Divine Benison change is freaking amazing

[VanilleFang]

I knew that the change was going to be good, obviously, but it didn't really sink in how good it is until I actually played with it.

A free, instant cast shield every 25-30 seconds is bloody amazing and makes WHM so much stronger. It's up every pull in dungeons, and it's free mitigation throughout boss fights and raids... I know this is all obvious but it feels great to have another oGCD tool, especially one that isn't just raw healing.

[MoroMurasaki]

I know! It saved me so many times during Sigmascape.

I would read an ability name on my focus target bar and think 'that looks tankbusterish' and pop DB like candy on the MT. Also helped when my Medica II ticks would invariably have me tanking adds during O7 until they got picked up instead of burning Tetra on myself.

[MuseTraveller]

I love it!! I queued for roulettes to test it and had the pleasure of "Pull all the things!" tank which I don't mind, I find those challenging! That DB was amazing on those big pulls!

[Trunks]

I said before the patch that WHM was getting the biggest buff and I stand by that. We got a whole new ability because, really, who uses Cure??

I'm a little conflicted. I thought the Lily requirement was necessary to prevent the ability from being too useful, but because of the implementation of Lilies it also made Benison useless. Stacking DB + Adlo / Aspected + SiO / TBN is a real absurdity, potentially shielding a tank for more than half of their max HP (without factoring in a Critlo). That's a dangerous direction, and it won't be long before tank busters are in excess of a one-shot.

And yet...

Benison fills a gap in WHM's toolkit. Everyone knows those moments when you see a player is going to die, Tetra is on CD, but there's not enough time to cast Cure. Divine Benison is perfect for buying you enough time to realign your GCD usage (GCD bottleneck being the cornerstone of WHM gameplay) to dynamic situations and eliminating that frustrating sense of helplessness. The gameplay impact has been a significant improvement.

Good for me, bad for the game. Moral hazard approaching!

[Exiled_Tonberry]

The whole lily mechanic feels rather useless now that Bension is not a part of it. Even moreso than it already did.

I find myself having absolutely no reason to gather lilies for a slight CD decrease. The Bension change really brought the issues of the Lily system up front. That it's completely useless and doesn't actually serve a purpose. I really hope that it being separated is acknowledgement from SE that they really aren't satisfied with the mechanic and that it'll either be removed or heavily adjusted.

That being said, I wonder if the actual skill needs a nerf now. I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but it's really strong. It's up so often I find that I'm using it just to put it back on CD.

[Tridus]

The whole lily mechanic feels rather useless now that Bension is not a part of it. Even moreso than it already did.

Lilies are for getting DB back faster. While that's not great, it's not strictly speaking useless. Secret of the Lily II is useless, for comparison purposes.

But yes, DB feels so much better without the tacked on requirement for a resource that we may or may not even generate. It's amazing how much more fun it makes the class.

[RylaBee]

I have a feeling, that reason why lilies seem like a weak mechanic is that you dont "see" the benefit very clearly.
But is IS there. If you can use ability like DB/Tetra/Assize with 3 lilies, you will get it back much sooner which can be important on hard encounters.

It is just hard to perceive the benefit on easy fights, where you barely ever need to Cure or use affected abilities on cooldown.

PS: one change I wich was made is getting some low percentage to proc lilies from offensive abilities (stone at least).

[RopeDrink]

Said it before in a separate thread and will say it again - the Lily system was/is little more than a perk system. I knew the DB change was going to be great when it was previously discussed before the patch and it still stands. However, its removal from the Lily system (as said before) will now bring said Lily system to attention for the next patch... It has to, seeing as it was forgettable before the change and is even more so after. While we can hold onto hope that they revisit the system entirely, I have a bad feeling that it'll lead to less pleasant changes. Time will tell.

I'm actually very happy with both WHM and Warrior, despite having seen a lot of worry expressed on the tank forum. The content has also been, as expected, short-lived but fun. Overall, quite happy with the patch thus far. Let's see what happens from here.

[VanilleFang]

That being said, I wonder if the actual skill needs a nerf now. I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but it's really strong. It's up so often I find that I'm using it just to put it back on CD.

I know what you mean. 15% of an ally's max HP as a shield every 30ish seconds is pretty strong, but I really don't want to see WHM nerfed.

Like Trunks said, it fills in a gap in the WHM toolkit. So really it shouldn't change too much.

It's amazing how much more fun it makes the class.

I know right!? It gives WHMs more breathing room, and allows us to stretch our DPS just that much further. It's hard to explain why it's so much more fun with just being a free shield... maybe its all that jumping and dancing we do to cast it? Hmm...

[Usho]

Divine Benison is like Stoneskin but MUCH better. I didn't like having to use lillies to cast it so seeing that it no longer requires them to cast DB put a smile on my face.