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Have DC players lost choice in mod 6?
lilhamlet
Member Posts: 260 Arc User
Okay, I've been playing mod 6 enough that I've noticed that in any end-game group content I have to run the following:
Daily - Hallowed Ground
Encounters - Astral Shield, Bastion of Health
At-Will - Astral Seal (and no, it does not cause lag.)
Class Feature - Healer's Lore, Foresight (Although I would never drop this anyway... just too good)
Those times I've tried to vary my loadout for a little more mixed offense (my DC is Righteous), the party runs into trouble due to the damage done and the horrible DR scaling. (Why do mobs have Armour Penetration when DR is so hard to build as it is?)
I feel like we've become healbots with really only 1 encounter, 1 daily, 1 at-will we can choose to keep everything functioning. The lack of choice and relegation to one playstyle is really killing some of the fun. Are any other DC players experiencing this?
Cheers.
Daily - Hallowed Ground
Encounters - Astral Shield, Bastion of Health
At-Will - Astral Seal (and no, it does not cause lag.)
Class Feature - Healer's Lore, Foresight (Although I would never drop this anyway... just too good)
Those times I've tried to vary my loadout for a little more mixed offense (my DC is Righteous), the party runs into trouble due to the damage done and the horrible DR scaling. (Why do mobs have Armour Penetration when DR is so hard to build as it is?)
I feel like we've become healbots with really only 1 encounter, 1 daily, 1 at-will we can choose to keep everything functioning. The lack of choice and relegation to one playstyle is really killing some of the fun. Are any other DC players experiencing this?
Cheers.
Post edited by lilhamlet on
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Comments
If you're tired of healing then why playing a cleric? You can always roll a CW or a GWF, they're fun to play, most players have one and it's nice to take a break from the full support rotation, which is needed for good reasons. It will also give you another perspective on the game and you'll be a better cleric player. Previously, the healing role couldn't be played. Now you have a choice.
If you've ever played pen and paper D&D, you'd know that clerics were always versatile. High Damage, Good Armour, control, with Healing. Not healbots. The only reason I played this game was because of the D&D license and this is why I chose DC as my main.
Having recently melted down Draconic Templar, Purified Black Ice, & Profound Righteous Sets, once completing my Full Burning Duelist set, I can honestly say I'm not looking for suggestions on how to play the class. I'm saying that the result of the changes has pigeon-holed the class.
The choice of ways to play shouldn't be in alts. There should be varied legitimate, viable ways to play each class. The game had that prior to this mod.
Frankly, I have 4 other alts, one of them is a GWF which I absolutely loathe the gameplay on. My DC is my 1A and my HR is my 1B. Everything else, I'm kinda done with.
Look i didn't say it was perfect, but before this mod there was NO other option but full dps/debuff. You don't have to heal, you can of course look for dps slots in dungeon runs if you use /lfg but that doesn't mean people have to accept you as a dps.
Except for losing Brand of the Sun and Foresight, a respec consideration is Anointed Champion as it's Daily is on-par (support-class-wise) with HG (though other class-players may feel differently, I'm seeing it from the driver's seat) - and it have other better party support abilities. But in short: I agree: DC is just healbot all over again as it was since Launch all the way through until Mod 5. Mod 5 was the one fun Mod for DCs.
Well, it was fun while it lasted.
In any case Divine Glow/Sacred Flame/Fire of the Gods alone should allow you to generate DPS as a side effect while significantly increasing all damage your targets take - that should be your main goal as Righteous. Atm it seems you're playing your cleric as Faithful/Virtuous with Righteous feats and expecting miracles. If Righteous's playstyle (sacrifice healing or debuffs/damage) doesn't seem to work for you even with an ideal CC/hunter group than that's your cue to post in the feedbacks section. That's why it's there, we don't exactly expect the devs to perfect things in one try here and it helps if we offer feedback.
In any case, the meta is still shifting. When it settles down again and more experienced/geared people are running T2s conditions will have changed. They usually do. If you PvP you will have noticed some near-unkillable/truly ridiculous combinations by now.
Other clerics have a bit more freedom when it comes to choosing party mates but that's just how pros/cons work.
Right now I am using Light Of Divinity and Anointed Armor as class features. For artifact I have Eye Of Lathandar slotted so I can revive someone from afar.
My off-hand class feature gives me extra Divinity when Light Of Divinity class feature procs. My main hand "equip" gives Astral Seal 24% extra heal.
Before Mod 6, I pretty much cornered the market on the Greater White Dragon Glyphs and have a few hundred of them available to use in the overload slot.
It was not easy giving up Foresight/Benefit of Foresight, but it seemed to not help much in harder dungeons when I did have it available. Hence the switch to complete healer. BTW, a hybrid build did not work very well either.
In the end, we are truly a support class now and are at the mercy of our group. In a good group things can be really nice and our abilities can really shine through in helping keep everyone alive.
I am saving some Zen for another re-spec in case they rework the whole fricken game again, which would not be a surprise given the complaints.
Main problem in all that is the queue system. There needs to be a way to flag yourself as a certain role(s): dps, tank, healer, buffbot. Then you can even random-queue as a DPS DC and still have a healer in the team.
So I think we do have more flexibility than before. The only iffy part is virtuous vs faithful as they compete for the same spot.
I've played as a righteous DC for a very brief moment when I reached lvl 70 and I can tell you that I was merely getting 30-40% of the dps of some of my CW friends, and I'm not really a newbie when it comes to playing the class. As a striker, the DC is at best mediocre. As a buffer, it's excellent, provided you're willing to do the dirty job someone has to do while the lifesteal stat is still hard to stack to absurd levels, ie healing people in time before they die.
Trying Healers Lore and Benefit Of Foresight class features. Changed off-hand class feature that makes Foresight give Deflect to all. Lets see how this goes.
sometime my healing word dosnt help
for dungeons, healer might be a good choise
This is the kind of build I am using with the Benefit Of Foresight offhand artifact class feature and the Faithful Benefit of Foresight paragon power. I also hybrid a little to get the Righteous Paragon Power of the Sun (reduced enemy chance to crit 5%) and I switched the main-hand artifact class feature to increase Brand of the Sun damage because it fits but I really should get the artifact feature that boosts Sacred Flame since I use that.
...and hence you can also stop the project "Upgrading my T1/T2 armor" as well. Unless you already have tons of Black Ice, that is, which you probably don't, since the IwD campaign had to be started rather late in the char progression...
Unless one goes for blocks - DDing until Armor acquired => respec => Farm BI & finish Shar/DR => respec => finally full power DD healer...
...another 300kAD eaten by bad design.
Here mine:
AC DC Virtuous with GoH
At-Will: Astral Seal and Blessing of Battle (+15% of my power to the team, +8% def.)
Daily - Hallowed Ground and/ot AA
Encounter: DG, HW and BoH -> not only to heal but they also boost the AP gain and activate the have failth talent (+5% def.)
Class Feature: Holy fervor (AP gain) and Healer's lore
This works very well with a GF/OP. Mitigation is provided by spamming AA, blessing of battle and have faith, in particular before attacking a group of adds.
If I don't have a GF/OP, I move to Astral Sheild. If you sum up "have faith" + blessing of battle, you have more or less the same effect of foresight but with a different mechanic, but I also spam AA. Looking at the cooldown of wardin flare, I'm faster with AA.
Mainly I'm an AP buffer for me and for the team.
Does it work? yes...I've the complete elven gear set.
Oltreverso guild leader
Maga Othelma - DC | Svalvolo - SW | Dente Avvelenato- GWF
the hole thread argued about the benefit and the strength of rightous class as a buffer but...
that only works optimal if your group is strong enough facing syndrith f.e., in case your group is mediocre geared you have to focus on heal since these guys might have sufficient offensive power to succeed, but they lack in defence/HP/LS etc.
so consequently you do have to work much more for success in playing rightous in this group and the option to buff active is not that great , cause you run arround like a "care bear" try to hold them alive
AC faithfull works also and if you scip some heal you can also use gift of haste + 15% power/8%DR from blessing of battle and on top hastening light in your setup to buff AP gain a lot in the group
holy fervor is very strong on top, i don´t use healers lore
but AS, BoH and DG is standart in my case, sometimes I skip DG for sunburst, cc is very powerfull in clearing these anoying trashmob-groups, pushes and intrerrupts them, helps a lot somtimes
the moments i can focus on buffing encounter are rare
and i don´t care about black ice, the 5% improvement of the armour sinking tons of black ice is not very impressive, even if i was rightous its not worth it running Icewinddale up and down
better run T2 random or not, get some random drops from first and second bosses (they drop the hole T2 set i think i got 4-5 drops in HAMSTER from 2 chars) and try to finish endboss, more fun and much quicker than picking on black ice
You might or might not have noticed that the T2 you get from DD chests / vendor is also crying for an upgrade...
...and to return this to the OP question: The problem is not that my DC has lost the choice with Mod 6, but that with and through Mod 6 I have lost faith... ...in the future of this game.
The T2 dungeons drop 1.5 gear, you can only acquire T2 gear with seals.
T1 = Alliance
T1.5 = Elemental Alliance, Grim
T2 = Elven, Burning
T2.5 = Elemental Elven, Elemental Burning
The good news is that you can dacide to stop playing this game when you want. New MMOPRGs are released frequently and there's a good choice in the market. It's a trade-off between your exepctations and the development of this game.
Oltreverso guild leader
Maga Othelma - DC | Svalvolo - SW | Dente Avvelenato- GWF
"...I grab my wiener and charge!" - ironzerg79
As soon as you do this, you will go like "OMG why doesn't Neverwinter have this?"/"Wow that would have taken ages in Neverwinter!"/"I wish Neverwinter had this!".
... and then you'll finally realized that this game is a cow getting milked for the last time before meeting the slaughter.
Heroes of Darkness
Retired since 02/15
My opinions are my own. Please do not judge my friends nor guild for my statements.
Honestly, I've never played Neverwinter as my only game. But it used to have a fun combat system when most stuff still worked. Currently it's bugfest exploit-o-rama, no fun in that. Especially in DDs... ...because: Where's the oh-so-praised challenge when some ____ just kills all toughs and bosses with one shot? Heck, even being OSKed is more fun than that. Also it had a fun leveling and char building system - with and around certain armour set bonuses, another thing that made this game more interesting, but annihilated. Do that now and 90% that it soesn't work out because one of your skill choices' Rank 4 is borked. etc., etc. - and a respec costs 3 €/$.
To put his into perspective: The other MMO I play is The Secret World. There the safety margin of combat is really slim, but there is not a single OSK. You pay inventory upgrades with ingame currency, Quests are often interesting complex riddles. Every char can learn each and every skill. You can store at least 5 presets of skills in connection with the equipped gear choice to that and switch them out at the drop of a hat ("OK, for this fight we'll need 2 Tanks -who wants?"), and respeccing also is cheap...
...and the cash shop offers cosmetic stuff and a few starter boosts. And this month's gaming allowance went there and not to PWE.
My active playing time (Excluding LS/invoke) is down from 20-30 h/week to 2-3 - mainly getting the Pally through the campaigns at the glacial pace this now tends to have, slowed down even more by the realities of the low fun coefficient the game now has.
This, however opened up the choices for my DC anew because - DDs being so rotten to the core, no acknowlwedgement of the problem from corp HQ, and the dev's long-standing history of trying to tackle problems by active ignoration ("If I don't look there, maybe it'll go away..."), and the implications all that exploiting has for PvP - I don't actively play my DC at all, unless on specific demand by the guild - so why the heck respec?
I ment T 1,5 then, that is random drop from all minibosses and endbosses in T2
and buffing the elven armor with black ice? no thanks, I don´t farm several month Black-Ice only to get 5% more stats, to get to level 5, to throw that armor away next mod
I learned from the devs , did you?
Yes, I did, and that's the other reason why I don't DD anymore: Why farm that kind of marginally advantageous stuff at all, given the time and effort needed. I also admit that my 180-300 ping makes dungeoneering even less pleasant than for those people with decent ISPs. BTW, in other games I get 100ish pings, making them way more playable...
Also: Really tough if not impossible without first gathering that T1 gear - if only for HP - or without one of the Superglitchers spoiling the challenge. And to get that T1 stuff completed you'll need either get quite lucky or grind tons of seals. Had me the Burning set instead, just the reduced PvE stats don't really make it that cutting edge, it's beneath T1 in terms of PvE-beneficial stats if you leave out HP.
It's even a stiff challenge to just run dailies in IwD or WoD - with almost 3k ILvl, and somewhat good DPS.
But this is again deviating a lot from the OP topic...
So some thoughts on-topic:
...from a less personal viewpoint, the choice has been narrowed down somewhat vs. Mod 4/5. But already less so if compared to all the time before the advent of artifact weaponry... ...int T 2/3 Dungeoneering having ASh and a powerful heal had already been a must. Same for ASeal. Though the curtailing of Lifesteal's reliability and Regen absolutely puts DCs in a much narrower pinch than it'd been then. Also, the all-but-destruction of the TempLock as the other dedicated ranged Healer class build further reduces the freedom of choice. A Devotadin as second tank can contribute a lot to keeping the tank hale and healthy, and the GWF, if present, too, but is not really an only option when HR, CW, or an SW are party to the group.
Within established Parties (Friends or Guilds doesn't matter) you can actually regain some of that choice, and going for debuff build DC can actually accelerate dungeoneering, but that requires quite some fine tuning and regular attendance.
The main gripe I have here, though, is the indecently high price of respecs in this game. If those were somewhat affordable, I would definitely care a lot less, and just switch out feats as needed by the party. But currently I'm either rather meh at debuffing and/or damage, or rather meh at healing. Neither does good for the party when it's asked for, and hence I can only choose between healer, healer, and multiwipe for PUGging. There will not be a second DC due to the Q system, and the chances that a healing-bent Pala is on the team are also somewhat low, from my experience.
That's also due to the queue system. A paladin taking the Devotion path would be queued in the sole healer slot, whereas a Protector would be in the tank queue with GFs.
Neverwinter Census 2017
All posts pending disapproval by Cecilia
I don't know what you're talking about, i've been repeteadly killed in one hit in nightmare dungeons in TSW many, many times. And TSW's nightmare content is much harder than neverwinter's "epic" dungeons. Here if you don't stay in red and avoid a couple of slow attacks once every 5-6s or stunlock npcs you're not going to die.
The Protector's Garden has slots for 3 years.
What are your thoughts on that?