Module 11 Preview: Rolling Patch Notes (Updated: 2017-02-17)

terramak

Rolling Patch Notes means: This thread will be updated as new builds arrive on the NeverwinterPreview shard. These notes are written from the perspective of the live Neverwinter PC shard - so changes to content that has not been released yet will not be seen in these notes.

This is mainly intended to give an idea of: "If Module 11 were released today, what would the patch notes look like?"

Items may be removed from these notes if they make their way onto the live shard before Module 11 releases. An example would be the addition of Armor Class values onto certain loot from the Dungeon Keys update - It's currently in test for the PC shard in Module 10b, so it's not in these notes.


Last updated: 2017-02-17
Compares to rolling notes from build: NW.75.20170123a.1
Current build: NW.75.20170206a.5
Changes introduced in NW.75.20170130a.3 are in light blue.
Changes introduced in NW.75.20170206a.1 are in light green.
No changes to pre-M11 content were in NW.75.20170206a.5.

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Overview: Developer Blog - Upcoming Expansion Features



Highlights
Note: Details for the below features will be released in upcoming blogs!

New Adventure Zone: River District
Face off against the armies of powerful wizards in this new zone. Take control of strategic points throughout the River District, and reclaim riches, weapons, and magic for the betterment of Neverwinter as a whole.

Feedback threads:
Official Feedback Thread: River District Introduction Quests
Official Feedback Thread: River District Zone


New Campaign and Rewards
Learn the true aims of this sinister cabal, and foil their attempts to lay claim to Neverwinter before it's too late. Stabilize Neverwinter's trading routes, confront your foes, and claim a portion of their power as new Boons.

Feedback threads:
Official Feedback Thread: Cloaked Ascendancy Campaign
Official Feedback Thread: River District Rewards


Skirmish: Illusionist's Gambit
An illusionist has begun experiments within the sewers of Neverwinter, setting adventurers through trial after trial in settings old and new. When completing a wave, players may vote to continue for greater challenge and new twists to the experience!

Feedback thread: Official Feedback Thread: Illusionist's Gambit


Weapon Enhancement Changes
We've increased the damage output of some of the weaker weapon enhancements to bring them into the same realm as certain well-scaling enhancements. On the NeverwinterPreview shard, these enhancements are available on the Preview tab of the Wondrous Bazaar for ease of previewing and giving feedback.

Feedback thread: Official Feedback Thread: Weapon Enhancement Changes

terramak

Release Notes

Content and Environment
Storm King's Thunder

• Character behavior has been improved for the final cutscene in Red Ice.

Dungeons and Trials

• Castle Never: The AoE radius of Annihilation Spheres has been reduced to be in line with their splat effects.
  
• Demogorgon: Players may now queue for this trial at any time.
  • As a result, Drizzt no longer runs to Demogorgon's cave entrance in Mantol-Derith.
• Svardborg: The damage over time effect from Hailburst can no longer damage players outside the arena.
  
• The Rage of Demons hourly event no longer exists.
  
• Tiamat: Players may now queue for this trial at any time.
  
• Valindra's Lair: Imps should once again consistently spawn from portals.

General

• Contests in many zones now give XP.
  
• Icewind Pass: Certain Barbarian enemies as part of Heroic Encounters now properly have Heroic Encounter level difficulty.
  
• PvP Tutorial: This quest now states that players do not need to engage in PvP in order to complete the tutorial.
  
• Rothé Valley: Edge of the Underdark: Sarkon'Iss is no longer invisible after the introductory cutscene.
  
• The "Storming the Keep" achievement now properly shows the "Storm the Keep" skirmish name in its description.

Future Events

• A new PvP Leaderboard season has begun.
  
• 2x Enchants & Runes: The event text no longer refers to places where Enchants & Runestones don't drop.
  
• 2x Profession Resources & XP: All ranks of Salvager enchantments now properly double during this event.
  
• 2x Profession Resources & XP: The event text now mentions Masterwork Profession resources.
  
• Call to Arms: Gate Crashers: Players may no longer attack enemies from the respawn area with ranged attacks.
  
• Coupons for Fashion and Dye no longer drop during Protector's Jubilee, as those are no longer available in the Zen Market.
  
• Portobello's Game: The foot race should act more reliable when warping players to their starting points.

Combat and Powers
Classes and Balance

• Certain triggered effects can now activate off Impossible to Catch and certain other instant-cast powers.
  
• Control Wizard: Chaos Magic: Chaotic Nexus now properly grants +30% armor penetration to the caster.
  
• Player characters who are immune to Knock effects, e.g. Paladins channeling Sanctuary, are now properly immune to Knock effects.

Enemies and Allies
General

• Aboleth Servitors are now able to use their melee attacks.
  
• Aboleth Servitors now use heavier slam attacks while buffed by the Aboleth.
  
• Mimics now have identical interaction text to treasure chests.
  
• Plaguechanged Maw: The radius of this creature's PBAoE / Burst power now more closely matches the range of the danger indicator on the ground.

terramak

Items and Economy
Bounty Stores update

• Bounty Stores have been updated with more rewards for a leveling adventurer! The zones with bounty store changes are:
  • Tower District
    
  • Blackdagger Ruins
    
  • Neverdeath Graveyard
    
  • Helm's Hold
    
  • Ebon Downs
    
  • Vellosk
    
  • Pirates' Skyhold
    
  • The Chasm
    
  • Rothé Valley
    
  • Mount Hotenow
    
  • Whispering Caverns
• The Bounty Treasure Cache packs now only give class specific gear.

Companions

• Damaran Shepherd: This companion's loyalty can now be purchased in the Wondrous Bazaar.
  
• Energon: This companion no longer loses its visual effects when it's defeated.
  
• Lightfoot Thief now properly triggers appropriate Mount Insignia bonuses.

Weapon Enhancement Update

• Weapon Enhancements that deal damage based on a percentage of a player's weapon damage will now scale with things that affect a player's damage (like Power). This should make these Weapon Enhancements a better chance to be competitive with those that in effect scale already (Dread, Vorpal).
  • Affected enhancements include: Bilethorn, Feytouched, Flaming, Frost, Holy Avenger, Lifedrinker, Lightning, Plague Fire, Terror
    
  • The different gems now use similar wording for their basic damage bonus effect.
• The tooltips for Weapon Enhancements have been cleaned up.
  
• Feytouched: The base damage dealt by this enchantment has been reduced by about 40%.
  • Its damage output should still be increased from previous modules once Power scaling is taken into account.
    
  • The damage siphon is still as powerful as it once was.
• Flaming
  • The AoE portion of this enchantment's effect now consistently triggers, and the damage value is now listed in the tooltip.
    
  • The base AoE damage is now 80% weapon damage, increased from 6%.
    
  • Applying a stack of the Flaming Weapon Enhancement's DoT will now refresh the duration of any existing stacks. This will make it easier for players to maintain stacks of the DoT on their target.
• Frost
  • Reductions to recovery, deflect, and power have been simplified and replaced with reductions to recharge speed, damage resistance and damage dealt.
    
  • Dev Note: Though enemies in PvE do not actually possess player stats like Recovery and Deflect under the hood, damage resistance and damage dealt were already being affected - They just weren't displayed in the tooltip.
    
  • The overall effectiveness of this enchantment's Damage Resist / Damage Dealt reduction debuff has been improved, up to 30% at Transcendent rank.
• Lightning
  • The base damage dealt by this enchantment has been reduced by about 30%.
    
  • Its damage output should still be significantly increased from previous modules once Power scaling is taken into account.
    
  • Floating combat text for this enhancement is no longer quite as spammy.
• Plague Fire
  • Reductions to defense and power have been simplified and replaced with reductions to damage resistance and damage dealt.
    
  • Dev Note: Though enemies in PvE do not actually possess player stats like Recovery and Deflect under the hood, damage resistance and damage dealt were already being affected - They just weren't displayed in the tooltip.
    
  • The AoE portion of this enchantment's effect now consistently triggers, and the damage value is now listed in the tooltip.
    
  • The base AoE damage is now 40 60% weapon damage, increased from 12%.
    
  • The duration of all stacks of this enchantments debuff are now refreshed on a new application.
    
  • The number of targets affected by the AoE portion of this attack now has a maximum of 5, increased from 3.
• Terror
  • Reductions to defense and power have been simplified and replaced with reductions to damage resistance and damage dealt.
    
  • Dev Note: Though enemies in PvE do not actually possess player stats like Recovery and Deflect under the hood, damage resistance and damage dealt were already being affected - They just weren't displayed in the tooltip.
    
  • The base weapon damage dealt by this enchantment is now 30% at Transcendent, up from 25%. Lower ranks have seen proportional increases.

Enchantments, Enhancements, and Runestones

• Barkshield Armor Enchantment: Amount shielded dramatically increased (at all ranks).
  
• Enchantment effects no longer interfere with Control Wizard Chill stacks.
  
• Partially-used overload enchantments can no longer incorrectly stack with unused overload enchantments in certain occasions.

Mounts and Insignias

• Champion's Charger and Winter Wolf mounts can now be discarded.
  
• Magistrate's Consideration: This insignia combo power no longer bypasses damage immunity.

Trade Bar Store

• Eye of the Giant (Artifact) has been added to the Trade Bar vendor.
  
• Manticore (Companion) has been added to the Trade Bar vendor.

General

• Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue: This artifact now sells rare rings at the first rank.
  
• Bloodlord's Visage: Hair no longer clips through this head slot item.
  
• Contests now give Experience and Bounty Currencies as additional rewards!
  
• Eye of the Giant: The cooldown times on this artifact are now consistent with other artifacts.
  
• Jarl's Gaze: This helm now properly shows its visual effects (VFX) on Dragonborn characters.
  
• Jarl's Gaze: This item is now item level 160, increased from 150.
  
• Many companions and mounts found in lockboxes can no longer be sold to vendors. They should still be tradable or discardable.
  
• Ostorian Relics now grant about 50% more voninblod.
  
• Rings introduced by the Underdark expansion, received from Demonic Heroic Encounters, no longer apply their bonuses to companions or the player when equipped by companions.
  
• The drop rates of Superior Marks of Stig/Ild/Uvar from chests in Svardborg (Master) have been significantly increased.
  
• The drop rates of Greater Marks of Stig/Ild/Uvar from chests in Svardborg (Normal) have been significantly increased.
  
• The seal vendors in various lower-level zones no longer offer items for Seals of the Lion. Instead, they now properly sell the standard stock for Seals of the Adventurer.
  
• When attempting to drink a potion while at full health or in PvP, the error message has changed to emphasize the "full health" case first.
  
• Zulkir's Dreadnought: This item now gives a Regeneration buff with a Skeletal Dog summoned, rather than a Maximum HP on Enemy Kill buff.

terramak

User Interface
Auction

• Item names that have a built-in word wrap now display properly in all parts of the Auction House, rather than showing a "wbr" string surrounded by angle brackets.
  
• The "Click Here" box now shows a grid-based item picker rather than a long dropdown menu. This view shows the contents of the main inventory, Currency bag, and Useful Items bag.

Change Appearance

• The Tower of Alteration now has its own background.

Collections

• The Artifact Equipment pages have now been condensed. This will affect players' Collection Points.

Dungeon Key Chests

• Dungeon chests no longer have a chance to wait a long time to give rewards if the player managed to choose nothing on a choice dialog.
  
• Players can no longer cause themselves to un-select a reward by clicking a non-choosable reward.
  
• Players now receive the first reward in a choice if they crash during reward selection.

Fishing

• Text referring to "your action point gem" has been replaced with the "the fishing bar" in fishing tutorials and quests.
  
• The spinning effect on certain fishing abilities now only appears when fishing and able to use that ability, instead of when the player has full Action Points.

Inventory

• Certain items will now pop up a special confirmation prompt when the player attempts to delete them.
  
• Items that are in the "To Trade" list now have a red overlay in the item picker. This is intended to make it clearer that a trade is pending on a given item in a given slot.
  
• Players may drag and drop qualifying items to any point on the Useful Items window, rather than just an open slot.
  
• Quest items, such as Dark Fey Keys, now consistently display their Bind status.
  
• Stacks can now be consistently split when moving items from the inventory, including from the Useful Items bag.
  
• Thayan Lair Keys are now stored in the Useful Items bag.
  
• The scroll bar now resets to the top when switching inventory tabs.
  
• Useful Items can now be moved to the guild bank (if unbound).

Mounts

• Mount tooltips now properly display in the Mount picker window, regardless of which slot they're in.

Powers

• Players may once again swap powers while in a power tray replacement mode (for example, while on a khyek).
  • Instead of the previous behavior where it would display the overridden power name (e.g. Reel Left), the power swap dialog now displays no power name, and explains as such.

Queues

• On the first visit to the Instance Management pane, class icons now consistently display.

Zen Market

• Knox's Adventurer Recruitment Order: Hunter Rangers will no longer incorrectly have six extra inventory slots when created using this purchase. Existing characters should not be affected by this change.
  
• Knox's Adventurer Recruitment Order: This purchase now more clearly states that the recruited adventurer can be any race the player has unlocked, rather than just any race.

terramak

Art, Effects, Animation, and Audio
Animations

• Minor updates have been made to fishing and sailing animations.
  
• The Gelatinous Cube promo companion now has appropriate animations when affected by control abilities.
  
• Timing on various Control Wizard powers has updated so the enemy reacts much more closely to when they're hit. Examples:
  • Enemies no longer take extra time to die when defeated by Chill Strike.
    
  • Magic Missile no longer causes the enemy to die before the missiles strike.

Character Art

• Certain head items, including Dragon Cult masks and Orcus' mask, now fit better on more character races.

Visual Effects (VFX)

• Devoted Cleric: Lance of Faith no longer impales the player in the cutscene where Wilfred meets Valindra.
  
• Devoted Cleric: Punishing Light's beam is now consistent in width regardless of the weapon wielded.
  
• Kenku Archer: This companion now shows an arrow in hand when using Hide and Shoot, as well as Malicious Shot.
  
• Legendary Flail Snail: The solid shadow that occasionally appears on this mount is now properly diffused.
  
• Orcus' deadly sphere attack now consistently displays, regardless of the number of visual FX currently displaying on the client.
  
• Various contact icons now consistently display over the character's head.

Audio

• Certain companions no longer play defeat audio multiple times upon being defeated.
  
• Gas Spore: This mount now consistently plays its Flourish audio.
  • A Flourish is the animation played when pressing the Jump key while standing still.
• Pseudodragon: This companion now consistently plays its Bite audio.

Graphics, Performance, and Stability
Graphics

• A crash in dynamic lighting has been addressed.
  
• Certain props no longer flicker on a GTX 560 card.
  
• Several client and server memory leaks have been addressed.

General

• Various other crashes and performance issues have been resolved.