Flaunt Your Carefree Spirit with the Flower Diadem Skin
Flower Diadem Skin
Floral fashion is a delight, no matter the season. Complete your look by adding the beauty of a wondrous garden as your lovely headpiece. This colorful skin is available for 400 gems and perfectly matches the "/PetalThrow" Emote Tome. Spread color and beauty!
What’s in Stock
With these amazing discounts, you can create new, fashionable looks for your fantastic characters. Don't miss out! Starting September 6 and continuing for the next few days, select unique armor skins will be 20% off, including the Bestial Tides Tattoo Pack, Pyre Horns Helm Skin, Raven Vest Skin, Baggy Cargo Pants Skin, and many more!
Also, don't forget that time is running out on the Janthir Wilds Launch Supply Drop Requisition. For information on the items you'll receive in the supply drop, like the Wisteria Spear Skin and Janthir Wilds Expedition Contract, check out our recent blog.
Returning This Week
If an organized bank and quick access to it are your thing, check out our sales! Bank Tab Expansions and permanent lounge passes are 20% off from today until September 10.
Available Now in the Gem Store!
Log into Guild Wars 2 and press 'O' to access the Black Lion Trading Company for these great offers and more!
Game Update Notes: August 20, 2024
08/20/2024—August 20 Release Notes
Note to users of third-party programs: The game may not launch or work properly after we release a new build if you use a third-party program, due to possible incompatibilities. ArenaNet cannot offer support if a third-party modification breaks, interferes with, or prevents you from playing Guild Wars or Guild Wars 2. Our policy regarding third-party programs can be found here.
Homesteads
Players can now obtain their own personal homestead by playing through the Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds storyline! Homesteads are an account-wide personal housing instance that provides you with an area of land and a permanent structure to cultivate, decorate, and share with your friends.
Players with a homestead can place a conjured doorway in open-world maps, which they can use to bring their party into their homestead.
All resource nodes (and cats!) unlocked in home instances will also be available in the homestead.
A new account-wide handiworker crafting discipline is available, allowing players to craft decorations for their homestead.
Unlocked mounts will appear in the homestead.
Characters that were logged out while inside the homestead instance will visit the homestead as NPCs.
Land Spears
All professions can now use spears on land. This is unlocked via a WvW vendor purchase or by playing the first few chapters of the Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds story.
New Masteries
Homesteading
Once a homestead has been obtained, you will begin to master the crafting of homestead decorations without the need for a crafting discipline. As this mastery grows, your access to recipes and space to work in will increase, and you will gain bonuses within your homestead, such as rested experience and automated gathering of resources.
Lowland Kodan
As you meet the lowland kodan in the Janthir region, you will gain access to their techniques, such as learning to use the spear on dry land, gaining power from local honey, and harvesting resources more efficiently.
Warclaw
If you've not yet bonded with a warclaw, Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds will make doing so easier and allow you to use its skills outside of World vs. World. As you progress your Warclaw Mastery, it will become immune to falling damage, leap further into the air, and gain enhanced stamina regeneration, which is shared across all of your mounts.
Decorating (General)
A new hotkey has been added for entering and exiting decoration mode, and specialized skills are available while in decorating mode. You can change which set of these is displayed using three sub-mode buttons above your skill bar: Place New Decorations, Modify Existing Decorations, and Erase Decorations.
Place New Decorations
Place: Begin placement by choosing a location on the ground to put the decoration, or by enabling the manipulator skills for more control over how the decoration is placed. If you use this skill before having chosen a decoration from your decorations inventory, it will open your decoration list to prompt you to do that first. If you're not using a manipulator skill to refine the placement, you can right-click to cancel placement. Otherwise, to cancel, press a different skill button or the Esc key (if you have an open panel, Esc will close it first). Also, if you're not using a manipulator, you can change the decoration's rotation by holding and dragging the mouse button when choosing the location to pivot the decoration around that point.
Move: Once you begin placement, the Move skill becomes available; press it to activate a manipulator gizmo. Click and drag a manipulator axis to move the decoration along that axis, or drag one of the squares to move the decoration across the corresponding plane. Once you're done using the manipulator, you can change it to another type or press the Place skill again to finish placing the decoration.
Rotate: Similar to Move, but the manipulator rotates the decoration. Click and drag a ring right or left to rotate the decoration around the corresponding axis. Hold Shift when you click the ring to drag it, and the rotation will snap to 45-degree increments. Pressing the skill again will toggle a spherical manipulator that you can click and drag to freely rotate the decoration in any direction.
Scale: This works much like Rotate and Move and allows uniform changing of the decoration's scale. Drag any of the boxes to scale the decoration up and down. There are practical limits on how much a decoration can be scaled, and those may be specific to the decoration you're placing.
Toggle Manipulator Alignment (Local/Global): While using one of the manipulators, you may use this skill to align the manipulator with either the map's coordinate system or with the decoration that's being placed.
Modify Existing Decorations
Select Decoration to Modify: Once you have some decorations placed in the world, this skill lets you select one of them and refine its placement using the Move, Rotate, and Scale skills. After you're satisfied with the changes, press this skill again to confirm them.
Erase Decorations
Most of the erase skills are unchanged from the existing guild hall decoration system. You can target a single decoration to erase and return to storage, or you can erase all decorations within the radius of a small, medium, or large targeting cursor.
Toggle X-Ray Vision: This skill helps in retrieving decorations that have been placed in unreachable or obscured locations, such as beneath the terrain. While X-Ray Vision is active, the targeting of erase skills can penetrate terrain and other obstacles. It's also useful for distinguishing decorations from the rest of the environment.
Common Decorating Skills
Reset Scale and Rotation: This skill is available when placing or modifying a decoration. It will remove all rotation changes and restore the item's original scale.
Use Last Scale and Rotation: This skill is available when placing or modifying a decoration. This matches the decoration's rotation and scale to that of the most recently placed decoration.
Flying Mode: Toggles a flying movement mode to help you reach high places while decorating. Note that this counts as a skill, so using it will cancel any placement in progress.
Select Decoration: Opens a list of decorations that are available for placing in the instance.
Stop Decorating: Puts away the decoration skills and restores your combat skill bar.
The Decorations panel has been updated with the following features, which are saved per decoration mode (homesteads, guild halls, and guild arenas):
A Favorites category of up to 16 decorations.
A Recently Placed category, which tracks the last 8 decorations placed by the player.
Filtering options for decorations and categories.
Categories will remain expanded or collapsed when closing and reopening the Decorations panel.
Decorating (Guild Halls)
Decorating in guild halls has been updated with the new Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds decorating capabilities.
The size and shape of interaction boundaries on interactable decorations has been changed.
A slight rotation change of up to a degree may be noticeable in the placement of some large guild hall decorations.
The Kournan Brazier guild hall decoration now correctly has a flame.
Attempting to place a decoration in an invalid location will now highlight the decoration in red. Previously, this functionality only worked in the Gilded Hollow guild hall.
Entering decoration mode while in the guild arena will now allow direct placement of arena decorations, without needing to interact with the Arena Obstacles Coordinator.
Wizard's Vault
The Wizard's Vault's inventory has been updated for the new season! Last season's unique rewards are now available in the Legacy tab.
This season's new, unique rewards now require Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds ownership to purchase. Legacy rewards will continue to require their associated expansion.
Objective Updates
New special objectives for the season have been added, and more will appear over the course of the season, including special objectives associated with bonus events and festivals.
New daily and weekly objectives have been added for adventuring in the Janthir region, as well as the Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure release "The Midnight King."
Inventory Updates
A new item type in the Wizard's Vault this season, the Falling Star Quest License, invites players on a short adventure in the newly available Janthir region. Your efforts will be rewarded with an ascended spear and gloves, as well as a series of achievements to track the quest's progress.
Legendary Starter Kit—Set 5 is now available, containing two new weapon kits and two returning weapon kits.
World Polish
Fixed an issue that caused Kryptis rifts to spawn too slowly in certain areas of Thunderhead Peaks.
The beach resort at Southsun Cove will no longer automatically transform players into an armorless state. For guests wishing to take a swim, a nearby tent has been repurposed as a changing area.
Skywatch Archipelago: Fixed an issue that prevented shrine guardian chests 32, 33, 34, and 35 from being properly tracked for progress in the Rise and Shrine achievement.
Fixed an issue that prevented the water bucket near the Aid Fort Salma renown heart from being accessible.
Fixed an issue that prevented the Envious Reprieve achievement from granting progress.
Relics
Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds relics will need to be unlocked before they are selectable options for a legendary relic.
New relics have been added:
Relic of the Claw: When you disable an enemy, gain a strike damage bonus for a duration.
Relic of Sorrow: After using an elite skill, create an area that destroys missiles and heals and reduces incoming damage for allies.
Relic of the Blightbringer: Build stacks when inflicting poison on an enemy. At 5 stacks, the next time you inflict poison also inflicts a burst of poison, weakness, and cripple on nearby enemies.
Relic of the Stormsinger: After using a movement skill, your next attack performs a chain-lightning strike.
Relic of Atrocity: Your lifesteal damage and lifesteal healing is increased.
Relic of Rivers: Gain alacrity and regeneration when you dodge.
World vs. World
The warclaw has received updates to its skills with the release of Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds:
Sniff will now identify damaged and destroyed gates and walls for players.
Chain Pull can now also be attached to walls and will apply Weakened Frame, an effect similar to Structural Vulnerability.
Lance now has 2 charges.
Additionally, the warclaw will now be unlocked for any player who enters WvW if they own Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire or Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns. Players who have previously completed the warclaw collection to unlock the mount will receive a War Machine Weapon Skin Selection and WvW skirmish tickets in their mail upon logging in.
The increased stamina and Warclaw's Blessing have been removed from the Warclaw Mastery ability line and are now inherent benefits to owning the warclaw in WvW. Finally, the WvW ability point costs to fill out the WvW Warclaw Mastery line have been greatly reduced.
Gem Store Improvements
The following changes have been made to categories and tabs in the Gem Store to aid in item searchability and to fix an issue that caused text to overlap under certain circumstances:
The Toys tab is now named Novelties.
The Mounts category and Skiff Skins category have been merged into the Mounts and Skiffs category under the Style tab.
The Jade Bot Skins category, Emotes category, and Fishing Rod Skins category have been merged into the Miscellaneous category under the Style tab.
Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds - Homestead Preview with Richie, Sarah and Joel
Gather around the camp fire while we show off the new player housing arriving today in Guild Wars 2!
Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds Launches Today!
Note: Originally published at 6:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) on August 20, 2024.
Hello, Tyrians,
Happy release day! When Guild Wars 2®: Janthir Wilds™ launches in just a few short hours, you'll begin a bold adventure into a dangerous and untamed wilderness. The denizens of Tyria are determined to recover and build a new future, and cooperation with neighbors is crucial. Your mission: befriend the lowland kodan and uncover the mysteries of a land that was once home to the enigmatic mursaat and their White Mantle followers.
In Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds, you'll embark on a story that unfolds across four major releases, starting with today's launch and continuing with quarterly updates through the first half of 2025. Below is a high-level view of what's going live today and our plans for what's coming in the following three quarterly releases.
There's a significant change to our map content plans that we'd like to bring to your attention. We had originally announced that the expansion would feature three open-world maps—two at launch, with a third released in a quarterly update that would then be expanded on in a subsequent quarterly release, like Inner Nayos. Rather than shipping the third map in two parts, we will instead be releasing a standalone map in both the second and third quarterly releases, each similar in size to Lake Doric. This brings the total open-world map count for Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds up from three to four.
As always, game development is full of surprises, so this roadmap comes with a general disclaimer that our release plans may change, despite our best efforts.
In addition to all the content going live today, this quarter will also include a skills and balance update, our annual Halloween festival, a WvW update, a beta event for the new PvP game mode, the return of structured PvP's Tournament of Legends, and multiple bonus events.
Festivals and Bonus Events
Here's the full schedule of festivals and bonus events coming to Guild Wars 2 in the next few months:
August 20–August 26: Twitch Drops
August 26:Guild Wars 2 Anniversary Week
September 10–September17: Fractal Rush Bonus Event
September 17–September 24: Return to Path of Fire Bonus Event
September 24–October 1: WvW Rush Bonus Event
October 1–October 8: Living World Season 4 Bonus Event
October 15–November 5: Shadow of the Mad King Halloween Festival
Don't forget to bookmark our handy event calendar to keep tabs on what's happening in the game!
Lastly, we have some cozy Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wildskey art wallpaper to share with everyone! We're incredibly excited to share Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds with you. Thank you for being part of this journey and for your continued support over the years!
We'll see you in Janthir,
—Guild Wars 2 Team
Prepare for Janthir Wilds with a New Supply Drop, Mount Collection, and More!
Guild Wars 2®: Janthir Wilds™ launches tomorrow, and along with it come oodles of new items for the Gem Store. Let's take a look at everything that will be available starting tomorrow!
Janthir Wilds Launch Supply Drop Requisition
Heed the call of the Janthir region for amazing weekly supplies and more! When you purchase the Janthir Wilds Launch Supply Drop Requisition, the Black Lion Trading Company will send you a package of valuable items each week. The first supply drop will arrive as soon as you've purchased a requisition, and the others will be delivered on the three following Mondays.
This week, the Janthir Wilds Launch Supply Drop Requisition is available at the discounted price of 2,400 gems. The discount decreases each week, so pick up yours now for the best price—and get your first shipment of items today! (Limited to one purchase per account. Purchases made after week one will include items from the previous weeks in the first delivery.)
Week One:
Janthir Wilds Expedition Contract*
Wild Roar Mount Select License
2 Heroic Boosters
Week Two:
Wisteria Spear Skin (shown above!)
Black Lion Outfit Voucher
3 Smooth Berry Dye Kits
Week Three:
Void Corrupted Weapon Choice
Black Lion Backpack and Glider Voucher
Communal Boost Bonfire
Week Four:
5 Black Lion Chest Keys
Black Lion Weapons Voucher
Golden Black Lion Chest Key
*The Secrets of the Obscure Expedition Contract will be available for purchase at a later date.
Wild Roar Mount Collection
A new, fierce adventure is starting; follow its roar in the untamed wilds of Janthir! These skins are available exclusively through Wild Roar Mount Select Licenses for 1,200 gems and Wild Roar Mount Adoption Licenses for 400 gems.
Skyscale: Lepidote Brute Manticore, Star Blessed Manticore
Siege Turtle: Charged Siege Turtle
Dueling Elements Appearance Package
Ice and fire are elements that have a long history together. The Elder Dragons Jormag and Primordus embodied their virtues and flaws—these outfits are infused with that never-ending duality. Take on the wild power of these two sides of the same cycle in the form of frozen wastes or volcanic fires.
The Dueling Elements Appearance Package contains the Igneous Regalia Outfit, Igneous Chair, Frozen Regalia Outfit, Frozen Chair, and one Total Makeover Kit for 1,600 gems. The outfits and chairs can be bought separately in our available packages: the Dueling Elements Outfit Package for 1,100 gems and the Dueling Elements Chair Package for 960 gems.
Black Lion Chest Update: Sky Conquest
Inside each chest, you're guaranteed to find a redeemable Black Lion Statuette, Gnashblade's Exotic Weapon Grab Bag, and two common items. You also have a chance to find something rarer in the fifth slot, including special items, glyphs, and skins from the Vinelord Edgebloom Weapon Collection and the Necrotic Essence Weapon Collection.
Exclusive Item: Skysteel Package
Blessed by the northern winds, these swords shine with a cyan hue mirroring the endless skies. Arm yourself with the beauty of the Skysteel Package's craftsmanship, whether you're fighting, gilding, or traveling. This package contains the Skysteel Greatsword Skin, Skysteel Chair, and Skysteel Glider.
Void Corrupted Weapon Collection
The Void is an all-encompassing force to be reckoned with, and Soo-Won's echo will give purpose to your battles with its dark beauty. Each Void Corrupted weapon skin can be obtained in exchange for 1 Black Lion Claim Ticket.
What’s in Stock
Race through verdant forests or azure seas! Starting August 23 and continuing for the next few days, select mount and skiff skins will be 20% off, including the Plush Raptor Skin, Regal Moth Skyscale Skin, Floating Lantern Skiff Skin, Synergetics Cyberhound Skin, and many more!
Returning This Week
Infinite salvage kits and Equipment Template Expansions are 20% off and Build Template Expansions are 40% off from August 20 until August 27. Salvage and organize all that you need!
Available Now in the Gem Store!
Log into Guild Wars 2 and press 'O' to access the Black Lion Trading Company for these great offers and more!
Preview the New Wizard's Vault Season and Twitch Drops!
Hello, Tyrians!
Guild Wars 2®: Janthir Wilds™ is just around the corner, and while we have been sharing exciting features such as Homesteads, raids, PvE warclaws, and spears making landfall, we have even more to share!
A new season of the Wizard's Vault will be arriving on August 20, and with it comes new rewards and a new type of offering called a quest license that is exclusive to Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds. Those who wish to brave the unknowns of the Janthir region can pick up this new item using astral acclaim and set forth on a journey where your efforts will be rewarded with star-studded ascended items.
The excitement continues beyond the wilds with the return of Twitch Drops! Watch your favorite Guild Wars 2 streamers to obtain cool rewards including the "/sipcoffee" Emote Tome!
There are lots of rewards to uncover on August 20, so let's dive into it!
Explore the New Season of the Wizard's Vault
For those with Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds unlocked, there are new, unique rewards waiting, such as the Onyx Spider's weapon collection and the helm, shoulders, and gloves from the macabre Rot Stalker armor set! In addition, legacy items from previous seasons can also be obtained through the Legacy tab; these still require their associated expansion to purchase.
This season also introduces a new item type to the Wizard's Vault: the Falling Star Quest License. This license sets you on a journey into the newly uncovered Janthir region, and once the adventure is complete, you can earn the ascended Falling Star spear and the Meteor-Wielder's Glove. Equip both of these items at the same time, and watch the spear become superheated!
We have also added Legendary Starter Kit—Set 5, featuring two new weapon kits and two returning ones. You'll find new daily and weekly tasks as you adventure through Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds, and more special objectives will also be added throughout the season, including those tied to bonus events and festivals.
Twitch Drops
Twitch Drops are back, just in time for the release of Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds! From August 20 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) to August 25 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7), you'll be able to watch your favorite Guild Wars 2 streamer and snag some awesome rewards, including the highly requested "/sipcoffee" Emote Tome. Here's what you can unlock when you watch:
Fuzzy Quaggan Hat Skin—2 hours of viewing time
Green Quaggan Backpack Cover—4 hours of viewing time
Mini Pet Bundle —6 hours of viewing time
"/sipcoffee" Emote Tome—8 hours of viewing time
Pirate Cosmetic Bundle —10 hours of viewing time
We are excited to explore Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds with all of you soon! Be sure to keep an eye out on our social media channels and official platforms as we share more information prior to its launch.
Prepurchasing any edition of Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds before the expansion launches will grant you the "Homesteader" title, the Whispering Serpents Pauldrons Skin, and a box with your choice of one Serpent's Wrath weapon skin.
Visit the official store page for full details on the items included in the Standard, Deluxe, and Ultimate editions.
You're Invited: Guild Wars 2 Community Meetup in Seattle!
Hello, everyone!
We're excited to announce this year's Guild Wars 2® fan event, happening on Friday, August 30 to celebrate the launch of Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds™ and all things Guild Wars 2! If you are going to be in town, we'd like you to join us for an evening of food, drinks, and giveaways with Guild Wars 2 developers and your fellow community members.
This event will be on Friday, August 30 from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Pacific Time at the Olympic Sculpture Park here in Seattle (close to PAX West, for those wishing to attend both events). While this event is free, the venue capacity is limited. Those wishing to attend can register here starting August 12 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) to guarantee admission. If you're not able to register before all tickets are claimed, we will have a standby line at the venue and will admit guests as attendance and capacity allow.
For those attending the event, an ID check will be performed at the entrance. Please bring a photo ID and your mobile or printed ticket in order to enter.
We're looking forward to seeing you there!
Sharp Lessons: Spear Beta Feedback Update
Greetings, Wayfinders. My name is Taylor "Trig" Brooks, and I am a combat designer here at ArenaNet. We ran a beta event in June for the new Guild Wars 2®: Janthir Wilds™ combat feature: land spear proficiency. Today, I'll go over the feedback we saw about the spears and the changes you can expect to see when the weapons are released this August. This blog will outline what we feel are the most impactful changes at a broad level; the full list of changes will be detailed in the expansion release notes.
Elementalist
Spear-wielding elementalists sought to harness the power of natural disasters to bring calamity to their enemies. It is the most visually ambitious weapon we have created, and we couldn't be prouder of the Art Team's work. However, in the beta, the damage wasn't as impressive as the visuals were. We agree with the feedback that the weapon's power level landed too low, and you can expect to see damage increases for all game modes, especially for the capstone etching skills.
Alongside damage enhancements, we'll be making the following quality-of-life adjustments to the weapon. Etching durations will be increased by a few seconds, while Ripple's distance is now controllable through a ground target. Seethe and Energize will not affect autoattacks, and the visual noise of etchings has been reduced. We've also added a strike-damage component to Fulgor and rebalanced some of its effectiveness away from the damage over time in PvE for a more immediate effect. We're hoping these changes result in a smoother experience with greater impact.
Necromancer
Necromancers aim to execute their foes with both spear and soul shards. With a gameplay loop of building and spending these soul shards, we saw that the shard economy was too dominated by Isolate and Distress. We are increasing soul shard generation outside of the fourth spear skill, and soul shard duration will now be refreshed when you gain more shards. With those changes and a lowering of the threshold needed to immobilize with Addle, we are hoping the weapon has a more consistent power level and doesn't feel as weak when you miss Isolate. Additionally, Extirpate will now generate life force as well, to help you follow up on its big hit.
Mesmer
Mesmer spear provided a unique gameplay pattern, and we were happy to see it find use in many places. The beta event gave us clarity about how we could make the weapon feel even better. The largest problem we got feedback on was that the weapon's performance varied a lot depending on whether you had Clarity. Clarity will now be gained by hitting Mind the Gap, regardless of whether it was an outer-edge hit. But that outer edge will still be important! We're updating the visual to better outline where that hitbox is, and the skill will still deal increased damage as well as a guaranteed critical hit on the outer edge.
Imaginary Inversion is also seeing a shift in how the skill functions. To help the consistency of the tools it brings, it will now always clear conditions from you at the start of casting, with no Clarity required. It will also heal you if you evade an attack, even if you don't land the attack portion. Clarity will now increase this healing.
The final large change to the weapon concerns its phantasms. We saw in the beta that the lancers routinely got outplayed by terrain, whether that was a cliff or a small pebble. The lancers have taken a more vertical approach to their attack, and they will now jump in the air and launch a spear at their target instead. This spear will damage an area on impact, a much more reliable follow-up for the mesmer.
Thief
Thief spear endeavored to bring the skill-chaining mechanic used by assassins in the original Guild Wars® into the modern game. We were pleased to see how it turned out, but we found that it could use some polish. We will be changing a rule for how the skill chains progress; the chain will now always progress when you use a skill instead of relying on hitting a target. This aims to help the weapon feel smoother with the skill queueing system and enhance its reliability in competitive modes. The weapon ended strong in PvE, so there will be some unsurprising downward adjustments to its damage output. Its finishing skills and stealth skill will have their target cap raised to help thief spear's identity as a cleaving weapon.
Ranger
Much like elementalist spear, ranger spear had a strong narrative theming, but it didn't quite follow through fully in the game. Some of its skills, like its stealth skills and Bee's Sting, lacked the damage needed to make it a competitive option against other ranger weapons.
Additionally, due to the popularity of traps and other pulsing damage skills, it was hard to weave in and out of stealth and complete your attack before you were revealed. To remedy this, Panther's Prowl will now grant Hunter's Prowess for a short duration. Hunter's Prowess will allow you to use your next stealth skill even if you were revealed.
Another issue was Panther's Prowl and Spider's Web sharing a cooldown. This was consistent with the rest of the weapon's skills, but it made the opportunity cost for using Spider's Web too large. We'll be separating their cooldowns so that using Spider's Web feels good and you don't have to worry about wasting a charge of stealth.
Engineer
Engineer spear surged onto the scene, finding a home mainly in condition-based builds in PvE. It sported competitive numbers but was still rough around the edges in places. Keeping track of who was focused and for how long wasn't an easy task, so we'll be adding a visual aura to your focused target. We'll also be adding an effect to the player when they have a focused target, making it easier to determine how long the mark will persist. Some casting times were also a bit slow; they'll be sped up to help the weapon feel smooth. Lastly, Devastator will see speed increases, a range increase, and a significant reduction in its aftercast.
Revenant
Revenant spear aimed to be a heavy weapon that built up strength, culminating in powerful damage. However, in the beta we saw that this weight was unwieldy and its punches lacked impact. Casting times are being decreased across many skills, and we are increasing the condition variety of the skills to help its damage stick.
Crushing Abyss's maximum stacks has been reduced from 5 to 3, making the weapon reach its maximum potential a lot faster. Abyssal Blot will now pull immediately, helping the weapon set itself up better. The result of these changes is a more fluid weapon with more tools to secure its damage.
Guardian
Guardian spear shone brightly in WvW, especially in large-scale fights. Spear's biggest pain point was how its second skill functioned. Pressing the key again to stop early felt awkward and had a few bugs. Helio Rush is seeing an update similar to the elementalist's Ripple: it is now a ground target, and you will stop when reaching the target location. Its tool kit is getting some updates, like improvements to its self-healing and healing on Solar Storm, and Symbol of Luminance will now always apply resistance to allies once.
Warrior
Spear on warrior was met with mixed reception. It was a strong option in PvP but didn't stand out in other places. Its range threshold mechanic also didn't garner a warm welcome. Warrior spear will be updated to feature a new mechanic.
We want to emphasize the force the warrior is launching their spears with, but in a different way. Instead of effectiveness varying by distance, skills will now do more damage to the first target struck. Spear Swipe will get some updates to its functionality, such as a cooldown refund if you evade an attack with it. The most important note is that the spearmarshal has been sent back to remedial javelin school, as Spearmarshal's Support has been improved and will now track the target better.
Well, that wraps things up for the high-level changes coming to spears when they launch with Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds. For the exact numbers and smaller changes, be sure to check out the official release notes when the expansion is live on August 20.
Until next time, I'll see you in the Mists!
Completed! Possible game access interruption on August 6.
The data transfer is completed, we'll see you in game!
Possible game access interruption on August 6. Please be aware that on July 30, there may be a temporary interruption in game access for those using Steam accounts due to a Guild Wars 2 data transfer. We are working with Steam to make sure this process happens quickly, and that there are no further disruptions. Thank you for your patience.
Win a Guild Wars 2-Branded Laptop from Alienware!
Hello, Tyrians!
Who is ready to win some prizes? Today we are partnering with Intel as they host a Guild Wars 2® sweepstakes! We’ll be giving away a branded Guild Wars 2 m16 Alienware laptop and copies of our latest expansion, Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds™.
Visit the Gleam.io portal to review the rules and participate, but make sure you get your entries in before August 26 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7).
Prizes
Grand Prize (1 winner): Branded Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds Alienware m16 laptop and Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds Standard Edition.
