Invalid_82
10-27-2011, 06:53 PM
Disclaimer: This is strictly my opinion and is not intended as anything but opinion =)
I've played end game for awhile now and have had the chance to complete pretty much all epic content including epic LoB and MA as an ice savant. I've come up with some things that are lacking with regards to the savant PrE's and sorcs themselves. I'm just going to focus on the actual PrE and class itself and not itemization as that is a whole other topic of dicsussion.
The main problem I find with the PrE's is that they add nothing to the dc of our specialized school; that being evocation for all savant's except earth which is conjuration.
I like the idea that a wizard with equal gear and time invested is going to be able to push dc's higher then a sorc .. that is what turbine has built them towards doing. The one school that I don't feel that this should always be the case is in our primary damage dealing school - evocation or conjuration depending on savant. Right now boosting our evocation dc is tied to TR'ing as a sorc which is something any character can benefit from savant or not. It is sort of akin to say having wizard past lives adding +1 to necro that is available to anyone through TR, wouldn't make a lot of sense and is very difficult to balance npc saves around. The +3 evocation dc's available from TR'ing should have been added into the PrE itself imo to solidify what the PrE is about, much like how wizard PrE's perform. In the case of earth savant the increase would apply to conjuration. The sorc's past life passive feats should have been something more in line with the barbarian past life but for spell points, maybe 50 per past life and the dc's should be a part of the PrE itself.
I am pretty sure it will never happen that anything will change but that is just my opinion on the dc side of things. A savant is suppose to be the ultimate nuker .. it doesn't fit the PrE that it should be the ultimate medicore dc nuker. No classes dc's should be tied so heavily to past lives.
Just to summarize and make clear -imo- nothing to do with the sorc should increase charisma beyond the basic +3 class that everyone gets. Sorcs should not be able to push general dc's like a wizard, but they should have strong PrE enhanced dc's to their one and only one nuking school.
A final point about dc's
The major benefit to integrating the dc's to the PrE and excluding major increases from past lives is that it builds a more stable number for the dev's to balance npc saves around as it is far more predicatable what the majority of casters of all types will be at. Also the added benefit is that the top end of evocation dc will be around the top end achievable by an arcmage as well. This creates a very nice threshold to balance future content around. As it stands now the dc's are far to wide open and sorcs, wizards, arcmages, divines are going to be all over the place depending on PrE's and past lives.
I don't need to go much into the active past life feat. The wizard's is miles ahead of the sorc's. Perhaps the sorc's pastlife feat could provide double the spell points of the regular mental toughness feats to give it some kick and consideration. I doubt anything will change either way though.
This does bring up something though with regards to the sorc active past life feat and the mental toughness feats. Back when the game was level 10 mental toughness and its improved form were alright. With the game being at level 20 and the spell pools much larger they need an overhaul. Staying in line with the sorc double spell points idea perhaps these feats could allow double benefit to sorcs, this would be a welcome addition. The same could be said about energy of the dragonblood. As it stands now they are way way to weak to waste valuable feats and ap's on .. on an already feat starved and ap strectched class.
The PrE's themselves are pretty unique and interesting. Raising the caster level and max caster level is somewhat confusing and not really the best executed way of doing things imo but it is still unique. For pretty much all spells however your max caster level is going to be the roadblock to increasing damage and the extra caster levels provided by the PrE is largely wasted for almost all spells which is kind of sad. The elemental curse is a nice feature but maybe could use a shorter cooldown or an aoe type effect. It's main use is putting on the curse to apply dot's to epic end or raid bosses; so almost all of your time questing it is not used. I haven't used any but the fire and ice tier 3 cooldowns but imo those are just right in terms of cooldown and efficency. The icy prison is quite dependable and I find myself using it a lot in regular play.
I could go on but I'd like to get some feedback about what others think with regards to the above.
I've played end game for awhile now and have had the chance to complete pretty much all epic content including epic LoB and MA as an ice savant. I've come up with some things that are lacking with regards to the savant PrE's and sorcs themselves. I'm just going to focus on the actual PrE and class itself and not itemization as that is a whole other topic of dicsussion.
The main problem I find with the PrE's is that they add nothing to the dc of our specialized school; that being evocation for all savant's except earth which is conjuration.
I like the idea that a wizard with equal gear and time invested is going to be able to push dc's higher then a sorc .. that is what turbine has built them towards doing. The one school that I don't feel that this should always be the case is in our primary damage dealing school - evocation or conjuration depending on savant. Right now boosting our evocation dc is tied to TR'ing as a sorc which is something any character can benefit from savant or not. It is sort of akin to say having wizard past lives adding +1 to necro that is available to anyone through TR, wouldn't make a lot of sense and is very difficult to balance npc saves around. The +3 evocation dc's available from TR'ing should have been added into the PrE itself imo to solidify what the PrE is about, much like how wizard PrE's perform. In the case of earth savant the increase would apply to conjuration. The sorc's past life passive feats should have been something more in line with the barbarian past life but for spell points, maybe 50 per past life and the dc's should be a part of the PrE itself.
I am pretty sure it will never happen that anything will change but that is just my opinion on the dc side of things. A savant is suppose to be the ultimate nuker .. it doesn't fit the PrE that it should be the ultimate medicore dc nuker. No classes dc's should be tied so heavily to past lives.
Just to summarize and make clear -imo- nothing to do with the sorc should increase charisma beyond the basic +3 class that everyone gets. Sorcs should not be able to push general dc's like a wizard, but they should have strong PrE enhanced dc's to their one and only one nuking school.
A final point about dc's
The major benefit to integrating the dc's to the PrE and excluding major increases from past lives is that it builds a more stable number for the dev's to balance npc saves around as it is far more predicatable what the majority of casters of all types will be at. Also the added benefit is that the top end of evocation dc will be around the top end achievable by an arcmage as well. This creates a very nice threshold to balance future content around. As it stands now the dc's are far to wide open and sorcs, wizards, arcmages, divines are going to be all over the place depending on PrE's and past lives.
I don't need to go much into the active past life feat. The wizard's is miles ahead of the sorc's. Perhaps the sorc's pastlife feat could provide double the spell points of the regular mental toughness feats to give it some kick and consideration. I doubt anything will change either way though.
This does bring up something though with regards to the sorc active past life feat and the mental toughness feats. Back when the game was level 10 mental toughness and its improved form were alright. With the game being at level 20 and the spell pools much larger they need an overhaul. Staying in line with the sorc double spell points idea perhaps these feats could allow double benefit to sorcs, this would be a welcome addition. The same could be said about energy of the dragonblood. As it stands now they are way way to weak to waste valuable feats and ap's on .. on an already feat starved and ap strectched class.
The PrE's themselves are pretty unique and interesting. Raising the caster level and max caster level is somewhat confusing and not really the best executed way of doing things imo but it is still unique. For pretty much all spells however your max caster level is going to be the roadblock to increasing damage and the extra caster levels provided by the PrE is largely wasted for almost all spells which is kind of sad. The elemental curse is a nice feature but maybe could use a shorter cooldown or an aoe type effect. It's main use is putting on the curse to apply dot's to epic end or raid bosses; so almost all of your time questing it is not used. I haven't used any but the fire and ice tier 3 cooldowns but imo those are just right in terms of cooldown and efficency. The icy prison is quite dependable and I find myself using it a lot in regular play.
I could go on but I'd like to get some feedback about what others think with regards to the above.