Weekly Developer Activities: 3/24/08

[Quarion]

Weekly Development Activities

The following are items which are in development or QA testing for release in Module 7.

General

• Monks have been added to the game as a new playable class!

UI Improvements

• A confirmation dialog has been added to the Default button in the Options UI.
• NEW There are now 20 shortcut bars available, for those who carry too many clickies/weapons/spells to fit on 10. Those of you who had previously used the unsupported methods of accessing bars 11-20 will be happy to know that they now will remember where you put them on the screen.
• NEW When examined, some scrolls did not display their level 16 UMD class requirement. This has been fixed.
• NEW Quest portal info screen text has changed. It now shows the quest difficulty along with the level.
• NEW A new click and hold to attack option has been added to the game and is defaulted to on.

Spells
General Spell Changes

• The turn-you-to-stone effects used by elder earth elementals and stone scorpions are now named "Petrify" so as not to confuse warforged who are immune to "flesh to stone", but not to these effects.
• When you summon a monster into your own persistent AOE (cloudkill, blade barrier, wall of fire, etc), it will no longer take damage on arriving in the world.

Skills, Feats, & Abilities
General Feat Changes

• Insightful Reflexes and Force of Personality feats previously required that you logout and login to take effect; now they take effect immediately.

New Feats

• The following general changes have been made to existing enhancements:
  • The costs of Halfling Cunning I - III and Rogue Sneak Attack Accuracy I - III have been reduced to 1 action point per level.
  • The bonus granted by Rogue Sneak Attack Training has been increased to 3 points of sneak attack damage per level.
  • Rogue Way of the Assassin I now grants a passive +4 bonus to sneak attack damage in addition to its other effects.
  • The effect of Paladin Divine Righteousness I, Rogue Way of the Assassin I active abilities, and Rogue Way of the Thief-Acrobat I "show time" now lasts 60 seconds instead of 20 seconds.
  • Barbarian and Rogue Trap Sense enhancements now grant a +2 bonus to saves vs. traps per level instead of +1.
  • Paladin Bulwark of Good and Resistance of Good costs reduced to 1 point per level
  • Paladin Focus of Good now grants +3, +6, or +9 to Concentration checks.
  • Paladin Courage of Good now grants +2, +4, or +6 to Fear saves.
• The following iconic monk feats have been added to the game:
  • Purity of Body – You are immune to all forms of disease, including magical or supernatural diseases.
  • Wholeness of Body – Permits a monk to regain health over time.
  • Diamond Body – You have mastered your metabolism, and are immune to poison.
  • Timeless Body – Your body and soul are your own, and you do not create spawn effects should you fall in combat with the undead. NOTE: This is a level 17 feat, available to level 17 Monks and higher.
  • Still Mind and Fast Movement for the monk have been added to the game.

Enhancements
New Enhancements

• Halfling Cunning IV
  • Cost: 4 Action Points
  • Prereqs: Level 14 Halfling, Halfling Cunning III, 48 action points spent.
  • Benefit: You gain an additional +1 bonus to attack rolls when flanking an enemy, bringing the total increase to 4.
• Halfling Guile I
  • Cost: 1 Action Point
  • Prereqs: Level 3 Halfling, Halfling Cunning I, 7 action points spent.
  • Benefit: You gain +2 to your sneak attack damage and +1 to bluff.
• Halfling Guile II
  • Cost: 2 Action Points
  • Prereqs: Level 7 Halfling, Halfling Cunning II, Halfling Guile I, 22 action points spent.
  • Benefit: You gain an additional +2 to your sneak attack damage, bringing the total increase to 4, and an additional +1 to bluff, bringing the total increase to 2.
• Halfling Guile III
  • Cost: 3 Action Points
  • Prereqs: Level 11 Halfling, Halfling Cunning III, Halfling Guile II, 37 action points spent.
  • Benefit: You gain an additional +2 to your sneak attack damage, bringing the total increase to 6, and an additional +1 to bluff, bringing the total increase to 3.
• Halfling Guile IV
  • Cost: 4 Action Points
  • Prereqs: Level 15 Halfling, Halfling Cunning IV, Halfling Guile III, 52 action points spent.
  • Benefit: You gain an additional +2 to your sneak attack damage, bringing the total increase to 8, and an additional +1 to bluff, bringing the total increase to 4.
• Paladin Bulwark of Good IV:
  • Cost: 8 Action Points
  • Prereqs: Level 15 Paladin, Paladin Bulwark of Good III, 48 action points spent.
  • Benefit: Your aura of good provides an additional +4 Armor Class bonus.
• Rogue Sneak Attack Accuracy IV:
  • Cost: 4 Action Points
  • Prereqs: Level 14 Rogue, Rogue Sneak Attack Accuracy III, 48 action points spent.
  • Benefit: You gain an additional +1 bonus to hit with your sneak attacks.
• NEW Paladin Divine Sacrifice I
  • Prereq: Paladin level 4, Paladin Extra Smiting I, 11 Action Points spent
  • Cost: 1 Action Point
  • Benefit: Giving up some of your life force to win the battle, you empower your next blow against your foe. This attack deals an additional 5d6 Good damage to evil opponents and increases the critical multiplier of your weapon by 1, but costs you 10 hp and 1 sp, whether or not the attack is successful.". (6 second cooldown.)
• NEW Rogue Wrack Construct I
  • Prereq: Rogue level 3, Rogue Disable Device I, 7 Action Points Spent
  • Cost: 1 Action Point
  • Benefit: You can activate this ability to use your understanding of mechanical objects and their vulnerabilities to strike at critical points in a construct's anatomy, dealing an extra 1d6 damage to constructs or living constructs. (8 second cooldown.)
• NEW Rogue Wrack Construct II
  • Prereq: Rogue level 7, Rogue Disable Device II, Rogue Wrack Construct I, 22 Action Points Spent
  • Cost: 2 Action Points
  • Benefit: You can activate this ability to use your understanding of mechanical objects and their vulnerabilities to strike at critical points in a construct's anatomy, dealing an extra 3d6 damage to constructs or living constructs.
• NEW Rogue Wrack Construct III
  • Prereq: Rogue level 11, Rogue Disable Device III, Rogue Wrack Construct II, 37 Action Points Spent
  • Cost: 3 Action Points
  • Benefit: You can activate this ability to use your understanding of mechanical objects and their vulnerabilities to strike at critical points in a construct's anatomy, dealing an extra 5d6 damage to constructs or living constructs.
  Note: Final values on all of these enhancements are still subject to change based on play-testing.

General Enhancement Changes

• Weapons conjured by the Holy Sword spell and arrows created by the Arcane Archer enhancement are no longer destroyed at the end of a dungeon. These items now persist until you have been logged out for half an hour or more.
• The costs of Halfling Cunning I - III and Rogue Sneak Attack Accuracy I - III have been reduced to 1 action point per level.
• The bonus granted by Rogue Sneak Attack Training has been increased to 3 points of sneak attack damage per level.
• Rogue Way of the Assassin I now grants a passive +4 bonus to sneak attack damage in addition to its other effects.
• The effect of Paladin Divine Righteousness I, Rogue Way of the Assassin I active abilities, and Rogue Way of the Thief-Acrobat I "Show time" now lasts 60 seconds instead of 20 seconds.
• Barbarian and Rogue Trap Sense enhancements now grant a +2 bonus to saves vs. traps per level instead of +1.
• NEW Paladin Faith II enhancements dropped to level 6 (with appropriate drops in "Action Points Spent" requirements), to match the Cleric Faith II enhancements.

Items

• Bursting weapons now continue to increase their damage if they "burst" on an attack that has greater than a x4 damage multiplier.
• Several new chain shirt appearances have been added to the treasure tables.
• Gem and collectible bags now have an "auto-gather" feature that can be turned on. Whenever the player picks up a collectible or gem, it will go into a collectible or gem bag if there is room, when enabled. Auto-gathering prefers bags that already have a stack of the picked up item over bags that do not have any.
• Weapons conjured by the Holy Sword spell and arrows created by the Arcane Archer enhancement are no longer destroyed at the end of a dungeon. These items now persist until you have been logged out for half an hour or more.
• Several new chain shirt appearances have been added to the treasure tables.
• NEW The names of some item effects have been changed to avoid confusion with similarly named enhancements. The effects themselves remain the same. "Improved Maximize I", "Improved Enlarge I", "Improved Extend I", "Improved Empower II", and "Improved Empower Healing I" have been renamed to "Spell Point Discount - Maximize I", "Spell Point Discount - Enlarge I", "Spell Point Discount - Extend I", "Spell Point Discount - Empower II", and "Spell Point Discount - Empower Healing I".
• NEW The following potions are now equipped with funnels so they can be used on afflicted friends: Potion of Fear Removal, Potion of Poison Neutralization, Potion of Blindness Removal, Potion of Curse Removal, Potion of Disease Removal, Woodblossom Mead, and Crimson Nightshade Infusion. The new funnels are especially easy to use so raging barbarians should have no problems with them.

Monsters

• Dispel magic no longer dispels ogre and troll rage.
• NEW A few wight priests will no longer cast cure spells on themselves.

Quests

• The Shroud
  • The agents of the twelve have been studying the shroud and report a shift in the 13th moon. They speculate the moon of death’s influence will wan in the northwest part of the valley.
• Twilight Canyon
  • The way to the upper levels will now only open for players who speak to Paetus after he has been rescued.
• Sands of Menechtarun
  • All zombies in the Menechtarun area now drop the special desert tokens instead of regular collectibles.
• Orchard of the Macabre
  • A named rare blackbone skeleton in the Orchard of the Macabre now casts spells.

Shopping

• The potion vendor ogre in Gianthold now sells potions of Lesser Restoration.
• The arcane scroll vendor for level 4 and 5 scrolls in House Jorasco no longer sells any level 3 scrolls.

Other Changes

• If you had unlocked the bonus character slot from 1750 favor, it would intermittently not show up. That should no longer happen.
• Previously, some poison dart traps (in the Sunken Sewer, for example) would damage warforged (and others wearing poison immunity items) despite their poison immunity. This should no longer happen. Similarly, there were a few dart traps that did fire/sonic/cold/etc damage, which would bypass appropriate damage resistances. This should also no longer happen.
• The save DC's on traps that scale with difficulty have been lowered on Hard and Elite. Elite trap save DC's are now roughly equivalent to what Hard trap save DC's were before this change. (For example, a trap that previously had a save DC of 30 on Elite will now be DC 22.) Spot, search, disable, and damage values remain unchanged.
• It is now easier to see when standing in an incendiary cloud
• Scrolls that were missing a level 16 UMD class requirement will now display correctly when examined.
• Bidding on an item from the Bids page of the auction house that you have been outbid on will no longer result in an error message.
• Players who perish in either the realm of Dolurrh in Desecrated Temple or in the fire rooms in Rainbow in Dark will no longer leave their soul stones behind when they teleport out.
• AOE buff spells cast in tavern brawl pits will now hit yourself (but not anyone else, since everyone else in the pit is your enemy!)
• When wielding a finesse weapon, the to-hit value in the Inventory panel will now correctly display using your Dex mod if your Dex mod is greater then you Str mod.
• Previously, the DC listed for combat feat tooltips did not include bonuses from enhancements and feats. This was a visual glitch only; they were still being added to the actual DC in combat. This is now fixed.
• The fire effect for a minotaur shaman staff no longer hangs in the air after it has been shattered with a cold spell.
• The teleport bug in The Shadow Crypt where the camera detaches and is floating in water has been fixed.
  
• Ritual Sacrifice: Killing Ramak Orenah before the objective to do so appears, will no longer result in a broken quest.
• Sirroco will now cause blindness only on critical hits, as per the description.
• A visual bug was fixed where the XP or SP graphic bars would be in the wrong position, if your XP or SP changed in both directions rapidly. For example, if you were damaged, at the same time you were healed, the bar would move the the wrong position, however, the XP value shown would have been correct. .
• Previously, spell focus: transmutation was not working. Now it works.
• It is no longer possible to break some quests by having a pet trigger a monster entry.
• The black abbot goggle effect will no longer persist if the goggles are destroyed while you are wearing them.
• NEW Bidding on an item that you have been outbid on, from the bids page of the auction house no longer results in an error message.
• NEW The description for the "Improved Uncanny Dodge" feat has been corrected; it now states correctly that the feat gives +6 to reflex saves.
• NEW The Lesser, Improved, and Greater Regeneration raid loot effects have been fixed so you no longer have to re-equip the items after zoning to get the effect reapplied.
• NEW It is now easier to see when standing in an incindeary cloud.

7.6

[Kargon]

[[*]NEW There are now 20 shortcut bars available, for those who carry too many clickies/weapons/spells to fit on 10. Those of you who had previously used the unsupported methods of accessing bars 11-20 will be happy to know that they now will remember where you put them on the screen.

This was only thing that convince Kargon to take Trap the Soul on sorcermermer (not enough slots to actuamally take a usefumul spell and leave it on shortcut bar). Good times.

[[*]NEW It is now easier to see when standing in an incindeary cloud.

yaaaay!

[[*]NEW The following potions are now equipped with funnels so they can be used on afflicted friends: Potion of Fear Removal, Potion of Poison Neutralization, Potion of Blindness Removal, Potion of Curse Removal, Potion of Disease Removal, Woodblossom Mead, and Crimson Nightshade Infusion. The new funnels are especially easy to use so raging barbarians should have no problems with them.

Kargon going be very angry if Madstone rage suddenly prevents these potimions from being used, like lesser restore potimions currentamally...

[MysticTheurge]

Nice Stuff. (Hooray for hotbars!)

The new rogue and paladin enhancements seem... interesting.

[Meloc]

NEW There are now 20 shortcut bars available, for those who carry too many clickies/weapons/spells to fit on 10. Those of you who had previously used the unsupported methods of accessing bars 11-20 will be happy to know that they now will remember where you put them on the screen.



I like this change!!!!

[SneakThief]

NEW There are now 20 shortcut bars available, for those who carry too many clickies/weapons/spells to fit on 10. Those of you who had previously used the unsupported methods of accessing bars 11-20 will be happy to know that they now will remember where you put them on the screen.

And there was much rejoicing in the streets!!!

[EazyWeazy]

20 hotbars!!!

[debo]

THANK GOD! 20 hot bars!

If it was so easy to fix what took so long !?!?!

Thanks tho I am happy.

[Laith]

NEW Rogue Wrack Construct III

• Prereq: Rogue level 11, Rogue Disable Device III, Rogue Wrack Construct II, 37 Action Points Spent
• Cost: 3 Action Points
• Benefit: You can activate this ability to use your understanding of mechanical objects and their vulnerabilities to strike at critical points in a construct's anatomy, dealing an extra 5d6 damage to constructs or living constructs.

am i understanding this right? +5d6 damage against a creature type that can ALREADY be sneak attacked?

sucks to be WF.

thought these sort of enhancements would be more on line with "X% chance to apply sneak attack damage to [monster type]". Of course, against a creature type with natural fortification, i can see why you went with straight damage... kinda.

Ahh well, thanks for picking disable device, and not repair.

Now for the undead...

[Beherit_Baphomar]

Kargon going be very angry if Madstone rage suddenly prevents these potimions from being used, like lesser restore potimions currentamally...

Eyern will be equally as angry....so that will be rage potion, madstone rage (clickie), madstone rage (effect), rage and then Dev Rage.
Giving Eyern a whopping 74 STR and 92 CON.

I dont think you want any of that Dev's....

[Shaamis]

NEW

The following potions are now equipped with funnels so they can be used on afflicted friends: Potion of Fear Removal, Potion of Poison Neutralization, Potion of Blindness Removal, Potion of Curse Removal, Potion of Disease Removal, Woodblossom Mead, and Crimson Nightshade Infusion. The new funnels are especially easy to use so raging barbarians should have no problems with them.

does this mean the potions will have a casting animation, and whether we can do it will depend on that?

I really like the ability to drink a remove fear potion, but if I'm not mistaken, turning it into a casting animation/effect will stop that? If the part you have writen "...The new funnels are especially easy to use so raging barbarians should have no problems with them..." is the solution, and it works, then kudos!, but of not, then boo.

[ArkoHighStar]

am i understanding this right? +5d6 sneak attack damage against a creature type that can ALREADY be sneak attacked?

sucks to be WF.

constructs cannot be sneak attacked, and from what it sounds like this is not sneak attack damage this is on every hit

[Jaywade]

man I was hoping for more (hey it's my bithday <34 today>) but not bad I likethe rogue's ability to damage contructs

[Hendrik]

"A new click and hold to attack option has been added to the game and is defaulted to on."


BEST NEWS EVAH!

Thank you DEV's!!!!

[Impaqt]

20 Hotbars!!! Hooray!!!!!!

NEW The following potions are now equipped with funnels so they can be used on afflicted friends: Potion of Fear Removal, Potion of Poison Neutralization, Potion of Blindness Removal, Potion of Curse Removal, Potion of Disease Removal, Woodblossom Mead, and Crimson Nightshade Infusion. The new funnels are especially easy to use so raging barbarians should have no problems with them.

I just hope they can be used while Madstones And that they dont Break CE like Lesser Restore does Now....

[Impaqt]

man I was hoping for more (hey it's my bithday <34 today>) but not bad I likethe rogue's ability to damage contructs

I liek that too, but I dont think it would of been overpowering to lump in undead too... Or atleast Provide an Undead Line as well.

[binnsr]

• NEW Rogue Wrack Construct I
  • Prereq: Rogue level 3, Rogue Disable Device I, 7 Action Points Spent
  • Cost: 1 Action Point
  • Benefit: You can activate this ability to use your understanding of mechanical objects and their vulnerabilities to strike at critical points in a construct's anatomy, dealing an extra 1d6 damage to constructs or living constructs. (8 second cooldown.)
• NEW Rogue Wrack Construct II
  • Prereq: Rogue level 7, Rogue Disable Device II, Rogue Wrack Construct I, 22 Action Points Spent
  • Cost: 2 Action Points
  • Benefit: You can activate this ability to use your understanding of mechanical objects and their vulnerabilities to strike at critical points in a construct's anatomy, dealing an extra 3d6 damage to constructs or living constructs.
• NEW Rogue Wrack Construct III
  • Prereq: Rogue level 11, Rogue Disable Device III, Rogue Wrack Construct II, 37 Action Points Spent
  • Cost: 3 Action Points
  • Benefit: You can activate this ability to use your understanding of mechanical objects and their vulnerabilities to strike at critical points in a construct's anatomy, dealing an extra 5d6 damage to constructs or living constructs.
  Note: Final values on all of these enhancements are still subject to change based on play-testing.

YAY! Rogue Love .. kinda steep on the costs though if you need to spend 18aps to get it..

[*]NEW Paladin Faith II enhancements dropped to level 6 (with appropriate drops in "Action Points Spent" requirements), to match the Cleric Faith II enhancements.[/LIST]

?? paladin faith? are we talking about the Dwarven Faith enhancement line?

Items

• NEW The following potions are now equipped with funnels so they can be used on afflicted friends: Potion of Fear Removal, Potion of Poison Neutralization, Potion of Blindness Removal, Potion of Curse Removal, Potion of Disease Removal, Woodblossom Mead, and Crimson Nightshade Infusion. The new funnels are especially easy to use so raging barbarians should have no problems with them.

Its great that raging barbarians can figure out these potions, but what about smart(ish) fighter types using Combat Expertise? Currently, Lesser Restoration STILL breaks CE - which potions aren't supposed to do...

[Illuminati]

WoW!, bodyfeeder scimitar of pure good on my Pali just became a khopesh.

every 6 seconds so basically 1 spam per mob. Seems fair. Any less than that and may be broken.

[Laith]

constructs cannot be sneak attacked,

yes, but this enhancement also includes "living constructs" (ie warforged) which CAN be sneak attacked (figuring you avoid their natural fortification, of course)

from what it sounds like this is not sneak attack damage this is on every hit

ahh, you are correct sir. thanks.

[Aeneas]

my RSI from shroud 1 is happy to see the click and hold attack

Also, the change for faith II enhancements moving to level 6 down from 9 for paladins is a welcome change.

[Zenako]

Woot 20 hot bars....

Now if Turbine could just see fit to send all the players bigger screens to play on

Seriously, my capped toons were starting to run out spots as their number of spells and enhancement/feat clickies kept climbing to the point I was having to drop items I only used on occasion, but still wanted quick access to for things I needed quick access to. Thanks.

Couple of interesting new Paly and Rogue Enhancements, however I still fear the Paladin one will suffer the same PITA issues Smite Has. With Real Time combat and movement, WAY TOO often the target is dead or moved JUST TO FAR before you get the swing off that you not only miss, you could not hit at all due to it being out of range. The CLEAVE like cooldown is good however.