Capstone Fail

[TempestAlphaOmega]

Yup - I wasn't going to use anything offensive anyways since offensive wands and scrolls are fairly useless regardless if they're level 20 compared.

I was considered going pure simply because the delightful use of 20 minute stoneskins, nightshields and such.

Now this capstone is as good as the rangers and just another reason to go multiclass.

Personally I can't think of any reason for anyone or the devs to go...mah gosh - scrolls just make this guy to powerful.

I tried banishment on my level 20 and it failed all the time. So as scrolls goes it was not very useful in that regards.

When I first read the capstone description I thought "gee that sound interesting", then I thought about the fact that you don't get it until level 20 and without Metas it basically left you with some minor damage dealing and buffing. Inst and CC you won't have what it takes to make them effective and your nuking will be more pew pew ing.

As others have said makes it easy to multiclass without any guilt or second thoughts.

[jjflanigan]

Yup - I wasn't going to use anything offensive anyways since offensive wands and scrolls are fairly useless regardless if they're level 20 compared.

I was considered going pure simply because the delightful use of 20 minute stoneskins, nightshields and such.

Now this capstone is as good as the rangers and just another reason to go multiclass.

Personally I can't think of any reason for anyone or the devs to go...mah gosh - scrolls just make this guy to powerful.

I tried banishment on my level 20 and it failed all the time. So as scrolls goes it was not very useful in that regards.

Stoneskin wands can be bought from a vendor, shield clickies aren't TOO hard to come by (and you really only need 1 clickie since they last 20 minutes / charge as an arti).

I do really dislike the change to not include scrolls (if it had been coupled with the ability to use metamagics on wands, I would have been happy ), but there are still quite a few of the spells that can be found on clickies or wands, so it's not entirely worthless and I still intend to stay pure for the capstone (and I'm one who normally LOVES splashing rogue for evasion and such).

[andbr22]

Unfortunetly without scrolls this capstone is medicore if not poor.
Yeah you could use scrolls but still you would prefer use buffing scrolls more than direct damage or effect save scrolls, because with all good stuff you would get only around 30 DC what is way to low for succesfuly CC anything other than normal vale maybe.
Well from scroll knowledge you will still get enought for top Heal scrolls anyway.

The biggest miss are dispalement and haste scrolls, that accualy were reason why this would be worth to take. (Maybe some DoT scrols also would be usefull)

[rimble]

The biggest miss are dispalement and haste scrolls, that accualy were reason why this would be worth to take. (Maybe some DoT scrols also would be usefull)

If the big payoff for you was Displacement and Haste scrolls, do you not see that same payoff using Displacement and Haste clickies instead? Of course, it's more **** to carry around.

[Geonis]

If the big payoff for you was Displacement and Haste scrolls, do you not see that same payoff using Displacement and Haste clickies instead? Of course, it's more **** to carry around.

Because grinding Shroud even more is fun.....

[andbr22]

how many dispalcement / hastle cliekies can you carry (I am quite happy with my 5 hastle cliekies ring)? 2 of each (4 uses of each are 4 slots while scrolls only are 2 slots, and you can carry 100 of each...

[Riggs]

So - the only way this would be useful is if wands were actually useful.

Reduce the 6 second cooldown (maybe just for artificers, or maybe everyone because wands are useless anyway) - to a 1 second global cooldown.

Let artificers use metamagics on wands.

Add more and better wands - as pnp staves and rods were far more useful and powerful - and DDO has neither really - maybe the Queen staff, but 1 raid item does not a class make.

Have an enhancement to recharge wands/staves somehow - like in pnp - like say paying 500 sp to charge a wand back up - or 1 charge per 10 sp or whatever - something.

The whole point of pnp Artificers - like wizards, was they could craft new wands or items with whatever they wanted on it - short of giving them that ability - make more powerful wands more plentiful and useful.

[LeLoric]

Not an unexpected change however the two spells I found to be the biggest uses/abuses of the capstone in scroll form are also available in clickie form.

The capstone is still good but not as crazy as it was with scrolls however it does keep the artificer from having to wait 6 sec *x buffs to get all your scroll buffs in.

[Lestarion]

I was really looking forward to this. While ranged combat is a blast at low levels, it's still not as powerfull as melee in highlvl. The Capstone was a good way to compensate for that. Now it's lost a great deal of it's usefullness. I didn't think it was too overpowered, since it didn't allow for metamagic feats anyway and it was a great way to help getting a group buffed without spending all your Spellpoints for that. I play casters as well, and I never felt threatend by this class, because, while this class is perfect for buffing and does decent dmg in ranged, it never could do the burst dmg Wizards and especially Sorcs can do with their Spells. And I'm sure they wouldn't be really sad about not having to buff the group.
'

[KyrzaBladedancer]

To all you saying you can't get enough DC on a wand, um wut? PK Wand whipped every 3 seconds at a DC of

10 Base
17 Int
4 Level
6 Wizard PL x3
3 Wand Hieghtening
=
40

Yes this takes work, but even a 36, i.e. 1 Wiz PL, will give you a usable DC in epics. Imagine throwing down FoD scrolls at the same DC as and faster than most wizards.
Perhaps allowing Scrolls CL to be increased to 20 but not have the DC calculation change (for scrolls) would be better?

[cdbd3rd]

To all you saying you can't get enough DC on a wand, um wut? PK Wand whipped every 3 seconds at a DC of

10 Base
17 Int <- "Int Bonus", not actual Int score.
4 Level
6 Wizard PL x3
3 Wand Hieghtening
=
40

Yes this takes work, but even a 36, i.e. 1 Wiz PL, will give you a usable DC in epics. Imagine throwing down FoD scrolls at the same DC as and faster than most wizards.
Perhaps allowing Scrolls CL to be increased to 20 but not have the DC calculation change (for scrolls) would be better?

Might check that above.


Me? I'm just happy that my Korthos boots give me a 20 min Exp Retreat. I hate running slow.

[Socio]

Like someone said Here and I agree with, Scrolls should stay Caster level 20, but if the dc's on offensive scrolls was the issue then lower the dc's so they are not top notch.

Frankly sitting here and thinking about it that would make since if you take a moment to think of how the artificer works. Artificers are kings of magical items. They can craft and wield many items that contain magical properties. They can use scroll's as they can understand it's working and cast them, but lack the raw natural talent to make them powerful. So what appears as a 30 second Inferno of a Wall of fire for a arcane may just be a 30 second Picket fence Smoldering fiercely for a artificer. They both still work, Both still last's the same, It's just that the Arcane's portable atrocities are much more powerful.

[gloopygloop]

Given an Artificer with an outstanding 51 Int, the Int bonus would be +20.

49 Int comes from
20 Base (Drow)
+5 levels
+7 item
+1/+2 exceptional ToD ring
+4 Tome
+2 Completionist
+1 Littany of the Dead
+3 Artificer enhancements
+2 Ship shrine
+2 Yugo pot
+2 Store pot
Total: 51

10 Base
+7 Finger of Death Scroll
+20 Int
Total = 37 DC

10 Base
+2 Web Scroll
+20 Int
Total = 32 DC

I don't see any problem with scrolls that have mediocre DC (at best with a completely rediculous Int) and a 6 second cooldown. Even if you stack 3 Wizard past lives and get all of the Artificer scroll DC bonuses, I can't see it being overpowered.

Edit: I remembered Wizard past life as giving +1 DC to scroll and wand DC's. It only gives a DC bonus to wands, not scrolls. Also, the Artificer enhancements that give +DC only give those extra points of DC to wands.
3 Wizard past lives gives +6 DC to wands.
6 AP in Artificer enhancements gives +3 DC additional to wands.

Even with +9 DC on Web wands, you're still looking at just a 41 DC on those wands with a Completionist/+4 Tome/3 Wizard past lives, etc.

Edit2: Just for comparison, a Wizard with the exact same sources of Int and past lives casting Web will end up with
10 Base
+9 Heightened Web
+20 Int
+2 Spell Focus item (napkin)
+1 Capstone Int
+1 Wizard purchased past life
+1 Sorc past life
Total: 44 DC compared to 32 DC from an Artificer scroll.

[Solmage]

Bah. They already removed the "Good" scrolls from the vendors YEARS ago when UMD Rogues and Bards were running around spamming firewalls.

Removing the ability for the capstone to work on scrolls is lame IMO and goes against the spirit of the class, as one of its main powers is scroll use.

I'd rather not have finger of death, waves of exhaustion, mass hold person, cometfall, mass suggestion, flesh to stone, and a truckload of other scrolls removed from vendors to accommodate this capstone, thanks. Removing the ability to use scrolls is the sane choice.

However: Clearly the mechanic exists to differentiate between store bought and randomly generated since it's used in crafting.. what if the capstone were allowed to work on randomly generated scrollies?

[WarDestroyer]

It uses 10 + Int + Spell Level, the standard DC calculation, not 1.

pawned