Producer's Letter - 5/21/15

[IronClan]

Why dumbfounded? Various flavors of this attitude have been around forever; the classes, races, and builds change, but the "y u hatz meh?!?!?!?" is everywhere, pretty much on every game ever.

Some of it is loosely true-ish: DM/dev has a vision for a class that is dramatically different than the player's vision, friction ensues, and people get passionate (rather a few of my posts back in the Rogue Wars were infraction worthy, for instance). It isn't hate, though, it's just a different vision. Unless it differs from mine, on my fave class, in which case it's hate.

Yep people always think they're persecuted or being actively hated on or neglected in every game...

It's just easier to say "y u hatz meh!?!?" than it is to consider a nuanced position like: it's a small staff and they have a lot on there plate.

It's especially puzzling to see people who really should know better putting such a silly viewpoint out there

[phillymiket]

I play my caster NOW and I don't feel like a burden compared to the melees I play with...

So who should the devs design for? That guy or me?

I'd rather they work on Tempest because my ranger TWF guy could use a little love... I'm perfectly happy with my wizard. He contributes quite well as is.

Sure, he could use a little boss DPS help, but Sev already said they are working on that... so I'm happy. Their plans seem exactly right to me.

Really?
I still like my Divines and Arcanes quite fine.
But I hopped on my Wiz after coming back from a break to explore ToEE.
I did fine but always had to worry about running out of steam and pacing myself.
Then I hopped on the Bard and just ate up the content.
There is no doubt in my mind that both the Arcanes offense and defense falls short.

Certain classes are just Energizer Bunnies these days and can just go on and on and on.
Certain classes seemingly have no weakness nor have a particular type of encounter that presents an extra-special challenge for them.

I totally am with you on the "I still like the Arcane and do fine" thing
But can you really say that a Pally or w/e doesn't do way moar fine these days?

The problem IMO is more than just lack of boss DPS and also has to do with nothing scaling past level 20 very well (as others mentioned)
Casters need some high level spells and need damage and DC from low level spells to scale right up to level cap.
CC needs to have some utility beyond the weakest of trash mobs.
Arcane defenses, like displacement, shouldn't just be a thing that protects you against mobs you didn't need protection from in the first place.
Arcane debuffs shouldn't be so weak and useless that they aren't worth the casting time.

[FranOhmsford]

I don't want to attribute specific feelings to you in particular, Steelstar, but over the course of last 7 years, it's pretty obvious from the results that, if not active hatred, devs historically have not given a **** about divines, except maybe some token hjealbot support. And the gross discrepancy in class features, enhancements, and gearing options that has accumulated over the years still largely exists.

This is another pet peeve of mine!

The Enhancement Tree changes didn't go anywhere near far enough towards making Divines viable!

In fact: The way the game changed with everyone and his mutt getting self healing Divines were made even more worthless!

All FOUR Divine Trees are badly done!
Radiant Servant has no Attack Power outside TU {and we all know how well that works these days unless you're a maxed Charisma Build}, No defenses whatsoever and Pure Healers are simply not wanted by other players anymore!
Warpriest cannot compete on it's own - Pure Healers may not be wanted but a Cleric who doesn't at least put 20 points into Radiant Servant is NOT A CLERIC!
Divine Disciple seems to have been made with the intent of making Clerics a Caster Class - I've got news for you Devs...WE DON'T HAVE THE SPELLS! {And again, Not a Cleric without at least 20 pts in RS!}.
Angel of Vengeance is a Joke!

The Biggest problem I see with Cleric is their most basic abilities:
Healing -
A Cleric does NOT need to maximise every last drop out of his Healing in DDO - Yes he needs it to be viable but most of the time a single non-empowered Heal or Heal Mass will get the job done.
However: That's no reason to tie their Healing power to a single Tree {and high up in that tree too!}
Turn Undead
Max Charisma Clerics are non-viable anywhere other than Full on Undead Quests where they're Gods! {BTW THEY SHOULD BE!}
Anything other than Max Cha and you can pretty much forget about Turning anything past Lvl 13-14! {Yes I know this is an exaggeration made for effect!}.
Then remember that you have to take TWO FEATS and Go heavily into RS AND gear up properly for it to work in even high level Heroics...Never Mind EEs!
THEN REMEMBER THAT FOR SOME REASON THE DEVS ALLOWED DEATHWARD TO STOP TU AND GAVE PRETTY MUCH EVERY SINGLE UNDEAD CHAMPION DW!

DDO Requires you not only to Maximise your Wisdom for Casting ability {and even then without gear, tomes etc. you may as well forget it!} but also to have high Str, Con and Cha - This is simply too much!
I don't understand how or why TU got moved to Charisma in the first place - It was always based on having Willpower {WISDOM}!

FavSouls are in the same boat when it comes to Multi-Attribute dependancy!
Drop the Wisdom requirement and make Cha their FULL Casting stat!


Divines were NEVER JUST HEALERS in PnP!
I was always against the Tank, Healer, DPS Trinity in DDO not because I hated waiting for a Cleric {or a Rogue} but because that's NOT what a Cleric is in D&D!
Clerics don't have to have equal casting ability to Wizards or equal melee ability to Fighters but they shouldn't be anywhere near as far behind as they are in DDO!
Where the problem lies is in DDO's insistence on making anything other than Max DCs useless!
Fighters can't Trip at all unless they Max Str! {Yes I'm still annoyed at the re-nerfing of Trip!}.
Clerics can forget about TU unless they Max Cha, take a Feat, go into RS AND gear up {or at least 3 out of 4 of these!}
Non-Maxed Wizards need to Energy Drain mobs TWICE before a FoD will even work at all - Never mind at 100%! {That's a stupid SP Cost!}

Another issue is that there's far too many REQUIRED Metamagic Feats in DDO!
Players are forced into taking these feats and ONLY these feats just to be any good {note far more is required to be great} at their main focus {forget everything else!}.
SP Costs of Metamagics are also higher than they should be!

Merge Quicken with Combat Casting and remove the SP Cost
Remove Efficient Meta Enhancements and...
Add a Tier 4 ability in Divine Disciple to remove ALL SP costs from Heighten
Add a Tier 4 ability in Radiant Servant to remove ALL SP costs from Empower Heal
Add a Tier 4 ability in Warpriest to remove ALL SP costs from Extend
Add a Tier 5 ability in Angel of Vengeance to remove ALL SP costs from Maximise & Empower OR Heighten & Enlarge!

Oh and merge the Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus Feats into one Feat {Seriously +2 DC for one feat slot isn't OP! Heck you could up it to +3 at the same time!}.
Doing the same for the Spell Pen Feats would be nice too!

[Thrudh]

That may be more of an issue with epic shavarath and shroud - having epic mobs teleport right next to you somewhat negates your ability to keep your distance. On epic elite a traditional robe wearing mage is likely to be dead before they can get off a spell if a couple of epic devils land right beside them.

Yeah, that may indeed a problem, but he's complaining NOW... It's pretty easy to keep your distance from a human who can't teleport.

[caberonia]

Honestly I don't understand this response, since we said we intend to address caster's weakness with high hit point bosses by, in part, introducing a new epic spell, and you voiced your dissatisfaction at not getting new epic spells.

Sev~

Because adding a single or 2 DOTs doesn't fix what years of development decisions has broken in casters. I've said this time and time again over the years but I'll repeat it one more time for posterity sake.

Most Spells become completely useless in epics.. Many are useless in heroics.
95% of buff spells are useless in heroic AND epic mostly due to ITEMs giving better effect.
Charm spells are useless in Epic.
Dispels are broken.
Summons are useless.
Most debuffs are completely useless other than in rare specific scenarios due to blanket immunities and the ones who aren't immune it's cheaper to Instakill them.
Healers are generally not needed due to many classes getting self healing.
(This is not an extensive list.. we could go spell by spell if you really wanted to)

The game has well over three hundred spells but dev decisions have reduced the number of spells that are useful to a little more than a handful for each casting class.


The higher casters level the LESS spell options they have.

Melee fans are happy with recent revamps.. not FULLY due to the power jump.. but also because now viable Melee class build options GROW as they level. Many of us who play casters are unhappy because the number of viable options maxes out in mid to upper heroics and actually DROPS from there.


Over the years the devs have pigeonholed casters more and more into specific builds which is the anti-thesis of what most people view as casters in DnD. Spell selection is SUPPOSED to be an important build decision but as the number of spells that are useful has DECREASED over the years Only the most restricted of classes actually have to make a choice. Most have had their choices pre-selected to dev decisions on blanket immunities etc.

The game has Taken what was supposed to be classes with MANY build options and turned them into cookie cutters with less than a handful of actual viable spell based builds. Sure you can splash this class or that class but at the end of the day casters only have 3 choices left, CC, DPS SPAM, instakill. All those things listed above have been removed from being viable options. And EVEN those 3 things have their own issues with many of the spells that fall into their respective categories being rendered useless.


Not to mention things like fleshy wizards pretty much HAVE to go undead due to the games direction in self healing. (its wizard class NOT NECROMANCER. PM and instakills shouldn't be the primary class focus, it should be one of MANY VIABLE options)

(I won't even touch on the PRR/MRR issue because We've had that conversation before and you have shown an unwillingness to see that there IS an issue. But that partly falls into the broken Buffs/PM focus category anyway.)

Yes, Boss dps and caster SP usage is an issue as well.
But if you think adding one spell for all casters to spam over and over will fix the over all issues then it's no wonder you don't understand the response. Rather than increase options it simply pigeonholes them into using that specific spell against bosses.

In short the dev team over the years have taken all the utility/options out of casting classes and decided on very specific roles each should have and not everyone shares that view of how casters should be.



Maybe one day All this will be fixed and I'll come back and play DDO to finish my last 2 lives for my main to get completionist and get to play the wizard i've been trying to build for years. But I'm not holding my breath. It's actually kind of funny though.. by the time I almost finished the grind the game had rendered what I had been building over years to be completely un-viable. (when I started only HALF that list was broken, PM was optimal but not required, and the number of viable spells was well over 3x what we have now)

[Seikojin]

*sigh*

still no mention of...

GNOMES!

*sigh*

There is always next year

[UurlockYgmeov]

...
turned them into cookie cutters with less than a handful of actual viable spell based builds. Sure you can splash this class or that class but at the end of the day casters only have 3 choices left, CC, DPS SPAM, instakill.

So only three options for spellcasters? Better than Melee --- they have only two: Hack OR Slash.

another way to put it:

S+B or 2wf or 2hf.....

There is always next year

one can hope that Sev will sneak in dark gnomes with the FR content later this year!

[Lanadazia]

Darn it you're right. i was so distracted by the shinies I somehow missed that there was no mention of Cannith Crafting.

Everything about it is a good idea - tradeables, easier skill checks for 'self only' crafting, artificers getting a bonus for it, House Cannith Favour rewards, the random drop and deconstruct essence system and the way it reused collectibles, it was absolutely spot on in terms of verisimilitude with the Eberron world system. Heck it even neatly explained without anyone having to write a single word, where all that trash from chests comes from. Now? Now the question is - how come we never see this kind of loot in chests? Its so easy to make, you'd think it would be everywhere!

indeed. i really liked the re-use of collectibles. still its a pretty good system for TRing, but if you hit levelrange around 12-15 there is mostly no use for this anymore. maybe you'll craft a fire absorb item for an ocassion or something else that is neat to have in a specific situation, but its no general system to equip your toons past level 12-15

Hi Severlin,
since the Forgotten Ralms are the most popular Fantasy world, I dont understand, why Turbine will not further promote and develop the FR?
Very sad- no module can excite me as much, as a new Forgotten Realms module (Undermountain, Ruins of myth drannor, Pool of radiance) except perhaps "Castle Ravenloft" for a classic module.

Regarding caster weakness, just do the following:

1. Every epic Level will give +1 max. and normal caster lv to every spell, scrolls and wands.
2. every caster destiny Level gives +3 max. and +3 to normal caster lv spells, scrolls and wands

This would automatically rejuvenate scroll and wand use, even in epic lvs.
This would give old spells new fire power scaling apropriately till lv30 regarding bosses

And 2-3 epic spells per spellcasting class (starting with a hellball, that would not be blocked by every energyresistance possible doing effectly nothing against People protected by energy protection spells or epic Monsters.

Best regards
Tarinia

i like the idea of making scrolls more usefull. wands never were, and prolly will never be. (except cure wands in lower levels)

i noticed in older raids, that bosses are completely immune to hellball. its a level 28 feat and a CR 38 boss is immune due to mantle of invulnerability. thats a spell one can cast at level 11 (or level 9 with a scroll)
that blocks a level 28 epic spell.
also i noticed, that the acid part of hellball gets through, but the other elemental types are blocked. seems that hellball has different caster levels for each element (what is kinda odd)

THEN REMEMBER THAT FOR SOME REASON THE DEVS ALLOWED DEATHWARD TO STOP TU AND GAVE PRETTY MUCH EVERY SINGLE UNDEAD CHAMPION DW!

I don't understand how or why TU got moved to Charisma in the first place - It was always based on having Willpower {WISDOM}!

Oh and merge the Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus Feats into one Feat {Seriously +2 DC for one feat slot isn't OP! Heck you could up it to +3 at the same time!}.
Doing the same for the Spell Pen Feats would be nice too!

TU gets blocked by DW? at first this sounds weird, but it has some logic, since a missed save on a TU leads to death (just like a finger of death would do)
i rolled my cleric way before the champions came up, but i think that could be a problem, even if you've focused on turning)

with all the bonuses available and a good Cha stat (still was Wis based that life) Deleras was a cakewalk. The investments of a feat, gear and enhancements really paid off,
but as good as it ramped up for a few levels, it dropped down just as quick, making turns really useless.
you said nevermind TU in EEs. indeed that won't work no matter if you've a max'ed out TU. (hence i don't understand the TU buffs in the divine EDs. you won't turn anything on epic difficulty, the CR of the mobs is way too high)

i only know TU as a cha-based thing. I started playing DnD in 3.5, and DDO claims to be based on 3.5 too, so i guess its alright

merging those feats would be cool. it feels wrong that you take the epic feat 'great STAT' instead of 'epic spellfocus X'.
also i have 3 wiz and 3 fvs lifes, spellpen item and enhancements but no feat and SR is still a problem.
Now that we have eShavarath and more high-SR mobs comming, i think a merge of these feats, or a buff to them is needed! (like double the bonus?)
it doesn't feels good to pick up a spellpen feat at all. it feels more like "ok.. i could've get something better here"
in the end spellpen feats aren't really worth to take

Healers are generally not needed due to many classes getting self healing.


Not to mention things like fleshy wizards pretty much HAVE to go undead due to the games direction in self healing. (its wizard class NOT NECROMANCER. PM and instakills shouldn't be the primary class focus, it should be one of MANY VIABLE options)


Yes, Boss dps and caster SP usage is an issue as well.
But if you think adding one spell for all casters to spam over and over will fix the over all issues then it's no wonder you don't understand the response. Rather than increase options it simply pigeonholes them into using that specific spell against bosses.

The higher casters level the LESS spell options they have.

i love playing healers/supporters and i see 2 things here
1. self healing is important, cause not even the fastest reaction can help you if you're in animation, healing someone else at that moment. but it should be more like an emergency heal, instead of a sustain like we see it now. i've played a barbarian that was selfsufficient. its fun, its good, still i liked a healer in the group, but it was no 'i have to be careful, since we have no healer' sort of feeling when there was none.

2. even back in preU14 as divines definitely were needed in raids, people were waiting for that divine to join the group. alot of healers avoided highest difficulty raiding. i've been both, melee and healer in that time. i really liked getting into any LFM i wanted as healer, but disliked being rejected because i was a melee. also i liked how fast my LFMs filled, being a healer, but disliked waiting for one for hours, not able to run what you've planned for that day

so we can chose between: 'healers are obsolete' or 'we have to wait till a healer joins'


i don't really feel pigeonholed into anything as arcane. my current build is a fleshy DC sorc, i don't have any problems with self healing, not even in EE raiding, you just have to adept your playstyle to your current capability of healing


i'd feel pigenoholed though, if they just added a efficient DoT spell. a must-have. i want to make my own decisions, not take the only thing available.
hence add more spells in general, especially for spell-grade 8-9!

[rbarrett111]

DDO2!!

That pretty much sums it up - just make DDO2. Why the heck not?

All the updates are awesome. Obviously you guys are sinking massive manpower AND funds into keeping DDO going. That's probably because you have a solid, loyal player base that keeps pumping in the revenue.

You have tons of content that never gets old. My wife and I have been VIP's for five years plus at this point, and we're still enjoying playing Korthos and the freakin' Cerulean Hills, for Pete's sake. Happily shelling out money to do it. We have all the content, of course, and we play that - but what I'm saying is the old stuff never gets old. We've shopped around, played other games, and we always come back to DDO because this is the experience we're looking for. Obviously that's true for many others - an immersive, D20 based, fantasy gaming experience that's got the gritty feel of D&D (as opposed to combo clicky cartoon feel of, you know, ALL the other MMO's.)

The ONLY problem I can imagine with making DDO2 is simply that there would be this big push to confront the issue of D&D 5th Edition - licensing, etc. Valid concerns. How do you make something fresh enough to attract business without selling your souls for the licensing of D&D 5th? Well, the answer is D20 - sell your souls to them instead, because at least you keep your current fan base, who are loyal to the coolest RPG rule system ever devised. Build it, and more "hardcore" D&Ders will come.

As is, you guys just keep this dinosaur alive, and you do an OUTSTANDING job of it. One can't praise DDO enough. But at what point do you realize the fan base is not going away and go ahead and carry that forward to the future? It's a steady thing, even it's kind of a slow thing. It's like the 3.5 rule systems itself - it evolved over decades, slowly tested and refined to appeal to the connoisseur. That's secure revenue in business terms.

The real beauty is - you KEEP everything in DDO as it is and you simply remaster all of that. All of that stuff is classic and remastering all of it would be its own draw. But that's just the beginning.

WHY do I go on such a rant about this? What causes in specific would I be trying to champion in this clamoring for DDO2?

- More dungeon CRAWL at low levels. It's pretty damned righteous, as it is - so more of that. Bullseye lanterns, ten foot poles, grappling hooks. Marking you way in and out of a labyrinth with a piece of freakin' chalk, terrified the whole time because a squad of kobolds might follow your path.

- Living city zones. City guards. Bounties. Costly jail time. Clashes between PC parties in the streets over who stole who's purse. (I believe it's perfectly possible to have rogue activities as either an opt-in for players or to simply integrate the possibility of losing unsecured items to pickpockets.)

- Real tracking for Rangers.

- Encumberance.

- Rations.

- Seasons. Calendar. Obviously that implies some persistent world stuff.

- More character driven plot choices, based on alignment, temple affiliation, racial plot lines, etc. (I believe good versus evil is the crux of fantasy, and so having evil PC's is par for the course. Let's face it, having a Lawful Good character never stopped a jerk from being a jerk, anyhow.) God and goddesses that interact with the PC's and their choices. Schools of Wizardy and Druid Groves that do. Intelligent magic items that do, too.

- Horses and cloaks.

- True wall climbing.

- More customizable character appearance, as in individual pieces of gear that change the appearance of character models. Gear loadouts - possibly just in the tavern.

- My personal favorite idea - procedurally generated interiors for many locations in many zones. That means houses and temples for thieves to break into (at risk of all kinds of trouble) basically - although there's no need to limit things to just that, there are LOTS of reasons to explore. Procedurally generated migrant monster clans, too - that gain experience and accumulate loot.

AND then there's all the sort of directly additional stuff that I don't even need to list because it makes itself up.

- More quests of every level.

- More types of monsters.

- New continents. Why not the city of Sharn? Or, hell, just more of X'endrik.

Like I say, obvious stuff that goes with a new game. Eveningstar was darn near DDO2.

The fanbase is there - it basically won't die - and there's still much, much to do.

So why not DDO2?

Every now and then I fire this rant off, hoping the idea picks up some steam somewhere it matters, that's all. This seems like a good place to do it.

Like I say, you guys do an AMAZING job with this game. Utterly amazing.

Just remember - D20 exists, so Wizards doesn't have the whole D&D world by the balls. 3.5 is part of a legacy, and you can see the appeal of that in your subscriber base.

Obviously, I don't know the details of your whole operation. All I know is DDO2 could be beyond awesome.

My wishes will be fulfilled when my Rogue can fail to pick the pocket of a high level Barbarian in the market and, running for his life, foolishly try to hide from the pursuing Barb (and city guard) in a RANDOM Temple of the Sovereign Host, only to wind up quested by the Host to complete some distastefully noble task and worried what this goody-two-shoes stuff is going to do to his alignment. SO, he goes to a rival temple and gets the geas broken, but the town guard catches him anyhow and he's sentenced to fight in the arena. Now that is D&D.

Peace Out, and even if you never make DDO2 just don't stop what you are doing. I'm just cheerleading for more, more, more.

[Iriale]

As we've mentioned previously, the biggest weakness of casters currently is putting out good boss DPS without completely draining spell points. We will be addressing that with some kind of new high level damage over time spell. I have no time frame to announce at this time, but unlikely it will be 3 years out.

Sev~

This is a poor solution. It's boring and frustrating make the classes one-trick ponies. *All* spells should work. What good is having the flexibility of a wizard, if you end up in epic only with three spells that work fine? Where is the flexibility? The warlock will be infinitely better.

Sorry, but one new dot is not the solution. You have to review the entire system of epic magic. You have to implement drastic metamagic discounts in caster EDs, and make viable the spells themselves. It is absurd to condemn the futility nine levels of spells just because we have a system of magic that does not scale well in the new epic game, with so bloated statistics (absurdly inflated), not to mention all the stupid immunities (when will work charms in epics? When it will be worth using debuffs on bosses?)

I'm tired and frustrated with the current state of the game. I wish you had fixed the current problems before losing time with a new class. You (devs) have created the problem by making the epic game with too much inflated statistics. Now devs should not make us wait months and months for a solution. Players' patience has a limit (mine in particular is almost empty at this point)

[Iriale]

Epic Maximize You gain 150 spell power. It does not cost sp to activate this metamagic.
Requirement: Level 30

Bingo, instant epic boost for all spell casters.


But I very much like the addition of some Epic Spell Feats.

And wait to level 30??? Melees don’t have to wait to 30 for dps!!! A tax feat only for casters??? Melees don’t have any tax feat!!! No!!! Metamagic reductions should go in casters EDs. No more taxes for casters, while for melees all is free!

[Iriale]

Actually, the biggest weakness of ARCANE casters is after you reach epic levels, you're become more and more weak, compared to melee chars, and to enemy mobs. The only way to be a useful wizard for example is to use CC spells, and death spells. However the original advantage of the wizard is the variety of spells can be used, despite of this, nearly all of the heroic spells become useless (except high level CC). One extra spell does not solve the problem. For years, arcane classes does not have any updates, while melees became overpowered (mrr was the most "interesting" buff for them).

+1

The problem IMO is more than just lack of boss DPS and also has to do with nothing scaling past level 20 very well (as others mentioned)
Casters need some high level spells and need damage and DC from low level spells to scale right up to level cap.
CC needs to have some utility beyond the weakest of trash mobs.
Arcane defenses, like displacement, shouldn't just be a thing that protects you against mobs you didn't need protection from in the first place.
Arcane debuffs shouldn't be so weak and useless that they aren't worth the casting time.

+1

Because adding a single or 2 DOTs doesn't fix what years of development decisions has broken in casters. I've said this time and time again over the years but I'll repeat it one more time for posterity sake.

Most Spells become completely useless in epics.. Many are useless in heroics.
95% of buff spells are useless in heroic AND epic mostly due to ITEMs giving better effect.
Charm spells are useless in Epic.
Dispels are broken.
Summons are useless.
Most debuffs are completely useless other than in rare specific scenarios due to blanket immunities and the ones who aren't immune it's cheaper to Instakill them.
Healers are generally not needed due to many classes getting self healing.
(This is not an extensive list.. we could go spell by spell if you really wanted to)

The game has well over three hundred spells but dev decisions have reduced the number of spells that are useful to a little more than a handful for each casting class.


The higher casters level the LESS spell options they have.

Melee fans are happy with recent revamps.. not FULLY due to the power jump.. but also because now viable Melee class build options GROW as they level. Many of us who play casters are unhappy because the number of viable options maxes out in mid to upper heroics and actually DROPS from there.


Over the years the devs have pigeonholed casters more and more into specific builds which is the anti-thesis of what most people view as casters in DnD. Spell selection is SUPPOSED to be an important build decision but as the number of spells that are useful has DECREASED over the years Only the most restricted of classes actually have to make a choice. Most have had their choices pre-selected to dev decisions on blanket immunities etc.

The game has Taken what was supposed to be classes with MANY build options and turned them into cookie cutters with less than a handful of actual viable spell based builds. Sure you can splash this class or that class but at the end of the day casters only have 3 choices left, CC, DPS SPAM, instakill. All those things listed above have been removed from being viable options. And EVEN those 3 things have their own issues with many of the spells that fall into their respective categories being rendered useless.


Not to mention things like fleshy wizards pretty much HAVE to go undead due to the games direction in self healing. (its wizard class NOT NECROMANCER. PM and instakills shouldn't be the primary class focus, it should be one of MANY VIABLE options)

(I won't even touch on the PRR/MRR issue because We've had that conversation before and you have shown an unwillingness to see that there IS an issue. But that partly falls into the broken Buffs/PM focus category anyway.)

Yes, Boss dps and caster SP usage is an issue as well.
But if you think adding one spell for all casters to spam over and over will fix the over all issues then it's no wonder you don't understand the response. Rather than increase options it simply pigeonholes them into using that specific spell against bosses.

In short the dev team over the years have taken all the utility/options out of casting classes and decided on very specific roles each should have and not everyone shares that view of how casters should be.



Maybe one day All this will be fixed and I'll come back and play DDO to finish my last 2 lives for my main to get completionist and get to play the wizard i've been trying to build for years. But I'm not holding my breath. It's actually kind of funny though.. by the time I almost finished the grind the game had rendered what I had been building over years to be completely un-viable. (when I started only HALF that list was broken, PM was optimal but not required, and the number of viable spells was well over 3x what we have now)

This, this a thousand of times.

divines have too problems... it's a problem with traditional spellcasters, not only with arcane classes.

[moo_cow]

Monks were the flavor of the month for a long time. That didn't change until the armor up pass this year.

No they weren't....

[moo_cow]

Not too long ago the Monk was on top, and everyone claimed that the Devs only liked Monks. Not apparently the Devs hate monks because they have been dethroned. I sure wish the Devs would make up their mind on who they liked/hated . Not every class can be on the top all the time we need to understand that as a community.

Seriously how do people keep coming up with this? A insta kill that required you to give up dps and it was still bad compared to the dps that other melee's could toss out.

[moo_cow]

+1


+1


This, this a thousand of times.

divines have too problems... it's a problem with traditional spellcasters, not only with arcane classes.

I agree with this quote. (couldn't find the actual quote)

A useful dot still doesn't help the fact that most spell are useless and that improving the cap on some spells in epics could be a better approach than an OP dot.

[Talon_Moonshadow]

This is one of the most..boring? producers letters ever. Honestly. I'm not even mad/sad or anything in particular, this just made me say "ok".

Also nice! No quests in U26! I did ask to stop having only 1 quest per update but I meant I wanted MOAR than 1, not less! I was misunderstood

As for U27, 3 quests and 1 raid. Eh, okay. Was hoping at least 4-5 quests + 1 raid.

I disagree.

While I am no fan of Warlocks, many people asked for them.

I am a fan of Shaverath(sp), and glad to see new content is coming with it... and Archons.

New servers (eventually) will be good for the game. (and shows the game is still being supported and invested in financially)
(but.... growing pains will be very painful I am sure....)


Long-term plans seem to be lacking from the letter though...
(additional hints at Rgr and Ftr passes coming....)

Long Live DDO!

[slarden]

There is no doubt in my mind that both the Arcanes offense and defense falls short.

Certain classes are just Energizer Bunnies these days and can just go on and on and on.
Certain classes seemingly have no weakness nor have a particular type of encounter that presents an extra-special challenge for them.

I totally am with you on the "I still like the Arcane and do fine" thing
But can you really say that a Pally or w/e doesn't do way moar fine these days?

Fully Agreed

The problem IMO is more than just lack of boss DPS and also has to do with nothing scaling past level 20 very well (as others mentioned).

I agree just a litlte bit. Casters get a huge boost at 20 once their destiny trees are filled. They get some boost in spellpower through itemization: 60 or so weapon (150 vs 90 @ level 28 vs 20) + a little bit from spellcraft. They also get more DC through gear and higher main stat.

There are epic feats that improve spellpower, DC, spell pen,

I think this problem has been exaggerated compared to the other problems.

Casters need some high level spells and need damage and DC from low level spells to scale right up to level cap.
CC needs to have some utility beyond the weakest of trash mobs.

Partially agree. Max DC when the level cap was 20 was around mid 40s. Now it's around mid 80s or so. People min/max less now so it's unlikely that many people actually achieve that 85, but it's possible. DC actually scales really well. Spell penetration may not scale well with eShavarath if spell penetration works like the wiki says it does

From the Wiki: "The most common creatures with Spell Resistance will be Drow, Duergar, Devils, anything with "Fiendish" in the name and somebosses. (Anticipate spell Resistance to be at least CR plus 10 for regular monsters. Red and purple named bosses tend to have a much higher CR, and generally have spell resistance within 0-5 points of their CR.)"

The new DOT proposed by Sev will be helpful.

Arcane defenses, like displacement, shouldn't just be a thing that protects you against mobs you didn't need protection from in the first place.
Arcane debuffs shouldn't be so weak and useless that they aren't worth the casting time.

Fully agree. The devs made champions specifically bypass the most important defenses for casters - fortification, displacement, etc., but having a high PRR/MRR is the biggest easy button this game ever had. Champions are no challenge for those builds because the debuff design is not balanced or even reasonable. Fortification bypass should be replaced by mortal fear which is equally challenging for all builds.

Any class can get enough UMD to cast a long-lasting GH or True Seeing. Even a 5 minute nightshield is good enough against mobs spamming magic missles. It's a bit of a pain for a barbarian, but they have plenty of rages available to cast scrolls as needed and even use displacement for key fights.

This problem will get worse at level 30 because the effective HP of a Paladin (HP/damage reduction) will significantly outpace that of a caster or rogue. This will mean if Turbine raises damage to provide a pseudo-challenge to a high PRR build, it will result in more one-hitting for lower PRR builds since the champion debuff design is severely flawed.

[Gralhota]

Just do with that spells have an epic version of these same , solving the problem of scaling without sacrificing heroic level.

Plus 1 or 2 Feats is not the answer , everyone will be forced to take such feats , customizing builds had been worse than they already are .

And please , redoing the Eldritch Knight , I do not know that this weaker tree (uselless and not fun ) .

Tier 5 tenser with toogle ? This does not bring any benefit to the Wizard .

Eldritch Tempest is a joke in bad taste , 6 ap + 30 sec CD + 30 mana for 1 sec trip ? DMG is Meh .

Eldritch Tempest makes no difference to wizards .

Sometimes even I come to think like many, that some classes are crowded out.

[CeltEireson]

Partially agree. Max DC when the level cap was 20 was around mid 40s. Now it's around mid 80s or so. People min/max less now so it's unlikely that many people actually achieve that 85, but it's possible. DC actually scales really well. Spell penetration may not scale well with eShavarath if spell penetration works like the wiki says it does

From the Wiki: "The most common creatures with Spell Resistance will be Drow, Duergar, Devils, anything with "Fiendish" in the name and somebosses. (Anticipate spell Resistance to be at least CR plus 10 for regular monsters. Red and purple named bosses tend to have a much higher CR, and generally have spell resistance within 0-5 points of their CR.)"

For bosses spell resistance will be something of a moot point - as generally only pure damage spells will work with them. But yes I can see spell penetration being a problem. In terms of the DCs - whilst its certainly possible to get a particular DC very high, generally most of the DCs for other schools will be lagging behind quite some way so if you come across mobs that are immune to your particular school such as enhancement the odds of spells from other schools landing reliably are much lower. The spread of DCs in PnP was much smaller than in DDO, and even if you decided to specialise there was generally only about 2-4 difference in the DCs of your spells - based on feats and maybe one item if you were lucky, in DDO you can be talking a difference of 10.

This problem will get worse at level 30 because the effective HP of a Paladin (HP/damage reduction) will significantly outpace that of a caster or rogue. This will mean if Turbine raises damage to provide a pseudo-challenge to a high PRR build, it will result in more one-hitting for lower PRR builds since the champion debuff design is severely flawed.

Particularly given that much of the higher epic levels will be based around epic Shavarath and the Vale - at least in current epics you have some chance to use crowd control to stop mobs from hitting you, but teleporting mobs remove that option especially with the tendency of mobs to go for spellcasters. Even without the mob having true seeing they could still one hit a mage - it just has a reduced chance to hit. As we're talking about mages I think we need some better defensive spells (self only) that reduce the chance of us being one shotted by physical attacks, and magic for that matter, after all there are plenty of spells in PnP that allow for both both - protection from magic weapons, dimensional lock to stop teleporting, spell turning, greater invisibility etc etc. An improved and higher level version of stoneskin that provide PRR as well would probably fit the bill.

[Sephenis]

I won't even touch on the PRR/MRR issue because We've had that conversation before and you have shown an unwillingness to see that there IS an issue.

Exactly. Sadly, i feel the same about every other caster/overpowered melee problem.