Lamannia Update 66 Preview 2 - Epic Destiny Refresh

[The Narc]

I don't think it will be anytime soon, if at all. I can count on one hand the number of alchemist I've ran into the past two PLs. It's a lovely class that no one plays.

Lol wait until their are more streaming videos where even an average player can dominate with them and then post it in their build catalogue and all the following cronies jump on the bandwagon then the change will come. I expect as people adapt to the loss of the easy button EA aura that we will see more alchemists and then it will be hit on the head regarding the group falsies it can ramp up to in epics and on.

 

[DBZ]

More melees you mean there not getting hammered ofc those come later

 

[The Narc]

Although most changes dont effect the top niche of players, the changes that are being made to the game are set to impact players that are of average talent or lower and are meant to impact those players when running quests on elite.

Reason behind my logic on this is simple,
Elite grants the most favor, favor turns into ddo points, ddo points allow people to buy things in the ddo store. The quicker and easier an average player or lower can earn ddo points the leas real money they are going to spend on the game.

This is why EA healing aura had to go as well as dragons breath as well as whats happening tonhubts end and adrenaline.

Talented players can use these effectively in much higher content and some dont even bother with half that stuff, but average players running elite and trying not to be a stone need those things or they have to slow the pace a whole lot to not be a stone, whcih means less ddo points per hour.

Thats my take.

 

[DBZ]

Racials x3 makes the most tp hmmmm followed by itrs

ETRs are a non factor

 

[Scrag]

Consumed by shadows sucks. It isn't even an assassinate. Does it even do much against a raid boss? It lasts only 12 seconds, and solo I am not seeing it being all that good.

Can you use it from ranged sneak attack from stealth?

 

[karthunk]

Although most changes dont effect the top niche of players, the changes that are being made to the game are set to impact players that are of average talent or lower and are meant to impact those players when running quests on elite.

Reason behind my logic on this is simple,
Elite grants the most favor, favor turns into ddo points, ddo points allow people to buy things in the ddo store. The quicker and easier an average player or lower can earn ddo points the leas real money they are going to spend on the game.

This is why EA healing aura had to go as well as dragons breath as well as whats happening tonhubts end and adrenaline.

Talented players can use these effectively in much higher content and some dont even bother with half that stuff, but average players running elite and trying not to be a stone need those things or they have to slow the pace a whole lot to not be a stone, whcih means less ddo points per hour.

Thats my take.

I think AE is getting the boot because of alts on secondary accounts. My static groups, and I have one as well, have been using secondary accounts with buff/heal alts for quite some time to fill in any gaps in our groups. Those secondary characters always had EA aura because it was ridiculously strong and involved no interaction to use.

 

[Elves United]

Consumed by shadows sucks. It isn't even an assassinate. Does it even do much against a raid boss? It lasts only 12 seconds, and solo I am not seeing it being all that good.

Can you use it from ranged sneak attack from stealth?

But you left out the best part! It has a save! So it is completely useless as the only enemies powerful enough to worth wasting an attack to cast a debuff on would likely be powerful enough to make the save. Tier 5 Shadowdancer ( with exception of Weird [ and only that if you are a very well geared past life heavy illusionist ] ) is either standard Tier 5 abilities or completely impractical abilities.

 

[VinoeWhines]

Shadow Dancer tier V should have an AOE Assassinate to match the AOE WEIRD.

• Your Attacks have a chance to turn a non-boss enemies to Small Shadows permanently, adding them to your hoard, with no save.

 

[SunTzu]

Consumed by shadows sucks. It isn't even an assassinate. Does it even do much against a raid boss? It lasts only 12 seconds, and solo I am not seeing it being all that good.

Can you use it from ranged sneak attack from stealth?

If you are not caster, Everything in shadowdancer tree sucks.

 

[Jeronimo]

If you are not caster, Everything in shadowdancer tree sucks.

11 points for evasion can be a nice splash for some builds that are not a caster.

 

[Pineapple]

11 points for evasion can be a nice splash for some builds that are not a caster.

The 5% double strike in T3 is also more accessible and cheaper than many other trees, the neg level immunity it comes with is gravy.

 

[Elves United]

If you are not caster, Everything in shadowdancer tree sucks.

Melee:
If you have a lot of sneak attack dice then the epic strike and epic strike upgrade are good. Though it would probably take a freakish amount of sneak dice to compete with Adrenaline. Lithe form and Shadowstriker and evasion are good abilities. The expanded melee range and apply vulnerability to sneak attack on 20s are useful. But the Tier 5 abilities are weak and impractical so likely not progress past Tier 4.

Ranged:
Since Hunt's End is no longer an epic strike, the ranged shadowdancer epic strike is likely to be the top DPS option. Also benefit from Lithe form and Shadowstriker and evasion. But Shiradi Tier 5 is just too good so I doubt many will invest past Tier 3.

Caster:
The best long range epic strike at Tier 2. ( others may pass it with later Tier upgrades ) Shadowcaster is powerful for those who aren't using the Draconic Mantle to get the cooldown reduction. But Tier 4 is just terrible for casters and other spellcasting mantles are so much better. Finally Weird is only useful if you're a fully dedicated illusion DC caster. I did an illusionist/deep gnome epic life recently to get the past lives and .... while he was fun to play I reincarnated him as soon as he hit 30 because he wasn't viable in any difficulty beyond r1.

 

[Rosze]

I think AE is getting the boot because of alts on secondary accounts. My static groups, and I have one as well, have been using secondary accounts with buff/heal alts for quite some time to fill in any gaps in our groups. Those secondary characters always had EA aura because it was ridiculously strong and involved no interaction to use.

For some people this though enables them to play the game. Sure there’s hirelings but most hirelings are bit brain dead

 

[VinoeWhines]

Is there any explanation why Shadow Dancer ended up removing

Pass through Enemies on Tumble? As GMoF still has it in the Tree?

Why was Shadow Manipulation removed? Shiradi safe range Champion got a new gift in Beguile Charm just in case mob gets closer to range?

Meld into Darkness got handcuffed to be tied to an Epic Strike, so you can't get Improved Dark Imbuement expanded hit box range, at the same time, when before you where able to have both?

Executioner Strike/Shot could easily of stayed in Tier V.

Consume original version could of been the multi selector to Weird or an ability like Cut the Strings but with a knockdown animation or frozen stance.

 

[VinoeWhines]

Fix Shadow Dancer from side coach Splash Tree.

 

[VinoeWhines]

Look Ma, I'm Shadow Dancing!

 

[VinoeWhines]

Shadow Dancer was given little carrot on a stick entices for Casters to dip into to go higher and completely obliterate the qualities of a Stealth Tree it once was, in distracting agro and stealth attacks it had.
Even the caster things are not being seriously considered to take it to Tier V while all the original stealth things it had at upper/highest tier were removed from it's identity.

Stealth players now use
Barbarian or Paladin/Fighter trees for their Tier Vs and left their Forrest for greener pastured Trees....

 

[VinoeWhines]

Depths of Darkness: While in your Shadowdancer Destiny Mantle, you gain 25% Incorporeality and 25% Concealment and 5% uncapped Dodge. You are able to Tumble through enemies.

 

[VinoeWhines]

Or

From the Shadows: From a stealthed position, dissolve into shadows, passing through enemies, before appearing some distance in front of you. This grants you the buffs from your Shadowdancer Epic Strike if you have them trained. Cooldown: 20 seconds. Note: This ability requires the character to have the Stealth feat active ("in stealth") to use it.

 

[VinoeWhines]

Shadow Dancer needs a way to Distract a mob/s or escape an ambush (From The Shadows can be a great base to add to it) Blinding and Stunning/Sapping them for 1 second per Epic Level.

Also a Stealth position Executioner type kill attack in it's Tier V.
Cut the Strings could of been a great ability from a Stealth position but instead of having mobs dance they could of been thrown a mini Flaming Sphere at their center and while they investigate it, it explodes on them
(last for 10 second)and while remaining in the Smokey Shadows Cloud(blinding acid-salt fog AOE 1d6 per Sneak Attack Dice + Melee Power) for 10 seconds your character gains the ability to an Assassinate attempt while they remain in the Shadowy Cloud.
Same template as other Tier Vs
Cut the Strings, Mass Frog, Everything is Nothing. Actually it's more involved since A) you have to be unnoticed, B) in stealth and C) mob has to stay in Cloud.
Cut the Strings is an Easy button 60 second cool down, which could be an equivalent, since this would be more difficult and more involved but would stay in line to what Stealth players understand.