Alternative to Standing Still for Casting

The reduced focus cost etc for staying still is nice and all, but why not make it more interesting?

Each magic tree could have a spell called Rune of Life/Fire/Air/etc that creates a small area on the floor that benefits that tree for anyone stood within it and provides a way for mages to do a different kind of weaving with each other.

e.g.

Rune of Fire
Creates a Rune of Fire on the ground beneath you, increasing magical damage by 20% on burning targets. This buff is shared with any friendly player stood within a Rune nearby. Runes cannot occupy the same space.

Rune of Water
Creates a Rune of Water on the ground beneath you, increasing casting range by 40%. This buff is shared with any friendly player stood within a Rune nearby. Runes cannot occupy the same space.

Rune of Air
Creates a Rune of Air that travels with you, granting a extra damage to your next spell based on how much you move. This buff is shared with any friendly player stood within a Rune nearby. Runes cannot occupy the same space.

Rune of Earth
Creates a Rune on the ground beneath you, reducing the damage the caster take by 15% and granting a buff that redirects 30% of damage taken by friendly players within your rune to the caster. This buff is shared with any friendly player stood within a Rune nearby. Runes cannot occupy the same space. This rune shatters if the caster is reduced below 20% health.


You get a buff for yourself while stood in your rune, which is good. However, you get greater buffs when allies also use their runes to full effect.


The %'s could be flat numbers or scale with the rank of the rune. A rune cast on top of another rune will fail to cast, or, if they have the same caster, the new rune will replace the old one. Each mage can only have one rune active at once. Runes could also increase your attunement to that element while inside it (any maybe reduce attunement to others).

 

Like ?

 

Something like that, yeah.

Maybe just a ring of "fire runes" around them, burning in the ground for instance.

Possibly some sort of visual to indicate when two runes are linked.

 

Yea, problem is, this has already been done. Which doesn't mean it couldn't be done again, but the game this happened is FFXIV, at the moment the No. 2 of the MMOs, so people will recognize it.
What would you propose for Archers and Melees?

 

Here's my question...

If the goal is to have people stand still in combat, why not just make people stand still in combat? Why do we have to have all these extra mechanics, buffs and debuffs? Why can't we just be forced into a stand still mode that locks people into combat mode against their enemy? It would be MUCH easier to balance, would help fight against the impact of lag, and it would make the game less about twitchy skills that don't really lend themselves well to the type of combat system we have here.

 

You have two alternatives at the moment. You fight at full capacity while standing or at reduced capacity while moving.
It's a tradeoff. More damage/accuracy when standing vs. less damage output for more mobility.
I don't really see a problem with that and don't think people need to be forced.
They're being encouraged, which is fine.

I'm interested in the problems in detail though, so if there's something that worries you, let's see if we find a workable solution we can pester the devs with.

I do not think, however, that SOTA will just copy&paste the FFXIV Blackmage skill.

 

The problem with this is that it hurts ranged combat and purist mages that can't stand toe to toe with melee mobs typically.

 

Yeah, ranged classes are really bad at the moment for exactly that reason. The elementals can't pull aggro and tank, so the mage tanks most of the damage. Force them to stand still and tank even more they fall over and leave their woolen socks behind in even more fights.
Not so fun.

And they do already live with mali to their effectivity! No buff for the mage, Dex penalty for the archer.

 

Dumb idea. Combat shouldn't be restricted. Should be able to move while casting, maybe a new passive glyph. Currently the prevent moving while casting feature is bugged so it really does suck trying to kite mobs.

 

I simply go with the thought that they've spent too much time getting melee implemented to focus on the other styles of play. Not a complaint as everything takes time, just a current thought. Once cover goes in and wands and staves have worthwhile damage and possibly their own skill tree (I hope), THEN they can focus on those of us who require kiting and getting pets to actually HOLD aggro for a change. Nothing worse than standing still not casting and having my pet obliterating a mob and it still ignores the one doing damage to it in order to hit me not doing any damage (or healing). Can't even claim this is to stop afk macroing either, I'm usually sending the pet to attack ahead of me so I can close on enemy and cast, but the mobs (with 1 exception of the immediate one the pet attacked) all ignore the pet and came straight for me prior to casting anything... SOOOO frustrating.

Also, with the extreme range of aggro currently in game, drawing away one mob at a time is not only tedious, but largely ineffective.

 

I never liked kiting in any game, because I'd give up control and possibly pull more while running around.
SOTA lacks crowd control tools for that to work anyways.
That's also why I'm playing my current tamer in plate.
(See thread in my signature)

Other than elementals, pets at least grab aggro, due to their damage output, but when it's more than 1 mob, and that's the case often, I end up tanking damage and I can't do that in cloth armor or even leather.

Now, if we can't tank, but kiting isn't an option either, I think that our survivability needs a fix before we can even discuss restrictions of movement.

 

@Fikule,

Look at this thread and tell me what you think,
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/placing-traps.40446/

I suggested additions to the spell trees sort of like this,

 

@redfish
I like the idea, would the Fire Trap have a benefit to being used tactically as opposed to fireballing the area? The attunement is certainly the same sort of idea I was hoping to convey,

@kazeandi
I didn't know this existed in final fantasy, could you explain how it works there? I haven't really played FF games, but my understanding was in FF everyone stood still and acted in a turn-based combat system.


On the note of standing still itself, the concept already exists, I was simply suggesting how it could be more interesting than it is currently. And as the Air Magic example shows, I'm not against players moving to cast. For Air it actually felt like it would be their natural state.

One way the Runes could work for scaling could be that they charged up as you stand in them, slowly hitting a cap for their power based on the skill in it. The fire rune could start as simply glowing ember runes on the floor and slowly charge up with flames as the effect gets stronger. Think of it more as the longer you can remain in the circle, the stronger it gets. However, leaving the rune wouldn't break it, so you could leave when necessary and either make a new one or get back into it.

Another idea that redfish's post made me consider along with the "aggro" issue was "triggering" your rune.

Imagine if each rune also had a trigger effect that happens if you cast the rune again while stood in it.

e.g.

Your Fire Rune charges up, burning hotter and hotter. And enemy finally comes at you and you re-trigger the rune, sending out a wave of flames to every enemy nearby, damaging them and consuming their burning condition for even more damage. Your rune isn't destroyed, but it has to start charging again.

Your Water Rune charges, rolling water at the edges getting more violent. When an enemy comes near you re-cast it, knocking all enemies back and slowing them.

Your Earth Rune charges, the ground trembling beneath you. You activate it again, bringing up a temporary barrier of stone, preventing enemies from entering (or leaving) the circle.

Your Air Rune charges, sparks dancing across the edges of the rune until you activate it again, causing the next enemy attack to send you flying away from them and stunning the attacker.


But, as I am talking a lot about runes being weaved together by multiple players, their greatest benefit is more in team compositions rather than solo play, although I imagine pets would help in most cases.

 

FFXIV is a normal MMO with no round based action anymore. It's all in real time.
The spell here is being ground targeted, then you stand in the circle and gain cast speed.