With the new utility runes I dont use food much to heal anymore. I like this system better but it does leave food somewhat purposeless. This is a great opportunity to give a new funcion to food items. Here are some of my ideas:
1 Buff focus: Most food already give chartacter buffs and if the healing is nerfed but the buffs expanded they would be great long term buffs unlike potions that give sort term buffs.
2 Feed the hungry: Similar to daily quests you could donate food to feed the people of Sacrament for similar rewards.
3 Reputation: In connection with donation you could build a good reputation with Sacrament that could reveal hidden sidequests or vendor items introduced in future updates.
These are just a few quick ideas I could come up with to deal with the ever accumilating food.
OR… just tune the feature they just put in as a quick response to feedback. Just because the Heal number is currently over-tuned doesn’t mean a food rework is needed.
Adjust heal value down to 50% at base, so that Healing Increase % investment bring the potency closer to current levels. Which is fine. Because it gives the player control there via their stats/enchants and choice.
Tuning aside I do not see the reason for two seperate healing systems. The more powerful one would simply take over the other. What I proposed would simply give a way to turn an ever-accumilating item into someting that is useful and/or serve a narrative purpose. It seems to me your critique is about the balance of the newly implemented utility rune and not my idea.
En taro Tassadar.
Personally i find the implementation of the utility to be completely unnecessary. The food system for healing in place was already fine. I’m just playing the game without the healing rune. I think they should remove it or nerf it hard. It should be adjusted so it has use while exploring the map but not practical for combat (make it a channel with a long animation).
There already existed more than one healing mechanism before. Usage, potency, frequency, etc is what sets them apart.
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Food can have a wide variety of effects in addition to just the heal. Damage Increase, Max Focus Increase, Max HP Increase, etc. And there is even interaction with a Legendary Ring which allows the healing effect to happen over time instead; which is great for being healed while in on-going combat. Food doesn’t require a cycle, but does have an limit per encounter. And the player has a lot of choice here in setup; from super cheap types, to those than have much stronger potency.
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Healing via Damage like Life-steal.
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Healing via contextual actions like Rune use, damage to Frozen enemies, Dodging, Backstabs, etc.
Any one of these things simply existing is not a reason to remove any of the others. So now we have another option:
- Healing via Resource use. Which gives us a technically unlimited heal in combat, as you can constantly re-fill access via your focus gain. But it’s usage has to be managed/shared since most setups will also use Focus for their output.
The only thing needed here, is for that Resource-Healing to find a place that is balanced. Where it is not so strong as to trivialize the other options, but also have room to grow if relevant stats are invested in versus the other options for those enchants/gem slots.
So like I said, they introduced it in an over-tuned state. That’s not the end of the world, it’s EA development. It just needs adjustment to fit in that line-up. Not change everything else simply for that value not being initially correct.
Not many people recognize the handle reference. Glad to see someone does now and then lol.
Sadly, the studio is in a place where they have to respond to things that can get them bad reviews by those who do not grasp the nuances of their vision. To keep the masses of refugees from other ARPGs like Diablo who are expecting a much easier experience, when these people start to cry en-mass about something… the devs have to appear to be “listening” and responding.
These people ought to get better at the game… but instead, they are expecting the game to get easier to accommodate the gamer growth they refuse to do.
It’s a horrible place for the Studio to be in, but can’t do much about it at this point.
I think the most they can do right now, is balance these options as best they can to preserve some of their vision of challenge. So they just need to tone down the potency of the always available heal.
This heal existed as Heal Aura in the beginning of the game, before they changed Heal Aura to a channeled heal.
No need to rework food, however getting more Buffs related food/potions sounds like a good thing.
Heal rune ratio should be nerfed as base.
Plus Utility Runes should not be allowed to be used during combat, they should be more “Exploration Utilities” as concept, I dont understand why they placed Combat Related runes in them.
Runes like
-Return
-Illuminate
-Heal (Made out of combat)
-Repair
Are very good, plus new ones
-One that increases movement speed out of combat for X minutes. (Turns Off when combat begins, Turns back On when combat ends until Buff expires)
-One that reduces aggro or turn player invisible to normal enemies for X minutes.
-One that strengthens the Cerim, allowing them to Cut trees, Mine ores and Dig stuff faster for X minutes.
-One that gives the chance to gain double the ingredients when gathering them in the wild.
Ecc
The “Combat Utility” Runes that Buff Damage, Buff Focus or gives Infusions and stuff should not be considered.
The Heal rune was introduced in response to complaints of running out of food after failing boss encounters, as well as difficulty early game. So I think it’s an OK remedy to use in combat, but should be out-classed by better/stronger food healing as the player invests more. Like in gear stats and easier crafting food as ingredients are more abundant at end-game.
And yea, Combat Utility runes need to be a thing. Because some should be for active in-combat use like Blink, and slottable on weapons.