U55 Preview 3: The Level Cap Increase

[Bjond]

Weapon Specialty Feats:

As regular feats, they free up some feat space. As legendary, they're pointless -- unless you're expecting people to LTR to use them or run "gimpy" without the secondary line they usually take.

[I]wolf bonus here should be "10% exceptional bonus to Armor Class"

AC+10% is so pointless for DPS that it's insulting. It often doesn't even matter to a tank unless it's very seriously focused on increasing AC.

Substantive? Suggest bear & wolf can use all of the other's tricks (eg. tremor wolf, snowslide bear). Bonus points for an extra hilarious snow-slide animation for bears -- it's a bear necessity!

Too slippery? maybe bear = 5~10% attack rate and wolf = strikethrough with 2H (or even just increased 2H attributes as bear without strikethrough).

Fluffy? Runspeed/bear & HP/wolf work if you want to provide a feat to be taken when there are no other more substantive feats to take. AC/wolf .. uh, no .. make it at least a little positive.

[*]Legendary Dreadnought: Unstoppable: When you activate an action boost, you have a 50% 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 Saving Throws, a +10% Action Boost bonus to Uncapped Dodge, and are immune to knockdown.

LD is becoming the tree that gives a laundry list of pointless buffs. "Chance-of" does not work for DPS (and dodge is also chance-of by nature). KD-immune is fluff. If you need it, you've already built it in via other routes. Same with a short fort save buff -- when saves are already good enough a little more for a short time doesn't matter.

Extra mitigation is nice for a tank. A tank is fine with chance-of, but LD is not a tanking tree. A DPS that tries to play those odds is called a pack-stone. DPS have to easily be able to deal with whatever whether or not the buff fires and thus who cares if it does or not?

It looks like your desires are "unstoppable theme" and "not useful". Not checked on Lam, but guessing it's a 15 or 20 DP gated core; 15 is kinda OK for fluffy. If 20, it should be at least a little useful.

Useful: "True Freedom of Motion during Action Boosts" (nothing can stop you -- not boss chains, not earthgrab, not druid gust of wind, not even knock-back from LOB or Air Elemental). Too much? How about CC-Break on Action Boost (without any duration effects).

Fluffy: "boosts grant 30% action run speed while active". Still thematically unstoppable in a "hey, wait for me!" kinda way. Very fun. No change to combat power.

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

Seems awkward. I don't know any casters with 10000<SP. Perhaps "On zone-in or shrine, gain SPx5% Temporary SP. When used up, gain nature's resurgence." Same net effect, but casters can actually see the gain on the UI and when it's about to be used up. It also scales better if there comes a day when casters do have 10000<SP and regrants on shrine to provide more free buff SP.

[Gloomfall]

[*]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.

This is definitely an improvement over before, but it would be nice to have something "more" than just this for a core four. Dodge bypass, Fortification bypass, and some damage to helpless seems a bit.. eh. My suggestion would be to change the Darkness effect to trigger on any target that is hit with either a melee, ranged attack, or harmful spellcast if it already has darkness on it instead of it happening with the Trap the Soul spell. That may make it require the "Bring Darkness" ability to apply the initial stacks but it would drastically improve the reliability of that debuff on enemies and it would function for all flavors of Shadowdancer, not just casters. For the passive bonuses it would be nice to get some double attack/double shot added in there as well.

[Jerevth]

No, sorry. We won't be giving Uncapped Dodge AND less damage from all sources if this occurs 100% of the time on Action Boost use.

It's for a limited amount of time, though.
Twenty seconds is two groups of trash, possibly three depending on the quest.
It supports tanks and DPS melee with a small number bonus to defense and for a limited duration, though to be fair, a fighter can have a large number of action boosts, potentially.
However, the result does not fit the title, either. Unstoppable it isn't.
Change the title to "Defender".

If you want to use the title "Unstoppable" it should make the toon nearly unstoppable for a limited time. Bump it up and give it a resulting cool-down or three minutes, perhaps?

[elvesunited]

As regular feats, they free up some feat space. As legendary, they're pointless -- unless you're expecting people to LTR to use them or run "gimpy" without the secondary line they usually take.

There are a few cases where this provides benefits without a LTR or spending a lot of time with Fred:

1) The single weapon using bastard sword melee. Not allowed with the heroic feats as Two handed and Single weapons are exclusive to each other. But is it possible to get the 30% attack speed bonus and a strikethrough weapon?

2) Any character build where they could qualify for a additional combat feat line but was simply too feat starved to actually take the feats. For example, my Paladin vanguard uses a long sword + shield. But with this feat line he could use a bastard sword + shield. A single weapon fighting swashbuckler using a shield could get the shield combat style line even though he couldn't afford it before.

AC+10% is so pointless for DPS that it's insulting. It often doesn't even matter to a tank unless it's very seriously focused on increasing AC.

I wonder if "Elusive Target" with its straight 5% chance of avoiding damage better than +10% AC for a wolf. I suspect it is.

[GoldyGopher]

So if you enter the Isle of Dread Wilderness Adventure Area on an Epic Character (level 20 - 29) you see one set of XP rewards for Rare and the three Explorer sets. If you go in on a legendary Character (30 -32) you see a second set of XP rewards for Rare and the three Explorer sets.

Is that working as intended?
It is a pretty big drop, example Explorer drops from 2625 Epic to 875 Legendary.

If it is separate is there a clear delineation between Epic Rewards and legendary Rewards. (It's not clear in my testing so far).

If it is separate will this be backwards integrated into other Legendary Wilderness Areas.

[thedip]

Looks like I will be selecting from the current (epic) destiny feats or 100hp. The legendary ones shown hold little interest for me.

For my wolf it could be +10% A.C. vrs Wind Through the Trees - bean force one for her any day!

[Kielbasa]

AC+10% is so pointless for DPS that it's insulting. It often doesn't even matter to a tank unless it's very seriously focused on increasing AC.

Substantive? Suggest bear & wolf can use all of the other's tricks (eg. tremor wolf, snowslide bear). Bonus points for an extra hilarious snow-slide animation for bears -- it's a bear necessity!

Too slippery? maybe bear = 5~10% attack rate and wolf = strikethrough with 2H (or even just increased 2H attributes as bear without strikethrough).

Fluffy? Runspeed/bear & HP/wolf work if you want to provide a feat to be taken when there are no other more substantive feats to take. AC/wolf .. uh, no .. make it at least a little positive.

Great ideas any of these would be better than 10% ac on a wolf build.

[Kielbasa]

Having given it some thought the weapon specialty feats have missed the mark unless you're either someone that leveled a dps build that swaps to tanking at cap or you play a hand and a half build that needs both single weapon fighting and two handed fighting lines. I understand that the goal with these feats was to give horizontal progression and not vertical progression but in general they will be skipped by most people in their current state. To get people to grab these feats though you'll have to give them a little something for their primary weapon style but just make sure you put limits on it.

My first idea is for two handed specialty to grant 50% strike through but cap non two handers to 100% strike through non stacking with dance of death so it does not get out of hand but does improve their down time aoe dps. This way people can invest in strike through with epic destinies and filigrees etc to hit that cap. In general two handed fighting has become the best weapon style ever since strike through was injected into that fighting feat line. This would bring other styles closer in parity to them.

My second idea is for single weapon fighting specialty to grant 5% attack speed to non single weapon fighters non stacking with the vistani capstone or animal forms. This would bring up non vistani twfing into parity with it since daggers have been king of the hill for most twf for a while now allowing for more build diversity. This would also shake things up for those max dps two handed fighting builds that were taking the vistani capstone specifically for that attack speed.

For two weapon fighting specialty keep it simple and grant 5% double strike when not twfing there is already a 100% cap so not much else to do here.

People now get a bonus to their primary fighting style while grabbing these feats and have real choices do I improve my trash clearing ability or my boss dps but now I have to level up a secondary sentient gem and swap to a two handed weapon for trash.

Also please bring back integrated presets for epic destinies. What I mean by this is let me save an enhancement layout and swap between them with a click of a button or through a drop down menu. With the new tanking versatility feat available this would be a great quality of life move. It would also let people have a questing build saved and a raiding build saved to swap between without needing to constantly reset enhancements. Give vips 3 presets for free and everyone 2 with the ability to purchase more through the ddo store. This is easy money ssg please take my money.

[Axcarth]

(...) In consideration what kinds of builds want to be in LD, how about a multiselector? One for a damage decrease and one for uncapped dodge, while both also gets knockdown immunity? This would cover the dex based users (like Tempest Rangers, the path of dex fighters that Tabaxi opened, and rogues that don't want to be in SD, but do have problems getting their PRR up and rely on dodge as a main-defensive mechanic in addition to the melee focused paladins and fighters that do wear heavy armor and don't get much dodge anyway and therefore a percentual damage reduction would work with their main-defense.

Then it wouldn't feel too much to increase the numbers a bit (like 10% either reduction or uncapped dodge). In both cases, you get statistically 10% less damage, in one by reducing all damage, the other by ignoring 10% of the hits.

I totally agree with this. Multiselector is the solution.

No, sorry. We won't be giving Uncapped Dodge AND less damage from all sources if this occurs 100% of the time on Action Boost use.

You see? You wont have to be giving Uncapped Dodge AND less damage from all sources if you go Multiselector, since players would have to choose wich defensive boost suits their builds the best (100% procs).

[Arkat]

I totally agree with this. Multiselector is the solution.



You see? You wont have to be giving Uncapped Dodge AND less damage from all sources if you go Multiselector, since players would have to choose wich defensive boost suits their builds the best (100% procs).

I'd be ok with a multiselector.

[Kielbasa]

Here is an idea for a useful fluff legendary feat. Legendary Wand and Scroll mastery any scroll, wand or clickie you use acts as if you cast it at character level 30. Also a nice plat sink since it would encourage people to buy and use more consumables.

[Assassination]

For your consideration:

• Legendary Dreadnought: Unstoppable: When you activate an action boost, you gain the Unstoppable effect for 20 seconds. Unstoppable: You take 5% less damage from all sources, gain a +5 Action Boost bonus to Fortitude Saving Throws, and a +3% Action Boost bonus to Uncapped Dodge.

(Not intended as a "we're shifting plans to it", just "up for hearing some thoughts about it").

This is quite useless. Please consider 100% of the time a 25% less damage. The dodge is useless as now they are seeing through it.

Or consider giving a boost to casters here as all the other trees and legendary feats are.

[Wongar]

I tested the new core 4 Unyielding Sentinel: Last Hope during the last Lam period and reported on the healing.

The ability appears unchanged in this Lam round and I did not see any dev comment on it.

This is the test results from last preview, this preview gave similar results when testing:

Tested this on a build with 12 cleric levels to compare with a self cast heal and Guardian Angel feat
Had 235 Heal Amp and 607 positive spell power

In R4
Last Hope healed for 300hp each tick
non-crit self cast heal hits for 718hp

In R6
Last Hope healed for 214hp each tick
non-crit self cast heal hits for 513hp

In R8
Last Hope healed for 128hp each tick
non-crit self cast heal hits for 307hp

In R10
Last Hope healed for 42hp each tick
non-crit self cast heal hits for 102hp


So as you can see, last hope "heal" only provides about 42% of the healing that a self cast heal spell does in reaper. As you move up in Rs the amount of healing goes down to near meaningless amounts.

For comparison, a self cast Renewal does almost the same amount of healing, more if it gets a couple of crits.

Does what amounts to an auto cast Renewal at most every 5/3 minutes really sound useful, balanced, or fun? How does a small single target heal that only happens at most every 5 minutes seem even remotely balanced with the Bard "Hear my Voice Friend" which effectively spams AOE heals for free?

Yes, I am devaluing the other buffs. For starters they only last 8 seconds. For a tank, 50 melee power is meaningless and for a non-tank build if you are getting beat up to the point this triggers you are likely trying to get out of combat to recover so not making use of the melee power. The PRR and MRR are nice but again if I just got slammed for 80% or more of my HP, a little more PRR/MRR is likely not going to get me out of trouble or even be noticed. What I value most and would call "Last Hope" when near death is hit points - either from healing or temp, I don't care as long as it is very quick and gives enough time for player reaction.

Tanking is often a boring job, I would love to see something active in this core or something that reduces the cool down on current abilities.

My suggestions for this:

First choice:
-- Last Hope: "The cool down on Knight's Challenge and Intimidate is reduced by 25%."
This would go a long way in keeping tanks more active and helping mange the huge burst DPS given to other classes.

If it needs to be a reactive ability, than something that really helps would be appropriate. For example:

-- Last Hope: "When you drop below 20% health and do not die, if you have Lay On Hands you receive two charges for it and immediately use one as if you cast it yourself including all upgrades selected. This scales with highest of 400% Melee Power or 100% Spell Power. This can only occur once every 5 minutes. If you have the Guardian Angel feat this can occur once every 3 minutes and you are given 3 charges instead of 2."
This will give a chance to react and a lag buffer in a fight and rewards people for investing higher in the tree. I really like that with "Light the Dark" this is a party buff.

Or:

-- Last Hope: "When you drop below 20% health and do not die, you receive 50% of your max Hit Points as temporary Hit Points that last for 8 seconds. This can only occur once every 5 minutes. If you have the Guardian Angel feat this can occur once every 3 minutes and the temp hit points last for 12 seconds instead of 8."
Given the large amounts of on demand temp hit points available elsewhere, I don't think this is out of line for a short reactive burst.

[KielbasaBeta]

-- Last Hope: "When you drop below 20% health and do not die, you receive 50% of your max Hit Points as temporary Hit Points that last for 8 seconds. This can only occur once every 5 minutes. If you have the Guardian Angel feat this can occur once every 3 minutes and the temp hit points last for 12 seconds instead of 8."
Given the large amounts of on demand temp hit points available elsewhere, I don't think this is out of line for a short reactive burst.

Sounds fair in general I am a fan of melee getting more temp hp procs to keep them alive until a healer can can save their bacon.

[Steelstar]

New thought for Dreadnought: Throw out everything that was talked about before.

• Legendary Dreadnought: Unparalleled Accuracy: When you activate an Action Boost, you gain +5% Dodge Bypass for 20 seconds.

[J1NG]

New thought for Dreadnought: Throw out everything that was talked about before.

• Legendary Dreadnought: Unparalleled Accuracy: When you activate an Action Boost, you gain +5% Dodge Bypass for 20 seconds.

Funnily enough, I actually think this is a bit more suitable. When you activate Action Boost, you REALLY want to output everything as rapidly and at the strongest level possible. If enemies are being given Dodge, then it's no good if players can't hit properly because of Dodge.

I don't have a copy of my old video at hand I recorded a long time ago, but basically two 100% Dodgers were swinging at each other in a PvP pit (back when players still went there occasionally) and players that went down got struck down by the two Dodgers, whilst on the outsite it looked like two players just swinging their weapons at each other in a non PvP area since neither was taking any damage. All you saw was basically Dodge, Dodge, Dodge, Dodge, Dodge... on each characters screen.

Now, whilst enemies likely won't have 100% Dodge (or even 95%) but Dodge is one of those mechanics like Blur on enemies. You won't wish you had bypass until you need it. And in content where it'll matter where the LD will want to go all out and take enemies down, this idea might not be a bad option.

J1NG

:: edit ::

Missed out on the most important parts. In 99% Dodge, that 1% roll came up surprisingly often (back when 100% or more was possible). And inversely, that low Dodge % numbers, is going to come up when you least want to see it. Just like with rolls we all see as players in DDO.

[elvesunited]

New thought for Dreadnought: Throw out everything that was talked about before.

• Legendary Dreadnought: Unparalleled Accuracy: When you activate an Action Boost, you gain +5% Dodge Bypass for 20 seconds.

Why is dodge bypass suddenly such a big thing? I think I've seen more instances dodge bypass in this update and the last then I've seen in all instances of dodge bypass that existed in the game prior to them. They're not even big sources of dodge bypass but small ones. Having taken multiple characters from heroics through epics I almost never see enemies dodge. So why now?

[J1NG]

Why is dodge bypass suddenly such a big thing? I think I've seen more instances dodge bypass in this update and the last then I've seen in all instances of dodge bypass that existed in the game prior to them. They're not even big sources of dodge bypass but small ones. Having taken multiple characters from heroics through epics I almost never see enemies dodge. So why now?

It's going to be used against players from all Legendary content onwards. True Seeing is too easily used to bypass enemy Concealment. As is Ghost Touch for Incorporeal. To the point these on enemies mean nothing. So they bumped HP up to high heavens for a very long time and dps of enemies to kill players quicker. But that can only be sustained for a certain amount of time before that's unsustainable (players can't compete). And they can't bump their AC up because that's going to make everyone miss more.

So instead, apply Dodge to enemies. And then see if players want to add bypass to make their lives easier, or stay on their setup and hope RNG numbers support them. If I read their intentions right, their Dodge ratings will slowly go up as content comes out, meaning ultra dps means nothing anymore (especially since you can still Dodge whilst CC'd). Much like how Precision took over from Power Attack (unless if you couldn't make use of Precision) to reduce grazing attacks and turn them back towards a full normal attack.

J1NG

[Paisheng]

I like the idea that you can change philosophy at core 4 to set up different monk finishers...but it should not be tied to stunning fist/blow. It should be a toggle that you can elect to switch philosophies and your normal path (say light) can now be dark or void) You only get one of the 3 stance change toggles with the multiselector. So tier 4 would in the end give you 2 of the 3 philosophies and finishers to work with instead of 1/3.

[elvesunited]

It's going to be used against players from all Legendary content onwards. True Seeing is too easily used to bypass enemy Concealment. As is Ghost Touch for Incorporeal. To the point these on enemies mean nothing. So they bumped HP up to high heavens for a very long time and dps of enemies to kill players quicker. But that can only be sustained for a certain amount of time before that's unsustainable (players can't compete). And they can't bump their AC up because that's going to make everyone miss more.

So instead, apply Dodge to enemies. And then see if players want to add bypass to make their lives easier, or stay on their setup and hope RNG numbers support them. If I read their intentions right, their Dodge ratings will slowly go up as content comes out, meaning ultra dps means nothing anymore (especially since you can still Dodge whilst CC'd). Much like how Precision took over from Power Attack (unless if you couldn't make use of Precision) to reduce grazing attacks and turn them back towards a full normal attack.

J1NG

"That dinosaur is the size of a barn and it keeps dodging me!"

If that's the case then it will prove another boon for casters. Unless something similar is being done to crunch their numbers.