Game updates/20090401

Update - Wednesday, April 1, 2009
For more information on these changes, please see the Developer Updates page.

Assassin

 * Scorpion Wire: no longer has half-range. Changed functionality to: "Target foe is teleported to your location and knocked down."
 * Shroud of Silence: changed functionality to: "For 5..20 seconds, target player cannot send chat messages."

Dervish

 * Increased duration of all Avatar skills to 40..70 seconds.
 * Avatar of Grenth: changed functionality to: "For 10..90 seconds, your attacks steal 1..2 enchantments from any foe you hit and apply those enchantments to you."

Elementalist

 * Sandstorm: now deals 10..30 more damage if the caster is standing in a sandy area.
 * Searing Flames: removed Burning condition.

Mesmer

 * No changes.

Monk

 * Ray of Judgment: Removed Burning condition, increased damage to 10..90.

Necromancer

 * Animate Flesh Golem: removed the single-golem limit.

Paragon

 * "Fallback!" [sic]: Now ends if target ally is not moving away from a foe.
 * "Incoming!": Now ends if target ally is not moving away from a foe.
 * "It's Just a Flesh Wound!" [sic]: This skill can now be used while dead.
 * The Power is Yours!" [sic]: changed functionality to: "Sacrifice all Health. Until resurrected, 5 nearby party members gain +1..5 Earth Magic, +1..5 Fire Magic, +1..5 Air Magic, +1..5 Water Magic, or +1..5 Healing Prayers."

Ranger

 * Beast Mastery: pets now have a chance of ignoring commands unless their master has a higher Beast Mastery rank than the pet's level.
 * Equinox: Exhaustion duration is now based on the time of day.

Ritualist

 * Signet of Ghostly Might: reverted functionality to: "For 10 seconds, target ally or foe does +10..35 damage. When this skill ends, that target is slain."
 * Spawning Power: Weapon skills now last 50% longer for each rank of Spawning Power.

Warrior

 * Bull's Charge: functionality changed to: "You Shadow Step to target foe and knock them down."
 * Dwarven Battle Stance: duration is now based on the user's height.
 * Gladiator's Defense: duration is now doubled in Random and Team Arenas.

Guild Battles

 * Guild Battle NPCs now respawn at regular intervals until the Guild Lord is slain.

Miscellaneous

 * Removed the Lucky Aura effect from the Lunar Fortune item.
 * On a direct hit, the Zaishen rank emote now deals minor damage based on the user's rank and knocks the target down.
 * Characters suffering from Blind cannot see distant enemies.
 * Characters suffering from Dazed will now spin in place. The camera is locked for the duration of the effect.
 * Introduced a new Cartographer title for the Battle Isles.

Guild Wiki Notes

 * Linsey Murdock stated the real purpose of this update was to fix a crash bug.