I’m working on an update to Invade the Ruins, and I want to make the best version of my map I’ve ever released.  To do that I need feedback from you about your experiences with it.  The focus of “Update 1″ is on the Hero characters and their abilities.  Are they fun? Interesting? Useful?

Download and try out the new beta release, read about the hero changes, and leave me some feedback on the forums!

The Dune Strider revamp completes the hero overhaul for Update 1 of Invade the Ruins.  She’s an archer meant to pump out damage but also heal allies occasionally.  Her low health means she must use her healing, invulnerability, and teleportation spells to evade danger.  Her design has always been one of the weaker ones, which is a shame given how popular archer characters are.  Here are her spells:

• Sand Slash: Hits two nearby enemies for good damage.  Maybe the best way to turn excess mana into killing.  Great for emergencies.
• Glass Barrier: Invulnerability bubble.  Extra ranks decrease the cooldown.  Sorta lame.
• Sand Surgeon: Summons a spirit that pulses heals to nearby allies.  Can dismiss the spirit early to reclaim some mana.  For a variety of reasons, she’s the worst group healer.
• Tearing Winds: Teleport to an allied unit, including special “Shop Wisps”.  Unique and well-loved by players.  A perfect 2-rank spell.
• Searing Sun: Adds big fire damage to each arrow attack.  Not an impressive ultimate, though it has fun synergy with her mid-dungeon bouncing shots upgrade.

General spell tuneup: Faster heals from Sand Surgeon, no more “Dismiss” option, lower base mana cost.  Sand Slash grants a temporary attack speed buff, providing Searing Sun synergy.  Glass Barrier moved from 6-rank to the “boss reward” slot, replacing her old lame ability there.

Searing Sun is too boring to be an ultimate OR a 6-rank spell, but fire shots fits her too well to trash it.  I’m unable to do a pure “exploding shot” for technical reasons, though my compromise might be just as good.  When enemies are killed by Searing Sun, they create a spirit which explodes and hurts other nearby enemies.

These explosive “Sunsparks” proved fun in early playtests, so I added a chain explosion effect.  Anything killed by a Sunspark also forms a Sunspark.  Her Sand Surgeon will also turn into a Sunspark when it’s done, giving her more ways to set up a big combination explosion.  Her Ultimate will take the concept even further, giving her an on-demand way to deal area damage.

Bathe in Heat, her new Ultimate, creates a spread of Sunsparks which explode in succession.  When cast on a pack of enemies, it generally kills a few enemies outright, who form Sunsparks, which explode for more damage.  It can be really satisfying when it chains out several times.

This represents a huge improvement to her options and interactivity, so I also want to improve her spell names.  Sand Slash becomes Sandstorm.  Sand Surgeon becomes Desert Oasis.  Glass Barrier becomes Mirage.  It’s a little thing, but making the names more distinct should help players learn the different spells more easily.

Thanks for reading!  The next article up will cover some general game changes.  After that, a post about the Beta release of the map!  Stay tuned.

• Stinging Blades: Hits enemies surrounding her and taunts them to hit her.  Her rank 6 attack spell synergizes with her other abilities, which benefit from her taking damage.
• Astral Jaunt: Blinks a short distance and heals her in the process.  Allows for strategic maneuvering but I need more incentive for players to rank it up.
• Razormail: Increases her passive armor and reflects a portion of damage dealt to her back at the attacker.  An appealing 6 rank ability but one that isn’t interactive!
• Raven Reversal: Damages enemy units, heals her, and provides allies with an armor boost.  All effects become stronger when her health is lower.  A good 2 rank ability that could be more.
• Paralytic Poison: Deals big damage to nearby enemies and slows their attack and movement speed to a crawl.  A good ultimate that is a little simple but also fun and useful.

First, Razormail gets the Words of Reassurance treatment.   I’m moving it to the item ability slot, replacing her Shadowmeld ability, and removing the armor bonus.  I’m also pruning the temporary armor boost from Raven Reversal.  Her base armor goes up by 4 and she gets more agility per level, leaving her in mostly the same place her armor was before.

This makes room for a new attack ability.  I want to stay true to the Warden revenge theme and her cold-hearted fighting style.  Her other niches are close-range area-effect damage and regaining life.  I’m OK with a little redundancy, especially if each ability has different synergies with every other ability.  This new ability is going to deal close range area damage as well as two additional effects.  I’ve wanted to give her a little crowd control to let her help allies, which a warstomp-style stun will accomplish.  I also want to give her more control over her mana, so we’ll return mana when it’s used.  It’ll be on a moderate cooldown so I’m not worried about either of these effects getting out of control.

Even though I have a design I like, there’s a lot of work to fit it in her repertoire.  I don’t think stuns make for good 6 rank abilities, so I’ll need to rework Raven Reversal to be 6 rank.  The essence of Reversal is to deal lots of damage at low health and heal a portion of her missing health.  I’ve simplified the damage scaling and the tooltip is clearer.  Now, it “deals up to triple damage when close to death”, which is a lot clearer than the old “deals 100-600 damage”.

With Raven Reversal converted to 6 rank, I can lock down the mechanics of the new spell:

• Quelling Rift: Turns her skin into an Astral rift, unleashing a blast of maelstrom and mana.  Stuns nearby enemies for 3 seconds.  Also, channels up to 20% of her health into damage and restores up to 100 mana.

Damage dealt is based on the level of the spell, converting 25% of health lost at rank 1 and 50% of health lost at rank 2.  At 1000 max health, typical starting health, this will deal 50 damage at rank 1 and 100 damage at rank 2.  At 4000 health, typical late-game health, damage increases to 200 and 400.  I think these numbers are reasonable along with stunning and restoring mana.

Behind the scenes, the life drain effect scales down when the player would kill herself or come too close to killing herself.  When she’s below 20% health, it only stuns nearby enemies.  If she’s between 20% and 40%, it will drain her down to 20%.  Over 40 will drain the full 20%.  The mana she gets back is based on whether or not she unleashed a full blast.

I like what emerges with each combination of skills.  Stinging Blades and Quelling Rift combine to form a potent tanking lockdown.  Rift and Astral Jaunt allow her to zip around and save allies.  Rift and Reversal deal a lot of damage and keep health high.  If she invests in both healing spells, she can go all-out absorbing damage and keeping herself up.  Her abilities are interesting and unique among all of the characters.  Stay tuned for the last hero post and for the release of the Update 1 beta!

• Flarefist’s Inscription: Plants a magical tag on the ground which sizzles for 6 seconds, then explodes, dealing damage to enemies nearby.  One of his bread-and-butter 6 rank spells.
• Soulhoof Stomp: Deals damage to nearby enemies which is multiplied based on how many enemies he hits.  Dares him to wade into melee, which is unusual for a caster.  His other 6 rank attack spell.
• Scarfur’s Aegis: Reduces the damage taken by melee attacks by a large amount.  His final 6 rank ability which has great synergy with Soulhoof.
• Ghosteye’s Salvo: Causes his ranged attack to occasionally deal massive bonus damage to buildings.  His 2 rank utility spell.
• Deadhorn’s Firebrand: Surrounds him with a burning aura that does massive damage to enemies near him but also drains a lot of mana until cancelled.  His ultimate power and a fun one to use, especially in a combo with his other abilities.

His item ability is Boulderback’s Rage, which is a frenzy ability, increasing his attack speed temporarily.  I added Boulderback in the last update and it’s a lot of fun, but it also overlaps and stacks too well with Ghosteye’s Salvo.   Salvo is the type of passive ability I’m cutting in the new version, and removing it will make room for a new party-friendly power.

Every player wants more mana.  Mana-granting abilities unfortunately tend to be simultaneously balance-breaking yet dull to use.  Alternatively, attaching a mana bonus to an existing ability can be a great way to add a little mana here and there and encourage the use of those abilities.  I’ve wanted to add some sort of catch-up ability that helps players stay together.  Often one player will run back to a store or to the garden and players get bored during the return trip.  Here’s my idea:

• Ghosteye’s Huntstone: Summons a stone which draws in all distant allies to it and then restores mana to all nearby allies.  180 second cooldown.

It costs no mana to activate.  Restores 50 mana at rank 1 and 100 mana at rank 2,  just enough to cast one more spell and get through one more battle.  It should also allow the Earthtalker player to smooth out his own mana usage.

The other ability I’ve wanted to improve upon is Deadhorn’s Firebrand.  Spells which give the player a chance to spend a lot of mana often means overdosing and causing frustration from no mana.  The mana-cost-over-time portion of Firebrand just doesn’t mesh well with the mana-hungry design of the map.

One of my “pivot points” for this ability is the startup cost versus the over-time cost.  Currently it costs 15 to start up and 15 per second after that.  A high startup price discourages  smart on-and-off control.  Pricing the over-time cost any lower feels like a lame, slow leech.  Unless I really change it up, budging on price is tough.  What if the over-time price could be zero and there was some way to keep the Earthtalker from using it forever?

Here’s my idea: big upfront cost, zero over-time cost, and the spell lasts until he casts another spell.  Doesn’t include items or Boulderback Rage.  The synergies and choices change depending on the spells the player invested in.  Throw down a flame tag and wade into melee for a while, perhaps risking some damage.  Stomping and burn aura can alternate, but not too many times, with the mana cost being clearer than the 15-mana-per-second drain “Where did my mana go?” problem.  Carry the aura into the next fight or drop the huntstone and get a chunk of mana back?  I hope these changes and more will make Update 1 the best version of the map yet!  See you soon with more articles.

• Cleanse Our Wounds: Bouncing chain heal.  Works well with his minions.  Cheaper than the other heals but also markedly weaker.  Definitely a useful 6-point ability but you’d need another source of healing in the group.
• Watery Minions: A pair of murlocs who attack fast and learn a couple spells.  These little guys are fun but the spells could be a more straightforward.
• Clobber: His melee hits also hits nearby enemies for a percentage of that damage.  Such a fun ability for melee.  I’ve been trying to add extra punch to passive abilities like these and I have an idea for this one.
• Scent of Blood: Greatly increases his and his minions’ attack speed at the cost of health over time.  Extremely powerful and great synergy with all of his other spells.  The health cost isn’t nothing (about 500) but it’s small compared to his health.
• Gift of the Tides: Self-resurrection on a long timer.  I like that he bends one of the biggest rules of the map: that battle is dangerous and death is permanent.  Sort of a bummer to have two passive spells, though.

Also worth noting is his Ensnaring Nets item power, which lets him immobilize enemies.  Item powers are abilities that occupy the sixth spell slot but are grey and inactive until the character finds a particular item. Immobilize isn’t actually very good and nobody uses it, so I want to replace it.  Shifting one of his current abilities into the item ability slot might be a step in the right direction.  The three candidates are Clobber, Scent of Blood, and Gift of the Tides.

Clobber would fit well as an item power (he’d get a new trident or something).  It also matches my goal of reducing the number of passive abilities in the game.  The other route to go with Clobber would be to improve its synergy with Cleanse Our Wounds and Watery Allies in some way.  Possibly, he could have some sort of mana bonus like with the Feral Diabolist’s Rippling Sinew.

Scent of Blood, a percentage-based ability, would reduce easily from two ranks to one.   I have a few reservations, though.  I don’t like charging mana for item abilities and I don’t think SoB makes for a good use-it-on-cooldown type spell.  It would also be really abstract as an item ability.  Lastly, SoB is just a fun and satisfying spell to pick, cast, and upgrade.  Great skills are hard to design and I want players to savor this one.

Gift of the Sea also makes for an abstract item ability, but at least its name could directly reference a gift of the sea.  Making it an item ability would also solve the problem of what to upgrade in a self-rez ability (I can only adjust the cooldown of the spell).  I haven’t shifted a spell from ultimate to free before, but that won’t stop me!

With that resolved, I had to come up with a new ultimate.  Which is hard… so I stalled by fixing all of his other abilities to make more sense.  Here’s the breakdown:

• Cleanse Our Wounds’ heals more on the main target and scales better with rank to keep up with his huge health pool.
• Watery Minions only learn Abolish Magic, but at rank 1, and deal more damage at high ranks.  Their other spells were more distraction than benefit and now these pets are clearly counter-debuff.
• Clobber now integrates his Carnivorousness hidden ability and improves it.  The Trident Beast has a hidden power where he gains a small tick of health and mana so long as he’s landing killing blows.  Clobber is now the face of this ability as well as a way to upgrade it higher.  This gives the naga a synergy that combines Sarcomany and Rippling Sinew’s ideas.
• Scent of Blood burns more health to offset the buffs to Cleanse and Clobber/Carnivorousness and to encourage judicious use.

With all of his other abilities shaped up, I spent almost an entire afternoon trying to come up with a good new ultimate.  I stepped through every ability in WC3 and even looked up what all World of Warcraft naga abilities were.  My favorite take-away was using totems for something.  Special totem abilities are tough to script but it would be worth it if I had a great idea.  WC3 totems heal, trap enemies, and scout, so nothing there fit, especially as a war-loving naga’s ultimate.  Most WoW totems are passive buffs, though there are some emergency elemental-summoning totems.  I don’t like the idea of adding another creature, but I do like the emergency idea.  Then I remembered one WC3 hero spell I hadn’t used: Big Bad Voodoo.  Say it with me now: invulnerability totem.  His is called “Tidal Post”.  You can cast in when the beta version of Invade the Ruins is released!  Join me soon for more articles.

• Hidden Blade: Instant damage and additional big damage over time.  A lot of damage to a single foe, but occasionally feels like it isn’t worth the time it takes to target and cast.
• Cunning Distraction: Puts all the enemies around him to sleep and gives him invisibility.  Big damage on the first attack from the shadows.  This 6 rank spell has always been somewhat unpopular and is a good example of the sort of spell that would be incredible in melee WC3 but just doesn’t feel as powerful as some damage abilities.
• Soused Swagger: Increases attack and movement speed based on rank.  For when you just want to beat up a lot of guys and have a good time, here’s your 6 rank frenzy spell.  Numbers-wise this spell is amazing but it usually just gets the Swashbuckler killed when he runs ahead of the party, slashing like mad.
• Daring Parry: Puts up a shield that absorbs damage at the cost of mana.  A cool spell that is really efficient but players often run out their whole mana pool using it.  A solid 2-rank spell, but one which is often misused.
• Attack from All Sides: Creates several extra illusionary forms that deal damage but can be dispelled.  This Ultimate ability is a home-run and everyone’s favorite part about him.  It lets him focus damage on a particular target, occupy an entire enemy flank, or serve as a distraction as everyone retreats.  I want the rest of his abilities to be as cool as this.

Swashbuckler is the best example of a hero with really solid numbers but without some of the spice that would make him a fun brawler.  Players have a hard time using his abilities at the right time.  On the other hand, the flavor of his abilities is great and preserving his move-set makes sense.  His abilities just need to have clearer methods of usage.

I started by thinking about the combos I had begun to build into other heroes.  What is the Swashbuckler spin on this concept?  What sort of mechanics would tie into the ideas of fencing pirates and gleeful rum-guzzlers?  The key idea for me came as twist on the “stance switching” concept in other games.  By encouraging him to move between all of his states (invisible, parrying, drunk), I could encourage players to loop around his four abilities.  Here’s how I’m structuring that loop:

• When drunk from Soused Swagger, he may “snap out of it” by activating Daring Parry, which heals 40% of his health.
• When overwhelmed in Daring Parry, Cunning Distraction will get him out of there, and also restore a good chunk of mana.
• If his sneak attack from Cunning Distraction is a Hidden Blade instead of a normal attack, the bonus damage is doubled.
• After a successful use of Hidden Blade, the Swashbuckler may “share a round” with his party with Soused Swagger, getting everyone drunk instead of only him.

If a Swashbuckler player has invested in the full array of his powers, he always has a hint on what he can do next.  Did he charge recklessly into combat with Soused Swagger?  Activate Daring Parry and recover that health.  Is he tanking more than he should and needs to get back to an outside melee position?  He can use Cunning Distraction for the price of “cheaper than free”.  Does he see a juicy, full-health target that just entered the fight?  The bonus damage on a sneak attack Hidden Blade will kill all but the strongest enemies.  After that crucial kill, he can boost his allies and help finish the fight off.

The Swashbuckler’s “combo loop” plays off of how Swashbucklers naturally tend to play, and gives them more and more clever options as they work through the game.  I like how this new playstyle looks and I hope to you enjoyed reading about my process.  There will be four heroes more and there are lots more changes along the way!

• Lightning Flash: Shocks three targets with lightning.  Efficient damage, great for taking down key targets, scales well.  A really consistent spell that may be simple, but it works.
• Refreshing Breeze: Heals a friendly target for a large amount.  Can not heal himself.  All of the other heals in the game are group heals, making this heal unique in its ability to pinpoint allies that need saving.
• Form of Wind: Damages and banishes a group of enemies.  Spreads damage out more than his other spell, but also banishes the targets.  Banished enemies in WC3 take double damage from spells, so there’s a lot of combo potential for this spell.
• Wind Gate: Teleports the Skyknight a long distance.  As one of only two heroes with a “blink”-style ability, he’s got a lot of mobility and can search out secrets.
• Maelstrom: Deals heavy damage to an area over 7 seconds.  Ultimate spell, huge damage.

Except for some numbers tweaks, Lightning Flash, Refreshing Breeze, and Wind Gate have stayed the same since his initial design.  Maelstrom has barely changed as well.  The problem child for the Skyknight has always been Form of Wind.  Initially “just” a cheap, fast-castable Banish, it proved to be an unpopular spell, and still wasn’t popular when I made it an area Banish.  Such a spell would be amazingly good in regular WC3, but it just didn’t get any takers in my map.  I improved it to also deal damage, making it deal roughly equal total damage to Lightning Flash, but it is still his least popular spell.

In many ways, Form of Wind is a superior spell to Lightning Flash, yet it’s less popular.  There aren’t enough skill points to invest heavily in both, and players pick Lightning Flash.  It has taught me that balancing numbers isn’t the key factor in making appealing spells.  I want to use some of the techniques I’ve learned since the initial designs to create a new ability.  The revamp of Sarcomancy and its synergies gave me ideas for an active version of that skill.  Also, the name “Form of Wind” made me think about a shape-shift which changes how his spells work.

My first draft of this new Form of Wind is a spell which, when clicked, gives the Skyknight an attack speed boost for 15 seconds.  Additionally, if he casts any other spells during Form of Wind, Form of Wind ends and that spell gains an additional trait:

• Lightning Flash – A second bolt of lightning, this one a chain lightning, streaks out starting at the main target.  This increases the total damage of the spell by about 60%.
• Refreshing Breeze – Pulls the healed hero to the Skyknight.  A great way to save an ally from a swarm of enemies.
• Wind Gate – Banishes all of the enemies near his starting point.  Replicates some of the combo-potential of the old Form of Wind by setting him up for big damage.
• Maelstrom – Recharges the Skyknight’s health over the 7 seconds of Maelstrom’s channeling.  Lets him survive a bunch of hits as he’s blasting foes with lightning.

There are a lot of things going on here that may not be apparent.  The first is timing.  A saavy player can use the attack buff for 10 seconds or so and then burn the buff at the end.  Someone ready for danger can put up FoW knowing that they’ll soon want to use a pull-heal or a blink-and-banish.

The next level to this spell is mana efficiency.  If you want to turn mana into damage, casting FoW before the Lightning Flash improves your efficiency.  Or, you can banish a bunch of enemies for cheap and then cast either LF or Maelstrom for double damage.

The final level is skill point efficiency.  Say your favorite spell is Lightning Flash.  You can improve your damage equally by either putting points in Lightning Flash or in Form of Wind!  The scaling of FoW enables players to keep improving their damage while also getting additional utility.  Additionally, the extra attack speed helps him get more kills and rounds out his usual weakness (low killing blow count).

I expect to work on one more hero and then release a playable alpha version for testing.    I’m glad you read my article and I hope you stay tuned for more!

• Rippling Sinew: Greatly increases his damage and armor and grants him spell immunity for 8 seconds.  One of his two 6 rank attack spells.  Good for making a big dent in a boss, cracking open a spawner building, or helping him escape from trouble.
• Bloodbath: Summons and immediately explodes a demon, covering foes in acidic blood and bile.  His other 6 rank attack spell, this one is a mob killer.  It’s cheap to cast and hits a big area.
• Sarcomancy: Alters all of his other spells, improving them in some way.  Longer duration on Rippling Sinew, lower cooldown on Bloodbath, lower mana cost for Havoc, and a special spiked carapace for Cursed Carrion.  Also a passive boost to his attack damage.  His final 6 rank spell.
• Havoc: Drains a quarter of the health of all nearby enemies and heals him and his allies for 5% of their health for each opponent drained.  His 2-point spell and a strong one, useful in emergencies against the largest hordes of enemies.  Costs a big chunk of mana.
• Cursed Carrion: Summons a large, powerful insect that accompanies and fights for the Diabolist.  Can also carry items.

Sarcomancy intends to enable a “jack-of-all-trades” style by providing mini-skill points to a variety of abilities.  This doesn’t quite happen as his spells are mana intensive and he isn’t an Intelligence-based hero with high mana regeneration.  His cooldowns also tend to be pretty long, making him a hot-or-not damage dealer.  By working on him, I hope to improve the synergy between his abilities and give him a more exciting playstyle.

As you might remember from the previous article, powers that have great numbers can be mistaken for powers that are fun to use.   Initially, I wanted to simply pump each bonus Sarcomancy grants so its effects were more noticeable on screen.  I ran into problems with this avenue, though, as the max ranks of Sarcomancy reach really high (or low) numbers.  Improving Sarcomancy-as-designed any further isn’t possible.  “Sarcomancy spec” isn’t viable.

While testing out various Sarcomancy settings with Rippling Sinew, I had a different idea.  Rather than trying to strengthen Sarcomancy’s direct tie to other spells, I could improve synergy between the other spells to the point that Sarcomancy would enable special combos.  The first change causes any spells cast during Rippling Sinew restore 20 mana.  This reduces the effective cost of Bloodbath from 55 to 35 while in Sinew. Also, since Sarcomancy reduces Havoc’s mana cost, Havoc can become quite inexpensive with a few points in Sarcomancy.

The real synergy here emerges when the player has invested those points in Sarcomancy.  Rippling Sinew normally lasts 8 seconds and Bloodbath has a 12 second cooldown, so you can’t cast Bloodbath twice during Rippling Sinew.  After one point, RS goes to 10 and BB 10, which is just barely too slow to get off two BBs.  Once you spend 2 or more points in Sarcomancy, it becomes possible to cast 2 or more discounted BBs in a row.  In this way, a player can heavily invest in Sarcomancy and, without many other points, can harness a flexible and potent playstyle.

I also wanted to tie Havoc and Cursed Carrion into Sarcomancy using this kind of indirect synergy.  I felt like his carrion creature would be the sort of thing he’d sacrifice at a moment’s notice, if it suited him.  So, when the Diabolist casts Havoc with a Carrion Beast out, the Beast will be sacrificed and the power of Havoc amped up significantly.  Going from dealing 25% (of each creatures health) to 35% damage is a huge amount when multiplied by the 5-10 creatures hit by the spell.  Making the “OH SHI-” button, your emergency button, more powerful is a lot of fun.  If the player has conserved mana using Sarcomancy-related combos, this combo can be used frequently and to big effect.  By putting the “mana game” in players’ hands, the Diabolist gains a great deal of interactivity and I expect him to be a lot more fun going forward.

Stay tuned for more articles and for an alpha version of the map!

(If you haven’t played Invade yet, you will probably get a lot more out of this article if you try it first.)

Quickly, a rundown of his spells:

• Song of Renewal: A “tranquility”-style healing spell where he stands still for 12 seconds and continuously heals nearby allies.  His “main” spell.
• Battle Commands: A furious shout that increases the attack damage of all nearby allies for 30 seconds. One of his other two major (6-rank) spells.
• Thunderous Bellow: A shout that sends a powerful shockwave out, blasting all foes in front of him.  His other major spell.
• Words of Reassurance: Key words of insight and resolute support, improving an ally’s attack speed and defense.  His “minor” (2-rank) spell.
• Cry of the Ancients: Terrifying howl which instantly reduces enemy attack power while healing all nearby allies.  His “ultimate” (requires level 8 ) spell.

Words of Reassurance is a spell that, I see now, is fun “in concept” but not as fun “in practice”.  I’ll explain this further in a minute.  Anyhow, for anyone familiar with WC3 mechanics, the numbers on WoR are clearly really solid (10%-20% attack speed boost and 5-10 armor) and definitely worth the skill points.  A lot of players cite it as part of why they like the Howling Druid.  He’s got a lot of good support abilities and timing his Song of Renewal is fun and takes skill.  He makes the party better.

One of my goals for the ItR update is improving choices in terms of character builds.  I want there to be more “flavors” of each hero.  The Earthtalker actually embodies some of this idea currently: he is equally strong as either as a long range caster who times his explosive inscriptions carefully or as a thunderclapping, thick-skinned basher.

In trying to bring these options to the Howling Druid, I’ve targetted Words of Reassurance as a spell that does not add enough flavor to a druid player’s playstyle.  In other words, while it may be a numerically sound buff, its additions are not perceptible: 10% faster attack speed or 15% more damage resistance does not make battles look any different.

One technique I have learned from recent World of Warcraft development is that weak/unfun spells can be “baked in” to other abilities or into the rules of the game.  Rather than having to spec for increased threat generation (something every tank would have to do), extra threat was “baked into” the threat caused by tanking abilities.  In an application of this concept, I’m replacing Words of Reassurance.  I’m “baking in” the bonuses of WoR into the druid in the following ways:

1. Song of Renewal heals for 20% more but costs 6% more mana – With less armor, the Howling Druid’s allies will be taking more damage and thus need more healing.  So his heal is better.  Also, without having to continuously sustain WoR, he’ll have a bit more mana.
2. Battle Commands grants slightly more attack power up front and much more attack power at high ranks – BC grants flat attack damage whereas WoR grants percent damage, meaning it takes only a little bonus to compensate at low levels but a larger bonus to compensate at high levels.
3. Thunderous Bellow and his basic attack deal more damage – Also picking up for the loss of attack damage are his own attack abilities.  TB’s base and scaling damage is changing to make it better at high levels.  His base attack speed is increasing slightly to keep his “get a few swings in between spells” rhythm going.

Gaby is probably my most experienced ItR tester.  One thing she advocates is the “Make skill training affordable!” idea.  By this she means that most players won’t hit rank 5 or 6 of their abilities, so make the effect of each rank noticible.  By removing WoR as a “required buff”, players will have more points to make important training choices.  Which leads into (the first version of) his new ability:

• Charge Order: Greatly increase the movement speed of nearby allies for 15 seconds.

Simple, huh?  Flavor-wise, he speaks out a few wise and shrewd battlefield commands.  If you’ve played ItR, you can imagine all of the ways the druid will save his allies from trouble.  Which is exactly what a good support character does.  Though simple, I think this inspires a lot of good teamwork for the druid his teammates.  If a druid player wants to play “stand and fight” style, though, he can instead specialize in the other existing spells and have more straightforward but more powerful skills.  I’ve even got a few ideas on how to make sure this doesn’t overlap too much with the “Runes of Speed” in the game!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this article and I look forward to writing more!