Regarding the April 9 Game Update

We just want to give you a quick heads-up.

We know that you are expecting some skill balance updates coming with tomorrow’s build. We will have our regular monthly build, bringing you your Tournament Reward Points, changing the map rotation for the MAT and updating the tonic flavor of the month, but unfortunately we will be unable to do any skill changes.

We are aware that some of you will not be happy to hear this, but let us give you the reason for this, so you might understand our decision.

As you are aware, we are currently working very hard on our big April update. And of course, big updates need a lot of testing and resources. We want the update to be a high quality experience you can fully enjoy, so we are dedicating a lot of time to testing it. With a game as complex as Guild Wars and an update as significant as this one, very thorough testing is required. Every addition or change has the potential to affect other areas of the game, sometimes in unexpected ways. Skill changes also need to be fully tested, so we were running into a situation where we risked releasing either the skill balance or the April update itself without the level of polish, consideration, and testing that it should have.

After discussion with members of the Live, QA, Design, and Community Teams, we decided that this month we needed to devote the team’s full focus on getting the April update ready.

We apologize for the inconvenience, and we hope that you understand the reasoning behind this decision.

EDIT: Wiki posting now includes German and French translations.

Thanks for the update!

No pun intended...

Thanks Regina. I agree with your priorities. Not getting skill updates is a very minor aspect in regards to the big April content/storage update, so by all means roll them in together.

Can't wait for the biggie though....looking forward to some fresh life. Don't suppose you can say if we are looking at W2, W3, or W4 of April for this?

Thanks for the heads up Regina. Though is it possible for you to give us a rough date of when the April update will be released, or it's still uncertain at this point?

We have it scheduled, but we haven't announced it in public yet.

Guess I'd better go sell off ectos before everyone else finds out that SF survived another month.

not even dartboard skill buffs/nerfs?

oh well. hopefully this epic update later this month is epically good, and not the usual epic meh.

I wasn't really concerned too much with the skill balance this month anyway, I think people in general are just looking to the bigger update. No big deal, tbh.

i'm confused--are you saying the april skill balance update will be delayed? or that there will be no skill balance update in april at all?

edit: also i read somewhere that izzy no longer does the skill balances for gw1. can you confirm or deny this? or tell us who does the skill balancing? and does this have anything to do with the delay for this month?

The latter: there will be no skill balance in April at all.

What I understood is the skill update will come out, but will be delayed because the team is so concentrated in the April content,

Oh well, we'll just have to wait for it. Thanks again Regina.

edit: ninja'ed, so there's no skill balance:|

Depends in which part of the forum you post it It's ok tho, you wanna test some stuff if it works before implementing it, 100% good. Tell izzy to do the same.

edit: got answered mean time
Is there any date planned for the skill update, later in april or 7 may?

as long as we get zkeysssssssssssss
accidental double payouts gogogo

The reasoning doesn't bother me at all, but I imagine some PvP people won't be too thrilled. KMD for gold this month I guess! Thanks for the update, Regina.

By the way, while I'm here, I can't help but notice there's been no official mention of Easter 2009 on the login screen or on the GW website. Is there going to be a weekend event this weekend?

Excuse me, ANet, but I'd rather have a less-unbalanced game than more slots to hold items I hardly ever use anyways.

Completely understand Regina. Best of luck on the testing process.

lol, figures the only thing i give a crap about would get delayed.

April 9 happens to be my birthday, Im an old fart turning 40. My wish is to get something good from the x chest on the day. Going from rank 3 to rank 4 using 136 keys brought me 1 elite tome and 135 pieces of crap. A everlasting ppppleaaase?
apart from that I wasnt expecting more than the said updates for today.
I still thinks there are major improvements that could be made in the game without redesigning everything. Redesigning everything has a name, thats GW2, and its too far out on the future
Go visit temple of ages and you will see PUGs arent dead, but its all based aroung 1 or 2 builds. Its taking this or that build you copied from a site, how fun is that?
The same monsters stand there for months and years using the same brainless skills. Humans improve their skills, and many monsters are intelligent too. Why cant they improve too? Learn how to counter the same old permas and monks? They ought to.
If they did it would pose new challenges to players to find the best farm places, and that is farm places that you cant solo, but have to go with people for.
That is my birthday wish.
Back to reality:
I look forward to an useful storage improvement, so I can have my extra armor set in a bag slot instead of have it take up storage room.

In other words I have high wishes but low expectations. I cant help it. Its part of becoming 40. 40 years is very old. Its like im gonna be buried next week or something

Yes, there will be the choco rabbit drops and the golden egg drops this weekend. =)

I am very appreciative of the notice. Skill balance is meh compared to my expectations for the update. Thanks for the heads up Regina, can we at least get the notice if this weekend or next weekend is Easter. Choco bunnies and golden eggs FTW.

lol , disregard the last of my post then.