I think a significantly better version of this would be, yeah, scrapping it. It’s not a knee-jerk response to something I don’t think I would like: I know for certain that I won’t like it.
Reticles suck.
Forcing players to memorize what your class does as well as their own sucks.
Asking players to move around to pick up stuff sucks when current game design is based around using movement to disrupt gameplay.
It needs a total overhaul or it won’t see play, which means that Holy and Prot will simply be forced into Herald of the Sun or Templar, respectively, simply because they don’t want to deal with Lightsmith.
If the idea is that the Lightsmith is a Lightforged-themed Green Lantern creating physical objects of light then yeah that’s neat, but your implementation sucks.
It would be a lot more sensible to tie it to healing, something that both Prot and Holy provide a good amount of, and auras, an iconic Paladin feature. You also don’t need two rotating effects on an active - adding more buttons sucks when button bloat is already as bad as it is.
Don’t overthink it. Heal an ally, empower their weapon and armor. Tying it to any targeted healing makes it easy and intuitive for a healer to manage, and tying it to healing means that a tank can use it with free WoD casts (side note: reduce the mana cost of tank heals by like 10% across the board, you went kind of wild.)
You know what players would love? If holding a light weapon increased melee range by 3 yards, and if wearing light armor increased movement speed by 3%. These are minor buffs that have huge quality of life ramifications for players and will actually be something desirable for most content.
Have the weapon explode and deal light damage, and have the armor grant an absorb shield while active. Give players both buffs, and have the weapon explosion damage be tied to the amount of shield left. If the shield gets used up it deals no damage, if it persists it pops. Similar to Ret’s Shield of Vengeance but tied to attacks and abilities.
This is boring, yes, but it gives players control over how much damage it provides. If they dodge well and avoid damage, then they do more damage. It is effectively a skill-based mechanic that performs better if you do, meaning it’s perfect for push content, where Paladin excels.
If you want to spice it up a bit (and you do,) then borrow from Aura Mastery and tie it to your active aura.
Devotion Aura causes players to heal while they have the shield active.
Concentration Aura causes players to cast while moving with the shield active (wow, a use for the least used aura?)
Retribution Aura causes players to gain leech while the shield is active.
Crusader Aura causes players to gain movement speed and avoidance while the shield is active (a reason to use Crusader Aura in a raid?)
To keep it within the intended bounds of having it apply to roughly 3 players at a time, just give players a debuff similar to Forbearance bound to the Paladin. Healers don’t need more things to track, and a 20s ticking debuff is about as much as you should reasonably ask for players to look at. Even then players can just ignore it and allow it to end up wherever if they’re not playing push content where it matters.
Final note, make Lay on Hands always apply the Lightsmith buff if you’re going to insist on building around it. This makes it possible for 4/5 players to have it up in a mythic during emergency moments and gives the Paladin the true “turning the tide” class fantasy the game tries to sell us on.
So to recap:
- Combine the weapon and armor buff into a single armaments buff
- Apply the buff to a target with any direct healing spell (and correct the change to tank mana, which sucks)
- The buff lasts for 20 seconds, and grants the target 3% movement speed and 3 yards increased range on attacks
- Any player gaining the buff gets a Forebearance-style debuff to auto-manage group limitations for the Paladin, and Lay on Hands ignores this limitation and always applies or reapplies the buff regardless of active debuffs/count
- The Lightsmith’s aura grants additional effects while the buff is active: Devotion has passive healing over time, Concentration allows movement while casting, Retribution grants leech, Crusader grants movement speed and avoidance.
- If the shield persists for its full duration, then when it ends the player grants a buff and deals Holy damage on their next attack or ability within x seconds based on the % of shield that was left when it ended. If the shield pops early the benefits are lost.
Blizzard, I am telling you right now that if all a person has to do is direct heal someone and sometimes swap aura this will be a big success. The current version sounds horrible.