• Keeper Millzesh has been added to Abaddon's Gate.
• The And a Hero Shall Lead Them quest was changed. Only Elonian born characters now require the rank of Sunspear General in order to complete it, whereas foreign characters may continue without this requirement.
• The following bugs were introduced
  • The ghosts spawned by Ghost in the Box's remain in a town permanently. (This was fixed in a subsequent build the same day.)
  • During the Feeding Frenzy quest, Toma will not use the Feeding Frenzy skill, making the quest impossible to complete. This was fixed in a subsequent update.
• It appears that international districts may have a bug which prevents characters from some regions accessing the same instance. This is demonstrated by the lesser number of people in Droknar's Forge International and Ascalon City International.
• Description of Razah in a language other than English reads only "Ritualist of unknown origin."
• Good Demon Hunting is now fixed and can be completed.

Update - Wednesday November 29

This update was undocumented and no update notes appear on www.guildwars.com.

GuildWiki notes

• Fixed the bug introduced in the previous update that disallowed players from equipping bonus weapons.

Update - Tuesday November 28

• Made preparations for the Chinese closed beta test.
• Fixed several infrequent client crash bugs.

GuildWiki notes

• This update seems to have introduced a new bug where your bonus items cannot be equipped. (This bug has now been fixed)
• A drop box for choosing your region upon login has been added. Available regions are: China\CT, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and Default. [Note: This option does not change your region, it is most likely part of the closed Chinese betas]
• A login button has replaced the helm icon.
• This update fixed a long standing issue with the game in which certain firewalls and other Internet security programs to recommend blocking the game's access when it was first installed or when it is updated. Now the default recommendation is to allow the game access to the internet.

Update - Wednesday November 22

• Fixed a bug that prevented some players from joining parties in the Team Arenas.
• Fixed a bug and made improvements to the following quest: Reclaiming the Temple.

Update - Tuesday November 21

• Added new guild emblems created from winning concepts in the Nightfall Guild Emblem Contest.
• Added two new commands, /bonus and /special, to create items that were previously created using the /bonusitems command. The /bonus command creates items that may be created many times (such as preorder items). The /special command creates items that may be created only once per account (such as collector’s edition items).
• Fixed bugs and made improvements to the following quests: Skale and Magic Compass, Data Mining, A Peaceful Solution, Feeding Frenzy, A Message for Janeera, Sunspears in Cantha, Sunspears in Kryta, The Zenos Squad, Servants of Grenth, Heart or Mind: Garden in Danger, The Foolhardy Father, What Do You Do With a Drunken Shauben.
• Fixed bugs and made improvements to the following missions: Nahpui Quarter, Dragon’s Lair, Riverside Province.
• Set the minimum level to 20 for Random Arenas, Jade Quarry, and Fort Aspenwood.
• Fixed a bug that prevented Zenmai from responding to players in Bukdek Byway.
• Fixed several bugs in the Dajkah Inlet challenge mission.
• Added unique Divine Auras for the Paragon and Dervish, available to players who own the Collector’s Edition of Guild Wars Prophecies.
• Made the Ebon Dust Aura skill available for capture.
• Modified profession changers so that they give players Paragon and Dervish skills when these secondary professions are selected.
• Fixed a bug with the Healer's Boon skill. Its extra healing bonus now applies to all healed characters, not just the first person healed.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Blood Bond skill to give a larger than expected Health degeneration in some cases.
• Fixed a bug that allowed Heroes to use targeted Shouts on targets who were out of range.
• Fixed a bug that allowed PvP characters to select secondary professions from campaigns they don't own.
• Improved the art and/or sound for the following creatures: Toshau Sharpspear, Whistling Thornbrush, and Jacaranda plant creatures.
• Fixed several word gender problems for European languages.

GuildWiki notes

• "Gates of Torment" has been renamed to "Gate of Torment". Likewise, "Gates of Desolation" has been renamed to "Gate of Desolation".
• The quest "Hunting Abaddon" has been renamed to Good Demon Hunting, however, the quest giver, Churrazek, has been removed from the Gate of Torment.
• The merchants in Lair of the Forgotten, The Mouth of Torment and Ruins of Morah now sell Ancient Elonian Keys. Prior to this update they used to mistakenly sell Margonite Keys. Aisu in Crystal Overlook still sells Margonite Keys rather than Ancient Elonian Keys.
• The patch client has been once again translated into Polish (It was reverted to English about 2 weeks ago). Polish in-game text is still unavailable.
• Preceptor Zunark's profession has been changed from Dervish to Monk.
• Buhon Icelord is suspected to have been added to The Floodplain of Mahnkelon in this update, but may have been added in the 20th or 22nd update.

Update - Monday November 20

• Fixed a bug in the Jennur's Horde mission that made it possible for Margonite corpses to accumulate endlessly.

GuildWiki notes

• The experience gained from duplicated creatures has been removed.

Update - Friday November 10

• Added the extra Prerelease Bonus Pack character slot to accounts that have both the Nightfall Prerelease Bonus Pack and the Nightfall PvP Edition access keys.
• Updated the translations for the npc "Shiloh [Hero Skills]" in the map Sunspear Great Hall.
• Updated Corsair bosses Midshipman Morolah and Admiral Chiggen so that the bosses drop their correct unique item.
• Fixed a bug that allowed the skills “Rampage as One” and “Strike as One” to activate without a living pet. (This was missed in the last build)
• Fixed a bug that caused the boss "Zelnehlun Fastfoot" to not attack.
• Fixed a bug preventing some monsters from fighting in the Consulate Docks mission.
• Fixed a bug which allowed the attacking team in the Isle of Solitude Guild Hall to open the gate to the defending team’s base.
• Fixed bugs and made improvements to the following quests: "Signs and Portents," "No Me, No Kormir," and "Sunspears in Cantha."
• The most recent "My Guild Battles" game is now visible to members of the participating Guilds for up to 24 hours (previously the time was only one hour).

GuildWiki notes

• The skills "Hidden Caltrops" and "Extend Conditions" are now available for capture.
• Shahai the Cunning's level has been raised from 16 to 20.
• The icons for resurrection shrines and collectors are added in the Mission Maps for Tyria and Cantha
• Churrazek and the Hunting Abaddon quest were added to Gate of Torment, as were Archivist Zisthus and Commander Thurnis.
• The skill description of Signet of Capture now clearly states that it can only be used to capture skills for your own profession.

Update - Tuesday November 7

• Added 2 new item inscriptions: “Show me the money!” and “Measure for Measure.”
• Removed collision between members of the same team, including minions and pets. This change applies only to roleplaying missions and areas.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes kept players from getting credit for kills made by their minions and pets.
• Modified the quest “Capturing the Signet of Capture” so that it is available only to players created in Elona.
• Fixed a bug that prevented some Hero skill templates from being applied to players.
• Fixed a bug that made it impossible for some players to capture the “Avatar of Lyssa” skill.
• Fixed a bug that allowed the skills “Rampage as One” and “Strike as One” to activate without a living pet.
• Made the “Crippling Slash” skill available for capture.
• Fixed a bug that caused the camera to recenter itself during spell casting.
• Fixed a bug in the Jokanur Diggings mission.
• Fixed bugs and made improvements to the following quests: Sunspears in Kryta, Missing Shipment, To Dye For, Scholarly Affairs, and Tendering an Offer.

GuildWiki notes

• Priests of Balthazar do not offer the two new inscriptions for unlocking. The inscriptions replaced the old 'Precious' and 'Highly salvagable' mods. Item drops that would have previously been marked 'Precious' are now instead marked 'Improved sale value'.
• Sogolon now has different dialogue in outposts.
• Spirits now register as a circle (same as characters) instead of a triangle (NPCs) on the mini-map.
• Replaced the Whispers Informant with a Wandering Priest in Turai's Procession.
• Fixed a bug where some items, such as Luxon Totems, were unstackable.
• Skins for PvP Healing Prayers and Protection Prayers staves and wands have been updated.
• Rampage as One has not been updated and can be used while the pet is dead
• Rune Traders now list Insignias before Runes, and list runes in the same profession order as the character creation screen rather than listing them alphabetically.
• If you have the quest Capturing the Signet of Capture on your quest log before the update, it will stay there

Update - Friday November 3

GuildWiki notes

• Added the Sunspear Arena for players under Level 10 to northeast of Kamadan.
• The armor crafter in Stingray Strand has been renamed from 'Crafter' to 'Sol Pyrrhus' in this update or an earlier update.

Update - Thursday November 2

End of Halloween Event

Now sadly, the madness is ended
Laughs abounded and no tears were shed
King Thorn has returned to the Underworld
Pumpkin still very much on his head.

No more scares for Elona and Tyria
No more transformations or spooky décor
Peace comes at last, though we can’t help but ask:
Will the Mad King return once more?!

Game Updates:

• Modified damage text so that its size scales based on the distance from the viewer.
• Fixed various quest NPCs that were inappropriately body-blocking players.
• Added an option to adjust the damage text size.
• Fixed a bug that allowed Heroes to equip more than one elite skill.
• Fixed a bug that prevented some dyes from stacking.
• Fixed a bug that caused skills requiring upkeep to be removed whenever cinematics began.
• Fixed a bug that allowed the Lightbringer Title bonus to be used during PVP matches.
• Modified the Trade panel to report offered trades in units of gold, not platinum.
• Removed the previously enforced time delay between fighting and salvaging or identifying an item.
• Increased duration on the skill "Exposed Defenses" (sic) to 5..20 seconds. (This update was missing in the previous skill update.)

GuildWiki notes

• Total size of this update is about 70 MB.
• There is one 25g Dye that you may get from the quest "To Dye For". It still doesn't stack, and is not intended to, with the normal 1g Dyes.
• The icon for resurrection shrines in the Mission Map has changed to a circle with an ankh inside.
• Air, Earth, Fire, and Water Attunements now give the proper amount for all skills (energy cost * 30% + 1). There was a previous bug that caused 10 energy skills to only give back the 30%, which has now been fixed.
• The condition runes for all professions have been changed to major runes and are now non-stacking; before, equipping 5 runes made the player immune to 2 conditions NOTE: This is not totally true, before having 5 of them made you immune to some condition sources - The effectiveness of having 5 runes seemed to depend on the source of the condition (IE: Where as standing in the Student of Bleedings circle might not give you bleeding, using Signet of Agony would still make you bleed for about 5 seconds)
• Weapon modifers to conditions (example: crippling) now note that they are stackable. Stackable with what is unclear, but it is assumed to be skills that increase the duration of these effects.
• The option to adjust damage text size is found in the options general panel.
• The Character Select Screen now seems to remember your sorting option.
• Some xp scrolls still don't stack.

Update 2 - Friday October 27

Emergency Maintenance: 7:20 p.m. PDT

We performed emergency maintenance this evening to correct a matter that required urgent attention. Players were disconnected, but were immediately able to reconnect and resume playing. Thank you for your patience, and we apologize for any inconvenience that this brief interruption may have caused you.

GuildWiki notes

• Added extra effects to /dancenew command in Nightfall.
• New EULA must be accepted, even if the EULA was accepted on October 25.
• Removed "Coming October 27, 2006" under logo of Nightfall in the login screen.

Update - Friday October 27

Ahai, Sunspear!

You have been selected from among your fellow heroes to be trained as a leader of our Order of the Sunspears. The members of our Order are the guardians and protectors of our nation of Elona, and travel throughout the land, dealing with threats to our people. Though you may have the basic skills of a hero, you must now learn how to use them in conjunction with others whom you will lead into battle. Congratulations on your promotion!

You initial assignment will be in the Province of Istan, where our Order’s Great Hall is located. Istan is a thriving land of heroes, located near the ruins of our earliest cities. Here you will find threats ranging from relentless predators and animated, carnivorous plants, to the ever-present threat of the corsairs that plague our shores.

Yet Istan is not the only concern of the Sunspears. Kourna, across the channel, has a large standing army and is ruled by its Warmarshal, Varesh Ossa, but still has needs of heroes to inspire its people. Further north is the Province of Vabbi, a wealthy region controlled by indolent merchant princes, yet regularly threatened by inhuman tribes. As a leader of the Sunspears, you will journey through these lands, and beyond them, into the Desolation from which the undead lord Palawa Joko first invaded our land. Wherever the people of Elona are threatened, the Sunspears should be there to protect them.

The Order of the Sunspears is an ancient order, dating back to our earliest dynasties, but we need capable and inspired leaders now more than ever. A new darkness has been spreading across our land, causing native creatures to become more savage, and spawning new abominations never before seen. Dark times loom before us, and we must be prepared.

Again, congratulations on being selected to become a Sunspear leader. You will have your work cut out for you, but I am confident you will be up to the tasks ahead.

As a Sunspear, you never fight alone.

Kormir

Spearmarshal, Order of the Sunspears

Elona Awaits You!

The Guild Wars Nightfall campaign is now available for purchase at retail stores and through the online Guild Wars store. Players who purchase Guild Wars Nightfall may now create new Paragon and Dervish characters, bring existing characters to the region of Elona, acquire new skills, armor, and weapons, recruit Heroes to join their parties, and participate in new Hero Battles against other players!

• Players who purchase Nightfall can start new characters in Elona, or bring their existing characters from Tyria or Cantha into Elona.
• An existing character’s first journey to a new continent must be done through a quest. After that, characters may travel quickly and easily using the Ship Travel icon on the World Map.
• Prophecies characters wishing to travel to Elona for the first time should seek out Lionguard Figo in Lion's Arch and take the "Sunspears in Kryta" quest.
• Factions characters wishing to travel to Elona for the first time should seek out Imperial Guardsman Linro in Kaineng Center and take the "Sunspears in Cantha" quest.
• Elonian characters may travel to Tyria using the quest "Terror in Tyria," which is offered by Deras Tenderlin in Kamadan – The Jewel of Istan after they have completed the quest “The Time is Nigh.”
• Elonian characters may travel to Cantha using the quest “Plague in Cantha," which is offered by Funwa Shento in Kamadan – The Jewel of Istan after they have completed the quest “The Time is Nigh.”

Heroes

• Heroes are NPC party members who can join your party, level up with your character, and use weapons, armor, and skills of your choosing. You recruit Heroes by completing certain quests and adventuring throughout Elona, but you can bring only three at a time into your party. Since you and a friend can each bring three Heroes into a mission, two players can now complete any eight-player mission.
• After recruiting a Hero, you can use the “Add Hero” interface in the party formation panel to invite the Hero into your party whenever you’re standing in a town or outpost.
• If you and another player both invite the same Hero, one of them will be the “real” Hero who will interact with NPCs in cinematics and other scripted sequences, and the other will be an “imposter” who will use a generic name for the duration of the mission.
• Whenever you control a Hero, you will see a button next to the Hero’s name, which you can click to bring up the Hero Control panel. This panel provides advanced options for direct control of the Hero. You can use it to adjust the Hero’s AI mode between fight, guard, or avoid combat, to order the Hero to cast a certain skill, or to order the Hero not to cast a certain skill unless directed to do so by you.
• Whenever you control a Hero, you will also see a button on the Compass that you can use to give orders to the Hero. To use it, simply click the button, then click anywhere in the Compass or in the world where you would like the Hero to walk.
• Heroes level up like players do and acquire attribute points at the same rate, except they do not need to complete quests to gain their final 30 attribute points. Instead, they get 15 bonus attribute points when they reach level 10, and another 15 bonus attribute points when they reach level 15.
• Whenever you recruit a Hero while playing through the campaign, that Hero becomes unlocked for use with your PvP characters. Heroes that you recruit also come with skills, and those skills become unlocked on your account when you recruit the Hero.
• Heroes don't maintain their own inventory of skills. Instead, they are able to use any skill that you have unlocked on your account.
• Heroes don't maintain their own backpack or inventory of items. Instead, you can drag items from your inventory onto a Hero to equip him. Your Heroes can use weapons that you have customized for yourself.
• Hero Trainers, located in various locations around Elona, will teach you a skill (and unlock it on your account for use by your Heroes) in return for a Hero Skill Point. You get a Hero Skill Point each time you gain a new rank of the Sunspear or Lightbringer titles.
• Hero Armor NPCs, located in the outposts of Challenge Missions in Elona, can craft upgraded armor for your Heroes in return for certain items that you can acquire inside the Challenge Mission. Players can find enough of these items to upgrade their own Heroes, but not an unlimited supply, so we encourage players to spend these items on their own Heroes rather than selling them or giving them away.

Hero Battles

• Hero Battles are a new PvP game type that allow players to compete head-to-head for the first time.
• Each Hero Battle pits one player and his three Heroes against another player and his three Heroes.
• To access Hero Battles you must unlock at least three Heroes onto your account. If you haven’t already unlocked the first three Heroes, just complete Zaishen Basic Training with a PvP character, then talk to the Priest of Balthazar, who will give you free unlocks.
• To enter a Hero Battle, travel to the Hero Battles outpost on the Battle Isles, invite three Heroes into your party, then click “Enter Battle.” You will be automatically matched against an opponent of similar skill level.
• To win, you must score 20 points before your opponent does. You get one point for every enemy you kill, and one point for every 30 seconds that your team holds the center shrine.
• There are also a number of strategic points around the map, which can grant you a strategic advantage against the enemy if your team controls them.
• If neither team has scored 20 points when the game clock reaches 10 minutes, the game goes into sudden death, where the next team to score a point wins.
• There is no death penalty on this map, and all players and Heroes respawn every 30 seconds.
• Players get 20 Balthazar’s faction for each point scored and 100 faction for winning.

Lightbringer and Sunspear Titles

• The new Sunspear title can be earned by completing quests in Elona and fighting Sunspear enemies. By earning ranks in this title you can gain Hero skill points and the new PvE-only skill Sunspear Rebirth Signet. This skill increases in effectiveness as you gain more ranks in the Sunspear title.
• The new Lightbringer title can be earned by hunting demons in Elona. For each rank of Lightbringer, you gain increased damage and damage reduction against demons. You can also earn the PvE-only skills Lightbringer's Gaze and Lightbringer's Focus, which can be used to fight demons. These skills also increase in effectiveness as you gain more ranks in this title.

Guild Observer Mode

• You can now watch your guild compete in Guild Combat regardless of your guild’s rank. Just open the Observer panel and then look for your guild’s game under the heading “My Guild Games.”

Update - Wednesday October 25, 2006

New Features of Guild Wars Nightfall

Today we are publishing the new features of Guild Wars Nightfall in anticipation of the campaign’s release this Friday, October 27 at 12:01 am PDT. Players won’t be able to acquire Heroes or participate in Hero Battles until they can play through the Nightfall campaign, but many of the other features of Nightfall are available today as free updates.

Skills and Attributes

• Skill selection, attribute adjustment, and secondary profession selection are now centralized on the new Skills and Attributes panel.
• Your characters can now change their secondary professions whenever they are standing in a town or outpost. PvP characters can change to any secondary profession, while Roleplaying characters can change to any profession that character has previously learned.
• You can now save and load templates containing Skill Bar setup, attributes, and professions. This allows you to switch a character between different roles quickly, and to share your strategies with your friends.
  • To save a Skill Template, click the disk icon inside the Skills and Attributes panel, then click “Save to Template.” The template will be saved to a small file in the Templates/Skills folder below the Guild Wars installation directory. You can copy this file to other computers, share it with your friends, or post it on the Internet.
  • To load a Skill Template, click the disk icon, then click “Load from Template.” You can load any template that matches your character’s primary profession.
  • If your character doesn’t have as many attribute points as the character who saved the template, the attribute levels will automatically be adjusted down for you.
  • If your character doesn’t have access to skills that were saved in the template, those skills will appear grayed out.

Equipment Templates

• PvP characters can now save and load Equipment Templates containing a complete set of armor and weapon selections.
• To save an Equipment Template, click the disk icon inside the Inventory panel, then click “Save to Template.” The template will be saved to a small file in the Templates/Equipment folder below the Guild Wars installation directory.
• To load an Equipment Template, click the disk icon, then click “Load from Template.” You can load any template that matches your character’s primary profession.
• Loading a template will replace your character’s current weapons and armor, unless your character is using weapons or armor that were acquired through roleplaying.
• If you load a template that uses item upgrades that are not currently available on your account, the items that require those upgrades will not be created.

Equipment Builder

• Equipment can be made for any PvP character, including PvP Heroes, using the new PvP Equipment panel.
• You can open the PvP Equipment panel whenever your PvP character is standing in a town or outpost by clicking on the PvP Equipment icon within the Inventory panel or by pressing “J” on your keyboard.*

To create an item, click on the portrait of the character you would like to build the item for, then select the tab for the type of item you would like to create. Choose the item, upgrade components, and color from the list of available selections.

• If you would like the item to be equipped immediately, select the “Equip Immediately” option before clicking “Create.” The new item will be placed onto your character, and the old item that your character was previously wearing will be destroyed. If you choose not to equip immediately, the new item will be placed into your character’s inventory instead.
• Items created with the PvP Equipment panel cannot be upgraded or salvaged.

Armor Insignias

• New armor crafted in Elona or through the PvP Equipment panel can contain swappable insignias, which provide the same types of bonuses that previously were permanent parts of the armor, plus new bonuses that are being introduced with Nightfall.
• With the use of armor insignias, you can now mix and match different armor bonuses with different armor appearances. *Additionally, the use of insignias simplifies the process of creating armor with the PvP Equipment panel because you can choose the armor appearance and bonus separately.
• Outside of the PvP Equipment panel, you can only place an insignia on a piece of armor if that armor has a blank insignia slot. Certain types of armor crafted in Elona include blank insignia slots.
• Like other types of armor upgrades, insignias must be unlocked on your account before you can use them in the PvP Equipment panel. Because some insignias are replacements for bonuses that used to be inherent properties of PvP armor, those insignias are already unlocked on your account.
• Because insignias allow you to place bonuses on certain types of headgear that could not receive bonuses in the past, some existing high-end headgear from Tyria and Cantha is being updated with this build to include new bonuses.

Weapon Inscriptions

• New weapons found in Elona or created through the PvP Equipment panel can contain swappable inscriptions, which provide a variety of weapon bonuses and enhancements.
• Like armor insignias, weapon inscriptions allow you to swap bonuses between different items you acquire by playing through the roleplaying content, and they simplify the process of creating items with the PvP Equipment panel by enabling you to choose the base weapon and the weapon bonuses separately.
• You can only place an inscription in a weapon if that weapon has a blank inscription slot. Inscriptions and inscription slots are sometimes found on rare weapons dropped by monsters in Elona.
• Inscriptions must be unlocked on your account before you can use them in the PvP Equipment panel. Inscriptions that provide bonuses that were previously inherent bonuses of PvP weapons are already unlocked on your account.

New Item Upgrades

• Shields, wands, and focus items created through the PvP Equipment panel or found in Elona can now have upgrades applied to them.
• Shields can have a Shield Handle upgrade plus one inscription.
• Wands can have a Wand Wrapping upgrade plus one inscription.
• Focus items can have a Focus Core upgrade plus one inscription.
• These new upgrades are equivalent in power to inherent item bonuses that were found in previous campaigns.

New Salvage/Upgrade System

• Salvaging an item with upgrade components now gives you the ability to pick which item you would like to salvage.
• If you salvage an item to extract a magical component, there is now a 50 percent chance that the base item will not be destroyed.
• When you upgrade an item with an upgrade component, you now see a preview of what that item will look like after the upgrade.

New Dye System

• The new dye system improves the appearance of base dye colors and mixed dye colors. The new system is used when you newly apply dye to an item. Existing item colors are not affected.
• Newly crafted armor now starts out gray. If you dye it to another color and then later want to restore it to its original appearance, just dye it gray. Vendors now sell gray dye instead of dye remover.
• White and brown dye colors are now available as loot drops.
• Silver is now an equipment color option during character creation.
• A new Dye Preview panel lets you preview the effect of dye color combinations on your items before applying the dye.

New Damage Interface

• The new Damage Monitor panel shows all skills that your opponents have recently used against you. You can hover the mouse over any skill icon to get a tooltip explaining that skill.
• The numbers that float above characters’ heads are now bigger, and use different animations to help distinguish between damage, healing, and experience.
• When an enemy uses a skill against you, the skill icon will display next to the damage number. The Options panel allows you to switch from displaying skill icons to displaying skill names.

PvP-Only Character Creation

• The PvP character creation process has been simplified. During character creation, you now choose only the character’s primary profession, character appearance, and name.
• Newly created PvP characters start off with a set of equipment and six basic skills for their primary profession, so you can start playing immediately.
• To outfit your PvP character with other skills and equipment, you can use the new Skill and Equipment Templates systems.
• So that your PvP characters have immediate access to skill and equipment swapping, new PvP characters you create now start in the Great Temple of Balthazar once you have unlocked Random Arenas on your account.
• You can still access Zaishen Basic Training by walking from the Great Temple back into the Isle of the Nameless and talking with the Master of Paths.
• First-time PvP players must complete Zaishen Basic Training to gain access to the Random Arenas and to gain the ability to purchase unlocks from the Priest of Balthazar.

Balthazar’s Faction

• The rate of Balthazar's faction has been doubled for all types of PvP!
• In high-level arenas, players now earn 40 faction per unique kill, 50 faction for winning, 50 faction for a flawless victory, and 50 faction for a five-game winning streak.
• In Heroes' Ascent, players now earn 40 faction per unique kill, 200–800 faction for winning (depending on the map), and 200 faction for a flawless victory.
• In Guild Combat, players now earn 40 faction per unique kill, 1,000–4,000 faction for winning (depending on their guild rating), and 200–800 faction for a flawless victory (depending on their guild rating).
• In Alliance Battles and Competitive Missions, players now earn 6 faction per kill.

Henchmen Controls

• Henchmen controls are now available on the Compass. To direct your henchmen, click the Henchmen button on the Compass, then click anywhere on the Compass or in the world to select where you’d like your henchmen to go.

Improved Hero/Henchmen AI

• Heroes and Henchmen now take into account Conditions and Exhaustion when choosing which skills to cast. They also consider attribute levels for stolen skills, and combo states for Assassin skills.
• They have improved combo awareness for some important skill combinations.
• They have improved knowledge of skills, so that they make smarter decisions about which skills to cast.
• They manage their Energy better.
• They are better at kiting opponents.
• They are better at getting out and staying out of AoE damage spells.
• They move in formation around their leader, with melee characters in front and ranged or casting characters in back.
• They follow their leader whenever they haven’t been specifically directed to move to a point. The leader for Heroes is the player who owns the Hero, and the leader for henchmen is the party leader.
• They also know how to have fun.

Improved Monster AI

• Monsters no longer run from AoE damage when they are very healthy, or when they think they’re very close to killing their opponent.
• Melee monsters are more intelligent about keeping themselves spread out, so that they don’t put themselves into a position where they’re highly susceptible to AoE attacks.

Gameplay Changes

• The rarity of items within locked chests is now properly randomized.
• Armor swapping is now disabled during PvP games.
• Certain situations that caused players to get stuck and not be able to move have been fixed, and a new command “/stuck” has been introduced to help players free their characters if they become stuck.

Title System Changes

• The Treasure Hunter and Seeker of Wisdom titles now confer a benefit to players who earn them. For each rank of either title earned, the chance of an item not being destroyed when salvaging a magical upgrade component is increased by 3 percent from a base of 50 percent.
• The Hero, Gladiator, and Champion titles now confer a benefit to players who earn them. Gaining ranks in these titles increases the maximum cap of unspent Balthazar’s faction. The cap increases by 2,000 faction points for each of the first five ranks of the Hero title and 5,000 faction points for each subsequent rank, and the cap increases by 5,000 faction points for each rank of the Gladiator and Champion titles earned.

Materials Storage

• The Materials Storage panel, which was previously a feature of Guild Wars Factions, is now available to all players.

User Interface Improvements

• While forming a party, you can now control+click on your Skill Bar to announce your skill setup to your party members.
• Called targets now remain active for up to 30 seconds after being attacked by their caller, and do not go away when the caller changes targets.
• During Guild Combat, a countdown timer now displays the amount of time remaining until the team that holds the shrine will gain a morale boost.
• In all types of PvP, the new score screen option “Team Status” shows a summary of the Health and morale of your entire team, including allied NPCs.
• A new option “Hide UI” on the login screen allows you to use the login screen as a screensaver. The client continues to download game assets in the background while in screensaver mode.
• The text and audio languages can now be independently selected in the Options panel.
• Other new options enable you to keep windows open when pressing escape, to disable tooltips on Skill Bars, and to disable tooltips on effect monitors.

Equipment Balance Changes

• Reduced the cost of all armor sets found on Shing Jea Island.
• Updated the Henge of Denravi Axe to have +5 inherent Energy instead of +25 inherent Health.
• Updated the Henge of Denravi Bow to have +5 inherent Energy instead of +10 inherent armor.
• Updated some Fiery Flame Spitters that had a 15% recharge chance instead of the normal 10% chance.
• Green item staffs, crafted staffs, and collector staffs with any sort of recharge bonus have been updated to reduce the recharge time of all spells with a chance of 20% instead of the attribute-specific bonuses they had previously.
• Updated a sword received from a quest in pre-Searing Ascalon to remove the inherent +5 armor while enchanted bonus. It now deals an additional 15% damage while Health is above 50.
• Updated the Warrior’s Dreadnought and Dragon armor suits to +10 vs. elemental to match how the armor bonus works under the new insignia system.
• Updated the Warrior’s Sentinel armor suit to +20 vs. elemental (req. 13 Strength) to match how the armor bonus works under the new insignia system.
• Updated the Necromancer’s Tormentor armor suit to add 6 holy damage on the chest, 4 on the leggings, and 2 on all other pieces. It was previously 5 damage for all pieces.
• Updated the Assassin’s Saboteur, Infiltrator, and Vanguard armor suits to have +10 armor vs. all physical damage and an additional +10 armor vs. a specific type of physical damage. The Condition reduction bonuses were removed to match how the bonuses work under the new insignia system.
• Updated all instances of Stonefist Gauntlets to remove the -5 armor penalty to match how the bonus works under the new insignia system.
• Updated all instances of the Lieutenant's Helm to remove the -10 armor vs. physical penalty to match how the bonus works under the new insignia system.
• Updated maximum level headgear found in Prophecies and Factions with a +1 Energy bonus to equalize it with possibilities found in Nightfall and at the new PvP Equipment panel. Warrior headgear that already had built-in armor bonuses will remain unaffected.

Skill Balance Changes

Assassin

• Black Lotus Strike: reduced recharge time 12 seconds.
• Enduring Toxin: increased duration to 5 seconds.
• Expose Defenses: increased duration to 5..20 seconds.
• Impale: increased damage to 25..100. This skill must now follow a dual attack.
• Mirrored Stance: decreased casting time to .25 seconds.
• Moebius Strike: reduced recharge time to 2 seconds.
• Shameful Fear: reduced recharge time to 10 seconds.
• Siphon Strength: removed touch requirement.
• Way of the Lotus: changed this skill so that it is now an Enchantment.

Elementalist

• Armor of Frost: this skill no longer reduces your armor against fire.
• Ash Blast: increased damage to 20..55, increased Blindness duration to 3..15 seconds.
• Conjure Flame: decreased recharge time to 30 seconds, increased damage to 1..21.
• Conjure Frost: decreased recharge time to 30 seconds, increased damage to 1..21
• Conjure Lightning: decreased recharge time to 30 seconds, increased damage to 1..21
• Double Dragon: this spell no longer causes Exhaustion.
• Eruption: decreased casting time to 2 seconds.
• Fire, Water, Air, Earth Attunement: each of these skills now return 1 Energy plus 30% of that spell’s cost.
• Glimmering Mark: decreased recharge time to 5 seconds, increased duration to 5 seconds.
• Glyph of Concentration: changed this Glyph to work on the next two spells, increased recharge time to 10 seconds.
• Glyph of Elemental Power: increased recharge time to 15 seconds. This Glyph now works on the next 5 spells.
• Glyph of Lesser Energy: this Glyph now works on the next 2 spells.
• Glyph of Energy: increased Energy reduction to 25.
• Grasping Earth: decreased recharge time to 12 seconds.
• Gust: decreased casting time to 1 second.
• Inferno: decreased recharge time to 10 seconds.
• Lava Arrows: increased damage to 10..40.
• Lava Font: increased damage to 5..50.
• Lightning Javelin: decreased Energy cost to 5.
• Lightning Surge: no longer causes Exhaustion, increased Energy cost to 15.
• Lightning Touch: decreased Energy cost to 5.
• Mark of Rodgort: decreased Energy to 15. This skill now affects all adjacent foes.
• Phoenix: decreased recharge time to 10 seconds.
• Searing Heat: decreased casting time to 2 seconds.
• Shatterstone: increased damage to 25..100, increased conditional damage to 25..100.
• Shock Arrow: increased damage to 5..45.
• Smoldering Embers: increased damage to 15..75.
• Swirling Aura: decreased recharge time to 45 seconds.
• Teinai's Heat: decreased casting time to 2 seconds.
• Vapor Blade: increased damage to 15..135.

Mesmer

• Arcane Languor: increased duration to 1..10 seconds.
• Distortion: duration now scales with attribute, and you now only lose 2 Energy when this skill triggers.
• Drain Enchantment: increased recharge time to 30 seconds, decreased Energy gained to 5..20.
• Echo: increased duration to 30 seconds.
• Empathy: decreased duration to 5..15 seconds, increased damage to 15..45.
• Energy Drain: decreased Energy stolen to 2..9.
• Epidemic: decreased Energy cost to 5 Energy.
• Ether Signet: decreased recharge time to 60 seconds.
• Ethereal Burden/Kitah's Burden: decreased casting time to 1 second.
• Illusion of Pain: decreased casting time to 1 second.
• Inspired Hex/Revealed Hex: decreased Energy gained to 4..10.
• Keystone Signet: decreased casting time to 1 second.
• Mantra of Recall: decreased Energy gained to 10..25.
• Overload: decreased recharge time to 3 seconds.
• Panic: decreased casting time to .25 seconds.
• Power Return: decreased recharge time to 5 seconds.
• Psychic Instability: decreased recharge time to 10 seconds.

Monk

• Bane Signet: decreased casting time to 1 second.
• Peace and Harmony: decreased recharge time to 10 seconds.
• Ray of Judgment: decreased casting time to 1 second.
• Smite: this skill is now a spell instead of an attack.
• Spirit Bond: expires after 10 attacks or Spells.
• Succor: decreased Energy cost to 5.
• Watchful Spirit: decreased recharge time to 5 seconds.
• Zealot's Fire: decreased casting time to .25 seconds, decreased recharge time to 30 seconds. You now lose 1 Energy whenever this skill triggers.

Necromancer

• Barbs: decreased recharge time to 5 seconds.
• Blood Bond: you lose 3 pips of Health regeneration, and your ally gains 1..6 pips of Health regeneration.
• Icy Veins: decreased recharge time to 5 seconds.
• Insidious Parasite: increased life steal to 15..45.
• Life Transfer: decreased Energy cost to 5 Energy, increased casting time to 1 second.
• Lingering Curse: decreased casting time to 2 seconds.
• Malign Intervention: decreased recharge time to 12 seconds.
• Mark of Pain: decreased casting time to 1 second.
• Rising Bile: decreased recharge time to 20 seconds.
• Spoil Victor: increased damage to 25..100.
• Suffering: decreased recharge time to 5 seconds.
• Unholy Feast: decreased recharge time to 12 seconds.
• Vile Miasma: now falls under the Death Magic attribute.

Ranger

• Archer's Signet: increased number of bow attacks affected to 1..7.
• Call of Protection: increased damage reduction to 5..20.
• Concussion Shot: decreased recharge time to 5 seconds.
• Debilitating Shot: reduced Energy reduction to -1..10. This skill now falls under the Marksmanship attribute.
• Dual Shot: increased recharge time to 10 seconds.
• Expertise: For each rank of Expertise, the Energy cost of all of your attacks, Rituals, touch skills, and Rangers skills are decreased by 4%. Several skills, especially those related to Energy costs and skill recharge times, become more effective with higher Expertise.
• Heal as One: decreased recharge time to 10 seconds. This skill now resurrects your pet.
• Marksman's Wager: increased duration to 18 seconds.
• Run as One: decreased recharge time to 25 seconds.

Warrior

• Berserker Stance: increased adrenaline gain to 50%.
• Deadly Riposte: increased damage to 15..90.
• Disciplined Stance: decreased Energy cost to 5.
• Dwarven Battle Stance: increased attack speed to 25%.
• Furious Axe: this skill is now an Energy skill with 5 Energy and a recharge time of 6 seconds.
• Lacerating Chop: reduced adrenaline cost to 5 swings.
• Protector's Defense: decreased recharge time to 30 seconds.
• Skull Crack: this skill now interrupts the target’s action but only causes the Dazed Condition if it interrupts a spell.
• "Victory is Mine!": this skill is now a targeted Shout that returns 3..7 Energy per Condition.
• "You Will Die!": decreased recharge time to 15 seconds.

Start of Halloween Event

When the moon shines down on the Elon
Like the eye of a ravenous drake

Keep a lantern close by and the darkness at bay
For on this holiday night, they say

A spirit returns, pumpkin on head
Wicked deeds (and bad jokes) will abound
He’ll bluster and shout
Spread chaos about
’till a banishment for his mischief be found

Heed my tale, ye brave heroes
From lands north and south
Listen wherefore I say:
Bind your sanity close, lest you lose what you love most
When the monarch of madness appears.

GuildWiki notes

• Monster AI is currently erratic. Monsters will break aggro from one target if they take damage, but instead of re-establishing aggro (on the same target or new ones) they will get stuck on a target (to the point of just standing there doing nothing). Minions also act in the same erratic manner. The new AI is being dubbed as a huge nerf to Spiteful Spirit as it has made it very difficult for 2 man Underworld groups.
• Henchmen can now spread disease to human players.
• There was a bug with henchmen that occurred when they tried to use Resurrection Signet. It seems to have been fixed.
• This update introduced six new runes that can be used by any profession. Specifically, runes of Vitae, Attunement, Clarity, Purity, Recovery and Restoration. Runes of Vitae and Attunement are core runes, while the other four are Nightfall runes.
• PvP character creation is now identical to PvE character creation, leading some to believe they were unable to create a PvP character.
• Some green staves have their prefix and suffix modifiers missing for some accounts. The bug appears to have been fixed.
• Expose Defenses has not changed.
• Prophecies characters may purchase the Material Storage upgrade in Lion's Arch.
• All types of alcohol now have a disclaimer stating excessive alcohol consumption will result in intoxication.
• An item description stating the item's effect has been added to Red Bean Cakes and Candy Canes.
• The "while under the effects of an Enchantment" modification has been reverted back to the shorter "while Enchanted."
• The guild status tab no longer displays when members leave the guild.
• The mouse cursor when salvaging an item with mods/inscriptions/insignias or green items has been changed. Items that ONLY give crafting materials when salvaged will still retain the old salvage cursor so as to differentiate between salvaging clean items and modded items.
• The skins for vials of dye have been changed.
• There was a bug causing previously acquired vials of dye to not stack with newly dropped or purchased vials of dye, but it was fixed.
• A new slot for Diamonds was added to material storage.
• Imperial Commendations now have a gold skin rather than the usual silver. New and old Monastery Credits, Imperial Commendations, and Equipment Requisitions do not stack.
• The icons of some 'dyed' unique items incorrectly appeared 'undyed', however the items appear normal when wielded.
• The total size of this update is approximately 160 MB.
• Players have to re-accept the EULA.
• The Ghostly Hero now holds a Chaos Axe.
• For a while you could salvage and sell the weapon upgrades from weapons included with the Prerelease Bonus Pack. This was fixed in a second update.
• The original update notes (~11:50 PM CST) stated that the base chance to salvage-without-destroying was 75%, with a bonus of 1% for each rank in the Wisdom and Treasure Hunter titles. The notes were changed overnight to the current reading (50% base and 3% bonus) with no indication that the edit occurred.
• Compass size and location are reset to default.
• The art shown for the Ritualist in the class selection screen has been changed.
• The patch client has been translated into Polish, however Polish in-game text is still unavailable.
• Occasionally, the door for Blue team will open prematurely in the Heroe's Ascent map The Underworld.
• The daily cap on Balthazar Faction gained from training and challenge arenas has been doubled to 2000.
• Characters can now go back to Lion's Gate, regardless of their Campaign.
• Players can visit Nightfall guild halls via Canthan Ambassador NPCs.
• The Guild Emblemer offers a different screen.
• Amulet of the Mists is now a green item.
• When salvaging an unidentified item, a new verification message appears.
• The title bar of the Mission Map now shows the name of the zone you are in.
• Introduced weapons for all non-offensive caster attributes: Energy Storage, Fast Casting, Inspiration Magic, Healing Prayers, Protection Prayers, Soul Reaping, and Restoration Magic.
• Air, Earth, Fire, and Water Attunements do not actually give 30% + 1 energy; instead it seems to be (30% + .5 energy), as 10 energy cost spells still give 30%, while all other energy cost spells returns have been rounded up to the next whole number. They might be working on this now, as there are conflicitng reports that is is or is not fixed.
• The Eternal Forgemaster will now craft 'blank' Obsidian armor which will accept Insignia.
• Although the update notes do not specifically mention it, salvaging crafting materials out of an item will always destroy it.
• When you attempt to salvage an item with upgrade components, you also have the choice of cancelling the salvage attempt.
• Upgrade componints can now only be salvaged from identified items. If you try to salvage an unidentified blue, purple or gold item, you will receive a warning, and will have the options of either salvageing the item or cancelling.
• Impale was changed from a hex spell that triggers and ends the next time the foe is hit with a dual attack to a direct damage skill which must follow a dual attack.

Update 2 - Monday October 23

• Added the PvP Editions of Guild Wars Prophecies and Guild Wars Factions to the online store. These PvP Editions provide access to PvP for those who don't already own the underlying campaign, and they also provide all skill unlocks for the entire campaign.

GuildWiki notes

• A new section has been created in the online store called "PvP Editions" for current & future PvP Edition games.

• Previous Prophecies Campaign profession-specific skill unlocks pack have been removed from the online store completely.

Update - Monday October 23

• Ended the Factions Boardwalk weekend event.

Update - Friday October 20

• Made preparations for the Factions Boardwalk weekend event.

Update - Saturday October 14

• Fixed the district selection menu in American districts.

Update - Thursday October 12

• Made preparations for the Factions Green Drop Weekend.
• Fixed a bug that prevented some skill effects from being displayed the first time they were used.

GuildWiki notes

• Bug: Numbers next to districts in the District Selection menu did not show correctly. This bug has now been fixed.

Update - Thursday October 5, 2006

• Added 25 new guild emblems.
• Fixed a bug that prevented some people from using their secondary profession after the Nightfall World Preview Event.

UPDATES TO HEROES' ASCENT

• Removed Burial Mounds from rotation.
• Raised the team count for Broken Tower to 3.
• Reduced the play time for Broken Tower to 4 minutes.
• Reduced the play time for Courtyard to 4 minutes.
• Added levers to Scarred Earth so that players can open gates leading out of the center region of the map. Gates still open automatically as teams are defeated.

GuildWiki notes

• The party size for Heroes' Ascent was also changed to 6.
• Hourglasses were removed.

Update - Monday September 25, 2006

• Completed the Nightfall World Preview Event weekend and restored the game to its normal state.

GuildWiki notes

• Free accounts created for the Nightfall World Preview Event were disabled.
• Existing Guild Wars Nightfall Characters were locked.
• The temporary changes to Contemplation of Purity and earshot range have not been reverted.
• Skill icons show a generic hourglass icon briefly before the actual icon shows up in the Skill Bar or in the Effects or Skill Monitor. (The effect was added with the Nightfall preview, but it persists after this update. This is not intended and will be fixed later on.)

Update - Sunday September 24, 2006

• Fixed a skill bug that was being exploited in PvP matches.

GuildWiki notes

• The skill in question was Signet of Might. It was able to target allies and enemies while in the range of an allied spirit. Using the skill caused the target to die after 10 seconds, during which the target had a moderate attack damage boost.
• Signet of Might now can be used while targetting allies and enemies, but the effect defaults to the nearest spirit, in a way similar to Consume Soul.

Update - Saturday September 23, 2006

• Fixed a crash that prevented German language users from obtaining the quest “Primary Training” in Kamadan.

Update 2 - Friday September 22, 2006

• Changed default positions of Dialogue, Mission Goals, and Unlock boxes.
• Fixed miscellaneous preview event bugs.

Skill Updates:

• Arcane Zeal: Changed the maximum amount of energy gained from 5..7 to 1..7.
• Trapper's Speed: Fixed a bug that caused this skill to decrease the time to place traps more than intended.
• Spirit of Weariness: Fixed a bug that caused this spirit to remove more energy than intended.

Update - Friday September 22, 2006

Note: This update was listed on the Guildwars.com site as two separate updates, Thursday 21st and Friday 22nd

We had difficulty distributing the Live build using our normal distribution process, so we have been distributing it manually to file servers around the world, one server at a time. Therefore, players on some servers will receive the update sooner than players on other servers.

We expect to complete distributing the build to all servers within the next 15 minutes, and when the distribution is complete, we will open access to Elona and start the preview event.

Update - Thursday September 21

Please join us for the Guild Wars Nightfall Preview Event, starting this Friday, September 22 at 12:01 AM PDT (07:01 GMT). For three days only, players can get a sneak peak of Guild Wars Nightfall, create Paragon and Dervish characters, use Nightfall skills, and play through a portion of the Nightfall roleplaying campaign.

All active Guild Wars accounts will automatically have access to the Preview Event. Players without a Guild Wars account can download the client from www.guildwars.com and then create a free account for the weekend by using one of the following access keys.

America: 2BBQF-MG981-PRQD7-KDM6Q-C78H3
Europe: 944NC-B1LJ4-MD6L9-718L6-1HM38

Please note that all Nightfall content and features are being presented in beta form, and are subject to change and improvement before the final release.

Campaign Overview

• As a newly inducted member of the legendary Order of the Sunspears, you will be able to explore all of Istan, the great island province of the nation of Elona.
• While playing in Elona, you will have the opportunity to meet and recruit Heroes into your party. Heroes are party members that follow your orders and use skills and equipment of your choosing.
• During this preview event, any new characters you create in the nation of Elona are temporary and will be reset prior to the release of Guild Wars Nightfall. These beta characters cannot travel outside of Elona, cannot access account storage, and cannot sell items to traders.

Heroes

• You can recruit new Heroes by completing certain quests. After recruiting a Hero, you can choose to bring him along in any mission or explorable area by adding him to your party using the party formation interface. Regardless of how many Heroes you recruit, you can invite a maximum of three Heroes into your party at any given time.
• Other players in your party can also bring along Heroes. If the maximum party size of a mission is eight, you and another player can play together and each bring three Heroes.
• Heroes have skills, attributes, weapons, and armor just like players do. You can use the Skills and Attributes panel to select their skills and attributes, and the Inventory panel to select their equipment. (During this preview event, you cannot yet customize your Heroes' armor.)
• When a Hero is in your party, you will see a button next to that Hero's name, which you can use to bring up the Hero Control panel. Within that panel, you will see that Hero's portrait, current Health and Energy, Skill Bar, and combat mode (aggressive, defensive, passive). The Hero Control panel is an advanced interface that you don't need to use, but if you would like to change a Hero's combat mode or force him to cast a specific skill, you can do it there.
• While playing the game with one or more Heroes in your party, you will also see flag buttons next to the Compass, which you can use to give them orders. To order a Hero to move to a certain spot on the map, click the flag button and then place the flag on the map. To undo that order, double-click the flag button.
• Heroes don't maintain their own inventory of skills. Instead, they are able to use any skill that you have unlocked on your account.
• Heroes don't maintain their own backpack or inventory of items. Instead, you can drag items from your inventory onto a Hero to equip him. Your Heroes can use weapons that you have customized for yourself.

User Interface Changes

For the duration of the World Preview Event, the game will use certain elements of the Guild Wars Nightfall user interface.

• The new Skills and Attributes panel centralizes management of skills and attributes, both for player characters and Heroes. It replaces both the old Skill panel and the Attributes page from the Hero panel.
• The updated Inventory panel contains a character selector, so it can be used to manage equipped weapons and armor for both player characters and Heroes.
• The Compass includes new controls that allow the player to issue orders to both henchmen and Heroes.

All of these user interface changes are being presented in beta form. After the conclusion of the weekend event, they will be removed from the game again until the release of Guild Wars Nightfall.

Nightfall World Preview Event Limitations

The following features will be part of the release of Guild Wars Nightfall, but are not available during this preview event.

• Skill Templates - In Nightfall, you will be able to save and load skill and attribute builds to disk, enabling you to quickly switch strategies and outfit your Heroes.
• Hero Battles - After the release of Nightfall you will be able to unlock Heroes for your use with your PvP characters, and you will be able to bring Heroes into a new type of PvP where players can compete head-to-head for the first time.

Also, the following issues are known to exist with the features being previewed during this weekend event.

• Hero AI for using skills is still under development.
• Heroes cannot capture skills using Signet of Capture, nor can they control pets using Charm Animal.
• Hero armor cannot yet be upgraded using runes.
• The visual appearance of Hero armor in the Inventory panel, and the text descriptions of the Hero's attributes and items, do not take into account the sex of the Hero.
• The tutorials in Prophecies and Factions have not been updated to reflect the Nightfall user interface changes.

GuildWiki notes

• Clicking on the skill bar in-town now shows the new Skills and Attributes panel.
• Re-enabled the ability to call your health and energy in team chat which was probably mistakenly broken in the previous update.
• The game no longer automatically loads all skill icons. Instead, it loads icons as soon when they are needed, displaying a dark grey hourglass icon as a placeholder while they load.

Update - Wednesday September 20, 2006

• Added new trophies to the Great Temple of Balthazar for the Guild Wars Factions Championship and the Guild Wars (Prophecies) World Championship.
• Added an Observer Mode option to automatically observe random games.
• Added an option to hide the user interface while observing a game.
• Added an option to mute sound while Guild Wars is running in the background
• Modified all windows and panels accessible from the Menu so that they remember whether they were previously open when entering a new map.
• Fixed a bug that prevented some Prophecies and Factions monsters from using their Ranger skills.
• Fixed a bug in the skill Plague Signet that caused Conditions to transfer with incorrect durations.

Preparation for the World Preview Event

• The following Guild Wars Nightfall updates and balance changes are being published in beta form, in preparation for this weekend’s World Preview Event. After the conclusion of the weekend event, they will be removed from the game again until the release of Guild Wars Nightfall.
• Updated the artificial intelligence of all henchmen.
• Added new armor foley sound effects.
• Capped adrenaline gain so that no player ever receives more than double adrenaline from adrenaline-boosting skills.
• Increased earshot range to the radius of the Danger Zone (the inner white circle on the mini-map Compass).
• Modified the skill Contemplation of Purity so that the number of removed Hexes and Conditions is determined by your Divine Favor attribute.

GuildWiki notes

• The "icon" for the store has been changed to an Elonian design but there appears to be no new content inside.
• The amount of health gain provided by Contemplation of Purity was also slightly adjusted.
• The wording of the modifier "while enchanted" was changed to "while under the effects of an Enchantment"
• Henchmen (other than Talon Silverwing) now mimic most of your emotes but react to some. When you dance, they will provide you with a band. When you play an instrument, they will provide accompaniment. When you play rock-paper-scissors, they will play against you. They will also perform random emotes when idle.
• The formation in which henchmen position themselves around the player has been changed. While not moving or fighting henchmen will try to maintain a 3x3 square formation with the player in the middle or front row, depending if they are wielding a ranged or melee attack weapon. Monks will always take the back row while the front row will be occupied by warriors, then assassins, then rangers. Other casters will fill the middle spots in a seemingly random pattern.
• Nightfall campaign skills are now visible on the PvP character creation screen, however they are locked and their descriptions cannot be seen.
• Players are unable to call their health or energy.
• The "foley" sound effect mentioned in the update description indicates the type of armor the character is wearing. Metal armor produces a low clanking noise, while cloth armor produces a rustling and jingling noise.
• The "random" option in the Observer Mode window selects the game only from the list of observable games.
• The interface in Observer Mode can be turned off as usual using the UI suppression keybinding (by default Ctrl+Shift+H). Selecting the "hide" check box in Observer Mode starts a 15 second timer after which the UI is hidden.

Update - Monday September 18

• Fixed text received when adding a Nightfall Prerelease Bonus Key, so that it no longer incorrectly states that the account already has the bonus.
• Fixed a bug that affected the drop rates of XP scrolls.

Update - Friday September 15

• Updated graphics for existing character faces.
• Made additional preparations for the Guild Wars Nightfall World Preview Event.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Effects Monitor to shrink below its customized size.
• Fixed a bug in Burning Isle that caused NPCs to misbehave during "Victory or Death!".
• Improved the Mission Map (the window accessed by using the "U" key) so that it works properly in Dragon's Throat, Scarred Earth, Sorrow's Furnace, The Courtyard, The Deep, The Dragon's Lair, The Hall of Heroes, The Undercity, The Underworld, and Urgoz's Warren, where previously it showed only black.

GuildWiki notes

• The updated graphics for existing character faces is to prepare for animated facial expressions due to appear in Nightfall.

Update - Thursday September 14

• Updated the art used for Bone Fiend projectile attacks.
• Adjusted balance of some monster groups in the Ring of Fire mission and the Ice Floe Explorable area.
• Adjusted the attributes of Tin Dao Kaineng in Haiju Lagoon.
• Improved the Mission Map (the window accessed by using the "U" key) so that it works properly in the Catacombs, the Underworld, and Fissure of Woe, where previously it showed only black.

GUILD BATTLE UPDATES

• Removed one of the Bodyguards and one of the Archers near the Guild Lords.
• Added two Knights near the Guild Lord. Knights are Warriors with the following skills: Sever Artery, Gash, Healing Signet, and Power Attack.
• Adjusted the positions of Guild Hall NPCs.
• Shortened the time until "Victory or Death!" to 20 minutes.
• Modified the "Victory or Death!" effect so that it applies to all players, regardless of where they are on the map.

SKILL UPDATES

Assassin

• Black Lotus Strike: reduced recharge time to 20 seconds.
• Blades of Steel: reduced recharge time to 8 seconds.
• Blinding Powder: Blindness now affects target and all adjacent foes.
• Crippling Dagger: increased damage to 15..60.
• Critical Strike: decreased Energy cost to 5.
• Dark Prison: decreased recharge time to 45 seconds.
• Dash: decreased recharge time to 8 seconds.
• Death Blossom: increased damage to 20..45
• Desperate Strike: increased damage to 15..60.
• Fox Fangs: increased damage to 5..30.
• Golden Lotus Strike: increased Energy gained to 5..12
• Jungle Strike: increased damage to 10..25
• Locust's Fury: increased chance to double strike to 33%.
• Nine Tail Strike: decreased recharge time to 8 seconds.
• Repeating Strike: increased damage to 10..30.
• Scorpion Wire: decreased cast time to 1 second.
• Shadow of Haste: decreased Energy cost to 5, increased the duration to 30..60, and decreased the movement speed by 15%.
• Shadowy Burden: increased duration to 3..15 seconds.
• Shroud of Distress: decreased recharge time to 15 seconds.
• Signet of Malice: decreased recharge time to 5 seconds, decreased casting time to .25 seconds.
• Siphon Speed: increased movement speed reduction to 33%, and this spell now has half range.
• Siphon Strength: increased duration to 5..20 seconds.
• Temple Strike: decreased recharge time to 20 seconds, and increased duration to 1..10 seconds.
• Unsuspecting Strike: increased conditional damage to 15..75.
• Way of Perfection: increased Health gained from critical hit to 10..40.
• Wild Strike: increased damage to 10..35.

Elementalist

• Mind Burn: decreased Energy cost to 5, decreased recharge time to 5 seconds.
• Mind Freeze: decreased Energy cost to 5, decreased recharge time to 8 seconds.
• Mind Shock: decreased Energy cost to 5, decreased recharge time to 8 seconds.
• Ether Prodigy: increased damage per Energy to 3.

Mesmer

• Images of Remorse: decreased Health degeneration to 1..3.
• Leech Signet: decreased recharge time to 30 seconds.
• Signet of Disruption: decreased recharge time to 20 seconds.

Monk

• Balthazar's Aura: decreased duration to 8 seconds.
• Bane Signet: decreased recharge time to 20 seconds.
• Banish: this skill now does double damage vs. summoned creatures.
• Divine Boon: increased recharge time to 10 seconds, decreased amount healed to 15..60.
• Extinguish: increased cast time to 1 second, increased recharge time to 12 seconds.
• Purge Signet: decreased cast time to 2 seconds.
• Signet of Judgment: decreased recharge time to 20 seconds.
• Zealot's Fire: increased recharge time to 45 seconds.

Necromancer

• Plague Signet: decreased recharge time to 8 seconds.

Ranger

• Broad Head Arrow: decreased Energy cost to 15.
• Equinox: decreased recharge time to 30 seconds.
• Famine: decreased recharge time to 30 seconds.
• Greater Conflagration: decreased recharge time to 30 seconds.
• Lacerate: decreased recharge time to 30 seconds.
• Savage Pounce: decreased recharge time to 10 seconds.
• Tiger's Fury/Bestial Fury: decreased the attack speed to 25%.

Ritualist

• Ancestors' Rage: decreased recharge time to 8 seconds.
• Blind Was Mingson: decreased recharge time to 15 seconds, decreased Blindness duration to 3..8.
• Bloodsong: decreased recharge time to 45 seconds, increased damage to 5..25.
• Boon of Creation: reduced Energy gained to 1..6.
• Channeled Strike: decreased recharge time to 6 seconds.
• Defiant Was Xinrae: decreased Energy cost to 15.
• Disenchantment: decreased recharge time to 45 seconds, increased damage to 5..20.
• Displacement: decreased recharge time to 45 seconds.
• Dissonance: decreased recharge time to 45 seconds, increased damage to 5..20.
• Dulled Weapon: decreased recharge time to 12 seconds.
• Essence Strike: increased damage to 15..60, increased Energy return to 1..9.
• Gaze from Beyond: decreased recharge time to 10 seconds.
• Ghostly Haste: increased spell recharge reduction to 25% faster.
• Grasping Was Kuurong: increased damage to 15..75.
• Guided Weapon: decreased recharge time to 20 seconds.
• Life: decreased recharge time to 30 seconds.
• Mend Body and Soul: increased heal amount to 20..115.
• Pain: decreased recharge time to 30 seconds, increased damage to 5..30.
• Painful Bond: decreased recharge time to 12 seconds.
• Preservation: decreased recharge time to 30 seconds.
• Protective Was Kaolai: increased duration to 15..60 seconds.
• Recuperation: increased Energy cost to 25, decreased recharge time to 45 seconds.
• Ritual Lord: decreased Spirit recharge to 15..60%.
• Shadowsong: increased Energy cost to 15.
• Shelter: increased Energy cost to 25, increased damage taken to 75..45, decreased recharge time to 45 seconds.
• Soothing: increased Energy to 25, decreased level to 1..8.
• Spirit Burn: increased damage to 15..60, increased conditional damage to 15..45.
• Spirit Light: decreased Energy cost to 5, increased Health sacrificed to 17%.
• Spirit Light Weapon: Changed the way this skill worked to always heal for 1..10 Health per second, and an addition 1..10 Health if you are near a Spirit.
• Spirit Rift: increased damage to 25..135.
• Spirit Transfer: decreased recharge time to 5 seconds.
• Splinter Weapon: decreased recharge time to 5 seconds.
• Tranquil Was Tanasen: increased duration to 5..20.
• Union: decreased recharge time to 45 seconds.
• Vital Weapon: decreased recharge time to 12 seconds.
• Wailing Weapon: decreased recharge time to 25 seconds.
• Wanderlust: decreased recharge time to 45 seconds.
• Weapon of Quickening: increased duration to 5..25.
• Wielder's Boon: increased amount healed to 15..75.

Warrior

• Bull's Strike: increased recharge time to 10 seconds.
• Dismember: decreased adrenaline to 5.
• Eviscerate: decreased damage to 1..31.
• Irresistible Blow: increased recharge time to 6 seconds, decreased damage to 5..20.
• Wary Stance: decreased recharge time to 30 seconds.

GuildWiki notes

• This is a typical skill balance update. ArenaNet has done it a few times before, usually between GvG ladder seasons, when the ladder has been frozen but not yet reset.
• Updated the character selection screen to show Elonian scenery.
• The Catacombs' mini map had already been added in a previous update.
• The increased amount of healing from Wielder's Boon is the conditional heal.
• Some character faces/hairstyles are more detailed or are different shades of color.
• Sometimes Emotes and Skill auras fail to show.
• New Shader graphics options were added.
• Updated the art used for ritualists' spirits. Now, all non-attacking spirits except for the Spirit of Life resemble the spirit of Destruction with the arms chained to the shoulders. Attacking spirits like Bloodsong still have the look of a Banshee.
• The gamma has been decreased.
• The names of locked elite skills in PvP character creation screens are now gold.
• Players leaving a guild are now listed in the Guild Status.
• Some unsupported characters in chat are now shown as spaces, instead red square. Sending of this message is now possible. (Works for Czech and Polish chars for instance, but not for Russian or Arabic chars)
• Currently, many players are experiencing sound issues, such as no ping when calling targets, no sound when swapping inventory items (ie. equipping armor), and many battle effects such as attacks and spells are silenced. This is similar to the bug caused by setting the sound quality too high.
• Updated the Target Monitor so that now when an ally/foe uses a skill you see what the energy cost/casting time/recharge time of the skill is.
• After the update a character's inventory will open on the first occasion that they pick up a dropped item from a foe.
• Although it is not stated in the update notes or the skill description, the Spirit of Pain created by Anguished Was Lingwah also does increased damage.
• The "Please take a break" timer now shows total time the client has been open.
• The Upkeep Monitor is now re-sizable.
• The green quest exclamation point shown above quest involved NPCs will not show on occasion.
• Longbows with the feathered skin are now known as Feathered Longbows.

• Soul Vortex graphic is now a more visible purple sphere instead of a flashing light.

Update - Friday September 8

• Fixed a flaw in the online store that prevented some users from purchasing account upgrades.

Update - Wednesday September 6

• Fixed a bug that prevented some players from making purchases in the online store.

Update - Tuesday September 5

• Completed the weekend event and restored the Heroes' Ascent party size to 8.

GuildWiki notes

• The correct number of Zaishen in the HA qualifying mission has not been restored for 8vs8.

Update - Friday September 1

• Enabled the 6v6 Heroes Ascent Weekend event.

Update 2 - Thursday August 31

• Monk and Necromancer skill packs were incorrectly unlocking the other Profession’s skills. This has been corrected.

Update - Thursday August 31

• Players can now purchase PvP Unlock Packs for Prophecies Campaign skills through the online store.

Was Previously

• We are preparing additional functionality for the online store.

GuildWiki notes

• The Unlock Packs are priced at 9.99 USD / 8.99 EUR / 5.99 GBP per profession, or 39.99 USD / 35.99 EUR / 23.99 GBP for all six.
• Each Pack includes all core and Prophecies-only skills (including elite skills) for the corresponding profession.
• A Factions-only account cannot currently purchase an Unlock Pack.

Update - Friday August 18

• Updated translations.
• Added a Priest of Balthazar and a Scribe to the Jade Quarry and Fort Aspenwood outposts.
• Fixed the chat edit losing focus when a friend's status updates while the friends list is open.

GuildWiki notes

After this update players had to re-accept the End-User License Agreement due to document updates to cover e.g. the new Guild Wars in-game store.

Update - Thursday, August 17, 2006

• Added a Kurzick Recruiter and a Luxon Diplomat to the Great Temple of Balthazar. These NPCs are able to transport PvP characters to the Fort Aspenwood and Jade Quarry outposts. They also are able to transport roleplaying characters who have previously visited these outposts.
• Added Zaishen Representatives to the Fort Aspenwood and Jade Quarry outposts. These NPCs are able to transport players to the Great Temple of Balthazar.
• Made preparations for this weekend's double faction event in Jade Quarry and Fort Aspenwood.
• Fixed a bug that prevented party size indicators from appearing over players' heads in outposts.
• Fixed a bug in the Kaanai Canyon Alliance Battle map that allowed Kurzick team members to leave their base before the game had started.
• Fixed bugs and made improvements to the Raisu Palace explorable area.
• Fixed a bug in the appearance of the intoxication effect.

SKILL UPDATES

• Modified Edge of Extinction so that creatures must have less than 90% Health remaining in order to be affected.

Guildwiki Notes

The following new rare weapons have begun to drop in the game, as hinted by The Scribe in his report:

• Jade Sword - dropped by Outcasts in the Jade Sea area.
• Guardian of the Hunt - a shield dropped by Wardens in the Echovald Forest area.
• Gloom Shield - dropped in the Underworld.
• Golden Maul - dropped in the Raisu Palace (explorable) area.
• Grinning Recurve Bow - dropped in the Fissure of Woe.
• Lotus Staff - can be found at various collectors in the Echovald Forest.
• Salient Daggers - Nahpui Quarter (mission).
• Hand Axes have started dropping in cantha with a new skin.

At least some of these weapons are Honorable Mentions from the Design A Weapon Contest. Multiple other new weapons are rumored, but still unconfirmed.

Update - Saturday, August 12, 2006

• Added 25 new guild emblems.
• Increased the duration of the loot assignment timer. When a monster drops an item, it is now assigned to a player for 10 minutes.
• Fixed a bug that caused players to respawn immediately in Alliance Battles, Fort Aspenwood and Jade Quarry.

GuildWiki notes

• Warrior runes of absorption now indicate that they do not stack.
• Seems to have reintroduced the bug that causes sound to fail.

Update – Friday, August 11, 2006

• Made preparations for this week's Double-Your-Fun Weekend event.
• Fixed a bug that caused sound to drop out on some sound cards.

Update – Friday, August 4, 2006

• Modified henchmen respawn behavior in PVP battles. Henchmen with 60% Death Penalty will not respawn when they die.
• Fixed a bug in Elite missions that caused rare items to drop less frequently than intended during the Elite Weekend event.

Update 2 - Thursday, August 3, 2006

• Made preparations for the upcoming Elite Weekend event.
• Fixed a bug that caused some clients to crash during Elite missions.
• Eased excessive messaging filter restrictions for party chat, guild chat, and whispers. Restrictive filters for these forms of chat were inadvertently reintroduced in the previous update.

Update – Thursday, August 3, 2006

• Returned Zaishen Supply Masters to the Great Temple of Balthazar. The Supply Masters will remain until August 7, 12:01am (Pacific daylight time).
• Fixed a bug that caused crackling sounds and static on some sound cards.
• Added support for additional European credit cards to the online store.

GuildWiki notes

• European players were unable to log in for part of the day. The problem has been corrected.

Update – Tuesday, August 1, 2006

• Restored the original cycle of maps to the Random and Team Arenas now that the Nightfall PvP Preview Event is over.
• Added new guild emblems based on winning concepts from the recent Factions Guild Emblem Contest.
• Fixed a bug that caused henchmen and certain NPCs to run incorrectly into the midst of combat.
• Fixed a bug that caused Obsidian Keys and Phantom Keys to stop dropping in the Fissure of Woe and the Underworld.
• Fixed a bug that allowed players to earn Gladiator Title points in Zaishen arenas.
• Fixed a bug that prevented teams smaller than 4 from entering the Team Arena.
• Fixed a bug that prevented some teams from entering the Heroes' Ascent tournament.
• Fixed a bug that caused some players to crash during cinematics.
• Removed all PvP spears and scythes from player inventories.

SKILL UPDATES

• Assassin's Promise: no longer recharges the caster's skills when the caster dies.
• Restored the following skills to their normal behavior now that the Nightfall PvP Preview Event is over:
  • Balthazar's Aura: restored duration to 10 seconds.
  • Divine Boon: restored recharge time to 1 second.
  • Zealot's Fire: restored recharge time to 30 seconds.
  • Reduced earshot range to its original radius.

GuildWiki notes

• Removed Zaishen Supply Masters from the Great Temple of Balthazar.
• Zaishen Medallions are no longer awarded to players after winning PvP matches.
• You no longer have a blue cape when joining a group in Team Arenas before going to combat.
• The "Enter Mission" button in Challenge Missions has been changed to say "Begin Challenge," differentiating Challenge Missions from other missions.
• The "Enter Mission" button in Arenas has been changed to say "Enter Battle."
• The henchmen bug was not fixed although the update claims so.
• Players sometimes do not show their class and level above their heads when not in a party.

Update – Friday, July 28, 2006

• Updated the store so that Europeans no longer need to enter a state.
• Reduced the restrictiveness of the excessive messaging filter for party chat, guild chat and whispers.
• Updated the appearance of party member health bars so that they no longer overlap.

GuildWiki notes

• A link to the Guild Wars Official Store was added to the character selection screen, and extra character slots are now available to purchase.
  • A minor bug caused international transactions to fail with a "no US state selected" error. A workaround was to in this case pick USA as country, set its state to "Other", and then set your country again to your actual one. This has been fixed in build 18334.
• Fixed the previous bug of not earning of faction from killing the opposition party in the Training Arena.
• Changed Sand Shards to only work with Scythe attacks missing.
• The graphics corruption on the choose a sex screen while creating a new character has been fixed.
• Calling a corpse of an ally will result in saying 'i'm moving to the corpse of [ally name]'.

Update – Thursday, July 27, 2006

• Updated the list of available PVP character templates to include the templates designed by the Esoteric Warriors guild.
• Added key bindings for the following game functions: Drop Item, Follow, Suppress Action, Zoom In, and Zoom Out.
• Modified cinematics so that minions no longer decay and mission time no longer elapses while cinematics are playing.
• Updated the Trade dialog to reduce the likelihood of a common scam. The Trade dialog now displays a message whenever the trade offer is modified.
• Added a secondary profession changer to the Great Temple of Balthazar.
• Added a Championship Trophy to the Great Temple of Balthazar.
• Moved the positions of the Xunlai Agents in the Great Temple of Balthazar.
• Updated the appearance of the Guild roster. Invitations are now issued from within the invitee and guest lists, and the number of online and total members is displayed for each guild rank.
• Updated the appearance of the Options dialog. Option settings are now divided into tabbed categories.
• Updated the art used for Health bars.
• Added a new effect that desaturates screen colors when your character is dead (will only work if postprosessing is enabled in graphics menu).

Skill updates

• Arcane Mimicry: added a restriction so that it cannot be used on Elite Dervish Form skills.
• Consume Soul: updated to match its description. The caster must target and touch a Spirit.

Temporary skill balance changes

The following skill balance changes will be in effect only during the Nightfall PvP preview event:

• Balthazar's Aura: reduced duration to 8 seconds.
• Divine Boon: increased recharge time to 10 seconds.
• Zealot's Fire: increased recharge time to 45 seconds.
• Increased earshot range to the radius of the Danger Zone (the inner white circle on the mini-map radar).

GuildWiki notes

• Churranu Island Arena and Sunspear Arena were added.
• A few skin tones appear to have been changed.
• The wording on the description of the Ranger's expertise attribute has been changed. Instead of saying "For each rank the Energy cost of Attack skills, Preparations, and Traps decreases by 4%." it now says "For each rank of Expertise, the Energy cost of all of your non-Spells decreases by 4%. Several skills, especially those related to Energy costs and skill recharge times, become more effective with higher Expertise.".
• The casting bar now shows a green color when casting, a yellow color when completed and a purple color when interrupted.
• Loading screens, energy and XP bars and other miscellaneous UI parts have been altered.
  • Conditions and hexes yield a duller color than before.
• Added Nightfall campaign selection in Roleplaying character creation with small screenshots of the upcoming game.
• Graphics for wands and offhands were updated. Mesmer wands and offhands now have glowing effects to represent the difference between illusion and domination. Elementalist wands now have animated effects surrounding them.
• Added a delay to map zoom out.
• PvP character creation screens now allow "pinning-down" the attribute panel so that it does not fade out when not hovered over with the mouse.
• Added 3D and EAX sound options to sound tab.
• The skill window now remembers your sort option after logging out and in again.
• After selecting an item on the ground you can now call picking it up by ctrl-clicking the targeting window. For example: "I'm picking up a Tribal Blade."
• The chat command /resign, which did not previously, now works in PvE explorable areas and missions. When used by all party members, the whole team dies, does not resurrect at a resurrection shrine and the leader may press the 'Return to outpost' button.
• The Kurzick and Luxon victory cutscene when winning Fort Aspenwood (mission) no longer plays.
• The gamma has been increased.

The following are most likely bugs and will be fixed in the near future.

The corrupted character creation screen.

• Corrupt graphics on the 'choose a sex' screen while creating a new character. This seems to only happen when running Guild Wars in windowed mode.
• Adding a Barbed Bowstring to a bow has been reported to cause a game crash. This crash affects others in the district or guild hall.
• If you send a lot of messages into the chat, you will receive an excessive messaging warning even if all of your messages are sent to different chats or persons.
• In towns and outposts, overhead level displays of ungrouped players are not always shown.
• There's a bug with necromancer armor that will make it look like it has been changed in the character creation/selection screen. However, in game it looks normal with no changes at all.
• Vizunah Square mission is occasionally impossible to complete.
• Dead pets and Flesh Golems reveal wireframes when highlighted. The same effect has also be seen with a Dervish.
• The secondary profession quests, such as The Elementalist's Path are no longer available. Attempting to change profession in the Great Temple of Balthazar will be prevented as if you are not ascended.
• A bug was introduced which caused some people with Tyrian bows to lose their crippling, silencing, or barbed bow strings. (More info on http://forums.gwonline.net/showthread.php?t=412996). Reapplying the bow string to the bow will not give the bow the correct attribute; i.e. the bow string will be wasted.

Update - Tuesday July 25, 2006

• The character selection screen now displays the total number of character slots and the number of used character slots.

Update - Monday July 24, 2006

• Pets now receive a Morale Boost when the team they are on earns a morale boost.
• New character sorting options are available on the character selection screen.

GuildWiki notes

• Changes in the Character Selection interface:
  • Added a sort button for the character selection screen. Sort option does not remain after logout at this time.
  • Added arrows behind characters.
• Double-faction from the weekend has stopped.
• Started downloads for weekend event.
• The money bug, that caused the money dropped to be displayed incorrectly, seems to have been fixed.

Update - Friday July 14

• Added a new collector in Snake Dance, just outside Camp Rankor. This collector exchanges the Carapace Shields given out by Hagnon Warblade that were incorrectly modified by the last update. Shield dye color is unaffected by this exchange.
• Fixed a bug in the Assassin Moebius Strike skill. It no longer recharges itself.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Guild Lord’s Amulet of Protection to fail against life-stealing skills.

GuildWiki notes

• This update fixed a bug that prevented Luxon players from entering Saltspray Beach (Luxon) and Imperial Sanctum (mission); brought on by the last update.

• The fix of the Guild Lord was actually added as a second update.
• Pets now receive Death Penalty in PvP. Multiple testings can be seen in the discussion at http://forums.gwonline.net/showthread.php?t=410690. Early in the thread, Gaile denied any knowledge of this as being part of the update. On page 23 of the thread, however, Gaile stated that she finally tracked down the dev team responsible, discovering:
  • This change was intentional.
  • The dev team failed to follow procedure, so it didn't make the update notes.
  • This is a test of the code, and as soon as they are sure it is stable, this will be rolled out to PvE as well.
• If a player drops more than 255 gold coins onto the ground, the displayed number of coins on the ground will be incorrect. The correct value will be received if the gold is picked up.
• Signet of Strength: multiple hit attacks now count as multiple attacks for this skill, so Hundred Blades on 10 targets counts as 20 attacks.

Update - Thursday July 13, 2006

• Imperial Supplymaster Kagno is no longer stationed in Shing Jea Monastery.
• Added a crafting material storage upgrade for the Xunlai Agent storage vault. To purchase the upgrade, visit one of the new Xunlai Representatives in Shing Jea Monastery or Kaineng Center. (PvP characters gain access to the crafting material storage once any roleplaying character on the account purchases it.)
• Added the ability to split Stacks of inventory items. Holding the Shift key while dragging a stack of items allows you to "split off" a portion of the stack before moving it.
• Modified the algorithm that causes the alliance battle line to shift. A faction that pushes into enemy territory will temporarily gain a "momentum bonus" that helps it drive the battle line further into enemy territory.
• Added support for EAX audio when sound quality is set to maximum.
• Modified the Burning Isle guild battle map so that Flame Cursed Sentinels are now Lesser Flame Sentinels. Lesser sentinels are vulnerable to all Conditions, do not heal when out of combat, and slowly die on their own in the first 25 minutes of the match.
• Updated Mesmer Courtly and Virtuoso Armor sets so that the +15 armor bonus applies only to the piece the bonus is on, not to the entire body. The bonus is now active whenever the equipping character activates any skill (not just spells).
• Updated Warrior Ascalon and Knight's Armor sets so that the damage reduction applies only when the corresponding location of the body is struck. The damage reduction applies only to physical damage, and the amount of reduced damage was increased from 2 to 3.
• Updated shields, armors, and runes with damage reduction abilities so that they only reduce physical damage.
• Increased the inherent armor level on all unique (green text), promotional, crafted, and collector shields so that they behave the same way as other shields when the characters equipping them do not meet the necessary attribute requirement.
• Updated all Ascalon Bows so that they now include their bow type in the name.
• Raised the armor penetration bonus for the following promotional items: Bonecrusher, Bear's Sloth, Rhino's Sloth, and Rhino's Charge.
• Raised the conditional Energy bonus on the following promotional items: Quicksilver, Unicorn's Wrath, Peacock's Wrath, and Luminescent Scepter.
• Raised the conditional damage reduction on the following promotional items: Bronze Guardian, Hog's Gluttony, Spiders Gluttony, and Serrated Shield.
• Removed the increased attack rate and decreased damage attributes from the fire wand found at the collector outside of Nolani Academy.
• Reduced the chance to halve skill recharge time from 20% to 10% on Rockmolders dropped prior to the item being corrected.
• Fixed bugs and made improvements to the following quests: The True King, A Monk's Mission, and A Second Profession.
• Improved support for hardware acceleration on some low-end audio cards.
• Fixed a bug that caused a number of skill sounds to play incorrectly as non-positional sounds.
• Improved the pathing in the Sunjiang District explorable area and the Imperial Sanctum outpost.

SKILL UPDATES

All

• Lowered the cap for Healing reduction to 40%. *
• Lowered the cap for Recharge Reduction to 50%. *
• You can no longer be knocked down immediately after you respawn from a resurrection shrine.

* Note: Like all reduction caps, these only affect the cap from multiple sources. Any single skill that exceeds this cap will still work. Thus, skills such as Lingering Curse or Ritual Lord still gain their full effect.

Assassin

• Expunge Enchantments: no longer disables pet attack skills.
• Moebius Strike: now recharges pet attack skills if it hits a foe below 50% health.
• Return: reduced recharge time to 15 seconds.
• Shadow Form: increased Energy cost to 10.
• Shadow Shroud: no longer prevents the casting of untargeted enchantments.
• Signet of Malice: reduced cast time to .75 seconds.
• Siphon Speed: increased duration to 5..20 seconds.

Elementalist

• Bed of Coals: now deals damage only to non-moving foes.
• Burning Speed: reduced cast time to .25 seconds.
• Elemental Attunement: this skill is now attributed to Energy Storage; increased duration to 30..55 seconds.
• Immolate: increased damage to 15..60.
• Mark of Rodgort: increased duration to 10..35 seconds.
• Mind Burn: reduced recharge time to 10 seconds.
• Smoldering Embers: increased damage to 15..60.
• Ward skills no longer affect spirits.

Mesmer

• Blackout: reduced blackout time to 2..6 seconds.
• Conjure Nightmare: removed the long pause after this spell was cast.
• Illusionary Weaponry: reduced recharge time to 35 seconds.
• Recurring Insecurity: reduced the duration to 1..10 seconds.
• Signet of Disenchantment: reduced cast time to 1 second.

Monk

• Air of Enchantment: added a minimum 1 Energy cost; increased recharge time to 8 seconds.
• Divine Spirit: now reduces energy cost for Monk spells, not all Monk skills.
• Infuse Health: fixed a bug that occasionally caused it to execute without healing the target.
• Life Sheath: now renews damage reduction when it is cast on a target that already has Life Sheath on it.
• Signet of Rejuvenation: reduced recharge time to 8 seconds; increased the conditional heal to 15..75 Health.
• Spell Shield: no longer disables skills more than once when renewed.

Necromancer

• Bitter Chill: increased damage to 15..60.
• Chilblains: now removes 1..2 Enchantments.
• Enfeebling Blood: increased the area-of-effect to "nearby".
• Feast of Corruption: increased Energy cost to 15.
• Fetid Ground: reduced cast time to .75 seconds.

Ranger

• Archer's Signet: no longer disables pet attack skills.
• Broad Head Arrow: reduced recharge time to 15 seconds.
• Determined Shot: now recharges pet attack skills if it misses.
• Equinox: reduced recharge time to 45 seconds.
• Famine: reduced recharge time to 45 seconds.
• Focused Shot: now disables pet attack skills when used.
• Greater Conflagration: reduced recharge time to 45 seconds.
• Lacerate: reduced recharge time to 45 seconds.
• Marauder's Shot: no longer disables pet attack skills.
• Oath Shot: increased recharge time to 25 seconds.

Ritualist

• Displacement: Changed the skill's description to match its behavior.
• Draw Spirit: reduced cast time to .25 seconds.
• Lamentation: increased the target's needed proximity to a corpse or Spirit to "in the area".
• Wielder's Boon: increased conditional heal to 15..60 Health.

Warrior

• Quivering Blade: increased Daze duration to 8 seconds.
• Standing Slash: reduced adrenaline cost to 6.
• "Victory is Mine!": no longer displays "-0" on targets with no conditions.

Amended Update Notes for July 13, 2006 (added July 21)

• Updated Ranger pets to acquire Death Penalty when they die. This currently applies on PvP maps only.
• Updated the wording of Shouts to use the phrase "within earshot". This is not a change to how the skills work. It is only meant as a clarification of how large their range is. The size keywords for area-of-effect skills are now:
  • Adjacent: Melee attack range.
  • Nearby: One and a half times Adjacent range.
  • In the Area: Two times Adjacent range.
  • Within Earshot: Three times Adjacent range.

GuildWiki notes

• The material storage upgrade costs 50g for each character.

• The quest reward bow from Blankets for the Settlers has also been updated to reduce only physical damage.

• Newly created characters no longer receive pre-order items automatically. To retrieve them, you can still use "/preorder" or "/bonusitems" in an outpost.

• Weapon upgrades and Runes now indicate which kind of weapon/armor they attach to. For example, a dagger tang will have the text "Attaches to: Dagger".

• If you had in your inventory a collector's Crimson Carapace Shield 16AL req 9 tactics 45hp, -2 dmg while in stance, its stats has been changed to +60hp, -3 dmg while hexed, req 9 strength. This only happens if you got your shield from the Shiverpeaks, Crimson Carapace Shields from the collector in the Scar are unchanged.

• Players who have already traveled to the main land in Cantha can no longer run players from Linnok Courtyard through Saoshang Trail to Seitung Harbor.

• Introduced a bug that prevents Luxon players from entering Saltspray Beach (Luxon).

Update - Friday, July 7th 2006

• Updated the Hall of Heroes so that 3 teams compete instead of 5, games take place every 6 minutes instead of every 12 minutes, and the winning team is awarded 2 Celestial Sigils instead of 3.
• Changed the requirements to earn a Champion title. Fewer points are needed and players now receive a point for defeating any guild with a rating of 1200 or more. Points are earned only when the guild ladder season is open.
• Fixed a bug that prevented some players from leaving the Dragon Arena.

GuildWiki notes

• Observer Mode will now show the Hall of Heroes matches regardless of whether a top 100 ranked guild is playing in that match.
• Live henchmen are now relocated at resurrection shrines with players when the party respawns.

Update - Wednesday, July 5th 2006

Attention fellow citizens of Cantha,

On behalf of Emperor Kisu, I extend warm thanks to all those who fought for the empire during the past few days. Though the Dragon Festival is a time of celebration for us, this year's holiday was marred by violence spurred on by demonic outsiders. It was only through the efforts of those willing to lay their lives down for the empire that the portals that spawned these vile beasts were torn asunder.

Let these past events serve as a reminder: no matter what adversities threaten to dismantle the Dragon Empire, we shall endure.

This marks the end of this year's Dragon Festival. Go in peace and prosperity. Long live the emperor!

- Captain Leifei

Other Updates:

• Added the Imperial Supply Master to Shing Jea Monastery.
• Updated merchants on Shing Jea Island and in Kaineng Center so that they sell Rice Wine and Red Bean Cakes.

GuildWiki notes

• All merchants in Kaineng City (instead of just Kaineng Center) have been updated to sell the wine and the cakes.

Update - Friday, June 30 2006

• Fixed a bug that prevented Festival Tickets from being sold to merchants.
• Fixed a bug that allowed Enduring Toxin to be reapplied at an exceptional rate.

Update - Thursday, June 29 2006

The Dragon Festival has begun! Characters who wish to receive their Dragon Helm must collect 250 Jade Wind Orbs, which can be earned by undertaking quests, competing in the Dragon Arena, or taking part in the festival games. Emperor Kisu will honor us by appearing at the Shing Jea Monastery every 2 hours on the final day of the festival to reward those who have gathered 250 orbs. If you cannot attend the final day of the festival, take heart! The emperor has stationed an Imperial Supplymaster at the monastery, who will stay for a few days after the festival’s end to give Dragon Helms to those who have gathered their 250 orbs.

OTHER UPDATES

• Improved the channeling abilities of the boss Quansong Spiritspeak.
• Fixed a bug introduced in yesterday's update that prevented Skill and Item Unlock dialogs from appearing.
• Fixed bugs that prevented the bosses Ilidus of the Empty Palm and Milodestus the Wrangler from appearing.

GuildWiki notes

See Dragon Festival 2006 for additional information on the event, including quests and mini-games.

Update - Wednesday, June 28 2006

Attention fellow citizens of Cantha,

On behalf of Emperor Kisu, it is my pleasure to announce this year's Dragon Festival, a five-day celebration of games, dance, drink, and revelry, where we commemorate the dawning of the Age of the Dragon and all those who helped to rebuild our great lands after the Jade Wind. Throughout the duration of the festival, citizens of our great empire convene at Shing Jea Monastery to socialize with others, partake in carnival activities, and amass collections of Jade Wind Orbs to be redeemed for special prizes. Fans of sport can flex their muscles in the Dragon Arena, where battle prowess and longevity are recognized and rewarded.

There will be no shortage of engaging entertainment, so we hope you make the journey to our lush island and join us in revelry.

OTHER UPDATES

• Added two new quests for characters created in Cantha: Minister's Test and Capturing the Orrian Tome.
• Increased the minimum level restriction for alliance battles to 20.
• Modified Gatekeepers and Master Architect Gunther so that they no longer leave their posts in the Fort Aspenwood competitive mission.
• Made improvements to the following quest: Refuse to Drink.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused monsters to appear without any Health.
• Fixed a bug that prevented cinematics from playing if one player in the party failed to load.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused guild thieves to die immediately after resurrecting at their base.
• Fixed a bug that allowed the Retreat skill to activate in response to dead Spirits.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented mission goals from appearing properly.

GuildWiki notes

• Shing Jea Monastery and Kaineng Center have been decorated for the upcoming event.
• The oft-farmed chests in the Eternal Grove mission appear to have been removed.
• Quests Crush the Luxons!, Destroy the Kurzicks!, Can't We Get Along? (Luxon) and Can't We Get Along? (Kurzick) have been removed from Quest Log.
• Monsters in Cantha started dropping Jade Wind Orbs.

Update - Saturday, June 17 2006

• Fixed a bug that occasionally prevented the victory chest in the Hall of Heroes from dropping items.

Update - Friday, June 16 2006

• Added Priests of Balthazar to all Alliance Battle outposts.
• Added 4 new maps to the Random Arena and the Team Arena.
• Fixed a bug that caused the caravan to stop moving in Gyala Hatchery.
• Fixed bugs and made improvements to the following quest: The Shadow Blades.
• Fixed the descriptions of several Ranger skills, which were displaying incorrect values after the last update.
• Fixed a bug that caused henchmen to drop gold when they died.
• Fixed a bug that caused monsters to drop loot even if your party had no part in killing them.
• Fixed a bug in PvP that caused dead players to receive morale boosts for the deaths of opposing team members.

GuildWiki notes

• After this update, some players saw the following line repeatedly in their chat window: "Reattempting connection to the server (Code 50)." The game client refused to load new areas most of the time when map-travelling or walking through area portals. This problem seems to have been transient and/or has been resolved.
• After this update, it seems you can no longer farm for rewards for The Captured Son quest.

Update - Thursday, June 15th 2006

• Added the winning items from a recent community contest to the game. (See The Scribe for more information.)
• Added faction bonuses for individual kills in alliance battles and competitive missions. Each kill awards the team's members with 1 Luxon or Kurzick faction point and 3 Balthazar faction points.
• Improved faction bonuses awarded at the end of an alliance battle. Both the winning and losing teams' members earn 2 Luxon or Kurzick faction points for each point scored during battle. The winning team's members receive an additional 250 Luxon or Kurzick faction points.
• Improved faction bonuses awarded at the end of the Jade Quarry competitive mission. For each jade slab brought to a team's base, the team's members receive 40 Luxon or Kurzick faction points. The winning team's members receive an additional 250 Luxon or Kurzick faction points.
• Improved faction bonuses awarded at the end of the Fort Aspenwood competitive mission. For each gate that was knocked down at least once, the Luxon team's members receive 80 Luxon faction points. For each percentage point of progress toward Gods' Vengeance, the Kurzick team's members receive 4 Kurzick faction points. The winning team's members receive an additional 250 Luxon or Kurzick faction points.
• Added a confirmation dialog when attempting to sell an equipped or hot-keyed inventory item.
• Corrected the levels of several NPCs in The Divine Path.
• Updated the location of the dye trader in Kaineng Center.

Item Upgrades

Updates over the past several months have improved a number of weapons and armors; these updates applied only to newly generated items, not to items already in player inventories. This update applies past improvements to the following inventory items:

• Victo's Battle Axe
• Drago's Flatbow
• Stoneherder's Flatbow,
• Tarnok's Recurve Bow
• The Bludgeoner
• Flint's Wand
• Korvald's Cane
• Ivor's Smiting Rod
• Brimstone Wand
• Gordac's Needle
• Bortak's Bone Claw
• Ritualist Shaman's Obsidian Armor
• Elementalist Aeromancer's Armor
• Elementalist Geomancer's Armor
• Elementalist Hydromancer's Armor
• Elementalist Pyromancer's Armor
• Warrior Knight's Armor
• Warrior Ascalon Armor
• Warrior Dragon Armor
• Warrior Platemail Armor
• Monk Censor's Armor
• Monk Judge's Armor
• Monk Wanderer's Armor
• Monk Sacred Armor
• Monk Saintly Armor
• Mesmer Rogue's Armor

GuildWiki notes

Bugs

• Several Nature Rituals were affected by a bug that swapped the level of the spirit and its associated effect. For example, Edge of Extinction at 9 Beast Mastery claimed to make a level 36 spirit that does 6 damage, when it should say a level 6 spirit that deals 36 damage. This was only a display bug; the spirit was still the appropriate level when summoned.
• This update introduced a bug in the drop system. Creatures killed near the party but not by party members (i.e. mobs fighting each other) would drop loot for the party. Henchmen who died after gold started dropping for the party would also drop gold when they died.
• The chest for the winning team in the Hall of Heroes will not drop items most of the time. About 1 in 5 chests will actually drop the items.
• Creatures no longer gain experience for killing you as they used to.

New Unique Items

• Rotscale in Majesty's Rest now drops the Rotwing Recurve Bow.
• Root Behemoths in The Falls now drop Totem Axes.
• Wind Riders in The Falls now drop Forgotten Fans.
• Newly added Mighty Grawls and Barbed Grawls in Talus Chute now drop the Ice Breaker and Frozen Fans.
• Jade Brotherhood in Wajjun Bazaar now drop Tattered Fans.
• Oni in Rhea's Crater now drop Ungues of the Oni.

Bestiary Updates

• Rotscale was updated to a powerful Necromancer.
• New foes have been added around Rotscale, they include:
  • Rotting Dragons
  • Wraiths
• The Bone Dragon Ranger boss in Sanctum Cay was renamed from Rotscale to Bone Dragon.
• Mighty Grawl and Barbed Grawl now occupy the northern area of Talus Chute along with the Grawl and Grawl Crones.

Item Changes

• Armor Penetration 10%(Chance: 10%) ⇒ Armor Penetration 20%(Chance: 20%)
• Energy +3 (condition) ⇒ Energy +5 (condition)

Update – Friday, June 9th, 2006

• Improved the way henchmen choose to use resurrection skills.
• Fixed bugs and made improvements to the following quests: Cash Crops, A New Escort, Death with Honor, The Egg Hunter, The Drunken Master, In the Army Now [Kurzick], and In the Army Now [Luxon].
• Fixed the merchants and Avatar of Grenth in Pongmei Valley so that they respond to players.
• Allowed foreign visitors in Shing Jea Monastery to enter the Shing Jea Arena Outpost.
• Added visible resurrection countdown timers to the Jade Quarry and Fort Aspenwood competitive missions. The Unyielding Aura and Vengeance skills now work properly in these missions.
• Fixed a bug with resurrection timers in alliance battles.
• Fixed a crash bug related to the use of several miniature creatures.
• Fixed a bug that caused Vizunah Square to appear as though it had been completed with a Master's Reward when, in fact, it had only been completed with a Standard or Expert's Reward. This caused some players to believe incorrectly that they had completed the Protector of Cantha title.
• Fixed a bug that prevented some players from correctly unlocking the Random Arena outpost.
• Fixed an exploit related to the use of seeds in the Druid's Isle guild battle map.

GuildWiki notes

• Spirits, Henchmen, Pets, Minions, the Ghostly Hero and other PvP NPCs now have auras once again. The auras had been missing for several weeks.
• Henchmen in PvE will now use their Resurrection Signets in mid-battle to resurrect fallen team members. Prior to this update, henchmen with signets (not reusable resurrection skills) did not resurrect fallen party members unless the healers/monks were down.
• The ghosts of the legendary Canthan heroes in Tahnnakai Temple (explorable) now match the sex of the lore on their stone pedestals.

Update – Friday, June 2, 2006

• Opened alliance chat to all members of the alliance, not just guild officers.
• Fixed a bug that prevented players from sending alliance chat messages while observing a game.
• Fixed a bug that prevented ignored players from being ignored in guild and alliance chat.

Update – Thursday, June 1, 2006

• Decreased the Health penalty on attribute-boosting major runes from 50 to 35. Existing runes are unaffected.
• Improved chat in alliance battles so that players can see party messages from all members of their team.
• Updated the Zin Ku Corridor outpost so that it shows who currently has the Favor of the Gods.
• Added a Xunlai Agent to Zos Shivros Channel.
• Moved the Xunlai Agent in Jade Quarry [Luxon] to a more accessible location.
• Removed the Thief from the Imperial Isle guild battle.
• Updated the inventory of the weaponsmith in Maatu Keep.
• Updated art on the following creatures: Naga Wizard, Naga Raincaller, Naga Spellblade, Naga Witch, Naga Bone Collector, and Naga Sibyl.
• Fixed bugs and made improvements to the following quests: Stolen Eggs, Protect the Halcyon, Outcasts in the Quarry, Luxon Supply Lines, Song and Stone, Lambs to the Slaughter, Defend Denravi, Noble Intentions, and Hammer and Anvil.
• Fixed bugs in the following missions and explorable areas: Silent Surf and Riverside Province.
• Fixed a bug that occasionally caused quest markers and arrows to update incorrectly.
• Fixed some incorrect cinematic voiceovers.
• Fixed a bug that allowed players to drop items inadvertently while cinematics were playing.
• Fixed a bug that caused some players to disconnect with error 019.
• Added weapons to the Shiro and Jade Armor miniatures.

SKILL BALANCE CHANGES

All

• Shadow stepping no longer moves you farther than the radius of the radar.
• Soul Reaping now only gives half Energy from Spirits.
• Updated the Victory of Death [sic] path for all NPCs on all guild halls so that the NPCs now spread out at the flag stand.
• Adjusted the flag spawn locations on all guild halls to be equal distance from the flag stand.

Assassin

• Way of the Empty Palm: reduced cast time to .25 seconds; reduced recharge time to 25 seconds.
• Locust's Fury: reduced cast time to 1 second.
• Siphon Strength: increased the damage reduction your target deals to 5..50.
• Palm Strike: reduced recharge time to 10 seconds; increased damage to 10..85.
• Enduring Toxin: reduced cast time to .25 seconds; increased health degeneration to 1..5.
• Crippling Dagger: reduced recharge time to 5 seconds.
• Heart of Shadow: increased healing amount to 10..115 Health.
• Mirrored Stance: reduced recharge time to 15 seconds.
• Unseen Fury: increased duration to 15..60 seconds.
• Golden Phoenix Strike: increased Energy cost to 10.
• Aura of Displacement: increased recharge time to 20 seconds.

Mesmer

• Stolen Speed: reduced casting time to 1 second; reduced recharge time to 3 seconds; corrected the wording on this skill.
• Arcane Languor: increased duration to 1..8 seconds.

Elementalist

• Glyph of Sacrifice: reduced the amount of time it recharges your next spell to 30 seconds.
• Ward against Harm: changed skill type to Ward Spell.

Monk

• Vigorous Spirit: increased heal per skill or attack to 5..20.
• Dwayna's Kiss: increased conditional heal to 10..35 Health.

Warrior

• Furious Axe: increased adrenaline gained when blocked to 3.
• Auspicious Parry: increased recharge time to 2 seconds; decreased adrenaline gained to 1..4.
• Signet of Strength: the number of attacks now update when reapplying this skill.

Ranger

• Archer Signet: the number of attacks now update when reapplying this skill.

Ritualist

• Doom: reduced recharge time to 8 seconds.
• Channeled Strike: reduced recharge time to 8 seconds.
• Essence Strike: increased the amount of Energy gained when in range of a Spirit to 1..8.
• Lamentation: reduced Energy cost to 5.
• Gaze from Beyond: fixed a bug that caused this skill to ignore armor.
• Ancestors' Rage: reduced casting time to .75 seconds.
• Splinter Weapon: reduced Energy cost to 5.
• Resilient Weapon: reduced casting time to 1 second.
• Vengeful Weapon: increased the amount of Health stolen when this skill is triggered to 15..60 Health.
• Soul Twisting: increased the recharge time to 15 seconds.

GuildWiki notes

• Rune Traders are reluctant to purchase the old style of major runes with -50 health penalty. You can still sell them to the Merchants.
• Animate Flesh Golem had a hidden update, changing the manner in which the 1 Flesh Golem limit is checked - you can no longer exceed the limit by using Verata's Aura or Verata's Gaze.

• Faction points gained now show up as a number above characters heads (like experience points), Luxon Faction in red, Kurzick Faction in blue.
• The names of Mission NPCs and Quest NPCs who speak are now in a darker blue shade than those who speak in team chat.

Update – Monday, May 29, 2006

• Fixed an exploit that was allowing parties to enter guild battles with more than 8 players.
• Fixed a bug that was causing Ghostly Heroes in the Unholy Temples to refuse relics.

Update – Friday, May 26, 2006

• Opened missions that were previously closed to characters created in another campaign. Characters may now play these missions, but they do not earn skill point rewards for successful mission completion.
• Fixed a bug that prevented ectoplasm and obsidian shards from dropping in the Fissure of Woe and Underworld missions.
• Fixed bugs and made improvements to the following quests: Closer to the Stars, To Tahnnakai Temple, Return of the Yeti, Missing Daughter, Drink from the Chalice of Corruption, Refuse to Drink, An Unwelcome Guest, and The Beak of Darkness.
• Changed the type of chests that appear in Raisu Palace.
• Updated audio for Korean Factions cinematics.

GuildWiki notes

• Changed the graphics on the minimize, maximize, and exit buttons.
• Chat now disallows a large number of non-alphanumeric symbols.
• The chests in Raisu Palace (explorable) are now Forbidden Chests, not Canthan Chests.
• When starting one of the two missions on Shing Jea Island, the party leader will be given a warning that the party contains non-Factions characters. All members of the party will not be awarded skill points if the party includes non-Factions characters.
• Similarly, when starting any mission prior to Lion's Arch, the party leader will be given a warning that the party contains Factions characters. All members of the party will not be awarded skill points if there are any Factions characters in the party.

Update – Tuesday, May 23, 2006

• Fixed a bug that caused certain towns and outposts to experience heavy lag.
• Fixed a bug that prevented some players who did not have access to the Prophecies campaign from entering Fissure of Woe and The Underworld.
• Fixed a crash bug in The Deep.
• Fixed bugs and made improvements to the following quests: A Meeting With the Emperor, To Tahnnakai Temple, Luxon Supply Lines, and The Shadow Blades.
• Changed the compositions of enemy groups in the Duel of the Houses quest.
• Updated the merchants in Raisu Palace and Imperial Sanctum so that they now sell Forbidden Keys instead of Canthan Keys.
• Updated the merchant in Zin Ku Corridor so that he now sells Phantom Keys and Obsidian Keys.
• Added a name for the merchant in Tahnnakai Temple.
• Improved the spam filter.
• Updated Korean translations.

GuildWiki notes

• If WTB or WTS (not case sensitive) is typed in the Local Channel in the Chat window, the text is automatically put into the appropriate Trade Channel. These words can occur anywhere inside the message, but must be an isolated word (ignoring punctuation characters). The following are some illustrative examples:
  • "gold 20/20 pan galactic gargleblaster wts" (redirected)
  • "Awtsome interrupt!" (not redirected)
  • "W T B ecto" (not redirected)
  • "::WTS:: dragon minipet" (redirected)

Update – Friday, May 19, 2006

• Made it possible to stack two or more scrolls of the same type in a single inventory slot. (Scrolls created before today's update will not stack.)
• Made it possible to capture the elite skill Assassin's Promise.
• Fixed bugs and made improvements to the following quests: A Formal Introduction, To Tahnnakai Temple, Stolen Eggs, The Convocation, and Welcome to Cantha.
• Fixed a bug in The Deep that caused some players to crash when clicking on flowers.
• Adjusted the difficulty of the following repeatable quests: Luxon Supply Lines, The Jade Arena, and Duel of the Houses.
• Improved the skill set of Kurzick NPCs.
• Improved the skill set of Creeping Carp.
• Updated the Balthazar faction rewards in Shing Jea Arena to their appropriate values.
• Modified the Zaishen arenas so that win streaks no longer contribute to progress in earning the Gladiator title.

Guildwiki Notes

• The German translation has been improved. Now weapons upgrades read "d. Tapferkeit" instead of "Des Tapferkeit", for example.

Update – Wednesday, May 17, 2006

• Fixed exploits in the Zos Shivros Channel and Aurios Mines challenge missions. High scores for these missions will be reset on May 18.
• Fixed a bug that occasionally caused guild battle gates to remain closed even after "Victory or Death" had begun.
• Fixed a bug that caused more than one boss of the same type to appear in the Altrumm Ruins.
• Improved the monster distribution in Amatz Basin.
• Reduced the number of control points in the Aurios Mines from eleven to nine.
• Updated the appearance of the Isle of Jade guild hall.

Update – Wednesday, May 10, 2006

• Fixed a bug that was preventing some players from completing the Aurios Mines mission.

Update – Tuesday, May 9, 2006

• Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented the Arborstone mission from being completed.
• Fixed a bug in the Aurios Mines that caused the challenge to last longer than intended.
• Made various improvements and bugs fixes to the following quests: Quimang's Last Stand, To the Rescue, Zen Daijun, Duel of the Houses, and The Jade Arena.
• Improved the skill sets for several creatures in the Aurios Mines.

Update – Monday, May 8, 2006

• Added a special in-game thank you gift for players who purchased the Factions Collector's Edition. Type /bonusitems in an outpost or town to obtain the gift. Only one gift per account will be generated.
• Added several new bosses to the Jade Sea and Echovald Forest to supplement elite skill captures.
• Made various improvements and fixed bugs in the following quests: To the Rescue, Duel of the Houses, The Jade Arena, The Halcyon Job, To Tahnnakai Temple, and Urgoz's Warren.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented the Arborstone mission from being completed.
• Improved healer henchmen so that they use the Signet of Devotion skill more wisely.
• Improved the appearance of some ascended Assassin masks.
• Improved energy bonuses on the Shaman's Obsidian armor.
• Fixed a bug in the behavior of Senji the profession changer.

GuildWiki notes

• Despite the patch notes, Danika still fails in the Arborstone mission very often.
• The art for Tempered Glass Vials has been changed from a thin red bottle to a wider blue one.

Update – Thursday, May 4, 2006

• Added the ability to see which skills you have already unlocked when speaking to skill trainers.
• Added Necromancer Bloodstained Boots to armor crafters in Cantha and in the Fissure of Woe.
• Improved Energy bonuses on craftable versions of the Mesmer Rogue's Gloves and the Monk Judge's Handwraps.
• Improved the skill set used by Healer henchmen in Cantha.
• Improved the healing abilities of Spirit henchmen in Cantha.
• Improved pathing in various missions and explorable areas.
• Fixed a bug that was preventing armors from appearing in Cantha chests.
• Fixed a bug that removed mission unlocks for PvP missions for certain older accounts, and restored mission unlocks for those accounts.
• Fixed a bug that caused some players to see the same alliance guild more than once in the Guild window.
• Fixed a bug that caused the spell interruption sound effect to play too loudly.
• Fixed a bug that prevented monsters from dropping armors containing Assassin Runes of Critical Strikes and Ritualist Runes of Spawning Power.
• Fixed a bug that occasionally caused the Enduring Toxin skill to last indefinitely.
• Fixed the appearance of several boss monsters.
• Added spawning staves with Restoration bonuses to the inventories of various crafters throughout Cantha.
• Made various improvements and fixed bugs in the following quests: The Naga Source, Quimang's Last Stand, Skin the Snake, Cash Crops, Sparring Elements, The Agriculturist, Death With Honor, An Unwelcome Guest, Welcome to Cantha, Battle in the Sewers, Little Lost Bear, Problem Salving, Passing the Buck, Revolt of the Dredge, and Charting the Forests.
• Corrected the appearance and levels of the henchmen team in the Vizunah Square mission.
• Removed chests from the Eternal Grove mission to prevent an exploit.
• Removed the second elite skill from Warden Rangers.

Update – Tuesday, May 2, 2006

There has been no official notice for this update, the information is based solely on contributor observations.

GuildWiki notes

• Many of the NPCs' positions in Kaineng Center have changed.
• Gold, purple and green drops are now highlighted with the same color in the chat window.
• Alliances are working again.

Update - Thursday, April 27, 2006

Pahbahzhen, Brother Mhenlo,

Our worst fears have been realized. A plague is spreading across Cantha the likes of which I have never seen nor even imagined. Our healers have found no way to combat this affliction, and all our attempts to learn of previous outbreaks in the imperial archives or through consultation with the spirits of the dead have proven fruitless.

Truly, Mhenlo, I have never known a monk with a greater gift for healing, and though you are young, you have traveled far and wide. I would not ask this of you for myself, for I know full well that the last few years have shown you more than enough misery and strife, yet I do ask. I ask you to come and lend us your insight.

I ask in the name of all you love and remember about Cantha. The sweeping grandeur of Shing Jea Isle. The towering spectacle of Kaineng City. The breathtaking majesty of the Jade Sea. The dark beauty of the Echovald Forest. And, of course, all of us who have been proud to call you friend these many years. Return to us, Brother Mhenlo. We need you.

Master Togo
27 Suzhen, 1582

CANTHA AWAITS

The great continent of Cantha is now open to all accounts that have an active Guild Wars Factions key.

• New Canthan characters may now be created using any of the six core professions or the two unique Factions professions, the Assassin and Ritualist.
• Factions characters created for the Factions Preview Event may be used once again, though they have had their items, skills and levels reset.
• Factions skills may be used in PvP once again and may be unlocked on the Priest of Balthazar.

On accounts with both Guild Wars Factions and Guild Wars Prophecies, players may take characters back and forth between the continents of Cantha and Tyria. The first journey to a new continent must be done through a quest. After that, characters may travel quickly and easily using the Ship Travel icon on the world map.

• Factions characters wishing to travel to Tyria for the first time should seek out Guardsman Chienpo in Kaineng Center and take the "Chaos in Kryta" quest.
• Prophecies characters may travel to Cantha using the quest "Mhenlo's Request," which is offered by Firstwatch Sergio in Lion's Arch.

UPDATES

• The Day of the Tengu event has come to a close.
• Fixed a bug that prevented guild scrimmages while a guild battle or another guild scrimmage was underway. There is no limit to the number of guild scrimmages a guild may conduct at one time. Guild scrimmages do not prevent a guild from participating in a guild battle.
• Ensured that all monster-dropped uncommon and rare armor pieces have the appropriate runes.
• Introduced a new command: /resign. This command allows a team to forfeit a mission as a group. All party members must type "/resign" for it to take effect.

GuildWiki notes

• There was a significant problem with the Alliance and faction system, therefore that feature was disabled until a solution was found. It has since been fixed.

Update - Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Pahbahzhen, Brother Mhenlo,

Today marks five years since you completed your studies with us and returned to your homeland in the distant northern kingdoms. You were one of the last Tyrian students I trained. Therefore I want you to be among the first Tyrians to learn that, although Shing Jea Monastery remains closed to foreign students, our noble emperor has reopened the port at Kaineng Center to ships of every nation. Trade and travel between Tyria and Cantha are once more returning to something resembling normalcy. And it is with even greater hope that I look upon this year's crop of new students at our humble monastery. It has been some time since I have seen such a promising group of young Canthans so eager to take up the mantle of the hero.

At long last, we have forged what I believe is a permanent peace between the Tengu and the humans of Cantha. The last of the Tengu Wars, which you saw for yourself when you trained here, has been over for almost a year now. Emperor Kisu has declared a day of celebration marking the one-year anniversary of the peace treaty, and I would invite you to join us if you are able (though I certainly understand if you are not, with the troubles Tyria has recently faced).

And yet, I am troubled. In my many years, I have learned to trust my instincts, and my instincts tell me that despite peace breaking out from Shing Jea Island to the Canthan mainland, my homeland stands on the verge of dark times. There is talk of a strange disease that strikes the remote settlements, and the piratical cultists of the Crimson Skull grow bolder by the day. The two warring vassal factions—the Kurzicks and Luxons—have been brought to the negotiating table through Emperor Kisu’s efforts, but I cannot help but feel that the two sides are not sincere. The emperor is hopeful, and I serve his wishes, but each faction seems to see only the immediate threat posed by their lifelong enemies. My instincts tell me that their conflict, if it continues, only serves to aid this dark force I cannot yet name.

Be watchful, my young friend. Though you call Tyria your home, Cantha may soon need your help.

Master Togo
23 Suzhen, 1582

Welcome to Cantha

Travel to and from Cantha

In order to travel to Cantha for the first time, a Prophecies character must take the "Mhenlo's Request" quest from Firstwatch Sergio in Lion's Arch. Following the quest steps will unlock ship travel to Cantha for that character. Your account must have an active Guild Wars Factions key or Guild Wars Factions Preorder key in order to travel to Cantha.

Similarly, in order to travel to Tyria for the first time, a Factions character must take the "Chaos in Kryta" quest from Guardsman Chienpo in Kaineng Center. Following the quest steps will unlock ship travel to Tyria for that character. Your account must have an active Guild Wars Prophecies key in order to travel to Tyria.

As always, PvP-Only Characters cannot leave the Battle Isles.

Day of the Tengu

Players using the Guild Wars Factions Preorder key for early access may travel to Shing Jea Monastery and talk to the Master of Celebration to take part in a special event called the Day of the Tengu. Native Canthan characters will find their way to the monastery very quickly. Characters coming from Tyria will need to take the following steps:

• Travel to Cantha as described above.
• Travel south through the Marketplace to Kaineng Docks.
• Speak to Firstmate Xiang, who will transport you to Seitung Harbor.
• Travel west through Saoshang Trail and Linnok Courtyard to reach Shing Jea Monastery.

Features

Alliances

Alliances will not be available until the official launch of Guild Wars Factions on April 28.

Titles

Players will now be able to earn titles, which can be shown to other players. Use the Titles tab in the Hero panel to select a title for display. Only titles toward which you have made any progress will appear in the list.

Titles apply to a single character or a whole account, as appropriate. A player can display only one title at a time but may earn any number of titles. Many titles have multiple levels, with each new level indicating an increasingly difficult level of achievement.

Sample Titles:

• Canthan Explorer. You must explore 60% of Cantha to earn the first level of this title. (Character based.)
• Skill Hunter. You must capture 90 Elite skills to earn the first level of this title. (Character based.)
• Gladiator. You must have 25 win-streaks of 10 consecutive wins in the Random Arenas maps to earn the first level of this title. (Account based.)
• Champion. You must win 50 high-rated GvG battles to earn the first level of this title. (Account based.)

Guild Services

A Guild Lord NPC now appears in guild halls outside of combat. Guild members may talk to this NPC to hire service NPCs for the guild.

Guild Scrimmages

Guilds now have the ability to fight scrimmage battles. Scrimmage battles occur between two groups in the same guild hall and do not count toward ladder standing. To initiate a scrimmage, a group of one or more players must initiate a guild battle and choose "initiate a scrimmage match." Any other group of one or more players in that guild hall may then choose to join the scrimmage battle, which will initiate after a short countdown.

User Interface

The general appearance of the user interface has been updated to mark the arrival of Guild Wars Factions. In addition, several new features have been added:

• While zoomed-in, the world map now shows the names of all explorable areas your character has visited previously.
• In addition to showing the map name, the large text that appears when you first enter a new map now features a second line indicating the type of the map and, if applicable, which alliance owns the map.
• The Party window indicates if a member is out of compass range by dimming that character's name.
• Health bars in the Party window and Target Display can now indicate when a character is under the effects of a Weapon Spell.
• The icon that appears in the Party window when a party member calls a target now shows the hotkey to select the called target. (As always, hold down CTRL when attacking or using skills to call your target.)
• New customizable targeting hotkeys have been added for Target Next Party Member, Target Previous Party Member, Target Party Members 9 –12. In smaller parties, these hotkeys will target NPCs in the Allies section of the Party Window.
• Clicking on an enemy while holding a bundle item now causes you to follow that character instead of causing an error message.
• Henchmen now sometimes chat during a mission. In outposts, players can talk to henchmen by double-clicking on them.

Skill Changes

The arrival of Assassins and Ritualists has caused many core professions to re-evaluate their skills. (Please note that the number ranges below, such as 3..8, are for attribute 0 to attribute 15.)

General

• Signet of Capture: now gives 250 XP for each level you have when used to capture an Elite skill.
• Without Death Magic, you can control no more than two undead servants. For every two ranks of Death Magic, you can control one additional undead servant.
• The number of undead servants you control is now displayed.
• Attempting to use a healing skill or to cast a Hex or Enchantment spell on a Spirit now causes a warning message to display.

Mesmer

• Energy Surge: decreased Energy lost to 3..8; increased damage per Energy to 10.
• Energy Burn: decreased Energy lost to 3..8; increased damage per Energy to 10.
• Energy Tap: fixed bugs causing the inaccurate display of the amount of Energy drained.
• Epidemic: decreased recharge time to 5 seconds.
• Illusion of Haste: fixed a bug that prevented this spell from inflicting the Crippled Condition if it ended prematurely.
• Mantra of Earth, Mantra of Flame, Mantra of Frost, Mantra of Lightning: increased Energy gained per hit to 2.
• Mantra of Recovery: decreased recharge time to 20 seconds.
• Power Spike: decreased recharge time to 12 seconds.
• Signet of Weariness: decreased Energy lost to 3..8.

Necromancer

• Barbs: decreased recharge time to 20 seconds.
• Mark of Pain: decreased recharge time to 20 seconds.
• Weaken Armor: decreased recharge time to 20 seconds.
• Unholy Feast: decreased cast time to .75 seconds.
• Wither: increased Health degeneration to 2..4.
• Verata's Sacrifice: decreased Enchantment duration to 5..10 seconds; increased recharge time to 60 seconds; skill now instantly recharges if you have 3 or fewer undead servants; this skill now only affects undead servants you control.
• Blood of the Master: decreased Energy cost to 5; decreased recharge time to 2 seconds; decreased sacrifice to 5%; this skill now sacs 2% more Health per creature healed.
• Animate Bone Minions: decreased Energy cost to 15..
• Death Nova: this skill no longer damages the caster and the caster's allies when an uncontrolled creature with Death Nova dies.

Elementalist

• Aura of Restoration: decreased recharge time to 5 seconds.
• Fire Attunement: decreased recharge time to 45 seconds.
• Water Attunement: decreased recharge time to 45 seconds.
• Air Attunement: decreased recharge time to 45 seconds.
• Earth Attunement: decreased recharge time to 45 seconds.
• Elemental Attunement: decreased recharge time to 45 seconds.
• Flare: increased damage to 20..55.
• Ice Spear: increased damage to 10..70.
• Water Trident: increased damage to 10..70.
• Stone Daggers: increased damage to 8..28.
• Maelstrom: decreased cast time to 2 seconds.
• Mark of Rodgort: fixed a bug that limited the Burning duration to 3 seconds regardless of your Fire Magic attribute.
• Wards: no longer affect Spirits.

Monk

• Signet of Judgment: decreased recharge time to 25 seconds.
• Peace and Harmony: decreased recharge time to 25 seconds.
• Contemplation of Purity: increased recharge time to 10 seconds.
• Unyielding Aura: now kills Enchanted characters if the caster maintaining this Enchantment dies.
• Draw Conditions: fixed a bug that caused this spell to reset the durations of all the transferred Conditions.

Warrior

• Mighty Blow: increased damage to 6..35.
• Staggering Blow: increased Weakness duration to 5..20 seconds.
• Axe Twist: decreased adrenaline cost to 7.
• Skull Crack: increased attack speed to .5 seconds; decreased Dazed duration to 10 seconds
• Savage Slash: increased Energy cost to 10; increased recharge time to 20; decreased attack speed to .5
• Flourish: this skill now recharges Pet Attack skills.

Ranger

• Call of Protection: decreased recharge time to 90 seconds.
• Dual Shot: increased recharge time to 7 seconds.
• Comfort Animal: no longer disables your skills if used to resurrect your pet.
• Edge of Extinction: this Spirit no longer damages creatures that are outside of its effect.
• Antidote Signet: Fixed a bug causing this Signet to remove Conditions other than Blind, Disease, and Poison.

PvP NPC Changes

New Guild Battle NPCs have been recruited from Cantha for the remainder of the Guild Wars Factions Championship.

Guild Lord Upgrades

• Weapons were upgraded to match standard PvP weapon damage.
• The Guild Lord now deals a bonus damage against other NPCs (including the enemy Guild Lord and Thief).
• Improved the Guild Lord's attribute assignment and equipped him with the following skills: Cyclone Axe, Cleave, Warrior's Cunning, and Power Shot.

Ghostly Hero

• All Ghostly Heroes, including those on the capture-the-relic maps, are now level 28.
• The Ghostly Hero's axe and bow have been upgraded to match his level.
• Improved the Ghostly Hero's attribute assignment and equipped him with the following skills: Cyclone Axe, Disrupting Chop, Swift Chop, Distracting Shot, and Power Shot.

The Resurrection Priest now wields a Smiting staff instead of a hammer.

Armor Changes

New armor designs from Cantha have begun to influence armor crafters in Tyria. Existing armor sets will not be updated yet, but a means to upgrade existing level-20 armor for free will be provided in the near future.

Elementalist

• Aeromancer's armor: now provides +10 armor vs. elemental damage and +10 armor vs. lightning damage.
• Pyromancer's armor: now provides +10 armor vs. elemental damage and +10 armor vs. fire damage.
• Hydromancer's armor: now provides +10 armor vs. elemental damage and +10 armor vs. water damage.
• Geomancer's armor: now provides +10 armor vs. elemental damage and +10 armor vs. earth damage.

Mesmer

• Rogue's armor: no longer provides less Energy than standard armor.

Monk

• Judge's armor: no longer provides less Energy than standard armor.
• Wanderer's armor: now provides +10 armor vs. elemental damage.

Warrior

• Knight's armor: now provides +20 armor vs. physical damage (instead of +10).
• Knight's helm: fixed so that it now provides +1 to Strength.
• Dragon armor: now provides 90 base armor +10 armor vs. physical damage.
• Platemail armor: same as Dragon.

Obsidian Armor

• The word "obsidian" has been added to armor names, in accordance with the naming convention introduced in Guild Wars Factions. For example, the Monk leggings that provide additional armor against physical damage are now called "Judge's Obsidian Pants" instead of "Judge's Pants." (This change does not affect armor crafted prior to this update.)
• Now includes new armor sets using the same statistics as armor only available in Cantha.
• No longer includes multiple armor sets with the exact same appearance and attributes.

Weapons, Shields, and Focus Items

• Significantly improved the quality of rare (gold) and uncommon (purple) items.
• Restricted Vampiric and Zealous weapon components to occur only on rare weapons.
• Upgraded Sundering weapon components to provide a maximum Armor Penetration of +20% (Chance: 20%).
• Added weapons with +5 Energy to PvP-Only character creation.
• Added weapons with +15% damage and -5 Energy to PvP-Only character creation.
• Added weapons with +15% damage and -10 armor while attacking weapons to PvP-Only character creation.
• Added new Focus items to PvP-Only character creation.
• Improved bonuses on wands in the PvP-Only character creation screen to better match what is dropped by monsters.

Runes

• Increased probability of finding Superior Vigor and Superior Absorption runes.
• Changed new rare (gold) armor to only provide superior (gold) runes.
• Changed new uncommon (purple) armor to only provide major (purple) runes.
• As always, you must use an expert or superior salvage kit to extract a rune from armor. These changes will not affect loot that dropped prior to this update.

GuildWiki notes

In addition to the changes mentioned above, this update introduced the following:

• Changed the End User License Agreement (EULA) again to include more information regarding Guild Wars Factions and required all users to accept the EULA in order to continue playing.
• Miniatures were introduced as surprises for characters of the age of one year.

Update - Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Fellow citizens of Tyria,

Due to growing violence between the Kurzick and Luxon refugees we have so graciously allowed to live in Kryta, we have been forced to take drastic measures to ensure your safety. We have purchased passage on separate ships to return the survivors from both groups to their homelands in Cantha until such time as they can learn to live in harmony. If they cannot do so there, they will not be given the opportunity to spread their strife here.

There will be two exceptions: Meika Ulrikar of the Kurzicks and Dalos Ekarus of the Luxons have requested that they be allowed to stay in Kryta and become citizens. After reviewing the situation, the Lionguard has granted this request—both shall be allowed to remain in Kryta as citizens of our land, being the only two (among many) who have found a way to stop fighting each other. Furthermore, they shall be granted property near the city of Lion’s Arch as a gift for their willingness to overcome the ancestral hatreds that so darken the minds of their people. Treat them well, people of Tyria; they may be strangers in many ways, but they have chosen peace and must be shown we of Tyria respect that decision.

 — Lionguard Neiro

Updates

• Added a Titles tab to the Hero panel. Full support for titles, including the display of titles to other players, will not be available until the release of Guild Wars Factions.
• In PvP, the victorious players can no longer be killed after a battle ends. This prevents remaining effects, such as Disease or the Edge of Extinction Spirit, from wiping out a winning team after the battle has ended.
• Improved quest marker support for destinations outside of the character's current map.
  • The zoomed-out world map now shows the location of the destination map.
  • The zoomed-in world map shows an arrow at the appropriate exit for the current map and displays the name of the destination map in green.
• The entries in the Control Setup dialog box are now grouped by category. Categories and entries within each category are now sorted alphabetically.
• Added DirectX 9 renderer support for anti-aliasing with GeForce 3 and 4 graphics cards.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the maintained Enchantment Unyielding Aura from ending if its caster died.

GuildWiki notes

Crates in a guild hall

Anvil in a guild hall

In addition to the changes mentioned above, this update introduced the following:

• Changed the End User License Agreement (EULA) to include information regarding Guild Wars Factions and required all users to accept the EULA in order to continue playing.
• Control Setup dialog provides four new options that can be bound to keyboard shortcuts, for targeting the next and previous items and party members.
• The borders of wards are now marked more distinctly.
• Scar Pattern Armor now affected by dye coloring differently (change in resulting color/shade).
• Scroll foci have been renamed to Earth Scrolls.
• Upon entering an area, the area type is displayed under the area name.
• The bundle tank tactics seem to have lost its effectiveness in focusing enemy fire.
• Meika Ulrikar and Dalos Ekarus have settled in a small home by the farm where Miraba lives a short walk north of Lion's Arch. They offer no quests at the moment.
• As the Kurzick and Luxon settlers have been evicted, the Caromi Tengu have reclaimed their traditional hunting grounds in North Kryta Province.
• Lionguard Neiro has left Lion's Arch to attend to his more important Lionguard duties.
• Gypsie Ettins have retrained themselves using lighter armor, thus not dropping as many rune-infused items anymore.
• Several Guild Hall changes:
  • The map marker for Guild Hall has been renamed to what map type it is, for example: it says Warriors Isle instead of Guild Hall.
  • The guild map type is displayed on loading along with the guild that owns it in smaller text.
  • Several objects have been added to the guild halls including a storage box, crates, and an anvil. These objects are not loaded during GvG battles.
  • The Kurzick Kommandant, Kurzick Scribe, Luxon Navigator and Luxon Scribe are nowhere to be found.

Update - Wednesday, April 19, 2006

• We are continuing to prepare the game servers for the release of Guild Wars Factions.

GuildWiki notes

• This update fixed a glitch that could be exploited by players to hide their weapons and offhand items during combat.

Update - Thursday, April 6, 2006

Attention fellow citizens of Tyria,

As our new friends from the southern continent of Cantha have begun settling into their homes, we have received countless reports of violence raging between the Luxon and Kurzick factions within North Kryta Province and Nebo Terrace.

These societies are longtime enemies, and it appears their war has followed them onto our lands. We ask all citizens of Kryta to report any crimes, acts of violence or cruelty, or other disruptive public displays instigated by members of either faction. In the meantime, the Lionguard will investigate a peaceful resolution to the bloodshed.

-Lionguard Neiro

Updates:

• Improved account management UI, making it simpler to add registration keys to existing accounts.
• Fixed a bug that caused some users to experience intermittent audio dropouts.

GuildWiki notes

This update added two new quests:

• Destroy the Kurzicks!
• Crush the Luxons!

In addition, players are now notified every hour how long they have played by receiving messages such as: You have been playing for 2 hours.

After playing for three hours, players will receive a message: You have been playing for 3 hours. Please take a break.

Update - Monday, April 3, 2006

• Fixed a bug causing some users to experience audio drop-outs of specific sounds.
• Added new bonus items to support the new Guild Wars '06 Edition package in Europe.

Update - Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Attention fellow citizens of Tyria,

You have no doubt gazed with sorrow upon the scores of refugees displaced by the terrible conflict raging in the southern lands of Cantha. Were it not for the noble efforts of hired heroes, these poor souls would be spending another cold night in filthy gutters.

Mukesh the Merciless and his vile undead horde have been purged from the grounds of Nebo Terrace. The Kurzick homeless are pitching camp there as I speak. Likewise, the ettin thugs led by the notorious—and odiferous—Smuush Fatfist have been quashed, making possible the Luxon settlement being built in North Kryta Province.

By order of the White Mantle, I declare both Nebo Terrace and North Kryta Province fit for habitation and trade.

-Lionguard Neiro

Guildwiki Notes

This update introduced two settlements into the Kryta region. The first is the Luxon Settlement in North Kryta Province (north of Lion's Arch and south of the Ascalon Settlement). The second is the Kurzick Settlement in Nebo Terrace (north of Bergen Hot Springs and east of Beetletun). Both settlements are occupied with a few peasants and children as well as two NPCs who seem to be related to possible future quest. Click on each settlement for more information about what's available there.

Related to the two new settlements are two new quests at Lion's Arch:

• Can't We Get Along? (Luxon)
• Can't We Get Along? (Kurzick)

The update also made the the two quests below no longer available, however you can collect your reward if previously obtained:

• Establish the Kurzick Settlement
• Establish the Luxon Settlement

Update 2 - Thursday, March 23, 2006

Build number: 16,536 This was an undocumented update. No description appeared on the official website.

GuildWiki notes

This update is believed to have fixed a bug caused by the previous update, where purple and even blue salvage armors were containing Superior Runes. Within a few hours prices for such runes at Rune Traders had dropped by more than 30%.

Update - Thursday, March 23 2006

Build number: 16,514

Please join us for the three day Guild Wars Factions Preview Event, starting this Friday, March 24 at 8:01 AM GMT.

Overview:

• Two factions, the Luxons and Kurzicks, are engaged in a desperate struggle for control of the continent of Cantha. During this event weekend, players can create roleplaying characters in Cantha, join one of the two sides, and engage in battle for control of territory.
• We are not yet allowing existing roleplaying characters from Tyria to travel across the ocean to Cantha, but during the preview event, new Factions Campaign roleplaying characters created on the continent of Cantha will start at level 20, with high level armor and a wide variety of skills. (These preview characters are temporary, cannot travel off the continent of Cantha, and will be reset prior to the release of Guild Wars Factions.)
• After creating a new Factions Campaign character, talk to Senji to choose your secondary profession, then talk to Master Togo who will guide you to the side of your choice.
• A variety of quests and missions will allow you to gain faction with the Luxons or the Kurzicks. These include Competitive Missions, which allow two random teams of eight to square off in a strategic battle.
• After gaining faction with the Luxons or Kurzicks, you can spend it for your own personal gain, or transfer it to your alliance to help your alliance gain standing with the Luxons or Kurzicks.
• You can also participate in Alliance Battles to help the Luxons or Kurzicks gain territory. As a nation gains territory, it rewards those alliances that have the highest standing with that nation by granting them control of territory.

Faction Points:

• Each individual player earns Luxon or Kurzick faction by completing quests and participating in Competitive Missions and Alliance Battles.
• The Luxons and the Kurzicks hate one another. If you have more of one faction than another, many NPCs of the opposing side will not speak to you.
• You can talk to Faction Reward NPC, located in the Kurzick or Luxon capital, to spend faction for your own benefit. For this weekend, the only thing you can get is Amber or Jadeite, used to craft special armor sets.

Alliance Standing:

• An alliance is a collection of guilds, led by the guild leader that created the alliance. Each guild that isn't in a larger alliance is considered an alliance of one. (During this Factions Preview Event, forming alliances is not supported, so each guild is its own alliance.)
• Form a guild (which is also an alliance) by talking to the Guild Registrar in the Marketplace. As always, forming a guild takes 100 gold, and players can be invited for 100 gold.
• The alliance leader may talk to a Kurzick or Luxon Ambassador, located in the Kurzick or Luxon capital, to choose a side for his or her alliance. Doing so costs 500 gold.
• Once an alliance has chosen a side, alliance members may talk to the Kurzick Scribe in House zu Heltzer (for Kurzick alliances) or Luxon Scribe in Cavalon (for Luxon alliances) to spend the appropriate faction to raise the standing of their Alliance. This is the only way for an alliance to gain standing and have an opportunity to be granted control of a territory.

Territory Control:

• The on-going war between the Luxons and the Kurzicks is most directly manifested in the form of Alliance Battles, which support 12 players (3 parties of 4 players each) per side.
• To join an Alliance Battle simply talk to the Kurzick Kommandant in House zu Heltzer or the Luxon Navigator in Cavalon.
• Every three hours, the nation that has won more Alliance Battles moves the battle lines and takes territory away from the opposing nation.
• There are several potential Alliance Battle maps. Map layouts vary, but all the maps have the same goal: be the first side to reach 500 points. Points are gained by controlling strategic locations on the map and by killing enemies. Only one map is active at a time, depending on where the current battle lines are located. As the battle shifts deeper into Luxon or Kurzick territory, the Alliance Battles are biased to favor the losing side.
• Control of territories is granted to the alliances with the highest standing. The best territories -- the ones closest to the capital city -- go to those with the very highest standing.
• The resurrection shrine closest to a controlled outpost is guarded by Kurzick or Luxon NPCs matching the side that controls the outpost. Players not aligned to that side may not use the resurrection shrine unless they kill or bribe the guards.

Other Changes:

• Guild Wars Factions uses DirectX 9 if available for video rendering. Guild Wars will still continue to run on systems that have only DirectX 8 installed, but the new Factions content will look much better if DirectX 9 is available.
• The PvP Character Creation interface now allows players to select the homeland of newly created characters. Canthan characters, which have a different visual appearance than existing Tyrian characters, are available to players who have access to Guild Wars Factions content.
• The Hero Panel now displays faction earned with Luxons and Kurzicks for Factions Campaign roleplaying characters.
• The Map Area window now displays the current state of key controllable resource points on certain competitive maps.
• The skill casting interface has been improved so that attempting to cast a skill while running does not cause the skill to fail.
• There is now a Sigil Trader in the International District of Heroes' Ascent.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed the functionality of the Ritualist preorder staff Spiritbinder. Previously this staff was not giving the +10 energy bonus specified in its description. If you have preordered Guild Wars Factions and have an old nonfunctioning Spiritbinder staff, you can destroy it and then type "/preorder" to get a new one.
• Fixed the Guild Lord and Ghostly Hero AI so that these characters no longer run away from where they should be standing. The Guild Lord and Ghostly Hero also now carry axes instead of swords, to justify their use of the skill Cyclone Axe.
• Fixed the AI for the boss monster Maxine Coldstone so that she no longer unequips her bow while fighting at melee range.
• Fixed a bug that was causing some parties to appear larger than they really were in outposts.

GuildWiki notes

This update introduced a pair of simple quests that prepare players for the Factions Preview Event weekend:

• The quest Establish the Luxon Settlement in Lion's Arch.
• The quest Establish the Kurzick Settlement in Bergen Hot Springs.

This update also introduced four new NPCs into every Guild Hall:

• Kurzick Kommandant
• Kurzick Scribe
• Luxon Navigator
• Luxon Scribe

• Weapon descriptions now say "Requires" instead of "Req"
• Non-mission towns now show characters profession and level and the party leader has the party size above their head in the same manner as in mission locations, except for some locations, which include Great Temple of Balthazar and all Pre-Searing locations.
• The Guild Roster informational text (e.g. ranking) was changed to green.

Update - Tuesday, March 14 2006

Build number: 16,322

• Fixed a bug that caused some users to experience sound dropouts.
• Fixed a number of audio glitches and performance problems in the Fire Island Chain.
• Fixed an issue that caused DirectSong to stop playing music after the first song.

Update - Monday, March 13 2006

• Corrected error in Heroes' Ascent Map that prevented teams from progressing beyond the first level.

Guildwiki Notes

This update erroneously introduced a severe bug that caused prices at all traders to be reset. Most runes and rare crafting materials were set to 250 gold. As soon as players found out about this, they rushed to the traders and purchased copious amounts of these usually fairly expensive items. As the price of Ecto had remained high, many proceeded to sell all of their Ecto to get more money to buy the cheap products. Within 30 minutes, the matter had raised enough red flags that ArenaNet moved to correct the problem. They disabled all traders (none of them had any more goods to offer), then shortly after, map travel was disabled. The entire global network of game servers was shut down for maintenance around 3:00 p.m. PST (23:00 GMT). The servers were back up around 10:20 p.m. PST (06:20 GMT).

The following notice on the official Network News page notes the issue and the implemented remedy.

"Due to a server error, Guild Wars experienced an unintentional reset of the traders. For nearly an hour, traders were selling items at unrealistically low prices. Due to the harmful impact that such an event would cause to the game economy, we are rolling back the entire state of the game to shortly before the problem began, that is, to 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time, 21:00 GMT. We estimate that the game will be accessible at approximately 11:00 p.m. PST tonight (07:00 GMT)."

Later on, the following note appeared on the website and on the game's login screen:

As you may be aware, we experienced some technical issues that resulted in the need to conduct an approximately one-hour roll-back of Guild Wars on Monday, March 13th. What prompted our decision to do the roll-back was the fact that the game economy was at risk, because during a brief window of opportunity, a huge number of items had been purchased for ridiculously low prices. This infusion of items into the economy would have devalued all the items in the game, and would have crippled the game economy.

We have an absolute commitment to take whatever means are necessary to protect the game economy, and by extension, to protect the items that you possess on your account. We apologize for any inconvenience that the roll-back may have caused.

We will continue to investigate the situation to assure that a repeat of today’s incident does not take place.

Thank you for your understanding,

The Guild Wars Team

Update - Saturday, March 11 2006

• We are continuing to prepare the game servers for the March 24 Factions Preview Event. To pre-stream all the latest Factions content to your hard drive in preparation for the event, you can simply leave your Guild Wars client running and sitting at the login screen.

GuildWiki notes

Pre-streaming seems to exceed 700MB.

Update - Friday, March 10 2006

• Fixed the Glint statue in Droknar's Forge so that it responds properly to player actions.
• Fixed a bug with the end of “Sanctum Cay” which caused the White Mantle to show up too early, or not at all.
• Restored the skill Signet of Resurrection to its normal behavior.

GuildWiki notes

• This update also seems to have introduced a problem on the European servers preventing players from leaving towns and outposts but allowing map travel between towns and outposts.
• There are many reports of intermittent problems with logins (error code 72 or 59) and disconnects when crossing zone boundaries or entering missions (error code 019).

Update - Thursday, March 9 2006

General:

• This week we are pre-streaming a lot of new Canthan maps and artwork to clients in preparation for the March 24 Factions Preview Event. As always, you can download new data in the background by just leaving your Guild Wars client running and sitting at the login screen.

Arena Combat Updates:

• When players enter the Random Arenas through an International District, they will now be placed on teams consisting of other players who entered through an International District. Previously, players were always placed on teams with other players from their own territory.
• Teams in both Random and Team Arenas can now be matched against opponents from anywhere in the world.

Guild Combat Updates:

• Guild Lords will now walk instead of run out of the base at "Victory or Death!" to give their teams a better chance to keep up with them.
• Updated NPCs in the Isle of the Dead guild hall map so that they will now patrol the low ground near the flag at "Victory or Death."

Skill Training Updates:

• All skill trainers can now sell you any non-elite skill that you have previously unlocked on your account.

Skill Updates:

• Fixed the skill Dwarven Battle Stance so that it only causes Hammer Attacks to interrupt the target, not other types of Melee Attacks.
• Fixed the skill Mantra of Recall so that it only provides its Energy boost to the owner of the skill. Previously, a player could get an Energy boost if he removed Mantra of Recall from an enemy while he also had the same Enchantment applied to himself.
• Fixed the skill Feral Lunge so that its damage and duration correctly match last week's update notes.

Item Updates:

• Restored the functionality of Bloodstained Boots.
• Updated "while hexed" shields on Collectors so that they are equivalent to those on the PvP creation screen.
• Updated roleplaying character creation so that all professions start with helmets or headgear.
• Updated the "/preorder" command to provide Guild Wars Factions preorder items to those who have applied a Factions preorder key to their account.
• Corrected the crafting costs of the Monk's Ascetic Fissure of Woe armor and the Necromancer's Scar Pattern Fissure of Woe armor to include Obsidian Shards.
• Added new artwork for elemental Staffs.

Map and Quest Updates:

• Removed the portal effect from the closed east gate of Lion's Arch.
• Tightened the guard security on the ramp in Heroes' Ascent so that characters cannot sneak past the guards.
• Corrected the art being used for Commander Rezhang in Heroes' Ascent.
• Increased the maximum allowed party size in The Great Temple of Balthazar and Isle of the Nameless to eight.
• Fixed a bug that allowed characters who had not completed “The Path of the Zaishen Elite” quest to enter the Zaishen Elite outpost.

AI Updates:

• Fixed a bug that caused Henchmen and pets to be left behind or to run back to their original locations after cinematics.
• Updated AI so that creatures and Henchmen no longer try to heal or enchant Spirits.

Audio Updates:

• Improved the performance of the game's audio engine.
• Added a new slider to the Game Options panel to adjust sound playback quality.
• Added support for DirectX 3D sound (DS3D) hardware acceleration.

User Interface Updates:

• Added a "Sort by Campaign" option to all skill lists.
• Added the ability to access the options panel (F11) or to logout (F12) from pre-game screens such as character selection and creation.
• Added the ability to customize the position of the mission goals pop-up window using the Customize Layout interface.
• Updated the Guild Roster page to display the guild's home territory.
• Fixed party size numbers shown over the heads of party leaders so that the count includes Henchmen.
• Fixed a bug that caused the district selection control to lock up when a player canceled party travel, or when a non-leader chose not to leave his party after acknowledging that he did wish to leave the current district.
• Fixed a bug that prevented detached start menu items from being correctly hidden during cinematics.
• Fixed the display of skills that are unavailable due to being in a campaign that the player doesn't own. Previously, if such a skill was an adrenaline skill, the skill's adrenaline charge state would override the unavailable state.

GuildWiki notes

• Shadow Blades now drop.

Update - Friday, March 3 2006

Fixed the following newly introduced bugs:

• The skill Bull's Charge was knocking down moving foes when used with any type of weapon, not only with melee weapons.
• The skill Fevered Dreams was incorrectly spreading conditions to allies of both the caster and target, rather than just enemies of the caster as specified in the skill description.
• The skill Warrior's Endurance did not correctly match its description in the update notes.
• Monsters were not responding to damage taken from the skill Balthazar's Aura.
• Certain elite skills, such as Peace and Harmony and Blood is Power, could not be captured using a Signet of Capture.
• Kepkhet Marrowfeast was neglecting to guard her nest.
• The Party Window was periodically failing to display certain team allies such as Bodyguards.
• The Skill Monitor was not correctly displaying skill interruption.

Update - Thursday March 2 2006

General

• Updated Adrenaline behavior so that death removes all Adrenaline.
• Updated Exhaustion behavior so that if you cast an Exhaustion spell while your maximum energy is below 10, your maximum energy can be reduced to below zero.
• Fixed a bug that allowed attack speeds to stack past 33%.
• Fixed a bug that prevented attack debuffs from reducing a target more than 33% (maximum is 50%).
• Fixed a bug that kept speed boosts from having an effect on you if you had a debuff slowing you by 50%.
• You are no longer considered "attacking," "using a skill," or "casting a spell" while you are running to get in range of a target.
• Fixed a bug that caused attack skills with non-weapon attributes to calculate damage and critical hit chance incorrectly.
• Clarified various skill descriptions

Equipment

• Added two +30 Health, Received Damage -5 (Chance: 20%) shields to the PvP character creation screen; updated monster drops to make the Received Damage -5 (Chance: 20%) drop possible.
• Shields on the PvP character creation screen with the "while Hexed" bonus now have +60 Health and -3 damage reduction.
• Reduced the Lieutenant's Helm Hex duration bonus to 20%, and added it to the PvP character creation screen.
• Increased the Monk’s PvP Ascetic Leg Design to +2 Energy to match the armor bought off of vendors.
• Increased the PvP hammer with additional damage while hexed to 20%.

Mesmer

• Mantra of Resolve: increased Energy cost to 10..4 when interrupted.
• Distortion: increased Energy cost to 4..1 when you "evade" attacks.
• Signet of Weariness: reduced area-of-effect to nearby foes.
• Mantra of Recovery: reduced Energy cost to 10.
• Ignorance: decreased casting time to 1 second.
• Chaos Storm: decreased casting time to 1 second.
• Epidemic: decreased Energy cost to 10.
• Ineptitude: increased damage to 30..135.
• Fevered Dreams: increased duration to 10..25 seconds.
• Energy Drain: decreased recharge time to 25 seconds.
• Energy Tap: decreased recharge time to 25 seconds.
• Blackout: increased recharge time to 12 seconds.

Necromancer

• Offering of Blood: increased sacrifice to 20%.
• Unholy Feast: reduced number of targets affected to 1..4; increased damage to 10..65; reduced recharge to 20 seconds.
• Enfeebling Blood: reduced recharge to 5 seconds; reduced sacrifice to 10%.
• Chilblains: Poison now only lasts 10 seconds.
• Deathly Chill: increased unconditional damage to 5..50; decreased conditional damage to 5..35.
• Shadow of Fear: reduced recharge time to 5 seconds.
• Plague Sending: reduced cast time to 1 second; increased recharge time to 5 seconds; fixed a bug that caused this skill to transfer default durations instead of remaining duration.
• Blood Renewal: fixed a bug that allowed the heal to heal twice when stacked.
• Insidious Parasite: fixed a bug that prevented the numbers from displaying.
• Mark of Subversion and Soul Leech: changed their damage from normal to life stealing to match their skill descriptions.
• Order of the Vampire: no longer triggers if you have other Necromancer Enchantments on you.

Elementalist

• Gale: increased Energy cost to 10.
• Conjure Flame: no longer removes Enchantments.
• Inferno: increased damage to 30..135.
• Fire Storm: decreased cast time to 2 seconds.
• Rust: decreased recharge time to 15 seconds.
• Conjure Frost: no longer removes Enchantments.
• Conjure Lightning: no longer removes Enchantments.
• Whirlwind: decreased recharge time to 8 seconds.
• Flame Burst: increased damage to 15..120.
• Rodgort's Invocation: increased damage to 15..120.
• Mark of Rodgort: decreased recharge time to 5 seconds.
• Lava Font: increased damage to 5..35 per second.
• Searing Heat: increased damage to 5..35 per second.
• Lightning Javelin: decreased recharge time to 2 seconds.
• Mist Form: decreased cast time to 1 second.
• Lightning Surge: fixed a bug that caused this skill to not trigger properly when its duration was reduced.

Monk

• Mend Ailment: increased recharge time to 5 seconds.
• Holy Veil: increased recharge time to 12 seconds.
• Shield of Regeneration: increased duration to 5..13 seconds.
• Purge Signet: reduced recharge time to 20 seconds.
• Shielding Hands: reduced cast time to .25 seconds.
• Resurrect: reduced cast time to 6 seconds; increased recharge time to 5 seconds.
• Restore Life: increased recharge time to 5 seconds; increased percentage of Health the target party member is returned with to 20..65%.
• Scourge Sacrifice: decreased cast time to 1 second.
• Watchful Spirit: decreased cast time to 1 second.
• Shield of Deflection: increased armor bonus to 15..30.
• Aura of Faith: decreased recharge time to 15 seconds.
• Peace and Harmony: skill reworked. Now ends if ally casts a Spell on target foe or deals damage to a foe; reduced recharge time to 30 seconds.
• Unyielding Aura: decreased recharge time to 15 seconds; when this Skill ends, it now exploits the ally's corpse.
• Mark of Protection: now only disables your skills for 5 seconds.
• Healing Hands: increased the amount healed to 5..35; now triggers on damage instead of attack.
• Live Vicariously: increased amount healed per swing to 2..17.
• Light of Dwayna: decreased recharge time to 20 seconds.
• Martyr: increased cast time to 1 second.
• Heal Party: increased recharge time to 2 seconds.
• Balthazar's Aura: fixed a stacking bug.

Warrior

• Eviscerate: increased adrenaline cost to 8 strikes.
• "I will avenge you!": reduced attack speed to 25%; fixed a bug that caused this skill to trigger off of dead ally minions.
• Thrill of Victory: decreased recharge time to 8 seconds.
• Bull's Strike: now triggers on moving instead of fleeing.
• Defensive Stance: increased duration to 5..20 seconds.
• Crude Swing: increased damage to 1..20.
• Shield Bash: Skill reworked. "The next attack skill against you is blocked. If the attack was a melee attack skill, that skill is disabled for an additional 15 seconds, and the attacker is knocked down."
• "Shields Up!": now blocks 50% of the time.
• Defy Pain: decreased adrenaline cost to 6 strikes.
• Protector's Strike: reduced swing time to .5 seconds; increased recharge time to 3 seconds.
• Griffon's Sweep: increased damage to 5..20.
• Deflect Arrows: now ends only when you successfully hit with an attack.
• Warrior's Endurance: increased duration to 10..23 seconds.
• Dwarven Battle Stance: now also increases attack speed by 10%.
• Disciplined Stance: reduced recharge time to 45 seconds.
• Wary Stance: reduced recharge time to 45 seconds.
• Riposte: increased damage to 20..80.
• Deadly Riposte: increased damage to 15..75.
• Shield Stance: decreased recharge time to 45 seconds.
• Flurry: fixed a bug that reduced your damage more than 25%.
• Thrill of Victory: fixed a bug that caused you to gain a little bit of Health when you hit with the attack.
• Gash: fixed a bug that caused this skill to deal its damage twice; increased damage to 5..20.
• Bull's Charge: now triggers on moving foes instead of fleeing foes.

Ranger

• Dust Trap: reduced Blindness duration to 3..8 seconds.
• Crippling Shot: increased Energy cost to 15; Crippled duration now scales 1..8.
• Power Shot: increased damage to 10..25.
• Precision Shot: increased damage to 10..25.
• Determined Shot: increased damage to 5..20.
• Maiming Strike: decreased recharge time to 5 seconds.
• Scavenger Strike: increased damage to 10..25.
• Symbiotic Bond: increased Health regeneration to 1..3 pips.
• Bestial Pounce: decreased recharge time to 10 seconds.
• Feral Lunge: increased damage to 5..35.
• Melandru's Assault: increased damage to 5..35; decreased recharge time to 5 seconds.
• Predator's Pounce: increased damage to 5..35.
• Brutal Strike: increased damage to 5..35; increased conditional damage to 5..35.
• Practiced Stance: increased bonus duration to 30..150%.
• Melandru's Resilience: increased Health regeneration to 3 pips.
• Quick Shot: fixed a bug that caused the arrow to move at a normal speed.
• Determined Shot: increased damage to 5..20; fixed a bug that prevented the arrow from being "blocked" or "evaded"; fixed a bug that stopped this skill from recharging when missed from obstruction.

Guild Battle Updates

• Added silver and gold trims for the guild capes of tournament season winners and runners-up.
• Improved the paths that guild NPCs take when running out of their Guild Hall during "Victory or Death!".

Map and Quest Updates

• Kepkhet Marrowfeast, Queen of the Scarabs, has brought her brood to the desert, drawn by the plentiful corpses of griffons, minotaurs, and even other scarabs. The insect brood now infests the "Prophet's Path," so travelers be warned!
• Removed chests from Dreadnought's Drift and Ice Floe.
• Fixed a non-aggressive Charr group located in Regent Valley.
• Fixed a problem in the "Army Life" quest where Old Mac talked to Joe even if he was dead.
• Moved the spirits in the Underworld to help them avoid blocking enemy pathing.
• Fixed the entrance to Beacon's Perch from Lornar's Pass so you can't sneak around the edge of the zone portal.
• Fixed a bug with the "Slaves of Menzies" quest where players had to kill more enemies than the Shadow Overlords to complete each step of the quest.
• Fixed a signpost pointing the wrong direction in Divinity Coast.
• Fixed a bug in the "Khobay the Betrayer" quest that required the players to kill all his guards to complete the quest instead of just Khobay as the Quest Log indicates.
• Fixed a bug that prevented anyone but Necromancers from getting the "Recruits for Hollis" quest after completing first mission, "The Great Northern Wall."
• Fixed a number of locations where Aidan, Cynn, Devona, and Mhenlo were not appropriately displaying as Henchmen.
• Fixed a zone portal in Bergen Hot Springs that was zoning players to various parts of the outpost other than the zone portal.
• Removed an NPC who had no functionality from Stingray Strand.
• Fixed a bug that prevented you from having to click on the gravestone to complete the "Husband's Epitaph" [sic] quest.
• Removed a potential chest exploit from "The Deserters" quest.
• Fixed a crafter in Deldrimor Bowl so he could no longer be killed by monsters.
• Fixed a bug in the "Hungry Devourer" quest that allowed the Junipers to be killed before the players arrived, preventing the players from getting food for Joe.
• Fixed a bug in the "Elementalist Path" quest where the target NPC was not at its quest marker.
• Fixed some maps where the same bosses were spawning multiple times: Ice Caves of Sorrow, Kessex Peak, and Deldrimor Bowl.
• Fixed miscellaneous bugs with the wurm monster AI.

User Interface Updates

• Expanded availability of Japanese language support to include non-Japanese accounts.
• Fixed a target calling bug that prevented secondary called targets from being promoted to the primary called target when the previous primary called target expired.
• Fixed several bugs that caused the incorrect display of Energy.
• Changed the color of GM chat text from green to purple.

Update - Tuesday February 28 2006

• Fixed unlocking of arenas so that the Team Arenas are unlocked for new accounts after five consecutive wins in the Random Arenas. Previously they were incorrectly unlocked after six consecutive wins.

Update - Friday February 10 2006

• Fixed an exploit that could allow players to bring high-level items into pre-Searing Ascalon.

Update - Thursday February 9 2006

• Enabled sending invitations for the Factions Preview Event!

Update - Monday February 6 2006

• Added Traditional Chinese translations in preparation for today's launch of Guild Wars in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.
• Fixed a recently introduced bug that players could exploit to attack their own teammates.
• Fixed a problem that could cause players to get redirected to International Districts after playing an Arena battle.

Update - Thursday January 26 2006

• Modified the Sacred Temples and Unholy Temples tournament maps so that players cannot pass relics across barriers.
• Added Japanese translations in preparation for today's Japanese launch of Guild Wars.
• Changed the Morale Boost in Isle of the Nameless from 2% to 10%.
• In the "Iron Mines of Moladune" mission, henchmen now become infused when your team gives the Spectral Essence to the Seer.
• Modified Skill Bar tool tips so that they don't overlap the Health and Energy bars.
• Fixed minor bugs in the following quests: "The Nameless Masters" and "The Hero's Challenge."
• Fixed minor bugs in the following missions: "Iron Mines of Moladune" and "Sanctum Cay."
• Fixed a bug that incorrectly eliminated the recharge time from the following Ranger skills: Distracting Shot, Savage Shot, Concussion Shot, and Punishing Shot.

Update - Monday January 23 2006

• Fixed a bug that was making it impossible to complete the Iron Mines of Moladune mission.
• Repaired teleporters in the Nomad's Isle Guild Battle map.
• Removed challenges that were incorrectly added to some players quest logs.
• Fixed several crash bugs.

Update - Friday, January 20 2006

• Improved the visual appearance of the Battle Isles world map.
• Provided Free-For-All Weekend demo users with the ability to use prebuilt PvP characters without skill restrictions, and also with the ability to unlock skills from the original campaign.
• Fixed a bug that was preventing players from earning Faction by killing NPCs and players in Guild Battles.
• Fixed map travel issues that could temporarily redirect players into the wrong districts.
• Fixed a problem with the skill "Flesh of My Flesh" ignoring "Frozen Soil."
• Fixed a crash bug with the Assassin skill "Recall," and miscellaneous other crash bugs.

Update 2 - Thursday, January 19 2006

• Restored access to The Underworld and Fissure of Woe.

• Restored item unlocks that had been inadvertently removed from some accounts.

• Fixed the text description of the "Verata's Sacrifice" skill.

Update - Thursday, January 19 2006

Attention citizens.

The Tomb of the Primeval Kings has been overrun by the enemies of Balthazar. The Zaishen Order recognizes that many of you may wish to help conquer this foe. While this is admirable, only those truly devoted to the teachings of Balthazar should attempt to enter the Tombs.

Those wishing to become as great as we, the Zaishen, should take heart. Members of our order await your arrival at the Great Temple of Balthazar. We will train you in the ways of war, so you may continue the personal squabbles that seem to consume so much of your daily routine.

If you truly wish to better yourself, take the ship to the Great Temple, and hone your skills with the Zaishen.

May the blessings of Balthazar follow you on your journey.

-Commander Kuro of the Zaishen Order

Guild Wars: Factions Free-For-All PvP Weekend

With this update, we roll out the first parts of Guild Wars: Factions, including the new login and character selection/creation screens, boat travel between continents, and a weekend sneak preview of the two new professions. (The weekend event lasts from Friday January 20 8:00 am GMT to Monday January 23 7:59 am GMT.)

All high-level PvP has been moved to the Battle Isles, which can be reached using the ship off the coast of Lion's Arch. On the Battle Isles, you'll find a new explorable area with Training Arenas, NPCs who can help you test all aspects of your character's build, updates to existing PvP Arenas, and all-new Zaishen Challenges, where you and your friends can practice against teams of computer AI opponents. All of this content is now organized into a natural progression, so that players can experience the basics of PvP before moving on to advanced challenges.

New computer AI challenges:

• Training Arenas: a series of four maps designed to teach the basics of PvP and Arena Combat. Beat all four maps to unlock the Zaishen Challenge on your account.

• Zaishen Challenge: an Arena where you can play the computer AI team of your choice on the map of your choice. Beat five different computer AI teams to unlock the Zaishen Elite Challenge.

• Zaishen Elite Challenge: the ultimate AI challenge. See how far you can get in a series of random Arena matches against increasingly difficult AI teams.

New unlocking of existing PvP types:

• Win five-in-a-row in the Random Arenas to unlock the Team Arenas on your account. (Existing accounts have the Team Arenas unlocked already.)

• Win five total games in the Team Arenas to unlock the Tournament (Heroes' Ascent) on your account. (Existing accounts have the Tournament unlocked already.)

Changes to Guild Combat mechanics:

• Five minutes after "Victory or Death!" starts, both teams' Guild Lords will now rush out of their base to engage in combat.

• In the Burning Isle guild hall, NPCs now take the high path to avoid lava when Victory or Death occurs, and Flame Cursed Sentinels no longer drop loot.

• The Guild Lord's Amulet of Protection now interacts correctly with Deep Wound. (See Fansite Friday #62 for more information about the Guild Lord's Amulet of Protection.)

Miscellaneous improvements:

• When a party leader uses map travel in a town or outpost, his entire party travels with him to the new map.

• During PvP matches, the Party window now displays your team color.

• Skill icons for Enchantment and Hex spells are now displayed with a small marker in their upper-right corner.

• Text descriptions and icons of various magic item upgrades have been improved.

• The location and visibility of hint popup windows can now be modified using the Customize Layout interface.
• Equipment labels have been improved. Effects that are stacking or non-stacking have been identified as well as exact values of rune effects.

Miscellaneous fixes:

• Ghosts in The Underworld are no longer considered fleshy and will not leave exploitable corpses.

GuildWiki notes

This update installed many changes in preparation for chapter two of the game "Guild Wars Factions" and also provided some teasers as to what the new professions will look like.

PvP changes

• All PvP areas have been moved off the traditional Tyria map and onto a separate The Battle Isles map. This makes them equally accessible from either chapter, regardless of whether the other chapter is owned or not. To travel to the Battle Isles from the Tyria map, players click on the new ship icon that appears next to Lion's Arch. The Battle Isles now contain all arenas, the Guild Hall and a new town called the Great Temple of Balthazar.
• Introduction of a new set of PvP quests and missions called the Zaishen Challenges in the Battle Isles. While these are PvE in nature (players fight computer controlled opponents), they are designed to train players in the various challenges and tactics of PvP. This also includes the introcution of a new explorable area called Isle of the Nameless where players can practice the different aspects of fighting in the game.
• The various arenas have now been consolidated by type. Therefore, there are now only three types of Arenas: Random Arena, Team Arena and the tournament which is now called Heroes' Ascent.
• New Accounts will need to advance through the different arena types. No longer will players be able simply create a PvP account and go straight for the tournament. Now players will need to win 5 in a row in the lower arena type to advance to the higher type. This does not apply to new characters made on existing accounts, only new accounts.

PvE changes

• Introduction of a set of four new explorable areas in place of what used to be the Tomb of the Primeval Kings mission. This new challenge is called the Ruins of the Tomb of the Primeval Kings. Now there is a dark portal at the tombs and upon entering, players are taken through the Underworld, Scarred Earth, Courtyard and Hall of Heroes maps of the old tournament, but they are now overtaken by creatures of the Underworld (including some new creatures). Clearing the monsters in each level advances the party to the next level. In the final level, upon defeating the three new boss monsters (called The Darknesses), new unique items will drop for the party.

General changes

• Now item descriptions are a lot more specific as to what a weapon upgrade or rune will actually do. So, instead of an item description saying it improves casting speed (which was calculated by players to mean that it halves the casting speed), the game now specifies that the item halves the casting speed.

Update - Friday, January 13 2006

Please do not be alarmed.

Though the strange occurrences you are witnessing outside the Tomb of the Primeval Kings have not, as of yet, been fully explained, we, the Zaishen Order, are here to provide for your safety.

Be advised: Those who dare approach the entrance to the Tombs in the coming days risk great peril. You would do well to leave this matter to the trained Zaishen experts who are already hard at work. We will not interfere with your comings and goings if you do not interfere with ours.

As a service of Balthazar you have been notified.

-Commander Kuro of the Zaishen Order.

GuildWiki notes

This update is part of the preparations for the Guild Wars Factions Global Free-for-All PvP Weekend. As a result, members of the Zaishen Order appear at several places in Tyria (Lion's Arch, Competition Arena, Team Arena, The Amnoon Oasis, Tomb of the Primeval Kings), passing through on their way to investigate a "disturbance" at the entrance to the Hall of Heroes. Henchmen at the Tombs were replaced with Zaishen henchmen.

Update - Friday, January 6 2006

Another Wintersday has come to a close,
And the sun shines anew.
The Grentchies have been banished again,
And Dwayna has smiled upon you.

Happy New Year!!!

GuildWiki notes

This update ended the Wintersday 2005 update.