A potential change I'm keen to hear your thoughts on

For everyone concerned about mana regen being heavily nerfed, remember this would be heavily tested before implemented. Skill costs would be adjusted so that AA and certain abilities like incinerate will of course be viable.

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Rory wrote:

It's quite likely we'll see other changes to the kesytone as testing progresses, but because it's such a big change to one of the most popular Kesytones, any sweeping change won't be made without testing the waters carefully. The change isn't intended to 'kill' any mechanics, but will give us the opportunity to reassess some. Edit: Like the mana drain amount or mechanic on Arctic Armour

Of course, this new keystone would no longer be a staple, and now would be very niche. Casting from ES is god-awful unless they make some huge changes. The amount of investment needed to gain 200+ ES regen is ridiculously high, and that sacrifices HP regen through ZO. GR is also terrible for this same reason.

I would only see this keystone used on interval-casting builds, namely supports or summoners. Trappers and Totem builds could work, but I think waiting 3-5 seconds for ES to recharge would feel too weak.

At the moment, aside from the few expensive CI builds, casters all get EB+AA and usually CoD (unless they need a certain chest like Carcass Jack). Now EB and CoD are not necessarily very useful for anything but those niche summoner/support builds. With mana cost re-balanced, EB isn't a requirement to run certain abilities, and there are defensive alternatives to CoD:

1. AA cost will be balanced, so that's still an option.
2. Acrobatics is fantastic mitigation, and phase acro helps with reflect.
3. Hybrid ES/HP chars will become much more popular
4. CI becomes less gear intensive, as mana requirements are more attainable
5. Armor/AA/Molten shell would be extremely good for physical mitigation
6. Awesome creative ideas that I didn't think about!

Personally, i HATED this potential change when I saw it.

That being said, I think this change (along with a rebalance to mana costs) is overall a very good thing for caster build diversity.

TLDR: If this change happens, mana costs will be rebalanced to mana regen attainable without EB. The new EB will only be picked by very few niche builds. This opens a plethora of defensive options for casters other than CoD.

k i havnt read through all the comments yet.

and im not 100% sure how i feel about the change, cus i like having the extra mana regen when i take EB..
That being said, when i see the screen shot and the idea for the change it makes total intuitive sense to me that EB was meant to be like this.
Just gets swapped over to mana and used as for skills before mana. I could also see some interesting builds coming out of this.. 100% mana reserved by auras and yet having EB energy shield to cast some spells...

I love this idea! This'd make the EB keystone way more interesting to play around.

A lot of people feel that it's mandatory to have enough mana regen to permanently spam your skill or keep your Arctic Armor on 24/7. I am not one of these people.

I play HC and have been playing HC for many years now, and in my opinion, the game is becoming less forgiving, look at the number of deaths on the one month ladder. Maybe its just me, but I would take the opposite route, instead of finding ways to nerf viable defense mechanics, I would focus on strengthening others.

If you really must nerf MOM nerf Cloak of Defiance, and not EB. In addition, again instead of putting the neft hammer on anything that works, nerf to life, nerf to acrobatics, nerf to block, now nerf to EB. Do the developers really want the game to be that difficult? People want a HC experience, but we hate cheap difficulty. I would bet the majority gets alienated from such changes, yes we will still play, but likely a lot less/quit earlier.

This would be huge nerf to EB.

Cons:
- You won't get extra mana regeneration from EB
- Your mana leech won't become more effecience
- Your mana bonuses (%) doesn't stack with ES
- You need to invest heavily in ES to make any sense of EB

Pros:
- ES becomes additional energy source for skills, when your mana is reserved.

In my opinion EB would become a really niche option. It would kill many builds and mana managment would become harder for many others.

On the other hand it would for sure unlock many other build options especially if you add uniques to support ES regen/leech.

Guys, why won't you create additional Keystone ("mana shield") which would introduce this to the game, instead of changing existing one?

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Chundadragon wrote:

I think it's fairly obvious the aegis max block is "tankier" than CoD+AA.. that's not even a question.

As I said, it's not about pushing the defenses to the max - obviously CoD+AA loses there but what it is a perfect buffer for the perfect build. It's not about tanking hits. Imo, I think any other defense is weaker than CoD + AA for that build. It so rarely takes hits that CoD is actually perfect for it. HvC also gave good feedback on the chest for his SWT build.

And I can guarantee you I think that CoD Flameblast is the safest build in HC. Ask HvC now whether max block Aegis or CoD+AA Flameblast is safer, he will tell you the CoD build is safer. As will Yoshi, as will Zaunn, as will.. I cba to list. (All level 100) The mechanics in the skill, not only the speed make it super safe.

I can see where you are coming from but imo it's a big misconception to think tankiness makes you safer.

i think what youre saying is ridiculous tbh.

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CookieVortex wrote:

Guys, why won't you create additional Keystone ("mana shield") which would introduce this to the game, instead of changing existing one?

um, the whole point of the change is to curb the mandattory-ness of the AA+EB+COD combo, which is basically what every self-caster does in the game right now to get cheap, easy defenses and mana.

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Ludvator wrote:

And how are we supposed to fuel high mana cost skills that require 250+ regen?

run around and wait until it recharges?
waste gem slot and points to Ghost reaver? (some mana heavy skills cant leech for the player)
ZO no solution unless heavy invested in life regen and ES

I know you know what you are doing, but my impression, being a conservative player, is negative

invest in mana and mana regen. as well as high level clarity

Here is what I think of it:

It fills a niche that does not exist, while simultaneously removing a niche that covers a massive portion of builds and thus isn't really a niche but simply a design flaw.

EB as a keystone now is taken only because maintaining mana regeneration to support high cost skills is too difficult without it, and too easy with it. It is not a fun or interesting keystone, it doesn't change gameplay at all; it might as well say "remove ES, increase mana by ES value". Because the skills that it supports are essentially mandatory (AA in particular), the keystone is essentially mandatory for those builds too. In other words, it is a boring staple.

With the new change, it is no longer a boring staple, but instead it is utterly useless. As a method of casting spells it is pointless, since it would simply move the requirement from mana talents into ES talents for a net no change. As a method of "protecting mana" it means essentially nothing; MoM would be significantly devalued because the average mana pool is smaller and the ES value remains "effective life".

Are there going to be mechanics that somehow "damage mana" outside of the MoM effect? Are those effects going to be so pervasive that it is worth changing your character that substantially to avoid them?

The only valid use for ES would be the ability to reserve auras in mana and cast from ES, which is a very minimal gain for almost no builds.

In considering the change only from the vaccuum of pre-beta knowledge, I cannot see a valid reason to make this change. I get that it seems more interesting on face value, but in terms of actual gameplay value, what is the point? Where is the gain?

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grepman wrote:

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Ludvator wrote:

And how are we supposed to fuel high mana cost skills that require 250+ regen?

run around and wait until it recharges?
waste gem slot and points to Ghost reaver? (some mana heavy skills cant leech for the player)
ZO no solution unless heavy invested in life regen and ES

I know you know what you are doing, but my impression, being a conservative player, is negative

invest in mana and mana regen. as well as high level clarity

Eldritch Battery IS mana and mana regen. That's the entire point of taking it. Furthermore, the vast majority of builds running EB DO run a high level clarity.

EB is a boring staple talent, certainly, but changing it into something that is now simply an extraordinarily niche talent and making people go elsewhere for mana/mana regen hardly seems to be the answer you want.

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Plethora wrote:

I would only see this keystone used on interval-casting builds, namely supports or summoners. Trappers and Totem builds could work, but I think waiting 3-5 seconds for ES to recharge would feel too weak.

Totally pointless on those builds too. Being able to use the ability doesn't make it intrinsically useful; you don't need to spend points speccing into intervalic casting. Either you need to be able to cast on demand, or you can wait for mana regen if you don't.