Evil Resurgent Update Notes
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12.13.06
The most dangerous evils have the deepest roots…
Parthilcar Tower Crypt -
Anabele d’Jorasco claims that someone tried to kidnap her but she
managed to escape. She found herself outside of Parthilcar Tower Crypt,
remembering nothing but an insidious voice in her head and a vague
image of several house nobles. What is going on in the depths beyond
the blue barrier?
From Beyond the Grave -
Deathshadow is long in the ground but his evil lives on. Through dark
magics and sheer force of will, the necromancer haunts the convict
cemetery called Penitent’s Rest and is now summoning forth an army of
the undead. With a legion of walking corpses and ethereal horrors at
his command, he intends to break out from the pauper’s grave and invade
Delera’s Graveyard, the resting place of Stormreach’s prosperous and
elite. Meet his forces head on in a fight to the death…again!
Spire of Validus - The Spire of
Validus recently burst through the ground in Delera’s Graveyard. Now
the torches are lit and the door is open. Ascend the tower to meet the
lich, Calliphor Validus, and to send him back from whence he came.
Whisperdoom - When
Splinterskull fell, Whisperdoom found herself with a very large new
lair. However, a group of Ogre Magi came upon Splinterskull and
Whisperdoom and captured her. They have taken her to a new lair, and
have begun to imbue her with magical abilities, with the hopes of
creating an army of magic wielding spawn of Whisperdoom to do their
bidding.
Haywire’s Grotto - Haywire has
a new contract with House Kundarak and has established a mine in the
Black Anvil Forest to construct improved Iron and Clay Golems, but
something has gone wrong. The last shipment never arrived, and
Haywire’s speaking stones have been silent. What has the artificer
managed to get himself into this time?
Gate of Nightmares - Long ago
when the Dal Quor invaded Xen’drik, they built many temples that were
attuned to the Plane of Dreams, and served as conduits for their
soldiers. The Cult of Madness has found one of these temples, and has
managed to alter the attunement to be aligned with Xoriat. Several of
the smaller portals have been reopened, and the central gateway is not
far from becoming fully operational.
Something special's in the air
We are receiving reports that Festival Coins have started appearing in
the treasure chests of Stormreach. This can only mean one thing – The
Festival Jester must be on his way!
Changes to the Social Panel
One of the best aspects of Dungeons & Dragons Online is finding a
great party and then running through an adventure together. The most
important tool we have to help you find a good group is the Social
Panel. Since the launch of DDO in February we have changed and expanded
the social panel several times in an effort to make finding a group
easy. These latest changes are based almost entirely off player
feedback. We feel that our newest iteration is a huge improvement and
we hope you like what you see.
General
The Wayfinder's Foundation has offered to subsidize the
exploration of the Menechtarun Desert! Zerchi Spire-Keeper in the
Marketplace now offers free airship travel to Zawabi's Refuge.
Zawabi's refuge has been added to both the postal service network
and the auction house network.
NEW – We have added some monetary caps to the Auction House.
Initial price and buyout price can no longer exceed 2M pp. Bid price
can no longer exceed 4M pp.
When blinded, floatynames will once again appear over friendly
and neutral people. You will still not be able to see the names of
hostile people.
There are new tooltips for ability damage that give you
information about how to recover from that type of damage. For example,
"Your Strength has been damaged. Resting at a shrine will allow you to
recover partially. To recover fully, stay at an inn or tavern."
Players who have their name changed should not have to log out
and back in for their friends list to work properly.
UI Improvements
We have added an "invite to guild" button and an "add friend"
button to the focus orb.
When hitting the "create party" button on the LFM UI, the Create
Party UI will now appear as its own window.
Players will no longer be able to post LFM and LFG want ads while
anonymous. Don't worry Clerics - this is a temporary situation only.
If you click on white bolded player names in the chat window the
chat entry line will automatically be filled in with "/tell
<playername> ".
The map of the Sands of Menechtarun has been revised for greater
accuracy.
The Resist Disease enhancement has the proper octagonal (passive)
icon instead of a square one.
The Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Penetration feats have
new icons.
Fixed the blank space in shield examination.
Monsters
Changes to monster classification. We have introduced a new color
coded system that will help you determine the difficulty of the named
monster you are facing.
Minibosses will have orange names and limited protections. This
is actually a departure from before – minibosses are no longer immune
to many of the things they were previously immune to. In particular,
casters will enjoy this change.
Bosses will have red names and will have the same immunities as
before. It is important to note that some monsters who used to be
classified as bosses (such as optional bosses) are now designated as
minibosses.
Raidbosses have purple names. There are currently only four
raidbosses: Sorjek, Velah, the Warforged Titan, and Queen Lailat.
Raidbosses have all of the immunities of bosses and a few more as well.
Monster names will default to these colors but can be reset via
the UI options panel.
Queen Lailat
Queen Lailat has enhanced her defenses by modestly improving
her guards and raising the lava level around the circle of eternity.
Zawabi has countered by adding a new portal that allows you to escape
the pit should you accidentally fall in.
Wrack now has a saving throw.
Monsters which are stealthed will now break stealth anytime they
cast a spell (the same way players do), instead of only breaking
stealth when casting harmful spells.
Monsters charmed by a Symbol of Persuasion will now remain
charmed even if they wander away from the symbol.
Ogre Mages now disappear properly after a fiery death.
Harga Fire Dancer and Yurrugh the Swift will now drop treasure
from their correct treasure tables.
The description for the poison Hulrak Slime Mold now lists all
three abilities that may be damaged: Wisdom, Intelligence, and
Charisma.
Combat
NEW – Low level ranged combat speeds have been increased.
Spells
Spell crits were not working properly on some AOE spells; now
they will properly register the crit when casting and then apply the
extra damage to all targets for the full duration of the spell.
Disintegrate, Harm, Heal, and Otiluke's Freezing Sphere now
penetrate spell resistance the same way other damage spells do.
The duration of both Aid and Protection from Energy now increase
at levels 11 and 12. Please note: their effects are still capped at
level 10. In addition, the duration of Resist Energy now increases at
level 12, although the effect is still capped at level 11.
Barkskin was erroneously giving a higher natural AC bonus than
intended. We have therefore adjusted it to consistent with p&p
rules (2 ac, +1 for every 3 levels past third, to a maximum of +5 at
12th level).
The Wall of Fire spell will now burn away webs and obscuring
mists and can set burnable things (like crates and barrels) on fire.
The Waves of Fatigue spell is now properly considered a fatigue
effect (it can now be removed by effects that remove fatigue).
Therefore, creatures (such as warforged) that are immune to fatigue are
also immune to the spell.
Disease effects, such as Filth Fever, now use their own disease
icons rather than poison icons (this does NOT affect Mummy Rot, which
has its own icon).
Glyph of Warding and Glyph of Warding, Greater were inadvertently
doing too much damage. Their damage has been reduced to what is stated
in the spell description.
The bard's Song of Freedom now has the correct icon.
Skills, Feats, & Abilities
If you respec out a toggle feat (metamagic feats, for example),
they are now toggled "off" when they are removed.
The Quick Draw feat's description has been updated to reflect the
changes made to the feat in The Demon Sands Module.
Manyshot's description has been updated to properly include the
scaling number of arrows rather than claiming it's always 2.
Warforged are now immune to all of a Beholder's Flesh to Stone
rays (and not just some of them).
Fixed instances where warforged immunities were still being
called resistances.
Items
Reports of fantastic ancient treasures are coming in from the
Restless Isles. Some say the ogre mage, Ghola-Fan, is hoarding
legendary items. Others tell of crystal-forged items imbued with the
resonant power of the Shrieking Mines.
Ancient treasures have been unearthed in the desert of
Menechtarun. Will you be lucky enough to find them?
Sale on Bless potions! 80% off!
Spell casters can now attempt to activate scrolls containing
spells higher level than they can currently cast by using a caster
level check. Characters must roll d20 + 2*CasterLevel >= 2*Minimum
level to cast the spell to succeed in activating the scroll. This is a
deviation from pen and paper D&D that does not double the caster
levels to determine success. We feel that given the higher availability
of scrolls in DDO it is necessary to reduce the chance for lower level
characters to activate higher level scrolls.
Tools and scrolls will appear less frequently in random chest
treasures.
Mithral Armor now weighs 1/2 of the normal steel armor weight.
This change will be retroactive.
"of Backstabbing" weapons now do even more additional damage on
any attack that would qualify as a Sneak Attack.
Items that cast the various damage amplification spells X/rest
now have a much quicker activation time.
Newly found Filtration Modules will now have Acid Resistance
instead of the previous +4 bonus to saves versus Poison. Filtration
Modules already in existence will not be affected by this change.
The effects on Tyrzza's Bane, a weapon found in the Invasion
dungeon, have been modified so that the weapon will properly negate the
Damage Reduction of Tyrzza. This is not a retroactive fix.
The Staff of Arcane Power is now equipable by Wizards, Sorcerers
and Bards. This change affects all Staffs of Arcane Power, those
already in existence as well as newly created staffs.
The named weapons that lacked the +to-hit/damage portion of the
Bane effects have been corrected.
Kelmar’s Justice
Sword of the Giant Slave-Masters
Giant Stalker’s Knife
Spider Spike
Spiked Mace of the Elements
Several of the new named treasure items that were erroneously
marked Bind on Acquire are now freely tradeable:
Spectacles of Spirit Sight
Thornlord
Whirlwind
Sirroco
Bejeweled Letter Opener
Stinkpelt's Hide
Vambraces of Inner Light
Silken Mail
Beholder Optic Nerves will once again protect against ALL
Beholder eye beams.
Fixed a situation that would sometimes cause crests not to spawn
in some dungeons.
Fingalar d'Phiarlan is now being properly credited as being a
source for a replacement Pendant of Time if you were to lose yours for
any reason.
The Circlet of Persuasion and Minor Circlet of Blasting have been
updated to use new Circlet art.
The Armor and Shield examination panels now show the arcane spell
failure percentage for that item. Please be aware that bards do not
suffer arcane spell failure if they are wearing light armor and casting
bard spells. To find out what your total current spell failure chance
is, please refer to the tooltip of the spell that you will be casting.
NPCs
Items forged by Galrias the Smith in the Black Anvil Mines will now be
stored in your overflow slots if your inventory is full.
Masei Mkembe will now offer you your deserved reward even if you
accidentally closed his window while talking to him. He will also give
you more items to choose from when you turn in Ancient Brass Tokens.
WARNING - DO NOT abandon the quest the Mkembe gives you to select your
reward. You will not be refunded any tokens in this case.
Trader Trevia in the Wavecrest Tavern will no longer train enhancements
for players after they reach level 3.
Harvender Dragonborn in the Portable Hole has finally reached level 12
and is now able to help other Sorcerers switch out Level 6 spells.
Sigmund Bauerson, proprietor of the Wavecrest Tavern, has had a
startling realization: Warforged do not eat ham! He now offers a more
appropriate reward to Warforged adventurers for fetching his cask of
Old Sully's Grog.
Ostler Caulstone (a vendor in the Restless Isles) will no longer have
his shop window get "stuck open" if you walk away from him without
closing it.
Fred the Feat Respec Mindflayer has relocated to an area with less
sunlight. He will now also properly close his dialog box.
PVP
NEW – We have changed the water depth in certain arenas to
prevent unintended player behavior.
Quests
If you ended your conversation with Nyx Durandimion before
acquiring your +2 Manual/Tome (when you reached 1750 total favor) you
should go talk to Nyx again and he will reward you for your efforts.
Additionally, when you gain 1750 favor you will now be told to talk to
Nyx to get your reward, rather than the current, less-informative
message.
"Titan Awakes," "Bounty Hunter," and "Path to Madness" will all
properly show up in the Adventure Compendium again.
Black Anvil Forest
NEW – The survey crew no longer inappropriately respawns.
Black Anvil Mines
The Duergar in the King's wing in Black Anvil Mines will now
return to their posts if they stray too far away.
The Court of Lailat
About 4% of the time the text for the "Tome of the Six Swords"
riddle was incorrect. This has been fixed.
Desert Caravan
NEW – You should no longer be able to destroy the caravan.
The Foul Chambers
Fixed a kobold thrower who wasn't scaling properly with quest
difficulty level. Solo players should now encounter the proper CR.
Restless Isles
There is now an extra key-bearing overseer in the Restless
Isles.
The Scavenger's Warren
Furor should no longer become stuck at the top of a ladder.
Shrieking Mines
Wildmen caught sleeping on the job have been severely chastised
by their masters and are consequently far less lazy.
The Mind Flayers living here were always kind of shrimpy.
Something in the air must have been stunting their growth. Whatever it
was has been cleared out, as the Mind Flayers are now just as big as
their other brethren.
Shrouded Vale
Recalling from the Shrouded Vale will now always return you to
House Phiarlan.
Sorrowdusk Isle
Libram of the Six will now drop upon exit. Seriously. We
promise.
Tomb of the Physician
Picking up the Seal of the Soul will now award a small amount
of optional XP.
Tomb of the Wizard-king
Now has higher level collectibles in it.
Twilight Forge
The Twilight Forge has just gotten friendlier! There is now an
extra chest at the end with a chance to spawn unique loot. In addition,
several of the other chests throughout the dungeon will also have a
chance to spawn unique loot. And if that's not enough reason to try the
dungeon again, more rest shrines have also been added throughout!
The Warforged Titan should get stuck on broken pillar bases
less often.
The power crystal in the WFT encounter will now go into an
overflow slot if you pick it up when you have a full inventory.
The power crystal in the WFT encounter is no longer
destroyable. If you drag it out of your inventory, it'll fall to the
ground.
The Vulkoorim Creche
Vulkoorim Creche now has chests and collectables.
Fixed a problem where players were receiving multiple alerts
that they had charted the breeding pits.
The Waterworks
Pets and monsters will no longer refuse to follow you across
the bridge before the entrance to Clan Gnashtooth Lair.