Dear Devs

[Dagolar]

Having been limited to the internet on my phone*, I find myself finally being able to make my opinions known in the final stretch of the expansion.
Well, better late than never~

*(Chrome and Dolphin don't play nice with DDO forums, due to what seem to be security certificate problems- only just thought to try Opera :P)

First off, let me apologize for some of the absolutely ludicrous comments I've read, namely the ones on the Morninglord, which fiercely attack the design for no discernable reason, or attempt to understand the lore.
I note this since last expansion there were some frustrations displayed on both sides, but this time around I've found the dev posts to be responsive, open, respectful, and without even passive aggression.
Which isn't to make a backhanded insult to past events, but to note the constant effort of the development team to grow in pace with the players.

Now, moving along-

-Things I like-
The new enhancement system. The overall design never worried me, but the early renditions were pretty awful. By careful consideration, the devs have made an exciting, clever new system that I'm eager to play with (and have already thoroughly indulged in making early builds with).

Iconic Races. I've seen a lot of outcry against these, but I find them to be a clever way of adding in subraces or racial prestige builds.

Daily Dice changes: Glad to see Daily Dice finally being worth the effort (especially for Gold rolls).

The proposed xp, tr, ed, and Iconic changes planned with Update 20. Epic Advantage is a clever way of not making present ED xp irrelevant, while encouraging TRing, and also not affecting those who decide not to TR. Same for the rest of the changes, very exciting.

Sagas, TR system overall, Iconic and Epic TR.. lots of fun things. I just hope Sagas restore the old interconnecting story references between existing chains at some point



-The bad-
Data on Iconics other than Bladeforged has been limited, so specifically on the Bladeforged: Iconics should not in any way seem to be a direct upgrade in abilities to their base race. Yet Bladeforged seem to simply gain (a hit to healing amp aside) abilities and accessible enhancements. In the future, I'd like to see variance take emphasis over addition.

Protection Domain. This prestige offers a slew of abilities which have no real use, and offers no abilities of note to compensate with. It doesn't meaningfully buff user or allies, offer offense or defense of note, offer specialization in any trait, or any clever or potent abilities. It definitely could use a rebalancing pass.

Warchanter. (I may be working with outdated info here, however While not near as bad as Protection, Warchanter's abilities are erratic (which is fine considering its concept) lacking any real focus, or the synergy to work without such focus. The exception to the lack of focus is their tier 5 sonic ability: though their tree doesn't offer any real synergy to it, either. Can we get Brecca to work their Bard-fixing magic again?

With the changes to feats, the builds I've worked up often lack relevant (general heroic) feats to fill some of their slots. Some new general (and likewise for core epic) feats would be welcome.

The new enhancement system has the potential for infinite combinations. However, as is, the limited selection per class leaves pure classes with unsynergistic options (or no secondary options for those with only one path available to them, like sorcerer and FvS (as noted, Protection doesn't count :P) and similarly limits multi-classing. As eager as I am to see new races, classes, iconics, and destinies, new prestige paths for the classes with more limited selections definitely needs to take priority.

Shroud of the Zombie. I can't believe this still hasn't been 'fixed'. This is the worst troll of a debuff. Please consider a simple fix in line of (-10% attack and movement speed, +10% unarmed damage, +prr and dr, ~). Make it still debuffing, but give us reasons to use it for the things it specializes in, tanking and unarmed bonuses. As is, it's such a massive debuff on all counts, and additionally offers no real use to actual arcanes intent on using it (and the number of newer players that think the shroud means they can melee and effectively self-heal, and then end up dying horribly is pretty ridiculous).
More than anything else, it's a needless restriction on build options.

Druid prestiges: While Herald has come a looong way, the inability to have better control over seasons is disappointing. Nature's Warden is still very underwhelming.


While not as immediate, notes on what class path functions (of major note) are notably not present:

Cleric:
Combat

Druid:
Summoning, Healing, and non-wild shape combat (scimitar combat was associated with druids more than rangers, back when :P)

FvS:
Combat, Healing

Monk:
Weapon combat. From Kensai tier 5 to ninja spy to whirling steel, there are tons of ways of getting monks to use weapons.. and absolutely no synergy within the class for such.

Sorcerer:
Gods, anything in addition to savant'd be nice.

Wizard:
While AM SLAs and spell selections of less-used schools still need readjustment, adding a non PM path to synergize with would be grand. (Wild Mage!)




Though just the tip of my considerations, that's more than enough for now :P

Thank you for continuing to make DDO a dynamic, exciting, creative game. I look forward to seeing what the future'll bring

[Ryiah]

*(Chrome and Dolphin don't play nice with DDO forums, due to what seem to be security certificate problems- only just thought to try Opera :P)

I'm running the latest version of Chrome on my desktop and I have no problems with the forums.

[Dagolar]

I'm running the latest version of Chrome on my desktop and I have no problems with the forums.

Different beasts. Mobile platforms have different frameworks, with more limitations and quirks, and mobile browsers are built up specifically for the platform, and are typically far less developed than their desktop counterparts.

I haven't had any problems with (desktop) Chrome, Firefox, or Opera. IE gives some problems, but who actually cares.

As far as mobile browsing, Opera works perfectly fine with the forums, while Chrome and Dolphin give security issues; Dolphin can't load the site formatting properly, and Chrome often gives server connection complaints [about the forums].