Thank you Blizzard. Just letting you know that not everyone is against it.
Based on threads I’ve seen in previous months and years, it would seem there’s A LOT of people that actually don’t like the current playstyle, and that’s why they don’t play it.
I wouldn’t be against it staying melee if it was a true melee spec that did passive healing through DPS. Being all in on melee and truly standing toe to toe with the warriors and rogues of the world and still trying to primarily mouseover heal is just awkward design, which is why you see most “melee” holy pallys playing fringe melee. Maybe getting in range of some outlier to crusader strike but really standing far enough away to not really have to deal with melee mechanics so they can concentrate on mouseover healing. This is more of what I see with M+. Raid, it’s a bit easier to stack in with melee and move with melee when needed, but of course they can still sneak out and be fine if a melee mechanic is coming that will mess with them.
So, to me, it was either make it a true melee spec where I’m getting dirty in the trenches focusing on DPS and a more passive healing via damage, similar to atonement for disc priests, or remove the melee if I have to primarily focus on mouseover healing. Looks like you chose the latter and I’m fine with that.
It definitely saves the game from healer gameplay diversity. Next they can prune MW of its melee abilities, maybe make it stand at range amd throw chi punches. Then all healers can stand at range and cast so everyone can play ranged healers.
I happen to agree, but only because they had already neutered the melee playstyle of Holy and it was just holding on for no good reason.
If you could use AC properly and actually play a real melee healer similar to Fistweaving, then sure. However, Blizzard chipped away at that so much that it is not a viable way of playing. Melee was reduced to “extra holy power and a way to deal damage when you don’t need to heal”.
That simple isn’t good enough justification for keeping melee. Either go all out and let them choose a real melee healer playstyle, or don’t.
I’m not sure why anyone would advocate for all the heal specs to play and be the same. If you want to be a ranged healer, there are multiple specs available for you. We have one other melee heal spec, and arguably the Paladin should have been the main one and designed better from the beginning.
After all, why would anyone select Paladin healing and say “I can’t wait to sit in the back with plate and a 2 handed weapon and just heal like a priest.”
What are you going on about. Hpallys don’t use 2H weapon now cause of SotR.
They’re not the same. They have completely different kits and play styles. That’s like saying mage and warlock are the same, and I can 100% confirm they do not play or feel the same at all.
And lastly, you apparently skipped right over all this text. It’s helpful to read entire posts for proper discussions. I actually would like to swing a big 2H mace in melee as holy pally. In its current design with SotR you can’t do that. To me, making it a true melee spec is removing SotR from their kit and giving them a new melee ability that allows for 2H weapons.
True melee is also getting fully immersed in melee and with the current design of constant mouseover heals for HS and WoG it makes it feel like crap. I don’t want to stop swinging my huge mace to mouseover party frames constantly - what’s the point of standing in melee if I’m just going to stand there and cast (ironically) 40 yard range healing spells. The occasional mouseover for utility like BoP is fine but otherwise I want to be doing big dam. Passive healing while having a more complex dps rotation is the only way to create melee healers imo.
I actually don’t mind this design philosophy myself, i’m fine with my melee being a means to an end and more of an optimization/downtime thing.
The more I read and look at the current design philosopy they seem to be running with the less it bothers me, Holy Shock and Crusader Strike have effectively been combined, and keeping sotr as a melee ability means you melee for mana and for dps on downtime, and if you’re a skilled player, you’re generating more holy power over a fight between shining rightesouness giving additional divine purpose chance to sotr and the cdr on holy shock meaning you’re casting more of them.
And the best part? you can chose to ignore all of this if you are the person who wants to stand 40 yards away and spam heals.
Either you didn’t actually read “the engagement” or you’re terrible at math lmao.
Additionally, the TEN comments on this forum don’t represent the entirety of the community.
All we have are anecdotal samples, but if we venture into Reddit threads, you can find even more advocating for a caster playstyle.
Not to mention the fact that largely the people that troll Forums are the people who are negative; meaning, the people who look forward to the caster-centric changes aren’t going to be here. Only the people who DON’T.
Blizzard doesn’t suck. It’s not Blizzard’s fault that y’all don’t really comprehend what bias is or how it works.
I mean Mistweaver monk’s SooM playstyle, a channeled heal with several interactions, is probably the most unique healing in the damn game.
But do MW Monks like it? From what I’ve seen, largely not. They want to be in melee. Just, like, you know, the paladin.
The motivation in a video game should be to have FUN. Not to be “unique.”
A caster in plate can not only be made fun, but is in fact also unique, as it would be literally the only one.
Do i want to be in plate, standing in the back, reading from my holy tome to heal my friends? Absolutely.
What a bizarre argument.. “We need diversity, so let’s keep paladin as a melee healer just like MW monk.”
No matter what direction they go, there’s going to be healers akin in style or range. So “diversity” or “uniqueness” is already out the window.
Also people don’t want “unique” – they want FUN.
As I said above, MW monk having a channeled healing spell through SooM is incredibly unique… The playstyle, and its interactions with the kit and other spells, is largely unfound in any other healer.
Yet do MW monks want that playstyle?
Some do. But largely they want to be in melee range. Hitting with 3 melee abilities, just like paladin.
So unique lol
You know the distance at which you hit buttons isn’t what creates “diversity” anyways, right?
I don’t know a single person that actually plays hpal right now including ellesmere that wants CS gone. And Blizzard sucks giga dix. You’re coping hard.
My main since two months into vanilla WoW has been a holy paladin and I’m very optimistic about removing Crusader Strike. I’ll have to actually play it with the changed abilities and changed cooldowns on those abilities to make a final decision, but I’ve felt like Crusader Strike has been an extremely underwhelming ability for a long time. It does nearly no damage, to a single target, and really only exists as filler to generate a point of Holy Power. If the shorter cooldown on Holy Shock (and reduction on HS from other abilities) ends up with roughly the same number of button presses as current HS + CS, I don’t feel like we lose anything. Rather than having a weak single target melee attack, we have a weak single target ranged attack/heal depending on how we want to use it in the moment.
Also I’m not 14 so I don’t care what e-celebs prefer.
Do you even play hpal? Post from it. Mine’s linked.
I’d love to see what caliber of player wants these horrid changes to their rotation and wants to literally SIT THERE casting flash of light in empty globals to build hp even though everyone is at full hp because CS is gone.