Design Notes
March 08, 2019
This weekend: Immortal DarkCaster Class
Dark Caster Class Skills Return with New Art!
It's Dage the Evil's birthday, and we're celebrating ALL MONTH LONG! Last week, we brought back all his birthday events and announced we were bringing back ALL the Dark Caster Class skills, tied to new art created by Dage just for this event. Log in now and head to /darkbirthday; find the Immortal Dark Caster Class with the buffed original Dark Caster class skills in his birthday shop OR the Dark Caster Collection chest.
If you bought the Immortal Dark Caster Class Note last week... congratulations! That has automatically changed into the Immortal Dark Caster Class.
This class uses the original Dark Caster class skills... but they got a wicked buff! You can see the original Class Skills writeup here, then read on for all the juicy buffs.
How to get it:
- Buy it from Dage's Dark Birthday Shop for 2,000 ACs
- Find it in the Dark Caster Collection Chest for 0 ACs
Original Class owners:
If you have the original Dark Caster Class, you will get the Immortal Dark Caster Class for FREE. You'll also get to keep the DC skills as they were first designed on your original class. (For those of you who want to keep it old-school.) Talk to Dage in the /darkbirthday map to complete his quest to claim your free class. We will also be adding the class's armor just for you!
(Immortal) Dark Caster Balance Changes
Because of how old the original Dark Caster Class was, it needed a LOT of work to make it competitive with more recently-released classes. After several level cap increases (and the new enhancements, higher crit, damage, and haste modifiers introduced since the DC's release), we found Dark Conversion was no longer necessary to sustain its mana regeneration.
BUT Because consistent healing was previously difficult to sustain, we changed the skill to Forbidden Rite, a slight heal on a low cooldown that also utilizes stacking auras (which keeps the fast-paced stacking feel).
We also:
- changed every aura on the class to increase its potency
- doubled the damage reduction on Shadow Grasp
- increased the maximum damage increase on Shadow Bolt to 40% at five stacks
With the addition of the 24% outgoing damage increase on Forbidden Rite and the haste boost on Legion Strike, the overall damage potential for Immortal Dark Caster is notably higher than original Dark Caster, although the individual skill damage has been slightly lowered.
With the consistent heal and damage reduction effects from Soul Crush, Soul Barrier, Legion Aegis, its survivability increased. With the outgoing damage increases from Soul Burn, Soul Conflate, and Legion Alacrity, its damage potential increased.
(Immortal) Dark Caster Change Breakdown
Auto attack
- Renamed to "Dark Pulse"
- Now deals damage based on Spell Power
- Now has a 20% stun chance
Soul Grasp
- Mana cost reduced to 15
- Base damage reduced
- Soul Crush target damage reduction increased to 10% per stack
- Soul Crush no longer replaces stacks of Soul Burn
Shadow Bolt
- Mana cost reduced to 15
- Base damage reduced
- Soul Burn target defense reduction increased to 8% per stack
- Soul Burn no longer replaces stacks of Soul Crush
Dark Conversion
- Renamed to Forbidden Rite
- Mana cost of 15 added
- Cooldown reduced to 8 seconds
- Now heals the user
- Dark Conversion effect replaced with Soul Conflate
- Soul Conflate increases outgoing damage by 6% and damage reduction by 5% for 15 seconds
- Dark Conversion stacks to 4
Legion Strike
- Base damage lowered
- 4 second stun removed
- Having 3 stacks of Soul Crush on the target will now apply Legion Alacrity to your character
- Legion Alacrity increases haste by 20% for 10 seconds
- Heal over Time removed
- Having any stacks of Soul Burn on the target will now apply Legion Aegis to your character
- Legion Aegis increases your damage reduction by 30% for 10 seconds
Passives
- Speed of Darkness: Haste increased to 15%
- Dark Pact: Damage increased to 15%
- Spirit Death: Now increases Dodge Chance by 15%
Other Changes
Evolved Dark Caster and Infinite Dark Caster had Smouldering added to second skill, which increases incoming damage for enemies for 6 seconds