[PTS] Patch Notes 28/02/2025

[ceeo]

I, on the other hand, welcome the PTS changes! Changing up the playstyles of one the "Trinity" that WAR needs the most, makes the game much, more interesting, keeps the content and gameplay from being stale, forces the players to adapt to a new control scheme/rotation, and ultimately gets more people to play a healer class!

As I've read through all the PTS changes (upset that I did NOT get a chance to play around with them), I find nothing either game breaking or too overpowered. For those upset about RP/Zealot (My RP is only rr 57), it seems that the Runie gets even MORE tools, but a slight nerf to healing because of such tools, I say "good tradeoff!". Both seem to get a boost to damage AND utility with a slight nerf to healing, I don't get the complaints here. And I regularly see RP's top heals in SC's. RP dps? They really don't exist, only because the players rarely get the dps sets for them, NOT because they can't dps. If you're a runie upset that healing WP now gets a "Blessing of Grugni" of their own, don't be, 1) RP's a so rare, devs thought there should be another way to get this buff and 2) YOU (and Zealots) HAVE SELF-RES! When I say I don't see this buff up enough on RPs, it makes me sad. Now when they give THAT OP skill to another class, I'll be there to riot with you (I'll bring s'mores!)

I main a Wrath Priest (RR83), and all of this seems both overwhelming AND appreciated! I also play a dps AM (RR 74) and I have *always* weaved, thinking that I was both "cool" and "true" to the class's mechanics. I also thought there was some (small) benefit, but NOW there will actually be serious benefits to KNOWING your skills! The two reasons I dps mainly on them both is because 1) ITS FUN! And I'm guaranteed my contrib for the zone, et al. and 2) I can swap sets, and run any dungeon healing better then most. Or heal for SC if I'm the only healer in it. But healing in itself, IN RVR? Is NOT fun for me. Especially when I see DPS HITTING TANKS. I'll leave a WB and Out of Party Heal first, before I heal that "stupidity". I have also personally hit a 4k crit heal with a AM (RR65 at the time) with 950 WP. Healing, in general, DOES need a little nerf across the board. Around 5%. Which seems to be what this patch was aiming for.

I also play a SM (RR82). I would like to wholeheartedly thank the Dev Team for the changes made to Tanks earlier last year. My only issue with the SM now is the 5s CD on WODS. But since modifying my build and playstyle after patch, I find the SM a much more capable tank then even in live. After these changes, I trust the the Dev team at this point, they seem to know what they're doing when patching the game I play too damn much.

For those who say "but I die in like 3 seconds in RVR?!?!", THIS IS WAR. Ever see "Saving Private Ryan"? THEY DIED IN 3 SECONDS. BUT WE, as sweaty or casuals, playing a GAME, get to spawn back up and turn the tide back. A damn good 2-2-2 can get focused down One by One, but if they can RES one another, they can turn BACK the tide.

[Neznan]

If Developers will put LOST VALE on test server on march - does it means that before to do so, they will release Healers Update on Live?
So should we expect Heal Update during March ? Right?

[Ruin]

have a question, will 2 Master Runes/Rituals, will be able to heal at the same time? so double RP or Zeal will be viable?

[Nelly74]

Nice you destroyed Zealot Dps for good now you gonna suffer with playerbase lost. all healers are more weak with this patch ... only faction not suffering that much is order. their runepriest dps is gonna be stronger then ever.

gj for sucking out the fun from the game.

If any player loss it will certainly be people playing Healer RP/Zeal since they loss tactic procs with these changes wich is a big hit on their sustained protection and healing capacities.

On the other hand, as many people mentioned and analyzed, it's still hard to understand why already strong DPS healers got buffed (sham/AM especially) since they already a roaming plague by their current form.

I still fail to understand why making solo roaming DPS healers abominations will be good for the balance of the game, or even for group synergies ; every patch we are reminded that game is not balanced around solo play, but in this one looks like the exact opposite for strange reasons...

When I see posts saying you can get hits for 3k and more for group heal, and even more on ONE damaging skill from DPS healer, I'm VERY, very concerned about what other severe imbalances they are creating right now.

Hope these kinnd of numbers wont become a reality and everyone came back to their right mind before that.

Thanks!!! I was starting to think I was the only one seeing the absurdity of DPS Shamans and DPS Archmages. If the game is balanced around group meta and not solo play, then why are there classes that perform so well in solo? Can someone explain that to me?

I was hoping my Shaman would be toned down a bit to make it interesting again, but now it's even stronger than before... I just don’t get it. I don’t play much solo, but using ridiculously overpowered classes for it? I really don’t see the point (unless it’s just to boost your ego and think you're good, maybe?).

[Farrul]

Thanks!!! I was starting to think I was the only one seeing the absurdity of DPS Shamans and DPS Archmages. If the game is balanced around group meta and not solo play, then why are there classes that perform so well in solo? Can someone explain that to me?

I was hoping my Shaman would be toned down a bit to make it interesting again, but now it's even stronger than before... I just don’t get it. I don’t play much solo, but using ridiculously overpowered classes for it? I really don’t see the point (unless it’s just to boost your ego and think you're good, maybe?).

About buffing these classes that were already overperforming in terms of roaming tells me the devs were only concernced with overhauling the mechanic, not considering how OP it is in different contexts at all( this is what i want to believe and tell myself, to keep my sanity ).

Now that the mechanic has been overhauled it would be a reasonable thing to nerf the base damage of these dots by a fair amount, anything less tells me roaming balance in this game is completely neglected, unfortunately.

P.S. I think it is funny players claim shaman is popular for other reasons, the class has been overtuned for years hence the server is swarmed with dps dot shamans, AM also but the aesthetics of a robe will keep their numbers more in check.

[yoluigi]

Dang cant wait to release it soo we can test stuff for real in scenarios etc.

[Sinisterror]

Benediction giving 35% increased on next casted heal while having low dmg and useless heal while divine mend needs Tome to use now? So its literally useless for dps/shield WP Benediction new ability. Yes it can be powerful to buff someone else's direct heal by 35% but having 13pts skills that has no use for you at all is not good design imo. and now Sigmars radiance is Shield or Tome and youve created Sigmars Will a new version of Melee Grp Heal but its better, but costs RF and is shield only...

Shield has 2 grp melee heals now and still you are leaving dps wp/dok without one? Also buffing Shield Wp healing Divine assault healing over 3k might be a bit much when that tactic also gives 50% higher base heal on every melee heal + 30% lifetap Divine assault

[Illuminati]

I have an 80+ DoK and enjoy shield but fundamentally, its creation will always conflict with what is best for the DPS version of the class.

If they wanted to simplify the problem,

Heal Spec: Med Armor - low mobility - highest AOE heal potential, low ST heal potential
DPS Spec: Med Armor - med mobility - highest ST heal potential, low AOE heal potential
Shield Spec: Heavy Armor value - low mobility - medium AOE heal potential, medium ST heal potential

Could even make each more fun to play with a single tactic unique to each version: (quick examples)
Heal Spec Tactic: Auto detaunt.
DPS Spec Tactic: All your damage is Spirit.
Shield Spec: While guarded, you are immune to all crowd control.

Anyway, good luck with balancing the release. I am grateful that Willpower will have meaning, but lets face it, most healers will stay 'defensive' and just heal like crap, reducing the TTK even more.

[Parallels66]

So, from putting id say 7-10+ hours in PTR trying different combos and such for Heal shaman. I think the patch is an absolute downgrade in terms of quality and enjoyability from a healing shaman standpoint. i will elaborate points below:

Survivability/Healing : with the new changes to willpower scaling/base healing, the healing im doing on PTR compared to live is a MASSIVE downgrade, my "do somethin useful" is ticking for about 200-300 less per tick, gorkll fix it doing a lot less, whazt behind you being nerfed 5% which is a fine change overall imo, losing shrug it off on self, the tactic for increased healing and more healing when below 40% is a masssssive nerf to overall surviability currently to try and counter play the 75% heal debuffs, and with how good the 8 set sov ability is, or well its warband value as you dont need to run it in smaller groups etc, my healing bonus on live is 184.2, you need to hit 200 healing bonus on PTR to equal the same healing you're getting on live. so you are going to need to be dropping a massive amounts of wounds/armor next patch just to feel the same in terms of healing as currently live,so From a survivability, you're losing shrug it off+tactic on self,losing how good your heals are unless you drop massive amounts of armor/wounds so you're a lot squishier when WH can ignore armor or WL mega armor debuffing you or slayers heal debuffing you etc any dps is going to pressure you to the point you have to spam heal yourself and no one else. Shaman is going to feel absolutely paper with no compensation next patch, and before anyone comments about the new "big heal" it heals for 800 on a 10second cooldown, its absolutely useless, i genuinely do not see the reasoning to demolish heal shaman this hard when there is already a healer shortage overall. there is 0 benefit/positives for healer shaman with these currently PTR notes. Fury of the green is also doing about 60% less healing on PTR compared to live which is an absolute insane nerf, With the new lower base healing/willpower scaling, if these notes go live, i think you will genuinely see a MASSIVE amount of shamans running a hybrid mastery build to get fotg and do somethin useful in full dps gear to do big damage, big fotg healing and in terms of healing, the difference between hots of full dps shaman and full sov heal shaman isnt massive anymore due to new scaling etc.

I think to fix these issues you need to revert the base heal changes and willpower changes to live versions. i understand wanting to make willpower more valueable but with how damage heavy the currently meta is, you have to survive as a healer from all the massive amounts of high damage AoE in warband play if not you're going to instantly flop over and then not be able to heal anyone cos you're spamming to keep yourself alive. atm on live, wb vs wb, if you're are pressuring the backline, you can just wipe healers with decent ease. Healers are already rare in MMO and these changes are going to make it massively worse imo.

I also beleive you need to revert the changes to Shrug it off+tactic for it, Currently its such a good tool to try keep a single person alive if you have the tactic slotted, it also have value in counterplay and adds a skill element when you get hit by that huge 75% heal debuff from WH or getting massive damage from WL/pet if you have to use it selfishly over using it on a choppa/tank/mara etc

Mechanic: The AM/Shaman mechanic getting changed due to the live version being fire and forget is a fair enough reason, but as a healer shaman POV, the new mechanic has not changed in the slightest in terms of fight and forget, you're constantly swapping targets using gorkkll fix it, ey quit bleedin, do somethin useles, fotg, AoE heal etc, so ive found you just float in the 1-3 stack range and VERY VERY rarely hit 5 stacks. in genuine warband play i dont think you will ever hit 5 stacks if you are healing effeciently and effectively meaning the new mechanic doesn't change gameplay in the slightest for 99% of the time. For dps shaman though who is constantly multi dotting and occasionally doing a cast, its very easy to hit 5 stacks and pump and dump the new mechanic.

The only way i can see this being fixed for healer shaman is if you make gorkll fix it be a HoT mechanic stack instead but then youd be hitting 5 stacks nonstop or make the tactic for ey quit bleedin hitting multiple targets give multiple stacks of HoT mechanic stack so you can actively take a tactic to pump and dump the new mechanic if you wanted.

Overall i think the new mechanic from a heal shaman PoV isnt very well thoughtout for genuine gameplay, and little to no interaction in warband play.

my overall thoughts for the PTR patch so far from a healing shaman point of view is that they're straight up terrible. there is next to 0 positives i could list in regards to changes that i think "oh yeah thats interesting and could be good" its just all a massive MASSIVE net nerf with 0 compensation. Healers are already rare, this patch will make it excessively worse due to how good it is for dps shamans/AMs.

Thank you for reading.

[Keula]

Survivability/Healing : with the new changes to willpower scaling/base healing, the healing im doing on PTR compared to live is a MASSIVE downgrade, my "do somethin useful" is ticking for about 200-300 less per tick, gorkll fix it doing a lot less,

Where is these "massive downgrade?" It's minor scaling change, at 180 HB it's the same as it was before and it's not like if you only have 160HB it's that big of deal. Also idk how are you getting do somethin useful off tickng for 200-300 less as that is literally impossible just looking at the values provided, unless the ability is bugged and well, pts is currently down and i can't test it myself or any other shaman abilites, but all of the am/dok/wp changed values were correct when i did test them before at least. E: yea it seems to heal the correct amount on pts, so no idea why you'd say it heals 200-300 less.

my healing bonus on live is 184.2, you need to hit 200 healing bonus on PTR to equal the same healing you're getting on live. so you are going to need to be dropping a massive amounts of wounds/armor next patch just to feel the same in terms of healing as currently live,

What wonky math are you basing that 184HB old system you now need 200HB on the new system? The break even point is around 180HB.

and before anyone comments about the new "big heal" it heals for 800 on a 10second cooldown, its absolutely useless.

The new ability says 551+3.0*HB, so assuming you have more than 83HB it should heal for more than that, unless it's bugged. E: not bugged heals exactly what the the formula says.

Fury of the green is also doing about 60% less healing on PTR compared to live which is an absolute insane nerf,

It scales of dmg now due them trying to do a sort of lifetap hybrid a thing so it's less healing and dmg for sure with a healing build, but even still 60% less on pure heal build looking at the numbers doesn't seem right at all, I did test AM a little bit aand it didn't seem 60% less iirc.

Yea the magical infusion/shrug it off is kinda a nerf to pure st healing on 1 target, but even that is now off gcd on demand 15% inc heal to any1 so more freedom, except yourself, which doesn't seem bad and desperation/ain't done yet got buffed 25 or less hp threshold to 30% which while not anything earth shattering might randomly save some1.