U50 Preview 1: New Universal Enhancement Tree: Horizon Walker

[Cocomajobo]

Disclaimer

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

Here's your first look at Horizon Walker, a Universal enhancement tree currently slated for Update 50. Horizon Walker has popped up in a couple of editions of D&D at this point, as a variant option in 3.5e and a Ranger path in 5e. In this adaptation, the Horizon Walker is a hunter that traverses planes, hunting extraplanar enemies with a Bow. They are rugged adventurers, prepared for any kind of danger on any number of planes, and are attuned enough to Planes that they can occasionally manipulate planar alignments to avoid danger.

Focuses of this tree include:

• Single-Target Bow Damage
• Dexterity
• Avoidance defenses (dodge, incorp, etc)

Marking a Target:
The first Core in this tree works a bit like Assassin's trick; it's an Active ability that leaves an effect on your targeted enemy, and after that the things that affect Marked Targets work on that enemy. Using Marked Target on another enemy while you have an existing, living Marked Target will clear it from them. Using Improved Precise Shot and hitting other enemies before/after your Marked Target on the Bow attacks will do the attack's weapon damage to other enemies, and only do the Marked Target effects to your Marked Target (assuming they're hit by the attack).


Cores

1. Mark Target: +1 to Spot and Listen. You gain the ability to Mark one target at a time. Targets you Mark have -2 AC. (Debuffs to Marked Targets from these Core abilites do not stack with other players' Marks - Only the highest set of debuffs will apply.) Cooldown: 4 Seconds. (1AP)
2. Improved Marking: Your Marked Targets get -5% Fortification. The AC penalty your Marked Targets take increases to -4. (1AP)
3. Greater Marking: Your Marked Targets get -2 to Saving Throws. Their Fortification penalty increases to -10%, and AC penalty increases to -6. (1AP)
4. Dauntless Marking: Your Marked Target's Saving Throw penalty increases to -4, Fortification penalty increases to -20%, and AC penalty increases to -8. (1AP)
5. Dimension Door: Once per rest, you can cast Dimension Door. Activation Cost: 0 Spell Points. Cooldown: 10 Minutes. Passive: Your Marked Targets get -10% to movement speed. (1AP)
6. Horizon: +2 to all Ability Scores. You gain +10 Ranged Power, +10% Doubleshot. +2 Maximum Manyshot charges. (1AP)

Tier 1

• Weathered Gear: You have a 25/50/75% chance to negate potential item wear. (1AP/Rank)
• Opening Shot: +1/2/3[w] Bow Attack. Adds 1/2/3d6 Force damage on hit. This damage scales with Ranged Power. Cooldown: 6 seconds. (1AP/Rank)
• Eye for Accuracy: +1/2/3 to Attack with Weapons.
• Skills: +1/2/3 to Spot, Listen, and Search. (1AP/Rank)
• Conjure Arrow: SLA, as in AA tree (2AP)

Tier 2

• Walker Training I: +1 to Attack and +1 to Damage with Longbows and Shortbows. (1AP)
• Take the Opening: If Opening Shot hits a creature that is at 100% of their hitpoints, it deals an extra 1d10 Force damage for every 2 Character levels you have. This damage scales with Ranged Power. Additionally, your Force damage from Opening Shot is now applied twice when used against Marked Targets. (2AP)
• Skilled Navigator: +2/4/6 to Saving Throws vs. Traps (1AP/Rank)
• Dodge and Strike: When you tumble, you gain Ranged Power equal to half your Character level for 12 seconds. This can trigger once every 30 seconds. (1 AP)
• Favored Enemy: Evil Outsider Feat (1AP)

Tier 3

• No Step Missed: Battle Trance. Cooldown: 20 Seconds. Antirequisite: Other Trances. Charges: 5. Expend 1 Charge: You gain an Insight bonus to damage and the DC of tactical feats equal to 1/2 of your Dexterity modifier for [30/60/120] seconds. On a Vorpal weapon hit, have a chance to restore 1 Charge. (1AP/Rank)
• Two Places At Once: When you use Manyshot or Scattershot, you gain Displacement for 12 seconds. (2AP)
• Nowhere to Hide: You automatically detect nearby Secret Doors with a DC of 5 or less. This goes up by 3 for every 2 Character levels you have. (1AP)
• Planar Dodge: +1/2/3 to Dodge, +1/2/3 Maximum Dexterity while wearing light armor. (1AP/Rank)
• Ability Score: Multiselector
  
  • Dexterity: +1 Dexterity (2AP)
  • Wisdom: +1 Wisdom (2AP)

Tier 4

• Walker Training II: +1 to Attack and +1 to Damage with Longbows and Shortbows. (1AP)
• Corner the Quarry: +2/3/4[w] Bow Attack. If this is used against your Marked Target, they must make a Reflex Save (d20+your Listen skill) or be immobilized for 12 seconds. On a Vorpal hit, the target is also Stunned with no save (20sec cooldown). On bosses, this does not immobilize or stun. (1AP/Rank)
• Tenacious Hunter: Against Extraplanar creatures and Marked Targets (regardless of whether or not they are extraplanar), you deal an additional +2/4/6 damage with Longbows and Shortbows. (1AP/Rank)
• Scattershot: Ranged Bow Attack: Expend one charge to randomly select up to three different enemies at close range and shoot one arro at each of them. Each of these shots can Doubleshot. 2 second cooldown. This feat gives 3 charges, you regain 1 charge every 12 seconds you don't use Scattershot or Manyshot. (Requires a Longbow or Shortbow to use). Shares Charges and a Cooldown with Manyshot.(2AP)
• Ability Score: Multiselector
  
  • Dexterity: +1 Dexterity (2AP)
  • Wisdom: +1 Wisdom (2AP)

Tier 5

• Walker's Guidance: You and targeted ally gain Evasion and +5 to Saving Throws vs. Traps for 12 seconds. 60 second cooldown. (1AP)
• Banish the Quarry: If Corner the Quarry is used against a Marked Target, they take an additional 1d6 Force Damage per Character Level. This damage scales with Ranged Power. If the creature is Extraplanar, it must make a Will Save (d20+your Listen skill) or be Banished. (Bosses cannot be banished). (1AP)
• Feywild Attunement: +1 Competence Bonus to Threat Range and Multiplier with Longbows and Shortbows. (1AP)
• Misty Step: As Abundant Step, but you disappear. (Shares a cooldown with other abundant steps). (1AP)
• Improved Archer's Focus (as in Deepwood): Your Archer's Focus stance can now stack up to 25 times instead of 15. Passive: +10% Doubleshot. (2AP)

A few notes:

• "Bow Attacks" in this tree require a Shortbow or Longbow.
• It is fairly intended that a non-bow user could get some good use out of this tree.
• Worth noting that anyone gaining Evasion from Walker's Guidance still has to follow Evasion rules (no med/heavy armor, etc) for Evasion to work.

Known Issues

• Mark Target doesn't show anything over the targets head yet and we are going to fix that
• Mark Target is slower than we want it to be right now and we are going to fix that

[Khurse]

So.. will scattershot and core 6 give you a total of 5 more manyshot charges, plus the base three(or is it 2..) for a total of eight manyshot/scattershot charges?

[Steelstar]

So.. will scattershot and core 6 give you a total of 5 more manyshot charges, plus the base three(or is it 2..) for a total of eight manyshot/scattershot charges?

No, base is 3 for both of those abilities (whether you have one or both), they are a shared pool, and the Capstone raises that pool to 5.

[Khurse]

No, base is 3 for both of those abilities (whether you have one or both), they are a shared pool, and the Capstone raises that pool to 5.

Perfect, I thought I was reading a little too much into how it was worded, but 5 should be enough..

[Son_of_the_South]

Perfect, I thought I was reading a little too much into how it was worded, but 5 should be enough..

I don't believe 5 will be anywhere near enough (unless you're only playing on Casual, Normal or Hard).

The whole tree is underwhelming given recent degeneration of ranged as a play style. Was really hoping this tree would make ranged bow-users more viable but everything up to T5 is naff and I can't see myself using a lot of it in-game. I would not buy this tree.

EDIT: Also, wouldn't Spot be a better skill to base DCs on than Listen?? Seems thematically more appropriate unless I am missing something...

[Tsutti]

[B]

• Walker's Guidance: You and targeted ally gain Evasion and +5 to Saving Throws vs. Traps for 12 seconds. 60 second cooldown. (1AP)

• Worth noting that anyone gaining Evasion from Walker's Guidance still has to follow Evasion rules (no med/heavy armor, etc) for Evasion to work.

I don't really see the point of this ability if it only follows evasion rules, I guess you could use it on your pure wizard or pure arti friend but they may be wearing medium armor too. I suppose you could do T5 horizon on a ranged arti and get use out of this, but for the most part this doesn't seem very useful.

The rest is pretty cool, worried about how much force damage which scales off of ranged power we'll have though (seems like a lot, even if it's not every hit). Also somewhat worried about how powerful a dex trance may be but its strength relative to the other trances may not be as exaggerated with the reductions of power creep we'll also be seeing in U50.

[DRoark]

Seems to be several things here that are just low skills, like they didn't know what to put in the tree to fill up space.
Clicky marking system, Detect Secret Doors as a T-3, and (+1/+1) at T-4 are just examples. This is dubious at best.

Practically, I'd see no reason to dip this tree, unless I needed a source of arrows, or was RP-ing.

[Thar]

Seems to be several things here that are just low skills, like they didn't know what to put in the tree to fill up space.
Clicky marking system, Detect Secret Doors as a T-3, and (+1/+1) at T-4 are just examples. This is dubious at best.

Practically, I'd see no reason to dip this tree, unless I needed a source of arrows, or was RP-ing.

agree, this tree doesn't solve the inherent problems with bow combat. too slow, too light hitting. Back to crossbow for my ranger unfortunately.

Core's are horrible including the capstone compared to others. mob AC barely matters in the game. decreased fort is useful but 5% per core should be an add on not the primary benefit.

evasion as a tier 5?? yes some classes don't get evasion but it's not needed with mrr and almost all the archers pre u49 had evasion as a class skill.

double the attack speed or arrows shot in the tree and then maybe it's useful enough to make archery viable.

[Tilomere]

nvm i give up

[Vish]

no dex trance huh?

first read was yep, fairly standard

i dont run bow builds, so listen to others
i dont think it may be any better than falconry with /5 ranger
probably, at least it has wis for stat
thx

[Stravix]

no dex trance huh?

first read was yep, fairly standard

i dont run bow builds, so listen to others
i dont think it may be any better than falconry with /5 ranger
probably, at least it has wis for stat
thx

There is a dex trance.

[GramercyRiff]

lol ranged

just kidding. hopefully this thing is great for our ranged brothers and sisters.

[HuneyMunster]

There is a dex trance.

The problem is that it's too high in the tree for Dexterity based melee builds. We were also teased during in the melee focused Shadai Kai preview about a Dex Trance . There is also very little worth taking on a melee build to feel like you could get access to it.

At best all you get is Eye for Accuracy: +1/2/3 to Attack with Weapons. and Favored Enemy: Evil Outsider Feat for a 13 Action Point point spend.

I don't see why it can't be tier 2 instead of tier 3 like Harper.

[SWCarter]

The problem is that it's too high in the tree for Dexterity based melee builds. There is also very little worth taking on a melee build to feel like you could get access to it.

At best all you get is Eye for Accuracy: +1/2/3 to Attack with Weapons. and Favored Enemy: Evil Outsider Feat for a 13 Action Point point spend.

I don't see why it can't be tier 2 instead of tier 3 like Harper.

+1. 13 AP is a significant investment for a trance, with virtually nothing to show for that investment (outside of the trance itself) if you are running a dex-based melee build.

[Artos_Fabril]

The problem is that it's too high in the tree for Dexterity based melee builds. We were also teased during in the melee focused Shadai Kai preview about a Dex Trance . There is also very little worth taking on a melee build to feel like you could get access to it.

At best all you get is Eye for Accuracy: +1/2/3 to Attack with Weapons. and Favored Enemy: Evil Outsider Feat for a 13 Action Point point spend.

I don't see why it can't be tier 2 instead of tier 3 like Harper.

12/13 points. it hurts, but not more than not having it.
Acc 3, FE: EO, core 1, 2 then skills 3, trap save 1 if rogue; else gear 1, trap save 3

Could use a tier 1 option like hamstring or disengage, or maybe a buff to tumble to support the T2 tumbling buff.

There's no reason to make it a proc centered tree. To sell horizon walker they'd want give it on-order special attacks that replicate the effects of procs that are no longer a reliable way to produce those effects, probably some bow attack speed because currently bows at the attainable standing value of +25% alacrity are attacking slower than they were pre U49, a "fan of knives" type bow attack for hitting packs of mobs, some raw damage because of course raw damage, a favored enemy (choose type of outsider) for flavor, a windwalk in lieu of Misty Step, some force damage, and if they really think it won't move sales on the merits, a dex trance to make it a required purchase for min maxing and high reaper.

I'd say about B+ on the prediction, and clearly it needs to sell the saltmarsh $$$ pack, hence the dex trance. I was off on the attack speed thing. I really should have considered that making many shot a charge ability was in service of creating ways to get more charges.

[Vish]

There is a dex trance.

oh there is, i apologize
nice

thats what u get for a quick read

[droid327]

Well the tree clearly has a focus, which is good: its a single-target specialist tree, with most of its unique bonuses being tied into the Marked system. Its not something that interests me, but it might be more relevant for raiders that focus more on single-target damage.

Scattershot is a great complement to this, I'm glad you considered the need for some form of non-linear weapon-based AOE when designing this tree. I really wish there was something like that in Inquisitive too I think there needs to be a little more support for the Many/Scattershot mechanic though; maybe a T5 that grants +1 M/S charge on Vorpal? Just would be nice to see a fully-invested HW able to use Scatter a little more liberally than just once per 12 secs on avg. Looking at the tree, that's the one button you're probably pushing more than any other, because the Marked/Manyshot mechanic you're probably only using on bosses champs reapers.

I'm guessing Scatter will not pierce with IPS, if the randomly-selected mob happens to be behind another? But since the skill is clearly meant to be an alternative to Manyshot (three shots scattered, instead of three shots focused) and Manyshot can pierce AFAIK, I'd say maybe Scattershot should penetrate with IPS.

I think this tree will make a good complement to Deepwoods. I wonder if its enough to warrant bow builds on other classes (particularly Monks) that dont have any innate bow support of their own, the way Inqui is kind of a complete self-contained package for Xbow builds. I dont really see, e.g., Bowbards or Bowbarians having attractive builds around HW. I wonder if the ED revamp is rubbing off, and HW absorbed some of that "each tree is descended from a specific class archetype" philosophy, and HW became Universal Deepwoods Ranger.

Why based on Listen? Seems like that's just an attempt to arbitrarily make you take a skill which has no other real value. Wouldn't Spot be more in line with the tree's theme, and more synergistic for Bow users?

I'm worried about the Force damage. Its very intermittent (cf Law on your Side or Spellsword that apply to every hit), single target, only scales 100% with RP, and doesnt have super impressive base die. If it was just a T1 skill with +3d6, that'd be one thing, but as it seems like a central mechanic of the tree, I think it probably needs to be more significant.

Evasion for 12s seems counterproductive in practice. If your build doesnt have permanent Evasion already, then odds are you're wearing Medium armor for uncapped MRR. The cross-section of players who could benefit from this is probably small. And the ED preview seems like its going to make Evasion much more accessible in Shadowdancer, anyway, for Epics...and since this is a T5, it means it only has an 8-level window of practicality, even if you did build for it. I'd suggest make it perma-Evasion for you and then an active buff for others, or leave it as-is but allow it to grant temp Evasion regardless of armor - THAT would be a significant bonus for grouping, but not OP since it has limited uptime.

IDK why you keep adding On Tumble effects. There's almost no reason to ever Tumble, its an awkward mechanic. Runspeed boosts is one thing, you can Tumble as a quasi-action boost if you need to cover lots of ground...but Tumbling in combat is ponderous and breaks the flow of the fight.

Favored Enemy: make it a multiselector with Evil Outsider, Chaotic Outsider, and a new option: Mephit? There's currently no way to favor True Neutral Outsiders, it'd be a nice touch in the tree

No Exploding Arrow. Why are you so against EVER giving ranged martial builds any kind of circular AOE? Many caster trees get a "fireball" type attack in their T5s. That would really be a build-defining skill for the tree and (with Scattershot) gives the kind of targeting geometry that is really rewarded in the game right now.

[Steelstar]

I'm guessing Scatter will not pierce with IPS, if the randomly-selected mob happens to be behind another? But since the skill is clearly meant to be an alternative to Manyshot (three shots scattered, instead of three shots focused) and Manyshot can pierce AFAIK, I'd say maybe Scattershot should penetrate with IPS.

Scattershot, like Manyshot, works with IPS.

• If you don't have IPS on, and Random Target #2 is standing directly behind Random Target #1, both of those arrows will hit #1 because arrows hit the first enemy they come in contact with.
• If you DO have IPS on in that scenario, the arrows would pass through and likely hit both of them, depending on exact positioning.

[magaiti]

Scattershot, like Manyshot, works with IPS.

• If you don't have IPS on, and Random Target #2 is standing directly behind Random Target #1, both of those arrows will hit #1 because arrows hit the first enemy they come in contact with.
• If you DO have IPS on in that scenario, the arrows would pass through and likely hit both of them, depending on exact positioning.

because arrows hit the first enemy they come in contact with.

Only if you don't have Precise Shot, which is a prerequisite to IPS AND provides the Archer's Focus stance, and is therefore mandatory for any ranged character.
Just saying. Can't miss an opportunity to teach a dev the rules of their own game, you know.

[Sylveny]

The marking feature is okay I guess? the thing is, you can't mark more than one target at the same time, but it keeps being described as marked targets, is there a way to mark more than one? that would be cool I guess, to mark a group, but with longer cooldowns