The change that the Blood magic Passive needs

Hey all! So i've been thinking a lot about why there is almost no builds what-so-ever that uses the blood magic keystone in the games´ current state. So the main reasons i can think of are these:

- No auras are really possible (without going low-life of course...)
- not enough benefits to use the keystone over the gem.

These two reasons far outweigh the benefits of running blood magic on any character. not only will a character with auras have a far better physical & magic defense, they will also have lower damage. aura characters also always have an option to switch out the auras they use to be way more versatile in end game.

I do get that there should be differences in how characters perform in different aspects of the game, but as it is now it is simply too weak an option.

My suggestion to fix this would be to add something like:

adding 4% Life regenerated per second to the keystone. This would make the characters that do decide to run blood magic have a higher defense on that point which would make it a viable choice for dedicated tanks, some hardcore chaaracters and even those that do decide to take the 40% less life reserved node and opt to rely on regen to make up for the lesser amount of life

The major problem with the Blood Magic Keystone, that not even the passive behind it can fix, is the current state of auras.

Now, I don't have an "aura monster" like ele buzzsaw, or the like. The most auras / reservations I have run on a char is 3. My current Molten Strike 1h + Sword Duelist.

Hatred + Vitality + Tempest Shield. This leaves me with a whopping 28 mana unreserved. I just simply run the Blood Magic Support to compensate.

I focused on blocking / Life regen on the char, and so far, at level 71, it's proving to be at least viable in 66 / 67 maps.

I don't run a single thing in the build off of mana. It's solely for reservation to the auras. It's even possible, that as I continue to level the reduced mana gem in his gear, and get a few more levels, I could get to a point where I'm adding the ability to run a "Purity of X" element gem in his setup as well.

I would never, under any circumstances, run the blood magic keystone with this char. The auras are too vital. The current mana reservation to life reservation (even with the keystone + Reduced mana gems) is far to great to even consider it. Between trying to get enough DPS / Life / Defenses in the tree, coupled with the location of BLood Magic, it would just be impossible to try and build something that had enough HP at 50% life to make it work.

Until they come up with a reasonable solution to auras, (or give BM users a legitimate way to run them), the keystone will sit unused in end game situations.

Blood magic is useless because it removes the most important part of any build: auras.

Unless BM can run auras effectively, it will never be an option. This is a mechanical issue, not a numerical issue.

i would take your sugestion 1 step further:
mortal conviction:
increased efects of buffs on you by 30-40%
70-80& less skills reservation cost
reservation becomes degeneration
5-7% life regeneration

please note that numbers are just examples, the idea is to give something unique to BM.
as an example:

60% reservation with this node would become 18-12% of max hp degeneration, with the aura nodes and reduce mana gem it could be droped to 3-7% of max hp degeneration. no need to say that stacking more than 2-3 auras would be nearly imposible to sustain.
reason behind this is that BM will offer a choice between traditionals auramancers running with 4-5 auras or BM auramancers with only 2-3 stronger auras.
-
non aura chars will olso find the keystone usefull since big life regen and increased effects of buffs is lways welcome on a BM user.

"

shoju wrote:

Until they come up with a reasonable solution to auras, (or give BM users a legitimate way to run them), the keystone will sit unused in end game situations.

I am not talking about making blood magic keystone to be viable for every char, just a few. It isn't supposed to be like everything else, This is also why critical strike melee builds do way more damage than resolute technique melee builds. they all have different purposes. It has to be a hard choice whether or not to use something, not a must. It is a very thin line.

Well auras are a problem, but i wouldn't say auras are the reason blood magic isnt viable. The main problem is the amount of extra skill points a build would need to make up for not having the auras the character would have been able to use without blood magic. My initial thought was that blood magic should have an added 30% max life or 50% melee physical damage. this would make builds be able to get the extra defense or damage that one aura would give the character anyway. The problem was that some characters would get too powerful, thus the 4% life regen. This change wouldn't make it viable for every single cookie-cutter melee character but a lot more of a choice for some builds to give up damage for the extra survive ability.

"

caboom wrote:

i would take your sugestion 1 step further:
mortal conviction:
increased efects of buffs on you by 30-40%
70-80& less skills reservation cost
reservation becomes degeneration
5-7% life regeneration

Quite a unique idea, it would make building a BM character something special at least!

Lol, here's one for you, I'll spoon feed some of the obvious concepts that you'd think GGG would have floated around their own office:


Option 1) Adds a Percent of Reserved Life as additional Life Regen
~ Life Regen might help you deal with living on the edge, but why not make it so that more life reserved means more life regen (obviously this would have balancing considerations)

Option 2) Converts Reserved Life into Life Degen at some Percent
~ This means you'd be able to have as Many Auras as your Life Regen Permits... without risking being one-shot (because you won't have less max life), and of course your skill usage and aura usage would be competing for your life regen

Option 3) Potentially Fatal damage is taken from reserved life before killing you, while subsequently deactivating said auras
~ This again lets you reserve much of your life, without fearing the one-shot, but of course here we'd remove the reduced reservation node



The funny Thing about Option 2, is I almost wonder why aura's don't run more like this with mana (or health)... Flat Mana reservation was fail. Percent reservation is proving mixed results. But mana drain in things like Artic Armor is pretty much successful... is it not?

"

caboom wrote:

i would take your sugestion 1 step further:
mortal conviction:
increased efects of buffs on you by 30-40%
70-80& less skills reservation cost
reservation becomes degeneration
5-7% life regeneration

please note that numbers are just examples, the idea is to give something unique to BM.
as an example:

60% reservation with this node would become 18-12% of max hp degeneration, with the aura nodes and reduce mana gem it could be droped to 3-7% of max hp degeneration. no need to say that stacking more than 2-3 auras would be nearly imposible to sustain.
reason behind this is that BM will offer a choice between traditionals auramancers running with 4-5 auras or BM auramancers with only 2-3 stronger auras.
-
non aura chars will olso find the keystone usefull since big life regen and increased effects of buffs is lways welcome on a BM user.

Reservation cannot be changed into degeneration.

If this were to happen, Frenzy charges would be sought and the Blood Dance boots would be required.

Then, if you cannot regenerate life enough you would die to your own auras. So stacking the already insane damage potential enemies have and huge degeneration amounts from auras would essentially make it worse than it already is.

"

Priory wrote:

Well auras are a problem, but i wouldn't say auras are the reason blood magic isnt viable. The main problem is the amount of extra skill points a build would need to make up for not having the auras the character would have been able to use without blood magic.

Auras are the problem, and the only problem.

How much does Grace offer? More than a perfectly rolled chest piece.

How much does Determination offer? At least 50% more armor.

Auras are the problem, because they offer so much and non-BM builds can take advantage of at least two without any problems or investment. BM would need huge investment to take advantage of just one aura right now.

Skill points =/= auras.

"

Priory wrote:

My initial thought was that blood magic should have an added 30% max life or 50% melee physical damage. this would make builds be able to get the extra defense or damage that one aura would give the character anyway. The problem was that some characters would get too powerful, thus the 4% life regen. This change wouldn't make it viable for every single cookie-cutter melee character but a lot more of a choice for some builds to give up damage for the extra survive ability.

Increased damage or life isn't going to cut it. Auras can offer anything and everything. If you include Tempest Shield, you can get everything from defenses, resistances, damage, speed, block, and regeneration.

So in order to do this numerically, you'd have to boost all of those attributes to counterbalance the power of auras.

Not an option.

"

Option 1) Adds a Percent of Reserved Life as additional Life Regen
~ Life Regen might help you deal with living on the edge, but why not make it so that more life reserved means more life regen (obviously this would have balancing considerations)

Not going to work.

Let's say you have 7k life on a BM keystone character. You end up reserving 60% of your life running auras. Assuming you get a 25% return in regeneration for the reservation, you regenerate at least 15% of your life per second, and in this case 1,050 life per second.

2,800 life, even with 1,050 regeneration, isn't going to survive a single hit. All it takes is one good rare to crit and you're out of the game.

"

Option 2) Converts Reserved Life into Life Degen at some Percent
~ This means you'd be able to have as Many Auras as your Life Regen Permits... without risking being one-shot (because you won't have less max life), and of course your skill usage and aura usage would be competing for your life regen

This wouldn't work. Even after GGG balanced the degeneration amount of auras, it would still prevent BM from running more than one aura effectively with investment in its current state.

If you run enough auras to cause 15% life degeneration, imagine hitting a rare with Corrupted Blood and then having your degeneration on top of it.

But let's look at this mechanically. Auras are painful for BM and most builds because they lower your potential life/mana. MoM builds cannot reserve mana at all unless running an aura that would benefit their mana more than it would cost them. This is solely due to the way auras work.

So if auras are degenerative for BM, they then should be degenerative for MoM builds.

"

Option 3) Potentially Fatal damage is taken from reserved life before killing you, while subsequently deactivating said auras
~ This again lets you reserve much of your life, without fearing the one-shot, but of course here we'd remove the reduced reservation node

Another mechanical issue. If this works for BM, it should work for other builds.

Furthermore, this wouldn't prevent a BM build from reserving as much of its life and using max block. Max block would prevent damage from being taken and because of that no auras would be removed.

"

The funny Thing about Option 2, is I almost wonder why aura's don't run more like this with mana (or health)... Flat Mana reservation was fail. Percent reservation is proving mixed results. But mana drain in things like Artic Armor is pretty much successful... is it not?

Because auras provide a huge boost to power. In order to compensate for something that gives you 50% more armor, it's best left as a reservation. 50% more armor for x% of your life/mana, or x% degeneration of your life/mana? Degeneration would be easier to deal with.

@Natharias

30% life would be able to cut it. as i said it shouldn't be something everyone MUST go for, just something that would make it more viable for those few builds.

For example a flame totem marauder that doesn't really get too much from having auras in the first place.

But yeah as Dirkaustin says, there will probably be a huge nerf to auras in the expansion so i guess we can just wait and see :P

"

Natharias wrote:

"

caboom wrote:

i would take your sugestion 1 step further:
mortal conviction:
increased efects of buffs on you by 30-40%
70-80& less skills reservation cost
reservation becomes degeneration
5-7% life regeneration

please note that numbers are just examples, the idea is to give something unique to BM.
as an example:

60% reservation with this node would become 18-12% of max hp degeneration, with the aura nodes and reduce mana gem it could be droped to 3-7% of max hp degeneration. no need to say that stacking more than 2-3 auras would be nearly imposible to sustain.
reason behind this is that BM will offer a choice between traditionals auramancers running with 4-5 auras or BM auramancers with only 2-3 stronger auras.
-
non aura chars will olso find the keystone usefull since big life regen and increased effects of buffs is lways welcome on a BM user.

Reservation cannot be changed into degeneration.

If this were to happen, Frenzy charges would be sought and the Blood Dance boots would be required.

Then, if you cannot regenerate life enough you would die to your own auras. So stacking the already insane damage potential enemies have and huge degeneration amounts from auras would essentially make it worse than it already is.

hence why i said that this would be a node that will only aloud you to use 1 or 2 auras, 3 if going full regen with 8 frenzy charges and blooddance boots.
the whole joke of that node is that you dont stack lots of auras, you focus in a few.