LIVING WORLD
The Secret of Southsun

The refugees from Flame & Frost who were resettled at Southsun Cove are up in arms over the restrictive residency contracts that prevent them from leaving. Tensions are high, and settlers are brawling with Consortium guards. What’s worse, the island’s local wildlife has been agitated and is even more aggressive and territorial than usual.
The Lionguard’s Inspector Kiel has been charged with quelling the violence so it doesn’t interfere with the upcoming Dragon Bash festival in Lion’s Arch. Kiel takes her job seriously, so she’ll need help from players and Researcher Levvi to keep everyone on the island safe from the local wildlife and each other.

Southsun Cove

• The Consortium has created a new exotic resort for those looking to get away for a while. Lord Faren and Lady Kasmeer are currently there on vacation.
• New settlements have been created for refugees coming in from Lion’s Arch.
• Animals on Southsun Cove are becoming increasingly aggressive.
• Settlers and tourists have wandered too far from the camps and need assistance getting back to safety.
• Researcher Levvi is looking for brave adventurers to help survey the island and recover samples to determine the cause of the native creatures’ increased aggression.
• Tensions between settlers and Consortium members have led to confrontation that may require mediation.
• The new Crab Toss activity is now available at Sawtooth Bay in Southsun Cove. Players can win karka shells, passiflora, tonics, and more.
• Southsun Supply Crates will drop rarely from creatures during the Secret of Southsun event. These crates contain Southsun crafting materials and a chance at a wide variety of items, such as shoulder skins, new boosts and convenience items, and a rare chance at new weapon skins and minis. Southsun Supply Crates can also be purchased from the Black Lion Trading Company (see below for more info).
• Blooming Passiflora are now growing on the island.
• The larger veteran and champion karka now have a guaranteed drop chance for karka shells upon defeat.
• All players who enter the island for the duration of the event are scaled up to level 80. This content is available from May 14 to June 4.

Guild Content

• Six Guild Trek locations have been added to Southsun Cove.

Achievements

• Added new living world achievements to Southsun Cove: “Consortium Rewards Club Member,” “Southsun Settler Supporter,” “Southsun Sightseer,” “Southsun Volunteer Fieldwork,” “Southsun VIP Meet and Greet,” and more.
• Added new achievements for Crab Toss activity: “Crab Toss Participant,” “Crab-Carrying Competitor,” “Crabtacular!,” “Crabgrabber,” and “Crab Toss Champion.”
• Players who complete 25 of the Secret of Southsun achievements will earn the “Southsun Stalwart” meta-achievement. This achievement awards players with a Sclerite Karka Shell back item and the title of “Southsun Stalwart.” The Southsun Stalwart meta-achievement covers the entire event’s content, some of which is not accessible until the next release.
• A new title, “Crab Toss Champion,” has been added for players who win a game of Crab Toss.
• A new title, “Crabgrabber,” has been added for players who steal 100 crabs during games of Crab Toss.

NEW FEATURES AND CONTENT
World vs. World

• Obsidian Sanctum, the jumping puzzle in the Eternal Battlegrounds, has been moved to its own WvW map.
  • Entering the puzzle will take players out of the Eternal Battlegrounds.
  • Leaving will take players back to Lion’s Arch.
• Added a new vendor: “Traps and Tricks Outfitter.”
• Traps have been added as a new purchasable consumable utility item. Two unique variants are available.
  • When placed, traps last for one hour.
  • Players may only have one of a given trap type deployed at a time.
  • Traps will disappear when a player leaves the map.
  • Traps are sold by the vendor for 15 badges and 525 karma; they will stack to 250 and are account-bound.
  • It takes a 4-second channel to place at feet.
  • Placing a trap uses very short-range ground targeting to assist in orientation.
  • Placed traps have a 600×90 rectangular trigger area; only enemies can trigger them.
  • Once triggered, traps affect up to 20 enemies within a range of 1200.
  • Traps cost 10 supply to place.
• Supply Removal Trap
  • Removes 5 supply from enemies affected by the trap.
• Stealth Disruptor Trap
  • Removes stealth from enemies and reveals them for 30 seconds, preventing stealth.
• Arrow Cart: Arrow cart damage vs. other siege weapons has been reduced to 50% of its current damage.

BALANCE, BUG-FIXING, POLISH
General

• A Commander’s map pings and strokes are now visible to members of their squad.
• Fixed several shadowstep bugs that let players teleport through WvW gates and exploit various dungeons.
• Fixed a bug that caused some items to lose their functionality after a player has gone into a downed state.

Events

• Malchor’s Leap:
  • Pact cannons near the Shelter Docks are now fully operational.
  • The Inquest Ornithologist has been upgraded to a champion, as befits her Group Event status.
• Metrica Province:
  • Minor UI changes were made to the Mark II golem event.
• Mount Maelstrom:
  • The Branded ogre in the Infinity Coil complex is now properly imprisoned in his cage.
• Sparkfly Fen:
  • Added a skill to the seaweed-mine bundle.
• Timberline Falls:
  • Fixed a stalling bug in the event “Protect krewe leader Dobbs as the krewe clears the excavation site.”
• Wayfarer Foothills:
  • Dredge soldiers outside Molensk are no longer rooted in place.

Personal Story

• “Down the Hatch”:
  • Fixed a rare stalling bug at the end of the story step.
• “The Ghost Rite”:
  • Fixed the player’s camera position while transformed.

Structured PvP

• Reverted a change to PvP dailies that increased their difficulty.
• Reworded some custom arena tooltips to be less confusing.

Profession Skills
Warrior

• Leg Specialist:
  • This trait will no longer function with the Burning Oil siege weapon in WvW.
• Healing Signet:
  • Updated skill facts to show the passive effect and accurately display the healing value for the active effect.

Elementalist

• Dragon’s Claw:
  • Fixed an exploit that caused this skill to fire at increased rates.

Engineer

• Kit Refinement:
  • The cooldown icon will now display correctly when this trait is used with Flamethrower.
• Fixed a bug which disabled certain traits from functioning correctly. This includes Rifled Turret Barrels, Metal Plating, and Autotool Installation.

Elementalist

• Shocking Aura:
  • This skill’s icon on the buff bar now displays the same icon as the skill itself.

Ranger

• Fixed a bug that caused the projectile speed of the following axe skills to be 75% of their intended speed:
  • Ricochet
  • Splitblade
  • Winter’s Bite
  • Path of Scars
• Juvenile Rainbow Jellyfish now uses a unique model.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions

• You can now purchase the Southsun Supply Crate in the Consumable category of the Gem Store for 1 for 150 gems or 10 for 1200 gems. These special crates contain Southsun crafting materials and a chance at items such as shoulder skins, new boosts and convenience items, and a rare chance at new weapon skins and minis. The Southsun Supply Crates will only be available until June 10. The Southsun Supply Crates will also be a limited-time rare drop off the creatures on the island during this time.
• The Consortium Swim Speed Boost is now available in the Boost category of the Gem Store for 1 for 50 gems or 5 for 200 gems. This boost will increase your swim speed by 15% for 1 hour. This boost is not useable in PvP.
• To celebrate spring, the Gem Store is making one miniature baby animal available each week for the month of May. This week’s adorable addition is the Mini Moa Chick, which is now available in the Minis category of the Gem Store for 400 gems each.
• How to Dance, Volume 1 is now available in the Services category of the Gem Store for 400 gems. This book can be used to gain access to three different dance moves and a skill that will allow you to invite others to participate in your dance party.

Optimizations

• We’re rolling out our first set of optimizations. This is the first in many steps involved in helping resolve issues with “skill lag.” Some players will experience a slight improvement in skill lag issues with large groups of players, while some players may also experience a slight raise in their FPS.

It’s nearly time for the next Guild Wars 2 patch (that month went quickly) and here’s an outline of what to expect.

sPvP takes a step towards full potential

It’s taken 8 months, but ArenaNet are taking steps towards improving the PvP scene with the introduction of custom arenas and live spectator mode. Initially, only a small group of players will be allowed to create custom arenas that any other players can join, but it’s not currently clear how these players will be chosen. Arena starter kits and time tokens will become available within the gem store that allow you to set up an arena which comes with a month of time for your custom space. Time tokens are needed to keep it open after that period is up, although anyone can contribute to keeping your arena open.

Custom arenas come with bundles of potential. You can set a name, password (or not), welcome message, team size, time and score limit for matches, if the “ready” button should be used, the number of players needed to kick the game off, number of slots reserved for members, the membership list, banned players, map rotation, progression or not (ie are stats recorded), the ability for players to swap gear and skills or if autobalancing is on or not. To accommodate finding arenas you want to play in all these options the browser has been overhauled, with the option to favourite arenas you like.

As for spectator mode, it will be available for hotjoin sPvP and in custom arenas (not tournaments at this time though). When you join a match you will have the option of joining the red team, blue team, a random team or as a spectator. When spectating you can view the build of a particular player and choose from a variety of camera options. Although only games currently in progress are currently available, the team are hoping to extend this later.

Final part of the Flame and Frost Living Story: Retribution

The final part of the current Flame and Frost arc of the Living Story is due to draw to a close this month, with the introduction of a new dungeon built by the Halloween and Wintersday teams that will take skilled and experienced players between 30 and 45 minutes to complete. The dungeon is pitched in difficulty somewhere between Story and Explorable modes, and does feature a small amount of time gating. Players will fight alongside Braham and Rox, the two heroes that players were introduced to in March’s update. The dungeon builds to a final boss encounter, which you’ll be prepared for by all the mobs you kill along the way through the dungeon. For example, you’ll see a certain mechanic, then another when you’ve tackled the first, and then maybe both in combination, building until the big finale when you’re all ready to go!

This dungeon, like the rest of the living story content, will only be available for a limited time. The rewards for it as a result are “really cool ones” that “you’ll want to come back for”. Over the course of its presence in the game the dungeon will also change – the entrances and exits to the dungeon will move, along with the enemies and events within the dungeon changing.

Other improvements

Also of interest in this patch will be the addition of a new ability for arrow cart mastery and 5 new levels for the guard killer ability line in WvW. You’ll also be able to purchase WvW siege equipment with the guild’s logo on. There will also be “back banners” that display the guild logo too (although how this is different to capes, I’m not sure). New guild missions are being added, including a new guild rush that includes turning into Quaggans.

And in the gem store…

The sonic tunneling tool will allow players to travel for short distances underground. You’ll also be able to buy four new weapon skins, two of which are weapons belonging to our buddies Rox and Braham.

The Flame and Frost: Retribution update will go live sometime on 30th April, and we’ll be tackling the new dungeon on 3rd May from 6:30pm. In the meantime do catch up on Flame and Frost if you haven’t already!