Disclaimer:
I can see this being a controversial suggestion but I can also see it being added (albeit with some changes if needed). I also limited my ideas in order to not make them seem too OP.
Zone, domain and Realm Spell!
This is a trio of spells that are fundamentally the same with each of them being an upgraded version of the previous.
Zone → Domain → Realm
Each of these spells can be obtained in different ways and at different points of progression with zone being the easiest to obtain and realm being an extremely rare and ancient spell. The general and simplified purpose of this spell is to provide buffs and special magic properties to a player within a designated area.
Sound similar? Yes, at first glance this seems similar to the aura spell but with a restriction that the aura doesn’t have which is being limited to a single area. However, that is not the case and yes while zone may provide buffs similar to aura it has a lot more special effects that gives the spell its own use.
Zone will be accessible by hybrids earlier Domain will be accessible by hybrids later Realm will probably ask for too high of a magic requirement for hybrids
Zone:
Lets begin with zone. This is the most basic and accessible of the 3 and therefore the weakest. Zone will create a medium sized circle area around the caster and provide basic buffs.
Zone ability - rare spell:
medium sized around the player circle shaped (3/5 of munera garden arena size)
zone does not require mana to upkeep and only requires a single mana cost
zone dissipates after 30 seconds
zone has a shared cooldown with aura
zone buffs can only be accessed whilst within the circle
zone buffs will disappear a second after leaving the circle
increases power
increases agility
increases intensity
5% damage reduction
spell cooldowns are decreased
ultimate art cooldown decreased
Domain:
Domain will have the properties of zone with improvements and unique additions. Domain will create a larger circle around the caster and provide various buffs and unique properties.
Domain - lost spell:
any domain spell will destroy any zone spell it comes in contact with regardless of magic
large sized around the player circle shaped (full munera garden arena size)
domain does not require mana to upkeep and only requires a single mana cost
domain dissipates after 40 seconds
domain has a shared cooldown with aura
domain buffs can only be accessed whilst within the circle
domain buffs will disappear a second after leaving the circle
bigger increase in power
bigger increase in agility
bigger increase in intensity
10% damage reduction
ultimate art cooldown decreased further
spell cooldowns are decreased further
enemy projectiles inside your zone will be slowed down
the casters projectiles will be speed up
increased cc duration (frozen, paralyzed, petrified etc.)
status effects applied by the corresponding element of the domain will last an extra hit (wet, charred, bleed, poison etc.). If a person has a water domain and applies charred with their explosion magic this effect will not be affected by the domains buffs.
In the case of blinding/disorienting magics such as light and shadow their status build up speed will be increased
hazard damage (magma puddle, ash cloud etc.) will be increased
Realm:
Realms sizes are customisable. Players can edit the realm size to make it some size between slightly large than domain or slightly smaller than zone. Realm will also only last for a shorter time due to its immense mana usage.
Realm - extremely rare spell:
This will take too long hence I’ll just summarise it. Realm will have all the previous buffs and properties with the addition of launching follow up attacks with each spell cast. Realms trap both parties inside and destroy domains and zones upon casting. A persons realm cannot be casted whilst they are inside another persons realm. Examples are domain expansion from JJK and Mordekaiser ultimate from league of legends.
Strength of these spells:
While in a 1vs1 (not bounty hunting or chasing) the player is considerably stronger than aura
creates some cool interactions and ways to buff existing spells
Not as one dimensional as using aura
Drawbacks of these spells:
it is fixed hence people can just leave the area which at the same time can keep a person protected in the case that someone double downs and attacks the caster
reduced cooldowns can lead to intense mana drain and the initial casting cost is high hence a person can quickly run out of mana
the buffs are not solely bigger than aura for example aura will provide more power as opposed to a domains buff since it is more concentrated
bad for hunting people but good for standing your ground
can be situational
realm is kind of OP unless you trap yourself in with a warrior
pretty cool and balanced, the only thing i dont really like is how long the duration is (30-40 seconds is enough to kill a person in an enclosed space, not to mention if they place it in the middle of the arena you kinda got nowhere to go) and also the damage reduction. Passive 10% dr for domain seems like a bit much so I’d probably reduce it to 7.5% for domain and 10% for realm
I agree the durations can be tinkered with and the damage reduction too.
As for the enclosed space you could just leave the area and wait it out and if you’re fighting in the arena I guess people can agree not to use the spell (like with pre nerf pulsar)
Possibly durations can go from zone 20 → domain 25 → realm is shorter due to being enclosed space where no one can leave so (10 seconds)
It’s an idea, but I don’t think its good. First of all why do you need 3 versions of the same spell, each being an upgraded version? Sounds very unecessary, especially since the upgraded versions aren’t even unique (save for Realm which is barely unique). Second of all, an all stats buff while you are inside such a big area is not only boring but kind of strong, maybe even OP. I’m especially looking at domain, as it is the size of the Munera Garden arena and does not require mana to upkeep. Also, if you think about how players will react to this, they will obviously run away because nobody wants to fight an opponent with an all-stats buff for 30 or more seconds (emphasis on the more). Fights end in that amount of time, this spell will just encourage running if you don’t want to deal with such bs, and people really hate running so yeah. Also an all stats buff leaves little to no room for spell customization, which is important because it leads to more builds and more fun (at least thats what the intention of the mechanic is).
Despite the fact that the specifics laid out are really bad IMO, I think the idea isn’t necessarily bad. But you really have to rethink this and make it one spell instead of 3 for extra bloat. This also reminds me of the domain expansion meme I saw floating around Discord servers (in general) a while ago.
broken out the ass. You get an increase to power, but then get MORE BUFFS. You literally just powercrept aura, what’s the point? it’s “downsides” are hardly downsides, like “you’ll have lower energy cuz u use more spells” that’s an UPSIDE, cuz more spells = more damage. Can we please stop making obvious troll suggestions
two things: one, there is no need for 3 different tiers of the exact same spell, not to mention that ancient spell scrolls dont exist. two, when you compare this spell to aura, which is probably the closest spell you can compare this too, this spell is too overpowered and completely overshadows it. as much as i want zone control spells, this is not the way
I agree 3 may have been too much. But I do think seperating domain and realm is fair given that domain is just a better zone whilst realm is meant to act as a very short duration imprisoment (10 second max) with similar buffs.
As for comparing to aura, since I didn’t give any numerical values it makes it hard to know how strong it is. The buffs in the zone would be a lot less than aura for example if aura gave a 30% damage buff then domain would give 10% since it covers so many stats.
And yes, I kind of just wanted to lay the zone spell idea out there and ended up rushing the specifics, thanks for the feedback.
Thanks for the response so to address what you said,
The all stat buff isn’t as high as you think at most it’d be around 10% in each stats to account for the fact that multiple stats are being increased. Furthermore stats aren’t the main focus of domain.
Reducing spell cooldowns, slowing down projectiles and directly buffing status effects (like freez3 duration) are also all part of the spell. The problem with adding a lot of unique properties was that I thought it may be too unreasonable and too OP so I kept it simple.
As for running, this spell is supposed to be used when people are trying to fight you and pin you down so it’s an extreme defensive mechanism. Therefore if people run away it kind of did the job of getting people off of you. Although I do see the concern that it could be annoying in which size and uptime could be adjusted accordingly.
Tbf this was inspired domain expansions so the meme is fitting (though I haven’t seen it)
there is still no need to have 2 separate scrolls that give a spell that works identically to the other one. a better idea is to first, make a it a single lost spell scroll, then have a slider to not only customize its power output or something, but also balance it by scaling its downsides. pulsar spell has it and so can this one
thats not the problem im having with this spell suggestion. what im saying is that this spell does too many things. you need to make it DO LESS. instead of letting it give you all these weird buffs and debuffs to your enemies in range, why not just make it do raw passive damage in a set zone around you or placed since thats what almost all of the spells are supposed to do (deal damage). plus it will make it more unique
its completely ok to toss some new spell/technique/weapon ideas around but do consider balance and how well it can be implemented into ao
Fair enough the spell does have too much going for it and I guess whittling it down or even changing some stuff to have a more unique identity (concerning domain) would be better.
However, I still disagree with domain and realm not being seperated since they are very different.
Domain is a zone that anyone can freely enter and leave that provides buffs. This will have to last shorter than previously proposed so around 15 - 20 seconds.
Realm is a short lived prison designed to trap anyone within its range inside with the caster (they can’t leave) and could potentially do things such as launching follow up attacks with the users spell casts or just dealing continous damage over time like you mentioned and also last a short duration between 5 - 7 seconds.
I wouldn’t say they are fundamentally the same as one is a buffing zone and the other is an imprisonment and I should’ve just made them 2 seperate suggestions.
Yay now there’s something for my shadow magic to do after I pair up poison with metal
Perhaps different magics can have different types of zones(like metal would be more defensive and glass more offensive. They’d still give juuuust a bit of other stats)
Maybe durations can be shorter, what cubed said
I’ve thought of lots of different abilities for different magics like solid magics could burst into shrapnels as they make contact or that light and shadow zones reduce overall visibility when inside but I thought it’d be too unreasonable to think of a gimmick for each magic hence why I limited the creativity and mainly wanted to suggest the idea of a zone based spell.