Thank you Kaivax for sharing, im actually really excited for Oracle build! I always loved being a healer but mostly a support so this fits really well with my interests!
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Itâs not support though, itâs just another weakaura to manage, and clunky. I love support styles as well, but nearly anything would be better than this. I will not be playing Oracle if it goes in like this, frankly.
Ok I will be playing oracle.
Indeed the mini game has no place in WoW and has to go.
Iâll add to your above quote that Oracle is the only tree in the game with no damage output, iirc all hero talents shared between healer and DPS have a component that does supplemental damage a bit to help, but not Oracle. More healing is nice and all, but thereâs a point where itâs just absurd and lacks versatility.
Why would a disc priest play anything else than Voidweaver, that helps both healing and DPS output?
Why would a holy priest ever play anything else than Archon, that helps both healing and DPS output?
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Even moreso when the âincreased healingâ from Oracle is ~60% LESS than either VW or Archon. You donât even need to look at the damage or utility, it is just plain worse at the 1 thing it is supposed to do.
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Even worse this lack seems baked in to the core concept and is not amenable to simple number fixes.
I can see some variance on Oracle vs Archon in M+ because Archon might be better in some dungeons vs Oracle.
i honestly was hoping for something to be a little more based around Light Powers for Oracle, Pwr: Shield Smite and Penance but now i feel like im âObligatedâ to go Void weaver
Not sure how i feel about having Distinctive âHero Specsâ be designed for M+ and then for Raid
Shooot ill Gladly take Archon over Oracle if this is the finished product
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Holyâs baseline healing is already too low. They need to eliminate a major CD and rebalance the classâs base healing or give it more small CDs. Halo seems like itâs intended to fill that role but itâs too long a CD and way too strong.
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The 7% nerf after they âfixedâ the bottom holy by just reshuffling it was pretty much uncalled for. Undo that, and make PoH/CoH less of a bad joke and a number of things would fall into place for Holy.
For Disc, they should really look into Riftâs Chloromancer so they can get some good ideas and not have to âfiddle and failâ with atonement constantly.
Iâm concerned no one is going to play this hero spec, and then it will be buffed to be OP to get people to play it rather than changed. I play Disc and I wonât ever touch Oracle the way it is.
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The problem is, being OP doing healing only wont sway people. Oracle has 0 damage component, making it a one trick pony that will only lead to more overhealing.
One would think that âseeing into the futureâ to prepare you allies from taking damage might have some kind of, oh, I donât knowâŚ
âOverhealing is converted to a shieldâ component.
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They will never let priest have Spirit Shell back. Ever.
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Exactly. It is a disaster mechanically, thematically, in scaling and in gameplay. At this point it may be a better idea to throw Oracle into the trashcan.
Heck, just let holy have Radiant version of voidweaver: Radiant Rift - 60% damage, heals 3 nearby allies every second, give it a cool looking red-gold accretion disc. Theme the rest of the hero the same way and you have a winner.
Archon would not be that hard to adapt for Disc. Then at least all priest specs would have 2 functional Hero trees. Even if it is the same 2 for all.
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The core of the spec just doesnât respond well to numerical fixes!
I am not sure you can buff oracle in a meaningful way numerically most of the abilities are bad at such a fundamental level that even increasing them 400% leaves them still underwhelming in 2 of 3 cases
Lets look at our 3 options.
First and easiest to dismiss is Solace which is clearly supposed to be a tank healing ability. This increases healing received by the target by 25% for 10 seconds. Even if we multiplied this to 100% increase for 20 seconds the fundamental problem is what kills tanks is spike damage and no amount of increased healing saves a tank who hits zero. Also boss mechanics donât cause ongoing tank damage in the case of a screw up they just 100% - 0% the tank in a single swing. Either than tank survives the hit and the healers heal her or she gets pancaked into a splat on the floor and no amount of increased healing will help here. No numerical change can save this ability it needs to become a cheat death like guardian angel to make a difference and we already have that spell in the game.
Second we have Insight. This means the next 3 cooldown spells have cooldowns reduced by 5 seconds. The problem here is that we are already at the point where it basically resets short cooldown spells basically instantly. PoM, Dispell, PWS, Penance. Increasing the cooldown to 20 seconds doesnât help most spells as either the cooldown was already close to zero or you still have a long time to go in the case of big spells like the power-words or mass dispel. Again simply increasing numerically rapidly runs into problems. The only way to fix this is to change it to remove the cooldown of the next 3 cooldown spells and those are so potent that it becomes totally OP to the point of insanity with super powerful abilities like the big power-words or mass dispel.
Finally we have piety which is increases healing by 6.5% and spreads 65% of overhealing to 3 nearby allies be spread to nearby allies. Increasing this to 28% healing increase and 280% overhealing to 12 allies would be a powerful cooldown but is it really any more powerful than existing cooldowns other healers have? However at these numbers it would be a good ability.
So only 1 of 3 abilities really benefits from numerical increases. If no-one is playing disc they canât fix it with numerical patches. It requires fundamental redesign to fix this trainwreck. Either that or they buff everything else and people play it while ignoring the core ability because every other spell got buffed massively and that is somthing that would force a redesign.
Given this and that Archon is serviceable if uninspired, and Voidweaver is awesome I canât see them trying to fix Oracle numerically if it proves as unpopular as predicted but rather being redesigned fundamentally in 10.1 to make it worth playing.
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I read somewhere (might be alpha feedback) that someone suggested changing the Oracle mechanical nature/theme to basically apply the Brewmaster Stagger effect to other people with your heals.
So the incoming damage gets flattened out over time and becomes less bursty.
Perhaps you place some kind of watchful eye buff on a target(s) and any incoming damage they receive is delayed over time.
So it almost acts as a slowing of time in real time to grant the illusion of you seeing into the future and reacting to what will happen instead of what has happened.
So it still stays true and along the lines of the Oracle theme.
For referenceâŚ
Stagger
You shrug off attacks, delaying a portion of Physical damage based on your Agility, instead taking it over 10 sec. Affects magical attacks at 45% effectiveness.
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This should arguably be a damage reduction or an absorb shield, for all of the points youâve made.
The only time this would have any effect is in Mythic+ when your tank is taking rapid chip damage from large mob pulls or rot effects.
Would love to just see âYour next two Prayer of Mendings/Penance donât incur their cooldowns.â, so we could just throw out three PoMs in a row or something.
Something fun and exciting other than some boring flat cooldown reduction.
Kind of suffers from the same issue as Solace.
In raids, smart heals typically donât heal people who are already at full health.
In Mythic+, if thereâs big damage going out you arenât really topping people up fully in serious situations anyway.
I can kind of get what they were going for, but I feel like it couldâve been implemented in a better way.
Hereâs hoping a new batch of updates come through this week, because Oracle and Archon both desperately need them.
My personal quick fix would be to swap Premonitions from being personal buffs to direct healing/absorb effects. Instead of Piety you get, say, a mini Divine Hymn, Solace turns into a mini Luminous Barrier/PW:B effect, Insight intoâŚsomething, maybe a semi supportive things that buffs you and some alliesâ damage. Iâd aim higher, get some more unique effects in, but just making the button do a thing immediately would do a lot to make it feel better.
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That would work well if perhaps you paired it with a âfae guardiansâ style system. So you would use Premonition and then your next spell would determine the results. E.g.:
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âSolace: Casting any single target healing spell after Premonition causes a barrier to form around your target. This barrier absorbs 25% of incoming damage up to 1500% of your spellpower and lasts 10 seconds.â That fixes the issues with the current solace being useless
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âPiety: Casting any group healing spell after Premonition causes all party/raid members to gain 2 charges of Mending and a 40% effect PW:S. Effect is double when not in raid.â
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âInsight: Casting any offensive spell after Premonition causes all raid members to gain 10% damage and healing for 10 seconds. This effect can not be gained again for 180 seconds.â
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âForesight: Casting any Major Cooldown ability(3 minutes or longer) after Premonition causes all raid members to gain 200% cooldown recovery for 10 seconds for all Major cooldown abilities. This effect can not be gained again for 180 seconds.â
That last one is just a spitball, but you get the general idea. 2 Premonitions for healing, 2 for support when you have enough healing.
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