Monday, June 07, 2010

Ask Coriel: A Holy Paladin AoE Heal Idea?

HolyPally - Barth writes in:
Basically it is obvious that the paladin needs some sort of AoE heal but nothing amazing because you don't want every class to be able to do the same things. You dont want a pally looking exactly like a priest and so on.

So my idea consists of giving paladins a talent in the holy tree which gives them a spell that is activated after receiving holy power from casting healing spells. Once a certain level of holy power is accumulated, then a single AoE spell may be cast.
E.g. Holy Light is cast 3 times then the ability is activated and ready to be cast. Or Flash of Light is cast 5/6 times then the same spell is available for use. By giving pallys the ability to only stack either the FoL buff or the Holy Light buff at one time, limits the spell so that it isn't overpowered. Also considering adding flexibility to the spell and making the FoL use of the spell different from the Holy Light use.

Also in regards to mana consumption you could put an increased mana cost on the spell when it is used with the FoL stacking so that you cant just spam FoL and get a powerful AoE heal equal to the heal gained from using Holy Light at an increased mana cost. Just a quick idea I came up with while I was reading your blog.

It's an interesting idea. However, it might not be "different enough" from Circle of Healing or Wild Growth. Both of those spells have a 6 second cooldown. It would take about 6s to cast 3 Holy Lights or 4-5 Flash of Lights. So in actual game play, it might end up playing just like CoH or WG does now. I'm not sure Blizzard wants to give us something equivalent to CoH.

It's not exactly the same, I know. For one thing, you can't cast the AoE spell at the start of the fight, you have to charge it up. However, I think it would end up being too close to CoH/WG for Blizzard to be comfortable giving something like it to paladins.

Like, if you look at the new AoE spells coming in Cataclysm, the shaman's Healing Rain and the paladin's Healing Hands, both those spells are continuous area-of-effect spells. Thus they will have very different gameplay than CoH/WG, and I think that is what Blizzard is aiming for.

5 comments:

  1. I actually like the idea, and I think it would work very differently from WG or CoH, if only because you actually have to "charge" it. You could also opt to "release" the Holy Power early and get a weaker AoE heal. A smart splash heal originating from yourself would be cool. Just a thought.

    One thing puzzles me, how is "continuous" different from a HoT like WG or CoH? If by continuous you mean something like Consecration, that's actually just an AoE DoT. Exactly the same as a HoT (like WG) if it were implemented this way.

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  2. I do agree that it can't be too clos to WG or COH. I do feel though that the new Healing Hands, basically a human healing totem could be "enhanced" some. Now, I realize that we have no idea as to what the current range will be for the new spell, but if it is a smaller range, we could use the "charging" mechanic of multiple holy lights/flash of lights to expand that range, or possibly strengthen the healing power. An interesting idea though.

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  3. Kaboomski, it's different because the area is fixed. You can run into the area after it is cast and still get some healing. Or you can run out of the area and lose some healing.

    WG/CoH are fire and forget, you either heal the people or you don't.

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  4. I've always liked the idea of using Consecrate as a damage enemies/heal friendlies spell. Healing hands sounds similar to it.

    I do like the sound of the "charging" up and then releasing the holy power, but it just seems like such a huge change that the other healers would be jealous.

    I don't know about you folks, but I really don't have any issues Raid healing. Sure someone can do it better that we can, but that's how it should be. Equalizing healers makes healing even more dull because it wont really matter what healer(s) you bring.

    Another thing that I wish we might be getting instead of whats been said here is just a healing aura. Always active, and you can boost it with Aura Mastery.

    Much like GigaWatts said.. a human, walking healing stream totem. Always ticking away, and when things get hairy you pop AM and get a boost to it so it functions as a "pulsing" heal rather than a HoT (same thing right? lol) during that time AM is up.

    Hmm.. just real quick..

    Talent: Aura of Light - while active every 10 seconds it pulses a mid-ranged heal. Say.. have of what an FoL would do. Then when you activate AM, have it either increase the amount of healing up to basically an AE FoL, or keep the healing amount the same but drop it from 10 second pulses to 3 second pulses while AM is up. Also, could be the only Aura that costs mana while it's active.

    Just a thought.

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  5. Have you noticed how everything in this game has turned into "make it like this so you can't do that"? Everything revolves around closing loopholes so that people don't "exploit" spells and abilities. I know...you need some of that. It's just an observation of mine that I've noticed over the past 4 years of playing this game.

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