Dungeons & Dragons Online Update 40 Released

As we continue to wait for some news regarding the MMORPG’s previously announced Sharn expansion, we can at least take in another major content update for Dungeons & Dragons Online in the form of Update 40: Cloaked in Darkness. Not only does this update add a new raid and bring a new-and-improved version of the Night Revels event back to the game, but it also introduces the Wood Elf race variant and visible cloaks. If only there wasn’t a nerf to monks in here, too:

Update 40 Release Notes

Here are the Release Notes for Update 40: Cloaked in Darkness, released on Wednesday, October 3rd.

Of Special Note:

The Night Revels Returns!

Our yearly festival event returns with two new dungeon challenges, a new way to experience the Delera’s Graveyard landscape, and a new public hub to access the Night Revels challenges! Additionally, new items are available from the Night Revels vendor, including cloaks, Reaper’s Platemail, helmets, a new pet, and more! Return to the scene of a minotaur village in Grave Work, and face a Spectral Dragon in Eternity Unleashed! Enter the Delera’s Graveyard as a private party-sized instance, available from levels 1 through 35.

New Raid: Killing Time

A new raid is now available! This raid is level 32 on Normal difficulty, and is now a part of the Dragonblood Prophecy adventure pack. Anyone who owns the Dragonblood Prophecy adventure pack, or who is VIP, can automatically run the raid.

Wood Elves

Wood Elves have ancient roots, with their culture originating near the same time as other Elves. Hardier than other Elves, many were raised in the most dangerous wilds where few others would dare to go. Wood Elves are a new variant that offers an alternate way to play the elven race! Wood Elves do not have their own racial past life, but rather can complete an Elven past life, and have different starting stats, along with several new enhancements. Wood Elves are free to VIPs, and available to purchase in the DDO Store.

Cloaks

Visible cloaks are now available! New random loot cloaks will have a visual, and named cloaks both new and old have visuals as well. There is a new Cosmetic Cloak Inventory Slot, and cloaks can accept a Mirror of Glamering to put the visual onto your character. Additionally, wearing a cloak will display the cloak on your character, and you can choose to toggle it on and off by clicking the cloak visibility button in your inventory UI, or by using the command /showcloak on or off.

News and Notes:

Classes

• Monk Unarmed Strike now gives +1 to attack with handwraps instead of .5[W].
• Favored Soul hit point and spell point feats now more reliably apply their bonuses.

Enhancements

• Frenzied Berzerker’s Crazy Strike can no longer be stacked multiple times.
• Falconry’s Killer Instinct I now properly only grants Wisdom to hit rather than Wisdom to hit and damage.

Epic Destinies

• Characters with the Grandmaster of Flowers’ Slow Fall ability now fall using their proper monk animations.
• Divine Crusader’s Crusade! now mentions melee and ranged damage rather than all damage.

Feats

• Epic Defensive Fighting’s hit points no longer drop on death.

Items

• Sentinels of Stormreach has had its end rewards updated. In addition to some changes to the items, these items no longer require Sigils in order to craft, and instead simply appear in their respective drop locations fully upgraded. Existing Sigils can be used to update old Suppressed items.
• Fixed a visual issue with the Crabshell Buckler.
• The descriptions of Night Black Coffee and Butter Rum Coffee has been adjusted to match their current functionality. These items are no longer usable in Public Spaces only, and instead are only usable in the Night Revels dungeons, the Night Revels Graveyard, Crystal Cove, and Smuggler’s Rest.
• Glamerdust recipes now use the right icon and description to match their ingredient.
• White Plume Mountain Sentient Gems now have their proper icons.
• Daily Dice now has three new items in the Jackpot tier!
• Level 12 Calomel Handwraps, Level 16 Calomel Handwraps, and Unstable Handwraps now have 1.5[1d6] for their base dice.

Monsters

• The poison damage of pseudodragons is now more visible and has a shorter duration.

Quests and Adventure Areas

• Certain kinds of traps no longer fail to scale their DCs to level and difficulty-appropriate values.
• The Epic Defensive Fighting stance no longer affects the range of quest-specific wands used in Framework, Price of Freedom, and Ascension Chamber of the Black Abbot.
• Amber Temple
  • Once you draw Strahd’s attention and survive his challenge, the extra chest has a chance of containing named loot.
  • Soldier’s Card: a second dimension door opens to the crypt after Strahd’s vampire spawn are defeated, so you can pick up the symbol when you are done.
• The Devil’s Details – Hathera the Erenyes no longer stays untargettable in some cases.
• Monastery of the Scorpion’s puzzle now works as intended, rewarding players for its perfect completion with an untimely demise of its protector.
• Night Revels
  • Haverdashed and Under New Ravagement now both give out Spooky Almonds and Darkest Chocolate at a base amount equal to your score.
  • The Snitch and the Lich now gives out Sinister Cinnamon and Darkest Chocolate at a base amount equal to two times your score.
  • Getting Ahead in Lordsmarch Plaza now gives out Shadowy Caramels and Darkest Chocolate at a base amount equal to two times your score.
  • The Kobolds’ Newest Ringleader now gives out Black Apples and Darkest Chocolate at a base amount equal to two times your score.
  • Hayweird Foundry now gives out Sinister Cinnamon and Darkest Chocolate at a base amount equal to three times your score.
  • Resurrection Chamber now gives out Shadowy Caramels and Darkest Chocolate at a base amount equal to three times your score.
  • Gravework gives out Black Apples and Darkest Chocolate at a base amount equal to three times your score.
  • The point grants when you’ve collected all five stars in Getting Ahead in Lordsmarch Palace, Hayweird Foundry, and Resurrection Chamber have been raised to match the other Night Revels dungeons.
• Oath of Vengeance – Fixed an issue where panning the camera vertically could cause parts of the level to disappear.

Races

• Wood Elves are a new racial variant, and have an Enhancement tree similar to Elves, with the exception of the following traits:
  • +2 Dexterity, -2 Intelligence
  • Cannot take Dragonmark Feats.
  • Dragonmark Enhancements are replaced with the following enhancements:
  • Cores: Cores 2 and 4 grant the option of additional Strength and Dexterity.
  • Each Tier of the Weapon line grants +1 to hit and damage with Longswords, Rapier, Scimitars, Shortbows, and Longbows, as well as +1 to hit and +2 to damage with Falchions.
  • Tier 1: Adept of Trees: +1/2/3 to Tumble and Hide, +1/2/3 to Saves vs. Poison and Disease.
  • Tier 2: Wild Step: Passive: +5 to Tumble. When you Tumble, you gain a +10% Action Boost bonus to movement speed, and a 10% Action Boost bonus to Missile Deflection for 10 seconds. This can only occur once every 30 seconds.
  • Tier 3: Deepwood Origins: Multiselector:
  • Rugged Upbringing: While Raging, gain +5% Doublestrike with Longswords, Rapiers, Scimitars, and Falchions.
  • Oath of the Wild: You take an oath to forego metal armor, metal shields, and Rune Arms. As long as you do not have these equipped, you gain +10 Physical Resistance Raing.
  • Faith of the Forest: You now count Rapiers, Falchions, and Shortbows as Favored Weapons, regardless of your Deity, for the purpose of everything in the Warpriest tree, the War Soul tree, Favored Soul Grace of Battle, and Favored Soul Knowledge of Battle. (Your basic Deity Feats do not add hit+damage with these weapons).
  • Tier 4: Natural Skill: Multiselector:
  • Wild Swings: +5% Offhand Strike Chance
  • Drive Them Back: +10% Chance of Shield Bash with non-metal shields.
  • Ferocity: +3 to damage while using Two-handed Weapons.
  • Like a Leaf: +2 to hit and damage while Single Weapon Fighting.
  • Through the Branches: +3% Doubleshot with Longbows and Shortbows.
  • Vigor SLA: 10 Spell Points, 20 second cooldown.
• Warforged can now use the Night Revels Deathknight cosmetic armor.
• Aasimar’s Protector form no longer disappears upon death.

Reaper Difficulty

• Damage and healing values now have a minimum value of one due to Reaper scaling. If Reaper scaling would reduce a value for damage or healing that is above zero to zero, then the value will now be at least one.

Skills

• The skill Intimidate now has a range of 30 meters and a bug with its line of sight check has been fixed.

Spells

• Air Savant now correctly applies to the following Sonic spells, and increases their caster level: Shout, Greater Shout, Sonic Blast, and Soundburst.

UI

• Players can now sort their characters from the Character Selection screen by using a small drop-down arrow situated above the list of characters. Sorting options are Alphabetical (A-Z), Alphabetical (Z-A), Class (A-Z), Class (Z-A), Level (Maximum to Minimum), Level (Minimum to Maximum), and Last Login.
• The Sentient Gem UI icon is now the same size as other icons near it.
• The following effects are now tagged to no longer display in the Combat Log: All Warlock aura effects, Tavern Regeneration, Public Area Regeneration, Archer’s Focus, Scion of the Ethereal Plane, Hiding in Plain Sight, and Battle Engineer’s Charge Tier effects.
• Warlock Aura Buffs no longer publicly display their duration to avoid flickering themselves over other buffs.
• There is now an option to run the DirectX installer from the Repair section of the Launcher Options UI.
• Fixed the icon for the DDO game shortcut on older installations.
• Many small typos and tooltip errors have been corrected.
• The Creature Companions tab has been moved up to align with other tabs.
• The Sentient Items button has been moved down near the Augments button.