Cleric Feat Feedback

leasm

There are two feat options at lvl 41: One forces you to use Searing Javelin, and the other forces you to use both Searing Javelin + Daunting Light. So, this means ALL Arbiter Clerics MUST use Searing Javelin, no matter what.

At lvl 50 two more feats: One forces you to use Divine Glow, and the other forces you to use both Forgemaster's Flame + Daunting Light. You were already obligated to enjoy Searing Javelin, and now you MUST like either Forgemaster or Divine Glow. Lets say I hate Divine Glow, yet I would like indeed to slot Forgemaster... BUT, I don't want to couple it with Daunting Light. I want only Forgemaster!

So, your build options..

1) Searing Javelin + Divine Glow + ??? (no, I think Divine Glow is plain stupid)
2) Searing Javelin + Forgemaster + Dauting Light (no, this is unplayable since all 3 cost divinity)
3) ... you have no more options

TL;DR: Basic game design. Having *generic* feats boosting *specific* skills in a game where the player can CHOOSE skills from a large list is stupid. But, lets say you REALLY want to do this? So, at least give one build path where everything is generic. You want a feat to boost Searing Javelin? Nice, but don't put it in the same row as another feat that also boosts a specific skill. If you give the player A, B, C, D, F, G and H options, then don't force them to choose between A or B.

Easy way to fix this would be at least broadening the range of powers affected by feats. For example..

- Piercing Javelin (current): Grants your at-will powers a 10% chance to guarantee that your next Searing Javelin will critically strike.
- Piercing Javelin (new): Grants your at-will powers a 10% chance to guarantee that your next Searing Javelin, Forgemaster's Flame or Sun Burst will critically strike.

Moderator edited title.

krumple01

leasm said:

There are two feat options at lvl 41: One forces you to use Searing Javelin, and the other forces you to use both Searing Javelin + Daunting Light. So, this means ALL Arbiter Clerics MUST use Searing Javelin, no matter what.

At lvl 50 two more feats: One forces you to use Divine Glow, and the other forces you to use both Forgemaster's Flame + Daunting Light. You were already obligated to enjoy Searing Javelin, and now you MUST like either Forgemaster or Divine Glow. Lets say I hate Divine Glow, yet I would like indeed to slot Forgemaster... BUT, I don't want to couple it with Daunting Light. I want only Forgemaster!

So, your build options..

1) Searing Javelin + Divine Glow + ??? (no, I think Divine Glow is plain stupid)
2) Searing Javelin + Forgemaster + Dauting Light (no, this is unplayable since all 3 cost divinity)
3) ... you have no more options

TL;DR: Basic game design. Having *generic* feats boosting *specific* skills in a game where the player can CHOOSE skills from a large list is stupid. But, lets say you REALLY want to do this? So, at least give one build path where everything is generic. You want a feat to boost Searing Javelin? Nice, but don't put it in the same row as another feat that also boosts a specific skill. If you give the player A, B, C, D, F, G and H options, then don't force them to choose between A or B.

You don't have to use the encounters that the feats are connected to. I agree with you that its silly to marry powers to feats like this. It makes it seem if we use other powers that we are nerfing our class by not doing so. It seems like the devs have built in a pre-choice system where we don't really decide how to play our class but instead they are telling us through the feat descriptions what powers to use.

I have discovered that it actually might be the other way around. I know Javelin +Daunting Light is a nice combo if you have the feat. However there are other powers that work even better even though they have no feat connection. So if you think about it in terms of this, you have no feats at all. Just experiment and you'll see that the feats almost seem like a way to tell players who need their hands held to use X feat with X power.

adinosii

Well....you are not the first one to complain. Here is an old post of mine from early March:

adinosii said:

About the Arbiter feats.

I had promised a long post about the feats...here it is.

As I have said before, I don’t like that feats are paired up. This was a big complaint regarding the boons - sometimes you had to choose one of two “good” feats, where you really wanted both (leading to annoyance) or pick one of two “bad” feats (where you felt like you had been wasting your time getting to that point).

Ideally I would just like a pool of 10 feats, where you could pick any 5 you wanted, but I may be too optimistic asking for that, so, assuming that we are stuck with having to choose, I wanted to offer my thoughts on pairs of feats.

Basically there should be some reason to how the feats are paired together, and ideally they should support different builds or playstyles.

For example something like:

If you want to improve your attacks versus single targets, pick feat A, but if you want better AoE attacks, pick feat B.

If you want “emergency healing” pick feat A, if you want better DPS, pick feat B.

If you want better performance in solo play, pick feat A, if you want better performance in groups, pick feat B.

This also encourages people to have different DPS loadouts, say one for solo play and another for groups, or one for trash and another for bosses.

We had some good examples of this with the boons in the past, like getting either a healing or a DPS effect.

Moreover, there should not be any bad pairs of feats, where both choices are more-or-less useless.

I then went on to complain about the specific feats, where I raised the same issue as you did that some were too specific - however, those particular complaints no longer apply, as the feats have been completely changed.

Just read through the Preview cleric thread to see how we ended up where we are.

On the positive side, though, the feats allow making a pretty decent DPS build.

leasm

krumple01 said:

You don't have to use the encounters that the feats are connected to.

I was expecting someone would come with this kind of argument, and I'd accept it from a casual player. But from a game design perspective, which is the purpose of this post, it's unnaceptable, sorry.

Unknown

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kharkov58

This seems to support the theory that Cryptic devs are trying to force us to play their way. I only play Paladin (Justicar) and 4 of the 5 feats are tied to 1 or more powers. The 5th feat is tied to shielding, but since we do so much shielding either feat is viable.