Raid Rx: Analyzing tier 12 healing set bonuses
by Matt Low 
May 6th 2011 at 3:00PM
Good news, everyone! Patch 4.2 information is heating up! I've already fired up my PTR client, and I'll be eagerly testing any new encounters. Some of the new information that has been released includes the new tier bonuses, which I'm sure you're burning with desire to know more about. I'll see if I can help stoke the flames of your anticipation. I suspect we'll have some players returning to see if new content is going to rekindle their interest in the game.
Too many fire puns? Okay, let's just blaze on through and look at healing tier bonuses.
I really do like the creativity the design team is taking with regards to set bonuses. Keep in mind that even though all of this stuff is in the PTR data, it could change at any time. I hardly expect all of this to be the final iteration. It looks like the two-piece bonuses provide a slight boost to your mana regeneration, while the four-piece offers cool effects inspired by select boss mechanics.
Priest set bonus
Holy and Discipline two-piece Your Flash Heal, Heal, and Greater Heal spells cause you to regenerate 2% of your base mana.
Holy and Discipline four-piece You have a chance when you cast a helpful spell to summon a Cauterizing Flame. Friendly raid and party members can use the Cauterizing Flame to be instantly healed for 4,625 to 5,375. Lasts for 45 seconds or 10 charges. After using the Cauterizing Flame, players cannot benefit from it again for 10 seconds.
With the two-piece, I guess I won't be doing much filler Renew work. Depending on my mana reserves, I'll need to revert back to plain Heal casting in order to gain it.
In regards to the four-piece, Chase said it best: The four-piece is the only bonus that literally scales with player skill. Chance on heal, summon a Firewell! Players click on it, and they get an instant heal. It seems like a paltry amount. I wonder if it is going to scale with mastery at all. Too early to say, and we don't know enough about the mechanics yet. It is just a first impression, and it seems to feel extremely lackluster. Where would it even spawn? The target of the heal? Next to the casting priest? I've always had mixed feelings about Lightwell, and they're going to carry over here. The effectiveness of the proposed four-piece bonus is determined by the awareness and skill of the raid group I am with.
On the cosmetic side, I'm hoping it will be a red-colored Lightwell of sorts. Imagine being in a zone that is all fire and trying to find the Firewell amidst all the chaos.
Paladin set bonus
Holy two-piece Casting Flash of Light, Holy Light, or Divine Light on your Beacon of Light target has a 40% chance to grant you 2% of your base mana.
Holy four-piece Your Divine Light also heals a nearby injured target for 20% of the amount healed.
Paladin two-piece bonus is similar in design to the priest one. The difference is that it involves your Beacon of Light target and it has a chance of restoring mana.
The four-piece reminds me of Althor's Abacus. At least it will scale nicely as paladins gain better gear. I can't find much to really criticize on the paladin bonuses. Divine Light coupled with the set bonus amplifies the multi-healing aspect of paladins slightly. I presume it'll be great for paladins placed on raid healing, although I'm not sure how often raid healing paladins cast Divine Light. If paladins are being assigned to tanks, melee players will benefit the most in a melee tough raiding environment.
Druid set bonus
Restoration two-piece Your periodic healing from Lifebloom has a 40% chance to restore 1% of your base mana each time it heals a target.
Restoration four-piece When your Lifebloom blooms, it instantly heals up to 2 nearby injured targets for the same amount.
Curiously, the druid two-piece relies on Lifebloom instead of using other direct healing spells. In fact, both of the bonuses revolve around Lifebloom. It'll be up to the casting druid to determine when to let the spell expire or when to maintain it. When it does expire, two nearby players will benefit from it. This bonus seems like it'll be slightly challenging for druids to manage. Druids will need to keep a finger next to Lifebloom, eyes on the target, and be aware of any health loss to any players around that target.
Fun times!
Shaman set bonus
Restoration two-piece Your periodic healing from Riptide has a 40% chance to restore 1% of your base mana each time it heals a target.
Restoration four-piece Your Chain Heal spell will jump to one additional target.
The shaman two-piece falls in line with the druid set bonuses. It simply reinforces the idea of players continuing to use Riptide whenever it is available and does not rely on the normal direct healing spells.
I have a hunch that the four-piece bonus is a placeholder and isn't implemented yet. As it stands, it just looks boring compared to the other bonuses of the other three healing classes. Perhaps a bonus whereby every target hit by Chain Heal has a chance to heal a nearby player for 10% of the initial Chain Heal? Mm, that's probably too overpowered.
What type of shaman bonus would you give? What do you think of your tier 12 so far?
Need advice on working with the healers in your guild? Raid Rx has you covered. Send your questions about raid healing to mattl@wowinsider.com. For less healer-centric raiding advice, visit Ready Check for advanced tactics and advice for the endgame raider.
Filed under: Raid Rx (Raid Healing), Druid, Paladin, Priest, Shaman
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
adyuaa May 6th 2011 3:10PM
Tree form with Lifeblooms spread over the whole raid will be some crazy mana regen plus the bonus heals when they all expire. Feels like a nerf may be incoming - but I hope not before I get to try it out.
adrianrokseth May 6th 2011 3:52PM
This ^^
Snuzzle May 7th 2011 7:18AM
Exactly what I was thinking. Although, that's probably why it's a chance on LB to restore mana and not a guarantee on the bloom or anything like that. They'll probably add some fine print like "This effect cannot occur more than once every five seconds."
Lloren May 6th 2011 3:11PM
The Druid 2 pc is great... Who doesnt always have lifebloom ticking? And who doesn't love free mana for doing what you were already doing. I'm not sure how I feel about 4 pc. I think it has some situational uses, and that using it do do massive raid healing when you pop tree form might even be OP, but in general, I try to make a point of NOT letting my LB bloom... which I think was actually reinforced a bit since the amount of the bloom was recently nerfed.
Kassanu May 6th 2011 3:34PM
4-piece could be good in ToL form and putting LB on everyone and having some AoE healing with the blooms
Daedalus4096 May 6th 2011 3:50PM
The druid four-piece bonus is pretty terrible overall. Engineering a Lifebloom pop to occur at a time when its healing is actually needed is exceedingly difficult, given the ten-second delay which resets when you cast almost anything on its target. Even if the main target of the bloom needs the health, are there two other people nearby who also do? At what range? It's clearly nothing more than fodder for the overhealing meters.
Sure, it might have some very situational use when Tree of Life is up, but personally I'd like a set bonus that's useful for the whole fight, rather than 16% of it at most. And even its usage under Tree isn't that great. How many GCDs did you spend to set up that Lifebloom blanket? How much mana? Sure, you'll get to recoup some of your costs, but Lifebloom will never be a net mana gain to cast. It seems like it would be far more effective and efficient to simply use standard AoE healing techniques instead of this clumsy, complicated hack of an idea.
adyuaa May 6th 2011 4:17PM
How much mana did I spend on a Lifebloom blanket? Well, LB costs about 1800 to cast. When it blooms, it returns half that. Suppose I blanket one group - 5 people, and stack rotationally but do not refresh the stacks. 13,500 before the 2-piece restore. It's about 14 ticks per LB, plus or minus some free regrowths, for an average of 28% of my mana back. For 13,500 to be a mana loss, I would have to have under 48k mana - and a druid with these tier bonuses who isn't pushing three times that is probably playing games and won't care.
adyuaa May 6th 2011 4:23PM
I just read that it's BASE mana - throws all my calculations off. 28% of a druid's base mana is 5,217, for a loss of a bit over 8k mana. Apologies.
chris May 6th 2011 4:25PM
I'm a little meh about the Druid ones.
+mana /whoop
relying on LB to bloom at the right time to be useful at all /whoop
Yes situationally ToL and LB a stack of people is probably going to be the best way to make use of it, but the time/cost of building it up to have it pop at the right time... wow
How many fights we have now that we have that much time to prepare for damage to have blooms land straight after AND not have the local shammy to get in first anyways?
hahaha
Upy
radix May 6th 2011 6:08PM
adyuaa, Lifebloom does NOT return half the mana when it blooms; that hasn't been the case since 4.0.1.
Snuzzle May 7th 2011 7:21AM
More passive mana returns for doing what I was already doing? Win.
More passive AOE heals for when I pop Tree and really need the extra AOE heals? Win.
What's not to love about the druid bonuses again?
zubbiefish May 6th 2011 3:11PM
I have a Paladin and a Priest Healer, so I'll comment on those. I like the Paladin ones, I do wonder why the 2pc. is a chance to restore mana, but I'm sure it's a balancing thing. The 4 pc. is pretty neat, I think I'd like it more if it were like the old glyped Holy Light, but no complaints as is.
The Priest 4pc. confuses me. I think it might work better if it were like a reverse Flame Orb. The proc sends it off to heal up friendly targets. Making it Lightwell like limits the desirability.
Taitle May 6th 2011 3:53PM
In my experience, Paladins have the best mana management capabilities of the healing classes at the moment, which would be a good reason for only a chance to regen mana on the 2pc. Personally, the set bonus doesn't mean nearly as much to me as the actual itemization of the pieces. I don't want to feel like I'm making myself weaker by taking a tier piece, like I do with the current, haste-less tier.
cyanea85 May 6th 2011 4:07PM
I'm kind of...underwhelmed by the Pally 2pc, to be honest. It's very rare, and only on some fights when I'm directly healing the Beacon, and that's when I'm in my Tower of Radiance spec. So yeah...situational set bonus that gives us mana (which we really don't have that much trouble on) for giving up 50% free healing on every spell we cast? Pass.
Jeff (Not that one ^ ) May 6th 2011 4:09PM
^ THIS! A thousand times THIS!
Jeff (Not that one ^ ) May 6th 2011 4:10PM
My previous was in response to Taitle.
nieboh May 6th 2011 5:46PM
Ok, I've only played my pally as ret and prot in cata, but...it just...i mean....40% chance at 2% of _base_ mana? Really? Even when this does proc, will that do anything? I feel like I must be missing an important aspect of this bonus that is preventing me from understanding why this "bonus" doesn't completely suck eggs.
erictapley May 6th 2011 3:11PM
Wow, there's a Stargate to the Firelands now!
Hooray for screenshots (and all things Stargate).
... does this mean the Titans are Ancients?
Crispn May 6th 2011 3:15PM
4-piece, your direct healing crits have a chance to spawn a spirit-*insert animal* that smart heals a person in your raid... sounds fun to me at least :D
dsharples May 6th 2011 4:00PM
That sounds quite nice, but tbh I'd take anything over a 2k overheal that will be what the 4pc currently will be