I do think that regen healers (WHM and AST) are too meta defining, and while they already were in Endwalker, they feel even more oppressive right now than ever, AST in particular for all the reasons already mentioned in various threads.
The main problem is that a team having one will immediately get a big advantage over a team that doesn't. The weight those on demand heals bring to the table gives such a superior edge that it immediately sets up a hierarchy. While SE tried to reduce pvp overly relying on healing (and thus the healer) which was a huge issue with Feast and old pvp modes, and I do agree that the new direction by offering less heals available on demand is a way better and satisfying direction to alleviate that issue, I do believe that heals in their current state are too powerful and too meta defining for multiple reasons:
- They do allow to save burst targets and are very much often the difference between a dead target and a target that just lived because they were fully healed when under Guard.
- Even in teams that do not callout targets or just don't follow callouts well (essentially anything below Diamond, and even in Diam/Crystal, sometimes people don't care either), then it means that the team is relying on pressure damage alone to eventually make the other team yield. If the other team has a healer, it essentially negates most of that pressure or a big part of it, and makes all the difference as well.
- The heals they have also make them a lot harder to kill, especially AST that benefits not only from a huge amount of free instant cast heals, but also a free teleport, which sometimes can prevent your team from trying to focus the healer because of the imbalance it causes, and securing a kill on them gives you a big advantage and you can very much feel the load dropping significantly when they're not here anymore to free heal their team.
- Some people will compare those heals to PLD's Guardian cover ability, and I'd partially agree because that ability is very strong and will negate kills on targets that should have died. But I also disagree because it comes at a certain cost for the PLD, namely burning their own Guard not to melt and die, and standing still for 5s doing nothing while the covered target uses an elixir. For healers, the heals are essentially free, and there isn't much you can do about it.
What are the main culprits?
- Cure II: huge healing potency of 12k, but on a cast time, which tends to make it a lot more bearable than the other ones since it can be used less reactively, but it will definitely work on people under Guard and other targets if it doesn't have to be use within a second.
- Cure III: instant 16k healing on main target and 12k on everybody around. This is incredibly versatile on a 20s cooldown (!), which can heal teams fully from AoE LBs and negate them partially, or just be used instantly on a target about to die from a coordinated burst.
- Aspected Benefic: 6k that can go up to 9k if target's HP is low, with an added regen and 4k more shield if double casted. This has always been, and is more than ever, crazy good since it's instant cast, on a 12s recast (so 24s for full charges).
- Macrocosmos: Can negate crazy amounts of AoE damage.
- Lady: 25y range, will do an equivalent of a free aspected benefic on essentially everybody, instant cast as well.
None of those cost anything but a low recast time (essentially every time people get their burst tools back more or less, how convenient), except cure II that has a cast time.
I do believe that if we want to keep the game and the meta healthier, then those should come at a cost, namely MP cost. At what MP cost, I do not know, but they should drain the healer, period.
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The main problem is that a team having one will immediately get a big advantage over a team that doesn't. The weight those on demand heals bring to the table gives such a superior edge that it immediately sets up a hierarchy. While SE tried to reduce pvp overly relying on healing (and thus the healer) which was a huge issue with Feast and old pvp modes, and I do agree that the new direction by offering less heals available on demand is a way better and satisfying direction to alleviate that issue, I do believe that heals in their current state are too powerful and too meta defining for multiple reasons:
- They do allow to save burst targets and are very much often the difference between a dead target and a target that just lived because they were fully healed when under Guard.
- Even in teams that do not callout targets or just don't follow callouts well (essentially anything below Diamond, and even in Diam/Crystal, sometimes people don't care either), then it means that the team is relying on pressure damage alone to eventually make the other team yield. If the other team has a healer, it essentially negates most of that pressure or a big part of it, and makes all the difference as well.
- The heals they have also make them a lot harder to kill, especially AST that benefits not only from a huge amount of free instant cast heals, but also a free teleport, which sometimes can prevent your team from trying to focus the healer because of the imbalance it causes, and securing a kill on them gives you a big advantage and you can very much feel the load dropping significantly when they're not here anymore to free heal their team.
- Some people will compare those heals to PLD's Guardian cover ability, and I'd partially agree because that ability is very strong and will negate kills on targets that should have died. But I also disagree because it comes at a certain cost for the PLD, namely burning their own Guard not to melt and die, and standing still for 5s doing nothing while the covered target uses an elixir. For healers, the heals are essentially free, and there isn't much you can do about it.
What are the main culprits?
- Cure II: huge healing potency of 12k, but on a cast time, which tends to make it a lot more bearable than the other ones since it can be used less reactively, but it will definitely work on people under Guard and other targets if it doesn't have to be use within a second.
- Cure III: instant 16k healing on main target and 12k on everybody around. This is incredibly versatile on a 20s cooldown (!), which can heal teams fully from AoE LBs and negate them partially, or just be used instantly on a target about to die from a coordinated burst.
- Aspected Benefic: 6k that can go up to 9k if target's HP is low, with an added regen and 4k more shield if double casted. This has always been, and is more than ever, crazy good since it's instant cast, on a 12s recast (so 24s for full charges).
- Macrocosmos: Can negate crazy amounts of AoE damage.
- Lady: 25y range, will do an equivalent of a free aspected benefic on essentially everybody, instant cast as well.
None of those cost anything but a low recast time (essentially every time people get their burst tools back more or less, how convenient), except cure II that has a cast time.
I do believe that if we want to keep the game and the meta healthier, then those should come at a cost, namely MP cost. At what MP cost, I do not know, but they should drain the healer, period.
Continue reading...