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Thursday July 5 2007
Network News The Sims Online - HoC Dev Chat on July 7Return to TopSubmit News!Visit Our Forums
  Network News - 4:37 AM PDT | Posted By: Joshua_Rowan
 
Another HoC Developer Chat announcement, this time for The Sims Online:

Please join us on Saturday, July 7, 2007, for a House of Commons with the developers of The Sims Online at 10:00am Pacific / 1:00pm Eastern in the #StraticsHoC channel on Stratics IRC.

You can connect to one of our IRC servers through the use of your favorite IRC client or you can visit our Downloads section to choose a suitable client. Connect to irc.stratics.com port 6668 or whichever server is closest to you:

  • stratics.frws.com port 6668, USA - Colorado
  • irc.glowfish.de port 6668, EU - Germany
  • stratics.afraidyet.net 6668, USA - Atlanta
  • irc.gamers-irc.org 6668, USA - Colorado

You may also connect through our handy Java link which may be found right here. You must have Java installed to use this which can be downloaded from the Java homepage.

We will be discussing general topics with the developers, and open chat will be in our IRC channel #sims-online before, during, and after the House of Commons.

We hope to see you there!


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Network News TONIGHT (July 5) - Chat With The UO Developers!Return to TopSubmit News!Visit Our Forums
  Network News - 4:33 AM PDT | Posted By: Joshua_Rowan
 
One last reminder to everyone that tonight we are bringing back the infamous UOHoC Developer Chat! Not sure what a UOHoC is? Then make sure to check out our UOHoC Section for previous chats and to get yourself familiar with how it all works.

Please join us on Thursday, July 5, 2007, for a House ofCommons with the developers of UltimaOnline at 5:00 PM Pacific / 8:00 PMEastern in the #StraticsHoC channel on StraticsIRC.

You can connect to one of our IRC servers through the use ofyour favorite IRC client or you can visit our Downloads section to choosea suitable client. Connect to irc.stratics.com port 6668 orwhichever server is closest to you:

  • stratics.frws.com port 6668, USA - Colorado
  • irc.gamers-irc.org port 6668, USA - Colorado
  • irc.glowfish.de port 6668, EU - Germany
  • stratics.afraidyet.net 6668, USA - Atlanta

You may also connect through our handy Java link which may befound right here. You must haveJava installed to use this which can be downloaded from the Javahomepage.

During the chat, we'll be discussing general topics with thedevelopers, and general chat will be in our IRC channel #ultima-onlinebefore, during, and after the House of Commons.

We hope to see you there!


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Monday July 2 2007
General News Update 4.2: Searing HeightsReturn to TopSubmit News!Visit Our Forums
  General News - 8:31 AM PDT | Posted By: Joshua_Rowan
 
Official DDO.com News:
Update 4.2: Searing Heights
[28-Jun-2007]

We’ve received reports that the Sul’at League has resurfaced in the Searing Heights. The League is intent on protecting their volcano at all costs as it is rumored to house the tribe’s lost legacy.

Our sources also tell us that an organization of fire giants called the Battalion of the Basalt Towers has started preparations for a demonic ceremony. We are unclear about what their motivation is, but our source was extremely concerned. The Battalion of the Basalt Towers revere an ancient hero named Adaxus who supposedly used a demonic alliance to crown himself the Fire Prince. We fear that this new generation of fire giants is attempting to follow in his footsteps.

The news of the Battalion of the Basalt Towers recent activity combined with the reports of the first Drow sightings in this area for many years cannot be a coincidence. We are extremely worried about the security implications. You must go to the Searing Heights at once and report what you see. Hopefully it isn't too late already.


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Network News WoW Stratics: Win a ticket to BlizzConReturn to TopSubmit News!Visit Our Forums
  Network News - 8:29 AM PDT | Posted By: Joshua_Rowan
 
Some news to share from our WoW Stratics team:


Now is your chance to win a ticket to one of the biggest events this year, BLIZZCON!

Thanks to Blizzard, WoW Stratics is able to give away two BlizzCon tickets this year.

Want to go? Our BlizzCon contest this year is a "Funny Screenshot" contest. If you are talented in taking hilarious screenshots in WoW then adding an out of this world caption, this could be your chance to win!

Head on into our FORUMS to see how you can enter!

Good luck everyone!


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Monday June 25 2007
General News The Festival of Olladra comes to Stormreach!Return to TopSubmit News!Discuss This Article
  General News - 8:36 AM PDT | Posted By: Joshua_Rowan
 
News hot off the press from DDO.com:
The Festival of Olladra comes to Stormreach!

The Festival of Olladra

Olladra, the goddess of Feast and Fortune, can be both playful and fickle. As tribute to this mercurial goddess, the Coin Lords will be celebrating the Festival of Olladra on 4 Lharvion* by giving away several Intimidating Daggers of Paralyzing Acid! This exclusive event item also has a lower tiered version called the Intimidating Dagger of Acid. The Coin Lords have a limited number of both daggers and will be giving them to a lucky few.

The Overview:

Between the dates of 25 Nymm and 1 Lharvion*, send a message to Sir Lawrence d’Deneith via the Sivis Messaging Boards. The subject of this letter should contain four numbers of your choice (each between 1-20), your name, and home world. Sir Lawrence will disqualify any letters which vary from this format, he will also disallow any letters which arrive before or after the specified dates.

Quote:
NOTE: While Sir Lawrence does have a + in-game, his forum name does not. Send forum PM's to "Sir Lawrence". And while all contest info must be in the subject line, you must have at least one character in the PM body text. - Thanks to MB.
On 4 Lharvion*, Sir Lawrence will be visiting each home world and roll publicly for the winning numbers. Prizes will be awarded after 11 Lharvion when the daggers have arrived from Zilargo.

Rules:

Between the dates of June 25-July 1 send +Sir Lawrence a PM on the DDO.com forums with your pick of four numbers each between 1-20 (for example: 3, 12, 12, 19) IN THE SUBJECT LINE. Be sure to include your character name and server. This information must appear in your subject line of the PM only! +Sir will delete any PM that does not have all required information in the subject line. Below is an example of a proper entry. The subject line should look like this:

Bob, Argonnessen, 2, 11, 18, 20

Event PMs will only be accepted between 12:01 am eastern June 25, 2007 and 12:00 pm eastern July 1, 2007. You may submit only one entry - extra PMs will be deleted.

Players who picked all four die rolls for their server will win a +2 Intimidating Dagger of Paralyzing Acid! Anyone who correctly selected three of the four numbers will receive a +1 Intimidating Dagger of Acid.

On July 4th, 2007, +Sir will visit each server to roll the winning numbers (See below for scheduled times.)

The Fine Print

* 25 Nymm through 1 Lharvion = June 25th through July 1st. 4 Lharvion and 11 Larvion are July 4th and July 11th respectively.

Separate winning numbers will be determined for each server with no limit as to how many winners are allowed for either prize.

There are is no guarantee that each server (or even any server) will have a winner.

Winners will be announced on the forums and the prizes will be delivered through in-game mail by +Sir Lawrence in the middle of July. Only one dagger per person - people who win the +2 Intimidating Dagger of Paralyzing Acid do not also get the +1 Intimidating Dagger of Acid.

Only properly formatted entries will be entered in the Festival. Reminder: a proper entry is a PM sent to +Sir Lawrence via the DDO.com forums that includes your name, server, and four numbers between 1-20 in the subject line.

Only one entry per account. Only entries whose numbers were exact, will win. There is no entry fee. You do not need to be present (i.e., logged into DDO during the drawing) to win. All active DDO accounts may participate. +Sir will have a record of all entries and will determine the winners for each server accordingly.


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Thursday May 24 2007
General News Dragon Marks are here!Return to TopSubmit News!Discuss This Article
  General News - 5:20 AM PDT | Posted By: Joshua_Rowan
 
This just in from DDO.com:
Dragon Marks are here!
[22-May-2007]

 

Come visit sunny Ataraxia's Haven
Miles of sandy beach await your vacation pleasure!
All of your needs will be attended to by our world-class staff!
Daily ferries from Kundarak Port!
Relax in our deluxe accommodations!
Book now as rooms are going fast…

Dragonmarks Arrive in Stormreach

Three thousand years ago the first dragonmarks appeared in the elven kingdom of Aerenal. Strange patterns on the skin, more an elaborate birthmark than a tattoo, they gave their bearers magical abilities that have been a source of power and conflict for centuries. Nobody knows the origins of dragonmarks or when and why they appear, yet some of the citizens of Stormreach have recently begun to manifest these strange and powerful markings.

To read the complete article on dragonmarks, including a list of available dragonmarks and how to unlock them, please click here.


More Solo Quests

Four more quests can now be played on Solo mode!

  • Freshen the Air
  • The Swiped Signet
  • Purge the Heretics
  • Caged Trolls

Revamped Adventure Areas

Be sure to visit Sorrowdusk Isle and Tangleroot Gorge – both areas now include Slayer, Exploration, and Rare Encounter quests! These old favorites will seem like completely new areas!

Improved Friends List

The Friends List has a new look! Now, when viewing your friends list you will see all the relevant information about your friend: race, gender, class, level, guild, and party status (when they are online). You can add custom comments where you can describe your friend (as another characters alt, their playstyle, anything you like). You can also import and export your friends list across your characters.

To read Phax's Dev Diary on all of the improvements to the friends list please click here.

Spell/Spell Point Rebalancing

With Mark of the Dragon, we’ve taken an opportunity to revisit some old decisions and have chosen to make some changes to improve the gameplay of primary spellcasting classes. These changes should go some way to close the gap between melee and casting classes while maintaining the active action based feel of Dungeons and Dragons Online.

Spell Point Pools

As the level cap has been increasing, it has become apparent that our primary spellcasting classes have not been gaining sufficient spell points to keep up with their pen and paper counterparts. Spell point progressions have been reevaluated from levels one to twenty, and some classes have received significant upgrades.

As examples, at 14th level, the following classes will see these improvements to their base spell point totals:

Wizard: +180 sp, Cleric: +250 sp, Sorcerer: +305 sp

Clerics now follow the same spell point progression as Wizards, and Sorcerers will be happy to know that they will now gain additional spell points from items that increase a character’s spell point pool. A Pearl of Power that normally grants 100 extra spell points will grant a pure-class Sorcerer 200 spell points instead.

Spell Cooldowns

Our review indicated that the cooldowns of spells vary too much. Under our current system, the planned cooldown for Meteor Swarm would have been 18 seconds for Wizards, far too long for such an iconic spell. We’ve significantly flattened the difference in spell cooldowns from first to ninth level to make higher level spells more attractive options. That same Meteor Swarm will now have a 6.5 second cooldown for a Wizard, or 4 seconds for a Sorcerer. Clerics will benefit substantially from this change as well, as favorites such as Heal and Cometfall drop down to a 5 second cooldown from the old 12 seconds. All spells that produce a lingering effect have had their cooldowns dropped to twice the cooldown of a non-lingering spell. This does not (yet) apply to the Symbol line of spells.

Area of Effect Spells

Area of Effect spells that linger in dungeons currently have wildly varying durations. During this spell pass we’ve standardized the durations and cooldowns for most of these lingering effects. Planned for the near future is tech that will prevent Area of Effect spells from going through walls or doors – no longer will you have to worry that a monster’s Wall of Fire will burn you through a sealed door!

As part of the rebalancing of spells/spell points the following spells will no longer be sold in shops in and around Stormreach. Wizards interested in learning these spells should select them while leveling up. The removed spells will still drop as treasure and at a higher rate than previously.
  • Otto’s Sphere of Dancing (in that it was never added)
  • Cloudkill
  • Acid Fog
  • Wall of Fire
  • Blade Barrier
  • Glyph of Warding
  • Greater Glyph of Warding
  • Symbol of Flame
  • Symbol of Pain
  • Symbol of Weakness
  • Delayed Blast Fireball
  • Symbol of Fear
  • Symbol of Persuasion
  • Dimension Door
  • Solid Fog



General
  • Fixed an issue where players are seeing a message that says "Cleaning up old connections" indefinitely. The same message may still happen, but the player will be able to log in again normally within 10 minutes.
  • Resurrection Shrines now function in all ways like the Raise Dead spell. They will no longer drain the spellpoints of a spellcaster that uses them, and restores people to life at 10% hit points rather than at 1 hit point. This is meant to address an imbalance between the effects of death for casters versus non-casters.
  • The Coin Lords have used a portion of their increased income from the Auction House to upgrade the elementals powering the teleporters in Stormreach. Each of the teleporters in the various House wards of the city now allow anyone using them to select their destination from any of the other teleporter locations in Stormreach.
  • Damage caused by a reduction in a character's Constitution score will now reduce the character's hitpoints directly. This damage is not applied to Temporary Hitpoints gained from such spells as False Life and Aid. Care should be taken when removing +Constitution items while at low hitpoint totals.
  • Once upon a time there was a mighty warrior who had a love pure and true. But then his beloved disappeared and the mighty warrior flew into a rage. Where had the object of his passion gone? The warrior embarked upon a heroic quest to find his lost love. For an entire year the warrior searched without any sign of his beloved. And then one day…..could it be? Yet this was a different sort of love – the mighty warrior's beloved had changed, but it was his love still, and a great happiness filled the dazed warrior.
  • You can now /point at things that are farther away than 30 meters.



UI Improvements
  • The bold lock icon for locking your inventory has returned!
  • Players should once again be able to see the Who panel when opening it for the second time.
  • Talking to NPC’s while in t-mode will once again bring up the mouse cursor.
  • The resistance labels in the character sheet have been replaced with icons. This fixes a bug in which the character sheet was not able to display all resistances.
  • Enhancements
    • Previously, if you attempted to train your enhancements immediately after training a new level, some enhancements would show up as unavailable. These enhancements will now be available immediately.
    • When you hit the "show unavailable" button, branches which are expanded will now show the unavailable items without requiring you to close and re-open the branch.
    • The Enhancement Training panel now has undo and redo buttons. In addition, hovering over the buttons will display what hitting the button will do. For example, if you removed a benefit that took 7 other enhancements with it, you can hover over the "undo" button to see which 7 enhancements were removed and hit the undo button to quickly put them back in your list.
  • You can no longer enter dirty words in your LFM note. Bad players! No cookie for you! PS: Anyone who tries putting a naughty word into their LFM note after reading this will get a /pseudopod smack.
  • Corrected display issue with floating damage numbers for Sneak Attacks when base weapon damage does not overcome monster's Damage Reduction.
  • Portal Screens for House Jorasco, House Kundarak, House Phairlan, House Denieth, the Market, and the Harbor have been updated to reflect the environment of each ward.
  • Skills that you have put skill points into should no longer show up as n/a on the advancement summary page.
  • Fixed a rare condition where sometimes you would get an error message stating your auction was cancelled when you weren't actually doing any auctioning.
  • If you attempt to use the /retell or /reply command before you have sent a tell or received a tell respectively, they will no longer be auto-replaced with /tell. This should prevent accidents like "/tell hey you!" sending "Hey" the message "you!"
  • The tabs in the bank have new artwork.
  • The alert icon for Beholder telekinesis now displays appropriately.
  • The Hold Monster icon has been changed to represent a troll since trolls can only be held with Hold Monster. Previously the icon featured a hobgoblin which can be held with either Hold Monster or Hold Person.



Monsters
  • We have made additional adjustments to some monster AI. For example:
    • Monsters are now slightly less oblivious when their flesh is slowly melting away as they stand in poison gas clouds.
    • Monsters tend to react more often when their friends mysteriously die.
    • Creatures that prefer range will no longer run away from players indefinitely.
    • Some monsters that had not been scaling properly with dungeon difficulty level will now scale properly.
    • And more!
  • NEW – Bosses are no longer vulnerable to the Chill Touch spell's strength damage effect.
  • Summoned monsters should no longer be affected by your lingering effects if they are summoned into them. Quest monsters that are instantly killed by lingering effects should now properly trigger events that advance quests.
  • Charmed and summoned monsters should no longer get stuck after defeating an opponent.
  • Charmed monsters should no longer attempt to return to their home point while charmed.
  • Hobgoblins and Orcs are now properly affected by effects that increase or reduce their movement, such as Slow, Haste, or Solid Fog.
  • The Cloven-Jaw Scout hobgoblins are now using their hide skill properly. They were not hiding and now they are.
  • You can now click on Hellcats.
  • Iron Defender variants that possess various elemental breath weapons now actually deal damage with those breath weapons again.
  • Creatures that regenerate (such as trolls) will no longer produce holy death effects unless actually killed by a holy, light, or positive energy effect.
  • Wolves and other canines no longer possess an AOE trip ability. Their trip attacks have been tied directly to their bite attacks, and must hit before application. (Some canines, especially those of low CR, may only trip on critical hits.)
  • Patrolling wolves no longer attempt to scratch at fleas while moving.
  • The giant skeletons in Gianthold Tor no longer have a chance to display an empty collectible shiny when they die. They are not supposed to drop collectibles.



Combat
  • Spurred by the continued development of the Monk, it has become time to address Evasion in medium and heavy armor. From now on the Rogue class ability Evasion will only function in light or no armor, when not helpless, and when not heavily encumbered. We are intentionally deviating from the Player’s Handbook in permitting Evasion while moderately encumbered as a character in DDO cannot say to their DM: "I drop my pack full of treasure on the ground, I’ll pick it back up later."
  • UPDATED – You can no longer chain rage and avoid fatigue altogether. Additionally, in Update 4.2 barbarian rage fatigue will be changed to allow any effect that dispels fatigue to remove it.
  • Fixed a minor glitch in skill values refreshing related to changing armor while heavily encumbered.
  • Lay on hands and remove disease now pay on execution. If you get your animation interrupted, you don't lose your activation cost.

Spells
  • All spells that produce a lingering effect have had their cooldowns dropped to twice the cooldown of a non-lingering spell.
  • Dimension Door's cooldown has been dropped from five minutes to one minute for non-Sorcerers. Sorcerers retain their old 30 second cooldown.
  • Cure Critical Wounds is now a Spontaneous Cast spell like the rest of the Cure Wounds spells. This means that Cure Critical Wounds is always memorized in the Cleric's Spell book and may not be removed.
  • The temporary hit points gained from casting Aid and Mass Aid will no longer stack with each other.
  • The Sorcerer spells Magic Circle Against Evil and Mass Fox's Cunning no longer share the same cooldown.
  • Wizards are now able to inscribe Scrolls of Banishment to add the spell to their known spells list.
  • The Knock spell can now be learned by Wizards when training.
  • Other players will now be able to see your Niac's Cold Ray.
  • Resurrection effects will no longer claim incorrectly that you can have "Self" as a target.



Skills, Feats, & Abilities
  • Warforged can now freely respec their body feats. Fred's tentacles are mighty indeed!
  • Cleave and Great Cleave no longer check to see if you are facing your currently selected target (after all, you may have other enemies within the covered attack arc).
  • Inspire Courage now correctly upgrades at level 14.
  • A problem with improved precise shot using autoattack has been fixed.

Enhancements
  • General
    • Iron Companion
      • Cost: 2 Action Points
      • Requires: Any one of the following: Rogue Way of the Mechanic 1, Warforged Skill Repair 2, Human Skill Repair 2, Fighter Skill Repair 2, Wizard Skill Repair 2, Self Sufficient (feat), Lesser Dragonmark of Making (feat), or Skill Focus: Repair (feat)
      • Benefit: You have a loyal iron defender as a pet, and can summon it once per day to aid you for five minutes.
    • Steel Companion
      • Cost: 2 Action Points
      • Requires: Iron Companion, Level 4 Character, 10 Action Points Spent
      • Benefit: You have a loyal steel defender as a pet, and can summon it once per day to aid you for five minutes.
    • Mithral Companion
      • Cost: 2 Action Points
      • Requires: Steel Companion, Level 8 Character, 26 Action Points Spent
      • Benefit: You have a loyal mithral defender as a pet, and can summon it once per day to aid you for five minutes.
  • Paladin
    • Divine Righteousness I
      • Cost: 2 Action Points
      • Requires: Level 6 Paladin, 18 Action Points spent.
      • Benefit: Activate this ability to double the hate generated by your melee attacks and spells for 20 seconds, making monsters more likely to attack you. Consumes a use of turn undead for the day.
  • Rogue

    Rogue Specialties: You may only possess one class specialty at a time.
    • Way of the Mechanic I
      • Cost: 4 Action Points
      • Requires: Level 6 Rogue, 16 Action Points spent. Rogue Disable Device II, Rogue Open Lock II, Rogue Trap Sense I, Rogue Skill Boost II, any Rogue Trap Lore I.
      • Benefit: +2 bonus to Disable Device, Open Lock, Repair, Spot, and Search skills. Activate to apply a repair over time effect to a targetted friendly Warforged or Construct. Consumes one use of Rogue Skill Boost for the day.
    • Way of the Thief-Acrobat I
      • Cost: 4 Action Points
      • Requires: Level 6 Rogue, 16 Action Points spent. Rogue Balance II, Rogue Tumble II, Rogue Faster Sneaking I, Rogue Haste Boost II, Rogue Dexterity I.
      • Benefit: +2 bonus to Balance, Jump, and Tumble skills and 2 extra uses of Uncanny Dodge per day. Activate to gain a +10 bonus to Balance, Jump and Tumble, a 25% Enhancement bonus to movement speed, and a +4 bonus to Dexterity for 20 seconds. Consumes one use of Rogue Haste Boost for the day.
    • Way of the Assassin I
      • Cost: 4 Action Points
      • Requires: Level 6 Rogue, 16 Action Points spent. Rogue Hide II, Rogue Move Silently II, Rogue Sneak Attack Accuracy I, Rogue Sneak Attack Training I, Rogue Subtle Backstabber I, Rogue Damage Boost II.
      • Benefit: +2 bonus to Bluff, Hide, and Move Silently skills and a +1 bonus to Fortitude saves versus Poison. Activate to gain a +2 bonus to hit when making sneak attacks, a +20 bonus to confirm critical hits, and a 25% chance to apply a mind affecting poison with each sneak attack, for 20 seconds. Consumes one use of Rogue Damage Boost for the day.
  • Warforged
    • Warforged Power Attack I
      • Cost: 1 Action Point.
      • Prereqs: Warforged, Level 4, 12 Action Points spent.
      • Benefit: Power Attack does additional 1 bonus damage and -1 to hit. Stacks with the Barbarian Power Attack enhancement line.
    • Warforged Power Attack II
      • Cost: 2 Action Point.
      • Prereqs: Warforged, Level 9, 32 Action Points spent.
      • Benefit: Power Attack does additional 1 bonus damage and -1 to hit. Stacks with the Barbarian Power Attack enhancement line.
    • Warforged Power Attack III
      • Cost: 3 Action Point.
      • Prereqs: Warforged, Level 14, 52 Action Points spent.
      • Benefit: Power Attack does additional 1 bonus damage and -1 to hit. Stacks with the Barbarian Power Attack enhancement line.
  • Paladins and Clerics now have faith based enhancements available to them. Only one line of faith based enhancements can be taken at a time. (Please note: Cooldowns are still subject to change).
    • Follower of the Silver Flame
      • Prereqs: Cleric 1 or Paladin 1
      • Cost: 2 Action Points
      • You are one of the Purified, a true believer in the Silver Flame. Burn the corruption and taint of evil from all Eberron. Grants a +1 bonus to hit with longbows, the favored weapon of the clergy of the Silver Flame.
    • Follower of the Sovereign Host
      • Prereqs: Cleric 1 or Paladin 1
      • Cost: 2 Action Points
      • You are a Vassal of the Sovereign Host, a true believer in the Doctrine of Universal Sovereignty. As is the world, so are the gods. As are the gods, so is the world. Grants a +1 bonus to hit with longswords, the favored weapon of the clergy of the Sovereign Host.
    • Follower of the Undying Court
      • Prereqs: Cleric 1 or Paladin 1, High Elf only
      • Cost: 2 Action Points
      • You are guided by the wisdom of the deathless of Aerenal, and are a true believer in the ways of the Undying Court. Existence is a spiritual journey requiring far longer than a single lifetime. Only the Undying can ever truly learn what great wonders lie at its end. Grants a +1 bonus to hit with scimitars, the favored weapon of the clergy of the Undying Court.
    • Follower of the Lord of Blades
      • Prereqs: Cleric 1 or Paladin 1, Warforged only
      • Cost: 2 Action Points
      • You are a Blade, a true believer in the cult of the Lord of Blades. Warforged were made to rule Eberron, the other races are weak. Grants a +1 bonus to hit with greatswords, the favored weapon of the cultists of the Lord of Blades.
    • Follower of Vulkoor
      • Prereqs: Cleric 1 or Paladin 1, Drow Elf only
      • Cost: 2 Action Points
      • You are one of Vulkoor's chosen, a worshiper of the scorpion god of Xen'drik. Followers of Vulkoor the Hunter pay homage by their actions, as well as through lengthy recitations of the deeds of the god and the heroes who follow him. Grants a +1 bonus to hit with shortswords.
    • Silver Flame Exorcism
      • Prereqs: Cleric 6 or Paladin 9, Follower of the Silver Flame, 16 (Cleric) or 28 (Paladin) Action Points Spent
      • Cost: 4 Action Points
      • You are a devoted follower of the Silver Flame, and your faith has been rewarded. Activate this ability to attempt to exorcise an extraplanar creature, which is entirely consumed in holy fire on a failed Will save or savagely burned by the light of the Silver Flame partially resisted by a Fortitude save. Cooldown: 20 minutes.
    • Unyielding Sovereignty
      • Prereqs: Cleric 6 or Paladin 9, Follower of the Sovereign Host, 16 (Cleric) or 28 (Paladin) Action Points Spent
      • Cost: 4 Action Points
      • You are a devoted follower of the Sovereign Host, and your faith has been rewarded. Activate this ability to fully heal hit point damage done to yourself or a targetted ally, remove ability damage, and the conditions blinded, confused, dazed, dazzled, deafened, diseased, exhausted, fatigued, feebleminded, insanity, nauseated, and poisoned. Cooldown: 20 minutes.
    • Undying Call
      • Prereqs: Cleric 6 or Paladin 9, Follower of the Undying Court, 16 (Cleric) or 28 (Paladin) Action Points Spent
      • Cost: 4 Action Points
      • You are a devoted follower of the Undying Court, and your faith has been rewarded. Activate this ability to lead a dead ally's spirit back to this world, acting as a True Resurrection on high elven spirits or a Raise Dead for others. Cooldown: 20 minutes.
    • Bladesworn Transformation
      • Prereqs: Cleric 6 or Paladin 9, Follower of the Lord of Blades, 16 (Cleric) or 28 (Paladin) Action Points Spent
      • Cost: 4 Action Points
      • You are a devoted follower of the Lord of Blades, and your faith has been rewarded. Activate this ability to become a juggernaut of destruction for 60 seconds. (You have a +4 profane bonus to Strength, a +4 natural armor bonus to AC, a +4 profane bonus on damage rolls, and proficiency in all simple and martial weapons. Your base attack bonus equals your character level. You have lost your spellcasting ability. You have immunity to critical hits and sneak attacks, but cannot be healed by healing spells.) Cooldown: 20 minutes.
    • Vulkoor's Avatar
      • Prereqs: Cleric 6 or Paladin 9, Follower of Vulkoor, 16 (Cleric) or 28 (Paladin) Action Points Spent
      • Cost: 4 Action Points
      • You are a devoted follower of Vulkoor the Hunter, and your faith has been rewarded. Activate this ability to ask Vulkoor to send one of his servants to destroy your enemies. (Summons a Drow Scorpion to crush your enemies.) Cooldown: 20 minutes.
  • The following active enhancements can now be activated while swimming:
    • All Action Boosts
    • Halfling Heroic Companion
    • Human Versatility
    • Warforged Power Attack
    • Barbarian Power Attack
    • Cleric Faith: Unyielding Sovereignty
    • Cleric Faith: Undying Call
    • Cleric Faith: Bladesworn Transformation
    • Paladin Divine Righteousness
    • Paladin Faith: Unyielding Sovereignty
    • Paladin Faith: Undying Call
    • Paladin Faith: Bladesworn Transformation
    • Paladin Rally
    • Rogue Specialty: Way of the Assassin
    • Rogue Specialty: Way of the Mechanic
    • Rogue Specialty: Way of the Thief-Acrobat
Items
  • When you loot chests you can now change who the loot is reserved for to anyone currently in your party. The new menu contains data on player's names and primary class, so if you see the perfect dagger for a rogue, there's no confusion about who the rogue in the party is. Please note: items which are bind on equip cannot have their reservation changed.
  • Many, many new wands are now available in treasure. Wands received as quest rewards are now separated by arcane and divine spells.
  • Items can now be designated as "exclusive." This means that you can only have one of an exclusive item in your backpack or equipped at a time. You can still place multiple exclusive items in your bank, mail, trade, and sell exclusive items (as long as they are not bound). Exclusive item A will have no effect on how many copies of Exclusive item B you can own. Items that now are considered Exclusive
    • Ring of Spell Storing.
    • Cursed phylactery of Raiyum the Eternal
    • Drow-Blessed Blood of a fiendish gnoll
    • Orb of Djinn
    • Ceremonial Blade (Abandoned Keep Arena)
  • Item effects that give bonuses to Level 7 spells are now available in the random treasure generation system.
  • Ghost Touch and Vorpal effect now functions correctly on thrown weapons.
  • Corrected an error in treasure tables that gave a possibility of Robes being generated without a prefix effect.
  • Any Potions of Shield of Faith(+5) found in treasure have had their minimum required level reduced to 14.
  • Glancing blows will no longer apply any on hit effects like Flaming, Shocking, Bane etc.
  • Sorcerers now gain double Spell Points from items that increase a character's maximum spell point total. Multi-class Sorcerers get a reduced bonus dependent on how many levels of Sorcerer they have versus their total level. A 5 Fighter/5 Sorcerer would get a +50% bonus. A 4 Bard/ 12 Sorcerer would get a +75% bonus. etc.
  • The healing received from Light Healing Balm now matches the description at 90hp/3 minutes.
  • Paralyzing weapons have new special effects. They will no longer use the same blue glowy bands that are also used by Hold Person.
  • Arrows and Bolts of Chaotic Outsider Slaying and Lawful Outsider Slaying will now slay Outsiders of the appropriate alignment.
  • The bonus from Seeker now also adds to the base damage of the weapon on critical hits (before multiplication). Beware Seeker Heavy Picks.
  • The Shield effect on White Dragonscale armor should now recharge when resting.
  • The Scarab of Absorption and Pale Lavender Ioun Stone no longer absorb beneficial spells.
  • The heal over time effects from the Pouch of Jerky and the Jungle Cloak will now interact correctly. Regrowth suppresses Jerky until the Regrowth effect expires. Then the Jerky healing effect will continue until it also runs out.
  • The Kundarak Delving Boots no longer display an icon in the upper right of the screen. One part of the Freedom of Movement effect was set up incorrectly and had issues with being dispelled and not being re-applied if the character died as well as displaying an alert icon. The boots should function properly now.
  • Ward of Undeath (named shield) will no longer attempt to turn other players into Flametouched iron in PvP battles. The shield itself will now be flametouched iron.
  • Added some variety to Light Pick visual appearances.



NPCs
  • Aulandar Thislecrown in the House of Wizardry, Jorasco city ward now has the title that proves she sells level 7 spell scrolls.
  • Lyannis Cloudwhisperer in Port Stormreach will now respond when spoken to.



PVP



Quests
  • Freshen the Air
    • Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the Matriarch to spawn as an NPC rather than a monster.
  • Gianthold
    • The giant Two stone will now have a chest when defeated.
    • The Orcs have finally returned to their Hunting Party camp outside of the exit to the Orc Lair. Among them, is an Orc responsible for opening the nearby treasure chest.
    • The rare encounter objective to slay Lord Nimbus has been corrected to read Lord Cirrus.
    • The Crucible
      • The optional objectives at the start will now give a small amount of experience.
      • The Test of Intuition will no longer give the same hint twice in any given sequence.
    • Gianthold Tor
      • The hard and elite versions of Nimbus ar'Yorg, the cloud giant champion with the blue dragon, have been fixed so that they will allow the fight to finish properly.
    • NEW – Hobgoblin Lair
      • Adjusted the difficulty of a trap. Yes, that one.
    • Madstone Crater
      • It should no longer be possible to take lava damage through the ground in Madstone Crater.
    • Minotaur Lair
      • The first door lever can now be used repeatedly.
    • NEW – Prison of the Planes
      • It should no longer be possible to get stuck inside the geometry in the Daanvi plane when it spawns in.
      • The prisoners of the planes now have a random assortment of minions each time their planes are activated. Also, you must now wait 30 seconds before you can deactivate a plane once it has been activated.
      • The support monsters in the final encounter are now a bit harder.
    • NEW – Rakshasa Lair
      • It was possible to tinker with a piece of machinery controlling the drawbridges. This machinery is now off-limits to curious adventurers.
    • Stormreaver Raid
      • The spike damage will no longer scale quite as high for Hard/Elite.
      • Players overcharged by the Stormreaver will no longer get a save roll (since there wasn't a save anyway).
    • NEW – Troll Lair
      • Deleted a floating rez shrine that was placed by mistake in the Gianthold Troll dungeon.
  • Gladewatch Outpost
    • You will now be ejected from the quest 20 seconds after failing.
    • Clarified the text to highlight that you fail the quest if ANY invader enters the outpost, not just a kobold invader. This is a text change only, not a functionality change.
  • Menechtarun
    • Calyx Shattermoon will give you the offering of blood item Zawabi seeks even if your inventory is full or you are beyond encumberance limits.
    • NEW – Queen Lailat's Fiendish Firebrand Archers now have the standard boss protections like her Efreeti Elite Guards already do.
    • Zawabi's Revenge
      • It should no longer be possible for monsters to end up on the wrong side of the fire barrier in the hallway leading to the marilith.
  • The Necropolis
    • Jakob and Pok will now check your bank accounts for trinkets. If you have one in the bank they will not give you another one. If you have extra trinkets in the bank they will not be deleted or removed.
    • Tomb of the Shadow King
      • Nsu is no longer permanently invulnerable.
  • Prison of the Mind
    • It should no longer be possible to fall all the way to the ground and walk for miles out in the middle of nowhere.
  • Restless Isles
    • Opu the Elder will now give you his part of the sigil even if your inventory is full or you are encumbered.
    • Warforged Titan
      • The laser crane should work properly again.
  • Spawn of Whisperdoom
    • The optional objectives for the items to pickup are set to 1 again.
  • Stealthy Repossession
    • It is no longer possible to be locked out of the end room that contains the Eye of Khyber.

Known issues for this version include:

  • If you use Vista and add LOTRO to a computer with DDO already installed, the launcher will not be able to patch. There are two workarounds for this:
    • Run DDO in administrator mode AND as an administrator
      • Make sure the account is flagged as an administrator
      • Right click on the DDO icon and select “run as administrator”

      Or
    • Turn of UAC (User Account Control) in Vista
  • In the confusion caused by the shipments of new wands to the shops in Stormreach, Wands of Remove Disease and Remove Blindness have been misplaced. These wands as well as Wands of Neutralize Poison have been found in the warehouse and they will once again be on sale after the 4.2 update.
  • If a rogue attempts to sneak attack with a weapon that does extra damage, such
    as with a flaming or pure good weapon, the extra damage affects the monster
    first. This alerts the monster to the rogue's presence, which prevents the
    sneak attack.
  • It is possible to get gargoyles into a state where they will not leave their defensive mode.
  • Friends List
    • Importing a Friends list with notes will not import the notes until you log off and log back on.
    • If a character on your friends list is online and Anonymous, a connection between your friends list and that Anonymous character will not be made for the duration of your session. The Anonymous character can toggle off Anonymous, and their listing on your friends list will not update until one of you logs off (and they are non anonymous).
  • Dragonmarks
    • Human Only – all dragonmarks, not just the line you've chosen, will be visible in the feat selection window when you level up. You will not be able to obtain these other lines – you can only have one dragonmark.
    • Some tooltips are missing important information including number of uses per rest, duration etc.
  • Enhancements
    • Follower of Vulkoor is not working properly for Drow Paladins (it is working properly for Drow Clerics). Drow Paladins will not get their +1 bonus to attacks with Shortswords. (Also – the Drow Long Knives mentioned in the tooltip aren't in the game).
    • Undying Call (Level 9, Elven Paladin) is currently not working. The Level 6 version available to Clerics is functioning properly.
    • Way of the Mechanic - If you try to use the repair over time effect on a dead warforged, the effect does not get applied and you lose a charge of the ability and your skill boost.
    • Iron Companions cannot currently be repaired using Repair Wounds spells. The Way of the Mechanic ability functions on them, however.
    • The various enhancements that summon creatures (Iron/Steel/Mithral Companion and Vulkoor’s Avatar) can only be summoned in dungeons. Attempting to summon them elsewhere (such as the market) will trigger their cooldown without summoning a creature.


[ Discuss This Article ]

Tuesday May 22 2007
Network News WAR Stratics: Screenshot ContestReturn to TopSubmit News!Visit Our Forums
  Network News - 5:38 AM PDT | Posted By: Joshua_Rowan
 
Some Stratics Network News to share! News from our WAR Stratics site:
Since we've got a long time to search the web for any and every drop of WAR related news and information, we here at WAR Stratics would have some fun with the time that we have and so we present our:

May Screenshot Caption Contest!

It's super easy to take part!

Go look at the screenshot! Then head over to this thread and enter what you think is the perfect caption! Please only one caption per post! At the end of two weeks, our staff will pick 10 entries and everyone will get to vote on the winner.

The prizes? An XL WAAAAAGH T-shirt, a Warhammer Calander (2007) and the Warhammer book "Giantslayer" by William King! (As soon as the digital camera un-dies there'll be pictures!)

If you're not a registered user for our forums, signing up is free! So why not enter today!

As always the people up top tell me I must link to the rules. The big one to remember is that we'll only accept one final entry per person!

Enter today, and good luck everyone!!


[ Visit Our Forums ]

Monday May 21 2007
General News First Look: Update 4.1: Mark of the DragonReturn to TopSubmit News!Discuss This Article
  General News - 5:46 AM PDT | Posted By: Joshua_Rowan
 
A First Look at Mark of the Dragon:
Dragonmarks Arrive in Stormreach

Three thousand years ago the first dragonmarks appeared in the elven kingdom of Aerenal. Strange patterns on the skin, more an elaborate birthmark than a tattoo, they gave their bearers magical abilities that have been a source of power and conflict for centuries. Nobody knows the origins of dragonmarks or when and why they appear, yet some of the citizens of Stormreach have recently begun to manifest these strange and powerful markings.

To read the complete article on dragonmarks, including a list of available dragonmarks and how to unlock them, please click here.

More Solo Quests

Four more quests can now be played on Solo mode!
  • Freshen the Air
  • The Swiped Signet
  • Purge the Heretics
  • Caged Trolls

General
  • NEW – Fixed an issue where players are seeing a message that says "Cleaning up old connections" indefinitely. The same message may still happen, but the player will be able to log in again normally within 10 minutes.
  • Resurrection Shrines now function in all ways like the Raise Dead spell. They will no longer drain the mana of a spellcaster that uses them, and restores people to life at 10% hit points rather than at 1 hit point. This is meant to address an imbalance between the effects of death for casters versus non-casters.
  • The Coin Lords have used a portion of their increased income from the Auction House to upgrade the elementals powering the teleporters in Stormreach. Each of the teleporters in the various House wards of the city now allow anyone using them to select their destination from any of the other teleporter locations in Stormreach.
  • NEW – Damage caused by a reduction in a character's Constitution score will now reduce the character's hitpoints directly. This damage is not applied to Temporary Hitpoints gained from such spells as False Life and Aid. Care should be taken when removing +Constitution items while at low hitpoint totals.
  • Once upon a time there was a mighty warrior who had a love pure and true. But then his beloved disappeared and the mighty warrior flew into a rage. Where had the object of his passion gone? The warrior embarked upon a heroic quest to find his lost love. For an entire year the warrior searched without any sign of his beloved. And then one day…..could it be? Yet this was a different sort of love – the mighty warrior's beloved had changed, but it was his love still, and a great happiness filled the dazed warrior.
  • You can now /point at things that are farther away than 30 meters.

UI Improvements
  • The bold lock icon for locking your inventory has returned!
  • Players should once again be able to see the Who panel when opening it for the second time.
  • Talking to NPC’s while in t-mode will once again bring up the mouse cursor.
  • The resistance labels in the character sheet have been replaced with icons. This fixes a bug in which the character sheet was not able to display all resistances.
  • Enhancements
    • Previously, if you attempted to train your enhancements immediately after training a new level, some enhancements would show up as unavailable. These enhancements will now be available immediately.
    • When you hit the "show unavailable" button, branches which are expanded will now show the unavailable items without requiring you to close and re-open the branch.
    • The Enhancement Training panel now has undo and redo buttons. In addition, hovering over the buttons will display what hitting the button will do. For example, if you removed a benefit that took 7 other enhancements with it, you can hover over the "undo" button to see which 7 enhancements were removed and hit the undo button to quickly put them back in your list.
  • You can no longer enter dirty words in your LFM note. Bad players! No cookie for you! PS: Anyone who tries putting a naughty word into their LFM note after reading this will get a /pseudopod smack.
  • Corrected display issue with floating damage numbers for Sneak Attacks when base weapon damage does not overcome monster's Damage Reduction.
  • Portal Screens for House Jorasco, House Kundarak, House Phairlan, House Denieth, the Market, and the Harbor have been updated to reflect the environment of each ward.
  • NEW – Skills that you have put skill points into should no longer show up as n/a on the advancement summary page.
  • NEW – Fixed a rare condition where sometimes you would get an error message stating your auction was cancelled when you weren't actually doing any auctioning.
  • NEW – If you attempt to use the /retell or /reply command before you have sent a tell or received a tell respectively, they will no longer be auto-replaced with /tell. This should prevent accidents like "/tell hey you!" sending "Hey" the message "you!"
  • The tabs in the bank have new artwork.
  • The alert icon for Beholder telekinesis now displays appropriately.
  • The Hold Monster icon has been changed to represent a troll since trolls can only be held with Hold Monster. Previously the icon featured a hobgoblin which can be held with either Hold Monster or Hold Person.

Monsters
  • We have made additional adjustments to some monster AI. For example:
    • Monsters are now slightly less oblivious when their flesh is slowly melting away as they stand in poison gas clouds.
    • Monsters tend to react more often when their friends mysteriously die.
    • NEW – Creatures that prefer range will no longer run away from players indefinitely.
    • NEW – Some monsters that had not been scaling properly with dungeon difficulty level will now scale properly.
    • And more!
  • NEW – Summoned monsters should no longer be affected by your lingering effects if they are summoned into them. Quest monsters that are instantly killed by lingering effects should now properly trigger events that advance quests.
  • NEW – Charmed and summoned monsters should no longer get stuck after defeating an opponent.
  • NEW –Charmed monsters should no longer attempt to return to their home point while charmed.
  • NEW – Hobgoblins and Orcs are now properly affected by effects that increase or reduce their movement, such as Slow, Haste, or Solid Fog.
  • NEW – The Cloven-Jaw Scout hobgoblins are now using their hide skill properly. They were not hiding and now they are.
  • You can now click on Hellcats.
  • Iron Defender variants that possess various elemental breath weapons now actually deal damage with those breath weapons again.
  • Creatures that regenerate (such as trolls) will no longer produce holy death effects unless actually killed by a holy, light, or positive energy effect.
  • Wolves and other canines no longer possess an AOE trip ability. Their trip attacks have been tied directly to their bite attacks, and must hit before application. (Some canines, especially those of low CR, may only trip on critical hits.)
  • NEW – Patrolling wolves no longer attempt to scratch at fleas while moving.
  • The giant skeletons in Gianthold Tor no longer have a chance to display an empty collectible shiny when they die. They are not supposed to drop collectibles.

Combat
  • Spurred by the continued development of the Monk, it has become time to address Evasion in medium and heavy armor. From now on the Rogue class ability Evasion will only function in light or no armor, when not helpless, and when not heavily encumbered. We are intentionally deviating from the Player’s Handbook in permitting Evasion while moderately encumbered as a character in DDO cannot say to their DM: "I drop my pack full of treasure on the ground, I’ll pick it back up later."
  • NEW – You can no longer chain rage and avoid exhaustion together.
  • NEW – You can no longer evade while helpless.
  • NEW – Fixed a minor glitch in skill values refreshing related to changing armor while heavily encumbered.
  • Lay on hands and remove disease now pay on execution. If you get your animation interrupted, you don't lose your activation cost.

Spells
  • NEW – All spells that produce a lingering effect have had their cooldowns dropped to twice the cooldown of a non-lingering spell.
  • NEW – Dimension Door's cooldown has been dropped from five minutes to one minute for non-Sorcerers. Sorcerers retain their old 30 second cooldown.
  • Cure Critical Wounds is now a Spontaneous Cast spell like the rest of the Cure Wounds spells. This means that Cure Critical Wounds is always memorized in the Cleric's Spell book and may not be removed.
  • NEW – The temporary hit points gained from casting Aid and Mass Aid will no longer stack with each other.
  • NEW – The Sorcerer spells Magic Circle Against Evil and Mass Fox's Cunning no longer share the same cooldown.
  • Wizards are now able to inscribe Scrolls of Banishment to add the spell to their known spells list.
  • The Knock spell can now be learned by Wizards when training.
  • Other players will now be able to see your Niac's Cold Ray.
  • Resurrection effects will no longer claim incorrectly that you can have "Self" as a target.

Skills, Feats, & Abilities
  • Warforged can now freely respec their body feats. Fred's tentacles are mighty indeed!
  • Cleave and Great Cleave no longer check to see if you are facing your currently selected target (after all, you may have other enemies within the covered attack arc).
  • Inspire Courage now correctly upgrades at level 14.
  • NEW – A problem with improved precise shot using autoattack has been fixed.

Enhancements
  • General
    • Iron Companion
      • Cost: 2 Action Points
      • Requires: Any one of the following: Rogue Way of the Mechanic 1, Warforged Skill Repair 2, Human Skill Repair 2, Fighter Skill Repair 2, Wizard Skill Repair 2, Self Sufficient (feat), Lesser Dragonmark of Making (feat), or Skill Focus: Repair (feat)
      • Benefit: You have a loyal iron defender as a pet, and can summon it once per day to aid you for five minutes.
    • Steel Companion
      • Cost: 2 Action Points
      • Requires: Iron Companion, Level 4 Character, 10 Action Points Spent
      • Benefit: You have a loyal steel defender as a pet, and can summon it once per day to aid you for five minutes.
    • Mithral Companion
      • Cost: 2 Action Points
      • Requires: Steel Companion, Level 8 Character, 26 Action Points Spent
      • Benefit: You have a loyal mithral defender as a pet, and can summon it once per day to aid you for five minutes.
  • Paladin
    • Divine Righteousness I
      • Cost: 2 Action Points
      • Requires: Level 6 Paladin, 18 Action Points spent.
      • Benefit: Activate this ability to double the hate generated by your melee attacks and spells for 20 seconds, making monsters more likely to attack you. Consumes a use of turn undead for the day.
  • Rogue
    Rogue Specialties: You may only possess one class specialty at a time.
    • Way of the Mechanic I
      • Cost: 4 Action Points
      • Requires: Level 6 Rogue, 16 Action Points spent. Rogue Disable Device II, Rogue Open Lock II, Rogue Trap Sense I, Rogue Skill Boost II, any Rogue <element> Trap Lore I.
      • Benefit: +2 bonus to Disable Device, Open Lock, Repair, Spot, and Search skills. Activate to apply a repair over time effect to a targetted friendly Warforged or Construct. Consumes one use of Rogue Skill Boost for the day.
    • Way of the Thief-Acrobat I
      • Cost: 4 Action Points
      • Requires: Level 6 Rogue, 16 Action Points spent. Rogue Balance II, Rogue Tumble II, Rogue Faster Sneaking I, Rogue Haste Boost II, Rogue Dexterity I.
      • Benefit: +2 bonus to Balance, Jump, and Tumble skills and 2 extra uses of Uncanny Dodge per day. Activate to gain a +10 bonus to Balance, Jump and Tumble, a 25% Enhancement bonus to movement speed, and a +4 bonus to Dexterity for 20 seconds. Consumes one use of Rogue Haste Boost for the day.
    • Way of the Assassin I
      • Cost: 4 Action Points
      • Requires: Level 6 Rogue, 16 Action Points spent. Rogue Hide II, Rogue Move Silently II, Rogue Sneak Attack Accuracy I, Rogue Sneak Attack Training I, Rogue Subtle Backstabber I, Rogue Damage Boost II.
      • Benefit: +2 bonus to Bluff, Hide, and Move Silently skills and a +1 bonus to Fortitude saves versus Poison. Activate to gain a +2 bonus to hit when making sneak attacks, a +20 bonus to confirm critical hits, and a 25% chance to apply a mind affecting poison with each sneak attack, for 20 seconds. Consumes one use of Rogue Damage Boost for the day.
  • Warforged
    • Warforged Power Attack I
      • Cost: 1 Action Point.
      • Prereqs: Warforged, Level 4, 12 Action Points spent.
      • Benefit: Power Attack does additional 1 bonus damage and -1 to hit. Stacks with the Barbarian Power Attack enhancement line.
    • Warforged Power Attack II
      • Cost: 2 Action Point.
      • Prereqs: Warforged, Level 9, 32 Action Points spent.
      • Benefit: Power Attack does additional 1 bonus damage and -1 to hit. Stacks with the Barbarian Power Attack enhancement line.
    • Warforged Power Attack III
      • Cost: 3 Action Point.
      • Prereqs: Warforged, Level 14, 52 Action Points spent.
      • Benefit: Power Attack does additional 1 bonus damage and -1 to hit. Stacks with the Barbarian Power Attack enhancement line.
  • Paladins and Clerics now have faith based enhancements available to them. Only one line of faith based enhancements can be taken at a time. (Please note: Cooldowns are still subject to change).
    • Follower of the Silver Flame
      • Prereqs: Cleric 1 or Paladin 1
      • Cost: 2 Action Points
      • You are one of the Purified, a true believer in the Silver Flame. Burn the corruption and taint of evil from all Eberron. Grants a +1 bonus to hit with longbows, the favored weapon of the clergy of the Silver Flame.
    • Follower of the Sovereign Host
      • Prereqs: Cleric 1 or Paladin 1
      • Cost: 2 Action Points
      • You are a Vassal of the Sovereign Host, a true believer in the Doctrine of Universal Sovereignty. As is the world, so are the gods. As are the gods, so is the world. Grants a +1 bonus to hit with longswords, the favored weapon of the clergy of the Sovereign Host.
    • Follower of the Undying Court
      • Prereqs: Cleric 1 or Paladin 1, High Elf only
      • Cost: 2 Action Points
      • You are guided by the wisdom of the deathless of Aerenal, and are a true believer in the ways of the Undying Court. Existence is a spiritual journey requiring far longer than a single lifetime. Only the Undying can ever truly learn what great wonders lie at its end. Grants a +1 bonus to hit with scimitars, the favored weapon of the clergy of the Undying Court.
    • Follower of the Lord of Blades
      • Prereqs: Cleric 1 or Paladin 1, Warforged only
      • Cost: 2 Action Points
      • You are a Blade, a true believer in the cult of the Lord of Blades. Warforged were made to rule Eberron, the other races are weak. Grants a +1 bonus to hit with greatswords, the favored weapon of the cultists of the Lord of Blades.
    • Follower of Vulkoor
      • Prereqs: Cleric 1 or Paladin 1, Drow Elf only
      • Cost: 2 Action Points
      • You are one of Vulkoor's chosen, a worshiper of the scorpion god of Xen'drik. Followers of Vulkoor the Hunter pay homage by their actions, as well as through lengthy recitations of the deeds of the god and the heroes who follow him. Grants a +1 bonus to hit with shortswords.
    • Silver Flame Exorcism
      • Prereqs: Cleric 6 or Paladin 9, Follower of the Silver Flame, 16 (Cleric) or 28 (Paladin) Action Points Spent
      • Cost: 4 Action Points
      • You are a devoted follower of the Silver Flame, and your faith has been rewarded. Activate this ability to attempt to exorcise an extraplanar creature, which is entirely consumed in holy fire on a failed Will save or savagely burned by the light of the Silver Flame partially resisted by a Fortitude save. Cooldown: 20 minutes.
    • Unyielding Sovereignty
      • Prereqs: Cleric 6 or Paladin 9, Follower of the Sovereign Host, 16 (Cleric) or 28 (Paladin) Action Points Spent
      • Cost: 4 Action Points
      • You are a devoted follower of the Sovereign Host, and your faith has been rewarded. Activate this ability to fully heal hit point damage done to yourself or a targetted ally, remove ability damage, and the conditions blinded, confused, dazed, dazzled, deafened, diseased, exhausted, fatigued, feebleminded, insanity, nauseated, and poisoned. Cooldown: 20 minutes.
    • Undying Call
      • Prereqs: Cleric 6 or Paladin 9, Follower of the Undying Court, 16 (Cleric) or 28 (Paladin) Action Points Spent
      • Cost: 4 Action Points
      • You are a devoted follower of the Undying Court, and your faith has been rewarded. Activate this ability to lead a dead ally's spirit back to this world, acting as a True Resurrection on high elven spirits or a Raise Dead for others. Cooldown: 20 minutes.
    • Bladesworn Transformation
      • Prereqs: Cleric 6 or Paladin 9, Follower of the Lord of Blades, 16 (Cleric) or 28 (Paladin) Action Points Spent
      • Cost: 4 Action Points
      • You are a devoted follower of the Lord of Blades, and your faith has been rewarded. Activate this ability to become a juggernaut of destruction for 60 seconds. (You have a +4 profane bonus to Strength, a +4 natural armor bonus to AC, a +4 profane bonus on damage rolls, and proficiency in all simple and martial weapons. Your base attack bonus equals your character level. You have lost your spellcasting ability. You have immunity to critical hits and sneak attacks, but cannot be healed by healing spells.) Cooldown: 20 minutes.
    • Vulkoor's Avatar
      • Prereqs: Cleric 6 or Paladin 9, Follower of Vulkoor, 16 (Cleric) or 28 (Paladin) Action Points Spent
      • Cost: 4 Action Points
      • You are a devoted follower of Vulkoor the Hunter, and your faith has been rewarded. Activate this ability to ask Vulkoor to send one of his servants to destroy your enemies. (Summons a Drow Scorpion to crush your enemies.) Cooldown: 20 minutes.
  • NEW – The following active enhancements can now be activated while swimming:
    • All Action Boosts
    • Halfling Heroic Companion
    • Human Versatility
    • Warforged Power Attack
    • Barbarian Power Attack
    • Cleric Faith: Unyielding Sovereignty
    • Cleric Faith: Undying Call
    • Cleric Faith: Bladesworn Transformation
    • Paladin Divine Righteousness
    • Paladin Faith: Unyielding Sovereignty
    • Paladin Faith: Undying Call
    • Paladin Faith: Bladesworn Transformation
    • Paladin Rally
    • Rogue Specialty: Way of the Assassin
    • Rogue Specialty: Way of the Mechanic
    • Rogue Specialty: Way of the Thief-Acrobat

Items
  • When you loot chests you can now change who the loot is reserved for to anyone currently in your party. The new menu contains data on player's names and primary class, so if you see the perfect dagger for a rogue, there's no confusion about who the rogue in the party is. Please note: items which are bind on equip cannot have their reservation changed.
  • UPDATED – Many, many new wands are now available in treasure. Wands received as quest rewards are now separated by arcane and divine spells.
  • UPDATED – Items can now be designated as "exclusive." This means that you can only have one of an exclusive item in your backpack or equipped at a time. You can still place multiple exclusive items in your bank, mail, trade, and sell exclusive items (as long as they are not bound). Exclusive item A will have no effect on how many copies of Exclusive item B you can own. Items that now are considered Exclusive
    • Ring of Spell Storing.
    • Cursed phylactery of Raiyum the Eternal
    • Drow-Blessed Blood of a fiendish gnoll
    • Orb of Djinn
    • Ceremonial Blade (Abandoned Keep Arena)
  • NEW – Item effects that give bonuses to Level 7 spells are now available in the random treasure generation system.
  • NEW – Ghost Touch and Vorpal effect now functions correctly on thrown weapons.
  • NEW – Corrected an error in treasure tables that gave a possibility of Robes being generated without a prefix effect.
  • NEW – Any Potions of Shield of Faith(+5) found in treasure have had their minimum required level reduced to 14.
  • NEW – Glancing blows will no longer apply any on hit effects like Flaming, Shocking, Bane etc.
  • NEW – Sorcerers now gain double Spell Points from items that increase a character's maximum spell point total. Multi-class Sorcerers get a reduced bonus dependent on how many levels of Sorcerer they have versus their total level. A 5 Fighter/5 Sorcerer would get a +50% bonus. A 4 Bard/ 12 Sorcerer would get a +75% bonus. etc.
  • NEW – The healing received from Light Healing Balm now matches the description at 90hp/3 minutes.
  • NEW – Paralyzing weapons have new special effects. They will no longer use the same blue glowy bands that are also used by Hold Person.
  • Arrows and Bolts of Chaotic Outsider Slaying and Lawful Outsider Slaying will now slay Outsiders of the appropriate alignment.
  • The bonus from Seeker now also adds to the base damage of the weapon on critical hits (before multiplication). Beware Seeker Heavy Picks.
  • NEW – The Shield effect on White Dragonscale armor should now recharge when resting.
  • NEW – The Scarab of Absorption and Pale Lavender Ioun Stone no longer absorb beneficial spells.
  • NEW – The heal over time effects from the Pouch of Jerky and the Jungle Cloak will now interact correctly. Regrowth suppresses Jerky until the Regrowth effect expires. Then the Jerky healing effect will continue until it also runs out.
  • NEW – The Kundarak Delving Boots no longer display an icon in the upper right of the screen. One part of the Freedom of Movement effect was set up incorrectly and had issues with being dispelled and not being re-applied if the character died as well as displaying an alert icon. The boots should function properly now.
  • NEW – Ward of Undeath (named shield) will no longer attempt to turn other players into Flametouched iron in PvP battles. The shield itself will now be flametouched iron.
  • NEW – Added some variety to Light Pick visual appearances.

NPCs
  • Aulandar Thislecrown in the House of Wizardry, Jorasco city ward now has the title that proves she sells level 7 spell scrolls.
  • NEW – Lyannis Cloudwhisperer in Port Stormreach will now respond when spoken to.

PVP
Quests
  • NEW – Freshen the Air
    • Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the Matriarch to spawn as an NPC rather than a monster.
  • Gianthold
    • NEW – The giant Two stone will now have a chest when defeated.
    • NEW – The Orcs have finally returned to their Hunting Party camp outside of the exit to the Orc Lair. Among them, is an Orc responsible for opening the nearby treasure chest.
    • NEW – The rare encounter objective to slay Lord Nimbus has been corrected to read Lord Cirrus.
    • NEW – The Crucible
      • The optional objectives at the start will now give a small amount of experience.
      • The Test of Intuition will no longer give the same hint twice in any given sequence.
    • NEW – Gianthold Tor
      • The hard and elite versions of Nimbus ar'Yorg, the cloud giant champion with the blue dragon, have been fixed so that they will allow the fight to finish properly.
    • NEW – Madstone Crater
      • It should no longer be possible to take lava damage through the ground in Madstone Crater.
    • NEW – Minotaur Lair
      • The first door lever can now be used repeatedly.
    • Stormreaver Raid
      • The spike damage will no longer scale quite as high for Hard/Elite.
      • Players overcharged by the Stormreaver will no longer get a save roll (since there wasn't a save anyway).
  • NEW – Gladewatch Outpost
    • You will now be ejected from the quest 20 seconds after failing.
    • Clarified the text to highlight that you fail the quest if ANY invader enters the outpost, not just a kobold invader. This is a text change only, not a functionality change.
  • NEW – Menechtarun
    • Calyx Shattermoon will give you the offering of blood item Zawabi seeks even if your inventory is full or you are beyond encumberance limits.
    • Zawabi's Revenge
      • It should no longer be possible for monsters to end up on the wrong side of the fire barrier in the hallway leading to the marilith.
  • NEW – The Necropolis
    • Jakob and Pok will now check your bank accounts for trinkets. If you have one in the bank they will not give you another one. If you have extra trinkets in the bank they will not be deleted or removed.
    • NEW – Tomb of the Shadow King
      • Nsu is no longer permanently invulnerable.
  • NEW – Prison of the Mind
    • It should no longer be possible to fall all the way to the ground and walk for miles out in the middle of nowhere.
  • NEW – Restless Isles
    • Opu the Elder will now give you his part of the sigil even if your inventory is full or you are encumbered.
    • NEW – Warforged Titan
      • The crane should work properly again.
  • NEW – Spawn of Whisperdoom
    • The optional objectives for the items to pickup are set to 1 again.
  • NEW – Stealthy Repossession
    • It is no longer possible to be locked out of the end room that contains the Eye of Khyber.

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General News DDO Developer Chat with CodeMastersReturn to TopSubmit News!Visit Our Forums
  General News - 3:50 AM PDT | Posted By: Joshua_Rowan
 
Recently, Codemasters invited our North American players to a Dev Chat hosted by Darkmyst. Here's a snippet:
[Ryan] Are there any plans to break apart the clothing and jewelry sections of the AH to make perusing those goods a bit easier?

[Nereid_DDO] We agree that the classifications in the Auction House are confusing, and we definitely have plans to make the search interface a lot clearer and easier to use. I think we're currently shooting for the end of the summer or early fall.

[Ryan] Why did you make quests like grinding for relics? 60 is way to much for roleplaying. You get tired of playing 20 times same quest again and again.

[JWBarry_DDO] One of the things we wanted to improve upon with module 4 was the accessibility of the dungeons and the content. We wanted to give permanent access to the dragon dungeon and the stormreaver raid. After that decision we looked at how much it cost to gain access in the previous modules, and determined that in order to have a similar cost, we needed a higher up front cost.

[JWBarry_DDO] Looking at the relics, the goal was to have some repitition on the dungeons on the landscape, but if I remember the numbers correctly, you shouldn't have to do allt he dungeons 20 times apiece, but closer to a half dozen.

Make sure to check out the Entire Transcript on DDO.com for all the details.

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General News IN DEVELOPMENT: Dragonmarks in EberronReturn to TopSubmit News!Discuss This Article
  General News - 3:46 AM PDT | Posted By: Joshua_Rowan
 
Samera, DDO Community Relations Manager, recently posted about the upcoming changes to DDO in regard to Dragonmarks - Check it out:
In Development: Dragonmarks in Eberron

Three thousand years ago the first dragonmarks appeared in the elven kingdom of Aerenal. Strange patterns on the skin, more an elaborate birthmark than a tattoo, they gave their bearers magical abilities that have been a source of power and conflict for centuries.

The first two dragonmarks, the Mark of Shadow and the Mark of Death, appeared on the elven bards known as phiarlans and the necromancers of House Vol. As the two houses grew in power, House Vol began to experiment with the blending of elven and dragon blood. This was seen as an abomination by both races, and the decision was made to destroy the Mark of Death. Every blood member of the house was brutally slaughtered, and the Mark of Death has not been seen since.

Through the centuries these marks appeared in other races and bloodlines – the Marks of Hospitality and Healing on the halflings of the Talenta Plains, the Mark of Scribing on the gnomes of Zilargo, the Marks of Making, Sentinel, Passage, and Handling on the humans of Galifar, the Mark of Warding on the dwarves of the Mror Holds, as well as the Marks of Storm and Detection on Half Elves and Mark of Finding on the humans and half-orcs of the Shadow Marches.

The twelve dragonmarked bloodlines formed thirteen great houses, where the power of their marks is the source of economic and political power across Khorvaire and into Xen’drik. A member of any such house is beholden to no king, and it is these marks that allow for such wonders as the lightning rails, airships, and even warforged.

The dragons of Argonnessen recognize dragonmarks as part of the Draconic Prophecy, and study their meaning even as they resent their appearance on the so-called “lesser races.” It has been rumored that in their study they have found a way to quickly and accurately check the bloodline of a lesser race against the prophecy and that of the great houses…

Dragonmarks in Dungeons & Dragons Online

Dragonmarks are feats that come in three tiers of power, Least, Lesser, and Greater. These are restricted by race and neither Drow nor Warforged can be dragonmarked.

Least Dragonmarks grant a (passive) +2 bonus on a single associated skill and the ability to use a single spell-like ability three times per day. When this feat is purchased, a dragonmark will appear on the player’s skin (the mark can be removed from your character’s face by unchecking the relevant box in the Options Menu). The caster level for your dragonmark is equal to your character level, and the saving throw DC is 10 + the level of the spell + your Charisma modifier. Once a least dragonmark is chosen, a player can no longer purchase any other least dragonmarks. The player must unlock the ability to purchase a dragonmark, but once unlocked, any character of any race (except Drow or Warforged) on that account of any level can purchase a dragonmark.

Lesser Dragonmarks can only be purchased if the player already has a Least Dragonmark and is at least 6 th level. This bestows a second spell-like ability twice per day and gives you one extra use/day of your Least Dragonmark.

Greater Dragonmarks can only be purchased if the player already has a Lesser Dragonmark and is at lest 9 th level. This bestows a third spell-like ability once per day and gives you one extra use/day of your Least and Lesser Dragonmarks.

How do I unlock my Dragonmark?

Dragonmarks are unlocked by doing a quest for Lockania who can be found in the Hall of the Mark in the Harbor. Additionally, Lockania recognizes that many of Stormreach’s finest adventurers are quite advanced in their adventuring years. She also considers herself a friend of drow and warforged, whose blood is bereft of the mark. As such, she has formed a close relationship with the Mindflayer Fred in House Phiarlan. The eater of brains rewards any passers of Lockania’s test with a one time, single feat, free respec. Those incapable of manifesting marks may change out one of their feats, while those whose bloodlines are written in prophecy may choose to manifest their dragonmark.

Available Dragonmark Feats

Halfling – Mark of Healing – House Jorasco

  • Least Dragonmark of Healing
    • Skill Bonus: Heal
    • Spell-like ability: Cure Light Wounds
  • Lesser Dragonmark of Healing
    • Spell-like ability: Cure Serious Wounds
  • Greater Dragonmark of Healing
    • Spell-like ability: Heal
Human – Mark of Making – House Cannith
  • Least Dragonmark of Making
    • Skill Bonus: Repair
    • Spell-like ability: Repair Light Damage
  • Lesser Dragonmark of Making
    • Spell-like ability: Repair Serious Damage
  • Greater Dragonmark of Making
    • Spell-like ability: Reconstruct
Human – Mark of Sentinel – House Deneith
  • Least Dragonmark of Sentinel
    • Skill Bonus: Intimidate
    • Spell-like ability: Shield of Faith
  • Lesser Dragonmark of Sentinel
    • Spell-like ability: Protection from Energy
  • Greater Dragonmark of Sentinel
    • Spell-like ability: Globe of Invulnerability
Human – Mark of Passage – House Orien
  • Least Dragonmark of Passage
    • Skill Bonus: Balance
    • Spell-like ability: Expeditious Retreat
  • Lesser Dragonmark of Passage
    • Spell-like ability: Dimension Door
  • Greater Dragonmark of Passage
    • Spell-like ability: Teleport
Elf – Mark of Shadow – Houses Phiarlan and Thuranni
  • Least Dragonmark of Shadow
    • Skill Bonus: Hide
    • Spell-like ability: Invisibility
  • Lesser Dragonmark of Shadow
    • Spell-like ability: Displacement
  • Greater Dragonmark of Shadow
    • Spell-like ability: Shadow Walk
Dwarf – Mark of Warding – House Kundarak
  • Least Dragonmark of Warding
    • Skill Bonus: Search
    • Spell-like ability: Fire Trap
  • Lesser Dragonmark of Warding
    • Spell-like ability: Glyph of Warding
  • Greater Dragonmark of Warding
    • Spell-like ability: Greater Glyph of Warding

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Community News Eladrin featured interview on DDOCASTReturn to TopSubmit News!Visit Our Forums
  Community News - 3:27 AM PDT | Posted By: Joshua_Rowan
 
Catching up on some of the Community News that you all should definitely check out:
Eladrin featured interview on DDOCAST!
[14-May-2007]

DDO Dev, Eladrin talks about the recent spell changes in the latest podcast from DDOCAST. Listen to the podcast by clicking here.


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Network News HoC Developer Chat for EQOA - May 22Return to TopSubmit News!Visit Our Forums
  Network News - 3:16 AM PDT | Posted By: Joshua_Rowan
 
Another House of Commons announcement, this one for tomorrow night:

Please join us on Tuesday, May 22, 2007, for a House of Commons with the developers of EverQuest Online Adventures at 5:00 PM Pacific / 8:00 PM Eastern in the #StraticsHoC channel on Stratics IRC.

You can connect to one of our IRC servers through the use of your favorite IRC client or you can visit our new Downloads section to choose a suitable client. Connect to irc.stratics.com port 6668 or whichever server is closest to you:

  • stratics.frws.com port 6668, USA - Colorado
  • irc.gamers-irc.org port 6668, USA - Colorado
  • irc.glowfish.de port 6668, EU - Germany
  • stratics.afraidyet.net 6668, USA - Atlanta

You may also connect through our handy Java link which may be found right here. You must have Java installed to use this which can be downloaded from the Java homepage.

We will be discussing general topics with the developers, and general chat will be in our IRC channel #everquest before, during, and after the House of Commons.

We hope to see you there!


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Network News WAR Stratics Exclusive: Richard Duffek InterviewReturn to TopSubmit News!Visit Our Forums
  Network News - 3:10 AM PDT | Posted By: Joshua_Rowan
 
An exclusive from our WAR Stratics site:
It is the distinct honor of WAR Stratics to present our first interview with community manager Richard Duffek!
WAR Stratics: I'd be remiss if I didn't ask, even though I know you can't answer! Anything new regarding beta you can tell us? When it might move into the next phase, how many players total might be lucky enough to get in?

Richard: Look at it this way, every day that passes is a day I get asked this question eleventy billion times, and I never answer it, other than that every one of those days is one day closer to the start of beta. ;)

The interview is an exciting look at the WAR Herald and our wonderful community!

Head on over to http://boards.stratics.com/php-bin/stratics/ubbthreads.php?Cat=28" target="blank">our forums and chat about the interview, and give your feedback!


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Network News HoC Developer Chat with Blizzard TONIGHT (May 21)Return to TopSubmit News!Visit Our Forums
  Network News - 3:06 AM PDT | Posted By: Joshua_Rowan
 
More House of Commons news for all of you to check out:

 

 

n May 21, 2007 join WoW Stratics for a House of Commons with the Developers of World of Warcraft at 3 PM Pacific / 6 PM Eastern / 11 PM GMT in the #StraticsHoC channel on Stratics IRC.

You can connect to one of our IRC servers through the use of your favorite IRC client or you can visit our Downloads section to choose a suitable client. Connect to irc.stratics.com port 6668 or whichever server is closest to you.

  • stratics.frws.com - USA
  • irc.stratics.com - USA
  • irc.gamers-irc.org - USA
  • us.irc.stratics.com - USA
  • irc.us.glowfish.de - USA
  • irc.glowfish.de - Germany
Java Clients:

You may also connect through our handy Java link which may be found right here. You must have Java installed to use this which can be downloaded from the Java homepage.

Please note: Since our previous chat was rescheduled, we will have [QT]'s up and running to collect more of your questions. Questions for this HoC can only be submitted before the chat. No questions will be taken during the chat. We will have [QT]'s available 48 hours before the HoC chat is scheduled to start. You can submit your questions at that time to any user with a [QT] in front of their name. [QT]'s are Question Takers who also have operator status in the #StraticsHoC channel.  To submit your questions just type the following command:  /msg [QT]Bot# Question here. All questions will be recorded automatically, in order to ensure this please submit one question per line.

Open chat will be available for discussing World of Warcraft in our IRC channel #worldofwarcraft before, during, and after the chat.

** ADDED FEATURE **

Thanks to Ideazon, we will be giving away three Zboards with The Burning Crusade Keysets as well as ten new FragMats,which is a new mouse pad from Ideazon.

At the conclusion of the the HoC chat we will put up two trivia questions . The trivia questions will be announced by Brannoc and any entries must also be sent ONLY to Brannoc via pm. The first three people to correctly answer the both trivia questions will receive a Zboad, TBC key set as well a FragMat mouse pad. The next seven people to correctly answer just the second trivia question correctly will receive an Ancient Enemies or Eternal Conflict FragMat mouse pad. Please do not resubmit your questions, only one entry per person is allowed. Any duplicate entries will disqualify you.

Please be advised, if you enter the trivia contest you will have to supply a valid email address, physical address and a phone number to receive your prize.

Good luck everyone and we hope to see you there!

 


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Thursday May 10 2007
General News DDO UPDATE: Module 4.1 Live on Risia now! Return to TopSubmit News!Discuss This Article
  General News - 2:24 PM PDT | Posted By: Joshua_Rowan
 
From DDO.com:
DDO UPDATE: Module 4.1 Live on Risia now!

As of today we have uploaded an early version of Update 4.1 to preview!

Highlights of this update include:

  • Dragonmarks

  • Spell/Spell Point revamp

  • The evasion change

  • New Enhancements

  • Updated friendslist

  • New content
To hear an in-depth interview on some of these changes be sure to tune in to this Saturday's DDOCast.

( http://www.cyberears.com/index.php/Show/audio/5042 )


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General News Monster Profile: ORCSReturn to TopSubmit News!Discuss This Article
  General News - 2:02 PM PDT | Posted By: Joshua_Rowan
 
The latest Monster Profile has been posted to the DDO.com website, this time focusing on the infamous ORC:
Monster Profile: Orcs
[02-May-2007]

High on a balcony, above rolling green hills and the meager homes of the village below, Lundiel stood, leaning forward on the stone railing, overlooking the city she so fiercely adored. The sun shone in her long hair as a playful wind whipped it around her face. Her hair was arranged intricately into hundreds of tiny beaded braids, with glowing jewels weaved throughout and loose wispy curls cascading around her face. Her velvet gown was just as intricately woven and was adorned with the same glowing gems.

Lundiel was the highest cleric of the Temple of Boldrei, one of the most powerful deities in the universe, according to ancient tomes. Her work with the temple was that of nurturing and helping those in need.

Today though, she gave a happy sigh, pleased with the life she had built and her position as pseudo-royalty. She enjoyed the work of her faith, and was pleased to be making progress in Boldrei’s eyes, all the while assuring her own comfort and image be maintained. She turned from the balcony as her servant Py arrived with a tray of tea which she placed on a nearby table.

“A note arrived for you My Lady.” She announced. “It’s there on the tray.”

“Thank you Py.” Lundiel nodded, and with that, Py turned and disappeared back into the Temple. After one final moment of contemplation, Lundiel moved back from the balcony edge, and approached the table. Pouring herself some tea, she noticed a letter, sealed with the symbol of The Dark Six, resting on the tea tray. Nearly dropping her cup, she snatched up the letter and tore open the envelope.

Years ago Lundiel assisted in negotiating a spiritual truce with the Grul, the largest tribe of Orcs in the region. She recognized the seal as Bahggin, King of the Grul Orc tribe. Sitting down, she began to read the request she had always known would someday come. It was written in common tongue.

“To the High Temple of Boldrei, we request your attention at present:

Long have the Grul abided by our truce, spoken 7 years before today. It was agreed that your work under Boldrei and the lordship of the city, would assure the Grul its rightful prosperity in the region, in accordance with the laws of The Dark Six. We are done waiting for your supposed leadership to benefit Orc-kind and grow weary of patience. It is time for us to take control and bring our concerns to the real officials of your city. The result of our treaty is less than acceptable and has become increasingly offensive to our tribe.

Our demands are simple. The Grul will reclaim the lands which are owed to us, the lands that are instead occupied by your sniveling citizens. Each Orc shall be allowed the land he requires to live, regardless of its current use. We will wait no longer than a fortnight before we reclaim what is divinely ours.

If you are unable or unwilling to convince your leaders to surrender our land without contest, you will face not only our significant tribe, but our many allies as well. We are prepared to execute the terms of our pact by force if necessary.

Do not delay if you value your freedom and peace. We will be awaiting word from your leaders in the coming days.”

The letter was signed with a scratch “Bahggin, King of Grul”.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In ancient times a noble race of people saved Eberron from oblivion. These people fought heroically and labored selflessly to bind the evil that threatened this world. Many paid dearly in blood, sacrificing themselves in their epic struggle against darkness.

Several years ago I traveled to a very old community in the Shadow Marches and met with some of the descendants of these people. An ocean voyage brought us to the nearest port city and from there we made our way into the marshland. During our trek we were nearly asphyxiated by noxious swamp gases and were plagued constantly by great whispering clouds of midges. Once we arrived at the outskirts of the rustic village, however, the midges dissipated, replaced by a subtle smell of exotic herbs and gentle wisps of fragrant smoke.

I had the honor of attending a banquet that was held as a tribute to a few tribe elders who had maintained what the village people referred to as “the true druidic path”. This is a way of life that they have passed down through many generations. From what I gathered, they believe a noble dragon teacher guided them on the beginning of this spiritual journey in ancient times. The speech of the oldest gentleman who was being honored was remarkable. Although he spoke softly, his words seemed to flood over the area and echo back through. A calming purity and powerful wisdom were intertwined with everything he said.

As I’m sure you now realize the people I’m speaking about are orcs, those creatures that are so often thought of as uncivilized destructive brutes. Contrary to this widely held misconception, many orcs live peacefully. Elegant simplicity and beauty pervade the old orc culture, and for orcs who live this way religion and honor hold far more importance than modernity or material wealth. Regrettably, not all orcs look to the wisdom of the elders, and many have been consumed by greed and the urge to dominate others. These fallen orcs appear to be playing a part in the latest threat that looms over Stormreach. Armies of previously disparate and fractious groups have begun coalescing not far from the city.

If you face these evil orcs in combat, there are a few things you should know. Through prolonged intensive training, orcs can amplify their already high natural strength and constitution. They often become barbarians and tap into the raw energy and wildness of nature. Orcs prefer offense over defense and almost always wield large two-handed weapons in battle. They wear little armor and attempt to overwhelm opponents before they can meaningfully fight back. When struck in battle, orcs often erupt into a violent rage, further enhancing their offensive abilities. Shamans, though somewhat rare, can be powerful, drawing on dark and twisted versions of their ancestors’ magical traditions.

These feral orc armies have none of the fine qualities of their more noble brethren. While menacing, I don’t believe these misguided hoards have the staying power of the good druids I met with in the marshlands. The lives of those druids are inextricably tied to this world and they continually leave their imprint. I’m confident that the virtuous aspects of their great culture will survive, and their honorable elders will continue to show a way forward on the true druidic path.


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Network News Acclaim's "Project Top Secret" First HoC Dev Chat - MAY 12 Return to TopSubmit News!Visit Our Forums
  Network News - 1:44 PM PDT | Posted By: Joshua_Rowan
 
And yet one more House of Commons Developer Chat to share with you!

Acclaim's "Project Top Secret" First HoC Dev Chat - MAY 12

Please join us on Saturday, May 12, 2007, for a House of Commons with the developers of Acclaim's Project Top Secret, lead by none other than David Perry, at 1:00 PM Pacific / 4:00 PM Eastern in the #StraticsHoC channel on Stratics IRC.

You can connect to one of our IRC servers through the use of your favorite IRC client or you can visit our Downloads section to choose a suitable client. Connect to irc.stratics.com port 6668 or whichever server is closest to you:

  • stratics.frws.com port 6668, USA - Colorado
  • irc.gamers-irc.org port 6668, USA - Colorado
  • irc.glowfish.de port 6668, EU - Germany
  • stratics.afraidyet.net 6668, USA - Atlanta

You may also connect through our handy Java link which may be found right here. You must have Java installed to use this which can be downloaded from the Java homepage.

During the chat, we will be discussing general topics with the developers, and general chat will be in our IRC channel #topsecret before, during, and after the House of Commons.

We hope to see you there!


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Network News Exclusive Blizzard HoC Dev Chat - MAY 15Return to TopSubmit News!Visit Our Forums
  Network News - 1:11 PM PDT | Posted By: Joshua_Rowan
 
Another HoC Developer Chat, this time for WoW:

 

 

n May 15, 2007 join WoW Stratics for a House of Commons with the Developers of World of Warcraft at 3 PM Pacific / 6 PM Eastern / 11 PM GMT in the #StraticsHoC channel on Stratics IRC.

You can connect to one of our IRC servers through the use of your favorite IRC client or you can visit our Downloads section to choose a suitable client. Connect to irc.stratics.com port 6668 or whichever server is closest to you.

  • stratics.frws.com USA
  • irc.stratics.com - USA
  • irc.gamers-irc.org - USA
  • us.irc.stratics.com USA
  • irc.glowfish.de Germany
Java Clients:
  • chat.stratics.com USA
  • webchat-us.glowfish.de USA
  • webchat-de.glowfish.de Germany, Duesseldorf

You may also connect through our handy Java link which may be found right here. You must have Java installed to use this which can be downloaded from the Java homepage.

Please note: Questions for this HoC can only be submitted before the chat. No questions will be taken during the chat. We will have [QT]'s available 48 hours before the HoC chat is scheduled to start. You can submit your questions at that time to any user with a [QT] in front of their name. [QT]'s are Question Takers who also have operator status in the #StraticsHoC channel.  To submit your questions just type the following command:  /msg [QT]Bot# Question here. All questions will be recorded automatically, in order to ensure this please submit one question per line.

Open chat will be available for discussing World of Warcraft in our IRC channel #worldofwarcraft before, during, and after the chat.

We hope to see you there!


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