Update 79 Release Notes

Here are the release notes for Update 79: The Dragons' Hand, released on Wednesday, April 8th, 2026.

New Quest Pack: The Dragons' Hand!

A new quest pack is available: FREE to VIPs and available in the DDO Store!

What's more powerful than a Dragon? A Dragon with a Deck of Many Things, one of the most powerful magic artifacts around. Several different Dragons have acquired Decks, and it's up to you to deal with the resulting chaos. Can you stack the deck in your favor, or will you end up folding? The Dragons' Hand Adventure Pack is level 10 on Heroic and level 36 on Legendary and contains five quests. The NPCs to acquire the quests can be found in the House Kundarak enclave in Eberron - just look for the Dragon in the plaza near the House Kundarak bank.

News and Notes

Balance Changes and Small Features

• Cannith Crafting has been renamed to "Essence Crafting".
• Essence Crafting is now available in Eveningstar.
• Essence Crafting now supports the creation of items level 33 and 34.
• All previously-released Patron Coffers and Expansions that have a cosmetic claim NPC now have the option to reclaim a mount or pet certificate.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue with monster AI where certain monsters would sometimes go brain dead after being hit by a confusion effect.
• Two Weapon Defense now provides its +1 AC to Handwraps users.
• Lieutenant Rauva in Strike Back now requires the listed Diplomacy DC in her dialogue.
• Obscuring Mist in Dragon Disciple now lasts its intended duration.
• The Level 28 Topaz of Spell Penetration and the Level 32 Topazes of Melee and Ranged Power now properly drop from random loot.
• Paladin Vanguard's Action Boost: Power now triggers abilities that care about Action Boosts.
• Storm's Harness now has its correct border color and flavor text.
• The Icewalkers boots are now property Bound to Account.
• Legendary Experimental Rocket Boots (Minor Artifact Boots) are now properly Bound to Character.
• Fixed a typo in Black and Blue's DM text.
• Follow Up in Vanguard now lasts its intended duration of 30 seconds.
• The Elder's Knowledge set bonus now has its proper description in the buff bar.
• Fixed a bunch of tooltips in Lahar's Recipes.
• Fixed a string table error in Radiant Servant for both Cleric and Sacred Fist.
• The Legendary Gem of Many Facets now rolls for its correct Mythic boost.
• Snowslide now properly takes Stunning DC bonuses.
• Jaws of Winter now properly takes Stunning DC bonuses.
• Fixed a typo in Snowslide's description.
• Fixed the icons and names of a few Essence Crafting recipe related stacks of 15 collectibles.
• The items Nightforge Stiletto, Bloodletter's Knife, Threnalian Wardagger, Grievous Blade, Tenebrous Stiletto, Thunderforged Dagger, and Greensteel Daggers all now properly allow for Dexterity for to-hit and damage.
• Fixed some typos in the Eladrin and Chaosmancer racial tree.
• Fixed some typos in the Wild Mage enhancement tree.
• Scion of the Shadowfell's Negative Amplification no longer falls off on death.
• Nightshield now has a max caster level of 20.
• Healing Lore now has its proper name mutation for randomly generated items.
• Ameliorate now reliably applies its debuff to non-undead enemies and undead enemies that succeed on their saving throws.
• Elemental Weapons and Greater Elemental Weapons are now properly Crimsonite alchemist spells.
• The Double Daggers buff to offhand strike chance in Vistani Knife Fighter no longer falls off on death.
• Fixed a bunch of typos in Ravenloft quests.
• Epic Tinder now has its correct augment slots.
• Magic Missile cast from the Wizard past life feat does damage again.
• Arcane Trickster - Presto will no longer break certain quests if a critical monster that is normally immortal is presto'd.
• Dhampir's Jewelry Color and Aasimar's skin reflection color now properly save through character creation instead of returning to a default.

Engineering Changes

• The class info shown during character selection no longer abbreviates the class name of single or dual-class characters above level 20.
• Feats that change which ability score contributes to a saving throw now correctly compute the highest of available scores to use with your saving throws.
• Split-Set Filigree that have been slotted into Sentient Slots 7 and 10 now properly provide their full set bonuses.

32-bit Worlds

• Characters on the 32-bit game worlds who are in a "Reincarnate" state can now enter their 32-bit game world in order to reincarnate. Once reincarnated, these characters can now Pack and transfer. Read more about transfers from our 32-bit game worlds on DDO.com.

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Source: Official U79.0.0 release notes on DDO.com