Giving classes a more unique feeling by using their ressources

  • In my opinion classes lack a feeling of uniqueness. Using kitty combo or a lua, all classes are played mostly the same and are judged only by their single/aoe damage and sometimes by their cc capabilities or additional buffs. Ressource costs of most skills (specially for the mage class) are pretty much irrelevant as long as they don't include a % drain, which instantly makes it extremely costly, though even those costs are negated by superior regeneration of Phirius Einweg-Injektor, Universaltrank, Zwergenbier or other. (Sorry i lack the english names and will edit those later)


    The following suggestion would impact the playstyle and burst pattern of the mage and warrior class while keeping changes to a minimum:

    This would require changing the nature of previously mentioned ressource generator items to flat values (for mana) and reduce them significantly or even delete their impact on rage gain.


    Mage:

    Exchange all % mana cost skills to flat values and add a multiplicative increase of manacosts to burst buffs while increasing/adjusting their buff strength (Intensivierung, Elementarkatalyse, Göttlicher Elementar, Der Weise, Runenformation...).

    This will result in a strong depletion of the users manapool as they stack burst buffs and will result in either a very high intensity short time burst or a more spread out burst window if they chain certain buffs. Not only does this provide the player with more options, but also make it valueable to increase their manapool. A new stat line that provides wisdom or just mp instead of endurance could also tempt players to exchange survivability to increase their overall damage capabilities.

    To regain their mana or continue attacking as they depleted their mana, i suggest changing the nature of a weaker skill and Energiebrunnen to a generator. Have those regenerate a percentage of mana or for Energiebrunnen, decrease the magical damage/cast speed while active and have it regenerate mana (for example 5% per cast of the generator skill and 5% per second of active Energiebrunnen).
    This would give players the opportunity to regenerate mana after a burst window, between fights or while not needing strong damage.


    Warrior:

    While deleting their ability to start a fight with full rage, i would suggest deleting the rage costs for most skills and making them available only above certain levels of rage. As the player gains more and more rage he gains access to their strongest skills, increasing their damage output as the fight continues. This could be paired with conditions on skills that gain additional damage while above or effects like debuffs while below certain levels of rage. By keeping rage costs of strong skills, players can play around certain levels of rage to reapply for example a strong debuff before increasing their rage for stronger attacks or going for a burst.
    As for their burst window, i would suggest Raserei to require full rage (maybe lower cooldown). Temporally negating all rage costs and granting strong (maybe even stronger buffs as of now and deleting the precision penalty), the warrior can really let go during the burst window. After Raserei ends rapidly decay rage (-20 rage/s for 5s) to have a smooth transition and give the player the opportunity to either get a few strong hits out or generate some rage back quickly.

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    Hey Margery!

    This thread being "deactivated" was not intentional review-wise; it basically got stuck in that state, so it looked like it was ignored. Thanks for pinging it again.


    On the actual suggestion: we get the core criticism. With combat engines (kitty/lua/etc.) and with how strong regen consumables are, a lot of class "feel" gets flattened into "single/aoe DPS + a few buffs/CC". That part is valid.


    Where we disagree is the proposed fix (making resource management a primary gameplay lever), mostly because it tends to create the opposite of what you want in practice:

    • It strongly advantages scripted play. An engine will always manage mana/rage perfectly, while manual players get punished by downtime/mistakes. So it increases the gap instead of restoring uniqueness.
    • It adds "maintenance gameplay" (watching bars, weaving generators) more than it adds interesting decisions. Most people do not enjoy hard resource constraints in tab-target combat, especially in long instance sessions.
    • It is very wide-impact. Changing % costs -> flat costs and reworking regen items touches not just Mage/Warrior, but also consumables, runes/sets, boss pacing, and balance across multiple class combos. The risk of breaking existing content and forcing a full rebalance cycle is huge; with 110 classes on the roster, this is a gargantuan task for which we simply do not have the capacity at the current time.

    Quick notes on your specific ideas:

    Mage

    • Multiplicative mana-cost scaling on burst buffs would mostly turn into "short burst, then mandatory regen phase" or "regen weaving" - which engines will optimize anyway.
    • A generator skill/Energiebrunnen as "mana mode" is conceptually fine, but it usually becomes a scripted filler pattern and feels bad for players who just want to play their rotation without extra tax mechanics.

    Warrior

    • Making most skills free but locked behind rage thresholds removes some of the current decision-making (spend vs hold) and makes openers/clutch burst timings clunkier.
    • "Raserei requires full rage" + post-buff decay is also something engines handle perfectly, while manual players get the worst of both worlds (setup time + punished transition).

    What we are more likely to do (and what we have been discussing internally) is improve class uniqueness through things that are harder to "solve" purely by resource bars:

    • Encounter and instance design that rewards different profiles (burst vs sustain, cleave vs single, mobility/range, CC, uptime requirements), so not every class converges to the same sustained DPS shape.
    • Combo-identity work on skills (tradeoffs, conditional power, positioning/timing hooks) rather than global resource taxation.
    • Longer-term QoL/UI improvements that make playing without engines more realistic (timer/buff tracking is currently a big reason people default to automation), because as long as manual play is "unrealistic", any system that punishes imperfect execution just pushes people further into scripting.

    If you want to keep the discussion going in a productive way, the most actionable version would be:

    • list 3-5 specific Mage skills/buffs where the current mana model feels wrong (and why)
    • same for Warrior rage interactions
    • and which dungeons/bosses you are basing the "class feel" comparison on (because the "best answer" often depends on whether the content is burst-gated or sustain-gated)

    Thank you for the bump!

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    Approved the thread.