Booming blade now limited to once per turn (Patch 8 stress test)

[Angel]

were you excited to (ab)use this? well they changed it a bit from the initial stress test implementation

now you can only use it once per turn rather than on every attack

[FunkyMonkey]

Publicado originalmente por Chaosolous:

WHAT!?

Alright yeah. That's fair.

The cool thing is that according to some of the game play I've seen, EKs can attack 3 times as soon as they get War magic. Booming blade triggers both normal extra attack and War magic bonus action attack. That is cool.

[Raz]

Publicado originalmente por FunkyMonkey:

Publicado originalmente por Chaosolous:

WHAT!?

Alright yeah. That's fair.

The cool thing is that according to some of the game play I've seen, EKs can attack 3 times as soon as they get War magic. Booming blade triggers both normal extra attack and War magic bonus action attack. That is cool.

Then an Eldritch Knight should have four attacks at Lv11. Neat.

[Angel]

Publicado originalmente por Brids17:

Publicado originalmente por Mike Garrison:

Um, and how exactly do you do that?

I guess you could multiclass with fighter to get action surge, and get hasted, and that's still only three actions. You would need three more actions to "fire eldritch blast 18 times".

You get the first one, so 3 shots, bloodlust elixir gives you 2. so 6, action surge gives you another, so 9, quickened spell from sorcerer gives you another, so 12, Terazul gives you another, so 15, helmet of grit gives you another bonus action, or you can go thief, for another quickened spell, for 18.

I didn't know this, thanks for the info

[Mike Garrison]

Publicado originalmente por Brids17:

Publicado originalmente por Mike Garrison:

Um, and how exactly do you do that?

I guess you could multiclass with fighter to get action surge, and get hasted, and that's still only three actions. You would need three more actions to "fire eldritch blast 18 times".

You get the first one, so 3 shots, bloodlust elixir gives you 2. so 6, action surge gives you another, so 9, quickened spell from sorcerer gives you another, so 12, Terazul gives you another, so 15, helmet of grit gives you another bonus action, or you can go thief, for another quickened spell, for 18.

OK, thanks. That's interesting.

So you have to multi-class into several classes, and have certain items, and use a bunch of consumable items and resources, all for a one-turn gimmick.

Or, just take one cantrip that you can use for free on every single attack without doing any of that other stuff.

The one is an exotic one-turn gimmick build. The other is a single cantrip that doubles or triples your damage output infinitely and at no real cost.

[Thomas D.]

What Cantrip shall be able to double, triple the damage output of Eldritch Blast? Eldritch Blast is basically the one Cantrip that does it already! And even gets stronger if you can cast it up to 6x...

Also it's not just a single turn, some of the stuff lasts longer than a turn (like that elixir that is until long rest or haste that lasts several turns), so you still can fire about 9 Eldritch Blast rays on turn 2.

Plus when you dish out 18 buffed Rays there might not be much left for the second turn if anything...

Further you might be able to trigger several Fear Procs for some CC on top of that.

And even if you would be able to cast a single Cantrip after round 1, Eldritch Blast would be the best choice...

So no clue what you are talking about...

[Raz]

Publicado originalmente por Mike Garrison:

Publicado originalmente por Brids17:

You get the first one, so 3 shots, bloodlust elixir gives you 2. so 6, action surge gives you another, so 9, quickened spell from sorcerer gives you another, so 12, Terazul gives you another, so 15, helmet of grit gives you another bonus action, or you can go thief, for another quickened spell, for 18.

OK, thanks. That's interesting.

So you have to multi-class into several classes, and have certain items, and use a bunch of consumable items and resources, all for a one-turn gimmick.

Or, just take one cantrip that you can use for free on every single attack without doing any of that other stuff.

The one is an exotic one-turn gimmick build. The other is a single cantrip that doubles or triples your damage output infinitely and at no real cost.

The only part of that is a "one turn gimmick" is Action Surge. All subsequent turns you can still do 15 attacks so long as you meet the condition for Bloodlust. Spamming Quickened Spell isn't an issue when you can generate infinite Sorcery Points, which anyone doing this dumb build tends to do. Terazul merchant shop reset, buy more. And I just realized the person forgot to throw Haste/Potion of Speed in the mix for more shots as that stacks with Terazul.

[Thomas D.]

How to generate infinite sorcery points?

[Balekai]

Honestly because I'm lazy I found Eldritch Blast + Reverberation Gear + Cantrip Gear + some Radiant gear was enough to decimate enemies even as a full Warlock, and without using potions/haste. Mostly because I used Darkness/Devils Sight combo and made most of my melee characters multi class warlocks so they could fight in Darkness as well.

I was definitely planning on exploiting the same gear with Booming Blade cantrip spam since of course, Booming Blade adds yet another instance of Reverberation triggering damage (thunder). I'm still likely to do that with my planned Durge Hexblade party copying my Goolock playthrough, but with Hexblades. :p

As a side note, the gear and setup also worked well with a Half-Drow, EB/Sorrow Glaive using blaster, Archfey Warlock/Sorc/Bard skill/utility monkey Tav I played around with.

Anyways, I dug up an old post of mine on the mechanics and gear of it all here (long and very TLDR):

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1086940/discussions/0/4289188948009501945/?ctp=3#c6361972497307811130

Here's the quote of the post in question from the above link, highly edited from the original for grammar, typo fixes and further clarification. As much as I can waking up about 5-10 minutes ago lol:

I just stumbled upon this topic so i'm a bit late to the party. I want to mention that in addition to a lot of stuff said here, I wanted to further highlight the update to Devil's Sight making it a Homebrew, see through Magical Darkness buff. This is a big deal and build changer. Not to mention the nerf/fix to certain multi classing extra attack stacking.

It has made taking more than 3-5 levels in Warlock and going full Warlock a lot more appealing. Very hard to resist the safety of Devil's Sight + Darkness combo as mentioned a few pages back. Your Warlock(s) (and your Imp if you have it, which also has Devil's Sight), can essentially use Darkness as a much better Sanctuary spell that you can attack from, with most enemies unable to actually find/hit your party. It's a turkey shoot and total cheese even against hard bosses. Very good for Pact of the Blade Warlocks too with Polearm Master, as enemies run into the Darkness to find you and get hit with a free opportunity attack with a glaive or something. :P

Another thing: Eldritch Blast if built correctly, can be a damage, crowd and debuff beast with gear itemization around Reverberation not far into mid/late Chapter 1 and early Chapter 2. This was not possible a few months ago because Reverberation was bugged and didn't work. Now you can combine some OP Reverberation stacks with multiple hit EB and even with Radiating Orb condition. Here's some info and number crunching I did for myself a few months ago when planning my character. I might as well copy and paste it here basically with some (a lot of) edits lol (WARNING very long easily TLDR. Skip to the end for the end EB result for my build if that's the case).

First the wiki links for the effects of Reverberation and Radiating Orb respectfully:

- https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Reverberation_(Condition) -1 to Str, Dex and Con saving throws per remaining turn. Stacks 5 times. On 5th stack enemy takes 1-4 Thunder damage and must pass DC 10 Con saving throw (which has been debuffed by -5 by this point) or fall Prone. Removes all stacks afterwards starting again.

- https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Radiating_Orb_(Condition) -1 to attack rolls per turn remaining of debuff. Multiple applications extend duration. Attacks from the enemy will reduce the duration by 1.

*Links above also have links to items that give you access to these conditions etc., but I will post them here too for reference below for non link following people* :p :P



Important items:


1. Boots of Stormy Clamour
Arcane Echomalefaction: When the wearer inflicts a condition upon a hostile creature, they also inflict 2 turns of Reverberation. (Sold by Omeluum in the Ebonlake Grotto Chapter 1).

These boots are what allow us to get many stacks of Reverb (and thus extra thunder damage) constantly, triggering Reverb on even the Prone effect from reverberation itself to continue reverb loops.

2. Gloves of Belligerent Skies
Thunderous Conversion: When the wearer deals thunder damage, lightning damage, or Radiant damage, inflict 2 turns of reverberation upon the target(s). (Act One: Inside an elegant chest in the Inquisitor's Chamber of Crèche Y'llek).

These in addition to Clamour Boots, allow even more reverberation stacks by just adding tons of sources of the above damage types making the damage loop faster.

3. Spineshudder Amulet
When the wearer deals damage with a ranged Spell Attack, inflict 2 turns of Reverberation on the target(s). (Looted from the Mimic X: -171 Y: -195 in the bedroom on the upper floor of Moonrise Towers).

4. Ring of Spiteful Thunder (I don't use this)*
When the wearer deals Thunder damage to a Reverberation Reverberating creature, it becomes Dazed unless it succeeds a Constitution Saving Throw. (Act Two: Sold by Roah Moonglow in Moonrise Towers.)

You can use this to add possible Daze to your conditions and deny Dex to AC etc. *I use Callous Glow ring instead to exploit the Radiant Orb condition with Coruscation Ring for a lot more damage and Reverberation triggers.*

5. Coruscation Ring
When the wearer deals spell damage while illuminated by a light source, they also inflict Radiating Orb upon the target for 2 turns. (Act Two: Found in a trapped Heavy Chest in the cellar X: 47 Y: -738 of Last Light Inn).

Note: Any illumination will do. Moonlight Glaive (Toggles on/off mor eon that below). The Light spell (unwieldy because after casting on weapon, you have to cast light on something else to get rid of it). Produce Flame Cantrip (better for this ring than Light Spell due to easier toggling on and off + extra fire utility. My Githyanki Blade Pact full Goolock took Magic Initiate: Druid for Produce Flame in addition to Guidance and Animal Friendship. Then used Sorrow Glaive instead of Moonlight Glaive for the bonus action ranged spell attack cantrip).

6. Callous Glow Ring:
The wearer deals an additional 2 points of Radiant damage against creatures that are illuminated. (Act Two: Contained inside an Opulent Chest in the vault room near Balthazar, inside the Gauntlet of Shar, X: -821 Y: -752).

Note: Radiant Orb condition illuminate targets.

8. Moonlight Glaive:
As mentioned, a rare +2 Glaive that deals additional melee Radiant damage (which will provoke reverb gloves/boots etc.), has a permanent Light effect, and grants its wielder the Moonlight Butterflies weapon action. (Rewarded for freeing the Nightsong from the Shadowfell during the Find the Nightsong quest).



So if you look at Reverberation combined with Eldritch Blast naturally upgrading to at least 3 attacks per turn without other gimmicks, you can see the revolving door of 5 stack reverberations triggering for extra thunder damage per turn, the more conditions you apply to a target with EB. That's in addition to consistent enemy debuffing of -2 to -6 attack rolls on targets and -2 to Str, Con, Dex saving throws.

Here's a list of most/all my reverberation instances, on a non-optimal RP Githyanki, full Goolock EB + Blade Pact build with the above gear:

1. Goolock AoE Fear on Crit from level 1 trait. In addition to small AoE lockdown via Fear, this will also provoke Reverberation since fear is a condition condition as well.

2. Agonizing Blast + Potent Robe from tiefling reward from Afira = x2 CHA Modifier added to Blast.

3. Repelling Blast + Displace Illithid Power for a non-check, automatic knockback on hit. Displace will debuff enemies with "Displace" condition for extra Psychic Fall damage when enemy takes a fall. Displace when triggered is also a condition for more reverberation stacks. Major cheese: Displace always applies miss or not. So it's a very good dependable source of reverberation. You can miss with every attack and get 1 stack of reverb per miss from it.

4. Ability Drain once per turn of course from illithid power. So an extra 2 stacks of reverb on first hit per turn.

5. Possibly Prones targets via Reverberation nearly every turn.

6A. Possible Dazing of targets with Spiteful Ring (Daze causes enemies to have disadvantage vs. Wisdom saving throws. Prevents reactions. They lose Dex bonus to AC too which makes many enemies easier to hit). Though again I don't use this ring later on unless I want the debuffs.

OR

6B. I use Callous Ting instead as mentioned, which does +2 divine damage on illuminated targets except the first hit vs. a target in unlit places. Thanks to Coruscation Ring and Radiant Orb this is not an issue really after the first hit in said light conditions.

7. Debuff benanza -2 to -6ish plus penalty to enemy attack rolls (Radiation Orb). -2 STR, DEX, CON saving throws (Reverberation).

8. Extra thunder damage from rolling 5 stacks of Reverberation. Hard for me to calculate so I will just go by roughly the amount of reverb stacks I get per attack out of 3 hits per turn, hitting with all of them.


Minimum Reverb Stacks hitting with 3 EB hits in a row (Edit: I tested at the time of the original post, but that was a long time ago now lol):


- Reverberation on First EB hit: Start with 0 stacks (of course), then +2 (reverberation stack from Amulet, then boots triggering for another stack. *Not sure if I messed this up somehow since I think it should be +4 with Amulet + Boots, but I will keep it unchanged or possibly low balled. Could have been a typo including the boots here or test just came up with 2 stacks*) +1 (Illithid Power Ability Drain condition) +1 (Coruscation Ring's Radiant Orb condition) +1 (Illithid Displace which again, always applies hit or miss). 5 Stacks reached causing 1d4 Thunder damage, leading to 0 stacks again then + 2 (Gloves then Boots triggering on thunder damage) so 2 stacks built up again before next hit.

- Second hit: 2 stacks +2 (Amulet) +2 (Callous Glow Ring dealing +2 divine damage to illuminated, triggering gloves then triggering boots for two stacks of reverb). Another 5 Stacks reached 1d4 Thunder triggered again leading to 1 stack remaining + 2 (Gloves) +1 (Displace) with 4 stacks remaining for next hit.

-Third hit: 4 stacks +2 (Amulet). Another 5 Stacks reached 1d4 Thunder triggered again leading to 1 stack remaining +2 (Gloves) +1 (Callous Glow Ring) +1 Displace. Another 5 Stacks reached 1d4 Thunder triggered again leading to 0 remaining + 2 (Gloves) for a total of 2 Reverb stacks remaining for next turn.


So on 3 hits 4d4 extra Thunder damage per EB use from Reverberation triggers, not counting triggers from Frightened or Prone conditions.

Also 4-6 Radiant Damage (depending on illumination).

Enemy is debuffed -2 to STR, DEX, CON Saves and negative to enemy attack rolls at turn end.

That seems like a lot of work for a topic post, but I did most of it a long time ago so no problem lol.

Anyways regardless of anyone reading the quote lol, It would have been fun (actually insane) to have all that gear working together on tons of Booming Blade attacks, minus the Spineshudder Amulet that only works with ranged spell attacks. Plus any multi classing and buff cheese. :D

[IdealPoint]

I think the point people are trying to make is that just because there is something even more broken doesn't mean booming blade needs to be imbalanced. As it is now, it is already going to make people do a warlock dip or start as high elf for martial weapon users who don't get the cantrip by default. Free easy to use unlimited bonus damage is very tantalizing.

The game is already rarely difficult, even on honor mode, if you are just making use of consumables and playing the classes normally. If you do barrelmancy or eldritch blast cannon or abusing infinite sorcery point stuff then that difficulty disappears. But that stuff feels gamey, and can require a bunch of set up that you wouldn't do as a player if you were playing organically. Booming blade is simple to get and use, and was resulting in a giant power spike. Hopefully it is more reasonable for the investment to get it now.

[FunkyMonkey]

Publicado originalmente por Raz:

Publicado originalmente por FunkyMonkey:

The cool thing is that according to some of the game play I've seen, EKs can attack 3 times as soon as they get War magic. Booming blade triggers both normal extra attack and War magic bonus action attack. That is cool.

Then an Eldritch Knight should have four attacks at Lv11. Neat.

That's how I understand it, yeah. Finally my favorite EK is getting some love :)

[Thomas D.]

Publicado originalmente por IdealPoint:

abusing infinite sorcery point stuff

How?

[pirate135246]

we still need str elixer, and dmg rider item nerf options in custom at the very least.

[Mike Garrison]

Publicado originalmente por pirate135246:

we still need str elixer, and dmg rider item nerf options in custom at the very least.

Damage rider problem is already taken care of. Select honor rules in custom mode.

As for strength elixir ... well, if you don't like it, don't drink it. I pretty much never drink it, myself.