Hello everyone, some of you may or may not know some of previous comments about ADA affix system, but here’s a nice detailed concept suggestion with explanations how it affects BOTH your character, your skills, and even itemization
A word about a 3rd main stat first
First things first, we have HP, Mana but not a 3rd basic character stat. Some might consider damage per hit as a basic character stat but let’s get away from the “trap” that D3 had which tied basic stat with damage output, so we end up with adding a new stat which is supposed to act as a direct endurance in combat. Let’s Call stamina that one, no, not THAT stamina from D2, this one is a bit different and here’s how it works:
- Getting hit reduces some
- Using movement abilities or designated Dodge mechanic loses some
- Lose all of it and you get staggered for up to 2 seconds (in this period your stamina bar gets refilled back to full again and you could prematurely “interrupt” this effect and wake up with like 40% at minimum [only 1 second], risk get staggered again, or, wait the full duration and start anew with the full endurance amount/duration again at disposal)
What is this stat/mechanic supposed to represent ?, well first of all rewards careful gameplay (not taking extra hits or not dodging like a rabbit all the time gives you extra battle control/duration). Second it does delay the “ugh” from D2 when you get hit but there aren’t any “cheesy” mechanics like FHR or Block/Dodge chances, so in other words your direct survivability in battles is no longer a matter of RNG
With that being said here is HOW a complete ADA powers (new basic-attributes system) could work:
Angelic Power affects following stats/affixes for your character:
- Basic HP amount (+3 per stat, Barb +4)
- Natural regen rates (4% per stat)
- Duration and power amount of buffs and blesses (4% per stat)
- Skills when assigning points into an affix to affect a one
Demonic Power affects following stats/affixes for your character:
- Basic mana/resource amount (+3 per stat, Sorc + 4)
- Hit-effect-return amounts (4% per stat)
- Duration and power curses and CC effects (4% per stat)
- Skills when assigning points into an affix to affect a one
Ancestral Power affects following stats/affixes for your character:
- Basic stamina amount (+3 per stat, Druid +4)
- Per-hit-sunder amounts (4% per stat)
- Hit-effect chances (4% per stat)
- Skills when assigning points into an affix to affect a one
[NOTE: amounts per stat were also listed above so it’s easier to jump directly into next section (impact over character stats and itemization)]
Character stats… Let’s assume that these are the basic stats (level 1) of a character:
Barbarian: 120 HP, 45 M/Res, 60 S [i.e. starting basic stats are 30/15/20]
Druid: 75 HP, 60 M/Res, 100 S [starting basic stats of 25/20/25]
Sorc: 60 HP, 100 M/Res, 45 S [starting basic stats of 20/25/15]
Assuming that there would be 3 stats per level (120 total ADA affix points to build your character’s basic stats with), you’d end up with something like:
HP [120 - 600 for Barb, 60-420 for Sorc, 75-435 for Druid] [the right/bolded numbers are if you’ve invested all points into exclusively Angelic Power, without affix bonuses from itemisation]
Mana/R [45 - 405 for Barb, 100-580 for Sorc, 60-420 for Druid] [same note from above just for demonic]
Stamina [60 - 420 for Barb, 100-580 for Druid, 45 - 405 for Sorc][same, if all 120 points of leveling your character invested in ancestral, no item bonus calculated]
Here’s an item sample in order to examine the impact over itemization:
Skorn
- 500 ATK
- 15-50 fire damage
- returns 5 life per hit
- sunder 5 mana per hit
- 5% to reduce target’s phisycal armor by 10% for 3 seconds
- 5% chance to increase attack speed by 5% for 3 seconds
Yes, it’s kinda obvious that the last 3 affixes seem VERY weak, but here’s the catch: those numbers get multiplied by your character’s ADA amplification bonus, so here are the versions of that SAME item on characters that have invested into Angelic/Demonic/Ancestral respectively
NOTE: let’s assume that there are 3 ADA affixes per level allowed (thus of one kind 120 being max, could gain extra from items but we calculate character-only impact, for now)
Skorn
[All into angelic]
- 5% chance to increase attack speed by 24% for 14 seconds [480% bonus to both the buff amount and duration from 120 angelic power]
[All into demonic]
- returns 24 life per hit [480% buff amount from all the 120 DP]
- 5% to reduce target’s phisycal armor by 48% for 14 seconds [480% bonus to both the debuff and duration from 120 DP]
[All into ancestral]
- sunder 24 mana per hit [480% bonus from 120AP]
- 24% to reduce target’s phisycal armor by 10% for 3 seconds [480% bonus to proc rate from 120 AP]
- 24% chance to increase attack speed by 5% for 3 seconds [480% bonus proc-rate from 120 AP]
For those that have some trouble realizing how the affected affix numbers got calculated, here’s a small “if-then” list to realize how it’s done
- Is the affix a natural regen or buff ? - gets amplified by Angelic (buffs caused by hit effects also get affected by the multiplier)
- Is the affix a per-hit-return effect or debuff/curse ? - gets amplified by Demonic (including debuffs/curses caused by hit effects)
- Is the affix a hit-effect or sunder ? - (if hit effect chance to proc), and sunder amount gets amplified by ancestral
To clarify further here’s another item example:
The Resonator [Wand]
- +5 Demonic Power
- +10% Resource regen rate
- Hit-effects caused by spells reduce target’s damage by 10% for 3 seconds
- [Legendary Affix] AoE spells and skills have their radius reduced by 30% but last as effectively doing damage to anyone
120 Angelic gives: 48% (instead of 10%) Resource regen rate
120 Demonic gives: 48% target damage reduction and duration gets 11 sec
120 Ancestral gives: (nothing in particular), as it doesn’t increase hit-effect rate nor has sunder (though one could imagine on a high Ancestral char. this item would cause hit-effects often therefore potentially reduce target’s damage often)
In addition to this there might be other items that might unlock (as seen before) certain affixes per certain amount of power…
And last but not the least: how the ADA system could affect Skills
Let’s assume that give or take most skills will have like at least 2 passive upgrades to spec into, so let’s just add up a bit of “extra” work and make 3 instead for all. THEN, just make them ADA investable (upgradeable to 5 times), i.e. you can choose to buff spells/affixes from sacrificing your main-stat and item-affix bonuses/amplifiers in order to gain a certain power of a skill/spell cast effect in the following manner:
Instead of what we had: Charged Bolt has 3%/6%/10%/15%/20% to create crackling energy, could have affixes like these:
Charged Bolt:
- Angelic affix: 3%/6%/10%/15%/20% to cast a lightning barrier of 15%/25%/35%/50%/75% damage done per cast
- Demonic affix: 3%/6%/10%/15%/20% to cast a lightning coil above the target which will reduce 3%/4%/5%/6%/8% target’s lightning resistance per tick for 5 seconds
- Ancestral affix: 3%/4%/5%/6%/8% to knock target back and blind for 5 seconds
Cleave:
- Angelic affix: 5%/6%/10%/15%/20% to spin 360% and gain 5%/6%/10%/15%/20% (per hit, up to 5) physical defense bonus for 3 seconds
- Demonic affix: 3%/4%/6%/8%/10% to cast a random curse in a radius of 3/4/5/8/10 for 10 seconds
- Ancestral affix: 5%/6%/10%/15%/20% to increase (single-target attacks only) damage per hit by 15%/25%/35%/50%/75% for 3 seconds
Earthspike:
- Angelic affix: 5%/8%/10%/15%/25% chance for a defensive skill/ability to multicast on nearby targets in the next 5 seconds
- Demonic affix: 15% chance for the Earthspike to reduce target’s CC reduction by 20/40/60/80/100%
- Ancestral affix: 5%/10%/15%/20%/30% for the spike to remain as an unpassable terrain for the next 3 seconds
Meteor:
- Angelic affix: 15%/25%/35%/50%/75% to become immune to magic attacks for 0.15/0.25/0.35/0.5/0.75 seconds after casting Meteor
- Demonic affix: 4%/6%/8%/10%/15% to stun targets hit for 0.5/0.75/1/1.5/2.5 seconds
- Ancestral affix: 10/20/30/40/50% bonus radius, drops targets-killed/(5/4/3/3/2) consumables [potions, scrolls, repair-kits, e.t.c.] on the ground for 3 seconds
And e.t.c… [you get the idea :)]
[NOTE: Some more powerful skills (like the Meteor for ex.) can cost 2 ADA points per affix upgrade instead of just 1]
So, all the above being said, not only ADA powers affect your skills (by giving them an upgradeable up to 5 times extra effect, but also assigning points into skills affects your character stats (negatively), because:
[in order to gain these affix-bonuses you sacrifice from the ADA powers currently available in your main stats of the character]
So that’s it folks, that’s the idea for A/D/A powers and how they could be used/implemented as a rather relatively impactful basic stat-alternation system, i.e. main attributes… I kinda like the item-affix “multiplication” idea, cause think it might bring a feel that you ACTUALLY play a different character (even when/if-possible potentially having the same items equipped) IMO
Think finally have a relatively representative/thought-out ADA system, what are your thoughts ?
Changes log:
- [Tweaked/updated starting basic stats for classes to fit their natural ADA amplification]
- [Added another example from post below]