Paladins and Druids to get a Lift

[kandrathe]

I think Blizzard is hesitant to work on the Holy tree, since that would pose similar problem that they have with warriors - If one tree is significantly better at Healing (and in warrior's case, tanking), one would almost be forced to spec into that tree to do high-end content. Otherwise balancing the encounters would be hell; they could be almost impossible without a warrior specced into protection, but cake with that spec.

So Blizzard must indroduce some useful yet not directly healing improving skills, but their last attempts at this (Holy Nova, and Holy Fire) were pretty bad, so they are hesitant to work on them.
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Well... I think there are some things they could tweak to make Holy a more viable lvl 1-60 build. I would use Smite more if it didn't take forever (2.5 sec), and scaled in damage more comparable to shadow tree (not better, just in the ball game). When I was Holy spec'd lvl 39, I had trouble soloing mobs below my level. After respec'ing shadow, I can solo mobs 2-3 levels above me, and even elites near my level. If it were not for resisting, I could easily handle +4-5 level above me. If all I were doing was support healing in instances, then Holy would be fine. But, I don't have the luxury of team questing, so I respec'd to shadow for my own sanity.

In Holy damage I had smite, and if invested 5 pts in the talent would get +10% to dmg meaning at lvl 3 level smite would do 212-240 (+21-24) and if invested another 5 pts high in the tree I could reduce the cast time to 2 sec. The shadow damage skills are also available, but with and extensive investment in both healing and holy damage you really wouldn't be able to do both. Rather, one is drawn to limit their investment in Holy to beef up Shadow, or Discipline tree. Fixing the defense blocking critical heals and effects would be a nice easy fix that would give a little holy love. Generally, they will need to include more +dmg % to talents like Inspiration, or Master Healer (thus making it more Holy Wrath).

Holy Fire becomes a waste of talent points since if does not scale after initial investment. Holy Nova is an interesting idea, only for being the ultimate holy tree skill it does so little damage or healing. Why not make it do half of what Prayer of Healing does, and transfer the remaining half into holy damage. So at level 40 you would do 225 healing and 225 dmg and at level 60, about 450 healing, and 450 dmg.

The shadow tree can beef up (-->) the skills quite a bit with +15% dmg from shadow weaving, +10% chance to stun, +10% damage from darkness, and +15% damage in shadow form. For shadow damage I have available, SW:P (over 18 sec, 366 --> 513), Mind Blast (279-297 --> 391-416), Mind Flay (over 3 sec, 186 --> 260), and my wand (32 - 61 Shadow Dmg Spd 1.40 33dps ** I've read conflicting about whether talents affect wands so I will test this.).