In the most recent Patch build, Blizz has decided that Healing Surge apparently needs a reduction in healing. By 20%.
- Healing Surge healing has been reduced by 20%, from [ 5605 - 6404 ] to [ 4484 - 5122 ]
Why?! It’s our one and only fast, expensive, “in a pinch/save your ass” heal.
I can only come up with two reasons for why they would do this.
The first is that they think it is being used too liberally at this point in time and would like to see that changed in the future. If they alter it so that it does less healing, then people will be less inclined to use it and try and make use of other spells that they feel should be used more.
The second is that they are anticipating the upcoming change to critical heals in 4.2. This is the reason that I suspect most, and here are my reasons why:
- Tidal Waves (3/3): When you cast Chain Heal or Riptide, you gain the Tidal Waves effect, which reduces the cast time of your Healing Wave and Greater Healing Wave spells by 30% and increases the critical effect chance of your Healing Surge spell by 30%. 2 charges.
- All healing critical strikes now heal for 2 times a normal heal (+100%), up from 1.5 times a normal heal (+50%).
With T12, our two piece set bonus will already have us casting more and more Riptides to try and regain the mana restoration we will be losing due to Improved Water Shield’s redesign to Resurgence, as well as Water Shield’s proc nerf (not to mention, we will most likely be stacking a bit more critical strike rating in order to try and make better use of our modified talent). We will also most likely be casting a few more Chain Heals as well, due to our T12 four piece set bonus, and both Chain Heal and Riptide give you the Tidal Waves buff.
Look at the built-in increased effect to critical heals, combine that with Tidal Waves and our natural predisposition to lean a little more towards critical strike rating, and you have yourself a recipe for reduced healing to Healing Surge.
I am supposing that they are planning this accordingly so that, with these things taken into consideration, Healing Surge will either be healing for roughly the same amount, or a little bit more than it currently is. You take away 20% of it’s effectiveness, but add in 50% for criticals, and this could work with Healing Surge’s already “crit prone” tendencies.
I sincerely hope that this is the case. If it is, then Healing Surge’s outlook actually doesn’t look too bad. I know I had the knee-jerk reaction of “Oh, come ON! Are you serious?!”, but you just have to look at the whole picture before getting too up in arms about it.
Now if they raised the mana cost …. hoooooo boy, don’t even get me started.
Hey great minds think alike. I decided against my healing surge post for the moment because it’s only an MMOchamp datamined change.
I think you raise a good point about looking at the big picture: the crit bonus + tidal waves + ancestral awakening + resurgence!
This could be a PVP intended nerf???
I personally don’t use HS a whole lot in PVE and was hoping to get more use out of it in 4.2 but if this change goes through… oh well I still have GHW.
I use it only when it is needed, like on Chimaeron (those double Caustics can be deadly … literally! Heal ‘em up FAST! haha) or when someone is taking excessive damage and needs that “Oh shit!” heal. I certainly don’t make liberal use of it, though.
That is an interesting thought on the PvP end! I don’t PvP, so my mind never tries to wrap around that whole concept for nerfs :P Thank you for sharing your thoughts!