Maze Engine Preview Patch Notes NW.60.20160224a.2

terramak · February 2016

Known Issues with this build:

There are some general usability issues in the Queue UI, though we've made some big strides. Feedback is still welcome!

Highlights

Epic Dungeon: Castle Never
Players can now return to Castle Never and combat a threat more menacing than ever before! Though players have driven Valindra's minions away, the reclamation process has been interrupted. The undead are back in full force, aided by hordes of demons, and adventurers will have the opportunity to drive them back once again. Read more in the Developer Blog: Return to Castle Never, get a sneak peek at the art with the Art Developer Blog: Castle Never Returns!, and prepare yourself for the trials within by reading the Developer Blog: Battle with Orcus!

Release Notes

Content and Environment
General

Demogorgon: Multiple players can now properly interact with the end chest simultaneously.
Drowned Shore: The Heroic Encounter, Merchants in Distress, now consistently gives rewards.
Hard to Reach Places: Minsc now respawns within 60 seconds if he ever despawns, e.g. due to a client disconnect.

Frozen Heart

Various improvements have been made to the environment, and a few stuck locations have been patched up.

Pirate King's Retreat

A few remaining occurrences of this dungeon's previous name have been updated.
Several death skips have been addressed - Players must complete certain objectives to unlock respawn locations.
The Redolent Surgeon can no longer be tempted into going for a very high dive into the ocean below.
Various improvements have been made to the environment, and a few stuck locations have been patched up.

The Maze Engine Campaign

Many audio updates and additions have been made to the Maze Engine content.
The final encounter's environment has been updated with improve lighting and colors.

Combat and Powers
Boons

The Maze Engine Campaign boons have had a significant review, including rebalancing and addressing any issues.
Players may no longer spend two Boon Points on the same tier.

Buffs, Debuffs, and Effects

The Temporary Hit Points provided by the Hunter Ranger power, Stag Heart, now properly fall off when combat ends.
The Temporary Hit Points provided by the following powers now properly respect the Temporary Hit Point rules - They no longer stack with other Temp. HP sources, and fade when combat ends.
- Artifact: Wheel of Elements (Earth effect)
- Companion: Barbarian Shaman: Nature's Wind
- Great Weapon Fighter: Unstoppable
- Hunter Ranger: Cruel Recovery
- Item: Greater Purified Black Ice Enchantment
- Item: Greater Purified Restoration Enchantment
- Item: Greater Purified Tempered Enchantment
- Item: Lesser Purified Black Ice Enchantment
- Item: Lesser Purified Restoration Enchantment
- Item: Lesser Purified Tempered Enchantment
The following powers now provide a Shield instead of Temporary Hit Points.
- Artifact: Blood Crystal Raven Skull
- Companion: Angel of Protection
Companions
- Pewter Golem: The Active Companion Bonus of this companion (still unavailable as of The Maze Engine release) now has Power and Defense stats that fall in line with other similar companions, rather than significantly higher values of both.
Items and Economy
Mounts
- Demon Sled: This mount is now properly converted to the new system.
- Frozen Demon Sled: This mount is now properly converted to the new system.
- Tenser's Transformation: This power now properly has a recharge time.
- Tenser's Transformation: This power now properly speeds the player up, as stated, rather than slowing them down.
General
- Adorable Pocket Pet: This item can now properly be sold for 8 copper.
- Stronghold Economy: Crafted Stronghold supplies now bind to Account, rather than to Character.
- Stronghold Economy: Jewelcrafting now has an additional Gems and Jewelry tasks for medium Profession ranks.
- Stronghold Economy: The new crafting task for Gem supplies now gives 2 times the value of previous Preview builds.
- Stronghold Economy: The new crafting task for Gold supplies now gives 5 times the value of previous Preview builds.
- Tymora's Lucky Coin: This item can now properly be sold for 8 copper.
Campaign Updates
Sharandar
- (Patch Note change only) Astral Diamond costs for the "Assist Ritual Magic" campaign task have been significantly reduced.
  - Changed from: Astral Diamond costs have been removed from the "Assist Ritual Magic" campaign task.
Stronghold Siege
- Strongboxes of Influence, Astral Diamonds, Surplus Equipment or Gems may now drop in place of standard vouchers.
  - Clarification from last week's notes: These Strongboxes can be donated directly to a guild coffer. When donated, they count as one Epic voucher of that type.
  - They can also be opened using a Strongbox Key for five Epic vouchers instead.
User Interface
Character Creation
- When switching between characters, the newly-selected characters no longer incorrectly wield the equipment of a previously-selected character.
Chat
- Friend requests can now only be sent by accounts with at least one character level 15 or above, just like tells or zone chat. While this won't necessarily stop spam, it removes the incentive to send unsolicited friend requests to bypass the restriction on /tell.
HUD
- Enemies in 3-player dungeons now properly show their health bar borders again.
Inventory
- Tooltips on Salvageable gear no longer display the "Salvageable" keyword in two separate places.
Leaderboards
- The Maze Engine module's leaderboard has begun. (Leaderboard progress on NeverwinterPreview will not carry over to the live game.)
Mounts
- Mounts can now be previewed just like gear.
Queues
- Opening the Queue Group window no longer immediately sends invitations to all party members.
- Private Mode no longer allows players to select multiple queues at a time.
- Queue Group leaders can now properly promote other players to leader.
- The first pass of the updated Queue System tutorial is now available for players to view.
Rewards
- When using Tomes of Experience, a white square no longer appears in the upper left of the reward window.
Stores
- Discount values now display in in-game stores, such as the Wondrous Bazaar for players at the proper VIP rank.
Stability and Performance
- Attempting to speak in a /match or /mrg channel while not in a queue group no longer crashes the client.

mamalion1234 · February 2016

defiantone99 said:
Will GWF get some more damage resistance from Sprint and Unstoppable now that our survivability has been nerfed?

survivability on gwf was from temp hp stacking with glyph-artifact temp hp? i didnt know that. on my gwf never used any kind of glyph or wheel with temp hp never had problems.

beckylunatic · February 2016

Because they don't stack with other sources (which you probably aren't using) and don't stick around when you're out of combat (and thus can heal)?

How is that a survivability nerf?

kreatyve · February 2016

defiantone99 said:

beckylunatic said:
Because they don't stack with other sources (which you probably aren't using) and don't stick around when you're out of combat (and thus can heal)?

How is that a survivability nerf?
These are targeted nerfs to HR and GWF survivability, no need for debate.

I think it might be more of an effort to actually fix Unstoppable with GWF than to nerf survivability. That's my hope, anyway. I'd wait til after you test it to see the effects it has on survivability.

mamalion1234 · February 2016

kreatyve said:

defiantone99 said:

beckylunatic said:
Because they don't stack with other sources (which you probably aren't using) and don't stick around when you're out of combat (and thus can heal)?

How is that a survivability nerf?
These are targeted nerfs to HR and GWF survivability, no need for debate.
I think it might be more of an effort to actually fix Unstoppable with GWF than to nerf survivability. That's my hope, anyway. I'd wait til after you test it to see the effects it has on survivability.

i just made the test. everytime you exit combat you lose your temporary hit points.
TEST NUMBER 2 not sure if as intended : if great weapon fighter keep determination when he pop unstopable out of combat when it expires he keeps his temporary hit points out of combat.

scathias · February 2016

kreatyve said:

defiantone99 said:

beckylunatic said:
Because they don't stack with other sources (which you probably aren't using) and don't stick around when you're out of combat (and thus can heal)?

How is that a survivability nerf?
These are targeted nerfs to HR and GWF survivability, no need for debate.
I think it might be more of an effort to actually fix Unstoppable with GWF than to nerf survivability. That's my hope, anyway. I'd wait til after you test it to see the effects it has on survivability.

Here is one direct effect it has on survivability, when a GWF ends a fight in pve they can have 100k Temp HP easy. This enables them to much better initiate a pull on the next group of mobs. If you are a DPS gwf this doesn't matter of course since you wait for your tank to initiate right? (of course you do). However, what if, lets say, you actually want to play tank on your sentinal GWF... it just got way harder to do this now since you are missing a lot of temp HP and thus you need to riskier ways of initiating. Not having this initial temp HP pool means that you need to lose actual health at the start of a fight in order to go unstoppable, and since you need to lose so much HP in order to go unstoppable this is pretty risky.

All in all this is not a good thing for sentinals.

It is going to make TRs one shotting GWF with SE a lot easier now too since the GWF won't have extra temp hp from the last time he was in combat to help avoid this. If SE respected DR/tenacity this change would be fine. but now a TR just needs to let the gwf drop from combat if he gets too much temp HP and come back and the gwf is much easier to kill suddenly.

I also have this horrible feeling that it is going to be the most recent source of temp HP that is what is applied since temps can't stack... so the 100 temps a gwf gets from a DC is going to overwrite his 100k from unstoppable. This is conjecture though and will be easily tested.

mamalion1234 · February 2016

then time to rework tr damage in whole not just on se.

scathias · February 2016

Demon Sled: This mount is now properly converted to the new system.
Frozen Demon Sled: This mount is now properly converted to the new system.

When I opened the Demon Sled it turned into a Winter Sled. I do not have a Frozen Demon Sled to test with

@terramak

kreatyve · February 2016

scathias said:

kreatyve said:

defiantone99 said:

beckylunatic said:
Because they don't stack with other sources (which you probably aren't using) and don't stick around when you're out of combat (and thus can heal)?

How is that a survivability nerf?
These are targeted nerfs to HR and GWF survivability, no need for debate.
I think it might be more of an effort to actually fix Unstoppable with GWF than to nerf survivability. That's my hope, anyway. I'd wait til after you test it to see the effects it has on survivability.
Here is one direct effect it has on survivability, when a GWF ends a fight in pve they can have 100k Temp HP easy. This enables them to much better initiate a pull on the next group of mobs. If you are a DPS gwf this doesn't matter of course since you wait for your tank to initiate right? (of course you do). However, what if, lets say, you actually want to play tank on your sentinal GWF... it just got way harder to do this now since you are missing a lot of temp HP and thus you need to riskier ways of initiating. Not having this initial temp HP pool means that you need to lose actual health at the start of a fight in order to go unstoppable, and since you need to lose so much HP in order to go unstoppable this is pretty risky.

All in all this is not a good thing for sentinals.

It is going to make TRs one shotting GWF with SE a lot easier now too since the GWF won't have extra temp hp from the last time he was in combat to help avoid this. If SE respected DR/tenacity this change would be fine. but now a TR just needs to let the gwf drop from combat if he gets too much temp HP and come back and the gwf is much easier to kill suddenly.

I also have this horrible feeling that it is going to be the most recent source of temp HP that is what is applied since temps can't stack... so the 100 temps a gwf gets from a DC is going to overwrite his 100k from unstoppable. This is conjecture though and will be easily tested.

As someone who doesn't typically PvP, I didn't really think about the potential consequences in PvP. I play Destroyer GWF. Haven't been on preview yet to see if it did fix the issue with Unstoppable either.

thefabricant · February 2016

@terramak, there were a few questions I asked pertinent to the last preview build, can we please have insignias made easily available on preview somewhere so we can actually test the bonuses before they go live?

polaris1986 · February 2016

The Temporary Hit Points provided by the Hunter Ranger power, Stag Heart, now properly fall off when combat ends.

Oh, such a usefull power! (not, really? don't you think it needs a rebuild?)

The Temporary Hit Points provided by the following powers now properly respect the Temporary Hit Point rules - They no longer stack with other Temp. HP sources, and fade when combat ends.

will it work with Templar's Wrath (OP)?

reddevilbs · February 2016

mamalion1234 said:

kreatyve said:

defiantone99 said:

beckylunatic said:
Because they don't stack with other sources (which you probably aren't using) and don't stick around when you're out of combat (and thus can heal)?

How is that a survivability nerf?
These are targeted nerfs to HR and GWF survivability, no need for debate.
I think it might be more of an effort to actually fix Unstoppable with GWF than to nerf survivability. That's my hope, anyway. I'd wait til after you test it to see the effects it has on survivability.
i just made the test. everytime you exit combat you lose your temporary hit points.
TEST NUMBER 2 not sure if as intended : if great weapon fighter keep determination when he pop unstopable out of combat when it expires he keeps his temporary hit points out of combat.

Test it also, you keep your temp HP when you pop unstoppable out of combat, you loose those when you change instance/map.

What I noticed, you are gaining determination much faster when someone hits you, like it was before.

Anyway, as it says "Temporary", this bonus have to be on for brief of period, this was the way of Unstoppable since the game was released , till ??Mod 6?? /not sure which mod/ aaand dont forget the bug caused by temp HP.
Don't get me wrong, this affects GWF survivability a lot/ i have 2 GWFs/, but I will not say this is a nerf.

urabask · February 2016

patch notes said:
Strongboxes of Influence, Astral Diamonds, Surplus Equipment or Gems may now drop in place of standard vouchers.
Clarification from last week's notes: These Strongboxes can be donated directly to a guild coffer. When donated, they count as one Epic voucher of that type.
They can also be opened using a Strongbox Key for five Epic vouchers instead.

So are these going to be added to dragonflight? Not sure why PvE guilds are getting the shaft here.

xultrakill · February 2016

will we see major class changes in mod 9?

xgrandz02 · February 2016

seem like a nerf to our temp.HP well then "Buff/Rework Sprint". (which is current basically useless)

1. 50% deflect while sprinting
2. 30% DR while sprinting (same as SW)
3. you are immune to Dmg of the first 2-3 sec while sprinting

Your choice devs!

urabask · February 2016

xgrandz02 said:
seem like a nerf to our temp.HP well then "Buff/Rework Sprint". (which is current basically useless)

1. 50% deflect while sprinting
2. 30% DR while sprinting (same as SW)
3. you are immune to Dmg of the first 2-3 sec while sprinting

Your choice devs!

This would be better than dodging. The qq in PvP would be off the charts.

xgrandz02 · February 2016

urabask said:

This would be better than dodging. The qq in PvP would be off the charts.

not really,
because all the classes with dodge's is exactly doing this right now,

when someone dodge an a skill on the right time, (lets say SE) they basically negated all to incoming dmg to zero,
for example TR dodge (roll) during the dodge animation he is basically immune.
when a GF block on a right time he also reduce to incoming dmg to zero,

classes with no dodges can't do this, we (Gwf) will always take dmg no matter what.

xgrandz02 · February 2016

The mount preview is awesome but..

* it's too small
*it should show our character on it, (sitting on mount)

urabask · February 2016

xgrandz02 said:

not really,
because all the classes with dodge's is exactly doing this right now,

when someone dodge an a skill on the right time, (lets say SE) they basically negated all to incoming dmg to zero,
for example TR dodge (roll) during the dodge animation he is basically immune.
when a GF block on a right time he also reduce to incoming dmg to zero,

classes with no dodges can't do this, we (Gwf) will always take dmg no matter what.

Except with dodges you used a fixed portion of your stamina for each dodge. If you get immunity from sprinting then you can pretty much just tap sprint to become immune to damage when you need to.

mmm1001 · February 2016

kreatyve said:

defiantone99 said:

beckylunatic said:
Because they don't stack with other sources (which you probably aren't using) and don't stick around when you're out of combat (and thus can heal)?

How is that a survivability nerf?
These are targeted nerfs to HR and GWF survivability, no need for debate.
I think it might be more of an effort to actually fix Unstoppable with GWF than to nerf survivability. That's my hope, anyway. I'd wait til after you test it to see the effects it has on survivability.

Fixing unstopable is absolutely trivial task, they just don't want to do it.

urabask · February 2016

mmm1001 said:

kreatyve said:

defiantone99 said:

beckylunatic said:
Because they don't stack with other sources (which you probably aren't using) and don't stick around when you're out of combat (and thus can heal)?

How is that a survivability nerf?
These are targeted nerfs to HR and GWF survivability, no need for debate.
I think it might be more of an effort to actually fix Unstoppable with GWF than to nerf survivability. That's my hope, anyway. I'd wait til after you test it to see the effects it has on survivability.
Fixing unstopable is absolutely trivial task, they just don't want to do it.

If it is then you obviously have a way to reproduce the bug 100% of the time on their test servers, right?

asterdahl · February 2016

kreatyve said:

defiantone99 said:

beckylunatic said:
Because they don't stack with other sources (which you probably aren't using) and don't stick around when you're out of combat (and thus can heal)?

How is that a survivability nerf?
These are targeted nerfs to HR and GWF survivability, no need for debate.
I think it might be more of an effort to actually fix Unstoppable with GWF than to nerf survivability. That's my hope, anyway. I'd wait til after you test it to see the effects it has on survivability.

To give a little backstory into why these adjustments were made, it was not specifically part of an effort to adjust any one class. However, as we have been going through and analyzing various powers, we noticed that there were some inconsistencies in how temporary hit points behaved in a few cases.

Generally speaking, the intended behavior for temporary hit points is that:

It falls off after combat has ended.
Only the best source of temporary hit points is kept.

When we noticed that a handful of powers disobeyed this rule, we had discussions about how we wanted to approach the problem. Unfortunately, some of these issues have been around for a long time, and in the case of Unstoppable, this is an issue with a core class power.

Based on their overall power and their place in the community right now, we felt that great weapon fighters were in a good enough place that this adjustment would not break their viability, however this is something we plan to continue to monitor, so your continued feedback is appreciated.

In the end, we changed powers like the Blood Crystal Raven Skull to shields, because a shield is closer to the original design intent of the artifact than temporary hit points. At the time of the Raven Skull's creations, shields did not exist. The tooltip on the Raven Skull currently stated that it behaved differently than normal temporary hit points, and essentially described how shields worked.

scathias said:
I also have this horrible feeling that it is going to be the most recent source of temp HP that is what is applied since temps can't stack... so the 100 temps a gwf gets from a DC is going to overwrite his 100k from unstoppable. This is conjecture though and will be easily tested.

On this particular issue, you can put your fears to rest. By bringing these abilities in line with others, temporary hit points provided from them should work as described above, in that only the best source is kept. The only way a devoted cleric's spell will overwrite your temporary hit points from unstoppable is if they have been diminished to the point where the cleric's spell would eclipse the amount of hit points left from unstoppable.

If any behavior counter to this is observed from a source of temporary hit points, be sure to let us know. For those curious, the primary difference with shields is that you may have multiple shields at once, as long as they are from a different source ability.

scathias said:
Demon Sled: This mount is now properly converted to the new system.
Frozen Demon Sled: This mount is now properly converted to the new system.

When I opened the Demon Sled it turned into a Winter Sled. I do not have a Frozen Demon Sled to test with

@terramak

Thanks for the report, I've sent this along to our QA team.

polaris1986 said:
The Temporary Hit Points provided by the Hunter Ranger power, Stag Heart, now properly fall off when combat ends.

Oh, such a usefull power! (not, really? don't you think it needs a rebuild?)

The Temporary Hit Points provided by the following powers now properly respect the Temporary Hit Point rules - They no longer stack with other Temp. HP sources, and fade when combat ends.

will it work with Templar's Wrath (OP)?

If the power wasn't mentioned in the above list, the temporary hit points granted by it should already work as described.

urabask said:

mmm1001 said:

kreatyve said:

defiantone99 said:

beckylunatic said:
Because they don't stack with other sources (which you probably aren't using) and don't stick around when you're out of combat (and thus can heal)?

How is that a survivability nerf?
These are targeted nerfs to HR and GWF survivability, no need for debate.
I think it might be more of an effort to actually fix Unstoppable with GWF than to nerf survivability. That's my hope, anyway. I'd wait til after you test it to see the effects it has on survivability.
Fixing unstopable is absolutely trivial task, they just don't want to do it.
If it is then you obviously have a way to reproduce the bug 100% of the time on their test servers, right?

Unfortunately this change is not a part of a direct attempt to fix the rare issue with unstoppable, though it is possible it may have an impact on that issue. This issue has been exceptionally difficult to pin down so if you do have any consistent reproduction cases, please continue to send in reports.

mattia78 · February 2016

urabask said:

patch notes said:
Strongboxes of Influence, Astral Diamonds, Surplus Equipment or Gems may now drop in place of standard vouchers.
Clarification from last week's notes: These Strongboxes can be donated directly to a guild coffer. When donated, they count as one Epic voucher of that type.
They can also be opened using a Strongbox Key for five Epic vouchers instead.
So are these going to be added to dragonflight? Not sure why PvE guilds are getting the shaft here.

+1 to this. This is a major issue; pvp is so broken (timeless queues and horrible matchmaking), most guilds don't do it anymore. Influence is still a big problem, pls consider this

asterdahl said:

kreatyve said:

defiantone99 said:

beckylunatic said:
Because they don't stack with other sources (which you probably aren't using) and don't stick around when you're out of combat (and thus can heal)?

How is that a survivability nerf?
These are targeted nerfs to HR and GWF survivability, no need for debate.
I think it might be more of an effort to actually fix Unstoppable with GWF than to nerf survivability. That's my hope, anyway. I'd wait til after you test it to see the effects it has on survivability.
Based on their overall power and their place in the community right now, we felt that great weapon fighters were in a good enough place that this adjustment would not break their viability, however this is something we plan to continue to monitor, so your continued feedback is appreciated.

Pls don't listen to long time whiners, this is not a nerf to gwf. If they say so it's because they don't know how to play their class well.

scathias · February 2016

asterdahl said:

To give a little backstory into why these adjustments were made, it was not specifically part of an effort to adjust any one class. However, as we have been going through and analyzing various powers, we noticed that there were some inconsistencies in how temporary hit points behaved in a few cases.

Generally speaking, the intended behavior for temporary hit points is that:
It falls off after combat has ended.

Only the best source of temporary hit points is kept.

When we noticed that a handful of powers disobeyed this rule, we had discussions about how we wanted to approach the problem. Unfortunately, some of these issues have been around for a long time, and in the case of Unstoppable, this is an issue with a core class power.

Based on their overall power and their place in the community right now, we felt that great weapon fighters were in a good enough place that this adjustment would not break their viability, however this is something we plan to continue to monitor, so your continued feedback is appreciated.

Are you able to comment on how you think this change will effect GWF in PvP?
TRs using Shocking Execution to 1 hit kill classes from full health is very wide spread, especially with many TRs able to do 150k crit hits with SE. Because of the fact that SE does piercing damage and thus ignores the DR and tenacity of the target GWF (and SW) are much more vulnerable to SE then other classes who have a dodge since when a CW/DC/HR/TR/OP hears the sound of SE being activated they can dodge away or use binding oath as a OP. GWF and SW though get increased move speed and DR on their shift mechanics, and since SE ignores DR that portion of shift does not help and the increased move speed is not enough to get out of range of SE before it lands (since SE has an absurdly long range, also, since the TR uses SE from stealth it is very difficult to know which way is going to be the shortest to get out range, it often falls down to a 50/50 chance of either direction which further reduces the chance of living). As such GWF and SW end up having take the full amount of damage that SE produces without having any chance to avoid it.

Since mod 6 though having left over temp HP from a previous fight could reduce the number of times SE would actually kill a GWF since it would hopefully provide a GWF with enough extra HP to survive being hit by 150k unavoidable damage. SWs never had this option unfortunately but now GWF have lost it as well.

There have been multiple (long) threads on nerfing/fixing SE and so on and my request here isn't to nerf/fix SE. I'd just like to know your opinion on what i have stated above.

Also in my previous post i noted how important the left over temp HP from unstoppable could be to a sentinal spec GWF. This change does hurt them for sure.

for a dps PVE destroyer gwf this change doesn't hurt them much at all though, they can easily get enough temps to survive in combat and they have a tank to initiate dungeon pulls.

Maze Engine Preview Patch Notes NW.60.20160224a.2

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