Divine Sphere Epic Destiny Changes

[Vargouille]

We’ve taken a great deal of feedback related to Divine Crusader, Unyielding Sentinel, and Exalted Angel into consideration, and put together some changes that we hope give more focus to these destinies, as well as improving the Divine Sphere play experience and build options. These changes are planned to go live with a patch after Update 21. This is in addition to some previously previewed changes that are going live with Update 21 in Unyielding Sentinel.

Please let us know what you think about any or all of these changes!

Divine Sphere Changes: Goals

These are the broader goals we've been aiming at.

• Unyielding Sentinel: Tanking, Support, and Healing.
• Exalted Angel: Offensive Casting (primarily light damage & DC casting)
• Divine Crusader: Offensive Melee, some Fire damage

Summaries of changes for each Epic Destiny

Exalted Angel
Add some abilities to aid DC casting, as well as another light damage spell. Melee abilities have moved out along with Renewal.



New:

• Command SLA
• Sun Bolt SLA
• Mass Cure Light Wounds SLA
• Transcendent Magic (Spell DC bonuses)
• Piercing Spellcraft (Spell Penetration Bonus, doesn't stack with Piercing Spellcraft from Magister)
• Shadows Upon You: Target foe becomes cursed with Shadows Upon You, reducing all saving throws by -2/-4/-6. Whenever this foe is damaged by spells or attacks, saving throws are reduced by an additional -1. Stacks up to 10 times.

Changed:

• Divine Wrath no longer requires Ardor to cast. Cooldown and SP cost have been increased.
• Reborn in Light cooldown reduced from 30 minutes to 10 minutes. Counter requirements reduced to 25.

Moved:

• Renewal has been moved from Exalted Angel to Unyielding Sentinel. Requires being in Unyielding Sentinel to self-target.

Unyielding Sentinel
Renewal moves into Unyielding Sentinel, along with new increased threat generation, hit points, spell points, a raise dead option, and mass energy resistance spell.




New:

• Unyielding Sentinel now grants 40 spell points per Destiny level.
• Divine Energy Resistance: "You and nearby allies gain +35 Enhancement bonus to resist Energy for 1 minute per character level. (Includes Acid, Cold, Electric, Fire, and Sonic.)" (Same bonus type as Resist Energy spells.)
• Commanding Presence: +50/100/150% Threat Generation (melee, ranged, magic)
• Strength of Vitality: +10/15/20% Insightful bonus to maximum hit points.
• Resurrection SLA

Moved:

• Bane of Undeath, Confront Any Foe, Endless Turning have been moved from Unyielding Sentinel to Divine Crusader.
• Renewal has been moved from Exalted Angel to Unyielding Sentinel. Requires being in Unyielding Sentinel to self-target.
• Block Energy is now lowered to Tier 2.

Changed:

• Light the Dark:
  
  • Now accepts metamagics: Quicken, Empower Healing
  • Benefits 50% more from spellpower.
  • Cooldown increased to 12 seconds.
• Hardened: Upgraded to add +5/10/15 AC.

Divine Crusader
Since it's time on Lamannia, Divine Crusader has taken some abilities from Unyielding Sentinel and Exalted Angel. Many proposed abilities have been moved around, altered, or cut.



Moved:

• Bane of Undeath, Confront Any Foe, Endless Turning: Moved from Unyielding Sentinel to Divine Crusader.
• Blessed blades, Smite the Wicked, Strike down: Moved from Exalted Angel to Divine Crusader.
• Strike down: Strike Down now cleaves multiple opponents. It retains the +3[w] bonus damage, and the vorpal effect on undead and evil outsiders, and now deals 500 fire damage on hit. The cooldown has been increased and the spell point cost lowered. (No longer requires counters it previously used in Exalted Angel.)

Some notable changes since last Lamannia:

• Stand and Be Judged: Now lasts 30 seconds. Increased cost and cooldown.
• Wrath of the Righteous: Activate: Gain 100 stacks of Wrath. Wrath: +1 Spell Power, +1% Damage with all attacks. Wrath decays by 1 stack every 3 seconds. Long cooldown.

unyieldingsentinel

[Krelar]

Unyielding Sentinel
Renewal moves into Unyielding Sentinel, along with new increased threat generation, hit points, spell points, a raise dead option, and mass energy resistance spell.

New:

• Unyielding Sentinel now grants 40 spell points per Destiny level.
• Divine Energy Resistance: "You and nearby allies gain +35 Enhancement bonus to resist Energy for 1 minute per character level. (Includes Acid, Cold, Electric, Fire, and Sonic.)" (Same bonus type as Resist Energy spells.)
• Commanding Presence: +50/100/150% Threat Generation (melee, ranged, magic)
• Strength of Vitality: +10/15/20% Insightful bonus to maximum hit points.
• Resurrection SLA

Moved:

• Bane of Undeath, Confront Any Foe, Endless Turning have been moved from Unyielding Sentinel to Divine Crusader.
• Renewal has been moved from Exalted Angel to Unyielding Sentinel. Requires being in Unyielding Sentinel to self-target.
• Block Energy is now lowered to Tier 2.

Changed:

• Light the Dark:
  
  • Now accepts metamagics: Quicken, Empower Healing
  • Benefits 50% more from spellpower.
  • Cooldown increased to 12 seconds.
• Hardened: Upgraded to add +5/10/15 AC.

Is it intentional that endless smiting and endless lay on hands now require the enhancements that grant those feat? On live they do not so a Paladin who already has access to the base abilities can spend AP elsewhere. Now we will have to use at least 2 additional AP to regain access to those abilities.

Hardened still won't matter until you do something to fix AC's usefulness in EE.

[Vargouille]

Is it intentional that endless smiting and endless lay on hands now require the enhancements that grant those feat? On live they do not so a Paladin who already has access to the base abilities can spend AP elsewhere. Now we will have to use at least 2 additional AP to regain access to those abilities.

Sorry, there's a misunderstanding since I didn't explain the special symbols used on these diagrams.

You'll note that the requirement arrows coming from Bane of Undeath (for instance) are different from the other arrows (they have a strange color/texture). This is because you either need that enhancement OR you need the feats. This special requirement is unchanged.

[Krelar]

Sorry, there's a misunderstanding since I didn't explain the special symbols used on these diagrams.

You'll note that the requirement arrows coming from Bane of Undeath (for instance) are different from the other arrows (they have a strange color/texture). This is because you either need that enhancement OR you need the feats. This special requirement is unchanged.

Fair enough.

Oh and is the threat generation going to stack with what Sacred Defenders already get or are you giving Paladin's another unstacking bonus?

[Jon_Irenicus]

Sorry, there's a misunderstanding since I didn't explain the special symbols used on these diagrams.

You'll note that the requirement arrows coming from Bane of Undeath (for instance) are different from the other arrows (they have a strange color/texture). This is because you either need that enhancement OR you need the feats. This special requirement is unchanged.

Any chance that you could make 'Stand and Be Judged' block-able by spell absorption? It's over-powered in player-vs-player arenas.

[Gratch]

Divine Wrath changes? Just as I was finding it to be at parity to Fury/LD dps-wise with the right build to quickly level this destiny... at the same time as you add the sun bolt to help build divine wrath??? I don't know. I thought divine wrath was in a good place if you built for it. Takes a lot more light spell power, spell setup, sla setup building for it than Adrenaline+Unbridled Fury or Shiradi Nerve Venom or Master's Blitz (which I'd guess to be the top used ED abilities in EE currently). I'm not asking you to nerf them all (and then all monsters) - that's too big of a change. I'm asking you to allow Divine Wrath to keep potential without an insane cooldown/cost with the right build pumping out divine spells having a usage advantage.

Still 3 murky stances in Unyielding? Please explain how the term Unbreakable is different than the term Standing Against the Tide? Though they have different properties the terms seem very similar. Cut it down to two stances. One for battle stance (damage dice & HP) and one for extra defense stance (threat & AC & PRR & Dodge).

[serthcore]

About EA:
-I agree that this change on divine wrath is more like a nerf. Its cooldown shouldnt be increased, and it needs quicken.
- Losing renewal and gaining CLWM doesn't seem a good tradeoff, but still have to know about the cooldown.
- dc's and spell pen is good for some builds.

And here's a question: what are the DC formulas and cooldown on sunbolt and command?

[PsychoBlonde]

Divine Wrath changes? Just as I was finding it to be at parity to Fury/LD dps-wise with the right build to quickly level this destiny... at the same time as you add the sun bolt to help build divine wrath???

Save thy rage. You are aware that it will no longer be necessary to cast TEN light spells to charge Divine Wrath, right? So you won't be stuck spamming ridiculously craptastic 100 point light spells in order to fire off your divine wrath. You'll be able to use that time (and the sp) to throw OTHER spells and still use Wrath right when it comes off cooldown. It'll probably be a net saving of sp and give you the time and inclination to use your blade barriers again.

The one thing I'd say about Divine Wrath is--please, please, PLEASE make it so that you can TARGET IT ON ALLIES OR YOURSELF. It heals allies. You should be able to target them with it instead of having to find some enemy that's standing nearby and hope that it doesn't move during the casting animation. The ability to use Quicken with Wrath would indeed be nice. Also, Judgment needs to work on a broader spectrum of enemies than just undead and evil outsiders if you're going to be making Divine Wrath have a longer cooldown. Evil enemies in general would be fine. Purity of essence should probably get moved to the US tree, to be honest, a smidge of healing amp is not worth spending three points on when you're an offensive caster divine. Also, why is healing power still in the EA tree? Change it to +30 negative and force spellpower plz. If this is supposed to be a largely *offensive tree*. Also consider adding an effect that goes off it that absorbs negative/force energy the way Embrace The Light absorbs positive energy. Command SLA is feeble unless the cooldown is like, 2 seconds. Greater Command would be much, much better. Holy Smite (or Chaos Hammer or Order's Wrath, your choice) would also be a nice one to put there instead.

---

I like the changes to Unyielding Sentinel, but I really wish you'd condense some of those stances. Vigor of Battle could stand to be replaced entirely with a new *passive* ability--it's a **** stance. If the plan is to make US more healing-based you could change Vigor of Battle to a stance that procs temp hp when you cast healing spells instead of one that procs temp hp when you attack--when you're healing intensively you're not in melee whacking things. That'd make Vigor the Healing stance, Stand Against the Tide would be the Threat/damage stance, and Unbreakable should be the Soak stance. Does Anoint Weapon require Stand Against the Tide still? Hardened should be a % AC bonus instead of a flat AC bonus.

I'd also possibly suggest making Ward Against Evil have some additional effect if you're in Unbreakable stance, such as a chance to have a big proc. Anoint Weapon could be similarly tied to Stand Against the Tide (having an additional benefit while you're in that stance) while Ward Against Evil is tied to Unbreakable--this would actually make some sense because these two are on the same level. You could then tie Strength of Vitality into Vigor of Battle (which, again, would TOTALLY MAKE SENSE) and have it also have some kind of additional effect when you're in Vigor of Battle stance. All three of these abilities need a little more oomph considering how high they are up the tree.

Please make Unyielding Sentinel a choice between Wis/Con instead of Con/Cha, or even all 3 stats.

---

Confront Any Foe just doesn't do enough damage. 10d10 is nothing even on an AOE attack. Making it an AOE would at least be interesting. The damage cap (1000) on Smite the Wicked needs to be much higher, like, around 4k, particularly since Improved and Greater disruption items exist now. Swapping Wrath and Celestial Bombardment makes sense to me, kinda, although I think you should make Celestial Bombardment a (1) rank ability instead of a (3) rank ability because otherwise it basically becomes mutually exclusive with Strike Down.

I think this latest round of changes shows some serious potential.

[Shincula]

Hardened should be a % AC bonus instead of a flat AC bonus.

I'm inclined to agree with this. 5/10/15% AC would be much more useful from a scaling perspective, and would bring it into line with the change to HP in the same ED. It's not particularly overpowered or unprecedented; a level 1 dip of Wizard can acquire a 10% boost AC.

[sephiroth1084]

I'm inclined to agree with this. 5/10/15% AC would be much more useful from a scaling perspective, and would bring it into line with the change to HP in the same ED. It's not particularly overpowered or unprecedented; a level 1 dip of Wizard can acquire a 10% boost AC.

If you have 100 AC, 10% is...+10 AC. It's a bit more if you're up around 150 already, but not enough to be really meaningfully different from the new progression. Unless they want to use this ability in the same way that weapon proficiency and Precision work for attacks, adding straight-up 20% or 5%, respectively, to attacks after other calculations.

Actually, that would be a pretty good idea!

Change Hardened to add up to a 15% miss chance due to AC that comes after the base calculation. So, if an attack against your AC would have a 25% chance to succeed, add this 15% after that, rather than adding another +X bonus to your AC that diminishes with the parabolic curve of AC progression we have.

[redoubt]

When I do run my cleric (usually just for raids) I tend to keep him in Sentinel. My cleric is actually turn spec'd (heavily that way) which is part of why he doesn't see a ton of action any more these days, but it does work nicely for healing with aura and burst.

The PRR, HP, saves and blocking boosts are nice to have for this play style. Enough so that I give up the extra spell points, so seeing you add some in is nice.

My one request would be to keep the endless turning in US or have it in both US and the new one.

Thanks.

[mikarddo]

Exalted Angel
Add some abilities to aid DC casting, as well as another light damage spell. Melee abilities have moved out along with Renewal.

New:

• Command SLA
• Sun Bolt SLA
• Mass Cure Light Wounds SLA
• Transcendent Magic (Spell DC bonuses)
• Piercing Spellcraft (Spell Penetration Bonus, doesn't stack with Piercing Spellcraft from Magister)
• Shadows Upon You: Target foe becomes cursed with Shadows Upon You, reducing all saving throws by -2/-4/-6. Whenever this foe is damaged by spells or attacks, saving throws are reduced by an additional -1. Stacks up to 10 times.

Changed:

• Divine Wrath no longer requires Ardor to cast. Cooldown and SP cost have been increased.
• Reborn in Light cooldown reduced from 30 minutes to 10 minutes. Counter requirements reduced to 25.

Moved:

• Renewal has been moved from Exalted Angel to Unyielding Sentinel. Requires being in Unyielding Sentinel to self-target.

Thats some interesting changes. Its hard to really go into a deep analysis without the details on the various SLA (cooldown, spell cost, available metas) but I will try even so. Please provide the full run down on every SLA in order to get proper feedback.
- Divine Wrath wasnt really limited by ardor so removing that restiction but upping the cooldown AND spell cost is a clear and possibly huge nerf. I consider that a very bad idea. Please reconsider in particular the spell cost.
- Divine Wrath really needs to allow Quicken atleast or have its animation time lowered significantly.
- Removing Renewal is a huge setback. More people like to run DC divines than low dps tank Divines and removing that option as a cheap and viable healer is a very bad idea. Sure, someone in EA can twist Renewal but to be competive for DC you need those twists for offensive things. I have yet to see a viable argument why Renewal cannot be in both EA and US.
- Reborn in Light should add all its benefits when used while alive, the restiction where the best stuff is only given when dead makes it lackluster compared to some of the other epic moments.
- Unless Command is on a really low cooldown thats too weak. Unless its practically no cooldown it should be Greater Command (obviously with a longer cooldown). Please reconsider and add GC instead.
Apart from these 5 things I really like what you are doing with EA. I cannot comment on the other two destinies as I have no experience with those.


Keep up the superb communications

[Bladedge]

Command SLA for Exalted Angel is kind of weak especially for epics, maybe Greater Command instead.

[Bladedge]

A refresher on what all the current Divine Crusader abilities currently do, could be helpful to us players for feed back.

[oberon131313]

A refresher on what all the current Divine Crusader abilities currently do, could be helpful to us players for feed back.

http://ddowiki.com/page/Divine_Crusader

[Ancient]

Thank you for sharing this and asking for feedback! I like the new trend towards involving the players.

I mainly play casters, so I'll focus on EA.

1.) The epic moment still isn't tempting. Especially now there are two other attack spells. This should be a toggle with less benefits.

2.) I need to play test it, but I think the fire attacks from divine crusader would be better in EA. This needs to be on par with draconic or shiradi. On paper, I'm not seeing it yet. But it may play better than it reads.

3.) Removing the light counters for divine wrath is great. This makes clerics a very viable choice for light casters now... (now the problem is that the FVS class is underpowered except as a splash).

4. Please fix the targeting on divine wrath and allow quicken!!!!

5. Raising the cost of divine wrath is going the wrong way. If already does far less damage than energy burst. (No, the heal doesn't make up the difference in value).

6. The command SLA doesn't seem popular... I'm one more who wont take it.

7. I understand moving renewal, but I do think there should be some self-heal option in each divine destiny. The mass CLW is interesting, but that is not "self-healing".

I like the direction, but it seems like you are holding back in fear of making something too good. Holding back just keeps us in the state where there are 3-5 "viable" destinies. There is room for more focus/goodies without straying into overpowered.

[Hathorian]

I haven't had a chance to look at these in detail yet but at a high level the concept of the proposed changes sound enlightened. What abilities in the EA tree will increase DCs and what DCs will be increased by how much? I think we need some more details.

[Panzermeyer]

Command SLA for Exalted Angel is kind of weak especially for epics, maybe Greater Command instead.

Yes a single target CC spell in and epic destiny sphere is weak sauce. Especially if it ended up being constrained by the current spell low level.

Greater command would be much more appropiate for an epic destiny.

[Shincula]

Yes a single target CC spell in and epic destiny sphere is weak sauce. Especially if it ended up being constrained by the current spell low level.

Greater command would be much more appropiate for an epic destiny.

Personally, I think Sound Burst would be more thematic. It's from a school that Divine casters generally specialize in (Evocation), it's an AoE burst, and as of last update, it renders enemies temporarily helpless. All in all, that's a pretty solid package.

[SirValentine]

- Divine Wrath wasnt really limited by ardor

Yes it was. Well, it wasn't if you had an archon auto-generating charges for you, but for everyone else, it was almost useless.

- Divine Wrath really needs to allow Quicken atleast or have its animation time lowered significantly.

YES! Devs, please, look at this issue.

- Removing Renewal is a huge setback. More people like to run DC divines than low dps tank Divines and removing that option as a cheap and viable healer is a very bad idea.

Yes, but they're adding a Mass Cure SLA as a core auto-grant, so I'm not too worried, as long as the SLA cost & cool-down are reasonable.