Saturday, April 21, 2012

Disintegrate mechanics

First of all, please keep any issues you have with this skill being out of place in Diablo out of this forum. The topic of this thread is to answer some questions and wonderings I had about this skill. If anyone has factual knowledge on the subject or just opinions/ideas, please share. However, please say if it such a fact (as of when you demo'd the game) or just your own two cents.

1. I believe I heard/read that disintegrates damage increases on the target the longer it is held, as the target "heats up." Does this mean I have to only aim at that one target, or would a target "heat up" if I am sweeping across multiple enemies?

2. How will disintegrate work in conjunction with the skill Mana Burst (Increases the damage of any spell cast from full mana by 25%, according to diablowiki). Would only the first "tick" of damage be boosted by 25% or all damage while the spell is channeled from full mana? Could be very devastating if it is the latter, hmm?

Thanks everyone! I'm sure I had more thoughts about it but they are eluding me as of this moment. Feel free to post your own wonderings as well. I'm sure someone else as some thoughts as they think of D3 as they attempt to drift to sleep after reading the forums or watching the gameplay video for umpteenth time. |||1. We only have reports of blizzcon gameplay, but monsters died too quickly to check if realy heats up anything

2. In my opinion it would just increase, first tick, but right now only Blizz knows.

But it would be nice if it increase whole atack, since you propably don't spent all time standing, but dodging from time to time too.|||1. Good question, guess it would depend if they mean the spell heat itself or the heat in the mob. Though I believe those at Blizzcon couldn't even tell wether it increased over time or not.

2. Wondered about this one myself. I would think the first tick. Which would mean its best for spells that only have one shot. But there isn't any official answers to either of these.

Edit: Took too long and someone beat me lol.|||Maybe we could grab a fallen, tie him to a log and proceed to slow cook him with Disintegrate .. and periodically stick a fork in him to see what the progress is. That would be a good indicator of "heat over time' .. LOL

Sorry, I couldn't help myself. You ask good questions, but the Blizzard information vacuum has us all shrugging... but i call shotgunn on a thigh |||Blizzard said "heats up the enemy". So you'd have to focus fire on one enemy. I'd think the damage bonus would decay, but not disappear, if the beam went off the target.

No way. First tick, definitely.|||Now regarding the whole first tick thing, how often does disintegrate tick? I can't recall off hand and I don't have the means to check any videos right now, but it seems to me the disintegrate damage is dealt pretty smoothly. As in the life is almost constantly going down. So maybe the increased damage from Mana Burst would last for a certain amount of time for disintegrate.|||Is it possible it would last until the attack had been uninterrupted? Like it counts as one attack and the mana was full when you started, until the attack is broken off. That seems like it would be too overpowered, however standing in one place for a long enough time would also be a fairly dangerous trade off, me thinks. Once you move u break off the attack and it doesn't count for the 25% increase anymore. The dev teams have said they wanted you to play with strategy, I could see "well if I stay here I get increased attack, but am obviously more vulnerable when stationary" as a strategic decision. Just thinking out loud lol.|||We have two beam spells so far:

Ray of Frost

Description: Project a beam of cold energy. Critical hits from cold damage freeze targets.

Max Rank: 1

Rank 1: Deals 6 cold damage/second.

Mana cost: 16 mana per sec.

Disintegrate

Description: Emanate a beam of pure energy dealing 10 arcane damage per second. Damage is modified to 80% each time the beam passes through the target. Critical hits from Arcane damage silence targets for 4 secs.

Rank: 1

Mana cost: 12 per sec.

You hold them down as long as you want and the mana cost/damage is per second. So the increased damage may just be for the first second. Now why does Disintegrate cost less mana and do more damage than Ray of Frost? It even does damage to those behind, which Ray of Frost doesn't seem to do.|||Perhaps in the current build balance wise it makes sense for Ray of Frost to do less damage per cost of mana, since it is also has the chance to freeze targets via critical hits? I'm not as familiar with the way cold damage in general works in D3, does it only provide a slow when a critical hit is reached then, unlike nearly all cold damage providing a slow effect in D2?|||Whenever you get a critical hit, it affects the target depending on the damage type. Cold Freezes enemies.

Yeah, ray of frost does less damage because of the chance to freeze.

Short name for wizard - Page 6

Mike, have you really never heard of "The Wiz", the all black Wizard of Oz with Michael Jackson and Diana Ross?|||I can't believe you didn't include the most sensible and easiest short name.

Wiz.|||well im not a native english speaker

that might be the reason.|||wiz-wiz obviously |||Willard...|||Wiza.

10 chars|||I'm gunna call wizards.......Ruffuses|||lol zard is awesome rofl.... you're such a zard lol

Short name for wizard - Page 4

I don't see anything other than Wiz being used. WZD? Has the sorceress ever been referred to as an SCS? The Paladin a PDN? Unless a class's name is a compound of multiple words (Death Knight being DK, for instances), or is monosyllabic (Rogue), its forum shorthand is practically always a single syllable of its name. Sometimes a consonant or vowel from an adjacent syllable is added (Barb or Ama, though I've always preferred Zon).

Diablo III will have the Wiz, the Barb, and the WD. That wiz informally means urinate doesn't really make any difference. It can also mean someone very skilled at something (wiz kid). The homophone whiz is a verb meaning to speed by or twirl around.

I anticipate skill tree names being used as much as class names. Stormer, conjurer, arcanist, juggernaut, berserker, battlemaster. The Witch Doctor's trees don't really make for easy conjugation, but he may may be referred to as the Plague Doctor (PD), Vodoo Doctor (VD), or Spirit Doctor (SD). That's a wild guess, though.|||I say wiz. When I think of wzd I think of the whole word wizard - and I'm too lazy for that.|||Wiz sounds silly though. Also, the word wizard itself is not overly hard to think of in your head (seriously?) so I would go with something that sounds cool but is easy to type: Wzd.

@ Doctrinaire - I don't understand the reasoning you used for shortening syllables when you keep massive words like Witch Doctor and Death Knight.|||Quote:








@ Doctrinaire - I don't understand the reasoning you used for shortening syllables when you keep massive words like Witch Doctor and Death Knight.




Compound names aren't kept, they're initialized. That's how it has worked in the past, in any case. In Everquest, the Beastmaster was always called the BM. In WoW, the Death Knight is the DK. It's a pretty consistent trend.

There are four main kinds of abbreviations that we use in written and spoken English. They are initialisms (BBC), acronyms (NATO), contractions (Dr.), and shortenings (Doc). I can't think of a single instance of a contraction being used as forum jargon for anything, let alone a short class name like Wizard. Contractions just kind of suck as informal abbreviations - they really have to be titles or units of measurement to be functionally practical (ft., Mrs., Mr.). You can try to champion using 'Wzd' if you want, but if the past is any indication, the Wizard will be the Wiz.

Edit: Dimmu's post below reminded me that the Assassin was sometimes abbreviated 'Asn'. It seems a contraction has been used before.|||What I meant was that WD isn't shortened at all (to speak) yet everything else has to be shortened to one syllable, as a rule.

Most people probably will use Wiz, but I'm sure Wzd will be used as well.|||Doctrinaire is right.

Barbarian~Barb

Amazon~Zon (Ama is just too much to think about, most people see the Z and recognize amazon right away, whereas the A can make you possibly think of assassin)

Sorceress~Sorc

Necromancer~Necro, and eventually I just started saying Nec.

Paladin~Din/Pala/Pal, since the different paladin builds were so varied and consistantly mentioned, you ended up needing to adress each as such anyway. (Hdin, Smiter, Foher, Zealer, Mage, v/t, and that Hammer/smite build that starts with a D, I can't think of it right now).

Druid~Uhhh Druid.

Assassin~ Most People said Sin, but it felt corny and I said Asn. But just like the Paladin, you usually adressed them by build anyway i.e. Trapper, wwsin, Hybrid, and I guess m/a asns, although they were terrible and rarely seen.

Anyway, the point is that the Wizard will undoubtibly be called "wiz", it's got 2 awkward letters (W and Z) making it instantly recognizable and it fits the normal shortening rules that we use in games. I'm going to assume the Wizard Spike will make a return since it was very popular in both D1 and D2, so things may get confusing, but I always called it wizspike anyway.

Barbarian~barb

Witch Doctor~wd

Wizard~wiz|||With a bunch of people calling chars names like baba, soso, and dudu, I wouldn't be surprised if someday someone starts calling the wizard "wiwi" or "zaza" or something like that. lol. I think wiz is good. |||Quote:








With a bunch of people calling chars names like baba, soso, and dudu, I wouldn't be surprised if someday someone starts calling the wizard "wiwi" or "zaza" or something like that. lol. I think wiz is good.




Yep, it's going to be Zizi for me.|||I was thinking more about:

Taaa-daaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!

or

Zap

or maybe just Jack(y).|||Quote:








"Wiz" seems like the logical abbreviation.




yeah and wizzy is EQ1 wizard little nickname

Short name for wizard - Page 3

Quote:








Wiz, although Wee sounds funny.




ill have to with Wiz to and yes wee sounds funny ( i loled )|||Wizard. Really guys its not that long, and both Wiz and Wizzy sound dumb to me.|||Wizard is twice as long to type as Wiz.|||As I said before, Wzd is a good short name. It's only 3 letters and it's instantly recognizable. Witch Doctor would be shortened to WD, and Barbarian to Barb.|||Zard is the only logical explanation.

My first wizard shall be named "TheZard" and he shall wreak great vengeance upon those who made fun of him and called him "Wiz" and "Wizzy".

Not to be confused with "Charizard".|||Quote:








As I said before, Wzd is a good short name. It's only 3 letters and it's instantly recognizable. Witch Doctor would be shortened to WD, and Barbarian to Barb.




I was thinking wiz, until I read this post. I completely agree with you.Wzd is the way to go, although WD may need to be changed a bit. Maybe WD could be changed to Doc?|||Wizzy don't make sense.. its only 1 letter shorter than Wizard :P I'll prolly use wiz. Or maybe Tar.. Zard.|||Obviously wiz. wizzy sound too silly, and it fits the usual pattern for making up shorthened names (assassin = assa(or 'sin), sorceress=sorc, paladin=pala, not assy, sorcy or paly)|||Quote:








"Wiz" seems like the logical abbreviation.




Wiz -- http://www.thefreedictionary.com/wiz |||Quote:








I was thinking wiz, until I read this post. I completely agree with you.Wzd is the way to go, although WD may need to be changed a bit. Maybe WD could be changed to Doc?




Doc does sound cool, and WD is still a mouthful no matter how fast it is to type.

@ Zarfen - Actually I used pally all the time, but maybe I was an exception.

Short name for wizard - Page 2

Wiz is clearly the best choice, but Zard is undeniably awesome.|||Wizzy for me.

I can't use "wiz" because that's slang for wee wee - "going for a wiz". Well, it could work depending on how the Wizard turns outs. Never know.|||Quote:








Wizzy for me.

I can't use "wiz" because that's slang for wee wee - "going for a wiz". Well, it could work depending on how the Wizard turns outs. Never know.




"Don't wiz on the electric fence." <3 Ren & Stimpy XD



I like Wizzy. It's worked for WizardSpike, so I'm sure it'd be fine. Catchy too.|||Quote:








Wizzy for me.

I can't use "wiz" because that's slang for wee wee - "going for a wiz". Well, it could work depending on how the Wizard turns outs. Never know.




I believe that's "Whiz".|||Yes... where is the "Wiz" option. "Wiz" is the first and only abbrev. that came to mind.|||Quote:




I can't use "wiz" because that's slang for wee wee - "going for a wiz". Well, it could work depending on how the Wizard turns outs. Never know.




You just gave Disintegrate a terrifying new potential meaning. Let us hope Diablo 3 is not mod friendly.|||Perhaps I am being overly cynical, but I have a strange feeling that unimaginative people who think they are amusing will start to use "Wiztard".

What Wizzes will call themselves is a different matter! |||I'm gonna have to say sorc, just outta habit.|||what about ansatsuken?|||wiz seems like the obviuos

Short name for wizard

As you all know long or awkward names always get simplified or changed in the ever changing, living entitiy of the language.

This is why we are speaking of barbs, palas, ama, sorcs and so on.

The name wizard may fit very well into the lore but i feel its just not casual enogh to establish itself.

Which of the following do you feel will become common?|||"Wiz" seems like the logical abbreviation.|||I'll go with wiz.|||Wiz.

Maybe Wizzy.|||Wiz and Wizzy.|||I'd like to change my vote to "W".

Of course, the witchdoctor is WD, so no problems there.

People are lazy man.|||I think Wzd is simple and to the point. |||Wiz, although Wee sounds funny.|||I'm amazed that Wiz isn't an option on the poll... I'd have to say Wiz, with Zard being the second most likely, for some weird reason.|||Wiz for male and Wizzy for female characters. And plenty of dumb variations courtesy of people playing D3 translated into their native languages

Wizard Summoning - Page 4

hireling are still in....soooo yeah and "pure caster" type have always been higher dmg and lower defence then every other class....i doubt that will change if they want to have diversity in their class...the really only thing that bothers me with the wiz is that ALOTS of spell are taken from DnD....wish they would have made new one that arent exact copy of DnD...il still play my "MALE WOOHOO!!!" wizard non-stop

the wiz have alots of good diverse defensive skill now,unlike that damn frozen,chilling and shiver armor...so i wouldnt worry about surviving....

we really need the necro comeback though...i love caster...every one of them but summoner necro was seriously awesome to play and alots different then everything weve seen in Diablo like....people saying its just summon and then watch dont know anything about necro in hell....going in hell as a summoner necro as your first new ladder char is just awesome and soooooo much tactic is involved|||Quote:








we really need the necro comeback though...i love caster...every one of them but summoner necro was seriously awesome to play and alots different then everything weve seen in Diablo like....people saying its just summon and then watch dont know anything about necro in hell....going in hell as a summoner necro as your first new ladder char is just awesome and soooooo much tactic is involved




No. NO. NO. NO.

Let me introduce you to the WITCH DOCTOR. He has SUMMONS too!

So seriously, everyone shut up, and let the Necro die like he wants to.|||Quote:








No. NO. NO. NO.

Let me introduce you to the WITCH DOCTOR. He has SUMMONS too!

So seriously, everyone shut up, and let the Necro die like he wants to.




Good point.

Bravo.

LET SOSO BE WIZZ AND KILL EVERYTHING IN HIS/HER OWN WITHOUT STUPID SHIELDS.



btw, if you play without frozen armour, games starts to be so much more interesting, tele / cast, or do: cast / cast /die is much better then get hit 13 billion times and then say, ouch, i need to repare: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVNPj...c-HM-fresh+div|||find familiar!

edit: Also about slowtime... is it just me or is this just "slow missles" and nothing like the awesomness of bg timestop.|||Quote:








Also about slowtime... is it just me or is this just "slow missles" and nothing like the awesomness of bg timestop.




D2 sorceress had it. It's called "spamMeteorcrushgame".|||Just so we get back on topic, and so its perfectly clear, the Diablo 3 Wizard DOES have limited summoning ability through the Mirror Image and Hydra skills of its aptly named Conjuring skill tree. There are other possibilities for pseudo-summoning as well, such as Teleport inserted with a Multistrike (now Hydra) rune creating duplicates.