Infraction for Cm1: Wishlisting

Juice · 07/13/09, 1:16 PM

Post: [Resto] 3.2 changes and Discussion
User: Cm1
Infraction: Wishlisting
Points: 1

Administrative Note:

Message to User:

These forums are not a platform to wishlist to the blizzard developers.

Original Post:

Apologies if this is posted in the wrong thread.

Chain Heal a review.

Disclaimer: I don't PvP. So this is purely from a PvE perspective.

I do raid regularly with both a priest and a shaman as healers and i've come to a number of questions / suggestions about Chain Heal.

Chain Heal is a 2.5 sec cast and hits 3 targets within 10 yards range.

The Glyph of Chain Heal (GoCH) adds an additional jump making a total of 4 targets hit.

Issues / Questions:

1. Why is the range so limited? Even in 25 mans, where CHeal is most effective - having more targets to hit, it seems rather strange to have such a small range from initial target to subsequent targets.

2. The Cast Time makes subsequent casts (spam) less useful as by the time a cast is finishing, the target (which would ordinarily be one of the lower HP players) is probably healed by other healers.

3. The base number of targets is low - having an additional target as base would make CHeal more useful.

Suggestions:

1. Glyph of Chain Heal A: Increases the jump range of your CHeal by 10 yards.

2. Glyph of Chain Heal B: Increases the range of your first jump of your CHeal by 20 yards.

3. Glyph of Chain Heal C: Makes your Chain Heal instant cast but now has a cooldown of 6 seconds.

4. (Current Chain Heal glyph): Increases the number of targets hit by your Chain Heal to 4.

What does this provide:

Shamans are decent tank healers, but depending upon the encounter if we are to tank heal may mean CHeal becomes redundant for that fight due to range. I know that the encounter makes a difference on this, but the "negatives" of CHeal (Cast time, range, targets) add up to make it a poor cousin to other AoE heals (CoH / WG).

I'll take something like XT as an example - healing the MT or ranged with Chain Heal will more than likely waste the
subsequent jumps. Compare this with WG or CoH which will hit multiple targets whether used on the MT or ranged.

I'm not proposing that all of the changes happen to the base spell as that would make CHeal overpowered. I like the idea of using glyphs to change the spell though as that makes it more player-orientated.

There is a balance between making Chain Heal more useful and overpowered, but I do feel that in its current form (and the proposed range change in 3.2 to 12.5 yards) is too weak. The range is the issue much more so than the subsquent healing done buff that 3.2 provides IMO.

I'm curious as to how the rest of the Resto Shaman players feel about the above points.