[PTS] Patch Notes 28/02/2025

[Nameless]

the main diff chalice vs shield is that the shield healing add damage and if u check some 6v6 it is quite high amount so it is normal the heal output to be lower. Imo you should account that when compare them

[leftayparxoun]

the main diff chalice vs shield is that the shield healing add damage and if u check some 6v6 it is quite high amount so it is normal the heal output to be lower. Imo you should account that when compare them

Quite fair. The issue is that the additional ST damage get's ''diluted'' in a wb v wb environement. I could potentially argue that the slotting Potent Covenants as Chalice could make up for the added damage from a Shield spec (you have 1 more free tactic slot to spare), but I think I'll agree with you for 6v6 or smallscale at least.
If shield is indeed meant to find a niche for orvr, I wonder if there's a neat way to balance things for both cases without making either one too powerful or too weak.

[Nekkma]

Never been a fan of the balance approach to change playstyle of classes.

Also very surprised that the team deemed rituals/runes to passive and feelt the need to change them while leaving the much more passive auras intact. Rituals was basically working as intended (only thing needed to change was removing procs from the ritual heal) while auras been in need of a change since pretty much 2008.

[Sinisterror]

Lacerate,Wracking agony and Fell Sacrifice should use Ap and Give Resourses. Obviously. Its impossible to manage anything as dps dok atm in PTS. Btw just changing FS, Lacerate and Wracking agony to use essence not ap would be enough to destroy dps dok,but add the mechanic ffs i never remember the name, under the blood? Anyway even without the new mechanic changing those 3 abilities to use essence not ap would be enough to ruin dps dok even more.

Tbh i prefer current dps wp/dok to what we have in pts.

EDIT; I just got to test dps shammy/Am and WTF? Why nerf to sorc/bw and give bigger dmg to Shammy???

[Nameless]

the main diff chalice vs shield is that the shield healing add damage and if u check some 6v6 it is quite high amount so it is normal the heal output to be lower. Imo you should account that when compare them

Quite fair. The issue is that the additional ST damage get's ''diluted'' in a wb v wb environement. I could potentially argue that the slotting Potent Covenants as Chalice could make up for the added damage from a Shield spec (you have 1 more free tactic slot to spare), but I think I'll agree with you for 6v6 or smallscale at least.
If shield is indeed meant to find a niche for orvr, I wonder if there's a neat way to balance things for both cases without making either one too powerful or too weak.

I dont think that all specs need to be working for all game modes. You had chali heal which is best at orvr big fights, you got shield that is pretty potent at small scale and 6v6 and you have dps spec that excel at scens and 6v6. The class has good specs for all modes which is enough no idea why ppl think all specs should work optimal at all modes

[leftayparxoun]

I dont think that all specs need to be working for all game modes. You had chali heal which is best at orvr big fights, you got shield that is pretty potent at small scale and 6v6 and you have dps spec that excel at scens and 6v6. The class has good specs for all modes which is enough no idea why ppl think all specs should work optimal at all modes

Completely fair take.
The way I view it though, is ''Why do we have to settle for less when we can make all 3 specs viable in both orvr and 6v6/smallscale but for different reasons each?'' And I believe that this patch has already made some great steps towards that direction (which is why I made the Shield DOK analysis).

To elaborate, the way I envision how all 3 specs could work for both scales of play after the healer rework is finished is:

• Chalice: Compared to Shield, it has better OOP heals (orvr), reliable ST healing, an extra emergency output mode with the new Soul Energy buff and also a bit more utility depending on their choice of final tactic(s)(orvr/6v6/smallscale)

• Shield: Compared to Chalice, it brings more ST damage and debuffs into the mix (6v6/smallscale), inconsistent but good ST healing and could also have better AOE party healing (orvr/6v6/smallscale)

• Dual Wield: It could differentiate itself from other melee dps by having stronger but more infrequent ST burst that is also more telegraphed and by bringing more ST debuffs than others (6v6/smallscale). For orvr it could provide consistent AOE pressure at a much further distance(=less risk) while having a better ability than most other dps to seemlessly weave in good ST pressure.

I think this PTS update already checks most marks on the things I mentioned besides Shield party healing and Dual Wield AOE pressure numbers.
While setling for less (each spec viable only certain modes of play) is something we could end up with, I think there is potential to go beyond that without breaking the game as long as the balancing design of the classes is smart about it.

I will probably also make a Dual Wield DOK AOE output analysis soon too so as to quantify where it's at after this patch.

[Keula]

I dont think that all specs need to be working for all game modes. You had chali heal which is best at orvr big fights, you got shield that is pretty potent at small scale and 6v6 and you have dps spec that excel at scens and 6v6. The class has good specs for all modes which is enough no idea why ppl think all specs should work optimal at all modes

Completely fair take.
The way I view it though, is ''Why do we have to settle for less when we can make all 3 specs viable in both orvr and 6v6/smallscale but for different reasons each?'' And I believe that this patch has already made some great steps towards that direction (which is why I made the Shield DOK analysis).

Then you go and siege a keep and quickly realize that shield will never be fully orvr viable. Shield even lost offparty aoe healing potential that it currently has with consume essence/divine strike and gained a new weakness in terms healdebuffs for most heals, and since you're melee outgoing healdebuffs become a big concern on any game mode, the 13pt ability currently not being a real ability is not helping the optics either, but I'm guessing/hoping that'll get fixed. I guess you can now give a lot of AP to your party with shield spec as it's direct heals now so maybe that has some value.

[Aluviya]

We’ve conducted extensive testing over the past few days, and I want to reiterate that adjusting healing scaling towards Healpower seems like a very questionable direction. Naturally tanky classes such as WP/DoK can afford to invest heavily in Healpower, leading to extreme numbers. This also raises an important question—why play lower-armored healers when you can have a higher armor tier and gain access to a new AoE detaunt for both WP/DoK?

With the new abilities and passives, we’re already seeing cases like 3.8k healing on a 0.5-second cast or 3.1k group healing on a DoK. While some DPS abilities may also scale well, DPS classes still have to contend with resistances and armor, ensuring that at least some portion of their damage is mitigated. Generally spoken the scaling of Healpower seems to negative impact most healers healing reaching exreme numbers beyond 4k+ healing that could only be achieved previously with AM/Shaman 40% more healing tactic when a target dropped below 25% HP.

In contrast, healers scaling even higher through Healpower lacks a meaningful counterbalance, aside from healdebuffs, which feels inherently unbalanced to me in the long term. And I already fear that any potential DPS balance patch will be just increasing numbers even more to counter position that.

[georgehabadasher]

We’ve conducted extensive testing over the past few days, and I want to reiterate that adjusting healing scaling towards Healpower seems like a very questionable direction. Naturally tanky classes such as WP/DoK can afford to invest heavily in Healpower, leading to extreme numbers. This also raises an important question—why play lower-armored healers when you can have a higher armor tier and gain access to a new AoE detaunt for both WP/DoK?

With the new abilities and passives, we’re already seeing cases like 3.8k healing on a 0.5-second cast or 3.1k group healing on a DoK. While some DPS abilities may also scale well, DPS classes still have to contend with resistances and armor, ensuring that at least some portion of their damage is mitigated. Generally spoken the scaling of Healpower seems to negative impact most healers healing reaching exreme numbers beyond 4k+ healing that could only be achieved previously with AM/Shaman 40% more healing tactic when a target dropped below 25% HP.

In contrast, healers scaling even higher through Healpower lacks a meaningful counterbalance, aside from healdebuffs, which feels inherently unbalanced to me in the long term. And I already fear that any potential DPS balance patch will be just increasing numbers even more to counter position that.

Great post.

Completely reworking the healer archetype was a fool's errand to begin with. That's the archetype that RoR has improved the most compared to live. All six healers bring unique and valuable features to groups.

This complete overhaul is virtually guaranteed to bring some extreme imbalances that are unlikely to be addressed in a reasonable amount of time. People who play whatever healing classes end up being the losers of this rework--currently looking like Zealot and Rune Priest--will have to accept being a burden on their groups (if they can get one), reroll or quit.

[Velze]

The nerf to rp/zeal is very harsh. 50ft range is too low, almost every buff that wp/am gives is 100ft and its on the caster! 50ft on a static ritual is not much you can only affect some meles with it. Dont to mention the heavy nerf on healing every 5 sec is too low. This new ritual system is just like the old chosen where you had to rotate youre buffs just to keep tham up. It is 100% the same wich is quite a move in the wrong direction. Rp/zeal had already the lowest raw heal (no oop aoe heal) to begin with, the point was the +25%heal and the +Absorbs. Now with both are nerfed it looks quite grim for rp/zeal.

My suggestion for new rituals: -Make tham affect in 100ft range.
-Make tham 15sec to get some overlap for the rotation. (It will be used this way im quite certain)
-Make the healing 3sec instead of 5sec.

Also the other thing its bad to have 2 rp/zeal in a party because of the rituals not stacking. Its allways a hustle to respec and talk out who will use what ritual. Just make tham not cancel each other out, would be a huge QoL change. And with this new ritual system it will be even worse! You cant have 2 rp/zeal in the same grp now with the rotateing rituals.

About dps: Honestly the all dmg should be doubled in not even exaggerating. Divine Fury should give +50% dmg instead of +25%. AM/Shamy can do serious dmg and they even get a dmg buff. RP/zeal dps were NEVER even remotly good in the other hand. It would be fair to rp/zeal to have the same dps as tham but its not even close.