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

Namarkas · July 2019

I mean I get the general direction with those changes, steamlining all ground AoE over time abilites so they behave the same. But orbs are unique in a way that they are slowly traveling (even slower with the changes), limiting it to 1 orb at a time simply doesn't work the way they behave. The only way where this could work is if they completly changed the orb to become like springs, a stationary hot I can spawn within 28 meters. This way synergy supply is still slower but managable I guess, and the heal can be controlled and works the moment I need it.

AWinterWolf · July 2019

As a healer, this change is disgusting, I hope it doesn't go live and if it does, I'm seriously considering leaving this game.

Druid40 · July 2019

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

jetplane_18 · July 2019

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...

Instant · July 2019

These changes are probably part of the planned performance improvement.
Just imagine how many CPU operations you can save by limiting it to 1 active effect at a time.

Druid40 · July 2019

It seems like groups will have to vary their synergies.

Destruent · July 2019

Great writeup, those healing changes look kinda strange....

caperon · July 2019

The impression I get is that ZOS wants to change the healing from preventive (hot stacking) to reactive (use active skills after the damage). The main problem with this is that the game design in pve doesn't allow this with dd players, only with tanks. If you try to reactive heal the dd they will all die before you can heal them. Not getting hot healed after the spheres explode on vCr? Ded from the dot. Get an atro on your head on Lokkestiz and not hot healed? Ded from random damage. Get a missile on your head in vHoF and not hot healed? Ded, ded, ded. I foresee lot of deads. As the notes stand, im curious if healers can output enought healing to heal Sanctum HM poison mecanic.

Anhedonie · July 2019

As magicka necromancer I already have troubles with sustain in trials and only exceptionally good healers can somehow mitigate it. If that change goes live, I doubt even they will be able to help.

Destruent · July 2019

Anhedonie wrote: »

As magicka necromancer I already have troubles with sustain in trials and only exceptionally good healers can somehow mitigate it. If that change goes live, I doubt even they will be able to help.

you can use soul trap and degeneration for more magicka-return...don't just pick one change, look at them as a whole package.

perditioner · July 2019

It's been hinted at, but to be clear this also has the effect of making templar healers more mandatory for sustain of dd's as they can provide two synergies at once. I thought the idea going forward was to support other classes in healing so any class can, not suddenly making all other classes half as effective.

Cage_Lizardman · July 2019

BlissfulDelusions wrote: »

Furthermore, but as an aside, Grand Healing in its current form is a necessary HoT for many veteran trial scenarios, including but not limited to; the vAA Mage execute phase, the Assembly General execute phase, the Lokkestiiz post-beam phase and the Zhaj'hassa shield phase. If this change is pushed for, healing will become considerably harder not just for the top dog meta chasers, but for the more casual players, too. Progression groups that enjoy the challenge of completing vet trials on their normal settings will be pushed out of the picture entirely, and this will ultimately lead to a bigger divide between the top players and and lower ranks of the endgame PvE community.

Yep, it will make healing harder in trials. I know I'm able to heal through the shield phase in vMol mostly just spamming springs, even if the other healer is dead. Problem with that type of mechanic is you need strong heals that hit everyone in a large area since people can't stack. You'd probably have to use a combination of abilities to get the same effect, or have both healers alive.

I'm sure there's people who think vMol is too easy and see this as a good change. I don't think so. It's quite hard enough for us more casual players to find groups and time to do vet trials that aren't just three hours of wiping.

Kolzki · July 2019

Destruent wrote: »

Anhedonie wrote: »

As magicka necromancer I already have troubles with sustain in trials and only exceptionally good healers can somehow mitigate it. If that change goes live, I doubt even they will be able to help.

you can use soul trap and degeneration for more magicka-return...don't just pick one change, look at them as a whole package.

Joy, a third skill that returns magicka on light attacks for my magblade. I don’t think I’ll be getting much magicka out of soul trap on vet trial bosses though.

Katinas · July 2019

One orb active at a time is an absurd proposed change, especially with one Grand Healing active especially with an increased duration especially more than doubled duration. Who asked for an 8 second duration now that you can have just one active at a time? There are already skills that act as ground heal over times with similar duration. DSA staff is now useless, the skill that has been a "spammable" for five years is now a skill that you as a healer don't want to use at at a time fearing it will be unfortunate timing and placing because you cannot refresh the duration and place when you need to place it in a better spot. Would stamina DDs be happy if they could not refresh their Endless Hails and Caltrops in a new location if they wanted to, or magicka DDs could not replace their ground based skills? Well, now healers will be in this unwanted situation if this absurd change goes live.

Proposed solutions: Keep Grand Healing and its morphs untouched, allowing you to refresh their place and duration at will, keep the durations as they are. Use Regeneration skill to implement the proposed changes by making the skill a non refreshable duration skill that heals the caster and one closest ally to the caster. Mutagen, if it healed an ally (or caster) under 20%, would refresh the duration allowing the skill to be casted even if the full duration did not run fully.

Destruent · July 2019

Kolzki wrote: »

Destruent wrote: »

Anhedonie wrote: »

As magicka necromancer I already have troubles with sustain in trials and only exceptionally good healers can somehow mitigate it. If that change goes live, I doubt even they will be able to help.

you can use soul trap and degeneration for more magicka-return...don't just pick one change, look at them as a whole package.

Joy, a third skill that returns magicka on light attacks for my magblade. I don’t think I’ll be getting much magicka out of soul trap on vet trial bosses though.

There are only a few without any Adds. This morph affects 2 targets.

Andarnor · July 2019

I'm sick of these nerfs. Really. As a Healer for five years, i go through many changes. Good and bad ones. The most ridiculous is this one. For most DLC dungeons and raids ALL players can never be in the same place. You are always on the move. Stamina is barely enough as a healer now, because you are constantly sprinting back and forth to heal all and avoid all mechanics. The tank is never in the group and the off-tank is often very far away with any Adds. Only one springs and only one orb is ridiculous. Mutagen only affects one person and costs more, with 12 people about 30k Magika. As a Templar, you can use the Purifying Ritual, higher healing, but also static, not useful for mechanics where everyone is on the move. Breath of life as a spam-heal? Lol, yes, Magika bye bye.
Combatprayer is similarly expensive and heals only six people. All in all, it is a slap in the face for all healers, especially in four-dungeons, one will now consider carefully whether they are needed at all, if they can not even provide reasonable support.
The Content they put out doesn't fit to their changes. More and more Damage from Mobs, more Movement but less Damage and heals. Because of what? PVP?
So endcontent is only for a handful of players. Now, with a good heal and a good tank, you get the mechanics clean when the DD's "only" make 40k damage. But you just need healing and support. What do such groups do then? Give up two more DD's and take more healers? Can't understand why they do that

(sorry for bad english)

DBZVelena · July 2019

I agree this is one change that needs to go back to the drawing board.

Jaimeh · July 2019

It's a terrible change, most healers already have issues providing adequate orbs on synergy cooldown, the new popping requirement will make resource management a nightmare, and synergy trackers will be absolutely mandaroty. Timing issues aside though, overall sustain will definitely suffer, and like the OP mentioned, sets that require synergies for their bonus effect, will also take a hit. Moreover, orbs were a convenient way for providing healing 'pre-loaded', and also heal and return of resources to players further away or to players who have to be separated from the group due to mechanics. Imagine not being a templar healer, thus not having shards, and wanting to send an orb to the OT who needs resources, but happens to be separated from the group because he is holding adds further away: you'll have to wait for the orb to travel to them so they can pop it, before you can send another one to the group--what kind of logistic fresh hell is that? Finally, this change is also an indirect nerf to the Asylum restostation staff; if orbs can't be cast in rapid succession, there is no need using that weapon, and players who worked hard to acquire it, will have no use for it anymore.

Divoria · July 2019

Stormitor 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.

Well said, I mean took all the words out of my mouth, what I will add is just situations that will be close to imposible, and honestly can't even imagine how less exp Healers will be dealing with this.

Lets start with vAS, I can't imagine myself being anyhow able to envelop all 8 DD's with 1 healing spring and 1 orb, it is just imposible, someone will come at this with an argument: but Storm they buff the *** out of Rapid regen / Mutagen. Well yes they do, but unlike Healing Springs and Orbs we can't control on what target muatgen goes.

then we have vCR, the amount of layered healing that we have to do to be able to outheal a person that is carrying the Ice and has sphere dots on him will turn into a certain death every single time that a person will find themselfs into that situation, the worse part is with the Healing debuff in execute phase, 1 Spring and 1 Orb from each healer will never ever be enough to get people up from the healing debuff.

Then we are going into older trials, vAA, the Stone Attro starts stomping we will be death, Call lightning = death, the mage on HM execute = death

vSO, all the poison, the call lightnings, for this one I am even scared to think about the situation

vHRC, first boss with all the winds = death, Warrior meteor shower = death

vMoL last boss , vHoF first boss, last boss, vBRP with the high incoming damage.

A lot of situations may seems so easy because of the healing that we are layering and with the change on Grand Healing and Orbs won't be posible at all anymore, a few groups will find a way, we always do ( the ones that don't quit playing ) and the rest of the Players that don't have the experience needed will end up never clearing Trials, it is a long step from Making Healers more effective into making them utter garbage.

I hope the devs will have enough sense to listen to players (such as Storm and Anima) who know what they're talking about, because they spend the majority of their time ingame, healing.

In most cases when ZOS proposes changes, be it good changes, buffs, nerfs or pointless changes, we adjust and move on. This is not the case, because there is no SOUND reasoning behind this. None. I play with good healers in my guild and they DO NOT just spam springs and/or orbs. They work hard to buff their DDs, give them sustain, debuff the bosses and keep everyone alive, because this is what is needed if you want your group to clear hard content.

There is so much work to be done as a healer, especially in more challenging content such as vHOF last boss HM, vAS HM, vCR +1/2/3 etc. The amount of incoming damage and debuffs players are getting in certain content cannot be healed reactively. Maybe top players in this game will learn to live these changes, and optimize their group in such a way that they can still clear HM DLC trials, but you're absolutely annulling any chance for progression groups to clear the hardest content. And you haven't even said why. This is not the way to go, ZOS. You're gonna lose people. Don't stand in stupid.

Benzux · July 2019

The healing changes were abysmal, though my main issue is the change to Regeneration:

Only hits one target per cast? Yeah, this is not even useful in 4-player dungeons any more. And Rapid Regeneration lasts for 5 seconds, which means it's pretty much a spammable now if you want your group to benefit from the strong HoT. And I know most people who use Regen will go with Mutagen anyway, but the cost increase, duration reduction and the 1-ally-per-cast change hits Mutagen pretty hard as well.

The Springs healing change I'm kinda fine with, but the other changes cannot go live like this.

Turtilla · July 2019

Like so many experienced people have already said, the changes are plain stupid. Not to mention that the damage nerfs are badly thought through, the healing changes are insane. I was honestly wondering if I am still dreaming when I read the patch notes after waking up.

Nerfing the two main healing abilities into oblivion is not the way to go. For dungeons good groups already do not run healers, so the changes to these skills will not affect how easy it is for the good groups to complete the dungeons. It will only make it more difficult for the beginner groups.

Now, healers are crucial in veteran trials. However, as much as emergency healing is useful there every once in a while, it is mostly buffing (Combat Prayer, Olorime, Warhorn) and debuffing (Ele Drain, PotL, Infal) the enemies, and providing heals while there is a lot of damage on the group. And there you HAVE to spam heals. I may be far from being a top endgame player, but I have completed everything on vet, and I do not see how I could heal my groups through any of the trials without springs or orbs.
I mean:

vAA - overcharge, stone atro stomp, final boss execute
vHRC - shia storm, generally hardmode there
vSO - overcharge, poison phase on the final boss
vMoL - first boss shield phase, barrage (with a less experienced tank)
vHoF - (haven't done this in a while) execute on the final boss and probably quite a few other fights
vAS - whatever hell breaks loose there, on frontkiter I actually wouldn't use these skills as much, but I think backkiter would not be happy with the nerfs
vCR - especially +something, the fight with Z'Maja will be insane, it requires a lot of constant healing, not just emergency heals
vSS - ice tombs on Lokke, atro phases on Lokke, stacking on Yolnakhriin, soul tear or whatever the name of it is on the final boss
and also also, vBRP in a less experienced group - the second arena is probably the most healing-intense stuff I've completed recently, I don't know how I'd be supposed to do it with these changes.

I understand the goal of making some stuff in the game difficult again. However, not only is it hitting the new players way harder than it is hitting the experienced ones, which widens the divide between them (and I think that's the opposite of what should be done), it is making some of the stuff literally impossible. If you're nerfing DDs, don't nerf the support too. With overall less DPS they will actually need MORE sustain, not less.

I would not mind the changes to springs as much as long as they keep orbs as they were - possible to spam as many as I wish. Also, I find it super dumb that the HoT from springs would be decreased. The reason that people spammed them for was to have MORE HoT there. If they are supposed to be not spammable, please increase the healing provided, that would make them a viable HoT. Otherwise it's pretty trash.

I don't mind attempts at balancing the game. It needs a bit of it, the nonDLC stuff is way too easy compared to DLC. But this is most definitely not the way to go. I hope ZOS does notice the backlash.

Robin_the_Noble · July 2019

Lauren makes a solid point there. Although I’m not fazed by grand healing changes, orb change deeply concerns me, to the point that I’ve started questioning if I’m going to keep playing the game for longer if this goes to live.
I will give you guys an example from my perspective as someone that raids daily with multiple groups ranging from casuals to the score point/achievement hunting. Every skill in a healer’s bar can change EXCEPT for orbs. Orbs, in highly concentrated fights, end up doing up to 35-40% of our entire healing done. Considering all the buffs and debuffs we have to keep at all times, having orbs flying away while we take our hands off of healing skills to give our group some utilities is invaluable! The fact that it helps our group sustain every 20 seconds per person, helps tanks to debuff with alkosh set, makes it THE basic tool in our toolbox. I can assure you, the healing it does is not overturned and it will not cause any laziness for anybody. On the contrary, being able to keep great buff/debuff uptime while sending tons of orbs to keep your group well fed Shows the skill and experience level of a healer. Zos, you have made changes in the past by listening to your community when the outcry was big enough. As a veteran, battle hardened healer main let me tell you this, if that change goes to live, you’ll be killing one of the 3 roles completely. Please don’t let this fiasco become a reality.

WuffyCerulei · July 2019

It’s just gonna be near impossible to get the synergy you need if there’s only one out, especially in raids. You’ll have 10 other people (excluding yourself and the healer throwing the orb out) fighting over the orb for resources. Shards may help, but they’re stationary. It’s just beyond stupid.

ValorieW · July 2019

Tbh, if all these insane changes go live, I’m out. Literally the game will be unplayable, especially on console. So I won’t.

Lluanda · July 2019

I'm confused. I really don't understand how anyone could think this is a good idea in any way.

This will make progression so much harder. Taking away mass orb supply hurts all, but mostly those who optimised perfectly. Cutting down the heals will mostly hurt the less experienced players and groups. The combination of the two will ultimately hurt everyone.

There's just too much so terribly off this time I can't even get upset over it. It's honestly rather funny. The more I think about it the more it makes me laugh.
Maybe it is just time for me to let it go, save myself the frustration and invest in something else. 🤷‍♀️

AleTaras · July 2019

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.

Me and my guild playing on ps4 in pve end game since 2 years. Me and Shani agree with you @stileanima in everything. Zos dont know what they are doing. Also with healing springs, a lot of mechanics in this game needed, will be impossible without. But sustain from orbs is needed and even for the new set that we are using atm

@ZOS_GinaBruno pls considering our pov , or this game will be destroy for this change. Even change on aoe dot will be too much nerphs in terms of dps

AWinterWolf · July 2019

@ZOS_GinaBruno your customers are calling out for changes to be reversed, are any of you actually listening to us? These healing nerfs are ridiculous. Nerfing orbs like that, so you can have one? A fight for synergies in a trial where you need them most? They're not just used for healing, but for sustain, and these changes will be noticed and ZoS will lose customers over this.

Sanguinor2 · July 2019

This screams PvP nerfs. Springs and Orbs were the most commonly complained About heals from ball Groups.

Can Zos please finally sepparate PvE and PvP? These changes might nerf ball Groups yay, but they will be incredibly detrimental to PvE.

AWinterWolf · July 2019

Pvpers have no idea what it's like in pve, I'd say separate them, if you can, change what the skills do in pvp, but don't do it for pve. I'm hoping these patch notes are just someone's idea of a joke, but I won't hold my breath.

KatySpirit · July 2019

This is honestly the worst patch notes yet, when it was leaked I thought it was a joke. I guess that's an achievement. It's such a shame that they always ruin the excitement of new content with changes to existing abilities/passive/etc. that are so bad. I would love to just be excited about upcoming stuff...at this rate I'm not sure I will even play it. I main healers, so I won't be needed!