Long-term idea

[Toll]

The idea is simple at its core, but given that it's a big change, I don't think it'll happen until at least AVWW 3.0. But heck, who knows, you might be inspired!

The core of the idea: Remove mana! Simple, yes? Of course, other changes will have to happen in order to facilitate it, so the post won't end here.

So, why should this happen? For one, it will make balancing spells far far easier without the limited-yet-unlimited resource that mana is today (which is compounded even further with the preserving mind enchantment). In addition, it will allow for further specialisations for characters (right now, I completely ignore mana upgrades; heck, I play with a character with 40 max mana right now).

Of course, there are things that do rely on max mana or mana regeneration at the moment, most notably storm dash, shields and some high-powered spells. I'll go through these point-by-point.

• Storm Dash: Frankly, I don't see a need to fix this. Let people storm dash without any kind of limit if they want to; they already can with enough tiers in Storm Dash anyway. Suggested changes to tiers: Increased speed and/or decreased damage increase.
• Shields: Yeah, this is the only one I haven't managed to come to a conclusion on. Suggestions include: Change elemental weaknesses/resistances (fire shield would give 50% resistance to fire and 50% extra damage from water etc), or limit them in duration (a shield can only be up for ten seconds before needing to be turned off).
• High-powered spells: This one is actually really easy to fix: Change the requirement to magic power instead. Need to cast meteor? You'd better have a magic power of at least 130%.

With the removal of mana, there's the problem of suddenly only having two stats to increase. It's easy enough to add a third though; just re-introduce casting speed in the form of magic control. This would work exactly like the current cooldown enchantments. It would also add in another condition for limiting spells (and even combination-limiters; for instance, the meteor shower spell could require both a high magic control and a high magic power).

Now, I'm sure I've missed some other things that need fixing, but that's what the forums are for!

[Penumbra]

Maybe I'm playing "wrong" but I find Mana to be my goto upgrade. I like to run with at least 300 if not 400. That, coupled with ~50% mana cost reduction lets me use my 70% cooldown reduction to cast two simultaneous strong spells for a long time, very very quickly.

I much prefer to cast a ton of spells than just a few more damaging ones. I still run out of mana doing that.

[mrhanman]

This sounds like a really neat idea.  I barely worry about mana as it is.  I only run out when I'm casting big spells, or 3 at once.

This is a pretty sweeping change, though, and I'm sure there are many things it could break that we don't know about. 

[khadgar]

I wish mana regenerated slower. As it stands right now, I upgrade mana for the regen, not for the upgraded cap. If mana regenerated slower (and spells costs were adjusted to compensate) you could get a worthwhile bonus to raising the cap. Right now, the difference between 0 upgrades @ 100 mana and 2 upgrades @ 200 mana isn't double the casting time before hitting empty. It's the difference between casting unhindered for 2 seconds and then at a reduced rate of fire (we'll say 80% speed), as opposed to casting unhindered forever.

It feels weird to be able to almost never run out of mana. I think that players should almost ALWAYS run out of mana if they are constantly casting anything but the weakest spell. I get that it's not fun to run out of mana, but I don't mean to say it should happen quickly. A default 200 mana pool & no enchants should last for somewhere around 10 seconds of casting a medium attack spell. It would then take another 10 seconds or so to get back to full. This would encourage jumping out of "cover" to attack an enemy, before jumping back in when your mana wanes. Of course, this assumes that the player is able to find a "safe" spot to regen mana, so it might not be entirely realistic in all environments.

Anyway, this kinda goes along with what you are saying about removing mana, because right now it isn't a good limiter on actions with the availability of conserving mind enchants & such.

[TechSY730]

I wish mana regenerated slower. As it stands right now, I upgrade mana for the regen, not for the upgraded cap. If mana regenerated slower (and spells costs were adjusted to compensate) you could get a worthwhile bonus to raising the cap. Right now, the difference between 0 upgrades @ 100 mana and 2 upgrades @ 200 mana isn't double the casting time before hitting empty. It's the difference between casting unhindered for 2 seconds and then at a reduced rate of fire (we'll say 80% speed), as opposed to casting unhindered forever.

It feels weird to be able to almost never run out of mana. I think that players should almost ALWAYS run out of mana if they are constantly casting anything but the weakest spell. I get that it's not fun to run out of mana, but I don't mean to say it should happen quickly. A default 200 mana pool & no enchants should last for somewhere around 10 seconds of casting a medium attack spell. It would then take another 10 seconds or so to get back to full. This would encourage jumping out of "cover" to attack an enemy, before jumping back in when your mana wanes. Of course, this assumes that the player is able to find a "safe" spot to regen mana, so it might not be entirely realistic in all environments.

Anyway, this kinda goes along with what you are saying about removing mana, because right now it isn't a good limiter on actions with the availability of conserving mind enchants & such.

That's why I suggested that if upgrading mana also upgraded mana regen rate, the base rate of mana regen should go back down closer to what it was before PAX to make the effect noticable.
The pre PAX base regen rate may of too low, but the post PAX base regen rate (doubled) is too high, especially now that we have a way to increase mana regen rate (though at an admittidly sub-linear rate compared to mana increase rate, as it should be)

[khadgar]

As an aside, I would like if the mana regen rate was quantified in an easier to understand manner. So, a rate of 0 is the default rate of 50/s or whatever. Different characters could have different base regen rates, just to spice things up.

Skelebots, say, could have a great base mana of around 300, but they might have a regen of -8 (which is 42 per second).
Age of Magic characters could have a great base mana of around 300 also, but they might have a regen of +10 (which is 60 per second).

Then, each mana upgrade would be a flat +1 per second regen boost, in addition to the mana cap upgrade.

Not saying that it's difficult to understand now, but compared to the attack percentage value having a baseline (100%), it seems a bit odd to me.

[Bluddy]

I agree about wanting mana to be more strategic. I don't like how it's used as a gating mechanism right now -- that could be done with a non-dynamic stat like magic strength. A mana bar that can handle shooting more stuff but that would recharge more slowly makes sense to me. And I think some spells (the weak ones) could use no mana at all -- that would make them attractive as a fallback for when you do run out but still need to hit for some damage.

[khadgar]

Remember back when that spell was Fire Touch? It was the only spell that cost no mana at all. In a world where mana didn't regenerate, that is a useful distinction!

I severely doubt mana will be removed, having been in the game, but having some spells as "free", or at least cost such a trivial amount of mana that they are practically free, is a good idea. Balance them entirely around their cooldown. Maybe all the touch spells (fire, death, ice) should be free, with varying cooldowns to differentiate them.