Aura Reservation and Reduced Mana Support Gem Change

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SaiyanZ wrote:

Spending a ton of hours to level a few corrupted Enlightens and be limited to lvl3 looks pretty bad in my opinion, just for a 10% experience bonus. Not to mention you'd have to spend passives and sacrifice a jewel socket for all that time.

Either way, the move to Enlighten is not something I'm looking forward to. RIP people with mirror gear with red sockets and no blue sockets. They should just change Reduced Mana's effectiveness if they think it is OP. Change it to 80% or 85% at lvl20 instead of bringing in Enlighten to replace it. Then make it take longer to level than other gems if that is an issue too. There is absolutely no need to move the function over to Enlighten.

I hope this change does not go through but there's no harm in being prepared:

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Rafurion wrote:

By making the gem very time consuming to level, GGG ensures that not many people can get level 3+ Enlighten, and that is their true intention.

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Rafurion wrote:

By making the gem very time consuming to level, GGG ensures that not many people can get level 3+ Enlighten, and that is their true intention.

But that intention is... the exact opposite of what they claim....

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VashSan wrote:

Allright, I'll try to explain why this change enraged so much people.


Problem 1: Reduced mana mandatory?
Yes, it is. But it's not the reduced mana that's necessary for almost every build, they need the auras to survive and/or to deal a decent damage and to run those auras you need the reduced mana AND maybe some reservation nodes on the skill tree, not only the RM.

Solution:
Less mana reserved on auras. RM doesn't work with auras anymore. Enlighten work, with LESS efficiency.

>It's beta, things can change.<

But how it is now almost every build can't do what they did before without a lvl 4 enlighten gem + more passives in reservation. It's a nerf to almost every build. Nerfs make builds less fun to play. Many people like the game harder, but the "more deadly" or "gimmicky", not slower.

Problem 2?:
"characters that previously wouldn't have access to Reduced Mana"
This doesn't make sense. Any class can get a RM and use it. Easy to find, easy to trade.

STR requirements so high int or int/dex can't use it in a high level? There are +30 str nodes on the tree for that and anyone can also get or craft STR on gear. This in neither a problem nor an excuse to be aplied to the current change.

Problem 3:
"Aura+reduced mana" taking too many sockets early on.

Solution:
Now auras reserve less. Leveling should be easier with 1 aura + 1 herald since you'll have more unreserved mana. People don't need that low level RM anymore. Pretty good for new players.

BUT for any experienced player leveling is fast. This problem is not really a problem.

And in the late/ultra late game things are slower and harder, since RM is replaced with a hard to find and hard to level Enlighten.

"Enlighten becomes a much more desirable support. It now gives an option for end-game builds that are willing to give up sockets to reduce reservation, without the support being so impactful that every build that uses auras feels that it's absolutely necessary."
Every build is willing to give up sockets to reduce mana reservation. It's not a solution to end-game builds, is a problem for every other build. Enlighten is hard to find and hard to level.
Early on, heaving to use (RM+Aura) may take too many slots. But with a simple 4l you can already use all your auras (2) and one herald. Maybe 6 slots for RM+Auras, RM+Heralds. Since you can have 18 slots to customize your build, using 2 or at most 3 of them for RM isn't much.

"Reduced Mana can have much higher values than previously, making it a better choice for reducing skill mana costs."
Sacrifice a link to RM? Main skill need dmg and/or leech and maybe AOE. There is no current room for RM. If we at least had one more aura to compensate the sacrificed... oh wait... we're getting one less!

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Rory wrote:

We're trying out a change to aura costs, the Reduced Mana support, and the Enlighten gem on Beta. This change involves reducing the base mana reservation on reservation skills, changing the Reduced Mana gem to only apply to costs but with a much greater reduction, and having the Enlighten support gem reduce reservation and cost at lower values than Reduced Mana gave.

These are the intended results of the change:
As they no longer work with Reduced Mana, we can make reservation costs less mana intensive for characters that previously wouldn't have access to Reduced Mana, and reduce socket pressure for players that previously would have needed a Reduced Mana support to reach the same reservation levels.
Enlighten becomes a much more desirable support. It now gives an option for end-game builds that are willing to give up sockets to reduce reservation, without the support being so impactful that every build that uses auras feels that it's absolutely necessary.
Reduced Mana can have much higher values than previously, making it a better choice for reducing skill mana costs.

It's worth noting that a very high level Enlighten gem can reduce aura reservation costs to the point of the old Reduced Mana support and below, and that aura reservation costs are now often lower than otherwise possible until player level 45. We're also planning to increase the power of Mana passives in the tree that will give mana constrained builds more access to larger total mana pools.

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LimitedRooster wrote:

This is really one of those things where you have to say "Diablo 2 did it better". The dream that some characters would use Auras while others don't in exchange for other benefits is really just that at this point. Even core class identity is a bit of a salad: The Necromancer received minions. The Sorceress didn't, and in exchange got very large AoE coverage. Here, the Sorceress equivalent, the Witch, gets both if that's what she wants.

That core MTG-esque hard separation of powers (also known as "color pie") is absolutely critical to make classes feel separate from one another. This allowed comparatively lame skills, like Tornado, have a place and reason to exist. A terrible Sorceress skill (effectively a slow, unreliable Lightning Bolt), but completely adequate for a Druid.

The devs have said they want the classes to feel more "unique", but their actions, such as the Heralds, have been toward the exact opposite of that goal. It's just fundamental to how the game is - to actually get any headway on that front would require a Star Wars Galaxies style New Game Experience.

Moving Reduced Mana's functionality to Enlighten? Yeah, like everyone's said. That's moving deck chairs around on a boat. Making it harder to complete a character, and making a rare drop only gem mandatory on every single character?

I recommend just don't. No support gem for reducing reservation costs. Keep it in the stat tree and unique items, if you're going to have it at all.