How would Holy/Shadow/Arcane damage feel?

[Rahnzakh]

Something interesting I saw on the official forums.

Basically, fire spells obviously would cause a burn, frost spells would cause freezing, hypothermia, etc. But what about Holy, Shadow, Nature, Arcane?

IMO arcane would feel like blunt force (like arcane missiles would be like being hit with a bowling ball going 50 mph)
Shadow would just make your entire body go into pain, maybe put a feeling of dread in your mind. I always thought of Shadow Word: Death as a spell that just rips your entire torso to pieces and just leaves a black, lightly smoking pair of boots like in the cartoons.

I guess Holy damage would vary on the spell for example Holy Fire would be like being burned and say Smite would be either similar to electrocution or just blunt force.

Thoughts?

[Geofforan]

I don't think magic would feel like a blunt force, otherwise I could block arcane missiles with my shield. I know, I know, game mechanics aren't actual factual lore, but magic still hurts no matter how much you cover yourself in metal.

It does present an interesting question, though. Holy damage, I imagine, would be like burning without fire, much like how the sun burns. Shadow damage would probably just be direct pain. Curse of Agony, Mind Flay, and pain spike (a spell that the voidwalkers in Nagrad have) all have to do with influencing nerves to feel pain.

The way I see arcane magic is that it's raw magic that hasn't been flavored by an element. So, arcane magic would be like being hit with lightning (or some other plasma) because it's just magical energy.

Nature would depend on the spell. Wrath, Lightning Bolt, and Hurricane would be electrocution, whereas thorns and entangling roots would be piercing. Poisons, obviously, would feel like however poison feels.

[Agnarr]

I don't think magic would feel like a blunt force, otherwise I could block arcane missiles with my shield.
But I can reflect them with mine.

[Sulajin]

Mmagic should feel magical. Yes, conjured fire burns and magic ice freezes. But Arcane (if you want to look at it as a pure expression of magic) should handle in impossabilities.

It don't hit like a blunt object (and no, a shield wouldn't protect you from a solid blast of KE anymore than your forarm would. It might dampen it some but that energy still has to be absorbed by your arm.) it would simply begin to unravel the very reality of your arm. I like the Mage the Ascension metaphor. Creation is a tapestry, everything has a pattern in the tapestry. So raw magic (arcane) is not going to weave a "burn" pattern onto your pattern, it's going to start pulling threads.

Shadow magic varies. You could go with nerve damage, or count shadow as "void" and things that come in are just ended. Stick your hand into a shadowbolt and suddenly it's dead flesh, even if it wasn't hurt/damaged.

Nature damage is like puppy farts. Nasty, but somewhat cute in a silly way.

[Naheal]

I'd say that Holy would also depend greatly on the circumstances.

For example, if you're hit by a priest's smite, I could see that as a burning cut, just judging by the animation.

If you're hit by a pally, it's a similar issue.

If you're hit by a pally with righteous fury up, then it's probably one of those things that just hurts like a bitch and, thus, is the reason why that pally draws "threat" from you.

[Cabriel]

I've been exploring this a bit in some of my writings about Cabriel. Shadow damage, I think, can go a few ways.

I imagine it sometimes as the manifestation of the intense feeling of dread or fear that knots in your muscles and the pit of your stomach when you're alone in the dark...a dark so thick and black that it seems to be tangible, to have weight. Physically, this damage is dealt through symptoms of deep fear: tightening of muscles, extreme high blood pressure, a spike in nerve activity, pupils dilating and constricting, ears ringing, dry mouth. These things cause the bodies faculties to go haywire, and just like when RL people suffer very real bodily harm due to phobias (almost psychosomatic), IC people can be affected negatively. I imagine it to be heightened, of course, due to its source.

Also, damage from shadow might be extremely cold. It could be mental damage, since shadow is affiliated with fear. Searing Pain, the warlock spell, is sort of self-explanatory. I've used a "tightening" sensation to describe shadow bolts, like an entire body constriction.

As far as Shadow Oil goes, it's applied to a weapon, so I'd consider that something that affects the nervous system, entering through the blood stream and circuiting the body.

I think Fire damage, as well as Frost damage, manifest themseles quite literally, but on a molecular level. For some reason I see a sped-up version of a burning piece of paper or the time-lapsed film of the formation of ice crystals. A chemical reaction, as opposed to physical. It does more damage on an atomic or sub-atomic level then on the surface, though the outward signs of damage are similar to the physical kind.

[Rand_Shea]

Arcane... like a fizzling electrocution. I always imagined it being like the raw magical power of the Whitewolf system... which was so powerful it pretty much not only hared you physically, but harmed your soul. There was something called 'Tas' which was that magic imbued into weapons or even the claws of werewolves that if it say... cut off your arm, you would be unable to heal and reattach the arm because it would cut off the arm of your soul too. You'd need a super powerful healer to heal the soul first.

Holy... like the feeling you get in your eyes when you go from hours in a dark room out into clear sunlight, except with the added feeling of being punched or singed.

Shadow... I imagine more of a constricting feeling, like if a boa or an anaconda got around you and just started squeezing, complete with being unable to breathe, or it to hurt a lot to do so. Maybe even an acidic feeling like your flesh was being melted for stuff like Seed of Corruption.

[Sulajin]

Not quite how Tass and Quintessence work, but that's basically what I was getting at. I like the shadow description, though.

[Tillna]

Shadow to me, is just pain.

Unreasonable, excrutiating pain. You get hit by agony, your entier body writhes in pain as damage just happens.

Corruption liquifies your flesh.

Shadowbolts are like a brick of pain hitting you, you just can't stand it

[Anthek]

Actually, I would put spells like Arcane Missles and Blast as akin to physical forces, but more telekinetic in nature. The "arcane school" deals with manipulation of space and physical properties, creating portals, changing shape, conjuring items. Those spells would create forces directed at or focused on or out from an area (as in the case with Arcane Explosion, a force pushing out in a sphere around the caster that damages anything that puts up a resistance). It wouldn't be defendable against, unless you count Spell Reflection.

[Naheal]

Actually, I would put spells like Arcane Missles and Blast as akin to physical forces, but more telekinetic in nature. The "arcane school" deals with manipulation of space and physical properties, creating portals, changing shape, conjuring items. Those spells would create forces directed at or focused on or out from an area (as in the case with Arcane Explosion, a force pushing out in a sphere around the caster that damages anything that puts up a resistance). It wouldn't be defendable against, unless you count Spell Reflection.

This is tough to say, though, since WoW doesn't have a spell descriptor for each of the available spells. I.E. Arcane (Force), Nature (poison), Nature (Electricity), ect. If they did, that would make such a thing just that much easier to describe.

On the subject of ice, though, I think it would also have to do with the spell itself. For instance, with Ice Lance, you are literally throwing a shard of ice at your target. While cold, it's more likely to be a cutting attack than a freezing attack.

[Swerto]

Simple: It all hurts, very badly... pain HURTS... how does it hurt? Who cares PAIN HURTS.


P.S. This is like asking someone who has never been shot how a gunshot feels... how the hell are we supposed to know?

[Rand_Shea]

Being electrocuted would feel different from being say... crushed. Electrocution, if you live, you don't feel the pain until after it's over, whereas with being crushed you feel that for the entire duration, or until you die.

Freezing is also different than being burned. Freezing is either immediate and the pain sends you into shock, or it's gradual and agonizing... whereas burning would be consistent and excruciating.

And while you can't know for certain what any of those would feel like unless it happened to you, visual stimuli is sometimes enough to stimulate nerves into giving your brain signals that would give you a very vague idea. In psychology there's a term for it as it's just a trick of the brain, whereas others would call it empathy. It's about the same thing that happens if say... you see someone grieving and crying over the death of a loved one and it makes you sad, even if you don't know who the person is nor who they're upset about.

[Swerto]

I know there is empathy, but I'm talking about how the shadow itself feels... you have no clue!

[Rand_Shea]

Depends on how it's presented, but yeah...

[Rahnzakh]

I know there is empathy, but I'm talking about how the shadow itself feels... you have no clue!

Exactly.. it's called speculation.

What's it like being a blood elf paladin? You have no clue, yet you roleplay it all the time. That's why it's fun. If you roleplayed what you do in real life, like going to school or work, would that be fun? Of course not.

[Ellsbeth]

Also a topic like this helps with creating writing about what the pain would feel like. People write about what it's like to get shot all the time, even when they've not been shot.

Holy - I like the idea of it being like a sunburn. An internal burning pain. I thought it would be unbearable warmth. Just like healing would be a glowing, healing warmth in your body where there once was pain.

Nature - Electric clearly. Static pain. Jolts. Then the shocks would of course be somewhat different. Earth shocks would be a magical manifestation of what an earthquake would feel like hitting the body. Thunder rolls.

Shadow - What most other people said. Mind flay gives me the impression of strips of the mind being ripped from the body.

[Nymare]

Holy/Light - I imagine would feel like bleach for your soul. like the pain and destruction your eyes might endure after living your life in a cave and someone suddenly turning the light on. A clean, stabbing, brilliant pain.

Arcane - I imagine as electric. Lightning. The pressure buzzing in you before and after the strike. Something capable of touching all parts of you, right down to your atoms. ZAP-POW. Misfired neurons. Aneurysms. Supernovas. DOOM.

Nature - the poison aspect, I think, would make you feel sick. A stinging, nauseating, sickness. All other grasps of the elements - frost, fire, lightning, arcane (moon/star/faerie? fire stuff?) - might feel like a subdued, or "store brand", version of the mastered form (jack of all trades, master of none sort of thing). Where as, the healing aspect... might feel like... butterflies and leaves on a spring breeze fluttering around inside?

Shadow - I kinda consider to be mostly psychological, given who uses it and what spells they have; fear being the most important aspect. I think it should feel like a bad dream touching your skin and penetrating to the places of yourself you don't want anyone to know about. It isn't just darkness, it uses your own against you. It should feel ominous, or like dark promises. A different, inky sort of reality. As for pain...

When the body is hit hard enough with anything, at some point, it ceases to register correctly. Shock. Adrenaline. Or how the mind can mistake the feel of ice for fire, or vice versa. The fall that broke my arm didn't hurt. Infact, my arm was kinda numb afterward. All the crap after the impact shock wore off? THAT hurt. A shadowbolt to the chest probably doesn't feel like anything until after, and then it probably doesn't just hurt, it makes you feel BAD. Violated. Like... the devil did naughty things with your soul, after undressing you of your skin, and left your internal organs in the wrong places, sort of violated.

WTB Counsellor PST.

[Swerto]

I like nymare's version... yeah... that sounds good


-shadowbolts the entire forum-

[Pyrisath]

Shadow-I wonder why its called Shadow Word:*PAIN*? *MIND* Blast, etc., etc. I always imagined me giving my targets massive migranes, painful illusions, and feelings of mental slowness. Sort of like the magics were tricking the nervous system to think there is pain everywhere, and react accordingly. Sort of like the caster is transferring his emotional pains through to the victim in sheer agony.

Holy-For undead, I think it might feel like every part of your body(If they feel) is carbonizing all at once. For living, it seems like getting smacked by a hammer of blinding light. I watch spell animations too much(Smite).

Nature: You know that piece of lettuce in the meal you just ate? Yeah. It wants revenge. Oh, and it is now a carniverous parasite eating away at you.

[Naheal]

Reviving this because of sheer boredom


Holy/Light - I imagine would feel like bleach for your soul. like the pain and destruction your eyes might endure after living your life in a cave and someone suddenly turning the light on. A clean, stabbing, brilliant pain.


Depends on the circumstances, imo. If it's burst damage, ok. If it's something like Holy Fire? You're getting hit hard initially, yes, but there's a "burning" left over (the DoT). Also, why does my concecrate/Seal of righteousness make things hate me more when Righteous Fury's up?



Arcane - I imagine as electric. Lightning. The pressure buzzing in you before and after the strike. Something capable of touching all parts of you, right down to your atoms. ZAP-POW. Misfired neurons. Aneurysms. Supernovas. DOOM.

This, I'll go with. Especially after looking at Curator and the 2nd boss from MrT's damage.


Nature - the poison aspect, I think, would make you feel sick. A stinging, nauseating, sickness. All other grasps of the elements - frost, fire, lightning, arcane (moon/star/faerie? fire stuff?) - might feel like a subdued, or "store brand", version of the mastered form (jack of all trades, master of none sort of thing). Where as, the healing aspect... might feel like... butterflies and leaves on a spring breeze fluttering around inside?

Poison doesn't neccisarily make you sick. It BURNS. A disease, yes. A poison? If it's dealing damage, you can bet that it's probably attacking the living cells in your body, either forcing them to burst or shut down. Such a thing isn't something that's going to make you nauseous.

A paralytic poison or neurological poison, on the other hand, would just make you feel numb in some manor or another. It's hard to think, focus or act because the poison is literally attacking your nervous system.


Shadow - I kinda consider to be mostly psychological, given who uses it and what spells they have; fear being the most important aspect. I think it should feel like a bad dream touching your skin and penetrating to the places of yourself you don't want anyone to know about. It isn't just darkness, it uses your own against you. It should feel ominous, or like dark promises. A different, inky sort of reality.

Probably causing mental trauma that your mind interprets as actual physical harm (sanity is more important than success) and, thus, you actually feel harm to your body, even though it's not doing anything to you physically. Shadow magic could also very easily attack the soul itself (drains, ect) and thus feel like a sort of ripping, like something you never new existed was being torn from you.

[Okhu]

I consider priest shadow magic and warlock shadow magic very different.

Priest Shadow magic is how everyone HAS been claiming it, a control over nerves and that sort of thing..

Warlock Shadow - I.E stuff from the void. Would likely strip the flesh from your body when it made contact, or the "life" out of you. Voidwalkers and the like are all creatures from it and all they talk about is eating energy. So...yeah. Don't go giving you voidwalker no hugs or anything.

Nature damage, like getting whipped in the face by a tree branch while walking in the woods, only instead of getting whipped, you're getting crushed and strangled by giant roots, attacked by a HORDE (much much more then normal) of life-draining insects (I.E Insect Swarm) Getting hit with a Solarflare, (Starfire, I.E burning)

Poisons I dont' even really connect into this "Nature stuff" its poison its REAL, if you want to know what poison feels like watch Discovory Channel, its agonizing it causes flesh to puff out kills cells, numbs nervers, ect ect ect. Whatever its named it will essentially do.

What Nymare said about Holy-stuff is essentially what I think when I see the light. -- A vampire walking out in a sunny day.

"Also, why does my concecrate/Seal of righteousness make things hate me more when Righteous Fury's up?"

Thats easy Timmy, you see when your channeling Righteous Fury - I.E you're more angry like the inquisition, your rage effects your spells, causing them to become more brutal, agonizingly blinding...without the added damage... you can't really feel more pain because of your fury ( aka - the dmg reduction ) but the intensity of your fury is felt in your spells...and your enemies feel it.

[Xiphus]

I always thought that to be hit by an arcane explosion is like to be swept by a tidal wave. To be hit by arcane missile is like being hit by a wave of F1 cars. Arcane is like being hit by physical force, only that since it's magic, It bypasses armor and hit you all the same. Like an ethereal bowling ball (No offense to the Ethereals. Please don't cut down on my salary).

[Shadowspeak]

Shadow energy, I allways viewed as pure decay. How would it feel? I'm not sure. I suppose it would feel like whatever it feels like when your essence of being, life force, and flesh are being ripped from you.

I imagine hold as stinging. Blinding light stings the eye, and fire stings the skin.