U51 Early Preview: Epic Destiny Revamp: Shadowdancer

[Cocomajobo]

Disclaimer

Everything seen on the preview server, Lamannia, is not final and is subject to change or removal before live release.

Hello folks! This is part of the Epic Overhaul. If you haven't read our Overview post and its companion info post, please do that first before reading this!

Stealth and subterfuge meld with the powers of Illusion and darkness to converge upon the Shadowdancer.

Core Abilities

1. Retreat to the Shadows (level 20): You gain the Trapfinding feat if you did not have it already. Each core ability in this tree, including this one, grants +1 Epic bonus to all Spell DCs, +10 Melee Power, +6 Ranged Power, +5 Force Spellpower, and +5 Universal spell power.
2. Step Through Shadow (level 23): Activate this ability to conjure a door of pure Shadow, which can take you and your party members to the entrance of the current dungeon. Cooldown: 2 minutes.
3. The Darkest Luck (level 26): You gain the Evasion feat (normal Evasion rules apply). If you already have Evasion, you gain the Improved Evasion feat. If you already have Improved Evasion, you generate 25% less threat from all sources.

Tier 1 (requires level 20):

• Stealthy: +1/2/3 Reflex Saving Throws, +2/4/6 Hide and Move Silently. Rank 3: You gain the Hide in Plane Sight feat.
• Cover of Darkness: +10/20/30% less threat from all sources. Rank 3: You gain the benefits of the Nightshield spell.
• Shadowdancer Builders: Select an ability that builds charges. Multiselector
  
  • Nightmare Lance: Arcane Builder: A lance of darkness extends from your fingers, impaling an enemy. They take 1d6+6 Force damage per Character level. The enemy must succeed on a (DC20 + highest of Int/Wis/Cha modifier + Illusion DC bonuses) will saving throw to avoid becoming blinded. On cast, this builds an Arcane Charge. Cooldown: 30/20/10 seconds. Activation Cost: 10 Spell Points.
  • Shrouding Shot: Martial Builder: Ranged Attack: +1/2/3W, you gain 1 Martial Charge. On a failed fortitude save (DC20 + Highest Ability Modifier + Assassinate bonus) the target is Blinded for 12 seconds. Cooldown: 12 Seconds.
  • Shrouding Strike: Martial Builder: Melee Attack: +1/2/3W, you gain 1 Martial Charge. On a failed fortitude save (DC20 + Highest Ability Modifier + Assassinate bonus) the target is Blinded for 12 seconds. Cooldown: 12 Seconds.
• Assassinate: +2/4/6 Assassinate DCs. Rank 3: On Sneak Attack: 10% chance to gain 1 Martial Charge.
• Technician: +2/4/6 to Search, Spot, Disable Device, and Open Lock. Rank 3: If you have the Nimble Fingers feat, you gain +1 Sneak Attack Dice.

Tier 2 (requires level 20):

• Long Shadows: Each Martial Charge now grants +1 Sneak Attack Dice. You no longer automatically fail Reflex saving throws when you roll a natural 1.
• Sleight of Hand: +3/6/10% Offhand Strike Chance, +2/4/6 Bluff.
• Shadowform: Shadowdancer Destiny Mantle. +10/20/30% Enhancement bonus to Movement Speed, and can Sneak +20/35/50% faster (this will not stack with other enhancements that grant a permanent bonus to movement speed while sneaking). Your attacks gain Ghost Touch, and may bypass the Incorporeality of monsters.
• Meld into Darkness: Martial Spender: You gain 10% uncapped Dodge per Martial Charge for 10/15/20 seconds. Cooldown: 15 seconds.
• Lithe: +2/4/6 Reflex Saving Throws, Armor Class, and Light Armor Max Dex Bonus. +3/6/10 Force and Universal Spellpower.

Tier 3 (requires level 23):

• Depths of Darkness: Your Shadowdancer Destiny Mantle grants +1/2/3 Sneak Attack Dice and +1/2/3 Spell Penetration.
• Crippled with Shadows: You gain the Crippling Strike feat. If you already have this feat, it will deal Constitution Damage on each hit instead of Strength. +1 Martial Charge cap
• Grim Precision: You bypass 5/10/15% enemy fortification and 1/2/3% enemy dodge.
• Shadowdancer Spell Focus: Select a Spell School to Specialize in. Multiselector:
  
  • Illusion: +1/2/3 Illusion Spell DCs.
  • Necromancy: +1/2/3 Necromancy Spell DCs.
  • Abjuration: +1/2/3 Abjuration DCs.
  • Enchantment: +1/2/3 Enchantment Spell DCs.
• Whispers: Create an Illusory Shadow that acts as a Noisemaker trap. Cooldown: 60/50/40 Seconds.

Tier 4 (requires level 26):

• Pierce the Gloom: +1/2/3 to hit, to-hit for Sneak attacks, and to-hit while Flanking. Rank 3: You gain Immunity to Silence, Quell, and Blindness.
• Dark Armor: +2/4/6 Physical and Magical Resistance Rating, +3 Force and Universal Spellpower.
• Dark Mercy: Your Shadowdancer Destiny Mantle now grants +5/10/15% damage versus the Helpless.
• The Drop: The First Blood feat now deals double its base damage, applies on harmful spellcasts, and its damage now scales with 100% of your Force Spellpower. Whenever you cast an Illusion spell, gain 1 Arcane Charge.
• Linger in the Dark: Tumbling while in Stealth now grants you a Martial Charge, +2 Sneak Attack Dice, +5 to hit and damage with Sneak Attacks, +5 Hide and Move Silently, and the ability to sneak with full movement speed for 20 seconds. This may only trigger once every 1 minute.

Tier 5 (requires level 30):

• Improved Shadowform: Adds to your Shadowdancer Destiny Mantle: Cloak yourself in magic and assume the form of an illusory Shadow. This form grants you 25% Incorporeality, +20 Hide and Move Silently, allows you to cast with a reduced movement speed penalty, and allows you to float as if you had Feather Fall. Also, when you roll a natural 20 on a melee or ranged attack, you envelop the target in shadow, removing its immunity to Sneak Attack for a short duration. You do not need to be in Shadowform for this to happen.
• Just a Taste: You have +1 Critical Multiplier on a roll of 19-20 with Bows, Thrown Weapons, Crossbows, and Finessable melee weapons.
• Weird: The Weird spell is added to your Spellbook as a level 9 spell if you are a Cleric, Sorcerer, Druid, Wizard, or Favored Soul or a level 6 spell if you are an Artificer, Alchemist, Bard, or Warlock. Requires the ability to cast spells of those levels. Weird: A targeted foe and all nearby enemies are subject to a Phantasmal Killer effect, with a DC20 + highest of INT/WIS/CHA modifier + Illusion spell bonuses to prevent the death.
• Greater Shadowdancer Spell Focus: +1/2/3 to all Spell DCs
• Shadow Mastery: +1/2/3% dodge, +1/2/3 Assassinate DC, +2/4/6 Reflex Saving Throws. Rank 3: +1% Dodge Cap

[Zezahk]

There is... a lot to unpack with this. This is my favorite destiny for my favorite (ranged shooter) build. Executioner's Shot and Dark Imbuement will be missed. Weird is in a weird place, it'll undoubtably be a huge boost for illusion builds, but this just isn't how it should be added. And trapfinding as the first core is simply absurd. (All the more so for not having any bonuses for already having trapfinding, or trapmaking) Its also strange that improved evasion's bonus from the third core is not reflex bonus of some sort.

[Triaxx2]

That first core of trapfinding is amazing, except for one horrible thing. If you don't have Trapfinding, you can't put points in it. If Epic levels still give + to skills... it doesn't matter, because trapfinding can't gain more points if you haven't put any in it already.

[mikarddo]

There is indeed a LOT to digest here.

My first impression, however, is that you are removing some of the most interesting and powerful effects and letting us take many not-so interesting effects instead.

Meld being a prime example. I take that as a twist on my casters right now - and its being changed to use martial charges and only provide +10% dodge per charge. This makes the effect of no practical use to my casters - where before it was very useful.

[Fefnir_2011]

Really cool and interesting tree. Love the thought and care that's being put into rebalancing epic levels. Two questions:

• Are the more incremental numbers we're seeing in the new trees a measure to reduce power creep? If so, will there be similar downscaling on the monster side or can we expect quests to stay roughly the same? (thinking about "epic" rats with a bajillion hit points)
• Weird is being introduced as an Epic-level spell despite Wail of the Banshee and Implosion remaining at level 9. Did the design team see potential balancing issues with introducing another AoE save-or-suck spell?

That last one in particular is important to casters because, as well-intentioned as it may be, it means that Illusionists will have to wait until level 30 to get a spell equivalent to something that Necromancers and Evokers have had since 17 or 18.

[rabidfox]

[*]Meld into Darkness: Martial Spender: You gain 10% uncapped Dodge per Martial Charge for 10/15/20 seconds. Cooldown: 15 seconds.

With a max of 3 Martial Charge stack, that's makes Meld 30% vs the current 100%. Sure, the cooldown is reduced a ton, but there's a lot of fights in the game where people depended on it to not get one shotted (Orthon phase in VoD for example is brutal if one doesn't pop when they drop). Does this mean we'll see some fight mechanics revamped to offset this? Or is this the new standard of less "oh no" abilities for temp super survival?

[Dreppo]

You really need to remove trapfinding. Besides the mechanical issues already mentioned, this is supposed to be a very exclusive ability of rogues and artificers. There needs to remain the tradeoff of having to multiclass to gain access to trapping.

[Zezahk]

Any chance "Also, when you roll a natural 20 on a melee or ranged attack, you envelop the target in shadow, removing its immunity to Sneak Attack for a short duration. You do not need to be in Shadowform for this to happen." could be moved to "Just a Taste"? Personally do not want to be in goth form to sneak attack, even when using Shadowdancer-centric builds.

[rabidfox]

You really need to remove trapfinding. Besides the mechanical issues already mentioned, this is supposed to be a very exclusive ability of rogues and artificers. There needs to remain the tradeoff of having to multiclass to gain access to trapping.

As long as it's just finding traps without the ability to disarm then it seems like a cool setup. Extra bodies that can search/help avoid them is always a good thing for those who don't have location 100% memorized. Does it allow disarms too (haven't logged on lam yet to test stuff- doing that later today)?

[mikarddo]

What an odd tree for casters. Weird is very nice for an illusion caster but apart from the +3 spell pen and the +dc every tree offers there is very little for casters in this tree. Most noteable - its possible to build Arcane Charges in the tree but there is no way to benifit from those within the tree.

Still, I could see an illusion DC wizard caster getting evasion no-fail on a 1 + Weird from this tree. But it does look fairly odd.

[Equatis]

You've removed what I consider 2 of the more fun abilities from this tree, those being Consume and Shadow Manipulation, I overlooked these back when ED's were first introduced but have since come to use them a lot in my game play and while I had hoped they would be updated to be of more use at end game you've completely removed them from the tree. I cannot agree with this removal nor can I stress how disappointed I am that they were removed. Both seemed to me to be so appropriate in the Shadowdancer tree. My Assassin will greatly miss them.

[Dreppo]

As long as it's just finding traps without the ability to disarm then it seems like a cool setup. Extra bodies that can search/help avoid them is always a good thing for those who don't have location 100% memorized. Does it allow disarms too (haven't logged on lam yet to test stuff- doing that later today)?

Well, trapfinding is the ability granted to rogues and artificers at level 1 that allows them to both find and disarm traps. I'm assuming they mean exactly this, but maybe they will clarify.

[HuneyMunster]

I guess my Sorcerer would like Shadowdancer a lot more than my Assassin ever will with current changes shown. I cant see my Assassin putting more than a few points into for assassinate DC and a Meld that only slightly better than Uncanny Dodge and worse then Improved Uncanny Dodge. Will end up losing 4 DC to my Assassinate DC as well as most of my defenses and a good number of Sneak Attack dice.

[Zuldar]

Any thought on keeping executing shot/strike but make it a martial charge spender? A tree that has assassinate dcs in it ought to have more abilities that use assassinate.

[Carpone]

Never mind. Reading Is Fundamental.

[elvesunited]

The assassin/stealth tree combined with some sort of illusionise tree? Mostly noticable for what is no longer there. No more immunity to energy drain. No more executioner shot. Are there characters out there that specialize in both assassination DC and illusion DC? This epic destiny tries to do both.

Tier 2:
Shadowform - since its enhancement bonus to speed I'll assume it does not stack with any standard movement item that any character of 20 or higher already has.
Meld Into Darkness - The Martial spender is a defensive ability that improves dodge for 15 seconds. We need offense!

Tier 3:
Depths of Darkness - Seems weak

Tier 4:
Pierce the Gloom - Seems very weak. Do rogues have to hit issues I don't know about?
Dark Armor - Seems very weak
Linger in the Dark - Seems annoying that the sneak attack has to remember to tumble once a minute

Tier 5:
Wierd - powerful spell. Though Magister will need to be disappointing indeed for a caster to take tier 5 in this destiny. Useless for most assassins. And there is no melee/ranged multisector. If this tree is the illusionist/assassin tree then there should be a multi-selector for each attack ability. One for the illusionist. One for the assassin.
Shadow Mastery - aren't the bonuses stronger in lower Tier?

[JoeCamb02140]

You've removed what I consider 2 of the more fun abilities from this tree, those being Consume and Shadow Manipulation, I overlooked these back when ED's were first introduced but have since come to use them a lot in my game play and while I had hoped they would be updated to be of more use at end game you've completely removed them from the tree. I cannot agree with this removal nor can I stress how disappointed I am that they were removed. Both seemed to me to be so appropriate in the Shadowdancer tree. My Assassin will greatly miss them.

Yeah, I noticed that too. It was also one of the abilities that allowed Assassins to deal with crowds. You could turn on consume and assassinate to thin the herd a bit before being assaulted by the Horde.

[JoeCamb02140]

That first core of trapfinding is amazing, except for one horrible thing. If you don't have Trapfinding, you can't put points in it. If Epic levels still give + to skills... it doesn't matter, because trapfinding can't gain more points if you haven't put any in it already.

If I didn't know better, I would say that by putting the trap finding ability in this tree the devs are trying to troll the players.

[rabidfox]

Well, trapfinding is the ability granted to rogues and artificers at level 1 that allows them to both find and disarm traps. I'm assuming they mean exactly this, but maybe they will clarify.

I just tried it on a pure cleric. Disable & Open lock were both listed as skill level N/A at level 30. Was able to find traps, couldn't disable them. So it's just lets you spot/search for them.

[Lynnabel]

As long as it's just finding traps without the ability to disarm then it seems like a cool setup. Extra bodies that can search/help avoid them is always a good thing for those who don't have location 100% memorized. Does it allow disarms too (haven't logged on lam yet to test stuff- doing that later today)?

No, this feat just lets you find traps. You still need to be a Rogue or Arti to disable traps.