Highlights

 

Guild Alliances

Guilds will now be able to band together into an alliance!  This feature provides the opportunity for alliances of up to 13 guilds to contribute to each other's growth and band together for challenging tasks.

 

With this update, players will be able to visit allied guilds' Strongholds, take part in Alliance-wide chat, and gain benefits from their guild's spot in the alliance, based on the level of all guilds combined.  Players may also shop at allied guilds' stores and contribute to allied guilds' coffers, if they so choose.

 

Read more on this feature here: Bringing Guilds Together

 

 

Sword Coast Chronicle and Campaigns Update

Two new campaigns are now available!  The Sword Coast Chronicle campaign brings together all the other campaigns into a recommended order.  This should make progression through post-70 content more guided, while leaving the option open to branch out for a more challenging experience.

 

The Benign Order of the Third Eye campaign provides a recommended flow through lower-level content, and gives the opportunity for new rewards.  In addition, the Campaign UI has been updated to provide a recommended flow through all the available campaigns in the game.

 

Read more on this feature here: Sword Coast Chronicled

 

 

Release Notes

 

 

Content and Environment

Campaigns

• The Sharandar campaign and its related content now spans levels 64-68, reduced from 70.
• Sharandar Campaign: The "Reinforce Protective Wards" task no longer awards Power Points.  They are instead given through the task, "Assist War Effort."
  • This task requires 10 of each area's currency, along with 150 Feywild Sparks, 15 Gold, and 15,000 Astral Diamonds.

 

Elemental Evil

• Assaulting Blackdagger Keep: This quest no longer incorrectly claims it gives Elemental Water as a reward.
  • The same is true of the quests for Hag's Hold and Goldseeker's Folly.
• Players are now properly able to acquire lore that was in the previous version of Elemental Evil.
  • Players who have already completed the new quests will retroactively receive the lore.
• Seeds for Everyone: Crabs in this quest no longer respawn.

 

Events (Changes for future runs)

• Call to Arms: Garrundar the Vile: The terrain in this skirmish has been smoothed out to better display danger zones (a.k.a. "splat attacks")!
• Challenge of the Gods: Blessed Gift of the Gods: When the Eye of Lathander is gained from this pack, it is now given as Bound to Account instead of Bind on Pickup.
• Wonders of Gond: The Wondrous Blueprint is now consumed for 4,000 Refinement Points, increased from 1,800.

 

General

• Captain Dunmish no longer claims incorrect criteria to get to Icewind Dale.
• Castle Never: Demon Prince of Being Dead: This achievement now properly gives Orcus kill credit to support characters.
• Castle Never: Orcus' name is no longer visible while he is flying.
• Epic Artifact Equipment: This quest has been temporarily removed in preparation for a later update.
  • This quest was just a tutorial, and was not required in order actually earn epic artifact equipment.
• Grazilaxx's dialog audio now more closely matches the text.
• Prophecy of Madness: Enemies now respawn more quickly in the Madness variant of this skirmish.
• Prophecy of Madness: The timer to defeat the boss no longer loops.
• Prophecy of Madness: Small Abyssal Tears now give 50% more progress toward Silver / Gold rewards when closed.
• Prophecy of Madness: In the variant where players defeat demons instead of close Abyssal Tears, weaker enemies now count for twice as much progress toward Silver / Gold rewards.
• Several visual improvements have been made to the environment in several maps.
• The Professions vendor summoned via VIP rewards now appears in the contact dialog cutscene when speaking to her.
• Throne of the Dwarven Gods (Skirmish): There is no longer crowd audio in the gameplay area.
• Throne of the Dwarven Gods (Quest): Pwent's dialog now properly matches his voice-over.
• Various doors in Reclamation Rock and Upper Helm's Hold now properly have collision, preventing players from sneaking into buildings with one-way walls.

 

PvP

• Certain Player versus Player queues will now allow players to enter even if fewer than the full number of players accept.  This is intended to increase the number of successful large-group PvP matches.
  • Gauntlgrym now allows entry at a minimum of 16 players, decreased from 20.  The maximum team size difference at the beginning is 1 (e.g. 8v9 or 9v10, but not 8v10).
  • Stronghold PvP now allows entry at a minimum of 30 players, decreased from 40.  The maximum team size difference at the beginning is 2 (e.g. 16v18, or 19v20, but not 15v18).
  • The game will continue to add players after the match begins until the maximum number of players is reached.

 

 

Combat and Powers

Classes and Balance

• A potential case that could rarely cause certain powers not to slot, such as Divine powers for the Devoted Cleric and At-Will powers while blocking for Guardian Fighter, has been addressed.
• To bring certain movement-based powers in line with others of that type, the following powers are now disabled when the player is rooted.
  • Threatening Rush
  • Shadowy Disappearance
  • Fox Shift
  • Boar Charge
  • Bull Charge
  • Radiant Strike

 

Companions

• Repentant Dragon Cultist: Acidic Stab now properly works as described.
• Repentant Dragon Cultist: Various text issues in this companion's powers have been cleaned up.
• Bonding Runestones now grant their combined effect in a single stack.
  • For example, if a summoned companion has two Bonding Runestones (Rank 12, 95% each) equipped, the related buff now gives the player 190% of the summoned companion's current stats.
  • This effect no longer stacks.  This gives the effect a maximum of 285% of the summoned companion's current stats (with three R12s equipped).
• Helmite Paladin: The tooltip for Shield Bash now explains what it does, rather than the Helmite Seal tooltip displaying that information.

 

Mounts

• The Champion's Armored Bulette has hit the gym, and has now returned to its previous size.

 

 

Items and Economy

General

• Castle Never now awards more Astral Diamonds on completion.
• Dusk Boots packs now properly show up in the Equipment section of the Auction House, rather than the Enchantment section.
• Mace of Elemental Fire no longer calls itself the Longsword of Elemental Fire in its flavor text.
• Players may no longer obtain two High Forest Bears on the same character, which could result in an inventory slot being permanently held by the mount.
• Portable Altars now require Line of Sight to affect players.
• Quartermaster Enchantment: Refinement items dropped via this enchantment are now Bound to Account.  This brings the enchantment in line with the Dragon Hoard enchantment.
• Sahha balls now properly pop when knocked into bottomless pits or other deadly areas.
• Several minor typos have been addressed.
• Several remaining cases of "Epic Demogorgon" have been updated to "Demogorgon (Master)" to reflect the queue's new name.
• The buff gained by Squash Soup is no longer called Corn Chowder.
• The Sword Coast Potion Pouch, from Sword Coast Adventures, now properly includes Superior Healing Potions.

 

Campaigns

• Gear from the Sharandar campaign and zone is now equippable starting at level 64, and scales with the player's level.
• Players may now purchase Gold Crescents directly from the Sharandar campaign vendor, rather than through campaign tasks.
• The Sharandar repeatable campaign task, Assist War Effort, has been changed to award one Power Point per completion.
• When opening the Gauntlgrym Bounty reward from the Maze Engine campaign, players may no longer choose a type of Seal if it would push them over the maximum number of that type.

 

Mounts

• Enchanted Courser: This horse no longer masquerades as a Nightmare in its flavor text.

 

Professions

• Leadership: The "Kill Rogue Elemental" task now gives 2500 Experience, up from 500.
• Masterwork Profession tools may no longer be sold to vendors.
• The "Worn Gauntlet" asset in Black Ice Shaping may no longer be sold or discarded.

 

Vendors

• Dusk Gloves and Dusk Boots are now available for purchase in the Trade Bar Store for 65 Trade Bars each.

 

Zen Market

• Class packs now properly state that they bind to the character who purchases them.
• The maximum number of bank slots that can be purchased has been increased by 32.
• The maximum number of Shared Bank slots that can be purchased has been increased by 40.

 

 

 

User Interface

Auction House

• There is now a consistent face button mapped to "Post Item" while on the My Consignments pane.

 

Character Sheet

• History tab: A wave of a very specific form of magical amnesia has been dispelled, allowing all adventurers to remember their original homelands and backgrounds, rather than thinking they're from the Dalelands.
• Stamina Regen rate now properly updates when the player gains the Underdark boon, Dwarven Stamina.

 

Collections

• If there isn't a new Collection entry to snap to, it now opens to the most recent entry the player had selected in the same play session.

 

Inventory

• Tooltips on Bonding Runestones no longer claim their powers are used in Insignia Slots.

 

Invocation

• When the player has 0 Celestial Coins, the maximum no longer incorrectly displays as 0.

 

Party

• The default loot threshold for Need / Greed is now Rare (Blue), increased from Uncommon (Green).  The threshold can still be manually changed by the party leader.

 

Queues

• Declining queue popups no longer results in unpredictable queue behavior in future queue attempts.
• The Stronghold PvP queue will now fire more consistently when over 40 players are in the queue.

 

Rewards

• Strongboxes now have an appropriate background image.
• The visual treatment has been improved for receiving a title as a campaign reward.

 

Stores

• Currencies beyond the first are once again properly selectable.
• The Wondrous Bazaar now remembers the tab the player was on when they last browsed it in the same play session.

 

Zen Market

• Certain unavailable items no longer incorrectly show up while the player's inventory is full.

 

 

Graphics, Effects, and Animation

General

• Horses no longer pop slightly during their flourish animation.
• Interaction sparkles now show up again for certain interactive objects, such as the crates at the beginning of the tutorial.

 

 

Performance and Stability

General

• Another case that could lead to interrupted Queue service has been addressed.
• Minor optimizations have been made to tooltip generation.

 

 

Localization

General

• Several general fixes have been made to localized text in all supported languages.

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