[PTS] Patch Notes 28/02/2025

[salazarn]

We’ve conducted extensive testing over the past few days, and I want to reiterate that adjusting healing scaling towards Healpower seems like a very questionable direction. Naturally tanky classes such as WP/DoK can afford to invest heavily in Healpower, leading to extreme numbers. This also raises an important question—why play lower-armored healers when you can have a higher armor tier and gain access to a new AoE detaunt for both WP/DoK?

With the new abilities and passives, we’re already seeing cases like 3.8k healing on a 0.5-second cast or 3.1k group healing on a DoK. While some DPS abilities may also scale well, DPS classes still have to contend with resistances and armor, ensuring that at least some portion of their damage is mitigated. Generally spoken the scaling of Healpower seems to negative impact most healers healing reaching exreme numbers beyond 4k+ healing that could only be achieved previously with AM/Shaman 40% more healing tactic when a target dropped below 25% HP.

In contrast, healers scaling even higher through Healpower lacks a meaningful counterbalance, aside from healdebuffs, which feels inherently unbalanced to me in the long term. And I already fear that any potential DPS balance patch will be just increasing numbers even more to counter position that.

If wp/ dok are op then thats reasonable. However for my money healers, just like dmg dealers should need to invest in primary stats if they want to perform their role. Classes like squiggie and white lion need to invest in weaponskill and crit as well making them squishy while having to be closer to the action.

[Alubert]

We'll see how it works out in the end.

It is important to keep in mind that we are before the DPS balance, which will be able to significantly reduce TTK.

Generally 99% of opinions on the forum or game chat say invest in HEAL CRIT and everything else in defense but as for me the best healer in the game Halta completely ignores this and stacks healing bonus and heals by far the best (heal crit 8% only form gear bonuses). And this is happening now on the server.
My flat healing with high healing bonus is close to healing crits with low healing bonus.
The only conclusion is that I was always wrong to mindlessly invest only heal crit.

I can see some dissatisfaction among players who are afraid of sacrificing some defensive for better healing results. I believe that increasing the importance of willpower is very healthy for the game. Even if we have to give up some defensive performance.

It is possible that this will affect the style of play because even more than before the first target will be healers.

[Aluviya]

I don’t want to argue here, but I do feel that much of this debate comes from a limited perspective, focusing solely on whether healers should invest in Willpower and whether they should remain strong in a defensive state. However, that is not the real question at hand.

The core issue is: What is the counterbalance to high healing values in the game? And I can already say—it’s not just a healer being "defensive." Some healers have exceptional kiting skills and access to M2 Focused Mind, allowing them to escape most dangers with ease. Additionally, most healers can cast abilities from 150 ft range, which is a significant factor that shouldn't be overlooked. If a well-played Sorc/BW players can survive with a 100 ft cast range, I don’t see a major struggle in healers adopting a less defensive kit while still maintaining their 150 ft cast range.

Beyond that, several secondary questions need to be addressed:

• Why do certain classes (WP/DoK) naturally achieve higher Healpower without sacrificing much, if anything, on their defense?
  If this patch also brought WP/DoK armor in line with other healers, I could at least see an argument for balance.

Currently, WP/DoK can sit comfortably in the backline, casting at 150 ft, without needing to engage in melee as often to generate class mechanics—a significant shift from their previous playstyle.
On top of that, full Willpower builds remain viable without sacrificing durability, as they still retain the same armor values as other healers while gaining vastly improved healing output.

• Why do some classes (WP, AM, Sham, DoK) receive percentage-based heal buffs that stack with other sources—either through class mechanics or permanent tactics (DoK)—while others (Zealot/RP) do not have access to these advantages?

These kind of changes are what make certain abilities in certain situations absolutely gamebreaking. We've had similar issues with percentage based tactics in the past just to remind you of the recent WE 50% armor penetration tactic that now is 25%. There is clear evidence to me that percentage based effects usually have a quite huge effect on the game and just to name DoK atm you could increase your healing abilities by 25% generally (60 sec cooldown), have 25% from healing bless or own covenant tactic to increase that and on top have access to a new ability that empowers your new casted healing ability by 35% - > alongside with a better scaling of healing power this makes a 1 sec cast grouphealing to 3,1k healcrit on all groupmembers - these kind of loopsholes can't be healthy for the game even from the perspective of a healer.

• Why are these buffs even necessary when they allow certain healers to burst heal for over 4-5k with a single ability? (very TOP tier played DPS'es rotate around 13K in 3 secs; there is Guard in the game reducing 50% of that damage...)

• What is the long-term intended gameplay for DPS classes that lack access to a Healdebuff?

The answer cannot simply be "burst"—at least in small-scale gameplay—because many past changes have ensured that most bursty DPS specs have been nerfed (e.g., Magus/Engineer pet changes, Sorc/BW mechanic adjustments).
At this point, only a handful of DPS classes retain a viable burst playstyle, with SW being one of the few remaining examples.

At present, on the PTS, a DoK single target instant HoT tick—on the right build with decent Healpower—can outheal a Magus' 2-second cast ability with ease.
With an additional instant group HoT, it becomes incredibly difficult for me to see how DPS classes without Healdebuffs will have any meaningful impact.
As someone who has played healers for a decade now, I find it difficult to see any real struggle in completely negating an entire DPS rotation if you put into perspective that also you have access to a couple of more healing abilities.

Just very briefly summing up - as a final mention there is no counterplay for excessive absolute healing values beyond 3k other and absolute - because there is no countermechanism for healing but healdebuff or well timed CC

[Nameless]

I disagree with latest comments. With 200 heal power the heal increase is minimal because of lowering the base heal values so your 4k heal would occur at current state if you replicate same environment.

About natural dok/wp tankiness your arguments are again far fetched. Amt you could ignore all backline healers mechanics and be pretty solid healer while dok/wp need to be more infront to manage their resourses. You are literally hinder yourself if you dont manage your mechanic.

Beside that at live one of important things for healers were resource management. On ror dok/wp still need to do it while all changes to ap regen, extra 50 ap, all "on heal "Ap procs on bis gear remove that struggle for cloth healers.

And lastly again hollow words how dok and wp could heal from 150 ft range only with st hot and 5 sec st heal and st/hot heal, yea totally

[makh]

In absolute endgame gear, zel/rp can have a good balance of defensive and healing stats, but the play style is always going to be different from wp/dok. Essentially, zel/rp survivability is much more dependent on kiting, good positioning, and good communication with your teammates (ofc).

My zealot has 9.4k hp (buffed), 31% dodge, 51% disrupt, 1043 wp, -6 chance to be crit, 36% healing crit unbuffed (can be 41% with buffs), and -11 armor penetration. Chance to be crit can be further reduced with GB diamond and other more defensive gear if needed. Heal crit and overall healing power can also be increased by switching over to more glass cannon healing gear. Based on my experience, getting any more healing crit and healing bonus (beyond soft cap) provides marginal results. If a zealot really wants more armor and even more dodge/disrupt, they can wear warlord at the cost of reducing their overall healing. A rune priest can do the same and slot their 660 armor tactic to be even more tanky lol; however, a tactic slot is expensive real estate for a healer.

The great healer thread on this forum provides a great analysis and argument for why zel should largely slot wounds vs. armor/toughness. TLDR for that thread: Zel can't get enough armor to mitigate armor pen in this game and can't get enough toughness for it to matter like shaman/dok.

If a zel/rp really wants even more defenses, they can always slot more defensive tactics. However, I think that at that point, the player needs to consider what kind of healer they want to play: frontline or backline. Imo, zel/rp can gear towards frontline healing, but they will never be as tanky as wp/dok.

Not going to discuss the ritual changes.

[Fenris78]

Rituals to 50 feet range is incredibly bad design, meaning you cannot use them to heal 150 feet away like other skills ; previously you could use ritual at max range to get low sustained healing to 180 feet away (80 + 100 ft range) is you couldnt get closer to you allies on frontline, but it was already very limited because of 30s shared cd, but you could have hoped to proc shield with initial healing tick and help someone.

Now you wont be able to heal both frontline and backline allies, wich is extremely bad, especially considering how various parties are (in WB much), and how fast people is running ; in 2 or 3 seconds delay a 100 feet ritual is already far away in dynamic fights, and generally in static ones you got casters 100 feet away from frontline.

100 feet radius rituals ensured some reliability when you decided to get you skills on a 30s cooldown, you had to place them well.

Now with 50 feet you will struggle healing allies with melee/tanks + rdps in same group, and you by the way, even in a keep floor's area (see banners with 65 ft range not affecting everyone unless placing them exactly centered in the room).

Rituals should still get healing every 3s, with at least 15s duration, because RP/Zeal are already very GCD starved, especially without "emergency" big ST healing, unlike Sham/AM ; if you lose your shield proc by tactic, you are basically screwed, especially since rituals also can proc your +25% healing buff...

I also want to remind everyone that RP/Zeal dont have access to decent out-of-party AoE healing, unlike other healers ; because of that they have to rely on sustained healing + protection, wich was only covered because of healing ritual + shielding tactic.

Removenerf that combo and you basically destroy these classes, leaving only other healers to a competitive state.

"Customized" runes/marks are anecdotal use at best, even with recent rework for them, because they eat a GCD and rarely got a spot in any rotation, but other than that, the relative mobility of RP/Zeal were the only strong points they got (and even so, it was bad compared to shaman, even AM casting on the move abilities...).

If you nerf sustained heal capabilities (less ritual procs, more reliance on willpower while you need stronger defensive investment) AND mobility (by halving ritual range for example), RP and Zealot will simply not be played anymore because other healers got it easier, simple as that.

The only positive point is to make all rituals with healing ticks, wich partly removes the needs to spec the exact same build for everyone.

[Bozzax]

I suspect most ppl that push the willpower dream has never played a healer seriously ever. There is no such thing as striking a balance btw defenses and heal output. A dead healer don't heal simple as that guess what will always be prio 1.

If you have problems killing something in this iteration you
a. Play solo DPS
b. Live the 2h tank dream
c. Play in random groups with no coordination
d. Play a DPS healer
e. Play in a WB that don't flanc or move very well

[hordak774]

how long this test gonna be ?

[crystl32]

I don’t want to argue here, but I do feel that much of this debate comes from a limited perspective,

99% of any feedback that people post in ANY gaming forum

[Zumos]

PTS Update 1

On behalf of the team, I would like to thank everyone who contributed with constructive feedback on our PTS patch notes, as well as to those who found and reported bugs they encountered on the PTS server. Based on your feedback we have made some adjustments. We have also taken your feedback on the Zealot's Rituals and Runepriest's Master Runes to heart, but are still considering the best course of action for those abilities.

• Rune of Fire - Increased projectile speed

• Tzeentch's Cry - Increased projectile speed

• Changer's Echo - Base damage increased from 248 to 448

• Bludgeon - Righteous Fury gain increased from 30 to 35.

• Absence of Faith - Now builds 30 Righteous Fury instead of requiring 30 Righteous Fury.

• Repent - Now usable with any weapon.

• Divine Impact - Now additionally reduces the target's chance to parry or block by 10% for 10 seconds.

• Blessing of Sigmar - Duration increased from 10 to 15 seconds.

• Castigation - Duration increased from 10 to 15 seconds. Damage ticks changed from 5 * (24 + 0.35*DB + 50*WDPS) to 5 * (30 + 0.45*DB + 0.6*WDPS)

• Cleave Soul - Soul Essence gain increased from 30 to 35.

• Terrifying Vision - Now usable with any weapon.

• Searing Touch - 1-4 Tranquility bonus changed from 15% damage to 10% strikethrough. 5 Tranquility bonus changed from 30% increased damage to 10% strikethrough (40% slow remains).

• Bunch O' Waaagh! - 1-4 Gork's Waaagh! bonus changed from 15% damage to 10% strikethrough. 5 Gork's Waaagh! bonus changed from 30% increased damage to 10% strikethrough (40% slow remains).