U55 Preview 2: The Level Cap Increase

[Carpone]

Legendary Aim: While using a Ranged Weapon, +10 to Attack, +5% Dodge Bypass.

Why is this limited to ranged? I have zero interest in adopting another attack style due to leveling up another Sentient Jewel. And 100 hitpoints is Legendary Filler. I'd love to have Legendary Precision (much better name) on an Assassin.

[BananaHat]

I do appreciate adding Heaven's Blessing to the EA core. However, I hope Heaven's Blessing doesn't use the same code as Flight of Glory (temp HP after wings) because Flight only hits 1 target instead of a group like it says and that singular target is often invisible quest objects like sound triggers, not party members.

Devs, since I've never had a reported bug in your tool get fixed, can you add Flight of Glory to your list somehow?

I'm a bit disappointed that lots of the good suggestions for the cores and feats were ignored in the previous thread. I hope this isn't the final preview so they can make some of the abilities better.

[Dendrix]

Legendary Dreadnought: 80% of the time, determined randomly, you get nothing from this ability.

[ahpook]

Legendary Dreadnought: 80% of the time, determined randomly, you get nothing from this ability.

And yet it still seems better than the ShadowDancer 4th core benefits.

[Axcarth]

So 15 pages in the first preview thread saying these were pretty garbage and having a lot of good ideas with witch to replace them with and you went "Nah, these are good the way they are."

This! Disappointing...

Legendary Dreadnought: 80% of the time, determined randomly, you get nothing from this ability.

And this! Even if it was implied on the above, I cant see how this could even be on cores.

[droid327]

Legendary Dreadnought: 80% of the time, determined randomly, you get nothing from this ability.

Yeah it does seem weird that a purely defensive ability would be locked behind a 20% proc chance....

If you know you're going to need it, its too unreliable to count on it. If you just wait for it to proc when it wants to, then odds are you're not going to need it anyway.

[J1NG]

So... the "Accurate" buff. The Devs "are" aware that it's overperforming right now right?

J1NG

:: edit ::

In case this isn't clear, ALL Legendary (Level 30+ quests or raid) has given enemies a buff called "Accurate", it's description says bypasses a small amount of Dodge. Except of course... It's closer to 100% bypass at the moment.

[J1NG]

So, earning Legendary XP is basically "normal" XP, so can be buffed from XP Pots, Guild Buff, Voice of the Master, etc. but NOT XP Tomes (of any right now).

Not tested right now as toon I took over has no first time bonus available left on any quest, so I don't know if any First Time Bonus applies. However, I am assuming this does apply, because going in on Elite, I see the normal XP being increased as reward for completion.

1.6m needed for Level 31
3.6m needed for Level 32

J1NG

[Artos_Fabril]

Weapon Specialty Feats

SSG seems to think these serve a purpose, so I wonder, aside from Swashbucklers and hand-and-a-half users, what use case do you imagine for these feats? Who else would consider these over one of the existing destiny feats, and under what circumstances?

[Qeistalan]

[QUOTE=Steelstar]
[*]Two Weapon Specialty: Reduces the penalty for fighting with two weapons. You gain +80% offhand strike chance. This does not work in Animal Form. This does not count as a Combat Fighting Style feat.
[*]Fury of the Wild: Be the Whirlwind: Using any of the feats Trip, Improved Trip, or Whirlwind Attack causes a whirlwind of force to burst from you striking nearby enemies for 1d10 bludgeon damage per character level. Scales with 200% Melee Power. Improved Trip also causes all affected enemies to be tripped unless they succeed at a balance check (DC equal to Improved Trip).

As-is, this (so-called) "Legendary" feat is practically useless for any Two-Weapon fighting character. Is it meant to say "+80% offhand Doublestrike chance"?

As-is, the Fury of the Wild's Core 4 is useless for any non-Trip/non-Whirlwind character. This will waste a destiny point to take Cores 5 & 6 in the future.

Thanks (for nothing) for making TWF useless again at cap level.
Fed up being underwhelmed in return for my money invested in this game.

[Gregen]

Heavenly Blessing: When you finish an Angelic Charge or Leap of Faith, you and allies near you take 1d6+2 plus 1 per caster level Positive Healing. This healing scales with Spell Power.

Appreciated.

[ahpook]

As-is, this (so-called) "Legendary" feat is practically useless for any Two-Weapon fighting character. Is it meant to say "+80% offhand Doublestrike chance"?

Well, it is intended to be useless for TWF characters. This feat can only be taken by THF, SWF, or S&B characters so they can also get the TWF fighting abilities in one feat. So for them it is only likely useless.
A TWF character would take one of the other 3 feats to get one of those fighting styles. Which is also likely to be practically useless.

As-is, the Fury of the Wild's Core 4 is useless for any non-Trip/non-Whirlwind character. This will waste a destiny point to take Cores 5 & 6 in the future.

In "defense", they had to keep it as weak as the other Core 4s.

[Pandjed]

I had the feats before, now let's look at the 4th cores.

[*]Draconic: Draconic Heritage II: -5% spell point cost on all spells. Your Draconic Heritage's Eschew Materials is improved: You no longer need special material components for your spells.

Seems fine, mostly because the ever-stacking spell point reduction, which really helps damage casters.

[*]Fatesinger: Hear my Voice Friend: Greatest Shout, Great Shout, Shout, and Echoes of Discord spells now target allies inside their cones and heal them for 20% of the damage potential of the spell.

Healing and attacking at the same time is an amazing mechanic and while this mostly helps bards (duh), at least the Epic Strike gets the same treatment for non-bards.

[*]Magus of the Eclipse: Nightwind: +7 spell penetration. Enemies who enter your cold or dark light zone have a 5% chance to be frozen for 10 seconds with no saving throw.

I assume, that the freeze doesn't work on rednames. The +7 spell pen really shows how unbalanced that system is atm... Overall, I think it's rather unspectular, as 5% proc for freeze would make me even think of it if I want to bother with kiting enemies in and outside the zone, while it's not a reliable toon when the zone is put on a tank or such.

[*]Divine Crusader: Sunder Evil: Using Sunder or Improved Sunder deals 1d6 light damage per character level and applies a Divine Sundering effect. The light damage scales with 200% of the higher of your Melee and Ranged Power. Divine Sundering: -10% AC, -25% fortification, -3 saving throws. Lasts 12 seconds.

And once again, DC does what it makes best: Confuse people, as this tree does a lot of stuff and makes it hard to track a theme or prevelant game mechanic there. Though I honestly think that making the Sunders better is a good thing.

[*]Exalted Angel: Multiselector:

• Heavenly Wrath: When you use Angelic Charge or Leap of Faith, enemies you fly through take 1d6+3 light damage per caster level and 1d6+3 fire damage per caster level. This damage scales with Spell Power.
• Heavenly Blessing: When you finish an Angelic Charge or Leap of Faith, you and allies near you take 1d6+2 plus 1 per caster level Positive Healing. This healing scales with Spell Power.

I'm not the kind of person to jump around the battlefield (mostly because earlier experiences gave me the impression to rather have control over my character all the time), outside of getting away from a group or. So yeah for emergency healing?

[*]Unyielding Sentinel: Last Hope: When you drop below 20% health you gain +50 Melee Power and Physical and Magical Resistance Rating for 8 seconds and you apply the heal spell yourself as the divine spell, four times over the duration of the effect. This can only occur once every 5 minutes, or if you have the Guardian Angel feat once every 3 minutes.

Love it for raid tanking and the high PRR/MRR bonus will become handy in higher reapers. Not even for tanks, even melee DPS may want to grab enough survivability from US to keep their damage go

[*]Grandmaster of Flowers: Master of Philosophy: Multiselector:

• Enlightening Philosophy: +3% dodge bypass, +10 Magical Resistance Rating cap. Your Stunning Blow and Stunning Fist feats are now considered Light builder attacks.
• Forbidden Philosophy: +3% dodge bypass, +10 Magical Resistance Rating cap. Your Stunning Blow and Stunning Fist feats are now considered Dark builder attacks.
• Aberrant Philosophy: +3% dodge bypass, +10 Magical Resistance Rating cap. Your Stunning Blow and Stunning Fist feats are now considered Void builder attacks.

[/COLOR]

To be honest... while cap increase is nice, and the idea for adding builders for a monk is amazing, the fact remains is, that GMoF isn't the greatest pure monk destiny and as long as this enhancement won't grant the finisher feat, it gives the selection of three of the same for every non-monk (like tempest ranger, who can actually like GMoF).
So either finisher feat so non-monks can benefit or a 4th option that even non-monks can benefit from (like those feats granting ki when used).

[*]Legendary Dreadnought: Unstoppable: When you activate an action boost, you have a 20% chance to gain the Unstoppable effect for 20 seconds. Unstoppable: You take 25% less damage from all sources, gain a +20 action boost bonus to Fortitude and balance saves, and are immune to knockdown.[/COLOR]

I'd rather have smaller bonuses all the time. 5% less damage and +4 to fortitude and balance plus immunity to knockdown during action boost is just more reliable. Though I may also be greedy and ask for 10% less damage and +10 on both every action boost! These numbers are much prettier, after all!

[*]Shadowdancer: Cut to the Soul: +3% dodge bypass, +3% fortification bypass, +3% damage versus the helpless. When you cast the spell Trap the Soul, it automatically applies 3 stacks of the Darkness debuff even if the enemy survives the spell. Darkness debuff: You are vulnerable to Sneak Attacks. -3 Spell Resistance, -3 PRR and -3 MRR per stack. Lasts 12 seconds, stacks drop 1 at a time. Max 3 stacks.

Huge problem: The Trap the Soul spell isn't given by Shadowdancer and doesn't even fit the theme of using the power of the shadowfell (Illusion and force theme). While the passives do work with all characters, I really think of that TtS-synergy as a design flaw.

[*]Fury of the Wild: Be the Whirlwind: Using any of the feats Trip, Improved Trip, or Whirlwind Attack causes a whirlwind of force to burst from you striking nearby enemies for 1d10 bludgeon damage per character level. Scales with 200% Melee Power. Improved Trip also causes all affected enemies to be tripped unless they succeed at a balance check (DC equal to Improved Trip).

Mass knock down? I sure hope the area is easier to use than Great Leveler.

[*]Primal Avatar: Regrowth: When your spell points drop below 5% of max you immediate restore 500 spell points and gain nature's resurgence which increases your spell critical multiplier by 5% for the duration of the quest. This can only occur once during the quest.

So you're asking the users to splurge their spell points with buffs at the first shrine to increase their damage for the rest of the quest? I see a small problem here, as spell points are seldom a problem when you know the quests.

[*]Shiradi Champion: Fey Countenance: +2 to saving throws vs. spells. Whenever you activate Pin or Beguiling Charm, enemies near you become fascinated for 12 seconds with no saving throw. Their saving throws vs. spells are also reduced by 2 for 12 seconds, even if the fascinate ends.

Could be fun, need to try it in several variations.

[ahpook]

SSG seems to think these serve a purpose, so I wonder, aside from Swashbucklers and hand-and-a-half users, what use case do you imagine for these feats? Who else would consider these over one of the existing destiny feats, and under what circumstances?

The only case I can see is that a THF, SWF, or TWF character can take the Shield fighting feat for those challenges that require extra defense. The S&B fighter can take the SWF or THF when the extra offense is better than a shield. But I don't see that being a sufficient benefit for most characters as this feat to swap fighting style is not enough to also compensate for all the characters enhancements and destiny points that are supporting their primary style.

[Qeistalan]

In "defense", they had to keep it as weak as the other Core 4s.

I see what you did there.
I approve of, and appreciate, your retort.

I would say U55 Level Cap is (wait for it) ... a Legendary failure.

[elvesunited]

SSG seems to think these serve a purpose, so I wonder, aside from Swashbucklers and hand-and-a-half users, what use case do you imagine for these feats? Who else would consider these over one of the existing destiny feats, and under what circumstances?

My vanguard paladin was far too feat starved to ever consider going half-and-half. Longsword and shield. Until now. He'd become a half-and-half user ( the Divinity Bastard Sword looks nice ) but the point is he wasn't one and before now never really considered it a possibility.

But far the majority of characters they are just too locked in with enhancements and sentience to ever benefit from switching weapon styles.

[Thar]

(Changes new to this preview are in blue.)



Here are the new (minimum level 31+) Destiny feats that will be available with Update 55 (these are joining the existing pool of options, so you can still choose from the currently available options if you'd prefer to):

[LIST][*]Weapon Specialty Feats:

• These four feats grant bonuses that resemble the Greater version of their heroic feat line. Each feat requires having the Greater version of one of the other three weapon style combat lines, essentially allowing those who have taken feats in one fighting style to gain the effects of the full 3-feat-chain of a different fighting style.
• Single Weapon Specialty: While Single Weapon Fighting (fighting with a single one-handed weapon, and wielding only an orb, rune arm, or nothing in your offhand) you gain a +30% Combat Style bonus to attack speed, +6 Combat Style bonus to Melee Power, and +50% more of your appropriate ability score to your damage. For Bastard Sword and Dwarven Waraxe, this adds to their existing 10% bonus.If you have bonuses to ability score modifier to damage from both Single Weapon Fighting and Two Handed Fighting feats (including this one), and are in a situation where both would apply, only the highest of the two applies. This does not work in Animal Form. This does not count as a Combat Fighting Style feat.
• Two Weapon Specialty: Reduces the penalty for fighting with two weapons. You gain +80% offhand strike chance. This does not work in Animal Form. This does not count as a Combat Fighting Style feat.
• Two Handed Specialty: While Two-Handed Fighting: +140% Strikethrough Chance. You also gain a +6 Combat Style bonus to Melee Power while Two-Handed Fighting. For the purpose of this feat, you are considered to be Two-Handed Fighting while using a Two-Handed Melee Weapon (not including Handwraps). You are also considered to be Two-Handed Fighting while wielding a Bastard Sword or Dwarven Waraxe in your main hand and a Shield, Orb, Rune Arm, or Nothing in your off-hand. You are not considered to be Two-Handed Fighting while in Druid Animal Forms. In addition, While using a Two Handed Weapon, you now apply 75% more of your appropriate ability score modifier to damage (This adds to their existing 50% base bonus). When using a Bastard Sword or Dwarven Waraxe in your main hand and a Shield, Orb, Rune Arm, or Nothing in your off-hand you now apply +50% more of your appropriate ability score to your damage. (This adds to the existing 10% bonus for wielding a Hand-and-a-Half weapon. If you have bonuses to ability score modifier to damage from both Single Weapon Fighting and Two Handed Fighting feats (including this one), and are in a situation where both would apply, only the highest of the two applies). Neither bonus applies in Animal Form. This does not count as a Combat Fighting Style feat.
• Shield Mastery Specialty: While wielding a shield, you gain +10% Doublestrike and a +9 Combat Style bonus to Melee Power. You gain +10 Physical Resistance Rating while using a buckler or small shield. If you are using a large shield, this bonus increases to +15. If you are using a tower shield, this bonus increases to +20. This does not work in Animal Form. This does not count as a Combat Fighting Style feat.

[*]Spell Specialty Feats:

• These require the Epic Spell Focus feat from a school other than the one you're picking here, essentially allowing you to improve your potency with a secondary school. These are also antirequisites of the base spell focus feats - so you can't double up on a school you already have a spell focus for.
• Spell Specialty: Abjuration: You gain a secondary spell focus: +3 to the DC of your Abjuration spells.
• Spell Specialty: Conjuration: You gain a secondary spell focus: +3 to the DC of your Conjuration spells.
• Spell Specialty: Enchantment: You gain a secondary spell focus: +3 to the DC of your Enchantment spells.
• Spell Specialty: Evocation: You gain a secondary spell focus: +3 to the DC of your Evocation spells.
• Spell Specialty: Illusion: You gain a secondary spell focus: +3 to the DC of your Illusion spells.
• Spell Specialty: Necromancy: You gain a secondary spell focus: +3 to the DC of your Necromancy spells.
• Spell Specialty: Transmutation: You gain a secondary spell focus: +3 to the DC of your Transmutation spells.

Known Issues:

thoughts on the above.

melee - why would someone need specialization in another weapon like that they don't use? We don't want to flip weapon styles mid quest. why don't these have at lease some small bonuse for the primary style the character is built for previously? IE shield user - why would i care about dps as a tank, i need to stay alive not learn how to single weapon fight.

Spells - same sort of complaint although alternate schools are more useful. DC casters have problems today after all recent changes hitting end game dc's I would assume dc's would go up in new content. why not a +1 bonus to primary build spell school? we should be getting better not more versatile... and these are steep costs that a sorc would likely never be able to use.

[GoldyGopher]

(Changes new to this preview are in blue.)

Hi, folks! This post is all about U55's Level Cap increase. This should cover the things you need to know about our plans and how they all fit together in the long term.

So, the big one first: With the release of Isle of Dread, we are officially raising the Level Cap from Level 30 to Level 32.


Legendary Experience

After you take your 10th Epic Level, you will begin earning progress towards your Legendary Levels by earning Legendary experience. You earn Legendary XP from any Dungeon, Landscape, or Raid that is of Legendary difficulty (meaning that its Base CR is 30 or higher). All dungeons that are currently Legendary will remain so after the Level Cap increase happens. This means that players looking for Legendary XP can earn it from over 100 quests, including the Isle of Dread! Once you have enough Legendary experience to level up, you may speak to the Fatespinner to take a Legendary level.


Legendary Levels

Each Legendary Level will grant you Legendary Power, a new feat that grants you +6 Melee, Ranged, and Universal Spell Power. Every 2 Legendary Levels will grant you +1 Caster Level and Max Caster Level with all spells. Legendary Levels have a BaB progression of 0.

Legendary Levels are broken up into ranks like Epic Levels are. Each Legendary Level corresponds to 4 Destiny Points. This means that at the new Level Cap of level 32, you will have 8 more Destiny Points to spend in your Epic Destinies (4 from the ranks of level 30, 4 from the ranks of Level 31).

You will continue to earn regular Feats as your Level increases at the same rate as you did before. This means that you will earn a new Feat at levels 33, 36, and 39. We will continue to make new Epic Feats as your Level increases.

You will continue to earn Destiny Feats as your Level increases at the same rate as you did before. This means that you will earn a new Destiny Feat at levels 31, 34, 37, and 40. We will continue to make new Destiny Feats as your level increases. This means that with this first round of Level Cap increases, you will train 1 new Destiny Feat at level 31.

You will continue to earn Ability Score increases at the same rate as you did before. This means you'll choose an Ability Score to increase at levels 32, 36, and 40.



Misc Odds and Ends

This is a collection of miscellaneous clarifications that we expect to come up during feedback:

We are not going to add strict enforcement of grouping level range for these new Levels. This means that you won't see a powerleveling penalty if you group with an Epic character as a Legendary one, and vice versa.

Yes, you may use any existing and remaining level 31 and 32 Cannith Crafting shards for the returning 31 and 32 CC recipes.

As a part of this pass, all items that are level 29 and below that are currently named "Legendary" will be renamed to "Epic" and will be given the appropriate purple border. Legendary will now be a term specifically reserved for items with a minimum level of 30 or higher.

Epic Tomes of Learning will continue to function until level 30, but will not continue functioning once you take level 30 and become Legendary. This means that if you're doing Legendary quests for Epic experience you will still be able to use your Epic Tome of Learning as you did before. These Tomes use your character level to determine eligibility, not quest level, so as long as you're gaining Epic XP you'll retain its benefit.

Most things in the game that say they scale with your Epic level will be refactored to include your Legendary level as well. This includes feats such as the Epic Pact Dice Destiny feat, which will now max at 7d4 pact dice at level 32.

The level requirements for Iconic and Epic Reincarnation are not being touched by this change and will remain at level 30.

Trying to understand Epic vs Legendary Experience - Wilderness Adventure Area Edition

In popping in and out of the new Isle of Dread wilderness area while updating the Wiki I saw three sets of numbers: Heroic, Epic, and Legendary. First I hope there is an adjustment to the the XP for Heroic and Legendary but the question really resides in Epic.

My Level 20 Character entered the Zone and saw 2,625 XP for the explorer points, my legendary 875 for the same explorer. After going in and out on the different character my level 20 character saw the Legendary XP number of 875.
First I would like to verify that there is indeed three sets of XP to be earned and second that the XP for Legendary is really that much lower than Epic.

Thanks

[DeltaBravo]

• Divine Crusader: Sunder Evil: Using Sunder or Improved Sunder deals 1d6 light damage per character level and applies a Divine Sundering effect. The light damage scales with 200% of the higher of your Melee and Ranged Power. Divine Sundering: -10% AC, -25% fortification, -3 saving throws. Lasts 12 second

I Know this might seem a bit odd for some people.. but it is actully a real problem for people who likes to play Melee clerics / FVS in divine crusader, becourse they dont get the DC in the cores like other trees does.. I understand all the trees cant be the same.. but really its really annoying and silly, that i can take 4 cores in the ruoge destiny to get 4*+1 Epic bonus to spell DC. and there is even Spell DC in the tree i can pick aswell. Even though rouges actully dont have spells.. ( iam not trying to change anythig in shadow dancer tree here. becourse i really like that tree and it gives cool options for many builds. ) But divine crusader tree is a very good tree for Melee clerics /FVS but there is no way to acully get the +4 dc you loose from going in divine crusader. ANd those builds acully got spells..!

Please pretty please could you add the epic DC in the cores in the Divine crusader tree.. It makes no sence i have to pick a tree for a rouge to get my DC when iam actully ina tree for a class that allready can cast spells.. :S Pretty pretty please..

Cheers Deltabravo

[WarDestroyer]

Seems good - we will have bigger numbers, and some interesting, different build choices than what we have seen so far. My 2 cents:

1. We are early into legendary levels, but it looks more like a continuation of epic levels rather than having a legendary vibe. Just compare heroics to epics vs this. I hope there are planned things for the further legendary levels to make things more spicy.

2. The Specialty feats look interesting, but IMO until the current sentience system will make it unplayable for all players except those few with 2+ capped gems.