The Balance Change post

[blerkington]

~ Since Manyshot and Ten Thousand Stars have a reduced rate of fire, fishing for Mortal Fear and similar procs will be slightly less effective. We understand this and designed with this in mind.

~ With the bug in certain Fury of the Wild enhancements, Manyshot and Ten Thousand Stars can be used to get back uses of Adrenaline. With the new reduced rate of fire of Manyshot and Ten Thousand Stars, utilizing this bug will be slightly less effective. We understand and have designed around this. We want to either legitimize this build by changing the wording on Fury Eternal so it officially supports ranged attacks or fix the bug, and we are looking forward to feedback on this from Lamannia.

Sev~

Hi,

So, in order to see how this reduction affects my own build (a melee/ranged hybrid ranger not running in FoTW) I used Mikarddo's example (page 47, post 936).

Mikarddo reported an overall reduction in arrow numbers of around 26% for his full-time archer over a two minute period. That has serious implications for maintaining a blitz, regenerating adrenaline uses, mortal fear and other weapon damage procs, damage from imbues, other ED effects, etc.

In my own case, I usually melee when manyshot is on cooldown. My character, who currently has 15 ranger levels, has 52% doubleshot and a BAB of 23. The numbers for him are as follows:

MS = 20 seconds @ 2.44 missiles per second = 48.8 projectiles per manyshot. Assuming 80 projectiles right now under manyshot, the new figure is around 60% of the old one, meaning a 40% reduction.

A reduction of 26% for a full-time archer and 40% for a part-time archer means both build types are noticeably affected. Archery is already a very low RoF combat style compared to throwing and crossbows, and this downgrade only makes it even less competitive.

Now although the reduction in projectile numbers for my ranger is less over the whole two minutes, that is not a relevant comparison because the playstyle requires melee when manyshot is on cooldown for best effectiveness.

My suggestion to fix this is to leave manyshot as it is, and create a new feat which operates in the way the developers propose to change manyshot. Call it Power Shot, for example. The two feats would have the same requirements but they cannot both be taken. Rangers would get a choice of one of these two at Level 6 when they qualify.

The advantage of this alternative is that it prevents existing builds from being significantly downgraded while also encouraging full-time archery builds that are seeking more evenly delivered damage. As far as I can tell this is a win for everyone in that it permits all builds to continue functioning without the possibility of any one style of archery becoming much more powerful than the others.

Thanks.

[PermaBanned]

So Fury Eternal working with ranged IS A BUG?

Does this invalidate a zillion raid speed records?

How come this s being brought up now after 3 years?

O.o? You never noticed the *in-game text specifically states vorpalling on a melee attack?

*The wiki has a note that it works on ranged attacks as well, but that's just a wiki note and not part of the ability description in-game.

[AzureDragonas]

Greetings.


Doubleshot values over 100% now have a chance of producing a third attack. The chance is equal to the amount the value exceeds 100. A doubleshot value of 130, for example, would always produce one extra shot and have a 30% chance to produce a third shot.

(Doublestrike will still cap at 100 for technical reasons.)

Repeating Crossbows and Doubleshot
Fixed a bug where Doubleshot was not being reduced for repeating crossbows. (Doubleshot chance is divided by 3 for repeating crossbows.)

Manyshot
This ability is being redesigned.
For the next 20 seconds you add your (base attack bonus * 4) to your Doubleshot and Ranged Power. This ability puts Ten Thousand Stars on a 30 second cooldown. Cooldown 2 minutes.
(This ability no longer gives a doubleshot penalty when activated.)

Ten Thousand Stars
This ability is being redesigned.
For the next 30 seconds you add your Wisdom ability score to your Ranged Power and you add your monk level * 5 to your Doubleshot. This ability puts Manyshot on a 30 second cooldown. Cooldown 1 minute.
(This ability no longer gives a doubleshot penalty when activated.)

Mechanical Reloader (Rogue Mechanic)
The alacrity for non-repeating crossbows is now 30%. (Was 40%)



Sev~

I was talking with guildie and got stupid question. As far as i understand new manyshot which worked with bows only suddenly gives doubleshoot and ranged power so in other works i can go repeater shuriken as far as i care and i get bonus? So wait if i go shuriken cannon which from dex can double shoot and start manyshoot which gives 120% doubleshooting and on top of that i add all neat ed pl enchants etc i can say reach 200 doubleshoot i will be throwing up to 6 shurikens in less than second? For 20 seconds and lets add t-stars too? So we kill already staying behind archers to make shurikens even stronger? Couse melee will be able to hit monsters who just dies from up to 6 shurikens with mortal fear thrown from another glass cannnon with imporved precise?

and same idea if i go repeaters

Endless Fusilade: Action Boost: You may activate this ability to enchant your crossbow to instantly reload itself for 6 seconds. (Cooldown: 30 seconds.) and manyshoot even with this 1/3 penalty wont they be able shoot bolts like ak-47 for all 6 seconds and rest 14 just again up to 6 with each series?

Even great crossbows who was able shoot up to 2 times before couse no penalty will be shooting up to 3 bolts from now on.

Dont forget all those shootings also gets 120% damage boost.



Would like to hear your comments about this.

P.S. current AA echants works on all ranged weapons, i can get elemental imbues metalines etc on shurikens i throw or crossbows, and all i need just to pick elf race. Those remakes on AA gonna boost them hard time, are this WAI stays too, so all other archers who know about this would get even bigger buff?

[Eth]

O.o? You never noticed the *in-game text specifically states vorpalling on a melee attack?

Really? Please. Not this s**t, again.
I really hope you're just being sarcastic.

3 years have we been asking about this without an answer.

"Everything in DDO works exactly as the description text states." - No one ever

[Robbenklopper]

I'm aware of the new changes, read the many comments on this Topic and do welcome the Balance pass, speaking from a pure melee Point of view.
But like any change, when trying to balance a possible exploited disbalance, there's always a keen edge of improvements. Most of it being a complete rip-off for some builds or at least a loss in power and viability, but needs to be done nevertheless.
Something wrong working fine so far doesn´t mean it´s right at all. Whatever nickel or grinding you had put into achiving and building, for the big whole concept we Need to stand it with tears, carve out and burry the rotten parts to get healthy.

Concerning the fact that the devs are going to burrow deep in our guts, there has to be aftercare to Keep the Patient alive. Operation successful, patient dead is no good option.
Enhancements can be reset and spend easily. Feats can not (e.g. the new fighter tactics+armory), besides you do a TR or ER for the case you are capped or WANT that. This can not be demanded on us by the devs.

So devs, please do the same with a free heart of wood +0 for the community like what sienna west did for me.

[Enguebert]

About Armor, PRR & MRR

With Armor Up pass, heavy armor became the "must have" because heavy armor give you the best of AC, PRR & MRR
Bascially, it screwed completly medium Armor (Light armor had stilll some use for evasion)
AC was opposed to dodge cap
PRR and MRR were opposed to ...nothing

So why not make PRR and MRR opposed ?
Heavy armor : very good PRR, no MRR
Medium armor : goog PRR, poor MRR
Light Armor : poor PRR, good MRR
Robe : no PRR, very good MRR

This way, at least medium armor could be a choice

Also special material (mithral, darkwood,...) could be used to give bonus to either PRR or MRR

[PermaBanned]

I understand your feelings and concerns about this fact. Still, Monk is my favorite class and it's a real bummer not playing him in the toughest content DDO has to offer.

Please make sure that when it is time to work on the Monk, that you make it as competitive as the Swashbuckler, the Paladin, the Barb, the Ranger, and all the other classes that have gotten or will get their passes before the Monk does.

Thanks.

Throw monks a bone. You are doing it with fighters. Are monks less worthy for whatever reason?

They lack DPS and their abilities are completely outdated. You could rework some of the abilities just by scaling them and reducing the cool down.

Monk is my favorite of all the classes, and while it does suck waiting so long for it to get it's turn I'm actually glad for the wait. Reason being, all this nerf- *ahem* balancing (and the likely follow-up adjustments) and level cap 30 is happening first. I'd rather not get the Pally treatment of super buff followed by nerf, nerf, "balance." Let the kinks get worked out, start working on the Unarmed combat system with the Druid pass, and then give my Monk it's class pass & Handwrap fixes.

My 2cp on it anyway.

[Nestroy]

About Armor, PRR & MRR

With Armor Up pass, heavy armor became the "must have" because heavy armor give you the best of AC, PRR & MRR
Bascially, it screwed completly medium Armor (Light armor had stilll some use for evasion)
AC was opposed to dodge cap
PRR and MRR were opposed to ...nothing

So why not make PRR and MRR opposed ?
Heavy armor : very good PRR, no MRR
Medium armor : goog PRR, poor MRR
Light Armor : poor PRR, good MRR
Robe : no PRR, very good MRR

This way, at least medium armor could be a choice

Also special material (mithral, darkwood,...) could be used to give bonus to either PRR or MRR

MRR was to give heavy armor builds and medium armor builds something to counter magic. Light builds have evasion exactly for this. So evasion and MRR are the counter-pairs. Dodge and PRR are the counter-pairs at physical damage.

Bascally PRR / MRR were introduced to make good on the superiority of evasion / dodge builds in epic (EE) content. If you play for longer than about 2 years you will perhaps remember the typical pyjama builds of that time. While PRR still is top on heavy armor builds, even after the pass, MRR gets a severe hit. With casters doing truckloads of damage in endgame EE, we will see the return of the evasion pyjama builds with the pass. Simple as that.

[Stoner81]

Our thoughts on Holy Sword:

Holy Sword was very strong when it first appeared. Over time, however, it's relative power has been blunted by additional class passes that offer alternate ways to gain those competence based critical bonuses. As such we've introduced alternate options to the ever present 14 Paladin version of builds. As we continue our class passes we feel that Holy Sword will remain a strong option, but not the only option.

This is why Holy Sword didn't see as much of a change as people might have been expecting. We really hit two weapon fighting builds as they were putting out a lot of DPS for the mitigation provided by Paladin.

Our thought behind removing a missile weapon version was feedback that many of the best missile weapon options were actually better in the 14 Paladin variant. This concerned us, and we addressed it early.

Upon reading feedback from players and re-examining our builds, we are making Holy Sword once again affect missile weapons. No, we don't want 14 Paladin missile weapon builds to be the best missile option. The removal of missile weapons from Holy Sword, however, has more ramifications that most of the other changes in this balance pass as it negates a design goal for a specific kind of build. The other changes have statistical changes, but the design intent for other builds is still intact and the builds play the same. This particular aspect of Holy Sword we feel goes beyond statistical change; removing the missile option actually messes up a design intent for a specific build.

(It also bugs us that the game has long bow as an option for the Paladin's special weapon and then we take away a strong DPS boost for Paladins that go that way.)

If 14 Paladin builds are still vastly more desirable than other ranged builds even though other builds have ways to pursue similar bonuses then we will find a way to address that.

Sev~

Change the name of the spell to Holy Weapon or something along those lines.

With regards to TWF DPS, it should be the best DPS for a single target bar none imho! However, standing still during combat will cause you to end up dead pretty quick. You are probably/possibly testing under ideal circumstances for TWF which will probably not happen or rarely.

Stoner81.

[RD2play]

Change the name of the spell to Holy Weapon or something along those lines.

With regards to TWF DPS, it should be the best DPS for a single target bar none imho! However, standing still during combat will cause you to end up dead pretty quick. You are probably/possibly testing under ideal circumstances for TWF which will probably not happen or rarely.

Stoner81.

If the power discrepancy from HS will be to big for 2WF and S&B but the crit bonuses are too much, maybe add back the +[w] but only for the off-hand ?

[Lorianus]

At first glance: A good balance pass! In my opinion DDO became pigeonholed into a couple of over performing builds lately.

- Changes to critical threat range, barbarian heals, TWF: Addresses the issues but won’t be a deal breaker/showstopper for any builds.

- Holy Sword: Not sure whether the “holy shields” were really problematic, my Vanguard does good but not unbalanced DPS and the new crit. range stacking will lower his damage output anyway. Didn’t test holy TWF myself but I have run with some TWF paladins that were in another DPS ballpark than myself. BUT that were most likely completionists with bestemest gear and optimal builds. My own vanguard paladin only has a few pastlives, solid gear and a “standard” single class build. The holy Sword buff is too powerful to be applied to range weapons imho, stick to the change please.

- PRR/MRR: Evasion in light armor and stacking all the item, pastlive and enhancement PRR points seems to be the sweet spot now. What I liked with armor up was that even a fresh from Krothos first live cleric could waddle around in full plate and get some decent protection form it that further improved with higher levels. Now the plain old crafted “of invulnerability” robe or a legacy adamantine full plate are both better. Perhaps PRR offered a bit too much damage migration to the best DPS builds in game, but I feel sorry for the clerics, druids and souls with their medium BAB and their anyway underwhelming overall performance. There are hardly any “regular” clerics, souls and druids left. The few I see around are advanced builds like heavy multiclass Shiradi, cheesy wolfs/trees, ED SLA spammers and the like. Less PRR/MRR won’t help with that.

Manyshot/10k stars/warlock: Can't tell from numbers only.

[tsteigner]

MRR was to give heavy armor builds and medium armor builds something to counter magic. Light builds have evasion exactly for this. So evasion and MRR are the counter-pairs. Dodge and PRR are the counter-pairs at physical damage.

Bascally PRR / MRR were introduced to make good on the superiority of evasion / dodge builds in epic (EE) content. If you play for longer than about 2 years you will perhaps remember the typical pyjama builds of that time. While PRR still is top on heavy armor builds, even after the pass, MRR gets a severe hit. With casters doing truckloads of damage in endgame EE, we will see the return of the evasion pyjama builds with the pass. Simple as that.

completly agree, everything will after this pass (regarding armor) look the following : 2 rog or 2 mnk / 3 paladin / rest something else, do you really want to go back to that ? because that's not gonna be a maybe but a certain given ....

if you have the choice between some more prr (maybe 1-2% more since its on DR and zero protection from magic attacks vs a chance not reducing the dmg by some % but to 0 if you make the save everyone will pull out their pyjama's from their stowed place). Not to add to this, that all this hurts are gonna be new chars (1st, 2nd ....) since all "old" chars have so many PL they will get good Dodge, as well as PRR + MRR even in Pyjama's .....

As for the WL, he isn't over-performing because of its dps, its plain and simple because you don't have to think do i have sp to use my blast's if i use them now ... and way too much temp-HP with way too short reuse time. If you want to adjust wl to a useable level, leave the dps as it is, maybe even adjust it upwards a bit in Epics (they are dropping very bad in epics already, and will be off much worse after this) and better change the following :
1.) ASF affects the Blast's and all shapes, bursts and so on
2.) give Blasts, Bursts a sp cost, maybe 1 for the blast 2-5 for the bursts
3.) change shining through to a reasonable value (maybe 1-2 min reuse and con x (wl/2), which would also reduce the builds just taking 5 lvls of wl for just getting bursts + shining through)

[Strider1963]

Why oh why is multishot being changed??? Because some op players came up with the monkcher and do ridiculous damage?? IMHO, all this stuff is getting way out of hand, buff, then nerf, and even nerf something that's been in the game since way back when....?????

[Hipparan]

I see some complaints about damage for monkchers, and while I don't have a monkcher and frankly from the ones I used to run with, I thought they were overpowered, but I would like to throw out an idea for the Arcane Archer that might help with the balancing issues by increasing the damage a little. I recommend putting in an enhancement into the AA tree called "Improved Zen Archery", which would allow for wisdom bonuses to damage for bows, similarly to how Improved Weapons Finesse from the Deepwood Stalker tree gives dexterity to damage. Although this may have to cause a DC reduction from AA, since monkchers with 70+ wisdom would be paralyzing everything, it is something that should be considered.

Wisdom to damage would also have nice synergy with Clerics and Favored Souls of the Silver Flame, who use the Warpriest tree. A Favored Soul elf with Arcane Archer would be great with fire spellpower working with fire imbued arrows. Anyway, if nothing else, I would like to see how this would change the damage output for various builds under the current balancing changes being proposed. I'd like to see a quantitative comparison of the damage, and whether or not the devs think it's a good idea.

[Basura_Grande]

I'm on the fence about the Holy Sword change. While it does give a large incentive to roll a TWF character that isn't utilizing Holy Sword and Dance of Death, it hurts all TWF Paladins. Is there a way to scale back Holy Sword Tempests without hitting TWF Paladins in the process?

Have something in one of the KoTC tier 5s allow your Holy Sword Spell top apply to your off-hand weapon.

[JOTMON]

completly agree, everything will after this pass (regarding armor) look the following : 2 rog or 2 mnk / 3 paladin / rest something else, do you really want to go back to that ? because that's not gonna be a maybe but a certain given ....

if you have the choice between some more prr (maybe 1-2% more since its on DR and zero protection from magic attacks vs a chance not reducing the dmg by some % but to 0 if you make the save everyone will pull out their pyjama's from their stowed place). Not to add to this, that all this hurts are gonna be new chars (1st, 2nd ....) since all "old" chars have so many PL they will get good Dodge, as well as PRR + MRR even in Pyjama's .....

As for the WL, he isn't over-performing because of its dps, its plain and simple because you don't have to think do i have sp to use my blast's if i use them now ... and way too much temp-HP with way too short reuse time. If you want to adjust wl to a useable level, leave the dps as it is, maybe even adjust it upwards a bit in Epics (they are dropping very bad in epics already, and will be off much worse after this) and better change the following :
1.) ASF affects the Blast's and all shapes, bursts and so on
2.) give Blasts, Bursts a sp cost, maybe 1 for the blast 2-5 for the bursts
3.) change shining through to a reasonable value (maybe 1-2 min reuse and con x (wl/2), which would also reduce the builds just taking 5 lvls of wl for just getting bursts + shining through)

1. ) This was tagged as a known issue
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...l-Known-Issues
•Arcane Spell Failure incorrectly fails to apply to basic attack forms of Eldritch Blast.

2. no. its a warlock thing. no SP.. ..
It could use more focus on balancing the curve.. warlocks are Eldritch OP early in heroics and weaker endgame epics.

3 Its a T5 Enhancement line Capstone that locks out other T5 enhancements gimping with the wl/2 factor would take it off the list as a multi-class choice.. no thanks.
It would be like making AA Arrow of Slaying a chance of proc based on % of Ranger levels.. or any other T5 capstone as a % of class levels.. it would be bad for multi-classing overall..
could double the cooldown time.

[patang01]

completly agree, everything will after this pass (regarding armor) look the following : 2 rog or 2 mnk / 3 paladin / rest something else, do you really want to go back to that ? because that's not gonna be a maybe but a certain given ....

if you have the choice between some more prr (maybe 1-2% more since its on DR and zero protection from magic attacks vs a chance not reducing the dmg by some % but to 0 if you make the save everyone will pull out their pyjama's from their stowed place). Not to add to this, that all this hurts are gonna be new chars (1st, 2nd ....) since all "old" chars have so many PL they will get good Dodge, as well as PRR + MRR even in Pyjama's .....

As for the WL, he isn't over-performing because of its dps, its plain and simple because you don't have to think do i have sp to use my blast's if i use them now ... and way too much temp-HP with way too short reuse time. If you want to adjust wl to a useable level, leave the dps as it is, maybe even adjust it upwards a bit in Epics (they are dropping very bad in epics already, and will be off much worse after this) and better change the following :
1.) ASF affects the Blast's and all shapes, bursts and so on
2.) give Blasts, Bursts a sp cost, maybe 1 for the blast 2-5 for the bursts
3.) change shining through to a reasonable value (maybe 1-2 min reuse and con x (wl/2), which would also reduce the builds just taking 5 lvls of wl for just getting bursts + shining through)

If you start adding SP cost to it, it sieze being anything meaningful Warlock. I see what you get there but the objection usually comes from people who don't play Warlocks, not from people who does. Yes, they're great in Heroic. But that's only because a majority of heroic quest are from before the enhancements overpass/release of Warlock. Adjusting Warlock based on quests most classes can dominate seems silly considering that it's not true when you look at the latest heroic quests and definitely not in Epic.

It's so dreadfully dumb to balance a class based on the fact it's easy to auto attack. A balance should be based on over performance, not the objections of outsiders envying a class. If you want lots of damage and crit, look at Shiradi casting Savants. At best the crits I see on Warlock are similar to something I see on average DPS melee. So 600-800 at the most. Meanwhile every magic missile burst will easily proc for thousands in damage. And even as Shiradi a Warlock will never have the same proc rate.

[Bennum]

If you start adding SP cost to it, it sieze being anything meaningful Warlock. I see what you get there but the objection usually comes from people who don't play Warlocks, not from people who does. Yes, they're great in Heroic. But that's only because a majority of heroic quest are from before the enhancements overpass/release of Warlock. Adjusting Warlock based on quests most classes can dominate seems silly considering that it's not true when you look at the latest heroic quests and definitely not in Epic.

It's so dreadfully dumb to balance a class based on the fact it's easy to auto attack. A balance should be based on over performance, not the objections of outsiders envying a class. If you want lots of damage and crit, look at Shiradi casting Savants. At best the crits I see on Warlock are similar to something I see on average DPS melee. So 600-800 at the most. Meanwhile every magic missile burst will easily proc for thousands in damage. And even as Shiradi a Warlock will never have the same proc rate.

Yup these nerfs are based on the overreactions of a few very vocal players. Warlocks were fine if anything the Enlightened Spirit needs to be made less desirable. Just look at the ratio of warlocks that are T5 ES compared to the others. On Thelanis I have only seen 2 Warlocks excluding myself that were not T5 ES since it came out.

[PermaBanned]

Exactly. You'll see a small decrease in number of attacks (which at 26% is pretty much spot on where we want to be), and the large boosts in Ranged Power to compensate. The strategy of fishing for vorpals (similar to fishing for saving throw rolls of 1 to exaggerate the effectiveness of CC) will be slightly less effective while DPS will be close to live.

Sev~

I realize video games aren't real life, but would you call a 26% reduction of your paycheck a "small decrease?" Me either. By the same vein, I have to wonder just what numbers you're talking about when you say "effective DPS will be close to live." If you call 26% less attacks is a "small decrease" then I have no trouble imagining that you may consider 26% less DPS "close." As always, it'll be interesting to see how this actually plays out - with plays being the key word. I don't care two licks for speed tests vs training dummy kobolds; in the words of Mr. Miyagi: "boards don't hit back" and thus your prowess vs boards counts for naught.

[BloodLilly2]

Greetings.

We've seen a lot of community feedback, both public and private, about our ongoing plans for balance. These are some changes we are considering to increase game balance.

As with any post that outlines power reductions (aka nerfs) I am sure there will be a lot of players looking for explanations and our thoughts and results on balance that led to these changes. I will be following up this post with more details that talk about why some of these changes are being implemented.

***

Holy Sword (Paladin)
This is now a spell that affects the paladin and buffs whatever melee weapon is being wielded in the main hand.
It no longer persists on your weapon but instead buffs the melee weapon you are holding in your main hand. (Yes, this buffs your two handed weapons.)
It no longer affects missile weapons.
It no longer can be used to buff off hand weapons or shields.
If you change weapons the spell will drop off the unequipped weapon and instead be applied to the newly equipped weapon.

Blood Strength (Barbarian Ravager)
The portion of this enhancement that heals the user when they kill an opponent now has a 1 second internal cooldown.

Critical Rage (Barbarian Ravager)
The bonus to critical threat range is now a competence bonus.

Two weapon fighting animations have been fixed so there is no longer a weird jump on the fourth animation. This has made the fourth attack slightly quicker.

Two Weapon Fighting no longer grants melee power.
Improved Two Weapon Fighting no longer grants melee power.
Greater Two Weapon Fighting no longer grants melee power.

Doubleshot values over 100% now have a chance of producing a third attack. The chance is equal to the amount the value exceeds 100. A doubleshot value of 130, for example, would always produce one extra shot and have a 30% chance to produce a third shot.

(Doublestrike will still cap at 100 for technical reasons.)

Repeating Crossbows and Doubleshot
Fixed a bug where Doubleshot was not being reduced for repeating crossbows. (Doubleshot chance is divided by 3 for repeating crossbows.)

Manyshot
This ability is being redesigned.
For the next 20 seconds you add your (base attack bonus * 4) to your Doubleshot and Ranged Power. This ability puts Ten Thousand Stars on a 30 second cooldown. Cooldown 2 minutes.
(This ability no longer gives a doubleshot penalty when activated.)

Ten Thousand Stars
This ability is being redesigned.
For the next 30 seconds you add your Wisdom ability score to your Ranged Power and you add your monk level * 5 to your Doubleshot. This ability puts Manyshot on a 30 second cooldown. Cooldown 1 minute.
(This ability no longer gives a doubleshot penalty when activated.)

Mechanical Reloader (Rogue Mechanic)
The alacrity for non-repeating crossbows is now 30%. (Was 40%)

Pulverizer (Legendary Dreadnought)
The bonus to critical threat range for bludgeoning weapons is now an Insight bonus.

Improved Critical
These feats now add a bonus to critical threat range based purely on weapon type.
* Adds +3 to critical threat range for falchion, kukri, rapier, and scimitar.
* Adds +2 to the critical threat range of bastard sword, dagger, great crossbow, greatsword, heavy crossbow, khopesh, light crossbow, long sword, repeating heavy crossbow, repeating light crossbow, short sword, and throwing dagger.
* Adds +1 to all other weapons.

Keen
This loot effect now add a bonus to critical threat range based purely on weapon type.
* Adds +3 to critical threat range for falchion, kukri, rapier, and scimitar.
* Adds +2 to the critical threat range of bastard sword, dagger, great crossbow, greatsword, heavy crossbow, khopesh, light crossbow, long sword, repeating heavy crossbow, repeating light crossbow, short sword, and throwing dagger.
* Adds +1 to all other weapons.

Armor Changes
The amount of Physical Resist Rating that armor provides has been changed.
* Heavy armor now increases Physical Resist Rating by (base attack bonus * 2) and no longer adds Magical Resist Rating.
* Medium armor now increases Physical Resist Rating by (base attack bonus * 1.5) and no longer adds Magical Resist Rating.
* Light Armor now increases Physical Resist Rating by (base attack bonus * 1) and no longer adds Magical Resist Rating.
Fixed a bug where players were getting Physical Resist Rating for armor with which they were not proficient.

(Note: The Physical Resist Rating and Magical Resist Rating offered by shields remain unchanged.)

As a result of dialing back armor, some fighter only feats that will boost their effectiveness with armor and add to tactical DCs will also be included.

Tactical Training
Requires Fighter Level 4
You gain +2 to the DC of all tactical feats.

Tactical Combatant
Requires Fighter Level 8
You gain +4 to the DC of all tactical feats.

Tactical Mastery
Requires Fighter Level 12
You gain +6 to the DC of all tactical feats.

Tactical Supremacy
Requires Fighter Level 16
You gain +8 to the DC of all tactical feats.

Notes: All tactical feats stack for a total of +20. The lower level feats are not prerequisites for the higher level feats so a higher level fighter could save a feat if he/she wanted to skip Tactical Training and forego the +2 but still have access to Tatical Supremacy.

Heavy Armor Training
Requires Fighter Level 2
You gain +3 Physical Resistance Rating and Magical Resistance Rating while wearing heavy armor.

Heavy Armor Combatant
Requires Fighter Level 6
You gain +6 Physical Resistance Rating and Magical Resistance Rating while wearing heavy armor.

Heavy Armor Master
Requires Fighter Level 10
You gain +9 Physical Resistance Rating and Magical Resistance Rating while wearing heavy armor.

Heavy Armor Champion
Requires Fighter Level 14
You gain +12 Physical Resistance Rating and Magical Resistance Rating while wearing heavy armor.

Notes: All Heavy Armor feats stack for a total of +30. The lower level feats are not prerequisites for the higher level feats so a higher level fighter could save a feat if he/she wanted to skip Heavy Armor Training and forego the +3 and still have access to Heavy Armor Champion.


Divine Grace (Paladin)
Divine Grace now provides a maximum bonus equal to 2 + (Paladin level x 3).

Eldritch Blast and other enhancements (Warlock)
The spellpower scaling for Eldritch Blast and several enhancements has been reduced.

Spellpower scaling of Warlock Abilities

Ability	Old	New
Eldritch Blast	150%	130%
Eldritch Blast Cone	130%	130%
Eldritch Blast Chain	110%	95%
Eldritch Blast Aura	150%	130%
Stricken (Souleater)	150%	125%
Consume (Souleater)	150%	125%
Eldritch Burst (Enlightened Spirit)	120%	100%
Spirit Blast (Enlightened Spirit)	120%	100%

I will be following up this post with some details on our thoughts on balance and design.

Sev~

These changes seem to have arisen due to some of the players in this game taking their completionist toons with all their past lives and running the new content with their favorite godly build and then crying because they did it in under an hour. This seems excessive to the rest of the players like myself who don't have these toons and ran the new content at level in party and still found it very challenging to complete at elite. If these balance changes happen it seems that it will cater mostly, to my estimate, of those 10% that I described in the first sentence while all the new players and people like myself who don't have those past will suffer and rage quit due to not having the past lives to help them survive. This is also assuming that the mobs are going to stay at their current difficulty.

If these changes are going to take place then the mobs need to be down-scaled as well or else a lot of people, like myself, will play other games and not have to pay for VIP for a game that they can't play due to having unbeatable monsters.

Now as for the proposed changes by title:

Blood Rage:

Seems good so that my battlecleric and other clerics will need to actually heal them. This seems like it can make FOTP more challenging.

Two Weapon Fighting:

This seems excessive. Instead of making them essentially useless why not give them speed bonuses? You're supposed to be going fast when wielding two weapons. Maybe give 2-5% bonus to attack speed per the feat taken ex: TWF= 3%, ITWF= 3%, GTWF= 3%, PTWF= 3% for a total of 12% to attack speed. This won't break the game but will still offer DPS builds that use this feat an incentive and also won't make the feat completely useless to grab.

Manyshot:

I think that is will kill the ranger class if combined with the TWF chain. So all the work to improve the ranger class was for nothing if ranger is getting nerfed to this extreme. Why not grant the manyshot arrows based on the amount of ranger lvls a character has? Every 5 ranger lvls grants one manyshot arrow perhaps. This way it won't over-power many builds while still offering the incentive to make a pure ranger.

Improved Critical:

As long as the named items that I spent hours farming for aren't going to be worse than the common loot then I'm happy. Otherwise looks like the feat is just written to how the weapons are normally based on their crit range.

Armor Changes:

Oh boy. Now what's the point of my builds wearing heavy armor? Don't take MRR away completely it does help nicely. Maybe reduce it so that for every 10PRR it is the equivalent of 2MRR. Otherwise I see many rage quitting due to the mob casters. Or just making all my toons wear light armor and get evasion with rogue splash like before this was brought into the game.

Fighter Feats:

They look nice but if you are going to get rid of MRR then may I suggest that they be open for paladin as well? Paladin tanks will need the MRR as well as fighter tanks.

The other topics I don't know much about seeing how I haven't played warlock and don't use keen.