Curse

Etta · Oct 12, 2007, 06:36 PM // 18:36

Eye of the North Hard Mode
Hard Mode has been introduced for Guild Wars: Eye of the North. Players who have completed the expansion can now try playing it again in Hard Mode for an additional challenge.

Accessing Hard Mode in Eye of the North

To gain access to Hard Mode in Eye of the North, you must first defeat the final primary quest in Normal Mode.
Once you defeat the Eye of the North quest "A Time for Heroes" with any character on your account, every level 20 character on that same account will have access to Hard Mode in Eye of the North.

Hard Mode Rewards in Eye of the North

Reputation point bonuses for completing primary quests and dungeons are 50% higher than in Normal Mode.
Reputation points received from bounties are approximately 50% higher than in Normal Mode.
Random loot found within final dungeon chests is doubled from what is given in Normal Mode.

Hero's Handbook and Master Dungeon Guide

Pages acquired for missions completed without a Hero’s Handbook in your inventory can now be added to a Hero’s Handbook. The cost is 100 gold per missing page. Similarly, pages for dungeons completed without a Master Dungeon Guide in your inventory can be added for 100 gold per missing page.
The following Eye of the North title NPCs can now update books with missing pages:
Gedral of Ascalon [Vanguard Herald] inside the Eye of the North
Kodan [Dwarven Recruitment Officer] in Gunnar's Hold
Tyr the Skaald [Norn Storyteller] in Gunnar's Hold
Lexx [Asuran Talent Scout] in Rata Sum
These NPCs now give rewards for any Hero’s Handbook or Master Dungeon Guide that has at least half of its pages. The rewards given for turning in one of these books are as follows:

Master Dungeon Guide rewards

Hall of Monuments

Miniatures no longer need to be customized when displayed in a player's Hall of Monuments.
Miniatures displayed in the Monument to Devotion are now marked as "dedicated" rather than "customized."
Players can use the Monument to Devotion to switch existing miniatures from being "customized" to being "dedicated."
Miniatures that have been dedicated in a Hall of Monuments cannot be dedicated again, but they can be used by any character.
To prevent trade scams, the Trade panel will warn you if someone tries to trade you a miniature that has already been dedicated.

Report Command
After reviewing the usage of the report command during last weekend’s test, we have decided to enable the command officially. The text describing the spamming and verbal abuse report commands have been updated to more clearly explain how they work. Players are never banned merely because of the volume of reports issued against them. Reports alert the GM team to review the actual chat logs of the reported player. The GM team then uses the same disciplinary policies that have always been applied to emailed reports of spamming and verbal abuse.

To use the report command, type "/report."
Targeting a player and typing /report or /report followed by a player's name opens a new Report Dialog panel. From this panel, you can report a chosen player for leeching, botting, spamming, using abusive language, or having an inappropriate character name. Reports will then be relayed to and reviewed by the Guild Wars Support team.
You can report a player for leeching if you are in the same Random Arena, Alliance Battle, or Competitive Mission as that player. If at least half your team reports the same player for leeching, that player will be stripped of XP and faction rewards for the battle. Note that you can only report members of your own party or team for leeching.
Reports of botting, spamming, abusive language, and inappropriate character names will be relayed to and reviewed by the Guild Wars Support team. Note that reporting a single player multiple times for the same offense will not expedite or influence support team attention.
A single account cannot use the /report command more than 50 times in a 24-hour period.

We will continue to monitor this feature and make further adjustments as necessary.

Underworld and Fissure of Woe Updates

When entering into these regions, players will now receive a Mission Objective list in their Quest Log. This list informs players how many quests they must complete to finish the regions for the purposes of full completion and credit for the Hall of Monuments.
Quests yet to be obtained are marked as "?????" in the Mission Objective list until they are discovered by at least one party member.
Chests now spawn upon completion of all quests in either of these regions.

Skill Updates
We will be evaluating the following changes over the course of the next week. Additional adjustments may be made during that time period.

All
Decreased the Health of all Spirits by 50; allowed Burning to affect Spirits.

Assassin

Death's Charge: increased conditional Health to 65..200.
Golden Fang Strike: fixed a bug that allowed the use of Golden Fang Strike without a lead attack.
Shadow Refuge: increased duration to 6 seconds.

Dervish

Wearying Strike: decreased damage to 5..20.

Elementalist

Ash Blast: increased damage to 35..65.
Chilling Winds: increased damage to 25..50.
Conjure Frost, Conjure Flame, and Conjure Lightning: now directly increase the damage you do when you hit with an attack (previously, they dealt damage as a second, additional strike); decreased damage to 5..20.
Ebon Hawk: increased damage to 45..100.
Enervating Charge: increased damage to 25..50.
Glyph of Swiftness: fixed a bug that increased the projectile speed.
Ice Spikes: decreased recharge time to 10 seconds.
Searing Flames: increased Burning duration to 1..7 seconds.
Steam: increased conditional damage to 40..100; increased damage to 25..70.
Stoning: increased damage to 45..105.
Ward Against Melee: increased Energy cost to 15; decreased duration to 5..20 seconds.

Mesmer

Air of Disenchantment: decreased casting time to .25 seconds.
Drain Enchantment: decreased Energy cost to 10; decreased Energy returned to 7..15; added a heal effect of 40..120 when an Enchantment is removed.
Enchanter's Conundrum: decreased Energy cost to 10; decreased casting time to 1 second; increased damage to 30..120; fixed a bug that caused multiple hits of damage when stacked.
Energy Burn: increased damage multiplier to 12.
Energy Surge: increased damage multiplier to 12.
Extend Conditions: decreased recharge time to 5 seconds.
Hex Eater Vortex: increased recharge time to 12 seconds.
Illusion of Haste: decreased Energy cost to 5.
Ineptitude: decreased recharge time to 15 seconds.
Keystone Signet: decreased recharge time to 10 seconds.
Mantra of Recovery: decreased recharge reduction to 33%.
Power Drain: decreased recharge time to 20 seconds.
Power Leak: decreased recharge time to 12 seconds.
Power Spike: decreased Energy cost to 5.
Shrinking Armor: fixed a bug that prevented the Health Bar from turning purple.
Signet of Illusions: increased the number of Spells affected to 3.
Signet of Midnight: decreased recharge time to 10 seconds.

Monk

Reversal of Damage: fixed a bug that caused this Spell to stop all damage instead of the max damage listed.
Shield of Deflection: increased recharge time to 10 seconds; increased duration to 3..10 seconds.
Shield of Regeneration: increased recharge time to 12 seconds.

Necromancer

Angorodon's Gaze: decreased Energy returned to 12.
Chilblains: now works on target foe instead of having a point-blank area of effect; decreased number of Enchantments affected to 1; increased casting time to 2 seconds.
Gaze of Contempt: decreased recharge time to 15 seconds.
Putrid Bile: fixed a bug that prevented the Health Bar from turning purple.
Rend Enchantments: decreased recharge time to 20 seconds.
Rigor Mortis: decreased recharge time to 20 seconds; decreased casting time to 1 second.
Rip Enchantment: decreased Health lost to 15..5.
Strip Enchantment: decreased recharge time to 15 seconds.

Ranger

Nature's Renewal: decreased Spirit levels to 1..10.

Paragon

Aggressive Refrain: now causes Cracked Armor for 20 seconds when applied.
"Go for the Eyes!": increased recharge time to 4 seconds.

Warrior

Agonizing Chop: increased activation time to 1 second.
"Charge!": increased movement speed to 33%.
Critical Chop: increased activation time to 1 second.
Disarm: reworded skill description to explain that it is an interrupt.
"Watch Yourself!": increased recharge time to 4 seconds; increased duration to 10 seconds.

Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug in the Fissure of Woe quest "The Hunt" that prevented players from completing it in some multiplayer situations.
Fixed bugs in the Underworld quests "Demon Assassin" and "Terrorweb Queen" that prevented players from completing them in some multiplayer situations.
Fixed a bug that prevented Edielh Shockhunter from displaying correctly and having skills.
Fixed a bug that caused the Kurzick Base Defender in the Alliance Battles map "Ancestral Lands" to have the wrong model.
Fixed multiple small text bugs in skill descriptions.
Fixed a line-of-sight exploit in the Heroes' Ascent map "Fetid River".
Fixed a bug that allowed miniatures to be killed by traps.
Fixed a bug that caused players to receive Asura reputation points instead of Dwarven reputation points for completing the Heart of the Shiverpeaks dungeon.
Fixed a bug that prevented resurrection shrines in Oola's Lab from appearing on the Mission Map.
Fixed graphic artifacts on the loading screen and in the Skill warm-up bar that appeared in interface sizes other than the normal setting.
Fixed a bug that prevented chat messages containing Party Search keywords from appearing in the “All” or “Trade”channels while in Guild Halls.
Fixed the Party Search purpose droplist so that it no longer resets to "Mission" every time the “Seek Party” checkbox is reselected

Miscellaneous

Improved rewards from Eye of the North chests revealed by the Light of Deldrimor skill in both Hard and Normal Mode.
The Master of the North title track now counts toward Favor of the Gods.
As with explorable areas, parties now automatically fail in dungeons if they reach a party-wide 60% DP while in Hard Mode.
Players now receive the skill Brawling Combo Punch when entering into Fronis Irontoe's Lair in Hard Mode.
The guaranteed drop from the final chest in Frostmaw's Burrow has been changed from a diamond to a lockpick. Lockpicks have a consistent high gold value, while the diamond currently has a low value due, in part, to the ease of acquiring them from this chest.
Reduced the size of activation on the Resurrection Shrine in the Fortress of Jahai.
Moved the first Resurrection Shrine in Vulture Drifts to the side of the portal into Dunes of Despair.
Gold rewards for vanquishing foes in Hard Mode have been increased to five times the number of creatures killed.
Changed several Eye of the North quests so that upon completion, the Quest Log selects and highlights the related summary quest

Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug that allowed players to repeat Eye of the North primary quests.
Fixed a bug that prevented some players from accessing Eye of the North Hard Mode.

Jetdoc · Oct 12, 2007, 06:38 PM // 18:38

Interesting - so miniatures are no longer customized to a character, but effectively customized to an account (unless you have no interest in the HoM at all).

dont feel no pain · Oct 12, 2007, 06:39 PM // 18:39

ROFL @ Searing Flames Buff

EDIT OMG GRAWLS GOT NERFED ^^

Neo Nugget · Oct 12, 2007, 06:40 PM // 18:40

oh sweet! hard mode!

i love the mini update in HoM

The guaranteed drop from the final chest in Frostmaw's Burrow has been changed from a diamond to a lockpick. Lockpicks have a consistent high gold value, while the diamond currently has a low value due, in part, to the ease of acquiring them from this chest.

Ok, so better drops from lockpicks now?

Andrew Patrick · Oct 12, 2007, 06:43 PM // 18:43

Hey guys,

Hard Mode is currently not showing up as an option for players that beat the game prior to September 27th. We are pushing a build to live very soon which will fix the problem so all players that have beat GW:EN will have access to Hard Mode.

dont feel no pain · Oct 12, 2007, 06:43 PM // 18:43

Rofl Chests Ftl

edit hello andrew ^^

Lagg · Oct 12, 2007, 06:45 PM // 18:45

Paragons got the nerfbat yet again...

"Watch Yourself!" and "Go For the Eyes!" both have a 4 second recharge now.

Diddy bow · Oct 12, 2007, 06:46 PM // 18:46

lol shadow refuge buff

. Although its still only meh.

Oh and i LOVE the spirit nerf ^^

dont feel no pain · Oct 12, 2007, 06:47 PM // 18:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lagg

Paragons got the nerfbat yet again...

"Watch Yourself!" and "Go For the Eyes!" both have a 4 second recharge now.

indeed......

Etta · Oct 12, 2007, 06:48 PM // 18:48

Great Paragon got hit again. Bloody hell! I need a cuppa.

Jetdoc · Oct 12, 2007, 06:48 PM // 18:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Etta

Decreased the Health of all Spirits by 50; allowed Burning to affect Spirits.

I guess Shelter, Union and Displacement have officially had the fork stuck in them, once and for all.

Lagg · Oct 12, 2007, 06:49 PM // 18:49

And what the heck is up with Aggressive Refrain causing Cracked Armor?

Makes no sense at all and doesn't make the skill any less powerful.

If you want to nerf it, then simply add something along the lines of "your attacks deal 30% less damage" akin to Life Attunement.

If you're going to nerf Paras, do it correctly.

Earth · Oct 12, 2007, 06:49 PM // 18:49

WY + GftE didn't get hit too hard imo. Aggressive Refrain nerf makes no sense, but adding that 30% less damage would make it totally crap.

warren_kn · Oct 12, 2007, 06:49 PM // 18:49

From now on, anyone who complains that you have to grind loads to get the Norn etc points doesn't know the meaning of the word. The change to how the books work is a little extreme, but hey I'm not complaining.

Ghost Recon · Oct 12, 2007, 06:53 PM // 18:53

Some off those buffs are stupid and not needed at all. Where as things that need to be nerfed/buffed but are left alone.

Naliah Alexis · Oct 12, 2007, 06:53 PM // 18:53

Thanks Ett :P *hugs* I like the update so far. Adding my little zoo to my Hall of Monuments now! *wanders off to find a pooper scooper cause she knows its gonna get messy* >.>

Lagg · Oct 12, 2007, 06:53 PM // 18:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by X Earth X

WY + GftE didn't get hit too hard imo.

They have a recharge time now, so yes, I'd say that the main energy management skills of many Paras just got badly nerfed.

Admittedly, it was overpowered to begin with, but that was only because of the poorly designed Leadership attribute.

Oh well, at least they left the Anthems intact.

*takes cover*

Squishy ftw · Oct 12, 2007, 06:54 PM // 18:54

HM here I come, lovely update

Seren!ty · Oct 12, 2007, 06:55 PM // 18:55

Some interesting changes to the skills, mostly buffs. (-Love the mesmer changes ^^)
But those that needed tweaking didn't get touched: Dancing Daggers, Deadly Paradox, Agressive Refrain (come on, that 20sec cracked armor isnt doing anything, you use it before the match starts, and when it starts those 20 seconds should be long over..) to name a few. Also, leadership?
The HoM, HM and Book updates are nice though, good job

Archer_Of_Vulpes · Oct 12, 2007, 06:57 PM // 18:57

hahahaha i'm loving the mesmer buffs. i'm actually loving this whole update