Monday, February 14, 2011

A second look at Blessed Life

A few weeks ago I changed my raid spec to look something like this. I went to 1/2 in Last Word, 1/2 in Eternal Glory as well. I'd read that Eternal Glory was suffering from an ICD of 8-15 sec, so I figured the points could be put to better use elsewhere. I'd read mixed reports about the HP generation from Blessed Life, and wanted to give it a shot. I kept Sacred Cleansing and Aura Mastery, because I run 10m only, and sometimes your cleanse is the only cleanse. Aura Mastery is just too powerful to skip, as it can really help reduce raid damage.

To the cloud!

Sorry - I really hate those commercials too. Don't these idiots realize that saying "to the cloud" is just like saying "to the internet"? Anyway...

Looking over several logs, I'm seeing a big swing in how BL is performing. Here's my HP generation for a couple of different fights - Cho'gall, Nef, Chimaeron, and Atramedes.

Cho'gall
HS - 38, ToR - 6, EG - 1, WoG - 6, BL - 0

Chimaeron
HS - 21, ToR - 1, EG - 3, WoG - 7, BL - 7

Atramedes
HS - 41, ToR - 2, EG - 3, WoG - 17, BL - 12

Nef
HS - 55, ToR - 6, EG - 5, WoG - 8, BL - 22

ToR + BWD (-Nef), + TB
HS - 273, ToR - 22, EG - 24, WoG - 92, BL - 41

Well what the heck? Now obviously these are four very different fights, and the last one is the totals from all boss kills in a raid night. Once again, the numbers just aren't looking very promising. There's quite a bit that I can garner from these numbers, so let's start at the top.

Holy Shock
Where to start with this one. Obviously I'm not using HS on CD, the numbers just don't add up, especially when you factor in Daybreak procs. So there's one place I can pick up some free HP. Of course the healing situation may be calling for something different, so it's just something to work on, not something to really dwell on.

ToR
Could this talent possibly provide me less than it is now? Obviously I'm not putting a lot of FoL or DL on my Beacon target, instead leaning on HL to do most of the heavy lifting. It's tough to say if this is good or bad since we're killing bosses. Given the way Monger and I work together though, I'm going to say this talent just isn't putting out. I might see more in heroics when I'll be focused more on the tank and less on assisting with the raid.

EG
Talk about hit or miss. Having 1/2 in EG cuts the percentage down to 15, but still. This may warrant a point if I decided to cut points in ToR or BL.

BL
Yeah - the point of this entire post. 41 HP generated in 10(?) boss kills? Cho'gall gave no HP, and even Atramedes only gave 12. Nef topped the charts at 22, but I'm sure a lot of those were from P2 when he's pelting the raid with shadowflame (why doesn't my Ony cloak work still?). I'm sorry, but ladies and gentlemen, that dog just ain't gonna hunt.

Let's assume for a moment that those 41 HP were used for 14 (I'm giving one extra HP for the sake of math) full point WoGs (even LoDs that hit six people). My WoG is critting for about 28k, so that's about 392k in healing that I got for 'free'. Not bad, except it's spread out over 10 bosses, so I'm now averaging about 39k in 'free' heals per boss. Conversely, in those same boss kills I judged 141 times, healing myself for about 151k. 2/2 in EJ bumps that up to 300k in free healing - though only for myself (and 1/2 to my BoL).

So is it worth it to have those points in BL? What about ToR? As I mentioned to someone on Kurn's blog the other day, it's not a question of "Are those points worth it", but one of "where else will you spend them". Is an extra point in EG or LW worth it? Maybe for H-Chimaeron. If all those HP came from P2 on Nef though, I'd be a fool to lose those points for that fight, just because healing in that phase is already tight.

Conclusion

At this point I guess those points are still discretionary. I don't need to judge from Texas, so that's not worth the points. I may spend a lot of money switching back and forth between BL and WoG talents - or take them from ToR. In the end, I'm going to put this decision in the same boat as the Heartsong vs Power Torrent debate - it's just too close to call. It's really a question of how you raid, healing assignments, and raid size/comp. The numbers aren't so overwhelmingly awesome that you think "I must have!", but they aren't so bad that you immediately dismiss them either.

2 comments:

  1. Another item to factor is your usage of Holy Power. For 25 man Light of Dawn should, I expect, be preferred most of the time. 10 man raiders will see a lot more WoG usage.

    The way this matters is there are 4 talent points spendable on WoG compared to just 1 for LoD. It looks difficult to avoid 1/2 Last Word, but otherwise something like this is possible:
    http://www.wowhead.com/talent#scIozrduufdhZco:mVafMs
    That means you're either gaining Holy Power really, really quickly or you've spend 5 talent points to little effect.

    Excuse me while I go tweak two different raid healing specs.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Aye - I'll be running a heavy WoG build for H-Halfus and H-Chimaeron. Chimaeron just doesn't generate the bonus HP, and Halfus is supposed so crazy...I can't see not specing into LoD though.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.