08/31/2021—August 31 Release Notes

Festival of the Four Winds

On behalf of Queen Jennah of Kryta, and the Captain’s Council of Lion’s Arch, you are cordially invited to participate in the return of the Festival of the Four Winds!

High atop the Labyrinthine Cliffs, our Zephyrite friends have been working in tandem with Lion’s Arch to host an incredible variety of fun vendors and events to entertain visitors from all across Tyria. This celebration of unity and peace between our cultures is more important than ever before, and we hope that you will join us in the festivities.

In this spirit of cooperation, Queen Jennah has personally overseen the reopening of the Crown Pavilion, featuring a variety of challenges for Tyria’s finest to test their mettle!

Transportation to the festivities couldn’t be easier! Special hot air balloons are now stationed in each nation’s capital city. Visitors can also sail directly from the ship in Lion’s Arch.

We look forward to seeing you at the festival!

—Captain Ellen Kiel

• The Zephyrite bazaar has returned to the Labyrinthine Cliffs! Visitors to the Labyrinthine Cliffs can try their hand at many festival activities, including adventures, races, and scavenger hunts:
  • Show your skill with the Zephyrite crystals in the Flying Dolyak race!
  • Enjoy the sights of the sea in the bay-spanning Skimmer Slalom race!
  • Team up with your friends to plunder lost treasure in the Treasure Hunt meta-event!
  • Scramble to set a high score in the Crystal Collection adventure!
  • Demonstrate your aviation ability in two griffon challenge adventures!
  • Compete to take the lead in the Sanctum Sprint activity!
  • Challenge the competition with unique Zephyrite skills in the returning Aspect Arena!
  • Leap across the Labyrinthine Cliffs to recover Zephyrite crystals and discover the fate of the Bazaar’s fallen star, Kookoochoo the Incredulous!
  • Trade materials with the Zephyrites for a new Zephyrite Supply Box containing a wide variety of possible items, including exceptionally rare skins and equipment from distant lands.
• For combat-inclined festivalgoers, the Crown Pavilion has reopened in Divinity’s Reach. Challenge re-creations of humanity’s greatest foes, legendary champions, and notorious figures!
  • The renowned Boss Blitz returns! Organize your companions to challenge 6 legendary foes—they’ll gain strength as other bosses fall, so plan your battle carefully!
  • Adventurers yearning to show their skill at a solo challenge rejoice! The Queen’s Gauntlet has been reopened!
  • Between Blitzes, blow off some steam in the most hazardous festival race since Halloween: the infamous Pavilion Pursuit!
• New updates and prizes this year include the following:
  • Complete the Annual Four Winds Customs meta-achievement to earn the Zephyrite Traveling Boots, a new armor piece crafted in the Zephyrite tradition.
    • Last year’s meta-achievement reward, the Sun-Blessed Vision, can now be purchased from the festival reward vendors.
  • The health increase of bosses per player in the Boss Blitz has been lowered.
  • In addition to granting might to players fighting the other bosses, breaking the defiance bar of a boss in Boss Blitz will now also give protection and stability to your allies in the fight.
  • New items have been added to the festival reward vendors in Labyrinthine Cliffs and the Crown Pavilion.
  • Contents of the Zephyrite Supply Boxes have been updated, including three new weapons crafted by a traveling weaponsmith.
    • The Zephyr Rucksack has been moved to the Super Rare item category to more accurately reflect its rarity.
  • The traders at the Bazaar in Labyrinthine Cliffs have updated their trading prices.
  • New guild decorations drawn from the architecture of the Zephyrites have been added.
  • Aspect Gatherer achievements now show a numbered list of crystals to collect.
  • The requirements of the (Annual) Zephyrite Lost and Found achievement have been reduced.
  • All sources of Festival Tokens now immediately add the tokens to the wallet.
  • The positions of some vendors in the Bazaar have been updated to clear footpaths and improve shopping convenience.
  • Numerous bugs and glitches have been fixed to ensure a safer and more pleasant festival for all participants.
• Complete festival daily achievements to earn the Four Winds Zephyr daily achievement, contributing to the Four Winds Gale achievement, which rewards your choice of weapons based on Zephyrite crafts!
• Earn Festival Tokens and Favors of the Festival throughout the festival events to trade for exciting prizes, including Zephyrite backpacks, the illustrious Sovereign weapon set, and items based on the latest wonder of the Crown Pavilion, the Watchknight Mk II.
• Zephyrite Kite Baskets have been scattered across Tyria. Open them to claim prizes from the Zephyrite stockpiles.
• The Festival of the Four Winds will be available for three weeks, from August 31 until September 21. Enjoy the festivities!

World Polish

• The Twisted Marionette’s public mode has returned as a cycling event in the Eye of the North. Every two hours, the Mist Stranger will call for adventurers to face the terrifying marionette.
  • The Twisted Marionette’s entry point has been moved from the Scrying Pool to the Mist Stranger’s new location in the main hall.
  • In the public version of the Twisted Marionette, the event will not begin until 50 or more players are in the map.
  • In the private version of the Twisted Marionette, the event will not begin until the squad leader instructs the Mist Stranger, located near the center waypoint, to start the battle.
  • Fixed a bug that caused the Inspire skill, which is available to players who have defeated their platform’s Warden, to not revive downed players on the other platforms as its description states.
  • Relocated map-exit points in the Twisted Marionette encounter to be farther from waypoints to avoid accidental selection of the exit.
• Maps with a public version, such as the Twisted Marionette, Dragonstorm, and Dragon Response Missions, will now return players to the map they entered from if they log out while in the map.
• A new achievement, The Goldclaw Holiday Collection, has been added to encourage discovery of a hidden series of festival-themed novels, each available only during their associated festival. Progress in this achievement is not retroactive.

General

·         The Guild Wars 2 client has been deprecated on Windows XP and Windows 32-bit to make way for Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons™ and DX11.

Profession Skills

General

To improve the stability of the game, performing any of the following actions will “reset” your status, removing ongoing skill effects such as damaging area effects, traps, preparations, missiles, and many boons and profession-specific enhancements.

This process will clean up many possible broken states in which a skill effect could be present when it should not have been. Some of these states caused duplication of performance-intensive skills such as traps, which degraded server performance for everyone.

The actions that trigger this skill cleanup include the following:

• Swapping your Build Template
• Swapping your Equipment Template
• Changing specialization
• Changing traits
• Changing items equipped in a weapon slot via the Hero panel
• Respawning after being defeated

Engineer

Pistol

• Static Shot: Fixed a bug that had unintentionally reduced the casting time of this skill by 0.2 seconds.

Revenant

• Impossible Odds: Follow-up strikes from this skill will now work properly on many large bosses, such as Tequatl the Sunless, where they previously had no effect.

Thief

Pistol

• Vital Shot: Fixed a bug that had unintentionally reduced the casting time of this skill by 0.2 seconds.

Deadeye

• Fire for Effect: The boons granted by this trait will now prioritize players within a party, then within a squad, before being applied to other potential targets.
• Shadow Gust: Fixed a bug that sometimes caused a normal autoattack to queue during the casting of this skill, causing players to use a normal attack instead of a stealth attack afterward.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE

New Items and Promotions

• Two weeks remain to purchase the 9th Anniversary Supply Drop Requisition, available in the Utility category of the Gem Store for 2,700 gems. All supply drops from the previous weeks will be delivered at the time of purchase.

·         The new Tempest Cape is available in the Style category of the Gem Store for 500 gems.

·         For a limited time, the Zephyrite Paraglider Glider, Zephyrite Aspect Helm Pack, Aspect Master’s Greatsword, Storm Bow, and Storm Gloves are available on sale in the Style category of the Gem Store for 280, 350, 420, 420, and 350 gems respectively—a savings of 30%.

Black Lion Chest

• The Black Lion Chest has been updated to the Reaper’s Path Chest and can be previewed for a full list of its contents.
  • The returning Gnashblade Zephyrite Supply Box has been added as the guaranteed item for the duration of the Reaper’s Path Chest.
  • The new Seven Reapers Greaves Skin is available as an uncommon drop for the duration of this chest.
  • The Vermilion Bow Package remains in the chest as an uncommon drop for the duration of this chest.
  • The Shifting Sands and Tormented weapon collections are available as uncommon and rare drops respectively for the duration of this chest.
  • Unused versions of the Glyph of the Forester and Glyph of the Prospector are available as rare drops for the duration of this chest.
• The items available in exchange for Black Lion Statuettes have been updated. Black Lion Statuettes are redeemable by using the statuette itself or by redeeming one at any of the Black Lion Chest Merchants located in every major city.
  • The exclusive Seraph Wings Backpack and Glider Combo, Wyrm’s Breath Cape, Griffon Hatchling Package, Mini Awakened Mounts Pack, Iron Beast Greatsword, and Etherbound Package are currently available.
  • The two bonus collections have been updated to a selection of armor skins and weapon skins. 

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Source: Guild Wars 2 Official Forums