07/24/2018—July 24 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 both new and old 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 by ship from 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 can try their hand at many new festival activities, including new adventures, races, and scavenger hunts: Show your skill with Zephyrite crystals in the new and improved 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 new griffon 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 six legendary foes—they'll gain strength as other bosses fall, so plan your battle carefully! A fearsome enemy has replaced the ogre combatants: the White Mantle cult now patrols one of the pavilion sections. Confront lifelike re-creations of Kryta's enemy in the name of the crown! Adventurers yearning to show their skill at a solo challenge rejoice, as the Queen's Gauntlet reopens at last! Test your mettle against powerful opponents, with retuned adversaries returning and a new set of special encounters to further hone your skill. Between blitzes, blow off some steam in the most hazardous festival race yet—Pavilion Pursuit!

Zephyrite kite basket supplies have been scattered across Tyria. Open them to claim prizes from the Zephyrite stockpiles.

Complete daily festival achievements to earn the Four Winds Zephyr daily achievement, contributing to the Four Winds Gale achievement, which rewards your choice of new weapons based on Zephyrite crafts!

Earn Festival Tokens and Favors of the Festival throughout the festival events to trade for exciting prizes, including new Zephyrite backpacks, the illustrious Sovereign weapon set, and items based on the latest wonder of the Crown Pavilion, the Watchknight Mk II.

Numerous bugs and glitches have been fixed to ensure a safer and more pleasant festival for all participants.

The Festival of the Four Winds will be available for three weeks, from July 24 until August 14. Enjoy the festivities!

Living World

The "Help your allies secure key positions in the Awakened Inquest facility" event has had a few Kournan Chests added as completion rewards.

Kournan Chests now include a guaranteed Inscribed Shard as a drop.

General

Added new animations to transition characters from standing to sitting in chairs.

Added an error message explaining that transformed players may not use chairs.

Equipped weapons will now be hidden while players are sitting in chairs.

Fixed a bug that would sometimes prevent the "Kill the alpha beetle" event in the Far Silverwastes from starting.

Fixed an issue involving shadow flickering on GeForce GTX 10 Series graphics cards.

Fixed an issue in which glider skins failed to fade out correctly when opening and closing the Hero panel.

Items

Favors of the Pavilion and Favors of the Bazaar are now account bound. Existing favors have become weathered favors and can still be traded. Double-click a weathered favor to convert it to an account-bound favor.

Some items from other holidays, such as Halloween items, have been retired from Festival of the Four Winds vendors. They will remain available from their respective holiday vendors.

Updated a number of kite items to display correctly if players ride mounts while using kites.

Backpieces will now be hidden when using Bench of the Final Judge.

The armorsmith rating required to craft the recipes for Harrier's Warbeast Greaves, Marshal's Spearmarshal's Greaves, and Harrier's Bounty Hunter's Greaves has been reduced to 400.

Fixed a bug with the cast volume of the legendary warhorn Verdarach.

Zommoros is now pleased to offer playable musical instrument versions of the legendary weapons Verdarach and the Minstrel! Those who have already crafted the weapon component of these legendary instruments can obtain a replacement instrument from Sarettokk in the Undermarket in Lion's Arch.

Mounts

General

Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented players from changing utility skills after dismounting.

Roller Beetle

Roll Out can now be used to break marked blockades and volatile crystals once players learn the Barrier Smash Mastery.

The Barrier Smash Mastery will now recover endurance when the roller beetle collides with walls at high speed, in addition to its previous functionality.

Drifting will now recover endurance.

The beetle's endurance will now slowly decay after players dismount, rather than being immediately set to zero.

Acceleration from the idle position has been increased.

Deceleration when holding backward at high speed has been increased.

Minimum uphill speed has been slightly increased.

Fixed a client crash.

Profession Skills

Elementalist

Meteor Shower: Fixed a bug that caused this skill to have a much higher initial impact than intended.

Engineer

Toss Elixir U: Fixed a bug that prevented this skill from being updated to break stuns and grant quickness.

Guardian

Shield of the Avenger: Fixed a bug that allowed this skill to block unblockable projectiles.

Thief

Double Strike: Reduced the damage dealt by this skill by 19% in PvE only.

Wild Strike: Reduced the damage dealt by this skill by 18% in PvE only.

Shadow Flare: Fixed a bug that allowed a thief to have more than one flare out at a time.

Structured Player vs. Player

Players are now defeated instantly if they get into the enemy team's base in all conquest maps.

Adjusted the number of Tournament Vouchers given for first place through fourth place finishes in the monthly automated tournament.

Adjusted prices on the Tournament Vendor.

World vs. World

General

Edge of the Mists: A new arena area has been added. The area can be accessed from the starting points.

Players can no longer be hit more than once every 0.5 seconds by arrow cart attacks.

Arrow cart damage against siege equipment has been reduced by 50%.

The number of targets that can be hit by one arrow cart attack has been reduced from 50 to 25.

Shield generators can no longer put domes on other shield generators.

Shield generator domes no longer destroy unblockable projectiles.

Burning Oil Mastery III now also reduces condition damage and makes the user immune to control effects. Damage reduction for both direct damage and conditions has been increased from 33% to 66%.

Gravel Shot now shoots projectiles in a fan shape.

Updated ballistae to make them more reliable.

Slowed the velocity of Greater Reinforced Shot to give it an arc to make it easier to hit stationary targets (siege equipment).

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE

New Items and Promotions

A new Zephyrite Aspect Helm Pack with three different Aspect eye helm skins is available in the Style category of the Gem Store for 500 gems.

For a limited time, the Branded Wing Backpack and Glider Combo returns to the Style category of the Gem Store for 700 gems.

For a limited time, the Lightning Kite, Sun Kite, and Wind Kite are available at 50% off and can be found in the Toys category of the Gem Store.

For a limited time, the Phoenix Weapon Collection has returned to the Black Lion Weapons Specialist at a discount, costing 3 Black Lion Claim Tickets, which can be found in Black Lion Chests. Black Lion Chest Keys are available in the Utility category of the Gem Store for 125 gems each.

Improvements