Hello! This is an early look at the Epic Destiny Pass currently slated for Update 43. (The second Sharn raid is coming before this, so there's still a bit of time before this reaches Lamannia). A few notes about this pass, before we get to details:
We had a few primary goals in the Epic Destiny pass, compounded by a very slim time-frame of 3 weeks for principal changes.
- First and foremost, try to put each Destiny in a place where it's worth using for at least some builds.
- Fix bugs and remove things that hinder fun or usability
- You'll notice that every Epic Moment that required you to do weird things to charge it up no longer requires that.
- Improve the ability for people to play in Destinies that match their Archetype (ranged characters in Shiradi, etc) without significantly hindering the current ability for people to play in Destinies that don't (casters in Shiradi, etc)
Like we said above, the timeframe was slim. We didn't hit everything we would have liked to, and there are still abilities within individual Destinies that still probably aren't worth taking. We're listening for feedback here, but our ability to act on it is similarly time-restricted; we're unlikely to further revamp whole trees or add completely new skills at this time, but we may be able to make number tweaks and fix outstanding bugs.
That said, this is the thread for Martial Sphere Destinies, so let's dive in. Be sure to check out the other Sphere threads when you're done, as well as the topic on new Epic Past Lives coming with these changes.
Grandmaster of Flowers
This tree needed a lot of love. It was only OK for Monks, and really not-great for everyone else. There's now a fair bit of twist fodder in here, and fewer things require strict centering. Top-tier actives became massively more powerful with the changes, so they were scaled back somewhat to reflect being able to use them much more often.
- Inner Focus and Wholeness of Spirit now allow for movement during use
- Wholeness of Spirit has its cooldown reduced to 2 minutes
- Ki actives (the left column) now scale with the higher of Melee or Ranged Power
- Ki actives get Stunning bonuses added to their DC calculations
- Ki actives can now be used under Antimagic, as they are not spells
- Ki actives are no longer linked in a line
- Lily Petal and Orchid Blossom now care about levels 26-30 in terms of scaling with character level (was previously capping at 25)
- Lily Petal now grants 5 Ki instead of costing Ki
- A Scattering of Petals no longer grants Dodge, and instead grants +100 PRR and MRR for 12 seconds.
- A Scattering of Petals also reduces enemy Fortification by 200% for 12 seconds, and affected creatures lose immunity to Sneak Attack for that duration.
- A Scattering of Petals now has a detect the same size as Drifting Lotus (i.e. twice as large).
- A Scattering of Petals now has a 90 second cooldown.
- A Dance of Flowers is now 0.25[w]/0.5[w]/1[w], but no longer requires you to be Centered.
- Running with the Wind now adds 2/4/6% Doublestrike to everyone (no more stance requirement)
- Hail of Blows now adds +3 melee damage in addition to its doublestrike
- Walking with Waves no longer requires Ocean stance for its Dodge bonus
- Standing with Stone no longer requires Mountain Stance for its PRR.
- Dancing with Flame no longer requires Sun Stance for its (w) bonus.
- Everything is Nothing moves to a 3 minute cooldown, no longer requires charging.
- Everything is Nothing now has a smaller detect (double the size of Drifting Lotus, but still smaller than its existing version), and hits a maximum of 4 enemies. This is for both balance and performance reasons, as it significantly taxes the game on use & will now be used more frequently.
- NEW: T2: The Flower's Thorn: +3[w] attack. 6 second cooldown. Does not require Centering. Has cool petal FX. (1 Rank, 1AP)
- NEW: T5: Devastating Critical (+1 Critical Multiplier on a 19-20) (1 Rank, 1AP)
Legendary Dreadnought
This Destiny is very good in its current incarnation. We opened up some of the restrictiveness of the two attacks and fixed an ability that did nothing/wasn't good. For balance vs. other destinies, we did diminish some of their damage vs. Helpless targets only.
- Momentum Swing and Lay Waste no longer require Power Attack to be active to use.
- Momentum Swing and Lay Waste no longer require Cleave and Great Cleave (though those feats still reset the cooldown of Momentum Swing).
- Lay Waste now adds Trip Bonuses to its DC.
- Unmoveable and Thick Skinned are no longer Action Boosts (they didn't really act like them anyway, they were just using their charge counters). Instead, they are instead simply restricted to their respective cooldowns (which are unchanged).
- Tactical Genius (which never really worked) is now: Unusual Tactics: Passive: You are a studied master of a wide variety of methods for gaining the upper hand. +2 to the DCs of your Tactical Feats, DC of Rune Arm shots, DC of Breath Weapons, DC of Assasinate, DC of Poisons, and +2 to the Perform, Bluff, Diplomacy, and Intimidate skills.
- Combat Brute's Helplessness damage is now 15%.
Shadowdancer
This tree needed help. It had a lot of cool things in it that were nearly impossible to use, either because DC calculations were broken or because you needed Shadow Charges, which were hard to get and even harder to keep. Those are gone now. Cooldowns on some things were adjusted to reflect the fact that you don't need to juggle Shadow Charges anymore, but by and large the whole tree should work a lot better now. There are still a few outstanding things that don't shine (Dark Imbuement, looking at you) but in playtests the new version of Shadowdancer has been viable.
- Shadow Lance now adds Assassinate Bonuses to its DC calculation
- Shadow Lance now uses the higher of your Intelligence and Dexterity Modifiers in its DC calculation
- Shadow Lance now uses full character level in its DC calculation
- Shadow Lance no longer requires Shadow Charges to blind
- Shadow Lance's Blind is no longer based on chance, but tries to apply on each hit
- Shadow Lance's damage now scales with 400% of the higher of your Melee and Ranged Power
- Shadow Lance's damage is now (4d8+18)/(6d8+24)/(8d8+30)
- Shadow Lance's cooldown is now 30/20/10 seconds.
- Shrouding Strike/Shot no longer mark the target for Shadow Charges; instead, they apply a stack of Improved Destruction.
- Shrouding Strike/Shot now have a 6-second cooldown.
- Consume now adds Assassinate bonuses to its DC calculation
- Consume now uses the higher of your Intelligence and Dexterity Modifiers in its DC calculation
- Consume no longer uses Shadow Charges, nor grants Maximum Shadow Charges.
- Consume now has a 3-minute cooldown.
- Consume should now more consistently pick living enemies to target (and no longer pick doors/barrels/misc non-enemy targets).
- Shadow Manipulation now adds Assassinate bonuses to its DC calculation
- Shadow Manipulation now uses the higher of your Intelligence and Dexterity Modifiers in its DC calculation.
- Shadow Manipulation no longer uses Shadow Charges, nor grants Maximum Shadow Charges.
- Shadow Manipulation now has a 3-minute cooldown.
- Shadow Manipulation no longer requires Cloak of Shadow.
- Cloak of Shadows no longer uses Shadow Charges, nor grants Maximum Shadow Charges.
- Cloak of Shadows no longer requires Shrouding Strike/Shot
- Executioner's Strike/Shot now has a 12-second cooldown.
- Executioner's Strike/Shot now has a DC of (10 + Character level + INT or DEX mod + Assassinate bonuses)
- Executioner's Strike/Shot can now be used while under Antimagic.
- You can now move while using Executioner's Strike/Shot
- Dark Imbuement no longer uses Dark Imbuement Charges, and just functions on a cooldown.
- Dark Imbuement now has a 2-minute cooldown.
- Dark Imbuement now costs 1AP.
- Dark Imbuement no longer requires Shadow Form.
- Shadow Form no longer uses Shadow Charges, nor grants Maximum Shadow Charges.
- Shadow Form's tooltip now clarifies that it is considered a Major Form.
- Shadow Form now costs 1AP.
- Untouchable now passively grants 3% Dodge and +1 Critical Damage Multiplier on rolls of 19-20.