Continuing on from the last post, let's say that this whole shield mastery just didn't work out. What would be an interesting ability to replace it?
So far, Masteries should not apply all the time, and they should be somewhat unique. So what's interesting about holy paladins? In the past we've been known for our single-target healing, but directly increasing those is pretty boring. We have Hand spells, but they're used too infrequently to really be a useful mastery.
Beacon of Light is another iconic spell. But the last time Beacon got too strong, it got overpowered, and ended up pigeon-holing us. As well, it's actually possible that a Holy paladin might not have Beacon in her spec. It's unlikely, but possible. Having a mastery tie into a technically optional ability is probably not the best of ideas.
My thought is that there are four possibilities.
1. Judgement
Judgement is a signature paladin spell. It's also something that we cast a lot. (You should be Judging on cooldown for the mana return.) So maybe something that triggers off Judgment would be interesting. Some ideas:
"After casting Judgement, the effectiveness of your next 3 healing spells is increased by X%."
"Casting Judgement causes 5 players with 5 yards of the target to be healed for X% of the damage done."
"Casting Judgement places a debuff on the target that lasts for 15 seconds. The effectiveness of your heals on the target of the debuffed target is increased by X%."
(The third is a bit awkward, and possibly overpowered, but it's a nod to our tank healing days.)
2. The Holy Power system
The Holy Power system is fairly unique among healers. Playing off this might be interesting:
"Increases the effectiveness of Word of Glory and Light of Dawn by X%."
"Your direct heals have a X% chance to generate a point of Holy Power."
The problem with the Holy Power system is that too much HP generation causes us to have excess mana, and that always leads to trouble.
3. Criticals
In the past, paladins have always cared about critical heals, mostly because of Illumination. Tying crits to mana is a bad idea, but there are other options:
"Increases the bonus healing done by critical heals by X%."
"Your critical heals heal the target for an additional X% over 6 seconds."
This might even make critical strike rating a more attractive stat.
4. Instant spells
This is new to Cataclysm, but we actually have a significant chunk of instant spells: Holy Shock, Holy Radiance, Word of Glory, and Light of Dawn. Maybe:
"Increases the effectiveness of your instant cast healing and damage spells by X%."
(Damage spells just for fun and flavor.)
The problem with this would be PvP as instants are very powerful there.
Conclusion
That's just some brainstorming over possible replacement Masteries for Holy Paladins. Any other ideas?
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ReplyDelete"Casting Judgement causes 5 players with 5 yards of the target to be healed for X% of the damage done."
ReplyDeleteI actually think this idea is extremely attractive as a mastery. Although I no longer play my Holy Paladin as a main (in favor of a Resto Shaman), I occasionally hop back on to find that I quite miss the old Glyph of Holy Light functionality. It felt nice to have a reasonably passive means by which I could top players off. The only concern I have about tying it to players around the target of judgement is how it'd establish Holy Paladins as largely a melee healer.
Would it be overpowered to have mastery increase the percentage healing passed through Beacon of Light since Beacon currently only heals for %50 of healing done?
ReplyDeleteMy suggestion would be to bring back the old Holy Light glyph as our mastery:
ReplyDelete"Casting a direct heal causes X% of the heal to 'splash' to the 5 closest targets."
Or, make it a smart heal and limit the number of targets to 2 or 3.
@Anon, Beacon is very close to overpowered when the percentage transferred gets high. It's like healing two people for full at once. So there's a worry there.
ReplyDeleteThe other issues is that technically, you can make a Holy spec without Beacon. Beacon of Light would have to become non-optional (maybe you get both Beacon and Holy Shock at level 10) and a new talent created in its place.
Increased critical healing was the holy pally mastery originally. The community decried it as boring so it was changed. Though, now that people have more experience with the healing system, perhaps people would be more receptive.
ReplyDeletevery intresting about Blessing of Kings, here is a simler poast about holy paladin cataclysm that you might also find intresting about holy paladin healing guide useful.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with making beacon a mastery is that it is also a talent so it's impossible unless they give beacon automatically to holy paladins which... they shouldn't. The mastery for holy paladins is not great, but you don't need it. Just heal your party/raid. It's easy as hell. I found Pally healing so much easier than healing wit my shaman. The only mastery I could think of maybe would be to just throw on a hot to the healer when you crit or something along those lines.
ReplyDelete