SK
26th October 2006, 08:54
New Features of Guild Wars Nightfall
Today we are publishing the new features of Guild Wars Nightfall in anticipation of the campaign’s release this Friday, October 27 at 12:01 am PDT. Players won’t be able to acquire Heroes or participate in Hero Battles until they can play through the Nightfall campaign, but many of the other features of Nightfall are available today as free updates.
Skills and Attributes
Skill selection, attribute adjustment, and secondary profession selection are now centralized on the new Skills and Attributes panel.
Your characters can now change their secondary professions whenever they are standing in a town or outpost. PvP characters can change to any secondary profession, while Roleplaying characters can change to any profession that character has previously learned.
You can now save and load templates containing Skill Bar setup, attributes, and professions. This allows you to switch a character between different roles quickly, and to share your strategies with your friends.
To save a Skill Template, click the disk icon inside the Skills and Attributes panel, then click “Save to Template.” The template will be saved to a small file in the Templates/Skills folder below the Guild Wars installation directory. You can copy this file to other computers, share it with your friends, or post it on the Internet.
To load a Skill Template, click the disk icon, then click “Load from Template.” You can load any template that matches your character’s primary profession.
If your character doesn’t have as many attribute points as the character who saved the template, the attribute levels will automatically be adjusted down for you.
If your character doesn’t have access to skills that were saved in the template, those skills will appear grayed out.
Equipment Templates
PvP characters can now save and load Equipment Templates containing a complete set of armor and weapon selections.
To save an Equipment Template, click the disk icon inside the Inventory panel, then click “Save to Template.” The template will be saved to a small file in the Templates/Equipment folder below the Guild Wars installation directory.
To load an Equipment Template, click the disk icon, then click “Load from Template.” You can load any template that matches your character’s primary profession.
Loading a template will replace your character’s current weapons and armor, unless your character is using weapons or armor that were acquired through roleplaying.
If you load a template that uses item upgrades that are not currently available on your account, the items that require those upgrades will not be created.
Equipment Builder
Equipment can be made for any PvP character, including PvP Heroes, using the new PvP Equipment panel.
You can open the PvP Equipment panel whenever your PvP character is standing in a town or outpost by clicking on the PvP Equipment button within the Inventory panel or by pressing “J” on your keyboard.
To create an item, click on the portrait of the character you would like to build the item for, then select the tab for the type of item you would like to create. Choose the item, upgrade components, and color from the list of available selections.
If you would like the item to be equipped immediately, select the “Equip Immediately” option before clicking “Create.” The new item will be placed onto your character, and the old item that your character was previously wearing will be destroyed. If you choose not to equip immediately, the new item will be placed into your character’s inventory instead.
Items created with the PvP Equipment panel cannot be upgraded or salvaged.
Armor Insignias
New armor crafted in Elona or through the PvP Equipment panel can contain swappable insignias, which provide the same types of bonuses that previously were permanent parts of the armor, plus new bonuses that are being introduced with Nightfall.
With the use of armor insignias, you can now mix and match different armor bonuses with different armor appearances. Additionally, the use of insignias simplifies the process of creating armor with the PvP Equipment panel because you can choose the armor appearance and bonus separately.
Outside of the PvP Equipment panel, you can only place an insignia on a piece of armor if that armor has a blank insignia slot. Certain types of armor crafted in Elona include blank insignia slots.
Like other types of armor upgrades, insignias must be unlocked on your account before you can use them in the PvP Equipment panel. Because some insignias are replacements for bonuses that used to be inherent properties of PvP armor, those insignias are already unlocked on your account.
Because insignias allow you to place bonuses on certain types of headgear that could not receive bonuses in the past, some existing high-end headgear from Tyria and Cantha is being updated with this build to include new bonuses.
Weapon Inscriptions
New weapons found in Elona or created through the PvP Equipment panel can contain swappable inscriptions, which provide a variety of weapon bonuses and enhancements.
Like armor insignias, weapon inscriptions allow you to swap bonuses between different items you acquire by playing through the roleplaying content, and they simplify the process of creating items with the PvP Equipment panel by enabling you to choose the base weapon and the weapon bonuses separately.
You can only place an inscription in a weapon if that weapon has a blank inscription slot. Inscriptions and inscription slots are sometimes found on rare weapons dropped by monsters in Elona.
Inscriptions must be unlocked on your account before you can use them in the PvP Equipment panel. Inscriptions that provide bonuses that were previously inherent bonuses of PvP weapons are already unlocked on your account.
New Item Upgrades
Shields, wands, and focus items created through the PvP Equipment panel or found in Elona can now have upgrades applied to them.
Shields can have a Shield Handle upgrade plus one inscription.
Wands can have a Wand Wrapping upgrade plus one inscription.
Focus items can have a Focus Core upgrade plus one inscription.
These new upgrades are equivalent in power to inherent item bonuses that were found in previous campaigns.
New Salvage/Upgrade System
Salvaging an item with upgrade components now gives you the ability to pick which item you would like to salvage.
If you salvage an item to extract a magical component, there is now a 50 percent chance that the base item will not be destroyed.
When you upgrade an item with an upgrade component, you now see a preview of what that item will look like after the upgrade.
New Dye System
The new dye system improves the appearance of base dye colors and mixed dye colors. The new system is used when you newly apply dye to an item. Existing item colors are not affected.
Newly crafted armor now starts out gray. If you dye it to another color and then later want to restore it to its original appearance, just dye it gray. Vendors now sell gray dye instead of dye remover.
White and brown dye colors are now available as loot drops.
Silver is now an equipment color option during character creation.
A new Dye Preview panel lets you preview the effect of dye color combinations on your items before applying the dye.
New Damage Interface
The new Damage Monitor panel shows all skills that your opponents have recently used against you. You can hover the mouse over any skill icon to get a tooltip explaining that skill.
The numbers that float above characters’ heads are now bigger, and use different animations to help distinguish between damage, healing, and experience.
When an enemy uses a skill against you, the skill icon will display next to the damage number. The Options panel allows you to switch from displaying skill icons to displaying skill names.
Today we are publishing the new features of Guild Wars Nightfall in anticipation of the campaign’s release this Friday, October 27 at 12:01 am PDT. Players won’t be able to acquire Heroes or participate in Hero Battles until they can play through the Nightfall campaign, but many of the other features of Nightfall are available today as free updates.
Skills and Attributes
Skill selection, attribute adjustment, and secondary profession selection are now centralized on the new Skills and Attributes panel.
Your characters can now change their secondary professions whenever they are standing in a town or outpost. PvP characters can change to any secondary profession, while Roleplaying characters can change to any profession that character has previously learned.
You can now save and load templates containing Skill Bar setup, attributes, and professions. This allows you to switch a character between different roles quickly, and to share your strategies with your friends.
To save a Skill Template, click the disk icon inside the Skills and Attributes panel, then click “Save to Template.” The template will be saved to a small file in the Templates/Skills folder below the Guild Wars installation directory. You can copy this file to other computers, share it with your friends, or post it on the Internet.
To load a Skill Template, click the disk icon, then click “Load from Template.” You can load any template that matches your character’s primary profession.
If your character doesn’t have as many attribute points as the character who saved the template, the attribute levels will automatically be adjusted down for you.
If your character doesn’t have access to skills that were saved in the template, those skills will appear grayed out.
Equipment Templates
PvP characters can now save and load Equipment Templates containing a complete set of armor and weapon selections.
To save an Equipment Template, click the disk icon inside the Inventory panel, then click “Save to Template.” The template will be saved to a small file in the Templates/Equipment folder below the Guild Wars installation directory.
To load an Equipment Template, click the disk icon, then click “Load from Template.” You can load any template that matches your character’s primary profession.
Loading a template will replace your character’s current weapons and armor, unless your character is using weapons or armor that were acquired through roleplaying.
If you load a template that uses item upgrades that are not currently available on your account, the items that require those upgrades will not be created.
Equipment Builder
Equipment can be made for any PvP character, including PvP Heroes, using the new PvP Equipment panel.
You can open the PvP Equipment panel whenever your PvP character is standing in a town or outpost by clicking on the PvP Equipment button within the Inventory panel or by pressing “J” on your keyboard.
To create an item, click on the portrait of the character you would like to build the item for, then select the tab for the type of item you would like to create. Choose the item, upgrade components, and color from the list of available selections.
If you would like the item to be equipped immediately, select the “Equip Immediately” option before clicking “Create.” The new item will be placed onto your character, and the old item that your character was previously wearing will be destroyed. If you choose not to equip immediately, the new item will be placed into your character’s inventory instead.
Items created with the PvP Equipment panel cannot be upgraded or salvaged.
Armor Insignias
New armor crafted in Elona or through the PvP Equipment panel can contain swappable insignias, which provide the same types of bonuses that previously were permanent parts of the armor, plus new bonuses that are being introduced with Nightfall.
With the use of armor insignias, you can now mix and match different armor bonuses with different armor appearances. Additionally, the use of insignias simplifies the process of creating armor with the PvP Equipment panel because you can choose the armor appearance and bonus separately.
Outside of the PvP Equipment panel, you can only place an insignia on a piece of armor if that armor has a blank insignia slot. Certain types of armor crafted in Elona include blank insignia slots.
Like other types of armor upgrades, insignias must be unlocked on your account before you can use them in the PvP Equipment panel. Because some insignias are replacements for bonuses that used to be inherent properties of PvP armor, those insignias are already unlocked on your account.
Because insignias allow you to place bonuses on certain types of headgear that could not receive bonuses in the past, some existing high-end headgear from Tyria and Cantha is being updated with this build to include new bonuses.
Weapon Inscriptions
New weapons found in Elona or created through the PvP Equipment panel can contain swappable inscriptions, which provide a variety of weapon bonuses and enhancements.
Like armor insignias, weapon inscriptions allow you to swap bonuses between different items you acquire by playing through the roleplaying content, and they simplify the process of creating items with the PvP Equipment panel by enabling you to choose the base weapon and the weapon bonuses separately.
You can only place an inscription in a weapon if that weapon has a blank inscription slot. Inscriptions and inscription slots are sometimes found on rare weapons dropped by monsters in Elona.
Inscriptions must be unlocked on your account before you can use them in the PvP Equipment panel. Inscriptions that provide bonuses that were previously inherent bonuses of PvP weapons are already unlocked on your account.
New Item Upgrades
Shields, wands, and focus items created through the PvP Equipment panel or found in Elona can now have upgrades applied to them.
Shields can have a Shield Handle upgrade plus one inscription.
Wands can have a Wand Wrapping upgrade plus one inscription.
Focus items can have a Focus Core upgrade plus one inscription.
These new upgrades are equivalent in power to inherent item bonuses that were found in previous campaigns.
New Salvage/Upgrade System
Salvaging an item with upgrade components now gives you the ability to pick which item you would like to salvage.
If you salvage an item to extract a magical component, there is now a 50 percent chance that the base item will not be destroyed.
When you upgrade an item with an upgrade component, you now see a preview of what that item will look like after the upgrade.
New Dye System
The new dye system improves the appearance of base dye colors and mixed dye colors. The new system is used when you newly apply dye to an item. Existing item colors are not affected.
Newly crafted armor now starts out gray. If you dye it to another color and then later want to restore it to its original appearance, just dye it gray. Vendors now sell gray dye instead of dye remover.
White and brown dye colors are now available as loot drops.
Silver is now an equipment color option during character creation.
A new Dye Preview panel lets you preview the effect of dye color combinations on your items before applying the dye.
New Damage Interface
The new Damage Monitor panel shows all skills that your opponents have recently used against you. You can hover the mouse over any skill icon to get a tooltip explaining that skill.
The numbers that float above characters’ heads are now bigger, and use different animations to help distinguish between damage, healing, and experience.
When an enemy uses a skill against you, the skill icon will display next to the damage number. The Options panel allows you to switch from displaying skill icons to displaying skill names.