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(POWER BALANCE) Celestial
bluhman
Posts: 2,410 Arc User
What impresses me most about Celestial is that it very much was an early power play for the CO dev team, displaying how abilities could adapt several different functions based on targeting context. However a lot of the actual appeal of this functionality was very much a 'honeymoon' sort of phenomenon, early excitement without ramifications for the usage and balance that such abilities would need.
Because most Celestial abilities serve double-duty as both attack and heal, the abilities suffer from having sub-standard output compared to their equals of other sets: Conduit is neither as good a maintain attack as Soul Beam, nor is it as good a maintain heal as something like Warmth. And if they were? Then what would the point of using a maintain heal like that be worth? Granted this would be less of an issue if the thematic look of healer sets were more varied than "hold palms up to target to heal them with amazing energies" but that's a different issue. Like, 'Gadeteering healers aren't a thing' issue.
There's also the problem of Celestial being a difficult set to use in a targeting context. Whereas using a single-purpose heal will usually retarget yourself to hit an ally, and vice-versa, most Celestial abilities don't, meaning that's an extra step of target-changing input that needs to be done.
Thankfully, hindsight with how new DPS/Heal setups have been done have give us some insight on how to make such a powerset intuitive to use.
Main Goals:
Celestial as Support: Emergency Response
While the support game in CO is already very strongly heal-based, Celestial perhaps makes the most sense as the natural 'healing' focused set - utilizing angelic energies to cure wounds. The only real variations that arise in how these heals apply is between sets like Sorcery and Gadgeteering, which apply slower, more consistent heals via auras and maintains, versus Fire, which very much is a responsive set that utilizes burst-heals on cooldowns. Right now, depending on what power you're looking at, Celestial is either the best of both worlds, or has the problems of both, and most crucially, there is hardly any interplay on how those components operate together to improve its performance in support - A heal's a heal in this set. There's no reason to use Celestial Cleansing or Holy Water when you have Conduit, which then becomes obsolete as a heal when you consider Iniquity, after which point you'd might as well just take that alone and then have attacks with a higher base damage value.
Right now, Celestial's main gimmick is Illumination, which.... Serves more as a way to really quickly get an enchantment and curse on targets rather than a legitimate tool for Celestial to use. The actual effects for the buff/debuff is, what, very minor heals over time and slight increase in heal strength? Compared to stacking Presence stat, running in support role, and having the right gear, this buff contributes very little. More critical is that Illumination does almost nothing for the set itself, aside from make Conduit chain, and some iffy advantages on some abilities.
As a support, a big part of this rehaul will be making it claim its main buff/debuff again, and turning it into one that can be reliably applied and utilized. This celestial facet makes Heals its core component by pairing it with defense buffs, which reduce damage incoming, but still necesitate the usage of heals to keep allies alive.
Celestial as DPS: Divine Justice Delivered
For reasons discussed at length above, Celestial falls very flat as a DPS set. The simple solution to this is to design a series of abilities for this set that perform the singular given role of either healing or damage, reserving the dual-functionality for utility abilities that would prove to be key to both players who'd want to make a pure DPS or a pure Support. Think very much how most of the abilities used for, say, refreshing Ego Leech in Telekinesis, are interchangeable for melee and ranged characters.
A DPS Celestial likely will still be highly capable of support skills because of its background, but would then pair this with its specialized attack abilities to keep up with most other damage-dealing sets.
Rebalances of Existing Powers
Radiance
Rebuke
Celestial Conduit
Vengeance
Iniquity
Conviction
Illumination
Palliate
Holy Water
Celestial Cleansing
New Powers
Mercy
Utilizes purifying energies to heal a distant target.
Guided Lights
Flings out a barrage of guiding lights, dealing damage to targets ahead.
Shimmering Shield
Summons forth a barrier of light to block incoming attacks.
Divine Cycle
You are part of an eternal celestial cycle, tying you into otherworldly energies.
Guardian Glide
Uses celestial wings to rush to the aid of an ally, or to the frontline of a battle.
Sanctify
Establishes a ring of protection around your target.
Compulsion
Uttering a word of power, you compel your targets to stand down.
Blind
Spawns a shimmering light in the eyes of your foes.
Judgment
Shouts out a holy word to balance the battlefield in the favor of good.
Vivify
Using your energies, you flood an ally with life force, recovering their health rapidly.
Smite
Beams of celestial power rain from above!
Because most Celestial abilities serve double-duty as both attack and heal, the abilities suffer from having sub-standard output compared to their equals of other sets: Conduit is neither as good a maintain attack as Soul Beam, nor is it as good a maintain heal as something like Warmth. And if they were? Then what would the point of using a maintain heal like that be worth? Granted this would be less of an issue if the thematic look of healer sets were more varied than "hold palms up to target to heal them with amazing energies" but that's a different issue. Like, 'Gadeteering healers aren't a thing' issue.
There's also the problem of Celestial being a difficult set to use in a targeting context. Whereas using a single-purpose heal will usually retarget yourself to hit an ally, and vice-versa, most Celestial abilities don't, meaning that's an extra step of target-changing input that needs to be done.
Thankfully, hindsight with how new DPS/Heal setups have been done have give us some insight on how to make such a powerset intuitive to use.
Main Goals:
Celestial as Support: Emergency Response
While the support game in CO is already very strongly heal-based, Celestial perhaps makes the most sense as the natural 'healing' focused set - utilizing angelic energies to cure wounds. The only real variations that arise in how these heals apply is between sets like Sorcery and Gadgeteering, which apply slower, more consistent heals via auras and maintains, versus Fire, which very much is a responsive set that utilizes burst-heals on cooldowns. Right now, depending on what power you're looking at, Celestial is either the best of both worlds, or has the problems of both, and most crucially, there is hardly any interplay on how those components operate together to improve its performance in support - A heal's a heal in this set. There's no reason to use Celestial Cleansing or Holy Water when you have Conduit, which then becomes obsolete as a heal when you consider Iniquity, after which point you'd might as well just take that alone and then have attacks with a higher base damage value.
Right now, Celestial's main gimmick is Illumination, which.... Serves more as a way to really quickly get an enchantment and curse on targets rather than a legitimate tool for Celestial to use. The actual effects for the buff/debuff is, what, very minor heals over time and slight increase in heal strength? Compared to stacking Presence stat, running in support role, and having the right gear, this buff contributes very little. More critical is that Illumination does almost nothing for the set itself, aside from make Conduit chain, and some iffy advantages on some abilities.
As a support, a big part of this rehaul will be making it claim its main buff/debuff again, and turning it into one that can be reliably applied and utilized. This celestial facet makes Heals its core component by pairing it with defense buffs, which reduce damage incoming, but still necesitate the usage of heals to keep allies alive.
- Superstat Focuses: PRE, INT, DEX
- Buff: Illumination - Illumination raises the character's energy generation and slowly causes them to heal as they take damage. Illumination can be maintained and ruptured by abilities to form more powerful effects. Illumination finally also will double the effectiveness of healing runes if a target is nearby one. The final change: Illumination is no longer a debuff. This functionality is moved to a new debuff.
Celestial as DPS: Divine Justice Delivered
For reasons discussed at length above, Celestial falls very flat as a DPS set. The simple solution to this is to design a series of abilities for this set that perform the singular given role of either healing or damage, reserving the dual-functionality for utility abilities that would prove to be key to both players who'd want to make a pure DPS or a pure Support. Think very much how most of the abilities used for, say, refreshing Ego Leech in Telekinesis, are interchangeable for melee and ranged characters.
A DPS Celestial likely will still be highly capable of support skills because of its background, but would then pair this with its specialized attack abilities to keep up with most other damage-dealing sets.
- Superstat Focuses: DEX, INT, END
- Primary Defense Debuff: Atonement - Provides 12 seconds of reduced defense against Dimensional damage (15% less). This is not as powerful as Devoid, but Atonement does cause certain Celestial effects to trigger.
- Debuff: Compulsion - When target is hit with any attacks, generates small pulses of healing once every half-second. This is the offense-mirror effect of Illumination, now separated out for more clarity. As with the previous Illumination, this counts as a Sorcery Curse.
Rebalances of Existing Powers
Radiance
- Works like most average ranged EBs, can only attack enemies.
- First hit has a 10% chance to illuminate target.
- Advantage: Each hit has a chance to Compel the target. The initial hit also now has a chance to Illuminate you.
- Advantage: 1 point advantage enables the EB to heal other targets, but not yourself. You only gain energy this way if you restore lost health.
- Advantage: 3 point advantage causes your EB to become a PBAoE that deals ranged Dimensional damage to targets within 10 feet of you. You only gain energy if you manage to hit targets.
Rebuke
- Higher DPS blast, pure attack.
- Has a 20-100% chance to compel based on charge time.
- Advantage: Applies the Atonement debuff on hit.
Celestial Conduit
- Raised to a Tier 3 attack (no heal), and has suitably increased effect and power cost. As such, now chains off of Compelled targets.
- No longer self-roots.
- Serenity advantage causes you to gain damage resistance as you maintain your attack.
- Advantage: Deals 40% extra damage on targets afflicted by Atonement.
- Advantage: Radiates a powerful PBAoE heal around you as you maintain. if you hit a target under the effect of Compulsion, the amount of healing generated for allies rises even further up (i.e. Vampiric Sympathy/Lifedrain). 3 pt. advantage.
Vengeance
- Drastic increase to damage, raised to a Tier 2 attack.
- Deals higher damage to its primary target
- Redemption Denied causes a Paralyze to be dealt to any Compelled targets.
- Advantage: Consumes Atonement to generate a burst of healing on all allies nearby the targets hit.
Iniquity
- Has a short cooldown.
- Only deals self-damage when you have run out of energy. Otherwise has a standard energy cost.
- Dealing self-damage temporarily causes you to become resistant to healing for a second (similar to some Shadow abilities).
- Doesn't cost energy when used on an Illuminated target.
- Justice causes Iniquity to also deal damage to enemies inside its area of effect when it deals self-damage.
- Advantage: Enables critical heals but disables the self-health drain effect.
Conviction
- Only will self-heal if you are nearby Enchanted or Cursed targets. Does not consume the effect however.
- No health boost by default. Health Boost is only generated if you are low on health.
- Each extra stack utilized will boost its healing. Compared to old Conviction, this generates a lot more healing but requires more careful preparation.
- Reverence Advantage works as usual, but needs to consume Illumination on surrounding allies to generate its effect. Heal effect is same strength as core/self effect.
- Advantage: Activates a Recovery effect whenever used.
- Advantage: Refreshes the duration of a healing rune if you're inside one.
Illumination
- Only works on allies. Otherwise retains the same effects as usual.
- Efficient and faster.
Palliate
- If the target is illuminated, Palliate generates an AoE heal burst. This consumes Illuminate.
Holy Water
- Only works upon enemies.
- Inflicts Atonement on all targets hit.
- Impure Waters swapped to Purifying Waters, which causes Holy Water to act as a powerful cone heal burst and defense buff on allies hit. Purifying Waters transforms the ability into an ally-targeted heal.
- Advantage: Creates a recovery effect on self.
- Advantage: Refreshes the duration of Compulsion (or Illuminate if PW is taken).
Celestial Cleansing
- Tier 2
- Consumes any DoTs to generate a HoT in its place.
- Doesn't have a cooldown.
New Powers
Mercy
Utilizes purifying energies to heal a distant target.
- 100 ft. Tier 1 charged heal (healing component of Rebuke)
- Full-charges provide 5 seconds of heal-over-time.
- Restores 20% more health if the target is Illuminated.
- Advantage: On a full charge, your healed target will radiate a 20 ft. pbaoe that stuns enemies.
Guided Lights
Flings out a barrage of guiding lights, dealing damage to targets ahead.
- Tier 1 cone, 50 ft. Damages targets for moderate damage.
- Each hit has a 10% chance to apply Atonement on any targets.
- Snares targets hit, and roots any targets who are affected by Compulsion.
- Advantage: Full maintain applies Illumination to yourself.
- Advantage: If you are inside a healing rune, Guided Lights can knock hit targets vertically.
- Advantage: Targets hit have a 10% chance to become affected by Fear.
Shimmering Shield
Summons forth a barrier of light to block incoming attacks.
- Tier 1 block.
- Hits taken has a chance to Blind targets, reducing their perception for each consecutive hit.
- Advantage: Applies a 10% defense buff when using healing abilities to self. Its drawbacks include a 3 Adv. point cost and its reduction of all damage output (like a healer's Laser Knight, essentially).
Divine Cycle
You are part of an eternal celestial cycle, tying you into otherworldly energies.
- Tier 1 Energy Unlock
- Restores energy to you over time whenever you apply either Illumination or Compulsion to targets.
- Scales off of PRE, and to a lesser extend, REC
Guardian Glide
Uses celestial wings to rush to the aid of an ally, or to the frontline of a battle.
- Tier 1 lunge.
- Moves you next to your target. Doesn't deal damage, and can be used when targeting either enemy or ally.
- On landing, you generate a PBAoE that boosts the defense of all allies nearby, using the Aegis buff.
- Advantage: Causes any healing rune you have summoned to refresh its duration and teleport underneath you.
- Advantage: Generates a PBAoE effect of threat, causing enemies nearby the location to attack you.
Sanctify
Establishes a ring of protection around your target.
- Tier 2 click ability that places a defensive Sanctum beneath your target.
- Allies in the Sanctum take 30% less damage and gain resistance to holds.
- Illuminated targets have debuffs removed from them continuously as they stand in the Sanctum.
- Advantage: Summoning a Sanctum causes enemies inside it to be struck with fear.
- Advantage: Also summons a Healing Rune with the Sanctum at its location.
Compulsion
Uttering a word of power, you compel your targets to stand down.
- Tier 2 click ability, 50 foot range.
- Places the Compulsion debuff on targets within a 15 foot radius.
- Targets affected by Atonement are dealt damage.
- Advantage: If you are illuminated, Compulsion generates a powerful radial heal around its target.
- Advantage: Roots all targets.
Blind
Spawns a shimmering light in the eyes of your foes.
- Tier 2 click ability, 50 foot range.
- Interrupts the target and reduces their perception temporarily
- Deals minimal dimensional damage
- If the target is Compelled, they become stunned.
- Advantage: transforms the ability into a threat drop with a small radial effect.
- Advantage: Using the ability on a target with Atonement places the Light Everlasting buff upon yourself.
Judgment
Shouts out a holy word to balance the battlefield in the favor of good.
- Tier 3 click ability, a 50-ft PBAoE that targets 10 targets.
- Refreshes Atonement, Illumination, and Compulsion on all targets.
- Applies a heal to all allies in the radius.
- For each ally that's healed that was in critical status (<20% max HP), they radiate a PBAoE of high dimensional damage to enemies.
- Moderate cooldown
- Advantage: Applies Aegis to all allies in the radius
- Advantage: Applies Light Everlasting to self
Vivify
Using your energies, you flood an ally with life force, recovering their health rapidly.
- Tier 3 heal maintain (substitute for healing component of Conduit)
- When hitting a target who is Illuminated, Vivify chains to the next nearest target and heals them for 80% of the heal. Can chain 5 times.
- Self-roots, but has 100-ft range. Chains also have this range.
- Advantage: Increases damage dealt by allies while healing effect is in play.
- Advantage: Targets receive 30% more healing when affected by an enchantment (including Illumination).
Smite
Beams of celestial power rain from above!
- Tap ultimate, Smite summons a series of sequential AoE effects that strike positions on the ground (think like a light version of Eido's geysers).
- Smite Beams can appear around user within 50 feet, usually on top of enemies.
- Being hit with a Smite beam will Compel the target and knock them vertically, while dealing Dimensional damage.
- Advantage: Smite beams can also target allies. When this happens, they damage enemies nearby the ally, and summon a sanctum at their location.
- Advantage: Challenge.
How to block a user with μblock:
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Post edited by bluhman on
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or... work on pacifist ways of completing missions? by holding or blinding foe's you can safely get passed them instead of defeating them... and perhaps use judgement as a means to force self judgement against the bosses so that they can be wrecked with guilt and stop fighting you and doing bad things (at least until the end the mission)
but no.. what am I kidding.. that would take planning and structured game design... just stick to adding a nuke button to every powerset.
Valid points, thank you for your feedback. You really shouldn't doubt yourself so much, it looks awkward, but I can see past that.
The suggestions posted above do include a Blind ability that could be used like that perhaps.
Superstats: Rec would make more sense than Int or Dex. Con too, arguably. Pre/Con/Rec is what I'd go with. Mainly Pre/Rec. Part of me would like to see a dps form that uses Pre, but another part of me wonders if that might make celestial too strong since you could also command above-average self/party healing. I didn't see a dps form, but if one was created, it could be based on Pre provided it reduced healing output a bit. (trading healing for offense)
Illumination: I can't really say I'm a fan of the already-widespread "consume this buff/debuff" mechanic worming its way into Celestial as well. This buff could actually be good and interesting though just by itself.
Atonement: I'm not so sure it's a good idea to introduce another damage debuff when it can just make use of Devoid. Crushing already has too many overlapping debuffs, but it gets away with this because they're nonsense like fire/crushing etc in one debuff. (There's a better way to handle this, but it's beyond the scope of this thread)
Conviction: It's hard to tell, but are you saying that it would require illumination active to do anything? This is...really not good. Until more sets have a flavored self/group heal (absorb heat, electrical siphon) this would be pretty bad for a lot of people.
Celestial Conduit: This is...kind of a mess really.
1) If it's intended to be the T3 single target attack, the chaining should probably go, because allowing a T3 single target nuke to function as a proper aoe is pretty strong. While yes, some like TGM can be advantaged to aoe, cylinders are pretty bad, it only hits 3 targets, and it costs R3. If conduit is to still be able to chain, it needs to be via an advantage, not baseline, and it should probably only hit 2 or so targets at most.
2) This costs celestial its maintained heal, which kind of hurts the set. The power that becomes the new home for Rebuke's heal component should probably have conduit's heal component instead, as conduit is a lot better. A butcher's blades style advantage could always be added to change it into a charge.
EU: Trigger conditions are oddly specific and would make it a pretty lame, inflexible EU. The norm of "gain energy every 3 sec over 6 sec when you apply X/Y/Z" is probably best. It'd also make mores sense scaling with Rec major, Pre minor.
- - -
Overall, I hate to say it, but I wouldn't vote for this if I was given a choice. From a cross-frameworks standpoint, Celestial would be pretty bad unless all you took were celestial powers due to all the cogs you need spinning to make anything work.
Sorry if I seem overly critical.
This is fine, I was hesitant to post this one in the first place.
Superstat Choice - Part of this is identifying what stats actually would help a dual-type heal/damage build out the most. In those cases, there's Dex, which is distributing its critical chance to both heals and attacks. Int's there because of the desire to have Celestial aim for some implementation of strategizing timing of using certain heal abilities; more Int translates to shorter cooldowns, meaning more room to utilize split-second healing abilities.
Having REC as a choice could be a consideration, though; perhaps the abilities have very high base healing power, but are restricted by extreme energy cost? It's iffy though, because in my experience it's ridiculously easy to stack healing strength in several ways, even without having to superstat PRE.
Illumination - I think it's more habit than anything that I say that abilities 'consume' illumination. Doing a cursory scan over my writing I think only two abilities I listed had a suggestion that actually ends the effect (conviction + reverence, which is mirroring the way that stuff like Absorb Heat works, and palliate which is an emergency heal). I agree with this point, though, Illumination should be like how effects such as Dependency work in battle.
Atonement - Ughhh, ok, here's where I kind of get annoyed by how Darkness/Celestial share a damage type, which is just inherently weird because they're literal opposites but mechanically benefit from one another, and then on top of that are also kind of tooled to be DPS/Support mixes. The distinction I was trying to make here was to have Atonement last longer and have some Celestial specific triggers, but has a less extreme damage debuff.
Perhaps if Atonement canceled out Devoid and vice-versa? For a min-maxed Celestial DPS, maybe the choice would just be to take Devoid from the get-go, whereas if you wanted some support gimmicks, have an Atonement applicator and have abilities use that for more healing.
Conviction - Controversial, but the change needs to be made. This comes from a guy who has put conviction in literally all 130+ builds he's made, and fully recognizes that if the change was pushed through that a lot of healing options on each and every one of those builds would need to be re-picked. Frankly, all the sets need their own recovery or self-defense gimmicks to operate, and have their own tactical tie-ins. Making this change is just my signal that I want to be ready for that.
The post also mentions the Group Heal abilities. Right now these are like the gold-standard I hold up for DPS/Heal builds I've been trying out (such as a support bot that shoots lasers, throws out ball lightning, and does an elec-siphon for massive 1000+ heals.) Default conviction would be a solid self-heal so long as you had some Illumination on yourself (iirc the buff lasts for like 5 minutes), and doesn't consume the effect. Transforming this into a group heal with an advantage then makes it a lot more reminiscent of Elec. Siphon or Absorb Heat - breathlessly making that burst heal in the middle of attacking enemies.
Conduit - I still say having a chain effect would be suitable, if the damage is balanced around that. Consider the advantages, and especially the 40% damage boost adv. Chances are that'd be the only way to transform a damage value (balance around multiple-target potential) into something that could contend with stuff made to specifically dish out single-target damage, stuff like TGM or Lightning Arc, or whatever. Then there'd be a consideration of having Compel on multiple targets (instead of Atonement), which then creates the kind of 'fireball' effect where you're dealing high damage to the primary target, and more subdued damage to secondary ones. That'd be for a DPS setup. For a support setup, you'd want the 'heal radially around you' choice.
I was thinking of crafting some maintain heal to stand in its place, but in all respects right now, places where conduit could have had application are all eclipsed by what Arcane Vit. does, and when it comes to single-target heals, both Iniquity and Rebuke way outdid it in range and output. As it is, the concept's put Rebuke (well, now it's Mercy) as the main reliable heal, and Iniquity as the emergency heal on cooldown, alongside the likes of Palliate.
EU - sure.
Conviction: Until we get more specialized self-heals, it would be "unpleasant" to turn Conviction into another absorb heat. While I'm not against that being the eventual destination for Conviction, the rest of the sets aren't ready. Think of the squishies. As for Illumination being 5 minutes, you missed the memo.
Conduit: Yeah the only way the chaining mechanic would work is if the secondary target damage was reduced, and even then, I still don't think it should be baseline. Don't get me wrong, being able to use my T3 single target dps power as a proper aoe without having to give up R3 would be fantastic. I wouldn't need an actual aoe power and could use the slot (and advantage points required to rank it up) for something else. But in terms of balance, I don't think it would fly.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Probably a quick start/stand-in, what if Devoid and Atonement were mutually exclusive? I.e. applying one caused the other to break? Maybe that could develop into some kind of burst-damage mechanism of dimensional instability? It'd fit the opposites sort of theme that Darkness/Celestial has, and could still honor how the two can synergise without making it a double-stacking debuff.
If I was more indulgent I'd probably draft-up/slap a generic self-heal ability somewhere random, probably in a 'fighter' style build set (think like a healing surge from some of the more recent D&D editions.) But as is, Conviction is a consistent self-heal that provides decent numbers, and has almost no cost in terms of DPS due to its short duration and requires no special setup to utilize. It might not be OP, per se, but it's certainly ubiquitous enough to be used on any build possible and benefit any build because of what it does. Whether that's something the playerbase wants to strive for is anyone's opinion.
Most single-target ranged nukes have some gimmick backing up the pure damage. Ebon Ruin combines its base damage with a DoT on its main target (and actually kind of falls short in DPS it feels like.) There's the LA and Soul Beam percent bonuses based on debuffed enemies. I think Celestial could possibly keep that chaining as its gimmick. Heck, I feel like the energy cost could be jacked way up in comparison for its potential AoE, and then balance that against good damage numbers.
I do want to also point out some of the potential that many of the abilities I've listed here have for supporty-tankish builds as well. Stuff like guardian glide and sanctum can combine well with melee tactics to create builds that can rapidly close into close-distance on both allies and enemies and quickly position support infrastructure where it's needed, while dishing out melee attacks.
No.
For all these reasons:
In summary: Conviction is reliable, decent, not OP, no perequisites on use, and friendly to any build or theme.
As you said "Whether that's something the playerbase wants to strive for is anyone's opinion".
Personnaly i do not see any reason to turn a decent, no theme tied self heal power, into something that cannot work on his own outside of a celestial build.
I have nothing against the creation of a new celestial themed self heal power which would work like you suggested it. It could be a good celestial themed self heal exploiting illumination mechanic, like "absorb heat" is a cool fire themed self heal that works pretty well with the clinging fire mechanic.
But i do not want to sacrifice a good power like conviction for that.
Conviction is one of these too rare powers that is a reliable option when your build doesn't allow an efficient exploitation of a specific set mechanic.
And in a game which built a big part of his notoriety on the freeform concept, so the mixing of a maximum of different things, powers like conviction allow you the option to be less restrained into one specific powerset.
Note that i have absolutly nothing against the creation of an additionnal celestial self heal power exploiting illumination mechanic, it may even be a good addition, like "absorb heat" and his electricity equivalent were cleverly implemented in their respective powersets. I am only opposed to the removal of the alternative option, conviction.
I Like this one. Remind me FF Alexander summon attack.
Taking a step back from functionality, what's the justification, thematically, that I can give that all my characters can invoke holy power to make themselves glow blue for a split-second before they take a hit in order to recover health? Self-heal options on munitions powers are called 'stim-pack'. 'absorb heat' and 'bountiful chi resurgence' are pretty self-explanatory. 'reconstructive circuits' is perfectly flavored if you happen to be power armor. But, like... What is "conviction"?
So that all said, and with all the sentiment, yeah. There should just be a straight-up 'generic' power choice set that has options like that for your builds. Stuff like 'healing surge' or 'recover' or stuff that represents the core aspects and capabilities of even being a superhero or whatever. Or, like aesica hinted at, it could be an incentive for development to actually pick up on balancing and granting viable healing options to all the sets in wake of that change.
Current trends, though, they point towards something like this happening. Not every top-tier DPS build uses TGM anymore, for example. In fact, there was a time when Imbue was a on-next-hit trigger ability that forced a critical to happen, and that was very much a PvP meta for a while. Conviction just happens to be a touchy subject because, for a ton of freeform builds, it's been the go-to self-heal option for a decade now.
If we need more theme-neutral heals, those should be added in the form of limited-use devices. Anybody, be they demon, wizard, cyborg, ninja, soldier, or mutant, can go to the local vendor and buy a few Stim Packs to jam in their leg when they need some healing. There's no reason everybody should be a half angel, bionic, dual wielding, telekenetic, teleporting gangsta clown with.... oh sorry, I was channeling 2014 pvp there for a moment. Like bluh said, not every character can channel the glory of the divine light to heal their wounds.
And for that matter, why do you want to have to stick with Conviction? Wouldn't you rather have a different, more thematic heal for each character that works just as well? So what if you have to apply a debuff or a buff or do a back flip or pet a cat or whatever to do the heal, in the end you get the heal, your character looks better, and plays more interestingly. Also consider that the new heal will likely be better than Conviction, because more hoops to jump through = more justification for making it stronger. Stop being scared to play with mechanics!
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Even if Conviction location in celestial powerset has probably more to do with how intuitive it is for players to find a heal power in a white magic powerset than in any other, current conviction IS celestial themed. It's a basic "cure" white magic spell. Just because some people are using it as a "theme neutral heal" is no reason it shouldn't stay this way.
And even some people could argue about how "boring" that power is, it is also not a good reason to remove it.
What some call "boring", i call it "reliable".
True. That's why absolutely ALL my characters have one slotted in their device tray. These things are a fantastic "emergency button" when something go wrong and your situation is not good. Sadly, their very important cooldowns doesn't allow these devices to be more than that, a last resort mesure. That's why we also need self healing powers, more versatile and reliable.
I am a little surprised by this. I would have bet someone as creative as you would not have been restrained in a build by something as inconsequential as a power name, or power location in a specific powerset.
As i anticipate the next obvious comment: "using conviction too heal is not a mark of creativity, more the proof of a lackof".
I would answer this: i prefer creativity on how a build fight rather than how a build heals. Conviction has the advantage to be operationnal alone, so you save power slots for everything else. Moreover it's reliable at anytime, and outside of the %max hp glow, his animation is discrete enough to not bothering too much the dynamic of the fight.
On a personnal note, i would like to mention that i have 13 chars in my roster. Only 3 use Conviction.
I would not say conviction is every-build heal. Some contexts make it ideal, and some others have better solutions.
Being a popular choice doesn't mean it has to go.
It fits perfectly the chars i've put it on. I use it as exactly what it is, a basic white magic cure spell.
I am entirely in favor of that. You will NEVER see me opposed to new toys to play with.
But if someone arbitrarily decide to take one of my old toys from me, there are big chances i will contest.
It's why i suggested the compromise:
This offer the best of both worlds. Open new opportunities with an entirely new celestial heal power dependant of illumination mechanic, like suggested @bluhman and keep conviction as it is.
Nothing is imposed to anyone, people simply have an additionnal choice. No controversy, no frustration.
But you bring up some things I really like:
On one hand is this point I make constantly about 'no generic use powers, blah blah', but on the other, a key thing I perhaps neglected especially in this overhaul is much external-set crossover. Considering that Illumination is an Enchantment for sorcery, and that you use Conviction on your white-mage style characters, I see a potential for the ability to have some Sorcery applications...
Anyways, looks like I might have to assess making a suggestion for a 'general category' powerset.
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My characters
Because it's called Celestial. Y'know...like an angel? Hell it even has angel wings for it's power tree icon AND is in the mystical tree. I mean...even the description of the overall power tree itself mentions seraphim(angels)
42 40s, LTSer.
I take this quote from a review that I agree with.
"customisation is so linear; everyone is after the optimal dps:survivability ratio with 0 reliance on other players = autonomous gameplay... Players don't need each other anymore... which in my opinion is a bad thing."
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My characters
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Celestial is literally invoking magical light from the magical light dimension.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.