Update 12 Official

Release Notes: Update 12 Vaults of the Artificers

Welcome to the Release Notes for Dungeons & Dragons Online! These release notes were posted on Wednesday, November 9th, 2011.

Of Special Note

New! Challenges System

Introducing Challenges! These repeatable quests feature multiple objectives and mini-games with a broad range of choices!

• Complete the objectives to collect rewards you can barter with for better loot.
• Choose your specific level of difficulty - each Challenge supports a broad range of character levels.
• Try to best your high score each time you play.
• Multiple variants available with different strategies, time limits, and rewards.

Challenge Scores

Scoring is based on both a point value and a Star ranking. Point scores determine how many reward items you will receive once the time runs out! Try to beat your personal best high scores, or compare your score with your friends' scores! Additionally, each Challenge has five specific star objectives. Each objective you complete rewards a blue star. For every star you earn, you earn favor points for House Cannith. Each Challenge variant has a different set of star objectives, and can offer different types of monsters, mechanics, powerups, goals and time limits.

• You must complete the first star objective to receive items and XP for the Challenge.
• If you complete all 5 star objectives in one run of a Challenge at its maximum available CR level, all of your blue stars will turn to gold - you'll earn bonus favor and bonus experience!
• Players over level (5 or more) will not be rewarded items or XP, but may still earn favor from star accomplishments.

Accessing Challenges

Visit House Cannith to participate in Challenges! Look for the challenge boards to accept your desired Challenge variant. There are multiple ways to gain entry to a Challenge:

Challenge Packs

• The Adventure Pack grants full access all the time, any time! Free to VIPs!

Challenge Tokens

Challenge Tokens are used to access individual Challenges one time

• Free Daily Challenge Token
  • Visit Kariya ir'Vannis in House Cannith, near the Cannith Gorgon statue, to receive access tokens into that day's free Challenge!
  • The available Challenge will change every day, so check back daily to see which Challenge Kariya has to offer!
  • Challenge tokens can be used for entry into a Challenge or spent to open Supply Vaults within the Challenge.
  • VIPs can still collect Challenge tokens to use in the Supply Vaults! Visit Kariya once per day to receive bonus tokens.
  • Premium and VIP users will receive bonus Challenge tokens from Kariya!
• Universal Access Token
• Purchase a universal token for single-use access to one Challenge of your choice.
• Universal tokens can also be used to open Supply Vaults within Challenges.

Available CR Levels

Supported level ranges for each Challenge differ; as you enter a Challenge, you may use the level selection drop down menu to chose the Challenge level you wish to play. The majority of Challenge variants are also available (separately) in Epic CR levels. Note that selecting a Challenge below your character level can result in XP and reward penalties for your party, though it will not impact your ability to earn favor.

Rename Tokens

It is now possible to change your character's name, surname, and your pet's name - visit the DDO Store to purchase a Rename Token! Visit the Character -> Name Changes category and select which name you'd like to change. A one-use Parchment will be delivered to your inventory. (Note that names must still comply with the Code of Conduct)

• To change your first name, activate the Name Change Parchment (First Name) from your inventory and type in your new name. Special characters and spaces are unavailable in first names.
• To change your surname, activate the Name Change Parchment (Surname) from your inventory and type in your new name. You may use spaces and apostrophes in your surname, but other special characters and numbers are unavailable.
• To change your pet's name, activate the Pet Name Certificate from your inventory. Open your pet's character sheet by right clicking on their health bar. Click the "rename pet" button. Special characters and spaces are unavailable for pet names.

Shared Platinum Bank Slot

You can now purchase a bank upgrade to more easily transfer platinum between your characters! The Shared Platinum Bank upgrade will allow you to keep 50,000 platinum in a universal storage slot in your bank that can be accessed by any of your characters on the same server. Free to VIPs! Upgrades to hold greater amounts of platinum are available in the DDO Store!

General Changes

Classes

Artificer

• Blocking with a runearm will prevent the artificer from starting the charge.
• Artificer Conjured Bolts now stack to 1000. They are still created 100 at a time.

Monk

Monk stance descriptions have been clarified, and some have undergone some revision:

• Air:
  • Lesser Wind Stance
    • Benefit: The relentless storm focuses on movement and speed. Lesser Wind Stance grants +2 Dexterity, a 7.5% Enhancement bonus to melee and thrown attack speed, and grants a 2.5% chance to doublestrike with melee weapons, at the cost of -2 Constitution.
  • Wind Stance
  • Benefit: The relentless storm focuses on movement and speed. Wind Stance grants +2 Dexterity, a 10% Enhancement bonus to melee and thrown attack speed, and grants a 5% chance to doublestrike with melee weapons, at the cost of -2 Constitution.
  • Benefit: The relentless storm focuses on movement and speed. Greater Wind Stance grants +3 Dexterity, a 12.5% Enhancement bonus to melee and thrown attack speed, and grants a 7.5% chance to doublestrike with melee weapons, at the cost of -2 Constitution.
  • Benefit: The relentless storm focuses on movement and speed. Ultimate Wind Stance grants +4 Dexterity, a 15% Enhancement bonus to melee and thrown attack speed, and grants a 10% chance to doublestrike with melee weapons, at the cost of -2 Constitution.
  • Greater Wind Stance
  • Ultimate Wind Stance
• Earth:
• Lesser Mountain Stance
  • Benefit: The unyielding mountain stance focuses on endurance and defense. Lesser Mountain Stance grants +2 Constitution, 5% physical damage resistance, a +1 Insight bonus to Natural Armor, and a +25% Insight bonus to melee threat generation, at the cost of -2 Dexterity and -10% movement speed. While in Lesser Mountain Stance, you gain 'Get Hit Effect: Gain 1 ki.'
• Mountain Stance
• Benefit: The unyielding mountain stance focuses on endurance and defense. Mountain Stance grants +2 Constitution, 10% physical damage resistance, a +2 Insight bonus to Natural Armor, and a +40% Insight bonus to melee threat generation, at the cost of -2 Dexterity and -10% movement speed. While in Mountain Stance, you gain 'Get Hit Effect: Gain 1 ki.'
• Benefit: The unyielding mountain focuses on endurance and defense. Greater Mountain Stance grants +3 Constitution, 15% physical damage resistance, a +3 Insight bonus to Natural Armor, a +55% Insight bonus to melee threat generation, and the critical multiplier of all weapons you use is increased by 1 on rolls of a natural 19 or 20, at the cost of -2 Dexterity and -10% movement speed. While in Greater Mountain Stance, you gain 'Get Hit Effect: Gain 1 ki.'
• Benefit: The unyielding mountain focuses on endurance and defense. Ultimate Mountain Stance grants +4 Constitution, 20% physical damage resistance, a +3 Insight bonus to Natural Armor, a +70% Insight bonus to melee threat generation, and the critical multiplier of all weapons you use is increased by 1 on rolls of a natural 19 or 20, at the cost of -2 Dexterity and -10% movement speed. While in Ultimate Mountain Stance, you gain 'Get Hit Effect: Gain 1 ki.'
• Greater Mountain Stance
• Ultimate Mountain Stance
• Lesser Sun Stance
  • Benefit: The consuming flame focuses on an aggressive offense. Lesser Sun Stance grants +2 Strength at a cost of -2 Wisdom. While in Lesser Sun Stance you gain 'Hit Effect: Gain 1 ki.' and 'Critical Effect: Gain 2 ki.'
• Sun Stance
• Benefit: The consuming flame focuses on an aggressive offense. Sun Stance grants +2 Strength at a cost of -2 Wisdom. While in Sun Stance you gain 'Hit Effect: Gain 1 ki.' and 'Critical Effect: Gain 3 ki.'
• Benefit: The consuming flame focuses on an aggressive offense. Greater Sun Stance grants +3 Strength at a cost of -2 Wisdom. While in Greater Sun Stance you gain 'Hit Effect: Gain 1 ki.' and 'Critical Effect: Gain 4 ki.'
• Benefit: The consuming flame focuses on an aggressive offense. Ultimate Sun Stance grants +4 Strength at a cost of -2 Wisdom. While in Ultimate Sun Stance you gain 'Hit Effect: Gain 1 ki.' and 'Critical Effect: Gain 5 ki.'
• Greater Sun Stance
• Ultimate Sun Stance
• Lesser Ocean Stance
  • Benefit: The eternal ocean focuses on redirection and the supernatural. Lesser Ocean Stance grants +2 Wisdom, a +1 dodge bonus to Armor Class, and +2 to all Saving Throws at a cost of -2 Strength.
• Ocean Stance
• Benefit: The eternal ocean focuses on redirection and the supernatural. Lesser Ocean Stance grants +2 Wisdom, a +2 dodge bonus to Armor Class, and +3 to all Saving Throws at a cost of -2 Strength.
• Benefit: The eternal ocean focuses on redirection and the supernatural. Lesser Ocean Stance grants +3 Wisdom, a +2 dodge bonus to Armor Class, +4 to all Saving Throws, and your passive ki generation when centered is increased by 1, at a cost of -2 Strength.
• Benefit: The eternal ocean focuses on redirection and the supernatural. Lesser Ocean Stance grants +4 Wisdom, a +3 dodge bonus to Armor Class, +5 to all Saving Throws, and your passive ki generation when centered is increased by 1, at a cost of -2 Strength.
• Greater Ocean Stance
• Ultimate Ocean Stance
• Monk Serenity
  • Benefit: Your understanding of things has evolved to a level that defies description. You are a paragon of centeredness. You gain +2 Wisdom, +10 Concentration, and your passive ki generation when centered is increased by 1. (This stacks with the bonus from Greater and Ultimate Ocean Stance.)
• Eagle Claw Attack
  • Benefit: Your attacks can shatter objects. You strike at weak points in your opponent's armor or hide, reducing their armor class by 4 for a short period of time. This attack also makes the target easier to strike with grazing hits, reducing the required d20 roll by 2. A successful Fortitude save negates this effect. (DC 10 + Half Monk Level + Wisdom mod + Sunder modifiers) The target receives periodic saves to attempt to break free of this effect.
• Unbalancing Strike
• Benefit: You have learned several joint strikes. You can attack these weak points of your opponent, throwing them off balance for a short period of time. This reduces their armor class by 2, applies a -10 penalty to their Balance skill, and renders them vulnerable to sneak attacks. A successful Reflex save negates this effect. (DC 10 + Half Monk Level + Wisdom mod + Trip modifiers) The target receives periodic saves to attempt to break free of this effect.
• Ten Thousand Stars
  • Benefit: Activate this ability to enter a trance for 30 seconds (or until you become uncentered) that gives you a chance to throw multiple shuriken at a time. Wisdom increases your chance for additional projectiles and increases the potential number of additional projectiles. This ability will work with bows if you have the Zen Archery feat, but Manyshot and this ability cannot be used at the same time.
• Fire:
• Water:
• The Monk capstone has been updated:
• Eagle Claw Attack and Unbalancing Strike are now affected by items that affect Sunder and Trip DC's respectively:
• The effect attached to Ten Thousand Stars has changed:

Crafting

• It is no longer possible to craft an item with a minimum level above 20.
• The following recipes have had their levels changed:
  • Flaming - was level 33 in the bound device and is now level 25
  • Frost - was level 33 and is now 25,
  • Acid - was level 33 and is now 30, and
  • Shock - was level 33 and is now 35.
  • Fire Resistance - was moved from level 35 to level 33.
  • The levels of the unbound recipes for these effects have been changed as well, and have been altered by a matching appropriate amount in each case.

Guilds

• Bound to Equip items can be put into guild chests.

Hirelings

• It is now possible to use Gold-Seal hireling contracts that are two levels above your character level.
• Arcane hirelings have learned that ranged spells serve them best when they stay out of melee range, and will no longer charge into close-quarters combat.
• An orange rotating border is displayed over a hireling icon after the hireling has accepted player order and will remain visible while awaiting a valid time to execute the player command.
• The level 19 Favored Soul hireling, Caraneth Myar, will no longer cast implosion when there are no enemies nearby.
• Hirelings now carry more reasonable quantities of mnemonic potions, influenced by what class they are.

Homunculus

• Resistances will now appear on Homunculus character sheets.
• Casting buffs should update on the Homunculus character sheet in real time.
• Abilities slotted will now stay in the place you put them instead of moving around.
• Fixed a bug where Homunculus would sometimes neglect to automatically use their learned abilities, such as Bluff or intimidate.
• An orange rotating border is displayed over a pet command icon after the pet has accepted player order and will remain visible while awaiting a valid time to execute the player command

Items

• Spirit Cakes will now work when you're incapacitated.
• Docents generated by Artificer end reward lists now come in a variety of colors.
• The following scrolls can now be found in treasure:
  • Focusing Chant
  • Good Hope
  • Barkskin
  • Hold Animal
  • Longstrider
  • Longstrider Mass
  • Snare
  • Spike Growth
  • Wild instincts
• Fixed a bug where Warforged characters were receiving 150% healing from Heal potions purchased from the Turbine Store. They now receive 100% healing, as intended.
• Corrected a bug where Enhanced Cure Critical Wounds potions claimed to be healing 14 to 49 health (5d8+9), when in fact they heal 24 to 49 health (5d6+10, with an additional 1 per caster level. The potions are caster level 9).
• Crossbows will now correctly unequip when holding a crossbow and a rune arm and replacing the rune arm with an offhand weapon
• Many standard crafting ingredients and festival items now have zero weight/encumbrance so weaker characters don't have as much trouble hauling around all of their supplies. Ingredients affected:
• Deconstruction materials
• all Lesser and Greater Essences
• All standard crafting shards
• Doubloons from the Crystal Cove event
• Motes of Winter
• Motes of Night
• Crossbows and Runearms have been added to the DDO Store for low to mid level characters.
• Unbound +1 and +2 tomes now drop in slightly lower level quests. Unbound +3 tomes can now drop in regular (high level) treasure.

Monsters

• Earthgrab
  • Earthgrab is no longer considered a paralysis effect. Creatures with immunity to paralysis are no longer immune, and spells or effects that cure paralaysis no longer cure Earthgrab.
  • This change also applies to Enhancement, item, and effect based versions of Earthgrab.
  • All versions of Earthgrab now share the same icon.
• Marilith AI has been adjusted. Non-raid boss mariliths should be easier for melee, but a little more challenging for other classes. Marilith aggro will be less random.

NPCs

• Galrias the Smith, the nightforge NPC in the Black Anvil Mines, now uses a barter shop to trade with you. He no longer restricts you to a single nightforge item.

Quest & Adventure Area Changes

General Quest Changes

• Fixed an issue where some quests would cause slayer boosts to count down their timer.
• Chests in certain older raids, such as the Titan Awakes, will no longer have names and descriptions that reference the old Warded chests system that was removed from the game.
• Several elite raids have had their reward schemes improved to better match the difficulty of completing them. These changes are detailed under each raid/adventure pack below.

Free Quests

• Korthos Island
  • Heyton's Rest
    • Sahuagin altar speeches now no longer cut themselves off (but DM throughout the dungeon still cuts off to keep up with your pace if you're zerging)
    • Undead no longer spawn from breaking the sarcophagi.
• Redfang's Lair
• Swept up some of the excess cobwebs and clutter that could cause performance issues.

Devil Assault

• The Chronoscope
  • Epic
    • The Abiashi Titan's hitpoints were adjusted down on epic.

Vault of Night

• Epic
  • On Epic difficulty, Velah has made some lifestyle changes:
    • She now has fewer hitpoints.
    • She's also prepared new tricks for those brave enough to visit her in the extra-planar vault.

The Demon Sands

• Chamber of Raiyum
  • Named item drop rates have been increased, and further increased on higher difficulty settings.
• An Offering of Blood
• Named item drop rates have been increased, and further increased on higher difficulty settings.
• Queen Lailat has learned a new trick on epic.
• It's now possible to talk to Lahar outside the Tower of the Twelve and trade three of your Demon Sands Epic item scrolls for any single other scroll from the Epic Demon Sands.
• Epic

The Ruins of Gianthold

• The Stormreaver's Fate
  • One of the Stormreaver's tricks has been enhanced on elite.
  • It is now possible to upgrade named treasure.
    • Gather Seals of the Stormreaver from playing elite difficulty.
    • Visit the Stormreaver Monument in Gianthold.
    • Place the seals and the named items in the Monument to upgrade the named item to a more powerful form.
    • You can preview the available upgrades by visiting the Monument and clicking the list interface.

The Necropolis

• Ascension Chamber
  • The water now does damage instead of instantly killing adventurers who fall in.
  • It is now possible to upgrade named treasure.
    • Gather Seals of the Black Abbot from playing elite difficulty.
    • Visit the Fountain of Necrotic Might in the upper Necropolis.
    • Place the seals and the named items in the Fountain to upgrade the named item to a more powerful form.
    • You can preview the available upgrades by visiting the fountain and clicking the list interface.

The Vale of Twilight

• The Shroud
  • When completing the Shroud, instead of a generic list of level-appropriate random gear, you will now get a selection of Shroud ingredients, which can include anything from small/medium/large ingredients to power cells, Shards of Power, and more!
  • Extra chests will appear at the end of phase 5 on higher difficulty settings:
    • One additional chest will appear on hard difficulty.
    • Two additional chests will appear on elite.
  • Arraetrikos went on a diet, and now has fewer hitpoints on hard and elite.
  • Shavarath blades now hurt more in general, but additionally will now scale with difficulty.
  • Shavarath blades appear a bit sooner in phase 5.
• The Subterrane
• Hound of Xoriat
  • New named loot has been added on elite difficulty. Go forth and discover it!
• Vision of Destruction
• New named loot has been added on elite difficulty. Go forth and discover it!

Harbinger of Madness

• Missing
  • Hirelings are now more likely to enter the final courtyard of their own free will.
  • Reduced the number of madmen/women which spawn, as well as the number required to complete the optional objective.

Reign of Madness

• Lord of Eyes
  • Fixed an issue where Prodigal Fire Elementals would sometimes not path correctly, making them too difficult to harvest.

The Devils of Shavarath

• Tower of Despair
  • The Judge and Jailor are no longer as beefy in hitpoints.
  • For elite difficulty, Horoth has been pushing weights after realizing he turned out to be the lowest hit-point pit fiend in the game.

Reincarnation

• All forms of Reincarnations now support the Artificer class.

Skills, Feats, and Abilities

Feat Changes

• Shuriken Expertise should now function as described.
• The Mobility feat has been improved:
  • Benefit: "Increases the maximum dexterity bonus permitted by armor and tower shields by 2, and adds a +4 bonus to Armor Class while tumbling."

Homunculus Enhancements

• Four new 1 point homunculus enhancements are available:
  • Good Dog
    • Benefit: Who's a good dog? Your iron defender is! It gains the good alignment.
  • Bad Dog
  • Benefit: Who's been a very bad dog? Your iron defender has. It gains the evil alignment.
  • Benefit: Your iron defender makes long term plans and gains the lawful alignment.
  • Benefit: The very idea of crates fill your iron defender with murderous rage! Your iron defender likes to smash boxes and gains the chaotic alignment.
  • Note: This enhancement really will once again make your iron defender a mortal enemy of boxes, for those of you that liked their original box-smashing behavior.
  • Obedience Training
  • Hunter of Boxes

Spells

General Spell Changes

• Artificers can now use their prepared spells after inscribing them into their spellbook.
• Corrected the tooltip description for Holy Aura so that it mentions the blindness effect.
• Fixed a bug that prevented a target from being able to save against Holy Aura's blind effect.
• Fixed a bug where Enlarge could be applied to Holy Aura and Prayer, with no effect.
• Meteor Swarm's description has been updated to reflect the fact it has double range.
• The arcane spell Flame Arrow can now use Masterwork ammo as a valid spell component.
• Ammo conjured using the Flame Arrow spell now disappears on logout, instead of on dungeon exit.
• Fixed a bug with the Deconstruct spell where the debuffs were still being applied even after a successful save.
• The buff/debuff icons for Deconstruct and Reconstruct now use the correct images.

UI Improvements

• There is an option in the UI options (or hit control V) to toggle monster health bar visibility.
• Tooltips now work correctly while using the in-game browser.

Other changes

• One of the pet constructs in the House Cannith enclave has learned that when his master says, "Speak!" he doesn't mean "like a human."