Iksar said:disposalist said:...
There could be other possibilities - I'm sure you get my idea: I don't see any reason power management (mana regen) can't be an interesting and tactical part of the game and still provide balance. Varying the mana regain rate, method, interruption chance and subsequent mana loss, aggro draw, movement, monster range and line-of-sight, cooldowns and re-use restrictions, etc. should provide lots of possibilities and choice and *add* to combat fun for casters rather than feeling like a punishment.
If they do have other things then I'd hope simply sitting and meditating is (at least) equally viable to those more active methods for those of us who don't feel the need to always be pressing buttons.
There are a lot of factors we don't know right now anyway that would determine just how much combat meditation might even take place, things like how fast healers go OOM in relation to INT casters and what means of mana conservation/return INT casters have (like the enchanter group "mana heal" with their DPS), and how much the living codex will be able to alter spells to suit the individual player's preferred playstyle.
Yeah, I absolutely intentionally included traditional meditation at the top of the list. When you want/need to plop down and do some text chatting or inventory shuffling, medding is actually the most productive thing to do hehe.
BUT I truly believe most people would *love* to have some other viable options that made other interesting/tactical choices possible.