2019 ED Pass: Divine Sphere

[cru121]

Any chance of the semi-common bug (usually notice it once every dungeon or so) that causes divine crusader to occasionally give stacks of the purification debuff to allies to be fixed?

It's really annoying when you get 3 or 4 stacks of -damage and - spell power just because you're near someone in divine crusader.

Yes, this happens. I suspect it might be related to
No Regret: Whenever an enemy who was recently affected by your Aura of Purification is slain, other nearby enemies gain 1 to 4 stacks of Purification.
Targeting allies instead of enemies.

[DougGlyndwyr]

Exalted Angel: Move Leap of Faith to the T2 spot.

[mikarddo]

Exalted Angel: Move Leap of Faith to the T2 spot.

Hell no. Leap of Faith should definitely not be twistable.

[Syrophir]

Divine Crusader:
- Core 1, Aura of Purification: would having a melee power debuff per stack be better than a static attack damage reduction, it would at least scale and be similar to the negative spell power effect it also states to have?
(Can't wait to see all the fixes and changes for this tree!)

Exalted Angel:
- Hopefully the evocation/light blasting and soundburst SLAs get evocation bonuses applied to their DC.
- Core 3, Astral Vibrance: this needs some love, it is hardly ever worth using as it is now, and does it even scale with spell power?

[janave]

Be at Peace: Active Ability: (Cooldown 2 mins, 10sp) Target enemy is dazed for 1 minute, no save. Damage breaks this effect. Endless Ardor and Righteous Fervor stacks are reset to zero.

This is weak even for a T1 to be honest. A daze effect is among the weakest CC options regardless of the nice long duration. It would be nice if it was replaced.

I would:
- move Peace to the empty t2 slot, adjust the cooldown and duration if possible and make it cost 1pt to get.
- move Sunbolt SLA to t5
- a nice new T6 "epic moment" would be cool

[vryxnr]

There are two things I wish to mention (which have been mentioned by others as well).

1) PLEASE take a look at Astral Vibrance. Not only is it never used (intentionally. When it get activated via Reborn in Light I always turn it off right away if I remember), it's also bugged (as far as I can tell).

2) not thrilled about the proposed changes to Reborn in Light.

[ChocolateThunder]

We intentionally made this scale off of Religious Lore feats. That might mean this Destiny is better for people with a lot of Divine levels (...or Bard levels, I guess) than for people without that, and we're 100% OK with that.

Maybe throw in one or a couple of Bard/Swashbuckling weapons in the list of favored weapons then?

[Xalkyrion]

I would like to have sunburst to replace sun bolt as a strong t6 sla to Exalted Angel destiny

[mikarddo]

I would like to have sunburst to replace sun bolt as a strong t6 sla to Exalted Angel destiny

I fully agree.

[Wipey]

Fix the DCs and targetting of Soundburst. Requiring hard target makes it really impractical and hard to use, much like Fireball sla from sorc is clunky compared to spell version.

Agreed on removing spellpower requirements for Endless Faith.

And no, I don't want high level spell like Sunburst in there.

[Silverleafeon]

Renewal is totally in need of fixing.
First tick = zero, not sure last tick works either.
Great low cost healing in the past but with new damage threasholds not so great.
Sad to see it might overwrite hp songs....
Always been a problem and needs fixing.


Your hate calculations for tanking purposes should likely be increased ten fold.
Good tanks have trouble creating hate damage even will all item and effects available.


Astral vibrance should be removed from the game or replaced with anything even +1 to hit.
Astral vibrance should turn off when Ascendance expires.
(finished a series one time, went for a break after finishing out, came back with zero xp because used Ascendance in end fight and Astral Vibrance was still running - public regeneration vs astral vibrance = zero sp.


Body of Sun and Ascendance are both far too strong eyestrain and should be reduced graphically.



Not enough points in US to send on both hate (which is not strong enough) and defense (which is also important for tanks).
As I have mentioned many times in the past, Epic Destinies were design at level cap 25, and were likely intended to be raised as the level cap was raised.
We should have 40 points to spend (4 per epic level) if things were as they ought to be.
Getting from present state to ought to be might be interesting path, but many epic destinies would work more balanced if we had more points to spend.
Technically, we should only have 20 points to spend, but a kind developer fudged the system long ago to give us the iconic 24 points.
(I was there and read his remarks on the subject. - back in the day of rusted blades x100)

[Vooduspyce]

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)

would like to see Renewal modified so that the first tick of healing happen on spell cast instead of having to wait 2 seconds for the first tick.

[Silverleafeon]

I would suggest that the devs have some discussions about what sort of role they envision for tanks to be?


For example do you the devs want hate/intimidate to work most of the time and what sort of % of foes do you want thus to work in Epics?

Might be good to establish a "we don't have more than __% foes that are immune to hate/intimidate per dungeon inside your dungeon guidelines?


One could program a "hate immunity" override, much like Fatesinger gains a "fascinate immunity" override for Unyielding Sentinel epic Destiny?

[pretendcasualplayer]

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)

In breaking my silence to comment on the Epic Destiny changes, let me also speak out on the EA viewpoint. If something is overpowered it makes sense to make it less so for balance. As someone who plays a lot of divine casters in end game content, Exalted Angel needs power upgrades rather than a nerf. I've personally been part of raids that would have failed without Reborn in Light in its current form so I strongly oppose this change. If we are taking away with one hand when it's not really needed, let's at least give something with the other.

As for what that looks like, how about starting with giving the Tier 6 Sun Bolt a reasonable cooldown? A Favored Soul with 2 Sun Bolts will not be overpowered in end game reaper even as secondary DPS when you have melee hitting for 6k+. If this is too much, how about upping the SLA spell point cost to compensate?

Another idea is remaking Avenging Light into something useful. Why don't we do something that scales better, like 1-6 light damage per CL?

[karatemack]

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).

This seems to be in-line with the typical cycle of "we should change this ability because of how many people currently use it".

My suggestion would be to leave this AS IS... for now. See if the changes in the other trees are enough to entice players to play differently.

[Steelstar]

This seems to be in-line with the typical cycle of "we should change this ability because of how many people currently use it".

My suggestion would be to leave this AS IS... for now. See if the changes in the other trees are enough to entice players to play differently.

As we said earlier:

Sorry. There's only about two things completely locked in stone in this pass, and one of them is "Reborn needs to drop to once per Rest for balance reasons".

We've held off on making this necessary change for (literally) years, but now is the right time.

[karatemack]

As we said earlier:

We've held off on making this necessary change for (literally) years, but now is the right time.

The timing seems odd given the additions to the other trees which make them more attractive. Losing unlimited self-res won't stop those who solo R10 content from doing so, and while I see this change as positive for the game overall- it certainly isn't an urgent need. It would have been better to make this change after the effects of the changes to the other destinies were apparent. This way, requests to offset the negative changes to EA would be better informed by the shifts in game-play.

Hopefully you will keep your ears open to those currently seeking some positive offsets in EA because it is far from perfect. With the upcoming changes to Magister for DC casters, there really should be a draw for divines in EA which still makes it equally attractive once those changes are in place. Otherwise, it will likely be years until our requests for changes to EA are heard since motivation to "fix" it will be reduced once the nerf hammer has been applied.

[Phaaze]

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)

Any way we can get bastard sword ANYWHERE even if it's not here?

https://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Divini...glord%27s_Goal

Currently there is a bastard sword that wants pally 20 which to have it's favoured wep you have to go Deep Gnome, Purple Dragon Knight, Shadar-kai or Aasimar Scourge and then use a +1 heart to go pure 20.

Seems weird.

Personally I would love the ability to worship any god I choose, not just the one from where I am born.
If playing a table top game, I travel to a new land and learn about their new god my DM should let me be able to choose to convert, Even if I have to spend feat changes to do it as I go to the church of helm and learn.

-my 2 cp

Edit: also a Suggestion change diety feats to 1 feat per faith and scale off of religous lore.

[Steelstar]

The timing seems odd given the additions to the other trees which make them more attractive. Losing unlimited self-res won't stop those who solo R10 content from doing so, and while I see this change as positive for the game overall- it certainly isn't an urgent need. It would have been better to make this change after the effects of the changes to the other destinies were apparent. This way, requests to offset the negative changes to EA would be better informed by the shifts in game-play.

Hopefully you will keep your ears open to those currently seeking some positive offsets in EA because it is far from perfect. With the upcoming changes to Magister for DC casters, there really should be a draw for divines in EA which still makes it equally attractive once those changes are in place. Otherwise, it will likely be years until our requests for changes to EA are heard since motivation to "fix" it will be reduced once the nerf hammer has been applied.

The current changes to Magister are in response to EA's current position as a much stronger Destiny for DC casters, and the new numbers are balanced with EA's current potential in mind.

Should EA keep being a better DC casting tree than Magister? How much better?

[draven1]

The current changes to Magister are in response to EA's current position as a much stronger Destiny for DC casters, and the new numbers are balanced with EA's current potential in mind.

Should EA keep being a better DC casting tree than Magister? How much better?

Do you know what you are doing? You are empowering already over-performing style, instakill spells.

EA core's passive 3DC should be removed, and don't add PASSIVE DC on magister core.
Instead, add more power for debuffing spells and enlarge meta magic shouldn't be applied on high skull(7+) for at least instakill spells.