WHM downtime thoughts

[Kabooa]

Are you sure? In HW you had to maintain Aero 1, 2, and 3 as dots (also could have thunder and virus). I'm really confused how that was more boring.

Dots with no interaction are no different than Glare, stronger glare every 18s, and stronger-er glare every 24s.

[Rosa_Frandlia]

Dots with no interaction are no different than Glare, stronger glare every 18s, and stronger-er glare every 24s.

I don't get you, that is up to 5 GCD's that are used refreshing dots compared to one. A more powerful spell doesn't mean it is less boring. It also gave more to do in healing downtime as well as some instacasts, although aero 3 then did have a longer cast time.

[Kabooa]

I don't get you, that is up to 5 GCD's that are used refreshing dots compared to one. A more powerful spell doesn't mean it is less boring. It also gave more to do in healing downtime as well as some instacasts, although aero 3 then did have a longer cast time.

Consider the following.

A DoT effect differs from Front End / Back End burst cooldowns in a few ways, but all three methods are dressing on the same basic premise - Maintenance. Maintenance abilities are designed to be more powerful for the "Resource" (In this case - The GCD), but are not designed to be used repeatedly against the same target.

Their use and variance across different games changes based on other game mechanics or engine quirks, such as the presence of Snapshotting, or dynamic updating.

Among these three basic entries into Maintenance style abilities, there are a few differences among them that give them a basic boon over the other.

DoT skills usually have no cooldown, but confer an "Implied" cooldown. Overwriting the DoT before it is done is losing damage. However, with no cooldown, you can DoT multiple targets.

Front Ended burst do it all at once, making it ideal for hot swaps, or as the last skill before a transition.

Back ended burst rely on other mechanics but allow you more creative set ups for high spike damage - This is more apparent in PVP settings as spike damage is harder to deal with.

DoT management by itself, however, is among the most shallow cases. If you do not understand the original sentiment, go and play Machinist. Drill and Air Anchor demonstrate "Stronger Glare" as a design focus. They are both front ended cooldowns, and yet follow the same overarching principles of Multi-Dot management.

But, if dressing is all you need to get by, by all means.

Just, you know. Maybe include some other requests in the package, like DoT detonation, or the aforementioned back-end bursts.

[Saefinn]

I think what is being got at is that how is the reduction in the number of DPS spells make things more interesting for a job that already only had a handful of them? A few extra spells helped breakup the monotony a little more.

Comparing to MCH is not a fair comparison, if 55% of the time MCH was hitting Drill in group content, then maybe it will be fairer and I bet you MCH would be complaining how boring their job has gotten. Or better yet 90% of the time you are doing solo content. Because this is not only how it feels to DPS on a healer (and not just WHM).

[Kabooa]

Comparing to MCH is not a fair comparison, if 55% of the time MCH was hitting Drill in group content, then maybe it will be fairer and I bet you MCH would be complaining how boring their job has gotten. Or better yet 90% of the time you are doing solo content. Because this is not only how it feels to DPS on a healer (and not just WHM).

yes, you've hit the crux of the issue, and why I brought up Machinist.

Maintenance skills alone don't bring much. If Mach was their one combo (These fall under "Filler" category - The entirety of the Machinist Combo is no different than Glare, but it's 3 buttons.) and Drill + AA, then you could either reduce or add another Drill-like and it wouldn't make a difference.

When dealing with a limited number of abilities, the best way to get the most mileage out of them isn't to add more of the same. It's to add interactions between them. It's adding constraints. Lilies being the mechanic to heighten spell power is good. It creates a natural resource and priority conflict.

Adding 3 more DoTs is less-good. It's not inherently wrong, but it's significantly less interesting than keeping the 1 DoT and filling out the toolkit with more unique applications.

[NobleWinter]

I just wanna see more interesting options like maybe Afflatus Rebirth to Revive a teammate that uses 2 Lillies and grants no blood Lillies. Then you have a choice between a free revive that sets back Misery or using swiftcast and dumping the mp. Give Scholar Fey Awakening to spend 50 Fey gauge to revive as well. We could have way more fun ways to spend our resources. Even Astro Seals could be spent to trigger different DPS abilities. Let's say 3 of the same seal could be used to trigger a massive personal attack so using seals solo would mean aiming for the opposite seal combination to trigger full power Divine Seal. Healer gameplay just seems to lack any depth at all on both the healing side and the DPS options.