Mana Builds

Due to damage to a Mana Shield not being counted, Essence Shot being kinda weak, and other people not being able to heal your mana, Essence mages are pretty bad. I think they should have more of a support role maybe. That could be done with something similar to Essence Shot but which also regenerates the mana of allies in a large aoe. That and/or let damage to their mana count and/or make some other kind of mana regenerating shot.

Ya, I do agree actually. ( Although, the Mana Set does have an AoE mana replenish. )

My current plan is to give Essence a more active role in dealing damage and effects with various Shots. In addition, I am going to add more Sets that actually cast spells, which will obviously favor an Essence build, due to the need for large quantities of mana.
I also think it would be nice to "revisit" some of the already made Shots ( such as Entangling Shot ) and make durations based on Essence ( like cold effects are ) instead of being a constant.

I realize they have Brilliance Aura and Replenish, but it still seems to fall short compared to the other two builds.

That sounds like a good change, although a mana regeneration shot would still be nice. (And also, your gold system doesn't account for mana stuff at all. It just does hp. Maybe a way to work that in so that support builds that focused on mana could actually get money too?)

Honestly, I planned on Mana tanking to not count in the gold reward initially, and I'm still up in the air about it. Maybe I should make the Mana Shield abilities only tank 50% of the damage? That would give some benefit. But if I added the Mana damage taken to the gold rewarded, than I could NEVER allow a rapid firing gun. It would just be too much stacking.

Although, a Mana replenishing Shot isn't a bad idea, and I don't remember thinking of it, so I will certainly write it down and hopefully get to it by the next release.

Well, that just makes it harder on any Mana mage. If that's intentional I guess it's ok. You could also include a gold stat for Mana Regenerated just like Health.


Also, I think that the Mana Replenishing shot should also burn mana from enemies and have a VERY large aoe. It would also be nice if more enemies used mana.