2019 ED Pass: Divine Sphere

[Steelstar]

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 Divine 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.

Unyielding Sentinel
This Destiny was meant to do two things: Keep you alive and help you tank. It's decent at the first and not great at the second. Most of the changes here are meant to help you tank. The two new Actives aren't perfect; we had some bigger plans and ran into tech issues in doing what we wanted. Hoping they'll at least be helpful, and we can tweak numbers until they are.

• Commanding Presence's hate doubles to 100/200/300%
• Stand Against the Tide's extra hate jumps to 50% per stack (250% at full stacks, was 100%)
• Stand Against the Tide's extra hate now applies to missile weapon damage and magic damage as well (was previously melee-only)
• Divine Energy Resistance can now be cast directly on allies (instead of only yourself)
• Ward Against Evil's light damage scales with 400% of the higher of Melee and Ranged Power
• Rank 3 of Ward Against Evil now also grants you immunity to the Mind Control effects of Evil creatures.
• You can now use Undying Vanguard while Crowd-Controlled and/or Helpless
• Undying Vanguard's Temporary HP now last for 30 seconds.
• NEW: T4: Draw them Out: Melee Attack: +3[w]. This attack adds 300 Hate for the user to creatures it hits on top of its normal damage. 6 second cooldown. (1 Rank, 1AP)
• NEW: T6: Celestial Mandate: Melee Attack: +5[w]. This attack adds 2000 Hate for the user to creatures it hits on top of its normal damage. 6 second cooldown. (1 Rank, 1AP)

Exalted Angel
This is a good tree, for those who can make use of the skills in it. We analyzed it and didn't see much that we thought merited major change, though we might try to loop back for some bugfixes before release. We did make a change to one skill for game balance reasons.

• Reborn in Light no longer charges with Endless Ardor and Righteous Fervor; instead, it is once per Rest (keeps 10min cooldown).

Divine Crusader:
This is also a Pretty Good tree in its current form, but lacks a little scaling and punch. In adding punch, we wanted to give some solid bonuses for Divine characters in here; you can get access to some alternative Favored Weapons, and then really make them shine if you've got a lot of Divine levels. We think Warpriests and War Souls will shine in here, along with Paladins once KOTC gets revamped later this year.

• Castigation's damage now works on bosses as listed
• Castigation now grants its listed Melee Power
• No Regret now grants its listed Melee Power
• Strike Down's tooltip now correctly says it deals Light damage
• Strike Down's Light damage now scales with 200% Melee Power
• Confront Any Foe now adds +3[w]
• Confront Any Foe's Light damage now scales with 300% Melee Power
• Smite the Wicked's Light damage is now 100 against Evil creatures and 100 against Undead creatures. Evil Undead creatures take both.
• Smite the Wicked's Light damage now scales with 200% Melee Power.
• Smite the Wicked now destroys Undead and Evil Outsiders under 1500 HP on a Vorpal.
• Stand and be Judged now has a DC of 10+Wisdom Modifier+Character Level+Stunning Bonuses (We also made it faster & more reliable to cast a few Updates ago)
• Celestial Bombardment now only has 1 rank, that does what the old Rank 3 did.
• Celestial Bombardment now costs 20SP.
• Celestial Bombardment now takes the Enlarge, Maximize, Empower, Intensify, Embolden, and Quicken Metamagics.
• Celestial Bombardment is now significantly quicker to cast.
• Moved Celestial Champion one spot left, to the middle of T5, it just feels better there.
• Celestial Champion's Doublestrike and Doubleshot are now Sacred-typed.
• NEW: T4: The Book of War: (Multiselector): Pick one of the following to gain as a Favored Weapon: Longsword, Longbow, Morningstar, Greatsword (1 Rank, 1AP)
• NEW: T6: The Book of War: Wrath of the Divine: While wielding a Favored Weapon in your Main Hand, you gain +1 to Hit and Damage for every 2 Religious Lore Feats you have with all equipped weapons and shields. (1 Rank, 1AP)