U54 Preview 1 (4/13 - 4/15)

[Firebreed]

Force heals to self when targeting undead (default: False). While true, when you have an enemy undead targeted, any positive healing actions will be cast on you instead of the undead.

yes

YES

MOTHER FREAKIN YES

[Blaze-Of-Glory]

Gameplay Changes

• Trap the Soul has gotten an overhaul:
  
  • There is no more Hit Dice limit on this spell, and there is only one variant
  • This spell now gives you the regular gem for all CRs
  • Cannith Crafting recipes just use that one regular gem
  • Changed the cooldown to 10 seconds (Sorcerer remains at 8)

Does the stone of change adamantine ritual still work?

[Macaboros]

Is it okay if I do a little happy dance?

Did you target yourself first? Otherwise, you just danced @Lynnabel.

On a side note,

What is the VIP Saltmarsh token for if we can’t use it when we get the expansion from the shop?

[Shedrakzo]

I noticed that the new Hunter's Helm clips into the back of Dragonborns' heads at the moment.

[ilhares]

Please allow for the Khybershards to be purchased in quantities greater than 100. Otherwise having this spell be usable again is great!

The spell is still eminently usable - crunch them from your stockpiles of fragments in a stone of change. No purchase necessary.

[Lynnabel]

The spell is still eminently usable - crunch them from your stockpiles of fragments in a stone of change. No purchase necessary.

Actually, that special component was replaced with a new one a few updates ago! Check any spell general vendor for Khyber Dragonshards - you can just buy them for platinum, no crunching required :)

[Annex]

Lynnabel, thanks for working on some of the stance toggles. Two days ago, I started cleaning up the mess I left after Hardcore 5 to prepare for Isle of Dread and discovered Stalwart Defense now sticks. That's great, because I am very forgetful and constantly run into battle without checking stuff on characters I have not played for months.

[Aziz]

EK (and Vile Chemist) were not taking their Augment boosts or bonuses from Draconic, or anything, really. This change redoes how they do their math, so now all sources of boosts to the number of dice (such as the EK capstone) properly add dice.

Having the Draconic tree T2 ability Coalescence apply it's damage bypass to spellsword die (or any "elemental" attacks") instead of just spells would help.

[Archfae]

• Trap the Soul has gotten an overhaul:
  
  • There is no more Hit Dice limit on this spell, and there is only one variant
  • This spell now gives you the regular gem for all CRs
  • Cannith Crafting recipes just use that one regular gem
  • Changed the cooldown to 10 seconds (Sorcerer remains at 8)
• Shiradi caster mantles changes:
  
  • All proc dice have been raised to 7d77
  • Spellcast scaling has been raised to 100%
  • Proc rate has been raised to 7%
  • The elements offered have changed: now you may select from Light, Force, Poison, or Sonic

Misc Changes

• There is a new gameplay option: Force Heals to Self when Targeting Undead (default: false). While true, when you have an enemy Undead targeted, any positive healing actions will be cast on you instead of the undead.

Trap the Soul

Yay on making the spell usable again. This is amazing. I really appreciate the effort of going back and helping to make the spell list (and especially the school of conjuration) relevant again. The more viable spells there are, the more it will help make the tradeoff between wizard and sorc actually worth considering.

The cooldown is probably too short though for both wizard and sorcerer. Will based instakills are REALLY strong to add to the repertoire, as it allows targeting weak saves for mobs when paired with finger. With cd reduction (epls + shadowdancer), this essentially makes it up every 6 seconds for sorcerer and 8 seconds for wizard. This is enough that it's usable two times per pack of mobs easily, maybe 3 in some cases for sorcerer.

There's a reason devour the soul as the warlock capstone is set to a 15 second cd with cd reduction not affecting it. I'd probably suggest doubling the cooldown to 16 for sorc and 20 for wizard. Yes, I'm advocating you nerf this when my main atm is DC sorc. I'd rather it be a reasonable cd and not need to be nerfed in the future. 16/20 would allow sorc and wizard to use it 1x per pack of mobs (maybe sorc gets it off 2x if packs are taking a long time to clear).

Beyond this, please consider compensating warlock with a small buff. Warlocks niche as dc arcane casters has always been having the option for will based instakills and the instakill slas. However, hurl / absolute zero / etc. have a dc formula that has made those abilities extremely lackluster (especially after the stat crunch). Beyond this, trap the soul is a level 6 spell for warlock, which means that they have to give up hold mass or wail to take it. This invariably means they wont take it at endgame. Or if they do, they lose hold mass (the most valuable spell an arcane dc caster has) or wail.

Sorcerer DC casters are >> Wizard DC Casters due to casting speed, synergy with aasimar, cha racials, and built in lower cds

And this change among others, makes warlock much worse than both of them. Warlock has a lower dc potential than sorc or wizard. It lacks built in cd reduction. It suffers from limited spell choices. And their signature pact abilities are very subpar at the moment due to dc issues. Beyond this, warlock is also the only one of the three arcane dc casters to not have synergy with feydark illusionist capstone (loses fod sla, and devour the soul). It also has the least sp pool out of all 3 (and the hardest time healing themselves).

With cd reduction factored in, a sorcerer dc caster has 4 second phantasmal killer, finger of death spells. With this change, a 6 second trap the soul will based instakill. 40 second wail / weird. And ~20 second circle of death. They have 2.6s prismatic spray, sunburst. Disco. Undeath to death too. Additionally, they can take energy drain if they want.

With cd reduction factored in, a warlock dc caster has a 6 second finger of death, a 8 second finger of death sla, a 50 second wail / weird, ~24 second circle of death, a 15 second devour sla, and a 25 second hurl / absolute zero. All of which are at a significantly reduced DC to the point where targeting weak mob saves is almost always required. And hurl / absolute zero when minmaxed only really work on things with obscenely low will saves (e.g. iron golems, etc.). Further, they have about 1k less hp, 3k less sp, are missing a ton of utility spells, and lack the feydark illusionist capstone ability to be able to tank dooms or other hard hitting mobs without true sight.

I still likely wouldn't play them, but it'd at least be a more reasonable choice, if their signature pact abilities (Hurl / Absolute Zero) scaled with DC (warlock level) + (cha mod) + (spell school mod) to match spell dc. Please consider moving this dial as a compensatory buff for allowing sorc and wizard to majorly infringe on their niche as dc casters.

Shiradi

I'm really appreciative of the changes to the elemental typing. Force, Poison, and Sonic were underrepresented. I am a bit bummed that nerve venom got homogenized. I liked the idea of unique T5 procs for each elemental typing.

I really think the damage is still under where it needs to be. I'd still consider it a trap option to the point where I'll be unhappy if I see raid members having this as their mantle.

Beyond that, I just think the low proc rate is incredibly unfun due to extreme inconsistency. Is there anyway T4 or T5 mantle improvement could double the proc chance or have a separate proc chance (so 7% rando, 7% selected element, 7% rando)? This would help shore up some of the damage while also making it more fun. And it would require major investment into the tree (unlike the quick 8 point investment people were previously doing on some builds).

Misc Changes

Thank you!! This has been something I've been wanting for a long time in the game, and I'm glad that the frustration of having accidentally healed your target instead of yourself will end.

[Govynda]

originally posted by lynnabel
Shiradi caster mantles changes:
All proc dice have been raised to 7d77
Spellcast scaling has been raised to 100%
Proc rate has been raised to 7%
The elements offered have changed: now you may select from Light, Force, Poison, or Sonic

-----------------------------

dear lynnabel and the wonderful ssg team,

this is great. thank you so much for appreciating the feedback we as players have offered and the timely response. much appreciated. the 7d77 greater variability is also a nice match for the chaotic fey lore of shiradi. cool idea!

the average damage is still alot lower than it originally was ( previously 30% x 237.5 = 71.25 decreased to 7% x 269.5 = 18.865). This is still a massive 74% nerf to what was already an under performing tree compared to the draconic dps.

i would encourage you to at least consider something around double these numbers which would still be approximately a 50% nerf from the original. But perhaps more to the point is to question the original premise entirely.

Ive been averaging DDO playtime around 30-40 hours a week for 16 years. I have all past lives and capped reaper trees, and I tend to play several hours of r10s and raids everyday with a broad variety of players and guilds on Orien. Kindly appreciate that at least in my experience, SHIRADI WAS NOT THE TOP DPS TREE, not close. Draconic was and is. All the biggest caster dps players on Orien are using draconic. So why are we looking at shiradi? And isn't forcing all dps casters who wish to optimize to go draconic a little pigeon holed?

Simply consider the ruin / greater ruin aspect alone. Casting ruin / greater ruin takes only a second and the base damage in draconic is 3000 focused on the primary spell power and force and multiplied by metas and doubled wellspring. how can any1 else possibly match anything like those numbers? As I mentioned, I play everyday with the r10 and raiding community on Orien, and I tell you plainly that the highest dps casters are druid, sorc and alchemist (with alchemist being the top). And the highest dps destiny tree is draconic which matches up with these classes re: spell power type. Why are we even looking at the already under-performing shiradi tree and the classes like warlock, wizard, bard or fvs which match up with it in terms of the type of spell power?

If you want balance, just slightly reduce alchemist by 10% and draconic by 5% and leave shiradi where it was. This will still leave draconic as the highest dps destiny, but it'll balance up much better. And as a general rule, when considering a nerf, please think in terms of careful small increments, not a massive 92% reduction.

Alright, enough said

On the positive side, the move away from cold spell power which is already well represented in magus and draconic, and the addition of force and sonic is also a great idea. Thank you

one question: when u refer to the wider selection of spell types (light, force, poison, and sonic), are you referring to the current t2 stay frosty/stay good, or t1 prism, or both ?

[tanuki013]

Fate singer ED Core 2 and 3 is not increase Spell DC.
No Fix was done on the current Lamania server.
Fix please.

[Rull]

• There is a new gameplay option: Force Heals to Self when Targeting Undead (default: false). While true, when you have an enemy Undead targeted, any positive healing actions will be cast on you instead of the undead.

That is great. Nice!
Some others of the changes as well.

[Lynnabel]

Fate singer ED Core 2 and 3 is not increase Spell DC.
No Fix was done on the current Lamania server.
Fix please.

This has been fixed internally, and will be in an upcoming patch. Thank you!

[GramercyRiff]

This has been fixed internally, and will be in an upcoming patch. Thank you!

Can we please fix Righteous Command so that it gives the 5 melee power from the increase in mcl in epic? thanks!

[WetWip]

Testing Shiradi on Lam with a Divine Disciple cleric and assuming LAM has the newest Shiradi changes. I ran into the mists and death house each twice - once with the Shiradi mantel on and once with NO mantel on. I really never noticed it going off and my completion times were similar. Basically, without looking at the icon, I could not tell if it was on or off making it very meaningless. This was on a cleric build so not able to spam high proc rate spells.

Subjectively, I'd say Shiradi mantel feels alot like the Colors of the Queen past life stance. It is there and sometimes it does something you notice but for the most part, you won't miss it if you forget to turn it on. Given the rest of the tree does little to support casters and Beguiling Charm has been broken since release with no dev comment, I don't see me using Shiradi in any way with the proposed changes.

Shiradi balance seems to be tied to how fast spells can proc (proc rate = time/cooldown) and unless you are playing something that can attain the 10 procs/sec rate used in the calcs, you will never get much out of it. I don't see how to make it useful for low proc rate casters without making it op for spammers without upping the cooldown and the proc rate. Theoretically 5% proc rate with 0.1 sec cooldown == 25% proc rate with 0.5 sec cool down == 50% proc rate with a 1 sec cooldown, all give a proc about every 2 seconds. Can you consider increasing the rate and cooldown to make it more useful to low proc rate casters?


Teal, the new level 32 hire looks interesting. Seeing it was a Barbarian I assumed it was DPS focused. To play with it, I took a toon with 3 druid past lifes, picked up Augment Summoning and Improved Augment Summoning feats, equipped a 3 piece Cry of Battle set and took Natural Shielding in Primal Avatar to make it as good as could be. I took it into Fresh-baked Dreams on R1 and was able to keep it alive while it killed things and I watched from a distance. It was able to kill the Werewolf boss but it took a good amount of time and regular, but not constant, heals from me.

I took Teal through A Sharn Welcome on R4 with the level 30 Shield Guardian, Scarecrow, and Frogo hires. All 4 hires set to attack. I stayed out of combat when possible and let the hires do most of the killing. I summed the Primal Avatar Primal Ally constantly to help with DPS. In the group of hires, both the Guardian, Scarecrow had more HP than Teal and both had better surviveability than Teal. The Primal Ally had almost all the kills, the scarecrow actually had more kills than Teal - probably because Teal spend a lot of time on the Death timer.

Watching the Dino v Dino end fight was fun and made the test worth the effort and time.

Overall, I think level 32 Teal is worthwhile and a fun hire; however, I think being level 32, Teal needs a bit more HP and DPS to be competitive with the level 30 hires. I know Teal is a barb and the other two are more tanks, but he/she is also 2 levels higher and targeted at higher level quests.

[Govynda]

Regarding the new shiradi spell power types: force, sonic, light, and poison: Are these replacing the random T1 prism spell powers? or the t2 light/cold ?

I know this has been asked twice before in this thread, but still no response .... so Lynnabel, could you kindly confirm ?

[Govynda]

Or is it both t1 prism and t2 stay frosty / stay good ?

[Alled78]

7d77 is not an increase in my opinion is another BIG nerf.

[rabidfox]

Regarding the new shiradi spell power types: force, sonic, light, and poison: Are these replacing the random T1 prism spell powers? or the t2 light/cold ?
I know this has been asked twice before in this thread, but still no response .... so Lynnabel, could you kindly confirm ?

Or is it both t1 prism and t2 stay frosty / stay good ?

T1 is still prism with random spell type.
T2 is now stay good/loud/strong/toxic
T3 is still double rainbow
T5 is just nerve venom now

[Burtle]

I dunno if anyone noticed or not, but there's not a monk trainer in the dojo...