Spell Pass Preview - Chaaannggeee!

[Jiirix]

Originally Posted by gurth83
Will bard get mana regen too? Please yes...

Sure, as long as you are at least 12th level and as spellsinger.

http://ddowiki.com/page/Spellsinger_enhancements
Spellsinger I requires magical training or one of the other listed feats. Spellsinger I and II grand 100 SP each, but I am not sure if that counts as "magical training". Can a spellsinger please check this: Is magical trainging listed among your feats? Would love to see the sp regen on spellsingers, it would fit them nice.

[Daunth]

It's funny how many people are reacting to the Firewall nerf by saying the game is being dumbed down.

These people perhaps thought that kiting mobs in a FW was some sort of pro manouver that took them years to master, but truth is, Firewall was the real thing dumbing down arcane casters' gameplay. By nerfing it, the effect is the opposite, the game becomes more challenging.

Also, the changes mostly affect early levels when a newbie will find himself oosp after a short while (and he can't learn to save mana, because he often doesn't have other tools to kill mobs). The spell price change will have a lesser impact as you progress in levels and metamagics, although it will increase the number of spells to cast between rests for sure.

I'm not commenting on the other issues (epics, death spells & so on), but I'm sure these changes will overall improve the gaming experience for casters who are not top notch DDO players with twinked TRs

[red_cardinal]

4. Lightning Bolt (down to 12 SP – now has double range and 50% change to hit each target twice (back stroke!) – targets get an additional save against the back stroke). Can no longer be enlarged.

Well, kobold shaman will destroy us in durk's and WW elite. I already see it now. Not to mention epic Von1 and those
incendiary clouds. Sigh! This will change the game completely.

[Dendrix]

Selectivly locking out the use of metamagics on a lot of spells devalues the meta-magics immensly.

I really dislike that for a variety of reasons.
It really devalues the class ablity of wizards - having the 5 extra meta-magic feats is a defining ability of wizards, one of the critical ways in which they differe from sorcerers.
Choice is good, saying X does not work reduces choice and that is bad.
Extend not applying to offensive spells devalues that feat.

[Argila]

So much blabla just to nerf the Wall of Fire...

• Death spells had their cool downs increased, just a little on single target spells, a bit on AOEs. Single target spells are typically on a 8 second cool down, 6 seconds for sorcerers while AOE death effects are typically 30/25 respectively.

30/25 seconds of cooldown for a Wail? ***?
What will do a PM now? Scream at the monsters to see if they die laughing?

Power word: Kill!

Up to 4 minutes of cooldown!? Just remove the spell instead what is the point of having it anyway.

Echoes of Power

So... instead of not being able to cast anymore any spell you will end up not casting any spell anymore. 12SP? bah

[zebidos]

With all these changes many sorcs will need to re specify which spells they want, at the moment sorcerers have to pay a sizable fee for and wait 3 days..per spell.

As this is quite a change in the caster mechanics can sorcerers get a month of free spell changes with no waiting period?

Or should we all just buy a lesser heart of wood to change all our spells....

[AMDarkwolf]

OF all the arguments so far, one thing stands out, and that's that this broad of a change was not needed. At all.

The TWF nerf(to fix the lag lol) was bad as it was. Now the game feels slow on any 'normal' melee(IE: not a monk or rog acrobat, etc, the basic fighting speed feels sluggish, and no longer the twitch feeling it was before this change)

I still am not sure how I like the doublestrike thing for melee, I live with it, but all the new changes seem to me that the dev's (Or whatever nitwit was in charge) saw what was most 'liked' about melee and buffed it(IE: people liked str more, cuz it was just the better choice at end game than dex, so they buffed it with Horcs, and considering the monk elemental stances, there is almost NO reason to go anything but fire now. None. U lose 2 wis but that's a drop in the bucket for what you gain.

Just to illustrate the point, Look at the jidz bracers from the house D series.

Fire gets 25% heal amp... Stacks with everything. Good forever from the level you slap them puppies on, its ALWAYS helpful, never becomes obsolete.

Air gets +10 jump, something that is pointless if anyone can cast the jump spell, has the morah's belt, or puts in any amount into the skill.

Water gets a poison vorpal. A POISON VORPAL. This is sad.

Earth gets an upgrade to fist damage. (A good thing yes... but not when you consider actually BEING in earth stance will drop your DPS more than the higher die would get you)


Why is it that you either nerf the best loved or boost it beyond the others so **** far?

Why not (again looking at monk stances) make the OTHER stances more desirable? IE: Earth loses the slowing aspect, DR stacks with anything, air get its stack-able attack speed bonus back -make it untyped- and water get a bonus to dodge that stacks with anything(Due to the fact that the idea behind water is that you flow around things and is not quite 'solid')

Im sorry, but as so many have said, I strongly believe that this 'change' is just too much too fast. I also believe that you dev's should REALLY play the game sometime and try ALL aspects, not just what your 'favorite' is

Sword and shield, ranged, etc, all deserved a 'look' at them before casters did imo!

[AMDarkwolf]

With all these changes many sorcs will need to re specify which spells they want, at the moment sorcerers have to pay a sizable fee for and wait 3 days..per spell.

As this is quite a change in the caster mechanics can sorcerers get a month of free spell changes with no waiting period?

Or should we all just buy a lesser heart of wood to change all our spells....

That would make the people counting the money very happy. of COURSE its what they want.(Even if there was no changes lol)

[Razcar]

...the last time a mele got nerfed. Why always the casters.

Ehh... how about this one, for starters? http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=251248
Over 3 700 posts, 188 000 reads.

[Absolute-Omniscience]

OF all the arguments so far, one thing stands out, and that's that this broad of a change was not needed. At all.

<snip>

Is it just me or was this totally off-topic?

Casters NEEDS (needed) a change, and this a great one. The system was designed so that only like 10 spells out of all of em was useful, and damage spells were close to useless endgame. That is not good design. Especially when you've got a class (sorceror) who's weakness is supposed to be "lack of spells", but is not the case when there are hardly any useful ones.
(Disregarding the fact that wizards were the only useful arcane, due to the CC-fest that was epic.)

My point is, while sword and board, ranged, and some monks stances needs changes, it's hardly as urgent as the arcane changes.
And since this patch releases Savant, they need to overhaul it, otherwise any savant pre except ice and maybe fire is going to be useless.

[Hutoth]

Awesome!

Seconded

[Lycurgus]

I think the devs have done a good job identifying some of the problems in the game as it stands and have taken some intriguing approaches to addressing those concerns. My worry is that the solutions aren't going to resolve the fundamental problems. The nearly universal reliance on WoF in lower level content and mass holds in epic is boring. The need for mass hold in epic content limits options and makes almost every run identical.

The solution appears to be to force arcanes into a sustained dps role, while versatility in spell choice is being severely limited (unless, of course, the caster puts only a few points into various elemental lines). Mashing the same SLAs in sequence interspersed with the occasional polar ray doesn't sound much more interesting than what we've got now.

Not to bemoan impending doom, but I didn't build an enchantment specced AM to suddenly discover I'm supposed to be sustained dps. Pew pew. Maybe some arcane variation of manyshot will be introduced to work with the SLAs. Joy.

[DrDetroit]

Is it just me or does Echos of Power make Niac's Cold Ray a spell every arcane must have?

5d5 + 25 damage for an average of 40, +40% Enhancement +50% Superior Potency for a typical damage of 84.

Take the crit Enhancements and using a Major Ice Lore weapon you get a 18% chance of dealing 231 damage.

Wait 18 seconds and do it again.

For a Sorc, add 20% to the damage for Capstone, so 101, then the crit for 278 damage. Cost, 1 SP for Water Savants with a 3 second cool down. Water Savant Sorc's would never run out of spell points while using this SLA.

Sorc's could even take the Spell and swap back and forth to deal more damage.

So Echo's of Power and Water Savant is a never ending source of damage.

[DelverRootnose]

Ehh... how about this one, for starters? http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=251248
Over 3 700 posts, 188 000 reads.

....mele's can whine about nothing. This will actually effect casters where the mele change just changed how things feel and did VERY little to change DPS output or playstyle.

[Absolute-Omniscience]

Oh and if you are saying the water savant will be overpowering let me pose this question to you. Why do so few arch mages use the 6sp maximized empowered chain missile spell. It is an incredibly powerful spell for the SP cost. Take a guess why it is rarely used.

Water savants will be overpowered because they can have 1500 DPS, which is almost three times as much as a barbarian in perfect gear, and in an ideal situation.
Just using free spells on a water savant will let them have up to 500-600 dps.

[DelverRootnose]

Water savants will be overpowered because they can have 1500 DPS, which is almost three times as much as a barbarian in perfect gear, and in an ideal situation.
Just using free spells on a water savant will let them have up to 500-600 dps.

I already have that much DPS with a polar ray, actually more like 2000-3000 on crit, and you did not even address the chain missle question which by the way I get 400-450 points damage on first strike and about 50 points each for the multiple additional target missles

[barghest]

I guess all I can say is, thanks for answering my question as to what I'm going to TR my caster into.... a Barbarian.

[Spoprockel]

Any words about changes to grease?

[Absolute-Omniscience]

Casters aren't getting a nerf. They are getting a systemic change that turns them into element-themed artillery.


It makes perfect sense for a melee DPS to look at it and say "Oh my god, look at your DPS that's so powerful" ....

... and perfect sense for a control-oriented caster to look at it and say "Oh my god, warping minds and shaping time and space is no longer efficient ... I've become a straight DPS class"



Maybe the sorcerers are very effective Ice-Ray DPS. If it comes at the expense of everything else ... yawn. Other games do that with their casters; sad to see DDO moving away in that direction.

I suppose you can look at it that way. But I think you're overestimating the nerf on hold monster. It's still going to be amazing, just not "use it or be useless" and "use it and its super-easy".
THe only thing that is really nerfed is the CC part of a caster, and that being hold monster primarly. Which doesn't get that nerfed to be honest ,classes such as rogues will be a lot stronger now, and monks will be relatively stronger, etc.
Bottom line: for the current end game, and probably the upcoming endgame, this change will be a huge buff to casters. And there will be more playstyles than just CC.

[Aaxeyu]

Finally a nerf to WoF. Too bad it has already pretty much messed up the whole game (the root cause of 5-10k HP mobs is the incredibly overpowered WoF). Lets hope it's not irreversable.