12/14/2021—December 14 Release Notes

Wintersday

Come join us in celebrating Wintersday—Toymaker Tixx has made his annual visit to Divinity’s Reach to spread seasonal cheer and festivity! Bring the cheer of Wintersday to the distant north in the Secret Lair of the Snowmen, complete daily achievements to earn fanciful holiday weapons, save Wintersday for the orphans around Divinity’s Reach by giving them wrapped gifts, and test your snow-throwing skills against other players in Snowball Mayhem. You can also experience the joy of jumping in Winter Wonderland, defend against waves of toys in Toypocalypse, and help keep Tixx’s airship, The Infinirarium, in order! You will also see Wintersday gifts appearing all around Tyria.

• The Wintersday annual meta-achievement, Wintersday Traditions, has been updated with a new armor reward: the Embellished Wintersday Gift Bag. Transport your gifts around Tyria with this lavish new backpack! Last year’s meta-achievement reward, the Festive Winter Hood, can now be purchased from festival rewards vendors.
• A new weekly achievement, (Weekly) Wintersday Festivities, has been added. Complete various festival activities to complete it and earn rewards each week!
• With its charitable mission complete, the yearly donation event to aid the city of Amnoon has been retired. In its place, the Replica Ho-Ho-Tron has relocated the staging ground for its own donation-seeking event.
  • This has resulted in a slightly longer donation delivery route. To compensate, the gift dolyak has been training in the off-season and can trot faster to keep its scheduled arrival time.
• Orphans in Divinity’s Reach who have not received a daily gift will now display an overhead marker to help locate them.
• Toypocalypse has been significantly updated:
  • The number of waves per round has been reduced from 5 to 3. Enemy toys per wave is unchanged in Round 1 but escalates through Round 10.
  • Destructible decorations now reappear after 10 minutes instead of 15.
  • Increased the setup time before the first attack round from 30 seconds to 60 seconds.
  • Defense gadgets now display the time until they disappear as an effect.
    • They have always had an unseen lifetime limit, which caused confusion about what was causing gadgets to disappear over time.
  • Overhauled the skills of the Toy Repair Pistol and renamed it the Toy Control Pistol to more accurately describe its use:
    • Reprogram: Improved control effectiveness and reduced cooldown.
    • Disorienting Blast: Now additionally hits a small area, slows enemies, and can break decorations.
  • Adjusted the skills of the Toy Cap Rifle to ease its use and allow it to more easily break decorations:
    • Big Shot: Reduced channel time and increased damage.
    • Penetrating Shot: Reduced channel time.
    • Rifle Butt: Reduced cooldown duration, damage, and aftercast delay.
  • Increased the size of the main platform’s healing aura.
  • Added a movement speed skill to construction bundles.
  • Improved map markers and event behavior across Toypocalypse.
  • Players can no longer leave the preparation area before the event begins.
• Added new items to festival reward vendors and Wintersday Gifts.
• The icon for Mini Freezie has been updated to better match its scowling face.
  • Coincidentally, a new, happier Mini Wintersday Cheer Freezie is now available from the Wintersday Chest at the end of the Secret Lair of the Snowmen.
• New winter-themed guild decorations have been added.
• A number of festival-related bugs have been fixed to ensure a happy holiday for all heroes.

Wintersday will be active until January 4 at noon Pacific Time (UTC-8). See you in Divinity’s Reach!

General

• Changed the initial armor appearance for light-armored characters from the Apprentice armor set to the Country armor set.

Items

In January, we made some adjustments to high-value cosmetic infusion sources to improve their availability. These changes resulted in good progress but didn’t move the needle as far as we would like, so we’re making some more. Our data shows a significant percentage of Charged Quartz Orichalcum Amulets containing cosmetic upgrades are destroyed or salvaged with a kit that does not guarantee upgrade extraction, so to skip the middleman, the upgrades will now drop directly.

• Replaced the Charged Quartz Orichalcum Amulet of the Exalted from Grand Exalted Chests and Glowing Stones with the upgrade it contained, a Vial of Liquid Aurillium.
• Replaced the Charged Quartz Orichalcum Amulet of the Hive from the Vinewrath Chest with the upgrade it contained, a Preserved Queen Bee.
• Replaced the Charged Quartz Orichalcum Amulet of the Chak from the Gerent’s Chest with the upgrade it contained, a Chak Egg Sac.
• Increased the drop rate of the Chak Egg Sac from the Gerent’s Chest.
• Increased the drop rate of the Festive Confetti Infusion from the “Stop the choya pinata before it gets away!” event bonus chest.
• Increased the drop rate of the Heart of the Khan-Ur infusion from the “Recovered” Charr Artifact.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE

• Check out www.guildwars2.com every week for the most up-to-date information on Black Lion Trading Company Gem Store releases.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue in which a few Black Lion skins were being excluded from the Transmutation system.

Source: Guild Wars 2 Official Forums