Wintersday Is Here

At last the time has come! I couldn't stay up late enough last night to see the content drop (and didn't want to ruin it by being too tired) so I'm up fresh, bright and early to enjoy Wintersday.

The patch notes are immense. The most relevant sections I've copied below:

Items:

• Superior Rune of Lyssa: This item now applies 5 seconds of Protection and Retaliation while on a competitive PvP map. The item’s internal cooldown has been fixed to allow rune effects to occur every 10 seconds.

• Major Sigil of Water: This item now has the correct proc chance.

• Rare crafting materials and holiday materials can now be deposited into the collections tab in the bank.

• Added Mystic Forge recipes to convert ascended rings to their infused versions.

• “Bag of Gold” has been renamed “Bag of Coins” for clarity.

• “Bag of Gems” has been renamed to “Bag of Jewels” for clarity.

• Equipment sorting bags will now properly sort back items and trinkets.

• The Durmand Priory heavy armor set now has proper icons.

• Dessa’s experiment journal now plays an effect on consumption.

• Weapons purchased with karma from vendors in Fireheart Rise, Iron Marches, and Fields of Ruin now have their intended skins instead of tier 3 cultural skins.

• Extended potion recipes can no longer be discovered, and must be unlocked using an item sold by dungeon vendors.

• Extended potions now last for two hours instead of one hour.

• The Mystic Forge recipes for offensive and defensive infusions now take five skill points instead of 50, and omni infusions now take ten skill points instead of 100.

• Increased the drop rate of Passion Flowers from Passion Vines.

• The quantity of vials of Powerful Blood, Vicious Fangs, and Elaborate Totems that drop from loot containers is now 1-2 instead of just 1.

• Several items now have updated icons.

• Rank-based finishing moves now last for 60 minutes per consumable instead of 30 minutes.

• The pirate weapons Trident, Speargun, and Harpoon have been updated to their intended model.

• Black Lion harvesting tools icons have been updated.

• The simple infusion for defensive slots has been removed from the vendors, and the cost of the versatile simple infusion has been lowered to 75 tokens.

Black Lion Chest Overhaul:

• Permanent Bank Access, Permanent Trader Express, and Permanent Merchant Express items now drop twice as often from Black Lion chests. Though still extremely rare, they can now be traded until their first use.

• The Black Lion Chest drop chance for mystery tonics has been reduced from 100% to 25%. Tonics now have the same drop chance as “Heavy Bag of Coins,” “Unidentified Dye,” or one of three new Guild Influence items worth 50, 100, or 300 influence.

• “Heavy Bags of Coins” have been added to Black Lion Chests in the tonic and buff drop sections. Bags hold between 80c and 1g50s.

• “Glory Booster” has been added to the list of possible buff drops.

• Buff drops now occasionally drop the “booster multipack” triple buff.

• Rarity and proportion of all other Black Lion Chest drops have been rebalanced to reduce overabundance of some items.

Black Lion Trading Company Gem Store:

The Black Lion Trading Company is also celebrating the Wintersday season with new deals and special items.

New Wintersday-themed items are available in the style category.

• A festive fur cap is available for 150 gems for a limited time.

• A full winter outfit, including a hat, coat, gloves, boots, leggings, and a snow globe scepter with five winter themed costume skills is now available for 700 gems.

• PvE decorative wood weapon skins for staff, sword, greatsword, dagger, shield, axe, hammer, pistol, longbow and short bow are available in the style category for 500 gems each for a limited time.

• Wintersday earmuffs are available in the style category for 25 gems each.

• A free wizard’s hat is available in the style category for every player to enjoy.

Rare mystery Wintersday boxes will have a chance to drop throughout the world. They will also be available in the consumable category of the Gem Store. They will contain gifts available in-game, plus a random item only available in the store.

Boxes will contain one to five gifts, plus one of the following:

• Common: a Wintersday dye pack, a gingerbread snowball mortar, or one of three unique Wintersday transformation tonics.

• Uncommon: One of three new festive miniatures; a snowman, a festive golem, or the toymaker’s Infinirarium.

• Rare: The festive fur cap, and a claim ticket for your choice of winter wooden weapons.

• Very Rare: Infinite self-style hair kit or unique Wintersday baby quaggan miniature.

The Wintersday baby quaggan miniature can also be crafted in the Mystic Forge by using any combination of miniature snowmen, infinirarium, or festive golems, and 50 enchanted stuffing (available in-game). The “mystery Wintersday box” is available in consumables for 100 gems each, or 10 for 800 gems.

The Black Lion Chest has also been updated. Check the items section of this update for more information. More items and sales will become available over the course of the Wintersday festivities, so be sure to keep an eye on the Gem Store.

That's a lot to look at and analyse so expect another post today OR what you can do is sign up over at our forums.

---> Guild Wars 2 Riches Forum <---

I plan on doing a lot of lurking there on my second monitor whilst experiencing the fun and frolics of wintersday!

I'll see you there.

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