U55 Preview 3 (6/7 - 6/9)

Disclaimer

Everything seen on the preview server, Lamannia, is not final and is subject to change or removal before live release.

Hello, folks! Preview 3 of Update 55 for the Isle of Dread is now open as of 1pm EDT on Tuesday, June 7th! It is expected to remain open into the afternoon (EDT) of Thursday, June 9th.

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Update 55 contains a number of features and quests for our upcoming expansion pack, the Isle of Dread, including loot and the increase of our overall level cap from 30 to 32, along with some minor changes and bugfixes.

To access the Isle of Dread via the test dojo, use the dimension door to reach the Dread overlook, then speak to The Questgiver: he'll send you to the Isle of Dread proper. You can also enter the Isle of Dread the "real way," by speaking to the Gatekeeper Wulth Sulfork in the Harbor. But be advised - getting to the Isle of Dread the first time is an adventure itself!

All 12 new quests are now available for your preview, including some additional polish on quests we showcased earlier. Note that the raid will be appearing in a forthcoming Lamannia preview.

To provide a little more detail on what you can expect to see in this preview, please review the items below:


Big Picture Notes

• Isle of Dread Itemization
• The Level Cap Increase
• You're getting an early glimpse at the Isle of Dread, so here are some of the things we're working on that you may notice:
  
  • Most but not all questgivers have text: some NPCs do not have text
  • Some parts of the landscape have relatively few monsters in it. More are on the way
  • Not all monsters have the correct stats or behaviors yet
  • Not all of the quests have been fully decorated or lit yet
  • The village public area is still under construction. Some of its residents haven't arrived yet
  • The music and sound are not fully hooked up yet
  • If you get stuck somewhere, please let us know (and be sure to include a /loc of where it happened)
  • XP and favor have been set and we ask that you please provide feedback
  
  

Bugfixes

• A large variety of typos in various pieces of content and the UI have been fixed
• Fixed incorrect DC description for Devour the Soul
• SLAs in Divine Disciple may now heal undead players
• The Heighten metamagic will no longer lower your spell DCs
• Greater Color Spray SLAs are now considered to be spell level 5
• Quench from Bottled Rainstorm now has a 1s cooldown for safety purposes
• Removed visual effects from Tidal's on-hit imbue to prevent client lag
• Several armors have had their max dex bonus corrected to appropriate values
• The Banquet Hall amenity no longer removes itself while zoning
• Ottos Stones of Experience no longer tell you that they add Epic Destiny XP
• Stat damage in dungeons is now restored more reliably
• Recipe text for augments in the Remnant Vendor are now correct
• On-hit fire damage from champions now respects its internal cooldown
• Produce Flame may now be cast directionally
• Fixed a tabaxi character creation bug (bow backwards)
• Fixed typos in vampire ascendent shroud
• FVS grace of battle and knowledge of battle's effect on items now have slightly better effect nomenclature
• The horseshoe crab shield now has a description
• The golden orb of death's description now has punctuation
• Some collectibles are categorized better
• Resist Energy: Sonic now gets bonus caster levels from air sorcerer correctly
• Fixed a string table error with the NPC Hada D'Jorasco
• Horizon Walker's 4th core no longer spells fortification wrong
• Shadowdancer's Shadowstrike (Melee) has a snappier animation
• Some old ED ability scripting has been removed from Exalted Angel
• Runearms with reaper bonuses now work 100% of the time
• Magus destiny mantle no longer drops on zone transitions
• Flamestrike now does its proper damage, respects its line-of-sight requirements, and no longer gets supercharged when cast by a monster
• The 10% bonus to ability score modifier to damage granted by wielding a bastard sword or dwarven waraxe now applies properly regardless of exactly how you're using those weapons
• Fixed an issue where bonuses to ability score modifier to damage while using a bastard sword or dwarven waraxe would not apply correctly in some circumstances
  
• Tabaxi Trailblazer's Attune no longer drops on death
• Belt of the Ram's ability, Ram's Might, no longer drops on death
• Eldritch Knight's Subtle Force I now gives its listed sonic resistance
• Divine Crusader's Consecrate now properly damages non-evil creatures
• Using the shift key to fast fall now works on monk's Slow Fall
• LAMANNIA ONLY: Exalted Angel's core 4 abilities (Heavenly Wrath and Heavenly Blessing) now properly scale with level as stated
• LAMANNIA ONLY: Removed an erroneous prerequisite arrow that had appeared in Magus of the Eclipse during preview 2.
  

Gameplay Changes

• The evil spirit that has been resetting so many bear traps after they've been triggered has been exorcised from DDO for now. Most bear traps will now only trigger once.
• You may now trade 100 pack ingredients for a Star Fragment, and 100 Star Fragments and 500 Threads of Fate for a Nebula Fragment
• Enchantment is now an option for Magus T3 DCs
• Teleport items found within expansion packs have been upgraded! These items are now able to teleport you to all destinations that the other teleport items had access to - this means that if you have one of these items, you'll be able to teleport directly to the locations of all of them. You must own the item associated with the location you are attempting to teleport to. This means that, for example, when using the Sharn Boarding Pass, you'll be able to teleport to the Feywild if you own the Feywild Tuning Fork as a part of your account. However, you do not need to have the Tuning fork with you to do this - which means that carrying one of these items is now equivalent to carrying all of them, potentially saving you inventory space. You may also drag these individual locations from the menu onto your hotbars, so if you need to reach a specific destination often, you can activate them from there instead of from your inventory. The following items are affected:
  
  • Isle of Dread Treasure Map
  • Saltmarsh Compass
  • Feywild Tuning Fork
  • Sharn Boarding Pass
  • Bottle of Mist
• The Mysterious Ring in the Sands of Menechtarun adventure pack is now a little cooler!
• There are new Cannith crafting recipes!
• Many effects in the game that used to scale with epic levels now scale with the total of your epic AND legendary levels (effects that have changed this way specifically say so in their text)
• Bonuses to ability score modifier to damage are now described the same way in tooltips for both the Single Weapon Fighting and Two Handed Fighting feats.
• If you now have bonuses to ability score modifier to damage from Single Weapon Fighting feats AND Two Handed Fighting feats (including the new ML31 specialty feats), only the highest of those two sets applies.
• Hamstring effects are now considered bleeds and can be removed with effects that remove bleeds such as close wounds and regeneration
• The dreaded exploding spiders of Sharn have had their hitpoints reduced to 25% of their original value. They also give a little more time before they explode. Blast them before they blast you.
• Quests:
  
  • Creeping Death: Some traps have been updated to affect monsters, number of monsters reduced per group
  • The Dragonborn Prophesy Quests ("Black and Blue" and "Newcomers") have had the number of monsters reduced throughout both dungeons including removing several sets of monsters

UI Changes

• Items within the Shared Crafting Storage now update their names and descriptions automagically should they be changed in a game update!
• Item bind status is now displayed on one line in item tooltips
• Multiple improvements have been made to how weapons display their dice:
  
  • Base damage rating now factors in your ability score modifier, which makes it a much better estimator of a weapon's relative effectiveness
  • Weapons no longer show dice estimations for their base and critical rolls, instead displaying a simplified view so that it's easier to understand what numbers mean
• Augments now display much prettier! Their slot types now appear in examination and are color-coded appropriately
• There is now a separate icon for each Tome of Learning you've consumed
• Hovering over your character's build type on the character sheet will now display that character's total past lives earned
• The party display UI no longer makes players with temp HP appear to be at a higher percentage of health than they really are
• Searching in any search bar no longer also sorts your shared bank and Details+ tab
• Newly created glamoured shields will now cleanly equip to your cosmetic offhand without reporting that there's an inventory error when trying to double-click them
• Glamoured items will no longer improperly show their weapon dice or their augment slots
• Newly glamoured items no longer erroneously display a caster level and have slightly prettier descriptions
• The Quest Selector UI now has a search bar! This also works for searching by level. You may also now search for a specific level in the Adventure Compendium.

Using the shift key to fast fall now works on monk's Slow Fall

thanks!!!
Nico

I have been hearing things about an "Accuracy" buff for mobs that will give dodge bypass but have not gotten any dev to post about what it is. Can a dev please explain what the dodge bypass is and how it will be implemented and then the reasoning behind this move?

Will the slayers go beyond 3,000 in this wilderness? The quest panel reveals no information. It only shows count/0

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Originally Posted by Lomizir

The evil spirit that has been resetting so many bear traps after they've been triggered has been exorcised from DDO for now. Most bear traps will now only trigger once.

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Does this mean that "exploded" bear traps can no longer be disarmed? If so, please do NOT change them.

It's really hard reigning in a party on the few quests with one-shot traps already; eg. druid's curse or tracker's trap. Having bear traps require the same party restraint is a horrific nerf to trapping. It's especially bad considering how buggy NIH/Watchful and similar feats are. They often don't find things they should and don't throw up a UI status icon to show there's an unfound trap (when the icon would be present without NIH).

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Originally Posted by Dragbon

I have been hearing things about an "Accuracy" buff for mobs that will give dodge bypass but have not gotten any dev to post about what it is. Can a dev please explain what the dodge bypass is and how it will be implemented and then the reasoning behind this move?

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I've heard noise about this and would also like some data. It seems like a direct nerf purely to light and cloth melee DPS. My tank would grumble, but can adapt. My ranged won't care. My caster is already a pin-cushion. Cloth & Light melee would become completely unplayable.

If the intent is to make tower shields viable for tanks by making the extra dodge not matter from a large, there are better ways to do it (such as improving them to be better than large).

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Originally Posted by Dragbon

I have been hearing things about an "Accuracy" buff for mobs that will give dodge bypass but have not gotten any dev to post about what it is. Can a dev please explain what the dodge bypass is and how it will be implemented and then the reasoning behind this move?

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Yeah, if this is really a thing, then it's a really bad move.

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Originally Posted by Bjond

Does this mean that "exploded" bear traps can no longer be disarmed? If so, please do NOT change them.

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From what I can tell, the Bear Traps remain there to be disarmed by any trapper. The change only prevents them from triggering again and holding the player there if they failed their save/stat check and move in any direction even just a little. Which can be a problem in some cases because players may survive by may have a REALLY hard time getting out of a trapped area full of those bear traps. There was a few quests where they dropped basically 20 odd of them or something like that into a small area, making it silly hard to get around (as you move forward, get hit, move back get held, then this keeps rinse and repeating). With this change, someone with ultra high reflex saves and evasion and run over an area, trigger them, and let the others just walk over them. Or at least, lets players slowly make their way forward at the very least.

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Originally Posted by Bjond

I've heard noise about this and would also like some data. It seems like a direct nerf purely to light and cloth melee DPS. My tank would grumble, but can adapt. My ranged won't care. My caster is already a pin-cushion. Cloth & Light melee would become completely unplayable.

If the intent is to make tower shields viable for tanks by making the extra dodge not matter from a large, there are better ways to do it (such as improving them to be better than large).

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Not entirely sure what the goal is at the moment, as it could be anything since we have no idea "how much" Dodge the bypass is even intended to be at the moment because it bypasses ALL Dodge at the moment. Hinting it either pulled this buff from the Killing Time Lord of Blades, or Monster Champion "old version" Dodge bypass buff (both of these ignored ALL dodge, no matter HOW MUCH you had, 10%, 55%, 95%, 99%, 100%, 325%, or 9001%). There was a time on Live where the Dodge bypass was working and giving a certain % points bypass instead (but I have no idea what happened to this version of the buff).

If we know what the intended bypass was, we'd have a better idea what its intention is and where the Devs may be wanting to go with it.

J1NG

Dodge Bypass on enemies is a HORRIBLE mechanic when you have classes that depend on Dodge as their primary form of damage mitigation. Melee characters are already in a really rough spot. The issue is stacked mitigation where characters have a very high PRR/MRR, high Health, Moderate Dodge, and Concealment. Of all those things the PRR and Health are the primary means of survival that characters use on the high end. It's countered by having enemies do an OBSCENE amount of damage when you get to high enough difficulties. That level of damage doesn't instantly counter the PRR/MRR/Health when they get into the higher amounts but it will easily one hit a dodge reliant character.

There's a reason that Rogues will slam Uncanny Dodge and get out of the fight when it's on CD. Even with that it can still be easy to get one shot.

Crazy Strike from Frenzied Berserker tree is still broken (supposed to give +0.5\1\2[w] on target hit for 12 seconds).

This is a change that is expected to be in Update 55, and we'll be adding information about it to the release notes shortly.


Legendary enemies are being enhanced, so in Legendary quests certain monsters will get the following special traits:

• Dodgy: Nimble or rogue-like enemies will get a small amount of Dodge. The amount of Dodge they get is based on the difficulty of the quest (Normal, Hard, Elite, Reaper) and the level of the quest.
• Accurate: Ranged and primary fighter-like enemies can get a small amount of Dodge bypass.

Additionally in Legendary Reaper all monsters will get a small Dodge Bypass boost per Skull of the quest that stacks with monsters you benefit from the Accurate trait.


It is worth noting that these bonuses are NOT universal, and only certain enemies in quests will get them. This change is being done to further support Dodge Bypass as a mechanic for players to focus towards, and to help certain enemies become more of a threat against certain types of defensive abilities.

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Originally Posted by Cordovan

This change is being done to further support Dodge Bypass as a mechanic for players to focus towards, and to help certain enemies become more of a threat against certain types of defensive abilities.

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Then put dodge bypass items in the videogame. Most classes have 0% and can't get any at all.

We apologize that the release note about Dodge hasn't made it into the release notes until now. This is a change that is expected to be in Update 55, and we'll be adding information about it to the release notes shortly.


Legendary enemies are being enhanced, so in Legendary quests certain monsters will get the following special traits:


Dodgy: Nimble or rogue-like enemies will get a small amount of Dodge. The amount of Dodge they get is based on the difficulty of the quest (Normal, Hard, Elite, Reaper) and the level of the quest.


Accurate: Ranged and primary fighter-like enemies can get a small amount of Dodge bypass.

Additionally in Legendary Reaper all monsters will get a small Dodge Bypass boost per Skull of the quest that stacks with monsters you benefit from the Accurate trait.


It is worth noting that these bonuses are NOT universal, and only certain enemies in quests will get them. This change is being done to further support Dodge Bypass as a mechanic for players to focus towards, and to help certain enemies become more of a threat against certain types of defensive abilities.

Devs, "Caster and ranged toons aren't quite op enough. What can we do to bury the few remaining melee players... Ah yes, we'll bypass their pitiful dodge chance and not give them any meaningful defenses to cope with these new mechanics."

Some work really needs to be done to balance the game. Casters are so "OP" now it's not funny. They are blowing through R10 quests like it's casual. Please address issues for melee. This dodge bypass is really aimed at melee

toons who are getting blown up already. How you are adding this to the game, and then are reluctant to give us a good 25% damage reduction in Leg Dreadnaught is beyond me.

Running the quests last night I noticed that they were very spread out and it took quite a bit of time to get to them.... The explorer Area reminds me of Ravenloft with how large it is. What are the chances we can get a tele to the quests. That would be so helpful. Especially since there are so many quests out there.

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Originally Posted by Cordovan

This is a change that is expected to be in Update 55, and we'll be adding information about it to the release notes shortly.


Legendary enemies are being enhanced, so in Legendary quests certain monsters will get the following special traits:

• Dodgy: Nimble or rogue-like enemies will get a small amount of Dodge. The amount of Dodge they get is based on the difficulty of the quest (Normal, Hard, Elite, Reaper) and the level of the quest.
• Accurate: Ranged and primary fighter-like enemies can get a small amount of Dodge bypass.

Additionally in Legendary Reaper all monsters will get a small Dodge Bypass boost per Skull of the quest that stacks with monsters you benefit from the Accurate trait.


It is worth noting that these bonuses are NOT universal, and only certain enemies in quests will get them. This change is being done to further support Dodge Bypass as a mechanic for players to focus towards, and to help certain enemies become more of a threat against certain types of defensive abilities.

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I really hate to say it, but I see the point. Mostly, because dodge may be the most underdeveloped mechanic, as very little in the game has any chance to interact with it, which led to various dodge-based abilities being hammered instead of being balanced in the past, as it was a whole or nothing thing.

Still concerned with the "typical melee DPS"-classes, especially rogues, tempest rangers, and monks, where high dodge is their current meta (as getting PRR high enough is challenging without divine EPLs and the hp base isn't a strong suit). Depending on the numbers of bypass, it could be fatal, especially with no feats or enhancement adjustments to counter-act it (which would lead to being in a melee-oriented ED would get you to old value, while all outside of them are subjected to the new balance).
If the increase of abilities like Meld or such is out of question, any chance for Legendary Destiny feats to pick up some slack? Like "Greater Uncanny Dodge" which upgrades improved uncanny dodge (and as a feat only works with Barbarian and Rogue version of it), a general dodge and dodge cap increase and other options non-melee-DPS builds find less appealing?

Can the game recognize if you're in melee range? If yes, maybe a mechanic that increases dodge (or decreases enemy bypass) while in melee with a melee weapon (maybe bound to SWF and TWF as THF is already pretty strong)?

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Originally Posted by hale99

Running the quests last night I noticed that they were very spread out and it took quite a bit of time to get to them.... The explorer Area reminds me of Ravenloft with how large it is. What are the chances we can get a tele to the quests. That would be so helpful. Especially since there are so many quests out there.

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I think a big problem of RL is, that there is little reason to explore Barovia despite its beauty. I'd be fine if we get a guide to lead us to certain points of the map, so that we had some running still to do or if it's like in 3BC where after you finished a quest for the first time, you can port back to it (which would make it easier for daily farming and such).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cordovan

We apologize that the release note about Dodge hasn't made it into the release notes until now. This is a change that is expected to be in Update 55, and we'll be adding information about it to the release notes shortly.


Legendary enemies are being enhanced, so in Legendary quests certain monsters will get the following special traits:


Dodgy: Nimble or rogue-like enemies will get a small amount of Dodge. The amount of Dodge they get is based on the difficulty of the quest (Normal, Hard, Elite, Reaper) and the level of the quest.


Accurate: Ranged and primary fighter-like enemies can get a small amount of Dodge bypass.

Additionally in Legendary Reaper all monsters will get a small Dodge Bypass boost per Skull of the quest that stacks with monsters you benefit from the Accurate trait.


It is worth noting that these bonuses are NOT universal, and only certain enemies in quests will get them. This change is being done to further support Dodge Bypass as a mechanic for players to focus towards, and to help certain enemies become more of a threat against certain types of defensive abilities.

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So it looks like the playerbase will be going from 95% casters to 100% casters. RIP melees

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cordovan

We apologize that the release note about Dodge hasn't made it into the release notes until now. This is a change that is expected to be in Update 55, and we'll be adding information about it to the release notes shortly.


Legendary enemies are being enhanced, so in Legendary quests certain monsters will get the following special traits:


Dodgy: Nimble or rogue-like enemies will get a small amount of Dodge. The amount of Dodge they get is based on the difficulty of the quest (Normal, Hard, Elite, Reaper) and the level of the quest.


Accurate: Ranged and primary fighter-like enemies can get a small amount of Dodge bypass.

Additionally in Legendary Reaper all monsters will get a small Dodge Bypass boost per Skull of the quest that stacks with monsters you benefit from the Accurate trait.


It is worth noting that these bonuses are NOT universal, and only certain enemies in quests will get them. This change is being done to further support Dodge Bypass as a mechanic for players to focus towards, and to help certain enemies become more of a threat against certain types of defensive abilities.

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All for making the game more difficult especially in reaper. Please understand that right now the state of melee is utterly horrendous. This will be nothing but another nail in the coffin for them. Melee vs caster is in such an unhealthy state it's impressive. This is not a good change.

Please note I am not for "nerfing casters". I'm running one right it's quite powerful. The issue is melee please reevaluate or at least discuss with your player base because I think you are missing some details.

Unless there are other changes we are unaware of? AC Meaning more?

Found a bug, the Greater Shout spell that bards get in Tier 6 of the spells, allows me to use quicken, but not Embolden, or Enlarge, or Heighten. Heighten shouldn't matter, as its a level 6 spell, the highest bards can cast, but Embolden and Enlarge should be able to be applied to it?

Also, Great Shout and Greatest Shout are not healing allies.

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Originally Posted by Cordovan

in Legendary Reaper all monsters will get a small Dodge Bypass boost per Skull of the quest that stacks with monsters you benefit from the Accurate trait.


It is worth noting that these bonuses are NOT universal, and only certain enemies in quests will get them.

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Uhhh.....

I think this all hinges on what "a small amount" means

This change is probably good for low-mid skull, where Concealment and Incorp become increasingly pointless, while Dodge remains untouched. However, I worry that at mid-high skulls, Dodge will become a pointless mechanic too, if all mobs can effectively bypass the moderate Dodge values you can achieve in Medium or Heavy armor, and then Accurate monsters can totally ignore it.

I worry that'll flatten builds at endgame even more among the high-reaper crowd, by making AC and PRR the only physical defense that still does anything meaningful worth investing in. Dodge still needs to do enough, and that sounds like it could be a very narrow needle to thread...