Theory Craft: Greater Heals
I'm wondering how much of a benefit a 3 (or 2) second Greater Heal (GH) would be.
Currently, if I'm making GH my main cast, then I spend a fair amount of time outside of the 5 second penalty. This is with my mana conservation mod on and cross-healing from other healers occurring. If I'm the only healer for a particular group, then I suppose I'd spent 99% of the time within the 5 second penalty.
With the faster GH, I wonder if I can wait longer before I start to cast, so that I can maximize my time outside of the 5 second penalty. I would probably adjust the mana conservation to allow more damage to occur to my target before aborting to offset the more frequent casts, since I should be able to cast a second GH sooner. (Of course, I should be prepared to abort the cast and switch to spamming flash heals in the case of sudden spike in damage). This would be my most likely strategy if I decide to spec for the 2 (or is it 2.5?) second GH. Of course, this assumes that I have plenty of spirit to maximize my mana regen.
One alternative is to load up on the mp/5 gear and let that help offset the time in the 5 second penalty.
Second alternative (and my current approach) is to acquire a massive mana pool. This seems to work OK for the most part, and it comes in handy when running around in Shadowform.
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Still wondering...
I don't have any real answers either, and I think we should wait for the talent tree changes (hopefully sometime this week) before making any attempt to figure it out.
I am worried though, that I will end up spending more time within the 5 second rule with Greater Heal taking 3 (2.5 w/ talents) seconds. Currently, my rythmn is something like: Cast, wait 2-3 seconds, start casting greater (+3.5 seconds). I'll spend about two ticks in mana regen before having to cast heal again. But, tradeoffs being what they are, I think this is ok. One, itemization seems to be going towards mp/5 as opposed to spirit which makes it mostly moot. Two, the added interactivity will at least make the class a lot more fun to play, as opposed to the gamble (is the tank going to die before my heal lands?) that greater heal plays now.
I think it'll all balance out.
I'm also wondering how much I'll use flash heal afterwards. I'm pretty sure I'll talent the heal time reduction, so will 1 second make that much of a difference? I'm pretty good (not perfect) at gauging damage taken, maybe I can handle the extra second. Questions, questions, questions... but no numbers, and nothing we can use to answer it.
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Meh
Meh