Update 9: Angel of Vengeance

[Eladrin]

Hi all,

We were trying to see if we could get the first tier of the Divine Avenger into Update 9 along with the first two tiers of the Angel of Vengeance to make everyone happy, but deadlines combined with other events have crushified those hopes and dreams. The Divine Avenger hit some snags, and isn't going to be able to make it into the next release. Sorry about that.

We will have two tiers of the Angel of Vengeance in Update 9.

The Angel of Vengeance is intended to be the offensive casting oriented prestige enhancement line for the Favored Soul, though on the bright side, the Angel of Vengeance as currently implemented should be somewhat useful for melee characters as well. They exhibit some Archon traits and introduce the wrath of the gods to their enemies.

Here's our current tier one version of the PrE:

Favored Soul Angel of Vengeance I
Prereqs: Level 6 Favored Soul, Favored Soul Smiting II, Favored Soul Energy of the Scion II, and any one of the following: Empower Spell, Maximize Spell, Heighten Spell, Spell Focus: Conjuration, or Spell Focus: Evocation
Cost: 4 AP
Benefit: The only thing stronger than your faith is the fire you use to burn away those who stand against the will of the gods. Enemies that strike you have a chance of suffering divine condemnation rendering them vulnerable to divine attacks, and you project a 15 meter Aura of Menace, decreasing the saving throws, attack, and armor class of nearby enemies by 2. You deal 20% additional damage with spells that deal fire, physical, or untyped damage, and can name an ally your 'Champion', transferring your shield of condemnation to them and damaging opponents that strike them in melee.

Shield of Condemnation
Benefit: Enemies that strike you have a chance of suffering divine condemnation, increasing their vulnerability to light and alignment-based damage by 20%, and decreasing their fortification by 10%. This debuff stacks up to 5 times, and is dispelled by Bless effects.

Name Champion
Benefit: You name an ally your Champion. Several Angel of Vengeance abilities target your Champion. You can only have one Champion at a time, and it must be another player or a hireling in your party, or a monster which you have personally summoned.

Crown of Retribution
Benefit: You transfer your Shield of Condemnation to your Champion as long as they remain within your Aura of Menace. Enemies that strike your Champion while this is active also take 1d8+1 points of light damage from your divine wrath.

We were looking to make the Angel of Vengeance a beneficial enhancement line if you're playing solo or in virtually any group. If you're by yourself, your Aura of Menace and Shield of Condemnation can make your job a little bit easier - or you can summon a pet and name them your Champion. If you have a party, you can name someone else your Champion and stay near the action, but be contributing in several ways.

The enhancement essentially expands your Smiting line to affect important divine damage spells that currently are not enhanceable, and some of the spell changes made in Update 9 help out a lot with the spell point efficiency of offensive casters.

Crown of Retribution is a toggled skill - while it's active, your Champion gains the buff (and steals your Shield of Condemnation) anytime they're within your Aura of Menace. If they leave your Aura, the Crown will fade, but it will reapply automatically if they reenter it again. If you toggle it off (or your Champion dies), the effect will end and you'll regain your Shield of Condemnation.

I'll be at the PAX East booth on Saturday mid-morning to early afternoon - take part in our event and then come talk to me and ask me about "badgers". Or "lasers". Or better yet, "badgers with lasers".
I'll share some information on the second tier.

Obligatory note: Everything is still subject to change.

[RudyMcghee]

I am liking the looks of this.

[Anthios888]

Great. Glad to have something that is useful on any build. I will be taking this on my heavily melee-specced fvs, because even if I cannot take advantage of all of its benefits, there is enough here with this aura to work for everyone.

[Tuney]

I have only one thing to say... I'm thinking about making that two weapon fighting Favor soul that I have thought about hehe.

[Gnorbert]

Very intriguing.

[SaisMatters]

sweeeeeet!

[elraido]

Can I just ask about badgers now?

[The_Phenx]

Neat I want it applied to me while swinging my holy goodgood's

Its like a super halfling companion

[Anthios888]

Can you use the Crown on yourself?

[Alektronic]

Wow, very cool.

[maddmatt70]

So is the badgers and laser references to Druids (badgers) and Sorc Prestige not elemental savant but the other one (laser).

[dkyle]

Crown of Retribution is a toggled skill - while it's active, your Champion gains the buff (and steals your Shield of Condemnation) anytime they're within your Aura of Menace. If they leave your Aura, the Crown will fade, but it will reapply automatically if they reenter it again. If you toggle it off (or your Champion dies), the effect will end and you'll regain your Shield of Condemnation.

Was this one of those "new tech" advancements we've heard about? Having an ability work this way sounds pretty radically different from anything else we've seen before.

I wonder if we should expect to see some kind of "marking" system for enemies, in the near future, like 4E Palis' Divine Challenge? That could put a neat spin on Defender of Siberys.

Can you use the Crown on yourself?

Looks like you get the chance to inflict vulnerability, and fort reduction, but not the 1d8+1 damage guard.

Kind of like how a Bard can Inspire Competence others, but not himself.

[SisAmethyst]

THAT sound nice and it stacks 5 times... that is +100% vulnerability to light and alignment-based damage and -50% fortification for the mob... only question, does this affect boss mobs too?

[Cyr]

So a 50% fort debuff, 100% light and alignment based damage debuff with a 1d8+1 light damage guard (which may or may not be enhanced by anything boosting light damage or spells on a FvS)...

Anyone want to do the increase in dps that a party will gain versus certain raid bosses if the party is lets say made up of mostly rogues or mostly pali's?

Oh and on a feedback note:

Can we get strictly better past life feats then existing feats as part of the one of the following lists for pre-reqs? In this case the wizard PL purchasable feat is strictly better then the two spell focus feats listed and should count as a that pre-req.

[talyor]

WOW!!!!! this post has been up 15 min and has gotten only 11 responses and views to it . I guess no one can find it in the spellcaster section .... LOL..... I remeber when a tidbit like this from eladrin would have had dozens of posts in just a few minutes.

[RioRussell]

Overall looks like a boon to FvS. I am especially intrigued by this line:


...and some of the spell changes made in Update 9 help out a lot with the spell point efficiency of offensive casters...

I can't ever remember thinking to myself 'My FvS really needs a lesson in spell point efficiency" seeing as how I turn quicken on to buff because it takes so much longer the other way

rio

[Aerendil]

So a 50% fort debuff, 100% light and alignment based damage debuff with a 1d8+1 light damage guard (which may or may not be enhanced by anything boosting light damage or spells on a FvS)...

Anyone want to do the increase in dps that a party will gain versus certain raid bosses if the party is lets say made up of mostly rogues or mostly pali's?

Throw the crown on the Paladin tank, and then he/she can divine light all nearby undead after taking a few hits so they're properly debuffed.
Ouch.

Man, some of the older PrEs are starting to look dull now compared to these newer PrEs :/

PS - unsure if the fort lowering will work with undead, as they're technically "immune to critical hits" despite whatever fortification you get them down to.
Curious on how it's implemented, though. If Rogues can eventually crit undead, golems, and the like....wow.

[taurean430]

So a 50% fort debuff, 100% light and alignment based damage debuff with a 1d8+1 light damage guard (which may or may not be enhanced by anything boosting light damage or spells on a FvS)...

Anyone want to do the increase in dps that a party will gain versus certain raid bosses if the party is lets say made up of mostly rogues or mostly pali's?

Oh and on a feedback note:

Can we get strictly better past life feats then existing feats as part of the one of the following lists for pre-reqs? In this case the wizard PL purchasable feat is strictly better then the two spell focus feats listed and should count as a that pre-req.

Exactly.

Looks like Paladins just found a new best friend. That's quite the dps increase that can be given to them. It also brings searing light back into the realm of viability. At least it appears so...

I'd like to see the maths as well.

[dkyle]

THAT sound nice and it stacks 5 times... that is +100% vulnerability to light and alignment-based damage and fortification -50% for the mob... only question, does this affect boss mobs too?

It's not worded as a Curse, so it should work on the Devil bosses, and bosses haven't gotten immunity to vulnerability infliction and fort reduction before. So I'm hopeful they won't be immune.

If they are immune, the PrE loses a lot of its usefulness. Those debuffs are primarily useful on bosses. Trash die to quickly for them to matter.

PS - unsure if the fort lowering will work with undead, as they're technically "immune to critical hits" despite whatever fortification you get them down to.
Curious on how it's implemented, though. If Rogues can eventually crit undead, golems, and the like....wow.

Those can already be crit. I've definitely crit'd Elementals that I've softened up with Jade Strike on my Monk.

My understanding is that Sneak Attack is still being blocked, for some reason.

Who knows whether any of that is WAI.

[andreascott89]

"You deal 20% additional damage with spells that deal fire, physical, or untyped damage"

Physical? blade barrier (slashing or untyped?) buff? Nice.

Wow, I'm no longer concerned about the forum change jk

J