This spell needs to be tweaked some. In its current state, it serves no decent purpose other than allowing the spell developer to claim we were given something "new" *wink, wink nudge* however unusable and ineffective. In any case, some possible changes, some which have been mentioned before: make the cure counters work every tick reduce the mana cost considerably reduce the cast time (*not for just this but for all our heal-over-time spells) - they should almost insta-cast due to the nature of hots compared to direct heals. make the spell a raid-wide point-blank or targetable AE by default along the same vein as the shaman heal rain. update the cure counters to be higher as well as increasing the number counters cured by spell rank. Anyway, just some ideas. It would be nice for this spell to hit some mark of usefulness, as it is right now, it's missing the target completely. Thanks!
I realize this is something of a necropost, since I've been on holiday from the priest forums! Nope, not intended to cure every tick. The cure SPA... just does not work that way. In point of fact, they *tried* to make it work that way with No Time To Bleed, and it just... wouldn't. It wouldn't keep curing, and ANYTHING else with a cure counter component equal or higher to No Time To Bleed's cure counters knocked the whole thing off- including a mercenary casting a renewal spell. While it would be cool if there were ways to cumulatively strip detrimental counters like that, it is currently not possible with the existing stuff. The cure ward doesn't do it over time- it casts a small burst cure every tick. That's why it works.
You have to agree, its useless. Probably less useful than even a group promised would have been... Well, maybe... there probably woulda been raiding clerics that actually woulda thought group promised was good and used it a lot, which would have been worse than having a spell that all clerics know is useless.
Group Promised Renewal wasn't a bad concept for a spell and could have been useful on certain events that have several mechanics to interrupt healers. The cast time was so short (identical to the single target version) that it was perfect to throw into the middle of a spell rotation as a buffer heal. It was also easier to cast as a group spell (no target switching involved or having to decide who to cast it on like the single target version) and it benefited non-tanks in the group such as healers and casters who would usually never see these types of heals cast upon them. It definitely had some issues that needed to be worked out (mainly stacking issues), though it was salvageable and would have seen some use among clerics. If a significant amount of clerics are finding a spell useful, I wouldn't consider it a waste or a detriment even if I do not find it useful myself. Though it might not be a popular opinion, I don't find Issuance of Grace in its current form that useful because the memorization/recast time is too long, the range is too short/limiting, and the heal amount is too low unless you use other resources to boost it. As many clerics are finding a use for it and feel it's worth casting, however, I don't consider it a waste. It just suits their style and needs more than it does mine. The problem with Cleansing Acquittal, Mark of Tohan (though it has some use in removing damage shields, the rest of it is useless), and Infusion of the Graceful/Hand of Faithful Infusion is that it's difficult to find many clerics who actually agree that these spells are useful. It's fine to have spells that are extremely situational (not every spell can be useful all the time) but to have spells that no one can find a situation to use is a waste and means either the concept is bad or the implementation needs work.
Well, I have to disagree completely. I think a group promised actually having been implemented would have been terrible, and the stacking issues isn't even the main issue, however it is a significant one. It's the WASTE that would result. Not the waste of the cast time, which is fairly minimal, but the waste of the cast time PLUS recast. I'll use an example... Let's say you and I are grouped in the MT group on a raid... I cast Divine Guardian on the MT... 20s later the group gets hit with an AE... you group promised, which is .5s cast time plus 1.8s GCD... it wipes out my DG (irritating and a waste, but a small one, I cast between spells, so not a loss of healage really) and at the same time, I, who detest promised, cast Syllable... Before your GCD is even complete, the group is topped off. Your promised lands for 0 healage on 5/6 targets, and only heals the MT for minimal amount, of which half a second later, they had 2 heals inc from other priests anyway.... That's on a lucky, not hard round... on a bad round... you cast promised, which does NO immediate healing, but, again, does wipe out my DG... I cast slow casting (but still as fast as a group heal gets), low healing Syllable... and during the lull in lack of single target heals (at LEAST 2.8s for you... .5s cast time of promised, + 1.8s GCD + .5s minimum cast time for Graceful, or even longer if use a slower heal)... the 5 seconds ish for me, using Syllable + GCD + single target heal.... the tank takes too much damage (DG not there, so doesn't fire), and dies. Both instances though, the promised, dooming 18+ seconds later... is largely if not completely useless. It's not the cast time of promised that hurts so much... it's the cast time PLUS global recast, PLUS cast time of your next direct target heal for ZERO immediate heals, that creates the large gap of direct healing. Multiply this by 3-4 clerics doing the EXACT SAME THING at the EXACT SAME TIME each/every AE... and the fact that it's just too dang dangerous most events to NOT top off your group before promised dooms, using, again, a very low and slow (read: BAD) hp per target group heal... and you will have more unnecessarily dead tanks. All from lack of timely, consistent, fast incoming single target heals to them. And the fact is, most average, normal heal teams would take forever, IF EVER, even realize what the problem was. I repeat... it's a GREAT thing that group promised was not implemented. I'd rather have nothing, or in this case, an obviously terrible spell, than a spell that many would think is great but would instead be detrimental. BOTTOM LINE... you CANNOT WAIT 18 plus seconds after someone takes damage to heal them in todays raid environment. So, casting a promised is a WASTE of cast time, and a waste of a global cooldown timer if you're going to have to heal them anyway before then... Please, start thinking less about cast time of spells... and think more about global cooldown timers. Almost all of your spells should be the same or faster cast time than the global cooldown anyway.... So, try and think more like 'Is this spell worth the global cooldown it's going to cost me' more than 'is this spell worth it's cast time'...
I also hate most AE heal spells. I LOVE fast cast, AE heal AA however. The spells have long cast times and heal for very little per target, relatively. I do agree they can be useful situationally though. Celestial Regen, however... lasts LONGER than Elixir, heals for MORE than Elixir, is FAST casting, can be cast DURING global cooldown, and takes away NOTHING from single target heals. It's been my experience that it's not survivable amounts of group damage that usually kills raids. It's the TANK dying, usually from lack of timely (read: FAST) SINGLE TARGET heals that is the problem.
As I said, it's a tool that would be useful on certain events, particularly those with several healing interruption mechanics. On the Plane of War event, for instance, I'm usually in the group healing Vallon Zek and have to put up with random silence, spell slow, and summons from adds outside of the room we tank him in that pull me out of healing range until I run back. While casting Group Promised wouldn't guarantee anyone in the group survival in this situation, it would provide them with a buffer heal that could keep their health up while I'm unable to heal. Sure, I could cast other heals in the .5 sec it takes me to cast Group Promised and wait for the global recast, but if I'm spamming there's no guarantee those heals would land for anything, anyway, and none would provide a potential heal if I get interrupted by something. If a situation came up where a tank's health dropped suddenly while I was waiting for the global recast, I could easily use Epic, Divine Arbitration, Burst of Life, or Beacon of Life to recover before I start spamming again. The other thing to keep in mind is that healing is not all about the MT, and that he could easily block promised heals if he preferred to not have Divine Guardian fall due to it. On an event where we're dealing with a lot of AOE damage and healing interruption mechanics, you can't say that Group Promised wouldn't land on anyone, especially in my group in Plane of War, where the paladin is randomly running Vallon Zek splits away or curing, and the other cleric is buffing and helping out with rezzes. I also wouldn't wait around for it to fire, either. If I felt the group was in danger before the trigger fired, I'd cast something else to top the group off. It's basically a buffer/backup heal, not a main heal. I just don't agree with the idea that a group is in imminent danger if healers aren't casting direct heals at every single opportunity. If this were the case, tanks would be dying every time multiple clerics stopped healing to buff or rez, and it isn't always the case. As I mentioned before, we also have many tools (Epic, Divine Arbitration, Burst of Life, Beacon of Life, etc.) that allow us to cover for gaps and can be used when spells can't be cast. Even when a tank does die, and I know my tanks are going to hate me for saying this: a tank dying isn't the end of the world or the raid. I've seen enough tanks die to random things even when our healers are completely focused on keeping them up that I don't even blink when they die anymore. I just move on to whoever is up next. That doesn't mean I don't care or don't try to prevent it from happening, but there are going to be situations where what I'm doing is not going to keep them alive. It's the reason raids have multiple tanks, not because all of them are going to be needed, but because you need backups when they eventually die. You can analyze the reason a tank died and maybe trace it back to Cleric A using a 1.8 second heal while Cleric B used a 2.2 second heal, and maybe you could prevent it by teaching all clerics to cast the same spells at certain intervals or to keep buffs like 3rd Spire, DI, Divine Guardian, Anticipated Interposition, and Ward of Certitude up at all times, but in real raid situations (especially when raids are new and overtuned), all of that becomes more difficult to manage and you have to trust the instincts of your healers to do what they feel is best at the time. It might not always be the ideal thing (and sometimes we are prevented from doing the ideal thing due to event mechanics), but that's why it takes more to become a good healer than a good UI or multibind setup. This assumes that every cleric does the same exact thing on every AOE, which at least is not the case in my guild. It also assumes that I'm going to wait to cast promised when the AOE lands and not before. If I'm maintaining it on my group, and the AOE lands after, I still have the ability to use Syllable or Word while waiting for the trigger to fire. Yes, the trigger may fire and land for nothing on every member of the group, and it probably will on my guild's raids with the splash/shaman rain fest we usually have going on, but it provides a potential buffer heal for a minimal cast time. We'll just have to disagree, but I hope that developers continue to create spells that give us more options in healing, even if not all clerics are going to take advantage of them. There are clearly some "bad" spells that no one will use because they are not ideal for any situation or worse than spells we have already, but that's a different kind of "bad" than spells that some clerics will use and others will consider bad because it doesn't suit their ideal healing method. In this case, someone using a method based on consistent direct heals at regular intervals will clearly not consider a delayed heal useful under any circumstances, while a healer with a different or more flexible healing method might.
If you're casting Graceful every other spell, 50% of the time, when you want to cast a promised, you'll have just cast a Graceful. 1.8s GCD after Graceful + .5s Promised cast time + 1.8s GCD + 1.5s(Intervention) to 2.2s(Light) cast time of next heal because Graceful isn't available yet = 5.6s to 6.3s total time of zero direct heals from a cleric that casts promised, 50% of the time. IMO, the benefit of the spell is not equal or greater than the loss of time of direct heals. Let alone that if multiple clerics in the same group cast it, the waste becomes exponential. The problem wouldn't be about selective clerics selectively using group promised for selective events. The problem would be that multiple clerics would cast group promised every time it was available, every event, thinking that it was a good spell, because 'it's fast cast'. And they would almost certainly be dropping a 'good' direct heal on their spell gems, to keep it loaded...
With something like a group promised, heal teams that don't divvy it up so not 'everyone' has it loaded would be foolish. Only a couple clerics in my guild even load the regular promised anymore (aka once upon a time we used to have conflicts with multiple people casting, we don't any longer). There are a several events in the last 2 expansions that come to mind that you can pre-heal with this or a group heal cast start in anticipation for the damage the AoE will do, and if you're a healer who is really good at that type of timing (I happen to be one that notices the timing/patterns), you can find a use if they add group promised back in. - They do need to adjust the stacking so DG isn't affected though for sure.
All of our heals with cure components only got upgraded by 2 counters at most, which has been the pattern for a while. I assume it received an upgrade because it was deemed a necessary spell due to the cure component, just like our dedicated cures which get upgraded even though they only improve by 2 counters at most as well (unless you didn't get Rk. III versions from the previous expansion). It will probably be used more, however, due to the fact that it applies the single target version of our elixir (Ardent Elixir) to the entire group. This means it receives a 1-tick extension if you have a Type 3 Durus Faycite Shard: Ardent Elixir. The cure component also gives it a decent chance to proc a bonus heal due to the Sanctified Blessing AA. That makes it a better elixir spell than "Elixir of the Seas" (our non-curing group elixir) even though they both heal for the same amount, other than its high mana cost. The mana cost remains an issue: Ardent Acquittal Rk. III CLR/104 1: Add Effect: Ardent Elixir Rk. III 2: Decrease Disease Counter by 32 3: Decrease Poison Counter by 32 4: Decrease Curse Counter by 22 5: Decrease Corruption counter by 14 Mana 5719 Elixir of the Seas Rk. III CLR/105 1: Increase Hitpoints v2 by 8246 per tick Mana 4302 So the cure component of Ardent Acquittal and the fact that it lasts a tick longer (if you bought the Type 3) makes it cost 1417 more mana than its non-curing counterpart, Elixir of the Seas. However, Word of Greater Reformation Rk. III CLR/105 1: Increase Hitpoints by 14152 (L105) to 28284 (L1) 2: Decrease Disease Counter by 36 3: Decrease Poison Counter by 36 4: Decrease Curse Counter by 27 Mana 3033 Cast Time: 4 Word of Convalescence Rk. III CLR/101 1: Increase Hitpoints by 14215 (L101) to 28410 (L1) Mana 3111 Cast Time: 4.5 The cure component of Word of Greater Reformation doesn't make it cost any more than its non-curing counterpart, Word of Convalescence. The latter actually costs more even though it takes a half second longer to cast and only heals for a tiny bit more. That means that most of the mana cost of Ardent Acquittal is due to the corruption cures, which I don't doubt are useful, but 14 counters isn't going to make a dent in stuff like this: Wasting (cast by Zeb in the Journey Home raid event in Void): Slot 2: Decrease Current Hit Points by 27885 per tick (Decaying to 23385 @ 500/tick) Slot 3: Increase Corruption Counter by 75 and it can't even be twincast for double the effect like Word of Greater Reformation can. Unless there are corruption effects out there that a 14 counter cure would be useful on, the mana cost should come down or the corruption cure counters need to be increased significantly. This doesn't solve any of the issues most clerics have with the spell. I'm still stuck on the idea of a spell not typically used for curing (no one spams elixirs before their duration has expired so having a cure on it would only be useful if you wait for the detrimental effect to land before using it) being our only way of healing the group and curing corruption at the same time. It does, however, make things more fair. I shouldn't have to pay 1417 more mana to cure 14 corruption counters on my group when a paladin can cure that on an entire raid and provide them more direct, non-redundant healing at the same time.
junk spell for the most part - cure counters too low to be useful not going off every tick - 12 spell gems is not enough to put this on my bar
took 10 years to contemplate the value of this spell and then chime in with that groundbreaking feedback
Still relevant decades later. On topic: It could have been a nice line in my era for specific fights. Group Elixirs were neat as a GoM spell and some fights had AoEs with counters. Since coming back I have never needed to cast it.
It was never a great design concept, but there are at least three things I like about this line (currently called "Avowed Acquittal") that lead me to prefer it over the general group elixir line (currently called "Elixir of Realization"): 1.) It casts the single-target version of the elixir line (currently called "Avowed Elixir") on the group, meaning your targets get the extra tick of duration (with the Avowed Elixir Type 3 aug equipped) that they don't get if you're casting the other group line. This also means that you only have to level up a single Focus AA line (the one that includes the single-target "Avowed Elixir") to gain increased healing for both your single-target and group elixir. If use the other group elixir you have to level up the dedicated Focus AA line that only helps that group elixir line itself. 2.) It targets your group regardless of what your target is. That might seem like a drawback, as you can't cast group elixir on another group directly without using MGB, but if you don't want to have to swap targets when healing out of group targets back to your group just to cast group elixir, you don't have to with this spell. 3.) It can be accessed a level earlier (124) than the usual group elixir spell (125). This might not seem to matter (and it doesn't in the long run), but in a guild with a merit loot system like ours, it takes clerics a lot longer to get 125 spell runes than 124 spell runes as there are much better spells everyone gets at 125 than at 124, and thus more competition for the 125 runes. That means clerics who use this spell get to cast (slightly) better MGB elixir heals on the raid sooner than clerics who don't (at least using our loot system). There are other downsides to using this spell line. The curing can be detrimental in some instances where curing the wrong thing has negative effects (though content designers have mostly abandoned that mechanic) and it does use significantly more mana than the other group elixir. Both of these, though, haven't been much of an issue in current raid content. There are many clerics who don't use any group elixir line at all (other than for MGBs), which is certainly understandable given the spam nature of healing these days and the ease of most raiding content. The modern raid healing environment, loaded with low-effort healing spam, often makes most non-MGB elixir healing superfluous. I still like maintaining an elixir on my group, though, because it adds an additional layer of healing that could be situationally useful and the time I use to cast the group elixir often can't really be used for anything else that would provide the same benefit. Or, to put it another way, I could spend my time just spamming direct heals at every opportunity, hoping to heal someone taking damage that lands too fast for me to see and react to. There will be moments during all that spamming, however, that no one is going to be taking damage and that time spent spamming would have been wasted. By casting a group elixir (or promised heal) during those times, however, I can provide more potential (future) healing than any direct heal because as long as the elixir heals a single-person in my group on any of its procs, it will have provided more healing than a wasted direct heal. To be honest, much of this healing isn't as important as it used to be -- again, with most raid content being so trivial to heal these days. I'd argue, though, that in terms of providing the most healing a cleric can, group elixirs are still a very important tool to have and use. -
