First Look: Favored Soul Beacon of Hope

[edrein]

Beacon of Despair

• Core 1: For each Core ability you gain, +1% Negative Spell Critical Chance, +10 Negative Energy Amp, and +5 Negative Spell Power.
• Core 2: Beacon of Pestillence: Cost: 2 SP: Enemies ahead of you* are damage for 1 point of Negative Energy per Favored Soul level. If you or an ally is undead this effect heals you. This scales with your Negative Spell Power. 6 second cooldown.
• Core 3: Dark Light: Whenever you cast one of your Beacons or use Flight of Terror, you and affected allies gain a Sacred bonus to Negative Energy Amplification equal to your Favored Soul level for 12 seconds. Enemies in the zone of effect are dazzled and take a -1 penalty to attack, spot, and search. These enemies are shadowed by Dark Light, dispelling stealth, invisibility, blur, and displacement, for 10 seconds, and giving a -40 penalty to hide. Sightless enemies are immune to the dazzle effect
• Core 4: Beacon of Despair: Cost: 15 SP: Enemies ahead of you* take the effects of an Enervation and a Fear spell, and are harmed for 5 points of Negative Energy per Favored Soul level. If you or your ally are undead this effect heals you.This scales with 100% Negative Spell Power. 30 second cooldown.
• Core 5: Flight of Terror: When you use your Leap of Faith, any enemy you pass through is effected by the Phantasmal Killer spell.
• Core 6: Shroud of the Vampire: 50 SP. 30 second cooldown. Multiselector:
  
  • Passive:+4 WIS. You gain +3 Maximum Caster Level with all Negative spells. Your Loss and Beacon abilities that scale with Favored Soul level now add Epic Levels as well.
  • Passive: +4 CHA. You gain +3 Maximum Caster Level with all Negative spells. Your Loss and Beacon abilities that scale with Favored Soul level now add Epic Levels as well.

Tier 1:

• Crushing Despair SLA 10/5/2 SP. (3 second cooldown)
• Confidence: +1/+2/+3 Concentration, Diplomacy and Heal. Rank 3: You also gain +10 Negative Energy Spell Power.
• Divine Durability: +2/4/6 Competence Bonus to PRR.
• Spell Critical Chance: Negative: +2%
• Spell Points: 30/60/90 Spell Points

Tier 2:

• Necrotic Bolt SLA: (6/4/2 Spell Points) (3/2/1 second cooldown)
• Loss of Inspiration: Targeted enemy gains a debuff to all save and skill throws equal to 1/4 your Favored Soul level for 12 seconds. 6 second cooldown.
• Divine Durability II: +2/4/6 Competence bonus to MRR.
• Spell Critical Chance: Negative: +2%
• Fear's Reward: Multiselector (Shares a cooldown and same SP cost as Divine Might).
  
  • You gain an Sacred bonus to Negative Spell Power equal to your Strength modifier for 30/60/120 seconds.
  • You gain an Sacred bonus to Negative Spell Power equal to your Wisdom modifier for 30/60/120 seconds.
  • You gain an Sacred bonus to Negative Spell Power equal to your Charisma modifier for 30/60/120 seconds.

Tier 3:

• Loss of Protection: Targeted enemy losses PRR and MRR equal to Favored Soul levels for 12 seconds. 6 second cooldown.
• Efficient Empower
• Spell Critical Chance: Negative: +2%
• WIS/CHA

Tier 4:

• Death Ward SLA: 10/8/5 SP (4 second cooldown)
• Loss of Victory: Targeted enemy gains 1% vulnerability per Favored Soul levels. This lasts for 12 seconds. 6 second cooldown.
• Pesimism: Every time you cast one of your Loss abilities, you gain a stack of Dire Beacon, giving yourself +2 PRR, +2 MRR, and +1 AC. This stacks up to 10 times, and stacks fade once every 12 seconds. Loss of Success grants 3 stacks.
• Spell Critical Chance: Negative: +2%
• WIS/CHA

Tier 5:

• Animate Ally SLA: 15 SP, 9 second cooldown
• Loss of Success: Targeted enemy loses 30 melee and ranged power for 12 seconds. Spellcasters are instead silence and reflected upon their next spell cast. 60 second cooldown.
• Harm SLA: 40 SP, 6 second cooldown
• Undying Beacon: Allies affected by your Beacons gain Unconsciousness Range equal to 10x your Favored Soul level. Allied undead do not crumble during this effect. This effect lasts for 12 seconds, and is refreshed if the target is affected by another Beacon spell.
• Wall of Death: Cost: 30 Spell Points. Create a wall that persists for 30 seconds. Enemies in the wall take an Inflict Moderate Wounds spell every few seconds. Enemy undead are instead feared. 60 second cooldown.

[thomascoolone64]

Hey, all! SteelStar here with a look at the third Favored Soul tree coming soon: Beacon of Hope! This Healing- and Buffing-Focused tree is currently slated for U39, and ought to be up on Lamannia soon. Have a look (be sure to check out the FAQ at the bottom) and let us know what you think!

• Core 1: For each Core ability you gain, +1% Positive Spell Critical Chance, +10 Healing Amp, and +5 Positive Spell Power.
• Core 2: Beacon of Grace: Cost: 2 SP: You and allies ahead of you* heal for 1 point of Positive Energy per Favored Soul level. This scales with your Positive Spell Power. 6 second cooldown.
• Core 3: Shining Light: Whenever you cast one of your Beacons or use Flight of Glory, you and affected allies gain a Sacred bonus to Healing Amplification equal to your Favored Soul level for 12 seconds. Enemies in the zone of effect are dazzled and take a -1 penalty to attack, spot, and search. These enemies are illuminated by Shining Light, dispelling stealth, invisibility, blur, and displacement, for 10 seconds, and giving a -40 penalty to hide. Sightless enemies are immune to the dazzle effect.
• Core 4: Beacon of Hope: Cost: 15 SP: You and allies ahead of you* take the effects of a Panacea and a Restoration spell, and heal for 5 points of Positive Energy per Favored Soul level. This scales with 100% Positive Spell Power. 30 second cooldown.
• Core 5: Flight of Glory: When you use your Leap of Faith, nearby allies gain Temporary Hit Points equal to twice your character level, plus an additional 25.
• Core 6: True Resurrection SLA: 25 SP. 10 second cooldown. Multiselector:
  
  • Passive:+4 WIS. You gain +3 Maximum Caster Level with all Positive spells. Your Hope and Beacon abilities that scale with Favored Soul level now add Epic Levels as well.
  • Passive: +4 CHA. You gain +3 Maximum Caster Level with all Positive spells. Your Hope and Beacon abilities that scale with Favored Soul level now add Epic Levels as well.

Tier 1:

• Good Hope SLA 10/5/2 SP. (3 second cooldown)
• Confidence: +1/+2/+3 Concentration, Diplomacy and Heal. Rank 3: You also gain +10 Positive Energy Spell Power.
• Divine Durability: +2/4/6 Competence Bonus to PRR.
• Spell Critical Chance: Positive: +2%
• Spell Points: 30/60/90 Spell Points

Tier 2:

• Close Wounds SLA: (6/4/2 Spell Points) (3/2/1 second cooldown)
• Hope for Inspiration: Target ally gains a Sacred bonus to all Skills equal to 1/4 your Favored Soul level for 12 seconds. 6 second cooldown.
• Divine Durability II: +2/4/6 Competence bonus to MRR.
• Spell Critical Chance: Positive: +2%
• Might's Reward: Multiselector (Shares a cooldown and same SP cost as Divine Might).
  
  • You gain an Sacred bonus to Positive Spell Power equal to your Strength modifier for 30/60/120 seconds.
  • You gain an Sacred bonus to Positive Spell Power equal to your Wisdom modifier for 30/60/120 seconds.
  • You gain an Sacred bonus to Positive Spell Power equal to your Charisma modifier for 30/60/120 seconds.

Tier 3:

• Hope for Protection: Target ally gains a Sacred bonus to PRR and MRR equal to your Favored Soul level for 12 seconds. 6 second cooldown.
• Efficient Empower Healing
• Spell Critical Chance: Positive: +2%
• WIS/CHA

Tier 4:

• Death Ward SLA: 10/8/5 SP (4 second cooldown)
• Hope for Victory: Target ally gains a Sacred Bonus to Melee Power and Ranged Power equal to half your Favored Soul level, and Universal Spell Power equal to your Favored Soul level. This lasts for 12 seconds. 6 second cooldown.
• Optimism: Every time you cast one of your Hope abilities, you gain a stack of Rising Beacon, giving yourself +2 PRR, +2 MRR, and +1 AC. This stacks up to 10 times, and stacks fade once every 12 seconds. Hope for Success grants 3 stacks.
• Spell Critical Chance: Positive: +2%
• WIS/CHA

Tier 5:

• Raise Dead SLA: 15 SP, 9 second cooldown
• Hope for Success: Target ally gains +1 to Critical Threat Range and Multiplier with weapons for 12 seconds. 60 second cooldown.
• Heal SLA: 40 SP, 6 second cooldown
• Undying Beacon: Allies affected by your Beacons gain Unconsciousness Range equal to 10x your Favored Soul level. This effect lasts for 12 seconds, and is refreshed if the target is affected by another Beacon spell.
• Wall of Healing: Cost: 30 Spell Points. Create a wall that persists for 30 seconds. Allies and Undead in the wall take a Cure Moderate Wounds spell every few seconds. 60 second cooldown.

How is the Lamannia build's Progress Coming along Mr SteelStar sir? I cannot wait till you guys open the World! Im Hyped for this!

[Cocomajobo]

How is the Lamannia build's Progress Coming along Mr SteelStar sir? I cannot wait till you guys open the World! Im Hyped for this!

U39 systems Preview is tentatively scheduled to be open from Tuesday June 19th-Thursday June 21st. Highly subject to change based on both feature readiness and build stability.

[Selvera]

Ok, I like the theme of the tree. Healing/buffing is something I like doing and something fvs is sorely lacking. Now let's look at the abilities:

Cores:

Core 1: None to flashy, but certainly decent. I like the bonus heal amp on a class which has higher-then-normal HP.

Core 2: Interesting... So this starts out at a 3 HP heal, meaning that at level 3 you can cast a spell which heals less then cure light wounds and is harder to target. But on the other hand; a 30 HP heal at endgame isn't terrible; when you factor in 750 spellpower and 100 heal amp, this is 2 mana for a heal of 510 HP. I almost feel like the cooldown could be lowered a bit to reflect the low mana cost and relatively weak heal. (4 seconds?). Casting time is also a big issue; if this spell is medium or slow cast time, it's probably fairly useless, but with the fast cast time of something like divine favor it could be useful.

Core 3: Dazzle is a very weak/useless effect; I'm not sure if enemies really use spot or especially search and -1 attack is trivial at best. Illuminating enemies is pretty cool though, as is the heal amp.

Core 4: So this scales with 100% spellpower but Beacon of Grace just scales with "spellpower"? Is grace also 100% or is it more/less? Anyways; this appears to be just a better version of Beacon of Grace with a longer cooldown and higher mana cost. Giving it a different AoE might make it cool/unique enough to feel different. Or maybe that would just annoy people trying to heal organized groups with a beacon of hope.

Core 5: 85 THP is not impressive at cap, 61 THP is not impressive at level 18, but it's at least a little bit useful for something that is free. The big question I have about this is who gets the HP. Is it the people near you when you cast it (at the start of your flight); the people who are near you when you finish the flight, or everyone near you at any time during the flight? The best (coolest) would be anyone near you at any time; making how you aim the flight useful to get the buff on everyone needed. The second best is anyone at the end of the flight (allowing you to charge to an enemy and shield them when they most need it). But... 85 THP really isn't enough to "save" someone immediatly. To achieve this goal the ability would have to have its own longer cooldown; propel forward just like leap (share a cooldown with leap of faith too) and give much more THP.

Core 6: Well this sucks. The passive benefits are nice and fitting; but a capstone ability which just mirrors an ability that favored souls get from a 0 mana scroll many levels earlier? Please remove the true resurrection SLA and give beacon some cool capstone like a mode (1 minute?) where they can refresh their buffs on an ally by casting any beacon ability on that ally. Or... if you really have to keep the TR SLA for some reason; make it better then what a scroll can do in some way please. Like make it remove death penalties or bypass 10 seconds of death timer or something.


Tier 1:

Good Hope SLA: While I'm not a huge fan of a good hope SLA, I do like the spell and it is thematic for a beacon of hope to be casting good hope all the time. I'm ok with this showing up in tier 1.

Confidence: Ok, generic tier 1 skill boost. Looks good.

Divine Durability: A weaker version of Wall of Steel, but I assume it stacks and it's a lower tier ability. Seems fair.

Spell Critical Chance: So with positive crit line in the enhancements and positive crit in the cores; it looks like favored souls are supposed to be the positive crit masters? Ok. I guess that's fine. (I won't comment on spell crit positive in higher tiers)

Spell Points: Harper, Spellsinger and Arcane Archer all have enhancements which grant 30/60/100 spellpoints. Why does a class which gets double spell points inherently get a worse enhancement then any of these?

Tier 2:

Close Wounds SLA: We have seen that healing spell SLA's can be worthwhile for those who like them. It's nice that favored soul gets a slightly different list of healing spell SLA's then the other classes. I like this one here.

Hope for Inspiration: I can't think of another sacred bonus to skills off the top of my head. Maybe there's something I'm forgetting right now; but this seems like a solid "inspire your trapper" buff. I don't think the +2 sneak attack damage for allies with scion of ethereal plain is really that useful, nor is the up to +7 spellpower you can grant allies; but if the +traps means the difference between blowing a box and a 1+ success, it's worth it.

Divine Durability 2: Yeah, a little vanilla, but that's fine.

Might's Reward: This feels SIGNIFICANTLY weaker then divine might (or other equivalents through fvs); if I was doing a melee favored soul with beacon of hope and warpriest enhancements (which I probably will do), I would certainly take +5 damage over +10 spellpower any day. (or any other set of values for those 2 numbers). That said; I would use this on a pure healer or a caster fvs.

Tier 3:

Hope for Protection: I'm not sure how to feel about this. It feels to me like it's quite a short duration and not strong enough to deserve it. It also feels like it's nearly useless in heroic levels, since 10 prr/mrr isn't too impressive for a temperary buff that you need to refresh (on someone else no less) every 10 seconds. Or when you get it; 3 prr/mrr is so weak it's not even noticable. 30 prr/mrr is a bit more noticable, even for characters that already have 100+ of each, but 12 seconds still feels very short. My suggestion would be to make it last for 20 seconds and increase the amount it gives to (15 + half level).

Efficient Empower healing: I suppose some people might like this. I tend to find empower healing to be not efficient even with enhancements like this so I tend to not use it that often. But might as well leave it for those that like it.

Wis/Cha: Ok

Tier 4:

Death Ward SLA: No, just no. Why are we getting an SLA of a buff which doesn't benefit from metamagic? No; quicken and extend don't count, because you cast your buffs out of combat (no reason to quicken) and it already has a fairly long duration (no need to extend). Get rid of this. Add in another beacon ability or at least SLA a spell that's worth using as an SLA. Those "beacon of wellness" and "beacon of valor" abilities that the graphic show but you don't explain sound much more interesting then this.

Hope for Victory: Again, I think this should last 20 seconds; 12 seconds is just too short for an ability of this power level and effect. Since it can't be self-cast, we're talking investing 20+ AP into an enhancement tree which gives -no damage- In order to make that worth it for a group of 6; the abilities need to make everyone else 20% better or more; or by "supporting" the group; you're just making them worse. In a group of 3 you would have to make everyone else 50% better or else you're just dragging them down. The last thing a support player wants to do is drag down their party by even existing.

Optimism: I like this. It's a good chunk of not dying for supporting allies, and not dying is good.

Tier 5:

Raise Dead SLA: No. It sucks. Raise dead costs 0 mana from a scroll and the SLA costs 15. You can't just go adding tier-5 abilities that are literally useless.

Hope for Success: I like it. As mentioned above; you want your support class to make others at least 20% better then they are without the support. This is a good ability to be part of that formula. I'm just concerned about the super short duration; 20 seconds would be better. That way you could buff up the whole duration of a multishot or haste boost to get some decent value out of the cast.

Heal SLA: Yes. This is one SLA that I agree with in a thematic, gameplay and balance perspective. Heal IS a spell that benefits from metamagics that matter, and is a staple spell that a healing FVS would cast. My problem with it is just the cooldown: Heal has a 4.5 second cooldown; why does the SLA have 6? Reduce it to 4.5 to match the spell.

Undying Beacon: I like this a lot; I think the duration should be increased to 20 seconds.

Wall of healing: I also like this. It's a cool idea and feels like it fits the tree and theme. It sort of feels more like a radiant servant ability with the undead damage portion of it; but that's ok.


Overall; I like the idea of beacon abilities and I like the idea of hope abilities; but the tree could use a bit more interaction and game-play excitement to it. I'm talking about things like "If you dash through your wall of healing with Flight of Glory; refresh the duration of wall of healing"; and "If you cast Hope for Protection on your target of Hope for Success, both buffs are removed immediately and the target becomes invulnerable for 4 seconds." or even "The target of Hope for Protection does not fall unconscious when they drop below 0 HP".

[Yamani]

U39 systems Preview is tentatively scheduled to be open from Tuesday June 19th-Thursday June 21st. Highly subject to change based on both feature readiness and build stability.

Aww now to wait 2 weeks D:

[Niminae]

Hey, all! SteelStar here with a look at the third Favored Soul tree coming soon: Beacon of Hope! This Healing- and Buffing-Focused tree is currently slated for U39, and ought to be up on Lamannia soon. Have a look (be sure to check out the FAQ at the bottom) and let us know what you think!

The main problem with the concept of a Healing- and Buffing-Focused tree is that healing doesn't really need any buffs to positive spellpower, and buffing is almost entirely done out of combat. The only real purpose of more positive spell power is to compensate for someone else's poor build with zero or low hamp. Other than that a mass CLW is often more than enough to fill all the red bars around the AOE.

As others have said, SLA buffs are not terribly useful. About the only advantage of a SLA buff is to extend them for free. For a spell slot limited class like a FvS it also gives some additional utility since they could skip taking that buff in a spell slot, so that's something nice. If you don't want to make them mass buffs with the QOL benefits that brings to the table, how about applying your new ahead of you* cone shape to the buff? That would let you play with your new toy a bit more, and would add some additional utility and QOL even in combat, for example to re-buff a few party members, assuming they are positioned correctly, after they got anti-magiced by a beholder or whatever.

The above two paragraphs are about all the criticisms I have of the tree. The rest of my impressions are favorable, and the tree has some interesting utility items such as the T2-T5 "Hope for" line of buffs, which I'm happy to see are not all in a prerequisite chain. Wall of Healing is a nice idea since the only other persistent AOE healing requires the caster to be next to the targets, which mostly means also next to the mobs. Is it fair to assume that this will have the same AOE as a Wall of Fire?

[Niminae]

**** right we are. This is the kind of broken BS that doesn't belong in the game.

Adding the self-healing penalty and then giving classes easy ways to burn through it (healing hands on a Wisdom toon or a HEAL SLA!) or avoid it (warlock) is asinine.

Yeah, you'll gimp yourself spending a tier 5 for this. But have you seen pugland? Ideas way less dumb than this have spread.

Wow, that was a quick reversal, but you've gotta love a mixed message! "This is the kind of broken BS that doesn't belong in the game," followed immediately by "you'll gimp yourself spending a tier 5 for this.."

It's so broken that only a gimp player would consider taking it? Or only a gimp player would take it, but then they'd discover that it was of game-shattering brokenness and start leading the kill counts against undeads or something? I can't wait to find out which one it is!

[Sam-u-r-eye]

Beacon of Despair

• Core 1: For each Core ability you gain, +1% Negative Spell Critical Chance, +10 Negative Energy Amp, and +5 Negative Spell Power.
• Core 2: Beacon of Pestillence: Cost: 2 SP: Enemies ahead of you* are damage for 1 point of Negative Energy per Favored Soul level. If you or an ally is undead this effect heals you. This scales with your Negative Spell Power. 6 second cooldown.
• Core 3: Dark Light: Whenever you cast one of your Beacons or use Flight of Terror, you and affected allies gain a Sacred bonus to Negative Energy Amplification equal to your Favored Soul level for 12 seconds. Enemies in the zone of effect are dazzled and take a -1 penalty to attack, spot, and search. These enemies are shadowed by Dark Light, dispelling stealth, invisibility, blur, and displacement, for 10 seconds, and giving a -40 penalty to hide. Sightless enemies are immune to the dazzle effect
• Core 4: Beacon of Despair: Cost: 15 SP: Enemies ahead of you* take the effects of an Enervation and a Fear spell, and are harmed for 5 points of Negative Energy per Favored Soul level. If you or your ally are undead this effect heals you.This scales with 100% Negative Spell Power. 30 second cooldown.
• Core 5: Flight of Terror: When you use your Leap of Faith, any enemy you pass through is effected by the Phantasmal Killer spell.
• Core 6: Shroud of the Vampire: 50 SP. 30 second cooldown. Multiselector:
  
  • Passive:+4 WIS. You gain +3 Maximum Caster Level with all Negative spells. Your Loss and Beacon abilities that scale with Favored Soul level now add Epic Levels as well.
  • Passive: +4 CHA. You gain +3 Maximum Caster Level with all Negative spells. Your Loss and Beacon abilities that scale with Favored Soul level now add Epic Levels as well.

Tier 1:

• Crushing Despair SLA 10/5/2 SP. (3 second cooldown)
• Confidence: +1/+2/+3 Concentration, Diplomacy and Heal. Rank 3: You also gain +10 Negative Energy Spell Power.
• Divine Durability: +2/4/6 Competence Bonus to PRR.
• Spell Critical Chance: Negative: +2%
• Spell Points: 30/60/90 Spell Points

Tier 2:

• Necrotic Bolt SLA: (6/4/2 Spell Points) (3/2/1 second cooldown)
• Loss of Inspiration: Targeted enemy gains a debuff to all save and skill throws equal to 1/4 your Favored Soul level for 12 seconds. 6 second cooldown.
• Divine Durability II: +2/4/6 Competence bonus to MRR.
• Spell Critical Chance: Negative: +2%
• Fear's Reward: Multiselector (Shares a cooldown and same SP cost as Divine Might).
  
  • You gain an Sacred bonus to Negative Spell Power equal to your Strength modifier for 30/60/120 seconds.
  • You gain an Sacred bonus to Negative Spell Power equal to your Wisdom modifier for 30/60/120 seconds.
  • You gain an Sacred bonus to Negative Spell Power equal to your Charisma modifier for 30/60/120 seconds.

Tier 3:

• Loss of Protection: Targeted enemy losses PRR and MRR equal to Favored Soul levels for 12 seconds. 6 second cooldown.
• Efficient Empower
• Spell Critical Chance: Negative: +2%
• WIS/CHA

Tier 4:

• Death Ward SLA: 10/8/5 SP (4 second cooldown)
• Loss of Victory: Targeted enemy gains 1% vulnerability per Favored Soul levels. This lasts for 12 seconds. 6 second cooldown.
• Pesimism: Every time you cast one of your Loss abilities, you gain a stack of Dire Beacon, giving yourself +2 PRR, +2 MRR, and +1 AC. This stacks up to 10 times, and stacks fade once every 12 seconds. Loss of Success grants 3 stacks.
• Spell Critical Chance: Negative: +2%
• WIS/CHA

Tier 5:

• Animate Ally SLA: 15 SP, 9 second cooldown
• Loss of Success: Targeted enemy loses 30 melee and ranged power for 12 seconds. Spellcasters are instead silence and reflected upon their next spell cast. 60 second cooldown.
• Harm SLA: 40 SP, 6 second cooldown
• Undying Beacon: Allies affected by your Beacons gain Unconsciousness Range equal to 10x your Favored Soul level. Allied undead do not crumble during this effect. This effect lasts for 12 seconds, and is refreshed if the target is affected by another Beacon spell.
• Wall of Death: Cost: 30 Spell Points. Create a wall that persists for 30 seconds. Enemies in the wall take an Inflict Moderate Wounds spell every few seconds. Enemy undead are instead feared. 60 second cooldown.

very fun

[Niminae]

Core 6: Well this sucks. The passive benefits are nice and fitting; but a capstone ability which just mirrors an ability that favored souls get from a 0 mana scroll many levels earlier? Please remove the true resurrection SLA and give beacon some cool capstone like a mode (1 minute?) where they can refresh their buffs on an ally by casting any beacon ability on that ally. Or... if you really have to keep the TR SLA for some reason; make it better then what a scroll can do in some way please. Like make it remove death penalties or bypass 10 seconds of death timer or something.

It's certainly not a powerful ability. But this isn't a powerful tree, and anyone investing heavily into it isn't doing it for power/potency anyway. But consider that you can't quicken a resurrection scroll, and I think that someone who is a dedicated healer might take the capstone for that ability. That's your "better then what a scroll can do in some way," for what it's worth.

It looks to me as though you can be a perfectly capable healer without this tree existing at all, but taking this capstone might be a better option than the current AoV and Warsoul offerings, unless they are improved when we see their proposed updates. I mean, if you're playing a pure FvS your capstone options are pretty miserable right now.

[Selvera]

But consider that you can't quicken a resurrection scroll, and I think that someone who is a dedicated healer might take the capstone for that ability.

I can certainly say that I would never take a true res SLA if I had any other/better option on a dedicated healer. While I would often quicken the spell if I took it (just so it doesn't get interrupted; having it cast faster is rarely - if ever - useful for a dedicated healer. They should be playing around multi-casting to deal with casting times of casting it multiple times in a row; and buffering it to complete when the death timer comes off timer to get around raising as quickly as possible. And if I'm worried about my res getting interrupted, I'm pretty much never worried about the mana cost of it.

The only reason I could see someone take TR as an SLA as a capstone is if they wanted to be a DC caster and take energy drain, implosion and heal, mass; and thought that TR was a significant enough upgrade to resurrection as to spend a capstone on it. But... if they're a DC caster, why are they investing 41 points into a healing tree?

So yeah; I stand by my statement. True Resurrection SLA sucks as a capstone ability. It's nearly completely useless and it's bland/boring.

Some ideas to make it better (besides cool ideas like replacing it with a buff spell or stance like I recommended):

1) Make it AoE and not require a target. (Potentially useful for raising multiple people or raising if they're about to bounce)
2) Make it bypass part of death timers.
3) Make it not apply and/or remove death penalties. (And prevent/repair gear damage?)
4) Make it apply buffs to the target immediately when they're raised.
5) Make it cast able on undead as an instakill

[Vish]

Angel of Charity

Core 1 1ap lvl 1 font of grace. 1 heal amp and .5 pos per ap spent

Core 2 1ap lvl 3 vibrancy. +1 to haggle for each core

Core 3 1ap lvl 6 alchemist. can craft healers kits into CSW pots

Core 4 2ap lvl 12 embracing the light
heighten

Core 5 2ap lvl 18 penetrating the darkness
Enlarge

Core 6 2ap lvl 20 all stand up
Mass true resurrection 50sp
+2 wis +2 cha +2 con
9


Tree 1 the light within
Tier 1?*
Tier 2 2ap produce flame
Tier 3 3ap sunbolt
Tier 4 3ap sunbeam
Tier 5 3ap sunburst
11

Tree 2 aura of hope
Tier 1 2ap glimmer of hope
Aura. Adds fvs level prr/mrr to fvs level allies in radius
?* ?* ?* Passive ki regen fvs level per minute
Tier 2 2ap good hope
Tier 3 2ap brightened hope
Aura add. Fvs level/4 sacred saves
Tier 4 2ap fire shield
Tier 5 3ap beacon of hope
Aura Add Heal amp 20/40/70 plus fav soul level
Offers raise dead to party members within its radius
11

Tree 3 angelic touch
Tier 1 2ap pos +10 heal spells crit +1%
Tier 2 2ap +1 wis cha con
Tier 3 2ap pos +20 crit 2%
Tier 4 2ap +1 wis cha con
Tier 5 2ap pos +30 crit 3%
10

Tree 4 Dana?*
Tier 1 3ap 25/50/75 cure scrolls
Tier 2 3ap 30/60/100 sp
Tier 3 6ap efficient empower heal -1/2/4
Tier 4 2ap panacea
14

Tree 5 favored by the light
Tier 1 3ap +1/2/3 diplomacy heal
Tier 2 3ap +5/10/15 light resistance
Tier 3 3ap +10/20/30 light absorption
Tier 4 6ap +1/2/3 to spell pen
Tier 5 3ap +10/20/30 to spell damage multiplier
18
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This is something I came up with couple years ago. It's a heal amp aura build with some dps SLA. And its partial healing tree and partial dps. I think the idea of aura to complement a cleric pea is pretty novel and would attract players. Plus the special abilities of aura raise dead all within radius and core6 mass true resurrection, is over and above what is planned. Not op but over strength. Something cool for those dedicated players.
when I built it I didn't realize the SLAs are same from divine disciple. So just imagine they are similar power blasts, like glowing hands and laser beam eyes. But all still light based. Something to increase dps for fvs.
And there is good low hanging fruit.
Idk take a look, it's couple years old and I'm not gonna give it any more energy. But I do know I'm not interested in what's proposed.

[simo0208]

I think the 12 second buff is exactly the wrong direction. In fact it was one of the big problems with fvs as it is (abilities that didn’t last long enough and you doubled down and shortened them further?). The SLAs should do more than reduce cost at more investment.

Good hope should be heroism instead (1 point), extrnded heroism (2 pts), and finally extended greater heroism (3 pts in the ability total).

Deathward should be standard (1 point), extended (2 points), and extended mass death ward (3 points).

Close wounds should get free wmpower or maximize as you add points (if that one has points to invest, I’m on my phone).

As is, the SLAs are all single point investments for a fvs.

Raise Dead is pretty meh. I’d rather have the ability to raise self and others at that tier.

There ahould be an overheal that converts to temp hp.

I like the heaing amp.

It’d be nice if there was some cool interesting ability requiring new coding. Instead it’s just rebranding with already done assets.

In the end, this is tough to fully judge until the other passes happen to AoV and WS. This alone will not get me to play my favorite class again.

[SirValentine]

...as it is now, there is nothing else to put into the said spells slots.

{ insert obligatory derisive comment about learning to play }

DW and Raise are spells I wouldn't be taking anytime soon anyway, because there's so many better spells at those levels.

...they should add like 40-50-60+ new spells into the game...

That would be nice.

[thomascoolone64]

U39 systems Preview is tentatively scheduled to be open from Tuesday June 19th-Thursday June 21st. Highly subject to change based on both feature readiness and build stability.

Did Cordovan Inform us Wrong? Because he said it would be Next week?

[moo_cow]

A decent tree at best to be honest. I hope you guys take the criticism and actually fix a few things. All of the sla's along the left side of the tree are useless. A good hope sla for a spell that lasts 20 minutes... it only costs 20 spell points to begin with so why is it an sla? It isn't something you need to hit every few minutes but something you hit once during a dungeon. Death ward sla and raise dead seem decent if you have people dying every 5 seconds. Other than that they become useless.

- Hope buffs are pretty creative and actually seem pretty decent.
- The heal sla spell cost is the same as the actual spell. Not a great sla.
- 2% crit chance on positive each level seems like lazy design to be honest. I feel like the higher tier versions of it should add small extra bonuses.
- Might's reward doesn't really do much on its own. 40-55 spell power on heal spells that already fully heal doesn't make any sense.
- The bonuses to prr and mrr look like fillers. 6 prr and 6 mrr aren't that useful. Maybe add a few small bonuses.
- Wall of healing is super cool. I love it.
- Optimism seems out of place and not very useful. You guys really need to stop adding ac buffs that don't actually help. If you want to add something to make the player more survivable then it should be hit points.


Overall I don't like the sla's or the 2% crit chances, but some of the other stuff seems pretty cool.

[Magnus_Arcanis]

In my opinion..

I guess what I don't understand is... what do the dev's think a FvS role is?

I THOUGHT it was such.

Clerics are 'typically' support types. They can hold their own when forced into the fray, but otherwise prefer the back row where they can manage player's hp and status effects while keeping an eye out for good crowd control opportunities.

Favored Souls are typically more offensively oriented. Preferring the front line combing spell and sword to eliminate or hinder enemies. Though, is wise enough to back off once and while into a more support role when the need arises. Is this not the reason why you gave them a choice of a ton of hp or sp and the ability to melee all using the same stat?

If the above is at all true... the Radiant Servant and Beacon of Hope trees should be switched. Granting quick bursts of healing and auras allows the FvS to focus on the chaos of melee. Since Clerics often prefer the back row, the "in front of you" mechanic seems far more synergistic to that play style.

Obviously not all players conform to those standards, but it was my impression that enhancements should take what is unique about a class and make it better and/or even more unique/applicable. Yet, this direction, to me, clearly goes in against the grain of what the classes' identity is.

Aside from that... 12 second buffs? This might just be me, but I have trouble maintaining a 5 minute buff on myself so I can't see myself enjoying something I need to be basically spamming on my party members. Which, I guess I can keep 2 people buffed. Though that'd basically regulate the Beacon of Hope into a macro monster who does nothing but cycles through buffs on one or two allies. Heh, I guess thats an ok role for someone being dragged through the quest anyway because they don't have all the fancy stuff everyone else has. I kid, but seriously... players keeping up the buffs provide less to the party than just about anything else.

[dimitrisscript]

Use F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, F6 etc. to target party members

It's not just targeting - it's also less eye strain if you have bigger healthbars.
But of course that's a different topic than the one mentioned in this thread

[SirValentine]

All of the sla's along the left side of the tree are useless. A good hope sla for a spell that lasts 20 minutes... it only costs 20 spell points to begin with so why is it an sla? It isn't something you need to hit every few minutes but something you hit once during a dungeon. Death ward sla and raise dead seem decent if you have people dying every 5 seconds. Other than that they become useless.

Because otherwise you wouldn't access to have Good Hope at all?

And, as said above, DW & Raise mean you don't have to slot them, so you can slot something else.

- The heal sla spell cost is the same as the actual spell. Not a great sla.

Wow. And if it wasn't Tier 5, I'd have been calling it out as OP. You're suddenly getting Heal at level 12 instead of level 15, and permanently getting an extra 6th-level-spell of your choice by not having to spend one of your 3 slot on Heal. How is that not great?

I'm actually surprised at some of these responses. Usually I'm the one calling out SLAs as being dumb & useless. But these, granting way more (and earlier) options to spell-slot-starved FvS, for some reason other people think are bad.

[simo0208]

Because otherwise you wouldn't access to have Good Hope at all?

And, as said above, DW & Raise mean you don't have to slot them, so you can slot something else.



Wow. And if it wasn't Tier 5, I'd have been calling it out as OP. You're suddenly getting Heal at level 12 instead of level 15, and permanently getting an extra 6th-level-spell of your choice by not having to spend one of your 3 slot on Heal. How is that not great?

I'm actually surprised at some of these responses. Usually I'm the one calling out SLAs as being dumb & useless. But these, granting way more (and earlier) options to spell-slot-starved FvS, for some reason other people think are bad.

FVS get Heal access at level 12. I take it and Quicken together at 12 every single time I play FVS. And I've done 30+ lives of FVS.

[asdfghhjkl]

FVS get Heal access at level 12. I take it and Quicken together at 12 every single time I play FVS. And I've done 30+ lives of FVS.

You only get one 6th level spell at 12. If you're taking Heal, then you're not taking Blade Barrier or even Cometfall.