Storm King's Thunder Preview Patch Notes: NW.65.20160906b.3

terramak · September 2016

Small-ish update to the build that was on the Preview shard over the weekend.
Light green text highlights changes to the notes that were on Preview.

Release Notes: NW.65.20160906b.3

Content and Environment
Storm King's Thunder

All locations: Relic nodes may no longer be harvested while the character's trowel is in the bank.
Lighting and shadows now properly display on the boat in the login screen.
The campaign can no longer be advanced in such a way that items disappear from the store until they're unlocked.
Bryn Shander
- Character portraits now more consistently match the speaking character.
- Frost Giant Excavators: Enemies no longer stack on each other at the start of this Heroic Encounter.
- Frozen characters no longer wear surprisingly flexible frozen capes.
- Guard Duty: Multiple players can now properly interact with one door at the same time.
Cold Run
- A skill node has been moved out from behind collision.
- The intro cutscene has been tweaked so it more consistently loads the environment and characters ahead of time.
Lonelywood
- Crustacean Cuisine: The waypoint now properly has objective text.
- Harbor Master: The objective text has been changed to "Cargo searched" in order to make the objective clearer.
- The intro cutscene has been tweaked so it more consistently loads the environment and characters ahead of time.
Instanced Content
- Secrets of the Cocoon: The exit portal no longer incorrectly appears before the instance is complete.
Fangbreaker Island
- This map now properly has the updated blizzard visual effects.

Queues

Lair of Lostmauth: Players may now properly use the exit portal after Lostmauth is defeated, regardless of whether they qualify to open the reward chest.
Malabog's Castle: A tree root that was providing an unintended "safe" zone has been adjusted.

General

Various lines of text have been updated for consistency with the voice-over.
Various typos have been addressed.

Combat and Powers
Classes and Balance

Great Weapon Fighter
- Daring Shout: This power no longer incorrectly increases the character's threat, as well as threat generation against affected targets.
Hunter Ranger
- Blade Hurricane: This feat tooltip has been updated to read more clearly. No change has been made to power functionality.
Scourge Warlock
- Arms of Hadar is no longer able to knock enemies that are immune to control powers.
- Hadar's Grasp no longer incorrectly removes Tyrannical Curse.
- Soul Sparks can no longer stack over the maximum value under certain combat situations.
- Tyrannical Curse no longer incorrectly removes Warlock's Curse.

Companions

Owlbear Cub: Infantile Compensation no longer deals 0 damage with certain powers, such as the Devoted Cleric powers Blazing Light and Daunting Light.
Various Companions now have proper "downed" animation and audio.

Enemies and Allies

Fangbreaker Island: Drufi now resets the encounter if she leaves her boss arena.
Fangbreaker Island: The Dragon Turtle no incorrectly animation cancels its own attacks.
Fangbreaker Island: The Dragon Turtle no incorrectly uses "Wild Slam" regardless of whether the required conditions are met.
Frost Giant Warriors now properly have initial combat taunts.
Players no longer remain in combat from runes or rocks after defeating the giants who cast or threw them.

Mounts

Manticore: The summon animation for this mount has been improved.
Insignias
- Combatant's Maneuver now properly activates.
- Victim's Preservation now properly activates.

General

Excavator's Potion of Everfrost Resist: The buff icon now better matches its functionality.

Items and Economy
Storm King's Thunder

A portion of the Ten-Towns Supplies awarded by the meta-quest to complete a certain number of Daily Quests has been moved to those Daily Quests themselves.
- Completing exactly enough Dailies to finish the meta-quest results in the character gaining the same number of supplies as before this update.
- This allows players who want to engage in more dailies to gain a little bit of extra Ten-Towns Supplies.
Headsman Raid Vambraces: The backs of characters' arms no longer often clip through this item.
Relic gear now displays properly on Dragonborn players.
Ten-Towns Supplies costs from Rare quality Shirt and Pants slot items, as well as the Armor Kit, have been reduced.
Ten-Towns Supplies costs for potions and trowels have been removed.
The Consumables store now has more items.
The drop rate of the Manticore Talon artifact from Hati has been increased; it had previously been lower than intended.
When picking up Ostorian Relic node loot, it no longer incorrectly has the chance to be an unopened pack.
- Any packs still in a character's inventory are now bound. (This change went into effect last week.)
- Packs can be opened if the character has a qualifying Trowel item in their inventory.

Mounts

Embellished Apparatus of Gond now has a place in Collections.
Mounts acquired from the Jarl's Mount Pack in the Runic Lockbox now properly grant credit in Collections.

Professions

The Alchemy profession now has a Rank 25 task to create Distilled Potions of Grand Healing. This recipe can be acquired through Rank 25 Experimentation.
The Rank 7 Experimentation task in Alchemy no longer persists after the player has graduated to Rank 8 or beyond.

Zen Market

Knox's Adventurer Recruitment Order: Oathbound Paladins created via this purchase no longer incorrectly start with a tiny Invocation-style Astral Diamond bonus.
Knox's Adventurer Recruitment Order: Hunter Rangers created via this purchase no longer incorrectly start with their items in the second bag, rather than the first.
Legendary Dragon Key: New dungeons have been added to the list in the item description. This is a tooltip change only.
The Shared Bank Slot purchase now states the proper limit of 88 total slots.

General

A certain event item no longer grants unexpected Attribute bonuses to certain classes.
Demonic, Gigantic, Black Ice, and Draconic Enchantments now properly provide stats when equipped to Companion gear.
Elemental Evil: Characters who completed all of the quests in that campaign, but ended up one Twisted Scripture short of the final task, now have that Twisted Scripture in their inventory.
Fey Blessing Enchantment ranks 11 and 12 now give the expected Item Level.
Ring of Ambush: This item's effect now has a 20 second internal cooldown, starting when the stealth effect is cancelled.
Ring of Ambush: The detection radius for this item's effect has been increased to 30 feet, up from 20.
Ring of Ambush: NPC enemies now detect players from the correct distance when under the effect of this item's stealth ability.
Unrestored Relic Armor can now be salvaged for a small reward.

Preview-Only note: The Ring of Ambush timing update is a patch note change only. The build on Preview over the weekend also had a 20 second ICD, but the patch note was incorrect.

User Interface
Campaigns

Respen's Game: Completing all four tasks now properly grants 100% completion.
That subtle line that sometimes connected an individual campaign task's currency to the upper-left corner of the screen has gone away.
Storm King's Thunder: The tasks required to unlock the Trowel purchase now explicitly state which tasks must be completed.

Character Sheet

Everfrost Resistance is now represented on the Character Sheet.
- Known issue: Everfrost Resistance gained from Boons is currently not reflected on the Character Sheet. It still properly functions in combat and counts toward Fangbreaker Island entry requirements.

Inventory

Certain unusable items no longer incorrectly display in the Riches tab of the inventory.

Journal

Certain quests now properly gray out the Abandon button if they cannot be abandoned.

Mounts

Stable: If a player has several of the same Equip power, only one version now displays.

Performance and Stability
General

A change has been made to shader preloading in order to reduce the frequency of "Device Removed" graphics crashes.
Various crashes and other points of instability have been addressed.

theguiido · September 2016

Why was the Ambush Ring granted a 10 second reduced cool down from 30? and whats up exactly with the whole cool down thing, if I'm out of combat the cool down sometimes isn't there and if i instantly go into combat again, I gain stealth.

two30 · September 2016

terramak said:
Combatant's Maneuver now properly activates.

Seems like an overstatement given my limited testing.

When will this build be pushed to preview?

terramak · September 2016

@theguiido - The patch note was incorrect; its cooldown was 20 seconds in the previous build as well. (It will likely be adjusted to 30 in the future.)
Thanks for calling out the funky behavior!

@two30 - Aye, and thank you for calling those cases out. EDIT: I'm pulling this patch note from the live release notes until we investigate further internally.
~~Preview should be coming up shortly with this build.~~ Preview's up!

sorce · September 2016

terramak said:
@two30 - Aye, and thank you for calling those cases out. EDIT: I'm pulling this patch note from the live release notes until we investigate further internally.
~~Preview should be coming up shortly with this build.~~ Preview's up!

Was Combatant's Maneuver working with some powers from the test on the last build? Is it possible Terramak for what the internal QA team discovered was working to be listed, so we can then test them and also test the powers that we feel should also be procing this bonus? Makes testing a whole heap easier this way.

I'd much rather that at least some powers get to use this new bonus rather than no powers till it's 100% fixed.

Testing Update:

Control Wizard - Powers that will activate Combatant's Maneuver

Repel
Chill Strike
Entangling Force
Imprisonment
Ice Knife
Ray of Frost

Control Wizard - Powers/Effects that SHOULD activate Combatant's Maneuver

Steal Time (The daze effect is a control power)
Shard of the Endless Bowling Ball (The prone from this does not activate it)
Oppressive Force (Stun/Daze)
Arcane Singularity (The pull and throw is a classic control power)
Maelstrom of Chaos (The knock prone part)
Ice Storm (Knocks prone)
CHILL - Now this isn't an encounter/daily/at-will, however this is the core mechanic. If I've frozen something, it is controlled. 150% this has to activate the insignia bonus. Ray of Frost does activate, so somehow it works but nothing else that applies chill does.

When I'm not at work and trying to go via a remote desktop, I'll check my other Main toons (I have DC, OP, SW, and GWF also as mains) and see what is and isn't working there. But the biggest concern I have for the CW is dailies and freezing a target doesn't count.

theguiido · September 2016

@terramak - Will the cool down be affected by what I said? It doesn't go away as soon as you leave combat?

Example: I enter combat and stealth procs, all enemies are dead/ and or gone, and now the cool down I originally had, will it still be on me? or will it instantly be gone out of combat. So basically, is the internal cool down constant, and is it on until the timer is over regardless if I am out of combat/ in combat.

terramak · September 2016

@confusedpoof - Thanks a bunch for the deets on the affected CW powers; this will give us a lot of data for what we missed in the Combatant's Maneuver fix and testing. Unfortunately, the folks who tested this are out for the day, so I can't relay their list.

But yeah, it's just a patch note change, not a functionality change - I've gotten enough reports from the Preview threads that I can't say "fixed" with confidence that it addresses the majority of cases. As I expect this build to be the one on the live shard when we next update, what works here is expected to work on the live shard.

@theguiido - Sorry, I don't have the insight / in-depth knowledge of how the powers are built in order to find this out for real, and the folks I'd ask have gone home for the day.

Speaking as a player who's played various MMOs, I'd go into it with the expectation that the internal cooldown (ICD) stays on me from the moment that I drop stealth, and stays on me while I'm out of combat, and continues to tick during that time frame. I'd probably revise my expectations once I saw the behavior in game, but I don't personally have a Ring of Ambush, so I haven't gotten a feel for it.

sorce · September 2016

Thanks Terramak! I'll probably do the rest of the tests on live then after the patch goes into effect in that case, will post info as I get a chance to test.

And totally understand the whole "it's fixed" bit - Always hard to say with 100% certainty.

theguiido · September 2016

terramak said:
@confusedpoof - Thanks a bunch for the deets on the affected CW powers; this will give us a lot of data for what we missed in the Combatant's Maneuver fix and testing. Unfortunately, the folks who tested this are out for the day, so I can't relay their list.

But yeah, it's just a patch note change, not a functionality change - I've gotten enough reports from the Preview threads that I can't say "fixed" with confidence that it addresses the majority of cases. As I expect this build to be the one on the live shard when we next update, what works here is expected to work on the live shard.

@theguiido - Sorry, I don't have the insight / in-depth knowledge of how the powers are built in order to find this out for real, and the folks I'd ask have gone home for the day.

Speaking as a player who's played various MMOs, I'd go into it with the expectation that the internal cooldown (ICD) stays on me from the moment that I drop stealth, and stays on me while I'm out of combat, and continues to tick during that time frame. I'd probably revise my expectations once I saw the behavior in game, but I don't personally have a Ring of Ambush, so I haven't gotten a feel for it.

Thats fine, i think I have gotten a great understanding already, ill wait till this goes up, until then @terramak I appreciate the responses from you guys, means a lot.

theycallmetomu · September 2016

So, is this a confirmation of whether chill effects "count" as control effects for the sake of game language?

I have Icy Conduit tab slotted. Should this, for once and for all, count as a control power?

(Fun fact, the reason I-foolishly in hindsight-originally gave up my old High Vizier set was that I basically thought I wasn't running control powers!)

terramak · September 2016

@theycallmetomu - No confirmation or denial from me on whether Chill is expected to count as a Control effect for Combatant's Maneuver! I'll check with the Design team, and if it's *not* supposed to count, then we can potentially see if there are better ways to communicate that.

Unknown · September 2016

This content has been removed.

terramak · September 2016

@defiantone99 - Thanks for the info! I think I was still stuck in thinking it was a "piercing damage" type issue and not a "rapid proc" type issue.

General - My prediction for Ring of Ambush may have been incorrect; there's a chance we'll leave it at 20 seconds and adjust the tooltip accordingly. I doubt I can get a new build up on Preview before this weekend, but we'll see.

Unknown · September 2016

This content has been removed.

sorce · September 2016

theycallmetomu said:
So, is this a confirmation of whether chill effects "count" as control effects for the sake of game language?

I have Icy Conduit tab slotted. Should this, for once and for all, count as a control power?

(Fun fact, the reason I-foolishly in hindsight-originally gave up my old High Vizier set was that I basically thought I wasn't running control powers!)

My testing was on what I thought should count - I hadn't included powers in the list that apply chill stacks (Conduit, Icy Terrain, Chilling Cloud) but did include the act of Chill Freezing - since this is when the target is controlled. The powers listed that I think should activate the insignia bonus all have a control effect built into them (Steal Time dazes, Oppressive Force stuns, etc)

foxxy · September 2016

@terramak can un explain the purpose of this pls? Elemental Evil: Characters who completed all of the quests in that campaign, but ended up one Twisted Scripture short of the final task, now have that Twisted Scripture in their inventory.
I completed my campaign boons long ago when mod 6 launched. i have a x1 twisted scripture sitting in my currencies. where do i spend it or whats the point?

terramak · September 2016

@foxxycleopatra - There were some players who had gotten into a state where they completed all the Elemental Evil quests, but ended up one Twisted Scripture short - so they couldn't complete the final task in the campaign.

Looks like we missed a use case, and now your character has one extra. There's nothing to spend that extra currency on at the moment.

foxxy · September 2016

@terramak thanks for the quick reply. my two toons got the extra twisted currency. so i guess it is a bug?. Also sharandar campaign shows a bugged state of 200% completion and bening order of 3rd eye has another error that shows 86% unlocked despite having completed it all. those should be fixed, it doesnt impact the game but it looks awful

kitkathd · September 2016

foxxycleopatra said:
@terramak thanks for the quick reply. my two toons got the extra twisted currency. so i guess it is a bug?. Also sharandar campaign shows a bugged state of 200% completion and bening order of 3rd eye has another error that shows 86% unlocked despite having completed it all. those should be fixed, it doesnt impact the game but it looks awful

Even though you get the end result when finishing gathering the orbs in Black dagger, you still need to return to the seer and hand in the quest for a small quest exp reward.

foxxy · September 2016

kitkathd said:

foxxycleopatra said:
@terramak thanks for the quick reply. my two toons got the extra twisted currency. so i guess it is a bug?. Also sharandar campaign shows a bugged state of 200% completion and bening order of 3rd eye has another error that shows 86% unlocked despite having completed it all. those should be fixed, it doesnt impact the game but it looks awful
Even though you get the end result when finishing gathering the orbs in Black dagger, you still need to return to the seer and hand in the quest for a small quest exp reward.

the campaign was completed after all of those. it was 100%, the bug came after a "fix" they did with the campaign in some patch after. im not the only one with it

hustin1 · September 2016

foxxycleopatra said:

kitkathd said:

foxxycleopatra said:
@terramak thanks for the quick reply. my two toons got the extra twisted currency. so i guess it is a bug?. Also sharandar campaign shows a bugged state of 200% completion and bening order of 3rd eye has another error that shows 86% unlocked despite having completed it all. those should be fixed, it doesnt impact the game but it looks awful
Even though you get the end result when finishing gathering the orbs in Black dagger, you still need to return to the seer and hand in the quest for a small quest exp reward.
the campaign was completed after all of those. it was 100%, the bug came after a "fix" they did with the campaign in some patch after. im not the only one with it

I have the exact same issue on my main: 200% Sharandar completion and 86% on Benign Order. The Sharandar one has been pegged at 200% for a long time, but the Benign Order one only dropped from 100% to 86% when mod 10 launched. On another alt, Sharandar shows 150% completion. Go figure.

And now, for something completely different:

A guildie just told me something interesting: her quest to enter Spellplague Caverns (yes, the quest is still available) was "reset" with today's patch (message about it being out-of-date or somesuch, one I haven't seen in ages). Is something afoot? That was a dungeon where CC really mattered.

zeusom · September 2016

@terramak

Soul spark stacking is fixed now (proper max 30) but now borrowed time offhand feat is not working (0.5% deflect per spark).
Submitted bug report. Please fix, thank you.

http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter#/discussion/1222527/sw-borrowed-time-broken-again

schietindebux · September 2016

zeusom said:
@terramak

Soul spark stacking is fixed now (proper max 30) but now borrowed time offhand feat is not working (0.5% deflect per spark).
Submitted bug report. Please fix, thank you.

http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter#/discussion/1222527/sw-borrowed-time-broken-again

in my case it works correctly, checked 1 min ago ?

theguiido · September 2016

@panderus @terramak - Generally speaking, will we also see any of the VFX of the enchantments change in the future? butterflies and leaves spammed all over the screen from Bronzewood and the constant clicking of Shadow Clad is what I mean. Options to turn them off perhaps or to change them all together?

Obviously not at the top of the list, but things like these would be cool to know in the future for appearance changes strictly.

hawkend · September 2016

@terramak

Such powers as Smoke Bomb, Dazing Strike not working with Combatant's Maneuever also. From information what i got only Impact Shot, Shadow Strike(with stealth) and Deft Strike activating this insignia.

arcanjo86 · September 2016

@terramak

my sw sb main weapon artifact power , defilier atwil increase +6% damage, but weapon shows "???" on description

fixes needed, didnt check if im getting the +6% damage

arcanjo86 · September 2016

foxxycleopatra said:

kitkathd said:

foxxycleopatra said:
@terramak thanks for the quick reply. my two toons got the extra twisted currency. so i guess it is a bug?. Also sharandar campaign shows a bugged state of 200% completion and bening order of 3rd eye has another error that shows 86% unlocked despite having completed it all. those should be fixed, it doesnt impact the game but it looks awful
Even though you get the end result when finishing gathering the orbs in Black dagger, you still need to return to the seer and hand in the quest for a small quest exp reward.
the campaign was completed after all of those. it was 100%, the bug came after a "fix" they did with the campaign in some patch after. im not the only one with it

i complted all her tasks and quest and shows 86% aswell

ruffneck · September 2016

@terramak

Please look at Remorhaz Pet, it is still doing the following

1: saying it has looted when it has not done
2: disspearing and needs to be re summoned over and over
3: pathing wise it is slow and not doing what it should be doing like other pets

please fix this once and for all, i paid alot of Zen for this pet and even after ALL these weeks its still not working correctly

ruffneck · September 2016

@terramak

Also noticed today Throne of the Dwarven Gods is bugged

Version 1

Phase 1 - use hulks to smash gates - Gold
Phase 2 - Defeat adds - silver 99% but not gold
Phase 3 - Kill boss - Gold

= gold but we always get silver can you fix for Thursday's release please

kanenan · September 2016

Remorhaz Companion and STK Pet Behaviour

@terramak

Bought this Remo the day it came out hoping to get ahead of everyone else.. spent more time dismissing, summoning and waiting than harvesting nodes.

I harvest a Relic Node. 5 seconds.
Then wait for 18-14 seconds for the Remo to cycle animation. Up to 40 sec for it to cycle AND return to me. IF it returns.

-Gets stuck EVERYWHERE and is most problematic in Cold Run. (Go run with one along the SHORE LINE to see how even on the simple areas it gets stuck.
-Gets stuck under map.
-Snap to mounted player delay needs to increase for this pet to keep it as close to player as possible or negate clipping while mounted. All other pets leave when you run mounted, this thing stays around and gets stuck or just abandons you

-Has not been worth the investment, only a small increase to relic gains while wearing Frostborn 1pc with an Excavator Pot. It's more of annoyance with a tiny pay off for so much babysitting.

-PETS AS A WHOLE in STK maps are disappearing at random, most notably in Fangbreaker Island.
Total PITA, I actually kill myself in order to be able to summon pet before a team mate resurrects me.

kanenan · September 2016

On another note, I really like the STK content, it has been challenging and fun. However, in the last while there is a list of stuff that has been building for players. You have been taking away more than you give! Like us who bought broken remo's and ran with painful groups in FBI teaching them ( I personally took about 40 players on their first runs ) to get those store items to profit from hard work, only to have it essentially reduced to free for everyone so quickly after release.

-Limited banking, but enchants/stones etc come in triplification. 3 slots PER 1 type of stone. So you didn't give more space, you took more away to sell bags. There should be another inventory tab exclusive to refinement just like currency, professions and materials. Give us back our bag space. I had no choice but to salvage all my old tr sets when I returned a few months ago.. I had every set. So much for collections.
-Professions, now that gateway died please simplify and streamline the professions tab. I shouldn't have to give myself carpal to set up 9 tasks or claim them.

Storm King's Thunder Preview Patch Notes: NW.65.20160906b.3

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