U53 Preview 2: Hunter and Hunted

[Lomizir]

Disclaimer

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

Hello, folks! Preview 2 of Update 53 is open! It is expected to remain open until sometime in the afternoon (Eastern) of Thursday, February 3rd.

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Our upcoming content pack for Update 53 will feature 2 new dungeons (levels 7/32) and a Legendary raid (level 32) where you will be challenged by the powerful Master of the Hunt.

To access the content pack on the preview server, speak to Lord Poincelot in the Test Dojo to be granted preview server specific DDO points and then "purchase" the "Hunter and Hunted" Adventure Pack in the DDO Preview Store. The raid can be reached by speaking to "The Questgiver" in the Test Dojo who will transport the player to the relevant questgivers. Speak to Tanyth Berona if you would like to return to the Test Dojo.


In addition to the raid and dungeons, this preview features the following miscellaneous changes:

Quests and Adventure Areas

• Captain Loren d'Lyrandar has a slightly less horrifying face
• Typos have been fixed in Raven's Bane

Spells

• Meteor Swarm is now marginally less blinding and screen-shakey
• Lionheart and Reincarnate now properly take the Eschew Materials metamagic
• Fire Seeds, Ice Flowers, and Burst of Glacial Wrath now take appropriate metamagics
• Blur is back to being 20%
• The quest selection UI now spells "receive" correctly in its tooltips

Enhancements

• Feydark Illusionist's Illusory Augmentation now correctly grants its bonuses if you have obtained Augment Summoning from a temporary source, such as gear or an augment
• Hope for Success from the FVS Beacon of Hope tree now applies more reliably
• Sacred Touch in Warpriest and Warsoul now mentions the typing of the buff
• Eldritch Knight's proficiencies now apply more reliably

Items

• The Reaper Shard crafting recipes for goggles and glove now function
• First Blood no longer kills you if you cast a spell on yourself
• Dripping with Magma now triggers once every 1 second instead of .25
• Bowdlin (Collectible Trader) now correctly tells you that he distributes red augments and not colorless
  
• You may now Barter for Sands of Menechtarun wilderness loot from Masei Mkembe's barter shop in Zawabi's Refuge if you have Antique Bronze Tokens to spare
  
• Quality Spell Focus Mastery now changes from +1 to +2 at a slightly earlier level so more gear has the +2 version of the affix
• Spell Penetration and attack augments now have corrected descriptions
• There is a new NPC found in a variety of interesting places that will trade for several augments that had previously only been able to be found in random loot

Classes

• Absolute Zero now applies its frozen CC to fire enemies that are immune to death, instead of letting the death effect bounce off and therefore having no effect

Feats

• The epic feat Doubleshot has its correct tooltip

Races

• Tiefling's Infernal Resistance no longer drops on death

Monsters

• Animated Armors should no longer heal from negative energy
• Fixed Veil's awkward appearance in "The Prisoner" quest on difficulties other than normal

UI

• The spell selector window (for spells such as Teleport and Fire Shield) now remembers its position
• The UI option "Show Detailed Descriptions in Examination" now also controls the verbosity of slotted filigree by showing or hiding the filigree's description
• The examination window now remembers its position
• There is a new button to "Delete All Confirmed Mail". Note that this will not function if any mail in your Confirmed tab has any attachments

Misc

• Spells should no longer block projectiles

Known Issues

• n/a

Spells should no longer block projectilesSpells should no longer block projectiles

[cru121]

• Spells should no longer block projectiles

Known Issues

• n/a

Spells should no longer block projectilesSpells should no longer block projectiles

Insert Bart Simpson at the blackboard meme.

That said, looking forward to the quality spell focus +2. Hoping that DoJ gauntlets also receive this bump.

[Arkat]

Dripping with Magma now triggers once every 1 second instead of .25

[Epicsoul]

Dripping with Magma now triggers once every 1 second instead of .25

I don't mind nerfing RDA, but I do mind all these internal cool downs that disproportionally hurt certain play styles. During the double strike changes, repeaters and TWF were meant to have actual multiple attacks to offer "niches" to these play styles. What's the point if you're going to add short internal cool downs to everything?

[droid327]

"Interesting places"? Again with the cryptic patch notes. Who is that for? Do you think that makes the notes sound fun and mysterious? It's just irksome. How are we supposed to test things if you're making us hunt them down first. I'm hoping it's just the hall of heroes or somewhere else obvious....

Barter for RoSS and Whirlwind? That's pretty big

I don't mind nerfing RDA, but I do mind all these internal cool downs that disproportionally hurt certain play styles. During the double strike changes, repeaters and TWF were meant to have actual multiple attacks to offer "niches" to these play styles. What's the point if you're going to add short internal cool downs to everything?

Yes this. RDA was clearly over tuned, but in general I'd rather see things limited by a % chance to proc with no cd (ie Shiradi style), than a guaranteed proc with cd. Otherwise what's the benefit of having a hit rate > 1/sec? Might as well be THF and get extra stat mod.

[rabidfox]

"Interesting places"? Again with the cryptic patch notes. Who is that for? Do you think that makes the notes sound fun and mysterious? It's just irksome. How are we supposed to test things if you're making us hunt them down first. I'm hoping it's just the hall of heroes or somewhere else obvious....

They're just new augment vendors (for those that hate RNG drops and want to trade for them), nothing major testing-wise. There's one in SM inn, outside the inn in Sharn, by the spirit binder in Feywild, one in Ravenloft (different augments at each of them).

[Zavina]

No dev event?

The last one was cancelled IIRC.

[Seph1roth5]

Yeah I don't think the vagueness is a good thing for lam testing. For actual release notes, that sort of thing is fine, to tease something hidden like dull dagger/feytwisted.

For lam though? If you really want to hide them, put all the npcs in the hall of heroes and then specify that they're only there for lam and will be somewhere else once the update hits.

[Vooduspyce]

• The examination window now remembers its position

Thank you!!

[Mindos]

I don't mind nerfing RDA,

RDA was clearly over tuned,

What is RDA?

[Lynnabel]

Yeah I don't think the vagueness is a good thing for lam testing. For actual release notes, that sort of thing is fine, to tease something hidden like dull dagger/feytwisted.

For lam though? If you really want to hide them, put all the npcs in the hall of heroes and then specify that they're only there for lam and will be somewhere else once the update hits.

1: The NPC is in the Test Dojo (and has all vendors hooked up to him so you can see them all)
2: The reason the note is vague is because its in like 7 places which would be a really long and silly looking release note. He's not hard to find, we're not trying to trick you or anything. It's just clumsy to type out.

Eveningstar (near the mailbox), Ball and Chain Garret (in Wheloon), the 2nd Ravenloft Tavern (2nd floor), Feywild off to the left of the entrance from the wilderness, Sharn outside of the tavern near the fountain, and Saltmarsh within the main tavern, and I think that's all of them? It's the same guy each time, so once you find one you'll know who you're looking for.

[DeltaBravo]

Items[/COLOR]

• The Reaper Shard crafting recipes for goggles and glove now functionp Any chance for trinkets ? Any chance the price could be lowered just a bit.. 100 bits is nuts.
• Dripping with Magma now triggers once every 1 second instead of .25 (any chance it was the dice you lowered rather then the time it stacks up ?
• There is a new NPC found in a variety of interesting places that will trade for several augments that had previously only been able to be found in random loot = A bit more specifiv maybe ? it is after all the test server. I dont really want to run all the areas trough too see what i need to test ?

Feats I know this is a bit off topic.. but pretty pretty please could you add the caster DC in the core trees in Divine crusader. Its so lame that anyone playing a hybrid healer type dont get the DC.



UI

• The spell selector window (for spells such as Teleport and Fire Shield) now remembers its position
• The UI option "Show Detailed Descriptions in Examination" now also controls the verbosity of slotted filigree by showing or hiding the filigree's description
• The examination window now remembers its position
• There is a new button to "Delete All Confirmed Mail". Note that this will not function if any mail in your Confirmed tab has any attachments

YAY its sooooo nice to see more of theese things comeing along

Are more of the new raid items updated this time ?

[Kielbasa]

1: The NPC is in the Test Dojo (and has all vendors hooked up to him so you can see them all)
2: The reason the note is vague is because its in like 7 places which would be a really long and silly looking release note. He's not hard to find, we're not trying to trick you or anything. It's just clumsy to type out.

Eveningstar (near the mailbox), Ball and Chain Garret (in Wheloon), the 2nd Ravenloft Tavern (2nd floor), Feywild off to the left of the entrance from the wilderness, Sharn outside of the tavern near the fountain, and Saltmarsh within the main tavern, and I think that's all of them? It's the same guy each time, so once you find one you'll know who you're looking for.

Thank you for helping to reduce the grind. Its nice to see these sorts of things implemented more frequently. The Ravenloft legendary turn in is higher than say feywild? 60 vs 40 is there is reason for this just seems odd?

Also thanks for the sands wilderness turn in option that ring of spell storing grind can get depressing. For anyone who doesn't have one already this will be a huge boon.

If you have any other ideas for using stuff that's clogging our ingredients and collectable bags please continue to implement them good stuff.

[QuantumFX]

2: The reason the note is vague is because its in like 7 places which would be a really long and silly looking release note. He's not hard to find, we're not trying to trick you or anything. It's just clumsy to type out.

IDK, it's a pretty simple list.

The augments are for sale for pack collectibles + remnants.

• Saltmarsh (Levels 1 and 28) On ship, next to banker.
• Feywild (Levels 4 and 28) near Winwood hall entrance, tavern side.
• Ravenloft (Levels 12 and 28) Upstairs in the Blue Water Inn.)
• Sharn (Levels 16 and 28) Across the courtyard from the Drunken Dragon Inn.
• Eveningstar (Level 20) Across the street from the mayor.
• Wheloon (Level 24) In the Ball and Chain Tavern.

Also, there is a new Soulforged augment.

As for feedback: I like the use of pack collectibles, but the additional remnant cost is too much.

[Ulfo]

Spell Penetration and attack augments now have corrected descriptions

Second way, as i feared, you went the second way offered, not the first. Well, good work, Lynnabel. Good... not splendid.

There is a new NPC found in a variety of interesting places that will trade for several augments that had previously only been able to be found in random loot

Moar NPC vendor? As if those that are already there do not undermine the ingame economy like cancer...

[Arkat]

Also, there is a new Soulforged augment.

Which is...?

(Some of us are at work and can't hop on to Lamannia.)

[Arkat]

What is RDA?

Red Dragon Armor

They mean the VON Red Dragon Armor. The legendary versions have the Dripping with Magma effect. The Cormyrian Red Dragon Armors do not.

[jamkriz]

1: The NPC is in the Test Dojo (and has all vendors hooked up to him so you can see them all)
2: The reason the note is vague is because its in like 7 places which would be a really long and silly looking release note. He's not hard to find, we're not trying to trick you or anything. It's just clumsy to type out.

Eveningstar (near the mailbox), Ball and Chain Garret (in Wheloon), the 2nd Ravenloft Tavern (2nd floor), Feywild off to the left of the entrance from the wilderness, Sharn outside of the tavern near the fountain, and Saltmarsh within the main tavern, and I think that's all of them? It's the same guy each time, so once you find one you'll know who you're looking for.

Gotta say, the purchase costs don't seem equitable. The Sharn vendor costs feel disproportionately higher considering you need to make both a compound and an alloy in addition to the remnants. Compared to just vistani tokens or ferrocrystals for the others. Even chits not so bad even though those are a bit rarer.

[jmonsky]

Will there be a fix to bard songs dissapearing when going through dimension doors or using teleports in quests (mirror in Through a Mirror Darkly, the portals in Inferno Of the Damned, altars in Beautiful Nightmares, etc) with this update?

Also the light raid armor that is being added has the armor bonus and ASF of Medium Armor. However, it has less Max Dex bonus than medium armor at 8 vs 10/12. Other legendary light armor has a max dex bonus of at least +20, meaning by using this armor on any character that uses light armor, you are gimping your dodge by a severe amount. This set looks really good for a swashbuckler as well, as the buckler is a very solid option for them, and they wear light armor, but I can't see a reason to give up 12% dodge for the set bonus.

[rabidfox]

Which is...?

(Some of us are at work and can't hop on to Lamannia.)

5% insightful spell lore soulforged augment created off the new raid ring.