Weekly Development Activities 3/31/2008

[MysticTheurge]

There is nothing here justifying Pure Palidin through Level 16.

Yeah, but there's stuff for Paladin 18 and Paladin 19.

And you've got to be Paladin 16 before you can get either of those.

[Gratch]

UPDATED Paladin Divine Sacrifice I

• Prereq: Paladin level 5, Paladin Extra Smiting I, 15 Action Points spent
• Cost: 1 Action Point
• Benefit: Giving up some of your life force to win the battle, you empower your next blow against your foe. This attack deals an additional 5d6 Good damage to evil opponents and increases the critical multiplier of your weapon by 1, but costs you 10 hp and 1 sp, whether or not the attack is successful.". (6 second cooldown.)

So I finally figure out what to do on my UMD character who now has a +6 cha skills shroud item that has 300 sp on it for a character with no sp bar. Why take a 4th level of paly at the next level raise (mod 8?), so I can swap between casting virtue and using Paladin Divine Sacrifice. Mean devs reading my mind and wondering, "But will you take two levels of paladin for that?".

Nope... probably not.

[MysticTheurge]

NEW Rogue Way of the Thief Acrobat II
Cost: 2 Action Points
Prereq: Rogue Level 12, Rogue Way of the Thief Acrobat I, Rogue Dexterity III, 42 Action Points Spent
Benefit: Grants an additional +2 bonus to Balance, Jump, and Tumble skills, increases your movement rate by 10%, and 2 extra uses per rest of Uncanny Dodge. Also grants a greater increase to attack speed with staves and complete immunity to knockdown effects and slippery surfaces.

Oh, and... is there a point to having a Balance bonus if you're immune to knockdown?

Or is that simply in there on the off-chance that balance becomes useful for something else in the future?

[Aeneas]

How are more people not excited about rogue way of the assassin 2?? Oh that's right, you all multiclassed, ROFL.

Guess i should start hoarding more invis clickies - watch your back stormreach.

[Aspenor]

How are more people not excited about rogue way of the assassin 2?? Oh that's right, you all multiclassed, ROFL.

Guess i should start hoarding more invis clickies - watch your back stormreach.

High level rogues, FTW!!!!!

I can finally finally FINALLY play my rogue the way I have always dreamed it!!!

[Tolero]

Just like nothing "happened" to +Sir?

Hey something definitely "happened" to +Sir, no one can find him. The Coin Lords and The Twelve have been awfully quiet about it.

[rpasell]

High level rogues, FTW!!!!!

I can finally finally FINALLY play my rogue the way I have always dreamed it!!!

And, how much fun is my pure class halfling rogue going to have with WotA, and Halfling guile?

oooo and Cunning as well.

[Ustice]

I would like to make a comment on the Paladin Redemption Enhancement...

While I am all for giving Paladins some more love (since a BIG part of the class from PnP is missing in DDO), I think that this goes too far outside of the bounds of the source. As far as I am aware, there isn't a precident for paladins having the ability to raise someone from the dead. They don't even get Raise Dead, at their highest level. While I can get behind the idea of giving them this ability, it seems odd to not apply this to the Cleric class as well. What I suggest is to change the ability that this is based on from Lay On Hands to Turn Undead, and then make this enhancement line available to Clerics as well. After all, clerics should be able to specialize in this sort of thing at LEAST as well.

[dragnmoon]

Nothing "happened" to him. No need to panic hehehe.

Yet............

[Taerdra]

2 more levels to go for my rogue... can't wait.

[jggbear]

Hi Tolero,

Excellent WDA, however, I havent seen anything that tells me of fixing things that are broken of Mod 6:

1.- Horns as Ingredients, will they be usefull in next mod?

2.- Collectable quests on the shroud
They are not working at all.

3.- Drop rates of Chipmunk Funk, Twigs and Pebbles, they should be revised, because they are very very rare.

4.- Drop rate of Khyber Dragonshards. For my Wizard is becoming almost impossible to get enough (10K) shards to use the Trap the soul spell.

Will there be some more 8 lvl spells for Wiz, Sorc and Clrs.

Will there be more recepies for Soul Gems.

Thanks a lot for your answers.

I REALLY LOVE THIS GAME. BEST ONE IN THE WORLD.

Pargos Ranger / Rogue / Figther
Kyrolyro Wizard

[RavenStormclaw]

Someone pointed out that there a now so many rez clickie in the game etc...that Paladin redemtion series isn't all that great. Well that is nice but Redeption 3 is restored to full health...back into battle instantly no healing needed...a 500 hp barbarian back into action instantly. That is a powerfull ability...non interuptable mind you. I will take that over a one time/rest green steel clickie any day. Thanks the gods my Pali is going pure to 20 now.

[dragnmoon]

well firewall would mean that clerics have the fire domain..... oh wait, yeah we dont have domains in ddo.

Yet another nerf in the long list of nerfs to clerics in DDO. Hey but Pallies can use turn undeads to cast a level 9 cleric spell now. WOOT.

Wouldn't a Nerf require it had been there in the first place to take away?..

I think we need Cleric Love for all clerics...but the ones Cowdenicus play..

[maddmatt70]

yeah, the problem with that complaint is that both DCs and skill values raise LINEARLY as you level.

spell DCs go up 1 every 2 character levels.
skill DCs (and therefor fascinate DCs) go up 1 every 1 character level.

this linear relationship would be easier to see if i had used the same stat modifier at lvl1 & 16, but i went for the more "real case" example.

Let me break it down for you. Fascination has in effect the slowest casting time of any spell in the game and its effects are less beneficial then spells such as hold monster mass, high level fireball, mass suggestion, etc. The advantage that it had previously was an auto success. At high level the spell effects that arcanes and bards have for that matter outweigh fascinate other then for occasional situation as a tactic, but at low levels the arcanes don't have the same caliber/spell points, etc so the usefulness of fascinate is greater. I would want fascinate to be a 75-80% success rate at low-mid levels otherwise its usefulness as a tactic at low levels begins to disappear. Either or dramatically speed up its casting time. Finally, I think fascinate is cool and good for the game.

[Dylos_Moon]

Hey something definitely "happened" to +Sir, no one can find him. The Coin Lords and The Twelve have been awfully quiet about it.

The coin lords were probably bribed, they are descended from pirates after all. Of course, even without bribes, likely Omaren is the only one that might care, or that might be phased, since she sees the Deneith as her own personal army.

As for the Twelve, they never cared about Stormreach to begin with.

Stormreach has abandoned +Sir, left him to rot in Shavarrath, and now Tolero is trying to do the same with Q!

[stockwizard5]

Yeah, but there's stuff for Paladin 18 and Paladin 19.

And you've got to be Paladin 16 before you can get either of those.

I see another crit every two quests and a tier 2 Greensteel clicky that requires 12 APs instead of none for 8 levels of Paladin?

Paladins need to be a destructive force against evil and undead.

[Laith]

Let me break it down for you.

at low level, it will continue to be one of the most broad-spectrum, biggest AoE, effective CCs at your disposal. with a save that easily rivals all other spells available to you.
to get that 70-95% success rate, odds are the bard would have to use some enhancements, skill boosts, or their low level buff spells (heroism, eagles splendor, etc).

at high level, it will continue to be nigh "un-saveable".

in both cases, it will still remain largely unused.

[EspyLacopa]

It is really easy to cherry pick numbers like you did. At 1st level and 16th level fascinate will be at its strongest. The 1st level for 4 ranks in the skill and the 16th for the inevitable items you will get. The levels that are worrisome are 4th - 12th. 4th level fascinate is +11 + roll which will land alot less then now currently. Bards love fascinate and think it is cool, but if it doesn't help that takes away another nice feature in the game.

Worried about intervening levels? Don't be. Let's assume that the bard in question has 14 charisma, and goes up to 16 around lv10, due to a basic +2 charisma item.

Level < 10 : d20 + lvl + 5 [so, d20 + 6 to 14, avg of 16.5 to 24.5]
Level >= 10: d20 + lvl + 6 [ d20 + 16 to 22, avg of 26.5 to 32.5]

Compare to wizard/sorc/cleric with maxed out casting stat at level 1 (18 typically): Shall do side by side comparison of what the Bard's got. Take note, the Bard is very low balling it(14 base charisma, and just +2 cha from an item), whereas the Caster is min/maxing(+6 item, +2 tome, +4 leveling, whole spiel).
Wiz Lv1: 10+4+1: 15 ---- d20 + 6, avg 16-17
Wiz Lv3: 10+5+2: 17 ---- d20 + 8, avg 18-19
Wiz Lv5: 10+6+3: 19 ---- d20 + 10, avg 20-21
Wiz Lv7: 10+7+4: 21 ---- d20 + 12, avg 22-23
Wiz Lv9: 10+8+5: 23 ---- d20 + 14, avg 24-25
Wiz Lv11:10+9+6: 25 ---- d20 + 17, avg 27-28
Wiz Lv13:10+10+7:27 ----d20 + 19, avg 29-30
Wiz Lv16: 10+11+8:29 ----d20 + 22, avg 32-33

Looks like that Bard, the entire way, generally keeps up the pace with that min/max Wizard. Let's toss in Perform Items for some of those levels!

Wiz Lv1: 10+4+1: 15 ---- Bard 1: d20 + 6, avg 16-17
Wiz Lv3: 10+5+2: 17 ---- Bard 3: d20 + 9, avg 19-20 [+1 Perform Item]
Wiz Lv5: 10+6+3: 19 ---- Bard 5: d20 + 11, avg 21-22
Wiz Lv7: 10+7+4: 21 ---- Bard 7: d20 + 15, avg 25-26[+3 Perform Item]
Wiz Lv9: 10+8+5: 23 ---- Bard 9: d20 + 17, avg 27-28
Wiz Lv11:10+9+6: 25 ---- Bard 11: d20 + 22, avg 32-33[+5 Perform Item]
Wiz Lv13:10+10+7:27 ---- Bard 13: d20 + 24, avg 34-35
Wiz Lv16: 10+11+8:29 ---- Bard 16: d20 + 29, avg 39-40[+7 Perform Item]

Huh. Suddenly, that matches that wizard on average at level 1. But the Fascinate DC increases faster than the Wizard's Spell DC, and by lv13 essentially nearly always has equal or better save DC on the fascinate. And it should still be noted, for it bears repeating. . .this isn't even close to a Min/Maxed bard.

[Cowdenicus]

Wouldn't a Nerf require it had been there in the first place to take away?..

I think we need Cleric Love for all clerics...but the ones Cowdenicus play..

Do I even need to say it at this point?

[Zenako]

new Fascinate mechanics...

Ranks + Stat bonus + AP boost + Skill Boosts + Items + Spells + d20 = DC

Human level 4 bard I have

7 ranks + 5 stat + 0 AP + 2 HV + 3 item + 2 Heroism = (17-19) +d20 for the DC I will be getting at. Most of the time that will be close to 95% success anyway. Could also cast Eagles Splendor (Clickie etc) for another net of +1 IIRC. I could also choose to drop a few AP on Enhancing the skill, and may choose to now, where as before it was pointless.

As mentioned before, top end bards have no worries as it stands. The saves will be very very hard for any level appropriate mobs to resist with any success.