Preview 2 Dark Gifts

[Bobbryan2]

• Living Shadow
  • Your Shadow extends your reach, acting out your dark impulses.
  • Your basic Melee attacks have extended range, hitting further in front of you.
  • Whenever you land a Critical Hit, there is a small chance your shadow exerts its will, causing your damage to be reduced by 15% for 6 seconds. This can only occur once every 30 seconds.
    • This is the same extension effect that Shadowdancer grants, and does not stack with that skill.

Is this effect going to be fixed? Otherwise, what's the point?

 

[Bobbryan2]

There should probably be a purely cosmetic Dark Gift that has no effect on play at all. It sounds like this will be a must-take at character creation and in that case there should probably be an opt-out.

That's a decent idea. Something visually striking like the shadowling form of DA as a feat option for people that don't want drawbacks.

 

[Bobbryan2]

Which might be fine, not everyone does?

If DDO should exclude solo vs. group play build trade-offs to encourage more grouping is a different but valid discussion.

But in that case, it would need to be a toggle. You shouldn't have to have a feat respec in order to join your buddies to quest.
There shouldn't be barriers to playing in a group in an MMO other than the obvious constraints we have to deal with. Grouping should be encouraged, not gated.

 

[saekee]

1. These feats exist only for Dark Bargainer as a bonus feat that is taken at character creation.

2. To make testing easier and to get around a temporary issue with the iconic setup we made them general feats for this build, but this is not how they'll ship.

Hence the confusion. Sorry!

-Torc

P.S. This feedback reminds me of wild magic a bit and patience. I suggest people quickly try them out in client. Some of them are hard to evaluate from a forum post. We are shooting for a thematic feeling of you are getting a significant perk but every now and then you do feel like cursing the dark powers!

P.P.S As some have already noted I think you'll find Mist Walker is your easy go to if you don't really wanna deal with that concept but otherwise want to play this warlock.

can you make it so any character can take them? Maybe if they are Dhampyr at the very least? I know you want to isolate it thematically to this one iconic but hey, why can’t we all make such a sick deal? Maybe it could even be an active PL feat if you really want to limit it but toss a bone.

 

[LurkingVeteran]

1. These feats exist only for Dark Bargainer as a bonus feat that is taken at character creation.

2. To make testing easier and to get around a temporary issue with the iconic setup we made them general feats for this build, but this is not how they'll ship.

Hence the confusion. Sorry!

-Torc

P.S. This feedback reminds me of wild magic a bit and patience. I suggest people quickly try them out in client. Some of them are hard to evaluate from a forum post. We are shooting for a thematic feeling of you are getting a significant perk but every now and then you do feel like cursing the dark powers!

P.P.S As some have already noted I think you'll find Mist Walker is your easy go to if you don't really wanna deal with that concept but otherwise want to play this warlock.

Yes, but it's difficult to give feedback because you left out a lot of important data. I know you want people to test things in game, but these are like 8? different abilities and so far I see like two feedback posts in this thread based on actual game testing. It's pretty important to get these racial feats right as it's harder to reset than an enhancement.

What one can say from the ones giving X and sometimes taking X away, is that either they are going to be a cause of RNG death and nobody wants them, or the penalty is going to be so small that it's pretty much always a win for builds that want X (which goes against the concept of dark gift with consequences). If the "consequences" are mostly flavor and we just treat it as a bonus then it's fine I guess. If they had been more +X -Y then the Y penalty could have been larger and it would have been a build trade off.

 

[erethizon1]

Yes, but it's difficult to give feedback because you left out a lot of important data. I know you want people to test things in game, but these are like 8? different abilities and so far I see like two feedback posts in this thread based on actual game testing. It's pretty important to get these racial feats right as it's harder to reset than an enhancement.

What one can say from the ones giving X and sometimes taking X away, is that either they are going to be a cause of RNG death and nobody wants them, or the penalty is going to be so small that it's pretty much always a win for builds that want X (which goes against the concept of dark gift with consequences). If the "consequences" are mostly flavor and we just treat it as a bonus then it's fine I guess. If they had been more +X -Y then the Y penalty could have been larger and it would have been a build trade off.

This is a good point. The main issue is that we need the penalty to be significant enough to matter, but not significant enough to causes deaths that wouldn't otherwise have happened (as that is simply too great a penalty to make anything other than an absolutely massive bonus worth it). Penalties need to be something that won't ever get you killed, but are somehow still penalties.

 

[Ooblagato]

How can I get Dark Gift Feats?

• Currently anyone can take a Dark Gift as a trainable feat. This is set up this way for ease of testing, and is temporary for this preview.
• The eventual plan is the Dhampir Dark Bargainer Iconic gets a Racial Feat Slot to take a Dark Bargain feat for free. (In fact, they must take one, but that is not in this build)
• Dark Gift Feats are all ML1.
• A character may only have one Dark Gift feat. (but that limitation is not in this build)
• Fred will function with Dark Gifts though once their implemented on the Dark Bargainer correctly you will only be able to swap out a Dark Gift for another.

Clarification question: I understand that the dark bargainer iconic will get this feat for free, but will these feats be available to any class or race other than the dhampir dark bargainer iconic after the preview?

 

[Phoenicis]

Clarification question: I understand that the dark bargainer iconic will get this feat for free, but will these feats be available to any class or race other than the dhampir dark bargainer iconic after the preview?

I'm guessing no:

1. These feats exist only for Dark Bargainer as a bonus feat that is taken at character creation.

2. To make testing easier and to get around a temporary issue with the iconic setup we made them general feats for this build, but this is not how they'll ship.

Hence the confusion. Sorry!

-Torc

P.S. This feedback reminds me of wild magic a bit and patience. I suggest people quickly try them out in client. Some of them are hard to evaluate from a forum post. We are shooting for a thematic feeling of you are getting a significant perk but every now and then you do feel like cursing the dark powers!

P.P.S As some have already noted I think you'll find Mist Walker is your easy go to if you don't really wanna deal with that concept but otherwise want to play this warlock.

 

[Tilomere]

The PRR/MRR stacks need to also provide 2 MRR cap, or double PRR if wearing cloth/leather and no MRR as you are likely already capped.

 

[Anurakh]

Clarification question: I understand that the dark bargainer iconic will get this feat for free, but will these feats be available to any class or race other than the dhampir dark bargainer iconic after the preview?

It seems not. At first, we all thought so due to the OP's unclear wording, but from what Torc said later, they're feats only for this iconic.

A lot of work for feats that only this iconic will enjoy, and that have a design (aka, with penalties) that only a portion of the player population will appreciate.

 

[justin credible]

alternative penalty idea
since you sold your soul to the devil, you cannot use a spirit binder

 

[mikarddo]

alternative penalty idea
since you sold your soul to the devil, you cannot use a spirit binder

I dont think I have used a spirit binder the latest 100+ lives. So not much of a penalty for me

 

[Synalon]

It seems not. At first, we all thought so due to the OP's unclear wording, but from what Torc said later, they're feats only for this iconic.

A lot of work for feats that only this iconic will enjoy, and that have a design (aka, with penalties) that only a portion of the player population will appreciate.

Oh dang. I was looking forward to trying the negative healing one on Wizard

 

[Anurakh]

Oh dang. I was looking forward to trying the negative healing one on Wizard

On the upside, healers won't hate you . Although if you're just going solo, that doesn't matter.

 

[Sholekar]

The shadow one seems sweet until I realize it's only basic attacks. That there is a non-starter, sadly.

 

[seph1roth5]

The shadow one seems sweet until I realize it's only basic attacks. That there is a non-starter, sadly.

They probably saw that ES can melee with their aura up and thought "Warlocks can be melee too! Let's give sneak attack and melee support"

 

[justin credible]

They probably saw that ES can melee with their aura up and thought "Warlocks can be melee too! Let's give sneak attack and melee support"

maybe they can give them Blast shape: two handed sword

 

[Aelastiar]

Just skip all these feats and spend the time fixing the bugs that are riddled throughout the game.

 

[VinoeWhines]

• Mist Walker
  • You have learned how to navigate the Mists with time and a little luck.
  • You gain Misty Step: As Abundant Step, but you disappear. +5 Reflex Save and 20% stacking incorporeality while Stepping. (Shares a cooldown with other abundant steps). 12 second cooldown.
  • When you use this Misty Step, there is a chance the Mists catch up with you and you gain Exhaustion for 6 seconds (-50% penalty to movement speed, -6 penalty to Strength and Dexterity, and cannot tumble). This exhaustion cannot be warded or removed by effects that remove Exhaustion.

I am seeing the -50% movement speed( I think it is actually 75% Movement speed and Attack speed) on live when I am stealthing and trying to switch items/weapons. I think this Lamania preview has been live for several months.

 

[Justfungus]

All these 'Dark Gifts' are VERY D&D like, cool. Too bad almost none of the end game players are playing D&D. They will totally ignore any story connection to these new dangerous feats and break them down to pure mathematical calculation. If you want to add D&D back into DDO ... add shifting alignments based on character actions, or something like that.