Some preliminary divine spell testing

[Seliana]

These findings were with Superior Potency VI, using Maximize and Empower, fully specced into the Smiting line including all critical enhancements, on a level 20 Favored Soul with AoV II.

Shield of Condemnation: Starts about a 15 second timer which can be viewed by examining the target and mousing over the debuff icon. While this did seem to function I was unable to get it to stack even while trash repeatedly attacked me. The duration just continued to decrease to 0:00 while being actively hit. Possible bug... More testing is certainly needed with this. It would be nice to have a visual indicator over a targets head when its affected by the shield, or perhaps a color modified HP bar on the target.

Archon: This felt very much like a small predator style shoulder cannon, It wont attack something unless you attack it first, guard effects and pets didn't seem to trigger it from what I could tell but it might warrant more testing. It began shooting once I started stabbing the frost giants with my eSoS. Archon dealt about 32 damage on average, and around 75 on a critical, little to no variance in damage but again this was limited testing. Unknown if enhancements, maximize, empower, or potency affects it at all as 32 damage is the average for the base effect of 1d3x20. Correctly fires every 2 seconds.

Aura of Menace: They take what looks like a dark fog type graphic effect for a second when entering your aura but no other visual indication after that point, Appears to be working as described but unable to test specific effects on it as I am a melee based Favored soul. Two icons were visible on examination window of enemies as debuffs, one mentioning -spell resist, and the other the mentioning -saves.

Divine Punishment: Expensive but powerful single target dot. About 65 sp per cast with Maximize and Empower on, Cant be extended but could be quickened, lasts 16 seconds or so, and you can refresh it after 10 seconds which starts the duration over again and adds 1 stack. Stacks work correctly and add 100% more spell damage each time with for maximum of 3 stacks. It felt like using a light-damage based Melfs Acid Arrow that could stack with itself if cast repeatedly and I believe I saw a special beam of light hit the target from the sky on the 3rd stack but I could be mistaken.

65 sp every 15 seconds is about 260 sp a minute to keep it running so seems to give favored souls the option of being dps instead of healing on raid bosses. Around 330 non-crit light damage at 3rd stack. No save for half damage as it hits for full damage every time like other dot spells. Cost a considerable amount of AP to spec for and ended up having to sacrifice AP elsewhere to max out the smiting line. I imagine that it becomes decent sp per damage efficient if the shield was debuffing light vulnerability to 100% and you mixed it with a searing light capstone. It would also be nice to have a visual indicator over a targets head when the spell is about to wear off as a reminder.

Blade Barrier: This is getting around 30% more damage then before with AoV II, Basically instant cast spell with Quicken on. Animation for it seems to be changed. 30 seconds duration as extend doesn't apply. Otherwise works as you would expect.

Leave any questions or specific tests you would like done below in the comments please.

[Kinerd]

Very nice.

Have you played around with Crown of Retribution at all? The release notes say 1d8 + 1, which seems kind of odd compared to 1d8 + 1 per level or something.

It appears from your observations that the double/triple damage on Divine Punishment multiplies directly with (1 + Max + Empower) * (1 + Potency + Smiting), which is pretty delicious. Was it damage every 2 seconds?

By my count, with Greater Arcane Lore you're looking at 212.7 DPS before Shield vulnerabilities, which is outstanding for something you only have to do every 15 seconds.

[Shade]

It appears from your observations that the double/triple damage on Divine Punishment multiplies directly with (1 + Max + Empower) * (1 + Potency + Smiting), which is pretty delicious. Was it damage every 2 seconds?

By my count, with Greater Arcane Lore you're looking at 212.7 DPS before Shield vulnerabilities, which is outstanding for something you only have to do every 15 seconds.

Yea it's fairly powerful.

Has issues tho like everything in this game:

1. There's no initial tic. Full 2 seconds after each cast before anything occurs.
2. Lack of superior brilliance 5+ clickies.

But yea, that + archon going nuts + free searing light.. pretty sick dps. Can add in some regular searing lights to the rotation too, and its sustainable for a bit at least.. Especially for shorter boss fights like shroud part4, where you could easily be the highest dps in the group doing that.

Plus if/when the Shield of Condemnation is fixed.. thats even more dps, and more dps for the group.

Compared ot the sorc pre.. It's rather bad ass.

[Trillea]

Yea it's fairly powerful.

Has issues tho like everything in this game:

1. There's no initial tic. Full 2 seconds after each cast before anything occurs.
2. Lack of superior brilliance 5+ clickies.

But yea, that + archon going nuts + free searing light.. pretty sick dps. Can add in some regular searing lights to the rotation too, and its sustainable for a bit at least.. Especially for shorter boss fights like shroud part4, where you could easily be the highest dps in the group doing that.

Plus if/when the Shield of Condemnation is fixed.. thats even more dps, and more dps for the group.

Compared ot the sorc pre.. It's rather bad ass.

Before you can START comparing it to the sorc PrE let's wait for them to fix it..

[Shade]

Before you can START comparing it to the sorc PrE let's wait for them to fix it..

no thanks.

I've been waiting for them to fix some bugs for 6 years now.

I'm not about to wait for this. Whatever we see now, may indeed be exactl what goes to live, I wouldn't put it past them. Especially if aprils still the target.

I'll compare what we have now. I can always change my opinion if the game changes.

[Trillea]

no thanks.

I've been waiting for them to fix some bugs for 6 years now.

I'm not about to wait for this. Whatever we see now, may indeed be exactl what goes to live, I wouldn't put it past them. Especially if aprils still the target.

I'll compare what we have now. I can always change my opinion if the game changes.

OK fair enough. So how in the heck can you say that the AoV is more damage than the sorc prestige class with the sorc prestige class curses causing 130,000 points of damage with a single polar ray?

[Nick_RC]

Yea it's fairly powerful.
Especially for shorter boss fights like shroud part4, where you could easily be the highest dps in the group doing that.

It's rather bad ass.

*Cough* My battlecleric/FVS sounds idea sounds pretty darn good for groan now! Probably the route il go if this doesnt change will make groan a 20WF FVS, wisdom based str secondary (all my melee PL's will make up for not taking lvl ups in str) Offensive casting ESOS toting juggernaut! The searing light capstone pales in comparison to what a FVS can do in melee dmg. But ESOS + archon + ticks = win and a nice boost for Battlecleric types.

N

[andreascott89]

Any confirmation that Divine Punishment stacks across players?

J

[Matuse]

Each player gets their own "stack". You could have 2 FvS/Clerics each casting it 3 times for ~600 per tick.

The debuffs from AoV apply to everyone hitting, however. The boost to alignment damage also works on things like Holy (which will start hitting with purple damage).

[LookingForABentoBox]

Shield of Condemnation: Starts about a 15 second timer which can be viewed by examining the target and mousing over the debuff icon. While this did seem to function I was unable to get it to stack even while trash repeatedly attacked me. The duration just continued to decrease to 0:00 while being actively hit. Possible bug... More testing is certainly needed with this. It would be nice to have a visual indicator over a targets head when its affected by the shield, or perhaps a color modified HP bar on the target.

Leave any questions or specific tests you would like done below in the comments please.

Could it be that the proc rate is just so low that it didn't have a chance to stack? How immediate was the next debuff after one debuff ran out?

[HarveyMilk]

My guess is the guard had a higher proc rate, and then dropped it a bunch after reading the forum whine.

Now it's obviously too low.

[mute_mayhem]

These findings were with Superior Potency VI, using Maximize and Empower, fully specced into the Smiting line including all critical enhancements, on a level 20 Favored Soul with AoV II.

Shield of Condemnation: Starts about a 15 second timer which can be viewed by examining the target and mousing over the debuff icon. While this did seem to function I was unable to get it to stack even while trash repeatedly attacked me. The duration just continued to decrease to 0:00 while being actively hit. Possible bug... More testing is certainly needed with this. It would be nice to have a visual indicator over a targets head when its affected by the shield, or perhaps a color modified HP bar on the target.

Archon: This felt very much like a small predator style shoulder cannon, It wont attack something unless you attack it first, guard effects and pets didn't seem to trigger it from what I could tell but it might warrant more testing. It began shooting once I started stabbing the frost giants with my eSoS. Archon dealt about 32 damage on average, and around 75 on a critical, little to no variance in damage but again this was limited testing. Unknown if enhancements, maximize, empower, or potency affects it at all as 32 damage is the average for the base effect of 1d3x20. Correctly fires every 2 seconds.

In regards to Shield of condemnation,
I was able to stack two debuffs on a single enemy, but the timer did not reset, and when the timer ended, the entire stack was gone. Seems this needs to be looked at if it is to have any use at all in game.

Archon,
Release notes state that enhancements affect the damage, i can confirm this. Having all 4 smiting enhancements (+40% damage) resulted in approximately 43-45 damage every 2 seconds, and a range of 110-115 on crits. It is not affected by potency or metamagics

[nicro]

Was the smiting line changed to affect untyped and physical damage spells or does it only still work on light and alignment?