It's understandable that when mobs attack you and hit your equipment, it will wear down and soon enough need repairs. No complaint there.

Even when manashield is set at 99%, you're still getting tickled and parts of your body are getting hit.

-A mangy mutt tickles you as it hits your legs.

Again I understand that your equipment will eventually need repairs when parts of your body are getting hit. No complaint there.

However, when manashield is set at 100%, I see no reason that your equipment should wear down, as the attacks are not hitting anything else other than your manashield.

-Xalkryn the Renegade PULVERIZES your mana shield with his vicious blast!! -A shadowy guardian PULVERIZES your mana shield with its vicious blast!! -A shadowy guardian PULVERIZES your mana shield with its vicious blast!! -A shadowy guardian PULVERIZES your mana shield with its vicious blast!!

Yup

It depends on how you view mana shield.

It could be:

1) A solid barrier created out of pure magical force constantly reinforced out of your existing mana supply. You wouldn't take eq damage.

2) A sort of soul link between your hp and your mana. Allowing you to use mana to instantly regenerate hp up to a certain threshold by burning by your soul energy (mana). You would take eq damage.

I always viewed mana shield in practical terms of more of a diversion of damage, not a rebounding shield. It still shields you from damage, however instead of holding a tangible shield up (which seems like it would be a constant drain mana leak style and should be a visible trailer) Instead more of a soul tap idea.

There are arguments for this type of mana shield using damage reduction, and also for either of them applying mana leak and/or having a limited amount of damage that can be redirected this way before it needs to be recast.

Ideas ideas.

Thoughts?

Just from the words alone, it seems like mana shield is something of substance.

"…PULVERIZES your mana shield…"

The help file is as follows:

"The mana shield spell allows the Mage to throw an aura of protection up which uses the Mage's mana to absorb damage from attacks. The spell affects do not have a timed duration, but last until the spell is broken."

That alone states that mana shield is a barrier-type spell, rather than a sort of soul link between your hp and your mana. I always imagined mana shield to be a barrier-type spell. Attacks that do damage directly drain your mana. If it were a soul link type of spell, allowing you to use mana to instantly regenerate

The help file is as follows:

"The mana shield spell allows the Mage to throw an aura of protection up which uses the Mage's mana to absorb damage from attacks. The spell affects do not have a timed duration, but last until the spell is broken."

That alone states that mana shield is a barrier-type spell, rather than a sort of soul link between your hp and your mana. Attacks that do damage directly drain your mana. If it were a soul link type of spell, allowing you to use mana to instantly regenerate hp by burning your mana, a Mage that has 600 hp / 30000 mana that takes a 700 damage hit, would instantly die. After all, you cannot regenerate your hp if you have lost all of it to begin with.

Seems to me that mana shield is a tangible shield, kind of like a force field that exists until burned away.

Here's another idea that suggests that mana shield is indeed a tangible shield. When you set it at 100%, and you are drowsied/flooded, no matter how many times you get hit, you will continue to fall asleep until your mana shield is burned away and you take damage to your hp. This shows that there is an actual barrier around you, which is why you are not taking immediate damage to your hp from attacks.

There really needs to be a way to delete your own posts :P