I've got to give credit where it's due, I've spent allot of time on Saturday investigating this destiny and am pleasantly surprised with where this destiny is heading.

From a Melee-orientated characters standpoint, its got some really nice standout bits and pieces, yet with a little investment in Spell Points, Fire Spellpower and Wisdom your average Paladin can have some nice spells to play around with while smiting his evil enemies.

However, if your looking to make a Melee Destiny that's comparable to Legendary Dreadnought or Fury of the Wild, it misses the mark. It's close, but both the Martial/Primal Destinies scale your damage higher than what I would typically expect to see out of Divine Crusader over the course of a standard quest.

As always, I have my own opinions on what needs to be changed to make it super polished, but here's my feedback on this initial 'alpha' build of the destiny.


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Innates

Innate 0: Divine Crusader
Plus HP & SP is a wise choice along with the +5 Caster Levels for Divines in General.
No changes. I personally see the full BAB as just a extra bonus over what this Innate is already granting.
No Changes.


Innate 1: Aura of Purification
I've come to really like this mechanic and how the tree is somewhat geared to it. The extra bonus points in design is that the core benefits to the aura are realised through the Innates, while Consecration and its upgrades can stand independantly and through being twisted. Good move on making this a toggle-stance ability as well.

I do like the benefits these stacks can bring - being able to reduce damage output of mobs is a always a good thing.
No Changes.


Innate 2: No Regret
Helps build Purification stacks quickly. No argument from me here.
No Changes.


Innate 3: Castigation
I like how this works - It's a completely a passive-agressive ability not requiring any kind of micro-management, and the natural curve of damage (1% of current HP per Purification stack) means that its not completely over-powered - it'll reach a natural plateua before declining in actual damage due to the mob's shrinking health.

The Boss damage is seperately a nice add as well, as a ticking 25D6 (avg 87.5) Bane Damage 'DoT' is quite interesting, but this really pales quite alot against harder difficulty bosses. Where-as the trash mob scales with Mob HP brilliantly, this is really wanting when your fighting a 200K HP Boss in Epic Elite quests.

Proposed Changes:
1. Improve the Boss damage by adding current Character Epic level to the 1D6 per Purification stack. At level 30, this would up the damage to an avg 337.5 per tick, and 1K Damage every three ticks would be a useful ability to have.


Innate 4: No Remorse
Well designed ability to receive some nice passive healing on Mob death. This works well in conjuction to other active healing, as well as other forms of passive healing such as Amerliorating strike and Positive Energy Aura. My only consideration is wondering if 1HP per CR is enough?

Proposed Changes:
1. Allow the heal to be affected by Positive Spell Power could be an interesting scenario
2. If 1 is deemed too powerful for lower difficulties then a doubling of the CR on Hard Difficulties and tripling of the CR on Elite difficulties could be considered?


Innate 5: Purifying Wrath
Untested, but comments relate to text description only. This is potentially over-powered. Any trash mob with a full set of Purification stacks and no resistance to fire is going to be insta-killed, with no save.

If that's the intention, then I'll point out its outclassing the similar T6 ability 'Everything is Nothing' in GMoF. Get 25x Purification stacks on EE Mobs, and drop em instantly for the cost of 100 spell points. Rinse and repeat 1 minute later, during which time your stacking Purification stacks on the next targets through persistent AoE damage spells. In fact, I see this being abused to solo EE quests, particular characters with a high degree of mobility.

The boss element is again interesting for Epic Normal/Hard difficulties, as 125D6 (437.5 Avg) Fire damage is quite a punch to the face if the boss is not Fire Resistant in anyway. Unfortunately, this doesn't scale well for Epic Elite difficulties.

Proposed Changes
1. How about changing it to be a scaling Fire damage ability?
  • For Mobs with 1-4 stacks, they each take 100 Fire Damage affected by Fire Spell Power?
  • For Mobs with 5-10 stacks they each take Incineration Damage affected by Fire spell power?
  • For Mobs with 11-20 stacks they each take Greater Incineration damage, affected by Fire Spell power?
  • For mobs with 21+ stacks, they take SUPER Incineration(2x Greater Incineration?) damage, affected by Fire Spell Power?


100SP & 1 Minute Cooldown would be appropriate for this I think. You wouldn't need a separate Boss damage element either, this way.


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Tier 1

T1: Stand and Be Judged
I like this, in design, but it has a fatal flaw in the DC it uses. It's simply not going to scale very well, especially for melee orientated characters outside of Monks. Yeah, I can see this being twisted onto Monks very easily, and 5 SP at Rank 3 means that a 250SP item will make this usable on any class.

PS Awesome naming - I can't possibly think where the suggestion for it might have come from?

Proposed Changes:
1. Add in General tactics modifiers to this ability, in the smae manner as to what Quivering Palm has been proposed too. This will allow the ability to scale alot better on Spellcasters and Melee orientated characters. Divine Spellcasters can continue to build Wisdom into more difficult content, while Melee orientated characters can use better and better equipment to keep the scaling going.
2. I'd also have a heavy think about swapping the DC over to use Charisma instead of Wisdom. It would stop abuse by Monks, and prevent making Kukan-Do a redundant ability.
3. The casting time is horrific. Please fix this. Melee's would be seriously impacted if they stood and tried to use when facing mobs head on.


T1: Interrogation
Great T1 buff for spell-casters, and a great way to get extra Purification stacks on enemies with a few AoE spells. Icestorm / Blade Barrier could use this to great effect. See previous comments regarding Purifying Wrath however.
No Changes.


T1: Purge the Wicked
Great T1 buff for Melee characters, and a great way for a melee to Debuff and prepare a Boss mob for other interesting Purification effects.
No Changes.


T1: Flames of Purity
Perfect for T1.
No Changes.


T1: Strength / Wisdom / Charisma
Perfect for this destiny.
No Changes.

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Tier 2

T2: Consecration
Another great way to stack some extra DoT damage for Mobs your statically fighting in melee or kiting through your Blade Barriers. Design is perfect, affected by Spell power with a consistent duration and cooldown that makes it re-usable without a great deal of micro-management. Sacred Ground and Crusade upgrades are worthy abilities as well, but comments on them below.
No changes.


T2: Sword of Justice
The desperately needed damage buff that any serious melee will want/need to keep up with the Jones' in FotW and LD. Competitive with Improved Power Attack or and the Innate damage bonuses in FotW.

Proposed Changes:
1. Add another +1 Seeker per tier that stacks with the Purge the Wicked bonus. This isn't going to see the destiny keep up with Combat Brute or Tunnel Vision, but will steep the destiny towards Crit Damage slightly more in keeping with the Paladin class.


T2: Empyrean Magic
For full time casters, this is actually quite a nice buff, as at ten stacks getting +20% Spell Damage and +10% Crit Chance to all spells is rather tasty. I wonder if Arcane's could make a good twist out of this with a cast or two of Burning Blood?
No changes.


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Tier 3

T3: Extraordinary Virtue
Not yet implemented.


T3: Sacred Ground
Great upgrade to Consecration. It's pretty **** awesome healing at high level, and means Paladins can even get in on the act with assisting some Raid healing with enough Positive spell power as they'll finally have access to a decent AoE healing ability. War Priests will absolutely love this alongside having Ameliorating strike.
No changes.


T3: Purifying Strike
Not yet implemented.

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Tier 4

T4: Crusade
Another good upgrade to Consecration, but it's a bit lean considering its at T4 in the destiny.

Proposed Changes:
1. Add a +6 Sacred bonus to Strength and Wisdom while under the effects of Crusade.
2. Ensure it affects spells as well as Melee and Ranged attacks.


T4: Firebrand
Not yet Implemented.

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Tier 5

T5: Celestial Champion
Your Paladins thank you and curse you at the same time While having a an expanded Crit Range and extra doublestrike is great, that doublestrike is typed sacred and will not stack with the Zeal Spell.

Proposed Changes:
1. Allow the Doublestrike bonus to stack upto 20, or even 25 times.
2. Ensure the stacks decay one at a time.


T5: Celestial Bombardment
Love the Damage component of this, as there's no save on it and its worthy of being a T5. While it's not quite there in terms of damage as say Energy Burst, the DC-less nature means I find more valuable when fighting in more difficult content.

I'm not too thrilled over the knock down portion however, as the attempt to scale the spell through Evocation Spell Modifiers isn't enough to allow the spell to work in Elite difficulty content. A completely specced out caster (60 Wis, 3 Sorc PLs, 1 Wiz PL, Epic Spell Focus, +9 set of Items) is only looking at 62DC?

Proposed Changes
1. Allow Quicken as a Meta-magic. Casting time isn't too bad but really its a bit of a chore.
2. If there is a DC on the damage component (I tested on CR 0.25 Kobolds!), consider removing it.
3. Add half character level to the DC calculation for the knockdown effect.
4. Give it a triple Cometfall Graphic Effect


T5: Transcendental Magic
It had to be added somewhere, but forcing Divine Offensive casters to take this destiny to get it is a little harsh. If there using Exalted Angel, then they've just lost 2DC

Proposed Changes
1. Consider dropping it to T4 as a pricey twist option.


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T6: Heavenly Presence
While +10 PRR is 'ok', this is really the first ability in the tree that I've given a serious 'meh' to. And its T6?! Seriously?!

Proposed Changes
1. Give us a Divine version of 'Flyby Attack' from DI with a 30s cool-down in its place. I would of just asked for Leap of Faith, but since this is already in Exalted Angel I think the offensive nature of Flyby Attack from DI would suit this destiny allot more.
2. Instead of the outright damage and knockdown of Flyby Attack, make it do less damage but also heal allies in our path.
2. Make sure the graphic is of a pair of Angel Wings!!


T6: Wrath of the Righteous
I'm going to tentatively say this is good 'as is' in terms of being a buff. Considering this is limited by mob kills in a quest, and averaging anywhere from 30/40 to 70/80 Mob kills per quest, this is a good damage buff overall for the consistency and lack of micro-management involved. Tbh, I don't even think the -3 HP strap down is required as a limiter.

Proposed Changes:
1. Remove the -3 HP debuff from the ability.

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Suggestions on not yet implemented Abilities

T3: Extraordinary Virtue
You automatically pass a Saving throw on the roll of a 19-20, instead of just a 20.

T3: Purifying Strikes
Stance: Your melee Weapon and Ranged attacks apply a stack of Lethargy on hit (Target takes 1% more damage for 3 seconds. This effect stacks up to 20 times, and loses one stack on expiration.)

T4: Firebrand
While in Purifying Strikes stance, your melee Weapon and Ranged attacks apply 1/2/3 stacks of Burning on hit (Target takes 1d6 fire damage every 2 seconds for 6 seconds. This effect can stack 20 times, and loses one stack on expiration).

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Well, hope that all helps!