Patch NW.85.20170808a.8



Patch Notes: NW.85.20170808a.8

=Highlights=

New Campaign: Jungles of Chult
A mysterious plague has claimed the lives of many across the Sword Coast, and there's no sign of a reprieve to come. A hint, carried by a suspicious source, points toward the peninsula of Chult, far to the south of Neverwinter. Build a team, start an expedition… and try not to die.

Developer Blogs:


 * Tomb of Annihilation: Story Overview
 * Come Visit Port Nyanzaru - Your Next Adventure Awaits!
 * Port Nyanzaru Environment Art
 * Jungles of Chult Campaign
 * Creating Soshenstar River
 * Hunting in Chult
 * Reap the Rewards of Chult!
 * Stronger Enemies, Stronger Equipment
 * New Foes Await!

New Dungeon: Tomb of the Nine Gods
Delve deep into an ancient structure celebrating the Trickster Gods of Chult and square off against those who have taken it for their own! New puzzles and challenges await within the Tomb of the Nine Gods. Dare you face the terrors of the tomb?

Developer Blogs:


 * Tomb of the Nine Gods
 * Tomb of the Nine Gods Environment

Quest Journal Improvements
The Quest Journal has seen an update in a similar fashion to Sword Coast Chronicle in the previous module! Among the improvements are the ability to group quests by zone, to search for a specific quest, and to filter quests as well.

Get more detail here: Official Feedback Thread: Quest Journal Improvements

Armor Penetration and Damage Vulnerability Debuff Changes
A backend overhaul has been made to how Armor Penetration works, both to improve server performance and make powers interact more consistently with the stat. In addition, damage vulnerability debuffs have been made more consistent as well.

Among the changes, Armor Penetration can no longer exceed the enemy's armor value, and the 200% hard cap on damage vulnerability debuffs has been changed to a 300% soft cap, though it will be more difficult to reach the 200% point.

Get more detail here: Official Feedback Thread: Armor Pen and Damage Vulnerability Debuff Changes

And here: Official Feedback Thread: M12 Armor Pen Changes and PvP

Shimmering Lockbox
Players who open their Adventurer's Reward box at level 20 will now receive three Shimmering Lockboxes! A pack of three free Shimmering Keys may be claimed from the Zen Market in order to open these Lockboxes.

Private PvP Queues
Players may now use the Queue system to create private PvP matches between pre-arranged teams! 5v5 and 10v10 matches are currently supported. This should allow player teams to engage in PvP under their own terms, whether for build, power, or composition testing, or just for fun or practice.

Private PvP matches do not have victory or loss rewards associated with them.

Get more detail here: Official Feedback Thread: M12 Private PvP Queues

=Release Notes=

Content and Environment
General


 * Campaign: Tyranny of Dragons: The Linu's Favor costs of the final boons have been greatly reduced.
 * Icewind Dale: Needless Distractions: Heroic Encounters in Dwarven Valley now properly give credit toward this quest.
 * Lair of Lostmauth: There is no longer an occluding plane causing visuals to go wonky in the entrance to the boss room.
 * Mount Hotenow Domination: It should now be more difficult to escape the gameplay space. Even if characters do, death now awaits.
 * Protector's Enclave: The carpets spanning either side of the Hall of Justice fountain have been improved, as has the water in the fountain.
 * River District: Music now begins when spawning into the zone, rather than when crossing into the Riverfront.
 * Strongholds: The Milling Yard no longer incorrectly claims to boost Stone production; it now properly states that it boosts Wood production.
 * The audio volume of NPC speech in Bryn Shander has been boosted.
 * The battle cry for Pit Fiends is now a little quieter.
 * The Masterwork Alchemy quest, Alchemical Extravagance, now properly calls for Concentrated Aqua Regia in its objectives, rather than regular Aqua Regia.
 * The remaining campfire in Spellplague Caverns should now properly allow players to switch loadouts.
 * Various typos in a variety of content and lore have been addressed.
 * When players log out in the open world, they should now less frequently spawn across collision or an object.

Combat and Powers
Boons


 * The fifth boon task of the Underdark campaign can no longer be claimed without completing the fourth.

Classes and Balance


 * Another attempt to address the respec loop has been made; player characters who have recently respecced should no longer be asked to respec again upon opening the Powers UI.
 * Devoted Cleric
 * Astral Shield
 * Developer Note: Devoted Cleric's empowered Astral Shield was far too strong in PvP. Furthermore, even in PvE it was too easy to get it to have an extremely high uptime (as high as 100%) for Astral Shield in general. We're trying out some changes to bring this power to a reasonable effectiveness.
 * See the Private PvP Queues thread for more details. This change was noted in an August 7th post.
 * Duration has been reduced from 10 seconds to 8 seconds for Astral Shield across the board.
 * Damage absorption for empowered Astral Shield has been changed from 3% per stack to 1% per stack in PvP only.
 * We've also eliminated the "Astral Shield Counter" buff icon -- between the regular Astral Shield buff icon and the empowered stack VFX, all needed info was already being conveyed, and the Astral Shield Counter icon was just too much.
 * Geas no longer ignores control resistance / immunity in Divine mode.
 * Oathbound Paladin: Divine Protector now properly prevents 60% of incoming damage, rather than only 40%.
 * Players can no longer trigger Life Steal from damage they deal to themselves.
 * Scourge Warlock: Tyrannical Curse: This power can no longer incorrectly deal friendly fire damage (damage to allied players).
 * Trickster Rogue
 * Shocking Execution: After further testing based on the recent changes to piercing damage, we've increased the base damage on the Trickster Rogue's Shocking Execution daily power by 25%.
 * Whirlwind of Blades: The Power granted by using this Daily Power no longer stacks with multiple uses in succession.

Piercing Damage


 * Certain Piercing attacks that deal damage based on another attack no longer "double-dip" damage resistance against higher-level enemies.
 * Example: The Hunter Ranger feat, Piercing Blades, deals an extra 50% piercing damage to an enemy.
 * If an attack would normally deal 200 damage, but is reduced to 150 by an enemy's level difference, then Piercing Blades now deals 75 damage (50% of the damage dealt).
 * Prior to this fix, Piercing Blades would deal around 56 damage (50% of the damage dealt, then reduced again by the level difference).
 * Piercing damage powers now work as described in (most of) their tooltips: "Piercing Damage cannot be deflected and ignores armor." This means:
 * Piercing damage will no longer penetrate defenses that are not armor (such as Tenacity-based defenses).
 * Piercing damage will now be able to benefit from damage vulnerability debuffs on the target (such as the Lantern of Revelation debuff).
 * The net effect should be to make these powers less overwhelming (but still potentially very strong) in PvP, and much more useful in PvE.

Companions


 * Armor Penetration now properly has an effect when used by Companions.
 * Certain Companions no longer incorrectly gradually gain stats over time.
 * Crab: This companion now properly plays a "near death" animation when its health is reduced to 0.
 * Legendary companions now give 16% stat bonus (up from 15%).
 * Each additional active Legendary companion now gives a stat bonus half the size of the previous one. Examples below.
 * Two active Legendary companions: 16 + 8 = 24%
 * Five active Legendary companions (Max): 16 + 8 + 4 + 2 + 1 = 31%
 * The Active Companion Bonus for Archons now properly counts the number of Archons a player has active.

General


 * Swift Golden Lion: This mount's Combat Power now affects a radius as wide as its visual effect.
 * The tooltips for Unstoppable, Guard, and Sanctuary have been updated to indicate that they provide resistance to "most control effects," which more accurately matches their effectiveness.
 * No functional changes have been made to the effect of these abilities. This is simply to help reduce confusion when certain powerful abilities (like those used by bosses) pierce these effects.

Items and Economy
Artifacts and Artifact Weapons


 * Sigil of the Great Weapon: This artifact's buff icon now properly lasts the duration of the buff, rather than a steady 10 seconds regardless of debuff time.

Enchantments, Enhancements, and Runestones


 * A particular rank of the Eldritch Runestone no longer incorrectly affects the player with an extra share of a companion's Resilience and Movement.
 * Bilethorn, Lifedrinker and Plaguefire Weapon Enhancement Shards can now be purchased from the appropriate vendors with Seals.
 * Bronzewood Enchantment: Ranks 11 and 12 now work as described in the tooltip.
 * Transcendent Flaming Enchantment: The tooltip now properly states that the Fiery Attack pops when dealing damage to an enemy who already has three stacks, rather than on application of the third stack.

Professions


 * Characters who were stuck mid-level in Alchemy should now be fixed.

Zen Market


 * A new, smaller pack of Companion tokens at a lower price point is now available in the Zen Market.
 * Campaign boost tokens can now be traded when purchased from the Zen Market.
 * Elite Shadow Wolf is now consistently named Elite Shadow Wolf in the Zen Market.
 * New campaign boosts can now be purchased on the Zen Market!
 * Prices have been updated for all boosts.
 * The available campaigns are: Elemental Evil, The Maze Engine, and Storm King's Thunder.
 * The Elemental Evil campaign boost can be purchased in two varieties: One with an XP boost that brings a character to level 70 from any level 60 or above, and one without.
 * Power Points may now be purchased in the Zen Market in packs of 1 or 10 under the Services category. Please note that player characters cannot consume these packs if their Power Point total would be taken above 124.
 * The "50 Enchanted Keys & 1 Month VIP Bundle" purchase now states that it does not increase the player's VIP rank, and its benefits are based on the player's current VIP rank.

General


 * Identification Scrolls can now be sold to vendors for small values of currency.
 * Illusionist's Gambit Skirmish: The drop rates for Companion rings have been adjusted for Silver and Gold tier rewards.
 * Loot: Items that drop while in a team should more consistently retain their drop rules when the party disbands.
 * For example, if an item drops under Need / Greed loot rules and the party disbands immediately after, a player who attempts to pick it up should still pop the Need / Greed UI for all players who were in the party at the time.
 * Ostorian rings are now Bind to Account on Pickup, changed from Bind to Character on Pickup. This change only affects newly purchased or obtained Ostorian rings.
 * Seals of the Elements no longer drop from dungeons. Seals of the Protector now drop in dungeons instead.
 * Seals of the Elements can now be exchanged for Seals of the Protector in the Miscellaneous tab of the Seal vendor.
 * Various typos in a variety of items and powers have been addressed.

User Interface
Auction


 * Having too many items in the Overflow Bag no longer prevents players from posting auctions.

Bank


 * Both the Personal and Shared Banks now have Sort functionality.

Character Sheet


 * History: The "Use Alliance Title" action should now properly display the alliance title to other players viewing the character.

Companions


 * Companion Options: There is now an option to show companion flavor text.

Cutscenes


 * Ambient voice-over no longer plays when in a cutscene.

General


 * Players may now properly select the "Use Alliance title" and "Do not show this warning again" check boxes in options and prompts, respectively.
 * Players may now zoom the camera in and out by switching panes and using the right stick.
 * When players have quests in a location that requires teleportation, the Quest Path now more consistently points to the portals or other object that moves the player character.
 * Warning prompts when attempting to destroy enchantments are now much more prominent.

Guild


 * The Alliance Roster now consistently displays all players in the selected guild, even if the player's own guild has fewer members.
 * There is now a new permission for sorting the items in the Guild Bank. This permission is enabled by default on all ranks.

HUD


 * A new damage floater icon now appears next to damage that cannot be avoided (e.g. by dodge rolling).

Inventory


 * A new bag slot has been added. Players may now equip up to 7 bags, increased from 6.
 * Artifact Weapon powers should be less likely to show "??" instead of values in their tooltips.
 * The "Unlock Other Item" context menu selection for Enchanted Keys no longer appears, as it's no longer reasonably usable now that keys are in the Useful Items tab.

Leaderboards


 * Players' leaderboard ratings no longer incorrectly swap with those of their teammates after PvP matches.

Main Menu


 * Main Menu: There is now a "Last Viewed Campaign" option in the Main Menu.

Journal


 * The "Out of Character" text style now looks better in this UI.

Queues


 * Viewing the "All" section no longer causes a noticeable framerate drop.

Zen Market


 * Empty categories no longer show up if the player manages to get a coupon for them.
 * The framerate no longer significantly drops in the Zen Market while the player is holding a coupon.
 * The Zen Market category list now consistently shows all banners if, for example, an entry is new, featured, and on sale all at the same time.

Art and Effects
Animation and Effects


 * Arcane Whirlwind: A strange small box should no longer appear in this whirlwind's visual effect.
 * The Lion companion no longer tilts and jitters in strange ways in certain locations.

Character Art


 * A few weapons have been adjusted to address issues with clipping into the hand in which they're held.
 * Certain NPC-named entries available in character creation have been renamed to "Face Long" and "Face Bulky."
 * Ponytail hair styles are less likely to jitter off characters' heads when running or riding quickly up and down stairs.
 * The standard horse tails have been improved on existing horse mounts.

Graphics, Performance, and Stability
General


 * An animation-related crash has been addressed.
 * A cap on the number of VFX objects with client-side physics has been introduced. This should improve general performance when certain powers are used.
 * A physics-related type of crash has been neutralized.
 * Various UI crashes have been updated.