1/25/2022—January 25 Release Notes

Lunar New Year

As another new year dawns on Tyria, join the festivities in Divinity’s Reach! The Year of the Tiger is upon us, and the Lunar New Year Festival returns with new rewards and refreshed activities. Collect and open lucky envelopes to earn essences of luck, delicious foods, fireworks, valuable items, and a chance to find the new Lucky Tiger Lantern backpacks!

The Lunar New Year annual meta-achievement, Lunar New Year Customs, has been updated with a new reward, the Primal Tiger Hood! Last year’s meta-achievement reward, the Lunar-Enchanted Gloves, can now be purchased from the Lunar New Year rewards vendors.
A new weekly achievement, (Weekly) Lunar Festivities, has been added. Complete various festival activities earn the achievement and gain rewards each week!
Lucky Envelope rewards have been updated with new items for the Year of the Tiger, including a new backpack to celebrate the Year of the Tiger in style.
New items have been added to the festival reward vendors.
New guild decorations have been added to commemorate the Year of the Tiger.
A number of festival-related bugs have been fixed to ensure a happy holiday for all heroes.

Lunar New Year will be active until February 15 at noon Pacific Time (UTC-8). See you in Divinity’s Reach!

12/14/2021—December 14 Release Notes

Wintersday

Come join us in celebrating Wintersday—Toymaker Tixx has made his annual visit to Divinity’s Reach to spread seasonal cheer and festivity! Bring the cheer of Wintersday to the distant north in the Secret Lair of the Snowmen, complete daily achievements to earn fanciful holiday weapons, save Wintersday for the orphans around Divinity’s Reach by giving them wrapped gifts, and test your snow-throwing skills against other players in Snowball Mayhem. You can also experience the joy of jumping in Winter Wonderland, defend against waves of toys in Toypocalypse, and help keep Tixx’s airship, The Infinirarium, in order! You will also see Wintersday gifts appearing all around Tyria.

The Wintersday annual meta-achievement, Wintersday Traditions, has been updated with a new armor reward: the Embellished Wintersday Gift Bag. Transport your gifts around Tyria with this lavish new backpack! Last year’s meta-achievement reward, the Festive Winter Hood, can now be purchased from festival rewards vendors.
A new weekly achievement, (Weekly) Wintersday Festivities, has been added. Complete various festival activities to complete it and earn rewards each week!
With its charitable mission complete, the yearly donation event to aid the city of Amnoon has been retired. In its place, the Replica Ho-Ho-Tron has relocated the staging ground for its own donation-seeking event.
- This has resulted in a slightly longer donation delivery route. To compensate, the gift dolyak has been training in the off-season and can trot faster to keep its scheduled arrival time.
Orphans in Divinity’s Reach who have not received a daily gift will now display an overhead marker to help locate them.
Toypocalypse has been significantly updated:
- The number of waves per round has been reduced from 5 to 3. Enemy toys per wave is unchanged in Round 1 but escalates through Round 10.
- Destructible decorations now reappear after 10 minutes instead of 15.
- Increased the setup time before the first attack round from 30 seconds to 60 seconds.
- Defense gadgets now display the time until they disappear as an effect.
  - They have always had an unseen lifetime limit, which caused confusion about what was causing gadgets to disappear over time.
- Overhauled the skills of the Toy Repair Pistol and renamed it the Toy Control Pistol to more accurately describe its use:
  - Reprogram: Improved control effectiveness and reduced cooldown.
  - Disorienting Blast: Now additionally hits a small area, slows enemies, and can break decorations.
- Adjusted the skills of the Toy Cap Rifle to ease its use and allow it to more easily break decorations:
  - Big Shot: Reduced channel time and increased damage.
  - Penetrating Shot: Reduced channel time.
  - Rifle Butt: Reduced cooldown duration, damage, and aftercast delay.
- Increased the size of the main platform’s healing aura.
- Added a movement speed skill to construction bundles.
- Improved map markers and event behavior across Toypocalypse.
- Players can no longer leave the preparation area before the event begins.
Added new items to festival reward vendors and Wintersday Gifts.
The icon for Mini Freezie has been updated to better match its scowling face.
- Coincidentally, a new, happier Mini Wintersday Cheer Freezie is now available from the Wintersday Chest at the end of the Secret Lair of the Snowmen.
New winter-themed guild decorations have been added.
A number of festival-related bugs have been fixed to ensure a happy holiday for all heroes.

Wintersday will be active until January 4 at noon Pacific Time (UTC-8). See you in Divinity’s Reach!

General

Changed the initial armor appearance for light-armored characters from the Apprentice armor set to the Country armor set.

Items

In January, we made some adjustments to high-value cosmetic infusion sources to improve their availability. These changes resulted in good progress but didn’t move the needle as far as we would like, so we’re making some more. Our data shows a significant percentage of Charged Quartz Orichalcum Amulets containing cosmetic upgrades are destroyed or salvaged with a kit that does not guarantee upgrade extraction, so to skip the middleman, the upgrades will now drop directly.

Replaced the Charged Quartz Orichalcum Amulet of the Exalted from Grand Exalted Chests and Glowing Stones with the upgrade it contained, a Vial of Liquid Aurillium.
Replaced the Charged Quartz Orichalcum Amulet of the Hive from the Vinewrath Chest with the upgrade it contained, a Preserved Queen Bee.
Replaced the Charged Quartz Orichalcum Amulet of the Chak from the Gerent’s Chest with the upgrade it contained, a Chak Egg Sac.
Increased the drop rate of the Chak Egg Sac from the Gerent’s Chest.
Increased the drop rate of the Festive Confetti Infusion from the “Stop the choya pinata before it gets away!” event bonus chest.
Increased the drop rate of the Heart of the Khan-Ur infusion from the “Recovered” Charr Artifact.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE

Check out www.guildwars2.com every week for the most up-to-date information on Black Lion Trading Company Gem Store releases.

Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue in which a few Black Lion skins were being excluded from the Transmutation system.

11/30/2021—November 30 Release Notes

Beta Event 4

11/30/2021—November 30 Release Notes
Beta Event 4
We’re excited to begin our final End of Dragons™ elite specialization beta event, running from November 30 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-8) through December 4 at 10:00 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-8).

All players will see three new beta character slots appear on the character selection screen that allow them to create and play a fully geared, level-80 beta character of any race for the duration of the weekend.

You can use this character in PvE, WvW, and unranked PvP in any core Tyria or previous expansion map content, including Heart of Thorns™ and Path of Fire™. Maps from the upcoming expansion, End of Dragons, are not available for beta testing.

The beta character slots are only accessible during an active beta event and will be deleted between elite specialization beta events.

In this beta event, all nine elite specializations featured in our previous three beta events are available for play, along with the siege turtle mount.

Beta Character Limitations

Progress is not carried over from beta characters to live characters.
Beta characters may not participate in ranked PvP matches.
Beta characters do not share normal account-wide inventory with nonbeta characters, (e.g., wallet, karma, shared inventory slots, and bank access).
Beta characters cannot access the trading post.
Beta characters cannot mail gold or items.
Beta characters have access to a copy of your account’s Legendary Armory. Legendary items newly added to your Legendary Armory while a beta event is in progress will not be usable by beta characters during that beta event.
Siege Turtle
Join us in testing our first multiplayer mount, the siege turtle. All beta characters will have access to the siege turtle via the mounts skill slot for use across PvE open world content for the duration of the weekend.

With Canthan isolation, the Luxon Armada has become a thing of the past, but the remnants of the once great society have been able to maintain their traditions by continuing to raise siege turtles. Modern turtles are now outfitted with the latest jade tech. From powerful jump jets that can carry them across the Jade Sea to great siege cannons to pummel their enemies to dust, siege turtles represent the merging of past traditions with Cantha’s technological future.

The siege turtle comes with two seats. The owner will take on the role of the driver, controlling movement, the turtle’s basic Slam attack, and any previously unlocked mount utility skills. The passenger will control the turtle’s turrets and can give the driver a boost with Overdrive. To join another player’s mount as a passenger, you will need to join their party or squad.

The siege turtle is only available to newly created beta characters and will be unlocked by default.
This beta event does not include the Siege Turtle Mastery line. Five Masteries will be available when End of Dragons is released.
The siege turtle follows the same usage restrictions as standard mounts.
The siege turtle will NOT be available in WvW during the beta event or when End of Dragons is released.
We’ll consider adding a version of the siege turtle to WvW sometime after the launch of End of Dragons, but only after player involvement in the discussion and decision.
World Polish
After a number of administrative petitions, the Divinity’s Reach decorative guidelines committee has replaced the out-of-date Watchknight Statues in the Crown Pavilion district with the more modern Watchknight Mk II.
General
In preparation for End of Dragons, additional face and hair options have been added for all playable species. These are available through character creation or Total Makeover Kits. Total Makeover Kits can be purchased in the Utility category of the Gem Store.

Three new hair and face options have been added for charr, norn, asura, and sylvari characters.
Four new hair options and six new faces have been added for human characters.
Items
Dredge Rifle (Consumable): This consumable bundle can no longer be activated in dungeons and fractals.
Profession Skills
General
New Hotkey—Set Personal Target: This hotkey will allow you to set a target in similar fashion to Call Target, but it is not seen or modified by allies.
New Hotkey—Take Personal Target: This hotkey will allow you to recall your previously set personal target.
New Hotkey—Ally Targeting Mode: This hotkey will engage you in ally targeting mode while the button is held down.
New Hotkey—Toggle Ally Targeting: This hotkey will engage and disengage ally targeting mode when pressed.
Rune of Surging: Fixed an issue in which certain elite skills would not trigger the sixth bonus effect of this rune.
Guardian
Firebrand
Fixed issues related to squad ally targeting with mantra skills.
Fixed issues related to source attribution of Ashes of the Just when multiple firebrands have put Ashes of the Just on the same targets.
Necromancer
Death Shroud: This skill no longer disables autoattack when activated or deactivated.
Reaper
Reaper’s Shroud: This skill no longer disables autoattack when activated or deactivated.
Ranger
Natural Convergence: Fixed an issue in which this skill granted might around the target instead of the player when traited with Grace of the Land.
Warrior
Signet Mastery: Fixed the skill description on Lesser Signet of Might to display the correct duration and stacks of might granted by this trait.
BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
Check out guildwars2.com every week for the most up-to-date information on Black Lion Trading Company Gem Store releases.

11/09/2021—November 9 Release Notes

World Polish

Events during Dragonstorm have been updated to not award participation to inactive players.
Increased the minimum participation required to receive the end rewards from Dragonstorm.
Reduced the health scaling of nonchampion enemies per player above 1 in Dragon Response Missions.
In Forging Steel, throwing metal scraps to the tank when it is near full health will now give it a temporary speed boost.
In Forging Steel, the defiance bar strength per player of the Ancient Forgeman has been slightly reduced.

General

When equipped, the visual effects of the legendary trinkets Transcendence, Vision, and Aurora can now be toggled via a checkbox in the Equipment tab of the Hero panel.

Items

Fixed an issue with the physics and lighting on The Crossing staff.

World vs. World

Addressed an exploit that allowed siege weapons to be placed within the red-team spawn location in Eternal Battlegrounds.
Addressed an exploit that allowed siege weapons to be placed within the home world spawn in Alpine Borderlands.
Increased the number of pips earned for match placement from 3/4/5 to 4/5/6.
Added a new pip bonus for new players of WvW rank 1–149.
Increased the number of pips given per WvW rank by 1.
Removed the Outnumbered pip bonus effect.
Removed the WvW participation grace time granted from repairing.