EDIT: May have misunderstood the description. If it doesn’t overheal when there’s fewer than 5 injured allies nearby, this change isn’t actually bad in most scenarios.
Here’s the patch note:
So you refuse to change it to a smart heal because you’re worried it might be too powerful. I do not understand this sentiment nor do I remotely agree with it, considering the numbers are low enough that it is in no way, shape or form reaching the numbers you seem to think it does.
To be fair, it may be the case in PvP (though I’d argue there’s plenty of counterplay available to almost every class), but that’s because the ratio has been overtuned since one of the first patches in the expansion. 375% PvP =/= 150% PvE. It does not do enough in PvE to warrant the “no smart heal” tag.
But fine. Lets say this is the change. What’s there to gain, exactly? In what world is this change good? Now it’s guaranteed to be unreliable when we needed it not to be.
To sketch the scenarios:
5 people take damage. e.g. Hyrja, The Raging Tempest, Talixae Flamewreath.
It doesn’t overheal, instead healing them all for a small amount. In most scenarios, Ancient Teachings already didn’t overheal if everyone was taking damage, though it was annoying if it hit the tank. This could be seen as a positive change, but it’s more of a net neutral change. Personally I’d argue more toward the negative even, since we could use it as upfront burst to know who no longer needed the instant Vivify. Now, instead, everyone will still need the one instant Vivify.
2/3 people take damage. e.g. Vexamus, Sha of Doubt.
I’d name Kyrakka but some brilliant designer thought it’d be a good idea to have the boss fly out of melee range every time it nukes people because f*ck melee amirite. I digress.
Now it’s guaranteed to overheal for 40-60% and, unless other people weren’t topped off this is a guaranteed negative change. It’ll still be necessary to use with Chi-Ji active, but we’ll struggle way more outhealing in these scenarios and will likely have to do something else. Though more often than not we already have to anyway for reliability since the people not targeted tend to not always be topped off, so whatever. Still not a helpful change.
1 person takes damage. e.g. a lot of trash pulls, Crawth, Leymor, Liu Flameheart.
80% overhealing guaranteed. Lol. Straight up unusable. In other words, every single trash pull where the tank gets smacked by heavy hitters, we can’t fistweave anymore for single target healing. Play with a BDK or bust? What the hell.
There’s also the underlying issue of it overlapping massively in identity with the Spinning Crane Kick healing through Awakened Faeline. It’ll essentially just be the same thing, but stronger or weaker depending on the number of targets. Choice is no longer an option, just a numbers game, unless you desperately need mana or trigger Chi-Ji (both of which already apply anyway).
But hey. There’s this golden change that’ll fix everything!
Ahh, beautiful. Another increase to Vivify. If you keep % increasing something that does nothing, the result doesn’t change, you know. This is what, the fifth % increase to Vivify this expansion? And it still tickles compared to the single target heals EVERY OTHER HEALER provides. And that is with Enveloping Mist active. So much setup for so little payoff, almost none of it usable on the move.
You want to know what I read when looking at Vivify, Enveloping Mist and Renewing Mist? I see Gust of Mist, Gust of Mist and Gust of Mist. Because that’s most of what they do. They’re tuned so weak because they trigger Gust of Mist. Which doesn’t do any healing without the talents tied to it and a reasonable amount of mastery. Which we can’t have (namely the talents) if we want to do good healing with fistweaving. It’s just not feasible, and now you’re taking what little single target healing we had, regardless of how unreliable it was.
The only silver lining is that for raiding, this is an almost guaranteed positive change. Because other healers can cover our weaknesses making the changes to Ancient Teachings there certainly helpful. And while Vivify will still tickle, it’ll tickle a little harder now.