The Update:
So on Friday, they nerfed us.
On Saturday, they unnerfed us.
Bashiok said:
The hotfix note correctly describes what an attempt to fix a bug ended up changing, which was not actually the original intent. We’re reverting the hotfix until we can fix the bug without causing Light of Dawn to no longer trigger Beacon.
(Source: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2065788305?page=15#282)
So the question is, what was the bug?
Forum poster Trexokor had this to say:
If you cast Light of Dawn in the direction of friendly healable targets not in your group, there seems to be no target cap.
This appeared to have been fixed during the Light of Dawn nerf period. Once again, there is no outside-raid target cap.
This may not seem like a big deal, but it worked in situations such as Tol Barad, where you had a couple raids working side by side. By using Light of Dawn on a large group of players, anyone outside your raid would get healed by it, well above and beyond 6 targets.
(Source: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2065788305?page=17#339)
I’ve witnessed this odd behaviour before, so this seems a likely bug they were trying to iron out. However, the unintended repercussion of ironing out that bug was that LoD no longer transferred through Beacon of Light.
My Thoughts:
I’m not happy with where paladin healing is. I’m not talking about a numbers thing, because with the reversion of the new bug, paladins can easily top meters. I put very little care or faith into meters.
I thought maybe with the nerf, we’d see some redesigning of the holy paladin tree a bit, or at least our abilities, but it doesn’t look as though that’s going to happen.
Talents I would love for our tree to be rid of or changed.
– Protector of the Innocent
– Beacon of Light in its current form
– Light of Dawn in its current form
I’d throw out PotI entirely. I’d make BoL only transfer our direct heals (Holy Shock, Word of Glory, Flash of Light, Holy Light, Divine Light) that are cast on people who are not the Beacon. Light of Dawn would get unnerfed back up by that 40% they nerfed it down to before, but would also be off Holy Power and back on to mana, with a 12s cooldown. The cost would be equivalent to Divine Light’s cost.
I haven’t given the changes terribly much thought, but those changes emphasize healing deliberately, not passively, and reward players for smart use of LoD, rather than some of the mindless “FLASHLIGHT TIME OH YEAH!!!!” we’re seeing.
The lack of faith I have in Blizzard and the paladin healing model is pretty astounding at this point. I don’t imagine we’ll be properly balanced before T12/T13 and I find myself unhappy at the prospect of spending the next year wondering what nonsense Blizzard will spout next and what foolishness they’ll enact on the class based on that nonsense.
It sure seems like they’ve got to do something to straighten out our mechanics.
The best part about this entire episode? It was all because of a PvP issue!!! I honestly don’t give a crap, but I’m pretty sure this will only serve to ramp up the heat of the whining to classic ‘Paladin’ levels.
PotI is incredible powerful at leveling through BGs at lower levels. You cast a holy shock on someone and you can almost heal yourself at full.
At this point, it’s a good talent for PvP but it really need some more “bang for the buck”.
It seems like blizzard spends every expansion constantly balancing and tweaking us, it happened in bc, it happend in wrath and seems destined to continue into cata. Each time it seems to take the entire expansion to get us in a decent place (bc makes me hesitate to say good given how most paladins were sat for sunwell) before the next expansion radically changes our playstyle and we start the process anew. Its unfortunate that the staple of holy paladins is that our only constant is change.
Unless my math is wrong, LoD generally crits for what – 7k or so? So 7×6 gives you 42k healing, so 21k transferred, then what another 12k from the PotI transfer? This comes out to 33k if everything crits, and WoG is critting for about 28k. I’m sure in 25s it’s really easy to ensure that you’ve got 6 targets in the LoD cone, but in 10s it rarely happens. Fights like Cho’gall P1, Nef P3 where the raid is stacking sure – but other times, not so much.
Do you really want to go back to a pre-Wrath healing model where we had nothing but single target heals? There’s no difference between BoL transfers as ‘passive’ healing, and PotI healing. If you remove the small transfer that we get from WoG and LoD, you further reduce our ability to heal effectively. Now if you increased BoL to 100% then I’d maybe support removing the transfer of AoE heals and PotI. Of course if you do that, we’re right back into the Wrath healing model, where it’s one Pally on 2 tanks – set it and forget it. Our AoE heals will never get used, since we’ll be focused on just 2 tanks and the other healers will be able to compensate.
Personally I think we’re in a fine state of healing. I’m punished for using the wrong heals (DL or FoL) too often, HP generation due to the removal of BoL transfer from HL is pretty darned good (even with taking 2/2 in BL).
Sometimes I feel the Holy Pally or the paladin in general is the class Blizzard had no idea what they really wanted to do with it. the other healing classes all have something unique about them that they all play differently to an extent. I think once they find a theme/concept that they will fit in with the look/feel/lore of the WoW paladin, they will make the paladin awesome.
I wonder why they never made the Paladin more like the warrior priest in Warhammer online? Makes sense to me. Paladin’s wear heavy armor and are on the front lines. They smite evil and cure allies.
In our 10 mans I am the tank healer. I am ok with that, as our Holy priest and Resto Druid are so much better than me at raid healing. I still want to play a tank healer, as I think it is ingrained in me since Wrath.
I’m really in two minds concerning use of beacon right now. Our DK is much better at survival than our Druid tank, so I have been putting the Beacon on the Druid and building up WoGs that way, and then switching to the DK only when I need to for direct heals. This does mean our DK doesn’t get any secondary healing from the Beacon, and that does feel like I am being inefficient.
Now I have tried switching the Beacon to the Dk, and it works a lot better for him to have it and the Druid to get the direct heals still. It means I can spend a lot less time Worrying about the DKs health. The only down-side to this is I am not getting the Holy Power stacks I used to, as I am not direct-healing the Beacon as much.
So the big quandary is, am I more efficient direct healing the Beacon, getting no Beacon heals but instead getting HP stacks, or is it better to have that 50% transfer from the beacon onto the 2nd tank, but lose my HP WoGs? My head hurts!
@AliPally – Beacon your OT, heal the MT and the rest of the raid as possible, have your Holy Priest cover the raid, and have your druid go Boomkin :D Bring your Boomking back as a resto druid for Nef and the Air Council (no really!).
All kidding aside, if your raid isn’t comfortable going with two healers, I’d say you’re probably being most efficient by putting BoL on your DK, and just keeping a steady stream of heals on your druid. Just get your HPs by using Holy Shock, and don’t be afraid to get a snap heal on your BoL target if you feel like you’re getting behind.
I just did a post where I looked at the breakdown of HP generated by the various abilities – though since we 2 heal I definately don’t get a lot of direct healing on the MT. I also use HL a LOT instead.
I agree Kurn. It just seems like were the redheaded stepchild. As much as I love playing a Paladin at times I wish they would just get rid of our class so that I can focus on my Blizzard loving Priest.
@adgamorix – Thanks for your advice. I’m afraid we aren’t good enough to 2 heal most encounters, so we go with 3 healers as standard. We will never make Paragon, but we are happy!
@AliPally dont forget about cs for generating hp when u need it also
Fatts – using CS for HP generation is generally a lose lose situation. It takes a GCD, costs more to cast Holy Light, and requires that you be in melee range. If someone absoloutely NEEDS a heal that you might get from HP, you’re probably better off either using a FoL – if say you just cast HS and WoG – so you still have say 4 sec on your shock CD.