The Spirit Realm

Now that we've had GoR for a few weeks now, it seems a good time to see how others are using it. I don't seem to have a need for it when grouping, and I especially do not want to tie up a spell gem for it. I can get by fine without a grp HOT, but if one is needed, I imagine most of us would rather use Ancestral Aid and/or our epic.

But for most raids, I definitely mem GoR. It gladly replaces a DOT that always bounces, especially in heavy AE raids. I'm often main healer for my raid groups, and having GOR has made me much more solid.

And regarding the 18 second recast time, it really doesn't seem to be an issue. Is this pretty much where everyone else stands?

i haven't bothered to mem this in 1 group content outside of SRo 1. i do keep it memed at any raids which have AEs (i also drop a DoT for it.) I never know when i am going to get stuck with an undergeared guildies or apps who will need the healing power.

honestly, I try to keep it perma-memmed, it may not have the same individual kick as SS, but it does hit every person in the group. I use it to top everyone off in the group, if we have multiple mobs in camp (I see it more in PoR zones than anywhere else), or when cleric uses epic...its a very good spell for me.....recast seems a little senseless, but I can live with it.

My response would be a carbon copy of Scowls so I'm gonna save some typing time and just say Ditto.

I always have SS memmed still. It seems that in most every day raid use, I'll end up missing someone due to range, full buff slots, or another hot on them that is stronger.

Ghost seems to really only be nice when you need immediate healing and you don't have enough time/info to guess who's gonna take the most dmg first (like AE ramp, riptose, etc..). I'll often premptively cast ghost, then follow with SS or blast heals as I have time.

Strangely enough, I find myself using WAY more mana than I ever have before hehe. I think Ghost has in some ways made me a bit more lazy as a healer. I just fire it off and see who needs extra healing a bit later. Usually its only 1-2 people, so I've wasted 4-5 ghosts.

I haven't really found a "perfect" use for it yet. On Vish, for instance, the AE is roughly 800 (850?) per tick. Using Ghost, I still need to top folks off. When I was cycling SS, it would keep pace with the dot. Much more efficient. However, I'd have less time to debuff adds/spot heal.

So I guess for me, Ghost is:
1. More mana use over time
2. Best when time is short/other tasks are equally as important as healing.
3. Not a replacement for SS
4. Works well in conjunction with pally or druid group heals. Ghost buys some time, Pally/Dru tops the group off if Ghost isn't keeping pace.

Well, I take that back about no perfect uses. On jelvan, Ghost is perfect for me. I normally cure in South. Groups are normally me, couple clerics on CH rot, druid for spots, necro for pumps, enc for debuffs in group 1. Group 2 is dps, usually monks to FD AE + a rogue or 2. Group 3 is another shaman, rampage tank, misc. Usually I can cast Ghost on my group after the AE lands, then cast ghost on group 2, and both groups remain pretty much full life the entire fight. Since everyone is squished in together, it works very nicely.

Gale shaman are acting as main group healers for almost all raid encounters these days. As our heal capacity has grown it has enabled us concentrate our cleric power to greatly increase our tank's survivability. We often group 3-4 clerics with 2 tanks allowing them to rotate DA and Epic, etc as a "oh shit" bonus to our normal heal strats.

With tools like Ancient Wislisk's, Spiritual Serenity, Ghost of Renewal, Ancestral Aid, Epic 1.5, PoR BP, Tacvi Spear I can safely keep my group alive in every encounter in Tacvi and CoA (minus OMM who we havnt' tried yet). Ghost is a big part of that capability. Other than healing direct AE damage, I too will pre-emptively heal AE ramp mobs using ghost. I will also pop ghost any time there are multiple adds about to spawn. While Enchanters and Knights get them locked down stray hits and agro can smack peeps around a bit and Ghost adds a good safety margin. It is mana intense and does require I canni consistantly. Thankfully in the current content I'm main healing, Ghost is enough of an over-heal to cover that damage also.

if i dont have 3 or more needing heal, Ghost isnt worth the cast, ancient heal or a clicky heal does a better job. ghost is mana intensive and i have to watch myself frm over doing it on some encounters. its a very effective and mana efficient spell given the right use, much like not casting sisslak when mobs are at 10%.

The recast on GoR makes me extremely sad. My favorite is when you keep it on two groups and you get the bug that takes the freshly renewed buff(GoR) off the very second it hits.

GoR needs to lose its recast time(and Moonshadow's needs to be halved as it's more potential Healing per Second than GoR, has no stacking issues, bugs, is a direct heal and doesn't take a buffslot). The healing per second basis the two spells should be balanced against each other should look this:

1 Moonshadow HPS = 2(2 groups is what is realistically feasible, if you wanted to sustain it reliably) GoR HPS. Moonshadow will cast in 2.7 seconds and heal about 2.8k damage with a 9 second recast in place, which would then be 240 HPS. Roughly the same is what GoR would do when kept on 2 groups. The advantage of GoR would be that you could keep it up on more groups for a short period of time, while Moonshadow would keep its above mentioned and current advantages(no buffslot, immediate healing, no bugs, no stacking issues. This would achieve that GoR was actually in line with Elixir of Dvinity as far as the design of the two spells is concerned.

The other things that require attention in my opinion are:

1. Elixir of Divinity's superior efficiency

Pious Elixir heals for 1170/tic and costs 890 mana

Elixir of Divinity heals for 900/tic and costs 1550 mana

compare this to:

Spriritual Serenity heals for 820/tic and costs 520 mana

Ghost of Renewal heals for 630/tic and costs 1260 mana

One cast of GoR costs as much mana as 2.42 SS's.

One cast of EoD costs as much mana as 1.74 PE's.

2. Elixir of Divinity's Healing/tic blocking Spiritual Serenity

Elixir of Divinity heals for 900/tic

Spiritual Serenity heals for 820/tic

This is as annoying as it gets. It's total bullshit that my highest single target HoT is blocked by the Cleric's group HoT, as Clerics can use EoD very effectively and without caring much about the mana comsumption due to the incredible efficiency this spell has.

My proposal would be to either lower the Cleric HoT to 820, so that Shaman can overwrite it with their strongest single target HoT or that they bring the mana efficiency of EoD in line with GoR(2154 mana). The alternative would be to up the healing/tic of SS to 900 keeping the efficiency it currently has(570 mana) to achieve the same thing.

3. MGBability

What the heck happened here?

Not only was MGB healing bumped from 400/tic with a single HoT to 900/tic with the introduction of Elixir of Divinity, but at the same time GoR was flagged as non-MGbable when it went from beta to live.

Either make GoR MGBable or flag EoD as non-MGBable as well(preferable, as Developers never liked MGB healing in the first place).