Thursday, January 27, 2011

Healing Changes Part 1

Yesterday afternoon, Mythic posted part one of the changes they are considering for the 1.4.1 patch.  In this part, changes for the Shaman/Archmage  and Runepriest/Zealot are discussed.  Next week we should learn more about what they have planned for the Warrior Priest and the Disciple of Khaine.

You can read the full post here.  I just want to cover two of the most important changes.

Cleanse.  Also known as cure or purge, it removes debuffs and DoTs.  Mythic is proposing removing its cooldown (was 5 seconds) and adding a .5 second cast time (was instant).  The short cast time will require the caster to stop briefly.  This is certainly the most controversial change proposed.

Removing the cooldown will give healers more options.  If they want to concentrate on cleanse they can, but it will be at the expense of healing (usually).  With a spammable cleanse, a drawback was needed so they added a short cast time.

A number of players are upset with the cast time since it will lessen their mobility.  Casting cleanse on the run is something I do on my Rune Priest quite often, since it will remove some snares.  Some healing classes are excellent kiters (yea Shaman, looking at you) in part do their mobile cleanse plus HoT.  I don't want to think about what would happen if they had a no cooldown instant cleanse.

I wouldn't mind seeing this part of the changes dropped and cleanse staying the same. 

Big Heal.  The 3 second 'big' heal will be reduced to two seconds.  This is another move in the ongoing battle versus AoE healing.  I'm not sure any healer will complain about the time reduction.  I know it will help my RP get off more healing and live longer since I can move sooner.