Update 2 - Friday October 27[ | ]
Emergency Maintenance: 7:20 p.m. PDT
We performed emergency maintenance this evening to correct a matter that required urgent attention. Players were disconnected, but were immediately able to reconnect and resume playing. Thank you for your patience, and we apologize for any inconvenience that this brief interruption may have caused you.
GuildWiki notes[ | ]
- Added extra effects to /dancenew command in Nightfall.
- New EULA must be accepted, even if the EULA was accepted on October 25.
- Removed "Coming October 27, 2006" under logo of Nightfall in the login screen.
Update - Friday October 27[ | ]
Ahai, Sunspear!
You have been selected from among your fellow heroes to be trained as a leader of our Order of the Sunspears. The members of our Order are the guardians and protectors of our nation of Elona, and travel throughout the land, dealing with threats to our people. Though you may have the basic skills of a hero, you must now learn how to use them in conjunction with others whom you will lead into battle. Congratulations on your promotion!
You initial assignment will be in the Province of Istan, where our Order’s Great Hall is located. Istan is a thriving land of heroes, located near the ruins of our earliest cities. Here you will find threats ranging from relentless predators and animated, carnivorous plants, to the ever-present threat of the corsairs that plague our shores.
Yet Istan is not the only concern of the Sunspears. Kourna, across the channel, has a large standing army and is ruled by its Warmarshal, Varesh Ossa, but still has needs of heroes to inspire its people. Further north is the Province of Vabbi, a wealthy region controlled by indolent merchant princes, yet regularly threatened by inhuman tribes. As a leader of the Sunspears, you will journey through these lands, and beyond them, into the Desolation from which the undead lord Palawa Joko first invaded our land. Wherever the people of Elona are threatened, the Sunspears should be there to protect them.
The Order of the Sunspears is an ancient order, dating back to our earliest dynasties, but we need capable and inspired leaders now more than ever. A new darkness has been spreading across our land, causing native creatures to become more savage, and spawning new abominations never before seen. Dark times loom before us, and we must be prepared.
Again, congratulations on being selected to become a Sunspear leader. You will have your work cut out for you, but I am confident you will be up to the tasks ahead.
As a Sunspear, you never fight alone.
Spearmarshal, Order of the Sunspears
Elona Awaits You![ | ]
The Guild Wars Nightfall campaign is now available for purchase at retail stores and through the online Guild Wars store. Players who purchase Guild Wars Nightfall may now create new Paragon and Dervish characters, bring existing characters to the region of Elona, acquire new skills, armor, and weapons, recruit Heroes to join their parties, and participate in new Hero Battles against other players!
- Players who purchase Nightfall can start new characters in Elona, or bring their existing characters from Tyria or Cantha into Elona.
- An existing character’s first journey to a new continent must be done through a quest. After that, characters may travel quickly and easily using the Ship Travel icon on the World Map.
- Prophecies characters wishing to travel to Elona for the first time should seek out Lionguard Figo in Lion's Arch and take the "Sunspears in Kryta" quest.
- Factions characters wishing to travel to Elona for the first time should seek out Imperial Guardsman Linro in Kaineng Center and take the "Sunspears in Cantha" quest.
- Elonian characters may travel to Tyria using the quest "Terror in Tyria," which is offered by Deras Tenderlin in Kamadan – The Jewel of Istan after they have completed the quest “The Time is Nigh.”
- Elonian characters may travel to Cantha using the quest “Plague in Cantha," which is offered by Funwa Shento in Kamadan – The Jewel of Istan after they have completed the quest “The Time is Nigh.”
Heroes[ | ]
- Heroes are NPC party members who can join your party, level up with your character, and use weapons, armor, and skills of your choosing. You recruit Heroes by completing certain quests and adventuring throughout Elona, but you can bring only three at a time into your party. Since you and a friend can each bring three Heroes into a mission, two players can now complete any eight-player mission.
- After recruiting a Hero, you can use the “Add Hero” interface in the party formation panel to invite the Hero into your party whenever you’re standing in a town or outpost.
- If you and another player both invite the same Hero, one of them will be the “real” Hero who will interact with NPCs in cinematics and other scripted sequences, and the other will be an “imposter” who will use a generic name for the duration of the mission.
- Whenever you control a Hero, you will see a button next to the Hero’s name, which you can click to bring up the Hero Control panel. This panel provides advanced options for direct control of the Hero. You can use it to adjust the Hero’s AI mode between fight, guard, or avoid combat, to order the Hero to cast a certain skill, or to order the Hero not to cast a certain skill unless directed to do so by you.
- Whenever you control a Hero, you will also see a button on the Compass that you can use to give orders to the Hero. To use it, simply click the button, then click anywhere in the Compass or in the world where you would like the Hero to walk.
- Heroes level up like players do and acquire attribute points at the same rate, except they do not need to complete quests to gain their final 30 attribute points. Instead, they get 15 bonus attribute points when they reach level 10, and another 15 bonus attribute points when they reach level 15.
- Whenever you recruit a Hero while playing through the campaign, that Hero becomes unlocked for use with your PvP characters. Heroes that you recruit also come with skills, and those skills become unlocked on your account when you recruit the Hero.
- Heroes don't maintain their own inventory of skills. Instead, they are able to use any skill that you have unlocked on your account.
- Heroes don't maintain their own backpack or inventory of items. Instead, you can drag items from your inventory onto a Hero to equip him. Your Heroes can use weapons that you have customized for yourself.
- Hero Trainers, located in various locations around Elona, will teach you a skill (and unlock it on your account for use by your Heroes) in return for a Hero Skill Point. You get a Hero Skill Point each time you gain a new rank of the Sunspear or Lightbringer titles.
- Hero Armor NPCs, located in the outposts of Challenge Missions in Elona, can craft upgraded armor for your Heroes in return for certain items that you can acquire inside the Challenge Mission. Players can find enough of these items to upgrade their own Heroes, but not an unlimited supply, so we encourage players to spend these items on their own Heroes rather than selling them or giving them away.
Hero Battles[ | ]
- Hero Battles are a new PvP game type that allow players to compete head-to-head for the first time.
- Each Hero Battle pits one player and his three Heroes against another player and his three Heroes.
- To access Hero Battles you must unlock at least three Heroes onto your account. If you haven’t already unlocked the first three Heroes, just complete Zaishen Basic Training with a PvP character, then talk to the Priest of Balthazar, who will give you free unlocks.
- To enter a Hero Battle, travel to the Hero Battles outpost on the Battle Isles, invite three Heroes into your party, then click “Enter Battle.” You will be automatically matched against an opponent of similar skill level.
- To win, you must score 20 points before your opponent does. You get one point for every enemy you kill, and one point for every 30 seconds that your team holds the center shrine.
- There are also a number of strategic points around the map, which can grant you a strategic advantage against the enemy if your team controls them.
- If neither team has scored 20 points when the game clock reaches 10 minutes, the game goes into sudden death, where the next team to score a point wins.
- There is no death penalty on this map, and all players and Heroes respawn every 30 seconds.
- Players get 20 Balthazar’s faction for each point scored and 100 faction for winning.
Lightbringer and Sunspear Titles[ | ]
- The new Sunspear title can be earned by completing quests in Elona and fighting Sunspear enemies. By earning ranks in this title you can gain Hero skill points and the new PvE-only skill Sunspear Rebirth Signet. This skill increases in effectiveness as you gain more ranks in the Sunspear title.
- The new Lightbringer title can be earned by hunting demons in Elona. For each rank of Lightbringer, you gain increased damage and damage reduction against demons. You can also earn the PvE-only skills Lightbringer's Gaze and Lightbringer's Focus, which can be used to fight demons. These skills also increase in effectiveness as you gain more ranks in this title.
Guild Observer Mode[ | ]
- You can now watch your guild compete in Guild Combat regardless of your guild’s rank. Just open the Observer panel and then look for your guild’s game under the heading “My Guild Games.”
Update - Wednesday October 25, 2006[ | ]
New Features of Guild Wars Nightfall[ | ]
Today we are publishing the new features of Guild Wars Nightfall in anticipation of the campaign’s release this Friday, October 27 at 12:01 am PDT. Players won’t be able to acquire Heroes or participate in Hero Battles until they can play through the Nightfall campaign, but many of the other features of Nightfall are available today as free updates.
Skills and Attributes
- Skill selection, attribute adjustment, and secondary profession selection are now centralized on the new Skills and Attributes panel.
- Your characters can now change their secondary professions whenever they are standing in a town or outpost. PvP characters can change to any secondary profession, while Roleplaying characters can change to any profession that character has previously learned.
- You can now save and load templates containing Skill Bar setup, attributes, and professions. This allows you to switch a character between different roles quickly, and to share your strategies with your friends.
- To save a Skill Template, click the disk icon inside the Skills and Attributes panel, then click “Save to Template.” The template will be saved to a small file in the Templates/Skills folder below the Guild Wars installation directory. You can copy this file to other computers, share it with your friends, or post it on the Internet.
- To load a Skill Template, click the disk icon, then click “Load from Template.” You can load any template that matches your character’s primary profession.
- If your character doesn’t have as many attribute points as the character who saved the template, the attribute levels will automatically be adjusted down for you.
- If your character doesn’t have access to skills that were saved in the template, those skills will appear grayed out.
Equipment Templates
- PvP characters can now save and load Equipment Templates containing a complete set of armor and weapon selections.
- To save an Equipment Template, click the disk icon inside the Inventory panel, then click “Save to Template.” The template will be saved to a small file in the Templates/Equipment folder below the Guild Wars installation directory.
- To load an Equipment Template, click the disk icon, then click “Load from Template.” You can load any template that matches your character’s primary profession.
- Loading a template will replace your character’s current weapons and armor, unless your character is using weapons or armor that were acquired through roleplaying.
- If you load a template that uses item upgrades that are not currently available on your account, the items that require those upgrades will not be created.
Equipment Builder
- Equipment can be made for any PvP character, including PvP Heroes, using the new PvP Equipment panel.
- You can open the PvP Equipment panel whenever your PvP character is standing in a town or outpost by clicking on the PvP Equipment icon within the Inventory panel or by pressing “J” on your keyboard.*
To create an item, click on the portrait of the character you would like to build the item for, then select the tab for the type of item you would like to create. Choose the item, upgrade components, and color from the list of available selections.
- If you would like the item to be equipped immediately, select the “Equip Immediately” option before clicking “Create.” The new item will be placed onto your character, and the old item that your character was previously wearing will be destroyed. If you choose not to equip immediately, the new item will be placed into your character’s inventory instead.
- Items created with the PvP Equipment panel cannot be upgraded or salvaged.
Armor Insignias
- New armor crafted in Elona or through the PvP Equipment panel can contain swappable insignias, which provide the same types of bonuses that previously were permanent parts of the armor, plus new bonuses that are being introduced with Nightfall.
- With the use of armor insignias, you can now mix and match different armor bonuses with different armor appearances. *Additionally, the use of insignias simplifies the process of creating armor with the PvP Equipment panel because you can choose the armor appearance and bonus separately.
- Outside of the PvP Equipment panel, you can only place an insignia on a piece of armor if that armor has a blank insignia slot. Certain types of armor crafted in Elona include blank insignia slots.
- Like other types of armor upgrades, insignias must be unlocked on your account before you can use them in the PvP Equipment panel. Because some insignias are replacements for bonuses that used to be inherent properties of PvP armor, those insignias are already unlocked on your account.
- Because insignias allow you to place bonuses on certain types of headgear that could not receive bonuses in the past, some existing high-end headgear from Tyria and Cantha is being updated with this build to include new bonuses.
Weapon Inscriptions
- New weapons found in Elona or created through the PvP Equipment panel can contain swappable inscriptions, which provide a variety of weapon bonuses and enhancements.
- Like armor insignias, weapon inscriptions allow you to swap bonuses between different items you acquire by playing through the roleplaying content, and they simplify the process of creating items with the PvP Equipment panel by enabling you to choose the base weapon and the weapon bonuses separately.
- You can only place an inscription in a weapon if that weapon has a blank inscription slot. Inscriptions and inscription slots are sometimes found on rare weapons dropped by monsters in Elona.
- Inscriptions must be unlocked on your account before you can use them in the PvP Equipment panel. Inscriptions that provide bonuses that were previously inherent bonuses of PvP weapons are already unlocked on your account.
New Item Upgrades
- Shields, wands, and focus items created through the PvP Equipment panel or found in Elona can now have upgrades applied to them.
- Shields can have a Shield Handle upgrade plus one inscription.
- Wands can have a Wand Wrapping upgrade plus one inscription.
- Focus items can have a Focus Core upgrade plus one inscription.
- These new upgrades are equivalent in power to inherent item bonuses that were found in previous campaigns.
New Salvage/Upgrade System
- Salvaging an item with upgrade components now gives you the ability to pick which item you would like to salvage.
- If you salvage an item to extract a magical component, there is now a 50 percent chance that the base item will not be destroyed.
- When you upgrade an item with an upgrade component, you now see a preview of what that item will look like after the upgrade.
New Dye System
- The new dye system improves the appearance of base dye colors and mixed dye colors. The new system is used when you newly apply dye to an item. Existing item colors are not affected.
- Newly crafted armor now starts out gray. If you dye it to another color and then later want to restore it to its original appearance, just dye it gray. Vendors now sell gray dye instead of dye remover.
- White and brown dye colors are now available as loot drops.
- Silver is now an equipment color option during character creation.
- A new Dye Preview panel lets you preview the effect of dye color combinations on your items before applying the dye.
New Damage Interface
- The new Damage Monitor panel shows all skills that your opponents have recently used against you. You can hover the mouse over any skill icon to get a tooltip explaining that skill.
- The numbers that float above characters’ heads are now bigger, and use different animations to help distinguish between damage, healing, and experience.
- When an enemy uses a skill against you, the skill icon will display next to the damage number. The Options panel allows you to switch from displaying skill icons to displaying skill names.
PvP-Only Character Creation
- The PvP character creation process has been simplified. During character creation, you now choose only the character’s primary profession, character appearance, and name.
- Newly created PvP characters start off with a set of equipment and six basic skills for their primary profession, so you can start playing immediately.
- To outfit your PvP character with other skills and equipment, you can use the new Skill and Equipment Templates systems.
- So that your PvP characters have immediate access to skill and equipment swapping, new PvP characters you create now start in the Great Temple of Balthazar once you have unlocked Random Arenas on your account.
- You can still access Zaishen Basic Training by walking from the Great Temple back into the Isle of the Nameless and talking with the Master of Paths.
- First-time PvP players must complete Zaishen Basic Training to gain access to the Random Arenas and to gain the ability to purchase unlocks from the Priest of Balthazar.
Balthazar’s Faction
- The rate of Balthazar's faction has been doubled for all types of PvP!
- In high-level arenas, players now earn 40 faction per unique kill, 50 faction for winning, 50 faction for a flawless victory, and 50 faction for a five-game winning streak.
- In Heroes' Ascent, players now earn 40 faction per unique kill, 200–800 faction for winning (depending on the map), and 200 faction for a flawless victory.
- In Guild Combat, players now earn 40 faction per unique kill, 1,000–4,000 faction for winning (depending on their guild rating), and 200–800 faction for a flawless victory (depending on their guild rating).
- In Alliance Battles and Competitive Missions, players now earn 6 faction per kill.
Henchmen Controls
- Henchmen controls are now available on the Compass. To direct your henchmen, click the Henchmen button on the Compass, then click anywhere on the Compass or in the world to select where you’d like your henchmen to go.
Improved Hero/Henchmen AI
- Heroes and Henchmen now take into account Conditions and Exhaustion when choosing which skills to cast. They also consider attribute levels for stolen skills, and combo states for Assassin skills.
- They have improved combo awareness for some important skill combinations.
- They have improved knowledge of skills, so that they make smarter decisions about which skills to cast.
- They manage their Energy better.
- They are better at kiting opponents.
- They are better at getting out and staying out of AoE damage spells.
- They move in formation around their leader, with melee characters in front and ranged or casting characters in back.
- They follow their leader whenever they haven’t been specifically directed to move to a point. The leader for Heroes is the player who owns the Hero, and the leader for henchmen is the party leader.
- They also know how to have fun.
Improved Monster AI
- Monsters no longer run from AoE damage when they are very healthy, or when they think they’re very close to killing their opponent.
- Melee monsters are more intelligent about keeping themselves spread out, so that they don’t put themselves into a position where they’re highly susceptible to AoE attacks.
Gameplay Changes
- The rarity of items within locked chests is now properly randomized.
- Armor swapping is now disabled during PvP games.
- Certain situations that caused players to get stuck and not be able to move have been fixed, and a new command “/stuck” has been introduced to help players free their characters if they become stuck.
Title System Changes
- The Treasure Hunter and Seeker of Wisdom titles now confer a benefit to players who earn them. For each rank of either title earned, the chance of an item not being destroyed when salvaging a magical upgrade component is increased by 3 percent from a base of 50 percent.
- The Hero, Gladiator, and Champion titles now confer a benefit to players who earn them. Gaining ranks in these titles increases the maximum cap of unspent Balthazar’s faction. The cap increases by 2,000 faction points for each of the first five ranks of the Hero title and 5,000 faction points for each subsequent rank, and the cap increases by 5,000 faction points for each rank of the Gladiator and Champion titles earned.
Materials Storage
- The Materials Storage panel, which was previously a feature of Guild Wars Factions, is now available to all players.
User Interface Improvements
- While forming a party, you can now control+click on your Skill Bar to announce your skill setup to your party members.
- Called targets now remain active for up to 30 seconds after being attacked by their caller, and do not go away when the caller changes targets.
- During Guild Combat, a countdown timer now displays the amount of time remaining until the team that holds the shrine will gain a morale boost.
- In all types of PvP, the new score screen option “Team Status” shows a summary of the Health and morale of your entire team, including allied NPCs.
- A new option “Hide UI” on the login screen allows you to use the login screen as a screensaver. The client continues to download game assets in the background while in screensaver mode.
- The text and audio languages can now be independently selected in the Options panel.
- Other new options enable you to keep windows open when pressing escape, to disable tooltips on Skill Bars, and to disable tooltips on effect monitors.
Equipment Balance Changes
- Reduced the cost of all armor sets found on Shing Jea Island.
- Updated the Henge of Denravi Axe to have +5 inherent Energy instead of +25 inherent Health.
- Updated the Henge of Denravi Bow to have +5 inherent Energy instead of +10 inherent armor.
- Updated some Fiery Flame Spitters that had a 15% recharge chance instead of the normal 10% chance.
- Green item staffs, crafted staffs, and collector staffs with any sort of recharge bonus have been updated to reduce the recharge time of all spells with a chance of 20% instead of the attribute-specific bonuses they had previously.
- Updated a sword received from a quest in pre-Searing Ascalon to remove the inherent +5 armor while enchanted bonus. It now deals an additional 15% damage while Health is above 50.
- Updated the Warrior’s Dreadnought and Dragon armor suits to +10 vs. elemental to match how the armor bonus works under the new insignia system.
- Updated the Warrior’s Sentinel armor suit to +20 vs. elemental (req. 13 Strength) to match how the armor bonus works under the new insignia system.
- Updated the Necromancer’s Tormentor armor suit to add 6 holy damage on the chest, 4 on the leggings, and 2 on all other pieces. It was previously 5 damage for all pieces.
- Updated the Assassin’s Saboteur, Infiltrator, and Vanguard armor suits to have +10 armor vs. all physical damage and an additional +10 armor vs. a specific type of physical damage. The Condition reduction bonuses were removed to match how the bonuses work under the new insignia system.
- Updated all instances of Stonefist Gauntlets to remove the -5 armor penalty to match how the bonus works under the new insignia system.
- Updated all instances of the Lieutenant's Helm to remove the -10 armor vs. physical penalty to match how the bonus works under the new insignia system.
- Updated maximum level headgear found in Prophecies and Factions with a +1 Energy bonus to equalize it with possibilities found in Nightfall and at the new PvP Equipment panel. Warrior headgear that already had built-in armor bonuses will remain unaffected.
Skill Balance Changes[ | ]
Assassin
- Black Lotus Strike: reduced recharge time 12 seconds.
- Enduring Toxin: increased duration to 5 seconds.
- Expose Defenses: increased duration to 5..20 seconds.
- Impale: increased damage to 25..100. This skill must now follow a dual attack.
- Mirrored Stance: decreased casting time to .25 seconds.
- Moebius Strike: reduced recharge time to 2 seconds.
- Shameful Fear: reduced recharge time to 10 seconds.
- Siphon Strength: removed touch requirement.
- Way of the Lotus: changed this skill so that it is now an Enchantment.
Elementalist
- Armor of Frost: this skill no longer reduces your armor against fire.
- Ash Blast: increased damage to 20..55, increased Blindness duration to 3..15 seconds.
- Conjure Flame: decreased recharge time to 30 seconds, increased damage to 1..21.
- Conjure Frost: decreased recharge time to 30 seconds, increased damage to 1..21
- Conjure Lightning: decreased recharge time to 30 seconds, increased damage to 1..21
- Double Dragon: this spell no longer causes Exhaustion.
- Eruption: decreased casting time to 2 seconds.
- Fire, Water, Air, Earth Attunement: each of these skills now return 1 Energy plus 30% of that spell’s cost.
- Glimmering Mark: decreased recharge time to 5 seconds, increased duration to 5 seconds.
- Glyph of Concentration: changed this Glyph to work on the next two spells, increased recharge time to 10 seconds.
- Glyph of Elemental Power: increased recharge time to 15 seconds. This Glyph now works on the next 5 spells.
- Glyph of Lesser Energy: this Glyph now works on the next 2 spells.
- Glyph of Energy: increased Energy reduction to 25.
- Grasping Earth: decreased recharge time to 12 seconds.
- Gust: decreased casting time to 1 second.
- Inferno: decreased recharge time to 10 seconds.
- Lava Arrows: increased damage to 10..40.
- Lava Font: increased damage to 5..50.
- Lightning Javelin: decreased Energy cost to 5.
- Lightning Surge: no longer causes Exhaustion, increased Energy cost to 15.
- Lightning Touch: decreased Energy cost to 5.
- Mark of Rodgort: decreased Energy to 15. This skill now affects all adjacent foes.
- Phoenix: decreased recharge time to 10 seconds.
- Searing Heat: decreased casting time to 2 seconds.
- Shatterstone: increased damage to 25..100, increased conditional damage to 25..100.
- Shock Arrow: increased damage to 5..45.
- Smoldering Embers: increased damage to 15..75.
- Swirling Aura: decreased recharge time to 45 seconds.
- Teinai's Heat: decreased casting time to 2 seconds.
- Vapor Blade: increased damage to 15..135.
Mesmer
- Arcane Languor: increased duration to 1..10 seconds.
- Distortion: duration now scales with attribute, and you now only lose 2 Energy when this skill triggers.
- Drain Enchantment: increased recharge time to 30 seconds, decreased Energy gained to 5..20.
- Echo: increased duration to 30 seconds.
- Empathy: decreased duration to 5..15 seconds, increased damage to 15..45.
- Energy Drain: decreased Energy stolen to 2..9.
- Epidemic: decreased Energy cost to 5 Energy.
- Ether Signet: decreased recharge time to 60 seconds.
- Ethereal Burden/Kitah's Burden: decreased casting time to 1 second.
- Illusion of Pain: decreased casting time to 1 second.
- Inspired Hex/Revealed Hex: decreased Energy gained to 4..10.
- Keystone Signet: decreased casting time to 1 second.
- Mantra of Recall: decreased Energy gained to 10..25.
- Overload: decreased recharge time to 3 seconds.
- Panic: decreased casting time to .25 seconds.
- Power Return: decreased recharge time to 5 seconds.
- Psychic Instability: decreased recharge time to 10 seconds.
Monk
- Bane Signet: decreased casting time to 1 second.
- Peace and Harmony: decreased recharge time to 10 seconds.
- Ray of Judgment: decreased casting time to 1 second.
- Smite: this skill is now a spell instead of an attack.
- Spirit Bond: expires after 10 attacks or Spells.
- Succor: decreased Energy cost to 5.
- Watchful Spirit: decreased recharge time to 5 seconds.
- Zealot's Fire: decreased casting time to .25 seconds, decreased recharge time to 30 seconds. You now lose 1 Energy whenever this skill triggers.
Necromancer
- Barbs: decreased recharge time to 5 seconds.
- Blood Bond: you lose 3 pips of Health regeneration, and your ally gains 1..6 pips of Health regeneration.
- Icy Veins: decreased recharge time to 5 seconds.
- Insidious Parasite: increased life steal to 15..45.
- Life Transfer: decreased Energy cost to 5 Energy, increased casting time to 1 second.
- Lingering Curse: decreased casting time to 2 seconds.
- Malign Intervention: decreased recharge time to 12 seconds.
- Mark of Pain: decreased casting time to 1 second.
- Rising Bile: decreased recharge time to 20 seconds.
- Spoil Victor: increased damage to 25..100.
- Suffering: decreased recharge time to 5 seconds.
- Unholy Feast: decreased recharge time to 12 seconds.
- Vile Miasma: now falls under the Death Magic attribute.
Ranger
- Archer's Signet: increased number of bow attacks affected to 1..7.
- Call of Protection: increased damage reduction to 5..20.
- Concussion Shot: decreased recharge time to 5 seconds.
- Debilitating Shot: reduced Energy reduction to -1..10. This skill now falls under the Marksmanship attribute.
- Dual Shot: increased recharge time to 10 seconds.
- Expertise: For each rank of Expertise, the Energy cost of all of your attacks, Rituals, touch skills, and Rangers skills are decreased by 4%. Several skills, especially those related to Energy costs and skill recharge times, become more effective with higher Expertise.
- Heal as One: decreased recharge time to 10 seconds. This skill now resurrects your pet.
- Marksman's Wager: increased duration to 18 seconds.
- Run as One: decreased recharge time to 25 seconds.
Warrior
- Berserker Stance: increased adrenaline gain to 50%.
- Deadly Riposte: increased damage to 15..90.
- Disciplined Stance: decreased Energy cost to 5.
- Dwarven Battle Stance: increased attack speed to 25%.
- Furious Axe: this skill is now an Energy skill with 5 Energy and a recharge time of 6 seconds.
- Lacerating Chop: reduced adrenaline cost to 5 swings.
- Protector's Defense: decreased recharge time to 30 seconds.
- Skull Crack: this skill now interrupts the target’s action but only causes the Dazed Condition if it interrupts a spell.
- "Victory is Mine!": this skill is now a targeted Shout that returns 3..7 Energy per Condition.
- "You Will Die!": decreased recharge time to 15 seconds.
Start of Halloween Event[ | ]
When the moon shines down on the Elon
Like the eye of a ravenous drake
Keep a lantern close by and the darkness at bay
For on this holiday night, they say
A spirit returns, pumpkin on head
Wicked deeds (and bad jokes) will abound
He’ll bluster and shout
Spread chaos about
’till a banishment for his mischief be found
Heed my tale, ye brave heroes
From lands north and south
Listen wherefore I say:
Bind your sanity close, lest you lose what you love most
When the monarch of madness appears.
GuildWiki notes[ | ]
- Monster AI is currently erratic. Monsters will break aggro from one target if they take damage, but instead of re-establishing aggro (on the same target or new ones) they will get stuck on a target (to the point of just standing there doing nothing). Minions also act in the same erratic manner. The new AI is being dubbed as a huge nerf to Spiteful Spirit as it has made it very difficult for 2 man Underworld groups.
- Henchmen can now spread disease to human players.
- There was a bug with henchmen that occurred when they tried to use Resurrection Signet. It seems to have been fixed.
- This update introduced six new runes that can be used by any profession. Specifically, runes of Vitae, Attunement, Clarity, Purity, Recovery and Restoration. Runes of Vitae and Attunement are core runes, while the other four are Nightfall runes.
- PvP character creation is now identical to PvE character creation, leading some to believe they were unable to create a PvP character.
- Some green staves have their prefix and suffix modifiers missing for some accounts. The bug appears to have been fixed.
- Expose Defenses has not changed.
- Prophecies characters may purchase the Material Storage upgrade in Lion's Arch.
- All types of alcohol now have a disclaimer stating excessive alcohol consumption will result in intoxication.
- An item description stating the item's effect has been added to Red Bean Cakes and Candy Canes.
- The "while under the effects of an Enchantment" modification has been reverted back to the shorter "while Enchanted."
- The guild status tab no longer displays when members leave the guild.
- The mouse cursor when salvaging an item with mods/inscriptions/insignias or green items has been changed. Items that ONLY give crafting materials when salvaged will still retain the old salvage cursor so as to differentiate between salvaging clean items and modded items.
- The skins for vials of dye have been changed.
- There was a bug causing previously acquired vials of dye to not stack with newly dropped or purchased vials of dye, but it was fixed.
- A new slot for Diamonds was added to material storage.
- Imperial Commendations now have a gold skin rather than the usual silver. New and old Monastery Credits, Imperial Commendations, and Equipment Requisitions do not stack.
- The icons of some 'dyed' unique items incorrectly appeared 'undyed', however the items appear normal when wielded.
- The total size of this update is approximately 160 MB.
- Players have to re-accept the EULA.
- The Ghostly Hero now holds a Chaos Axe.
- For a while you could salvage and sell the weapon upgrades from weapons included with the Prerelease Bonus Pack. This was fixed in a second update.
- The original update notes (~11:50 PM CST) stated that the base chance to salvage-without-destroying was 75%, with a bonus of 1% for each rank in the Wisdom and Treasure Hunter titles. The notes were changed overnight to the current reading (50% base and 3% bonus) with no indication that the edit occurred.
- Compass size and location are reset to default.
- The art shown for the Ritualist in the class selection screen has been changed.
- The patch client has been translated into Polish, however Polish in-game text is still unavailable.
- Occasionally, the door for Blue team will open prematurely in the Heroe's Ascent map The Underworld.
- The daily cap on Balthazar Faction gained from training and challenge arenas has been doubled to 2000.
- Characters can now go back to Lion's Gate, regardless of their Campaign.
- Players can visit Nightfall guild halls via Canthan Ambassador NPCs.
- The Guild Emblemer offers a different screen.
- Amulet of the Mists is now a green item.
- When salvaging an unidentified item, a new verification message appears.
- The title bar of the Mission Map now shows the name of the zone you are in.
- Introduced weapons for all non-offensive caster attributes: Energy Storage, Fast Casting, Inspiration Magic, Healing Prayers, Protection Prayers, Soul Reaping, and Restoration Magic.
- Air, Earth, Fire, and Water Attunements do not actually give 30% + 1 energy; instead it seems to be (30% + .5 energy), as 10 energy cost spells still give 30%, while all other energy cost spells returns have been rounded up to the next whole number. They might be working on this now, as there are conflicitng reports that is is or is not fixed.
- The Eternal Forgemaster will now craft 'blank' Obsidian armor which will accept Insignia.
- Although the update notes do not specifically mention it, salvaging crafting materials out of an item will always destroy it.
- When you attempt to salvage an item with upgrade components, you also have the choice of cancelling the salvage attempt.
- Upgrade componints can now only be salvaged from identified items. If you try to salvage an unidentified blue, purple or gold item, you will receive a warning, and will have the options of either salvageing the item or cancelling.
- Impale was changed from a hex spell that triggers and ends the next time the foe is hit with a dual attack to a direct damage skill which must follow a dual attack.
Update 2 - Monday October 23[ | ]
- Added the PvP Editions of Guild Wars Prophecies and Guild Wars Factions to the online store. These PvP Editions provide access to PvP for those who don't already own the underlying campaign, and they also provide all skill unlocks for the entire campaign.
GuildWiki notes[ | ]
- A new section has been created in the online store called "PvP Editions" for current & future PvP Edition games.
- Previous Prophecies Campaign profession-specific skill unlocks pack have been removed from the online store completely.
Update - Monday October 23[ | ]
- Ended the Factions Boardwalk weekend event.
Update - Friday October 20[ | ]
- Made preparations for the Factions Boardwalk weekend event.
Update - Saturday October 14[ | ]
- Fixed the district selection menu in American districts.
Update - Thursday October 12[ | ]
- Made preparations for the Factions Green Drop Weekend.
- Fixed a bug that prevented some skill effects from being displayed the first time they were used.
GuildWiki notes[ | ]
- Bug: Numbers next to districts in the District Selection menu did not show correctly. This bug has now been fixed.
Update - Thursday October 5, 2006[ | ]
- Added 25 new guild emblems.
- Fixed a bug that prevented some people from using their secondary profession after the Nightfall World Preview Event.
UPDATES TO HEROES' ASCENT[ | ]
- Removed Burial Mounds from rotation.
- Raised the team count for Broken Tower to 3.
- Reduced the play time for Broken Tower to 4 minutes.
- Reduced the play time for Courtyard to 4 minutes.
- Added levers to Scarred Earth so that players can open gates leading out of the center region of the map. Gates still open automatically as teams are defeated.
GuildWiki notes[ | ]
- The party size for Heroes' Ascent was also changed to 6.
- Hourglasses were removed.