Sea of Moving Ice Preview Patch Notes: NW.70.20161025b.15

terramak

Release Notes

Content and Environment
Storm King's Thunder

• Audio improvements have been made to various locations throughout various Storm King's Thunder content.
  
• Lonelywood: Catti-brie remains visible in the wilderness until the player completes the Mielikki's Garden quest.
  • This should resolve cases where it is difficult or impossible to continue the quest thread if a certain quest is dropped.

Sea of Moving Ice

• Breakfast of Champions: The Dragon Turtle that appears in this Heroic Encounter no longer cancels and switches its attacks partway through activation.
  
• Casting Alarm: Scrolls are no longer attached to a player's weapon, resulting in Control Wizards reading scrolls pinned to their orb.
  
• Ice Hunter Rescue: This Heroic Encounter no longer drops Black Ice enchantments.
  
• The map and mini-map should no longer display graphical errors when panning and scrolling in this zone.
  
• The Quest Path has been improved in certain locations throughout the zone.
  
• Totems of Destruction: There are now significantly more Icehunter Totems available for this quest.
  
• Various text and voice-over mismatches have been resolved.
  
• When the Ancient Mariner heroic encounter is in progress, nearby regular encounters no longer spawn.
  
• Xuna is now wearing proper attire to deal with the cold of Svardborg.

Svardborg

• Enemies no longer leash when their target is killed by Permafrost.
  
• Manticores now properly continue attacking players, rather than standing idle, after the second Call of Winter.
  
• Master of Svardborg: This achievement no longer counts companion deaths against its completion.
  
• Storvald now properly stops attacking if all players die during the Manticore phase.
  
• The music in the first phase of the Storvald fight no longer silences unexpectedly.
  
• Various objects in this trial no longer display incoming attack "splat" effects in inconsistent ways.

General

• Caer-Konig: Players who arrive via the Overworld Map once again properly start at the docks.
  
• Whispering Caverns: Brain Damage: The brain canisters for this quest now properly spawn at level 60, rather than sometimes spawning at 70.

Combat and Powers
Classes and Balance

• Oathbound Paladin
  • Absolution no longer resists Everfrost Damage.
    
  • Bane now properly builds Action Points.
    
  • Circle of Power now properly builds Action Points.

Sea of Moving Ice

• Getting hit by the Dragon Turtle's steam cannon power no longer knocks players out of their khyek.

Svardborg and Fangbreaker Island

• Permafrost, cast by both Drufi and Storvald, no longer allows players to cast certain powers normally usable while under control effects.

General

• Untargetable enemies can no longer be hit by certain powers.

Items and Economy
Artifact Weapons

• The new Hunter Ranger weapons can now have their appearance change.

Enchantments and Runestones

• Frost Enchantment: This enchantment no longer provides more damage than expected when other buffs are active.

Professions

• Alchemy: Players who are at a rank higher than 8 can no longer engage the Rank 8 version of the Alchemical Research task.
  • This caused players to get into states where they could no longer progress through the Alchemy profession.
    
  • We're looking into ways to allow players to get out of this broken state.

General

• Certain Raw Astral Diamonds dungeon rewards no longer sometimes end up as a pack in the player's inventory.
  
• Elixir of Life no longer incorrectly allows players to revive themselves.

User Interface
Auction House

• The count of mail with attached items (e.g. expired auction lots) could previously get desynchronized with the actual number in players' mailboxes.
  • This issue has been addressed; players who had a low mail count, yet still couldn't post auction lots, should now be able to post.
• The error message that appears when the mail limit is exceeded is now clearer about the cause.

Boons

• Tyranny of Dragons: The "Learn More" button now properly sends the player to the right location.
  
• Unspent Elemental Evil boon points now properly cause the UI to glow in the appropriate locations.

Guilds

• The "Last Online" message no longer infinitely grows when hovering over an offline guild member.

Items and Inventory

• Set bonuses that include two of the same item now display the proper maximum item count.
  
• The "+1" signifier on items in reward popups no longer appears, as it has no game effect.

Mail

• A command to take attached items from mail can no longer be manually run.

Powers

• Powers can no longer be swapped while on a khyek.

Queues

• When filling a queue after a player has dropped, the queue now properly respects the Tank / Healer / DPS count requirements.
  
• In queues with a player count greater than 5, the system now tries to distribute those of the same role across different 5-person parties.
  • For example, in a 2 tank, 2 healer, 6 DPS Demogorgon Trial, the queue system will try to assign one tank, one healer, and three damage dealers to each party.

Scoreboard

• Throne of the Dwarven Gods and Prophecy of Madness no longer display duplicates of the rewards they give.

Zen Market

• Whenever a button appears in various parts of the UI to purchase something, but the player doesn't have enough Zen to purchase the item, it is no longer grayed out.
  • Instead, it allows the player to view the item that could be purchased, and then proceed to the "Buy Zen" flow if desired.

Localization
General

• Various localization updates have been made to Sea of Moving Ice content in French, German, Italian, and Russian languages.

sorce

terramak said:

Powers

• Powers can no longer be swapped while on a khyek.

Why would you do this? I don't see how this breaks anything, and now when landing from a Khyek, we may be attacked before changing powers. Thanks for making it take even longer to do stuff in the zone.

Also - Combatant's Maneuver has been broken again since the start of 10.5 - can you confirm you have it on the list to look at?

beckylunatic

terramak said:

Caer-Konig: New characters created via Knox's Adventurer Recruitment Order now start at the proper side of Caer-Konig.

All characters zoning into Caer-Konig from any location arrive at the back gate rather than the docks. It doesn't feel immersive and doesn't flow nicely the majority of the time since you have to go past the quest-givers to get a contract, then work your way back. It also means the docks have no purpose at all, except for recruited adventurers, I guess. Not sure if a naturally levelled 70 would now start on the docks visiting for the very first time or not, but it would be inconsistent with everyone else at this point.

dupeks

beckylunatic said:

terramak said:

Caer-Konig: New characters created via Knox's Adventurer Recruitment Order now start at the proper side of Caer-Konig.

All characters zoning into Caer-Konig from any location arrive at the back gate rather than the docks. It doesn't feel immersive and doesn't flow nicely the majority of the time since you have to go past the quest-givers to get a contract, then work your way back. It also means the docks have no purpose at all, except for recruited adventurers, I guess. Not sure if a naturally levelled 70 would now start on the docks visiting for the very first time or not, but it would be inconsistent with everyone else at this point.

Noooo I love my little corner of the docs with the training dummy. Where else will I find training dummies devoid of all real dummies (player characters)? JK I know I can go to my SH or something.

That said, I totally agree and was very upset when they first started putting me at the back gate. Then I got over it and stopped coming to Caer-Kony altogether.

terramak

@confusedpoof - Attempting to swap powers while on a khyek would cause fishing-related power names and tooltips to appear, I believe.

Unless I typo'd when I searched, I don't see a Combatant's Maneuver specific bug in the system. Do you have a summary for the issue handy?


@beckylunatic - I may have misinterpreted the change log for the patch notes then; it's probably a fix to all of 'em.

Edit: Edited the notes above to change the Caer-Konig line from:
Caer-Konig: New characters created via Knox's Adventurer Recruitment Order now start at the proper side of Caer-Konig.

To:
Caer-Konig: Players who arrive via the Overworld Map once again properly start at the docks.

vordayn

Any word on fixing the party queue bug and invite bug?

The 'invite to party' text menu option when highlighting a character name is greyed out unless you are in the same instance.

Also, sometimes the game doesn't recognise a group of members are in the same party, especially if one drops out in the loading screen and they rejoin, making it impossible to trigger entering instances e.g. eDemo which requires 10 players to step on the stone to start. We all had to leave and then manually rejoin. But upon leaving, we were stuck in a party, but no longer in a queue group, then the option to leave the party was also blocked! Furthermore, sometimes, inexplicably, the queue group channel shuts down and we can no longer talk through it.

sorce

terramak said:

@confusedpoof - Attempting to swap powers while on a khyek would cause fishing-related power names and tooltips to appear, I believe.

Unless I typo'd when I searched, I don't see a Combatant's Maneuver specific bug in the system. Do you have a summary for the issue handy?

Basically it's gone back to never activating at all: http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter#/discussion/1225594/combatants-maneuver-broken-again

For the power swap, when you change powers whilst on a khyek, at the moment you swap the power with left-reel, right-reel etc., but fishing still works perfectly fine and once you land the powers are swapped correctly. Whislt the tool tips are annoying, it all works.

urabask

Is permafrost ever going to be fixed so that we don't lose our companions after dying in it?

mamalion1234

Nice fix about companions but still aa grants 100% damage immunity. That make that title have no meaning if you achieve under 100% damage immunity.

P.S. and one of my favorite questions when will finally chaotic nexus (from renegade control wizard capstone) will add to allies 30% to their armor penetration stat?

dmcewen

@terramak @asterdahl what the plant growth fix?
http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter/#/discussion/1224889/ninja-nerf-to-plant-growth-on-preview/p1

Also, half of the hunter ranger off-hand artifacts class features like aspect of the pack have been become since the introduction of mod 10. AOTP class feature doesn't give any bonus damage when allies are within 15ft of you.

oggycz

Hm, so still no fix for crippled paladins vow of enmity?

polaris1986

Untargetable enemies can no longer be hit by certain powers.

what it mean? is it Manticore fight?

erosennin92

mamalion1234 said:

Nice fix about companions but still aa grants 100% damage immunity. That make that title have no meaning if you achieve under 100% damage immunity.....

@terramak Could we have the confirmation that this bug is in the bug list in the system. If not I can post more info about it

treesclimber

So OP devotion wasn't unprefered enough before you made vow work like wraith of shadow, now bane takes much more to stack for a minimal ap gain in oposition, why dont you just simply add a 3rd state with diferent colour? And vow disabled by stuns? Where is the sence in that?

feadan

Undocumented nerf or bug? Bane now has a recast timer/lengthy cast time. It can no longer be cast instantly.

This makes it considerably harder to use because you can't do anything else for several seconds while you try to get 3 stacks up. If you cast another encounter power during Bane's animation it cancels Bane but still spends a charge. This also means you have to drop everything you're doing mid-fight whenever you want to refresh it or you'll risk wasting a charge.

treesclimber

Yep, my OP is getting parked definitivly, using this new bane version is anoying and inspite canceling delay with other encounter work it's hard to keep an eye on both that and knocks, instead of fun runs they are anoying, bye bye pally.

beckylunatic

Others have indicated that with the former faster cast on Bane, it was often possible to appear to get all 3 stacks up, but they'd not all be in effect. So you'd be out of charges while not actually getting the full debuff. With the slower cast, you do always get the full effect, and it's good once you adjust to how it feels now.

But... it would have been really nice to get documentation re: what was changed here and rationale behind it. COMMUNICATION

beckylunatic

terramak said:

I may have misinterpreted the change log for the patch notes then; it's probably a fix to all of 'em.

Edit: Edited the notes above to change the Caer-Konig line from:
Caer-Konig: New characters created via Knox's Adventurer Recruitment Order now start at the proper side of Caer-Konig.

To:
Caer-Konig: Players who arrive via the Overworld Map once again properly start at the docks.

@terramak

This does not seem to be in effect. Still being placed at the back gate when travelling to C-K.

ruffneck

@terramak

1: Plant growth continues to be ignored.. a simple yes or no - are you going to fix it ?

2: Visual issues since your last patch NW.70.20161025B.15

Example Red telegraph's not showing or flashing for 1 seconds or flickering (noticed by 5 ppl in FBI tonight alone)
Boss 1 (poison spray not showing)
Boss 2 (steam breath not showing)
Boss 3 was fine but on 5 separate occasions even while hiding behind ice we were all killed........ (new bug?)

Edit:

Also since this patch now Neverwinter is crashing no error message just closes the entire game...... nicely done!

treesclimber

beckylunatic said:

Others have indicated that with the former faster cast on Bane, it was often possible to appear to get all 3 stacks up, but they'd not all be in effect. So you'd be out of charges while not actually getting the full debuff. With the slower cast, you do always get the full effect, and it's good once you adjust to how it feels now.

But... it would have been really nice to get documentation re: what was changed here and rationale behind it. COMMUNICATION

There is no adjust in this case, after vow "fix" i kept using it for a while but many times in the middle of battle i went to check the boss bar and no vow to be seen, i just ended up replacing it with circle of power and i couldn't have had a better decision, with this new bane:
-If i dont have encounters to fill the delay i'll just stay there looking at the oponent, many times being knocked, pulling sanctuary up is an option but if i want to go back to hit the target asap it will eat some seconds and in terms of control resist will be as good as nothing.
-The new ap gain it's close to nothing, before we could hit the target as soon as baned triggering echoes of light or avenger's presence more often, meaning more encounters, more ap....

I need a decent support class, so preventing what is coming for DC i guess it's time to unrust my GF, im done with this coal train new versionof OP.

feadan

beckylunatic said:

With the slower cast, you do always get the full effect, and it's good once you adjust to how it feels now.

That is not true. If you interrupt Bane's slow cast animation (like using another encounter power or Sanctuary) you lose a charge.

Bane also cannot be queued like other encounter powers.

As you have to be careful not to interrupt it and due to its long cast time you cannot do anything else for a relatively long time. You're effectively disabled for several seconds, which at the start of tough fights is not something you can do as a tank. Even later in fights it gets in the way because of all these issues.

Bane feels broken in its current state.

Edit: If Bane really has to be non-instant, how about giving us the full effect in one cast, getting rid of the charges and making it a "normal" encounter power with a recast timer equal to the current charge-refill timer?

darkstarrfoff

feadan#2363 said:

Edit: If Bane really has to be non-instant, how about giving us the full effect in one cast, getting rid of the charges and making it a "normal" encounter power with a recast timer equal to the current charge-refill timer?

I could get behind that for sure. Make the points in it increase the effect like most powers do. Solved pretty easily. If we're talking OP fixes a big one would be a boost to Divine Protector which was nerfed the first time (massive shortening of the timer) because it was total immunity to damage. It was nerfed again to remove that total immunity. It no longer is super OP, can we get at least like 12 seconds on it?

hypervoreian

Bane in its current state is a power that brings a severe disadvantage the healadin,the prot less so.

Bane needs aprox. one sec to cast and even worse ,it somehow "locks" you for a certain amount of time ,for using another power.
Try cast bane to an add and then use att will.You will have a delay.

But this is a minor nuisance compared to loss of the survivability.Let's assume you climb the giants in fbi....and you want to cast bane to the giants and to the bears.in the beggining of the fight ,well ,you can do,however as the fight becomes more chaotic-giants russhing out of position and then hurl aoe attack-a healadin if he tries to aim the new bane ,and then cast it....ok.Back to the campfire.

Healadin will run with all its buffing powers in FBI hust to justify its presence there. We cannot tank the adds in fbi.locking us in place to cast a power and then lock us again not to use an att will is not a way to go

Why is so important to use att will?Radiant strike : To escape add swarming, and to reposition ourselves all the time .Now we cannot do that.Grats

As for the proposition to make bane a single chargepower ,I am against.For reasons:

-As it was bane required a timing and a certain skill gameplay speaking,to avoid cast three at once ,and to also mark multiple targets ,the ones you want (giants instead of orcs in fbi etc).This increased Op buffing potential.Why ? 3 debuffed enemies at same time.
By making a single cast you take away the skill distinction between a new player and a seasoned player.

-By making it single cast ,you reduce the effectiveness of the power,effectivelly,you nerf it,cause you will make it to mark one add at a time

-By making it single cast ,besides any drop in utility ,you mess up with the psychological factor: DPS now see the huge bane mark and know that a an Op at least is trying.
Auras have not visual effect , DPS do not know radiant champion feat exists,DPS only see the mark and know that have some buffs.3 yellow X contribute to an OP called to parties.One yellow X?less so....

edit:And all this for what??For a minimal ,i mean minimal ap gain..

ruffneck

@terramak

are we going to see a fix for the host of issues you have left us with since Thanks giving ?

would be nice to play the game correctly over christmas without all the issues ongoing longer than they have to.....