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MoonlessXD on Aug 6, 2020 wrote:

Hey y'all! This is my first post here but this is the first time I've really felt the need to say anything because I am beyond frustrated with the recent crit healing changes in PVP. (For anyone who doesn't know, crit healing was changed to be a 1.3x multiplier)

First of all, not only was this change not communicated ANYWHERE, not on any of the twitter accounts, not in the game client, not even on the forums (if I am wrong please correct me!), but the reasoning for it was not stated anywhere either, even if it does make sense theoretically. I really wish that for this change and in the future, especially if changes like this happen directly to the live realm and don't even go through the test realm, that there is at least some place that players can realistically be informed about them.

Furthermore, about the change itself. While I understand crit healing was a bit overtuned, and this is coming from someone who is a life wizard, I think the change in practice does not hit the mark. First of all, I'm unsure as to why this change wasn't implemented on the test realm prior to being put on the live realm, especially since the test realm recently had one of the biggest, if not the biggest, pvp changes throughout w101 history. Not only were the changes not able to be tested, players were not even able to give feedback about them before they were directly implemented on the live realm. This means that, not only are players not even aware that the change happened because the information was provided anywhere, but the expectation for feedback is significantly reduced because it was never implemented on test realm.

Secondly, I understand the consistency issue of wanting heals and damage abilities to have the same critical modifier in pvp, 1.3x. However, a HUGE problem with this is that the stats that supplement the crit stat are DIFFERENT in the life school (and, to an extent, balance) than other schools. I think that, in order for this change to be fair and make sense, the amount of outgoing/incoming healing on the gear of schools that can heal should be increased in order to even somewhat match damage stats, OR the base healing of heals should be increased. As a life wizard, currently, my luminous weaver crit does MORE damage than my satyr heal crit WITH radical enchant. I think another solution could possible to just buff radical/primordial, in order to make them more in line with offensive sun spell enchants. I think one of these changes NEEDS to happen, because currently heals are just underpowered on life wizards who are not using extremely high resist/outgoing gear (jading). I think, personally, a good "compromise" amount would be a 1.75x multiplier on heals, however, assuming that the reason for the change was to make damage and heal critical multipliers consistent (which again, is an assumption because there has been absolutely ZERO communication about this change), this is not the route that the developers wish to go for.

Third, I think when people look at healing/crit heals they forget ALL of the things that life gives up in order to even have healing as an option.
-Life is the only school without a 2 pip global, and does not have a straight up damage global, just a healing one

-Life has the LOWEST damage abilities of all schools, maybe rivaled with ice, which has much more resist

-Life does not have an available maycast plus damage pet aura, which EVERY other school has
-Life does not have a low pip damage over time spell like EVERY other school except storm and myth, both which have great shield breaking/combo options that life lacks

-Life does NOT have a viable one shot scion like EVERY other school, which obviously some are better than others but life does not even have it as a niche option
-Life has the lowest accuracy gear of all schools, as well as the lowest damage and pierce gear of all schools. While life DOES have the highest accuracy on healing and damage spells, this makes them extremely vulnerable to mantles as there is no "safe" move to take in order to evade fizzling, such as how storm wizards can blade because of their high bonus accuracy and be guaranteed to not fizzle
-The outgoing/incoming bonuses on gear are NO WHERE CLOSE to the damage other schools have on gear. This means that, despite having a higher base amount of healing than damage spells of the same pip cost, the damage spells ALWAYS DO MORE because of the way gear works. This is further accentuated by sun spells like epic giving DOUBLE the damage as healing enchants such as radical.

Fourth and last point, this change just enables jading/stall strats EVEN MORE because it has now become, realistically, the most viable strat on life wizards because we deal the least damage and cannot crit heal anymore effectively due to the nerfs. While I understand the frustration some have with crit healing, there are actual, realistic ways to counter it such as going for one shot scions, using dispels, using infections, having control of globals etc, which all can realistically beat crit healing. With jading, however, this is the far more frustrating strategy to face and this nerf does nothing to change them because they do not rely on crit heals anyway. As a life wizard right now, I feel very frustrated because I feel like I have no viable strats to do well in pvp other than jading compared to other schools, as ALL of the weaknesses life had in order to compensate for having the ability to heal are still there, while our ability to heal is weakened enough that it is hardly effective anymore, and personally, I really do not enjoy the jade playstyle so I feel like I'm at a dead end.

Finally, I would just like to say that this is not an attempt to complain but rather one to voice the thoughts I have (and I'm sure a LOT of other life wizards have) about the changes and how they are frustrating for someone who only has one max level wizard that is life. I want this to be constructive criticism for both the handling of the situation communication wise, as well as the implementation of the change itself, both in a sense of how it was implemented in the game (directly to live realm without notice or communication) and the change itself (how it is frustrating for life wizards). Here are some suggestions that may be a good compromise and leave everyone happier:

1. Cap resist at 80%, 90%, or 100% in pvp, meaning that people can still have defensive strats if they wish, but they are still beatable through things such as shrike, infall, etc. AND change crit heals to be 1.75x multipliers.

2. Cap resist as mentioned above, and change the baseline healing of heal spells OR increase the sun spell heal enchants to something like 350 or 400 and keep crit heals as they are (1.3x)

3. Keep crit heals the same as they are (1.3x) but provide life with a 25% damage 2 pip global, create a may cast devotion pet talent, give us an alternate life scion that deals damage, and provide 4-5 pip damage over time trainable spell.

4. Cap resist as mentioned above and make life gear give more incoming/outgoing healing baseline, in order to compensate for the lower damage/pierce/accuracy/crit that life gear gives.

I hope that this can also spark a discussion about how other players (both life and not life wizards!) feel about these changes, and sheds some light about the perspective of a life wizard regarding them!

Thanks so much developers for making a game I've been playing for over 10 years now, and I hope this can help at least somewhat in understanding the perspective of a player regarding the recent changes!