Cryptic Studios has released the Neverwinter update 8.51 February 5 patch for consoles! Live now, this patch includes gameplay changes, and the much awaited combat rework!
Head on below for the full patch notes and combat changes.
Highlights
This is the official release of the Combat Rework, as described in the Combat Rework news post. Following is a summary of its goals and features, with a couple changes from the news post to match the changes we made while it was in public testing.
What You Will See On Login
You’ll see the following things:
- Your Total Item Level will be higher.
- Your Bonding Runestones will be in your inventory, and can be exchanged in Protector’s Enclave.
- You will have a respec for your character.
- Your stats may be slightly different.
- From the Reward Claims Agent, you’ll be able to claim for free:
- A pack of 20 Companion Upgrade Tokens
- A pack of 20 Mount Upgrade Tokens
- Your choice of a Legendary Insignia
- Your choice of a Rank 15 Runestone
- Your choice of a Rank 15 Single-Stat Enchantment
Combat Rework Goals
- Improved Scaling: Smooth scaling downward and upward to content that allows for it, without requiring players to change gear to optimize it.
- Easier to Understand: Rating targets weren’t clear prior to these changes. Now, it should be easier to see how your ratings affect your stats.
- Item Level More Accurate: Item level now more accurately translates to damage output and survivability.
- Easier to Gear Up: Less gear micromanagement should be required to have viable stats, once you hit the appropriate item level.
- Keep Options for Creative and Min/Max Builds: With the changes above, we still want to allow for players to get creative, and optimize their builds the way they want.
Combat Rework Changes
Ratings
- Stat percentages are now displayed on the character sheet.
- Rating caps now match your Total Item Level, and when a rating matches the cap, it grants 50% of its associated stat.
- For example, if your Total Item Level is 50,000, and your Defense Rating is 50,000, your damage reduction from Defense Rating is 50%.
- 1,000 Rating is worth 1%, counting down from your cap.
- Example: Total Item Level 50k, Defense Rating 49k: 49% Defense
- Example: Total Item Level 40k, Defense Rating 39k: 49% Defense
- Ratings work the same way in all content, even when scaled. 40% in non-scaled content is 40% in scaled content.
Total Item Level
- Base Damage and Maximum Hit Points are directly affected by Total Item Level.
- Maximum Hit Points are your Total Item Level * 10 (tanks get a 20% bonus to that number, Healers get a 10% bonus).
- Base Damage is your Total Item Level / 10 (DPS get a 20% bonus to that value, Healers get a 10% bonus).
- Total Item Level is affected by scaling content.
- Players start with a base Item Level of 5,000 with nothing equipped.
Stat Percentages
- Certain items can grant direct percentages of stats. For example, a buff, boon, or companion power could give 3% Critical Strike.
- This value can bring a stat over the 50% cap from ratings.
- The highest a stat can have is 90%. So if a player has 50% Critical Strike from ratings, and then a bonus 40% or more from gear, they’ll have a 90% chance to deal a Critical Strike.
Equipment
- Weapons no longer provide direct damage; instead, they contribute to damage like your other gear, by increasing your Item Level and applying any of their other stats and effects.
- Items now give a large portion of their item level as Combined Rating. This should make it less likely for a character to have stats with extremely low ratings, but still allow customization and optimizing specific ratings through gear.
- Enchantments, Runestones, and Insignias now grant a higher item level for their rank.
Companions
- Bonding Runestones have been removed from Companions.
- Players will be able to trade out their Bonding Runestones in Protector’s Enclave for another Enchantment or Runestone of the same rank, or directly for Astral Diamonds.
- Companion Influence has been removed, and instead, companions simply share their stats with player characters at a 100% rate.
- Augment Companions grant 85% of their Item Level to Combined Rating, and the remaining percentage splits across the three Bonus Stats they previously gave.
- Fighting Companions grant 85% of their Item Level to Combined Rating; the rest of their stat value is intended to balance out the damage they deal in combat.
- Companion Powers now grant more Item Level, and a certain amount of Combined Rating.
- They also now grant other stats directly as a percentage, rather than a rating increase.
- Their Item Level is based on their associated companion’s item level.
- Companions no longer have numerical ranks, though they still have quality (Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary, and now Mythic).
- Companion Bolster value has been increased to a maximum of 100%, from the top ten companions. Legendary quality is worth 5% Bolster Value, Mythic quality is worth 10%.
- Companions now have a single Bolster category, instead of categorizing by type.
- Fighting Companion stats are now influenced by their player’s stats. The Companion Stat Panel now shows these ratings.
Mounts
- Mount Collars have been doubled in Item Level, and a portion now grants Combined Ratings.
Boons
- Boons no longer give Item Level, and now give stat percentages directly.
Racial Bonuses
- Racial Bonuses now consistently give stat percentages directly, and many have been increased in efficacy.
Player Power Magnitudes
- Mount Powers were often considered stronger than player powers, so player powers have been increased in magnitude, and base Action Point Gain has been increased slightly as well.
Stats
- Stats on the Character Sheet have been updated. Some Utility stats have been moved to Ratings.
- As mentioned before, all Ratings now provide up to 50% toward their stat, with a maximum of 90% when you add in direct percentage contributors.
Total Item Level (TIL): Combined item level from all sources.
Maximum Hit Points: Base is TIL * 10. Tanks get a 20% bonus to base, Healers get 10% bonus. Other sources add on top of this value.
Damage: Base it TIL / 10. DPS get a 20% bonus to base, Healers get a 10% bonus.
Ratings:
Rating cap = TIL
Power: Works as it did before, now capped like other ratings.
Defense: Works as it did before
Armor Penetration: This rating has been removed from the game. Most sources now give Critical Severity instead.
Critical Strike: Works as it did before
Critical Severity: Is now a rating. Most sources of Armor Penetration were swapped to add Critical Severity.
Critical Avoidance: This now reduces Critical Severity instead of Critical Strike.
Deflect: Works as it did before
Deflect Severity: A new rating which increases how much damage is reduced when deflecting. This previously existed behind the scenes for the most part.
Accuracy: Now reduces Deflect Severity
Awareness: Works as it did before
Combat Advantage: Works as it did before, now capped at the same value as other ratings
Incoming Healing: Is now a rating, but the end result works as it did before
Outgoing Healing: Is now a rating, but the end result works as it did before
Control Bonus: Is now a rating, but the end result works as it did before
Control Resistance: Is now a rating, but the end result works as it did before
Forte: New stat, which will be covered below
Utility:
All of the listed Utility Ratings work as they did before. Included here for completeness of the character stat list.
Action Point Gain
Recharge Speed
Movement Speed
Stamina Regeneration
Magical Damage Boost
Physical Damage Boost
XP Bonus
Gold Bonus
Glory Bonus
Note: Companion Influence sources were changed; check specific items for the stats but enchantments were changed to grant Forte.
Forte:
Forte is a new stat which works different for each Paragon Path. It is a stat which reflects the strength of your particular paragon path and applies to different stats for each path. The total percentage amount of Forte is split across the stats.
| Paragon |
50% Stat |
25% Stat 1 |
25% Stat 2 |
| Assassin |
Power |
Combat Advantage |
Deflect Severity |
| Whisperknife |
Power |
Combat Advantage |
Deflect Severity |
| Arcanist |
Power |
Combat Advantage |
Critical Avoidance |
| Thaumaturge |
Power |
Combat Advantage |
Critical Avoidance |
| Hunter |
Power |
Accuracy |
Deflect |
| Warden |
Power |
Accuracy |
Deflect |
| Hellbringer |
Power |
Critical Strike |
Awareness |
| SoulWeaver |
Soulweave Regen |
Critical Strike |
Awareness |
| Devout |
Divinity Regen |
Critical Severity |
Deflect |
| Arbiter |
Power |
Critical Severity |
Deflect |
| Justicar |
Defense |
Critical Strike |
Deflect Severity |
| Oathkeeper |
Divinity Regen |
Critical Strike |
Deflect Severity |
| Blademaster |
Power |
Critical Severity |
Awareness |
| Sentinel |
Defense |
Critical Severity |
Awareness |
| Dreadnought |
Power |
Accuracy |
Critical Avoidance |
| Vanguard |
Defense |
Accuracy |
Critical Avoidance |
Other Release Notes
General
- Players can now join a party when their level reaches 5.
- When manually raised from the near-death state, companions can regenerate HP.
Content and Environment
Protector’s Enclave
- [Alcohol] The Driftwood Tavern: When a character is “tanked” and drinks more alcohol, it now refreshes their “tanked” status instead of reverting them to “drunk.”
- The calendar is once again properly populated.
Queues
- Castle Ravenloft has been removed from random queues while we work on the dungeon’s balance.
- The Random Leveling Dungeon queue now allows players to queue at level 12 or higher. Undergeared players will be scaled up to an appropriate Item Level.
Combat and Powers
Companions
- Alpha Compy summons no longer incorrectly proc Tenebrous Enchantment.
User Interface
Character Creation
- Metallic Dragonborn: The “Markings” entry has been removed, as no options in this entry are currently available.
Queues
- Multiple tanks and/or multiple healers can no longer incorrectly be placed into the same Queue Group when using public queues.
The game’s next major expansion, “Sharandar” is set to launch this March 9 on consoles, annd Feb. 9 on PC.
Source: Arc Games
