What are the mechanics people like?

Void touch is a great ability that is underutilised.

There is also a lot of scope in rune reveal manipulation.

 

• Negative abilities that also provide great power (Essence Devourer, Blood Fiend)
• Open-ended abilities that don't explicitly limit their set of interactions (generic rune but with a specific benefit, such as Repurpose, Bodyguard, DoTs)
• Activated abilities with a low AP cost, that can be used frequently as part of the champion's natural function (there are a lot)
• Abilities that change how you think about a champion (Warguard, Voidshield, Leech Vitality)
• Runes that are guaranteed to do something, even if it's really, really bad (hence dislike for most counter spells, some forms of pre-preemptive protection, many Hunter abilities)

 

I used to love double deploying Avenging angel late games with vortex, but now I can't do that

 

I like:
-Multiplication effects (split, summons, swarm)
-random buffs (mutation, etc.)
-Form changing mechanics
-Terrain control(imo it could be elavorated so much more like creating elementals from terrain tiles and CC abilities that are strictly terrain dependant(Like stalling a champ with quicksand if on sand terrain)

 

I always thought pox missed a chance to do a lot more with terrain.

 

Mechanics that offer great potential (i.e. really good stats) but come with a major drawback you need to work around.
Blood Fiend, the animated Dragon-Machine, the physical immune but lumbering Earth Golem, Essence Devourer.

It would be interesting to have more of those, and I wish both the drawbacks and the benefits were stronger.

 

The awesome Day/Night cycle (?

 

Well man, as fun as that may sound, I can only see it being a balance nightmare. I mean, you can already see people working around these drawbacks as of now - graveyard + vengeful Essence Devourer, flying Earth Golems - imagine if even stronger runes were released. If a drawback can easily be turned into an advantage then it really isn't a drawback, IMO.

 

That's the entire point -- the thrill of using lopsided runes is finding out how to mitigate or even abuse their lopsided nature. Games establish firm rules, boundaries, and expectations, but it's the specific ways in which a games chooses to bend, stretch, or break those limits that help sharpen and polish the experience. If using Blood Fiend or Essence Devourer just meant accepting the downside as a pure value proposition, they would be dull runes without a doubt; they're enjoyable because they pose a problem per se, and problem solving is at the heart of, well, a lot.

 

So you mean that the purpose of creating rules is to have them broken? This sounds like one of those profoundly intelligent global chat discussions, let's just pretend it never happened.

But yea I see your point regarding Pox, that's where the challenge and fun lie. If it were about just doing things as the greens expected it wouldn't be such a great game.

 

Not exactly, rather, that breaking ostensible rules is its own kind of tool. See the novel over the last century. Rules are there for a specific reason, and people should always be conscious of how and why they are breaking them -- and the cost, because breaking a rule always comes with a cost -- but still sometimes a person can do that if they have a specific purpose behind it. Rules aren't made to be broken, but they aren't made unbreakable.

 

I really like mechanics that involve a risk-assessment-based prediction. Things like Rock/Poison Trap, Dark Pact, Absorb Magic, Refute, Snow Blind, or other hidden abilities/spells. I think that they involve more play and counterplay than mechanics that primarily only consider your own deployment/movement choices.

I also like mechanics that involve manipulating the positioning of champs. Things like Knockback, Pull, Relocate, Throw Champion, Swap, Manic, and Gravity Well.

Also things that force your opponent to pursue objectives that aren't necessarily just hit your champs until they're dead. Spell Seals, glass cannons that need protection, enabler runes, centralized key supports, Ruubgaal, old Dragon Engine...

I guess overall I prefer gameplay elements that can surprise your opponent or change the basic expectations of a standard game.

 

please no more trail fire wall in UD without more knockback. (solar flare is nice, but the champ with it dies from a cold)

 

For the most part I like all the abilities. I sometimes get really annoyed at certain abilities, usually after I loose to them. But on the whole I like the mechanics of Pox.

My one problem that I have been having is with abilities that are hidden until triggered. I don't actually have a problem with these abilities existing. I just haven't played enough to know which hidden abilities I need to be wary of when fighting certain battlegroups. Like protection in a KF bg, or blizzard cloak in an ST bg. I would love to have the ability to search runes for the phrase hidden until triggered to get to know these runes better. Or, if someone would make a comprehensive list of the runes like this that are included in most bg's.

 

Global effects. Thus half of FW. I like them. But I want exactly the same on IS (Or any other faction I play)

 

I kind of like things that make sense, For example my Jakei Extinguisher having the Extinguish ability. But things that don't make sense are like what the hell. Like Jakei Frost queen having a magical attack instead of a frost based one. Also i like cool unique mechanics that are significant to the unit, like Hammerfall Lonx having frost mallet and losing slow ability if he throws it.

 

Ooooo I like the quicksand idea! My fav has always been terrain related stuff (why I play primarily sand) and I hate verticals push, but I have never been able to keep from laughing at the animation and sound

 

Yeah, it's like anything that seems OP could be balanced back in line with a funny animation and sound.
I bet 100 yards that if they make a ghostly tongue liking your champs when FW's tomb triggers it would be balanced, i rather it be strong and be able to say "you won because you licked my champs ****s the entire game"

 

I also like Sermon's drawback, you have a big buff but you are unable to move or it goes away. i can imagine something similar but the basic attack becomes AoE(like the champ gains Lightning Blast and cant move)

 

I like synergistic abilities that do more than just grant stats. For example, the snaptooth and jellebrium racials I like a lot more than something like violent or boost/commander. Basically I like synergy that grants interesting abilities rather than stats.