Though I'd take a minute to examine the differences between rune priests and archmagi, and a little on AM mechanics. I thought it was worthy of a new topic, despite being originally a reply to Gunnarr in the AP regen thread. I rambled on a little!
One thing I noticed by going on spell descriptions from wardb etc, is that the non-boosted numbers from AM/shamans are about as high as the full-healer numbers from RPriests/Zealots.
Yep, the AM is entirely equivalent to a RP at least up until T3 in terms of the healing potential they have. Indeed, many of the spells are analagous. They also benefit highly from the focussed nature of their talent trees - one for healing, one for dps and one for ... utility I guess. An archmage who decides to specialise in healing can invest all their points in the healing tree which will boost all their relevant healing spells as well as providing access to the relevant tactics/abilities in that tree. A RP on the other hand has three trees all dedicated to different
styles of dps/healing. One for direct effects, one for over time effects (HoT, DoT) and one for AoE effects, forcing the RP to make a choice therefore clearly neglecting at least 1/3 of our healing arsenal.
It's been said that in T4 when talents really start to show through, an archmage will be able to push higher raw HPS on a single target than a RP. I can well believe it.
It looks to me like the only counterbalancing factor is a wider amount of (group-)buffs for the RP/ZL.
So yeah, given what I stated above, there must be counterbalancing measures. I believe they are sufficient, and it boils down to one thing - a RP can acheive a slightly better level of survivability in PvP than an Archmage since we have better mobility. The majority of an AM's heals have a cast time and/or are HoTs. RP gets an instant cast direct heal from level 1, which contributes a lot to healing on the move. There are cases where RP has good utility, as is the case with the excellent
master runes (though they do require choosing them in your spec and they are
currently broken). I do not know if AM's have anything which provides equivalent utility.
Grimnir's Shield is a huge benefit (though the AM AoE detaunt may be similarly powerful), and
Rune of Sundering which can be improved with a tactic to reduce the cd to 20 seconds and add a snare for a few seconds. Detaunts are clearly important for healer survivability, but are available to all healing classes so far as I am aware, so not much point mentioning them.
The oath runes are ok, but not that much of a difference since the best buff is the resistance buff anyway, so we're largely similar on that point. Though later a rune becomes available which adds toughness and a self-res.
As I see it, you're pretty much free to do as you please, but if you do need to "switch" regularly, you'll rake in extra bonuses. I think the mechanic is pretty nifty actually, since it doesn't limit you in any way - you're still an ace healer even if you only healbot, and you still churn out respectable damage for a healing class.
The AM/Shaman mechanic is an odd one, you'd think it rewards a hybrid style of play, but I really don't think it does in it's current state.
If you're a healer, you're going to want to heal and nothing else, because even with 5 pips your non-talented, non-tacticed, low +int gear damage spell is going to be a wonderful waste of AP, and AP is gold dust in this game - it's really the limiting factor for everything. The only thing I think is worthwhile doing is the AP drain spell, which is very beneficial to your overall effectiveness in terms of reducing the opposition's team to function, and becomes instant cast at 5 pips.
The reverse situation can be examined. If you desire to acheive the best HPS / highest / most effective healing, in order for the mechanic to be in any way useful you would have to be rewarded sufficiently for casting damage spells. As it stands, you are not, because the amount of time / AP it takes to build up 3+ ticks is much greater than the amount of time / AP it costs to cast any single one of the AM's heals. Again, you're better off ignoring the mechanic.
It's a gimmick, though I won't deny it's an interesting one. I do absolutely agree that it's a good thing that you're not forced to make use of it to be effective, but I do not think it's something that should be actively detrimental to your chosen role if you do. You should be able to acheive better effectiveness through active use of all your classes abilities, and that's not currently the case.
I'm normally not a fan of pointless speculation, but I'll indulge myself here. I think it could be improved such that it would lead to a greater level of hybridisation among AM's, if such was Mythic's intention. For example - build up 5 pips of Force, and your next 5 healing spells are boosted, bringing your pips back into alignment, rather than just your next single spell.
It's hard to articulate this, think of it as a sliding scale moving from -5 to +5. When you cast a healing spell you gain +1, when you cast a dmg spell you gain -1. At different ends of the meter, the opposite spell type is improved by the amount that you are further away from the zero point. This would probably require some rebalancing, as it'd be a fairly significant buff for the class.
Comments / discussion very welcome.
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we're getting chosens and they're getting IBs lol
BofValaya is a really powerful spell, which heals for almost as much as the 3s direct heal, but is not nearly as fragile, and if it hits more'n one target it becomes much more AP efficient.
