Better Potions of Healing

Most class archetypes rely largely on potions of healing (ill just refer to them as pots from now on) to maintain survivability. The thing is, I feel like there could be some massive QOL improvements that can be super simple to implement and provide a more fun gameplay.

So first off, here's my 2 main QOL issues with pots:
1) Pots have limited charges. It's not fun when a player runs out of pot charges mid-raid, or during a loot run or quest just because they forgot to top up, or accidentally spammed it, or just can't refill charges during combat (especially prevalent for loot runs).

2) Pots are very manual, in search for a better word. You need to hot bar swap to the pot itself, right click to heal. and then swap back to your weapon to continue gameplay. This could sometimes feel a little annoying for players to frequently hot bar swap and break the flow of gameplay in my opinion.

So, here's my recommendations on improvements:
1) Instead of charges, give pots a cooldown mechanic. Make pots have endless charges and continuous use without having to refill. To balance pots, use a cooldown mechanic instead. This not only removes the frustration of running out of pot charges but also enables more balanced healing potential for using pots. One could maybe even introduce different kinds of pots, with their own kinds of healing mechanics to suit different playstyles.

2) Give a dedicated slot (offhand slot, maybe? Or a fifth inventory slot?) dedicated to pots. This allows pots to activate automatically. One can also introduce smart mechanics that makes different kinds of pots trigger on certain conditions (to prevent any wasted pot triggers).

For example, here's a few reworked pot ideas:
a) A pot that heals very little but has a quick cooldown rate. Heck, maybe even introduce a continuous healing rate, similar to mana regen. Good for taking sustained damage.
b) A pot that heals large amounts of health instantly, but with a large cooldown. Can provide absorption heart/overheal if health is already high. Good for taking burst damage.
c) A pot that heals far less, but provides occasional buffs to mana regen/speed boost etc. Could be used for archetypes who already have a comfortable stream of healing/support.

The list goes on and on. This simple change can introduce so many cool mechanics for a core stat of players: survivability/healing. I feel like potions of healing deserve to be just as highly regarded as a core gameplay item and should be treated as a component for making builds, playstyles etc. just like one would choose his weapon, accessory, or armor piece. Even just implementing and balancing these two issues (without even beginning to make different kinds of pot mechanics) it would remove the annoying nature of pots in the first place.

Thanks for reading, and please give any suggestions on improvements if you have any :)

 

Potions are designed to be a consumable resource, just like an estus flask. You deliberately aren't meant to have infinite. They also already have a cooldown between their limited uses.

Fruma update largely fixes this. Spell effects will continue even if you swap off your weapon, so shaman totems and ophanim orbs wont despawn and such. Also if potions were used automatically they'd just be the equivalent of a totem of undying where they immediately pop to save you when you're low health. A good player could stay out of danger enough for their health potion to be ready again when they get low, and it'd end up as the equivalent of Risk of Rain 2's Safer Spaces, where it allows you to effectively avoid death if you're able to stay out of danger for a few seconds between hits.

 

I think that the player being forced to return to a town/housing balloon, or stock up on potions is an important part of Wynn's gameplay loop, which requires the player to return to a town to identify and sell the equipment they have found in their adventures. 30 is honestly plenty of potions, I have very rarely run out of potions, even during lootruns. Also, switching to a slot as a small punishment (With Fruma changing how switching slots works I have no further issues with this mechanic) makes sense. You got hit, assumedly because of a mistake, (Refferring primarily to 2.1+ bosses, the player skins that just spam arrow storm and flamethrower still kinda suck) and it's you choice to try and heal instead of trying to kill the enemy instead.

 

I agree

 

My only issue with the comparison is that the estus refills on death/rest (for those of you who are good enough to get to a new bonfire alive), and potions, somewhat annoyingly, do not. I'd actually kinda like for it to the case, so if you do a raid or lootrun or dungeon or whatever, you don't have to either go open a dozen chests or buy them. Specifically, it's nice to not have to go to somewhere offering high level pots if you are somewhere low leveled. Having potions automatically refill in towns would be really nice both for that and also for putting on a new build and suddenly having 517/14918 health or whatever and having to either waste a pot or 5 minutes of your pitiful regen to get up to full.

As for the main idea of the thread, I think having potions be a somewhat antagonistic mechanic works well; being inconvenient to use and somewhat limited in utility means that you're disincentivized to just spam heal potions, but rather to find ways to build other forms of sustain into your build. That being said, I wouldn't mind other forms of healing potion though; there actually are a few at low levels (via the Bremminglar merchant) that are kinda useful. I think that having potions that work better for different builds or situations does make sense given the heavy emphasis on build creation and customization.

 

Wow guys I'm glad to see so many reactions on my post, so firstly let me say thanks for all the replies.
Secondly, I'd like to continue this discussion since I'm finding it pretty interesting to see everyone`s views on healing mechanics.

So, regarding having a dedicated slot for pots, I'm happy with that idea being discarded with Fruma introducing the ability to swap to your pot and retain any status effects/spells (Although a dedicated slot would still be nice, especially if the concept of having pots as a part of one`s build with its own distinct healing mechanics).

As for my new pot suggestions being overpowered and acting as totems of undying etc. I feel like my new pot mechanic overhaul would make balancing fairly easy (just like one would balance standard gear and weapons as usual). Take the cooldown aspect of my pot idea as an example. Powerful pot effects can be paired with very long cooldowns. Again working with the totem of undying pot mechanic, this pot could have a very long cooldown of say, 3+ minutes. Other potions with lesser healing effects can have a shorter cooldown (for example a pot that heals for around 10% of a typical build's max hp but can be triggered every 5 seconds or so.)
Additionally, I think even a general buff to healing wouldn't me a train smash with the Rekindled update making mobs and bosses much more powerful and more hard-hitting. Having this balance of higher healing intake and more damage intake could honestly make combat feel a bit more fast-paced and fluid, which I think would be a great improvement.

Now for the idea that pots should have charges to incentivize players to frequently return to towns/safe havens: I think pots should not be the sole, or even close to a main reason to keep going to safe spots on the map, since it merely feels like a chore instead. I completely agree with players having to return to safe spots as a gameplay mechanic, I just believe there are other better incentives already in place to lure players back to towns, the most prominent ones being item identifiers, banks, blacksmiths, travel merchants, and the market. Why throw the hassle of potion refills in the mix?

I think a distinction between the utility and convenience of an item should also be highlighted. I'm not trying to make potions incredibly powerful or busted in any sense, that just ruins game balance (pots should have balanced utility). However, I think no core game item should be designed to be purposefully inconvenient. Removing charge limits and instead introducing a cooldown mechanic, and also potentially giving a dedicated slot for automatic potion activation, would simply make pots more convenient to use without disrupting the usual gameplay.

As a bottom line (and for those who don't want to read my rantings) I want to move away from pots being similar to those from Elden Ring and traditional souls-likes (treated as a resource, limited charges, refill at safe spots) and closer to a shield-based mechanic like Borderlands or traditional looter-shooters (unlimited and automatic use, part of making a build, treated as a build item) which aligns better with the gameplay loop of modern Wynncraft.

Please feel free to form any more opinions :)

 

I think the only change needed would perhaps be a way to convert emeralds to potions automatically for QOL. Probably when you enter a town your potions are refilled automatically in exchange for emeralds, if you toggle it on. Maybe though, it could be anywhere you are. However, that seemed too op

 

i dont think anyone else has mentioned this in particular, but fruma has fixed this, fyi
now when you go to drink a potion at full hp, it says something like 'you can't drink that, you're already at full health' which is super nice.

though honestly I think potions and healing is kind of... fine as is. I'd add potion merchants to the Qira Hive and raid in-between rooms, just in case you forgot them. Beyond that, (and maybe the QoL of potion merchant potions offered scaling to level), I think healing is in a pretty good spot. I remember back when potions didn't stack, that was when healing REALLY sucked. I was lucky enough to only have played mage before that change.

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those potions have consistently carried me through level 18 to 50 since that was added, definite agree that more types of potions would be good. (oh and does anyone actually use skill pots anymore? i think those are kind of a weird feature, maybe something to update, I have a ton sitting in my bank and I don't think I've EVER drank one)

 

I use skill pots for anni

 

huh. that never even occurred to me

 

I do feel that Wynn encourages players to rely on healing potions too much. Your base HPR is 3. It doesn't go up. If I'm playing and my build doesn't actively add more health regen (raw) I'm regaining... 3 hp, every 5 seconds, out of my 15000. 25000 seconds to regain all your health, which is seven hours. Your base HP regen should scale with your max health. HPR has two different stats - raw and % - which makes sense for things like main attack damage (raw being more effective on fast speed, % being more effective on slow) but not for HPR, where it's "Use a graph and sometimes multiple charts to figure out how to actually regain your health mid combat."
Lifesteal... exists? It's bad on fast attack speed, it's bad on spell...
Healing spells aren't available to all classes, and on the classes that do have self-healing, it often outclasses healing potions to the point they don't need to be there anyways.

The issue isn't really with health potions, it's that natural HP regen is really bad, doesn't scale with the player, and is immediately outclassed by one lightbender or summoner. That underlying issue means you need health potions to be stronger, which means you use them more, which means balancing shifts further towards health potions being in the typical play pattern...

 

Scaling hpr by level and/or max hp would be a good change imo, for reasons you listed. I usually have to head to my housing balloon after changing builds, or drink 62 emeralds worth of potions, which gets annoying.