November 15th Update - Lost Shores

The patch that just went live is full of interesting changes. There are many but it is a little late in this part of the world so I thought I'd throw up the notes and see what you guys think. I've cut out the PvP, class and story changes and a few other, non-commerce, non-trading post sections as there is just so much already - even if those sections were full of awesome or noteworthy changes too. 
Personally my eye is drawn to a new type of chest that's temporarily available from the gem store - consortium chest (if this is a new approach for events are Black Lion Chests thoroughly dead now?); the multiple crafting materials (karka shells, passion fruits); changes to the dungeons; and, and, and man there's so much! 
Looking forward to playing, reading your comments and analysing tomorrow and the whole weekend.

Release Notes:

The Lost Shores Update

Something is stirring in the Sea of Sorrows. Ship wreckage is washing up on shore, whales are beaching themselves, local quaggans are leaving their undersea homes, and strange new creatures are being spotted along the Tyrian coast.

Head Researcher Levvi has been pleading with Captain Magnus, leader of the Lionguard, to heed her warnings of imminent danger to the city of Lion’s Arch and other coastal settlements. Magnus remains unconvinced, though the disruption of maritime trade has the Ship’s Council concerned.

Something new is coming ashore in Lion’s Arch at 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time on Friday, November 16. This epic event will change that city forever, even as it introduces an entirely new twist on dungeon play. Come to the defense of Lion’s Arch and race to discover the secret behind a mysterious new menace.

At 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time on Saturday, November 17, the second phase of this epic adventure will take players to a place they’ve never been in Tyria, where they’ll meet a new pet creature and discover previously unknown crafting resources that unlock new recipes and a unique way to upgrade gear.

Join us at 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time on Sunday, November 18 for your chance to take part in an unforgettable, once-in-a-lifetime final event!

Dungeons

General

• New dungeon rewards have been added to all dungeons.
• Each dungeon has a new set of unique items with new stat combinations, ranging in rarity from masterwork to exotic. These items have a chance to drop off of certain bosses in the explorable mode of each dungeon.
• Story and explorable bosses and encounters have a chance to drop Bags of Wondrous Goods, which contain coins and karma. Bags of Wondrous Goods obtained in explorable mode also contain dungeon tokens.
• If the owner of a dungeon instance intentionally leaves his party to kick out players and invite new players, it will now also kick that owner out of the dungeon to prevent people from kicking PUG members and inviting guild members for the final boss of a dungeon.

Fractals of the Mists

There are new stories being told in the taverns of Lion’s Arch, usually in hushed tones by broken and bloodied adventurers. They weep into their ales and shake as they speak…not about dragons or the undead, but of something new, a mysterious portal that has emerged in the city, beckoning the bravest to venture through it.
Introducing a dungeon experience like no other—Fractals of the Mists! A series of unique “fractal” minidungeons, increasing in difficulty, offers players unlimited levels of challenge! With great risk comes great rewards, including new weapon sets, a back slot item, new Ascended loot, and much more!

• New level 80 dungeon with dynamic leveling so you can bring your friends!
• Endless and scaling. The deeper you go, the harder it gets!
• The portal to the Fractals of the Mists will activate with the Lost Shores content Friday at 12:30 p.m. Pacific Time. Head west of Fort Marriner to the entrance and try your luck. Perhaps you’ll survive and reap the rewards, or perhaps you’ll be lost forever to the Fractals’ bloody secrets.

Items

There are two new major features added to items in this update. For more detailed information on these features and how they tie into the new Lost Shores content, check out this blog post!

• Added new crafting materials as part of the Lost Shores update.
• Crafted Halloween potions are no longer account bound.
• The mighty Zommoros has slightly increased the drop rate on Legendary precursor weapons from the Mystic Forge from both Rares and Exotics.
• The drop rarity of Rare and Exotic weapons from certain places in the world (champions, veterans, and players in WvW) has been increased. Rares and Exotics should be much more likely to drop and every champion should be guaranteed to drop loot. This was to ensure that world loot drops were not a significantly worse way of acquiring rare and exotic items than crafting and running dungeons.
• The amount of loot that drops for downscaled players has been increased. You should now be able to receive level-equivalent loot until you are fighting at a downscaled level that is less than 2/3 of your actual level. You should also receive loot a greater percentage of the time as well as receiving a greater percentage of experience, gold, and karma. For level 80 characters, this means level 55+ areas will be able to drop level 80 gear and give about 75% or so of the other rewards. Previously, these areas would give level 77 gear at best and closer to 60% or so of your rewards.

New Rarity Type: Ascended

• Ascended rarity falls between Exotics and Legendaries on the rarity spectrum.
• Ascended items have higher stats than Exotics and come with slots for the new upgrade type, Infusions.
• Ascended rings and back slot items have been added to the game.

New Upgrade Type: Infusion

• Infusions are a new type of upgrade component that can only be slotted into a matching Infusion slot.
• Added 12 new Infusions of the offensive, defensive, and omni types to the game.
• Create Infusions through the Mystic Forge using new crafting materials.

General

• The Fire Elemental encounter in Metrica Province has received a balance pass.
• The Shatterer encounter in Blazeridge Steppes has been updated.
• A UI confirmation window will now pop up on large vendor purchases.
• Players will now be warned if they do not have enough inventory space to acquire an elemental fragment during the Dierdre’s Steps jumping puzzle.
• Harvesting tools are now account bound.
• Updated Rune of Water to provide 10% boon duration instead of 15% in PvP.
• Updated Rune of the Monk to provide 10% boon duration instead of 15% in PvP.
• Updated Rune of Earth to provide 15% protection duration instead of 20%, and 3 seconds of protection instead of 4 seconds in PvP.
• Updated Rune of the Citadel to properly grant power instead of healing.
• Rune of Svanir’s block of ice effect will no longer allow players to capture points while they’re invulnerable. Removing the stun from this effect will remove the invulnerability as well.
• Rune of Air’s lightningdamage has been reduced by 25%.
• “Unblockable” skill facts have now been added to various skills.
• Rune of the Pack’s on-hit effect now works properly.
• Many skills, items, and traits were applying healing to an infinite amount of targets and have now been limited to 5 targets.
• You can no longer view opponents’ account names through reporting in WvW.
• Fixed a bug that caused many piercing, boomerang, and bouncing projectiles (those that hit more than 1 target) to continually increase in damage the more targets they hit.
• Fixed a bug preventing melee attacks from hitting static objects in the world if the character was not moving. As an example, this should help players using melee in Ascalonian Catacombs to hit graveling burrows, amongst other offending objects.

Commerce

• The Consortium Chest has been added to the gem store in the Consumable category for 250 gems each or 10 for 1800 gems. No key is required to open these chests; simply double-click them in your inventory.
  • When you open the Consortium Chest, you will receive some number of crafting materials and one random item.
  • Some items in the chest include: shoulder skins, breathing masks, weapon skins, hats, and minis.
  • All items in the chest are new and have never been available before.
  • Weapon skins are rare, and the minis are very rare.
  • All items can be sold on the Trading Post.
  • The Consortium Chest will only be available for a limited time.
• All the items found in the Consortium Chest can also be obtained as rare drops from any creature from the new Lost Shores event.
• The Consortium Dye Kit has been added to the gem store in the Consumable category for 125 gems each or 5 for 500 gems.
  • The Consortium Dye Kit gives one random blue dye and one random yellow dye.
  • The Consortium Dye Kit will only be available for a limited time.
• Dye Packs now come in bundles of 5 for 800 gems.