Quote:
Because Healing Touch has such a long casting time, it's +spell healing coefficient is really quite good - and so makes for very big heals.
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HoTs are great in some cases, but burst healing is much nicer for those "oh crap!" moments where you need a fast recovery. Some of the 25 man and ZA fights have wicked AoE damage and/or random targeting, and that's where Healing Touch really shines.
I can only disagree with that part. I bolded the stuff that really bothers me.
Yes, long cast time will indeed make the spell benefit more from +Heal. However, that does not mean that a spell is always better to use because it benefits more from +Heal. For example, my Pally's Flash of Light takes 42.86% of my +Heal while Holy Light takes 71.43%. Yet, usage of HL is reserved for emergencies and FoL remains the spell of choice to spam because of its great heal/mana ratio. But I digress.
The part I disagree the most with is when you say burst healing is the best to deal with "Oh shi-!" moments. While it is true that on-demand burst is great, like a Nature's Swiftness + max rank HT, casting a 3-second heal is not exactly what I would call the best recovery time.
The point is good, but the context is wrong. If you were spamming your HoT's when the tank gets chain-crushed or something, you could then shift out of ToL and start casting HT while your HoTs, as well as the other healers, would maintain the tank alive. Otherwise you're stuck spamming a high-rank HT constantly just "in case" something happens. And even then, you do not know when the tank is gonna receive that burst of damage. Maybe it'll be just 0.5 seconds before your current heal finish casting, or maybe your heal will have landed *just* before the burst damage and then you will have to deal with the 3-second cast.
Well, that's my take on it, at least.
And finally, AoE damage is *definitely not* when HT shines. It's where HoT's do. Your party will be dead thrice by the time your first HT goes off. On the other hand, you can slap a few HoT's on everyone while another healer uses instant heals to make sure they don't die before the HoT's work their magic.
Edited, Nov 28th 2007 2:12pm by Selverein