Archmage - Experimental Changes

[bloodi]

Do you think your Drain Magics get defended a lot because of your lack of int? Do you use the AOE tactic for it? I have been trying to keep on tranq to power my lifetaps. Whatever I am doing, the SC charts are telling me I am doing it wrong.

I dont run the aoe drain tactic, once i put restorative burst in, using an aoe heal with force stacks usually makes it proc, so as long as i am weaving, my ap is not much of an isssue.

If you want to stay at the tranquility side of the mechanic, i dont recommend running a vaul build, an isha with the usual defensive stacking + willpower build will suit you a lot more, you have to bear in mind that your lifetaps will not get extra benefit from int (afaik) when are on tranquility, they will just get boosted by the mechanic, making int worthless, plus you will be using the usual tools we used to have for it and weave balance essences in when there is no need for group heals. What you get here is the benefit of not getting disrupted in the attacks you weave in between your heals.

The thing with the new changes is that they let the old isha build attack a bit more thanks to the reduced disruptions and the improved returns you will get from it however for Asuryan/Vaul is a big game changer, letting you be help on the assist target with damage that can weave heals in when necessary. Which to me is a lot more fun and the reason i started playing Am back on live.

Still, i have a lot more to test, from getting my merc to playing in a more demanding enviroment like organized group play and so on, however, i am still on the honeymoon phase here, loving it.

[Valarion]

Ive been playing these changes over the weekend and I must say really good job here.

They are exceptionally well though out and I believe this is the first time EVER Ive actually utilized the AM's mechanic rather than blindly spamming heals. Surprisingly, my overall maximum heal output did not increase much, but I did contribute significantly more dps as I was weaving spells attempting to maintain maximum heals.

Interestingly, there are various mix-matching of INT+WIL gear strategies Ill be testing here soon that will boost both heals and deeps. Either way this is making for a much more rich complex gameplay.

[Jaycub]

5 DPS stacks and boon spam w/ morale pump tactic gives 1250 morale in 5 seconds. This is what could possibly propel DPS AM into a solid slot in an order 3-2-1 group proc meta or not.

DPS AM after the changes to how heal scaling is effected with the experimental changes acts a lot like DPS DoK does on destro in that it's a DPS slot that brings defensive utility to a group in the form of extra healing and typical healer utility/buffs. While the damage is no where near comparable the healing just might be and DPS AM does not suffer from the woes DPS dok does (easily controlled by good tanks CC).

DPS AM brings puddle, ini debuff tied to that, group wide resist buff, AP drain, heal debuff, spirit resist debuff, 3rd res with reduced cast time, crit debuff, and morale pump.


1 morale pump cast on a tank immediately gives them M1 for a fast champs, 4 pumps into say a SW/BW is gonna give them their cast/damage multiplier morale 2. 1 tap into both healers gives them morale heals. Why this is so good on DPS AM is because traditionally on heal AM you just don't have the luxury to be doing this consistently, it was something you did during safe/down times. But as a DPS AM you don't have those healer role obligations and are free to do this. The key here is communication, obviously not something you can just pull off without voice comms.


This is mostly theorycrafting based on past experiences and some messing around today. And the strength of the morale pump relies heavily on the current gimped state of morale gain on RoR. Hoping I can get my AM up to snuff here soon so I can actually run it in a group built around it.

[Nekkma]

Been testing the changes as a healer and it adds some QoL but no dramatic changes. I did not bother to respecc so I have not tested the changed tactic which adds an aoe heal component to the lifetap.

In general, the changes provide improved healing while moving (although it is somewhat situational). The lifetap seem to heal for about 900 which gives better burst for less ap compared to Healing Energy. As a healer i still did not feel any need to bother with the mechanic. To keep people alive I needed to mostly heal and spent most of the time with full healing points. As the mechanic was more or lesss useless for healers before the changes adds a nice option for a bit better healing on the move.

Two things I was wondering about is the range of lifetaps and the fact that you do not need line of sight. In a Reikland Factory earlier today, I was at the upper right node when I noticed a slayer taking damage. With the help of groupicons I noticed that the slayer was fighting at mid. I then unloaded my 5 points with Balanced Essence (5x900ish) and managed to keep him alive until more people arrived. With stronger lifetaps, perhaps the range and no need for los should be changed somehow.

[roadkillrobin]

Great to read that! And what does it brins to shamman?.....

Shamans could potentially rethink their way of how to play the class and move away from just hot spamming into proper focus healing single targets with the casual gheal in between. I dont wanna say hots are useless, but most of the time using DSU should be enough actually. Casting Single and Gheal will be more AP-efficient in the long run as well as simply more healing effective as well. But thats just my thought on it

Of topic but.
Why would they/we/shamans rethink the way of playing their class when it's still the moast efficiant way to heal???
People will always chose the moast efficiant way of playing out their role. Not the intended way, not the optiional situational way. The moast efficiant way, and it's still healbotting for heals. And about the hot spamming, Shamans arn't spamming any more hots then WP/DoK's do. This is an old missconseption and not a effective way to keep your group up.

[Azarael]

Lifetaps being raw means that that 900ish heal from tapping is not affected by any outgoing or incoming heal debuffs that may be flying around. I figured this was something of an advantage, but if it is not actually valued... and if you're not at least using it when targets are heal debuffed...

Well, let me say that I doubt I'm the one that's wrong in that situation, but if I am, I'd rather just lose the raw typing and bump the heal by about 100, trading heal debuff immunity for crit possibility and proccing of onDirectHeal procs.

What I'm afraid of here is making the move healing too good, but I may not be accounting for the following secondary factors:

- 100ft / 80ft range
- Value varying between 525 (absorbed/defended), general average of 850-900 and theoretical max of 975
- Positioning cost to maintain tap
- AP cost
- Positive mechanic requirement acting as a limiter

[Nekkma]

What I'm afraid of here is making the move healing too good, but I may not be accounting for the following secondary factors:

- 100ft / 80ft range
- Value varying between 525 (absorbed/defended), general average of 850-900 and theoretical max of 975
- Positioning cost to maintain tap
- AP cost
- Positive mechanic requirement acting as a limiter

I think especially for shamans the low ap cost makes this alot more appealing than GFI. AMs running Wild Healing and double ap pots are not that ap starved and can afford spending 55 ap.


Regarding the range, can you clarify how that works. From my testing so far the range for the heal seem very long (is there even a range?). I remember the same from live where you could lifetap on keepdoors when someone was out of gheal range.

The most use I have gotten out of the lifetaps so far, puging in scenarios, is healing people out of los or range. Was especially usefull in Tor Anorac where people are punted out of los/range all the time.

[Azarael]

At present, a lifetap has infinite range on its heal component and will ignore LOS on it, too.

[roadkillrobin]

Let me add a couple factors

100 feet vs 150 Feet
Time lost when trying to finding a good offensive anchor target
Having to switch both defensive and offensive target consistantly
Offensive LoS issues.
Offensive range issues.
Cleanse of lifetap dots.
4+ More skills needing free hotkeys.

[Azarael]

Good. That means I can be a lot less conservative.