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Guild Wars 2 Patch Notes: 15th November 2012 Update

November 17, 2012 by

GW2 Patch Notes

Sorry for the delay in posting these GW2 patch notes from the latest update. For any regular players you’ll know this update has contained the latest big content update, the Lost Shores event. Aside from the extra Level 80 dungeon,Fractal of the Mists, there’s a heap of other stuff including a range of bug fixed.

The patch notes in full for you:

Dungeons

General

  • New dungeon rewards have been added to all dungeons.
  • Each dungeon has a new set of unique items with new stat combinations, ranging in rarity from masterwork to exotic. These items have a chance to drop off of certain bosses in the explorable mode of each dungeon.
  • Story and explorable bosses and encounters have a chance to drop Bags of Wondrous Goods, which contain coins and karma. Bags of Wondrous Goods obtained in explorable mode also contain dungeon tokens.
  • If the owner of a dungeon instance intentionally leaves his party to kick out players and invite new players, it will now also kick that owner out of the dungeon to prevent people from kicking PUG members and inviting guild members for the final boss of a dungeon.

Fractals of the Mists
There are new stories being told in the taverns of Lion’s Arch, usually in hushed tones by broken and bloodied adventurers. They weep into their ales and shake as they speak…not about dragons or the undead, but of something new, a mysterious portal that has emerged in the city, beckoning the bravest to venture through it.
Introducing a dungeon experience like no other—Fractals of the Mists! A series of unique “fractal” minidungeons, increasing in difficulty, offers players unlimited levels of challenge! With great risk comes great rewards, including new weapon sets, a back slot item, new Ascended loot, and much more!

  • New level 80 dungeon with dynamic leveling so you can bring your friends!
  • Endless and scaling. The deeper you go, the harder it gets!
  • The portal to the Fractals of the Mists will activate with the Lost Shores content Friday at 12:30 p.m. Pacific Time. Head west of Fort Marriner to the entrance and try your luck. Perhaps you’ll survive and reap the rewards, or perhaps you’ll be lost forever to the Fractals’ bloody secrets.

Items
There are two new major features added to items in this update. For more detailed information on these features and how they tie into the new Lost Shores content, check out this blog post!

  • Added new crafting materials as part of the Lost Shores update.
  • Crafted Halloween potions are no longer account bound.
  • The mighty Zommoros has slightly increased the drop rate on Legendary precursor weapons from the Mystic Forge from both Rares and Exotics.
  • The drop rarity of Rare and Exotic weapons from certain places in the world (champions, veterans, and players in WvW) has been increased. Rares and Exotics should be much more likely to drop and every champion should be guaranteed to drop loot. This was to ensure that world loot drops were not a significantly worse way of acquiring rare and exotic items than crafting and running dungeons.
  • The amount of loot that drops for downscaled players has been increased. You should now be able to receive level-equivalent loot until you are fighting at a downscaled level that is less than 2/3 of your actual level. You should also receive loot a greater percentage of the time as well as receiving a greater percentage of experience, gold, and karma. For level 80 characters, this means level 55+ areas will be able to drop level 80 gear and give about 75% or so of the other rewards. Previously, these areas would give level 77 gear at best and closer to 60% or so of your rewards.

New Rarity Type: Ascended

  • Ascended rarity falls between Exotics and Legendaries on the rarity spectrum.
  • Ascended items have higher stats than Exotics and come with slots for the new upgrade type, Infusions.
  • Ascended rings and back slot items have been added to the game.

New Upgrade Type: Infusion

  • Infusions are a new type of upgrade component that can only be slotted into a matching Infusion slot.
  • Added 12 new Infusions of the offensive, defensive, and omni types to the game.
  • Create Infusions through the Mystic Forge using new crafting materials.

PvP

  • Paid tournament rewards have been improved. We’ve spread out the rewards for paid tournaments, so that more finishing positions receive rewards. We’ve also made it so that qualifying points are rewarded to the following finishing positions:
    • 1st place—Tourney Chests, 500 glory, 500 rank points, 120 gems, 5 qualifying points
    • 2nd place—Tourney Chests, 400 glory, 400 rank points, 80 gems, 3 qualifying points
    • 3rd place—Tourney Chests, 300 glory, 300 rank points, 20 gems, 1 qualifying point
    • 4th place—Tourney Chests, 300 glory, 300 rank points, 20 gems, 1 qualifying point
    • 5th place—Tourney Chests
    • 6th place—Tourney Chests
    • 7th place—Tourney Chests
    • 8th place—Tourney Chests
    • Paid tournaments also provide each finishing place a small chance to win gems in the following amounts. The chance of winning one of these is approximately 1 in 4. No player can win twice.
      • 10 gems
      • 35 gems
      • 80 gems
      • 120 gems
      • 1000 gems
  • Free and paid tournaments will now use individual respawn timers. Public games played via the PvP Browser will still use time-based wave spawning.
  • A new map set in a kodan dojo is available. “Temple of the Silent Storm” is a beta version of the map, but we’re letting players play it now to give us feedback.
  • We will also be putting up some PvP Browser hot-join maps so that some are 5-on-5 and some are the current 8-on-8.
  • The map rotation for PvP Browser hot-join maps will be:
    • Temple of the Silent Storm
    • Forest of Niflhel
    • Legacy of the Foefire
    • Battle of Kyhlo
    • Raid on the Capricorn
  • Daily and monthly achievement rewards are now available in PvP.
    • Daily rewards: 1 tournament ticket and 1 glory boost
    • Monthly achievement rewards: 10 tournament tickets, 5 glory boosts, and 5 salvage kits
  • The /rank command will now show your PvP ranking. This only works in the PvP lobby and cannot be used inside an active PvP game.
  • Added tracking for Qualifying Point Leaderboards. The current leaderboards are being shown here: https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/pvp/pvp/Leaderboards-for-Qualifying-Points/.
  • PvP Mystic Forge: You can now convert PvP Mystic Forge components into other components. This requires purchasing an Arcane Converter from any glory vendor. The conversion recipes are as follows:
    • 25 Arcane Orbs + 1 Arcane Converter + 1 Arcane Crystal + 25 Arcane Powder = 11 Arcane Crystals
    • 25 Arcane Crystals + 1 Arcane Converter + 1 Arcane Sliver + 25 Arcane Powder = 11 Arcane Slivers
    • 25 Arcane Slivers + 1 Arcane Converter + 1 Arcane Orb + 25 Arcane Powder = 11 Arcane Orbs
  • Raid on the Capricorn: Reduced the number of sharks from 10 to 6. They should no longer cover the Ruins capture point.
  • PvP downed health is now 75% of what it was. This change was made so that in fights where players are slightly outnumbered, they can win those fights by killing off downed enemies through damage rather than needing to use a finishing move. This should not have too much impact on 1v1 fights or big team fights, but it should help players win 1v2 and 2v3 fights if they gain the initial advantage.
  • The hit area for the trebuchet in the Battle of Kyhlo has been updated to prevent players from dropping massive AoE attacks (e.g. Meteor Shower) and having every single attack hit the trebuchet, destroying it without any counter. All normal attacks should still work against it.

General

  • The Fire Elemental encounter in Metrica Province has received a balance pass.
  • The Shatterer encounter in Blazeridge Steppes has been updated.
  • A UI confirmation window will now pop up on large vendor purchases.
  • Players will now be warned if they do not have enough inventory space to acquire an elemental fragment during the Dierdre’s Steps jumping puzzle.
  • Harvesting tools are now account bound.
  • Updated Rune of Water to provide 10% boon duration instead of 15% in PvP.
  • Updated Rune of the Monk to provide 10% boon duration instead of 15% in PvP.
  • Updated Rune of Earth to provide 15% protection duration instead of 20%, and 3 seconds of protection instead of 4 seconds in PvP.
  • Updated Rune of the Citadel to properly grant power instead of healing.
  • Rune of Svanir’s block of ice effect will no longer allow players to capture points while they’re invulnerable. Removing the stun from this effect will remove the invulnerability as well.
  • Rune of Air’s lightningdamage has been reduced by 25%.
  • “Unblockable” skill facts have now been added to various skills.
  • Rune of the Pack’s on-hit effect now works properly.
  • Many skills, items, and traits were applying healing to an infinite amount of targets and have now been limited to 5 targets.
  • You can no longer view opponents’ account names through reporting in WvW.
  • Fixed a bug that caused many piercing, boomerang, and bouncing projectiles (those that hit more than 1 target) to continually increase in damage the more targets they hit.
  • Fixed a bug preventing melee attacks from hitting static objects in the world if the character was not moving. As an example, this should help players using melee in Ascalonian Catacombs to hit graveling burrows, amongst other offending objects.

Commerce

  • The Consortium Chest has been added to the gem store in the Consumable category for 250 gems each or 10 for 1800 gems. No key is required to open these chests; simply double-click them in your inventory.
    • When you open the Consortium Chest, you will receive some number of crafting materials and one random item.
    • Some items in the chest include: shoulder skins, breathing masks, weapon skins, hats, and minis.
    • All items in the chest are new and have never been available before.
    • Weapon skins are rare, and the minis are very rare.
    • All items can be sold on the Trading Post.
    • The Consortium Chest will only be available for a limited time.
  • All the items found in the Consortium Chest can also be obtained as rare drops from any creature from the new Lost Shores event.
  • The Consortium Dye Kit has been added to the gem store in the Consumable category for 125 gems each or 5 for 500 gems.
    • The Consortium Dye Kit gives one random blue dye and one random yellow dye.
    • The Consortium Dye Kit will only be available for a limited time.
  • Dye Packs now come in bundles of 5 for 800 gems.

Events

  • Fixed a bug preventing Captain Penzan from retrieving his treasure in Bloodtide Coast.
  • Fixed a potential blocking bug for the event “Protect Orl’s research krewe” in Metrica Province.
  • Fixed an exploit with the “Assist the skritt with their fortifications” renown region in Mount Maelstrom.
  • Fixed a bug that would cause Fleshgrazer to turn permanently invulnerable.
  • Fixed a blocking bug that could occur during “Escort Brugh to Morgan’s Spiral” in Caledon Forest.
  • Fixed a blocking bug in the event “Help the Priory return the energy core to the Henge of Denravi” in Brisban Wildlands.
  • The Priory Explorer Plinx event chain in Cursed Shore will now occur less frequently.
  • The event “Defend Rimtooth, the pack marmox, from dredge” in Diessa Plateau has been updated to avoid situations that could block progress.
  • Fixed a bug that would occasionally prevent the event “Return the stolen cattle to Stonefall Estate” in Diessa Plateau from starting.
  • Updated the “Royal Forum Waypoint” in the Straits of Devastation so players will no longer get stuck in nearby props.
  • Fixed two bugs that could prevent progress with the event “Cull the undead horde gathering outside of First Haven” in Gendarran Fields.
  • Fixed a bug that could prevent progress with the event “Protect krewe leader Dobbs as the krewe clears the excavation site” in Timberline Falls.
  • Fixed a bug that would allow the player to remain transformed after the event “Disguise yourself and gather special roots for Drysdan’s medicine” in Mount Maelstrom.
  • Fixed potential blocking bugs with the event “Help the Soundless villager return home” in Caledon Forest.
  • Fixed an issue that prevented the spectral weapons from respawning in the Malchor’s Leap event “Defeat spectral weapons and bring them to Byanca.”
  • Fixed an issue that caused Ghostnight to become stuck on his path in the Diessa Plateau event “Defend Faint Ghostnight as he searches for a new devourer egg.”
  • Fixed an issue that was preventing Nia from continuing on her path in the Fields of Ruin event “Help Nia rescue Cymbel’s hounds.”
  • Fixed an issue that caused NPCs to become stuck while reviving allies in the Straits of Devastation event “Escort the northern invasion Pact squad to the Pact rally point at Triumph Plaza.”
  • Fixed an issue that could prevent the Straits of Devastation event “Help the Pact reach the Altar of Betrayal before their morale is depleted” from starting.

Story

  • The story step “The Hatchery” has been fixed to allow players to progress.
  • The story step “Source of Orr” has been fixed to prevent a possible blocking issue.
  • The story step “Estate of Decay” has been fixed to avoid a problem where allowing Hekja to die resulted in preventing progress.
  • The story step “Conscript the Dead Ships” fixed a possible blocking issue if you used movement skills to board the ships or talked to Jeyne while she was building the gangplanks.
  • The story step “The Stone Sheath” has been fixed for engineers that were previously unable to complete the quest.
  • The story step “Dredge Assault” now progresses correctly when destroying either door into the dredge cave.
  • The story step “Critical Blowback” has been fixed to avoid a problem that could prevent progress.
  • The story step “The Ghost Rite” has been fixed to avoid a problem where players were able to defeat the final boss too early.
  • The story step “A Light in the Darkness” has been fixed to avoid a problem that could prevent progress, and the difficulty has been reduced.
  • The story step “Ships of the Line” has been fixed to avoid a problem that could prevent progress.
  • The story step “Trading Trickery” has been fixed to avoid a problem that could prevent progress.

Profession Skills
Elementalist

  • Ride the Lightning: This skill should now track moving enemies more reliably.
  • Magnetic Grasp: This skill should now track moving enemies more reliably and end correctly when you reach your target.
  • Evasive Arcana: This trait no longer creates unintended blast finishers.
  • Ether Renewal: This skill’s cast time has been reduced from 4.75 to 3.5 seconds. There is no change to the total amount of healing.
  • Healing Rain: This skill’s tooltip now states the correct duration of 6 seconds.
  • Armor of Earth: This skill’s tooltip now states the correct duration of 6 seconds.
  • Churning Earth: This skill’s description no longer references “hold and release.”
  • Signets of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water: These skills should now have a cast animation while wielding a Fiery Greatsword.
  • Ring of Fire: This skill on Conjure Flame now lists itself as a Fire combo field.
  • Dragon’s Tooth: The blast finisher for this skill now triggers at the spell location rather than the character’s location.
  • Magnetic Wave: This skill’s missile-reflect portion now has an accompanying icon.
  • Phoenix: This skill’s tooltip now states the correct duration of 5 seconds of vigor that this skill applies.
  • Blasting Staff and Geomancer’s Alacrity: These traits now work together for the Eruption skill.
  • Mist Form: This skill now works with the Water Magic trait Cantrip Mastery.
  • Soothing Wave: This skill now properly applies regeneration to the elementalist when using Conjure Frost rather than only when the bow is picked up.
  • Healing Ripple: This skill’s scaling with healing power has been reduced by 50% in PvP only, as it had scaling that’s normally reserved for main healing skills. The maximum number of targets has also been reduced from infinite to 5.
  • Obsidian Focus: This Earth Magic trait now grants toughness when channeling the Stone Shards skill.
  • Ice Spike: This skill’s tooltip now states the correct amount of vulnerability when traited.
  • Conjure Frost Bow’s Deep Freeze: This skill now applies 1 second of chill per pulse, preventing extreme stacking of chill on a target.
  • Conjure Frost Bow’s Ice Storm: This skill now applies 5 seconds of bleeding per hit instead of confusion.
  • Tidal Wave: This skill’s responsiveness has been improved.
  • Tornado: Leaving this elite skill now removes the stability it grants in order to make it consistent with other elite transformation abilities.
  • Vapor Form: Fixed a bug that allowed this skill to contest a capture point.
  • Flame Axe: This weapon now grants the wielder power and condition damage.
  • Frost Bow: This weapon now grants the wielder increased condition duration and increased healing power.
  • Fiery Greatsword: This weapon now grants the wielder power and condition damage.
  • Magnetic Shield: This weapon now grants the wielder vitality and toughness.
  • Lightning Hammer: This weapon now grants the wielder increased precision and critical damage.

Engineer

  • Elixir
    • Elixir X: This skill now only requires one cast to transform the user.
    • Toss Elixir R: This skill’s recharge is increased from 85 seconds to 120 seconds.
    • Elixir S: This skill is now improved by the Alchemy trait Fast-Acting Elixirs.
  • Tool Kit
    • Box of Nails: This skill now shows its proper area of effect.
    • Gear Shield: This skill now blocks for an extra second.
    • Magnet: This skill’s range has been doubled.
  • Grenades
    • The projectile speed of all grenades has been increased by 10-15%.
    • Grenade: This skill’s damage has been decreased by 10% in PvP only.
    • Shrapnel Grenade: This skill’s damage has been decreased by 15% in PvP only.
    • Freeze Grenade: This skill’s damage has been decreased by 10% in PvP only.
    • Grenade Barrage: This skill’s damage has been decreased by 10% in PvP only. It also now works correctly with the Explosives trait Grenadier while underwater.
  • Turrets
    • Smoke Screen: This skill’s graphic has been updated to show the area of the screen. It now pulses every 2 seconds for 6 seconds instead of every second for 5 seconds. This makes it more effective against enemies using attacks at normal speeds but prevents it from being abused to shut down quick-attacking enemies completely.
    • Automatic Fire: Increased the duration of this skill’s Overcharge by 100% on Harpoon Turret and 25% on Rifle Turret.
    • Electrified Net: Increased the velocity of the Electrified Net by 100%.
    • Thump: Increased the damage of the Overcharged attack by 25%.
  • Bomb Kit, Med Kit, Tool Kit, and Elixir Gun: These skills can now be equipped in the air.
  • All kits can be stowed in the air now.
  • Toss Elixir C: This skill’s cooldown will be set from 60 seconds to 30 seconds when underwater.
  • Elixir Gun’s Fumigate: This skill will now be cancelled when using other skills on the weapon to improve responsiveness.
  • Rocket Turret: This turret can now be detonated underwater.
  • Power Wrench: This trait now applies to Gear Shield and Magnet.
  • Incendiary Powder: This trait now states that it can only trigger once every 3 seconds.
  • Elixir U and Elixir C: These skills have had outdated skill facts removed.
  • Potent Elixirs: This skill no longer grants improper boon durations.
  • Elixir B: This skill grants fury, retaliation, and swiftness for 10 seconds base, with might being applied for 30 seconds base.
  • Smoke Bomb: This skill’s radius has been reduced to 180 from 240 when traited. Smoke Bomb is now active for 4 seconds, pulsing every 2. This change also affects the Autodefense Bomb Dispenser trait.
  • Homing Torpedo: This skill is now a small projectile combo finisher.
  • Retreating Grapple: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
  • Timed Charge: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
  • Net Wall: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
  • Harpoon Turret: This turret will now spawn at the engineer when the Deployable Turrets trait is equipped.

Guardian

  • Protector’s Strike: Fixed a bug that allowed this skill to be cancelled and retain the blocking benefits.
  • Shield of Judgment: This skill’s protection duration has been set to 3 seconds from 5 seconds in PvP only.
  • Courageous Return: This trait now uses the correct icon.
  • Power of the Virtuous: This trait now uses the correct icon.
  • Orb of Light: This skill’s velocity has been increased by 50%.
  • Empower: This skill’s might duration increased from 8 seconds to 10 seconds.
  • Selfless Daring: This trait had an efficiency with healing power that was reserved for healing skills only and has now been reduced to its intended level. Heal scaling has been reduced by 50% in PvP only.
  • Merciful Intervention: This skill has been updated to be instant when traited and will now always be based around the guardian.

Mesmer

  • Moa Morph: Targets transformed by this skill have 5 new and less-frustrating skills, and this skill can also be used underwater to turn enemies into tuna. This skill now removes Death Shroud from the target instead of the necromancer being stuck in Death Shroud.
  • Portal: This skill’s recharge has been increased to 90 seconds.
  • Illusionary Duelist, Phantasmal Swordsman, Phantasmal Mage, Phantasmal Defender, Phantasmal Disenchanter, Phantasmal Rogue, Phantasmal Warlock, Illusionary Mariner, Illusionary Whaler, Phantasmal Berserker, and Phantasmal Warden: These skills must now be cast in line-of-sight of the target. These skills now behave as normal attacks that the mesmer must connect in order to summon the phantasm, and they will fail if the mesmer is blind or the ability is cast on an invulnerable target.
  • Phantasmal Mage: This skill’s confusion has been increased to 3 stacks for 3 seconds from 1 stack for 9 seconds. The recharge on Phantasmal Mage’s skill has been increased to 6 seconds from 5 seconds.
  • The Prestige: This skill’s damage has been increased by 100%.
  • Phantasmal Haste: This trait now works.

Necromancer

  • The Soul Reaping trait line now properly increases maximum Life Force.
  • Ghastly Claws: This skill’s damage has been increased by 10% and updated to indicate the correct life force gained.
  • Reaper’s Touch: This skill applies 4 stacks of vulnerability per hit instead of 3.
  • Mark of Blood: This skill now uses the standard staff scythe cast effects.
  • Spectral Wall: This skill now applies its recharge at the correct time instead of both during and after casting.
  • Dark Path: This skill now applies it recharge at the correct time instead of both during and after casting.
  • Spinal Shivers: This skill’s casting effects and audio are now consistent with or without the Spiteful Talisman trait.
  • Soul Marks and Mark of Revival: These traits now work together to grant 3% life force to players when triggered.
  • Death Nova: This skill now properly activates when using Taste of Death and Putrid Explosion. The internal cooldown has been removed. This skill’s field duration is now 4 seconds, and the rate it pulses has been increased to every 2 seconds. Its poison duration is 5 seconds per pulse.
  • Weakening Shroud: This trait now functions underwater.
  • Mark of Evasion: This trait is no longer a blast finisher when the mark is created.
  • Plague Blast: This skill’s casting time has been reduced.
  • Death Shroud: Moa Morph now removes Death Shroud from the target instead of the necromancer being stuck in Death Shroud and using their entire bar while in the transform.
  • Deadly Catch: This skill now pulls enemies to the necromancer in a reliable fashion.
  • Summon Blood Fiend: The Blood Fiend’s survivability has been increased, and its attack now heals the necromancer for 200% of its previous heal.
  • Spectral Walk: This skill now sets its underwater slot appropriately on recharge.
  • Corrosive Poison Cloud: This skill’s duration tooltip has been corrected.
  • Frozen Abyss: This skill now lists the vulnerability it applies.
  • Spectral Grasp: This skill’s projectile velocity has been increased by 33%.
  • Lich Form: Leaving this skill now removes stability from the player to make the removal consistent with all other transform elites.
  • Feast: This skill no longer causes damage to the necromancer.
  • Sinking Tomb: This skill now has a correct range of 1200, cannot hit targets above the water, and has to hit the target to cause the sink effect.
  • Vampiric Precision, Vampiric Rituals, and Vampiric: These traits have been updated so that they don’t heal enemies when in lower-level areas.
  • Signet of Spite: This skill’s description now indicates all conditions applied.

Ranger

  • Improved the effect chance on ranger spirits to 35% base and 50% when traited.
  • Beastmastery minor traits now use the correct icon.
  • Splinter Shot: This skill’s damage is increased by 150%, and its bleeding duration is increased from 3 seconds to 4 seconds.
  • Counterattack: The blocking portion of this skill can now be used while moving. Ranged attacks will not trigger the second half of the skill.
  • Protecting Screech: This skill now states the correct duration of 4 seconds.
  • Call of the Wild: The Wilderness Survival trait Off-Hand Training now applies to this skill.
  • Throw Torch: The speed of the projectile has been increased.
  • Maul: This skill’s damage has been increased by 40%.
  • Sun Spirit: The tooltip for this skill now displays the proper burning time of 3 seconds.
  • Whirling Defense: This skill was updated so that it interacts better with combo fields.
  • Splinter Shot: This skill is now a small projectile combo finisher.
  • Coral Shot: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
  • Feeding Frenzy: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
  • Mercy Shot: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.

Thief

  • Piercing Shot: Fixed an error in this skill’s damage tooltip.
  • Dancing Dagger: This skill’s damage has been reduced by 50%.
  • Blinding Powder: This skill’s recharge has been reduced from 60 seconds to 40 seconds.
  • Smoke Screen: This skill’s height has been increased to help it absorb projectiles.
  • Shadowstep: This skill is temporarily disabled underwater to keep players from circumventing walls when using it.
  • Tactical Strike: This skill’s damage has been increased by 10% in all formats. This skill’s daze duration has been reduced from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds in PvP.
  • Leeching Venoms: This trait now scales based on the thief’s power.
  • Cluster Shot: This skill’s damage is reduced by 15% in PvP.
  • Cloak and Dagger: This skill’s damage has been reduced by 33% in PvP only.
  • Body Shot: This skill now allows players to activate other skills sooner after the ability ends.
  • Sneak Attack: This skill will now only apply the Revealed buff on the first attack that hits an opponent.
  • Stab: Damage for this skill has been normalized so that it doesn’t deal less damage from behind the target.
  • Bountiful Theft: This trait no longer applies aegis at odd times.
  • Scorpion Wire: This skill’s range has been increased to 1200.
  • Shadow Trap: This skill no longer shadowsteps the thief when the trap is triggered. This skill now has two additional abilities: The first ability becomes available when Shadow Trap is cast and will destroy the current trap. The second ability, Shadow Pursuit, becomes available when an enemy triggers the trap. The thief may choose to activate this ability and shadowstep to the enemy that triggered the trap. If this ability is not activated after 10 seconds, the ability will fade and Shadow Trap will be available.
  • Piercing Shot: This skill is now a small projectile combo finisher.
  • Ink Shot: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.

Warrior

  • Dual Shot: This skill’s damage has been increased by 10%.
  • Bull’s Charge: This skill’s range fact now properly reflects the actual range of the skill.
  • Reviver’s Might: This trait now uses the correct icon.
  • Stick and Move: This trait now uses the correct icon.
  • Forceful Shot: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
  • Brutal Shot: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
  • Split Shot: This skill is now a small projectile combo finisher.
  • Knot Shot: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.
  • Repeating Shot: This skill is now a small projectile combo finisher.
  • Triple Chop: This skill’s responsiveness has been improved.

Racial Abilities
Human

  • Avatar of Melandru: This skill now properly removes stability when players leave the transformation.

Sylvari

  • Grasping Vines: This skill now immobilizes enemies when the vines connect with the enemy.
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Final SWTOR 1.5 Patch Notes

November 16, 2012 by

SWTOR 1.5 Patch Notes

1.5 is Alive! Sorry, that was lame, but here are the full SWTOR 1.5 Patch Notes:

Game Update 1.5: HK-51 Activated

11/15/2012

Highlights

    • Free-to-Play is here! Players can now experience Star Wars: The Old Republic up to level 50 (with certain restrictions) without paying a subscription fee.
    • The Cartel Market is now accessible. Players can use Cartel Coins to purchase boosts, unlocks, cosmetic items, and more!

Travel to Section X on Belsavis and learn why the nefarious Dread Guard has seized control of this ravaged area of the planet! Section X can be accessed on Belsavis and via the daily mission shuttles.

  • HK-51 can now be acquired as a Companion Character! A shipment of the infamous Assassin Droids can be found in the wreck of an Imperial transport ship, The Fatality, in Section X. Reactivating HK-51 requires finding and assembling parts from across the galaxy.
  • Nightmare Mode is now available for Operation: Explosive Conflict! Bosses in Nightmare Mode present a new level of challenge, new mechanics, and high-quality rewards (such as a new vehicle and Dread Guard set pieces)!
  • Dreadtooth, a new world boss, can be found roaming Section X. Each time Dreadtooth is defeated, he returns with a temporary, stacking power buff which increases his difficulty and the quality of his loot rewards.

General

  • The names of guilds that are inactive (any guild that has had no members log in for 8 weeks) will now be released for use by new guilds. If a guild member logs back in once a name is released, that guild member can reclaim the guild’s name if it has not been taken. If the name has been taken, the guild will be granted a free rename.
  • If no member of a guild logs in for 8 weeks, the next guild member to log in will be promoted to Guild Leader.

Classes and Combat

  • Subscribers are no longer charged credits for skill point re-specializations.

    Jedi Knight

    Sentinel
    Watchman
        • Merciless Zeal’s healing has been reduced to .5% per point (down from 1% per point).

    Sith Warrior

    Maurader
    Annihilation
        • Hungering’s healing has been reduced to .5% per point (down from 1% per point).

Group Finder

  • Travelling to a new area while in a Group Finder queue no longer occasionally causes the UI to behave as if the player is not in the queue.

Missions and NPCs

  • Some missions on Origin Worlds now offer Experience Boost rewards.

Items

  • The cost to remove mods from items has been reduced for subscribers.
  • The Collector’s Edition vehicle and all vehicles available in the Cartel Market can now be used with the lowest-level rank. Their speed now scales based on the rank unlocked by characters.
  • Subscribers can now access speeders at level 15.
  • Campaign armorings are now available for purchase on the Black Hole vendor for Black Hole Commendations.
  • Dread Guard relics are now available on the Daily vendor for 300 Daily Commendations.
  • A new set of droid armor is now available from the Daily vendor.
  • More robes have been adjusted so that their backsides are not inappropriately large when worn.
  • New speeder vendors are now available on Taris (Republic) and Balmorra (Imperial).

Legacy

  • Players can now unlock their Legacy at level 10.
  • The Legacy panel now accommodates much larger Legacies.
  • Each rank of the Legacy Experience perk now grants +6% experience (as opposed to a gradual increase of +2/4/6/8/10). The total possible bonus from Legacy perks is still 30% in each category.

PvP

  • The caps for Warzone and Ranked Warzone Commendations have been increased. All players can now accumulate up to 4500 Ranked Warzone Commendations and 2750 Warzone Commendations.
  • Elite War Hero armorings, barrels, and hilts have had their stats improved slightly.

UI

  • Several emotes are now voiced!
  • Subscribers now have access to 2 additional quickslot bars.
  • Different quickslot bars can no longer be jumped to in the primary quickslot bar if they are already visible in another location on-screen.
  • The deposit for items placed on the GTN is now a percentage of the item’s value (instead of being based on the player’s set price).
  • Vehicles, mini-pets, weapons, the results of crafting schematics, and color crystals can now be previewed in the item preview window.
  • An additional Cargo Hold can now be purchased.
  • The title selection window is now scrollable. Players can now choose their Legacy name display from this window.
  • A progress bar has been added to the currency pane to indicate player proximity to currency caps.

Miscellaneous Bug Fixes

  • Several typos and instances of incorrect text have been corrected in all languages.
  • The Imperial Medcenter in the vicinity of the wreck of the Ambria’s Fury has been moved Northeast.
  • An issue that caused dark outlines to appear around characters’ eyes has been corrected.
Filed Under: General News, Patch Notes, SWTOR Tagged With:

SWTOR Free To Play: Our Verdict

November 15, 2012 by

To coincide with the launch of SWTOR’s Free To Play (F2P) option, I thought it would be worth getting some thoughts from each of our writers who play the game. For a game that’s only been available for less than a year, the switch to F2P is one of the bigger milestones and one not necessarily driven by success. That said, it could be a game-changer (sorry I had to do that), so let’s get the gamut of opinions from the team here:

Simon Potter

If ever there was an issue that sets the internet wolves baying at the moon it’s this one. And who can blame them? If it’s done well, F2P can save a game, or at least slow its decline to a respectable flatline. Done badly and it scares off the few paying subs you managed to hang on to.

So will this be the saving grace for SWTOR? I hope so, but we’ll have to wait a month or two to find out. If past travellers down this road are anything to go by, there will be a large influx of returning players, both the curious and hopeful. More significantly will be the mass of new players looking to get their Star Wars on. That should be exciting for all of us, especially those who have hung on hoping for the best.

All of these new players will, for the first month or so inject energy and a pretty good chunk of real world currency through micro transactions. Things will be looking pretty rosy for BioWare and I hope that continues because if the F2P implementation is done well, many people will stick around, enjoy the game and spread the good word. However, if it’s done poorly then ensuing flood of negative opinions may drown any long term future the game has, at least as we currently know it.

We all know that the game came out before it was ready and arguably was never really conceived as a true MMO. It’s the complaints generated by those issues that filled the sack of doorknobs which Bioware/EA have subsequently been thrashed with. Those of us who have been watching things closely are also painfully aware of the number of problems that have not been fixed and I’m not just talking about the game.

Even if they get F2P out the gate without a hitch they still have to keep the cash shop fed with a flow of desirable vanity items. More importantly they need to keep their six week update schedule. In my opinion the true test is whether the next update (1.6) has Makeb, the Cathars and other items previously promised or if they instead eke them out across several separate updates. If it’s the first option, we should be able to look forward to some great new treats coming down the line. If it’s the latter, it indicates they have very little up their sleeves which begs the question, who is going to come up with the new content, and when?

While BioWare have been content to gloss over or ignore concerns for the long term viability of SWTOR we’ve reached the point where they need to start delivering the goods in a substantial and consistent manner, especially with so many more people watching.

Personally I’m looking forward to F2P. I hope we get “Jedi’s” party at the Ewok village and not “Empire’s Tea with Vader”
.

Kristy Green:

When I heard the announcement that SWTOR was going to go free to play and how the story part of the game will be available to everyone, I was more excited than when the game was first released. Well, I was at first. Then they released more information about how the free to play will work and I went from yes to maybe to no, although floating around ‘maybe casually’ right now.

I admit that I am not a fan of free-to-play models with a subscription. I feel that it should be one or the other. There is always a chance of tension building between those that pay and those that don’t. Also, you have the added difficulty of finding the balance between rewarding the subscribers without punishing the free-to-players.

When I look at SWTOR’s new free-to-play plans, one thing sticks out to me – it seems to be all about getting you back to paying a full subscription. They seem to offer no reward for subscribing but instead lay all the punishment (or restriction) on the rest of the player base.

I admit I can’t see this working; the whole point of going free-to-play is getting people back playing your game and getting them to spend money because they want to, not because they have to.  People shouldn’t feel like their game play is affected because they aren’t paying a subscription.

Matthew ‘Scope’ Pearce:

After testing out the Cartel Coin Shop on the PTS it left me with a really bad taste in my mouth.

To be frank I think the switch to free to play might push me further away from the game than I already am due to the “Lucky Dip” and “gambling” aspect of the Cartel Coin Shop. I hated that about Star Wars Galaxies when they added the digital card game almost 90% or more of the new content and items being added to the game was all luck based drops from real cash purchases of card packs much like what EA/Bioware are doing to the Cartel Coin Shop in SWTOR with the Crime Lord Packs.

Now that SWTOR is going the same way as Star Wars Galaxies I feel cheated that If I want an Imperial throne vehicle I will have to buy packs over and over until it drops instead of just buying it out right like it should be. I’m also worried that even if I was to remain a subscriber that most of the new content being added to the game would only be added to the Cartel Coin Shop and require an “additional payments” alongside my monthly sub which would really piss me off.

With that in mind it is interesting to see that we can sell the items from the Cartel Coin Shop on the GTN which just makes credits earned in game less valuable now that we can just buy cartel items with real life cash and sell them on the GTN for credits.

I am Hopeful that the transition to F2P will improve the active player base numbers on the Oceanic servers as lately I have just lost interest in the game due to the empty lifeless and barren worlds on these servers but only time will tell if Oceanic servers will continue or fade away.

All in all I will return to SWTOR when more story content has been added to the game as this is the reason I got SWTOR in the first place and the only reason I will continue to play SWTOR.

Luke Le Page:

The closer we get to SWTOR’s F2P launch the more excited I am becoming. Looking back, I can’t really give you an accurate reason for why I stopped playing in the first place (I’m leaning towards the fact that my friends also left).

As some readers may be aware I also played DC Universe and experienced its transition to the F2P model and it is this experience that has me excited for SWTOR. I still have high hopes for this game and it will rely heavily on how they treat the F2P system. There are still a number of questions that need to be answered, the biggest one being how powerful will future cartel market items become?

If BioWare and by extension EA can maintain a balance between players who invest in the market and those who do not, I see nothing but a bright future for the game.

 David Holloway:

One of the downsides of being the editor is I usually have the last word and in this case I haven’t got much to say that hasn’t been covered by my colleagues above. Overall I’m probably on the pessimistic side in that I see SWTOR being crowded out in a now very busy MMO space, with too many people unforgiving for mistakes of the past year and a parent organisation (EA) that is not likely to put in the funds to make this game what it should be. It’s an issue I passionately hope I’m wrong on – but I just can’t see F2P causing the upward momentum the game needs.

I’m a subscriber and will continue to be, although each month that passes makes me wonder why I don’t go F2P – that’s the challenge BioWare face – making me and others like me wanting to pay a subscription. Here’s hoping they manage to do that.

And now the most important opinion: yours. Post your thoughts in comments!

Filed Under: General News, SWTOR

SWTOR Maintenance 15th November 2012

November 15, 2012 by

UPDATE (8.45am AEDT): Appears that servers may be down again for a little while for some people according to a SWTOR.com tweet – not ETA on when they’ll be back up. In the meantime, check out the full 1.5 Patch Notes.

It’s the bigg’un: a 12-hour maintenance downtime for the transition to Free to Play. Local time conversions for you:

AEDT: 5pm-5am
AWST: 2pm-2am
NZDT: 7pm-7am

The blurb from BioWare:

Hello everyone, we wanted to let you know that we will be performing scheduled maintenance for twelve hours on Thursday, November 15th, 2012 from 12AM CST (10PM PST/1AM EST/6AM GMT/7AM CET/5PM AEDT) until 12PM CST (10AM PST/1PM EST/6PM GMT/7PM CST/5AM AEDT). All game servers, SWTOR.com, and the launcher will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more than twelve hours, but could be extended.

Explore Section X, a brand new area on the prison world of Belsavis, where you will not only embark on a galaxy-wide mission to recruit the legendary HK-51 Assassin Droid as your companion, but also confront agents of the Dread Masters in their attempt to activate a powerful ancient Rakata weapon.

In Game Update 1.5, there will be two different ways to play Star Wars™: The Old Republic™:
Subscription – A service designed for players who want unrestricted access to all the game features via ongoing subscription or by redeeming a Game Time Card. Subscribers will receive ongoing monthly grants of Cartel Coins. Cartel Coins can be used to purchase valuable items including customizable gear and convenience features that will enhance the gameplay experience.
Free-to-Play – The first 50 levels will be Free-to-Play, with some restrictions on access to new content and advanced player features. Some restrictions can be “unlocked” with Cartel Coins.

After this maintenance is over, restart the game launcher to patch to Game Update 1.5.

Scheduled Maintenance

Date: Thursday, November 15th, 2012

Time: 12AM CST (10PM PST/1AM EST/6AM GMT/7AM CET/5PM AEDT) until 12PM CST (10AM PST/1PM EST/6PM GMT/7PM CST/5AM AEDT)

All game servers, SWTOR.com, and the launcher will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more than twelve hours.

Thank you for your patience as we maintain service for Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Filed Under: General News, Servers, SWTOR Tagged With:

The Secret World Issue #4 Preview Video

November 14, 2012 by

Hot off the presses, a six-plus minute video for the upcoming Issue #4 content update: Big Trouble in the Big Apple. It covers off graphically all the previously announced new content, including the PvP changes we talked about earlier this week.

Jump in and have a look for yourself:

There’s not a lot in there to dislike, and I applaud the innovation / sandbox nature of the Albion Theatre although the cynic in me wonders how successfully it’ll be used.

Over to you: is Issue #4 appealing to you and if so, which parts in particular?

Filed Under: General News, The Secret World

Marvel Heroes Developer Diary: Story

November 14, 2012 by

You may or may not know that we follow the development of the Marvel Heroes MMO pretty closely as yours truly is a rabid Marvel fan (albeit a pre-2000’s Marvel fan as a general rule), as is my podcast co-host and contributing writer Simon. So it was great to see another Marvel Heroes update released giving some detail on the story behind the game.

There’s quite a few snippets in there that you can discover for yourself but I for one like the fact Doctor Doom is the key villain. The vid / diary was put together by IGN:

After watching this, it’s hard not be be excited about this game. That said, all developer diaries are designed to do just that and the proof is always in the final product. If I was going to make a criticism it’d be that some of the dialogue sounds a little bit cheesy – yes it’s based on the comics but even so there’s some rough spots there.

Overall though, I’m very very optimistic for Marvel Heroes: what about you?

Filed Under: General News, Marvel Heroes, Other Games Tagged With:

The Naked Gamer: SWTOR F2P Thoughts

November 13, 2012 by

SWTOR F2P Thoughts

The Naked Gamer is a regular opinion column that strips back the superficialities and looks at the flesh underneath. If you’ve got a topic you’d like discussed, drop columnist Kristy Green a line!

My relationship with Star Wars: The Old Republic has been more like a rollercoaster than well, a relationship. When I first heard about this new MMO my immediate thought was how awesome it was going to be to play out my childhood fantasy of being a Jedi. Obviously this isn’t the first Star Wars game but it was the first one that I was interested in playing. When I heard BioWare were behind it, well I had a bit of a geek squealing session.

I was frustrated when I heard it wasn’t being released in Australia at launch but through some clever workarounds I was able to get the game. So when launch did come around, I was able to play and to live my dreams as a Jedi Consular and even got to play as a Twi’lek. How much more cooler can you get?

Sadly, then my friends stopped playing and the awesomeness of being a lightsaber wielding blue woman wasn’t enough to keep me playing. The game had some great things and like many, I loved the story (even if I got lost a few times because I kept pressing the spacebar during cut scenes) but there just wasn’t enough to keep me paying a subscription for. I let my account lapse with the promise that if it went free to play, I would return if only to find out how the story ended.

When I heard the announcement that SWTOR was going to go free to play and how the story part of the game will be available to everyone, I was more excited than when the game was first released. Well, I was at first. Then they released more information about how the free to play will work and I went from yes to maybe to no, although floating around ‘maybe casually’ right now.

I admit that I am not a fan of free-to-play models with a subscription. I feel that it should be one or the other. There is always a chance of tension building between those that pay and those that don’t. Also, you have the added difficulty of finding the balance between rewarding the subscribers without punishing the free-to-players.

When I look at SWTOR’s new free-to-play plans, one thing sticks out to me – it seems to be all about getting you back to paying a full subscription. They seem to offer no reward for subscribing but instead lay all the punishment (or restriction) on the rest of the player base.

I admit I can’t see this working; the whole point of going free-to-play is getting people back playing your game and getting them to spend money because they want to, not because they have to.  People shouldn’t feel like their game play is affected because they aren’t paying a subscription.

I feel that F2P will only succeed if the unlocks are really cheap, so you can essentially unlock the whole game for the same amount as a typical box price and if they allow people to go from subscription to non-subscription back to subscription without feeling like they are being penalised.

For now though, my gaming plate is already pretty filled with four other MMOs and numerous other games I play with my friends. I would have made time for SWTOR but right now, I am not sure I will. This weekend will really tell if I start playing again.

So good luck to BioWare and May The Force Be With You.

Filed Under: General News, Op-Ed, SWTOR Tagged With: ,

PvP’ers Get Big Love In Next TSW Update

November 13, 2012 by

Funcom’s Senior PvP Designer, Rasmus Harr, has done up a nice little blog post about some pretty big PvP changes happening for The Secret World with the upcoming Episode #4 content update Big Trouble in the Big Apple.  

Fundamental overhaul is maybe a better way to summarise what’s coming:

  • Improved rewards in Fusang
  • Total wiping of White Marks of Venice
  • A new PvP mission called The Underdogs that helps factions struggling to be competitive
  • Cross-dimension PvP in Fusang
  • Changes to match-making

It’s a hefty list of changes, so it’ll be interesting to see how they go down. If you’re a TSW PvP’er, let us know what you think!

Filed Under: General News, The Secret World Tagged With:

SWTOR Free To Play Preview #2: Cartel Market

November 12, 2012 by

BioWare have released a short vid with a little more info on the Cartel Market F2P’ers will be able to access:

As you’d expect, BioWare are going in hard on F2P given what’s at stake – what’s your take on what you’ve seen so far?

Filed Under: General News, SWTOR Tagged With: ,

The Naked Gamer: Age and Gaming

November 11, 2012 by

Age and gaming

The Naked Gamer is a regular opinion column that strips back the superficialities and looks at the flesh underneath. If you’ve got a topic you’d like discussed, drop columnist Kristy Green a line!

Well, it’s that time again. The time when my age gains a +1 and my experience bar resets for another year. Normally around this time I take a moment to reflect over the past 365 days and my life in general, although this time it’s a little different as it’s one of the big ones. You know the ones, where you are meant to make a big deal and you have to start ticking that older age bracket box.

Usually I will spend two weeks moping around and considering why I still claim the title of Gamer.  Even though I have always been on the younger side of the average gamer age, and probably always will be as the average age grows older with me, I find that society seems to continue thinking of gaming as child play. They seem to prefer to make up their own mind and ignore anything that might seem contrary.

Every year I am asked when I am going to grow up and stop playing with children’s toys. I am told that as a female my gaming hobby is either an attention seeking pastime or something I should finally give up to do things more worthwhile. I’ve even been told I would never be able to find someone if I continue to do anything that may be considered such a manly vocation.

I admit that these comments used to bother me. While a part of me knew they were false and I knew they shouldn’t get to me, they did. Every year I wondered why I enjoyed gaming and I even started to think maybe I am just being attention seeking? Who cares that I’ve been playing computer games since I was a girl. It was obviously something I did for some silly reason and simply not because of pure enjoyment. I even quit gaming for three years – it was torture.

So like usual, when this birthday came around I found myself once again having my deep soul searching assignment as to whether or not I should give up gaming.

I like to think that this year I am a little older and wiser and maybe that’s why I realised I don’t care anymore. I game because I want to, I game because I enjoy it and I love writing about gaming, talking about gaming and being a gamer.

While sure, it may not seem the most awesome life and while it may seem like I am wasting it staying home on a Friday night with a beer and my favourite MMO, I say waste away!

I can’t change how other people feel, what they choose to believe and even stop them from spreading it around, but I can decide if I am going to listen and if I am going to let them get to me. So, I am going to decide to not do that.

If there is one thing I would tell my younger self right now, it would be to never stop gaming no matter what other people might think. If they have a problem with your gaming then it’s their problem, not yours.

So boot up your computer, start a new game and let’s go save a princess together.

To gaming for life!

Filed Under: General News, Op-Ed Tagged With: ,

SWTOR Free to Play Launch Date Announced

November 9, 2012 by

SWTOR F2P Launch DateBioWare have announced the launch date for the switch over to its Free-to-Play option. November 15th is the day and it’ll be a simultaneous launch across all territories. Subscribers or those who re-activate a subscription by December 20th, also get their booty on that day:

If you’re a paying Subscriber at the launch of the Free-to-Play option on November 15th, you will be granted all of the Complimentary Cartel Coins currently listed on your Cartel Coin Ledger page, plus a one-time grant of 250 Complimentary Cartel Coins!

Additionally, we are extending the Rewards Program! All former subscribers who reactivate their subscription by the new date of December 20, 2012 at 11:59pm CST will be granted Complimentary Cartel Coins for their prior paid months up to November 15, 2012. For more information on all of the rewards you could potentially receive, visit www.StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com/FREE.

 Now over to you: is F2P bringing you back to game? If not, why not? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

 

Read the full info here.

Filed Under: General News, SWTOR

WoW Pet Fundraiser for Superstorm Sandy

November 8, 2012 by

WoW Pet FundraiserI love a good charity fundraiser using virtual goods, and no-one does it better than Blizzard with their WoW Pet Fundraisers. They’ve announced that in coming weeks there will be the option to purchase an in-game pet called a Cinder Kitten.

It’ll cost you US $10 and 100% of proceeds will go to supporting – once the full details are posted we’ll let you know. The initiative should raise a few million dollars – I know I’ll be buying one. I just wish more companies did this more often, particularly for disasters that are less well reported than this one has been.

Over to you: will you be buying a Cinder Kitten?

Filed Under: General News, WoW Tagged With: ,
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