"Preferred Mana" for Archmages please?

[Istrebitel]

I guess that would hardly ever happen, but still. With Paradox, you can set your desired level, but with mana, if you happen to be an Archmage who uses Disruption Shield, you're out of luck. You either had to constantly stop and spam spells to reduce your mana, or keep some less useful spell on autocast (but then there's a chance you'll have too little mana when you need it). It would be nice if by acquiring Disruption Shield, you gained an ability that allowed you to set preferred mana level, and above that you would not gain mana from "mana per turn" items or resting.

[StarKeep]

I'd be against this, as it removes one of the benefits you get from going Aether. (The ability to use Disruption Shield at any point.)

If you really do put this in, it should be locked to Aether Form, at the very least, and not Disruption Shield.

[Kror]

I would be still very benefical for Aether, since you still want your mana to be low to get more absorb. You will probably also have more mana in an Aether build and therefore get more out of this mechanic than other mages.
I'd said this is worthy for a mod, but not really for the base game.

[grayswandir]

Maybe as a bonus for (high level) arcane power?
"In addition, any mana regen that would bring you above an amount of mana that you set is instead consumed, raising your spellpower by X% as much."
That way, it'd turn mana runes into spellpower boosting runes.

[Doctornull]

Yeah this is a neat idea. It would make the Rest -> Disruption Shield cycle way less labor-intensive to manage.

It would also keep +mana regen a pure bonus rather than a situational bonus or penalty depending on whether you went Aether or not.

Though given how limited the application, maybe make the "set preferred mana" talent a side-effect of learning Disruption Shield.

[Istrebitel]

Though given how limited the application, maybe make the "set preferred mana" talent a side-effect of learning Disruption Shield.

That was my idea, yes. Like how you learn that paradox setting talent when you learn a paradox-using ability.

I'd said this is worthy for a mod, but not really for the base game.

Hmm... indeed, I guess you could add abilities via addons, right? Is there a guide somewhere on how to write addons?

Maybe as a bonus for (high level) arcane power?
"In addition, any mana regen that would bring you above an amount of mana that you set is instead consumed, raising your spellpower by X% as much."
That way, it'd turn mana runes into spellpower boosting runes.

No, no, I don't want any benefit, all I'm talking is convinience (so you don't have to spam spells over and over to get your mana low again)

[cctobias]

Well it seems pretty straightforward that the current way Disruption Shield is working in practice is cumbersome and causing somewhat silly behavior.

So setting your Mana to say 33% all the time would "fix" the silly behavior part. Currently the silly behavior though has a downside of placing some spells on CD. Adding this could obviate that downside. But it also may not be much of a downside in practice.

I think, but someone can correct me on this, that people feel like the need a large "mana waster" spell to use Disruption shield effectively and continuously.

I suppose we need to ask ourselves if the current way it works is what is desired, i.e. that people run around with continuous Disruption Shield. I don't really know, I mean it doesn't initially appear designed that way, but maybe it is. Or maybe its a sufficiently intersting mechanic to keep around.

The downside of Disruption shield, is that you run around with low mana.

If people are finding ways to achieve a similar effect already, and they are, basically this feature can only add extra effectiveness by making the "mana waster" available, generally I doubt this adds much of effectiveness.

But I dunno the mechanics themselves of disruption shield seem a little off to me. It seems to me, and I have not sat down and done any real design, like Disruption Shield instead of being usable only at 25% should DRAIN you down to 25% (or maybe lower) over time. This will keep you low and solve the silly behavior problem with the added idea of creating a lack of mana problem for the AM. Currently I think people tend to just run at some sweet spot of like 50/50 and the only downside to DShield is the annoyance of the management. Not sure about when it should be activateable, I'd have to think about that. Basically what I am saying is if you run around with DShield on you should run around at a mana level that is low enough to be somewhat, but not extremely, problematic.

Edit: and I suppose the advantage of arcane would then be to allow some adjustment upward? I dunno, I guess its debatable whether that is even advantageous as the lower you go the more mitigation it is.

I mean think this idea here is basically on the right track as its addressing some silly emergent behavior but I dunno it just seems like Disruption Shield is having its cake and eating it too so to speak.

[jaumito]

A few versions back, you could actually actually use autoexplore with Aether Avatar and Disruption Shield on all the time while keeping a lowish mana/max mana ratio, if you had the Void Orb and 5/5 in Quicken Spells (maybe it's still doable with boots of spellbinding and/or a quickening tool and/or that unique amulet, I don't know.) The trick was to put Aether Avatar on autocast when available and your manasurge rune on autocast when enemies not visible, you also had to pick your manasurge wisely - just powerful enough for your needs. This way, autocast Aether Avatar would be enough to deplete your manabar, and your manasurge would fire only when too low on mana to cast Avatar. Once in a while (which was not often), you could find yourself within sight of the enemy when your Aether Avatar had just ran out, but overall I found the automated (thus 100% hassle-free) DS management was well worth the risk.