UESPWiki:Podcast/2 11

News

UESP:

Giveaways on Stream on Wednesday

ESO:

Q3 and Q4 DLC titles announced in ESO Live and on the official website.
Q3 will be a dungeon DLC named Stonethorn. The two dungeons are Stone Garden and Castle Thorn. A lot of combat changes will be in this DLC, a preview is on the forums currently. By the time that the Podcast happens, Stonethorn should also be on the PTS for testing.
Q4 will be a story DLC called Darkstorm, the conclusion to the #DarkHeartOfSkyrim.
The names aren’t very inspiring but they have likely been chosen so as to avoid trademark clashes with other game IPs, e.g. even though we all believe that Q4 will be set in The Reach, we can’t have “ESO: Reach” because of Halo.
Stonethorn will include a NEW MOUNT TYPE! This is the two-player mount which can be used by the owner along with a group member.
Will be useful to keep large groups together, especially if there are a lot of newer characters with low mount Speed. Will be especially useful in Cyrodiil.
If the driver jumps out, both players are dismounted.
Stonethorn will also include NEW for HOUSING - character pathing. You will be able to set up movement paths, so that your pets and NPC assistants will no longer be fixed in one place! Will make the house feel more “alive”. 
Different pathing types too, "ping pong", loop, random... 
Also house guests - collectible characters.
Crown Store new items:
Pyre Watch Crafting Motif is available for 5000 Crowns. The Pyre Watch Motif Chapters and Book have a chance to drop in-game from the last boss of the Unhallowed Grave Dungeon.
Yorgrim River Ram - 3000 Crowns. Supposedly a sheep mount, looks more like a large goat.
Anthorbred Avalanche Dog - 1000 Crowns. A St Bernard, complete with brandy barrel around its neck.
Remember we mentioned that players would get a free Infernium Dwarven Spiderling pet when they verified their email address and opted in to marketing emails? These codes are STILL being sent out. So don’t panic if you haven’t received yours yet! (I haven’t got mine yet -- baratron)

Legends:

Lucky Gauntlet, alt art Royal Sage 

Blades:

crickets

Call to Arms:

Bethesda did share some Call to Arms miniatures painted. Very curious about their dedication in pursuing the tabletop war gaming market.

Other:


Supporters

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Llivia (you can find Llivia's work at: 
Theyn Tundris 
Phil 
Lauren

Twitch Subs:

Sporkyrat
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iTunes:


Wiki:


Scholarly Pursuits
I will ask our guests what they have been working on in the world of TES! This can be game play, wiki work, discord things, anything relevant to UESP/TES that you’ve been working on the past couple weeks / when you were last on the show.

Pylawn
Pushing more Antiquities
Also starting to grind some new gear on my tank
I want to start doing more dungeons and trials
Started blades again for awhile
My build is complete trash now haha
AKB
Spent a while reorganizing some things.
Alarra
Not here this week
Lost
…
Finished rewatch of Community. I cried.
I also cry in Last Airbender, or Lord of the Rings. Why don’t I cry in TES?
baratron
End of Midyear Madness on Wednesday, feels like a very long time ago.
I have mostly been dealing with health stuff and playing Animal Crossing.
UESP ran Veteran Hel Ra and got onto the Weekly Leaderboard, which meant everyone in the group got 2 pieces of gold quality gear and some Transmute Crystals.
Kiz
Not here this week

Topic: Stonethorn DLC

Update 27 Changes
New Dungeons
Lore background of dungeons?

New Dungeons:
Gwendis from House Ravenwatch will lead us through both dungeons. 

Castle Thorn is a vampiric dungeon in Western Skyrim. Lady Thorn has travelled extensively and made vampiric creatures which we haven't seen before, e.g. Senche-raht. 

Bosses:

# Dread Tindulra - Death Hound which guards the gates. 
# Blood Twilight. 
# Vaduroth - Wraith of crows - takes vampires who have fallen and turns them into super vampires, who will be mindless slaves. 
# Talfyg - Blood Knight. 
# Lady Thorn.

The new item set is styled as "Cold weather Vampire"

Stone Garden is a repurposed Dwemer area in Blackreach, turned into an alchemical lab. Can be found from THE GATE which people suspected would lead to Forgotten Vale. This gate has been made much more impressive in the Stonethorn DLC.

For the first time in a Veteran Dungeon, each boss will have a Hard Mode. Like Kyne's Aegis, you need to progress by completing Hard Mode on each boss in turn.

This dungeon is all about [a] werewolves, [b] potions. Arkasis the Mad Alchemist has created all sorts of new potions.

E.g. potions which allow players to turn into Werewolf Behemoths. Only 2 potions at a time so you have to decide who gets them. Since it’s an alchemical reaction, even Vampires can become Werewolf Behemoths.
Arkasis the Mad Alchemist also throws potions onto Stone Husks which changes how they behave - gives them lightning, ice etc. type attacks.

Bosses:

# Exarch Kraglen - Hulking Werewolf. 
# Stone something (will check before show)
# Arkasis is the final boss. Everyone gets the chance to become a Werewolf Behemoth during this fight.

From Update 27 onwards, all Veteran Dungeons will feature a new Challenge Banner for Hard Mode bosses. 

In this way, you will be able to see clearly while fighting if you're in Hard Mode or not. (Rather than having to remember whether you read the book, screamed and clutched your head!)
It's a toggle, so can be turned off (though NOT in the middle of a fight!).
These Challenge Banners have been retrofitted to Kyne’s Aegis in the Stonethorn DLC.

Performance Changes:
Many more Performance changes 



Persistent AoE Improvements:
Basically what they are doing is reducing the number of messages sent to the server verifying that a hit from an AOE ability has occurred which should reduce lag significantly.
They’re just starting with the dragonknight standard to make sure it works
Item Set Abilities
Same idea as the AOE abilities but reducing the number of messages indicating a proc has occurred
Trial Performance:
Trial servers were being overloaded by the launcher, so they adjusted the algorithm to spread them out more evenly

More Housing stuff:
Stonethorn will include 24 new Solitude furnishing plans to be earned from Skyrim Daily Reward Coffers.

These plans include a variety of structural furnishings, as well as a small number of new courtyard furnishings.

Also Rolis Hlaalu, the Mastercraft Mediator, will have seven new gold quality furnishing plans. Meanwhile, the 7 gold quality Elsweyr furnishing plans will have their prices reduced to 100 writ vouchers each, as is usual the year after release.

Changes to Sets and Skills
There are many. As usual, all balance changes may be adjusted over the course of the PTS testing cycle, so don’t panic.

The biggest change is probably swapping the position of Vigor and Rapid Maneuver in the Alliance War Assault line. Thus Vigor will be the first ability, and everyone will have access to a Stamina heal as soon as they do the “Welcome to Cyrodiil” quests on a character. Many of us are not sure what we feel about this because Rapid Maneuver is so useful for getting around quickly. -- baratron

There are several adjustments to Armor, Weapon, and Jewelry traits. The most surprising one is that the Divines Armor trait has been buffed, when it is already by far the preferred trait for most players in PvE content. However, there are also nerfs to several Mundus Stones.

I think my favourite of the lot is the “massive” nerf to Infallible Mage: “Reduced the damage bonus of Heavy Attacks to 900, down from 903.” *lol* -- baratron 

Darkstorm Prologue
The Darkstorm Prologue quest – A Gray Host Rises is available for testing on the PTS! 

Join Gwendis of House Ravenwatch as she seeks to uncover the mysterious origins of the dark army that now marches on Skyrim. You’ll need to first obtain the free Crown Store Quest Starter item, the House Ravenwatch Contract.