Dude, where's my omurice?

Once the end of February says hi, we'll be looking at a new mod. Well, not really a new mod since the plot is still at Chult. The reason why the title says omurice is very simple. It has got nothing to do with any kind of rice. Rather, it's all about the Omu. Apparently, one of the key players within the four walls of Omurice is her.

At the same time, I've got a very bad feeling about a new D&D movie. Suffice to say, movies adapted from fantasy works do have that weird tendency to go 50-50. Either you nail it like Peter "unrelated to Michael, be it genes or DNA" Jackson and create the next Emma "unrelated to Mary-Jane, hence also unrelated to Spider-Man" Watson or... well, we all know the Eragon movie did crash and burn as if the movie got smote by Brisingr. Not a fun thing to say if I say so myself.

On an unrelated sidenote, I'm currently in the process of doing a proof-read on my current chapters for A Requiem From Winter Past. It shocked me to see the extremely poor standard of my writing back then (okay, it may not be that bad, but I prefer to exercise my First Amendment rights to be self-critical). A humbling experience, yes. A good thing, definitely so. Despite my insane manner of self-expression, trust me when I say I'm the last thing nearest to a decently sharp tool in the shed. At this point in time, I only ended up finishing 3 chapters in total. Of course, it's not just a matter of technique. There are also other things I need to change or modify.

Before I start on my Omurice...

I'll admit to something every feminist would love (?) to hear. Namely, I had a blast in using Cyrea Durothil. Not in a perverted sense since the world has been seeing too many perverts of late. I'm referring to the recent double Tyranny of Dragons currency event. I still remember an honest mistake done by my guild boss Vraelin. Apparently, he typed too fast and Treasures of Tyranny got warped into Treasures of Tranny. That was really a crazy episode involving an honest mistake. Also, that's like 1-2 years ago. Hence, I'm pretty sure Vrae doesn't remember that episode.

That event was the reason why Cyrea is now on the fast track to completing the ToD campaign faster than expected. In fact, her boons progression is officially faster than Myrreas. The main reason why? Arylos purchased a campaign token as a token of affection to his Lady (Cyrea Durothil) love.

Mathematically speaking, this decision made sense as well. Myrreas has now earned Linu's affection 11 times. Once Arylos decides to create another ToD token (this time around as a token of respect) for Myrreas, it means a surplus of 3 Linu's Favor (since you only need 8 Linu's Favor to get the last two boons after using the token).

As of now, Cyrea, got one boon left for taking. Believe it or not, I actually tossed both boon points into Dragon's Fury. On the first glance, that looks like a retarded move. After all, I am not Sam. However, it is my decision to create a crit-based devoted cleric. And to do that, I need to make sure the crit chance can hit at least 50% on a consistent level. Therefore, I decided to transfer that Ring of Sudden Precision +4 from Myrreas to her. Without that ring, her crit would be at around 39-41%. With that ring, the crit would go like 49-51% consistently even though it won't be on a 24/7 basis. To max out the crit efficiency, I threw two points into Dragon's Fury. Once the last boon point comes, Cyrea will be having 8% bonus crit severity. And for a DC, crit severity is vital if I say so myself.

Running the dragonmother temple (i.e. not to be confused with the real Khaleesi herself) was quite fun. Previously, Cyrea was running around as an anointed champion. Right now, I did a Total Recall on her and created a divine oracle instead. It must be stated that the AA will always have a better survival game than the DO. That is so long you slot in Anointed Armor (read: the only effective means of self-defence due to AC bonus and extra deflect). For the DO, survival becomes more dodgy. The closest thing to Anointed Armor would be Prophetic Action. The only catch? Prophetic Action does grant you total immunity like a holy diplomat, but only once every 60 seconds. So which one is better for a DO? Prophetic Action or Foresight? It depends. If you're running as a faith spec, then I'd say Foresight. If you're doing a virtuous spec, then I'd recommend Foresight as well. If you're running as a righteous spec... well, I'm running both loadouts on a DO righteous build and Prophetic Action is my choice of self-defence for Cyrea.

Prophetic Action, however, can be quite deceptively useful. You don't have to worry about manual trigger (something which Foresight will force you to do, hence the need to use Bastion of Health with a brutally nerfed Astral Shield). However, it's an auto-proc per 60 sec. What this means is that your mass protection game will hit a quantum improvement in terms of the AoE range (Foresight, on the other hand, is concentrated version with a much-lowered reach). Preventing damage equalling up to 25% of your BFF's max HP for one single attack isn't a big deal. In fact, it's the worst stand-alone deal any DO can afford to have, sun elf or no sun elf. Synergise the DO with Terrifying Insight and that's where the fun part comes. Terrifying Insight is meant to increase the dps of every BFF by a considerable amount. And by that, I mean a whopping 20% damage bonus at rank 4. By unlocking the off-hand artifact power for Terrifying Insight, it means Cyrea's base crit severity bonus has reached 11.5%. Once the third boon point arrives, it's gonna be Taylor 13 for her (i.e. bonus will hit 13%). Throw in the crit severity boon for The Cloaked Ascendancy campaign and it should go like 15% base crit severity bonus.

Of course, an alternative would be put one point into Dragon's Grip. However, I find this boon to be more useful for CC builds with Wisdom as a secondary stat instead of the primary stat. Unless something did go terribly wrong, your character should have the primary stat as the highest one numerically. As for Dragon's Revival, I don't see the relevance when it comes to any DC build apart from the dps ones (something better suited for the AA due to Anointed Action).

Since Prophetic Action isn't meant to be relied on as a core class feature, it means one must make the most out of the 60 sec rule. And to do that, a class feature granting some manner of bonus minus any cooldown is a must. Simply put, there needs to be a class feature granting a decent bonus on a 24/7 basis. If there's any reason why I'd recommend DC users to go DO, it'd be Terrifying Insight. 120 feet radius AoE with 20% damage bonus, we're talking abt a bonus of 8K power mathematically speaking (i.e. 400 power=1% damage bonus, this is even crazier than a Ring of Brutality +5). Once the mass dps buff is applied to all your BFFs, Prophetic Action becomes a strong case for vital support. The 60 sec rule is still a matter of damage prevention. Not enough to survive any raid 24/7, but enough for all your BFFs to max out whatever dps they can muster with a minimum risk of getting wiped. In fact, using a DO most likely means a need to strike a balance between the offensive and defensive mass buffing. Because unlike the oathbound paladin, the average DC can only do this much when it comes to surviving via self-sufficiency (again, any AA using Anointed Armor is the exception to this rule).

Believe it or not, all of Cyrea's dragonmother raids were done via the worst form of pugging. Namely, matchmaking queue instead of answering any lfg call to arms. Believe it or not, every party with a sun elf DO named Cyrea Durothil emerged victorious against that dragonmother boss. Considering the actual risk of getting idiots via this most dangerous gamble, it really meant something. At least for me, that is. In fact, the matchmaking pug resulted in a single round wipe. Not against us, but the dragonmother. No need for Linu and her two BFFs to start a round two (albeit I won't discount having a renegade control wizard or two/three for that fight).

If there's anything vital I still need to learn, it'd be knowing when to use Hallowed Ground before Linu and her BFFs manage to weaken dragonmother Tiamat. I mean, it's very easy to use Hallowed Ground whenever fighting with any dragonmother head. Correct usage of Hallowed Ground would most likely save your entire raid party some precious time plus better survival chances (read: the mob from Nine Hells would always zerg here and there instead of staying put every now and then). Slotting in Tiamat's Orb of Majesty into your active artifact slot would help a lot, though. After all, a well calculated Khaleesi battle roar can easily wipe a mob if Hallowed Ground is active. Otherwise, it'd still do a decent job of giving Linu or any of her BFFs some extra time to charge the blue metre. If you don't have the Khaleesi orb, it should mean you should be intelligent enough to slot a Sigil of Devoted into the active slot.

Also, sun elves do make for a deceptively good DC build. Control resistance helps a lot (even more so than for control wizards). Then you have bonus action point gain, arguably the most vital aspect of the DC gameplay. Because I opted for action points gain boons where Cyrea is concerned, it means a default action points gain bonus of 11% (3% from Tiamat amulet+6% in total from the boons+2% race bonus). If you're a hallowed spammer like yours truly, sun elf is a very fun race to use once you chuck in all the action points gain boons.

Plot twist: Ariel Manx still loves Kelemvor Lyonsbane

I decided to mess around with Arylos' build for no reason at all beyond the urge to experiment. Long story short, I decided to eschew the Gondhammer. My stance was very simple: Can I try increasing the dps output without affecting whatever control resist bonus that comes with Mjolnir's BFF? In other words, it's called changing an artifact.

Initially, my choice was to get a Manticore Talon. I'll be frank about this thing: The dps was really good. During an Illusionist's Gambit alliance raid run, my party did give Lukan a Gone in 60 Seconds. He didn't have time to create illusions, that was how fast the fight was. And guess what? Arylos blew the Manticore horn. At epic rank, the damage is already 10K+ per second. Given that the blast effect lasts for 4 seconds, it means a whopping 40K damage. This is definitely a case of high-end artifact damage. However, the push-back effect never felt right to me. The reason why is that knockback and pushback effects have a real tendency to mess up your tank's aggro management. The fact that Manticore Talon deals a much higher damage than stuff like Sun Burst and Relentless Avenger is there for all to see. One single usage can result in any mob getting wiped so long your party can maintain the dps for like 2-3 seconds or so. My only problem is whether this is a decent tradeoff. I didn't want to annoy people just because attempting to play hero does feel good to me (and many other players as well). I'm not interested in risking people scolding me in the middle of any raid, teamspeak or no teamspeak.

If blowing the manticore horn is the only reason why people would want that thing, it means I'd need a better alternative. And that alternative is a Sigil of the Controller since Sigil of the Hunter is good for direct damage (albeit it's still inferior to Manticore Talon in this dept). I need the dps, so power and crit are much welcomed. I need the control resist as well. Most notably in Chult where getting dino-jumped is a constant reminder of reality.

A self-reminder that this year's national budget is nearing.

Right now, the plan is to get a Champion's Banner. The new refinement system means the need to use more feeder artifacts if I want to max out the CW sigil asap. Then again, a mythic artifact (i.e. the Gondhammer) is worth around 150K refinement points.

Now starting on my Omurice...

So far so good, it seems that Omurice is running smoothly. At least Hannah (i.e. the most famous oathbound paladin in my guild) commented that the next mod preview was a good ride. No details since the first two rules about the Fight Club is You do not talk about Fight Club multiplied by two (read: Hannah wasn't authorised to leak anything). Therefore, I can only afford to say very little. In fact, the only mod preview session I had the honour to test out was Maze Engine. Which is a good thing since my timezone has never been friendly towards this kind of Tesla car testing.

Two fixtures which I'm very sure Cryptic will be implementing on a pre-mod release basis are the resurgence of the Resurgence lockbox (pardon the pun) and bonus refinement points events. The former is clear for all to see since they've been doing this since... well, I don't know when. For the bonus refinement points event, it's a replacement for the double refinement points event due to the new RP system kicking in.

Now let me just say that the new system is much better than the original one. Much much better. At the expense of the RP worth per stone, the overall refinement progress is now much faster. At the same time, it also did away with one of the most annoying aspects of the previous system. Namely, the possibility of spillover refinement points once you maxed out the rank. Imagine getting a six-figure sum surplus RP once you maxed out your artifact to mythic rank. Basically, it means the surplus amount is as good as burnt away. So no more surplus refinement points once any of your artifact gear reaches max. This is very important because every drop of RP counts. Under the new system, the surplus RP is retained since RP conversion is now done in the form of storage instead of direct feeding. The only downside? Artifact feeding now gives much less. Which explains why artifacts are experiencing a massive deflation in the auction house. Previously, the average price in the auction house for a Cragmire artifact could fetch you like either a 5 or 6 figure sum. Now, it's around... 5000? The rarer ones like Tiamat's Orb of Majesty are now at 10-20K. Which is definitely mass deflation in the name of MMO socialism. Not that it matters anyway since games are not real, hence only idiots will treat GTA as something very real. Scarily enough, though, Natalie "Biologist is of Asian descent+same goes for the Jews=Biologist is a Jew" Portman did receive a letter from an idiot. Apparently, that idiot had just finished playing his Hot Coffee mod. (Note: This is NOT to say that every idiot is a danger to the society. Then again, there are indeed idiots graduating with a university degree. Just that not all idiots are that lucky)

So far, only one aspect of the new mod has said hi.

Now expecting my Omurice...

Right now, I can only afford to do speculations. I'm not Hannah, so I can't tell you all what to expect. And even if I was given access to the Tesla car test-driving session, it means Cryptic would have enforced the first two rules of the Fight Club. I'll be touching on two things.

The first is the tier 3 masterwork gear. At the pace the whole system is going, this may be where Cryptic is going in the future development of the gear system. Arguably the most problematic aspect of any MMO isn't about new content. Rather, it's the gear system. You have to make the end-game gear decently accessible because players are expected to slog for rewards. However, it should be clear by now that unless you own a Forgehammer of Gond (otherwise known as the Gondhammer), there's no point for you to try crafting masterwork gear. Unlike the current system, though, the much-touted (?) tier 3 version for the Omurice looks... well, decent shouldn't be the correct word. While masterwork is more of an income earning machine, the tier 3 version looks much better than the previous two tiers where no set bonuses and perks are to be seen. What this most likely means is this: The pricing for tier 1 and 2 masterwork will hit a dive like a peregrine falcon with its wings clipped. This is good news for gamers out to explore Chult either with their alts or as newcomers to a land of dark-skinned people, jungles, paladins, and snake people (no offence intended to all Swifties and the real Swift. I'm referring to the yuan-ti who are known to be so annoying with their insane AoE ability to CC the Nine Hells out of anyone. More specifically the most annoying mob you can ever hope to fight).

One thing I'm interested to know is how the new recipes can be obtained. For tier 2 recipe, it's 20 pieces of hard aberrant leather for me (i.e. leatherworking profession). I won't be surprised if some tier 2 profession assets will be involved. Which means more incentive to run Fangbreaker Island (insanely enough, I've only run the raid once. Malakut was also there. Also, I've yet to run my first Svardborg and Tomb of the Nine Gods).

Which now comes to the most worrying aspect of Omurice: Will the difficulty level hit an increase? My guess is both yes and no. Yes, because new content for every mod should involve a tweak or two. No, because any increment will most likely be a matter of different mobs, different tactics, and minimal adjustment where the actual difficulty level is concerned. If there's anything to go by from Sea of Moving Ice mod, that should be the case. In this sense, it means Swords of Chult should be seen as mod 12.5 alpha while Omurice will most likely be mod 12.5 beta. Simply put, the new mod shouldn't be too steep a mountain to climb for those who have braved the reptiles, snake people, and those goblins high on locally grown weed.

The other thing will be the possibility of any new raid. To be honest, I'd call it a 50-50 call. In Tomb of Annihilation, we have another tomb which Lara Croft would like to try out. For Swords of Chult, we have a new skirmish which goes by the tactical format instead of a free-for-all (note that Merchant Prince's Folly isn't the first tactical skirmish to grace Neverwinter due to Throne of the Dwarven Gods for Underdark). Therefore, to include a new dungeon or skirmish doesn't seem right to me. Ever since mod 6 (i.e. the most disastrous mod in Neverwinter's history and even more so than Icewind Dale and Storm King's Thunder+Sea of Moving Ice), new epic raids have been coming out on a slower basis. The most accurate gauge should be 1-2 new raids per campaign instead of a new raid per mod. However, it's also likely that we'll get to see a new epic trial since the Soulmonger looks like a shiny excuse to start one. Lest we forget, Storvald did that before and that's how we get both versions of Svardborg. Should a new epic trial pop up, either it's going to be a normal-master format or a single version format like Temple of Tiamat. Give me a choice and I'll choose the latter. Makes life easier for the devs and newer gamers.

Of course, there's also the matter of new boons. With a new campaign comes a new set of boons, right? Which now comes to my next point.

A new direction?

Omurice may well be an indication of Cryptic's shift from the tried and tested module planning since that day players were given the chance to impress those beautiful fey maidens of the Feywild by killing other fey. Starting from The Cloaked Ascendancy (which imo is the best mod so far since Underdark managed to defy critics and cynics alike), Cryptic has been going on a 2 mods per campaign strategy. This was most likely for the sake of giving the devs more time to assert quality control instead of letting people criticise them for not doing a decent job. And when I say quality control, I also include the review and adjustment of difficulty level as and when needed. In fact, the whole review-and-adjust decision was already implemented starting from mod 7 where an otherwise broken game started its rehab process.

For two campaigns, Cryptic has been adopting this approach. Come Feb and beyond, it may well become a future scenario where it's 3 mods per campaign instead of 2. What Cryptic is now doing is something it has never done before. And that is expanding a campaign into 3 mods. For the Tyranny of Dragons campaign, Cryptic first adopted the 2 mods strategy (although for some reason, this strategy was scrapped for Elemental Evil and Stronghold). For Tomb of Annihilation, it's now 2 mods plus one more.

If this is to be Cryptic's vision in a sustainable run, then I have to say it's a good move from a studio saddled with accusations of sub-standard quality control (although efforts to reverse the criticism is now going in full force). I'll give credit where it is due, Cryptic is really trying to rectify things since The Cloaked Ascendancy. The changes to the business model is now making much more sense than last time around where the bulk of real cash would most likely come from lockbox keys (a strategy which didn't sit well with the gamers due to the lottery nature of lockboxes). Expanding the campaign to 3 mods should give the devs more leeway to exercise and maintain quality control.

If indeed this is to be Cryptic's new direction, then chances are that the campaign boon system will follow the Rise of Tiamat and Sea of Moving Ice format where the only notable addition would be 2 more boon points reserved for the final boon. Given the fact that the mod 12 boon system was very well-done (at least more players now have a decent incentive to chuck 3 boon points into a single boon), I won't put it past Thomas "you now have to wait for Christmas to buy his BFF" Foss making the same decision. If so, then I believe the boon system change will be here to stay for the subsequent campaigns. Next stop, Waterdeep?

Why the latest Simril is the best one (that plus having too much respec tokens)

To be honest, I should have done this post like... maybe a week ago? This year's Simril would be remembered for the right reason (although the customary summer-winter lag had to be the worst I've ever endured so far). At the same time, I actually heard from an alliance mate that Thomas "you can actually get his BFF every Simril" Foss only stepped into the Neverwinter dev team after mod 6. Apparently, that guy/thing/whatever you get to see in your guild stronghold was deemed good enough to fix the insane mess otherwise known as mod 6. Seriously, Elemental Evil has to be the worst mod I've ever played. Not even Storm King's Thunder and Sea of Moving Ice came close.

Simril feedback

The latest edition of the Simril event might have given the next Summer Festival event something to think about. Then again, chances are that we may end up doing the same ol' ball kicking, farming tickets for that less than 1% chance of getting a legendary mount, and too many flower petals to be spent. The thing with the most recent Simril event was that it has to be the most fruitful one I've ever had. However, let me first get the negative out from the closet.

Firstly, the lag was quite an epic deal. And this is considering the fact Simril and Summer Festival are the two likeliest suspects. If the devs had never done the new queuing system, chances are that any double seals event would still be equally bad. If even the fishing contest can hit a major lag at least 5 out of 10 times, you know the server is being pushed towards its limit.

Secondly, the loot drop rng has been nerfed. I was lucky enough to get an unbounded Gondhammer, but that doesn't deny the fact that unbounded loot now has a lower tendency to drop especially the epic ones. Incidentally, bounded drops did have a higher probability of dropping. Even if it may only be a case of slightly higher chances.

And now comes to the best part. Namely, why this year's Simril is actuallu a better deal than the previous ones. There's only one reason, but that reason is good enough to override the flaws stated above. The event is basically another double refinement points event. In fact, it's even better than double refinement points event. Assuming you're doing a gifting party involving five members with ten gifts each, the lumens dropped can easily result in any epic artifact gear reaching legendary. In fact, this was how I managed to max out Arylos' Aboleth set. If there's anything the gamers would like to have, it'd be having enough refinement points. And trust me when I say the next Simril will be the same story all over again. That is provided the devs stick with their guns concerning the new refinement system. Come to think of it, how many of us were actually quite pessimistic to say the least when the new refinement system was being mooted? For me, I was actually in 50-50 land.

A/N: Ironically, it's very likely that the best part of the deal was the reason behind the negative aspects listed here. With all the lumens and refinement points dropping from the sky, the devs had to make sure it won't result in the worst server overload in Neverwinter's history.

New year=new class?

Was Cryptic trolling us with a cryptic tweet last time round? The folks in Neverwinter: Unblogged actually tossed up an interesting article here. Given that the community manager has yet to make some noise (last time I checked, it's Julia “nitocris83 did a crisis” Fredrickson), I'm pretty sure this was Cryptic trolling via Twitter. Something like this below, perhaps?

Apparently, however, GRRM did join the internet.

While it'd be good to see a new class, one of the greatest challenge in creating one lies in the gameplay balance. I don't know about the hunter ranger because I only started playing from mod 4, but scourge warlocks and oathbound paladins were known to be somewhat broken when they first came out. This is even more apparent for oathbound paladins where too many players were guilty of lagging the game via the infamous prism effect (something which would quite likely earn a riot act in any Tiamat raid). In fact, this is most likely the reason why the devs have yet to release a new class. Simply put, they don't want to waste too many resources trying to fix another oathbound paladin. Seriously, 35% jump in power upon triggering Divine Call? And to think people used to say hadouken and shoryuken are the cheapest moves one can ever afford.

So should we expect a new class coming anytime soon? The risk behind such a move lies in the possibility of a short-lived gimmick instead of something more sustainable in the longer run. Yes, using a wandering bard or a primal druid can be fun when it comes to messing around with the mechanics. The problem is, what can a new class afford in any five member raid? If it's heal-buff, you already got devoted clerics and temptation scourge warlocks. If it's a triple deal known as dps-buff-CC, you already got renegade control wizards and (quite possibly) combat hunter rangers. Pure dps? Well, we got plenty of them ranging from great weapon fighters to trickster rogues. The greatest challenge behind creating a new class is never about the mechanics. It is about ensuring the class being relevant on every level.

At the end of the day, I doubt a new class will be coming anytime soon. New race? Possible. New class? Not so possible. Unless the devs decide to do a 5 member raid format for normal dungeons with 7-15 members involved in any epic raids (apart from raiding that motherdragon temple due to 25 members involved instead of 25 members divided by 5).

But what if there's really a way?

The only way to make sense out of a potential new class would be playing around with the fundamentals. In any MMO (and RPGs as well for that matter, JRPG or no JRPG), the list of fundamental mechanics should look like this below:

Tanking

(Not as in what Johanna "the Duchess of Johannasburg" Konta will never do. At least I hope not)

Dps

(something like what you always do in your fave FPS)

Buffing

(Because everyone needs protein in addition to the carbo, no offence intended to PETA)

CC

(Hitting below the belt)

Healing

(Preventing people from dying)

AoE

(It's not about how far your ICBM can go, but rather the reach of impact)

Minions

(Cute yellow critters which I'd give to my future girlfriend... erm, I don't mean the babies)

Quite contrary to the somewhat popular misperception, being a specialist doesn't mean you're better than a generalist. Ranking ladders can be very misleading as in they do not give an accurate gauge on how good (or crappy for that matter) you are. In fact, I find the Stronghold events to be the most accurate barometer when it comes to character efficiency. While I've never taken part in Stronghold siege events (this was mainly due to personal experiences with people preventing me from enjoying PvP), the Marauders and Dragonflight events use only one ranking ladder. This ladder format does NOT judge the player on any given aspect. Rather, this ladder format judges the players on overall efficiency.

For example, the fact that you got the highest dps count doesn't mean a dime to the system. If the generalist is better than you, it means you can see easily from the table that you're not the better player.

Ofc this is not to say specialists don't have a place in any party. You still need such members in your party (most notably the tanks and dps). Rather, I'm just saying that generalists do have their advantage when it comes to vital support (albeit that depends on how good the build is).

To justify the existence of a new class means trying to play around with the seven fundamentals of MMO (I don't know if I've left any out, but you get the drift). Thankfully, not a lot of builds actually deal with more than two aspects. In fact, I think the most any generalist build can afford to do is three roles out of any of the mentioned seven.

Let's say for example the wandering bard needs to be relevant instead of redundant. Because Prince Andy likes bards, it means Prince Andy wants his bard to be dps based. Like a TR. Giving the WB the TR main-hand weapon with a lyre as off-hand implement should be a good start. In fact, the only other difference in the TR gear and WB gear should be giving the bard a cap instead of a mask (after all, not everybody can be Danilo Thann). The fundamentals should revolve around heal and dps with the CC and buffing being more prominent at higher levels.

Class mechanic? Bardsong. Auto-refill outside combat, but unable to refill during combat. The gauge should deplete much slower than, for example, a great weapon fighter's #UNSTOPPABRU!!!! or the TR stealth. Bardsong confers heal over time to allies within 15 feet radius.

As for paragon classes, it should be Voice of Thunder (direct damage and heal; triggering Bardsong results in party damage buff within 15 radius range) and Summer Rhymer (buff and heal; triggering Bardsong increases amount of HP healed from all sources including Bardsong).

Then you have the fact that WB should never be another TR. Three paragon trees available. One for CC-defensive buffing (Cunning), one for heal-offensive buffing (Exhort), the last one for dps-AoE heal (Valor). 

Then take another example in the form of a primal druid. Arguably the chosen one via democracy and popular votes, the primal druid should be given the hunter ranger's gear format with the weapons being that of the oathbound paladin format. The dps should work more like the OP rather than the HR style. Proficient in self-healing and self-defensive buffs, the PD is one that deals elemental damage from point A to point Z, hence making this a certified nuker. As a nuker, however, the PD should be no match for fury scourge warlocks and thaumaturge control wizards. The fundamentals should revolve around magic damage and all sorts of self-defensive arts.

The class mechanic should work like guardian fighters in terms of variation. Also known as Wildshaping, the PD can transform into either one of the three animal forms: Bear, Wolf, and Panther. When in wild shape form, the PD cannot use any of his/her at-will, encounter, and daily powers. However, class features still can be used. Any artifact weapon bonus affecting at-will powers instead increases damage dealt while in wild shape form.

In bear form (left click for attack; right click to increase damage dealt for 5 seconds), the PD takes less damage and deals more damage. In wolf form (left click for attack; right click to increase critical hit chance for 10 seconds), the PD has a higher attacking speed, critical hit chance, and deflection chance. In panther form (left click for attack; right click to execute a pounce attack that will knock down upon hit), the PD has the same combat properties as the wolf.

As for paragon classes, the choice should read like Guardian of the Living Gate (buff spec) and Keeper of the Hidden Flame (dps spec).

As for the paragon trees, they should read like Summon-buffing (Tamer), Melee-Wildshape (Rage), and CC-heal (Guardian).

Last part: Respec token spam

Hopefully, I can end this one soon. My dad is now switching on his fave streaming programme. He's definitely smart enough to use a tablet PC, but I'm not sure whether he's smart enough to know his own son's problem.

Now the most recent Simril has given me a licence to experiment in the same way the code 007 gave James Bond a licence to kill. By the time the event was over, I was left with... like maybe 4-5 respec tokens for Arylos. The reason why being that most of the respec tokens dropped were bind on pick up. As a result, I experimented with a pathfinder build. Just a few notes here.

1. Pathfinders are good for trappers and archers. Surprisingly good. All I need to say this was imagining how a pathfinder would play under either paragon tree. So yeah, I never used pathfinder on archery and trapper.

2. However, pathfinders do have a fast attacking game (apart from Ambush and Bear Trap). The single target firing rate is top notch since Hunter's Teamwork and Careful Attack are meant as CC-dps support. In other words, just spam Rapid Shot. You can easily empty your magazine in a matter of seconds and I mean it in a good way.

3. To use pathfinders properly, try to unlock Aspect of the Pack where your off-hand artifact weapon is concerned. The dumb thing about this paragon class is a lack of damage when it comes to the class features. The not-so-dumb thing would be having an easier time planning the dps aspect of your class features. I'm not kidding here. How difficult do you think it would be if you're a pathfinder archer? I just need to chuck in Aspect of the Pack and Aspect of the Falcon. Problem solved. Just make sure you got Stillness of the Forest feat at max rank.

4. Using a pathfinder means you'll need to focus more on the offensive where the gear is concerned. This is the direct opposite when it comes to using a stormwarden. Also, this part is referring to those crazy enough to choose the combat tree. Incidentally, I happened to be crazy enough to do just that.

5. You see that Pathfinder's Action tooltip? Yeah, just use it if you don't want to waste one encounter power slot on Marauder's Rush. Do take note, however, that this approach works better only if you have two direct damage encounters with low cooldown plus Plant Growth. Anything apart from that and... well, you get where this is going.

6. Despite messing around with this experimental build, Arylos actually got into the top 5 of every Marauders event. That's really guano loco if you're to ask me considering there were surely other alliance mates having a better AoE and dps game.

7. After some time in deliberation, I decided to switch back to the original Sanders. It's not that I hate using pathfinders. Geared and used properly, this paragon class can pack a real punch despite having only defensive or utility paragon class features. The catch with the whole deal lies in the need to unlearn every single thing I've learnt so far as a stormwarden HR. And that's NOT what I'm out to do as a gamer.

Closing note: Back to Zero

Yep, it's back to zero. Well, sorta. I just want to close this post with a reminder on how awesome Skirmisher's Gambit can be. If you're a stormwarden combat spec, you better get this feat maxed out. Dumbing down the critical chance may look... well, dumb. However, the fact that Clear the Ground is a burst attack means the crit chance penalty getting some semblance of mitigation. Assuming you're using CtG as your default at-will plus having a crit chance of 45% or so, SG can fetch you a handsome sum of damage. Quite contrary to whatever intuitive opinions from the gamers, vorpal isn't the only bet in exploiting a maxed out SG. With a 45% crit chance (or somewhere around that), lightning can be a very good option as well. The cooldown reduction is always a must for any combat HR due to the Blade Hurricane feat. Once you upgraded the lightning enchantment to pure, a 100% chance to chain proc thrice means a higher frequency to proc flurry. Coupled with CtG and setting this at-will as your off-hand artifact weapon power choice, you can be assured the fireworks involved may well be more spectacular than Guy Fawkes blowing up the whole of Westminster.

Note: Guy Fawkes blowing up the whole of Westminster should be seen as #fakenews fyi. Seriously, the Gunpowder Plot was actually declared an epic fail.