Hi all! I hope your 2024 is treating you well!
With Update 66 we're embarking on a pretty large overhaul of the current 13 Epic Destinies in an effort to adjust their structure, balance, and presentation. This takes the form of some universal changes that apply to all trees, and some specific changes that apply to certain abilities within certain trees. Without further ado, let's get right to it!
Changes to All Trees
All Epic Destiny Trees have received the following:
- A pass over their individual icons for readability and iconography - this includes several new icons and edits to existing ones to provide a cleaner and more cohesive within-tree look.
- All Mantle ability icons now have a color-coded border around their Icon for maximum readability on a hotbar or within a tree.
- All Strike ability icons now have a color-coded border around their Icon for maximum readability on a hotbar or within a tree.
- All abilities that upgrade a Mantle or a Strike now have an appropriate border that matches the border of what they're upgrading for maximum visual clarity.
- Trees have been reordered and rearranged to support more clear Prereq lines in cases where ability upgrades are required - for example, an ability that says "Your Destiny Mantle gains this specific bonus" is now in a line with that Mantle and has arrows to properly convey its relationship.
- A ton of tooltips have been rewritten, reworded, color coded, and simplified or expanded depending on their needs.
You'll notice this section is almost all about how the trees are presented - and it's something that we hope really makes a difference. But now, onwards to the funky stuff!
Draconic Incarnation
Most of these adjustments are about Dragon Breath, an ability that we think is quite strong but has overshadowed the other caster-based Epic Strikes and (more importantly) outpaced the intended difficulty of our content. To that end, we're lowering its damage, but are also lowering its AP cost and its cooldown. Other Epic Strikes are being adjusted as well, Draconic just happens to be first and we're starting here!
- Dragon Breath is now a 1-rank, 2AP Ability.
- Dragon Breath damage adjusted to 1d6+3 damage per caster level.
- Energy Burst now increases Dragon Breath's damage to 1d6+7 damage per caster level.
- Gaping Maw now increases Dragon Breath's damage to 1d6+7 damage per caster level.
- Dragon Breath cooldown adjusted to 12 seconds.
- Dragon Breath and Attune the Arcane have swapped places in the tree.
Fatesinger
Fatesinger's largest adjustments are in how it calculates its DCs for its CC abilities. It's also the first tree in alphabetical order to have its cores adjusted, which means this is a great place to talk about our new Core structure for certain destinies.
Quick Interlude for a Chart!
Going forward, we've standardized the HP and SP so that certain destinies match each other based on their intended playstyle. This mostly resulted in a bump to HP for the Martial Destinies, but we're happy to have a good standard to fall back on when iterating on this system.
| Destiny Type | Destiny Trees | HP Per Core | SP Per Core |
|---|
| Martial | Divine Crusader, Grandmaster of Flowers, Legendary Dreadnought, Fury of the Wild | 25 | - |
| Hybrid | Shadowdancer, Fatesinger, Machrotechnic, Shiradi | 15 | 25 |
| Spellcaster | Draconic Incarnation, Magus of the Eclipse, Primal Avatar, Exalted Angel | - | 50 |
| Unyielding Sentienel | Unyielding Sentienel | 35 | 20 |
Back to Fatesinger
Where were we... right! Fatesinger!
- Core abilities now grant +15 HP
- Renamed "The Rhythm to Reign" to "Pianissimo"
- Renamed "Reign" to "The Rhythm to Reign"
- DC for Discord abilities (melee/ranged) is now 20 + highest mod + stun DC
- DC for Greatest Shout + Discord (spell) is now 20 + highest of int/wis/cha + evocation DC
Magus of the Eclipse
Magus is the first of the trees to get a more significant overhaul to its structure. The big goal here was to provide more traditional spellcasters a way to better utilize the whole tree. We also wanted to significantly boost the damage of the Epic Strikes to make them a more attractive choice for damaging spellcasters.
- Moon Lance and Gloom Spear now deal 1d8+8 damage per caster level
- Chill Aura is now multiselected with: "Flash of the Eclipse: While in your Magus of the Eclipse Destiny Mantle, your Cold and Negative spells have a chance to blast your target for an additional 1d6+6 damage per character level of the same type as the spell used, as well as applying one stack of Shattermantle. Each element can only strike once every 5 seconds, tracked separately."
- Share the Light now requires Chill Aura as a prereq
- Null Magic Strike is now multiselected with Share the Light and moves down in the tree to Tier 3
- New Tier 4 where Null Magic Strike was: "Lunar Studies: While in your Magus of the Eclipse Destiny Mantle, you gain Spell Resistance, Magic Resistance Rating, and Magic Resistance Rating Cap equal to 3 times the number of Metamagic feats you've acquired."
- Grand Summoner moves to multiselect with New Tier 4 Lunar Studies, and is now part of the Destiny Mantle
- New Tier 1 where Grand Summoner was: "Moontouched: +2/4/6 Magic Resistance Rating. Rank 3: +5 Negative, Cold, Force, and Universal Spell Power"
- Lunar Imbuement is now: "Casting Moon Lance or Gloom Spear grants you +5 Negative, Cold, Force, and Universal Spell Power for 12 seconds, and these spells apply 5 stacks of Vulnerability to the enemy struck."
- All Core abilities now grant +1 Spell Penetration each
- Core 4 now grants +3 Spell Pen (which is still total of 7 across all 4 cores + 3 from core 4, but is now spread out a bit and easier to access)
- Lunar Power is now: "+10 Negative, Cold, Force, and Universal spell power. Your Moon Lance and Gloom Spear spells now deal 1d12+16 damage to enemies with 0 or less Spell Resistance."
- AP costs of several abilities have been adjusted to try to get this tree closer to the goal of 60-ish AP for all abilities like other Destiny Trees. It's still below other trees, but now the margin is less severe.
Machrotechnic
Only one change - and it's cooldown timer related.
- The cooldowns of the Hammer Time spells and the damaging Epic Strikes have swapped places - leaving the Sonic and Electric Epic Strikes at 10 seconds and the Hammer spells at 15 seconds.
Divine Crusader
Only one change - adjusting the cores to match the aforementioned chart.
- Core Abilities now grant +25 HP
Exalted Angel
Another tree to receive a larger overhaul. Most of these changes are centered around the Mantle and the Epic Moment. A new mechanical sub-theme within this tree is abilities that boost your Armor Class and Physical and Magical Resistance Rating. Furthermore, we boosted the damage of the Epic Strikes significantly.
- Holy Fireball damage adjusted to 1d6+4 Fire and 1d6+4 Light damage per caster level. Cooldown Adjusted to 10 seconds.
- Divine Protection is now: +1/2/3 Armor Class and Physical and Magical Resistance Rating. Rank 3: +5 Fire, Light, Positive, Alignment and Universal Spellpower.
- Metamagic Attunement II in tier 5 no longer grants spell power (was moved to tier 2 Divine Protection)
- Metamagic Attunement II now has proper feat prereqs
- Sun Pillar and Flame Pillar now deal 1d8+8 damage per caster level
- Angelic Form is now: "Casting a Fire, Light, or Positive spell causes a flaming blade barrier ring to erupt around you. Enemies entering or leaving the ring take 1d6 Fire and 1d6 Light damage per caster level, and allies entering or leaving the ring are healed for 1d6 plus 1 per caster level in positive energy (this healing and damage has a short cooldown to prevent weirdness). The flaming ring lasts for 5 seconds per spell cast, but subsequent casts extend the duration by 5 seconds each up to a maximum of 30 seconds."
- Angelic Body is now: "While within your Exalted Angel Destiny Mantle, you gain +5 Armor Class and Physical and Magical Resistance Rating, and are immune to Natural Poisons and Natural Diseases.
- Angelic Soul is now: "You also apply Consecrated Cinders to enemies when they touch your flaming Blade Barrier ring, and apply Consecrated Sparks to allies that touch your flaming Blade Barrier Ring. Consecrated Cinders: -5 Armor Class and Physical and Magical Resistance Rating. Consecrated Sparks: +5 Armor Class and Physical and Magical Resistance Rating"
- Holy Presence and Angelic Soul have swapped places
- Holy Presence is now: "While in your Exalted Angel Destiny Mantle, you gain 15% damage absorption to all Elemental (Fire, Cold, Electric, Acid, Poison, Sonic) and Alignment (Good, Evil, Lawful, Chaotic) damage."
- Blessed Water's Rank 3 now also grants +15 Magical Resistance Rating if you have the Font of Life feat
- Shadows Upon You now also reduces Armor Class and Physical and Magical Resistance Rating by 1 per stack.
- Ascendance is now: Epic Moment. For the next 20 seconds, your single-target Cure Wounds spells you cast on any target now instead apply to all allies. These spells cannot crit. For the duration of this ability, Raise Dead and Resurrection also raise your target to full HP like True Resurrection does.
Grandmaster of Flowers
Almost all of the adjustments here are centered on the Epic Strikes.
- Core Abilities now grant +25 HP
- Drifting Lotus Epic strike now deals +10/20/30% damage
- Orchid Blossom Epic Strike now deals 1d6+10 damage per caster level
- Fixed ranged power scaling on Orchid Blossom
- Fixed tainted creature boost on Orchid Blossom
Legendary Dreadnought
Only one change - adjusting the cores to match the aforementioned chart.
- Core Abilities now grant +25 HP
Shadowdancer
Another tree to get a slightly more in-depth overhaul, focused on beefing up the Mantle a bit and boosting the Epic Strike.
- Core abilities now grant +15 HP and +25 SP.
- Epic Strike: Becomes a beam like Lightning Bolt instead of being single target. Cooldown adjusted to 8 seconds. (note: the Lightning Bolt targeting is not working in this preview!)
- Shadow Mastery Epic Moment's activation time has been significantly reduced
- Weird is now a SLA instead of a Spellbook Spell, with the same cost and cooldown as it had before
- Consumed by Shadows debuff attack from t5 now also applies Shadow Loss and 3 stacks of Darkness to affected enemies.
- Mantle t5 upgrade's shadowy floating vfx and feather fall moves to the T2 Mantle upgrade, Depths of Darkness
- New t5 to replace Greater Shadowform: Unholy Feeding: On kill, you gain 6 temp HP per sneak attack dice. You also gain +10 Force and Universal Spell Power and are immune to Pressure Plates and Bear Traps.
Fury of the Wild
Most of the adjustments here center on the tree's Epic Strikes. We wanted to boost Quick Cut to make it a more attractive choice versus Adrenaline.
- Core abilities now grant +25 HP
- Great Leveler now applies a 2 second no save knockdown against targets who succeed against the 6 second knockdown. Tool tip upgraded to indicate the save is vs the Balance Skill.
- Adrenaline's cooldown has been adjusted to 9 seconds
- Quick Cut's animation upgraded to use whirlwind (2 hits in a 360 degree area)
- Cutter now always applies to all creatures hit without requiring you to be Quick
- Quick now always applies to you (assuming you hit a creature)
- Cutter damage reduced from 4d6 to 3d6 and is now slashing damage, not bane.
Primal Avatar
Note: this entire tree's adjusted state is not in this preview! These changes are entirely about the tree's Epic Strikes.
- Carrion Swarm DOT damage bug fixed to actually be 1d6+1 per 2 character levels.
- Carrion Swarm gains a saving throw interval to remove the dot.
- Spring to Summer AOE damage adjusted to 1d6+6 per Caster Level. It's still doubled in Tier 3 (to 2d6+12)
- Storm Catcher single target damage adjusted to 1d8+8 per Caster Level. DOT damage adjusted to 1d6 every 2 seconds per Caster Level.
Shiradi Champion
For this tree, we wanted to make Fey Lights stronger and broaden the tree's ranged DPS appeal. This is also the debut of a cool new feature, Exploding Arrows, the details of which are in another thread!
- Core abilities now grant +15 HP, +25 SP
- Feywild Attunement's Base Attack Bonus now works regardless of weapon type.
- Fey Lights now deals 1d6+3 Force damage per caster level, scaling with Force Spell Power.
- Core 4 is now: "You gain +1 Saves vs Spells, with an additional +1 for every Favored Enemy feat you've acquired. +1 Maximum Manyshot charge."
- Hunt's End goes from an 8 second to a 9 second cooldown
- Pin is now: "AOE Ranged Attack: Make a Ranged Attack that shatters on impact, hitting all enemies in a small area around where it lands. If a moving enemy is affected, they are slowed for 12 seconds. 15 second cooldown."
- Otto's Whistler's Immobilize and Dance effects when upgrading Pin have been reduced to a 6 second duration (though still with no saving throw) as Pin's ability to lock down groups is now significantly stronger.
Unyielding Sentinel
This tree actually received no changes!
Conclusion
This is an early preview, which means we're very interested in your thoughts and feedback on these changes. Please let us know what you think!
