Life Regen is a throwaway stat. With the most recent beta update buffing it to 300% what it used to be indicates that developers intend to keep this recovery meta in the game. Now that the stat will also make regular % appearance on drops, it's high time to revisit this recovery meta and consider ways to make it actually useful/competitive with the current mainstay - LoH.
Current situation:
a single slot of stat budget grants you 217 Life Regen (LR) or 360 LoH
The actual gameplay effect scaling though is very different.
Assuming a typical 6 SW AS or 7.8 DW AS, the actual sustained hits per second: Mage 25x (singularity + AL speed buff), BH 13x (RF, MS trigger LoH per bolt), warrior 8 SW, 11 DW.
So the hits per sec ranges from a low of 8 to a high of 25. Which means for a single solitary stat investment, LoH will yield between 13.3x to 41.5x more raw recovery per second than LR. This difference is doubled again when a shield bubble is triggered (only mage and warrior has access to this shield bubble so I ignore it here)
No wonder no one EVER invests in LR on gear.
Pro for LR: constant effect even outside of combat
Con for LR: Heal over time means it's not immediate thus incoming blow can kill you before the healing process can overcome the damage.
Given the massive difference between LR and LoH in actual gameplay, there is no competition. The only sensible choice, if one needs recovery, is to stack on LoH.
Notice how the only melee class in the game (warrior) actually has the lowest scaling factor for LoH, interesting indeed...
Here is my suggestion to make LR a viable alternative to LoH.
All classes have an innate passive (kinda like alacrity is available to all classes as a background passive) called Combat Adrenoline.
CA works like a multiplier on the total LR on character (does not include minion LR giving auras like maggie/elieen).
Mage's CA has a max stack size of 3, BH's is 5, and warrior's is 7.
Whenever a character successfully dodge, parry, or block an attack, there is 25% chance CA is increased by 1 until hitting the max stack size for each class (critical block grants 1 stack 100% of the time, like shield slam).
Every 2 seconds, 1 stack is removed (kinda like how the new mage set 2 bonus works). So during constant battle, the CA is likely sitting at the max after ramping up while its effect dwindles when outside the combat.
NEW EXOTIC ENCHANTMENT
(for chest)
Name: Adrenaline Rush: Max CA size increased by 3
This enchantment would offer stiff competition for the current Vampric +400 LoH enchantment for those that wish to go the LR route instead.
Defender Chest bonus: Max CA size increased by 2. So the defender chest piece can have a total of +5 to CA with the enchantment.
Why defender bonus? SW has a 25% AS disadvantage vs DW, so it needs all the recovery help it can get.
So does this change make LR OP compared to LoH? The answer is no. Let's look at the lowest LoH scaling possible, SW at 13.3x. If someone completely commits to LR, as a defender warrior (highest LR scaling possible), the max stack for CA is 7 (warrior) + 2 (defender bonus) + 3 (enchantment) = 12. So the effect is 13x, thus still lower than the worst LoH scaling at 13.3x.
Also due to the fact it takes time to ramp up the CA, whereas LoH is immediate, (think a single volley of RF or MS can heal huge chunks of HP back for BH), the overall combat effectiveness isn't likely to tilt in favor of LR. What LR will offer an advantage is in the area of running away from drains/bleed effects (from Elban or Garm poison). So there is pro/con in either situation with the overall effectiveness winner still going to LoH.
Red (Developer)
With the above change, this creates an alternative way to gain recovery. Especially notable due to the triggering mechanism: dodge, parry, block: giving additional emphasis on defensive countermeasures.
Current situation:
a single slot of stat budget grants you 217 Life Regen (LR) or 360 LoH
The actual gameplay effect scaling though is very different.
Assuming a typical 6 SW AS or 7.8 DW AS, the actual sustained hits per second: Mage 25x (singularity + AL speed buff), BH 13x (RF, MS trigger LoH per bolt), warrior 8 SW, 11 DW.
So the hits per sec ranges from a low of 8 to a high of 25. Which means for a single solitary stat investment, LoH will yield between 13.3x to 41.5x more raw recovery per second than LR. This difference is doubled again when a shield bubble is triggered (only mage and warrior has access to this shield bubble so I ignore it here)
No wonder no one EVER invests in LR on gear.
Pro for LR: constant effect even outside of combat
Con for LR: Heal over time means it's not immediate thus incoming blow can kill you before the healing process can overcome the damage.
Given the massive difference between LR and LoH in actual gameplay, there is no competition. The only sensible choice, if one needs recovery, is to stack on LoH.
Notice how the only melee class in the game (warrior) actually has the lowest scaling factor for LoH, interesting indeed...
Here is my suggestion to make LR a viable alternative to LoH.
All classes have an innate passive (kinda like alacrity is available to all classes as a background passive) called Combat Adrenoline.
CA works like a multiplier on the total LR on character (does not include minion LR giving auras like maggie/elieen).
Mage's CA has a max stack size of 3, BH's is 5, and warrior's is 7.
Whenever a character successfully dodge, parry, or block an attack, there is 25% chance CA is increased by 1 until hitting the max stack size for each class (critical block grants 1 stack 100% of the time, like shield slam).
Every 2 seconds, 1 stack is removed (kinda like how the new mage set 2 bonus works). So during constant battle, the CA is likely sitting at the max after ramping up while its effect dwindles when outside the combat.
NEW EXOTIC ENCHANTMENT
(for chest)
Name: Adrenaline Rush: Max CA size increased by 3
This enchantment would offer stiff competition for the current Vampric +400 LoH enchantment for those that wish to go the LR route instead.
Defender Chest bonus: Max CA size increased by 2. So the defender chest piece can have a total of +5 to CA with the enchantment.
Why defender bonus? SW has a 25% AS disadvantage vs DW, so it needs all the recovery help it can get.
So does this change make LR OP compared to LoH? The answer is no. Let's look at the lowest LoH scaling possible, SW at 13.3x. If someone completely commits to LR, as a defender warrior (highest LR scaling possible), the max stack for CA is 7 (warrior) + 2 (defender bonus) + 3 (enchantment) = 12. So the effect is 13x, thus still lower than the worst LoH scaling at 13.3x.
Also due to the fact it takes time to ramp up the CA, whereas LoH is immediate, (think a single volley of RF or MS can heal huge chunks of HP back for BH), the overall combat effectiveness isn't likely to tilt in favor of LR. What LR will offer an advantage is in the area of running away from drains/bleed effects (from Elban or Garm poison). So there is pro/con in either situation with the overall effectiveness winner still going to LoH.
Red (Developer)
With the above change, this creates an alternative way to gain recovery. Especially notable due to the triggering mechanism: dodge, parry, block: giving additional emphasis on defensive countermeasures.
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