VE needs a change

[Old Coot]

I am usually placed in group with the tanks. Any other spots in the group are usually given to warlocks to allow them to tap with slightly less burden on the healers.

That little trickle of heals isn't much to the tanks and is, in most cases, bordering on useless. But it may just buy your healers an extra split second of react time to keep someone up incase the tank took a couple big hits or his healer lagged, got stunned, whatever. Use it for the same reason you use food buffs, a little extra insurance.

The game is about min/max'ing on cutting edge content for your gear level, VE is one way of doing it. When your raid is geared to the teeth, you probably don't need it. But when you are starting out and undergeared for content, it can help.

[Worshaka]

Sorry, when I tested the effective healing it could output it was useless. In the tank party for 25man patchwerk (which i'm sure we can all agree is a high incomming damage fight) I was able to heal my tanks for a max of 10K effective healing over 3mins.

Admittadly the tanks are being spammed, but I can't see how 10K effective healing is worth anything.

Even looking at 3D clears, VE is healing for 60K (effective) for the entire encounter, and that includes self heals. Unfortunetly a lot of the reports we had posted are out of date so i can't analyse too many... but VE seems to be doing very little for my party members.

[Kelesti]

Sorry, when I tested the effective healing it could output it was useless. In the tank party for 25man patchwerk (which i'm sure we can all agree is a high incomming damage fight) I was able to heal my tanks for a max of 10K effective healing over 3mins.

Admittadly the tanks are being spammed, but I can't see how 10K effective healing is worth anything.

Even looking at 3D clears, VE is healing for 60K (effective) for the entire encounter, and that includes self heals. Unfortunetly a lot of the reports we had posted are out of date so i can't analyse too many... but VE seems to be doing very little for my party members.

10k over three minutes off of what, 3 GCD's and 0 mana? Hey, why not?

[Abandon]

I would quite like if they made it automatically applied by VT or SW:P, the same way that Siphon Life will be next patch.

[Kelesti]

I would quite like if they made it automatically applied by VT or SW:P, the same way that Siphon Life will be next patch.

Pain, I can see. What I can't see is needing a 41 point talent to apply a 21 point talent. :P

[Abandon]

Haha, good point.

[Worshaka]

10k over three minutes off of what, 3 GCD's and 0 mana? Hey, why not?

IMO 10K effective healing over 3mins on three tanks isn't worth 3 GCDs

[MaritnR]

IMO 10K effective healing over 3mins on three tanks isn't worth 3 GCDs

one gcd after 3.1 and patch is a proberly one of the worst fights to use. Its high damage but as you say, the tanks are spammed so are either almost dead or full, giving you little room to heal.

VE isnt going to rock on all fights, but say sarth 3D that 60k healing on your group can easily make the difference.

[Azimon]

Vampiric embrace isnt supposed to be counted as a necessary tool in any raid situation. It's just a bonus like blood aura from dks or the paladin seal, it's supposed to keep up dps, other healers and stuff that takes some raid damage from ae, small adds and the like..in a 25 man party, vampiric embrace gives a nice regen for the entire group, but thats all it it is..A combat regen to make raid healing easier for the healers. On fights where dps aint taking any damage, just ditch it..easy as that..But im sure as hell gonna keep it, it's really good for me..and quite good for my party in any AE situation, thats more than enough reason to keep the talent.

[syanid]

VE = self heal, period.

[Raptorg]

You might try adding this to your sentences, after obtaining this. Happy to help.

You could use some knowledge.
I'll explain in detail.

VE is required to get shadowform, unlink it.

I'd rather just have the spell removed altogether, it feels like a broken mechanic, shadowpriests are dps, not healers.. After all.

They should just boost Devouring Plague's healing in order to make up for using SW.

[Dyo]

After analysing VE in its current format (when talented you receive 25% of your dps as healing but your party receive 5%) I think it really needs to be revisted and changed.

I understand that allowing 25% healing to your party would lead to spriest raid stacking... obviously a bad thing to promote. But on the other hand, 5% healing is so trivial that it borders on useless. In it's current incarnation it's only useful for healing the spriest.

In some patchwerk encounters I managed to provide a total of 10K effective healing to my tanks in 3mins... like I said it borders on useless. Admitadly a change is comming where the duration will be increased to 5mins on PvE targets, so we dont need to waste GCDs to maintain it but i'm almost convinced that if i'm not going to take damage then I wont bother losing even 1 GCD.

I suggest we get it back to 25% but somehow limit the effect so it can't be stacked. Not entirely sure how to physically do that... perhaps there are some other ideas out there?

ye there are
stfu, ve is fine
if you dont want it blizz can always remove it, who cares about 25% healing for yourself from dmg you make right?

[Abandon]

ye there are
stfu, ve is fine
if you dont want it blizz can always remove it, who cares about 25% healing for yourself from dmg you make right?

Most people don't, especially when it costs a GCD and a talent point.

[syanid]

You could use some knowledge.
I'll explain in detail.

VE is required to get shadowform, unlink it.

I'd rather just have the spell removed altogether, it feels like a broken mechanic, shadowpriests are dps, not healers.. After all.

They should just boost Devouring Plague's healing in order to make up for using SW.

If you hadn't told me, I would never know VE is required to obtain Shadowform. Oh my god, the knowledge.. is overwhelming.. can't... contain.. it.

Have you ever done sarth + 3d? VE is just great there. And at Sapphiron. I mean, 25% of your dps to personal healing is awesome at such encounters. Why remove it for gods sake? It sucks from utility POV, but it's great personal heal in pve.

[Zeuq]

Most people don't, especially when it costs a GCD and a talent point.

Not everything is about boosting your own personal DPS, sometimes it's helpful to think about how it affects your raid. In a fight like Sarth 3D, VE can help your healers a lot with Twilight Torment, which means you lose a couple of GCDs, but it same them more GCDs and mana. Beyond that, as someone else mentioned, it helps improve your personal survivability in fights that have a lot of raid damage.

I do agree that VE needs a change though considering the whole movement to raidwide, and priests being the biggest violators of that. They should consider tying it to Devouring Plague (maybe make IVE so, instead of making it heal for more, just be applied when Devouring Plague is cast). Or, perhaps since they've made Mana Stream and Blessing of Wisdom exclusive, maybe they could just make Vampiric Embrace restore a set amount instead of being based on damage and make it exclusive with Healing Stream, and make IVE so that it would talent it out to be even with a fully talented Healing Stream. I actually prefer the last option because it provides some flexibility. For instance, if you only have one Pally and one Shaman? The Pally does Kings, the Shaman drops Mana Stream, Priest uses Vampiric Embrace. If you have a second Pally or Shaman, the Priest doesn't need to spec for it at all.

[ItachiZaku]

VE is very handy vs Sapp, but I never use it for Maly. I have not been able to find a tank that can hold my agro on Maly when using VE.

VE is handy on some fights - Grob, Loetheb and really, if you are clearing the content with little difficulty, the number that should matter is bosses killed vs wipes/deaths. Not topping the charts.

It is a shame that VE is a pre-req for Shadowform. As such, you'd think it'd grant a self 5% regardless of it's application to a mob. Sort of like the BC FSW set bonus.

[Deathcold]

This made little sense...

1. VE is an aura heal, of course it's not a healing spell... you don't actually cast VE to heal, you cast VE to provide a debuff that triggers when something else occurs. So it's pretty easy to work out that VE won't trigger the egg of mortal essence.

2. Embrace of the spider will proc a haste buff... are you saying that trinket makes VE overpowered? Of course not, that entire statement about 505 haste makes 0 sense.

My problem with VE at the moment is the 5% (when talented) effect on your party members is far too low. I understand why it needs to be atm but something needs to change to make the group healing component of the spell useful. Otherwise I vote remove that effect all together, remove the imp VE talent and just have VE heal the spriest in question for 25% of their dps.

Yeah, make SP the best class to do pvp.

[Abandon]

Yeah, make SP the best class to do pvp.

Excuse me? Could you repeat that?

[darkman0011]

Its 15% and 3% base and with a total of 3 points you get to 25% and 5%.
3 talent points for a handy, marginal utility, unlikely encounter changing spell/ability.

In 3.1 they are taking it off a cooldown and have already made it free, however its still pretty much bland.

If they were to change the mechanic at all, and make it similar to the way replenishment works to where the heals go to the 10 most damaged players in the raid it might just work out better. But as it stands it is a straight 3-5% overheal on 4 other people in a party most times.

[Abandon]

It just has to be removed or removed from shadowform.

Actually, the one think I would like to see removed is the 2 points you need to throw away into Improved Psychic Scream in order to get Silence.