Guild Wars 2 - Leaked patch notes

Account

• Optimization to reduce visible “Portal lag”
• Improve Portal watching
• Attempting to fix a Portal party issue (not related to the above change)

Art/Animation

• Legendary weapon replacement skill effects
• Gadget on gadget flux
• Point lights are now enabled on equipped items
• Added support for replacement material effects
• Support material replacement file effect fading
• Added the “Sylvari glow”
• There is a new indefinite progress bar that uses the wipe shader
• Added Mystic Forge sparklies
• Mystic Forge fire spirals in one direction
• Rewards now “fly” into the Mystic Forge

Chat

• Local chat (Say) is now very short range. /Shout (/Map) at map range has been added.

Crash

• Gadget crash fix
• Chat-related crash fixed
• Using items from your bank no longer crashes the server
• Loading into different maps is ok now
• Players can now leave their party without crashing
• Fix for guild bank crash (related to permissions)
• Fix for the cursor being out of bounds in a text box
• Playing with players from other shards should no longer crash WvW
• Fix in for a missile crash
• Fixed buff crashes
• Dialog manager crash fix
• Crash fix for character creation
• Fix for a marker-related crash
• Entering/leaving the water context no longer crashes
• Disabled a forced server crash
• Fixed a Mystic Forge rash
• Opening the hint dialog no longer crashes
• Agent selection crash (loot crash)

Gameplay

• Iconics have 1% of the normal hate
• F11 should now open the options menu
• If a player goes from alive to dead, we now give them a waypoint to port to so they can resurrect
• Input binding:
• There are now distinct left and right shift keys

• Rewards:
• Map complete rewards are now available

• If a transformation isn’t allowed to interact with bundles, drop any bundles the character may be
holding when transformed (No more flamethrower ooze H)
• Map complete doesn’t trigger every time you zone into a map now
• Gadgets/turrets now have a concept of an “authority”
• The player that creates the gadget is assigned as that gadget’s authority
• This basically means that players that place down the Siege blueprints can kick out other
players who are in their siege weapons if they want to use them
• “Move to Target” split into underwater and terrestrial
• “Move to Target” no longer applicable when downed
• Only 5 unique combatants can combo with a given combo field
• Characters that aren’t alive don’t return legendary weapon ItemDefs
• Mystic Forge only takes one of each kind of item [F 234559]
• Trait tiers are in
• Added account bound items
• Players can no longer redirect to a map if they are already redirecting
• Added a skill point currency type
• A shard selection bug has been fixed
• Input bindings have been implemented
• Improved how “Fear” works
• Recharge slows should be slowing for the proper amount now
• Spawn scaling for low-level events has been adjusted
• Level 70+ rare items have the potential to salvage out more materials as deemed by special reward
tables
• Auto-attacks no longer continue to attack an unselected target
• Missiles now fire in the direction of the camera when the player has no target and is holding down
the right mouse button (Side note: This is awesome)
• Players can now queue for multiple maps concurrently
• The default mouse scroll rate has been changed to 2x
• Mouse-looking no longer drives a characters movement unless they’re executing an upper body skill
• Characters can no longer jump if the jump state doesn’t exist
• The Fear mechanic has been improved
• Action Char Fear Char
• Action Skill Fear

• LFG:
• More backend implementation
• Blocked players no longer show up in LFG

• PvP:
• Added rank rewards to PvP Ranks
• Changed from a level to a level range per recent PvP Rank discussions
• PvpRank has been split from Glory
• Ranks now define a range of PvP ranks
• Placeholder awards are going through the reward manager
• Added support for Glory Boosts
• Start Auto Tournaments as soon as there are enough rosters ready (and send out a countdown
when the match is about to start)
• Tournament server improvements
• PvP Lobby waypoint travel is free
• Added a new reward type for PvP rank up
• Players with an “Offline” status can now be invited to tournaments
• Players are unable to send tournament invites to themselves

• WvW:
• Cannons now display red targeting circles to the enemy
• Game ending has been smoothed out
• Players receive a warning message and are redirected (configurable in content)
• The score dialog now displays a message telling the player their team’s final position
• Gadgets now report their WvW team
• Gadgets can now insert their shard names into their name if they know their WvW team
• WvW travel is free
• Clicking “Go to WvW” will close the score dialog now (by design)
• Squad members may now speak into the squad channel
• Removed /.sq dev command
• Added /squadjoin and /squadleave client commands
• Commanders are now named “Commander ”
• Players are no longer able to log back in to WvW maps
• Implemented /squadinfo and /supplyinfo

• Mystic Forge:

• Polish
• Added click and drag of slotted materials
• Added flames!
• Added a quantity check for ingredients that require a certain item count before we
request to forge a new item
• The Mystic Forge can take consumable subtypes
• Sparkly polish
• Now compares are weight class
• Now uses upgrade component types
• Added support for a “none” trinket type
• We hide the ingredient slots while animating then fade them back in when we display the
reward dialog
• Fixed being able to match item subtypes correctly if set to “any”

• Ranger:
• Pets can no longer be swapped out to instantly come back to life

Guild

• Fixed the guild vault to not crash other players who are viewing the Vault

Input Bindings

• The world map now closes while you’re in a cinematic
• The world map now shows up properly
• Ranger profession skill 2 now works
• Hooked up the WvW score screen to the new keybind action
• Extended mouse buttons work now
• Actions are now set to inactive when the Ul gains focus
• Added the option to reset all actions to their defaults
• Fixed some bugs with underwater interaction

Logging

• ItemDef logs the coin paid and the item now

Optimization

• Some backend stuff for the camera has been optimized
• If a controlled character is more than a certain distance away from a specific other
character, don’t update their terrain type (this prevents an extra raycast)
• WvW:
• Commander markers should no longer cause severe server lag

UI

• The hint dialog is disabled on non-dev builds
• The installer has been disabled on live
• Beginnings of the reward Ul have gone in
• The reward manager persists through different types of rewards (IE daily/monthly
achievement completion, map completion, tournament loot)
• VOcan now play for hints
• NPC interaction icons have been corrected
• Sorting arrows are no longer displayed if you cannot sort
• Shard selection dialog boxes resize themselves dynamically to fit the strings they contain
• Level up unlock alerts are now level up unlock hints
• Max level experience bar polish/issue fixup
• Character select doesn’t kick you back to character creation
• The commerce panel uses the commerce background again
• Inventory defaults to 5 units wide
• Achievement alert polish
• The party Ul shows team members again
• “Move to Target” option moved up in the options dialog
• Added a reset button to the Mystic Forge
• The experience bar can now show Glory
• Skill damage floaters are no longer deferred to later attacks
• Mystic item tooltips
• Fixed an image scaling bug
• Client gadgets were substituting Blue/Green shard names into the wrong areas
• Mystic Forge now pops up a dialog box when you discover a recipe
• Added a (possibly temporary) overflow label to the compass when in an overflow map
• Guaranteed and selectable rewards have been swapped
• Fixed a reward dialog sizing bug
• Added the option to disable AoE rings
• The experience bar displays properly at level 80
• Persistent reward select alerts show up under the map layer
• Hero dialog PvP polish
• Skill challenge markers should no longer be broken
• The window buttons have backgrounds
• Window visibility checks have been improved
• We now display the name of the item that’s in an invalid slot
• Added new URLs that direct to GW2 support
• Added character context menu options for travelling to a party member’s shard
• Select reward alerts have been moved away from the side of the screen
• Professions that did not have a hue value now have one
• Reward polish
• Only show the keybinds tab when logged in
• Compass:
• Reducing object count for better performance (for now)

• World select:
• Re-added world filtering that checks for content per world

• WvW:
• Enemy pets and players are named with their shard name instead of team color
• Sectors can be marked up to have their shard name displayed
• Added “Go to WvW” button to the WvW score screen
• Commander markers no longer disappear after exiting a siege weapon
• Join WvW buttons use the correct world name for maps and actually take players
to WvW on Alpha
• Left-clicking on a commander icon opens a context menu (with only one option
at the moment)
• The chat user context menu has an option to join that player’s squad

• Chat:

• Team chatting is prevented in all non-WvW and non-PvP maps
• Team chat is now game-server based
• Player scene and chatter lines are not shown as bubbles
• Support for map-wide chat (/shout, /yell, /y) has been hooked up
• /say and /local are now radius and reporting based instead of event based
(current radius is 2000)

• Hints:

• Dialog now updates as hints are completed
• Category heights are now consistent
• Downed penalty hint
• Conditions
• Boons
• Equipment broken
• Waypoints
• Achievements
• Damaged equipment
• Upgrade components
• Crafting stations
• Resource nodes
• Stealing
• Fixed the attunement hint
• Change the Adrenaline and Life Force hints to require two uses to complete
each hint
• Salvage kits
• Ranger pet bar
• Ranger pet controls
• Guardian virtues
• Mesmer shatters
• Engineer tool belt
• Meta events
• Renown rewards
• Ranger pet charm
• Pet panel
• Escape now cancels out of hints
• Added a “New” category to the hint dialog
• Added “NEW” indicators for recently completed hints
• Party invites
• Text now displays properly
• PvP:

• Fixed an error response from Play Now noticed during BWE1
• Added the tournament Ul (and polish)
• PvP now sends grand totals of glory and rank points earned during
the match for display on the client
• Match countdown UI
• Fixed the experience bar hiding in PvP
• Tournament roster fixes
• The match countdown isn’t displayed if you’re already in a match
• Tournament invite button bling
• Added a tooltip to the PvP scoreboard join team button
• The tournament roster now handles scrolling
• The roster size is limited to the max team size
• Added a roster button to the tournament details
• Cumulative Glory is no longer shown in the hero dialog
• Added more error strings for tournament errors
• The tournament roster now sorts

• Guild:

• Emblem – Update the paper doll when the guild changes
• The vault log shows the amounts that are deposited or withdrawn

• Mystic Forge:

• The “Forge” button will only be enabled when 4 items with a match are slotted
• Inventory items fade in/out over time
• General polish
• Enable/disable the craft and reset buttons based on the slotted item count

• Items:

• Transmuted items are no longer colored purple; they now take on the rarity
color of their attribute item
• Legendary items are now purple

• Launcher:

• Localized text and text box have been resized for the stress test
• The launcher now shows the amount downloaded
• Large numbers are no longer bugged
• Auto-play has been fixed

 

• Inventory:

• We log the deletion of items on import if the item type changes so we can
attempt to move items that can’t be imported to the equipment to inventory
or overflow

Guardian Warrior Duel

The Borderlands - a Guide

Some handy tips

Great tips here Highlights:

I'm sure you've heard the complaint... "We can use skills even if we aren't in range and there's no way of knowing if we're out of range!" But I learned that's wrong. I actually thought this too, and thought they should make the skills turn red or have a red bar over them when out of range, that is... until I discovered that they already do. It's the number. If you're in range, the skill number is white, if you're out of range it's red. Here's a visual example, watch skill #4 and F1, F2, F3:

Next... "The towns are too freakin' huge! I get completely lost, and having to run all over the place is a major pain in the butt!" Indeed it was, until I discovered I could use waypoints in town at no charge. Hit M to pull up your map. There are 3 levels. Above ground, ground level, and under ground. You can click each of the levels to show a different map. Wherever you need to go, just find a waypoint near there and use that to fast travel to that location rather than getting lost or running all over the place trying to find it. This proves very very useful...

"Having to hit F and click each item individually to loot them is so annoying! They need some kind of auto loot." There is an auto-loot system actually - it's in Options. You still have to hit F, but it'll automatically pick up everything for you so you don't have to click each individual thing. It can still be somewhat annoying if there's an NPC near you since there is no dedicated loot button and you'll tend to "interact" with the NPC a lot by mistake, but it's worlds easier than clicking each item individually.

Guild Cast - stress test

Guardian Asura armour?

DPS - Guardian

In my play testing of the Guardian I have neglected testing a dps build.

This guy hasnt. Have a watch of this.








His build.

Sigils:
Sigil of Superior Strength (30% chance to apply might for 10s on critical.) on Sword and Scepter.
Sigil of Superior Battle (You gain 3 stacks of might for 20s when you swap to this weapon while in combat.) on Torch and Focus.

Armor Runes:
2x Rune of the Fire (+25 power, +20% might duration).
2x Rune of Hoelbrak (+25 power, +20% might duration).
2x Rune of Strength (+25 power, +20% might duration).

Jewelry:
Amulet with +813Power, +580Toughness, +580Vitality.
6x Perfect Opal Jewel (+25Power, +15Toughness, +15Vitality)

PvP- My hero

A few questions I cant find the answer to.

I would be grateful if there is anyone who can answer the following questions about Guardian Traits.

Zeal:

Does Shattered Aegis apply to any and all aegis you apply including that from Retreat?

Radiance:

Does Healers Retribtion only apply to the skill in the 6 slot?

Valor:

Does Might of the Protector only work of aegis or is it triggered by some mace, shield or Focus attacks?

Does Defender Flame only trigger on Aegis on yourself or is it on any Aegis you cast?

Honour:

What is the use of Protective Spirit?

Does pure of Heart only apply to Aegis on the Guardian Himself?

Virtues:

Does Purity of Resolve only remove conditions from the Guardian.

Thanks for any information you may have.

http://forum.guildmag.com/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=1055

http://www.guildwarsinsider.com/forum/general-guild-wars-2-discussion/guardian-traits-a-few-questions/

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/36985-guardian-traits-a-few-questions/

Thoughts after the stress test.

So last night I spent the entire stress test seeing how my Gaurdian theorycrafting stood up to play. It was a very useful exercise. I gained a few insights.

Heal Skill: 

Our three heal skills are useful and certianly have a role. My play style is support and that meant I spent most of my time using healing Breeze as it heals my allies. Healing breeze also has the advantage of being on the quickest cooldown, it is usable every 30 seconds. However if I was concerned with taking condition damage I could have used Signet of Resolve which synergises well with the trait Purity, Combined they would remove two Conditions every 10 seconds. Perhaps if I was interested I could have added in the trait Purity of Resolve which removes 3 Condtions when The Virtue of resolve is activated. Our third heal is somewhat overlooked but I can see a role for it in a dps build especially if it is used in Conjunction with Defenders Flame.

Utility Skill:

I tried a few of these and I have some favorites Picking the best ones will be difficult.

Signet of Mercy -Passive: Improves healing. Active: Revive a nearby ally. While this is a powerful revive returning a lot of health the coolddown is over long. I need to get a figure for the increase on healing it gives but it synergises with a lot of other aspects of the support Guardian. In addtion the trait Perfect Inscriptions can be taken to improve the passive of the Signet. It would probably be a better use of this trait if we were using more than one Signet.

Signet of Judgement - Passive: Reduces incoming damage.Active: Grant retaliation to nearby allies. I enjoyed this skill it buffs the guardian and upto 5 nearby allies. A single player hiting a group buffed with this will find his health whittled down.

Wall of Reflection - Protect target area with a wall of mystic power that reflects projectiles. Duration: 5 s with a 30 sec cooldown. I loved this, ranged classes nuked themselves down against this. It can be dropped in the middle of a fight and it sometimes not noticed. If you use the staff use Line of Warding to draw a line in front of you that foes cannot cross. This way both melee and casting enemies are hampered. One short coming is that it’s a wall rather than a shell so it is less useful when taking a keep.

Hold the Line - Grant protection and regeneration to allies. Is this essential for a support Guardian I suspect that it is. If I were to take only one shout I would not trait it.

Retreat – A 2^nd shout that grants aegis and swiftness to up to five nearby allies. If I were to take two shouts then I would also look into traiting them. A 20% reduction in cooldown might be useful.

Merciful Intervention. Teleport to the nearby ally with the lowest health and create a healing area around them. 45 second cooldown. Another direct heal. Teleports can end deliver you to strange places, be warned.

Purging Flames - Create a ring of fire that burns enemies and remove conditions from allies.I ewnjoyed this as I was focused a lot and it allowed me to retaliate.

Sanctuary - Form a protective shelter that prevents foes and projectiles from entering, and heals allies.  Duration: 10 s  Cool down of 120 seconds is a bit long. If we were to pick up Wall of Reflection as well. It might be worth traiting these skills. It is possible to make these Concecrations ground targeted, recharge faster and last longer.

Bow of Truth: Summon an arcane bow to remove conditions from you and your allies. I need to test the heal on this.

Some rules of thumb:

My Top three utility skills after the stress test are:

Hold the line. Direct heal and short cooldown.

Retreat. A good defensive buff and speed.

Merciful Teleportation. Another decent heal and also selects the player most in need. So should be moron friendly. Also useful to get out of jail.

Don’t trait for a type of skill(Coecration, Symbol, Meditation) Unless you have two of that type. Remember your downed bar has a symbol!

Some Trait seem too good to pass on. Justice is Blind, Altruistic Healing, Battle Presence and  Resolute. I also like the heal from selfless daring.

Altuistic Healing works well with the shouts as does Might of the Virtuous.

This would be a good base for traits with 35 points still to allocate.

So this is a possible revised build for Warband support. It offers a lot of synergy with shouts. I am unsure of Pure of Heart applies to every Aegis or just the one on the guardian.