So, nerfed healing is WAI?

[MagicalDad]

Patch release notes are up (http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=376774), yay, many good things are fixed, but ...

Spells that gain reduced benefit from spell power now mention it in their descriptions (Heal, Mass Heal, and some spell-like abilities).

What? (affecting kobold voice) Really? Really?

[Skeald]

It appears that all the uber spell power amp that divine caster have is just to much, so now they only get half of it - makes perfect sense to me

[ShadowFlash]

***

"spell-like abilities" when mentioned with heal and mass heal, makes me think RS aura/burst as well. Make 1000HP toons easily accessable so at last you're not "over-healing", then nerf the heal spell...just to make sure. Yep, makes sense to me, as everyone knows how over-powered clerics are /sarcasm.

ShadowFlash

[Impaqt]

now thats pretty rude.....

[davidolson22]

I could understand mass heal taking a hit, but heal? How does that make any sense?

I assume that all sorc spells above level 5 are also gonna take a hit since they are the actually most OP class?

[Dandonk]

Ok, I get that Spell Power will make it "easier" to understand what is good and what is not. But now you add exceptions? And not only that, but for some reason you selectively target divines... wut?

U14 is truly another nerfdate. Just when you thought the last one was, well, the last one.

[justagame]

Let me get this straight:

In an expansion in which mobs do more damage, enemy casters do more damage, sorcs do more damage with the right equipment, melees do more damage, you had to go and nerf divines?

So, the spell power system works as advertised -- except for clerics and fvs. Not only that, but you went and snuck it in at the last second -- I remember better healing, AND damage output, in the last beta before the update.

This was IMO unnecessary, disappointing, and yes, rude, to your playerbase.

[glowbug]

the best part of it is that they had originally set the Empower Healing feat to add +50 spell power to +energy healing spells. Later they decided that it wasn't adding enough bang for the buck and increased it to +75 spell power. Having done that they now decide that Heal and Heal mass are too strong lol.

I do understand where they are going... I think. Someone somewhere thought that if playing a divine boiled down to only using 2 spells (H & H:M) that that couldn't possibly be any fun, and this is their way to make sure that we have to throw a CMW:M in the rotation once every 30 seconds to "spice things up".

Grim

[Diesastrum]

Has the Repair spell been affected the same way? (I can't check myself at the moment.)

If not, it would seem that Turbine's solution to the botched WF healer enhancements is to make everyone play WF with artificers replacing clerics (arti's use x-bows, clerics can go silver flame for bow use and they both have BB....coincidence? I think not!), sorcs replacing FvS (air savant leapiness matches FvS wings....more proof I say!) and wizards replacing druids (they can both give you the finger!) for a full effect of regaining HP.

Or maybe the plan is convince everyone that Bards really can be a main healer for all content in the game, even with out the heal spell they can use heal scrolls.... hmm scrolls; maybe it's just a way to make the divines spend more plat on heal scrolls? (Though more likely more TP spending on SP pots...well you'd think that if you were *more* cynical)

And I thought it was bad enough that finally there were going to be some decent/different divine spells for my cleric to play with when they bought out the expansion, since they were going to be in game anyway for the druid, only to be knocked over on to the ground and taunted by the new shiney ways to heal/hurt stuff I can't use. But no. Now they have made healing less effective so that as a group's main healer I have to save even more sp for that and do less destruction, BB, comet fall, DP and... er I guess that was it for the most part (which was my first point - more spells dagnamit - NOW!).

Well enough rambling. For now anyway.

[rdasca]

I really hope others follow what I have done, I refuse to pug my divines. It really is the only answer, I am not going to play full time healbot, having to cast heal more often just to make up for this nerf, no thank you. Sorry pugs find your healer somewhere else I am busy running my wiz or solo.

[Ukenburger]

Or maybe the plan is convince everyone that Bards really can be a main healer for all content in the game, even with out the heal spell they can use heal scrolls...

Currently all sources of Spell Power (enhancements, items, etc.) are applying to scrolls, so Bards with a devotion item, Song Magic enhancement, Wand and Scroll Mastery, and any other modifiers to positive energy Spell Power results in some very potent scroll healing.

[Impaqt]

So does anyone have the description to post? how bad is it?

[Auralana7214]

At this point I feel like we've been lied to by omission. It may not be saying anything, but it is still lying. For weeks people have been on the forums asking about why healing is not as powerful as it is supposed to be according to the new spell casting specs. For weeks there has been no dev response on the issue. And now, at 4:00 on Friday, the notes are made available.

I would like to know why Heal and Mass Heal are pointed out specifically. Be more specific on "some spell-like abilities." Spell it out.

Players on the forums may only be 5% of the population, but IMO we are the most informed and dedicated players. We care about the game. If a huge amount of people on the forums are asking the same question, we deserve to get an answer. I feel lied to and really disrespected.

[Chai]

I could understand mass heal taking a hit, but heal? How does that make any sense?

I assume that all sorc spells above level 5 are also gonna take a hit since they are the actually most OP class?

Sorcs arent the ones who guzzle pots when the raid still needs to be healed but isnt completed as of yet, heh.

Conveniently, the DDO store sells mana pots.

[Razcar]

So does anyone have the description to post? how bad is it?

Spell Power items (edit) and abilities give 0.5% bonus per point for healing spells and some other (offensive) divine spells (such as light spells). E.g. a 82 Spell Power Devotion item increases healing spells by 41%, a 50 Universal Spell Power would boost healing spells by 25%. So a big healing nerf.

I would really like to hear the responsible developers' reasoning why they thought this was a good idea. Really much.

[Archangel666]

You think Clerics have it bad?

One of the few decent ish spells that Rangers get...

Freedom of Movement now protects against magic effects only, not effects that are non-magical in origin.

From the release notes for U14.1

[Elaril]

This smacks of them not being able to fix/identify the cause of the problem and taking the easy way out. If you can't fix it, change the description.

I'm at the point where I'm done playing until there is either a wholesale development team change or philosophy change from the shot callers.

[barryman5000]

Spell Power items give 0.5% bonus per point for healing spells and some other (offensive) divine spells (such as light spells). . .

Sooooooooooo, what are the offensive spells? Why is healing taking a hit and nothing else? Does the divine dot now take half spell power?

Why wasn't this listed before? Why was it implemented? Why do you hate clerics? Anything that hits sp efficiency hits clerics harder than other.

What are you trying to do? Be more specific in the release notes that we have been waiting all week for.

You couldn't get the expansion released completely on time (the raid is not up and I can't run through the demonweb), and then you nerf key class functions and I still can't get heal amp on my wf toons. What are you guys doing?

Why is the edit reason ninja?

[Auralana7214]

Why is the edit reason ninja?

This! It just seems slimy.

[GermanicusMaximus]

I really hope others follow what I have done, I refuse to pug my divines. It really is the only answer, I am not going to play full time healbot, having to cast heal more often just to make up for this nerf, no thank you. Sorry pugs find your healer somewhere else I am busy running my wiz or solo.

[shrug] I hear what you are saying, but at this point this is really no surprise. The devs intent to nerf divine casters has been apparent for some time.

This game is becoming entirely melee focused, and for a good reason. The people who only have the skill to play melee toons are very willing to drop real life coin on Turbine in order to feel good about themselves, and Turbine's entire focus has shifted from producing a quality game to cashing in as much as possible while this game is still viable. If you doubt that, simply look at the number of bugs in the game.

Refusing to PUG on a divine? No. Refusing to PUG as a hjealer? Check. I made that game play change as soon as the open beta release notes became available. I really enjoyed my "balanced group" Shroud run where I only healed myself and spent my time offensive casting. We completed, but I did notice that the "hjealer" that hadn't caught on yet was working really hard, and still let a lot of people die. Bad hjealer, bad hjealer!

The good news is that the game is actually easier solo, assuming you have properly built and geared your toon. Yes, even on a cleric. Those melee toons you have grouped with have always been dead weight that you had to tote along, and its not because of any deficiencies in the melee classes themselves.

So, go out and still enjoy the game. I know I do, on the increasing rare occasions where I bother to log on.

One of the lessons of life is that there are an unfortunately large number of people who will attempt to scam you. Avoiding being scammed is satisfying in itself. I'm happy to say that I still have my $80.

If you really want to judge the corporate character of Turbine, all you have to ask yourself is this: "What kind of game company would nerf a core feature of a class, not announce it in the release notes, refuse to acknowledge the issue on the forums, and then slide it into the patch notes as correcting a mistake in a text description?"

Heal pots now in the DDO Store! I'm sure its pure coincidence.