The Way of the Light: Holy in Cataclysm - Page 4

Nnr · 07/21/10, 6:09 PM

As was said already, I think it will be actually a numbers game when you know itemization of the gear with which you're gonna approach raiding in Cataclysm - PoI subspec might win for fights where you have to be able withstand melee damage auras without healing yourself too much (Toughness wins here) and where you need a lot of CC (people do spec into Improved HoJ even now, for fights like Lady Deathwhisper).

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but given that Tree of Life is becoming a cooldown for Druids (45 sec on a 5 minute cooldown or something like that) and Tree of Life Aura will be gone, PoI might outweigh Ret as a general-purpose buff, if it will indeed increase everyone's healing by 6%,

Palados · 07/21/10, 6:49 PM

It depends on the number of healers. For 10mans it will be not that good compared to 25mans in absolute healing done increase. If you have 2 healers, than ret subspec might give more absolute gains compared to prot subspec (assuming crit rarely overheals like Bliz promises and taking into account our mastery that favors crit).

Noules · 07/21/10, 6:53 PM

Originally Posted by Nnr

Tower of Radiance doesn't look so awesome after I looked closer at a tooltip - it means you have to directly heal your beacon target, which I hardly do right now.

This would likely depend somewhat on whether or not the AoE heals count. The wording on both Tower of Radiance and Beacon of Light are unclear (well, it's actually quite clear - I suppose whether or not the wording is actually the intent is what's unclear). If it works with the AE heals, it doesn't look quite so bad (3 charges every 45s or so, which in practice is probably worth about a Divine Favor).

Also, Tower of Radiance would give a reason to -always- keep up Beacon, even in situations with minimal raid damage. Beacon's cost is quite cheap as it is now (6%, same as HL); if you only have one target to heal, you might as well throw Beacon on that target and get free Holy Power and thus free healing. Even in encounters with significant raid damage, it would likely be beneficial to have an option to chain instant heals while moving (HS + Words on ToR Beacon = another Words? Plus any AE healing and free HL procs from HS also directed at Tor Beacon). Depending on the implementation, it could be an elegant way to get paladins out of the mindset of -never- healing the Beacon target, and instead making it quite situational.

Palados · 07/21/10, 7:52 PM

Keep in mind that HS now puts a hot (as well as FoL on SS target). We might want to keep those on BL target anyway. It might be also benefitial to throw a few fols instead of doing nothing when damage is not high to have free big heal on demand. Just think about holy power as the way to conserve mana. This talent is also great for PvP.

P.S. Due to 50% reduction we might spam tank in heavy burst scenarios. Getting free heals that way is good for conserving mana and sustaining such a spam.

Zaroua · 07/22/10, 3:04 AM

The heal over time effect from casting Flash of Light on a target with Sacred Shield is no longer part of any tooltip, nor has it been for a few builds now. At this point, it's safe to assume that the Flash of Light hot isn't making it in Cataclysm.

And the "datamined" Holy Shock heal over time effect is our T8 2pc bonus. There is no indication that Holy Shock is getting a HoT attached to it. In this case, it's safe to assume that Holy Shock is *NOT* getting a HoT attached to it. If it does, the whole situation can be figured out *AFTER* it's been implemented.

As far as Tower of Radiance goes, the ability is fairly underwhelming right now due to the following facts:

1) Word of Glory cast with 3 stacks of Holy Power heals for about 20% less than Holy Shock while also having 12% less chance to crit and not proc'ing Infusion of Light (which is currently bugged and still working off of Flash instead of HL) making it the second weakest single target heal we have behind Holy Light
2) Holy Light spam on non-Beacon targets is currently our bread and butter in terms of throughput and sustainability
3) There is no reason to directly heal the Beacon target (a tank) unless the tank is taking more damage than you can heal by spamming HL on the party or if the party is taking no damage
4) If you have to spam the tank because the tank damage is otherwise too high, Word of Glory will only serve as a mana saver, not a throughput tool
5) If you have the time to use Word of Glory to heal your Beacon target, then no one is really taking that much damage anyways or you're extremely strained for mana

All things considered, you only get a small amount of mana saved if you're actively spamming your target. In 5 and 10 man scenarios, this would be potentially worth the 3 points. But I can't see too many scenarios for a hard mode encounter where there is a prolonged absence of raid damage and extremely high tank damage going on, meaning the talent points would likely only be picked up for specific encounters. In other words: WoW Talent Calculator - Sigrie or WoW Talent Calculator - Sigrie.

Light of Dawn doesn't transfer healing done to the Beacon target. A Paladin who reached lvl83 could easily confirm the same for Healing Hands.

Renew · 07/22/10, 1:04 PM

I figured WoW Talent Calculator - Sigrie was the default talent spec from initially looking at the talents. The Protection sub spec seems really underwhelming.

Currently Paladin healing feels the same... Though we have more tools, nothing has changed aside from introducing shock into our rotation.

The new cone heal talent "Light of Dawn" is really bad. I would almost consider skipping it. We'll see how the real content at 85 changes things.

• frmorrison · 07/22/10, 3:08 PM

The point of the talent that gives Holy Power from healing your Beacon is that during a lull in healing, you can save up some HP and use Word of Glory when things get more active. It seems like the % chance of gaining HP needs to go up.
If Cone of Healing is hard to use, they can adjust the range of the cone. Age of Conan had a Cone of healing spell that worked decently.

I didn't expect the Beacon to get healing from Light of Dawn or Healing Hands, because those aren't direct heals (similar to GoHL).

Renew · 07/22/10, 4:21 PM

Gaining Holy Power currently seems really quick and easy, almost everything gives you a charge. The max charges you can have is 3.

It takes 1 charge of Holy Power to cast Word of Glory (though a 3 stack means the WoG will heal for more).

Zaroua · 07/22/10, 8:04 PM

Originally Posted by frmorrison

The point of the talent that gives Holy Power from healing your Beacon is that during a lull in healing, you can save up some HP and use Word of Glory when things get more active. It seems like the % chance of gaining HP needs to go up.

From my tests, it looks like 3/3 Tower of Radiance is 100% chance to generate Holy Power and Holy Shock is also 100% for both healing and offense. Holy Shock also generates 2 Holy Power when cast on your Beacon target with 3/3 Tower of Radiance.

Noules · 07/23/10, 2:45 AM

Originally Posted by Zaroua

From my tests, it looks like 3/3 Tower of Radiance is 100% chance to generate Holy Power and Holy Shock is also 100% for both healing and offense. Holy Shock also generates 2 Holy Power when cast on your Beacon target with 3/3 Tower of Radiance.

Does Word of Glory give you Holy Power with Tower of Radiance? I would assume it does based on the wording.

If so, ToR's most important use might be throughput healing while moving (3WoG + HS = another 3WoG, plus self-sustaining 1WoG spam) or better-than-free healing (1WoG spam while regaining mana with melee swings). Perhaps the scaling makes 1WoG not really a viable option in either case (though in the latter it costs you nothing besides the GCDs).

Zaroua · 07/23/10, 7:34 AM

Originally Posted by Noules

Does Word of Glory give you Holy Power with Tower of Radiance? I would assume it does based on the wording.

If so, ToR's most important use might be throughput healing while moving (3WoG + HS = another 3WoG, plus self-sustaining 1WoG spam) or better-than-free healing (1WoG spam while regaining mana with melee swings). Perhaps the scaling makes 1WoG not really a viable option in either case (though in the latter it costs you nothing besides the GCDs).

Word of Glory proc's Holy Power when used in conjunction with Tower of Radiance. With the change to Healing Light, Word of Glory is quite powerful now, making my earlier statements obsolete.

Nätion · 07/23/10, 10:28 AM

So, essentially, with WoG, and ToR, you could WoG the beacon target and follow it up with a HS, and be ready to WoG/HS again soon after and repeat? Depending in HS's cost, this could be some decent cheap healing, especially while moving. If so, Something like: WoG->HS->DoL->HH->WoG->HS should provide decent healing and good mobility, a welcome change of pace.

Palados · 07/30/10, 1:44 AM

In the latest build Speed of light 'sprint' effect duration was nerfed (as expected). And a new talent was added:

Last Word (Tier 2) *New* - Gives your Word of Glory a 30/60% increased critical chance when used on targets with 35% or less health.

That should bring the crit chance to 100% for decent geared pally, I think. Together with our mastery it might be 'the' spell for oh-shit moments and will surely strengthen our niche as tank healers.

This is a nice change as well:

Protector of the Innocent is now a Tier 1 Talent. Down from Tier 2. Now Increases your healing by 1/2/3% on allies affected by Devotion Aura and increases the damage of your Retribution Aura by 20/40/60%.

Nnr · 07/30/10, 6:55 AM

While in the first place I was very happy that Protector of the Innocent is now down to tier 1 in Protection, the effect it gives was pretty much nerfed (down from +6% to +3% healing). Also, it now increases +3% healing on everyone affected by Devotion Aura (any Devotion Aura, by looking at the tooltip), so there's no problem if Prot Paladins start speccing into it. With Prot Paladin refusing to spec into it, you can consider something like 31/3/7, while if you ignore ToR as a talent that nerfs your healing outside burn phases, where 50% transfer with Beacon might not be enough, build with Ret subspec would probably look something like 31/0/10 or similar.

Not sure what is the status of ToR right now and what generates Holy Power, but given that WoG is a very viable (and free) heal, you might consider taking points off Ret tree and putting them in ToR.

Charybdis · 07/30/10, 7:22 AM

Originally Posted by Nnr

While in the first place I was very happy that Protector of the Innocent is now down to tier 1 in Protection, the effect it gives was pretty much nerfed (down from +6% to +3% healing). Also, it now increases +3% healing on everyone affected by Devotion Aura (any Devotion Aura, by looking at the tooltip), so there's no problem if Prot Paladins start speccing into it. With Prot Paladin refusing to spec into it, you can consider something like 31/3/7, while if you ignore ToR as a talent that nerfs your healing outside burn phases, where 50% transfer with Beacon might not be enough, build with Ret subspec would probably look something like 31/0/10 or similar.

Not sure what is the status of ToR right now and what generates Holy Power, but given that WoG is a very viable (and free) heal, you might consider taking points off Ret tree and putting them in ToR.

With the current talents Prot is most likely to take at least two points in Protector of the Innocent given Improved Hammer of Justice likely won't be worthwhile for PVE. Protector also loses against Conviction's newly added +healing granting a possible 9% extra healing for 30 seconds after the last crit. With Divine Favor we're guaranteed at least one crit a minute translating to 50% uptime on a Conviction's baseline 3%. A build such as 33/0/8 seems to maximize our potential healing with the current setup.