Patch NW.15.20140415a.17

Patch Notes NW.15.20140415a.17

Icewind Dale
The region of Icewind Dale is now available to Level 60 characters who have progressed through the Sharandar or Dread Ring campaign with at least the third boon in either campaign and a 10,000 gear score.
 * Players can start by talking to Sergeant Knox and accepting his quest, A Chill Wind.
 * They'll be sent to Caer-Konig, a small town in the frozen region of Icewind Dale. This town has recently developed a bustling community of adventurers and profiteers thanks to the dangerous but powerful resource, Black Ice.
 * Icewind Pass will be the first zone players will reach. This location features a trade route skirting the edge of the great mountain, Kelvin's Cairn, beset by creatures and barbarians who covet the newly-discovered Black Ice deposits.
 * After testing their mettle and assisting the citizens of Caer-Konig, adventurers will be able to travel to Dwarven Valley, the site of an ancient battlefield and another precious source of Black Ice.

Requirements:
 * Must be Level 60.
 * Must have the third boon in either the Sharandar or Dread Ring campaign.
 * Must have a Gear Score of at least 10,000.

Open World PvP
When first starting out in Caer-Konig, you will be introduced to the Arcane Brotherhood and the Ten-Towners. Every day you adventure in Icewind Dale you will need to choose to sign a contract with one of them. You may break your contract and change sides if you need to.

In Icewind Pass and Dwarven Valley you will notice, on your main map, an area colored in dark red. This area is the PVP area. Players that enter this area will be flagged for PvP.

The PVP area of the map is where you can complete your PvP daily quests, compete for larger and richer Black Ice resources and even take part in a large PvP Heroic Encounter.

Your PVP flag will remain ON even outside of the PVP area. While in zone, once you are flagged, you remain flagged until you visit a campfire or die. This means that you can enjoy many different types of PVP gameplay. Guild battles, Competitive PvE, and the feeling of open world PvP.

This PvP is optional and is not required for progression in the PvE Icewind Dale Campaign, though participation can expedite harvesting Black Ice

Black Ice
You need it to forge your powerful Black Ice items and gear as well as to empower your Black Ice gear.

You can get Black Ice in a number of ways. You can mine or harvest it from nodes you find while adventuring. You can earn some when completing missions or Heroic Encounters and get some as drops when defeating another player in Icewind Pass or Dwarven Valley.

Black Ice Shaping Profession
After investing in the Ice Forge in the Icewind Dale Campaign you will be able to refine and forge powerful gear to better resist the powerful attacks the corrupted creatures of Icewind Dale are unleashing

The ranks of the profession are linked to the PVE campaign and the upgrading of the Black Ice Forge.


 * At Rank 1 you are able to process the Black Ice you find, mine and earn while in Icewind Pass or Dwarven Valley.
 * At rank 2 you can begin upgrading your Black Ice armor and accessories.
 * At rank 3 you can make your weapon and some very powerful enchantments.

Black Ice Empowering
Once upgraded to their corrupted or purified forms, Black Ice equipment can be further empowered with Black Ice, increasing the stats of the items.

To empower your items open your character page and right click on one of your Black Ice items.

Select “Black Ice Empowerment.” By moving the slider you can increase the power of your item. Click “Commit” and check out your new stats.

Black Ice empowering is unstable and doesn't last forever, when you use empowered Black Ice equipment in combat the effects will fade over time. Eventually the empowerment will be drained and you will need to empower your gear again.

PvP Leaderboards
The matchmaking system has undergone extensive revisions, and will now feature leaderboards so that you can climb the ranks and become one of the most elite combatants in Neverwinter.

Press the “L” button to bring up the “Landing Page” and click on the “Leaderboard” tab. On this tab there is an overview page that shows your current rank and PvP campaign progress, a match history page that shows your domination matches along with your stats and who you played with, and the Standings page where you can see where you place in the leaderboard overall.

As of this update, any current Domination matchmaking rankings will be reset. As soon as you begin fighting you will start to the PvP leaderboards fill out. You will also start seeing your Rank change. Your Rank is only affected by your wins and losses in Domination.

Get out there and start some fights!

PvP Campaign
For the first time ever, Neverwinter will feature a PvP Campaign, which will have daily quests focused on slaying other players or navigating through dangerous PvP areas for resources. The PvP campaign is not limited to Icewind Dale. Players can progress the campaign in domination and Gauntlgrym as well. This campaign really allows for further advancement for PvP characters. There are additional boons and rewards along this campaign suited for PvP players.

Heroic Encounters
Discover new open world encounters that appear as you adventure through Icewind Dale.

Heroic Encounters come in 3 sizes. Each size is suited to a number of players.


 * Small encounters that are good fights for 2-3 players
 * Medium encounters that is good for 3-6 players
 * Large encounters that are good fights for 6-10 players.

As Heroic Encounters are cleared new ones will appear, each with different objectives and time restrictions. You can see on the main map that when you mouse over the icon it shows the remaining time. You can also see this in the Heroic Encounter Tracker in the main map.

Completing heroic encounters will earn you Black Ice, rare rewards and is required for campaign progress.

New Hunter Ranger Paragon Path: Pathfinder
Pathfinder offers a suite of new survival knowledge themed utility powers.

This path focuses on teamwork and survival with abilities that can be great assets to your party, such as extra healing, recovered stamina and extra crowd control effects.

Like the other Paragon paths, all the powers are optional, so it's up to the player how much they want to change their playstyle around the new powers, though with these utility powers, it should be easy to find a place for them.

At-wills
 * Hunter's Teamwork (Ranged): You see useful survival items on a target, and shoot an arrow at them to designate where they are. If designated target is killed, they drop a survival pack that restores health, stamina, and action points to you and your team mates when picked up. You may have one target designated at a time.
 * Careful Attack (Melee): You study the enemies before you and make note of where their armor weaknesses are. Studied enemies deal less damage, and the next time they take damage, they are also damaged by this power. Studying enemies in this way does not cause them to agro you. (This effect is removed after it deals damage)

Encounter
 * Ambush (Ranged): Hide in shrubbery, gaining stealth. If you attack from this position you deal bonus damage. If you move you maintain stealth for a bit until you attack, but do not get the damage bonus.
 * Bear Trap (Melee): Throws a bear trap that deals damage and stuns the target. Can have multiple out at once.

Daily
 * Slasher's Mark: Leap to target and leave a mark on them that restores stamina and guard meter to any allies attacking the target.

Class Features
 * Battlehoned: When damaged, you temporarily have increased Regeneration.
 * Pathfinder's Action: Increased movement speed and Deflection Chance after using a daily.
 * Cruel Recovery: Each time you critically damage a target, you gain 1% of your max hitpoints as Temp health.

Feats
 * Archery - Quarry: You deal 1-5% more damage to targets affected by your Careful Attack or Hunter's Teamwork.
 * Combat - Bear Ambush: Ambush's effects lasts .5 - 2.5 seconds longer, and bear trap now slows for .5 - 2.5 seconds after root ends.
 * Nature - Speedy Slashing: AP Cost is reduced by 5-25%, and Pathfinder's Action's movement buff lasts .5 - 2.5  longer.

Class Artifacts
New class-themed artifacts are available to both reward and support alts! Anyone with at least two characters that qualify for Icewind Dale will unlock a new quest. The reward for that quest is an artifact unique to the class being played… and that artifact is immediately available to all other characters on the account.

Obtain them through a new daily quest, Vault of the Nine. Qualify by having at least two level 60 characters talk to Jarlaxle in Caer-Konig, the main town in Icewind Dale.

Completing Vault of the Nine grants an artifact specific to their class and unlocks that Artifact for all other characters on the account, regardless of class and level. Just check the Reward Claims Agent in Protector's Enclave!

Post-60 Advancement
Players who have reached Level 60 will now be able to apply their accumulated experience toward new rewards! When players hit the level cap, the experience bar will now turn blue with a special icon for the "next level" end of the bar.

Each time the experience bar is filled, the player is presented with a new reward. The rewards include:


 * Power Points!
 * Just like the points gained while leveling, these points can be spent on purchasing or ranking up powers up to the maximum rank of 3.
 * Power Points will no longer be rewarded when the player gains enough to rank every power up to 3.
 * Tomes of Experience and Tomes of Companion Experience!
 * These tomes are bound to your account, so if you have another character or a new companion you want to get up and running quickly, just send these tomes over through in-game mail, or save them up for later.
 * Rough Astral Diamonds!

Dungeon Chest Keys
Now, in addition to the Dungeon Delves event, players will be able to gain keys to unlock the reward chest at the end of any dungeon.


 * Players may talk to the new Key Master in Protector's Enclave to acquire a key once per day.
 * This key can open up the chest at the end of any standard or Epic dungeon.
 * There can be only one copy of this key in the player's inventory at any given time.
 * This key is bound on pickup.
 * Players may also purchase keys from the Key Master for Astral Diamonds.
 * Epic Dungeon Keys open up the chest at the end of any Epic dungeon.
 * Standard Dungeon Keys open up the chest at the end of any non-Epic dungeon.
 * Players can hold onto as many of these keys as they want.
 * These keys can be traded.
 * An end-of-dungeon chest can only be looted once per run, regardless of the number of keys the player has.
 * A key will not be consumed if the Dungeon Delves event is active (The "Dungeon Chest Unlocked" banner is visible above the quest tracker) when a player loots the chest.

Zen Market Coupons
There are now coupons in the game from various sources that grant a onetime discount off a specific item or category of items in the Zen Market within a limited duration.

The majority of the coupons come very rarely as drops from killing appropriately challenging enemies. A few can be found in the “Adventurer's Reward” chests as well as upon completing the level 60 congratulatory quest from Lord Neverember.

Examples include:
 * 40% off an Enchanted Key purchase
 * 25% off any Fashion Outfit purchase
 * 15% off any Companion purchase
 * 15% off any item in the Zen Market

General Changes

 * Combat Advantage Bonus: This stat now properly increases your Combat Advantage damage by the amount it says it does.
 * Power has been reworked. Power was very difficult for players to understand before, so we have made it more clear by having it give a damage multiplier based on your level.
 * Players will now be able to more accurately gauge the value of Power on their equipment and how it impacts their performance for both damage and healing.
 * Players now take 8 seconds to drop out of combat after being struck or striking a player.
 * Some triggered powers can now put red floater texts over enemies' heads similar to how blue positive ones can fly off your character.

Class Changes

 * Control Wizard
 * Shard of Eternal Avalanche: Most critters and other players will not be able to knock or repel your Shard now.
 * Devoted Cleric
 * Punishing Light: Debuffs applied by Punishing Light now properly persist after players stop channeling Punishing Light.
 * Righteousness: This power has been reworked to now provide a healing bonus of 70% to allies. Cleric Feats and Powers now heal by about 40% less than they previously did but overall still heal allies about 10% more than they previously did.
 * Cycle of Change: This feat has been redesigned. Now gains stacks of Cycle of Change (Life or Death) by using offensive or protective encounter powers, and then consumes them with your divine at-will powers, (Soothing Light or Punishing Light) for a burst of extra healing or damage. (Gaining a stack of one type will remove all stacks of the other type)
 * Guardian Fighter
 * Reckless Attacker: This feat will no longer incorrectly grant Gear Score.
 * Great Weapon Fighter
 * Great Weapon Fighter Feats have been adjusted to move more damage deep into the Destroyer tree to make it more viable for a pure DPS build while reducing the damage that Sentinels can do so easily from early in on feat trees.
 * Steely Defense: This feat now correctly grants 4/8/12/16/20%.
 * Battle Awareness: Savage advance now grants shorter cooldowns for 15 seconds (up from 5).
 * Deep Gash: This feat can no longer crit. This feat now applies a bleed that ticks for 4/8/12/16/20% of your Power (up from 3/6/9/12/15%).
 * Deep Gash: This feat no longer gains additional damage from the power that applies it.
 * Deep Gash: This power no longer ticks immediately upon application. New applications will not reset the tick timer. Additionally this DoT now lasts 6 seconds (up from 5). It still ticks 6 times total.
 * Destroyer's Purpose: This feat now grants an additional effect. When you deal damage while Unstoppable, you gain a stack of Destroyer's Purpose (max 20). Each stack of Destroyer's Purpose increases your damage by 1%. Destroyer's Purpose lasts 20 seconds."
 * Disciple of War: This feat now grants 25% of your Recovery and Armor Penetration as Power.
 * Executioner's Strike: Indomitable Battle Strike now deals a bonus 6/12/18/24/30% bonus damage as the target's health diminishes (up from 2/3/6/8/10%).
 * Executioner's Style: This feat no longer has any interaction with Reaping Strike. This feat now also increases the damage of Sure Strike by 6/12/18/24/30% as the target's health diminishes.
 * Focused Destroyer: This feat now grants an additional .7/1.4/2.1/2.8/3.5% bonus damage per stack of Destroyer.
 * Relentless Battle Fury: This feat now grants an additional effect. Activating Roar, Takedown, or Battle Fury now grants you Relentless. Relentless causes you to ignore an additional 1/2/3/4/5% of the target's resistance. Relentless lasts 5 seconds.
 * Student of the Sword: This feat has been redesigned. Your Critical Strikes now lower your target's Damage Resistance to your attacks by 1/2/3/4/5%. This effect cannot stack.
 * Hunter Ranger
 * Aspect of the Pack: Now correctly grants Combat Advantage to allies instead of only granting it to the Ranger. The Ranger still benefits from this effect as well.
 * Boar Charge: This power now requires a target to be fired.
 * Commanding Shot: This power now also gains +10% damage when it ranks up.
 * Clear the Ground: Damage increased by roughly 50%.
 * Electric Shot: Damage increased by roughly 100%.
 * Half-Elf: Dilettante will now correctly grant +1 Intelligence to Hunter Rangers.
 * Fox Shift: This power may now strike any one target a maximum of 2 times. This power will no longer strike an additional time at activation. Damage has been increased by 33%, and you will now correctly be immune to damage and control effects while jumping between targets.
 * Thorn Strike: This power has been reworked slightly. This power now has a 5' cylinder (up from 3'), a 13' reach (up from 11'), and has had the damage bonus reworked. This power now gains increased damage as enemy health diminishes. Additionally this bonus has been increased to a maximum of 30% (up from 15%).
 * Forest Walk: The movement speed effect no longer stacks with other movement speed buffs."
 * Forest Ghost: The movement speed effect no longer stacks with other movement speed buffs.
 * Marauder's Escape: This power no longer affects the camera of other nearby players.
 * Oakskin: Healing increased by 150% and can no longer be dodged.
 * Split Shot damage has been reduced by about 25%.
 * Thorn Strike: Base Damage of this power increased by roughly 40%.
 * A number of power tooltips have been updated to be more accurate.
 * Trickster Rogue
 * Path of the Blade is now able to crit but damage has been reduced by 30%.
 * Vengeances' Pursuit no longer interrupts bosses.

Paragon Path Changes

 * Master of Flame
 * Furious Immolation is now able to critically hit and its damage has been reduced by 30%.
 * Whisper Knife
 * Vengeance Pursuit now properly has the UI overlay that it benefits from Stealth when Stealth is activated.
 * Storm Warden
 * Storm Step Action: Rank up benefit reduced to .5 seconds and now provides half its cooldown reduction if dallies are used within 10 seconds of each other.
 * Split the Sky: is now able to crit and Base Damage of this power increased by roughly 30%. Additionally fixed a bug with the way weapon damage was calculated by this power. There should be no net change from this fix.

Characters

 * Character Creation update
 * There are new character creation options for all races including new hair, beards, eyebrows, Tiefling horns and more.
 * The preset and scaling options have been adjusted for most races especially Elves and Halflings.
 * This won't change the appearance of existing characters unless they visit the Tower of Alteration. Some of the old appearances are now gone, but replaced by newer options.
 * Hunter Ranger Profound PvP sets now uses the correct art that matches the collections window.
 * Cloth collision (capes) has been added to Boar, Bear, Spider, Stag, and Wolf mounts.

Content and Environment

 * Castle Never: Campfires now require nearby encounters to be defeated before they can be respawned at.
 * Caverns of Karrundax: Removed invisible collision that could block access to the main path after knocking down the pillar.
 * Caverns of Karrundax: Leaving the Caverns of Karrundax will return characters from where they entered the dungeon from instead of Mount Hotenow.
 * Class Mechanic tutorial has received a slight facelift and minor adjustments to make it more clear when and how they unlock.
 * Cloak Tower: The door that could become stuck in the normal version of this dungeon will now open as expected reliably.
 * Domination: Leaving a PvP match and not returning will now count as a loss for the purposes of leaderboard rankings and domination matchmaking.
 * Dread Vault: Campfires can now all be properly respawned from instead of needing to start from the entrance every time.
 * Defeating the Elder Brain or the Aboleth no longer requires a crystal to spawn that drops the appropriate rewards in a safe location.
 * Ebon Downs: Improved the collision in several areas to prevent players from getting stuck.
 * Gauntlgrym events now run every 3 hours.
 * Gauntlgrym: Closed a couple holes in the Gauntylgrim Domination map that could allow players to get into enemy respawn points.
 * Temple of the Spider: Removed the invisible collision that could prevent players that died to reenter the final boss room.
 * There is new Daily Skirmish quest available from Rhix to complete Master of the Hunt, the Dread Legion or Kessel's Retreat skirmishes three times.
 * Moonstone Mask VIP lounge now has a Postal Courier, Gold & Tradebar store, healing circle, and Auctioneer.
 * New Achievements for Icewind Dale Heroic Encounters, Instances, quest completion, scrying stones and overall completion of the zone content.

Enemies

 * Arleon the Unforgiven in the Graveyard now has a limit on the number of reinforcements he can summon.
 * Most enemy heal powers are now slightly less effective and only trigger on hits of players, not companions if they have one. The Scalefather, Traven Blackdagger, Erinyes and Halas the Pure as well as others have been affected.
 * Wights and Werewolves no longer heal when they hit a dodging or blocked player.
 * The Wight Commander power "Soul Harvest" now will only heal the caster and not all its other nearby allies.

Foundry

 * Added Icewind Dale related maps and props.
 * There are new music events added such as: Kessell's Retreat, Dwarven Valley, Icewind Pass, Caer-Konig, Winter Event, Summer Festival Dancers and More!
 * Many new sound FX have been added such as: Lever X, Birds Chirping, Daytime Insects, Tavern Ambience, Horse sounds, Valindra and more!
 * Resolved an issue when previewing 3D types of sounds not properly producing any preview audio. Some of the affected sounds were: Music / Craftsmans rest, Clock Chime, Miniboss Chime, Music / Generic Mission X.

Graphics and Performance

 * Adjusted what version of water players may see based on their video card, especially for Shader Model 3 cards.

Items and Economy

 * Alchemy now has a task to create Iceforge Healing Elixirs.
 * Collections
 * There are new Mounts and Events collections. You may need to move an item in your inventory that you have previously owned.
 * There is now an Icewind Dale collection.
 * Elixir of Fate: This Elixir now correctly lasts 1 hour and persists through death.
 * Emblem of Seldarine: Added a 1 second internal cooldown on the triggered effect and it no longer stacks with multiple instances of the activated ability from other players.
 * Fey Blessing Enchantments have an updated and more appropriate icon.
 * Increased the size of the Professions Resource bag to 120 slots.
 * Knight Captain's Set: Now grants allies +15% power (down from 60%). This set has been readjusted to be much more in line with the power rework.
 * The Emblem of Seldarine and any other sources of Companion Influence now properly reflect their effects on a companion's stats window.
 * The Invocation Store now has a 6 day Celestial Coin item to a Chest of Campaign Treasures that will give a choice of Sharandar or Dread Ring campaign currency items.
 * Professions Asset and Booster Packs have an updated UI treatment.
 * Volcanic Greatsword has been appropriately renamed to Volcanic Greataxe.
 * Updated the cloth collision on mounts to visually improve the cloth movement behaviors.
 * Zen Market mounts Gelatinous Cube, Reanimated Destrier and the Hell Hound have had their quality increase from Uncommon to Rare to better match their unique look and speed. They are otherwise unchanged.

User Interface

 * Added a "Do not show me this again" check box for the confirmation window when selling unidentified items.
 * Auction House
 * Clicking on a category no longer initiates a search. Searching will now only happen when you actually click Search.
 * "Searching…" text now pulses while it is displayed to better indicate that it is still searching for results.
 * The Auction Broker now has a dialog option to go to the Auction House directly instead of looking at his suggested items first.
 * Buffs and Debuffs are now separated into separate trays to better keep track of ones you may care about.
 * Character Creation racial ability score selection has a slightly redesigned layout.
 * Chat Channel Configuration: Clicking anywhere outside the text entry box now commits the tab name. Also, 'resetting to defaults' changes the tab list to be unselected, because getting the detail info to update correctly after a reset was strangely difficult.
 * Collections: There are now separate messages for completing Companion Collections and completion other Collections.
 * You may now compare items in the Collections to your currently worn items.
 * Dual stat enchantments such as the Brutal and Savage enchantments now properly display in the companion stat window.
 * Enchantments: There is now an appropriate error message when attempting to slot an enchantment into the wrong slot type.
 * Fey Blessing Enchantments have an updated and more appropriate icon.
 * Hunter Ranger powers have updated messaging for Melee/Ranged Stance requirements
 * In Game Help options and text has been updated to be more accurate on the issues Customer Service can assist with.
 * In the Guild Bank, players may now drop an item from one repository to the other by dropping it onto the tabs.
 * Increased the Currency bag by 5 for a total of 65 slots.
 * Invalid Achievements no longer display when receiving items from the Robe of Useless Items.
 * Item quality is now shown on modal dialog windows that mention an item, such as discarding an item, splitting stacks and item binding confirmations.
 * The game main menu may be brought up while dead with the Escape key.
 * Minor layout changes to the Paragon Path Selection window, putting the powers in two columns to avoid scrolling when possible
 * Names over players' heads have been moved up slightly so they do not cover the tops of heads anymore.
 * Potions and other consumables now auto slot if there is an empty belt slot or will go into an already existing slotted stack if one exists.
 * Powers with charges now display the cooldown of the charges in their tooltips and descriptions.
 * The timers on powers now properly go from 1 min+ to 60 seconds instead of displaying 0 for a second.
 * Professions task name spacing has been adjusted to fit the text better.
 * There is now an account shared bank with 8 slots available for all accounts at the Manycoins Bank. Additional slots may be purchased through the Zen Market.
 * The final PvP scoreboard can no longer be closed after a match is finished and get players stuck in the map.
 * The Change Appearance window is now clearer of the potential outcome when transmuting items.
 * The character window has had minor layout adjustments such as Guild name positioning.
 * The Graphics options have been redesigned.
 * The Mount tray icons have a darker overlay when they are disabled so it is more clear that they cannot currently be used.
 * Map Window
 * Now displays your current golden path destination.
 * Now has an option to clear custom waypoints.
 * Now supports clicking on a waypoint to center your map on that objective.
 * Now has an "always show" button that will display a transparent version of the map on your HUD.
 * Has received some visual and layout updates such as transparency and waypoint categories.
 * The Zen Market now has a few more categories to help sort and find items better.

Localization

 * Damage types in the combat log are now all properly translated.
 * Several basic system messages such as "Server Disconnect" are now localized.
 * When NPCs have a scripted state shown to the player, such as the Black Dagger Spy's "escaping" text, it will be properly localized.

Resolved Issues

 * Dropping a companion onto an open Active Companion Slot no longer prevents the UI enchantment slots from appearing.
 * Resolved a rare issue that could cause modal popup windows to show incorrect data.
 * Resolved an issue in Ebon Downs that could caused a player or critter to get stuck in the geometry.
 * Resolved an issue with Great Weapon Fighter Daring Shout determining its rank from Roar instead of itself.
 * Resolved an issue in Mount Hotenow with lava poking out from the environment where it wasn't supposed to be.
 * Resolved an issue in the Chasm that could caused a player or critter to get stuck in the geometry.
 * Resolved an issue in the Tower District that had several of the contest objectives buried.
 * Resolved an issue with jumping animations on mounts getting stuck after landing on rare occasions.
 * Resolved an issue with Hunter Ranger powers that hit multiple targets to now properly be considered AoE attacks for the purposes of other effects to key off of.
 * Resolved an issue with several items that could cause players to grunt like a monster when equipped.
 * Resolved an issue with several pieces of geometry that allowed players to see behind unintended areas.
 * Resolved an issue with some environmental root terrain appearing black on high end graphics settings.
 * Resolved an issue with several aesthetic environmental issues in the Gray Wolf Den.
 * Resolved occlusion issues near Protector's Enclave Many Coins Bank.
 * Resolved an issue with some characters unable to make Auction Hall transactions if they had certain special characters in their name.
 * Resolved an issue in Castle Never that could cause one of the gates to not properly open.
 * Resolved an issue in Castle Never that allowed this map will no longer accept new players from the queue after the Dracolich has been defeated.