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Bluu -> RE: =DF= Saturday, June 14th Design Notes: The Bicentennial DragonLord Tournament of Glory! (6/21/2025 7:54:28)
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Fantastic update. I was really hyped to see all the changes that were made over the course of this relatively short release, but it certainly did a bang-up job.
Wrath and Bulwark Dragonlord finally having a trinket skill is great. The functionality of replenishing the spirit bar is very useful. I do not play Wrath in the inn (I just never got around to it) but I really enjoy Bulwark's playstyle and think it's very cool and creative for a defensive class. This trinket skill allows you to gain two skill empowerments for free after the first turn in battle, which is very welcome as it means you no longer have to drop two spirit skills to empower Darkness (I'll refer to the Dragon Spirit skills by Element) and may also do this on the second turn of battle (granted, the +END boost scales with Bulwark stacks, but it lasts for a base 10 turns with a cooldown of 8), which in tandem with Earth and Claw leads to an easier time in stacking the Bulwark passive. This also means that you can immediately press for damage with eFire into eWings (boost to passive) or eHeart (frontloaded damage) as needed. These changes should make the class more smooth and enjoyable to play. I would like to point out that the +10 Bonus is a little silly - it's evidently supposed to be a small passive boost but I think it would be more relevant if it instead inflicted +10 Health on the enemy, which would slightly offset enemy healing and alleviate the relatively low damage output.
That being said, I would like to point out that an issue with Wrath (according to my friends who play it) is that the +Bonus buff from Light Dragon Spirit lasts too few turns to make proper use of during your burst rotation, as you need to spend an additional turn gaining a Spirit to empower Water. Due to this, it's only active on the turn you use Darkness and it doesn't boost the skills you actually need to hit, greatly increasing your reliance on pet Dragon when enemy shields are a concern. The other burst classes don't have this weakness (in fact, a lot of them have very good Bonus), and also tend to have better defenses, so throwing this class a bone wouldn't be the worst idea. eWind, for similar reasons, is functionally useless, but I'm not too sure how you would fix this as a HoT empowerment would be arguably anti-synergistic with the class. Perhaps an effect shield akin to Shadowslayer E's Moonlit Barrier would be interesting? Rampage also feels a little underwhelming for what it was supposed to be.
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DoomKnight's Corrupted Malefic Grasp has been changed. Instead of a chance to stun each turn for 5 turns, it will now automatically stun for 1 turn. Also, in addition to inflicting -55 Bonus, it now inflicts -55 Avd/Def/Crit. Basic Malefic Binding is unchanged. This is a good change. Malefic Grasp has been silly for way too long and this is a step in the right direction.
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Ninja's Catalytic Flow now always gives you a Ninja Ambush, instead of only with 3 Venoms.
Ninja's Scorpion Venom effect reduced to -50 Crit, down from -100. The Catalytic change is good on a fundamental level. It may only matter for Patroclus and Khasaanda, but it does follow logic. Scorpion Venom has warranted a nerf for a very long time and I'm glad to see it happen. You now have a reason to use Cysero's Hammer with Ninja if consistency is a concern, and it fits in pretty well given the class' long recovery phase.
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Paladin's Radiance Defenses reduced to 30/45/60 from 40/60/80.
All of Paladin's -Crit debuffs have been reduced to -25 from -50 (including self-inflicted)
Paladin's Inner Light maximum has been reduced to 10, from 20. I disagree with the changes to Radiance and Inner Light. Paladin's fundamental issue was the unbalanced healing potential of the class for sure, but I never saw Radiance after the first nerf as particularly overbearing, especially since you had to equip BPD+Allres gear (which comes with high +Health) to use it reliably or semi-reliably as a shield. However, I think that nerfing the maximum stacks of Inner Light was the wrong way to approach the healing problem of the class, as in addition to healing, Inner Light could be consumed to press for damage with Smites, which added a layer of depth and resource management that made the class feel less braindead. You could consume all of your Inner Light during your burst and gain +500% total base damage (you gain 5 more Inner Light by using 4 skills if one of them is locked to Light) to burst down your target but then have your healing essentially eliminated for the next few turns. However, this change makes it so that you only gain +200% damage at maximum Inner Light so you are rewarded much less for making the same risky play. I think that the change should be reverted, and the Healing and -Health from Inner Light should be halved. This would not only make it tricky to build up, but create a very interesting risk/reward dynamic that would make the class a lot more fun to play. I will say, though, that this change did make Seal of Salvation have an even bigger drawback, which is very welcome - I would be completely fine with having Salvation's drawback be changed to -20 Inner Light if this change were to be rolled back, as I do think that Salvation should have a risk/reward system rather than be a get-out-of-jail-free card. As for the -Crit changes, I'm glad about the change - the -Crit from Courage and Celerity does not matter in practice anyway, and you intend to loop Prismatic Strike so you nevertheless maintain a passive -Crit on your enemy, which is heightened when you use Dawn's Light to blind them. There is still the option of using Cysero's Hammer to eek out some extra -Crit if it is necessary.
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Pirate's Target Pracice reduced to -100 Avd/Def down from -150 Avd/Def This change is one that I am wholeheartedly against. You normally never need -150 Avd/Def and it actually backfires on your face if you use it to try to hit bosses like Pandora EX (Inversion) or Creatioux Ancient (Reconstruction), but it is still a very nice tool to have on a class without innate +Bonus against fights like Tomix, Crane Master, or The Clashening. Its high value is offset by the fact that the skill itself neither has innate Bonus nor automatically inflicts the effect, meaning that you actually have to hit it to avail of it. Furthermore, it's a little odd that this was changed when Bulwark Dragonlord is able to inflict -180 Avd/Def automatically using eEnergy, and this class was buffed to have more Bonus today (I know I said it was irrelevant, I just brought it up for dramatic effect). Pirate's fundamental issue as a class is just how casually it cakewalks most fights in the game, especially after the advent of higher gear BPD. It pains me to say this because I really enjoy the class, but it may be necessary to kick Backstab and/or Summon Crackers down a notch. Backstab is comparatively fine as it already has a lower value than most shields, but Summon Crackers is pretty degenerate in that you can hit up to -100 Bonus with Resounding Cannonade for 3 turns, which essentially makes you immortal. I want to take a second to point out that Pirate has a great purge, regular potion generation, a solid MPM shield, so it has a good footing as a class - what a Backstab and/or Summon Crackers nerf would aim to accomplish is to be able to use these skills to gamble for Openings and gain more damage (Openings are a lot more relevant than Plunder stacks) without necessarily guaranteeing avoidance unless those skills were specifically used when the enemy(s) have lower Bonus, used together, or auxillary skills like Destiny Blaster were used - all of which encourages a lot more skill expression whilst maintaining the general power level of the class. This would also throw a bone to To The Plank! and Dirty Trick, which would have much more of a use case now. Although I would like to point out that the low innate -Crit is a bit of a flaw of the class, maybe Fire the Broadsides! could be given -20 Crit alongside Bonus/Boost?
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EnTropy's Blood Womb increased to 120 Avd, up from 70. I'm very on-the-fence about this. While I agree with TFS that it was a long-awaited change, it's still also true that Blood Womb's shield has an uptime of 2/4. This just removes the gambling requirement that kind of balanced it out because it would deter you from using Womb as a shield when it wasn't 100% necessary. I cannot speak for how good or bad this is without using it, but I would tread cautiously. Still, I do love this class and I am glad that it got thrown another bone after the mana fixes, and this change does make the strategies for hard fights like Star Defenders and Chaos Slayers, which it has already cleared, much less frustrating. You do still have to consider that you can only contend with so much boss Bonus after all - you're not getting this 2/4 shield privilege against Suki, Achilles, or Jaania EX. I think it's in an interesting position thanks to the change, but I'll hold off on any comments on how strong or weak it actually is until I've actually played it.
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Ancient Exosuit's Shield Emitter now also increases Dodge Defense. Thank you. Genuinely. I would love to play this class now.
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Necromancer's Inspire Terror is now guaranteed to always work. Another change that I think is good. While I am against autostuns, all Necromancer strategies relied on gambling on Inspire Terror as it was a fundamental feature of the class - this just makes it significantly less frustrating to play a class that is so outdated compared to its peers.
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Cooldowns have been adjusted for a number of trinkets Good change - not sure how relevant, but good nonetheless.
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Resistances have been added to the following trinkets Also a good change! Not much to say here, I'm glad these trinkets have some relevance now.
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Finally, an Arachnalchemy update!
-Stat boosting augments increased from 3X to 4X (Max increased to 32 from 24)
-The damage from Arachnalchemy's DoT augment has been halved. Another good change. The DoT was easily the best Archnalchemy effect and I do think that the mainstat effects are the ones you should want to go for when pressing for damage. I do think the Bonus one could be buffed, though.
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