While browsing the cata beta forums, I noticed quite a few threads about Lightwell. The general consensus is that it sucks, and there's nothing to be done to fix it, so get rid of it. But, there's a few folks who rather like this interesting little spell, myself included. Before you get out the torches and pitchforks, hear me out. This spell has some use.
Cons
So, why don't people like it? There has to be a reason people hate it so much, right? I'll admit, some things are wrong with it, but it doesn't mean it's a bad spell.
- It doesn't move - Once you place it, it's in that one spot for 3 minutes. It doesn't move, and if you have to run out of range of it, you can't use it.
- The click radius is fairly small - You have to be within about 5 yards of it to click on it.
- You have to click on it - This alone is an annoyance for some. To get the heal, you have to physically click on it.
- The heal breaks if you take more than 30% of your hp as a hit - This makes it kind of useless to place under a tank, in most situations. there's still some fights that this tactic works for.
- Limited charges - It only has 10 charges. It can't be spam clicked anymore, but it still has some limitations.
- Requires other players to click on it - This is a big one. The people taking damage actually have to click on it to make it work. They often don't. They either won't realize it's there, won't care, or won't use it right.
Pros
So, it's a limited use spell. Big deal. There's still some good qualities. I know there's not much here, so it looks like the cons outweigh it, but bear with me here.
- Powerful - Each Hot tick heals for over 4k with 3300 sp. It ticks 3 times, and has 10 charges. So you're looking at 120k potential healing done from it.
- Off the GCD - After the initial cast, the heal is off the GCD. You don't need to stop to use it.
- You can click it while casting - You CAN click it while you're casting. You don't have to stop what you're doing at all.
- Cheap - Only 656 mana.
- Only one talent point - Seriously. It's one point.
Uses
The uses are what make this spell good. Or at the very least what makes it worth the heavy cost of ONE talent point.
- As a self heal - This is what I use it for. I hate desperate prayer. I don't know why, I just don't like it. So for less mana, Lightwell is my choice. I usually just stand near it, and pop it on myself as needed. Since I can do it mid cast, I've grown to like it.
- Healing other healers - When working with healers that know me, they expect my lightwell and use it the same way I do for self healing. This is less common in pugs, but if you explain it to them then call it on vent when it's there and remind them to use it, it's nice.
- As a raid heal - If you remind them it's there, this can be great when thrown into melee or ranged. It's a powerful heal, you just have to get them to use it.
- As a landmark - Think Festergut here. You can use it as a collapse point for spores, and have folks click it after the debuff comes out.
- As a tank heal - On fights with fast damage, but not spikey, you can drop a lightwell on the tanks and it won't cancel. It's an easy 12k heal.
/bubblehearth
I do see that lolwell can have utility and actually just reading this gave me some ideas about ways I might try to use it ... but I think what bugs me about it is the inefficiency of it? I mean normally what happens is this:
ReplyDeleteThe DPS takes damage: I heal the damage.
With lolwell, it goes DPS takes damage, DPS interrupts rotation, goes to lolwell, clicks lolwell, gets healed, goes back to doing damage.
There's this slightly weird view that DPS are lazy slackers who want to cause as much as work as possible for healers: but I love and trust my DPS, and I want to facilitate them doing what they do best (KILLING STUFF HARD!), I don't want them to have to have to run round extra circles while they do it.
I'm with you on the "it shouldn't interrupt their rotation" thing. It's why I wanted to point out that it's off the gcd and can be activated while casting. It's a bit tougher for melee, but honestly, if they're not clicking their abilities and you place it in the right spot, it shouldn't interrupt anything.
ReplyDeleteIt really is an incredibly efficient heal in terms of how well it scales and the heal/mana cost. It's just a little difficult to use. I do find the best use for it as a self heal though. Like I said, I just don't like desperate prayer. Lightwell is less mana, more healing done, and more fun. Just need to stand near it. Most fights in Icecrown though don't require much movement, and the ones that do, you usually want to go back to your original spot anyways. It doubles as a "This is my spot, DPS don't stand here" marker in some cases too, such as BQ, Festergut, Blood Princes, and Saurfang.
It's not the best spell in the arsenal, but it really is underrated.
My raid has found (I'm a tank, but one of our healers is Holy with Lightwell) that Lightwell excels on centralized fights with lots of movement. When we were working on Rotface with the 0% buff, the order of the day was "Before you take your slime out of the raid, grab a hit from the Lightwell." Movement breaks tunnel vision, and centralization means you have a good spot to put it.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't known that the heal breaks if you take more than 30% of your max health. I guess that means it probably didn't help as much as I thought it did on Sindragosa... though of course any heals the tank can get that doesn't require healers casting is good.
It can still help a ton on Sindra, you just pop it after the breath instead of before it. Although that's one fight I'm selfish with it and stick it on myself as a self heal and a heal for other healers.
ReplyDelete