Weekly Developer Activities: 3/24/08

[ArkoHighStar]

Rangers dont get uncanny dodge as a class ability. Rogues and barbarians do however.

I do agree with the substance though that the new pally ability seems less fitting with pally abilities. Seems like the ability is working twards the evil type of paladin. A good type paladin ability would seem to be one where the pally gains life rather then sacrificing it.

no that would be evasion and improved evasion, as it is now UC and IUC are simply 30 second buffs really only useful for traps etc

[cm2_supernova]

I would just like to see paladins get something practical to replace turn undead, remove disease, and mount. I kind of feel that some of the things that are inherent to the class to balance them with "true tanks" are missing in DDO.

There are a bunch a good ideas out there on the subject...but I did have a daydream about pallys getting teleport a few times a day to simulate a really really really fast mount

[binnsr]

you are right it is 12 someone mentioned 18 in an earlier post and it just stuck with me. Still 12 is not cheap for what you get, considering

that was me .. i added 3+3 and got 9 somehow ...

[ArkoHighStar]

that was me .. i added 3+3 and got 9 somehow ...

doh!

[Angelus_dead]

I would just like to see paladins get something practical to replace turn undead, remove disease, and mount.

I consider AC Aura to be the replacement for special mount.

[MysticTheurge]

And the defensive capabilities of a paladin would be what?

That would be many of the things you say (ready access to temporary hit points, DR 5/evil, +5 AC), along with high saves and the ability to heal yourself.

(And paladins have the same number of feats as anyone else on that list except fighters.)

[Ghaldar]

# NEW Paladin Divine Sacrifice I

* Prereq: Paladin level 4, Paladin Extra Smiting I, 11 Action Points spent
* Cost: 1 Action Point
* Benefit: Giving up some of your life force to win the battle, you empower your next blow against your foe. This attack deals an additional 5d6 Good damage to evil opponents and increases the critical multiplier of your weapon by 1, but costs you 10 hp and 1 sp, whether or not the attack is successful.". (6 second cooldown.)
==========================
Boo!!!!
No seriously, as I've said before paladins do not have a lot of hp compared to fighters/barbarians. Making an ability require health like vicious weaponry is very bad. Especially with the fact you could be using it and wiffing away. 30 Damage max? That's going to do what to most creatures? Make them blink? Most of the decent leveled creatures in the game have 500 health and about an AC of 50+.

Honestly, I cannot figure out why the developers keep throwing barbed wire to the paladins of the game. You want to make this good? You pay so many life points and you get a constant buff/effect for the duration.

Pair the enhancement with body feeder weapon and you have something sick. As mentioned above by illuminati is a way to get sick numbers and if this enhancement grows.....could make paladins very attractive. Sacrificing life force and being able to self heal and take some of the new regen items or jerky pouch and this becomes a very viable enhancement chain if they fill it out to III.

[strike_hard]

so if monks are gonna be a new playable class are they gonna be granted to all players automatically or is it gonna be some kind of an unlockable???????

because after waiting almost 2 years for monks i would hate to see new players be able to roll up a monk as there first character!!!!

[ArkoHighStar]

so if monks are gonna be a new playable class are they gonna be granted to all players automatically or is it gonna be some kind of an unlockable???????

because after waiting almost 2 years for monks i would hate to see new players be able to roll up a monk as there first character!!!!

it is a core class they have indicated it will be playable by all

[dragonoffrost]

I would say new players would be upset if Monks were not playable until unlocked. Core stuff should be available from the start. Drow on the other hand are Non-Core so should be and are an unlockable bonus.

[RavenStormclaw]

Pair the enhancement with body feeder weapon and you have something sick. As mentioned above by illuminati is a way to get sick numbers and if this enhancement grows.....could make paladins very attractive. Sacrificing life force and being able to self heal and take some of the new regen items or jerky pouch and this becomes a very viable enhancement chain if they fill it out to III.

"fill it out to III" That is the point everyone seems to have glossed over. It seems based on the naming language that there is more then one tier to this line. At tier III that is 7d6 extra damage and +3 to the crit multiplier. With a 6 second cool down if you hit even once every 10 tries you are talking some seriou numbers and with improved critical a crit with this hitting could be devestating. Lord knows take a dwarf paladin with power attack on using a great axe who crits with this and the numbers seem staggering.

At tier 3 a khopesh user 1d8 + str bonus average 12 x 6 critmultiplier 72 + 7d6 average 21 thats 93 if you have a bloodstone which is +8 x 7 56 that is 149 and if they can tie smite to this as well this can get crazy high.

These a rough numbers if someone want to correct me if I am wrong plz do so.

[Zenako]

I would just like to see paladins get something practical to replace turn undead, remove disease, and mount. I kind of feel that some of the things that are inherent to the class to balance them with "true tanks" are missing in DDO.

There are a bunch a good ideas out there on the subject...but I did have a daydream about pallys getting teleport a few times a day to simulate a really really really fast mount

Already use Turn for turns and Remove to help keep people healthy. Only really missing mounts and that could be solved with just giving us a Once/rest friend like various Dragon Marks can.

About turns, making them more useful would be simple, just give Paladins access to some or all of the other Divine (Healing, Vitality, etc ) lines that they currently cannot get. I would really like to be able to use those 13 turns / rest for something in quests without undead.

[cm2_supernova]

Already use Turn for turns and Remove to help keep people healthy. Only really missing mounts and that could be solved with just giving us a Once/rest friend like various Dragon Marks can.

About turns, making them more useful would be simple, just give Paladins access to some or all of the other Divine (Healing, Vitality, etc ) lines that they currently cannot get. I would really like to be able to use those 13 turns / rest for something in quests without undead.

I meant to make turn and remove disease useful. Paladins turns are basically ineffective doing level appropriate content, and with the number of disease immunity\remove disease pots makes RD not that useful either.

Personally, I dont think giving paladins DV1 would be a game breaker

[MysticRhythms]

I do agree with the substance though that the new pally ability seems less fitting with pally abilities. Seems like the ability is working twards the evil type of paladin. A good type paladin ability would seem to be one where the pally gains life rather then sacrificing it.

Divine Sacrifice as listed above is almost a verbatim listing of how the Paladin spell works. The ability is in line with the 3.5 rules.

[binnsr]

I do agree with the substance though that the new pally ability seems less fitting with pally abilities. Seems like the ability is working twards the evil type of paladin. A good type paladin ability would seem to be one where the pally gains life rather then sacrificing it.

Divine Sacrifice as listed above is almost a verbatim listing of how the Paladin spell works. The ability is in line with the 3.5 rules.

Not to mention that a paladin gaining health at the expense of another is much more evil than any kind of self-sacrifice.

[Talcyndl]

I agree much better, given the power of the bards ability to fascinate constructs. it makes no sense to have any kind of timer on this especially given the cost.

Second, third, fourth this.

I mentioned this type of rogue enhancement a long time ago. It would seem to be a MUCH better solution, compared to another click-to-attack effect.

And you can even have a seperate (?) line for undead. Kind of like bards have the fascinate undead and construct lines.

[Coldin]

you are right it is 12 someone mentioned 18 in an earlier post and it just stuck with me. Still 12 is not cheap for what you get, considering

bard music of of the maker cost 14 and is 10X more powerful
Barbarian improved crit 2 costs 6 and is effectively always on

I disagree that music of the maker is 10x more powerful. First off, fascinate just stops the constructs from moving for a set amount of time. It doesn't make any advances towards damaging or killing them, especially for a bard that doesn't get any mass damage spells like Disintegrate.

I'm not saying that Bard Music the Maker isn't more powerful, but the new Wrack Construct isn't as bad as you say it is. It's really only 6 AP (3 of which you might be buying anyway) to deal an extra 3d6 damage to any constructs every 8 seconds. That's really not a bad burst of damage. Plus, I'm betting it just might work against everyone's favorite pillars and portals.

I suggest that Wrack Construct III be changed so that Way of the Mechanic can be used to qualify in place of Disable Device III. That makes logical sense that it would improve your machine-understanding to a similar degree, and it will help keep Way of Mechanic useful (in comparison to the improvements coming to Way of Assasin).

I can get behind this. It's similar to how Way of the Mechanic gives access to Iron Companion line of enhancements. That being said, I can kinda understand why they might want to leave it only as Disable Device III, to balance out the costs.

[gpk]

Divine Sacrifice as listed above is almost a verbatim listing of how the Paladin spell works. The ability is in line with the 3.5 rules.

Yes it's funny how the pally related spells and spell-like effects seem to be pnp compliant, yet Ram's Might, Crit Rage 2 are SO far from pnp or balance it's almost comical.

5d6 self damage 10 might be OK in some circumstance in pnp, even with the +1 Crit multiplier this is a joke.
Damage from Divine Sacrifice should have been doubled or even tripled or self damage reduced to say 1-3 hit points for it to be viable in DDO. Everything else seems to be scaled to DDO standards why not this?
5d6 in DDO is NOT the same as 5d6 in pnp.

Giving worse than vicious as a class ability is hardly what I'd call "pallylove"; the bodyfeeder argument makes no sense for a variety of reasons:
No guarantee of critical hit, no crafted bodyfeeder, usign bodyfeeder on an inferior weapon losing DPS praying for a crit etc.

I'm baffled by this strange obsession with Smite Evils still

Where is Silverbeard, Righteous Fury, Righteous Might, you know the good spells? Where is Divine Might?
Those Turn Undead uses are meant to be used with divine feats such as Divine Might and Divine Shield.

Can we expect those spells and divine feats/enh in the next WDAs?

[Bloodyfury]

• NEW There are now 20 shortcut bars available, for those who carry too many clickies/weapons/spells to fit on 10. Those of you who had previously used the unsupported methods of accessing bars 11-20 will be happy to know that they now will remember where you put them on the screen.
• NEW Bidding on an item that you have been outbid on, from the bids page of the auction house no longer results in an error message.

AMEN!!!

[Lorien_the_First_One]

NEW There are now 20 shortcut bars available, for those who carry too many clickies/weapons/spells to fit on 10.

YAY!!!

NEW A new click and hold to attack option has been added to the game

How is this different than using autoattack?