Lightsmith vs Herald of the sun, is everyone wrong?

Classes Paladin
1

Everywhere I read: Herald of the Sun > lightsmith, same watching those class guides…

However, looking at pure raid data, I see that, for example on Ulgrax, 100% of the top 100 holy pal are lightsmith!!!
Sure, it could be because those op players don’t need more heal, but still, I find it suspicious.

2

Latest patch has made AC + Lightsmith extremely good in M+ and raid.

3

Lightsmith is really nice if you can get over the extra buttons/clunk.

4

Has me nervous. I love AC and this is exactly the type of thing that sees it nerfed to the ground, removed or made unplayable with extreme mana restrictions.

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5

I believe they’re both very comparable outside of High keys and Mythic raid prog. It’s weird to think of two viable specs, but this might be the case. Persomally, did 8/8H and found Herald to be the better feeling spec in raid. While im 2450 m+ and lightsmith to me is S tier. This week I’m trying out Lightsmith in raid.

Just a reminder though. Raid data doesn’t always depict the best performance for progression groups. For example, look at the % of throughput in raid data done by holy bulwark. Now look at who that’s casted on. You can pad your numbers even further than Beacon by just keeping it up on MT/OT but this contributes virtually nothing to the overall raid. Compare this to dawnlight throughput and it tells a story.

I agree though, I made this same realization last week which prompted me to check it out. Pre and post patch I don’t notice a huge difference. I just like the playstyle of Lightsmith more.

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6

That’s a good point. The sad thing is because of the misconception that lightsmith is bad, we see pretty little guide…
Most often it is cover after herald of the sun in a quick way. Do you know a source for a more in depth gameplay guide for Lightsmith?

7

Lightsmith is bugged due to the following:

The buffs to lightsmith recently that were only intended for protection are applied to holy as well. So sacred weapons are healing for more, and blessed assurance was buffed by 600% which is massive for avenging crusader.

Some of the talents from LS are also not transferring beacon healing correctly - AoE heals are supposed to have reduced healing but they aren’t - talents like hammer and anvil. So beacon healing is higher than intended right now as well.

Whether Blizzard will fix this is yet to be determined.

8

Honestly, no, I don’t. Everything is piggy backing Herald, probably because some authors already wrote very in depth guides, then content creators just record themselves reading those guides.

With that being said, I don’t think there really is much to it. As in it’s pretty easy to get in the trenches and feel it out. Here are some tips I can think of.

  • Track your armaments. Spread out swords when possible, does not have to be on the strongest or quickest dps. Good idea to track these on frames so you can gauge when and who has them.
  • Bulwark on tank unless he’s a god. Then use it on the squishy member of the group (We all know the guy).
  • Consuming infusion of lights will reduce armament cooldown. This isn’t the biggest deal for the sword, but for bulwark it’s pretty huge.
  • Don’t be afraid to Lay on Hands. Hand it out like candy. Armaments reduce CD on it.
  • Get down and dirty. The one pitfall of lightsmith is if you’re not in the mud, spamming crusader → judgement → shield of righteousness. You just… fizzle out. You NEED to be aggressive. Don’t freak out and WoG every single lick of damage. Let your Consecrate/Stirke/Judgement do it’s job. When you start seeing HP’s dip below 85%-75% send out a WoG (Which will be charged up by holy shock by this point).
  • Avenging Crusader allows you to hyper focus on Crusader Strike / Judgement spam, which in turns grants more holy power, which allows you to consume faster, which allows you to proc awakening quicker. As a result, you really shouldn’t “save” your wings. I use them pretty liberally.

That’s for your typical trash pack, mini-boss, etc. For known abilities (Forge mace, coaglamation, etc) it’s the exact same rotation as Herald, just less powerful.

  • ALWAYS Virtue before the damage comes. Most boss abilities are spaced 15 seconds apart (minimum)
  • Try to be sitting on full holy power. The minute the damage is sent, hit someone with a charged word of glory.
  • Holy Prism and consume your two infusions (if possible)
  • From here, you either Divine Toll into more WoG spam, or you can send your wings and blast AoE with Crusader Strike / Judgement. Wings is the more powerful sustain for pulsing AoE while Divine Toll is a quick cleanup.

Hope this helps you get started on it. The armaments offer so much passive mitigation and healing that it allows small blips of damage like a loose necrotic bolt or shadow bolt to not feel detrimental to your rotation.

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9

Herald was the better hero spec until it was hotfixed to have reduced healing and lightsmith was incorrectly buffed for holy. This all happened back to back recently.

Things change, it’s not like people just talk out of their asses.

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10

What is the timeline on this hotfix you’re speaking of, because I started in Lightsmith last week and it felt great then. Perhaps you’re right, and I was working under the guise of these buffs without knowing.

With that being said, It still can be frustrating for some to try and look for a guide or review of a spec that is not bis. Sometimes the better spec is the one you’re better at playing. I appreciate you bringing this to attention though.

11

As of 2 weeks ago (so the reset before last), we saw the following buffs:

Holy

  • Lightsmith: Awakening now causes Blessing of the Forge to spawn a Sacred Weapon when extending the duration of Avenging Wrath.
  • Lightsmith: Hammer and Anvil’s healing effect radius increased to 20 yards (was 5 yards).
  • Lightsmith: Hammer and Anvil’s healing increased by 150%.
  • Lightsmith: Divine Guidance effect increased by 50%.

The following buffs that were meant for protection only, were also applied to holy:

Protection

  • Lightsmith: Sacred Weapon damage and healing increased by 30%.
  • Lightsmith: Blessed Assurance increases the damage of your next Crusader Strike/Hammer of the Righteous/Blessed Hammer by 200% (was 100%). The 100% effect was applied to holy, from 20% to 120%.

On top of the above, we also have the following bugs:

  • After the hotfix to Dawnlight’s AoE effect, it’s doing way too little healing when hitting above 5 targets.
  • The following lightsmith talents do not have reduced AoE beacon healing transfer: Sacred Weapon, Hammer and Anvil, Divine Guidance

In short, lightsmith is hella bugged and it’s causing it to overperform. Herald is also bugged negatively. This shifted the balance between both specs.

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12

Thank you!!!

13

I actually don’t think assurance is the go even with the extra buff. Guidance absolutely pumps dps and hps. I’ve got no numbers though just feelycraft.

14

Assurance is better with avenging crusader. Divine guidance is better if you’re sticking with regular wings.

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15

Honestly the only aspect of LS now that I still dislike its the GCD in Holy Armaments.

Holy that feels clunky to use still. Even more after the 4% haste lost.

16

I dunno AC makes a lot of holy power. It lets you stack guidance up. You aren’t really alternating spender/cs to maximise assurance during AC and outside of AC assurance isn’t doing much at all. I really do think guidance may be better even with AC.

17

Nah I think off the gcd would be OP now and they would have to nerf LS. I think the gcd is fine.

18

Probably. But you have to remember that LS is currently not working as intended. Assurance + CS + AC is doing 600% more healing/damage that it should. Hammer and anvil is healing 100% through beacons, etc, etc.

Tempered in battle is also a incredibly powerful ability atm (and my favorite since auto sac was a bug and was in the game just for 2 days).

I really hope I’m the wrong here, but i don’t see blizzard not nerfing this this sometime in the future.

19

I really hope they don’t nerf tempered. It’s literally carrying prot pally now :joy:. They should probably fix this assurance bug but tbh I don’t see the numbers people are talking about when I run it.

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20

??? Yes you are?

You should be using a spender before every crusader strike in AC windows… it’s literally the whole point of the talent.

The reason assurance is so strong is because of the synergy with AC. Hence why it’s better… with AC.