U60 Lamannia Preview 1 - Machrotechnic Epic Destiny

[Reilia]

I like some of these epic moment suggestions. What if the epic moment depended on the flash drives you take also? Like if you are taking dps choices for flash drives you get some kind of barage effect with the rune arm or you weapon. Taking spell choices will give you some kind or arcane supremecy type effect and tank choices like the threat generation will give you a wild temp hit point or prr/mrr effect. I'm not sure the epic moment though should require a rune arm but maybe a bonus if you are using one.

 

[Reilia]

A bug: Machrotechnic Runearm enhancement doesn't currently allow Runearm Swashbuckling Style.
Always wanted a 20 Bard runearm swashy

Tier 3 swashbuckling has a multiselector where you can choose runearm swashbuckling

 

[Griglok (Karatemack)]

I would have liked to see this as an Arcane instead of Martial destiny.

Looks fun to play!

 

[Docjekyll]

I'm liking the destiny so far. It seems like it's leaning into what makes the Artificer class interesting to play and making that accessible via an epic destiny. IMO, what makes the Artificer class interesting to me is:

• Moderate spellcasting ability
• Moderate physical damage
• Moderate durability
• Rune arm usage
• Trapmaking
• Misc utility (pet, UMD, light CC, spot heals, status cure)

I may provide more detailed feedback on individual items in the tree, but I wanted to start with the big one: that undefined epic moment!

Ideas for "MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE"​

Here are a bunch of ideas that emphasize different aspects of the Artificer class that I think are interesting. The idea is that by using the epic moment, the player can "flex" into a role that they might not normally be able to fill. e.g. I can't tank but I can redirect aggro for a few seconds, I can't be primary healer but I can fix up the party real quick, I can't CC all the enemies but I can briefly lock down a few monsters, etc.

"I Can Fix This!" / "Life is a Construct" (momentary raid protection/recovery)​

• "Deploy your arcane ingenuity to fix up your party. All allies gain an ablative shield and can be repaired for a brief time. You can also cast admixture spells at targets immediately, without needing to physically throw your infused potions."
• (visuals) Show a large burst effect, centered around the caster (reuse a burst effect, similar to the soundburst spell). At the same time, show repair particle effects and shield buff visuals on all allies (reuse visuals from Reconstruct and Shield spells). For the duration of the effect, allies that gain the ability to receive healing from Repair spells also show a construct visual on each effected player (reuse the visuals from the Converter effect from Renegade Mastermaker).
• (mechanics) Upon activation, all players in the party/raid, as well as all hirelings, pets, and summons gain an ablative shield which lasts 30 seconds and provides up to 1500 damage of ablative protection (like the spell Ablative Armor or Scales of the Dragon). The idea is that this should be enough for each party member to survive about one more solid hit (though tanks may survive more and squishier allies might still not survive one). All allied targets also gain the ability to be repaired (as per the Converter ability) for the next 3 minutes.
• The caster also receives a buff that lasts for 30 seconds that will allow their admixture spells to skip the potion-throwing animation and associated travel time. Instead, while this buff is active, the casting animation and visual effect will be like that of the equivalent "mass" healing spells (e.g. Mass Cure Serious Wounds, etc). This also applies to non-healing admixtures like "Curative Admixture: Remove Curse".

"Push the Limits" / "Blaze of Glory Protocol" (risky stacking buff)​

• "You cast aside the limits of your mortal form and unleash your true potential, no matter the costs. Gain a stacking buff and damage-over-time effect for each attack you land and each offensive spell you cast for the next 60 seconds. Healing spells may provide some relief, but remember that limits exist for a reason."
• (visuals) Upon activation, 2 constructs appear on either shoulder of the caster (reuse the visual from Converter, Shielding Construct, and Warding Construct abilities from Renegade Mastermaker, but with a red coloration), which last for as long as buff stacks can be acquired. Upon activation and every 10 stacks acquired, show an electric burst effect centered around the caster (reuse the visuals and audio from fully-stacked Eladar's Electric Surge spell). When the player reaches very high levels of the stacking buff/DoT, the player starts to also pulse red to make it clear that the increased power may be their undoing (perhaps repurpose visuals from fire shield and emit small fireball explosion visuals).
• (mechanics) Upon activation, the player gains a "Push the Limits" or "Blaze of Glory Protocol" effect that lasts for 60 seconds. While this effect is active, the player gains buff stacks for any melee or ranged strikes on enemies (maximum one per attack, regardless of effects like doublestrike, doubleshot, strikethrough, or improved precise shot), gains 3 buff stacks per offensive spell cast (regardless of number of targets struck), and loses 1 buff stack per healing spell cast received (whether self-targetted or not; should be careful that healing-over-time effects only remove 1 stack total rather than 1 stack every few seconds).
• The stacking buff/DoT ("Limits Exceeded"/"Core Meltdown") has the following effects per stack, stacking up to 100 times:
  • +1 to hit
  • 1% bonus damage on all melee/ranged attacks
  • +0.3 tactics DCs
  • 1% faster cast speed
  • -0.4% cooldown length
  • +0.2 spell DCs
  • take 20 electric and 20 fire damage every 2 seconds
• The buffs fall off immediately at the end of the epic moment, but the DoT effect remains for 10 seconds (5 ticks) longer. All buffs are typed as "action boost" bonuses.
• By the time the player gets into the 40+ stack range, they should require active healing in order to survive. If the player ends up in the 80+ stack range, they should almost certainly die from the damage without extreme healing attention from the rest of the party/raid. Elemental resistances, absorption, and protections do help lower the impact of the incoming damage, as well as effects like Radiant Forcefield. At 100 stacks, the player dies instantly.
• The exact numbers here are flexible, but the idea with this epic moment is that by the time you get better bonuses to combat/spellcasting than other epic moments, you should be at serious risk of death from the damage-over-time effect ticking up. The bonus should be big enough to justify the cost of guaranteed incoming damage-over-time and the possibility that the player may need to stop attacking altogether in order to have a chance to survive.

"High-Tech Sorcery" (rune arm turrets)​

• "You deploy two magefire cannons to assist you in battle, specially equipped to mirror the enchantments of your equipped rune arm. These autonomous turrets will fire several volleys at nearby enemies before their enchantments expire."
• (visuals) Two magefire cannons, somewhat smaller than normal appear on either side of the player. They use the same entrance, aim, fire, and "death" animations as Magefire Cannon type enemies. Perhaps they can also be recolored to match the type of equipped rune arm.
• (mechanics) Upon activation, two magefire cannons/turrets are created on either side of the caster. These turrets are invulnerable and cannot be targeted. The turrets target random nearby enemies and fire the same type of blast as the rune arm that the player had equipped at time of epic moment activation, with the same damage scaling. If the player has no rune arm equipped, the epic moment fails to activate. The turrets last long enough to fire 3 or 4 fully charged rune arm volleys, but the first volley fires almost immediately after epic moment activation.

"Demon Circuitry" (rune arm CC)​

• "Your rune arm surges with an arcane might bordering on the profane. Your next 6 rune arm blasts strike with the might of a hezrou, knocking down nearby enemies (without save). Struck enemies cannot move, cast spells, or use special abilities for 4 seconds."
• (visuals) Upon activation, a translucent hezrou/demon visually appears on the character and flexes/roars (reuse the Demon of the Frenzied Blood visuals from "Into the Deep"). Upon rune arm AoE blast, a small shockwave visual is shown in addition to the normal rune arm visuals (reuse the chaos orb visual from "Xorian Cipher" or soundburst spell visuals).
• (mechanics) Upon activation, the epic moment goes on cooldown, a visual buff shows, and the player gains 6 stacks of "Demonic Circuity Empowerment" buff, which lasts for 5 minutes (matching the epic moment cooldown), removed upon rest. Each time a rune arm is discharged, a stack is consumed and that rune arm shot is empowered. If there are multiple projectiles, only the first one (or the first one to make contact) is considered empowered. For cone-shape rune arm blasts, the empowered CC effect is the same cone shape. For projectile rune arm blasts, the empowered CC effect is the same shape as soundburst or fireball, centered on the point of contact.

"Revengeance Machines" (aggro hounds)​

• "Unleash a set of fearsome iron defenders which intimidate all nearby enemies. These elemental hounds will draw the attention of all nearby enemies and briefly fight them until their enchantments expire in 20 seconds."
• (visuals) Three or four visually distinct iron defenders spawn around the caster. Each one looks visually distinct based on the different types of damage they deal. (Reuse models and animations from monsters like the hounds in VoN5 that spawn in the fight with Arach's Knight, or slightly enlarged versions of the Artificer iron defender pet). Upon expiration, the hounds each play the iron defender death animation.
• (mechanics) This is basically a party aggro reset button. The hounds spawn in on the caster, run a short distance away in different directions and then turn to face the nearest enemy, attacking at the same rate as a typical iron defender pet. Each hound deals a small amount of elemental damage with each strike. The hounds may be elemental (fire, ice, acid, electric) like the hounds with Arach's Knight in VoN5 or they may use the same types as the rest of the Macrotechnic tree (electric, sonic, rust). The damage should be light but noticeable--maybe enough to take down one or two monsters each on LE. The hounds cannot be killed. The hounds emit a "hate magnet" effect on all nearby enemies upon spawn and every few seconds thereafter (reuse the hate magnet power up effect first introduced with Cannith challenges).

Epic Moment Flexibility​

What I think would be super duper cool is if the Macrotechnic tree allowed the player to "flex" into different roles as their epic moment. Macrotechnic isn't the best tank tree or the best caster tree, but it could provide some flexibility to briefly address a party need as it arises.

So I think it would be cool if the epic moment actually provides multiple buttons that all share a cooldown, so that in a quest the player can decide which unique aspect of Macrotechnic that they want to emphasize in that moment. Perhaps each option here is a different purchasable tier-5 unlock, but they still share a cooldown. That way, the player "pays" for each option of epic moment they want to have available and then while questing, they can pick one to activate at a time. You could potentially do this like how the "Improved Sacred Defense" enhancements from the Sacred Defender tree allow you to pick 1 of the same 3 stance improvements up to 3 times. So you could just pay for the one epic moment you like the most, or you could pay for the flexibility of having both a protection and aggro reset mechanism at your disposal.

Additional Comments​

All the ideas here are based on mostly repurposing existing assets, effects, bonus types, etc. If it's actually viable to transform into a big stompy warforged titan, by all means, let me do that instead.

 

[Kelledren]

Some good suggestions for Maximum Overdrive- but the end result should be mobs getting ‘run over’/knocked prone/helpless- maybe no save? Could be huge aoe pulse blast from ruin arm, machine gun ruin arm, or stomping around as a titan, mixed with other cool abilities mentioned in this thread.

 

[Graceana]

I do agree with those saying that, given the options in the tree, it would be good to have a multiselector epic moment for and offensive or defensive option. It will allow people to go all in one way or the other if they want, and if not they can use the epic moment in another tree. I'll have to ponder the rest of it a bit more when it's not the end of my night.

 

[Zoveride]

MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE

Epic Moment Inspiration - This makes me think of a tractor trailer barrelling down an abandoned highway (think zombie apocalypse or mad max) smashing through cars littering the road without slowing down. (Damage to smash through the parked cars/blockade while defensive enough to take the damage and keep on truckin').
This will be represented in 3 aspects: (Possible animation: Getting struck by lightning)

1) (Defensive) - Radiant Forcefield
2) (Rune arm) - Fast Runearm Charge Rate (x%) (Goal is to shoot off several fully charged shots for the duration)
3) (Casting) - (x%) Spell Crit Chance (Fatesinger already has +100 USP, so this adds variety. Also, it IS called MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE)

• Epic Moment: Maximum Overdrive: Shift into MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE. For 20 seconds:
• You gain Radiant forcefield for the duration. If you have a rune arm equipped, the damage reduction is increased to 50%.
• Your Rune Arms charge 75% faster.
• You gain +10% Spell Crit Chance (Electric, sonic, rust, repair & universal). If you have a rune arm equipped, this bonus is doubled.
• 5 minute cooldown.

Actual numbers can be adjusted as needed.

 

[Tilomere]

Can you add to Cores:
Your Iron Defender rebuilds itself on a 70, 60, 50, 40 second cooldown and teleports to you.

This will enable them to actually be used for minimal effect in combat.

 

[Jack Jarvis Esquire]

Can someone just confirm please...

3 epic past lives takes the total to 54, meaning 18 DP from past lives (an increase of 1 on the current 17).

And unlocking the tree adds another 3FP, meaning another DP.

So total (ignoring bug) DP goes from 73 to 75, assuming unlock and completing 3EPLs.

Is that all Correct?

 

[Zvdegor]

Maximum Overdrive: For the next 40 seconds you overcharge all of your magitech systems. Your Aegis drone fires once every two seconds. Your rune arms are automatically stablized at your maximum charge state (in case you need to move) and rapidly recharge. Runearms gain a temporary +250 spellpower. The imbue damage on your runearm is doubled during this time. If you have the constructs from Renegade Mastermaker their effects are also doubled during this time.

Beside the Warforged Titan idea I really do like this one too. But I would like to set a few modification.
Why? Because the Epic Moment must benefit all kind of playstyle equally. So I suggest instead of adding more spellpower (the base SP prolly way lower on a melee style arti like on a ranged or caster one)
1.
raise the SP to a very high but resonable level like 1500-2000 SP for the duration.
2. during the epic moment you gain Thunder effect which scales with electric SP
(So u gain this as an addition to your attacks melee/ranged/spells in any plyastyle) and becoming a GOD of Thunder with a visually boosted electric sheet visual. Its ez to done for devs.
3.
You also summon a drone like the one in Ghost of a Chance or the lvl 28 quest in House C or just a Converter above your head, which cannot be destroyed for the duration and does the followings
- multiply targeting
-it reduces enemies prr/mrr/fortification/spell rez/saves/movement speed/strips electric immunity and makes them vulnerable to electricity at the same time
-it produces chain lightning every 3 sec until the Epic Moment lasts
4.
Your Runearm gain benefits all possible metamagics for the duration even if you did not take them.
-Runearm dmg scales with electric SP for the duration
-charges at maximum for the duration
-Runearm Fusilade or produce chain lightning (in that case the drone just does debuffs)
5.
You gain the followings during the epic moment:
-Boosted Melee and Ranged Power
-Boosted defense (maybe a modified Radiant aura with 50% reduction instead of 25%)
-autogranted thunderstrike/lightningstrike/shockwave/primal scream wutever makes noise and visuals and extra dmg


Something like this would be Epic enough for me

 

[rabidfox]

So total (ignoring bug) DP goes from 73 to 75, assuming unlock and completing 3EPLs.

Is that all Correct?

75 should be correct from what others have said.

 

[Docjekyll]

Lightning Hammer / Thunder Hammer spell type bug​

Small bug I observed:
The "Lightning Hammer"/"Thunder Hammer" SLAs do not bypass the Mantle of Invulnerability effect on enemies like Lich Avengers, Lich Lords, etc. This is likely because they are coded as level 4 divine spells, like "Chaos Hammer". Please type these SLAs as high level arcane spells.

About the "Converter" ability​

Also, a request about an ability from the Renegade Mastermaker tree:
Converter is a very interesting ability that is marred by bad implementation:

• it has a cooldown of 3 minutes and duration of 3 minutes
  • it can easily expire in the middle of combat when you're trying to heal your target
  • it requires continual attention in order to be relied upon for questing
• it fails to apply if the target is out of line-of-sight
  • but the 3 minute cooldown is still consumed, meaning the Artificer might not be able to repair any non-WF allies
• the buff persists through rest and quest exit
  • not necessarily bad, but very confusing

So here is my very simple proposed fix: Make Converter work like the "Crown of Summer" buff from T5 of the Season's Herald tree or perhaps the "Crown of Retribution" buff from T4 of the Angel of Vengeance tree:

• activation cooldown of 6 seconds
• only one target can have this buff from the Artificer at a time
• it enables the target to receive healing from Repair spells while active
• it adds a visual effect to the target (same as current visual effect)

I mention this here, b/c I think this is one of the more interesting things you can do with an Artificer and I would love to see it get fixed and somehow become part of the Macrotechnic tree, allowing the user to flex into a spot-healing role. It's a super useful ability that occasionally enables you to save a tank during a raid, or support the party through a particularly difficult encounter on high-reaper, etc. And I believe the ability is currently underused by the player base due to implementation details--not the idea itself.

An Macrotechnic enhancement that unlocks Converter for wizards/sorcerers would be very cool (e.g. 1 destiny point at tier 2 to unlock Converter ability, or improve existing Converter by adding 20% repair amp to the target).

About the Macrotechnic mantle​

IMO, too many spots in the tree are tied to the mantle specifically, in a strict chain. I think this would be the only place in any destiny tree where more than one ability is linked by a hard pre-req. Even in cases like "Attune the Arcane" and "Inevitable" from Draconic Incarnation, where the abilities are effectively dependent on one another, they are still not linked in a hard pre-req chain.

In my opinion, destiny mantles should probably not have more than a single other ability in the tree that augments them, though there is precedent in Fatesinger where 3 other items in the tree enhance the mantle. But in the case of Fatesinger, those additional benefits are bonus effects on top of other benefits if the mantle is active and they are not hard pre-reqs.

Some of the mantle defenses are nice, but that is a huge investment for those benefits and I honestly can't see many cases where that much investment would be warranted. I would prefer if one or two of these mantle enhancements were removed to make room for more interesting interactions, like the "Converter" ability I proposed above. They also should not be chained together as pre-reqs. If one of the abilities can't stand on its own without being a pre-req for a higher tier enhancement, then it probably just needs to be made more interesting in the first place.

 

[Misadventure]

The mantle needs an auto repair function. exactly the same as angel auto heal function. Repairs only.

 

[Zvdegor]

The mantle needs an auto repair function. exactly the same as angel auto heal function. Repairs only.

Yes. I second it. Repair healing aura. Can be a improved version of the Regeneration Construct ability or similar to what You mentioned.
Cores or Mantle also should give extra repair amp too

 

[Pandjed]

Epic Moment: Maximum Overdrive: Shift into MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE. This ability is not implemented and we welcome all suggestions for how this ability is structured, as long as the name is Maximum Overdrive! 5 minute cooldown.

Much quicker Runearm Charge and 2 more maximum charges. Character gets additional boosts depending on runearm charges, which would boost more weapon focused builds, as they have a harder time to make the rune arm shots work as well.

 

[l_remmie]

I'd like a way to upgrade party members for the duration of a quest. Get them some fort/dr/repair healing.

Also i'd like a good repair SLA so all classes can just grab that easily without making hard choices. There are countless of good epic heals.

And i want my robodog to be a proper lvl32 pet that can take at least as much punishment as TEAL.

 

[LargoKeyWest]

I tried to play with this... every time I clicked on the guy who grants it, he said "You do not own that Destiny" or some such, and then the store window would pop open...

*sigh*

 

[szczekus]

I very appreciate idea of artificer-themed destiny. I like upgrades to using runarms and implement drive which later give you drive-based bonuses. My only concern is ED mantle.


I think this mantle will be very good defensive-utility if contain repair-based autoheal (like EA mantle) as one of upgrade on higher tier - it will be nice thing for warforged non-artificer, which want to heal from R-amp, not from H-amp.


I know warforged and arti can be healed from both sources, but i think it will be good if artificer-based ED will provide more support for R-amp healing (yeah i know it contain + for any amps, but i mean about active support feature) as flavor of this class theme.


From the other side, i think of `Animated Aegis: You create a small animated object that floats with you.` - it will be great if this work like spotter drones in cannith quest `Brothers of the forge` - i mean idea of summon which can apply some sort of debuff (like FS archon?)

 

[Striga]

I tried to play with this... every time I clicked on the guy who grants it, he said "You do not own that Destiny" or some such, and then the store window would pop open...

*sigh*

so why have you not purchased the destiny? only 1 DDO point in the store.

 

[Baahb3]

SSG had a chance to add something nice for Pets with this tree, make it worth having in something other than Normal difficulty but alas they put not one node for it.

Have the Cores also apply to your pet.
Tier1: Sprockets and Blast Shields apply to pet on rank 3
Tier3: Tech Drive: Flash Drive apply to Pet on rank 3
Tier5: Critical Connection applies to pet attacks
Tier4 or Tier5: Your mantle also affects your pet - There is precedence for this in Magus of the Eclipse T3 Share the Light enhancement

Other ideas for Pet nodes:
T4 Arcane Imbuement rank 3 = Your Pet shares your Imbuement
Core 4: Your pet now shares your spell power and spell critical (flame breath)
When the Epic Moment is on your pet also gains its benefit

Instead of just a caster ED with some beefiness to it, give us something unique to it by making the Iron Defender better.