Guild Wars 2 Update Notes For September 18

Another Guild Wars 2 patch update just released today. The patch notes for the update are as follows:

Guild Wars 2 Update Notes - 09.18.12

 

General

• Asuran players will now aim toward their targets when using a rifle.
• Fixed various broken events and skill challenges.
• Fixed various locations that allowed players to move outside the map.
• Fixed various locations on maps where players could become stuck.
• Discovery crafting may now use items directly from a player’s bank.
• Fixed bugs in the Exploration achievement so players can now receive 100% map completion.
• Added a system to limit the experience and gold that players can receive from speed-farming dungeons.

Story

• Fixed bugs in “A Different Dream,” “A Fragile Peace,” “Dredging Up the Past,” "Forging the Pact,” “Pastkeeper,” “Ships of the Line,” “Stealing Secrets,” “The Priory Assailed,” and “The Source of Orr.”
• Reduced the overall difficulty in “Dead of Winter.”

World-versus-World

• Retaliation: This boon no longer reflects damage received from siege weapons.
• The Experimental Rifle is no longer usable in World-versus-World.

Professions

Warrior

• Smoldering Arrow: This skill’s casting time has been reduced.

Mesmer

• The Prestige: This skill now requires full recharge if it’s interrupted at any time.

Thief

• Descent of Shadows: This trait’s effect can now only trigger once every 8 seconds.

Engineer

• Rocket Boots: This skill is no longer usable underwater. This is a temporary change until we can figure out why players can launch themselves into the sky using this skill.
• Detonate Mine Field: This skill is no longer a blast finisher.

Source: Guild Wars 2 Forum

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The State Of The Guild Wars 2 Economy

A new article posted by John Smith on the official Guild Wars 2 website delves into the current state of the Guild Wars 2 economy. The articles goes into some details regarding the trading post, supply and demand, and gaming exploits and their effect on the GW2 economy.

Trading Post

Before I discuss the issues with the trading post, I want to point out to those who haven’t spent time with the trading post how great it is. The global trading and visible quantities gives you a sense of the massive scale of the game and economy.

That being said, the trading post had a rough start. As a fundamental piece of the game, we mobilized to get it fixed immediately. After about 100 hours of work in that first week our devs began to make some progress noticeable by the players. We’ve come a really long way in stabilizing the trading post and preparing it for the future and we’ll continue working on making the trading post a better experience.

Supply and Demand

We’ve noticed several markets that are clearly out of sync in terms of supply and demand. It isn’t interesting or fun to have a market flooded with items that contain very little value, so we’re making adjustments to the game every day. Players can expect to see these markets even out over time.

While adjusting the supply and demand will bring markets closer to non-vendor based equilibrium, there is still the matter of massive surplus of some items. To address the surplus, we’ve created some new, limited-time Mystic Forge recipes that use these items. These recipes create boxes that give chances for gold and some cool items. 

Exploits

For those less familiar with this topic, exploits are errors in the game or third party programs that create opportunities for players to move outside the conventional means of gaining value (gold, experience, skills, etc.). The Guild Wars 2 economy (and virtually every other economy in the same vein) is not designed to have any loop that involves creating value for no cost.

For example, a player discovers a recipe that allows them to craft items from vendor goods for only 50 copper and then sell back the crafted item for 100 copper. The player now has an infinite loop of value gain. If this were working as intended the game’s currency would hyper-inflate very, very quickly as all players swarmed to this recipe to generate gold.

Exploits are a really interesting topic because they are, in the end, dangerous and self-defeating. The game has gotten to a point in size where there is no such thing as a single player discovering an exploit. Exploits come in waves of mass participation and in the end, if they aren’t dealt with, the economy becomes hyper-inflated. After mass exploitation, your wealth is only relative to how good you were at exploiting, rather than your success in the game. This damages the integrity of the game and makes it unfriendly to new and honest players. There have been cases where exploits have severely damaged and arguably killed a game.

Exploits are mostly generated by a mistake on our end and are really hard on players. When an exploit is discovered, players are tempted to participate by the draw of becoming wealthy and out of fear of being left behind the massively wealthy players who do participate. We take a harsh stance on exploiters because this decision should be easy: find an exploit, report the exploit and move on. It isn’t worth the risk to the player or the game.

To give some perspective on our actions against exploiters, let’s discuss the karma vendor exploit, where an item was priced at 21 karma instead of 35,000 karma. In this case, we made a mistake and many players got some awesome weapons for very cheap. Does a single player buying a weapon, to use, damage the game or really hurt the players? Not terribly, but getting cheap weapons for your characters wasn’t the problem. The problem was the 1.46 million weapons purchased by 4,862 players, which averages over 300 weapons per player. There is a fundamental difference here between players who got a cheap weapon and players who found a bug in the game and took advantage of it. The latter attempted to create wealth for themselves at the expense of the other millions of players that are injured by exploiting behavior.

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ArenaNet Envisions Guild Wars 2 Endgame

A new post on the Guild Wars 2 official website sheds some light on the way developers envision endgame in Guild Wars 2. An interesting read for sure, the complete post is given below:

In the past, we’ve talked about how in Guild Wars 2 we designed the game to avoid a common problem in many MMOs: grinding through chunks of boring, repetitive content to get to the occasional pockets of fun. With Guild Wars 2, we wanted the entire gameplay experience to be something that players enjoyed, regardless of how much time they could dedicate.

When we looked at the concept of “endgame” for Guild Wars 2, we designed it the same way. We didn’t want the endgame to be something you could only experience after a hundred hours of gameplay or after you reached some arbitrary number. We wanted it to be something that players got to experience every step along the way, spread out across the entire world of Tyria, so we’ve introduced game elements that you’d normally associate with “endgame” at every level and every possible opportunity.

Starting with each player’s first introductory adventure, we pit them against large-scale boss encounters—one for each race—just to whet their appetites and give them a taste of the boss battles to come. We wanted to show players that this really is just the beginning. We want the experiences that players will have while progressing through the game to be a journey that they take with their character, something that they will remember and cherish.

Sure, once your character reaches max level, we’ve created new and interesting ways to challenge you as a player, but we didn’t want to force you to master an entirely new subset of the game.

Our goal with Guild Wars 2 was to continue to build upon what we’ve shown you before while finding new and interesting ways to engage you as a player, regardless of your level. Each new experience, new dungeon, and new giant boss is a chance for us to layer on more difficulty, or teach you an interesting aspect about your profession and what you can do when you combine forces with other players. Guild Wars 2 is a game about banding together with friends and complete strangers to accomplish great things in a world ruled by uncertainty and challenge.

For people who love structured and difficult content, we developed the explorable mode for our eight dungeons. A dungeon’s explorable mode has at least three different paths that players can choose to conquer—and each path is a five-character delve into tough content that we designed to push the limits of teamwork and communication.

For people who enjoy massive encounters where large numbers of players band together to take down epic monsters, we created our giant bosses, which are scattered throughout the world. These massive dynamic events usually come at the end of one of our meta-event chains, and they reward players with a challenging encounter and a loot chest for their accomplishments. You’ve already seen a few of these behemoths in our intro story, but later in the game, these giant bosses really come at you with gloves off.

But the concept of “endgame” isn’t restricted to a few specific encounters and monsters; we have multiple paths and a variety of different content for players of all kinds. For people who enjoy crafting, we added legendary weapons that use rare components gathered from multiple game types—they’re created using the Mystic Forge. The final reward at the end of this epic crafting path is a visual masterpiece: a weapon with a unique appearance and special effects that are sure to make you stand out in a crowd.

For explorers and completionists, we added the idea of “world completion,” which involves completing renown regions, Vistas, skill challenges, waypoints, and points of interest for each of the maps in Tyria. We keep each map interesting thanks to the level adjustment system, which removes the ability for higher-level characters to enter lower-level maps and trivialize the content. You’ll still be more powerful in lower-level zones because you have more traits, skills, and gear, but the level adjustment system will insure that the monsters give you a proper fight.

With all the branches in the personal storylines and the sheer number of different stories available to players of each race, Guild Wars 2 has a lot of replayability for those looking to explore Tyria from a different perspective or experience new stories.

As players reach the max level of 80, the dynamic events become larger, the battles more spectacular, the circumstances more dire. Each of the high-level maps in the corrupted land of Orr contain battles on a grand scale against Zhaitan’s forces, an epic war with shifting fortunes and frontlines.

As you can see, we’ve taken the idea of “endgame” content beyond the traditional model and have infused it in all levels of the game, while adding enough variety to keep players with a wide array of interests engaged.

The launch of Guild Wars 2 is just the start. With the game now out in the hands of the players, we can focus our efforts to adding new types of events, new dungeons, new bosses, new rewards, and new places for players to explore. Together, our journey is just now beginning, and I hope to see you in-game.

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Guild Wars 2 Update Notes For September 13

 

 

Guild Wars 2 Update Notes - 09.13.12

General

• The Mistfire Wolf skill will now properly unlock for existing characters on an account after upgrading to Digital Deluxe.
• Fixed blocked events and skill challenges.
• Fixed bugs that allowed players to go around map edges.
• A number of items created by using Mystic Coins are now correctly set to level 80.

Story

• Fixed a blocking bug in story chapter “Brute Force.”
• Fixed a blocking bug in story chapter “Research and Destroy.”
• Fixed bugs in story chapters “Forging the Pact,” “Battle of Fort Trinity," "The Ghost Rite,” “On Red Alert,” and “Tower Down.”

World-versus-World

• Score interval increased from 5 minutes to 15 minutes.
• Stonemist Castle points reduced to 35 points from 50.
• Bonus thresholds reduced by half to prepare for one-week matches.
• Castle lord, bodyguards, and capture point for Stonemist Castle moved to the first floor.
• “Harpy Feathers” consumable effect disabled.
• Bridges fixed to make passable for NPCs.

Professions

 

Ranger

• More fixes to pet commands and AI.

Elementalist

• Signet of Air: No longer has infinite range.
• Whirlpool: Now works underwater in PvE.
• Glyph of Renewal: Resurrection effects of Earth, Fire, and Water now surround the caster, not the target.

Mesmer

• Deception: Movement now allowed after casting underwater.
• Spatial Surge: Improved responsiveness.
• Mind Stab: Improved responsiveness.

Warrior

• Made several more skills usable while moving: Brutal Banner, Compassionate Banner, and Furious Rally.
• Rush: Improved the ability to hit fleeing foes.

Guardian

• Mighty Blow: Added a slight movement distance.
• Bow of Truth: Now usable while moving.
• Defender’s Shield and Honorable Shield: Merged together into the same trait.
• New trait Glacial Heart: Critical hits with a hammer have a 50% chance to chill your target for 4 seconds. This effect can only occur once every 45 seconds.

Thief

• Heartseeker: Reduced damage of the 100%-50% threshold by 20%. Damage thresholds changed. Old: 100%-66%, 66%-33%, 33%-0%. New: 100%-50%, 50%-25%, 25%-0%.

Engineer

• Disabled the “stowing” auto-attack to prevent players from getting stuck holding these kits: Bomb Kit, Elixir Gun, Flamethrower, Grenade Kit, Med Kit, and Tool Kit.

Source: Guild Wars 2 Forum

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Guild Wars 2 Billing System Maintenance For September 13

The Guild Wars 2 billing system will be undergoing maintenance on Thursday, September 13th. Maintenance will begin at 7:00 AM PDT until approximately 9AM. In-game gem purchasing and website purchases will both be down during maintenance. The maintenance will be to add new credit card features and security measures to the billing system.

Source: Guild Wars 2 Forum

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Guild Wars 2 Professions Wallpaper

 

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Guild Wars 2 Update Notes For September 9

Here are the latest Guild Wars 2 update notes for September 9th.

Guild Wars 2 Update Notes - 09.09.12

 

Skills & Traits

• Mesmer
• The Prestige – Fixed a bug so that Burning duration no longer amplifies when additional enemies are present.
• Ranger
• Beastmastery Trait: Instinctual Bond – Now grants 5 seconds of quickness to the player’s pet and can only occur once every 50 seconds.
• Pets can no longer be revived using the “F” prompt. This is because you can either use F4 to swap pets which will bring that pet back alive or you can wait until you are out of combat at which point you pet will revive automatically. We felt it was doing a disservice to Ranger players to incentivize them to spend a long time reviving their pet when it was a very inefficient thing to do and happened after combat anyway. This will also help clear up “F” to interact functionality.
• Guardian
• Tome of Wrath – Removed Stability, added Retaliation; increased the health of the transform.
• Zealot’s Fervor – Players can now move while casting this skill; increased cast time to 2 seconds; reduced maximum targets to 5.
• Judgment – Knockdown is now 3 seconds.
• Tome of Courage – Removed Stability, added Protection.
• Heal Area – Base heal increased by 33%.
• Pacifism – Reduced maximum targets to 5; increased cast time to 2 seconds; reduced daze duration to 2 seconds.
• Shield of Absorption. The second half of this skill will now unlock in PvE.

Story

• "Bad Blood” – Exiting the conversation will no longer arbitrarily lock the player into a choice
• “Mirror, Mirror” – Adjusted difficulty.
• “The Hatchery” You can no longer do the final step before doing the intermediate steps.
• “Dredging up the Past” – Fixed blocking bug during the first step.

 

General

• Fixes for various blocked events and skill challenges.
• PvP games played/won will not increment in activities.
• Fixes for various map bugs that allowed players to get out of the map.
• Interact “F” should use the following priority:
1. Your current selection
2. Loot
3. Revive/Stomp
4. Anything else
• Updated the recipe for Superior Rune of the Ranger to match the rarity of other Superior runes.

Source: Guild Wars 2 Forum

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Guild Wars 2 Game Status Updates For September 9

More Guild Wars 2 updates will be releasing tonight for September 9th, 2012. The details of the changes are as follows:

Tonight's Update

• Will include fixes for various blocked events and skill challenges.
• Fix for PVP achievements: “The Conqueror” and “Champion Brawler”.

Next software updates

The next software update will be tonight at midnight Seattle time. We don't expect significant downtime; however players may experience some connectivity issues at this time.

Source: Guild Wars 2 Wiki

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Guild Wars 2 Patch Notes For September 8

As Guild Wars 2 is currently being updated a compiled list of patch notes has just been posted on the Guild Wars 2 forums. The details of the changes from the last 3 days are as follows:

GUILD WARS 2 UPDATE NOTES – 09.08.12

 

 

Traits

• Engineer
• Updated the Engineer’s Firearms trait – Juggernaut. New text for the trait: You gain 200 Toughness while wielding a Flamethrower. In addition, gain might for 15 seconds every 3 seconds, as long as you remain in this weapon kit.
• Fixed a bug with Go For The Eyes. It can now only trigger once every 10 seconds.

Skills

• Mesmer
• Fixed a bug with Signet of Illusions. It now give phantasms 50% more health instead of 300% more.

General

• Fixed a bug that should help resolve almost all of the broken skill challenges players have been running into.
• Ranger pet swap recharge is now the same in and out of combat. This closes an exploit with swapping ranger pets to generate very long buffs.
• Ranger pets should now immediately use their F2 skills when told instead of first performing an auto-attack.
• We discovered a bug in Monthly achievements that was causing some players to complete in August while others did not. We are forcing completion on all players who are currently at 100% to even out this bug for those players who have completed their monthly achievement. In the future, monthly achievements will turn over on the first of the month at midnight UTC. Daily achievements also roll over for all players at midnight UTC.
• Fixed numerous events and event chains that were blocked.

PvP

• Max Glory cap per PvP match is set to 350. You now receive an achievement for reaching this cap in a given match. This closes an exploit that was letting players farm hundreds of glory per match by trading wins.

Story

• Fixed a blocking issue in “Forging the Pact.”

Crafting

• Players can now do the production portion of crafting without having to pull the resources from their bank. Note: Discovery still requires use of the bank. This is something we would like to change but decided that getting part of the way there was better than making players wait for the entire fix.
• Fixed a bug with the recipe for Ginger Pear Tarts that excluded Dough from the recipe.
• Increased the karma costs of all Bulk Cooking Materials.
• Increased the refinement costs of all Wood Planks from 2 logs to 3 logs.
• Yellow Dye recipes now include Onions instead of Celery.
• Adjusted the ingredient costs on Dye recipes.
• The following Cooking Materials are no longer sold for Karma and are now acquired through drops, gathering nodes, or loot bags: Butter, Chocolate, Vanilla, Chili Peppers, Thyme, Black Peppercorns, Cinnamon, Bay Leaves, Walnuts, and Oranges.

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Guild Wars 2 Mass Account Hacks

According to the Ars Technica website over 11,000 Guild Wars 2 accounts have been affected by password attacks recently perpetrated by hackers. Apparently the hackers have obtained huge lists of email addresses and passwords stolen from a recently hacked Guild Wars 2 fansite. Just last weekend ArenaNet officials have stated that they received around 8,500 support tickets relating to the account hacks.

A recent post in the Guild Wars 2 Wiki addresses the issue:

Hackers have lists of email addresses and passwords stolen from other games and web sites, and collected through spyware, and are systematically testing Guild Wars 2 looking for matching accounts. To protect yourself, use a strong, unique password for Guild Wars 2 that you've never used anywhere else!

When accounts are hacked and then used for botting or spamming ads for gold sales, we ban the accounts until we can return them to their rightful owner. If you login and see the message, "this account has been permanently banned for a violation of the User Agreement," and if you're not a gold seller, it's likely that your account was hacked. Please contact customer support using the instructions below.

If you see email authentication messages in your inbox asking you to approve a login that you didn't initiate and from someplace you don't recognize, that's a sign that a hacker knows your account name and password, and is only being prevented by the email authentication feature from accessing your account. You should immediately change your password to a new, unique password that you've never used anywhere else.

You can find more tips for keeping your Guild Wars 2 account secure in this article.
 

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Guild Wars 2 Game Status Updates For September 8

A new round of Guild Wars 2 updates are currently being released on September 8th, 2012. All the details regarding the latest changes are as follows:

Last Night's Update

• Fixed the issue with parties not staying together as they travel into dungeons.
• Fixed issues with the storyline steps "A Light in the Darkness,"
  "Estate of Decay," "Explosive Intellect," "Rumors of Trouble," "The Lost Chieftain's Return," and "Tribunes in Effigy."
• Added an option to stop queueing for your home world, for players who want to remain on an overflow server indefinitely without being asked.

Today's Back-End Work

• Fixed PvP tournament rewards.

Tonight's Update

• Will add the ability to report in-game mail.
• Will reset monthly achievements for players who have been stuck at 100%, to help those whose achievements didn't reset correctly on September 1. (Note that daily achievements reset each day at 00:00 GMT and monthly achievements reset on the first of each month at 00:00 GMT.)
• Will include fixes for various blocked events and skill challenges.

Next software updates

The next software update will be tonight at midnight Seattle time. We don't expect significant downtime; however players may experience some connectivity issues at this time.

Source: Guild Wars 2 Wiki

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