Spirit Mender change

divnyi

IAmIcehouse wrote: »

I don't get more people aren't blown out by this change.

We are. It's just not the only change to a perfectly fine skill that deletes it from the game. The patch is full of it. This is why I hate it.
I don't want to be running around spamming dswings because everything else is nerfed to the ground and below.

CameraBeardThePirate

prof_doom wrote: »

The problem is that it is a summon that is both a damage absorber and a healer... except that it's not going to actually heal you because it's going to be dead in 5 seconds or less in any kind of harder content.

Its also not going to heal because they nerfed the already pretty low healing of the morph lol.

SeaUnicorn

3 Ghosts at the start is when I was rolling all the heavies or minis did not spawn yet, 4 Ghosts at the end is when I started blocking heavies. One of the did not manage even to get summoned - got insta killed So yeah they do last until next heavy if you need to block it. And this is low threat scenario - Mini Tanking. Ghosts will be no use for Necro Tanks in any of the later trials like vKA, vRG, vDSR. This is quite a hit to Necro tank gameplay, because Ghost is not just survival, but also source of Sustain for necro tank due to passive tied to pet being summoned.

FrankonPC

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Xuhora wrote: »

am i getting this wrong? The guardian takes 10% of the dmg recieved thrue the necro, so that means for it to die the necro has to take 30k dmg? thats what the patchnotes say? but all you replies indicate that this is not right?

edit for strange typos

No this is correct. 30k damage to the necro means the Guardian takes 3k damage, which really isn't a lot at all. That's basically a single heavy attack from a boss in PvE or a single burst combo from a player in PvP.

yeah, i think of it like this.

you run the skill for mitigation. there's no denying that the unique value of % mitigation is strong. it's why people run it, but this specific change makes it useless. if you fight outnumbered in pvp it's going to drop before cooldown all of the time...so when you take a ton of damage...you LOSE the mitigation.

Same thing as a tank in pve, it just seems a little counterintuitive to how/when you would want mitigation. i think if you want to adjust the skill because it's too strong, reducing the healing was already fine...but reducing the % mit and making it unkillable would be the next step id take.

Necrotech_Master

i like the healing that comes from the ghost, but i think after this change i might just change to the skeleton archer, ramping dmg bonus and it lasting 20 sec will help with the resource passive at least

A_hab

I play stamcro in pvp and this change is devastating---reducing healing by 48% is just...what? Just delete the skill at that point. I cannot understand this complete inability to make small adjustments. If something is slightly overperforming (which, with its 7s uptime I don't think intensive mender is) they can't seem to just dial it down one notch, they have to bury it and spit on its grave.

kringled_1

Sea, was there a reliable and timely indicator when the ghost died, or did it just poof and the ability timer kept going?
It's clearly not going to be part of the necro tank toolkit like this, just asking for use in other areas.

LukosCreyden

Without this skill, Necro is 100% going to be non-viable for solo play in pve or pvp.
Definitely a huge blow to tanks, too.
The nerf need major adjustments, whilst also keeping the skill identity.

Also, whilst you're doing stuff with Necro, could you maybe adjust skulls a little? They really are not very good as a spammable, and it seems we will be using our spammables a lot soon, if the DoT changes make it to live.

CameraBeardThePirate

A_hab wrote: »

I play stamcro in pvp and this change is devastating---reducing healing by 48% is just...what? Just delete the skill at that point. I cannot understand this complete inability to make small adjustments. If something is slightly overperforming (which, with its 7s uptime I don't think intensive mender is) they can't seem to just dial it down one notch, they have to bury it and spit on its grave.

Intensive mender DID need adjustment - most necro players will agree with that. It was super overtuned and even being nerfed by almost 50% will still be a good skill. Plus, it's the best and most reliable way to generate corpses since you can make one every 4 seconds.

Guardian is the thing most players are taking issue with. Allowing it to die and calling it a "fix" is pretty laughable, especially considering its been untouched for 3 years and if anything just needed a slight nerf to the mitigation % - say, down to 7% or 5% or so.

CameraBeardThePirate

A lot of people complaining about the Intensive Mender nerf are missing the point - that morph absolutely needed a nerf. A HoT that healed for almost the same tooltip as resistant flesh every 2 seconds was crazy. What's worse is that a lot of players, necro and otherwise, don't even realize that the healing from intensive mender doesn't show up on BG scoreboards. I was regularly getting 600k healing in sweatier matches from that skill alone - that's pretty overtuned.

The guardian change is what I take issue with. There's no point in having a mitigation skill that you can't effectively keep up when you need it most.

FrankonPC

mender 100% needed a nerf. I was getting 10-12k heal ticks in cp with it, every 2 seconds. that's crazy for a hot.

a heal reduction was 100% justified for both imo, but a mitigation skill dying with such a little health threshold makes it worthless in comparison to other skills. just run revealing flare if you want 10% mitigation on that bar.

A_hab

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

A_hab wrote: »

I play stamcro in pvp and this change is devastating---reducing healing by 48% is just...what? Just delete the skill at that point. I cannot understand this complete inability to make small adjustments. If something is slightly overperforming (which, with its 7s uptime I don't think intensive mender is) they can't seem to just dial it down one notch, they have to bury it and spit on its grave.

Intensive mender DID need adjustment - most necro players will agree with that. It was super overtuned and even being nerfed by almost 50% will still be a good skill. Plus, it's the best and most reliable way to generate corpses since you can make one every 4 seconds.

Guardian is the thing most players are taking issue with. Allowing it to die and calling it a "fix" is pretty laughable, especially considering its been untouched for 3 years and if anything just needed a slight nerf to the mitigation % - say, down to 7% or 5% or so.

I just disagree. Maybe intensive mender sounds overtuned in a vacuum, but with the insane damage output that exists in pvp right now, especially with oakensoul, mender's healing is not too high imo, especially when compared to things like coag that can keep a DK spamming 30k+ heals every gcd.

thadjarvis

For PvE tanking as people point out it has so little utility in tough encounters that's not worth the GCD/skill slot. Eg if I want mitigation slotting stance and/or flare would be way more effective. The healing is useless because it won't last.


The corollary is for any PvE tanking instance in which the Guardian does stay up is an encounter in which a single main heal is more than enough to survive. So, again it's a waste of a skill slot. Only use then would it be used for corpses, but blast bones would be the easier to manage skill in those cases.


If this was deemed OP for PvE tanks nerf the mitigation down a bit to say 5%. If that's still too strong for PvP then just have the mitigation apply to "monsters".

The whole failing guardian idea even if buffed to make it useful would still be an overly complex skill, which is not beginner friendly in use and determining if it's good to slot per situation.

Tevalicious

sabresandiego_ESO wrote: »

10% un-named damage reduction has been way too OP for way too long. This is coming from a pvp Stam necro main. This nerf is well deserved

PvP necro main here. I disagree 100%. Necro is already nerfed in cyro do to blast bones being a super weird skill (great in duels and PvE tho). Thus, Necro in pvp is really only good for its harmony graves. What makes this possible is the tankiness from ghost. Necro has to be able to survive between grave cooldowns in order to be successful.
Duels is a different story, but the healing morph is bis for duels anyway.

Tevalicious

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

Xuhora wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Xuhora wrote: »

am i getting this wrong? The guardian takes 10% of the dmg recieved thrue the necro, so that means for it to die the necro has to take 30k dmg? thats what the patchnotes say? but all you replies indicate that this is not right?

edit for strange typos

No this is correct. 30k damage to the necro means the Guardian takes 3k damage, which really isn't a lot at all. That's basically a single heavy attack from a boss in PvE or a single burst combo from a player in PvP.

yeah but again....3k dmg TO THE GUARDIAN which in terms is 30k dmg to THE NECRO. right?right?

Yes. I think people understand, they're just freaking out because they're used to Spirit Guardian mitigating virtually unlimited damage and even the most reasonable nerf is "the worst thing ever" to the ESO forum crowd.

My favorite part in this instance are the people comparing it to a 3k damage shield (on top of the guardian's healing). How big do they think other damage shields are? It might be a little on the weak side because it doesn't scale, but it's not nearly as bad as people are making it sound. Try comparing it to the bonus DK's Igneous Shield (another group "heal" with a self defense morph bonus) gets over Obsidian Shield.

Please lets compare it to DK shield. DK gets a small shield on the whole group and the caster gets major mending for a duration. Necro will now have a small amount of mitigation only on themselves with an even smaller heal every 2 seconds. Which one really needs the nerf?

the1andonlyskwex

Tevalicious wrote: »

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

Xuhora wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Xuhora wrote: »

am i getting this wrong? The guardian takes 10% of the dmg recieved thrue the necro, so that means for it to die the necro has to take 30k dmg? thats what the patchnotes say? but all you replies indicate that this is not right?

edit for strange typos

No this is correct. 30k damage to the necro means the Guardian takes 3k damage, which really isn't a lot at all. That's basically a single heavy attack from a boss in PvE or a single burst combo from a player in PvP.

yeah but again....3k dmg TO THE GUARDIAN which in terms is 30k dmg to THE NECRO. right?right?

Yes. I think people understand, they're just freaking out because they're used to Spirit Guardian mitigating virtually unlimited damage and even the most reasonable nerf is "the worst thing ever" to the ESO forum crowd.

My favorite part in this instance are the people comparing it to a 3k damage shield (on top of the guardian's healing). How big do they think other damage shields are? It might be a little on the weak side because it doesn't scale, but it's not nearly as bad as people are making it sound. Try comparing it to the bonus DK's Igneous Shield (another group "heal" with a self defense morph bonus) gets over Obsidian Shield.

Please lets compare it to DK shield. DK gets a small shield on the whole group and the caster gets major mending for a duration. Necro will now have a small amount of mitigation only on themselves with an even smaller heal every 2 seconds. Which one really needs the nerf?

Each HoT tick from Spirit Guardian is about the same size as Igneous Shield's one-time group shield. DK may be strong, but it's not because of Igneous Shield.

Hotdog_23

A_hab wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

A_hab wrote: »

I play stamcro in pvp and this change is devastating---reducing healing by 48% is just...what? Just delete the skill at that point. I cannot understand this complete inability to make small adjustments. If something is slightly overperforming (which, with its 7s uptime I don't think intensive mender is) they can't seem to just dial it down one notch, they have to bury it and spit on its grave.

Intensive mender DID need adjustment - most necro players will agree with that. It was super overtuned and even being nerfed by almost 50% will still be a good skill. Plus, it's the best and most reliable way to generate corpses since you can make one every 4 seconds.

Guardian is the thing most players are taking issue with. Allowing it to die and calling it a "fix" is pretty laughable, especially considering its been untouched for 3 years and if anything just needed a slight nerf to the mitigation % - say, down to 7% or 5% or so.

I just disagree. Maybe intensive mender sounds overtuned in a vacuum, but with the insane damage output that exists in pvp right now, especially with oakensoul, mender's healing is not too high imo, especially when compared to things like coag that can keep a DK spamming 30k+ heals every gcd.

Not a good example
Intensive Mender cost for 4 heals is 2160 mag
Coagulating Blood cost for 4 heals is 13280 mag, not to mention you are missing out on 3 GCD, that a Necro can do other stuff like attack or apply a second heal. Granted the heal can be bigger as you stated, and Mender can target others but again look at the magic cost and freedom of 3 more GCD.

Intensive Mender
Target: Self
Cost: 2160
Skill description
Conjure a ghostly spirit to do your bidding and stay by your side for 8 seconds. The spirit heals you or the lowest Health ally around you every 2 seconds, restoring 2742 Health. Creates a corpse on death.
New effect
The spirit heals for twice the amount but lasts half as long and costs half as much.

Coagulating Blood
Target: Self
Cost: 4320
Skill description
Draw on your draconic blood to heal for 2999, increasing by up to 50% additional healing based on your missing Health. You also gain Major Fortitude, increasing your Health Recovery by 30% for 20 seconds.
New effect
Now heals based on your offensive stats rather than Health and increases the amount of healing based on your missing Health.

Tooltips from https://eso-skillbook.com/

Stay safe

Cuddlypuff

Necro is such a poorly designed class in PVP and it is simply not enjoyable to play despite it's niche powers. Harmony is just too strong in group play that it is pretty much mandatory in small scale PVP.
1. It is soooooooooooo slow. Especially in our current build where we don't run a gap closer or Race Against Time, the slow movement is tilting every time we have to chase or retreat.
2. Playing around corpse generation locks you into a static playstyle, which does not work when heavily outnumbered. We don't even run any corpse mechanics anymore. So much for class identity.
3. Blastbones targeting AI is tragic. Just so so bad and not recommended for anyone with high blood pressure.
4. Even the signature skill (graverobber synergy) has some weird inconsistent synergy delay, which may not be a dealbreaker but is still incredibly frustrating.

Long story short, we have to run a necro due to it's ability to maximize Harmony, yet we both hate playing it.

Hotdog_23

Tevalicious wrote: »

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

Xuhora wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Xuhora wrote: »

am i getting this wrong? The guardian takes 10% of the dmg recieved thrue the necro, so that means for it to die the necro has to take 30k dmg? thats what the patchnotes say? but all you replies indicate that this is not right?

edit for strange typos

No this is correct. 30k damage to the necro means the Guardian takes 3k damage, which really isn't a lot at all. That's basically a single heavy attack from a boss in PvE or a single burst combo from a player in PvP.

yeah but again....3k dmg TO THE GUARDIAN which in terms is 30k dmg to THE NECRO. right?right?

Yes. I think people understand, they're just freaking out because they're used to Spirit Guardian mitigating virtually unlimited damage and even the most reasonable nerf is "the worst thing ever" to the ESO forum crowd.

My favorite part in this instance are the people comparing it to a 3k damage shield (on top of the guardian's healing). How big do they think other damage shields are? It might be a little on the weak side because it doesn't scale, but it's not nearly as bad as people are making it sound. Try comparing it to the bonus DK's Igneous Shield (another group "heal" with a self defense morph bonus) gets over Obsidian Shield.

Please lets compare it to DK shield. DK gets a small shield on the whole group and the caster gets major mending for a duration. Necro will now have a small amount of mitigation only on themselves with an even smaller heal every 2 seconds. Which one really needs the nerf?

Again, look at the cost vs each other.

Intensive Mender is 2160, for up to a 3k shield, with a very nice heal associate with it vs. Igneous Shield cost of 4050 with no heal but major mending. The group shield is basically useless. I bet most DK’s would trade you Igneous for Mender any day.

Intensive Mender
Target: Self
Cost: 2160
Skill description
Conjure a ghostly spirit to do your bidding and stay by your side for 8 seconds. The spirit heals you or the lowest Health ally around you every 2 seconds, restoring 2742 Health. Creates a corpse on death.
New effect
The spirit heals for twice the amount but lasts half as long and costs half as much.

Igneous Shield
Target: Area
Cost: 4050
Skill description
Call the earth to your defense, granting a damage shield for nearby allies that absorbs 1365 damage. Your own damage shield absorbs 3414 damage. This portion of the ability scales off your Max Health. You also gain Major Mending, increasing your healing done by 16% for 2.5 seconds.
New effect
Increased shield strength on self.

Tooltips from https://eso-skillbook.com/

KeiRaikon

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

Yes. I think people understand, they're just freaking out because they're used to Spirit Guardian mitigating virtually unlimited damage and even the most reasonable nerf is "the worst thing ever" to the ESO forum crowd.

The problem is that this is a healing skill that had defensive utility and now its not really a healing skill. Between its healing being halved as well as the spirit not being able to last the entire duration the morph is pretty dead. I'd much rather have a strong lengthy HoT with no secondary benefit then a mediocre HoT that gives damage mitigation but I have to cast every 5 seconds.

I think what they should have done is nerf the intensive mender healing by 33% instead of 50% and nerf Spirit Guairdians heal by like 15-20% and reduced the mitigation to 5%

Snow_White

The base tooltips don’t tell the whole story. These are off the live server and the characters aren’t fully buffed (numbers would scale higher with Minor Toughness factored in). Checked both in Sax/PA/Encratis for consistency.

Guardian - 3117 every 2 seconds, 10% mitigation

Scythe - 5127 burst (assuming single target), 683 per second for 5 seconds hot


Igneous - 8145 over 8 second self, 3258 group + Major mending

GDB - 34% missing health (up to 12.9k burst on a nearly dead 38k tank) + Major fortitude, endurance and vitality for 23 seconds

GDB goes up to 39% (up to 14.8k burst) if you proc igneous before GDB.

My goal isn’t to argue one is better or worse that the other, but they both produce a different style of gameplay. Loosing the mender and having to rely on a burst heal with tiny hot that only works in melee range kinda sucks. As a off tank, I see my ability to self sustain without being babysat by a healer being limited with this change.

KeiRaikon

Also Hotdog you're comparing the wrong morph. If were going by ESO - skillbook Spirit Guardian cost 4320 and only heals 1370 every 2 seconds not 2742 plus on pts those numbers are halved so it would really more like 700 every 2 seconds. Also I don't think Shield and Guardian are even comparable in the first place they serve very different functions.

LukosCreyden

The problem with Necromancer is that it has a couple very powerful, but two-dimensional, gimmicks. Whilst these gimmicks remain as strong as they are, I feel that necro will not receive any fair or positove balancing. Its a real shame, as neceo has a lot of areas that could use help, but they get ignored.

Hotdog_23

KeiRaikon wrote: »

Also Hotdog you're comparing the wrong morph. If were going by ESO - skillbook Spirit Guardian cost 4320 and only heals 1370 every 2 seconds not 2742 plus on pts those numbers are halved so it would really more like 700 every 2 seconds. Also I don't think Shield and Guardian are even comparable in the first place they serve very different functions.

You are correct I was pigging/copying back off my other comment and looked at the wrong tooltip. But the skill heals 8 times now instead of 4 which is probably why the cost is doubled.

Spirit Guardian tooltip for clarity

Target: Self
Cost: 4320
Skill description
Conjure a ghostly spirit to do your bidding and stay by your side for 16 seconds. The spirit heals you or the lowest Health ally around you every 2 seconds, restoring 1370 Health. While active 10% of the damage you take is transferred to the spirit instead. Creates a corpse on death.
New effect
Some of the damage you take is transferred to the spirit instead.

Stay safe

Rhavein

the best solution is to keep the spirit unkillable as it used to be and nerf the healing, if the skill is too much. every necro would agree intensive mender was very strong and deserved the nerf but spirit guardian is opposite.

Horny_Poney

PVE necro heal here, using the Spirit Guardian morph.

I wouldn't care much with only the heal value halved, as it is already pretty low and unpredictable. But the 30k heath (disguised as a bug fix) makes it not worthy of a slot, it would die in few seconds most of the time, removing the magica regen then. I guess I will use one of the skeletal pets instead, dealing damage instead of providing mitigation... Slotting a dps skill is not what I expected 😑

I don't understand this habit of nerfing things that are not issues. Why not also give a 30k health bar to the Skeletal Mage while at it? 🙄

YandereGirlfriend

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

Xuhora wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Xuhora wrote: »

am i getting this wrong? The guardian takes 10% of the dmg recieved thrue the necro, so that means for it to die the necro has to take 30k dmg? thats what the patchnotes say? but all you replies indicate that this is not right?

edit for strange typos

No this is correct. 30k damage to the necro means the Guardian takes 3k damage, which really isn't a lot at all. That's basically a single heavy attack from a boss in PvE or a single burst combo from a player in PvP.

yeah but again....3k dmg TO THE GUARDIAN which in terms is 30k dmg to THE NECRO. right?right?

Yes. I think people understand, they're just freaking out because they're used to Spirit Guardian mitigating virtually unlimited damage and even the most reasonable nerf is "the worst thing ever" to the ESO forum crowd.

My favorite part in this instance are the people comparing it to a 3k damage shield (on top of the guardian's healing). How big do they think other damage shields are? It might be a little on the weak side because it doesn't scale, but it's not nearly as bad as people are making it sound. Try comparing it to the bonus DK's Igneous Shield (another group "heal" with a self defense morph bonus) gets over Obsidian Shield.

Only those with an axe to grind against Necromancers would think that this is a reasonable adjustment to the skill.

For damage shields, in Ravenwatch a typical shield is like 6-8k for non-Sorcs and 10-12k on a Magicka-stacking Sorc. I would imagine in CP Land you can easily hit 15k and above. Meanwhile, the Mender does not scale with any CP or stats so it would be basically a 1/2 strength damage shield in the best-case scenario in Ravenwatch to about 1/5 or 1/6 strength damage shield in CP. Yep, that sounds balanced to me.

Further, think about the PvE tanks that use this skill, what exactly are they supposed to do with it lasting 2-3 GCDs while taking damage? This change renders the skill unusable for them.

So to recap, we have this skill being basically a poor man's poor man's damage shield in PvP and then straight-up unslottable in PvE while doing any non-trivial content. Sounds like a very balanced change.

the1andonlyskwex

YandereGirlfriend wrote: »

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

Xuhora wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Xuhora wrote: »

am i getting this wrong? The guardian takes 10% of the dmg recieved thrue the necro, so that means for it to die the necro has to take 30k dmg? thats what the patchnotes say? but all you replies indicate that this is not right?

edit for strange typos

No this is correct. 30k damage to the necro means the Guardian takes 3k damage, which really isn't a lot at all. That's basically a single heavy attack from a boss in PvE or a single burst combo from a player in PvP.

yeah but again....3k dmg TO THE GUARDIAN which in terms is 30k dmg to THE NECRO. right?right?

Yes. I think people understand, they're just freaking out because they're used to Spirit Guardian mitigating virtually unlimited damage and even the most reasonable nerf is "the worst thing ever" to the ESO forum crowd.

My favorite part in this instance are the people comparing it to a 3k damage shield (on top of the guardian's healing). How big do they think other damage shields are? It might be a little on the weak side because it doesn't scale, but it's not nearly as bad as people are making it sound. Try comparing it to the bonus DK's Igneous Shield (another group "heal" with a self defense morph bonus) gets over Obsidian Shield.

Only those with an axe to grind against Necromancers would think that this is a reasonable adjustment to the skill.

For damage shields, in Ravenwatch a typical shield is like 6-8k for non-Sorcs and 10-12k on a Magicka-stacking Sorc. I would imagine in CP Land you can easily hit 15k and above. Meanwhile, the Mender does not scale with any CP or stats so it would be basically a 1/2 strength damage shield in the best-case scenario in Ravenwatch to about 1/5 or 1/6 strength damage shield in CP. Yep, that sounds balanced to me.

Further, think about the PvE tanks that use this skill, what exactly are they supposed to do with it lasting 2-3 GCDs while taking damage? This change renders the skill unusable for them.

So to recap, we have this skill being basically a poor man's poor man's damage shield in PvP and then straight-up unslottable in PvE while doing any non-trivial content. Sounds like a very balanced change.

You can't compare the damage reduction to a whole damage shield, you have to compare it to the increase in shield size that the shield skill gets from being morphed. Remember, you're getting damage reduction on top of the healing you get from the base skill.

Holycannoli

Xuhora wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Xuhora wrote: »

am i getting this wrong? The guardian takes 10% of the dmg recieved thrue the necro, so that means for it to die the necro has to take 30k dmg? thats what the patchnotes say? but all you replies indicate that this is not right?

edit for strange typos

No this is correct. 30k damage to the necro means the Guardian takes 3k damage, which really isn't a lot at all. That's basically a single heavy attack from a boss in PvE or a single burst combo from a player in PvP.

yeah but again....3k dmg TO THE GUARDIAN which in terms is 30k dmg to THE NECRO. right?right?

Yes, and 30k damage is nothing. That's a few seconds at the absolute most in any situation where you'd actually want that damage mitigation.

YandereGirlfriend

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

YandereGirlfriend wrote: »

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

Xuhora wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Xuhora wrote: »

am i getting this wrong? The guardian takes 10% of the dmg recieved thrue the necro, so that means for it to die the necro has to take 30k dmg? thats what the patchnotes say? but all you replies indicate that this is not right?

edit for strange typos

No this is correct. 30k damage to the necro means the Guardian takes 3k damage, which really isn't a lot at all. That's basically a single heavy attack from a boss in PvE or a single burst combo from a player in PvP.

yeah but again....3k dmg TO THE GUARDIAN which in terms is 30k dmg to THE NECRO. right?right?

Yes. I think people understand, they're just freaking out because they're used to Spirit Guardian mitigating virtually unlimited damage and even the most reasonable nerf is "the worst thing ever" to the ESO forum crowd.

My favorite part in this instance are the people comparing it to a 3k damage shield (on top of the guardian's healing). How big do they think other damage shields are? It might be a little on the weak side because it doesn't scale, but it's not nearly as bad as people are making it sound. Try comparing it to the bonus DK's Igneous Shield (another group "heal" with a self defense morph bonus) gets over Obsidian Shield.

Only those with an axe to grind against Necromancers would think that this is a reasonable adjustment to the skill.

For damage shields, in Ravenwatch a typical shield is like 6-8k for non-Sorcs and 10-12k on a Magicka-stacking Sorc. I would imagine in CP Land you can easily hit 15k and above. Meanwhile, the Mender does not scale with any CP or stats so it would be basically a 1/2 strength damage shield in the best-case scenario in Ravenwatch to about 1/5 or 1/6 strength damage shield in CP. Yep, that sounds balanced to me.

Further, think about the PvE tanks that use this skill, what exactly are they supposed to do with it lasting 2-3 GCDs while taking damage? This change renders the skill unusable for them.

So to recap, we have this skill being basically a poor man's poor man's damage shield in PvP and then straight-up unslottable in PvE while doing any non-trivial content. Sounds like a very balanced change.

You can't compare the damage reduction to a whole damage shield, you have to compare it to the increase in shield size that the shield skill gets from being morphed. Remember, you're getting damage reduction on top of the healing you get from the base skill.

You mean the now-mediocre HoT that ends as soon as the Mender dies (which will be quickly)?

That doesn't really strengthen the argument that this skill isn't functionally useless.