First Look: Radiant Servant Adjustments

[droid327]

First off, this is moving in a great direction for RS and addressing many of the high-level issues with the tree, so well done

RS is by nature a "non combat" tree...a T5 RS is a build that's specializing in party support, it doesnt actually help you kill stuff any faster. So that, I think, justifies giving the tree a bit more "value" than a comparable combat tree might. I wouldnt be worried about, e.g., switching Raise Dead SLA to Resurrection SLA, as others have suggested. You really want to incentivize people to take this tree by making T5 RS a seriously attractive healer/party support, competitive with Beacon despite FvS getting bonus HP/SP etc.

CMW SLA is a nice touch, though it kinda handcuffs the tree to being a caster Cleric (you really need Emp/Max to make it worthwhile over just spellbook CMW). Maybe move CMW SLA to T2 (similar, again, to Beacon and CW SLA) and move the new Improved Turning down to Core 2, since more turns is useful for any RS with so many of its abilities being Channel Divinities. Then, Heal Domain clerics or Warpriest/RS could simply save their AP on it.

Divine Healing is still an odd duck...I'd like to see it scale on something, to help keep it relevant through endgame. If not Positive Spellpower (and then scale it down to 1d4/2d3/2d4 or something), then maybe at least give it +1 per Cleric level (max 15? 20?)

While making the tree cheaper in terms of AP is definitely needed...it does kinda neuter the Core 1 ability too, since you're not actually spending nearly as many points in the tree now. Maybe change it to 1 Universal, 2 Positive per AP spent. Again, going deep in RS should make you a totally awesome healer, dont worry as much about it being OP. Side benefit for Water Domain clerics too, who currently dont have nearly as much love as Fire and Sun and Air.

[Bacon_Burger]

New T5: Radiance: Activate: All allies in the dungeon (regardless of distance) gain the effects of the Greater Restoration spell, and purges Paralysis, Stun, and Knockdown/Trip. This can be used while Crowd Controlled. (Activation Cost: 30 Spell Points. Cooldown: 1 minute.)

• 
  
  • We wanted to give this tree something shiny in Tier 5, and a Get-the-party-out-of-a-jam button seemed like just the thing.

Does this include raids?

Maybe make it a 3 tier ability, adding fatigue & something else.

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

Raise dead SLA is practically useless.

Necromancer ?

[elvesunited]

I don't get the point of raise dead SLA at all.

1) The primary value of an SLA is cheap cast of a spell you cast over and over again with free metamagics. The only meta you're likely to have with raise dead is quicken. I hope you're not rapid casting raise dead. Kind of suggests you are doing a lousy job keeping the party alive.

2) Once you can cast Resurrect that's what you will cast 98% of the time.

3) If cheap casting to save spell points is important. Scrolls are cheapest.


Heal SLA though, every radiant would take.

[WarDestroyer]

ame SLA that Beacon of Hope gets in T5, but we felt it was an important tool for Healing builds to have.
[*]New T5: Radiance: Activate: All allies in the dungeon (regardless of distance) gain the effects of the Greater Restoration spell, and purges Paralysis, Stun, and Knockdown/Trip. This can be used while Crowd Controlled. (Activation Cost: 30 Spell Points. Cooldown: 1 minute.)

• We wanted to give this tree something shiny in Tier 5, and a Get-the-party-out-of-a-jam button seemed like just the thing.

[/LIST]

This is a very special ability. Can we make it clear curses and diseases?

[PsychoBlonde]

Maybe an ability to make turn undead Wis based?

I'm still hoping turn undead gets revisited eventually despite the massive complaining because people don't understand that a DC based turn is actually much better than a hd based one.

[BananaHat]

I think Radiance is ok, but could use just a little more mostly because you often don't need a Mass Greater Restoration/limited CC dispel. So it will sit there unused a vast majority of the time.

I would have it also trigger your current ranks of Divine Cleansing/Divine Healing/Purge Dark Magics/Positive Energy Shield (or some combination of those). That would give a reason to use it more often and look forward to it coming off of cooldown. We have positive energy burst which is already used to mass clear negative levels and it also provides healing.

Also, I will agree with others in the thread that Positive Energy Shield could use a bump. I would just make the healing amp apply for a set duration instead of only as long as the temporary healing works. The ability is fairly useless even with high Heal score because those temporary hitpoints go away so quickly.

Side note: I vastly prefer healing on my Favored Soul because of the healing wall. I understand wanting uniqueness, but if the radiant aura could be attached to someone else that would really assist those clerics who are trying to stay back and heal instead of jumping into the melee pile. Change up the ability when attached, something like less healing or ticks of temporary hitpoints instead of healing or provide PRR and MRR and healing amp or percent damage reduced or just something different instead of the base healing amount so that it doesn't become a vastly superior version of the healing wall because it is attached to the tank.

Edit: I will advocate against the Raise Dead SLA. It is useless for Beacon and it is useless for Radiant Servant. If you are in the healing trees you will definitely use at least Resurrection and probably True Resurrection. If you want to use Raise Dead, you'll go buy scrolls. This ability should be changed in both trees to something worthy of being in the top tier. SLA's should be used for abilities you want to cast often. Another good example of a bad SLA is Good Hope in the beacon tree. It is nice to get access to it, but why would you ever put more than 1 point in it?

[rabidfox]

Side note: I vastly prefer healing on my Favored Soul because of the healing wall. I understand wanting uniqueness, but if the radiant aura could be attached to someone else that would really assist those clerics who are trying to stay back and heal instead of jumping into the melee pile. Change up the ability when attached, something like less healing or ticks of temporary hitpoints instead of healing or provide PRR and MRR and healing amp or percent damage reduced or just something different instead of the base healing amount so that it doesn't become a vastly superior version of the healing wall because it is attached to the tank.

Healing wall is stuck in place for 30 seconds. Aura moves around with a player. They both have their benefits/downsides (like when a healing wall gets dropped in a bad location and is stuck there for the next half a minute). Being able to place the aura on a tank would shift the risk/reward ratio pretty heavily.

[BananaHat]

Healing wall is stuck in place for 30 seconds. Aura moves around with a player. They both have their benefits/downsides (like when a healing wall gets dropped in a bad location and is stuck there for the next half a minute). Being able to place the aura on a tank would shift the risk/reward ratio pretty heavily.

Very much so, which is why I suggested altering the effect if it could be attached to someone else so it wouldn't be so strong.

[JOTMON]

Hey, everyone!

[*]Radiant Servant (6th Core) now grants +4 Wisdom instead of the +2 it granted before.

• Most of our Core Capstones now grant a total of +4 in ability scores, so this was just bringing it even.

Please explain your thinking behind this one.

Radiant Servant has nothing based on Wisdom,

Radiant servant is the tree that encompasses all the turning oriented enhancements and that is based on Charisma.

Logically that would drive a CHA capstone not a WIS based one.

[JOTMON]

Hey, everyone!
[*]New T5: Raise Dead SLA. 15SP. 9 second cooldown. 1AP.

plain old raise dead makes little sense

The level 9 cleric picks up this caster level 5 spell.
Scroll usable at level 7.

T3 has desirable stuff like Unyielding Sovereignty: Activate: Fully heals all hit point damage done to a targeted ally, and removes ability damage, death penalty effects, negative levels, and the conditions blinded, dazed, deafened, diseased, exhausted, fatigued, feebleminded, insanity, nauseated, poisoned, and stunned. (Cooldown: 5 minutes)

and yet you downgrade to the most basic Raise Dead at T5

T5 needs to be worthy of investing 30AP into that tree, and radiant servant is severely lacking any desirability.

add a nuance like usable through walls, or bypasses death timers and you bring something interesting to the mix.

Otherwise it is just wasted effort.

[Vyrzain]

As others have stated the loss of Pacifism hurts : (
At least my build somewhat and I liked the idea for Story / Flavor that I would do less Damage for more healing power.

Raise Dead is not needed as a SLA unless you are planning on removing Scrolls from the Game : )

The Healing Domain already gives my build Cure Moderate Wounds SLA.

[Propane]

New T5: Raise Dead SLA. 15SP. 9 second cooldown. 1AP.

Another fun idea - Targeted/Remote Positive Energy Burst - uses the same pool of charges as the self burst - target a player (or mob) and Burst is centered on them instead of you (you still go through motion).

[Antheal]

How about instead of Raise Dead SLA at T5 there was something like "eternal finger of cure minor wounds" instead.

1 hp restored (that scales with positive power) 1 second cooldown. Free to cast.

Doesn't out-heal Beacon of Hope's Close Wounds SLA, but doesn't cost anything.

[Gregen]

There was a few comments about adding Charisma to the capstone and I also agree to some extent, or at least that line of thinking. +4 Wisdom is good imo, but what about also adding +5 to Turn Undead Levels? Or something in that ballpark. Mob HD ramps up in epics and this could be a helpful boost from a tree that's partially turn undead based.

I agree with the people saying Divine Healing (and Divine Vitality from DD) could use a boost. Any chance Divine Healing could scale with positive spell power or the heal skill? Even if it scales just a little bit, it would be really helpful. It's a good ability, great under level 10, but quickly falls behind in usefulness.
Edit: Reactive Heal as well.

[rabidfox]

Just make it choice of taking +4 wis or +4 cha like FvS is; simplest solution to make any player happy.

[Silverleafeon]

Hey, everyone!

SteelStar here to give you a first look at a pair of smaller revamps currently slated for Update 50! These two passes are quick sets of changes we did around other upcoming features we're working on, so while they may not be complete overhauls, we hope they add some interesting build options, and wanted to bring them to you ahead of the Lamannia previews! (The first of the two revamps, Shadar-kai, can be found here!)

The second of these two previews is the Cleric Radiant Servant Enhancement Tree! The primary Healing tree for Clerics, it has a long history of bad bang-for-your-buck: Almost everything costs 2AP (meaning it costs close to 80AP just to max out the one tree), and some of the abilities are simply lackluster. Like we said above, these passes are fast, so while there are definitely other things we could improve in the future, we aimed for changes that were both fast and would help address the issues above. The usual warning applies: This is early preview content, and will likely change before it goes live!

[color=red]I appreciate this.

• Pacifism is gone from Core 2, and has been replaced with a Cure Moderate Wounds SLA: 4SP, 6 second cooldown.
  I never liked Pacifism, and am glad to see it gone.
  CMW SLA is a very generous addition and will be well-liked by smart clerics.
  
  • Pacifism is an odd ability. While there are certainly builds that like and use it, the ability to toggle it on and off made it not really fitting for the flavor of the ability, and the tradeoffs for the power didn't really... matter much. And its position in Core 2 meant you had to take it, even if you didn't want it. We went through a few iterations of trying to make something of it before scrapping it outright. Radiant Servants should have a lot of new points to put elsewhere after this pass, and the resulting builds should be stronger even without Pacifism.
    Nods sagely
  
  
• Radiant Servant (6th Core) now grants +4 Wisdom instead of the +2 it granted before.
  
  • Most of our Core Capstones now grant a total of +4 in ability scores, so this was just bringing it even.
    Nods sagely again.
  
  
• Many enhancements in this tree now cost 1AP per Rank that used to cost 2AP per rank:
  
  • Divine Cleansing now costs 1AP per Rank
  • Mighty Turning now costs 1AP per Rank
  • Bliss now costs 1AP per Rank
  • Divine Healing now costs 1AP per Rank
  • Intense Healing now costs 1AP per Rank
  • Endless Turning now costs 1AP per Rank
  • Incredible Healing now costs 1AP per Rank
  • Positive Energy Aura now costs 1AP per Rank
  • Cure Focus now costs 1AP per Rank
  • Reactive Heal now costs 1AP per Rank
    Wow, yes. Making the healing tree cheaper will allow clerics to invest in the other two trees for flavor and power. Very appreciated.
  
  
• Extra Turning and Improved Turning are now combined in T2.
  
  • We did this in Knight of the Chalice a while back, glad to finally bring it here as well.
    Nice touch. Not real important at the end game as Turning Dies about level 25, but great for heroic play.
  
  
• New T1: Divine Aid: +2% Positive Spell Critical Damage. 1AP.
• New T3: Divine Aid: +2% Positive Spell Critical Damage. 1AP.
  Filling back up the tree slots, nice additions to tier 1 and 3.
• Disconnected the prerequisite chain of Divine Healing, Martyrdom, and Reactive Heal.
  Very good, allows avoiding Martyrdom (a variation of Pacificism) if desired. Also, allow responding points at end game where Divine Healing is no longer useful.
• New T5: Raise Dead SLA. 15SP. 9 second cooldown. 1AP.
  
  • This is the same SLA that Beacon of Hope gets in T5, but we felt it was an important tool for Healing builds to have.
    Thematically nice, and does fill the tier 5 slots up. I guess somewhere there is a Cleric 6/Fighter 12/Rogue 2 first life build that will be grateful.
  
  
• New T5: Radiance: Activate: All allies in the dungeon (regardless of distance) gain the effects of the Greater Restoration spell, and purges Paralysis, Stun, and Knockdown/Trip. This can be used while Crowd Controlled. (Activation Cost: 30 Spell Points. Cooldown: 1 minute.)
  
  • We wanted to give this tree something shiny in Tier 5, and a Get-the-party-out-of-a-jam button seemed like just the thing.
    I like this. I would like it even more if it cleared curses (looking at you Legendary Vision of Destruction Raid, but maybe the Devs want Mass Remove Curse to be an Artificer only feature>?

That's the pass! Again, it won't solve all problems with Radiant Servant (or Clerics in general), but we hope that between the new skills and opening up a LOT of AP, Clerics will have some fun new options to play with. This is early, we're still tweaking numbers and playtesting internally, and you'll see it on Lamannia before it goes Live, but we wanted to show these off and see your thoughts! Let us know what you think!

Thanks, overall, nicely done.
Would be happy to see this go live.

[Silverleafeon]

This is a very special ability. Can we make it clear curses and diseases?

+1 well said

[valkrei]

I like the AP changes the most. The new T5 called radiance looks awesome maybe call it Divine Restoration?

raise dead SLA is not good enough. As recommended above I do like the idea of reducing mana costs for resurrections across the board. Another idea is to give us a radiant Aura that uses positive spell power to damage enemies near us that combines with our healing aura for allies.

I don't use divine healing, its just not good enough. Purge dark magics not needed most people just use pots or other spells (maybe if it was a burst that hit the whole party>?) Unyielding sovereignty id reduce to 4 minutes.

Martyrdom is just bad and should be removed, the goal is to stay alive and keep party alive as well, to make it worse its a pre req for reactive heal, what would be better is for the reactive heal to be applied with any heal spell on target.

Someone else above mentioned turning undead in epics. I have never been impressed with the turn undead in this game as it requires way to much stats/saves points or something to make it work as it should.

Spells, way to many useless spells.

This is something that bugs me and its not necessarily cleric ability related but the shields with Mirror require you to actively block. When im a healer im running all over the place because of spell ranges and what not. It would be nice if we got some protection for the mobile healers too.

[Arkai]

Ap reduction seems very good, but as other said, raise dead makes no sense and divine healing is an option nobody wants to use due to poor scalation.

As a dedicated healer what I'd like to see is any kind of AoE like fvs's wall, not another subpar tier 5 ability :/