Maze Engine Preview Patch Notes NW.60.20160216a.0

terramak · February 2016

Known Issues with this build:

There is a known client crash when attempting to speak in /match or /mrg chat channels while not in a queue group.
There are some general usability issues in Queue UI. Feedback is still welcome, and the updated UI is expected to be significantly improved from the previous build.
The Trade Bar Store in this version has not yet removed Coalescent Wards, Preservation Wards, or Blood Rubies from its lineup.

Highlights

Revived Dungeons
Four dungeons from the past have been revived: Cloak Tower, Pirate King's Retreat (formerly Lair of the Pirate King), Frozen Heart, and Caverns of Karrundax! Like Cragmire Crypts, Gray Wolf Den, and Temple of the Spider, once players reach the minimum level for the dungeon, they'll be able to go back and play regardless of level. For more info, see the dev blog here!

Note for NeverwinterPreview only: This week, Pirate King's Retreat and The Frozen Heart are now available. With Karrundax already available, the only dungeon left to release is Cloak Tower.

Feedback threads:
Caverns of Karrundax
Feedback threads for Pirate King's Retreat and The Frozen Heart will likely be posted next week.

Campaign Updates
A large number of updates have been made to campaigns in Module 9. The goal of these updates is to make it more rewarding and less costly to engage in campaign content even after completing these campaigns. More info in the release notes, right after the Items and Economy section.
The feedback thread for this feature will likely be posted next week.

Patch Notes

Content and Environment
Events

2x Professions: This event now rewards double Profession XP for completing tasks in all professions except Alchemy and Black Ice Shaping.
- During this event, Alchemy now rewards 2x Basic Alchemical Knowledge on successful Experimentation tasks.
- During this event, Black Ice Shaping now requires half the usual resources for "Upgrading the Black Ice Forge" tasks.

Strongholds

The new Leveling Dungeons are now in the daily quest pool.
Stronghold Siege: The gold pile interaction now properly calls itself a gold pile, rather than the Ranger.
Stronghold Siege: The depot names in the PvP map now match the depot names in the Tutorial.

General

Black Ice nodes no longer look interactive when the player has no pick.
Protector's Enclave: The Neverwinter Guards have finally sealed off aerial access to Lord Neverember.
The unachievable achievement, "Polices Drunk Orcs," is now fully removed from the game.
Tyranny of Dragons: Campaign contacts in Protector's Enclave now correctly indicate when quests are available for Level 70 characters.

Castle Never (Change log tracked for NeverwinterPreview only)

Note: This Epic Dungeon is currently only available during Play with the Devs events.
Cthylar now spawn as minion rank (Single health bar).
Undead Adventurers now have fewer Hit Points.
Various improvements have been made to the art and flow of this Epic Dungeon, with a major focus on enemy powers and boss encounters. Not all changes will be noted here.

The Maze Engine Campaign (Change log tracked for NeverwinterPreview only)

All enemies in these quests now spawn one level above the player's level.
- In a party, the level is determined by the first player to enter the instance.
Characters no longer play voice-over audio unrelated to what they're saying.
Lans Thuliaga's power suite has been updated, and no longer sometimes shows "Butt Kicking for Goodness" in the combat log.
Many tweaks and improvements have been made to the flow and playability of the quests in this campaign.
Players can now properly access the Mount Hotenow repeatable instance.
The Maze Engine lore category now properly reads as "Featured Quest: Maze Engine."
Various typos in lore and quests have been cleaned up.
Campaign tasks no longer give out more XP than expected. Quest XP remains the same.

Items and Economy
Mounts (Change log tracked for NeverwinterPreview only)

Insignia Slot changes:
- Armored Axe Beak: This mount now has 1x Crescent and 2x Universal slots, changed from 1x Barbed and 2x Universal.
- Giant Strider: This mount now has 2x Illuminated and 1x Universal slot, changed from 1x Regal, 1x Illuminated, and 1x Universal.
- Medium Pharaoh Steed: This mount now has 2x Crescent and 1x Regal slot, changed from 1x Crescent, 1x Regal, and 1x Barbed.
- Small Forest Stag: This mount now has 1x Regal, 1x Barbed, and 1x Illuminated slot, changed from 1x Barbed, 1x Illuminated, and 1x Enlightened.
The following tooltips have had typo fixes:
- Artificer's Influence
- Artificer's Persuasion
- Magistrate's Patience
- Magistrate's Restraint
Certain mounts, when slotted, no longer cause map-wide disconnects when a player logs in for the first time.
Dawn Unicorn: This mount is now properly converted to the new system.
Demon Sled: This mount is partially converted to the new system - There may still be issues in this version.
Frozen Demon Sled: This mount is partially converted to the new system - There may still be issues in this version.
Insignias now drop in game. You'll find Green/Uncommon ones from Skill Nodes and random critters. Blue/Rare Insignias sometimes drop from Epic Dungeon bosses.
Mounts that have been upgraded with Mount Training Tomes now give the proper upgraded speed bonus when added to the Stable.
Players may no longer place a second copy of the same Mount into their Stable / Active Mounts.
Speed of the Wind: The tooltip now properly states that it grants a +110% speed bonus, rather than +120%. This is a tooltip change only; the actual bonus was +110% in previous patches as well.
The "Barbecued Meat" Insignia Bonus has been removed.
The "Cavalry's Warning" Insignia Bonus now properly triggers the correct power.
The "Shepherd's Devotion" Insignia Bonus has been added. This bonus requires a Regal, Barbed, and Illuminated Insignia to activate.

Campaign Updates
Sharandar

Arcane Reservoir: Completing this weekly quest now grants 100 Feywild Sparks, increased from 50.
Assist Artisans: This campaign task now awards a Stronghold voucher worth 1,000 Fey Trinkets, rather than Iliyanbruen gear.
Assist War Effort: This campaign task now requires 3 each of Abjuring Charms, Iliyanbruen Blades, and Vibrant Seedlings, down from 9 each.
Astral Diamond costs have been removed from all Sharandar Boon campaign tasks.
Astral Diamond costs have been removed from the "Assist Artisans" and "Assist Ritual Magic" campaign tasks.
Astral Diamond costs have been removed from Dark Fey Keys.
Battle for Sharandar: Completing this daily quest now grants 10 Gold Crescents and 15 Feywild Sparks, increased from 7 and 10 respectively.
Iliyanbruen Armor, Fey Weapons, and Redcap Weapons now scale to the player's level. Item Level and stats at Level 70 are unaffected.
- The level required to equip these is now 61, decreased from 70.
- These items are now Bind to Account on Pickup. This only affects newly-purchased items.
Seals of the Dark Fey: The tooltip on these Seals has been updated for accuracy.
Thradisar Starwise's store has been reorganized for ease of use.
- Players may now purchase armor for classes other than their own.
- Iliyanbruen Cloak and Iliyanbruen Ring may now be purchased directly from this store.
- The cost of Iliyanbruen Armor has been significantly reduced.
- The cost of Fey Weapons has been reduced.

Dread Ring

Astral Diamond costs have been removed from all Dread Ring campaign tasks.
Astral Diamond costs have been removed from all Thayan Lair Keys.
Dell McCourt's store has been reorganized for ease of use.
- Players may now purchase armor for classes other than their own.
- The Ring, Belt, and Cloak of the Dread Legion may now be purchased directly from this store.
- The cost of Thayan Armor has been significantly reduced.
Recover Thayan Gear: This campaign task now awards a Stronghold voucher worth 1,000 Dark Gifts, rather than Dread Legion gear.
Seals of the Shadowmantle: The tooltip on these Seals has been updated for accuracy.
Thayan Armor now scales to the player's level. Item Level and stats at Level 70 are unaffected.
- The level required to equip these is now 61, decreased from 70.
- These items are now Bind to Account on Pickup. This only affects newly-purchased items.
The Ring, Belt, and Cloak of the Dread Legion are now Bind to Account on Pickup. This only affects newly-purchased items.
Vendors in the Dread Ring now properly appear on the map.
Wages of War: This quest no longer requires the player to view Dell McCourt's inventory.

terramak · February 2016

Campaign Updates (pt. 2)
Icewind Dale

Astral Diamond costs have been removed from all Icewind Dale campaign tasks.
Black Ice Armor is now Bind to Account on Pickup. This only affects newly-purchased items.
Greater Cloak of Black Ice and Greater Belt of Black Ice are now Bind to Account on Pickup.
- These items now cost 100,000 Black Ice each, down from 250,000.
The Item Level of Elemental Purified and Elemental Corrupted Black Ice Armor has been increased to 130, up from 122.
- The quality of these items is now Epic, increased from Rare.
- The material requirements to craft these items via Black Ice Shaping have been significantly reduced.
Treasures of Xvim: This campaign task has been renamed to "Frozen Treasures," and now awards a Stronghold voucher worth 1,000 Frozen Treasures, rather than the Slayer Ring of the Xvim.
Urgus Battlehammer's store has been reorganized for ease of use.
- Black Ice Gauntlets may now be purchased directly from this store.
- Slayer Ring of the Xvim may now be purchased directly from this store.

Tyranny of Dragons

All items found in the remote Campaign store can now also be purchased from Feldon Strongbeard in Well of Dragons.
Astral Diamond costs have been removed from all Tyranny of Dragons Boon campaign tasks.
The Astral Diamond cost has been removed from the "Dragonforged Artifact" campaign task.
The Astral Diamond cost for the campaign task, "Dragon Hoard Enchantments," has been reduced to 5,000, down from 20,000.
The cost for the campaign task, "Adventuring Gear," is now 50 Dragon Hoard Coins and 3 each of Cult Secret and Dragon Sigil, down from 100 and 6 respectively.
Dragon Forged Steel no longer costs Astral Diamonds to purchase.
Dragon Forged Steel, Dragon Gems, and Dragon Bones may now be donated to the Stronghold coffer.
Eternal Armor is now Bind to Account on Pickup. This only affects newly-purchased items.
- The tooltips of these items now clearly state that they scale to the player's level.
- The cost of these items has been significantly reduced.
Feldon Strongbeard's store has been reorganized for ease of use.

Temple of Tiamat

Defeating Tiamat in the Temple of Tiamat now grants 20 Seals of the Protector.
It is no longer possible to receive a Minor Resonance Stone when defeating Tiamat.
Once a week, players may now earn a Cache of the Dragon Queen by defeating Tiamat.
- The cache contains one Greater Resonance Stone and one Major Astral Diamonds Voucher.
- Eligibility for receiving a cache resets every Monday at 3 AM server time.
Opening the Dragon Queen's Chest in the Temple of Tiamat now grants 40 Seals of the Protector.
The chance of receiving a Lesser Resonance Stone, Resonance Stone or Greater Resonance Stone when defeating Tiamat has been increased.
The chance of receiving a piece of Elven armor from defeating Tiamat when Tiamat Hoard Reclamation has reached Tier 2 has been increased to 100%.

Stronghold Siege

Once a week, players may now earn a Cache of the Fallen by winning a match of Stronghold Siege.
- The cache contains one Greater Thaumaturgic Stone and one Major Influence Voucher.
- Eligibility for receiving a cache resets every Monday at 3 AM server time.
Strongboxes of Influence, Astral Diamonds, Surplus Equipment or Gems may now drop in place of standard vouchers.

User Interface
Bank

When accessing the bank via the VIP Banking Portal, closing it no longer causes a chat message about an invalid command "DoneAction."

Campaigns

The Campaigns window now has a keybind ("]" by default).
The Maze Engine campaign progression now displays in a more aesthetically pleasing way.

Character Sheet

The Maze Engine campaign boons now take up the same width as most 5-tier boon tabs.

Chat

Closing /font tags no longer tend to appear in NPC Chat logs.

Enchantments

Jewels in Enchantment slots may now properly be removed.

HUD

When interacting with a player in the world, the "Invite to Party" option now always displays, though it is grayed out if invalid.

Inventory

Items in the final bag slot can now properly be selected in certain item selection menus.

Journal

The achievement category "Seasonal" has been renamed to "Events."

Mounts (Change log tracked for NeverwinterPreview only)

Insignia Bonuses now have buff / debuff icons.
Players can now directly swap Insignias, rather than having to unslot one and slot the other.
Pressing Alt now properly closes the Insignia menu.
The "Buy" button has been removed from the Insignia Bonus window.
The "No available bonus" message is now worded more clearly, and the button to review potential bonuses has been moved.
The first pass of an updated Mount tutorial has been implemented.
The tooltip shown when hovering the cursor over the Mount slot has been improved.
Universal Insignia slots are now yellow in the Switch Mount window.

Queues

Demogorgon, Demogorgon (Master), and Temple of Tiamat are now classified as Epic Trials.

Queues (Change log tracked for NeverwinterPreview only)

Certain combinations of players declining and accepting Queue Group invitations will no longer drop everyone from Queue Groups.
Many occurrences of the word "Match" have been properly renamed to "Queue" instead.
Significant improvements have been made to the flow of inviting party members to a Queue Group.
- Note that this can be spammy to teammates who decline queue group invitations - This flow is still under review.
The first enemy encounter in queued instances now consistently spawns.
The "Two of Any Role" queue rule now properly states "Maximum Two of Any Class" instead.
Various buttons and UI elements have been moved around to improve the general flow. The UI is still under review and subject to change.

Stability and Performance

Certain passive powers now affect server performance much less.

beckylunatic · February 2016

terramak said:

Full notes for Campaign Updates, teased in the NW.60.20160201a.1 patch notes.

Oh shiiii... When I first read this, I was only thinking about the new campaign, not adjustments to the old ones.

revovlerjesus1 · February 2016

Server is down tho...

mentinmindmaker · February 2016

I *really* hope you just forgot to mention the class balance things?

whitestarua · February 2016

@terramak
when you will upload this to lurker server?
if you dont know - just tell "i dont know" plz don't ignore this question

and - will be class balanse changes in new module?

arabatur · February 2016

Leveling dungeons

freshour · February 2016

I kinda like that a few devs have posted and every single one of them ignored the massive elephant in the room that is coal wards getting removed... care to comment devs?

reds351 · February 2016

freshour said:
I kinda like that a few devs have posted and every single one of them ignored the massive elephant in the room that is coal wards getting removed... care to comment devs?

Honestly its more a bean counter call and not the dev's call

beckylunatic · February 2016

reds351 said:

freshour said:
I kinda like that a few devs have posted and every single one of them ignored the massive elephant in the room that is coal wards getting removed... care to comment devs?
Honestly its more a bean counter call and not the dev's call

Yup. WTF are they supposed to say? The guy making the art or compiling the patch notes didn't decide this.

terramak · February 2016

@whitestarua
We currently don't have plans to push this build to Lurker. We can revise these plans if needs be, but the Russian localization isn't in yet.

To most folks:
The general guideline for whether I'll answer feature questions: I can clarify certain things that have already been announced, but if there hasn't been an announcement or dev blog about a feature, chances are I'm gonna be pretty quiet. Things tend to change in the process of game development, so if things are announced before they're ready, there's a chance of circumstances changing.

So for class balance changes (for example), all I can say is that we're aiming to tackle these starting this year, as that's what I said in the Q&A stream last month. I don't have more direct timelines to announce at this time (and when there are, you'll likely hear it in a dev blog, state of the game, or news post by @strumslinger ).

I'm not a fan of answering questions vaguely for the most part, but I'd rather be vague and disappointing than clear and wrong.

whitestarua · February 2016

@terramak
thx for answers

about lurker. localization is not so important.
Our community want to have the opportunity to test new content, that's all.

lwedar · February 2016

@terramak any update to these issues you inquired about weeks ago

1. Armored Bulette- Size has been shrunk since update to legendary
2. Hero's Feast- Item doesn't scale properly from 60-70

scathias · February 2016

The Item Level of Elemental Purified and Elemental Corrupted Black Ice Armor has been increased to 130, up from 122.
The quality of these items is now Epic, increased from Rare.
The material requirements to craft these items via Black Ice Shaping have been significantly reduced.

Currently the boots require BI shaping lv 3, while the helm/arms/armor all require lv 4 to craft. I have not checked preview yet but what you write suggests that they probably still have different levels to craft at. Would it possible to get these standardized to lv 3 shaping please? As it is you need to complete the campaign and then farm 50k BI still in order to make this gear whereas the other campaigns you just need to access the zone and complete enough of it to get the currencies. And this is fine, considering the BI gear will be stronger. But 50k BI is a lot to farm for gear that is matched ilv wise by gear you can obtain from doing dungeons (ilv 130 blue alliance gear)

torontodave · February 2016

removed AD costs from campaign: check
curated old areas: check
curated old stores: check
weekly reward for tiamat: check
weekly reward for siege: check

I like what I'm seeing here malley.

todo list
remove/lower the costs of armor kits.. 100k AD is still too high
maybe make that tiamat/siege reward a daily?
hey remember the foundry? Give people a reason to play the featured quests. daily key? mainhand/offhand with foundry motes? official endorsement i.e. a contest? or give @strumslinger some prizes to add to the drowned shore contest? =D

looking good though. finally. ;D

beckylunatic · February 2016

scathias said:
Currently the boots require BI shaping lv 3, while the helm/arms/armor all require lv 4 to craft. I have not checked preview yet but what you write suggests that they probably still have different levels to craft at. Would it possible to get these standardized to lv 3 shaping please? As it is you need to complete the campaign and then farm 50k BI still in order to make this gear whereas the other campaigns you just need to access the zone and complete enough of it to get the currencies. And this is fine, considering the BI gear will be stronger. But 50k BI is a lot to farm for gear that is matched ilv wise by gear you can obtain from doing dungeons (ilv 130 blue alliance gear)

It seems pretty clear that the boots being available earlier is a longstanding bug. If the other tasks were moved down a rank, there would be no tasks at all at rank 4, just a placeholder to upgrade the profession again past the useless tier.

I've always felt though that the BIShaping upgrade task requirements were flipped, and the lesser amount should be first. 25k and 5 unified elements wouldn't be as bad for a fresh 70. (Even though all inquiries about this during EE testing were ignored.)

eocroos · February 2016

Wow, notes look pretty nice. Hopefully some people will be less angry from yesterdays news.

terramak · February 2016

All righty, these notes are up-to-date now. I think I'm gonna post and sticky a general release note round-up to compare the Maze Engine's patch notes to the live build. Think of it like "If we released it now, what would the patch notes look like" - so not including the changes from Preview build to Preview build.

reds351 · February 2016

Can we get the "Slayer of the Xvim" set to scale to 70 please?

beckylunatic · February 2016

reds351 said:
Can we get the "Slayer of the Xvim" set to scale to 70 please?

That would be really great. It sucks that buying the belt is the only thing you can do with an Ancient Curio. They are worthless not only because they are so ubiquitous, but because few people really wish to use one now when their inclination is to break the set bonus anyway to use an Ensorcelled cloak, because it scales higher.

scathias · February 2016

beckylunatic said:

scathias said:
Currently the boots require BI shaping lv 3, while the helm/arms/armor all require lv 4 to craft. I have not checked preview yet but what you write suggests that they probably still have different levels to craft at. Would it possible to get these standardized to lv 3 shaping please? As it is you need to complete the campaign and then farm 50k BI still in order to make this gear whereas the other campaigns you just need to access the zone and complete enough of it to get the currencies. And this is fine, considering the BI gear will be stronger. But 50k BI is a lot to farm for gear that is matched ilv wise by gear you can obtain from doing dungeons (ilv 130 blue alliance gear)
It seems pretty clear that the boots being available earlier is a longstanding bug. If the other tasks were moved down a rank, there would be no tasks at all at rank 4, just a placeholder to upgrade the profession again past the useless tier.

I've always felt though that the BIShaping upgrade task requirements were flipped, and the lesser amount should be first. 25k and 5 unified elements wouldn't be as bad for a fresh 70. (Even though all inquiries about this during EE testing were ignored.)

I did not realize this, I always use the search function when looking for things so i never paid attention to what level somthiing was at. Thank you for pointing this out

beckylunatic · February 2016

Umm... looks like copying to preview done broked again.

scathias · February 2016

Thank you for all these much needed changes for campaigns. They are very much appreciated.

terramak · February 2016

Round-up thread posted (but keeping it closed, just in case I need to overflow a post again). Also made some proofreading edits above, oops. (Some missing list end tags and a half-copied line under the Items and Economy heading from last patch's notes.)

beckylunatic said:
Umm... looks like copying to preview done broked again.

D'oh. I've let our folks know. Investigation is in progress, but depending on the cause, I'm not sure whether it'll be back up this weekend.

Maze Engine Preview Patch Notes NW.60.20160216a.0

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