Neverwinter: November Update

Heroes of Neverwinter received a new update on 11/23. 

*Several quests now have locked chests instead of dropping treasure via corpses, which increases the need to bring along a rogue.

In addition the stores have been refocused as follows:

* Mercenary Arms has been redesigned to focus on: armor and weapons, including implements
* Tarmalune Trade House has been redesigned to focus on: accessories (rings and helms) and magical consumables
* Beached Leviathan has been redesigned to focus on: food and drink, and the occasional Hero’s Commendation

Also several consumables have been revamped as well:

• Potion of Blessed Circumstance now grants a +2 bonus to saving throws for an entire adventure instead of +1.
• Refreshing Salve now grants a +3 bonus to saving throws for an entire adventure instead of +2.
• Sword Mountains Spice Cake now grants a +3 bonus to initiative for an entire adventure instead of +1.
• Neverwinter Spider Stew now grants resist 5 to acid and necrotic damage, in addition to its previous resist 5 poison benefit. All resistances last for an entire adventure.
• Conyberry Mead now grants +5 perception for an entire adventure instead of +3.
• Dwarven Celebration Brew grants +1 attack for an entire adventure and no longer imparts a -5 perception penalty.
• Ointment of Defense now grants resist 2 to all damage sources for an entire adventure, instead of resist 1.
• Zombie Juice now grants resist 5 to all damage source for an entire adventure and no longer imparts speed or initiative penalties.
• Vial of Dwayberry Extract now grants +5 damage to all melee attacks for an entire encounter and no longer inflicts damage to the imbiber.
• Frosted Mushroom now inflicts 5-15 cold damage and slows all enemies within a burst 3 area of effect.
• Glyph of Black Ice now inflicts 2-12 necrotic damage and knocks prone all enemies within a blast 4 area of effect.
• Vial of Slayer’s Sight now grants a +10 increase to critical strike range for 3 turns, instead of +1.

DDO Video Fun (Dance Dance DDO Edition)

Another month, another set of videos. This time there's a theme!

1) DDO Dance Video

This may be my favorite. An adventuring party goes out and has a little too much fun with Otto's Resistable Dance.

2) Dungeons&Dragons Dance Movie

A well choreographed dance video set to Jet's "Are You Gonna be My Girl".

3) DDO Disco dance video

This duo put together an amusing dance video competition between a human and a half-orc.

Hope Everyone had a Great T-day

Ah, a holiday, I hope you'll let me take a break from the usual for the occasion.

I just want to thank all my readers for coming here and making this site worth the time I put into it. So with that in mind I'll be giving gifts from now through the holiday season.

Anyone who comments on a post from now till the end of the year and leaves their server and character name in the post or sends it vial e-mail to dungeonbrew@gmail.com will receive 100 Platinum. In addition I'll be auctioning off some items, including 3 Small Eberron Dragonshards (enough to get an xp potion), Mnemonic Enhancers, and more. Everytime you post you'll be entered to win one of the items in the drawing. This is my little way of giving back. 

Neverwinter: Notes on the Rogue Class

Since the fighter in Heroes of Neverwinter is still incapable of holding aggro the rogue is my go to guy for controlling the aggro of my opponents.

Why the Rogue?

Because the rogue has moves that limit or outright deny the opponent actions. Attacks like Stunning Blow (which all rogues receive and which remains one of the best moves for them throughout the game) and Walking Wounded keep the enemy from advancing on my party or acting, which is very useful.

Below is my Rogue Defender Build, which should suffice to help you conquer enemies until your fighter learns how to aggro:

Starting Class: Obviously Rogue

Starting Race: Eladrin or Halfling for the +2 to Dex...preferably Eladrin for fey step, which will become all too helpful for this build.

Starting Abilities: You'll want as high a Dex as possible, pump it straight up to 20. As for the rest, meh, not as important to what you need to do here.

Powers: Make sure you up Dash, Dazing Strike, Walking Wounded, Battle Focus, and Knockout.

Equipment: Items which give you bonuses to attack rolls or speed should be equipped or stocked up on to ensure you can reach your enemy and deliver status effects.

The following tactics are what makes this build so useful.

Battle Focus+Stunning Blow

Use this combo when you really need to make sure someone doesn't take turns anymore. I use this move to incapacitate leaders and artillery before they have a chance to attack me. Controllers are also a good target, but usually their AC is so low that you can go without the +5 to attack from Battle Focus.

Walking Wounded/Dazing Strike+Fey Step/Dash

Got an enemy melee combatant, run up to the bastard and slam him with Walking Wounded or Dazing Strike. Once he is dazed you simply use your teleport powers to move back a space and he won't be able to reach you again. If you do this right you can keep your entire party safe by rushing melee soldiers and brutes before they have a chance to engage your party.

Knockout

No combo here, just the move Knockout. A powerful attack which slows your opponent. If you want you can combine it with Dash or Fey Step like the above moves, alternatively you can just use it on any idiot foolish enough to engage you in melee. Hit them with it at the start of your turn and just walk away.

Things I Hate About Update 12

There really isn't much that I didn't like about the update, which is good right? That's how it is supposed to be. There were a few things though so let's get down to it.


Shared Platinum Bank Account

When I first heard about this I thought it would be great...but the execution ruined it for me. Even at its cheapest this feature will still run you close to 5 dollars of your hard earned cash (and almost seven at the other end of the spectrum). Why would anyone want to spend that much money for a feature that can essentially be used already?

While I'll stand by the shared bank account until the end of times, this shared platinum vault thing is a waste of your money. If you want to share money between your characters just draft up a letter, it will save you money that you should be spending on adventure packs anyway.

Homunculus Enhancements

This one is appearing on both the positive and negative lists...and this is really just a nitpick issue but still...why can't a lawful homunculus destroy boxes? I get that they're trying to draw some parralell between destructive impulses and the chaotic alignment, but I really feel like the Hunter of Boxes enhancement should have been separate from the new alignment enhancements.

Earthgrab

DAMNIT! Quit nerfing this move please. *sighs* Earthgrab is one of my favorite things to exploit. First they lower the criticals on helpless victims, and now they don't even count it as a paralysis effect. Don't get me wrong, that's helpful if you are fighting clerics who can cast curative magics, but most of the time this wasn't an issue. I agree that this should have been changed, I'm merely bummed out because I loved exploiting it. Oh well, time to find something else.

Things I Like About Update 12

Wow, this one was a biggie. There happens to be quite a lot that I like about this update so let's just dive right in ok? (Note: I'm not even going to try to cover challenges just yet, those are getting their own post).

Character Renaming
Oh thank Pelor...sorry I mean Arawai...THIS is something I feel should have been included in the game a long time ago. Yeah, ORCSLayer69 may have seemed like a cool name for your human barbarian at one point but...well, that was before you realized the way you capitalized things helps to explain the origin of the half-orc race.

Spells
A few spells and their descriptions have been cleaned up, but what I like most are the changes to Flame Arrows and Conjure Bolts. The former can finally use masterwork arrows as a spell component AND lasts until logout (as opposed to the end of the instant). Suddenly I'm starting to consider taking it a lot more. As for Conjured Bolts, well, I don't know if you've played an artificer or rogue mechanic yet, but those repeating crossbows EAT crossbow bolts in droves. Well, now you no longer have to take up several of your slots just to make sure you don't run out in combat...they stack to 1000! Now if only they'd let us stick them in quivers too...

Items
Oh my wizard, no longer will you need be afraid of holding onto those motes of night and winter until the next festival...because they changed the weight on a lot of these items. I think the most notable change happens to be to the essences. At higher levels you require so many of these it hurts my mind sometimes, and that means that people with low strength (most of your archetypal crafters) suffer mightily by having to carry hundreds of them. But not anymore, thank you Turbine. My weak ass bard is grateful.

Pet
Um, I don't care about the other ones they introduced...I just love that I can make my defender destroy boxes again. I happen to HATE going around and breaking my boxes with my artificer...mostly because it takes a long time to do so with my bolts and I happen to be too lazy to switch to unarmed (even though I hotkeyed it). Now my pet will do that for me, resulting in a bonus to xp.

Clarity
So many things have been tightened up, in particular they did a nice job on the monk stances. Not that I play a monk anymore, but still, good job guys.

Hirelings

Poor hirelings

There are two things I like that they changes about how these guys operate. 1) Arcance casters will no longer rush into melee to use their ranged spells...oh thank god. 2) The little floating indicator thing (this goes for pets too) really helps my impatience. I used to hit those command buttons over and over again, now I can stop when I realize he's heard my command.

Now that I think about it, I guess I was the DDO Navi "Hey! Listen! Look! Come Here! Listen! Look!..."

Building a Better Beast: The Specialist

I always wondered what the spikes were for.

Welcome back to Building a Better Beast. We’ve already taken a look at The Tank, and The Wraith, today we’ll explore another build called the Specialist. Whereas the Tank focuses on being indestructible and the Wraith supports his rogue allies, the Specialist is a melee combatant who uses his abilities to control the flow of combat.

As always the artificer should start by taking the Augment Summoning feat. He should also pick up all the repair spells he can. In addition he might want to consider the following.

1st Level: Because they are both melee combatants your Specialist can benefit from all the same spells as the Tank.

Ablative Armor--A pool of hit points which keep the Specialist safe from physical injury.
Shield of Faith--At lower levels your Specialist is still without his armor upgrades, this will help to offset that major difference between the Tank and the Specialist.
Enchant Weapon--The utility of the Specialist comes from his combat feats, if those attacks don’t hit he isn’t as useful. A +1 to hit is always appreciated.

2nd Level: A few defensive spells, as well as a spell which is key to the build.

Rienforce Construct and Toughen Construct--I’ve already extolled the virtue of these spells when we discussed the Tank. What holds there holds here as well.
Bull’s Strength--The DC for combat feats depends on the Strength of the user. This is why it is so important to get your Specialist’s Strength as high as possible.

3rd Level: A few spells from the same list as the tank, and one peculiar choice.

Shield of Faith, Mass and Stoneskin--As described in the Tank build.
Flame Turret--What makes this choice so peculiar is that it isn’t a buff spell for the Specialist. However, it works really well with this build. By utilizing the Specialist’s Intimidate and Takedown attacks you can keep an enemy well within ranged of the raging fires of the Flame Turret.

4th Level: Either of the Armor spells are useful at this level. Unlike the Tank whose high AC makes Thundering Armor almost useless the Specialist is a little bit easier to hit, and thus the spell effect is more likely to be useful.

5th Level: At this level you’re going to choose a favorite spell as well as possibly get an upgrade of an earlier spell.

Radiant Forcefield--Remember how we were talking about how the Specialist is easier to hit? This spell will make that factor a little less pronounced.
Bull’s Strength, Mass--Like Shield of Faith, Mass you might as well buff all the warriors while you buff your own.

6th Level: Although they aren’t essential to this build you can use the Specialist’s skills to kite enemies into position for Blade Barriers and Tactical Detonations.

Enhancements:

1st Level:
Let’s start by picking up the first of the Specialist’s combat feats, Takedown. It unlocks the Trip command.

2nd Level:
Now we’re going to select the other one, Shattering Strike. It unlocks the Sunder command.

3rd Level:
Menacing Growl will let the Specialist guide enemies forward so that he can disable him with his combat abilities. It unlocks the Intimidate ability.

4th Level:
At this level you’re going to want to upgrade both your combat feat abilities. DC12+Str Modifier.

5th Level:
Let’s not wait any longer to pick up Adamantine Plating, this will increase your AC by +8 and give you a Damage Reduction of 2/adamazinte.

6th Level:
Time to buy Homunculus Strength.

7th Level:
Time to increase Shattering Strike and Takedown again DC is now 14+Str Modifier.

8th Level:
Upgrade Menacing Growl 2 steps. Intimidate is now +12.

9th Level:
Save your points.

10th Level:
And spend them on Homunculus Strength II.

11th Level:
Now you can enjoy the capstone enhancement Homunculus Combat Alacrity. This enhancement gives a 5% chance to double strike, and a 5% increase to attack speed.

12th Level:
Maximize your combat feats. DC is now 10+Str Modifier+6.

13th Level:
Pick up Reinforced Armor for a +10 to hit points.

14th Level:
Upgrade your Reinforced Armor (+20 now) and max out Menacing Growl (+16 to Intimidate)

15h Level:
Max out your Reinforced Armor for a +40 to hit points.

16th Level:
Time to pick up Combat Alacrity II which will increase the double strike and attack speed to 10%.

17th Level:
Increasing Adamantine Plating two steps sounds like a good idea, which will give your pet a +12 to ac and a DR 6/adamantine.

18th Level:
I suggest picking up Danger Avoidance, this will give you an additional +1 to AC and +2 Reflex Saves.

19th Level:
Increase Danger Avoidance two steps, your dodge bonus to AC and Reflex saves will now be +3 and +6 respectively.

20th Level:
Wow, you’re just about about as tough as the Tank if you take this level to max out Adamantine Plating (+14 and DR 8/adamantine) and Danger Avoidance (+4 to AC and +8 to Reflex saves).