U45 Preview 1: Revamped "Catacombs" and "Delera's Tomb"

[Cocomajobo]

Update 45 is expected to contain revamped versions of both the "Catacombs" and "Delera's Tomb" adventure packs. This revamp will include the debut of Epic versions of the quests in addition to polish of the existing Heroic versions. The quests that have seen this polish pass are listed below:

Catacombs

• The Friar's Niece 3/23
• Return to the Sanctuary 3/23
• The Old Archives 3/23
• The Crypt of Gerard Dryden 3/23
• Setting the Wards: The Lower Cathedral 3/23
• Setting the Wards: The Patriarchs' Crypt 3/23
• Endgame: Marguerite 3/23
• Endgame: The Archbishop's Fate 4/23

Delera's Graveyard

• The Mystery of Delera's Tomb 5/27
• The Missing Party 7/27
• Free Delera 7/27
• Return to Delera's Tomb 6/27
• Thrall of the Necromancer 8/27

Known Issues

• N/A

[Amundir]

Can I just say, for a brief moment "3/23" confused me, until I realized it was the different levels. Maybe alter that presentation?

[hit_fido]

Delera's Graveyard

• The Mystery of Delera's Tomb 5/27
• The Missing Party 7/27
• Free Delera 7/27
• Return to Delera's Tomb 6/27
• Thrall of the Necromancer 8/27

Seems like this would have been a good opportunity to squeeze the levels down to something more sensible. Like 6/7/7/7/7 or 5/6/6/6/7. Instead of sticking with a 5 (or 4+1, in truth) quest chain spread over 4 levels?

[ValariusK]

Since these are straight up Eberron quests, will they drop tokens of the 12 on epic?

[bonscott87]

Since these are straight up Eberron quests, will they drop tokens of the 12 on epic?

I really hope so. Need more variety of quests that drop tokens.

[Loromir]

Since these are straight up Eberron quests, will they drop tokens of the 12 on epic?

Don't count on it. SSG would have liked to get rid of tokens of the twelve years ago if it weren't for a major protest by the whole DDO community.

[Vorachtin]

Update 45 is expected to contain revamped versions of both the "Catacombs" and "Delera's Tomb" adventure packs. This revamp will include the debut of Epic versions of the quests in addition to polish of the existing Heroic versions. The quests that have seen this polish pass are listed below:

Catacombs

• The Friar's Niece 3/23
• Return to the Sanctuary 3/23
• The Old Archives 3/23
• The Crypt of Gerard Dryden 3/23
• Setting the Wards: The Lower Cathedral 3/23
• Setting the Wards: The Patriarchs' Crypt 3/23
• Endgame: Marguerite 3/23
• Endgame: The Archbishop's Fate 4/23

Delera's Graveyard

• The Mystery of Delera's Tomb 5/27
• The Missing Party 7/27
• Free Delera 7/27
• Return to Delera's Tomb 6/27
• Thrall of the Necromancer 8/27

Known Issues

• N/A

Catacombs being 23 is a disappointment, 27 for deleras isn't horrible 28 would be better! but 27 will do.

[PsychoBlonde]

Don't count on it. SSG would have liked to get rid of tokens of the twelve years ago if it weren't for a major protest by the whole DDO community.

It wasn't that people *liked* the Epic tokens so much, it's that having to farm epic quests to get 4200 commendations of valor was WAY more time-intensive back then, since this was BEFORE they rolled out heart seeds. The comms are bind to character, remember. That would have made getting heroic hearts MUCH more time-intensive and restrictive and, surprise, EVERYONE hated it.

I suspect if they were to re-submit the proposal NOW, maybe making it so that you can get comms/seeds EVERY time you complete an epic quest, NOT just the first two times per day, people would be MUCH more open to this idea, particularly if they made it so that you can turn in cannith challenge ingredients for COMMS/SEEDS (and, also, make the cannith challenge recipes use comms/seeds) instead of tokens.

It would also be nice if, at the same time, they made it so that you could turn in eveningstar challenge ingredients for comms/seeds.

This would go VERY nicely alongside a wholesale removal of the universally hated S/S/S epic crafting system, just making it so the epic items drop instead of having to be upgraded from heroic items. They could give us all a turn in where we can trade our shards/scrolls/seals for comms/seeds.

The result would be to make comms the universal epic currency kinda like they were intended to be when they rolled them out.

[c29p74]

Teleporter for the old Catacombs up&down?

[Rykka]

Catacombs being 23 is a disappointment, 27 for deleras isn't horrible 28 would be better! but 27 will do.

I'm super happy to see lvl23 quests with modern ML23 gear. I have 0 interest the quest chain by itself, but ML:23 gear sits in a sweet spot for bonus values and are low enough level that they will see considerable use. Probably.

[dragons1ayer74]

In checking epic elite and R1 difficulties the monsters saves seem too high .

I have tried a few of these and notice no difference between the saves in ether pack, imo both are way over performing...Tested with my level 29 sorc - currently with 90 Spell DC in EE and 96 DC in R1. Specifically focusing on reflex saves but these monsters seem to be making their saving throws vs my spells at way too much frequency. Also why does every monster with good reflex also have evasion. I think maybe you have some type of legendary template applied to these monsters … also this same issue is currently in Keep on the borderlands with these difficulties and way over performing monster reflex saves plus way too many evading monsters.


Thanks for adding more EPIC content. I will really like to have some more mid and low level epic quest selection level. 27 for Delears is getting very close to Ledgendary cutoff though.

[Sho-sa]

Can you please change the base lvl of 'Return to Delera's Tomb' from 6 to 7? And have an eye on reorganizing Threnal into sensible lvl progressions when you retouch that?

[PsychoBlonde]

YOU.
RUINED.
ARCHBISHOP.
DRYDEN'S.
CHAMBERS.

YOU RUINED IT.
RUINED.

I am so mad right now. That room with the lighting and the elevated throne etc. is one of the COOLEST ROOMS IN THE GAME AND IT IS DESTROYED.

PUT IT BACK.

[J1NG]

YOU.
RUINED.
ARCHBISHOP.
DRYDEN'S.
CHAMBERS.

YOU RUINED IT.
RUINED.

I am so mad right now. That room with the lighting and the elevated throne etc. is one of the COOLEST ROOMS IN THE GAME AND IT IS DESTROYED.

PUT IT BACK.

Been too busy checking mechanics to see if still broken or any new stuff cropped up. Got a screenie to show us what it looks like on Lamannia at the moment?

J1NG

[QuantumFX]

Crypt of Gerard Dryden (aka Duality):
- I see you used all the tech from Thunderholme in this one. I spent an entire 3 seconds behind everything in the dungeon, which is weird because I only have a 90ms latency.
- No Epic Dryden Mace? Or Dryden Mail? Or Battleworn Sword?

[PsychoBlonde]

I pulled a heroic set of Gerard Dryden's mail from the EPIC crypt off gerard dryden.

[PsychoBlonde]

Been too busy checking mechanics to see if still broken or any new stuff cropped up. Got a screenie to show us what it looks like on Lamannia at the moment?

J1NG

Here's how it looks on Live for reference:

[J1NG]

Ohhh...! That is a fair bit of a change.

But I imagine it's to prevent people from using the central dias area as an obstacle (making things a tiny bit easier) and to prevent people from reaching perch spots as well (making it a lot easier).

But I can see that the new change does highlight the Silver Flame more than the old one. So graphically it is more accurate for the setting.

J1NG

[PsychoBlonde]

They need to put Archbishop Dryden in a silver flame robe instead of that ugly generic red and brown thing.

[J1NG]

Think that's all the Duality stuff. But the old setting pretty much gave it away visually. Robe/Outfit and the setting/drapes. The new one at least doesn't hint at this, besides Dryden, so I agree the Devs should alter his look.

J1NG