ArenaNet has just dropped for players, and they contain some very juicy QoL fixes and buffs. ArenaNet clearly listened to players on this one. Here’s what to expect from the June 8 2021 patch to Guild Wars 2.
One of the biggest changes in this patch is that both Superspeed and Swiftness got buffed. The duration of Superspeed boons can now stack. Superspeed in GW2 will now have a maximum duration of 10 seconds. Swiftness now has a base duration of 60 seconds as well. This is a huge change for every player of the game. These boons are super good already, and this just makes them infinitely better. Being able to speed up slow sections of the game is always good. Now, River of Souls will be much less of a nightmare.
A bunch of class tweaks will go along with the buffs to Superspeed in GW2 to give players a little more versatility to abilities and builds. Some nerfs are mixed in as well. These depend on the class, with some changes applying only in PvE, while others apply more universally.
WvW PvP is also getting some attention. with the OP engineer trait Purity of Purpose getting a nerf via increased cooldown. Glyph of Unity has been nerfed as well, adding an internal cooldown to stop an infinite DPS exploit.
Rangers got hit with a duration increase to Poison Volley and Crippling Shot. Revenant got a few nerfs as well, with Devastation’s bonus getting cut in half on Destructive Impulses. There’s also a reduced duration on Embrace the Darkness in PvE modes. Thief got hit with a bunch of nerfs that reduce its mobility and the stacking of torment.
On the cosmetics side of things, the Gemstore got some updates. Episodes 5 and 6 of Living World Season 2 are free for a limited time as part of the Living World Return. Also, players can get a new Pharoah’s Package which contains the Pharaoh’s Regalia Outfit, the Royal Anubis Jackal Skin, a Total Makeover Kit, 5 Black Lion Statuettes, and 5 Elonian Landscape Dye Kits. Also, Ice Reaver Cape, Herald of Aurene Cape, and Abyss Stalker Cape are available on sale in the Style category of the Gem Store for 400 gems each, a savings of 20%.
That’s it for the big hits, there are of course other changes buried in the notes. Check out the full patch notes for the June 8 update down below.
Guild Wars 2—June 8 Patch Notes
Profession Skills
In this update, we are focusing on remaining skill tuning and bug fixes as a follow up to the May 11 balance update. We wanted to give special attention to small quality-of-life issues experienced by several professions. To that end, we are making changes such as increasing the maximum duration of the swiftness boon to 60 seconds, and allowing multiple applications of superspeed to stack duration.
Quality-of-life fixes to individual professions include proper source tracking for the firebrand’s Ashes of the Just skill, and a fix to the movement behavior of the thief’s Death Blossom dagger skill so that it no longer sends you far past the intended target if you are under the effect of swiftness or superspeed.
With regard to WvW, we are making targeted changes to two pain points: the overperforming engineer trait Purity of Purpose, and the druid skill Glyph of Unity. We’ve long seen Purity of Purpose be the dominating support trait for large group play in WvW, with its ability to quickly and continually stack all boons in an area. In this update, Purity of Purpose has an internal cooldown of 2 seconds per affected target. This means it can be triggered on the same target again every other second, such as on alternating pulses of Cleansing Field, but not in shorter intervals.
Glyph of Unity has recently been used in large battles to cause spikes of damage totaling in the hundreds of thousands in a matter of seconds, especially in conjunction with Signet of Stone to provide invulnerability while doing so. This ability to cause dozens of attacks per second (limited only by how many hits are striking the druid) to up to five targets has no effective counter in large group combat, except to keep distance from a druid in the first place. We didn’t think this was great! In this update, Glyph of Unity now has an internal cooldown of 0.25 seconds per activation, so it can deliver a maximum of four attacks per second to linked enemies.
General
- Superspeed: Multiple applications of this effect will now stack duration, up to a maximum duration of 10 seconds.
- Swiftness: Maximum duration has been increased from 30 seconds to 60 seconds.
Mastery Skills
- Channeled Agony: This skill no longer applies the damaging Spectral Agony condition. Strike damage doubled. Torment stacks applied on hit increased from 3 to 5.
Elementalist
- Signet of Fire: The number of applied burning stacks on activation has been reduced from 4 to 2, and the duration of applied burning has been increased from 6 seconds to 10 seconds in all game modes.
Engineer
Alchemy
- Purity of Purpose: This trait now has an internal cooldown of 2 seconds per target.
Guardian
Firebrand
- Ashes of the Just: This skill now properly attributes its damage to the source for each stack of the effect.
Mesmer
Mirage
- Chaos Vortex: When cast by a clone, the duration of the applied confusion condition has been reduced from 8 seconds to 3 seconds in PvE only.
Ranger
Short Bow
- Poison Volley: Poison duration has been increased from 4 seconds to 5 seconds when striking from in front of the target, and from 6 seconds to 7 seconds when striking from behind the target. This change applies in all game modes.
- Crippling Shot: The duration of bleeding applied by the pet’s next three attacks is increased from 12 seconds to 15 seconds in all game modes.
Druid
- Glyph of Unity: This skill now has a 0.25-second internal cooldown per target.
Revenant
Legendary Demon Stance
- Embrace the Darkness: Reduced the duration of applied torment from 5.5 seconds to 5 seconds in PvE only.
Devastation
- Destructive Impulses: Bonus damage for having an off-hand weapon equipped has been reduced from 5% to 2.5% in PvE only.
Thief
Dagger
- Death Blossom: This skill no longer moves the player farther if they are under the effects of swiftness or superspeed.
Daredevil
- Lotus Training: Condition damage bonus has been increased from 10% to 15% in PvE. This now matches the current bonus on this trait in PvP and WvW.
Deadeye
- Malicious Sneak Attack: This skill now only applies one stack of torment, with a duration equal to twice your malice, in all game modes.
BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions
- Episodes 5 and 6 of Living World Season 2 are free for a limited time as part of the Living World Return.
- The new Pharaoh’s Package is available in the Style category of the Gem Store for 2,400 gems.
- This package contains the Pharaoh’s Regalia Outfit, the Royal Anubis Jackal Skin, a Total Makeover Kit, 5 Black Lion Statuettes, and 5 Elonian Landscape Dye Kits.
- The new Royal Anubis Jackal Skin is available in the Style category of the Gem Store for 1,600 gems.
- The new Pharaoh’s Regalia Outfit is available in the Style category of the Gem Store for 700 gems.
- For a limited time, the Ice Reaver Cape, Herald of Aurene Cape, and Abyss Stalker Cape are available on sale in the Style category of the Gem Store for 400 gems each, a savings of 20%.
- For a limited time, the Season 1 Memory Box—Flame and Festivals and Season 1 Memory Box—Scarlet vs. Lion’s Arch are available on sale in the Style category of the Gem Store for 160 gems each, a savings of 20%.
Source: GW 2 site