Hi I'm Micky and I'm a Mindaholic

Welcome to Mindaholics Anonymous!

This is yet another one of my suggestions that I've let brew (GET IT?) for a week or so and I figured I should bounce it off the forums soon since GGG intends on making changes to the Passive Skill Tree in .9.11.

I would like to talk about the terribly disappointing Large Passive skill - Mind Drinker. So let's begin shall we?.

First, I feel it necessary to provide a link to this forgettable skill so that everyone becomes re-familiarized with it.

Mindaholics' Problems
- Its effect is lackluster compared to the effects of most other Large Passives. (While these nodes provide completely different effects than this, they provide a base to which I can claim that Mind Drinker has room to improve and not be considered overpowered or unbalanced.)
- This is currently the only Passive providing Mana Leech.

Analysis
As you can see, there aren't many things I would consider to be "wrong" about this skill. Even though it's not terribly exciting, it works as intended and functions, but I'm under the impression that every Large Passive skill should have some inherent excitement attached to it. That's what Mind Drinker is lacking and that's what I'm here to provide.

I, like many before me, have created a Claw Shadow. The inherent characteristic provided by Claw Passives and the items themselves is to leech, and the placement of the Shadow on the Passive skill tree synergizes well with Claws, Leech, Energy Shield, Crit Chance etc. From what I understand, I'm under the impression that the Mind Drinker skill is added in to enhance this leeching play style and add to the efficiency of your leeching capabilities. (Let's completely disregard that currently the only base life leech nodes are on the exact opposite side of the tree and that the Life on Hit/Leech Support gems are Strength Requirement Red gems.)

As it turns out, this thread is more about the synergy of Life Leech and Energy Shield users. I find that the dullness of Mind Drinker actually makes it possible for me to suggest something that has been needed by the Claw Shadow community since the beginning.

Mind Drinker 2.0

- 2% of Physical Damage from Attacks is Leeched back as Mana.
- 2% of Physical Damage from Attacks is Leeched back as Energy Shield.

For those who think Energy Shield is already too powerful, hear me out.

The problem is that a typical Claw user's survivability is severely dependent on Energy Shield, which does not currently have any synergy with the current leech mechanic (currently my Shadow's Hit Points consist of about 35% Life and 65% Energy Shield.) I feel that Mind Drinker 2.0 has potential for some awesome, dynamic, and creative builds.

Also, I realize that the class is supposed to stack Evasion and Increased Energy Shield Cooldown Recovery so that they may evade hits in hopes for a quick recovery, but I feel that this isn't enough. It pigeonholes players into this archetype, which shouldn't be the case for players who do not want to use Evasion (i.e Clawrauders/Leech Witches etc.) and it's my belief that the more options a player has in a game, the better it becomes.

Conclusion(Tl;dr)
Mind Drinker's lackluster nature and placement on the tree provide an ideal location and means to add a new stat that should, in my opinion, be in the game already. A Shield Leech stat would greatly affect gameplay in a positive way and allow for greater synergy and alternatives for a lot of physical damage builds. Life leech is nice, but your Life Pool (even more so if you're using Chaos Inoculation) acts as an emergency survivability source for many if not most players who are investing in this portion of the skill tree.

If you disagree, have any comments or suggestions, or just want to verbally express your like for my ideas, please do so! I understand many people might find a balance issue with this, but I would argue that more options = more fun, which is why we all love this game so much.
Last edited by YoMicky on Jul 3, 2012, 2:36:12 PM
This thread has been automatically archived. Replies are disabled.
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YoMicky wrote:
Mindaholics Problems
- This skill pales in comparison to almost every other Large Passive. (Evidence provided)
- This is currently the only Passive providing Mana Leech.


Sooo... Not only is this passive the only one that does what it does, and it applies DOUBLE the best mod that you can find on any non-unique item, but it doesn't provide as much critical chance as Adder's Touch? This is the worst comparison I've ever seen. Why didn't you compare it to life leech passives? Oh wait, because it provides the exact same benefit that the life leech passive does, 2%.
TehHammer is not a crime!
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TheRabbit303 wrote:
Sooo... Not only is this passive the only one that does what it does, and it applies DOUBLE the best mod that you can find on any non-unique item, but it doesn't provide as much critical chance as Adder's Touch? This is the worst comparison I've ever seen. Why didn't you compare it to life leech passives? Oh wait, because it provides the exact same benefit that the life leech passive does, 2%.


To clarify, which I have already edited into the OP, the reason I linked to the other passives wasn't to make a direct comparison on the actual effect that they all had, it was to show that Mind Drinker was severely lacking. If one Large Passive can have as many mods as the ones I linked while one only has a "mod that you can find on any non-unique item" then there is a huge disparity between the two.

This idea would put this passive on more equal footing with its fellow Large Passive skills and add more flavor to it rather than being so vanilla.

EDIT: I would also suggest adding in more Mana Leech passives since there are 2 Life Leech nodes. Either make it so that these are standard nodes and not large passives, or spice the weaker large ones up to make them all powerful.

Also, there are plenty of blue potions that do the exact same thing that Mind Drinker does. "Best" is subjective, so many people wouldn't agree with you there.
Last edited by YoMicky on Jul 3, 2012, 2:31:51 PM
The concept of claws leeching energy shield is not new but it is a very good one.

As for Mind Drinker, it's perfect. It's incredibly hard to get mana leech as it is, and it's only for physical attack damage, so it can't be abused no matter how close it is to Witch.
Sorry pneuma physical damage melee witches are super op!

>_________________>
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pneuma wrote:
The concept of claws leeching energy shield is not new but it is a very good one.

As for Mind Drinker, it's perfect. It's incredibly hard to get mana leech as it is, and it's only for physical attack damage, so it can't be abused no matter how close it is to Witch.


Thanks for the feedback! You make a good point about the rarity of mana leech, I guess this intended as another hurdle (accuracy is another one) that weapon damage characters must jump over. The primary reason I picked Mind Drinker was for its location on the tree and, even though mana leech may be rare, I figured it could do more than just that.

Do you have an idea of where to put a hypothetical shield leech passive?
It makes wand melee witches nice. Spell witches would try to get a mana leech support gem which is just better in every way.

You'd put it between Witch and Shadow anyways.

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