test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
M15: Oathbound Paladin Class Changes
balanced
Member, Cryptic Developer Posts: 41Cryptic Developer › Cryptic Developer
Hey there Oathbound Paladins,
Paladin has always had some issues with their animations and general attack flow, but we’ve finally gotten it into a place that feels really fluid. A handful of attacks have been adjusted so that they complete their animation faster, chain into other powers faster, and don’t get interrupted by other powers you are trying to use.
We have also increased the base damage of their powers by roughly 14% in an attempt to get their solo gameplay to feel a bit more engaging. We found that a lot of Paladins were killing things very slowly, and while this won’t get them all the way there – it is a good boost. Note that this is in addition to animation times being more smooth, so you will likely see a boost even higher than this.
There are some changes to the Devotion paladin passive aura. We felt that their healing was very high and wanted to tune it down a bit, as we don’t think it will really cripple their effectiveness. In turn, we wanted to make sure that their buff is applied whenever you heal an ally instead of encouraging allies to take some kind of damage just to be buffed.
The final things that have been changed are in relation to the feat trees. These changes are mostly minor tuning and quality of life adjustments, but we wanted to experiment with the Bulwark tree a bit. Head Unbowed and Holy Barrier have been reworked and are now much more powerful. If you’re looking for a cooldown / damage build, Justice will still be your go-to tree but the Bulwark build should feel a bit fresh and a bit different.
Paladin has always had some issues with their animations and general attack flow, but we’ve finally gotten it into a place that feels really fluid. A handful of attacks have been adjusted so that they complete their animation faster, chain into other powers faster, and don’t get interrupted by other powers you are trying to use.
We have also increased the base damage of their powers by roughly 14% in an attempt to get their solo gameplay to feel a bit more engaging. We found that a lot of Paladins were killing things very slowly, and while this won’t get them all the way there – it is a good boost. Note that this is in addition to animation times being more smooth, so you will likely see a boost even higher than this.
There are some changes to the Devotion paladin passive aura. We felt that their healing was very high and wanted to tune it down a bit, as we don’t think it will really cripple their effectiveness. In turn, we wanted to make sure that their buff is applied whenever you heal an ally instead of encouraging allies to take some kind of damage just to be buffed.
The final things that have been changed are in relation to the feat trees. These changes are mostly minor tuning and quality of life adjustments, but we wanted to experiment with the Bulwark tree a bit. Head Unbowed and Holy Barrier have been reworked and are now much more powerful. If you’re looking for a cooldown / damage build, Justice will still be your go-to tree but the Bulwark build should feel a bit fresh and a bit different.
Baseline
- All damage increased by ~14%
- Divine Call: Now has priority in being cast, will not be interrupted by other powers
- Divine Call: Can now be activated while blocking
- Sacred Weapon: Activation time slightly reduced
- Sacred Weapon: Now has priority in being cast, will not be interrupted by other powers
- Templar's Wrath: Activation time slightly reduced
- Bane: Activation time slightly reduced
- Bane: Now has priority in being cast, will not be interrupted by other powers
- Cleansing Touch: Activation time slightly reduced
- Cleansing Touch: Now has priority in being cast, will not be interrupted by other powers
- Banishment: Now has priority in being cast, will not be interrupted by other powers
- Vow of Enmity: Activation time slightly reduced
- Vow of Enmity: Now has priority in being cast, will not be interrupted by other powers
- Absolution: Activation time massively reduced
- Absolution: Now has priority in being cast, will not be interrupted by other powers
- Relentless Avenger: Activation time slightly increased
- Relentless Avenger: Now has priority in being cast, will not be interrupted by other powers
- Circle of Power: Now has priority in being cast, will not be interrupted by other powers
- Radiant Strike: Activation time slightly reduced
- Valorous Strike: Activation time slightly reduced
- Lay on Hands: Now has priority in being cast, will not be interrupted by other powers
- Shield of Faith: Now has priority in being cast, will not be interrupted by other powers
- Divine Judgement: Activation time slightly reduced
- Heroism: Activation time slightly reduced
- Oath of Devotion: Your healing is increased by 75% (down from 100%)
- Oath of Devotion: Now increases allies stats for 10 seconds (up from 8 seconds)
- Oath of Devotion: No longer requires you to actually restore HP on the target
At-wills:
- Shielding Strike: The third hit of this combo now grants the Paladin a shield equal to 3% of their maximum hit points. (Previously granted an absorption buff that absorbed damage equal to 1% of your maximum hit points on each attack).
Encounters:
- Sacred Weapon: Fixed an issue where this power would not correctly expire after 3 attacks for Devotion Paladins
- Sacred Weapon: Damage lowered by ~17%
- Sacred Weapon: Healing increased to 20% (up from 15%)
- Sacred Weapon: Bonus healing duration increased to 10 seconds (up from 8)
Class Feats:
- Aura of Solitude: Dominating Presence no longer increases the range of this Aura
- Aura of Solitude: No longer considers companions as "allies."
Feats:
Justice:
- Shining Beacon: Duration reduced to 10 seconds (down from 15)
- Shining Beacon: Now states that your Recharge Speed is increased by 3/6/9/12/15% (functionality unchanged)
- Shining Beacon: No longer has a cooldown of 60 seconds
- Shining Beacon: No longer has floater text appear when applied
- Shining Beacon: Now triggers whenever you take damage while below 50% hit points
- Stem the Tide: No longer considers a Companion as an Ally for this feat
- Stem the Tide: Slow reduced to 4/8/12/16/20% (down from 5/10/15/20/25%)
- Stem the Tide: Damage taken increased to 2/4/6/8/10% (up from 1/2/3/4/5%)
- Stem the Tide: This power should no longer put the player in a Combat stance
- Radiant Champion: Movement Speed reduced to 4/8/12/16/20% (down from 5/10/15/20/25%)
- Radiant Champion: Cooldown Reduction increased to 2/4/6/8/10% (up from 1/2/3/4/5%)
Bulwark:
- Head Unbowed (Reworked): You now generate 2/4/6/8/10% of your Divine Energy bar each second
- Holy Barrier: While in combat, you build stacks of Barrier every second and by using your powers. Activating Divine Call will consume all stacks of Barrier to grant you a shield for 10% (+0.5% per stack) of your max hit points for 15 seconds. While the shield holds, you are granted 20% movement speed, critical strike chance, Deflect chance, incoming healing, and Recharge Speed. Barrier may stack up to 100 times.
Post edited by frozenfirevr on
Tagged:
8
Comments
House Miliskeera in exile (NW)
Sereska Miliskeera, Lvl 70 OP - Devotion (Just.)/Protection (Just.)
Shizlee Miliskeera, Lvl 70 DC - Divine Oracle (Right.)/Anoited Champion (Faith.)
Finithey Miliskeera, Lvl 70 HR - Stormwarden (Combat)/Pathfinder (Trapper)
Maya Sik-Miliskeera, Lvl 70 CW - Spellstorm
Irae Sik-Miliskeera, Lvl 70 TR - Master Inflitrator
Member - Houseclan t'Charvon (STO)
Shiarrael e'Tal'Aura t'Charvon, LvL 60, Rom Sci
S'aana ir'Virinat t'Charvon, Lvl 60, Rom Eng
T'Lyra, LvL 60, Fed, Vul Sci
Ta'el, Lvl 60, Rom Tac
As anomalea commented, I have trouble casting bane as a prot OP because my teammates and pets are hugging the boss from all directions. Aslo for console Devo OPs casting bane is a pain. Whenever I want to cast it on the boss, I end up casting it on pets or teammates by accident. I'd love if some kind of targeting mechanic for powers such as pain is added. For example, before I use bane I should have a lock on mechanic that I can switch between the boss and one of my teammates to apply bane easily.
Other than that, I appreciate all the changes here,
especially the animation time reduction which is much needed.
Not to forget the 14% overall damage increase.
all in all good changes, becouse pvp doesnt matter anyways and its usefull for new players for solo and smoothing playstyles
First, you say: "All damage increased by ~14%"
Then you say: "Sacred Weapon: Damage lowered by ~17%"
Are you saying All damage is increased by 14% *except* Sacred Weapon, which had it's damage decreased by 17%? Or are you saying that All damage is increased by 14%, however, Sacred Weapon had it's damage decreased by 17% after the 14% damage buff to all powers?
I guess what I am asking is if damage for all powers was increased by 14% (which is a *good thing*), and Sacred Weapon had a net damage nerf of 3% after these changes (which is a *not-so-good thing*)....
on prev 47 768 max dmg, 3 times for [ 143 304 ]
143 304/169 840 ~~ 0,84375.....
for a total of 15,7% dmg loss. im fine with that, it was bugged, buggs need to be fixed.
i wonder if smite is going to be better then SW now ;p
OP - Sunshine: 16000 IL
Casual Dailies
Please consider a cast time reduction for burning light as it does very little damage even if fully charged
Cheers
its our strongest AoE encounter.
Also, do NPCs count as allies; will they break Stem the Tide?
What about other players (not on your team, but within a 30' radius) in the same instance; historically, they've made Stem the Tide useless...is that still the case?
TIA
14% boosting of nada is nada..
With shielding strike beeing nerfed too.. and devos aswel...
Thanks for nothing devs. Mod 15 should be called "Art of Nerfing" instead of "Heart of fire".
Not sure why this needed a nerf, just how did this unbalance anything? I know you can have more than one OP in a group and you can get faster and.... so what? You give up a lot of DSP to have a OP in the group anyway. But they buffed recharge so at least a trade off.
House Miliskeera in exile (NW)
Sereska Miliskeera, Lvl 70 OP - Devotion (Just.)/Protection (Just.)
Shizlee Miliskeera, Lvl 70 DC - Divine Oracle (Right.)/Anoited Champion (Faith.)
Finithey Miliskeera, Lvl 70 HR - Stormwarden (Combat)/Pathfinder (Trapper)
Maya Sik-Miliskeera, Lvl 70 CW - Spellstorm
Irae Sik-Miliskeera, Lvl 70 TR - Master Inflitrator
Member - Houseclan t'Charvon (STO)
Shiarrael e'Tal'Aura t'Charvon, LvL 60, Rom Sci
S'aana ir'Virinat t'Charvon, Lvl 60, Rom Eng
T'Lyra, LvL 60, Fed, Vul Sci
Ta'el, Lvl 60, Rom Tac