How Exactly Do Flasks Recharge?

How exactly do flasks recharge? Does the game take turns allocating charges to each non-empty flask round robin style, or does it recharge the leftmost one first, or does it recharge all of them simultaneously?

I ask this because if, hypothetically, killing one enemy gives +1 charge to each non-full flask, it would be best for overall recovery to use flasks which are full whenever possible so that you can recover more flask charges with each kill. So rather than just use whichever flask is most appropriate to the situation, it would be best if I cycled through flasks, using each one in turn so that as few as possible are full (and not gaining charges) at any given time. This seems to me like an unnecessary complication to optimal play. Just another thing to think about that doesn't really add anything to the game.

Personally I think a round robin style allocation would be best as it requires less busy work. The player receives some amount of flask charges for each kill, and the game takes turns giving one flask charge to each non-full flask. The optimal choice in this system is to use whichever flask is most appropriate for the situation without worrying about missing out on valuable flask charges. So if you're taking small amounts of damage you use the slow recovery flask, and if you're taking lots of damage quickly you use the instant healing flask. Whichever you choose you don't have to worry because the total rate at which you recover flask charges is the same.

The only downside to that system that I can think of is that if you're in a situation where you completely run out of charges in all of your flasks, you would spend a longer time waiting for any one of your flasks to build up enough charges to use it once than you would if all non-empty flasks recharged with each kill. Considering that, a round robin style allocation in which the number of charges you gain per kill scales with the overall average fullness of all your flasks would fix that problem.

So for example you would gain +1 charge per kill for each 100% of a flask that's empty. One empty flask is +1 charge, or two flasks at 50% is +1 charge. The difference between that and the current system is pretty much just that you can't cycle through flasks to increase your overall flask recovery rate.

So as far as I can tell, that system would eliminate any disadvantage that could be had from failing to cycle potions while still retaining the same potion recovery rates of a system where all potions get +1 charge per kill. The best of both worlds as far as I can see.

Excellent question! =^[.]^=

All flasks get one charge whenever you kill an enemy. So yes, it is best to use from all your flasks equally from the perspective of charge management. Of course due to the magical mods on flasks, some people like to use certain flasks more or less often.

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tpapp157 wrote:

All flasks get one charge whenever you kill an enemy. So yes, it is best to use from all your flasks equally from the perspective of charge management. Of course due to the magical mods on flasks, some people like to use certain flasks more or less often.

The fact that people like to use certain flasks more or less often is precisely why I'm somewhat disappointed by the current system.

Incidentally, it used to be "one charge to a random unfilled flask per kill", which resulted in the unintended behavior of players only using (or even only equipping) a single "best" flask.

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Skivverus wrote:

Incidentally, it used to be "one charge to a random unfilled flask per kill", which resulted in the unintended behavior of players only using (or even only equipping) a single "best" flask.

I can see then why they decided to change the system, but I don't see how they really solved their original problem.

If players were able to get by with just a single flask, that in and of itself is the problem. Flask capacity obviously needed to be reduced.

As it is, they've gone over to the other extreme where players use all flasks even when they don't want to, which I don't think is any better than the original situation.

I really think my solution would fix the problems of both sytems. Players would have lower charge recovery the more full their flasks are which prevents players from relying on just a single flask, while at the same time there's no advantage to cycling through flasks, and neither is there an incentive to drink from any particular flask other than the one that's most appropriate to the situation.

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Strill wrote:

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tpapp157 wrote:

All flasks get one charge whenever you kill an enemy. So yes, it is best to use from all your flasks equally from the perspective of charge management. Of course due to the magical mods on flasks, some people like to use certain flasks more or less often.

The fact that people like to use certain flasks more or less often is precisely why I'm somewhat disappointed by the current system.

I don't understand. Why would that be a problem?

Hell, I keep one flask around only because it has like a 60% buff to evade while refilling my mana. I don't really use it to recharge my mana (it's pretty slow being a somewhat lower level flask than my other, so I'll usually use it and then a faster flask at the same time), I use it for the buff.

I don't understand why this should be a problem, though. It's a great part of the system, I think.

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Melonpan wrote:

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Strill wrote:

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tpapp157 wrote:

All flasks get one charge whenever you kill an enemy. So yes, it is best to use from all your flasks equally from the perspective of charge management. Of course due to the magical mods on flasks, some people like to use certain flasks more or less often.

The fact that people like to use certain flasks more or less often is precisely why I'm somewhat disappointed by the current system.

I don't understand. Why would that be a problem?

Hell, I keep one flask around only because it has like a 60% buff to evade while refilling my mana. I don't really use it to recharge my mana (it's pretty slow being a somewhat lower level flask than my other, so I'll usually use it and then a faster flask at the same time), I use it for the buff.

I don't understand why this should be a problem, though. It's a great part of the system, I think.

You misunderstand me. I totally agree that players should be using their flasks based on the utility of the flask. The problem is that in the current system, a player looking to optimize flask charge recovery should not use the flask which they would prefer, but should instead cycle through flasks so as few flasks as possible are full and not gaining charges. I don't think this is a very interesting mechanic, thus I proposed a system where the optimal solution is to use flasks based on which is most appropriate for the situation, rather than which one is full.

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tpapp157 wrote:

All flasks get one charge whenever you kill an enemy. So yes, it is best to use from all your flasks equally from the perspective of charge management. Of course due to the magical mods on flasks, some people like to use certain flasks more or less often.

This.

I think it creates an interesting choice for the player. They can use all their flasks evenly to get the maximum charge refill benefit. Or they can always use their best flask to get the most regen/mod benefit. Not to mention that the current system where all flasks recharge is very simple to understand and it means you don't have to be checking your flasks in the middle of combat to see which flasks did or didn't get charges and how many.