Judgements of the Pure removed

#1 - May 11, 2012, 12:50 a.m.

Judgements of the Pure has been completely removed from the most recent beta build. Could we please get an explanation of this and some idea of what type of replacement mechanic we should expect to receive.

We are now going to be the only healer without a passive/spec specific regen mechanic in addition to our major active regen cooldown.

Shaman have Resurgence
Disc Priests have Rapture and both specs of Priest have either From Darkness Comes Light or Mindbender
Druids have Revitalize and Omen of Clarity
Shaman have Resurgence

There is no paladin equivalent. Arguing that Holy Power based heals are the paladin equivalent is a fallacious argument because it does not take into account the fact that we already are taxed for HP heals by having the highest mana costs of any healer. Yes, Beacon is a part of this balance, but when you factor in Beacon not benefiting from mastery and the typical overhealing percentages this mechanic generates, you only get a 12-15% increase to the heals that benefit from Beacon. This is nowhere near compensating for the 30% increase to paladin mana costs compared to other healers.

On top of that, with the Divine Plea glyph change, our major mana cooldown is weaker than that of other healing classes; Divine Plea restores 25% less mana per minute than either Shadowfiend or Innervate. It also imposes the penalty of either a 50% healing debuff for 9 seconds (unglyphed) or a 5 second cast time (glyphed), that no other healer has.

Are paladin mana costs going to reevaluated given this change?
Is the Divine Plea penalty going to be reevaluated?
If not, what additional mana regen mechanic is going to be added to take the place of Judgements of the Pure?
Are "mana free healing" mechanics that other healers have, such as Earthliving Weapon, Divine Aegis, Omen of Clarity, Ancestral Awakening, etc, etc. going to also be re-evaluated, and the mana costs for the classes that have them given the same treatment as paladin mana costs?

Ghostcrawler

Game Designer

#115 - May 19, 2012, 6:13 p.m.

In our most recent tests and instance runs, Holy paladin longevity was much longer than other healers, even without Judgements of the Pure. We need to get Holy to the same level as the other healers. It may be at that point that all healer mana income is too low or that damage in dungeons is too high and well have to adjust accordingly.

Ghostcrawler

Game Designer

#182 - May 23, 2012, 5:38 a.m.

To loop back to my previous comments, we feel that all of the healers are relatively balanced in their longevity now, and that longevity is in a reasonable place when fully geared in epics. However, we also think longevity is too short in greens and blues. To address this, we are going to increase base mana regeneration. This should let healers in dungeons feel like they can heal a boss fight, without causing Spirit to become even more valuable. In essence, we're increasing the intercept of the curve without increasing the slope. Let us know how it feels.

You'll see the mana regen bonus for mages and warlocks decrease as a result of this change, but the end result will be that their mana income stays about the same. Nobody panic. :)