Blood Magic - make it good for blood mages

From recent memory, the only meta blood magic builds I can think of are aura bot and explosive arrow. Any other memey build I can think of is strictly stronger in a different form, and this annoys me because I would love to play a reasonably strong mage that uses their blood to cast spells. I have a few different ideas to help make blood magic a more reasonable option, without making it a must take powerhouse of a node.


Currently there is no good opportunity cost for taking blood magic. The reward of taking the 4 blood magic nodes is that you get 35% increased life, 50% less mana reserved, and you spend life instead of mana for skills. The cost of this, however, is incredible. You have no mana. Let's say this means you lose 2 auras. Each of these auras are granting you either Damage or Defense. And these are no small numbers. Enfeeble is 30% less damage taken, temp chains is 30% slower enemies, wrath is 20% more damage, herald of ash is 15% more damage, Vulnerability blasphemy is 40% damage. With just the loss of 2 auras you are losing a variation of (approximately) 50% damage or defense.


A counter argument to this is that you can still cast auras and they are even cheaper. But, this argument falls short when you realize how much life you lose in order to run an aura. A 25% aura becomes a 12.5% less health modifier. This just traded % less health for % more damage on a 1 to 1 scale for a net change of 0 in the case of herald of ash. A little underwhelming.


I would suggest that either damage or defense is innately added behind the blood magic node to make up for this and make it viable and reasonable for non-aura bot builds to consider taking. I know I just said that 2 auras are worth 50% damage/defense and I know that the convenience of casting with health should come at a cost, but I think a generous buff is going to be needed to bring blood magic into the realm of consideration in almost every case.

Below are some buffs off the top of my head that I would love to see one or a combination of a few to make blood magic a node everyone doesn't just overlook. Please do comment and criticize below.


Damage Options

#% more damage
Generic damage makes since, because both casters and attackers could use the buff.


#% more spell damage
Spell damage makes since, because the node is blood MAGIC.


#% more melee damage
I like this one the least, but I just want to see a buff to the node, and if it has to come like this, so be it.



Defense Options

#% damage leeched as life
This allows characters to play blood magic without life leech gem or life pots.


#% increased life recovery rate
Thematically makes since for a character relent on regenerating health to use skills.


#% of life regenerated per second
Similarly to the one above, thematically makes since for a regen relent character.


#% less damage taken
This would help make up for defense lost from auras and blasphemies.


#% more maximum life
It would act in the same way that the Chaos Inoculation area used to.





Ultimately I posted this because I would love for someone from GGG to see this and get inspired to bring blood magic up to the power level of the current state of the game. BM was decent like 10 years ago, but since then the game has power crept and blood magic has been left in the dust.

BM keystone could use a buff but not sure a flat more to offence or defence will solve anything since it will be mostly used by builds that overall dont reserve much in the first place.


i think a new keystone that grants a buff based on flat life reserved should be introduced behind BM keystone so the more one reserves the bigger the benefit say:

1% increased global damage every 50 life reserved
1% increaced global defence every 50 life reserved
1% reduced elemental damage taken when hit (should not apply to dot dmg) by 1% every 300 life reserved

I do agree with you in the since that straight offence or defense buffs may not be the best way to go about it. But, it is a lot simpler and thus a lot easier to predict what will be effected by the changes. I think coming up with some interesting utility ideas could certainly work.


As for your suggestion, you must also remember that all changes to BM also effect the aurabots. Now imagine an aurabot with 100% increased global defenses or something stupid like that because they reserved all of their life. This is part of the reason that I would like to see a damage buff or regeneration based buff to the node as those do not benefit aurabots nearly as much.


Also, I personally do not want BM be a node all about auras they way it is now. I want to see it be a node that interacts with casting or attacking, considering that it is a node called Blood MAGIC and is a cool idea.


I am curious what builds you are speaking "that overall dont reserve much in the first place". The only one I know of is EA and it already uses BM.

Don't forget

Just throwing it here, this ring is a thing for BM users (and I know, you can't of coures cast curse.
This does not mean that I am implying that BM is fine of course.


What about some kind of bonus if no life is reserved ? Or bonus proportional to unreserved life ( flat or %, it could be tricky to balance but it could be a good way to encourage builds that use one or no auras outside of essence worm imo ).

Btw, the point of BM keystone for aura bots is only ... to not need to use prism guardian ? because that keystone isn't super close to other aura clusters.

"

Btw, the point of BM keystone for aura bots is only ... to not need to use prism guardian ? because that keystone isn't super close to other aura clusters.

No, aurabots take it because of the 50% LESS modifier it provides to mana reservation. This is a "more" modifier to the reduced mana reservation nodes.


Also, i'm not saying that all aurabots take BM. I am saying that the ONLY two builds I can think of that aren't strictly better in another form are aurabot and explosive arrow.


And again, I do refer to auras in my post only because they are what is lost by going BM. I would prefer GGG to NOT do something with auras and blood magic. If you run BM you should be rewarded in a manner different than auras for defense or damage. I was only saying that auras provide an insane buff and are lost to BM for the benefit of only 35% increased health (which still has to be gotten with 3 passives).


Let's say that tomorrow the nodes behind BM give 50% more generic damage. Do builds path to take it? The answer I would say is maybe, maybe not. And that is an insane damage modifier. Yet, some/most builds would pass it up for auras/ other mana stuff.

"

KiwiGivl wrote:

"

Btw, the point of BM keystone for aura bots is only ... to not need to use prism guardian ? because that keystone isn't super close to other aura clusters.

No, aurabots take it because of the 50% LESS modifier it provides to mana reservation. This is a "more" modifier to the reduced mana reservation nodes.

If you take prism to reserve auras on your life, you don't need to take BM since 50% less life reservation on life only <=> normal reservation on life + mana ..... if your objective is only to stack auras.

"

Fruz wrote:

"

KiwiGivl wrote:

"

Btw, the point of BM keystone for aura bots is only ... to not need to use prism guardian ? because that keystone isn't super close to other aura clusters.

No, aurabots take it because of the 50% LESS modifier it provides to mana reservation. This is a "more" modifier to the reduced mana reservation nodes.

If you take prism to reserve auras on your life, you don't need to take BM since 50% less life reservation on life only <=> normal reservation on life + mana ..... if your objective is only to stack auras.

Yes, that is true, however, only 3 auras can be reserved on life in that case.

At any rate, I am not aurabot master and this post is not about aurabots. It is about BM and loosely aurabots that take BM.

Though, this does go to prove my point even farther aurabots are even disinterested in the nodes. I remember a few that took it which is why I included it with explosive arrow.

"

KiwiGivl wrote:

"

Btw, the point of BM keystone for aura bots is only ... to not need to use prism guardian ? because that keystone isn't super close to other aura clusters.

No, aurabots take it because of the 50% LESS modifier it provides to mana reservation. This is a "more" modifier to the reduced mana reservation nodes.


Also, i'm not saying that all aurabots take BM. I am saying that the ONLY two builds I can think of that aren't strictly better in another form are aurabot and explosive arrow.


And again, I do refer to auras in my post only because they are what is lost by going BM. I would prefer GGG to NOT do something with auras and blood magic. If you run BM you should be rewarded in a manner different than auras for defense or damage. I was only saying that auras provide an insane buff and are lost to BM for the benefit of only 35% increased health (which still has to be gotten with 3 passives).


Let's say that tomorrow the nodes behind BM give 50% more generic damage. Do builds path to take it? The answer I would say is maybe, maybe not. And that is an insane damage modifier. Yet, some/most builds would pass it up for auras/ other mana stuff.

Ouch that hurt. You should make the calculation first before displaying it as an advantage. In that case you would prefer reduced / additive behaviour.

"

SuperMotte wrote:

"

KiwiGivl wrote:

"

Btw, the point of BM keystone for aura bots is only ... to not need to use prism guardian ? because that keystone isn't super close to other aura clusters.

No, aurabots take it because of the 50% LESS modifier it provides to mana reservation. This is a "more" modifier to the reduced mana reservation nodes.


Also, i'm not saying that all aurabots take BM. I am saying that the ONLY two builds I can think of that aren't strictly better in another form are aurabot and explosive arrow.


And again, I do refer to auras in my post only because they are what is lost by going BM. I would prefer GGG to NOT do something with auras and blood magic. If you run BM you should be rewarded in a manner different than auras for defense or damage. I was only saying that auras provide an insane buff and are lost to BM for the benefit of only 35% increased health (which still has to be gotten with 3 passives).


Let's say that tomorrow the nodes behind BM give 50% more generic damage. Do builds path to take it? The answer I would say is maybe, maybe not. And that is an insane damage modifier. Yet, some/most builds would pass it up for auras/ other mana stuff.

Ouch that hurt. You should make the calculation first before displaying it as an advantage. In that case you would prefer reduced / additive behaviour.

Again, this is not a post about aurabots in their current state. I remember SOME aurabot builds that USED to at the very least take BM for mana reservation. If this is no longer the case it only PROVES my point about BM needing a buff because no builds are using it, as they are all much stronger without it (except for EA maybe).

My post is about how BM is weak and needs an incentive for builds, particularly mages in my opinion, to take it.

"

KiwiGivl wrote:

"

SuperMotte wrote:

"

KiwiGivl wrote:

...

No, aurabots take it because of the 50% LESS modifier it provides to mana reservation. This is a "more" modifier to the reduced mana reservation nodes.


Also, i'm not saying that all aurabots take BM. I am saying that the ONLY two builds I can think of that aren't strictly better in another form are aurabot and explosive arrow.


And again, I do refer to auras in my post only because they are what is lost by going BM. I would prefer GGG to NOT do something with auras and blood magic. If you run BM you should be rewarded in a manner different than auras for defense or damage. I was only saying that auras provide an insane buff and are lost to BM for the benefit of only 35% increased health (which still has to be gotten with 3 passives).


Let's say that tomorrow the nodes behind BM give 50% more generic damage. Do builds path to take it? The answer I would say is maybe, maybe not. And that is an insane damage modifier. Yet, some/most builds would pass it up for auras/ other mana stuff.

Ouch that hurt. You should make the calculation first before displaying it as an advantage. In that case you would prefer reduced / additive behaviour.

Again, this is not a post about aurabots in their current state. I remember SOME aurabot builds that USED to at the very least take BM for mana reservation. If this is no longer the case it only PROVES my point about BM needing a buff because no builds are using it, as they are all much stronger without it (except for EA maybe).

My post is about how BM is weak and needs an incentive for builds, particularly mages in my opinion, to take it.

I don't know how aurabots are used. I'm only refering to your statement that implied that LESS is better in that case than REDUCED which is only true when you have stacked a higher value for increased mana-reservation than for reduced. But I would assume that most aurabots stack reduced mana-reservation and have no increased mana-reservation and that they target getting the least possible reservation -> having another 50% reduced mana-reservation is a lot better than having 50% less mana-reservation. That's all I wanted to say.