I know the Wizard already uses Arcane power, but last time I checked Blizz said they were not quite happy with it. Give her Mana and change the Doc instead. I thought Mana was much too 'clean' for the Witch Doctor anyway.
My idea was that the WD would use his hit points as his resource, but not as permanent damage. The way this would work is: his energy globe would be able to hold some percent of his maximum hit points (like 10-25% or so) and whenever he cast a spell, his life would drain by the cost and the energy globe would fill with it. once full, you couldn't cast further (he is only able to use some of his max life force, and can't kill himself.) His life would slowly fill back up from this pool as it drains to allow him to cast again. This would not result in healing or permanent damage though.
An example: so Doc 'Holiday' has 50 HP max and summons a zombie dog. Doing so costs 5 HP which transfers into his energy globe. over the next 10 seconds his energy globe drains that 5 HP and Holiday restores the 5 HP. Then he gets into combat. Holiday has a player who is not very observant and gets hit by a skeletal Archer for 8 dmg. As a response he summons another dog. His Current HP is 37 and his energy globe has 5 HP in it. He gets hit for another 8 dmg from the Archer and Sacrifices one of his dogs which costs 6 hp, killing the Archer. His energy globe had drained 1 HP in this time so his current health is 24 (50 -(8+8) -(5+6-1)) and his energy globe has 10 HP. His energy globe is full, so when he tries to summon another dog, Holiday yells at him "What??? You want to kill me!" He waits 20 seconds for his energy globe to empty leaving 0 HP in his energy globe and leaving him with 34 HP. Good thing too as if he hadn't waited the siege beast would have dealt 25 damage when he had 10 HP in his energy globe and bitten his head off.
This does have the problem that you can't cast when you are at really low health but I was thinking 3 things:
1: when you're that low you should be running!
2: Escape spells like Spirit Walk could let you cast it when it would kill you, because you cant take damage and are a ****ing Spirit. Also, your HP would recoup from the casting during its duration
3: It really fits his flavor (See the wiki entries for his traits things like "The spirits take their toll. Best to be ready to pay." and "My blood knows where it must be. I tell it, it goes")
I know it's kinda late for this sort of topic, but I felt it needed to be shared and I didn't see anything like it when I did a search. Tell me what you think!
Edit to clean language
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If that made sense to you, Bravo! I think I even confused myself...
I would definitely like to see the WD use something other than mana although I am not sure what.I am not to keen on the "life tap" mechanic though. It would be real hard to balance.
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So, I definitely agree that Mana is not the proper delivery for the Witch Doctors resource pool, however I don't think that your proposed method of Leaching life to sustain your casting abilities works either. The method that you describe limits the caster within what spells he or she uses at the cost of HP. This would have a negative impact on soloing especially because each attack would have to be weighed as weather or not it was worth the loss of your HP at one time. If anything I would think that some form of energy would be utilized, where that energy comes from, I don't know. I think I ll leave that one to the game designers.
Well they did say they were playing around with the idea of the Wizard having Mana. It was when they were talking about how they weren't liking Arcane Power too much. Like Scyber said I don't like the WD's resource being tied to HP though. Especially since getting HP back will probably end up being considerably harder, or at least you won't be able to do it on command, with Health Globes. Not to mention you'd get incredibly screwed whenever you were low on HP and resource.
It would make him tough to play and balance I agree there But I think there are a few things going for him too. Such as Being a caster with meat shields, Having skills to avoid damage/recoup energy, and have traits that synergize really well with it (like death pact). Also, Remember that it is not permanent damage it would slowly regenerate the cost of a casting.
It's not perfect, and I think there ought to be some kind of buffer, but I haven't thought of what it might be or how it would work. Yet.
I dunno. I thought of this and Was like: That's it that's what the Doc's missing! people on the street stared at me like I was a maniac.
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If that made sense to you, Bravo! I think I even confused myself...
It would make him tough to play and balance I agree there But I think there are a few things going for him too. Such as Being a caster with meat shields, Having skills to avoid damage/recoup energy, and have traits that synergize really well with it (like death pact). Also, Remember that it is not permanent damage it would slowly regenerate the cost of a casting.
It's not perfect, and I think there ought to be some kind of buffer, but I haven't thought of what it might be or how it would work. Yet.
I dunno. I thought of this and Was like: That's it that's what the Doc's missing! people on the street stared at me like I was a maniac.
Its definitely a well thought through idea, i just don't like the idea of relying on a system that sacrifices HP for casting ability.
I like the idea. Maybe there could be a spell that automatically transforms your resource back into hp (a bit less hp than it would've given had you waited) to be used on emergencies. Or a "drain" spell which steals life from an enemy (or resource, with a rune).
It fits him much better than mana, that's for sure.
Agreed...Why in the world wouldn't the Wizard use mana in the first place? Very odd decision Blizz.
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Let the wizard use mana; call it voodoo on the witch doctor, color it black, and call it a night.
Exactly. Why reinvent the wheel? You can call it mana, spiritual essence, voodoo or whatever. Either way its going to work by X spell costing X resource. Why does it have to get complicated?
I don't see how you can argue with each class getting their own resource system. Even if each one is reminiscent of other resource system, it clearly makes it so each class plays even more differently from each other, and each resource seems to complement the character's playstyle IMO. Even with the Wizard keeping AP and the WD keeping Mana.
I know the Wizard already uses Arcane power, but last time I checked Blizz said they were not quite happy with it. Give her Mana and change the Doc instead. I thought Mana was much too 'clean' for the Witch Doctor anyway.
My idea was that the WD would use his hit points as his resource, but not as permanent damage. The way this would work is: his energy globe would be able to hold some percent of his maximum hit points (like 10-25% or so) and whenever he cast a spell, his life would drain by the cost and the energy globe would fill with it. once full, you couldn't cast further (he is only able to use some of his max life force, and can't kill himself.) His life would slowly fill back up from this pool as it drains to allow him to cast again. This would not result in healing or permanent damage though.
An example: so Doc 'Holiday' has 50 HP max and summons a zombie dog. Doing so costs 5 HP which transfers into his energy globe. over the next 10 seconds his energy globe drains that 5 HP and Holiday restores the 5 HP. Then he gets into combat. Holiday has a player who is not very observant and gets hit by a skeletal Archer for 8 dmg. As a response he summons another dog. His Current HP is 37 and his energy globe has 5 HP in it. He gets hit for another 8 dmg from the Archer and Sacrifices one of his dogs which costs 6 hp, killing the Archer. His energy globe had drained 1 HP in this time so his current health is 24 (50 -(8+8) -(5+6-1)) and his energy globe has 10 HP. His energy globe is full, so when he tries to summon another dog, Holiday yells at him "What??? You want to kill me!" He waits 20 seconds for his energy globe to empty leaving 0 HP in his energy globe and leaving him with 34 HP. Good thing too as if he hadn't waited the siege beast would have dealt 25 damage when he had 10 HP in his energy globe and bitten his head off.
This does have the problem that you can't cast when you are at really low health but I was thinking 3 things:
1: when you're that low you should be running!
2: Escape spells like Spirit Walk could let you cast it when it would kill you, because you cant take damage and are a ****ing Spirit. Also, your HP would recoup from the casting during its duration
3: It really fits his flavor (See the wiki entries for his traits things like "The spirits take their toll. Best to be ready to pay." and "My blood knows where it must be. I tell it, it goes")
I know it's kinda late for this sort of topic, but I felt it needed to be shared and I didn't see anything like it when I did a search. Tell me what you think!
Edit to clean language
Only problem is that yes he would die a lot quicker. Thus don't use him in pvp arenas lol
I don't know, I think mana sounds just fine for the Witch Doctor. Mana means more than "magic" it's more like the "Spiritual Essence" that Daemaro posted. Mana is more like a ritual power.
You guys are forgetting that the concept of a mana bar that drains per magic attack is a DnD concept but if you look at so many other 'magic users' or wizards in other media or entertainment, most just use reagents (another form of magical 'energy' that is used or if looking at Harry Potter, an almost unlimited source (as far as we know) yet obviously this won't work for balance issues. Eragon also has an interesting energy source as whatever can be done with magic takes up the energy of what it cost to literally and physically do it, in a sense using his own life energy. Thought there are additionally many, many more different types as well.
As you can see each character are all wizards or spellcasters yet have their own way of casting.
Especially in regards to Blizzard stating that they want the wizard to be more 'blasty' and have less downtime (which most classes in other games, say WoW, would have an enormous downtime to regen mana). I am looking forward to seeing how they implement it. We want breakthroughs but you can't achieve that until we actually break through. Worse comes to worse they'll just revert back to mana next game
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I agree with feminism. I don't think that it's right that for every dollar a man makes, a women gets 70 cents. Why do I only get 30 cents and some chick gets the rest?
I, Like Jackzor, also don't see how people just assume all resource is the same. And this is especially the case with this health as resource system compared to mana. As for the Doc dying a lot faster, here was where I think the buffer would help, Like a percentage of healing you do while waiting for your casting to wear off would go be like temporary HP which would be lost upon casting and also might drain away Slowly. Additionally he would only die a lot quicker if he had cast a significant amount when he got hit and the life had not returned yet. There is also a possibility that some spells might heal him for a percentage of there damage or cost or something, like Soul Harvest. Still thinking on this though, to make it less 'casting=death' and more 'yea that's actually cool'.
Edit: Oh, and by the way, they already have a bit of this. Look at trait "Ritual of Blood" which pays 50% of a spells cost with HP, and that is actually damage that does not come back as my system would allow.
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If that made sense to you, Bravo! I think I even confused myself...
I could see a little bit of a regenerating/mitigating tank idea (as opposed to the high life/armor of a barb)on Doc with this -depending on how Willpower affected the character- but, I think that doesn't eliminate the glass cannon build either. Although, Leeodin, your post did bring to mind what exactly willpower will do for the Doc. It could reduce the cost of his spells, increase the health return rate, or increase healing effects on him. I still also think that a buffer when healing and having not fully regenerating after casting could build as temporary buffer, or 'spell pool' that would drain away.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
If that made sense to you, Bravo! I think I even confused myself...
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My idea was that the WD would use his hit points as his resource, but not as permanent damage. The way this would work is: his energy globe would be able to hold some percent of his maximum hit points (like 10-25% or so) and whenever he cast a spell, his life would drain by the cost and the energy globe would fill with it. once full, you couldn't cast further (he is only able to use some of his max life force, and can't kill himself.) His life would slowly fill back up from this pool as it drains to allow him to cast again. This would not result in healing or permanent damage though.
An example: so Doc 'Holiday' has 50 HP max and summons a zombie dog. Doing so costs 5 HP which transfers into his energy globe. over the next 10 seconds his energy globe drains that 5 HP and Holiday restores the 5 HP. Then he gets into combat. Holiday has a player who is not very observant and gets hit by a skeletal Archer for 8 dmg. As a response he summons another dog. His Current HP is 37 and his energy globe has 5 HP in it. He gets hit for another 8 dmg from the Archer and Sacrifices one of his dogs which costs 6 hp, killing the Archer. His energy globe had drained 1 HP in this time so his current health is 24 (50 -(8+8) -(5+6-1)) and his energy globe has 10 HP. His energy globe is full, so when he tries to summon another dog, Holiday yells at him "What??? You want to kill me!" He waits 20 seconds for his energy globe to empty leaving 0 HP in his energy globe and leaving him with 34 HP. Good thing too as if he hadn't waited the siege beast would have dealt 25 damage when he had 10 HP in his energy globe and bitten his head off.
This does have the problem that you can't cast when you are at really low health but I was thinking 3 things:
1: when you're that low you should be running!
2: Escape spells like Spirit Walk could let you cast it when it would kill you, because you cant take damage and are a ****ing Spirit. Also, your HP would recoup from the casting during its duration
3: It really fits his flavor (See the wiki entries for his traits things like "The spirits take their toll. Best to be ready to pay." and "My blood knows where it must be. I tell it, it goes")
I know it's kinda late for this sort of topic, but I felt it needed to be shared and I didn't see anything like it when I did a search. Tell me what you think!
Edit to clean language
Find any Diablo news? Contact me or anyone else on the News team
dunno how it'd work but sounds cool. :tongue:
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It's not perfect, and I think there ought to be some kind of buffer, but I haven't thought of what it might be or how it would work. Yet.
I dunno. I thought of this and Was like: That's it that's what the Doc's missing! people on the street stared at me like I was a maniac.
Its definitely a well thought through idea, i just don't like the idea of relying on a system that sacrifices HP for casting ability.
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It fits him much better than mana, that's for sure.
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Exactly. Why reinvent the wheel? You can call it mana, spiritual essence, voodoo or whatever. Either way its going to work by X spell costing X resource. Why does it have to get complicated?
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Only problem is that yes he would die a lot quicker. Thus don't use him in pvp arenas lol
As you can see each character are all wizards or spellcasters yet have their own way of casting.
Especially in regards to Blizzard stating that they want the wizard to be more 'blasty' and have less downtime (which most classes in other games, say WoW, would have an enormous downtime to regen mana). I am looking forward to seeing how they implement it. We want breakthroughs but you can't achieve that until we actually break through. Worse comes to worse they'll just revert back to mana next game
Edit: Oh, and by the way, they already have a bit of this. Look at trait "Ritual of Blood" which pays 50% of a spells cost with HP, and that is actually damage that does not come back as my system would allow.