Hello, all! Preview 2 of Update 50 is open! It is expected to remain open until sometime in the afternoon (Eastern) of Friday July 16th.
There will be a dev event on Thursday July 15th from 8-10 PM Eastern where members of the DDO team will be available to collect feedback and answer questions in real-time on Lamannia.
This preview contains the following features:
The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh
New Universal Enhancement Tree: Horizon Walker
Endgame Itemization Adjustments
New Named Loot
New Augments
New Filigree Sets
Scroll/Seal/Shard Loot Revamp & Expansion
In addition to those primary features it also contains the following miscellaneous changes and bugfixes:
Character
Paladin: Knight of the Chalice: The T3 ranged attack was sharing its name with a T5 ability (both called "Avenging Shot"); it has had its name fixed to be "Exalted Shot", matching its melee counterpart.
Falconry: Meticulous Weaponry now anti-requisites with other forms of Item Defense.
Eldritch Knight's Item Defense (both versions) now give the listed amount of Item Defense.
Burst of Glacial wrath now works on everything, rather than erroneously excluding certain monsters.
Poison Damage Resistance now properly reduces Poison Damage
Shadar-Kai Iconic has been updated. They now get their first Chain Attack ability as an innate racial feat, and both Chain Attacks are now melee attacks requiring a light weapon in your Main hand. A more full explanation can be seen in this thread: Shadar Kai
Radiant Servant has had many changes. A more full explanation can be seen in this thread: Radiant Servant
The Aura of Courage buff from the Knight of the Chalice capstone now reliably applies to all party members
Rogue: Thief Acrobat: Sweeping Strikes now correctly factors in your Trip DC
Druids now get Protection from Elements Mass as a level 7 spell
Items
Guild Augments have now been fully deprecated.
You can no longer buy Guild Augments from Vendors.
Existing Guild Augments can no longer be slotted. They can be sold back to vendors for gold.
Items that had Guild Augment slots now have a Colorless Augment Slot in its place. (Unless that item is, somehow, a Quiver, in which case it will not be replaced by anything, sorry).
If you have an item with a Guild Augment currently in it, it will retain that Guild Augment until it expires, at which time the slot will be replaced by a Colorless Augment Slot.
(Please note that items in auction houses and account banks may not lose the Guild Augment Slot and gain the Colorless Augment Slot until they leave those spaces).
Siberys Spirit Cake can now be used by raging players to resurrect their dead friends.
Lootgen Docents (and some other older Docents) should once more display their correct base appearance.
Docents with old armor potion kits applied should once more show their appearances.
Weapons that do non-mundane damage such as Flameblades or Celestia now correctly interact with DR and resistances.
Trap the Soul now requires a standalone special component, called a Khyber Dragonshard, that is found in shops wherever high quality spell components may be found. This component works for all variations of Trap the Soul.
Quests
Monsters will no longer cast persistent spells like wall of fire, or CC spells like sound burst in rapid succession.
Barovia is a dangerous place, and the Abbey of Saint Markovia is no exception. Those who seek safety may not always find it.
Removed some NPC's from Meridia that were not meant to be there.
Fix a scaling issue with the monster stats in the following quests:
Tower of Frost
Memory Lapse
Kind of a Big Deal
Another Man's Treasure
Zawabi now bestows and resolves Against the Demon Queen (the 6-player pre-raid) and
Zawabi's Revenge (the 12-player raid) separately.
You are now only required to complete Against the Demon Queen once per life in order to play Zawabi's Revenge; after that, Zawabi will allow you to choose which quest to speak to him about.
Against the Demon Queen is no longer restricted by Raid Timer.
Raid Timer Bypass Hourglasses now work properly on Zawabi's Revenge.
Miscellaneous
Changes have been made to the spellcasting system that make casting spells more reliably. This may prevent dry firing of spells in certain situations.
Hirelings will now cast their spells more reliably when directed to do so
Fixed an issue where trying to swap out of a missile weapon into a melee weapon wouldn't queue properly
Patron Reward feats should now consistently remain on you through Lesser and Epic Reincarnation.
Icons for certain drow damage over time poisons have been set to actually look like poison.
When viewing a monster's HP through selection (due to having the appropriate Monster Manual reward for that monster type), the percentage HP of that monster will now be shown in parenthesis next to their current and max HP
Formatting for the percentage HP for your party members has been adjusted slightly to better take advantage of available space
Half Elves have had a cosmetic revamp.
Monster perception range is now slightly smaller (this may not apply to raid bosses or custom bosses)
Saving throws on all epic monsters on elite and hard have been reduced.
The Legendary II monster boosts have been removed.
Launcher: The 64-bit game client is now the default choice for new installs. Updated the wording on the legacy client to indicate that it is no longer supported.
Monster Manual Volume 8 is available. It is free to VIP's and in this preview can be obtained by purchasing it in the DDO store (you can get points from Lord Poincelot in the test dojo). Monster Manual Volume 8 has categories for the following monster types:
Griffon
Satyr
Goblin
Animated Objects
Living spells
Gnome
Harpy
Marilith
Forgewraith
Wight
