Lightwell (with poll)

[Thetruth1400]

The only thing I've ever used it for is giving a Gnome a Holy Sombrero. Other then that, it's pretty useless as it is as no one is going to take the time to click it, even if it's sitting right on their face. It's useless how it is, even if it doesn't make them drop target. No one is going to hover over it and click it unless it's sitting on them, and even then, I'm sure people are more concerned with doing their role. They need to scrap it or make it do something special. Until then, it's use is as a funny hat for Gnomes and Goblins.

[Deleted]

I'm glad they've made an effort, and in the right direction.

With the 'slower' pace of damage in cataclysm from what i've heard this fix may be enough to make it useful again. On the other hand, if they were able to implement clicking lightwell into a keybindable ability then it would see a lot more use (like healthstone, but you need to be near lightwell?)

[ssgrif]

That being said, chakra is ridiculously weak. Wow 2% extra healing on renew, wow 0.1 sec less gcd. That stuff will really save the day. NOT. For being so high up in the tree, those numbers need to be at least five times what they are now. And even then it'd be underpowered if you ask me.

You're mistaken on the point regarding Chakra, unless you only intend to put 1/3 points in it. so x3 your figures and have another look.

[Deleted]

Tried using it back in the day, no-one used it. Why? Because it's an inconvenience, and takes my responsibility and burdens them with it instead. What an absurd talent.
...
I think one of the major issues of the talent is that it's extremely inconvenient in how you need to be near it to use it... and there are so many ways to make that a non-issue, yet Blizzard has been incredibly unhelpful in fixing it:
...
As you can see, 5 minutes of thought and brainstorming can present an abundance of potential for this spell. Instead, Blizzard have stuck to the largely rejected, and highly criticised version of the spell.

Some extremely good suggestions there.

1. Make it buff another heal when you're near it. Say, for example... "When within 15 yards of the lightwell, your subsequent renew casts will heal for 50% more". That's just an example, it could buff any regularly used spell really.

Very nice idea. Also fits well with changes to other healing specs such as Druid's Efflorescence and Paladin's new aoe heal. Which means its balanceable.

2. Make the lightwell HoT a spell cast by us that is only useable when Lightwell is active. This removes the mobility issue, keeps the healing and increases the convenience.

Balanceable though it may mean having to manage a Lightwell like a short cooldown paladin buff if the HoT turns out to be too useful to not use all the time. Also, the more powerful this HoT becomes the less of a reason to play the resto druid ("hot") healing spec, imo. There's already lots of reasons to not/no longer play a resto druid come Cata compared to the other healing specs.

3. Make it a pulsing healing-stream-esque object that heals all targets near it for X amount every X seconds.

This is far too Shaman-esque and also mimics new Paladon aoe heal. I cannot say this is unlikely to happen because as well all know Blizzard likes to cop out and do the easy thing every once in a while (just see all this homogenization already going on with all healing specs and tanks for Cata).

4. Make it duplicate your heals for X seconds. Effectively, the Lightwell becomes a copy of you, though perhaps doing 50% healing to keep it balanced.

Very cool! Sort of the Dancing Rune Weapon of healing. While I think this would be fanastic to have, it would basically require Lightwell to become end-of-tree talent. It would be hard to balance if it has access to the full or almost full reportoire of priest spells. It would also need to be a smart healer (no overhealing kthx!).

5. Make it so that you can have upto 5 lightwells at once, and they work just as they do now (with adjusted healing) and a fixed amount of charges each. It should no longer drop target. By doing this you make the mobility issue less of a problem because you can spread out your lightwells, and people can use them at their convenience without dropping target. In addition, it adds an interesting "lightwell management" aspect to holy, since they'll be despawning upon used up charges. Perhaps it would trigger a lightwell cooldown after putting up 5.

Very nice idea. I love this since it seems much more fun than 1. It would also introduce a new player skill element by the placement and timing of the wells. I guess the problem is one of balance. This spell alone would be a game changer in certain situations and would be both tricky to balance for Blizzard and hard to predict the optimal way to use it for a new hard encounter for theorycrafting raiders. Of course, its these difficulties that make it so appealing

TL;DR. I think you're right. Blizzard has and has had many options with this spell, especially with a new expansion on the way. It's pretty shocking they have done nothing useful with it in 5 years.

[ComputerNerd]

The issue with lightwell is solely down to the players.
I can stand with a green glowing circle in front of people for 2 mins attempting to make a soulwell or a summon stone and get no reaction whatsoever on a regular basis.
I freqently see players spend 10 mins demanding summons from dalaran to locations usually within 5 minutes flight, if not considerably less like VoA.
Lazy players unable to take some responsibility for something other than their own role is the problem.
Lightwell is suppossed to be a tool to give the other members of the raid an opportunity to look after themselves. meaning less work for the healer.
But most are just too damn lazy.

[Deleted]

The issue with lightwell is solely down to the players.
...
But most are just too damn lazy.

So, because 80% of players do not know what the Lightwell spell is and 99% have never used one (including many/most priests), its "solely down to the players"...?

If something is not attractive in the game, like economics irl, there is likely to be a reason. Laziness across an entire population of vastly different people and playstyles is not a reason - its a copout/excuse. I'm sure there are many analogies I could make to illustrate the difference between an excuse and a reason, but I'm too lazy!

Blizzard need to make this spell attractive to use in at least some circumstances for the general player population - it clearly has not done that.

[Ethesae]

Some extremely good suggestions there.

1. Make it buff another heal when you're near it. Say, for example... "When within 15 yards of the lightwell, your subsequent renew casts will heal for 50% more". That's just an example, it could buff any regularly used spell really.

Very nice idea. Also fits well with changes to other healing specs such as Druid's Efflorescence and Paladin's new aoe heal. Which means its balanceable.

2. Make the lightwell HoT a spell cast by us that is only useable when Lightwell is active. This removes the mobility issue, keeps the healing and increases the convenience.

Balanceable though it may mean having to manage a Lightwell like a short cooldown paladin buff if the HoT turns out to be too useful to not use all the time. Also, the more powerful this HoT becomes the less of a reason to play the resto druid ("hot") healing spec, imo. There's already lots of reasons to not/no longer play a resto druid come Cata compared to the other healing specs.

3. Make it a pulsing healing-stream-esque object that heals all targets near it for X amount every X seconds.

This is far too Shaman-esque and also mimics new Paladon aoe heal. I cannot say this is unlikely to happen because as well all know Blizzard likes to cop out and do the easy thing every once in a while (just see all this homogenization already going on with all healing specs and tanks for Cata).

4. Make it duplicate your heals for X seconds. Effectively, the Lightwell becomes a copy of you, though perhaps doing 50% healing to keep it balanced.

Very cool! Sort of the Dancing Rune Weapon of healing. While I think this would be fanastic to have, it would basically require Lightwell to become end-of-tree talent. It would be hard to balance if it has access to the full or almost full reportoire of priest spells. It would also need to be a smart healer (no overhealing kthx!).

5. Make it so that you can have upto 5 lightwells at once, and they work just as they do now (with adjusted healing) and a fixed amount of charges each. It should no longer drop target. By doing this you make the mobility issue less of a problem because you can spread out your lightwells, and people can use them at their convenience without dropping target. In addition, it adds an interesting "lightwell management" aspect to holy, since they'll be despawning upon used up charges. Perhaps it would trigger a lightwell cooldown after putting up 5.

Very nice idea. I love this since it seems much more fun than 1. It would also introduce a new player skill element by the placement and timing of the wells. I guess the problem is one of balance. This spell alone would be a game changer in certain situations and would be both tricky to balance for Blizzard and hard to predict the optimal way to use it for a new hard encounter for theorycrafting raiders. Of course, its these difficulties that make it so appealing

TL;DR. I think you're right. Blizzard has and has had many options with this spell, especially with a new expansion on the way. It's pretty shocking they have done nothing useful with it in 5 years.

Some of these ideas are worth flushing out, and hopefully something they'll consider. They already said they're removing the "targetting" aspect, but even being unable to just macro a lightwell heal is harsh. I would love if they could make a macro somehow, like add /cast support for the raiders that want it.

I almost want to say they should make it drop stones that share cooldowns with healthstones. Just make it stronger (say 30-40%) and make it a slow hot instead of instant. Helps with the "bring the player" mantra as well.

[ComputerNerd]

Priests do not use it for the reason that nobody can be bothered to click it.
Players are well aware of healthstones, but in dungeons when I asked I was often told not to bother because they always "forgot" to use them, so still had them.
That is why you never see lightwell, because priests used it, and it got ignored.
Therefore they spent the point elsewhere.

So making it attractive involves making it macroable so taking the requirement for the player to actually make a conscious decision ?
And you then argue with me that player laziness is not the problem ?
The last thing you should do is make it share the cooldown with healthstones.
It is not popular as it is, and that will make it even worse.

[Ethesae]

The last thing you should do is make it share the cooldown with healthstones.
It is not popular as it is, and that will make it even worse.

My point was to give the raid an alternative to warlocks for healthstones, as currently they have a monopoly on this raid "buff", although it is somewhat of a warlock unique, like the soulstone. My point is that we make Lightwell into a Soulwell, that gives out "Lightstones" that share a cooldown but do something else. This way its macro-able, like you said, and not position based.

[sacrypheyes]

My point was to give the raid an alternative to warlocks for healthstones, as currently they have a monopoly on this raid "buff", although it is somewhat of a warlock unique, like the soulstone. My point is that we make Lightwell into a Soulwell, that gives out "Lightstones" that share a cooldown but do something else. This way its macro-able, like you said, and not position based.

thought the same for quite some time (about th "free-bandage"-well remake).

bliz devs are pretty stubborn about lolwell (and a lot of other things too if you ask me), they don't like to admit they failed on its design at the first place.

how long has it been since it appeared in holy tree? yet, i'd say only few priests out of hundreds spec into it because we know 99% of the other players won't use/see it.

even mind vision is a spell that had far more use at the time lolwell went out.

[muto]

I think the only people with enough brains to realize lightwell heals you and for a good amount are people that actually play a priest as an alt or a main or people in top 100 guilds.

[Nuts]

The one thing that bothers me when these posts crop up is that 3/4 people repeatedly post that it should be come like the ones in ToC. Blizzard has already explicitely stated that they're NOT GOING TO DO IT.

Though I agree they won't probably make it like the ToC lightwell, I kind of wish they would have just named the NPC ability light fountain and I'm sure 80% of people wouldn't have made the connection