Neverwinter August 24th Update Patch Notes

Neverwinter, the free-to-play action MMO on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4, is getting a new update on all platforms on August 24th. There’s a ton to look through in this patch, and highlights include a new Bard Class, a new level cap and leveling experience, an adventure system, and progression updates. We have the complete Neverwinter update log and patch notes for August 24th down below, so give them a read if you want to see what’s new.

Neverwinter August 24th Patch Notes

New Bard Class

The Bard class is now playable with this release! A versatile adventurer, the bard commands the power of song to be a powerful healer or a stylish combatant. Their unique Perform mechanic allows the bard to play a variety of songs that can enhance, heal, or hurt their targets. Roll up a new bard, smite with sword, and soothe with song!

New Level Cap and Leveling Experience

In alignment with Dungeons & Dragons, there is now a new adjusted level cap of 20. With the new leveling flow, levels are now achieved at key milestones in the stories of each zone to ensure a proper pace and challenge. All active characters have been set to level 20 with this update, but the game should play much the same as it did before this module.

Adventurer’s Guild and Training Room

The Trade of Blades has been remodeled into the Adventurer’s Guild to serve the needs of new and veteran players. This hub contains vendors, services, and access to the new Training Room where adventurers can learn their class mechanics or practice new techniques. Check out your new base of operations!

Vaulted Content

Some zones have been removed from the original leveling flow. For details on which zones have been vaulted, reasoning, and future plans please check out the Dev Blog.

Adventure System

The Adventure System allows for a new and intuitive way to play through content, track your progress, and get some great rewards. The goal of Adventures is to guide you to the content that’s right for you. Give it a look in the Journal, in the Sword Coast Chronicles section!

Profession Updates

With the changes to the level cap, adjustments have been made to the levels of your profession and artisans. Item Levels on gear were also increased in order to better match other rewards. Drop by the workshop and check out the changes!

Other Release Notes

Content and Environment

General

• Bryn Shander: Merchant Woes: Cecil is now consistently visible for all quest steps that require interaction with him.
• Lore: The Adventurer’s Guild now has a place to purchase lore from zones that have been vaulted.
• Protector’s Enclave: The Tarmalune Trade House has been adjusted to allow further construction in its area.
• Various environments and encounters within leveling zones have been improved.
• Various quest flows and NPC behavior within leveling zones have been improved.
• Various minor typos have been addressed.
• Vault of Stars now unlocks account-wide when unlocked.

Adventures

• Acquisitions Incorporated is now an Adventure, and awards the boon points formerly given by the Acquisitions Incorporated campaign.
• The Dwarven King quest line is now an Adventure, and awards the boon points formerly given by the Underdark campaign.
• The Maze Engine is now an Adventure, and awards the boon points formerly given by the Maze Engine campaign.

Tyranny of Dragons

• The portions of this campaign that required contact with the factions in Protector’s Enclave have been removed, and the campaign has grown shorter as a result. It now leads directly to the Well of Dragons zone.

Queue Reorganization

• The Epic Dungeon category has been renamed to Advanced Dungeon, and now contains Infernal Citadel, Castle Ravenloft, Tomb of the Nine Gods, Lair of the Mad Mage, and Vault of Stars. All but Vault of Stars are in the Random Advanced Dungeon queue.
• The rest of the previously-Epic Dungeons are now in the normal Dungeon queue, and now scale players up to minimum item level. Spellplague Caverns and Fangbreaker Island still require campaign unlocks, but the rest now have a minimum level of 5 to queue.

Events

• As the campaigns have been removed, Double Underdark and Double Maze Engine currency events have been removed from the calendar.
• The vendor for Coins of Waukeen no longer hangs out in the Moonstone Mask even while the event is inactive.

Combat and Powers

General

• Characters are no longer provided increased Item Level from Collars that are inactive.

Boons

• Master Boons no longer show pop-up messages when they trigger.
• For players who frequently heal for less than 10% of a target’s health, the Master Boons “Blessed Advantage” and “Blessed Resilience” should now activate more frequently when the player heals over the required threshold.

Companions

• Ghost
  • Possession – This power has been replaced by Horrific Visage.
  • Horrific Visage – The ghost instills fear in all nearby enemies, dealing damage and holding targets for 4 seconds.

Racial Bonuses

• Drow’s Dark Fire power should now properly increase damage against critters when proc’d.
  • This power now has a 10% activation chance, up from 5%.
• Renegade Drow’s Faerie Fire power should now properly increase damage against critters, and decrease the critter’s damage when procced.
  • This power now has a 10% activation chance, up from 5%.

Enemies and Encounters

General

• Hunting Drakes in the Stronghold once again properly spit ice instead of acid.
• Spellplague Caverns: Spawning Pits should now be immune to all control effects.
• Traps now deal short-duration debuffs instead of applying injuries.
• While we still haven’t pinned down all the cases where this occurs, there should be fewer cases where enemies move while charging a power that should lock them down.

Items and Economy

General

• As experience has been removed, players at max level now fill a Progression bar for periodic rewards.
• Insignias can now be upgraded to Mythic Rank.
• The Neverember’s Recruitment event is active for 30 days from the launch of the module. Check out the updated rewards in-game!
• Thrones no longer incorrectly have item level.

Enchantments

• Enchantments that gave XP Boost now give Movement Speed.
• The cost of unslotting enchantments is now much more reasonable for characters below max level.

Events

• Future runs of the April Fowls and Feast of Lanterns events will now cause vendors to sell the new versions of their event foods.
  • April Fowls
    • Hot Wings: +5% Critical Severity and +5% Accuracy.
    • Seed Breed: +5% Power and +5% Defense.
  • Feast of Lanterns
    • Mochi: +5% Power and +5% Maximum Hit Points.
    • Niangao: +5% Critical Chance and +5% Deflect.
  • Existing versions of these foods will remain untouched.
• Masquerade of Liars
  • Cured Meat newly obtained from Piñatas now grants 75% of your Hit Points, up to a maximum of 412500, on a character that is Level 15-20.
  • Enchanted Witch’s Sash is now Bind to Account.
  • Gnarled Broomstick is now Bind to Account.
  • Handful of Enchanted Bristles is now Bind to Account.
• Tymora’s Gift: Tymora’s Lucky Coin now grants 500 to a random rating, up from 410. This no longer scales with level.
• Adorable Pocket Pet: This item can now grant the following:
  • Up to 500 Awareness.
  • Up to 1% AP Gain.
• Summer Festival: Sailcloth now has a max stack count of 999.

Random Queues

• The Epic Dungeon queue is now called the Advanced Dungeon Queue and grants the same Rough Astral Diamonds as the Trial queue: 4,000 RAD with a 30,000 RAD daily bonus.
• The maximum RAD earned from daily bonuses to random queues is now 80,000 for non-VIP.
• Trial, Advanced, and Skirmish queues still grant their daily bonuses once per day only.
• Dungeon queue now grants its daily bonus on each run as long as you haven’t hit the 80,000 daily bonus cap for queues for the day.

Zen Market

• Adventurer’s Head Start Bundle is no longer available in the Zen Market.
• Adventurer’s Support Pack is no longer available in the Zen Market.
• Avernus Hunt Key Bundle is no longer available in the Zen Market.
• Change Physical Appearance tokens are no longer available in the Zen Market. It can now be found at the Wondrous Bazaar.
• Character Loadouts are no longer available in the Zen Market. It can now be found at the Wondrous Bazaar.
• Experience Boosters can no longer be purchased.
• Glory Boosters are no longer available in the Zen Market.
• Knox’s Adventurer Recruitment Order has been phased out. Instead, players can now purchase a 30k Character Boost in the Packs section of the Zen Market, which raises their level to 20 and gives appropriate gear to raise their Item Level to 30,000.
• PvP Starter Pack is no longer available in the Zen Market, as its contents are outdated.
• Rename Tokens are no longer available in the Zen Market. It can now be found at the Wondrous Bazaar.
• Stone of Health: The version of this item on the Zen Market now costs 200 Zen for a 100-charge Stone of Health.
• The Legendary Insignia Pack purchase has been replaced with a Mythic Insignia Pack purchase.
• “The Power of VIP” bonus now grants 1% max HP instead of a flat value.

User Interface

General

• Companions that are comprised solely of visual effects (e.g. Butterfly) should now more consistently show up in previews.
• Cutscenes now require a button hold to skip, instead of a button press.
• End-of-dungeon treasure chests should no longer have a chance to break if the player dismisses the screen instead of claiming rewards.
• The Neverwinter logo, loading screen art, and letterboxing borders, among other things, have a new look.
• To go with the leveling flow changes, the tutorial experience across the game has been improved as well. There should now be an option on various windows to open an explanation about that window’s functions.
• Warnings now appear if a queue pops while the player is in a full-screen interface like a contact dialog.

Options

• In order to reduce visual clutter in combat, the “Show Player Triggered Power Names” setting now defaults to “Off.”
  • This also affects the setting for existing characters. To reactivate it, open the Main Menu, select Options, and on the Interface tab, open the HUD category. “Show Player Triggered Power Names” can be toggled there.

Zen Market

• Context-specific discounts (e.g. Hell Pit and Harvester of Nightmares event buyouts) now properly function while sales are active. Like all discounts, they do not stack; it will apply the highest single discount available.

Animation, Audio, Character Art, and Visual Effects

Animation

• Cauldron mounts should no longer have characters’ fingers sticking through them.

Audio

• The Sprite companion no longer plays hit sounds super frequently.

Character Art

• Characters should no longer sink into the saddle of the Golden Horse mount.
• Chef’s Toque should no longer have egregious clipping issues on some characters.
• Various other clipping issues have been addressed.

Performance and Stability

General

• The performance impact from opening the inventory with a large number of items has been reduced. This change is more effective for players with a smaller inventory UI.
• Various improvements have been made to the stability of the game, and we continue to iterate on performance and visual quality.

via ArcGames