Honestly I don’t think there was any other way for them to come into the game.
I remember saying to people when there was a leak of a support spec that it meant one of three things:
It wasn’t true.
They were comfortable with breaking their game for a while.
The class was going to be awful.
Because unless the game is built around supports and team enablers from the ground up (Like Rift, for example, who made a dedicated support role), they pretty much ALWAYS break games they’re introduced to. Power multipliers in group content are always so good you hate not having them, or their power amp is nowhere near good enough so nobody wants them around. There really isn’t much of a sweet spot outside ‘pseudo healer’ which is kinda where aug has landed. Aug will go in the highest keys because you need its support to SURVIVE, and the dps it provides with its power boost is enough that you’re not totally losing a DPS spec.
100% correct. Also the reason Oracle could never really work as a support centered tree, would either be totally worthless or a crime against every other healer.
The thing is that Aug isn’t really a true support class. Mathematically all Ebon Might really does is pass off their damage split amongst the other members of the group. You really can’t implement a support class in WoW simply due to how everything is basically just math… you have to be doing x amount of group dps to time a high key and x amount of raid dps to kill a mythic boss before some kind of soft or hard enrage.
You really can’t add any new kind of support class that doesn’t have an Ebon Might kind of mechanic unless its a tank or healer.
WoW used to treat hybrid specs (Shamans, Paladins, Druids, etc) as support classes back in the day. They typically did less overall dps than “pure” dps classes, but they provided powerful raid/group buffs that were pretty much mandatory. You had to build your entire raid around these supports classes.
You still have to in the modern game, but its more of a check mark of group buffs (INT, Fort, monk buff, DH buff, etc)…
Yes… But that is a support class in most games. There’s different types of support classes in different games, but ‘augment my group’s power as much as possible’ is absolutely one of the flavors, ever since Bards and Enchanters and the like in old school MMOs and tabletop games.
And yeah, I agree that support generally ends up being a ‘necessary’ part of any group. That’s kinda what I’m saying. Power amplifiers DO end up being a math problem in every game they’re introduced to - you’re not wrong. But it doesn’t make them less of a support. It’s just they swing wildly from “we can’t bring anything but this class” when their power scales really well with other classes and “Why does this class exist?” if they don’t. Moreso than other classes, because usually a power amp character is going to do far different things with the best scaling damage in the game vs the worst performing damage spec in the game. The only middle ground being the things they do that AREN’T power amplification. In Aug’s case, that’s a bunch of extra survivability.
I vaguely remember those days, but not very fondly. Having more spells with the word heal in them(LH, H, FH, GH) than every other class had TOTAL healing spells always felt a bit unfair . That and raid comps wanting 5+ priests if they could get them for harder fights, while druids had to have engineer if they wanted a rez… ouch.
Priest being the ONLY class that can dispel both offensive and defensive magic buffs 2 at a time played a major factor as to why they were sought after as well.
Paladin = defensive only 1 at a time
Shaman = offensive only 2 at a time
Warlock Felhunter = defensive and offensive 1 at a time.
My overall thoughts on Oracle, I don’t like it one bit, I’ll be honest I’m already flustered as it is, to me healing is tough enough but rewarding enough for me to enjoy it.
Premonition is just another spanner in a already intense role that’s not needed. In saying that I’m sure people might love the whole micro management it adds and weak auras required to play it. I just cannot keep up with it. I’m just getting to old .
Personally I’m happy as Disc, Voidweaver essentially doubles down on the playstyle strengthening it more and visually making it awesome, shooting Void Blast lasers and summing a Voidwraith is too good while really minimal disruption on gameplay, no new buttons or keybinds just a fresh coat of paint, which is really appealing to me. As Holy Priest Archon seems to be the only saving grace for me.
I think Oracle might be for some, they might really love the added complexity it brings, but I just don’t have it in me anymore. I guess looking positively at least the option for more is there.
In fairness, there was quite a few of us pushing back on Oracle being support. Primarily because it literally is the only hero talent tree that merges two healers in the game. So it would make logical sense that it would be some kind of OP healer or something. So them having that (part of the) takeaway seems logical to me. I wish they’d scrap Premonition. It was not a good idea the first time and still is not. I’d prefer the built it around POMs giving shields on each bounce.
The ‘wait for the buff you want’ roulette is a terrible idea indeed. Theres a reason people pointed a League of Legends Twisted Fate’s mechanic; thats where it belongs, not on a WoW spec.
I just don’t get it, at all. Holy is reactive, rot damage healer with a huge toolkit. Disc is ramp, prevent damage healer with dps flavour. So the combination of those two specs is… casino buffs?
Scrap Premonition and just have the foundational be ‘Velen’s Future Sight’ or ‘Prophet’s Future sight’ its better thematically and works better(15% heal for 10 secs, 50% spread overheal is a good start for a hero tree)
Make the talents support and synergize with it, so instead of a mess like Narrowed vision/fatebender, you would instead have a choice node that ADDS Insight’s or Solace’s effect to the base.
Cleanup/improve all the other nodes. Preventative Measures needs to be 20% not 10%, Forseen circumstance need to be 10% DR AND +2 secs to both GS and PS, Waste No Time needs removed/reworked and Miraculous Recovery need for PW:L and Benevolence to be decoupled. Etc, etc.
snicker you may want to look into the alpha version of Fatebound for rogue… just wow. I do not understand why some of the developers think that people want to play a slotmachine instead of their game.
I don’t know about that. Both Archon and voidweaver are both incredible when it comes to their power - not even because ‘ooh damage number’ but they augment the specs in very powerful ways. Archon lines up with like everything you could do, and extends your cooldowns at the same time.
Archon is good for Holy, as the 3x halo > surge+30% > serenity CD interaction is good and 15seconds of +10% healing from Resonant power is nice.
For shadow… it needs quite a bit of work to reach Voidweaver standards.
Moreover there is A LOT of garbage in there: SP/IS node and Heightened Alter is almost pure PvP, the Word of Supremacy(5% more stam) is purely insulting as EVERY other class gets more EHP out of their class tree, and the +10% haste from PI is more or less a taunt.
Thoroughly disappointed by Archon on concept alone, no matter how strong it may be. I don’t, have never, and have never wanted to run Halo, so the entire tree hinging on running that one specific final tier choice node talent is super disappointing to me.
But as it stands, it’s either that, or Divine Word’s half-baked cousin with a gambling problem in Oracle.
. That and raid comps wanting 5+ priests if they could get them for harder fights, while druids had to have engineer if they wanted a rez… ouch.
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