The new patch notes by Martin Kerstein are mostly a round-up of the Halloween changes. The biggest change is to WvW with the Orbs of Power removed from the game entirely:
- Closed a number of exploits that inappropriately allowed access to keeps.
- Orbs of power have been removed from WvW to address hacking and balance issues. They tended to strengthen teams already in the lead and were irresistible targets for hackers and cheaters, both of which could have an unfortunately large impact on any given WvW game. Orbs or some similar mechanic may return in the future, but only if we’re confident that they won’t create similar issues.
There is also a more detailed thread about this by Gameplay Programmer Habib Loew. Overall, the responses are very positive.
Aside from that small bug-fixes in personal story and two dungeons are announced and there is a reminder for the new jumping puzzles and mini-dungeons.
- Mount Maelstrom—A jumping puzzle has been added.
- Fireheart Rise—A minidungeon has been added.
- Dredgehaunt Cliffs—A minidungeon has been added.
- Various Maps—Modus Sceleris events now appear in several maps.
And lastly, there is an interesting addition:
There is a skritt burglar on the loose in Tyria! Adventurers that encounter this thieving rodent are encouraged to confiscate whatever loot they can shake out of her.
Let’s see what they’ll be doing with this.
