Patch 5.3 interview with Ghostcrawler
Mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
The latest patch 5.3 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsCooldown possibly coming to CoH, Wild Growth
by Eliah Hecht 
Nov 7th 2008 at 7:00PM
As a player who recently fell in love with Circle of Healing, this news hits me pretty hard: Blizzard is considering adding a six-second cooldown to CoH and its Druid analogue, Wild Growth. Basically, they're not happy with the fact that CoH often provides upwards of 70% of the healing done by a Holy priest in a raid. The design, according to Ghostcrawler, is for Holy priests to be versatile healers: we have a fast heal, a slow one, a HoT, and several group heals, as well as a couple of unique tricks. But the new, smart CoH sort of blows this out of the water, making Circle the answer to almost every situation, and making AoE healing Holy's de facto speciality (GC's phrase is that it makes our other heals "look like poo").
I'm not sure what I think about adding a cooldown to CoH as a solution to this, though. Initially, I hated it; it looked like Blizzard brute-forcing us to play the way they want us to, instead of making it more attractive by buffing other spells or pushing less AoE damage on us. On the other hand, there is talk of reducing AoE damage necessary. And the more I think about it, the more I think a cooldown might actaully feel good. I do sort of miss my other spells; I don't think I used Greater Heal more than a dozen times the fist raid I did after getting Circle. With a cooldown I could save Circle for when I really needed it. I do like the skill involved in selecting the right spell from our arsenal to deal with the incoming damage - it helps keep me awake during those late raids, and it brings an element of strategy that is missing when I'm just spamming CoH three out of every four GCDs.
Reactions from the blogosphere include Matt's "No comment, stabbing myself in the eyes" and the Dwarf Priest's "CoH is fine," so it looks like I'm in the minority in actually not thinking this is necessarily a terrible idea. I do like the idea of making Prayer of Healing raid-wide to compensate, which is suggested by the Dwarf Priest and acknowledged as a possibility by GC. Groups being mostly irrelevant in raids right now makes the limiation on PoH feel archaic.
Holy does have a history of our top-tier talents being mocked and considered useless (Holy Nova, Lightwell, Circle of Healing; even the new Guardian Spirit has received its share of skepticism). Would a six-second-cooldown CoH still be useful? Yes. Would it be worth its spot in the talent tree? Maybe not. It does make me think of one interesting idea, though: put a cooldown reduction on the beleaguered Divine Providence. If DP reduced the theoretical cooldown of CoH by 30%, bringing it down to 4 seconds, as well as its current effects, it would be an excellent talent, in my opinion, and the Holy tree would be in pretty good shape (albeit with a very different play style than we have now).
Druids: apologies for the Priest--centric nature of this post. I've never specced Resto, so I don't have any basis from which to speak about Wild Growth. But I am very interested in your perspective; what is this cooldown going to do to Resto, if it happens?
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 4)
Theiswyn Nov 7th 2008 10:44PM
To quote Malthrin from elitist jerks; This contrast on the official forums pretty is entertaining: Holy Paladins complaining about not having enough buttons to push and Priests and Druids complaining that Blizzard wants them to push some of their other buttons. Meanwhile, Blizzard tells Shaman that their button is pretty cool and is lots of fun to push.
Anyway this would actually be more of a nerf for priests than druids as a full wild growth heal gives approx 10,000 healing to CoH's 5,000 (assuming around 1,000 SP). This is due to the fact that wild growth takes 6 seconds (I think) to fully heal. I'm not a big fan of cooldowns on heals; it doesn't seem to fit in with the style of play for me. That said CoH is pretty overpowered at the moment.
A 3 second cooldown sounds good to me. That would force us to use a global cooldown on something else and fit in nicely with the lovely Surge of Light free flash heal procs. Of course if we are using too much AoE healing the other obvious solution would be to give us less AoE damage to heal...
Ryan Carbotte Nov 7th 2008 10:48PM
Rubbish! This idea is purely ridiculous. I spec'd into CoH solely to offer a quick, instant cast, quality healing ability.
Removing CoH will limit our healing ability quite significantly (for groups of course). Heck, this ability is even a primary group heal for 5mans.
Our mana efficiency will be blown way out of proportion if they do this as well. I really do not approve of this idea.
GamerJunkie Nov 8th 2008 1:58PM
The deep cause of this nerf is due to the long QQ between Priests and Paladins.
Pre-BC, Priests complain they're getting out healed by Paladins and in BC, Paladins complain they are being out healed by Priests because the lack of tools such as CoH or Chain heal.
Now, GC is adding a nerf because priests have the "I Win and "I'm lazy" button.
Now if Priests could stop trolling about Pallys and the same from Pallys then wouldn't see that many nerfs.
Sulaco Nov 8th 2008 2:31AM
Do you think they could add a cast time to subsequent casts?
1st cast - insta
2nd cast - 1 second
3rd cast - 2 seconds
And reset?
Pinkberry Nov 8th 2008 12:58AM
I love our healing set up atm, I play healer on a Druid and a Priest. I can see why they want to change it but personally I hope they don't.
Healtuff Nov 8th 2008 3:19AM
Please note that my comment is not a flame towards Priests and that this is no way negative.
But you can't deny that CoH priests are one of the top healers in endgame (followed closely by Druids and Shaman).
I'm not saying that is a bad thing. Alot of guilds would not have been able to progress without CoH's awesome healing. But it has become apparent that many priests have started to become 1 button mashers.
I do agree with people who say that this will be a nerf to holy priests. I think that this will drop priests 1 or 2 standings on the healing meters, but not by that much.
Gothia Nov 8th 2008 5:58AM
COH is good for what? Raid healing, we don't need or use this spell for 5man's. Blizzard are control freaks. Smart AOE healing is a must for high level raids such as Sunwell. Blizzard if you don't like healers spamming AOE heal then stop the massive AOE damage. Personally, I don't spam heals if I don't see damage across the board that is including my tank. Blizzard if you want Raid balance then why are you making Shaman's the only viable high level Raid healers? I don't know about Druids and Shamans, but the Priest talent trees are all Jacked up.
aBONiE Nov 8th 2008 9:44AM
Good priests do not always spam CoH.
When the raid is taking some aoe burst damage, then CoH is the response, but usually, it's not the thing that you spam as a priesty, that's why a cooldown would be a bad idea, since it would take away that situational burst-healing.
Paul Nov 8th 2008 10:36AM
Based off of this, I can expect that Chain Heal will also be receiving a six second cooldown, right?
Right?
Speaking for myself, when it's not AoE intensive, I'm still rotating between Renews, Prayer of Mending, and Flash Heal. So now I'll be switching between Holy Nova and Circle of Healing in AoE fights? Awesome.
Naithin Nov 8th 2008 11:17AM
I'm personally just amazed that WG is being painted with the same brush as CoH. WG is a great spell, with a higher than usual chance (for a druid) of actually getting a decent amount of it's effective heal out, which I think is skewing it's percieved effectiveness as relative to the rest of the spells we're casting.
Because honestly, who the heck would spam WG as '75-90%' of their button pushes? It just wouldn't be effective. It's a HoT, overwriting our own HoTs is just idiotic. CoH I can certainly see a problem, since it's an instant.. well.. instant heal. It goes for it's full effect immediately.
Given that, I could see some reason for a CD on CoH, maybe make it as long as WG lasts for or some such. But honestly, even with CoH, I think the best writeup of this proposed nerf I've seen comes from a certain Lume the Mad, which can be found here: http://www.lumethemad.com/2008/11/06/now-is-not-the-time-to-evaluate-coh-and-wg/
HolyP Nov 8th 2008 11:42AM
I think priests who are claiming it's not overpowered right now might not have optimized end-game gear, a CoH-optimized talent build, haven't tried spamming it for 70-80% of their healing, or something. I've seen priests who have CoH but don't use it much doing half the healing output of the CoH spammers.
For raid trash pulls, if things are going smoothly, I rarely even bother moving my hand to my mouse, and just switch between targeting me or a tank for CoH, and still wind up as a top healer. A mana pot and shadowfiend are enough for an unusually mana-intensive fight. Granted I can heal better by mixing in a few other spells (70% CoH instead of 100%) and more attentive targeting, but I can be completely lazy yet still heal more than non-CoH healers.
However, while I agree it's overpowered, I also think several above suggestions on a lesser cooldown or other nerfs might be better. I wonder if upping the mana cost, like maybe doubling it or more, would be a good approach. That would allow it to continue its use as a great instant-cast aoe panic heal, stabilizing damage until other heals take over, but prevent priests from relying on it as their primary heal.
Kellwin Nov 9th 2008 9:40PM
Just last night I found myself spamming WG in a raid during aoe damage. It was the most appropriate spell. What they are missing is that we situationally spam CoH and WG when there is AOE damage -- but any Druid or Priest spamming them super high percentages of their time just isn't changing their tactics based on the type of damage coming in.
Sheesh, isn't letting us have an AOE heal better than making everyone stop and rez the few people who died every trash pull?
I agree with earlier posts -- if you don't want us spamming the spells, don't dole out so much AOE damage then!
Jim Nov 8th 2008 12:47PM
Any spell that makes you a one trick pony deserves to be nerfed. You can still heal while its on cooldown, it's not like you're just gonna sit there while you wait for cooldown.
Myria Nov 8th 2008 12:59PM
Then they're going to be needing a whole lot of CDs to... Well, pretty much everyone.
Just about every spec has one skill that is responsible for the vast bulk of its damage, healing, or threat generation. Some of them have cooldowns, but most don't.
Duckaholica Nov 8th 2008 1:08PM
Aaagh. When I was looking to join a raiding guild as a CoH priest, do you know what I heard?
"Resto Shaman or go home"
My group healing was weak and lame compared to the power of the shaman's healing lazrs. It was frustrating and finally someone took me in, but only because they needed another mass dispel. When they could, they would pack the raid with shamans and have me sitting out.
I never want those days to return. And I feel sorry for the other healers also because I don't want to be the class that makes people go "CoH Priest or go home" either.
I think putting a cooldown of six bloody seconds on the spell would be lame. I don't mind a cool down, but six seconds is an eternity. If I had to go CoH-Flash-Renew hey, I could be okay with that. But if I have to go CoH-GH-GH-GH-GH-GH-GH well, honestly, that's too long. The cooldown on CoH should be comparable to the cast time on a chain heal for a shaman imo.
Miranda Nov 8th 2008 1:29PM
As a H Priest with raiding experience (gruul/mag, kara, ZA, MH, BT) I have never HAD CoH. I also dont use any healing apps.. healing is a skill that I have acquired and I think CoH would make my healing muscles lazy and my response times eventually lag out.
I know now that when my MT's health bar hits a certain amount, I have X amount of time to pop off Y heal on him.. its innate now and CoH makes all my learning useless. Now, as a CD option thats not so bad.. toss it off in emergencies (like LOLWell, which isnt so LOL anymore)
*shrug* Probably going back to shadow for Wrath levelling anyhow but thats my two cents :)
Bebhinn - Velen
thebvp Nov 8th 2008 1:49PM
Holy priest healing is like prot warrior tanking in terms of specialization.
Prot Pally = aoe tank
Druid = high armor, single target tank.
warrior = "jack of all trades" tank, good at everything, not the best at anything.
Holy Pally = single target healer
Resto Shaman = aoe healer
Resto Druid = over time healer, best for stabilization
Holy priest = "jack of all trades" healer, good at everything, not the best at anything.
Like prot warriors, we're not the best at any one sub-role, but the second best at all of them. No other healing class has the same number of tools at their disposal. Where we excel is in our ability to adapt to almost any situation. Personally, this is why I love healing on my priest and hate it on my Paladin. Having 7-8 responses to any one situation (as opposed to three for a pally) is what makes the class fun, in my opinion.
CoH is a pretty situational spell, but is an absolutely essential tool in a holy priest's arsenal. It sucks in most 5 mans and will run you oom in 5 seconds without a mana battery, but without it, there would be little reason to bring a holy priest to a raid. We'd essentially be third rate single target healers that could double as a crappy resto shaman every 10 seconds.
Thistlebee Nov 8th 2008 11:38PM
CoH does not need a 6 sec CD.
It was fine before the smart heal, just take that part away.
I asked GC, what would a smaller guild do if it has alot of AoE damage and they don't have shamans?
Heres what he said,
"You don't need Resto shamans to raid.
If Chain Heal ends up being the only spell that gets used to heal, or the spell that pushes Holy priests and Resto druids out of a raid, then we'll nerf it. We don't think those cases are likely, but we always try to leave the possibility open.
I've already said we'll adjust the content with the assumption that CoH and WG aren't going to be as huge a percent of total healing. "
from:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=12454617123&sid=1&pageNo=3
If the 6 sec CD goes throw we will have no choice but to start recruiting Shamans, or I'll just have to roll one.
So much for "bring the player, not the class"
Kailysta Nov 9th 2008 1:32PM
Im a resto druid infavor of the nerf. Given that I havent gotten alot of upgrades recently cause Im saving my dkp, some of the healers outheal me. But I find that when I spam Wild growth its useless becasue the CoH priests have already healed the person up. If the raid is taking slow damage over time then Ill pass by the shamans and pally but the priests far outheal anyone there.
An alt priest in blues and kara was eating me by a 'small' margin in Hyjal the other night, because of CoH spam. I like that I have an aoe heal and it is useful, but compared to the Priests CoH I find that anything I do leads to massive overhealing. Maybe with wildgrowth they could only put a smaller cooldown. Because I dont find it topping the charts esp with 5 Holy priests im my raid.
And btw, you dont need to be doing BT and close to KJ to know your class. If it took you that long then Im sorry. But for the record, I have blown thru BT and am on KJ.
Captain Machine Nov 10th 2008 3:22PM
I was in SSC and TK last night and the amount of raid damage we were taking was sick, if it wasnt for myself and the second CoH priest then we would have wiped alot more than what we did...
Theres nothing wrong with raid damage due to mistakes but this was largely unavoidable expect through resistance gear (possibily) and we are running around in T5 so were in the correct gear to be in there.
If blizzard are changing raid then that may be ok but I would prefer a cooldown I can spec down to a lower time or instant. Also it would be nice if Prayer of Healing was a smart heal too as its next to useless in anything outside of 5 man instances.
I also agree its weak, I'm running around is pretty good good gear (1300 spellpower fully buffed) and I'm barely noticing the movment of health bars when I cast the spell... by my calcualations its at best as effective as flash heal and while its easy to spam its highly inefficent mana wise.