It has begun!

[Novak_04]

1.) AST would be the pre-eminent HoT/sustain healer;

2.) Subsequently, WHM would have a decent (not all) portion of its HoTs removed to prevent role overlap. They would be the ultimate burst healers instead, with relatively higher mana costs to reflect their power but a whole kit of awesome healing cooldowns

3.) SCH shields would see hefty reductions in mana cost in return for losing some of their redonkulous reactive healing. Shields should BE how they "heal" people; by preventing the damage done in the first place.

So...Astro = WoW's Druid, WHM = WoW's HPriest, SCH = WoW's Disc Priest.

[loreleidiangelo]

So...Astro = WoW's Druid, WHM = WoW's HPriest, SCH = WoW's Disc Priest.

You could conceptualize it that way, yeah, but to be honest those healer archetypes (maybe minus the shielding thing) have been in MMOs as old as EQ. Shaman was a HoT healer and a mezzer, and Clerics had bursty heals and beat people with hammers. They're not schticks limited to just one game. Maybe reusing those archetypes isn't appealing to everyone, but I find the homogenization of abilities we have in this game even less appealing, so I was just offering my opinion.

[Supersun]

You could conceptualize it that way, yeah, but to be honest those healer archetypes (maybe minus the shielding thing) have been in MMOs as old as EQ. Shaman was a HoT healer and a mezzer, and Clerics had bursty heals and beat people with hammers. They're not schticks limited to just one game. Maybe reusing those archetypes isn't appealing to everyone, but I find the homogenization of abilities we have in this game even less appealing, so I was just offering my opinion.

I mean part of it is that there are only so many ways to make a number go up. Slow, fast, adding onto the number before it's subtracted from, there's not exactly a lot of ways to play around with healing so long as the focus of healing is playing tug-o-war with an HP bar and doesn't involve something else such as mitigation which is instead given to tanks for the most part.

[Yorumi]

I mean part of it is that there are only so many ways to make a number go up. Slow, fast, adding onto the number before it's subtracted from, there's not exactly a lot of ways to play around with healing so long as the focus of healing is playing tug-o-war with an HP bar and doesn't involve something else such as mitigation which is instead given to tanks for the most part.

Sort of, though there have been some really creative healers designed when you start looking at a broad range of mmos. A healer is more than just heals, it's the whole package that makes it interesting, from the type of heals, to resource management, to buffs provided, combos it can pull off, and even the equipment it wears. AST was just incredibly stupidly designed from the beginning and was the result of a complete lack of forethought and understanding of both balance and the mindset of players in mmos. AST was designed as "copy/paste whm, add buffs" what could go wrong.