Benediction

[Hollowed]

Triple Lustrate (which is still not as directly potent as Benediction) is on a 1 minute cooldown, though there is also the potential for six straight lustrates if you've gone a minute without lustrating.

This is why Benny should have a lower recast, it is, by its very nature, an "oh sheet" ability, but for a CD that is the same as HG it is very under powered, HG can be used preemptively, a perfect example is solo tank T5 when the snakes come out, benny cannot. My co heal and I are good enough to never need benny, and I find myself never using it, at all, due to the long CD; the same way I rarely used PoM. Lustrate is an "oh sheet" same as benny, it heals for 25% less and has a FIVE TIMES shorter recast. Surely a recast closer to PoM would not make this ability OP...

[Velox]

Triple Lustrate (which is still not as directly potent as Benediction) is on a 1 minute cooldown, though there is also the potential for six straight lustrates if you've gone a minute without lustrating.

While it's true that Lustrate is not as potent on a per-cast basis, by far it is a superior spell to Benediction in every way.

Lustrate is 25% per Aetherflow stack, totaling 75%.
Assuming 3 stacks per minute you have 375% total heal power every 5 minutes.
Assuming you had 3 stacks saved prior, you have 450% total heal power in that first 5 minutes and 375% every 5 minutes after.
Benediction is 100% heal power every 5 minutes.
Lustrate also has the benefit of applying the heal at the beginning of the animation, while Benediction applies it at the end.

With this knowledge, I wouldn't mind seeing Benediction's cooldown lowered to 3 minutes.

[YanderePrincess]

<snip>.

Ehhh, Lustrate -can- be an "oh shit" ability, but that's not how it mostly gets used, at least in my experience. It's definitely not how I tend to use it most the time.

Benediction is much more of an "oh shit" ability, since it's an immediately full restore, while Lustrate takes 3 seconds to restore 75% of target's HP. I do agree that 5 minutes is a bit too long for Bene, but I don't think it should be shorter than 3 minutes.

The main thing that bugs me is that WHM doesn't really have any way of dealing with healing debuffs that can't be removed, such as applied by Twintania starting with conflag phase. Granted, this does help with the whole "whm+sch" synergy, but it's still an issue, especially if you don't have a sch.

[Parawill]

Most WHMs seem to save their Benediction for saving the tank (and failing half the time due to animation). I use it tactically as a off-GCD heal to save casts. Why spend 3 or 4 GCDs healing someone when I can just pop Benediction and continue DPSing or healing a different person?

Lmao! I do this all the time when I'm running dungeons with my friends. I'm going all big-bang mode (Holy) and go "I want to keep holying" and pop a bene. Granted I don't rely on it on anything in exception to "o-shiva" moments, but that justifies the long cooldown. ^^

The main thing that bugs me is that WHM doesn't really have any way of dealing with healing debuffs that can't be removed, such as applied by Twintania starting with conflag phase.

Ugh. I hate healing debuffs that can't be dispelled. Esuna II please?

[sheepysheepy]

imo 180sec cooldown would be bang on (might get to use it twice in a fight instead of once)
75% heal instead of 100% (more than enough for an oh.shi moment and prevent some of the overheal so you can use it early without stealing as much aggro)

apart from that just fix the animation delay, or atleast stop it casting on the healer if the target dies at the last split second

[winsock]

how are you supposed to heal the one thing that keeps everyone alive if benediction takes so much to cast?

The same way you would res that essential character.

[monochromicorn]

The same way you would res that essential character.

thank you for cutting out most of what i said. you picked a specific line, giving what i said a completely different context. if you dont have mp, and youve used shroud, how are you supposed to use res? if you had based your comment on my full scenario, your comment makes no sense.

[Fiend]

Although I personally believe that benediction is a very powerful ability and doesn’t need to have its overall recast lowered I do think it should be reworked. The main complaints that players seem to be making are that the effect takes too long to apply, useful only when someone is on the brink of death, and that it can’t be used strategically within 8-man dungeons (compared to HG/Holmgang). Instead of reducing recast to point where it essentially becomes lustrate like what OP is suggesting I propose that benediction be changed so its recast varies depending on the amount of HP remaining on the target.

HP Remaining:

100 - 81% = 1 minute
80 - 61% = 2 minutes
60 - 41% = 3 minutes
40 - 21% = 4 minutes
20 – 1% = 5 minutes

By changing it to this benediction still has the same max recast of 5 minutes and in order to get the most out of the ability players will still need to use it at the last possible moment. However, this will now give WHMs more breathing room where it wouldn’t feel like a waste if they decided to use it at a “oh crap” moment instead of a “oh sh*t.” Furthermore, if the party member ends up dying and you accidentally cast it on yourself at full HP the recast is only 1 minute instead of the current 5. Finally, although benediction can already be used for healing while on the move or during some type of healing magic debuff the penalty is no longer as severe and can be used more strategically instead of sitting on a hotbar waiting in case of an emergency.

[Menae]

Benediction is fine at 5 minutes. It's a very powerful CD - restoring somebody from near death to full is inherently more powerful than restoring them from near death to 25%, then from 25% to 50%, then 50% to 75%. You also have to keep in mind that you can have two WHM in an 8 man. Imagine Benediction on a 1-2 minute CD in that case - you'd break a ton of mechanics. T8 Dreadnaughts/Mines? Benediction. T9 Ravensbeak? Benediction. T9 Ravensbeak explosion? Benediction. Death Sentence? Benediction. You have to give some leeway to the encounter designers - if they know you CAN burst heal the tank to full once every minute or two, they have to assume you WILL, and that eliminates options for them in creating fights.

I do like Fiend's idea, though I'm not sure how easy it'd be to code, and it's probably not the easiest thing to put in a tooltip.

Honestly, my biggest wish for Benediction would just be that it refreshes (along with every other long CD) on a boss wipe. Nothing like trying to save a tank and realizing Bene's still on CD from the LAST attempt.

[Estellios]

That recast idea is pretty nice.

I'm pretty liberal with Benedictions now, it's better to use it than not use it IMO and getting into the habit of using it takes some getting used to. Best example I can give is Levi EX in the 2nd half during his dives. If someone gets hit by a dive or Grand Fall, are in the range of another dive, and doesn't look like they will make it out in time I pop benediction. Better to be safe than sorry as even if they manage to get out of the way in time, it's worth it considering the risk involved when someone is dead during a slam.

I don't mind the delay but I'd like it to not get used up if the target dies "mid-cast".