Powerstacking and Overbuffing Power Continues to be a Problem With Devoted Clerics

The devs are hard at working at the moment to deliver the first set of class balance changes with Storm Kings Thunder. We are a little surprised that the Devoted Cleric is not included in the first round of changes as it’s one of the more broken classes in PVE. We already reported a funny interaction with Weapons of Light a few months ago. This is a more hilarious than harming bug because it could only be triggered by a group of more than ten Clerics. So it pretty much only affected full DC Tiamat runs.

Bonding Runestones

Three Cleric setup stomps CN
Three Cleric setup stomps CN

But there’s other stuff that’s breaking the game and can be very much utilized by normal sized groups of five. The main source of the problem is still the reciprocal buffing of Clerics and companions with Bonding Runestones. Some powers enhance companions, those buffs are multiplied by the Bonding percentage and thrown back to the Cleric. Imagine five DCs using Anointed Army, buffing and rebuffing their companions and themselves and we are talking about a severe issue. Some players claim they are able to get to power levels of three to six million depending on their gear.

Insignia Bonuses

This alone is a massive damage bonus to the cleric group and enables to run content faster than intended. The Owlbear companion is able to dish out incredible amounts of damage per proc and adding Insignia bonuses completely breaks the game, because some scale uncapped off Power.

[su_quote cite=”Artificer’s Persuasion” url=”https://two30.github.io/neverwinter-insignia/?0″]Whenever you use an Artifact power, your Recovery, Movement, Action Point Gain, and Stamina Gain are increased by 10% of your Power for 15 seconds.[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Shepherd’s Devotion” url=”https://two30.github.io/neverwinter-insignia/?0″]Whenever you use a Daily power, your teammates Defense, Deflection, and Movement are increased by 5% of your Power for 15 seconds.[/su_quote]

Artificer’s Persuasion is able to completely erase cooldowns from encounters and instantly refills Action Points. Shepherd’s Devotion brings players to the defense and deflect cap and lets them fly through the map in light-speed. And with that we mean you literally fly, because you are so fast. There could also be a possible loop between the new Assassin’s Covenant bonus and Shepherd’s Devotion, but this is untested and only a suspicion so far.

[su_quote cite=”Assassin’s Covenant” url=”https://two30.github.io/neverwinter-insignia/?0″]You lose 10% of your Defense, Deflection, and Life Steal, and gain the combination of lost stats as Power.[/su_quote]


Clerics stacking in Demo
Clerics stacking in Demo

This is as much a problem with Clerics as with the Bonding mechanic and it’s clear something has to change. DCs are able to get to hilarious power levels using Bonding companions, causing funny and severe consequences along their way. Module 10 seems to at least partially deal with the issue as weapons of Light is reportedly getting fixed. Players are currently examining the situation.

The devs however said there will be no more substantial balancing changes coming in the module as they want to monitor the current ones first. So the Devoted Cleric will probably retain its role as mandatory buffer in high-end groups.

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10 thoughts on “Powerstacking and Overbuffing Power Continues to be a Problem With Devoted Clerics

  • July 22, 2016 at 9:00 am
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    I have no idea why you think the owlbear pet is a problem in pve. The damage it allows a class to do is minuscule compared to a proper crit set up. Owlbear is an issue in pvp for sure but you don’t seem to talk about pvp at all here.

    Your issues with the insignia bonuses are also only issues that happen with a lot of clerics around, so tiamat and possibly edemo if people want to stack DCs for that. If you have the general 1-2 clerics per content you don’t see any of those issues.

    I am basically having an issue with your fearmongering over this. Power sharing is an issue but most of the game breaking things you are describing only happen if you take 5 DCs, and thus are intentionally doing it.

    In addition, I am pretty sure that AA only takes your base power into account when you share power, weapons of light is the biggest culprit. so 5 DCs spamming AA but not having WoL shouldn’t effect things too much beyond getting the group to about 170kish power, which is very strong, but not broken like you claim. If you have information to prove me wrong though I’d love to see it

    • July 22, 2016 at 10:18 am
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      Thanks for your reply!

      You are right this is a somewhat hypothetical issue as it can only effectively be exploited by full DC parties. Your term fearmongering however doesn’t meet the reality. Players are slowly adjusting and forming more and more parties with 3+ DCs as our images show.

      The Owlbear companion is a problem in such parties, where power levels can rise into 7-digit territory.

      This is a description of the current situation, the changes on preview are still being evaluated. Like we stated the WoL change might be enough to fix it.

  • July 23, 2016 at 11:52 am
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    Looks like someone didn’t do their due diligence when it comes to the changes. All DC power buffs, including Weapons of Light, have already been changed to only consider unbuffed base power on preview. This makes clear that devs have indeed seen the problem and are in the process of fixing it.

  • July 23, 2016 at 5:41 pm
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    Can’t Artificers Persuasion can only be activated by using a mount combat power? If that’s the case, Artificer’s Persuasion is usable only by those with a legendary mount. Given the relatively low percentage of players running around on legendary mounts, it seems an exaggeration to characterize Artificer’s Persuasion as a widespread problem. It is a nice mount insignia bonus to be sure, but in light of the extremely high AD cost of a legendary mount in this game, it bloody well should be. I’m not in favor of diluting the value of people’s investment.

    • July 24, 2016 at 1:46 pm
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      Artificiers Persuasion.. much like the name indicates is activated when using an artifact.

  • July 24, 2016 at 8:48 pm
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    Don’t forget the feat Battle Fervor feat, once your power skyrocketed.

  • July 25, 2016 at 3:03 pm
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    wow this might the single most uninformed theorycrafting post i ever saw about clerics. Power sharing is going to be nerfed for sure as it’s already been announced and present on preview servers. Clerics are one of the most broken class in the game with feats and powers not working as intended, being underpowered (hello crappy heroic feats),not proccing weapon enchantments etc etc… And on the subject of broken insignia bonuses, sheperd devotion on xbox at least really doesnt work properly and it’s not half the problem as all the other healing insignia bonuses that suffer no healing depression in pvp. Please consult with informed clerics before posting harmful posts about that class. Whats next? Post demanding a nerf to Legacy set bonuses?

    • July 25, 2016 at 8:51 pm
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      Thanks for your reply!

      Unfortunately most of the stuff you’re ranting about is not subject of the article, but I can assure you that we sufficiently test our claims. All numbers mentioned can currently be reproduced on the PC version of the game.

      You also seem to have missed that we mentioned the upcoming changes/nerfs in the last paragraph.

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