TheSorcerer

On the discussion on spirit link I'm absolutely sure most people misunderstand how if will work. Maybe the wording is a bit off aswell, that would suggest why everyone is on the wrong boat.

Let's roll it up from the far end - the designers pov:

A: "Ok so WotLK will introduce alot of 10 man raiding content. We'll need to smooth out all of the classes to avoid stacking and make those raids more fun even if you can't get your priests and paladins for tank healing. So lets buff the single target heals of shaman."

B: "Check."

C: "But hey, shamans are all about chain heal! It's their signature spell and they LUF it!"

A: "You're right. So they'll want some upgrade to that aswell. How I see it though, chain heal already is very strong and buffing it even further might push it over the top."

B: "I agree."

C: "Then what about improving chain heal in single target situations? This would even work in the direction we're already heading with our Healing Wave buffs. You guys remember Spirit Link from the rts? That would work great with chain heal wouldn't it?"

A: "That actually is an awsome idea!"

B: "It's awsome until your spirit linked target get's hit by Finger of Death on archimonde...."

C: "We could cap the damage it spreads."

We'll halt this story for a moment. This is pretty much what the game designers went through while searching for mechanics for WotLK, in a simplyfied way of course. This is also pretty much what we know up until now.

I believe though, that Spirit Link will not weare off after it reaches the cap but will either trigger a hidden cooldown or will simply cap the damage that can be spread for a single damaging ability. Eg your Tank gets hit for mainhand 8k, offhand 4k and another 10k from an ability. Each hit will only spread a maximum of 2.2k damage with Spirit Link rank 1. Simple as that. This is absolutely possible from the wording as we currently know it. Why I believe this? Because from a designers pov it makes more sense than the currently commonly accepted way spirit link will work. Follow my story to the end:

A: "That's good. As soon as the cap is reached you'll need to reapply the buff, this makes it doseable aswell. I like it."

B: "Well, reapplying a buff on a single target every few seconds all fight long isn't very fun you know. No shaman will like to fill that role. And after all: it will be pretty much useless if you're not grouped with another healer that can take advantage of the spread damage, because you will be using your gcd to reapply the buff most of the time."

A: "However, I like the idea after all - how do we fix it?"

C: "How about having a very low damage cap but just not let the buff fade after it reaches the cap. Imagine a 2k damage cap for every hit the buffed person takes? This would fix it, wouldn't it?"

B: "I think it could work."

A: "I like it."

B: "Ok, so spirit link. Check"

edit: some typos and grammar mistakes