Orbs Vs. Leech

[greyskin]

I don't know if there have been any information about this, but i was wondering if Orbs are ment to take over the role leech played?

I am not all that keen on the orbs, they are a bit to arcade'ish for my taste. On the other hand i loved how leech functioned in both D1 and D2, so i would be sad to see that go.

Cheers

[SlechtWeerBeer]

Orbs slowly (<-- emphasis) regen Health. I doubt they'd take out leech for that.

[Omikron8]

look what happened to blademasters in hellgate london when flagship decided to not put life leech in the game

[stillman]

I think globes are meant to replace mass potions, but I could be wrong.

I agree that they look like they're from space shooter arcades. I'd like it if they resembled food or something. Something that doesn't hover and glow red.

[5zigen]

God I hope there's no leech.

[Omikron8]

if there's no leech then expect most people to roll ranged builds

melee classes are way more dependent on potions than ranged builds and no one likes mashing their potion key as much as their skills

[5zigen]

if there's no leech then expect most people to roll ranged builds

melee classes are way more dependent on potions than ranged builds and no one likes mashing their potion key as much as their skills

I would expect it to be more balanced.

Leech implies that ultimately the only way to kill a character is to have monsters that will 1hit kill them, which isn't good.

Additionally, with all of the barbarian attacks hitting multiple enemies, aoe leech seems like it would be a bit overpowering.

They have potions in the game also, if you didn't notice a minor health potion dropped in the demo video, between orbs and potions I think the melee characters should be fine.

[Nostavar]

Leech implies that ultimately the only way to kill a character is to have monsters that will 1hit kill them, which isn't good
Only if you assume that the only way leech can be implented is to make it heal you entirely each hit.






Which is a pretty ridiculous thing to think.

[konfeta]

Leech should be a castable buff and melee only. It shouldn't completely blot out other methods of healing, but it should be there to compensate for the fact that melee is always taking damage.

This way, you won't have godmode 100% of the time but won't be outclassed by those who typically take less damage in the first place.

[Grogtank]

Leech, either mana or health, was my favorite mechanic. I sure hope it's back in D3. It's a great feeling when your strafer or zealot became self sufficient, or your barb became an absolute beast to take down.

[stillman]

Some people worry about the lack of one million trillion potions to help them along.

I think I have a good solution: really good natural life regeneration for all classes. It's kind of like how all d2 chrs regenerate mana. Well just have them regenerate life too (without need for regen gear), only much faster. So the barb and other melee class could have the best life regen. The casters have considerably less. The battles can have so many enemies that if you're not careful, no matter how fast your regen is, they can whittle you down.

The 2 arguments that could spring from this is: the game will be too easy (if the regen is too fast), and the game will be too slow having to wait for life to fill up (if regen is too slow). Well, that's what balancing is for. They'd find the perfect regen rate to start with. Then, everyone can get items that stack up your regen.

As for "Why the hell would they regenerate without magical items?" the answer is simple: Tyreal blesses them all with passive regen magic at the begining, or the world itself is alive and wants the heros to succeed so the earth heals them slowly, blah blah blah, you get the idea.

[Telzen]

Do not want. Also people would complain if different classes had different regen rates.

[Funkopotamus]

I think people naturally heal too.

[Azymn]

From what they've said about pacing and health orbs, there are hints that ALL characters will have some sort of life leech by default as a game mechanic to keep the fighting going. They discussed how passive life regen didn't work out: characters would leave the fight to heal, and they don't want that. They want to reward kills with life/mana. I'd bet there's some sort of comparable mana recovery mechanism as well. Because as people have noted, if those health orbs don't drop and you're almost dead, that's another trip back to town. Out of the fight. Unless you can always leech.

They could put all sorts of governing rules on it: certain special attacks don't provide leech, capping the maximum % of life/sec you can leech back, you can only leech if you have less than half of your health, etc. It's too easy to assume that a principle carried over from D2 will behave like it did in D2, when it probably won't.

I wouldn't worry about the game being easier because of it, but it will play differently.

[5zigen]

I guess I should qualify my earlier statement that I hate leech.

I think it is fine if you have SKILLS that allow for life leech, active ones not passive.

I just oppose it as a mechanic of item mods, because it promotes the "spam 1 skill over and over" game mechanic that sucks.

[lumpor]

I think they should weaken leech, so you don't regen all your life in one hit. Just make it that tip of the scale to make melee classes able to handle themselves.

[Azymn]

I guess I should qualify my earlier statement that I hate leech.

I think it is fine if you have SKILLS that allow for life leech, active ones not passive.

I just oppose it as a mechanic of item mods, because it promotes the "spam 1 skill over and over" game mechanic that sucks.

Yeah. Maybe they set it up so weak, single target attacks leech and big damage, group/area attacks don't. Just something to keep you on your toes in a fight.

[5zigen]

Yeah. Maybe they set it up so weak, single target attacks leech and big damage, group/area attacks don't. Just something to keep you on your toes in a fight.

Cobra strike from the assassin is a good example of how to do leech right imo.

[DBaron]

look what happened to blademasters in hellgate london when flagship decided to not put life leech in the game

After playing the hellgate beta, I have become a firm believer in life leech.

[Nostavar]

Cobra strike from the assassin is a good example of how to do leech right imo.
I agree, although the numbers on that skill are very over the top.
I have no problem with only active leech. Any type of leech is fine with me. :)

[greyskin]

As I said before I really like the leech idea, and as Grogtank mentioned I found it awesome when you became self sustainable. However i can also agree that it could leed to som sort of immortality issues.

I think the idea with leech only being placed on skills/buffs might not be all bad.

Another solution might be to make leech insanly expensive item budget-vise, so that if you needed an item with leech you needed to get a pretty crappy item, just like in D1 where there was only one helm that could give you leech if you didn't wan't to use the weapon slot to get it. That really helped minimize the use of a possibly overpowered mecanic.

[Flux]

On the other hand i loved how leech functioned in both D1 and D2

I liked how leech functioned in D2, but really, does anyone not think it was overpowered? Leech was reasonable in D2C, but when we got into D2X and mudflation kicked in, it became silly. Leech on so many set/unique helms, body armor, jewelry, weapons, circlets, etc. Melee chars were either fighting leechable enemies, in which case they had 100% hps, or they were fighting non-leechable enemies, in which case they were potentially dead at any second.

It's funny that you mention leech in d1, since there it was kind of the other extreme. leech was available on weapons as a suffix, but since there were only magical items, no rares, if you wanted leech you were giving up other essential mods. The biggest trade off was of haste vs. of leech, since you couldn't get either on other items. (1 unique helm had life leech, but it was almost impossible to find in MP).

I don't think leech is a mod they should remove entirely, but as powerful as it is it shouldn't be so easy to load up on it.

[Omikron8]

if blizzard removes leech then they need to make some drastic fundamental changes in melee vs. ranged balance, we can't combine that change with D2's current state of NPCs taking all aggro and all monster enhancements being on the damage side (ie. those characters exposed to this the most melee suffer the most)

[Onehouse]

I expect tons of skills that increase the drop rate of healthglobes and also some skills who will drag healthglobes towards your character so you don't have to move towards it to pick it up. Maybe we will even see some moves that you can do where you charge up before the move and if any globes are in the vicinity they will join the charge up and make the skill way more powerful.