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Upcoming Devoted Cleric Changes
dreadnaught
Member Posts: 19 Cryptic Developer
As part of the ongoing effort to balance classes in Neverwinter, we are looking at the Devoted Cleric and its role and viability in group and solo content. The main issues being addressed are Daily power imbalances and the solo experience. Due to the scope of these changes, all Devoted Clerics will be receiving a free respec when they go live.
In group content, Devoted Clerics rely too heavily on Anointed Army, which is almost always the optimal Daily power of choice. Furthermore, Anointed Army has trivialized a lot of endgame content (even before it was broken), so it has been on our list of powers to address for a while now. One of the intentions of this pass is to put Anointed Army in line with other Dailies so that players need to make a choice of which Daily powers to use depending on the situation. In addition to this, a number of other Daily powers that were either not working as intended or just not very useful have been adjusted.
In solo content, Devoted Clerics can be painful to play relative to other classes due to their low damage output. This pass should address Clerics’ overall self-sufficiency.
Here is the list of changes being made to the Devoted Cleric:
This thread is being posted in advance to putting the changes up on the Preview Shard, so now is the time to give feedback on the proposed changes. The overall intent is to increase the number of choices Devoted Clerics have rather than restricting them to a single optimal power and to improve their solo experience.
In group content, Devoted Clerics rely too heavily on Anointed Army, which is almost always the optimal Daily power of choice. Furthermore, Anointed Army has trivialized a lot of endgame content (even before it was broken), so it has been on our list of powers to address for a while now. One of the intentions of this pass is to put Anointed Army in line with other Dailies so that players need to make a choice of which Daily powers to use depending on the situation. In addition to this, a number of other Daily powers that were either not working as intended or just not very useful have been adjusted.
In solo content, Devoted Clerics can be painful to play relative to other classes due to their low damage output. This pass should address Clerics’ overall self-sufficiency.
Here is the list of changes being made to the Devoted Cleric:
- The following powers have had their damage increased by 30%:
- Sun Burst
- Searing Light
- Chains of Blazing Light
- Daunting Light
- Forgemaster’s Flame
- Divine Glow
- Break the Spirit
- Prophecy of Doom
- Flame Strike
- Hammer of Fate
- Sun Burst
- Lance of Faith
- The third hit of this power now deals damage to nearby targets.
- The third hit of this power now deals damage to nearby targets.
- Anointed Army
- The amount of damage absorbed by each charge of Anointed Army has been capped at 20% of the target’s maximum Hit Points. While the bug for this power was that it was mitigating 100% of incoming damage rather than the original 90%, the power will be left at 100% absorption for damage amounts at 20% of the target’s maximum hit points or below, now that the amount absorbed has been capped.
- The power transferred from the Cleric to party members has been reduced from 50% to 33%.
- This power no longer grants CC immunity after all blessings have expired.
- The amount of damage absorbed by each charge of Anointed Army has been capped at 20% of the target’s maximum Hit Points. While the bug for this power was that it was mitigating 100% of incoming damage rather than the original 90%, the power will be left at 100% absorption for damage amounts at 20% of the target’s maximum hit points or below, now that the amount absorbed has been capped.
- Hallowed Ground
- Clerics can now gain Action Points while Hallowed Ground is active. To compensate for this adjustment, this power now has a 45-second cooldown (can be shortened with cooldown reduction). Ideally, we would like to get rid of these “AP gain blocks” from most, if not all, Daily powers. In cases where the intent is to make a Daily non-spammable, a cooldown allows players to at least have the option to build AP to use their other Daily, if they so desire.
- Clerics can now gain Action Points while Hallowed Ground is active. To compensate for this adjustment, this power now has a 45-second cooldown (can be shortened with cooldown reduction). Ideally, we would like to get rid of these “AP gain blocks” from most, if not all, Daily powers. In cases where the intent is to make a Daily non-spammable, a cooldown allows players to at least have the option to build AP to use their other Daily, if they so desire.
- Divine Armor
- Clerics can now gain Action Points immediately after using Divine Armor.
- Divine Armor no longer grants Damage Resistance. Instead, it grants targets 50% of their maximum hit points as Temporary Hit Points (up from 20%) for 5 seconds, plus an additional 10% per rank, to a maximum of 80% of the target’s maximum hit points.
- Fixed a bug where Divine Armor was not granting additional Temporary Hit Points at additional ranks.
- Clerics can now gain Action Points immediately after using Divine Armor.
- Guardian of Faith
- This power now heals targets for 500% of its original amount.
- This power now heals targets for 500% of its original amount.
- Templar’s Domain
- Fixed a bug where this feat could only proc once every 5 minutes. There is no longer a limit on the amount of times this feat can proc, and successive procs will refresh its duration (does not stack).
- Fixed a bug where this feat could only proc once every 5 minutes. There is no longer a limit on the amount of times this feat can proc, and successive procs will refresh its duration (does not stack).
- Terrifying Insight
- This power no longer decreases the damage resistance of the Cleric's target. Instead, it now increases the damage dealt by all party members by 8%, with an additional 4% per rank, for a maximum of 20%.
- This power no longer decreases the damage resistance of the Cleric's target. Instead, it now increases the damage dealt by all party members by 8%, with an additional 4% per rank, for a maximum of 20%.
- Prophetic Action
- This power now shields the Cleric against one attack for up to 100% of their maximum hit points, and additionally shields all party members against one attack for up to 25% of their maximum hit points, every 30/27/24/21 seconds.
- This power now shields the Cleric against one attack for up to 100% of their maximum hit points, and additionally shields all party members against one attack for up to 25% of their maximum hit points, every 30/27/24/21 seconds.
- Prophecy of Doom
- Fixed this power to instantly recharge if the target is killed during its duration.
- Fixed this power to correctly grant AP.
- Fixed this power to correctly increase in duration per empowered charge consumed.
- Fixed this power to instantly recharge if the target is killed during its duration.
- Warding Flare
- This power now affects up to 5 nearby targets, rather than one target chosen at random (divinity version is still a direct single-target).
- This power now shields the target for 10% of the target's maximum hit points, rather than a percentage of weapon damage.
- The tick rate of this power has been reduced to every second, down from every 1.5 seconds.
- The empowered version of this power also heals targets in addition to shielding them. The healing amount increases with each charge consumed.
- The empowered version of this power no longer increases in duration per charge consumed.
- This power now affects up to 5 nearby targets, rather than one target chosen at random (divinity version is still a direct single-target).
- Geas
- Fixed this power to correctly grant AP.
- Fixed this power to correctly grant AP.
- Divine Glow
- Fixed this power to correctly increase in duration per empowered charge consumed.
- Fixed this power to correctly proc weapon enchantments, racial abilities, and certain set bonuses. This fix should apply to several other powers in the game, specifically those that could target enemies but also had healing components.
- Fixed this power to correctly increase in duration per empowered charge consumed.
- Hastening Light: Artifact Feature
- Fixed a bug where this power was never triggering. However, it has also been looked into and adjusted to grant 5% AP to allies over 15 seconds, rather than 10% AP instantly. This effect does not affect the Cleric triggering the power.
- Fixed a bug where this power was never triggering. However, it has also been looked into and adjusted to grant 5% AP to allies over 15 seconds, rather than 10% AP instantly. This effect does not affect the Cleric triggering the power.
- Living Flame
- This power has been changed to grant a 5/10/15/20/25% buff to damage dealt for 8 seconds when taken below 30% hit points, rather than only granting the buff while the Cleric is below 30% hit points.
- This power has been changed to grant a 5/10/15/20/25% buff to damage dealt for 8 seconds when taken below 30% hit points, rather than only granting the buff while the Cleric is below 30% hit points.
- Piercing Light
- Fixed this power to rank up correctly with ranks in Piercing Light.
- Fixed this power to rank up correctly with ranks in Piercing Light.
- Condemning Gaze
- Fixed a bug where this power could debuff more than 15% damage resistance to targets in certain cases.
- Corrected tooltip to communicate that this is an area effect.
- Fixed a bug where this power could debuff more than 15% damage resistance to targets in certain cases.
- Searing Light
- This power no longer grants AP in Divine mode, as it is not intended for any encounter powers to generate AP in this mode.
- This power no longer grants AP in Divine mode, as it is not intended for any encounter powers to generate AP in this mode.
- Chains of Blazing Light
- This power no longer grants AP in Divine mode.
- Corrected tooltip to communicate that this power increases damage by 15% per charge consumed, not 10%.
- This power no longer grants AP in Divine mode.
- Gift of Haste
- Fixed a bug where this power could stack in some situations.
- Fixed a bug where this power could stack in some situations.
- Anointed Action
- Fixed this power to proc correctly for Divine Armor, Anointed Army, and Guardian of Faith.
- Fixed this power to proc correctly for Divine Armor, Anointed Army, and Guardian of Faith.
- Repurpose Soul
- Fixed this power to grant the correct 5/10/15% healing amount as described in the tooltip, up from 3/6/9%.
- Fixed an issue where this power was not triggering from certain other powers.
- Fixed this power to grant the correct 5/10/15% healing amount as described in the tooltip, up from 3/6/9%.
- Ancient Warding
- Fixed this power to proc correctly after Anointed Army expires.
- Fixed this power to proc correctly after Anointed Army expires.
This thread is being posted in advance to putting the changes up on the Preview Shard, so now is the time to give feedback on the proposed changes. The overall intent is to increase the number of choices Devoted Clerics have rather than restricting them to a single optimal power and to improve their solo experience.
Post edited by dreadnaught#5263 on
22
Comments
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"...I grab my wiener and charge!" - ironzerg79
Regarding solo-ability, I think a major bummer is Divine Glow not triggering wep enchants (and DG is a staple of most DC builds). Any chance that can also get examined?
Additionally, any appetite for looking at offhand ability for Hastening Light or Ancient Warding feat?
Edit: Wanted to point you to the list of current DC bugs, in case that helps inspire you. I know that it's a lot to ask to get everything addressed, but perhaps you can share some context about your game plan and whether some of these known bugs are on the table for being looked at.
http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter#/discussion/1227237/devoted-cleric-bug-list
Bear your sins was fixed a patch or two ago, but all the other bugs are still relevant
(and you're already touching on 2 of the 3 that are related to AA)
It might make sense to reexamine how it works, especially if one of the goals is to cut down on the cheese we have in end-game content.
Also, thanks a ton for looking into the bugs list.
But could the devs consider a buff to DO? Right now, the DO is overshadowed by the AC.
DO's main appeals are Brand of the Sun, Hammer, Foresight, Terrifying Insight, and Prophecy of Doom.
Brand, Hammer, and Terrifying are meant to give the DO a DPS edge over the AC, which is generally true for lower geared soloing DCs. The problem is, in most group content, DCs adding chip damage is not needed, so these powers will never get used in dungeon content (and Terrifying can potentially be useless due to the debuff cap).
Foresight only gives a pittiance of DR which won't save anybody due to how enemy damage is balanced (either you take chip damage or get oneshotted, unless you're a tank).
Prophecy would be nice, but its biggest downside is the fact that it is a capped debuff. If you run with a good team, Prophecy's debuff can effectively be wasted. Also, it's awful to use, which doesn't make it that much more appealing.
Meanwhile, the AC gets AA, which speaks for itself, as well as Battle Fervor + Blessings of Battle, which also adds to powesharing. They also get Exaltation, which may not be an amazing buff, but it atleast is useful regardless of whether your team is at the debuff cap or not. Lastly, they also have HG just like the DO, which effectively puts them at an overall edge in group content for team utility.
While DO in itself is not unplayable (it still has the DC's really good base kit), AC just gets better tools.
So, I ask that DO get the following two changes:
-Terrifying Insight works for teammates and becomes an uncapped debuff.
-Prophecy of Doom gets fixed and becomes an uncapped debuff.
This will don't cause the DO to become a massive DPS god. Instead, it provides a meaningful choice for picking a DC path.
You could go for AC and get the ability to powershare, or go DO for the extra debuffing potential provided by Prophecy + Terrifying. Both are relevant DPS increases, but in different ways.
EDIT:
I was writing this and didn't see Lerapiso's comments due to loading errors.
Though the site he posted his guides to went down, his work has been preserved here:
http://neverwintergt.blogspot.ca/2014/12/kaelacs-module-5-devoted-cleric-guide.html
Much of it has outdated over time, but the part I'm bringing up as of particular interest is the DC heroic feats. Many are truly awful, and have had next to no attention, so nearly everything he wrote continues to be accurate to this day. There are some outdated references to the old DC paragon feats, but the suggestions are still coherent.
DCs have the worse heroic feats. There's pretty much just 1 way to go when you consider how bad most feats are. Combat Designers seriously seriously need to rework most of these.
Healing Action (0/5): Adds 1-5% extra AP from healing abilities, which from others' testing are restricted to Healing Word and Bastion of Health only (Not Forgemasters and not sunburst). Crossreferencing from Grimah's tests for CW controlling action, this % is not a flat +1-5% of AP but rather a multiplicative percentage of your own AP gain. Very close to useless and not deserving of points because it’s such a small boost, you get enough AP already. The AP gains do not round up with one point. The other guides are incorrect. As DC you have enough AP gain from high recovery to not need this even if you're a healbot. Considering Healing word is about 8.9% AP per cast a few extra % is not noticeable at all. Every class have a trash feat like this, but the DC one is worse of the lot, by far because it is severely restricted to two encounters.
If I could change it, I'll call it "Divine Action" and let it grant 1-5% extra AP for each encounter used in divinity mode.
Greater Fortune (3/3): 1-3% bonus healing, not amazing, but decent and you should take it to unlock other powers. Calculation is a bit strange that your WIS bonus seems to apply to this but there is strange rounding where it shows as +2% when WIS<20 and +4% at 24 WIS.
Toughness (3/3): Max this, 9% HP is amazing because it is an endgame stat. Every bit of survivability helps on any DC and synergises with %HP heals like Moontouched/regen/Miracle healers. Toughness feat applies to HP gains from enchants and items also and makes stacking HP even more worthwhile.
Holy Resolve (3/3): Highly recommended for all builds. Even with the cooldown it’s amazing and will save your life many times over especially combined with Soulforged. Gives you that extra buffer to wait for cooldowns/heal/clutch. Great for both offense and defense builds. Also a good warning when to pot.
Domain Synergy (0/5): It’s a trap. The skill looks like a great deal until you realise that at 3000 recovery you get a mere 150 extra recovery for 5 feat points. Coupled with diminishing returns at high GS and it’s just a waste. You won’t notice it at low levels and you won’t need it at higher levels. Inferior to every comparable feat of other classes. I would change it to you gain +5/10/15/20/25% recovery.
Weapon Mastery (3/3): This is an additive 3% bonus to crit, adds to STR bonus and help boost your CRIT more than gearscore can, must take even if you don’t care about crit.
Initiate of the Faith (0/5): Another trap. At 5k base power 1% gives you only extra 50 points of crit. Seriously? Worse feat ever implemented. I would change it to you gain 5/10/15/20/25% of your crit as Power.
Repurpose Soul (3/3): Decent feat and makes crits pay off. Basically each time you crit you get a free mini AOE heal. It won’t be an amazing bonus but it is a 7-16% free healing to the party. Doesn’t proc off ground target AOEs like daunting light or flamestrike but works with most at wills and spells. The way it works I believe is that 15% of your base crit damage (before damage mitigation/arpen) becomes an AOE heal. Repurpose Soul healing is not diminished by Righteousness. From parsing however most of this self healing rather than party healing. Still useful in that you need more healing than your party, but it's not the be all end all party sustenance skill. For DoTs crits it only procs off the first tick.
Battlewise (0/3): Like sooth, useless feat, you don’t need to manage aggro and 6% won’t make a difference. I would change it to you gain 10/15/20% AoE and control resist.
Cleanse (1/3): Fairly decent spec, many people say there’s not much to cleanse from but I disagree. Spider temple web snares, Frozen heart slow debuffs and PvP all puts party under lots of debuffs which you want to cleanse right away. Doesn’t cleanse revive sickness but still very useful. Has high proc chance with even 1 point so no need to put all 3. 8 second internal cooldown.
Templar’s domain (0/5): Feat is only ok in theory, but terrible uptime- 5s with 5 minute cooldown. Absolutely ridiculous. If you’re not going for arpen 30% of 0 is 0. With my ArP build and one point it rarely procs and not for long so until they fix it I don’t recommend it. I prefer stacking 1.2K ArP and just boosting with Linked Spirit alone for 25% buff. I would change it to you gain 1/2/3/4/5% mitigation ignored.
Bountiful fortune (4/5): max this if you have spare points. Divinity is the lifeblood of the DC. Even better with PvP/GG sets.</p>
I don't think the posted fix to Templar's Domain makes it particularly useful. Either you build your DC to have enough armor pen and don't rely on feat procs to bring it up, or you decide to be the type of player who ignores the stat altogether. You can also swap a guild boon/mount power for soloing. With current options for building your stats, an additional non-stat-based debuff here would force a meaningful choice out of those tier 5 heroic feats.
Cleanse is the one heroic feat that's received an update, and it got nerfed. ("Something in the game isn't working right? Nerf the DC!") It used to remove control effects and that was pretty awesome. But then it was removing paladin buffs on friendlies, and the solution we were given? Make it only cleanse DoT effects. Which isn't meaningless, because the debuffs from li'l drakes and spiders and enemy PvPers can actually be pretty nasty, but it was still an undeniable nerf and I am peeved to this day that I can no longer cleanse a white dragon's freeze.
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While we're at it, please fix the bugs below:
1. Prophecy of Doom: Does not grant AP (regardless of whether the enemy is killed or not).
2. Prophecy of Doom: Does not instantly recharge after enemy is killed.
3. Prophecy of Doom: Empowered version does not increase its duration.
4. Annointed Action: Does not proc for Divine Armor, Annointed Army and Guardian of Faith.
5. Divine Glow: Does not proc weapon enchantments.
6. Divine Glow: Does not have any effects on self if placed too far.
7. Repurpose Soul: Does not proc for certain skills (e.g. Daunting Light, Chains of Blazing Light).
8. Repurpose Soul: 3/3 only heals for ~9% instead of 15% of the spell's damage.
9. Hastening Light: Artifact offhand weapon bonus does not give 10% AP to allies.
10. Warding Flare: Does not shield any damage.
11. Bear Your Sins: Provides 10% arm pen instead of 10% damage; if arm pen cap is reached, it only increases the damage of the DoT that triggers it.12. Furious Intervention: Does not increase AP gain of Chain of Blazing Light.
13. Holy Fervor: Does not increase AP gain of Chain of Blazing Light.
14. Geas: Does not grant any AP.
15. Ancient Warding: Does not heal and grant AP after Annointed Army has ended.
16. Light of Divinity: Put players in combat stance repeatedly.
17. Annointed Army: Gives 100% dmg mitigation instead of 90%.18. Annointed Army: Gives CC immunity no matter how many times you've been hit.
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Divine Armor is not going to be very useful. Compared to AA it's kinda laughable. Pretty much just gives the team one extra hit from T2 critters.
Prophecy of Doom is a vital encounter to fix.
And due to AA's spammable nature, you can proc Hastening Light + 10% AP from offhand bonus (currently bugged) + 5% AP from Ancient Warding (currently bugged) in quick succession (<10s) and it's pretty game breaking if you ask me.
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I'm going to assume the list of changes is really meant as a comprimise and I appreciate it. It would be super to get DG fixed so it proc's weapon enchantments. To understand the impact of this you must consider how DCs play. If a DC uses a non-offensive power like BoH and/or AS and with DG not proc'ing weapon enchants, its impossible for a DC to keep debuffs stacked from weapon enchantments. It's a main reason why Plague Fire has never been in high demand for DCs.
I'm sure the list of changes is short to be accompanied by your timeline, but I would still like for the full research to be done on what feats and powers are used similar to what was done in the other recent class reworks. I'm confident you will find a very small population using DO at this point with several feats not being used because their usefulness is 0. You will also find a small population of people taking human for race because the heroic feats do not offset (or even come close) the loss of the other racials. There is also 1 at will, 6 encounters, 5 class features, and 2 dailys that almost never crack anyone's rotations.
How will the cooldown reduction on HG work? Will it be managed by recovery, essentially turning it into a 4th encounter?
The big difference is that with AP gain no longer blocked after using Hallowed Ground, you'll potentially be able to build up your AP and weave in another daily before building it back up and dropping Hallowed Ground once it's off cooldown. The end result is a similar uptime to what's live while not blocking your AP gain. After these changes, Anointed Army will now only stop at most 20% of the shielded target's maximum HP in damage on a single hit. Providing 80% of the target's maximum HP in temporary hit points will stop 4x the amount AA can stop on a single hit. The intent for the redesigned Divine Armor is to provide an emergency shield that is just long enough to heal endangered allies back up, or provide a large shield against a single high damage AoE or targeted attack on the tank.
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Saxon Ranger (Warden)
Yuri Wizard (Thaumaturge)
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Any smart team would take a DC who packs EmpBtS/EmpFF, HG, WoL, and DG, especially if the team lacks a DC's buffs to begin with.
Original Serenity Mostly Retired DC
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Original Serenity Mostly Retired DC
Tokarek Bearded Dwarven OP Tankadin
JuiceHead Goofy Human GWF
Member of H3llzWarriors and Limitless.
However, I'm still not liking the damage immunity from empowered AS.
Also, I feel like all dailies, on all classes, with 100% AP cost should have a cooldown like you're giving HG, except I'd rather it be 60 seconds.
As for AA, does this mean the CC immunity will also be removed when damage immunity is removed? I do remember reading about that.. somewhere.. at some point.
Personally I'm wondering here, when it absorbs 20% of Max HP per charge, does that mean a max of 80% of target max HP?
If yes, then will we still have mobs one shot players? such as the trash mobs in FBI? I don't have a problem with a boss and even some key mobs having a single, avoidable, one-shot ability (or one that requires additional forms of mitigation).. just not every other swing that can one shot everything...
Also, when a player takes a hit, isn't it supposed to remove one sphere (or charge) of AA? currently, they stay floating even after the mitigation is over...