From :
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/487447-Upcoming-Systems-Changes-for-U3...Hello!
U36 is shaping up to be a very large update, with some great new content, Artificer changes, and a fairly large number of Bug and Quality-of-Life fixes. There are a few of these changes we wanted to let you know about ahead of Lamannia in order to provide some design insight and provide a bit of advanced notice.
Arcane ArcherWith U36, the following changes are being made to Arcane Archer (both Elf and Ranger):
Arcane Archer Imbue toggles will only grant their effects while wielding a Longbow or Shortbow.
Arcane Archers must have a Longbow or Shortbow equipped to toggle on the Imbues from that tree. Equipping something other than a Longbow or Shortbow in your main hand will cause Arcane Archer Imbues to toggle off.
For a very long time now, it's been possible to use Arcane Archer toggles with weapons that aren't bows. These abilities, by their wording, are only meant to work with Bows, but there are currently ways of getting around that and applying those effects to other weapons. The pass to Rangers circa Update 28 put some changes in place to stop this that were ultimately unsuccessful. We are interested in creating better balance between Bows, Crossbows, and other forms of ranged combat in the long term. In order to make that balance work, we need to finally fix Arcane Archer to work as it is intended to.
WarlocksWith U36, the following changes are being made to Warlocks:
Warlocks now receive Eldritch Blast base dice feats at levels 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20 (for a total of 6d6 at level 20) instead of their previous progression. Characters will be automatically adjusted to match this new progression.
The Epic Eldritch Blast feat now grants 3d6 to Eldritch Blast.
The Epic Arcane Eldritch Blast Destiny feat now grants 4d6 to Eldritch Blast.
In Enlightened Spirit, Eldritch Burst's additional Light damage is now 1d6.
In Enlightened Spirit, Spirit Blast's additional Light damage is now 4d6.
In Enlightened Spirit, Spiritual Retribution's Light damage on all Eldritch Blasts is now 1d4/2d4/3d4.
Internal and live data gathering has led to the conclusion that Warlock DPS is unquestionably too high in Heroic. It isn't simply a matter of their damage output relative to other classes (which is also too high), it's a matter of their power relative to content and other factors involved in overall game balance. Tuning other classes up to their level isn't an option; Warlock damage in Heroic needs to come down.
The above change alters the levels at which Warlocks add 1d6 to their base Eldritch Blast. On Live currently, when they reach level 20 they have 9d6; this change alters that to 6d6. To balance that against Epics, the two available Eldritch Blast feats have been increased to 3d6 and 4d6 (a net gain of +3d6, the same value that was removed from Heroics). As a result, by the time a Warlock reaches level 26, they can have exactly as many dice as they can get now.
The Enlightened Spirit changes bring the extra damage granted by these abilities closer in line with abilities in other classes. Having playtested with the changes, these abilities remain very potent.
Spell ResistanceWith U36, the following changes are being made to Spell Resistance:
Drow and Deep Gnome's Spell Resistance now stacks with all other sources of Spell Resistance.
The majority of item-based sources of Spell Resistance have had their values reduced by about 1/3.
Fury of the Wild's Ward against Weird ability is now a Primal bonus to Spell Resistance (stacking with most other sources) and has new values (5/30/60).
In the U36 cycle, we set out to finally make Drow and Deep Gnome's racial Spell Resistance stack with other sources (as we said we would after the recent Race Tree pass). In analyzing the numbers involved, it came to our attention that the math used to determine what values new Cannith Crafting, new Lootgen, and recent Named Items calculated Spell Resistance at was wrong. As a result, the numbers available were much higher than we were comfortable with before adding in stacking Drow and Deep Gnomes.
With this change, a character without racial SR equipping maximum available sources of SR should be within striking distance of the necessary SR to resist high-difficulty monsters' spells. It will be very difficult (if not impossible at certain ranges) to get a no-fail value on those characters in high difficulties. With Drow and Deep Gnome values now stacking, however, those characters can much more easily compete against enemy spells.
Aggro & StealthWith U36, the following changes are being made to Aggro and Stealth:
Monsters will take the distance of their targets into account now. Closer targets are more likely to be targeted (assuming they have not yet taken much damage) compared to Live.
If a monster kills or loses their primary target, they’ll now aggro correctly on who has the most hate next (as opposed to the closest target, as they often do now on Live).
Monsters with the “see stealthed” property will now display an angry red eye icon to anyone observing them in stealth. Note: The see through stealth property, aka “tremor sense” is not True Sight or See Invisible. Those abilities don’t actually don’t affect sight checks against players just using the stealth skill. For example, Spiders and Slimes typically have the See Through Stealth property, per 3.5 edition rules. Red- and Purple-name bosses also tend to get this ability.
These changes were the result of listening closely to player feedback and examination of monster AI in regards to stealth gameplay.
Area of Effect SpellsWith U36, most Area of Effect spells cast by enemies (such as Ice Storm and Web) now have visible indicators of their boundaries on the ground. This should make more clear where enemy effects begin and end, and improve players' ability to analyze the battlefield.
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Upcoming Systems Changes… (Read 29376 times)
