Opinion Poll ~ are the new Past Life feats good enough?

[Silverleafeon]

Simply put, Devs, I appreciate your listening and upgrading some of the past life bonuses.
Thank you. {Not posting my opinions here as I am very curious to see what others think.}

What do you think?
Do you as a player feel that they are worth it now?
If not, do you have any suggestions for the Devs?


From:
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...-10-31-2013%29

•You gain an Epic Past Life Feat.
•NEW: Healing Power has been renamed to Power over Life and Death. It now grants Negative Energy Spellpower in addition to Positive Energy.
•NEW: Colors of the Queen cooldown triggers has been reduced significantly, from 60/45/30 seconds to 30/20/10 seconds.
•NEW: Bonuses have been increased to 3% for Energy Criticals, Doublestrike, and Doubleshot.
•NEW: Added note to “Block Energy” Epic Past Life Feat that blocking does not require having a shield.




Pictures of original so I can compare:



You can only have one iconic toggle active at a time.
Cooldown for toggles is rumored at 3 seconds at this time.
Cooldown when clicking PDK is as text reads instead of 3 seconds.



You can only have one Martial toggle active at a time.



You can only have one Divine toggle active at a time.



You can only have one Primal toggle active at a time.



You can only have one Arcane toggle active at a time.


Epic Completionist ~ Dev top running idea was fourth twist slot ~ quote available but not official final word.
Later quote indicates that it will probably be auto granted.

Completionist ~ many players request that it be changed to auto grant.
No words at all from the Devs on this point.

The Devs want to make more Epic Destinies ~ quote available, no official word on details.

No official word on new spheres ~ such as psionic which exists in D&D.

[Silverleafeon]

reserved in case I track results

[redspecter23]

For my playstyle, I find they are good enough to keep me on the hamster wheel. I only play one toon and just play assorted epic quests daily anyway. I might as well be running from 20 to 28, earning past lives while I do that instead of just staying capped at 28 and doing the same thing.

I do find that each individual past life feels a bit underwhelming, but a full 9 stack of most of the passives would be quite a nice jump. I'd personally prefer non stacking, but each one more powerful, but I can live with what it is.

I find the epic grind different than the heroic TR grind. With a heroic TR grind, I find myself racing to 20 so I can start playing content I like and using destinies. With epic TR, regardless of where I am in the process, I have my destiny access and can (within a few levels) be playing any of the end game content. Because of this, it makes the epic TR system something I will enjoy more than the heroic TR. If I ever find myself wanting another heroic past life, I'll just earn it through an iconic. I don't think I'll ever be playing level 1 to 14 on my main ever again.

[Silverleafeon]

Thanks Red for the detailed explanation.
Anyone else?

[Battery]

They're great when stacked but kinda meh if you just have one. So if you're ok with grinding out PLs on the same toon with pretty much the same build (since ETR is just an LR) for quite a long while they're great. My only complaint really is with the ETR being just a glorified LR, I need change in order to stay interested. I like Iconic TR a lot more, but that's just me, it fits the way I play.

So overall a thumbs up to the feats themselves but not so much on the grind.

[Drwaz99]

They are fine at face value.

But there is no way I am going to grind in an off destiny for any of them. (nor am I going to heroic tr just to get a "meh" EPL) I'll just stick to my sphere and be done.

It's too bad to. If they changed that one "feature" they could get 6-10 more epic lives out of me per character. Seems like they don't want that.

[Thrudh]

My only complaint really is with the ETR being just a glorified LR, I need change in order to stay interested.

That's why I have 3 main characters... Right now, I TR one, get him back to cap, then TR a different one... Takes me 3 months to TR, so it's usually 6 months before I'm back to the original guy TRing again.

3 main guys are melee TWF fighter/ranger/monk, wizard, and monk-archer... They all play very differently... I also have a cleric and a barb and a bard/rogue that I screw around with now and then... So that's how I keep things fresh.

[Enoach]

If you look at them as a single stack I would say that they are not worth the effort. However, If you look at them from a MAX stack 3x per feat and 9x for the passive, they start to have more appeal.

However, based on my own playstyle I don't see any of them as MUST haves, I'm still only seeing them as NICE to haves and still not seeing 9x's as a goal in my next year of play. Maybe sometime down the road.

My feeling on this is because of the stance and the stance limitation of only being able to have 1 per sphere active at any given time.

Now, I do have plans to Dabble with the Epic TR, but I don't think I'm going to get on the wheel for 36 lives worth at this time. Maybe 2 to 3 per character. But I also never put being a completionist as a goal for myself with the current TR system.

[TPICKRELL]

Over all they are about right.

I look at most of them, and say, yes eventually my main will have that.

I look at them for my primary alts and see a few that are borderline must haves, and a bunch of nice to haves that I probably won't get around to.

I look at them for my second tier alts and say maybe one eventually.

To me that's the right overall balance, they are significant in the aggregate but far from overpowered individually.

There are a few that seem out of whack though.

• Arcane Alacrity -- cooldowns going from 2 seconds to 1.8? Thats underwhelming and its really the only thing you could say is targeted at DC casting... That one needs a look at.
• Enchant Weapon -- +3 damage (to hit also but meh) and +9 universal spell power is underwhelming.
• Skill Mastery -- A bit light ok for umd builds but pretty meh for most toons
• Shadar Kai stance, the cool down seems to long for the duration of the effect

[Zibowskij]

I like them

[Thrudh]

I like them all...

I see all my guys constantly epic TRing... There's not much difference playing at level 20 than 28, and for a long time, I'll be able to play my primary ED all the time anyway, so it will be easy to ETR over and over..

I'm pretty slow... I don't zerg through TRs, so I'll just be playing the game normally, and it will take me a couple of years to get 3 or 6 ETRs in my main destiny on my main 3 characters...

Guess we'll see where we are then.

[Raoull]

In general, I like them.

The energy absorption passive for the arcane sphere is too weak. Considering relatively easy to obtain gear gives 33% absorb (for some elements), the 9% fully stacked level is way too low. Compare it to PRR, where most gear with it has 10-16, and only one (very high level) has 24, but you can get 27 PRR from full stacking destinies (well, even more with Iconic). I think the energy absorb would be more appropriate with 4% per stack, giving 36% absorb if fully stacked. If that somehow seems too high, at least 3 percent (27 fully stacked).

And the AC boost.... well, it is lousy because AC is lousy. The quantity of AC is actually pretty high. 45 AC is a huge amount, yet will still be useless in EEs I imagine. They just need to fix tohits so AC is more meaningful in EEs. That would be a better solution than changing the destiny. If they can't do that in a reasonable timeline, they should change it to be something that actually works at end game. Perhaps 1% dodge? (leaving the cap in place would keep it from getting out of hand)

[Lonnbeimnech]

[*]Arcane Alacrity -- cooldowns going from 2 seconds to 1.8? Thats underwhelming and its really the only thing you could say is targeted at DC casting... That one needs a look at.

For spells like power word kill, power word stun and symbol of death, it's nice.

[TPICKRELL]

For spells like power word kill, power word stun and symbol of death, it's nice.

It's nice, but for me at least, the cooldown on PWK is so long, that I reserve it for emergencies, so 189 seconds vs 210 seconds will very rarely make any difference in how much I cast it. If you keep them on timer then its a nice boost, I just don't use them that way because I hate watching timers instead of watching the action.

[Leclaire1]

[*]Enchant Weapon -- +3 damage (to hit also but meh) and +9 universal spell power is underwhelming.[*]Skill Mastery -- A bit light ok for umd builds but pretty meh for most toons[*]Shadar Kai stance, the cool down seems to long for the duration of the effect[*][/LIST]

I general agree with these, esp. that enchant wep PL sucks. The Shadar-kai stance is bad like anything which isn't useful until you're lower than 50% health. The PDK is an action boost, which is also meh imo. Definitely NEVER doing a past life for a clicky under any circumstances.

Also, what's missing- PLEASE add something that increases caster level, DCS, or spell pen. These are what most casters need the most, and they are left out.

Other than that I think things look great.

[Oxarhamar]

I general agree with these, esp. that enchant wep PL sucks. The Shadar-kai stance is bad like anything which isn't useful until you're lower than 50% health. The PDK is an action boost, which is also meh imo. Definitely NEVER doing a past life for a clicky under any circumstances.

Also, what's missing- PLEASE add something that increases caster level, DCS, or spell pen. These are what most casters need the most, and they are left out.

Other than that I think things look great.

You must be coming into the Epic Reincarnation conversation late

the first thing that many players were upset about was they did not want more DC increases for the reason that it would make the Epic past lives mandatory for DC casters and that newer content would be adjusted to that new standard

[Altrelo]

Some points that I feel I must say at the beginning:
We might not even get the extra fate point until the first patch of U20 as it stands now in the release notes. The wording is a tad confusing since it likely says that this will be fixed in Lam in a patch. My mains are casters and one Monk so this is my point of view. I usually run a pure sorcerer soloing for most parts unless I get lonely.

Morninglord: Active I see only the casting Druids using and the Divine Disciple Clerics who use light spells. Passive I would have gotten during the time when I was aim for the true highest heal but except for that then not worth getting to 28 for.
Shadar-Kai: Active I want it. I sit currently at 10% incorporeality due to Ghostly and the bonus would be nice for the times when heal scroll is on timer and getting beaten too much for Healing cocoon to due much. The 2 minute cooldown is fine with me since I don't get to such a precarious position so often although if it could be shorter since it might have activated when it was not needed. Passive if you get it for the reason I will likely get it then it's a nice bonus, sorcerers don't get much dodge bonus if they are pure.

Doublestrike: I want the active. My Monk would jump out of the screen and QP me if I don't. Passive I would use for my monk since he has high AC already and would not feel as squish going on Water for the extra DCs on EE's.
Skill Mastery: Will get it for the passive but the stance is lacking, perhaps add more reflex save or fortification bypass? This should really be a passive and not an a stances, don't know who thought of this. The bonuses for the other actives are by 3 to a maximum of 9, why is this the exception?
Fortification: Bad, won't change Doublestrike for it.

Healing Power: Active for both mains. Cleric for obvious reasons and Sorc for better HC and PRR.
Brace: No good.
Block Energy: No one blocks, you run around with your head cut off. Adding to passive would be best. Maybe 1d3 good damage toogle, max 3d4.

Doubleshot: Not using it on ranger. Would rather get the passive from Color of the Queen since toggle is useful.
Fast Healing: Will get it since the 120 base will be nice since one of my mains has a lot of heal amp, Sorc, and one of the main alts, Monk, has heal amp also. Might be able to switch to two handed staves for a bit on my Sorc, good good good. Hp is nice.
Colors of the Queen: Don't use Shiradi but will get it over Doubleshot for passive maybe.

Energy Critical: 9% more Crit Chance is a nice flat bonus. Absorption is nice but won't actively go through the tree to get it.
Enchant Weapon: 9% more damage seems underwhelming.
Arcane Alacrity: If it worked for Burst or Dragon Breath will get, otherwise no.

Overall I find that each tree has one ability that I like and will certainly get for one character but not sure if the time needed to get the stack of passives makes them worth it. The only reason I will try to get as many HP or PRR passives on my Sorc is because there's nothing else for him to do. Sorc will ETR too much, 18 times just to get 66 hp and 21 PRR. For now on 4 characters will do 6-7 martial, 10 divine, 6-7 primal and 3 arcane ETRs. If it were not for having nothing much to do at end game and because I like epic quests so much I would not be even doing so many ETR's. If they are stupidly difficult to get the tokens for the Heart of Wood then I will just likely not do anything much until an endgame.

If there was anything fun to do at 28 I would likely just go 3 times for each character in their main spheres or focus only on my Sorcerer. If only the xp needed to ETR was the 3.96M xp, 2 destines capped worth or only level 26. While this goes against the reincarnation being at max level the bonuses are too little. I'm in the minority that will do the ETR regardless it seems since I really enjoy epic level quests but even doing the 25 or so lives makes me question the worth of staying since by then I will burn out the thing I enjoy most in the game currently. Either before I or anyone else burns out new end game that is enjoyable will come out and ETR will be swept under the rug for most people or even more people leave the game.

So many hits with a stick is making getting me think a sliver of chocolate is great.