The healing debate

[Bozzax]

lifetap healing is pre or post changes.

10/10 theorycrafting lads

Uhh initial feedback is that it's really good...

Not intended as feedback

Nice derail/theorycraft though

[live4treasure]

I'm not sure if Bozzax is saying it's amazing or if it's horrible, but so far even using a solo roaming half-dps half-healer setup with divine fury (effective willpower/int of 850~ when tranquility empowered for life taps, also not sure if divine fury reduces the healing from lifetaps), I've seen it heal for 1.2-1.5k non-crit on others. Pretty sure if I wasn't running Divine Fury it would be even stronger. So if this is criticism for lifetapping, then Bozzax is either trolling or doing something really wrong. If this is praise, it's deserved, because it's a wonderful healing tool. Risky because of having to stand closer to enemy front line, but wonderful.

[dansari]

lifetap healing is pre or post changes.

10/10 theorycrafting lads

Uhh initial feedback is that it's really good...

Not intended as feedback

Nice derail/theorycraft though

Are you high? You posted about lifetap heals first. You can't just yell "theorycraft!" everytime you don't have a response. It doesn't make sense.

[Dabbart]

Bozzax likes to troll about classes he doesn’t play anymore... like being called out by Torque for just ignoring everything changed to Bo that he “doesn’t like”, only to admit he hasn’t played BO in ages. how “0 6mans use Shams!”(Run Like Hell disagrees here...) Or that there are no 6man guilds on destro at all, so don’t nerf Mara plz! (I guess DROW and the other guilds don’t “count” anymore...) Not feedback or derail, just troll that doesn’t test anything.

And Lifetap works really well now. I was running around purposefully targeting tanks and “bad targets” just to try it out. Very rare disrupts(often get all 5lifetaps cast on a SnB tank for 1k+ heals). On squishies it’s even better.

Sham AP issues nearly disappear(even without ANY AP tactic slotted) just by using HoTs/cleanse/Lifetap and the occasional grp-heal. I was roaming for hours yesterday, The system works, and unlike .ab ex it isn’t entirely OP!

I love these new changes. I feel like I have my Sham/AM healer “back” finally. The “formulaic” healer breakdown isn’t “up to date” anymore.

The AM/Sham now have the capability to heal someone they do NOT have LoS on better than any other healer. People forget how big of a deal it was during .ab ex, but they will remember. I only need LoS on my enemy target to Lifetap my ally. That is a major boon at times, especially for a Kitey Healer.

[dansari]

Sham AP issues nearly disappear(even without ANY AP tactic slotted) just by using HoTs/cleanse/Lifetap and the occasional grp-heal. I was roaming for hours yesterday, The system works, and unlike .ab ex it isn’t entirely OP!

That's good to hear. Do you think there are still AP issues if you run mork/green as opposed to green main spec?

[Dabbart]

Sham AP issues nearly disappear(even without ANY AP tactic slotted) just by using HoTs/cleanse/Lifetap and the occasional grp-heal. I was roaming for hours yesterday, The system works, and unlike .ab ex it isn’t entirely OP!

That's good to hear. Do you think there are still AP issues if you run mork/green as opposed to green main spec?

Archmage

Shaman

The new 20% life-tap strikethrough tactic is the 4th option for both of them.

those are what I ran with mostly. I tried the full Lifetap spec, but I found EoV/FodG very underwhelming. I'm not sure if it has to do with the change to range on the group heal or a potential bug, or if my UI was funky, or what. But I haven't found either of them to be worth the cast/spec. Maybe in a premade bomb group, where everyone is staying super tight to the rest of the group it'd be more worthwhile. In my limited experience with the changes though, EoV/FodG isn't worth trading Shams HoT, or AM AP tactic/FE for. But I don't play in premade bomb groups...

The AM is self explanatory. I play it exactly the same as I played it w/o life-taps, except that I now have a proper Kiting Heal and don't have to reposition myself just because a teammate is breaking my LoS. I can just target an enemy, and keep that overly aggressive player up w/o risking myself. You can get some wicked healing spikes on AM with Boon of Hysh/Funnel Essence/Balance Essence cast rotation. HoT/Shield/Cleanse helps to ensure you have the mechanics to Lifetap when needed.

Sham I stack crap out of my HoTs, cleanse on CD, and Bubble on CD. Grp heal/ST heal when I can "see" the DPS coming or to assist the 2nd healer, with life-taps being my major Large heals. With 3 HoTs(cleanse tactic giving one), 2 bubbles(cleanse also), life-taps on the move, and Gork'll Fix It on the move, the Sham can kite+heal really, really, really well. Stationary gets a little dicey(AP wise) if you don't have an enemy target, but with the sheer amount of WL pets around, that tends to not be an issue.

Note, I love and adore insta rezz. The "better" sham spec would probably be to either go Morale pump or Aint Done Yet! and Restorative burst while dumping Cleanse tactic and insta rezz. That'd let you free-cast heals w/o enemy targets, give you your "spike" heals on near-death back, and let you play more to the style I described with the AM. But, Shams have Run Away! and an extra HoT anyways, and I lwanted to take advantage of those. I'll be fiddling with the Sham build.

As I stated in previous post, the strike-through tactic basically removes the worry of being disrupted/blocked. It still happens occasionally, but so far it checks out with my theory of Lifetaps(1 you have to be 85%+ assured of the cast succeeded, and 2 the heal returned has to be worth-while).

p.s. 5s quick cast Silence(that WP can't cleanse[DoK can]) that with mechanic gets your Stat points for strikethrough is OP.

[dansari]

Haha nice. Thanks dab

[live4treasure]

While we're on this topic I've tried EoV in CNTK warband this monday. I think as a healing tool it suffers mainly from the fact that the aoe is only 20 feet around your target. It makes it extremely unreliable and awkward to use. I think if the ability were to become a viable option, it would need to be 100 feet around the target, or at least 65, otherwise its use is too narrow. The fact that it only targets 4 targets now and has an 8 seconds also feels a bit underwhelming. I think it should either be 5 seconds again, but still target only 4 enemies, or target all enemies in the 20ft radius, but be 8 seconds again. Considering it doesn't really do any damage now there's no reason to limit it by keeping Whispering Wind in mind, or if the intention is to limit it that way, then the healing potential needs to be higher as it is a bit too low as it is now.

[Dankmeme]

@dab >not using EoV

[Dabbart]

@live4treasure: do you think that would be something the base spells should have, or be utilized to replace one of the useless tactics in the Lifetap tree? It might be simpler from a balance perspective to empower them if it required 2tactics.

@dankmeme: Ok.