Warlock Enhancements: Enlightened Spirit

[Requiro]

As general note: We wait for Lamannia. But the main problem here, is that Current Design Aura is almost no use for Ranged Combat (and still we have some Ranged Power boost). Almost all my suggestions made this tree more ranged combat friendly.

General suggestions

Core ability – Eldritch Aura: Redesign

Level 1 – Multi-selector: Close Combat Aura OR Ranged Combat Aura
• Close Combat Aura – Work within 33 ft (~10 m) around Warlock, Tick every 8 second, Only melee weapon can be used simultaneously with this Aura
• Ranged Combat Aura – Work within PBS range and only against marked enemies (Consumed, Strickend or Fearless Spirit), Tick every 10 second, Only ranged weapon can be used simultaneously with this Aura, Ranged weapon Marked enemies with Fearless Spirit (Duration of the mark: 3 second)

Level 3 – Depends of the choice in Core 1
• Close Combat Aura – Tick every 6 second
• Ranged Combat Aura – Tick every 8 second, PBS range increase by 16,5 ft (~5 m)

Level 6 – Depends of the choice in Core 1
• Close Combat Aura – Tick every 4 second
• Ranged Combat Aura – Tick every 6 second, PBS range increase by 16,5 ft (~5 m)

Level 12 – Depends of the choice in Core 1
• Close Combat Aura – Tick every 3 second, each time you hit with Aura, you gain +1 Melee Power for 6 second (max stacks 5)
• Ranged Combat Aura – Tick every 5 second, each time you hit with Aura, you gain +1 Ranged Power for 6 second (max stacks 5)

Level 18 – Depends of the choice in Core 1
• Close Combat Aura – Tick every 2 second, each time you are hit by an attack, you gain a stack of Spirit Armor. (Spirit Armor: +1 stacking PRR and MRR. Stacks up to 20 times.)
• Ranged Combat Aura – Tick every 4 second, each time you are hit by an attack, you gain a stack of Fearless Instinct. (Fearless Instinct: +1% dodge, +2% ranged alacrity. Stacks up to 5 times.)

Level 20 – Depends of the choice in Core 1,
• Both Auras - Floating above the ground, gain Feather Falling, immunity to knockdown effects, +10 Universal Spell Power, Your Eldritch Blasts gain 2d6 Light damage,
• Close Combat Aura – Your melee weapon gain +1d6 Light damage, +15 Melee Power
• Ranged Combat Aura – Tick every 3 second, Your ranged weapon gain +1d6 Light damage, +15 Ranged Power

Core ability – Rest abilities:
Level 3 – Aura of Courage works no matter if you turn on Eldritch Aura within 45 ft (~13,5m)
Level 12 - Aura of Menace works no matter if you turn on Eldritch Aura within 45 ft (~13,5m)
Level 20 – Active ability: Heal SL-a (No SP cost, Cooldown: 60 second) (In my suggestion I merged Current Active ability with Eldritch Aura)

Tier 1 abilities
Spiritual Defense – Create Aura that works within 45 ft (~13,5m), when you turn on Eldritch Aura

Tier 2 abilities
Resist Energies – Reduce SP Cost to 70/60/50 (Or even more – can’t tell before test on Lamannia)
Spiritual Bastion – Add this bonuses to the Aura from Spiritual Defense

Tier 3 abilities
Eldritch Burst – Multi-selector:
• Close Combat – No changes
• Ranged Combat – Work like Fireball spell, but instead of Fire damage, Throw away all damage from Eldritch Blast (base, pacts and other modification) plus 2d6 Light damage. AOE damage. Range the same as Fireball spell. Cooldown: 30 second
Spiritual Ward – Add this bonuses to the Aura from Spiritual Defense

Tier 5 abilities
Eldritch Burst – Multi-selector:
• Close Combat – No changes
• Ranged Combat – same as in Eldritch Burst but +10d6 Light damage instead 2d6 and longer Cooldown: 45 second
Beacon - Create Aura that works within 45 ft (~13,5m), when you turn on Eldritch Aura
Displace Summons – Add: +20% more HP (This is Tier 5 lock down ability, for summons that is currently broken. Give them more HP that they can stay longer)

And let made this tree less than 80 AP cost, if all abilities is taken.

[Failedlegend]

splatbook

I've been meaning to ask what this means, is it just a deragatory term for "Official WoTC books we hate" or is it just a term for anything that isn't Core...I never used this term when I was playing 3rd edition...they were just "1st Party Books" and were pretty much freely used unless something was truly disrupting gameplay (ie. I know Gestalts were widely hated by many people but I found it a great tool when running smaller groups, 4es "Hybrids" were similar to this but more designed to work in normal play...there was a splash of 2e's Dual Classing w/o the racial requirements in there as well)

As general note: We wait for Lamannia. But the main problem here, is that Current Design Aura is almost no use for Ranged Combat (and still we have some Ranged Power boost). Almost all my suggestions made this tree more ranged combat friendly.

I stand corrected apparently were pretty much on the same wave length...Devs, is this a possibility, if not why? If yes, what is the most likely way too fit this in so we can focus our suggestions?

[edrein]

As general note: ....
Level 18 – Depends of the choice in Core 1
• Close Combat Aura – Tick every 2 second, each time you are hit by an attack, you gain a stack of Spirit Armor. (Spirit Armor: +1 stacking PRR and MRR. Stacks up to 20 times.)
• Ranged Combat Aura – Tick every 4 second, each time you are hit by an attack, you gain a stack of Fearless Instinct. (Fearless Instinct: +1% dodge, +2% ranged alacrity. Stacks up to 5 times.)

Level 20 – Depends of the choice in Core 1,
• Both Auras - Floating above the ground, gain Feather Falling, immunity to knockdown effects, +10 Universal Spell Power, Your Eldritch Blasts gain 2d6 Light damage,
• Close Combat Aura – Your melee weapon gain +1d6 Light damage, +15 Melee Power
• Ranged Combat Aura – Tick every 3 second, Your ranged weapon gain +1d6 Light damage, +15 Ranged Power

You had me going with you up until these two. The ranged aura needs to remain double the tick CD as the melee aura, as you're not in the full fledged range of EE mobs, particularly champions smacking you around. Or even heroic champions as I've had a blast giggling at my deaths when I got cocky when champs first came out.

You Fearless Instinct is a bit strong as well. My biggest issue I would say is looking at this from the perspective of the obvious repeater/splash DPS. This could be rather broken in my eyes. But I'm personally in the boat for removing the on hit portion for Spirit Armor altogether. How about 15 PRR/MRR for melee and 5% Dodge and 5% Ranged Alacrity for ranged. (I know 10% is a fraction for repeater users, but 10% seems far too much when there is no doublestrike options for melee.)

[edrein]

I've been meaning to ask what this means, is it just a deragatory term for "Official WoTC books we hate" or is it just a term for anything that isn't Core...I never used this term when I was playing 3rd edition...they were just "1st Party Books" and were pretty much freely used unless something was truly disrupting gameplay (ie. I know Gestalts were widely hated by many people but I found it a great tool when running smaller groups, 4es "Hybrids" were similar to this but more designed to work in normal play...there was a splash of 2e's Dual Classing w/o the racial requirements in there as well)

In my experiences splatbook is typically the term for non-core. But I'll admit I used it in a derogatory way as most people do. There are some splatbooks that are counterproductive to serious setting/lore-based roleplay; and are more geared towards munchkinism, 'freedom of roleplay', or generally are just plain out there in the middle of space.

Anything geared towards outright going against the grain of racial steriotypes/backgrounds go towards the splatbook spectrum in my mind. As I said, I love Drizzt Do'Urden but he's a mary sue and his angst-y anti-Drow views gets old when most groups have to have that one player that wants to do that sort of background somehow.

[HastyPudding]

As general note: We wait for Lamannia. But the main problem here, is that Current Design Aura is almost no use for Ranged Combat (and still we have some Ranged Power boost). Almost all my suggestions made this tree more ranged combat friendly.

Uuhmmm no.

The aura doesn't need to have ridiculous range. This isn't an offensive tree, it's a support/mitigation tree with some offense options and melee/ranged friendly. I'd expect the aura to be within the aura of courage radius, probably closer to death aura/positive energy aura radius.

[Failedlegend]

In my experiences splatbook is typically the term for non-core. But I'll admit I used it in a derogatory way as most people do. There are some splatbooks that are counterproductive to serious setting/lore-based roleplay; and are more geared towards munchkinism, 'freedom of roleplay', or generally are just plain out there in the middle of space.

Sorry I just don't get where this sentiment comes from maybe I've just never played with "munchkins" or something but I never heard the word until recently, we just played races and classes that were cool/fun ....we never viewed Tieflings, Genasi, Fairies or any of the imo more "interesting/unique" races (as opposed to Elf sub-race #349) as somehow bad or wrong, I really can't understand where people are coming from with this...it's just such a foreign concept.

I also don't get why the Forgotten Realms are so loved, it just screams generic fantasy land where almost everything happens the way you'd expect it to. Personally I prefer the "worlds" that play by their own unique rules like Dark Sun or Ebberon.

As for Drizz't I'm not a fan...his book series was ok but I was more interested in the Harpell's and to a lesser extent (only cause Halflings are cool) Regis. I found the Dragon Lance (lost interest when the gods left though) and Dark Sun books to be much more interesting and just recently I listened to the Shard Axe (DDO Eberron) by Marsheila Rockwell and OMG it was glorious (and yes I said listen, I'm a Janitor Audiobooks and Tabletop Recordings are what keep me sane :P, Also NO ONE around here was selling a physical copy of the book.)

Anyways what is considered "Core" is that literally just lthe PHB & the DMG (IIRC there was 3 of each) because if that's true, that sounds REALLY boring.

One of my major positives for pathfinder is that each class has at least a dozen archetypes (think "Kits" from 2e) which really varies up the playstyle of the class whilst still feeling like that class. (I'd put some links here for reference but I doubt that's Kosher on this forum)

A multitude of choices and multi-classing and races and what not was what made DnD awesome for me it was all about being and doing whatever you wanted to do, the way you and others seem to play seems so blah (too each their own I truly mean that but seriously it sounds sooooo boring)

If I had to split the facets of DnD (and it's like) into three parts it would be Fluff, Combat Mechanics & Character Creation/Building/Leveling,etc. (Roleplaying is system neutral so is irrelevant when comparing systems, despite being so important) and if I had to assign values PF would have the best character creation/building, DnD has the best Fluff/Lore (I still use DnD as my basis for deities, campaign settings etc. despite playing PF) and 4e imo is hands down the best mechanically if the character creation wasn't so ludicrously limited I would have never stopped playing.

Oh and no I don't get where the"4e is an MMO" sentiment comes from...it makes no sense, if you HAD to compare it to a game genre it's much more similar to the S-RPG genre like X-Com, Final Fantasy Tactics or Fire Emblem. Which for me is how I've always done combat, with a grid..roleplaying is 99% of the time TotM but combat happens bam break out the map or Dwarven forge...listening to people's recorded sessions who do battle's TotM seems like 50% of the battle is "hey where's the badguy, who am I beside, I move over here...oh i was surrounded I guess I don't move." doesn't seem practical to me.

The aura doesn't need to have ridiculous range. This isn't an offensive tree, it's a support/mitigation tree with some offense options and melee/ranged friendly. I'd expect the aura to be within the aura of courage radius, probably closer to death aura/positive energy aura radius.

Were not asking for a ridiculous range were asking for a "shape" that works like the "Melee Aura" except for ranged weapons honestly it's not much of a stretch to change the base EB shot to a shot that imbues bolts, arrows or thrown weapons, there's no reason ranged weapons can't work if Melee weapons do.

You had me going with you up until these two. The ranged aura needs to remain double the tick CD as the melee aura

Why exactly ranged isn't this super invincible never get hurt magical thing people seem to think it i, I mean casters die just fine what about a Bow or other projectile based weapon makes this any different. It should follow the same progression

If anything ranged should be a bit quicker to make up for the fact that the ranged requires more feats to function, is generally slower and without very specific abilities doesn't even have a native damage stat. (I don't actually think it should be quicker just making a point...the rest is very true and dumb though)

[edrein]

Were not asking for a ridiculous range were asking for a "shape" that works like the "Melee Aura" except for ranged weapons honestly it's not much of a stretch to change the base EB shot to a shot that imbues bolts, arrows or thrown weapons, there's no reason ranged weapons can't work if Melee weapons do.



Why exactly ranged isn't this super invincible never get hurt magical thing people seem to think it i, I mean casters die just fine what about a Bow or other projectile based weapon makes this any different. It should follow the same progression

If anything ranged should be a bit quicker to make up for the fact that the ranged requires more feats to function, is generally slower and without very specific abilities doesn't even have a native damage stat. (I don't actually think it should be quicker just making a point...the rest is very true and dumb though)

I question why you want this aura idea at all. I too would rather a melee warlock imbue his weapons with his eldritch blast like Hideous Blow. But if melee isn't getting special treatment then I don't think it's rightfully fair for ranged to get such either. Make it a multiselector for aura or imbuement and we're talking.

[Vargouille]

Whoa, whoa, whoa.... you mean that the Eldritch Blast only takes over your main-hand weapon? So, this means that shields (and blocking) are allowed? It seems I am learning more and more fun multiclass options with these guys everyday. At first I thought that they might be lacking on synergies, but now, they are a multiclasser's dream! Keep up the good work, love it.

Reminder that shields cause Arcane Spell Failure. Which doesn't mean it can't be done, of course.

I really don't get this path and how it makes sense for the general Warlock thing. Tainted Scholar makes sense for Demonic Pact warlocks, Souleater makes sense for Great Old One pact warlocks, and this makes ZERO sense for Feypact warlocks.

These aren't intended to be tied to pacts in any particular way. This is just what we felt was an interesting tabletop Warlock prestige that fit well with the abilities we wanted to give and into the puzzle left by choosing the other prestiges.

[Steve_Howe]

These aren't intended to be tied to pacts in any particular way.

I think this sentence is KEY to understanding the relationship of pacts to prestige enhancements...that is, there is no intended relationship between the two.

[FuryFlash]

Reminder that shields cause Arcane Spell Failure. Which doesn't mean it can't be done, of course.

Ah, thank you for this reminder. So this means that although you will suffer spellcasting penalties, shields can still be used. Now I have a couple questions about this:

• Will Arcane Spell Failure affect EB? I can't remember if I already read this somewhere, my apologies if so.
• When I looked at the Weekly Wednesday Lunchtime Livestream this week, some images were released for the Warlock's EB casting animation. From what I could tell, this was using both hands. How will this interact with an equipped shield/rune arm/orb?

Thanks

[Failedlegend]

I question why you want this aura idea at all. I too would rather a melee warlock imbue his weapons with his eldritch blast like Hideous Blow. But if melee isn't getting special treatment then I don't think it's rightfully fair for ranged to get such either. Make it a multiselector for aura or imbuement and we're talking.

Uh...I'm not asking for "special treatment" an aura centered on you just does nothing for ranged weapon because it's centered on you the only things I can think of that are similar is either a direct imbue or for your target to gain the aura (damaging it and enemies around it)...subject to the same cooldown between procs of course, frankly for melee I actually prefer the aura to an imbue since the aura affects multiple enemies instead of just who your hitting.

[Requiro]

You had me going with you up until these two. The ranged aura needs to remain double the tick CD as the melee aura, as you're not in the full fledged range of EE mobs, particularly champions smacking you around. Or even heroic champions as I've had a blast giggling at my deaths when I got cocky when champs first came out

You Fearless Instinct is a bit strong as well. My biggest issue I would say is looking at this from the perspective of the obvious repeater/splash DPS. This could be rather broken in my eyes. But I'm personally in the boat for removing the on hit portion for Spirit Armor altogether. How about 15 PRR/MRR for melee and 5% Dodge and 5% Ranged Alacrity for ranged. (I know 10% is a fraction for repeater users, but 10% seems far too much when there is no doublestrike options for melee.)

No exactly. In my suggestions, Ranged Aura can damage only enemies that are marked and in range. You do not damage everyone around you in PBS radius.
Additional Core Level 18 and 20 must be competitive with other splash classes, like Ranger - Deepwood Stalker or Rogue - Mechanic. Both give you more PBD range, and additional sneak damage, while Warlocks levels 15-20 give you 2d6 base + 3d4 Pact Eldritch Blast damage per tick (I guess 14/6 Warlock/Other class). Not mention for Bow users – Ranger Arcane Archer.

Maybe you are right that +10% ranged speed in too much. Maybe +5% is more accurate. But we can't tell until we can test it. And we can't test it because there is no plan to made this improvements (at least no Devs spoke about it).

[Kulothar]

The summoner line looks to be the stronger than any of the other summoner enhancement lines in any of the other classes.

However, given that Summon Monster IX summons a CR 16 monster, I have doubts as to its effectiveness against CR70 monsters. The only remaining use is for charmed monsters and/or hirelings. Still, 7 action points and tiers 3-5 is a bit much as well. Would be better in Harper Tree instead.

I am looking forward to how this works with my summoned companion spirit meteor storm....

[Windaar]

Probably been asked already as I haven't looked at this thread in a couple of days, but do we have an ETA on when Lammania will come up so we can test these?

[Xerio]

Probably been asked already as I haven't looked at this thread in a couple of days, but do we have an ETA on when Lammania will come up so we can test these?

That is posted down in the lamalama land test forums, scroll down at the home forum page to find it.

That being said, last i checked the answer was "Could be as early as tomorrow or early next week"
My bets are on next week sometime.

[Windaar]

Figures... Thanks. Hadn't noticed a change in the Lamma discussions yet.

[Nascoe]

Figures... Thanks. Hadn't noticed a change in the Lamma discussions yet.

Actually its up already: https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...a!#post5620737

[edrein]

The HP buff I suggested is certainly going to be needed. I was sitting at 267hp with Toughness, 16 base con, and pure Enlightened Spirit on a human while wearing medium armor. As a near triple completionist, sure this can work with my gear and past lives. For those starting out, no, not at all. (To note this was without a +6 con item, false life items, toughness items, greensteel, etc. Trying to mimic a first lifer as much as possible, minus the con items.)

[Zoda]

I'd like to see the capstone 3d6 light damage added to melee attacks same as Retribution bonus damage. This is supposed to be the more melee oriented tree, and while retribution is nice, the damage output still won't come even close to a real melee character's if you want to maintain at least some of your spellcasting abilities. Sure the blasts and say a twisted energy burst is nice additional dps, but compared to a barb or paladin critting/cleaving for thousands, it is just weaksauce.

Going pure would severly hurt your melee dps, even compared to a 18warlock/1fvs/1fighter split, that would offer divine might and haste boost, and an extra feat on perhaps the most feat starved class ddo has ever seen. A pure Enlightened Spirit would have to make some really hard decisions when picking weapons/damage modifying stats. You could go INT secondary and invest 12 AP in harper, to get some half decent damage, you could go STR secondary and save the investment in harper, or you can spend a +1 heart and go pure PDK and use longswords with knight training (instead of khopeshes or heavy picks). Non of these choices are even close to ideal if you want to swing weapons (and assuming that you use the aura stance, you want to do that), that 3d6 scaling light damage wouldn't be OP, it'd just help closing a gigantic gap.

[edrein]

I'd like to see the capstone 3d6 light damage added to melee attacks same as Retribution bonus damage. This is supposed to be the more melee oriented tree, and while retribution is nice, the damage output still won't come even close to a real melee character's if you want to maintain at least some of your spellcasting abilities. Sure the blasts and say a twisted energy burst is nice additional dps, but compared to a barb or paladin critting/cleaving for thousands, it is just weaksauce.

Going pure would severly hurt your melee dps, even compared to a 18warlock/1fvs/1fighter split, that would offer divine might and haste boost, and an extra feat on perhaps the most feat starved class ddo has ever seen. A pure Enlightened Spirit would have to make some really hard decisions when picking weapons/damage modifying stats. You could go INT secondary and invest 12 AP in harper, to get some half decent damage, you could go STR secondary and save the investment in harper, or you can spend a +1 heart and go pure PDK and use longswords with knight training (instead of khopeshes or heavy picks). Non of these choices are even close to ideal if you want to swing weapons (and assuming that you use the aura stance, you want to do that), that 3d6 scaling light damage wouldn't be OP, it'd just help closing a gigantic gap.

I think a multiselector on the Displacement T5 for Displacement or Perma Tenser's would solve the issue of stats/damage. Atleast you'd do a bit better. (However I did notice a lot of my DCs took a hit while Tensers'ing like any other caster. Which was horrible when trying to land Howl of Terror in EE.)