...There are very few encounters or situations where you have to actually use DP on cooldown...
Okay, but there's a huge flaw in your entire rationale here: You're applying the 3.1 mana rules to patch 3.2. Mana not being an issue is something we're dealing with right now thanks to a 60% Illumination return. Have you forgotten that they're cutting this in half?
Blizzard has repeatedly stated that "mana not being issue" is something they are VERY uncomfortable with paladins believing. They have gone to great lengths to communicate that they want paladins to care about mana. Every single time GC posts about paladins, he somehow manages to make a comment to the effect of "paladins are okay with overhealing because they have so much mana that they don't care."
Arguing that since mana is a non-issue right now, there's no need to change anything we do is extremely short-sighted when paladins are facing the biggest regen nerf since Burning Crusade.
Originally Posted by Earl_Grey
...Plus, there are many ways to work around the self-ms. Wings being the most obvious one of course, you can align it with your tanks shield block or use it during the Pandora's Plea-proc. Mindlessly popping DP every time it comes off cooldown is a really bad idea indeed, but since that's not even remotely necessary, the point becomes moot...
Wings is a really inefficient way to offset Divine Plea and should only be used as a last resort--the wings buff is applied multiplicatively after the -50% modifier. That is to say, if you use Divine Plea and then Wings, you're healing at 60% of your normal capacity. Wings thus grants you an increase of 10% extra healing, as opposed to when you use it without the DP debuff and it nets a full extra 20% healing for you. In essence, every time you wings with Divine Plea up, you're neutering the effectiveness of one of your few burst healing cooldowns. Again, it can be done, but only sparingly.
The best way to get around the self-MS is to never have to apply it. The problem in gearing is the huge gap between HL and FoL.
In order to make FoL remotely viable, we must stack nothing but throughput. By doing this, we severely gimp the longevity (and thus effectiveness) of any HL spam we may have the necessity to do.
In order to make HL remotely viable, we must stack nothing but regen. By doing this, we prevent ourselves from being able to use anything but HL to keep a tank alive.
It's a catch-22. There is no gearing strategy where we can use a comfortable mix of HL and FoL, since we have to lean so heavily on either side of the scales depending on our target.
Okay, but there's a huge flaw in your entire rationale here: You're applying the 3.1 mana rules to patch 3.2. Mana not being an issue is something we're dealing with right now thanks to a 60% Illumination return. Have you forgotten that they're cutting this in half?
Blizzard has repeatedly stated that "mana not being issue" is something they are VERY uncomfortable with paladins believing. They have gone to great lengths to communicate that they want paladins to care about mana. Every single time GC posts about paladins, he somehow manages to make a comment to the effect of "paladins are okay with overhealing because they have so much mana that they don't care."
Arguing that since mana is a non-issue right now, there's no need to change anything we do is extremely short-sighted when paladins are facing the biggest regen nerf since Burning Crusade.
We are talking 3.1 here, admittedly in the wrong thread, considering that Fol-spam won't be a real, or will be at least a flawed option come 3.2 due to the FoL-hot not rolling and it's throughput not being enough to handle the boss damage output at the time. This whole talking about FoL-Specs and 13k crits in heroics or whatever was misplaced in the first place. I wasn't projecting our current mana situation onto 3.2, au contraire - I was answering to somebody trying to glamorize the future of a currently useless playstyle with flawed paradigms. I think you misunderstood my point there.
Originally Posted by Saladin
Wings is a really inefficient way to offset Divine Plea and should only be used as a last resort--the wings buff is applied multiplicatively after the -50% modifier. That is to say, if you use Divine Plea and then Wings, you're healing at 60% of your normal capacity. Wings thus grants you an increase of 10% extra healing, as opposed to when you use it without the DP debuff and it nets a full extra 20% healing for you. In essence, every time you wings with Divine Plea up, you're neutering the effectiveness of one of your few burst healing cooldowns. Again, it can be done, but only sparingly.
This is even more ivory tower talking since it doesn't matter at all regarding 3.2, but again, I disagree. Yes, AW is cut in half by DP, but it's still a lot more useful there than during normal healing. The 20% buff on our heals doesn't matter a lot if you take into account the current usage of Holy light - and when it does (like higher stacks on Thorim), you won't really need to use DP a lot due to the rather short duration of the fight. All I'm saying is that it may be "neutered" by chaining it with AW, but still is smartly used this way.
This is even more ivory tower talking since it doesn't matter at all regarding 3.2, but again, I disagree. Yes, AW is cut in half by DP, but it's still a lot more useful there than during normal healing. The 20% buff on our heals doesn't matter a lot if you take into account the current usage of Holy light - and when it does (like higher stacks on Thorim), you won't really need to use DP a lot due to the rather short duration of the fight. All I'm saying is that it may be "neutered" by chaining it with AW, but still is smartly used this way.
As far as I've seen, AW works quite well with DP actually. What I typically do is pop an SP trinket, Divine Ilummination, DP, and AW together. If the RNG is with me I actually -gain- mana since every time I crit whether it be HL or FoL I get something back while DI is going. This regenerates a lot of mana, and even though it might not be as useful in 3.2 I'll still likely do it since I might as well use DI when I'm trying to get more mana back anyway.
Crit will still have a place for me since even with the nerf, using DI means I'll only be spending 20% of the mana I once was, or less given Libram and GoSW.
The very point of the original poster was: although FoL build will always be somewhat inferior (like 10-20% behind) to HL build in terms of pure HPS, the beauty of the FoL build is that it's much more reliable:
- you spam FoL w/o having to DP ever and sacrifice your HPS, providing steady and reliable output, while HPS output of the HL spammer will vary quite noticeably (about 30-50% fluctuation) depending on DP, AW and trinkets uptime
- you can spam FoL literally forever (while providing the predictable output as outlined above), while HL "spammer" is practically limited to a couple of minutes (while having to sacrifice the throughput due to DP)
- as a SP-oriented FoL spammer you still have the option to increase your throughput DRAMATICALLY in that "oh shit" situation, by switching to HL and throwing a couple dozens of those before you go oom. Being a literally infinite FoL spammer that sits on more than 80% of its mana most of the fight, you always have this option available. HL builds are already doing the best they can, with AW being the only option - if it doesn't sit on a cd from the last DP combo, that is
In addition to what Rakot said, your reaction speed will also be much higher. Although it's nice to stay in our models and go for maximum HPS, humans are only so good, and there is an element of human behaviour here. Say you're solo healing something, rather than just spamming the tank. If your build is HL focussed, with pure regen and INT, as Saladin said, your FoL's and HS's will be significantly gimped. If you see somebody get hit by a void zone, hit a wall, etc etc, and you KNOW they are going to die in a second without immediate heals, you will warm up your Holy Light, hitting 1.5 seconds later, for enourmous overhealing, but the target might already be dead.
On the other hand, with a throughput build, you see that HP drop, and you immediately HS/FoL them for what could be a 10k heal crit in the first GCD, followed by another 10k from Infusion of Light. This type of healing is even encouraged by the patch, given the Beacon changes, which move us away from spamming one target, but rather casting very fast FoL's or HS's on any target that dips, and getting medium size heals on the tank at all times.
In my opinion there are merits to both gearing focusses. As of now there is unfortunately no middle ground, but I hope Blizzard will recognize this, although I don't know how they would do it.
EDIT: Mistake with Holy Shock numbers, changed in text. Added "crit" to the example
The very point of the original poster was: although FoL build will always be somewhat inferior (like 10-20% behind) to HL build in terms of pure HPS, the beauty of the FoL build is that it's much more reliable
More like spamming HL after stacking intellect is 50% more HPS than spamming FoL after stacking SP. Convinced yet?
FoL becomes usable again, if there would be a way to smooth out the damage spikes on tank enough so that he doesn't run the risk of dying in 2 seconds.
Adding HoT effect to the FoL is a step in the right direction.
More like spamming HL after stacking intellect is 50% more HPS than spamming FoL after stacking SP. Convinced yet?
No, not until I see the actual numbers from actual HL and FoL builds. The numbers that I used are based on my own build, which is neither FoL nor HL - as it hass less INT/more SP than HL build would have, while still way less SP than FoL build has. And I observe the difference mentioned above.
In addition to what Rakot said, your reaction speed will also be much higher. ...
I fail to see how a build can increase the natural reaction time of a human being. How soon I start my next cast is strictly up to me and will not really depend on my build. And please don't say "yes, but if you were spamming FoL your cast would be done a lot sooner than if you were spamming HL!"... Yes well, you're also betting on the fact that you wouldn't have used your HS on someone else a few moments before and now all of a sudden it's not up for this next person. Also, you're assuming that the person is taking a considerable amount of damage (over 8k 1.5s after the initial hit, hence making a "HL build's" HS ineffective), and will continue to do so requiring yet another 12k healing to keep him alive. Tell me... when exactly is this applicable when the person taking damage is not doing something wrong? Also, are you the only person raid healing? Are other people not bound to at least put a shield/instant heal on this person that just took an insane amount of damage (and didn't get 1-shotted)? It just looks to me like you're tunnel-visioning the scenario to make FoL spam seem more viable. Sure, it may be viable in the end and we'll just have to see, but I don't think it will be so for any of the points you made.
As far as dealing with DP decreasing your effective HPS, I generally combine it with my engineering glove enchant (and DI in some cases) to gain an extra 10% haste. Sure it doesn't make up completely for the 50% MS, however considering the fact that we normally have 60% OH on tanks, it helps level out any chances of actually doing too little healing, or still too slow. Also, knowing the fight and knowing when you should/can DP safely is key. No one ever said you had to use it when the tank was taking an insane amount of damage... use it when he's not. Thorim hard mode? Use it when he's low on stacks, and save DI for when he's +5 and you really need to spam your heart out. I have never had a tank die on me when DP is up, and we generally run with very few healers so it's not like we have an excess of healers backing us tank healers up or something.
Since I have yet to hop on the PTR, I've got a few questions for those of you who have more time.
The new FoL/SS mechanic states: Flash of Light now has an additional effect - If the target has the Sacred Shield effect, they heal an additional 100% over 12 sec.
Does "the" SS have to be from the casting Paladin in order for this effect to occur? Or can I proc my FoL HoT on a target with someone else's SS up?
Also, if I have SS on Person A and BoL on person B, FoL person A to get the HoT, will person B get the HoT as well since you're effectively still healing PersonA, just with a HoT? I know someone tested it the other way around where they were trying to proc the SS/FoL hot from a FoL casted on someone else, but what about essentially causing the HoT to tick on 2 people at once? Even though our SS is definitely better used on a tank rather than RandomPersonA, if the fight requires two tanks taking damage at the same time, it might be worth it to BoL one, SS the other and have the HoT rolling on both while still spamming the non-BoL target(s).
Most of you are actually much smarter, informed, gear-headed, maths-fed, or, in short, interested than I'll ever be in the depthness of geekhood displayed here. Regardless, we - the common folks of Azeroth - are interested in knowing the answer of but a few simplistic questions:
a) Crit vs MP5?
b) SP vs Crit?
c) SP vs MP5?
d) depending on your answers above, how does it affect gearing for 3.2?
e) Is Blizzard considering revisiting the application of oils on weapons since they're cutting off half of our mana return on cast.
I will take for granted that more INT always is more and better, regardless of maths. There's technically no "cap" to stacking a base stat. Also, I'd like to ask you, learned folks, how is it that you can "spam" HL? I'm OOM after ~35 casts @ 1700 INT raid buffed and ~42% crit. I'm obviously doing something wrong. so I still have a rotation of ~50/50 between FoL and HL to remain afloat mana-wise. That, and the still questionable 1-pot-per-fight rules ticks me off.... =)
No, not until I see the actual numbers from actual HL and FoL builds. The numbers that I used are based on my own build, which is neither FoL nor HL - as it hass less INT/more SP than HL build would have, while still way less SP than FoL build has. And I observe the difference mentioned above.
That's highly improbable. HL scales better than FoL.
In my gear, I get 12k HL hits, every 1.4 seconds. that's around 8.5k HPS, without crits. On average, gearing for intellect (gemming for intellect + pandora's plea and greatness card) would give you 4% extra crit rating compared to FoL (talent + crit from intellect vs. glyph of FoL). But if I was to look at my actual numbers, I seem to be getting 36% crit rate on holy lights, so that comes out to about 10.2 HPS. I really doubt your FoL build can do much more than 6.8k HPS, even if you assume a constant crit FoL HoT kept on the tank.
...
a) Crit vs MP5?
b) SP vs Crit?
c) SP vs MP5?
d) depending on your answers above, how does it affect gearing for 3.2?
e) Is Blizzard considering revisiting the application of oils on weapons since they're cutting off half of our mana return on cast.
I will take for granted that more INT always is more and better, regardless of maths. There's technically no "cap" to stacking a base stat. Also, I'd like to ask you, learned folks, how is it that you can "spam" HL? I'm OOM after ~35 casts @ 1700 INT raid buffed and ~42% crit. I'm obviously doing something wrong. so I still have a rotation of ~50/50 between FoL and HL to remain afloat mana-wise. That, and the still questionable 1-pot-per-fight rules ticks me off.... =)
The exact numbers/answers for a, b, c and d are not set in stone yet, and probably won't be until the patch actually goes live. As far as e is concerned, that's a 99.9% "no", considering their reasoning behind the nerf in the first place, which was that holy paladins are at a point of almost infinite mana even when spamming a max ranked HL for 6 minutes (something that was nigh-impossible in the BT/Sunwell says without downranking).
As far as INT goes, yes it's a nice stat and for the most part the best one atm point for point, however there may be cases in which gemming for say, SP might be more beneficial overall.
As far as why you're unable to sustain a full HL rotation, without looking at your exact gearing/glyphing I cannot really say, but there are a few factors that you may want to consider:
Glyph of Seal of Wisdom - 5% off all spell cost
T7/7.5 4pc bonus - 5% off HL cost
Holy Light libram from the badge vendor - 113mana off each HL
Maximizing the use of DI and DP by using them at the most beneficial times (and hopefully using DI twice a fight).
Are you getting Replenishment
What Meta gem are you using
As far as pots go, I've probably used 5 throughout all of Ulduar, and those were only because I screwed up a hard-mode fight and didn't use my CD's properly. Oh, and most of our fights us pallies have done in T7.5 equiv. gear, with 2 or 3 random T8 equiv. pieces.
You are misinterpreting the tone, Sir. I was being merely silly while paying you all a compliment on being meticulous to a fault. I apologize if harm was felt, but, I assure you, none was meant.
None taken, at least for those of us who don't mind being called "geeks". I see nothing wrong with any of the other adjectives you used though... O_o Hopefully all of our questions will be answered (and prayers too for that matter) in the next few weeks
Since I have yet to hop on the PTR, I've got a few questions for those of you who have more time.
The new FoL/SS mechanic states: Flash of Light now has an additional effect - If the target has the Sacred Shield effect, they heal an additional 100% over 12 sec.
Does "the" SS have to be from the casting Paladin in order for this effect to occur? Or can I proc my FoL HoT on a target with someone else's SS up?
Also, if I have SS on Person A and BoL on person B, FoL person A to get the HoT, will person B get the HoT as well since you're effectively still healing PersonA, just with a HoT? I know someone tested it the other way around where they were trying to proc the SS/FoL hot from a FoL casted on someone else, but what about essentially causing the HoT to tick on 2 people at once? Even though our SS is definitely better used on a tank rather than RandomPersonA, if the fight requires two tanks taking damage at the same time, it might be worth it to BoL one, SS the other and have the HoT rolling on both while still spamming the non-BoL target(s).
That's all I got for now.
1) It's any Sacred Shield from any Paladin. Also: it's the buff, not the proc (the 50% crit chance/absorb proc). Basically it's the best-case scenario.
2) The FoL HoT is not currently transmitted through Beacon. So FoL HoT on person A will not be sent (as a HoT or as a heal in general) to person B. You only get the single HoT on Sacred Shielded target A, that's it. Beacon's healing can general be thought of as only transmitting the healing from castable spells, and not any of their effects (HL Glyph, old FoL Glyph, new FoL mechanic, etc).
As far as pots go, I've probably used 5 throughout all of Ulduar, and those were only because I screwed up a hard-mode fight and didn't use my CD's properly.
You should always use a potion over DP. I know that this isn't TBC where chain potting was the rule, but that doesn't mean potions are useless. They're a free buff, with no side effects, which should be used as often as possible. With the mana changes in 3.2, I think they're going to become even more useful.
None taken, at least for those of us who don't mind being called "geeks". I see nothing wrong with any of the other adjectives you used though... O_o Hopefully all of our questions will be answered (and prayers too for that matter) in the next few weeks
I'm deemed as much a "geek" as everyone else of the 11 million other WoW players to the rest of the planet. Thank you for answering.
Sorry if it's off-thread, but I feel I have to say this:
Thanks to you all for doing these threads and keeping them alive. Most of us (me included) sometimes have a hard time following due to the technical nature of some posts, but I believe you all play a grand part into exposing the best of this game by doing what you do here. It helps understanding and adjusting our play style. Keep up the good work, EJ's.
Wings is a really inefficient way to offset Divine Plea and should only be used as a last resort--the wings buff is applied multiplicatively after the -50% modifier. That is to say, if you use Divine Plea and then Wings, you're healing at 60% of your normal capacity. Wings thus grants you an increase of 10% extra healing, as opposed to when you use it without the DP debuff and it nets a full extra 20% healing for you. In essence, every time you wings with Divine Plea up, you're neutering the effectiveness of one of your few burst healing cooldowns. Again, it can be done, but only sparingly.
The best way to get around the self-MS is to never have to apply it. The problem in gearing is the huge gap between HL and FoL.
In order to make FoL remotely viable, we must stack nothing but throughput. By doing this, we severely gimp the longevity (and thus effectiveness) of any HL spam we may have the necessity to do.
In order to make HL remotely viable, we must stack nothing but regen. By doing this, we prevent ourselves from being able to use anything but HL to keep a tank alive.
It's a catch-22. There is no gearing strategy where we can use a comfortable mix of HL and FoL, since we have to lean so heavily on either side of the scales depending on our target.
I'm sorry but I don't quite understand the crux of this argument. As a holy paladin, is there any other specific task you're saving your wings for besides DP? There's a definite mathematical threshold for incoming damage where mitigation has to be applied or the tank is one shot. Barring that, your hps will be more a factor of your cast speed than the size of your heal. The only reason I can think of for you to save wings would be to flash spam but any situation that would allow you to do this would also allow you to get away with this is one with low incoming tank damage. I can see a raid healing situation where wings + HL + glyph might come in handy but on the same token the timing of AoE damage or any cyclic damage really is such that Wings won't ever line up to be truly effective.
I also think its a bit premature to automatically assume HL is an unsustainable emergency spell that requires its own oddball itemization to be viable. I believe that HL will still occupy the number one cast spell slot except this time you won't be able to stand in one spot and straight spam it from start to finish. I'm actually fine with this, as there really aren't any encounters in the game that requires a nonstop holy light spam for the entire duration of the fight. I do it still because I can but I also finish those fights with a healthy chunk of mana left over. Take thorim hard for example, do you have to spam HL when Thorim has 6 or fewer charges? Not really. How about IC hard, do you need to steady spam HL the entire time? Not really, you need to provide HPS coverage for immediate top off after Fusion, but can mix HS, FoL, SS and HL for almost the entire fight up until the end.
You should always use a potion over DP. I know that this isn't TBC where chain potting was the rule, but that doesn't mean potions are useless. They're a free buff, with no side effects, which should be used as often as possible. With the mana changes in 3.2, I think they're going to become even more useful.
I would rather use DP in a controlled situation where I know for the most part what kind of damage will be hitting my tank, as opposed to hitting my pot 1 minute into the fight, only to find out 5 minutes later that I REALLY need some mana, and am then forced to use DP while spamming 50% HL's on a tank that's being rocked or go OOM, neither of which are a satisfactory solution... Your point about the potion having no side effects is exactly the reason I'm going to save it for a time when i really DO need both the mana and the full 100% healing output of my spells. Because we can't just spam them like we used to, you have to use them wisely and not with the same old mentality that it's "free mana".
Essentially what I was saying is that there have been roughly ~5 times that I've screwed up and haven't had enough mana at the end of a long haul to keep the tank alive, and have needed to use a pot instead of a DP to keep the tank up. Other than that, I make sure to keep as topped off as I possibly can so that I can spam my heart out towards the end of the fight without a DP up.
Sushi: Thanks for clearing that up. While I was already aware that it worked on the buff and not the proc from the buff, I'm glad to finally know that it won't transfer through BoL. Thanks again!
I would rather use DP in a controlled situation where I know for the most part what kind of damage will be hitting my tank, as opposed to hitting my pot 1 minute into the fight, only to find out 5 minutes later that I REALLY need some mana, and am then forced to use DP while spamming 50% HL's on a tank that's being rocked or go OOM, neither of which are less than satisfactory solutions... Your point about the potion having no side effects is exactly the reason I'm going to save it for a time when i really DO need both the mana and the full 100% healing output of my spells.
It is free mana. And it doesn't matter when you use it, as long as you don't end up with more than 100% mana. Yes, you have to put some thought into when to use them, but that's completely different to only using them when you need to. It's the same argument for stacking intellect, even if we can survive with less intellect by using DP on cooldown, it's always beneficial to use DP less.
Because we can't just spam them like we used to, you have to use them wisely and not with the same old mentality that it's "free mana".
But it is free mana. And, my point was that considering we'll be getting way less mana in 3.2, using mana potions should make an even bigger impact than it does now, when you can easily get by without using one.
You'll see that the tank damage escalated from ~6,000 DTPS, to ~7,500 DTPS, and then to nearly ~10,000 DTPS.
With Paladins being GCD locked at 1 FoL per second (one of the reasons that HL spam is superior HPS), each FoL must heal for an average of say 7,500 in order to maintain a tank. This is not including CDs, trinket procs, etc: it's long-term 7,500 HPS or tank death. In actuality, you will want a higher amount of HPS to prevent tanks from being gibbed, but let's say 7,500 HPS is the mark.
As mentioned earlier in the thread, that level of spellpower simply isn't possible. With 3,500 effective spellpower (raid buffs + FoL libram), I'm showing 6k FoLs at a maximum (non-crit). That's barely enough to keep up with the base tank damage in one of the top 20 Thorim parses (shortest time, which means great DPS and tanks). Once we escalate into the middle and end of the encounter, FoL has no chance of keeping up. Add in the fact that actual incoming tank damage could be in the format of 20 DTPS for 5 seconds (tank death) or 0 DTPS for 5 seconds (avoidance string).
Holy Light (with current haste gear) doesn't suffer from this GCD lock. Even with Bloodlust activated, it's incredibly difficult to see yourself casting 1s Holy Lights. This means that haste is still an effective throughput stat for the HL spammer, whereas haste is a wasted throughput stat for a FoL Paladin. All of the haste bonuses on T9 will be wasted for an FoL build, and it will make the HL build even stronger.
FoL as a spec only has one direction to go, and that's stacking SP. With the minimal mana cost and haste GCD lock, the only stat that will help FoL scale is SP (and crit to some extent). HL builds still scale with all stats, including MP5, and this is why I don't predict we'll be seeing the wholesale abandonment of HL builds, especially as gear continues to increase in potency across the board.
Are you somehow under the impression that you can use more than 1 per fight or something? Your point about "not mattering when you use it" is actually helping me prove my point that if you want to MAXIMIZE it's usage, use it when you see that you actually need it INSTEAD of DP as you keep saying. If it doesn't matter when you use it, why not wait until the end? Mana is mana, right? Why would I use my 1-time-per-fight mana gain item at a time when the tank is taking hardly any damage? Just to say that I ended the fight with 70%+ mana? No thanks. If DP/AW/Engi gloves/DI can keep my mana up just fine and the tank lives, i really don't see a point in having "extra mana" just for the pure sake of having it if you're never going to use it. If I had to somehow work around a mana pot CD or something then yes, I would be using it like we used to, on CD.
I think the problem here is that I don't base my healing rotations around using a mana pot each fight, and you do. If I can get through each fight withOUT a mana pot, well, having one around is just an extra 'oh $hit' buffer. If you're already at a point where you feel that you need to use a mana pot each fight to finish that fight, then good luck once you're pressed beyond your current limit and are required to go searching for some more mana.
Are you somehow under the impression that you can use more than 1 per fight or something? Your point about "not mattering when you use it" is actually helping me prove my point that if you want to MAXIMIZE it's usage, use it when you see that you actually need it INSTEAD of DP as you keep saying. If it doesn't matter when you use it, why not wait until the end? Mana is mana, right? Why would I use my 1-time-per-fight mana gain item at a time when the tank is taking hardly any damage? Just to say that I ended the fight with 70%+ mana? No thanks. If DP/AW/Engi gloves/DI can keep my mana up just fine and the tank lives, i really don't see a point in having "extra mana" just for the pure sake of having it if you're never going to use it. If I had to somehow work around a mana pot CD or something then yes, I would be using it like we used to, on CD.
I think the problem here is that I don't base my healing rotations around using a mana pot each fight, and you do. If I can get through each fight withOUT a mana pot, well, having one around is just an extra 'oh $hit' buffer. If you're already at a point where you feel that you need to use a mana pot each fight to finish that fight, then good luck once you're pressed beyond your current limit and are required to go searching for some more mana.
There are 2 situations that I can think of:
1) GCD-locked (are potions on the GCD?) or intense situations: popping a potion ahead of time ease up the high-pressure situations.
2) Death. If you are soul stoned, or are rebirthed, you are able to use a second potion in a fight. Using your potion early will allow you to sneak in a 2nd one later. This is really an off-case, but if "mana is mana", then this is a slight benefit.
If you can afford to pop a potion, and there is any chance of you needing it: pop it. I typically will look at my current mana when I use DP, and if I have to cancel DI for any reason, I will pop a potion to help offset cancelling DP.
@Trixia: You can bet your ass on it getting nerfed. Blizzard is already uncomfortable with us spamhealing the tank, it will be a cold day in hell before they let us spamheal pets to accomplish the same thing, but in a more effective and exponentially more stupid way.
I wouldn't be so certain that Blizzard will or will not change this. It would make logical sense to do so, sure, but let's not assume Blizzard will. For now, that is exactly how the mechanic is functioning, and since this is 3.2 PTR as it stands, and not 3.1/3.2 Live, we should focus as it functioning as such until it changes.
That being said, with the understanding that pet and player healing bonuses (i.e. Rogues/Warlocks) affect BoL healing transference, does that increase in efficiency make FoL viable, or just make HL more insane due to the splash healing from Glyph?
We considered making the hot not get overwritten with subsequent Flashes, but first we're going to try a 1 sec periodic tick so you can get some hot benefit before the next cast.
Nice to see them at least watching it and taking feedback, but the mechanic still feels clunky to me.
I agree, especially with sub-1.0 second FoL casting speed. I'm hoping for something akin to Lifebloom, where your stack keeps rolling, and the duration simply increases.
06/28/09, 10:06 PM
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