New Spell Effect Types: Summon Spell Amplifier
Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2020 10:57 pm
This topic introduces the new spell effect that went live with the Shaman 3.0 Revamp update on 16 June 2020 (update notes here). Please use this topic to leave any feedback/ideas or ask questions about the new spells that use this effect.
The shaman has a whole new line of spells which we've called Totems. In order for the concept of Totems to work, we've introduced a few new spell effects that are unique to THF. These effects will be used a lot for other classes as well. These effects are:
o Summon Spell Amplifer: Summons a temporary object (in the case of the shaman, it's a Totem) that has a mana upkeep and variable duration. The item remains static for the duration and its benefits can only be used if in range of the item. The amplifier does nothing unless it's given one of the below effects:
o Amplify Spell Healing: Increases the effectiveness of heals in range (that's AOE, not group), by a variable %. For direct heals, the range is calculated from the amplifier to the caster. For HoT spells, the range is calculated from the amplifier to the target of the heal.
o Amplify Spell Damage: Increases the effectiveness of spell damage in range (again, this is AOE, not group), by a variable %. For direct damage, the range is calculated from the amplifier to the caster and for DoT spells, the range is calculated from the amplifier to the target.
o Amplify Spell Echo: Applies an echo effect to direct heals or direct damage (or potentially both...) when the caster is in range of the totem. The echo will repeat a variable number of times (maximum 6) depending on the spell and the frequency of the echo can be controlled as well (although we're mostly setting this to an echo every 1 second). The value of heal or damage echoed reduces by a % set in the spell on each echo. This effect type could support anyone casting these spells in range of the amplifier, although currently we're mostly restricting this effect to self-only (so only the caster of the amplifier gains the benefit of echoes). This may change in future.
The benefits of these new effects are:
o No buff slots are used! These spells are maintained via an "amplifier" that you summon. It remains in place for a short period of time and can have a mana upkeep (per tick). But there's no buff icon in either the long or short duration buff window, freeing up space for the other buffs.
o These "amplifiers" will passively boost spell effectiveness. Currently, they can boost the value of healing or damage spells in AoE (that's AoE, not group!) or they can "echo" a direct heal or damage spell.
o Echo effects will literally Echo the initial effect repeatedly, up to 6 times. The value of the echo decreases with each iteration and this "degradation" can be controlled in the spell effect. In theory, a heal could echo 6 times for the full 100% effect each second or just once for 1% of the original value.
o These effects do not increase hate. This is a huge part of these new "amplifiers"... The added damage or healing doesn't come from the caster, so you incur no additional hate.
o The benefits of these effects stacks with others. You can have two shaman cast a totem each of the same type and the benefits are additive, so a bonus of 25% and 35% will total up to an overall bonus of 60%. We may review this in future and apply a limit to the number of effects that can be stacked up this way, but for the moment it is open.
Some examples:
The shaman uses these new effects in the form of Totems. The shaman will cast the totem either on a target or on themselves. The location of the Totem is important (more on this later). Currently, Totems can either boost the effectiveness of heal and damage spells, either by boosting the value of the heal/damage effect of the spell being cast or by echoing the effect a number of times repeatedly after the initial effect hits (again, heal or damage).
The Totem of the Ghelf is one of the first totems the shaman might get. It's a self-only heal echo Totem. It will remain in place for 60 seconds after being cast and will drain 100 mana every tick. Echo Totems only affect direct heals or damage, so the Totem of the Ghelf will affect only the shaman's direct heals. It does this by echoing the effect 2 times. Each time the effect echoes, the value of the heal is reduced by 85%.
If the shaman casts a heal spell that heals for 2000 health, the first echo will land one second later for 300 health, then the second echo will land a further second later for 45 health. These two echoes generate no hate at all.
If the shaman moves out of the Totem's range, the totem expires. Otherwise it will remain in place for 60 seconds. If the shaman casts the totem again, it replaces the original. Only one Totem can be maintained at any time.
The Totem of Venom is a tier 5 AoE poison damage amplifier. It lasts for 60 seconds and requires 250 mana to maintain every tick. It will amplify the damage of all direct damage poison spells cast by any other player in range, or the DoT damage that ticks on any target in range, of the totem. This particular spell amplifies the damage by 25%.
So, if the shaman casts this totem near to a fight and within range of the rest of the raid and they then cast a poison based DoT that normally lands for 2500 damage a tick, it will instead land for 3125 damage a tick. At the same time, if a necromancer nearby casts a poison direct damage spell that normally lands for 3000 damage, it will instead land for 3750 damage. The more people casting poison damage spells, the bigger the bonus.
The shaman also has a line of Cold based Totems that are self-only. These are echo totems and they echo the damage the shaman causes with their cold spells (they have a whole new line of these for level 70 with this update). Echo totems don't affect DoT or HoT effects and these totems are self-only so no one else benefits from this totem but it will increase the shaman's damage output quite a lot.
One final example to explain how the amplifiers work differently with direct spells versus DoT/HoTs:
If the shaman casts an AoE heal totem close to themselves but a distance from the fight and the totem is out of range of the tank, direct heals will get boosted (because direct spells are affected if the totem is in range of the caster) but the tank won't see any benefit to HoTs (because HoT/DoT spells are affected if the totem is in range of the target).
It does mean you may need to think about where to place totems strategically. Self-only totems don't need any thought, they're always cast at the foot of the shaman. But the AoE types really do need to be placed carefully.
The Future of Spell Amplifiers
We've got a lot of plans for these new spell effects. Some of the feedback we've been getting recently has been around the need to improve the effectiveness of certain classes without adding to the already cluttered/full buff slots. We feel Spell Amplifiers will help us do this.
A prime example will be the echo type and wizards. We will now have a way to give the wizard class a line of spells that summon a Spell Amplifier (they might be called "prisms" for wizards) that echoes fire damage, for example. We really can go nuts with this because there is no added hate. The biggest issue with wizards is they're all about big, spiky damage and we feel it's important that they still have that but there's a strict upper-limit to how high you can push the damage and keep the class playable (a limitation most melee classes don't tend to have) so the "Echo Prisms" will let us give wizards a way of, literally, doing melee-like damage with their nukes (so cast a nuke that hits for 25k, then echo for 12k, 6k, 3k... Every second, then hit another 25k nuke...)
There will be some limitations. For example, we might put an absolute upper limit on echo damage (so you might not see an initial echo hit for greater than, say, 50k damage). The other main limiting factor is it'll cost lots of mana. We're really setting the mana consumption up high to start with (we'll need feedback on this of course). The other set of feedback we're getting from higher end players is that most classes have an abundance of mana but they're not keeping up with the health values required to heal or damage stuff. Well, these new amplifiers will give lots of different classes a chance to optionally boost one element of their performance but with a high overhead cost.
We're hoping this gives more situational, strategic control to players. We're definitely going to use it to synergise classes as well. Druids, for example, might get a line of amplifiers called "Beacons", which will perhaps boost the AoE damage of allies for specific resist types. Perhaps they'll employ cold damage bonuses or fire.
We're likely to introduce more effects as well. The potential is (we're looking into it, no promises yet) that we may have a way to implement a "splash" amplifier. This would potentially change a single target spell into an AoE or group spell (with diminishing returns). Ultimately, this may let us give shamans a way to get some minor group healing, finally.
It's really exciting and the Totems are just the beginning so please give the new spells a try and give us feedback!
The shaman has a whole new line of spells which we've called Totems. In order for the concept of Totems to work, we've introduced a few new spell effects that are unique to THF. These effects will be used a lot for other classes as well. These effects are:
o Summon Spell Amplifer: Summons a temporary object (in the case of the shaman, it's a Totem) that has a mana upkeep and variable duration. The item remains static for the duration and its benefits can only be used if in range of the item. The amplifier does nothing unless it's given one of the below effects:
o Amplify Spell Healing: Increases the effectiveness of heals in range (that's AOE, not group), by a variable %. For direct heals, the range is calculated from the amplifier to the caster. For HoT spells, the range is calculated from the amplifier to the target of the heal.
o Amplify Spell Damage: Increases the effectiveness of spell damage in range (again, this is AOE, not group), by a variable %. For direct damage, the range is calculated from the amplifier to the caster and for DoT spells, the range is calculated from the amplifier to the target.
o Amplify Spell Echo: Applies an echo effect to direct heals or direct damage (or potentially both...) when the caster is in range of the totem. The echo will repeat a variable number of times (maximum 6) depending on the spell and the frequency of the echo can be controlled as well (although we're mostly setting this to an echo every 1 second). The value of heal or damage echoed reduces by a % set in the spell on each echo. This effect type could support anyone casting these spells in range of the amplifier, although currently we're mostly restricting this effect to self-only (so only the caster of the amplifier gains the benefit of echoes). This may change in future.
The benefits of these new effects are:
o No buff slots are used! These spells are maintained via an "amplifier" that you summon. It remains in place for a short period of time and can have a mana upkeep (per tick). But there's no buff icon in either the long or short duration buff window, freeing up space for the other buffs.
o These "amplifiers" will passively boost spell effectiveness. Currently, they can boost the value of healing or damage spells in AoE (that's AoE, not group!) or they can "echo" a direct heal or damage spell.
o Echo effects will literally Echo the initial effect repeatedly, up to 6 times. The value of the echo decreases with each iteration and this "degradation" can be controlled in the spell effect. In theory, a heal could echo 6 times for the full 100% effect each second or just once for 1% of the original value.
o These effects do not increase hate. This is a huge part of these new "amplifiers"... The added damage or healing doesn't come from the caster, so you incur no additional hate.
o The benefits of these effects stacks with others. You can have two shaman cast a totem each of the same type and the benefits are additive, so a bonus of 25% and 35% will total up to an overall bonus of 60%. We may review this in future and apply a limit to the number of effects that can be stacked up this way, but for the moment it is open.
Some examples:
The shaman uses these new effects in the form of Totems. The shaman will cast the totem either on a target or on themselves. The location of the Totem is important (more on this later). Currently, Totems can either boost the effectiveness of heal and damage spells, either by boosting the value of the heal/damage effect of the spell being cast or by echoing the effect a number of times repeatedly after the initial effect hits (again, heal or damage).
The Totem of the Ghelf is one of the first totems the shaman might get. It's a self-only heal echo Totem. It will remain in place for 60 seconds after being cast and will drain 100 mana every tick. Echo Totems only affect direct heals or damage, so the Totem of the Ghelf will affect only the shaman's direct heals. It does this by echoing the effect 2 times. Each time the effect echoes, the value of the heal is reduced by 85%.
If the shaman casts a heal spell that heals for 2000 health, the first echo will land one second later for 300 health, then the second echo will land a further second later for 45 health. These two echoes generate no hate at all.
If the shaman moves out of the Totem's range, the totem expires. Otherwise it will remain in place for 60 seconds. If the shaman casts the totem again, it replaces the original. Only one Totem can be maintained at any time.
The Totem of Venom is a tier 5 AoE poison damage amplifier. It lasts for 60 seconds and requires 250 mana to maintain every tick. It will amplify the damage of all direct damage poison spells cast by any other player in range, or the DoT damage that ticks on any target in range, of the totem. This particular spell amplifies the damage by 25%.
So, if the shaman casts this totem near to a fight and within range of the rest of the raid and they then cast a poison based DoT that normally lands for 2500 damage a tick, it will instead land for 3125 damage a tick. At the same time, if a necromancer nearby casts a poison direct damage spell that normally lands for 3000 damage, it will instead land for 3750 damage. The more people casting poison damage spells, the bigger the bonus.
The shaman also has a line of Cold based Totems that are self-only. These are echo totems and they echo the damage the shaman causes with their cold spells (they have a whole new line of these for level 70 with this update). Echo totems don't affect DoT or HoT effects and these totems are self-only so no one else benefits from this totem but it will increase the shaman's damage output quite a lot.
One final example to explain how the amplifiers work differently with direct spells versus DoT/HoTs:
If the shaman casts an AoE heal totem close to themselves but a distance from the fight and the totem is out of range of the tank, direct heals will get boosted (because direct spells are affected if the totem is in range of the caster) but the tank won't see any benefit to HoTs (because HoT/DoT spells are affected if the totem is in range of the target).
It does mean you may need to think about where to place totems strategically. Self-only totems don't need any thought, they're always cast at the foot of the shaman. But the AoE types really do need to be placed carefully.
The Future of Spell Amplifiers
We've got a lot of plans for these new spell effects. Some of the feedback we've been getting recently has been around the need to improve the effectiveness of certain classes without adding to the already cluttered/full buff slots. We feel Spell Amplifiers will help us do this.
A prime example will be the echo type and wizards. We will now have a way to give the wizard class a line of spells that summon a Spell Amplifier (they might be called "prisms" for wizards) that echoes fire damage, for example. We really can go nuts with this because there is no added hate. The biggest issue with wizards is they're all about big, spiky damage and we feel it's important that they still have that but there's a strict upper-limit to how high you can push the damage and keep the class playable (a limitation most melee classes don't tend to have) so the "Echo Prisms" will let us give wizards a way of, literally, doing melee-like damage with their nukes (so cast a nuke that hits for 25k, then echo for 12k, 6k, 3k... Every second, then hit another 25k nuke...)
There will be some limitations. For example, we might put an absolute upper limit on echo damage (so you might not see an initial echo hit for greater than, say, 50k damage). The other main limiting factor is it'll cost lots of mana. We're really setting the mana consumption up high to start with (we'll need feedback on this of course). The other set of feedback we're getting from higher end players is that most classes have an abundance of mana but they're not keeping up with the health values required to heal or damage stuff. Well, these new amplifiers will give lots of different classes a chance to optionally boost one element of their performance but with a high overhead cost.
We're hoping this gives more situational, strategic control to players. We're definitely going to use it to synergise classes as well. Druids, for example, might get a line of amplifiers called "Beacons", which will perhaps boost the AoE damage of allies for specific resist types. Perhaps they'll employ cold damage bonuses or fire.
We're likely to introduce more effects as well. The potential is (we're looking into it, no promises yet) that we may have a way to implement a "splash" amplifier. This would potentially change a single target spell into an AoE or group spell (with diminishing returns). Ultimately, this may let us give shamans a way to get some minor group healing, finally.
It's really exciting and the Totems are just the beginning so please give the new spells a try and give us feedback!