U82 Preview 1 - Enhancement Changes (and one new Feat!)

[Sormiron]

30 melee power at all times for just equipping handwraps vs 50% of strikethrough as melee power 1/3rd of the time, in terms of consistency that skews to handwraps, handwraps will also generally be doing more dps than 2hf.

You might have a point and it might be valid.

I am a bit confused where the 2handed direction is going. the goal with for me, and for many others I believe, was to hit very hard when going for the 2hf style.
A quite long time ago I used Zombie to get what used to be +20% damage and Eldritch tempest (I think this ability doesnt scale with melee speed) and adrenalin. I did a couple with Barbarian levels and pure wizard. it used to hit very hard even at the cost of overall damage the hard hits. eventually many found this out one way or another and zombie + vampire got locked out of crit multi and threat unless playing vistani, cleric or paladin lvl 14.
then we got destiny changes with Boulder's Might to go with adrenalin giving a mixed message.

My point is that if this is done then we are back at realy hard burst hits with maybe not just 2handed but with ki-spells.

maybe a static toggle turning off strikethrough. for attackspeed, a bit of damage on single target hits. maybe 10% speed and 10% damage that doesnt work on cleaves. it would not be single weapon speed and hit harder but not enough to be on the extreme one-shot direction.
if you are bound to scaling it with strike through to make that stat more desirable then make it have diminishing returns at some point maybe similar to what is done to doublestrike now.

Imbue damage should probably be double for 2handed weapons. kensai is in the dust with this but has been in need of some dusting for a while just as shield and board fighting in general wich I will get to eventualy.

I think ways to boost ki-spells should be looked at elsewhere than another clickie. so many clickies already as it is anywas.

 

[Glargfest]

200% damage, +1 threat range and multi, 6 second cooldown is pretty huge. Is it a seamless ability like hamstring or is it more like Fist of the Dragon?

 

[nicholas]

The "Lock-in" feat needs to be extended in duration or reduced Cooldown because if you want 100% uptime then its not viable....

 

[Greywolf]

The Vanguard Crit profile changes look pretty good. It would also be cool if alternate stats would work with Shields. A CHA Paladin Vanguard has no way to use their main stat for shield bashing. A PDK Fighter Vanguard can get that only by something like 12 Fighter / 4 Sorc / 4 Bard. It would be a lot nicer if Feydark and Harper provided their stat to hit/dmg to shields as well. Falconry is the only way to get alt stat to shield, and WIS is not the best option for shield bashing builds.

Also, please reconsider the 1sec internal cooldown on Shield Bashing.

 

[Sormiron]

As far as Warpriest/War Soul - I like the changes overall, but there's 2 additional things I'd like to see which are:

- An option for WIS or CHA in Warpriest for divine might. Only Warsoul has the option of WIS or CHA, it's really silly IMO to have to splash a level of FVS to get a WIS trance on a Cleric. FVS gets the choice to use their main stat for their class trance, and cleric doesn't which should not be the case.

- An option for WIS to hit/damage. Do we really need to keep mandating all WIS melee clerics splash Falconry? It'd be nice if it was an option in the class tree like Henshin gets. As of now unless you run STR you have to splash Falconry (or Feydark if CHA). It'd be nice if Falconry was an option rather than so required (it has WIS trance and WIS to hit/damage).

I watched your old videos axel and you used to go radiant servant t5 instead of warpriest t5 at the cost of a splash in maybe paladin for 25% hp I think. This becouse t5 in warpriest offered so little. I think they added the 20% hp since then. I am curious how you would choose as it is on lamania, even if you got wis to damage/hit in that tree quite early.

I want warpriest to strengthen its identity as a divine warrior and I think that the key to that is to make the attacks in it noticable and different.
wis to damage/hit + trance in the tree I think everyone kinda want so falconry doesnt feel forced. I think Falconry like pretty much all other universal trees needs to stand on its own with its own crit multiplier/threat and 25%hp for melee.

Scaling those attacks in the warpriest tree or making them do something noticable that stands out a bit is required for wanting to invest.
Adding crit threat/multi is good damage wise but doesnt set the tree apart.
Scaling the magical damage would set the tree apart from others and strengthen the identity. the scaling can be adjusted.
making the magical damage with melee/ranged power and spellpower gives an attack that is different than both the ki-spells and normal cleaves.
Also it would give those that only focus on melee/ranged damage something.
300%melee/ranged and 100% spellpower and spell crit/damage posibilities maybe. basicly triggering a spell. that would be cool. up dice a bit.
If it turns out to hit to hard/low later, make numbers easy to adjust. the cooldown could be increased to 8-9 sec as long as the damage goes up for it and is noticable.
heck, why not increase cd and remove cleave cd sharing. 600 melee/ranged power and 200% spellpower scaling.
I think something like this is the way to make it interesting.
radiant flurish could be the same cd as is, with lower powerscaling doesnt have to be a cleave but something you want to take. as it is it is a button you dont realy wanna bother pressing or get. a guaranteed blind instead would make it more of a defensive attack someone might take, some sneakattack builds would like it. it is t3 so it is quite high up for that though.

 

[Phaedra]

The "Lock-in" feat needs to be extended in duration or reduced Cooldown because if you want 100% uptime then its not viable....

I don't think 100% uptime is supposed to be attainable, and I'd be shocked if it were.

 

[Cetus]

I've long advocated for knight's training to apply to greatsword/greataxe. It's extremely sad that falchion barbarian and silvanus maul have been the only competitive crit profiles at endgame for what? 10 years? When was ESOS last viable...
I like the idea of instead giving greataxes +1 multiplier. It would less average dps than +1 range, but fits adrenaline better.

As for more passive bonuses, I tend to disagree. A toggle version of lock in would just turn THF into a numbers check vs other styles, so I prefer the temporary bonus. This allows it to be balanced as a "less dps overall but higher burst damage" style rather then just numerically better or worse.

I agree with the adrenaline problem. I don't agree that passive attack/bypass is the way to go though. Adrenaline+Leveler is amazing because of the +500 to hit bonus, but the cooldown is too long. I'd much rather see high accuracy bonuses attached to other combo attacks, such as boulder's might.

I think you raise valid points regarding the crit profiles. Overall, there are so many possible things to do. The only way to make any sense of these possibilities is to definitively decide what the role of THF should be in DDO. Maybe keep it's damage as is but add tanky bonuses? I don't know.

However, I have grown tired of all the micromanaging of buffs and clickies. I really don't want another thing to manage.

 

[noinfoavailable]

Tempest not getting touched is a huge bummer

Yep this is rediculous. Even a basic start to tempest so it gets both threat range and multi would be something

 

[noinfoavailable]

Let's talk about that. We've definitely heard more than a few calls for it, but despite people saying so, we've seen very few feasible suggestions for what people want to see happen to it.

A few things we have seen:

• A number of suggestions that essentially equate to "burn the tree down and replace it with a new tree"
  
  • This isn't in scope for U82, nor will it be realistically doable anytime soon.
• "The SLAs in the cores are bad/outdated and need to be replaced with better ones"
  
  • While potentially true, we've seen no realistic suggestions on what to replace these thirty-five SLAs with that doesn't overwhelmingly favor one school.
• Add Mixed Magics to Archmage
  
  • This is a good suggestion, and very Archmage-coded, and we might consider it. However, it primarily helps multiclassed characters and Wizard splashes without doing anything for pure Wizard Archmages.

We're up for potentially buffing Archmage in this pass, but it would need to fit into the following box:

1. It's got to be within the scope of what we can do. We can't do a full tree overhaul here. At most, we could do something similar to the changes Renegade Mastermaker got in this preview.
2. It needs to not lose the Archmage focus of being a tree for most-to-all spell schools.
3. It needs to bear in mind the other caster buffs in U82, including Cantrips, spell damage changes, etc, so that it doesn't blow away other caster builds or builds in general.

How about your speciality benefits from sorc spell use rather than wizard for cast and cd. This would allow up to 2 areas to be improved. The primary and secondary.

 

[Sormiron]

Harper tree def needs something. its own imbue would be something? good damage mabe? if worried about too many low-reach imbues, add it high up in tree or 18-20 cores. An imbue that you have to select to work on either weapons or spells could be cool. 25% hp and single weapon fighting imbue for good added. it could be added to t5s harper´s magic/resolute blade since it is two points. it would also make going for the 25% hp as a spellcaster less yummy.
I am unsure how powerfull it would be with imbue dice on spellcasting. the cost is pretty high when going to harpers t5 already. a d4 at t5 only and upgraded to d6 in lvl 20 core mb to put it in a bit of a conflict with arcane tricksters.
would a dc based cleave for confuse be something for harpers? harpers confuse me for sure. that elminster.
Mb a large dc-based aoe spell for confuse with not too high cd? Could be 1 single target attack/spell + 1 aoe/cleave in t5. if confuse is rarely used but cool. if it fits harpers then fun things can be done with it.

the kensai tree could use some small help, DR bypass blud/pierce/slash *** focus weapons in t20 would set them apart and kinda makes sense with their training. an imbue for blud/pierce/slash based on weapon in use would also be something. they do not need many dice, just to be a part of the imbue game I think.

Vanguard doesnt need much on itself anymore. it needs the cd on shield bash removed to scale. Kinda wish there was a way for eldritch knight to get some power with small shields since they are never used by anyone.
The ability to doublestrike with shields should be tied to perfect shield mastery or at least be a feat on its own so you can use other trees. a fighter makes kinda more sense with dreadnaught here but I think other options should be available.

Add +crit threat +10 more mp for bear/wolf in core 18-20 and I think more will stay pure druid. high level druid spells would do the rest to drag ppl along.
locking 30% attackspeed to natures warrior was to me a crime, its basicly a style like single weapon fighting and 8 wolf was a good requirement. it killed off wolfs using other trees completely (still crying)

Eldritch knights eldritch tempest needs animation speed scaling with Bab and attackspeed if it has not been done lately. last time I played it was too slow and clumsy. I think they will be fine damage wise, dc wise and overall with spell dc and damage changes. still unique and sweet, just the too slow animation messed it up for me a bit.

Ravanger. add uppgrade in t5 for slaughter. 3 point upgrade for +4threat, +1multi each. single target attack and slaughter feels good again and worth all the upgrades.
mb reduce blood strength cost to 1 ap.

Deepwood stalker. move crit range and multiplier for bows to a multiselector for 25% hp alone. 1point cost
Make a multiselector for heavy draw that gives 5-10% hit with powerattack on. add extra favored enemy here.
the cost of something else should probably be reduced in t5. doublestrike/shot maybe.
move legshot to a multiselector with tendon cut. limit it to sneak attack maybe.
Move thrill of the hunt to t4 and add +10-20% action boost to runspeed for the duration.
a multiselector for aimed shot could be an attack that hits hard from stealth as melee. +10crit range +30% damage maybe.
the main thing I want to do is make this tree playable as a melee using t5. favored enemy and stealth seems to be the theme.
powerattack was already in there with heavy draw so giving an incentive to use powerattack as a deep stalker could something to set it apart abit as melee.

Tempest would gain a lot from just whirling steel cost reduction to 1 point. Adding another 20% doublestrike scaling on dual perfection would fit tempest. making it 85% with perfect two weapon fighting.

Swashbuckler need a bit of meleepower/doublestrike in t5 somewhere and in the high cores.

warchanter needs a crit multi/threat on its own and a bit of melee power/doublesrike in core 18-20
up the dc of spinning ice to full bard level.

Enlightened spirit could use a crit multi/threat with maybe lvl 18 core bound to celestial spirit. you would see a lot more variations of melee warlock.

Acolyte of the skin. lower the cd of the fiendish symbiosis to 1 min 30 sec. 30 sec of not being demon. +30prr aswell.

add 10% profane hp to dark lore.

 

[Neilfladech]

Monk has a trance, paladin has a trance. Please give sacred fist a trance.

 

[f1b041b3]

Monk has a trance, paladin has a trance. Please give sacred fist a trance.

Yeah. Since trances apparently aren't going anywhere, they need to be made more accessible so that players won't feel so compelled to splash.

 

[wolfdy]

Gonna respost here something i posted on discord a while ago:

"Please rework the alchemists trees, both bombardier and apothecary have some strange stuff

For apothecary i would love to see a SLA for inflict/cure moderate admixture. Aswell a Negative energy strip/not healing undead on the t5. Harm dealing more dmg than critical admixture and beeing able to actualy kill a creature.

For bombardier i think the whole tree should get a rework to be more like an caster tree, proper 2% crit, cores that focus on one element, that +3 for one element on 3 cores is very strange. Also put something better instead of Elemental Obliteration. or at least buff the MAX VL. I also think this tree should have diferent SLAs than repetted spellvials. Every element has a Vial, Vial smash, a 1d6+4 single target one, a damage over time one and a 1d6+3 max CL 15. those should be maybe the cores or SLas for t2,t3 and t4"

 

[SongandTime]

@SteelStar So our feedback is aligned with what you’re looking for… I know a few of us have asked for additional things like changes to trances in warpriest to allow for wis/cha instead of of just cha and for Wis to hit and damage in warpriest.

After reading your feedback on archmage- are these types of requests in the scope of this type of overhaul?

Good question, I want to see an IMPROVEMENT of the melee cleric. Not a patch up job

 

[Malciah]

• Vanguard
  • T5 Brutal Impact loses “+1 Critical Damage Multiplier on a roll of a 19-20.”, gains “While wielding a Shield, you gain a +1 Competence Bonus to Critical Threat Range”.
  • Shield Combat II (Core 4) gains “While wielding a Shield, you gain a +1 Competence Bonus to Critical Multiplier”.
    • Fighter Vanguard players are frustrated that they must go mega deep into Kensei to get any Crit options with their weapons, and literally can’t get some at all if they go T5 Vanguard. This opens up options.

Just my 2 cents, I enjoy playing vanguard and I’d say it’s my favorite play style. I don’t think this change should affect paladin vanguard at least. It’s a nerf to the tree to help fighter. Let there be some separation in the fight vs paladin tree. Or give holy sword a buff to melee power, double strike, or some combat focus buff.

 

[Zvdegor]

NEW T5: Multiselector:

• Aggression Engine: Melee Attack: +50% damage. On Hit: For the next 6 seconds, you gain +20 Melee Power, +40 Universal Spell Power, and +10% Spell Crit Damage. For the next 20 seconds, you gain a +450% Competence Bonus to Melee Threat and 900% Competence Bonus to Spell Threat. Cooldown: 12 seconds. Passive: +100% Melee and Spell Threat
• Tactical Engine: Melee Attack: +50% damage. On Hit: For the next 6 seconds, you gain +20 Melee Power, +40 Universal Spell Power, and +10% Spell Crit Damage. For the next 20 seconds, you gain +10% Doublestrike and a +4 Competence Bonus to Spell and Sunder DCs. Cooldown: 12 seconds. Passive: +5 Melee Power

Can it be just 2 attacks with shared cooldowns? Why we have to choose? Can put both on the hotbar and use one or the other situation specifically. In raids the threat generation one is awful but very good in questing and vica versa. I dont wan to redo my whole RMM tree before every raid I am gonna do. IMO in this case the multiselector is a very bad choice. Please just make it available to use both with a shared cooldown!

TY!

 

[Phaedra]

Can it be just 2 attacks with shared cooldowns? Why we have to choose? Can put both on the hotbar and use one or the other situation specifically. In raids the threat generation one is awful but very good in questing and vica versa. I dont wan to redo my whole RMM tree before every raid I am gonna do. IMO in this case the multiselector is a very bad choice. Please just make it available to use both with a shared cooldown!

TY!

I agree, but I don't think having both passives is what you want for raiding.

 

[Zvdegor]

I agree, but I don't think having both passives is what you want for raiding.

No. Just get rid of those passive bonuses or change it to something wont bother tanks or useful in another way.
Threat gen should be an active addon for 20 sec

Passive could be
Make it both +5MP as it is now or +5MP and +10PRR/MRR/%AC/%HP/Legendary Repair system/+MDB and Dodge Cap orbeven just Adamantine DR breaker would be nice

or something similar

 

[Rosze]

Enlightened spirit could use a crit multi/threat with maybe lvl 18 core bound to celestial spirit. you would see a lot more variations of melee warlock.

I think they need to remove the summon stuff and maybe give it more tank stuff. It feels mostly like a tank tree. Main issues are base HP is 6 so ideally give them a feat that makes it match fighter. Or maybe swap the summon stuff and make it a selector one where one focuses on defence other on offence

 

[NickJamNG]

New Feat:

• Lock In
  • Included automatically with Improved Two Handed Fighting and Two Handed Specialty
  • Active: (Requires you to be using a Two Handed Weapon and not be in Animal form to activate. Hand and a Half does not count.) For 20 seconds, you cannot benefit from Strikethrough. For the duration, you gain Melee Power equal to 50% of your Strikethrough. This effect ends early if you switch to a style or weapons that do not meet the requirements. 60 second cooldown.
    • Notes: Two Handed Fighting builds are doing well against large packs of mobs, but they're significantly behind when dealing with Bosses and larger targets, to the point where we're hearing some THF builds are being excluded from Raids. This gives them significantly more ability to deal with single targets, while not at 100% uptime. Exact numbers of MP/Strikethrough ratio are a work in progress.

Melee Weapons:

• Morningstar and Warhammer are now considered hand-and-a-half weapons, benefiting from Strikethrough and the Two Handed Fighting feats in the same ways Bastard Sword and Dwarven Waraxe do.
• Notes: We're on the fence about Warhammers with this one, but want to see it play out in this preview before making a final decision. This isn't an enhancement or feat changes, it's here as it's relevant to Battle Engineer especially.

I like Lock In as an idea a lot. I feel like the name is a bit modern sounding. "Lock On" feels much more like what I'd expect this to be called in universe. "Lock In" just makes me think of zoomer memes.

Morningstar is a weapon type I often forget is in DDO. It needed this relevancy boost hard. Warhammer might become busted with this change, but then again that might actually get me to try using one since I practically exclusively use slashing weapons for the cool factor.