Guild Wars 2 received a maintenance update on November 18, 2025 that bundles a long list of fixes and balance tweaks across open world content, mounts, items, homesteads, fractals, World vs World, personal story pacing, and profession skills.
Highlights include a new World vs World Matchmaking tab replacing the World Restructuring – Beta tab, a change to the skimmer Slipstream Boost cooldown, several class and PvP/WvW coefficient adjustments, and numerous clarity and pacing improvements to story content.
Patch Notes – November 18, 2025
Game Update Notes: November 18, 2025
Note to users of third-party programs: The game may not launch or work properly after we release a new build if you use a third-party program, due to possible incompatibilities. ArenaNet cannot offer support if a third-party modification breaks, interferes with, or prevents you from playing Guild Wars or Guild Wars 2. Our policy regarding third-party programs can be found here.
Open World
General
- Rewards obtained from obscured chests and seer magic-mirror challenges in Castora have been rebalanced. The amount of ethereal key charges awarded for completing a seer magic-mirror challenge has been reduced.
- Fixed an issue that allowed players to view an invisible player’s in-game location by hovering over their name in the friend list.
- Fixed an issue that prevented some skills from being used on world bosses, resulting in line-of-sight errors.
- Fixed an issue that prevented the “Absolution” release’s seasonal items from appearing in the Wizard’s Vault legacy reward shop.
- Updated the models of some Extra Life donor pet NPCs.
- Visions of Eternity Mastery points now use the correct artwork on the map and compass.
- Fixed an incorrect description of how to unlock the Castoran Survivalist Mastery.
- Fixed an issue that prevented the jukebox from appearing in the Applied Development Lab for asura characters.
Shipwreck Strand
- Fixed an issue that prevented crabs from appearing frequently enough in the “Guide crabs to the area near Sharpclaw to help him make an offering” event.
- Fixed an issue that caused a tier 1 rift to be overscaled due to its proximity to the Dark Leviathan Waypoint.
- Fixed an issue that allowed characters under level 80 to access Shipwreck Strand from the portal in Lion’s Arch.
- Fixed an issue that caused Chesh Steelmind to incorrectly display an event marker rather than a conversation marker.
- Fixed an issue that caused the “Help Astral Ward Researcher Lycieos hunt down and destroy the Inquest’s experimental creatures” event to have an inconsistent broadcast area.
- Fixed an issue that caused the “Recover valuables stolen by the freebooters!” backpack to collide with the player model.
- Fixed an issue that caused some of the animals in the “Help undercover Astral Ward Operative Miric destroy Inquest consoles and free captured animals” event to collide with the cage’s edge.
- Fixed an issue that caused introductory communication calls for the Hammerhart Rumble! meta-event to interrupt story voice lines.
- Fixed an issue that caused the success marker to linger if it was applied to a player when the “Help Astral Ward Operative Ashtynn locate and defuse Inquest land mines” event finished.
- Fixed an issue that allowed player summons to damage the large axes in the ‘Booter’s Path minidungeon.
- Fixed an issue that caused the “Rescue the sick castaways and wreak havoc at Grogslinger’s to stop the staff from serving poisoned drinks” event to award the Swearing Off the Poison achievement even if the event failed.
- Fixed an issue that caused some friendly crabs to float in the air.
- Fixed an issue that prevented the friendly NPCs in the “Root out traps and defeat freebooters to help the Hullgardeners prepare for a siege” event from reappearing after completion of the Hammerhart Rumble! meta-event.
- Fixed an issue that prevented players who picked up a rental fishing rod while in combat from dropping it again.
Starlit Weald
- Increased the amount of real gwyldell that appear in the Secrets of the Weald meta-event.
- Fixed an issue that caused the boss camera to disappear during the Secrets of the Weald meta-event.
- Fixed an issue that sometimes prevented Gwyllian from appearing in its nest after the Secrets of the Weald meta-event.
- Balance adjustments have been made to the “Destroy the northern Inquest excavator,” “Destroy the eastern Inquest excavator,” and “Destroy the southern Inquest excavator” portions of the Secrets of the Weald meta-event.
- Adjusted the pacing of the “Escort Explorer Trygve as he follows the seer ghost” event.
- Added additional communication upon successful completion of the “Help Lucanus Wildrazor with the siege cannons” event.
- Adjusted the name of the Great Choya Race event to better communicate where the event takes place.
Mounts
Skimmer
- Fixed an issue that occasionally prevented the skimmer from swimming backward underwater.
- Slipstream Boost: Increased the cooldown from 15 seconds to 25 seconds.
Items
- Updated the Emergent Metamorphosis glider skin’s text.
- Fixed an issue that caused some items in the Emergent Metamorphosis collection to be missing icons.
- Fixed an issue that caused the Mini Gwyldell to be smaller than intended.
- Fixed an issue that caused the Seer-Enchanted Greatsword to be worn incorrectly.
- Corrected the name of Soundtrack Single—Janthir Wilds Track 17, “Blood and Stone.
- Mount treats now properly award Mastery experience based on the current homestead plot’s expansion location.
- Fixed an issue that prevented some minis from being displayed at the correct size in the Hero panel.
- Zotturrikk’s bonus event item inventory in Lion’s Arch has been updated with items from the last year’s bonus events.
Homesteads—Comosus Isle
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- A portal to Shipwreck Strand has been added. This portal can only be used if the player has completed the Unscheduled Departures story chapter.
- The Wintersday Gift Tree has been relocated to the treasure-chest island.
- Lumber nodes have been relocated closer to the mountain pond.
- Removed several superfluous cooking stations.
- Ridhais and Mechanist Ninn have been relocated to the treasure-chest island.
- Fixed an issue that prevented wildlife from hiding and remaining hidden when the option to hide wildlife was enabled.
- Repositioned the basic and advanced cloth and leather racks and Black Lion Requisition Teams Post
.
- Repositioned the holoscepter and water pistol storage cases.
- Fixed an issue that caused the jade tech offensive and defensive protocols to remove themselves.
- Relocated M.O.X. and the webby hatchling to the area near the portals.
- Fixed an issue that caused some cats to wander into the ocean.
Fractals
- Added a confirmation step when commissioning food or utility services from the cooking golem and sharpening golem in Lion’s Arch and Mistlock Sanctuary.
World vs. World
- Added a new Matchmaking tab to the World vs. World UI that replaces the World Restructuring – Beta tab. This is a new location to select teams and battle guilds that should be more approachable for new players.
- Players without teams will be shown the Matchmaking tab when opening the World vs. World UI.
- Removed the battle guild selection from the Guilds UI.
Personal Story
- Fixed an issue in Unscheduled Departures: Rata Sum Port Authority that allowed Flax’s golems to be led outside of his office.
- Fixed an issue in Unscheduled Departures: Rata Sum Port Authority that caused one of the Port Authority refuse pile objects to play an incorrect animation when interacted with.
- Fixed an issue in Unscheduled Departures: The Unending Ocean that caused allied NPCs aboard the Martingale to continue bringing water buckets to a fire after the fire had already been extinguished.
- Made several pacing and clarity improvements to the fog section of Unscheduled Departures: The Unending Ocean.
- Slightly decreased the number of coalesced magic orbs required for each round of navigation and increased the number of orbs that appear.
- Added a hint popup on the player’s skill bar that appears the first time the player ascends to the crow’s nest to add clarity to the mechanics.
- Added a slight delay to the directional pulsing effect when it first appears so it isn’t as easily missed. Slightly increased the frequency of the pulsing to better communicate the mechanics during this section.
- Added announcements that display when a direction is chosen to more clearly communicate to the player whether the direction they chose was correct or incorrect.
- Increased the movement speed of the ships to allow them to move as quickly as possible without causing desynchronization.
- Fixed an issue in Unscheduled Departures: The Unending Ocean that caused the marker for a quest step to be displayed on the map, despite the associated quest step not being visible at that time.
- Fixed an issue in Unscheduled Departures: The Unending Ocean that caused the boundary meant to keep players out of the water to sometimes encroach on playable space and force players to be teleported while standing on the deck of Sayida’s ship.
- Hint text for almost all items in the Digging for Knowledge and The Doorstep of Divinity story collections have been adjusted for clarity.
- Players can now choose to have more-specific hints for story collections drawn on their map immediately when interacting with Wavehawk Pete, Historian Meliza, and Isgarren instead of the option becoming available after a designated period of time. As a result, players will no longer receive mail from these NPCs prompting the player to come talk to them for help.
- Fixed an issue that prevented Scout Yakuti from having a consistent appearance.
- Fixed an issue the in Beneath the Canopy: Command Complex story step that prevented Engineer Brizzi’s dialogue from playing if the instance owner wasn’t the first person to enter her room.
- Fixed an issue in Beneath the Canopy: Command Complex story step that caused Engineer Brizzi to display incorrect creature description text.
- Fixed an issue that prevented certain rock piles in the Ruins of the Old World: Untamed Crags instance as well as the Consecrated Piazza platform in Path of Divinity: Cloister of Stars from displaying the correct visuals.
- Fixed an issue in Fumbling in the Dark: Lost Basilica that prevented book text from appearing when interacting with the final tomb.
- Adjusted the pacing of certain quest steps’ completion in Fumbling in the Dark: Lost Basilica to avoid dialogue lines being prematurely interrupted.
- Fixed an issue in Path of Divinity: Overgrown Thicket that could prevent story progress if a player entered water while holding the neural interface controller bundle, causing it to be destroyed.
- Fixed an issue that could cause certain story steps to be revealed out of order when replaying the Path of Divinity story chapter.
- Added a dedicated story step to the beginning of the Path of Divinity story chapter to allow a certain character’s comms call to restart if the player uses a waypoint within Starlit Weald while the dialogue is in progress.
- Fixed an issue that prevented map markers from being properly displayed for three interactive objects that are a part of the story collection The Doorstep of Divinity.
- Fixed an issue that caused the interactive golem parts object in the Fumbling in the Dark story chapter to sometimes appear in an incorrect animation state.
- Added the Confidential Missive letter featured in the Beneath the Canopy: Command Complex story chapter to the same location in the open world. The letter can only be seen if Beneath the Canopy: Command Complex has been completed.
- Added a delay before dialogue continues in the Beneath the Canopy: Command Complex story step to allow time to read the confidential missive.
- Adjustments have been made to a number of dialogue animations across all chapters.
Profession Skills
General
- Relic of Bloodstone: Increased the duration of Bloodstone Volatility from 8 seconds to 10 seconds. Reduced the damage bonus from 10% to 7% in PvE only.
Elementalist
- Dust Charge: Fixed an issue that allowed this skill to strike more times than intended when used by multiple players.
Evoker
- Fixed an issue that prevented voice lines from playing for several evoker skills.
- Rejuvenate: This skill now has a different icon depending on the player’s selected familiar.
- Zap: Fixed an issue that allowed this skill to hit targets that were not in the player’s line of sight.
- Elemental Balance: This trait will no longer recharge skills that began activating before entering the selected attunement.
- Specialized Elements: Fixed an issue that caused the player’s attunement to sometimes swap to fire when switching maps.
Engineer
- Essence of Animated Sand: Reduced the power coefficient from 1.0 to 0.6 in PvP only.
- Essence of Living Shadows: Reduced the power coefficient from 1.0 to 0.6 in PvP only.
- Essence of Liquid Wrath: Reduced the power coefficient from 1.32 to 1.0 in PvP only.
- Flame Jet: Reduced the power coefficient per hit from 0.15 to 0.12 in WvW only.
- Flame Blast: Increased the cooldown from 6 seconds to 8 seconds and reduced the power coefficient from 1.3 to 1.1 in WvW only.
- Napalm: Increased the cooldown from 25 seconds to 30 seconds and reduced the power coefficient per hit from 0.35 to 0.28 in WvW only.
Amalgam
- Liquid State: This skill is now usable underwater.
Guardian
Willbender
- Fixed an issue that caused Willbender Flames to strike more times than intended when used by multiple players.
- Repose: Reduced the base healing from 2,595 to 1,635 in WvW and PvP.
Luminary
- Fixed an issue that prevented several luminary skills from playing voice lines.
- Resolute Stance: Fixed an issue that caused this skill to heal downed allies.
Mesmer
- Ego Restoration: Fixed an issue that prevented this trait from working with Tale of the Second Scion.
Necromancer
Ritualist
- Fixed an issue that prevented a number of ritualist skills from playing voice lines.
- Fixed an issue that caused some spirit attacks to track enemies that were in stealth.
- Lingering Spirits: Fixed an issue that caused this trait to continue to drain the player’s life force while mounted.
Ranger
- Spirit of Nature: Reduced the number of revivable targets from 5 to 3 in WvW only.
Galeshot
- Fixed an issue that prevented Cyclone Bow from being set to autoattack underwater.
- Hawkeye: Fixed an issue that prevented this skill from being reflected properly.
- Mistral: This skill is now usable underwater.
- Perfect Storm: This skill is now usable underwater.
Revenant
- Banish Enchantment: Fixed an issue that prevented Cosmic Wisdom from reducing the energy cost of this skill in PvP and WvW. Increased the recharge of using this skill with Cosmic Wisdom from 5 seconds to 10 seconds in WvW only.
Conduit
- Beguiling Haze: Increased the strike damage coefficient on initial skill use from 1.1 to 2.2 in PvE only. The strike damage coefficient on follow-up strikes has been decreased from 1.1 to 0.6 in PvE only.
- Twin Moon Sweep (Legendary Demon Stance): Fixed an issue that caused the shatter portion of this skill to interrupt the casting of other skills.
Thief
Antiquary
- Skritt Swipe: This skill now requires a line-of-sight check instead of a pathing check to be cast on enemies. The skill aftercast has been reduced by 37.5%.
- Bountiful Theft: Fixed an issue that prevented Skritt Swipe from stealing aegis from opponents properly while this trait was equipped.
Warrior
- Maiming Spear: Increased the cooldown from 6 seconds to 8 seconds. Reduced the initial power coefficient from 0.8 to 0.7 and the aftershock power coefficient from 0.35 to 0.3 in WvW only.
- Spearmarshal’s Support: Reduced the power coefficient per hit from 0.25 to 0.215 in WvW only.
- Harrier’s Toss: Reduced the power coefficient per adrenaline level from 1/1.25/1.5 to 0.9/1.05/1.2 in WvW only.
- Warbanner: Reduced the number of revivable targets from 5 to 3 in WvW only.
- Phalanx Strength: Reduced the might duration from 5 seconds to 3 seconds in WvW only.
Paragon
- Chant of Freedom: This skill will now break stuns for both the caster and their allies.
World Polish
- A jukebox has been added to Pub Canach in Shipwreck Strand.
General
- Fixed an issue that caused achievement eligibility for the Not Even a Scratch achievement to still be visible after the associated event was finished.
- Fixed an issue that prevented the “Rescue the wavehawks from the freebooters’ cages and escort them to safety” event from starting again after the Hammerhart Rumble! world boss event finished.
Personal Story
- Fixed an issue in the Fumbling in the Dark: Lost Basilica story chapter that caused two of Isgarren’s lines of dialogue to overlap.
- Additional music has been added to the Unscheduled Departures story chapter.
Items
- The sound palette for the legendary aquabreather, Selachimorpha, has been extended.
Profession Skills
Elementalist
Evoker
- Zap: Reduced the power coefficient from 0.29 to 0.15 in PvP only.
- Hare’s Agility: Increased the cooldown from 25 seconds to 30 seconds in PvP only.
- Enhanced Potency: Lowered the critical strike chance bonus with fury from 10% to 5% in PvP only.
- Familiar’s Prowess: Reduced the hare damage bonus from 10% to 5% in PvP only.
- Familiar’s Focus: Reduced the hare damage bonus from 20% to 15% in PvP only.
Mesmer
- Blade Leap: This skill now puts Returning Edge on a short cooldown to prevent accidental early reactivation.
- Troubadour music ducking now scales with the instrument volume slider.
Ranger
Galeshot
- Bluster: Reduced the power coefficient per hit from 0.45 to 0.4 in PvP only.
- Quarry’s Peril: Reduced the power coefficient from 1.3 to 1.05 in PvP only.
- Pelt: Reduced the power coefficient from 1.3 to 1.05 in PvP only.
- Supersonic Arrow: Reduced the power coefficient from 1.8 to 1.5 in PvP only.
Revenant
- Invoker’s Rage: This trait no longer has an internal cooldown.
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