Epic Destinies

[Inferno346]

Steve "Eladrin" Muray: One of them lets you punch people through time.

[Coldin]

Sounds pretty awesome. I like how these Epic Destinies seem to be going to make Epic levels feel truly epic.

I'm anxious to see what this looks like in game, and how it will affect character builds. (Like...I'd love to be able to give my Artificer evasion once he hits epic levels )

[WruntJunior]

I may just be slow, but I'm not sure from reading the article...can you only work on leveling epic destinies while leveling from 20-25...or is it any time after 20? Not entirely sure...but personally, I want to max everything on two characters at least, so... :P

[psteen1]

I may just be slow, but I'm not sure from reading the article...can you only work on leveling epic destinies while leveling from 20-25...or is it any time after 20? Not entirely sure...but personally, I want to max everything on two characters at least, so... :P

It sounds like destinies are on a different xp scale from the actual leveling. Although if you run epic quests, the amount of xp you gain is equal in both categories- destinies category and leveling category. It sounded like if you run heroic quests, you still get xp for epic levels, although perhaps at a reduced rate.

[Dolphious]

Twists of fate are still a bit confusing, my understanding now is that they are slots where you can put an ability from a currently inactive (but unlocked?) tree to use all the time. Is that right?

The system sounds pretty cool, I look forward to long nights contemplating how to epic-out my toons

(Like...I'd love to be able to give my Artificer evasion once he hits epic levels )

My sense was that they're trying to avoid this kind of thing, as to have minimal overlap with Heroic abilities.

[bhgiant]

I'm hoping Sorcs get dragon form, or Wizards get epic spells like Armageddon and their Epic Moments.

I'm curious how the melees will do. Maybe my pure rogue will get the ability to... I dunno, can't think of anything.

[tihocan]

from the bottom of the tree only? Only a pre-set list of abilities in that tree?

Looks like you can upgrade your Twist of Fate to unlock a tier 2 or tier 3 ability (since in their current system you can only get 3 ToF slots, you can't go beyond tier 3).
So with 3 ToF slots obtained, you can have 3 tier 1 abilities, 1 tier 2 + 1 tier 1, or 1 tier 3.

[SableShadow]

Wow... send a Grandmaster of Flowers to punch me 6 days into the future to check this out on the Beta Test Server. Assuming it's in the first build.

Wish ... granted!
However, it will take you 7 moar days to get up and be able to log in.

Also, Shadow ... Dancer.

[MadFloyd]

A character that reaches Heroic level 20 will automatically begin to accumulate Epic XP, progressing through Epic levels 21 through 25. XP required to level is identical for all characters, regardless of number of TR's. If a character's Heroic level drops below 20 (for example, through True Reincarnation), Epic advancement and all benefits related to it are suppressed. When the character reaches Heroic level 20 again, they will be returned.

Advancing an Epic level grants static benefits regardless of your Heroic class composition. Players may customize their epic advancement using the Epic Destiny system, which resembles the traditional D&D Prestige Class system.


Characters that are level 20 can visit a Fatespinner and select an Epic Destiny if they have acquired access to them. (It's part of the MotU bundles.)

Epic Destinies are sort of like Prestige Classes that apply to your Epic levels. They each have five levels (plus benefits at level zero, just for having them selected) and their own enhancement trees.

The level 20+ character with no available destinies will be able to select a starting destiny from one of 10.

Epic Destinies have their own experience bar and level up independently from your actual epic levels. The two bars will advance in parallel.

Characters can gain access to multiple Epic Destinies. When you reach level 3 in an Epic Destiny, adjacent Destinies within the same sphere become available to the character. When you reach level 4 in certain "bridge" Epic Destinies, adjacent Destinies in other spheres become available.

A character can visit the Fatespinner to suppress their currently active Destiny and switch to another that they have access to. Any advancement in their old Destiny is not lost, but they gain no benefits from their old Epic Destiny. (There's an exception to this called a Twist of Fate, but I'll get to that in a bit.) At any time the character can visit the Fatespinner and switch back to their old Epic Destiny.

Epic Enhancement trees are similar to the Class Enhancement trees you've seen, but you have only one tree active at a time, there's an extra row, and vertical access is gated by Destiny Level 0/1/2/3/4/5 as well as 0/4/8/12/16/20 AP spent. Granted abilities are purely associated with Destiny Level 0/1/2/3/4/5, and have no AP spent prerequisites.

Every 3 Destiny Levels gained (cumulatively across all Epic Destinies) will grant the player a Fate Point. Fate Points can be used to unlock Twists of Fate or advance them.

A newly unlocked Twist of Fate permits you to set a level 0 or 1 epic enhancement as retained even if you switch to a different Epic Destiny. For example, you could retain Improved Power Attack from the Legendary Dreadnought even if you switched over to Shadowdancer.

Automatically granted abilities cannot be placed into a Twist of Fate slot, and you gain no additional benefit if a Twist of Fate is populated with an enhancement from your currently active Destiny.

Sample Twist of Fate costs:

Unlock First Twist of Fate: 1 Fate Point
Upgrade First Twist to Max Tier 2: 2 Fate Points
Upgrade First Twist to Max Tier 3: 3 Fate Points

Unlock Second Twist of Fate: 2 Fate Points
Upgrade Second Twist to Max Tier 2: 3 Fate Points
Upgrade Second Twist to Max Tier 3: 4 Fate Points

Unlock Third Twist of Fate: 3 Fate Points
Upgrade Third Twist to Max Tier 2: 4 Fate Points
Upgrade Third Twist to Max Tier 3: 5 Fate Points

[Algulcz]

Also, this is all subject to change! With that out of the way, the Master’s Blitz counter increments forward each time a Tactical Feat is successfully used. Once the counter reaches 50, you gain the ability to use Master’s Blitz. Upon activation, for 10 seconds you gain an additional 50% dodge and deal an additional 25% melee damage. Any time you kill an opponent while under the effects of Master’s Blitz, you gain an additional stack of the melee damage bonus and restart the duration. If you are below 50% health when you first activate this ability, you start with two stacks of increased damage instead of one. The damage bonus stacks up to 100 times.

I know it's too soon to judge, but I don't like this at all. 25%melee dmg is not epic, trying to stack it in 10s would be near impossible, especially if I have to make the final blow. Kill-stealing can become problem. And it can stack 100 times? Where can we fight that many mobs that can be killed in 10s from each other?

[KingOfCheese]

This should have a HUGE impact on team play--which I think will make the game so much more interesting.

Imagine the possible options one might have to optimize a TEAM of characters for a particular task.

[psteen1]

I'm hoping Sorcs get dragon form, or Wizards get epic spells like Armageddon and their Epic Moments.

I'm curious how the melees will do. Maybe my pure rogue will get the ability to... I dunno, can't think of anything.

sneak attack undead or constructs? That would rock.

[Gimpinator]

I really hate the idea of a new enhancement system that doesn't coincide with the future of an <old> enhancement system. It feels like you're giving us a bunch of fun stuff that will be completely changed or done away with entirely in the future when the enhancement changes are made. As excited as I am to try the expansion, I'm still saddened and discouraged because my play time and hard work will be for naught when the (even newer!) enhancement system is rolled out, and all my characters need to be True Reincarnated again.

[Dolphious]

I'm curious how the melees will do. Maybe my pure rogue will get the ability to... I dunno, can't think of anything.

Yeah what happens with melee vs. caster will be interesting, I'm sure the devs designed system this with the current "situation" in mind. I think the smart money is on the reign of the blue bar continuing, but perhaps mitigated a bit.

[LeLoric]

What happens upon reaching levels is it just the epic destinies can go up a tier or do we also get more skill points? feats at 21 and 24? hitpoints? caster levels for spells?

[rimble]

I know it's too soon to judge, but I don't like this at all. 25%melee dmg is not epic, trying to stack it in 10s would be near impossible, especially if I have to make the final blow. Kill-stealing can become problem. And it can stack 100 times? Where can we fight that many mobs that can be killed in 10s from each other?

Yah, I wasn't impressed with that either. However, if it's one of the freebie granted things, no biggie, it could have its uses.

[Hendrik]

*Awesome info*

/sock!

[AbuTai]

This looks exciting and I can't wait to try it out. I have a question though, echo'd here by others... level 21-25...do we still level up classes as we would, and Epic Destinies sit on top of that? Or is 21-25 just Epic level 1-5?

[MadFloyd]

What happens upon reaching levels is it just the epic destinies can go up a tier or do we also get more skill points? feats at 21 and 24? hitpoints? caster levels for spells?

Pardon the crappy formatting:

At each epic level you gain the following bonuses:

LeveL       HP        Saves       BAB          Feats      Ability Increases
21         +10          -          +1          Feat	
22         +10         +1          -		
23         +10          -          +1		
24         +10         +1          -           Feat       Ability Increase
25         +10          -          +1

Characters that are level 21 or higher may select Epic or Heroic feats as their level 21 and 24 feat selections.

[stainer]

Say we get to level 23, then TR, when we get to level 20 again, we are automagically level 23 for epic destinies? That is how I am reading it, but reading is hard.