Was there a change to spellwards?

[goldgolem]

I never used to get paralysed by them, but for about a month now I get paralysed by every single one and killed by it

and now the keys are stuck under a spellward, and there is no way to complete this quest now

[HungarianRhapsody]

I never used to get paralysed by them, but for about a month now I get paralysed by every single one and killed by it

I just noticed that too. Spell Wards are way more dangerous now. I'd be happy.if the paralyzed effect replaced the slow effect, but having both is super annoying.

[Faltout]

Yes, there was a change under the radar. They used to slow and paralyze you in addition to damaging you (damage didn't have a save as far as my rogue is concerned). Now they just paralyze you/slow you the first time they hit and THEN do damage. If your fortitude save is high enough (or you have FoM), you should never have to worry about those traps. You can now just waltz right past them (provided you are fast enough to only trigger them once).

[askrj1]

Spellwards always had a paralyze portion (blockable by FoM, tincans immune), a slow portion (always applies, no save or immunity) and a damage portion (save type depending on damage type, as far as I can recall). Not sure if they made some unannounced change to the inner workings, but as far as I know they still do the same.

[Steelstar]

Certain kinds of traps no longer fail to scale their DCs to level and difficulty-appropriate values.

For a long time now, certain trap effects (including some Spell Wards) have had DCs that were much lower than they were supposed to be due to a bug. We fixed this bug in Update 40, marked with the above Release Note.

[goldgolem]

Thanks for the clarifications Steelstar. Ill have to get FOM then!

I realise if I had been more prepared for the trap I could have sent someone through it ahead of me as a sacrifice and them just jumped through afterwards when it was down

[DYWYPI]

I was already aware the [U40] notes mentioned DC changes in some traps, e.g. Spell Wards. However, the term "DC" in the notes was fairly vague with regards to a Trap. For example does it alter the Search and Disable DC values, or just relates the Traps' effects and damage output (or saves against) for the higher level difficulties.

I know Steelstar mentioned "effects" so there were certainly issues with correct damage output, etc. Although I'm curious as to whether the Disable or Search DCs (on certain specific traps) were also readjusted or normalised at the same time. Basically, I'm asking was it just the active "triggered" Trap's effects that were corrected?

[Steelstar]

I was already aware the [U40] notes mentioned DC changes in some traps, e.g. Spell Wards. However, the term "DC" in the notes was fairly vague with regards to a Trap. For example does it alter the Search and Disable DC values, or just relates the Traps' effects and damage output (or saves against) for the higher level difficulties.

I know Steelstar mentioned "effects" so there were certainly issues with correct damage output, etc. Although I'm curious as to whether the Disable or Search DCs (on certain specific traps) were also readjusted or normalised at the same time. Basically, I'm asking was it just the active "triggered" Trap's effects that were corrected?

Ah, I understand the confusion, sorry. The change only applies to the DC for saving from certain active "triggered" trap effects.

[acemonkey]

I never used to get paralysed by them, but for about a month now I get paralysed by every single one and killed by it

and now the keys are stuck under a spellward, and there is no way to complete this quest now

Get a pale lavender ioun stone and crystal disc of dreams by farming the dreaming dark quest, takes a bit but once you have it it will be with you forever. Just swap to it when dealing with spellwards, 100% blocks slow and paralysis from them. I even use it on trapper builds because it's faster than searching for the things when you run into a room full of them. Remember to take it off once past the spellwards so random trash mobs won't drain it down. If you don't mind the slow though, FOM is all you need.

[Enoach]

I do think many people are seeing the recent change to the DCs that fixed the lower then what they should have been.

This is making spellwards more dangerous and in a good way.

Now I haven't tried this, but has the fix to using dispel effects been resolved or is it still where it works then adds back and basically prevents you from doing a full dispel on these traps?

[DYWYPI]

Thanks for the clarification regarding the term "DC" with regards to the [U40] notes; it probably made more sense from the author's perspective. In contrast when players use the term "DC" with regards to traps, it usually means: Search and Disable, DCs. Since they aren't designing the traps, etc. ;-)

Furthermore during [U39] I managed to get Flimsyfirewood to investigate and actually fix some Traps. Plus I noted several quests were the [Search] DCs were not scaling, from Casual to Elite, etc. Therefore it wasn't totally unreasonable for me to originally assume the 'DC' notes in [U40] might have been distantly related.

[Enoach]

Thanks for the clarification regarding the term "DC" with regards to the [U40] notes; it probably made more sense from the author's perspective. In contrast when players use the term "DC" with regards to traps, it usually means: Search and Disable, DCs. Since they aren't designing the traps, etc. ;-)

...
I was one of the people that read that note and based on the context felt it was concerning the Slow/paralyze effects. For me it was the context that I caught, but I could see how one would take it to be the disable/search Difficulty Checks.

[Itchybeard]

To be honest, I wouldn't mind the Search & Disable (along with open lock) DCs to get a little higher. I'm looking forward to the day where I attempt to disable a panel with a fully geared character and the box actually explodes! It has been some time. I kinda miss it.

Wouldn't it make you think... "wow, I really need to raise my skills again" instead of just waltzing on through everything? It would for me.

On a side note, I wouldn't mind some traps requiring 2 trappers to jointing disable them. We have bosses which require teamwork and timing to kill, why not traps too? Just a thought.

[zehnvhex]

Ah, I understand the confusion, sorry. The change only applies to the DC for saving from certain active "triggered" trap effects.

While we're on the subject, any chance you guys can ever fix the line of sight issues when disarming them as well? I imagine you've answered this before, but when you have to practically trigger some spell wards just to get LOS to disarm them...

[askrj1]

To be honest, I wouldn't mind the Search & Disable (along with open lock) DCs to get a little higher. I'm looking forward to the day where I attempt to disable a panel with a fully geared character and the box actually explodes! It has been some time. I kinda miss it.

Wouldn't it make you think... "wow, I really need to raise my skills again" instead of just waltzing on through everything? It would for me.

On a side note, I wouldn't mind some traps requiring 2 trappers to jointing disable them. We have bosses which require teamwork and timing to kill, why not traps too? Just a thought.

Go try the disjunct trap in Dream Conspiracy at level.

[DYWYPI]

Hmm, the trap within the "Jail" for the quest: Dream Conspiracy, was obviously manually edited 'by hand' (Search DC of 54, is typical of Level 18 traps on Elite). However, when tested U39, that specific trap (Elite) had the following DC values; Search DC: 74 and Disable DC: 87 respectively. So it's certainly an "outlier" that may catch out the unprepared. ;-)

[Dabima]

In regards to the Line of Sight on Spell Wards, it's actually much easier to disable the spell wards from well outside of range than "practically triggering them" to disable them. I've found that it's much easier to search and disable spell wards from a distance, well outside of the damaging range.

The trap DC changes was something I missed when reading over the change notes, and I got a nasty surprise when "What's this? I got paralyzed by a trap and killed?" It was something I didn't have to worry about for a long time, so it was a welcome change.