Highlights 

New Storyline: Uprising

A new disturbance has arisen in Undermountain, and it's up to you to investigate it. Head to the Yawning Portal to begin your quest, and delve deeper than ever before to find your way somewhere truly otherworldly.

  

New Playable Race: Gith

Not only can you ally yourself with the gith in their ancient battle against the mind flayers, you can also create a gith character, yourself! For the two weeks of the module, all players with VIP will unlock the gith race for free. For the two weeks after that, all players can unlock the gith race for free. To unlock the race, just log in and load up to any map with a new or existing character.

See more info here: Developer Blog: Gith

  

Updated New-Player Experience

With your new gith characters, you can enjoy an updated version of the introduction to the game. Work more closely with Makos, fight against Valindra's undead siege, and see freshly-updated environments as you continue through the tutorial and the vaults beneath Neverwinter.

In addition, Protector's Enclave has had a few key changes, such as the location of the events platform and a more central location for Sergeant Knox, to help cut down on travel time between quests. 

See more info here: Dev Blog: Refreshing the New Player Experience

  

New Trial: Tower of the Mad Mage

At the end of your journey is one of the most exciting, most challenging encounters ever added to Neverwinter. Face Halaster in his own demiplane and coordinate with your allies in surviving and withstanding his attacks. Just prepare for a plethora of pain. 

See more info here: Dev Blog: Tower of the Mad Mage Trial

 

Updated Appearance System

The Appearance system now allows you to consume an item just once in order to apply its appearance to the appropriate slot multiple times. Dyes now permanently unlock colors for application on most pieces of gear. Just view the new Appearance tab of the Character Sheet to get started!

See more info here: Developer Blog: Appearance System

 

New PvP Map: Stardock Arena

Our third 5v5 domination-style map to enter the regular rotation, the Stardock Arena provides a new look and a new layout for an exciting battle with friends and foes! The triangular layout with a central respawn point provides plenty of opportunities for mid-map skirmishes. Beware foes on the overlooks above the capture points!

See more info here: Developer Blog: Stardock Arena

 

Everfrost Removal Clean-up

With the removal of Everfrost in Module 16: Undermountain, we were left with some gear and items still containing Everfrost resistance and damage.

For many Module 10 gear and items, Everfrost damage and resistance were removed. Items specifically intended for Everfrost resistance and damage, such as potions and armor kits, have been removed from vendors and are no longer purchasable. There were some items containing still-useful secondary effects; these ones still remain.

• Potion of Everfrost Resistance, Greater Potion of Everfrost Resist, Everfrost Resist Armor Kit, and Greater Everfrost Resist Armor Kit have been removed from vendors.
• Everfrost Resistance has been removed from Module 10 artifact weapons, relic gear, and Ostorian rings.
• Everfrost Resistance has been removed from the Periapt of Everfrost Resistance. This item can be retained for sentimental value but it can now also be discarded.  The quest "Secrets of the Cocoon" will no longer grant this item as a reward.
• Everfrost Resistance has been removed from the Excavator's Potion of Everfrost, which will now be simply known as the Excavator's Potion. This item will continue to provide a bonus to discovering rare relics.
• Everfrost damage has been removed from the Frosted Lethal Glyph and Frosted Smiting Glyph overload enchantments. These will still provide the same stat rating bonuses although Frost's Fury will now proc as Cold damage.
• Everfrost damage resistance has been removed from the Frosted Protection Glyph and Frosted Tempered Glyph overload enchantments.  These will continue to provide the same stat rating bonuses, although Frost's Guard and Frost's Fury will now provide a 1.5% increase to Awareness.
• The following set bonuses have been updated:
  • The Relic Item Set no longer references "under the effects of Everfrost" and will instead function anywhere in Icewind Dale.  Additionally, the set bonus 3 of 3 directly references the Excavator's Potion but will continue to function with leftover Potions of Everfrost Resistance.
  • The Everfrost Undergarb Item Set no longer claims to work with Life Steal, and instead focuses only on the Deflect effect.

  

PvP Armor Sets

Introducing new PvP armor sets - the Arbiter and Imperator sets.  The level 80 Arbiter set will scale to the highest available item level in the game while flagged for PvP.  The level 80 Imperator set was created to get fresh level 80 characters into PvP by scaling to the level of the Spy Guild's PvE set while flagged for PvP.

These new armor sets are available in the Trade of Blades from Myriss Olden and Kyrian Foss.  The artifact, companion, and PvP consumables can now be purchased from Doric Hammersmith while Grym Token gear will now be purchased from Noral Goldgrip.

Additionally, the PvP specific potions received some changes to make them better while others were removed from vendors to simplify the selection. For a more detailed list of changes, see below:

• Arbiter Set: Item Level 960, and scales to 1020 while flagged for PvP!
  • Available from Kyrian Foss in the Trade of Blades for Glory and Seals of Triumph.
  • Available from the Stronghold Outfitter for Guild Marks and Banners of the Fallen (Level 4 Marketplace required).
• Imperator Set: Item Level 40, and scales to 960 while flagged for PvP!
  • This level 80 set was made specifically for entry-level PvP.
  • Available from Myriss Olden in the Trade of Blades for Astral Diamonds.
  • Available from the Stronghold Outfitter for Guild Marks (Level 2 Marketplace required.)
• Potions:
  • Removed from vendors: Battle Potions of Lesser Healing/Healing/Greater Healing/Major Healing/Superior Healing.
  • The potency of the Battle Potion of Superior Restoration has been improved to match the highest tier healing potion available.
  • The potency of the Battle Potion of Minor Restoration (previously the Battle Potion of Minor Healing) has been improved as well.

  

New PvP Campaign

A new version of the PvP campaign is now live. This campaign tracks overall kills, captures, and wins, and no longer requires quite as many more complex actions to progress.

• The PvP boons have been adjusted to fit the updated system.
• Players who completed all 30 tasks will receive an achievement, and in a future build, will receive a title for their participation.
• Players who completed tasks in the previous version of the campaign will receive a box with rewards proportional to the number of tasks they had completed. 

 

Professions

The professions system has been updated to provide additional progression for the increased level cap!

• The level cap for all professions has been increased to 80.
• The level cap for all artisans has been increased to 80.
• Various new crafted items have been added to the game, including: equipment, materials, potions, tools, and supplements.
• New level 71-80 recipes and gathering tasks have been added.

 

 

Release Notes 

Content and Environment

General

• Castle Ravenloft (solo instance): The Sunsword now properly clears Action Points when wielded.
• K-Team Weekly Dungeon now properly completes when succeeding a weekly dungeon with hardcore mode set and item level reduced to minimum.
• Icewind Dale: While They Are Young: Young remorhazes no longer burrow underground, never to be seen again.
• Neverdeath Graveyard: Certain quest contact dialogs no longer pull the entire party into conversation.
• Professions Tutorial: Players can no longer incorrectly decline artisan applications under certain circumstances during the tutorial.
• The Water Node: This instance no longer scales the player's level down.
• Various older quests have seen some cleanup and fixes.
• Various typos have been addressed in powers, items, and content.

Achievements

• Lair of the Mad Mage now appears under the account unlocks section of your achievements, if you have unlocked the dungeon account-wide. An achievement notification will display for all characters on the account on first login.

Acquisitions Incorporated

• Certain quests in this storyline now drop Seals of the Adventurer.
• Information Acquisition: The ice wall should no longer be able to get into a stuck state.
• Re-Retrieval Operation: This daily quest should no longer be able to get into a stuck state.

Future Events

• Coins of Waukeen: Packs from this event no longer drop outdated profession resources.
• Neverember's Recruitment: More Neverember's Incentives are granted from the level-up reward box at ranks 3 through 10.
• Neverember's Recruitment: This event is no longer tied to Acquisitions Incorporated content.

Professions

• Second Chances: Dalish once again properly spawns, allowing this quest to be completed.

Queues

• Castle Ravenloft is no longer in the Random Advanced Queue.
• Cradle of the Death God is no longer in the Random Advanced Queue.
• Fangbreaker Island now requires an item level of 15,000.
• Illusionist's Gambit is no longer in the Random Leveling Queue.
• Leveling versions of the Battle for the Bridge and Resonant Evil skirmishes are not currently selectable for queues.
• Manycoins Bank Heist now requires an item level of 14,000, increased from 13,000.
• Master Spellplague Caverns now requires an item level of 15,000.
• Skirmishes now require 1 tank, 1 healer, and 3 damage dealers, rather than any group they can bring together.
  • Dev note: This is to make sure that groups created for queues such as Manycoins Bank Vault and Merchant Prince's Folly have the appropriate survivability and damage to succeed in these skirmishes.
  • Private groups may still queue with any combination of roles.
• Temple of Tiamat is now in the Advanced Queue.
• The queues for PvP below level 80 are no longer available. Level 80 queues remain active.
• Tomb of the Nine Gods now requires an item level of 17,000.

Undermountain

• Enemies in Runic Encounters should no longer occasionally disappear mid-combat.
• Runic Energy can now be gained a little more quickly.
• Sphere of Influence: This quest now gives the enhanced runic resonator upon completion.
• The "Haunted" rune effect no longer spawns a specter when companions fall.
• Twisted Caverns: Sick kuo-toa are more plentiful and respawn faster.
• Vanrakdoom: Memory of Failure: Voice-over no longer desyncs or overlaps.

 

 

Combat and Powers

Artifacts

• Cleric: The modification Enhanced Blessing of Light now increases the effect of Blessing of Light by an additional 5%.
• Off-hand weapons can now properly gain +2.5% Incoming Healing, up from +0.05%.
• The artifact from Call to Arms season rewards has been rebalanced. Its effect is now self-only, and the tooltip now correctly states its stack count of 5 (instead of incorrectly stating 10).             

Boons

• Constant Control now properly increases Control Bonus.

Classes and Balance

• Barbarian: Sentinel
  • Blood Fury now properly reduces the rage cost of Primal Fury to 0 while Unstoppable.
• Cleric: Devout
  • Swift Prayer no longer incorrectly prevents the Soothing Prayer class feature and Angel of Life feat from functioning.
  • The divinity cost of Bastion of Health has been increased to 100, up from 80.
  • The magnitude of Bastion of Health has been decreased to 750, down from 800.
  • The divinity cost of Healing Word has been increased to 240, up from 200.
  • The radius of Healing Word has been increased to 80, up from 40.
  • The magnitude of Healing Word has been decreased to 400, down from 500.
  • The magnitude of Healing Word's heal over time effect has been decreased to 250, down from 300.
  • The divinity cost of Cleansing Light has been increased to 100, up from 90.
  • The duration of Divine Armor's heal over time effect has been increased to 15s, up from 12s.
  • The magnitude of Intercession has been decreased to 1600, down from 2000.
• Fighter: "Dig In" and "Seethe" can no longer be used without a shield equipped.
• Paladin
  • Prayer of Opportunity and Critical Touch no longer have a chance to proc while outside of combat.
  • The divinity cost of Divine Touch has been increased to 140, up from 80.
  • Valorous Strike and Oath Strike can no longer build action points when they don't strike a target.
• Paladin: Oathkeeper
  • Oath of Devotion now clearly states that Divine Barrier's effect grants temporary hit points.
  • The divinity cost of Divine Touch has been increased to 100, up from 80.
  • The magnitude of Divine Touch has been decreased to 350, down from 500.
  • The divinity cost of Divine Shelter has been increased to 180, up from 120.
  • The magnitude of Divine Shelter has been increased to 400, up from 350.
  • The divinity cost of Cleansing Touch has been increased to 50, up from 30.
  • The cooldown of Circle of Power has been increased to 30s, up from 28s.
  • The duration of Circle of Power has been decreased to 12s, down from 16s.
  • The divinity restoring effect of Circle of Power has been reduced.
  • The encounter power "Circle of Power" has been renamed "Circle of Divinity."
• Ranger
  • Ambush now properly states that it only affects the player's own damage.
  • Binding Arrow now uses weak grasping roots, and now has a slightly higher magnitude.
  • Boar Hide and Fox's Cunning can now properly proc Storm's Recovery.
  • Call of the Storm now procs Stormstep Action.
  • Fox's Cunning: This power no longer guarantees one dodged attack, and instead increases damage reduction.
  • Stagheart now properly gives blue temporary health and has a duration of 15 seconds.
  • Stagheart no longer incorrectly heals enemy players in PvP.
  • Stagheart's temporary health has been increased to 15%, up from 5%.
• Rogue
  • Duelist's Flurry should be less likely to bring a player character into a deadly area against enemies like the Atropal.
• The Paladin, Fighter, and Barbarian powers "Divine Challenger," "Anvil of Challenge," and "Challenger's Charge" have been adjusted to add a 0.5s cast time to the powers they modify.
  • Tapping or partially charging the modified power makes it work the same as it did before the change.
  • If you fully charge the modified power, it will not place you at the top of the threat list.
• Warlock
  • Essence Drain can now be cast without a target.
  • Soul Pact and Warlock's Bargain now drain less health.
  • Soul Pact can no longer multi-proc its health drain.
• Wizard
  • A Step above Mastery now properly adds its damage buff.
  • (Arcanist) Chaos Magic: The Power Surge buff no longer incorrectly affects powers other than At-Will powers.
  • Disintegrate now has a higher magnitude.
  • Ray of Enfeeblement now properly reduces the target's damage dealt by 10%.
  • Ray of Frost can no longer incorrectly proc Critical Conflagration more than one time per crit.
  • Ray of Frost now generates AP at a rate similar to other at-wills.
  • Relative Haste now properly applies the cooldown reduction that it states in its tooltip.
  • Repel now has a magnitude of 375, down from 475.
  • Rimefire Smolder can no longer proc rapidly on certain power casts.
  • Shard of the Eternal Avalanche now generates AP at a rate similar to other encounter powers.

Companions

• Companion Player Bonus Powers no longer function in PvP combat.
• Remorhaz's Presence now deals damage based on the player's weapon damage.
• Shadow Demon's Presence should now work as described in the tooltip.             
• Striker companions now deal more damage.
• Yojimbo: Iainuki no longer teleports the yojimbo behind the Atropal or its umbilical cords.

Enchantments and Enhancements

• Enchantments that provide Incoming Healing Bonus are now half as effective, to bring them in line with Companion Influence values on similar rank enchantments.
• The following adjustments have been made to Bonding Runestones:
  • The stats granted now persist through the "Near Death" state, when you are knocked out. As a result, there is no longer a delay when being revived before your stats return.
  • It is no longer required that you are standing within 100' of your companion in order to receive the benefit of your Bonding Runestones.
  • The effect is reapplied more quickly when your companion is revived. (The effect is still cancelled when your companion is near death; this is unchanged and matches previous behavior.)

Item Powers

• Jarl's Gaze: This item's bonus power has changed to Death Defier's Might.
  • Death Defier's Might: Gain Power for each enemy you are engaged with in battle.
• The Death Defier's item powers (Death Defier's Accuracy, Focus, Guard, Might, Parry, Tenacity) now have a limit of 15 nearby enemies.

Mount Powers

• Celestial Lion: Aureal Armament now grants the full 3 stacks of Radiant Weapon if any temporary hit points remain, instead of giving a different number of stacks based on how many temp HP remain.

• Celestial Lion: Aureal Armament now properly grants a shield equal to 30% of the target's hit points, increased from 3.33%.

• Deep Crow Shriek now properly applies its power boost.
• Deep Crow Shriek has had its tooltip adjusted to clarify that it roots instead of stuns.
• Providence: This mount power now provides half its normal healing in PvP.
• The mount power "Piercing Screech" no longer stacks. The most recent cast now replaces the previous cast.
• The mount power "Piercing Screech" has been lowered in effectiveness to 15% damage reduction, to match other similar mount powers, but the duration has been increased to 10 seconds and also stuns nearby enemies for 2 seconds (1 second in PvP).
• The mount active powers "Warpainted Tyrannosaurus Rex'em" and "Commander Tyrannosaurus Rex'em" no longer stack. When this power is cast on a target already affected by the debilitating effect, this most recent cast will override the first cast, refreshing the effect to its full duration.
• The tooltip for the mount active powers "Warpainted Tyrannosaurus Rex'em" and "Commander Tyrannosaurus Rex'em" have been updated to indicate that they "increase the target's damage taken by 10%" instead of stating that they "reduce the target's defense by 10%." This change is to more accurately represent the effect that was already occuring and is not a change to tbe behavior of this power.

Player versus Player

• Action Point recovery potions can now spawn in PvP maps. These fill 20% of Action Points over 20 seconds.
• Critical Severity is once again fully effective in PvP.
• Divinity and Stamina/Guard regeneration rates have been reduced in PvP.
• Players now move about 15% faster when out of combat in PvP.
• Tanks no longer have bonus health for their role while in PvP.
• The amount of healing done has been reduced in PvP.

Set Bonuses

• The Watcher set bonus now stays active through near-death.

Temporary Hit Point Unification

• The manner in which various sources of temporary hit points interact with one another has been unified. All sources of temporary hit points now work as follows: the most recent source of temporary hit points always wins, and no source of temporary hit points stacks with any other source. (This includes the Paladin's Divine Barrier mechanic.)

General

• Armor Kits with Stamina Regen now properly function.
• Combat Advantage now applies at a distance of up to 85 feet.
• Companions now properly teleport to the player when they're too far away, even in combat.
• Dealing damage to certain shields no longer spams the screen and combat log with "0" damage indicators.
• Enemy damage and health has been lowered across the game, mainly in lower-level content. Level 80 content should not be significantly affected.
• Players, under certain circumstances, no longer have a chance to deal an immense amount of damage.
• Resurrection Sickness should now properly be applied in all cases where a player is brought from Near-Death back into combat.
• Resurrection Sickness now properly lowers damage dealt by 10% per stack, instead of 10% regardless of stack count.
• Stacks of Resurrection Sickness now refresh their duration when a new stack is applied, instead of falling off individually.
• The campfire buff is now called "Well Rested" and appears in the Long Duration Buffs view.
• The Doohickey now deals much more reasonable damage.
• The ratio for determining the critical chance of healing has been adjusted. Critical Strike now increases the chance to land a critical heal more.

 

 

Enemies and Encounters

Castle Never

• Death spheres in the hallways before Orcus now deal more damage.

Castle Ravenloft: Strahd

• The damage of Strahd's ultimate attack has been reduced.
• The Sunsword's daily power, Sundrenched Aegis, now lasts 14 seconds, increased from 12 seconds.
• The time between some of Strahd's attacks has increased.

Fangbreaker Island

• The first two encounters have been moved a bit to lower the chance of frost giants blocking progress by running off the cliff and staying alive.

Lair of the Mad Mage: Trobriand

• The animation for Electric Storm now consistently plays.

Tomb of the Nine Gods

• The shield granted by The Curse of Lingering Death in the fight with Orcus can no longer incorrectly be overridden by other shields.

General

• Enemies once again properly deal extra damage with critical strikes. Their base damage has been lowered a bit to compensate. NPC crit severity is now 50%.

 

 

Items and Economy

General

• Ebonized Armor chest pieces now properly give Power instead of Defense.
• Incorrect versions of the Baby Deep Crow companion and the Baby Gorilla companion, from the Magnificent Resurgence Lockbox, have been replaced with the correct version. Players who used and named the incorrect version should now have all the associated companion powers.
• Legendary-quality rings can now be converted to Refinement Points.
• Successor Armor procs of "Call of the Undermountain" now properly show a buff icon.
• The High Lords of Undermountain now drop two weapons per kill, and they no longer go directly into a random party member's inventory.
• The Stronghold vendors now have Level 80 gear available.

Professions

• Alchemy tasks now properly, consistently, receive bonus XP from VIP rewards and Profession XP boosting events.
• Most crafted weapons can now properly be used to alter the appearance of other weapons.

Undermountain

• Runic Encounters: Players now gain Coalesced Magics when defeating rune-corrupted enemies in Undermountain. The amount of Coalesced Magics awarded this way caps at 200 per day.
  • Players must still have completed Runemaster's Sinyé's rune tutorial, and be level 80.
• Expeditions: Companion gear drop rates have been increased.
• Expeditions: Warden loot drops now drop items for the party.

Vanity Pets

• The size of the Glyster and Umbraxaka vanity pets has been adjusted to be more consistent with other vanity pets.

Zen Market

• Companion Helper Pack: This has been renamed to Companion Upgrade Bundle.
  • This pack now costs 2000 Zen, up from 1400 Zen.
  • This pack now gives 175 Companion Upgrade Tokens, increased from 45.
  • This pack now gives a choice of 3 Rank 11 Runestones, instead of 1 Rank 9 Bonding Runestone.
• Companion Upgrade Mini-pack: This has been renamed to Companion Upgrade Pack.
  • This pack now gives 75 Companion Upgrade tokens, increased from 45.
  • The price is unchanged.
• The Consult Expedition Pack is no longer available in the Zen Market.

 

 

User Interface

Auction House

• Players may now inspect mounts and companions from this UI.

Campaigns

• Using a Campaign Completion Token no longer has a chance to cause information for the incorrect campaign to show up in the description panel.

Character Sheet

• The "Disable Visuals" option is now in the Appearance pane, not the Gear pane.

Collections

• Players may now inspect mounts and companions from this UI.

HUD

• Lockbox notifications now appear toward the top of the screen, have a more polished treatment, and should no longer get in the way of gameplay.
• The event banner no longer displays before the player has completed the tutorial.
• Tutorial tips now move from the center of the screen, and should draw the eye better.

Inventory

• Mount & Companion Preview: This now has more of the relevant information players look for when inspecting mounts and companions.

Main Menu

• A new Notification Settings screen is now available from the main menu. This allows players to customize which notifications show up in their HUD, and which ones can get sent to chat.

Player Inspect

• Players can now properly view the information others placed in their History panel.

General

• Items no longer incorrectly show a preview prompt when they cannot be previewed.
• Preview now properly functions for mounts and companions in the bank, guild bank, mail, trade window, and auction house.

 

 

Art, Animation, and Effects

Character Art

• Certain armors no longer incorrectly override the player character's shirt visual when equipped.
• Umber Hulks no longer have a weird humanoid shape at a distance on low resolutions.

Visual Effects

• Various changes have been made to improve player power performance and general visibility in situations with multiple players.

 

 

Audio

General

• Kavatos now has a bit of extra reverb when speaking in the Yawning Portal.
• Warlock: Hellish Rebuke's audio has been softened a bit.

 

 

Performance and Stability

Graphics

• A lot more visual effects should now properly display. This should hopefully take care a lot of the issues with warning areas not displaying, originally shipped with Module 16.