The no-nerf challenge

[Ancient]

Developer resources are being used as a reason to balance by nerf. This got me thinking if there were some easy buffs that would produce a more diverse play field, but done in a way to minimize the resource needs (in other words, don't re-invent DDO).

Here are my thoughts on changes that would tempt me to play almost every class/destiny. My focus was on boosting pure(ish) class builds to be competitive with deep multiclass builds, and encouraging the use of rarely used epic destinies. My subjective (completely subjective, so others are likely to not agree) criteria was to find something that would tempt me to actually play that class/destiny. I'd love to read what buffs would do the trick for others.

Enhancement Trees
Barbarian
Occult Slayer level 18 core adds the following: When you do melee damage in combat, you are healed for an amount equal to 10% of that damage. (No restrictions on procs per second or max hp or anything, this is the barbarian self-healing that is lore appropriate).
Occult Slayer level 20 core adds the following: When you rage you also receive the benefits of a heal spell. You can refresh rage before the previous rage has expired.

Stalwart Defender/Sacred Defender
Level 18 core adds the following: Your PRR damage reduction is doubled (You gain half the distance between your current number and 100%).
Level 20 core adds Your PRR damage reduction also applies to elemental damage.

Warchanter
Level 18 Core adds: You receive a profane save bonus equal to half your charisma bonus.
Level 20 Core adds: Expend one song to increase your strength by an amount equal to your charisma bonus.

SpellSinger
Level 18 Core adds: You receive phantasmal killer as a spell. You receive a +3 morale bonus to illusion spell DCs.
Level 20 Core adds: Change wail to weird (Basically wail with an illusion save). Add, your morale bonus to illusion spell DCs is now +6.

Sorcerer
All Savant Level 18 Cores add: The casting cost for spells of this element are reduced by half.
All Savant Level 20 Cores add: The casting cost for spells of this element are reduced by 75%, the cost of non-opposing elemental spells are reduced by half.

Wizard
Archmage 20 - The casting cost for spells of your specialization are reduced by half.
Palemaster 20 - Every time you kill an oponent, you gain 10 spell points.

Ranger
Arcane Archer 18 core - If you have 18 levels of ranger then the cooldown of manyshot is reduced by half.

Half-Elf
Core 7 - You can visit Fred to choose an appearance of another race.

Epic Destinies
Fatesinger
Turn the tide has duration increased to two minutes and the cooldown removed. The restriction on magic damage against bosses is also removed.

Magister
The Sigils are dropped and replaced with USEFUL SLAs based on the specialization school.

Shadowdancer
I got nothing, this tree is full of weak abilities with drawbacks, silly limitations and is the only destiny tree weaker than any of most of the heroic enhancement trees (Yeah, I don't like this one).

Grandmaster of Flowers
Dial the nerf on everything is nothing back to 3 minutes instead of 5.

Exalted Angel
Reborn in the light: Change the duration to 30 seconds and the cooldown to 2 minutes. Eliminate the need for counters.

Unyielding Sentinel
Add a prism/rainbow style proc ability to one of the core stances that doesn't have raid killing joker effects.

[Nestroy]

(...)
Half-Elf
Core 7 - You can visit Fred to choose an appearance of another race.
(...)

lol

This one is cool. Now, please do the same for male elfs and we are thru with decent choices for racial skins. And please redesign the somewhat challenged exteriors from the statues in the Halls of Heroes.

[Teh_Troll]

heck with that, nerf 'em all!!!!

[Chai]

Buff level 18 core and 20 capstone comparitively to what can be achieved by splashing the most common classes that are splashed with that primary class.

Example: The fighter 18 core + 20 cap needs to be as powerful as 6 levels of monk and 2 levels of paladin. If its not, theres no reason to stay pure.

This is the kind of thing that would need to happen to prevent nerfing.

Otherwise the trees need to be altered to not be so front loaded and everyone would get another +20 LR - which would consume those dev resources - something the OP is trying to theoretically prevent.

[Ancient]

Buff level 18 core and 20 capstone comparitively to what can be achieved by splashing the most common classes that are splashed with that primary class.

Example: The fighter 18 core + 20 cap needs to be as powerful as 6 levels of monk and 2 levels of paladin. If its not, theres no reason to stay pure.

This is the kind of thing that would need to happen to prevent nerfing.

Otherwise the trees need to be altered to not be so front loaded and everyone would get another +20 LR - which would consume those dev resources - something the OP is trying to theoretically prevent.

That is a good summary of what ended up driving my suggestions. Some of them sound very powerful, but if you look at what 6 levels of monk and 2 levels of paladin could provide... I may have undershot!

That said, I don't think the effort is that large since it is mostly focused on 18/20 cores and ED capstones.

[Vellrad]

Enhancement Trees
Barbarian
Occult Slayer level 18 core adds the following: When you do melee damage in combat, you are healed for an amount equal to 10% of that damage. (No restrictions on procs per second or max hp or anything, this is the barbarian self-healing that is lore appropriate).

This is so OP, I'd TR to barb instantly if it would be announced.

[Scraap]

Magister
The Sigils are dropped and replaced with USEFUL SLAs based on the specialization school.

Honestly, the concept is alright for what it is. Perhaps moding it to:

Cooldown 60 seconds. Effect (as in the entire effect, not just how long it waits to trigger or time out) lasts 3 minutes. Keep the one-up-at-a-time rule.
Force multipliers instead of additions while partymembers are enforcing their 'personal space'.

[HAL]

Half-Elf
Core 7 - You can visit Fred to choose an appearance of another race.

ROFL! Nice.

[Sebastrd]

At first glance, those are some of the best suggestions I've seen. Nice job.

[Sam1313]

Right lol why is it that elves, half elves and drow men cant have beards?

[Jasparion]

This is so OP, I'd TR to barb instantly if it would be announced.

2% would probably be more appropriate. But its a clever idea.

And yes, the first goal should be to buff the terrible, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with nerfing the OP.