Mana ring. I don't.

SSF

I came here for mana ring, but may as well bring up berserk/enrage/wtfglowyredenemiesthingerdinger too.

Mana ring is larger/smaller depending on the size of the mob- its more annoying depending on the speed of the mob in combination with the space available to move in the map. In short, its usually extremely annoying. Combine that with enemy regeneration and some other shtuff, warping, and it can be that lifelong sought after joy that brings a tear to the eye.

I rarely ever die to it, but I have a mini stroke everytime I see the blue ring. HA, I bet everyone does this, you see the ring- and then you watch how fast it moves towards you to gauge how annoying the experience is going to be. Faster it moves, greater the pain.

There isn't really a way to play around it either. Staying out is usually not possible due to speed and space, going in is often suboptimal. Besides all of that, you're often getting your mana drained regardless.

Overall I think the design is just poor, but the concept deserves to line the bottom of a trash can.



The berserk thing... rarely these red glowy rares show up- that are always terrors.

They are always very fast, hit hard, hit fast, are slightly bigger(bigger range) and just generally buttfaces. They remind me of when mobs could cancel their attacks... or move mid attack- whatever it was, when they would just run you down non-stop. You have an attack movement penalty, they don't- they lols on you.

Its not the same thing, but if feeeeels like the same thing. Then they also drop any sort of stuns and ccs like... MUCH faster, like 70% faster or something crazy. A stun feels like a knockback, armor break is only up for an instance- meanwhile my annoying debuff is pegged.

Stay INSIDE the ring, and dance around the mob. Scary, sure, especially for a ranged character, but fully doable. Having to step outside your comfort zone every now and then is generally a good thing.

I had a boss in the Vaal Temple with the Mana Drain ring mod. A rare also spawned in the room with the same mods as the boss. The other mod?
Trail of Ice.

Their rings constantly overlapped in the small room. There was literally nowhere for me to stand and no way to get away. In the safe zone for one? Oops, the other one is draining you. Then my movement/action speed is at like -30% or whatever because, hey, let's play a game! The floor is ice! So I couldn't really attack either.

For reference, this happened on my first visit to the Vaal Temple in the past, so early Act 4.


Also... the thing I don't get about the Mana Drain ring thing is that... this game is usually SO good about saying what it means and meaning what it says, verbatim.
It says it drains mana. Fine; drain my mana.
Why does it drain life after your mana is gone?
Maybe it was always this way; I never played PoE1, I don't know, but I shouldn't have to know because that isn't really the point. There is no indication that it will drain your health after your mana is gone. That was a nasty surprise the first time I encountered it and I'm still a bit baffled by it tbh, but at the same time I guess I can't really think of a better way to word the mod itself to make it both descriptive and succinct either.
Also not sure why it has to do both, but I digress.