About Holy Bolt

Paladin
1

Just a quick question regarding Holy Bolt here.

I am aware that if you deliberately fire this at a friendly player (or their hireling), he, she or it, will be healed at the same rate as the damage is listed on the spell (e.g. the damage that would be done to demons or undead, if they were hit by an equivalent Holy Bolt). Fair enough.

However, Fist of the Heavens (FoH) also creates a spray of Holy Bolts; yet, even if a friendly character or minion happens to be standing beside a monster that gets hit by the primary FoH attack (e.g. the lightening blast “from the sky”), and thus also gets hit by the Holy Bolts that issue in all directions from the primary target of the spell… they seem not to get healed (or harmed, of course).

Is this an intentional “feature” of the ability or is it perhaps an oversight?

I can see how Blizzard might have nerfed it in this way, as if it healed your minions while damaging enemies in the vicinity, it might have unbalanced the game.

Frankly I do not think the “heals friendly player” aspect of Holy Bolt is especially useful, except to the extent that it might save you a costly merc resurrection from time to time. That is, if a friendly character is in trouble fighting a monster and he or she needs healing, it’s probably better just to nuke the monster involved and then give the friendly character time to heal up afterwards.

[EDIT] – Noted that the “heal” number on the Holy Bolt is considerably lower than the amount of damage that it does to monsters.

2

It’s intentional because the Holy Bolts that shoot off from FoH only do so if there are nearby monsters near the target. More monsters = more Holy Bolts generated. If you try using FoH on a single target with nothing nearby(like an Act Boss), you’ll notice you only get the Lightning portion of the spell.

Consider the Healing part of Holy Bolt as a reason to use it and when used in conjunction with Meditation + Cleansing in a Cleric setup(Prayer synergy), you can pretty much heal any damage inflicted on nearby Allies. It’s effectively worthwhile to use on Mercs because Holy Bolt has no effect on Animal/Beast Class monsters. If you lack the means to kill them, your Mercenary or friend is going to have to do it and keeping them alive is in your best interest.

Edit*: I should add that your target is best served if they have ample Damage mitigation in the form of high Resists(75+) and Physical Damage Reduction(Damage Reduced by X, ideally 15-20 or more. Physical Resistance(Damage reduced by x%) is also worth having but is not as effective as PDR when you get cursed). Having a strong heal means nothing if your target gets 1 or 2-shot in a short time frame as Prayer heal ticks every 2 seconds and Holy Bolt is a burst heal that may arrive a frame or two late to save the target.

3

Make holybolt physical damage that can harm all targets. And heal Allie’s