I'm not sure why they did to be honest. The expansion is only 19 days out. But a reaction is going to come whether it comes in response to a press release or to the actual release.
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It's an overall 10% DPS loss but it's an overall 20% heal buff if you want to look at it that way because when you switched to DPS mode with old Cleric you took a 20% heal nerf on top of swapping MND and INT. You also don't have to worry about it not toggling when you want it to because you're now always in DPS mode.
You press one button to use half of your skills, and you press it again to use the other half of your skills.
It's not freaking central to ANYTHING but lazy design.
i am still upset about MCH, and will probably never unlock it. i could understand how the concept applied to the BRD. wasn't very happy with it at first, due to the DRASTIC change in play-style required. but it never made any sense to do exactly the same with MCH as well. the concept doesn't even apply. whoever thought such a thing to be a good idea made a terrible mistake.
at any rate, the change to how healers and their MND and their damage is working sounds pretty good to me. i do think it is kind of dumbing it down a bit. however, i do pray this doesn't mean they are going to start contradicting some of their past statements. i mean about not designing content to be only completable if the healer should also do damage.
it would make it a lot easier for healers to contribute damage. i just hope that it doesn't impact how content is designed, and that they keep their current philosophy on that.
I'm so happy about this change I could cry tears of joy. But seriously more people are going to step into healing and dps with this change. I'm pretty sure there will be plenty of healers to take your place. On a side note they may buff CS. Nothing is set in stone. There are much bigger fish to fry than this when you actually take time to notice healers will still do decent damage with no risk.
I stance dance very well. Dps whenever I get a chance when healing. Glad it is gone?
OH HELL YES!
Even just to reapply my dots and go back to healing this is so much better from a gameplay perspective. This could let healers afraid to mess up using cleric stance dps more. Aside from one less button to press the "pro" healers will still play as they always have.