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M15: Devoted Cleric Class Changes
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Member, Cryptic Developer Posts: 41Cryptic Developer › Cryptic Developer
Hey Devoted Clerics,
The main goals that we had for Devoted Cleric in this patch were to fix their divinity generation by smoothing it out and making it a bit more clear and to, once again, hit the "2DC meta".
Starting with the divinity generation, we noticed that it was incredibly punishing to try and manage your divine power in non-constructive ways. An example of this is; if you have no bonus divine generation and attack an enemy with Lance of Faith, you will have 299.6 divinity on your 7th attack. This means you waste almost an entire attack filling up that last 0.4 divinity.
This has some engaging gameplay in that if you want to maximize your divinity gain, you should be spending it constantly and never filling it to full. However, we felt that it wasn’t interesting enough and should just be less detrimental to your rotation overall. As a result, your 8th attack will now grant you exactly 300 divinity, while this is a nerf overall we have increased the amount of divinity gain on feats and class features. If you have everything that now increases divinity, you should actually end up seeing a very small net-gain (though, this includes having Avatar of the Divine active).
We also wanted to adjust the divine mode at-will powers, Punishing Light and Soothing Light. These powers weren’t consistent with each other and drained divinity at different rates. We also felt that the rate it drained was very slow. Both powers will now drain divinity at the same rate, be more effective, and drain faster than before.
For Divine Oracle, we decided to hit this spec the most because it was something that we buffed into the past that skyrocketed it into popularity. Unfortunately, it increased it so much so that it became valuable enough to warrant always having one. To address this, we have removed the team based damage buff from terrifying insight and made it personal. It will now grant a damage resistance debuff, on the other hand, and increase your own damage by 25%.
Finally, Avatar of the Divine has been revamped a bit to be more damage oriented and to allow for a heavy damage build. While we don’t think Clerics will be jumping into the ranks of high DPS, we think this will give them a very viable solo-gameplay option.
The main goals that we had for Devoted Cleric in this patch were to fix their divinity generation by smoothing it out and making it a bit more clear and to, once again, hit the "2DC meta".
Starting with the divinity generation, we noticed that it was incredibly punishing to try and manage your divine power in non-constructive ways. An example of this is; if you have no bonus divine generation and attack an enemy with Lance of Faith, you will have 299.6 divinity on your 7th attack. This means you waste almost an entire attack filling up that last 0.4 divinity.
This has some engaging gameplay in that if you want to maximize your divinity gain, you should be spending it constantly and never filling it to full. However, we felt that it wasn’t interesting enough and should just be less detrimental to your rotation overall. As a result, your 8th attack will now grant you exactly 300 divinity, while this is a nerf overall we have increased the amount of divinity gain on feats and class features. If you have everything that now increases divinity, you should actually end up seeing a very small net-gain (though, this includes having Avatar of the Divine active).
We also wanted to adjust the divine mode at-will powers, Punishing Light and Soothing Light. These powers weren’t consistent with each other and drained divinity at different rates. We also felt that the rate it drained was very slow. Both powers will now drain divinity at the same rate, be more effective, and drain faster than before.
For Divine Oracle, we decided to hit this spec the most because it was something that we buffed into the past that skyrocketed it into popularity. Unfortunately, it increased it so much so that it became valuable enough to warrant always having one. To address this, we have removed the team based damage buff from terrifying insight and made it personal. It will now grant a damage resistance debuff, on the other hand, and increase your own damage by 25%.
Finally, Avatar of the Divine has been revamped a bit to be more damage oriented and to allow for a heavy damage build. While we don’t think Clerics will be jumping into the ranks of high DPS, we think this will give them a very viable solo-gameplay option.
Baseline
Divinity At-wills:
- Punishing Light: Damage dealt increased by ~103%
- Punishing Light: Divinity drained increased by 100%
- Punishing Light: AP Gain increased by ~53%
- Punishing Light: Damage dealt scales a bit less with character level
- Soothing Light: Healing done increased by ~75%
- Soothing Light: Divinity drained increased by ~57%
- Soothing Light: Now ticks ~52% faster (Matches Punishing Light's tick speed)
- Soothing Light: Healing done scales a bit less with character level
Divinity Generation Smoothing:
- Gift of the Gods: +5/10/15/20/25% Divine Power generation (Unchanged)
- Divine Fortune: Base Divine Power generation increased to 20% (up from 5%)
- Bountiful Fortune: +4/8/12/16/20% Divine Power generation (up from 3/6/9/12/15%)
- Divinity: Divine Power generation is now additive, rather than multiplicative
- Divinity: Base Divine Power generation decreased by ~12%
Powers
- Forgemaster's Flame: Now deals a small amount of damage and then applies a Damage Over Time effect to the target
- Forgemaster's Flame (Empowered): Now consumes all stacks of Empowered to increase the Damage dealt by Forgemaster's Flame by 20% per stack and grants Astral Forge to all nearby allies when cast. Astral Forge increases the Damage Resistance of allies by 5% per stack for 8 seconds.(Previously increased damage of Forgemaster's Flame by 10% per stack and Damage (instead of damage resistance) by 5%)
- Forgemaster's Flame: Fixed an issue where the Slow would stack an unreasonable amount
- Forgemaster's Flame: The slow no longer increases with each rank-up
- Hastening Light: Base recharge time increased to 1.5 seconds (up from 1 second)
- Hastening Light: Rank-up recharge time reduced to 0.5 seconds (down from 1 second)
- Living Fire: Now triggers when you drop below 35% hit points (instead of 30%)
- Living Fire: Now lasts for 5 seconds after it was triggered, even if you are healed above 35%
- Piercing Light: Armor Penetration increased to 4/8/12/16/20% (up from 2/4/6/8/10%)
- Avatar of the Divine (Reworked): The first power you use after entering combat grants you Avatar for 20 seconds, you also gain this effect every 45 seconds in combat. Avatar increases your damage dealt by 50%, Divinity Generation by 25%, and Cooldown Speed by 25%. Leaving combat cancels Avatar and resets its cooldown. Casting encounters will reduce the cooldown time of Avatar by 1.5 seconds for each stack of Empowered consumed
DO Changes:
- Foresight: Base Damage Resistance increased to 4% (from 2%)
- Terrifying Insight: Seeing the inevitable destruction of your foes, you deal 10/15/20/25% more damage. Damaging an enemy also lowers their damage resistance by 4/6/8/10% for 5 seconds
- Prophecy of Doom (Empowered): Damage Resistance reduction lowered to 2.5% per Empowered orb (down from 5%)
- Prophecy of Doom: Animation speed reduced to 1.4 seconds (down from 1.8 seconds)
- Brand of the Sun: This power will no longer generate Divine Power while the player is in Divine Mode, this should fix an "issue" where players would sometimes not leave Divine Mode after casting all 3 divine encounter powers
Tagged:
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Comments
Winter Lily (CW) / Winter Rose (DC) / Winter Ivy (HR)
Pandora's Misfits Guild Leader
Guild Leader - Valaurakari Ascension
VA is the creator and proud member of The Round Table Alliance
Contagion - Cleric
Testament - Wizard
Pestilence - Ranger
Dominion - Paladin
NIGHTSWATCH
Guild Leader - Valaurakari Ascension
VA is the creator and proud member of The Round Table Alliance
Winter Lily (CW) / Winter Rose (DC) / Winter Ivy (HR)
Pandora's Misfits Guild Leader
If you're committed to the plan of reducing Terrifying Insight's effectiveness so as to make it undesirable for party play, why not go all the way with the damage-focused changes? Remove the cooldown on Avatar of the Divine and make any other changes necessary to make DO DC a full-time competitive DPS option.
After all, is there a particular reason why Clerics should not be able to "jump into the ranks of high DPS?" Guardian Fighters have been doing it for a long time.
Contagion - Cleric
Testament - Wizard
Pestilence - Ranger
Dominion - Paladin
NIGHTSWATCH
You owe me for 1 now defunct DO........ ALOT
Jade - Cleric - Healer Main - The Freak Core - Xbone
Magnus - Fighter - Tank for queues - The Freak Core - Xbone
Loverboy - Ranger - Alt - 9 3/4 Unbuffed - Xbone
Nomnomnommm - Wizard - Alt - Droppin Crits on Fools - Xbone
I Am The Wall - Paladin - Alt - Droppin Crits on Fools - Xbone
Xeros - Rogue - Alt - 9 3/4 Unbuffed - Xbone
RIP bad name - Warlock - Alt - 9 3/4 Unbuffed - Xbone
Bardholomew - Bard - Alt - 9 3/4 Unbuffed - Xbone
Sirona - Cleric - Alt - 9 3/4 Unbuffed - Xbone
Jade - DC - Shadows of Gauntlgrym - PC
Living Fire: Now lasts for 5 seconds after it was triggered, even if you are healed above 35%
This feat is still so bad that no one should take it.
I'm sorry for being excessively negative when efforts are clearly being made to improve certain aspects of gameplay, but if we're being honest here, the whole premise of Living Fire is broken.
Dropping below 35% HP without dropping straight to 0% is difficult to plan and equally difficult to achieve unless solo and deliberately allowing monsters to live long enough to hit you (a counterproductive strategy when simply killing them is much faster and more sensible). I can't even remember the last time I ended up below 35% HP on my DC without being dead outright.
A mechanic that depends upon hitting a low HP threshold is usually bad unless the class has a method to reduce their own HP voluntarily by means of some toggle or ability that consumes it as a resource. Obviously this doesn't describe any flavor of Cleric, all of which heal themselves constantly as a byproduct of DPS and cannot voluntarily suppress or "spend" their HP.
On a side note, how did Sooth (sic) not make the list for a rework? I'm starting to think that it's some kind of very long-running inside joke with the dev team.
Contagion - Cleric
Testament - Wizard
Pestilence - Ranger
Dominion - Paladin
NIGHTSWATCH
tl;dr, this is a request from a die-hard Righteous-specced DO to allow us to queue as dps. If we put in the time and money to be good at that, we should have the option, especially if we are rendered ineffective at party buffing.
You must have noted by now that your intent in designing something doesn't make a whole lot of difference once the players get hold of it and start using it in every day play. Are we going to see another change down the road to the tune of "We didn't intend for DO to be non-viable for endgame play, so..."? Make us viable. Allow certain paths to queue as damage-dealers.
Co-Leader of Call of Mystra
They don't like a 2x DC buff meta, fine. But where is the harm in allowing the DO to serve as a niche DPS alternative for the players who have the skill, the equipment, and the inclination to pull it off? I don't think it's an acceptable solution to make AC DC the only desirable support DC spec, but that's what we're looking at here if TI's party function is so severely clawed back. Without TI, DO goes from top-mid straight to the bottom rung of party support. There are plenty of ACs who are capable of maintaining sufficient double daily uptime, and with Forgemaster's Flame losing its party damage buff, who really needs a supporting DO? Take Break the Spirit on the AC and profit.
Contagion - Cleric
Testament - Wizard
Pestilence - Ranger
Dominion - Paladin
NIGHTSWATCH
To be fair I think the CRYPTIC team did a GREAT job on this likely HARD call. I mean both Cleric's can still give their 10% base power share which PROCs instantly unlike a Paladin, whom you require to stay within range for 6s and loose it instantly, and then have to wait 6s again before you regain it.
Still having said that - they took the 20% damage away from the Party with Terrifying Insight. Cause remember today it ONLY gives 8%, +4%, +4%, +4% or 20% in total, and instead increased it to 25% but only for the Cleric. So it's TRUE the party doesn't get the 20% damage boost as well, but they still do get something in a DEBUFF to enemies the Cleric damages, "Damaging an enemy also lowers their damage resistance by 4/6/8/10% for 5 seconds."
So I think you missed Terrifying Insight now gives 25% damage boost to Cleric not 20%!
So I think that's a FAIR compromise even if I may be slightly less popular for awhile for having said so. And I think most changes I've reviewed so FAR I've largely been quite supportive of. I do however THINK the changes ABOVE should at least have them reconsider 1 or 2 things for Cleric at the very least:
- DEBUFF out to 5%, 7.5%, 10%, 12.5% so it's perhaps a little more significant!
- or Perhaps Extend Light Gifts from 2%, 4%, 6%, 8%, 10% out to 3%, 6%, 9%, 12%, 15%?
Still remember that despite the above changes a Cleric's base damage is also increasing by 5%! So I mean people let's TRY and at least be FAIR about this, and if we still think it's a problem maybe ask the DEBUFF or LIGHT GIFTS be extended a little bit more! Those might be two FAIR area's they may reconsider?I thought so far the one truly FAIR observation or comment was with respect to Guardian Fighters! Someone had commented why there were no boosts to their TANK builds, and I thought that was likely one area that perhaps did indeed get overlooked...
@balanced#2849
Foresight to be useful involves reworking it to along the lines of " Reduce incoming damage " as compared to a weak dr sauce which "NO ONE NEEDS" and bring this to 20% reduction in incomng damage and maybe we'll consider slotting this.
And Prophecy of doom ... like really a nerf to something ppl rarely used when they should have had it on their slots for end game. I can't count the no of time ive had to tell those ppl to remove that garbage bastion of health and slot pod to increase effectiveness. but hey , lets nerf that cause debuff's are way out of line and buff's are perfectly fine right ?
Terrifying Insight, you could have gone half and half with a 10% buff and 10% debuff to slightly neutralize the effect if you thought this was too powerful.
As far increasing personal dps is concerned , this is such a ridiculous notion cause these mobs they keep melting in 3-4 secs is too slow that it has to be 1-2 secs now.
To clarify, I don't think they'll do it. I just wish they would. :P
Co-Leader of Call of Mystra
I have spent a lot on getting my DO DC to 18K and it is largely wasted now. I'll take a few days to check how bad this really is, but...
On one hand, I still know how to play AC from the last time DO were garbage (even though I greatly prefer DO), but I'm nowhere near having the Radiants to not be laughed at (not to even mention lack of Power boon).
This makes me even more glad I don't bother with endgame anymore.
House Miliskeera in exile (NW)
Sereska Miliskeera, Lvl 70 OP - Devotion (Just.)/Protection (Just.)
Shizlee Miliskeera, Lvl 70 DC - Divine Oracle (Right.)/Anoited Champion (Faith.)
Finithey Miliskeera, Lvl 70 HR - Stormwarden (Combat)/Pathfinder (Trapper)
Maya Sik-Miliskeera, Lvl 70 CW - Spellstorm
Irae Sik-Miliskeera, Lvl 70 TR - Master Inflitrator
Member - Houseclan t'Charvon (STO)
Shiarrael e'Tal'Aura t'Charvon, LvL 60, Rom Sci
S'aana ir'Virinat t'Charvon, Lvl 60, Rom Eng
T'Lyra, LvL 60, Fed, Vul Sci
Ta'el, Lvl 60, Rom Tac
Also, this kills Divine Oracle in group pve. The only silver lining is that now I don't need to craft a set of enchantments for the SW I've been building as my DO spec will provide. Only Anointed Champion matters now.