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Mana vs no-mana seems arbitrary

Jo0o·5/30/2017, 5:31:53 PM·5 votes·532 views

Are there any reasonable developer articles on why certain champs rely on mana while others don't?

I mean, in a game like WoW, only the traditionally "magical" classes rely on a mana pool. Martial classes instead use Energy or Rage or some other system of resource management. Meanwhile, other fantasy games may just make everybody have a mana pool, which is also fine.

League seems arbitrary in how it handles resources. Garen or Kled have no need for mana, but Darius and Fiora do. None of those champs are particularly magical; they're all just fighters. Why can Darius run out of mana but Garen can't? (No, I haven't put much thought into balance concerns. I'm thinking in terms of baseline consistency in design).

I don't have a strong opinion or point to make, I'm just curious if this is a subject that's been given much thought or has been talked about.

(When I was brand new, I used to feed the shit out of Yasuos because I always assumed they were low on mana due to that passive bar).

30 Comments

Ahristocats5/30/2017, 5:56:41 PM4 votes

Some champions not using mana would faceroll the laning phase

i'm thinking about master yi his E costs no mana if his Q and W wouldn't cost mana he would shove the wave with Q constantly while healing with W every 3 sec with no risk though i don't know why his ult costs mana

imagine KogMaw not using mana, you can? then you know why we need mana on some spells Riven not using mana IMO is fine, because she doesn't have some ranged damage and has to fight everytime to win the lane

Vladimir not using mana is an aberation and contributes to make his balance one of the hardest thing in league

Ralanr5/30/2017, 5:39:32 PM2 votes

Certain champions wouldn't be able to function properly with mana. Riven, Yasuo, Rumble, Akali, etc.

Dreadlocks5/30/2017, 5:34:16 PM2 votes

Eh, i think its fun.. I don't feel cheated from 1 resource to the next.. If you want a game with more consistency id try dota 2..

50000000000000005/30/2017, 8:14:44 PM1 votes

Mana matters in a gameplay sense, but not really in a thematic sense.

DeathBurst5/30/2017, 5:53:24 PM1 votes

Most champs DO have mana by default, and when they do not there is usually a reason, but it depends on a case by case basis. It's not that they arbitrarily decide "this champ gets mana and this one doesn't", it's just that they give Mana to everyone unless there is a reason not to.

Generally, it's because they have another resource to manage (such as Yasuo's flow shield or Kled's remounting courage) and they don't want to make the champion too complex by giving too many things to track at the same time. Other times, it's for thematic reasons, such as Vlad using HP instead of Mana. You also have Energy, which is essentially just Mana with a flavorful name and a very high Regen but very small Pool, so it doesn't create the same constraints on the champ and it creates diversity. And finally you have a few cases like Garen or Katarina where I'm not aware of any good reason, but it's probably just because they are old champs and they did a lot of strange stuff in the old times just for the sake of novelty.

Azure Hamster5/30/2017, 5:50:34 PM1 votes

A champ with mana, for example Ziggs, can do his Q really often until he runs out of mana. Then he has to wait for it to recharge. So there's a timeline like

Q.Q.Q.Q.Q.Q.............Q.Q.Q.Q.Q.Q

with him. If Riot wanted Ziggs's Q to be based on cooldown and not mana, they could set it so his Q costs a small enough amount of mana that he could Q whenever he wanted without running out of mana. Let's say for the sake of playbalance that the CD is also a bit longer:

Q..Q..Q..Q..Q..Q..Q..Q..Q..Q..Q..Q

So we have 12 Qs here in both situations. But in the first he can Q more often for a period of time, then he has to wait. But in the second he can Q any time it's off cooldown, but he can't do it any faster than what the CD allows.

If they want all of a champ's abilities to work like the second case, then that champ doesn't need mana. This is how Garen is designed.

Caitlyn

Catastrop5/30/2017, 7:10:02 PM1 votes

People have talked about the kit limitations of giving mana to manaless champion but they've not yet covered itemization. The way I see it, making a champion manaless is also a good way to gate the champion's itemization. Could you imagine a world where Yasuo could build item 3025 and item 3004 in addition to his current itemization choices? Or Katarinas who could build item 3040?