It does extremely poopy healing and when you consider that it doesn’t naturally Beacon transfer, doesn’t generate or interact with Holy Power, Infusions or Glimmer (core tenets of the spec) and you take 60% of the healing it does, it’s honestly a joke.
At 482 ilvl with 5 stacks of Untempered Dedication, and it heals for 58k. 58k minus the 33k it dealt to you and you’re looking at a 25k net heal and a 15 seconds, 5 stack maintenance buff. What the hell?
This whole section has lived on the side of the hpal tree since the trees were introduced in DF and it hasn’t seen the light of day, in fact it got nerfed during the rework when it already wasn’t played.
If they don’t want us to play it (which is obvious that they don’t), then remove it. Otherwise redesign it and make it a viable raid build.
I think there was a blue post when the expansion pre patch dropped that said something like “We’re leaving this in just because some people might like it, but probably won’t be focusing on it”. It was a big thing in shadow lands so keeping it in the tree for the end of the expansion was probably helpful.
I was looking at it recently because it’s got a low mana cost and is instant cast. Coping as best I can to not have to press flash of light. Didn’t seem too worth it though.
I think it partly has to do with its placement in the tree, a lot of the talents in the middle section of our tree are small.
For example, if you look at healing done by talents like Saved by the Light, Overflowing Light, Glistering Radiance, they are all pretty minor in terms of overall healing.
They don’t want LotM to be a too powerful otherwise it will be a highly valuable talent in an otherwise weak section, however, this is just further evidence that they need to rethink it.
I was looking at it recently because it’s got a low mana cost and is instant cast. Coping as best I can to not have to press flash of light. Didn’t seem too worth it though.
It’s funny you say that because that’s the exact same reason I was looking at it too. From what I’ve heard, it’s actually too expensive mana wise and you have to press it a lot to maintain the buff.
When it heals for like 1/5 of a Flash Heal, Flash Heal Beacon transfers and Flash Heal is free with infusions - it’s just never going to be viable. Not to mention that to take it, you need to shuffle 3 talent points, losing passive healing for an active ability. Losing passive talents and then having to trade our current globals to press it too and it’s just insane how bad it is.
the purpose of it is to have someone hots u at all time and spam it during intense damage taken, it is suicidal strat that works. (must be spec with light of dawn).
Light of the Martyr has so much potential, but Blizz won’t give it the support that it needs. The spell should be a strong supporting tool for Holy’s Mastery which is largely ignored because Blizz can’t quite seem to put the pieces together.
The nature of Mastery: Lightbringer dictates that our heals will never be stronger than when cast on ourselves. LotM sacrifices a portion of our health to heal an injured ally. So long as LotM is tuned well enough that the spell is effectively moving health bars without being crippled by excessive GCDs, the two should would well together by allowing quick-response triage healing that leaves empty space in our own health bars to utilize the full effect of Mastery: Lightbringer.
I would love to see LotM buffed so that the spell heals baseline for what it heals with full stacks of Untempered Dedication, and reduce the mana cost back down to 3k. Then replace Untempered Dedication with:
Boundless Devotion - Light of the Martyr always gains the full benefit of your Mastery: Lightbringer regardless of distance to the target.
Adjust Crusader’s Might to include LotM as a means to reduce the cooldown of Holy Shock.
Adjust Divine Glimpse to include:
Light of the Martyr is unable to critically strike, but your critical strike rating is converted into mastery when casting Light of the Martyr.
These few adjustments would help to allow for a solid build that utilizes Beacon on one’s self and liberal use of LotM as the primary triage tool. Holy Shock on allies + Beacon transferrence would help to offset the lost health, and casting Flash of Light and / or Holy Light on yourself as needed would fill in the gaps as well as provide additional Holy Power generation.
I am no holy main used to play it for fun while leveling and sometimes did heroics for the gols bag… light of the martyrs was really cool very thematic for a paladin and played perfectly into melee paladin (SL melee was my favorite design). It saddens me that it is useless now along with the “rework” that nuked melee gameplay
I wish they would come up with a new build that leant into this more. I like the idea of further exploring the idea of the sacrificial Holy Paladin archetype, elements Paladins have had forever in World of Warcraft with spells like Blessing of Sacrifice, Divine Intervention, Divine Sacrifice (SoD), Aura of Sacrifice etc. I don’t think the modern game can support an extreme version of it like Divine Intervention but a healer that uses their own health pool as a resource for some of its healing is interesting and would fit paladins because of the historic spells I mentioned, but also the mastery interactions you mentioned.
If they were to do it though, I think it would need to come as part of a broader spec tree change. One where Light of the Martyr moves to the capstone area (eg like where Veneration is) so it can be powerful and players can then choose how much they want to invest in this playstyle and it culminates in a fitting capstone.
I’ve had a ton of ideas over recent months, but something like this for example:
Light of the Martyr:
1 point node Current Light of the Martyr. +
Light of the Martyr replaces Flash of Light when cast on a friendly. Flash of Light can still be cast on yourself. Light of the Martyr benefits from Flash of Light’s Infusion of Light interactions and will Beacon transfer.
Martyr’s Illumination
2 point node
Light of the Martyr heals for an additional x%/y% and deals its damage over 3/6 seconds instead of instantly.
Light’s Protection:
1 point node
Standing in your consecration grants you a x% chance to avoid Light of the Martyr damage. Taking damage from Light of the Martyr has a y% chance to make your next Holy Power spending ability grant an absorb shield for y.
IDK there’s a ton of ideas but something that really doubles down on this playstyle would be neat.
(must be spec with light of dawn).