Marjory Delaqua and Kasmeer Meade have found a way to pierce the veil protecting the krait in Kessex Hills! When the illusion falls, brave heroes need to be nearby to deal with the krait—and whatever inside their Tower of Nightmares!

LIVING WORLD

Tower of Nightmares

What happens when the evil agendas of the krait and the Nightmare Court align? The answer can be found around Viathan Lake in Kessex Hills, where a dreadful tower has risen to spew poison into the sky. It’s causing hallucinations and illness in all who breathe in the spores. The malevolent forces behind it have Tyria’s subjugation in mind.

Story

• Track down Marjory Delaqua and Lady Kasmeer Meade in Kessex Hills, and help them investigate the sinister nature of the massive “Tower of Nightmares” in the waters of Viathan Lake.
• When entering Kessex Hills, players with an actual level higher than 25 will automatically be redirected to a story instance.
• Players level 25 and under may still opt to play the story instance by speaking to Marjory in Kessex Hills.
  • This solo story instance will introduce players to the new threat of the “Toxic Alliance” between the krait and a faction of the Nightmare Court. Players will encounter the Toxic Alliance’s unique and deadly skills firsthand as they battle their way to Marjory and Kasmeer.
  • Players may leave this instance without penalty, and they may retry it at any time by speaking to Marjory in Kessex Hills until the instance has been completed.
  • Once the instance has been completed, it can be replayed by another character.

Open World

• Kessex Hills
  • Kessex Hills has become even more of a war zone than usual! The Tower of Nightmares has completely changed the area around Viathan Lake, spewing toxic pollen and gases into the air, turning the sky a dark and sickly hue. The Toxic Alliance, flooding from the monolithic tower, is working to cement a foothold in the region. Seraph forces are trying to stem the tide, but the tower itself appears impenetrable and is surrounded by a wall of suffocating toxic gas that prevents entry.
  • The Toxic Alliance appears to be here to stay. They’ve been taking territory from both allies and enemies alike, from Mudbay Digs to Greyhoof Meadows and all points in between. As players battle through a variety of new dynamic events, they will wage war on this new threat on multiple fronts around the base of the Tower of Nightmares.
  • The Tower of Nightmares is also creating smaller offshoots of itself at several locations around the map. Players must aid the Vigil, the Order of Whispers, and the Durmand Priory as they attempt to destroy these toxic offshoots with siege weapons.
  • Marjory Delaqua, an expert in poisons, is working hard to formulate an antitoxin from a camp at Thunder Ridge so that the heroes of Tyria can enter the tower and take the fight to the Toxic Alliance on their own turf. Players can help Marjory’s research efforts by bringing her Pristine Toxic Spore Samples, which can be found by completing related events and destroying Toxic Alliance enemies.
• The Toxic Offshoots aren’t just limited to Kessex Hills. The wind has carried these vile blooms into the neighboring zones of Caledon Forest, Metrica Province, Brisban Wildlands, Queensdale, and Gendarran Fields. They have even been spotted in the Eternal Battlegrounds!
• The Durmand Priory has been investigating the involvement of the krait, a normally xenophobic and hostile force. They are convinced that the krait have been gifted with something very important to their culture: shards of one of their great obelisks. Krait obelisks factor heavily into the krait religion, so Priory Arcanist Dolja will task players to find and transcribe the energy signatures of 24 of these obelisk shards across Tyria.
• The Toxic Alliance is the toughest force yet, and their arrival brings with it the debut of the elite species type. With its difficulty level situated between a veteran and a champion, elite enemies are designed to challenge small groups of players outside of group instances.
• Blood and Madness content and achievements will still be available to play until November 11, including decorations, activities, Haunted Door events, and story instances. Also, a single Halloween-themed daily achievement will be available.
  • Mad King Thorn will visit Lion’s Arch between 9 a.m. PDT on October 30 through 9 a.m. PDT on November 1. During that period, the Mad King will tell jokes as he wanders the Mystic Plaza and play Mad King Says in the Grand Piazza. This is the only time players can gain the A Royal Tradition achievement, which awards successful players with the Mask of the Night Skin.

Rewards

• Finishing the Tower of Nightmares meta-achievement will reward the player with a personal Krait Obelisk Shard, a place of power for their home instance. It can be used to obtain a skill point and to charge Quartz Crystals once per day.
• Finishing the Toxic Krait Historian achievement will reward players with a Scroll of Knowledge, which allows them to obtain five skill points.
• Marjory Delaqua will accept extra Pristine Toxic Spore Samples as trade for various new crafting recipes and a new heal skill at the Thunder Ridge Camp in Kessex Hills.
  • Antitoxin Spray: This new heal skill is usable by all professions in PvE and WvW. Players can use the antitoxin to heal themselves and nearby allies while also removing toxic pollen, poison, torment, and confusion.

Achievements

• Tower of Nightmares, the meta-achievement, will task players with bringing down Toxic Offshoots, gathering spore samples to complete Marjory’s research, seeking out krait obelisk shards, and destroying Toxic Alliance forces and their champions.
  • During this release, completing Tower of Nightmares daily achievements will contribute to the meta-achievement. These are earned by participating in specific Tower of Nightmares content each day.

BALANCE, BUG-FIXING, POLISH

General

• PvP Glory and Rank rewards have been revised. Personal score no longer grants rank. Instead, there are now flat bonuses for playing and winning games. Games lasting less than 7 minutes will have proportionally downscaled rewards.
• The Special Event UI has been updated to help direct players through Living World releases.

Items

• The crafting recipe for Bolts of Silk now requires 3 Silk Scraps.
• The crafting recipe for Cured Thick Leather Squares now requires 3 Thick Leather Sections.
• The icon for the Scroll of Knowledge has been updated.
• The icon for the Experience Scroll has been updated.

Profession Skills

Elementalist

• Conjure Fiery Greatsword—Firestorm: Fixed the radius skill fact and included a duration skill fact.
• Mist Form: Added a skill fact for the movement-speed increase.
• Undercurrent: Added a radius skill fact.
• Tempest Defense: This trait now lists the appropriate damage increase to stunned and knocked-down opponents.

Engineer

• Scatter Mines: Added radius and damage skill facts.
• Reinforced Shield: This trait now indicates an increase to toughness, rather than adrenaline.
• Low-Health Response System: Added a trait fact for the health threshold.
• Napalm Specialist: This trait now displays its duration increase when used with skills that apply burning.
• Elite Supplies: This trait now appropriately reduces the recharge time of mortar abilities.
• Infused Precision: This trait now lists the chance to activate on critical hits.

Guardian

• Smite: Added a skill fact for the number of impacts, and removed the number of attacks from the damage skill fact.
• Protector’s Strike: Replaced the range skill fact with a radius.

Mesmer

• Veil: Fixed the duration skill fact to properly indicate its duration, with and without Temporal Enchanter traited.

Ranger

• Malicious Training: Updated multiple pet abilities to reflect when this trait is equipped.
• Juvenile Brown Bear:
  • Shake It Off: Fixed an issue that caused the condition-removal effects to behave erratically.
• Sword—Slash: Removed the skill fact that displayed bleeding condition removal.

Thief

• Shadow Refuge: Added a pulses skill fact.

Warrior

• Hundred Blades: Fixed the skill fact to properly update when traited with Slashing Power.

World vs. World

• Fixed an issue with a couple of dolyak caravans that caused them to path to the wrong objective in some cases.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE

New Items and Promotions

• Three new sets of armor skins are now available in the Gem Store: Phalanx armor skins for heavy-armor wearers, Viper’s armor skins for medium-armor wearers, and Trickster’s armor skins for light-armor wearers. Each armor-skin pack is available in the Style category of the Gem Store for 800 gems.
• A new permanent finisher is available for WvW and PvP combat. The fearsome new Toxic Offshoot Finisher is available in the Upgrades category of the Gem Store for 600 gems.
• Dreamthistle weapon skins are now available from Black Lion Weapons Specialists and cost only 1 Black Lion Claim Ticket from now until November 25. Players can get Black Lion Claim Tickets and Black Lion Claim Ticket Scraps from Black Lion Chests, which can be unlocked with Black Lion Chest Keys available in the Consumable category of the Gem Store.