2019 ED Pass: Arcane Sphere

[Whisper1]

The DC benefits of magister are practically a no-brainer. It seems to me that draconic, as nice as the improvements to it are, will mostly be a toy-destiny for low reaper content.

You simply cannot compete with magisters high DC's in higher skull content with the changes draconic is currently receiving. Dreaconic needs evocation DC bonuses and spellpoint cost reductions *at minimum* in order to make DPS spellcasting compete with that whopping DC increase from magister. Nuking through high skull content is painful on spellpoint pools. It is much more cost effective and party desirable to CC and instakill instead.

Every sorc will abandon Draconic (few use it now) and move to Magister.

Look, i can predict future!

[Satyriasys]

I'm not here to stop anyone from putting 100% of their points in DCs. I think it's boring, but that's not especially important. You do you.

Arcane Tempest is there for those who want to drop big damage on stuff part-time.

Zretch is 100% correct. Going straight stat increases is overwhelmingly more powerful than dipping into these cute and unnecessary gimmicks. That was the problem with Magister before and will remain a problem. The solution is to remove the stat increase line and tie them into other abilities. So whatever you take you are still getting them. Abilities will never compete with the power of increased mainline stat on a dc caster.

[Stingae]

Small beer compared to the DC debate I know, but most bards have maxed out their dodge cap by a reasonable way and get no benefit from the dodge bonus in fourth harmonic chord.

Could the self-only bonus include +1/2/3 to dodge cap to allow the user to benefit from the bonus?

[pjw]

Going straight stat increases is overwhelmingly more powerful than dipping into these cute and unnecessary gimmicks.

This is part of a larger quibble I have with ED stats in general: 1) the stat increases should be for any stat in all EDs, and 2) they should be auto-grants in cores. Otherwise, for many, they represent wasted opportunities (ie. useless to them), or must-haves (and half their points go there). This is especially true for anyone who cares about DCs, which have such a narrow range of viability.

[Montegue]

This is part of a larger quibble I have with ED stats in general: 1) the stat increases should be for any stat in all EDs, and 2) they should be auto-grants in cores. Otherwise, for many, they represent wasted opportunities (ie. useless to them), or must-haves (and half their points go there). This is especially true for anyone who cares about DCs, which have such a narrow range of viability.

This.

I don't have a choice. I *must* take all available INT increases or risk failing to do my job.

[Lokeal_The_Flame]

Please use the Tiefling racial tree tech to create something in a tree that can be twisted as to allow a player to use their highest spellpower for usage in scaling spellswords, runearms, and sentient weapon filigree sets that scale based on spellpower.

If you do this then both Melee artificers and Eldritch Knight builds will gain something they badly need this update!

[janave]

Magister T6

11th Dimension

Dreamscape like effect, upon returning buffed with 2000 temp hitpoints, and a 15s hit-miss guard effect 95% proc Trap the Soul DC 20+INT/CHA (uncapped HD).

Cooldown: 4m33s

[erethizon]

The issue is that if you want the 2nd dc boosting ability, which costs 3 ap, you need to spend 3 ap on the 1st dc booster, and 6 ap in what is, imo, filler. So *if* you want to max DCs in 1 school, you have to spend 10 ap on stat boosts, 6 on dc boosts, 2 on anything in t1, and 6 on filler. With the changes, there's plenty worth taking in the tree, but since this line is geared at DC casting and costs 12 ap to take it all, it locks almost the entire rest of the tree out.

I'd recommend either making the spell school line not require the earlier levels as prerequisites, or follow Zretch's idea of 2 ap per and only 1 tier each for the max benefit. And apply the same to the energy burst line from draconic. And anywhere else it exists. Long, expensive pre-req trees are not fun when you only want 1-2 things in that tree. If you do make 1 of those changes, then maybe reduce the dc in the cores to 3 or 4. As is, magister offers twice as much dc as any other destiny.


And now that I've segued into draconic... go out with a bang. It sucks. Change the hp requirement to 75%-90% or significantly reduce the cooldown (possibly both). As is, I take it to get to eburst and never even put it on a hotbar. 4 minute cooldown, and only usable when I'd rather hit myself with a heal.

So many good points here. I can count the number of times I have used go out with a bang on one hand. I would suggest you change it to a toggle that costs no spell points and automatically activates when you drop below X% health (as a toggle I can accept 50% but the above suggestion of a higher percent would also be good). Sure, this means that the effect will go off at useless times on occasion (like when you get hit by a trap), but it's better than having it never go off like it does now. If I am below 50% health then I am jumping and casting a heal. I am not fishing around for the Go Out With A Bang hotkey and hoping it actually saves my life (though it probably won't). Perhaps if it worked as a powerful heal or made use immune to all damage (or at least physical damage) then it would be worth using. If we find that it triggers at useless times too often (like when hit by traps) then the cooldown can be reduced so it is able to be used more frequently.

And I love the ideas I have seen so far about getting rid of these 1/2/3 AP skills and replacing them with just a single skill that costs 1 or 2 AP and gives the full benefit. These are not class enhancement trees where we have 80 points to spend. We have far fewer points to spend and, if anything, you could take a cue from the reaper trees and make everything cost only 1 AP. The more we can fill out these trees the more fun they are to play. There are so many Epic Destiny skills I have never used because there simply are no points to spend on those skills.

Finally, having skills locked by useless skills below them is also a problem. One of the reasons Go Out With A Bang needs to be fixed is that this nearly useless skill is taken by almost everyone that uses the tree, not because the skill has any value, but because we are required to waste 3 points on it just to get the skill we actually want. Getting rid of the requirement to take lower skills to get higher ones would be great, but at the very least the highest tier of Go Out With A Bang should cost only 1 AP (so we end up spending just 1 AP instead of 3 to fully unlock the skill above it).

[thunir]

Is this a single target song? Is it on the ballad? Are we back to full party songs? Is it on Aura? How does it work.

[Lynnabel]

Is this a single target song? Is it on the ballad? Are we back to full party songs? Is it on Aura? How does it work.

You know Crown of Summer from Season's Herald? This is four different Crown of Summers. You pick a buddy for each Hymn, and then that buddy has that buff. If you try to pick a different buddy with the same buff, the original buddy loses the buff.

[legendkilleroll]

Hey Lyn, this kinda off topic for destinys but just after hearing your lastt post its on my mind

How come converter from the renegade mastermaker tree doesnt aply like crown of summer? Its pretty annoying imo as it last like 3mins with a 3min cooldown so you have to keep refreshing it, is there any reason it wasnt made the other way?

Maybe its worse for me as i only use it on my partner, i dont know if others feel the same

[Hobgoblin]

You know Crown of Summer from Season's Herald? This is four different Crown of Summers. You pick a buddy for each Hymn, and then that buddy has that buff. If you try to pick a different buddy with the same buff, the original buddy loses the buff.

ok just making sure that this works the way I think it does.


I cast the primal hymm on a barb. he gets the buff. I can then cast the martial hymm on a fighter right? but if i cast the primal on the fighter the barb would lose it correct? or would the barb lose it anyway as they are all hymms?

[SerPounce]

You know Crown of Summer from Season's Herald? This is four different Crown of Summers. You pick a buddy for each Hymn, and then that buddy has that buff. If you try to pick a different buddy with the same buff, the original buddy loses the buff.

Do you count as your own buddy? Seems like these could be popular twists (granted I've been thinking that a lot and there's only so many twists...).

[Lynnabel]

ok just making sure that this works the way I think it does.


I cast the primal hymm on a barb. he gets the buff. I can then cast the martial hymm on a fighter right? but if i cast the primal on the fighter the barb would lose it correct? or would the barb lose it anyway as they are all hymms?

You were right the first time. Your Primal Hymn target is your Primal Buddy, your Martial Hymn is your Martial Buddy. You can then cast the Arcane Hymn on yourself, and you are your own Arcane Buddy. If you try to cast your Martial Hymn on a different person, your fighter friend will lose his Martial Buddy Hymn buff.

[CSQ]

You were right the first time. Your Primal Hymn target is your Primal Buddy, your Martial Hymn is your Martial Buddy. You can then cast the Arcane Hymn on yourself, and you are your own Arcane Buddy. If you try to cast your Martial Hymn on a different person, your fighter friend will lose his Martial Buddy Hymn buff.

So you can cast each Hymn once on a single person, but each Hymn independently? For example, Arcane on yourself, Primal on the barbarian, Divine on the paladin, Martial on the fighter, and then nothing on the other party members because it would take away a Hymn you're already using?

[BoBoDaClown]

Fatesinger and other arcane.

I only play bards and still can't imagine using fatesinger.

If we split bards into two main archetypes: melee and caster, I can't see how Fatesinger is useable with either.

Caster: needs the DCs from Magister.
Melee: Leg Dread.

To fix the Caster issue:
Make Fatesinger give the same +DC to enchant as you could in Magister.
In addition, do the same with evocation in the Draconic and Exakted trees. Make Magister the tree where you can get all round high DCs (rather than just one school).

To fix the melee issue:
Fatesinger is never going to compete with Dreadnought for dps, so buff the buffs through the roof. Make it so a party is better off, dps wise, having a buffer in the group.

[FuzzyDuck81]

I'm liking the overall approach of getting rid of the whole "build charges" mechanic - the changes to magister in particular are pretty nice for making it practical to use...incidentally, just how absolute is that "immunity to harmful spells" from nullmagic aura? it could be interesting to have a pure mastermaker arty that can completely no sell incoming attacks in certain raid situations for almost 30 seconds

[Lynnabel]

So you can cast each Hymn once on a single person, but each Hymn independently? For example, Arcane on yourself, Primal on the barbarian, Divine on the paladin, Martial on the fighter, and then nothing on the other party members because it would take away a Hymn you're already using?

Correct! It's a 4 person (or 3 people and yourself) buddy system.

[threefeetunder]

Dirge: Make it actually work and be good, otherwise no change
Dirge's DC is now d20 + Perform

When you say you're making it work and be good, are you just talking about the DC change, or is there anything else? Specifically, is it finally going to scale with spellpower (as the damage is utterly negligible otherwise)?
Other then that, loving the changes so far!

[HastyPudding]

Correct! It's a 4 person (or 3 people and yourself) buddy system.

Or you can just use Arcane Hymn on yourself and say "Sorry kids, daddy needs AP for other things."