In development

'''This page aims at listing dev words on future updates of the game (as a kind of a WDA replacement). Feel free to contribute by adding your own finds.'''

Release Schedule
Update 9 - Wednesday, April 27th

New Races and Classes

 * "The Druid class will feature classic abilities, like shape-shifting, and we’re very excited about getting it out to players sometime mid next year." - Kate Paiz, gamebanshee.com


 * "The Druid has always been on our to-do list, but various reasons have prevented us from introducing it in the past. We are now revisiting it and it’s right up there near the top of our wish list. We also have a number of other classes we are seriously considering but nothing is set in stone at this time." - Ian Currie,


 * "We've got the Elemental Savants in Update 9, a couple of minor tweaks to a few others, and the next ones on the list I plan on after that are the Divine Avenger, Deepwood Sniper II, and Ninja Spy III." - Eladrin
 * "The two specific questions that we received most often that I have not yet addressed related to when we will see the Druids or when we may see a level cap increase beyond level 20 and into Epic levels. I can confirm that we have made great headway in our work on these highly requested features, although at this point it looks unlikely we’ll get these out in 2011. I know! I want them too. Despite that, I still wanted to let you know that there will be a new class in 2011 that we’ll talk about later on, so stay tuned!" -Fernando. http://www.ddo.com/us/news/1433-2011-state-of-the-game-producer-letter

Items

 * Holy Avenger
 * "Oh, and Tharagrim's working on the Holy Avenger." - Eladrin, forums.ddo.com
 * "A Holy Avenger's a special thing. You can't just hand them out to everyone. ;) I expect that a certain level of dedication will be required, and perhaps a task or two to prove your worth. Not the pirate quest." - Eladrin, Stratics dev chat


 * Green Steel Deconstruction
 * http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/67256 Kate Paiz, Ten Ton Hammer live chat (2009 April) - "It’s certainly something that is important to us, it makes sense, and we understand why players want it. ...we just haven’t quite gotten a clear and decisive answer as to when."

Divine Avenger
Eladrin

Favored Soul Divine Avenger I (Sovereign Host) Prereqs: Level 6 Favored Soul, Favored by the Sovereign Host, Favored Soul Attack Boost II, Favored Soul Charisma I, and any of the following: Power Attack or Two Weapon Fighting. Cost: 4 AP Benefit: Everything the gods need to say to your enemies can be said with your weapon. When wielding a longsword in your right hand you are treated as if you have a fighter’s base attack bonus. You also gain the ability to swear an oath of enmity against a foe, vowing to destroy them in the name of your deity.


 * Oath of Enmity
 * Benefit: You mark an opponent as your chosen foe with a righteous smite. This attack gains twice your Charisma modifier to your attack roll and a damage bonus based on your Favored Soul level. Whether or not the attack hits, for the next five minutes, each time you critically hit your chosen enemy  for a short period of time. (This bonus stacks up to ten times.) Your Oath of Enmity recharges after five minutes, or upon the death of your chosen foe.

Repeat for other deities, replacing "favored by" as appropriate.

Lord of Blades accepts any of the following: Improved Fortification, Power Attack, or Two Handed Fighting.

Silver Flame accepts any of the following: Point Blank Shot, Weapon Focus: Ranged, or Zen Archery, and instead of a melee smite as their Oath, gets a ranged attack, and their Oath mechanic was a little bit different (and wasn't working properly at all ).

Update 9

 * Info gathered at PAX East 2011

Epic Ward \ Death Ward

 * We've removed arbitrary inherent death wards from virtually all non-boss monsters in the game, and changed instant-kill weapon effects to:


 * 1) Kill the monster outright if it's at or below 1000 current hit points.
 * 2) Deal a chunk of damage (that varies on effect type - vorpal deals more damage than disruption, but does it 1/20th as often) if the monster is over 1000 current hit points or is a boss. For example, if you 'vorpal' a monster that's above 1000 hit points, it will deal 100 extra untyped damage.

This cap is based on current hit points, not total hit points, so a damaged monster becomes vulnerable to weapon based instant death effects.


 * Assassin III is treated as a vorpal weapon, so is now hit point capped but now has an effect in high level content. Assassin II is treated as a death effect with an opportunity cost, so does not have any hit point related restrictions. You can go ahead and assassinate epic monsters (or monsters in previous death warded dungeons), but be warned that we've also reduced the penalty epic trash has to their saves from the minion debuff (and chopped their hit point to about half of what they were before).


 * Note that some monsters still cast Death Ward or Mass Death Ward. That hasn't changed, and if they actually have the spell on, it'll stop death effects as expected. We just removed the blanket immunity most high level trash had.


 * For the monks out there, Void IV is not considered "zero opportunity cost". By that phrase, I meant "instant death effects that just sort of happen out of the blue, not because you actively chose to push a button and paid a cost in ki, spell points, or time (like Assassinate)". For the spellcasters, there have been some changes to a number of death spells, mostly increased damage on save and changed cooldowns.

Changes to Helpless State

 * Monsters that are helpless take 50% additional damage from all sources, including normal attacks, spells, or environmental effects (before damage reduction is applied). A critical hit on a helpless monster will deal 50% additional critical damage as expected.
 * Players that are helpless take additional damage based on the dungeon difficulty:
 * Solo/Casual: +5%
 * Normal: +10%
 * Hard: +15%
 * Elite: +20%
 * Epic: +25%
 * Creatures that are helpless are denied their dexterity bonus to armor class, and suffer an additional -4 penalty to armor class.

Feats

 * In Update 9, Improved Shield Bash will grant a 20% chance to make a secondary shield bash while attacking with a melee weapon.
 * Shield Mastery's feat benefit has been changed to, "You are now skilled with the use of a shield, and your physical damage vulnerability is decreased by 10% when using a buckler or small shield, 15% when using a large shield, or 20% when using a tower shield."


 * Tactical Feats
 * "Prestige enhancements are planned for fighters and paladins. Before that, however, the melee classes (especially fighters) will be glad to see an array of tactical feats made available to them." - Eladrin, Stratics dev chat

Elven Arcanum
Elven Wizards will have an advantage at penetrating high spell resistance in Update 9. We're upgrading Elven Arcanum a little bit:


 * Elven Arcanum I
 * Benefit: Grants elven wizards a 20 point increase to spell points and +1 Spell Penetration. This enhancement requires at least one level of wizard.


 * Elven Arcanum II
 * Benefit: Grants elven wizards an additional 20 spell points, bringing the total increase to 40, and an additional +1 to Spell Penetration, bringing the total bonus to +2. This enhancement requires at least two levels of wizard.


 * Elven Arcanum III
 * Benefit: Grants elven wizards an additional 20 spell points, bringing the total increase to 60, and an additional +1 to Spell Penetration, bringing the total bonus to +3. This enhancement requires at least four levels of wizard.


 * Elven Arcanum IV
 * Benefit: Grants elven wizards an additional 20 spell points, bringing the total increase to 80, and an additional +1 to Spell Penetration, bringing the total bonus to +4. This enhancement requires at least eight levels of wizard.

PrEs
"We've got the Elemental Savants in Update 9, a couple of minor tweaks to a few others, and the next ones on the list I plan on after that are the Divine Avenger, Deepwood Sniper II, and Ninja Spy III." - Eladrin

"The three tiers of all four Elemental Savants are in Update 9." - Eladrin, DDO forums

Elemental Savants


 * Sorcerer prestige lines:
 * Air Savant (Update 9)
 * Water Savant (Update 9)
 * Earth Savant (Update 9)
 * Fire Savant (Update 9)


 * Favored Soul Prestige Line
 * Angel of Vengeance (Tier 1,Update 9)

"...And by "Divine Avenger", I meant "Angel of Vengeance". Sorry about that. Had Venging on the mind." 

Angel of Vengeance I: Will Provide a 20% additional damage to some divine spells,and have a defensive, debuffing aura. It was also mentioned that both Angel of Vengence I and II are coming out with Update 9. 

Sorcerer\Wizard

 * Earth Savant enhancements
 * Sorcerer_n_Wizard_enhancements_Update9

Spell System Overhaul
Eladrin

Lightning Bolt SP Cost: 12 Effect: A powerful stroke of electrical energy deals 4 to 6 electricity damage per caster level (up to a max of 40 to 60 damage at caster level 10) to targets in its path. A successful Reflex save reduces the damage by half. For each enemy this spell strikes it has a 50% chance to fork, replicating the spell's effect on that target. This can only happen once. This spell is a bolt and has double range. D&D Dice: Deals 1d3+3 electricity damage per caster level (max 10d3+30).

Melf's Acid Arrow SP Cost: 6 Effect: Deals 2 to 8 acid damage +1 per caster level to a target with a magical arrow of acid for a duration of 12 seconds. The arrow has double spell range. D&D Dice: Deals 2d4+1 acid damage per caster level (max 2d4+20).

Torc


 * Burning Hands (down to 4 SP – other stats unchanged)


 * Melf’s Acid Arrow (down to 6 SP – Damage updated to 2d4 + 1 per caster level, duration locked to 12 seconds, now has double range, can no longer be enlarged or extended, ray targeting has been improved)


 * Scorching Ray (down to 6 SP – now has double range, can no longer be enlarged, ray targeting has been improved.)


 * Lightning Bolt (down to 12 SP – now has double range and 50% change to hit each target twice (back stroke!) – targets get an additional save against the back stroke). Can no longer be enlarged.


 * Wall of fire ( up to 35 SP – targets now get a reflex save when they first enter the effect, but no saves against the flames if they remain in the wall. Now only does an additional 2d6 against undead instead of double. Duration is now locked to 30 seconds regardless of level. Can no longer be extended)


 * Delayed blast fire ball: (25 SP/12 sp for trap version): trap cool down increased to 15 seconds, 10 seconds for sorcerers


 * Incendiary cloud (Cost remains 45 SP – Now does 2d4 + 1 per caster level in fire damage, no save. Duration locked to 30 seconds. Blind effect (previously no save) now has a reflex save. Can no longer be extended)


 * Polar Ray (Cost down to 15 SP, range doubled, can no longer be enlarged, ray targeting has been improved.)

''So there is a lot going on here, and this is only a fraction of the changes going in to the spell pass. Essentially the cost of spells are being weighted now much more on their performance, method of engagement and the number of targets they effect rather than the old level-based formula.''


 * Low level spells that cap early (like burning hands) got discounted greatly.


 * Drop and kite AOE dots such as wall of fire are now being treated as a more expensive/powerful attack form as we feel they really should be compared to other damage spells.


 * Instant AOE spells got discounted some, to make them more appealing compared to waiting on kiting monsters through aoe dots.


 * Single target damage and bolts are getting much cheaper, single target dots are getting cheaper and getting their effectiveness boosted.


 * “Trap” type spells got really cheap to hopefully make them with consideration given the prep time they take, but had their cool downs increased to make them not a strict replacement for other in combat AOEs.

WHAT ABOUT CC?
Yeah okie, we mucked around with CC a little, and it goes into debuffs some… Here are a few high lights.


 * Largely CC costs remained the same


 * HD/HP caps we’re removed from most effects (yeah, I guess I should talk about death effects now, but oh, sleep works now!)


 * Many debuffs had their cost reduced, and some had carrier debuffs added to them that temporarily reduced will saves regardless if the target saved against the original debuff.

Examples:


 * Crushing Depair: Cost reduced to 20 SP, now applies a weakn will effect for 15 seconds regardless of saving throw from original effect (will -5).


 * Touch of Idocy: Cost reduced to 5 SP, Now also weaks foes will save for -5 for 15 seconds regardless of save.

''The notion is saving many of our under used debuffs and allow casters to punch harder targets/hit more reliably and get longer effect out of effects with quick re-occurring saves. That’s is if their willing to use a spell slot, and the spell points.''

DEATH EFFECTS:
Chaaanngggeeee….


 * Costs remained the same.


 * We’re pulling the death wards off epic and many pieces of content that had death proof monsters. There have been adjustments to “vorpal” weapons and the like that made us more comfortable with this change. Eladrin posted on these elsewhere if you’re looking for the sneak preview of that…


 * Death spells had their cool downs increased, just a little on single target spells, a bit on AOEs. Single target spells are typically on a 8 second cool down, 6 seconds for sorcerers while AOE death effects are typically 30/25 respectively.


 * Death spell on save damage was increased, so a blue hexagon won’t be a total waste of spell points, yet there will be more agro. We realize this and currently approve. Attempting to death a monster is a hate-able offense.


 * There are some old death spells that got a new look and now their back in town:

Circle of Death: Now effects all targets regardless of Hit dice; Has been updated as follows:


 * Rains dark energy into an area. Living Creatures are subject to a death effect; getting a reflex save and then a fortitute save to avoid death. Targets who succeed against the reflex save suffer no ill effect, but creatures who success against the fortitute save will still lose 1d4 energy levels.

Power word: Kill!


 * Upper hit point cap removed except in PVP. Kills, no save, but spell resistance applies.
 * 240 second cool down for wizards, 210 second cool down for sorcerors

SPELL POINT REGEN:
Echoes of Power

We’ll be introducing a limited form of spell point regen for players who have “magical training” (as in the feat). This is to avoid a true “out of gas” situation for our casters. The concept is that when a caster drops below a certain spell point threshold a spell point regen effect known as “echoes of power” applies itself until the caster reaches that threshold again. The goal is to allow low level players continue to cast level 1 spells at a diminished rate when their “out of gas” while high level players will be able to continue to use their PRE-s with the meta magics they normally require for high level play.

Currently in testing… these values are examples mind you…


 * Echoes of power will appear when a player drops below 12 SP.
 * Echoes of power will allow the player to regenerate at a rate of 4 SP every 6 seconds.
 * Echoes of power will remove itself once a player reaches 12 SP or greater.

ETERNAL WANDS:
Not going to go into details here yet but eternal wands got a pass that increased their recharge regeneration rate and added desirable caster mutations.

Some Divine info with just a little bit of bard.
Here are some sample changes to the divine side of things…Torc


 * Nimbus of light: reduced to 4 SP.
 * Command: reduced to 6 SP.
 * Cure Light Wounds: reduced to 8 SP.
 * Cure Moderate Wounds: reduced to 12 SP.
 * Bestow Curse: reduced to 10 SP
 * Searing Light: reduced to 8 SP.


 * Contagion: Cost reduced to 8 SP. Diseases provided by this spell that do ability damage now do it at a rate of X stat damage every 30 seconds instead of 60 seconds. Slimy Doom now does 6d6 acid damage every 6 seconds. As before two saves apply, one against damage, if successful save again to end the effect.


 * Glyph of Warding: </B>reduced to 6 SP. 15 second cool down.
 * Divine Power:</B> Now uses a faster cast animation. Cost unchanged.
 * Holy Smite:</B> reduced to 15 SP.
 * Implosion:</B> Cost & cool down unchanged, but now does 4 – 6 pts of untyped damage per caster level on a successful save to the target. Failed save results in death (still!).

and some Bard</B> love...


 * Shout</B>: Cost reduced to 6 SP, uses faster casting animation. Change shared with wizards/sorcerers.


 * Great Shout:</B> Cost reduced to 15 SP, uses faster cast animation. Change shared with wizards/sorcerers.

Crafting

 * "Full Crafting System"
 * "Implementation of a full crafting system is underway. We don't have a release date yet, but we are working hard on it." "High level powerful items will certainly be one of the material goals of crafting, but characters will also be able to make all sorts of items that can be used by characters of all levels." "To begin with, the crafting system will focus on the making of equippable items like weapons, shields, armor, and accessories. Magic arrows and potions certainly may come later." - Piloto, Stratics dev chat
 * Major crafting update is coming with Update 9
 * lorehound.com video page
 * Direct link to video
 * discussion thread
 * In the current implementation you will not lose crafting XP when TRing.

Dark Monks
Eladrin
 * The Karmic Strike finisher no longer leaves the monk helpless. The effect has changed to "Fire-Dark-Fire Finisher - You have learned to strike at the moment your opponent is most vulnerable - the same moment your opponent strikes you. This attack is guaranteed to produce critical threat if it hits, but costs 20 hit points to perform."

Item Fixes
Genasi
 * Epic Telekinetic has been fixed for Update 9, actually. The DCs were never a problem, it was actually that it was proccing only on a low percentage of crits instead of every crit. Now it behaves as it should.

Genasi
 * Wanted to let you all know that most of these issues have been addressed for Update 9. The Epic Envenomed Cloak's Greater Poison Guard DC was fixed (to 28, in accordance with the description), as well as the issues with the Epic Telekinetic effect. The problem with Epic Telekinetic was actually not the DC- as some of you seem to have noticed, it was actually that the proc rate was exceptionally low. Basically, the effect was set to have a very small chance to go off on critical hits, when per the description it should have been happening on all critical hits. I'm assuming that wasn't intended, and it is fixed now.


 * As for the Epic Might of the Abishai set bonuses, a change/fix was made here as well. Testing showed that the +3 bonus to evocation caster levels was working, but not the +3 to conjuration caster levels. The second effect has actually been changed to a +3 increase to your conjuration spell DCs instead, as this was seen to be a more beneficial bonus.