Moment of Glory

[corwyn77]

Level 1 cleric power from DP, provides DR 5 to entire power (if used the way it's usually used, since it does no damage)

How has this not been nerfed yet?

MoG got used a few weeks ago (level 2 encounters session) and the encounter was painfully dull for me. Just an dice-rolling exercise. By focusing all my attacks on two characters (not defenders), I managed to bloody them with no healing.

Compare this to Nimbus of Holy Shielding (party gains +2 to all defenses for encounter) or Shield of the Gods (ONE character gets +3 to AC/ref).

Heck, I'd take it over most level 5 powers or even many level 9! If it did normalish damage it seems like a fine level 9 power.

Am I missing something. Even with the new damage formula, DR 5 seems like a pretty awesome return for giving up one attack and a continual minor action. There aren't to many Dazing attacks in Heroic, and no? stunning (hyperbole, I know - I'm sure there are some, but very few).

 

[Pentius]

I remember playing with a cleric who had that power. It made for a really fun combat once a day, when the DM worked with it. By your post, I'm assuming you're the DM. As for how it hasn't gotten errata, I don't know. Maybe WotC figures they've given Clerics enough tinkering lately. But here's how I suggest working with it. Put in some encounters, one per extended rest or so, where there's one big bad and a lot of minions and/or lesser attackers. If the Cleric realizes this is the time to use MoG, then he will, and the minions will bounce off the PCs, making them feel awesome, while the big bad will still be strong enough to punch through the DR5, even being scary while doing so, and thus he'll still be a point of interest.

 

[the Jester]

It looks fine to me- yes, it makes the party pretty tough while it lasts, but consider that it uses up the cleric's minor action to sustain it. In a mobile battle, this means that the cleric isn't using healing word.

Try this tactic sometime: Highly mobile (flying?) enemies; they attack, cleric casts moment of glory, and the bad guys start more-or-less bouncing off the good guys.

So they fall back.

Either the pcs rush after them, possibly into a trap, or they proceed cautiously and the moment of glory passes before the monsters re-engage.

I wouldn't use this all the time, but if they were fighting, say, harpies or gargoyles or something like that, it seems quite appropriate.

 

[marelion]

I`m currently playing a cleric in 4E and I can tell you that Moment of Glory is a neat little trick but it is horrible to sustain. Our DM throws a lot of monsters at us that have daze- or stune-riders on their powers, so it is a tough job keeping the party alive by keeping the shield up.. Since I`m a battle cleric this is slowly getting frustrating as for about half the battle my turn goes: "I`m sustaining."

It is daily power though, that is why I would advise you not to counter it with all mneans possible. It is quite frustrating to get a daily power cancelled by retreating monsters and the like, if that happens too often.

After all, you`re essientially giving up a third of your turn, by spending your minor actions on the MoG. That is a pretty steep decrease in combat efficiency if you`re denying yourself one of your three actions per turn.

But feel free to give your cleric a hard time staying alive, if your monsters should ever realize who this shield is coming from. Let the defenders show up with some tricks to keep their buddy alive. Emphasize the idea of teamplay and let them develop a tactic to deal with the actions-per-turn issue that shows up when sustainable powers are involved.

Just one thing I wanted to point out to you regarding the power level of MoG.

 

[Neverfate]

The power is unbalanced to a degree. In a straight up slog, which happens in 4E a lot due to the delve style adventures, it is unbalanced. If you can keep the combats fluid and dynamic enough you can really lessen the effect of this power.

With a delve style it's really not as feasible and I've seen this power trivialize encounters in LFR, but that's because players often know when to use it because of that format and because most combats play out like an arena match (good guys start here, bad guy across from them, run at each other, slog).

Keeping the players on their toes with traps, chipping away at them with smaller encounters or psychologically testing when and where to use that power (false solo, large battlefields, actively keeping the party separated) can go a long may to mitigate or balance the power.

 

[S'mon]

It's ridiculously overpowered IMO, and soured me on allowing unrestricted sources in 4e.

Edit: So it probably cost WoTC a fair bit of money!

 

[corwyn77]

It looks fine to me- yes, it makes the party pretty tough while it lasts, but consider that it uses up the cleric's minor action to sustain it. In a mobile battle, this means that the cleric isn't using healing word.

I don't find this particularly relevant most of the time. Most starting characters have a surge value of 5 to 8. For his minor action, the cleric is basically getting half a healing word per character hit, typically 10 - 15 hp healed per round. It might mean that he misses an attack one round (a pretty small cost for the obscene amount of healing he's getting besides Word), but more likely he doesn't move one round.

 

[corwyn77]

Sorry, double post

 

[corwyn77]

I`m currently playing a cleric in 4E and I can tell you that Moment of Glory is a neat little trick but it is horrible to sustain. Our DM throws a lot of monsters at us that have daze- or stune-riders on their powers, so it is a tough job keeping the party alive by keeping the shield up.. Since I`m a battle cleric this is slowly getting frustrating as for about half the battle my turn goes: "I`m sustaining."

It is daily power though, that is why I would advise you not to counter it with all mneans possible. It is quite frustrating to get a daily power cancelled by retreating monsters and the like, if that happens too often.

Sorry, I'm not buying it. Do you know of a lot of low Heroic monsters that Daze, Stun, Dominate, or knock unconscious? Because that's about all that will stop it, and afaik, the list is quite short. And yes, it's a Daily, but quite a bit more powerful than most, if not all, level 1 Dailies. If it lasts just two rounds, it has been more than worth it for the 20 to 40 damage it has prevented.

After all, you`re essentially giving up a third of your turn, by spending your minor actions on the MoG. That is a pretty steep decrease in combat efficiency if you`re denying yourself one of your three actions per turn.

I would suggest that's a bit of hyperbole. It may be literally one third of your available actions in that round, but it's an action that most characters use half the time at most, even if powers a key class feature (quarry, curse, Word). And, as I said, it almost definitely grants more benefit over the combat than both of your Healing Words.

 

[S'mon]

If you look at Heroic Tier magic items that grant DR 5, they give 1 PC 1 round of DR 5 as a Daily power. Giving the whole party DR 5 for 5 minutes at Level 1 is just completely ridiculous. It would still be overpowered as a 5th level Daily. Horrible spell.