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Epic Ward
Epic enemies have massive amounts of experience against adventurers that form an Epic Ward against many attack types.
Epic enemies have special attributes that give them a good chance to ignore stat damage effects, allow them to regenerate negative levels quicker than standard creatures and prevent them from being charmed for long periods.
- Ability damage - Effects such as Slicing Blow or Crippling Strike are less effective, as are Wounding, Puncturing, Weakening, Enfeebling
- Epic Elite: 50% chance to ignore ability score damage
- Epic Hard: 33% chance to ignore ability score damage
- Epic Normal/Casual: no special defenses against ability damage
- Epic enemies break out of charm-type spells faster than non-epic quests. Charms have roughly 1/8th to 1/16th their normal duration.
- Bug: Shining Star takes full effect
- Epic enemies recover from Negative levels faster than in non-epic quests 1 negative level every 3 seconds (versus 2 minutes on non-epic) DDO Forums
- Enervation, Energy Drain still work normally
- The damage that negative levels deal does not heal when the negative level expires
- Orange Named enemies with epic ward gain the effects of Deathblock
- Orange Named only. All other types (called minions in epic) do not have deathblock and may be insta-killed.
- Stun and other effects that render enemies helpless work as intended.
- Stat damaging effects are near useless but some mobs still can be made helpless by STR/DEX debuff from Waves of Exhaustion and Strength Sapping combo. This is particularly helpful on orange named, as they are quite tough on epic and do gain the effects of deathblock.
- Movement speed reduction
- Crippling - Works normally
- Hamstring, Tendon Slice - Works normally
- Limb Chopper works normally, even on many orange-named monsters with Epic Ward (confirmed with devils in Epic Chronoscope)
Update 9 has reduced the hit points of non-boss enemies in Epic quests and raids, while increasing their saving throws. This was done en masse by modifying the minion debuff that all non-named Epic monsters suffer. It's believed to lower hit points by -50%, and saving throws by only -1.