The Blight caster needs a bit of 'un-nerfing'

[Justfungus]

With all variations of classes 'like the dark hunter' there were trade-offs.
Dark cleric, no auto load heals, but auto load harms, and so on.
However the Blight caster lost a lot more than it got back.
That druid lost heals AND pets. Even the dark cleric didn't lose heals.
I am not saying it should get it all back but to be fair, it should get back one or the other.
Give Blights access to druid heals OR pets. One or the other.

 

[CBDunk]

However the Blight caster lost a lot more than it got back.

Eh, not really.

Sure, Blightcaster lost healing and other spells, but they got just as many new ones;

1. Night Shield, Thorn Strike, Chill Touch, Acid Spray
2. Gets Contagion at level 2 instead of 3, Melf's Acid Arrow, Web
3. Acid Blast, Thorn Bloom, Stinking Cloud
4. Fear, Acid Rain, Plant Growth, Wave of Fatigue
5. Negative Energy Burst, Blighted Breath, Cloud Kill
6. Necrotic Ray, Jaws of Doom, Blighted Bite, Thorn Wave
7. Acid Fog, Wave of Exhaustion, Horrid Wilting
8. Black Dragon Bolt, Thorn Lance
9. Acid Well, Wail of the Banshee, Rend the Soul, Blighted Charge

Similarly, they switched some forms, imbues, enhancements, et cetera for different ones.

The wolf companion is the only thing truly removed, rather than replaced with similar options... and given the state of pet scaling in DDO, that just isn't even a viable option beyond the first ten levels or so. After that it dies instantly in every combat.

 

[popejubal]

Losing the elemental forms is a huge hit. The forms you get are good and they’re sturdy but they are just not the same tier whether you’re a walking plant or an acid monstrosity.

 

[Justfungus]

If it was my choice, and it is not. I would give them back access to the pet spells.
Not auto-loaded like a normal druid, but still on the spell list.

 

[FVSHasBeenEvenMoreGutted]

blightcaster is probably the best leveling caster and definitely best caster for first lifer/hardcore so it definitely needs a buff /s

 

[rabidfox]

Blightcaster has a nice leveling power curve, good SLAs, and is lots of fun to play. From the things I've heard from others, it doesn't scale up as well in higher skulls at cap vs other casters, but most people don't even play those difficulties.

 

[DBZ]

What casters probably stronger then clerics and wizards and fvs

Remember FVS got gutted those who knows knows lol those need buffs

And comparing to arch types its still the hands down winner on those there just sev flavor mehness idk what the point of them is more grind for the sake of grind

 

[Justfungus]

The way folks talk, DDO should be renamed 'Reaper Skulls Online'

 

[Edrein]

Blightcaster could have been a place to introduce a new pet type for druids. Either a vermin type pet like a Spider or a Needleblight to replace the wolf. And let the wolf buffs apply to it obviously.

The man thought being a pet that focuses more on 'casting'/'ranged' but could fight in melee if a mob gets close to it. Just let it cast splinterbolt as a needleblight or the weird poison/acid spit spiders have.

 

[Solarpower]

Eh, not really.

Sure, Blightcaster lost healing and other spells, but they got just as many new ones;

Yeah. The problem is... some of them were totally useless before Blightcaster and remain being useless after. Especially the acid spells that mostly present in DDO as some kind of a "fog" type of spells. Stinking Cloud/Acid Rain/Cloudkill/Acid Fog - cast those if you want to learn a lot of new swear words from your party members who won't be able to see something due to those spells cover their screens.
Enveloping Swarm ? Creeping Doom ? Insidious Spores ? Who would use them ?!

That druid lost heals AND pets. Even the dark cleric didn't lose heals.

That was my main concern when Blightcaster were introduced. After I've tried it, the healing spells they let us to use with Blightcaster are actually enough. (Well, I'd still like to have the Heal spell...)

Rather than healing spells there are other issues with Blightcasters here and there.
It's Enhancements tree is a mess. Defiled Growth/Outbreak/Poison of the Hydra literally buff 1 spell each and give nothing when you'll outlevel those spells. Also they buff different playstyles (different Druid's forms) and have zero synergy with the SLAs. (Guess it won't be changed. Ever. Looking at how they've changed Bombardier Alchemist, having completely random Enhancements that don't work with each other is DDO's new reality...)

A "normal" Season's Herald druid needs to raise different spellpowers. Like 3 of them at the same time. From the other hand it's not that hard. Blightcaster requires players to raise different spells DCs ! Acid Sparay is Evocation, rest of the acid spells are Conjuration. Thorn Blade - Evocation, Grasping Thorns - Transmutation, rest thorns - Conjuration. Poison/Contagion/Insidious Spores - Necromancy... What must a player choose ? Don't forget those Enhancements that buff some of the said spells. And we literally can't skip some Enhancements just because we need to put action point somewhere in order to open new tier !

Got the separate Enhancement for Thorn knight but nothing for Hive Master.

Nothing to replace Elemental Form Specialty and Wild Force feats.

Those are ones I can remember. Probably has more. Still, quite fun to play.

 

[rabidfox]

The problem is... some of them were totally useless before Blightcaster and remain being useless after. Especially the acid spells that mostly present in DDO as some kind of a "fog" type of spells. Stinking Cloud/Acid Rain/Cloudkill/Acid Fog - cast those if you want to learn a lot of new swear words from your party members who won't be able to see something due to those spells cover their screens

Cast those if you want to watch mobs die while giving cover to the party with salted/debuffing clouds. Compared to disco balls or hypnotic pattern, they're pretty mellow spells and quite handy to use all the time. The fun thing with DDO is spells one person dislikes will be ones another person loves or vice versa.

 

[FVSHasBeenEvenMoreGutted]

Remember FVS got gutted those who knows knows lol those need buffs

you called?

 

[Solarpower]

Cast those if you want to watch mobs die while giving cover to the party with salted/debuffing clouds. Compared to disco balls or hypnotic pattern, they're pretty mellow spells and quite handy to use all the time. The fun thing with DDO is spells one person dislikes will be ones another person loves or vice versa.

Yeah. If only "mob die" part was true...
I've played enough with those spells. (And even got myself kicked out of the groups because people can't see in the green fog those spells invoke.)
Nobody dies from them. And if for some unknown miraculous reason some mob would, it will take time. A lot of time. Nobody's willing to wait that much. Your party members will kill the mobs faster than you can cast any of those "fog" spells and rush forward while you can wait for your spells do something.

 

[Lazuli]

Blightcaster has a nice leveling power curve, good SLAs, and is lots of fun to play. From the things I've heard from others, it doesn't scale up as well in higher skulls at cap vs other casters, but most people don't even play those difficulties.

I have played both the normal druid and the blightcaster extensively, and I endorse those opinions. Blightcaster is a blast to play for leveling, both heroic and epic, but it's a bit meh in high reaper.

However, I think that all classes should have their edge in high reaper. It doesn't seem right to me to create first, second and third classes for that difficulty. And they could really improve it with just small tweaks.

 

[Ying]

Blightcaster is considerably behind Ice Druid at level cap. When leveling on elite/R1 it performs just fine.

 

[DBZ]

One of the best classes for heroic pls and hardcore just fine ah wizards warlocks n divines at cap can't be doing great after the 33 nerf

If the goal again is to make them nothing but dc bots agvain no thanks

 

[PraetorPlato]

Yeah. If only "mob die" part was true...
I've played enough with those spells. (And even got myself kicked out of the groups because people can't see in the green fog those spells invoke.)
Nobody dies from them. And if for some unknown miraculous reason some mob would, it will take time. A lot of time. Nobody's willing to wait that much. Your party members will kill the mobs faster than you can cast any of those "fog" spells and rush forward while you can wait for your spells do something.

The idea is that the cloud carries a debuff rider (LGS salt being the most important) that makes it dramatically easier for party members to kill/stay alive.

 

[Edrein]

I agree with Ying and Lazuli. Blightcaster is a breeze to level and fun for the most part.

I think my biggest gripe is the fact that the Thornknight side of the design falls off in epics/lategame. Seemingly by design according to previous dev streams when questions have been asked about it. Which is a shame, the thorn spells are visually fun to make use of and I love the design of the Thornknight.

I hope they eventually go back and give a bit more love to the thorn side of things if they ever tweak Blightcaster for a bit more endgame use in general.

Then again Thornknight seems to be a bit of an awkward design. When you look at the Wildshape's bonuses, it's clear the thornknight is supposed to a bit more 'defensive'/tankier than the Hive forms with the bonus to AC, fort, and immunities. And then there's the weird part about the Wildshape boosting Thorn and Poison spells. Druids don't have actual poison spells anymore, we technically used to but the various Swarm/Insect spells now are coded to acid. So this feels like it should be switched to Thorn and Earth spells.

But without access to Nature's Protector they are an awkward gish/hybrid playstyle. BC spells and their tie ins to Primal Avatar push for a Thornknight to kind of drop their plant spells and stand in them, but they lack the support to make that actually work in their favor. And the gish problem comes from the fact that they get their piercing Imbue at level 4, which is great. But unlike wolves they don't get any source of bonus imbue die. I'd love to try and lean into the idea and build a genuine 'force/physical' gish and boost both my imbue die and force SP to make use of the thorn stuff.

And then there was the repair bug. I honestly loved it, I thought it might have been intentional even. It'd be great to see this make a return as a feature of the Thorn forms, allowing them to inherently be effected by repair spells. Even if you reduced this to 50% similar to how all player Undead receive positive healing now. It makes perfect sense for a creature of living wood to be targetable with repair spells and opens more interesting options at epic levels.

 

[Ying]

I think my biggest gripe is the fact that the Thornknight side of the design falls off in epics/lategame.

Yeah, it's no contest. Hive is the clear way to go in epic levels, especially with the Improved Evasion benefit. Acid Well is your primary go-to spell, and Shard Storm is excellent. Carrion Swarm is decent, but I prefer Dragon Breath for my epic strike.

 

[Edrein]

Yeah, it's no contest. Hive is the clear way to go in epic levels, especially with the Improved Evasion benefit. Acid Well is your primary go-to spell, and Shard Storm is excellent. Carrion Swarm is decent, but I prefer Dragon Breath for my epic strike.

Yeah, I don't think they really thought through the value of Improved Evasion and +50% concealment in a single package lol. Add in the fact that hive boosts Acid and it's a no brainer.