You can only have 1 orb active at a time: Why this should NOT go live

Olupajmibanan

Tessitura wrote: »

I have only one answer to all that, as you why is should go live. Server stress and system stress. Lets wait and see how it effects stability and performs on PTS before we try too crush this. Also, it looks like they are trying to mitigate some of the responsibility of party survival onto the party as a whole, and not just healers. Is that a good thing? Don't know, but lets at least see how it pans out in practice before demanding changes based on theory.

Alert!!!
White knight detected!!!
Starting extermination protocol!!!

Sanguinor2

Tessitura wrote: »

I have only one answer to all that, as you why is should go live. Server stress and system stress. Lets wait and see how it effects stability and performs on PTS before we try too crush this. Also, it looks like they are trying to mitigate some of the responsibility of party survival onto the party as a whole, and not just healers. Is that a good thing? Don't know, but lets at least see how it pans out in practice before demanding changes based on theory.

PTS doesnt Show how anything will affect Performance on the live Server.

Zatox

Gaggin

Tessitura wrote: »

I have only one answer to all that, as you why is should go live. Server stress and system stress. Lets wait and see how it effects stability and performs on PTS before we try too crush this. Also, it looks like they are trying to mitigate some of the responsibility of party survival onto the party as a whole, and not just healers. Is that a good thing? Don't know, but lets at least see how it pans out in practice before demanding changes based on theory.

Trust me, I've been in plenty of trials with no orbs, performance isn't the issue.

To me the real issue is the popping of the orbs stopping the healing, its counter intuitive. Are we supposed to benefit or suffer from synergyzing one?

CP5

Gaggin wrote: »

Tessitura wrote: »

I have only one answer to all that, as you why is should go live. Server stress and system stress. Lets wait and see how it effects stability and performs on PTS before we try too crush this. Also, it looks like they are trying to mitigate some of the responsibility of party survival onto the party as a whole, and not just healers. Is that a good thing? Don't know, but lets at least see how it pans out in practice before demanding changes based on theory.

Trust me, I've been in plenty of trials with no orbs, performance isn't the issue.

To me the real issue is the popping of the orbs stopping the healing, its counter intuitive. Are we supposed to benefit or suffer from synergyzing one?

Unless they change them to work like blazing spear or conduit, and this will also make it so dps will never slot the damage orbs since the last thing they would want to do is invest resources into nothing.

Solinur

I think the change could be interesting, but would require some testing. It surely makes things more complicated, maybe to the point where you have to assign part of the current healers responsibility to someone else. What it prevents is the playstyle the OP described, you cannot prepare as much anymore by laying down an array of bubbles + healing springs anymore, or even mindlessly spamming them in rather static situations.
In the end this is one part of what MMOs are constantly doing to keep people occupied: Break the meta. I think these changes do exactly that. Healers could do the same over and over again for a long time now, so maybe it is finally time to shake things up a bit.
Of course nobbody likes it when the meta they comfortably settled in gets broken, so the outcry is hardly surprising.
I see a downside though: There might be a lot of raids (not the top ones) where the people that play the healer, are not that quick to adapt to new situations like maybe their tank/dd companions. Therefore the change might be quite harsh on them.

Personally I might even look into playing a healer if the change goes live, since I like when there is a challenge to figure out how to perform.

TheNightflame

Vortigaunt wrote: »

stileanima wrote: »

In this thread, I would like to discuss this proposed change to Necrotic Orb from an end-game healer's perspective, and I invite other healers (and DDs and Tanks) from all playstyles to do the same. I'll be extremely forward-- if you can't already tell from the title, I think this is an absolutely horrible change, and I would like to offer my reasoning as to why. At the same time, I'd also like to hear others' feedback about this, be they for or against the change. Or to put it another way, if there is anyone out there who thinks that this would be a good, productive change to healing in ESO, please try to convince me.

Now, for me, this also directly relates to the Grand Healing change, so I will be discussing both here and will try my best to give true examples of how the two skills coexist together other on live, and how I think they might affect healing in the future, should the changes actually go live.

Firstly: There has been no Dev comment in the patch notes about why this change has been proposed. Does ZoS think that Energy Orbs heal too much? I'm not sure they do since "1 orb at a time" applies even to the damage morph, which hardly any healer uses in end-game PvE. That being the case, does ZoS think that they make sustain in trials too easy? I, and I'm sure many other healers, would like to know the answer to this/the reasoning behind it.

I would like to share with you the mindset of most, if not all, end-game healers regarding Energy Orbs and Grand Healing:

We use Energy Orbs primarily for the sustain and synergies they provide to our DDs and Tanks, and additionally for their healing done. We do not take the damage morph of Orbs because we use the healing morph as our primary HoT during less intensive moments/moments where we can be sure they will be enough to keep our team alive, and we use Grand Healing in addition to Energy Orbs as layered HoTs during moments where there is more intensive damage output. There are some exceptions to this, but generally what I have written here is the case for a large majority of encounters. Perhaps this isn't how all healers view their Orbs/Grand Healing, but in my opinion, using them in such a way is part of what sets skillful healers apart from the rest, and is a large part of high-end, REWARDING gameplay-- to be able to recognize the moments in every encounter where you will need to make healing output a greater priority, and understanding how to most effectively do this in a way that will also be most beneficial for the DDs and Tanks you are supporting.

What we really love about our Energy Orbs is that they accomplish both healing and offering sustain at the same time, which allows us more time to buff our DDs and debuff our enemies. For example, in Sunspire during the Lokkestiiz boss fight, during the add phases in particular: this part of the fight involves a LOT of movement, so what I like to do, and also find extremely effective in terms of both healing and group support, is to throw Orbs toward the direction that my DDs will be running to when killing the Storm Atronachs, while also paving the way there with Illustrious Healing. Both of these skills working together ensures that my group gets the best of both worlds-- healing AND sustain during a movement-heavy fight. Having all these layered HoTs also means I have lots of time to buff and debuff, so long as I play intelligently. I know that my several casts of Illustrious will cover my DDs that are moving from point A to point B, so now I have time to apply Minor Vulnerability on the Atro we are focusing before my HoTs fall off. I know that my several casts of Orbs will float through the group and heal everyone enough so that I can focus on throwing synergies for my DDs to use to proc their Lokkestiiz set, apply Alkosh, etc.

How this proposed change will affect this part of the Lokkestiiz boss fight: I can only have 1 Illustrious healing down at a time-- Where do I place it? First I put it around the Storm Atronach that my DDs are currently killing. I see that it's about to die, so perhaps I should now place it at the next Storm Atronach that my group will be running to? What if some of my DDs straggle behind the rest-- What if one of them accidentally misses blocking a meteor and takes heavy damage from it plus the Storm Bound DoT at the same time? What if another DD does not follow the group because he wanted to dodge a different way through the Glacial Fist AoE to not get killed by it? Well, I've already placed my Illustrious on the next Storm Atro so, unfortunately, the DDs that fell behind/went another way have no HoTs on them. I could throw an Orb in the direction of the DD that took the meteor hit, but someone who needed it for sustain/the Major Slayer buff just popped it, so he loses out on that HoT now too. Then what about my DD who dodged the other way to avoid Glacial Fist-- what if he's got Storm Bound on him too, or perhaps some other kind of AoE damage is around him? I could put my Illustrious on him, but then my DDs killing the Storm Atro have no more HoTs on them. I could throw him an Orb, but what if it's immediately popped?

My thoughts on this are extremely jumbled at the moment, so I hope my fellow healers will be able to help me out here/people will understand the point I'm trying to make: We use Orbs and Grand Healing together for all our healing needs, not just one or the other exclusively.

We do not consider Grand Healing a "hybrid spammable hybrid HoT". We consider it a strong HoT that, if used intelligently and at the right moments, will provide consistent healing over time when and where we need it, perhaps in multiple places at once which is essential during movement-heavy fights. We do not use it as a spammable at all because it does nothing more than heal, and we as end-game healers are not JUST healers-- we are buffers, debuffers, and synergy providers. We are the ultimate supporters of our team, and we do this by using a multitude of skills in our kits, not just heal spamming.

Now, I really don't mind the change to Grand Healing and only being able to have one down at a time. What I do not like alongside this change is the "1 orb at a time" change, particularly for the reasons I mentioned above (in movement heavy fights, what HoTs are we supposed to provide our group then as we move from one location to the next, perhaps not all together?), though also because they play such a huge role when it comes to helping our DDs sustain.

How end-game healers currently use Orbs when it comes to offering sustain: We throw lots of them out at once because we know our DDs might not be in a position to take them right away, might be on Orb cooldown, might be saving the proc to perfectly time their Major Slayer, etc.

How the proposed Orb change will impact sustain: We can only have one Orb active at a time, which means we should no longer cast multiple Orbs in a row because this may not give our DDs enough time to synergize them. This means we will be throwing way fewer Orbs in total, and DDs will be receiving way less than before because only one may exist at a time. We also can no longer rely on multiple Orbs to provide the HoTs we need, which means we will have to spend more time casting pure-healing skills, and so will have even less time to throw Orbs.

In short, I think these changes will turn end-game healers more into "pure" heal spammers, and will greatly impact the other ways in which we can support our team. Regarding the proposed Grand Healing change in particular-- I think it would be fine on its own, but NOT if the "1 orb at a time" change makes it live alongside it. I also think that "1 orb at a time" will severely, negatively impact sustain in trials because we will not be able to provide our DDs with all that they need.

Again, my thoughts here are a bit jumbled, and I invite everyone, especially other end-game healers, to provide their own thoughts as well. Thanks for reading.

I see a lot of “I place my heal there, what if a dps messes up and does this what it a dps doesn’t do this what if a dps what if what if” which directly translates into L2P issue in my books. Get better dps. Don’t expect HM content to be a walk in the park where dps can afford to make mistakes. Sorry, but this is the truth.

I'm sorry, but are you telling literally the best (if not, easily top 3) healers in the game, running with one of the top 3 teams in the game, to: learn to play?

Maura_Neysa

100% agree with this. Nerfing all 3 of the Healer core healing skills is just idiotic.
Orbs cost alone is punishment enough for over casting.

Personally I like 3 at a time.
• 3 every 10seconds covers all 12 people (assuming the other healer is doing the same)
• 3 allows people time to adapt to the path (if I missed) and grab the synergy if they need it.
• 3 allows a good chance that at least one is making it all the way through the group, healing the whole time, and making it to the tank.

Springs... okay I can get behind this. Though it really only hurts the lower end players.
Mutagen.. in 4 man sure 1 at a time isn't so bad, I could live with it. Its not common in 12-man at all, but this would just make it impossible. The whole rotation would be Mutagen and nothing else.

These changes are just going to result in more BoL spammers, or Combat Prayer spamming. I dont know how that helps anything


There is a lot going on in these patch notes. The only thing that truly has me WTFing is these Healer changes. Especially give the clear goal of making Healers more necessary with Vigor and Shield nerfs.
ZoS wants to make Healers feel (and be) more necessary, but at the same time taking away the tools they need to accomplish the role.

I dont even main a healer, and healer is the WTF aspect of this patch

yodased

Looks like er'body gonna be slotting orbs now. All magdps slot orbs and cast it in your rotation to give your fellow dps resources.

Sounds fun.

TheNightflame

yodased wrote: »

Looks like er'body gonna be slotting orbs now. All magdps slot orbs and cast it in your rotation to give your fellow dps resources.

Sounds fun.

I understand this a joke, but that would be so ridiculously inefficient
really maybe stam dps would slot it but eh

Olupajmibanan

Let's just call this DLC Healbreaker, shall we?

idk

jetplane_18 wrote: »

Druid40 wrote: »

It is slower and heals more often. To fully realize the repercussions, testing is required.

I'll just leave this here:

stileanima wrote: »

...We use Energy Orbs primarily for the sustain and synergies they provide to our DDs and Tanks, and additionally for their healing done...

Actually it is both. The healing orbs have been doing a huge amount of a healers heals.

But I agree that the bigger impact is the loss of synergy opportunities. The better teams will handle this well as they are able to coordinate more effectively. Most teams will feel a more substantial impact but that has often been the case across the years. I have always had sustain issues when I run with lesser experienced teams.

irswat

anyone try doing vhof hm yet?

jypcy

Just gonna leave this here...

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

As always, we will be monitoring feedback about all the balance changes during this PTS cycle, however we wanted to let everyone know that in a future PTS patch, the synergy from Orbs will not cause the Orb to vanish and can be activated multiple times by anyone not on synergy cool down.

Sanguinor2

jypcy wrote: »

Just gonna leave this here...

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

As always, we will be monitoring feedback about all the balance changes during this PTS cycle, however we wanted to let everyone know that in a future PTS patch, the synergy from Orbs will not cause the Orb to vanish and can be activated multiple times by anyone not on synergy cool down.

It´s almost like nearly everyone knew that the orb Change was a bad idea and had to be addressed.

idk

jypcy wrote: »

Just gonna leave this here...

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

As always, we will be monitoring feedback about all the balance changes during this PTS cycle, however we wanted to let everyone know that in a future PTS patch, the synergy from Orbs will not cause the Orb to vanish and can be activated multiple times by anyone not on synergy cool down.

Thanks for adding that to the conversation since I see the synergy and sustain aspect a bigger issue than the heals from multiple orbs.

Halke

More sustain does nothing for DDs who are dead.

code65536

idk wrote: »

jypcy wrote: »

Just gonna leave this here...

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

As always, we will be monitoring feedback about all the balance changes during this PTS cycle, however we wanted to let everyone know that in a future PTS patch, the synergy from Orbs will not cause the Orb to vanish and can be activated multiple times by anyone not on synergy cool down.

Thanks for adding that to the conversation since I see the synergy and sustain aspect a bigger issue than the heals from multiple orbs.

The biggest problem is the healing. The sustain and synergies were always a secondary concern for me.

On the PTS, Healing Springs is about a 1K/s tooltip heal. Orbs are about 1.5K/s tooltip (about 0.7K every half second). Ring of Preservation is 0.6K/s tooltip. Together, these AoE HoTs total a bit over 2K/s tooltip.

The ability to layers HoTs--multiple Springs and multiple Orbs--was the backbone of the healer's toolkit for healing a group of people in a given area for a sustained period of time.

Now let's look at execute in vHoF HM. If you don't hit Exhaustion, DDs are taking something on the order of 10K damage per second over an extended period of time. You could heal through this with the old layered Springs/Orbs. Now, Springs/Orbs/CoP will supply only 20% of the healing needed. How are you going to do the other 80%? On 6 players. And in a way that doesn't completely drain your resources, since you need to be able to keep this up for up to a minute?

People are making a fuss about synergies. But that's really a secondary issue. The real issue is whether people are going to be alive to even clear the content, much less worry about synergies.

Solinur

code65536 wrote: »

Now let's look at execute in vHoF HM. If you don't hit Exhaustion, DDs are taking something on the order of 10K damage per second over an extended period of time. You could heal through this with the old layered Springs/Orbs. Now, Springs/Orbs/CoP will supply only 20% of the healing needed. How are you going to do the other 80%? On 6 players. And in a way that doesn't completely drain your resources, since you need to be able to keep this up for up to a minute?

Let DD's or Tank slot a Hot/Shield and coordinate accordingly.
Why do we always need to completely separate jobs, like it's only the healers who should heal? What if instead you'd need to shift between modes where more people contribute to survival vs. damage. I like the idea that you'd need to adapt as a group instead of just one person to spam two abilities. As it is, we're close to a state where DD's just mindlessly do their rotation standing still even in hard modes, save for a few mechanics, while healers and tanks just keep everything out of their way. I don't think that's fun, so I'm looking forward to see if the changes break this situation.

code65536

Solinur wrote: »

code65536 wrote: »

Now let's look at execute in vHoF HM. If you don't hit Exhaustion, DDs are taking something on the order of 10K damage per second over an extended period of time. You could heal through this with the old layered Springs/Orbs. Now, Springs/Orbs/CoP will supply only 20% of the healing needed. How are you going to do the other 80%? On 6 players. And in a way that doesn't completely drain your resources, since you need to be able to keep this up for up to a minute?

Let DD's or Tank slot a Hot/Shield and coordinate accordingly.
Why do we always need to completely separate jobs, like it's only the healers who should heal? What if instead you'd need to shift between modes where more people contribute to survival vs. damage. I like the idea that you'd need to adapt as a group instead of just one person to spam two abilities. As it is, we're close to a state where DD's just mindlessly do their rotation standing still even in hard modes, save for a few mechanics, while healers and tanks just keep everything out of their way. I don't think that's fun, so I'm looking forward to see if the changes break this situation.

With all due respect, that is one of the most appallingly ridiculous things that I have seen in this thread.

One shield will protect you for 1s in vHoF execute, because that's how long the shield will last before it disappears. So what do you suggest? That people shield once every second?

1. And they'll sustain this... how?
2. And they'll damage the boss... how?

So what about self-healing? If you use a single-use heal, you run into the same problem as above: you're taking this damage once per second, so to keep up with it using single-use self-heals, you need to heal yourself every second. Okay, so what about a HoT? Well, Resolving Vigor is a pretty strong HoT now. So hopefully all your DDs are stamina, because magicka DDs don't have access to self-HoTs of that strength.

But more importantly, yes it is the job of a good healer to enable DDs to... you know... do damage. The point of group content is role specialization. If DDs can heal themselves, then why even have the healer role? Particularly since vHoF execute is a DPS race. The lower your group's damage output, the more incoming damage you'll experience. The 10K/s benchmark is for a group that doesn't see Exhaustion. RIght now, on Live, top-tier groups have the DPS to skip the Exhaustion mechanic entirely, progression groups and many mid-tier groups will see Exhaustion.

There are two ways out of this mess:

1. ZOS's combat team gets some sense knocked into them and unnerf AoE HoTs.
2. ZOS's dungeon team cleans up the mess by nerfing the incoming damage in these sorts of situations.

I'm hoping for #1, but #2 seems like the more likely course, which is, frankly, the wrong approach because it just marginalizes the healer role. Why bring healers when you run 10 stam DDs with Resolving Vigor that does 4K HPS?

Nightingale707

Solinur wrote: »

Let DD's or Tank slot a Hot/Shield and coordinate accordingly.
Why do we always need to completely separate jobs, like it's only the healers who should heal? What if instead you'd need to shift between modes where more people contribute to survival vs. damage. I like the idea that you'd need to adapt as a group instead of just one person to spam two abilities. As it is, we're close to a state where DD's just mindlessly do their rotation standing still even in hard modes, save for a few mechanics, while healers and tanks just keep everything out of their way. I don't think that's fun, so I'm looking forward to see if the changes break this situation.

so what you are saying is basically "delete healers"? because if healers can only heal through 20-40% of the incoming damage any more (sustained healing that is, I can always spam one burst 3 times but that is not gonna save you) and the DDs need to heal the rest themselves, there is really no point any more in bringing a healer ^^
at this point you are better off bringing 2 more DDs so the fight is over faster

kojou

I wonder if the changes to Orbs and Springs were more of a server performance change.

I am interested in what healers are going to do to work around this though.

John_Falstaff

kojou wrote: »

I wonder if the changes to Orbs and Springs were more of a server performance change.

I am interested in what healers are going to do to work around this though.

Whole this patch can be seen as a server performance change. Make half the players say "screw you, ZOS" and leave the game, and the other half will be enjoying the smooth gameplay. ^^

CerbinTalYalas

I would like to add that the interest of having several orbs is in how you analyze a fight.

• With a single orb, you throw your orb right in the group, and then you move on to something else and forget about it. No reflexion at all, you send your orb where the most players are, and then you let the magic works by itself.
• With several orbs, you have to think about each of them, where they go, where the group is now and will be, how packed they are and how they'll move. Basically, it's not about a few orbs apart, but you throw a "healing net" on the battlefield, and you have to think carefully about how you'll throw it.

I still think it's a good idea to limit the number of orb, to avoid spamming them like a brainless healing robot. However, having only one orb limits a lot your possibilities and the way you can use the orbs to heal and sustain a group, both instantly and prevently.
- - -
Here's a suggestion on how they could change the skill, maybe developpers will never read it, but well, nothing to loose to suggest ;-)

• Keep the changes on the Necrotic Orb (one orb, not destroyed by the synergy, 2 meters per second).
• Keep the changes on the Mystical Orb (damages once per half-second), maybe a small change to make it more interesting, like changing their path (orbiting around the player) and allowing you to trigger your own synergy.
• For the energy orb : "The orb heals allies instead of damaging enemies, and you can have up to 3 orbs actives simultaneously".

- - -
Hope ZoS will notice this and make some nice changes ! It's a good idea to rethink how the orbs work, but what they do is definitely not the good idea, in my opinion.

Solinur

@Nightingale707, @code65536
Of course I don't want healers to become unnecessary. But if the situation is like it is right now, where you need your two tanks, two healers and then nothing else to survive, you end up with some ridiculous meta where you just stack whatever does most DPS and that's it (Need DPS ? Bring 9 Necros! - that sucks imo). So while I want it to be the healers job to heal and support, I'd like to have situations where you won't survive just relying on the two healers.
I don't intend to give you a solution for any prticular example so please don't view my idea of slotting a shield simply as that.
How to solve a situation is something that needs to be figured out (Ideally there should be several solutions achievable by combining different classes). I'd find it optimal if maybe one or two DD's need to slot a skill for survivability (There should be viable options for most classes).
I'm aware that by making things harder you might end up locking groups out from certain achievements, as it gets too hard for them. To be honest I find that ok, I think the hardest content is a bit too easy.

Royaji

Solinur wrote: »

To be honest I find that ok, I think the hardest content is a bit too easy.

So... Care to show us your IR? GH? TTT? Unchained? Frostvault tri-fecta at least? And also general completion rates on those. Should be like 20% if they are easy, right?

Typos

Solinur

Royaji wrote: »

Solinur wrote: »

To be honest I find that ok, I think the hardest content is a bit too easy.

So... Care to show us your IR? GH? TTT? Unchained? Frostvault tri-fecta at least? And also generalthe completion rates on those. Should be like 20% if they are easy, right?

My point is that the trial HM's themselves should be harder. Not those nodeath within X minutes achievements. I find them a bit annoying since there is too much that can go wrong which is out of your control with these (e.g. DC / crashes).
Dungeons is a bit of a different story, they are probably fine as they are.

code65536

Solinur wrote: »

@Nightingale707, @code65536
Of course I don't want healers to become unnecessary. But if the situation is like it is right now, where you need your two tanks, two healers and then nothing else to survive, you end up with some ridiculous meta where you just stack whatever does most DPS and that's it (Need DPS ? Bring 9 Necros! - that sucks imo). So while I want it to be the healers job to heal and support, I'd like to have situations where you won't survive just relying on the two healers.
I don't intend to give you a solution for any prticular example so please don't view my idea of slotting a shield simply as that.
How to solve a situation is something that needs to be figured out (Ideally there should be several solutions achievable by combining different classes). I'd find it optimal if maybe one or two DD's need to slot a skill for survivability (There should be viable options for most classes).
I'm aware that by making things harder you might end up locking groups out from certain achievements, as it gets too hard for them. To be honest I find that ok, I think the hardest content is a bit too easy.

Bringing all stam necro DDs is the result of a gross balancing failure from ZOS, coupled with the insane requirements for Godslayer that pretty much requires a stam necro group. This is something that none of us like. But it has absolutely nothing to do with healers.

And DDs are often asked to be self-sustaining. Backroom runners in vMoL. Portals in vCR and vSS. All of vAS. Top group for Pinnacle in vHoF. And there are times when DDs are asked to be parse monkeys, such as the execute phase of Assembly General in vHoF, which, again, is a DPS race with ramping damage.

The Assembly General execute in particular (and there are other heal-checks in other trials) is one that I doubt is even feasible with these PTS 1 changes. We're not talking about changing the way groups optimize. We're talking about whether groups are even able to clear it, period.

idk

code65536 wrote: »

idk wrote: »

jypcy wrote: »

Just gonna leave this here...

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

As always, we will be monitoring feedback about all the balance changes during this PTS cycle, however we wanted to let everyone know that in a future PTS patch, the synergy from Orbs will not cause the Orb to vanish and can be activated multiple times by anyone not on synergy cool down.

Thanks for adding that to the conversation since I see the synergy and sustain aspect a bigger issue than the heals from multiple orbs.

The biggest problem is the healing. The sustain and synergies were always a secondary concern for me.

On the PTS, Healing Springs is about a 1K/s tooltip heal. Orbs are about 1.5K/s tooltip (about 0.7K every half second). Ring of Preservation is 0.6K/s tooltip. Together, these AoE HoTs total a bit over 2K/s tooltip.

The ability to layers HoTs--multiple Springs and multiple Orbs--was the backbone of the healer's toolkit for healing a group of people in a given area for a sustained period of time.

Now let's look at execute in vHoF HM. If you don't hit Exhaustion, DDs are taking something on the order of 10K damage per second over an extended period of time. You could heal through this with the old layered Springs/Orbs. Now, Springs/Orbs/CoP will supply only 20% of the healing needed. How are you going to do the other 80%? On 6 players. And in a way that doesn't completely drain your resources, since you need to be able to keep this up for up to a minute?

People are making a fuss about synergies. But that's really a secondary issue. The real issue is whether people are going to be alive to even clear the content, much less worry about synergies.

I do agree the overall healing changes are an issue but can be solved outside of orbs.

Using your example of vHoF HM, we space out to prevent overlapping damage and each healer is to cover half the group with their HS. Orbs would not be as reliable (though still nice) when dealing with increased damage of the exhaustion. I would expect the healing would be sufficient with HS alone as it currently is on live.

And yes, I do understand that healing orbs have made up a significant % of total healing. I also do not understand why Zos is nerfing healing overall as they chose to not provide explanations to the healing changes in the patch notes. I am sure they said something somewhere that I have not seen.

Matt is a wise manager of Zos and I am sure his extolled wisdom imparted on the team has lead to this enlightened scheme Zos is weaving. We should trust in Zos and Matt. /s

PoseidonEvil

my heart hurts at the changes they are making to healers lol