Definitely not joking, also not taking offense. First let me say I don't raid. Nobody raids on my server during a timezone I can make. Promise line is awesome for keeping up a weaker group tank as opposed to a fully raid geared legend. Any time you get ahead on heals and have time, drop a promise on them. Your passive AAs for promise will heal them as they get hit. Repeat, I don't care if promise ever wears off and actually heals, I like the aa to fire for extra help. Or if a nontank eats a bad riposte or two and gets low, promis is a nice ch you can drop on them isince they're not really in heavy danger and it casts quickly so you can get back to tank heals faster. Maybe I'm missing something with the strategy I use but it's quite frustrating whenever I group outside my usual circle and 99% or more of the playerbase has the spell blocked and argues and refuses to unblock it because they'll forget to reblock it after and don't want to die next time they have to use a merc. Frustrating.
Absolutely agree on the Int around adds, but, still its such a fast cast and efficient heal, I keep them as my default, unless the raid specifically calls for something else. I used to run the triple QH but in my knight groups it seemed having having another big heal in works a little better for me. Plus, TBH, with only 1 Beast in a lot of our raids I don't like how 3QH burns through my mana, which in turn often ends up with me eating my VP instead of feeding it to DPS. If I were to drop promise it would probably be to keep both Shining Armor/Symbol which are the two spells I switch back and forth the most often. Even on rez we generally go symbol/skin for tanks though I'm sure the off tanks often don't get skin reapplied mid raid. (Yeah pallys if you can rebuff them get assurance) The reverse DS is generally only used by 1 or at most 2 of the clerics on the raid,as it is only cast on the main target. So while I wouldn't rely on Promise for any healing, it really wouldn't hurt to replace DS in a raid with Promise, as a fast cast time "random timed" over heal. /shrug
Graceful Remedy has been benched for me, for awhile now. A year at least, maybe two. It simply does not land for enough. Light has been benched for much longer. It is extremely efficient, but that hasn't been a good enough reason to cast it in forever.
The OP's idea is a great one! I love to use the Promised line of spells to maximize the amount of healing I can do. It's almost free after all and heals for a nice amount.
I don't have much experience with cleric mercenaries, but do they cast promised heals on "Reactive" mode? It's not really a heal (along with elixirs) they should be casting in that mode, as that mode should prioritize (and ideally only allow for the casting of) direct heals. Though removing promised heals from their lineup entirely or putting in some kind of toggle would be ideal, limiting their usage to "Balanced" mode might be another solution/fix. In regards to promised usage in raids, I do find it to be useful. The Promised Interposition AA, which got an upgrade this expansion, now allows for a 20,000 hit point heal when a target takes at least 15,000 melee or spell damage in a single hit. This is a triggered heal that is cast along with any promised heal (for free) if a cleric has the AA. That's not a large heal by any means, but the fact that it is instant and occurs immediately after the damage is received makes it pretty valuable. It can also crit as evidenced in the log snippets below (note that Rune is a warrior but they have AAs that allow and increase the chance for spells like these to critical heal on them): [Tue Jan 22 17:54:54 2019] Rune's promised interposition is fulfilled Rune healed himself for 41349 (42675) hit points by Promised Interposition Heal V. (Lucky Critical) The Promised Interposition heal is very unlikely to be wasted given that it lands very close to the damage and covers both melee and spell damage. It will, as a result, often be the first heal to land on a tank if he has it active. The tank also receives a delayed heal within 18 sec and while it would be nice if the timer were shorter, it has the potential to land for a decent amount: [Tue Jan 22 17:56:49 2019] Rune is infused by divine healing. Rune healed himself for 115524 hit points by Promised Remedy Trigger III. (Lucky Critical) [Tue Jan 22 17:58:02 2019] Rune is infused by divine healing. Rune healed himself for 91082 (112460) hit points by Promised Remedy Trigger III. (Critical) If Rune were a shadowknight or a paladin, the values on both heals would be higher due to their heal-enhancing abilities, but for warriors, these aren't too bad. That heal can land wherever the target happens to be as well, even if he is out of range or you are moving. The chances of this heal landing increase with fewer healers focused on the tank. That's because the gaps in healing will be larger, so the heal has a greater chance to fill the gap (and with remedies not exactly healing for a lot, it has a chance to at least bolster a non-crit even if it doesn't land for full). The promised and elixir heal lines, then, can be used to supplement direct heals, providing an additional layer of healing. The key to using them effectively, of course, is to cast them at the right time. If you cast a promised heal when your tank is dying and in need of direct healing to survive the next round, then casting it at that particular time isn't a good decision. If you (or another cleric looking to support the group with something besides direct heals) can cast them at the right time, though, they can provide that additional layer of healing to help fill in gaps of (low or no) healing. The promised heal (along with elixirs) can also provide more potential healing at the time they are cast than many direct heals. That's because direct heals (excepting heals that produce Abundant Healing procs) provide all of their healing at the time they land on the target. So if a tank tags an add and is about to bring it to the raid, casting a remedy that will land in 0.5 sec before the mob has reached the raid will provide 0 actual healing (unless that mob runs very fast). If I cast a promised heal, though, the tank will likely receive the instant interposition heal if the add hits him hard enough (which it likely will) and could potentially receive the delayed heal. Even if that delayed heal never lands, if we compare the two actions (remedy vs. promised) at that particular point in time, then promised wins out in terms of actual healing. Whether that utility is worth a spell slot for most clerics is another matter entirely. I have seen more variations on spell sets this expansions than most in the past among our clerics, mostly due to the fact that we're split up a bit more and remedy healing is often insufficient with fewer clerics healing tanks that are technically undergeared. This often means using more interventions and renewals and for some of us, it means using things like elixir and promised more often if we can squeeze them in without sacrificing heals to the tank. There really is no definitive spell lineup for clerics this expansion because unless it's a single-tank vs. boss scenario with little to no sources of interruption/a minimum of moving parts, clerics are forced into more group-type healing scenarios (albeit with mobs that can output more damage) where healing support is limited. That means you have to balance the very fast healing of remedies with the slightly slower healing of interventions/renewals and need to anticipate healing needs better (which means less mindless spamming/reliance on stock healing sequences).
