ArenaNet Studio Update Has a Lot of Great News for GUILD WARS 2 Players

ArenaNet recently shared their latest studio update for Guild Wars 2. Inside the update was a lot of information and you can read it in it’s entirety over on the official site. However, I wanted to provide some highlights. Be sure to share your thoughts and favorite pieces of news in the comments. Also, remember that most of these will take effect with the June 28 patch.

First, the Lead Systems Designer Cameron Rich shared an update on Strike Missions in End of Dragons. In short, all of them have doubled the amount of gold given as a reward for completing them. There’s also the change that when you complete the weekly challenge mode you’ll get an Antique Summoning Stone per Strike Mission and challenge mode will reward you with the Imperial Everbloom Infusion. It seems like the community is overall very excited for these changes.

Next, we were informed how the restructuring of the dev team created a small group that didn’t have any immediate tasks and so they’ve been able to go and work on projects that were left in the backlog. The Special Forces Training Area and dungeon reward changes from earlier this month are apparently thanks to this team. That same team has been hard at work on a few other improvements for players to enjoy. One that isn’t getting talked about enough is that they’re adding contrast modes for your cursor (Off, Low, and High) to make it easier to see your cursor in-game! This will be especially nice in crowded events. They’re also getting rid of the current repair system. Armor will no longer break and need fixing after being pummeled. Instead, you can use repair canisters and anvils to gain small bonuses to health and defense that last for 12 hours. This boost will work in PvE and WvW, not PvP. The team is also making it easier for players to get into Raids with the Emboldened system and revamps to the LFG tool. Finally, Senior Game Designer Nick Hernandez shared that they’ve gone through and revamped instance boundaries for all of the instances before End of Dragons. The revamp will no longer boot you if you accidentally step over the invisible boundary, but rather you’ll just be pushed back into the instance’s boundary.

The update closed with Lead Skills and Balance Designer Solar talking about updates to the professions. The team has tweaked stacking attribute bonuses from Spotter and Banner of Discipline to now provide boons. They’ve also made alacrity and quickness support builds a big part of the update and made it easier to share fury and made might a bit easier to use as well. Finally, the team outlined that with the June 28 patch, each profession is getting a “present” which I’ve copied below for you. You can read the full patch notes for professions on the official site now.

• Elementalist: Tempest will now be able to provide party alacrity, with a rework to their grandmaster trait Lucid Singularity.

• Engineer: We’ve updated multiple rifle weapon skills to better support engineer power damage builds, and we’ve adjusted minimum and maximum ranges on several range-limited traits (such as Aim-Assisted Rocket, High Caliber, and No Scope) so that there’s an effective range in which all of them can function together.

• Guardian: We’ve updated guardian’s signet skills, including a significant improvement to Signet of Resolve.

• Mesmer: Chronomancers will be able to effectively choose to provide either quickness or alacrity based on their grandmaster trait selection and do so more easily, with increased radius and application methods that are easier to keep up with moving groups.

• Necromancer: Updates to warhorn and the related trait Banshee’s Wail will improve the necromancer’s ability to provide healing to allies.

• Ranger: Spirit skills have been overhauled to provide boons and allow rangers to opt in to providing alacrity with the trait Nature’s Vengeance.

• Revenant: Legendary Centaur Stance skills and Salvation traits have been updated to better support healing roles, while herald will now be able to provide quickness to allies with the trait Draconic Echo.

• Thief: The Shadow Arts trait line has been updated to provide better support options to synergize with specter, as well as updated options for stealth and defensive gameplay.

• Warrior: Banner skills have been overhauled to provide boons. Through deploying banners, an update to warhorn’s Charge skill, and the Tactics trait Martial Cadence, warriors can provide quickness to allies.