Feedback: Perhaps make assailant able to proc on all enemies affected by an AoE encounter, be buffed by buffs, debuffs, and critable, and maybe increase it's proc rate. That would make the dps feat path pretty obvious I think.
Each Chaotic Magic proc should be 20% damage + either AP gain, movement and all the other shenanigans to remain its "chaotic" nature (without cooldown and obviously without being able to stack the 20% buff or maybe no more then one of the other buffs at the same time) . In strong teams nothing in AoE lasts 10 seconds which makes most shenanigans much less useful then they are on paper (except movement speed lol) and in less strong teams it's even more frustrating to provide near useless buffs most of the time.
The other capstones could also use some slight improvements. Capstones should be stronger then putting one point into a random feat. It's like that for most other classes. What exactly was wrong about Oppressor being the strongest choice for single target (bosses) ? "Oppressing" one target is easier then oppressing multiples targets after all, if you want to have it fit thematically. Thaum could have simply reworked into an equal or better choice for AoE (and soloing) by using the capstone. Other than that many of the changes seem to make a lot of sense to me, which makes the capstones stand out even more, oddly.
I'm playing around with Miri's CC powers on preview. Is there supposed to be an indication when Frostbite affects a boss? On normal critters, "Shattered" will appear. Should I be on the lookout for a "Frostbite" popup?
My baseline for Arcane Singularity is normally level-70 critters at the stronghold, but there's no guild in Preview. I don't know if there are any level-70 critters anywhere else. I tried it on level-71 critters in a Maze Engine quest and the effect was slightly below baseline, and on level-69 critters in Spinward Rise, which was above baseline. So, I'm guessing that the pull of AS is about the same.
Harper Chronicles: Cap Snatchers (RELEASED) - NW-DPUTABC6X Blood Magic (RELEASED) - NW-DUU2P7HCO Children of the Fey (RELEASED) - NW-DKSSAPFPF Buried Under Blacklake (WIP) - NW-DEDV2PAEP The Redcap Rebels (WIP) - NW-DO23AFHFH
My Foundry playthrough channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Ruskaga/featured
More bugs: Controlled Momentum stacks from multiple CWs. Prestidigitation stacks from multiple CWs.
Should prestidigitation not stack (it's bad enough as it is)? I can see how making Controlled Momentum unstackable is putting it more in line with other feats.
Any comment on if CW dps build will really be capstone-less Rene / Thaum straddle?
@dupeks for a dps build there's no reason not to take the renegade capstone. You have to go all the way down the tree anyways to get uncontrolled obliteration and chaos magic is only 1 point more.
The Ren/Opp capstones are lackluster, but the tier of feats right before them are what you're aiming for and if you're already that far into a tree there's no reason not to grab the capstone as well.
chaos buffs will now be much harder to proc with only a 5% chance on power use instead of... however it worked before.
There is a 5% chance for EACH buff to proc on power use. So with 6 possible buffs, that the probability of chaos magic proccing is (6 x 5%) = 30%.
It also still procs the same - you do damage in any way, you have a 30% chance of chaos magic (WILD MAGIC) buff. Apparently the function they were trying to use for proccing based on doing damage was not foolproof. So I assume that they're making it so instead of the code using "damage dealt" as a feedback, it passes specific distinct variables instead: At-Wills, Encounters, Dailies.
Edit:
How it works now:
Chaos Magic: Dealing Damage to targets has a chance to apply Chaos Magic to yourself and allies within 50'.
How it works in the preview:
Chaos Magic: Is now triggered when using At-will, Encounter, or Daily powers (it was weird before)
When a power is activated, each buff has a 5% chance of being applied.
chance and Is now triggered are italics because the current manner has a CHANCE of proccing CHAOS MAGIC. The new manner is that it is that it is triggered while using a damage dealing ability. In other words, Chaos Magic now "procs" 100% of the time, and the shift of "proc burden" is whether each buff procs (30% that at last does). Essentially the phrase "Chaos Magic" is now the name of the feat, no longer mechanically a buff in itself. Again it seems like changing to an algorithm that provides the same results but via different code structure.
0
thefabricantMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 5,248Arc User
More bugs: Controlled Momentum stacks from multiple CWs. Prestidigitation stacks from multiple CWs.
Should prestidigitation not stack (it's bad enough as it is)? I can see how making Controlled Momentum unstackable is putting it more in line with other feats.
Any comment on if CW dps build will really be capstone-less Rene / Thaum straddle?
To prevent any bugs in future, imo, prestidigitation should not stack. It can then receive a balance review in light of it not stacking. It is bad regardless of whether it stacks or not but it will be easier to balance in future if it is fixed.
I think this build is the way to go next mod for single target:
You can subtract 2 points from nightmare and move them to phantasmal for premades.
With the following setup:
Rotation is: 1) Cancel Cast Scorching Burst to apply Smoulder. 2) Icy Terrain. 3) Fanning the Flame. 4) Swarm. 5) Soul Sight. 6) Ray of Enfeeblement. 7) Ice Knife. 8) Disintegrate.
Throw in at wills (magic missiles) when stuff is on CD, the idea is to maximize the damage of disintegrate. Ideally you have RoE on mastery until boss is below 25%, then move Disintegrate onto mastery.
Control Mastery: Control effects against non-player enemies are 2.5x as effective
WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT? Wow. I have GOT to copy Miri over and test her CC powers. Arcane Singularity might actually launch critters to orbital velocity.
Question: does Control Bonus affect the effect of Shatterstrike on control-immune enemies? I have Miri built for an extremely high bonus -- 144%
Question #2: does the 10% control bonus from Loyal Master gear transfer to the player? She has had a couple pieces slotted for a long while -- not that I would swap them out if they didn't; the stats are too good, but it would be nice to know.
One comment re: arcane mastery. I never pay attention to the stack count because I can't read it. The stack count is microscopic, at least to this 48-year-old. You might want to consider making values that are specific and important to mechanics larger in their own place on the UI.
That is because, if you read the lines near that bit of text, it isn't a change to control powers, they simply gave a hidden feature a tooltip. It still functions exactly the same as on live.
@thefabricant Good to see you arrived to the same conclusion I had ! Dps is pretty nice and goes crazy on execute phase. Only thing I changed is 2/3 in Blighting power and 3/3 in Arcane Enhancement. And, as you said, I didn't bother with Nightmare.
However on aoe, I have still not find a gameplay that convince me. Everything I tried seems underwhelwing atm. Needs more testing !
1
thefabricantMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 5,248Arc User
@thefabricant Good to see you arrived to the same conclusion I had ! Dps is pretty nice and goes crazy on execute phase.
Only thing I changed is 2/3 in Blighting power and 3/3 in Arcane Enhancement.
And, as you said, I didn't bother with Nightmare.
However on aoe, I have still not find a gameplay that convince me.
Everything I tried seems underwhelwing atm. Needs more testing !
@tenetomb for trash I run SS Rene with a similar feat distribution (but no focused wizardry) and then storm spell + evocation as class features. CoI or Steal Time on mastery (depending on group), disintegrate, Icy Terrain.
There's a significant oversight here: Imprisonment is still in the game.
In fact, vorphied, the whole "Control Wizard" thing is a relic of D&D 4th edition, in play at the time that NWO launched. Thomas Foss, Lead Designer, even stated in a recent Nova interview, that it was unfortunate that, at the time, mages had to be "Control Wizards" and couldn't just be "Wizards". Clear implication that they were forced by D&D licensing, at the time, to go with a control role. For the last 3 years Cryptic have been free to drop the word "Control" from "Control Wizard", but that would be a serious rework of the class, and they're more likely to put that level of effort into a new class.
I'll happily take rework of the existing levers to make the CW a valued member of end-game parties.
Truthfully I have always wanted a true mage in NW. The CW is... well its kinda meh as a wizard, more of an elementalist.
Ha, and as far as D&D4ED, there is a reason Pathfinder got huge keeping the 3.5 rules. I just went to a small convention and there was more Pathfinder play then any other versions of official D&D combined. They really screwed the pooch with 4.
Feedback Uncontrolled Obliteration + Similarly to Chaos magic, this is a very nice flavor to the chaotic version of CW (it's like Izzet ) + Very nice offensive buff, a variation on other self buffs that thematically fits. Potentially very strong.
- It doesn't belong where it is in Ren tree, in the current form. Ren is shaping to be a support tree, so putting self buffs under its capstone is contradictory. You are risking that EVERY single CW will run Renegade because of this feat. - It doesn't provide any synergy with Chaos Magic beside more personal dmg, which is not what we want in a tree that focuses support (at least based on a design of the capstone) -
Solution/Different approach This is the most problematic feat now. Instead of self buffing (something I don't really like to see in the column under Ren capstone) make a buff for others similar to Commander strike. Either it can function as an Aura for other only - or on attack/encounter or something like that. Of course it would need to be nerfed, because it would be too strong when an entire party benefits - something like "up to 3-6-9-12-15%" Another option would be to make it a status effect on enemy which would be consumed when another party member hits.
If the feat stays as is, Ren might be the only viable tree, and that's really bad. Even now we have 2 viable tree based on whether the party has CA. With Thaum being in a gutter, This one feat can break it considering Nightmare Wiz is in Ren tree 20 feats+.
Hi ppl, as former cw now op i can tell you that no changes will make cw desirable in parties (5man), as party will always take gf instead of cw (meta party) and im telling this as op it hurts me to say but cw is excellent class to play but its no good buff/debuff and for sure its bad dps, fortunatly for me i sow where constant cw nerfing is gonna take cw so i left playing cw and switched to op and i dont regret, if you are pve(dont know for pvp) just switch to desirable class as gwf, dc, gf or op.
More bugs: Controlled Momentum stacks from multiple CWs. Prestidigitation stacks from multiple CWs.
Should prestidigitation not stack (it's bad enough as it is)? I can see how making Controlled Momentum unstackable is putting it more in line with other feats.
Any comment on if CW dps build will really be capstone-less Rene / Thaum straddle?
To prevent any bugs in future, imo, prestidigitation should not stack. It can then receive a balance review in light of it not stacking. It is bad regardless of whether it stacks or not but it will be easier to balance in future if it is fixed.
I think this build is the way to go next mod for single target:
You can subtract 2 points from nightmare and move them to phantasmal for premades.
With the following setup:
Rotation is: 1) Cancel Cast Scorching Burst to apply Smoulder. 2) Icy Terrain. 3) Fanning the Flame. 4) Swarm. 5) Soul Sight. 6) Ray of Enfeeblement. 7) Ice Knife. 8) Disintegrate.
Throw in at wills (magic missiles) when stuff is on CD, the idea is to maximize the damage of disintegrate. Ideally you have RoE on mastery until boss is below 25%, then move Disintegrate onto mastery.
The Renegade path should not be our DPS path. Renegade has and should still be the full buff path for CW, not our go to path as a DPS. That is just horrible.
I like having options now but from the look of the update why bother with anything that is not Renegade. I want a full on Thaum DPS, a Hybrid DPS/Buffer from Oppressor and a full on buff build from Renegade. That new feat the added to Renegade should be added to Thaum as that is our DPS path or it was at one point.
As you pointed out the capstones are all lack luster for CW. Looking at what CW has for captsone vs. other classes really makes me not even want to bother with my CW come mod 15. I am nearly done with my CW enchantments wise and because of these changes, I just don't want to bother with him any more. In fact, the DC changes, though I do like how the devs are moving there, I just don't feel like keeping my DC around either.
I like the fact they devs are doing changes but the changes seem to hinder some classes or force our hands to play a specific way when we should not be forced as such I want options and with the update it does not seem like we will have options.
> Imprisonment should be removed and replaced with a second elemental specific option.
>
> MoF should get Incendiary Cloud. Stormspell Mages should get Chain Lightning.
Or a necromancer skill. Something a wizard would/could do. Or if they muddy keep it in game turn it into a aoe that immobilized for x amount of seconds and poisons, debuffs, or siphons life
Or alternatively, "Exile" the target, removing them from play, and make it permanent if the target was a minion. So automatic minion 1 shot power.
Imprisonment is a rank 9 level spell from 5e. So let's replace it with another rank 9 5e spell.
Meteor Swarm Psychic Scream
If the devs don't want to use those than let's look at some rank 8 spells... Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting Incendiary Cloud Sunburst (though DCs are using this currently so need to use this ability)
Imprisonment is such a waste....Just remove it already DEVS!
^^^ This ^^^
I just have not grasp as to why the devs leave in these absolutely crappy powers for classes while leaving out stuff that would completely rock. But then, a CW is a complete failure of an actual mage/magic user/wizard from D&D.
OK, just going to say this, completely rip out the CW class altogether. It just is a failure with the absolute brokeness of player invoked control in the game. Just gut the class and rename it. There is no controller class in the game and all these changes will not fix that fatal flaw.
GIVE US A MAGE CLASS!!!! We want fireball, lightning bolt, polymorph self, cloud kill, etc. Hell, we want a familiar! I just don't understand why this is so hard for you guys, other games seem to pull off mage classes pretty well.
1.) When we all first login after m15 is officially deployed, will all characters be reset automatically or do we all have to invest in a Retraining Token to respec?
2.) Do any of these changes to CWs (and other classes) impact or trigger a potential hard/soft cap of stats that might not have existed prior to m15?
3.) Do any of these changes impact companion choice/performance - such as Death Slaad procing infection upon at-will usage?
4.) Do any of these changes impact mount choice/insignia bonuses?
5.) Will there be any issues with Weapon and Armor enchantments being too much or too little in effectiveness?
Feedback:
Color-coding stats to be greyed out or turn red upon hitting maximum thresh-hold would be a nice touch to eliminate pointless guesswork or accidental overcompensation.
"Talent is a flame. Genius is a fire." - Sir Bernard Williams
Shatter Strike (Reworked): Whenever you deal damage to a frozen target, you have a 20% chance to shatter them. Shattered Foes are stunned for 5 seconds and lose health equal to 250% of your weapon damage. If a target is immune to being frozen, they will instead be affected by Frostbite. Frostbite consumes all stacks of chill to lower the amount of damage a foe deals by 25% and causes them to take damage as if they were controlled. Frostbite lasts for 8 seconds and can only be applied once every 12 seconds. Additionally, your Chill stacks have their duration increased by 3 seconds.
Does Control Bonus affect any of the durations listed? Which ones?
Harper Chronicles: Cap Snatchers (RELEASED) - NW-DPUTABC6X Blood Magic (RELEASED) - NW-DUU2P7HCO Children of the Fey (RELEASED) - NW-DKSSAPFPF Buried Under Blacklake (WIP) - NW-DEDV2PAEP The Redcap Rebels (WIP) - NW-DO23AFHFH
My Foundry playthrough channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Ruskaga/featured
I'd have to agree with some others here that I'd prefer to see all 3 paths provide distinct functionality (and viability). I really can't understand why there is an apparent bias against the Thaum path. Most SS mage's were playing it once upon a time because it is a FUN damage path. I have many options as loadouts, that include MoF / SS Opp, Thaum, Rene but of course I am biased towards which I enjoy the most. That changes over time from variant to variant, but that is the hook, I would like to be able to change things up and experiment in different situations with different builds without gimping my toon and consequently the team. I'm sure that is the goal of the devs for all the classes, at least I hope it is.
Please revisit Assailing Force and give some consideration to the feedback that has been provided. The capstone should be something worth putting points in Thaum beyond spell twisting imho (if even for that come mod 15).
@thefabricant Good to see you arrived to the same conclusion I had ! Dps is pretty nice and goes crazy on execute phase.
Only thing I changed is 2/3 in Blighting power and 3/3 in Arcane Enhancement.
And, as you said, I didn't bother with Nightmare.
However on aoe, I have still not find a gameplay that convince me.
Everything I tried seems underwhelwing atm. Needs more testing !
@tenetomb for trash I run SS Rene with a similar feat distribution (but no focused wizardry) and then storm spell + evocation as class features. CoI or Steal Time on mastery (depending on group), disintegrate, Icy Terrain.
AOE - storm spell + evocation Single target - Chilling Presence + Arcane Power Field
Off-hand Artifact Class Feature - ? May be Chilling Presence 3% because it's more important increase all damage to kill the boss faster? there is exactly 3% after the nerf Chilling Presence?
While we're talking about Controllers, I have a bone to pick regarding a couple of Omu critters:
Gorillas -- WHY are these 99.9999999% control-immune? Raptors in the Tyrant HE: same thing
It feels like a cruelty joke to CC builds.
CC builds are a cruel joke. The game is not set up to reward focused CC strength over more powerful, efficient DPS, and you cannot significantly increase your base control power without sacrificing an unacceptable amount of damage potential.
Truly, CWs still bring more than enough control. If the mobs are living so long that control is becoming an issue, there is probably a separate damage issue.
I'd have to agree with some others here that I'd prefer to see all 3 paths provide distinct functionality (and viability). I really can't understand why there is an apparent bias against the Thaum path. Most SS mage's were playing it once upon a time because it is a FUN damage path. I have many options as loadouts, that include MoF / SS Opp, Thaum, Rene but of course I am biased towards which I enjoy the most. That changes over time from variant to variant, but that is the hook, I would like to be able to change things up and experiment in different situations with different builds without gimping my toon and consequently the team. I'm sure that is the goal of the devs for all the classes, at least I hope it is.
Please revisit Assailing Force and give some consideration to the feedback that has been provided. The capstone should be something worth putting points in Thaum beyond spell twisting imho (if even for that come mod 15).
I still don't understand the apparent consensus in this thread that Thaum isn't useful. Can someone explain that to me? I switched out of Renegade to Thaum because my experience at the time showed it was actually mode damage! Then again, that was before I got a Razorwood.
While we're talking about Controllers, I have a bone to pick regarding a couple of Omu critters:
Gorillas -- WHY are these 99.9999999% control-immune? Raptors in the Tyrant HE: same thing
It feels like a cruelty joke to CC builds.
CC builds are a cruel joke. The game is not set up to reward focused CC strength over more powerful, efficient DPS, and you cannot significantly increase your base control power without sacrificing an unacceptable amount of damage potential.
Truly, CWs still bring more than enough control. If the mobs are living so long that control is becoming an issue, there is probably a separate damage issue.
It's sort of an impossible balancing act. You can be great at either damage or control, or lousy with both. At least Miri finished Omu tonight. Corellon be praised.
While we're talking about changes to CW powers, one thing that has always driven me batty has been Icy Rays. The icon often shows up as "ready" even though it is actually several seconds away from going off cooldown. It also regularly gets interrupted by (I think) at-wills, making it difficult to cast.
Harper Chronicles: Cap Snatchers (RELEASED) - NW-DPUTABC6X Blood Magic (RELEASED) - NW-DUU2P7HCO Children of the Fey (RELEASED) - NW-DKSSAPFPF Buried Under Blacklake (WIP) - NW-DEDV2PAEP The Redcap Rebels (WIP) - NW-DO23AFHFH
My Foundry playthrough channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Ruskaga/featured
While we're talking about Controllers, I have a bone to pick regarding a couple of Omu critters:
Gorillas -- WHY are these 99.9999999% control-immune? Raptors in the Tyrant HE: same thing
It feels like a cruelty joke to CC builds.
CC builds are a cruel joke. The game is not set up to reward focused CC strength over more powerful, efficient DPS, and you cannot significantly increase your base control power without sacrificing an unacceptable amount of damage potential.
Truly, CWs still bring more than enough control. If the mobs are living so long that control is becoming an issue, there is probably a separate damage issue.
It's sort of an impossible balancing act. You can be great at either damage or control, or lousy with both.
Not trying to be belligerent in my objections, but I feel the need to repeat that CW control is really quite adequate the way it's built into the majority of the powers. The best thing you can do is focus on damage, and you'll find that the mobs keel over before your baseline control durations have expired.
It's far better to run with your basic control strength and kill rapidly than it is to have massively boosted control strength and take forever to kill anything.
Shatter Strike (Reworked): Whenever you deal damage to a frozen target, you have a 20% chance to shatter them. Shattered Foes are stunned for 5 seconds and lose health equal to 250% of your weapon damage. If a target is immune to being frozen, they will instead be affected by Frostbite. Frostbite consumes all stacks of chill to lower the amount of damage a foe deals by 25% and causes them to take damage as if they were controlled. Frostbite lasts for 8 seconds and can only be applied once every 12 seconds. Additionally, your Chill stacks have their duration increased by 3 seconds.
I'm still confused about the underlined portion. Is it referring only to losing health equal to 250% of my weapon damage, or to something else?
Harper Chronicles: Cap Snatchers (RELEASED) - NW-DPUTABC6X Blood Magic (RELEASED) - NW-DUU2P7HCO Children of the Fey (RELEASED) - NW-DKSSAPFPF Buried Under Blacklake (WIP) - NW-DEDV2PAEP The Redcap Rebels (WIP) - NW-DO23AFHFH
My Foundry playthrough channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Ruskaga/featured
I still don't understand the apparent consensus in this thread that Thaum isn't useful. Can someone explain that to me? I switched out of Renegade to Thaum because my experience at the time showed it was actually mode damage! Then again, that was before I got a Razorwood.
Don't get me wrong, Thaum is not useless. I primarily run around doing my solo chores playing SS Thaum because I love the play style. It does sufficient damage to run through your dailies or do whatever you need to do on your own, but I also have invested more into the gear to squeeze as much damage out of the path say compared to my 16K GWF. I don't want to derail things into a comparison of classes, that has no place here, I'm just pointing out that in my opinion it requires more resources, be it time, AD or $ to have my SS perform at what I deem a decent level so that I feel "powerful".
The reality is that in higher level instances / heroics, even though I can get away with SS Thaum for the trash mobs, I am not doing my team or the group any favors by clinging to it for bosses. I swap to either MoF Rene if there is a desire that I play that, or if the group needs help with dps I switch to MoF Oppressor.
I'm ok with that, but I guess I am a little perplexed about why the Thaum path and SS in particular has been shunned so harshly by the devs. I can't help but wonder if there is a movement internally to push play away from powers that have been perceived as problematic rather than to fix or adjust them. I actually think the current Oppressor capstone would be nice to have on the Thaum path since they are reworking it, or something along the lines of what Sharp has suggested. I know these balance passes are few and far between. I would just like to see all 3 paths (and yes selfishly the path I enjoy) be taken care of while we have the devs ear.
Comments
The other capstones could also use some slight improvements. Capstones should be stronger then putting one point into a random feat. It's like that for most other classes. What exactly was wrong about Oppressor being the strongest choice for single target (bosses) ? "Oppressing" one target is easier then oppressing multiples targets after all, if you want to have it fit thematically. Thaum could have simply reworked into an equal or better choice for AoE (and soloing) by using the capstone. Other than that many of the changes seem to make a lot of sense to me, which makes the capstones stand out even more, oddly.
My baseline for Arcane Singularity is normally level-70 critters at the stronghold, but there's no guild in Preview. I don't know if there are any level-70 critters anywhere else. I tried it on level-71 critters in a Maze Engine quest and the effect was slightly below baseline, and on level-69 critters in Spinward Rise, which was above baseline. So, I'm guessing that the pull of AS is about the same.
Blood Magic (RELEASED) - NW-DUU2P7HCO
Children of the Fey (RELEASED) - NW-DKSSAPFPF
Buried Under Blacklake (WIP) - NW-DEDV2PAEP
The Redcap Rebels (WIP) - NW-DO23AFHFH
My Foundry playthrough channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Ruskaga/featured
CW never get obvious buffs. They get trade-offs.
The Ren/Opp capstones are lackluster, but the tier of feats right before them are what you're aiming for and if you're already that far into a tree there's no reason not to grab the capstone as well.
It also still procs the same - you do damage in any way, you have a 30% chance of chaos magic (WILD MAGIC) buff. Apparently the function they were trying to use for proccing based on doing damage was not foolproof. So I assume that they're making it so instead of the code using "damage dealt" as a feedback, it passes specific distinct variables instead: At-Wills, Encounters, Dailies.
Edit:
How it works now:
Chaos Magic: Dealing Damage to targets has a chance to apply Chaos Magic to yourself and allies within 50'.
How it works in the preview:
Chaos Magic: Is now triggered when using At-will, Encounter, or Daily powers (it was weird before)
When a power is activated, each buff has a 5% chance of being applied.
chance and Is now triggered are italics because the current manner has a CHANCE of proccing CHAOS MAGIC. The new manner is that it is that it is triggered while using a damage dealing ability. In other words, Chaos Magic now "procs" 100% of the time, and the shift of "proc burden" is whether each buff procs (30% that at last does). Essentially the phrase "Chaos Magic" is now the name of the feat, no longer mechanically a buff in itself. Again it seems like changing to an algorithm that provides the same results but via different code structure.
I think this build is the way to go next mod for single target:
You can subtract 2 points from nightmare and move them to phantasmal for premades.
With the following setup:
Rotation is:
1) Cancel Cast Scorching Burst to apply Smoulder.
2) Icy Terrain.
3) Fanning the Flame.
4) Swarm.
5) Soul Sight.
6) Ray of Enfeeblement.
7) Ice Knife.
8) Disintegrate.
Throw in at wills (magic missiles) when stuff is on CD, the idea is to maximize the damage of disintegrate. Ideally you have RoE on mastery until boss is below 25%, then move Disintegrate onto mastery.
Only thing I changed is 2/3 in Blighting power and 3/3 in Arcane Enhancement.
And, as you said, I didn't bother with Nightmare.
However on aoe, I have still not find a gameplay that convince me.
Everything I tried seems underwhelwing atm. Needs more testing !
Ha, and as far as D&D4ED, there is a reason Pathfinder got huge keeping the 3.5 rules. I just went to a small convention and there was more Pathfinder play then any other versions of official D&D combined. They really screwed the pooch with 4.
Actually, I already tried this setup but in Thaum and it was... Meh...
+ Similarly to Chaos magic, this is a very nice flavor to the chaotic version of CW (it's like Izzet
+ Very nice offensive buff, a variation on other self buffs that thematically fits. Potentially very strong.
- It doesn't belong where it is in Ren tree, in the current form. Ren is shaping to be a support tree, so putting self buffs under its capstone is contradictory. You are risking that EVERY single CW will run Renegade because of this feat.
- It doesn't provide any synergy with Chaos Magic beside more personal dmg, which is not what we want in a tree that focuses support (at least based on a design of the capstone)
-
Solution/Different approach
This is the most problematic feat now.
Instead of self buffing (something I don't really like to see in the column under Ren capstone) make a buff for others similar to Commander strike. Either it can function as an Aura for other only - or on attack/encounter or something like that. Of course it would need to be nerfed, because it would be too strong when an entire party benefits - something like "up to 3-6-9-12-15%"
Another option would be to make it a status effect on enemy which would be consumed when another party member hits.
If the feat stays as is, Ren might be the only viable tree, and that's really bad. Even now we have 2 viable tree based on whether the party has CA. With Thaum being in a gutter, This one feat can break it considering Nightmare Wiz is in Ren tree 20 feats+.
[PS4] Alliance - House Stargaryen
I like having options now but from the look of the update why bother with anything that is not Renegade. I want a full on Thaum DPS, a Hybrid DPS/Buffer from Oppressor and a full on buff build from Renegade. That new feat the added to Renegade should be added to Thaum as that is our DPS path or it was at one point.
As you pointed out the capstones are all lack luster for CW. Looking at what CW has for captsone vs. other classes really makes me not even want to bother with my CW come mod 15. I am nearly done with my CW enchantments wise and because of these changes, I just don't want to bother with him any more. In fact, the DC changes, though I do like how the devs are moving there, I just don't feel like keeping my DC around either.
I like the fact they devs are doing changes but the changes seem to hinder some classes or force our hands to play a specific way when we should not be forced as such I want options and with the update it does not seem like we will have options.
I just have not grasp as to why the devs leave in these absolutely crappy powers for classes while leaving out stuff that would completely rock. But then, a CW is a complete failure of an actual mage/magic user/wizard from D&D.
GIVE US A MAGE CLASS!!!! We want fireball, lightning bolt, polymorph self, cloud kill, etc. Hell, we want a familiar! I just don't understand why this is so hard for you guys, other games seem to pull off mage classes pretty well.
I chose perfect time to return
Thank you so much CRYPTIC!
This is going to be so much fun
1.) When we all first login after m15 is officially deployed, will all characters be reset automatically or do we all have to invest in a Retraining Token to respec?
2.) Do any of these changes to CWs (and other classes) impact or trigger a potential hard/soft cap of stats that might not have existed prior to m15?
3.) Do any of these changes impact companion choice/performance - such as Death Slaad procing infection upon at-will usage?
4.) Do any of these changes impact mount choice/insignia bonuses?
5.) Will there be any issues with Weapon and Armor enchantments being too much or too little in effectiveness?
Feedback:
Color-coding stats to be greyed out or turn red upon hitting maximum thresh-hold would be a nice touch to eliminate pointless guesswork or accidental overcompensation.
Does Control Bonus affect any of the durations listed? Which ones?
Blood Magic (RELEASED) - NW-DUU2P7HCO
Children of the Fey (RELEASED) - NW-DKSSAPFPF
Buried Under Blacklake (WIP) - NW-DEDV2PAEP
The Redcap Rebels (WIP) - NW-DO23AFHFH
My Foundry playthrough channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Ruskaga/featured
Please revisit Assailing Force and give some consideration to the feedback that has been provided. The capstone should be something worth putting points in Thaum beyond spell twisting imho (if even for that come mod 15).
Single target - Chilling Presence + Arcane Power Field
Off-hand Artifact Class Feature - ?
May be Chilling Presence 3% because it's more important increase all damage to kill the boss faster?
there is exactly 3% after the nerf Chilling Presence?
Gorillas -- WHY are these 99.9999999% control-immune?
Raptors in the Tyrant HE: same thing
It feels like a cruelty joke to CC builds.
Blood Magic (RELEASED) - NW-DUU2P7HCO
Children of the Fey (RELEASED) - NW-DKSSAPFPF
Buried Under Blacklake (WIP) - NW-DEDV2PAEP
The Redcap Rebels (WIP) - NW-DO23AFHFH
My Foundry playthrough channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Ruskaga/featured
Truly, CWs still bring more than enough control. If the mobs are living so long that control is becoming an issue, there is probably a separate damage issue.
Contagion - Cleric
Testament - Wizard
Pestilence - Ranger
Dominion - Paladin
NIGHTSWATCH
While we're talking about changes to CW powers, one thing that has always driven me batty has been Icy Rays. The icon often shows up as "ready" even though it is actually several seconds away from going off cooldown. It also regularly gets interrupted by (I think) at-wills, making it difficult to cast.
Blood Magic (RELEASED) - NW-DUU2P7HCO
Children of the Fey (RELEASED) - NW-DKSSAPFPF
Buried Under Blacklake (WIP) - NW-DEDV2PAEP
The Redcap Rebels (WIP) - NW-DO23AFHFH
My Foundry playthrough channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Ruskaga/featured
It's far better to run with your basic control strength and kill rapidly than it is to have massively boosted control strength and take forever to kill anything.
Contagion - Cleric
Testament - Wizard
Pestilence - Ranger
Dominion - Paladin
NIGHTSWATCH
I'm still confused about the underlined portion. Is it referring only to losing health equal to 250% of my weapon damage, or to something else?
Blood Magic (RELEASED) - NW-DUU2P7HCO
Children of the Fey (RELEASED) - NW-DKSSAPFPF
Buried Under Blacklake (WIP) - NW-DEDV2PAEP
The Redcap Rebels (WIP) - NW-DO23AFHFH
My Foundry playthrough channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Ruskaga/featured
The reality is that in higher level instances / heroics, even though I can get away with SS Thaum for the trash mobs, I am not doing my team or the group any favors by clinging to it for bosses. I swap to either MoF Rene if there is a desire that I play that, or if the group needs help with dps I switch to MoF Oppressor.
I'm ok with that, but I guess I am a little perplexed about why the Thaum path and SS in particular has been shunned so harshly by the devs. I can't help but wonder if there is a movement internally to push play away from powers that have been perceived as problematic rather than to fix or adjust them. I actually think the current Oppressor capstone would be nice to have on the Thaum path since they are reworking it, or something along the lines of what Sharp has suggested. I know these balance passes are few and far between. I would just like to see all 3 paths (and yes selfishly the path I enjoy) be taken care of while we have the devs ear.