GGGs idea on mana in spellcaster builds is silly and outdated...

... because it applies only to channeled spells, DoT spells, and low cast speed spells.
Because spells in general have high mana cost they uniquely require higher mana pools to sustain them for any reasonable amount of time, and without leech... solely relying on flat mana regen... it takes an entire build of investment into mana to meet that.
So here’s some ideas on how to actually do it without punishing spells for no reason;
1) package mana, mana regen, and reduced mana cost together.
2) add a zealots oath for mana, so we can get effective %mana recovery.
3) buff arcane surge so that it regenerates it’s cost over it’s duration (increased mana regeneration would be applied to this).
4) rework 4% of mana gained as energy shield to 5% + gain 5% of your energy shield as flat mana regeneration

The last thing is sort of a stretch, but if GGGwants to force casters to invest as heavily into mana as a juggernaut does into life, we need a lot more sources of efficient mana recovery. They’re basically trying to force spellcasters to play blood magic without leech or in combat regeneration.

The problem is you guys with it is not sustainable are overreacting.

I played a frostbolt ice nova Inquisitor this league without any mana leech while reserving 80% of my mana and never had mana issues.

Let me quickly sum up how easy it is with the new inspiration gem to play spellcasters without heavy investment.

Get the skill gem, get mana+reduced Mana cost on two rings, grab life + reduced Mana cost near Templar (or a ring + Amulet) and Mana + reduced Mana cost (nearly all spell builds path there anyways, at last path down to the big life wheel from the Templar side and grab mana + reduced Mana cost - done.

A 105 mana cost ice nove becomes a 12 mana cost ice nova and on top you get 40% more elemental damage and 50% crit chance from inspiration.

Your regen without any further investment with a lvl 1 arcane surge is around 60-70 mana per second (cause you grabbed a lot of increased mana already and have about 70-80 flat mana on your rings or ring + Amulet) so this allows you easily cast 5 ice novas per second with spell echo even more.

If you take a few mana regen nodes like the life + Mana regen between witch and templar and on the right above witch you get easy 100-120 mana regen per second then on any char. This allows you to cast 10 ice novas per second which is pretty fast don't you think.

There is no problem with spell casters. Just adapt. It is really annoying to read about spellcasters can't sustain fast casting without leech on here and on reddit. It seems no one looks for a solution nowadays instead they just complain.

"

ARC_Paroe wrote:

... because it applies only to channeled spells, DoT spells, and low cast speed spells.
Because spells in general have high mana cost they uniquely require higher mana pools to sustain them for any reasonable amount of time, and without leech... solely relying on flat mana regen... it takes an entire build of investment into mana to meet that.
So here’s some ideas on how to actually do it without punishing spells for no reason;
1) package mana, mana regen, and reduced mana cost together.
2) add a zealots oath for mana, so we can get effective %mana recovery.
3) buff arcane surge so that it regenerates it’s cost over it’s duration (increased mana regeneration would be applied to this).
4) rework 4% of mana gained as energy shield to 5% + gain 5% of your energy shield as flat mana regeneration

The last thing is sort of a stretch, but if GGGwants to force casters to invest as heavily into mana as a juggernaut does into life, we need a lot more sources of efficient mana recovery. They’re basically trying to force spellcasters to play blood magic without leech or in combat regeneration.

Play a trickster problem solved

"

ARC_Paroe wrote:

...
So here’s some ideas on how to actually do it without punishing spells for no reason;
1) package mana, mana regen, and reduced mana cost together.
2) add a zealots oath for mana, so we can get effective %mana recovery.
3) buff arcane surge so that it regenerates it’s cost over it’s duration (increased mana regeneration would be applied to this).
4) rework 4% of mana gained as energy shield to 5% + gain 5% of your energy shield as flat mana regeneration
...

Uh...

So, if I understand you correctly, you want "All the Mana, All the Time" and want every spellcast to generate more mana than it took to cast it?

Something like that?

Ah, that sounds perfectly reasonable to me.

/upvote

;)

Changing the way "Mana" works would be... Well, to call it a "Major Change" would be a huge understatement. There are solutions in the game to balance mana costs, regen and spell costs without taking a hammer to the entire system. Every viable build out there can be run by a player who has equipped their character appropriately... It's not as if there aren't any spellcasting characters that are out of mana forever within the first minute of play. There are so many ways to conquer the problem that I can't see why anyone would think that, in general, "Mana" is a problem for caster builds.

PS - If you need help or hints at how to do it for your own build, study other builds that use similar mechanics and see where they have made changes in order to compensate for Mana shortages. Use that knowledge to polish off your own build.

Note: The sorts of fixes you mention, in general terms of how this game or other ARPG/RPG games may work in terms of interactive mechanics, the typical reaction from players is that they gravitate towards a "One Character Build to Rule Them All" kind of approach, orphaning tons of content that has often taken hundreds if not thousands of man-hours to create. That is not what anyone would want for PoE and this game has seen its share of overpowered builds using mechanics that "Meant Well" but were hit with a ban-hammer soon after their problems were realized in "the wild." Nobody wants to see a massive "Two Steps Forward" major game change with a followup "Three Steps Back" emergency patch. :)