Spell Pass Preview - Chaaannggeee!

[Thaxlsillyia]

The increased saves on enemies... where did this come from? I haven't seen anything form a dev on that? Which enemies are getting increased saves? Are they just restoring the old saves to Epics or is this a more general change?

check the specialist forum http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=307302

[dunklezhan]

OK thanks all. I'm still going to reserve judgement until all the changes are known though - still just a little too early for doom yet for me.

E.g.: the saves - all Eladrin said in that post in the specialist forum was:

be warned that we've also reduced the penalty epic trash has to their saves from the minion debuff (and chopped their hit point to about half of what they were before).

They've 'reduced' the save penalty not 'removed'.

[PopeJual]

People might want to think about the changes to autocrit in helpless state some more. What if these changes effect auto crit brought on by weakening/enfeebling handwraps or the that nice shinny wounding/puncturing pick you have. Going from x3 on your kophesh to x1.5 will be a real shocker for you.

I got Wounding of Pure Good picks so that I could break DR and I figured that the tiny crit range on the picks would mean that losing Puncturing wouldn't be a major downside. Add in the Icy Burst and Alchemical Force Crit ritual and those picks are *really* nice currently. Just like Vorpals, there isn't a lot of content where the enemies have enough HP to make them worth using, but in that content, they really shine.

I'm trying hard to hold back the wailing and gnashing of teeth until the update is actually released, though. It seems as though Turbine went out of their way to target my best stuff for the nerf bat.

...which actually makes sense since I went out of my way to go for the most cheesy and effective tactics that were currently legal.


I just want to know when they're going to announce the change to Khopeshes so that I can watch the internet actually catch fire with players' rage.

[fearlossPhiction]

changes look awful to me, how much more does this game need to be dumbed down? , the sp regen thing is a joke , if people cant manage the learning curve arc of a caster then they shouldnt play a caster.


all these changes and still no fixes to Archers ? or dare i say it the ladder bug lol!

[learst]

Before U9, though, a caster could make an enemy helpless and the spend 0 spell points to kill the critter. After U9, the caster can make an enemy helpless and then spend lots of spell points (depending on the critter's total HP even with the decrease in Epic trash HP) to kill the critter even with the new, reduced spell point costs. Damage per spell point (efficiency) is going to matter and the new, cheaper spell point costs will certainly help with that. Metamagic costs are not going down, though, so if you need to kill the held monster in a reasonable amount of time, your spell point costs are still going to be significant when you have Maximise or Empower (or both) turned on.

To me, this is a good thing. I've seen posts complaining how easy things are and how easy it is to solo on a caster. And then there are posts saying there should be ways to encourage grouping and gameplay.

Doesn't this encourage grouping? Why is the arcane CC expect to maul down the mob as well? Isn't that what's the melees are for? And also, there is no need for the arcane to use nuking spells; if he does then he runs the risk of running out of SP for further encounters. Doesn't this then encourage efficient SP management tactics?

[Weyborn]

Hey, looks like I can save a feat on my sorc and drop extend.

sweet

not to pick on you but as am reading through these pages I see a lot of people talking about extend being nerfed, nothing I saw on the original post shows extend being nerfed

why would you drop extend just because firewall is being capped. I can understand that it may be more difficult to kite a tod, but there are other choices of spells to use that will still last longer that can grab aggro

part of a being a good caster is the party buffs and many of those still benefit from the extending in the higher level quests. if you dont have a ship with fire resist buff you will still need extended fire resist in evon6

I may be old school, but a good caster in this game is good at crowd control and aiding the group. and crowd control to me is not a firewall and the caster jumping around it while the melee chases the mobs swinging at their back sides

invest your ability scores to raise your DC's, if you want to be a melee then roll a melee

as far as I am concerned these changes are going to separate the weak casters from the good ones and I think its about time it was done

[Absolute-Omniscience]

this statment proves you have no idea how most casters, and many smart melees, kill things that are in autocrit status. And yes this and the many other changes now seem to make casters into elemental DPS bots which can and will be replaced by pure melee classes. Unless all debuff immunities are removed from purple named raid bosses casters, especilly wizards, will be so inferior to pure melee toon they will be replaced in most groups by another barbarian.

You mean they abuse a broken mechanic? Yes, I know that, and yes I know it's a nerf in that sense. But the increase in spell damage AND the fact that they're reducing their hitpoints by about 50% makes up for it, more or less. Yes, you wont be able to mass hold and bash em in melee with 8 strength and kill them due to neg-levels anymore. And that is a nerf, but it'is neccessary and not as major as you think.

So, 3 times the DPS, buffs, CC, and instakills are replaceable by a melee class?
Yes, wizards are going to hurt a little bit compared to the GODS they are now. But they'll still be more than viable, with great CC, instakills and decent damage output (non-maximized / empowered polar rays at 15 SP and decent damage).

[Kriogen]

...
I just want to know when they're going to announce the change to Khopeshes so that I can watch the internet actually catch fire with players' rage.

Soon.

They nerfed Tempest, twitch barbarians, now FW/Hold/autocritical. Khopesh is next.

[Hendrik]

TYVM Torc for the Spell Pass!!!!

BRING IT ON!

[DelverRootnose]

Sorry I wasn't clear. I think you misunderstood what I was trying to get to. For example now with my monk if I use weakining/enfeebling handwraps I quickly get the critter to a state where they are helpless and I, and all other players, get auto damage crits. So for that guy with the khopesh standing next to me will he now only get 1.5 damage every swing and not x3 damage. Does this mean the heavy pick wielder will only get the x4 when he actually rolls a crit even though I have weakened the critter to a str of 1. This will make monks with W/E handwraps less usefull or rangers with the WoP rapier less useful. What about that rogue with the radience 2 rapier. Will a blinded critter now only get 1.5 damage not the full crit multplier of whatever weapon you are wielding.

Basically what I am asking are the changes to the autocrit on helpless making all wepons crit damage only happen on a true crit roll. if that is the case this is a bigger change than some realize.

[krogyy]

What about that rogue with the radience 2 rapier. Will a blinded critter now only get 1.5 damage not the full crit multplier of whatever weapon you are wielding.

blinded mobs are not auto-critted, just allow sneak attacks

[DelverRootnose]

You mean they abuse a broken mechanic? Yes, I know that, and yes I know it's a nerf in that sense. But the increase in spell damage AND the fact that they're reducing their hitpoints by about 50% makes up for it, more or less. Yes, you wont be able to mass hold and bash em in melee with 8 strength and kill them due to neg-levels anymore. And that is a nerf, but it'is neccessary and not as major as you think.

So, 3 times the DPS, buffs, CC, and instakills are replaceable by a melee class?
Yes, wizards are going to hurt a little bit compared to the GODS they are now. But they'll still be more than viable, with great CC, instakills and decent damage output (non-maximized / empowered polar rays at 15 SP and decent damage).

I think you are wrong and do not know what you are talking about. You don't play a caster I bet. If casters were such GODS then why are most raids limited to one or two casters at most. The only reason most casters are taken in ToD raids is to kite the guys in part 2. Now with the firewall changes and the other changes to hold and probably flesh to stone there will be no reason to take them and arcane archers will become kiters of choice.

[DelverRootnose]

blinded mobs are not auto-critted, just allow sneak attacks

...my mistake.

[Raoull]

Soon.

They nerfed Tempest, twitch barbarians, now FW/Hold/autocritical. Khopesh is next.

I'm actually starting to think this might be true. I think they are working on greensteel deconstruction, and once they do so, Khopesh will go back to a tripping weapon.

Which will be great. Everyone won't use the same sword all the time. Rapiers and Scimmies will usually win, but dwarven axes will be competitive or superior with them for dwarves. And I imagine far more people will go the kukri or short sword route rather than always doing OTWF.

They may need to slightly nerf THF styles while they do so though. The SOS definitely would need something done to it at the very least.

[Cheswick]

SPELL POINT REGEN – Echoes of Power:

We’ll be introducing a limited form of spell point regen for players who have “magical training” (as in the feat). This is to avoid a true “out of gas” situation for our casters. The concept is that when a caster drops below a certain spell point threshold a spell point regen effect known as “echoes of power” applies itself until the caster reaches that threshold again. The goal is to allow low level players continue to cast level 1 spells at a diminished rate when their “out of gas” while high level players will be able to continue to use their PRE-s with the meta magics they normally require for high level play.

Currently in testing… these values are examples mind you…

• Echoes of power will appear when a player drops below 12 SP.
• Echoes of power will allow the player to regenerate at a rate of 4 SP every 6 seconds.
• Echoes of power will remove itself once a player reaches 12 SP or greater.

This. Pew-Pew all day long.

[Absolute-Omniscience]

I think you are wrong and do not know what you are talking about. You don't play a caster I bet. If casters were such GODS then why are most raids limited to one or two casters at most. The only reason most casters are taken in ToD raids is to kite the guys in part 2. Now with the firewall changes and the other changes to hold and probably flesh to stone there will be no reason to take them and arcane archers will become kiters of choice.

I was ofcourse refering to epic quests (thought that is what we are talking about ), casters have always been useless in raids (Well, except back in normal dq, von, titan), and so has cc. So no nerf there, just a HUGE buff with the damage increase.
Casters will finally be viable as raid dps!
I've capped 3 sorcs and 1 wizard, at one point or another (1 on us servers, rest on EU).

And they've always been boring endgame, but no more. Now they'll actually be fun!

[Kriogen]

...
Basically what I am asking are the changes to the autocrit on helpless making all wepons crit damage only happen on a true crit roll. if that is the case this is a bigger change than some realize.

Yes. Critical is only on true, natural critical. Autocritical is now (U9) only 1.5 flat.

Your stat damager, stunner build have been nerfed.

[DelverRootnose]

I'm actually starting to think this might be true. I think they are working on greensteel deconstruction, and once they do so, Khopesh will go back to a tripping weapon.

Which will be great. Everyone won't use the same sword all the time. Rapiers and Scimmies will usually win, but dwarven axes will be competitive or superior with them for dwarves. And I imagine far more people will go the kukri or short sword route rather than always doing OTWF.

They may need to slightly nerf THF styles while they do so though. The SOS definitely would need something done to it at the very least.

you have a good point there the SoS really needs to be taken down several notches. How about we eliminate rage or kensia. this is the logic the devs are using to change mass holds. instead of changing the dreamspitter they change the hold.

Oh and I really do think the Sos should be really nerfed.

[DelverRootnose]

Your stat damager, stunner build have been nerfed.

Why. If that was the case rage should be nerfed for barbarians, or frenzied beserker. So lets nerf all specialty builds and make all characters sword and board fighters.

edit. sorry I read this as 'should have been nerfed' my mistake i will leave it as is except for this edit comment

[Absolute-Omniscience]

Oh and I really do think the Sos should be really nerfed.

OT:
Why? Have you even run some calculations on this?
Considering an Esos wielder barely competes with just mineral II TWF builds, if anything they need to introduce another THF weapon as powerful as Esos (but equally hard to aquire).