Benediction delay and CD needs to be fixed

How many times do we need to post in these forums until they actually fix Benediction? The animation for casting causes enough of a delay that often times it will bounce off your target and heal you instead (because your target is now dead of course). If this ability was a true instant cast, it would not "bounce" off your target but heal them to 100% and work as described. We were doing Garuda XM last night and it happened, like it has happened so many times before. It is so irritating to look down and see not only did your tank die but you now have the ridiculous 5 minute cool down on benediction. Which leads to point number 2. The cool down on Benediction is way way way too long. A reasonable CD for this ability would be 2 minutes, but 5 is just to long.

I just have two questions for you coming from someone who also plays WHM heals....

1. Why are you waiting to the point that a cast bar would be too long to throw a heal and also too long for the animation of Benediction to happen before you actually pop it? I agree, it says Instant and I get your frustration with it, but if you are waiting that long to pop it when you really should have popped it a GCD ago, the Tank was dying anyway. Also, I've had a Lustrate on my SCH hit 0 because I waited too long and the Tank died as I hit it, also Instant, but because I didn't allow for the animation, I was late.

2. Why is 5 minutes too long for an Instant heal to full ability? It forces you to use it properly. Also, it's by far the biggest heal in the game (if used on a Tank as it should be) and it is Instant. If you reduce the recast time for Benediction, you are basically shooting yourself in the foot as a WHM healer because you'd have to cut the potency of it in half or a little more than half to make it viable and even then, it would be the same thing as you have now essentially, just making the WHM class a bit OP with a potentially free 3-5k heal instantly every 2 mins (assuming you're using it on a tank who is fairly end-game geared).

I think the cast delay is fine, ridiculously strong abilities need some sort of draw back.

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Originally Posted by NRhodes

2. just making the WHM class a bit OP with a potentially free 3-5k heal instantly every 2 mins (assuming you're using it on a tank who is fairly end-game geared).

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*Cough* Lus- *cough* trate anyone?

Anyway, to answer the original question, it's actually not benediction delay, it's just the way the server works, it is the same as, you walk out of a red circle too late, but you do not take damage immediately, the damage is shown to you once the enemy attack animation is done.

You can test it out yourself using relatively long animation attacks (ADS laser/titan landslide) where the damage is shown long after the red aoe is gone, if a player does not have the hp to survive the laser/landslide, the red aoe is gone, and you cast your benediction on the player, he will still die, as far as the server knows, the player is already dead, it's just the visual feedback is slower for the player, due to the long ass attack animation.

The point of this post? I highly doubt SE can easily "reduce the delay between action and effect", so for people clamoring for the change, it's not gonna happen XD.

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Originally Posted by NRhodes

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Because sometimes a tank drops within a fraction of a second to a sliver of his/her HP? Also, if you use Lustrate like you just described then you are doing it wrong (I don't mean to be rude). Lustrate is not used like Benediction and short from happening what I described at the beginning you should use lustrate in between heals and not necessarily for emergencies.

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Originally Posted by NRhodes

2. Why is 5 minutes too long for an Instant heal to full ability? It forces you to use it properly. Also, it's by far the biggest heal in the game (if used on a Tank as it should be) and it is Instant. If you reduce the recast time for Benediction, you are basically shooting yourself in the foot as a WHM healer because you'd have to cut the potency of it in half or a little more than half to make it viable and even then, it would be the same thing as you have now essentially, just making the WHM class a bit OP with a potentially free 3-5k heal instantly every 2 mins (assuming you're using it on a tank who is fairly end-game geared).

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The fact is that we can't use it properly BECAUSE it is not instant. You are aware that Lustrate is a 75% heal every minute, right? In special cases it's even 150% Heal if you have another Aetherflow available. While lustrate has a short delay as well it casts way faster than Benediction.

Forum tip: You can edit your initial post to dodge the word count. No need to make several comments.

The benediction cool down is fine where it is, the problem with it is the animation. Just like before they fixed warrior the animation for overpower was long.

or just like they need to fix hallowed ground animation / CD usage. How many times have you seen on of you pal bitch because hallowed is on CD but he did not get the effect from it ?
or just like they need to fix holmang for its insane animation which makes it really hard to really time
or just like half the spells on bard, launch swiftwong, then once the cast is done, move.... O my god... no swift song... sorry players, you just did not wait for the animation to finish to getthe benefit from it... screw you SE, learn to code and put the animations IN the casting, not after
and so on
and so on

Sure the server lag is one thing, for those of you who played wow at start, they had the same problem, the casts / skills where after the animation and thus had a delay from the cast bar time. They fixed that within what ? 3 months ? But SE says, nope, works as intended.

This problem is bigger than just benediction, it concerns a ton of skills and spells.

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Originally Posted by Kyomih

The fact is that we can't use it properly BECAUSE it is not instant. You are aware that Lustrate is a 75% heal every minute, right? In special cases it's even 150% Heal if you have another Aetherflow available. While lustrate has a short delay as well it casts way faster than Benediction.

Forum tip: You can edit your initial post to dodge the word count. No need to make several comments.

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I have a WHM I've used in end-game content and have NEVER had a problem with Benediction. Also, Lustrate has a much smaller margin of saving the day than Benediction does, period.

Oh and forum tip: You can edit your post to remove unneeded remarks.

I don't mind the CD, but if the person I'm targeting dies I don't want the ability wasted on myself.

Don't even try to defend Benediction Animation delay

Lustrate is 3 charges upfront and the ability to have 3 in stock when benediction is only 1 use CD.... seriously can you stop posting now

This is a clumsy system with a bad excuse (instant cast ability!....*disclaimer its not really instant cast*)

Yeah, Lustrate is 3 charges up front, but if your SCH is played properly, there aren't a whole lot a situations where spamming (3) Lustrates on a Tank to make sure he doesn't die and then not having any for when you really need them would take the place of a single Benediction. WHMs are raid healers, simple as that. If they can help keep things alive by throwing a quick Benediction on the tank if the SCH gets behind, then by all means, do so. May give them time in order to build back of Aetherflow or whatever the case may be. Benediction was meant to be a 1-time use ability a fight for those "oh shit" moments you have in fights like Twintania, EX Primals, etc. Learn to time your heal and you'll be fine :).

The affect of benediction should be applied at the beginning of the animation rather than the end. You as a healer need to use it before your tank actually dies though. If you're waiting until hes at 100 hp you're setting yourself up for failure. The same thought goes for Hallowed ground from a paladins PoV.

Edit: If benediction "Bounces" what has actually happened is that you were so late casting the spell that your target was already dead and automatic self cast became enabled because you didn't have a valid target. So you should also re-think your benediction use parameters.

omg please stop defending the animation of benediction. if it was not meant as a "urgent heal" then there is no point to have it at all and as that the animation is way too long. of course i wish everything would go fine in raids and everyone is timing perfectly the heals and the CDs and the tank will never drop fast down.... but this just happens and thats what i would like to use benediction for. but it just happens too often that tank dies before it hits. with sch i never had this problem with lustrate. and lustrate is also a "life-saver" because this heal usually is enough to keep the tank from dying.
i rly wonder if you srsly played a whm NRhodes.... and if i wonder why you are defending this long animation.

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Originally Posted by Lodiodrive

The affect of benediction should be applied at the beginning of the animation rather than the end. You as a healer need to use it before your tank actually dies though. If you're waiting until hes at 100 hp you're setting yourself up for failure. The same thought goes for Hallowed ground from a paladins PoV.

Edit: If benediction "Bounces" what has actually happened is that you were so late casting the spell that your target was already dead and automatic self cast became enabled because you didn't have a valid target. So you should also re-think your benediction use parameters.

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Here's a question without divulging my opinion on this:

If you can plan for an oh shit moment, is it an oh shit moment?

ITT CNJs who see how broken a skill is and posting suggestions on how to fix it, and ACNs trying their hardest to shoot down every suggestion because they feel threatened by CNJ getting a slight fix.

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Originally Posted by NRhodes

I have a WHM I've used in end-game content and have NEVER had a problem with Benediction. Also, Lustrate has a much smaller margin of saving the day than Benediction does, period.

Oh and forum tip: You can edit your post to remove unneeded remarks.

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Lustrate saves the day far more often then Benediction does. It's much closer to instant and is generally all you NEED from an "oh no" heal, and is available 15 times as often.

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Originally Posted by NRhodes

I have a WHM I've used in end-game content and have NEVER had a problem with Benediction. Also, Lustrate has a much smaller margin of saving the day than Benediction does, period.

Oh and forum tip: You can edit your post to remove unneeded remarks.

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Others have tried to explain why lustrate is far superior to Benediction yet including me who plays both SCH and WHM in coil. Yet all you have to add to the conversation is snipe at me for trying to be helpful about the editing?
Well, ok then.

To the actual topic: I don't think a 2 minute CD is warranted. If they fix the animation so it's an actual instant cast I don't mind it being at 5 Minutes. The problem is that ie. if you get a double wheel, crit on Deathsentence, double DN crit or somesuch that reduces the tank to a sliver of his health a simple sneeze on him/her is going to kill her. The delay on Benediction vs lustrate is clearly in favor of Lustrate. There are no changes needed except for a skill on 5 minute CD it should indeed be instant.

benediction animation delay needs to be addressed period. too often i have seen the heal number pop up on screen yet the target still dies.

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Originally Posted by NRhodes

I have a WHM I've used in end-game content and have NEVER had a problem with Benediction.

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Uhuh. And I suppose you've never had any of your Plds swearing blind they hit Hallowed plenty early enough either? Don't get me wrong, now coil is entirely farm mode for my group it doesn't really bother us, but I can't even begin to think of how many times we wiped whilst learning Turn 4 due to Hallowed/Bene not going off in time. It's not a big delay, but it's there, it's noticeable and it's very frustrating. And I completely disagree regarding lustrate, remember that a Whm will want to hang on to that big cooldown for as long as they possibly can, whilst lustrate might not be nearly as big a hit, it's always there ready to be used and at the end of the day, as long as it keeps the tank up long enough for the healers to follow up with regular cures, it's achieved the same result.

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Originally Posted by Rona

I don't mind the CD, but if the person I'm targeting dies I don't want the ability wasted on myself.

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/micon "Benediction"
/ac "Benediction" <t>

Stops it from firing the ability on yourself if the target dies just as you hit it.

This doesn't just go for Benediction (although with Bene it's obviously more noticeable when it happens because it means someone just died); ALL abilities should get this fix. Cooldown should not start until the ability takes effect. Period. Also, "instant" should actually mean instant. Period.

Even FFXI got this stuff correct. There's no excuse for these to be issues 11 years later.

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Originally Posted by Fynlar

This doesn't just go for Benediction (although with Bene it's obviously more noticeable when it happens because it means someone just died); ALL abilities should get this fix. Cooldown should not start until the ability takes effect. Period. Also, "instant" should actually mean instant. Period.

Even FFXI got this stuff correct. There's no excuse for these to be issues 11 years later.

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Yea, Benediction delay really annoys me. Then I started leveling archer and noticed none of their "instant" abilities are actually instant.

Seems like in this game, instant really just means "usable while moving."

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Originally Posted by ChoedanKal

/micon "Benediction"
/ac "Benediction" <t>

Stops it from firing the ability on yourself if the target dies just as you hit it.

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If this macro works then this may solve the problem of it bouncing off a dead target. I'll give it a try in game the next time I play.