Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns - The Reaper, Necromancer's Elite Specialization

The Reaper, the Necromancer's Elite Specialization in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, is a devastating melee brawler that is at home in battle when surrounded by as many enemies as possible, cleaving through hapless foes for lifeforce sustainment. Once the Reaper has enough life force they can transform into a devastating avatar of destruction that leaves enemies frozen in terror. Learn more about the Reaper on this page: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/me...

"What class should I play?" - A summary of each profession to help you decide

 

One of the most common questions asked on this subreddit is “What class should I play?” In Guild Wars 2 you're not confined to a certain combat role by your character class, and instead what class you should use is determined mainly by your play style. Picking the class that's right for you is an important, but sometimes daunting choice.

Below is a brief summary of each of the eight playable classes – noting their pros, cons and unique mechanics. This guide doesn't go into details about each game mode or provide popular builds, but instead gives an outline of what is appealing about each class and lets you discover the details.

Also it's worth noting that while I may mark some classes as 'Easy to play', this refers to their learning curve. In truth every class has a very high skill ceiling and you'll never "outgrow" an easy class - there's always more tricks to learn and tactics to master.

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Warriors

Easy to play, High Durability
Heavily armored and well armed, warriors are your go-to front line brawler, built to take out opponents with ample amounts of brute force and aggression. With the highest defense in the game, a wide array of weapons to choose from and a number of offense boosting capabilities, warriors fight enemies toe-to-toe and overwhelm them.

Adrenaline is a special mechanic to help warriors in combat. Adrenaline is built each time a warrior lands an attack, slowly filling a meter above your weapon skills. This adrenaline bar allows you to unleash a powerful attack based on what weapon you're holding in your main hand – ranging from laying down giant rings of fire to powerful single strikes. The more adrenaline you've built up, the more powerful the effect when you activate it.

+High Damage Output - Warriors are the undisputed kings and queens of the raw numbers game. No matter what your build or weapon choice you're still going to be very dangerous.
+Natural Durability - Along with good damage warriors can also claim to have the highest possible health and armor totals available to players, making them very hard to take down.
+Weapon Selection - No matter how you want to fight, or who you're fighting, warriors have a tool for every occasion. Want some ranged AoE Damage? Go longbow. Looking for some added condition damage? Pick up a sword. Want to punt somebody off a cliff? Hammers work just fine for that.
+Offensive Support - Warriors are no slouch when it comes to supporting allies, and they really shine when it comes to adding to your party's damage output, using a number of shouts and banners to add more raw damage to any party.
-Shallow Bag of Tricks - Warriors have their fair share of control conditions like stuns and immobilizes, but even using those they're still forced to come at their foes head on. If you can't win by direct combat, warriors have very few alternatives.

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Guardians

Medium difficulty, High Durability
Guardians are an armored hybrid class, able to fight with both sword and magic. Based on the classic paladin archetype, guardians specialize using boons to bolstering themselves and allies while still being effective in direct combat.

Fitting with the theme of buffs and boons, guardians have a special mechanic know as Virtues. Virtues provide a guardian with three always-on buffs to strengthen them. These buffs can be temporarily sacrificed to empower nearby allies, turning a personal source of power into potent support tools.

+Survivability - Guardians actually have very low health pools and lackluster healing skills, but more than compensate for it in other ways. The Virtue of Resolve provides constant health regeneration when active, Virtue of Courage allows guardians to block attacks periodically, and a number of weapon and utility skills provide added regeneration, protection and healing. They also wear heavy armor to mitigate whatever damage does manage to get through.
+Strong Boons - One of the best support classes in the game, guardians stack boons on themselves and allies with ease. Beside the quantity of boons they can throw out, guardians have ready access to nearly every boon in the game, allowing them to buff allies however it's needed.
+Damage Prevention and Healing - Possibly their strongest feature, guardians have a number of skills that remove conditions, restore health or straight-up deflect enemy attacks. A well timed skill like Shield of Absorption can save your entire party from certain doom.
-Poor Ranged Combat - Guardians are respectable fighters while in melee range, but in ranged combat they're lackluster. They only have one true ranged combat weapon, and while it deals good damage it's awkward when trying to hit a moving target.
-Long Cooldowns - To offset the potential impact of all their powerful blocks and heals, many Guardian skills have very long recharge times – so if you mistime your skills, you may not get a second chance.

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Ranger

Easy to play, Medium Durability
Rangers are a jack-of-all-trades class, with weapons and skills to help them adapt to anything they might face. Fighting at melee or range, rangers use quick movements and agility to outmaneuver foes in a fight.

A ranger's special mechanic is their pets. A ranger may charm any pet he finds in the open world, and once he does so can switch to it or any other pet he's charmed whenever he's out of combat. Your animal companions come in a variety of shapes and sizes ranging from tanky bears and hounds to swift and deadly hawks and cats, each with unique stats and skills. Though not always reliable, pets can provide a boost to your damage output and protect you from harm.

+Versatile - If you ever find yourself in a situation you're not prepared for, you're playing the class wrong. With many classes you have to specifically gear and trait yourself to fill a role, a ranger can swap between combat roles easier than any other class, and still do them effectively. Rangers can also pick a more specialized pet to compensate for any weaknesses they may have.
+Ranged Combat - Rangers have effective melee weapons, but their ranged combat abilities are especially noteworthy – rangers have arguably the best ranged single target damage of any class.
+Mobility - Rangers have a number of jumps, rolls and evades built into their weapons, allowing them to skirt around the edge of a conflict or dance around an attacker with ease. Kite like a boss.
-Awkward AoE damage - While still able to deal damage to multiple targets, rangers have a hard time doing it – usually requiring them to line up multiple foes and hit them with a single arrow, or getting in close and laying traps at their enemy's feet.
-Pets can be Unreliable - While they can certainly save your butt in small skirmishes, pets can be downed very quickly in some situations. Most notably pet's don't dodge out of AoE spells, making them useless in large group fights like WvW or some dungeons.

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Engineer

Hard to play, Medium Durability
Engineers are one of the most unique classes in GW2, and in MMOs in general for that matter. Although only able to equip a handful of conventional weapons, engineers have access to a number of specialty weapon kits like flamethrowers and grenades, giving them a deceptive number of combat options. Engineers also have a large number of tricks and gizmos to help them, though learning to master these tools can be difficult.

An engineer's unique mechanic is their tool belt. Essentially, instead of equipping a single healing or utility skill in each slot, engineers equip a pair of skills – one is the “normal” version equipped to the slot and another corresponding skill is equipped to your tool belt. For instance you can equip 'Elixer B' to your normal slot, and 'Throw Elixer B' will be added to your tool belt. These tool belt skills are often weaker compared to normal utility and healing skills, but the added versatility they offer are a powerful tool in the hands of a engineer.

+Weapon Kits - Engineers have a pitiful 3 combinations of conventional weapons, but it's hard to notice that when you're switching between a flamethrower, twin pistols and elixer guns on whim. Equipped as utility or healing skills, weapon kits replace your current weapon once activated, turning one utility skill into 5 separate attacks. You can swap between weapon kits freely and there's no cooldown like there is with other class' weapon swapping, ensuring always have access to the right tool for the job.
+Conditions and Boons - Engineers have access to a crazy number of boons and support abilities. They are also one of the most effective classes at stacking conditions on a target.
+Huge Number of Skills Available - Between weapon kits and tool belt skills, engineers have access to a impressive number of tools and toys at any given time.
-Complicated - The above point can actually be a huge downside to newer players, as it takes time to learn what your myriad of skills can do. For instance, if you have an elixer gun equipped you can pull it out and lay down a healing field, but in the chaos of combat it can be easy to forget about it – or if you do remember you have it, remembering what buttons to hit to get it.
-Melee is Awkward - While they do have a few short-ranged tools, engineers aren't really built for close combat, so dealing with closing enemies can be difficult – especially for newer players.

Thief

Medium difficulty, Low Durability
Thieves are your classic assassin or rogue type characters, boasting superior damage output and mobility. Thieves are adept at moving in and out of combat, striking down a target at the instant an opportunity presents itself and then getting away safely.

Thieves have a number of smaller unique mechanics to them. First is that thieves can steal from opponents – activating your Steal ability teleports you to your target and grants you a single use of one of several special skills, depending on what type of creature you stole from. Thieves also have no cooldown on their weapon skills, instead they use Initiative which is a resource shared between all your weapon skills. You can use Initiative to repeatedly spam a weaker attack or spend it all to use a powerful skill several times in a row. Last, when a thief is wielding two one-handed weapons they can use both of them for a Dual Wield attack that changes based on what specific weapon combination you have equipped.

+Burst Damage - Using their Initiative system, thieves can unload a large amount of damage in a very short amount of time. Combined with their naturally opportunistic fighting style, thieves are very good at spiking down targets.
+Mobility and Positioning - Thieves have access to a number of teleports and dodges, allowing them to engage and disengage their enemies with ease. Because they can cover a lot of ground quickly, thieves are very good at catching foes when they're weak and unprepared.
+Stealth - More so than any other class, thieves can utilize stealth. A number of utility skills – and even a healing skill – allow you to cloak you and nearby allies to let you slip away from dangerous situations or sneak up on enemies.
-Fragile - Although they wear medium armor thieves have a very low amount of health, so you'll have to make good use of your mobility to make sure take as little damage as possible.
-Loses Effectiveness in Large Group Combat - Thieves are much better at dueling or picking off lone opponent than they are in large scale combat - their ranged weapons don't have a very long reach, and they only have a handful of AoE skills.

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Elementalist

Hard to play, Low Durability
At first glance you may think of an elementalist as your typical stand-and-deliver magic caster, but if you try to use them as a back line artillery piece you won't get very far. An elemantalist is a complex and intricate class, and getting the most out of them is difficult – but very rewarding. Boasting some serious damage output, powerful utility and arguably the best mobility in the game, a well played elementalist is a very powerful fighter.

The unique mechanic of an elementalist is their ability to channel four elements – Fire, Water, Air or Earth. Depending on what element you're currently channeling you'll have access to a completely unique set of weapon skills (with their own separate cooldowns), and the properties of many of your utility skills will change as well.

+Elemental Attunements - Your ability to channel different elements essentially turns your one equipped weapon set into four – each with a different specialization. Learning when to swap to each element and using your full arsenal of skills is essential to playing an elementalist – if you only stay in Fire the whole time you're locking yourself out of the elementalist's full potential.
+Mobility - To compensate for their low survivability, elementalists have a large repertoire or movement skills to get themselves out of trouble. Much QQ has been had from players trying to chase down a wounded elementalist.
+Lots of Combos - Elementalists are the masters of 2 + 2 = 7. An elementalists can use many skills in tandem to produce results much greater than the sum of their parts. Not only can elementalists combo with their own skills, but they also lay down a number of elemental combo fields to help allies as well.
-Terrible in a Straight Fight - The downside to having so many neat tools is that you're expected to use them. If you don't milk your skills for all they're worth or make proper use of combo fields, elementalists are pretty weak.
-Very Fragile - Elementalists are far and away the squishiest class in the game. If you can't mitigate or avoid damage you'll be spending a LOT of your time admiring the floor.

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Necromancer

Easy to play, High Durability
An interesting take on the typical dark spell caster, necromancers combine a large and versatility skill set with an amazing amount of staying power. Necromancers win through attrition and pressuring opponents into submission, able to inflict an impressive number of conditions and shrug off counter attacks – the longer a battle goes, the more of an advantage a necromancer builds over their opponent.

A necromancer has use of Death Shroud, which provides a them with a unique set of skills as well as acting as a secondary health pool. As nearby creatures die or as a necromancer uses certain skills, your Life Force bar will fill up. A necromancer can then use their accumulated Life Force to activate Death Shroud – your Life Force drains over time or as you take damage, but while in Death Shroud your skills are replaced with a new unique skill set. While in Death Shroud damage you take is subtracted from your accumulated Life Force and not your health, giving necromancers a huge boost to their already great survivability.

+Versatile Skill Sets - Even a year after launch there's STILL a ton of debating among necromancers as to the most effective play style – that should tell you just how many different strong play styles there are. While many people prefer condition based play necromancers can also tank, control opponents, lay down impressive AoE damage, summon hordes of minions or even heal and support allies.
+Conditions - When properly equipped for it, Necromancers are considered the best class in the game at stacking conditions on their unfortunate targets. Necromancers have access to a number of powerful controlling effects (most notably Fear) as well as being able to stack health degeneration effects like Bleeding on multiple opponents for heavy sustained damage.
+Survivability - Between Death Shroud, their large health pools, their great healing skills and traits that allow you to leach health from enemies, necromancers are very sturdy. They do wear light armor though – otherwise they'd be unkillable. Necromancers also have access to a number of skills to help them defend against particular enemy strategies – for instance Spectral Armor can help you survive burst damage, or Consume Conditions can alleviate a lot of condition pressure.
-Limited Mobility - Once they have someone in their grasp, necromancers can control and pressure them forever – the tricky part is catching them in the first place. Their lack of mobility also makes escaping from a losing situation more difficult as well.

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Mesmer

Hard to play, Low Durability
Mesmers are the trademark class of the Guild Wars series and are one of the most unique, subtle and deadly classes in any game. Specializing in manipulating foes and countering their opponents strategies, a good mesmer will generate more hate in PvP chat than all other classes combined.

A mesmer specializes in creating Illusions to either confuse, damage or otherwise hinder their foes. These summoned pets resemble their owner and come in two varieties: Clones look just like their creators and have low combat abilities, designed more to trick opponents momentarily. Phantasms are noticeably transparent and magical, and have powerful attacks to add to a mesmer's damage output. All Illusions can be used by the mesmer with their Shatter skills, which causes Illusions to self destruct in exchange for one of several powerful effects depending on which Shatter is used.

+Tons of Unique Tricks - A mesmer has a very large arsenal of tools including reflecting projectiles, stealthing allies, creating portals for allies to warp through, making decoys, and much more. A good mesmer always has something on hand to turn the tables on their opponent.
+Powerful “Pet” Play - You know what's more frustrating to fight than a mesmer? Four mesmers. A mesmer can summon Illusions as temporary allies, so your enemies always have multiple opponents to worry about. If you're lucky you can even get your opponent to waste powerful attacks on your Clones.
+Control - As a mesmer, you'll be making your opponent fight on YOUR terms. Stacking Confusion to punish them for using skills, blocking attacks, reflecting projectiles, teleports, or constantly harassing enemies with your Illusions, a mesmer will always find a way to throw their opponent off their game.
-Fragile - One of the least durable classes in the game, mesmers are forced to rely on their many blocking and mobility skills to survive. Having weak condition removal skills doesn't help either – you're only defense is not getting hit in the first place.
-Ineffective in Direct Combat - If you exhaust your bag of tricks mesmers are very poor at exchanging blows with opponents. Mesmers can't dish out much damage without their Illusions and other tools, so if you find yourself in a corner you're going to be at the mercy of a very, very angry warrior.

Guide by: SnickyMcNibits

June 25, 2013 - Sky Pirates of Tyria

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/june-25-2013/

June 25, 2013

Chaos has come to Lion’s Arch and the culprits responsible for the mayhem have holed up in their hideout! Inspector Ellen Kiel spearheaded the investigation into the murder, and she’s now gathering teams of deputies to capture the perpetrator. Better sharpen your weapons and skills—this criminal promises to be a slippery eel!

New Story Dungeon: Aetherblade Retreat – June 25-July 9

Find the hidden entrance to the Aetherblade base and take the fight to the pirates! It’ll take skill, courage, and no small measure of agility to battle your way to the Aetherblade Captain and First Mate.

Developer Livestream – June 24 at 12PM PDT

Take an inside look at the Sky Pirates of Tyria release with ArenaNet devs during the preview livestream on our Twitch channel on Monday, June 24 at 12PM PDT.

New Guild Wars Novel: Sea of Sorrows – Available June 25

We’re proud to announce Sea of Sorrows, the third original Guild Wars novel by Ree Soesbee! Sea of Sorrows follows the thrilling adventures of young Cobiah Marriner, founder of the reborn city of Lion’s Arch.

Sea of Sorrows Scavenger Hunt—Begins June 25

In this new permanent content, retrace the steps of Cobiah Marriner. Twelve plaques have been set up to honor the history of the city and its founder. You can find clues to the plaques’ locations in Sea of Sorrows. Complete the scavenger hunt to earn five skill points.

Aetherblade “Not So Secret” Jumping Puzzle – Begins July 1

Introducing a new, permanent jumping puzzle! An Aetherblade airship is hidden inside a holographic mountain – find your way in, fight with the pirates inside, and prove your prowess using a pair of hard-to-find diving goggles.

Rewards

Track Down Aetherblade Caches! – June 25-July 9

The Aetherblade pirates have hidden caches of plunder around the world in hard-to-reach locations. Scout them out to take a share of treasure and earn special achievements.

Mini First Mate Horrik

Commemorate your struggle against the Sky Pirates of Tyria with this fierce, cannon-wielding miniature companion. Finish the Against the Aetherblades achievement to win a little First Mate Horrik for your very own.

Monocle

Players who face down the deadly Aetherblade Captain will have a chance at a new, stylish Monocle. This dandy piece of Headgear is combat-ready, tradeable, and full of sophistication!

Aetherized Rewards

Your journeys through the Aetherblade Retreat will earn you a chance for items like rare salvageable materials or a new infinite tonic recipe in addition to guaranteed rare item rewards. Enduring the trials of the Not So Secret jumping puzzle will win you a set of exotic shoulderpads.

New Items in the Gem Store

Last Chance to Get Dragon Bash Items!

The Dragon Bash items won’t be in the Gem Store forever – you only have until July 8 to pick up a Fireworks Launcher or some Rich Dragon Coffers! Rich Dragon Coffers hold tasty candy and a chance at fireworks or rare drops like Dragon’s Jade Weapon skins or a mini Holographic Risen Knight. The Dragon Bash Mini Pack is also leaving the Gem Store soon; it won’t be available after July 15, so be sure to pick up your holographic companions before then!

New Features

Skill and Trait Balance Update

We’re introducing our largest balance patch ever in this build, which includes significant updates to traits and skills to introduce more viable build diversity. Every single profession trait line is seeing changes and we’ve also made updates to some less popular skills to improve their effectiveness.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/upcoming-skill-and-trait-changes/

Custom Arenas and Spectator Mode are out of Beta!

Custom PvP arenas allow players to host private matches and customize their map settings. This feature is leaving beta, which means that Custom Arena Starter Kits will be available for anyone to purchase in the Gem Store. Spectator Mode is also officially out of beta – together, these two features allow for practice, competitive play, and tournaments!

Mortar Mastery Joins the Growing List of World vs World Abilities!

Players can increase their mortar effectiveness by training in Mortar Mastery. Improvements in this line include increasing mortar blast radius, beefing up on damage, reducing skill recharge, and even adding a new skill, Mortar Barrage!

Game Update Notes - January 28, 2013

LIVING STORY
Flame and Frost: Prelude
A mystery presents itself in this first entry in a multipart Living Story series. What could be causing such discord in the foothills of the Shiverpeaks? All those poor homesteaders and ranchers displaced with nowhere to go calls into question if the storms could be that bad—or if there’s something more sinister stirring up the flame and frost. The ground is shaking, and the sky is falling in northern Wayfarer Foothills and Diessa Plateau. Norn and charr refugees, crawling from the wreckage of their homes, are fighting their way to shelter in Hoelbrak and the Black Citadel. Many are in shock and wounded; most have only what they can carry on their backs. A call has gone out for volunteers to assist them in their time of need, when the environment itself seems to have become their enemy.

Achievements

• A new Living Story achievement category has been added, which will contain a series of achievements specific to the storylines unfolding in Tyria.
• The first Living Story achievement, Refugee Volunteer, has been added. Players who complete this achievement by playing the Flame and Frost: Prelude content will be rewarded with the Volunteer title. They will also receive a karma reward via in-game mail.
• More achievements will be added as the Living Story continues to unfold.

Events

• New Living Story events have been added to Wayfarer Foothills and Diessa Plateau.

Heralds

• Starting shortly after the January 28^th^ update, heralds will begin appearing in cities across Tyria. Their task is to keep adventurers apprised of the events currently underway that are driving the Living Story forward. Be sure to check in with them if you need direction.

Other Content

• Persistent world content related to the story of the refugees has been added to Wayfarer Foothills, Diessa Plateau, the Black Citadel, and Hoelbrak. This content will continue to change and evolve as the story unfolds, so be sure to keep checking back.

NEW FEATURES AND CONTENT
Daily/Monthly Achievements
Rewards
A new currency has been added: the laurel. Players earn one laurel for completion of the daily achievement category and ten laurels for completion of the monthly achievement category. This new currency can be spent at laurel vendors in all of the major cities to obtain over 90 items, including:

• A new category of infusion, the utility infusion
• Ascended amulets
• Crafting starter kits
• WvW blueprints
• Obsidian shards
• New boosters, advanced harvesting tools, and crafting trophy bags
• A new, unique miniature: Goedulf, the mythical wolf-cub spirit that protects lost norn children
• A new, unique miniature: Chauncey von Snuffles III, who placed second in the Divinity’s Reach Fanciest Cat competition

UI

• Achievement tracking UI has been added to provide at-a-glance information on daily and monthly achievements as well as quick access to the achievements panel.

Achievements

• New daily achievements have been added.
• Daily achievements now rotate on a daily basis.
• Daily achievements now only have a single tier.
• The number of achievement points awarded for daily achievements has been adjusted.

Dungeons

• Polished dungeons and removed the ability to use waypoints while any player is in combat.

Dynamic Leveling

• Attribute calculations for dynamic level scaling have been rebalanced. In general, this means weaker when adjusted down, stronger when adjusted up. Rewards when adjusted down have been increased to compensate. It is now possible to receive your own level of loot from any level of enemy.

Fractals of the Mists

• Players can now reconnect to the Fractals of the Mists if they are disconnected.
• Players can now connect to a fractal map even if they are not part of the original group that created the fractal instance.
• Players can revive at a checkpoint in fractal maps if the entire party is out of combat.
• Players are no longer prevented from entering fractal maps. The difficulty of the fractals is shared, and players will receive rewards based on their “reward level.”
• Reward level increases as players complete fractal rounds.
• If players have a higher reward level than the current fractal difficulty, they will receive bonus karma at the end of a round. However, item rewards are set to the minimum of the fractal scale and reward level.
• Daily Fractals of the Mists bonus chests are awarded after defeating the kraken. The rewards are now based off of the minimum of the player’s reward level or current fractal scale.

Guesting

• Players may now log in to a world other than their home world as a guest.
  • On the character select screen, click the “World Selection” button.
  • Choose a world you would like to guest on and click the “Guest” button.
  • Select any of your characters and select “Play” to log in to the world you chose as a guest.
• Guesting has some limits and restrictions:
  • You may only guest on worlds in the same region as your home world. Players on American home worlds cannot guest on European worlds or vice versa.
  • You may not participate in World vs. World for any guest world. If you choose to enter World vs. World, you will be moved back to your home world. Only changing your home world using a world transfer can change your World vs. World participation.
  • You are only eligible to guest on 2 different worlds at a time. Each time you guest on a world, that world becomes available to play on for the next 24 hours. After 24 hours, you may choose to guest on a different world. You may log in to any active guesting world as many times as you wish with no restriction.
  • Guesting on worlds that are full or highly populated increases your risk of being put into an overflow map.
  • While guesting, all guild influence earned will be applied to your home world, and you will only have access to your home world guild benefits, including the guild vault.

World Transfer Fee

• It now costs a gem fee to transfer your home world.
• Gem fees for world transfers are based on the population of the world you are transferring to.
• Each account is still limited to one transfer every 7 days.
• Players still cannot transfer to servers that are “Full.”

Orr

• The Risen creatures all across Orr have had their population density adjusted.
• Areas, chests, and merchants in Orr now offer better rewards.
• See “World Polish – Orr” below for more details.

UI Improvements

• Changes have been made to the attributes section of the hero panel to cleanly display more information.
• Several PvP dialogs no longer take UI focus away from chat when opening.
• Players can once again preview armor and weapons that cannot be equipped by their character.

Structured Player vs. Player
January 28th – February 4th Is Temple of the Silent Storm Week

• Instead of 3-round paid tournaments, there will be a 1-round match between 2 teams on the Temple of the Silent Storm map.
• The price for entry will be 3 tickets per player.
• Rewards for the test will be reduced from the normal paid tournaments.
• After the game is finished, both teams will be returned to the lobby, where they can reenter the tournament queue.
• To participate, go to the PvP lobby and speak to the Tournament Master.
• At the end of this period, the Temple of the Silent Storm map will be added to the tournament rotation.
• Skillbars now have team-colored backgrounds in sPvP.

World vs. World

• Character load times in WvW have been improved through the use of preloaded placeholder models.

BALANCE, BUG-FIXING, POLISH
Dungeons
General

• Fixed a bug where creatures in dungeons were no longer becoming invulnerable to players they couldn’t reach.
• Updated the costs of several dungeon reward items to be consistent with their costs in other dungeons. These include leggings, chestpieces, and shoulder armor from Ascalonian Catacombs; tridents and assorted armor pieces from Sorrow’s Embrace; and focuses from Caudecus’s Manor.

Fractals of the Mists

• Swampland fractal: The tripwires have been rebuilt to reflect their names. Several have been lifted out of the ground and made more visible.
• Fractal Marshes: The traps in the first area now scale with the difficulty scale of the fractal.
• Fractals: Added day or night time to specific fractals. Day and night do not cycle.
• Underwater Fractal: The Jelly boss will no longer try to devour NPCs like pets and minions before they try to eat players. If no players are around, it will eat NPCs.
• Fixed various exploits and minor bugs.

Ascalonian Catacombs

• Story—The Lovers: Reduced health for both bosses and damage from Ralena.
• Story—Coffin Intro: Additional coffins cannot be interacted with once the boss shows up.
• Story—Ranger: Damage has been reduced for the trap skill.
• Story: Some enemy group compositions have been altered.
• Story—Adelbern: Reduced damage and modified his melee attack.
• Explorable—Detha’s Chain: Decreased the recharge time for cannons in the final event and modified their attacks.
• Explorable—Detha’s Chain: Adjusted the respawn rate of the groups at the “Defend Detha and her traps” event.

Arah

• Story: Reduced most veterans to regular strength during the ship events.
• Story: Attacking dragons have reduced damage and no longer knock back on their flyover barrages.
• Story: Zhaitan’s acid pools do less damage.
• Explorable: Fixed issues that may have prevented events from starting or ending properly across all paths in the dungeon when an NPC was potentially dying, reviving, or being interacted with.
• Explorable—Seer Path: In the Dwayna fight, the sparks will now target players primarily, and their attacks have been adjusted in a way that should make them chase the player as initially intended.

Citadel of Flame

• Story: The Baelfire fight now has a safety net in case players fall off. If players die in a dangerous area, their body is teleported to a safe location for players to revive.
• Story—Forgefire Armory Boss: This boss’s damage has been reduced.
• Story—Bolok Barracks Boss: The group composition of the reinforcements summoned by Bolok Barracks boss has been modified.
• Explorable—Magg’s Chain: The event to defend Magg while he plants a bomb has been rebuilt.
• Explorable—Magg’s Chain: The respawn rate of creatures in the magma field has been adjusted.
• Explorable—Rhiannon’s Chain: The torch event at the start has been adjusted to only require 3 torches instead of 5; enemy groups have also been adjusted accordingly.

Sorrow’s Embrace

• Explorable—Inquest Path: The infinitely spawning waves have been adjusted to no longer spawn when fighting with the golem miniboss. They will continue once the golem event completes. The group compositions were also adjusted to add more variation.

Crucible of Eternity

• Explorable—Evolved Destroyer: This enemy’s health has been reduced. The time window before the shield turns back on has been increased.
• Explorable—Subject Alpha (All): The enemy’s health has been reduced.

Twilight Arbor

• Explorable: Leurent’s Elite Guard shields have been fixed so they no longer deal damage after they disappear.
• Explorable—Leurent Boss Encounter: The group composition has been adjusted.
• Explorable—Worm Boss: Spit puddles have reduced damage, but more puddles are created with each attack.

Honor of the Waves

• Explorable: Aldus Stormbringer adds are no longer veterans and have adjusted respawn times.
• Explorable: Aldus’s invulnerability shield now properly decrements to melee and area attacks.
• Updated the effect for the Cone of Cold skill used by Controller Andal to match the area affected by the skill when he turns.

World Polish – Orr
General

• Uncontested waypoints have been added to Cursed Shore and Straits of Devastation. Players that have already achieved map completion will retain it without having to discover these new waypoints.
• Updates have been made to the small statues to the human gods throughout Orr.
  • New map icons to indicate the location and status of the statues have been added. Mousing over the icon will display more detailed information.
  • The visual effect surrounding each of the god statues has been updated to be more noticeable and to more accurately reflect the range of its influence.
• Various Risen creatures have had their animations and size updated.
• The music that plays during key events that take place at the Orrian temples to the gods and the Gate of Arah has been updated.
• The difficulty of events to claim and defend the Orrian temples and the Gates to Arah will now scale to accommodate a larger number of players.
• The visual impact of taking control of the Orrian temples has been increased.
• Various Risen creatures have had their skills adjusted to use fewer crowd-control skills.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the “Arah Waypoint” from updating properly when the gate to Arah was open in Cursed Shore. This also caused the Arah dungeon marker to erroneously display as contested. The gate to Arah should only be closed when the events leading up to it are active.

Events

• Grenth Temple Chain
  • “Use portals to fight shades, slay the Champion Risen Priest of Grenth, and protect Keeper Jonez Deadrun.”
    • Clarified event text to provide more guidance on event mechanics.
    • Updated enemy waves that appear when the priest reaches certain life totals.
    • Added several new abilities to the Champion Risen Priest of Grenth.
    • Fixed an issue that would cause enemies to stop spawning if waves were killed in the wrong order.
    • Adjusted enemy wave compositions, start locations, and respawn times.
    • Adjusted the stacks of corruption that enemy shades apply to players during the fight.
    • Updated the visual appearance of the portals to Grenth’s domain and the effect applied to players who step in.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented the Risen Priest of Grenth from attacking properly during the event “Stop the Risen Priest of Grenth from retaking the Cathedral of Silence.”
  • Fixed a bug that would cause Pact troops to stall at points in the event chain.
• Dwayna Temple Chain
  • Adjusted the difficulty of the events that take place inside of the temple.
  • Updated the skills for the Risen Priestess of Dwayna.
  • Updated the skills for the Statue of Dwayna.
  • Adjusted the terrain within the Cathedral of Zephyrs.
  • Added a boss camera during the fight with the Statue of Dwayna.
• Melandru Temple Chain
  • Updated the Risen Priest of Melandru’s skill set.
  • Updated the music that plays during the boss fights.
  • Adjusted the terrain inside the Cathedral of Verdance to allow for better creature and player movement.
  • Added more noticeable environmental effects to the temple’s contested and uncontested states.
  • Updated the participation rewards for the event “Defend the Pact interruptor from Risen attacks” to be more consistent with holdout events at other temples in Orr. Players who participate will earn three times the normal event rewards.
• Lyssa Chain
  • Adjusted the difficulty of the events to take over and defend the Cathedral of Eternal Radiance.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented the force field surrounding the Risen Priestess of Lyssa from resetting properly.
• Balthazar Chain
  • Adjusted the strength of the Risen Priest of Balthazar’s skills.
  • Adjusted the number and compositions of enemies that appear during events to take over and defend the Cathedral of Silence.
• Promenade Chain
  • Updated the participation rewards for the event “Ensure that the Pact holds the Gates of Arah” to be consistent with the holdout events at other temples in Orr. Players who participate will earn three times the normal event rewards.
  • Fixed a bug in the event “Aid the Pact soldiers around the airship wreck” that would cause the event to restart prematurely.
  • Fixed a bug that could cause the Risen High Wizard to not flee after successfully defending the Pact camp at the Gates of Arah.
• The Gladiator Chain
  • Adjusted the start and restart conditions for the event chain.
  • Adjusted the difficulty scaling of the events.
  • Added visual effects to the event area and Risen creatures featured in the event.
• Changed the starting condition and location of the event “Kill the Risen broodmother.”

Items & Rewards

• A new Orrian Jewelry Box has been added to karma vendors across Orr.
• The item “Heavy Moldy Bag” has been updated to drop more frequently.
• Various Risen creatures have had their loot tables updated to provide more varied crafting materials.
• The karma vendors featured in temple chains offer new exotic wares.

World Polish – Other
General

• Fixed the descriptions for some armorsmithing packs that stated an incorrect level for the armor contained within the pack.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Mystic Forge to give inappropriate rewards when given level 80 masterwork swords.
• Updated the Moa Tonic’s Screech skill description to correctly show only one daze stack.
• Bandithaunt Caverns: It’s no longer possible to create an infinite number of bombs in the caves.
• Locking your Windows User Account will no longer result in the Guild Wars 2 launcher being invisible.
• Trait buffs are no longer reapplied after being resurrected while in a transformation that disables traits.
• Renown regions now reward karma upon completion.
• The contacts list has been significantly improved to enhance performance in crowded maps and for players with many followers and friends.
• Loot interactions now take higher priority than mesmer portals.
• Fixed a bug that could cause rectangular skills to fail to hit the correct targets.
• Fixed a bug that could cause chain skills to sometimes interrupt dodge rolls.
• Fixed a bug that could cause projectiles to sometimes disappear if passing through a field that had expired.
• Fixed a bug that allowed skills that steal or remove boons to manipulate effects that they were not intended to be able to affect.
• Weapons now continue to grant bonus stats while bundles are equipped.
• Bundles from player skills (engineer kits, elementalist conjured weapons, warrior banners) now have base damage that is consistent with the highest rarity weapons available at the level of the player.
• WvW & PvE: Our culling system has been updated to use affinity culling, which favors allowing players to see important enemies regardless of the local player population density.
• Lionguard Lyns has returned to Lion’s Arch but no longer has Black Lion Keys available. Donations toward the rebuilding of Lion’s Arch will continue to be accepted until late February, at which time Lionguard Lyns must return to her normal Lionguard duties. Liquidate those Captain’s Commendations while you can.
• Golem in a Box has been updated to have a 20-second recharge and has been disabled in WvW.
• In PvE, if a player is awarded loot by killing a creature and the loot is of uncommon rarity or higher, a chest will appear that contains the loot that would previously have been on the corpse. If the rarity of the loot on the creature is lower than uncommon, the loot will remain on the creature’s corpse.

Events

• Fixed a bug that could cause events around Eldvin Monastery to not run properly in Queensdale.
• Fixed a bug that could prevent the event to fight the Shadow Behemoth from starting in Queensdale.
• Frostgorge Sound—“Claw of Jormag” Event: Fixed a case where the ice shield would not appear correctly.
• Blazeridge Steppes Event: The ogre beastmaster in Sootpan Kraal now heals a limited amount each fight.
• Master Engineer Steelclaw in the Fields of Ruin now uses a consistent gender for her scenes/greets.
• Diessa Plateau: Fixed a bug that prevented players from using the cattlepult if a cow wandered too far away, blocking the betting minigame.

Personal Story

• Fixed Zojja and other NPCs having invisible headgear in cinematics.
• “Armor Guard”: Fixed errant minimap marker.
• “A Tangle of Weeds”: Increased the size of the instance so it’s much harder for the lich to fear players out of the map.
• “Volcanic Extraction”: NPCs are now more durable.
• Norn Chapter 3: Fixed an issue where the wrong cinematic was playing.
• “A Sad Duty”: Strengthened the Pact defenders.
• “Suspicious Activity”: Fixed a minor cosmetic bug.
• “A Grisly Shipment”: Playing the story step with party members no longer prevents progression.
• “Source of Orr”: Fixed an issue that could prevent progression after defeating the Eye of Zhaitan.
• “Fixing Blame”: Warmaster Gurnn should now start his cinematic correctly.
• “On Red Alert”: Fixed an issue that could prevent progress if the player bypassed part of the story step.
• “Romke’s Final Voyage”: Fixed an issue that could prevent progress when playing the story step with party members.
• “A Sparkling Rescue”: Zojja will now help players in combat.

Skill Challenge

• The terror of Ancient Shark Pistrix and his gang of “landsharks” has finally come to an end. Players will now interact with the corpse of Pistrix in his cave in Sparkfly Fen to complete this skill challenge.

Items

• Fixed a bug that prevented Endless Halloween Tonics from being listed on the Trading Post.
• All Halloween tonics have a two-second cooldown for removal.
• Fixed an issue where some rebreather models would cause light armors to display incorrectly.
• Transmuting weapons now preserves the higher rarity of the two items.
• Sigil of Doom: The number of uses on this skill’s effect will now decrease if an attack lands or if the attack is negated by Blind, Block, Evade, Obstructed, or Invulnerable.
• Sigil of Intelligence: The number of uses on this skill’s effect will now decrease if an attack lands or if the attack is negated by Blind, Block, Evade, Obstructed, or Invulnerable.
• Sigil of Leeching: The number of uses on this skill’s effect will now decrease if an attack lands or if the attack is negated by Blind, Block, Evade, Obstructed, or Invulnerable.
• Life-stealing food buffs based on critical hits no longer affect gadgets.
• A Mystic Forge recipe has been added to upgrade the Triforge Amulet to an ascended version with a utility infusion slot.
• The Orichalcum vein in Southsun Cove is now a regular vein instead of a rich vein.

Profession Skills
General

• Cancelling executing skills that have no recharge via the [Escape] key or stowing weapons will now trigger a 0.5-second cooldown for that skill.
• Gadgets placed by players (such as turrets) will now apply boons and conditions based on those players’ stats. Those conditions and boons will not be reduced to level-1 values when the triggering gadget is destroyed.
• Updated skill facts.

Elementalist

• Fixed a bug that caused several spells, including Tornado, Arcane Shield, and most frequently Whirlpool, to sometimes fail to display any graphics.
• Arcane Power: The number of uses on this skill’s effect will now decrease if an attack lands or if the attack is negated by Blind, Block, Evade, Obstructed, or Invulnerable.
• Arc Lightning: Fixed a bug which would cause this skill’s animation effects to continue playing after the skill ended.
• Evasive Arcana: This trait no longer enables players to break knockback effects.
• Glyph of Renewal: Increased this skill’s cast time while underwater from 1 second to 3.5 seconds.
• Ice Spikes: This skill now appropriately displays area-of-effect rings.
• Rock Spray: Skill facts for this skill now display the proper distance and bleed damage.
• Vapor Form: This skill will no longer allow players to rally off of kills that grant zero experience. This skill will now also properly restore death state on completion.

Engineer

• Removed collision from engineer turrets that were causing player pathing issues.
• Elixir X: Fixed a bug where this skill’s tooltip did not reflect the cooldown reduction from Fast-Acting Elixirs.
• Hair Trigger: Fixed a bug which prevented this trait from working correctly for some skills.
• Healing Turret: Fixed issues with this skill’s description when the Deployable Turrets trait was equipped.
• Incendiary Ammo: The number of uses on this skill’s effect will now decrease if an attack lands or if the attack is negated by Blind, Block, Evade, Obstructed, or Invulnerable.Reinforced Shield: Fixed a bug which prevented this trait from reducing Static Shield’s cooldown if the Throw Shield skill was activated.
• Reserve Mines: This trait’s area-of-effect rings now display the appropriate area that they can be triggered at.
• Speedy Gadgets: Fixed a bug that prevented this trait from reducing the cooldown of Throw Mine.
• Toss Elixir S: This skill will no longer remove transforms from players.

Guardian

• Absolute Resolution: This trait now functions with Battle Presence.
• Battle Presence: This trait no longer misses pulses or spams “immune” text.
• Empower: This skill now appropriately applies might for 10 seconds.
• Selfless Daring: This trait no longer enables players to break knockback effects.
• Shield of the Avenger: Fixed the damage displayed in this skill’s Command variant.
• Spirit weapons are now susceptible to attacks.
• Sword of Justice: Fixed the damage displayed the descriptions for this skill and its Command variant.
• Sword Wave: This skill is now able to strike gadgets that are low to the ground.
• Zealot’s Flame: Added burning information to this skill’s description.

Mesmer

• Cleansing Conflagration: This trait should now remove a condition at the beginning of The Prestige instead of at the end of the skill.
• Duelist’s Discipline: This trait no longer reduces damage dealt by the Illusionary Duelist.
• Illusion of Life: This skill should no longer allow players to rally off of creatures that grant no experience.
• Portal Exeunt: Updated the skill fact of this skill to reflect the actual duration. Also added a description to the Portal Uses marker.

Necromancer

• Fixed a bug that caused some minions to be overly aggressive.
• Mark of Evasion: This trait no longer enables players to break knockback effects.
• Necrotic Traversal: Fixed a bug which caused this skill’s descriptionto display an incorrect amount of poison damage.
• Spinal Shivers: Fixed a bug which caused this skill to enter its full cooldown if used when facing away from the target.

Ranger

• Fixed a bug where aquatic ranger pets could sometimes get on land.
• Drake Pet: This pet will now activate its Tail Swipe skill on a regular basis, and the casting time of that skill has been reduced by 1.25 seconds.
• Entangle: This skill’s bleed effects now properly scale with condition damage and duration.
• Sharpening Stone: The number of uses on this skill’s effect will now decrease if an attack lands or if the attack is negated by Blind, Block, Evade, Obstructed, or Invulnerable.
• Opening Strikes: The number of uses on this skill’s effect will now decrease if an attack lands or if the attack is negated by Blind, Block, Evade, Obstructed, or Invulnerable.

Thief

• Leeching Venoms: This trait no longer affects gadgets.
• Shadow Refuge: Added a radius skill fact to this skill’s description.
• Smoke Screen: This skill’s blinding pulse no longer follows the thief.
• Spider Venom: The number of uses on this skill’s effect will now decrease if an attack lands or if the attack is negated by Blind, Block, Evade, Obstructed, or Invulnerable.
• Devourer Venom: The number of uses on this skill’s effect will now decrease if an attack lands or if the attack is negated by Blind, Block, Evade, Obstructed, or Invulnerable.
• Ice Drake Venom: The number of uses on this skill’s effect will now decrease if an attack lands or if the attack is negated by Blind, Block, Evade, Obstructed, or Invulnerable.
• Skale Venom: The number of uses on this skill’s effect will now decrease if an attack lands or if the attack is negated by Blind, Block, Evade, Obstructed, or Invulnerable.
• Basilisk Venom: The number of uses on this skill’s effect will now decrease if an attack lands or if the attack is negated by Blind, Block, Evade, Obstructed, or Invulnerable.
• Assassin’s Signet: The number of uses on this skill’s effect will now decrease if an attack lands or if the attack is negated by Blind, Block, Evade, Obstructed, or Invulnerable.

Warrior

• Arcing Slice: Updated this skill’s description to correctly state the boon it applies.
• Banner of Strength: This skill’s descriptions have been updated.
• Banner of Discipline: This skill’s descriptions have been updated.
• Banner of Tactics: This skill’s descriptions have been updated.
• Empowered: This trait should now appropriately increase damage for the Stability boon.
• Reckless Dodge: This trait no longer enables players to break knockback effects.
• Vengeance: This skill is no longer able to rally a player off of kills that grant zero experience.

Structured Player vs. Player

• Legacy of the Foefire: Fixed a bug that prevented certain melee skills from hitting the front red/blue base gates.
• Legacy of the Foefire: Fixed a bug that allowed friendly and enemy projectile skills to penetrate the red/blue base gates.
• Legacy of the Foefire: Red/blue keep NPCs have been modified to avoid spawning before the match start countdown begins.
• Legacy of the Foefire: Red/blue lords have been modified to remove up to 3 conditions at the beginning of their heal skill.
• Legacy of the Foefire: Red/blue guards and casters have been modified to engage enemies when the lord enters combat.
• Battle of Kyhlo: Fixed a bug that could cause the repair kit to disappear after switching teams.
• Heart of the Mists: Two unused glory vendors have been removed.
• Fixed trebuchets not being targetable by ranged attacks after being repaired.

World vs. World

• Siege is no longer usable while inside a WvW jumping puzzle.
• Multiple areas have had their terrain adjusted to prevent players from bypassing gates and walls to get into objectives.
• Superior siege will now be saved properly when maps restart.
• In WvW, different types of loot chests will replace the bag drop depending on loot rarity. Players should now see bags for loot that is lower than uncommon rarity and chests for loot that is uncommon rarity or higher.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items

• Plush Quaggan Backpack Cover is now available in the Gem Store for 300 gems in the Style category. This adorable skin can be applied to any back-slot item, but it also comes with a basic back-slot item with no stats in case you don’t have one.
• The Riding Broom is now available in the Gem Store for 250 gems in the Style category. Simply equip this toy and activate its skill to ride the broom. Riding the broom does not provide a speed bonus.

Improvements

• Evon Gnashblade’s Box ‘o Fun has been revamped and is now available in the Consumable category for the new low price of 1 for 80 gems or a bundle of 5 for 320 gems. The revamped design offers more control over what effect the box has on those that interact with it.
• All weapon and armor skins now have the option to be converted to PvP skins. When activating a skin you will be given the choice to either apply the skin to a PvE item or convert the skin to a PvP-only item. Either action will consume the skin. This change applies to all unused weapon and armor skins in the game, regardless of when the skin was first released.

SOURCE: https://forum-en.guildwars2.com