U55 Preview 1 (5/10 - 5/12)

[WetWip]

General:
My male Tabaxi Trailblazer can't mount anything. Tried both a horse and a dino in the market. Works fine on live servers.

Heavenly Wrath was working oddly. I would not "fly through" mobs and often just stopped at the first one hit. Sometime I would get through a pack of mobs but could not really tell what damage was done. Need to do some more testing with it.

Natural Reserves was the other core 4 I took. Text says not implemented so I did not try and test it. I hope the end game text is correct and was just left out of the thread description. Activating the 5% boost on shrine is still not real useful but is much better than needing to run out of spell points before it triggers.

Quest Feedback:
First quest - I really enjoyed it and like some of the new new mechanics. Only problem I had was I could not find the end chest after finishing the quest? Is it not there yet or am I just really blind? (The latter is true often enough)

Second quest - pretty straight forward, no problems completing it. Commodore Alaina looks like she is about 12 years old - not the the look you expect from someone commanding multiple ships and maybe a little young for a party to be smacking around.

Third quest - liked it, , no problems completing it. Liked the traps, felt intelligent and not just random.

Last quest - stepped in and was immediately cursed, clicked each monolith to clear curses and started forward and client crashed (a few quick flickers then closed) before I got to first set of mobs. Logged back in and some of my enhancements were reset - odd behavior I have never seen before.
- recalled out to reset enhancements and started again
immediately cursed again upon entering quest. monolith would not clear curse this time. only dialog options was to step away. ended up running the quest with the curse - on R1 the curse was annoying but not really challenging to manage. I am guessing since I ran the other 3 quests first and could clear the curse the 1st time, something bugged in the clear logic when the client crashed and I had to reenter.

This is a long quest, I'm sure it will get faster but 1st time through took me 52 minutes with 142 monsters killed. In comparison the first 3 were 10-15 minutes each 1st time. (somewhat leisure look around pace for all)
-Plenty of shrines, I used every one I found as I was on a cleric caster and there were a lot of high hit point mobs. (I can't tell red from orange named)
-Some of the trap knock downs seemed excessive - one of the ceiling traps chain knocked me down constantly reminiscent of the sharn experience before the arties were dialed back.-
-Many of the mobs, specifically the water wierds, were glitchy when they first activated. They could attack me for a time before I could damage them.
-The map got messed up when dropping down and showed a mix of what was explored on what looked like two levels. I very much like it when the map changes level with you and think that was supposed to be happening here but it was not working correctly.
-Exiting the quest dumped me in the water in the harbor - guessing WAI but different than the first 3
- There are 2 different Octopus crests in the quest. They are a good ways apart so not likely to get confused but would still suggest not using the same crest twice for quest that I only remember 3 crests in.
- Some of the mobs seemed to be in slow motion
- The force damage bubbles made me smile in the first quest. They felt overused in this one. I get the slow moving high damage concept, it was just getting tiring needing to constantly run away. I tried staying in melee range thinking they may be an anti ranged mechanic but was still getting hit with them. They may make it very hard on melee that can't see them or have time to move. They were hitting me for 1000 to 1500 on R1. Given they are force and bypass MRR, guessing they will be one shotting melee in mid to upper reaper.
- In general the quest had a long, drawn out, usually lost feel to it and I found myself wishing there is not something I want form it because I would hate to need to farm it for items. Given the length and feel it is likely a one and done quest for me. It's not a bad quest, just not my taste.

[MasterKernel]

Level Cap Increase - don't care. Thank God we would be able to TR at 30. Also means no legendary content would be used... As well as the Heroic one since it's lvl 7 and there are plenty of stuff to do already in the lvl 7 range.

Yet ANOTHER crafting system with TONS of ingredients nobody has space to store ! Sounds like a mockery. :-\ Oh, and it's only lvl 31+. OK, less items to have a headache in trying to think about how the one is gonna store it... From the other hand, why bother ? You use it, craft an item and TR. Nice system.

Quests so far :

The Curse and the Captive Crustacean - sorry but I don't have any words other than it's some kind of a nonsense.

Plundering Pirates' Point - the "DDO standard" run-and-kill-everything. Boring as usual. At least it's not quite linear and has some optionals you can do on the way.

Bullywugs and Booby Traps - another one-way-run-and-kill. And traps. Lots of traps. This one could be quite good quest if recreated with the "Legend of Grimrock" engine, in DDO it's "usual boring".

Fall of the Forgotten Temple - well, this one looks somehow interesting though nothing special or much different from the usual "run-and-kill-everything". But it has more or less balance between monsters, traps and puzzles.

Overall it's BORING. I don't know the PnP original and it's a little too early to jude with only 4 quests out of 10 but so far I don't know why anybody on Earth would choose this module to recreate in a CRPG insead of spending money on buying out all of the still existing paper copies of this module and BURN them ! :-\

The only good thing so far is visuals. Again "as usual". The "ancient temple" walls in Bullywugs and Booby Traps & Fall of the Forgotten Temple looks awesome, hands down. Don't know who makes textures for DDO but looks like for years those people are only one who are capable of creating something good in the whole company. That is actually sad.

[Sqrlmonger]

• Augments now display much prettier! Their slot types now appear in examination and are color-coded appropriately

What I would really love to see, is a little colored dot on the item icon indicating the slots of an item with a faded color indicating an empty slot.

For example:



Edit: In case it wasn't clear this is for an item with 1 yellow aug slot. For items with multiple they would each be visible with their own colors and fill-status indicated.

[Aelonwy]

[*]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

So many QoL upgrades I am thrilled! Thanks guys. I have questions about the above though. Specifically "You must own the item associated with the location you are attempting to teleport to." I have ALL of these except Dread at the moment. Must I keep the actual items in my bank or TR cache? or can I trash all but my favorite teleport item and just having the Ultimate edition of the expacks unlocked gives my favorite teleport item the improved teleport list?

[ranthrock]

^^^^
This!!!

^^^^
This, please please please

[Lynnabel]

So many QoL upgrades I am thrilled! Thanks guys. I have questions about the above though. Specifically "You must own the item associated with the location you are attempting to teleport to." I have ALL of these except Dread at the moment. Must I keep the actual items in my bank or TR cache? or can I trash all but my favorite teleport item and just having the Ultimate edition of the expacks unlocked gives my favorite teleport item the improved teleport list?

You don't need to keep anything - the spell is checking your account, not your inventory. So just hang onto whichever item you'd like to look at the most and feel free to bin the rest at your leisure!

[Aelonwy]

You don't need to keep anything - the spell is checking your account, not your inventory. So just hang onto whichever item you'd like to look at the most and feel free to bin the rest at your leisure!

Awesome ty.

[Annex]

When I use the "click here"!" link in "How to Access Lammania" I get a security alert.

[Vooduspyce]

• 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

This is awesome!! Please include the Key to the City of Eveningstar and D12. I know they're a little different but pretty please with sugar on top <3 <3 <3

[rabidfox]

When I use the "click here"!" link in "How to Access Lammania" I get a security alert.

right click and save as that link. Some browsers/systems setups don't like it when you directly click a link to an EXE file.

[Aelonwy]

I'm trying out the quests and I couldn't even finish the first one The Curse and the Captive Crustacean. There is simply too much to try to understand and do SOLO. That is I do NOT control where the crab comes out of the ground but it surfaces where I'm trying to figure out the levers on the ballista and does AoE. Even if I do manage to figure out the levers while the crab is still above ground and before the dmg goes off AND manage to fire the ballista... I DO NOT control the direction of the ballista and every time it fired nowhere near the crab. So then waves of spawns begin while I'm still trying to figure this junk out and I'm having to fight them, fight levers, avoid crab dmg and guess which ballista MIGHT target the crab at this moment ALL while hoping the crab is still in the same place AND still above ground. I can only juggle so many balls.

Was this meant to be a mini-raid? This seems like something you would want multiple teams on. One to fight spawns, one or even two more ready and already knowledgeable about the levers to set the ballista. Maybe someone to intimidate the crab into position assuming it responds to such.

Not enjoying or being able to properly solo the very first quest is NOT auspicious.

[Amastris]

Ran all 4 on legendary last night / today

The Curse and the Captive Crustacean -

• Spawn times are quick for trash mobs and this can prove to be a pain if soloing.
• trash mob sorcs spam grease. this is a pain also when they grease the area covering the roman numeral for the ballistas.
• also lined up my shot and fired it hitting near the crab but not hitting the crab idk if this is WAI or not, seems like not imo.
• i also didnt see where the end chest dropped, maybe i missed it but i was tabbing for it.

Fall of the Forgotten Temple
waaaaay too long, longer than danger at dunwater and rivaling ToEE "speed runs" and Slave Lords. As it is now unless there is something i absolutely need to farm from here this is my VIP saga skip quest.

Plundering Pirates' Point
The underwater chest near the broken up ship that you can't jump on (to my disappointment) as is can not be opened by Frogo. idk if its a problem with the chest itself or with Frogo. possibly both?? or possibly unlocked by one of the optionals i didnt achieve to that point. this might require a second run.

Bullywugs and Booby Traps
no real issues i saw with this one. The issue i did have was with frogo. His pathing to trap boxes was way ganked up. He would run past the wall installed flame jets, trigger them then run back to the box and disable it. Sometimes I think he is modeled after Warren from Something about Mary. I'm just waiting on him to say "Have you seen my baseball?"

[Aelonwy]

Plundering Pirates.

Visually excellent. I found a spot where my character got stuck trying to see/jump behind a building in the area before the gong. The second two totems are awful close together. it would be nice if the last totem was hidden on a pier behind the ruined ship or on the ruined ship itself that we currently can't explore. Most of the pirates and even some of the dinosaurs were not immediately attacking. There was some kind of alert/activation delay where they went from unattackable to aggressive but just standing there for a moment. I loved the archaeological dig-like tunnels. Definitely getting a Jurassic Park meets Land of the Lost vibe. Did not find one of the captives, I was searching carefully, its always possible I missed one though. With those tunnels and all those outside buildings, this would be a good quest to have a treasure behind a false wall or pile of dirt or rocks.

I liked it.

[Firebreed]

May we please know if Dread Sea Scrolls will be part of the Isle of Dread saga please? Or if it will offer Isle of Dread ingredients once the expansion launches?

Basically, is there any reason to hold off farming it until June?

[Aelonwy]

Bullywugs and Booby Traps

My favorite so far, felt very Indiana Jones, love the new ruin aesthetics. Quite a few of the traps seemed to have no disarm, my cleric will hate this with her less than stellar reflex save and no evasion. Perfect quest length IMHO too, not so short as to feel pointless, not so long as to have to schedule a time to run it.

[Aelonwy]

Fall of the Forgotten Temple.

First run through took me about an hour. I enjoyed the quest. I had the debuff from the crab quest because I did not complete it. The only issue I had was on one of the upper floors where you have to leap frog across the pit trap (that actually leads forward in the quest) and on the other side can hit a lever that opens a dimension door... well I went forward until I fought a red name marauder (IIRC) and behind him was a locked door and behind the locked door was a locked chest. I was NOT allowed to pick that chest and I found no key for it.

Otherwise I had no trouble finding levers or crests and backtracking as necessary to open the way forward. All in all I was surprised there wasn't more to it.

[MasterKernel]

I'm trying out the quests and I couldn't even finish the first one The Curse and the Captive Crustacean. There is simply too much to try to understand and do SOLO.

Crab spots got numbers. Ballistas got numbers. 1+1=it's easy to understand what the one must do in the quest. :-D
But it has to be done really fast if solo, yeah.

[Aelonwy]

Crab spots got numbers. Ballistas got numbers. 1+1=it's easy to understand what the one must do in the quest. :-D
But it has to be done really fast if solo, yeah.

Yes thank you. Wetwip gave me a tip via PM about the Ballista/Target numbers but its still a lot to grapple with solo and the spawn waves are too fast. I managed to complete this quest duo with my son but it was rough and I can't say I enjoyed it at all. No I definitely do NOT like this quest.

We also ran the next two together. Even with both of us searching we could not find the last captive in Plundering Pirates. My son did find an optional I missed on a pirate ship docked on the pier. That was cool. And Bullywugs and Boobytraps continued to be fun even on a second run through.

EDIT: Oh I almost forgot the crab quest gave us no chest on completion.

[Josielynn]

You don't need to keep anything - the spell is checking your account, not your inventory. So just hang onto whichever item you'd like to look at the most and feel free to bin the rest at your leisure!

I was wondering about the animation. All have the "tie-your-shoe" animation except the Boarding Pass which has a "casting" animation (my preference). If I pick the Boarding Pass, will I continue to get that casting animation when I choose the location? I own all of the teleport items except Isle of Dread atm.

[MasterKernel]

We also ran the next two together. Even with both of us searching we could not find the last captive in Plundering Pirates.

https://youtu.be/EkZzNxzNwxQ