Mana Regen: the last broken mechanic? - Page 21

Shakes · 05/28/08, 9:03 PM

Originally Posted by PSGarak

When you think about it, the only functional difference between waiting 5 seconds to have to drink, and the current 5-second out-of-casting rule, is that you have to stand still. It's not an exciting mechanic, nor is it strategically very different than the regen boost you already get for not casting (even non-SPT classes, post-2.4).

It is if you remove all passive regen. Then it becomes a risk/reward scenario: if you happen to pick a bad time to drink, where you either take damage or have to cast a clutch heal to save someone's ass, then you got nothing out of it. Picking the right time (and place, due to the not taking damage restriction) to drink becomes a game in itself under that scenario, where as going outside the 5 second rule just involves doing nothing.

PSGarak · 05/28/08, 9:55 PM

Stopping casting to regain mana is already a strategic ploy available in game. Adding additional restrictions to this mechanic change it in a way that, while not trivial, also don't improve the game. Not playing your character is generally not an exciting strategic alternative. I have a stronger attitude about that than most, in that I refuse to play classes that have downtime (I've softened enough in recent years to allow bandages). But when the most important and optimal decision about playing your character involves getting up and making a sandwich, you have a flawed game mechanic.

(Yes, I also think drinking in arenas is borderline retarded, although that's a separate discussion)

Shakes · 05/28/08, 10:19 PM

It's certainly a more interesting mechanic to me than watching a little number of water shield charges and refreshing it before they run out, which is where shamans are at now.

I have no problem with spending periods of a raid fight "not playing my character". To use to overdone raiding is a team sport analogy, in team sports you generally have your players spend some time out of the action to get some rest. And just like in sport, you have situations where sometimes its best to have your players not go flat out in the interests of keeping them out there longer (eg downranking, stopcasting)

Tradeoffs and strategy are for more interesting to me than the actual mashing of keys.

Anaram · 06/06/08, 11:31 AM

To be able to have periods where a healer doesn't need to heal (=can drink) would generally require more healers in the raid or fights particularly designed to give them a break.

Blizzard could, of course, attempt to design fights where less healers are required, but it doesn't look like they've been particularly good with that in the past.

In addition there are many fights where finding the time to drink would be downright trivial (felmyst phase change for one) while in others fights it just boils down to luck of not getting any damage (m'uru for example).

I think mana mechanics have gone to a better direction of late. There is still some need for tweaking and adjustment certainly, but sweeping changes are not needed.

PSGarak · 06/06/08, 2:02 PM

While perusing the DK tanking abilities, I noticed that there are a relatively large number of proc-based or otherwise not-100%-uptime avoidance buffs. This started me thinking that a DK might go through periodic cycles of high and low avoidance, leading to a corresponding healer regen cycle. The current tank thinking is that non-constant avoidance is not useful, but that paradigm might be in need of an overhaul... and especially since dependable avoidance's main use was to mitigate crushing blows, which give some indication of no longer existing.