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Serious Soulweaver Feedback
blamethecity
Member Posts: 22 Arc User
Hey all,
With the devs always working on class balance I'm hoping someone finds this and takes at least some of it into account.
As I'm sure we all know, soulweaver is the worst of the 3 healing classes. I think this is the result of a few design decisions and lack of feedback by the community. In solo play, soulweaver feels great, but has a harder time in groups due to a few things.
1).Soul Sparks
2).Magnitude
3).Loadout
Firsly and most importantly, soul sparks cause a ton of trouble for soulweavers. I think the soulspark systems needs an overhaul. Pally and Cleric have 1000 divinity and their healing spells cost around 80 divinity. This means that a single heal drains 8% of their total resource pool. Soulweavers have 30 soulsparks and our only reliable burst heal (shatterspark) costs 4 sparks and drains 13% of our pool. The extra 15% healing we get at max soulsparks does not make up for how draining spells are. Actually, I'd argue that it creates more issues because healing power is inconsistent.That being said, the soulspark meter is much more fluid than the divinity one so regaining those sparks should be easier. However, in order to regain 4 soulsparks we would need go through Essence Defiler's full combo twice. That wouldn't be so bad if shatterspark was a stronger heal, but we more often than not need 2-3 casts to heal a target to full - especially tanks(seriously 600k hp is hard to handle guys :P). So just use essence drain right? Well, Essence of Power is pretty much mandatory because Essence of Time is clunky and easily interrupted meaning we're on a 15 sec cooldown to regen half our soulsparks. I feel like soulweaver was meant to be a fast paced healing class that always was in and out of having resources. But our reliance on just a few abilities -especially since we NEED to deal damage to use them- to regen sparks just make the class unreliable in group.
I believe giving warlock a larger pool of sparks in exchange for getting rid of the bonus healing gimmick(or making it weaker) would greatly benefit the class.Also, a way to regen soulsparks when unable to deal damage would make the class so much more reliable.There's been plenty of times where I was just sitting around on low resources waiting for bosses to enter the next phase. Then i have to scramble to regen while dealing with any incoming dmg. UPDATE: there is a change coming in mod17 that allows essence drain to sap HP when no targets are available.
-----
Next Magnitude.
Soul Recontruction - 200mag/0.4 sec/drains soulsparks -- this one is great. def the best healing at-will of the 3 classes
Harrowstorm - 200 mag/heal 100mag/dmg(HOT)
Wraith's Shadow - 40 mag/heal 200mag/dmg(HOT)
Shatterspark - 400mag
Warlock's Bargain - 200mag(costs 20% hp, is a full group cleanse, and increases incoming healing)
Pillar of Power - 20mag/s(ok goodluck getting people to stand in this lol. its a terribly weak heal but must be slotted cause the 10% outgoing heal bonus)
Magnitude is a major issue. In terms of raw healing power, warlock should be between cleric and pally(since they shield.) The HOT spells are just far, far too weak. The strongest heal harrowstorm can possibly perform without a crit is 8640. Players have upwards of 300k HP. Stacking harrowstorm on top of itself is nice, but expensive cause soulsparks.
The large radius of shattterspark and wraith's shadow unfortunately do not make up for their low mag. Most groups are clumped together anyways. Cleric and Pally have just as easy a time with their directed heals.
We have no emergency burst heal like Intercession, no shielding like pally, and one healing centered Daily. As a result, we're forced to rely on shatterspark in most situations.
I'd like to see our magnitudes be under cleric(they should be top dog) and above pally(seriously they can shield, why do they also get higher base mag?). We have the least options at the most cost and for the weakest result -- the HOTs just aren't good enough. The only reason to bring a soulweaver along would be for the extra damage. However, since we need to take mostly healing related spells -I run SS,PoP,Harrostorm in most cases- our dmg contribution is very low(I mean, harrowstorm only has 100mag dmg
).
------
Loadout
Ok this one is more to warlock players, but what's with the starting WIS roll of 8 with no real compensation later(again, the 15% outgoing healing gimmick of soulsparks is meh)?
Unlike with templock(rip), soulweaver needs outgoing healing and other healing class gear. DMG no longer = healing. Most ppl just switch to soulweaver from their DPS path and just expect to be effective. UNFORTUNATELY that ain't how it works. We need all the bonuses even more than cleric and pally since we have lower mag and less reliable resources. That means outgoing healing comps, appropriate power and crit + other stats, etc.. etc...
-------
All this being said, I do enjoy playing soulweaver. However, it's also true that I find myself working 10x harder on my 24k warlock(with proper healing bonuses might I add) than on my 18k pally or 19k cleric to keep a group together. I'd like to see the class be put in line with the others.
Hope this finds someone
With the devs always working on class balance I'm hoping someone finds this and takes at least some of it into account.
As I'm sure we all know, soulweaver is the worst of the 3 healing classes. I think this is the result of a few design decisions and lack of feedback by the community. In solo play, soulweaver feels great, but has a harder time in groups due to a few things.
1).Soul Sparks
2).Magnitude
3).Loadout
Firsly and most importantly, soul sparks cause a ton of trouble for soulweavers. I think the soulspark systems needs an overhaul. Pally and Cleric have 1000 divinity and their healing spells cost around 80 divinity. This means that a single heal drains 8% of their total resource pool. Soulweavers have 30 soulsparks and our only reliable burst heal (shatterspark) costs 4 sparks and drains 13% of our pool. The extra 15% healing we get at max soulsparks does not make up for how draining spells are. Actually, I'd argue that it creates more issues because healing power is inconsistent.That being said, the soulspark meter is much more fluid than the divinity one so regaining those sparks should be easier. However, in order to regain 4 soulsparks we would need go through Essence Defiler's full combo twice. That wouldn't be so bad if shatterspark was a stronger heal, but we more often than not need 2-3 casts to heal a target to full - especially tanks(seriously 600k hp is hard to handle guys :P). So just use essence drain right? Well, Essence of Power is pretty much mandatory because Essence of Time is clunky and easily interrupted meaning we're on a 15 sec cooldown to regen half our soulsparks. I feel like soulweaver was meant to be a fast paced healing class that always was in and out of having resources. But our reliance on just a few abilities -especially since we NEED to deal damage to use them- to regen sparks just make the class unreliable in group.
I believe giving warlock a larger pool of sparks in exchange for getting rid of the bonus healing gimmick(or making it weaker) would greatly benefit the class.
-----
Next Magnitude.
Soul Recontruction - 200mag/0.4 sec/drains soulsparks -- this one is great. def the best healing at-will of the 3 classes
Harrowstorm - 200 mag/heal 100mag/dmg(HOT)
Wraith's Shadow - 40 mag/heal 200mag/dmg(HOT)
Shatterspark - 400mag
Warlock's Bargain - 200mag(costs 20% hp, is a full group cleanse, and increases incoming healing)
Pillar of Power - 20mag/s(ok goodluck getting people to stand in this lol. its a terribly weak heal but must be slotted cause the 10% outgoing heal bonus)
Magnitude is a major issue. In terms of raw healing power, warlock should be between cleric and pally(since they shield.) The HOT spells are just far, far too weak. The strongest heal harrowstorm can possibly perform without a crit is 8640. Players have upwards of 300k HP. Stacking harrowstorm on top of itself is nice, but expensive cause soulsparks.
The large radius of shattterspark and wraith's shadow unfortunately do not make up for their low mag. Most groups are clumped together anyways. Cleric and Pally have just as easy a time with their directed heals.
We have no emergency burst heal like Intercession, no shielding like pally, and one healing centered Daily. As a result, we're forced to rely on shatterspark in most situations.
I'd like to see our magnitudes be under cleric(they should be top dog) and above pally(seriously they can shield, why do they also get higher base mag?). We have the least options at the most cost and for the weakest result -- the HOTs just aren't good enough. The only reason to bring a soulweaver along would be for the extra damage. However, since we need to take mostly healing related spells -I run SS,PoP,Harrostorm in most cases- our dmg contribution is very low(I mean, harrowstorm only has 100mag dmg
). ------
Loadout
Ok this one is more to warlock players, but what's with the starting WIS roll of 8 with no real compensation later(again, the 15% outgoing healing gimmick of soulsparks is meh)?
Unlike with templock(rip), soulweaver needs outgoing healing and other healing class gear. DMG no longer = healing. Most ppl just switch to soulweaver from their DPS path and just expect to be effective. UNFORTUNATELY that ain't how it works. We need all the bonuses even more than cleric and pally since we have lower mag and less reliable resources. That means outgoing healing comps, appropriate power and crit + other stats, etc.. etc...
-------
All this being said, I do enjoy playing soulweaver. However, it's also true that I find myself working 10x harder on my 24k warlock(with proper healing bonuses might I add) than on my 18k pally or 19k cleric to keep a group together. I'd like to see the class be put in line with the others.
Hope this finds someone
Post edited by blamethecity on
2
Comments
Plus warlock healing a group just feels a bit out of character for them but just my 5cents
▂▃▄▅▆▇█▓▒░ Drac ░▒▓█▇▆▅▄▃▂
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<div align="center">AKA Draconis of Luskan</div>
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Besides... temptation was a thing ya know
> they need to add a special function for IL for warlock when queueing as healer, it should be at least 2,000 above whatever the IL is for the dungeon.
Maybe 5000 higher
Yep, I noticed it. but was lazy to give real numbers. Thank its a really helpful for finding solution.
how about 0-1 heal points? ))) its from Tab power i guess. isn't even fun, it tells that Warlock may dig a grave and lie down there.
I have ~30% outcoming heal. yeah, its nice but.
you forget that Clerics and Palls may have the same. even if you will take Wisdom as main. Palls will have a better heal.
Also outcoming bonus doesn't have a real difference. because its only additional.
waht will you say if 'a rogue should have less damage then mage'. Or 'a Barbie must be a TOP DPS'.
Why? Just because?
damage? really? I also can up 3% dmg from Anoinced Army so?
noone even standing in Warlock's PoP.
I also meant dmg dealing, not buffs. On soulweaver i typically finish just after the 2nd(in a weaker group) or 3rd dps player. This is cause most of my healing spells also happen to deal dmg.
Sorry if that was unclear
There's no reason a cleric would be dealing anywhere near as much dmg or contributing to group overall dmg as much. This is why I think cleric should be the best raw healer.
Like this?
or even like this
The fact that paingiver puts you at 2. or 3. pretty often is related to selfinflicted damage, even Soul Pact deals heavy damage towards you, you may check it. It tics 4 times a second instead 1 time, leeching 80% max HP - bugged since preview.
https://i.imgur.com/JGq8hU2.png
Beside that my Oathkeeper can beat that Soulweaver easily , if he builds for dps, spamming 450 mag focus damage every 1-2 seconds Oathkeeper can run a pretty good dpssetup, in case healing is from minor interest.
Soul Reconstruction - the only good thing about Soulweaver
Harrowstorm- hard to use in healing intensive fights
Wraith Shadow-no comment heals for underwheling ammounts bugged+ underpowered
Shatterspark, deals >70% of outgoing healing
Warlocks BArgain deals double the ammount of damage towards Lock compared o the ammount it helas the hole party, underpowered and maybe also bugged, not sure, maybe simply badly designed.
Pillar of power-underpoered magnitude imo,should dale for 40mag imo.
Soul Pact - simply bugged
Life Bind - selfkill ability
Devout: Bastion 800mg-80 Div. 8%
Oathkeeper 500mag+1000 barrier on crit (this is pretty easy to achieve) - 80 Divinity same as Devout 8%
Soulweaver 400mag for 4 sparks with Shatter spark -> as you mentioned this is 13% of his sparkpool
About math:
One class can spam a double effective spell for near half cost= effectiveness x 3,3333 compared to Soulweaver
Next class can spam a near 4 times effective spell for the cost of near half= effectiveness x up to 6.25 compared to warlock look down below ho the critrate looks like on life and how this translates into gameplay.
Ok I skipped that 15 % Lingerings Sustain, but the numbers will not change significant at all.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Devout
If you want to be on par with at least Devouts healing abilities...I'll try to do the math:
Devout 1000/80 x800=10000 healing output
Soulweaver 30/4 x460=3450
1000/80 x 800= 30/4 x X
1000/80 x 800 : 7.5= X
10000/7.5=1333
In case warlock should have the same burst heal like Devout you need to spam Shatter spark at 1133 magnitude (1333 if LS includet 15%)
Lingering Sustain includet, that spell deals 460mag actually.
Even pretending you stay in POP 10%, have casted warlocks bargain 10% and have full sparks 15%?, the mag will increase from 460 to 621 (in case all that stuff is not bugged)
And I do not take into account Devouts multiplier.
->The magnitude needs to be nearly trippled to achieve this ammount of healing 1333/460=2.897
In theory with all buffs (happens near 0% of the time), you need to double it at least ...1333/621= 2.14
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Oathkeeper
My average critrate in lomm with Divine Touch on this GWF is 62%. This means I deal 62% 1500mag (heal+barrier) on that char and the rest of the time I put 500heal+500 barrier, so you can estimate how effective a Paladin is compared to warlock, to lazy to do the math, like 4 times as effective maybe
A decent Devout with half the stats of a Soulweaver is capable to be on par or should be better like this, why?
An Oathkeeper is about 4 times as effective as a Soulweaver !
Why on earth should anyone play that path?
You need to be near BIS and invest tons of AD, even doing so you end up with a pretty bad performance in many situations, having the worst survivability no shield or dodge and on top messing arround with selfkilling powers in case you want to cleanse, use a daily or feat the best mitigation tool -Life Bind !
Now we get our TAB linked with a 30% incoming HP loss on top, if I read correctly.
What actually makes you think this is any good?
@noworries#8859 please feel free to correct me
@mimicking#6533
@asterdahl
PS: not to talk about the fact , that actually Essence Drain has severy targetting issues, you repeatedly are stuck with that power when the target is blocked by anything like comps or others, nothing happens
Bugs need to be addressed also.
This is how cryptic actuall thinks about balance of classes
posted this in preview bugsection, since i really can´t believe this is ment to be WAI
TAB either deals 30% damage towards Soulweaver or tics with minus 15% HP per second, whenever you have not target focussed. Just imagine you are infight relaod sparks and maybe that target just run out of focus in a content with mass aoe every 0.5 seconds..I know I can chose tEssence of power, all will do so, but this is simply again an unthought and poor impleneted power.
Essence drain bugs an leeds to heavy selfinflivetd damage.
I recognized you toned down the selfdamage from Warlocks Bargain and fixed Soul Pact on preview month after release leeching 80% max HP, all in silence without any feedback patch node etc., but I hope this TAB mechanic is not WAI ?
Otherwise this is one step forwards and two steps back for a class without dodge or Shield like Paladin and the squishiest setup from all healer by far, having no way to burstheal like DC or Paladin with 500mg+1000mag barrier on top
-> this sounds pretty desillusioning.., Paladin can reload Divinity with a 300k barrier on top of his head and block all incoming damage and cc with a classfeature or simply HAMSTER an aoe that relaods passivly his Divinitypool no matter what happens and the squishiest class (no dodge no shield) has to use TAB to reload it's sparkpool (actually the lowest pool of all healer) and by that killing himself slowly on top of standing still inside aoe?
Wow thanks for the data. I'm too paranoid to run ACT after getting banned for using it in another game (the company's anti-cheat went nuts).
I'd really like to see a dev response to this because there really is no reason to bring a warlock along in a group. I already knew that SW took much more effort on the player's part than the other two healer classes (life's real easy on my cleric) but i didn't realize how big the gap was.
Some things:
Soul defiler should get a massive buff. Right now, .5% of a SW's dmg is translated into group healing. Resulting in 4-12 dmg which is unacceptable in any circumstance - players have hundreds of thousands of hp.
Harrowstorm is a great tool but takes too long to heal and requires people to stand in place. Increasing the heal mag from 200 to maybe 300-400 would massively improve its performance.
As stated above shatter spark is excessively weak in comparison to other healer burst options. With an improvement to harrowstorm, I don't think this needs to be changed massively. Up to at least 500 from 400 I'd say.
Both the DPS and Healer paragons for warlock are under-performing right now. Hopefully we get some dev response
While I'm at it-feats:
Essence of time - this would be nice if it weren't so clunky. Essence drain is again the issue. Its easily interrupted, slow to start, and requires a target(which most of the time dies before you can gen anything meaningful) with the change it may see some use because power can sometimes leave you with gaps in large group dmg situations... but honestly it just isn't very good.
Dark revelry - ... really? 2500 crit avoid and awareness to my teammates that are already capped? this just needs to be entirely reworked or replaced
Life Bind - this will just get you killed. also, defense increased by 2500? why? I'd say make this a %dmg reduction kinda like old Knight's Vow (the GF encounter) or rework/replace it.
Thief of Life - would be a nice option if soul defiler wasn't so terrible. Also, this isn't the clearest thing in the world. It says it doubles self healing from soul defiler, but does that also apply to the outgoing? Cause the outgoing % of soul defiler is half of the incoming. Does this feat also increase the outgoing? -- even if it does theres no reason to use it... soul defiler is still awful
Consuming action - why would a soulweaver be curse consuming exactly? Also, 2 action points is horrid.
Lastly... this isn't soulweaver specific, but can warlocks get something OTHER than vengeful curse... 5% chance to apply lesser curse on hit is a joke.
* poor single target healing targeting
* poor burst emergency heals
* lack of ability to generate soul sparks (being somewhat addressed as I understand it)
* couldn't cleanse myself (now addressed) and cleanse-only (no-heal cleanse needed for some fights like Despair)
*