1.7 PTS-In-Progress Set #1 - 1/9/12
== FEATURES ==
* The below are, as usual for PTS, works in progress and may be changed!
* New Chronicle! Grab a friend and disguise yourself as Endless Cultists to infiltrate and sabotage Alsbeth's plans within the River of Souls!
* No matter who you are, you now have twice as many Expert Dungeons to play in! The two tiers of Expert Dungeon difficulty have been combined into one.
* Sweeping improvements are in progress for gear at levels 45+. General details are listed below, with more info coming on the forums and future patch notes.
LEVEL 45+ ITEMIZATION ADJUSTMENTS
* With this patch we're focusing on improving gear progression in endgame content. The goal is to create a smoother high-end item progression and to ensure level 50 players can be competitive in either/both PvE or PvP with a clear route of content to upgrade through.
* The following improvements are being implemented toward this goal:
* Content tier adjustments to better match with the items granted:
- Intro 50 content: level 50 Dungeons, Chronicles, Rifts, and Zone Events.
- "Tier 1": Expert Dungeons, Ember Isle, early Prestige Ranks, Expert Rifts, and Zone Events.
- "Tier 2": Master Dungeons, entry Raids and Slivers, mid-Prestige Ranks, Raid Rifts, and Zone Events.
- "Tier 3": Difficult Raids and Slivers, high-end Prestige Ranks.
* Items will improve consistently between tiers of content, instead of having small improvements early on followed by huge power jumps in later tiers.
* The overall power of a new level 50 character will be increased slightly, and the power differential for items between 50 and top-tier content will progress more evenly.
DUNGEON, EXPERT DUNGEON, AND CHRONICLE IMPROVEMENTS
* The biggest change in support of the above progression is the combining of Expert Dungeons to a single difficulty tier, which impacts both gear dropped as well as LFG reward categories. The rest of the level 50 Dungeons and Chronicle content will be getting minor balance tweaks and major itemization adjustments.
* After these changes, the difficulty and rewards from content should be clearer between Chronicles/Level 50 Dungeons and Expert Dungeons.
GENERAL
* A new Guardian porticulum has been completed in Gloamwood at Tearfall Run.
* Added a new 'Lock XP' checkbox to the Interface > Misc settings pane. Checking it will stop your level 1-49 character from gaining experience until it is unchecked.
* You can now choose to disable auto-weapon-sheathing with a new Settings option: Interface > Misc > Disable Auto Sheaths.
* You can now use the command '/interact' to interact with an NPC you have targeted if you are unable to right-click it.
* The background color of target casting bars now correctly indicates their interruptible (blue) or non-interruptible (gold) status during cast time for channeled abilities.
* You can now split stacks in your bank even if your inventory is full.
* Dismiss Pet no longer cancels Veteran Reward Vendors or Personal Bankers.
* Applying a rune to an item now only pops a confirmation prompt if you will overwrite an existing rune.
* Group leaders are now indicated in Raids.
* Fixed an issue that could cause a quest-giving item to stop offering the quest, even though it hadn't yet been accepted.
RIFTS AND INVASIONS
* Zone Events on Ember Isle now also grant Inscribed Sourcestone when event objectives are completed. Only players who have contributed during each event objective will receive these rewards. Some of the less difficult objectives will not be awarding Sourcestone. In order to maintain the same overall total Inscribed Sourcestone granted, the amount obtained from Colossi kills has been reduced.
* The Invasion commander, Hardshell Nightmare, will no longer off itself after spending only a short while on Telaran soil.
SOULS
* Mage Charge is now reset to zero when changing roles.
* Characters will no longer be taken out of stealth when their guild increases a passive Perk.
CLERIC
JUSTICAR
* Rebuke: Now works more consistently on different mob types in Dungeons and Raids.
WARDEN
* Deluge: Will no longer generate infinitely-looping visuals in some cases.
MAGE
ARCHMAGE [PvP]
* Withered Veins: The debuff will no longer persist through death.
ARCHON
* Pillaging Stone: The debuff portion of Rank 1 no longer persists through death.
* Flowing Sand: Now provides the movement speed debuff even if the target is immune to the Snare portion. Reduced the cooldown to 45 seconds from 2 minutes.
DOMINATOR
* Disorient: The stun portion no longer persists through death.
* Incompetence: No longer persists through death.
PYROMANCER
* Lockdown: Will now debuff the enemy, increasing the Fire damage they take, even if they are immune to the Snare portion.
STORMCALLER
* Storm Shard: Fixed an edge case where Storm Shard wouldn't apply the critical hit damage bonus.
* Absolute Zero: Fixed this causing more than one next cast of Icicle or Arctic Blast to cause a root effect.
* Electrocute: The knockback should no longer occasionally fail.
* Fixed an issue where damage from Hailstorm and Eye of the Storm could be blocked by abilities like the Chloromancer's Wild Abandon.
ROGUE
ASSASSIN
* The Attack Power contribution to the damage from Poisons has increased.
* Leeching Poison: The Attack Power contribution to the healing from Leeching Poison has increased.
BLADEDANCER
* Blade Finesse: Functionality changed. Now increases the Attack Power bonus of your Finishers by 5-25%. This bonus is applied only to attacks using melee weapons.
* Combat Expertise: Functionality changed. Now increases the Attack Power bonus of your Combo Point-generating abilities by 5-25%.
* Combat Culmination: Functionality changed. Your Finishers cause Physical attacks to ignore 1-3% of the target's armor per Combo Point for 10 seconds.
NIGHTBLADE
* The Attack Power contribution to the damage from weapon enchantments has been increased.
RANGER
* King of the Jungle: Now increases pet damage by 20%, increased from 10%. For every point in Ranger above 21, increases pet damage by 6% - increased from 3% per point.
* Feral Aggression: Increases Critical Hit chance and also pet damage by 100% for 15 seconds. Cooldown reduced to 1 minute from 2.
* Pin Down: Cooldown reduced to 1 minute from 3.
* Diffuse: Cooldown reduced to 1 minute from 2.
RIFTSTALKER
* Shadow Stalk: Using this ability should no longer put both the player and the target into combat.
* Rift Barrier: The damage shield from Rift Guard now only reflects damage from the first tick of a DoT, in line with other damage shields in the game.
* Planar Vortex: The damage from Planar Vortex now takes the Riftstalker out of stealth.
WARRIOR
PALADIN
* Preservation: No longer prevented from being cast on a Paladin after the original target removes it. No longer causes you to enter combat.
* Aggressive Block: Now properly triggers Rising Waterfall.
RIFTBLADE
* Rising Waterfall: Will no longer immediately break the buff granted by Surging Energy when it critically hits.
VINDICATOR [PvP]
* Tactical Strikes: No longer affects Spotter's Order.
VOID KNIGHT
* Surge: No longer ignores line of sight for threat generation.
ZONES
DROUGHTLANDS
* Thwarting the Emberlord: Fixed an issue that could cause this quest to not reset properly.
EMBER ISLE
* Anchors to the Depths: Fixed the placement of Shrines to Ithkus that were hiding under the sands.
* Crawl No More: The catapults should no longer be stuck in a fired position when the catapult has an active target.
* Drakes in the Drift: There is now a teleporter to the base of the Kelari tower when the quest is completed.
* Feline Intervention: Fixed an issue causing the Corrupted Wildstalkers to not despawn correctly if left unconscious.
* Pyrkari at Large: Fixed an issue where the pyrkari would sometimes not despawn when brought to the cages. The lasso effect now also leaves the pyrkari if the player who lassoed them dies.
* Raw Recruits: The reset time for the Shamblers has been significantly increased.
* Recluse Wrangling: The devour ability of the Recluse can now consume multiple spirits at once.
* Science Under Pressure: There's now a higher chance for the Smoldering Piles to appear in larger numbers. Stavel will also leave properly if his timer runs out.
* The Nexus Infusion ability no longer works on the Bazaars in Ember Isle during the In Golden's Grasp event, since it doesn't actually do anything for them.
GLOAMWOOD
* Notoriety items for the Waykeepers will no longer drop for Defiants.
SHIMMERSAND
* Additional NPCs in Shimmersand grant a small amount of Dragonslayer Covenant reputation when killed.
STILLMOOR
* Additional NPCs in Stillmoor grant a small amount of Order of Mathos reputation when killed.
STONEFIELD
* Dead Drop: The Earthmaul Ward quest objective should be easier to find.
* Notoriety items for Granite Falls will no longer drop for Guardians.
DUNGEONS, SLIVERS, and RAIDS
* Targets marked by Raid leaders are now visible to players who join the raid after the mark occurs.
* Fixed a case where a raid member could be stuck with a ready check and be unable to initiate another if they were a leader or assistant.
* Fixed a case where a raid member logging in right at the completion of a ready check would cause incorrect results to display.
CADUCEUS RISE
* Cinderstorm's Molten Cinders beams now appear properly in additional attempts after a wipe.
DARKENING DEEPS
* Fixed some collision on Scarn's elevator shaft.
GREENSCALE'S BLIGHT [Raid]
* Added runspeed buffs to Hylas, Aleria, and Infiltrator Johlen.
HAMMERKNELL [Raid]
* Runebone Sorcerers' Silent Void ability no longer roots targets inside the effect for the entire duration.
* Darktide Serpents' Brine Net ability no longer roots targets inside the effect for the entire duration.
* Population mobs in Hammerknell award Planar Attunement experience more consistently.
PVP/WARFRONTS
* Damage dealt by your pet is now included in your leaderboard totals.
ITEMS
* Fixed a bug where some items showed a 'Vanity' category instead of 'Costume'.
* Fixed several Planar Lens items that had their stats removed.
* Lavaforged Helmet incorrectly had Block on it which has been removed - the points have been redistributed into Dodge and Parry.
* The Planar Conqueror armor set is now compatible with Blighted Synergy Crystals.
* Shimmering Windstone: Increased Dexterity.
* Elder Chain Coif: Now properly gives Spell Critical Hit rather than Physical Critical Hit.
* Rising Crest: No longer usable by Clerics.
* Scarn's Hide is now tradeable and can be sold.
* The artifacts from The Heir of Hammerknell set should now be listed in the Auction House as Collectibles rather than Quest Items.
* Some old items related to quests that are no longer in the game are now displayed as grey-quality loot items rather than quest items.
ART AND AUDIO
* Smoothed out the appearance of shadows in the distance.
* Added proper ambience sounds to caves on Ember Isle.
* Reduced the volume of steam geysers on Ember Isle around Scaldwater Fields and Wellspring Flats.
UI/SETTINGS
* Fixed occasional tooltip titles getting stuck on-screen when a debuff appeared under the mouse cursor on the Raid UI.
* Tracking of completed Artifact sets no longer turns off after a loading screen is displayed.
* Switching Roles with the Soul Tree open will cancel any previewing of souls or soul point spending in progress that has not been saved.
* Fixed a bug where sometimes the LFG window would think you were in an Instant Adventure group when you were, in fact, not.
* Added a new splash screen after leveling up displaying your level and soul points available. The display can be clicked on to open the Soul Tree window if you are out of combat.
* The Artifacts tab now shows the rewards to be gained from displayed Artifact sets.
* Fixed the Artifacts tab disappearing from the character window for those crazy players who completed all Artifact sets!
* Guild Wall: Fixed the scroll-to-top reset when deleting comments.
* Fixed the mouse cursor not highlighting when targeting items you can salvage.
* Defiants should no longer appear on the Guardian tabs of a Warfront leaderboard if they joined the Warfront while you were viewing that tab.
* Corrected zone event notice broadcasts to level channels for non-English language shards.
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