Game updates

This is a list of patches and game updates to Guild Wars. Just the facts, and links to anything that they might affect.

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

 * Added language-specific districts to European servers. There are now different districts for each supported language: English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Players are placed by default into the district that matches their current language preference, but can still travel freely to any available district or to the International District.
 * Added requirement for a guild officer to be present to initiate or accept a guild battle. This can help guilds protect their rating by removing the potential for malicious or careless actions on the part of a guild member.
 * Added more boss-monster locations to high-level maps to make it easier for players to acquire elite skills.
 * Assured that the skills Battle Rage, Crippling Shot, Defy Pain, Punishing Shot, and Warriors Endurance are now used more frequently by the boss monsters that carry the skills, to make them easier to capture.
 * Added new art for unidentified salvaged runes so that the profession and rune quality are displayed. Identifying the rune is still required to learn the rune's attribute and to unlock the rune. This change only impacts newly salvaged runes.
 * Assured that all uncommon and rare armor drops have an unlockable ability.
 * Assured that rare armor drops will always have either a major or superior rune, not a minor rune.
 * Assured that NPC traders, whose price fluctuates according to market demand, will always pay at least the vendor value for an item.
 * Assured that Celestial Sigils now have an inherent value of 1 platinum piece, which allows them to be sold at vendors.
 * Assured that armor provided by collectors can now be salvaged.
 * Added a new "/rank" emote for players who are rank 9 or higher.
 * Improved Henchmen in missions beyond Iron Mines of Moladune. They now have three pieces of armor infused instead of one.
 * Improved or clarified secondary missions in D'Alessio Seaboard, Divinity Coast, Augury Rock, Thirsty River, Ice Caves of Sorrow, Thunderhead Keep, Ring of Fire, Abaddon's Mouth, Hell's Precipice.
 * Increased the gold reward in Divinity Coast that is given for protecting the Chosen.
 * Improved the ambient ongoing fight in the D'Alessio Seaboard outpost.
 * Doubled the duration of the buff that Vizier Khilbron gives to players in certain missions, from 30 seconds to 1 minute.
 * Updated monster and loot balance in Perdition Rock, Vulture Drifts, Prophet's Path, the southern Shiverpeak region, and Hell's Precipice.
 * Made improvements to various mission start locations, NPC locations, gates, levers, and bridges.
 * Made improvements to various map click points and thumbnails.
 * Fixed issues with quests Defend The Temple of War, Hungry Devourer, Supplies For The Duke, Army Life, Duke Ambush, and To Kryta.
 * Fixed the glow color of several boss monsters in Crystal Desert and Perdition Rock to match their skills.
 * Improved AL on Elementalist Leggings crafted in Quarrel Falls from 30 to 39.
 * Renamed "Raw Cloth" to "Cloth."
 * Renamed "Enchanted Lodestones" found in post-searing Ascalon to "Scorched Lodestones."
 * Removed the ability to dye certain non-equippable items such as crafting materials.
 * Fixed skill Winter so that all elemental damage is converted to cold.
 * Fixed skill Feral Lunge duration of bleeding effect.
 * Fixed skill Spiteful Spirit so that it deals damage when the target uses a skill.
 * Fixed skill Fevered Dreams so that it does not affect non-foe targets in response to unsourced condition effects.
 * Fixed skill Essence Bond to eliminate the rare incorrect triggering on physical damage.
 * Fixed skill Life Bond so that it always deals the correct damage type.
 * Fixed skill descriptions for Healing Signet, Balthazar's Spirit, Putrid Explosion, Defensive Stance, Symbol of Wrath, and Desperation Blow, so that the descriptions more accurately match the actual effect of the skill.
 * Updated Alt keydown functionality to additionally display henchman names in town.
 * Added overhead chat bubbles for team chat (except in competitive missions, where there are no chat bubbles).
 * Updated auto-run functionality so that players will auto-run when clicking an NPC in the world but not when clicking an NPC in the party allies window.
 * Updated European and Korean translations.
 * Updated Korean character naming rules.
 * Updated art for Geomancer's armor. This is the first of several updates over the coming weeks that will provide unique art for each ascended armor set, such as Enchanter's, Tormentor's, Necrotic, Aeromancer's, Saintly, Gladiator's, and Druid's armor sets.
 * Changed the "Delete Character" dialog to allow the deletion of old characters whose names do not conform to current naming rules. A previous bug prevented the deletion of characters whose names were created under old naming rules and no longer conformed to current naming rules.
 * Fixed a bug preventing alternate characters from logging on when one character on the account was blocked.
 * Fixed Lightning Drakes' air magic ability.
 * Fixed miscellaneous rare crash bugs

Wednesday, May 25 2005

 * Increased drops of Celestial Sigils in the Hall of Heroes.


 * Broadened the variety of items found in the chest in the Hall of Heroes; it can now contain rare shields or salvageable armor.


 * Improved the Sigil Trader so that prices will more accurately track supply and demand.


 * Removed the "/roll" command from towns and outposts.


 * Updated European and Korean translations.


 * Made minor balance changes to Majesty's Rest explorable area.


 * Fixed issue with Balthazar's Aura skill, so that when multiple copies of the buff are cast on the same ally, only the most powerful is active.


 * Fixed door on Isle of the Dead guild battle map.


 * Fixed miscellaneous rare crash bugs.

Friday, May 13th 2005

 * Changed art on Celestial Sigils to distinguish them from runes.


 * Made minor balance changes to some desert areas and â€œIron Mines of Moladune."
 * Fixed miscellaneous rare crash bugs.

Wednesday, May 11th 2005

 * Major changes to PvP Arenas! Previously, each Arena had a separate outpost. When you joined an Arena, you continued playing on that map repeatedly until you lost. Now, the various high-level Arena maps all share a common outpost. When you enter the high-level Arena, youâ€™ll play on many different maps with many different victory conditions, and youâ€™ll need to master all the maps to keep on winning.


 * After each consecutive PvP victory, the game now displays the number of consecutive wins.


 * A new screen at the end of PvP character creation allows you to choose the starting location of your PvP character.


 * We retired the old â€œDazed," â€œShock Sniper," â€œDivine Healer.â€? and â€œTrapperâ€? PvP-only character templates, and rotated in some new templates, including three new templates created by guilds that won our April ladder contest. Additionally, we tweaked the skills of many other PvP character templates. These changes only affect the creation of new characters; existing characters created with an old template may continue to use that old template.


 * You can now store gold in your account storage vault! The vault can store up to 1000 platinum pieces, and individual characters can now hold a maximum of 100 platinum pieces.


 * PvP-only characters can now access the account storage vault for free.


 * Entering â€œThe Underworldâ€? now costs 1 platinum piece, the same as entering â€œThe Fissure of Woe." Rewards in both maps have been significantly improved.


 * New quests! In Post-Searing Ascalon: â€œThe Weaver of Neboâ€? and â€œIron Horse War Machine." In â€œThe Fissure of Woe:â€? â€œTower of Courage," â€œThe Wailing Lord," â€œA Gift of Griffons," â€œArmy of Darkness," â€œThe Eternal Forgemaster," â€œDefend the Temple of War," and â€œRestore the Temple of War."


 * Primary quests in Pre-Searing Ascalon now chain together, making it more straightforward for new players to complete Pre-Searing Ascalon and gain entrance to the Academy.


 * Increased drop rates for Uncommon and Rare items in Explorable Areas.


 * Implemented various minor fixes and clarifications to existing quests.


 * Implemented various tweaks to monster difficulty and loot balance.


 * Added new boss monster encounters in the â€œRing of Fireâ€? area.


 * Added new bonuses on certain collector and quest items.


 * Instituted skill changes: â€œWatch Yourself!â€? correctly affects characters who were already affected by another instance of the skill. â€œFirestormâ€? now continues to cast even if the target enemy dies during spellcasting. Weâ€™ll revise other area-effect spells to work this way in future updates.


 * The party window and account storage windows now correctly remember their position and size.


 * There are many new hints displayed in Pre-Searing Ascalon, and a new option to disable the display of hints.


 * When you gain a level, a button now appears prompting you to spend your newly acquired attribute points.


 * Quest destination points now appear on both the Map Area and Map Travel windows.


 * Most NPC text is now logged to the chat window, as well as being displayed in game.


 * Implemented various minor fixes to UI.


 * Fixed crafters recognizing high-level crafting items.


 * Fixed problems which caused excessive scarcity of Fur Squares, Linen, and Silk.


 * Implemented fixes for incorrect behavior when a player or party disconnects before the beginning of a competitive game.


 * Implemented fixes for miscellaneous rare crash bugs.


 * Added the ability to change postal mailing address on account.


 * Improved hardware compatibility.