U48.4 Preview 1: Balance Changes: Enhancements/Misc

[Cocomajobo]

Disclaimer

Everything seen on the preview server, Lamannia, is not final and is subject to change or removal before live release.

This is the BALANCE CHANGES: ENHANCEMENT TREES/MISC portion of the release notes.

Preface
The buffs we have done to these enhancement trees were centered around two goals - to provide a boost to spellcasting ability for Bard and Artificer, and to help equalize the disparity between Vanguard's T5 selection versus Knight of the Chalice and/or Kensei. We hope that these focused changes encourage a wider variety of offensive spellcasters. Artificer in particular suffered from a lack of immunity bypass, and we think this method (tying it directly to your runearm shots) bridges an important thematic and mechanical gap.

Enhanced Spellpower causes several significant long-term gearing problems for both the casters who had elements represented and the casters who did not. Either you had access to your element, which forced you to always wear the appropriate belt, or you did not, and you were left behind by a large margin of power. This change removes a significant amount of disparity between elemental types of offensive and defensive casting, and was a necessary step to the comprehensive offensive spell pass we are doing at the same time.

The changes to Shifter are primarily bugfixes, but we also wanted to give an avenue for advancing out of the Fatigue that occurs after Shifting for Shifters that don't get Tireless Rage from Barbarian. In addition, we wanted to bump the durability of Beasthide Shifters slightly. We're keeping an eye on the overall placement of Shifters and may continue to buff Shifters in the future if needed.

Vanguard (Pal and Ftr) Tree

• Shield to the Face has been merged into Armored Strength.
• Disorienting Smash now applies 1d4 stacks of vuln instead of 1.
• New T5: Shield Specialization V: +3 to hit, damage, and Armor Class when using a shield (req Shield Specialization IV).
• New T5: Brutal Impact: You gain +1 Critical Damage Mult on a roll of a 19-20.

Arcanotech (Art) Tree

• New T5: Charged Recoil: Runearm shots now strip Electric Immunity for 10 seconds.

Spellsinger (Brd) Tree

• Advanced Magical and Advanced Musical Studies are now merged and condensed together into one 2AP single-rank Enhancement named Advanced Musical Studies. It grants +200 Spellpoints, +3 Bard Songs, and will add the spell Hold Monster, Mass, to your spellbook at level 5.
• Horn of Thunder's SLA is no longer a multiselector and is now 1AP per rank.

Shifter & Razorclaw Shifter (Racial) Tree

• The Beasthide, Wildhunt, and Razorclaw Shift feats now clearly state that their effects block things that cannot be used while Raging.
• Empowered by Nature (both Wildhunt and Beasthide versions) and Destructive Shifting now also grant "You are now immune to Fatigue, including Fatigue from Shifting" in addition to their existing effects.
• Threatening Shift now also grants +10 PRR in addition to its existing effects.
• True Hunter now properly lists its Freedom of Movement effect, and no longer lists its nonexistent Immunity to Petrification.

Misc Balance Changes

• Enhanced Spellpower from all sources is now typed as Equipment spellpower.
• Improved Martial Arts now work with all weapons you are centered with instead of just the basic ki weapons.

[Discpsycho]

HECK YEAH Spellsinger changes!

Overall, I'm excited, but...

[*]Enhanced Spellpower from all sources is now typed as Equipment spellpower.

I checked the Wiki and couldn't find mention of a difference; is "Enhanced Spellpower" the same as "Enhancement Bonus to Spellpower", ie from Burnscar Sash? I understand how this takes heroic casters down a notch post-10, but I worry about how this'll affect non-FOTM builds (eg, Warlock, Cleric, FvS, Druid) in the 20-28 window

Edit: Just checked the "Balance Changes: Spells" thread and am somewhat less worried about Cleric/FvS/Druid. Still a bit worried about Warlock though

[Steelstar]

is "Enhanced Spellpower" the same as "Enhancement Bonus to Spellpower", ie from Burnscar Sash?

Yes.

[rabidfox]

[*]Enhanced Spellpower from all sources is now typed as Equipment spellpower.

200 less spellpower on my heals is gonna be a fairly big hit; upside my heroic/leg silverthread belts are not needed anymore.

[Arkat]

200 less spellpower on my heals is gonna be a fairly big hit;

Yeah, this sucks.

The Silverthread Belt really incentivized me to finally make a true healing character for guild runs and raids.

[kelavas]

delete

[CrispyonInside]

"Enhanced Spellpower from all sources is now typed as Equipment spellpower."

Like... why? What is the thinking for this change? Warlock's have a hard enough time as it is with keeping up their dps in lvl 20-29 content. You folks are already putting a heavier cooldown on the nuke spells for Sorcs/Wizards/Alchs. Like... what is the thinking on this one? Are we just phasing out all Ravenloft gear then? Are we making way for a profane spell power item in the future when the level cap increases?

[Carpone]

New T5: Charged Recoil: Runearm shots now strip Electric Immunity for 10 seconds.

This design decision just baffles me. Arcanotechnician is already one of the most underutilized/underpowered trees to begin with, and this change isn't going to revive the thematic use of runearms in any significant way. They're still going to be treated most of the time as an additional main-hand effect inflicting 2d10 damage and perhaps an additional DR bypass. Let's not forget that Lightning Bolt, Lightning Sphere and Lightning Motes affect multiple targets, yet this T5 bandaid only removes immunity from a single target.

[Steelstar]

"Enhanced Spellpower from all sources is now typed as Equipment spellpower."

Like... why? What is the thinking for this change?

We posted the thinking at the top of the same post:

Enhanced Spellpower causes several significant long-term gearing problems for both the casters who had elements represented and the casters who did not. Either you had access to your element, which forced you to always wear the appropriate belt, or you did not, and you were left behind by a large margin of power. This change removes a significant amount of disparity between elemental types of offensive and defensive casting, and was a necessary step to the comprehensive offensive spell pass we are doing at the same time.

[Entyri]

All of this is stuff that needed to get revamped and realigned power wise. Looks good, Thank you for the work / effort you put in!

[Steelstar]

this T5 bandaid only removes immunity from a single target.

It removes immunity from all targets your rune arm shot hits; if your rune arm shot hits more than one target (which many of them can), they'll all get this debuff.

[Carpone]

Spellsinger needs SLAs for Mass Cure Serious and Mass Cure Critical. At least then it could be a decent quest healer at end-game, and perhaps a raid healer for less difficult content. Today, bard has no place as a primary healer. At best it's a healing capable class to heal the healer in mid-to-high reapers, which can already be done by any caster twisting in Renewal.

[Epicsoul]

It removes immunity from all targets your rune arm shot hits; if your rune arm shot hits more than one target (which many of them can), they'll all get this debuff.

Is it possible the Artificer just receives a short buff after casting the rune arm that allows bypass? That way, it's not dependent on hitting mobs but still enforces that rune arm mechanic to activate.

[Arkat]

Enhanced Spellpower causes several significant long-term gearing problems for both the casters who had elements represented and the casters who did not. Either you had access to your element, which forced you to always wear the appropriate belt, or you did not, and you were left behind by a large margin of power. This change removes a significant amount of disparity between elemental types of offensive and defensive casting, and was a necessary step to the comprehensive offensive spell pass we are doing at the same time.

Maybe you could have just added a belt that gave Enhanced Spellpower to Light/Sonic and one for Force?

That way all the "elements" would have been represented?

[Steelstar]

Maybe you could have added a belt that gave Enhanced Spellpower to Light/Sonic and one for Force?

That way all the "elements" would have been represented?

Given the rebalancing we're doing in the other threads regarding Nuker-caster builds and their overall relationship to the difficulty of content, we have decided to not do that.

[Carpone]

It removes immunity from all targets your rune arm shot hits; if your rune arm shot hits more than one target (which many of them can), they'll all get this debuff.

Thanks for setting me straight.

Still wont matter, since Artificer spell damage is anemic compared to other nuking classes due to lower CL/MCL. If you're equipping for DCs and spellpower, then you're terrible at ranged or melee and vice versa. Artificer has lots of potential, but it's never been realized in DDO.

[Arkat]

Given the rebalancing we're doing in the other threads regarding Nuker-caster builds and their overall relationship to the difficulty of content, we have decided to not do that.

Ok, I can see your point regarding Nukers.

Healers are not nukers, though. Why did you have to kill their Silverthread Belts?

[KanraDDO]

[*]Enhanced Spellpower from all sources is now typed as Equipment spellpower.

Why nerf healers when you didn't give them anything in the update or the new raid? Just a bunch of brain-dead changes for this whole update, nice work devs!

[Steelstar]

Ok, I can see your point regarding Nukers.

Healers are not nukers, really. Why did you have to kill their Silverthread Belts?

Positive Healing is also massively overtuned in DDO, and we're comfortable with this reduction in Spell Power.

[kelavas]

[*]Enhanced Spellpower from all sources is now typed as Equipment spellpower.

Why nerf healers when you didn't give them anything in the update or the new raid? Just a bunch of brain-dead changes for this whole update, nice work devs!

preach brother! preach. I'm on your side with the healers. We're in a rough position, especially getting this hit.