Update 62 Release Notes

Here are the release notes for Update 62: Attack of the Night Revels, released on Wednesday, October 4th, 2023. 

Of Special Note:

The Night Revels has returned!

Night Revels has returned with new rewards! Read our guide on DDO.com. Available through October 31st!

This year's Night Revels features new rewards, including:

• Mount: Reaper's Steed (Red)
• Pet: Spectral Pseudodragon Certificate
• Cosmetic Armor: Defender of the Harvest
• Cosmetic Cloak: Cloak of the Autumnal Feathers
• Cosmetic Hat: Harvest Hunter's Hat

And returning with new benefits:

• Almond-Coated Shadow Apple
  
• Darkswirl Caramel Bite
  
• Sweet Cinnamon Cloud
  
• Almond Shadow-Spice Candy

News and Notes:

Active Attacks Rebalance:

• We are changing all attacks that have a +[W] component as part of their attack to use a percentage increase in their damage, following this scale:

• This means that if you had, for example, an attack that had +3[W], that attack will now instead deal +30% damage. The goal is to make active attacks more worthwhile across the entire level range. The big benefit of percentage boosts is that an active attack dealing 50% more damage at level 10 is the same level of efficacy as one dealing +50% at level 30, whereas +5[W] means more at level 10 as it does at level 30. This standardization will make attacks a lot easier to balance as they'll be worth the same percentage bonus DPS no matter what level you are, what dice your weapon has, what bonus damage you have, and what W score your weapon is.
• This overhaul also allows us to rebalance a variety of active attacks to spruce them up a bit.
• Additional Info:
  • Attacks that increased their W scale or other bonuses in a nonlinear or otherwise unusual fashion have been adjusted to be linear. This includes attacks that started at 1[W] and never increased beyond that across their ranks. Example: Wracking Strike/Shot in the Mechanic tree now deals +10/20/30% damage instead of the +10/10/10% it would have been.
  • Attacks that used to have a lesser scale for their ranged versions have been adjusted to match their melee counterparts.
  • Attacks that used to secretly scale with W but never told you they did so have been tracked down and their tooltips have been adjusted. 
  • Attacks that used to deal in .5[W] scales have been rounded up to 10%. We're going to try to keep things on multiples of 10% if at all possible. 
  • Attacks that hit multiple times have had their bonus damage set lower to compensate for their multi-hit status.
  • Attacks that had a high W scale for their level and are of an area of effect have been adjusted to appropriate values. 
  • Attacks that hit multiple times have had their bonus damage set lower to compensate for their multi-hit status.
  • Cleave and Great Cleave have been updated to deal +20% and +40% damage respectively.

Weapon Scaling Rebalance

• We are standardizing weapons across the entire game to follow a new W scale. This affects all named weapons and shields, with exceptions listed below:
  • Items that are level split - aka have Normal/Hard/Elite versions, remain as-is.
  • Very old legacy items with sufficient creative nostalgia or effort required to obtain them remain as-is.
  • Specialty scripted quest items remain as-is.
  • Old event items that have been retired remain as-is.
  • Crafted items that gain minimum levels when they are upgraded (such as Alchemical) now have their dice set to the highest minimum level they could obtain.
  • Note that this does not affect things that boost W scores on weapons, such as Vorpal or the Deadly Weapons spell. We are changing the base W on the weapon itself, and not adjusting any W-boosting gear or effects. If a weapon is level 30, it will be 5[W], and casting Deadly Weapons will make it 6[W] as expected.
• Our goal is to provide a way for items to scale upwards as the level cap continues to increase and fix up some of the dead zones concentrated around high Heroic levels and early Epic levels where gear advancement isn't as meaningful. 

Other Balance Changes

• Monk Class
  • Monk combo builders now deal +10% damage, and their alignment based builders deal +15% damage.
  • Monk Finishers now deal +30% damage.
  • Touch of Death now deals +30% damage.
  • Touch of Despair now scales with the highest of Dexterity or Wisdom and uses Assassinate DCs to determine its DC.
• Stormsinger
  • Stormsinger's Metamagic costs are now set to the standard Action Point cost for Metamagic enhancements (2Action Point each), and their antirequisites have been fixed.
• Across the Board
  • Spell Power scaling Imbues have been standardized: They are all now 1d8 damage per Imbue dice and all now scale with 75% Spell Power instead of 100%.
  • Affects:
    • Eldritch Knight
    • Arcane Archer
    • Warchanter
    • Warpriest/Warsoul
    • Battle Engineer
    • Dark Apostate
    • Blightcaster
    • Vile Chemist
    • Swashbuckler
• Arcane Archer (both Elf and Ranger)
  • Force Arrows is now 1 rank 2 Action Point (uses the 3rd rank bonuses).
  • True Strike is now 1 rank 2 Action Point (uses 3rd rank bonuses)
  • Inferno Shot is now 1 rank 2 Action Point (uses the 3rd rank bonuses) 
  • Shattermantle Shot is now 1 rank 2 Action Point (uses the 3rd rank bonuses) 
  • Dispelling Shot is now 1 rank 2 Action Point (uses 3rd rank bonuses)
  • Arcane Archer core 1's enhancement bonus now stacks with everything.
  • Arcane Archer's tier 5 Improved Elemental Arrow's critical hits now scale with Imbue dice, dealing 1d10 per imbue dice on a critical hit, and apply to the Force Arrows imbue. (this replaces the current force arrows on-crit 1d10)
• Kensei
  • Tactics is now 1 Action Point per rank.
  • Weapon Focus vertical lines and the Exotic Focus enhancement are now 1 Action Point.
• Dwarf
  • Shield Mastery's cost has been reduced to 1 Action Point/rank (this also affects human's and Purple Dragon Knight's Fighting Style multiselector).
• Purple Dragon Knight
  • Sniper is now +1/2/3d6 Ranged Sneak Attack Dice and +2/4/6 Point Blank Shot distance, and now costs 1 Action Point/rank (this also affects human's Fighting Style multiselector).
• Vile Chemist
  • Core 1 is now: +1 Reflex save. Each core ability you take in this tree beyond the first grants +5 Physical Resistance Rating.
  • Cores 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 now grant +5 Poison Spell Power, 2% Dodge, and 2% Dodge cap while in Orchidium instead of their original Orchidium boosts.
  • Core 3 is now Hidden Blades I and grants +5 Universal Spell Power, +3% Doublestrike and Doubleshot, and +1 Imbue Dice.
  • Core 4 is now Hidden Blades II and grants +5 Universal Spell Power, +3% Doublestrike and Doubleshot, and +1 Imbue Dice, as well as granting you full Base Attack Bonus.
  • Core 5 is now Hidden Blades III and grants +5 Universal Spell Power, +3% Doublestrike and Doubleshot, and +1 Imbue Dice, as well as a +1 Competence Bonus to Critical Multiplier with all Simple weapons.
  • Core 6 (Venom's Grip) now grants: +4 Intelligence, +10 Universal Spell Power, +3% Doublestrike and Doubleshot, and +2 Imbue Dice.
  • Willful Ambition is now Swift Ambition and boosts Reflex saving throws.
  • New Tier 4: Simple Thrown Mastery: If you have Simple Thrown Expertise, you now use the higher of your Intelligence or Dexterity to determine how much Doubleshot you gain from that feat.
  • Sapping Ambition which was very buggy is gone and is now Brushed Aside: You gain the Defensive Roll feat. 
• Apothecary
  • Core 1 is now: +1 Will save. Each core ability you take in this tree beyond the first grants +5 Positive and Negative Spell Power.
  • Cores 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 now grant 2% Positive and Negative spell critical damage while in Verdanite instead of their original Verdanite boosts.
  • Core 6 now grants +2 Transmutation DCs passively without requiring Verdanite.
  • Tier 5 Master Apothecary now grants an additional +1 Spell Penetration (since this bonus was removed from Core 3).
  • New Tier 4: Magical Toolbelt: 1 rank 2 Action Points: You gain +5% Magical Efficiency (since this bonus was removed from Core 4).
  • Energy of the Scholar rank 3 is now 100 Spell Points.
• Bombardier
  • Core 1 is now: +1 Fortitude save. Each core ability you take in this tree beyond the first grants +5 Fire/Cold/Acid/Electric/Poison Spell Power and +1 Burning Ambition Dice.
  • Cores 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 now grant +2% Fire, Cold, Electric, Acid, and Poison Spell Critical Damage instead of their original Pyrite boosts.
  • Core 6 now grants +2 Conjuration DCs passively without requiring Pyrite.
  • Cores 3, 4, 5 no longer grants Burning Ambition dice inconsistently and now just grants +1 each as per the text of core 1.
  • Cores 3, 4, and 5 now grants +3 caster levels each BUT now require you to take different elements each time.
  • Swift Ambition is now Holistic Ambition and grants Fortitude saving throws.
  • The Rapid Condensation SLA has been removed.
  • There are now 3 Vial SLAs in tiers 1, 2, and 3. You must take a different Vial element each time.
• Divine Vessel in Warpriest/Warsoul now deals +30% damage.

Quests and Adventure Areas

• Fire Over Morgrave
  • The Optional end chest in Fire Over Morgrave now gives Burning Planar Scraps 100% of the time.
  • Recipes for certain secret Shields now work properly.
• Amber Temple: A series of changes have been made to the Sealed in Amber quest from Ravenloft to improve the experience. Specific changes include:
  
  • A couple secrets are easier to find.
  • Optional objectives XP increased across the board.
  • Clarification: you can still find random scrolls as you explore in addition to guaranteed ones.
  • The quest is now less random, with a reasonable main route to completion. Random routes can still be pursued, although some doors have been adjusted.
  • The cut scene can now be skipped by interacting with Zhudun's amber slab a second time.
  • There are now fewer Flameskulls per square mile.
  • The Dark Gifts are less likely to escape before the heroes get to hear them out.
  • There are now markings near the doors on the floor for easier identification.
  • Icons on the map have been improved, The three Guardians have map notes that should help people find them better, and doors have clearer icons on the map as well.
• The following raids now have a small chance to drop +8 Tomes:
  
  • Hunt or be Hunted
  • Dryad and the Demigod
  • Skeletons in the Closet
  • Fire Over Morgrave

Engineering:

• A few changes have been made to how we automatically generate tooltips for active attacks. The following statistics are now automatically placed within active abilities' tooltips and no longer need to be added in by hand:
  
  • Bonuses to critical threat or multiplier for that attack
  • Cooldown
  • (new) Bonus percentage damage increase for that attack (see the Active Attacks Rebalance for more info!)
  • If you spot any active ability with duplicate information, or information you believe to be incorrect, let us know and we can correct that ability's tooltip!

Bug Fixes:

• Using Machrotechnic's Mending Burst with the Dissonance Drive upgrade no longer applies debuffs to you and your party members; only to enemies.
• Barbarian's Enhancement Trees have had a few icons corrected.
• Corrected icons for the Blightcaster Imbue effects.
• Corrected text in Draconic Incarnation's Epic Strike.
• Iced Edges no longer falls off you when you die.
• Vile Chemist's Poisoned Shot now works correctly with crossbows and more reliably applies the Red spell state.
• The Brightbane Emerald now correctly gives Insightful bonuses instead of Competence.
• Feral Charge now correctly appears on the Character Sheet.
• The level 32 Spectral Throwing Dagger now correctly throws itself.
• The Wrath of Sora Kell set bonus now does what it says on its tooltip.
• Drifting Lotus uses a different animation and scales with attack speed bonuses better.
• Drifting Lotus now strikes twice with all combat styles, including handwraps.
• Drifting lotus does not triple strike with any styles (not counting off hand strikes) - the third strike present in some styles previously was a bug.
• Icefang and Sparkfang have had their damage bypasses swapped to their proper alignments.