ArenaNet has announced that the Guild Wars 2 Halloween event "The Shadow of the Mad King" will return on October 17, 2017. The event will feature the same content as last year.

The Halloween event was first released in 2012 after the game launched in August of that same year. The content was eventually re-released in 2015 as annual event and has since been a recurring one with little to no changes.

The event features almost all of the typical Halloween content, including Mad King's Labyrinth, Mad King's Clock Tower, Ascent to Madness and Mad King Says. Along with the events and minigames the game's main hub city Lion's Arch will also transform in the typical Halloween theme.

The developers have hinted that they will introduce some changes to this year's Halloween event but given ArenaNet's event track record those changes are expected to be minimal.

All eyes this year are on Mad King's Labyrinth, which is an annual favorite for Trick-or-Treat bag farmers who used characters with the Guardian profession to tag as many enemies as possible to get the maximum amount of bag drops.

With recent skill balance changes the Guardian's staff or so called "lootstick" has been severely nerfed, preventing players from tagging as many enemies as before. The change will likely cause Trick-or-Treat bags to increase in demand and thus in price.