#0 - March 13, 2009, 5:56 a.m.
Throughput and responsiveness should be the challenge, not mana management. Who's idea of fun is mana management?
Does increasing cooldowns and reducing energy or rage make DPSing more fun?
Does reducing mana and rage regeneration make tanking more fun?
No, you've done just the opposite, because that's what makes the game more fun. What makes playing those roles fun is that you are constantly working all your abilities, and to maximize your contribution there is a good deal of intensity.
Likewise, healing is only fun and stimulating when it is intense, when I have to go as fast as I can, and I am just barely keeping my group hanging on. And the sigh of relief when the boss drops is what is satisfying.
Running out of mana shouldn't be a consideration. It's an idea that should be left to die.
The challenge should be whether I have the throughput to keep up with the intense rate of incoming damage, and the responsiveness to respond to large spikes.
That's what I find fun about healing.
Why are we moving in the opposite direction?
Want to know how to make healing more fun and still make encounters more challenging without nerfing healing and regeneration?
- Reduce the size of tank HP pools and increase spike damage
- Make the timing required in DPS rotations less forgiving and make increased use of aggressive enrage timers and stacking buffs/debuffs that constrain fight duration rather than mana
- Increase the number of encounters where mobs have phases or adds that are untauntable and have random aggro
