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

[droid327]

Please oh please do not give artificer multi vials. That is Alchemist niche. You will destroy the Alchemist. If you want to give them some more budget, increase the turrets. They are artificer schticks and they are very under used.

They can at least make it a copy-paste version with a different flavor. Call it Elemental Cluster or something.

Turrets would be an interesting point to develop but they dont fill the same needed use-case as a good rotational AOE like Multivial

IDK why Artis are getting Acid and Frost though, they dont support those elements elsewhere at all. Feels like its just a retcon to justify all the Runearms with Cold or Acid spellpower.

 

[Lotoc]

Add Melee Power to the Exalted Angel cores to better support the turn-utilizing "battle cleric" archetype.

good god no don't bring back the barbarians in exalted angel claiming to be dps. I was so damn glad it was over when they killed the EA aura.

Now if Bane of Undeath in Exalted angel had the text "If you already had the turn undead feat gain 5 melee power per core in Exalted Angel" that'd be somewhat different.

 

[ShawnVW]

Polling customers would make little sense though.

Most players - very possibly including me - are not particularly rational beings that aim for the overall best for the game. It is never easy to kill your own darlings even when it may be for the greater good.

They wouldn't poll for "what's best for the game?" but "what is it you would like?" As long as everyone answers honestly, the results would be informative.

(Not the that devs would or could always take this collected advice, but the next time someone says "no one wants this" there would be numbers to back it up.)

 

[Lotoc]

Would it be possible for Henshin Training 1-4 to give 1% spell crit and 2% in henshin training 5? An issue with using Ki spells for damage with a proper Henshin Mystic build is monk completely lacks spell crit. Alternatively 3% spell crit each in the last two cores if Multiclass Monk/WM builds are a concern.
Additionally 3 usp or 3 fire/force spellpower per core would be nice. As it stands regular Henshin builds are losing a lot of damage on their SLAs with the bump down from 300% melee power scaling.

 

[RobShow]

Harper Agent

• T2 Heroic Companion is removed

The last time summons got anything was three years ago.

Three years!

As if giving summons nothing for three years wasn't enough, let's just remove what already exists.

"500" items released, nothing for summons—just more of the same with some inflated stats.

I don't know if it's a lack of willingness or just negligence.

 

[Rull]

• 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.

Does that mean a base 1.1x Ability Score Modifier as well like Bastard Sword and Dwarven Waraxe? Just to be sure.

 

[Lordpiglet]

Regarding Dragon Lord -

I did not have time to test in this preview, but from what players are telling me Dragon's Roar is now basically touch range and requires hard target. A nerf to this ability is certainly reasonable, but if its range and afffectable targets are being reduced to this degree its cooldown should be lowered a bit. Currently it is double that of Stunning Blow, but with these nerfs it seems reasonable to let players use it more than once every 20 seconds.

I didn't get a chance to test either. I would think that ideally they would standardize the size / cone of breath attacks. It should have the same cone as dragons breath.

 

[lppmor]

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.

Hey @SteelStar

In relation to the concept on an Archmage, my view has always been they should be the opposed to an specialist. In other words, they should be the most resourceful and generalist mage there is.

To accomplish that, what about adding to Archmage the possibility to somehow focus in a wider range of distinct schools? For example: in my view the Archmage should be the only caster able to cast both evocation spells AND necromancy spells AND enchantment with the same capability. Maybe it can be tricky to implement this, but would be really nice, since today a caster can only focus on a single (maybe two) schools, and I think Archmage specificaly should be able to bypass that somehow.

NOTE: An example of implementation would be making a tier 5 enhancement that decreases you DCs by, say, -3, but at the same time allows all spells to use your higher school for DC, something like that.

 

[eartheyes]

in core 2 of renegade mastermaker we get immunity to magic missiles, then in tier 3 shielding construct we get protection from magic missiles...can maybe shielding construct give missile deflection instead?

 

[Silverhilt]

• Purple Dragon Knight:
  • The Purple Dragon Knight enhancement, For Cormyr!, no longer requires you to be under 50% HP to grant its damage. Its damage bonus buff has been reduced to half your Charisma modifier, and it now lasts for 20 seconds.
    • Notes: This ability has gotten stronger over the last 10 years, as the level cap and overall available CHA has increased, to the point where its bonus is becoming too integral to certain Raid strategies. This change still lets it grant a meaningful bonus in a more accessible way, while also being more in line with other abilities in similar trees.
• 
  
• • I miss some more info on this, please! Is it still gonna be 1 charge per rest? If so then it is beyond weak! Could you please consider giving it more charges? It would probably be too strong as an Action Boost (12-13 charges), but please increase it to at least 3 or 5...

Mesmerita begs you...

Harper Agent

• T2 Heroic Companion is removed, and replaced with Multiselector: Harper Lore I: (2AP)

>>Edit: Cant you just include it in the multiselector, please?

Also, I bought the ultimate Demigorgon expack, just for the UAP tome to get this... What the H... are you thinking? That means you have to be PDK for For Cormyr! or Halfling for Heroic Companion (which is bugged btw, it doesnt give the +W) sadness all around

 

[Aklubra]

Characters who chose Dwarven Waraxe/Bastard Sword together with THF feats need a buff. It doesn't make sense that morningstars and warhammers become able to strikethrough as one-handed weapons and two handed weapons gain extra melee power while Dwarven Waraxe and Bastard Sword get nothing. Both cost a feat to unlock since they are exotic weapons while warhammers and morningstars (and 2H weapons) are just martial weapons. It is ok if it's not as powerful as Lock In, but they should get something.

I may also be against making morningstars and warhammers strikethrough as a default. This is not how those weapons are normally used IRL. I think it might be more approppriate if they remain single target as a default and instead unlock strikethrough with a bit of investment (maybe with an enhancement, or a feat, or new items, I don't know).

 

[droid327]

Characters who chose Dwarven Waraxe/Bastard Sword together with THF feats need a buff. It doesn't make sense that morningstars and warhammers become able to strikethrough as one-handed weapons and two handed weapons gain extra melee power while Dwarven Waraxe and Bastard Sword get nothing. Both cost a feat to unlock since they are exotic weapons while warhammers and morningstars (and 2H weapons) are just martial weapons. It is ok if it's not as powerful as Lock In, but they should get something.

Exotic HaH require spending a feat (or being Dwarf for Daxe). Mstar and WH require taking Knights Training to get their full DPS. So the investment is the same either way

The issue is more that, for the same cost, WH is mathematically better than the other three options

 

[Jaspar]

The last time summons got anything was three years ago.

Three years!

As if giving summons nothing for three years wasn't enough, let's just remove what already exists.

"500" items released, nothing for summons—just more of the same with some inflated stats.

I don't know if it's a lack of willingness or just negligence.

And the DR changes are a huge nerf to summons hires and pets.

They need metalline and aligned and piercing slashing bludgeoning. Because after this pass they will have gone from bad to thoroughly useless.

 

[Sormiron]

On this point, put me down as someone who'd be completely in favor of trances being removed from DDO entirely. They're so strong that they're mandatory on all builds. If your trees don't have it you must splash in a universal for it. They limit build diversity since they must be worked into all builds and are just in general an additional required buff button push for everyone that doesn't add much to the game. At least add in more insightful augments for the same bonuses to make them less required.

ï´m in. the trances is another clicky that is mandatory at this point. one less clicky is nice.
the downside of this is that tactical abilities for classes that otherwise have trouble getting high dc´s might be left in the dust. so the dc´s might have to be raised a bit in compensation.
Trances felt kind of smart to fit in before, now it is a little bit of a heartsink having to fit it in on a class that doesnt have it.
Even a standard fighter kinda want a trance for the damage alone, making dragonlord a much

 

[Jaspar]

ï´m in. the trances is another clicky that is mandatory at this point. one less clicky is nice.
the downside of this is that tactical abilities for classes that otherwise have trouble getting high dc´s might be left in the dust. so the dc´s might have to be raised a bit in compensation.
Trances felt kind of smart to fit in before, now it is a little bit of a heartsink having to fit it in on a class that doesnt have it.
Even a standard fighter kinda want a trance for the damage alone, making dragonlord a much

Agreed. Every martial build I look for where I get my trance and whether it is worth chasing imbues.

Its generally a fail if there is no trance to be found. +40 or more to hit damage and DCs is just an insane boost.

 

[Sormiron]

And the DR changes are a huge nerf to summons hires and pets.

They need metalline and aligned and piercing slashing bludgeoning. Because after this pass they will have gone from bad to thoroughly useless.

It might be a bit late now and they might already have taken a direction with the harper tree but it used to hinting on being the summoner tree for the longest time with heroic companion in the mix.
they added augment summoning and improved summoning bonuses in the feydark illusionist t5 hinting on wanting to make summonings work with it.
summonings suffer from scaling issues right from the start of using the spell and just adding static stats/meleepower/doublestrike is temporary solutions that constantly needs to be updated as the game progress.
Adding metamagics for summonings/pets or changing augment summoning feats to make them scale based on your mainstat, spellpower, spelldc might be a better solution. a heighten-type metamagic for summonings incase you wanna use a different summoning. melee/spellcasting oriented maybe. making augment summoning and improved augment summoning heroic, adding epic/perfect augment summoning. maybe adding 2 diffent feats at epic or legendary to go for either spellcasting or melee/ranged type minions.

A universal companion tree woud definitely be cool.

But I have probably annoyed the devs plenty enough now with ideas. I dont want to them to think I want to burn down the game becouse it is still the best game I know in terms of building and exploring different playstyles. it is where this game shine and I am deeply greatful that they so many times have alowed creativity through multiclassing, all possibilities and not just give up and oversimplify everything.
The large effort in terms of trying to balance it all while alowing player creativity and at the same time develop new things is definitely some thing I notice and like.

 

[Purr]

Wow, you even went into the Haper rabbit hole. Once you are there, one obvious thing missing in T5 would be +20% hit points since it's a hybrid tree. I can't imagine anyone going T5 still though so maybe do a harper pass at some later point instead.

Would rather just see them abandon it right now and do it well in a few months rather than it not get looked at until we are halfway through a second Rubio term.

 

[Smokewolf]

The Harper changes are very disappointing. Other that the Intelligence Hit / Damage and Trance there's nothing in the tree worth the AP investment.

 

[Torm]

Allow Sacred fist to choose monk feats.

 

[Jaspar]

The Harper changes are very disappointing. Other that the Intelligence Hit / Damage and Trance there's nothing in the tree worth the AP investment.

Should just remove hires summons and pets from the game and release a single summon called "healing lever" and all it does is throw CCW and hit levers for you.