(I don't know if this has been previously discussed or not but with a quick search I did not find anything on this topic.)
With the changes to spell cost there will be no reason to downrank to keep this buff up, and it will obviously drain our mana very quickly if we were to intentionally keep this buff running throughout the entire duration of an encounter. On top of that, our new ability to throw Holy Light at -2.5 seconds with a Holy Shock crit will dissuade healers to even cast Holy Light for non-emergency situations meaning the buff is not up when we need it most and it is up when we don't.
Example:
- Tank takes a big hit.
- Holy Shock crit + Holy Light.
- Tank is full hp again and there is no reason to cast a Holy Light within the next 15 seconds as Flash of Light + crit HoTs will be sufficient so the buff disappears.
What is the approach Blizzard is taking? Do they want us to wait more so the tank needs a big heal in order to keep our buff running or will they be attaching this buff to another spell so that it is more feasible for an encounter?
Perhaps I am still a bit stuck on the mindset that we will be casting a lot of FoL as opposed to HL, but at 7% base mana and 29% base mana respectively, I do not see why we wouldn't. Can I get some beta testers input about healing rotations and if the Light's Grace talent is worth picking up?
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In my opinion, the Light's Grace buff should read something along the lines of:
(Chance on) a successful Flash of Light cast, you gain the Light's Grace (1) effect which decreases your next Holy Light spell cast within 3 seconds by 0.5 seconds. (Chance on) a successful Holy Light cast, you gain the Light's Grace (2) effect which decreases your next Flash of Light spell cast within 3 seconds by 1 second.
This way it encourages the player to alternate spell casting in tight situations and also promotes the paladins emergency healing strength that Blizzard seems to be implying through the changes to Lay on Hands and Infusion of Light. (This may need some kind of tweaking though as it does seem a bit overpowered in PvP, but I'm just throwing out ideas.)
Thank you for reading.