First Look: Favored Soul Beacon of Hope

[cru121]

Good Hope also gives +2 damage, so that's a decent perk that remains useful until 30 unless you have a bard around ready to Inspire Courage.

[Lanadazia]

any chance we could get extend on the hope buffs?
also making extend way more viable. i think this would fit well on a buff- focused character, while also opening up some space to do something else, but cycling through hope buffs all the time.
the buffs indeed are strong, but with just 12 seconds they also just let you have one decision - completely opt into this playstyle and do almost nothing else - or abandon it completely.

the mini-buff-game the cleric can play right now is a little more intuitive. you heal someone - they get some prr

weaker persistent bonuses, like the bards with their aura are up constantly, but its actually pretty lame. you don't feel like you contribute much, even tho you do, by just standing there.

[Lanadazia]

The idea of a healing/buffing tree is nice and certainly goes against the meta in most of the game where the trend is towards being self-sufficient.

But, such a tree should be easy to use not cumbersome.

The Hopes are ironically hopeless. Single target, short duration, tiny effects except for the last one with no effect on self is about as bad as it gets.
- Double the effects on skills, prr, mrr, melee power and ranged power (all except the last Hope). The current effects are far too small. Say a level 12 FvS that gives 6 mrr/prr - hardly noticeable and definitely not worth the hassle.
- Up the duration to 1 min on the first 3 Hopes and 30 sec on the final Hope.
- Make the effect group rather than single target.


The SLA are also a bit lackluster
- Good Hope is outdated by GH scroll/pots/spells, consider making it scale with FvS levels to avoid that.
- Close Wounds is OK.
- Death Ward should be Mass Death Ward for the same price.
- Heal is good
- Raise Dead is a joke in tier 5. By level 12 most builds has Raise Dead scrolls and many have Ressurrection. Change to "Ressurrection AND removes death penalties" and you suddenly have something interesting and unique. Alternatively, change to "Everytime you cast a buff, hope, heal or beacon these affected by it including yourself gains temp hp equal to your FvS level + epic level" - still a small effect but one you can and will add often.

Cores:
- Bacon of Grace given 1 hp pr. FvS level isnt enough. Its rare to have a line of people in front of you and giving maybe 25 hp by level 12 to someone with 400+ hp isnt worth the time usually. Make it a passive cone that does this every 2 seconds automagically and its suddenly something worth having - or make it add 3 hp per FvS level to make it somewhat usefull.
- Flight of Glory needs to scale better into epic levels. Add +10 per epic level.

But, such a tree should be easy to use not cumbersome - exactly!
i like the idea of a pure healing/buffing playstyle - yet i don't want to deal with a very clumsy design to do so. it should feel intuitive and less like a thing a bot would do better

[Enguebert]

Some comments

1) I dislike short duration buffs. Especially if you need to cast it on other people. Hey, under 1 min, I usually forget to use them. Even self buff like action boost ! 12 sec buff ??? No way
2) SLA are useful if you cast them often OR you want to add various metamagic feats for free. Raise dead and Deathward SLA ? No way. Heal SLA ? Maybe to save a spell slot or have a second heal. Close wounds SLA ? Maybe.(and maybe only 1 rank) Good Hope SLA ? Just take 1 rank of it, I see no reason to take rank 2 and 3
3) The mechanism of beacon is innovative. Let's see how it works in a group where everybody is moving :-)

But this tree has only HEALING and BUFF OTHER without having something unique like Radiant Server Aura


Idea for Unique Tier 5
- Your beacon abilities trigger automatically every X times
- Your beacon abilities trigger each time you cast a light spell

[MasterKernel]

Death Ward SLA ? Why would somebody want to take it ?

Raise Dead SLA ? Probably, useless too.

Overall… go and create a copy of this tree for Druids. :-D (You may also fix Nature's Protector tree as well, it's a collection of useless things after the latest update to it. :-\ )

[Lanadazia]

there are three spell slots for level eight spells usually taken up by:
Mass Deathward
Mass Cure Critical Wounds
Firestorm or Holy Aura (both desirable)

since when is holy aura desirable? first they made the stacking bonus to armor and saves to a deflection and resistance bonus = pretty underwhelming, since low level spells can do this. then its still bugged and fails on ally's SR. a bug that was **** annoying way back in like 2010!

I got to the first 12 second buff and was like, ugg this would have to be much better to recast all the time (...)

You are basically giving up and entire party member for it, because you won't be doing anything else.

i actually do like the "support fulltime" playstyle idea - but a 12 second buff is just silly. also the capstone DOES NOT scale with the set timers of the hope buffs. it only scales with the according healing.

if we could get "+5 seconds on the duration of your hope skills" per core enhancement, or +2 per FvS level (including epic levels), AND the possibility to use extend on it
it might get somewhat useful. or some other mechanic, that will trigger a random hope spell with each tick of the healing wall. something like this, to get some good use of it.
right now this is way too clumsy. its like cantor said - you give up a party member for this - just to contribute less

[Lanadazia]

But this tree has only HEALING and BUFF OTHER without having something unique like Radiant Server Aura


Idea for Unique Tier 5
- Your beacon abilities trigger automatically every X times
- Your beacon abilities trigger each time you cast a light spell

the new tree has this healing wall.

my suggestion earlier was, to let the hope buffs trigger on getting healed by that healing wall.
or adding that buff to a character you spellcrit-healed - that would be a cool idea!

or add a skill, that on activation, that does something like a radiant servant positive energy burst but without the heal and applies 2 random hopes to nearby allies. or another SLA that has a hitbox like a dragonsbreath or a cone. a healing mist/gust of wind sort of spell, that also adds random hope buffs

add the hope buffs ontop of cool skills like the healing wall, don't make it boring. tie the triggering effects to special interactions. spellcrit heals for example. or on activation of other stuff the FvS gets. dash through your allies with leap of waith to also buff them. or leave a trail of holy ground where you dashed over - all allies standing on top get a refreshing beacon/hope buff.

so many chances to add a unique and fun playstyle - yet you decide to go the "press button 1-3, wait 6 seconds, do it again" mechanics.
step up your game! so much potential is this tree!

make it more interactive!

[FuzzyDuck81]

Cool tree with some interesting flavour

I disagree with the idea that some of those SLAs aren't useful "because you can just scroll it" - free quicken on raising is nice, they free up spell slots & importantly it means you don't have to waste time item switching so you keep your weapon/caster stick equipped so can get it's benefits.

[SirValentine]

• Core 6: True Resurrection SLA: 25 SP. 10 second cooldown. Multiselector:
  
  • Passive:+4 WIS. You gain +3 Maximum Caster Level with all Positive spells. Your Hope and Beacon abilities that scale with Favored Soul level now add Epic Levels as well.
  • Passive: +4 CHA. You gain +3 Maximum Caster Level with all Positive spells. Your Hope and Beacon abilities that scale with Favored Soul level now add Epic Levels as well.

Not sure why a healing/buffing tree gets to have a +4 casting stat in their capstone, when Druid offensive caster tree doesn't (and got their spell pen & DCs nerfed).

The part about scaling with Epic levels is interesting, but I don't see why this is given to FvS healing tree only. Why shouldn't every single other tree do similar? Either they all should, or none of them should.

Tier 5:

• Wall of Healing: Cost: 30 Spell Points. Create a wall that persists for 30 seconds. Allies and Undead in the wall take a Cure Moderate Wounds spell every few seconds. 60 second cooldown.

Nothing against the ability, but this name sounds dumb.

Are you fixing War Soul with this pass? Angel of Vengeance? ...Any of the Cleric trees?

• We've got an Angel of Vengeance pass nearly done, and plans to try and get Warpriest and War Soul passes in for either U39 or shortly after. Details soon!

So nothing for RS or DD anytime soon?

Do these work with Metamagics?

• Hope Buffs: Enlarge, Quicken

No Extend?

[scipiojedi]

I think the beacon abilities might be more useful if they were coded like crown of summer - longer duration but can only be cast on 1 party member. Then fill the tree with various beacons and you have to figure out who should get what beacon. Also with some sort of visual beacon hanging around each member you could tell who has what. Then make a tier 5 toggle (like meditation of war) that enhances each beacon to give half it's bonus to other party members within a sort of aura. So when the party sticks together all the beacons overlap and the whole party gets some buffs but when they spread out in a quest only individual members get the benefit. Obviously you should aim for 8 unique beacons so that in raid groups you have to make choices about who gets what beacon.

As for other abilities, it seems like the intent of the tree was to buff with abilities that are like heroic companion, so keep going along in that line. Maybe offer an enhancement that increases the buffs that heroic companion gives since that isn't just locked into halflings but anyone can get that now with harper, just to incentivize taking that ability and put another trick into the Beacon of Hope arsenal. Such as making it a "mass buff" and everyone in the party benefits from heroic companion now etc.

[SirValentine]

There are a few oddities, like why deathward and raise dead SLAs? 95%+ of the builds that will use this tree will have those spells (most of the good stuff scales with FVS levels, so if you aren't mostly fvs the tree in general doesn't make much sense). Usually SLAs are spells that you want to cast a LOT so you get the benefit of low SP cost and free metas. Neither are really relevant to to raise dead or deathward.

Actually, it made a lot of sense to me. FvS have such super-limited spell spots, the point of the SLA is that now you don't have to have those spells, so you can add something else instead.

[Cantor]

..good stuff..

+1

I really agree with your comments. Even at 24 seconds (if they add extend) reapplying buffs so much will be awkward, and like you said means you are totally sacrificing any input from this character in a party other than buffing and healing. The buffs have to be very strong and have longer duration.

I think the beacon abilities might be more useful if they were coded like crown of summer - longer duration but can only be cast on 1 party member.

This was my first thought too. If you are going to make it one person (or 1.5 if trying to keep it on 2, 12/6 with cast time and latency you're casting it every 8 secs at best) just make it a crown.

if we could get "+5 seconds on the duration of your hope skills" per core enhancement, or +2 per FvS level (including epic levels), AND the possibility to use extend on it
it might get somewhat useful. or some other mechanic, that will trigger a random hope spell with each tick of the healing wall. something like this, to get some good use of it.

All of these are good ideas:
Make them augmentations that improve your cones and/or wall.
Increasing the duration based on cores or levels is a great idea.

Regardless they need to be aoe at current power levels, to be a single target dedicated refresh buff they need to be mind-blowingly strong.

i like the idea of a pure healing/buffing playstyle - yet i don't want to deal with a very clumsy design to do so. it should feel intuitive and less like a thing a bot would do better

Exactly. If it's not reactive and so repetitive that it should be botted, it's a miss.

I think to be a buff build and not something that would be botted better, you need some kind of choice: arti already has DR breaking infusions covered for long durations, but something like that where you respond to the situation and buff: a spell pen buff, a crit immunity buff to use against bypass champs, a poison immunity for cruelty champs, a short duration immunity like monks can do with finishers (that's the point on durations: monks do a 1 minute aoe buff and it's painfully short duration, 12 sec is absurd).

Maybe some debuffing too with no saves (if it has a save you might as well just cc it), like cones of: lower fortification, slow, MP/RP debuff, DR destroying (instead of buffing party to bypass, debuff the mobs DR). Active debuffing basically doesn't exist in DDO because bosses are immune and if you could make DC with a debuff why wouldn't you just lock it down completely?

[MasterKernel]

Actually, it made a lot of sense to me. FvS have such super-limited spell spots, the point of the SLA is that now you don't have to have those spells, so you can add something else instead.

Yeah, well, first they should add like 40-50-60+ new spells into the game, 'cos as it is now, there is nothing else to put into the said spells slots.

[Targal]

It's off topic, but Radiant Servant needs love as much as this...

[HuneyMunster]

- Raise dead Sla... why? not only does Fvs have the actual spell and the mana to use it aplenty, you also have scrolls which are used by... every single class in this game? This is a waste of space.

Sacred Defender get Raise Dead and Resurrection at level 12. If FvS takes level 20 core then Raise Dead SLA becomes obsolete. Its pretty much obsolete at 12 as well as it rarely a good idea to use Raise Dead during combat as often any damage taken means the target will just die again.

I would move True Resurrection to T5 or as regular Resurrection and add Improved Death Pact for capstone that bring yourself to 50% hp instead of 10% that the regular spell gives. Or it could replace Raise Dead as a T5 and would be of similar strength as that of Shintao Rise of the Pheonix.

[dimitrisscript]

Thank you for this tree!

I've been playing a FvS healer/support ever since the FvS class came out, and I can finally say that I have my own personal tree now!

This is going to make my life so much better now.

If you want more tips from a healer/support point of view, I can give you more.
For example, we need to be able to make healthbars bigger and wider in order to click them more effectively.

Cheers!

[Morroiel]

Good design mechanics for the most part.

Bad design balance. This tree will auto force every healer in high skull reaper into fvs. Absolutely no point playing cleric, druid, or bard while these abilities exist for fvs only.

[edrein]

Really disappointed that in the 6+ month since this was first proposed to the Player Council and then there hasn't been much changes.

I'd have atleast thought you all would have given my suggestion for making a flip-side of the tree as Beacon of Despair a thought.

Most people who play Favored Souls don't want to be a heal or buff bot. Which was why I made the suggestion to add the inverse of this tree as an option; giving access to negative spell power boosts, negative SLAs, and debuffs rather than buffs. Yes, it'd be riffing off of Dark Disciple a bit. But it'd certainly give more variety to favored souls as a whole. And overall would give Vol favored souls a reason to exist save being vistani-warpriest builds.

I still think it's not too late to go back and reconsider the Beacon of Despair.

[Xgya]

I think the beacon abilities might be more useful if they were coded like crown of summer - longer duration but can only be cast on 1 party member. Then fill the tree with various beacons and you have to figure out who should get what beacon. Also with some sort of visual beacon hanging around each member you could tell who has what. Then make a tier 5 toggle (like meditation of war) that enhances each beacon to give half it's bonus to other party members within a sort of aura. So when the party sticks together all the beacons overlap and the whole party gets some buffs but when they spread out in a quest only individual members get the benefit. Obviously you should aim for 8 unique beacons so that in raid groups you have to make choices about who gets what beacon.

I *LIKE* this idea.

Very much.
Long duration single target buffs sounds like less of a piano clickfest.

My suggestion was applying some of those buffs when you target an ally with spells (maybe with the same cooldowns on the abilities - like the Radiant Servant's Reactive Heal debuff that prevents reapplying - if they think a permanent buff is too strong).
Then, it WOULD make the cheap-ish buff SLA useful in the same way adding Feather Fall to a Warlock's spellbook when they get to give temp HPs to allies they target is still pretty neat.

[scipiojedi]

Thank you for this tree!

I've been playing a FvS healer/support ever since the FvS class came out, and I can finally say that I have my own personal tree now!

This is going to make my life so much better now.

If you want more tips from a healer/support point of view, I can give you more.
For example, we need to be able to make healthbars bigger and wider in order to click them more effectively.

Cheers!

Use F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, F6 etc. to target party members