Foresight - this passive may not be as useful anymore as it's no longer feated. Anyone experiencing issues with this?
Have Faith feat will increase your DR by 5% when our allies are affected by our regen. add that with foresight it will still give the 11% as before.. only different means to apply it now, and more accessible to both paragon.
Heroic Feats - need to be reworked. Only one that feels special is repurpose soul.
Heroic Feats :
Greater Fortune 3/3 adds overall 6% more healing (30 Wis) .. if i use potion of heroism and my wis belt reach legendary level, it might reach 7% more healing bonus from greater fortune's 3/3 feat alone. Quite 'special' i'd say for Wis build.. for non-Wis specced the feat sucks though
Testing was done mostly on Dread Ring Combat Dummies.
FEEDBACK: Empowered Mechanic There is no quick visual indication of which Encounters have been Empowered, how much, and if/when they wear off. We need some way of knowing this, perhaps with a small meter at the top of each encounter that fills 1/2/3 bars to indicate it is Empowered. I know that you get stacks of it in your list of bonuses, but that is NOT where our eyeballs are looking when we are in the heat of battle.
FEEDBACK: Divine + Astral Shield Could use a visual to help players transitioning from "it drops a shield" mode. Even a quick circular pulse of the area of effect would help or, failing that, something similar to Healing Word's missile. A different sound effect would also help, as everyone is used to that audio cue dropping a shielded ring.
BUG: Astral Shield Bonuses lists it as granting "Mitigate 20% from all damage types." Power description says it grants "10% better defenses," which not only does not match the bonus, it is extremely ambiguous.
FEEDBACK: Astral Shield Whose Maximum HP is used to calculate the damage absorbed, the caster or the target? If caster, then CON and HP bonuses from gear are going to become EXTREMELY important.
FEEDBACK: Prophetic Action Suggest the following... Shield all damage from one attack that would have reduced your HP by 30%(/40%/50%?) of its maximum once every 60/50/40 seconds. Spike damage is what kills players, so this class feature -- which has a very poor uptime already -- should ignore lesser damage to save you from what could actually kill you.
FEEDBACK: Sacred Flame DoT ticks no longer generate divinity. This actually makes me kind of sad. It would be nice if they generated a SMALL amount of divinity (not as much as the first hit) so that if a player is in a pinch and cannot sit and throw At-Wills, they still have a way of generating some divinity, especially since we no longer can do so via Encounter Powers.
FEEDBACK: Divinity Meter Suggest the following... Slowly regenerates while not in combat; regenerates more quickly while in a campsite/portable altar circle AND ALSO while not in combat. This is really for convienience more than balance, since Divinity builds up rapidly with proper features/feats (unless that's a bug).
BUG: Divine Glow Lists damage far higher than its actual output.
BUG: Divine/Normal + Sun Burst If Normal Sun Burst is on cooldown, the first pulse of Divine Sun Burst's DoT does NOT trigger, resulting in 3 pulses instead of 4.
BUG: General When raising a power from Rank 0 to Rank 1, its damage increases as if it was raised from rank 1 to rank 2. The correct value is displayed if you select a different encounter power and go back to it. This does not seem to be consistent. Still trying to narrow this one down...
BUG: General When drag-and-dropping powers or items out of inventory or hotbar slots, you have to hold the mouse button down for a second before you can actually move it. This results in a break of flow when manipulating inventory and powers.
FEEDBACK: Divine + Searing Light State the radius so we know to whom this 15% damage applies to. At current, it is too small to detect on combat dummies in Dread Ring. Also, 15% seems rather ineffective.
BUG: Prophecy of Doom This power does not list the amount of damage it does in its description.
BUG: Divine Glow Higher ranks list DR Debuff and Damage Buff. Normal mode has DR Debuff (listed) and DR Buff (unlisted). Divine mode has Damage Debuff (unlisted) and Damage Buff (listed). This power needs to correctly state what higher ranks increase (just Normal mods? Normal + Divine mods?)
FEEDBACK: Empowered + Divine Glow This power uses the base range of Normal Divine Glow for its targeting decal. It needs to update to the empowered range so the player can more accurately place it. This should shrink back down as charges of Empowerment expire without cancelling the targeting action.
Final Thoughts For Now:
Powers -- I see that the tactical ability of a Cleric has, for the most part, been maintained. There's a definite separation of Healing from Tactical, making powers that were once our bread and butter (such as Divine Shield) more segregated. I need to do some field tests before I can really see where things are going, but so far I'm not going to be in a panicked frenzy about the changes. Yet. Understanding helps a lot here.
Empowerment Mechanic -- This will take some getting used to, but the rapid speed one can gain Divinity (when properly Feated and when using the proper Class Feature) is a big help. Divinity is no longer a resource to carefully hoard for one or two special boosts or damage bursts, but instead is a constantly fluxuating thing you charge, expend, charge for the next power, expend again, and so forth. PLAYERS SHOULD BE AWARE OF THIS TACTICAL CHANGE SO THEY DON'T FREAK OUT!
...Unless... Divine Fortune and/or Bountiful Fortune are incorrectly giving too much Divinity. I kind of like where it's setting now (Divine Fortune is giving me 15% and Bountiful Fortune is giving me 12%) but if you need to tweak it down for a fix, maybe consider overall the speed at which one gains it should be kinda close to where it is with this combo?
Feats -- Linked Spirit and Moontouched are heavy losses, but hopefully the healing we lose through Moontouched can be regained through dedicated healing powers (especially once feated). I'm not seeing a direct replacement for Linked Spirit, but maybe the right mix of buff/debuff powers can compensate.
Getting too tired to think clearly, so gonna have to end this here for now.
I am a general player in it for fun, I do not min-max or do PvP. My comments are based purely on the 'fun factor':
General: Sunburst default mechanic: I. LOVE. THIS. Please do not change the default "knock-back' mechanic. This is what makes this Encounter power genuinely useful as a general rule. When playing solo I find it immensely more useful with the default-knock back than I ever did without it. Running some play-testing I have found that I do not feel claustrophobically-overwhelmed when ganged-up upon by several "heavy-hitter" mobs. Please DO NOT CHANGE this. it's awesome.
Three Thumbs Up.
Divinity Generation: As with many others I was a bit concerned how it will work when generated only by At-Wills. I am quite satisfied that Divinity is generated rapidly. It is really fast - so fast I am now worried you may decide to slow it down (a.k.a.: "Nerf" it) - which I genuinely hope you do NOT.
Three Thumbs Up.
Empowerment: As mentioned by others there is a concern that 'micromanagement' will be required during combat. I cannot speak to this as I am still figuring out exactly WHAT Empowerment is doing. Yes, I understand what it is and how it works, but in practice I'm not actually noticing anything different, though I admit I may not be generating enough stacks of it to actually have enough to see or notice. But this brings up a real question for me about Empowerment Stacks:
When Empowerment Stacks:
Does is stack on ME? - Empowerment is consumed (activated) when I use the Encounter on ANY mob member, even if not the same mob I targeted to generate the stacks - and therefore the Empowerment stacks will always be consumed in an attack?
Does it stack on the MOB? - Empowerment is consumed (activated) only when hitting the same mob that was targeted when generating the stacks?
What happens to Empowerment stack when I come out of combat - do they dissipate and fade away or remain stacked and ready for the next encounter?
Righteous Paragon: As I've said I am not a min-maxer or PvPer so this feedback is from a "general player in it for the fun". I respec'd my level 60 DC and ran into Sharandar's first "zone" to see what happens (this is the area about seedlings and spiders, etc.). I was melting mobs like crazy and loving it!
I love playing my Control Wizard and Warlock because they feel "powerful" in a "kick-***" kinda of way. My DC on the Righteous Paragon felt similar! I was having some genuine fun with my DC and even though some aspects of the game play still felt a bit sluggish and slow (Sorry: DC just feels lethargic in terms of casting animations and general combat) it still felt fresh and ballsy. It didn't take forever to burn-down mobs - things moved along smoothly and quickly. GAWD I really hope you don't nerf any of this stuff by too much later.
Three Thumbs Up.
I reiterate that I am not a min-mxer and I do not do PvP so I expect to see a lot of opposite opinions from these in following posts. I am a general player who knows my character and class and I can play exceptionally well in a general sense, however, I'm just in it for the simple fun-factor and not for topping charts or finding a way to eek-out an extra half-second-saved in a dungeon run.
I want eye-candy and challenges that are interesting and fun, I do not want to feel like I have to work or over-think things. The DC has always been fun, just not as much as the other glasses. For me, though, these new changes are finally bringing my favorite class up to par in the fun-factor.
I used to be able to clearly ( and I mean painfully-obvious) feel the difference is running ALL my other ranged-classes and my DC in terms of how long it takes to finish the exact same combat encounter (example: Quest Instance Boss) - it always consistently took around 25-50% longer, requiring more hits and, in some cases, more pots for survival, more dodging and kiting, etc. But last night... the difference I felt was negligible. SO Refreshing. I intend to dust-off all my Clerics when this goes to live.
I have not found any bugs or inconstancies in my general play up to this point (but I wasn't actively looking for them either.)
Overall the gameplay is now indeed much more dynamic. I like that. Messed around with the Faithful tree on preview.
So I'm gonna make a few points here on several powers/feats.
[BUG]Astral Shield:The regular yellow version blocks 100% damage.
[BUG]Agent of the Divine(Faithful tree T5 feat):Gift of Faith does not heal allies when they drop below 30% HP. The heal only works for yourself.
[BUG]Agent of the Divine(Faithful tree T5 feat):Gift of Faith sometimes procs and heals you for 0 HP when you drop below 30% even though you've used healing spells before and there has to be a stash of heals ready to use.
[FEEDBACK]Empowerment:It's really annoying keeping an eye on the stacks of Empowerment below your avatar. It would be nice if there were a floating notifier for when a certain encounter reaches max Empowerment stacks.
Ah... no longer automatic 11% on ourselves though. How is that working out?
beside healing word (which is now AoE like frontline surge).... bastion of health and divine glow now also applies HoT... moreover, some feats apply HoT too.. i think those HoT feats (cleansing fire & shield of the divine) work in conjunction with Have Faith feat (feat proccing feat). So, it's gonna be easy maintaining regen for that particular path.. But it needs further testing..
Shield of the Divine: When you or an ally within 30' of you takes damage they receive a Heal over Time effect from you that heals for 500% of your weapon damage over 20 seconds. An ally cannot trigger this effect while already affected by Shield of the Divine. Additionally, Word of Healing, Bastion of Health, Divine Glow,and Astral Shield no longer directly heal allies, and instead apply a Heal over Time effect to affected allies for double that amount over 12 seconds.
I thought astral shield doesnt heal anymore? it only gives temp HP..?
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inthefade462Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited October 2014
dps dc is a thing now. i likes it.
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kalyuxaMember, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited October 2014
Bug: Empowered version of Daunting Light keeps it's diameter as the regular/normal version.
Feedback: I think that the empowered version of DL needs to have a larger diameter, like the divinity version
Played around with the new DC, the new is healing really OP if you use the right feats and encounters with it.
Bug : Healing word in divine mode is broken and does not heal your allies as intended
Chains of blazing : In divine mode it doesn't always proc the damage and will just lay their as adds walk over it
Feedback :
Empowerment : The way you have to build up a stack of empowerment for a certain encounter is horrible as well as the way the empowerment stacks is shown.
Sunburst : The knock back on this encounter makes is useless to use in PVE, as you try and get the adds together to use your DL/DG/Chains to get maximum damage out of your encounters. The small burst of heal and damage you get from sunburst is a really nice thing to have when you solo. Please change it so sunburst in non-divine mode doesn't knock back.
Forgemasterflame : This was one of the best encounters to use on a DC, now that the healing has been taken away, it will be an encounter that nobody is going to use. Add something more to it to make it more viable.
I just want to say that I liked a lot of the changes, but I didn't like the Empowered mechanic. Making the Divine version of the powers be totally different is enough to know already; with that mechanic we'll have to memorize too many tooltips and effects. Not that I don't like classes that are hard to manage, but right now on Preview the Cleric class looks muuuuuuch more harder and different than any other class.
Making the mechanic effects smaller and simpler would help a lot.
In game,the tooltip is correct,it doesn't mention AS.
Also,what are you guys talking about? Am I missing something? Foresight can still be feated normally and it still provides 11% DR on us when equipped, automatically.
Oh, right.. paragon feats arent touched at all...
That means DO DC are gonna get 16% DR
We've got some oomph indeed, I hope they do not take it back before the changes reach live server
...So if I want want to be "nukeleric" (I like that word), you think AC or DO?
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ironzerg79Member, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,942Arc User
edited October 2014
Tracking Empowerment: I agree with a lot of the posters here. Perhaps you could add a glowing border around each encounter that glows more brightly for each stack of Empowerment on that particular encounter. A slight yellow border for one stack, glowing border for two, and bright glow for three. Being able to quickly identify how empowered a spell is will be pretty crucial to playing the new DC well.
FEEDBACK: Empowered I am still against this mechanic being added. you could have done the improvements without it and it's just clunkier. With the repeated use of a single encounter in order to gain the best result is again clunky. CWs do not have to cast the same encounter in order to utilize their chill stacks, likewise with arcane stacks. SO why do DCs have to use the same encounters to utilized all stacks. Most likely illuminating Empowered will not happen as it will look to your higher ups that you aren't doing your jobs correctly, so i have a suggestion.
SUGGESTION: EMPOWERED I suggest doing away with the spamming of the same encounter and instead, make all Divine Encounter use register as as all purpose divine stacks, so that any normal encounter can use them up for Empowered versions. This can also help as really sucks having to take your eyes off the fight to just under your avatar to know what stacks are there.
As I mentioned above, CWs don't need to use their same spells in order to generate chill/arcane stacks, so why should DCs.
FEEDBACK: Sunburst I can see why Sunburst was changed, as theoretically players will want to spam sunburst more than regular in order to gain more stacks, and ultimately cast empowered version. The heavier usage does not produce the knock back and so players wont be bothered by it.
On the other hand the knock back is absolutely annoying in parties. CWs and DCs are known to be kicked from parties, (and i whole heatedly agree with this) for using a knock back in dungeon runs that are not the push mobs of ledge like SP, as it makes it harder for the melee classes to do their job.
It no longer heals and the damage isn't high enough so, this has a high probability of placing the spell into the "Get, but don't use" column. Mostly used for solo early level runs, then get replaced when better spells are available. In PvP, it hardly ever works as many classes can block, temp immune or just defelct it, so its not that great of a spell. Mostly for a Oh S**t! moment.
SUGGESTION: Sunburst If the same mechanic is used to produce divine stacks then best leave it as it is. If on the other hand all Divine Encounters can produce a all purpose Divine Stacks then I recommend returning knock back to Divine Sunburst.
FEEDBACK: DIVINE GLOW I actually like how this one has been implemented.
BUG: DIVINE GLOW Description says it does more damage than it does. I could be wrong though.
FEEDBACK: FORGEMASTERS FLAME I prefer the heals return to this spell. I just don't see myself using this much at all without the heals. i use this spell when i am being attacked by a melee class and need heals and something to slow them down adn do damage to them.
SUGGESTION: FORGEMASTERS FLAME Return healing to FF.
FEEDBACK: Daunting Light It is difficult to be able to hit items that are moving faster than DCs casting time for normal DL. For me, this has been placed in the "For Boss Use" and "For Solo Use" column.
In PvP, players can easily dodge the normal DL and move out the way as soon as the casting begins. mobs don't have good enough AI and just run up to you.
SUGGESTION: Sunburst Increase the speed of the casting time or make the AoE the same area that the divine version has.
BUG: Chains of Blazing Light There are times when anyone can walk over the chains and not trigger it. It has happened for both the divine version and normal version. More so on normal version though.
BUG: Prophecy of Doom 1. There is no indicator on enemy that is is up.
2. Description does not show damage
BUG: POWERS UI Sometimes I can't drag and drop powers to my encounter bar right away. the screen shifts to the top of the Powers screen and then i have to repeat the action to drag a power to the bar.
I have more feedback but company has arrived. Be back later.
I show player support, by only playing Neverwinter as F2P
[FEEDBACK] CLASS MECHANIC- AP GAIN: we don't get any AP with hallowed ground on now and moreover, it seems i don't get any AP while having divinity encounters. By the way, as we are more doing divinity encounters than normal ones, AP gain is really slow. Maybe this should be reworked, or the daily powers have to be more powerful
[FEEDBACK] CLASS MECHANIC-EMPOWERING: i really like the mechanic as it makes the DC far far better from what it is on live, and it makes you choose the right encounter . However, we clearly need an other way to view the empowered encounters, maybe something near the divine gauge with the icons as you have now on your face. Moreover, i would like to see the possibility to have a general empower ability, so that all powers contribute to the empower system and all powers could be used as empowered. Indeed, it's just mashing the same button all over again right now, which is not fun, as we have 15seconds to use the empower system...
[FEEDBACK]RIGHTEOUS TREE: thanks a lot for that, it makes soloing much easier! but it seems i'm gonna go for stacking a bit of LS...
[FEEDBACK]ASTRAL SHIELD: a mark for the divine one should be added on ground!
Bug.
My AC has had all her Paragon Feats removed except Prestigious Exaltation. So, if I wanted to use a different Feat Tree, I'd have 5 Ranks floating at Tier 2 in a Feat Tree I no longer use. And lose five ranks elsewhere.
FEEDBACK: Divine Bastion of Health
This spell now heals for half the normal version(around 2000 heal). This makes the spell rather useless. It seems you want us to spam Divine 3 times then use the Empowered charge to cast the normal version.
This is a "HORRIBLE" idea. This game is fast paced and your party as well as the mobs are always on the move. On the live server I can cast Divine BoH for an instant 7-15K heal depending if it crits now with one click. With your idea, I will need to spam click it 1-3 times in Divine mode(After every click you have to wait 1 second due to spell animation), then cast the normal version for the big heal.
I don't know about you but this will likely wipe your party rather then "bring them back from the brink of death" as you state with the new healing tree.
Why you want t o treat divine mode as a "charge" mode for empowered is beyond me. "Divine" spells feel more like "Gimp" mode.
Empowered Encounters. I am a dedicated DC player, not a casual "try it now and then", half-hearted part-timer. Against Target dummies, I can Whack-Whack-Whack with At-Wills and get full Divinity quickly, and then spam the same Divine Encounter three times and then use the Empowered version.
I don't really want to be a One Trick Spam Bot like that anyway, but in PvE this is less easy to do, and in PvP perhaps even harder. Making the Empowerment Stacks show on the actual Encounter Toolbar would be better then having it up by my character icon.
Better yet, making ANY Divine Encounter generate general, Generic Empowerment Stacks, like a CW builds Arcane Power and Chill, would be much, much better. We would then have some flexibility in our utility in using a Divine damaging Encounter, then a healing one and then a buff without losing Stacks of Empowerment.
By the way, does using different Divine Encounters remove any stacks we already have?
Sunburst And in the name of All That Is Holy, PLEASE do not make Normal Sunburst always do Knockback. Otherwise I cannot use the Normal or the Empowered version. I'd like to see how it works with the Illithid in Dread Vault, but scattering the enemy across the battle field is NEVER a good thing in party play and is ONLY to be used in emergencies or to blow enemies off cliffs. The current version of Sunburst is a very useful Area Effect multi-target damage plus heal, even though it is not all that powerful. I always have it on my Toolbar (although it used to generate Divinity and AP, and more Divinity on Cool Down, and had a reasonably short cool down as well).
Heroic Feat Feedback Why does all the feedback over the last year about our utterly useless Heroic Feats seem to have been ignored? Any chance of getting some reasonably decent Heroic Feats, or making the really bad ones work better? Things like increasing Stamina Regeneration, Action Points, Recovery, Divinity etc or some of the useful things other classes have. My GWF, CW, TRs, HRs and Guardians had to think really hard about their Heroic Feats, and where I have two of each class they are completely different builds - Whisperknife/Master Infiltrator, Iron Vanguard/Swordmaster, Storm Warden/Pathfinder, with fundamental differences in their Heroic Feats as well. But my four level 60 DCs have almost identical Heroic Feats chosen as so many of them do so little above 1 Rank as to be worthless.
Bug.
My AC has had all her Paragon Feats removed except Prestigious Exaltation. So, if I wanted to use a different Feat Tree, I'd have 5 Ranks floating at Tier 2 in a Feat Tree I no longer use. And lose five ranks elsewhere.
Not yet tested with my DO.
My DO had the same thing. I couldn't even commit changes with those 5 points there, so I had to fully respec just to change feats.
No, you're just wasting breath. Although I completely agree with most of what you said, I tested against some practice dummies earlier and Divinity Gain is astonishingly fast in comparison to what it was. I do have Grim Faithful Armour with (IIRC) +25% Div Regain, but all my Feats that improved Divinity gain have gone.
The best my DO War Priest ever did in a skirmish with all the Virtuous/Righteous Feats for buffing/debuffing and dps was a 30k crit with Divine Daunting Light and Nimbus of Light etc. My AC Faithful/Righteous Healer/Buffer on the test server cast 3 Divine Daunting Lights with no cool down or delay and then an Empowered one and did 27k Crit - with NO Paragon Feats slotted at all. She usually does about 12k. So that is what Empowerment does so far - with no Feats, it multiplies her crits by about 2.25.
I will miss it if my DO cannot do mega-healing with Soothing Light, though.
So, I agree about Knockback, Astral Shield, Righteousness, the whole Empowerment thing, rubbish Heroic Feats etc etc etc, but test out your At Wills in Dread Ring before saying anything about the new Divinity. It IS a lot faster; at least at the moment (maybe a nerf will be on the way).
This could be the best thing ever to happen to the DC in Neverwinter, but it will be totally relearning the class from the ground up, and my DCs were just getting to be really good (15k). All that practice, muscle memory and reflex action gone to waste! I am not at all happy about that.
So I will be playing only on the test shard for a few weeks as I will not be paying for any re-spec tokens. I will just log in to the live server to do Professions (and PvP until the changes go live) and learn how to play my class (AC and DO) on the test server.
It could be absolutely fantastic, but there are an awful lot of things I really do not like the sound of and some things that just HAVE to be never implemented - Perma-Knockback is top of the list.
I just hope the devs listen, as all we needed was to fix what was broken, make Crit and ArPen work properly for everything it should work for, increase base damage so we are viable and have some CC and CC Resist.
But we have the same rubbish Heroic Feats and a completely, totally unrecognisable shredding of everything we knew in the Paragon Feats.
So spec your Feats on the Test Shard, go to Dread Ring and see what you think. Then do a free re-spec and try a different build. That's all I am doing for the next month!
Feedback : Empowered I think the idea of spamming the SAME divine encounters just to use the full Empowered of that type is not really appealing for some type of Power. For example : Divine HW & Divine AS.. They give temp HP, using them in particularly short period (succession) provide very little to no incentive as they give only temp HP. What I suggest is to change the effect of those noon-appealing div mode,
OR providing a global / general empowered stack. So, if I cast Div Daunting Light 3x, I can cast the Empowered HW. Makes gameplay more fluid I'd say.
Spells supposedly granting temp HPs in divine mode like astral shield or healing word don't reliably give these temp HPs.
It would be nice to add the number of HPs saved with the faithful capstone near character avatars on the UI. Otherwise this capstone won't be able to be fully used by the cleric. We need to get more info on what we're doing.
Is a DC suppose to be able to kill a 20.5k GS CW in like 5 seconds? With shield on TABB.
With dots consuming shield stacks with a dps build yes. On the other hand this kind of DC should have little defense and almost no healing ability and no CC resist at all so you know, you could do some CW stuff like using entrangling force or something like that.
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mysticmarksMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 117Arc User
edited October 2014
I've had and played my cleric since beta day 1. I've built every class in game now and agree with a cleric total rework. There are a few things I will comment on in respect to the proposed changes.
No cooldown on divine spells. Excellent.
No Divinity from encounters, horrible. If this reads correctly, a small reduction to the encounter divinity gain, and a larger increase to the at-will divinity gain would reasonably encompass the intended redesign. If you remove it completely we will only have bursts of pvp usefulness. In dungeons when a cleric gets overwhelmed with mobs, we have gotten by with gaining divinity from skills as we run. It will essentially get most mid range clerics killed. Baselining Characters, from a development standpoint, using rank 10's and perfect enchants is horrible. You will have many new players walk away because they simply can no longer compete if the proposed changes revolved around a final gear player.
**Note to other players** - many of the changes will equate to 3 or 4 charge shots on all skills with full divintity and no cooldown.. don't laugh it off.
Sunburst permanent knockback seems like a bad idea. What about knockback from divine, but non-divine functions like smoke bomb on the Trickster Rogue?
The feat rework is significant; Many long term clerics will have to take hours on the test server to find our niche again.
The changes to searing light are positive and give the cleric a new tool for mob busting.
The Healing penalty for the class was severely increased the last time; that plays into survivability. It needs to have that penalty reduced to aid in the classes overall survivability. ELSE increase the Armor Class of ALL cleric gear to fit a chainmail role.
More thoughts later..
Sometimes you're your own best teacher. ~Me
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Bug: Chains of Blazing Light isn't being activated when dropped in the ground.
Bug: Divine Fortune is giving much more divine power than what the tooltip says.
Bug: Divine Glow is dealing less damage than what the tooltip says. Feedback: The capstone of the Faithful tree looks unpleasant in comparison to the others when you realize you can go from 31% of HP straight to 0%.
I like the new dps path, it isnt too bad got a last hit 28k prophetic hammer hit with no vorpal; highest before this update was only around 12k last hit.
the new empowerment class ability is pretty nice as well a decent improvement it takes a pretty decent amount of planning to pull off correctly but when you do; it can do great things.
I also like healing word's new line heal its way better than before should be way easier to target than before plus its a multi target heal; spiffy though kind of wierd to get the temp hp from the divine version; for first few tries I thought it didn't do anything lol.
sunburst: its a little wierd that the divine version doesn't knock since its supposed to by basic casting and instead of that it dots.
I was thinking that a combo of the top two trees would be really good for a healer cleric.
I am really going to miss Deepstone Blessing, Linked Spirit, Prestigious Exaltation, Power of Oppression, Healing Step. This pisses my survivability PvP DC build down the toilet. On the plus side, the AoE LoS change to Healing Word is awesome.
Sun Burst: knockback should be only in divine mode
Forgemaster's Flame: I miss its original divine healing properties
Empowered counters should be able to be interchangeable (also makes keeping track much easier) or have longer timer.
I'm not sure about Burning Guidance usefulness anymore now that Astral Shield and Holy Ground no longer provides HoTs. Still procs off other heals.
For those who miss divine encounters generating divinity, I believe its to balance out that divine encounters has no cool-down and no more Ethereal Boom.
Comments
Heroic Feats :
Greater Fortune 3/3 adds overall 6% more healing (30 Wis) .. if i use potion of heroism and my wis belt reach legendary level, it might reach 7% more healing bonus from greater fortune's 3/3 feat alone. Quite 'special' i'd say for Wis build.. for non-Wis specced the feat sucks though
FEEDBACK: Empowered Mechanic
There is no quick visual indication of which Encounters have been Empowered, how much, and if/when they wear off. We need some way of knowing this, perhaps with a small meter at the top of each encounter that fills 1/2/3 bars to indicate it is Empowered. I know that you get stacks of it in your list of bonuses, but that is NOT where our eyeballs are looking when we are in the heat of battle.
FEEDBACK: Divine + Astral Shield
Could use a visual to help players transitioning from "it drops a shield" mode. Even a quick circular pulse of the area of effect would help or, failing that, something similar to Healing Word's missile. A different sound effect would also help, as everyone is used to that audio cue dropping a shielded ring.
BUG: Astral Shield
Bonuses lists it as granting "Mitigate 20% from all damage types." Power description says it grants "10% better defenses," which not only does not match the bonus, it is extremely ambiguous.
FEEDBACK: Astral Shield
Whose Maximum HP is used to calculate the damage absorbed, the caster or the target? If caster, then CON and HP bonuses from gear are going to become EXTREMELY important.
FEEDBACK: Prophetic Action
Suggest the following... Shield all damage from one attack that would have reduced your HP by 30%(/40%/50%?) of its maximum once every 60/50/40 seconds. Spike damage is what kills players, so this class feature -- which has a very poor uptime already -- should ignore lesser damage to save you from what could actually kill you.
FEEDBACK: Sacred Flame
DoT ticks no longer generate divinity. This actually makes me kind of sad. It would be nice if they generated a SMALL amount of divinity (not as much as the first hit) so that if a player is in a pinch and cannot sit and throw At-Wills, they still have a way of generating some divinity, especially since we no longer can do so via Encounter Powers.
FEEDBACK: Divinity Meter
Suggest the following... Slowly regenerates while not in combat; regenerates more quickly while in a campsite/portable altar circle AND ALSO while not in combat. This is really for convienience more than balance, since Divinity builds up rapidly with proper features/feats (unless that's a bug).
BUG: Divine Glow
Lists damage far higher than its actual output.
BUG: Divine/Normal + Sun Burst
If Normal Sun Burst is on cooldown, the first pulse of Divine Sun Burst's DoT does NOT trigger, resulting in 3 pulses instead of 4.
BUG: General
When raising a power from Rank 0 to Rank 1, its damage increases as if it was raised from rank 1 to rank 2. The correct value is displayed if you select a different encounter power and go back to it. This does not seem to be consistent. Still trying to narrow this one down...
BUG: General
When drag-and-dropping powers or items out of inventory or hotbar slots, you have to hold the mouse button down for a second before you can actually move it. This results in a break of flow when manipulating inventory and powers.
FEEDBACK: Divine + Searing Light
State the radius so we know to whom this 15% damage applies to. At current, it is too small to detect on combat dummies in Dread Ring. Also, 15% seems rather ineffective.
BUG: Prophecy of Doom
This power does not list the amount of damage it does in its description.
BUG: Divine Glow
Higher ranks list DR Debuff and Damage Buff. Normal mode has DR Debuff (listed) and DR Buff (unlisted). Divine mode has Damage Debuff (unlisted) and Damage Buff (listed). This power needs to correctly state what higher ranks increase (just Normal mods? Normal + Divine mods?)
FEEDBACK: Empowered + Divine Glow
This power uses the base range of Normal Divine Glow for its targeting decal. It needs to update to the empowered range so the player can more accurately place it. This should shrink back down as charges of Empowerment expire without cancelling the targeting action.
Final Thoughts For Now:
Powers -- I see that the tactical ability of a Cleric has, for the most part, been maintained. There's a definite separation of Healing from Tactical, making powers that were once our bread and butter (such as Divine Shield) more segregated. I need to do some field tests before I can really see where things are going, but so far I'm not going to be in a panicked frenzy about the changes. Yet. Understanding helps a lot here.
Empowerment Mechanic -- This will take some getting used to, but the rapid speed one can gain Divinity (when properly Feated and when using the proper Class Feature) is a big help. Divinity is no longer a resource to carefully hoard for one or two special boosts or damage bursts, but instead is a constantly fluxuating thing you charge, expend, charge for the next power, expend again, and so forth. PLAYERS SHOULD BE AWARE OF THIS TACTICAL CHANGE SO THEY DON'T FREAK OUT!
...Unless... Divine Fortune and/or Bountiful Fortune are incorrectly giving too much Divinity. I kind of like where it's setting now (Divine Fortune is giving me 15% and Bountiful Fortune is giving me 12%) but if you need to tweak it down for a fix, maybe consider overall the speed at which one gains it should be kinda close to where it is with this combo?
Feats -- Linked Spirit and Moontouched are heavy losses, but hopefully the healing we lose through Moontouched can be regained through dedicated healing powers (especially once feated). I'm not seeing a direct replacement for Linked Spirit, but maybe the right mix of buff/debuff powers can compensate.
Getting too tired to think clearly, so gonna have to end this here for now.
General:
Sunburst default mechanic: I. LOVE. THIS. Please do not change the default "knock-back' mechanic. This is what makes this Encounter power genuinely useful as a general rule. When playing solo I find it immensely more useful with the default-knock back than I ever did without it. Running some play-testing I have found that I do not feel claustrophobically-overwhelmed when ganged-up upon by several "heavy-hitter" mobs. Please DO NOT CHANGE this. it's awesome.
Three Thumbs Up.
Divinity Generation:
As with many others I was a bit concerned how it will work when generated only by At-Wills. I am quite satisfied that Divinity is generated rapidly. It is really fast - so fast I am now worried you may decide to slow it down (a.k.a.: "Nerf" it) - which I genuinely hope you do NOT.
Three Thumbs Up.
Empowerment:
As mentioned by others there is a concern that 'micromanagement' will be required during combat. I cannot speak to this as I am still figuring out exactly WHAT Empowerment is doing. Yes, I understand what it is and how it works, but in practice I'm not actually noticing anything different, though I admit I may not be generating enough stacks of it to actually have enough to see or notice. But this brings up a real question for me about Empowerment Stacks:
When Empowerment Stacks:
Does is stack on ME? - Empowerment is consumed (activated) when I use the Encounter on ANY mob member, even if not the same mob I targeted to generate the stacks - and therefore the Empowerment stacks will always be consumed in an attack?
Does it stack on the MOB? - Empowerment is consumed (activated) only when hitting the same mob that was targeted when generating the stacks?
What happens to Empowerment stack when I come out of combat - do they dissipate and fade away or remain stacked and ready for the next encounter?
Righteous Paragon:
As I've said I am not a min-maxer or PvPer so this feedback is from a "general player in it for the fun". I respec'd my level 60 DC and ran into Sharandar's first "zone" to see what happens (this is the area about seedlings and spiders, etc.). I was melting mobs like crazy and loving it!
I love playing my Control Wizard and Warlock because they feel "powerful" in a "kick-***" kinda of way. My DC on the Righteous Paragon felt similar! I was having some genuine fun with my DC and even though some aspects of the game play still felt a bit sluggish and slow (Sorry: DC just feels lethargic in terms of casting animations and general combat) it still felt fresh and ballsy. It didn't take forever to burn-down mobs - things moved along smoothly and quickly. GAWD I really hope you don't nerf any of this stuff by too much later.
Three Thumbs Up.
I reiterate that I am not a min-mxer and I do not do PvP so I expect to see a lot of opposite opinions from these in following posts. I am a general player who knows my character and class and I can play exceptionally well in a general sense, however, I'm just in it for the simple fun-factor and not for topping charts or finding a way to eek-out an extra half-second-saved in a dungeon run.
I want eye-candy and challenges that are interesting and fun, I do not want to feel like I have to work or over-think things. The DC has always been fun, just not as much as the other glasses. For me, though, these new changes are finally bringing my favorite class up to par in the fun-factor.
I used to be able to clearly ( and I mean painfully-obvious) feel the difference is running ALL my other ranged-classes and my DC in terms of how long it takes to finish the exact same combat encounter (example: Quest Instance Boss) - it always consistently took around 25-50% longer, requiring more hits and, in some cases, more pots for survival, more dodging and kiting, etc. But last night... the difference I felt was negligible. SO Refreshing. I intend to dust-off all my Clerics when this goes to live.
I have not found any bugs or inconstancies in my general play up to this point (but I wasn't actively looking for them either.)
So I'm gonna make a few points here on several powers/feats.
[BUG] Astral Shield: The regular yellow version blocks 100% damage.
[BUG] Agent of the Divine (Faithful tree T5 feat): Gift of Faith does not heal allies when they drop below 30% HP. The heal only works for yourself.
[BUG] Agent of the Divine (Faithful tree T5 feat): Gift of Faith sometimes procs and heals you for 0 HP when you drop below 30% even though you've used healing spells before and there has to be a stash of heals ready to use.
[FEEDBACK] Empowerment: It's really annoying keeping an eye on the stacks of Empowerment below your avatar. It would be nice if there were a floating notifier for when a certain encounter reaches max Empowerment stacks.
beside healing word (which is now AoE like frontline surge).... bastion of health and divine glow now also applies HoT... moreover, some feats apply HoT too.. i think those HoT feats (cleansing fire & shield of the divine) work in conjunction with Have Faith feat (feat proccing feat). So, it's gonna be easy maintaining regen for that particular path.. But it needs further testing..
I thought astral shield doesnt heal anymore? it only gives temp HP..?
Empowered version of Daunting Light keeps it's diameter as the regular/normal version.
Feedback:
I think that the empowered version of DL needs to have a larger diameter, like the divinity version
Bug : Healing word in divine mode is broken and does not heal your allies as intended
Chains of blazing : In divine mode it doesn't always proc the damage and will just lay their as adds walk over it
Feedback :
Empowerment : The way you have to build up a stack of empowerment for a certain encounter is horrible as well as the way the empowerment stacks is shown.
Sunburst : The knock back on this encounter makes is useless to use in PVE, as you try and get the adds together to use your DL/DG/Chains to get maximum damage out of your encounters. The small burst of heal and damage you get from sunburst is a really nice thing to have when you solo. Please change it so sunburst in non-divine mode doesn't knock back.
Forgemasterflame : This was one of the best encounters to use on a DC, now that the healing has been taken away, it will be an encounter that nobody is going to use. Add something more to it to make it more viable.
Making the mechanic effects smaller and simpler would help a lot.
Oh, right.. paragon feats arent touched at all...
That means DO DC are gonna get 16% DR
90% HP busted on a BiS TR with two attacks... nice..
If you know something to be broken, stop using it.
Otherwise, you've got no right to be speaking of 'balance.'
...So if I want want to be "nukeleric" (I like that word), you think AC or DO?
I am still against this mechanic being added. you could have done the improvements without it and it's just clunkier. With the repeated use of a single encounter in order to gain the best result is again clunky. CWs do not have to cast the same encounter in order to utilize their chill stacks, likewise with arcane stacks. SO why do DCs have to use the same encounters to utilized all stacks. Most likely illuminating Empowered will not happen as it will look to your higher ups that you aren't doing your jobs correctly, so i have a suggestion.
SUGGESTION: EMPOWERED
I suggest doing away with the spamming of the same encounter and instead, make all Divine Encounter use register as as all purpose divine stacks, so that any normal encounter can use them up for Empowered versions. This can also help as really sucks having to take your eyes off the fight to just under your avatar to know what stacks are there.
As I mentioned above, CWs don't need to use their same spells in order to generate chill/arcane stacks, so why should DCs.
FEEDBACK: Sunburst
I can see why Sunburst was changed, as theoretically players will want to spam sunburst more than regular in order to gain more stacks, and ultimately cast empowered version. The heavier usage does not produce the knock back and so players wont be bothered by it.
On the other hand the knock back is absolutely annoying in parties. CWs and DCs are known to be kicked from parties, (and i whole heatedly agree with this) for using a knock back in dungeon runs that are not the push mobs of ledge like SP, as it makes it harder for the melee classes to do their job.
It no longer heals and the damage isn't high enough so, this has a high probability of placing the spell into the "Get, but don't use" column. Mostly used for solo early level runs, then get replaced when better spells are available. In PvP, it hardly ever works as many classes can block, temp immune or just defelct it, so its not that great of a spell. Mostly for a Oh S**t! moment.
SUGGESTION: Sunburst
If the same mechanic is used to produce divine stacks then best leave it as it is. If on the other hand all Divine Encounters can produce a all purpose Divine Stacks then I recommend returning knock back to Divine Sunburst.
FEEDBACK: DIVINE GLOW
I actually like how this one has been implemented.
BUG: DIVINE GLOW
Description says it does more damage than it does. I could be wrong though.
FEEDBACK: FORGEMASTERS FLAME
I prefer the heals return to this spell. I just don't see myself using this much at all without the heals. i use this spell when i am being attacked by a melee class and need heals and something to slow them down adn do damage to them.
SUGGESTION: FORGEMASTERS FLAME
Return healing to FF.
FEEDBACK: Daunting Light
It is difficult to be able to hit items that are moving faster than DCs casting time for normal DL. For me, this has been placed in the "For Boss Use" and "For Solo Use" column.
In PvP, players can easily dodge the normal DL and move out the way as soon as the casting begins. mobs don't have good enough AI and just run up to you.
SUGGESTION: Sunburst
Increase the speed of the casting time or make the AoE the same area that the divine version has.
BUG: Chains of Blazing Light
There are times when anyone can walk over the chains and not trigger it. It has happened for both the divine version and normal version. More so on normal version though.
BUG: Prophecy of Doom
1. There is no indicator on enemy that is is up.
2. Description does not show damage
BUG: POWERS UI
Sometimes I can't drag and drop powers to my encounter bar right away. the screen shifts to the top of the Powers screen and then i have to repeat the action to drag a power to the bar.
I have more feedback but company has arrived. Be back later.
[FEEDBACK] CLASS MECHANIC-EMPOWERING: i really like the mechanic as it makes the DC far far better from what it is on live, and it makes you choose the right encounter . However, we clearly need an other way to view the empowered encounters, maybe something near the divine gauge with the icons as you have now on your face. Moreover, i would like to see the possibility to have a general empower ability, so that all powers contribute to the empower system and all powers could be used as empowered. Indeed, it's just mashing the same button all over again right now, which is not fun, as we have 15seconds to use the empower system...
[FEEDBACK]RIGHTEOUS TREE: thanks a lot for that, it makes soloing much easier! but it seems i'm gonna go for stacking a bit of LS...
[FEEDBACK]ASTRAL SHIELD: a mark for the divine one should be added on ground!
My AC has had all her Paragon Feats removed except Prestigious Exaltation. So, if I wanted to use a different Feat Tree, I'd have 5 Ranks floating at Tier 2 in a Feat Tree I no longer use. And lose five ranks elsewhere.
Not yet tested with my DO.
This spell now heals for half the normal version(around 2000 heal). This makes the spell rather useless. It seems you want us to spam Divine 3 times then use the Empowered charge to cast the normal version.
This is a "HORRIBLE" idea. This game is fast paced and your party as well as the mobs are always on the move. On the live server I can cast Divine BoH for an instant 7-15K heal depending if it crits now with one click. With your idea, I will need to spam click it 1-3 times in Divine mode(After every click you have to wait 1 second due to spell animation), then cast the normal version for the big heal.
I don't know about you but this will likely wipe your party rather then "bring them back from the brink of death" as you state with the new healing tree.
Why you want t o treat divine mode as a "charge" mode for empowered is beyond me. "Divine" spells feel more like "Gimp" mode.
I am a dedicated DC player, not a casual "try it now and then", half-hearted part-timer. Against Target dummies, I can Whack-Whack-Whack with At-Wills and get full Divinity quickly, and then spam the same Divine Encounter three times and then use the Empowered version.
I don't really want to be a One Trick Spam Bot like that anyway, but in PvE this is less easy to do, and in PvP perhaps even harder. Making the Empowerment Stacks show on the actual Encounter Toolbar would be better then having it up by my character icon.
Better yet, making ANY Divine Encounter generate general, Generic Empowerment Stacks, like a CW builds Arcane Power and Chill, would be much, much better. We would then have some flexibility in our utility in using a Divine damaging Encounter, then a healing one and then a buff without losing Stacks of Empowerment.
By the way, does using different Divine Encounters remove any stacks we already have?
Sunburst
And in the name of All That Is Holy, PLEASE do not make Normal Sunburst always do Knockback. Otherwise I cannot use the Normal or the Empowered version. I'd like to see how it works with the Illithid in Dread Vault, but scattering the enemy across the battle field is NEVER a good thing in party play and is ONLY to be used in emergencies or to blow enemies off cliffs. The current version of Sunburst is a very useful Area Effect multi-target damage plus heal, even though it is not all that powerful. I always have it on my Toolbar (although it used to generate Divinity and AP, and more Divinity on Cool Down, and had a reasonably short cool down as well).
Heroic Feat Feedback
Why does all the feedback over the last year about our utterly useless Heroic Feats seem to have been ignored? Any chance of getting some reasonably decent Heroic Feats, or making the really bad ones work better? Things like increasing Stamina Regeneration, Action Points, Recovery, Divinity etc or some of the useful things other classes have. My GWF, CW, TRs, HRs and Guardians had to think really hard about their Heroic Feats, and where I have two of each class they are completely different builds - Whisperknife/Master Infiltrator, Iron Vanguard/Swordmaster, Storm Warden/Pathfinder, with fundamental differences in their Heroic Feats as well. But my four level 60 DCs have almost identical Heroic Feats chosen as so many of them do so little above 1 Rank as to be worthless.
My DO had the same thing. I couldn't even commit changes with those 5 points there, so I had to fully respec just to change feats.
No, you're just wasting breath. Although I completely agree with most of what you said, I tested against some practice dummies earlier and Divinity Gain is astonishingly fast in comparison to what it was. I do have Grim Faithful Armour with (IIRC) +25% Div Regain, but all my Feats that improved Divinity gain have gone.
The best my DO War Priest ever did in a skirmish with all the Virtuous/Righteous Feats for buffing/debuffing and dps was a 30k crit with Divine Daunting Light and Nimbus of Light etc. My AC Faithful/Righteous Healer/Buffer on the test server cast 3 Divine Daunting Lights with no cool down or delay and then an Empowered one and did 27k Crit - with NO Paragon Feats slotted at all. She usually does about 12k. So that is what Empowerment does so far - with no Feats, it multiplies her crits by about 2.25.
I will miss it if my DO cannot do mega-healing with Soothing Light, though.
So, I agree about Knockback, Astral Shield, Righteousness, the whole Empowerment thing, rubbish Heroic Feats etc etc etc, but test out your At Wills in Dread Ring before saying anything about the new Divinity. It IS a lot faster; at least at the moment (maybe a nerf will be on the way).
This could be the best thing ever to happen to the DC in Neverwinter, but it will be totally relearning the class from the ground up, and my DCs were just getting to be really good (15k). All that practice, muscle memory and reflex action gone to waste!
So I will be playing only on the test shard for a few weeks as I will not be paying for any re-spec tokens. I will just log in to the live server to do Professions (and PvP until the changes go live) and learn how to play my class (AC and DO) on the test server.
It could be absolutely fantastic, but there are an awful lot of things I really do not like the sound of and some things that just HAVE to be never implemented - Perma-Knockback is top of the list.
I just hope the devs listen, as all we needed was to fix what was broken, make Crit and ArPen work properly for everything it should work for, increase base damage so we are viable and have some CC and CC Resist.
But we have the same rubbish Heroic Feats and a completely, totally unrecognisable shredding of everything we knew in the Paragon Feats.
So spec your Feats on the Test Shard, go to Dread Ring and see what you think. Then do a free re-spec and try a different build. That's all I am doing for the next month!
I think the idea of spamming the SAME divine encounters just to use the full Empowered of that type is not really appealing for some type of Power. For example : Divine HW & Divine AS.. They give temp HP, using them in particularly short period (succession) provide very little to no incentive as they give only temp HP. What I suggest is to change the effect of those noon-appealing div mode,
OR providing a global / general empowered stack. So, if I cast Div Daunting Light 3x, I can cast the Empowered HW. Makes gameplay more fluid I'd say.
It would be nice to add the number of HPs saved with the faithful capstone near character avatars on the UI. Otherwise this capstone won't be able to be fully used by the cleric. We need to get more info on what we're doing.
With dots consuming shield stacks with a dps build yes. On the other hand this kind of DC should have little defense and almost no healing ability and no CC resist at all so you know, you could do some CW stuff like using entrangling force or something like that.
No cooldown on divine spells. Excellent.
No Divinity from encounters, horrible. If this reads correctly, a small reduction to the encounter divinity gain, and a larger increase to the at-will divinity gain would reasonably encompass the intended redesign. If you remove it completely we will only have bursts of pvp usefulness. In dungeons when a cleric gets overwhelmed with mobs, we have gotten by with gaining divinity from skills as we run. It will essentially get most mid range clerics killed. Baselining Characters, from a development standpoint, using rank 10's and perfect enchants is horrible. You will have many new players walk away because they simply can no longer compete if the proposed changes revolved around a final gear player.
**Note to other players** - many of the changes will equate to 3 or 4 charge shots on all skills with full divintity and no cooldown.. don't laugh it off.
Sunburst permanent knockback seems like a bad idea. What about knockback from divine, but non-divine functions like smoke bomb on the Trickster Rogue?
The feat rework is significant; Many long term clerics will have to take hours on the test server to find our niche again.
The changes to searing light are positive and give the cleric a new tool for mob busting.
The Healing penalty for the class was severely increased the last time; that plays into survivability. It needs to have that penalty reduced to aid in the classes overall survivability. ELSE increase the Armor Class of ALL cleric gear to fit a chainmail role.
More thoughts later..
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Bug: Divine Fortune is giving much more divine power than what the tooltip says.
Bug: Divine Glow is dealing less damage than what the tooltip says.
Feedback: The capstone of the Faithful tree looks unpleasant in comparison to the others when you realize you can go from 31% of HP straight to 0%.
I don't know about you but as a CW I killed a lot of DCs in even less.
the new empowerment class ability is pretty nice as well a decent improvement it takes a pretty decent amount of planning to pull off correctly but when you do; it can do great things.
I also like healing word's new line heal its way better than before should be way easier to target than before plus its a multi target heal; spiffy though kind of wierd to get the temp hp from the divine version; for first few tries I thought it didn't do anything lol.
sunburst: its a little wierd that the divine version doesn't knock since its supposed to by basic casting and instead of that it dots.
I was thinking that a combo of the top two trees would be really good for a healer cleric.
Forgemaster's Flame: I miss its original divine healing properties
Empowered counters should be able to be interchangeable (also makes keeping track much easier) or have longer timer.
I'm not sure about Burning Guidance usefulness anymore now that Astral Shield and Holy Ground no longer provides HoTs. Still procs off other heals.
For those who miss divine encounters generating divinity, I believe its to balance out that divine encounters has no cool-down and no more Ethereal Boom.