Comments on: Beacon of Light and Emblem Changes in Patch 3.2

By: Pantherra

Pantherra — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 20:07:46 +0000

Question on Beacon of Light changes made in 3.2: Does Beacon of Light now work for spells such as Lay on Hands or the Dranei racial? I ask because the wording is now “ALL HEALS you cast on those targets…” any word on that?

By: Eldarill

Eldarill — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:48:23 +0000

That’s what I was afriad of, it always depends >.< Oh well, I guess I’m just going to have to try to see how this will effect everything… I kinda want to go onto the PTR and try out the changes that Blizz has for us. With some looking on the official Paladin forums on WoW, I am just 50/50 about it. I’ll have to try Holy Light spamming and see if that is still efficient but you’ll have to take it down a bit or if it is just flat out chaos and I would wana go prot right then and there.

By: admin

admin — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:35:26 +0000

I would probably use the instant FoL to get him out of the danger zone immediately and then quickly boot up a Holy Light if necessary. It really depends on how many healers are on the tank and how much damage he’s taking. If he’s really getting slammed and there’s not many heals on him you’ll probably need to spam Holy Lights on him and forget about FoL. Your main job is to keep him alive so do whatever you have to to do that. Ideally you’ll have so many HoTs and heals on him from various healers that he’ll only be at 40% for a split second and your FoL can help bring him above that 40% quickly and help the other healers bring him back up to full. Your Holy Light would be mostly overheals anyway if there’s that many heals on him. So, the answer is, it depends.

Also, I say “on the tank”, but you shouldn’t be directly healing the tank at all in 3.2 since he has Beacon on him.

By: Eldarill

Eldarill — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 04:53:02 +0000

Okay, with a bit of self-coaxing, I’ve finally convinced myself that 3.2 is going to be a good thing for Holy Paladins, due to the massive buff that is going to be for Beacon of Light. I overheal so much that I’m usually by far with ANYONE even other holy pallies the person with the most overheals, and so that makes me feel better, and even with our mana regen nerf, we will still find a way to manage, its all about being resilient, right? And I agree with Xidius, this is an amazing blog. I saw the true philosophy of going against Holy Light spamming when I went here, I was learning toward it, but you really gave me a great shape on how it would be. So thank you, keep it up, I would love to see more strategies too, and thank you for answering my questions when I ask them, it seems that whenever I ask my guild, nobody knows (no surprises, I’m in an RP guild >.<). Anyway, I actually have yet another question, if you are willing to answer it. In 3.2, would it be more benificial to use the Holy Light crit buff or the instant Flash of Light with Infusion of Light, when the tank is at, let’s say…. 40% health? You have Beacon, SS, the works on it, and the Flash of Light HoT is going on anyway, so you don’t have to bother about that. I think I’m trying to say: Will using Holy Light be more beneficial than using Flash of Light with Infusion of Light due to the Illumination nerf when the Tank is less than half when you use your Holy Shock crit on him?

By: Xidius

Xidius — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:34:22 +0000

Hey admin, I’ve been following your site for a while now via my blackberry. I frequently check your site just to see if there’s an update. Just want to let you know, great blog, I let my wow buddies in on your info alot, and refer my newbie holy pally buddies to your site for basic game mechanics. I, also, try to break the popular paradigm that paladins are only HL spammers and am excited too about the upcoming changes. I agree, there will be a lot more skill involved in Paladin healing in 3.2. If you have the time, or are looking for viewer/guest written articles, I’d love to see more PALADIN HEALING SPECIFIC boss strategies in 25 ulduar. Keep up the great work!

By: khassad

khassad — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 08:57:33 +0000

The strange thing about these changes is that half of the paladin community thinks paladin will be overpowered, the other half thinks we will lose our raid spot (MT healer) especially in Ulduar.

By: admin

admin — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 06:57:32 +0000

You could be right, Erik. I am worried that they nerfed our mana regen too much. In answer to both comments, I’ve done other Patch 3.2 posts where I mention the other abilities. The identity issue is something to think about, but it happens and has happened with many class in an evolving MMO. Sometimes you have to re-learn your identity. Sometimes you have to re-learn how to play your class. Sometimes it ends up requiring a lot more skill and thought to play, but also becomes a lot more fun.

The HoT really only takes one GCD to apply since you should be applying SS already anyway. Its also not just a HoT, its a doubled FoL heal for very little mana. In combination with your Beacon heals and other healers, it can help keep up the tank. I’m not going to claim its awesome, but it is a small buff and a new mechanic.

I disagree with the last point. Flooring the pedal and raining HLs on the tanks is even easier in 3.2 than in 3.1 and topping the healing meters is also easier. You won’t be able to do it for 3 minutes straight, but we will still be able to use Holy Light when we need to, they’re not removing it from the cast bar.

I kind of agree with Malkris. I can see these changes actually making paladins overpowered.

By: Malkris

Malkris — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 05:25:11 +0000

I am very curious as to why you didn’t discuss the fact that beacon now stack on the tank. I can see this being nurfed very quickly due to the fact that raids can bring 3 or 4 paladins to ensure that the MT is always topped off. As quick and powerful as FoL is, even 25k hits won’t be much to heal through with some support from other classes.

By: Erik

Erik — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 23:22:22 +0000

Positive outlook also noted. The main problem that I see with this patch is that it removes our “identity”. I leveled a pally to be primarily a main tank healer. If I had wanted a raid healer, I would have rolled another class. Now, we will be neither the best MT healer and will be a poor raid healer.

I think you underestimate the mana regen issues. You fail to mention the FoL + SS hot, which can only be applied to 1 target, requires 2 global cool-downs to apply, then heals for a paltry amount that will do little to cure the 25K hits done by many Ulduar bosses.

Though healing meters are not indicative of healer performance, it was nice to occasionally see myself at the top, knowing that if I had to, I could floor the pedal and rain HL’s down on the MT and OT’s. Now, that is no longer an option. If that is needed, because other healers are down, I won’t be able to do what I used to. From my perspective, this is going to ruin pally healing for me. Homoginization ahoy!

By: Erik

Erik — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:45:08 +0000

I appreciate your positive outlook. Most (including myself) are doom-and-gloom on the Holy changes but you make a lot of great points. I really like your point on other healers taking responsibility for the MT…this will help us a LOT and allow us to Divine Plea a bit more which will hopefully offset some of the regen nerfs…