Patch .7.33 made a number of adjustments to attributes, powers, and items. Most notably, for Presence, the natural leadership from Presence is halved, and Presence no longer grants HP, but Charm spells are now derived from Sexiness and Temptation rather than Spellpower and SpellPen.
Second, Agility now grants half its previous bonus to-hit, and instead that bonus is given to all characters passively.
Finally, Toughness grants 7.5 HP per level instead of 5.
These changes, taken together, seem to suggest that agility is no longer as influential a core stat, that Presence is now more essential for Charmers and less so for other characters, and that Leadership gear is now much more valuable, as the potential leadership budget is now much smaller.
From what I’ve been able to tell on Dark difficulty, high Presence remains a very valuable third or fourth attribute to max. Agility is no longer as essential, but remains a very useful defensive stat. Toughness is, unfortunately, still not as valuable as it probably should be to the PC, since the Champion has multiple methods to extend their HP bar, and the game remains fundamentally unfair to PC tanks.
Charmers are in a bit of a strange spot—as buffers, they’re fairly strong, but companion Charmers are often limited by their use of tease-based powers that don’t work against some bosses or enemies, leaving them down a power. Dancer Cait can get locked to just Blessing and Revive if you accidentally take her into such a fight, since even her heal requires a teasable opponent.
PC charmers get access to powerful charms like Dischord, but they’re left in a bad situation regarding armor—if they wear the leadership (heavy) armor, they get a big bonus to threat, but not necessarily enough to ensure they can keep attention from enemies without Scaldic Cadence. Add to that the fact they lose up to 28 sexiness in the trade and it starts looking like “Bard tanks” might be better off as Warriors, since at least then they can run something like Equilibrium.
For other classes, Mages of both varieties are largely the same, with perhaps a smaller spell list (or the same, if they wore the Pyromancer Robes and maxed Sexiness already). Warriors and spellblades, on the other hand, now may want to drop Agility for Presence so they get access to Charms (or continue to neglect Toughness for the same reason), since even reduced Leadership is still very valuable.
What have your experiences with the new changes been?
Second, Agility now grants half its previous bonus to-hit, and instead that bonus is given to all characters passively.
Finally, Toughness grants 7.5 HP per level instead of 5.
These changes, taken together, seem to suggest that agility is no longer as influential a core stat, that Presence is now more essential for Charmers and less so for other characters, and that Leadership gear is now much more valuable, as the potential leadership budget is now much smaller.
From what I’ve been able to tell on Dark difficulty, high Presence remains a very valuable third or fourth attribute to max. Agility is no longer as essential, but remains a very useful defensive stat. Toughness is, unfortunately, still not as valuable as it probably should be to the PC, since the Champion has multiple methods to extend their HP bar, and the game remains fundamentally unfair to PC tanks.
Charmers are in a bit of a strange spot—as buffers, they’re fairly strong, but companion Charmers are often limited by their use of tease-based powers that don’t work against some bosses or enemies, leaving them down a power. Dancer Cait can get locked to just Blessing and Revive if you accidentally take her into such a fight, since even her heal requires a teasable opponent.
PC charmers get access to powerful charms like Dischord, but they’re left in a bad situation regarding armor—if they wear the leadership (heavy) armor, they get a big bonus to threat, but not necessarily enough to ensure they can keep attention from enemies without Scaldic Cadence. Add to that the fact they lose up to 28 sexiness in the trade and it starts looking like “Bard tanks” might be better off as Warriors, since at least then they can run something like Equilibrium.
For other classes, Mages of both varieties are largely the same, with perhaps a smaller spell list (or the same, if they wore the Pyromancer Robes and maxed Sexiness already). Warriors and spellblades, on the other hand, now may want to drop Agility for Presence so they get access to Charms (or continue to neglect Toughness for the same reason), since even reduced Leadership is still very valuable.
What have your experiences with the new changes been?
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