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The Blood Mage - Why was it was a good designed class?

EronakisEronakis Member UncommonPosts: 2,248
in The Pub at MMORPG.COM
As a Vanguard veteran, I never played this class as I typically stick with caster heavy DPS, Sorcerer/Druid. I know the Blood Mage is revered as one of the best and unique class designs. Since Vanguard is gone I haven't found much resources for their core mechanics. From what I understand is that the Blood Mage, was a hybrid, Healer/DPS spec that uses their own health and used damage to increase healing? I assume the Blood Mage would be categorized as vampiric healer?

For those who played a Blood Mage, could you describe their core mechanic and how they functioned as a class? Was there a specific rotation and if so what was it? I would greatly appreciate any feedback on such questions.

Also, why do you think the Blood Mage was a well designed class? Was it the synergy of gameplay? The uniqueness of design?

Comments

  • HatefullHatefull Member EpicPosts: 2,502
    I was a fan of the blood mage, and I did play one, however, not to any real appreciable level and it was a loooong time ago.

    I do remember thinking I wanted to play one as I had never seen one before and I do remember it being a lot of fun. Sorry I could not be more help.

    On a slightly different topic, I played the Dark Templar in AoC (Conan) as magic using warriors sounded appealing to me and the role of siphon tank or vampiric tank was a really cool idea in my opinion. I am glad I played this class as it still is one of my favorite classes.
    Cryomatrix

    If you want a new idea, go read an old book.

    In order to be insulted, I must first value your opinion.

  • jackwagonjackwagon Member UncommonPosts: 10
    edited February 2018
    The Blood Mage was by far my favorite class in Vanguard. It was defiantly a vampire healer. You sucked blood from mobs and used it to heal the party. It was a very unique class indeed. It's been a long time, but if remember right i had these blood drops that were kinda like combo points you built up from the blood you drained. You had to maintain these to be able to heal.
  • sunandshadowsunandshadow Member RarePosts: 1,985
    This makes m wonder if there is a mana vampire class anywhere?
    I want to help design and develop a PvE-focused, solo-friendly, sandpark MMO which combines crafting, monster hunting, and story.  So PM me if you are starting one.
  • Panther2103Panther2103 Member EpicPosts: 5,768
    jackwagon said:
    The Blood Mage was by far my favorite class in Vanguard. It was defiantly a vampire healer. You sucked blood from mobs and used it to heal the party. It was a very unique class indeed. It's been a long time, but if remember right i had these blood drops that were kinda like combo points you built up from the blood you drained. You had to maintain these to be able to heal.
    Was it a viable DPS and Healer at the same time or was it kind of low end on both? I feel like at that point why wouldn't you want to be a DPS Healer. 
  • Octagon7711Octagon7711 Member LegendaryPosts: 9,000
    How close was the Blood Mage to the NightBlade in ESO.  I added vampire skills and offensive  healing is great, I can suck the life out of mobs and come out of the fight with a full health bar. Any differences for those who have played both?  Just wondering...

    "We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa      "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are."  SR Covey

  • Mackaveli44Mackaveli44 Member RarePosts: 710
    edited February 2018
    The Blood Mage -

    This class holds a special place in my heart.  I played it extensively during Vanguard.  I played it solo, group, and through the first raid(Ancient port warehouse? I can't remember the name).  The Blood Mage could deal tremendous damage while healing those around him for a percentage of damage dealt.  It had extremely powerful single target buffs that you would place on people, I would typically place my buffs on whoever was tanking at the time.  

    The Blood mage had different ways of healing.  You could siphon your health and give it to your target, you could use the usual style healing spell directly on someone but it was weaker compared to if they had done damage to heal, you would nuke and heal those around.  The primary focus of the Blood Mage was to nuke and heal those around through damage. You could siphon health and heal yourself and/or those around.  They could put very potent damage over time effects on mobs that would grant those around to receive healing from the dmg. You also had to manage pips I'd like to call them where think of any class that builds charges on a mob and than you'd unleash them with a powerful finisher or sorts based on how many pips you built up.  I can't remember exact details of how the Blood Mage utilized them but I do remember having to pay attention to them. 

     Yes, they could deal tremendous damage in the process.  Its still to this day, my favorite class that I have ever played in an MMO and I have played most MMO's since EQ.  I hope a game comes out that has something similar.  I haven't had as much fun with a class to this very day as I had with the Blood Mage.  
  • AsheramAsheram Member EpicPosts: 5,071
    sunandshadow said:
    This makes m wonder if there is a mana vampire class anywhere?
    Forsaken World has one.
    sunandshadow
  • jackwagonjackwagon Member UncommonPosts: 10
    Panther2103 said:
    jackwagon said:
    The Blood Mage was by far my favorite class in Vanguard. It was defiantly a vampire healer. You sucked blood from mobs and used it to heal the party. It was a very unique class indeed. It's been a long time, but if remember right i had these blood drops that were kinda like combo points you built up from the blood you drained. You had to maintain these to be able to heal.
    Was it a viable DPS and Healer at the same time or was it kind of low end on both? I feel like at that point why wouldn't you want to be a DPS Healer. 
    I played with a couple of family members and also solo. It worked well for both dps and healing. I would have loved to see what it could have been if the game would have ever reached a completed state. Hopefully someone will put this awesome class in a future mmo.
  • Flyte27Flyte27 Member RarePosts: 4,574
    I always thought the Necromancer in EQ was cooler and more versatile.  They were a fairly similar class in that they could suck the life from their enemies, but Necros could summon skeleton pets and had that cool grave persona.  They also were a bit more versatile in general I believe though I haven't played the Blood Mage much.
    Eronakis
  • EronakisEronakis Member UncommonPosts: 2,248
    Mackaveli44 said:
    The Blood Mage -

    This class holds a special place in my heart.  I played it extensively during Vanguard.  I played it solo, group, and through the first raid(Ancient port warehouse? I can't remember the name).  The Blood Mage could deal tremendous damage while healing those around him for a percentage of damage dealt.  It had extremely powerful single target buffs that you would place on people, I would typically place my buffs on whoever was tanking at the time.  

    The Blood mage had different ways of healing.  You could siphon your health and give it to your target, you could use the usual style healing spell directly on someone but it was weaker compared to if they had done damage to heal, you would nuke and heal those around.  The primary focus of the Blood Mage was to nuke and heal those around through damage. You could siphon health and heal yourself and/or those around.  They could put very potent damage over time effects on mobs that would grant those around to receive healing from the dmg. You also had to manage pips I'd like to call them where think of any class that builds charges on a mob and than you'd unleash them with a powerful finisher or sorts based on how many pips you built up.  I can't remember exact details of how the Blood Mage utilized them but I do remember having to pay attention to them. 

     Yes, they could deal tremendous damage in the process.  Its still to this day, my favorite class that I have ever played in an MMO and I have played most MMO's since EQ.  I hope a game comes out that has something similar.  I haven't had as much fun with a class to this very day as I had with the Blood Mage.  
    Thanks for info. That sounds quite unique and every interesting. I can see how that would be fun for the player to balance out their damage to healing ratio and then rewarding when you perform both extremely well.

    I have similar interest in designing a class close to the Blood Mage, right now the place holder name is "Blood Priest". I just wanted to make something similar and maybe better. I have a few ideas brewing around in my mind. I didn't want a direct translation of the Blood Mage, but something similar.

    Thanks again :)
  • WizardryWizardry Member LegendaryPosts: 19,332
    FFXi already covered all these mechanics and class designs and imo even done better.Dark Knight could use it's own health.also use magic also use absorption spells,great dps weapons and then you add in the possibility of 20+ other classes to utilize a sub class and you have endless builds,versatility.
    The Everquest series as well Vanguard did some really cool stuff,i liked those games,but once i played FFXI,these others were second seat.How about using drain weapons or crossbow bolts that drain health or sleep/stun etc etc,like i said endless choices and versatility,no reason at all to aim for LESSER and these altaholic designs.

    Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.

  • Flyte27Flyte27 Member RarePosts: 4,574
    edited February 2018
    Wizardry said:
    FFXi already covered all these mechanics and class designs and imo even done better.Dark Knight could use it's own health.also use magic also use absorption spells,great dps weapons and then you add in the possibility of 20+ other classes to utilize a sub class and you have endless builds,versatility.
    The Everquest series as well Vanguard did some really cool stuff,i liked those games,but once i played FFXI,these others were second seat.How about using drain weapons or crossbow bolts that drain health or sleep/stun etc etc,like i said endless choices and versatility,no reason at all to aim for LESSER and these altaholic designs.
    All the things you mentioned and also the things the other posters mentioned were covered in EQ by the Necromancer, Shadow Knight, and more.  I guess you could argue that the Job system allowed for a bit further configuration and flavor.  The Necromancer and Shadow Knight were very versatile though.  Aside from things like self-heals, group heals through damage, and normal heals, they also had damage over time, skeleton pets, pet heals, feign death, invisibility, invisibility vs undead, fear, water breathing, levitate, snare, direct damage vs undead, undead lull, and a few other tricks.  They could also trade life for mana and life to heal others as mentioned.
  • redonyouredonyou Member UncommonPosts: 33
    edited February 2018
    I played a Blood Mage in one of the top raiding guilds in the game for a couple of years. For me, what I loved most about the Blood Mage was that I always had something to do. It was like multitasking nonstop, rather than spending all day watching hp bars.

    It was a versatile hybrid sort of class that provided enough variety in gameplay to keep it interesting, combine that with it being high APM, and it had a relatively high skill ceiling because the class had both proactive and reactive heals, pure dps abilities to use when you didn't need to heal at all, lifetaps that efficiently did both damage and heal, plus a bunch of utility skills on the side. They also soloed better than they probably should have.

    Edit: Plus there were monsters that 'reflected' damage spells, and due to the way lifetaps were coded this meant your lifetaps damaged players instead of healing them. So you could kill anyone you wanted! >:)
  • TheocritusTheocritus Member LegendaryPosts: 9,754
    Wizardry said:
    FFXi already covered all these mechanics and class designs and imo even done better.Dark Knight could use it's own health.also use magic also use absorption spells,great dps weapons and then you add in the possibility of 20+ other classes to utilize a sub class and you have endless builds,versatility.
    The Everquest series as well Vanguard did some really cool stuff,i liked those games,but once i played FFXI,these others were second seat.How about using drain weapons or crossbow bolts that drain health or sleep/stun etc etc,like i said endless choices and versatility,no reason at all to aim for LESSER and these altaholic designs.
    I played EQ first then tried FFXI and thought it was awful...I guess to each his own.
  • DarkswormDarksworm Member RarePosts: 1,081
    Weapons in EQ could have Procs , so Wizardry likely had very litter exposure to those games. The Monk Epic was a proc, and there were weapons that procs Lifetap, elemental damage, and even Snare and Slow - among other things. 

    Remember trying FFXI, and not finding it fun at all. 
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