Dungeons & Dragons Online Update 23: The Mark of Death Previews

Turbine’s Update 23: The Mark of Death content patch for Dungeons & Dragons Online is likely going to be launched sometime next week, and that’s prompted the usual rash of developer tour-based previews.

MMORPG.com:

The next intriguing item presented to us was the Mirror of Glamering. Purchasable from the DDO Store as well, occasionally (read: rarely) dropping via Daily Dice, the Mirror will permit players to make cosmetic copies of armor, docent, or helmets to allow them to keep a particularly nice-looking piece of gear. These copies are bind to account but docents will retain any racial requirements the original item had.

We were also told that there would be adjustments made to several maps that would allow players to travel to adventure areas much more quickly and easily, but the meat of the update is in the lore and new story to play through. Back in the day, players had a heroic epic story culminating in a raid versus the fearsome Black Abbot that supposedly led to his death. Not so fast! Turbine will be releasing additional chapters to that story that will reveal that all is not as it appears, and it’s up to them to discover how he managed to survive to fight another day.

Ten Ton Hammer:

The big piece of content, though, is the Black Abbot raid. This is a JJ Abrams-style reboot of the original raid – the team has tried to keep all the cool stuff that players liked from the original, but have made it newer, bigger and badder. The Black Abbot has resumed his pursuit of ascending to godhood, along with the help of a partner named Lady Vol, who is half-dragon, half-elf and all lich.

The fight has some interesting mechanics – two bosses, scripted events requiring fighting in extra-dimensional rooms, obscene amounts of negative levels being bestowed because that’s how liches roll. Make sure you bring a few Clerics with you – you’re going to need them.

And OnRPG:

The most obvious new addition is the Harper, an enhancement class based around being excellent to your teammates, and maintaining versatility in combat. The Harper class can be taken on top of any existing class in the game, and has mutliple trees that support and enhance just about any kind of character. The vanguard tree, for example, is for fighters and paladins, and adds a great deal of offensive power to the arsenal of players who prefer to fight with sword and shield.

This ties into an overall revamp and balance adjustment to fighters and anyone else who regularly wears heavy armor. Before, light armor was often the go-to option for players, because of its ‘evade tank’ qualities. Now, heavy armor is a more than viable option, and to christen this rebalancing, they’ve taken a long, hard look at how sword and shield combat works. They’ve added new animations for shield bashes, shield slams, and other brutal attacks. Being a heavy has never been more satisfying in DDO.