Hi all! I hope your 2024 is treating you well!
With Update 66 we're embarking on a pretty large overhaul of the current 13 Epic Destinies in an effort to adjust their structure, balance, and presentation. This takes the form of some universal changes that apply to all trees, and some specific changes that apply to certain abilities within certain trees. Without further ado, let's get right to it!
Changes for this preview are in this awesome teal and are bolded!
Changes to All Trees
All Epic Destiny Trees have received the following:
- A pass over their individual icons for readability and iconography - this includes several new icons and edits to existing ones to provide a cleaner and more cohesive within-tree look.
- All Mantle ability icons now have a color-coded border around their Icon for maximum readability on a hotbar or within a tree.
- All Strike ability icons now have a color-coded border around their Icon for maximum readability on a hotbar or within a tree.
- All abilities that upgrade a Mantle or a Strike now have an appropriate border that matches the border of what they're upgrading for maximum visual clarity.
- Trees have been reordered and rearranged to support more clear Prereq lines in cases where ability upgrades are required - for example, an ability that says "Your Destiny Mantle gains this specific bonus" is now in a line with that Mantle and has arrows to properly convey its relationship.
- A ton of tooltips have been rewritten, reworded, color coded, and simplified or expanded depending on their needs.
You'll notice this section is almost all about how the trees are presented - and it's something that we hope really makes a difference. But now, onwards to the funky stuff!
Draconic Incarnation
Most of these adjustments are about Dragon Breath, an ability that we think is quite strong but has overshadowed the other caster-based Epic Strikes and (more importantly) outpaced the intended difficulty of our content. To that end, we're lowering its damage, but are also lowering its AP cost and its cooldown. Other Epic Strikes are being adjusted as well, Draconic just happens to be first and we're starting here!
- Dragon Breath is now a 1-rank, 2AP Ability.
- Dragon Breath damage adjusted to 1d6+5 damage per caster level.
- Energy Burst now increases Dragon Breath's damage to 1d6+10 damage per caster level.
- Gaping Maw now increases Dragon Breath's damage to 1d6+10 damage per caster level.
- Dragon Breath cooldown adjusted to 12 seconds.
- Dragon Breath and Attune the Arcane have swapped places in the tree.
- Dragon Breath now has its intended max caster level of 20 to match the other Epic Strikes. All Epic Strikes should now have a Maximum Caster Level of 20.
- The Epic Moment no longer makes you immune to negative damage if you are Undead.
- Spread Your Wings now properly puts all other jaunt abilities on cooldown.
- Inevitable is now on its own damage channel and should therefore no longer conflict with other damage over time abilities.