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.
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.
Make holybolt physical damage that can harm all targets. And heal Allie’s
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The Fist of Heaven’s Holy Lightning should heal allies. Otherwise, it’s not consistent. As intended in the skill design, it should cast a holy bolt both on enemies, allies and ourself.
The 0.4 second cast time is not justified in a game of this type. It’s a Hack & Slash, the player wants fast gameplay.
- put the cast time according to a FCR step. (it is an upgrade)
- reduce the damage if necessary due to the little bonus you have at healing party member, look at the lightning sorceres skill, aplly a -20% on damage (it is a nerf)
- make bolt don’t pass throuth enemies (it is a nerf)
- add a parameter limitation of the number of the holy bolt Fist of heaven can generate, for exemple 1 each 5 skill lvl. (it is a nerf)
- proc the holy bolt from the skill tree and reduce the damage by half.
FotH skill function is primarily as an Offensive Lightning attack on the intended target. I do sometimes wish it was a Magic attack given Magic is not resisted like Lightning is and could have Blessed Hammer be its synergy(as opposed to Holy Shock, saving some skill points on prerequisites. Doing so does not help Hammerdins because the Magic Damage would be treated just like Blessed Hammer and not ignore Magic Resistance/Immunity like Holy Bolt does).
FotH was never intended to act as a Heal function because that is what Holy Bolt happens to be. The secondary Holy Bolts on FotH only shoot off if there are nearby Enemies(1 Bolt per enemy). Until 2.4 came around they didn’t pierce or affect Demon(just Undead). Those same upgrades apply to Holy Bolt, making it a viable spell to heal a Mercenary, pierce said Mercenary and strike an enemy in the Bolt’s path(which it couldn’t do prior to 2.4).
As for the cast delay on FotH, that’s intentional since in PvP it’s a spell that is virtually impossible to avoid compared to Bone Spirit or other spells. If FotH became Magic damage, quite a few changes would have to be made to compensate.