According to one Blizzard rep, the Witch Doctor is the only character who is going to have a typical "mana" system (where his spells cost mana to cast, and his mana supply grows back over time).
I think this is the wrong way to go about it. The Wizard, being the archetypical mage character, should keep the standard mana system.
The Witch Doctor is a dark and vicious. He needs a mana generation system that reflects his character. There's already speculation that certain WD skills (like summoning skills) will require health, rather than mana to cast. Why not take this a little further?
How about having a mana pool that gradually depletes itself over time, and in order to recharge it, the Witch Doctor must either:
a. Sacrifice of a certain amount of his own health, or:
b. Kill monsters
This would keep the game fast-paced, racing from fight to fight to keep your mana up (like the Barbarian). Requiring the Witch Doctor to kill enemies to gain mana (rather than simply damage them or take damage yourself, like Fury) would lend a "vampiric" feel to the character. You're constantly deteriorating under the weight of your own power, and must be constantly on the move to sustain yourself.
Plus, you could supplement your mana recharge rates by simply giving up health when it is safe to do so. This would be an innate skill, like "Unsummon" was in D2. Passive skills could increase its efficiency (more mana for less health). Having the option to instantly recharge your mana with your own hitpoints would make casting against difficult enemies much more convenient, but only by putting yourself in danger. Dark power comes with a horrible price.
Battles would feel much more urgent: you would be much more focused on cleaning up monsters in order to keep your mana up, and for those precious health globes to keep your auxiliary power source (your health) up as well.
Naturally, this kind of system would require scrapping a lot of the mana-related passives the Witch Doctor has. These could be replaced by passives that reduce the mana depletion rate, make the life sacrifice skill more efficient, and changing one of the Witch Doctor's active spells to give him a life leech ability: Haunt is a good candidate, since it's low-damage and in need of a relevant use.
So in sum, my proposed Witch Doctor energy system would look like this:
1. Mana is constantly diminishing
2. Witch Doctor can gain mana by killing monsters
3. Witch Doctor can also gain mana by sacrificing some of his health
4. Witch Doctor can gain health from enemies by casting Haunt on them
Your thoughts?|||Totally agree. Never understood why WD would use mana while wiz would use something else...|||Quote:
Your thoughts?
It comes across as a timer on my gameplay. I'm a player who likes to take things easy. Being forced to run around and kill things or die is not something that would go over well with me. While you can have passives to decrease this effect they become mandatory for any build that doesn't want to be constantly on the brink of death. I feel it is too limiting.
What I do agree on is that the mana system doesn't really make a lot of sense for the WD. The Wiz with her basic training in all things sorcery really should use mana. The lore behind the WD mentions the spirit world a lot. I'd like to see it tied into his resource system.|||I think it's far too early to say whether or not it makes sense to not give the Wizard mana. We don't know what system the developers have in mind for the Wizard and for all we know, it could end up making ten times more sense than mana does.
Besides, we've had mana for casters in Blizzard games since Warcraft 1 - time for a change.
The Diablo 3 Wizard doesn't at all sound to me like an arcetypical caster. (S)he is a rogue magician, and while she may have started out with a Sorceress education, she has deviated from that path, tapping into powers that are more chaotic and less understood.
I'd imagine her system would be about tapping into the powers of the Universe (not mana), rather than the powers of the world (mana in accordance with Diablo lore).
All I know is that the word 'mana' is vodoo in origin, is the power that flows in all things in Sanctuary (power of the world) and in that sense, it works perfectly with the Witch doctor, stylistically and lore wise.
The sugestions put forth by the OP are interesting and probably a lot better than anything I could suggest (I don't play WoW, so I know very little about the systems in that game to have sufficient inspiration), but I can't help but think: "Fury for a caster", when I read about the Witch Doc having to kill enemies to regain power.
The "sacrifice health for power" is an interesting mechanic for sure and it could be interesting if one of the future classes for Diablo 3 has something like that, but I must say that I feel it sounds too much like a Warlock.|||Mana makes so much sense to me for the Witch Doctor. He's a character who has lots of different options (summoning, debuffs, attack spells) and playing him would be an exercise in careful resource management. Mana seems to be the perfect system for this, especially since it encourages planning for future situations.
Also doesn't the Witch Doctor have an ability where he can sacrifice health to regain mana?|||Hi!
Quote:
Also doesn't the Witch Doctor have an ability where he can sacrifice health to regain mana?
Part of the mana cost of the spells you cast goes from the hp pool. You really don't regain mana but you use less.|||[QUOTE=Chorkstain;7300990]Mana makes so much sense to me for the Witch Doctor. He's a character who has lots of different options (summoning, debuffs, attack spells) and playing him would be an exercise in careful resource management. Mana seems to be the perfect system for this, especially since it encourages planning for future situations.
QUOTE]
That's a good point.
However, I still agree with the OP that Mana just isn't right for the WD. However 2, your suggestion sounds a bit too much like Fury in its main core.
My suggestion, which I actuall really like, is giving the WD and Resource system the regenerates when your close to enemies. That fits perfectly with Blizzard's idea of keeping him in the heat of the battle, and not far away like D2 Fishymancer.|||Quote:
Hi!
Part of the mana cost of the spells you cast goes from the hp pool. You really don't regain mana but you use less.
Your posts are so refreshing! I think it has something to do with the way you say 'Hi!' at the beginning of each one.
So is this an active skill that has a short duration or something? I think I would prefer it if it behaved how I put it. The way you describe sounds like something that could get pretty out of control. Although maybe that would be a nice piece of strategy...|||OK I have something to add that I would very much like a blizzard dev to read
I went into this post thinking "Who cares? The witch doctor is cool enough..". Now, after reading the first suggestion you have, my opinion is completely the opposite.
PLEASE consider giving the witch doctor a form of a mana system based on his life. This would be amazingly awesome in both lore ways and gameplay ways. Maybe give him a "life tap" skill like warlocks in WoW at the very least???
If you ever played the "Necromancer" class in Everquest you will understand how SO MUCH FUN this concept is. Even the "Warlock" class in WoW is similar (but not the same because its WoW and mana isn't that big of a deal there
).Some concepts I liked about the "Necromancer" from Everquest (since I'm sure most are familiar with the Warlock's life tap ability
):1) The eq necro had a FUN AS CRAP buff that upped your mana regen to insane amounts (greater than any mana regen buff in the game, even rivaling whatever that enchanter buff that all the silly non-necros would PAY IN GAME MONEY FOR). The DRAWBACK (if you could call it one) to this ability was that it drained your life in the process
. And more fun things follow.2) Life tap. This works basically opposite of how WoW's lifetap skill works. Basically, all it was was a direct damage spell that gave you health according to a percentage that you dealt to the monster.
3) DOTs. This was the main arsenal of the eq necro.
4) And of course the skeleton pet.
5) Fear
6) whatever else I forgot (I only got my necro to ~40)
Now, don't disregard this stuff because it comes from Everquest. I haz valid points.
(I HATE YOU OP. Now I want to kind of play everquest again. *sigh* no not really.. eq is not the same as it used to be
)
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