Update - Thursday, December 17, 2009

Update - Thursday, December 17, 2009

Wintersday 2009


Can you feel that crisp chill in the air? It's that time of year when the cities of Tyria shine like beacons with festive decor, and the gods Dwayna and Grenth fight over who will control the weather during the coming months. Holiday vendors sell seasonal treats, and the air is full of snowballs and the sound of laughter. Wintersday is almost here!



Wintersday Event

Preparations have been made for Wintersday 2009.
Holiday quests are now available throughout the land.
Players can enter PvP Snowball Fights by speaking with Wintersday Priests.
8v8 ATS-style Snowball Tournaments are accessible through guild halls.

Costumes

Grenth and Dwayna costumes are available for purchase from the In-Game Store and the NCsoft Store.
Costume slots have been added to the Character panel.
Hats given by Festival Hat NPCs have been updated to work with the new costume slots.
For more details about costumes and costume slots, see the costume gameplay article.

Snow Fighting Skill Updates

Avalanche: reduced activation time to 3/4 second; reduced Cripple duration to 7 seconds.
Avatar of Dwayna (Snowball Arena): increased Health gain to 30 per skill; reduced activation time to 1 second.
Avatar of Grenth (Snowball Arena): increased Health stolen to 15 per skill; reduced activation time to 1 second.
Flurry of Ice: increased damage to 50 per snowball.
Holiday Blues: reduced Health sacrifice to 50%; reduced effect duration to 30 seconds; increased activation time to 1 second; increased recharge time to 45 seconds.
Icicles: increased recharge time to 25 seconds.
Side Step: increased Health gain to 250; increased recharge time to 25 seconds.
Steady Aim: this skill is now a Shout; removed activation time; reduced recharge time to 5 seconds.
Yellow Snow: this skill is now a Preparation; reduced casting time to 3/4 second; increased recharge time to 12 seconds.
Side Step has been removed from the following creatures and character:
Dodgy Grentch now uses Hidden Rock.
Playful Snowman now uses Hidden Rock.
Vael (Snowball Dominance quest only) now uses "Let's Get ‘Em!"

Snowball Fight Updates

Dwayna vs Grenth 4v4: increased Gamer point reward to 15 per win.
Dwayna vs Grenth 8v8 (Automated Tournament): increased Gamer point reward to 40 per win; increased Candy Cane Shards to 7 per win.

All I want is the skill update.

Let the games begin!

And... costumes?

Costumes added as inventory feature? Chances are there'll be more later. Such as the previous disguises from missions. Which would be nice, except for the part about paying money for it.

They should of made the costumes for the event reward :/. I guess Anet needs their cash though.

Yellow Snow as a prep might be the best skill update they've done all year.

The new inventory slots allows us to use our old festival hats without armor penalty, yeah?

Well, one good thing came of this, at least.

Wintersday event and the costume hackers admission pack. I want my skills update

Good update, but wheres the skill balance?

I waited all day today for a shadow form nerf.

I love the ideas of customes! I will be looking for more in the future. Good job Arena Net. /nofail there

Woah, woah! You serious?!

This update might be good after all!

So they have time to make costumes but still havent got to the skill update.

Great skill update ANet, you continue to impress.

I will try not to put this in a mean way, but "Snow Fighting Skill Updates" is still technically a skill update.

La-dee-frickin'-da.

Anyone else thinking we will get a costume, instead of a hat, for wintersday this year?

Yellow snow can now be combined with hidden rock!

I'm wondering wth the new functionality of these masks is.

The pre-existing hat I have as part of my 600hp tank setup will not go into my festival hat slot. Is it still possible to add runes to the newly crafted headpieces?

Odd way of doing things, but seems more fitting than risking players using multiple headpiece runes.

Plus, festival hat items don't show in the character selection screen, which is kind of janky.

We are still getting hats as well. (Which can also use the costume slot.)

Yay for Snowball balance. Avatars and Side Step look OP, though.

Edit:
Jk, old festival hats wouldn't work for me. But it accepted when I made a new one.

Yeah I know, like you, I hated these perma assas too, since they can get all these nice items while the like of us can't. It's not fair, I think there should be a shadow form for every profession, for we can all farm and get all these nice items. I mean, why the assassins get all the good stuff anyways? It would only be fair to allow every profession to be invincible. (not really...but w/e)

=D

Its not jumping to conclusions. Festival hats can go in the new slot.

Who's jumping to conclusions?

http://www.guildwars.com/products/extras/costumes/

Am I missing something? Where is the person to get into the Snowball Arena?

"Preparations have been made for Wintersday 2009.
Holiday quests are now available throughout the land.
Players can enter PvP Snowball Fights by speaking with Wintersday Priests.
8v8 ATS-style Snowball Tournaments are accessible through guild halls."

if you make a new festival hat you cant dye it, atleast for the lion mask

Just bought the costumes. Grenth looks god damn amazing, Dwayna looks terrible (at least on my male mesmer). Glad I got it just for grenth though, great job.

I made a Dragon mask and was able to dye it.

"Holiday quests are now available throughout the land."

am I missing something here? Where are these quest givers

Awesome, the Holiday Blues skill is finally usable in PvE!
Well, at least it won't cause instant dungeon fail.

Skill update...
XTH fixed...

That's all I have to say.

No snowball arena, no gifts dropping, no decorations...
Only costume things and mask for now...

I think they rushed a bit with update notes...

This, i guess it also ok to assume that skill updates are every quarter now instead of the bi-monthly we've been fed?

Guess anet need the time inbetween to add the next micro transaction they wanna add...

More stuff becomes available as the event goes on. This is nothing new.

Even Anet wouldn't release a skill update 2 days before the mat.

The idea is to run presents. Staying alive longer is surprisingly unhelpful, especially if the ability requires you to act like Jack Frost in order to get the full effect. Side Step may be playable (two extra Snowcones each minute with no blackout could be nice), but smart players will just throw snowballs at targets that can be killed when they want to DPS.

This update will change a lot of things, but you're definitely looking at the wrong changes.

lol, i like no skill updates, abuse of SF ftw ;-)

Agreed lol. I might try some Dayway now.

I would love confirmation from SOMEONE at Anet if the mini polar bear is going to be added like last year and when it is available if so.

OT: Interesting update, will see how snowball turns out

Why wouldn't it drop? That be just retarded by Anet. That being said, the Mini Polar Bear isn't dropping this year.

Inb4 no skill update this month

Another somewhat pointless update.

Somewhat pointless? It's Wintersday people. We've lived with SF for, what, 2 years now in its current state? It can frickin wait until after the holiday. Personally, I'm just glad Wintersday is getting a bit of love. Costume slots for people who've always wanted to wear their hats around runed and armored, frickin SWEET looking Grenth and Dwayna costumes (yeah, yeah, microtransaction; cry about it, they look awesome, if it's not worth it to you you're not missing anything except a cool outfit), and a bit of skill balancing for the much-whined about imbalances present in the snowball skills. All really cool stuff, heck, two of those things we've been begging for for years now.

But let me not get in the way of the continuing QQ-age around here. I know it must be physically painful for you all to keep it bottled up, right?

To be fair, Anet did state that they would fix the SC problem this year (aka. look into SF).