Circles need an Upgrade

hasukurobi

Our current magical circles are awesome additions in terms of powers but they really are not that great. They are rarely used and that is because being glued to one spot is a serious disadvantage.

This is what I would love to see with these:

First of all I would not change the Circle that brings you back to life in any way. (Radiant something?)

Secondly, I would make it so that the MOMENT the caster of a circle left the circle (by choice or otherwise) the circle would disappear.

Third, any friendly standing inside a circle should benefit from it.

Now all of these would increase in effectiveness by level and I will leave it to the Devs to decide the exact amount they do what they do but it should be decent.


Circle of Ebon Destruction
-Requires Half your Maximum HP to cast
-Requires Half of your Equilibrium to cast

+Increases the Damage Dealt by those in the circle
+Decreases the amount of Aggro produced by those inside the circle

Perk: Ambient Dread: Inflicts enemies who are close to the circle or attack those within the circle with Fear.


Circle of Arcane Power
-Takes twice as long as any other Circle to Cast
-Requires Half your Maximum Energy or all your Current Energy to cast, whichever is higher

+Decreases the rate at which energy decays for those within the circle
+Replenishes the energy of those within the circle once every two seconds

Perk: Conservation of Energy: Those within the circle receive energy equal to 25% of the raw damage received from non-physical attacks directed at them. This can only occur once every two seconds.


Circle of Primal Domain
-Requires Half of your Equilibrium to cast
-Smallest Diameter of all the Circles

+Increases all Damage Resistance for those inside the circle
+Heals everyone within the circle every two seconds
+Reduces the duration of all debuffs on those within the circle by half
+Increases the duration of buffs on those within the circle by half

Perk: Personal Space: Enemies that enter the circle are struck by a Lightning Bolt that Repels them away from the circle. This can only occur once every three seconds.

championshewolf

Sorry, no. They root you because they are a significant boost for you. They are already quite powerful and used by many builds out there.

selphea

I think the circles do well enough - they really work in PvE against tougher enemies like world/lair/rampage bosses.

Primal Dominion is great for tanks who want to stay still so the boss stays still and Arcane Power for 100ft high energy consumption builds using self rooting attacks like Lightning Arcers and Defilers. In Gravitar its not uncommon to see 3 melees using Primal Dominion circles around her.

Ebon Wrath is additive damage but it does proc Fear so it has its uses too.

roughbearmattach

I use the Primal Circle on several builds; it really is quite good for tanking bosses.
The arcane circle is very useful too.

I think the Ebon Circle is somewhat weak.

flowcyto

Ebon Wrath isn't great due to the dmg being additive and it having the inc heal penalty. The threat reduction is okay, but I'd rather have an aggro-wiping power.

The others are pretty good to great, though. CoAP scales w/ Rec- we need more stuff that scales w/ Rec/End (pity it counts as an energy form, but I guess it had to be- it does allow Grimoires to spam Skarn's if they want to). CoPD is great vs. Gravi and for ranged tanks or knock-prone melee. CoRG is a pretty nice backup move and aoe heal (helps it has a larger radius and can be placed down instantly after the first one).

I mean, I like the notion of making the circles more of a tactical group buff, but we already have sigils for that concept, soo..

roughbearmattach

selphea wrote: »

I mean, I like the notion of making the circles more of a tactical group buff, but we already have sigils for that concept, soo..

Yep--the sigils do the tactical bit.

Maybe another set of sigils? We have one for DoT (sorta), one as trap damage, one for healing, and one for debuffing.

Maybe energy-granting sigils? Maybe attack-buffing sigils?

wrathsoul1

Or you know, runes. Yes, the runes will behave like the MA forms.

crypticbuxom

I know what would make circles more appealing to use! Make them dreadful to cast and disappear immediately if anything bumps you to force you to have to cast it again with the terrible penalty. They already force players to have to sit in one spot and your changes only make players have to build in a way so they can't move. The whole purpose of the circles is ruined by your concepts. They already are limited in perfectly fine ways and they do just fine.

shadowzero66

Circle of Ebon Wrath (which already inflicts Fear), is the only Circle that is underperforming relative to its peers. The whole staying in one spot thing seems to be a Sorcery thing considering both the Circles and the Ritual summons. And the Circles (except Ebon Wrath) are pretty powerful for that tradeoff (mobility for power). Primal Dominion is a regularly seen power for bosses in Alerts and Rampages. And to be honest, you shouldn't really need the power of a Circle on trash mobs that can be wiped out in a short period of time.


My suggestion to fix Circle of Ebon Wrath:

-Change damage bonus to multiplicative rather than additive (this would go the furthest to making Ebon Wrath a power worth considering)
-Keep threat reduction
-Keep the Fear applications when struck and on melee hit
-Change the heal received reduction to personal bonus healing reduction (others would be able to heal you the same regardless, your own healing powers would be lessened regardless of target; shouldn't be hard to implement since there already is a healing bonus modifier)
-Give health on kill and attacks restore health based on a percentage of damage dealt. (healing reduction issues are moot since you would need the Circle active for this to trigger; either accommodate for or ignore it)
- Maybe give an increasing damage bonus as health goes down
-Having the glowing hand animation disperse after a short period of time; it's the only Circle power that keeps the glowing hands when in the Circle long after power activation. It may have been originally intended as a sign to other players about the healing reduction, but the Aura system throws a wrench on that.