This post is split into two sections, in the first section I discuss the current issues with the Rune & Focus System. In the second section I talk about how the Rune system can be improved upon so it has more depth.
The One Rune To Rule Them All, the existence of Meta Runes
With over a 100 different runes to choose from you would expect players to come up with various build designs. Players mixing and matching runes to suit their preferred playstyle, or use particular runes for certain situations. Sadly, this is NOT the case. People default to spamming 1 singular rune into infinity and beyond.
Here is why it happens:
- Focus is a limited and shared resource which all runes use.
- A Focus-Neutral state can be achieved.
- Runes have no cooldown.
- Runes lack mechanical distinction and advantages and or these distinctions are irrelevant during combat.
- Runes can stagger.
At first I thought that removing focus gain on rune usage would fix the problem. But, Iām now of the opinion that the problem is much larger.
Focus being a shared and limited resource does NOT lead to players thinking about which runes to use. Instead, it incentivizes players to simply use the āābestāā rune. This is further enforced by a Focus-Neutral state existing. This is a state where players can gain an equal or greater amount of focus relative to the amount of focus they spend on using a rune. In essence, this creates an infinite cycle. Now, this wouldnāt be an issue normally. However, runes have no cooldown, can stagger and have limited mechanical distinctions. This is what creates the problem.
Here is my first set of solutions:
- Give runes SHORT cooldowns.
- Cooldowns are shared between weapons.
This prevents people from spamming the same rune over and over. However, this alone is not enough. Since, people will simply find the next āābestāā rune and chain these together into infinity. For example, people can slot 4 throwing runes onto a weapon and create a similar effect albeit less effective. Shared cooldowns between weapons prevents player from cycling through weapons.
Furthermore, having Focus-Neutral builds existing is problematic since it implies that you are only experiencing combat at full potential when you achieve this. Combat should evolve in a more healthy way.
The issue still remains that people will try to optimize their focus expenditures. What is the most cost effective way to spend my focus. Rather than, what would be the best rune to use in this situation. Focus being a shared resource creates competition between runes and creates a balancing issue. Focus creates the existence of Meta runes, since using one rune over another is a trade-off. Runes should be complementary in functionality.
Second set of solutions:
- Remove Focus as a resource for runes.
- Focus as a stat remains attached to runes but gets a different purpose.
This might seem very controversial, but, it solves a lot of issues. And, prevents issues from occurring in the future with balancing and PvP. I think runes having āātimeāā as their only resource and cost is enough, if the cooldowns are short enough to incentivize reactive play and lengthy enough to still validate basic attacks and dodging.
Combat in Wicked is dynamic and visceral. Having focus as a limiting factor limits quick decision making and reactivity of the player due to being limited by focus. This is super frustrating when it happens. Since certain runes are reactive in design, think of the evasive runes. You want to use them immediately when in response to a situation. Being limited by a resource is counterintuitive when combat is this reactive and dynamic.
Managing cooldowns becomes the new resource management. This creates more incentive to use certain runes in certain scenarios. It also adds more depth to combat and PvP when it is released.
Think about competitive PvP in MMORPGs. Players use abilities in reaction to each other and time these. Runes shouldnāt be a push and pull dynamic since combat is reactive in nature. It hinders the combat fluidity. Runes should be similar to a Swiss army knife, a tool for each situation and you can use them when the situation demands it. You now have to manage your cooldowns rather than your focus.
The final set of solutions:
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Runes become a tools to deal with situations rather than finishers, thus, reduce their damage accordingly.
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Runes have more mechanical distinctions and these are incentivized during combat.
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Categorize runes based on archetype and prevent players from equipping similar categories.
Runes are now an extension of your toolkit rather than a finishing/spammable move. They are used reactively to deal with situations without being overpowered. They should add to the combat loop rather than override it as they currently are doing.
Some examples of rune mechanical distinctions:
- The Echo Knight uses his plague bolt, a wizard counters these with a Rune that works similar to a spell shield reflecting the plague bolts back to The Echo Knight.
- The Echo Knight uses his trample ability with his mount, a tower shield user counters this with a Rune that braces himself behind his shield. Fully blocking the attack and adding stagger to The Echo Knight.
- The Echo Knight uses his ability where the player creates fire beneath himself, a dagger using rogue activates a Rune which cloaks him in shadows evading all these attacks naturally.
- A mob uses a dash ability to distance himself from the player, the player uses a leap ability to catch back up.
- A mob uses a dangerous ability, the player uses an evasive rune to dodge the attack.
- Various mobs attack the player, the player uses an area of effect rune to deal with the enemies.
- A boss has been staggered, the player uses an enrage rune increasing attack speed and damage for a limited time.
There are already a lot of mechanical distinctions in the runes that exist. I just think they need to be incentivized more. Furthermore, allow for chaining runes together into your own unique combo. I think overall these changes makes runes more interactive and used more. Whilst removing some of the cumbersome issues. There should still be an opportunity cost for which runes to slot. Runes should not be able to deal with too many or all situations.
As a final suggestion I would say to take a look at V Rising Brutal Difficulty Bosses and watch how players fight these. I think it is the closest thing there is to Wicked reaching full potential, in terms of combat. Abilities feel super reactive.
Rune Customization & Interactivity
A few days ago the poll in another topic closed.
UPDATE: Poll Results, What WE want the MOST in WICKED!
Out of the 81 voters, 64% wanted more options to build your character and 30% wanted a more in depth rune system. These options can be combined with the following even:
This builds upon the 6 suggested changes I mentioned earlier.
This is my suggestion for an in depth Rune System:
- Unlock more rune slots with higher Tier weapons. A T1 weapon has 1 slot and a T4 weapon has 4. This adds a sense of progression to the game.
- Make 3 out of 4 rune slots regular rune slots with the last rune slot being an ultimate rune slot.
- Players should be able to freely swap runes in and out of the rune slots without destroying the weapon.
- Rune slots should be able to be modified and increasingly so as you progress through the game.
- Have a branch of the talent tree devoted to runes.
- Focus should buff runes in some way.
- Runes should be craft able.
- Runes should have a detailed encyclopedia.
This leads to more customization of runes and more interactivity. Players are able to work more on their weapon and customize their runes in the way they want. The list below are little enchantments to the rune which players can add.
Some rune modification suggestions:
- Adds +X charges to the rune (tapping a rune releases 1 charge, holding it increases the amount of charges released similar to a channel)
- Reduces the rune cooldown by X%.
- Add a Heat effect to the rune.
- Gain a health shield after rune usage.
- Gain increased movement speed after rune usage.
- Each hit of the rune triggers an Ice Explosion.
- If this rune kills itās target reduce its cooldown by X%.
- This rune gains X% life steal.
- Projectiles now trigger an explosion.
- Increased animation speed by X%.
- Adds X stagger to the rune.
- Increases duration by X%.
- Add a snare effect.
- Creating a Healing Aura after rune usage.
- Buffs all players within range with X buff after rune usage.
- Increase damage mitigation during channel.
- Removes all negative effects after rune usage.
- The next basic attack after rune usage heals the user for X%.
- This rune consumes the plague effect on an enemy to create an explosion.
- Heal the target for X%.
- Enemies hit become more vulnerable to Lightning damage for X amount of time.
- Increase Strength by X% after rune usage.
- Your next dodge consumes no stamina.
- Your next 3 basic attacks become enhanced.
- Enemies that are affected by the lightning status effect shoot lightning bolts to nearby enemies with each hit of a rune.
These rune modifications are unique, meaning they can only be slotted once in a rune slot. Some modifications can only be used on certain runes. As you progress you can add more modifications to the runes. Ultimate rune slots can be modified but in a limited manner. These should not conflict with affixes and talents, but should create something unique together. Overall, the effects should be fairly small and not game changing. Well, some can be but not all.
This allows players to tinker more with their build and add effects to their runes, customizing their playstyle. Itās important to ensure that the rune modification effects interact in some way with the other systems to promote their usage. People should not fully rely on runes.
