There is usually a rune that makes it so that its the same skill just with a damage boost/cost reduction. So if you like how the skill functions, just use one of those runes. Obviously that won't always be a choice, but it will be a decent amount of the time.
Alongside recent changes about the Demon Hunter's Hatred regeneration and how damage is calculated across all classes, Bashiok recently responded to a question about the Monk's Mantras, specifically why they need to be refreshed instead of simply toggled.
In order to give players an incentive to refresh their Mantras (which, if you didn't know, currently function almost identically to Auras), there has been talk of implementing short term bonuses to Mantras when the player first activates them.
Official Blizzard Quote:
I thought one of us had already posted on this but I'm having trouble locating it... NO MATTER!
We're toying around with making mantras more of an active ability currently. Right now it's just a really short duration buff, which isn't very cool, as stated. What we think will be cool, is that when hitting the button to cast a mantra you get a super-mega buff (or effect) for a short time, and then the buff would lower to its normal levels after.
You can see that design currently on a couple skill descriptions on the site, they're just not reflected in-game.
Keep in mind it's still all of course in testing.
This gives mantras a more 'use oriented' flavor. So while it's a short duration that's OK because you want to hit the mantra button more than once every two minutes, it becomes an active skill. So far we think it's working pretty well.
What we don't want is to have long duration buffs or toggles, because then it may as well be a passive. We want our active skills to be active, and so hopefully this change achieves that.
As with the reworking of the Demon Hunter's Hatred regeneration, the Mantra changes are up on the Monk's official skill page, but the change has not been implemented in the current build of the beta. If they were implemented, the skill descriptions would be changed to match the current ones on the Diablo III site:
Mantra of Evasion - Recite a Mantra that grants you and all allies within 40 yards a 30% chance to dodge attacks. Lasts 120 seconds. Dodge chance is doubled in the first 3 seconds.
Mantra of Healing - Recite a Mantra that causes you and all allies within 40 yards to gain increased Life regeneration by 106.4 Life per second. Lasts 120 seconds. Life regeneration is doubled in the first 3 seconds.
Mantra of Conviction - Recite a Mantra that causes all enemies within 20 yards of you to take 20% additional damage. Lasts 120 seconds. Additional damage is doubled in the first 3 seconds.
Previously the sections about the first three seconds weren't included in the skill description, and the change to the other mantra, Mantra of Retribution, is currently unknown. Each skill currently has a cooldown of 30 seconds, so this change would most likely make it advantageous to simply use the Mantra every thirty seconds.
These changes have also raised questions about the Wizard's Armors and the Barbarian's Shouts. Although the Barbarian gains fury from some of his shouts, the Wizard currently gains no bonus from refreshing her armors, and it seems as though a similar incentive could be used for both classes. If that happens, and when the Mantra change is implemented, you can be sure we'll let you know.
So what do you think about the Monk's Mantras? Should they just be passive skills? Should you just toggle them on and off? Or do these changes provide enough of an incentive to refresh the Mantra every 30 seconds? Be sure to discuss your opinion in the topic below.
I'm sure it has nothing to do with SWTOR or consoles and everything to do with the fact that this is a Blizzard game and they are currently undergoing changes to the rune system and a beta that has revealed flaws in their skill swapping system. We always knew that the late 2011 window was based on an extremely smooth beta and if there were kinks in the beta the game would get pushed back. Based on the discussion about skill swapping and the fact that the unattuned rune system is in the process of being iterated upon and worked out, I don't see why any other explanation is necessary.
Well you did say you'd love it if Blizzard dropped it from their palette. I personally think the teal gives a very eerie and ghostly feel to the dungeon, and in order to fit in with the dungeon, Leoric has to have a similar color, and the color suits his ethereal theme.
@Diablo and Bashiok broke a period of silence to give us some useful and interesting information today.
In regards to skills, @Diablo had this to say in response to a question about the available number of active skills per character.
Official Blizzard Quote:
Diablo: @crafty_deluxe Wizard has the most with 25, the rest have either 21 or 22. Currently. Abilities will likely change before release.
Whether or not this will mean different skills, a different number of skills, or only different rune effects is unknown. Chances are that no skills will be removed, and seeing as this comment is in response to a question about the number of active skills, chances are that not all skills have been revealed or there are skills still in development. As soon as there is any elaboration on the subject we'll be sure to let you know.
Yesterday, when the class pages went up on the Diablo III official site, some people noticed that the Demon Hunter's page seemed to suggest that they were able to use guns. Although skills such as Evasive Fire's crimson rune effect mention the use of bullets, Bashiok cleared up the issue completely and let us know that guns will not appear in Diablo III.
Official Blizzard Quote:
Demon hunters are able to pepper the battlefield with scores of arrows and projectiles, or snipe distant enemies with a precision undreamt of by other heroes. Their arsenal includes longbows, guns, grenades, hand-thrown weapons, and even dual-wielded crossbows.
Today, Bashiok cleared up the confusion that resulted, breaking a stretch of silence from the blues other than replies to technical issues.
Official Blizzard Quote:
There are no guns in Diablo. Shame on anyone who wants otherwise! SHAME.
It's an error in the text, and will be corrected.
So fortunately for some (hopefully most) and unfortunately for others, the Diablo III team has reaffirmed its view that guns don't fit in Diablo. Are you disappointed or happy that whole scare is over? Let us know in the thread below.
Its how you described, but you only have 6 skills so they are only assigned to 1-4, although I think you could assign one to two different places if you wanted to use 5 for a skill instead of potions. IIRC you can bind your skills to whatever you like, so you could make it so that everything is bound to your mouse if you wanted.
Since the resource page went up on the official Diablo III site, there has been quite a bit of discussion about the Demon Hunter's Hatred and Discipline globe. Many people have criticized its colors as being too close to the red and blue of Life and Mana, while other people have come to its defense and noted that red and blue are simply easily distinguishable colors.
In a thread started by our own Sixen, Zarhym made a lengthy response describing the reasoning behind the color choices for Hatred and Discipline.
Official Blizzard Quote:
White and black, for example, would be bad. One purpose of the color scheme is to ensure it's very readable when your focus is on the game world and not the UI. Given the dark vibe of Sanctuary and the way the UI fits in with that feel, black simply wouldn't pop out at all. It'd be much more difficult to track your Hatred (which is the resource you'll be managing most frequently) peripherally when background colors are so frequently on the darker end of the color spectrum. Just the same, the suggestion of white for Discipline seems only to stand in contrast to black which, again, just wouldn't work.
Hatred was given a deep red color to give it plenty of distinction from barbarian Fury, plus red is just an angry color (refer to my avatar and personality). We also mixed in a bit of black with the red to further push Hatred toward the demon hunter's color kit.
Now, given that both resources are displayed in a single globe, it's really important to us that the colors effectively oppose one another. Unlike the color red thematically fitting Hatred, Discipline isn't a concept that has such a universal color representation. As such, the most important thing becomes readability. And the best way to make sure Discipline stands apart from Hatred is to make it color opposite, which is blue. White could have been used, but it would overpower the red-colored Hatred due its value strength (we want the values to be close together) and white doesn’t support the notion of these concepts being opposed to one another. And once again we mixed in some black with the blue to fit with the demon hunter color kit.
As Zarhym points out, its important to remember that you're only really going to be looking at this, or really any, resource globe with your peripheral vision. Otherwise you'll have to be constantly taking your eye off of the action occurring on screen. As a result, the colors have to be extremely distinguishable, which limits the choices more than one might think at first.
Zarhym's response also caused people to point out that red and green, not blue, are complimentary colors. Zarhym was quick to point out that there were other problems with using green.
Official Blizzard Quote:
It's not that we overlooked green, we just definitely didn't want to go with that. It's way too tied to poison in Diablo. It wouldn't feel right.
The same reasoning was also provided for why Blizzard didn't use a green 'voodoo' or 'mojo' resource for the Witch Doctor, which was a popular suggestion. Some mock-ups were even made in this forums thread, and although they look cool, it also looks very similar to your health globe when you are poisoned in Diablo II.
Not only would a green resource globe look a bit too close to a poisoned health globe, but red and blue are actually farther apart on the color spectrum than red and green. By pointing out a post on theSkaBoss, Zarhym pointed us all to a small lesson on the color spectrum, which actually matters more than placement on the color wheel when distinguishing colors.
Blue and red, however... step away from your color wheels and look at a map of the spectrum. You seeing what I'm seeing? The thing about blue and red is that as far as the visible spectrum goes, they sit on opposite edges of the map. (Don't talk to me about violet, violet doesn't get to participate in this conversation.) Blue and red take on a lot of roles as opposites when you start talking to astronomers, astrophysicists, and all those smart people. The simplest example: redshift and blueshift. Basically, if something producing light is moving away from you, it looks more red, and if something producing light is moving toward you, it looks more blue. This happens because of the wavelength of the light emitted is "shortened" or "lengthened" (not really, but that's what it looks like from your frame of reference,) by the object moving toward or away from you, respectively.
Look, the point is that the colors fit together in that ONE orb for the same reason that the colors fit together in two different orbs in the last two games. The colors are just good design opposites.
Many games (including the previous Diablo games) use red and blue as opposites, because what matters most is how far apart they are on the color spectrum, not whether or not they sit across from each other on the color wheel. As a result, if you want to make them as distinguishable as possible, blue and red is really the only choice. For the same reason that they didn't go for a 'yin-yang' design as suggested by some members, red and blue allow you to get a good idea of how much of each resource you have while still keeping your attention on the action.
So, after those lengthy and sometimes sarcastic explanations, what do you think about the Demon Hunter's resource globe? Has your opinion changed or does it remain the same? Feel free to discuss your views in the topic below.
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In order to give players an incentive to refresh their Mantras (which, if you didn't know, currently function almost identically to Auras), there has been talk of implementing short term bonuses to Mantras when the player first activates them.
I thought one of us had already posted on this but I'm having trouble locating it... NO MATTER!
We're toying around with making mantras more of an active ability currently. Right now it's just a really short duration buff, which isn't very cool, as stated. What we think will be cool, is that when hitting the button to cast a mantra you get a super-mega buff (or effect) for a short time, and then the buff would lower to its normal levels after.
You can see that design currently on a couple skill descriptions on the site, they're just not reflected in-game.
Keep in mind it's still all of course in testing.
This gives mantras a more 'use oriented' flavor. So while it's a short duration that's OK because you want to hit the mantra button more than once every two minutes, it becomes an active skill. So far we think it's working pretty well.
What we don't want is to have long duration buffs or toggles, because then it may as well be a passive. We want our active skills to be active, and so hopefully this change achieves that.
Mantra of Evasion - Recite a Mantra that grants you and all allies within 40 yards a 30% chance to dodge attacks. Lasts 120 seconds. Dodge chance is doubled in the first 3 seconds.
Mantra of Healing - Recite a Mantra that causes you and all allies within 40 yards to gain increased Life regeneration by 106.4 Life per second. Lasts 120 seconds. Life regeneration is doubled in the first 3 seconds.
Mantra of Conviction - Recite a Mantra that causes all enemies within 20 yards of you to take 20% additional damage. Lasts 120 seconds. Additional damage is doubled in the first 3 seconds.
Previously the sections about the first three seconds weren't included in the skill description, and the change to the other mantra, Mantra of Retribution, is currently unknown. Each skill currently has a cooldown of 30 seconds, so this change would most likely make it advantageous to simply use the Mantra every thirty seconds.
These changes have also raised questions about the
So what do you think about the Monk's Mantras? Should they just be passive skills? Should you just toggle them on and off? Or do these changes provide enough of an incentive to refresh the Mantra every 30 seconds? Be sure to discuss your opinion in the topic below.
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In regards to skills, @Diablo had this to say in response to a question about the available number of active skills per character.
Diablo: @crafty_deluxe Wizard has the most with 25, the rest have either 21 or 22. Currently. Abilities will likely change before release.
Demon hunters are able to pepper the battlefield with scores of arrows and projectiles, or snipe distant enemies with a precision undreamt of by other heroes. Their arsenal includes longbows, guns, grenades, hand-thrown weapons, and even dual-wielded crossbows.
There are no guns in Diablo. Shame on anyone who wants otherwise! SHAME.
It's an error in the text, and will be corrected.
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In a thread started by our own Sixen, Zarhym made a lengthy response describing the reasoning behind the color choices for Hatred and Discipline.
White and black, for example, would be bad. One purpose of the color scheme is to ensure it's very readable when your focus is on the game world and not the UI. Given the dark vibe of Sanctuary and the way the UI fits in with that feel, black simply wouldn't pop out at all. It'd be much more difficult to track your Hatred (which is the resource you'll be managing most frequently) peripherally when background colors are so frequently on the darker end of the color spectrum. Just the same, the suggestion of white for Discipline seems only to stand in contrast to black which, again, just wouldn't work.
Hatred was given a deep red color to give it plenty of distinction from barbarian Fury, plus red is just an angry color (refer to my avatar and personality). We also mixed in a bit of black with the red to further push Hatred toward the demon hunter's color kit.
Now, given that both resources are displayed in a single globe, it's really important to us that the colors effectively oppose one another. Unlike the color red thematically fitting Hatred, Discipline isn't a concept that has such a universal color representation. As such, the most important thing becomes readability. And the best way to make sure Discipline stands apart from Hatred is to make it color opposite, which is blue. White could have been used, but it would overpower the red-colored Hatred due its value strength (we want the values to be close together) and white doesn’t support the notion of these concepts being opposed to one another. And once again we mixed in some black with the blue to fit with the demon hunter color kit.
Zarhym's response also caused people to point out that red and green, not blue, are complimentary colors. Zarhym was quick to point out that there were other problems with using green.
It's not that we overlooked green, we just definitely didn't want to go with that. It's way too tied to poison in Diablo. It wouldn't feel right.
Not only would a green resource globe look a bit too close to a poisoned health globe, but red and blue are actually farther apart on the color spectrum than red and green. By pointing out a post on theSkaBoss, Zarhym pointed us all to a small lesson on the color spectrum, which actually matters more than placement on the color wheel when distinguishing colors.
So, after those lengthy and sometimes sarcastic explanations, what do you think about the Demon Hunter's resource globe? Has your opinion changed or does it remain the same? Feel free to discuss your views in the topic below.