[Archmage] Finding a niche w/ new changes?

[Illiyara]

At first glance it looks like it's gonna hurt pretty bad, but we will have to see. Healing is still better than it ever was on live... just kinda weird that lifetap might move to the realm of pure healer specs.

That is strange indeed, especially if EoV is unchanged. Can you link the thread it's from? I'm not clear what the design goals are. Is the intent to make a dps lifetap healing spec viable or not?

Actually it makes even less sense than I thought on a first read. If I understand correctly, BE will basically be a regular heal that requires los on your offensive target instead. Hardly even a lifetap then, simply another way to heal while moving or building mechanic points for Isha AMs.

[Nekkma]

The changes to lifetaps is, as I understad it, meant to buff "pure healers" just as you write in your second paragraph. That is way the damage on lifetaps is scaled back.

The chances of a "lifetap" specc seems to have vanished with these changes. Instead we have healing (traditional healing + empowered "lifetaps") and dps/hybrid (traditional dps + empowered healing).

Edit: Added the requested link: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=17532&start=100#p194056

[Jaycub]

Nekkma nailed it, in terms of what I think is going to happen.

I don't mind losing lifetap viability in DPS spec, but man the DPS trees for AM and Shaman are pretty bad or at least not good enough to carry it as a reliable damage dealer.

BE w/ 1.5 cast tactic was probably our best spam ability? Now that's out the window and you are using searing touch, 1 sec cast, and lances possibly? DoT's are great, but double dok meta, khaine withdrawal, everyone running cleansing winds hurts pretty bad.

I made a proposal to buff the dispell tactic, doing so would be a nice change for DPS AM and Shaman. It would allow them to bring some decent utility. Damage wise, it's hard to balance I think. Empowered healing is well... pretty powerful when used right and now it's more reliable. It does more than enough comparatively to pre buff AM to make up for us having lifetaps gutted.

personally I'd like to see the 1 sec cast dmg abilities on both AM and shaman either change d to insta cast, or usable on the move. And a base damage increase on lance/brain bursta to make up for life taps not really being a viable source of damage like they were before. Possibly even a unqiue version of divine fury to just end this nonesense so they can be viable DPS but have virtually no or very little healing capabilities. Something like "your heals have no effect on yourself, all outgoing healing is cut by 50%, damage increased by 50%".

[Jaycub]

Build wise, unfortunately I think you need to be RR50 with full merc to pull off some of the better builds

This one is hands down the best imo, but it's also getting nerfed next patch so we will see...
http://waronlinebuilder.org/#career=am; ... 8:;0:0:0:0:

Heres a blessing strip build, it's alright but that tactic just needs a bit of help
http://waronlinebuilder.org/#career=am; ... 3:;0:0:0:0:

A morale battery build, extremely good as you are not having to focus on healing, allowing you to build morale on key targets like a sw. Lets you give your tanks M1 instantly, etc...
http://waronlinebuilder.org/#career=am; ... 4:;0:0:0:0:


Hybrid im not too sure probably something like (taking into account the new type set of lifetaps)
http://waronlinebuilder.org/#career=am; ... 4:;0:0:0:0:

Keep morale pump in there and swap it out for WP if you are in a group that will benefit from it or if you are playing as a 3rd healer. It's not really hybrid tho, I imagine the damage would basically be nonexistant, would be more of a lifetap based healer which is still imo a total gamble on the terrain, where you are fighting, and how well the other team controls you since you have to be closer to front lines to actually heal w/ taps.

[Azarael]

Due to the sentiment displayed in this thread, BE and I'TT will remain as they are when casted without mechanic points in the next patch.

[Jaycub]

Due to the sentiment displayed in this thread, BE and I'TT will remain as they are when casted without mechanic points in the next patch.

Thank you, as a healer you are only using them with mechanic points anyways, so this is a good change.

I got full anni recently so I'll try out the heal/lifetap stuff, but i find it hard to wrap my head around how the healing output could possibly be similar to what it was before when it ignored heal debuffs without it being overbuffed... in the sense that in PUG type environments (i know pug argument :^)) when targets aren't getting healdebuffed the life tap heals might just be insanely OP.

About AP, maybe taking a look into the AP drains and how they function might be a better alternative as someone else suggested. And even so with the new mechanic you are getting 40% reduced AP on casts so it's already better than it was before.

[Sigimund]

Due to the sentiment displayed in this thread, BE and I'TT will remain as they are when casted without mechanic points in the next patch.

Out of interest, what was the motivation for the now cancelled set of changes? Was it mostly to get more from AP management tactics?

Edit: And does this mean that the AOE lifetaps are still switching to normal heal type?

[Azarael]

@Jaycub: The AP drains were stealth changed, the change should have been for the next patch but the server was restarted. They tick every second instead of every 3 seconds, meaning that if someone blows all their AP, as people are wont to do, the AP drain will instead lock them down by striking during their regen interval rather than pulling a pitiful amount of AP and doing nothing for 3 seconds.

@Sigimund: The idea was to allow heal AM/Shaman to build DPS stacks while still healing, if given the opportunity to free cast the 2s lifetap. It would also have removed the inconsistency in how the skill handles on different sides.

The AoE lifetaps will always heal the group (even without .ab ex on) in the next patch. No other changes.

[Sigimund]

That is great news about the drains and explains some of my recent experiences that seemed to defy mathematics.

I think I'm going to come back to the lifetap changes once I've had some sleep. Loving playing with them but my theorycrafting can't keep up.

[Illiyara]

Glad to hear the lifetaps will stay "pure heals".
Strangely, Arcing Power, which used to be mandatory for lifetap builds, feels pretty useless now because empowered BE and EoV do much less damage than they did before, so the additional healing contribution from it is hardly worth it. I was never a huge fan of Expanded Control, as spamming BE always lead to ap issues, but now I have room to take Transfer Magic....and it's amazing.

I've been running this build now; it might be my favorite. As long as my drains don't fail, the aoe heal from expanded control does a great job at keeping the melee train alive, whether they're in my group or not. Alternating lifetap and group heals is really strong. I miss my healdebuff, but at least I have silence.


Lifetap heal and Isha healing play somewhat like mirrors. If you built willpower, you can enjoy frequent empowered balance essences, but will pretty much never stack Force, sitting on 5 Tranquility most of the time.
Lifetap healing with int will also tend to see you sit on 5 Force, but has a wider variety of spells to burn it on, and can also stack some tranquility with dispel, res, shield.

In terms of fun, all I could ask for is a mechanic swap ability, but think it might actually be op.