Scaling of abilities to a player's level is not a step in the right direction.

[Murugan]

Wouldn't most healers like to have actual variety in healing magic rather than simply weaker versions of the same spell?

Though I would be upset if level 50 Conjurers could only cast Stoneskin, Curaga, and Cure I think the removal of tiered spells could make way for a more interesting and varied spell list for healing that will greatly enhance the limited tactics and strategy related to healing currently in-game.

I guess we will see what their plans on when they release part 2 of the class changes that includes the actual ability lists for classes.


For ideas on how to diversify healing abilities, and make the role more enjoyable they should take a look at Vanguard, not WoW. If they are looking for MMO examples outside the series.

[Viridiana]

It's common knowledge that 1 HP cured and 1 dmg dealt are worth 1 enmity point. It's a shame you've been worrying about things that aren't even true this entire time.

Let's take a metaphorical 10 second time period within a fight with the current system of tiered abilities; you have a healer, a damage dealer and a tank.

The tank takes constant damage, and over the 10 second period the healer casts Cure II 3 times, for a total of 1200 HP healed. (Thus a base total of 1200 enmity points).
The tank does 300 damage and uses abilities with a total enmity value of 1000 (there's a chart online somewhere with all the values, it's been well tested). (Total of 1300 enmity points).
The damage dealer hits for 1200 damage and has a minor ability enmity value of 75. (All abilities incur at least a little bit of enmity). (Total 1275 enmity points).

At the end of the 10 seconds the healer has generated 1200, the tank 1300 and the damage dealer 1275. This is of course subject to change from the gear and traits set for enmity by the members of the party. It's pretty easy to calculate who has gained the most enmity from the 10 second period.

Now, after patch 1.20; consider the same situation, only now Cure II is replaced by a scaled Cure (let's assume that Cure now is about the same as Cure III at 50).
The only thing that changes now is that over the 10 seconds, all the healer has to do is wait and cast Cure at the point at which it will heal the most possible HP (towards the end of the 10 second period). All other classes' actions have not changed. The healer will incur 1000 enmity points from a 1000 HP healed cure, in the same period of time. This of course frees up time from the healer to buff, debuff, pick their nose, whatever they do when they aren't healing.

This promotes a new playstile parallel to the playstile healers use now, NOT a downgrade, NOT a hate deathtrap, NOT a restricted ability to cure effectively. The fact that people believe that just because a spell is called Cure III means that it gives soo much more hate than a spell Cure II is utterly ridiculous, and it's hard to believe that these people are the ones responsible for keeping others alive. To me, the fact that you can spread out little cures over a time period instead of casting a bigger (and usually more MP effective) heal after that period of time is a stupid way to play a class, just because it feels like you aren't generating enmity.

I really hope people can put this issue to bed, all this non-tiered system will bring is a new way to play your class, and people will have to adapt.

My sincere admiration goes out to tanks everywhere, for managing to complete content being kept alive by people who think this way.

Budd, those same tests you mention that give enmity values for the abilities also say that it's .75 enmity per 1 HP healed. >_>

[BruceyBruceyBangBang]

They are editing enmity gained through healing anyway, so, shhhhh. Useless argument.

Also, most cases the changes usually turn out to be mostly fine or easily adaptable. This happens every time you guys get information. You over analyze it and get worked up over nothing. You are in an abusive relationship with yourself.

[Murugan]

They are editing enmity gained through healing anyway, so, shhhhh. Useless argument.

Also, most cases the changes usually turn out to be mostly fine or easily adaptable. This happens every time you guys get information. You over analyze it and get worked up over nothing. You are in an abusive relationship with yourself.

While I think the information they release next might address this concern, your solution to people's concerns of enmity management is that "it won't matter, because healing won't generate much enmity"? I guess MP management concerns are also "useless arguments" because you think they are going to make MP a non-issue in 1.20?

I sure hope you are wrong, because if you were they would be greatly over-simplifying a party combat system they just recently began to address after almost a year of broken mechanics.

[Haru]

I would agree with this.
I don't like the thought of not having seperate tiered spells.
This just blows MP conservation out the window.
Not to mention the fact you cant cast spells back to back (theres a cooldown) I could be casting Cure2 immediately after Cure3 and then back to Cure3.

[PSxpert2011]

So SE want's to take the choice of magic tiers and add skill up to your magic (as to how much you use it)? How does this work, adding a stamina gauge to the cast, is that it??

I "liked" the argument for the reason of stealing your ability of options but I think SE doesn't know how to communicate with the player base about these implementations as to, "we want to try this out before making it official".

You should still have your tiered spells but also skill them up/ have a stamina/ power gauge to it. With ever would work. This goes back to my shield skill argument, they should stop taking away our options!

[Buddhsie]

Budd, those same tests you mention that give enmity values for the abilities also say that it's .75 enmity per 1 HP healed. >_>

Doesn't change the fact that it's a static value, the argument is even more valid then.

[Icecylee]

So SE want's to take the choice of magic tiers and add skill up to your magic (as to how much you use it)? How does this work, adding a stamina gauge to the cast, is that it??

I "liked" the argument for the reason of stealing your ability of options but I think SE doesn't know how to communicate with the player base about these implementations as to, "we want to try this out before making it official".

You should still have your tiered spells but also skill them up/ have a stamina/ power gauge to it. With ever would work. This goes back to my shield skill argument, they should stop taking away our options!

...How in the world did you come to any of those conclusions by reading the official information that's been handed out so far? o_O

[Hachi-Roku]

So SE want's to take the choice of magic tiers and add skill up to your magic (as to how much you use it)? How does this work, adding a stamina gauge to the cast, is that it??

I "liked" the argument for the reason of stealing your ability of options but I think SE doesn't know how to communicate with the player base about these implementations as to, "we want to try this out before making it official".

You should still have your tiered spells but also skill them up/ have a stamina/ power gauge to it. With ever would work. This goes back to my shield skill argument, they should stop taking away our options!

You have no idea what you are talking about, you have no coherent plan or idea, and you have not correctly comprehended anything the devs have said.

[Dreadnought]

I would agree with this.
I don't like the thought of not having seperate tiered spells.
This just blows MP conservation out the window.
Not to mention the fact you cant cast spells back to back (theres a cooldown) I could be casting Cure2 immediately after Cure3 and then back to Cure3.

i guess i missed that part.
all spells will share the exact same cool down?

wow even worse than i imagined. why? casting spells back to back has saved my ass soooooooo many times.