Epic Destinies

Epic Levels and Epic Destinies
With Menace of the Underdark, the game will be separated into "Heroic" levels (as now, up to level 20) and "Epic" levels, which will enocurge players to run epic content to earn XP to spend on these special enhancements.

Epic Destines are a major part of an advancement system that players can use for their level 20+ characters. They will be unlocked at level 20, but unlike regular "Heroic" advancement, you can progress your Epic Destinies indefinitely - even after you hit the new level cap of 25.

Notes:
 * Epic Destinies are included with the expansion, and will later be available for separate purchase in the DDO Store in Update 15 (planned for August 2012) for 995 Turbine Points.
 * Advancement on Epic Destinies will not begin until you gain access to the system, but your character can still advance until level 25 gaining Epic Level advancement benefits (feats, stats, etc.).

Epic Levels (21-25)
Epic levels and Epic Destinies are two different things. With Menace of the Underdark the game is making a clear distinction between Heroic and Epic levels. From Epic levels 21 to 25 there are no Heroic class levels or Enhancements; it's all focused on Epic levels and additional customization through swappable Epic Destinies.

Characters earn "Epic experience" from any experience gain, but Epic dungeons will usually give you more experience than Heroic dungeons. A character that reaches Heroic level 20 will automatically begin to accumulate Epic XP, progressing through Epic levels 21 through 25. XP required to level is identical for all characters, regardless of number of TR's.


 * Characters that are level 21 or higher may select Epic or Heroic feats as their level 21 and 24 feat selections.
 * Epic levels grant +1 to all skills each level for levels 21-25.
 * There's no spell point progress nor caster level progress, however some of the Destinies will have such benefits.

Power-leveling penalties while grouping may be changed in the future for level 20+, but currently XP penalties still apply during epic levels. For example: a level 24 questing with a level 20, and the level 20 receives an experience penalty.

Epic Destinies
Epic Destinies aren't like single classes; they're more like powerful extra roles. A character with 20 Druid Heroic levels can in fact pick the "Grandmaster of Flowers" to get a set of Monk-like abilities.

At level 20 you pick an Epic Destiny on the map UI. You can start in any Destiny in a sphere where you have a heroic class with at least six levels. The four spheres are as follows;
 * Arcane (Artificer, Bard, Sorcerer, Wizard) [on the bottom of the image]
 * Divine (Cleric, Favored Soul, Paladin) [on the left]
 * Martial (Fighter, Monk, Rogue) [on the top]
 * Primal (Barbarian, Druid, Ranger) [on the right]

The map UI shows how each Epic Destiny connects, and each Destiny also has five levels and its own tree. Epic Destiny levels are divided into ranks, for each rank you also gain one Epic Destiny point for that specific tree. After spending enough points you unlock the second tier, then eventually the third. This progression continues until you hit Epic Destiny level 5 and max it out.

Characters can gain access to multiple Epic Destinies. When you reach level 3 in an Epic Destiny, adjacent Destinies within the same sphere become available to the character. When you reach level 4 in certain "bridge" Epic Destinies, adjacent Destinies in other spheres become available.

Choosing a path through any given Epic Destiny tree is a big part of the player's decision making process. Reach "Magister" level 5 and you'll have 24 points to spend in every tier of the tree, however, those points won't get you all "Magister" abilities–-you'll have to pick and choose.

Your currently activated Epic Destiny always advances at the same rate as your character level. Epic Destinies have their own experience bar and level up independently from your actual Epic levels. The two bars will advance in parallel.

List of Epic Destinies
Ten Epic Destinies will be available in Menace of the Underdark, but more will be added over time.

Epic Moments
Each Epic Destiny has its own set of abilities and one big Epic Moment. Epic Moments only activate by clicking a button. Players have to "build up" to Epic Moments because they're extremely powerful.

The Epic Moment itself is an ability chosen from the Epic Destiny tree. Players must reach the tree's top tier before they pick up an Epic Moment.

Swapping Epic Destinies
Players are allowed to swap and level Epic Destinies independently of one another. Players can change an Epic Destiny by locating a Fatespinner in public areas. Doing so will suppress their currently active Destiny and switch to another that they have access to. Any advancement in their old Destiny is not lost, but they gain no benefits from their old Epic Destiny.

Epic Destiny points are permanently associated with the Epic Destiny used when earning them. So if you switch to another Epic Destiny, the game automatically shelves points and abilities earned for whatever other Epic Destiny you've chosen, but you can always switch back and retain all progress, across all Epic Destinies.

Twist of Fate
The basic rule regarding Epic Destiny abilities can be bent a little with Twists of Fate. Twists of Fate allow you to use an ability from a non-active tree. To unlock a Twist of Fate slot you must acquire "Fate points". A Fate point is rewarded whenever an Epic Destiny reaches level 3 (also the same level required to connect any one Epic Destiny to another adjacent one.) You'll have to spend your first-ever Fate point on unlocking a Twist of Fate, however, after earning two or three Fate points players get to choose between upgrading a Twist of Fate so you can use higher tier Epic Destiny abilities, or unlocking additional Twists of fate.

When a Twist of Fate slot is first unlocked, it cannot accommodate higher-tier abilities from an available Epic Destiny tree. Once a slot has been upgraded, however, it can hold abilities of a higher tier. Currently three Twists of Fate slots are planned to be available.

Twists of Fate can also be "reset".

Changes to existing Epic quests
In the live game today, 'Epic' refers to an extreme difficulty level - something beyond Elite. Once the MotU goes live, Epic will simply refer to content that is level 20 and up - and that it has a minimum level of 20. Quest timers for current epic quests will be changed also.

The existing quests that support Epic will be given difficulty choices. In fact, even existing epic content will now offer Casual, Normal, Hard & Elite, where the epic difficulty in the game today is somewhere between Hard and Elite.

True Reincarnation and Epic Destinies
If a character undergo a True Reincarnation and his Heroic level drops below 20, Epic advancement and all benefits related to it are suppressed. They also have to level from 20-25 again but save existing Epic Destiny progress. Also, some abilities will have level pre-reqs (meaning some abilities may not be usable until you hit level 21, 22, 23 etc).

Players will still be able to TR at level 20.

Introduction
Destinies are the main character development feature past level 20. Destinies are independent of the character level.

Destinies are organized in 4 different spheres: arcane, divine, martial and primal. The role of these spheres is discussed more below.

Here is a chart summarizing all spheres and destinies, and giving path between destinies:

Choosing a destiny
All level 20+ characters can pick a destiny. Destinies need to be purchased (all the current ones are included with the expansion)

The first time a character chooses a destiny, he can pick any destiny from the sphere matching his character class:


 * Artificers, Bards, Sorcerers and Wizards can pick any destiny from the arcane sphere (Magister, Draconic incarnation or Fatesinger)
 * Clerics, FvS and Paladins can pick any destiny from the divine sphere (Exalted angel or Undying sentinel)
 * Fighters, Rogues and Monks can pick any destiny from the martial sphere (Legendary dreadnought, Grandmaster of Flower or Shadowdancer)
 * Barbarians, Druids and Rangers can pick any destiny from the primal sphere (Fury of the wild or Shiradi champion)

This choice happens only once for a character. To change destiny afterward, you'll need to unlock other destinies (see later).

If you are multiclassed, you can pick a starting destiny in a sphere for which you have a character class of at least level 6. For example a Rog6/Wiz6/FvS8 could unlock any destiny from the arcane, divine or martial sphere.

Leveling a destiny
Destinies level up like the character level: you gain experience for completing quests and from adventure areas. Destinies are supposed to be faster to level up than epic level (currently on the beta it takes 40k xp to gain ranks for level 1 destiny ; and 100k xp to gain rank for a character level 20).

Each destiny has 5 levels. Each level is composed of 5 ranks (just like character level). At each rank, you gain 1 AP that you can spend on the destiny tree, up to a maximum of 24 AP.

Each tree contains enhancements costing from 1 or 2 AP. Just like heroic enhancements, some enhancements have only 1 rank ; some up to 5 ranks. Enhancements inside the tree are divided in tiers, each tier requires a total amount of AP spent into the tree, by increments of 4: Tier 1 requires 0AP spent, Tier 2 4AP, Tier 3 8AP... up until Tier 6 that require 20AP.

Additionally each tree have "autogrants": abilities that are granted for free when enough AP have been spent inside the tree. Autogrant unlocking matches the prerequisites of the tiers: each time you spend 4 AP, you gain a new autogrant (the last one, the capstone, is unlocked when you've spent 20AP). Additionally you gain a first autogrant as soon as you select the destiny: the first one unlocks with 0 points spent in the tree.

Some enhancements are said to require a minimum character level, but we don't have any further information on this. Some enhancements require a feat.

Unlocking destinies
As explained earlier, each character has a one time initial choice of destiny. After this choice, changing destiny requires you to unlock new destinies. Destinies all have a place on the destiny map. Each destiny has at least one adjacent destiny from the same sphere. Some destinies are also adjacent to a destiny in another sphere.

To unlock a destiny, you'll need to level up an adjacent destiny to a sufficient level. This "sufficient level" depends on if the adjacent destiny is in the same sphere or not:


 * Unlocking an adjacent destiny in the same sphere requires you to level your destiny up to level 3
 * Unlocking an adjacent destiny in another sphere requires you to level your destiny up to level 4

So for example if you are currently in the exalted angel tree and want to unlock Legendary Dreadnought you'll need:


 * To level up exalted angel to 3 to unlock Unyielding sentinel (they are in the same sphere)
 * To level up Unyielding sentinel to 4 to unlock Grandmaster of flowers (they are in different spheres)
 * To level up Grandmaster of flowers to 3 to unlock legendary dreadnought

Once a destiny is unlocked, you can switch destiny at the Fatespinner.

Destinies and reincarnation
Destinies progress is not affected by reincarnation (of any kind). That means if you are currently a FvS 25 with level 5 exalted angel, and you TR into a fighter, you'll still be a level 5 exalted angel. However you'll be locked out from using destiny abilities (active and passive) until you level back to 20.

You'll keep all you have acquired from destinies when you TR: destiny level, unlocked destinies, twist of fates.

This means if you TR and want to use a destiny that match your new class, you'll need to unlock this new destiny by moving through the map.

Twist of fates
Twists of fate are special slots that can be used to equip destiny enhancements from other trees than the currently active tree. For example if you are an Exalted angel, you could equip enhancement from fatesinger (or any other unlocked destiny) in the slots.

Each character can have up to 3 twist of fate slots. Characters start with zero slot and can unlock them (explained below). Each twist of fate slot also have a "level". This level indicates the maximum tier of destiny enhancement that can be placed in it. At slot level 1, you can only put tier 1 enhancement into the slot.

If the enhancement you put into a twist of fate has many level, the level of the enhancement will be the level when you equip it into the twist of fate. Therefore it is advised to always level up an enhancement to the maximum possible before puting it into a twist of fate slot. Note that enhancement level has nothing to do with tier ; and putting a tier 1 level 5 enhancement into a twist of fate doesn't require you to upgrade the slot.


 * Just unlocked: tier 1
 * Upgrade 1: tier 1 or 2
 * Upgrade 2: tier 1, 2 or 3
 * Upgrade 3: tier 1, 2, 3 or 4

Every time 3 destiny levels are gained, a new Fate point is acquired by the character. Destiny levels are counted globally for all destiny. This means level 1 in a destiny and level 5 in another is 6 levels, or 2 fate points. Fate points can be used to unlock or upgrade twist of fate slots. Here are the current known prices (subject to change)/


 * First Twist: 1 Fate Point
 * Upgrade 1: 2 Fate Points
 * Upgrade 2: 3 Fate Points
 * Upgrade 3: 4 Fate Points
 * Second Twist: 2 Fate Point
 * Upgrade 1: 3 Fate Points
 * Upgrade 2: 4 Fate Points
 * Upgrade 3: 5 Fate Points
 * Third Twist: 3 Fate Point
 * Upgrade 1: 4 Fate Points
 * Upgrade 2: 5 Fate Points
 * Upgrade 3: 6 Fate Points

There are currently 10 destinies, each one with 5 levels, therefore you can gain up to 16 fate points. With the current prices, unlocking and upgrading everything would cost 47 fate points. Therefore you have to make a choice: more slots, or higher level slots?

If you put an enhancement from your currently active destiny in a twist of fate it will have no effect.

Notes:
 * Twist of fates don't require prerequisites: you can put an enhancement with a prerequisite inside the slot without having the prerequisite.
 * If you put an enhancement boosting another enhancement (such as fey spring boosting healing spring) but not the "boosted" enhancement, it will have no effect.
 * You cannot put autogrants into twist of fate slot
 * You can easily swap twist of fates in any public area
 * There will be a way to reset spent Fate Points, so you can change how you've upgraded your Twists
 * Each twist you select can be picked from different destinies tree. So you could pick one from Legendary dreadnought, one from Fatesinger and one from magister.