Restoration Staff Changes Discussion Thread

ebix_

in my opinion most of this changes was because of pvp , there is almost no way to kill people when healbots stack orbs and healing springs in pvp on top of burst heals ... but the thing is this changes may balance things in pvp but it will hit damn hard in pve .
and once again more skills sacrificed for pvp balance

HaemaMagus

As a PvE Healer, my templar I believe can make these adjustments just fine. I wasn't a good healer to start with, still learning the game, but the increased skill challenge, if this is what was intended, is something that I can overcome.

My NB and Sorc healer however do not have the same tools that my templar does to heal a trial. Sorc only has 1 healing skill. NB can't spam Malevolent Offering, Funnel Health isn't used in trials, Sap Essence the same, and Refreshing Path is too small of an area even with the healing buff. They are going to be retired if these changes go through, because no one is going to want them over my templar. Which saddens me greatly because I enjoy healing on them more than my templar.

Iskiab

I agree this change is because of pvp. The vocal ‘small scalers’ pushing their agenda and the devs fell for it.

It’s going to backfire massively. At the end of the day 1-3 people can’t take 20 and shouldn’t be able to. They’re still going to get wrecked but the medium scale will disappear.

Aedrion

We've all been spoiled by these immensely powerful healing skills for years. Vet trials can be run with 2 or even 1 healer(s), which is absolutely bonkers. I can run veteran dungeons as a healer and spend 50% of my time doing damage. Some dungeons don't even need a tank because a healer is so strong, it'll just carry 3 dd-groups.

Grand Healing and Orbs have reduced healing in ESO into spamming 2-4 buttons. Many other options for healing have been neglected and gone unused just because of how immensely powerful and braindead these two skills are.

Diversity of healing skills has been a non-thing. Where've the psijic healing skills been? Blood Altar? Blessing of Protection? Many class heals? Nowhere. You don't need them. They're sub-par.

This patch changes healing's functionality into something that actually makes sense.

Grand Healing

Problem: Multiple versions of this potent AoE skill can be overlapped and spammed relatively easily. This assures that anyone taking damage inside the zones is instantly healed back up. In PvE, during burst damage, you needn't think further than just spamming this on your team. If 2 healers do this, you have 6 healing springs constantly healing people.

Solution: Made into a longer lasting, single AoE zone that'll heal respectable amounts of damage for anyone inside it. This is now the core of your healing. You lay down your springs and then you'll have to supplement this healing with other skills.

Orbs

Problem: Same as Grand Healing, huge overlay due to spamming orbs into the raid, constantly healing people already standing in AoE heals. Any damage you might take, even if it's a tickle, is instantly healed. No need to think about where your orb is flying, if wrong direction, just cast some more.

Solution: One orb. Your aim will matter, people's locations and movement will matter and if multiple people can synergise one orb, you may even have a greater use out of this skill for resource sustain that before. Wrong direction? Cast a new one and learn to aim better.

Ward Ally

Problem: Maybe not so much in PvE but in PvP, this skill stinks to fight against. You get somebody low. By all accounts, they have lost the fight but suddenly they have a 12k shield. And so does the healer himself. This shield uses resistances now so it's always going to save lives, no matter what. Heal them back up underneath it and voila. You're immortal. Even in PvE, it could be used to instantly make people unkillable if they seriously messed up. Even if they did so repeatedly. If they stood in the many AoE heals, a shield was more than enough to boost their HP back to full.

Solution: Weaker shield boosts. That shield when you're low on HP will still help you survive but it won't make you into an unkillable god. Eat too much damage or stay in the AoE and you'll still drop.

Regeneration

Problem: This was just a spam skill to give a moderate HoT to people. Super cheap, not very impactful. No brain required.

Solution: Buffed. Cost increased but this will be a potent single target HoT now, designed to save lives of people taking incremental damage. You can even choose if you want it to be a big, chunky HoT or a lasting, moderate HoT. Now you won't spam this, you'll look for when it's needed, then cast it.

Overal, and I know this will sound like an insult to healers, healing in ESO didn't require a lot of active thinking. With half a brain and these skills slotted, you could clear most content relatively easily. By raising the bar for potent healing - and the tools to do so are in the game, just unused atm - healers will not only face a better challenge but improve as players.

Essentially, the skill ceiling has been raised. For some, this will hurt. These people will need to improve their performance. For others, this will be a change of pace. They will adapt and be fine.

driosketch

Aedrion wrote: »

...
Solution: One orb. Your aim will matter, people's locations and movement will matter and if multiple people can synergise one orb, you may even have a greater use out of this skill for resource sustain that before. Wrong direction? Cast a new one and learn to aim better.

...

Overal, and I know this will sound like an insult to healers, healing in ESO didn't require a lot of active thinking. With half a brain and these skills slotted, you could clear most content relatively easily. By raising the bar for potent healing - and the tools to do so are in the game, just unused atm - healers will not only face a better challenge but improve as players.

Essentially, the skill ceiling has been raised. For some, this will hurt. These people will need to improve their performance. For others, this will be a change of pace. They will adapt and be fine.

You ever try hit a moving target with a slow moving object? Healers aren't going to aim the orb anywhere but in front of them as the face the tank/boss. It will now be on the dps to run over and grab their synergy if they want it. That's not requiring the healers to be more skilled, but the healed to be more aware.

Iskiab

Aedrion wrote: »

We've all been spoiled by these immensely powerful healing skills for years. Vet trials can be run with 2 or even 1 healer(s), which is absolutely bonkers. I can run veteran dungeons as a healer and spend 50% of my time doing damage. Some dungeons don't even need a tank because a healer is so strong, it'll just carry 3 dd-groups.

Grand Healing and Orbs have reduced healing in ESO into spamming 2-4 buttons. Many other options for healing have been neglected and gone unused just because of how immensely powerful and braindead these two skills are.

Diversity of healing skills has been a non-thing. Where've the psijic healing skills been? Blood Altar? Blessing of Protection? Many class heals? Nowhere. You don't need them. They're sub-par.

This patch changes healing's functionality into something that actually makes sense.

Grand Healing

Problem: Multiple versions of this potent AoE skill can be overlapped and spammed relatively easily. This assures that anyone taking damage inside the zones is instantly healed back up. In PvE, during burst damage, you needn't think further than just spamming this on your team. If 2 healers do this, you have 6 healing springs constantly healing people.

Solution: Made into a longer lasting, single AoE zone that'll heal respectable amounts of damage for anyone inside it. This is now the core of your healing. You lay down your springs and then you'll have to supplement this healing with other skills.

Orbs

Problem: Same as Grand Healing, huge overlay due to spamming orbs into the raid, constantly healing people already standing in AoE heals. Any damage you might take, even if it's a tickle, is instantly healed. No need to think about where your orb is flying, if wrong direction, just cast some more.

Solution: One orb. Your aim will matter, people's locations and movement will matter and if multiple people can synergise one orb, you may even have a greater use out of this skill for resource sustain that before. Wrong direction? Cast a new one and learn to aim better.

Ward Ally

Problem: Maybe not so much in PvE but in PvP, this skill stinks to fight against. You get somebody low. By all accounts, they have lost the fight but suddenly they have a 12k shield. And so does the healer himself. This shield uses resistances now so it's always going to save lives, no matter what. Heal them back up underneath it and voila. You're immortal. Even in PvE, it could be used to instantly make people unkillable if they seriously messed up. Even if they did so repeatedly. If they stood in the many AoE heals, a shield was more than enough to boost their HP back to full.

Solution: Weaker shield boosts. That shield when you're low on HP will still help you survive but it won't make you into an unkillable god. Eat too much damage or stay in the AoE and you'll still drop.

Regeneration

Problem: This was just a spam skill to give a moderate HoT to people. Super cheap, not very impactful. No brain required.

Solution: Buffed. Cost increased but this will be a potent single target HoT now, designed to save lives of people taking incremental damage. You can even choose if you want it to be a big, chunky HoT or a lasting, moderate HoT. Now you won't spam this, you'll look for when it's needed, then cast it.

Overal, and I know this will sound like an insult to healers, healing in ESO didn't require a lot of active thinking. With half a brain and these skills slotted, you could clear most content relatively easily. By raising the bar for potent healing - and the tools to do so are in the game, just unused atm - healers will not only face a better challenge but improve as players.

Essentially, the skill ceiling has been raised. For some, this will hurt. These people will need to improve their performance. For others, this will be a change of pace. They will adapt and be fine.

This sounds like a long winded post that can be summed up as, ‘I don’t like the damage I do to be healed back up’.

All the examples you have seem disingenuous because you want healing effectiveness to drop. If healing springs being mindless was the only issue then a collection of different skills would now equal the same amount of HPS as the old springs... but they don’t.

I’m all for changing healing so it’s not just spam springs, but unless the end result is just as powerful as spamming springs this is nothing but a healer nerf.

In pvp and BGs the changes will actually make my build stronger, but I can’t see PvE going well. It will remove the need for a healer in all dungeons and make trials a pain.

Aedrion

Iskiab wrote: »

This sounds like a long winded post that can be summed up as, ‘I don’t like the damage I do to be healed back up’.

All the examples you have seem disingenuous because you want healing effectiveness to drop. If healing springs being mindless was the only issue then a collection of different skills would now equal the same amount of HPS as the old springs... but they don’t.

I’m all for changing healing so it’s not just spam springs, but unless the end result is just as powerful as spamming springs this is nothing but a healer nerf.

In pvp and BGs the changes will actually make my build stronger, but I can’t see PvE going well. It will remove the need for a healer in all dungeons and make trials a pain.

Perhaps I didn't word it correctly then, if that's what it sounds like. I want healing to be as strong as it is on live but I also want it to require more effort and thought put into it than it does today.

If that requires unpopular healing skills to be buffed, then I endorse buffing them. I don't mind damage done by bosses that hit hard or damage in PvP to be healed quickly. But I would prefer it is done in a manner that requires the healer to play smart rather than spam 2 buttons.

That aside, Ward Ally became objectively overpowered with the changes to how shields work. The flat nerf it got was required because everybody was using it to make eachother unkillable in PvP.

This first pass at healing will likely show new healing builds, more flexible builds, to be more prominent. Ideally, good healers should not feel like their healing is weaker after the patch, while bad healers absolutely should.