Spell Pass Preview - Chaaannggeee!

[parvo]

While I support your efforts to better balance the game, the true imbalance lies in attack speed. Player characters attack wicked fast, even with spells. Enemies attack godaweful slow, even with spells. If that imbance were corrected, you could normalize enemy HP, HD, Loot, abilities and **** near everything else in the game.

As far as firewall goes, the spell itself isn't broken so much as the AI. In general the DDO AI is outstanding, but having enemies ignore danger was a miss. Correcting that would go a long way toward balance without having widespread (likely unintended) consequences.

In short, game balance is best achieved when the enemies have similar capability of the player character. That simple.

[NXPlasmid]

Well I, like others, am confused about extend. Did I miss something? I didn't see anything about extend being nerfed, just WoF can no longer be extended. Did extend get nerfed?

My take is WoF change is a good thing, and making more death spells work is awesome, but these are massive changes to the gameplay and will seriously screw with some people's builds. I can only hope that these changes got A LOT OF TESTING on mournlands. It would suck it this hit lama still in "concept" form without a fair amount of real player testing.... T

[Gol]

Which spells exactly?

Rays don't have saves. The Sorc PrE thread mentioned Melf's stacking with itself, as well. Also, WoF tanking is still viable if you're willing to stand in it as only the first tick gets a save. Generally, though, I'm still a fan of the renewable resource of melee DPS (and I'm still holding out for a Gish / EK type of Wizard PrE even though Wild Mage is still on the official list).

Currently you got:
FoD, Wail
New DDO:
FoD, Wail, Cirlcle of Death, Power Word Kill

CoD is more useful as an AoE Enervate IMO. PWK with a 4-minute cooldown isn't worth the spell slot. Yes, we went from 2 to 4, but I'm sure that we actually went down with castable insta-kills per minute.

My bet will be we go back to pre epic state in terms of the best builds:
1: Easy route: Insta killers. Some CC. Still bad at nuking. Generally palemasters.
2: Difficult route: Nuke spec. Some CC. Some insta killing, but not a lot. Generally elemental savants.

Problem is that AMs/PMs still have substantially higher DCs than Sorcs. We'll have to see how that balances, but initial calcs I've seen still put Wizards as more efficient nukers ("DP[Spell Point]"), though Sorcs may pull ahead in actual "DPS".

[NorthwindFusilier]

Cool, blanket immunities are getting removed, casters are finally getting some love. Wait. Oh, shiiiiiiiiiii.........

[Asketes]

well i'll finish my sorc life and go back to FVS on permadoc


and permaslayer will be my crafting/favor toon still..

and just meh:

- 30 seconds for a wail = sad face.
- what joker thinks people will use a spell that can be cast every 240 seconds?
- I won't bother with debuffs just like I don't now.
- FW change is interesting, if it's a save for half w/e, but if it's save for nil it'll be off my hotbar, would have made sense to make all those changes except the undead change. Casters are not super bosses on any one thing now. ***
- 16 SP, so it's a joke right? gonna burning hands Harry? not even enough for a DD..


I'm glad I'm better at playing my melee's as it seems that the majority of these changes are to increase the noob experience on korthos and the harbor, and take away the fun from the much higher levels.

afterword: as always, I'll refrain from really bashing anything till I get to try it in person. In the end of the day, it's my choice to pay and I do. I really have no room to complain.

[BruxaDo71]

5. Wall of fire ( up to 35 SP – targets now get a reflex save when they first enter the effect, but no saves against the flames if they remain in the wall. Now only does an additional 2d6 against undead instead of double. Duration is now locked to 30 seconds regardless of level. Can no longer be extended)

So Wall of fire will be heightened costing 60 sp, right?
If yes, it will be better use only Incendiary Cloud.

About the changes in a general aspect, I like it. Making easier or harder no matter, we'll adapt the changes and, possible, make more fun (at least on firsts weeks).

[Jhaeran]

Not a caster, and probably will never be. With that said, since I've come back from a level 10 cap hiatus, casters haven't seemed all that fun. Buffs, reduce level, mass hold, firewall. Maybe the occasional direct damage spell. The prevalence of mass hold in epics and general use of firewall being the worst.

On a pure jealousy note, I'm actually hoping it prevents a bit of the current solo-ability and requires at least epics be completed with a party. The whole "kite em through a firewall" or "find a safespot and let em burn" is pretty lame IMO.

Anyway, here's hoping the changes work out and open the door for some new spells/game mechanics. I'm hoping that with the changes to vorpal it makes epic a bit more fun and even a bit more challenging.

[marcosoneghett]

Simply drop wall of fires duration to 15 seconds, and have extend apply. Thus extended = 30 second, as desired. Should not disable the feat simply because the spell is powerful and needs a lower duration.
Or perhaps something in between would be better: 20 second duration, 40 extended.

I'd rather stay with this change to wall of fire. Make it 20n/40e so you don't also have to nerf a feat.

On a side note I predict a lot more of insta damage, punctuated by AOE effects. Think that on slower encounters it will work itself out. Don't think it will be good on fast encounters with tons of mobs spawning. Will have to wait for Lamania to see if I'm correct, tough.

[Tyrande]

Which level is PWK anyway? I don't want to log my wiz right now to see.

9th level spell, same level as Wail of the Banshee.

[donfilibuster]

How about scaling the Max SP you cap at with Echoes of Power?

12 Base, and an additional (+4/5 max per level) would actually be usable, post level 5.

Yep, not meant for use above lv 5. Think here that starting wizards are often told to get a great axe.

Which level is PWK anyway? I don't want to log my wiz right now to see.

PWK is the second most powerful iconic spell just below wish.
It represents being able to kill a monster with a mere word.

Naturally, this spell was meant to be used a limited number of times in PnP, wizards get four lv IX slots by default.
With SP the cooldown is what makes up for this. It is an annoyance but as someone pointed out there's now four instakills instead of two.

[Zerkul]

My personal opinion here in black. Do not read it if you do not like bad opinions because it is bad.

Well i'm an old player, very old one. To be honest i've not been so much easy with all the drastical changes DEVs made so far to the D&D mechanics but each time i see something new really i do not know where you pull these things out.

I do not like many of the new upcoming changes. I really think DEVs didn't play enough D&D to suggest such changes but, hey, it's not my own game: i can only choose to play or not. For now i'll stay to see how things go but, at least for me, things has gone too much far beyond my great will of playing and too far beyond D&D which is the main reason i started to play this game.

[Kza]

Argh boooring, im old i dont want to use 3856283 buttons. I want safely and smooth kite through a firewall or ice storm and dont button mash everything. Plz dont obliterate bladebarrier like this? I will TR to some more souls and thats nps. But plz plz dont nerf bb as this. Arghh and suckier damage and higher spellpoint cost on fw ugh ugh.

[DasLurch]

I have a guildie starting to talk me off the ledge some about this, but MAYBE some better example could help explain the situation. As it reads TO ME now, all single target removal spells got a nerf, all commonly used AOE duration spells got changed (some better some not), extend meta got hit with some of it's spells being weakened, and casters are being forced to basically rechoose all of their spells.

If someone can add some more light to this it would be appriciated.

I hope that there is some sort of spell swap token involved before this goes live. I won't pay to change 2 level 20 casters spell lists and a level 17-8 list around.

[Gol]

Yep, not meant for use above lv 5. Think here that starting wizards are often told to get a great axe.

And they still will be. 12 SP is enough for Master's Touch.

[Aurora1979]

Not saying I agree with the changes, just defining how long a "Round" is. And if you need a Firewall 5 minutes long to burn something.. well, you're a Water Savant in Update 9! XD I made a funny.



Spell Level IX.

i did specify in my previous post that i wasnt edging for an Xmin firewall just trying to figure out the comment about it being brought closer to the PnP version.... which, as far as i can tell.... Its really not

Still, Ill have a look at that water savant.... Im an archmage out of work so gota adapt i guess To be truthful, if all these changes pan out as they appear they will then ill just shelve my arcane and run my melee's....

I genuinly dont mind that they feel firewall is over used but its over used because its just not practicle to nuke things to death, you need a damage over time spell.... without a replacment I dont see what they are angling towards. I would rather pay double SP for a FW to stay as it is, or UP other spells to make a balance. They nerfed firewall and there is not a viable alternative.

[knockcocker]

i did specify in my previous post that i wasnt edging for an Xmin firewall just trying to figure out the comment about it being brought closer to the PnP version.... which, as far as i can tell.... Its really not

Still, Ill have a look at that water savant.... Im an archmage out of work so gota adapt i guess To be truthful, if all these changes pan out as they appear they will then ill just shelve my arcane and run my melee's....

I genuinly dont mind that they feel firewall is over used but its over used because its just not practicle to nuke things to death, you need a damage over time spell.... without a replacment I dont see what they are angling towards. I would rather pay double SP for a FW to stay as it is, or UP other spells to make a balance. They nerfed firewall and there is not a viable alternative.

Exactly. Someone has really, really, totally misunderstood why FW is so prevalent on suitable targets. I'm still
trying to recover from the spell crit. changes...

[Kourier]

Pssssst: Incendiary cloud now scales with level like firewall and has no save AND blinds opponents on failed reflex save...

[goodoldxelos]

how about Trap the Soul?

[knockcocker]

Pssssst: Incendiary cloud now scales with level like firewall and has no save AND blinds opponents on failed reflex save...

So they answered our pleas for more effective, high level nukes by nerfing a L4 spell and translating
it's effects to a L8 spell. Nice.

[Gol]

Pssssst: Incendiary cloud now scales with level like firewall and has no save AND blinds opponents on failed reflex save...

And blinds me without a save. /pass.