All Platforms will undergo maintenance on Thursday 15th June 2023, starting at

#NWXbox & #NeverwinterPS 6am PDT/9am EDT/ 2pm GMT+1 UK

#NWPC 7am PDT/10am EDT/3pm GMT+1 UK

2 hours estimated downtime

Patch Notes are now available:

Version: NW.290.20230424a.8

Release Notes

Combat and Powers

Companions

We’ve standardized how companions provide shield to players. There are a few key changes that have occurred to make the results more predictable, balanced, and hopefully fun!

• Companion shields stack with Player shields

• Companion shields do not stack with themselves, or, with other Companion shields

• Companions always provide Shields (blue bar), and not Temporary HP (yellow bar)

• Companion shields have a rough baseline of 5% of max hit points, for multi-target shields

• Companion shields have a rough baseline of 10% of max hit points, for single-target (summoner) shields

• Weaker Companion shields do NOT replace a stronger Companion shield

• A 10% shield will not be replaced with a 5% shield (uses current shield HP, not max)

• Note that this means you are unable ‘refresh’ a companion shield by applying a weaker one, even if the duration on the stronger one is about to expire

• We are testing this change with the intent of rolling it out to more shields if it’s liked

• Recharge time, Radius, etc. are less standardized, so some companions will have higher shield uptime, more reliable shields, etc.

• We may change baselines and such or make variations based on pet specifics going forward, but this is our starting target.

This has resulted in significant changes to the following shield-providing companions:

Barbarian Shaman

• Nature’s Wind provides a 5% shield to nearby allies

• Protecting Strike healing increased

Deva Champion

• Shielding Light provides a 5% shield to nearby allies

• Smiting Blows’s Critical Severity reduction no longer stacks with itself

Elminster Aumar

• Effulgent Epuration (active skill) can now be used at the start of combat

• Effulgent Epuration is a 10% summoner shield

• Cooldown and Duration adjusted as well

Erinyes of Belial, Avernus

• Devastating Opportunist power now displays on their companion info

• Devastating Opportunist update to be more reliable and usable in melee range

• Bloody Spiral provides a 10% summoner shield and 10% companion shield

• Bloody Spiral cooldown decreased to 15s -> 10s

• Bloody Vengeance passive reworked to add a small summoner heal to Bloody Spiral

• Rebalanced as a Single Target Support companion

Stronghold Cleric

• Reinforced Aid provides a 5% shield to nearby allies

•Reinforced Aid healing slightly decreased (to offset shield changes)

• Reinforced Aid radius increased

This has also necessitated a change to two companions’ player bonus powers:

Angel of Protection – Angel’s Insight

• Provides a 10% shield

Elminster Aumar – Effulgent Epuration

• Provides a 10% shield

Lastly, we took the time to clean up a few miscellaneous bugs with shields, such as making them consistently target all nearby friends (for multi-target ones) and having them behave consistently when exiting combat and a few other edge cases. Please let us know if you spot and odd behaviors with companion shields.

Other companion changes in this update:

Cleric Disciples

• Healing Word healing increased

• Fawns and Fireblossom Zealot

• Healing on Spring of Life and Fireblossom Bloom reworked to prevent excessive healing at low item levels

• Healing should be slightly higher at higher item levels, but more comparable to other heals at lower item levels

Scarecrow

• Horrid Gaze reworked; when buffed by Fearful Loathing passive, provides a 2s stun every 8s.

• Rebalanced as a Single Target companion

Skeleton

• Bonemeal and Tenderizer damage bonuses and stacking reworked and rebalanced

• Tenderizer now stacks and is consumed per Skeleton, rather than one big shared stack

• Rebalanced as a Single Target companion

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