AoE healFollow

Threat issues of damage + healing, issues for a healer, bonus for a tank I suppose. Possibly if specced into it for Wotlk and certain things were changed by speccing then maybe.

While it might be nice, they would need to remove something else to keep it balanced. Right now our biggest "flaw" is our lack of an AoE heal, we are one of if not the best single target healer, if they gave us AoE healing as well they would need to cut something out.

You're got 20% crit chance, you hit 5 people with this AoE heal, and odds are, one Crit's... every... single... time... Suddenly, Illumination needs to get nerfed again and our single target healing/mana efficency gets shot in the foot.

No thank, I'll keep what I have and let the other healers spam out the AoE healing while I keep the tank up.

As a healer, you are generally far away from the tank. Having Consecrate heal is not going to be very effective - in most situations.

If we do get a new skill, I hope it's something that will make us even better single target healers. Some talent that allows our next Holy Light to be instant (with a 15 sec cooldown, or something like that) would be cool. Then, you could have an instant & crit Holy Light.

Or, some kind of stacking Holy effect that improves spell crit chance.

Giving Paladins AoE heals and HoTs are just going to turn us into priests. That will defeat the purpopse of having separate classes.

Paladins are the best single target healers in the game. Why not make them even better single target healers?

Edited, Jun 23rd 2008 10:25am by YJMark

I would think the paladin could use some talent (2-5 minute CD) that allows us to instant cast FoL/HL for some duration of time (or once with a smaller CD). ***** the AoE thingy! The closest thing we have to a HoT is JoL, but I have yet to come across a time when I've needed it in T4/T5 content, so it's useless.

I agree. Would an AOE help Paladins? Yes. Do we need it? No.

Personally it makes me mad every time a class gets something new that is already a "staple" so to speak of some other class: like when Hunters got their MS and Purge effects. If they keep doing that, what will be the point of different classes? Every class that has a similar role will be the same ...

Endless debate about class design!

The point is that Blizzard has to keep each character archetype unique, with an original gameplay, or else we would not enjoy playing wow.
The second issue is that each archetype must be able to access successfully the biggest part of the game possible, or else we would not enjoy playing wow.
This is complexe.

It is always dependant on environment.
You could have for example some terrible character, really weak, but if it is the only one able to use an ability that is completly necessary in 99% of the game content, then it becomes a key member in groups.

If all raid bosses were dual wield demons or undead with many adds, warrior tanks would be useless...
If all raid bosses had silence and mana burn capacities, tankadins wouldn't be playable...

It works the same way for the four healer archetypes.
If every fight in the game was based on heavy bosses aoe and weak strikes on the tank, you could delete your healadin.

In my opinion one thing that is a frustration for many new players discovering the game with a healadin toon, is that Blizzard made them think they were a melee support class, and after leveling find that it is not true.
What could be unique and never done with healing classes would be to bring back healadin in melee range, with some unique healing gameplay based on melee capacities.
Not melee dps, but over powered melee heal abilities and survavibilitie, may be based on the existing seal / judgement system, with very weak ranged heals for example.

Just an idea, may be stupid, but to say that what make us love the game is that our characters are so differents, and could be even more unique in term of game play.
This is also what make us love rerolls and stay in this game endlessly ;p

Edited, Jul 2nd 2008 4:41am by egraynn

Edited, Jul 2nd 2008 8:03am by egraynn

Some good points, Maulgak, but did Blizzard 'turn away from that' because 'noboby was letting Paladins do that' or because healing in melee range ultimately isn't practical?

It still seems as if Blizzard thinks they want us to do that. I recently picked up the T4 healing gloves and noticed that the set bonus for 2 pieces is an improved heal effect from Judgement of Light. This is great if I'm soloing or in a small group situation; in raids I'm a little leery of jumping up to drop the Judgement to begin with, and even more leery of standing in there swinging the mace to keep the judgement refreshed. I would love to do it, though.

The fact that we can wear plate and our low healing threat definitely lends itself to melee healing. However, that only seems to work while leveling (I usually hung out in melee range until I hit the lvl 70 instances.....namely SLab - that one made me really want to sit far away from the action). Once you hit lvl 70, plate doesn't save you. Without def, avoidance, and stamina, you are almost as squishy as a ..... squishy.

Plus, Paladin healing is constant casting. I don't know if I'd ever have time to cast a judgement, much less hit the mob to keep it up. Unless we could somehow attack "while" healing (i.e. Seals and Judgements not affecting the GCD), then I could see some potential. hmmmm......

It wasn't about healing tanks and melee DPS. We spoke about being a healer that must be played in melee.

In my opinion (I played a holy priest as my main until recently), healers have been far more standardized in PVE than tanks.
One is better than another in some situation, but they all play with spammed spells from max range, the difference being only what spell is available for that class.
Some have limited CC to do, but no pets, no range or melee condition, all mana dependant, no original utility like shadow priest's mana regen. And people believe that a healer is a healer, unable to do anything else outside of a group. This is something that I don't like in the game (and that is a little wrong if you work a little on it with your healing character (holy priest farming capacities are awesome!)).

PS: heroism is a exception to what I wrote above.

Edited, Jul 2nd 2008 11:22am by egraynn

my point is relative to the other classes. as the other classes got more focused, their gameplay got more dynamic respectively. pallies remain a bot as they always have been, they have just been buffed up. this is easily illustrated in the playstyle of pallies from pve to pvp...you basically mash the same 3 buttons.

all of my other secondary toons have a much different playstyle in pve than pvp. much of this came from the class buffs after tBC rolled out.

Buff Seal of Light. Make it a chance-on-hit AoE heal, or make the judgment stackable. Then we have a reason to get holy paladins in melee.

Look at DnD 4e. They figured out a way to make paladins healers and tanks - now you can heal your allies by hitting people with your sword! The mechanics already existed, they just need to be buffed to the point where they're viable. Then we can have proper combat healers.

i think blizzard wants pallys to be like this...and for some reason i REALLY enjoy my pally...

step 1: Bind FoL to one have of the keyboard
step 2: Bind Cleanse to the other half
step 3: Join raid
step 4: Roll head on the keyboard randomly
step 5: Profit

On the serious side, if you think about it, pallys have REALLY mana efficient, and decently sized heals. thats thier biggest strength, and i think that if blizzard added a good HoT for pallys, they would way OP and everyone would QQ...and guess what! i am SICK of QQ. Throw in great gear itemization and you have an excellent class that i like playing.

Except as it is Prot pallies are not having threat issues and overheals generate no threat so at best its affect on melee would be hit or miss and only generate minor threat in a sporadic manner. Also situations where you don't want to gather threat on all mobs. Mage tank/Rogue tank on Illidari Council as an example. That and the fact that the Prot tree is already talent point heavy.