Post#257 » Fri Mar 14, 2025 7:03 pm
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.
Skargraive the Chosen - [Unreal]
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