Developer Blog: Paladin Changes

pitmonster · March 2019

Starting a thread to discuss the new Pally changes. An OP is my main so pretty interested in this one. IDK, seems fine, different mostly. Still think they are getting a HUGE nerf with the shield rendered as HP instead of a immunity. They list the paragon paths as healer or tank... how about a decent DPS so we can get through solo as some responsible pace rather then 3x as slow? I mean if you are going to give them a super duper tank nerf, give them a buff on damage to counter it. They will never be a DPS class but solo is painful.

https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/neverwinter/news/detail/11100643?fbclid=IwAR1EHcAEOw1l_OjUzNsD9P-1xGcjpJGG0NwOVtf1BaG_9PtXcMhYQceSVYI

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Exciting changes are coming to paladin in Neverwinter: Undermountain. If you haven’t already, take a look at the introduction to classes developer blog which discusses the class changes overall as well as high level adjustments to healing and tanking. This post will discuss the upcoming changes to paladin in detail.

With the release of the next expansion various changes throughout the game will make healing more significant than ever and change tanking dramatically. Paladin will retain the ability to play as either a tank or a healer depending on their paragon path.

Paladins now share a heavily reworked divinity resource with their fellow divine magic user, the cleric. Divine Call as it existed before is gone and divinity represents a straightforward pool of divine magic which you will rely on to cast many of your encounter powers.

Encounter powers that are straightforward healing and damaging spells like Divine Touch and Smite will now cost divinity to cast. Encounter powers which cost divinity will have no cooldown and can be cast consecutively, but cannot be cast if you have run out of divinity. Divinity regenerates naturally over time, regenerating more quickly out of combat. Healer paladins can use the reworked class mechanic Channel Divinity to pray to their deity while tank paladins can use their shield to block attacks and regain divinity based on damage blocked.

With healing spells linked to divinity instead of relying on simple cooldowns, healing will become more flexible and more active. Dungeons and trials have been rebalanced so that enemy attacks will be less deadly, meaning there’s more of an opportunity to mitigate damage as a tank or react and heal as a healer. You can make up for mistakes by spending extra divinity to heal more, but be careful not to run out.

As before paladins can select one of their two reworked paragon paths to specialize in tanking and play as the Justicar. The justicar is the quintessential knight in shining armor. A champion of all that is good and just, the justicar focuses on impenetrable defense and uses their divine magic to smite foes and can even heal allies in a pinch.

Of course, paladins can continue to play as healers as well by selecting to play as the Oathkeeper. Having taken a vow to care for those in need the noble oathkeeper rescues their friends from the jaws of death with healing magic and powerful mitigative spells that shield their allies from harm.

Many of paladin’s divine spells have been heavily reworked. Divine touch provides a powerful targeted healing effect, while smite deals concentrated radiant damage to enemies from afar. New spells like the daily power Radiant Charge summon divine cavalry to trample the enemy while the new encounter power Divine Shelter heals nearby allies and provides a shield equal to the heal.

Hopefully you’re as excited as I am for you to try out the big changes coming to paladin! Neverwinter: Undermountain will be coming to our preview shard on March 1, so look forward to more information in the coming weeks, and preview the changes yourself if you have the time. See you on the Sword Coast!

Asterdahl
Systems Designer

finmakin · March 2019

Thanks for opening this topic, you where a bit faster than I am

majorcharvenak · March 2019

I'm left wondering how Sanctuary will be effected by Divinity. Right now it drains stamina. Now it seems like it might drain divinity as well. Don't know, as I'm not able to get on at the moment and see for myself. I'm also curious about vow and bond of virtue and how they will work now. Will they still retain a cooldown and NOT drain Divinity when they provide a heal or will they not have a cooldown but drain divinity each time a heal is attempted on a player? Will they have both? Have they been changed? So many questions and the game isn't cooperating!

lowjohn · March 2019

I don't actually find OP much slower to solo things on than GF or DC, even at significantly lower IL. Not having a sprint or runspeed-increasing power makes me unhappy, though.

ghoulz66 · March 2019

TBH, I'm not liking it. Why make two healer classes function the same way? Like one over the other because one can carry a sword and shield?

plasticbat · March 2019

justicar, justiciar, jessica, justacar.

majorcharvenak · March 2019

I'm in! Let's assess the damage.

majorcharvenak · March 2019

Questions answered. Bond of Virtue is available now at level 77 and now has a duration of 18 Sec. Sanctuary is now a daily for the Oathkeepers and it looks like Lay on Hands is a paragon daily for the Oathkeeper. Relentless avenger is now a justicar power (so...no knockback) Vow of Enmity is ALSO IN THE JUSTICAR path and no longer a shared power! Oathstrike is ALSO in the Justicar path and not available to the Oathkeepers!

RIP my Burnadin/Banedin builds... You will be missed!

Let's see what else has changed.

majorcharvenak · March 2019

Wow! Artifacts look like they're overloaded. Any player with a mythic Sigil of the Devoted, now gets a self heal of nearly 200K whenever they use an encounter power in addition to the daily refill. Anyone with a Mythic Thirst...1.7M damage and increases damage taken by the target by 10%.

lowjohn · March 2019

majorcharvenak said:
Wow! Artifacts look like they're overloaded. Any player with a mythic Sigil of the Devoted, now gets a self heal of nearly 200K whenever they use an encounter power in addition to the daily refill. Anyone with a Mythic Thirst...1.7M damage and increases damage taken by the target by 10%.

@noworries#8859 has posted in the Preview forum about this: Artifacts are a known issue, there's a bunch that are just unreasonable at the moment, and the devs know about it and hope to have it fixed in a week or two.

pitmonster · March 2019

You guys must have faster connections then me. I am still downloading the update.

ilithyn · March 2019

Well lets just say that the made SKT an even bigger pain in the HAMSTER to do on Cleric and Paladin. Thanks for that.

majorcharvenak · March 2019

lowjohn said:

majorcharvenak said:
Wow! Artifacts look like they're overloaded. Any player with a mythic Sigil of the Devoted, now gets a self heal of nearly 200K whenever they use an encounter power in addition to the daily refill. Anyone with a Mythic Thirst...1.7M damage and increases damage taken by the target by 10%.
@noworries#8859 has posted in the Preview forum about this: Artifacts are a known issue, there's a bunch that are just unreasonable at the moment, and the devs know about it and hope to have it fixed in a week or two.

Thanks for that @lowjohns. Didn't see that from noworries but I figured those would probably be adjusted downward.

majorcharvenak · March 2019

Lots of boons to stack Power and HP. O.O

majorcharvenak · March 2019

Not happy about my comps items were all DUMPED into my inventory. Am looking forward to testing these new at wills and dailies. The tooltips are pretty vague on some of the details outside of divinity cost, cooldown and activation.

majorcharvenak · March 2019

ilithyn said:
Well lets just say that the made SKT an even bigger pain in the HAMSTER to do on Cleric and Paladin. Thanks for that.

Don't know about the cleric yet @ilithyn but just got through running a Oathkeeper up through Cold Run and now down in Chult. Things are dying much quicker than I expected given the loss of some of my standard powers of my build. Bane now has a small AoE it seems AND does some decent damage. Haven't checked out SoMI yet so I'll be looking for that bug you spotted wrt Divinity drain. I'm frustrated that my old build is dead but it is interesting trying some of the new combinations. The shield works great, and there is definately more of a focus on actively healing if you're playing a heal paladin than before. Next up is to rebuild my prot and see how the Jusitcar works out but I'll say, for now, it looks like you can do the old zones on the heal side. My two coppers.

grumpyowl · March 2019

What the deal with companion active bonuses? Why can't we choose any combo from the companions that we own? I can't figure out how these are working for the life of me.

micky1p00 · March 2019

runlevelzer0 said:
What the deal with companion active bonuses? Why can't we choose any combo from the companions that we own? I can't figure out how these are working for the life of me.

There are different types, offense, defense, and utility. They need to match the slots, nut it isn't stated on the companions themselves what type they are.

namelesshero347 · March 2019

lowjohn said:
I don't actually find OP much slower to solo things on than GF or DC, even at significantly lower IL. Not having a sprint or runspeed-increasing power makes me unhappy, though.

Radiant strike is my sprint

havlocke · March 2019

namelesshero347 said:

lowjohn said:
I don't actually find OP much slower to solo things on than GF or DC, even at significantly lower IL. Not having a sprint or runspeed-increasing power makes me unhappy, though.
Radiant strike is my sprint

LOL yeah, same here. Hope that will still exist in some form.

Developer Blog: Paladin Changes

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