Following Blizzard’s news on VF not going away. I keep trying to think of ways where it could work for me.
One of the ideas I had was the following:
Instead of having your sanity drop over time, which can be stressfull and awkward in many situations (mobs that die fast, etc etc), have all the abilities that generate sanity, consume sanity instead and have an extra effect, when in VF. The consumed sanity would be the same or double the amount the spell generated outside of VF (would need to be tested).
Furthermore, in order for it to be different from any other builder/spender, instead of a haste stack you would get a debuff that would deal DOT to you and would stack the longer you’d be inside VF. Fantasy wise you would be venturing into the void but you’d have limited time inside otherwise you could die (some talents, specially pvp ones, could clear/decrease this damage). In any case, the normal way to play would be to get into VF and get the best out of your VF spells, depending on your situation, to get out (or you could simply just cancel your VF aura but lose the benefits).
Here’s some ideas of VF empowered spells:
- Void bolt would be the only spell that didnt consume any sanity (you could use it indefinitely so long as you didnt drop out of VF (or die). You would not be useless in mobile fights and it wouldn’t cost you your VF. A talent could make it have 2 charges.
- Mind blast would have it’s CD reduced in half. Or would do increased damage. Or would consume all your remaining sanity for extra damage (you could spec into different options).
- Devouring plague would only be possible to use in VF (with decent numbers for a burst option).
- Mind flay would increase the ticking damage of the DOTs on your target by 1%/second (would drop if the dots were reapplied).
- Vampiric Touch and SW:P would have their duration increased by 100%. Would combo well with an empowered mind flay for a sustained fight.
- Mind Sear would be cast on all enemies which have SW:P on (or up to 5 enemies).
- Dispersion would have a 45s CD, would not reduce damage taken but would instead stop the VF debuff dot from stacking/dealing damage, while it was active (to help with positioning and moving from pack to pack).
You’d still want to enter VF as often as possible for the extra effects but instead of being obliged to spam your abilities to not drop out of it you would have to do so in order to not go insane and die.
You would have to chose well which spells you’d spend your sanity on depending on the situation (burst or sustained damage or even some CC). The sanity cost would be high enough that you should only be able to use 4-5 spells while inside VF. It would still be inside the fantasy of Void Form while being versatile for many situations (pvp, m+ or raiding).
Talents could be revamped to customize the empowered effects.
Tell me what you think.
I know it might be too complex of a change this far into alpha testing but bear with me.