How will spellcasters get along w/o MP?

[visom]

Since that mana globes are in the game and potions are less bountiful, how will spell casters manage at higher levels?

-Will spells not use that much MP?
-Will mana globes spawn enough for generous use of MP?
-Will MP potions still be bountiful?
-Will you always be low on MP, but have a spell that takes little to no MP to use?
-Will you have to go melee when you're out of MP?

[Sass]

So far, the wizard will use alot of magic, but has the skill for globes anyway, so it may or may not be an issue. Also, possible regen and the like will probably be around for them.

[konfeta]

Outside equipment/mana regaining skills, I think we will see the end of machinegunning Blizzards/Orbs/Meteors/etc to kill 1 monster and instead get more intelligent play from casters.

Though we will probably end up with powerful enough equip to not worry about mana pots.

[phool]

Requirement of energy management skills/energy conserving play is pure win for making play more tactical, differentiating between good and bad players, and perhaps allowing for more individuality in skill allocation ratios in 'optimum' builds. I'm hoping we'll see more active energy management than at present.

[satheron]

One of the less obvious reasons why stats are going to be automatically allocated.

Yes unlimited potions are gone, but across the board you can expect to see zero pure vit builds, and tons more points going into whatever stat would power mana.

Plus if gear is going to be heavy with stats that will help as well.

Also this allows blizzard to create skills that would deal with this kind of problem to help the player generate mana in a pitch.


So my answer would be to use one of the class specific abilities to regen mana for the wizard!

[Doctrinaire]

Unless there are abilities that utilize a deep mana pool (charged spells, for example), the Energy stat will probably influence energy regeneration as much if not more than energy capacity.

This is one area Diablo III needs to nail, in my opinion. There has never really been an action RPG to demand effective management of mana/energy. That's a whole dimension of gameplay lost.

[Akse]

Since that mana globes are in the game and potions are less bountiful, how will spell casters manage at higher levels?

-Will spells not use that much MP?
-Will mana globes spawn enough for generous use of MP?
-Will MP potions still be bountiful?
-Will you always be low on MP, but have a spell that takes little to no MP to use?
-Will you have to go melee when you're out of MP?

Well I think the system will be better than in D2 and when in D2 I don't need mana potions why would we need ones in D3?

Probably they will put more focus on the amount of mana and the regeneration rate. The attributes might get affected by skills (wisdom gives more regen, intellect gives more mana). Items might give you more regen and ofc mana/int. The ideal situation would be that if you invest points to mana and regen you really wouldn't need to drink much mana at all, maybe in long fights and tough situations where you have to spam a lot of spells you would need a potion and seek some globes.

Todays Diablo2 sucks, people don't care to put energy, they trust on mana potions that can be bought from vendor and drop by loads from monsters. I remember back in before 1.10 it was better to have enough mana so that you wouldn't have to go find some potions from monsters or wait long time to regen. I'm different from the mainstream, I always try to get at least 1000 mana to make playing confortable. I would hate to be in a situation where I would have to 1) Always drink potions 2) Wait long time to regen

So something from between those 2 options would be nice in D3. I don't wanna drink potions all the time and I don't wanna be out of mana, so a good regen and some skills to boost it would be nice.

I could take WoW's evolution as a comparison. When the game was young and you leveled up from 1 to 60 no matter what class you were if it was caster, you pretty much had to make a lot of breaks to drink mana to use your abilities. Nowadays pretty much everyone of these classes have a skill / talents that help you to keep the mana up. Either it is some sort of lower damage by x to gain mana etc.


Requirement of energy management skills/energy conserving play is pure win for making play more tactical, differentiating between good and bad players, and perhaps allowing for more individuality in skill allocation ratios in 'optimum' builds. I'm hoping we'll see more active energy management than at present.
This is something that made playing a pre-LOD sorc a lot more interesting than what it is now. People may complain that everyone was a cold sorc etc. But cold sorc was nothing without good movement skills and the use of Static Field. You could cast frozen orbs back then as much as you liked without cast delay but the mana cost was huge (~60) and the damage was like 3 times lower than now. So you got lots of shards flying but ended up with empty mana pool very quickly and the killing wasn't even really fast. So by using a lot of static field and then finishing the monsters with a few orbs was a lot more efficient way to kill them and faster.

So yeah I'd like to see some mana effiency tactics around too.

[Knight_Wolf]

There are several ways to do that:-

1-Low mana cost spells, or even no mana cost for some weak spells

2-Mana regeneration and Leech, there will be skills and items that increase mana regeneration and hopefully allow limited leeching too.

3-There are skills to make Mana globes drop more often.

4-Lastly there will be Mana potions that could save your neck if you are in a real pinch.


I think that pretty much covers everything.

[visom]

How would mana leech work in D3? Don't you have to melee to leech mana? If its different and you can leech mana by using skills, it'd be pointless since you're going to lose more mana in the long run, unless you have a low mana cost spells with fast cast rate.

[NASE]

This is one area Diablo III needs to nail, in my opinion. There has never really been an action RPG to demand effective management of mana/energy. That's a whole dimension of gameplay lost.


The problem is that you can't use your interesting skill when you are out of mana - or fury for that matter. And that ain't fun. So making the management to difficult or forcing people to use weak (uninteresting) skills isn't good.
Diablo II is about fast paced action. Diablo III will probably be the same. So making a whole dimension based on noting more then mana management risks damaging the speed or you force people to use stupid skills. And that's even worse then how things are going now - in diablo II.

I hope - assume - that Blizzard will be able to find a system that make mana management needed without damaging the feel. I just hope they don't make things to complicated.

[Doctrinaire]

I don't see how energy management has anything to do with using skills you don't want to. As with Diablo II, you'll be using whichever abilities you points into. Nor do I see how the game's speed is at risk here.

Energy management is not micromanagement. It's just about using a finite recourse effectively rather than infinite one ineffectively. If players have no incentive to care how well they use their abilities, they won't. Energy is supposed to be an incentive.

[visom]

Agreed, spells aren't something that should be cast in every situation ex. sorceress casting meteor on a zombie or a barbarian that uses BO 24/7, its all about using it in the situation you see fit otherwise just stick to your basic attack or a low cost spell.

[stillman]

Lightning mastery used to reduce the mana cost of your lighting spells. Now, it increases damage. After all d2, is about damage damage damage.

I think they should go back to the old ways of having a mastery for reducing spell cost. This IMO is a nice solution. It doesn't matter how much mana gets put in by Blizzard (stats) and it doesn't matter how limited you are in gear. If you want to sacrifice some points to paly more comfortably, you can.

[Dread]

Well, with the mana and health globes gameplay will not differ that much in normal fights.

What will be different are bossfights. They will require deeper tactics and will be more challenging. You have to manage your mana, don't waste it by just spamming skills, use your potions at the right time and so on. I also think mana reg and pool will play a much bigger role.

To be honest, the absence of health and mana leech will affect the gameplay much more. I mean, even today lots of builds don't have to use one single pot. I am just curious what they will do for melees and their health pool, since leeching has become a central role in here.

But I am really glad that they are making these changes. D2 is very easy if you know and understand the gameplay mechanics. Hope in D3 at highest difficult setting bossfights are still challenging, even with the right gear.

[Grug]

I didn't hear anything about leech being gone. Is that true?

You know that bosses have a chance to drop orbs when critically hit, right?

[Dread]

I didn't hear anything about leech being gone. Is that true?

http://www.diablofans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14779



You know that bosses have a chance to drop orbs when critically hit, right?

No, I didn't know. Thanks for the info. Then there isn't really that much of a difference. The only thing that disturbs me is the randomness that comes with it.
I am a bit disapponted now, was hoping that they are doing a different approach with the whole globe system.

[Arkardo]

I think there was a skill that boosted damage of (certain types of) skills if you cast it while your mana globe is full.

I wonder how this will fit in the entire mana management system?

[Bladewind]

You know that bosses have a chance to drop orbs when critically hit, right?

Yep, that won't matter to chars with High critical rates in the first place. (Think Rogues Amazons Barbs etc)