Matchmaking took upwards of 10 minutes. Maybe they could capture a core audience but all that waiting would alienate even more people. Increasing the wait time even more. They could have invested more money and re-release it, but how much money would it take to overhaul the game. And there is no guarantee, that a 2.0 would be played more. So giving it up is probably the best solution, not burning even more money. Keep in mind, it costed about 400 million $ to make.

10/08/2024--October 8 Release Notes

General

• Fixed an issue that prevented the Is This a Scratching Post? achievement from updating properly.
• Fixed an issue that prevented jade bot workbench decorations from recognizing users who placed a workbench nearby and immediately attempted to interact with it.
• Description text has been added to the Thesis on Speed effect tooltip.
• The conjured doorway can now be summoned in Dry Top, the Silverwastes, Arborstone, Verdant Brink, and Lion's Arch Aerodrome.
• The "Keep the troll party from getting out of hand" events in Lowland Shore are no longer group events. The events' completion timers have been increased.
• Refined the criteria for the away-from-keyboard timer to prevent it from counting noncombat damage sources such as falling or self-inflicted damage as entering combat.
• Improved the precision with which decoration placement checks for valid decoration space near areas where no decorations are allowed, such as the waypoint in Hearth's Glow.
• Relic of Rivers: Reduced the alacrity duration from 2 seconds to 1 second and the regeneration duration from 3 seconds to 2 seconds in PvP only.

Warclaw Mount

• Players are now able to dismount the warclaw in midair in all game modes.
• Fixed an issue that caused combat mounting to fail when autoattack was enabled.
• Updated the Feral Fury Mastery's text to indicate that only the Lance and Battle Maul (Engage) skills gain increased crowd control.
• Reduced Lance's knockdown time in PvE from a baseline of 2.5 seconds to 1.25 seconds.
• Updated Battle Maul (Engage)'s description to indicate its current functionality. This skill delivers a double strike to enemies within a radius of 180 and stuns them for 2 seconds, reduced from 3 seconds. Updated the skill facts for this skill. This skill is now affected by Feral Fury's control increase. Updated the skill's visual effect to help identify the different attack regions.

Items

• The off-season Halloween vendor in Hooligan's Route now stocks a much larger assortment of Halloween items for players who wish to purchase items with candy corn after the event has ended, including recipes for homestead decorations.
• Added Wings of the Sunless and Endless Fractal Challenge Mote Tonics to Zotturrikk's shop inventory in Hooligan's Route in Lion's Arch.
• The birthday vendor in Lion's Arch will now also sell the Dragon Decade Spear Skin to players who have finished ten objectives in the Decade of the Dragons achievement, in addition to players who have completed the Birthday--Year 10 achievement.

World vs. World

General

• To reduce confusion, the Join Team button on the World Restructuring - BETA tab of the World vs. World panel is no longer displayed for players who are already on a team.
• Objectives will now remain contested and the "Repel the enemy attackers" event will restart if the objective's lord is dead when the event finishes.

Profession Skills

Below are changes to the balance preview notes we previously shared. You can see the original balance notes shared here.

Engineer

Mechanist

• Barrier Burst: Increased the might duration from 15 seconds to 20 seconds in PvE only.
• Mech Frame: Channeling Conduits: This trait now applies might instead of alacrity in WvW only.

Guardian

• Solar Storm: This skill now deals reduced damage on subsequent hits to a target. Reduced the damage coefficient from 1.8 to 1.5 in PvE only.

Mesmer

• Restorative Illusions: Reduced the healing power scaling from 0.46 to 0.3 in PvP only. Reduced the base healing with no clones from 360 to 219.
• Illusionary Inspiration: Reduced the outgoing healing increase from 15% to 10% in PvP only.
• Temporal Enchanter: Reduced the resistance duration from 3 seconds to 2 seconds in PvP. Reduced the superspeed duration from 3 seconds to 2 seconds in PvP and WvW.
• Journey: Reduced the base healing from 719 to 527 and reduced the regeneration duration from 4 seconds to 2 seconds in PvP only.
• Signet of Inspiration: Increased the cooldown from 20 seconds to 30 seconds in PvP only.

Mirage

• Split Surge: Reduced the might per hit from 2 to 1 in WvW only, and reduced the damage coefficient per hit from 0.45 to 0.36 in WvW only.
• Phantom Razor: Fixed an issue that caused this skill to daze when used by a clone.

Necromancer

• Locust Swarm: This skill now grants swiftness to nearby allies in addition to its previous effects.
• Perforate: Increased the number of targets from 3 to 5.
• Extirpate: This skill no longer inflicts Extirpation in WvW and PvP. It will continue to apply Extirpation in PvE.
• Ritual of Life: Increased the revive percentage from 2% to 3.5% in PvE only.
• Transfusion: Increased the revive percentage when the scourge elite specialization is equipped from 1% to 2% in PvE only.

Scourge

• Trail of Anguish: This skill now grants its initial boons to nearby allies in PvE only. Increased the cooldown from 20 seconds to 25 seconds in PvE only.

Revenant

• Abyssal Raze: Fixed an issue that caused this skill to inflict torment for a longer duration than intended. Increased the torment duration from 4 seconds to 6 seconds in PvE only.
• Song of the Mists (Call of the Centaur): Reduced the base healing from 1920 to 1300 and reduced the healing power scaling from 1.0 to 0.5 in PvP only.
• Generous Abundance: Reduced the base healing when using a Legendary Centaur skill from 463 to 271 and reduced the base healing when using another legend skill from 197 to 152 in PvP only.
• Purifying Essence: Increased the cooldown from 5 seconds to 10 seconds in PvP only.
• Energy Expulsion: Increased the energy cost from 35 to 50 in PvP only.
• Natural Harmony: Reduced the healing power scaling from 1.75 to 1.0 in PvP only.

Vindicator

• Balance in Discord: Reduced the base healing from 810 to 522 and reduced the regeneration duration from 6 seconds to 3 seconds in PvP only.

Warrior

• Maiming Spear: Reduced the initial-hit damage coefficient from 1.2 to 1.1 in PvE only. Reduced the shock-wave damage coefficient from 1.2 to 0.75 in PvE only. Reduced the shock-wave damage bonus from 50% to 20% in PvE only.
• Spearmarshal's Support: Reduced the damage coefficient from 0.6 to 0.4 in PvE only.
• Harrier's Toss: This skill no longer evades and now applies vulnerability to enemies it hits.
• Defiant Stance: Increased the casting time by approximately 0.5 seconds.
• Balanced Stance: Increased the cooldown from 40 seconds to 50 seconds in PvP only
• Wild Throw: Fixed an issue that occasionally prevented certain on-hit traits such as Building Momentum or Sundering Burst from activating properly

Spellbreaker

• Cull the Weak: Reduced the weakness duration from 3.5 seconds to 1.5 seconds when the spellbreaker elite specialization is equipped, in PvP only.
• Full Counter: Increased the cooldown from 12 seconds to 14 seconds in PvP only.

The package with the Skysteel Greatsword Skin, Skysteel Chair, and Skysteel Glider is kinda quirky. I like the sword but gliding and hovering gives me Tao Pai Pai vibes :D

Great catch! Thanks! Watched it twice and missed it...

I hope it works with glyphs. I would miss my volatile magic.

06/25/2024—June 25 Release Notes

Land Spear Beta Event

The land spear beta event begins this Thursday! The event runs from June 27 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) until June 30 at 10:00 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7). Every Guild Wars 2 account in good standing, including Play-for-Free accounts, will automatically get character slots marked "Beta" when the beta event begins. Clicking on one of these slots will allow you to create a character using any of the nine Guild Wars 2 professions.

General

• Added an option to hide or unhide aquabreathers in the equipment panel.
  • When the aquabreather is hidden and the player's equipped head armor is not hidden, the head armor will be shown when underwater.
  • The aquabreather's attributes will still be used when underwater.
• Fixed an issue that caused some vendors' interfaces to scroll down when purchasing items from them.
• Updated the Sunken Treasure Hunter content in anticipation of an upcoming weekly event:
  • Sunken chests have been added to the end of the Aquatic Ruins fractal and Siren's Reef fractal.
    • Deadly piranhas will now subside after the Siren's Reef boss encounter is completed.
  • In addition to resetting when the Master Diver achievement is completed, sunken chests will now also reset upon logging in or your first time entering a map after the weekly reset.
  • The locations of some sunken chests have been adjusted within the map they are located in, primarily where they overlapped with quaggan villages.
    • Hint cinematics for the chests have been updated.
  • Ornate rusted keys can now be double-clicked to show a hint cinematic for the next available sunken chest in the Master Diver achievement.
  • Dive Master Astora's merchant inventory has been updated.
    • Swim-speed infusion upgrades have been condensed to encourage upgrading in increments of 5; single-point upgrades are still available.
    • An account-based swim-speed infusion is now available. This infusion begins at +15 increased swimming speed and can be permanently improved for all characters on your account by purchasing upgrade items from Dive Master Astora.
    • Infusable, exotic-quality aquabreathers are now available so that players can enjoy their swim-speed infusions before they have earned an ascended aquabreather.
    • A limited number of extra ornate rusted keys can be purchased for karma each week, and excess keys can be exchanged for karma.
    • Some of the new items will be available as prizes in an upcoming weekly event.
  • Made various functionality improvements to opening and resetting sunken chests.
• Lowered the difficulty of the "Help Lucretia get back to Garenhoff" event to make it easier for one player to complete.
• Fixed an issue that caused players to become trapped in the catapults near Garrison Waypoint.
• Fixed an issue that could prevent the rockslides encountered in the Missing Brood collection from being in the proper animation state.

Fractals

Lonely Tower Fractal

• Reduced the boon corruption Eparch causes with Envy Empowerment.
• Eparch's Consume skill will only absorb emotion globules that are 5 or more seconds old.
• Reduced Eparch's health.
• Fixed an issue that prevented Wave of Envy from hitting enemies if they were standing too close to Eparch.
• Reduced the boon corruption dealt by Wave of Envy. The skill no longer corrupts boons on players who evade the attack.
• Reduced the health of the rift guardian champions summoned during the encounter in challenge mode.

Strike Missions

• Some balance adjustments have been made to the Temple of Febe challenge mode encounter to make it more accessible. These changes do not apply to the legendary version of the encounter.
  • Reduced the duration of the Insatiable effect applied by Empowered Insatiable Hunger to 3 minutes.
  • Reduced the number of stacks of Empowered that Cerus gains from Empowered Smash to 2.
  • Reduced the health and toughness of Malicious Shadows.
  • Reduced the penalty for failure during Empowered Crushing Regret. Failure to have enough people to absorb an attack will cause players to be downed instead of defeated, as will being hit by two of the attacks. Multiple failures or being hit by the skill more than two times will still cause players to be defeated.

Player vs. Player

• The number of ascended shards of glory required to purchase ascended gear from PvP vendors has been decreased.
  • The cost for a set of ascended armor has been lowered from 1,200 ascended shards of glory to 800 ascended shards of glory.
  • The cost for a two-handed ascended weapon has been lowered from 400 ascended shards of glory to 200 ascended shards of glory.
  • The cost for a one-handed ascended weapon has been lowered from 400 ascended shards of glory to 100 ascended shards of glory.
• The following changes will apply to ranked reward tracks starting with the next PvP league season, Season 42, which begins on July 2.
  • The total number of boxes of grandmaster marks obtainable from the reward track has been increased from 3 to 9. The repeatable byzantium chest also contains a box of grandmaster marks.
  • Instant reward track potions have been added to each tier at a rate of 3 potions per 10 pips.
  • Vials of karma have been added to each tier at a rate of 3 vials per 10 pips.

Personal Story

Secrets of the Obscure

• Additional messaging has been added to chapter 18, The Eleventh Hour, to recommend completion of the Into the Spider's Lair meta-event in Inner Nayos before proceeding into the story instance.
• A new achievement, True Ending: The Eleventh Hour, has been added to "The Midnight King" story achievements. Successfully completing the Into the Spider's Lair meta-event with The Eleventh Hour as your active story step before entering the instance will award the achievement.
  • This achievement has been added to the list of achievements that award progress toward completing the Secrets of the Obscure: The Midnight King Mastery meta-achievement.

Items

• Players who misplaced their Saga's End Draconic Core or would like extras can now purchase additional copies from Sarettokk in Lion's Arch after completing all requirements to earn the item.
• Suffused Obsidian armor skin consumables' rarity has been updated from legendary to exotic to prevent the deletion confirmation from requiring players to type out the name.
• Fixed an issue that prevented Eparch's Empowered Greatsword and Eparch's Empowered Sword skins from being unlocked in the wardrobe.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Saryx Backpiece, the Midnight King Backpiece, and the infused versions of both to grant exotic attribute values instead of ascended attribute values.

Profession Skills

Below are changes to the balance preview notes we previously shared. You can see the original balance preview notes here.

Elementalist

Catalyst

• Elemental Celerity: Fixed an issue that caused this skill to fail when the user was holding a conjured weapon in WvW and PvP.

Guardian

• Leap of Faith: Increased the radius from 180 to 240.

Firebrand

• Mantras now automatically charge in combat in PvE only.
• Mantra of Solace: Increased the arc angle from 60 degrees to 160 degrees.
• Mantra of Lore: Increased the arc angle from 60 degrees to 160 degrees.
• Mantra of Potence: Increased the arc angle from 60 degrees to 160 degrees.
• Mantra of Liberation: Increased the arc angle from 60 degrees to 160 degrees.

Willbender

• Rushing Justice: Increased the Justice effect duration from 6 seconds to 8 seconds in PvE only.

Necromancer

Reaper

• Blighter's Boon: Increased the base healing from 85 to 101.

Ranger

• Stalk (Juvenile Jaguar): This skill now applies stealth to the ranger in addition to the pet. Increased the cooldown from 20 seconds to 35 seconds in WvW and PvP.

Revenant

Herald

• Facet of Darkness: Reduced the cooldown from 25 seconds to 20 seconds in PvP only.
• True Nature (Legendary Dragon): This skill now cleanses 3 conditions from nearby allies when used.

06/25/2024—Late Notes

General

• The daily achievement Blood in the Water has been moved to the Sunken Treasure Hunter category. When completed, the reward key is now sent directly to the inventory rather than using a reward chest.

World vs. World

• Fixed an issue that caused some WvW teams in Europe to experience map queue issues.

The first device reminds me of this :D

A wild fork appears :)

Well it's probably cheaper than to innovate on the hardware front (display, performance, Joy-Cons, etc.) . And since they have an insane amount of money, it think they can keep doing this for quite some time...

Saw the trailer, was hyped. Then I read some steam reviews... Now I'm sad...

The article is a summary of:

https://www.mayerowitz.io/blog/mario-meets-pareto

At least you should be able to get everything in-game just by playing. Denuvo and not being able to have multiple savegames or even restart your playthrough is the real bummer imho.