Season's Herald observations and feedback (repost)

[MaXimillionZero]

Reposted from closed beta forums since after brief testing in OB this still seems to apply.

So the prestige enhancement is obviously bugged currently, dealing ridiculous amounts of damage on certain spells. That's the most obvious bug with them currently, but there are others as well.

The cycle does not start automatically, but need to be forced on by using one of the 20-minute cooldown powers. This has to be done when you first pick the enhancement, as well as whenever you die.

The overrides are currently broken, applying the season they should, but not removing the other one, causing the bonuses and penalties to nullify each other.

Of the two enhancements granted access to by Season's Herald, Spring's Resurgence can be cast on multiple targets with no cooldown, and Crown of Summer removes all buffs from the caster when used.

Assuming the damage bug affects all spells affected by the enhancements, then they are also somewhat broken in that they do not affect several spells they should. I tested most of the spells available, and here are the results:

Receives damage bonuses:
Produce Flame
Call Lightning
Ice Storm
Call Lightning Storm
Wall of Fire
Fire Seeds (Both versions)
Body of the Sun
Firestorm
Finger of Death
Storm of Vengeance
All healing spells

Partially receives damage bonuses:
Creeping Cold
Greater Creeping Cold
These spells receive bonuses for the first two ticks only.

Do not receive damage bonuses even though they should:
Fire Trap
Flaming Sphere
Dehydrate (if the CON damage is supposed to be boosted in the first place)
Flame Strike
Fire Shield
Sunbeam
Ice Flowers
Sunburst

There are also several spells that deal Piercing, Bludgeoning, Force or Bane damage and are thus unaffected by the prestige enhancements. These should probably be looked at, either making the seasons also boost physical and force damage, or altering the damage types of these spells.

Mainly the following:
Splinterbolt
Salt Ray
Spike Growth
Enveloping Swarm
Earthquake

Also, Extract Water Elemental seems to be missing from the spell list, was it removed on purpose?

[decease]

fod receive a bonus? that doesn't sound very reasonable.. nor do i see much need..

[Burkhardt2010]

Reposted from closed beta forums since after brief testing in OB this still seems to apply.

So the prestige enhancement is obviously bugged currently, dealing ridiculous amounts of damage on certain spells. That's the most obvious bug with them currently, but there are others as well.



Given that it says in the discription that it gives max power to some spells, I dont think its a bug (also why there is a very large cooldown on it

[MaXimillionZero]

Given that it says in the discription that it gives max power to some spells, I dont think its a bug (also why there is a very large cooldown on it

How about you go read the PrE description again?

[decease]

Given that it says in the discription that it gives max power to some spells, I dont think its a bug (also why there is a very large cooldown on it

it was bugged.. it should start on it own.. with the ability to force change season every 20 minutes.. for now we have to waste our 20 minutes season change to start this thing up... kinda suck i know.. but we have to deal with it.. at least within beta..

[Vesuvium]

This feedback is extremely helpful. Thank you!

[Burkhardt2010]

How about you go read the PrE description again?

It states:


While summer is active you have +20 spell power and +1 caster level and max caster level when casting fire light or positive spells


Thats the exact wording... note the part where it says Max caster level

[Osma77]

that should me +1 to caster level and +1 to max caster level, they were just saving words because typing gets boring after a while.

[Mr.Bob]

The damage from the boosted is not normal at all its on a factor of 10 times damage.

My fire walls with no metamagic feats is 600 to 1,200 a tick. The call lighning is hitting for 1,700 to 3,200 for only 12 sp.

I love the damage but other players will complain about the power level ballance if this isn't fixed.

...and i would like to see how the caster aspect of druid is going to be befor beta ends.

but if they keep this power level on the Seasons Herald it will be my new favorite toon....:)

[Drak]

If you die you now lose your seasons herald, and remain on the cooldown timer.
"AFK 20min while my timer wears off"

[Detton]

As of... well, now! ... it seems that Season's Herald is no longer producing overpowered results from spells. I has a sads, but it's probably for the best. :)

[ArcherBarry]

I saw same. Means im out of beta. Due to hard time finding a group on beta i was soloing with my druid. That was easy before, now first time i tried it in the underdark city i die. Maybe its possible but id rather do stuff on live than that.

[magicswolf]

Well I got to say. First season herald was OP. But in my opinion its now to weak.

[Furbitor]

Well I got to say. First season herald was OP. But in my opinion its now to weak.

I agree. Well that I knew the nerf bat was going to hit the druid hard, Ye godz not THAT hard...

I went from soloing anything I wanted to needing a full party escort for my druid. :(

[Gulain]

Well I got to say. First season herald was OP. But in my opinion its now to weak.

The problem with it, in my opinion, is particularly 2 reasons:

1) Does not have the aoe instant kill ability of Divines or Arcanes.

2) No SLA for cheap metamagic'd nukes.

I'm fine with the first one but the 2nd one in particular results in druid SP pool disappearing entirely too fast. With Torc and Conc-opp you could probably address this pretty heavily however most druid's on PTR do not have these.

SLA are pretty darn mandatory for caster PRE in this day and age. Otherwise maybe look into chance for sp-free procs on correct season in season herald as well? With their low sp pool they just can't sustain constant nuking the way a sorc can.

[Detton]

Maybe add sp reduction to relevant spell types in seasons. Encourage switching spells up with each season instead of using the 20-minute cooldown to stay in your "favorite" season. Will help sp issues and you CAN cast off season, but not with the benefits.

Just a thought. Don't know how far along development is or if a change like that could still be put in.

[Axtorus]

Well I got to say. First season herald was OP. But in my opinion its now to weak. agree, it went from ok damage need to be cut to 25%-35%.... to theres no no way I'm going to waste my time rolling one up.

[Memnir]

Well I got to say. First season herald was OP. But in my opinion its now to weak.
Definitely agree.
As much as I didn't like the broken version of the PrE, I didn't like the "fixed" version even more. I'm hoping that the correction was a bit overzealous, and when Druids go live there will be a bit more oomph to Herald. Otherwise, I'll probably just skip rolling a Druid at all. The animal forms do nothing for me - I actively hate them if truth be told - and if the casting PrE is lackluster as well, I'll just pass.

I'm not asking for it to go anyplace near where it was when it was broken, mind you. Just saying that the watered down version was too watery to feel like it was worth much.

[Xezrak]

Definitely agree.
As much as I didn't like the broken version of the PrE, I didn't like the "fixed" version even more. I'm hoping that the correction was a bit overzealous, and when Druids go live there will be a bit more oomph to Herald. Otherwise, I'll probably just skip rolling a Druid at all. The animal forms do nothing for me - I actively hate them if truth be told - and if the casting PrE is lackluster as well, I'll just pass.

I'm not asking for it to go anyplace near where it was when it was broken, mind you. Just saying that the watered down version was too watery to feel like it was worth much.

Yeah exactly how I feel as well, was thinking of TRing into a druid but apart from a cool bag of tricks doesn't seem that exciting in terms of utility in quests.